TCO Reads

Isabel Allende, Aphrodite. (June 2007)
Ahhhhh, food. And love. Or lust. Hot stuff. It's a book all about aphrodisiac foods. It was great. Funny and amusing. And thank God, it didn't take itself too seriously. Plus, good recipes. Or, I assume they might be good. I might even try some of them. I need to cook more to get in touch with my inner creator.

Scott Turow, One L. (June 2007)
I picked this one up at CFO's house, when AHC and I stayed there last week. The infamous law school book! I expect I would have had a different reaction had I read it before or during school. As it were, I recognized the sentiments and laughed at some of it in solidarity. But the utter confusion is passed (gone since Poa On in the first semester of contracts). And I didn't have any of those Perini-type crazy Socratics. I did have one really crappy teacher, but that is another story.

Batya Gur, Murder in Jerusalem. (June 2007)
It was alright. A murder mystery. Another pickup from the guest room up north. Passes time in the summer.

Wayne Johnston, The Colony of Unrequited Dreams. (June 2007)
This was quite beautiful. I visited St. John's last year, so I could picture the places in the book, which is something I tend to love when reading a book. Plus, I remember writing an essay on Joey Smallwood in grade 8. I don't remember what I wrote at all, except that Smallwood was a personal hero of my teacher (so I imagine it was glowing). I love the humanity, foibles and weaknesses of heroes. It reminds me of my grandfather, who was a great man and loved by many (known to many in his capacity as a United Church minister), but with undeniable shortcomings in some parts of his life. And yet we love and idolize him all the same. I tend to love him more because of this humanity, by which I mean to indicate his capacity for mistake, poor judgment, weakness. Even the great men and women are touchable.

Michael Cordy, The Messiah Code. (May 2007)
Urgh. Don't read this. It was weekend reading from the guest room at my parents place. I picked it up for something to do. It was even renamed to sound like The DaVinci Code to capitalize on the popularity of that book. Which it needed, because otherwise it sucked, even worse than DaVinci Code.

Nicola Kraus and Emma McLauchlin. Citizen Girl. (May 2007)
Okay, for a summer read. But perhaps slightly depressing given its take on the job market, on women in the job market, on young women and the need to sell out in the job market, and on the feminist job market. Maybe not the way I needed to start my summer after spending the previous eight months increasing my student (and personal) debt by several thousand dollars just for the privilege of studying law. May my future not be hers, but I have at least a shadow of a doubt about that.