In the Biblio Files blog, Sno-Isle Libraries staff members engage in conversations about reading. Join in by adding your comments.
Ghost Map - Steven Johnson
and when I was done, I couldn’t just pick up the next book in my stack. I spent a couple of days walking around in a daze while the characters kept talking in my head, scenes kept replaying, and I kept wondering “what was going to happen to the characters after the end of the book” (a notion that drives my husband nuts).
The urban dictionary defines a book hangover as:
“When you've finished a book and you suddenly return to the real world, but the real world feels incomplete or surreal because you're still living in the world of the book.”Example: "I have a really bad book hangover today, I could hardly concentrate at work."
Here are a few other books that gave me a hangover over the past year:
The Interestings, by Meg Wolitzer I grew up reading about those overachieving east coast types in books by E. L. Konigsberg and Madeleine L’Engle: Imagine being accepted into their rarified circle and staying beside them through adolescence through middle age. In the summer of 1974, ordinary, suburbanite Julie Jacobson (“an outsider and possibly even a freak”), has a full ride to a summer camp for artistically gifted teens and, once there, is drawn into a mesmerizing circle of sophisticated New York City teens, who become bonded for life. The group’s dynamics play out over the years as some succeed in the arts, others give up on their dreams, long-held secrets are revealed and characters face their demons. This would make a great discussion book!
The Long Song, by Andrea Levy The dialogue in this book hooks the reader right from the first page. The voices are so real that you feel that you know the characters. July, the child of a field slave on the Amity sugar plantation in Jamaica, is separated from her mother at a young age and moved into the great house as a sort of pet/servant to entertain a newly transplanted English widow, who renames her “Marguerite”. After the slaves are freed, July remains bound to the plantation despite her "freedom." Heartbreaking scenes are interspersed with hilarious, laugh-out-loud sections. I encourage fans of The Help to try this one.
Please Look After Mom, by Kyung Sook Shin This one is deceptive. The author seems to be emotionally detached as she tries to puzzle out what happened to her mother, who went missing on the subway one day. As more days pass and Mom fails to turn up, details about the narrator, her mother, and memories that float to the surface reveal more and more about what might have happened. If you’re like me, you’ll be blindsided by the emotional impact that comes at the end of the book. Have a box of Kleenex handy.
Tell me about YOUR book hangovers!
The 2014 Seattle Pride Parade and Festival kicks off this weekend, celebrating it's 40th year. According to the Seattle Pride website, "2014 Pride aims to celebrate the history of the Northwest's LGBTQ rights movement and advance the ongoing progress the LGBTQ community has made since first
Throughout the years I've read a number of compelling memoirs and stories about the LGBTQ experience including Portia de Rossi's Unbearable Lightness: A Story of Loss and Gain and Jennifer Finney Boylan's She's Not There: A Life in Two Genders. In the spirit of the 2014 Seattle Pride weekend June 27th- June 29th, we've created a LGBTQ Stories booklist on the website. There are also a couple of great lists for teens as well!
I read a lot of memoirs. In fact, four of the last ten books I read were memoirs. Most recently I devoured Delancy: A Man, a Woman, a Restaurant, a Marriage by Molly Wizenberg, Grace After Midnightt by Felicia "Snoop" Pearson, and Sous Chef by Michael Gibney, three very different books. I enjoy getting lost in other people's stories and more often than not find true life even more fascinating than fiction.
