Currently Reading - October 27, 2009

I finished Maile Meloy's story collection Half in Love a couple nights ago, and really enjoyed it. Her stories were simply written, easy to read, and very enjoyable. And I certainly don't mean simple in a bad way. There are definitely some writers who seem to be trying overly hard with extensive vocabularies, complicated structuring, etc, and while this can be good, at other times it makes for a read that seems more like work than entertainment. In this case, simple was effective. I have a brand new book of her stories titled Both Ways is the Only Way I Want It, and it will be interesting to see how she has developed over the intervening years.

This counts as "new writer" book #3 out of the 4 I wanted to read by year end, so I am on target to blow that modest goal out the water.

Last night I started what would be book #4 to complete the goal: The Jump-Off Creek by Molly Gloss. This novel was a finalist for the PEN/Faulkner award a bunch of years ago, and the story sounded interesting. It is about a woman who goes out into the semi-wilderness of Oregon (back in the old days) to homestead by herself. I am about 50 pages in, but the writing is crisp, plot is moving along, and there are a bunch of good characters being developed. I am liking this one very much so far, and I would guess that the remaining 150 or so pages will go by very quickly.