This has been a busy week. It has been raining non-stop and everyone is tired of it. Today it finally stopped but the temperature was a bleak 39 degrees. I want spring!
Baby Zach finally got to go home. Yea! I have been reading some interesting books. Elizabeth loaned me The Secret by Julie Garwood and it reminded me of the light romances I used to read years ago. I was surprised to see it took the moral high ground and didn’t consummate the character’s “white-hot flames of lust” until after they were married. I am actually old enough to remember Harlequin Romances, Harlequin mind you (!) that did the same.
I read but have not reviewed Empire Falls by Richard Russo. It is about a dying town after the town’s factories went overseas. I am currently reading American Rust that echoes those themes. I wonder if these are just the stories of our times. Unemployment, foreclosures, not able to afford even to move to a better place. What do people do in the face of such hopelessness?
Empire Falls is about those who stay behind. American Rust has characters that are desperate to leave. Which is the right path? There is just no telling. One thing is for sure: the way out of this type of poverty is a long and hard one.
Filed under: Sunday Salon |
Bunny Stuff 
Don’t stay away so long again!
Here’s my Sunday Salon for today. Hope you will stop by.
Thanks Deb!
I’ve seen both of those books at the library. In fact, I might have Empire Falls among my books somewhere, but I (obviously) haven’t gotten to it yet. I look forward to your review of it.
Hi Unfinished! I hate getting behind in my reviewing, I feel like I’ll never catch up! I will try to have it up by next SS!
Interesting that your two most recent reads have a similar theme, but from different perspectives.
I read/enjoyed EMPIRE FALLS (it’s hard NOT to like a Richard Russo book!), but I haven’t yet read AMERICAN RUST. Will look for your thoughts on both of them.
Hope your weather stays dry – and that it warms up!
Ah, both of these books sound timely and poignant. I’m putting them on my wish list.
Here’s MY SUNDAY SALON POST
I saw Richard Russo at a launch event of a Granta anthology that he was featured in at the end of last year. It contained an excerpt from his forthcoming autobiography (that he’s still working on, so far as I’m aware). He was a really charming and interesting man and I liked the piece in Granta. I had never read any of his books but Empire Falls is now on my list – thanks for reminding me!
I’ve been a BIG slacker in reading for the past weeks. Very busy with work (that’s a good thing, though).