Ok, so some of you might have been wondering what’s going on with the BBC Book Project I started some time ago. Yes, I’m still working my way through the list! Apparently I haven’t given an update on my readings since the end of March. Oops…
So, in case you’re interested, here, in no particular order, are the books I’ve been able to cross off my list since March:
- The Da Vinci Code, by Dan Brown. — I enjoyed this read quite a bit, despite the heterodoxy it contains. An exciting adventure with many twists and turns — reminds me of a John Grisham novel.
- The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, by Mark Haddon — I love this book! It’s written from the perspective of an autistic boy, and I’ve never read anything like it before. It gave me a great deal of insight into how autistic people think, process, and experience the world. Read it!
- Moby Dick, by Herman Melville — YES, I made it all the way through Moby Dick! I feel highly accomplished. And I even enjoyed parts of it. I could have done without the pages and pages and pages of minutia about whaling and all things whale (although you should go read the Wikipedia page on the sperm whale — fascinating!). But the sections that were actually part of the story were amazing. If you like Shakespeare, 19th-century literature, whales, or artistically presented theological dilemmas, you just might like Moby Dick. My advice: be ok skimming parts that don’t interest you.
- Germinal, by Emile Zola. Looks at the life of coal-miners in 19th-century France, and their attempts to unionize so that they can earn enough to survive. Brutal existence, lots of injustice, but a compelling read.
- The Color Purple, by Alice Walker. Loved it! Like a lot of African-American literature, not for the faint of heart. But powerful, and great characters.
- A Town Like Alice, by Nevil Shute. Great book! Based on a true(ish) story of a group of women who were captured by the Japanese on an island during WWII, and who were forced to march around from place to place for the remainder of the war. It’s also a love story, and it takes you from London to the Pacific islands to Australia.
- Animal Farm, by George Orwell. I did NOT enjoy this book. For some reason, I find it very difficult to read about animals suffering, even if it’s an allegory, even though it’s just a story. I was glad to finish this one.
I also took a brief hiatus from my list to read The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, by Rebecca Skloot. 
This book has gotten a lot of press recently, and for good reason — it’s a thought-provoking and compelling story that raises many ethical questions that pertain to us all. I enjoyed the chance to learn some things about science through story. If you haven’t read it yet, check it out.
Currently, I’m finishing up Cloud Atlas, by David Mitchell, and really enjoying it. I haven’t seen or read anything about the movie that just came out, but I can’t quite imagine how they made this book into a movie, because of the way the book is written. More on that once I finish reading it…
So that’s a summary of my literary accomplishments in the last few months. Good times, great books, can’t go wrong!
Light and Shifting Shadows 