this week's reads

On Saturday I returned last week's library book and picked up a couple of new reads. I wasn't sorry to finish Apocalypse for Beginners; although I enjoyed the first half of the book, it lost its spark for me when the heroine boarded a plane for Japan and left our hero behind. I guess it was the small observances of their relationship that I had liked all along.

I made short work of Mr. Shakespeare's Bastard on Saturday and Sunday. For reasons I cannot entirely express I found it surprisingly compelling and entirely satisfying. In her review for the National Post, Donna Bailey Nurse puts her finger on it ...

Wright has earned a passionate following with such titles as The Age of Longing and Clara Callan, for which he won the Giller Prize and demonstrated his ability to evoke an authentically female sensibility — a gift he puts to good use in his new novel.

One more book followed me home: Beatrice and Virgil by Yann Martel. Funny, I almost bought this book a couple of weeks ago but I stopped myself thinking "Get it from the library instead". At the library on Saturday there it was, prominently displayed on the shelf marked "Staff Recommends..."