May Reads

It's May! Terrible weather (and power outages) keep me spending a few more minutes waiting between dyes, or I am desperate to sneak in a few daylight minutes reading mid-day during Pittsburgh's brief rendezvous with clear skies - either way, I've finally made a little time for some favorite reads.

Years ago, a favorite librarian recommended The Sense of An Ending. It’s a short read, but it just wasn’t clicking for me at the time. As life careens onward and feels somehow so much faster (but also how was 2015 ten whole years ago?!) I picked it up again and couldn’t put it down. It's a haunting look at life, loss, memory, and the stories we tell ourselves as we age. 

Next up on the "books my favorite librarians had recommended" list is The Wasp Factory, a slightly-traumatizing horror novel recommended to me by the most unsuspecting former colleague. Gruesome and "unparalleled depravity" (Irish Times), it was written after Banks had trouble getting his science fiction published. He had the idea to write from the perspective of a psychologically troubled human on an island, instead of an alien on a planet, and here we are.

and finally, slowly; I picked up House of Leaves again! I first read it when things were colliding in my life in the early aughts and it’s been fun to judge former me’s side notes. Sort of a story within a story, full of typographic oddities (and TONS of footnotes), love notes to cats, and the creepiest house.

Anything good on your shelves lately? Share in the comments!