The Brief Wonderous Life of Oscar Wao

I just finished The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao and while at first I thought I wouldn't like it, I did. The story of a nerdy, overweight teen of Dominican descent, this book is not for those who are offended by colorful language. The story is told by the ex-boyfriend of Oscar's sister, but I didn't really "get" this until 2/3 of the way through the book.

Considering that I wasn't sure I'd even finish it, I managed to rip through it in a few days, so I guess I liked it well enough. Poor Oscar, nothing goes right for him and when it finally does, he goes balls-out for it and dies. Sheesh. What a life!

Knowing latino street slang would be a tremendous asset when reading this book.

The last two winners of the Pulitzer Prize for fiction have been a little bit dark. Perhaps something a bit lighter for 2009? Thanks.

The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher

I finished Kate Summerscale's The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher last night and I have to say that getting to the ending made wading through the middle worthwhile.

This non-fiction book is a recounting of a famous murder in England in 1860 and the detective who came undone trying to solve the case. According to Summerscale, the sensationalism that surrounded this case was brought about the beginning of the detective novel. Michael Connelly fans say thank you if that's the case.

Though the book plodded a bit in the middle, as I said before, the end made it worthwhile. The story of how the fractured family put the pieces back together again was very interesting. And the redemption of Constance, the alleged murderess was hopeful too. If you ever want a reminder of how destructive lying and deception is to small children, you need only to read this book.