Sunday Salon & Raffle September 28, 2008

Banned Book Week Raffle

This is a raffle to celebrate our freedom to read!!! Please leave a comment on my blog to be entered in the raffle to win a copy of Gap Creek,by Robert Morgan. The drawing for Gap Creek will be on October 6th. Good Luck. For those of you who are unfamiliar with this book, it was an Oprah Book Club pick, winner of the Southern Book Critic Circle Award, and a NYT Notable Book. Besides that...I highly recommend it!
If you link to my blog and write about the raffle on your blog you will get two (2) additional chances.

Reading This Week

Finished reading The Fire, by Katherine Neville. I am a huge fan of her novel The Eight, written twenty years ago. I would recommend the Eight to anyone who loves drama, excitement and intrigue. In my opinion, The Davinci Code, often compared to The Eight, pales in comparison hands down. The Fire on the other hand was very disappointing to me after such a long wait for another book from this talented writer. It was difficult to stay focused and I lost interest easily. Unlike The Eight, I struggled to finish the book. If you want to experience Katherine Neville's finest work, read The Eight.

Finished reading Murderers in Mausoleums, Riding the Back Roads of Empire Between Moscow and Beijing by Jeffrey Tayler (Review to follow during the week)

Surprise Read of the Month...Miles from Nowhere by Nami Mun

Miles from Nowhere, by Nami Mun
I received Miles from Nowhere, by Nami Mun about a week ago, and decided to glance over the first few pages on Saturday. When I receive an ARC I thumb through the book, read a little and try to obtain an overview before I sit down and read it.
It soon became apparent that I wasn’t going to put this book down, and it quickly landed on top of my TBR pile. I can’t think of a better way to spend a rainy day. As I began to read Miles to Nowhere, I came to know Joon, a thirteen year old run-a-way, living on the streets. The story takes place in the 1980’s in New York City.
As the story begins, Joon a Korean girl lives with her parents. Their marriage is a rocky relationship always on the brink of failure. One day her father finally has enough and decides to leave home. This sends her mentally ill mother, unable to cope with his desertion, on a tragic trajectory of wacky behavior. When Joon takes to the streets she fights for survival wearing the scars of pain. Her battles become narcotic addiction, failed friendships, and lost loves. She tries to climb out by working in a variety of jobs from dance girl hostess to an avon door to door salesgirl. The story is written episodically with Joon as the narrator. We learn about all the friends, parents and the people Joon meets through her point of view. You can’t help but love Joon and want to protect and embrace her and tell her it’s just a bad dream. Time passes in Joon’s mind, sometimes rational, sometimes fragmented. You feel her confusion, her sense of loss and despair all through her cognition. Mun makes it look easy the way she has managed to create the passage of time over five years as Joon ages to eighteen. This book does not come out until December 26th, but you will want to get a copy as soon as you can. This is a warm, sensitive, reflective story, sometimes amusing, sometimes dispiriting but carrying a message of hope. You will close the cover and say ahhhhhhh.