More excuses! But you'll forgive me.

A round-up of books I've read very and not so recently and which I've concluded I'm not going to take the time to review individually. Why? Two things: 1) I start an awesome new job in approx. 10 days and want to spend as little time as possible before then on the cpu. 2) Spring is insinuating itself into the blasted deathscape that is Toronto in late winter; I can't help but go outside a lot, especially on days like today - when it's so warm out that my most favourite cuorduroy jacket is deployed sans hat, mitt, or scarf! Vitamin D absorption is nigh.

1) Anthony Trollope, The American Senator.
I really wanted to spend more time on Trollope's look at moral and cultural relativism through the lens of as, as usual, a damned fine story. Suffice to say, it's one of my Trollopian favourites and has helped to confirm him as one of my most beloved authors.

2) Hwang Sok-Yong, The Guest.
The guest, small pox, as a metaphor for American cultural imperialism in the Koreas. A very good book - both writing and plot-wise - in spite of (because of? That would be a first.) Hwang's unabashed didacticism. Also, Hwang is a real-life ass-kicker, which makes the Truth-Telling even more okay/awesome.

3) Charles Dickens, Little Dorrit.
My experience reading this book disturbingly reflected the arc of the novel's plot. I began it during an unmitigated shit-storm (bookstore-closing) and concluded it at a time of unrivalled happiness (added to, but not created by, new job mentioned above). Still, my life is not all even close to being as strange as Dickens's fiction. Dickens, you managed to surprise me with this one - unexpected, and I thank you.

That is all. I'm going outside into the sun again RIGHT NOW.