Books 6/6/05

I will get to Misfortune, I really will. I mentioned my distracted state of mind in the last post (or so), and that same distraction led me to pick up the first volume of Creating Colette by Claude Francis and Fernande Gontier, a book which I started ages ago and never finished. It was a book that got left in a similar state of distraction, and I’m glad I remembered and picked it up again. Colette is one of my absolute favorite writers, and this is a fantastic biography. I’m enjoying it and can’t wait to read the second volume as well.

Another of my favorite writers has just come out with a new book, one that I actually read months ago, but I decided to wait to write about it until now, when the book was actually released. Jamie S. Rich’s I Was Someone Dead is my favorite thing that he’s written to this point, and that’s saying a lot really. It’s the story of Hieronymus Zoo, a man who has left the cares of the world behind to live on his own tropical island. It’s a paradise, except for the monster that rises from the sea to haunt his sleepless nights. If that weren’t enough, his well ordered life of solitude is thrown into disarray when his monthly delivery of books comes with something extra in the crate, a stowaway. The young woman could bring disaster, or she could bring love, but which will it be?

It’s a gorgeous little novella, full of symbols and allegory, written in such a way that it can be read for the straight story, or for the deeper themes. At times it reads like a fairy tale or fable, set out of time but speaking to a larger truth. It really is a great read, and one I know I’ll be reading again and again.

Current total: 38
Just (well a while ago) Finished: I Was Someone Dead by Jamie S. Rich
Currently Reading: Creating Colette by Claude Francis and Fernande Gontier

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