It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

I didn't finish any books last week but I'm rolling along with a few anyway.

Ballad of a Small Player is turning out to be a moody and setting-driven story about a gambling addict lost in the salons on Macau and engaged in a love affair with a woman who may not even be there. "Lord" Doyle is an Englishman fleeing his past and troubles of his own making as he navigates high-end casinos and hotels and the problems and pleasures they present. Lawrence Osborne is a travel writer and author of the wonderful novel The Forgiven; this is his follow-up and it's proving itself a worthy successor.

I'm thisclose to finishing The Conservationist, by Nadine Gordimer, not my favorite novel about South Africa or my favorite Booker Prize winner but a fascinating book nonetheless. She tells the story of Mehring, a rich man who owns a farm he keeps as a kind of hobby. The story, which is slight and often told in stream of consciousness style, is about troubles coming from apartheid.

I also started Lily Tuck's marvelous little I Married You For Happiness, about an elderly widow looking back on her life after her husband's sudden death. It's neat. I chose it because it was at the top of one of the piles on the floor.

I haven't found a new audiobook yet. I'm sure the right one will come along soon.

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