It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

I finished The Beats and another graphic novel, Farm 54, (semi-autobiographical short stories about growing up in Israel) and decided to be finished with Marita: The Spy Who Loved Castro. Kirkus described the writing in that book as "indifferent," which I think is a generous assessment. Anyhoo onwards and upwards.

I'm still reading and enjoying Babel Tower and The Luminaries; like I said last week, these are long books that will be with me a while. I'm almost halfway through The Luminaries and a little past half way in Babel Tower. Both are excellent. After this I'm doing some quick-hit crime fiction though!

In the graphic world, I'm reading Chester Brown's graphic biography Louis Riel, a "comic-strip biography" of a Canadian historical figure famous for rebelling against the British. I once worked for one of his descendants, which is how I came of hear of Louis. I anticipate about a week with this book, which I'm finding very enjoyable.


At the gym, I started Barbara Ehrlich White's very engaging biography Renoir, about the famous French painter. Back in college my favorite class out of all four years was a class about Paris in the nineteenth century, focusing heavily on the Impressionists and their milieu. This book is a great way to revisit that subject. It's very accessible and beautifully-written. This will also take me a while, but it will be a good while.

And in audioland I'm still savoring Samantha Irby's We Are Never Meeting in Real Life. After that I'm going to have to make some choices, because I have some good audio books waiting in the wings.

That's it for me! What about you? I'd love to know what you're reading this week.