You read for fun?!

[Mo]

I really need to pick up a book. High time I read some Jane Austen, especially since she's the cool thing to do right now.

She is? Sweet, I'm in with the cool crowd!

[Yeahduff]

Yeah, whatsername's prediliction toward period pieces has made her en vogue, and now you're seeing Jane Austen spinoffs and fanfiction on book shelves all over the place. I guess taking Austen conventions and repackaging them for the 21st Century. I suppose we could be doing worse.

Her name is Keira Knightley.

[Mo]

So I've been reading a few good books lately:

Mark Haddon - "The curious incident of the dog in the night-time"
Yann Martel - "Life of Pi"

Anyone have any recommendations for titles from the recent years that are worth checking out?

[Yeahduff]

Recently read A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini. Basically the last 30 or so years of Afghan history shown through the eyes of two Afghan women. Very good straightforward storytelling.

I'm halfway through The Hour I First Believed, by Wally Lamb, which is narrated by a fictional teacher who worked at Columbine high school in 1999. So far it's everything great and everything frustrating about Lamb, with interesting, damaged characters and an immersive voice but an overreliance on current events/pop culture references and a plot structure that veers into emotional manipulation.