Love Medicine

I haven't been very good about blogging about what I read these days, but it's true my reading pace has slowed considerably. I still enjoy reading, though I don't have quite as much time to do so. I also haven't been "wowed" by many books lately for whatever reason. Louise Erdrich's Love Medicine was no exception. It was well written, like all of Erdrich's books, but wasn't super gripping. It took me a while to get through it, but overall I did enjoy it.

It's a beautiful, literary novel that tells the stories of men and women who live on the Chippewa reservation in North Dakota spanning over several generations. The stories weave in and out of one another in the way that Erdrich does so skillfully. It's her first novel, but didn't remind me of a first novel due to the grace and fluidity of the storytelling. I definitely recommend it for anyone who likes slow literary novels that have rich characters. If you want something faster with a solid plot line, this book is not for you.

The Secret History

I found Donna Tartt's The Secret History at a used book sale and grabbed it as it is mentioned in a novel that I love. The book is a Christmas gift from one character to another in About a Boy. I knew nothing about the book aside from it being alluded to in that Christmas present exchange scene, but bought it, and let it sit on my shelf for months before picking it up to see what it was about. I flipped inside and read the first page and decided it was the perfect book to follow The Casual Vacancy.

The novel is about a young man who goes to college and finds himself intrigued by and then pulled in to a group of students. They are studying classics together, the group of 4 of them, the narrator becoming the fifth student. All their classes are taught by the same professor and there are no other students in any of the classes. The small group comes to change the way they think and their morals. It's a difficult novel to sum up without giving too much away as the novel's power comes from the way it unfolds. It is described as a psychological thriller. I haven't read many psychological thrillers so am not entirely familiar with the genre, but found the book extremely well written and well paced. It wasn't that fast paced, addictive kind of read, yet still was so enjoyable and gripping that I didn't want to put it down. Overall, it was a very enjoyable read.