If there's one thing I'm worse at than sitting down and reading, it's sitting down and writing about reading. It really is best to keep up with these as I do them, but I am a procrastinator of the first order and things tend to get away from me.
Anywho, Book #4: The Singer's Gun. I requested Mandel's other works from the library after enjoying Station Eleven so much and, while I can see why Station Eleven was her big, everyone's-year-end-list breakout, I enjoyed this novel just as much. Without giving too much away, I will say that the book is about passport fraud and is incredibly sad. Mandel writes in a way that requires some faith, and I prefer to read her books without any introduction: I don't read the dust jacket (though I read this one after and it gives away almost nothing), I don't waste my time trying to figure out what's going on, I just settle in and go along for the ride. All is revealed in Mandel's own time. I read most of this in one whack after deciding that I was giving up on this resolution. This book saved me!
Book #5, The Lola Quartet, also by Mandel, has a title that worried me. Music is a pretty big motif in all the books I've read of hers thus far and, as I feared, this was the most musical. I didn't get too hung up in it though, and it turned out to be really accessible. I know nearly nothing about music and my taste in it sucks to high heaven, so I was afraid I was going to get in over my head, but it was fine. This one had a sad ending too, which seems to be Mandel's specialty. I'm okay with that; I don't need everything to work out happily ever after. Her novels have that dose of reality, but they also have a feeling of magical realism I can't quite define. It's not like old men with wings turn up in the town or anything specifically unreal happens, there's just sort of a gauzy haze floating over the reality of her characters that seems to bump them up another level in the ranks of perception.
One thing I've learned since posting last is that if a book is sucking, ditch it. I can try again later or maybe never, but I can't let a book I'm not enjoying derail me. I did that with two Stephen King books ('Salem's Lot and The Shining) with this idea that I am a Stephen King Fan and I was going to Get Through His Whole Catalog This Year, but eh. I think I like his stuff when I find the topics interesting and I'm not into vampires or crazy hotels.
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