May 2007 - the books.

An Italian Affair, L. Fraser
The Virgin Suicides, J. Eugenides
Auntie Mame, P. Dennis
Until I Find You, J. Irving
The Things They Carried, T. O'Brien
Wild Thoughts from Wild Places, D. Quammen*

Did not originally care for it, but I finally picked the Irving book back up. It gets somewhat better after the protagonist's uh, formative years. Still, I'm glad to be done with it.

I liked The Things They Carried. I don't know much about Vietnam, except for my dad's experience, and he was an outlier. (He SIGNED UP for it, then got shipped off to Europe, and hunted rabbits destined for dinners as a way to get in some target practice. Not the same.) I felt that I would have gone through similar emotions, had I been in O'Brien's shoes. And he does put you right there in the action. The other things I read were on the fluffier side, so this brought some gravity to the month's reading.

My favorite book this month was the Quammen book - it's more like a collection of essays a la Stephen Jay Gould. I had already read Monster of God, so I knew his style. It appeals to the hidden National Geographic photographer inside me.