Our Books, Our Selves

This post by Crissy got me thinking about my family and how different we are when it comes to our books. My sisters are as far from me as can be when it comes to our bookshelves. One likes mostly Christian fiction and Mary Higgins Clark (although I did introduce her to J. Austen, whom she now loves). Actually, the more I think about it, the more I suspect that if she came over and raided my library, she find lots of stuff she would love. But, I'm not sure the opposite would be true, as a) she's more of a library-borrower than a bookstore-addict, like me; and b) she's definitely drawn toward titles that leave me cold.

But my other sis? She's even farther away. She reads... cookbooks.* Or gardening books.* Or titles like, Journey into Motherhood: Inspirational Stories of Natural Birth. (She's a Bradley instructor.) See, I told you I had an Earth Mother sister! If you go over to her house, you will find models of women's pelvic bones and little life-size infants and placentas. Nice, huh? But I digress.

My parents are no good for a book discussion, either, unless it's an inspirational title (with my mom) or something about the South (with my dad).

I do have two close family members with whom I can discuss many books. One is dh, who does not like much fiction, but does enrich my world with good historical titles and titles like All Day Permanent Red, and modern poetry. The other is my Aunt D., mentioned last post, who gave me books all throughout my childhood - encyclopedias, Charlotte's Web, Narnia, Middle Earth - all came from her. Quite a debt I owe her, huh? I have fun returning the favor whenever I find a good title.

(Whoops, make that three family members - forgot about my brother. He and I like similar lit. I just don't get to see him enough, so when we do get together we forget to talk books.)

Finally, speaking of good titles, here's one I just finished this weekend:
The Constant Gardener. (Sorry, sis, not the gardening title you might think it to be. grin) Wow. Heady, deep, tragic, slowly paced but very engaging. Don't know if I'll see the movie, but the book was a good buy. The author is John le Carre, a writer I associate with spy movies from my childhood, so I'd never read any of his work. I was pleasantly surprised. I was also impressed with his ability to jump points-of-view - normally it's so jarring and rarely done well. But here the device works, because it really opens up the characters and adds to the plot - so much of what happens happens because of who the players are.

The only thing I don't understand is the cover art on this book. Maybe it would make more sense if I saw the movie, but if I'm correct in assuming that the picture of Ralph Fiennes is meant to be the main character in the story, I can't figure out why they have him pointing a gun. If you have seen the film, and can enlighten me, please feel free.

Well, time to cook dinner. More later.

** I, too, have been known to read a good cookbook, like anything by Nigella Lawson, or my new favorite, The Gift of Southern Cooking. Ditto on gardening books. But I differ from my sister because I ALSO like novels, whereas she owns no non-fiction that she did not buy for her children.