After Dark - Haruki Murakami (fiction) : I don't really know what to say about this book, in some ways it feels like it missed the point. Murakami seems to be playing with the American outsider teenage love story as represented by the cinema - I was reminded of the film
Before Sunrise. There were metaphysical elements, as I think he is known for, but they felt too deliberate. While I did appreciate the contagious narrative layers, I did not so the unexplained, or unresolved violence. It was good subway reading though. (Now I am inspired to locate my After Dark Cd comp.)
The Importance of Music to Girls - Lavinia Greenlaw (memoir) : I love the thoroughly obvious title. Having begun to write my own personal history as influenced by the records I was listening to at the time, this is then a stellar example, but some fifteen years earlier. The author has written opera libretti, which I find fascinating, and entirely unknown. She was in England at the onset of punk, and dove in headfirst from disco. While I have read some (female) punk biographies, they have all been pretty tragic - so I appreciate this confident and judicious journey though teenage musical evolution.
The Geography of Bliss - Eric Weiner (non-fiction) : I am actually still in Bhutan, partway through this book, but it is moving rather quickly and enjoyably. The book was published in January of this year, missing the statistics released over the summer of Denmark as being the number one happiest country (I love Denmark) and unfortunately so, it is not visited. It begins in Rotterdam, home of the Happiness Database - a marvelous information resource I think. Learning how this is a developing industry is compelling for the researchers of the world it seems. This is wonderful subway reading, and full of blissful tidbits that encourage me more so to reach out to my fellow New Yorkers with kindness.
