Two Good Books to Read

Oopsa, I just had a big delay in blogging for no real reason. Now I have a backlog of topics that I want to talk about. I'll start simple, and work back into it. It being blogging, closer to daily that weekly.

Moving on. The two books that I enjoyed recently, and would recommend are The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream
by Barack Obama (you might have heard of him) and The White Tiger
by Aravind Adiga.

I actually thought Obama's book was a biography, which it is not. I suppose I should have guessed it from the title. I put the book on hold at the library when he got elected, because I thought he would be an interesting dude to learn more about. As it turns out, the Audacity of Hope is actually his second book. I've put his first book on my eventual list of things to read. Obama is still an Illinois Senator when we wrote this book, and hasn't yet started his campaign to be President. While it's not a biography, it still has a fair amount on his history and background. He talks about lots of other topics as well, from religion to health care to foreign policy. It's interesting! Give it a read if you get the chance.

The White Tiger is the debut novel of an author from India. It's pretty new, just published in 2008. It got a really good review in a newspaper I read a while back, so I mental-noted to give it a try. For some reason I thought the author had a Canadian connection, but I think I might be wrong on that. I try to read Canadian authors, although I can't remember what the last one I read is. Maybe it's time to grab an Atwood or a Findley. Anyway, back the the White Tiger. I googled it just now, and I see that the book one a Man Booker Prize, which I'm not going to lie, I have never heard of. Is there a Woman Booker Prize? I'm sure this award is why I heard of the book to read it in the first place. I think I read that the real prize in winning something like that is the publicity. Anyway, apparently I don't have that much to say about the story itself, because I seem to be talking about everything else. I don't feel like I need to summarize the plot for you or anything. It's easy enough to read a preview by someone who really writes these things. That said, it gets my thumbs up Hezzobloggo approval, so check it out if you get the chance. I'll return it to the library Monday so that you can. ;)