I really enjoyed The Magicians: A Novel! I read it while Mike was watching some movie, and I kept laughing out loud. He thought I was laughing at the movie. Oops.

I read Grossman’s Codex a couple of years ago. Meh. It was sort of like a slightly better Da Vinci Code. So I wasn’t in a huge hurry to read his next offering. I’m really glad I finally did, though.

The Magicians is sort of like, a bitter, American, bad-mouthed Harry Potter goes to magic college. Definitely not a kids’ book. Anyway, Quentin is miserable. He’s on an Ivy League college path, but the girl he loves is attached to his best friend. Brooklyn is boring and gray and miserable. His parents ignore him. He finds himself taking an entrance exam at a college he’s never even heard of. Most of the 200 people in the room disappear before he even finishes the test. Then stuff gets weird.

I was reading this when I went to a Dr. appointment. My doctor asked if it was about real magicians or is it a metaphor? It’s about real magicians. Pretty cool, huh?

This is me not posting anything for a month. I know you’re sitting with baited breath waiting for my next post. Sorry about that. Allow me to now post what I read this month.

This is me getting totally fed up with my blogging program and saving the thing as a draft and not coming back for 2 weeks. Sorry about that. Let me now try to review my meager November reading.

When I first picked up Under the Covers and between the Sheets: Facts and Trivia about the World’s Greatest Books I thought it was a sex-ed book. I picked it up because I was processing it at the library. Then, I read the subtitle and decided it could come home with me. It was really fun. Lots of trivia and interesting tidbits about books and authors. Things you never knew you needed to know.

Chronic City is a weird book. I’ve read a lot of weird books lately, so it’s not the weirdest. But it’s pretty strange. So many strange people in New York City getting stoned and talking about the tiger that’s terrorizing Manhattan.

It’s beautifully written. But then, I’ve loved everything by Jonathan Lethem that I’ve read, so far.

Who knew!? They actually turned P&P into a serial comic. Then had them bound into a book. My biggest complaint: #4 spelled Pemberley wrong all the way through.

We read Born On A Blue Day: Inside the Extraordinary Mind of an Autistic Savant for my face2face book club. I love these autobiographies of people on the spectrum. This guy is one of a handful of savants in the world, but he’s coherent enough to verbalize what is happening in his head. After we read it, everyone in book club decided we are autistic.

Remember earlier when I said I’d read a lot of weird books? Well, here’s another one. Ren grows up in an orphanage knowing he’ll never be adopted because he is missing his left hand. Then, inexplicably, his brother shows up and adopts him. Only, he’s really just a con-artist who was hoping to get more money by using the kid missing a hand. The characters just get weirder and the plot gets more twisted from there on out. I totally loved it.

That just about wraps it up for November. I’ll try to do better this month, but I’ll tell you right now, we’re a week in and I haven’t finished a single book. True story.

Also, I’ve spend the last 3 and a half months crocheting an afghan. Finished it today. If I ever figure out how to post pictures on here, I’ll put one up.

Later.