In a Slump

Have you ever had one of those times where you just can’t find anything to read? You browse the shelves and nothing looks appealing? I’m in that sort of slump right now. I’ve tried all my usual tricks like asking myself what book from the past sticks out in my mind and trying to find a read-alike but it’s just not working. I always like books about rare and ancient books, so I placed a hold on Geraldine Brooks’ People of the Book, but it’s checked out. The review in Publisher’s Weekly sounds promising:

Late one night in the city of Sydney, Hanna Heath, a rare book conservator, gets a phone call. The Sarajevo Haggadah, which disappeared during the siege in 1992, has been found, and Hanna has been invited by the U.N. to report on its condition. In the present, we follow the resolutely independent Hanna through her thrilling first encounter with the beautifully illustrated codex and her discovery of the tiny signs—a white hair, an insect wing, missing clasps, a drop of salt, a wine stain—that will help her to discover its provenance. Along with the book she also meets its savior, a Muslim librarian named Karaman. In the other strand of the narrative we learn, moving backward through time, how the codex came to be lost and found, and made.

In the meantime, I picked up a Young Adult novel, Devilish by Maureen Johnson, that has some witty observations of a Catholic  high school but it won’t last me very long. It has many of the usual teen themes - popularity, fitting in, finding yourself and having your best friend sell her soul to the devil to achieve it all. OK, maybe that last one isn’t quite so common, but it makes this book unique.

Does anyone out there have any suggestions? Something you’ve read lately and loved? Or maybe an old favorite that I’m missing? A broccoli book? E-mail me, please, or post a comment - I’m desperate!

Add comment May 24th, 2008