Vacation reading, 2010

• Independence Day, Richard Ford
• Lush Life, Dallas Murphy
• The March, E.L. Doctorow
• The Secret Scripture, Sebastian Barry

Independence Day is very uneven: Some parts engrossing, others a struggle to get through. I'd give it a C+. People who know about literature and such were much more impressed -- in 1996 it won the Pulitzer Prize and the PEN/Faulkner award.

Lush Life is an easy read, perfect for the beach, I suppose, but I found it a silly story told in an annoyingly glib way. Another C+. The professionals? Publisher's Weekly calls it a "a fast-paced, if not always credible, tale." (Source)

(This doesn't make any sense at all. Both books got a C+, but Independence Day was far and away the better book. Go figure.)

The March is wonderful. Wonderful! Give it an A. I've tried to read several Doctorow books in the past, but this is the first one I've been able to get past page 30. This one, in fact, was hard to put down. Read this book! Oh, yeah-- the professionals like it too: It won the PEN/Faulker and the National Book Critics Circle awards.

I only got about a third of the way into The Secret Scripture -- and now that I'm home, I don't know when I'll get around to finishing it (I hardly do any reading here) but finish it I will. It's a wonderful book -- at least an A.