What I read in Chicago besides a play program and a blues club dinner menu

[maribou]

Two-Part Invention, by Madeleine L'Engle
This was a moving portrait of the author's marriage to Hugh Franklin, told in flashbacks intermixed with the story of his cancer and dying. I really liked this, possibly my favorite of the four Crosswicks journals.
(193/200)

Watch Your Mouth, by Daniel Handler
This is a wretched and utterly delightful book, which may be partially blamed for my having missed my Greyhound to Denver after I'd already checked my luggage. Completely absorbing, funny, a great ear for voice, and awfully smart. Don't read it if you're easily squicked though, it's rather sick-minded.
(194/200)

Karma Cola, by Gita Mehta
Acerbic storyteller's view of the invasion of India by hippies in search of The One True Path. The anecdotes occasionally made me laugh out loud, and I appreciated how up-to-date this book still felt even though it was written in the late 80s. Definitely worth the dollar I paid for it.
(195/200)

Asylum for Nightface, by Bruce Brooks
A fourteen-year-old whose 'squareness' and religious beliefs leave him alienated from his hip, loose (but loving) parents tries his best to deal with their embrace of a strange brand of evangelical Christianity. Really lovely, probably my second-favorite of his books after my Most Favorite YA Novel Ever, Midnight Hour Encores. What I like most about this author's books? His extremely intelligent, definitely oddball protagonists, who strive mightily to do the right thing in some extremely bizarre but somehow plausible situations. Not that I know anyone that fits that description...
(196/200)

Still Life, by A S Byatt
This is the sequel to the previously-posted-about Virgin in the Tower. I didn't like it quite as much as Virgin, only because it was more straightforward and lucid and therefore less challenging, more like a regular literary novel. But that may only be because I was a lot more conversant with the history, etc, woven into this one, and thus didn't get as much of a stretch. I'm not sure. Anyway, I did enjoy it a lot. I was entertained by the (responsibly sparse) meta-narrative which seems like non-fiction musings on the part of the author about how to properly craft a novel.
(197/200)

Babel Tower, by A S Byatt
Now this, number three in the quartet, was definitely up to the standards of the first one. Drove me up a wall, but in the best of ways. I'm really looking forward to the fourth book.
(198/200)

The Hobbit, by J R R Tolkien
I've read The Hobbit so many times that I've worn out a couple of copies, so it was natural that I should turn to my unabridged audio version for comfort when my Grampy died a couple of months ago. Such a lovely story, and I really enjoyed Inglis' narration.
(199/200)