Oprah's new book club book

It's called The Measure of a Man by Sidney Poitier. The whole book is about measuring yourself to a higher standard. I only read half of it because it would be rated R, for language. Most of the language is when he is talking about the racism he faced when he first immigrated to the US from the Bahamas. It's a tough subject, but he treated it with the language to match. Not for me.

Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson

I had this book for a class that I ended up dropping; I'm not sure why I kept it, but it's been sitting on my shelf for a few years, so I finally pulled it out. It's a novel and a pretty quick read. I can't say that I loved it or that it changed my life, though. It was rather strange. Kind of eery and haunting in an undisturbing kind of way. That probably doesn't make any sense at all. On the positive side, there was nothing R-rated whatsoever, and the writing was really beautiful. Every word intentional. It's kind of a silent book. There's hardly any dialogue in it. It's about two sisters who grow up with various relatives after their mother drives her car off a cliff. Read at your own risk.

I've never read Hamlet

I read this book called Dead Fathers Club by Matt Haig. In the review that I read, it gave it 4 stars and said it was a cross-over juvenile fiction book based loosely on Hamlet. When I got the book at the library, the reviews on it said that it was humorous and witty. I've never read Hamlet, but I wasn't sure how one could make the story humorous or witty, so I thought I'd read it. My number-one problem was the seriously PG-13 language. I thought it was supposed to be juvenile fiction. My number-two problem was the extreme lack of wittiness and humor. The Hamlet character is an 11-year-old boy, and the story is told from his point of view, so some parts are at best awkward, like life is when you're 11.

I did like it, however. Aside from the language, it was a very compelling story, and it was just different enough from the play that I wasn't quite sure what was going to happen.

In short, it was OK.

(Lillian's been taking two two-hour naps every day, and that's why I have so much time on my hands to read what my husband characterizes as "a million books a week." I'm waiting on Book 2 in the Percy Jackson series, so I think I'll read something serious, maybe On Liberty by John Stuart Mill. I had to buy it for a class, but we only read the beginning bit. Hooray for naptime!)