Stained in a Human Way

So after a long hiatus of laziness, I come back blogging strong. Not only am I reading one book, gentle viewers, I'm reading two. Both are kind of for two different aspects for work, so let's go over the one I'm trying to finish before we go over the one I'm kind of reading for fun.

The book in question is The Human Stain by Philip Roth. I am, by all accounts, a Philip Roth expert because I read the Wikipedia article on him. He's written a lot of books. I think the word prolific was somewhere used to describe him, but I could be making that up. Maybe I'm spoiled because I've been reading a lot of YA fiction lately. Not really into books way overwritten. The Human Stain? Kind of fits those credentials. The story has gone off on so many tangents I'm not even sure we have well... a 'where are we going' feel. The first chapter is 75 pages. I mean, I rest my case. Anyway, I'm muddling through it. I'm almost past 100, and I have just 300 more pages to go after that. When I'm page counting you know I'm in trouble. I'm leading a book discussion on the title at a library that is not my library in three weeks. Whether it's finished or not, that will be the end of The Human Stain.

Before all that was sorted, I used some mega fastly earned Random Buzz points to score an ARC of Monster Variations by Daniel Kraus. I think I got past the first few chapters. If you're reading it, or read it, they've broken into the high school at the part I'm at. It's pretty good. I'm liking the bizarre friendship between the three boys all from different social classes. It's unlike any other YA book I read over the summer. Definitely doesn't talk down to teens, definitely a spooky book I think teen boys would enjoy. Probably going to be recommended for my book committee and become part of my cadre of books I bring on outreach visits. Random Buzzers had a few left, so if you want to join and earn mega quick points, do it now. Before they're gone. Can't wait to go back and finish it... as soon as the Stain of Human proportions is washed out of my brain.

Tried for some ARCs from LibraryThing this month for the first time in awhile... nada. That's sad. I got 4. AND REVIEWED THEM! One of them was about incest. One of them was the WORST VAMPIRE BOOK EVER! Please send me more, librarything. I miss you. And your free books.