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For February our book club selected a book off the 100 best novels list, Day of the Locust by Nathanael West. It was odd, the characters more like caricatures and several disturbingly described scenes (a cock fight and a mob where a young boy is killed). I admit I didn’t much care for it, but I can understand the significance of this being perhaps the first popular novel exploring the dark side of Hollywood. And, now I have met the original Homer Simpson.

I also tried two books on tape; the first was The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold. I was initially enthralled by the story, but then grew tired of the drawn out “girl watching from heaven” tales and could no longer suspend my disbelief in the author’s view of heaven and how someone returning to earth for a short time would spend a precious hour. I feel like many of my friends have read this book or watched the movie, so I’m glad to have read it for that reason.

I also listened to The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd, which I thoroughly enjoyed. I liked the way the reader had a natural accent and didn’t seem to be overly serious about the book. I liked the characters, who were likable and realistic to me. I liked the story and the way it unfolded, not hitting one over the head with a concept or point. I thought the shape of the story was also good, moving forward and exploring relationships and evolutions of a character’s thought and coming to a tidy ending. Of the books I read or heard last month, this is the one I’d recommend to others.

But now, I admit, I’m a little tired of hearing about the world from the point of view of an adolescent girl. I made a bee-line for the non-fiction, so now I’m listening to Exuberance by McArthur grant winner Kay Jamison.