Reading Season is Upon me

We had the first snow today, just a little, but it settled, and looks very pretty. My thoughts this time of year, with the dark evenings and cold nights, turn to books.

I finally finished The Enchantress of Florence by Salman Rushdie. My mistake was trying to read it in dribs and drabs. This didn't work. I couldn't keep everything straight. So, finally, almost through the book, I just started it all over again and read it over two days while away at a lake. It was a delicious read, full of poetry and fire, ravishing women, power-hungry men, exotic locales and plot twists that leave you wondering what is real and what is fantasy. Almost every character existed in history in one form or another and the research Rushdie did is mighty impressive. The character of the Mughal emperor, Akbar, is one that stays with me. His self-reflection is beautifully written and possibly will be all that I take from this ravishing book, that seems in some ways, a wonderful in-joke, possibly written for a very clever and informed bunch of Rushdie's friends.

The Years of Rice and Salt by Kim Stanley Robinson was very satisfying and thought-provoking. The story starts during the Black Death. 99% of Christian Europe is wiped out, and they become a footnote in history. The Chinese and Muslim nations sweep west and discover the new world. The characters reincarnate, as a sort of Buddhist sensibility is at the heart of the book. The reincarnations are identified only in that the characters come back with the same first letter of their name and within groups of the same characters. Everything else changes: their genders and relationships. History seems to repeat itself with a haunting inevitability. I won't say anything more. It's a great read and gets my recommendation.