Cry to Heaven

Right now I am reading Cry to Heaven by Anne Rice.  Most people think of Anne Rice as a vampire novelist.  I did, before I started on my quest to read all of her novels. 

Cry to Heaven  has nothing to do with vampires.  This novel is about castrati in Italy (obviously not set in the current time period).  Very few women appear in this novel, and the majority of the men in the novel have been "neutralized." 

I was probably about half-way through the novel before I started pondering what the novel was really about.  What it means to be a man.  Kind of an odd topic for a woman to write about.  Then it struck me that all of the Anne Rice novels I have read so far are about men.  Women rarely play an important role in her stories, often they exist to move the men's stories forward. 

Perhaps odder still is that so many of the men in Rice's stories are homosexual or bisexual.  I find myself stuck on why a woman would choose the point of focus that Rice has.  I would love to talk with a man who had read some of Rice's work.  I'm not sure if Rice has some amazing insight into the male psyche or if her characters are caricatures drawn from her own assumptions.

Susan Reads

Susan reads.  A lot.  Yes, I know I'm referring to myself in the third-person, but my thirst for words is almost embarrassing.  I'll read anything.  Children's books, non-fiction, sci-fi, romance, thrillers, cereal boxes. 

Whatever I read, I read it fast.  It's not unusual for me to plow through a full-length novel in a single day.  When challenged to get through the Harry Potter series in a week, I finished with two days to spare. 

What I don't get to do is discuss what I'm reading.  Quite frankly, book clubs move too slow.  And take away valuable reading time!  So I'll discuss it all here.  Daily updates on what I'm reading, random thoughts about the material, maybe even what I would have done differently.  (As either the author or character!)

Stay tuned!