TBR #5 -- It's a Record!

It's the beginning of May - that's month number 5 - and I'm starting my sixth book in the TBR Challenge that I so bravely--and doubtfully--signed up for back in the fall. I haven't been very good at keeping up with reviews, but I've read five books in four months: On Writing Well, by William Zinsser; The Memory Keeper's Daughter, by Kim Edwards; The Guy Not Taken, by Jennifer Weiner; How to Read Literature Like a Professor, by Thomas Foster; and The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri. That's got to be my reading record for the last several years. I don't know when the last time I managed to put away more than a book every month or so was. Maybe early high school. I've always loved to read, and I've always made time to do it, but over the last couple of years I've been reading less and less. Until this year, that is. And whatever my yearly total is for 2007, I'm going to make it my personal challenge to better that by two books for 2008. Now, on to a mini review.

My fifth read for the TBR Challenge was The Namesake, by Jhumpa Lahiri. I had high hopes for this book, because I'd heard nothing but good things about it. It wasn't action-packed or exciting, but it was a well-written narrative that kept me turning the pages. I found myself relating completely with the main character, Gogol, who spent most of his life rejecting the life his parents had lived and attempting to turn his back on his culture. Much of the story was centered around his attempts to become his own person and the internal struggle of finding a balance between his Indian heritage and his American upbringing. It was a powerful story about how the choices we make from the moment we are able to make them shape who we become. I think the most important point I took away from the book was that we often fight against the currents of our past, only to discover that we belong downstream after all. I'm looking forward to reading Interpreter of Maladies in the near future.