Reading Lately?

Yesterday I finished reading Middlesex by Jeffery Eugenides. My copy has a Oprah's book club sticker on it, but I would have read it anyway. It was a great read, but not a great work of literature. It tells a several stories, one of the main character, Callie-Cal Stephanides, and the other of the Stephanies family, from their homeland in Turkey to Detroit, Michigan. The main character, Cal-Callie is a hermaphrodite, who starts life out as a girl, but ends the story as a man. Sometimes male authors are not convincing writing from the viewpoint of women, but Eugenides is successful, maybe because he narrates the story as a man. The main character, Cal becomes a man as a teenager, so he doesn't have to narrate as an adult woman. The two stories mesh together well, and the book certainly has holding power. I really wanted to finish it, so I could find out how the author ties all the stories together. He does a good job of this, which is why this is a good book. I highly recommend it.
Also recently read was The Nine by Jeffrey Toobin. Now this book as about as different from Middlesex as any book could be. First of all, it is nonfiction, and the subject is the United States Supreme Court. The author is partial to Sandra Day O'Connor, but it covers all the current justices as well as discussing the most important court cases and the issues before the court. It is a little gossipy, but perhaps that is the writing style of Toobin. I really enjoyed reading this book, since it covers the past 20 or so years, concentrating on the role of the court. Sometimes I find books on current affairs are a little boring, but this book certainly held my interest. If you are thinking of sitting out the election next November because you think your vote isn't important and doesn't count, read this book.