I'm on Fire with Reading: What a Relief

I'm at the tail (tale?) end of The Yellow Birds by Kevin Powers, which was a finalist for the National Book Award  in 2012.  Okay, I'm in awe now. I have so many thoughts about this novel, I'm not sure how I'll ever begin writing about it. My entry will be posted on Sunday night, the 27th, so it will be available for the scheduled discussion date of  Monday, January 28--all thanks to Caroline's Literature and War Readalong.. I couldn't turn the final page this afternoon. I'm left with about 25 pages or so. When I finish this particular book, I must be in a hushed house with no possibility of interruption. While immersed late this afternoon, the telephone jangled and I literally jumped six inches off the couch . I was at a climactic moment, so deeply enthralled, when that phone jolted me sky-high.

The Third Reich by Roberto Bolano is excellent, and I'm enjoying it even though I don't have a complete picture of where it's going. A young German gaming champion and gaming writer, in relatively modern times, is vacationing in a Spanish seaside resort with his girlfriend, who, as it turns out, he doesn't know as well as might be comfortable. They meet another German couple and can't seem to get away from them. The gamer feels lured in, though he sees danger and wants to get away. He seems to feel helpless, powerless even, to distance himself and his partner from the world this other couple inhabits. Written in first-person, as journal entries. Very interesting.