Are you special?

Well, we all seem to think so. If everyone is so special, then is special the new conformity? I haven't read the book yet, but I have to admit that the interview on CBC with its author, Hal Niedzviecki, has caught my attention. Here's the book's Web site.

Other books I did read recently include The Handmaid's Tale from Margaret Atwood and The Fourth Hand by John Irving. I read Atwood backwards, her more recent work before The Handmaid's Tale, and I see where the doom and gloom of Oryx and Crake came from. After a series of catastrophes, a new world "order" is imposed. Handmaids are fertile women hired by couples (Wives and Commanders) that cannot have children of their own. They are educated by Aunts and looked after by Marthas (housekeepers) and are only allowed out in pairs. Truly creepy.

The Fourth Hand was an interesting story. A playboy news anchor nicknamed the Lion Guy after loosing his left hand to a group of hungry circus lions falls in love with the wife of man who's hand he receives for a one-of-a-kind transplant operation.

Now, I just started Baudolio by Umberto Eco. I read The Name of the Rose and The Island of the Day Before from Eco. It usually takes me a long time to get into his stories, but once you're captured by the plot, there's no letting go.