And the Ass Saw the Angel by Nick Cave

Pages: 320, paperback

Publisher: Penguin

Genre: Southern gothic

Source: library

Premise:

"Euchrid Eucrow - outcast among outcasts. Born mute to a drunken mother and a father who spends his days building vicious traps and his nights building delicate towers of cards. Euchrid has a mind that seethes with words to express his vision of the world around him. " 

It is Euchrid alone - ever hidden to escape the town's self-righteous rage, finding more compassion in the family mule than in his fellow man who will grasp the cruel fate of Cosey Mo, the beautiful young prostitute in the pink caravan on Hooper's hill. And as years pass and events unfold, it is Euchrid, driven farther and farther from the human fold, deeper and deeper into his mad angelic vision, who will both redeem the town and its people with his pain and sacrifice - and wreak a terrible vengeance.

Let me just start off by saying that I adore Nick Cave's music. And I adore that he's Australian. I like to describe his music, and as a result--this book--Australian gothic. This is a genre that I think needs to be further expanded. Ass and the Angel is a book that feels like a song.
As always, there are spoilers.

It's Monday, What are You Reading? (03)

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? is hosted by Sheila over at Book Journey as a way to show what books have been read over the past week.

It's been a long while since I wrote on this blog, but I hope to be more vigilant. I've been in a bit of a reading slump these last few weeks.


So, time for my IM!WAYR!

This week, I'd read

Illusions of Fate by Kiersten White 3 ½

What I'm currently reading

My True Love Gave to Me - edited by Stephanie Perkins

Yes Please - Amy Poehler

Eve - Anna Carey (audiobook)

Reviews I've Posted 

Divergent - Veronica Roth

Books I plan on reading this week

Through the Woods - Emily Carroll

Legend - Marie Lu

How have your weeks been? Got many books read? Feel free to leave your links to your It's Monday! posts. :) I love making new friends.

Late to the Party: Divergent

Divergent by Veronica Roth

Pages: 487, paperback

Publisher:  HarperCollins

Date Published: May 2011

Genre:  Romance / action / dystopian

Source:  library

Get from Book Depository

Premise:

In Beatrice Prior's dystopian Chicago world, society is divided into five factions, each dedicated to the cultivation of a particular virtue--Candor (the honest), Abnegation (the selfless), Dauntless (the brave), Amity (the peaceful), and Erudite (the intelligent). On an appointed day of every year, all sixteen-year-olds must select the faction to which they will devote the rest of their lives. For Beatrice, the decision is between staying with her family and being who she really is--she can't have both. So she makes a choice that surprises everyone, including herself. 

During the highly competitive initiation that follows, Beatrice renames herself Tris and struggles alongside her fellow initiates to live out the choice they have made. Together they must undergo extreme physical tests of endurance and intense psychological simulations, some with devastating consequences. As initiation transforms them all, Tris must determine who her friends really are--and where, exactly, a romance with a sometimes fascinating, sometimes exasperating boy fits into the life she's chosen. But Tris also has a secret, one she's kept hidden from everyone because she's been warned it can mean death. And as she discovers unrest and growing conflict that threaten to unravel her seemingly perfect society, she also learns that her secret might help her save those she loves . . . or it might destroy her.

I'm so late to this bandwagon. Like, 4 years late, so I supposed it was about time I read it and found out what the big deal was about. *SPOILERS AHEAD*