The Year of the Flood by Margaret Atwood

I just started this work and was horrified to discover that the pigs from Oryx and Crake are back. Those swine give me nightmares! Thankfully, a hold came in from the Library so I switched to Dreamfever by Karen Marie Moning. I only have two weeks to read it. What a change! I went from "literature" to pure entertaining bubble gum. We all need that now and then... I will return to Ren and Toby, though. I liked their characters immediately. If I were a more patient person, I would re-read Oryx and Crake before returning to Year of the Flood, but I doubt that will happen.

The Year of the Flood -- From the Publisher
The long-awaited new novel from Margaret Atwood, The Year of the Flood is a brilliant visionary imagining of the future that calls to mind her classic novel The Handmaid's Tale.

Adam One, the kindly leader of God's Gardeners - a religion devoted to the melding of science and religion - has long predicted a natural disaster that will alter Earth as we know it. Now it has occurred, obliterating most human life. Two women have been spared: Ren, a young trapeze-dancer, locked inside a high-end sex club; and one of God's Gardeners, Toby, who is barricaded inside a luxurious spa. Have others survived?

By turns dark, tender, violent, thoughtful, and witty, The Year of the Flood unfolds Toby's and Ren's stories during the years prior to their meeting again. The novel not only brilliantly reflects to us a world we recognize but poignantly reminds us of our enduring humanity.

Mama makes up her mind by Baily White

I have no idea how this book came my way... It must have been recommended to me, and for some reason I read it. I read it all. It was mediocre and still I finished it. I blame it on the summer time. How did it reach the best sellers' list? It was obviously not the Globe and Mail's best sellers' list. I'm sure people from the south love its down home, folksy charm just as Canadian's love the Vinyl Cafe, but give me Stuart McLean any day... I'm aching for a good book.

From Publishers Weekly
White is known to fans of National Public Radio's All Things Considered for her endearing true stories about rural South Georgia where she lives and teaches the first grade. Her first book, which brings together some 50 of these short pieces, rich in humor and folksy charm, should delight her listeners, as well as readers new to her storytelling. Many of the selections deal with White's mother, who has never seen a movie as good as Midnight Cowboy, and other relatives and friends with similar eccentric wrinkles in their personalities. Other pieces are culled from the events of White's everyday life--gardening, her school's annual Christmas Party.