New-to-Me Author

I can’t believe a mediocre book is getting a second mention on my blog. I first mentioned The Love Affairs of Nathaniel P in talking about how what we think we want is not always what we really want.

What I am grateful for regarding that book is that it introduced me to author Dave Eggers. He wasn’t on my radar before he was mentioned by Nathaniel P as an author he uses to gauge the quality of the female readers on the subway. The mentioning of an esoteric author was more than enough to pique my interest.

My first book of his was A Hologram for the King. 

It was an audio book and absolutely wonderful. Although I never try to figure out how books will end, even I instinctively knew the outcome well in advance, so it must have been the author’s intent. None of the characters drew me in, but that wasn’t an issue. It was more like watching a train wreck where I couldn’t look away. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

With Eggers now firmly on my internal “good authors” list, I was pleased to see when he released his latest book, The Circle.

It took months to reach the top of my library queue, but finally it came to me, also in audio book form. I was tickled when I realized it was the same voice talent for both books.

I was immediately drawn in to the work. In the book, the Circle is a company much like a conglomeration of Google, Facebook and Paypal, only bigger. The story begin with the main character May Holland’s first day on the job. Spots are sought after, and it is her college friend who gets her in.

May quickly learns that there is more to the job than just her job. I felt my chest get tight as her role kept enveloping her entire existence. I know how that can feel – and in my work situation it wasn’t even an intentional assumption of every aspect of life.

While there are a couple sections where the pacing felt off, this is definitely a book I’d recommend. If you feel like Facebook is becoming too intrusive, you should see what the Circle is like!

Have you ever heard of other authors within the pages of a novel? or What was the last book you had to wait to read … and was it worth the wait?