CHROMOSOME 6 - Robin Cook (September 30/15)

Yikes this was a struggle to get through. It seems like the normal length of a book but it feels insanely overlong. Like A Fine Balance long. There are so many descriptive stretches and it doesn't help that the reader is so far ahead of the characters... We're basically just waiting for them to catch onto what we already know and it takes *forever*. No sir, I did not enjoy this. *1/2 out of ****

A FINE BALANCE (Rohinton Mistry) - September 17/15

Well, that was something. This feels like the longest book I've ever read and yet I was pretty much entertained throughout. Though Mistry offers up a TON of backstory and a heck of a lot of digressions, the author does a spellbinding job of developing the four main characters. It's kinda curious that things end so badly for all of them, though, especially Maneck's suicide! And then poor Om is castrated and Ishvar loses his legs. It's oddly grim. *** out of ****