Land of Marvels

I've been wanting to be more involved in my immediate community, so I joined a JP Book Group. I thought it would be nice to get to know some more people in my neighborhood and read some different books.  The focus of my long-running friend book group has always been less on reading and more on getting together to catch up, so I also felt obligated to read this book.

Land of Marvels by Barry Unsworth was quite the challenge.  It seemed promising-- a group of archaelogists in the early 1920s in what is now Iraq searching for treasure-- both ancient and modern (oil).  But I found myself scanning over paragraphs and easily falling asleep.  The evening of the meeting I raced home to finish reading it (close, but no cigar!) and felt the dread of having to go to class without my homework done.  As it turned out, they were a nice enough group and nearly all agreed that it wasn't the best read.  There were also two guys, which was interesting.  We sat in the Jame's Gate and had food and beer.

I finished the book that night and would say that if you can make it through the first 2/3rds of the book, the last 1/3rd is worth it.  But if historical fiction isn't your thing, I'd skip this in favor of something else.

Netflix stars 2/5