Two for One

I was so happy to get Brooklyn by Colm Toibin. I read it very quickly and totally enjoyed it. I'm not going to give it alot of space because it was not troublesome, it was well written and worth reading. It involved no terrible child abuse, horror or tough to take psychological drama of any kind. Just your normal run of the mill immigrant struggles, nicely done.

Another non-troublesome book that I super loved was The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. It is a gem. The title veers toward cutesy, and the whole thing ends up being a warm fuzzy but who cares? The characters are good, the setting is great, and you get to learn about WWII and how the Germans took over Guernsey (an island between England and France). Loved it.

Grab either book, a cup of tea and have yourself a great afternoon.

But I'm Back Again!

It's been two weeks, and I am refreshed and ready to go. I've been reading up a storm! Here's a list:

The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrrows

Brooklyn by Colm Toibin

In order to stretch out my reading into extra posts, and to build super exciting suspense, I am not going to tell you what I thought of each of these books. Instead, I am going to tell you how I came by Brooklyn, and how wonderful people can be.

Several weeks ago, I was at my friend Melissa's house, and I noticed Brooklyn lying on her countertop. "OH!" I said, shouting maybe a little too loudly, "I really want to read that! I heard about it on The Diane Rehm Show. It sounded really great." After noting my own behavior, I did not even pick up that book to look at the inside flap. I was trying hard to conceal my jealousy and didn't want Melissa to think I was a book poacher.

This was kind of a long time ago, so as I recall, Melissa kind of shrugged and said, "I dunno, It was on the new release shelf, so I picked it up."

Needless to say, I was very envious, having sat in my car in a parking lot for a several minutes to listen to the author and Diane Rehm talk about the dreadful voyage from Ireland to America and all about Eilis' and Father Flood's relationship. I really was interested in this book and had checked my library's new release shelf for this exact book.

A few weeks later I remembered how urgent it was that I find and read this book, so I hopped on the Library website and placed a hold. I was number 45. NUMBER 45! Good Lord. Even with many circulating copies, it would be a while before I got Brooklyn. I settled in to wait. But before that I shot off this sad e-mail to Melissa:

"OMG! I am number 45 in the holds queue for Brooklyn. How did you get it?"

A few days later, I got a call. It was lovely Melissa saying, "I saw Brooklyn on the express shelf again, so I checked it out for you. " Wha? How did she get that very popular book twice? Anyway, beautiful Melissa offered to drop it off at my house later that night. Can you believe it? What a gal! What a peach!

So I read it. I'll compose a wrap up post soon. Aren't you dying to know how I feel about it? I warned you, suspense...

Hiatus

I have been drowning in stress and life lately, and not reading. I'm giving myself a break from reading and blogging. Look for me in approximately two weeks.

An Easy Reader

I think I read too many blogs. I picked up The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga, Man Booker Prize winner, and it was refreshingly easy to read; at least the first five pages. The narrator is an uneducated Indian guy writing to the prime minister of China. His tone is so chatty and non-mysterious. I asked myself why this was and realized, it reads more like a blog than a serious work of fiction. That is not to say that blogs are not wonderful and well written, but they are a more spontaneous, colloquial form of written expression. And, much easier for a busy gal like me to read. I like checking my blog reader and quickly getting a few easy to decipher and topically familiar things checked off. It feels good, and easy.

Is this a personal failing? Shouldn't I love a challenge? Good fiction is hard fiction right? Any Moby Dick Fans out there?

I don't feel great about my reading self right now. I am excited though to read The White Tiger and see if the whole thing is as enjoyable as the first five pages.

Whining about Waterland

I'm trudging through Waterland by Graham Swift. I badly want to like this novel, but I feel like I'm failing. Why can't I just love it? It seems like it should be really good. This book feels sort of like a mystery in which nothing happens. At least not so far, well, besides the murder, and the pregnant teenager.

The story traces three threads, narrated by one old man; that of the narrator's family, beginning with his great, great grandparents and down to his own generation, a story of his childhood on the fens (a desolate low country prone to flooding), as well as a section about the more recent past in his own life. This approach lends a little bit of suspense to an otherwise quiet story, but I wish that it were just a little easier. I don't want to have to work quite so hard to decode a sentence, or to understand what just happened.

I'm not picking only on Mr. Swift. This obtuse spareness I've been discussing can be insidious, ugly even, if handled badly, and I don't think its a good trend. I certainly have a tough time coping with it. I prefer a slightly more straitforward prose when I'm reading in the evening. After interpreting irrational behaviors and incomplete communication from my preschool aged children all day, and I just want a story, not a puzzle.

Booker Prize Winners

Are books that win The Man Booker prize always really hard to read? I've recently read The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy, The Gathering by Anne Enright, and am now reading Waterland (not a winner) by Graham Swift, an author who won the award in the past. All of these novels are tough. I mean, obtuse and confusing, with kind of hard to follow sentences and a purposefully fuzzy sense of what's actually happening and fuzzy timelines.

Why?

Does being hard to read make something a better book? In the end, I would give The God of Small Things a favorable review, but I found it really tough to get into. Roy kind of put up walls of trickiness, not inviting at all. With The Gathering, I just didn't get it. I did not care for that book, plus, it was hard to read. These novels gave me a vague feeling that I have to fight to get through them, that somehow I had to get past all this challenging prose in order to get to the treasure at the center. Once I got to where I was supposed to go, the reward was not quite good enough.

So far I am enjoying Waterland, but it too is hard to follow, and not really in a good way. I'll report back as I read more, and maybe look for Swift's Last Orders (the Booker winner)to see how it measures up. I also happened to grab The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga at the Library this weekend, so maybe I'll have a go at it.

To be fair, I also have read The Life of Pi by Yann Martel, also a Booker Prize winner, and loved it very much. It was a couple years ago though, and I don't remember if it was difficult to read.

Shameless Friend Promotion

Hey reader!

Go on over and see what Jean has created at AutMont, her awesome new resource for the Autism Community in Montgomery County.

A Brief Chat about Bill Bryson--I love him

I saw Bill Bryson's A Short History of Nearly Everything, in Stimey's basement a few weeks ago, grabbed it and couldn't wait to read it. it has now been read. I knew it would be great fun because I loved Bryson's A Walk in the Woods. It was full of good tidbits about geography, geology and biology, plus I love that he was supposed to hike the Appalachian Trail and didn't make it. As I recall, don't quote me here, but I think he felt like he had seen enough and understood fully the enormity of hiking the whole thing, so he really didn't need to. He did a really good job of it though, hiking really really far, and maybe checking out the beginning and end. It turned me into a big Bryson fan at any rate.

So I saw A Short History of Nearly Everything and was very excited. I wasn't disappointed. I learned EVERYTHING! History of science, names and amusing anecdotes about millions of forgotten scientists, quarks, mitochondria, black holes, the works. I'm much more scientific now.

I love finding authors that I want to be friends with. Like Mary Roach, Bill Bryson seems like he'd be perfect to chat with. Really smart, but not soo serious, a little self deprecating, and fun but not fluffy.

A Terrible Confession

Remember a couple of months ago when I told you my mother had left a box of books at my house? Mostly these were her rejects, so they weren't great. I haven't been to the library lately, and had read all the things in my To Read pile, so I picked up Audition by Barbara Walters. And OMG I have been READING IT! I gotta tell ya, its kind of a snore. But I haven't quit. Today, I officially quit. I'm backing away from the five hundred page auto-biography of a living news woman. I'm so embarrassed to be reading this book for old ladies that when I thought a friend might enter my room, I put it back on the bookshelf so my loseriness wouldn't be discovered

It might seem as though I am being rude to my mother in criticizing this book, or criticizing Barbara Walters. I am not. Ms. Walters is a fine interesting lady who has had a very full life. I just don't need to spend my evenings reading about it.

About my mother's choice in non-fiction; firstly, she is the one who chose not to keep the book on her shelves, indicating that it is not a great classic. Secondly, she is thirty years older than me. I give permission to every person over 55 to read a Barbara Walters biography, or say any book by Tom Brokaw.

I am not even remotely hip, even by suburban thirty year old standards, but good lord! Barbara Walters? I am going to the library today, and finding something more suitable, and cooler, like maybe something I heard about on NPR.

New Plan

I began this blog because I'm a reader and because I frequently find myself with things to say about my reading but no-one inparticular with whom I can share these ideas. The problem is that I read and think in spurts, and regular blog readers are not necessarily fans of spurt reading.

In order to combat inertia and procrastination, I have a new plan. I'm going to write this blog once a week; on Thursdays. I've been reading a fair amount over the last few weeks that I haven't been posting and have a couple of good things to chat about, so we should be good for a while.

Wish me luck.

Sex-ed for Grownups

So, I've been reading lately but not blogging. A few weeks ago I spent an hour in Stimey's basement and she had re-organized her bookshelves in a very nerdy manner, like according to size and subject matter. I immediately grabbed Bonk by Mary Roach. I had previously read Stiff by Roach, and loved it.

Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex is about um, sex. It can make for some uncomfortable reading, especially if you are reading about the Dr. Kinsey's experiments, say, on the subway. Mary Roach takes the always fascinating topic of sex and makes it lighthearted, amusing and educational. Here are a few chapter titles, "Dating the Penis-Camera" "The Testicle Pushers" and "Mind over Vagina". I was mildly mortified several times while reading this book, and I think Roach was mortified a few times while researching it, but she pushes through bravely and gracefully giving a fun overview of some of the more technical aspects of human sexuality.

If you are not interested in reading about sex, you may like reading about dead bodies. Roach's earlier book Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers examines body snatching, decay of corpses, embalming and a whole array of things that can happen to you after you die.

If I had to choose an interesting and/or learned person to have lunch with, Mary Roach would be pretty high on the list. Despite her non-traditional subject matter, Roach's bright and warm personality shines through her prose.

The Wife: A Wrap up

The Wife by Meg Wolitzer was great. I couldn't put it down. There is not normally a ton of suspense to be found in a forty year marriage, but Wolitzer invented some. I couldn't figure out why this woman had been married to her disgusting, arrogant husband for so many years. Why? Why? Why? had she stuck around? He cheated, he was unattractive, unloveable.

So I read and read, using every minute I could spare. I got to the end, late one evening, and was outraged!! Why? Why? Why? How could this happen? Gross. Argh! I am so frustrated and outraged at this character.

Wolitzer gives us a lot to chew on in terms of feminism, love, marriage, self worth, family...phew. Plus, she's funny.

I want y'all to read this book and report back. If I have any local readers, I will happily lend you the book.

An Assignment

I had finished reading everything I had laying around my house that looked interesting, and serendipitously, a package arrived in the mail from my aunt. It contained a slim volume and a note "L- Have you read this? If not please read and tell me what you think- love you Aunt"

I had a mission.

Because I felt that this was a pressing and urgent mission, a few nights later I took the book into the bath with me. It did not follow the same fate as Prep and stayed dry. (sorry again Stimey--it's karmic retribution for your abnormally long vacations)

Aren't you dying to know what book it was????

The Wife by Meg Wolitzer. It is a thin novel, with a big W and inverted W (m) on the cover. (W on top.) Great cover, a fun play on man/woman, also Meg Wolitzer. Great.

I have only read the first fifty pages or so, but I laughed three times in the first few pages. Wolitzer can be heartfelt and honest at the same time as she is cutting and hysterical. I can't wait to finish this book.

Whoops. Its about a woman married to a famous author for forty years who decides to leave him. I have only read the decision to leave, and the beginning of their relationship, so I can't tell you anymore.

Olive Kitteridge

I LOVE Olive Kitteridge! This is one of the best books I have read in a long, long time. Maybe that's why Strout won the Pulitzer. The stories are well drawn and realistic; the characters suffer quietly or publicly but all in a true to life manner. Ms. Strout reveals so much about human nature and how people get through life as best they can. Olive herself is bizarre but fascinating.

I am only maybe three quarters of the way through, but this book was worth every penny of the 8.99 I paid for it at Costco. Run out to the bookstore and buy it right away!

Spending Time with Elizabeth

I've been reading Olive Kitteridge for a few days, and am really enjoying it. I like the structure of the linked short stories because if you put the book down, and can't remember where you were, it doesn't matter because there is no full length plot. You just pick up and read. Convenient.

So, I was skimming the Washington Post online today and saw this article about the author, Elizabeth Strout, with whom I feel I could be best friends. I also learned that the super prize she received was in fact the Pulitzer Prize. I then followed a link to a Jonathan Yardley review of Pride and Prejudice, and then on to a retrospective ode to my own beloved Laurie Colwin.

The point of all this article reading is that I like to read in units, like in high school history-- so I will watch a version of P&P and then re-read the book and then drink some tea. Now I have learned a little about Strout; and I want to go to the library and check out her other works so I can be absorbed into her imagination for a few days. It's like a mini-vacation, you can immerse yourself in someone else's world while conveniently living your own life.

I hope to report back from Stroutland soon.

For Rene

I have been neglecting this blog for a few weeks, just kinda feeling lazy about it and not doing a whole ton of reading, but a few things have happened:

1. I read a book

2. I bought a book

3. I spoke to my grandmother who has been reading my blog and is now reading Song of the Lark by Willa Cather.

Holy guilty! My poor old grandmother is checking my blog and I'm not posting. Geez.

The book I read is Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris. It is a collection of humor essays and very enjoyable. I will probably pick up something else by this guy.

I had seen this book in stores and in everyone's home but hadn't picked it up because with its chalk title on a green chalkboard background, it somehow looked to me like a story of an abused or feral child. I know, I'm bizarre and moronic. So finally, I was at my sister's house and this book was on the shelf, so I figured I could at least trouble myself to look at the back. The blurbs trumpet: "Wildly Entertaining" "His most sidesplitting work to date..." Apparently this book is not about a feral child. Sedaris is a riot. I have learned an important lesson about judging books blah blah blah.

Also, I was cruising Costco today and saw Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout laying on top of a stack of cookbooks. Poor thing, all out of place, I tossed it into my cart and am excited to start reading. I've been hearing a ton about this book of short stories on NPR. It won some super award, but I can't figure out which in a quick google search.

Anyway, this book is making a splash, it's a series of linked short stories set in Maine. I think is is not going to be warm and fuzzy, more a look at the real sometimes brutal sides of people's personalities. I'm looking forward to it.

A Big Box of Books

My mom brought me a box of books she was finished with, and it is still sitting in my living room, but it is lighter one book.

I picked up Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin.

It's great. The main character, Greg Mortenson reminds me in a passing way of my brother-in-law, they are both gregarious mountain climbers.

Mortenson was raised in Africa, is very devoted to his family and after a failed attempt to summit K2; dedicated himself to building schools in Pakistan. I haven't finished it yet, but I am fairly sure it is going to end well, and be a good read.

I love books about the Afghanistan/Pakistan region and may formulate a list soon of books involving that part of the earth. Stay tuned.

Pride and Prejudice

The day I finished W&P, I also spent five and a half hours watching the BBC version of Pride and Prejudice. It was awesome. We taped the miniseries when it aired on A&E in the mid 90's. For years, whenever I was alone and with a VCR I would steal a few hours with Elizabeth Bennett, Mr. Darcy and old carnival cruise commercials.

So, on July 4th, I spent the day watching Pride and Prejudice (which I recently purchased on dvd at Best Buy)and the evening finishing War and Peace. It was an odd Fourth of July, but not unhappy. The next day, I was wondering how the novel compared to the mini-series, so I picked up P&P and read it. And loved it. Jane Austen manages to keep me in suspense until the very end. I have read that book probably three times, and watched the (very faithful) mini-series probably ten times, and every time I am dying to know if they can get it together, and I am always very angry at Lydia and Mrs. Bennett for being morons. I know it is a terrible cliche, but Pride and Prejudice is so great I am thinking of naming Pride and Prejudice as my number one favorite. It is at the very least in my top three.

War and Peace Wrap-up

Let me first apologise for the lack of posting I have been doing. I think I finished W&P and didn't have much to say really. I did it. I finished War and Peace. It feels as if a small weight has been lifted off my shoulders. It was a long hard slog and I'm pretty happy its over. Was it a great book? Probably. Was it my favorite book ever? No. I liked Anna Karenina better. It was much more manageable for me, much less about war, much more about human relationships.

This may sound really obvious, but had I known beforehand how much war and philosophy would be in War and Peace, I would have done a better job reading it. For those of you considering tackling this book someday, Tolstoy tracks the war with the French from 1805-1812. The story of the Russian battle against Napolean iis interspersed with the stories of Russian aristocrats, mostly, Pierre, the Count Bezhukov, Natasha Rostov, her brother Nikolai Rostov, Prince Andrei Bolkonsky and his sister Princess Marya Bolkonsky. These young people, along with their families and aquaintances come of age during the war, fall in love, become soldiers, become heroes, are torn asunder and reunited.

I have a list of people I think would really love this book, and a list of folks to whom I would say "Don't bother" I'm sure you all can sort yourselves out.


Now, all I have to do is find a bunch of easy, stress free stuff to read for a while. Suggestions will be appreciated.

War and Peace: Done

Phew. I finished W&P last weekend. I am brewing on it, and relaxing with a little Pride and Prejudice. As soon as I can put together something coherent, I will post a wrap up.


New reading suggestions are very welcome.

Double Feature

Last night, instead of reading W&P as I intended, I got hooked by TCM. First I had to watch The Philadelphia Story because as we all know, NO-ONE can pass up Katherine Hepburn, Cary Grant and Jimmy Stewart. All in the same movie!!! It was great. Katherine Hepburn was great, her clothes were kinda bad. I would never pick that party dress. Jimmy Stewart was great, he won the Oscar that year. Cary Grant was gorgeous and charming. His hair was super black and shiny. sigh.

Then they played another George Cukor movie, The Women, and it was great too. This film is a love it or hate it, with stereotypical portrayals of women, and old fashioned views on marriage and fidelity. The Women, based on a play by Clare Booth Luce starred Joan Crawford as the baddie, Norma Shearer as the excellent Mary Haines and Rosalind Russell as the very funny Sylvia Fowler. Russell's physical performance alone made the movie worth watching. Not to mention all the hair, hats and fabulous socialite outfits.

The crazy thing about this film was that there is not a male in it. At All. Even the entire supporting cast including extras was female. Female background people, female orchestra, female servants. Amazing. I kept expecting a husband to stroll on screen to subdue the wacky women. Nope.

Being a modern gal, it was a little tough to take this portrait of women as gossipy and silly and preening and dependent on men. The people I really take issue with were the absent male characters. What a bunch of lice! Cheating, Cheating Cheating. What were those poor New York Socialites to do? Gossip and file for divorce I guess.

Edited to Add:

I keep finding that I cannot stop mentally revising my posts. Now that I wrote about Skeletons on the Zahara, I have so many more things to say about it. Plus I keep seeing things that would totally go with that post. Plus I hate what I wrote.

I did use "Edited to Add:" yesterday. A little trick I learned from my blogging mentor Stimey.

I also suck at revising. Tenses, run-on sentences, spelling, it never ends. I can spell almost any word aloud, but typing coherently is very difficult for me. Every time I click back to review this blog I see something I need to correct. Already clicked published? Phooey, I just hop right in and change it. Y'all will probably never notice anyway.

Another super hard thing about having a book blog is reading. One has to read books to talk about them. It's tough to read books when you spend so much damn time watching TV. For instance last night, I watched Obsessed and My Life on the D-list. Kathy Griffin KILLS me. Then for good measure, and because I want to be supportive of his new show, I put in a little time with Conan. By midnight, I wasn't into reading a whole lot about Pierre and Natasha.

I think it's time for a TV free week, I will have to DVR So You Think You Can Dance and maybe then I will be able to complete War and Peace, which is on it's second renewal. See what I mean about run-ons?

Survival Coincidence

I had just finished my torturously difficult to write review of Skeletons on the Zahara, and was feeling mildly embarrassed about my gross out first paragraph. So I flipped on the tube and found Bizarre Foods with Andrew Zimmern Survival Special. Hah! I love multi-media studies! I hope he eats something really awful.

I'm not sure two days in the jungle is quite hard core enough to compete with what I've been reading though. Sorry Mr. Zimmern.

Surviving, again

Although the subtitle to Skeletons on the Zahara is "A True Story of Survival" I didn't realize that this would be yet another survival book. Duh. This is kind of the ultimate survivor book in which you learn that it is apparently okay to drink urine. Your own, your shipmate's, a camel's, whatever. You can also drink the green liquid in a camel's stomach, and eat the contents of the small intestine. If you are hungry, snails are delicious, as are locusts; just pull off their heads and legs first.

I can't wait to go on vacation to the Sahara!

Dean King endeavors to update Captain James Riley's 1816 memoir, introducing a story familiar to almost every 19th century American to a modern audience. Once I got past the detailed recounting of the ill-fated ocean voyage, things sped up. I was mostly interested in the gruesome horror the crew faced once the ship was dashed against rocks. As a historical narrative, Skeletons on the Zahara has a distracting number of characters, dates, and locations. I blithely ignored the maps, place names and names of many characters, preferring to focus on the action rather than get bogged down in the details.

Other than a fine Sunday's entertainment, I got two main things out of this book; one a very thought provoking look at Nomads in northwestern Africa and a lesson in heroism from James Riley.

King did plenty of his own research for this book, as shown in his extensive bibliography. He even took a trek in the Sahara on a camel, trying to recreate some of what the castaways went through. The life of the desert nomads was amazingly brutal, many of them subsisting on camel milk and small amounts of foraged food. Perhaps in reaction to the extreme climate, the culture is correspondingly wild and rough, with a strongest take all mind set. Despite the harshness of the society Captain Riley and his crew encounter admirable bravery and honor from a few of the nomads they encounter.

Captain Riley is a great character. He carefully observes the people around him and is able to judge situations cannily and modifying his behavior in turn. At times, dangerously standing up for his men, or being meek and humble as the situation requires. It seems that most Western castaways had little hope of returning home when they landed on the West Coast of Africa and Captain Riley was a rare example of a hero, getting at least half of his crew home again.

Edited to add: This book is packed full of fun extras, including a glossary, index, bibliography, suggested reading, and more!

Predictable

I just got on Amazon to look at some of the books I put in my Western Non-Westerns list and realized how I am totally predictable.

In the "Customers who bought this item also bought" Kent Haruf, Leif Enger, Sara Gruen, and David Wroblewski were all in the first two screens full of suggestions. All the covers have cool colors and shots of the sky.

Don't bother with this blog, just check Amazon, and you can find my personality, big as life.

Stupid marketing whizzes. Rats.

Western Non-westerns

I've noticed that I frequently mention books that are set in the American West. I finally realized I love this setting when a friend of mine requested recommendations that were not American. At first I was embarrassed. I must be terribly single minded. How simple and silly of me to love American books so much.

Then I realized Duh. Of course I love books about America. America is great. It is a sweeping landscape full of hope, personal explorations, soaring vistas and plenty of tragedy. Here are a few more authors and titles that deal with the west that I love.

Kent Haruf. This author is tremendous. He has a quiet tone and good stories. The stuff he writes about, family tragedies, loneliness, are sad, but I have such a glad feeling when I think about Plainsong or The Tie that Binds. When looking up Kent Haruf, I just noticed there is a sequel to Plainsong called Eventide --I can't wait!


Larry Mc Murtry He is quite prolific but has some misses along with his hits. Best is Lonesome Dove which I'm planning to re-read someday. Two men, Call and Gus set out from a lonely Texas town on a cattle drive to Montana. It's a great novel and a prototypical western, disqualifying it from this list. Read it anyway.

McMurtry also wrote The Last Picture Show it is set in mid-twentieth century Texas and focuses on the coming of age of a couple of teenage boys. I recommend The Last Picture Show above the two books that follow it, they aren't quite as good and TLPS stands on it's own nicely.

All of these Larry McMurtry books have been made into movies or mini-series. The Lonesome Dove miniseries starring Tommy Lee Jones was very good, I caught it on cable recently.

Steinbeck. I mentioned The Grapes of Wrath. You pretty much can't go wrong with Steinbeck, but East of Eden is maybe on top. Although critics don't, I love Cannery Row (not a western). It has great characters and kind of a homey quality. If home is living near fish factories and whorehouses.

Annie Proulx (pronounced approximately Prew) wrote That Old Ace in the Hole Set in Texas. It has her traditional almost comic names, and odd trajectories of people's lives. I found it to be enjoyable, almost as much as I liked The Shipping News. (Which I loved but is set in Newfoundland and therefore does not qualify for this list. I also totally liked the movie of the Shipping News starring Kevin Spacey.)

Louise Erdrich Plague of Doves. This is a kind of twisty and slightly confusing book dealing with reservation families and white families over the course of the last century. I am not too familiar with Louise Erdrich, but I liked this book and have gathered the impression that she writes powerfully about the west and reservations and the like.

I feel like I'm forgetting something...

ACK! How could I forget My Antonia and O Pioneers! by Willa Cather? These are portraits of immigrants in Nebraska making a new life and an impact on the land. Excellent reading. I re-read these pretty regularly. I am looking forward to checking out The Song of the Lark which I somehow missed during my Willa Cather phase.


Books I have mentioned previously on this blog and that are set in the American West but not necessarily westerns are here:

The Story of Edgar Sawtelle by David Wroblewski
Peace Like a River by Leif Enger
So Brave, Young, and Handsome by Leif Enger

Deep Survival

Here's my problem with survival, everyone dies sometime. No-one survives death, so what makes anyone a survivor ever? Surviving may just mean living long enough to tell others your story. If you don't leave a written record, did you live at all?

It turns out some people are just better at living longer in perilous situations and those skills can be translated from everyday life and back again. Here's the main point when in a bad situaton: don't panic. If you are panicking, don't move or act until you have calmed down. Also, don't be paralyzed by your panic. Be smart and you might survive.

I started reading Deep Survival by Laurence Gonzales and wasn't hooked. I have recently read a few books involving survival; Into the Wild by John Krakauer, Life of Pi by Yann Martel, and Desperate Journeys, Abandoned Souls: True Stories of Castaways and other Survivors by by Edward E. Leslie and Sterling Seagrave; (all worthwhile) so maybe I was kinda tired of surviving. I decided to give it another shot, opened to another, later chapter and was sucked in.

Gonzales provides anecdotes about survivors in many different situations, examining the issue from all sides, sprinkling in brain function and psychology and personal anecdotes. He laces it all together with his own quest for survival and his relationship with his father. All the time making frequent reference to the amygdala.

At the very least, Deep Survival was a nice break from Russia and Napoleon. I am going to try to get back to Mr. Tolstoy tonight or tomorrow.

Not Reading

Argh! I am so frustrated with myself for neglecting this blog. I mean to write, but am not actually reading much.

I had a great trip to New York but spent eight hours on the bus knitting and daydreaming. I came home with almost a whole mitten, and some great new fantasies about a life in New York, but with no pages read.

I did pick up Deep Survival by Laurence Gonzales but the first chapter didn't draw me in. I may have another look at it, but will probably put it and Catch-22 into my never to be read stack.

I have the evening to myself tonight, but plan to go shopping rather than read a book.

So, stay tuned, I may start reading again, I may not. I do plan to keep blogging though, and may have to get creative with my topics.

Cheap, but kinda lazy

Remember how I said how much I don't pay for all the materials I read?

Sometimes I pay. Here's why:

I normally renew books online, but I recently got a new computer. Because I am slothful, I did not transfer all my passwords and logins to a new secret yet convenient place on my new computer. Because I would have to get up off my botto, which is large, and find my library card to look up the number to login and renew; I didn't renew W&P. Even though I vaguely knew that it was due soon. It was not due soon, it was due three dollars and fifty cents ago.

Darn.

Edited to add: I did in fact finally renew. I have another three weeks. Not to worry.

Up all night

For me, reading before bed is not usually something that helps me to fall asleep. I do read in bed almost every night but is it usually a struggle for me to put the book down and to go to sleep. Sometimes I am overcome by the book and can't stop until I have finished. Luckily for me, I am a very fast reader.

The books that keep me up at night are not necessarily suspenseful, I just get so invested in something that I am unwilling to leave the world the author has created for me.

I have a friend who prefers to draw out books that she loves in order to increase the length of time that she spends under the spell. I am a full immersion girl, reading every spare moment as quickly as I can, not wanting to be drawn away for even a minute.

Here is a list off the top of my head, in no particular order of books that have kept me up all night:


The Story of Edgar Sawtelle by David Wroblewski I read this on the plane to Las Vegas and spent a fair amount of time reading in my hotel room. It is a twist on the Hamlet plot, set in Wisconsin. The hero is a mute boy who raises dogs. Parts of this tale get a little long but its a satisfying read.

Peace Like a River and So Brave, Young and Handsome by Leif Enger I love this writer. His writing has a great peaceful tone and rhythm; and his his characters are excellent. Both books I have read by him are set in the American West and are really lovely. The country is almost a character in itself.

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith I mentioned this recently. Again, it is a great story about place and is just great book about coming of age and hardship and family.

Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen I wanted to read this book because it is set in a circus during the depression. I was interested mostly in just reading about a circus and the circus people. Plus it has a great cover. I was pleasantly surprised to find a great novel and love story inside.

The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck This was one of the first books that I remember staying up all night to read. I read it cover to cover one night when I was a senior in high school. It was a memorable night for me. I was first, very proud to have read such an important book so quickly, but secondly, Steinbeck became one of my favorite authors.

Harry Potter. I would stay up all night just to re-read any Harry Potter book. J.K. Rowling does such a great job with setting that I love diving in to visit occasionally. I try not to talk about it too much, but like many, many people I am a HUGE J.K. Rowling fan.


I am going to stop now, but plan to make lots and lots of suggested reading lists on this blog.

Note: I am hesitant to link to Amazon for many reasons, but am doing so just in case it helps you to locate and read these books.

My Personal Library

I am cheap. So cheap that I maybe buy a book at full price once a year. Maybe. And then it is probably a paperback. I used to consider it a splurge to buy a book at Costco. However, I am such a reader, that I sometimes read a few books a week. Here's how I do it: Often I steal. Sometimes I borrow. Occasionally I buy, but only if it is for less than three dollars.

I find that once people read books that they have purchased, they are pretty much done. They don't go back to their shelves often to look for stuff. Or if they do, they don't know to ask me, the perpetrator.

My two early but still fruitful sources of book stealing have been my parents. Rather than send me to jail their little hearts burst with pride when they realize their baby is reading all their old favorites.

I regularly peruse the bookshelves in my father's basement for castoffs from my stepsiblings' high school career I got my Guide to Birds of North America that way, the uber boring Guns Germs and Steel, and A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (worth going to jail for). They probably think I am doing them a service by decluttering; or perhaps they wonder why my purse is always so square and heavy like a sack of bricks when I leave their house. I don't ask.

Another excellent way to feed the addiction is by borrowing. From the LIBRARY duh. Also from my friend Stimey's library. At any given time I have like six of her books, and now in her basement I have a few shelves of my returns. I like to visit and see what I've read; its like visiting old friends. The best thing about Stimey's library is that there are no late fees. Plus, she is so silly that she actually purchases new books. I think at full price. Silly Stimey. This way I get my dose of current fiction, so that I am not so hopelessly out of date as to poke my curling iron in the fire and potentially burn off some of my hair.

One (several) of Stimey's books have actually traveled to other countries in the backpack of my brother who is apparently also a professional book stealer. T-- I am still waiting for Skeletons of the Zahara to come back so I can read it and return it to Stimey.

Another great place to get books almost for free, is from the Library used book store. This way you get to keep your library book forever. Conveniently there is one in a branch close to me. I get obscure cookbooks there, classics all full of pencil notes from college students, and confusingly still barcoded and mylar wrapped hardback fiction for a dollar.


One way that I make sure that my own personal library is not depleted is that I mark the books I lend out with my name. Sometimes in Sharpie. On the cover. Don't take my book you book stealers. I know all your tricks.

Not so sure I'm a blogger.

Argh. I totally suck at blogging. I have been thinking and thinking about it, but... nothing. Now that I am supposed to be writing something else, something fictiony that is due in four hours and fifteen minutes, sooooo, I will write a blog post.

War and Peace? Awesome. I am right smack in the middle and I can't wait to find out what happens to everyone. Reading W&P is kinda like watching a great miniseries on DVD from Netflix. There is a substantial number of fairly important characters, and you get to watch them emerge, and follow their life a little. War and Peace is totally not a miniseries though. It's a full on tv program of like three or four seasons.

I like the peace parts better than the war parts though. Napoleon Bonaparte actually appears as a character and I have to force myself to read those boring parts about him and various generals and the war. Snore.

The getting married parts, and falling in love, and maybe almost kidnapping and elopements; super exciting and compelling.

Reading is Fun!

I like it!

I have been under some time constraints, but War and Peace, it's great. I really want to know what is going to happen to Pierre; who so far seems totally boring, but he is now heir to the largest fortune in Russia, so he's probably going to get more interesting soon.

Also, I see a marriage going bad, the little princess with a mustache is not that popular with her husband who is now at war. Something big is going to happen with him too.

I can't wait to read it!

Reading with the Kids

Have you ever had really fond memories of a book, only to re-read it and think it sucks? This keeps happening to me with children's books. At some point after I had read some Harry Potter I thought I would have a quick review of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. It was totally not as good as I thought it was when I was young.

Also, I have been reading Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing by Judy Blume to my son at night. I know I liked it as a kid, and I think my brother and sister liked it too. It's kind of a minor American classic. Boring. I keep hoping the boy will forget to ask me to read it. And I may have been known to whine a little when forced to continue.

Some things have improved with age though. We (me and my two kids) have read or listened to in the past year: Ramona the Pest, Ramona and her Mother, Ramona and her Father, Ramona the Brave, Ramona Forever (I'm not kidding you, we are Ramona CRAZY) Ribsy, Henry and Ribsy, Runaway Ralph, plus probably a few more by Beverly Cleary.

I love that woman now maybe even more than I did as a kid. If I didn't love Beverly Cleary there is no freaking way I would read all these books at night or listen to them in the car. I could not take this much of just any author. I kinda feel at this point that I have lived on Klickitat Street myself.

Wrap Up: The God of Small Things

It is so goddamn hot in my apartment, that I can now wrap up The God of Small things. Apparently I have to imagine myself in a slummy fire-trap in India to talk about this book

It turns out this is a great novel. At the same time, it is confusing and mixy, and sweaty, and suspenseful. From the beginning you know someone has died because you get to go to her funeral. There is also a visit to a police station. My interest was piqued by all this information; but reading to the end was a little like say, fighting your way through a jungle with a machete. Roy gives her characters and setting amazingly vivid physicality. It's really impressive. And opressive.

I listened in on a conversation with two friends the other day about travel, and they discussed going to India. The more experienced traveler warned how you have to brace yourself when you step off the plane; and how it's not relaxing; and you kind of have to fight the entire time you are on vacation. He preferes Thailand. Roy gives the reader the same type of intense experience, but it makes for kind of tough reading.

To make up for your hard and tragic trek through India; Roy finishes with a jewel of a scene that makes it all worth while. Upon closing this book, you have a lot to chew on: sacrifice, unhappiness, right and wrong, justice.

Lovely. Deserving of the Booker Prize, which she won in 1997.

Pathetic Update

My grill pan kicked ass tonight. My steak was awesome. About the fat Russian; the relationship is having a little trouble getting off the ground. I am on... get ready... page 52 of War and Peace. Only 1200 to go. I know, get to work girlie.

Searching for Mr. Right

I have been working my way through Catch-22 and The God of Small Things but it is kind of a struggle. Neither book is calling to me in my non-reading hours. I keep wandering around my apartment looking at bookshelves for something new to read. Something that is going to sweep me off my feet; ask me to sacrifice work and sleep time. I want to fall in love.

I am wondering whether that special connection is going to come from Russia. That's right, I'm looking for an older Russian, one that is smart, complex, has an international reputation. I have flirted with Russians before, and I think it's time to make the big leap in this relationship. Its time for War and Peace.

The edition of War and Peace that I have is kind of old and has Bible pages. I am not interested in straining my eyes for the next several weeks, so today after we visit Noyes Library for the kids, we will head to Kensington Park branch where I am going to borrow this edition.

It's a new translation by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky, who b.t.w. sounds like she is an actual character in a Tolstoy novel. Ooooh I hope it's not checked out before I get there! I read Pevear and Volokhonsky's translation of Anna Karenina and the cover told me that they were terrific translators who preserve Tolstoy's language skills.

Because the cover told me to, I attribute my exteme affinity for Anna Karenina to the translators and I hope they will also help me through War and Peace. I am viewing them as relationship counselors of a sort. Years ago when I attempted W&P, I pooped out at around page 700. I have never forgiven myself.

Hopefully, self-flagellation, this announcement of intent, excellent translators and the extreme excellence of Mr. Tolstoy himself will all combine to springboard me to new heights of reading fulfillment.

I Heart Masterpiece (Theatre)

Hooray! It's Little Dorrit Day! As a giant fan of both Charles Dickens and Masterpiece (Theatre)* I LOVE Sunday nights in the spring.

Two years ago I watched Bleak House; last year it was all Jane Austen. Heaven. This year they are doing mostly Dickens. Oliver Twist was good, and I LOVED Tom Hardy in something...hmm...Ooooh. Wuthering Heights. That was sooo great. Totally not Dickens though.

Because of Tom Hardy and his gorgeous co-star Charlotte Riley, I read Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte. It was kind of a weird book. I can't even really recommend that anyone read it. Like The Scarlet Letter, it is a really great plot, not such a great read. Frankly, I like the screen versions of it better, both the one with Merle Oberon and Laurence Olivier, as well as this year's new version, which is more faithful to the original novel.

To sum up, I am an uber-nerd, by which I mean super awesome literary woman, and I can't wait to see if adorable Amy Dorrit gets to marry Mr. Clenham.


*I have no idea why they dropped the "Theatre" part It's not like it's any cooler of a show now, plus every one I know who watches it (me and my mother) still call it Masterpiece Theatre.

Changes Afoot

So, I hate this blog. It is so damn boring. Who wants to read a boring-ass book blog. I sure as hell don't. I like blogs that have curse words, and drinking and funny stories. Why then would I write a serious blog? Duh.

In honor of the ridiculously hot April day we are having, I am going to try to finish the God of Small Things. and think about India.

Also, I am going to Marshalls to look for a grill pan.

I read both The Song is You by Arthur Phillips and American Wife by Curtis Sittenfeld. I kind of had to stew on them before I had anything to say, and now that I am writing about them, my opinions are becoming even more clear to me. Both were good books, and I would lend them to a friend, but neither was a favorite.

On one hand, The Song is You was a page turner, but because it was so intense and obsessive, I kept being forced to take embarrassment breaks. Arthur Phillips seems really talented; but I think I might like other books he has written better than this one. I was hoping this book would be great, but it was not an exact fit for me. It was a little dark, and I didn't like a single character. Also, the title of this book grates on me. I hate saying it aloud, and can't make the syntax of it work in my head. Now that I think about it, I have kind of an unpleasant taste in my mouth from this book, but I still feel like it was good. Maybe you will like it better than I did.

American Wife was very well written. Compared to The Song is You, it was like a sunny vacation, much lighter and much less troubling. I really liked reading Curtis Sittenfeld's prose, especially in the first half of the book. However, once the main character grew into an adult and began to resemble Laura Bush, my interest waned. I may have imagined it, but I think the writing suffered in the later parts of the novel as well. I vaguely knew this book was based on a few facts of Laura Bush's life, but didn't pay much attention. It wouldn't have kept me from wanting to read this book, but I would have read the first half with different eyes. After this, I do want to read more of Sittenfeld's work.

Right now, I am laboring through Catch- 22 by Joseph Heller, and eyeing The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy which is on my bookshelf.

I stated that I read a Tree Grows in Brooklyn because I thought I should. I read a lot of books because I think I should, but I don't want you to think less of me. I have found generally that "classics" are pretty good. Knowing this, I try not to limit myself to historical fiction although it really is my first love.

To combat my classic literature issue, I have an excellent friend, Stimey who has oodles of books in her basement (I know, not the smartest place to store your best paper treasures). I often leave her house with a stack of books that are totally outside my normal range. I have even enjoyed a zombie book. I still haven't admitted to her how very much I enjoyed reading the very silly World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War by Max Brooks. Now though, I totally know all about zombies. They are not aliens.

I am also not normally a Michael Crichton reader but I liked The Andromeda Strain. She said I would, and she was right. On the flip side, she also loves Kurt Vonnegut. Passionately. Not me. I read Slaughterhouse Five because she said to, and it was really not my favorite. Right now Catch 22 and 1984 are in my Stimey stack, I'll let you know how they go.

Here's the point. It's sometimes a challenge for people to know where to begin when selecting books, and I go by the advice of others as well as working my way through a lengthy list of accepted classics. My friend Stimey has greatly expanded my range over the past five years and I got her to at least begin Anne of Green Gables. Quitter. Well written books make for pretty good reading, no matter the genre. Good science fiction can be good reading whether it is your preferred subject matter or not. Just the same, I abhor badly researched historical fiction. Yuck. Get your period fashion and manners correct people.

Of course, I cannot claim to like all "great books" Despite the title of this blog and all the excellent Scarlet Letter implications, I am not a fan. I love adultery, and fornication, and public humiliation, and self imposed punishments, but woof. Hester Prynne was drowned for me by too many words. I had to slog through tons of poetic prose to find the point. Same goes for Moby Dick. My mother claims it is one of her favorites and I generally trust her but again, woof. You don't get to meet Ahab for several hundred pages. With my apologies to Mr. Hawthorne and Mr. Melville, get to the damn point gentlemen. Ridiculous verbosity is ridiculous verbosity whether you have a compelling tale to tell or no. And with that, I bid you a good day.

I sacrificed half a night of sleep this week for A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith. It was worth it. I picked it up at my Dad's house because I steal all their books and I figured I should read this very important American book. It turns out I had already read it. Duh. It hit me hard this time though, it is so beautifully written, not heavy handed, not too dark, not too bright. It is perfectly balanced and you are so immersed in Brooklyn and in the beginning of the twentieth century. It was sort of sad to finish, and I had to sit, hold the book and take a few moments out for Francie. I loved it. You should read it.

I just bought two brand new books. Exciting, since I usually hit the library or used book store. I bought An American Wife by Curtis Sittenfeld and The Song is You by Arthur Phillips. I read a review of the Phillips book in the Washington Post and it sounded just up my alley, full of longing and angst. I chose the Sittenfeld book because although I didn't read Prep, I think she's a solid writer. I read a few pages in the bookstore and it is going to be good.


More on my two new books soon.