Off the shelves

Poor neglected blog!

2009-03-05T09:20:00.002-05:00

My reading over the past three months, the highlight reel:

Loved The Story of Edgar Sawtelle. I knew pretty much nothing about it going it, except that the family raised dogs and the boy was mute. It was so beautifully written. As with any popular book (yes, Oprah liked it), you're going to hear mixed reviews, but I'm putting it up there as one that will stand the test of time.

Was pleasantly surprised by Confessions of a Contractor by Richard Murphy, Time of My Life by Allison Winn Scotch, and The Book of Joe by Jonathan Tropper. The first caught my eye at the library; the latter two were spotted in passing somewhere online.

And fun mysteries: Julie Hyzy's White House Chef series, of which there are only two. I wish there were more. I'd love recommendations for other well-written, old-style, whodunnit mysteries (like Agatha Christie, but contemporary writers).

Worth noting

2008-12-09T12:37:00.005-05:00

I've been reading quite a bit and haven't made time to post. But a couple of highlights:

In The Writing Class, Jincy Willett combines a whodunnit mystery with insights on writing and those who attempt it (some doing it well, others not so well). Her characters are so well drawn and fascinating, especially the protagonist who teaches the title class.

I've also been enjoying Jennifer Weiner's books. As I previously posted, chick lit seems to be the best thing for me right now, since I'm reading in short bursts with many distractions. Weiner's books feel like a step up from most chick lit, with interesting, unpredictable plots and well-developed characters. So far I've read Little Earthquakes, In Her Shoes, and Goodnight Nobody.

Learning new tricks

2008-11-10T13:56:00.005-05:00

I'm figuring out how to read while nursing the baby -- impressive, no? However, my sleep-deprived brain can't focus on much more than chick lit, and older library books with beat-up spines do a much better job of lying flat so I don't need two hands. But despite those limitations, I've finished three books:

Something Blue by Emily Giffin -- more memorable than I expected, this was a fun read. Darcy starts out as an unabashedly selfish human, but manages to become quite likable. The story is certainly predictable, but still worth the time.

The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein -- I thought I'd like this more than I did, and while I did enjoy it, I skimmed more than I normally do. The sections with Enzo's ponderings on racing didn't hold my attention, though I think they were supposed to offer philosophical thoughts on what was happening in the book. I liked the story, but I just thought I'd love and adore it.

The Friday Night Knitting Club by Kate Jacobs -- I like Jacobs' writing, how she weaves different characters and stories together. This one had a great range of personalities, all very well developed. Still not highbrow literature, but again, a fun read.

New beginnings (oh, and a book too)

2008-10-19T14:10:00.002-05:00

First, a beautiful explanation for why posts will be even fewer and farther between than they have been here lately: She was born on Wednesday, and she couldn't be more perfect. We are slowly figuring out this parenting thing, and I've been in too much of a fog to manage much reading. But I'm sure eventually we'll all get into sync!

I did manage to finish Eclipse. And I officially give up on Stephenie Meyer. I really dislike Bella's whining and weakness, Edward is still overly protective and stifling, and Jacob is just annoying. So that's enough of that for me.

Cats and houses

2008-10-07T16:29:00.008-05:00

I'm a sucker for a good animal story, and Dewey: The Small-Town Library Cat Who Touched the World certainly gives that. I found it sometimes got too bogged down with the town's history and with Vicki Myron's own story. It feels rather heartless to say I didn't care as much about her trials and tribulations, but I wanted more of the cat! (I'm very curious about the authorship, though. It's credited to "Vicki Myron with Bret Witter" -- what does that mean, exactly?) I loved Dewey's story and his antics and talents, and my goodness, was he ever an adorable cat. Not cute enough to trump my Atticus, of course: (Click here for a larger version.)

I love a good English manor house story. Usually these are mysteries, in the style of Agatha Christie, and some modern movies have stepped into the genre (can it be called a genre?), like Gosford Park. The House at Riverton, by Kate Morton, tells the story from the servant side while also letting us glimpse the lives of the privileged, and she manages to render both sides sympathetic. Morton's plot is beautifully crafted; she plants details perfectly, so that the events are both surprising and inevitable. I liked the flashback technique -- it was never overdone and worked well to explain how Grace knew so much about her employers' lives. I don't think it gives anything away to say I found the ending tremendously appropriate and yet still heartwrenching.

Catching up

2008-09-28T16:51:00.003-05:00

More Carol Goodman, and I'd say this is my favorite of hers so far. The Ghost Orchid is considerably more tinged with the supernatural than anything else I've read by her, and apparently that was just what I needed right now. As always with Goodman's books, it's a great balance of solid writing and not-so-heavy reading.

I can't remember how I happened to find How Far is the Ocean from Here. One day, the library notified me that the copy I requested was in, and even though the subject matter isn't something I'd have normally picked up, I figured I must have had a reason for requesting it. And I'm very glad I gave Amy Shearn's novel a chance. It's a cast of quirky characters brought together in a motel in the middle of nowhere by a young surrogate mother on the run. The premise is perhaps movie-of-the-week with an alt-indie twist, and somehow Shearn makes it work -- it's often just too much, and at the same time, it's just right. Without giving anything away, I found the ending too neat, especially compared to the messiness of life throughout the book. But discounting that, it's very good writing and a satisfying read.

Disappearing acts

2008-09-13T09:31:00.005-05:00

My second venture on the Stephenie Meyer bandwagon: I finished New Moon last night. This one left me more perplexed as to why so many adult women are obsessed with these books. For teenagers, I get it completely, but for me, the teen angst is just a bit too much to take. I spent most of the book being annoyed with Bella's logic (lack thereof?), and quite a large chunk of plot toward the end seemed incredibly forced. I didn't dislike it, but I'm not becoming a devotee by any means. (Of course, I'll have to read the next two...) And the Edward love? He's just not my type. Assuming I got over the vampire problem, he's way too protective with a few too many moments of irrational behavior. I'll take old-school Angel and Buffy any day over whiny Bella and crazy Edward.

Maggie O'Farrell's The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox was an enjoyable read, but not terribly memorable. The ending stayed with me but the characters have pretty much already escaped my (admittedly over-extended) mind. The story was intriguing and kept me reading, and I have no real complaints about the writing. It was pretty good. How's that for an underwhelming review?

Arty mystery

2008-09-03T15:29:00.002-05:00

I was working on a punny post title like "Mr. Chick-lit" -- combining chick lit plus mystery. But it didn't work.

I like Carol Goodman because her books are interesting enough to hold my attention, well-written enough to keep me from being annoyed, but light enough to read when I don't have a lot of brain left for concentration. The Drowning Tree fits that beautifully, combining (fake) art history with human drama plus a whodunnit. Nice, simple, satisfying. And readable even when my eyes close after about two pages a night.

Rich kids? Not that interesting

2008-08-31T08:50:00.002-05:00

Gossip of the Starlings sounds like it should be a good story -- boarding school, weird teenagers, pretty New England setting in the mid-80s. But it turns out privileged kids and their problems don't produce too many feelings of sympathy from me. So you did way too much cocaine and bad things happened? There's a shock. Nina de Gramont's writing didn't help much either, especially with the strange narrative shifts away from her first-person protagonist. I never felt like any of the characters had quite enough to them: Skye's character needed more development to explain why she did the things she did, and Catherine simply wasn't particularly engaging either.

Crowd follower

2008-08-12T16:48:00.005-05:00

That's me -- I succumbed to the hype and read Twilight. And I did enjoy the first in Stephenie Meyer's series and probably will read the rest, though I don't have a problem waiting for my number to come up on the library reserve list (I believe I'm 332 at the moment). I liked that it combines somewhat realistic teen angst with supernatural elements, and her take on vampires and how they live is interesting and quite original, as far as I can tell. I didn't love Bella's character -- she seemed a bit too unbelievable at times. Yes, she's meant to be an atypical teenager, but she's still a teenager. Still worth having read it, and I'm glad to know what all the fuss is about.

Also rereading my way through the Harry Potter series: I will probably do more of that as things get busier in the next couple of weeks. Those are good for holding my attention when nothing else will.

Post-vacation roundup

2008-08-04T08:29:00.006-05:00

How's that for an uninspired post title? I finished both of these last week and hadn't bothered to note anything about them until now.

Amy Bloom's Away is a book I had vaguely heard of but never looked into further until someone recommended it. I don't think I've ever disliked a book she gave me, and Away was no exception. Lillian's story draws the reader in and holds tight. I also loved the way Bloom finished the stories of the peripheral characters, even after they had drifted from Lillian's main story.

Girls in Trucks, on the other hand, was one of those books I finished only because it was a very quick read and I didn't have anything better immediately at hand. Katie Crouch's novel really ought to have been presented as connected short stories (in which case I would have avoided it, but at least I wouldn't have been expecting an actual novel). The episodes were just too disjointed, jumping back and forth in time and changing narrative techniques as well. It was readable, but not great.

Vacation roundup

2008-07-30T16:32:00.011-05:00

A much busier vacation than usual, which meant less time for sitting and reading. Still a respectable book count, though:

1. Loving Frank by Nancy Horan. I expected to like this much more than I did. It wasn't bad, but after all the fabulous critical reviews, I thought there would be more to it. It was quite plot driven, without a lot of depth to the characters, and it often felt like she wasn't sure whether she was writing a novel or nonfiction -- it really would have been more effective had she been able to choose one or the other.

2. High Fidelity by Nick Hornby. Yet another where my expectations were a bit too high. I really like most of Hornby's fiction, but this one felt a little slow to me. I might have liked it better if I had read it closer to when it was originally published.

3. Revolutionary Road by Richard Yates. Best of the bunch. Yates examines the lives of a young, suburban married couple who realize their lives aren't as extraordinary as they had planned. All of the characters here, even minor ones, were so clearly developed and heartbreakingly real There's a movie version coming out in December, I've learned (which explains why this was on display at the library), with Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio as the main characters. I think Kate Winslet is just right for the part, but I'm not as sure about DiCaprio. The stills on imdb.com look good so far, though.

4. The Body in the Library by Agatha Christie. It's not vacation without an Agatha Christie in the mix. This wasn't one of the best, but still satisfying. (As usual, I can't find an cover image of the actual copy I read -- her books have had way too many covers! Perhaps I'll start taking my own pictures eventually.)

5. What I Was by Meg Rosoff. The best part about this book? It only took me an afternoon to read it. Dull, anticlimactic, just bleh.

6. The Summer of Naked Swim Parties by Jessica Anya Blau. A 1970s coming-of-age story, but it lacked any real insight into the main character. Cute, but not much more to it than that.

Racing pace

2008-07-17T08:07:00.005-05:00

I had to rush to finish this one, as it was due yesterday with no option to renew. We leave for vacation today, and I didn't really want 10+ days worth of fines. But I managed it without too much trouble -- I Capture the Castle is a relatively quick read. Cassandra, the likable and realistic narrator of Dodie Smith's novel, tells of her quirky family's troubles and successes in the 1930s English countryside. The descriptions of their home and its surroundings are gorgeous, and the plot moves swiftly but unhurriedly. I had seen the recent movie first, and though I didn't remember it clearly, I think it stayed fairly close to the book. (And as always, the book is most definitely better.) An excellent pre-vacation summer read.

(I confess this picture isn't actually the cover image from the version I read, but it's so much prettier. Movie tie-in covers aren't any fun.)

Literary meatloaf

2008-07-16T08:21:00.008-05:00

I enjoy meatloaf -- flavorful, infinitely variable yet predictable, good as leftovers, filling, warming... What's not to like? I wouldn't want it every day, but it still makes for a good meal. The appropriately titled Comfort Food is much like meatloaf. Kate Jacobs' novel is a light and funny look at Gus, the middle-aged host of a well-known tv cooking show, and her flock of family, friends, and competitors. The book is rather predictable, but the characters are endearing (save Carmen, who I never quite cared about, and Sabrina, whose motivations never really made sense) and draw the reader into their stories. It's a tasty, quick, unchallenging read -- chick-lit with the twist of a slightly older than usual heroine, but otherwise your average take on the genre.

ETA: ~~Blogger seems to be having difficulty with pictures. Will get that fixed soon, I hope.~~ Pictures are working -- yay!

Happy to be ... where?

2008-07-14T20:34:00.005-05:00

It's a sociological journey of sorts in Eric Weiner's The Geography of Bliss. On a quest to figure out what makes some places happy and others not so, he travels to some of the countries with the statistically happiest people (with one stopover in one of the most miserable places as well). I enjoyed Weiner's style -- I've seen him compared to Bill Bryson, which I don't think is quite right, though there are some similarities. I really liked all of the information on the science of happiness, which is quite a fascinating field. At points, the book felt a bit slow and redundant; certainly all the places were different, but some dragged a bit. Still quite a fun and interesting read -- Weiner nicely blends his own observations with research and facts about each place, making it both informative and introspective.

Challenge wrap-up

2008-07-09T08:15:00.009-05:00

Officially, I've completed The Pub (2008) Challenge, since I've read 12 18 toward the minimum of 8 books published this year. There's still time to sign up, if you're interested -- it's been good to push myself to find and finish more newer books. I'll keep adding to the list as the year until the challenge ends, but so far I've read:

1. The Soul Thief by Charles Baxter
2. The Girl Who Stopped Swimming by Joshilyn Jackson
3. The Senator's Wife by Sue Miller
4. Change of Heart by Jodi Picoult
5. The Monsters of Templeton by Lauren Groff
6. The Ten-Year Nap by Meg Wolitzer
7. The Lady Elizabeth by Alison Weir
8. The Invention of Everything Else by Samantha Hunt
9. The English American by Alison Larkin
10. The Heroines by Eileen Favorite
11. Belong to Me by Marisa de los Santos
12. The Story of Forgetting by Stefan Merrill Block
13. The Geography of Bliss by Eric Weiner
14. Comfort Food by Kate Jacobs
15. The Summer of Naked Swim Parties by Jessica Anya Blau
16. Girls in Trucks by Katie Crouch
17. Gossip of the Starlings by Nina de Gramont
18. How Far is the Ocean from Here by Amy Shearn

So far, The Story of Forgetting and The Monsters of Templeton have been the two I absolutely loved -- I'd highly recommend both of them. How Far is the Ocean from Here is another I'd recommend -- not as highly as the other two, but still very good.

Greater than the sum

2008-07-09T08:06:00.004-05:00

Weirdly, I didn't like this book all that much, but it made me want to read more of Kate Christensen's writing. In The Great Man, she looks at the women who surrounded and supported a famous New York artist, who (five years after his death) has two biographers trying to analyze his life and find his secrets. The meetings with the writers allow the women (the artist's wife, mistress, and sister) to explore their own feelings about the man. The characters and story were interesting, but it wasn't the sort of book that made me want to keep reading it. Christensen's writing style is rather nice, though, and the characters were certainly vivid and well-developed, if a bit stereotypical at times.

Roses in December

2008-07-08T16:02:00.006-05:00

It's hard to find words for why I loved this book so much and for a way to describe it without ruining it. The Story of Forgetting, by Stefan Merrill Block, alternates between two narrators: one an old man looking back on his life, the other a teenage boy trying to figure out his. Block's writing exquisitely weaves the two stories together, as well as a third tale of an imaginary world called Isidora. There are moments where you simply have to pause and notice how beautiful the words are, not to mention the story itself. This book deserves every bit of praise that has been heaped upon it.

The bonds that tie

2008-07-03T08:28:00.004-05:00

Belong to Me felt very chick-lit at the beginning, but that perception faded as quickly as it came. While I suppose it qualifies as "women's fiction" (what with having female protagonists, the horror), it's not fluff. Marisa de los Santos explores suburbia and its dwellers without reducing them to stereotypes. At first, I thought there was no way the character of Piper could ever be redeemed and become even remotely human -- she's so unpleasant that you think she can't possibly exist, until you realize you know someone just like her. But the author rather skillfully allows her to grow, without changing what makes her interesting. I wasn't sure I liked where the ending was going when I got to the last third, but I realize in retrospect it couldn't have possibly gone anywhere else -- I don't think it's giving anything away to say that it fit perfectly, without being remotely predictable. Belong to Me examines the way our lives come together in unexpected ways, and how deeply one tiny moment can force us to be intertwined.

California dreaming

2008-06-30T10:37:00.004-05:00

I learned after I finished The Ruins of California that it actually started out as a memoir, and then Martha Sherrill discovered some secret she could neither print nor leave out. I'm not sure whether I would have read it differently if I had known there was some autobiography to the novel -- I suspected as much anyway, when I read that both the author and her protagonist were raised in Los Angeles. Inez, the narrator and main character, tells us about her life split between her mother, a former flamenco dancer, and her bachelor father, with his revolving door of girlfriends and man-on-the-town lifestyle. I found it a little slow going at the very beginning but soon became completely absorbed in Inez's coming of age. For most of the book's 10-year span, she straddles a fascinating border of exposure to the free-living California of the '70s and her own innocence, which I suppose is common to any teenager in any time or place. Sherrill's novel is fast-paced enough to hold the reader's interest while being entirely character driven; the story really is simply Inez's development from child to young adult, though the culture of California at the time is captured here as well.

Strange perspectives

2008-06-27T09:48:00.003-05:00

Two of-an-evening books, thanks to stormy evenings that kept us inside. The Heroines, by Eileen Favorite, has a fantastic premise: a young mother and her daughter run a bed and breakfast that is visited by heroines from classic literature -- Ophelia, Catherine Earnshaw, Hester Prynne, and more. That aspect of the book was very fun, but the plot itself drifted too much from that premise, with the daughter ending up in a mental ward for a large chunk of the book, a section I did not enjoy at all. That section felt forced, as if the author wanted too much reality infused into a novel that was so well grounded in fantasy. The rest of the book, while it had its moments, wasn't quite enough to make up for that.

Vendela Vida's first novel, And Now You Can Go, also has an intriguing premise. A man holds a young woman at gunpoint in New York's Riverside Park, only to disappear and leave her to deal with the shock. I really enjoy Vida's writing style, with short, quick-changing scenes that somehow flow seamlessly together. The story, however, lost me a bit -- I just wasn't quite sure what it was supposed to mean, or if it simply was what it was. Her second novel, Let the Northern Lights Erase Your Name, was a much better story and used her writing style to better effect.

The quick and the mysterious

2008-06-24T18:58:00.003-05:00

It's a mystery in which sheep are the detectives. It's got to be good. Indeed, Three Bags Full lives up to its whimsical promise, without every being silly. Leonie Swann's novel is plenty amusing (I even laughed out loud twice), but she's also quite serious and respectful toward her sheepy characters. And characters they are -- each with a distinct personalities that I can actually imagine sheep having. I highly recommend this one, especially if you've ever enjoyed an Agatha Christie mystery.

Alison Larkin's The English American is quite a bit sillier, but without any sheep. It's a very quick read and probably fits the chick lit category. This is an enjoyable book, but it doesn't have a lot of depth to it -- quite predictable, with rather stereotypical characters. Certainly not an unpleasant way to pass an afternoon, but nothing exceptional.

Of dreams and things

2008-06-20T16:06:00.004-05:00

The Invention of Everything Else is one of those books that I ought to have enjoyed more than I did. Samantha Hunt's dreamlike writing is beautiful, her characters well drawn, and her plot intriguing, but it just lost me somewhere toward the end. I loved Louisa and her part of the story, but Tesla's memories were touched just a bit too much with that essential fogginess of memory. The way Hunt captured memory and its flaws is one of the things most enjoyable and most frustrating about the book -- I wanted more understanding, yet clearly it was meant to be vague. Really, I would certainly recommend this book, even though it didn't work for me. Maybe more of a wintertime read?

Floating among generations

2008-06-16T07:04:00.004-05:00

I picked this slim paperback up entirely because of the poetic title and exceptionally lovely cover. Apparently, A Yellow Raft in Blue Water is considered a classic, to the point that it has its own SparkNotes. But I went into Michael Dorris' novel with no knowledge or expectation, and I was most pleasantly surprised. The story is told in turn by three generations of women, beginning with the youngest, who also has the largest part of the story. The book braids their experiences as Native Americans and more simply as people trying to find a place in the world when so much is working against them. I loved how the stories came together, revealing different pieces as each character told her part. An entirely memorable book -- thank goodness for judging by cover!

High society

2008-06-12T09:09:00.005-05:00

It's a rare book that makes me want to sit still and keep reading and at the same time not want to finish. The Lost Art of Keeping Secrets so thoroughly engulfed me in its world that I hated to let it go. To me, Eva Rice's novel feels like what would have happened if Jane Austen had been writing about 1950s England -- it's replete with society parties, courtship, beautiful country homes, and young ladies negotiating the realms of propriety. Jane Austen, of course, never imagined American socialites or the likes of Elvis Presley, but this is what might have happened if she had. The Lost Art was such a fun book, without ever feeling silly or brain-candy-esque -- Penelope and her cohorts are much to smart for that.

In short

2008-06-10T09:34:00.007-05:00

I've finished two books I really enjoyed, and yet I have very little to say about either. I think it's the heat -- I'd rather sit still and read than sit at the computer and type. But here goes...

The Girl With No Shadow was published originally as The Lollipop Shoes, and I don't actually think either title works all that well. But Joanne Harris' continuation of the story from Chocolat does work very well. In this novel, she gives voices to three characters who alternate telling the story. It's a classic battle of good and evil, but with magical and fairy tale elements added in -- and, of course, plenty of chocolate.

In The Lady Elizabeth, Alison Weir takes her impressive historical knowledge and research to breathe life into Elizabeth I's coming of age. The story takes Elizabeth from the death of her mother to her becoming queen. It relies on the facts, as Weir did in Innocent Traitor, but it also adds plenty of fictional elements and intrigue. Weir's historical fiction feels so much more intelligent than many of the others out there, thanks to her background as a historian.

There in the midst of it so alive and alone / words support like bone

2008-06-02T07:48:00.007-05:00

It's obvious that Mercy is one of Jodi Picoult's earlier novels. It doesn't have her characteristic twist, and the characters aren't quite as developed as they are in her later works. But Mercy does fit her formula well: timely, complicated issues; alternating perspectives; a trial at the end to wind things up. As I've said before, Picoult is the comfort food of books -- just what you need every once in a while.

I don't normally comment on books I didn't finish, but since I made it through a good 300 pages of Michael Gruber's The Book of Air and Shadows, I thought it would be fair to say why I gave it up. First, it felt to me like Gruber was working way too hard to write something physically heavy: Too many digressions, most of which were relevant but also could have been pared down considerably, and much too much of the "primary source" material, which was unbearable to read. For an authentic primary source, I'll fight my way through the strange spellings and whatnot, but for fiction? And especially for a fictional primary source that, as part of the plot, already had to be transcribed once from an early style of writing, just transfer it to modern English already. The story itself was interesting but a little too much in line with The DaVinci Code and the millions of others like it -- it's been done.

Years go by

2008-05-23T07:36:00.006-05:00

In Year of Wonders, Geraldine Brooks traces a year in the life of a town that quarantines itself in the hopes of keeping the Bubonic Plague from spreading any further. The novel focuses on Anna, the narrator, and her relationship with the town's rector and his wife. The plot and the premise were quite fascinating, but the writing occasionally seemed overwritten -- a bit too much detail here and there, and I'm generally rather fond of detail. The book was interesting and readable, but not memorable for me (which, in fact, is one of the reasons I started this blog -- too many enjoyable but not-standout books out there, and I wouldn't remember which ones I had read).

ETA: I just read an interesting review of this book on Goodreads, and while I don't agree with the reviewer's optimistic view of suffering, I do agree that the "wonder" in the title was missing from the book. However, if Wikipedia can be trusted, the title's origins meant to refer to the fact that the year wasn't as bad as it could have been. Still, in that case, things in the book pretty much were as bad as they could be.

Finally!

2008-05-15T08:22:00.003-05:00

After an annoyingly long series of abandoned books, I finally managed to get through a couple of quick and enjoyable reads. Most recent was Jacqueline Sheehan's Lost and Found, which I had been eyeing on my mother's bookshelf for a while primarily because of the very cute dog on the cover. It's hard to go wrong with cute dogs. I think this qualifies as chick lit, and certainly it was quite predictable, but it was a sweet book and hey, a dog is a major character. Really, hard to go wrong.

Before that I breezed through The Kindness of Strangers, by Katrina Kittle, though it's not a breezy book by any stretch of the imagination. The subject matter was quite disturbing -- a woman finds out her best friends have been running a pornography ring with their children as the focus. Kittle handles it well, though, much in the style Jodi Picoult. Kittle uses similar shifts in characters' perspectives to narrate the story, which makes it move at a good pace. A good read, but one I was glad didn't stick in my memory for very long.

First challenge completed!

2008-05-02T08:05:00.003-05:00

I've finished my first challenge: the Eponymous Challenge, hosted by Between the Covers. My books were:
1. The Girl Who Kept Swimming, by Joshilyn Jackson
2. The Senator's Wife, by Sue Miller
3. Mister Pip, by Lloyd Jones (my unannounced alternate)
4. Mary Modern, by Camille DeAngelis

Sadly, I didn't love any of these books, but I definitely enjoyed playing in the challenge. So a good experience overall. And yay for completion!

Modern love

2008-05-02T07:55:00.007-05:00

Camille DeAngelis is an ambitious woman to tackle cloning in a realistic fiction setting. I found Mary Modern fascinating and strange (though, as far as cloning fiction goes, I preferred Kazuo Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go). The characters in DeAngelis' book were a little too unsympathetic for me -- I didn't really feel sorry for any of them except Mary, and I thought Gray was way too much of a doormat. The political aspect seemed not quite developed enough; there were random snippets from a book that strongly criticized various aspects of the 2000s, and while I don't disagree, it seemed odd to have that disconnected soapbox in there. The story itself, however, and the writing, were entirely compelling and readable; the book is well-paced and the plot suspenseful in the right places. I'm glad the author is putting these ethical and political issues out there for readers to ponder and analyze, but I wish she had given them more context in the fiction.

Month of neglect

2008-04-21T07:52:00.006-05:00

At least I didn't entirely quit reading; I just ignored my poor little blog for a few weeks. Two books to catch up on since last I stumbled over here: First was Good Omens, by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett. While I definitely enjoyed the book, I think I would have liked it better if I had read it at a more relaxing time. As they say (Doris Lessing said it, in fact), each book has its time for each person. It's hard to go wrong with Neil Gaiman, though, and I think I'll check out more of Pratchett's work as well.

Meg Wolitzer's newest book, The Ten-Year Nap, was a very interesting read. It looks at the lives of four women who left their careers to raise their children. Ten years later, their children don't need them quite as much, and they're left to question the meaning of their lives. All four were very different, and I liked the way Wolitzer examined their day-to-day experiences and feelings without being judgmental (though the women certainly judged themselves).

Island turmoil

2008-04-04T07:53:00.004-05:00

I didn't really like this book, but it's hard for me to say exactly why. Mister Pip, by Lloyd Jones, is certainly well written, with interesting characters, but the story just dragged for me. It seemed perhaps like there was too much happening -- Jones wanted to get in the political context of the island, but without ever thoroughly explaining it; he wanted to capture the mother-daughter struggles, but those never seemed fully real; and he wanted the quirky Mr. Watts to have his background and reality, but that got a bit lost in everything else. Intermixed with all this is the children learning Great Expectations from Mr. Watts, which were the most engaging parts of the book. I wanted more of that and less of so much else.

I'm including this for the Eponymous Challenge -- though he starts as a character in the book-within-the-book, Pip does actually become a character in a variety of ways.

Ghosts and monsters

2008-03-25T14:41:00.004-05:00

In Lauren Groff's The Monsters of Templeton, the main character, Willie Upton, sets herself on a quest through her family's history, which is also her small town's history. The book mingles Willie's story of coming home to her small town with different pieces of (fictionalized) historical evidence -- letters, first-person narratives, old books. At the same time, the town is dealing with the surprising sense of loss after its lake's monster dies.

Sounds complicated? It all works amazingly well, thanks to Groff's writing. I loved Willie Upton, despite finding her entirely unsympathetic at points, and I'm a sucker for quirky small town folks (Gilmore Girls or Haven Kimmel, anyone?). But Groff's story is never predictable or expected -- the characters and their histories are much too real and developed for that. For various reasons, it took me a while to read this book, but I found myself thinking of the characters often when I wasn't reading it. I almost wish there was a sequel -- I'd love to see where their lives go next.

Matters of the heart

2008-03-12T07:51:00.005-05:00

Change of Heart is typical Jodi Picoult -- the book equivalent of comfort food. She uses her usual shifts between characters, tackles timely moral issues, and throws in a courtroom and a twist toward the end. The plot itself is complicated enough -- a death-row inmate wants to donate his heart to the girl whose father and sister he killed. But then Picoult brings in an even more complicated religious element that, in my opinion, was a little too much. Shay didn't need to be a Jesus figure for me to consider his rights -- his humanity was enough, especially the way the case was presented. It just seemed like overkill, which made the book not as strong as some of Picoult's others. I also wanted more from the mother, June -- her character was rarely present and seemed not as well drawn as others. At some points in the book, her absence worked well, but at others I needed to hear more from her. And the title is just a little too punny, but that's typical Picoult too, so I'll let it slide. Let's call Change of Heart meatloaf that's a tiny bit too dry -- still comforting, still awfully tasty, but not quite perfect.

What's love got to do with it?

2008-03-10T07:47:00.003-05:00

In The Senator's Wife, Sue Miller intertwines the story of recently married and newly pregnant Meri with that of her next-door neighbor (and the title character) Delia. The novel moves between the two women, with a heavier focus on Delia, whose complicated relationship with her womanizing husband fascinates both Meri and the reader. In fact, despite disbelief from so many of the characters, Delia's love and forgiveness of Tom was much more believable and understandable than Meri and Nathan's relationship. They seemed quite mismatched, and I found myself disliking Meri in many places, especially in contrast to Delia -- the younger woman was just a little too selfish and too whiny, though I understand that worked beautifully against Delia's elegant generosity and contained emotions. The book was compelling and well-paced, but not anything to rave about.

The girl who kept reading

2008-03-04T17:40:00.003-05:00

Both of Joshilyn Jackson's books that I've read have had the same effect on me: I thoroughly enjoy them while I'm reading them, but they don't stick with me at all once I'm done. (As proof, I always have trouble remembering the first of her books I read, even when I have the titles in front of me. It was Gods in Alabama.) The Girl Who Stopped Swimming is a fast-paced, engrossing novel, and I think it does have more depth than some plot-oriented books. There's a mystery element to it that really digs at the idea of who we all are on the inside, and the unraveling of that mystery was unexpected and thought-provoking. While I didn't particularly like the characters, I found them generally believable and entirely human -- flawed, interesting, occasionally really strange. My only real complaints are Thalia's name (too obvious -- the parents just happened to choose that name for the daughter who happened to be drawn to the theater?) and the bit of jacket copy that refers to a "literal" family skeleton. Let's look up words before tossing them around, shall we?

Revisiting Heaven

2008-03-01T09:12:00.004-05:00

Pigs in Heaven is Barbara Kingsolver's sequel to The Bean Trees, which is my favorite of her books and possibly my favorite book ever. In The Bean Trees, we meet the fabulous characters of Taylor and Turtle Greer, along with a host of other quirky yet wholly real people. Pigs in Heaven continues the stories of many of those people and adds in a few more, this time giving more attention to Taylor's mother, Alice. Kingsolver's writing always works to promote social justice and environmental awareness, and some readers perceive this as preachy. While I wouldn't call it preachy, Pigs in Heaven does get a bit too dragged down into teaching us what is right, and at the same time it wraps things up just a little too neatly -- that said, the ending still made me cry. When I read it the first time, I loved this book, and thought it's not as strong as some of her other fiction, it remains enjoyable and satisfying.

Deliciously old fashioned

2008-02-27T08:12:00.002-05:00

In the author blurbs on the back of Matrimony, Brian Morton, whose fiction I've enjoyed in the past, is quoted as saying: "Joshua Henkin's Matrimony is a deliciously old-fashioned novel. With no gimmicks, no tricks, Henkin gives us a cast of complex, flawed, utterly real characters, exploring their inner lives with an astonishing sureness of touch." I think this is a beautifully stated summation of the novel, which is filled with the quiet lyricism of everyday life. The story traces a couple's life beginning with their meeting in college, while also incorporating such challenges to friendships as time, class, and just plain life. I read several reviews complaining that the novel was too quiet, too focused on inner lives, but this (along with Henkin's elegant writing style) is what I found most appealing about it.

Woof.

2008-02-22T19:52:00.006-05:00

I've never read Dean Koontz before, but I wanted to read The Darkest Evening of the Year when I heard the main character worked in dog rescue. Unfortunately, the book annoyed me from the very first overwritten sentence: "Behind the wheel of the Ford Expedition, Amy Redwing drove as if she were immortal and therefore safe at any speed." (Yes, I would have figured out she was speeding if you'd quit before the conjunction. Do Koontz's readers really require things to be spelled out so much?) I continued with the book -- despite its not-so-wonderful writing, misused semicolons, and bizarrely short paragraphs -- because of the dogs, and I really only enjoyed the parts with the dogs. Those sections were lovely and descriptive, with excellent detail of the dogs' behavior (indeed, the dogs were better characterized than many of the humans). The rest of the book I pretty much skimmed, and I still got the whole story, which left me entirely underwhelmed.

I do highly commend Koontz for all of the information in the book about dog rescue and puppy mills. He clearly loves dogs and is doing a great service to the rescue world by getting the message out this way. It's not at all preachy, but he makes sure his readers see how important it is to choose rescue and shelter dogs, or at least to go with reputable breeders rather than the backyard breeders or puppy-mill sellers. For that alone, I wish great success for this book.

Brighten my northern skies

2008-02-21T16:46:00.003-05:00

I didn't really know anything about Vendela Vida's newest novel before I picked it up. I was wandering around the bookstore (I'm a library girl, so this is not a usual pastime for me), looking for another paperback with which to travel, and the pretty blue and white cover caught my eye. (The sale price helped too.) Let the Northern Lights Erase Your Name, in addition to having a lovely and fitting title, was an excellent purchase. The story is told in very short chapters, which made me think of those indie movies where the scenes fade to black frequently and pick up a few seconds later. It gave the book a quietness that melded nicely with the snow-covered Lapland setting. I enjoyed the plot, and Clarissa's story definitely kept me reading, but the writing style was what most appealed to me about this book.

Stolen sense of comprehension

2008-02-19T20:38:00.003-05:00

I finished The Soul Thief on an airplane, and after I read the last page, I closed the book, handed it to my husband, and said, "Here, read this and explain it to me." That's not to say I didn't enjoy reading the book, but Charles Baxter's novel left me more than a little bewildered. The first half of the book introduces a small contingency of grad students, including Jerome Coolberg, who enters as a strange cross between friend and nemesis to the main character, Nathaniel. I never quite grasped their relationship, though I think perhaps that was the point. The second half of the book takes place much later, with Coolberg re-entering Nathaniel's life. I appreciated Baxter's writing style -- observational and lyrical -- but the plot? To put it simply, I just didn't get it.

Bookworms carnival

2008-02-13T10:26:00.007-05:00

I participated in my first Bookworms Carnival, hosted by the very witty Renay. The theme was The Geography of Make-Believe: a fantastic voyage through the magical, mythical and magical, and the results are fabulous. She even created a map -- ever so appropriate for the genre! What an amazing host and such creativity in the presentation. I'm quite thrilled to be included.

The next Bookworms Carnival has the theme of Women in Literature, and it's hosted by The Armenian Odar. Entries are due by March 14th and should be sent to armenianodar at yahoo.com.

For the record, I'm actually a she. Of course, that's a logical confusion when one steals and posts with the identity of one's dog. The real Charlie is indeed a he -- and a very cute one, even in the mist:

Things remembered

2008-02-08T08:28:00.000-05:00

As an adventure/fantasy/fairy tale, The Book of Lost Things does its job well. John Connolly tells the story of David, who, after the death of his mother, finds himself lost both figuratively and literally. His quest takes him through the darkest of fairy tale worlds, where he battles challenge after challenge (finding help along the way, in typical epic form). What perplexed me about this book was the setting. David's real life is set in England during World War II, which seemed like it ought to have an allegorical purpose. Perhaps I missed it, but without a more distinctive parallel, the setting struck me as a little too arbitrary. Indeed, it had usefulness to the plot, but that plot point could have been handled just as smoothly in another setting. I also found the ending unsatisfying -- without giving anything away, the end was too commonplace for such a fantastical story. If you're willing to overlook the problems in reality, David's travels through the stories and fairy tales are captivating enough to make this a worthwhile read.

Parting is such sweet sorrow

2008-02-03T12:25:00.000-05:00

Ah, Harry Potter. In truth, I love the series as it is too much to mourn its ending. Sure, there are flaws, but nothing that popular can please all its fans. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows is a perfect conclusion, and I appreciated it more the second time through. At some point this year, I want to reread the whole series in order, just because I can. If you've not read the books (seriously, how would that be possible?), pretend you don't know all the hype and give them a chance.

Challenging

2008-02-03T12:15:00.001-05:00

I'm signing up for another challenge -- we'll see how it goes. I tend to be wary of signing myself up because I dislike scheduling my reading. I like to just pick up a few books and read the one that catches my fancy. However, all of these are books I was planning to read anyway, so I think I can mange it. The Eponymous Challenge runs from the beginning of March to the end of May, and it asks participants to read four books whose titles are the name of one or more of the characters (e.g. Evelina, Oscar and Lucinda) or a description of one or more of the characters (e.g. The Merchant of Venice, Sylvia’s Lovers). Check out Between the Covers to sign up.

My list:
1. Kyra, by Carol Gilligan
2. Lady Macbeth, by Susan Fraser King
3. The Senator's Wife, by Sue Miller
4. The Girl Who Stopped Swimming, by Joshilyn Jackson

I think, to cover my bases, I'll make rereading the Harry Potter series my alternate choices. (That might be cheating just a little.) Most of these will also qualify for The Pub challenge, since overlaps are allowed.

ETA 2/28/08: My first two choices aren't turning out to be as appealing to me as I had hoped, so I'm adding two more alternates: Mary Modern by Camille DeAngelis and I, Mona Lisa by Jeanne Kalogridis.

Abandonment

2008-02-02T10:03:00.000-05:00

My first abandoned book of 2008: An Arsonist's Guide to Writers' Homes in New England. I gave Brock Clarke's novel 116 pages, and my bookmark is still waiting if I decide to go back. The writing style is strange, though appropriate for the socially inept narrator. At first I enjoyed the quirky narrator, and I realize the book's not meant to be realistic, but the strangeness became too much -- too overdone and forced.

A world of plenty

2008-01-30T20:44:00.000-05:00

At 539 pages, Abundance weighs in as my longest book of the year so far. It was actually a fairly quick read, though, relatively speaking. It reads almost like a diary of Marie Antoinette's life as Dauphine and then Queen of France. I don't think it's the fault of Sena Jeter Naslund's writing, but Marie Antoinette just isn't that interesting. She's rather spoiled, good-hearted but selfish, completely unaware of the world around her -- yes, we get the picture. It's difficult to make a compelling character out of someone who comes across as utterly uncomplicated. Regardless, the book was interesting enough to finish, and I'm planning to read Naslund's Ahab's Wife in the near future, which I've heard has a much stronger and more interesting main character.

Revenge of the parenthetical title

2008-01-27T12:10:00.000-05:00

I loved Haven Kimmel's two other novels so much that I had high (perhaps too high) expectations for Something Rising (Light and Swift). I was willing to overlook the weirdness of parentheses in the title (which has annoyed me in the past), but I just didn't love this story. While Cassie is an interesting and well-written character, I couldn't like her or relate to her. The plot felt choppy in too many places -- some of the skips in time made sense, but others made the story too jumpy. Surprisingly (to me, anyway), my favorite parts were the descriptions of the games of pool, something I generally have zero interest in. And the book did end very well. Had I read this one first, I might have enjoyed it more, but up against The Solace of Leaving Early and The Used World, Something Rising couldn't quite compete.

In the middle

2008-01-21T13:40:00.000-05:00

I absolutely loved Ursula Hegi's Stones from the River, but her latest book, The Worst Thing I've Done, was disappointing. It lacked the humanity of Stones and replaced it instead with unlikeable characters. The story alternates viewpoints among five characters, three of whom had been tangled in a triangle of friendship and jealousy since childhood. The three seem to feed off of and enable the worst qualities of the others' personalities, which made them more annoying than interesting. Hegi also intertwined political rantings with the plot, and while I'm in agreement with her views, they didn't seem to have much relevance to the book. I did like the descriptions of Annie's art -- she would work through her emotions and let the creation of the collages bring out buried memories and feelings -- but those weren't quite enough to redeem an otherwise dull narrative.

In dreams begin responsibilities

2008-01-19T16:20:00.000-05:00

The Sweet Far Thing is the final book in Libba Bray's trilogy, following A Great and Terrible Beauty and Rebel Angels. Bray brings the story to a satisfying conclusion, with plenty of the elements that made the first two books so enjoyable. As in the first two, Bray balances fast-paced adventure with Gothic-inspired teenage drama, with the characters remaining intrinsically real while they journey into fantastic lands and situations. Bray also handles all of her details beautifully -- she has an excellent handle on the rule of Chekhov's gun. The end seemed a little drawn out to me; the last few chapters felt like they were wrapping up loose ends that had already been wrapped. But throughout, the reader is thoroughly drawn in to Gemma's unfolding battle for the realms and for herself.

Mixed grill

2008-01-16T20:37:00.000-05:00

I didn't dislike Last Night at the Lobster, but I was expecting more. Stewart O'Nan's little novel (only 160 pages) is almost too realistic. The main character is the manager at a Red Lobster that corporate is closing after this snowy Saturday night. He's feeling guilty and nostalgic and pragmatic all at once. I felt a weird combination of sympathy for and boredom with the characters' lives -- similar maybe to seeing a minor car accident on my way to work. Unfortunate, and I'm glad it's not me. I wanted to care more, but that empathy just wasn't there.

"It was just your life. You were just living your life."

2008-01-15T17:22:00.000-05:00

Once again, upon finishing a Haven Kimmel book, I want nothing more than to flip to the front and start reading it over again. Her characters are just amazing -- so beautifully written, complicated, fully realized -- even down to minor passersby. The plot in The Solace of Leaving Early is simpler than that of The Used World, and while I predicted the ending early on, what happens next isn't what drives her writing. She's really an artist of words and particularly of people. I really fell in love with both Langston and Amos (whom I had already enjoyed in The Used World), despite all of their quirks and failings. I think I have a new addition to my list of favorite writers.

A very slow year

2008-01-10T19:18:00.000-05:00

The Year of Fog started off well -- heavily plot driven and fast paced, so that I breezed through the first half in one sitting. After that, Michelle Richmond's narrative drifted into a mediocre and occasionally tedious middle, with a slight recovery toward the (entirely too far-fetched) end. Abby's wallowing, however justified, was just not enjoyable reading; the novel needed more of the energy of the beginning, even if the story itself was focused on an emotionally draining search. I found Jake's character to be rather weakly drawn, and most of the other characters seemed repetitive and unnecessary, especially as more and more incidental players were introduced. Overall, it left me bored.

Connected

2008-01-09T12:07:00.000-05:00

I put Prodigal Summer on my to-be-reread list after reading somewhere (maybe on her website?) that this was Barbara Kingsolver's favorite of her books. I had read it shortly after it was first published, but I didn't remember it as being one of my favorites. So I wanted to go back and see what made her so proud of it. As a piece of literature, the book is rather lovely -- beautifully intertwining stories, plenty of symbolic elements, and a nice selection of observations on nature and human nature. I enjoyed the plot, though I still wouldn't call it my favorite of hers. I laughed out at several points, thanks to my favorite character, Garnett Walker (though I liked Lusa's storyline better), and other moments were heart-wrenchingly sad. So not yet a favorite, but I did gain a new appreciation of the novel's structure and complexity.

Dysfunction before it was cool

2008-01-06T20:06:00.001-05:00

I adored The Hours and respected A Home at the End of the World (beautifully written, but the story was so sad), so I was pleased to wander past Michael Cunningham's second novel, Flesh and Blood, in the library one day. It was originally published in 1995, which, if I recall correctly, was before dysfunctional family novels and memoirs were all over the place. Even today the plot still feels original -- the characters are too real to ever feel clichéd, which is impressive considering the size of the Stassos family. Regardless of the subject matter, Cunningham's characteristically exquisite writing makes this book well worth reading.

Finding home

2008-01-01T10:03:00.000-05:00

The jacket copy for Haven Kimmel's The Used World ends by saying that it's a book that "charts the many meanings of the place we call home." But for me, it is really more about the many meanings of love and friendship, which I suppose ends up in the same place. I loved Kimmel's characters -- perfectly real, flawed and complicated -- and the intertwining stories that slowly but surely revealed their connections. This is a book I wouldn't mind rereading, just to make sure I caught all of the links and to savor the writing.

One of my favorite characters had only a peripheral role, but he does have his own book: The Solace of Leaving Early. That's definitely going on the reading lists.

A challenge I can manage

2007-12-26T20:47:00.000-05:00

I see all these interesting reading challenges out there, but usually they're much too structured for me. I need to be able to choose a book based on whatever sounds good at the moment. But since The Pub, hosted by 1morechapter, has minimal rules and is focused only on choosing books published in 2008, I think I can manage it. Check it out here and join in. I'll post titles once I check out some "coming soon" lists for 2008. I especially love the rule that I can change my books!

Keeping all the lights on

2007-12-13T21:16:00.000-05:00

A word of advice: Don't finish this book when you're home alone at night. Justin Evans' A Good and Happy Child could safely be called a psychological thriller, though with a hefty dose of the supernatural thrown in. I can't decide which side of the story was scarier; both were tremendously unnerving. The novel is a page-turner in the best sense -- prose that draws the reader in quickly and holds that momentum until the very end. On his website, Evans says it took him six years to write the book; the writing definitely shows a meticulous attention to even the smallest details (a nice change from the sea of haphazardly edited books out there lately). That intensity adds up to an impressive and satisfyingly unsettling book.

And I'm still not willing to turn off the lights quite yet.

I love you, man!

2007-12-10T20:06:00.000-05:00

Yes, I'm going to gush about another Neil Gaiman book. Anansi Boys brings together the light entertaining qualities of Neverwhere and Stardust with the depth of American Gods. It is, in turn, hilarious, intellectual, thought-provoking, and heart-warming, while incorporating elements of mystery and romance. At times I knew where the plot was going; at others, I thought I knew what was coming, only to find I was totally wrong. I loved the character of Mr. Nancy -- I wished his role was bigger, though that would quite have changed the story.

I think Coraline is the only novel I have left before braving The Sandman books. (They're pictures, y'all! That's, like, weird and stuff.)

In brief

2007-12-05T18:41:00.000-05:00

I enjoyed The Namesake, yet I've been putting off posting this because I have so little to say about the book. Jhumpa Lahiri's writing style is solid: good storytelling, believable characters. I loved reading the details of Bengali traditions and other aspects of their culture that the Gangulis were able to incorporate into their American life. So much of the story felt unique to the immigrant experience in the U.S., yet the characters' problems were also wholly universal at their core. It's a good read. That's all I've got.

Wait, what did I miss?

2007-11-25T16:16:00.000-05:00

It won't give anything away to say that at the end of the book, one of the characters mentioned that the time she had spent with her siblings had an unfinished quality to it. That's pretty much how I felt about the whole of Letter from Point Clear, and apparently that fit Dennis McFarland's intentions. I enjoyed reading the book, but I kept waiting for something to happen -- for a real conflict to arise. There certainly were problems, some of which found resolution, but it felt like the book never found its reason for existing. Was the author commenting on religion? family dynamics? homosexuality? Or just a chance for some lovely writing and interesting characters to get together, without anything much actually occurring?

Acceptance is an important step

2007-11-20T17:46:00.001-05:00

I have no problem with chick lit and other various forms of brain candy. But a book should just accept that it is fluff and not try to pretend that it's highbrow. Ann Packer's Songs Without Words thinks it's a bigger, more literary book than it actually is. The story isn't bad, but the characters are overdone; ironic, since the characters periodically discuss how one ought not categorize people as "the smart one" or "the creative one." And yet the book's people so neatly fit into those generalizations: Troubled Teen, Soccer Mom, Artsy Friend with Issues. Songs Without Words: It's what happens when good fluff goes bad.

And by the way, it's not symbolism if you have to spell it out. It's just annoying.

Lost in America

2007-11-13T16:28:00.000-05:00

OK, I admit it. I've apparently developed a little crush on Neil Gaiman. But could his stuff be any more fabulous? After reading American Gods, I'm quite convinced that when he finished writing it, he had to have just sat back and thought, "Yes, I am that good." There's so much going on in this book, and it's quite different from his other books I've read so far -- it's darker, with considerably more depth. I can't imagine the research and energy that must have gone into this novel. I rarely take books to work, because I never have time to read there, but I kept sneaking chances to read more of American Gods. When I was finished, I was left thoroughly satisfied and yet wanting more. Go read it, if you haven't. Don't bother to find out what it's about first; just jump in. You'll find yourself immediately immersed.

Balancing the right

2007-10-29T20:01:00.000-05:00

The religious right, that is. Tom Perrotta's The Abstinence Teacher is a very interesting look at what happens when liberals clash with Christian conservatives, and also what happens when being "born again" doesn't quite stick. The character of Tim is an intriguing mix of pothead-meets-evangelist, and you can imagine how well that's going for him. I'm not sure whether Tim is meant to show that not all Christian conservatives are extremists or just that when normal people mix with extremists, it doesn't work so well. Ruth, on the other hand, is a standard liberal single mom, nothing so novel there. Her career is more interesting -- she was forced to switch her teaching from sex ed to an abstinence-only curriculum (the most useless coursework ever invented, but that's another rant).

I find I can read Perrotta's books very quickly, though they are far from mindless. There were so many characters in this one that I'm not totally sure they were all completely fleshed out. Ruth's daughters' actions, for example, seemed rather random -- the motivation was never totally clear. Nonetheless, the story is compelling while the writing remains intelligent.

Finally!

2007-10-22T19:34:00.000-05:00

Poor little neglected blog. Life goes crazy and the blog goes dormant. I finally, finally finished a book, though whether I have anything intelligent to say about it remains to be seen.

I love Ann Patchett. I've read all her books, so I was very excited to see that Run was being published this fall. And... I liked it. I'm not sure I loved it, though the presence of Patchett's writing style does lead me to believe I ought to have loved it. The whole story takes place over 24 hours, which I might not have noticed if I hadn't read it on the jacket flap. In truth, I probably noticed very little about the book and should just give up talking and reread it. Thanks to the hectic insanity of the past few weeks, I didn't absorb nearly enough of it.

The cover art was lovely, as is the British version (which seems to have considerably more to do with the plot than the U.S. cover).

These little furry folks, who we found in our backyard, are among the many things interfering with my reading time lately. While they certainly are the cutest of my distractions, they are also considerably higher maintenance than everything else that has been getting in the way. If you know anyone looking for a kitten, send them my way!

My first tag!

2007-10-04T18:45:00.000-05:00

This is indeed a departure from the read-a-book, write-about-a-book plan for this blog, but since I've never been tagged before, I'll play.

Four Jobs I Have Had in My Life
1. Bagel shop worker (all two weeks of it)
2. Church receptionist (another super-short stint, filling in for a friend)
3. Clothing salesgirl
4. Woodshop intern

Four Movies I Can Watch Over and Over
1. Notting Hill
2. Sense and Sensibility
3. The Princess Bride
4. Serendipity

Four TV Shows I Like to Watch
1. House
2. Gilmore Girls
3. Grey's Anatomy
4. Good Eats

Four Places I Have Vacationed
1. Reno
2. Aruba
3. Germany
4. North Dakota

Four of My Favorite Dishes
This is too hard, so I'm doing ingredients. It's my meme; I'll cheat if I want to!
1. Basil
2. Tomatoes
3. Bread
4. Chocolate

Four Websites I Visit Daily
1. Yahoo Mail
2. Gmail
3. Weather.com
4. Stuff on My Cat

Four Places I Would Rather Be
1. On a beach
2. In our new house (the one we haven't bought yet)
3. Greece
4. At the lake

Four Bloggers I Am Tagging
1. Elly Says Opa!
2. Joelen's Culinary Adventures
3. Suzy’s Not a Homemaker
4. Then There Was One

Real imagination

2007-10-03T14:34:00.000-05:00

I love the way Neil Gaiman combines reality and fantasy in Neverwhere (which is, by the way, such a lovely title) -- the combination of human truths and creative adventures is, well, fantastic. The unraveling of the plot came a little early, I thought, but there were still enough trials for the characters that it didn't feel anticlimactic. I loved the ending: satisfying without being completely predictable.

Underwhelmed

2007-09-23T11:21:00.000-05:00

I tried to love A Thousand Splendid Suns. Everyone else out there seems to adore Khaled Hosseini's work; I'm in the quiet minority of those distracted by the fact that the writing is just not that spectacular. The second half of the book is much better than the first; throughout the first two sections, I kept complaining that the setting seemed secondary. So many people rave that they learned so much about Afghanistan, yet in the first half of the book, the setting is unimportant. With a few changes in details, these women's stories, sadly, could be happening in so many places. By the third and fourth parts, though, Afghanistan and its myriad problems are central to the novel, and the novel itself was much more appealing to me. I love this quote from the New York Times review of the book: "Gradually, however, Mr. Hosseini’s instinctive storytelling skills take over, mowing down the reader’s objections through sheer momentum and will." Storytelling is definitely the strength here, and it is a good story; literature it is not.

I chose What the Dead Know because I wanted an simple, plot-driven mystery as a sort of palate-cleanser. Laura Lippman's book is definitely plot driven but hardly simple. The character list itself is immense, and while most characters are clearly drawn, few are likable and their sheer numbers are challenging (not to mention the character with more than one identity and name). I enjoyed watching the mystery unravel, but I thought the climax was, in fact, anticlimactic.

Part two

2007-09-17T19:07:00.000-05:00

I liked Libba Bray's Rebel Angels even better than the first book in the trilogy, which makes me really excited for number three to be released (this winter, I believe?). Gemma's character becomes more interesting as she grows older, and her friends' stories were developed much more fully in this one also. I adored the character of Simon Middleton -- totally realistic for the setting and for 2007, with a few minor changes. I kept thinking, I know that guy! I had a crush on that guy in high school!

Mysteries

2007-09-11T16:08:00.000-05:00

Two mysteries in a row, though of very different sorts. The Woods, by Harlan Coben, is more your Law-and-Order-style novel. Meant to be realistic, a bit of courtroom drama, a bit of romance, a fast-paced story, a large helping of lousy writing. I almost quit the book a few pages in when the author wouldn't settle on a verb tense, but I kept going and I did enjoy the story. There were a few moments I had to read aloud to the husband and rant over, but not too many.

Libba Bray's A Great and Terrible Beauty is the first in what I believe is to be a trilogy. Gemma finds herself at a seemingly proper English boarding school, with all the snobby, pampered rich girls ready and waiting. However, she quickly discovers not only her own magical powers but also a tremendous puzzle in the shadows (which isn't solved by the end of the book, though I briefly thought it was when I read too quickly). The portrayal of teenage girls is wonderfully realistic, and the fantasy aspect fits in quite nicely. It's a good fix for my post-Potter world.

Eggy situations

2007-09-06T15:18:00.000-05:00

The Big Over Easy wasn't quite as good as The Fourth Bear, but that's still not a negative. I really, really like Jasper Fforde: such creative plots, fully developed characters, intricate details intertwined with puns and jokes. I did think this one moved more slowly than any of his other books and was perhaps a bit more complicated than necessary. It took me longer than usual to read this, and it was sometimes challenging to remember details from one chapter to the next. Nonetheless, it's a good read.

Falling stars amidst dwindling reading speed

2007-08-30T15:58:00.000-05:00

I've never read anything by Neil Gaiman before, but the movie of Stardust looked so nifty that it seemed like a good time to try. Such a sweet little fairy tale -- charming, interesting characters and a fascinating world for them to live in. I've yet to see the movie, but the book definitely makes me want to read more from Gaiman.

My posts are likely to be fewer and farther between for a while as I readjust to working. The start of the school year is taking its toll on my brain and my time.

The incomparable Jane Austen

2007-08-24T14:39:00.000-05:00

What can I say about Pride and Prejudice that hasn't been said already and better? It's the most charming, wittiest love story ever. I "read" it in high school, but I didn't really read it. I do wish I could have had the experience of reading it without knowing the story and without having so many film-version images of the characters. Nonetheless, it's worth a reread (or a few!).

Fourth time's somewhat charmed

2007-08-21T16:25:00.000-05:00

I really loved Megan McCafferty's Jessica Darling series when it began, but it slid downhill a bit after the first two. Fourth Comings felt a bit like a this-is-your-life take on the series -- cameo appearances from everyone we've met so far, but without any real starring roles from anyone other than Jessica. The character of Hope had a lot of trouble coming to life, perhaps because she's been so long relegated to email, letters, and memories, and there was way too little of Bridget. The plot itself was thin, but I was satisfied with how it played out. My biggest problem was that I haven't particularly liked Marcus since his silence in the desert thing, which makes it hard to root for their relationship. I did like seeing Jessica figure him out and learn more about him, while working to figure out how any relationship works (the answer: with complications).

Warm fuzzies

2007-08-17T13:52:00.000-05:00

Austenland by Shannon Hale is the book equivalent of a romantic comedy: charming, funny, mildly predictable, but not so sweet that it makes your teeth hurt. I was surprised by how much I liked this book, especially after I saw that it called itself chick lit. Eek. Nonetheless, it was a satisfying bite of brain candy. And I have to admit that I really want to go to Pembrook Park, wear period clothes, and talk in Austen-dialect. Just without Mrs. Wattlesbrook, please.

Don't let crazy happen to you

2007-08-08T15:25:00.000-05:00

The Doctor's Wife, by Elizabeth Brundage, is a weird, weird book. It was certainly readable, though I skimmed quite a bit, but my goodness, these characters are crazy. They had good reasons for the crazy, but at times it seemed Brundage was working a bit too hard to give them good reasons. In the end, it really felt too much like a TV movie of the week, with a bit of politics thrown in for good measure.

Ordinary doesn't equal boring

2007-08-08T07:36:00.000-05:00

Amy Krouse Rosenthal's Encyclopedia of an Ordinary Life is just that: life, recorded in alphabetized short entries. I was drawn in by the cover and front matter, with their quirky notes and lists. Then I started reading, and despite the very descriptive title, I was surprised to find it wasn't a book -- it really is an encyclopedia. Surely this won't work, I thought, and then continued reading to find that it really and truly did work. Rosenthal chronicles her thoughts and observations from funny to insecure to poignant, and at many points I found myself thinking, Dear God, she's in my head!

The website for the book is fun but makes the book seem much more gimmicky than it is. And I wish I could remember the blog where I read about this book, so if you've written about it, please let me know.

Thursday returns, finally

2007-08-06T08:32:00.000-05:00

Thursday Next, I forgot how much fun you were.
And of course, it's going to be another two years until the next one (grrr). First Among Sequels is solid TN material, with plenty of new tricks and twists along with all the fun things from the first four books. As usual, I feel I need to read everything ever written to make sure I'm getting all the jokes, but that's hardly a complaint.
Be sure to check out the author's website, JasperFforde.com. Jasper Fforde's interview of himself about First Among Sequels is both hilarious and informative.

Rejoining the Tudor fiction bandwagon

2007-08-01T09:15:00.000-05:00

I had read (in no particular order) a bunch of Philippa Gregory books a while back -- I liked the first few, disliked the last few. But the royals in this time period are pretty fascinating, and I'm obviously not the only one who thinks so. Alison Weir's Innocent Traitor, the story of Lady Jane Grey's life, is similar to Gregory's style but feels much more historically accurate. With plenty of unsavory characters to contrast the sympathetic Jane, Weir captures the courtly intrigue in the factual details of the story.

Vacation reading

2007-07-30T08:31:00.000-05:00

Up first, of course: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. It was lovely to be away from the Internet and able to just enjoy the book. Perfectly satisfying and everything that is good about the series. The photo above was taken shortly after we bought the book Saturday morning (in a little independent bookstore with no line at all, where there were people buying things other than Harry Potter!). J was having fun taking pictures and exploring the town -- I was pleased to find a place to sit and read the first chapter.

For the rest of the week:
Sense and Sensibility, Jane Austen
The Secret of Chimneys, Agatha Christie
How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents, Julia Alvarez
Elephants Can Remember, Agatha Christie

I enjoyed Sense and Sensibility. I hadn't read any Austen since college, and it's much more relaxing when you won't be expected to analyze it. I'll have to (re)read Pride and Prejudice -- that's one I read in high school, but I don't remember much more than the very basics.

No lake vacation is complete without a few mysteries. Chimneys is a much better Christie than Elephants, but both were fun.

Garcia Girls was not my favorite. It had such a mix of styles, and while I understand that's meant to characterize the sisters, it often didn't seem to work particularly well for my brain. I loved the characters and their stories, but I got impatient with some parts, especially toward the end.

Poor little scapegoat book

2007-07-18T12:30:00.001-05:00

I almost want to skip writing about this one, but that feels like cheating somehow. Election, by Tom Perrotta, made me cranky. I liked the book (and it made me think the movie was very well casted) but it was just so depressing: generally miserable people living generally miserable lives. I really don't think it's the book's fault; I'm just in a mood.

Two afternoons and an evening

2007-07-16T11:55:00.000-05:00

Three compulsively readable, short little books this weekend. First was Calvin Trillin's About Alice. Alice is Trillin's late wife, and while the book is about her death and her absence, It is more a celebration of who she was and how she lived. It's a life story crossed with a love letter. Beautifully simple writing with the perfect balance of sadness and sweetness.

Trillin's short novel, Tepper Isn't Going Out, takes that simple charm to a much lighter subject: parking in New York. Tepper's occasional afternoons and evenings parked legally (always legally!) and reading the newspaper in his car in much-coveted locations make him a minor celebrity. Chuckle-out-loud funny at points, the books puts an endearingly uncomplicated character in a surprising yet realistic situation.

Yesterday afternoon I devoured I Am the Messenger by Markus Zusak (who also wrote The Book Thief, which I adored). I didn't really expect to like it when I read the first few pages, but I kept going and I liked it better and better. Then it ended, and I sat for a few minutes thinking, woah. There is much more to the book and the story than it seems -- it would be a good one to reread more slowly.

Heavy light reading

2007-07-11T09:00:00.000-05:00

It's not exactly chick-lit, but Katharine Noel's Halfway House is definitely an old-style Oprah book. Engrossing, family-focused, real-world problems, a bit depressing, not a whole lot to say about it. It's the story of a family dealing with the daughter's manic depression in pre-cell-phone New Hampshire (mobile phones would have been very useful to this family). Oddly, I really liked the character of the father but found the sections of the book devoted to him to be very dull. Overall, it's a satisfying, simple summer read.

Is it July 21 yet?

2007-07-06T10:52:00.000-05:00

Rereading books five and six in anticipation -- I need to refresh my memory and watch for more clues before the seventh book finally arrives. If you're the one person in the world who hasn't yet read (or rejected the idea of reading) this series, please do so. Now.

Not even a sparrow...

2007-06-30T09:29:00.000-05:00

It has been difficult to figure out what to say about The Sparrow because it made me question so many things. The story of Mary Doria Russell's novel is not so complicated: Life is detected on a relatively nearby planet, and a group is sent to investigate. The book intertwines the story of the mission with the story of the inquiry into how and why there was only one survivor. I don't usually choose science fiction, but the writing and the plot sucked me in very quickly.

The book is really about faith, and that's where the questioning comes in. Are our lives guided by God, good and bad? Is there a reason for the horrible things that happen, or is God simply not part of the world and its workings? Does God even exist? The book doesn't have answers, which is both appropriate and unsatisfying.

Fantasy, royalty, hilarity

2007-06-26T08:20:00.000-05:00

Freddy and Fredericka drew me in from page one because it's just plain hilarious, but with fathoms of depth beneath all the quirks. Mark Helprin's wordplay made me laugh out loud enough times to make the husband think I was crazy. It's one of the few books that leads me to want to read everything else this author has ever written, immediately and feverishly. More than being about a prince and princess, Freddy and Fredericka is about love and dignity, truth and beauty, and all that is right with the world amidst everything that is wrong.

Helprin's website, by the way, is also quite endearing. If you've read F and F, don't miss his correspondence with a California dental hygienist regarding the moments of dentistry in the book.

Mmm, food.

2007-06-22T08:45:00.000-05:00

I want to hang out with Julie Powell. I'd enjoy sitting and watching Buffy with her sure-to-be witty commentary, while waiting for some luscious dessert to bake. I could pass on the entrees, though. French main dishes apparently aren't my thing.

Julie and Julia is Powell's chronicle of cooking her way through Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking. It's very funny, very light-hearted, and very likable. Some of the oh-no-I'm-30 moments resonated a little too much with me, but Powell never sits and feels sorry for herself (she cooks, of course). Really, even her self-deprecating humor isn't wallowing; Powell has too firm a grasp on reality for that.

It's rare for me to have a Holden moment and want to call and author up and talk, but Julie and Julia makes me want to do just that. Powell comes across as a regular human who happened to have an idea and happened to have the skill and humor to write about it. Is it stalkerish to say I wish her all the best?

Misplaced

2007-06-20T08:39:00.000-05:00

I'm not so clever with post titles, but this one fits both the book and the fact that I forgot to write about it (I read this before The Yellow-Lighted Bookshop). But indeed, Once in a Promised Land has characters feeling misplaced, though not so much forgotten. The book tells the story of Selwa and Jassim, a married couple from Jordan who have been living in Arizona for quite some time when the World Trade Center attacks happen. Laila Halaby depicts the turmoil in their lives from the new (unfounded) suspicions surrounding them as well as their own personal struggles. It feels like their problems would have happened anyway, but the attacks simply force things to happen more quickly. Halaby uses an old folktale as a frame, directing our attention to the monsters we must fight and the cleverness required to defeat them.

This isn't so much a story about America or September 11 or the Middle East as it is a story of people and how life is so easily altered by the world around us.

A book person's book

2007-06-19T07:56:00.000-05:00

I loved reading The Yellow-Lighted Bookshop. Lewis Buzbee takes the reader on a tour of his experience as a "book luster", reader, bookseller, and publisher's rep. Intertwined with this is a fascinating history of book publishing and selling, from the ancients to modern-day big-box chains. My only complaint is that the book desperately needed a proofreader -- way too many little typos and bizarre transitions. In talking about the Great Library of Alexandria, for instance, he explains how they went about amassing such a huge collection of books and then says "Still, it was the largest library in the world" (that's from memory, not an exact quote except for the still). I so often complain about the editing (or lack thereof) in books lately, but a small press and a rather short book really have no excuse.

One nicely detailed; another disappointly bland

2007-06-11T07:32:00.000-05:00

The Mercy of Thin Air, by the intriguingly named Ronlyn Domingue, is a love story and a (somewhat predictable) mystery combined. The characters, even minor ones, were developed clearly, unlike in so many things I've read lately. I appreciated the mystery aspects even though I solved it very early, and I loved the intertwining past, present, and past-present.

I should have known by the gimmicky parenthetic title: Ann Brashare's The Last Summer (of You and Me) was a disappointment. I love the Traveling Pants books -- such lovable, realistic characters, despite occasionally unrealistic situations, and an excellent grasp of what it is to be a teenager. The Last Summer does not, unfortunately, grasp what it is to be 20-something. The characters barely have personality, let alone speak for a generation. The plot was just silly -- problems that weren't really problems, with overly dramatic twists to further complicate the non-problems. I liked the descriptions of the beach. That was about it.

Rereading, part II

2007-06-05T11:17:00.000-05:00

I love the characters in this book, in addition to the fact that it's just a great story. The people feel real and well-developed. The situation is so unrealistic, yet the characters make it feel real and possible. I wouldn't call it philosophical, but it does make you think about the nature of time, free will, destiny, how our actions and choices ripple throughout the lives of those around us.

Not for the miserable

2007-05-30T14:34:00.000-05:00

I remembered that I loved this book the first time I read it, so it seemed time to read it again. The writing is exquisite. I love the rotating voices and how clearly each character's voice was separated from the others. The story is heartbreakingly beautiful and haunting. I had forgotten how difficult it was to realize how little thing have changed, or really, how much worse off we are, in terms of world politics. It ends on a hopeful note, but the state of today's world, I think, can no longer support that hope.

Never ending.

2007-05-22T10:53:00.000-05:00

This started so well and then about halfway through just became, in a word, dull. I liked the characters but got bored with them; there wasn't enough happening to keep the book from dragging. I usually like Amy Tan, but Saving Fish From Drowning really wasn't worth the interminable time that it took me to read it.

All Saints

2007-05-17T15:23:00.000-05:00

Finished this one a couple of weeks ago and forgot to post it. I liked the characters -- they are still memorable, even weeks later. The story was interesting and odd. I felt in some ways, though, that I wasn't getting the deeper meaning, but I was also wondering if that meaning really existed.

Brain candy, brain food

2007-04-23T07:36:00.000-05:00

Two books this week, both of which were very fast reads but for different reasons. Nineteen Minutes was first. This is one of Jodi Picoult's better books. Most of the characters are more clearly drawn than those in her other recent books, even though I think Alex is the exact same character as Nina in Perfect Match. Overall an engrossing book for fans of Picoult's style.

I read Eat, Pray, Love in about three sittings, entirely because I could not put it down. Honestly, I laughed and cried and wondered and pondered and used almost every inch of my brain reading this book. Now, of course, I want to go to India and Italy and Indonesia, which is not a problem for my wanderlust-filled husband. I love Elizabeth Gilbert's style -- funny and warm while thoughtful and intelligent. And she loves food perhaps even more than I do.

Many tissues

2007-04-14T10:02:00.000-05:00

I would say Dog Years, by Mark Doty, is wonderful even if you're not a dog person, but since I've never been not a dog person, I really don't know. It's beautifully written -- Doty is a poet, which shows (though the book doesn't ever sway to a prose-poetry style). Expect tears, but this is one of those books that lingers in my mind.

More than worth the hype

2007-03-31T08:52:00.000-05:00

Though in truth, I haven't seen Markus Zusak's The Book Thief promoted anywhere -- I came aross the title in a few blogs and messages boards. This book caught me from the very first page. It's beautifully written and the story is compelling, heartbreaking, and uplifting. I hope they never try to make it a movie.

Finished The Birth House -- good, not great, but worth reading. Now working on Between, Georgia. Seems to be chick-lit, which works well as a palate-cleanser after something so memorable and thought-provoking as The Book Thief.

In-between book

2007-03-11T14:59:00.000-05:00

Ophelia, by Lisa Klein, reimagines Ophelia's story in a YA novel. I liked the way it felt like I was reading Shakespeare without actualy reading Shakespeare -- the dialogue felt authentic and true to Hamlet without being forced. Interesting take on the character, and well-supported by the play itself.

Still working on The Birth House. Enjoyable, but has weird quirks (diary entries thrown in at the end of each chapter, for example) that feel gimmicky.

Off the shelves

Poor neglected blog!

Worth noting

Learning new tricks

New beginnings (oh, and a book too)

Cats and houses

Catching up

Disappearing acts

Arty mystery

Rich kids? Not that interesting

Crowd follower

Post-vacation roundup

Vacation roundup

Racing pace

Literary meatloaf

Happy to be ... where?

Challenge wrap-up

Greater than the sum

Roses in December

The bonds that tie

California dreaming

Strange perspectives

The quick and the mysterious

Of dreams and things

Floating among generations

High society

In short

There in the midst of it so alive and alone / words support like bone

Years go by

Finally!

First challenge completed!

Modern love

Month of neglect

Island turmoil

Ghosts and monsters

Matters of the heart

What's love got to do with it?

The girl who kept reading

Revisiting Heaven

Deliciously old fashioned

Woof.

Brighten my northern skies

Stolen sense of comprehension

Bookworms carnival

Things remembered

Parting is such sweet sorrow

Challenging

Abandonment

A world of plenty

Revenge of the parenthetical title

In the middle

In dreams begin responsibilities

Mixed grill

"It was just your life. You were just living your life."

A very slow year

Connected

Dysfunction before it was cool

Finding home

A challenge I can manage

Keeping all the lights on

I love you, man!

In brief

Wait, what did I miss?

Acceptance is an important step

Lost in America

Balancing the right

Finally!

My first tag!

Real imagination

Underwhelmed

Part two

Mysteries

Eggy situations

Falling stars amidst dwindling reading speed

The incomparable Jane Austen

Fourth time's somewhat charmed

Warm fuzzies

More reading at the lake

Don't let crazy happen to you

Ordinary doesn't equal boring