a shelf full of books

State of Wonder and Before I Go To Sleep

2011-09-02T14:33:00.002-04:00

The best thrillers sometimes turn out to be the ones that aren't even billed as such. To be able, at the end of a book, gasp with surprise, is a rare pleasure. That gasp was the difference between Ann Patchett's State of Wonder and Before I Go To Sleep by SJ Watson.
The blurbs on Watson's book referred to it as "Memento on meth" and it was reminiscent of Memento. Christine wakes up every morning with no memory and has to quickly learn who to trust. A daily phone call from her doctor tells her where to find her journal, where she writes down what she pieces together (and what she also has to read every day) about her life. It is a fast paced if generally unbelievable book. It didn't take me long to figure out the real story, although in the end there were a lot of unanswered questions. Still, it was entertaining!
State of Wonder reminded me of Bel Canto-- many unrelated characters thrown together, forced to interact and with the outcome a surprise. Marina Singh is sent to the Amazon by the pharmaceutical company she works for to get an update from her med school mentor, Dr. Swenson, on the latter's research and to find out more about the mysterious death of her colleague. Marina becomes enthralled with the Amazon tribe she lives with, Dr. Swenson's research, and Dr. Swenson's "adopted" son Easter. The final Amazon scene is exciting as any Indiana Jones movie and my jaw dropped.
3 stars for the Watson book and 5 stars for the Patchett.

Apollo's Angels: A History of Ballet

2011-09-01T23:12:00.002-04:00

Ballet was a huge part of my life up until high school. I learned grace, discipline and French. I made friends I still have. After reading a review of Apollo's Angels: A History of Ballet by Jennifer Homans I knew I had to read the book, even though it is 600+ pages.
Ms. Homans traces ballet and dance from the 18th century through contemporary times as a party of larger world history. Ballet was important pre and post French Revolution and some of the greatest celebrities were defectors from the USSR (remember Baryshnikov in Sex and the City?). She reminds us that ballet stars influenced culture and although we might think it elite and esoteric today, there have been times when dancers and choreographers risked their lives for it. This volume is well edited, with facts and pictures. Dance is also ephemeral: of the hundreds of ballets Balanchine choreographed, for example, only a handful are remembered.
Ms. Homans ends the tome believing that ballet is dying. She argues there are no true stars and it doesn't have the same influence as in the past. But I disagree. Last night I sat on the Esplanade and listened to the Landmarks Orchestra perform Tchaikovsky, with members of the Boston Ballet dancing parts of The Nutcracker, Swan Lake and The Sleeping Beauty. And there was a crowd of people with me. And what about shows like, Dancing with the Stars? And the Zumba craze? Maybe not ballet, but people love dance and I'm not ready to give up on it.
This book took me months to read, but it was worth it. 5/5 netflix stars.

Super Sad True Love Story

2011-07-26T20:38:00.002-04:00

If you've ever felt like your phone is not up to speed, this book is for you.
If you've ever left a note, or been left a note, about replacing toilet paper, this book is for you.
If you've ever been the bottom of the totem pole at work, this book is for you.
If you've ever called someone, or been called, a "tuna brain", this book is for you.
If you've ever had a best friend that lives far away and you miss and email everyday, this book is for you.
If you are an older sister, this book is for you.
If you are Jewish, this book is for you.
If you are Korean, this book is for you.
If you are neither Jewish nor Korean, this book is for you.
If you are a sad sack, this book is for you.
If you spent time in Italy, this book is for you.
If you are willing to snort from laughing, on the bus, this book is for you.
If you read one book this year, this book is for you.
Super Sad True Love Story by Gary Shteyngart.
5/5 netflix stars

The Tiger's Wife: A Novel

2011-07-12T14:31:00.002-04:00

I didn't set out to read a book about the death of a grandparent so soon after my own grandma passed away, but Tea Obreht's debut novel piqued my interest. The Tiger's Wife is equal parts fable, memory and nostalgia.
Natalia is a young doctor in her imaginary Balkan country, war torn and ravaged. On a mission to "the other side" she learns of her grandfather's passing and spends the next few days remembering him while she attempts to find the belongings he had on him when he died, including a copy of The Jungle Book Natalia remembers well. Natalia carries her memories of her grandfather, but also two stories her grandfather told her: one, the story of the Deathless Man and two, the story of the Tiger's Wife. Both recall the best writers of magical realism.
Natalia struggles with fulfilling her professional role and being with her grandmother to mourn. I was able to empathize; contemporary society doesn't allow time for grieving, or death. But this book reminded me that I can take my time, that the memories I have of my grandma will stay with me, and I can recall them at will, just as Natalia did.
The Tiger's Wife is remarkable in part because of Obreht's young age and for that I'm thankful. I look forward to many more novels from her.
4/5 netflix stars

Enough About Love

2011-06-28T14:51:00.002-04:00

Enough About Love by Herve le Tellier is just longer than a novella; a few character sketches. Set in contemporay France, it tells the story of two couples, upper middle class, doctors, writers, a lawyer, with children. The women each meet someone else and either leave, or contemplate leaving their families. Le Tellier composes the chapters from individual and couple standpoints and is non-judgemental, in the way only the French can be when it comes to affairs. A book like this can easily been read as a film and I kept imagining Juliette Binoche as the lawyer.

This was a subtle, yet easy read, but for me, ultimately, unremarkable. I'd be suprised if I remember it in a year. 3/5 netflix stars.

Claire DeWitt and the City of the Dead

2011-06-20T13:36:00.003-04:00

In elementary school we participated in BookIt, which was a program where we set a goal of a number of books to read and when we reached that goal we'd get a coupon for a personal pan pizza from Pizza Hut. It never took much for me to be motivated to read, but getting that pizza was pretty special. A few weeks ago I got an email from the library that four books I had requested were ready to pick up. Panic! How would I read so many books? Obviously I need to motivate myself with pizza, so from here on out, it's a book a week!

Fortunately Claire DeWitt and the City of the Dead by Sara Gran was both short and a mystery-- a perfect quick read. Claire is hired to investigate the disappearance of man's uncle in Post-Katrina New Orleans. Her detection methods are based on her mentor, Constance, as well as a book by Silette called Detection. Her methods also include copious amounts of booze and prescription and non-prescription drugs. Besides her actual case, several other "mysteries" are alluded to, making a strong case for future books.

New Orleans is portrayed as fairly post-apocolyptic in this book, not so different from Zeitoun. It's the perfect setting for crime noir and Gran's writing is spot on. A favorite quote, that represents a colleague, but could refer to many inhabitants of New Orleans: "Some people, I saw, had drowned right away. And some people were drowning in slow motion, drowning a lit bit at a time, and would be drowning for years. And some people, like Mick, had always been drowning. They just hadn't known what to call it until now. "

4/5 Netflix stars (and one book closer to my pizza).

Swamplandia!

2011-06-14T14:55:00.002-04:00

Summer's here, which means vacation time. So I'm taking a vacation from reading books based in the midwest and heading straight to Florida. Swamplandia! by Karen Russell is everything its title implies. Like the Binewski family in Katherine Dunn's Geek Love, the Bigtree "tribe" live on the edge of society and earn a living being themselves. They live on one of Florida's 10,000 islands and runs a tourist show of alligator wrestling. Aside from the thousands of "mainlander" tourists, the kids only interact with each other and are blissfully unaware of life on the mainland. Kiwi is the oldest and has dreams of attending Harvard. Dreamy Ossie communes with and runs away with a ghost, leaving the youngest, Ava, to fend for herself.

Russell's Florida swamplands have Weed Witches instead of bagladies, long abandoned dredgeboats are homes to marriage inclined ghosts from the 1930s and dank canals lead to the Underworld. Each of the children live on the brink of reality and they compellingly pull us along a journey of questionable danger. Susan Orlean nearly forgets her journalistic bias in favor of seeing a rare orchid in The Orchid Thief, so why wouldn't the reader think the Bird Man a contemporary Charon?

Ms. Russell's novel is a fascinating read-- equally creepy, mysterious and funny (Kiwi's jobs and interactions with fellow "new hires" in competitor World of Darkness are worth the cover price) and Ava's love for her family is priceless. 5/5 netflix stars.

The Song of the Lark

2011-06-06T10:56:00.002-04:00

I continued my revisit of Willa Cather with The Song of the Lark, a book I hadn't read previously in high school, but which kind of reminded me of me in high school. Thea is talented adolescent musician living in small town Moonstone, CO. Many of the adults in her life realize her talent could take her beyond the small town and Thea ultimately realizes this too. Like Thea, I knew college would be an opportunity for me to leave Kansas and experience life in a bigger city than Wichita.

Thea and her family all make sacrifices so she can study piano and voice in Chicago. Cather uses her descriptive writing style to highlight Thea's training. Whereas I love her descriptions of life in the west and midwest, her accounts of lessons and operas were less interesting to me. Thea had "an attitude" that in a woman today would be considered bitchy-- I had to catch and remind myself that her journey was unusual for a woman of her day and her obstacles numerous.

This was just not my favorite Cather book, although she still tackles contemporary themes of racism against immigrants and women working and taking non-traditional life routes (Thea rejects marriage in favor of career). 3 out of 5 stars.

Great House

2011-04-21T16:50:00.003-04:00

The History of Love by Nicole Krauss was not my favorite so I was pleasantly surprised by how moving her third novel, Great House, was. In Great House, a large desk is the centerpiece both of the houses it occupies and the lives it touches. As an adult, I haven't had any furniture I care about-- I could get rid of it all and wouldn't miss it. But this desk represented a nostalgia for all who posessed it: nostalgia for a pre-Holocaust home in Budpest, nostalgia for a poet disappeared under Pinochet, the hope of another book written at it. Krauss weaves together disparate lives in different parts of the world, giving the book a kind of mystery as I kept reading to see how they would all connect together.

As in The History of Love, Krauss uses a bit of dialogue tic (which is what I disliked) but it is minor and I think her overall writing is improved. I look forward to her next books.

5 out of 5 netflix stars

My Antonia and The Bean Trees

2011-03-25T14:26:00.003-04:00

The midwest might be considered the breadbasket of America, but my sister and I knew midwestern foods from the following categories: vegetables were from a can, and usually casseroled with the help of cream of mushroom soup. Salad would be based on jello not lettuce, and would be sprinkled throughout with marshmallows or mandarin oranges, not peppers or croutons. By late January the snow piles had reached 5 feet and taller and I had a nostalgic hunger for not just banana pudding and Old El Paso tacos, but tales of survival in the midwest when survival meant more than shoveling the front sidewalk.

I'd read My Antonia by Willa Cather in high school and remembered loving it, although the story had faded in my memory. In the last quarter of the 19th century Antonia arrived in Nebraska farmland with her family from Bohemia. Not farmers by trade, they struggled through the first winter, with Antonia easily doing the farm work of any boy her age and aided in English lessons by Virginia transplant Jim, a boy a few years her junior.

A century later Taylor was making her own journey out west in Barbara Kingsolver's The Bean Trees. For Taylor, survival meant escaping her native Kentucky without getting pregnant, but when her car breaks down in Oklahoma and she's given a catatonic little girl, she names her Turtle and takes her with her to her ultimate stopping point of Tuscon, acknowledging the irony.

Jim is the narrator in My Antonia, but the women are it's heroines. He admires their strength and beauty-- these are women who have to work to earn a living. For some that means prospecting for gold, opening a successful dress shop or raising a family to work the farm. He defends them the anti-immigrant bias of the day and even years later when he's a successful Harvard trained attorney, is humbled by their success.

To rescue herself, Taylor jumps into motherhood, rescuing Turtle, but also rescues Estevan and Esperanza, immigrant refugees from Latin America and Lou Ann, a woman who becomes her roommate and confidante and needs Taylor as much as Taylor needs her.

Five stars for both books, which satiated my hunger for the midwest while I was holed away in a terrible New England winter...even if I did have to indulge in some 7 layer dip and Snickers salad.

The Woman in White

2011-02-17T16:26:00.002-05:00

How many English novels set in extravagent estates in the mid 1800s have made you wonder, "how come these people don't have jobs?" Sure there's the nannies and the pastors and the family attorneys and all the various servants, but most of the gentlemen and women prance around waiting for mail that tells of their beloveds also prancing around waiting for mail.

The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins is a bit different. The story opens with Walter Hartwright accepting a position as an art teacher for a couple of country estate living daughters of a nervous wreck of a gentleman. En route to the new job, he runs into a distraught woman in white who needs directions to London and assurance that Mr. Hartwright will forget about her. He mentions the interaction to his new pupils, one, Laura, who bears astonishing resemblance to the Woman in White. And from this the stage is set for one of the first mysteries published-- and piles of letters that are sent back and forth between estates with replies that come quicker than our email of today. Collins was a trained lawyer and goes into detail about financial and inheritance law of the time-- important if you are just going to live off interest. A couple of notable characters are introduced along the way-- Sir Percival Glyde who is both obsequious and nervous, Count Fosco who is devious, and a slew of passerby who make the book a quick read.

Ultimately the denoument was well executed, but long! Like, 100 pages long. Other than that it was as good as the Millenium series for sure.

netflix stars: 4/5

Zeitoun and The Lacuna

2011-01-17T18:49:00.001-05:00

If Dave Eggers wrote the original Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, he's followed it up as an adult with even more heartbreaking works: What is the What a few years ago and Zeitoun in the past year or so. It might be too soon for some to read a non-fiction account of a family's post-Katrina life in New Orleans. If that family is Muslim, it might put anyone over the edge. After sitting on my shelf for a year, I picked it up only because it's the current book club pick. I didn't know if I was ready to cry through the entire story.
The cover is an illustration, but could be any number of photographs that came out the days following the hurricane and levee breaks...a man in a canoe, gliding through the streets. The man is Abdulrahman Zeitoun, a Syrian immigrant who owns a contracting business along with his wife, Kathy. Eggers writes about their lives in a journalistic fashion. He fills in the day-to-day life of a hard working father of five with brief backgrounds of Zeitoun's life in Syria and Kathy's life as a younger woman in New Orleans (including her decision to convert to Islam). Kathy and Zeitoun watched the weather reports leading up to Katrina's attack on the gulf coast much as we all did, but most of us didn't have to decide weather or not to evacuate and most of us didn't have to come home to houses completely inundated. Even fewer of us chose to stay in New Orleans, as Zeitoun did, witnessing trapped neighbors, looting, interrogations by the law and the lawless.
The Lacuna by Barbara Kingsolver is a different account of so called law in the guise of public safety but 50 years earlier. It's a fictional account of William Harrison, an American who grew up in Mexico and ended up working for Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera as a kind of jack of all trades-- sometimes plaster mixer, sometimes cook, sometimes confidante to Mrs. Kahlo. Frida has become such an iconoclast that it was hard to believe her conversations with Harrison. I had trouble seeing where Kingsolver was going at times-- why so much background on Harrison's mother? It was a 600+ page book and at times I felt like I wouldn't make it through. But then there was a turning point. When Kingsolver devoted the second half of the book to Harrison as popular author and quiet bachelor in a small Southern town, the story became compelling. Kahlo and and Rivera are too big to compete with and Harrison deserves to stand on his own, and he does. In a short time we learn that he is targeted as a Communist, quotes from his fiction are attributed to him, out of context, and no matter what, the US government will bring him down. Kingsolver is a bit heavy handed in her allusions to current government control and persecution (read Zeitoun) but Harrison is a complete and sympathetic character. I felt the same helplessness with Harrison as I did with Zeitoun.
These may not be the best reads for conspiracy theorists...or maybe they're the best reads for all of us. 5 and 4 stars respectively.

The Know-It-All: One Man's Humble Quest to Become the Smartest Person in the World

2011-01-11T14:55:00.002-05:00

A certain Evil Twin is contributing this post on The Know-it-All by AJ Jacobs. I'm thankful for this because a) I have been too busy to read, b) too busy to post anything I have read and c) I like Evil Twin #1 (and #2). To bring home the point that we do not share the same taste in books, I have subsituted the normal cover shot of a book with a pie chart. --And

For the most part, my taste in books is the exact opposite from Steph's and Andrea's. So it should have been no surprise, when I wrote to Andrea about enjoying the Know-it-All, that her reaction was less than favorable. Normally, biographies are my favorite. Seldom do I get to laugh out loud on a plane packed with people, while reading one of my non fiction dry biographies. But then again this book is not meant to be a serious read.
AJ Jacobs starts a quest to finish the entire Encyclopaedia Brittanica from cover to cover. Maybe that is where he won me over, as I spent many an hour with our Encyclopaedia Brittanicas as a young child. In this absurd endeavor, we see the root of his insecurities, a brilliant father, who is quirky and fun, his nemesis/brother-in-law, who is more successful than him, and the number one failure, his inability to sire a child with his ever patient wife. Most of the encyclopaedia facts that pepper the pages are simply a device to illustrate all these insecurities in detail.
The Know-it-All won't change your life, it won't make you cry, and it may fill your head with random factoids. It is fun read meant for the beach or a plane, a place where you can giggle without making a huge ass of yourself.

A DOG'S PURPOSE- by w. bruce cameron

2010-12-12T22:42:00.000-05:00

I picked this book up without knowing much about it. As is always the case, the "new york times bestseller" label drew me in, but the fact that my sister recently adopted my first "dog nephew" Rupert, also piqued my interest.
The story is told from the viewpoint of Bailey (a dog), and despite my initial cynicism towards this approach, I found that it worked quite well. Bailey tells the readers about events from a dog's perspective, and as humans, we can make inferences as to what may be happening "in real life". The story begins with Bailey and his family surviving on scraps as strays. They're soon caught and brought to live among other ex-strays at some sort of pseudo-shelter run by a loving woman until it's shut down by the state. The story then progresses through Bailey's multiple reincarnations as he realizes his ultimate purpose.
This book was well written from a unique perspective, and despite my stringent "anti-cry" attitude, I found myself tearing up regularly. Reading this book made me think differently about dogs and made me appreciate them much more. If my schedule would allow it, Rupert would already have a cousin.
Netflix rating? 5/5 stars.

SARAH'S KEY- by tatiana de rosnay

2010-11-07T19:02:00.000-05:00

I was craving a good read and a friend suggested this one. When I stopped at Borders after jury duty to pick it up, the cashier said "this is supposed to be fantastic!". Though she hadn't read it, I was encouraged by her strong response, and started it on the T ride home.
The story switches between the perspectives of Sarah, a ten year old Jewish girl living in Paris in 1942 and Julia, a 45 year old American journalist living in Paris in 2002 with her French husband of 15 years and their eleven year old daughter, Zoe. Sarah and her family are rounded up in the Vel' d'Hiv- the Nazi driven effort carried out by French police that sent thousands of Jewish families living in France to extermination camps. We follow her story from the initial arrest to transport between holding locations, separation from family, and arrival at a camp in Beaune-la-Rolande.
As the sixtieth anniversary approaches, Julia is given the assignment of writing an commemorative article about the Vel' d'Hiv. She realizes how little people know about the roundup, and how little French citizens are willing to discuss what they do know. As she digs into the past, she learns things that change her current relationships and outlook on what is important in life.
I loved this book. I found myself reading late into the night without falling asleep (something that's almost unheard of for me), and itching to read anytime I could. The emotional connection I felt to the characters and outcome was stronger than I usually find. The author's progression between characters and periods was smooth and well thought out, and the ending tied up appropriately without being too idealistic.
Netflix rating? 5/5 stars.

SOMETHING BORROWED- by emily giffin

2010-11-07T16:30:00.000-05:00

After a two year hiatus during which I began and finished grad school, I have again found time to read for my own enjoyment! I borrowed this book from a friend after finishing another one earlier than expected. Though it wouldn't typically be at the top of my list, I was primed for an easy read- something entertaining, but not too thought provoking. The fact that this book has been made into a movie featuring Kate Hudson, John Krasinski, and Ginnifer Goodwin (to be released in 2011) made it slightly more appealing.
The story follows Rachel and Darcy, best friends since childhood now in their late 20's living in Manhattan. Rachel has always been the "good girl"- smart, hard working, loyal- while Darcy is the beautiful, popular, and lucky one. The story starts out in a Manhattan bar for Rachel's 30th birthday. Darcy has planned the party, and though all are having a good time, the attention is as usual, focused on Darcy. After dancing on the bar and realizing she's had too much to drink, Darcy is dropped home by her fiance, Dex, who returns to the bar to help celebrate. At the end of the night, Dex takes a drunk Rachel home and they end up in bed together. The next morning, a horrified Rachel decides to put the one night stand behind her, wanting to preserve her lifelong friendship with Darcy and feeling that Dex would never chose plain Rachel over gorgeous Darcy. However, Rachel realizes that things are not always so straightforward, and struggles to do what she knows is right.
This book was a fairly predictable and mindless read, but I found it entertaining regardless. Definitely worth a read if you're in the mood for some chick lit.
Netflix rating? 3/5 stars.

The Lonely Polygamist

2010-11-07T15:11:00.002-05:00

The absolute worst job I ever had was the summer after my sophomore year of college, the summer I turned 21. I lived with my family in suburban Seattle, and made minimum wage working in the school age "classroom" of a daycare. There were more than 20 kids who ranged in age from 7-12 and the other provider who worked with me had just as much experience working with kids as I did, which is to say, none. Not only did we have no curriculum, but these were the worst behaved kids I had ever interacted with. Their moods ranged from ennui to rage and of course the best ones never got our attention. It takes a lot for me to lose my temper with kids, but they tried me and more than once I had to leave the room and cry in the kitchen. And for two days that summer I lost my voice completely, although I had no other physical signs that would lead to that; I simply could not talk, scream, reason, beg anymore.

Russell was one of the worst kids. Although it amazes me that by age 8 a kid can be branded as "bad", Russell was just that. He would yell, destroy the classroom and fight with other kids. Only once did my heart warm to him; he was looking for a lunch box he'd brought and was frantic. I asked him what was in it that was so important and he looked at me with tearful eyes and replied, "treats!" It reminded me that he was just a kid and really did have simple desires.
The Lonely Polygamist by Brady Udall is the story of Golden, his four wives and two dozen children and the landscape of Nevada. Rusty is one of the children, a 12 year old who is branded a terror by his own family. Of course he terrorizes his brothers and sisters for attention and wishes for nothing more than a hug from his mom-- his own version of a lunchbox filled with treats. He meets and befriends June, a loner who makes firecrackers and is building a bomb shelter. June recognizes Rusty as a younger version of himself and as such, realizes there's really no place for him in this offshoot of the Mormon church. The reader recognizes that those who do fit in are those fled from previous lives with even fewer options.
Mr. Udall crafts this story (and reading it, you realize he is a master storyteller) through the eyes of Golden, who is pulled in so many directions he just cannot make any decisions, Rusty, who is doomed from conception and Trish, the 4th wife whose grief over a stillborn baby never lets her integrate with the other wives. I was amazed I could empathize with a man with 4 wives and dozens of children, or a plural wife or a 12 year old boy. But they were all just looking for connections, which ironically couldn't be found. I hadn't thought about Russell in years, but realize that he must be around 18 now. I wonder if he turned out okay. I kind of doubt it.
I have to look through what I've read this year, but I think this the best book of the year. 5/5 netflix stars.

A Visit from the Goon Squad

2010-09-08T23:00:00.002-04:00

It's unusual for a book to get the same kind of pre-release press that a movie does. Books don't have a limited theatre engagement and they rarely, if ever, spawn a merchendising frenzy (unless they are Twilight and/or books made into movies). But every year there's a couple that stand out, usually because they are big name authors or because the author has taken so long to write something new. Because a book takes more time to read than it takes to watch a movie, I usually feel pretty smug after reading the current "it" book (like Netherland, or, A Gate At The Stairs). Since Freedom hadn't been released yet, I was stuck reading A Visit From the Goon Squad, by Jennifer Egan.

Reading the reviews I knew that Egan had taken her time to deliver a near multi-media event-- layers of time, voices and even a penultimate chapter in PowerPoint (surprisingly effective). Sure, the book was just challenging enough, but it also read really quickly, not unlike the power punk songs Benny and his friends played at the beginning of the book. Egan took stock stereotypes (drug addled wannabe musicians and the groupies that follow them) and turned them inside out, revealing parents, children and even countries making them become real people. If we can't identify with Sasha as a messed up runaway, maybe we empathize with her as a mother of two kids who lost her best friend in college and never got over it.

I hope A Visit from the Goon Squad is more than a flash in the pan--it, and Ms. Egan- -deserve to be read and respected. 5/5 netflix stars.

Mennonite in a Little Black Dress

2010-09-08T13:02:00.002-04:00

Think you have nothing in common with Mennonites? Think again. Did you ever bring weird lunch to school? Did you ever wear ill fitting/out of style clothes? Were you ever forbidden (even if it was for the best) to participate in a school play? Has your mom ever tried to fix you up with your cousin? Despite all that, do you still love your parents? Rhoda Janzen's memoir, Mennonite in a Little Black Dress was like Eat, Pray, Love, but the food is borscht, the praying happens in her family's Mennonite community in California and the love...is her family.

After her heart is broken by her husband leaving her for a man he found on gay.com and her body crushed the same week in a car accident, Ms. Janzen returns home to recuperate and write. She weaves hilarious and poignant stories from her childhood alongside stories of her more recent past (now over 15 year marriage) and her parents' past. She reminisces with her sister and finds herself at odds with her brothers. But despite having broken with the traditional ways of the Mennonite, she holds no bitterness. We're allowed to laugh not at her family, but with them, and that makes all the difference.

This memoir gets 5/5 netflix stars in part because I'm easy with the stars but mostly because it was a wonderful read and made me want to shove it in the hands of several friends right away.

The Shadow of the Wind

2010-08-25T14:25:00.002-04:00

It's been rainy the past several days, even though we've had an overall sunny summer. When we were growing up, my sister and I would go to the neighborhood pool almost every afternoon. Unless it was raining and then we would go to the library and check out as many books as we could carry. The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon reminded me of a book I would have checked out on one of those rainy days. Our hero, Daniel, is taken to the Cemetery of Forgotten Books at a young age by his father, and encouraged to "save" a book. He chooses The Shadow of the Wind by Julian Carax and begins a lifelong love with the rare book, it's author and the women who also love the book and it's author.

This was a really pleasant book-- it read quickly, had memorable and well developed (male) characters, provoked nostalgia and was a good reminder of why we love to read novels.

4/5 netflix stars

Forever

2010-08-17T09:37:00.003-04:00

A few weeks ago NPR ran a story from their Guilty Pleasures series. The book is Forever... by Judy Blume. J. Courtney Sullivan recalls reading "the dirty parts" of books with her girls' book club in elementary school, which in turn reminded me of my own furtive reading of romance novels (only the historical ones!) in middle school. A few friends and I would exchange books, usually in brown paper bags, at the movies. I would curl up under my covers and read the books and then hide them under my pillow afraid of my mom finding them (looking back, I'm sure the least of her worries was having an adolescent daughter reading romance novels on the sly). So like Ms. Sullivan, I decided to give this banned book a go. I checked it out from the library (thanks, Boston, for being generally progressive) and curled up under the covers to read it. I loved it. It's written simply but honestly, and Katherine and Michael talk through EVERYTHING. Katherine talks frankly with her mom, and her grandma, an attorney and Planned Parenthood advocate, acts as her confidante. Who wouldn't want their daughter to read this book? In fact, it might be a good idea for couples of all ages to read this book.

netflix stars: 5/5

The Show I'll Never Forget and The Girl Who Played With Fire

2010-07-28T11:04:00.002-04:00

When I moved to Boston in 1996, I was thrilled with all the shows I could see-- musicians and bands that wouldn't come anywhere near Wichita regularly played in Boston and Providence. I could see The Violent Femmes, or The Lemonheads, or the Mighty, Mighty, Bosstones!

Once we were old enough to drive, my friends and I would see any show that came through The Cotillion and would venture to Kansas City and Tulsa as well.

The Show I'll Never Forget edited by Sean Manning is collection of writers who recall, obviously, the show they'll never forget. Some are first concerts and some are just really iconic concerts (Woodstock). Some read like braggarts (so, yeah, I saw Hendrix...) and some are extremely personal (a high school benefit concert for an ill student). The shows run the gamut from Patti Smith to Nirvana, from Nina Simone to the Beastie Boys. In some cases, I would be just as mesmorized to see the writer (Jennifer Egan, Chuck Klosterman) as the concert (The Stones, Miles Davis, James Brown!). I was disappointed by only a few essays- by and large each writer evoked a time and place (watching a Red Sox game with The Pogues at Fenway).

Two shows came to mind for the Show I'll Never Forget. For my 18th birthday my mom got me four tickets to see The Cranberries in Kansas City. When I look at the pictures from that trip, I remember how excited myself and my three friends were and also think what a great mom I have. She drove us to KC and took us to an early dinner, then waited in the parking lot during the whole show while we were inside (well, outside). I know concerts are about smoking pot, but we were good kids, and since it was my 18th birthday I did two things: I bought a legal pack of cigarettes and I registered to vote at the Rock the Vote tent (the voting stuck, the smoking didn't).

The second show I really remember was seeing Pavement in 1997. I'd just finished my first year of college and my friend Caron and cousin Jenny came into Boston and we saw them at the Roxy. We were SO EXCITED!! I remember Jenny had to use a fake id to get in, because she wasn't 18 yet and I remember the opening band sucked (Shudder to Think) and I remember just being thrilled that they played everything I wanted to hear. We could see them pretty close and I was just in love.

I read the 2nd book in Stieg Larsson's Millenium trilogy-- The Girl Who Played with Fire. You're either going to read this book or you're not (or you already have) and it's no use giving details. Needless to say it was captivating and I can't wait to read the third and final book.

netflix stars: 4/5 and 5/5

Lit

2010-06-29T14:06:00.002-04:00

I had a recent foray into reading my old journals and found them beyond cringe-worthy. So I'm pretty much amazed by writers who can squeeze more than one memoir out and even more amazed when those memoirs are not completely filled with self hate. Mary Karr had a childhood made picture perfect for memoir writing: sometimes absent and flighty mother, poor and drunk father, small town in Texas.

Lit could best be described as Drink, Pray, Love, with Ms. Karr describing hitting rock bottom after the birth of her son, finding support from various AA chapters and sober friends and ultimately having enough love for her parents, husband and son to not just continue living and writing, but to do so with grace.

I've been trying to write this for weeks and there's no way I can do it justice; Lit isn't preachy, it isn't predictable and it is, in short, inspiring. Lit was Trail of Crumbs without the blame and Crazy Love with more self confidence.

5/5 netflix stars.

Never Let Me Go

2010-06-22T15:09:00.001-04:00

It is a good time of year to reflect back on school days. School is letting out and as I see kids waiting for the bus to camp, I have some fond memories-- getting "pop privileges" in 5th grade for doing good work (I always bought a Barq's for $0.40), slumber parties with my girlfriends, going to Dog n Shake for lunch in high school and summers filled with part time working and lazy afternoons at the local pool. I'm sure there are buried memories that aren't so pleasant (maybe all of 8th grade?) but overall I had a pretty peaceful childhood, have kept some really close friends and consider myself to be successful.

The childhoods of Kathy, Ruth and Tommy in Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro seem outwardly as idyllic as any childhood-- cliques were formed, friendships made and lost, and lessons and classes taken in a posh English country boarding school. We learn quickly that Kathy, as the narrator, is years past school and is working as a "carer" for "donors" although it's not immediately clear what that means. There is a slow,unraveling twist throughout the book that reveals a childhood (or at least adulthood) that is in reality anything but idyllic.

I felt kind of bewildered reading this since Ishiguro seemed to use cheap techniques to keep the reader engaged ("...which is why what happened next was so surprising...") and the things which were important to Kathy, Tommy and Ruth seemed extremely trivial to me.

Never Let Me Go is like a cross between Prep and Murakami. It was a quick, compelling read, but I never felt attached to the characters. I'll give it 3.5/5 netflix stars.

The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo

2010-06-08T13:40:00.001-04:00

The Kindle is finally making its way into the mainstream-- it's almost as common to see one as to see professional women reading the New Yorker on the 39 bus at 8 am. I'll admit I'm one of those people who likes the feel of a real book in my hands but I'm also easily swayed by new technology. Before my recent trip to Turkey, wanting to make sure I wouldn't ever run out of reading material, I downloaded the Kindle app for my iPhone and purchased The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson.

It turns out I was busy enough in Turkey that I didn't have time to read, but a few lazy days rolled around last week and I decided to give it a try. In short, I'm hooked. Partly on the app but mostly on the book. Larsson creates two mysteries; one a case of a disappeared girl from a closed island decades earlier and one a corporate scandal. Mikael and Lisbeth, our hero and heroine respectively, team up in an effort part Clue and part Nancy Drew, but with enough adult thrill to remind you that you aren't actually on summer break...even if you do waste an entire sunny weekend day inside reading, just like you did when you were 12. 5 netflix stars

Little Bee

2010-05-19T17:05:00.003-04:00

There are more than 16 million refugees worldwide, and about 8 million of those have had books written about them. Okay, that's a callous exageration but when Little Bee by Chris Cleave was picked for my book club, I wasn't sure I could read another book about an elite white person helping a disenfranchised black person. Certainly there is hope in books like Strength in What Remains and What Is The What; the protagonists end up with a better quality life thanks to helpful strangers. But I found these stories to be the exception, not the rule. When so many middle class Americans are struggling, I just found these one in a million (or, one in 16 million) cases of illegal immigrants getting college educations, etc. unbelievable.

So imagine my surprise when Little Bee turned out to exactly what I needed to wipe the cynical smirk off my face. First and foremost, it's the most compelling book I've read in a long while. A real page turner. Cleave can craft a sentence that is humorous while maintaining humility. Second, his characters are flawed, which makes them overall more believable. Little Bee has serious flaws as do her white patrons, Andrew and Sarah.

This book is enough worth reading that I don't want to spoil it with many plot details.

5/5 netflix stars

The Guinea Pig Diaries: My Life as an Experiment and Blowing My Cover: My Life as a CIA Spy

2010-05-03T14:42:00.003-04:00

The past month has been harried and hectic for me-- two trips, a ballet and bookbinding class, friends in from out of town, work events. Suddenly reading was not only not a priority, but was hardly even an option for relaxation. After hosting book club yesterday, I settled on the couch to finish Blowing My Cover: My Life as a CIA Spy by Lindsay Moran and thought about some of the techniques presented in that book as well as The Guinea Pig Diaries by AJ Jacobs that could help get my life under control.

The premise of Jacobs' book is to live his life according to such varied rules as George Washington's "Rules of Civility and Decent Behaviour" and cutting out multitasking. For a series of months, he even outsources his life to India. Moran, meanwhile acts on a dream and applies to the CIA, where she is trained as a case manager to serve overseas. She learns how to use an alias, how to avoid being trailed and how to manipulate agents into committing treason and giving her info about their countries.

Was I able to outsource my life, for example, I could have forgone nights at home doing laundry and packing and instead gone to the gym or to the symphony with friends, while someone else prepared for my trips. Were I a master of disguise, I could have traveled the Baltimore light rail without feeling completely out of place. If I were a master of foreign language, I could have understood Turkish and better bargained at the Grand Bazaar. Had I decided to abide by "decent behaviour" I might not have had too much to drink with my co-workers.

Both books were light and easy reads. 3/5 stars each.

Let The Great World Spin

2010-03-16T15:18:00.001-04:00

I've written about some of my favorite and least favorite post-9/11 books and I'll admit it's hard to imagine writing a book about New York City that doesn't reference that defining generational moment. But Colum McCann has done just that. In Let The Great World Spin, McCann depicts the Twin Towers as the sturdy backdrop for 1974 New York City that was itself spinning out of control.

New York is a city of immigrants, so it is fitting that the opening chapters refer to the Corrigan brothers from Ireland. The younger brother, known simply as Corrigan, is a heavy drinker but lives his life in service to others. He prefers living with the down and out so his older brother is less than surprised to find him in America surrounded by a family of hookers in the Bronx. Claire and Lara are mid-west transplants, both living in New York, but very different universes; Claire mourns the death of her son, killed in Vietnam, while Lara mourns her own life, lost to drugs and alcohol. Gloria meets Claire through a small group of mother's who have lost their sons and Claire's husband, Solomon, is the judge who sentences Tilly, one of the prostitutes befriended by Corrigan.

Each of these people could carry the book on their own and for awhile it's unclear if or how they are all connected. And then McCann introduces Philippe Petit, a high wire artist who walked a tightrope between the Twin Towers in August of 1974. Petit momentarily takes our minds off the every day. As he performs, Gloria imagines he's her son, come back one more time, and Solomon gives thanks for being able to sentence the frivolous and Lara is relieved not to see the details of an auto accident in the paper. Yet his walk unites all the characters.

From that moment and for a generation, the Twin Towers were powerful: Petit and millions of other's balanced, survived and even thrived.

Netflix stars: 5/5

Also recommended, Man on Wire, the documentary about Petit's famous walk.

Land of Marvels

2010-03-05T14:30:00.002-05:00

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

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

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

Netflix stars 2/5

Olive Kitteridge

2010-01-28T16:22:00.003-05:00

Most people know I grew up in Kansas, and although Wichita is not a particularly small town, it sometimes felt that way. Family trips up to Ipswich, MA to see my cousins, or summer vacations to Santa Fe, Colorado or Italy confirmed to me that the world was bigger and I needed to see it. I couldn't imagine why everyone didn't want to leave. I moved to Boston after graduation and hardly looked back. I thought reading Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout reminded me of the insularity I sometimes felt growing up.

Olive is the main character connecting a dozen or so stories set in small town Maine. She's a curmudgeon, large and unattractive, overbearing and overall mean. In short, not a sympathetic character. The people in her town are gossips and un-motivated. Her son manages to escape first to California, and then to New York. The other men in the book seem broken and the women seem to get by mostly by being crazy and/or drunk.

It's been more (ahem) than 10 years I've lived in Boston and I can recall Wichita fondly. I'm happy to still have close friends I grew up with; some moved away, and some stayed there. But they're happy and successful. I'm better able to connect with fellow midwestern ex-pats and appreciate that friendliness. And I've come to realize that New Englanders are just as insular, if not more, than midwesterners. The discomfort I felt reading Olive Kitteridge came from my own feeling of being sucked in to Boston.

Ms. Strout is a wonderful writer. Her scenes and characters are evocative to a fault. So it's not the writing, but the subject matter. Last spring I met a woman in my neighborhood and upon telling her that we like to recruit a geographically diverse housestaff to my hospital, her response, "But why would that matter?" seemed to summarize my overall frustration with Olive Kitteridge.

Netflix stars: 3/5.

The Elegance of the Hedgehog

2010-01-17T14:18:00.002-05:00

Recommended to me, and with a very long wait at the library, The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery seemed like a sure fire hit for me. It's also French! But it just never really took off. The main protagonists, a French concierge in a fancy apartment complex and the 12 year old daughter of a pair of inhabitants, are both philosophical and literary snobs. The concierge, Madame Michel, pretends to hold up the stereotype of the concierge-- lazy, uneducated and with little interest beyond her tv. Paloma is a smart girl, but hides from her family, who she thinks are ridiculous. It was hard for me to figure out why both these characters were playing so miserable and it wasn't until late in the book the reader is clued in.

Part of my issues with this might have been the poor translation. The basic sentence structure was at times awkward, and there names and places that just didn't translate at all to the American audience. I'm a patient reader and it takes a lot for me to not give a book a full chance, but if I had to do it again, I probably wouldn't finish it. But I did and it partly redeemed itself, so I'm giving it 2 stars. Read at your own risk.

A Short History of Women

2010-01-06T22:19:00.003-05:00

Everyone loves hearing stories about their grandparents. They lived difficult lives (World Wars, the Depression), astonishing lives (world travel when Europe was quaint and affordable), had love lives (meeting by post, starting farms in desolate lands). Our grandmas came of age when women didn't have a lot of rights. My own grandma was born just one year after women gained the right to vote. During WWII she worked as a riveter and later joined my grandfather running a furniture store. A few decades earlier women were making huge strides. My sister read a book about Trudy Ederle, the first women to swim the English Channel. Coco Before Chanel is the story of Coco Chanel and how she became stylish and famous by pure grit and determination.
But not all women created worldwide impacts. Kate Walbert's novel A Short History of Women tells of four generations of women who try to make a difference, but just as easily are forgotten. Dorothy Townsend is a 19th century suffragette who dies during a hunger strike. Her children are sent away and their children barely know the sacrifice she made. Her daughter Evelyn is an accomplished chemist, but is taught during a time when women are told to keep their work private, lest men find out and get jealous. Her niece Dorothy resists authority late in life by taking photos at an off-limits military base-- only to have her own daughter apologize in shame.
Ms. Townsend's novel reminded me of the loneliness of The Hours. These were stories about women trying to Do Something, even if it came at a cost. We know our grandmas, and we know Marie Curie, Amelia Earhart, Indira Gandhi, Virginia Woolf and Hillary. But this book reminded me of all the unrecognized women who made/make sacrifices. When there is an election and I vote, I know it's because of them that I can.
5/5 netflix stars

A Walk In The Woods

2009-12-20T11:59:00.002-05:00

My mom liked to say that from Kansas, you could get to somewhere fun in a mere 12 hour drive. The beaches on the Gulf were 12 hours to the south, the mountains 12 hours to the west, and deserts and cacti 12 hours to the southwest. We spent many summers in Colorado or Santa Fe, and most vacations involved some rustic cabin living and lots of hiking. We had our favorite trails-- the Alpine Trail near where we stayed in Buena Vista, CO and the ski basin in Santa Fe. But these trails would represent just a centimeter of the 2,200 miles of the Appalachian Trail from Georgia up to Maine. In the mid-90s Bill Bryson and his friend Steven Katz decided to hike the AT over the course of several months, and A Walk In The Woods is Bryson's record of that adventure.
I started this book as part of the Emergency Holiday Challenge and remembered Steph loving it and was even told by someone in my yoga class how funny it was. And while it was funny, it was also wistful and kind of sad. Bryson would intersperse details of the hike (lots of walking, lots of trees) with facts about the AT and the environmental changes. We've all heard about the demise of the passenger pigeon, and the relatively quick fell of the American Chestnut trees...Bryson lectures us just to the point of depression and then says, "back to the trail!"
Even though this book is just about 10 years old, at times it felt dated. Bryson writes with disdain about people to bring modems hiking so they can share stories from the trail (um, that would be blogging) and writes with amazement that some people have brought satellite tracking devices (what we now know as GPS!). Every few days they arrive at a small town where they check in with their families from payphones. Cell phones were not rampant yet.
2,200 miles is a lot of hiking and without giving anything away, a six-mile day hike on a trail of woods, streams and mountains maybe gives you the same idea as 6 months of the same. Day hikes let you get back to the relative warmth of a cabin (and maybe access to some soothing hot springs) by 6 pm. Nevertheless, I feel lucky that we have the luxury of wilderness to hike in, that despite the extinction of species, we generally value unspoiled nature.
4/5 netflix stars

The Help and Strength in What Remains

2009-12-14T22:43:00.003-05:00

The Revolutions of 1989 were by and large bloodless; the Velvet Revolution, the fall of the Berlin Wall and the revolutions of other Eastern Bloc countries resulted in the end of Communism and peaceful transfer of power. Twenty years before that Dr. Martin Luther King epitomized the non-violent struggle for civil rights. The Help by Kathryn Stockett describes the stories of three women: one privileged white woman who along with two African American maids work together to tell the stories of behind the scenes lives, and in the process create a non-violent revolution in Jackson, Mississippi. Each woman makes personal sacrifices for the greater good-- even though at the time they have no idea what that good will be. Ms. Stockett tells the story of The Help in three viewpoints-- Skeeter's, Aibileen's and Minny's. Each woman has a personal impetus to enact change, but what's amazing is how the three of them come to work together.
The revolutions of 1989 were not all peaceful. Tianamen Square took place that summer. Likewise, 1994 brought about revolutions too. The very violent kind. Extreme poverty for the majority and extreme wealth for the minority set the catalyst for the ethic genocides in Burundi and Rwanda. Tracy Kidder relays Deo's story in Strength in What Remains. Similar to What is the What, Deo miraculously flees Burundi and lands in New York with $200, no place to live and barely understanding a word of English. Within five years he's enrolled at Columbia and soon after that, Dartmouth Medical School. Mr. Kidder relays Deo's story in a series of viewpoints also. He writes as a journalist, telling Deo's history as Deo remembers it. Then he tells the history of the country, so the reader can better understand how events took a turn from the worse, and finally, he tells his story: how he met Deo and his impressions of him and his relationship to him and their return together to Burundi. Mr. Kidder's document seemed a more complete story than What is the What.
In The Help, Skeeter is amazed that Aibileen is such a voracious reader, and that other maids who work for her friends have gone to college and aspire to send their children to college. Many of white women Skeeter is friends with cannot see past the color and occupation of their maids. But what surprised me was that Deo's story in New York was similar. He'd come from being an intern at a hospital in Burundi to being a grocery delivery boy who made $15 a week in New York. Just as the family Aibileen works for dehumanizes her by not even allowing her to use a bathroom in the house, Deo's employer literally pokes him with a stick to make him work.
Both books are good reminders that revolutions are, and should be, dynamic and constant. I give both 5/5 netflix stars.

A Gate at the Stairs

2009-11-19T22:09:00.002-05:00

The past seven or eight years have brought a host of post-9/11 novels. Some are good, some are bad. I like that most maintain the delicate balance of public tragedy and a new world order with people who still need to live their lives. A Gate at the Stairs by Lorrie Moore seems to almost privatize the public and publicize the private. So I've been processing it the past couple days and am still not sure what I think.
Tassie is the protagonist; a good, Midwestern girl entering her sophomore year of college as 9/11 takes place. She takes it in stride, instead worrying about what any 20 year old would worry about-- finding a job and finding a boyfriend. She takes a job as a nanny for a bourgeois yet very liberal older couple who are adopting. Sarah and Edward bring Tassie along to meet various birth mothers and finally end up with a mixed race 2-year old. From here the story takes off: Sarah becomes a mouthpiece for every liberal stereotype-- she worries about Emmie facing racism and so forms a support group of like minded (sometimes) parents. But as Tassie brings Emmie everywhere, she bears the brunt of public reaction-- is she the young mom? The baby daddy must be black (bringing positive and negative reaction). She absorbs it and meanders between her Sufism class and her boyfriend's (of dubious heritage and ethnicity himself) house, all the while forgetting that her younger brother is threatening to join the army after graduating high school.
A Gate at the Stairs is dialogue rich and Tassie's carte blanche viewpoint makes us realize our culpability with so many pre and post-9/11 social issues. It's a compelling read and a great way to get back into novels after reading so much non-fiction. It raises questions without providing answers.
This is a vague review...readers and comments welcome!
Netflix stars: 4/5

The Thoreau You Don't Know: What The Prophet of Environmentalism Really Meant

2009-11-06T15:20:00.002-05:00

Having friends whose babies are learning to talk, I asked my mom what my first word was. Her response? "Thoreau". You might think from this that my parents were hippies, that they were social dissidents or that I was born to recluses in a cabin in the woods. Or you might think I listened to "Walden" nightly while in my mom's womb. Whatever you might think, it's probably wrong. And that's why Robert Sullivan wrote The Thoreau You Don't Know: What The Prophet of Environmentalism Really Meant. He wants to expand on the Thoreau we all know from reading excerpts of Walden in high school. He wants to prove that Thoreau wasn't just an old curmudgeon.

The Thoreau You Don't Know is a very accessible biography of a now lauded American citizen. Sullivan tells us that Thoreau was critical of society while also striving to make it better. He came from a family of hard workers and was a successful business man (pencils!)-- not a lazy good-for-nothing bumming around in the woods. He aimed to be a writer and a poet while knowing that it might not pay the bills-- and so supplemented his writing by doing chores for Emerson, teaching and even bringing in income from his bean crops at Walden.

Sullivan's love for Thoreau became my love for Thoreau. I can't help but smile knowing that all his actions and his life's work were deliberate-- even if unpopular at the time (after his death a friend said he loved Thoreau, but didn't like him). He only lived to be 45, but did so much-- and often did it with a sense of humor. Sullivan reports that he spoke with humor and irony.

We know the Thoreau who coined the term "succession" and the Thoreau who inspired Dr. Martin Luther King. But The Thoreau We Don't Know was also a product of his time-- a time of progression and societal change. Sullivan shows us that Thoreau.

I give this book 4/5 netflix stars.

And if you're curious why my first word was Thoreau? Thoreau was the name of our family dog!

A Homemade Life: Stories and Recipes From My Kitchen

2009-10-16T13:51:00.002-04:00

"She makes cookies with Leslie Fretwell!"

"I think her prom date was Billy Bozalis, Lisa's little brother."

Above, just a few of the excited emails between my mother and me regarding Molly Wizenberg's delightful book, A Homemade Life: Stories and Recipes From My Kitchen Table.

Of the four cities I've lived in, Molly writes about the two which we overlap-- Oklahoma City and Seattle. And being a third generation Oklahoman, I eagerly picked apart the clues to places and faces she referenced. She writes about running through the yards at the Oklahoma Art Museum's summer jazz concerts (which caused me to call my mom squealing, since I did that too!) and her references to school prompted me to contact my Oklahoma friends, and sure enough, she attended the same school as me! (Although she must have been at least a year behind me).

She also writes about never feeling quite comfortable in Oklahoma and packing her bags at 18, nary a plan to move back. Sounded familiar.

I had my doubts before starting this book. Sometimes bloggers are good at blogging but not so good at writing (and vice versa). It's two different mediums. And sometimes memoris devolve into rants. Would Molly's witty posts about food translate to a book format? Indeed, yes. The book was a narrative and memoir of sorts, detailing her life leading up to her father's death, and her life since. She moved and started blogging just after, so Burg's death was a key point in her life in many ways. Each chapter is a short story about her life and then includes an accessible recipe-- perhaps macaroons or cookies her mom makes, or perhaps the chocolate cake she serves at her wedding. She includes recipes like Chana Masala introduced to her by her now husband, Brandon and salads shared with friends.

Her stories are bittersweet, honest, funny. A rare combination. If, like me, you don't actually know Molly, but feel like you do or feel like you want to, there's a recipe for that: read, relax, enjoy.

5/5 netflix stars (I'm either really loving or really hating books these days).

New Moon

2009-10-01T11:38:00.002-04:00

I was told it wasn't good. Even by people who enjoy the series, I was told this particular book was bad. My sister thought I shouldn't read it because Edward's departure would trigger unhappy personal memories. My coworkers thought it focussed too much on Jacob.

New Moon by Stephenie Meyer.

Here's what I liked: an accurate portrayal of grief following abandonment. Bella gets through each day by sheer force of will. Her friends being likewise 17 and 18 have little patience for this and soon give up on her. Jacob. He's 15 and is characterized like a 15 year old. He's got a crush on Bella but can still relate to her as a friend.

Here's what I didn't like: Edward. (It's true, I'm Team Jacob!). You'd think after 110 years he'd know that just leaving an 18 year old-- the day after her birthday no less-- would be unkind to say the least. The writing and editing. It was bad. If I'm going to read these kind of books, I need to read them fast! There are award winners and classics out there to read and I'm not getting any younger...Then again, if I were immortal I could read them all. Alice?

Netflix stars 2/5

Spice: The History of a Temptation

2009-09-15T12:37:00.004-04:00

The new school year is here! I can almost smell the fresh pencils and pink erasers and can hear the crackle of a brand new text book being opened for the first time. It's a time of optimism and new goals and fresh starts. Which is why it's so hard for me to say this...I gave up on a book.

I'm a good student-- I've only missed one book club in the past 7 years and have read all the books (with the exception of one that I couldn't finish: Barbara Kingsolver's Small Wonder, because I thought she came off as a know-it-all, condescending smarty-pants). I like to give everyone's book a chance, even though we had one member (with a PhD-- you know who you are!) who consistently chose tedious and difficult subject books. In general, if I read a book I wouldn't normally choose, at least I feel I've gained something I wouldn't have otherwise.

Spice: The History of Temptation by Jack Turner sounded promising. It's a historical book-- not something I'd normally pick-- but drew rave reviews on the back cover as well as on Amazon. As soon as I started reading, I was reminded of school...remember how every year in elementary school you'd learn about Columbus and De Soto, etc, etc? Surely, I thought, this would be an introduction and the fascinating parts would be forthcoming. And to an extent, it did get better. I learned that spices were used to preserve food and bodies and were used as displays of wealth and aristocracy. Turner used no shortage of examples and I would find myself skimming through yet another medicinal example of peppercorns and their various uses.

I tried to give this book my all. I took it on an airplane and I even re-checked it out from the library. But it made me sleepy. This book is clearly a labor of love for Turner, and perhaps readers who have a greater interest in history would enjoy this. In fact, I'm willing to take the blame for this. Perhaps I've been dumbed down by reading Twilight and Harry Potter and watching marathons of Project Runway. But I have to be honest and give this book 1 out of 5 netflix stars.

Rag and Bone: A Journey Among The World's Holy Dead

2009-08-20T13:35:00.002-04:00

A little over a year ago, my sister Liz took me to the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception. It's off the beaten track of the other monuments in DC and there's nothing much else out there. But we were curious and we like churches. The Basilica was immense and sparkling and to two non-Catholics, daunting. We opted for the tour. Our guide explained statues and histories of saints and took us into special alcoves and soon we all lined up to view the relic. Maybe it was a bone fragment; I can't recall. But we all moved in a circle to get a glimpse.

Peter Manseau tells similar stories of viewing relics the world over in Rag and Bone: A Journey Among the World's Holy Dead. His interest is that of a layperson, like myself. He's not someone who has a strong religious attachment to the relics he visits themselves, but is curious about how the affect so many people, and on some level, are common to all the world's religions. He visits India, Israel, Pakistan, Syria and interacts with Jews, Catholics and Muslims. He describes a brief history of each of the relics he visits-- most are dubiously authentic but have at any rate suffered indignities and brutalities post mortem that sometimes exceed the violence experienced by the living person. And he usually speaks with the caretakers of the relics and/or shrines. He meets a nun whose personal life was marked by so many violent accidents that she felt compelled to turn to religion and the saint whose remains her convent now hosts. He met a family who for generations had been guarding a holy tooth in Kashmir, but who had lost their legacy through politics; Inidian guards now hold the keys. He met a scientist whose life work it has been to verify (or not) the remains of Saint Joan of Arc. He claims he is not spiritual, yet he reveres her bones with a fervor usually reserved for the most pious.

Mr. Manseau comes to realize that the relics are more than just a spritual connection-- in Sri Lanka they provide jobs-- helping the economy informally (tours) and formally (the requisite gift shop), in France, local pride unites a community and in Syria, children get to practice their English with tourists.

Mr. Manseau journeys the world with curiousity and respect. For him, it's a strictly personal exploration as much as an means to discovering the history of relics. His message is subtle-- living people and living history is more important than the dead.

For myself, the Basillica was beautiful, but maybe too beautiful. It was hard to for me to reconcile the ostentatious gilt with the suffering experienced by the saints featured. I appreciated Mr. Manseau's journey.

Netflix rating: 4/5 stars

Twilight And Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince

2009-08-11T08:56:00.003-04:00

I'd bet that, over the past 10 years, 33% of all passengers on commercial flights read a Harry Potter book on the plane. Even with increased fees to check luggage and decreased space to bring luggage on board, at least half a dozen people are carrying a 600+ page hardback book authored by J.K. Rowling. In the past five years, I bet that 89% of all 11-19 year female passengers on planes read the Twilight series by Stephenie Meyer and 47% of 19+ women read the series. My calculations are based on personal, if not scientific, experience. Two weeks ago, on my way to my summer vacation, I was a statistic.
Twilight had been making the rounds at the office and in order to participate in water cooler talk, I needed to read it. Also my director brought it in to me and told me to report back the next day on what page I was on. I saved it for my cross country flight and nearly finished it. I assume most people know the basic plot of Twilight: handsome vampire meets average 17 year old girl in a sleepy Pacific Northwest town and dangerous hijinks ensue when they aren't gazing adoringly into each other's eyes. It was a quick read, full of magic, but for all of Edward's perfection, a lingering, nagging thought...why do men need more excuses to not fully commit? Okay, he's a vampire, but really, get it together.
Meanwhile, I'd saved my copy of Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince to read right before the movie opened. Somehow the opening came as a surprise and I wasn't prepared. This weekend, having few firm plans, I dusted off my copy and delved in, pausing only to go to the farmer's market and feed the cats. I'll give away no plots here, but will say that Rowling's writing seems to mature right along with Harry, Ron, Hermione and the other Hogwarts students. I feel like I've really come to know these characters and, ironically, although they are witches and wizards, Rowling seems to represent actual teenagers better than Meyer does.
I have one more weekend trip this summer and am debating whether to finish up the Potter series or move on to Book 2 of the Twilight series. Either way, I'll be in good company on the plane.
Netflix stars: 3/5 for Twilight, 5/5 for Harry Potter

Hot House Flower and the Nine Plants of Desire

2009-07-27T16:11:00.002-04:00

I like my reading to match my cooking, that is, it should be seasonally appropriate. Sure, you can splurge and buy a $6 pint of strawberries mid-winter but you'll eat a grainy and tasteless strawberry shortcake. And somehow an oven roasted acorn squash tastes completely out of place mid-July. Likewise, why would you read Dr. Zhivago in the summer? It's cold weather reading! You have to be under a blanket with a cup of hot tea.

Hot House Flower and the Nine Plants of Desire by Margot Berwin was just in season for this summer. It was cool and rainy early summer, just like the New York March weather when Lila Nova buys her first tropical flower from David Exley at the Union Square Green Market. She soon notices a mystical laundromat owned by Armand, who is also a collector of tropical flowers. Entering the laundromat is like entering a tropical paradise, and soon Lila is intoxicated by rare plants and sexy vendors.

Just as the Boston heat and humidity set in, Lila headed off with a one way ticket to the Yucatan jungle to find the mythical nine plants of desire and, yes, herself (this is summer reading, after all!).

This book was smart and contemporary and offered just enough escapism to (nearly) make me forget that it was 63 F and drizzly. 5/5 netflix stars.

Recommended eating: tropical fruit salad, even if the fruit's not grown locally.

Alone In The Kitchen With An Eggplant: Confessions of Cooking for One and Dining Alone

2009-07-16T12:51:00.003-04:00

Everyone has some experience eating alone. Perhaps you were a BU student and sat in the G.S.U. during a break in your afternoon classes and ate a BK chicken sandwich. Or perhaps you travel for business and order room service. Maybe you just moved to a new city and go out to eat regardless if you have friends yet who will join you.

In Alone in the Kitchen With an Eggplant, Jenni Ferrari-Adler compiles essays by such noted writers as M.F.K. Fischer, Amanda Hesser, Steve Almond, Ann Patchett and Laurie Colwin, about cooking and dining alone (or in one case, the desire to cook and dine alone!). Each essay provides a glimpse into a personal life and often, a recipe.

I picked up this book book because most evenings I eat alone so I wanted to find out how other people did it. Did they overcook like I tend to? Do they snack their way through a box of crackers and a bottle of wine? Did they forego any pretense of nutrition and instead devour a pint of ice cream?

Far from being a sad book on lonliness, nearly all the contributors looked upon their eating alone days as some of the best in their lives. Each essay made me smile and at least half had me laughing out loud.

What do I eat when I eat alone? I'm not a take-out kind of girl and prefer my own lunches to those of the hospital cafeteria where I work. So I cook on Sundays-- lots of quiches and gratins, soups, stews and things that can last a week or live awhile in the freezer. And the nice thing about eating alone IS that I can eat when and what I want. A few summers back I craved a BLT made with one of the juicy heirlooms I'd just picked up from the farmer's market. But rather than buy bread, I decided to make my own. Nearing midnight, my bread hot out of the oven, I made myself the best BLT I've ever had. And reading this book reminded me why, in part, that was. We are our own best company.

Netflix stars 5/5.

Gilead

2009-06-30T11:28:00.002-04:00

I grew up attending church. We went to a Presbyterian Church in Wichita, or, when in Oklahoma City, went to the church my grandparents and parents went to. As a kid, I almost always went to Sunday School-- an hour of songs, crafts, snacks and a Bible story. On occassions I'd have to go to the "adult" service and it would seriously try my patience. In my mind, the sermon was always 45 minutes, with the remaining 15 minutes song singing, prayer and offering collection. This was all followed by donuts in the fellowship hall. It was a time to try to avoid fidgeting and maybe a time to try to understand the sermon, which didn't seem to have anything to do the Bible stories and miracles we learned about in Sunday School. By the time I got to high school, I didn't really have to go to church any longer, so I didn't.

Twenty some odd years later I've decided to give church another try. I wanted a spirit of community, a calmness and a reason to wake up on Sunday mornings. Most suprising is that the sermons are maybe just 15 minutes and are also totally understandable now!

This is all a long way of saying that reading Gilead by Marilynne Robinson was a little like attending a church service as a kid-- kind of tedious and sleep inducing, but poetic-- and a little like attending a church service as an adult-- thought provoking, relaxing and at times even entertaining.

Robinson composes the novel as a letter from Pastor Ames, a man in his 70s, to his young son. It's a loving and detailed journal and at times, it was all I could do to remember that Robinson is in fact a novelist and Ames is a fictional character. The letter/journal is part observation-- detailing what his son is wearing (a favorite red shirt), part philosophical and religious musing and part family history-- from finding and visiting a grandfather's grave in Kansas, to admitting his jealousy and confusion over his best friend's family, with special focus on young Boughton.

I started this book months ago and had a lot of trouble getting into it. I'd read some, then start another book...so I was continually reading it but while I had other books going. It wasn't until about half way through the book that a plot/storyline took hold. There's no doubt that Robinson is an amazing writer. Housekeeping remains one of my all time favorite books. But I can't in good faith recommend this book fully. It was worth the effort in the end, and I'm glad I read it, but it was a tough journey. Thus I'm giving it 3/5 netflix stars.

In The Skin of a Lion

2009-06-23T16:48:00.002-04:00

I chose to check out Michael Ondaatje's book, In The Skin of a Lion for two reasons. First, I had just recently rewatched The English Patient and was reminded what a fantastic story teller Ondaatje is. The second reason was a recommendation from an NPR series, "You Must Read This." Kamila Shamsie recommends it so thoroughly that she almost doesn't recommend it, for fear of anyone not loving it as much as she does.

In The Skin of a Lion is a dreamy story of Patrick, the son of a Canadian logger, his life, loves and friends. The narrative skirts between fiction and magical realism; a nun falling off a bridge is miraculously saved, but has a chance to change her identity and become an actress. Caravaggio (the thief from The English Patient) escapes jail by being painted blue. Patrick helps build a waterworks, and then subsequently swims through the plumbing with the aim of destroying it with dynamite. The lives of all the characters intersect and then pass. Like yarn on a loom, they are separate, but complete a whole.

I read most of this book on a rainy bus home from New York and was transported. I thought about books that I have loved and implored friends "they must read": The Living, by Annie Dillard, To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee, Women in Love, by D.H. Lawrence. I think it would be safe to add this book to that list as well.

Netflix rating, 5/5.

Flower Children

2009-06-23T14:16:00.002-04:00

A few weeks ago, in a post dentist high, I bought a bagfull of books at the Booksmith. It's been a dreary spring and early summer and I was craving some beach reading, even if it's too rainy to go to the beach. The cover of Flower Children, by Maxine Swann, showed a 70s era photo of kids romping in a field of flowers. A small volume, it looked promising, and in fact, it was light and if not completely engaging, at least harmless.

The "children" in questions are the offspring of a pair of hippies, living in a ramshackle old country home. The book is comprised of related short stories taking place over the children's lives. The children go on ski and road trips with their father, divorced from their mother, and generally make life difficult for his girlfriends. They go to their grandma's and swim in the pool while the adults have cocktails. They ride ponies with the neighborhood boys and have their first kisses.

But this book lacked the magic the glowing cover seemed to offer. There was no hook and the characters lacked depth. In all, though, it wasn't terrible. If you were to find it on the bookshelf of your beach house on a rainy afternoon, it would suffice.

3/5 netflix stars.

Crazy Love

2009-05-14T16:15:00.003-04:00

While reading Crazy Love by Leslie Morgan Steiner, I wanted more than anything for the book to be fiction. I wanted this in part because Leslie's story was sad and difficult and I wouldn't want anyone to suffer the injustices she described. But I also wanted it because the memoir was just so sloppily written that I wanted to just read it as a throwaway book.

Leslie writes about her first marriage in her early 20s to a man who first hit her five days before their wedding. She describes the violence inflicted on her during their honeymoon and also her isolation when they moved away from her friends and family to Vermont. Conor meets many hallmarks of an abuser-- he came from a family where he was abused and slowly controls Leslie, even though she doesn't think of herself as a "typical" battered wife. And in many ways, she's not what we think. She comes from an old, rich family, went to a prestigious college, interned at Seventeen magazine, went to business school. Not to be picky, but these are the exact reasons I wanted the book to be better written! The chronology was confusing, her's and Conor's characters were not multi-dimensional and there were some many inaccuracies (ie, Bostonians do not say "pop" for a Coke-- a detail, but if you're going to throw it in, it better be correct!).

I've read a couple memoirs in the past year or so. The best was An Exact Replica of a Figment of My Imagination and the so-so was Trail of Crumbs. This leans more to the latter-- a need to get the story out.

I admire Leslie for telling her story and for the ultimate "happy ending" even though it wasn't as sophisticated as I would have liked. I'm giving it 3/5 netflix stars.

Those Who Save Us

2009-04-23T14:36:00.003-04:00

About five years ago I mentored a 10 year old boy. We spent nearly every Saturday together for two years and had to come up with a lot of creative ways to spend our time in Boston. More than once we went ice skating on the Frog Pond and spent many mornings rollerblading along the Esplanade. We trekked parts of the Freedom Trail with stops along the way for treats (Mike's Pastry and Faneuil Hall). Anyone who has spent time with kids aged 7-12 knows this: endless questions and arguments that are oddly more logical than should be fair.

J: Will you buy me those Pokeman Cards?

Me: No, sorry!

J: Why not?

Me: Because...

J: But I know you have money and they are only $2.

Or...

Me: I'm going slow rollerblading because I don't know how to stop.

J: But what if you were coming to the end of the dock and the river was in front of you?

Me: I'd fall to the side first.

J: What if you were rollerblading down a mountain and a bear was chasing after you?

Me: What??

Or...

(At the Holocaust Memorial in Boston by Faneuil Hall)

J: Why? I don't understand?

Me: Me neither.

So it really wasn't a surprise that Steph's pick for book club this month, Those Who Save Us, by Jenna Blum, raised a lot of questions and generated more discussion than most books we read.

Anna and Trudie are a mother and daughter of German descent currently living in Minnesota. Trudie doesn't know much about her early childhood during WWII in Weimar and Anna refuses to talk about it. But Trudie harbors guilt that her father was a high ranking SS official based on a small photo in a cigarette case her mom has held onto. Because her own mother won't discuss what she did to survive during the war, Trudie starts interviewing other Germans living in Minnesota, capturing their stories on video.

In the meantime, the story flashes back to Anna's life during the war, and we realize that everyone's decisions on everything were colored by fear and the desire to just survive.

In a speech today, President Obama recognized survivors of the Holocaust and remarked, "We are awed by your acts of courage and conscience. And your presence today compels each of us to ask ourselves whether we would have done what you did. We can only hope that the answer is yes," he said.

Ms. Blum's book asks the same questions and comes up with some difficult answers.

5/5 netflix stars

American Wife and The Wordy Shipmates

2009-03-30T11:49:00.002-04:00

Periodically I'll put in requests for books at the public library and if the books are "best sellers" I might be number 80 on the list. I don't mind waiting, but invariably what happens is that all the books will arrive at the same time. So a couple weeks ago I got notification that American Wife by Curtis Sittenfeld had arrived along with a fellow blogger's recommendation for The Wordy Shipmates, by Sarah Vowell. With limited time to read both, I shoved my New Yorkers to the side and plowed in. Fortunately I was sick for a few days so could only read and watch KU basketball on the couch. More importantly, I realized these books are nice complements to each other.

The Wordy Shipmates is Sarah Vowell's research on the origins of American settlers in New England and American Wife is a fictionalized life story of Laura Bush (Alice Blackwell in the book)-- in short, these two books are bookends on American History.

Ms. Sittenfeld creates a thoughtful and sympathetic portrait of an average American woman. Alice grows up in a small town in Wisconsin and leads what anyone would consider a fairly ordinary life from the outside. She attends public school, goes to church, interacts with her neighbors, and has a best friend. Her dad works at a bank and her mom stays at home. Her grandma is the spunky antithesis of "normalcy"-- she provides the inspiration for Alice's lifelong liberal leanings. When Alice falls for Charlie Blackwell, a son from a strong and old Republican family, they are still years away from Charlie becoming president (based on W.). Alice is confident she and Charlie can keep their politics separate and to an extent they do, but she does find that her mores and ethics are often at odds with Charlie's public persona. She maintains a fine line between her personal feelings and public face.

Alice's conflict can directly be traced back to the 1630s. In school we learned that the Pilgrims came from England for religious freedom. That's part of the story. Ms. Vowell explains that they were all for religious freedom as long as they all adhered to an agreed upon set of rules. Sound familiar? She gives us the backstory on the founding of different colonies and the seemingly petty disagreements that led to vicious attacks on American Indians, multiple banishments of colonists and beheadings of those who disagreed with the King(s) of England. I liked Ms. Vowell's account of this history because she writes with humor and personal insight and honestly loves our founding fathers (and mothers) despite, and because of, their shortcomings. She cringes when Anne Hutchinson shoots herself in the foot and rolls her eyes at Winthrop's and Williams' disagreements. But she never apologizes for being American-- she loves America.

Both of these books were so well written and edited. They were both worth the wait, and even the $0.60 fine I'll pay for finishing The Wordy Shipmates after its due date.

5/5 netflix stars to each.

Three Cups of Tea

2009-03-10T14:04:00.001-04:00

I just finished Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortensen and David Oliver Relin and alternately admired it and despised it. Right now I have an angel on my right shoulder and a devil on my left. I'll ask them to go through the pros and cons of this book.

Angel: What's not to love? Greg Motensen has really lived an amazing life-- not only for himself but humbly giving what he can to those less fortunate. He was able to identify a need-- schools for those who didn't have them-- and a means to provide them.

Devil: Sure, sure...but he was always running away, couldn't commit to a life and career in one place.

Angel: His missionary parents raised him and his siblings in Africa! He has a family history of selflessness.

Devil: Selflessness? What about the idea that this whole book is self promotion? And how many times so his Pakistani friends and good deed recipients say, "Praise be to Allah! And also Greg Mortensen!" Andrea, you know you hate that.

Me: That self aggrandizement does bug me...

Angel: He was just stepping in and helped get things going- the Pakistani people built and ran the schools, plus he provided jobs and pay to several upstanding Pakistani and Afghani citizens. Plus he really focuses on providing education for girls and providing community centers for village women as a means of empowerment.

Me: Ah, I really do love female empowement.

Devil: But would you really love being his wife and being 9 months pregnant while he's unreachable in Afghanistan? He's away from his own family for months out of the year!

Angel: She knew that going into the relationship.

Devil: And how about how they named their kids after places in Pakistan? So corny!

Angel: Attacking kids' names?? Classy, Devil, Classy.

Devil: Seriously, why do we always hear stories about white people going in and making life better for brown people? What, there's no brown people helping themselves?

Angel: Why make such a big deal out of it? Just look at it as one man doing his best to make a positive difference-- don't read so much into it! So, Andrea, what do you think?

Me: I think I still don't know...I'm just going to give this book exactly 2.5 out of 5 stars.

The Lone Pilgrim

2009-02-19T13:07:00.003-05:00

I just finished my second Laurie Colwin book: The Lone Pilgrim, a collection of short stories. What I love about short stories in general, and Ms. Colwin's stories in particular, is the way the main characters are in sharp focus and the secondary characters are in soft focus-- kind of like a close up of a flower, where you can see fuzzy green and other colors and shapes around it, framing it, but it's the flower you really notice.
In "The Lone Pilgrim", the narrator comments, "But steady as I am, why am I so solitary? No matter how orderly, measured, and careful my arrangements are, they are only a distillation of me, not a fusion of myself and someone else. I have my domestic comforts, except that mine are only mine." In "Travel", our heroine notes her independence. "The food I lived on was eccentric. I strained yogurt through cheesecloth to concentrate it, and I ate it with pickled cabbage and salted Japanese plums...the odd tastes of a solitary person." When she gives this meal to her future husband, it never occurs to her "that he might have the same odd taste, or his own odd taste."
But as lone and solitary as Ms. Colwin's characters are, they aren't immune to heartache. Miss Greenway, in "Saint Anthony of the Desert", laments a lost love who has returned for a final farewell. "His ease in my apartment broke my heart. I wanted to say, like Saint Anthony of the Desert, 'Why do you do harm to me when I harm none of you? Go away, and in the Lord's name, do not come near these things again.' He did go away, and that was the last I even saw of him."
Ms. Corwin writes with the honesty of Andrea Lee and Nell Freudenberger and her books will surely hold a point of reference for me for years to come.
netflix stars 5/5.

A Big Storm Knocked It Over

2009-02-01T21:52:00.003-05:00

You know how you learn a new word and suddenly it's everywhere? And you can't stop using it because it seems to apply to everything? I recently read about the late writer Laurie Colwin and then kept seeing her referenced, most notably in my favorite food blog, The Kitchn. I checked out a couple books from the library and as I was reading, knew they had come to my attention for a reason.
A Big Storm Knocked It Over seemed like a cup of tea on a snowy winter afternoon. An alternate title could be, "A Year In The Life of an Aging City Living Liberal Who Wants to Grow Up But Doesn't Know Exactly How". Jane Louise is our heroine, and she really is ours. Perhaps I'm making assumptions, but I assume most women worry about having children, about pleasing their spouses and about doing what is right in our day to day lives. Jane Louise has had a nice non-traditional wedding, marrying the kind of guy she never thought she'd end up with. She is a graphic designer for a boutique book publisher and has a best friend, Edie, she calls several times a day. Her family is disappointed with her life choices, although none of them have really been bad.
Not much happens in this book. Jane Louise enjoys and has anxieties about her marriage. She considers her friends more of her family than her actual family and she deftly navigates a slimy boss and slimier writers-- all who she still maintains professional and friendly relationships with. She is saddened and heartbroken when a close friend suddenly stops confiding in her and is pleased when she becomes pregnant and loves it. She worries about the safety of her job.
I loved that Jane Louise and Edie were so close that they planned their pregnancies so their children would grow up together. And I loved that they made snotty, sarcastic comments to the Babies R Us sales clerk. I loved that this book was written when smoking was still allowed in offices and that business lunches had cocktails. When Sven repeatedly comes on to Jane Louise, she always has a smart comeback.
Jane Louise reassures me. I know that I still have time to have a family and find my place, but it is nice to know that the mundane and the simple anxieties are chronicled. I'm looking forward to more Laurie Colwin.
netflix rating: 5/5 stars

A Wedding In December

2009-01-29T11:12:00.002-05:00

The best thing about A Wedding in December by Anita Shreve is that I finished it and can now get rid of it. The wedding in question is of two former high school sweethearts, reconnecting after 20+ years. Their closest friends from high school are also invited to the wedding and over the weekend secrets are revealed and relationships are strained.

As I was reading this I kept thinking, "this is like The Big Chill--only bad." There was every possible cliche-- audultery, cancer, accidents and death, not to mention the gratuitous mention of 9/11 (did not enhance the plot at all). I didn't find myself to be especially sympathetic to the characters.

Ms. Shreve has a very simplistic writing style, and her descriptions seemed dated and out of touch (reference to a gay classmate who had to adjust to "gay life" and even clothing and hair descriptions).

Within the novel, there was a sub-story written by Agnes. It was about a massive explosion in Halifax during WWII and I felt that plotline was way more believable and interesting. It's for that alone that this book is getting 2 stars.

I have a few more books by Ms. Shreve on my shelf. I know she is a beloved author so perhaps this book was just an anomoly-- something she wrote quickly to fulfill a contract?

Atmospheric Disturbances

2009-01-22T12:24:00.002-05:00

I really enjoy ambitious first novels. Some of the best books of the past century are first novels (The Catcher In The Rye, The Sun Also Rises, Sister Carrie, V, Catch 22). Many books are status quo, a la Anita Shreve (more on her in coming weeks), with perhaps a strong plotline, but written in a staid manner. It's gutsy to tackle history with humor like Jonathan Safron Foer's Everything Is Illuminated. Likewise, Rivka Galchen's first novel, Atmospheric Disturbances, tackled marriage, psychology and the weather, with aplomb.

We are introduced to Leo, a pyschiatrist, just as he realizes his wife Rema has been replaced by a double (simulacrum; if you don't like strange vocabulary, this book isn't for you). Double Rema is almost his wife, but not quite. His wife, for example, would never bring home a dog like the double did. Leo decides that by finding one of his missing psychiatric patients, he might be clued in to where the real Rema is. Slowly the reader is pulled into Leo's implausible adventure searching for Rema. It starts in New York, a bakery that they frequent, but soon moves to Argentina and beyond.

On one level this is a story of a man descending into a type of madness, but on another level it's the story of a man who has lost the love he had for his wife. This book is equal parts Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. With a dash of Borges thrown in.

5/5 Netflix stars

Jamaica Inn

2009-01-15T16:17:00.002-05:00

Say you're a single woman whose closest family member has died, or perhaps you have lost the little fortune you might have had and somehow have to fend for yourself. What is your best option? Calling on your friends for help? Finding employment or try internet dating? Nope. Your best option is to time travel back to Victorian English countryside, where even though there might be no neighbors for miles and miles, there will be one single, dashing bachelor. He may be a bit rougue, but no doubt you will find yourself living happily ever after.

Jamaica Inn by Daphne du Maurier is such a novel, but it is darker than a Jane Austen and more along the lines of a Bronte. Our heroine, Mary, has made a deathbed promise to her mother to sell the farm and go live with her aunt and uncle at Jamaica Inn. She soon learns that many strange things happen at the Inn, and her cowered aunt is not the first to tell her that her uncle is up to no good. Mary is curious, however, and soon gets embroiled in a great smuggling plot.

Jamaica Inn is a great gothic thriller and therefore a fast read. I don't read a lot of thrillers/mysteries and don't want to give away key details, but I was surprised by the twist at the end...and it's no surprise that Mary gets the guy.

Next on my list of things to do? Figure out time travel.

Netflix rating: 3/5 stars

The View From Castle Rock

2009-01-05T21:40:00.002-05:00

I was afraid I'd picked a dud for book club. Our turns roll around every 6-8 months or so and so I've usually thought of something that I think everyone will enjoy or benefit from but that they wouldn't necessarily pick for themselves. I hadn't given it too much thought so picked A View From Castle Rock by Alice Munro, a book my mom had loved and passed along to me. I'd tried it awhile back but couldn't get into it so put it aside. I thought having the book club read it would be good incentive. And ultimately it was, but it was a rough time getting there.
Ms. Munro bases these loosely connected short stories on her family's emigration from Scotland to America. She starts with a very great grandfather's journey in the 18th century by boat to Canada. Following stories tell of her pioneering family taming and settling woods. Husbands, wives and children die and someone passes the stories along orally or in journals and letters. Ultimately the stories become more connected to Ms. Munro: her parents meeting and raising fur foxes, her own forray into love and employment and finally her own brushes with death of those most close to her.
About half way through the book I figured out why my mom loved it, and why I ultimately would love it. It's my family history. And just as Ms. Munro's interest in her family history was piqued as she grew older, my interest in the book piqued as generations passed and I started to feel connected to them. I understood the quite austerity of this family of Presbyterians and identified with them. I smiled at their value of education, but not at the expense of hard work.
My grandma happened to call right after I'd finished the book, saying she had been looking through pictures and letters and thought of me. I immediately told her of A View From Castle Rock and said I'd send it to her. It's our kind of story.

Within A Budding Grove

2008-12-29T16:34:00.001-05:00

Good morning 16th Arrondissementers! Gossip Girl here with all the latest. Marcel and his grandmother arrived in style for a summer seaside holiday in Balbec. But what about his romance with Gilberte? Looks like it's as dead as last summer's pantaloon fad.

Too bad Marcel is so frequently sick in his room; he's missing out on grand opportunities to see and be seen on the front, especially in regards to a band of rich and pretty girls. But oh, someone spied him visiting the great painter Elstir in his studio. And we know Elstir is friendly with Albertine, Andree, Rosamunde and the others.

Meanwhile that cad Bloch continues his social climb despite being of lower class than both Marcel and none other than Robert de St. Loup. He slyly stabs each in the back, insinuating the other. Best be careful, B, otherwise you'll be out of favor at Rivebelle.

So, by the end of the summer, who will Marcel pick-- the modest and thoughtful Andree? Or the frivolous yet pretty Albertine? Best read Within A Budding Grove by Marcel Proust to find out...I'll never tell.

xoxo,

Gossip Girl

An Exact Replica of a Figment of My Imagination and Observatory Mansions

2008-12-02T22:17:00.003-05:00

Warning! The following is written during the holiday season; it's so sickly sweet you should probably make a dentist appointment first.

Nearly seven years ago a small group of us started a book club. We realized that now out of school, we might like to read for fun, but we also realized that just because we all lived near each other didn't mean we'd still see each other all the time, so book club became a once a month way to make sure we caught up. Over the years some friends have joined us and some friends have left us, but there's still a few from that first year. We take turns picking books and I think we each have a certain style.
Mihee tends to pick books that cause us all grief-- they're usually obscure classics or biographies of scientists, while Steph waits to pick a book by a certain author she's been excited about for a long time.
An Exact Replica of a Figment of My Imagination by Elizabeth McCracken was Dali's pick last month. It wasn't a happy book: it's a memoir about the loss of a child. But it was the most honest book I've read in a long time. Elizabeth is an author married to another author: Edward Carey. While reading An Exact Replica, I kept meaning to look up Edward Carey, but it wasn't until Tishka visited a few weekends ago and we were talking about a book we often joke about, Observatory Mansions. And that's when we realized it was Edward Carey's first novel. We were ecstatic! Years ago, Observatory Mansions was one of Steph's picks for book club. It's about an oddball cast of characters who live in a rundown apartment building called Observatory Mansions. I don't remember a lot of details about the book, but the protaganist, Francis Orme, wears white gloves every day and impersonates statues in public. Anna Tap is the (anti)heroine. While I was reading Observatory Mansions, I thought it was one of the worst books I'd ever read. But I think back to it quite often (as I do another hated book, American Pastoral by Phillip Roth).
When I realized both authors were married and had the shared experience Ms. McCracken writes about, I could see how their mutual creativity and quirkiness attracted and protected the other. I could mostly tell they were lucky to have found each other.
Neither of these books is for everyone, but they both told a story that will stay with me for a long time...kind of like my book club friends.
Netflix stars-- 5 for An Exact Replica and 3 for Observatory Mansions.

Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions

2008-10-15T22:27:00.002-04:00

After I took the required Algebra, Geometry and Trigonometry in high school, I was done with math. I wasn't good at it, it wasn't a "fun challenge" and it made me anxious and miserable. I knew practical applications of math, like how to calculate 25% off while shopping, and even how to calculate a nifty 18% tip. I knew how to count change back using the fewest coins possible and I could balance my checkbook. But in the IB program everyone had to test in some math...realizing that some of us were more artistically based, a class called Math Studies was created just for us. Have you ever had to compose a term paper for a math class? I did. I wrote mine on the geometry of sailing. Annie wrote hers on the geometry of billiards (keep in mind that diagrams added to the total number of pages submitted-- another practical math application!). I can't remember what Caron wrote hers on....Caron? By the time I got to college I did have to take Calculus. My mom signed me up for an intro class at Butler County Community College the summer before Sophomore year, figuring that a failing grade in a community college would be serve as a prep for my BU class, and hopefully allow that I get a C+ there. My mom is very smart.
Fast forward ten years. Mihee rightfully encourages teens, especially girls, into math and science careers. She mentors and leads a fulfilling life in the lab (with excursions to bars, parties, and book club). When it's Mihee's turn to pick a book for book club, we all groan and know that she is earnest in her obscure pick, which this month was Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions by Edwin Abbott. Despite Mihee assuring me that it was a "romance" I wasn't fooled for long. THIS IS A BOOK ABOUT MATH! There is even a quote on the back from Mathematics Teacher. It was only 83 pages, so I read it. A square in flatland is introduced by a sphere to the novely of spaceland. But more than onerous math, this book contained the 3 things I most despise in this world: sexism, racism and religious proselytizing and persecution. Because I respect Mihee and because she tries to educate, I will give this book 2 netflix stars. Also because it was only 83 pages. That's it.

Lulu in Marrakech

2008-10-10T12:16:00.003-04:00

If you could travel to exotic locales and live a life of percieved ennui, maybe just volunteering for some local projects, would you? Would you forfeit your identity, even from your family? Would you risk your life and be prepared to go to jail in a foreign country? Lulu Sawyer does all this, in Diane Johnson's book, Lulu in Marrakech.

We don't know a lot about how and why Lulu became involved in the CIA, but as a young agent without a family, she is able to deftly move place to place without prompting suspicion. Lulu isn't a robot; like many 30 year old, liberal educated women, she questions the role of women in world society, specifically focussing on her new post in Morocco. She yearns to marry Ian, the man whom she ostensibly travels to Marrakech to be with, although he could in fact be part of a larger plot which Lulu is supposed to keep tabs on.

Ms. Johnson expands her themes of Americans abroad much as she did in Le Divorce. Lulu and a fellow guest and expat, Posy, try to navigate as women in a Muslim (albeit liberal) society and are confronted with other European women who have conflicting views about the roles of Muslim women-- some believe they deserve to learn to read, while others think, "what's the point?".

Lulu's covert task comes to a head by the end of the book, but along the way she has to decide where her allegiances lie; are the friends she's made really friends? What personal risks, if any, will she take to maintain those friendships?

Ms. Johnson, through our heroine Lulu, is able to address non-PC topics and sterotypes and ultimately, those become the main themes of the book-- not Lulu's mission.

I loved this book. I loved that it was current and provacative, yet at times also really funny. I give this 5/5 netflix stars.

Unaccustomed Earth

2008-09-30T12:46:00.002-04:00

My first job out of college I worked with a woman named Alo. Originally from India, she and her family had lived in Newton for nearly 20 years. She worked so that her children would have access to her employee discount of education. Once her youngest was through school, she would retire. Despite her years in the US, she always wore a sari and beautiful jewelry to work. Even in winter she would wear colorful, sheer and silky saris, covered with a thick cardigan. Alo had a vast network of fellow Indians and when she learned that I had loved Jhumpa Lahiri's book Interpreter of Maladies, she divulged that she was friendly with her family and thereafter took every opportunity to share with me stories about Ms. Lahiri. "Baby", she would say, "Jhumpa wore the most gorgeous sari to a wedding shower." She would tell details of her clothes and how she styled her hair, telling me how beautiful she was. But I couldn't imagine her clothes being half as beautiful as her stories.

Unaccustomed Earth takes advantage of Ms. Lahiri's distinguished writing style. In a sense, it picks up where Interpreter of Maladies leaves off; a book of longer short stories which can be read individually, but when combined tell a larger story. Her stories explore the relationships between generations of immigrant familes, and their relationships with people outside their immediate circle of friends and family. But far from playing the race card, Ms. Lahiri's stories commentt on the universal feeling of otherness. How losing a parent or spouse can be the most lonely feeling in the world. Or the feeling when you are untethered with no permanent home. And by the regret that comes with age, over decisions and actions made when younger. She writes capably of love and loss, but also resentment and fear.

Ms. Lahiri's stories are beautiful, but less like a brightly colored chiffon sari, and more like Alo's sweater-- old and dependable, meant to comfort and warm, holding the knowlege of its owner's years.

Netflix stars: 5/5

Later, At the Bar

2008-09-21T16:59:00.002-04:00

When I'm not reading books off my shelf, I sometimes refer to the New York Times list of notable books. It's nice to have a short list of well reviewed books that may deviate from what I would normally choose to read. A "novel in stories" called Later, At the Bar, by Rebecca Barry, however, appealed to me immediately for it contained two of my favorite things: short stories, and a bar.
Based in a small town in upstate New York, each story chronicles the lives of a small group of down and out townies, with blue collar jobs, who usually end up at the bar, Lucy's. They sometimes aspire to something more (a longer marriage, a successful job), but know no matter what they live in a community where they are accepted without regard to their shortfalls. The cast includes Harlin and Cyrus Wilder, hard partying twins for fall hard for cheating women. There's Grace, one of the cheating women who marries Harlin. Linda writes an advice column for some small papers, and usually drinks vodkas while composing her answers. My favorite is Elizabeth Teeter, a woman whose husband recently left her for another man. She admits to being annoyed by people who talk to their pets, but once her husband leaves, she finds herself having conversations with her cat, Roger.
Ms. Barry does a wonderful job of giving human qualities to otherwise unsympathetic characters. The stories can be read separately, but taken as a whole, they really provide a snapshot of some sort of Everytown, USA. The stories read kind of slow at times, but otherwise I enjoyed them, and will give Later, At the Bar 4/5 netflix stars.

Netherland

2008-09-11T14:25:00.002-04:00

How much does public tragedy drive our private lives? Can we redirect our personal trajectories after public events steer us off course? How will our lives be perceived in the space of our generation; or in the space of two, three or four generations? What does it mean to be an American (Ich bin ein American?)? How do we chose our friendships? These are some of the questions Joseph O'Neill asks in his beautifully and thoughtfully written Netherland.

Hans, a Dutch native, his English wife and their young son relocate to New York for work prior to 9/11. They live downtown and are moved to the Chelsea Hotel after their building is contaminated. Rachel becomes more and more agitated and anxious after the attacks, and decides to move with their son back to London. Faced with the unexpected, Hans flounders. He lives in a bohemian hotel with transient to non-existent friends, a job in which he's successful and makes a good living, but without friends and family doesn't translate into happiness. But as friendships often happen, he randomly meets Chuck Ramkissoon and soon strikes up a friendship of convenience with him, and others who meet to play cricket throughout the outer boroughs.

For Hans, cricket is a transport back in time to his childhood in the Hague. Throughout the book Hans enjoys the anonymity his ragtag group of immigrant friends provide. He doesn't question their motives and they don't question his. Maybe for all of them it is a way to connect in vast America, and they do. To connect with his son, Hans frequently logs into Google Earth and swoops from lower Manhattan to London, getting down close enough to see his wife's car and son's bike in the lawn. We are, and as Hans intimately knows, in a very small world, but also one that is still so immense.

O'Neill deftly navigates the reader through real events in the years following 9/11 (ie, the blackout of '93) and challenges us to wonder whether public events really do affect our current and future relationships. He writes about the mundane and the profound in the same tone, giving us a guide, Hans, who is equally confused and assured about his own decisions.

Netherland isn't a page turner, but it is captivating. I give it 5/5 netflix stars.

Izzy, Willy-Nilly

2008-08-26T13:55:00.002-04:00

Reading adolescent books with adult eyes is more enlightening than I'd ever imagine. I know many books I read as a child my mom did not necessarily approve of (like the Sweet Pickles series...I think because of gender inequality?) and many I read I would not now approve of (although I would never discourage the reading of any book, even if it is crap). So I read the "classic" Izzy, Willy-Nilly by Cynthia Voigt in part to see how my adult self would react to it.

Voigt was the Jodi Picoult of the 1980s. She wrote books that dealt with sensitives subjects for young adults; Izzy, Willy-Nilly has the tagline, "One drunk driver changed her life forever." I don't remember reading this book as an adolescent, but if I did, I would probably be in awe of Izzy and her friends dating, being cheerleaders and popular and going to parties. The lives of literary teens never seemed to quite mimic mine at the time. But as an adult, I really identified with the friendship that Izzy and Rosamunde formed. It seemed entirely plausible that many of Izzy's friends would lack the maturity and introspection to know how to transcend from a friendship with a perfectly mobile Izzy to a friendship with Izzy with a "leg and a half".

A lot of the book was very 1980s-- the big hair, the references to Stevie Wonder's "I Just Called To Say I Love You" and most notably, for me, the lack of independence and career motivation for Izzy and her friends. There was definitely a lot of talk about "having a good figure" and not so much talk about extracurricular activities and volunteering, which are a way of life for all teens now. Most noticebly absent from this book was the lack of repurcussion for the drunk driver.

Izzy frequently imagined a tiny, imaginary, replica of herself who perfectly reflected her feelings at given moments, even if she didn't publicly display those emotions. And Izzy was proud, scared, nervous and catty. All realistic for a 15 year old girl.

Despite it shortfalls (seriously-- address the drunk driving if you're going to bring it up!), I would be happy to recommend this book to a teen girl.

Netflix stars: 3/5

How To Be Alone

2008-08-18T14:01:00.002-04:00

An Open Letter To Jonathan Franzen:

I'd like to start by thanking you. Your book The Corrections entertained me for a good couple days at my first post-college job. But perhaps the joy that was The Corrections bears re-reading, because I found your book of essays, How To Be Alone, in a word, annoying. In two words, annoying and obnoxious. The book consists of essays written from the early to mid-90s and finishes with one written on Inauguration Day, 2001. Many of the earlier essays are stuck in their time-- ruminations on the deterioration of society due to cordless phones and answering machines. I guess it's noble to write one's novel on an old typewriter...if you're 78. But Mr. Franzen, at the writing, you were in your early thirties! Isn't that a bit young to become a curmudgeon? Personally, if I had written an essay predicting that the Internet would fall the way of beta max and AOL email, I'd want to make sure it stayed hidden, presumably under lock and key in old gray file cabinets, and not compiled in a "Best Of" album. I felt embarrassed for you.

You lament that people don't read anymore and inform us that you gave away your old tv so that there would be no distractions from reading. While you might like to think you are a martyr for doing this, the reality is, Mr. Franzen, that many, many people read. And many, many people can just turn off the tv for a couple hours. I daresay that even Mr. Frey would be able to abstain from tv for an evening to read a forlorn and dusty book in the prison library.

But Mr. Franzen, it's not all gloom and doom. I sincerely enjoyed your expose on the deficiencies of the Chicago Postal Service (because who doesn't enjoy bitching about the mail?) and your last essay on Inauguration Day 2001 showed growth and insight. The essay about your father's brain was poignant and your interviews with prison inmates were thoughtful. But when you just offer your opinion on a given issue, you often straddle both sides, leaving me wondering which side you are really on.

I'm sure you'd be happy knowing the Marie Claire Book Club probably would not wade through your verbiage of "big" words (two words missing from your essays are "hubris" and "humility"). In fact, I couldn't finish the book. I decided to take the challenge you proposed and read...but life's too short to read condescending opinions set forth by spoiled artists.

Mr. Franzen, your book may be so lucky to fall into the same company as your beloved typewriter and even the answering machine-- at a garage sale in a box of $.10 books.

Sincerely,

Andrea

Netflix stars-- 2/5

The Maytrees

2008-08-04T16:03:00.003-04:00

Some books are meant to be read only at certain points in your life. Several years back I attempted to read the Golden Notebook and was rebuffed (by what, the writing? I can't even recall). I told my mom who said I simply wasn't old enough to appreciate it yet. And then there are books that fall to you at exactly the right time in your life. I read Annie Dillard's epic, The Living, the summer I moved to Seattle. About pioneers who settle the Pacific Northwest, it was perfectly timed for my own settling of the Pacific Northwest. In The Living, the families become intertwined with, and are essential to, the landscape.

A note in Marie Claire reminded me that Ms. Dillard had recently published a new book, The Maytrees. I don't normally get my reading recommendations from such monthlies, but I've read most of Ms. Dillard's repertoire, so figured this would be a safe bet. In fact, it turned out to be the most perfect book for me to read this summer. A quiet book about small things made big, it, like The Living, weaves characters and place together such that it is impossible to imagine Provincetown without Toby and Lou Maytree, or Reevadere, or Deary. Likewise, it's impossible to imagine Jane Cairo or Petie growing up anywhere but the Cape dunes.

The plot is simple: man falls in love with woman, they have a child, man falls out of love with woman and in love with someone else. But in a short 215 pages, Ms. Dillard allows us to feel everything this family felt during those 40+ years, every philosophical question they had while watching the eternal stars shine over the eternal waves beyond the dunes.

I found myself drawing this book out over the course of the week. It's short and I could have finished it in about two days, but I wanted to savor it.

The women at Marie Claire didn't like this book. For Lauren and Yael, the words and language were "dense" and "off-putting" and Marty felt she had to "be older in order to be quiet enough to want to accept the challenge of the book". If you think you can't handle some big words and bigger ideas, then don't bother picking this book up. There's a genre written just for you, it features a pink cover with an single girl on it and is filed under Chick Lit.

For me, this was right up there with Housekeeping, an easy 5 stars. And yet, I'm still not going to recommend it, because when you are ready for The Maytrees, this book will find you.

Peace Like A River

2008-07-27T21:10:00.004-04:00

As kids we were all told, on some nice Summer day, to get outside and play. Summers were endless weekends spent poolside, or doing outdoor chores, so staying inside on any given day to read and live someone else's adventure never seemed exactly like punishment. Twenty years later sitting at desks in offices, knowing it's a beautiful Tuesday and that there are still three days of work before the weekend, we have a little more appreciation for our parents' suggestions. However, reverting back to my 9 year old self, I spent the better part of a beautiful weekend day living with the Land's.
Peace Like a River is Leif Enger's first book, and tells the story of father Jeremiah Land, his eldest son Davy, his younger son Reuban (the narrator) and his young daughter Swede. The live in a small Minnesota town in the early 1960s, but the kids dream of the outlaws and the West of a century before. Before long, they are given a chance to play out every kid's dream: vindication for a bully's crime, a daring jailbreak, riding horseback in the Badlands and living to tell about being tailed by the FBI.
All the Lands are fleshed out and maintain traits and speech specific to their characters. Reuban's narration in the far future is believable while at the same time painting a picture of romantic nostagia. Swede's epic poem of Sunny Sundown parallels the Land's journey from Minnesota to the Badlands. Jeremiah is the heroic and sometimes miracle performing father, wanting to teach his children right from wrong while acknowledging there is often a fine line separating the two.
Peace Like a River seemed to take the best qualities from To Kill A Mockingbird and In Cold Blood, while maintaining the (sometimes) lightheartedness of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. I don't regret wasting a beautiful day reading this book.
Netflix rating 5/5 stars.

A Million Little Pieces

2008-07-21T12:58:00.003-04:00

I'll be the first to admit those Oprah's Book Club stickers bug me. For awhile it was because I knew it meant the book was going to tell the story of incest or abuse with an amazing protaganist turn around by book's end (think The Lovely Bones). She started expanding her choices, including Faulkner and McCarthy, but still...her pushiness and cult following (ladies, really, does a multi-millionaire woman have so much in common with you, trying to pay off student loans while raising two kids and facing a home foreclosure?) irked me. I cheered when Jonathan Franzen rejected her and refused to be a guest on her show, and I cringed and rooted for James Frey when she publicly derided him.

Having not actually read A Million Little Pieces, I thought: now's the time, and why not compare it to Jonathan Franzen's book of essays, How To Be Alone (I'd read The Corrections years ago and loved it).

First up, A Million Little Pieces. Steph gives a nice synopsis here, so I won't go through all that. But honestly, I was disappointed. Maybe it was because it was hyped in so many ways-- before he was exposed, and after. I just didn't think the writing was that great. He capitalizes a lot of Things and is very repetative. I'm not sure if I was influenced by the fact I knew he had exxagerated and made up parts of his story, but I found a lot of it completely unbelievable, and was surprised so many people bought it, hook, line and sinker. It was all tied up very neatly and in fact read pretty well as a novel, save for the bad writing. I was captivated for sure, and won't become a drug addict anytime soon, so I guess in that regards it's successful. I give this book 3 netflix stars. And I recommend drinking gin and tonics while reading it, because it's kind of more kick ass that way.

SPUTNIK SWEETHEART- by haruki murakami

2008-07-16T23:28:00.003-04:00

Sputnik sweetheart is narrated by a young elementary teacher- k. He is in love with his friend sumire, though she doesn't return these feelings. She quit school in an attempt to focus on her writing, but never is able to complete a piece. She shares her writing only with k., who relishes this opportunity to feel close to her. Soon though, sumire meets an older woman, miu, at a wedding, and falls deeply in love with her. As with sumire and k., miu is unable to return this love, but does form a strong bond with sumire that is shown throughout the course of this story.
Staying true to his general style, this book incorporated a surreal/alternate world that existed alongside the normal one. Sumire disappears into this world, and forces both miu and k. to make hard decisions in their search for her.
Murakami doesn't tie up all the loose ends, but does so enough to satisfy the reader. I certainly enjoyed it, and checked this quick read off in just under a week.
Netflix rating? 4.5/5 stars.

THE WIND-UP BIRD CHRONICLE- by haruki murakami

2008-07-16T23:07:00.003-04:00

I finished this right under the gun- about 10 mins before needing to leave for bookclub. While i liked it (as i do most of murakami's books), at 600+ pages, it was just a little longer than my normal read. While reading it, several people asked me how i was enjoying it.
"It's good. I like it a lot," was my typical response.
The next question- what's it about?- wasn't so easy to answer.
"Um, well, this guy loses his cat, then his wife disappears and this virtual prostitute and her sister help him out. He doesn't get along with his brother-in-law who's running for political office, but has a dark side. He meets an older man who spent time in a well, and then he also sits at the bottom of a well for a few days. He's friends with the 16 year old neighborhood girl (though he's 30 or so), he surveys and categorizes levels of baldness in men around japan, meets an older ocd woman he calls nutmeg, and joins her healing business with her mute son cinnamon."
This description leaves much to be desired, and wouldn't convince anyone to read this book that i liked so much. Yet, there's not a good way to sum up the events of this story without sounding insane. If you've read any of his other books (including one of my favorites- kafka on the shore) and enjoyed them, you'll also love this. If you can't buy into surrealism, don't even bother!
Netflix rating? 4.5/5 stars.

The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle

2008-06-15T22:27:00.002-04:00

I have fond nostalgia for the early 90s-- my generation saw the end of the Cold War and the crumbling of the Berlin Wall. My mom learned that JFK was shot while she was in typing class, but when I was in typing class, I pondered "Who Killed Laura Palmer?" Indeed, the 90's were a Lynchian wonderland. I watched and analyzed each episode of Twin Peaks the way people today watch and analyze Lost. So reading The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami triggered the part of my brain that lusts after crazy David Lynch.
Murakami creates a "real" world in parallel with a credible dreamlike "alternate" world. As in Kafka On The Shore, the protagonist is semi-alone, and searching for the meaning of his life. A cat is once again the catalyst for the search. Lynch created bizarre characters who were just accepted (the Log Lady) and Murakami does the same. The Kano sisters appear out of nowhere and dress as if from a different decade. They have psychic powers that are only slightly questioned. More new characters are introduced to the protagonist Mr. Okada than I might meet in an entire year; and Mr. Okada doesn't work and rarely leaves the house! A woman Nutmeg and her son Cinnamon become benefactors for Mr. Okada, and a Lieutenant Mamiya relates a distant past that turns out to be quite relevant to Mr. Okada's present, and likely his future.
The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle was long. It's no secret I love a short and well edited book, but somehow this book kept me engaged, because I knew in the end all the storylines would somehow come together. And they did. Sort of.
I give this book 4/5 netflix stars.
Wine pairing: Casillero del Diablo Sauvignon Blanc. Translates as "Cellar of the Devil", not unlike the ominous wells which feature in The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle. Also, at $7.99, a nice price for unemployed folks who have time to sit in wells, like Mr. Okada. And also for people who have time to take notes on every episode of Twin Peaks.

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

2008-06-11T22:03:00.003-04:00

Everyone knows at least one cool kid. The girl who can introduce trends without ridicule, the guy who knows the next hot band, the girl who has friends across all groups, and is so smart, and the guy who can effortlessly go out with any girl.

Oscar Wao is not any of those cool kids. But Junot Diaz is.

Diaz wrote The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao with the kind of effortless prose and dialogue that any would-be writer could only hope to emulate. In this book you get the comi-tragic story of one cursed family, told in reverse. But hidden in that story is the less comic and more tragic story of the Trujillo rule in the Dominican Republic.
Any fan of Marquez or Allende would appreciate this book-- it's got a tinge of Latin magical realism, but with bite. If I could only recommend one book to read this year, this would be it! It's taken me more than a week to write these few sentences...I just can't compete with Diaz at all. He's way out of my league. 5/5 stars easily.

The Girl on the Fridge

2008-06-02T13:48:00.002-04:00

In a perfect world the 29 or so books that I've read over the past year for this project would all have come directly from my bookshelf. I would not have bought books for a "nice price", nor would I have taken recommendations from friends and acquaintances. I certainly would not have checked out books from the library! But it's not a perfect world and I did all these things.

No one can write about the imperfect world more concisely, and with such dark humor as Etgar Keret, whose book of short shorts, The Girl on the Fridge, I just finished.

Etgar Keret is an Israeli writer and I read his book The Nimrod Flipout a few years back and surprisingly loved it. Soon thereafter I saw a movie based on his writing, Wristcutters: A Love Story, and despite its unfortunate name, it was a wonderful movie which perfectly captured the essence of his style. He writes with a baudy humor-- frequent subjects are suicide and break ups and terrorism. The situations in which his characters interact swing back and forth between reality and the fantastic or dreamlike. Most of his protaganists act on impulses that most of us would check. The orderly who glibly can't recall the name of a recently deceased patient is attacked and strangled by the patient's roommate. A young man realizes he has the power to yell "freeze!" and then direct people to do whatever he desires. A magician's power to pull rabbits out of his hat is suddenly disrupted and the rabbits he pulls out are sometimes headless or bodiless, dripping with blood. Underneath all the id directed actions, however, are underlying fears and insecurities, making the stories honest and wistful.

I think the short story is the hardest thing to write-- to contain a scene or characterization in just 1000 words or so takes immense talent. Plus, Etgar Keret writes from a uniquely Israeli experience-- guns and violence are a major way of life there, and he doesn't gloss over that. I give this book 5/5 netflix stars.

Happy Birthday!

2008-05-31T23:16:00.002-04:00

Again I've let my book reviews pile up. Today our blog is one year old, so I promised I'd get all caught up by now. I'd like to say I'll stay on top of it after this, but I can't promise- it's happened before! There won't be pictures since I'm not at my own computer, but I'll try and add them later- I do like consistent layouts! Here we go!

BURNING BRIGHT- by tracy chevalier

2008-05-31T23:02:00.002-04:00

I'm a big fan of tracy chevalier books, so was thrilled when I found this newish one on the bargain table at the booksmith. I held on to it for a month while I finished the Narnia series, but then polished the 400 pager off in about a week.
It's 18 century England, and the Kellaway family has just experienced the loss of their middle son. Hoping to escape the memories, Thomas Kellaway and his wife move their two younger children, Maisie and Jem, from rural Dorset to London (Lambeth, to be precise) at the invitation of Philip Astley, a circus owner. Thomas is a chair maker, but becomes one of the head set constructors for the circus after realizing there wasn't a large market for his quality chairs in London. The story focuses on his youngest child Jem, and his friendship with a street smart girl named Maggie. The child of a con artist and a laundress, she's confident and familiar with the ways of city folk, and takes to the much quieter Jem instantly, as he does to her. The book focuses on the progression of this friendship throughout a difficult time in English history, and touches on the controversial poetry of William Blake, who lives close by.
While not quite up to par with some of her other books, this was a quick satisfying read which kept me waiting for more.
Netflix rating? 3.5/5 stars

THE LAST BATTLE- by c.s. lewis

2008-05-30T21:40:00.003-04:00

The last book in the series, The Last Battle pulls everything together and ties it up neatly. It begins with an ape named Shift and a donkey named Puzzle. Shift is shifty, and concocts a plan where he takes a lion skin and ties it to Puzzle. He parades him around as Aslan, and since most men and creatures hadn't seen a real lion (Aslan hadn't been around in a long time) they believed Shift. He made the Narnians work for the Calormenes and set about cutting down the talking trees to sell for money. King Tirian hears of the return of "Aslan" but knows that something isn't right. He calls on the real Aslan for help, and is sent the Pevensies, Jill, Eustace, Digory and Polly. They rescue the good animals, and enter into Aslan's new world where they see the destruction of what they thought was Narnia.
This was another good one. Instead of wasting the whole book tying everything together, he wrote an interesting story as well.
Netflix rating? 5/5 stars.

THE SILVER CHAIR- by c.s. lewis

2008-05-30T14:14:00.005-04:00

The book continues the story of Eustace, and introduces his friend and classmate Jill Scrubb. They are brought to Narnia just in time to save them from a brutal beating from fellow classmates. Aslan explains that Caspian's son, Prince Rilian, had been kidnapped 10 years ago, and must be found before his father dies. He gives Jill four signs to follow in order to find Rilian, and off they go. With the help of a marsh-wiggle named Puddleglum, they journey through the giants' kingdom and into underland to find an enchanted Prince Rilian kept captive by the Lady of the Green Kirtle. After a battle, they're successful in their quest, and return to the castle just in time.
I liked the addition of a new main character. It was done much more smoothly (with Eustace, who appeared before) than in The Horse and His Boy.
Netflix rating? 4/5 stars.

THE VOYAGE OF THE DAWN TREADER- by c.s. lewis

2008-05-30T13:35:00.003-04:00

Lucy and Edmund are spending some time at their cousin Eustace's house. He's awful, and though they try to avoid him, all three get pulled into a painting of a ship at sea that's on the wall of Lucy's bedroom. The are pulled aboard the ship- the Dawn Treader- and realize that their old friend Caspian is aboard and on a mission to find the seven lords of Narnia who were banished by Miraz. Lucy and Edmund join in, while Eustace complains and is as lazy and unhelpful as possible, until he's turned into a dragon. After learning a lesson, the group continues their mission and with much excitement along the way, is ultimately successful.
Definitely a step up from Prince Caspian, this may have been my favorite.
Netflix rating? 5/5 stars.

PRINCE CASPIAN- by c.s. lewis

2008-05-30T13:04:00.003-04:00

1300 years after they left (in Narnia years, that is) the Pevensie kids appear on a beach on a seemingly deserted island. After some exploring, they realize that they're actually at Cair Paraval. Soon enough, they save a dwarf who tells them of the evil Miraz who's stolen the throne from its rightful owner. They realize that they're been brought back to return the throne to Caspian, the rightful king. The begin their journey by water, and Lucy's the only one who can see and hear Aslan at first. After insisting he's there, she convinces them to follow her lead and they arrive at the Aslan's How safely. Peter decides to fight Miraz in one-on-one combat, and after treachery and war, they achieve their goal.
Not bad, but it lacked some of the excitement that the first two books had.
Netflix rating? 3.5/5 stars.

THE HORSE AND HIS BOY- by c.s. lewis

2008-05-30T12:56:00.003-04:00

Shasta is a young boy who was found on the beach by a Calormene fisherman named Arsheesh. Arsheesh treats Shasta as a slave, and when Shasta overhears him agreeing to sell the boy to another high ranking Calormene, he decides to run away with the noble man's horse. He learns that the horse can talk, and that he's really a Narnian horse named Bree, so they set off on their adventure to return to Narnia. Along the way they meet another Narnian horse named Hwin and her rider Aravis who are fleeing an arranged marriage for Aravis. The four band together, and learn of evil plans to take over Narnia and neighboring lands. They ride quickly, crossing a lengthy dessert in order to warn Narnia and give them time to prepare for battle.
This felt too far removed from the Narnia series due to the fact that the main characters are not Pevensie children, but new characters. They also don't return in future books, making it seem a little removed.
Netflix rating? 3/5 stars.

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

2008-05-11T20:58:00.004-04:00

There are more than a few classics I never read growing up. For this I have to say, "Thank you Wichita Public Schools." I love Jane Austen books and can proudly say, "I knew Mr. Darcy was not a cad all along." But sadly this is from watching endless hours of BBC productions, not from having read the books. I'll admit it: I've never cracked open a Jane Austen novel. I'm working on remedying this, so decided to make quick work of another classic I've never read, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain. Growing up next door to Missouri this might be a little surprising but even though ET#1 thought I must have been absent from that week of 9th grade, I checked with my sister and she never had to read it either, so it wasn't my fault. I certainly read a lot of American authors-- Poe, Wharton (Ethan Frome, ugh!), Knowles...but never Twain.
I won't comment a lot on this book, in part because Twain advises us not to read into any morality and in part because any liberal leaning, This American Life loving, born and bred in the heartland (Kansas-- a free state from the get go!) can easily see where the book was going. Plus I had the soundtrack to Big River on cd in about 7th grade. The book was delightful and my only disappointment was that it was essentially a sequel to The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (oh references to Lost, I'm sure!).
Today I made my own journey...to the grocery store. And bought catfish, in honor of Huck and Jim, and fried it up good.
Netflix stars: 5/5

Run

2008-05-05T16:18:00.001-04:00

I tend to be highly critical of books and movies about Boston, always looking for inauthenticity. The Afflecs are always, "We're from Bahston, we've got the accent." And I'm like, "No, you're from Cambridge. But thanks for advocating for the larger Boston metro area." Authors tend to overstate Boston landmarks, making egregious references to neighborhoods like Roxbury, Dorchester and Charlestown. In Run, Anne Patchett made mostly skillful remarks about landmarks, noting the Citgo sign on a drive to Cambridge, and referencing various T stations. In fact, knowing the city and knowing how small it really is and how various locations fit together, is key to the story.

A prominent Boston Irish politician and his wife adopt two African American children after they couldn't have any more children (suspend your disbelief that such a mixing of races could happen 25 years ago in Boston) and Run takes place over the 24 hours after one of the grown sons is nearly hit by a car, save a strategic push from a woman who turns out to be his and his brother's biological mother. The woman's young daughter, Kenya, witnesses the event and over the course of the night details how she and her mother know the family, and how they have been secretly keeping tabs on the boys for years. This sort of anonymity and close proximity is so possible in a city like Boston. Save the transient college students, Bostonians live here for generations and the city is small enough that you can run into the same people over and over again. Blue blood Boston Brahmins live mere blocks from the city's poor in public housing.

Besides checking on the accuracy of references to my city, I also hold close a carefully edited book, one which keeps the economy of words in check. Fortunately this book held up on both accounts. I'll give it 4/5 netflix stars.

As a nice aside, my mom went to a reading by Ms. Patchett and had this book signed for me!

What is the What

2008-04-25T08:00:00.002-04:00

11:04 AM matt: did you make it through what is the what?

me: almost! I have about30 pages left!

what were your thoughts?

matt: well

it's too long by about half

11:05 AM and maybe it was very true to the guy's voice, but it seemed pretty flat.

i wasn't a huge fan

me: yeah, that's what I thought too!

11:06 AM matt: but i did like seeing how his refuge community sort of knit itself together

me: I actually thought the "voice" changed a lot-- it wasn't consistent

and I didn't like the narrating to the present day characters-- like the nurse in the ER or the attackers' son

I feel guilty for not liking it more

11:07 AM matt: yeah i didn't like that either - really really pedantic.

11:08 AM i started to feel guilty and then realized that a david eggars book is not to be confused with the actual plight of these people, you know

me: I think he would have done better to have a different ghost writer

Eggers I think was too focussed on his own story

(heartbreaking work of staggering genius)

11:09 AM matt: i also wonder if this type of book is just the P.C. modern version of travel narratives like the heart of darkness and robinson crusoe

me: it did seem politically motivated

matt: which would sort of cast in a light of appropriation of these peoples' story

me: I did like that the story became more real

11:10 AM It made it make more sense to me

I felt sad about William K, and Tabitha...

which isn't something you get from the news necessarily

11:11 AM matt: well true. the book definitely wasn't terrible, and is effective as a educational or political tool, which is probably what it was meant as

but if i'd realized that beforehand i probably wouldn't have started it

when is your book club?

11:14 AM me: book club is Saturday!

I might be the only one who read it

Heart of a Dog

2008-04-06T20:47:00.002-04:00

My friend Jane loves Russian literature. She gave me Heart of a Dog by Mikhail Bulgakov to read years ago and I got about 8 pages into it and lost interest. Russian literature to me is dark, cold and depressing. I've read One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich a couple of times and would rather read almost anything else. But after reading Russian Journal I thought maybe I'd better appreciate it. In fact, having Ms. Lee's descriptions of average Soviet citizens did help me better understand this novella. A bourgeois professor and a doctor colleague work to create a new kind of man-- using the body and heart of a mutt, they transfer glands from a recently deceased man and the dog becomes a new man. Each of the characters is over dramatized-- the professor is batty, yet demanding, the doctor possessive of his work, the female employees timid and demure. Citizen Sharik, the newly created beast, is the opposite of the professor and his staff; he's base, crude and aligns himself with the proletariat citizens who are trying to kick the professor and his associates out of their luxorious apartment.
What struck me most about this novella was that it was hilarious! It was easy to imagine as a play with the banter between the characters and the various situations Sharik especially gets himself into (chasing cats and causing a flood in a bathroom which he accidentally locks himself in).
I found this novella easy to read and likely a good introduction to Bulgakov's satire The Master and Margarita. I give this 4/5 netflix stars.

Russian Journal

2008-03-30T13:27:00.002-04:00

I put greater trust in people with whom I share a name, Andrea. I picked a primary care doctor only because her name was Andrea and she was fantastic. All the Andreas I've ever met have been amazing. So when I discovered the writer Andrea Lee several years ago, I automatically assumed she would be a great writer. Not only do we share the same first name, but my middle name is Lee, so the sisterhood was sealed. And, true to form, she is a great writer.
Russian Journal is her first book-- it's a non fiction description of her time in the Soviet Union in the late 70s. Growing up in the 80s, the Soviet Union was a place completely off limits-- images of dark, dismal landscapes, people waiting in endless lines for scratchy toilet paper and root vegetables, plus, of course the constant threat of Communism to our freedom loving souls. Ms. Lee carefully paints a picture not unlike that described above, but with even more depth. She does not hide her distaste for the shortfalls of the huge Communist country-- the poverty, miseducation of its citizens and destruction of an imperial history in favor of boxy low rent conformity. But she draws a careful line between the institution that created this and the people who are a part of it. She makes friends who readily criticize the Party as well as friends whose patriotism is unmatched. She uses a journalist's eye to evoke character descriptions of her friends and the total landscape they inhabit. She finds herself missing "luxuries" such as freely speaking and going wherever she would like. She misses the glitzy advertising in the U.S. that is missing from the U.S.S.R. She misses the "whole" movie (sex scenes are edited out of imported movies). But when she arrives back in Boston, she finds she has a much greater appreciation for the lives and struggles of her Russian friends and finds herself appreciating them all the more.
Ms. Lee's descriptions confirmed many of my notions about Soviet Russia-- the coveting of American blue jeans and music, the cold and cramped housing. But now I'll also think of Grigorii, the student assigned to spy on Ms. Lee and her husband, but who they grew close to nonetheless, and his quiet appreciation of the nightingale's song. Or of Ms. Lee's descriptions of the ice breaking up in the spring, and the crisp cool air with eventual lilacs.
This was a beautifully written book so I'm giving if 5/5 netflix stars.

Catch Up

2008-03-20T19:43:00.000-04:00

I am way behind on my book entries. It's at the point where I've read so many since posting that it makes me cringe when I think about reviewing all of them! So I've decided to condense them, and write a little bit about each of them instead of my usual long post. It's the only way to get myself back on track!

THE LION, THE WITCH AND THE WARDROBE- by c.s. lewis

2008-03-20T19:38:00.003-04:00

Again- catching up on some childhood reading. This went much faster than I remembered it as a kid, but was just as enjoyable. Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy are sent to live with Professor Digory Kirke (yes, the same Digory from The Magician's Nephew), when Lucy stumbles upon an old wardrobe which, when hidden in, brings her to Narnia. Eventually, the other children accompany her, and the adventures with Aslan, the Witch, and the faun Tumnus begin.
Great read- second, third, or twentieth time around.
Netflix rating? 4.5/5 stars.

THE MAGICIAN'S NEPHEW- by c.s. lewis

2008-03-20T19:28:00.004-04:00

At some point, I decided I needed to start at the beginning, and read all of the Chronicles of Narnia. I think I read The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe as a kid, but never the other books, and since m. has the whole set, I could easily borrow them from her.
This book was actually written after the rest, but was meant as an explanation for how Narnia came to be. Digory and his friend Polly stumble across a secret tunnel, and accidentally end up in his crazy uncle's attic room. The uncle is a magician, and has found a way of making things disappear into another time, but is too afraid to go himself. He tricks Polly into touching a magic ring, and after she disappears, Digory goes to help her. Their adventures while in this other world show the creation of Narnia, along with Aslan and the witch.
How could I not like this? It's one of the great childhood books!
Netflix rating? 4.5/5 stars.

MY LIFE IN FRANCE- by julia child with alex prud'homme

2008-03-20T19:11:00.005-04:00

Bookclub book as you already know from Andrea's review!
This book brings you through most of Julia Child's older life, beginning in her mid-thirties when she moves to France with her husband, Paul. She can't really cook well, but has learned to appreciate good food and drink through Paul, and is excited to move to the perfect place to learn- Paris! She takes classes at the Cordon Bleu, and realizes not only how much she loves cooking, but how much she has to learn! She puts the effort in, and we all know how well that paid off. Much of the book is focused on her writing The Art of French Cooking with new friends Simca and Louisette, and it's astounding to learn how thoroughly they tested every recipe.
I became more excited as I read, because I'd just received her book, The Art of French Cooking for Christmas. I found myself referring to the cookbook several times while reading the bookclub cook. It was great to learn so much about how it was written and illustrated.
Netflix rating? 5/5 stars.

THE FIG EATER- by jody shields

2008-03-20T18:57:00.004-04:00

I really wanted to read this book- so much so, that I bought two copies without realizing it!
Taking place in late fall, 1910 Vienna, this story begins with a mysterious death of a young woman, Dora. She's found strangled in a park, with an undigested fig in her stomach. The Inspector, along with his assistant Franz, immediately start gathering physical evidence, and photographing the scene. They use typical investigative techniques for their time, which is interesting to learn about. He also uses an early form of psychological profiling to help him determine the guilty party. At the same time, his wife Erzebet is performing her own investigation using different techniques and search methods. This is where the fig comes into play, as figs are not imported from warm climates, and don't grow well in Vienna. Ersebet becomes convinced that discovering where the fig came from will solve the murder.
I liked this more than I thought I would, though the ending was still a bit of a let down.
Netflix rating? 4/5 stars.

THE TIME TRAVELER'S WIFE- by audrey niffinegger

2008-03-20T18:46:00.003-04:00

This is a pretty long book, which is why it's been on my shelf for so long. I'm glad that I finally got about to reading it, because it was definitely a good one.
Henry De Tamble suffers from "chrono displacement disorder" which basically means he disappears unexpectedly and travels to another point in his life- past or future. He meets his wife Clare when they're both in their 20's, but due to his time traveling, she first met him when she was 6. She grew up knowing him at different ages, but it isn't until he's older that he meets her as a child. The book follows Henry and his trips through past, present and future, and shows how ultimately, his relationship with Clare is what defines him.
I wish that there had been more exploration of the characters towards the end of the book, but I understand why Niffinegger ended it the way she did. All in all, I loved it.
Netflix rating? 4.5/5 stars.

Lucky Girls

2008-03-19T19:57:00.003-04:00

One of my favorite literary exchanges took place in this book, Lucky Girls by Nell Freudenberger. It's a small volume of short stories about young American women living mostly in foreign countries, or at least exploring their own foreign feelings.

In 'Outside the Eastern Gate' the narrator, a young woman currently living in the U.S., gets a call from her sister who asks, "Are you lying on the couch?" The narrator responds, "I just finished with that. Now I'm thinking about whether to make a sandwich." This simple phrase epitomizes the will and ultimate resolve, often while under personal duress, of all the characters in the book. One woman may have been assaulted while studying in Thailand, but maybe there was just a misunderstanding. One woman moved to India to be close to her married lover, and after his death, may move back to the U.S. But maybe not. And there are girls who are thinking about who to have sex with the first time. They may decide, or maybe not.
This book was lent to me by my friend Rashmi. We agree on many things-- politics, clothes, drinks after work (always yes). But we often have different taste in movies and books. I hated The Emperor's Children and she loved it. I loved Lolita and she hated it. But we agree on books about strong women who make their own decisions and don't apologize for them. We agree on Nell Freudenberger and we agree on Andrea Lee.
Lately I've been lying on the couch a lot. But I know if Rashmi calls, I can tell her that I'm done doing that, and that I'm deciding whether to make a sandwich, and perhaps to meet for drinks after work.
Netflix stars: 5/5.

The Pickup

2008-03-16T21:09:00.002-04:00

Besides being a book on my shelf, The Pickup was authored by Nadine Gordimer, a friend of Paul Theroux, so after reading his his novellas, I thought I'd give this a shot. I read July's People a few years ago and found it both uncomfortable and probably accurate. Ms. Gordimer is a white African, and, like Doris Lessing or other female, white, African writers, carries a heavy mantle. She writes about race conflict, but in an intimate, yet removed, manner.
The Pickup details a relationship between Julie, a privelaged white South African woman, and her "pick-up" lover, Adbu, someone from a more 3rd world African country. At first I thought The Pickup was a comment on the current U.S. policy on "illegals" but came to realize that many countries have this conflict and that while I could see current U.S. debate in the characters, it was also very space specific. To mention that Julie is privelaged is like saying the earth is round; she chooses to live a bohemian lifestyle, maybe working, maybe not, in a small cottage in the city, away from her suburban upbringing and well-to-do father. She regularly meets a group of friends at the L.A. Cafe and these friends serve as her surrogate family. They all come and go, not answering to anyone. She meets Abdu when she gets in an accident and needs her car repaired. On impulse she invites him to coffee at her cafe and from there it goes. She seems sincere, but it's unclear what she sees in him-- is he a further act of revolt from her father? And what does he see in her besides a possible entree into "legal" society? They take their relationship farther than anyone imagines, and Julie can ask for general favors from her family: money to provide a needed well for his family (a liberal ideal of service) but cannot ask her father for specific help obtaining visas. Abdu can provide for her adventure and something different (she does not shy away from, nor complain about rustic conditions) but cannot provide the ultimate security for her: an accepting family.
Ms. Gordimer writes this book in the 3rd person passive voice, making it difficult to get to fully know or identify with the characters, which is maybe the point. She interjects editorial, pointing out that Julie's, and that of her friends and family, status would give allow her to emigrate country to country, never really being "illegal" but Abdu, by virtue of his race, religion and country of birth, can never be welcomed anywhere but there.
I liked this book but didn't love it. I had a hard time identifying with any of the characters although by the end I was able to sympathize with the decisions each made. I give this book 3/5 netflix stars.

In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto

2008-02-27T09:44:00.002-05:00

In high school we had a foreign exchange student from Italy, Laura, attend Wichita Public High School for a year. You are welcome to think that living in Wichita for a year would be a more of a punishment rather than an "equal exchange", but I like to think that probably more than any of us who currently live in major metropolitan U.S. cities, she got a feel for how the majority of Americans live. I remember her telling me that she missed mozzarella-- at home it was fresh and came packed in liquid. I had no idea what she was talking about-- mozzarella, like all cheese, came shrink wrapped in a uniform block and resided in the refrigerated section at Dillons.

When I moved to Boston after graduation, I was suddenly exposed to many more fresh foods: the fresh mozzarella, fresh pasta and sauce, fresh, brown eggs and...the Farmer's Market! (I also missed foods of my own, like pimento cheese spread.)

It's now been more than 10 years and I eat and cook much different than I did growing up. Part of this is expense-- the prepackaged food are more expensive than making a huge pot of red beans and rice. But part of it is also thanks to Michael Pollan. The Omnivore's Dilemma exposed how much high fructose corn syrup is in everything and how Big Farming has environmental as well as health costs. If we're able to be responsible consumers, why shouldn't we?

His new book, In Defense of Food, tells us how to identify the real food (fresh mozz in water) from the fake food (block of white cheese "product" encapsulated in plastic with a list of ingredients longer than this post). Pollan tells us that we've been duped by scientists and nutritionists with every passing food fad (currently Omega-3s) and that sometimes the sum is greater than the parts (supplements just don't provide the same total nutrition that whole grains and plants do). His advice is threefold: Eat Food. Not too much. Mostly Plants. Sounds easy and logical, but he breaks down how the Western Diet has made it difficult; we eat mostly processed and refined foods, with additives, we eat portion sizes much bigger than most cultures, and take our cues on satiation not on feeling, but on visual clues and finally we are a culture which eats many pounds more of meat per person per year than other cultures.

Mr. Pollan's premise in this book is radical because it is so different than how we eat, and how we grew up eating. It presents a doable challenge and ultimately reminds us that is what is good for the environment is also good for our health, and vice versa. This book gets 5/5 netflix stars.

Last Child In The Woods: Saving Our Children From Nature-Deficit Disorder

2008-02-20T20:14:00.001-05:00

Readers of my other blog, Zandrea, might recall my anecdote on taking our girlscout troop "camping" last summer and my amazment, along with my other troop leaders, that the girls did not run off into the camp wilderness during freetime. They all stayed close to the lodge and for the most part did crafts that could just as easily been done inside (which, due to rain, at times they were). We attributed it to their being "city kids".

About a month ago, I was watching one of those Sunday morning shows* and a statistic along the lines of our grandparents knew and traveled 5 miles around their house, while our parents knew about a 2 mile radius and today's children are many times limited to their very house, if not their front and back yards. The book this came from is called Last Child In the Woods: Saving Our Children From Nature-Deficit Disorder by Richard Louv. I immediately added it to my library queue. I had wondered if I was just having a "kids today!" moment so thought this book might validate some of my observations.

Mr. Louv discusses various repercussions of "nature-deficit" among this generation of children: higher incidences of ADHD, not being able to identify local species of birds, insects, trees (thereby decreasing the liklihood of preserving them), childhood to adulthood obesity. Mr. Louv sites many reasons for this, and kids watching tv and playing video games is just one small reason. Liability/litigation have made exploring neighborhoods off limits, fear of "stranger-danger" has lead parents to keep kids within eye and earshot, organized sports and school have lead to less free time and schools have cut out recess and physical education if favor of more academic time to pass required tests. But Mr. Louv presents adults and kids working to buck the trend-- progressive school programs which feature nature learning, trips to the Alaskan wilderness for inner city kids. I thought about my experience in nature as a kid-- not a lot in Kansas, but summer vacations were often in Colorado or New Mexico and when we did visit New England, hours were spent at the beach, creating makeshift aquariums. Freshman year of high school I had an assignment to make an insect collection. I balked because what 14 year old girl wants to collect bugs? But I did it and was amazed enough to still recall it 16 years later.
Mr. Louv sometimes comes across as the dorky dad-- he makes us all feel good but also like maybe we shouldn't swear so much and drink more milk and less alcohol. But at the end of it all, he presents a compelling argument to set an example for kids and get back out in nature**. This reads like a college sociology book (although I liked my college sociology class), so it's getting only 4/5 netflix stars.

*note to self: get off your duff and get outside!
**inspired, I'm going to go outside and watch the total lunar eclipse. Or at least watch from the window with a movie on in the background.

Trail of Crumbs

2008-02-20T15:45:00.002-05:00

A nice article in the New York Times about Ms. Sunee's new book.

Trail of Crumbs: Hunger, Love and the Search for Home

2008-02-10T20:28:00.001-05:00

I picked up this book after seeing an ad for it in the New Yorker; a memoir about a young woman's life in France and her love of food...having just finished My Life In France I was still hungry. Trail of Crumbs by Kim Sunee delivered on the romantic just as Julia Child's book did. But it was filled with bittersweet and sometimes downright depressing imagery as well. The end of most chapters contained at least one recipe corresponding to the remembered time and place just described.
Ms. Sunee was adopted by a New Orleans couple after being abandoned on the streets of South Korea with just a handful of crumbs for three days. Like other books I've read about an adopted child, Ms. Sunee is never quite happy, and doesn't fit in. She and her sister are the only Asian children in school and she always feels uncomfortable around her parents. She does find solace with her grandparents, especially her grandfather, from whom she learns the secrets of Louisiana cooking. As soon as she's old enough to leave home, she does. She spends a semester abroad in France as her first travel alone. She wants to become a poet, a writer and learns French. She is soon able to translate for work.
At a young age she meets men more advanced in years and experience, but being seemingly fearless, Ms. Sunee follows them, looking for her own history. At 23 she falls in love with a wealthy, nearing 40 year old French businessman with an adolescent daughter. Ms. Sunee is soon "adopted" into this family with various roles: lover, step mother, social hostess, home keeper and cook. She only feels truly comfortable cooking and provides the reader for recipes such as spring pea salads and La Daube Provencale, wild peaches poached in Lillet Blanc and Figs roasted in Red Wine. Some of her recipes are memories of a past both real (Monday red beans and rice, Crawfish bisque) and imagined (quick fix kimchi).
As the years pass she feels more and more unsettled, especially as her partner Olivier establishes a life for her more and more. She ultimately has to make decisions that women twice her age have a hard time making, and her naivete and inexperience push through her strong facade. While I respected her for her bravery, I was conscious of her seeming lack of appreciation for a life she had, whether she truly wanted it or not (probably an inherent trait in a young 20 something).
I liked this book, but I was hopeful for more sophisticated self reflection, a la Eat, Pray, Love. Still, it was an enjoyable read, one that took the gloom out of a bleak Boston Sunday. 4/5 netflix stars.

My Life in France

2008-01-24T20:59:00.001-05:00

Continuing on with the French theme...My Life in France by Julia Child with Alex Prud'homme was my pick for book club. I was first re-introduced to Julia Child through the popular blog the Julie/Julia Project, where a "serventless American cook" attempts to recreate all the recipes in Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking. I then read Julie Powell's book based on the blog (so meta!) and netflixed some of Julia's old "French Chef" shows. I was smitten!

Julia Child is admirable in so many ways. When I worry that I am getting older and have nothing to show for it and relatively little direction, I remember Julia. She married in her mid-30s and only started cooking when her marriage took them to France. In an era when women were not encouraged to work and were encouraged to raise a family, Julia broke the mold. Julia threw her passion into learning, cooking, teaching, traveling and living life to its fullest. I didn't intentionally pick a love story for February's book club, but it became evident that Julia loved Paul more than anything. They had overlapping interests and supported each other in everything. Julia did have conflicts-- as with anyone who collaborates with a friend, disagreements ensued. But despite her frustrations, the friendship remained of prime importance. And she flaunted her political beliefs, causing a familial rift with her father, but she stuck to her guns and beliefs.
I think my admiration and lovefest for Julia and this book is pretty clear. I was even inspired to make French Bread! This book gets an easy 5/5 netflix stars.

Swann's Way and Chocolate and Zucchini

2008-01-17T22:05:00.001-05:00

Over four years ago I bought an old hardback of Proust's Swann's Way , the first volume of his Remembrance of Things Past. I thought it would be one of those epics like War and Peace or Ulysses that I could be proud to say I'd read. I'd read it curled on the sofa on a winter afternoon, with tea and cookies by my side. However I let it langour and collect dust on my shelf and finally made a New Year's Resolution to read it. Since that resolution was in 2004, I did my best to get it read before the New Year 2008. Most of the reading was in the SeaTac Airport, and subsequent flight from Seattle to Boston. I conspicuously made my pretentious reading known to my row mates, especially when the pilot kept updating us with the score to the Pats game (only in Boston, only in Boston...).

Besides being known for his lengthy descriptions, Proust is probably best known for his love of madeleines, the small French cookie. Fortunately I didn't have to delve in and wait until volume 3 or something-- the description took place before page 60 in the 600 page book! And because no one wants to read me describing his descriptions, I will instead describe my own attempt to make a delightful madeleine.
The recipe I used (after special ordering a madeleine pan from Amazon.com) was from Clotilde Dusoulier's Chocolate and Zucchini cookbook, based on her delightful blog. I like to think of Ms. Dusoulier as Proust's culinary heir to Paris; her recipes are classic yet updated and all have a story to tell, as she has her own cast of characters, much like narrator Marcel, and his friends and neighbors, in Swann's Way. The recipe I used was for savory Wanut, Pear and Rocquefort Madeleines. It was quick and easy, but since I chowed down on an appetizer of cheese and crackers, followed by an entree of baked mac n cheese, I wasn't so hungry when they came out of the oven. But the cats were! I had one and confirmed that once I am not so stuffed (in a few hours hence), they will taste wonderful.

In all earnestness, Swann's Way really was enjoyable and easy to read. I was surprised by Proust's humor: M. Swann suffers the same paranoia and lovesickness that anyone in a relationship endures. He humiliates himself by spying on his beloved and causing himself to fall out of favor with his preferred society. His characters have their personalities and ticks and his descriptions of places and events are evocative. I found myself laughing at the different characters' predicaments (which no doubt would be trivial had any of them had work or real jobs which to attend). Although Swann's Way is not plot driven and can take some time to read, it is worth it. I'm already looking forward to reading the remaining six volumes! I give both Swann's Way and Chocolate and Zucchini 5 Netflix Stars.

SNOW FLOWER AND THE SECRET FAN- by lisa see

2008-01-15T22:17:00.000-05:00

Yet again I am the second to review this book- though I finished it well over a month ago. I also read another book before this that I'm blanking on, so that review will come once I remember the book. As for Snow Flower, I really lucked out since Andrea already gave the summary. I'll just write my opinion.
Like she mentioned, this book reminded me of The Good Earth- a previous pick for bookclub- and not just because they both took place in China. What I found interesting was the different feel I got for the era in which they took place. Like Andrea mentioned, Snow Flower and the Secret Fan took place approximately 100 years before The Good Earth, and yet I found it more relatable and current than The Good Earth. This could be due to the writing style (The Good Earth was written in 1931 and Snow Flower in 2005) or the fact that the main characters in Snow Flower were female, and therefore more familiar to me. In any case, I found that if certain era-identifying elements were removed from the book, I would have believed it took place in current time.
While I truly liked Snow Flower's character throughout the book, Lily's frustrated me at parts. Her selfishness and quick judgement had devastating effects, and yet her character was the one who remained highly regarded. Her uncle and aunt were my favorites- their place in the family was not strong, and yet they always made the best of what they had.
Overall a great read. It drew me and and held my attention quite well. Probably one of the quickest reads I've read in a while!
Netflix rating? 4/5 stars.