Forever

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

Never Let Me Go

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.

A Walk In The Woods

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

Twilight And Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince

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

The Lone Pilgrim

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

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

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?

Netherland

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

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

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

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

Sophie's Choice

Watching Sophie's Choice was like visiting a familiar place you haven't been in awhile and seeing old friends. The cinematic recreation was just how I envisioned everything from the book. The Pink Palace was the industrial surplus navy pink I envisioned, the rooms spacious and warm, Sophie's and Nathan's apartment made precious with the gramophone, her silky robes and changing screen.
I was prompted to watch Sophie's Choice by a recent article in the New Yorker by Styron's daughter, recounting her years growing up in New York, the daughter of a successful, well regarded author. Reading Sophie's Choice you know Stingo is a young Styron, but according to Ms. Styron, Nathan is who Styron was to become; plagued by depression, Styron passed away just over a year ago. Ms. Styron wrote of the society types that came to her house growing up. Her parents welcomed everyone and a party was never more than 30 seconds away, not unlike Sophie's and Nathan's imaginary fetes, the calm before the storm.
The two sides of Styron were well portrayed by McNichol and Kline and in a sense, really emphasized the turn from naivete to striking and debilitating knowledge of love, sex and life. As in the book, the viewer (who is also Stingo) is made uncomfortable by Nathan and Sophie's love, by their furious fights, and by their lying (and ultimately, by Sophie's truth). But even as we realize Sophie's fate, Stingo remains in the dark, asking Sophie to marry him and have a family with him. Even though Sophie is less than 10 years younger than Stingo, she might as well be a lifetime older.
Ms. Styron admitted that due to the frankness and candidness of Sophie's Choice, she didn't read it at all growing up, but watched the movie over and over. In my mind, the book has more depth by far. It references literary works by Thomas Wolfe and Emily Dickinson that the movie only touches on and Stingo's father and his family's slave owning past are mentioned briefly if at all. But the movie held it's own. I'll give it 5 netflix stars.

Snow Flower and the Secret Fan

Several months back our book club read The Good Earth, which told of the hard life of peasants in China in the early 20th century. Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See takes place about a century earlier, but despite the better standing of Lily and Snow Flower, their hardships were much the same as the family in The Good Earth.
Lily and Snow Flower are sworn as laotong, an eternal BFF, early in their lives. They understand their roles as women-- from early footbinding, to learning domestic arts, to marriage and serving their husbands and husband's families. While they never question those roles, they find ways to communicate true feelings, happiness, and especially unhappiness through the secret writing nu shu. Just like the peasants in The Good Earth, these girls experience drought, famine, untimely death and illness as well as success through hard work and tradition keeping.
The friendship Lily and Snow Flower shared was poignant, but the descriptions of the accepted footbindings were what really amazed me. Although impossible to change a tradition in one generation or by one woman, I was surprised that the two "sisters" so easily and readily accepted the practice for their own daughters after experiencing such pain and personal loss.
I enjoyed Snow Flower and the Secret Fan-- the story moved swiftly and the characters came to life with plausible jealousies, loves, desires and pain. Netflix rating 3/5.

The Emperor's Children and In The Drink

With summer comes the inevitable Summer Beach Read. The SBR was created so that one could read, doze and pick up again without having to re-read the previous page. The topic should be lighthearted with easy to remember characters and plain vocab that doesn't require dragging along a dictionary. My most recent two books met most of these requirements.

The first, a book club pick, The Emperor's Children by Claire Messud, detailed the lives of a handful of 30 something adults living in Manhattan. The second, a several years old hand me down from friend and former bar night buddy, Tishka, called In The Drink by Kate Christensen detailed the lives of a handful of 30 something adults living in Manhattan.

This summer has not produced the number of weekend beach days that I normally enjoy, so I've been imagining my front porch and inside sofa (with a soft breeze coming in from the window), as my beach. Since I haven't had to take frequent cool offs in the water, I was able to speed through these books. Being nearly 30 myself I was anticipating identifying with the characters in The Emperor's Children, but instead found their lives to be completely incongruous with mine; Marina is entitled, spoiled, and self centered. She lives with her parents and is unemployed, save for a manuscript she's been working on for seven years. Her close friend Danielle is slightly better off-- she has a "real" job and lives on her own, but is professionally and personally unfulfilled. Any respect I had for her I lost completely when she started an affair with Marina's famous father. Julian is their token gay and ethnic friend. I refer to him as such because he has no real function in the context of the rest of their lives. It's unclear to me what any of them have in common. Oh, he is mostly unemployed as well. Marina's 19 year old cousin, Frederick "Bootie" Tubb is the catalyst character and the most interesting and dynamic. Whereas the rest of them are filled with ennui, Bootie sets out and repeatedly makes changes to his unhappy life. I was pleased that the novel ended as it did.

Claudia is the primary character of In The Drink and she, along with her friends William, Jane and a few others whose names I've already forgotten, could easily be friends with the gang from The Emperor's Children. Claudia is an alcoholic with a dead end job (commisserate with Julian!) as a personal secretary to a socialite Jackie (who could float in the same circle as Marina's father, Murray Thwaite). She longs to write her own books (talk to Marina) instead of ghostwriting Jackie's. She doesn't eat well, she is broke, lives in a cruddy apartment and drinks too much. She has an on again off again affair with a married man (compare notes with Danielle) and makes no effort to improve her situation. In The Drink was similar to The Devil Wears Prada and any number of the other books that feature loser young adults living in Manhattan. I cringed while reading this book and couldn't imagine anyone with so little self esteem...and I subsequently felt miserable and depressed after reading it.

I need to change directions with my next book...no more beach reads! Or, maybe I just need to get off the couch and to the beach...

Netflix stars for both books: 2/5.

Sister of My Heart

Several years ago a close friend moved from her home here in Boston, across country to San Diego. I met her through Steph and really only became close to her that final summer before she moved. She, Steph and I would go rollerblading along the Esplanade every week, we each made a quilt and genarally hung out like junior high BFFs. At the end of the summer, she had to get rid of a lot of stuff-- I bought some furniture off her, but she also gave me some of her paintings and sculptures. Within the stuff I inherited was a copy of a book entitled Sister of My Heart. It was a hardback book and the synopsis was about two cousins growing up in India and how they were close like sisters. Five years later I finally got around to reading it, and while it was corny at times, it was also all consuming-- I couldn't wait to finish it. It was easy to find parallels between Sudha's and Anju's friendship and mine with my friend. Obviously neither of us had an arranged marriage, but we've both lived through and shared major life changes and a recent business trip to San Diego allowed us both to talk about our relationships deep into the night, not unlike Sudha's ultimate trip to the U.S. to be with Anju and her husband. At first I thought the book would be straightforward, but it turned out to have a complexity I wasn't expecting: the choices the cousins make conflict with traditional story telling and place them in direct conflict with society's dictations, as well as their own desires. Their attachment to each other over the years, excluding those around them, was at times unbelievable, as were the Mothers' change of mind towards the end. The end of the book left many avenues open, so I wasn't surprised to see a sequal... The Vine of Desire. Netflix stars? 3.5 out of 5 (my love of the book and its characters increased throughout).