I have been reading the books for 1955 (for My Big Fat Reading Project) since April of this year. My goal was to finish the list by the end of June. Ha. I still have 12 books to go. But I have made some progress since I returned from Michigan.
I read the Marcia Brown version of Cinderella which won the Caldecott Medal in 1955.
Arthur C Clarke died this year and reading about him and his work made me decide to add him to my list of sci fi authors. So I read my first book ever by him, Earthlight, published in 1955, which takes place on the moon. It was great.
The God of Animals, by Aryn Kyle, is a first novel and one of the best books I have read lately.
I power read through an advance readers copy of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, by Stief Larsson, so I could post my opinion on BookBrowse.com (a very cool site about new books that come out.) It was entertaining and has a fantastic heroine. It publishes in September.
Falling Man by Don DeLillo was for one of my reading groups. It is about people in the aftermath of 9/11 and VERY disturbing. But finally I have read a book by this author.
For another reading group I read The Savage Garden by Mark Mills. It is supposed to be a literary mystery but it was BORING.
Last weekend I started work on the chapter about 1953 for my memoir, Reading For My Life, and realized that I had neglected to read The Second Sex, by Simone de Beauvoir. She published the book in France in 1949, but it was released in English in America in 1953. At 720 pages, it is a tome, so I started the other day with a target to read 50 pages a day, which I have now done for three days in a row. Definitely not a page turner, but so amazing. She is one of the most intelligent writers I have read. Every woman needs to read this book.
Meanwhile I read The Talented Mr Ripley, by Patricia Highsmith. Wow. I loved the movie but the book is so much better. And I had not realized that she wrote it in 1955.
Tonight I will start Andersonville, by MacKinlay Kantor, which was #3 on the bestseller list for 1955 and won the Pulitzer Prize in 1956. This one is 760 pages! Plus it is about a prisoner of war camp in the South during the Civil War. I'll have to read some chick lit after all this.
(Just so you don't think wrongly about me, the above reading was done over a three week period.)
So...what are you reading? Have you read any of the above books? Any recommendations? Can you tell I am hungry for comments?
Sunday, August 31, 2008
WORD OF THE DAY
These word of the day posts are a bit hard to do and I have been lazy. Actually I have been reading, but I have put this off for too long, thinking that it takes up too much of my time. But for readers and writers alike, building vocabulary is key. Do you agree?
Today's word is pilaster and comes from page 16 of Children of Men by PD James. (She, by the way, gave me 8 words to look up in the first 98 pages.) This is a word that I have read and not known (except that it is something on a building) for years, so I finally got honest and looked it up.
pilaster noun
a rectangular support or pier projecting partially from a wall and treated architecturally as a column, with a base, shaft and capital.
derived from the French, pilastre from the Italian pila, a pile, column
My sentence: She dreamed of a room with four pilasters on each wall, every one of which was painted a different color.
Please feel free to leave your sentence in the comments.
Today's word is pilaster and comes from page 16 of Children of Men by PD James. (She, by the way, gave me 8 words to look up in the first 98 pages.) This is a word that I have read and not known (except that it is something on a building) for years, so I finally got honest and looked it up.
pilaster noun
a rectangular support or pier projecting partially from a wall and treated architecturally as a column, with a base, shaft and capital.
derived from the French, pilastre from the Italian pila, a pile, column
My sentence: She dreamed of a room with four pilasters on each wall, every one of which was painted a different color.
Please feel free to leave your sentence in the comments.
A SLIPPING DOWN LIFE
A Slipping Down Life, Anne Tyler, Alfred A Knopf, 1970, 186 pp
This is Tyler's third novel and reads somewhat like an early novel, yet has her signature characters: people who live just outside the mainstream.
Evie Decker is a plump, motherless high school girl in a small town. She becomes, in her own detached way, infatuated with a local rock singer. As the story goes on she gets increasingly involved in Drumstrings Casey's life. Nothing really bad ever happens to her but there is a sort of underlying menace throughout the story. Evie is smart and fearless but also pretty clueless so you fear for her.
I was intrigued and pulled along all the way. There is just no one quite like Anne Tyler. And there is a movie!
This is Tyler's third novel and reads somewhat like an early novel, yet has her signature characters: people who live just outside the mainstream.
Evie Decker is a plump, motherless high school girl in a small town. She becomes, in her own detached way, infatuated with a local rock singer. As the story goes on she gets increasingly involved in Drumstrings Casey's life. Nothing really bad ever happens to her but there is a sort of underlying menace throughout the story. Evie is smart and fearless but also pretty clueless so you fear for her.
I was intrigued and pulled along all the way. There is just no one quite like Anne Tyler. And there is a movie!
Friday, August 29, 2008
THE BOOK OF AIR AND SHADOWS
The Book of Air and Shadows, Michael Gruber, William Morrow, 2007, 466 pp
I admit it. Sometimes I pick a book because of its title. This one was promoted as being a smart thriller. Well, yes, it had plenty of smart people in it, including a compulsively philandering intellectual properties lawyer, his perfect wife who made millions as a financial advisor, his brilliant but fairly autistic son, a Shakespeare scholar, etc.
It is a thriller combined with a sort of literary style and quite a scathing wit. The book is all about the plot, which I won't go into except to say that various people are after a supposedly never before seen Shakespeare play. (Worth millions of course.) It was the plot that kept me reading; its many twists kept me guessing right until the final page. The characters, the wit, and the info on Shakespeare dressed it up. Really nothing wrong, though it was a bit wordy for a pleasure read, which it was clearly meant to be. I think I was hoping for another Shadow of the Wind, but I didn't get that.
I admit it. Sometimes I pick a book because of its title. This one was promoted as being a smart thriller. Well, yes, it had plenty of smart people in it, including a compulsively philandering intellectual properties lawyer, his perfect wife who made millions as a financial advisor, his brilliant but fairly autistic son, a Shakespeare scholar, etc.
It is a thriller combined with a sort of literary style and quite a scathing wit. The book is all about the plot, which I won't go into except to say that various people are after a supposedly never before seen Shakespeare play. (Worth millions of course.) It was the plot that kept me reading; its many twists kept me guessing right until the final page. The characters, the wit, and the info on Shakespeare dressed it up. Really nothing wrong, though it was a bit wordy for a pleasure read, which it was clearly meant to be. I think I was hoping for another Shadow of the Wind, but I didn't get that.
Monday, August 25, 2008
COAL RUN
Coal Run, Tawni O'Dell, Viking Penguin, 2004, 351 pp
This is her second novel, preceded by Back Roads and followed by Sister Mine. I've now read all of them. Once again she writes about the depressed coal mining region of Pennsylvania but of the three novels, I would say this is her weakest.
The story opens explosively when a mine blows and many men are killed. Ivan Zoschenko is just three years old when he loses his father in the debacle. Then it is 30 years later and Ivan is telling his story: how he adopted his next door neighbor Val as a father figure, how he grew up to become a football hero but then missed out on a pro career due to an injury, how he went off to Florida and became a zero to his family.
Now he is back because his old nemesis is about to be released from prison. He is working as a law enforcement deputy, drinking heavily and harbors a dark secret.
O'Dell has created her usual cast of strong but flawed characters and evokes the small town just as well as in the other books. The story kept me hooked. What left me less than impressed was Ivan's voice, which was inconsistent and often sounded nothing like a man in his early 30s.
So, good story, great characters, excellent sense of place with weak narrator. Well, Ivan was a pretty weak guy and at the end he is still weak. He faced some demons but he didn't grow, which is perhaps appropriate for a miner's son.
This is her second novel, preceded by Back Roads and followed by Sister Mine. I've now read all of them. Once again she writes about the depressed coal mining region of Pennsylvania but of the three novels, I would say this is her weakest.
The story opens explosively when a mine blows and many men are killed. Ivan Zoschenko is just three years old when he loses his father in the debacle. Then it is 30 years later and Ivan is telling his story: how he adopted his next door neighbor Val as a father figure, how he grew up to become a football hero but then missed out on a pro career due to an injury, how he went off to Florida and became a zero to his family.
Now he is back because his old nemesis is about to be released from prison. He is working as a law enforcement deputy, drinking heavily and harbors a dark secret.
O'Dell has created her usual cast of strong but flawed characters and evokes the small town just as well as in the other books. The story kept me hooked. What left me less than impressed was Ivan's voice, which was inconsistent and often sounded nothing like a man in his early 30s.
So, good story, great characters, excellent sense of place with weak narrator. Well, Ivan was a pretty weak guy and at the end he is still weak. He faced some demons but he didn't grow, which is perhaps appropriate for a miner's son.
Thursday, August 21, 2008
THE ABSOLUTELY TRUE DIARY OF A PART-TIME INDIAN
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, Sherman Alexie, Little Brown and Company, 2007, 230 pp
Big book in terms of recognition and awards. It won the National Book Award in the Young Adult category. I liked it just fine but I would not call it great.
Junior is a smart but nerdy weakling who has grown up on a Spokane Indian reservation. He decides to go to high school in an all white neighboring town instead of attending the reservation school because he wants a good education and he suspects it might be a way out of a preordained life on the rez, where most people die alcohol related deaths. Throughout the book, he suffers; at home, where he is looked upon as a traitor and at school, where he is the only Indian besides the school mascot.
The story draws you in, the humor is truly funny, Junior's trials affect your heart and Alexie makes plenty of important points about Native American life in the 21st century. In the end though, the story arc is predictable. Instead of a white nerd overcoming social and personal barriers, it is a Native American nerd.
Having said that, I do think it is an important book for raising awareness about Native Americans, especially if they are still teaching the altered history I had in school.
Big book in terms of recognition and awards. It won the National Book Award in the Young Adult category. I liked it just fine but I would not call it great.
Junior is a smart but nerdy weakling who has grown up on a Spokane Indian reservation. He decides to go to high school in an all white neighboring town instead of attending the reservation school because he wants a good education and he suspects it might be a way out of a preordained life on the rez, where most people die alcohol related deaths. Throughout the book, he suffers; at home, where he is looked upon as a traitor and at school, where he is the only Indian besides the school mascot.
The story draws you in, the humor is truly funny, Junior's trials affect your heart and Alexie makes plenty of important points about Native American life in the 21st century. In the end though, the story arc is predictable. Instead of a white nerd overcoming social and personal barriers, it is a Native American nerd.
Having said that, I do think it is an important book for raising awareness about Native Americans, especially if they are still teaching the altered history I had in school.
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
PEONY IN LOVE
Peony in Love, Lisa See, Random House Inc, 2007, 284 pp
I can unreservedly say that I loved this book. It is even better than Snow Flower and the Secret Fan and I don't know why it didn't sell as well. Perhaps because the main character is a ghost for most of the story. Ghost stories of any kind rarely seem to stay on any bestseller list for long.
Peony is a young Chinese girl from a wealthy family in the 17th century. A new dynasty has taken over and the country is in turmoil politically and socially. For women, this means a chance for some unusual freedoms. On her birthday, her doting father presents a showing of the famous opera, The Peony Pavilion, a story of romantic love. Though Peony is already betrothed by custom to a man she has never seen, she is just at the age of romantic love and sexual longing.
She breaks several taboos and meets a young poet. They fall deeply in love but it is all a secret and of course tragedy strikes. As does the heroine in the opera, Peony gets the "love sickness," is unable to eat and dies. Due to various circumstances, her burial is not properly done and she is left to wander as a "hungry ghost" watching over her lover and trying desperately to re-enact the story in the opera.
It is a dramatic and touching tale. Peony comes to an understanding with the mother who kept her trapped and obedient while Peony was growing up. In fact, she comes to understand women, men, art, literature and how to determine her own destiny. There are wonderful scenes where women writers gather to discuss literature, which are like the world's first reading groups. As usual, in a Lisa See novel, the reader learns much about the traditions and culture of China. Though it is a tragedy, Peony in Love has a happy and satisfying ending. This is Lisa See's best book so far.
I can unreservedly say that I loved this book. It is even better than Snow Flower and the Secret Fan and I don't know why it didn't sell as well. Perhaps because the main character is a ghost for most of the story. Ghost stories of any kind rarely seem to stay on any bestseller list for long.
Peony is a young Chinese girl from a wealthy family in the 17th century. A new dynasty has taken over and the country is in turmoil politically and socially. For women, this means a chance for some unusual freedoms. On her birthday, her doting father presents a showing of the famous opera, The Peony Pavilion, a story of romantic love. Though Peony is already betrothed by custom to a man she has never seen, she is just at the age of romantic love and sexual longing.
She breaks several taboos and meets a young poet. They fall deeply in love but it is all a secret and of course tragedy strikes. As does the heroine in the opera, Peony gets the "love sickness," is unable to eat and dies. Due to various circumstances, her burial is not properly done and she is left to wander as a "hungry ghost" watching over her lover and trying desperately to re-enact the story in the opera.
It is a dramatic and touching tale. Peony comes to an understanding with the mother who kept her trapped and obedient while Peony was growing up. In fact, she comes to understand women, men, art, literature and how to determine her own destiny. There are wonderful scenes where women writers gather to discuss literature, which are like the world's first reading groups. As usual, in a Lisa See novel, the reader learns much about the traditions and culture of China. Though it is a tragedy, Peony in Love has a happy and satisfying ending. This is Lisa See's best book so far.
Sunday, August 17, 2008
THE IMPORTANCE OF MUSIC TO GIRLS
The Importance of Music to Girls, Lavinia Greenlaw, Farrar Straus and Giroux, 2007, 205 pp
I learned about this book in Susan Salter Reynold's "Discoveries" column in the Los Angeles Times Book Review. She made quite a discovery. It is a memoir of a girl growing up in the 70s and 80s in Great Britain, seen through her relationship to music. I can't express how amazing the book is because I am still trying to figure out how she did it. Lavinia Greenlaw is a poet, so that might partly explain how she distilled twenty years of life into short gem like chapters of pure essence.
Also, though I was a mother while she was growing up; though I grew up in the USA and she in England, I could easily experience through her writing how it was for her. Remembering those moments of pure music throughout my childhood and especially my teen, college and early adult years, was like a gift to me from her. She had her punk, I had Joni, but the music ran deep into our lives and it was how we made sense of our worlds.
I learned about this book in Susan Salter Reynold's "Discoveries" column in the Los Angeles Times Book Review. She made quite a discovery. It is a memoir of a girl growing up in the 70s and 80s in Great Britain, seen through her relationship to music. I can't express how amazing the book is because I am still trying to figure out how she did it. Lavinia Greenlaw is a poet, so that might partly explain how she distilled twenty years of life into short gem like chapters of pure essence.
Also, though I was a mother while she was growing up; though I grew up in the USA and she in England, I could easily experience through her writing how it was for her. Remembering those moments of pure music throughout my childhood and especially my teen, college and early adult years, was like a gift to me from her. She had her punk, I had Joni, but the music ran deep into our lives and it was how we made sense of our worlds.
I HAVE A GREAT FAMILY
I am back from Michigan. OK, I confess, I have been back for 8 days. And catching up and feeling guilty about not blogging. It was a wonderful trip filled with happy and hilarious moments and I did not want to come home. I am so blessed to have a family that is not one bit dysfunctional and full of love and respect for each other.
I got to do quite a bit of reading despite all the goings on (a Big Birthday BBQ celebrating 5 birthdays plus the Family Reunion to celebrate my Mom's 90th which is coming up on Jan 1, 2009. The reunion was attended by 80 friends and family members. My two sisters and I made all the food, with lots of help from sons and daughters.)
I read a great first novel, All About Lulu, by Jonathan Evison.
I got to read my friend Laurie Gailunas' first sci fi novel in manuscript form; about infertility and how a planet dealt with and overcame it. Very good, very full of women and sex and hormones. I can't wait until she gets published so you all can read it.
At long last I read Mrs Dalloway, by Virginia Woolf. Now I can read The Hours and see the movie.
The latest foster child memoir, Hope's Boy, by Andrew Bridge was fabulous.
I napped my way through A World of Love, by Elizabeth Bowen; a book from the 1955 reading list.
I started but have not finished: Scrambled Eggs at Midnight, by Brad Barkley and Heather Hepler, recommended by my daughter-in-law's sister, who is a twin and both sisters read more than I do.
I also started Neal Stephenson's The Confusion, Volume Two of his Baroque Cycle. After 800+ pages of that plus another 800 or so in Volume Three, The System of the World, I will get to read his new book, Anathem, which was just released. My husband is reading it now.
So that is the roundup. I am thinking of starting a weekly post called What I am Reading. What do you think?
As always, I love to hear from you, my readers, to find out what you are reading and anything else you have to say about the reading life.
Stay tuned for micro-reviews of the books mentioned above.
I got to do quite a bit of reading despite all the goings on (a Big Birthday BBQ celebrating 5 birthdays plus the Family Reunion to celebrate my Mom's 90th which is coming up on Jan 1, 2009. The reunion was attended by 80 friends and family members. My two sisters and I made all the food, with lots of help from sons and daughters.)
I read a great first novel, All About Lulu, by Jonathan Evison.
I got to read my friend Laurie Gailunas' first sci fi novel in manuscript form; about infertility and how a planet dealt with and overcame it. Very good, very full of women and sex and hormones. I can't wait until she gets published so you all can read it.
At long last I read Mrs Dalloway, by Virginia Woolf. Now I can read The Hours and see the movie.
The latest foster child memoir, Hope's Boy, by Andrew Bridge was fabulous.
I napped my way through A World of Love, by Elizabeth Bowen; a book from the 1955 reading list.
I started but have not finished: Scrambled Eggs at Midnight, by Brad Barkley and Heather Hepler, recommended by my daughter-in-law's sister, who is a twin and both sisters read more than I do.
I also started Neal Stephenson's The Confusion, Volume Two of his Baroque Cycle. After 800+ pages of that plus another 800 or so in Volume Three, The System of the World, I will get to read his new book, Anathem, which was just released. My husband is reading it now.
So that is the roundup. I am thinking of starting a weekly post called What I am Reading. What do you think?
As always, I love to hear from you, my readers, to find out what you are reading and anything else you have to say about the reading life.
Stay tuned for micro-reviews of the books mentioned above.
Sunday, July 27, 2008
I AM OUT OF HERE
I am off on vacation tonight. I am taking a break from phones, computers, email, blogs. Of course I will be reading as much as I can.
I will be with family celebrating my mom's 90th birthday. So it will be all about family and luckily I have a great family with a minimum of dysfunction and only a few weirdos to keep life interesting.
I'll be back in two weeks. If you miss me, you can catch up on earlier posts you might have missed or hey, read some books yourself instead of blogs. While it is fun to read about books, I believe it is much more fun to read them. What do you think?
See ya'!
I will be with family celebrating my mom's 90th birthday. So it will be all about family and luckily I have a great family with a minimum of dysfunction and only a few weirdos to keep life interesting.
I'll be back in two weeks. If you miss me, you can catch up on earlier posts you might have missed or hey, read some books yourself instead of blogs. While it is fun to read about books, I believe it is much more fun to read them. What do you think?
See ya'!
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
THE MARTIAN CHILD
The Martian Child, David Gerrold, Tom Doherty Associates, 2002, 190 pp
Another book about adoption, recommended to me by my friend Laurie, the sci fi writer. This one is from the viewpoint of the adopting parent. Gerrold turned his experience into a novel and I devoured it in a few hours.
The man is single, gay and a sci fi writer living in the suburbs of Los Angeles. The boy he adopted was 8 years old, abandoned by his mother (who was a drug abuser) and in foster care since he was a year old. He was considered not adoptable because of all his behavior troubles plus he told everyone that he was from Mars.
Despite qualms and self-doubt, David adopted him and made a success of it. Another child saved by love. Good writing and excellent insight into the Martian thing. Apparently it is somewhat common for kids in the foster care system to believe they are from Mars.
Another book about adoption, recommended to me by my friend Laurie, the sci fi writer. This one is from the viewpoint of the adopting parent. Gerrold turned his experience into a novel and I devoured it in a few hours.
The man is single, gay and a sci fi writer living in the suburbs of Los Angeles. The boy he adopted was 8 years old, abandoned by his mother (who was a drug abuser) and in foster care since he was a year old. He was considered not adoptable because of all his behavior troubles plus he told everyone that he was from Mars.
Despite qualms and self-doubt, David adopted him and made a success of it. Another child saved by love. Good writing and excellent insight into the Martian thing. Apparently it is somewhat common for kids in the foster care system to believe they are from Mars.
Saturday, July 19, 2008
WORD OF THE DAY
Today's word is crenelate. It comes from p 16 of Children of Men by P D James. This is a word that I usually go past, knowing that it has something to do with buildings but not really knowing what it means. So this time, I got honest and looked it up. Then I was in a can of worms known by dictionary users as a word chain. Here we go:
crenelate transitive verb meaning to furnish with battlements or crenels, or with squared notches.
which led me to crenels.
crenel noun meaning any of the indentations or loopholes in the top of a battlement or wall, embrasure.
which led me to battlement and embrasure.
battlement noun meaning a parapet with open spaces for shooting built on top of a castle wall, tower or fort.
which led me to parapet (at which point I moved to an easier dictionary.)
parapet noun meaning a wall or bank for protecting troops from enemy fire. From French from Italian from papare, to guard + petto, breast from Latin pectus.
Sentence: OK guys, get behind the parapet before you get shot.
enbrasure noun meaning an opening, as in a parapet, with the sides slanting outward to increase the angle of fire of a gun. (Here we got a much needed picture.) From an obsolete French word, embraser, to widen an opening.
Sentence: Even though the guy was over to the right, I managed to pick him off thanks to the embrasure I was shooting through.
OK back to battlement noun meaning a parapet with open spaces for shooting built on top of a castle wall, tower or fort. From Middle English batelment from Old French bataillier, to fortify from battaille, fortification on a wall or tower. (Another great picture.)
Sentence: The soldiers were placed along the battlement with their bows, arrows and kettles of boiling oil.
OK, cool, so a crenel is a noun meaning any of the indentations or loopholes in the top of a battlement or wall, embrasure. (A crenel is an embrasure, one of those openings with the slanted sides.) It is from Old French, diminutive of the Vulgar Latin crena, a notch.
Sentence: While stooping behind the battlement, I shot an arrow through the crenel.
Back to the original word crenelate transitive verb meaning to furnish with battlements or crenels, or with squared notches.
Sentence: We finished the sand castle but it looked a bit plain so we crenelated the tops of the walls.
There, now you and I can read lots more historical fiction and know what they are talking about instead of guessing. We can also name the parts of our sand castles. All thanks to P D James. How about some sentences, guys?
crenelate transitive verb meaning to furnish with battlements or crenels, or with squared notches.
which led me to crenels.
crenel noun meaning any of the indentations or loopholes in the top of a battlement or wall, embrasure.
which led me to battlement and embrasure.
battlement noun meaning a parapet with open spaces for shooting built on top of a castle wall, tower or fort.
which led me to parapet (at which point I moved to an easier dictionary.)
parapet noun meaning a wall or bank for protecting troops from enemy fire. From French from Italian from papare, to guard + petto, breast from Latin pectus.
Sentence: OK guys, get behind the parapet before you get shot.
enbrasure noun meaning an opening, as in a parapet, with the sides slanting outward to increase the angle of fire of a gun. (Here we got a much needed picture.) From an obsolete French word, embraser, to widen an opening.
Sentence: Even though the guy was over to the right, I managed to pick him off thanks to the embrasure I was shooting through.
OK back to battlement noun meaning a parapet with open spaces for shooting built on top of a castle wall, tower or fort. From Middle English batelment from Old French bataillier, to fortify from battaille, fortification on a wall or tower. (Another great picture.)
Sentence: The soldiers were placed along the battlement with their bows, arrows and kettles of boiling oil.
OK, cool, so a crenel is a noun meaning any of the indentations or loopholes in the top of a battlement or wall, embrasure. (A crenel is an embrasure, one of those openings with the slanted sides.) It is from Old French, diminutive of the Vulgar Latin crena, a notch.
Sentence: While stooping behind the battlement, I shot an arrow through the crenel.
Back to the original word crenelate transitive verb meaning to furnish with battlements or crenels, or with squared notches.
Sentence: We finished the sand castle but it looked a bit plain so we crenelated the tops of the walls.
There, now you and I can read lots more historical fiction and know what they are talking about instead of guessing. We can also name the parts of our sand castles. All thanks to P D James. How about some sentences, guys?
THE WHISTLING SEASON
The Whistling Season, Ivan Doig, Harcourt Inc, 2006, 345 pp
I had heard about this author. He writes about Montana in the homesteading days of the early 20th century. And I liked this book a great deal, though some say his earlier books are even better. He reminds me of Wallace Stegner but he is less ponderous-that's a good thing. He does not judge his characters.
The Whistling Season could be a Young Adult novel. Paul is the oldest of three sons and tells the story, looking back on his thirteenth year. His father, Oliver, is a homesteader who had lost his wife and the boys' mother a year ago to a medical emergency. Oliver decides to hire a housekeeper from an ad in the paper. Rose and her brother Morris arrive from Wisconsin and bring change to the area.
These two interlopers are surrounded by a certain amount of mystery and Doig does not reveal their secrets until the last few pages, so all through the story, though they each do wondrous deeds that improve life for Paul and his family, there is a certain uneasiness simmering just beneath.
All the characters are fabulously created. Paul and his brothers attend a one-room schoolhouse complete with bullies, buddies, lug heads and scholars as well as annoying girls. Morris becomes the school teacher and being well-educated as well as the flamboyant character he is, he teaches like his hair is on fire. My favorite parts of the book were the schoolhouse scenes.
It all ends happily with a sense of uprightness tempered by wisdom about people and the vagaries of the human heart. Doig has recreated a time we shall never see again in America and yet the juxtaposition of goodwill and values with lawlessness and a certain anarchy is still the essence of our country's character.
I had heard about this author. He writes about Montana in the homesteading days of the early 20th century. And I liked this book a great deal, though some say his earlier books are even better. He reminds me of Wallace Stegner but he is less ponderous-that's a good thing. He does not judge his characters.
The Whistling Season could be a Young Adult novel. Paul is the oldest of three sons and tells the story, looking back on his thirteenth year. His father, Oliver, is a homesteader who had lost his wife and the boys' mother a year ago to a medical emergency. Oliver decides to hire a housekeeper from an ad in the paper. Rose and her brother Morris arrive from Wisconsin and bring change to the area.
These two interlopers are surrounded by a certain amount of mystery and Doig does not reveal their secrets until the last few pages, so all through the story, though they each do wondrous deeds that improve life for Paul and his family, there is a certain uneasiness simmering just beneath.
All the characters are fabulously created. Paul and his brothers attend a one-room schoolhouse complete with bullies, buddies, lug heads and scholars as well as annoying girls. Morris becomes the school teacher and being well-educated as well as the flamboyant character he is, he teaches like his hair is on fire. My favorite parts of the book were the schoolhouse scenes.
It all ends happily with a sense of uprightness tempered by wisdom about people and the vagaries of the human heart. Doig has recreated a time we shall never see again in America and yet the juxtaposition of goodwill and values with lawlessness and a certain anarchy is still the essence of our country's character.
Monday, July 14, 2008
LIFE OF PI
Life of Pi, Yann Martel, Harcourt Inc, 2001 319 pp
I finished this book several weeks ago, so some of the impact has faded, but it was a large impact at the time. I dreamed about it all night after finishing it right before bed.
The story begins in India when Pi is a young boy. His parents own and run a zoo, so he grows up surrounded by hundreds of animals from all over the world. He is a bookish boy, taunted by his schoolmates and given to spiritual yearnings. By the time he is a teen, he is a practicing Christian, Muslim and Buddhist.
But hard times come and his family decides to emigrate to Canada. The animals are sold to other zoos and they set out on an ocean journey with some of the animals, which are bound for America, on board. Their ship is a Japanese freighter and sinks. Pi is left on a lifeboat with a hyena and a Bengal tiger for company.
He spends seven months on that lifeboat and manages to survive, living on fish and learning to use the meager emergency supplies he finds. Alone with the tiger, who would eat him in a heartbeat, Pi uses his knowledge of animals to keep the beast at bay, while he practices his three religions to keep from succumbing to hopelessness.
Martel writes the book as though it were Pi's true story but according to interviews he made up the whole thing. Some people found all kinds of symbolism in the story, others found it to unbelievable. I just let myself be completely taken in and marvelled at the contrasts between faith and despair. It is one of the best books I've read so far this year. I don't know how I missed reading it for seven years with everyone telling me how great it was. They were right.
I finished this book several weeks ago, so some of the impact has faded, but it was a large impact at the time. I dreamed about it all night after finishing it right before bed.
The story begins in India when Pi is a young boy. His parents own and run a zoo, so he grows up surrounded by hundreds of animals from all over the world. He is a bookish boy, taunted by his schoolmates and given to spiritual yearnings. By the time he is a teen, he is a practicing Christian, Muslim and Buddhist.
But hard times come and his family decides to emigrate to Canada. The animals are sold to other zoos and they set out on an ocean journey with some of the animals, which are bound for America, on board. Their ship is a Japanese freighter and sinks. Pi is left on a lifeboat with a hyena and a Bengal tiger for company.
He spends seven months on that lifeboat and manages to survive, living on fish and learning to use the meager emergency supplies he finds. Alone with the tiger, who would eat him in a heartbeat, Pi uses his knowledge of animals to keep the beast at bay, while he practices his three religions to keep from succumbing to hopelessness.
Martel writes the book as though it were Pi's true story but according to interviews he made up the whole thing. Some people found all kinds of symbolism in the story, others found it to unbelievable. I just let myself be completely taken in and marvelled at the contrasts between faith and despair. It is one of the best books I've read so far this year. I don't know how I missed reading it for seven years with everyone telling me how great it was. They were right.
WORD OF THE DAY
I haven't posted one of these in a while so I have a huge backlog. Please play the game and leave a sentence in the comments.
accidie
Found on page 3 of Children of Men by P D James.
accidie may also be spelled accidia or acedia. In Webster's New World Third College Edition the definition is given after acedia.
It means spiritual sloth or apathy and is one of the seven deadly sins.
It is derived from the Greek akedia which comes from a-, not + kedos, care.
My sentence: In college she discovered drinking which often happened on Saturday nights and led her to accidie on Sunday mornings.
What is your sentence?
accidie
Found on page 3 of Children of Men by P D James.
accidie may also be spelled accidia or acedia. In Webster's New World Third College Edition the definition is given after acedia.
It means spiritual sloth or apathy and is one of the seven deadly sins.
It is derived from the Greek akedia which comes from a-, not + kedos, care.
My sentence: In college she discovered drinking which often happened on Saturday nights and led her to accidie on Sunday mornings.
What is your sentence?
Thursday, July 10, 2008
THREE LITTLE WORDS
Three Little Words, Ashley Rhodes-Courter, Atheneum, 2008, 297 pp
One day at work, business was slow and I was there alone. I was looking through the Young Adult shelves and came across this memoir of a foster child who finally got adopted. I read anything I find on this topic as research for the novel I am not writing. By the time I went to bed that night I had finished the book.
The story takes place in South Carolina and Florida, where Ashley lived with her single mom and brother, later with her maternal grandmother and then in a long succession of foster homes. As usual, it is a heart wrenching tale of loss, neglect, sometimes abuse; of bureaucratic inefficiency and heartlessness, sometimes corruption.
Finally after nine years in fourteen different foster home, Ashley is adopted and has to work through lots of issues like trust, eating and accepting a new mother. She makes it. The new mother is novelist Gay Courter. I read and loved two of her novels in the 1990s: Flowers in the Blood and The Midwife. Gay Courter was instrumental in helping Ashley write her memoir and it is well written. They are both advocates for children who are lost in our failed foster care system.
I fully realize that this is a naive question with no easy answers, but how can the wealthiest nation in the world have so much poverty, messed up health care and so many children who are left adrift in our society? Lest we become complacent or over-confident, books like this should be required reading for all citizens.
One day at work, business was slow and I was there alone. I was looking through the Young Adult shelves and came across this memoir of a foster child who finally got adopted. I read anything I find on this topic as research for the novel I am not writing. By the time I went to bed that night I had finished the book.
The story takes place in South Carolina and Florida, where Ashley lived with her single mom and brother, later with her maternal grandmother and then in a long succession of foster homes. As usual, it is a heart wrenching tale of loss, neglect, sometimes abuse; of bureaucratic inefficiency and heartlessness, sometimes corruption.
Finally after nine years in fourteen different foster home, Ashley is adopted and has to work through lots of issues like trust, eating and accepting a new mother. She makes it. The new mother is novelist Gay Courter. I read and loved two of her novels in the 1990s: Flowers in the Blood and The Midwife. Gay Courter was instrumental in helping Ashley write her memoir and it is well written. They are both advocates for children who are lost in our failed foster care system.
I fully realize that this is a naive question with no easy answers, but how can the wealthiest nation in the world have so much poverty, messed up health care and so many children who are left adrift in our society? Lest we become complacent or over-confident, books like this should be required reading for all citizens.
Tuesday, July 08, 2008
GIRLS LIKE US
Girls Like Us, Sheila Weller, Atria Books, 2008, 527 pp
Though the writing is weak and actually slowed my reading, this is the best book I've read about music, the 60s and 70s and the female musicians of my generation. Joni Mitchell, Carole King And Carly Simon are featured section by section, in an ambitious triple biography that is also social history. Weller follows each of these woman from early childhood through their respective peaks of fame and on up to the present.
Carly Simon is the only one who consented to interviews so the rest is based on research and interviews with people surrounding these women. One wonders about the reliability of those other interviewees. Still I was absorbed in these women's lives, their many love affairs and marriages, and the stories behind their songs. The organizing principle behind the book is the connection with feminism which the author handles well.
Having been a fan of Joni Mitchell since I first heard her perform in 1968 and even met her backstage, just before her first album was released, I was most interested in the Joni sections. I learned things about her that I've not read elsewhere. Carole and Carly have never been favorites of mine though I like reading about Carly and James Taylor.
But this is a good book for any woman born between the mid-1940s to early 1950s, because whether famous or obscure, we all lived through the second women's movement toward independence and self hood and our story must be preserved. We've come a long way and it is not over yet for the women of this world.
Though the writing is weak and actually slowed my reading, this is the best book I've read about music, the 60s and 70s and the female musicians of my generation. Joni Mitchell, Carole King And Carly Simon are featured section by section, in an ambitious triple biography that is also social history. Weller follows each of these woman from early childhood through their respective peaks of fame and on up to the present.
Carly Simon is the only one who consented to interviews so the rest is based on research and interviews with people surrounding these women. One wonders about the reliability of those other interviewees. Still I was absorbed in these women's lives, their many love affairs and marriages, and the stories behind their songs. The organizing principle behind the book is the connection with feminism which the author handles well.
Having been a fan of Joni Mitchell since I first heard her perform in 1968 and even met her backstage, just before her first album was released, I was most interested in the Joni sections. I learned things about her that I've not read elsewhere. Carole and Carly have never been favorites of mine though I like reading about Carly and James Taylor.
But this is a good book for any woman born between the mid-1940s to early 1950s, because whether famous or obscure, we all lived through the second women's movement toward independence and self hood and our story must be preserved. We've come a long way and it is not over yet for the women of this world.
Monday, July 07, 2008
THE HOST
The Host, Stephenie Meyer, Little Brown and Company, 2008, 619 pp
In her first novel for adults, Stephenie Meyer, author of the wildly popular Twilight series, delves into sci fi. It is the sort of sci fi that anyone could like because it is about people and their interactions, something like The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell. In fact, I was amused to see a sci fi novel take #1 on the New York Times bestseller list for two weeks in a row.
Thank goodness that she is a good storyteller because the writing is just OK, as it was in Twilight. She repeats herself and draws out the tension too long. I had to gulp down all 600 pages in a weekend because I was assigned by my boss at the bookstore to read it and rule on whether we could sell it to our teenage customers. (We can. No explicit sex, no gratuitous violence, though as in Twilight, plenty of sexual tension and rough stuff and injuries. It is one of Meyer's feats that she can do sex and violence without upsetting the YA censors.)
A race of outer space beings, known as souls, has invaded earth. No war or weapons are involved. They take over human bodies, replacing the personality while using the body as a "host." The emotions, senses and memories of the original person are left intact but the humans naturally feel invaded and look on these souls as parasites.
Melanie is invaded by Wanderer but in this case, she fights back hard and the two female personalities just about equally share one mind and one body. Melanie had a brother and a lover before the invasion and she convinces Wanderer to search until they are found.
Some humans have escaped capture and live literally underground in caves. Wanderer/Melanie find Jamie (the brother) and Jared (the lover) in such a hideout. At this point in the story, events get more tense than ever. The souls' purpose in coming to Earth is to bring peace to a violent and warlike planet, but that's a dicey proposition since human beings don't like being told how to behave by an outside influence.
Stephenie Meyer has amazing powers of imagination in all this and in the way she moves the story through all the conflict. I liked how Melanie and Wanderer become best friends. Imagine if you had an imaginary friend in your mind who was a fully realized personality. The ideas here include honor, courage and sacrifice in dealing with love, loyalty and anger. The theme is that love conquers all and is handled without sentimentality or melodrama though with plenty of drama. Pretty impressive actually, if you can stick with it for over 600 pages.
In her first novel for adults, Stephenie Meyer, author of the wildly popular Twilight series, delves into sci fi. It is the sort of sci fi that anyone could like because it is about people and their interactions, something like The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell. In fact, I was amused to see a sci fi novel take #1 on the New York Times bestseller list for two weeks in a row.
Thank goodness that she is a good storyteller because the writing is just OK, as it was in Twilight. She repeats herself and draws out the tension too long. I had to gulp down all 600 pages in a weekend because I was assigned by my boss at the bookstore to read it and rule on whether we could sell it to our teenage customers. (We can. No explicit sex, no gratuitous violence, though as in Twilight, plenty of sexual tension and rough stuff and injuries. It is one of Meyer's feats that she can do sex and violence without upsetting the YA censors.)
A race of outer space beings, known as souls, has invaded earth. No war or weapons are involved. They take over human bodies, replacing the personality while using the body as a "host." The emotions, senses and memories of the original person are left intact but the humans naturally feel invaded and look on these souls as parasites.
Melanie is invaded by Wanderer but in this case, she fights back hard and the two female personalities just about equally share one mind and one body. Melanie had a brother and a lover before the invasion and she convinces Wanderer to search until they are found.
Some humans have escaped capture and live literally underground in caves. Wanderer/Melanie find Jamie (the brother) and Jared (the lover) in such a hideout. At this point in the story, events get more tense than ever. The souls' purpose in coming to Earth is to bring peace to a violent and warlike planet, but that's a dicey proposition since human beings don't like being told how to behave by an outside influence.
Stephenie Meyer has amazing powers of imagination in all this and in the way she moves the story through all the conflict. I liked how Melanie and Wanderer become best friends. Imagine if you had an imaginary friend in your mind who was a fully realized personality. The ideas here include honor, courage and sacrifice in dealing with love, loyalty and anger. The theme is that love conquers all and is handled without sentimentality or melodrama though with plenty of drama. Pretty impressive actually, if you can stick with it for over 600 pages.
Saturday, July 05, 2008
HIGHWIRE MOON
Highwire Moon, Susan Straight, Houghton Mifflin Company, 2001, 305 pp
What a great book! It is the story of a mother and daughter who are separated when the daughter is only three. Serfina was an illegal Mexican immigrant who came to California from Oaxaca to work the oranges. Being Mexican Indian, she is considered the lowest even by other Mexicans. She was only 16 and got stranded in Rio Seco, which is Straight's fictional town based on Riverside, CA.
Serfina ends up with Larry, a white man who works various construction jobs, uses speed and was raised in foster homes. They have a daughter, Elvia, but they hardly connect because Serfina does not learn English or even venture out much. She pines for home. When Elvia is three, immigration gets Serafina and sends her back to Mexico. Elvia winds up in foster care for many years until her father finds her, takes her back into his crazy life and becomes fiercely protective of her in his own way.
When the story opens, Elvia (now called Ellie) is 16 and living with Larry and his speed freak girlfriend. For all these years she has thought that her mother abandoned her but now she is pregnant (though Larry does not know this) and decides to find Serafina. Meanwhile, Serafina is stuck in Tijuana caring for her own sick mother and pining for Elvira.
It could be an Oprah-like sentimental story but it's actually more like a prayer or an aria as these two women overcome dangers and pitfalls in their search for each other. The writing is perfect: images, just enough story, the viewpoints of the main characters clearly evolving in each one's distinctive voice. The life is hard, violent, unpredictable; there is barely enough love and hope to keep life going. Possibly this book is too dark for some, too lightweight for others. For me it was a jewel of a book.
MIDDLESEX
Middlesex, Jeffrey Eugenides, Farrar Straus and Giroux, 2002, 529 pp
I guess everyone in the world had already read this book. It won the Pulitzer Prize in 2003 and went on to be an Oprah selection. I even found two copies of it in my house. Finally it was picked as a selection in one of my reading groups. (I am currently in 5 reading groups.) So now I have read it too!
I liked it; it is a bit over-written in sections and thus over-long, but generally I enjoy long books. I learned plenty about human hermaphrodites, which caused me to recall that I became interested in genetics back in high school, except then I got a steady boyfriend and my sexual research took place with him. Since I lived in Ann Arbor, MI, for all of my early adult years, I loved that the book is mostly set in Detroit from 1922 to 1975.
What I enjoyed most was the main character. Calliope Stephanides was born a girl with Greek parents and a big fat extended family, but because of a recessive mutation on her fifth chromosome, she turned out to be a boy. As Cali becomes Cal, we learn the entire story of her family from a small Turkish town where Greeks lived in the shadow of oppressive Turks, to how that quirky chromosome showed up and made this character's life a misery.
It is not however a book about misery. It is about large characters, American society, love and coming of age. I now have scenes of joy, despair, humor, sex, shady business, and private girls school indelibly in my mind. Middlesex raised as many questions as it answered and maybe that is why I will never forget it.
I guess everyone in the world had already read this book. It won the Pulitzer Prize in 2003 and went on to be an Oprah selection. I even found two copies of it in my house. Finally it was picked as a selection in one of my reading groups. (I am currently in 5 reading groups.) So now I have read it too!
I liked it; it is a bit over-written in sections and thus over-long, but generally I enjoy long books. I learned plenty about human hermaphrodites, which caused me to recall that I became interested in genetics back in high school, except then I got a steady boyfriend and my sexual research took place with him. Since I lived in Ann Arbor, MI, for all of my early adult years, I loved that the book is mostly set in Detroit from 1922 to 1975.
What I enjoyed most was the main character. Calliope Stephanides was born a girl with Greek parents and a big fat extended family, but because of a recessive mutation on her fifth chromosome, she turned out to be a boy. As Cali becomes Cal, we learn the entire story of her family from a small Turkish town where Greeks lived in the shadow of oppressive Turks, to how that quirky chromosome showed up and made this character's life a misery.
It is not however a book about misery. It is about large characters, American society, love and coming of age. I now have scenes of joy, despair, humor, sex, shady business, and private girls school indelibly in my mind. Middlesex raised as many questions as it answered and maybe that is why I will never forget it.
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