V Reads

Holy Shit: Managing Manure To Save Mankind ~ Gene Logsdon

2012-01-27T11:42:00.002-05:00

26 January 2012

Amazing book: who knew composting poop could be so hilarious? Logsdon does a fantastic job of combining wry humor and outraged politics to convince humanity that there's nothing wrong with poop, or for using it's incredible fertilizing properties to create food for everyone - yes, even human poop, you squeamish folk. In fact, Logsdon does a pretty damn good job of arguing this is what we're going to have to do, indeed should have already started, if we want to keep our extravagant lifestyles. Excellent book and resource, I'm sure I'll be using it for years to come. And I'll be looking into reading more of Logsdon! Check out his blog here for instant gratification, and to sign up to get his weekly essay in your RSS feed: http://thecontraryfarmer.wordpress.com/

Ploughshares: Fall 2011 (Volume 37, Numbers 2 & 3)

2012-01-23T10:50:00.001-05:00

40th Anniversary edition

Pieces in this consistently excellent publication all share one similarity: they are excellently crafted. Favorites in this volume include the short fiction of Sue Miller from Burning Summer and Laura van den Berg's "I Looked for You, I Called Your Name" and the non-fiction "Catcher's Hang" by Susan Falco. Maxine Kumin's poetry was, as usual, good.

Zone 3: Spring 2009 (Volume 24, Number 1)

2012-01-23T10:39:00.003-05:00

21 January 2012

Highlight of this issue and the reason I bought it was the interview with Louise Erdrich, long one of my favorite writers. This interview did not disappoint, in fact now I think I am soon going to spend a good part of this year rereading her great novels.

A Discovery of Witches ~ Deborah Harkness

2012-01-23T10:23:00.003-05:00

20 January 2012

A quick, light read. Diana Bishop, an historian specializing in ancient alchemical manuscripts, also comes from a long line of witches. While studying at Oxford's Bodleian library, she unknowingly retrieves a bewitched manuscript that unleashes a flurry of "creatures," including a vampire, Matthew de Clermont, and an assortment of curious daemons and deadly jealous witches, all intent on acquiring the manuscript for themselves, no matter the cost to Diana. Meanwhile, Diana stubbornly insists she wants no part in being a witch, even as she seemingly unknowingly practices magic left and right. First of a trilogy, Discovery follows Diana from Oxford, to a secluded castle in the countryside of France, to New York State, as well as her psychological journey to understand the new world unfolding around her, all as she seeks to uncover the secret of the importance of the manuscript.

At times I felt the plot to be contrived and predictable, however I found the novel as a whole to be entertaining and absorbing. I would have liked to see more character development of the minor characters, like Marthe. Less reliance on magic to explain away complicated situations - yes, these are supernatural creatures being depicted, but supernatural creatures who have evolved to be invisible in a modern world. I would also classify this as a romance, which has never been what you would call my favorite genre, so by the end of was groaning aloud in some scenes and skipping ahead, but some readers of romance may find these torturous scenes for me to be innocently charming.

One thing that got to irritate me by the end was Harkness' portrayal of vampires, which I thought to be wholly implausible. I appreciate that she was justifying their existence through a more realistic historical rendering of their possible evolution, but it tried too hard to be different from the way other vampires are portrayed in literature. I did like her portrayal of witches, however, and was somewhat delighted in her portrayal of daemons - I plan to try and read the other books when they come out, and I hope to see more daemons in them.

Down These Mean Streets ~ Piri Thomas

2012-01-18T09:58:00.001-05:00

15 January 2012

Excellent book - it's rare when an author has you right there in the moment with them, and that's how I felt when reading this book. Piri Thomas tells about growing up in Spanish Harlem in this incredible memoir, but it's so much more than that. All through the book Piri is on a quest to discover who he is, where he belongs, what identity to claim. A part of life everyone goes through, but oh is it different when you're a stranger amongst your family, your friends, when nothing is what it seems and you feel like everyone is out to get you. How do you accept yourself, when you're not even accepted by those around you? How can you be comfortable in your own skin when the world wants to belittle, berate, and beat you down because you're not the "right" (ie, white) color? And then laugh it off like it's a huge joke, "you know I'm only joking," and make light of the situation, which is what people still do today - call me a party pooper, but this is infuriating. And this is why racism is still a huge problem in this country. This is what Piri struggles with throughout his life, throughout this book, which is enlightening and eye opening. Everyone should read this.

Come Along With Me ~ Shirley Jackson

2012-01-13T10:05:00.001-05:00

12 January 2012

Many of the stories in this collection are found elsewhere, but it's a gem because it contains Jackson's last work, a short story meant to be a novel - however, I got a little sad reading it, knowing I would never know how it ended in her brilliant mind. Also valuable for writers are two essays in this volume with very sage and wonderful advice on writing. I also highly enjoyed reading about the startling reactions people had after reading "The Lottery" for the first time.

Just an Ordinary Day: The Uncollected Stories Of Shirley Jackson

2012-01-13T09:59:00.003-05:00

9 January 2012

Absolutely amazing - a wonderful collection of Jackson's unpublished and uncollected stories. I really like how her children arranged the collection, as well, putting a humorous memoir directly after a horrifying, can't-get-up-right-now-I'm-so-scared story. Very well done, an essential collection for any Shirley Jackson fan.

The Orphan Master's Son ~ Adam Johnson

2011-12-28T09:24:00.004-05:00

The main reason I kept reading this book was because shortly after I started it, Kim Jong Il died, and I thought it was much too timely to put down. Otherwise, I would have given it up before I had reached 100 pages. However, I'm glad I continued with it, because the end is much better than the beginning, which seems to me as if it could have used some more editing, for some things were confusing - about a third of the way in Johnson introduces a new character, telling his own story as well as Jun Do's from a different point of view, and it took me a few pages to catch on.

Anyway, the book tells the story of Jun Do, a young man growing up in North Korea, and without protesting accepting his lot in life: as the son of a cruel man, as a kidnapper, as a spy, finally as an imposter. Jun Do commits terrible acts, yet I couldn't dislike him for some strange reason. There were very few other characters in the book I liked, however, including the ones the reader was supposed to.

I feel as if the book is almost, not quite making fun of North Korea, but yes, it kind of does. At times I can sense condescension in Johnson's tone, but perhaps he was just trying to show condescension from the point of view of his cruel characters, I'm not sure. I imagine he researched before writing, but I was still struck by his lack of compassion at times.

Nevertheless, this is fiction, and if you can get through the first third of the book, you might be entertained by the rest.

Raising Demons ~ Shirley Jackson

2011-12-28T09:05:00.003-05:00

18 December 2011

Similar to Life Among The Savages, only this one seemed to be written as one publication, rather than for different publications as Savages was. Just as hilarious, with the kids getting older and more numerous (as the cats are, as well). I can't recommend these books enough, especially to all my friends who are suddenly having babies of their own....

Eaarth: Making a Life on a Tough New Planet ~ Bill McKibben

2011-12-03T11:12:00.001-05:00

Despite what it looks like, I read this book very quickly. That is, I read the first half very quickly and then had to set aside the book: even as a person who reads environmental news headlines, essays, and books nearly every day since the early nineties, I was shocked at the sobering statistics the renowned McKibben presents in the book. More than shocked: I was terrified, and went through a brief dark phase in the height of summer when I was convinced there was nothing any of us could do, and that very shortly we would be plunged into doom.

So I had to take a long break before starting the second half of the book, which I shouldn't have done: in the second half, McKibben provides by example the very real, small-scale things people all over the world have been doing in order to counteract the enormous scale in which a small group of money-obsessed corporations in largely one country (ahem, US) have largely damaged beyond the point of return the planet earth.

Which is where the title comes in: McKibben proves through his statistics that we've already changed this planet we call Earth. Hence, a new name for this planet: Eaarth. That's where the positivity in the book really shines, on ways in which we all can participate in managing the maintenance of this changed planet.

I'm lucky: my liberal family can sit down and have a rational conversation about how very much things have changed since my grandparents were young, and my own youth. As many people the world over are doing: if you are observant, and paying attention, this should be fairly obvious. However, there are way too many people with their heads in the sands, and that is who should be reading this book, not the choir (ie, me). The more people who find this book in their hands the better.

And hopefully, they'll read it a lot quicker than me.

The Road Through the Wall ~ Shirley Jackson

2011-12-02T10:09:00.001-05:00

Jackson's first full-length published novel. Already her themes of evil lurking underneath the ordinary are emerging, along with her classic, shocking ending. An "ordinary" suburban community outside of San Francisco's world is shattered when the wall dividing them from the "other, undesirable" neighborhood is taken down. However, as Jackson exhibits in her at times long, wandering, and drawn out prose (in this one, at least) the world as everyone thought it existed really never did. One I'll be reading again when I decide to expand my Jackson self-study....

Desperation ~ Stephen King

2011-11-30T11:51:00.001-05:00

28 November 2011
Classic King, the kind my mom refuses to read, overflowing with grotesque imagery and gore. A small town in Nevada, you've got it, Desperation, has reopened a long shut copper mine, releasing an evil creature which can inhabit a human's body and make them do terribly things. We come to Desperation along with the Jacksons (an homage to Shirley? I'll bet you yes) and discover that the local law enforcement is a little crooked, with many tricks to ensure that anyone who passes through the tiny town won't ever leave.

As I was reading this one, I kept thinking of The Tommyknockers and had to giggle when I got to a passage in which the characters are talking about them: I have always loved how King has created his own little world, and references his past books and characters from time to time.

Hangsaman ~ Shirley Jackson

2011-11-30T11:43:00.001-05:00

18 November 2011

Not quite as polished as her later novels, still quite a good book. Having recently read a biography of Jackson, I can definitely see that this might very well be the novel in which the main character is a very thinly disguised Jackson herself, during her college years. Some confusion and slightly tiresome in spots, but still a very good book.

The Haunting of Hill House ~ Shirley Jackson

2011-11-16T10:10:00.001-05:00

I first read this book when I was fifteen, after discovering Shirley Jackson in my 10th grade English class. I've read it several times since, and it is one of those novels I will continue to read over and over again, there's so many brilliant elements and layers to this book that I gain something new every time. So I'm thankful N picked me up this copy when he was at our favorite used book store last weekend!

Four people gather at Hill House for paranormal observation: Dr. Montague, who has invited a dozen people to join him, of which only two, Theodora and Eleanor, respond. Theodora has had a fight with her roommate so decides, why not? But Eleanor is almost drawn to the house, unwillingly, and then becomes unable to imagine herself ever not living within its walls. The fourth person, Luke, has inherited the house, and strives not to let the supernatural occurrences bother him.

And the House, itself, is a character - never have I read anything that has achieved what Jackson does in this novel in creating a character out of an inanimate object. She does a brilliant job, and one I feel I will forever be seeking to emulate in my own writing.

If this book doesn't frighten you, you're not reading carefully - it should leave you doubting the confines of your own sanity with the psychological analyses Jackson unveils in each of the characters in turn, but especially Eleanor, and especially Hill House....

Life among the savages ~ Shirley Jackson

2011-11-14T10:26:00.001-05:00

Absolutely brilliant. In addition to giving the world shattering books of keen psychological insight into the secret, dark soul of humanity, Jackson was also a loving mother of four, and here provides us with a generous helping of her wit and humor in this collection of stories about her family, turning everyday mishaps and adventures into something more - I almost even want to have kids now after reading this book to see what kind of hilarity would ensue within our own lives. And then reread and laugh in the middle of the first paragraph, "This is the way of life my husband and I have fallen into, inadvertently, as though we had fallen into a well and decided that since there was no way out we might as well stay there and set up a chair and a desk and a light of some kind; even though this is our way of life, and the only one we know, it is occasionally bewildering, and perhaps even inexplicable to the sort of person who does not have that swift, accurate conviction that he is going to step on a broken celluloid doll in the dark. I cannot think of a preferable way of life, except one without children...."

Jackson wrote many of these stories originally for publication in such magazines as Good Housekeeping and Mademoiselle, while at the same time raising her four demons (er, children) largely alone and writing her longer works of fiction. It has been a long time since I have laughed out loud continuously throughout a book. Great work.

The Sundial ~ Shirley Jackson

2011-11-11T10:35:00.001-05:00

Jackson's short novel about a non-biblically based impending Apocalypse, as foretold by Aunt Fanny through the spirit of her dead father.

The Sundial isn't for the novice Jackson reader; I had read in Private Demons that this book was disjointed, confusing, and with unlikeable characters, and I agree somewhat that Jackson's craft seems a little off in this work. However, there are still terrific passages of straight psychological terror that hint fantastically of what's to come soon, with the publication of the most brilliant piece of psychological horror writing ever, The Haunting of Hill House. Towards the end of the book is a particularly poignant passage between Fancy and Gloria that I love, which showcases Jackson's lifelong desire to return to an innocent time of childlike simplicity.

Jackson's carefully crafted characters, however, exist here; even if you hate them, they are still very well developed. I do find that I am quite fond of Mrs. Halloran's calm, powerful ruthlessness, though I confess I would not want to be in her clan at all, and can't deny that she is extremely unlikeable. The rest of the characters all possess irritating and eye-roll-inducing traits, but learning that this novel was Jackson's way of exorcising the animosity she felt from and towards her neighbors in VT, and reading it in that light, you see how bitter Jackson was against those people who would deny her her privacy and right to live unbothered and in her own way, without the meddling of neighbors who disagreed with her eccentric lifestyle.

There are times, however, when Jackson will abandon a character and then reintroduce them 50 pages later, which can be a little confusing. Aside from these small idiosyncrasies, another great work from an overlooked master, with the perfectly, wonderfully frustrating ending in which Jackson will leave you asking, "what happened next?!" and leave you to make that up on your own.

The Bird's Nest ~ Shirley Jackson

2011-11-09T09:38:00.000-05:00

6 November 2011
Jackson's third novel and another triumph. Elizabeth, or Beth, or Betsy, or .... Bess is a troubled girl living with her Aunt, and working in a museum. When she begins suffering black outs, her Aunt becomes concerned, but only brings her to a doctor once she embarrasses them in the home of her old friends. At a time when multiple personality disorder was just emerging in the world of psychiatry, Elizabeth is a novelty, and her loathsome psychiatrist doesn't really know how to treat her case, in fact, seems to make things worse.

A masterpiece of storytelling, I could not put this book down once I started it.

Shirley Jackson : novels and stories ~ Shirley Jackson, edited by Joyce Carol Oates

2011-11-03T11:36:00.001-04:00

31 October 2011
A good collection of "Jackson essentials" as chosen by Joyce Carol Oates. Jackson's short fiction packs a powerful, startling punch, and The Haunting of Hill House is a classic in psychological horror that literally freaks me out no matter how many times I read it. We have always lived in the castle gives us Merricat, a culmination of many of Jackson's characteristic heroine traits all rolled up into one brilliant character. I might have added Come along with me to show where Jackson was heading when she died suddenly, but perhaps it needed to be left off in consideration of space - well then, in that case, we need another volume!

Private demons : the life of Shirley Jackson ~ Judy Oppenheimer

2011-11-03T11:29:00.000-04:00

30 October 2011
Excellent biography of an author I'm currently obsessed with. Oppenheimer draws a sympathetic picture of Jackson's life through excerpts from her letters and journals and through interviews with her friends and family. In fact, I wish she had relied less on those interviews, since memory can be so faulty and biased sometimes, but I can't imagine how hard it must be to piece together someone's life through their work and glimpses of themselves left behind. Still, an excellent book supplying plenty of insight into this wonderful writer's life.

Unleashed : Of Poltergeists and Murder: The Curious Story of Tina Resch ~ William Roll and Valerie Storey

2011-10-17T20:44:00.001-04:00

16 October 2011
An account of the Tina Resch/Christina Boyer case as told by a parapsychologist who worked with Tina in 1984, when poltergeist-like phenomena was plaguing Tina and her foster family. Through studying the girl, Roll discovered that Tina was exhibiting psychokinesis. Unable to handle both that and the verbal and physical abuse Tina suffered at the hands of her foster parents, Tina goes on to marry an abusive man, have a child with another abusive man, and ultimately divorce, all before she was twenty. When her three year old daughter dies horribly, possibly at the hands of Tina's current boyfriend, himself the father of a three year old girl, Roll is one of the few people to stand by Tina and fight to convince the world of her innocence.

Under the mesquite ~ Guadalupe Garcia McCall

2011-10-17T20:37:00.001-04:00

16 October 2011
A long, young adult prose poem about a teenaged girl, Lupita, dealing with all of the sorts of drama that plagues teenage girls, only: throw in the fact that she is the oldest of eight siblings; her mother has cancer; she is a young Mexican girl living in the United States. Lupita struggles to maintain her grades, pouring her soul into her writing and her acting, trying to tell herself that she doesn't care that her friends aren't who they pretend to be amidst her family, which seems to be falling apart around her. Until she starts to give up, when she learns to find solace under the mesquite tree which has grown in the middle of her mami's rose garden, no matter how many times her mami tried to rid the garden of it.

I wish this book had come out when I was dealing with my own teenage angst, it would have given me perspective on things, I think, and my outlook may have been quite a bit different than it was. However, it didn't, so what I can do is recommend to young adult women looking to find their own place in the world. A very interesting young adult book.

The night strangers ~ Chris Bohjalian

2011-10-14T10:57:00.003-04:00

After Chip Linton's small plane crashes in Lake Champlain, killing 39 people and leaving 9 survivors, he and his wife Emily and their twin daughters, Hallie and Garnet, move from their suburb outside of Philadelphia to a small town in New Hampshire's White Mountains. Far from the relaxing life they envision which will allow all of them, especially Chip who is riddled with PTSD induced nightmares, guilt, and suicidal thoughts, to heal, the town proves to be an oddity, with strange, paranormal happenings and eccentric people drawing the family into a downward spiral.

Chip becomes withdrawn, fascinated with a small door in the basement sealed with 39 carriage bolts. Emily finds an ax, a pearl-handled dagger, and a knife hidden in strange places throughout the house. A cult-like group of women herbalists, all named for an exotic plant, herb or flower, become fascinated with the twins and try to draw them and Emily into their group. Meanwhile, as the families lives become more intertwined with the herbalists, other members of the town begin to shun them.

A wonderful piece of literature, full of fantastic and surprising plot twists and turns and the sort of hair-raising ending that I love.

Fairy Tale Review, the Red Issue ~ edited by Kate Bernheimer

2011-10-05T17:49:00.001-04:00

I really like how Bernheimer is showcasing the relevance of modern day fairy tales in this journal and her edited books on fairy tales. Lots of good work in this issue, I think there was only one piece that I skipped over and one other that I read but was eh about. Overall, a very good collection.

We have always lived in the castle ~ Shirley Jackson

2011-10-03T17:52:00.003-04:00

My introduction to Shirley Jackson was when my beloved 10th grade English teacher, Ms. W, read "The Lottery" aloud to us in class and we acted it out after - this was about the same time I was cultivating what would turn out to be a lifelong love of horror. I read this book in less than a day, starting it last night and finishing it this morning. Eighteen year old Mary Katherine Blackwell, or Merricat, takes her role of protector very seriously, and has vowed to keep her older sister Constance out of village scrutiny after she is acquitted of murdering the rest of their family, with the exception of their dementia suffering Uncle Julian. Despite her twice-weekly torturous travels to the village for supplies, Merricat manages to keep her family safe from the judgment and meanness of others, until the day their cousin Charles shows up. An obvious gold-digger, Charles brings a violent wave of destruction with him, until it appears as if their life will change forever, from their carefully cultivated isolated happiness to something dark, soulless and rotting.

As in "The Lottery," Jackson uses her impeccable story-telling skills to illustrate a common theme in her work, that of collective judgment and keeping up with the Joneses, or rather, what happens when people stop thinking for themselves and start acting like sheep. Excellent writing, careful use of literary devices such as foreshadowing and suspense, along with a generous dose of deeply black humor, Jackson will perhaps always remain in my mind the Queen of Literary Horror. I'm about the embark on a Jackson spree, which will hopefully influence my own horror writing for the better.

Gazelle ~ Rikki Ducornet

2011-08-25T16:26:00.000-04:00

24 August 2011
"Memories accumulate within the mind like the disparate fragrances that make a perfume. Our only means of recovering the past and yet how volatile they are!"

Elizabeth, a surgeon with a unique job working with mummies, lives in Cairo following a dissolved relationship. The narrative mainly concerns the recounting of the summer when Elizabeth first lived there, as a thirteen year old girl from the United States, coming of sexual age and witnessing the disturbing crumbling of her parent's marriage. Elizabeth becomes obsessed with her father's friend, a man her provocative and promiscuous mother terms a "gazelle." Elizabeth's chess-obsessed father becomes more eccentric and withdrawn as the sultry summer passes, while her mother flaunts her lavishly different lifestyle by living apart from them. "'The curious thing about strangers, Liz....is that they need not be strangers for long.'" Elizabeth clings to her found copy of an unexpurgated Arabian Nights and waits.

Classic dark Ducornet themes of betrayal, lust, mental anguish, obsession paired with her lush, metaphorically driven and beautiful prose. Amazing concluding line, as always: "....nothing is more essential to living in the world than transformation." (Pretty sure, also, that I read this when it came out and I was living in CO.)

The Fan-Maker's Inquisition ~ Rikki Ducornet

2011-08-21T22:09:00.000-04:00

"We admire nature's variety and accept the flowers in their multiplicity of colors; indeed, if all flowers were white, we'd love them less. The world is richer for Nature's permutations, so why, tell me, do we not accept diversity within our own species?"

I filled pages in my notebook with quotes from this book, a novel of the Marquis de Sade. The first part takes place in the format of, yes, an inquisition of a fan-maker, confidant, and writing partner of Sade's, as well as excerpts from the book they are writing. The fan-maker is also a lesbian, whose relationship with Sade draws attention to her relationship with her lover, a playwright already being watched by the Inquisitors of the French Revolution. The second part is richly layered with Sade's first person voice, the fan-maker's last letter to him, snippets of their book, and Sade's imaginings of what their persecutors are saying about it and them.

A brilliant novel, Ducornet touches on intolerance, the persecution and torture of others who are different, as well as censorship in this slim gem. I also think Ducornet is perhaps showing Sade in a different light, claiming he is misunderstood and can't be guilty of crimes he committed only in his head and on paper. "....a man, I say, has the intrinsic right to imagine. If they wanted to keep me from dreaming nightmares, they should not have locked me up! The less one acts, the more one imagines, and that is the truth."

In addition, Ducornet illustrates how the book is a conversation only between an author and a reader, and how that conversation will be different among different readers. "A book is a private thing, citizen, it belongs to the one who writes it and to the one who reads it. Like the mind itself, a book is a private space. Within that space, anything is possible. The greatest evil and the greatest good."

As, indeed, the greatest evil and the greatest good exists within each of us. We just have to choose which is stronger.

The Stain ~ Rikki Ducornet

2011-08-11T21:00:00.001-04:00

Ducornet's first novel, and a mastery of language and storytelling. Surreal, strange, horrific, amusing, erotic, beautiful tale of Charlotte, a girl born with a birthmark of a dancing hare on her cheek, replete with fur. Thought to be a sign of her dead in childbirth mother's sin, Charlotte is raised by her abusive Aunt and loving Uncle, and watched by the Exorcist, whose ominous lust destroys many in his path, a symbol for the destruction of innocence. At times disturbing, The Stain is a novel I hated to put down.

Wilderness Tips ~ Margaret Atwood

2011-08-11T14:12:00.000-04:00

7 August 2011
I loved that I read this in summer, as the book opens with a story whose setting is a summer camp. Perfect. Atwood examines relationships in this volume of stories, usually between women and men, with her usual witty, direct prose.

Duma Key ~ Stephen King

2011-08-08T10:04:00.000-04:00

August 2011
Not my favorite of his, but still very good. Edgar Freemantle is drawn to a place of isolation and quiet after his divorce from his wife following an accident which leaves his brain in fragile condition: Duma Key. He shares the island with two other humans, an untold number of restless spirits, and a very malevolent presence which doesn't like Edgar very much, and relays this to him through his paintings. When the paintings garner attention and begin making their way around the world and out of Florida, very bad things start happening.

The Almost Moon ~ Alice Sebold

2011-07-07T09:39:00.000-04:00

6 July 2011
Definitely disturbing, which is usually the category my favorite books fall under. Helen, the narrator, opens the book by describing how she's killed her aging, mentally ill mother. The rest of the narrative goes back and forth with Helen dealing with the shock that she actually did this and how she will proceed with her life after, and examining the life events in her dysfunctional, complicated family that led her to this point. Helen appears to be determined to keep doing things that will shock others and destroy her relationships throughout the rest of the novel, for reasons which become obvious at the end. I see "blame" as a huge theme in this book, as well as the obvious one of mother-daughter relationships, but also father-daughter relationships.

I admire Sebold for writing about difficult subject matter, especially when most people won't actually read the entire book and think about what she is doing in writing about such an abhorrent event, but will trash the book anyway.

The Summer Without Men ~ Siri Hustvedt

2011-06-30T15:00:00.001-04:00

29 June 2011
"Shorn of intimacy and seen from a considerable distance, we are all comic characters, farcical buffoons who bumble through our lives, making fine messes as we go, but when you get close, the ridiculous quickly fades into the sordid or the tragic or the merely sad."

Wonderful book. Beautiful writing: it took me two days to read it because I reread many sentences two or more times. I read this during my slow reading of Hustvedt's The Shaking Woman which led me to be confused at times since both this novel and that memoir both deal with the philosophy of neurology in different ways.

The novel's narrator, Mia, opens the book with her recounting of her emotional breakdown which sends her to a hospital for a month's time after her husband requests a "Pause" in their thirty-year marriage. (The Pause is twenty years younger than Mia.) After she is released, she leaves Brooklyn for her childhood home in Minnesota, subletting a house down the street from her mother's retirement home and teaching a poetry class to a group of seven 12 and 13-year olds. She makes friends with both a 90-year old woman who shares her biggest secret with her, and her next-door neighbor, a young mother of two in a verbally abusive relationship. Taking up an email exchange with an unknown stalker who signs his messages "Mr. Nobody," Mia spends the summer pondering life: its darkest secrets, its pains, its passions.

The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest ~ Stieg Larsson

2011-06-27T14:18:00.001-04:00

25 June 2011
A magnificent ending to the Millenium trilogy. A necessarily subdued Salander still fights for the right of all women to be safe, while Blomkist fights to keep her free. Excellent ending.

The Girl Who Played with Fire ~ Stieg Larsson

2011-06-20T13:12:00.001-04:00

16 June 2011
Larsson continues the Millenium trilogy with this book. I loved the cliff hanger ending, even though I was able to pick up book three right away. Great way to keep interest! I also love how Larsson shows that the personal is political with his connections between violence against women and the Swedish government. Very well done.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo ~ Stieg Larsson

2011-06-03T08:07:00.001-04:00

2 June 2011
It has been a long time since I have read a book that was able to keep me awake far past my bedtime, multiple nights in a row. I was resisting this series like I resist most bestsellers, but am so very happy that my friend lent me her copy and I decided to give in. Larsson begins his first novel carefully developing his characters and fine-tuning his plot, which becomes quite intricately woven, but never tangled, as the novel marches relentlessly forward. Lisbeth Salander is a memorable character who will act as a role model for me for the rest of my life, never mind that she's fiction!

To briefly summarize the story for those who aren't familiar: Swedish politics and a powerful family dynasty become intertwined when Henrik Vanger hires Mikael Blomkvist to secretly investigate what happened to his niece who disappeared more than thirty years ago under the pretext of writing a family biography. Blomkvist, a journalist and co-founder of the controversial magazine Millenium, reluctantly agrees to exhange city life for an isolated one in the country, not least because Vanger tempts him with information on a wealthy criminal he had recently set out to expose in an article (which instead backfires and lands him in prison for libel) at the end of his year contract. Enter Salander, who Blomkvist discovers performed his own meticulous background check, at a time when he realizes he will need help with researching this family with a macabre past and grotesque secrets.

I set this book down last night and immediately started the next one. Excellent.

Netsuke ~ Rikki Ducornet

2011-05-26T09:31:00.001-04:00

25 May 2011
Ducornet's writing is excellent: she explores difficult subject matter, but no matter how violent and ugly her plots become, the writing is always beautiful. This short, often erotic novel explores the twisted, damaged mind of a psychotherapist who takes advantage of many of his patients, but more than just superficially: under the guise of helping them, he seeks to destroy them, and himself. Sometimes it seems as if he is subconsciously doing this, but when we're treated to his thoughts about how he leaves deliberate "clues" for his wife, we see just how deliberately malicious and cruel this man can be.

The novel draws its title from the netsuke figures his wife gifts to him. The netsuke appear frequently in the novel, and are a striking symbol for the accelerating downward path the psychotherapist's life is taking. There are reasons, of course, for why this man became an abusive beast, which we also garner from his thoughts. While he is addicted to sex not only with his patients but also with strangers (the novel opens with a scene of random seduction while he is jogging) if he can be trusted, then his addiction is both complicated and sad. (Still, he is an absolute beast who I had little sympathy and NO liking for.)

Split into two sections, the first half of the book is told in 1st person point of view by the psychotherapist, and the second in 3rd person point of view by himself, his wife, and the patient who finally pushes him over his destructive edge.

One of the best endings of a novel I have ever read.

Please Look After Mom ~ Kyung-Sook Shin

2011-05-24T08:09:00.000-04:00

23 Mary 2011
A 70+ year old woman disappears in a subway station in Seoul, leaving her family to confront the difficult realizations that she was taken for granted for all of her life by those that she devoted her life to. Powerful and moving, told from multiple points of view and in 1st, 2nd and 3rd person. Excellent.

Player one ~ Douglas Coupland

2011-05-11T16:55:00.000-04:00

A during-apocalyptic novel where four strangers are trapped in a sleazy airport lounge once the price of oil hits $350 and chaos ensues. In my reading of the novel, these are ordinary people trying to overcome their own personal issues, find love, find happiness, live their lives as best they can, which is arguably what most people want. Some interesting plot turns, passages, and quotes, but I was ultimately disappointed in the ending and was left wanting more.

The March ~ E.L. Doctorow

2011-05-03T12:55:00.000-04:00

28 April 2011
Mildly entertaining story of the Civil War. The writing was good, but I wish he didn't keep jumping around from character to character. I suppose it was to illustrate how many different people were affected by the war, but it was bothersome to me.

Alias Grace ~ Margaret Atwood

2011-04-07T08:38:00.004-04:00

Possession: of the soul, of the mind, of the spirit (of the body?).That is my interpretation of the theme of this brilliant novel. A fictionalized account of a sensationalized, scandalous, brutal murderthat took place in Canada in the 1840's, the novel tells the story ofGrace, imprisoned for life for a crime she may or may not have committed. Atwood traces Grace's path from her childhood in Ireland, through her horrific voyage to Canada, and her unfortunately fated life beyond.

Mainly told in 1st person by Grace, we also hear from a psychiatrist who's aim is to uncover the truth of what really happened - I was much less interested in his side story, but I recognize that Atwood included his character to not only further the plot, but to reveal that people are often not what they seem. In addition, the story is peppered with letters to and from various characters, and true bits and pieces of Grace's story as written by people back in the day.

One side character who I loved was the psychiatrist's mother - classic domineering, controlling mother figure. Her last letter had me cackling, her PS. (Read it and see if you agree!) Her character also demonstrates how carefully Atwood draws her characters, even if they show up for a brief couple of pages, they are usually as fully drawn and interesting as the main characters.

I also enjoyed Atwood's afterword of the real murder and what she did with her fictional telling, and, of course, her shout out to archivists and librarians for making her book possible. Yeah, librarians!

A gem of contemporary literature that more and more I find boring and lacking.

Allison Hewitt Is Trapped: A Zombie Novel ~ Madeleine Roux

2011-03-15T21:00:00.000-04:00

11 February 2011
Pretty good - a fast read, fairly realistic. Of course there's going to be a love interest, but I got really bored with those parts and instead preferred it when Allison was take no prisoners zombie killer to the ultra max. I also liked that she talked about the stench - yes, super realistic and what you'd expect a mass amount of starving rotting bodies to smell like. Overall, a good read, I'll definitely read the next one.

Breath, Eyes, Memory ~ Edwidge Danticat

2011-03-15T20:58:00.000-04:00

14 March 2011
I enjoyed this book, but was left wanting more. I don't think it was necessarily the fact that it was a short novel, because I enjoy short stories very much, I suppose I feel as if this was an unfinished draft. Some of the transitions were too abrupt: I turn one page and Sophie is twelve and then all of a sudden she is eighteen. Authors do this all the time, however it didn't quite work for me in this novel. I don't know much about Danticat, but from some brief research it looks like this was one of her first works? Perhaps that's all it is, then, a novice author needing to polish her style a bit.

That said, I appreciated the simple beauty of Danticat's prose. Her descriptions of Haiti I can not only see, but taste almost. Smell. Her chapter conclusions kept me turning the page so that I read the book in less than forty-eight hours (something I appreciate as I'm terrible writing conclusions myself).

Redemption and forgiveness. I see these as the major themes of the novel. The importance of sisterhood, womanhood. Of family.

Decameron ~ Giovanni Boccaccio

2011-03-15T20:54:00.000-04:00

12 March 2011
An excellent literary feat. Set in Florence, Italy during the Plague, seven young women and three young men, plus their servants, seclude themselves in a luxurious country retreat to wait out the disease, entertaining themselves by telling 100 tales, 10 a day for 10 days. Sometimes bawdy, sometimes moral, all meant to distract the noble folk from what's going on outside of their little bubble.

The Nanny and the Iceberg ~ Ariel Dorfman

2011-02-06T13:04:00.000-05:00

Get ready for sex: sex, sex, and more sex, real and imagined, in this clever, comedic book full of twists and turns and surprises. I especially loved Dorfman's treatment of women in the book, it's apparent that he greatly respects and acknowledges women in a world-wide culture that often doesn't.

Alaska Quarterly Review: Vol. 26, No. 3 & 4 (Fall/Winter 2009)

2011-02-03T19:57:00.000-05:00

28 January 2011
I started reading this so long ago I didn't remember the essays and fiction I had read last year before I picked it back up again. I liked the second half, though! Except for two stories which I couldn't get into and skipped. Quality, once again, and as usual, from AQR.

Black Snow ~ Mikhail Bulgakov

2011-01-26T08:59:00.001-05:00

An unfinished novel, one of Bulgakov's last, a brilliant satire of the Russian theater, specifically the Moscow Art Theater and the people who populated it, including Konstantin Stanislavski. It was also semi-autobiographical, an account of his experience transforming his novel The White Guard into a play, although according to the essay in the front of my book's copy, Bulgakov did take liberties with some of his character sketches, although it is certain that Russian readers knew exactly who he was speaking of in the novel.

The Insufferable Gaucho ~ Roberto Bolaño

2011-01-11T20:49:00.000-05:00

10 January 2011
"If you're going to say what you want to say, you're going to hear what you don't want to hear."

Four of the five short stories are written in a more traditional rather than experimental format, and these I liked best, especially the title story and "Police Rat," which was told from the perspective of a sewer rat. The non-fiction pieces (the first of Bolaño's non-fiction that I've read) were both excellent; the first was contrasting his fatal illness with writing, the second critiquing other Latin American writers, as well as critiquing magical realism.

The Return ~ Roberto Bolaño

2011-01-09T13:09:00.002-05:00

The Return consists of thirteen of Bolaño's short stories. Most are violent and slightly surreal, consistent with Bolaño's body of work. A few of the stories contained characters from 2666, which I liked, as I wondered, of course, if they were character sketches he created while writing his lengthy, best-known work or if they were supposed to be a part of the novel. The last story clearly contained himself as a character. Some of the stories warranted a five on their own, and some did not, which is why I gave the collection, overall, a three out of five. New Directions is publishing Bolaño's work like mad right now, which I don't necessarily think is a good thing. He's supremely popular in literary circles at the moment, but I think more care should be given to collecting the stories that are to be published posthumously in the future.

Intensity ~ Dean Koontz

2011-01-03T16:40:00.001-05:00

25 December 2010
Typical Koontz/mystery/suspense fiction. Overall good, sometimes I found myself screaming to the main character "What are you doing?!" in my head, but I guess she was trying to be a good person.... Anyway. I also thought the ending was a little contrived. But, a fast read, and I don't mind having read it.

The Devotion of Suspect X ~ Keigo Higashino, translated by Alexander O. Smith

2011-01-03T16:20:00.002-05:00

23 December 2010
Mostly great; the reason I only gave it 4 out of 5 is because I think some of the characters should have been more fully developed. Otherwise, I can see why it won the most prestigious literary award in Japan. Here we have a murder, a cover up, and two friends who are reunited after a long absence. The two friends are fascinated by the murder, for different reasons. The book explores issues such as how far people go for love, even when the beloved doesn't love the lover in return. We also see just how far friends will go for one another. Some great quotes I'll try and remember to include when I get the book back.

The Turquoise Ledge, ~ Leslie Marmon Silko

2010-12-14T21:02:00.000-05:00

I've been a Leslie Marmon Silko fan for years, having first read Storyteller in college. This is a memoir, but totally unlike traditional memoirs: a good thing (I don't typically read memoirs, although I am a biography fan). Silko has lived outside of Tucson for over thirty years, and the biography recounts her experiences. She begins walking regularly, as both physical and mental exercise, collecting turquoise pieces she finds along the arroyo she walks along, believing them to be part of an ancient ledge. I loved learning about her family of mastiffs (I think 8!) her pit bull, her love for her macaws, her respect for the rattlesnakes and other creatures she shares her home with (refusing, unlike most humans, to uproot and displace them). Excellent, as always, work from Silko.

The Elegance of the Hedgehog ~ Muriel Barbery

2010-12-14T20:51:00.002-05:00

12 December 2010
Excellent book: the writing, the characters, the message. The two main characters, Renee and Paloma, live in a lavish apartment building in the heart of Paris; Renee is the concierge and Paloma is a 12 year old girl who doesn't plan on living past her thirteenth birthday (don't worry, I haven't given anything away). They are incredibly intelligent, have more in common than they would realize, keep themselves alienated from almost everyone else in their lives, and they are hurting, so drawn into themselves they don't realize there are others like them in the world, that they're not alone. But haven't we all felt that way before? Until a new tenant moves into the building, bringing his keen insight into their worlds, and thus bringing them all together. I honestly don't know how to write anything else that will give this book the justice it's due. I would not have put it down except that I had to sleep or risk being useless the next day. (Although now that I look back, I should have probably just stayed up all night to read it and called in sick the next day. It would have been worth it.)

There Once Lived a Woman Who Tried to Kill Her Neighbor's Baby: Scary Fairy Tales ~ Ludmilla Petrushevskaya

2010-12-08T20:28:00.002-05:00

5 December 2010
I didn't always like Russian literature. I read and loved Anna Karenina the summer before my senior year in high school, but otherwise I labelled it "long and boring." Was I ever wrong. Thank you, Cherie, for opening my eyes to the Russians again, because they are anything but "long and boring." (I remember you being like "what, V, come on" in a letter way back in the day of our Early Letters, Volume I.) My fascination began with Bulgakov's magnificent Master and Margarita, and I hope that fascination will never end.

The stories in this collection are modern fairy tales. In fact, Petrushevskaya is probably the most modern Russian I've read. Mostly short, sometimes seeming more like parables, all contain elements of grotesqueness, some contain a lesson. In the introduction they are termed nekyia, or night journeys, whereupon the traveler converses with the dead, in search of an answer or solution to something. These tales aren't scary in the literal sense of the word, not like the French and Italian horror movies I've come to crave, but are in a deeper way, when you stop and think about how Petrushevskaya is using them to unveil the disintegration of humanity, which started long ago, and shows no signs of letting up anytime soon.

How I love the Russians.

Predator ~ Patricia Cornwell

2010-11-14T11:56:00.001-05:00

13 November 2010
My Aunt gave me this book to read, as she was shocked that I hadn't ever read a Scarpetta novel, and it was decent. Entertaining and better writing than I am used to with crime and mystery genres.

Secrets of the Flesh : A Life of Colette ~ Judith Thurman

2010-11-11T10:06:00.002-05:00

7 November 2010
Very well written and engaging book about a fascinating, if controversial, writer. I will definitely seek out other biographies written by Thurman (if the subject interests me, that is, as Colette does!). Highly recommended.

Sourland ~ Joyce Carol Oates

2010-10-20T10:54:00.000-04:00

Typical JCO: violent, almost shocking (I watch too much horror for it to really shock me!), abused, often helplessly (but not always) portrayed women as targets of disturbed men, sometimes other women. Many of the stories in this collection featured a woman who recently lost her husband (as JCO herself recently has lost her first husband) and, interesting, each woman feels helpless yet also experiences the loss in different ways, mainly anger and abandonment, one curious case of "I'll get back at you" in the title story, whereupon the tables turn. I tend to like her short stories better than her (often) long-winded novels, and this collection is good (though not quite as good -- in my opinion -- as Faithless which was my favorite).

Venezia ~ Michael Kenna ; introduction by Tiziano Scarpa

2010-09-29T15:02:00.001-04:00

Absolutely beautiful book; not only the ethereal, luminescent black and white photos, but also the book itself, a limited edition run of 2,000 in its first printing. Accompanied by a pale turquoise slipcase, the pages itself are rich and textured, which present a perfect complement to the rich photographs. A marvel.

Haiku : Japanese Art and Poetry ~ Judith Patt, Michiko Warkentyne, Barry Till

2010-09-14T14:23:00.001-04:00

Japanese art of the Edo period is one of my favorite art forms, and haiku is one of my favorite poetic forms. This book is beautiful : the haiku paired with the paintings work splendidly together.

The Complete Claudine ~ Colette

2010-09-01T20:33:00.000-04:00

22 August 2010
This book claims to be complete, with four Claudine stories; I am now reading an excellent biography of the great Colette which states there are five. Nevertheless.... I have an old copy, with cover art consisting of drawings by Colette, published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux at the same time as my copy of Earthly Paradise (some day if I ever have free time again I will add my specific edition to this database).

So the Claudine stories were Colette's first works, at least the first one was, which her first husband Willy encouraged her to write. Considered to be Colette's most autobiographical work, they follow Claudine through school, through a traumatizing move from her beloved Montigny in the country to Paris, to her marriage. Claudine and Annie is the only one of the three not told from the perspective of Claudine; all are first person.

Colette does a wonderful job of making you feel her characters. Her writing is heartfelt and spicy, with just the right notes of faint eroticism. Best of all, she's a good writer, seemingly effortless. Claudine can be the most charming brat, but you want her to get what she wants nonetheless. You love the people she loves, hate the ones she hates. She's mischievous, trusting, tomboyish, beautiful, all at the same time. A wonderful character, I only wish there were more we could have of Claudine....

The White Guard ~ Mikhail Bulgakov

2010-08-10T16:20:00.001-04:00

7 August 2010
Bulgakov's first novel follows a Russian families travails through the Revolution, and is a showcase of Bulgakov's amazingly descriptive and beautifully imagined prose. Kiev, the setting, is also a character in this work: in addition to describing the Revolution's effects on human beings, Bulgakov also focuses his description of its effects on the City, effectively demonstrating his love of place as well as for the Russian people. A very serious work which hints at the genius that was Bulgakov (ahem, The Master and Margarita....)

My edition has an epilogue which was an article published in the late 1960s in a Russian literary journal, which of course has me wanting to read a biography of this brilliant writer. Any recommendations?

Bag of Bones~Stephen King

2010-07-05T14:11:00.000-04:00

29 June 2010
I really disliked the narrator throughout the whole book, but then at the end wondered if King was trying to do the whole classic hero thing, where the main character goes through a series of events, some distasteful, only to redeem themselves at the end. I didn't find this novel as horrific as his others, but I always like a good ghost story.

2666 ~ Roberto Bolaño

2010-06-01T21:39:00.000-04:00

If this book had been published in 5 separate books as Bolaño wanted, then the parts would have received the following ratings:

Book 1: 1
Book 2: 3
Book 3: 4
Book 4: 5+
Book 5: 4

All of the books had something in them to link them to the other books, even Book 1, and everything clicks in the last few pages of the book when the reader finally understands why Book 1 exists, although it was boring and probably turned many many people off from finishing the rest of the book. (But don't go and read the last page, like my Aunt does, in order to skip Book 1 because it will not enlighten you one whit.) A striking thing about the book is that it is a very cyclical narrative: you could start with almost any of the books and the whole thing would still make sense. However Book 1, while boring, serves to introduce many of the more than 100 characters in the novel, so if readers can get through the yawning and time it takes to finish it, the rest of the book will be their reward.

The fourth part, and my favorite, dealt exclusively with the real-life murders of women and girls in Ciudad Juarez which began in the 1990s, or Santa Theresa in this book. Bolaño seems to be cataloguing each of the murders here, giving life (even in death) to women who were probably ignored in the press, given only a number, when they were actually murdered. Bolaño, as usual, does an excellent job of exposing the corruption of higher officials in government and police officers, at one point in this section describing how the police gave spent more time trying to solve petty crimes rather to solve the serial murders of women and girls. This section will probably disturb those not accustomed to horror, as he also goes into vivid detail of the ways in which each woman was murdered.

Overall, an excellent masterpiece of work, which keeps Bolaño as one of my new favorite authors.

Arcadia Falls~Carol Goodman

2010-03-31T21:42:00.000-04:00

28 March 2010
The narrator, Meg, suddenly finds herself in a different life when her husband, a hedge fund manager, dies suddenly. What she didn't know: he had squandered their money, including their daughter Sally's college fund. Meg hasn't held a job since her college days, and thus takes a low paying offer at a boarding school in rural New York State called Arcadia Falls, having done her PhD work on the founders of the school, Vera and Lily. Meg knew that Lily died tragically in the 1930s; she didn't know that dark and little known events are still happening on the grounds....

Meg's work is on fairy tales, which Vera and Lily collaborated on. The grounds parallel the fairy tales, an aspect of this book I really liked. All in all, a fairly fast, can't put down read, until I got to the end, when something happened that was too far fetched--I think it could have been believable if it had been written different. It seemed to have been thrown in at the last minute, when the rest of the book was more put together.

Secrets of Eden~Chris Bohjalian

2010-03-18T21:12:00.002-04:00

A husband and wife are found dead in an apparent murder suicide by her minister, the night of her baptism. Or: were they? Told in four 1st person POV segments, sometimes things aren't always what they seem....

Alice has endured years of abuse in a life that seems materially comfortable from the outside. Shortly after getting back together with her husband after obtaining a relief-from-abuse order banishing him to their lake cottage while she and their daughter Katie stay in their family home is when their bodies are discovered.

Trust no one. Least of all, the obvious.

Women in the trees~Edited and with an introduction by Susan Koppelman

2010-03-10T21:21:00.001-05:00

Definitely not a feel good book, but definitely an important one. A collection of short stories about abused women, from the early 1800s until the late 1990s. As I was reading, I got to thinking about my own stories, and was a little shocked to think about how many of them, indeed probably most, involve violence against women. The editor is right: we have to intervene when we know of a woman who is being abused, battered, even if he doesn't hit, even if he "just" verbally abuses her. We have to do everything in our power to change the society that allows this kind of abuse to happen. There is something sick and wrong about a society which produces hundreds of stories such as these.

The Skating Rink~Roberto Bolaño

2010-03-09T21:23:00.001-05:00

5 March 2010
Told from the points of view of three men, an amazing short novel. Each chapter is very short, a cliff hanger: Bolaño knows how to hook his reader. This is the second Bolaño novel I've read that deals with corruption in government and greed as a central theme, not surprising from a Chilean author. This novel centers around two main plots: one man's obsession with an Olympic ice skater, banned from the Spanish team. He builds a rink for her in an abandoned mansion, yet they are not the only ones using the former home....and the other plot, a murder....throw in a homeless opera singer and her companion, a young, ill woman with a knife, and as the mens' stories intertwine and become more complicated, all of your ideas on who the victim and perpetrators will turn out to be will be shattered. Brilliant work; it's a shame Bolaño died so young (age 50) and that his considered masterpiece (2666, which I've yet to read, but soon) was published posthumously.

Why this world: a biography of Clarice Lispector~Benjamin Moser

2010-03-09T21:13:00.000-05:00

7 March 2010
It's unusual for me to read a biography before I've read/watched much of the person I'm reading it about. However, I've only read one book of Lispector's, a lend from Marie, and it was amazing; I wrote pages of quotes from it. When I catalogued this book it intrigued me, and now that I've read it I'm more intrigued than ever. Lispector was an interesting woman: a genius, with unique ideas on spirituality and life. After surviving a rough childhood, Lispector forever searches to redeem herself for the guilt she feels over her mother's death (although she was not at fault) through her writing. She also forever searches for her idea of god. Her books are classified as hermetic, yet I can't wait to read more of them.

Shadow Tag~Louise Erdrich

2010-02-21T21:19:00.001-05:00

Jealously I read this book: but how can I be jealous? I hardly ever write anymore. I adored what Erdrich did in this book. Irene suspects that her husband Gil is reading her diary and so sets a trap for him. She begins a false diary, her red diary, in which she writes a fiction of her thoughts and life. Her real diary, the blue diary, she keeps in a safe deposit box in the bank.

As the novel progresses, we discover dark, violent things about Gil, and about Gil and Irene's past. Irene is not spotless: she drinks too much and sometimes eggs Gil on. But, we soon find out why.

I loved the experiental way Erdrich constructed this novel and the twist at the end. Very very good.

The Rivard House~F. Edwin Lambirth

2010-02-03T21:45:00.000-05:00

31 January 2010
Started reading this aloud during our trip to North Carolina in November and finally finished during our more recent and somber trip. Purely for entertainment purposes; Nic and I enjoyed trying to figure out sentences which made no sense and pointing out typos to each other. JOSH CHRONICLE (we said it like this: with lots of emphasis and much too seriously) is hired to protect a man's son on an island in which people are constantly dying. Terrible stereotypes but still entertaining in a way.

Animals in Stone: Architectural Sculpture in New York City~Robert Arthur King

2010-01-20T19:25:00.001-05:00

18 January 2010
When I read this book, I was reminded of the tons of animal motifs in City Hall, other Buffalo buildings: it would be interesting to do a comparison. I also liked how he gave subway and bus directions for readers to visit the buildings if they wanted, and included a photo of what the building looked like besides the animal ornamentation on it, for easy recognition.

By Night in Chile~Roberto Bolaño

2010-01-20T19:16:00.001-05:00

18 January 2010
A long stream of consciousness of an old, sick man's dying thoughts. A priest in Chile, Father Urrutia's memories trace his development from an idealistic young man to a spineless older one who has allowed himself to be manipulated by members of Opus Dei and through his relationships with Chile's powerful literary elite. Stand out scenes: his bizarre tour of Europe's "disintegrating" cathedrals where each priest has a trained falcon to hunt pigeons defecating on the buildings and his recruitment into a secretive job involving Pinochet.

Half of a Yellow Sun~Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

2010-01-17T13:31:00.001-05:00

17 January 2010
Adichie chronicles the Biafran/Nigerian war in this masterpiece of a novel. Admittedly, I don't know much about this bit of African political unrest, but I appreciated learning more about it from the viewpoint of fiction--but fiction in which Adichie draws on her family members experiences as well as other non-fiction accounts.

The characters are all wonderfully believable and their narratives and experiences are heart-breakingly real. The writing is seamless and effortless: Adichie is a gifted storyteller. Eagerly awaiting more....

Purple Hibiscus~Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

2010-01-07T20:59:00.000-05:00

6 January 2010
A young girl finds herself thrust into the confusion of life, love, family ties, and abuse in this first person narrative. The narrator is painfully shy, forcing out words when she wants to speak and stuttering when she does, most often not speaking at all. One horrible day changes her life, when she goes to spend a recovery period with her Aunt and her cousins. She starts to come out of her shell and find her words, find her life.

The beginning was eerie: the hypocrisy of religious men who commit horrendous acts in the name of "God" hit too close to home to my own childhood.

Peaches and Daddy~Michael Greenburg

2010-01-03T19:17:00.001-05:00

2 January 2010
Interesting account of an older man who marries and separates from a fifteen year old girl in less than a years time in the 1920s. Still not sure who was manipulating who. Something I learned: it was not all that easy to get a divorce back in that time.

The Thing Around Your Neck~Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

2010-01-03T19:13:00.002-05:00

31 December 2009
A collection of short stories by a Nigerian author exploring life for Nigerians in both Africa and the United States. Some stories are disturbing, exploring death and serious issues such as war; others less disturbing, exploring how Nigerians are adapting to life and cultural changes when leaving Africa for the States. Very good.

Finger Lickin' Fifteen~Janet Evanovich

2009-12-22T21:29:00.000-05:00

Fun, as always! Stephanie and friends are chased around Trenton by maniacal murderers who lopped off a famous chef's head in front of Lula. This one seemed spicier than usual: more steam, more cursing, more detailed descriptions of Ranger....

A Gate at the Stairs~Lorrie Moore

2009-12-08T20:29:00.001-05:00

5 December 2009
Very good: the novel takes place in the months following the terrorist attacks of 9/11. A college girls loses track of her family and herself when she goes to school: doesn't this happen to all of us? However, we don't all get involved with a secretive, strange family who hires her as their nanny before they even adopt their child, or know which child they will be adopting.

As Tassie gets more and more involved with Sarah and Edward, the more bizarre the rest of her life gets: her boyfriend isn't who he seems, her brother thinks joining the military is his only option, her once hardy farm parents become frail.

Moore's writing is superb: I haven't read her before, but did upon reading an excellent review of this book. I will certainly read her again.

The Vagrants~Yiyun Li

2009-12-01T20:59:00.000-05:00

20 November 2009
I should have read this much slower than I did: however, it was too amazing to go slow. As it was, I read some passages more than once, not only because the writing was so beautiful, but because my mind at times couldn't comprehend the horror that Li was describing.

Simply: this is a novel about China right after the Communist takeover. A woman who was once in the Red Guard turned revolutionary is executed, and the book is about the many different peoples lives this effects in the small village, Muddy River, where she lived.

Yi's writing is elegant and shattering, her characters are all fully developed and totally, unbearably at times, real. Looking forward to her future work.

The Great Perhaps

2009-11-25T19:18:00.001-05:00

"Beneath all of her thoughts and worries, beneath the complication of conflicting identities and needs, maybe it's as simple as loving the way some other person looks when they're sleeping."

Would give it 4 and 1/2 if it existed; not quite a 5 because I'm not sure even Meno can live up to the brilliant high school angst and heartbreak that is one of my favorites: Hairstyles of the Damned!

Jonathan has a unique problem: he faints whenever he sees a cloud, or something in the shape of a cloud, or even a great big white SUV which makes him think of a cloud. Yet, he hates to take his anti-seizure medication because it makes him feel like he's in a cloud. One day he's on an outing to the zoo with his family, wife Madeline and two children, Amelia and Thisbe, and lapses into a seizure, throwing the family into a tailspin and possible destruction.

The tale is told mainly in five different points of view: the family above and Jonathan's father, Henry. Meno examines what courage is in this novel, evident in the brief chapters told from generations past in Jonathan's family.

Amelia and Thisbe's chapters were my favorites: Meno does a superb job of capturing what it is like to be in high school, trying to discover your identity, trying to not care what others think of you (but of course you do).

The Little Stranger~Sarah Waters

2009-11-22T21:44:00.000-05:00

16 November 2009
Good, I liked her other books better however. A good ghost story is always good in my book, though! This one is more about a haunted house, whose influence, or "infection," extends to its human inhabitants. One thing that stands out: Waters is really good at making you dislike this narrator! (I read pretty much the whole last half to Nic when we were driving back from North Carolina and we couldn't stand him. So self-centered and ridiculous!)

In the Kitchen~Monica Ali

2009-11-11T22:06:00.000-05:00

A self-centered, selfish chef's world starts to spiral out of control once a man is found dead in the catacombs underneath the London hotel in which he works and he "takes in" a mysterious woman who may have some connection with the dead man. I found this novel a classic study in all of the elements of novel writing that I studied in college: there is an obvious hero, even if he is unlikeable; clear progressions of plot leading to a frenzied climax and denouement. Not Ali's best, but good, with memorable, precise descriptions ("she lay on the bed like a homicide").

Unless~Carol Shields

2009-11-04T22:37:00.001-05:00

1 November 2009
I loved the chapter titles. OK: funny first thing to say about a book but it's true! I was reminded a bit of Atwood's style, which is also funny, as she is mentioned in this book. A bit of plot: a family is struggling to understand why their daughter basically drops out of life to sit on a Toronto street corner day in and day out. Told by the mother, in first person.

Structurally, I loved how Shields told this story. I loved how the narrator would be talking about what was happening to her in that day, and seamlessly delve into the past, and then back again to the present. (I'm exhausted right now, and am having a hard time describing this in any better way!) It's harder to do than most people would think.

The White Mary~Kira Salak

2009-11-04T22:30:00.001-05:00

Could not put this down either, like Cherie!! (Although I liked the beginning better than the ending for some reason.) As a tough war journalist, Marika travels the world over covering atrocities that 95% of the population in the US could not fathom existed, or when confronted with them, put their heads back into the sand to ignore. When she hears that her idol has not committed suicide as widely believed and reported, Marika goes to remote Papua New Guinea in search of him. Her most dangerous journey yet, she spends months in the jungle, surviving one near death experience after another, in order to find him. (Side note: Salak was the first woman to travel extensively in PNG, and I can't WAIT to read her account of that, although I don't generally read memoirs.)

Some things that kept this from getting five stars: I found it a bit unbelievable that she would go out on a wild whim in order to find someone. Sure, it was representative of a soul search (and was) but.... I still thought it a bit of a stretch. Also, almost all of the characters has supporting roles to Marika, they did not really seem to exist without her. Still, a great read.

The White Mary~Kira Salak

2009-11-04T22:30:00.000-05:00

The Stone Diaries~Carol Shields

2009-10-22T20:30:00.000-04:00

Good, but I suppose I'm still trying to figure out why Shields got the Pulitzer for this particular work....

I do love her descriptions: vivid and thoughtful, very imaginable. I also loved the point of view, although I'm also still trying to figure out how it was told for the last chapter....hmmmm....

In all, a book about an "ordinary" woman who has extraordinary things happen in her life, which can pretty much sum it up about all "ordinary" people.

Ruin: Photographs of a Vanishing America~Brian Vanden Brink

2009-10-18T14:23:00.000-04:00

16 October 2009

From what I observed, most of the photographs were of the northeast, particularly Maine. A coworker commented on how a whole book like this could be dedicated to the urban ruin that is Buffalo, although there are still a lot of great, non-ruins in Buffalo, too. Decent photos.

The Year of the Flood~Margaret Atwood

2009-10-18T14:20:00.001-04:00

9 October 2009

I LOVED THIS BOOK. I'm buying a copy. Not really a follow up to Oryx and Crake but some of the same characters from it are mentioned, and the post-apocalypse plot line is followed. (I'm going to read that one again, followed by this one, when my copy comes in.)

"The Waterless Flood" descends on the world, with only a few survivors, among them being Ren and Toby, whose points of views tell the story, Ren's from 1st person and Toby's from 3rd. Stories within stories develop the novel.

Atwood is so clever, her prose commenting on environmental destruction and species decimation and many futuristically probable/Orwellian scenarios dominating, such as the CorpSeCorps, the local "law enforcement" and The Corporation, the faceless body that dictates how people are employed and therefore how their lives are lived. The Gardeners, radical vegans and animal rights folks, are prominent as well.

I loved this book so much I didn't want it to end and I can't wait to read it again.

Little Bird of Heaven~Joyce Carol Oates

2009-10-18T14:13:00.000-04:00

I was hovering between "it was ok" and "i liked it" for this one; finally chose the latter because after all, I did finish it, and found the premise interesting. A woman is murdered, and her husband and her lover are the prime suspects. The point of view is told mainly from her lover's daughter, and also her son at times. I thought this plot had great potential, but it wasn't developed enough. If it had been better developed, than the length of the novel would be fine. However, since it was meandering in, true, typical JCO style, I felt that this should have been a less-than-100 page novella instead of the 400 page behemoth it is.

Sacred Hearts~Sarah Dunant

2009-10-04T21:51:00.001-04:00

Historical fiction is usually based on some modicum of truth: this one is set in the late 1500s, when convents around Italy were being threatened with severe, strict changes. Many women at this time were sent to convents if they were unmarriageable, including those from noble families. Some of these women adapted to life within walls, enjoying even wine and companionship with other nuns, and the freedom to be women which was not necessarily experienced as a married woman. Other women, however, fight tooth and nail to escape.

Isabetta/Serafina is relegated to convent life when her relationship with her music instructor is discovered by her parents. Both singers, the two develop ways to communicate through her imprisonment, until the dreadful day when they are discovered and Serafina's ingenious plot to escape is thwarted by the even more clever Abbess. After this, under even more close watch and among tumultuous societal changes, Serafina undergoes severe, holy? changes which may have the possibility to change life at the convent forever.

Another key character is Zuana, the dispensary sister, who sees a bit of herself in the rebellious Serafina. Her back story with an apothecary father is an interesting one, and through her unfolds the fact that sometimes women can become very close, like mother and daughter, through similar circumstances and out of a desire for companionship.

The Nameless~Ramsey Campbell

2009-09-29T22:01:00.001-04:00

A tad better than the average pulp horror that I have on my shelves, but still not the greatest ever. More of a plot, decent writing, more scary because of the cult aspect going on. A bit of supernatural stuff going on.... however, the end was a bit of a disappointment as not a lot of stuff is explained, and all of a sudden the "forces of good" take over, as they always do.

Satan Whispers~Clarissa Ross

2009-09-29T21:55:00.000-04:00

Pretty terrible, but also terribly amusing. You gotta love pulp fiction, especially pulp horror! The disappointing thing was that satan never really whispered: it was a painting (don't worry, it's obvious, I'm not giving away the plot or anything) of an evil girl from centuries ago speaking through a modern girl. Until all hell (ha ha) breaks loose and the evil, of course, is destroyed. (Or is it?)

I Missed You~Francois-Marie Banier

2009-09-29T21:38:00.001-04:00

Excellent photography!!!! I sat and looked at each and every picture at work and didn't feel one bit guilty about it. Beautiful photos.

Dreaming in French~Megan McAndrew

2009-09-16T21:21:00.001-04:00

Set mainly in France and told in first person point of view by Charlotte, a privileged girl from the United States growing up in Paris with her sister, Lea, and her parents, Frank and Astrid. Astrid is adored by her youngest daughter, so much so that Charlotte has a hard time sleeping if her mother is out late at one of her frequent soirees with her best friend, the somewhat overbearing but amusing Grace. Charlotte is characterized as kind of a goody-goody who wishes she weren't: wanting to lose her virginity to her first boyfriend but consistently pushing him away; letting herself become scandalized, but not surprised, by her more daring schoolmates sexual escapades.

Until Astrid commits an unthinkable, in the eyes of her daughter, offense which splits the family messily in half and sends Charlotte to NYC, where she hardens herself to love, not only romantic love but family love as well. She spends a tumultuous young adult/early college hood seducing older men and studying post-structuralism, spending as much time away from home as possible, until another unthinkable event happens to ground her tail-spinning life back to reality.

Paris and NYC are the main settings of this novel, with brief bouts in Poland and Italy. McAndrew also touches on some relevant historical items through giving her main character a job as a sort-of journalist. Well written, with some beautiful sentences peppered throughout the narrative, especially the closing paragraph.

Lickshot: A Photo Scrapbook~Ben Watts

2009-09-10T21:04:00.000-04:00

Easy to "read" while cataloging as it is a photography book. LOVED the photo of Tom Waits, of course. Watts combines photos of celebrities with people from the street, all very interesting and urban.

Alaska Quarterly Review, vol. 26, no. 1 & 2

2009-09-10T21:00:00.000-04:00

A particularly good issue, especially the short stories, which were all very interesting: my favorites, one concerning a woman whose eye becomes more of a problem when she starts stalking a former lover, ultimately causing her demise and one about an alcoholic woman who keeps putting off her desire to leave her surroundings until she no longer is capable of making that decision (that story has a coyote in it, which I loved). The magazine ended, however, on a curiously, especially dark and disturbing note. Also notable is a very interesting non-fiction piece about the human eye.

Sliver~Ira Levin

2009-09-09T21:51:00.000-04:00

When I was reading the jacket for the book I was thinking, this is SO familiar sounding....then I remembered it is a movie. Stereotypical thriller; the writing was predictable and unexciting, but I did read to the end because I forgot how it all went down in the movie. Rosemary's Baby was a lot better.

The Amityville Horror~Jay Anson

2009-09-02T21:15:00.001-04:00

1 September 2009
OK, so the writing had too many exclamation points!!!! However, besides that, this was a classic, true, horror story that almost everyone I know has heard of. I started reading it on the bus, and didn't think I was scared. Then I read the last half of it in bed, by myself, in the dark last night and realized I was totally freaked out. Every little creak made me jump! And then the light came on! OH NO! Oh....it was C coming home. OK. I'm OK now.

Short Girls~Bich Minh Nguyen

2009-08-26T22:11:00.000-04:00

A great novel about two sisters who were never close to begin with, but find during their own moments of crisis they have only each other to turn to. Told in alternating points of view, Nguyen masters each of their voices. We see the same events happen in two different perspectives, a reminder that this is the case in life often: there is more than one side to every story. Their father, who understands each of them about as much as they understand each other (ie, not at all) is who brings them together, when after decades of being a permanent resident in the US, decides to apply for his citizenship. Thought provoking without being overwhelming, and peppered with amusing incidents.

The day the falls stood still~Cathy Marie Buchanan

2009-08-19T21:22:00.000-04:00

Always interested in books about the region of the country where I'm from, this is a readable book loosely based on a man who was known as the "Riverman" in Niagara Falls in the mid-1800s. Told in 1st person point of view by the woman who falls in love with him, this is mostly a love story, with some political information about how the Niagara River and Niagara Falls has been greatly altered in the wake of hydroelectricity. We also see the changes the woman goes through from being spoiled and wealthy to all of a sudden clinging to the only things that matter in the wake of personal tragedy. We also see, in the Riverman, the steadfast principles that make memorable people.

When the wind blows~James Patterson

2009-08-11T22:02:00.001-04:00

My Gran gave me this book to read, and the most exciting thing about it was reading about all the places I just re-visited after 3 years of being away: Sugarloaf Mountain, Magnolia Road, Boulder, even Nederland and Eldora. (My living out there is, I'm thinking, the reason she thought I would want to read it.) An OK story, that could have been excellent in, oh, say Stephen King's hands: evil scientists have genetically engineered a group of children so that they can fly. However, the writing was unbelievably trite, contrived, cliched, and all of the characters seemed like they were the same person, down to using the same words and phrases. I just don't understand how some authors achieve bestseller status.

The Edible Woman~Margaret Atwood

2009-08-03T14:54:00.001-04:00

July 2009
I read this so long ago!! Too busy on road trip to update ;) Very humorous, about a woman who suddenly can't eat anything when she accepts her boyfriends marriage proposal. Told from her point of view throughout: 1st person in 1st and 3rd parts and 3rd person in the second. Atwood cleverly acknowledges the POV switch, too, which was enjoyable to read.