i finally finished a book

it's so lame that magazines don't count. i'm talking about the new yorker. since my last post, i've read a trillion new yorkers, and would like it to be noted that i think they should count. i mean, have you ever read a new yorker? mini novels, my friend. mini novels.

anyway, i finally read a book. if there's one author that can snap me out of my coma, it's sue grafton, and her kinsey millhone series. u is for undertow is the most recent one in the series - i have been addicted ever since a is for alibi. i must admit that i am getting nervous because there aren't that many letters left in the alphabet, and it will be a sad day when it all ends.

but three cheers for this quick and well-written novel, and now the wait for v......

kicking your ass

by the way i am so going to beat you this year. i am still behind two book write-ups. you best get busy reading lady. feed your soul. i prescribe lord peter whimsy stories by dorothy sayers.

i'm cheating by pasting a synopsis but i just am so far behind and cannot think about trying to describe this really cool, unusual noirish book

In this tightly plotted yet mind- expanding debut novel, an unlikely detective, armed only with an umbrella and a singular handbook, must untangle a string of crimes committed in and through people's dreams.
In an unnamed city always slick with rain, Charles Unwin toils as a clerk at a huge, imperious detective agency. All he knows about solving mysteries comes from the reports he's filed for the illustrious detective Travis Sivart. When Sivart goes missing and his supervisor turns up murdered, Unwin is suddenly promoted to detective, a rank for which he lacks both the skills and the stomach. His only guidance comes from his new assistant, who would be perfect if she weren't so sleepy, and from the pithy yet profound "Manual of Detection" (think "The Art of War" as told to Damon Runyon).
Unwin mounts his search for Sivart, but is soon framed for murder, pursued by goons and gunmen, and confounded by the infamous femme fatale Cleo Greenwood. Meanwhile, strange and troubling questions proliferate: why does the mummy at the Municipal Museum have modern- day dental work? Where have all the city's alarm clocks gone? Why is Unwin's copy of the manual missing Chapter 18?
When he discovers that Sivart's greatest cases - including the Three Deaths of Colonel Baker and the Man Who Stole November 12th - were solved incorrectly, Unwin must enter the dreams of a murdered man and face a criminal mastermind bent on total control of a slumbering city.

people of the book

i liked this book. not as much as i liked the year of wonders, but geraldine brooks is an excellent writer. still, the story felt too simple and too complicated at the same time. i love that the reader was allowed to glimpse at part of the story of the book (a rare manuscript, a sarajevo haggadah). i liked knowing that though the book expert would only be able to trace the smallest parts of its history, more of the mystery was only revealed to me. it is a shame people don't pass things down through generations and communities more. not only are our verbal histories dying out but the value of a book or an heirloom die in the light of a society too busy to value much of anything worth valuing. god i hate that vapid walmart tv america. so quick to give up what really matters. anyway, beside the point. i really enjoyed the sections of history of the jewish people in this book - i have a huge gap in my knowledge about the full extent of their persecution as a people. i was shocked at how little i knew. also, how little i knew about sarajevo and how this was a place where all types of people and religions mixed peacefully, until they weren't allowed to anymore. anyway, pretty good read and well-written.

burn burn burn

So, i read my first classic during this entire booky blog experiment. I read Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury. God what a writer. Reading an exceptionally well-written book really calls attention to all of the crap I read and try to make better in my head. It is about many things and has many levels to it. I could write a paper. But, for the purposes of the here and now I will just say that it is about an alternate society, one that Bradbury felt was a potentially possible future for society. It is about a society that has burned all of their books because the ideas have the potential to make them sad or dissatisfied in a way the people do not feel is necessary. Better just to watch the gigantic tvs and not even really interact much with each other. The firemen, which our eventual hero is one of, do not put out fires but in fact answer tips for suspected book owners and burn the books and the houses that hold them. The fireman meets a girl and her observations of the world and his role in it start to wake him up to a different way of interacting with the world. He ends up on the run from the police and meets up with a group of intellectuals who have been forced onto the fringes of society, tramps living by the tracks. And as each one introduces himself they say things like I am Great Expections, I am this part of the bible, I am this classic or the other, because they have all committed at least one book to memory in order to save a part of literary history. It is amazing as they trudge into the uncertain future with parts of books in their heads. Who knows if there will be a chance to write them down again some day. Or if they will just pass them along to willing future recipients. It is shocking and prophetic and extremely well written. Quite satisfying. And the point when they start introducing themselves as books is really moving.

I am behind again

Yikes, I have read two very long, very different, and very interesting books since my last post. Lots of dithering around before I settled down to read these. I was having trouble focusing because there is so much I want to read. So, the first book I read was The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova. This is a perfect Fall read. It is long, it is booky, it is kind of creepy but not really. It is about a daughter who is snooping through her father's papers one night and finds a letter addressed to "My dear and unfortunate successor...". When she asks her father about it she is begun on a quest that is her family's seeming birthright as she pieces together the stories her dad tells her with her own need to find the truth. About... Vlad the Impaler!!! Yes, the characters in the book trace the bones and lore and actual vampire himself throughout history to present day. But this was written several years ago by a skilled and smart writer, not anything like any of the crap written today about vampires. I highly recommend it. Highly.

The second book was one I read for book club: The Hakawati by Rabih Alameddine. I kinda underestimated how long it would take me to read it and in fact did not finish in time. I still went and talked and listened and such. But I did finish it after, the only time I ever finished a book club book after the club took place. Usually I realize that I never wanted to read it anyway so why bother. But this I wanted to finish. This book was really different from other things I've read. As background, a Hakawati is a storyteller in Arabic language; a professional storytellerp who weaves stories that mesmerize and can take from six months to a year to tell. In the book and in present day, the main character Osama is returning to Beirut to sit at his father's deathbed. His family all gathers in the hospital. Within this setting stories begin - of grandfathers and relatives and hakawatis and Fatima, who appears to be a goddess, Baybar, the slave king, imps, djinns, witches and horses with magical powers. And these characters, these stories become the atmosphere of the book. The real people in the book become more like mere mortals walking around in the fairytale. They stand out as the different, as opposed to all of the mythical creatures and people. It really brings you into what used to be a society of storytelling passed down through generations and it made me want to find that - in my family - in our society. Without stories, there can be no magic. And stories told out loud carry a different resonance and involve a different type of relationship to the story. I loved this book (even if it did take me forever to finish).

her fearful follow up

i adore audrey niffenegger; my adoration was based upon the time traveler's wife; a book that i could not put down for the life of me, when i read it many years ago. i refuse to see the movie, because i believe the one i have created in my mind is far superior.

so it was with great excitement and anticipation that i picked up her fearful symmetry. and almost immediately, i was in love with the characters, and with the story. ms. niffenegger once again transported me to another head space, and putting down this book proved difficult.

the story is about twins, julia and valentina, who are as close as can me. their aunt, who they have never met (and is their mother's twin), died, and left them her flat in london, with two conditions. they had to live in it for a year before selling it, and their parents could not enter it.

what unfolds is a ghost story, love story, and really, at the end, a tragedy.

there was so much development of this story, and it could of gone in many directions. sadly, it felt as if the author ran out of steam near the end, and so the book ends, and i sat there, wanting it to be so much more.

When in Rome...

So, the last book club read When We Were Romans by Kneale. I was conflicted by this book. It was written from the perspective of a 12 year old boy complete with misspelled words. That part I didn't find as believable as I wanted to. He was dealing with complex issues and sometimes the perspective worked and sometimes it didn't. The story was interesting. The mom is afraid for her life and her childrens' lives because their father is stalking them. She overshares with the son about this and he has to shoulder a lot of fear and responsibility. They decide to pack up all they can and steal away in the night to head from England to Rome, where the mom lived for years and has friends and remembers being happy. Things unfold, the son starts to rebel a little as his role is displaced by other people as support for his mom. And then she starts to see things that make her believe the father has found them in Rome. At first the son doesn't believe her but then he completely enters that scenario and the way the story unfolds is quite dramatic and messed up. Now... I never believed a main premise in the story, so there was no suspense for me until one of the final scenes which was pretty intense. Overall I liked it, except, as I said, the perspective didn't follow through, and I wish I had been fooled for a least a little while regarding that main premise I was talking about. That phrase, "when in Rome do as the Romans do..." was that kid's whole life until the reveal. At the end you hope he finds a path that isn't solely the opposite of that.

Sir Arthur's first Sherlock Holmes Story

When I was a child I was obsessed with Sherlock Holmes. I found a volume of his cases in the old shelves of my parent's living room and read them one after another enthralled. The one I never read until now was A Study in Scarlet, the first one Sir Arthur Conan Doyle ever wrote. In it you see how Holmes and Watson met and you see the first case they ever work. And you see how Holmes' education was completely focused on skills he needed to solve crimes, and technology he was experimenting with to make crime solving easier (fingerprint collecting and the like). I liked it... but Holmes was so smug, almost obnoxious about how great at solving mysteries he was. And then of course he easily solved this one. Also, a large part of the second half was back story for the crime and I really didn't find it that engrossing. So, indifferent really.

A Boy Named Nobody

I read the Graveyard Book by Neil Gaimon, the second of his children's books I've read lately (the other being Coraline). It is about a baby who's family is murdered by a mysterious and evil man (with an excellent sense of smell) but he escapes (crawls) to a graveyard and the ghosts who live there rescue, protect, and raise him. I think that Gaimon is one of a kind. He creates these scary, imaginary worlds for kids and helps them find their way out of that fear themselves, with little adult assistance. I think in a world as scary as this one, there is something to be said for showing children that they can survive within themselves.

birds of america by lorrie moore

her writing is very dark; almost depressingly so. the first story started off fairly well; feeling strong, and engaged. by the end of the book, i wanted to stab out my eyeballs.

Hmmmm.... I dropped the ball for a little while on updating the blog. I'm so sorry! So I have to remember all that I have read. I will start with The Man Who Smiled by Henning Mankell. As you probably have gathered, I love this author. I love his protagonist. And I love how smart and original and well set these mysteries are. But this one was truly awful. It was as if Mankell was just sitting at his desk staring out the window and every once in a while he would write a sentence or two because he felt like he had to. Very disappointing.

the zookeeper's wife by diane ackerman

I wanted to fall in love with this book from the get go, but Ackerman made it difficult to do so. The Zookeeper's Wife tells the remarkable WWII story of Jan Zabinski, the director of the Warsaw Zoo, and his wife, Antonina, who, with courage and coolheaded ingenuity, sheltered 300 Jews, as well as Polish resisters during the war. Ackerman used Antonina's diaries, as well as other sources, to take us into the Warsaw ghetto and the 1943 Jewish uprising. There are so many rich facts and details, that are heartbreaking and astounding, but Ackerman takes on too much. I was confused in some parts; the story was often interrupted to insert facts about the Pole's revolt against Nazi occupiers in 1944, or introducing us to such figures such as Lutz Heck, the head of the Berlin Zoo and Rabbi Kalonymus Kalman Shapira, spiritual head of the ghetto. It was a lot to absorb; as if a novel and a history book merged together into one. I wanted to lose myself in the story, and instead I felt I was being lectured to.

Beautifully written, but be prepared as this is not a story for the faint of heart.

we all need a little self-help...

i just finished self-help by lorrie moore. she's a new author for me - there has been some recent coverage of her lately as her new book, a gate at the stairs was just released. i was intrigued, and on a recent trip to the movies, stopped into the bookstore to pick up a few of her books.

i don't usually go for short stories (something about them being short - i feel i become committed to the characters, and then at once they are gone), but i did enjoy moore's writing. all except the last story in this collection i found to be devastatingly heartbreaking. tragic and honest, dark and sublime. the last story could not hold my attention, and i found myself having to reread paragraphs to figure out what was happening.

all in all, i did enjoy her stories, and i am eager to start birds of america..

the god of animals

if you haven't read this, please absolutely do. it's so well written, and pulled so many of my heart strings, i don't even know where to start. aryn kyle took me to several emotional levels, and by the end of the book, the tears that started out as a trickle, became full on sobs.

alice is an amazing, strong young woman, and this is the story of her family, and the complicated relationships we have with our family. be warned that there is some mother stuff in here, and i found that particularly affected my heart.

please read this, and let yourself go where she takes you.

rules...are made to be broken...

rules was a gift from you...it was a quick read and packed with lessons (and rules); i felt the ending was a bit weak, but i am a fan of tidy endings, and this one just sort of ended as if ms. lord was tired of writing about these characters.

it is a great book for kids though, and an enjoyable read.

dragon tattoos...

So I read this book in a few days. It is the first of a trilogy of mysteries handed into his publisher before he died. I loved it, really well written. The beginning is okay but partly through it pops and I even had to ignore my house guest and my husband for a little while until I finished. It was a fairly stylized mystery, filled with decent characters and great atmosphere, great setting. Good lord I love me my Swedish mystery writers!

important artifacts and personal...

..property from the collection of lenore doolan and harold morris, including books, street fashion and jewellery...crafted by lenore shapton....this book is fantastic...the illustration, the concept behind it...it's a pretend auction catalogue, sharing the dissolution of a relationship...a true treasure.

the two kinds of decay by sarah manguso

at twenty-one, just as she was starting to comprehend the puzzles of adulthood, Sarah Manguso was faced with another: a wildly unpredictable autoimmune disease that appeared suddenly and tore through her twenties, paralyzing her for weeks at a time, programming her first to expect nothing from life and then, furiously, to expect everything. in this captivating story, Manguso recalls her struggle: arduous blood cleansings, collapsed veins, multiple chest catheters, depression, the deaths of friends and strangers, addiction, and, worst of all for a writer, the trite metaphors that accompany prolonged illness.

i loved her style of writing - it is very different from a typical memoir - the story is written in poetic prose - at least that's what it felt like to me. it was beautiful, tragic, and somehow, i felt quite distance from the writer and her story. i wanted more. although her questions and her thoughts makes us think, i felt an arm's length away from her story.

a quick read, and i highly recommend it.

Crossing to Safety

My first classic author during this reading comp. I loved this book. It was complicated and beautifully written. It was about four friends who met young and immediately fell into friendship together. They were young and promising and nothing had happened to them yet. They were in eden. And then things began to happen to them, hard things like polio and losing jobs and nervous breakdowns and they weren't in eden anymore. How they handled their lives as they maneuvered through their pain was different for each character, but the constant was love and friendship. For some there was also a learned gratitude, that they had what they had. There were ideals in this book like staying instead of leaving, like the importance of friendship and love to keep you okay during the tragedies of life. It was about crossing to safety throughout life, whether you are rescued or rescue yourself or rescue each other.

yoga schmoga

finally finished the tree of yoga by b.k.s iyengar...his thoughts are interesting i guess...there are some kernels of truth that will sink somewhere and come to me when i need them. something was definitely lost in the translation...and i don't know that this made me love yoga any more or less...what a terrible review i'm giving this book...just one of those days. i would say, unless you are full on yogi, skip it.

Witches

I read the Physick bk of Deliverance Dane. Loved it. Want to be witch even more so now. Wondering how to signal that I am ready to accept my powers now. Am researching natural remedies and herbs and such. Will keep you posted about powers. Smooch.

Glass Castle Indeed

This book was sad. I read it in two nights. It felt like fiction. The way she approached her family and childhood with love and tolerance, anything less than anger and grief, was mouth opening. It was like watching a train wreck. It was painful to see the transition as they grew up and understood more and more that what was happening actually shouldn't. I was so glad to read the part where they ended up saving each other, pulling each other one by one out of that hell and into New York.

What is the saying about glass houses? That you shouldn't throw stones if you live in one. I guess judging anyone's life or parents leads you back to your own and makes you vulnerable to the same sort of judgements. Still, they were such over the top wretched parents. Anyway, I am eager to read her new book that is coming out soon.

chick lit...love it or hate it

the late, lamented molly marx by sally koslow definitely fits into this category - i was sucked in by the description of the book and thought it was going to be something it wasn't. it was ok, but so much of the plot we are familiar with, and i don't know if ms. koslow did any better. there are some sweet moments of her thoughts about her daughter (the narrator of the story is molly marx, and she tells her story as she sees it unfold from some place in the afterlife). i'm still puzzled as to who it was that caused her to have the accident that killed her, and i'm annoyed by that. it was ok - probably best saved for a flight or day at the beach - and definitely wait for the paperback, or better yet, borrow it from the library.

the physick book of deliverance dane by katherine howe

i enjoyed this book about witches - who doesn't love a good story full of witch craft? the book was good - well written, and fairly formulaic...i won't spill any secrets but you won't be surprised, really. there are some true historical facts weaved in, which doth make us feel more learned. i miss you too and sometimes i think we could be good witches.

I am always right about hedgehogs

Yay. I am so glad you stuck with it. It was one of my favorite books last year. I was mesmerized. And when I finished with it I just wanted to talk and talk. I am so glad you stuck with it. I owe you a stick with.
Anyway, I finished Hardball by Sara Paretsky. I'm conflicted. When I had the flu last year I read these books constantly. They are not easy or stupid. It is good story telling with a great character. But the character is somehow better than the stories, so sometimes they leave you feeling like the big picture is better than the individual books. And that is kinda how I felt about this one - I think it comes out in September or something. Anyway, I am on to A Short History of Women which I have decided to read to my mom and Glass Castle, my own read. Hopefully I will love them more than just like them.
I miss you sweetie.

you were right...about the hedgehog

you were right. i stuck with it, and it took me awhile, but in the end, i loved this book. it broke my heart and it mended it. the first half i struggled through, that we know. the second half, i don't know whether it was the writing or the circumstance in which i was reading it. but i got it, finally. and i will pick up her next book.

Ah, brilliant. Yes, I am....

I am having trouble with this entry, starburst. Some technical difficulties. I am so happy that you have agreed to extend our reading. I agree, and June for me was too full of yoga training, and less full of reading, which saddens me greatly. Alas, I think I will have to take a break from our friend and her hedgehog, and make up for some lost time. I have a huge pile of books beside my bed, and a few more that I must pick up tomorrow from my local bookstore.

We are rare, you and I, in many ways. And I am grateful that we have each other, and our own club. Lola keeps flicking her tail on my keyboard as I type this which is making it difficult.

I heart you, Farley.

Your Brilliant Thought

Dear Sweetest Knees,
I agree, your idea is brilliant! I was getting sad that the month was ending and I mightn't have finished all that I had planned. This burdensome thing called work and life and trips to weddings became almost impossible to read around. But July looks good for reading. And in fact, the whole rest of the year does. Which is good because I have ever so many books I want to read. And only you really I feel like sharing them with. Because you are like me. You are a reader. They are more rare than people think and probably less rare than I do. And they are a very special type of person. But I am not giving up the pace. I will be victorious. And... I have the advance readers copy of Muriel Barbery's next book. So, after I finish Hardball by Sara Paretsky, perhaps I will sink into the lovely french philosophy myself.
xoxox

I adore you not matter what

Dearest Rebekah,

A thought came to me in the night - a brilliant one, if I might say so myself. What if we readeth beyond the month of June...what if we extend our readathon to the end of the year...what thinketh you? I am stuck still on the Hedgehog, while reading now and then The Tree of Yoga. You may be ahead of me now, dear friend, but I am not far behind. xo

You are going to hate this

Hi Bry, Whilst you have been swimming through French philosophy and hopefully loving it I have just finished another Charlaine Harris novel filled with were-people and vampire love. Ahhh. It was the last one written for at least a year so no worries about future obsessions. Mostly I had to break the block I was having about choosing just the right next book. I am currently reading the new hardboiled detective mystery by Sara Paretsky and then will be moving on to Glass Castle as my nonfiction read. Not sure what my two classics will be and have so many great books piled up next to my bed that I am overwhelmed. I love you. And, more importantly, I am ahead of you. xoxo

the elegance of a hedgehog by muriel barbery

i am still in the midst of this one and i am finding it to be a tough read. i don't mind the double narration, but i have a feeling that most of it is going right over my head. more as i push my way through it.

Caroline Coraline

I just finished reading Coraline by Neil Gaimen. It lives in the realm of cautionary children's stories. Coraline lives in that space at the end of the summer when boredom has created a landscape and parents don't always stop to pay attention. Finding a door that opens to a brick wall is just the first mysterious thing to show up in her life. Managing to go through it and finding her "other" parents and a more exciting version of her life is next. But things quickly turn scary as she realizes that the "other mother" is not what she seems and her real parents are missing. Really great, creative, spooky tale.

Lost in The Finder

This was actually a good book. I have no idea why I slogged through it. I think it just wasn't good enough. The pace was too spread out. The story followed too many characters, some I did not care at all about. The story was great, the perspective was not. I wasted a whole week on one book!! AAARGH! Anyway, it was good, just not great. And not great in that way that makes you fall asleep right away at night instead of having to read just one more page.

look for me by edeet ravel

i was so enjoying the beginning of this book - it's a love story framed by the vivid realities of the israeli-palestinian conflict. dana's husband disappears, and she has waited for him to return for eleven years. i was very much into the story until around page 232, and that's when it all started to fall apart for me. you spend the first 231 pages in anticipation - where is her husband? why did he disappear? why won't anyone tell her where he is? the answers, though perhaps truthful, are disappointing and shallow. what started out as a novel i felt invested in, ended as one that i could not wait to put down. overall, a disappointment.

shadow of the wind by carlos ruiz zafon

you were right - i did love this book. i loved everything about it. it was mysterious, and surprising, and it dealt with one of my favorite things in the world...books. the attention to detail, deep thought, and passionate soul that zafon put into this novel were evident, and so much appreciated by this reader. i literally could not put this down. thank you, mr. zafon. what a well-rounded, beautifully tragic read.

well, was she?

was she pretty? by leanne shapton - graphic novel combined with poetic words. a rare gem, i must say. unusual and original. shapton interviews friends and acquaintances about their exes, weaving us a voyeuristic tale of love and life through epigrammatic vignettes and evocative line drawings (yes, that's from the flap copy). i liked it, and am waiting for her newest book to arrive.

I am a sucker for Kurt Wallander

I am a sucker for Henning Mankell's Kurt Wallander mysteries. In part because they have great atmosphere, and real characters and a hero who is not so much like a hero. There are always violent crimes, very violent at times, set against a stark dramatic picture of Sweden. I always imagine it cold, and dark and bare where he is. Wallander (detective with the police force in Ystad) is a great and complex protagonist. He seems deeply sad, he questions how he can do what he does, but he doggedly pursues the most daunting of criminals and always figures out the puzzle. I like him because he is brusque and real and doesn't really know how to have a personal relationship but doesn't stop trying. I just finished Sidetracked and I loved it. It was hard at any point to put it down. It starts when a young girl sets fire to herself in front of Wallander. The reader is perhaps even more affected because we have already been introduced to her in the prologue. What follows are a series of brutal murders by a most surprising killer. When Wallander apprehends the villain he stands in the rain and cries. There is so much humanity in him. Anyway, it was very very good.

perhaps there is room in my heart for...

....carlos ruiz zafon. i started reading the shadow of the wind this morning while waiting to go in for my first colonic. from the first subtitle page, i am in love and committed to this book...how poetic, how beautiful, and how tragic...the cemetery of forgotten books. more to follow as i dive deeper and deeper into this heaven...

the love of my life, john irving

my first book finished - the fourth hand by john irving -  admittedly started before june 1st, but finished late last night...i adore john irving, and i adore his writing. this book was conceptually much more out there then some of my favorites - it's about a reporter whose left hand is eaten by a lion while he is on assignment in india. he becomes the nation's first hand transplant...but the widow of the donated hand demands visitation rights. it was a bizarre read, but deep at the heart of the matter, a love story. funny, dark...ah, john irving, you have my heart.

Snooty French man learns life lessons

So... I just finished Artificial Snow by Florian Zeller. I read it twice - it's not very long - 115 pages - but you almost have to read it twice to get more of a feel for it. It is about a man who loved a woman and cannot let her go. They broke up ages ago and she has moved on but he can't. His fantasies alternate between getting back together with her in elaborate ways and killing her. He starts carrying a knife in case he runs into her. One of the interesting things about this book is that he could be just a bitter, sad guy going through a part of his life where he doesn't really feel anything and so thinks he needs to do something drastic... or he could be a sociopath. The line is kinda fuzzy. The prologue, dismissed as "Boring Prologue" is actually the end of the story, a looking back, something learned, redemption. But even the title of it shows you how self-absorbed and self-conscious the narrator is. Anyway, hard to describe I guess. Worth it though for some little bits of wisdom found throughout. Overall, an interesting character study.

okay maybe it wasn't a great piece of literature

i have just finished reading my first book of the competition. it is called, drum roll please, From Dead to Worse by Charlaine Harris. This is my 8th, maybe 9th book in the series. Even though it pains me to post this. I love them. They are silly and much like watching television but really fun and sort of addictive if you like that vampire shape shifter love story kind of fiction. which apparently i do. from now on though i promise much loftier reading.