the sum of our days by isabel allende

i feel that lately all of my entries start with "i wanted to love this book, but...", and unfortunately the sum of our days is another one i must add to that list. i am a huge fan of isabel allende - her way of transporting her readers into another lifetime is one of the things i adore about her.

this book is a memoir (yes, i have a thing for memoirs - especially memoirs that weave in a story line about the loss of someone dear); this memoir recalls the thirteen years of living that she and her family have done since her daughter paula died.

i was so very excited when i started this book...the lead in was perfect...having just come out of a relationship i had great hopes for, for me her words and life sounded to be heaven, despite the loss and tragedy that lay before...

"By daybreak, finally, the wrath of the storm had ceased, but it was still raining. With the first light at the window, I showered and got dressed, while Willie, wrapped in his jaded sheik dressing gown, went to the kitchen. The smell of freshly ground coffee enveloped me like a caress. Aromatherapy. These everyday routines unite us more than the clamor of passion; when we're apart it is this silent dance we miss most. We each need to feel that the other one is near, always there in that intangible space that is ours alone. A cold dawn, coffee and toast, time to write, a dog that wags her tail, and my lover."

what followed was an uneven telling of life - at times, i found her hard to follow, and found myself skimming because she seemed to go on and on about insignificant things. other times, i felt the ego showing through, and i felt annoyed by that. maybe some serious editing would have been helpful; or maybe my intention in reading and receiving this book was different then the intended message.

i did appreciated her touching on her grief, that came and went during the years. i did appreciate her description that it was always there under the surface, and even with the lightest scratch, could be revealed.

allende is a beautiful writer - it's just unfortunate that the ego took over in this case. the next one i pick up from her will be paula. stay tuned.

the angel's game by carlos ruiz zafton

i loved his previous book, the shadow of the wind, and so dove into this book, and got lost in it very quickly. he's a wonderful story teller, and i like being in his world - it is a fantastic escape from my own.

from the flap:
"In an abandoned mansion at the heart of Barcelona, a young man, David Martin, makes his living by writing sensationalist novels under a pseudonym. The survivor of a trouble childhood, he has taken refuge in the world of books and spends his nights spinning baroque tales about the city's underworld. But perhaps his dark imaginings are not as strange as they seem, for in a locked room deep within the house lie photographs and letters hinting at the mysterious death of the previous owner..."

it's a mystery, a love story, a tragedy - perhaps one day it could be turned in an opera - it has that feel to it. although the ending didn't quite settle well with me, i would recommend this book.

1st book of 2010

I've been reading City of Thieves for weeks now. I got stuck and couldn't make headway. Until the other night. All of a sudden it caught fire like a slow burning match does and I sailed through to the end. It was a lovely book. Beautiful and sad and ridiculous. Everything a war has the potential to be. I know beautiful isn't something that immediately pops into mind when thinking about a war. That wars used to be about saving something good (at least in part) - a fighting for something necessary; freedom, peace, morality, is of course deftly symbolized by the loss of those willing to die to save something more important than just one life.
Anyhoo... this book was narrated (sort of) by a grandfather to a grandson, a thing I immediately forgot right away, therefore losing a bit of the personal investment that should have been a part of my character assessment. A 17 year old boy gets picked up for looting and is thrown in jail during the seige of Leningrad. He and his cellmate, a young charming man picked up for desertion are called into the General's office the next morning and given an unusual task. They will be set free if they can bring back one dozen eggs for the general's daughter's wedding cake within a week. Eggs being, of course, extraordinarily hard to come by. So they set out, under the most dangerous circumstances. The people they meet along the way, the things they see, the danger they face, the friendship they find, changes them. The story is timeless and the writing is seamless. I loved it.

this book will make you become a vegan

when i was eleven, i decided to stop eating any form of pig, because at the time i was into pigs - i had a huge collection. one day, or maybe this happened over time, i realized that the very bacon that i was putting into my mouth had in fact at one point been one of these beautiful, intelligent creatures. and how could i eat something i loved so? it seemed wrong, and so i stopped.

other animals followed, and by the time i was twenty-one, my diet was completely meat free. there was a brief period in my late twenties when i tried shrimp and lobster, but it didn't last long. my conscience couldn't handle it. i continued to eat dairy and eggs, up until two and a half years ago, when i found that i was actually allergic to both.

i was teased and mocked over the years because i chose not to eat meat; my brother would dangle raw bacon in my face, people would grill me on my diet choice, and going vegan has only increased the attention. i put up with the jokes, and the mockery; i still have a hard time eating with people, sometimes, because of the unending questions and comments. i always said it was a choice i made because it was healthy for me; my body changed so drastically when i gave up eating meat (and therefore giving up most forms of fast food and junk food), and secondary to that, it made me feel good that i wasn't hurting any animals. i had found my way of surviving and thriving, without hurting any of god's creatures.

this book makes me feel proud to have made the choices i have.
from this day on, i vow to challenge each and every person that chooses to mock my choices. i shall encourage them to learn more about where their food comes from, about how the animals that they are eating were raised, about the lives they lived, and the deaths they suffered. i will encourage learning and understanding about how the effects of the food choices they make affect our world.

if every person on this planet could read this book, i am sure that it could change the world. it could change the lives of millions upon millions of animals; it could change our environment, and it could save our planet.

from the flap:
"like many others, jonathan safran foer spent his teenage and college years oscillating between omnivore and vegetarian. but on the brink of fatherhood - facing the prospect of having to make dietary choices on a child's behalf - his casual and questioning took an on urgency. so foer set out to find the answers for himself. this quest ultimately required him to visit factory farms in the middle of the night, dissect the emotional ingredients of meals from his childhood, and probe some of his most primal instincts about right and wrong."


please read this, and recommend it to everyone you know.

half-broken crumb bums

if i recall correctly, we both loved the glass castle.
i think perhaps i need to go into second novels with more of an open mind, and less expectations.

half broken horses by jeanette walls tells the story of jeannette's grandmother, lily. at first, she had hope to write a book about her mother, but her grandmother's story seemed much more interesting to her.

and it is - lily is a firecracker of a woman - she breaks horses, beats all the men at poker, learns to pilot an aircraft - etc etc - parts of the story made me feel very inspired, and other times i felt as if the character (it's written in the first person) was way too full of herself. a hard life, no doubt, and she took life by the horns, but several times i could of put it down. admittedly, and repeated use of the term "crumb bum" started to irritate me a little.

at the end, i do feel like i will get up tomorrow and take over the world. not the whole world, but maybe just a little more control of my own world. and it's thanks to this woman's brass ovaries.

sadly, we find out at the end, that in fact lily died when jeanette was eight - these days, these types of novels are called "true life novels". it's a quick read though, and if you feel like you need a kick in the ass, lily is the woman to give it to you.

wow 7 new books - yikes! the girl is on fire. magazines are for wussies!

last reads of 2009 - serial fun

SO I read two series before the end of last year.
They are for children but are addictive full length reads. Plus I got to enter the weird and sometimes wonderful world of young adult fiction. Most of it is crap but these were great.
The first two books were out of a trilogy (third one not out until late summer and I find myself waiting actively).

These are kind of heady violent twisted reads. I had to remind myself that kids were reading lord of the flies and other kinds of intense books when i was a kid. the set up is a female heroine. two kids from each district are chosen out of a lottery each year to go to a natural setting arena and fight until only one of say 30 is left alive. that child is the winner. the government is your typical evil oppressive machine. the games are watched by the capitol with glee and sponsorship. both books were great reads with lots to think about at that age. the only problem i have with them is if a kid reads them with no guided reflection, the books are quite violent, especially because the pawns are children, and if you don't take anything more away with you than the thrill, it's kind of a twisted violence.

The second series (Percy Jackson) I read was for younger kids, like 12-14. The main characters are demi-gods (one greek god as a parent, 1 human parent). The books are filled with adventure and all kinds of greek mythology set in present time. Since I was obsessed with greek mythology when I was a kid, I loved these.

i confess my first read of 2010

i loved mr. white's confession - well written - tragic - nothing tied up neatly here - i read this based on your review and recommendation and loved it.

precious

my last read of 2009 - heartbreaking, completely heartbreaking.