Getting By, Dreaming Big

Amy and Isabelle, Elizabeth Strout

304 pages, @1998

I recently read Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout for book group (I’ll be posting about it next week, as I generally like to wait until after book group to post my reviews on book group books).  When I bought the book, I realized that it was the same author who had written Amy and Isabelle, a book I had on my bookshelf.  So once, I finished Olive Kitteridge, I decided to stick with the author one more time and dive into Amy and Isabelle.

Amy and Isabelle is the story of none other than Amy and Isabelle.  Amy is the 15-16 year old daughter and Isabelle is her mother.  They live in the small town of Shirley Falls, Maine.  Amy goes to high school while Isabelle works as a secretary at the local mill.  Their lives are very isolated; they do not have  a lot of friends or social interaction.  They are both keeping secrets from each other, which puts a strain on their relationship.  When Amy gets caught “making out” with an older man, Isabelle is forced to deal with her younger years and Amy’s conception into this world.  Some secrets can’t stay buried forever.

I enjoyed this book, but it didn’t blow me away.  Having read two books now by Elizabeth Strout, back to back, I would say that her main theme is lonliness and how regardless of how many people you are surrounded by without meaningful relationships there is a sense of isolation and lonliness in people.  This theme of course makes for some somber reading.  Her characters, Amy and Isabelle, are drab and initially it is hard to figure out why the reader should care about them.  However, as the story develops and Isabelle is forced to come out of her shell and tell the truth about her life, her character becomes a little more sympathetic.  I thought that Amy was a relatable adolescent: moody, explorative, unsure about life, pushing the limits.  However, even she was pretty drab.  In real life I can understand why they didn’t have too many friends.  They didn’t put themselves out there and they seemed pretty boring.

All in all I would give this book 3 stars.  It didn’t blow me away, I had to work to pick up the book and keep turning the pages, but I felt rewarded when I finished.  I was happy with the way the story ended.  I thought Strout brought everything together nicely. 

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What were your thoughts on Amy and Isabelle?

Do You Promise Not to Tell?, Mary Jane Clark

I hadn’t read a Mary Jane Clark mystery in a couple of months and I was feeling like I needed a couple of fun mysteries to read.  I went to my local library and requested the next MJC book, Do You Promise Not to Tell? 

Do You Promise Not to Tell? is about Farrell Slater, a producer at KEY News.  She’s lost her excitement for her job and her boss can tell.  However, as she’s on her way out of KEY News, she stumbles across the story of Fauxberge.  The Faberge Moon Egg has recently been auctioned off at Churchill’s auction house for a large sum of money.  However, is it the real Moon Egg or is it a forgery.  Farrell believes its a forgery and as she begins to unravel the case in order to get one last good story, people start to get hurt.  Farrell doesn’t even realize what she’s stumbled on…

I have to say that MJC got me.  I thought I knew who the killer was but I didn’t…dang!  It was a fast paced, page turning mystery, like most of her other books.  I was interested in the subject matter, the characters and the mystery.  A great combination.  MJC’s style is very much like that of her mother-in-law, Mary Higgins Clark.  I’m working my way through all of her books.  Are they the best mysteries I’ve ever read?  No, but they are enjoyable, fun, light reads that are good distractions every now and again.

I would recommend MJC if you like MHC:)  Overall, I would rate this book 3 stars.

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Who is your favorite mystery writer?

One False Move, by Harlan Coben

383 pages, @1998

Ahhh…comfort reading!  I really needed to head back to my “reading roots” and pick up a fun novel.  I’m a mystery lover since I was a wee little girl and I was craving a good fun mystery.  I started Harlan Coben’s Myron Bolitar series a couple of years ago so I decided to pick up One False Move, the 5th novel in the series.  I was not disappointed.

One False Move is essentially the story of the Slaughter Family.  Brenda Slaughter is 25 and the star player in the new WNBA league (although they call ist something else in the book).  Her mother disappeared when she was just 5 years old and her father has recently disappeared.  Norm Zuckerman, the head of a clothing company that Brenda endorses, brings in Myron Bolitar to be her sports agent and hopes that in the meantime he’ll use his investigative skills to solve the mysteries in Brenda’s family.  Enter Myron and his sidekick Win to the rescue.

I have to say that while I figured out one part of the mystery I did not figure out the “who-done-it” portion of the mystery.  This was definitely the best book in the Myron Bolitar series.  I really enjoyed it and devoured it in a day.  I have already requested the 6th book from the library but I’m 9th on the list of holds, so I guess it’ll be awhile before Mr. Bolitar and I are reunited.  If you are looking for a “classic” mystery novel I would definitely recommend Harlan Coben.  I enjoy his books, they make me want to turn the page and turn the page until I’m done. 

4 Stars

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What are your “reading roots” or your ”comfort genre”?

Graceland, Chris Abani

321 pages, @2005

Graceland, was my friend Shion’s, book group pick for the month of February.  We had actually seen Mr. Abani speak at the event we attended a couple of years back honoring the 50th Anniversary of Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe.  Of course, it is always exciting when you get to read a book by someone who you’ve seen speak.

Graceland follows the story of Elvis Oke in a coming-of-age tail that takes place in Lagos, Nigeria.  Elvis, likes to dance and imitate his namesake, Elvis Presley (although that doesn’t play as centrally into the book as you might be lead to believe by the back cover and other reviews).  The book goes back and froth between two different time periods, Elvis’ life as an child, innocent to what was going on around him, and Elvis’ life as a teenager in the Lagos ghetto where he lives with his disapproving father.  The book does a good job of showing how an innocent child with so much potential put in all the wrong circumstances with the wrong parenting can end up making decisions that take him down a road no one should be traveling on.

Overall, I was fascinated by the story of Elvis Oke.  Africa is not a region of the world that I read much about in the fiction or non-fiction reading that I do.  This is one of the reasons I love book group, because it forces me sometimes to leave my “reading comfort zone” and tackle a subject I’m less familiar or comfortable with.  This book certainly accomplished that. 

I found that some of the vehicles Abani used to put the story together didn’t achieve in my mind what they were meant to.  At the end of every chapter there was one page dedicated to a recipe from Elvis’ mother’s journal, mostly featuring yams, or the description of a root, where to find it, what it looked like, and what it’s healing powers were.  I found these pages ultimately distracting.  I’m not going to cook any of the recipes and I am certainly not going to go root hunting.  I found that when I wanted to continue on with Elvis’ story I was forced to stop and read a page that I felt added nothing to the book.  This grew frustrating as I delved deeper and deeper into the novel.  In addition, at the start of each chapter there was a little history of the kola nut ceremony, a coming of age ceremony for men in certain African tribes.  I wish rather than including a sentence or two at the top of each chapter that the entire ceremony had been cited and explained all at once.  Reading about it in bits and pieces made it less powerful in my opinion because I couldn’t put it all together.  I’m sure there was a purpose to this but I couldn’t see it.

The story itself is powerful and I’m glad I read it.  Overall I would give this novel 3 stars.

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What is your favorite novel that takes place in Africa?

Postcards, by Annie Proulx

309 pages, @1992

I was interested to read Annie Proulx as she is the author who penned Brokeback Mountain.  Postcards is the story of the Blood Family (that’s right, you read that right, their last name is Blood).  They are farmers in New England and have to confront all the forms of technology that are coming to be in the 20th Century, changing everything about the town they live in, the farm they run, and just life in general.  At the beginning of the book the reader learns that their oldest son Loyal, has killed his girlfriend and buried her on the farm.  He leaves that night for the open road telling his family that he and his girlfriend are going to forge their own success out in the American west.  The rest of the book chronicles the rise and fall of the entire Blood family and their farm.  Each chapter begins with a postcard, sometimes they are from Loyal to his family, other times they are messages pertaining to something coming up in the chapter or not. 

I have to say that I didn’t really like this book.  I felt it was very scattered.  Some authors can pull of that scattered feeling by eventually pulling all the information together in a coherent story, but I didn’t feel that Proulx achieved that.  I also didn’t like the postcards, which essentially provided Proulx with the title of her book, obviously she factors them as a strong vehicle to get her story across.  I found them so annoying.  Some were handwritten, some were typed, some pertained to the chapter that followed the postcard, and some never pertained really to anything in the story at all.  They drove my crazy!  My other big beef with this book was on the back, in the description, it says: “Yearning for love, yet forced by circumstance to be always alone, Loyal comes to symbolize the alienation and frustration behind the American dream.”  I didn’t agree with this statement at all.  Loyal left the farm and lifestyle that he loved (not just loved but lived and breathed for) because he killed his girlfriend and he had to run otherwise that piece of information was going to be found out and his life ruined.  I would not classify him as someone that was out in the world looking to achieve the American dream, he was a murderer, forced into alienation and frustration in a life on the road by the circumstance he put himself in. 

I didn’t find Loyal to be a particularly likeable character, he wasn’t someone that I connected with and was rooting for throughout the novel.  It was more,what random thing is Loyal doing now.  I don’t know maybe I missed the point of the story…but this book just didn’t do it for me, it was utterly depressing, dark and gritty.  I kept wondering what the editor wondered when he/she first read this book.  What did they see in it, that they said, this is going to be great?  I can’t say that I would be interested in picking up Proulx again anytime in the near future. 

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Have you read Proulx?  Do you like her writing style?  If you’ve read this book, I’d be curious as to what you though made it a stand out novel?

Dead Man’s Walk, by Larry McMurty

463 pages, @1995

Obviously, I didn’t get around to finishing my double posts last week before I left for Florida.  I just ran out of time.  I need to start thinking about traveling with my laptop and getting some sort of internet connection when I travel.  So I apologize, once again for the disappearing act.  I don’t have any trips planned until March though so I should be able to keep fairly steady through the month of February.

Back a year or so ago I attempted two reading challenges.  As one of my books for the reading challenge I selected the Pulitzer Prize winning novel by Larry McMurty, Lonesome Dove.  When I went to Barnes & Noble to pick up the book I discovered that Lonesome Dove is the 3rd book in a 4 book series.  I decided then and there, that even though McMurty wrote Lonesome Dove first, I had to read the series from the beginning, meaning the book that was meant as the first book, so I purchased Dead Man’s Walk instead.  I will admit that I started this book back in November, but due to my lack of interest in reading around the holidays I got 100 pages in and just couldn’t really stick with it.  However, with my new goal of 2010 in hand, to read a book a week, I decided that I better go back and tackle this beast.

Dead Man’s Walk, introduces us to Gus McCrae and Cal Woodrow, two Texas Rangers, working missions in the Wild Wild West.  When the book first begins they are in Comanche territory and their mismatched group of Rangers realize that this mission is hopeless as they are outmatched.  Awhile later, they are invited to join, an expedition to capture Sante Fe from Mexico and annex it as part of Texas, under the pirate Caleb Cobb.  Other interesting characters that join them are Matilda Roberts and Bigfoot Wallace.  They find themselves in Comanche territory again and have to face off against the mighty Buffalo Hump and Kicking Wolf as they journey to Sante Fe.  Unfortunately for the group of Texas Rangers, they are being led by a shoddy commander who hasn’t put much thought into the expedition, and they encounter many hiccups along the way.

I find this time period tough to read about as this part of our country was pretty desolate and there was a lot of violence.  I couldn’t imagine being a Texas Ranger.  I thought McMurty did a good job in drawing Gus and Call for us as characters since they’re going to be the main characters we follow through the series.  They are very distinctive and standout among the rest of the characters.  The storyline is a little repitive in that you have a group of Texas Rangers setting out to explore further West who constantly end up hungry, starving, without horses, water or hope and struggling to stay alive.  Those themes appear again and again in the book. 

I will stick to the series just so that I can read the infamous Lonesome Dove though.  I enjoyed this first book and I liked taking myself outside of my comfort zone by reading a Western.  I can’t imagine I’ll pick up the 2nd book really soon but I’ll get around to it eventually.

3 Stars

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Do you like Western’s (movies or books)?

Frankenstein, Mary Shelley

225 pages, @ 1818

One of my blog New Year’s Resolutions was to post everday.  I didn’t get off to a very good start in that I didn’t post at all last week.  To make up for that I’m double posting all week so that we stay on track (in a way).  I’m off to a good start this year in my challenge to read one book a week; I’ve already finished 3, hopefully I can keep this pace up. 

My second book this year was Frankenstein, chosen by my friend Alison as her book group book.  I was excited to read this book – 1) it’s a classic, 2) it’s on my magical book shelf and 3) I had never read it.  Frankenstein is the story of Dr. Frankenstein from childhood to adulthood.  Obviously the most life altering thing that happened to him was that at University he created a “monster”.  A monster that was leashed on society and seeked acceptance from his creator.  When that was not received he set out to destroy everything/everyone that was dear to Frankenstein.

For a book that was published in 1818 this book read remarkably well.  Sometimes when I read old classics it takes me a good 50-75 pages before I can adjust to the language.  That was not the case while reading Frankenstein.  The main thing that our book group was most surprised by was that our idea of Frankenstein from movies and Halloween images (you know, tall green, screws in his head, incoherent speech, etc) was not at all the Frankenstein from the novel.  And just for the record the monster in the novel isn’t even called Frankstein, his creator is Frankenstein.  Anyway, the monster in the novel is tall, super human, but human looking, and incredibly intelligent.  The monster surprisingly was a sympathetic character.  All he wanted was to be accepted and loved by his creator and by those in society.  I didn’t think what he was asking of Frankenstein was a lot and I didn’t understand why Frankenstein didn’t just acquiesce.  Obviously the way the novel was written was a reflection on society.  That those that are on the fringe of society or are different many times aren’t accepted by those more fortunate or more in the main stream of society.  It’s a sad reflection…but one that still holds true some 200 years later.

I thoroughly enjoyed this novel and would highly recommend it to all.  If you decide to pick it up, make sure to pick up a version that has a synopses on Mary Shelley’s life.  Her life is reflected in many ways in the novel (creator/author; monster/novel; water themes, etc).  In addition, her life was pretty interesting (and scandalous for 1818).  We all enjoyed discussing the appendices almost as much as the novel itself.

5 stars

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Have you read Frankenstein, if so, what did you think about it?

Let the Great World Spin, by Colum McCann

349 pages, @2009

As you know, if you read the blog post last month, my friend Jen and I had the pleasure of going to one of Colum McCann’s book readings for Let the Great World Spin.  This was the first book that I finished in my 2010 quest to read one book a week! 

How to describe what this novel is about…  Essentially it centers around Philippe Petit’s tightrope walk in the 70’s in NYC.  For those of you that aren’t familiar with it, he walked a tightrope between the World Trade Center towers, without a net below him, nor was he attached to any kind of safety device.  Colum McCann said at the reading that he wanted to compare the feat of Philippe Petit with the feat of people walking their own tightrope down on the ground – the challenges that the everyday person faces in their life.  Their are a lot of characters in this book, but the main stories center around John Corrigan, an religious Irish man, who lives in the Bronx and tries to help out those around him, namely the hookers that live and work in his neighborhood.  Two of those hookers, who are also central to the story, are Tilly and her daughter Jazzlyn.  Then the other main storyline going on follows a group of women, mother’s of men lost during the Vietnam war.  Namely Claire, a wealthy woman who lives on the Upper East Side, and Gloria, a mother of three lost sons from the Bronx. 

McCann’s prose is poertry.  He is one of those writers that as you read his novels (or even when you hear him speak) you are just blown away by the way he phrases thoughts, ideas, descriptions, etc.  This novel was no exception.  It’s a powerful story of right vs. wrong, compassion, passion, empathy, friendship, love and family.  I will say however, the one thing that I could have done without was the sheer number of characters in this novel.  It almost in a way reminded me of a Toni Morrison novel, where as you’re reading it you’re introduced to all of these characters and they have a purpose but it’s hard to see until the end of the novel as they are all twined together.  Not that being compared to Toni Morrison is necessarily a bad thing. 

Before I leave off, I wanted to give you a sample of McCann’s beautiful prose.  The following paragraph in the novel is a description of love:

“Some people think love is the end of the road, and if you’re lucky enough to fine it, you stay there.  Other people say it just becomes a cliff you drive off, but most people who’ve been around awhile know it’s just a thing that changes day by day, and depending on how much you fight for it, you get it, or you hold on to it, or you lose it, but sometimes it’s never even there in the first place.”

The following paragraph is from the reading guide in the back of the novel:

“There is an act of creative reading, and writing is more about a reader’s imagination than anything else.  A book is completed only when it is finished by a reader.  This is the intimate privilege of art.  In fact, it’s the intimate privilege of being alive.  When telling stories we are engaged in a democracy like no other.”

Ah, if only I could think or write or express myself in such a beautiful way.  I’ll continue trudging along on my little blog and hopefully over the years I’ll get better:)

4 Stars

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What author have you read that you feel just writes on a different level than other authors?

So I’m still working on my book and hopefully by next Monday you will have a book review to read!  I’m slowly but surely getting back to it folks.  These holiday happenings have had a serious affect on my reading (as well as other parts of my life!)  So in going back to my Top 10 (er…11) post I thought I would provide an author/book recommendation.

Back when I was in high school my Dad read “Here Be Dragons” by Sharon Kay Penman.  He loved it, and passed it on to my mom, who loved it, and passed it on to my friend Katie’s mom, who loved it and passed it on to my Katie, who loved it, who tried to pass it on to me.  I was having none of it – 13th Century England and Wales, NO THANK YOU!  I was not interested, I was also on a reading hiatus, so unless it was assigned in school I wasn’t reading it. 

Fast forward to after college (I was reading again at this point) I’m on the phone with my mom, whining that I need a book recommendation, I just didn’t know what to pick up next.  She suggests (for the hundredth time) that I read “Here Be Dragons”.  In order to get her to stop talking about it I pick it up…and…you guessed it…LOVED IT!  I passed it on to my friend Amy in OKC, who loved it and returned it to me.  I then passed it on to my sister, who loved it and passed it on to our sister-in-law, who loved it.  I also passed it on to my husband’s grandmother, who of course, you guessed it, loved it!

I know, I know, you’re saying, really 13th Century England and Wales, but I’m telling you this story is so captivating.  You will be swept up almost immediately and be transported to this war-torn, violent, manipulative time filled with deception, passion, marriages, families and deceit and you will not want to leave even when the book ends.  This book is historical fiction at its finest.  I took my time in getting to Falls the Shadow, because I didn’t want to rush through the series and have to leave these people/characters.  Falls the Shadow was my favorite of the trilogy.  When it ended I literally cried for 30 minutes, Jon came upstairs from our basement because he was convinced I had just received some awful news, imagine his surprise when he discovered I was crying over a book.  To me though that shows just how strong a writer Sharon Kay Penman is, that I felt that strongly about her characters, the entire book/trilogy was very real because of how she wrote it.

The third book in the trilogy is The Reckoning, which really ties all the stories from the first two books together.  You will not be disappointed, I promise, I can practically guarantee it (if you enjoy historical fiction…).  I mean of the 200 people on Amazon who collectively reviewed all three books, each book averages 5 stars, that’s saying something.  So what are you waiting for, run to your library or local book store, pick up Here Be Dragons and be transported back in time!  What am I waiting for, I think it’s time I pick up the first book in her next trilogy….

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What is your favorite series?  I think you know mine!