Marnes and Noble

Sing You Home by Jodi Picoult

2011-08-24T08:07:00.000-07:00

I tried to recommend this book to a friend going to the beach and she responded with: "I don't like Jodi Picoult. That book where the sisters and the organs." Her response made me chuckle. So many people struggled with that book. The thing is Picoult's books are always thought-provoking and intriguing. Who wouldn't sign on for a thought-provoking read? This book is no different.

Unlike most of Picoult's books, a reader doesn't know when she begins what the main issue is in the novel. I like that I truly didn't know what was coming. I also found the focus on embryos and legal rights fascinating as it is something I briefly studied in my 1L contracts class. Can two parents create a contract explaining what happens to their future embryos if they divorce? In some states yes. In others these are not binding. And what happens if there is no contract? In Sing You Home, a marriage falls apart after ten years of infertility, and the ex-wife and ex-husband dramatically change their lifestyles. Max, seeking for something to guide him, becomes deeply religious. Zoe, falls in love with her friend and embraces life as a lesbian. Zoe and her partner want to use Zoe and Max's remaining embryos. Max does not accept homosexuality and decides any baby of his would be better off raised by his brother and sister-in-law (who also struggle with infertility). And so the legal brouhaha begins.

This was a thought-provoking and engaging read. And while I found it hard to believe two people who spent nine year living together could wind up so far apart and unaccepting of the other's life styles, I was able to suspend belief enough to accept the tenor of the story. My mother also enjoyed this book although she wanted even more resolution at the end. What did other's think?

Short Reviews

2011-08-23T09:18:00.000-07:00

Since I've been so delinquent at reviewing lately, I thought I'd try to make things easier on my self. Here are some short reviews of some of my recent reads.

Then Came You by Jennifer Weiner
I found the topic of this book incredibly interesting as I recently spent time learning about the legal issues involved with surrogacy and donor eggs. Before delving into the book I learned that Weiner was inspired by a recent NYT Magazine article penned by Alex Kuczynski about hiring a gestational surrogate to carry her baby. I remember that article and the evocative pictures quite well (I can still recall the mother with her baby nurse at her side juxtaposed with the barefoot pregnant surrogate) and thought a fictional take would be quite intriguing. I definitely enjoyed the book but at times I felt that the characters were too stereotypical or stock. I also missed Weiner's signature snark. Overall, I thought the book succeeded in showing that while the main four women belong to different socioeconomic classes they were shaped by similar experiences and could have wound up in the positions of one another. India could have easily been like Annie if she had made different choices. It was interesting to see Weiner's take on why a Princeton student would choose to be an egg-donor. In college our school newspaper had many ads for egg donors. And it's interesting to consider why someone at an Ivy League school would make such a choice. While I understand Jules's decision and was happy the book ended with her in a good position, she was in many ways a heartbreaking character in such a terrible position even if she was at an Ivy League school. It's hard to imagine their are many people of her position at Princeton (especially based on my recent conversation with a friend who attended Princeton). This was certainly an engaging and interesting read but it isn't my all time favorite Weiner novel.

What Alice Forgot by Liane Moriarty
I know some other book bloggers have really enjoyed this book, but I had a lot of trouble accepting the premise. While I can suspend believe and accept that it is possible for someone to get amnesia that causes them to forget ten years of their life (well I actually can't, but I can for the purpose of reading fiction), I simply found it hard to believe that so much would change in a person's life and personality in ten years. I know that is the point of the novel. Ten years and three children changes a marriage and causes a person to change. Maybe when I am in this position myself I will suddenly look back and accept the premise of this novel. But in the meantime the premise just seemed farcical. The book was engaging enough but I just found myself not 100% invested.

The End of Everything by Megan Abbott
This book was so incredibly unique and in many ways off-putting. I loved the language and I thought the perspective of thirteen year old Lizzie was authentic and vibrant. Lizzie and Evie are next door neighbors and best friends and when Evie disappears Lizzie gets actively involved in figuring out what happened to her friend. She believes she would know if Evie was dead and she sets out to help bring her friend back. The book is quite surprising as it isn't a story of a "typical" abduction (or at least the way the stories of abductions are portrayed in the news). The book also raises a great deal of questions about what is an appropriate relationship between a father and daughter and a male figure and a daughter figure. Is it acceptable for Mr. Verver (Evie's father) to talk about love with Lizzie. Is it acceptable that in many ways Lizzie has a crush or infatuation with her friend's father? Lizzie's own father doesn't live with her and e she hungers for fatherly attention. Does this make Lizzie's behavior more acceptable? I saw that a reviewer on Goodreads (who is a therapist) stated that she saw a lot of pathology in the book. I would agree. There is a lot going on in this novel that isn't kosher in the eyes of society. There is a lot going on in the book that is understated and in the shadows. Abbott has a real gift with the way she hints at things. She never overtly hits the reader over the head with details. This is a powerful story about friendship and coming of age but also about family complexities and realizing we cannot truly know someone if they don't allow us to.

French Lessons by Ellen Sussman
This was a really fun read and an interesting character study. I appreciated the structure of the novel which focuses on three French tutors and their tutees. In the end the stories interconnect in such an artful way. I was very intrigued by the lives of the French tutors. They were teaching French but all wanted to be doing something else. They are young people unsure how to chart their futures but they are French and they seem so different than their American counterparts. They struggle and yet seem so much less weighted down by their problems. The American characters' problems seem so much larger. Josie is recovering from a forbidden and now lost love and runs away to Paris. Riley is a young mother living abroad finding Parisian life anything but enjoyable. Jeremy is trying to figure out how to deal with his wife's large and loud lifestyle. I loved the characters Sussman created and am in awe of how well she develops each of them in their short novella like chapters. A truly wonderful and novel read. Plus, it's like one big tour of Paris!

A Year and Six Seconds by Isabel Gillies
I loved Gilles' It Happens Every Day and was excited to read about her new marriage. I found the book engaging but not as interesting as her first memoir. The chapter in which she details her meeting and courtship with her husband were incredibly engaging (and he seems wonderful) but I think the beginning of the book was less engaging. The story of a mother with two young children who must return home to her parent's apartment in NYC is of intriguing but I found myself somewhat detached. That being said Gilles tone is the same: intimate and conversational. We feel her depression over her failed marriage and her insecurity over needed her parents while a thirty-something young mother. We sit with her as she tries to cobble together a future for herself and her sons. In the end, I was so overjoyed that Gilles found new love and a pathway to happiness.

Mothers and Daughters by Rae Meadows
I loved this book. I could really feel for Samantha, a young mother trying to balance her artistic impulses, motherhood and grief over the loss of her mother. I really appreciated the elements of undiscovered family history and the three different voices.

The Year We Left Home by Jean Thompson

2011-08-06T11:03:00.000-07:00

I just received an email from the library that they have assumed I have lost this book as it was due back in late June. I've been holding on to it with the intention of writing a review. Book Blogging Fail. Now that I've acquired an immense amount of fines I need to actually write a review.

I absolutely loved this book. It had my favorite recipe: interesting family, unique settings and change over time. Even a month and a half later certain key scenes stick out in my mind. It is a story that will stay with you and keep you thinking about the characters long after you close the book (if you aren't using an e-reader of course).

The book is dedicated "to everybody who left home." And in that simple dedication, as in the evocative title, a bigger message is sent. This is a story about growing up, leaving a provincial world for a bigger one. It's about the dreams we give up on and the new ones chartered in the midst of the heavy sting of reality. It's about looking back and finally understanding that people weren't lying when they said: "when you are older you'll understand." It's about four siblings in Iowa with disparate dreams and ricocheting life paths. But the stories of these four siblings allow Thompson to ruminate on a plethora of topics: the drudgery of stay-at-home motherhood, the realities of marriage, the Vietnam War, the naivete of youth, Alcoholism and its effect on family members, post-partum depression, brain injuries, divorce, the move away from an agrarian society.

When I started reading about a wedding in Iowa in January 1973, I didn't envision that the book would span out to so many diverse locales and time periods. Like many family stories, the one at the center of this book is hard to predict and filled with ups and downs. There is a moment early on where I was truly devastated for one of the characters. She doesn't get the opportunity to leave home, at least not in the way she imagined (and she only leaves home much later). I found that the characters were incredibly flawed and human. I didn't always care for each one of them as a person, and yet I cared deeply about what would happen to them.

At the end of the book one the characters (a Vietnam vet who has never truly been alright since his service) says: "Why not, It's my goddamned country too." And then: "It's like family. No matter how fucked up it is, it's the only one you got." It's not a new sentiment. And yet the whole idea of savoring what you have (even if it is flawed) is such a central message of the novel. This is a human family with individuals who hurt each other, and disappoint one another, and find each other in places they never envisioned. And yet they carry on. And sometimes they even return home.

I know this is a book I will read again. Hopefully next time I won't accrue as many library fines!

Silver Girl by Elin Hilderbrand

2011-06-29T09:52:00.000-07:00

I've been a Hilderbrand fan since first reading A Love Season. But I haven't as thoroughly enjoyed some of her recent works. I read a sample of this book on my Kindle and didn't feel entirely pulled in. I thought to myself: am I really going to be drawn in to a story about a wife of a Madoff figure? But my mother called and highly recommended this novel, so I happily delved into the copy I got from the library.

I finished the novel in one day, and closed it feeling sated and happy. My mother was not wrong.

At the heart of this story isn't the relationship between Meredith Delinn and her Madoff-like husband, Freddy. Instead the novel focuses on Meredith's life long friendship with Connie. The two are recently estranged when Meredith turns to Connie because has no one else to turn to. Connie rescues Meredith, whisking her away from the prying eyes of the press to her beautiful beach house in Nantucket. Both women arrive in Nantucket, middle-aged and broken. Both are cut off from their former spouses and their beloved children. Both are starting anew, and trying to make sense of past mistakes. As a twenty-something, on the cusp of my life truly developing, it was fascinating to read about a woman looking back at her past and trying to pinpoint exactly where things lost control. Meredith was a golden, or should I say "silver" girl, raised to believe she would be successful and happy. Her father led her to believe that since she was brilliant and talented, she could do no wrong. It's hard to say what is Meredith's biggest misstep -- choosing Freddy, not leaving him when she had the chance, ceding control over their financial life, ignoring the life developing around her. Fascinatingly, Hilderbrand succeeds in making Meredith a deeply human character. She may have been rich and she may have been married to a psychopath, but she is a happy-go-lucky, resilient woman who seeks love and understanding.

For me this book made me think about how one decision can set a life on a totally different trajectory. Meredith, in trying to overcome her high school love, runs straight into the arms of Freddy Delinn. In the book she tells Toby the high school love): "You got me at my best. Sixteen, seventeen, eighteen. That was the best Meredith." It's tragic to think of someone truly believing they were the best at sixteen, seventeen, eighteen. And yet it's so easy to understand the lens through which Meredith fews her past and present.

Overall, I really enjoyed this novel. It was thought-provoking, well-written and engaging. Can't wait to hear what others thought about the characters motivations. I still am trying to figure out some of the decisions Meredith's husband (the Madoff-figure) made.

Maine by J. Courtney Sullivan

2011-06-29T09:34:00.000-07:00

I read this book during a three and a half hour plane flight and it was the perfect flight companion. I love reading stories about unique family dynamics and the family at the center of this novel is certainly unique in it’s brand of dysfunction. I also enjoyed the fact that a historical event is at the center of the family’s backstory – the fire at the Cocoanut Club in Boston in 1942.

I was fascinated by the closed-up nature of the matron of the story. Alice makes her opinions known and rarely bites her tongue when criticizing her daughters or granddaughters and yet she keeps so much of her personal story to herself. I can’t imagine my own deceased grandmothers doing so. And yet I realize there is so much that is unknown to me about my own grandmothers' lives. In a world with internet and genealogy websites, and a constant news cycle, its hard to imagine a deeply traumatic event being locked up inside one individual. The Cocoanut Club fire and the death of her sister, transforms Alice's life path. And it is her inability to forgive herself that dictates her flawed relationship with her children and grandchildren.

Alice’s deep faith was also intriguing to me since I know so very little about Catholicism. Alice's faith sustains her and explains many of her life choices. At first glance it's hard to understand this (living in an era with so much overt agnosticism) and yet it rings completely true to the character and the tenor of the story.

One of the most interesting aspect was examining the intergenerational changes and interactions. Alice wanted to become an artist but she squashed that dream and tried to devote herself to her husband and providing grandchildren for her parents. Alice struggled to be motherly and battled alcoholism until her husband gave her an ultimatum. Alice’s oldest daughter, Kathryn, battles alcoholism just like her mother and looks back at motherhood as something that restricts a woman’s freedom and life choices. She is not overjoyed when her old daughter considers single motherhood. A grandmother who wished she had rejected the traditional path, a daughter who battles many of her mother's demons, and a granddaughter who has made it as a writer and yet yearns to be a mother. So much changes over time. I loved seeing how much changes inside three generations. Also it was interesting how Alice's faith and churchgoing was juxtaposed with Kathryn's new aged dogmatism regarding AA, meditation and yoga. This all rang so true to me. Each generation sought deeper meaning but their time period dictated what they clutched onto.

There are so many fascinating aspects of this story. The fact that Alice was closer to her daughter-in-law than her daughters. The daughter-in-law's own story growing up poor in Southie. The gay granddaughter who is off-stage in the Peace Corps (I wished we had learned more of her story). The novel raises the question: are parents responsible for their own children's stumbles? If your children are your life's work and they stumble are you a failure? There is so much to discuss about this novel. I can't wait to hear what resonated the most for other readers.

Waiting on Wednesday

2011-06-21T21:17:00.000-07:00

Waiting on Wednesday is hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine.

My selection (which I just discovered existed today!) is:

A Year and Six Seconds by Isabel Gillies

Due out: August 2, 2011

I really enjoyed Gilles first memoir It Happens Everyday and am excited to see how her personal story develops.

From Amazon:

When our story opens, it's a dark and slushy winter in New York City, where Isabel is arriving by airplane from Ohio, two toddlers in tow, to move in with her parents; her husband has left her for another woman. In subsequent scene after hilarious scene, Isabel shares her valiant, misguided, and bumbling attempts to understand her own part in the disintegration of her marriage and to feel strong and loveable. And, one by one, she begins to cross items off a staggering single mom to-do list that includes: change last name, get bank account, get work, have breakdowns only in front of best friend and not in front of children, find rare preschool slot for son midyear in Manhattan, get along with three generations of family in tight quarters, find a man who can plant one great and romantic kiss, accept self, accept love, be happy.

Joy for Beginners by Erica Bauermeister

2011-06-20T07:16:00.000-07:00

I liked the premise of this novel: six grown women with different problems are forced to do something difficult or scary. I liked that the six women were so different and faced such disparate life challenges yet they came together at first to hold twins and then to support one of their members in her fight with breast cancer. While I found the story engaging and intriguing, the narrative style left me feeling detached from the characters. Each "chapter" is devoted to one of the women.

The novel starts with a Prologue which focuses on Kate, a cancer survivor who finds it strange to be alone with her body. Kate's views on cancer, life and risk were overwhelmingly realistic and deeply intriguing. While reading her story I felt incredibly connected to the emotional tenor of the story. In this Prologue, the six women gather together to celebrate Kate's recovery from Cancer. One of the women notices a brochure for a White Water Rafting trip down the Grand Canyon on Kate's bulletin board. It is Kate's daughter's idea and Kate is terrified. Upon the urging of her friends, she decides to do it, as long as her friends each take a risk too - a risk she chooses.

Each chapter narrates the risk each of the other women takes. Some of these "risks" would seem simple if I listed them here. But each is deeply symbolic of the stage in life the unique woman is trapped in. I liked some of the women and their chapters more than others. The love story between Daria and Henry is very captivating (and I wanted it to play out over even more pages). I also was particularly taken in by Hadley's story. The story eventually comes full circle and brings us back to Kate and her own risk and her physical embrace of life and its challenges. While I enjoyed the story I felt the individual chapters could have meshed better if told in a different way. I also wanted more in the end. I wanted to feel even more connected to the journey of these six interesting women, but the structure and writing left me at arm's distance. I would love to hear what other's thought of this novel and it's narrative structure.

Weekly Update 6/17/11

2011-06-17T21:53:00.001-07:00

I am once again behind in reviewing so I want to take the time to at least capture what I have been reading during my first few weeks of summer. I'm still behind on reviewing No Bikes in the House Without A Helmet by Melissa Fay Greene, Exposure by Therese Fowler, This Life in Your Hands by Melissa Coleman, and Pictures of You by Caroline Leavitt. I think I read them all last week (this is why I need to update weekly!). I think Greene is an excellent writer and a wonderful mother and her memoir about her family (four biological children and five adopted children) was incredibly engaging, very humorous and very heart-warming. I have more to say about it later. Fowler's book is about teenage sexting and was inspired by her own son's problems in this domain. The book made me feel old (my teenage years were so much less complicated!) and while I was engaged by the story, I found myself more interested in the story behind the story. My latest reads have been The Provence Cure for the Brokenhearted by Bridget Asher and The Year We Left Home by Jean Thompson (which I will certainly review).

I just got The Astral by Kate Christensen and Joy for Beginners by Erica Bauermeister from the library and I have the latter with me in New York. (It was hard to pick which one to bring with me on my weekend away as I LOVED Christensen's Trouble but her books are incredibly thought-provoking and I figured I'd save it for when I got back home). I may get antsy and buy Maine by J. Courtney Sullivan on my Kindle (I'm sixth in the library queue) as I will probably finish my one library book in one day. I also have ten other library books on my bedside table in DC. (I figured bringing my Kindle and not several hardcovers was a better move for my back but I am slightly regretting this decision). Expect a lot of updates soon!

Sisterhood Everlasting by Ann Brashares

2011-06-17T21:17:00.001-07:00

I was delighted to recently find out there was a new installment of the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants. The series is near to my heart as it was one of the many quality YA series I had in my former classroom. I specifically bought the first three for my students because I loved them so deeply myself even though I was not a young adult when I read them. I can remember during my teaching tenure happily reading the fourth one (which had just come out) on the floor of my local Barnes and Nobles (86th between 2nd and 3rd location RIP) feeling completely satiated. Earlier this evening as I sat on a Boltbus from Washington DC to NYC, I turned on my Kindle happy to find it had power (I mostly read library books and rarely have my Kindle charged but it seemed easier to pack a Kindle than many clunky hardcovers...I always need extra books to read). Looking the book up, I was surprised to see a number of mixed reviews on Amazon. These reviews made me apprehensive to purchase the book (I have problems committing via my Kindle since I get most of my books from the library for free) but I was so looking forward to being reunited with Bee, Carmen, Tibby and Lena and learning what their lives looked like as they approached 30. One of the Customer Reviewers on Amazon stated: I feel the author did not stay true to the characters and their younger selves. While we certainly change as time goes by, I have to think that the teenage sisters would certainly be disappointed with their adult versions.

While I understand this comment and why this reviewer was disappointed by what she perceived as the "melancholy tone" of the book, I did not have trouble relating to the characters or being drawn in. I found myself so incredibly invested in the lives of the characters. I disagreed with many of their individual choices and often felt anguish as the story progressed and yet I still devoured the story, seeking closure. And in the end, I only wanted more words, more pages, more story.

As an almost28 year old I can relate to the "grown-up" sisters so much more than I could the teenage ones. And I am not at all surprised that they have changed in ways that may potentially disappoint their former selves. That's what we call adultolescence. What makes these young women unique is that three of the four of them are still anchored to their own adolescence as they are in some way connected to their teenage lovers. While I suppose that is interesting, I didn't find it particularly unrealistic. It is actually a lot more believable than the entire premise of how these four girls came together in the first place (their mothers met in a pregnancy aerobics class).

I don't want to give too much away about the events of the novel. Something surprising happens very early in the book. I found myself shocked and unsure how the story would unfold. There is something magical in that. I didn't truly understand many of the events until I got very far into the novel. While I was upset with the unalterable outcome and some of the author's choices, I can accept that this is the way it had to happen. My mom still gets outraged over a particular event in the Friday Night Knitting Club. She always exclaims: "That did not need to happen." And while I get her point. I am much more forgiving of most authors. I get that the story sometimes controls its own outcome.

I really treasured this book. It was wonderful to be reunited with characters I know (I rarely read series excluding the Jessica Darling books although I have been waiting not patiently for the next installment about Wynter from Bread Alone and the Baker's Apprentice by Jean Hendricks Ryan). While I understand why fans trifle with the plot lines and the character development, I truly can't complain. My mother (who has only seen the movies) asked: "So is it over?" I replied: "What is she going to do write about the characters when they are forty, fifty?" If Brashares chooses to do so, I will surely tune in.

The Arrivals by Meg Mitchell Moore

2011-05-31T11:45:00.000-07:00

I immediately handed this book off to my mother as I knew she would enjoy it. It was interesting to read about grown children moving in with their parents as I am infinitely interested by family dynamics. While reading the novel I kept thinking about how the story would develop differently if the family was Jewish instead of Catholic. My mother actually called me while she was reading to exclaim: "You didn't read this closely." She was remarking on the fact that the mother felt more attached to her son than her daughters whereas my Jewish mother always recites: "A sons is a son until he takes a wife, a daughter is a daughter for life." So as I mentioned there are some clear cultural differences.

I think this novel also raises some interesting questions about gender dynamics in a modern world. The mother at the heart of the novel is upset to find out her son will be staying home with his daughter and not his wife. She thinks her daughter-in-law will be missing out and doesn't seem to understand that this makes the most sense financially. Her eldest daughter (who stays home with her children) raises the point that it didn't bother her that she paid for her expensive schooling and now she is staying home with her children. It was interesting to consider how some gender expectations persist. My father was a "house dad" so it I suppose staying home with children isn't something I naturally assume I will do. And yet I can imagine wanting to.

I most empathized with the youngest daughter who was jealous of what others had in their relationships although I think we have very different personalities. At times it was hard to accept Rachel's destructive choices and yet they came across as deeply human. Sometimes its easier to run away from our problems than to tackle them head on.

I think this may be one of my favorite reads of the summer.

First Husband by Laura Dave

2011-05-27T20:42:00.000-07:00

I loved both of Laura Dave's first two novels. I think I have a special kinship for Dave, Julie Buxbaum and Alison Scott Winn, three Jewish woman authors who attended my Alma Mater - the University of Pennsylvania (I suppose I hope to one day fall into the same category as these three engaging authors).

I wasn't aware Dave had a new book out, but as soon as I exited my finals haze and discovered this fact I download the First Husband on my Kindle (even though I've owned a Kindle since September I still mostly read library books). I finished the book in one evening, and felt completely taken in by the story. I actually immediately started rereading the book once I finished it (something I've honestly never done before).

While I'd say there are details of this novel that seemed unrealistic to me, it was exactly what I needed after a grueling finals period. I fell in love with the characters in the novel and even freezing Willamsburg, Massachusetts. I was particularly taken by the character of Griffin, Annie's "first husband," and his genius Phd brother Jessie. I love how Annie and Griffin met and how their love spiraled so fast. And I love that the real world suddenly crept in. I love the rapport that developed between Annie and Jessie and found the description of the small town life in Massachusetts particularly charming.

This book made me think about how couples meet in the modern world. Annie and Griffin met randomly at 2 am in a hotel bar. Annie and her previous boyfriend met because Annie went to college with the previous boyfriend's sister. Most of my friends met their significant others in college or through friends. Most people I know who are dating use online dating. I wish more people met through a fun twist of fate.

Some of What I've Been Reading During My Hiatus (from Book-Blogging)

2011-05-27T17:19:00.000-07:00

I have been reading, even if I haven't been book blogging. Here is a list of some of the books I read over the past few months (those that I can recall):

Secret Daughter -Shilpi Somaya Gowda
The Weird Sisters - Eleanor Brown
Skinny - Diana Spechler
The Four Mrs. Bradwells - Meg Waite Clayton
Half Jew - Susan Jacoby
You Know When The Men Are Gone - Siobhan Fallon
Bent Road - Lori Roy
The Silver Boat - Luanne Rice
Swim Back to Me - Ann Hood
The Other Life - Ellen Meister
Three Stages of Amazement - Carol Edgarian
Soloman's Oak - Jo-Ann Mapson
The False Friend - Myla Goldberg
These Things Hidden - Heather Gudenkauf
Look Again - Lisa Scottoline
Left Neglected - Lisa Genova
Georgia's Kitchen - Jenny Nelson (on Kindle)
If You Lived Here - Dana Sachs (on Kindle)
Jump at the Sun - Kim Mclarin (on Kindle)
A Scattered Life - Karen McQuestion (on Kindle)
Stay With Me: A Novel - Sandra Rodriguez Barron (on Kindle)
One Day - David Nicholls (on Kindle)
Simply From Scratch - Alicia Bessette (on Kindle)
Prospect Park West - Amy Sohn (sister-in-law-to-be's library book)
The Girl Who Fell From The Sky - Heidi Durrow (re-read)
What I Thought I Knew - Alice Eve Cohen (re-read)
Outcasts United - Warren St. John
Wherever You Go - Joan Leegant
The Tenth Song - Naomi Ragen
My Before and After Life - Risa Miller
My Hollywood - Mona Simpson
The Neighbors Are Watching - Deborah Ginsburg

I highly recommend: (fiction) Soloman's Oak, The Girl Who Fell From the Sky, Wherever You Go, My Hollywood; (short stories): You Know When The Men Are Gone, Swim Back to Me; (non-fiction) Half Jew, What I Thought I Knew and Outcasts United.

12 overdue books, major fines

2010-10-17T09:40:00.000-07:00

I've found myself back in a familiar position. I've been reading voraciously - some weeks reading three or four in a week, staying up late nightly to complete an engaging novel-- and yet I haven't found enough time to review. I started this space because I love thinking deeply about fiction and non-fiction and wanted to share my thoughts with other readers. It seems I am still learning how to make time for this passion of mine. While I hope in time to finally catch you up on all my literary thoughts, I am going to list the books I've been devouring recently. I still hope to find time to finish ruminating about these engaging stories sometime soon....

1. Men and Dogs by Katie Crouch
2. Stiltsville by Susanna Daniel
3. This Must Be the Place by Kate Racculia
4. Slow Motion by Dani Shapiro
5. Mothers and Other Liars by Amy Bourret
6. The Blessing of Other Animals by Katrina Kittle
7. What We Have by Amy Boesky
8. Where Love Goes by Joyce Maynard
9. The Writing Circle by Corinne Demas
10. The Good Daughters by Joyce Maynard
11. Chosen by Chandra Hoffman
12. Devotion by Dani Shapiro
13. The Rich Boy by Sharon Pomerantz
14. The Swimming Pool by Holly Lecraw
15. Bitter in the the Mouth by Monica Truong
16. Lake Shore Unlimited by Sue Miller
17. A Widow's Walk by Marion Fontana
18. The Summer We Read Gatsby by Danielle Ganek
19. The Cookbook Collector by Allegra Goodman
20. A Widow's Tale by Julia Glass
21. The Other Wes Moore by Wes Moore

Red Hook Road by Ayelet Waldman

2010-09-29T10:55:00.000-07:00

I loved this novel. I loved: the tenor of the story, the structure, the pacing, the characters, the reoccurring focus on Yiddish and Jewish traditions. I enjoyed learning about life in Red Hook Maine and the story's grounding in family history. So much of this novel spoke to me, implored me to reconsider my career path (which I already do daily), to be honest, to love completely, to believe in flow and guiding points. I enjoyed reading about a University professor with a passion for her subject, two violin prodigies and a woman who discovers being a librarian is a perfect fit for her. I was completely enchanted by the grandfather character - Mr. Kimmelbrod. I learned a lot from reading this book - about classical music, violins, Maine, boat building. Pat Conroy, the novelist, writes in his review of Red Hook Road:
"Ayelet Waldman’s prose style is lovely and fresh. There is a brilliant scene that I’ve returned to again and again: The great violinist, Emil Kimmelbrod, finds the undiscovered talent of a small girl, Samantha Phelps, and brings out her instinctive mastery of rhythm, modulation, and perfect pitch. With language and example, Ayelet teaches me everything I didn’t know and can never know about music. It was like discovering a lost part of my life where I’m not only untalented, but unteachable. Each encounter of Kimmelbrod and Samantha in the book was exciting for me. Had I not read this book, I wouldn’t have understood that I’ve never really "heard" classical music before."

I agree with Conroy. I loved reading about Mr. Kimmelbrod and Samantha. I loved watching Samantha grow as a musician. I loved seeing her life intersect in surprising ways with the other characters. Red Hook Road is filled with human characters: flawed and real. I found myself in disapproving in some of the characters choices, but none of their choices were unbelievable. The story begins with a tragedy and while it is very much a story of grief and coping, it is a story of so much more.

This is a book I know I will read again, and enjoy as immensely each time.

Strangers at the Feast by Jennifer Vanderbees

2010-09-10T13:23:00.000-07:00

I was intrigued to read this novel long before I started reexamining her as the woman who engaged in a online battle with Jennifer Weiner. Weiner called her the pretty lady. Or something like that.

Vanderbees is a “literary” writer. And I won’t argue with that assessment. Her second novel is certainly an accomplishment. And it is literary in the sense that I know my mother wouldn’t like it. She likes happy endings.

Strangers at the Feast is about one suburban family gathering for Thanksgiving. Ginny, the professor daughter who recently returned from a trip to India with an adopted seven year old has decided she wants to cook Thanksgiving for her parents and her brother and his family. The cast of characters in this novel are fascinating, real and maddening. Ginny is a thirty-something woman who has found a fault with everyone she has dated, and seems at times to be playing at life. Her brother Dennis longs for his father’s approval and can barely support his family now that his job in real estate is not bringing in money. His wife Denise, who was the first member in her family to go to college seems somewhat cliché. She is from Pittsburgh. Her brothers and father worked in Steel Mills. She got herself out through sheer hard work and fortitude. She falls in love with Dennis’ optimism. Now that the family is in a precarious financial situation she finds herself working as a nutritionist in a public school in Connecticut (this is another detail that bothered me some as I have worked in a variety of public schools, none of which had a nutritionist on staff but I suppose it isn’t that large a jump). The patriarch of the family, Gavin, is a Vietnam vet who was the only Yale grad who wanted to go to Vietnam. His father was a WWII hero and he wanted to be a hero too. Before leaving he meets Eleanor at the beach. Encouraged to get marry before he goes to war, they do. Gavin comes back from the war disenchanted but also wanting more. He finds himself with few career options and winds up being a insurance salesman.

It was fascinating to read about someone who choose to serve in Vietnam, finding himself in a situation in which he exerted so little agency. He hated insurance, wanted to go to law school, but oh no, he finds out his wife is pregnant, therefore he has no options. He seemed so resigned to living a life he did not choose. I suppose that is realistic but it also bothered me immensely. When we first meet Gavin through Eleanor’s eyes, he is a man who recites poetry to her and plays the guitar. He is young and idealistic. He has heros. He looks up to his father. I understand that Vietnam shifted individuals trajectories, but it’s hard to make sense of Gavin's reaction. He doesn’t return affected by killing people. He doesn’t have PSTD. He does come back pining for a woman he left behind. He does come back to realize his wife is completely different than who he imagines. He comes back and first lives in New York City, only to be convinced by his wife that they must move to the suburbs. His is so incredibly resigned and it was heartbreaking to read. He bangs on the windows of the train, wanting to fight against his commute. He star gazes, he run early morning miles and even marathons. But he exerts so little effort – even in parenting his own children. In the end potentially he takes agency but it felt a little too late for me personally.

The most perplexing character is Eleanor. In the opening chapter Eleanor says something to the effect of: “those who knew our family were very surprised by what happened to us. But you all were so nice.” Eleanor highlights that she raised her children to be polite and kind to others, as if offering up something to stand in contrast to her behavior. As if explaining. As I finished the last page of this novel I turned back to the beginning. The beginning took on new meaning.

I love novels about dysfunctional families. I love reading books that ground themselves in historical events. And I was incredibly excited to read this book as it discussed eminent domain and the SCOTUS takings jurisprudence. And yet, in the end, I was upset by this novel. I walked away disturbed, not sure how to make sense of what occurred. I think Vanderbees is a deft writer and I think she portrayed this upper middle class family as well as the low-income members of Bridgeport fairly realistically. I can tell she took heed from the Elijah Anderson’s Code of the Street (which I read in college and again more recently). She took major risks as a writer. I believe the voices she created. I bought into the story until I got to the last few chapters. (Then of course everything falls together in such a cataclysmic way, and to be honest I just didn’t understand why all of that was necessary).

I am incredibly interested in hearing others thoughts of this beguiling novel. What did you think?

The Heights by Peter Hedges

2010-08-27T10:34:00.000-07:00

This is a story about Tim Welch, a history teacher at an exclusive private school in Brooklyn Heights and his wife Kate, who begins the novel as a stay-at-home mother to their two young sons. The family of four lives in a small two bedroom in Brooklyn Heights - that is really a one bedroom with a closet. Kate revels in her moments as "the clever mother" and aspires to provide her children with a traditional childhood. All generic enough. Although the idea of a family of four surviving in the tony world of Brooklyn Heights on one meager salary of a private school teacher seems anything but easy or normal. The Welches, who struggle to stay financially afloat, lives are changed when they meat Anna Brody, the beautiful wife of a very wealth man. Kate, eventually goes back to work and Tim becomes the stay-at-home parent, supposedly working on his long-delayed dissertation.

I was engrossed in this story but found myself detached from the characters. Their humanity (and abundant flaws) were readily apparent and the confessional tone helped to reveal their basest reactions. I enjoyed the inside view on Brooklyn Heights, a neighborhood I've found charming myself. It's always enjoyable to read a book well grounded in a place you know and understand. Hedges clearly knows the neighborhood and he fully develops the Brooklyn Heights presented in the book. The novel is told in alternating chapters narrated Kate and Tim, and a few minor characters. I found the ending incredibly off-putting as a somewhat minor character had the final word. We find out her interpretation on the ending scene and thus are left with a lot of questions about what actually occurred. I liked the alternating narration, and found this novel entertaining but it didn't leave me lingering in the story or thinking critically about the characters (beyond wondering initially what truly happened in the end).

Husband and Wife by Leah Stewart

2010-08-25T20:25:00.000-07:00

I'm still trying to wrap my head around my true feelings about this novel. It was engrossing and artful and filled with well-drawn characters and conflict and thought-provoking dialogue and realness. It had texture. I see why Stewart has been recognized for her talent. Her writing is authentic and real and filled with texture and it is so incredibly meta. Here is a book about a woman who discovers her husband, a novelist about to publish a book titled Infidelity has cheated on her. The two met in an MFA program in Austin, where they lived a life with time to discuss the use of the word the, the value of poetry, all of their favorite authors. They lived in a suspended adolescence, and now years later, they are married with children. Sarah, the wife, is no longer a working poet but a cubicle dweller trying to provide her family with health insurance and stability. There is so very much going on in this novel, but its hard not to get drawn into the meta-analysis, a female novelist is writing a story about a male novelist and the aftermath of his story and his actions. How does art reflect life? What does one's writing say about their own thoughts? Can two writers support their family without a more stable job? While part of me was drawn into the story behind the story (how does any of this reflect Stewart's own experiences), I found myself detached from the narrator's pain. I found myself detached when she fell apart and talked about wanting her husband to die in front of her young children. I understood that many of her reactions were real, and I didn't question her humanity, but it was easier to want to look away. I sympathized for Sarah, and felt anguish on her behalf. I found her husband's actions confusing. But I wished some of her friends would have stepped in and provided a different perspective. It was interesting to watch couple friends support both Sarah and Nathan.

The ending leaves so much up in the air, and I understand why. It makes sense as a stylistic choice. But I found myself yearning for more closure.

This novel is so very different than what it seems when one sees the title, studies the cover and reads the blurb. It is more complicated than simply a story of a man who cheats and his wife's reactions. It is about the complexities of love. We don't see attempts at forgiveness as much as we see love continue until anger bubbles to the surface. We see destructive action and complicated choices. We see that in this relationship each individual has played a role, and these roles have lead to dissatisfaction and a search for more.

The Atlas of Love by Laurie Frankel

2010-08-18T12:19:00.000-07:00

While reading this book, I decided I wanted to live inside the story. I wanted to be Janey-- an English graduate student who moves in with her two best friends to help raise one of the friend's baby. I loved everything about this book even at moments where I wanted to change the development of the plot. I loved that it grounds itself in literary theory and is so inherently meta. As Janey teachers her English class about poems, short stories, movies, plays and novels, the book itself displays elements of each genre. Janey is the Diggory; she anoints herself the unreliable narrator. And yet she is human, warm, intelligent, thoughtful, everything I desire in a close friend. I loved the characters in this novel (although I didn't understand any of Jill's charms at times). I loved learning how these three disparate women with such different backgrounds came together to form a family and how their community continued to grow to include a gay couple (another graduate student and his chef partner), a Morman boyfriend and husband, a Jewish grandmother, and a History Phd student. I loved The Atlas of Love's vision of family and the message it sends about untraditional families. I wanted to be a part of the motley crew of characters who came together to support each other, who shared Sunday dinners, child rearing and their own real family members.

Frankel's depiction of graduate student life in Seattle makes me want to run away to Seattle and study literature (even if I will be reading, writing, and grading forever). I loved the world these characters inhabited. There are dinner parties and thought-provoking conversations, conflicts and differing opinions, but also deep abiding friendship.

Frankel has created something beautiful and unique in this story. It is a novel about female friendship, motherhood, love and emerging adulthood, and yet it is uniquely different from all the other novels that touch on similar ideas. Frankel has a unique perspective and a clear voice. Her own experiences as a graduate student and professor clearly enrich the honesty of the story. Beyond that, she has a great eye for the humor in modern life. Her story is playful and fun, yet real and honest. This is truly the type of novel I can imagine reading over and over.

Father of the Rain by Lily King

2010-08-17T13:02:00.000-07:00

I have loved both of Lily King's previous novels. I remember finding and reading The Pleasing Hour before it was chosen as a BandN Discover New Writer's pick. I was proud of myself for discovering it on my own. Years later, details from The Pleasing Hour and The English Teacher still stand a fresh in my mind. I know that Father of the Rain will stay with me for quite a while as well. King is such a talented writer. Right now she can do no wrong in my eyes (although I have to admit I didn't love the end of Father of the Rain.

I was immediately drawn into Father of the Rain. I felt the rawness and vulnerability of eleven year old Daley. Daley has a secret -- she and her mother are leaving her father-- and because of this secret she chooses an ugly dog as her birthday present. Daley doesn't choose a Newfoundland, knowing that such a dog would make it harder to leave. This detail was so anguishing, so real. Following Daley as she navigates between her mother and father's worlds and homes is fascinating and painful. Throughout I was frustrated to see that no one was helping Dailey through this transition. But I am sure that was very realistic of the time period.

King's rendering of the time period, the seventies, is fascinating. The details she chooses to harness the story in this time period are evocative, and grounded in history. She sprinkles in details of pure historical texture: "Project Genesis" (black students attending "camp" while swimming at rich white people's houses), the variety of reactions prior to Nixon true colors are revealed, the freeness about sex. Poor Daley is left asking what a boner is when Elyse, the five year old daughter of her father's new partner(Dailey's best friend Patrick's divorced mother) says: "Gardiner you better watch it or you will get a boner." It's sad that this little five year-old knows this term but not surprising considering the lifestyle happening at Dailey's father's house. Elyse is an intriguing character as she is so little and exposed to such crazy behavior. I was intrigued right away to see if Dailey's father marries Mrs. Tabor and Patrick, Elyse and Frank become Dailey's step children or if the cohabitation would end and lead to further confusion.

I truly enjoyed so many details in this story. Watching Dailey navigate between diametrically different parents in a time period that is ripe with confusion is fascinating. Dailey loves her father fiercely, even as she sees his flaws, as she is only eleven. King deftly portrays the naivete of a preteen so captivatingly.

The second part of the novel shifts to Daley's adulthood, as she prepares to drive cross-country to move in with her boyfriend (a black man) and begin a teaching position at UC Berkley. The adult Daley (a professor of anthropology) has rejected her father's narrow worldview. But after years of minimal contact with her father, she is lured home to help him get sober and her dream future sits unbalanced on a precarious edge. The reader wants to scream at some of Daley's actions and her choices to give her father more chances -- and yet her actions are incredibly human. While there is so much about Daley's father to dislike (his small-mindness, his bigotry, the way he belittles some of his children's choices), one understands why Daley cannot turn her back on him. He is after all her father. King displays humanity in a broad swath: while Daley's father, Gardiner, is a truly flawed man, he is also oddly beguiling. I don't understand or like his choices, and while they are surprising they are also somehow deeply human. He is a man who is scared to be alone. A man who grips onto relationships for dear life. And so it is surprising that he chooses to marry so soon after his wife leaves, and yet not. It is surprising that he thinks it is a good idea to cohabitate with his best friends wife in the hopes that he will become his third wife (even though she has been married to his friend for forty years). Gardiner is a man who is a product of his upbringing, and his time period, as Margot Livesey writes: he is a "man who lives in the everyday world but follows almost one of the everday rules." While one wants him to be able to ground himself, grow up and truly embrace help (and while I was shocked by the way he throws away all his daughter's efforts even after all she has done for him) the reality is many people are incapable of truly recovering. King takes no easy outs in making the story what one expects. I was truly surprised by various turns in the story. King embraces some inherent ugliness and for that I applaud her.

In his review of the book Jim Shepard writes: "Lily King's Father of the Rain is the most unsettling and exhilarating kind of love story--the sort that interrogates just how resilient the bonds of unconditional love can remain, even after a lifetime of damage at the hands of a heedless parent. This is a passionate and beautifully observed and fair-minded novel." And yes. YES.

The one thing that irked me about the novel is the final ending. Both Father of the Rain and the book I read subsequently (Men and Dogs) had tie-ins to Obama's election. And while I understand how powerful it is to this narrative to show how Daley's world (and our world) progressed from the complex world of the 70s, I found the ending too neat. I believe that Daley and her partner would celebrate the election with their children. I am just not sure how much I believe in the final version of Gardner we are introduced to. That being said, I think Gardiner is truly unpredictable and so maybe I can't attempt to predict his actions.

King broadly paints America and humanity in this novel. She creates memorable characters, she explains how far we have come as a nation, she captivates the reader and forces us to face ugly realities. I loved this novel. Part of me wants to read it again to find even deeper meaning. I can't wait to hear what others thought about this deeply crafted novel. How did you feel in the end?

Waiting on Wednesday: The Widower's Tale

2010-08-11T19:51:00.000-07:00

"Waiting On" Wednesday is a weekly event hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine that spotlights upcoming releases.

My pick this week's:
The Widower's Tale
by Julia Glass
Publication Date: September 7, 2010

From Publisher's Weekly:

Percy Darling, 70, the narrator of Glass's fourth novel, takes comfort in certitudes: he will never leave his historic suburban Boston house, he is done with love (still guilty about his wife's death 30 years ago), and his beloved grandson Robert, a Harvard senior, will do credit to the family name. But Glass (Three Junes) spins a beautifully paced, keenly observed story in which certainties give way to surprising reversals of fortune. Percy is an opinionated, cantankerous, newly retired Harvard librarian and nobody's "darling," who decides to lease his barn to a local preschool, mainly to give his daughter Clover, who has abandoned her husband and children in New York, a job. Percy's other daughter is a workaholic oncologist in Boston who becomes important to a young mother at the school with whom Percy, to his vast surprise, establishes a romantic relationship. Meanwhile, Percy's grandson, Robert, falls in with an ecoterrorist group. Glass handles the coalescing plot elements with astute insights into the complexity of family relationships, the gulf between social classes, and our modern culture of excess to create a dramatic, thought-provoking, and immensely satisfying novel.

I loved Glass's last novel. Can't wait for this one!

This is Where We Live by Janelle Brown

2010-08-06T15:35:00.002-07:00

I am an equal opportunity reader: I will chase any engaging story to its point of closure. But two things deepen my reading experience and make a novel stand out. The first is powerful writing: lyrical sentences, the bite of the real, an author's ability to spell bind me with their craft. The second is a story that forces me to think deeply about new ideas.

Having finished Brown's sophmore release earlier today, I realize it's not her writing that stands out. I didn't stop while reading to linger on any artful phrases. But I did nod throughout, enjoying th realistic portrayal of modern life and Brown's ability to make me think deeply about a variety of aspects of modernity.

Janelle Brown has her finger on the zeitgeist. I remember thinking the same thought when reading her first novel and it is vividly apparent while reading This Is Where We Live, as well. She takes these planitive, straight phrases and grows them into a well-developed story with a critique of society mixed right in for good measure. "All We Ever Wanted Is Everything," and "This Is Where We Live" both dissect modern society.

To be honest, I'm not even sure I liked the characters in this novel. At times I was very frustrated with their choices. Claudia (a wife and scriptwriter/director) and Jeremy (a husband and rock musician) were realistic and like characters on a reality tv show --I cared about their story not because of some binding connection but instead because their experiences barreled forward dramatically and allowed me to reexamine my own life.

The inside of this book deems it "A novel about subprime mortgages, ruthless hollywood economics, and the unraveling of a young marriage." While those three entities are at the heart of the story, it is about so much more: the information age and its pandering to an audience which with more cyncism can be recast as "the fractured soul of the post-modern age," delayed adolescence, human disconnection. It is about vacillitating between the polls of pragmatiscism and fuck the norm idealism/following the fire in your belly passions.

Claudia, who in my opinion is much more likeable than her husband offers: "Everyone we know thought they were going to be artists. Painters or musicians or filmmakers or writers, somehow more authentic than everyone else right? But really, how many have done what they thought they would? We were all so naive. We live in an information age, not a truth age; the only way to really make it now is to sell out to the biggest distributor, pander to the broadest audience...no one cares about art anymore." (p. 121)

Brown's novel reflects modern society back at its tenants. She takes the mortgage crisis and a simple craftsman style two bedroom domicile and uses it to riff on so very much of modern life. Her novel is a discussion about the value of technology and the relevance of art in a new world. It is about reexamining what makes the good life.

I valued the way this novel made me think deeply about modern life. I think Brown's true craft is in the simple way that she coats a plot driven narrative with much larger questions and discussions. One of my two critiques is that certain plot elements were cliche. Maybe that is an intentional choice. But the idea of a failed scriptwriter teaching film was cloyingly cliche (after all, those who can't do, teach) and the brouhaha Claudia gets herself into when she chooses to give the daughter of a hollywood bigwig an As she doesn't deserve so that he will advance Claudia's career was a little too obvious for me. I suppose this happens all the time in LA - people use any connection they can to plot their careers but it just felt like a forced plot device. The second critique is the ending was too rushed for me. After three hundred and sixteen pages I wanted more resolution. Although as I continue to think about the characters, the narrative and its many messages I am starting to understand why the story ends the way it does.

Making Toast by Roger Rosenblatt

2010-08-04T17:46:00.000-07:00

I saw my mother shortly after finishing this memoir and was trying to explain to her why I enjoyed it so much. I had already told her about it's tragic premise: "a gifted doctor and young mother, collapses and dies and her parents move in with their son-in-law to help take care of their daughter's three children, all under the age of six." I was explaining to her that Roger wanted to be called Guapo instead of Grandfather (for the handsome one), but none of the children could pronounce it so he became "Boppo." "Boppo" often visited his grandchildren's school to discuss writing and so when children saw him they would happily announce to their classmates: "Boppo's here!" The idea of this erudite and educated man becoming a universal "Boppo" to an entire school of children warmed my heart immensely.

This book is filled with heart-warming details and resounding moments of familial love. It is a story that can renew one's belief in the goodness of people.

There is an artfulness and a power in the simplicity of Rosenblatt's writing. His entire memoir is filled with the "bite of the real," --moments that sing with their honesty, everyday-ness and vibrancy. I fea rI can't possibly testify to how much Making Toast touched me. It is a story about humanity, family, loss. It is a story about the good life (even though at the heart of the story is a huge tragedy).

As much as I grieve for the Solomon children who lost their amazing mother, I know they are being raised wonderfully in a warm and loving family. Making Toast is a clear testament to the fact that families can come in different forms and still be nurturing and a fertile environment for positive development. The Rosenblatt's story clearly illustrates what has been lost in a modern world where children often don't spend a great deal of time with their extended families, including their grandparents. Both of my parents had grandmothers who lived with them in childhood - it's sad that such a practice has been purged in modernity.

In the book Ligaya, Bubbie's (the youngest Soloman child who is actually named James) nanny says: "You are not the first to go through such a thing, and you are better able to handle it than most." And this is obviously true. The Solomans and Rosenblatts are surrounded by friends, family, positive experiences. Up until the sudden death of Amy many of the individuals seem truly blessed. Rosenblatt himself admits that before his daughter's death he was accustomed to most things going his way.

I love how clearly drawn all the individuals are in this memoir. We get a full-developed sense of Amy, but also of her amazing children. Their comments, like most young children's comments are spot-on, humorous and profound. In one passage Rosenblatt talks about visiting his granddaughter Jessie's class to discuss a book he wrote Children of War. Rosenblatt writes: "Introducing the subject, I told the second graders that one of the sad and difficult things about children everywhere is that they have no power. Jessie raised her hand. 'That's not true Boppo,' she said. 'We have the power of thought and kindness."

This memoir truly spoke to me. In Amy's short life she touched so many people. I appreciated her ability to embrace life and make decisions without regret. Beyond that, I found Rosenblatt to be so incredibly likeable. Everyone he describes in the book is portrayed in the best light. Even in the wake of a tragedy, he find the best in everyone and brings a sense of humor and lightness to life. I learned so very much from this story and I know I will continue to think about it for quite a while.

Waiting on Wednesday: The Four Ms. Bradwells

2010-07-28T01:00:00.000-07:00

This week I am highlighting a book that will require a long wait.

This week's pre-publication "can't-wait-to-read" selection is:

The Four Ms. Bradwells
By Meg Waite Clayton
Publication Date: March 22, 2011

From Waite Clayton's website:

Mia, Laney, Betts, and Ginger, best friends since law school, have reunited for a long weekend as Betts awaits Senate confirmation of her appointment to the Supreme Court. Nicknamed “the Ms. Bradwells” during their first class at the University of Michigan Law School in 1979—when only three women had ever served full Senate terms and none had been appointed to the Court—the four have supported one another through life’s challenges: marriages and divorces, births and deaths, career setbacks and triumphs large and small. Betts was, and still is, the Funny One. Ginger, the Rebel. Laney, the Good Girl. And Mia, the Savant.

But when the Senate hearings uncover a deeply buried skeleton in the friends’ collective closet, the Ms. Bradwells retreat to a summer house on the Chesapeake Bay, where they find themselves reliving a much darker period in their past—one that stirs up secrets they’ve kept for, and from, one another, and could change their lives forever.

Once again, Meg Waite Clayton writes inspiringly about the complex circumstances facing women and the heartfelt friendships that hold them together. Insightful and affecting, The Four Ms. Bradwells is also a captivating tale of how far people will go to protect the ones they love.

I really enjoyed the way Waite Clayton laced historical details into her last novel and her writing is engaging and thought-provoking.

What's your waiting on pick this week?

What I've Been Reading (and Not Reviewing), Part I

2010-07-26T19:39:00.000-07:00

I've been reading constantly: on the subway in the morning, at lunch, on the subway home, and late into the evening. I've found myself enchanted by stories, drawn in by narratives, thinking long after I close a book. But as soon as I end one, I've been quickly picking up another, swept up anew and forgetting to pen some thoughts. I am going to provide some short reviews of some my recent reads. And I am also going to post some longer reviews for a handful of my recent reads - stay tuned!

1) The Kids Are All Right by Diana and Liz Welch

I literally devoured this book. I stayed up to about 4 in the morning, needing to finish. Once I finished the book, I was on the authors' website, searching for more answersl. I suppose that is the thing with reading memoir - afterwards you need to know how the story has turned out. When I read fiction I can choose to believe in a certain ending. But with memoir you get drawn into a spellbinding story and a need for closure.

This memoir is engaging, probing, fascinating. I think it helped me a little to understand why people get drawn into reality television: seeing other people's humanity is engaging in such a different way than fiction. The Kids are Alright is the story of four siblings who went from a storybook childhood in a beautiful house in Bedford New York to being split up and in unbearably precarious situations. First their handsome father dies in a car accident. The rumor mill leaves them with lingering questions. And the family's subsequent debt leaves them with even more. Then their soap opera actress mother who has had to learn how to support her four children alone, is diagnozed with cancer. While their mother works on a soap and receives treatment, the oldest experiements with drugs in college and the second oldest daughter takes on the role of mom to the youngest sister who is around six or seven. After their mother dies the older siblings (Amanda who is 19, Liz who is 16) are left deciding what will happen to their reduced family of four. Believing that the stability of their hometown is important, they choose to split up and place the youngest Diana (who is 7) with a family Liz used to babysit for. The brother is sent off to a boarding school for learning disabled boys but no one is willing to be his guardian until their mother's old friend Karen steps in.

I love the way this story is told in alternate voices. All four siblings pipe in, correcting and conflicting one another's stories. The style felt reminiscient to Faulkner's As I Lay Dying.

2) If I am Missing or Dead: A Sister's Love Story by Janine Latus
I have mixed feelings about this book. The story itself sounded fascinating. In April 2002, Janine Latus's youngest sister, Amy, wrote a note and taped it to the inside of her desk drawer. "Today Ron Ball and I are romantically involved," it read, "but I fear I have placed myself at risk in a variety of ways. Based on his criminal past, writing this out just seems like the smart thing to do. If I am missing or dead this obviously has not protected me..."

I found reading the book harrowing to read. I felt so soundly in the author's shoes that her own low self-esteem seemed to be taking up space in my own body. And yet I found it hard to believe that she took so much ongoing mental abuse from her husband. So maybe it wasn't her self esteem that I took on, but her discomfort. It was very discomforting at times to read this memoir. The story, while about a sister's loss of her sister, is really about explaining why Amy and Janine, two sisters wound up in a series of relationships with abusive men. The authors childhood was so different from my own, and it was fascinating to learn about a large Catholic family and individuals who couldn't assume they would attend college. I applaud the author for wanting to help raise awareness about domestic violence and I think she is a talented story-teller. But at times I found her so frustrating. She is willing to let all of her flaws hang out and I suppose that is brave. But its hard to understand someone who would accept daily weigh ins from their husband, or choose to so easily cede control about major decisions such as whether to have children or whether to have plastic surgery.

3) Saving CeCe Honeycutt by Beth Hoffman

There was something incredibly charming about this story. I can't put my finger exactly on what it reminded me of. At moments it seemed Candidesque. It also reminded me of some sort of YA story or fairy tale. All of the female characters are memorable and the setting Savannah in the 1960s is fascinating. I would definitely say this is an engaging read with larger than life characters but it isn't particularly deep or thought-provoking.

4) Short Girls by Bich Minh Nguyen

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I loved the perspective provided about the unique experiences of second generation Vietnamese Americans (caught between two different worlds), as well as the experiences of "short" girls (and short men) living in a world designed for taller people and in need of the Luong Arm. Nguyen is a gifted writer. Interestingly, while this novel focuses on the contrasts between two disparate sisters--the older goody-goody and the "slacker," who never graduated college and made some questionable choices--something many other novels focus on including Jennifer Weiner's latest (which I will be reviewing soon!) it felt fresh and realistic without ever bordering on cliche. While I wanted to understand what propelled these two sisters in such different directions, I didn't question the reality. I loved that this book provided me with a front row view tour of the mid west (Michigan to be exact), the life of an immigration lawyer and the colors, behaviors and customs of Vietnamese Americans. This book swelled with an authenticity and vibrancy that made it a enjoyable and thought-provoking read.

5) Any Bitter Thing by Monica Wood

I really enjoyed this story and it was a truly novel read for me since a Priest is a central character in the novel. At the heart of this novel is a man who is granted custody of his young niece, who has lost both her father and mother. He is a Father in church, but he becomes a father in every other sense when he takes in his young niece. While he is a central character and his love for his niece is so vividly evident, for most of the novel he is just a memory. His niece, now grown, is rooted to the town she formerly lived in with her beloved Uncle who she was taken away from at nine years old, shortly before he passed away. The adult niece, a guidance counselor married to a man she believes is about to leave, goes for a run in the rain and is hit by a car. While recovering in the hospital, she sees a ghost of her Uncle and the experience sets her on a path which leads her to revisit her childhood and the lies that structured her tumultuous childhood. I highly recommend this book. It was a surprising gem. The book is filled with imagery and tons of surprises. I was truly surprised with how much I came to enjoy the unfolding story.

6) This is How by M.J. Hyland

I am almost positive I've read Hyland's first novel. She is a highly praised author and while reluctant at first to pick up this novel, I found it engaging while sitting at the library and opening the narrative. I was truly shocked with the direction of this story. And I found the turns in the plot so abrupt and unexpected that I found myself disappointed the story was not going to progress in the direction I imagined. I found myself flipping around great a deal in the second half of the book, wanting closure for the story, even as I found it so vexing and off-putting. Maybe I missed something with this one, but I really can't say I enjoyed it.

7) The Season of Second Choices by Diane Meier

This is a story about a college professor who leaves life in NYC for a position at Amherst College, and a chance to reinvent herself. It is a coming of age story of a forty-eight year-old woman. Considering that my other blog is called adultelescence, this novel was truly designed for a reader like me. The main character is evidence that it's never too late for someone to change.

What I really enjoyed about this book is the way it melded diverse topics. As one of the blurbs on Amazon says: "Diane Meier's liberating novel values both the arcane scholarship of college professors and the practical, artistic insights of handymen and real estate agents." This novel truly is liberating in the way it thrusts together so many different elements of modern life. There is a motley cast of characters: "coyotes," middle-aged professors on the prowl for a fresh meat, a zany thirty-year old handyman with true talent who lives with his mother, single female professors who are cousins and live together, funny secretaries and small town eccentrics. There is discussion of a unique new curriculum, but also a focus on home repair. There is physical violence but also various layers of romance. And there are surprises at every turn.

By Accident by Susan Kelly

2010-07-23T15:28:00.001-07:00

I just finished this book abuzz with thoughts. By Accident is a story about a family coping with the accidental death of their son, a teenager, who was set to embark on the next stage of his life. The novel begins with Whit's graduation from boarding school. And thus the beginning of the story is a beginning for Whit. I found it harrowing to know what was coming. We are introduced to Whit through his mother's eyes and so the reader views him as larger than life. He is the first born, who will set out for college. He is ripe and maturing - at a cusp, ready to move forward. Thus while the tenor of the graduation is celebratory, knowing more than the characters, knowing what will come, means the reader is hesitant to plow forward.

But the story barrels forward as the family prepares for a trip to their summer cottage. Mother and son set out in separate cars as the father and daughter are getting a ride later with close family friends. The family needs two cars at the cottage; it makes sense for the son to drive. Here it comes, I thought.

Kelly's writing is sparse, yet vivid. We understand Laura Lucas's inner thoughts. We get a full sense of the moments before. And yet the aftermath is less full. The actual accident is never detailed. Instead we, like Whit's own mother, do not see the accident happen. Kelly writes, Laura thinks: "He is simply, suddenly, not there."

Laura's grief is vivid and human. Susan Kelly clearly understands the thought process of a mother. She writes: "You think if you can get them past the conventional childhood perils, past drowning, past drinking Lysol, past closing themselves up inside refrigerators, past getting run over on their bikes on the way to school, that you are free and clear." I am sure if I was a mother I would nod in agreement. (Although potentially Jewish mothers are wired to see the dangers endlessly - the muggers and lurking strange men at every corner). Laura cannot move forward after Whit's death and instead stays inside all day watching the world through closed blinds. Her husband is more logical, less emotional; he wants her to stop "brooding." I know studies have shown that parents who suffer the loss of a child have a higher rate of divorce, and Kelly's evocative novel provides an explanation for this phenomenon. Laura and her husband Russ grieve in different ways. Their son's death shows how differently they have come to view life, their neighborhood, the world, family. Instead of reaching for each other they find solace in other people, other activities.

It is a young tree surgeon who is able to help Laura rejoin the world. Eliott Hacker becomes a stand-in son, a friend, an object of desire. I found Laura's response to Whit's death incredibly realistic. The loss of a child is unimaginable and it must be that much harder when the loss is so sudden, so seemingly preventable and at a point when Whit was truly coming into his own. Before his death, Whit says something about only having so many summers left before he must find a job and enter the working world. And Laura mourns deeply the fact that in reality Whit had even less left. There is such a rawness, a wrongness in a life cut short so soon after a milestone such as graduation. It is unnatural. It is a violent break in the normal life path. Of course losing a child is always unnatural, wrong. But there is something so tragic about a person about to set out on a pathway, and dying right before they reach that pathway.

I found this story so wonderfully compelling and poignant. So many of the details were lifelike, real, textured. The characters were complex and colored-in. The representation of life after loss so vivid. And I particularly liked that some of the chapters are told from the viewpoint of 10 year old Ebie, Whit's younger sister who loved him adoringly. I think my only criticism is that I wanted a fuller picture of the aftermath of the accident. I appreciate that Kelly left out the particular details - as those were irrelevant truly to the story. But I found myself wanting to know about the funeral, the reaction of the grandparents who sent a present for his graduation but are otherwise not mentioned. I was also curious about the reaction of Whit's peers. We get some sparse details about condolences sent by one classmate's parent, and about the reaction of Whit's childhood playmate who is Laura's goddaughter but no one else.

But, overall I appreciated the choices Kelly made as an author. I love the meaning that the title comes to take on at the end of the story. I also appreciated the various questions Kelly tackles. As the blurb stated: "What constitutes betrayal between husband and wife? Can a saviour be a a lover? And are either ever justified?" And additionally: "What is the line between friendship and desire? There was ultimately something incredibly refreshing in the honesty and pacing of this story. I randomly picked it up in the library without any knowledge of the author, and yet I so deeply enjoyed becoming spellbound by her words.

Waiting on Wednesday: Stiltsville

2010-07-21T05:00:00.000-07:00

"Waiting On" Wednesday is a weekly event hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine that spotlights upcoming releases.

This week's pick:
Stiltsville
by Susanna Daniel
Publication Date: August 3

This book caught my attention after reading Daniel's engaging essay on Slate - The Quiet Hell of 10 Years of Novel Writing. I immediately remembered that Joshua Henkin's Matrimony, took ten years as well - and I loved that book. A story that is crafted and developed for ten years is not likely to disappoint.

From Publisher's Weekly:
With its lush flora and constant sun, South Florida is the true star of Daniel's exquisite debut, which follows a marriage over the course of 30 years. In 1969, having traveled from Atlanta to Miami for a college friend's wedding, 26-year-old Frances Ellerby meets glamorous Miami native Marse Heiger, who introduces her to Dennis DuVals and his house on stilts in Biscayne Bay. Though Marse has set her cap for Dennis, he and Frances fall in love and marry within a year. "I had no idea then," Frances says, "what would happen to my love, what nourishment it would receive, how mighty it would grow." Dennis and Frances have a daughter, Margo, buy a house in Coral Gables, and their life together proceeds as a series of ups and downs, beautifully told from Frances's pensive, sharp perspective. As the years pass and Miami changes, so do Frances, Dennis, and Margo, and the nuances of their relationships shift and realign, drawing inexorably toward a moving resolution.

My mother and her siblings grew up in Miami beach, and my mother lived in Miami in the late 60s as well, so I am particularly intrigued by the book's setting and time period.

What is your waiting on pick this week? And what have you been reading lately?

Something Red by Jennifer Gilmore

2010-07-20T19:01:00.001-07:00

This book is a tremendous feat. I can only imagine how much research was required to accurately portray various historical and cultural details from the late 1970s. It is a time period I never fully examined before. Even as an American history major (who focused on modern America), I barely made it beyond 1972. But this book -- with its lyrical language and deeply developed characters-captures the zeitgeist of the time period. And so I learned some history while languishing inside an engaging story filled with such artful description.

The book focuses in on the disparate experiences of one nuclear family living in the suburbs of Washington DC, while also exploring the history that shaped each member of their extended family and the tenor of the time periods that shaped each individual. In shifting narration, we learn about the lives of Dennis, the father who works for the Department of Agriculture, Sharon, the mother who is also a caterer for all of Washington's major dinner parties, Benji the son who leaves behind his jock image and embraces rebellion and a hippy lifestyle while a student at Brandeis, and Vanessa, the teenage daughter who embraces punk, while struggling with an eating disorder. This book has everything: spy stories, radicalism, self-actualization group, infidelity, sexual discovery, drugs, family drama and major historical moments.

Sharon looks for meaning as she ferries along in a world changed by the absence of her son (who is away at college). Dennis begins to question his long held belief that it is possible to challenge the status quo from inside the government. Benji laments the fact that he is at Brandeis ten years too late, skips class to attend Grateful Dead concerts and follows the lead of his activist and voluptuous girlfriend. He finds passion in a class titled "American Protest!" which studies his own grandfather's actions, and eventually organizes a protest against the 1980 Olympics boycott. Vanessa, sullen and angsty, falls in love with the hearty sounds of punk and experiments sexually. She is constantly in need of more -- more attention and more food (which she later throws up).

Gilmore's style and craft are flawless, her attention to detail astounding. As someone who lives in DC I was fascinated by Gilmore's depictions of DC in the late 1970s/early 1980s. So much of the depictions remain true even if suburban teenagers no longer experiment in the same form. As someone obsessed with family history, I love the way Gilmore used history as a lens to examine the roots and ideology of one family. In truth this book was perfect for me as it combined many of my deepest interests: american history, family history, and oral history.

Waiting on Wednesday: The Perfect Love Song: A Holiday Story

2010-07-13T22:19:00.000-07:00

Excited to be back to book blogging, and to Waiting on Wednesday!

My "can't wait to read" selection is:

The Perfect Love Song: A Holiday Story
By Patti Callahan Henry
Publication Date: October 12, 2010

From BandN:

Jimmy Sullivan has been living on the road with his brother, Jack, and his band The Unknown Souls. Without a place to call home, Jimmy and Jack lead a nomadic life filled with music and anonymous cities. When they return to a place Jimmy never wants to see again – their old hometown of Seaboro, South Carolina – he falls in love with Charlotte Carrington.

With a soul now full of hope, Jimmy writes his first love song. When he performs it at a holiday concert to a standing ovation, the lyrics are dubbed the “Perfect Love Song,” so much so that Jimmy finds himself touring alongside famous country music stars - catapulted into a world where the trappings of fame and fortune reign supreme.

All too soon, the hope that had once inspired Jimmy to write such beautiful, genuine lyrics is overshadowed by what the song can do for him and his career. In his thirst for recognition, he agrees to miss his brother’s wedding in Ireland to sing at a Christmas Eve concert. And his ties with Charlotte seem to be ever so quickly fading away.

Alone on Christmas Eve in New York City, Jimmy finally sees – with a little help from some Christmas miracles – that his material gains are nothing compared to love, that he is losing all that really matters. Is it too late to find his way to Ireland, to his brother, and to love?

I'm not a big seasonal book fan, and normally any mention of Christmas miracles would have me place a book back on the shelf, but I have thoroughly enjoyed all of Callahan Henry's books.

Losing Charlotte by Heather Clay

2010-07-13T21:48:00.000-07:00

Have you ever held a book in your hands and known you were going to treasure it? Sure, I read the review first, requested it from the library, but when I had to decide which of my six to tackle first I knew. Losing Charlotte with the running horse blurring amidst a deep green cover.

The heart of this story is one of the what ifs we all ponder - What happens when a woman dies after childbirth? It is unfathomable and tragic and all too real. A young woman grows round, incubates life (x2) and then suddenly dies. How does her husband care for these two twins while facing an unfathomable reality -- the reality he never considered? And what becomes of the young woman's family?

The characters in this story are real and nuanced. I understood Bruce -- a child who grew up in NYC with a Jewish mother. That is known to me. Knox and Charlotte, products of Kentucky and a horse breeding family are outside my world. But they were all rich and developed. Clay has a real sense for human detail, and a variety of lifestyles. She easily captured the realities of totally different subsets of people. She clearly has an eye for the bite of the real.

I loved what Clay chose to tell and even what she chose to leave out. The pacing of her story was spot on. And while the story unfolded in different directions a complete picture was crafted.

While one can assume from the blurb where the story is going -- it happens in a more human way. There is a true "real" element to a myriad of the scenes in the book.

As a reader, my heart broke for the motherless babies, and poor widowed Bruce. I loved the boy he once was and his unique narration of an event which occured during his formative years involving a friend who lost his mother (one of the instances where Clay chooses such amazing elements of the past to include). Having seen this loss through his eyes as a youngster, one can't help but feel deep empathy for the man he becomes.

I loved the emotion of the story. I was drawn in and hungry for closure. In the end I wanted more which is always a sign that I love a story.

I feel Clay understands people deeply. She does such an amazing job of relaying her characters complex thoughts. Towards the end I would have liked more of Bruce's narrating but I understand that Knox is the main storyteller.

Every Last One by Anna Quindlen

2010-07-13T21:36:00.001-07:00

I loved this book until I found myself horrified by the direction of the story. I should have been prepared but I didn't understand how prophetic the title was, or that I should be prepared for true tragedy. The shock I felt could easily be avoided if you read a detailed review. I am glad I didn't know what was coming but it made the book so much harder to digest. I didn't want horrible things to happen to the family at the center of the book. I came to love them and I was distressed by the eventual tragedy which comes at the middle of the book.

Quindlen creates such full characters. A family: father, mother, three teenagers ( a set of boy fraternal twins and a daughter). Generic. And yet the characters are humanized, unique; they are the bold lines of a generic coloring book with the color filled in and flying off the page. The daughter is magical Ruby, who recovered from an eating disorder and displays enormous confidence and is willing to be different from her peers. She is artsy and a gifted writer. Part of her confidence and uniqueness is surprising considering the fact that she is also the girl who once had an eating disorder. Yes overachievers often try to seek control through not eating. My own experiences led me to find the extreme self-confidence inconsistent with the underlying causes of anorexia. But I suppose this characterization also made me consider the fact that anorexia is no longer the illness of a certain type of person.

I can also see how Quindlen's characters could seem cliche: anorexic daughter, depressed son and golden boy who excels at sports. I think possibly with the exception of Alex (the golden boy athlete) the characters are more fully developed.

Maybe I just chose to believe the characters were realistic and fully developed considering the fact that after reading it became so easy to see flaws in the development of the characters. the overworked mother who can never seem content. The parents who gave up their dreams for stable jobs that would support a family. But then again these are cliches for a reason.

I think mostly my problem with this novel was the resolution. It's hard to accept that the characters would simply exhibit such a level-headed acceptance of their loss. Yes, there was numbness and fear and disbelief and agonizing and seeking of professional help. But in the end the passage to normalcy seems too easy. i also wanted more of an explanation of some of the characters actions.

That being said, I devoured this book quickly. I didn't expect where it was going. And when I discovered the direction of the story i found myself so affected by the emotions created by such a tragedy. Even now I can't fathom how one recovers from such an event. Quindlen's attempt to figure this out is quite an exercise in creativity.

Where the God of Love Hangs Out by Amy Bloom

2010-07-13T21:19:00.000-07:00

I read this book probably around January or February. I loved it then and I can still vividly recall some of the characters.

Back then I wrote in my journal:
There is something magical about finding a new author you love. I'm not sure why I picked up Amy Bloom's latest short story collection. The colorful cover maybe. A recent pattern of reading short story collections possibly. I read the collection on a bus ride from NYC to DC, savoring the language, loving the character development, knowing I'd be requesting all of her works from the library. There are two sections of connected short stories--the first about middle aged professors who begin having an affair and the second about a white woman, a mother and stepmother to biracial children. In the latter, after her husband's death the woman's stepson seems to fall in love with her (she has been a part of his life since he was twelve). A surprising event occurs which will make some readers uncomfortable. And while it struck me as overly Oedipal and unbelievable, I came to see it as essential to the plot.

After initially writing the above paragrah, I learned that some of the Julia (the mother/step mother) and Lionel (the step son) stories were republished from Even a Blind Man Can See I Love You ( an earlier Bloom short story collection). I found it intriguing that Bloom revisited these characters, creating a full arc of family holidays, showing us the character's individual development, the development of the family and the way many things remained the same. I love that these characters were actually revisited over a passage of years.

I love Bloom's writing style and can't say enough how much I loved each of her stories. She captures the zeitgeist in her writing. She creates rich and believable characters. She uses language in such novel and evocative ways. Even almost seven months later I can recall specific details and passages. I can remember how happily I savored the language at the beginning of the first story in the collection. Back in January when I finished it I actually read the ending of one of the stories a loud to a group of friends gathered for a dinner party because I adored the language so much.

Girl in Translation by Jean Kwok

2010-07-13T20:54:00.000-07:00

This is one of the best books I have read in a long time (or at least that is what I thought when I read it almost two months ago). I devoured this book on the megabus to NYC (note: bolt bus is a thousand times better). I was immediately drawn in, but also immediately outraged. I found myself feeling deeply distressed, deeply angered by the injustice of the situation that Kim and her mother found themselves in. I literally had to call a friend at one point during my reading binge, as I felt so riled up by the unfair treatment suffered by the immigrants in this story. And that is the thing, the story was so human and real, that the injustice felt fresh and amplified. Knowing that Kwok's own story parallels the novel somewhat made it that much more heart-wrenching.

Girl in Translation provides a fascinating lens on immigrant life. I could imagine sharing it with my former students. While the main characters are Chinese the overall story speaks to an experiences shared by a variety of cultures. It speaks to the experience of immigrants who come to America expecting the modern day equivalent of streets paved with gold. It speaks to a world of abject poverty, where no one is there to translate the comments of your child's teachers or fight your landlord to ensure you have heat. Kim is left to be her mothers eyes and ears, and that leaves her in a position where she has no one to advocate for her against the elementary school teacher who belittles her or to help her show that she didn't cheat on an exam she scored incredibly high on. It gives her freedom but it also leaves her in a precarious position.

The book made me incredibly intrigued by Chinese culture. I love the way Kwok peppers the book with Chinese idioms and her detailed depictions of China town.

Laura Moriarty writes in her blurb: "I love how this book allowed me to see my own country, with all its cruelty and kindness, from a perspective so different from my own. I love how it invited me into the heart and mind of Kimberly Chang, whose hard choices will resonate with anyone who has sacrificed for a dream. Powerful storytelling kept me turning the pages quickly, but Kimberly's voice-so smart and clear-will stay with me for a long time."

Yes, yes, yes. What a different viewpoint on America, what a different viewpoint on the immigrant perspective.

Additionally, I found the chapters detailed to Kim's time at a fancy private school (while also working at a sweatshop) fascinating. Here is a child who didn't fall through the cracks in the New York City system (too many do) and somehow made it to a school that can provide her with a path to college, and there she is being accused of cheating when really she is just off the charts brilliant, while also finding a way to lose her OTHER status and being invited to a party by a rich popular boy who once teased her, and yet she is living a life as far on the spectrum as possible from these other students. The story seems to clearly enumerate that people are often able to hide their true realities and lead a double life and that it takes a totally different skill set for children of poverty to succeed in an upper class school.

I think I am still trying to figure out how I feel about the ending of the novel. Potentially I will have to read it again to figure out if I think the ending was too sudden or out of character. It didn't end the way I imagined but I was happy for that.

I highly recommend this book and would love to hear what others thought of it.

Delinquency

2010-06-20T14:56:00.000-07:00

I've been reading, and even writing reviews in my journal but sadly I've been a delinquent book blogger. I've had a post called Delinquency brewing for at least the last four months. Since October (and my last post) I estimate I read at least 70-80 books. So many still stand out. I've been wanting to share my thoughts on Between Here and April by Deborah Copaken Kogan, Desire Lines by Christina Baker, the Help by Kathryn Stockert, The Girl Who Fell From the Sky by Heidi Durrow and Trouble by Kate Christensen. I wanted to write at length about my new found love of Amy Bloom's writing. I read all of her short story collections and the magnificent Away in just a couple of weeks. And my mind was brimming with so many thoughts after reading Hold Love Strong by Matthew Aaron Goldman. I loved the language, I was completely captivated by the story and it helped me to reexamine the pathology of urban poverty.

More recently, I couldn't wait to finish finals and read the Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot. I have never been a big science reader but I found myself so intrigued by the story of Henrietta Lacks and the various ethical issues that surround the controversy. I tore myself away from the book during finals but happily read it as soon as I was done. I also read the latest Emily Giffin which was in many ways upsetting. My best friend who is about to get married was pretty distraught by the picture it painted of marriage and cheating.

I absolutely loved Girl in Translation and hope to post my thoughts about it soon, as well as my thoughts on Every Last One by Anna Quindlen and Stay by Allie Larkin. I hope to be more timely with recent updates especially about books that leave me brimming with thoughts. I am so very happy to be back to reading.

While I'm Falling by Laura Moriarty

2009-10-03T23:18:00.000-07:00

I can remember one of my creative writing professors sharing a famous quote: there are only three types of stories in this world. All stories revolve one of three ideas. I wish I remembered the wording. But google searching for the answer seems to defeat the purpose. These three things are war, love and death. look at these categories and I think: what about loss, self-discovery, catharsis, victory, defeat? And yet I also believe that most stories are about the same basic ideas. Different packaging, same themes. Most of the books I have read lately are about life choices.

While I’m Falling is a modern story. It ruminates on the sandwich generation, couples that get divorced after twenty-five plus years of marriage, career choices, college life. And yet, it is mainly a story that explores: what is the good life? While I was reading it, I stopped to consider my own life choices, the lack of a fire I feel in my belly somedays, the part of me that has wondered if being adult means accepting a more staid daily life. I yearned to be the protagonist, a junior in college trying to find her way, setting off course from the path she had previously chosen. I can’t even remember choosing a course in college. I was too busy having fun, learning, and living. Veronica’s life is nothing to really yearn for. But I suppose I just wanted to be back in an environment where it felt safe to make mistakes.

This evening, I started talking to a woman next to me on the metro platform. She asked about the book I was reading and I tried to explain it. A young woman in college struggles after her parents divorce, she realizes she doesn’t have what it takes to be pre-med, and a train wreck of negative events occur. And then suddenly her mother is at her dorm room, evicted from her apartment and living in her van. I explained to this woman that I felt disheartened reading the book. I didn’t particularly like the characters. Or I suppose at first I didn’t relate to them. I just felt propelled by the story. But something happened. An unlikely character emerged as the most compelling hero. The homeless mother, who doesn’t regret her life choices even as she has nothing to show for herself, made me feel reinspired. Even at her lowest moments, she is a true mother, a caring and considerate person, who truly appreciates the people around her, even the lowly waitress at an all night coffee place.

In the end, I loved this book. I love the way it captured the many conflicts of modern life. It showed that the choices we make alter our lives, but the most important thing is the attitude we use to face each day. The book is about a family unraveling, and yet it isn’t tragic. In the end, I believed that all of the negative events had to occur to get the characters where they needed to be.

Every Last Cuckoo by Kate Malloy

2009-10-03T21:11:00.000-07:00

I loved this book. It inspired me, made me realize it’s never too late to try new things, to discover a new part of yourself, to set out to create a larger family. Who would have thought a book about a 75 year old widow would be so engaging, informative and compelling. I guess the truth is we don't have to read about people who are like us. We learn the most from stepping inside the mindset of those who are different from us.

Seventy-five year old Sarah Lucas is in mourning over the love of her life, her husband Charles. They lived a wonderful life together and Sarah suddenly faces each new day with dread, as she is without the biggest constant in her life. Now, as I reconsider this novel, I think of the 80 year old Jewish grandmother of a friend I met this summer. She talked repeatedly of her beloved husband, who died a number of years ago, a chemist, "but brilliant, he could have been a lawyer." This woman was smart enough to go to college but girls didn't go to college then (unless they had wealthy parents), and she still regrets this fact. She didn't work and it is obvious that she always defined herself in terms of her wonderful husband. I suppose similar things could be said of Sarah, whose husband was a beloved doctor.

Sarah, is suddenly able to find a new version of herself, defined only by her actions. Her memories take her back to the Great Depression when her parents opened their house to various relatives in need. The married wife of a doctor never imagined doing something similar but the widow who replaces her soon packs her house full. With her teenage granddaughter, fighting for independence from the mother who doesn't understand, two of her teenage friends -one whose mother seems happy to lose a mouth to feed, an Israeli pacifist professor writing a book in Sarah's cabin, and a young mother and child whose husband and father (and breadwinner) lies in the hospital burned from the electrical fire that ruined their small trailer. In Sarah's house a new family forms, and Sarah discovers her inner artist. Young, old and middle aged mingle in the house finding ways to help each other overcome a series of hardships. Movie nights are created, a sullen teenager crafts stories for the young fatherless boy. Sarah and the Israeli widower ruminate on loss and violence, meditation and personal peace.

I loved the characters. They were real, and their problems were universal. Maybe communal living is the way to go. This book made me a ready believer. It also made me realize that one is never to old to try something new, to discover a new passion, savor a new hobby, embrace a new family. So many uplifting messages in a beautifully crafted story. What more could one ask for in a reading selection for a long bus ride?

The Promised World by Lisa Tucker

2009-10-03T20:28:00.000-07:00

Jill from Breaking the Spine said she put down this book because it was too intense. I understand her completely. I wanted to enjoy this book as it is about boy girl twins, and I am obsessed with twins (I am one myself). I have only read one other book about boy-girl twins and the unique relationship. I purchased it in Australia, it was written by a New Zealander and it was borderline strange (the girl dressed like a boy and later it was revealed she was gay).

This novel was beguiling and intriguing but it also detailed the sort of story that makes you want to look away and not turn back. The protagonist is an English professor in Philadelphia. As a female twin and compulsive reader who studied English in Philly I felt a kinship towards her. But her relationship with her twin is something else entirely. There is a reverence in their relationship that confuses all of the individuals around them. Together they escaped a traumatic childhood. The story begins with Lila Cole learning of her brother’s death. The cause of death was suicide by police (I will leave you to figure out that for yourself). After her brother’s death Lila is consumed by grief and depression, her marriage is challenged, and her niece and nephew (her brother Billy's children) are suffering as well. The traumatic events pile up one after the other and it is a lot for a reader to take.

In the end, the reader gains closure, and yet there is still so much lingering trauma. There isn’t much really conveyed in this story about the relationship between twins; it is much more focused on living through childhood trauma and abuse.

Rise and Shine by Anna Quindlen

2009-10-03T08:49:00.000-07:00

I adored so much about this book. I read it, feeling more and more like a New Yorker as I understood so very much of the descriptions. Quindlen clearly understand the pulse of New York and even of the Bronx. She created a full picture, one I know myself, and I loved being able to see the two worlds I have contrasted in my head artfully juxtaposed. I couldn't help but wonder: Where does Quindlen get this information? How much time has she actually spent in the Bronx?

I wondered if people ever read these sorts of fictional stories with an anthropological eye. She is a white woman trying to portray the world of poor, non-white individuals. Seems easy for one to pick at her portrayals. Too stereotypical. And thus offensive. I couldn't decide myself if she captured everything realistically. It was all believable, but I suppose all the time I spent working in the Bronx makes me sensitive to the way some people misrepresent the culture.

It is clear Quindlen has an agenda. She talks about women in the projects being provided with yoga, job training, parenting classes, when they need jobs, health care, a world that will prevent their children from becoming statistics. The novel focuses somewhat on the way the media responds to the shooting of a white affluent boy (the son of a famous TV persona) versus the collapse of a building filled with low-income families in the Bronx. While Quindlen seems to be sending a message (I am still unclear exactly her point), the story is mainly about two sisters, one who is a cohost of a popular morning TV show, Rise and Shine. Megan Fitzmaurice is the most famous woman on morning TV (Meredith Viera-esque?), married to her childhood sweetheart, with a beloved son at Amherst (his father's alma mater). She is larger than life, the world she lives in is full of town cars and charity balls, while her sister, the narrator, is a social worker in the Bronx with a 60 year old cop boyfriend. Through these two sisters we get a view into two very different worlds located only blocks apart.

While I was engaged by the story, and loved the prose, I felt myself questioning so much of Quindlen's choices. Is it appropriate to name a low-income mother Tequila (although I did have a student named Hennessy)? Why is Bridget portrayed as both a mess and a pariah? Are we really to believe such a loving woman would never desire children of her own? And of course I had problems with the representations of the Bronx. It seems many criticized this work for the same reasons.

From Amazon: "Some critics say Meghan's arc in the novel is too dramatic, the contrasts between the gritty Bronx and sparkly Manhattan are overly sharp, and class distinctions are sometimes glossed over. Others, however, find charm in this very modern retelling of the ancient riches-to-rags, humble-sister-saves-the-day story. Even those who struggle with the plot and characterization agree the novel is worth reading simply for the prose."

I do recommend this book. But I am still trying to decide the most salient message.

Life Without Summer by Lynne Griffin

2009-09-11T20:40:00.000-07:00

The first time I picked up this book I wasn't drawn in. On second glance, I finished it in one day. It is a novel about two mothers who have lost young children. Tessa, loses her 3 year old daughter after she is the victim of a hit in run in front of her preschool. It is a horrific act to contemplate. A young child mowed down and left to due. Tessa becomes obsessed with finding out the truth behind this accident, stops working as a freelance writer and allows her marriage to falter.

The story is told both through Tessa's viewpoint and that of her therapist, Celia, who has her own family troubles: an alcoholic ex, a teenage son acting out and crying for help, a rocky new marriage and a tragedy from the past that she has yet to overcome.

Part of me drew a parallel between this novel and A. M. Holme's In a Country of Mothers because of the dual perspectives, one of which is a therapist in both novels. The books deal with wildly diverging issues and yet they are both about motherhood and loss. And both involve shifting lens and the inside view of therapy, thus my connection.

In the end, there is a big surprise and the end is somewhat unsettling but overall it was an engaging read.

Back When We Were Grownups by Anne Tyler

2009-08-23T11:18:00.000-07:00

I love the title of this book. As well as the opening line: "Once upon a time, there was a woman who discovered she had turned into the wrong person." As an individual who constantly questions her life path, I loved journeying with Rebecca Davitch, a 53 year old widower and grandmother, as she tried to make sense of her past choices and recreate her life. In many ways middle aged Rebecca is going through adolescence for the first time.

At an engagement party for one of her stepdaughters, she finds herself questioning everything about her life. Soon she is dreaming of a blonde teenage son (she is the mother to one biological daughter and three stepdaughters) and seeking out her high school sweetheart.

Rebecca, now known as Beck, and the center of a noisy family and the proprietor of a party and catering business run from her home (the Open Arms), was formerly a studious and analytical college student on the path to pursuing a Phd in history, while her childhood boyfriend and almost fiancee pursued one in Physics. On a fateful day she attends an engagement party at the Open Arms and meets Joe Davitch. Suddenly she is a college dropout, stepmother to three, and major source of organization for the family business. Six years later her husband dies and she is left alone to raise his four daughters.

This book is a wonderful examination of regret. Middle-aged Rebecca questions her choice and wonders: how did I get here? It is a question so many individuals ask. And many at very different stages in life. Rebecca reconnects with her ex fiance and realizes that she has assigned rose colored glasses to the path not taken.

Overall, I found this story to be unique and compelling. The characters were vivid with nicknames such as Min Foo, (because of her eyes; real name Minerva), and Patch. And it left me pondering my own decisions even more than usual.

Bird in Hand by Christina Baker Kline

2009-08-23T10:56:00.000-07:00

I couldn't help but think of the recent Taconic crash while reading the opening of this novel. A mother (who has been drinking, by most definitions moderately) gets in a car accident and a young child dies. She was not technically at fault but that doesn't relieve the guilt and depression that plague her. Obviously the crash on the Taconic (where eight individuals died including the driver, who has since been reported to have been drunk) is very different than the accident in this story, and yet it all connects. Mothers and driving. Loss and blame. Interestingly, since I finished the book, Baker Kline posted on her blog connecting the horrific crash on the Taconic with her inspiration for this story.

At the heart of this novel is two couples. In the past they made the perfect foursome. But now Claire is sleeping with her best friend Allison's husband. Obviously the dynamic has shifted.

Baker Kline creates a complex narrative to explain the connections and experiences between these four well-developed characters. The narrative of the book shifts in time, so that we learn about the events of the present at the same time that we delve into slivers of the past that explain the complex layers of the present. For example, halfway through the book, we learn that Charlie, Allison's husband, studied at Oxford with Ben and Claire. He fell in love with Claire, who was already engaged to Ben, and Claire realized that to keep Charlie in their lives their threesome must become a foursome. So she invited Allison, her childhood best friend to visit.

It angered me to learn about Charlie's complex emotions. At first introduction, he is a cheater, ready to ease out of his suburban life in a family of four. While the reader yearns for an explanation for Charlie and Claire's terrible betrayal, the layered truth Baker Kline reveals did not absolve them in my eyes. Claire comes across as a selfish woman, who seeks as much attention as she can. As a young person she wanted both Ben and Charlie. As a thirtysomething woman she is ready to hurt countless individuals in order to get what she wants: fame and the excitement of the unsafe choice she didn't pick as a young person, Charlie.

Baker Kline uses all four characters to explore the idea of wanting dual lives, and lamenting past choices. Allison years for her working life pre children while also wanting the life she has with her beautiful children. She realizes that she has never once made a decision based solely on her own desires. She is caught up in meeting the needs of her husband and children. Claire wanted a life with Ben, steady and solid, with the promise of his clear adoration and love. He was the safe choice as his love was all-encompassing. Charlie, on the other hand, was the risky choice as he was infatuated with Claire.

Baker Kline uses this novel to explore the choices adults make. City life or suburbs. A life without children or a life with. Suitor 1 or Suitor 2. This makes the book refreshingly real. These are choices most individuals face and the decision is never easy. All of the four main characters, like real individuals, have been forced to compromise. Charlie in particular seems to have thought his choices would lead to a different outcome. There is a sense that he did everything right. Worked hard, married the right type of woman. It is obvious though that he hasn't truly committed to these choices. I found myself frustrated by Claire and Charlie - not because they are adulterers but because they are so extremely selfish. All of their actions seem driven by their wants, in such an extreme manner. It isn't hard to believe that a father would leave his two children to follow his own desires; but it still angers me.

Overall, I found this story incredibly engaging. While I found myself perplexed by some of the character's choices, I felt Baker Kline succeeded in capturing many of the complexities of modern life and modern marriage.

The Deep Blue Sea for Beginners by Luane Rice

2009-08-11T10:26:00.000-07:00

I've actually never read a Luane Rice novel before. While reading, I figured that this book was connected to her last novel (The Geometry of Sisters) but I haven't read it.

I started reading this book at Borders (shush don't tell!) half an hour before the store closed and figured it was a perfect read for my bus ride the next day. The idea of a runaway mother drew me in. It is something I wrote about in a short story I composed in high school and I guess that was enough to engage me in this story.

Pell and Lucy have lived without their mother for ten years. Their father, who was both a father and mother to them, died three years ago, and Pell decides it is time to visit her mother and bring her back into their lives. Lyra, their mother, has been living in Capri, the one city she ever felt home in, among a cast of other expats. In Capri, she gardens, despite the fact that her mother never considered this an appropriate career choice.

I loved the setting of this novel. I want to journey to Capri immediately. Additionally, Rice grounds much of Pell, Lucy and Rafe's behaviors in psychology, and this leads the story to be incredibly realistic. Lucy suffers night terrors and insomnia. Pell, a sixteen year old, has decided she wants to study psychology as it has helped her understand so much of her own experiences. All of the psychological studies mentioned in the book added to my interest. The explanation of Lyra's behavior is a lot harder to swallow. I understand why she left but I still find it hard to believe that she could live happily cut off from her daughters who she so obviously loved. The book speaks to the fact that we have no word in our society to match deadbeat dads. Women who leave are considered monsters. But are they? Nothing is ever as black and white as it seems. And in the end we learn that Lyra's desertion of her children was a lot less of a conscious choice than it originally seems.

This was a highly engaging read with very realistic characters.

Summer Reading Update

2009-08-10T10:29:00.000-07:00

So far my favorite book of the summer is Perfect Life by Jessica Shattuck. I found the book so thought-provoking I started taking notes while reading - something I haven't done for a fiction book since my English courses in college. I had a long review composed but unfortunately a blogger mishap lead to me losing most of my response. I will rewrite and post a review shortly. I highly recommend this book for book clubs. The book engenders so much discussion. I can imagine classes sitting and discussing the book and how it reflects modern life. And that to me is the highest compliment.

In other marnes and nobles news, I must share a recent BandN experience. I was happy to spend some time in the Union Square BandN yesterday - it was formerly up there as one of my favorite NYC BandN's, mainly because you used to be able to sit in the large windowsills that overlook Union Square and the back of the store. Apparently, every New Yorker must love this bookstore. The place is mobbed on a Sunday afternoon. And this has lead the powers that be to change the policy regarding sitting and reading. There are signs throughout the store saying: "Please do not sit in front of these shelves or in the aisles. Thank you." There is some seating set up on the 3rd and 4th floor, but apparently people get there early to claim these seats. It honestly it took me over half an hour to find a spot to sit that complied with the rules (I tried sitting in the YA section, as I used to, and was asked to move as I was blocking the aisle). I am happy to report there are no rules about sitting in the aisle at my BandN in DC.

In store reading: Yesterday, I read The Impostor's Daughter by Laurie Sandel. I had heard a great deal about this book before I picked it up. The fact that the author's unique story is told in the format of a graphic novel intrigued me. I haven't read many graphic novels so its hard to evaluate The Impostor's Daughter. One doesn't really get a sense of Sandell's writing ability, but we do get a sense of her ability to illustrate. The story itself is fascinating. Her father, an economics professor, is actually a con man who has lied about successive university degrees. His larger than life personality greatly affected Sandell's coming of age, and her quest to understand the truth helps her find herself as an adult. Sandell doesn't hold any information back. There are "cartoons" of her and her boyfriend engaging in sexual activity, and of her interviewing various celebrities for Vogue. A dependance on Ambien is also explored. One has to applaud Sandell for being so forthcoming about her past exploits, and the truth about her family. There is something to admire in her courage -- she felt she needed to uncover the truth even though the rest of her family did not really approve. I really appreciate that The Impostor's Daughter is a unique format. It felt so strange to hold a hardcover in my hands, and then to discover that the whole story was told through images and words. I always revel in individual's who find new ways to express themselves, new ways to manipulate and fine-tune the written word. Sandell does exactly that.

Waiting on Wednesday: The Bradshaw Variations

2009-08-05T13:48:00.000-07:00

I've been so happily devouring books I haven't had much time to scope out fall books. Thankfully Breaking the Spine continues to pick excellent books for me to add to my list. This week I am happy to take part in "Waiting on" Wednesday.

My pick is The Bradshaw Variations by Rachel Cusk. It comes out September 3, 2009.

From Amazon:

From the award-winning novelist Rachel Cusk comes a timely and absorbing story of the harmony and discord of family life.

Since quitting work to look after his eight-year-old daughter, Alexa, Thomas Bradshaw has found solace and nourishment in his daily piano study, but his increasingly artistic way of life shocks his parents and his undermining in-laws. Why has he swapped roles with Tonie Swann, his intense, intellectual wife? And how can this be good for Alexa?

Tonie is increasingly seduced away from domestic life by the headier world of work, where long-forgotten memories of ambition are awakened. She finds herself outside their tight family circle, alive to previously unimaginable possibilities.

Over the course of a year full of crisis and revelation, we follow their fortunes. The Bradshaw Variations reveals how our choices, our loves, and the family life we build will always be an echo—a variation—of a theme played out in our own childhood. This masterful and often shockingly funny novel shows Cusk to be a writer at the height of her powers.

I am excited to read about a stay-at-home dad or as my young self once coined in fourth grade a "house dad."

Perfect Life by Jessica Shattuck

2009-08-05T13:09:00.000-07:00

This is not the type of book one reads to escape. Like so much in our modern world, it raises endless questions. It prompted me to take notes while reading, something I haven't done in years. I wanted to make sure I considered all of the themes percolating throughout the book.

There is something both thrilling and exhausting about this book. It explores the nuances and complexities of modern life with such a keen sense of observation and irony. The characters are so real - and so inherently a product of their modern world. They once again make me want to run away from modern society. Here are these individuals who went to Harvard and they are completely weighted down by their histories and their ambition. Their modern life styles seem oppressive and exhausting. At the end of the day, does all this striving make us happier? I found myself connecting this story to a recent article in the New Republic about a longitudinal study of males who graduated Harvard in the 40s. We expect these individuals to be happier. But what does a pedigreed education really do to enhance a person's happiness? Obviously it increases their earning potential but that in itself will not increase happiness beyond a certain point.

One of the four main characters, Jenny, is a typical type A female, and what many would deem a "true success." The youngest child of a canning plant foreman father and a mother who ran her own day care service while raising four children, Jenny journeyed from a small town with ghastly colored houses to Harvard and Harvard Business School. She admires and loves her father "possibly more than any other on earth." And yet he has never visited her house. Additionally, Jenny clearly understands that she is raising her son to operate in a completely different world than that of her father, a quiet man with "hands like slabs of meat and a face as flat, ruddy, and impassive as a statue's." Here is one of the many complexities of modern life. Many individuals seem to want their children to have more than they had, but what does that look like? Is a woman with a Harvard MBA who excels at marketing pharmaceuticals happier than her quiet forman father?

I was particularly affected by the passage that talks of the chasm between Jenny's son and her father. Shattuck writes: "They would not speak the same language. Even the simplest nouns would be attached to such different things in their minds: kitchen, school, transportation, meat....They would be left with nothing but the hugest most basic precepts: ocean, light, sickness, death. Would this be enough?" I suppose this chasm doesn't really exist in the world I operate in. My parents were raised middle class - my mother especially grew up in a similar manner to me and my brothers. I no longer have grandparents and while I can imagine while they might laugh at my high-flautin vocabulary we would still attach words to the same ideas. Many of my friends seem able to have conversations with their own grandparents and parents without defining words in different ways. I suppose part of this chasm has to do with class. I defined school differently than my students who grew up in the Bronx. It really isn't surprising that those who make it out of their low income communities rarely return. There is an idea of otherness, of being separate.

Jenny believes that motherhood "did not fit logically into the modern, well-educated career-driven woman's life." Shattuck offers Jenny as a lens through which to hone in on modern motherhood. We are left to ponder, when a woman was brought up learning to cook, garden, and keep house, when a "woman's primary aspiration was to achieve reproductive potential" as opposed to the more elusive form of recognition modern women strive for today, monetary or otherwise was it easier to mother? While Jenny questions these ideas I couldn't help but find fault with her own arguments. She talks of women who were taught to take care of sisters and brothers and grandparents, as if this was all so foreign to her, even though she worked in her mother's day care. It seems easy to look at the past with a rosy view without realizing that of course with more options and a high powered career traditional motherhood is not easy.

I can't help but wonder, what are we all striving for? In many ways some of the characters in this book seem like gerbils on a wheel, grasping for what those around them covet, circling back into the lifestyles of those who came before. That isn't to say their aren't a variety of lifestyles portayed. Elise, one character, seems to love her world as a scientist. It is her niche and that is uplifting. She has also found peace in a loving relationship with her partner Chrissy, but all of that is affected by their decision to have children (carried by Chrissy).

Biology is a reoccurring theme in the novel. What makes someone a parent, blood or their actions? This question is offered up through more than one story stream. Additionally, how should biological parents be considered in a world with more rampant and acknowledged use of donors. Is it better to know your donor?

At the heart of the story are a series of even larger questions: What is the good life for a child? What is the good life for an educated individual? What is fundamental? What is normal? Do modern individuals overuse their brains when they should be better using their bodies? Shattuck uses Neil --the individual the other characters view as troubled, unstable and even teetering on crazy-- as a tool to question many of the experiences and ideas that have become normal. He is concerned with human suffering and hates the way coddled people have inflated their own low points. He questions if people actually deserve to be happy. He wonders if symptoms of social psychological issues serve a purpose. He wonders if antidepressants are a cultural force and an arbiter of normalcy. He puts forth the idea of "all American delusional," for example, getting caught up in the minutiae of something as small as a video game without considering its frivolity and utter insignificance in the larger world. While he may have been the character with the most problems, I sympathized with him, saw things more through his lens than the three female characters (even though I myself am a woman).

Shattuck offers a beautiful and magical story that stops the reader and causes them to ruminate on modern life. The novel, like its characters, is complex, intense, and varied. I immediately recommended the book to friends. And if I had words to convey high praise without sounding ridiculous I'd offer them here. An excellent book. I loved being in this world even though it was frustrating and at times nauseating. I loved wrestling with these questions and know I will continue to do so for a long time.

The Summer House by Nancy Thayer

2009-08-05T13:07:00.000-07:00

This was a pleasurable read. At the heart of the story is the interactions of an extended wealthy family. The Wheelrights are a family of bankers. Charlotte, one of the granddaughters, has rebelled against what is expected of her and has started an organic vegetable garden on a parcel of land on her grandmother's Nantucket estate. This has created some tension with some of the other members of the family who feel the grandmother is favoring Charlotte.

The novel mostly focuses on the secrets and experiences of three women in the family. Charlotte, her mother Helen, and her paternal grandmother, Anne, who is celebrating her 90th birthday. Anne has been keeping a huge secret from her son, Charlotte's father. Helen is dealing with the repercussions of her husband's actions. And Charlotte has a secret that explains why she fled to Nantucket. Further drama is added as Charlotte's youngest brother returns home with a pregnant girlfriend.

As always, I enjoyed watching the events unfold for a dysfunctional family. I was rather irritated by Grace, and her daughters (Anne's other child). I enjoyed the historical aspects included in the novel: Anne's husband was stationed in Germany during WWI and this actually forever altered their family. This is a good escapist read.

The Baker's Apprentice by Judith Ryan Hendricks

2009-07-31T21:35:00.000-07:00

There is something magical about discovering a new author. Wandering into a room, finding a book you long ago purchased sitting on a bookshelf full of old reads and starting anew. For that is what I do with each new book, I start anew, I dive in, I feel a sense of discovery, of excitement of surprise lurking at every turn. I can't explain why I am a compulsive reader. So much of my life has been spent with my nose in a book, my mind working, my eyes lingering on turns of phrases, artful sentences, passages that emit emotion. On a reader's high at the moment, I feel sorry for those who don't read. A woman at line in BandN said: "It really is a shame that I don't read more. I just never have the time." "I page through magazines," she explained, offering up an excuse, feeling embarrassed. I told her: "that counts too," but a minute later I was decrying modern magazines, fed up with the endless wasted words detailing the lives of Jon and Kate, the Octomom, Angelina Jolie. It's all so unimportant. It doesn't count. Reading is magic. I think that is why I loved teaching middle school English. It allowed me the opportunity to dispel small doses of the magic. I got to regal a classroom with a magical passage. I got to introduce reluctant readers to a book that helped them fall down the well, into the world of a reader. My students knew I would buy them books. My mother never denied me books as a child; I couldn't deny them either.

And there is even more magic in the world, as discovering an old book written by a prolific author allows one to reach out and surround themselves with a full tome. I was ecstatic to discover Bread Alone had a sequel. I longed to know more about Wynter.

Defying the law of sequels, I think I liked The Baker's Apprentice even more than Bread Alone. I suppose it is futile to compare them, for it is the backstory of Bread Alone that supports The Baker's Apprentice, letting it stand supported as a rich story. Tabling all of that, the continuation of Wynter's story expanded to include so many surprises. The cast of characters was expanded and I found myself connected to a whole slew of characters. I loved the community and family that was formed at The Queen Anne's Bakery. I loved watching Wynter mentor her apprentice, Tyler, a young woman with blue hair screaming for help and guidance. I loved being provided with glimpses of Mac's perspective as well as viewing the letters he penned Wynter. I whole-heartedly feel that this sequel was a necessity: the story just got so much richer and fuller and more layered. In many ways the book ends with out a complete ending. But it felt right for things to be left the way they did. I loved the final scene, even as a part of me mourned the fact that there were no more pages to continue to regal me.

One of the factors that added to my love of this story was the setting and time period. I have always been rather intrigued by the Pacific Northwest and Seattle in particular. I can imagine myself in such a location. Beyond that, I love that this story takes place in the late 80s and early 90s. It is a world where mix tapes still reigned supreme, where the internet and the tabloids were less omni present, and local cafes weren't places filled to the brim with lit up computer screens. Individuals sat in bars reading, as they sipped their wine. It's a world I would have loved to inhabit. It is also a world populated by people who came of age in the 70s. I find those individuals fascinating.

I entered pure flow when reading this book. I was basically unaware of my surroundings (oh the life of a student on summer break, done with work!) - and just sat reading for hours on end, something I do way too often, but something I can't stop.

Futzing around on the internet, I have learned Hendricks plans to write a third story about Wynter. I know I will continue to love learning about the lives of CM, Mac, Tyler, Ellen, and the rest of Wynter's cast of characters. I am also deeply excited to read the rest of Hendrick's books.

Bread Alone by Judith R. Hendricks

2009-07-30T13:44:00.000-07:00

I found this book on my bookshelf at my parents' house. It is one of the few books I haven't actually read. I don't know why I didn't read it years ago. I absolutely adored the story. I am not a baker or a chef, but I love people who have a passion for such activities. Wynter's love for baking bread made me want to understand the process more. But I still can't imagine reading non-fiction books about baking or cooking, but more power to those who do!

I wonder if reading about individuals who are starting over, and seeking their place and niche in the world inherently leads to others questioning their own path. I can't consider this personally as I consider my own path daily even without such fictional prodding. I loved reading about Wynter's delayed adolescence - that is how I am defining it -- her attempt to find herself and make peace with all the waves of experiences and emotions that are trying to overpower her. She is an incredibly realistic woman, one who is emerging from a marriage that allowed her to ignore the fact that she hadn't found her niche. She taught high school for a handful of years and sold Real Estate for a year. She hated both. So she easily subsumed her interests and became the corporate wife her husband desired. Seven years later she is forced to to create a new version of herself, and like many that have come before, she proves to be strong and resilient, capable of so many things she had never considered when she was cocooned in a beautiful house in Los Angeles.

This book made me think of a Washington Post article from last week. Matt Crawford has a doctorate in political philosophy from UChicago, and yet he recently penned a surprise bestseller titled Shop Class as Soulcraft. He is quoted as saying:

There's this false dichotomy out there between intellectual work and manual work. The popular image of the plumber is just the butt crack, not that of a skilled tradesman who sets his own hours, figures out complex problems on the fly and probably earns more than most of his clients. Plus, there's that satisfaction of imposing one's will and intellect on the physical world, to immediate effect.

He also states:

The issue is not so much whether it is manual or physical labor, but whether your work demands use of your personal skills and judgment. If it doesn't, then you're on an assembly line, no matter how crisply starched your shirt is.

All of this is ruminating in my head as I face my own unclear future, but it also relates directly to the life of Wynter, a woman who finds meaning in making bread. Some may consider it the work of the unskilled or, unintelligent, but it clearly brings Wynter a great deal of happiness. Isn't that what we all want for our children and friends? Work that brings about happiness and fulfillment? I know I do. Sometimes I think we all get sucked into the dominant mentality. A woman I taught with basically removed herself from regular society. She took time to paint and do yoga. She found herself in the brown earth of New Mexico. In some ways I envy her, even as I recognize that I am not capable of living completely off the beaten path.

My experiences in shop class and volunteering with Habitat for Humanity (burned my hair in the woodburner, learned I am not as handy with a hammer as one should be) and in the kitchen have proved that I will never be a car mechanic, construction worker or bread baker. Part of me wishes I was less cerebral and more capable of finding happiness in simple tasks, and grueling physical labor. But, swirling through my head are other ideas as well. It's isn't just about labor; but making a conscious choice to do something for the right reasons. I will file that way in the back of my mind.

I just found out that there is a sequel to Bread Alone. And I am so excited to read the next chapter in Wynter's life.

The Romantics by Galt Niederhoffer

2009-07-29T09:28:00.000-07:00

My first thought upon finishing this book: thank g-d I didn't go to Yale! I can't imagine having college "friends" like those depicted in the novel. At the same time, I think the book realisticly encapsulates the dynamics between a clique of college friends. In my own group of college friends, much like the clique in the novel, there are two sets of married couples who dated since college as well as a variety of other connections that span the group (including those who are now married). Our "incest" is pretty humorous, but nowhere as lined up and all encompassing as those in this novel. The Romantics also realistically portrays how ties change post college. In this instance there are two married couples, learning new parts of their partners, and two engaged couples, with one female paired with a newcomer (what a strange position to be within the group!). While the individuals in the group are still connected and share in one another's lives, there is a distance that has developed now that they no longer live together and partake in the same activites as one another.

The novel is in many ways a satire. There is a strong sense of humor laced throughout the book. For example, as Janet Maslin points out in her NYT review, "one of the rich, adrift Yale chums in the novel never quite managed to apply to film school after graduation. But he did buy expensive screenwriting software, read part of its manual and write an unfinished script 'about a clique of college friends who reunite at a funeral.'" Niederhoffer understands that this isn't a new genre; and yet she approaches it in a different way then those who have come before and after. In the last couple of months I have read both A Fortunate Age and Commencement - two other novels that involve college friends reuniting for a wedding - and yet The Romantics stood apart as a totally different perspective on reuniting friends. I didn't draw any parallels between those two books (which my reviews show I greatly enjoyed) and The Romantics while enmeshed in this entertaining story.

Maslin writes: "Six years after college, the old friends gather to dissect one another’s successes and failures amid the rocky, picturesque tranquillity of this Maine island. All of them are sharp-eyed enough to know whose family “landed on the wrong side of Plymouth Rock” and who has been favored by fortune." As in The Commencement and A Fortunate Age, the friends are gathered together for the wedding of a college friend (in this particular case two college friends). The maid of honor is unethused for the wedding, not because she cannot believe one of her friends is getting married (this is the case among the girls in A Fortunate Age), but because she still loves the groom, and has a major love-hate relationship with the bride.

The Romantics is more cynical than romantic. It offers a somewhat frightening view of marriage and twenty-something life. I found myself oddly detached from the characters. I didn't care for any of them. They all seemed self-centered and unaware of the larger problems of the world. And yet I still cared about the resolution of the novel. I suppose I felt the most affinity for Laura, the outsider, and lone Jewess in the group, the maid of honor suffering through a painful weekend. But I didn't empathize with her as much as I found her the most interesting. Overall, I find this book emotes more laughs and questions than emotions.

After finishing the novel, I did some research on the author (as I tend to do). I always want the extras.... Ms. Niederhoffer's own story is almost more fascinating than the book itself. I need to read her first novel which is somewhat based on her own life.

The Last Summer of Her Other Life by Jean Reynolds Page

2009-07-26T13:03:00.000-07:00

Yet another book about family secrets - I am on a roll with selecting my favorite types of books. This book focuses on Jules, a thirty-nine year old woman who finds out she is pregnant shortly before returning home to North Carolina to care for her dying mother. I must note: there is something about parenting in the wake of the loss of a parent that seems to beguile me. Individuals today have children later in life thereby increasing the likelihood that they will parent without the hands on guidance of their own parents. And yet the idea of parenting as an orphan still seems unnatural. I suppose in modern society the sandwich generation is expanding and thus parenting both parents and children is becoming the norm.

Back to the book: Jules, is a sound operator, an LA woman, a protected daughter. And while she is thirty-nine she is still not fully grown. She has been protected by her mother and brother and even her high school boyfriend and doesn't know the truth about her father and his death. Furthermore, although she has a steady job and pays taxes, Jules recognizes that she has not truly emerged from adolescence as evidenced by the fact that she has chosen to live in Los Angeles - a city where individuals who do not want to grow up reside.

In North Carolina, Jules is forced to confront some very adult realities, and she emerges a stronger individual. Her life is dramatically altered shortly after her mother's death, as a local teen accuses her of "inappropriate sexual conduct." It is fascinating to see the consequences of such accusations, especially since the reader knows Jules did not partake in any such activities with the accuser -- a boy she cannot even identify. Soon the story spins into a much more complicated tale - that of a boy who is clearly suffering. Jules, and her brother Lincoln become further involved as they seek out answers to try to help the young boy.

There are a lot of twists and turns in the book. At first it seems to set up a romance between Jules and her high school boyfriend, the son of a man who died in the same boating accident as her father. But Jules also seeks out the attention of Walt, the uncle of her accuser (a boy she crushed upon in high school) who is now married. And while Jules's status as an adopted child never seems to bring any drama to the story, the reveal of her brother's parentage leads to a great deal of anguish and discovery.

This book offers up a refreshing view on family and truly shows that motherhood has nothing to do with blood. And yet it also shows the absolute unraveling of more than one family due to the poor choices and questionable behavior of one individual. It is more of a mystery than one would expect from the cover. And all together it spins an engaging story that rivets the reader and raises a great deal of questions on a variety of topics.

My reading was further enriched by Reynolds Page's insights at the end of the novel. She writes: "I see my books as being completed in a new way each time someone reads one of them," and "I see writing books as a kind of collaboration with the reader." I love this idea and am going to spend some time further pondering these insights.

This is Where I Leave You by Jonathan Tropper

2009-07-22T18:06:00.000-07:00

(Acknowledgements: Thanks R.L. for letting me read your early copy!)

I have enjoyed every single one of Tropper's books and I consider him one of "my authors." But I think I can easily proclaim that this is his best work yet. I love that this story revolves around a dysfunctional family (my favorite topic to read about!), and that it approaches the experience of a death in the family through a unique lens.

At various points in the novel, I stopped to savour Tropper's language. His writing is infused with humor at every turn, and yet the flow of his sentences are incredibly poetic. Every chapter opening earns its way into the book. It all begins: "'Dad's dead,' Wendy says offhandedly, like it's happened before, like it happens every day." With the offhanded comment of an unfazed sister, we tumble into the Foxman's family's affairs.

At many moments, the book is simply the protagonist, Judd, telling his own story, speaking directly to you with his eyes bowed and his full emotion stuck in his throat. His voice is so real, his character so developed. We all know Judd Foxman. He is the Jewish Every Twenty-Something Man. He explains to the reader:

Love made us partners in narcism, and we talked ceaselessly about how close we were,

how perfect our connection was, like we were the first people in history to ever get it exactly right. We were that couple for a while, nauseatingly impervious assholes, busy staring each other's eyes while everyone else was trying to have a good time. When I think about how stupid we were, how obstinately clueless about the realities that awaited us, I just want to back to that skinny, cocksure kid with his bloated hear and perennial erection, and kick his teeth in.

Judd is pure male. He is constantly thinking about sex. And while the book is graphic I wasn't put off at all.

Tropper has such a keen eye for the absurdities and complexities of modern life. His depictions of Shiva calls are spot on and hilarious. His creation of a mother who penned the seminal books on childcare with a brood of children full of problems is both realistic and wildly entertaining. His introduction of a shock jock boss (named Wade Boulanger!), and a rabbi whose childhood nickname was Boner, as well as his inclusion of miscarriages, infidelity, dog maulings, late in life lesbianism, a family friend who was severely brain damaged by a college fight all make the book incredibly entertaining and so refreshingly real.

There is so much more I want to say about this novel. But I will just say this: I highly recommend it!

Family History by Dani Shapiro

2009-07-17T20:45:00.000-07:00

On the back of this book is a blurb from the Detroit Free Press: "One of those books most readers will finish in one sitting... because it is so intense you can't take a break. In gripping, moving prose, Shapiro reminds us of any family's essential fragility, but also of the tenacious strength of love."

Thank you Detroit Free Press for capturing the essence of this book so concisely! The art of crafting a blurb is beyond me; I am too wordy.

As for reading the book in one sitting, I did. (But I tend to read most books in one sitting). Having read this book shortly after In A Country of Mothers, I felt even more connected to the psychological drama and the focus on family dysfunction. I am beginning to believe that any book with a family at its center cannot be a disappointment, although I secretly know this is not the case.

This book sucker punches the reader. It is harrowing and sad. The young daughter the parents know and love disappears--and is replaced with someone who confounds them and dramatically alters their family in irrevocable ways. There is a sense in this book that the parents did everything right, and yet their child has turned into a very messed up teenager. No one is to blame of course. But it is hard to "watch" such loving individuals suffer through such family crises. The reader wonders: why is this happening? What explains this change for the worse? And will she come out of this situation? Will Rachel and Ned and Kate's lives ever be stitched together?

I love the way Shapiro uses language. She has a wonderful ability to create a full scene, one that invites the reader to truly visualize the settings of her novels. She is also adept at building a story, beginning in the present, moving backwards and then forwards. The story alternates between the present and past in a way that allows the reader to swim around and pick up information slowly, only providing them with the full story shortly before the crescendo of the novel. Shapiro is also skilled at her use of perspective. We see the world through the eyes of Rachel Jensen. We feel her despair and confusion, her longing for the past. And we keep our fingers crossed that things will turn around. There is a real immediacy to the novel. The powerful emotions Jensen experiences move beyond the page.

This book shows how quickly a family can unravel, and yet how long it takes to try to resolve the issues that led to this unraveling. In some ways it is the cautionary tale of a parent's worst nightmare. And it is also a beautifully penned story, a full fleshed story with vivid secondary characters and a real sense of the complications, mundanity and drama of real life.

Best Friends Forever by Jennifer Weiner

2009-07-17T20:20:00.000-07:00

I am sad I missed Jennifer Weiner's reading in NYC. She is hysterical in person! Luckily, I was still able to buy and finish the book the day it came out. I personally found this book to be incredibly different than Weiner's past works. This is not necessarily a bad thing, just interesting. This book does not take place in Philly (most of her previous books do) but instead Chicago. The book is also somewhat less snarky. In somewhat traditional Weiner fashion there is one formerly overweight character. So I suppose in that regard Best Friends Forever isn't a huge departure from Weiner's oeuvre.

The book is about two former Best Friends: Addie Downs and Valerie Adler. Valerie, a meteorologist, finds herself in trouble after she acts questionably after her high school reunion. She shows up on Addie's doorstep looking for assistance. The two wind up embarking on an adventure of sorts, true to the rhythms of their unique friendship, with Valerie leading Addie out of her overly ordered life and into various sticky situations. The book captures the sense of horror involved in returning to a high school reunion. Many of the former high schoolers individuals find themselves altered (one previous bad boy is a minister), others are still overcoming the traumas of high school (I would put Addie and Valerie in this category). Both Addie and Valerie have experienced harrowing experiences that have shaped them as individuals and altered the friendship they severed after nine years of best friendship. The novel is in some ways a mystery - albeit one where the reader knows more than the characters. We are introduced to a Chief of Police who is trying to explain the incidence of blood and a belt in the parking lot of a small town country club.

There is so much to relate to in this book. I got a kick out of the fact that Addie's parents met at summer camp as mine did as well. Additionally, I loved the way the story was grounded in history. Addie's father is a Vietnam vet who is unable to return to the life path he had charted before combat. Valerie's mother is a hippy of sorts. The portrayal of high school, full of traumas and celebrations is realistic and entertaining.

The pace of this novel was excellent. It switches perspective and includes the viewpoint of the detective investigating the blood left behind in the parking lot of the Country Club where the reunion is held. I think its excellent that Weiner has shown she can write different genres, hopefully this will silence all of the critics who try to squarely place her in the "chick lit" category.

In a Country of Mothers by A.M. Holmes

2009-07-17T14:05:00.000-07:00

I loved A.M. Holmes memoir, The Mistress' Daughter. I can remember sitting on the floor of BandN at 86th and Park, reading the whole book in its entirety. Holmes story is fascinating; she was adopted, and eventually reunites with her biological parents, inviting into her life a great deal of chaos, manipulation, drama and secrecy. I particularly enjoyed the fact that Holmes included a great deal of research on both her biological and adopted family. She found records of her grandparents' marriages. I remember going home and deciding I needed to find out more about my own family history.

I was super excited to read fiction by Holmes; and this novel did not disappoint. It is in many ways a psychological thriller, as engaging as my favorite psychological thrillers (written by Elizabeth Brundage). I love the timeless quality of this novel. It was written in 1993, and so there is very little mention of the technology that currently dominates our lives. And yet it is a truly modern novel. Part of this novel focuses on a twenty-something trying to figure out her life. She is a witty film student and assistant who has a knack for charming people and making them laugh. The first chapter begins with Jody Goodman calling a shrink because she is unsure if she should attend film graduate school (even though she is already enrolled). "Hi, this is Jody Goodman, you don't know me. I'm having some trouble making career decisions." I was immediately drawn in. I will say it aloud myself: "I am having some trouble making career decisions." The other main character Claire is a forty-something shrink who is still overcoming her past, as well as having problems with her preteen son and her family life with a husband and two sons. Claire becomes Jody's therapist and they develop a deep intimacy until the relationship extends beyond normal professional boundaries.

Jody, was in therapy before, as she is an adopted child who was adopted shortly after her parent's biological son died. Her life is in many ways defined by this huge loss, much the way the daughter in A Widow for One Year is affected by the deaths of the brothers she never met (and the empty hooks where all their photos once resided). Jody, has a magnetic and endearing personality and people in the film industry are drawn to her. Claire is drawn to Jody as well, especially because she gave a baby girl up for adoption in the same city (Washington D.C.) and year that Jody was born. Claire begins to be obsessed with Jody and believes she is the daughter she gave up for adoption. There is an element of suspense: Is Jody really Claire's daughter? Could such a coincidence occur? I will let you discover the answer yourself. I will say the situation develops to an amazing crescendo.

This novel raises so many questions, about adoption, and family, about the real value of therapy, about the lives of therapists, about taking risks and about desire. I highly recommend this book.

The Castaways by Elin Hilderbrand

2009-07-17T13:30:00.000-07:00

I used to be a huge Hilderbrand fan. Upon discovering and devouring The Love Season, I became a dedicated reader and so did my best friend and my mother. But I found her last book (A Summer Affair) to be incredibly disappointing. The Castaways was a compelling read but it still lacked some of the magic of Hilderbrand's earlier works.

This novel, like all of Hilderbrand's novels, takes place in Nantucket. This novel focuses on a group of friends: four couples with a series of connections. Andrea, who is married to the police chief, formerly dated Jeffery, the husband of Delilah. Tess, Andrea's cousin, is having an affair with wealthy Addison Wheeler (known as Wheeler the Dealer), the husband of Phoebe. There is also a deep friendship/flirtatious relationship between Tess's husband Greg, and Delilah. As you can already tell this is quite the soap opera. The book begins with the announcement of the drowning deaths of Greg and Tess, who went sailing to celebrate their twelfth anniversary. Their deaths ricochet throughout the group, and as we learn about the unique way each character is grieving, we also learn a great deal of the backstory behind this incestuous group.

The story alternates through each character's perspective, so we are able to see first hand why Addison falls for Tess, how Jeffrey feels about Andrea, what lead Phoebe to become addicted to pills, how deeply Andrea and her family are affected by her own grief. There is a great deal of suspense built into the book, and each character is well-fleshed out but I still couldn't help but miss the evocative language, and effortless storytelling found in The Love Season.

Children of the Waters by Carleen Brice

2009-07-17T13:05:00.000-07:00

This was the second book I purchased for my long train ride. I had read a series of positive reviews of Brice's first novel, which I now plan on reading. This book tackles so many interesting ideas and experiences. It is a truly modern novel, discussing topics such as interracial dating, treatment of young black males by the police, black male identity, single parenting, raising children who are mixed race, fundamentalist Christianity, adoption and what truly determines a person's racial identity. Few authors discuss such topics so insightfully and poignantly (at least few authors I have read). Furthermore, one of the main characters in the novel is adopted but not told by her parents. This intrigues me as my mother has consistently said that she would never tell a child they were adopted -- this fact is made inherently more interesting by the fact that she is a psychologist (thankfully, we have pictures of my mother pregnant with me and my brothers so we know she isn't lying to us!). The book also includes so much about a wide variety of topics I know very little about: veterinarians, Native American rituals, holistic healing, Lupus, Buddhism, and being mixed race. I feel I learned a great deal from reading this book and that isn't always the case with fiction.

Brice creates such layered and real characters. We get a sense of each character's thoughts, emotions, and feelings even though Billie and Trish are focused on the most. We see each character as a full-bodied individual. No detail is left out. Like real people, all of the characters are flawed. Nick is unwilling to be a parent and scared of truly letting Billie inside his head. Billie is stubborn, OCD, controlling and unhappy to find out she is mixed race. At times she is downright mean to her newly discovered sister. Trish is somewhat simple-minded and overbearing towards her son. Will, goes from shoplifting to extreme piousness, believing deeply in the preaching of a corrupt priest. Billie's adopted parents withhold the truth from her.

Overall, I was captivated by this book. It is yet another example of a well-written, unique story written about a complex and slightly-dysfunctional family. One of my favorite types of reads!

Returning from Delinquency

2009-07-17T13:04:00.000-07:00

I have been terrible about posting lately and have no valid excuse. I have been reading a great deal of non fiction and have some new insight on why non fiction is so powerful. In the meantime, I am returning to normal posting.

The Beach House by Georgia Bockoven

2009-07-01T08:58:00.000-07:00

In college, I took a course titled Contemporary American Writers, in which we studied the complete works of three American "writers" (they were not all novelists, or even "writers" in the most traditional sense of the word) and the focus on each author culminated with a three hour session with these writers. During my year in this class, one of the writers was the venerable Susan Sontag. I can remember that Sontag talked about her love of reading and the fact that she hoped to read every day of her life, including the day she died. I can remember relating to those words even though I clearly understood that Sontag did not read anything low brow. I am sure she would have a great deal to say about chick lit and the usual fare in women's fiction, as well as the fact that our society is so under read. I am thinking of this story as I grapple with my own tastes in books. I read an account recently of a Phd student in literature who said the program took the joy out of reading for her. I cannot imagine that. I know I haven't read enough of the classical works of English literature. And yet, here I am reviewing beach reading. I am not embarrassed. One of my friends from college said I taught her to be comfortable with reading chick lit. I have never been ashamed of my reading interests, and I suppose I am not going to start being embarrassed now. And yet, if I were to consider writing my own novel, I would want it to be literary as well as entertaining to read.

I picked up this book and another as my reading fare for a 3 and half hour train ride. I had read most of the selection at the small bookstore in the station. And here is the wonderful thing about this novel: it completely drew me in and entertained me greatly. I guess my whole point is that sometimes all a reader needs is an entertaining book that makes you keep reading. I love beautiful language, but it isn't always necessary.

In Store Reading - Part 1

2009-06-25T17:06:00.000-07:00

Reflections on books read in store:

A Thread of Truth, Marie Bostwick

Interesting Topic. At times seemed cliche or soap opery (of course the abused wife was a run away who turned- in this case unknowingly--to stripping only be saved by a man who appeared charming but is really a controlling jerk). Liked the camaraderie in the town but the knitting shop which is focused on isn't as exciting as Walker and Daughter from the Friday Night Knitting Club and Knit Two. Why are so many chick lit or women's fictions books focused on knitting? Not sure I get it. For the record, my favorite book that involves knitting women is Ann Hood's The Knitting Room.

Baggage Claim by Tanya Michna

I liked reading a portrayal of a female academic (especially a history professor!). I was easily drawn in by this book and the accounts of the two women in very different stages of life. Not much else to report. This is a thought provoking book.

The Widow Season by Laura Brodie

Sarah McConnell's husband had been dead three months when she saw him in the grocery store..... So begins the story of a young widow who is possibly being haunted by her husband's ghost. This book is quite the wild ride. A reader spends the entire story trying to determine if it's the story of a woman grieving in untraditional ways, a ghost story or the story of a man who ran away from his life. At different points in the book I was sure of the answer and then some new detail would make me realize I was wrong. I've truly never read anything else like this novel. It was full of mystery, and yet it is completely a story about love, grief and human relationships. Additionally, the author is a talented writer. There is a true literary quality to the novel. Upon finishing the book, I learned that Brodie has a Phd in English and wrote her dissertation on widows in English literature. According to Brodie's website, her favorite chapter was on husband's who fake their deaths in order to spy on their wives. This explains a great deal about the unique style of this novel. While at points I was completely perplexed by the events of this novel, and annoyed by certain passages which lead me to believe one thing was really occurring, only to be totally confused by a further event, I see that this makes the novel special. I tend to ignore paranormal fiction or science fiction, because I like novels that portray real life through a new lens. But I recognize that there is a lot to appreciate about Brodie's ability to write realistic fiction with so many twists and turns.

April & Oliver, Tess Callahan

I love the cover of this novel: the colors just captivated me. The language in this novel captivated me as well. It's a complicated story, and yet it is mostly about two individuals overcoming the events of their childhoods. The reader deeply wants more for April, as it seems every one has failed her, and her circumstances have led her with so few opportunities. And yet she isn't bitter and angry. I think there is something I need to learn from that. April and Oliver are in some ways "cousins" as they share a grandmother. Their fathers are half brothers but Oliver's father is not biologically related to the mother who raised him. Thus April and Oliver are not genetically related. This is important as it is obvious that Oliver longed after April during his adolescence. The book begins with the death of Billy, April's younger brother, who she took care of and loved deeply. The aftermath of his death leaves April alone, dealing with an abusive/stalkerish ex, a grandmother in declining health and her own grief. Oliver, returns to NY from college in California with a fiance in tow. He is a law student and a former piano prodigy. April wonders why he isn't using his gifts. His fiance doesn't even know about his musical talents. I won't reveal what happens, but I was completely drawn into this book. The characters are incredibly realistic, and human. The writing is crisp and artful. The story is unique from so much of the derivative stories one finds these days.

Accidently on Purpose by Mary F. Pols

2009-06-25T16:27:00.000-07:00

Another memoir about a woman in an unexpected position. I've been wanting to read Pols book for a while having read parts of her blog. While I found her story interesting and compelling, I wanted to be more captivated by her writing. I loved reading about her large Catholic family, her childhood in Maine, how she fell in love with being a movie critic. I liked learning about life as a self-sufficient woman in San Francisco. I was particularly intrigued by the passages about being a late in life mother at the same time that her parents (who had her particularly late as she was the last of 6 spread out over a number of years) were failing in health. I've always found the phenomenon of the sandwich generation fascinating. And it is obvious that Mary's parents were larger than life characters. But I didn't find myself particularly moved by her writing style. I suppose in some ways it was too "journalistic" for my liking. The structure seemed to make it harder for me to become totally enthralled. Maybe I am just too accustomed to fiction.

Pols book in many ways provides a slice of sociology on modern motherhood. What is it like to share parenting responsibilities with a young slacker? What is it like to share parenting responsibilities with someone you barely know? What is it like to parent in an untraditional arrangement? Additionally, it answers questions about raising a child far away from your extended family, and raising a child without a full cadre of grandparents. All of this is fascinating to me personally, as my parents had me late in life and I grew up largely with one grandparent (although I have so many memories of my other two grandparents who I treasured and interacted with constantly until they died when I was 6 and 7). This book caused me to think about motherhood and my own personal time frame. It made me think about fulfillment and what I desire from family life. It made me think about society and modern trends.

It's hard not to want Pols to find a man to complete her life. It is wonderful that she was able to have a child (at 40) so easily. It is wonderful that her son has an active and involved father. But since the story unfolds completely from Pol's perspective, its hard not to feel that she deserves more than Matt, even though they are not together. It seems that she does indeed long for a partner. I suppose I can't help but think about the trend of single mothers raising children. I don't have a judgement on whether this is right or wrong for their kids. I just wonder how lonely it must feel at times. The romantic in me wants everyone to find a mate. The realist in me wonders if a mate is a necessity.

I can remember one review saying that Pols gave Matt irritable bowel syndrome because she stressed him out so much. That wasn't my take on the situation. But one does wonder: What is his perspective on the situation? In the end, it is apparent that Mary is happy with the results of the "best accident" in her life. And it is obvious that Matt stepped up to the plate and loves Dolan. But, its impossible to know all of what he thought and felt. It's not Pols job to provide that insight. It's just the over curious part of me that wants a scan of the bigger picture.

Perfection by Julie Metz

2009-06-18T14:54:00.000-07:00

I am not sure why I wanted to read this book. I guess most people are drawn in by tales of betrayal. I think the story behind this novel is so horrific. It’s hard to imagine being married to someone for sixteen years and then find out that your spouse had so many secrets. It’s hard to imagine being married to someone, sharing a life with someone, who could cheat on you repeatedly without you knowing. And I guess that’s what makes this book interesting: this happens so much in our country and yet people rarely talk openly about infidelity.

When Metz meets her husband’s psychiatrist the shrink explains that she believes Henry showed signs of narcissistic personality disorder. The shrink also believe his main mistress (the mother of Henry and Julie’s daughter’s best friend) has borderline personality disorder. It was interesting to consider that all sorts of wrong behavior can be explained away by psychological issues. It made me think of someone I knew in high school, who consistently cheated on his girlfriend. I actually know at least two guys who were committed to girlfriends but cheated on them more than once. One of the guys took part in this behavior with two different girlfriends. Both of these guys are incredibly intelligent. As a young college student, I just couldn’t understand. I thought: “you pick: either one girl you get every night, or a different girl every night. It’s simple.” I understand now how naïve I was --hell, I am still naïve. Love, sex – it’s all complicated and I am in no way an expert.

I am glad to know that Julie and her daughter have moved on and are finding new forms of happiness. It’s hard to read this memoir and not feel their pain. I found the writing somewhat detached. She told the story in a very straight-forward, bare bones way. It was the story itself that makes this book readable, not the writing.

The Richest Season by Maryann McFadden

2009-06-17T13:32:00.000-07:00

I had read the story behind this book before I saw it on the table, and that made me instantly snap it up. I am happy McFadden found a way to publish her story and now a way to release her book to a wider audience. I was easily drawn into the story, and very captivated by the portrayal of South Pawley's island.

Twelve Times Blessed by Jacquelyn Mitchard

2009-06-17T13:14:00.000-07:00

I had a four hour bus ride before me so I picked up this book and The Richest Season. I thought I had read Mitchard before and yet I can't remember which one. The beginning of this book didn't pull me in, but at some point it happened and I was typical MandN needing closure to the story at all cost, and reading when I should have been doing something else entirely. I hid out in a friend's house reading the book, happy he had something else to do, and I had time to finish before he returned.

In many ways, the main character's life is truly transformed. I suppose a near death experience can do that to you. I loved the way True's life is initially enhanced by her marriage to Hank. I didn't understand the need for a quick wedding and found it unrealistic that True would go through with such a spontaneous act without including her son (that seemed somewhat out of character). But the romance of True and Hank is inspiring and exciting. I want to believe love can happen that quickly, and can be so fulfilling. Of course, it later turns out to be incredibly complicated as well...

This book deals with so many entities that interest me: single motherhood, entrepreneurial businesses, New Orleans, infidelity, the precocious behavior of young children, life post 9/11, illness, loss of a parent, motherhood post 40. In many ways this book is so clearly modern. There may not be discussions of blackberries and facebook (it was published in 2003) but it still is clearly a product of the 2000's.

I found the relationship between True and Isabella (Esa) incredibly interesting. I love the fact that people can form families with people who aren't their blood. The extended family in this novel is wonderful. The ultra Christian mother of a young actor made me want to scream, as did the actions of True's own mother. But there are maddening and complicated individuals in this world and Mitchard seems to understand them completely.

This five hundred page plus novel seems to really blossom -- it goes from being the story of a lonely widow who sadly faces her birthday, to a story of love and friendship and overcoming obstacles with happiness and courage. In many ways the tone of the book shifts once True finds herself again, and part of that is due to the entrance of Hank.

I wish I had written my review of this book right after reading it as I feel I would have more to say. But I still highly enjoyed this book.

Commencement by J. Courtney Sullivan

2009-06-17T11:46:00.000-07:00

In typical Marnes and Noble fashion, I sat in Borders (sorry BandN!) reading Commencement the day it came out (I am currently on vacation so I have way too much free time!) I was a hundred and fifteen pages in when I had to leave the store so I bought the book. I of course finished it in one day - the day of its publication. Such typical MandN behavior. A day later, I am still thinking about so many of the issues this book offers insight on. I guess since I am a twenty-something who is still trying to figure so much out, and I am deeply attached to my college group of friends this book deeply resonated with me.

I was very excited for this book since I consider it to be the same genre as A Fortunate Age. One of my friends didn't love A Fortunate Age. I understand her criticisms but I happily devoured Smith-Rakoff's book. My first thought when finishing it was that I wanted to read it again. Part of my love may come from its focus on NYC in the 1990s. In many ways, NYC was a character in the book. And I miss NYC dearly.

As for Commencement: to me this is a genre I treasure. The story of a group of friends post-college. It is a time period I have wanted to capture myself and I suppose I still hope to someday. It is hard to read Commencement and not feel nostalgic for college, especially since I have entered somewhat of a quarter life crisis in my twenty fifth year. Interestingly, both Commencement and A Fortunate Age focus on students who attend liberal arts colleges. Having attended an Ivy, I wonder how different my experiences and my career path would have been if I attended a small liberal art's college. I never really considered attending a liberals arts college; but I think I may have been happy at one. (Not that I didn't love my own college experience, as I did, thoroughly). In many ways the book focuses on how random events change individuals. If the four protagonists had not chosen to attend Smith, or been randomly placed in the same house (in the maid's quarters) they would have had completely different experiences. In one passage of the book, it is very obvious that Bree and her family recognizes that Smith forever altered her in ways that were unimaginable before hand. Sally, on the other hand, is most affected by the death of her mother right before her high school graduation. In many ways, the absence of her mother affects all of Sally's behaviors and decisions, and she realizes that much of what she had done since her mother's death was "an attempt to shock her back to life" (an affair with a married professor, not applying to medical school, her bare bones wedding in the Smith College Quad). (pg. 115) April's determined and extreme personality and hardcore feminism is a result of her tumultuous upbringing and the absence of supportive family and friends. Celia, on the other hand, is greatly affected by her large nurturing family, her supportive and successful mother, a rape experience and her unique view on men.

This book provided a clear window on the Smith experience and it had me nostalgic for my college's own traditions. But I also loved living through the four years of college with these interesting and disparate women. I found it particularly interesting to consider how attending an all-girls college affects hook up culture and women's perception of men. The book highlights (through a theory of Celia's) the idea that some "women's college grads are like people who had lived through the Depression -- even though they now had plenty of food, they still hoarded every last scrap." Celia explains: "when she met a guy, any guy, she was too willing to accept his flaws because who knew where her next meal was coming from?" (pg. 213) The book also offers such interesting views on feminism. Feminism is something that the girls clearly grappled with extensively at Smith. I am not sure I can say that I did the same during my four years of college. I took a Gender Studies class, and a Women's history course, I worked for a group that promoted positive body image, a group that invited Naomi Wolf to speak on campus (and of course I was in the audience) and I participated in Take Back the Night Walks. But I still don't feel that feminism is something my friends understood or grappled with in college . At this point in our lives, we are certainly considering the idea of our choices and we obviously see that we have many more options than previous generations. But I can't say that any of my friends are feminists, or that they feel the most strongly about women's issues. It is something interesting to compare and contrast. The women at Smith clearly cared less about their appearances and experimented more with their sexuality. The culture at my college was much more materialistic and into appearances and the hook up culture was much more "heteronormative."

The inside book cover proclaims that this novel is "a portrait of the first generation of women who have all the opportunities in the world, but no clear idea what to choose." This is an interesting idea to consider. I suppose this is true of my friends and the people I grew up with, and I suppose I know many woman who havemade choices that seem archaic. Sullivan deftly portrays keen insight on our shared generation. She shows women who are interested in snatching a husband and others who don't believe they will ever find a man who compliments them. Celia, is in many ways a true modern woman, as she doesn't long for marriage and feels that she is a different version of herself (Celia 2.0) among men. I can remember feeling my female friends in college knew me best. There have only been a small group of men who have understood me in the same way. But the optimist in me does believe there is someone out there (and many somebodies at that) out there for everyone, even Celia.

Sullivan is quite insightful. So many of her ideas were things I had considered before but she packages them in creative new ways. She describes the girl's experiences their first year out of college as their freshman year, and each subsequent year as their sophomore, junior, senior year. I liked this idea greatly. There is so much uncertainty post college. Maybe our culture has infantilized young people, or maybe adolescence has been delayed or extended, but so much of post college life is challenging and unique. Even now, a full four years out of college, I am still trying to figure out what I want in life. In some ways, it is hard to read about the protagonists of this novel. They all seem so sure of their career choices: Bree is a lawyer and followed her dreamed path from Smith to Stanford; Celia wants to be a writer and she works in publishing while eventually making time to write on the side; April eventually works for a radical feminist, partaking in crazy experiences, but acting out of a deep passion for her work; Sally, may have given up on her dream to go to med school but she is still connected to the science world, working in a lab at Harvard. Sally also seems content to build a new family for herself with her doting husband Jake. She is certain in that decision, even if she recognizes that she has given up on some of her initial dreams. The truth is they all do stumble, being surprised by unexpected events, making spontaneously bad and good decisions. But I was envious of how much each of them had a sense of certainty about what they wanted.

I love the insights and observations Sullivan shares about women in New York City. Her passage about the fact that most of the women looking for husbands worked in marketing had me laughing and nodding my head in agreement. Her discussion of dating in New York is filled with colorful characters like Barrel Daryl. All single women in NYC have some similar stories; Sullivan's don't disappoint.

I really have so much to say about this book. I found it interesting the way Sullivan discusses the young women's dependancy on their parents and the idea that all of them are supported somewhat by their parents but do not discuss it. Sally, has received money due to her mother's death (malpractice suit) and yet lives a pretty typical life - which is interesting but realistic. I am still grappling with the ending which didn't provide as much closure as I wanted (I turned the last page dreading seeing the Acknowledgements, knowing there was no more but wishing otherwise). I was easily drawn into this novel. I love the characters - I loved the way the friends are shown to be family to one another, the way they mothered one another. I can remember that about college: the way friends replace your parents as the people you call during big and small events.

I have some additional thoughts about the surprises in the end but I don't want to ruin the ending for people who want to read the book. I thought the book was going to go in one direction that made me amused in its similarity to A Fortunate Age, but it actually changed course. In reality, there are some amusing similarities. Both books focus on the first engagement and wedding of one of the friends. What does this say about life as a twenty-something post college? In A Fortunate Age, there is discussion of the fact that it is hard when your first friend becomes married because there is a sense that you are losing something, that your group of friends is changing. I am intrigued by this idea. In Commencement, the girls at first don't think Jake is smart enough for Sally. But in the end, it is obvious that he loves Sally and deeply appreciates the same thing that Sally's girlfriends love about her. He takes care of her and helps her to remember her mother, something her own family does not do. In the end he proves himself to the girls and thus, he becomes a "Smithie." A Fortunate Age spans a longer time period (and takes place in an earlier time period) and so by the end of the book almost all of the main characters are married with children. It is a natural progression I suppose. But it is interesting to consider. The first friend married in my group of college friends was a male and thus the effect was not the same. The first married girls, married individuals from our group, boys they dated throughout college and thus there was less a sense of loss, less a sense of altering the dynamics of the group. All of this is interesting to consider.

So much to ponder. I need my college friends to read this book so we can discuss!

Driftwood Summer by Patti Callahan Henry

2009-06-15T17:39:00.000-07:00

Patti Callahan Henry never disappoints. One day I picked up one of her books off a New Fiction table, and two chapters in and I just knew I would read all of her books. I devoured her latest book in one day finishing it at 4 in the morning. I am not sure I can put my finger on exactly what makes her stories so readable, but her characters and settings always easily draw me in.

This book focuses on the relationship between sisters, something I cannot relate to at all as I only have brothers. But I still find it inherently amusing. I suppose a lot of women's fiction focuses on the relationship between sisters, in fact Kristin Hannah's last book focused on three sisters as well. And yet, Callahan Henry's books never seem cliche or derivative. Even though many of her books seem to replay similar ideas or conflicts, they are each unique.

The book also focuses on a small town book store, something I know I would love. I loved my local bookstore as a child--it was called The Corner Book Shop and I spent most of my childhood weekends inside its doors.

At the heart of it this book focuses on how the events of adolescence and childhood stay with an individual - something focused on in most of Callahan Henry's books. She understands young love in such an obvious way. This book also focuses on the sandwich generation, and adults dealing with the sickness of their parents. Callahan Henry grapples with so many issues in this book, and yet the heart of the story is the deep friendship between Mack and Riley and the rift between Riley and Maisy. I suppose it isn't a new story - sisters fight over boy, boy chooses beauty over best friend. And yet, as I said before Callahan Henry's stories always seem new.

Sima's Undergarments for Women by Ilana Stanger-Ross

2009-06-11T13:58:00.000-07:00

Any woman with experience with a independent lingerie store will find something special in this book. Stanger-Ross clearly understands Jewish women in their natural habitats. I was personally excited to get more of a window into Brooklyn, and Boro Park, as I have filled a series of journal pages writing about the young Hasidic mothers of Williamsburg.

In some ways this book is heart-breaking. One wants to strangle Sima, who seems to have lived her life, specializing in being unhappy, feeling annoyed by her oafish husband and forever altered due to one poor decision. But its easy to imagine that women like Sima do exist. Her loneliness and her longing are incredibly believable. Sima, has worked for 35 years fitting the women of the neighborhood with bras and underwear. She watches as the young women get married, fits them for their wedding night lingerie, and then a year or two later fits them for nursing bras. She listens as young mothers, nearing 30, complain of the exhaustion caused from having three children. Sima herself expected children to follow quickly after her marriage. But through slivers of flashbacks we discover that Sima is barren, due to a secret she has kept from her husband.

An interaction with a young Israeli woman who she hires to be a seamstress changes Sima. One review talked about the fact that the reader waits for a bigger change than actually occurs. While I too longed for more of a climax at one point, I think the subtle changes that occur in Sima are very realistic.

A couple days after finishing this book I was running through my parent's neighborhood and I noticed an old woman walking - I couldn't help but think about Sima. Recently, I've been very interested in how people deal with the choices they make as young people. In many ways this book shows that we are forever overcoming the traumas of our adolescence.

A Day at the Beach by Helen Schulman

2009-06-11T10:25:00.001-07:00

I can remember when the first few fiction books and movies that tried to respond to the events of 9/11 first came out. There was such a collective holding of breath. Could authors and screenwriters tackle this subject artfully? How does one try to say something about such a catastrophic and insane event?

I personally haven't read much fiction that incorporates 9/11. Only Maynard's novel the Usual Rules, which was so full of real, human, colorful characters that one wasn't too concerned with the portrayal of the event.

Reading A Day at the Beach was haunting, as it narrates the events of September 11, 2001 so realistically. Schulman reveals that she studied tapes of the newscasts at the Museum of Radio and Television, and that she also lived in lower Manhattan. It's hard not to read this book and recall one own's experience of that fateful day. I was a freshman in college in Philadelphia. I was woken up by a phone call from my roommate's parents who implored us to turn on the TV. The first building had been hit but I still went to my 10 am class. Later, classes would be cancelled. But that morning I sat through my regularly scheduled Freshman Seminar on Desert Islands (comparative literature).

This book is so magical. It narrates the events of that fateful day through the eyes of a German former famous ballerina (who had his own company) and his muse and wife, a Jewish woman who grew up in Riverdale. It offers one small perspective on this national tragedy, and by doing so allows the reader to ponder a series of larger than life questions: what is the value of art? what does it mean to be part of a community? do we ever truly overcome our past? what does it mean to be a supportive spouse?

I am having trouble coming up with the right words to explain the essence of this novel. The blurbs on the back seem to capture everything I want to say and more:

Elissa Schappell writes: "An astonishing tour de force of a novel, deeply compassionate and piercingly intelligent Schulman's A Day at the Beach has echoes of DeLillo but is wholly her own vision of what it means to be a human living in a complicated universe full of desire and longing, addressing the power of art, the costs of love, the wages of history, and how 9/11 cast every American's life into sharp relief. The ending left me in tears, shaken, but intensely grateful for the gift of this remarkable book."

Kurt Anderson writes: "A precarious marriage, a teetering career, betrayal, and paranoia -- all set in New York on September 11, 2001. Who knew those elements could be a recipe for redemption and uplift? Helen Schulman's craft and wisdom are both impressive and effortless-looking and A Day at the Beach is a riveting story that captures the zeitgeist pitch perfectly."

I think the only thing I want to add is that Schulman is able to tackle so much in only 209 pages. This to me is tremendous. Bubbling throughout the one and a half days that are narrated are issues pertaining to jealousy, longing, loss of one's self to motherhood, the fleetingness of success, autism, the difference between Europeans and Americans, love, the grandness of NYC and so much more.

I almost feel as my review cannot do this book justice.

No One You Know by Michelle Richmond

2009-06-10T10:13:00.000-07:00

This is somewhat of a delayed post. I read this book on the floor of BandN about a week ago. I loved Richmond's last book (The Year of Sand and Fog) and had been meaning to read this latest one for a while.

I am floored by Richmond's talent. I love her style, the way she seamlessly builds a story, her use of language. I don't tend to read literary mysteries, and so this is another thing I love about Richmond - the way she helped me discover and enjoy a genre I don't often read.

This book tells the story of Ellie Enderlin, who is trying to come to terms with the murder of her brilliant older sister Lila ( a gifted mathematician who was pursuing a Phd in Math) which occurred twenty years before. After Lila's death Ellie shares all of her thoughts and emotions with a professor of hers, who turns the story into a bestselling true crime book which implicates Lila's math partner in her death and causes a great deal of anguish for Ellie's family. As an adult, Ellie finally digs beyond the story created for this crime book and realizes a great deal about her sister and her self.

I love the way Richmond interweaves quotes about writing and reading into this book. So many of the specific quotes spoke to me. One is now on a clean sheet in my journal.

This book, like The Year of Sand of Fog, raises so many thought-provoking questions, about loss and love, crime, sibling relationships, secrets and story-telling. It's a great read.

Waiting on Wednesday: Labor Day

2009-06-10T08:28:00.000-07:00

I am so excited for the summer season of books to be released. Can't wait for the new releases by some of my faves: Christina Baker Kline, Elin Hilderbrand, Patti Callahan Henry, Jennifer Weiner, Julie Buxbaum.

The forthcoming book I am highlighting this week is Labor Day by Joyce Maynard. It will be available July 28.

I recently read Maynard's The Usual Rules (another book with an adolescent main character) and absolutely adored the book. After some research on Maynard I realized I had read and owned her other YA book (The Cloud Chamber) as well. Maynard tackles adolescent issues so adeptly and compellingly.

Amazon's write up for Labor Day below:

With the end of summer closing in and a steamy Labor Day weekend looming in the town of Holton Mills, New Hampshire, thirteen-year-old Henry—lonely, friendless, not too good at sports—spends most of his time watching television, reading, and daydreaming about the soft skin and budding bodies of his female classmates. For company Henry has his long-divorced mother, Adele—a onetime dancer whose summer project was to teach him how to foxtrot; his hamster, Joe; and awkward Saturday-night outings to Friendly's with his estranged father and new stepfamily. As much as he tries, Henry knows that even with his jokes and his "Husband for a Day" coupon, he still can't make his emotionally fragile mother happy. Adele has a secret that makes it hard for her to leave their house, and seems to possess an irreparably broken heart.

But all that changes on the Thursday before Labor Day, when a mysterious bleeding man named Frank approaches Henry and asks for a hand. Over the next five days, Henry will learn some of life's most valuable lessons: how to throw a baseball, the secret to perfect piecrust, the breathless pain of jealousy, the power of betrayal, and the importance of putting others—especially those we love—above ourselves. And the knowledge that real love is worth waiting for.

I'm Down by Mishna Wolff

2009-06-08T12:54:00.000-07:00

This is a memoir about a young white woman who according to the blurb on the inside, grows up in "a poor black neighborhood with her single father, a white man who truly believed he was black." The author explains: "He strutted around with a short perm, a Cosby-esqe sweater, gold chains, and a Kangol--telling jokes like Redd Foxx and giving advice like Jesse Jackson. You couldn't tell my father he was white."

Mishna grows up trying to please her father, lost in a world that is foreign to her. Eventually she learns to "cap" (insult her friends with sayings similar to yo mamma jokes) and finds enjoyment in playing on an all black basketball team. But she also attends a special school with upper-class white students who find her weird. She learns to navigate these disparate worlds and obviously turned out alright, as she was previously a model and a comedian and now has penned an engaging memoir.

I found this book completely engaging. As someone who formerly taught African American and Latino students, I felt this book gave a me a greater understanding of some of their behaviors. As someone interested in the effects of growing up in poverty, I found Mishna's story something incredibly elucidating. Neither of her parents finished college, but they still supported her enough to get her on the right track in life. While her father may have been more concerned about her standing in the community, and whether she could stand her own in a fight or be cool enough to hang with the sistas, he also encouraged her to try new things: track, music, basketball, swimming. While he clearly wanted his daughter to excel at the things he deemed important, he found a way to accept her for exactly who she was and was incredibly proud of her accomplishments.

Jennifer Weiner recently blogged about how seeing an author's photo can affect one's reading of a novel (she reported that reading a book via Kindle, which meant she had no photo helped her not to prejudge the author and approach the book with a more open mind). Wolff's photo shows that she is clearly gorgeous. But this book reveals so much of the confusion she felt as a young person. I think it would be impossible for someone to read this memoir and not fall in love with the young version of Wolff we are introduced to. She wants so badly to be accepted. She tries equally hard at mastering capping in second grade then she later does swimming, a sport she loves because she doesn't have to worry about letting down teammates the way she did in basketball. She tries so very hard to be accepted in the disparate worlds she navigates. And she never thinks she is better than anyone else.

The book surprisingly offers somewhat of a critique of the upper middle class lifestyle. It is Mishna's friends from her special school that struggle the most with finding happiness. While Mishna's African American step mother struggles to support her family, and blames a lot of her unhappiness on Misha, we see her through a whimsical light as well. Mishna's adolescent friends seem more troubled dealing with absent parents, the pressure of success and their absolute boredom. Overall the book is funny, insightful and interesting.

The Last Beach Bungalow by Jennie Nash

2009-06-08T11:45:00.000-07:00

Part of me feels this book both tries too hard and yet doesn't deliver. I wanted to like this book but it didn't deliver as compelling a story as I imagined based on the blurb. It was highly readable. But I felt myself just wanting to finish. I wasn't savoring it the way I usually do with compelling fiction.

For me, something was missing in this story. I cared about the narrator, her husband and daughter but not enough. The family seemed so cliche. And while the narrator is a freelance writer, who shares with the reader the entirety of her inner dialogue, I didn't feel that connected to her. For me, the characters never really came alive. I get that the narrator was still coming to terms with her diagnosis of cancer five years before, and was herself discovering that she was going through the motions and not celebrating life. But I still found myself feeling detached from the developing story.

The most interesting part of the novel was the bereft widow who cannot imagine life without her beloved husband and is looking to find a meaningful way to sell the house she shared with him for many years. Their house is the the last beach bungalow on Redondo beach, and the only one that has not been torn down and replaced with a McMansion. To me this woman and her captivating house, is the heart of the story and I think the novel would have been infinitely more interesting if the story was told from her perspective.

Catching Genius by Kristy Kiernan

2009-06-06T15:00:00.001-07:00

The blurb on the book compares Kiernan to Picoult and Shreve. I could see that. She tackles big controversial topics. I think I might also compare her to Patti Callahan Henry, due to the Southern setting and the focus on island life.

I read Kiernan's second book (Matters of Faith) a while ago and was quite excited to read her first book. Catching Genius was incredibly engrossing. Yet another book about a family with secrets and drama. And yet it isn't cliche. The story is mostly about two sisters: Connie, who felt her whole life was altered by the discovery of her sister's "genius" IQ, and Estella, who in many ways suffered due to this "diagnosis." Now in middle age, the sisters are brought together for the first time in twelve years to clean out their former house, a beach house that stores many happy memories for Connie, and many sad memories for Estella. The sisters come together not really understanding the reality of the other's life. Estella believes her sister has a perfect life and family. In reality, Connie's husband is a serial cheater and she is in the process of divorcing him. She has two sons, a high school student named Gib who is flunking algebra and a young elementary school aged son named Carson who is potentially a gifted musical composer. Connie, on the other hand, believes her sister is a genius. The reality is that Estella has had many of her own challenges including serious surgery and sexual abuse. Through a tumultuous stay in their former home the girls learn the truth about one another, and open themselves up to viewing the past through a new lens.

There is a lot of hard life events in this book; but both of the female protagonists grow as do almost all of the characters in the novel (with the exception of Connie's jerk of a husband). The story offers a true slice of life full of the variety of surprises that exist in every family. It's hard not to love the characters, and to root for them to get the ending they deserve.

The Visibles by Sara Shepard

2009-06-06T14:55:00.001-07:00

I have always been able to pick up a book, read the first few pages, and know if I will enjoy the book. I read the first few pages of the Visibles and was enthralled. I considered buying it immediately, but was in a hurry to jump on a bus to NYC. Luckily, I recently got it from the library.

The book is complicated. It isn't a happy story per say, although I suppose the characters end up better off than they started. But it is a book that tackles a lot of unhappy topics: depression, abandonment, fear of loss, the way a secret eats you up on the inside, terminal cancer, the dissolution of a marriage. I have friends who prefer to only read about happy topics. I am not that type of reader.

At the heart of it, the Visibles is a coming of age story. The narrator begins the novel, a sophomore in a Brooklyn private school, dealing with the fact that her mother has mysteriously left the family, her father struggles with mental illness, and her brother doesn't have all that much to say to her. The one friend she previously felt close to has returned from a year in France, and Summer wants nothing to do with her. She still can't get over the fact that Claire didn't include her enough during Summer's freshman year (and Claire's sophomore year). Genetics becomes Summer's raft - a way for her to make sense of her own life, a world for her to lose herself inside. We watch Summer grow, attending NYU, studying biology, and still staying in Brooklyn to take care of her father as his mental health worsens. The story also contains a series of letters written by Summer's father, a doctor who struggles with severe depression and is still trying to overcome a defining moment from his own adolescence.

The novel raises a great deal of questions about what individuals are possible of overcoming. I love pondering how much of adolescence remains with a person. Can we ever outgrow the awkward version of ourselves we were at fifteen or seventeen? Is that the truest version of ourselves?

This is yet another dysfunctional family novel. And thus, I loved it. It is also such a well-crafted story. The language is evocative and powerful. As a former New Yorker, I loved the depictions of NYC and Brooklyn.

I loved this book. The language. The story. It was at times heart-breaking and sad. I wanted to reach into Summer's life and make so much better for her. I wanted to hunt down her lost mother and shake her by the neck declaring: "What is wrong with you? Do you not care about your children at all?" At times, I was angry at her father too, for wallowing so much, and not being the father Summer remembered from childhood, or the strong father she needed to guide her forward. And yet, I realize how true these types of individuals are. I realize that mental illness is a powerful thing, that changes someone and often renders them powerless. Life is filled with flawed people. And Shepard captures them in such a realistic way. It's hard not to feel for Summer -- someone who thinks so deeply, feels so deeply, and wants so deeply to find the answers to the mysteries of her own life. It's hard also not to connect deeply with her. With the feeling of needing something more to believe in, something that complains all the strange complexities of every unique family. I really applaud Shepard for what she created in this novel and can't wait to read her future works.

The Condition by Jennifer Haigh

2009-06-03T06:51:00.001-07:00

I remember hearing buzz about this book. I can also remember picking it up at the BandN on the UES and reading the beginning without being completely subsumed. Almost a year later I took the bite and devoured the book in one day. I think Haigh is a masterful storyteller. She leads the reader to make easy inferences without hitting them over the head with clues. There is a great deal of foreshadowing in the story. And the fact that it begins and ends in the same place reminded me of Irving's A Widow for One Year.

In some ways the family at the center of this novel is maddening. They don't talk to each other enough, they don't reveal how they are really feeling, they refuse to treat each of the children's conditions. The book is set up to have you believe that the condition refers to Paulette and Frank's daughter's diagnosis with Turner syndrome. But each of their children has their own condition. Billy, the first born, a Princeton and Columbia educated surgeon, and his parent's clear favorite, refuses to reveal the truth about his sexuality. Scott, the youngest, who barely knew his parents as a couple, flunks out of college, spends much of his life medicated on marijuana, marries a woman suddenly and stands by her for eleven years (fathering two rambunctious children) and only realizes in adulthood, that he, like his son, has ADHD. Paulette and Frank have conditions as well. Paulette loves only in one way. She refuses to discuss her daughter's illness with anyone, and infantilizes her. Frank, a hard-working scientist and professor at MIT, is unable to really be a father to his children or a husband to his wife. Their marriage crumbles, as does their family.

I am someone who loves stories that are inherently about families so this may explain my enjoyment of the book. But I also genuinely enjoyed Haigh's writing style.

Waiting on Wednesday: This Is Where I Leave You

2009-06-03T06:26:00.000-07:00

My first waiting on Wednesday selection is This is Where I Leave You by Jonathan Tropper. It will be published August 6th, 2009.

I am a huge Tropper fan and highly recommend his last novel: How to Talk to a Widower.

From Amazon:

"This Is Where I Leave

You opens with the death of Judd Foxman’s father, an event that marks the first time in a decade that the entire Foxman family—including Judd’s mother, brothers, and sister—have been together in the same house for an extended period. Conspicuously absent: Judd’s wife, Jen, whose fourteen-month affair with Judd’s radio-shock-jock boss has recently become painfully public.

The typical Foxman family gathering ends with car doors slamming and tires screeching as various factions scatter to nurse their resentments in private. But this time around, the Foxmans reluctantly submit to their father’s dying request: to spend the seven days following the funeral together. In the same house. Like a real family. For Judd it’s a week-long opportunity to come to terms with his father’s death, his failed marriage, and to explain the mess his life has become to a never-ending parade of people he thought he might never see again. Which would be bad enough without the bomb Jen dropped the day Judd’s father died: She’s pregnant."

The Wednesday Sisters by Meg Waite Clayton

2009-06-02T12:51:00.001-07:00

As a History major (who wrote her undergraduate thesis on the 60s), this book was a true pleasure for me. I loved how grounded the story was in historical events. While it is fiction, it is very apparent that Clayton spent time researching events of the late 60s.

Additionally, as a young woman who has only marginally felt the effects of sexism, the book allowed me a completely new view of the opportunities I take for granted. It was completely eye-opening to consider how limited woman who grew up in the 60s were.

The five women in this novel, meet at a local park in Palo Alto. All are young with successful husbands. Each has aspirations that have been put on hold as they fulfill the role of happy homemaker. They are all yearning for more in life. Frankie is insecure that she never went to college; while she had great grades she was forced to work to help pay for her four brothers college tuition. Linda, a talented runner, is outspoken and fierce; she wants women to be allowed in the NYC and Boston marathons, and for there to be more equality in the Olympic events available for men and women. Kath, is an English Lit major who was forced to give up any dreams she had when her parents force her to get married upon getting pregnant. Her husband doesn't deserve her and cheats. She is eventually forced to find a job as her husband moves out to live with his mistress. Ally, is full of secrets. Mostly, she is desperate to have a child. Brett, is a brilliant woman and scientist, who always dreamed of becoming an astronaut. She struggles as she watches her younger sister become a doctor and deals with a complicated history due to a childhood accident. Together the women face many challenges: unfaithfulness, cancer, infertility, miscarriages, racism. It is obvious that Palo Alto in the late 60s was not the easiest place to live. But the women band together in friendship, joining together to create a Writer's Workshop that helps change all of their lives.

Clayton is a masterful story-teller. While some of the events seem unlikely from a historical perspective, I was able to suspend belief enough to thoroughly enjoy this story. I appreciated how much this book allowed me to view how far we have come as a society (at least in terms of the options available to women) and the incredible perspective it gave me on the women who "came of age" (as wives and mothers) post consciousness rising and the first wave of feminism.

Why I Read Fiction, Part I

2009-05-30T13:06:00.000-07:00

W, my more than a friend, is a non-fiction fan. He told me that he and his college friends used to discuss the merits of fiction vs. non fiction. I of course have a lot of thoughts on this matter.

Here are my first thoughts, taken from a letter I wrote W. one day.

I was in the library before, in happy me mode, reading and I thought once again of why I love fiction. I know I will never win you over, and I don't even want to change your mind. But, I do want to explain myself fully - so that you fully get it. I went to the library and picked up a YA book I've been reading. And it was about a girl with cystic fibrosis, 19, a high school senior facing certainty in the worst form: knowing death is coming.

The reason I love fiction is yes, it allows me to escape. But it also allows me to think from a new perspective. It allows me to walk in another's shoes a la To Kill a Mockingbird.

This book forced me to think about young people facing death. And I am worried about the degrees next to the names on a resume, the working hours sooner as opposed to later?

I need the perspective fiction forces me to consider. I need to get outside the repeating loops of static noise, the logic that takes me from A to B from Z to C.

Fiction has the power to help individuals gain new understanding. It takes us to another world -- a world that often can be more illustrative than reality.

Fiction is what authors use to entertain readers. But it is also a way for them to react, to test out theories, to satirize and provide sermons on reality. Fiction contains language that dances, stories that enchant, perspective that allows you to realize what really matters.

Hello Goodbye by Emily Chenoweth

2009-05-30T11:04:00.000-07:00

(Side note: Part of me feels as I am cheating on Barnes and Noble as lately I am reading library books/reading at the library or on the go. I hope BandN forgives me when I return).

There is something about the cover of this novel that perfectly matches the style of the writing. I think it is the feather that the title sits on. There is something feathery about the style of this novel. It is incredibly slow-paced, in the sense that the whole novel (273 pages) takes place over a short period of time. First we have the diagnosis of the protagonist with a brain tumor. Then we have an amount of days resembling a week in the August that follows. While the story begins with Helen and her seizure that follows a long run. The book immediately shifts to narrate the experiences of her college-aged daughter Abby and her husband of twenty years, Elliott, a head master of a prep school in Ohio. Helen, Abby and Elliott are journeying back to New Hampshire, a state they used to live in, to stay in a beautiful hotel and celebrate Helen and Elliott's twentieth anniversary with life long friends. They are also there to say goodbye, and to give Elliott a break from the mundanity of caring for his ailing wife. But it is only Elliott that knows this fact. As he has not told Helen or Abby that Helen only has three more months to live. Apparently her doctors believe it is important not to tell her as this would leave her to give up; its hard to imagine such a thing happening to an adult woman today. But the book is written in 1990 and I suppose it is possible the medical practice could have approached terminal illness differently back then. Part of me was bothered by this detail, but it is part of what gives the novel momentum and its story line, so I understand why it has to be.

There is heartache in this novel. The heartache of meeting a character who was once vivacious but only seeing her as the woman in unfancy easy-to-remove clothes, being babysat by her own child. A character who counseled troubled teens, and made the most of her own life, only to be stricken with cancer before middle age. It is an every-day story. A reality that happens to so many today. It is easily a timeless story. And yet the novel is also a clear record of a different age. It is 1990, and Abby goes to a liberal arts college where she learns to embrace vegetarianism and composting and wraps her head around the idea of the "the second shift." There is no talk of email or blackberries or phones abuzz.

At the heart of it, this is a novel about the fragility of life. One of Elliott's dear friends likes to drive fast cars, and has remarried to a wife 20 years younger. And yet, he can't fight the reality that his life is changing - he is no longer a twenty-something. One of his friend's is dying. The group dynamic is altering irrevocably.

There is no shocking ending here like in a Jodi Picoult novel (my mom is still angry about the ending of the last one). As much as we want to believe that things can change for this happy-go-lucky woman, we know they will not. Thus, Chenoweth captures a bite of the real. And in my mind that is a very big compliment.

Lost in the Forest by Sue Miller

2009-05-30T08:43:00.000-07:00

After finishing this book, I thought: "Why have I never read Sue Miller before?" As someone who is inherently interested in families, I found this book a fascinating window inside a reconstituted family. It is the story of Eva, a divorced woman who is happily remarried with two teenage daughters and a young son from her second marriage. Her new husband dies in a tragic accident and this dramatically alters the family. In many ways the book is focused most on the story of Daisy, the second daughter, and middle child, who was especially close to John and has trouble showcasing her grief. She enters adolescence abruptly, operating in a changed family structure, and longing to find a place to be accepted. She looks to her happy, cheerleading older sister and thinks herself ugly in comparison. She doesn't understand why she has grown apart from her sister who she previously felt close to. She begins an affair with an older family friend that will forever alter her life and lead her to seek support from an unlikely source: her father. Thus the book is also the story of Mark, a man who messed up his first marriage for reasons beyond his understanding, a man who finds a way to truly be a father by providing guidance to his middle daughter, who is so very in need of love, support and a positive male role model.

Miller is a superb story-teller. But she is also concise. Every word works it into her story. And each chapter seems to begin with a concise straight-forward sentence. Her dialogue is incredibly realistic and she so easily displays the inner thoughts of her characters. She portrays grief and the confusing process of adolescence and parenting after divorce in such a realistic and poignant way. I look forward to reading more of Miller's works.

Catch Up

2009-05-30T08:22:00.000-07:00

I've been terrible about reviewing books lately. Over the last few months I have read a great deal of the latest fiction. These include:

The Local News by Miriam Gershow -

I want to dedicate a separate post to this later. But, in the meantime, I devoured this book in one day. I am not sure I'd say I love it but the story drew me in completely.

Reunion by Therese Fowler (and Souvenir) -

She has easily become one of my "authors." I liked Souvenir more than Reunion but I think she is a formidable talent. Reunion tells the story of an Oprah like celebrity who is haunted by the child she gave up for adoption at a young age. It is

also about the man she loved as a young person and his own complicated relationship with his young son, a war photojournalist. The characters are very life-like and interesting and the story is quite compelling.

Perfect Fifths by Megan McCafferty -

I am a huge McCafferty fan. In fact, my best friend and I went to a reading she did

for the last book in NYC, an we were so giddy afterwards. I can remember finding

Sloppy Firsts in my first BandN. It was in the fiction section and I started reading it while sitting on the floor. I have been a die-hard McCafferty fan from the first sentence. I can remember first reading about Jessica Darling when I was in high school and college. She is actually a year younger than me. And its been interesting to see how well McCafferty understands the life of a modern teen, college student and twenty-something. I even got my mother into the Jessica Darling books. She commented that they require so much outside knowledge of pop culture (I believe she called to ask what Dooce meant, as well as MILF). I think McCafferty understands the zeitgeist in a powerful way. And she synthesizes it all into such captivating stories. With Perfect Fifths, I was happy to have a culmination of the Marcus - Jessica love story. I am not sure it turned out as I imagined but I am not complaining. The structure of this book was also very interesting and different than the last four. But it didn't disappoint. Although I am sad that this may be the end of the written script for Jessica Darling.

Everyone is Beautiful by Katherine Center -

I can recall her first book vividly. There was a picture of a bowl on the cover I believe. It was about a woman whose husband walks out on her while she is pregnant. Anyway, I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Center is an amazing story-teller and she scripts the mundanity of motherhood and marriage in such nuanced and unique ways. She creates such vivid characters and such strong language. I am a big fan.

A Fortunate Age by Joanna Smith Rakoff-

I adored this book. I love her writing style. I love her topic. I love the setting. After finishing the book, I immediately wanted to re-read it. I just felt so

immersed in the story, so captivated by the language. I wanted to uncover the story, and yet I felt there was so much to be gained from reading through it again. I am not sure I even loved all of the characters as much as I loved the fact that the novel tells the story of NYC and young twenty-somethings in the 1990s. I have always wanted to write a book about a group of college friends and this tome (it is quite long) stands as a great example of how well it can be done. Rakoff jumps through time quite a bit and shifts from one character's perspective to another (with some getting more air time than others) but its easy to imagine that she scripted out various other stories that didn't make it into the final book. I feel she must have lived and breathed these characters, moving them from Oberlin to Brooklyn and Manhattan, through real life events. I can visualize some massive story boards in her apartment. It is obvious that Rakoff is a masterful storyteller.

I also read a story- collection and two non-fiction books: Love Stories in this Town by Amanda Eyre Ward (who I love!); and Apples and Oranges by Marie Brenner a non-fiction/memoir that I will be writing a review of later and The Girls of Ames by Jeffrey Zaslow. I have thoughts about that too and will try to write up a review.

The Usual Rules by Joyce Maynard

2009-04-18T09:24:00.000-07:00

This book is heart-breaking, beautiful, completely engaging. I read it on a bus ride from DC to NYC and the people onboard must have thought I was nuts, as I was visibly crying numerous times. Maynard authentically captured the voice of a thirteen year old. Wendy is full of angst and confusion. She is a budding individual.

I love the way she had the character write about The Diary of Anne Frank and Carson McCuller’s The Member of the Wedding. As a former Middle School English teacher I saw Wendy’s voice as incredibly authentic, as if she was penning a reading response, the way my students used to be required to do.

Maynard’s characters are so vivid, so human. That is what I love about the book: the way it captured the bite of the real. The humanity. The authenticity. Wendy is a thirteen year old on the cusp of adolescence, suddenly wanting nothing to do with her mother and love-dovey step father or her adorable baby brother. She has a wonderful family life but she starts feeling misunderstood. All of that is shattered post 9/11 when her mother doesn’t return home from the World Trade Center.

The structure of the story is unique. It starts with September 11 and moves both forward and backwards, exploring the story of Wendy’s mom and dad, Wendy’s mother and Josh (the bass-playing, jazz loving step dad who honestly views Wendy as his daughter), how Wendy’s mother gives up her dream of being a dancer to support her daughter (she becomes a secretary at a law firm).

As the story moves forward we are introduced to various vivid characters. In New York the faces of people who decorate missing posters including one heroic fire fighter, Wendy’s dramatic best friend Amelia, Wendy’s mother’s best friend Kate. In California we are introduced to a cactus-growing, tarot card reader, a runaway skateboarder searching for his beloved brother, Alan, the father of a severely autistic son who owns an amazing book store and introduces Wendy to a series of wonderful novels.

The most vivid characters are Wendy’s family: her mother who wore dance costumes as outfits and did a Ginger Rodgers-Frank Sinatra routine with 4 year old Louie. Louie is an amazing character as well – a four year old trying to deal with loss, hoping magic can bring back all he has lost.And then there is Josh – a man devastated by the loss of his wife. A character I can envision in my head with his green sweats, messy hair, vitriolic feelings towards margarine and love for Janet and music. All of the characters embrace life in such a full-hearted way. I hope this book helps me to snap out of funk and figure out what is going to make me happy. This combination of beautiful language and amazing stories is what makes me a die-hard reader.

The Ten Year Nap by Meg Wolitzer

2009-04-18T09:22:00.000-07:00

I am sure there are countless written reviews of “The Ten Year Nap” on the web. After all it was a New York Times Bestseller. But I was a reluctant reader. It was simply one of the best options at the “I Love LA” store in the Delta terminal at LAX. The book seemed interesting enough. But the book didn’t grip me the way most books do. I wasn’t compelled to find out the end of the story. I read it in snippets, stopping at chapter breaks – something I rarely do.

To be honest I wasn’t floored by the writing. There weren’t sentences that captured my eye and made me linger the way they did when I recently read The Usual Rules by Joyce Maynard. And I didn’t feel empathy for most of the main characters. I found Amy petulant, aggravating. I understood her desire for more, her lack of love for her chosen career path, her new view on life. I could relate to her. But I didn’t care much for her. With Jill and Roberta and Karen I felt much the same way. But more than halfway through the story I was won over. I feel the story raises so many salient questions. About what makes for a fulfilling life, about gender roles and the way society socialized boys and girls. Reading the book made me ponder all over again: “How can I best live my life?” It also made me realize how much the women of my generation take all our freedoms and abilities for granted. The four friends who have taken a “ten year nap,” are the children of a generation who paved the way for female greatness. Amy’s mother became a successful novelist and a notable feminist organizer. Jill’s mother’s absence emboldened her to work harder for success but also left her forever altered. Karen’s mother worked hard at a physically demanding job, and begrudged the way her daughter spent time dreaming of math. After finishing the book, I immediately wanted my mother and best friend to read the book. I think it is a perfect selection for a book club as it raises so many discussion-worthy questions.

Time to begin

2009-04-18T09:13:00.000-07:00

I am a compulsive reader. In college, I read 30 books during a spring break, more than 70 books during summer break. I am a former English teacher who devoured YA books quickly, reading on the subway to and from school. My students came up with a silly nickname when I told them I read two books about the same character in one evening (Sharon Flake's Money Hungry and Begging for Change) - and so I became "Marnie Pants." My happy place, and home away from home is Barnes and Noble. And my old favorite doorman called me Marnes and Noble.

In the first few entries, I will be posting about the books I have recently finished. And then I will begin to review books in real time. I am very excited to share my thoughts.