"Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail"

I just finished this book by Cheryl Strayed and am putting it on my recommended reading list. It's a memoir about a a young woman who hiked the Pacific Crest Trail by herself in 1995. I found it a captivating story of endurance, pain, strength, and healing. I'm looking forward to the movie being made of Strayed's journey.

December Coffee and Book Swap

Kathy K., Debbie, Mary A-E, Susan, Jackie, Mary T., and I gathered at Acoustic Café Saturday for our December coffee and book swap. The weather was bright and cold, but the coffee and camaraderie were warm. Here you see the 18 books in their awesome wrapping before the swap.

As the books were unwrapped, it became clear that we all like mysteries – quite a few were exchanged. Debbie selected, and got to keep, How to Be Interesting by Jessica Hagy. She’s trying to pretend here that she needs the advice in the book, but we all know she doesn’t.

Just a quick note about Jessica Hagy: She writes a daily blog post/graphic like the ones in the book How to Be Interesting. The name of the blog is Indexed. I check in on it a couple times a week. She cleverly distills situations and emotions in her graphics. If you visit the site, be sure to hover your mouse over the day’s image and read the “alternate” text – it’s often additional commentary on the graphic. (That’s not the intended use of alternate text, but that’s another subject.)

Ostensibly the swap helps us weed out or pare down our book stash. Of course, it doesn’t; it feeds our addiction. We all went home with three new books for cold weather reading.

My first book group

This looks a lot like my first book group. Ah, reading time in 1st and 2nd grade. Seven of us would sit in small wooden chairs in a semi-circle around our teacher. Would I know as many words as my friends??

What a great discussion leader Mrs. Sheehy was, "Can you guess what Jane will do next?" I loved the stories and couldn't wait to read on.

This is the first series that I read. I wanted to BE Jane and thought Sally was a little pest. I loved Puff. Dick was a mystery as I didn’t have a brother. It was fun to think of our ordinary lives as such adventure.

Thank goodness for that early book group. What a lot of pleasure reading has brought to my life!

Read 1, Purl 2

How's this for the perfect combination of reading and knitting? This is from Vogue Knitting's Twitter feed today: "Such exciting news!!! Author Barbara Kingsolver will be speaking at the Gala Dinner at Vogue Knitting LIVE in Jan in New York. We're so excited to hear about her "other" life where she raises sheep, spins yarn, and knits. Right now tickets are available for package purchasers only but single tickets go on sale in a few weeks."

Link: A list of her books

Nora Ephron's "I Feel Bad about my Neck"

This particular passage in Nora Ephron's book expressed so perfectly how I feel when I get completely 'into' a book that I felt compelled to share it with my fellow Bookmark members.

"I've just surfaced from spending several days in a state of rapture--with a book. I loved this book. I loved every second of it. I was transported into its world. I was reminded of all sorts of things in my own life. I was in anguish over the fate of its characters. I felt alive and engaged, and positively brilliant, bursting with ideas, brimming with memories of other books I've loved. I composed a dozen imaginary letters to the author, letters I'll never write, much less send. I wrote letters of praise. I wrote letters relating entirely inappropriate information about my own experiences with the author's subject matter. I even wrote a letter of recrimination when one of the characters died and I was grief-stricken. But mostly I wrote letters of gratitude: the state of rapture I experience when I read a wonderful book is one of the main reasons I read, but it doesn't happen every time or even every other time and when it does happen, I'm truly beside myself."

----------I Feel Bad about my Neck by Nora Ephron, pp. 117-118

I have Jeri's copy of The Silence of Murder, our August book selection. Does anyone want to borrow it, or should I return it to Jeri? I'm really looking forward to discussing it in a couple of weeks!

Banned Books Week

The American Library Association promotes Banned Books Week each year to celebrate the freedom to read and to call attention to regular challenges to that freedom. As I read over the list of Banned and Challenged Classics, I was surprised at how many of them I had read. Some of them I liked, some of them not so much. But, I was free to read them and form my own opinion of them. And that’s the point.

I challenge you to look over that list of banned and challenged classics, read one you haven’t read before, and tell us about it here.

Banned Books Week: September 22−28, 2013

Diversity works for me

I just saw this link on a blog that I follow. The link takes you to the site What Should I Read Next? Type in the title of that book you just read and LOVED and wish had never ended and the site will recommend others titles like it.

As a long-term Pandora listener, who created her own 60s/Motown station so that I could listen to Smoky Robinson ad nauseum, that concept as it applies to books doesn’t work for me. In books I want to read widely, differently, surprisingly. I imagine typing “Michael Connelly” into the search box and reading detective stories with Bosch-like characters until the lenses pop out of my glasses. Yuck.

On the other hand, when my meandering taste in books has led me through one too many disappointing reads, I could see myself surrendering to the need for a satisfying Bosch or Bosch-like tale. Hmmm.

Give it a try: http://www.whatshouldireadnext.com/

Summer Hummer Bummer

Sadly, I won't be able to join you ladies at Drag's this Monday. I will be on my way to Milwaukee where we will be attending the PAUL McCARTNEY concert on Tuesday night!!!!! Yeah, yeah, yeah!

Finished the book

I just finished Summer Son. As usual, too late for the discussion. I wasn't blown away by the story or the writing. There were some nice passages and insights but some of the relationships were too far-fetched. Did I miss the foreshadowing of Brad's awful deed? And the kid's hatred arose over being sent home? I expected a more traumatic incident. He didn't want to leave after the brother incident, or the Marie incident, or the Toby incident. And the way he found out about Brad, with Toby leading him to the spot and then being reluctant to tell the story. Just didn't follow for me. 

I listened to a couple of audio books recently. One was Forge, the second in a series for young adults by Laurie Halse Anderson. It's about a couple of black teens in the Revolutionary War. The 1st book was told from the girl's point of view, the second from the boy's. I have a new appreciation for the hardships of war in the 18th century and the idea of fighting for freedom for others.

Then I listened to the Sisters Brothers by Patrick de Witt. About 2 hitmen in the old west with a bit of alchemy thrown in. I've not read any westerns, so I don't know if this is typical of the genre but I thought it was interesting....plenty coarse and bloody, too. I was watching Game of Thrones and the Vikings at the same time so I was used to violence.

Books are choosing me

I’ve been reading more books that are not necessarily of my own selection:

Yellow Birds (2013, Kevin Powers) is a book about soldier friends in Iraq and the impact of war. Reviews rank it up there with All Quiet on the Western Front and The Things They Carried. I’m about 2/3 through the book and I just don’t see that. I think there’s a fairly powerful story in it and I think he voices emotions that I have not heard expressed or explained. However, I am having difficulty with the writing. There are long rambling sentences, which I suppose could be said to show the stream of consciousness of the main character. Other similar sentences, however, have to do with description of Iraq or his hometown. Other sentences are just plain clunky. I wonder, where was the editor? (In the spirit of full disclosure, I am alone in my assessment. If you go to the website, you'll see that this book gets rave reviews). Anyway, I’ve continued to struggle through this because I recommended Unbroken to the husband of a friend of mine and he, in turn, recommended this book.

Whistling Vivaldi is being discussed as a part of a campus book discussion. It reminds me very much of some of Malcolm Gladwell’s work. The book talks about the effect of stereotype threat on academics. For example, women are not supposed to be good at high-level mathematics. That stereotype does, in fact, affect women taking standardized tests. The book describes the series of experiments and the path of investigation that the researcher took to uncover the cause behind under performance of minority students on his campus. He has a very engaging style and I am enjoying the book. Read the NPR interview with the author Claude Steele.

My birth sister and I are trying to find something more to connect us. Recently she sent me an article from the Chronicle of Higher Education that discusses the themes of Christian doctrine to be found in the Narnia books. I’m supposed to respond to this in some way. The problem is, I haven’t read any of the Narnia books. So, I recently downloaded The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe to read. Wish me luck.

I did actually select a book for myself recently: Louise Erdrich’s The Round House. I had forgotten how much I like her writing. This book takes place on the Ojibwe reservation in North Dakota. A 13-year old boy’s mother is raped. The book is told from his perspective as he witnesses his mother’s devastation, the impact on his family, and the difficulty of bringing the perpetrator to justice. Interesting to me was the discussion of tribal law and jurisdiction and some Ojibwe lore. I liked this book a lot!

Finally a good book

I’m not quite to the point where I can easily make myself give up on a book. Consequently, I’ve been uninspired in my reading for much of the last couple months. So, why would I want to share the titles with you? I’m just naughty that way, I guess.

The World Before Her follows George Eliot in Venice (1890) as she begins her passionless marriage to a younger man. Alternating chapters follow Caroline Spingold, also in Venice (1990) as her marriage to an older man deteriorates. While the descriptions of Venice were enchanting, 288 pages of bad marriage was too much for me.  

Our decision last year to postpone reading Little Bee because it might add to a string of depressing books we had already read was a good one. I don’t know when we might be “up” for this book. It was a well-written, compelling story, but depressing.

So, I thought, a romance novel was in order. A Lady NeverLies had its moments of humorous repartee, but in the end was just another formulaic romance.

Ever a glutton for punishment, I joined an online book discussion of the book How Learning Works. This fell under the heading of professional development/continuing education. The book was a bit dry and the discussion leader didn’t know how to lead an online discussion (not that I’m an expert; but I would have recognized it had I seen it).

So, I was delighted – DELIGHTED – to read State of Wonder. I loved Patchett’s descriptions of everything – Minnesota, the Amazon, the Lakashi. Hey – I read online that she named the tribe after her favorite breakfast cereal. I loved the story and Marina and Dr. Swenson. I’m looking forward to our discussion on Monday.

Dearie - Julia Childs

I haven't finished this very long and sometimes not pertinent book, but it's interesting to learn that Julia Child's family was very affluent to the extent that she was part of the "in" group and really didn't have to worry about money pretty much throughout her life. And she hated cooking as a young girl. She was a party animal most of her life, also. When she worked in the OSS in Washington DC during the war, the organization was referred to as Oh, So Social... right up her alley. After her marriage to Paul Child, they spent quite a bit of time in France and that's when she really decided to learn French cooking and threw herself into it body and soul. I guess you can do that when money is no object. Anyway, it' somewhat interesting to learn about her early family and how she got into doing cooking shows and cookbooks, but the book is a little lengthy and since it's a new release, I can't renew it again... so maybe later.

Memoir: "Driving with Dead People"

Sorry to miss the Bookmark Christmas dinner. While I found most of the memoir: Driving with Dead People by Monica Holloway interesting, perhaps the best line is the title and the images it immediately engenders.

The story starts when the author is nine years old, growing up in a very dysfunctional family and finds a friend whose father owns a mortuary. Holloway's interest in all aspects of the mortuary provides some lighter moments as she escapes from her abusive home life. Some of Holloway's family life was almost unbelievable; for example, her father's hobby was videotaping home movies of local disasters of any kind and making his children watch them.

Holloway's observational writing is very open about her parents, her siblings, and herself, making this a very good read even though the subject matter was sometimes painful to digest. If I could have changed any of the book, I would have liked more focus on Holloway's experiences at the mortuary as the title suggests.

It was a lovely evening with those who could make it to Draganetti's last night.

I mentioned an autobiography/biography (memoir?) I'd read by Bob Woodruff, ABC news correspondent severely injured in Iraq, and his wife, Lee. The name of the book is In an Instant: A Family's Journey of Love and Healing. It is an up-close look at the couple from the time they met and dated, went through times of tension due to the pull of career and lifestyle differences, to marriage and starting a family -- when "in an instant," he is injured by an IED in Iraq and suffers a horrific brain injury. The book is written in alternating style by Bob & Lee, and it's interesting to hear each perspective on some of the issues they faced early on, and even more so, what each of them went through after his injury and recovery. The book illustrates what love and tenacity (not to mention the best health care money can buy) can accomplish.

December - January Reading

Since our meeting is coming up, I thought it would be OK if I posted about the  memoir/autobiography/biography that I read. Rachel Bertsche is a 28-year old blogger newly arrived with her husband to Chicago. She sets out to make new friends and find a best friend by having 52 friend dates during the year. MWF Seeking BFF is her memoir of that year.

While the description of her friend dates and situation at times made me roll my eyes (I think it was the age difference), I enjoyed reading the information she incorporated based on her research of the topic.

I found that this book, more than any I’ve read in a number of years caused me to do some self-examination. What kind of friend am I? What are my friendships with women based on? What is the importance of friendship in my life? Which is the last new friend I made?

As I said, there were times while reading the book I thought “what self-indulgent drivel!” But, reading it at the end of the year as I did fit well with my own self-reflection on 2012.

The next book I read was Notorious Nineteen by Janet Evanovich. I have loved Stephanie Plum’s adventures, but it might be time for this series to be retired. There’s nothing new, really, to say about Stephanie, Morelli, and Ranger. That triangle can’t be worked forever, it’s getting worn out. Maybe 20 is a good number to end on.

~Jeri