Monthly Archives: July 2009

July 29, 2009 · 3:49 PM

Review: American Wife by Curtis Sittenfeld

began reading: 7/24/2009
finished reading: 7/27/2009
# of pages: 576

American Wife is the story of Alice Blackwell in her own words, from her elemetry years to her time at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Alice bears a remarkable resemblance to Laura Bush (with a little bit of Hilary Clinton mixed in). Weighing in at over 550 pages, it is not exactly a light read, but it is an enthralling character study of a very famous woman.

I read most of the book over the course of a day, engrossed because it combines three of my favorite subjects: politics, librarians, and fully formed characters. Everyone, from Alice herself to the minor characters of friends and family members, are believable, and, if not likeable, very engaging. Alice’s grandmother Emilie is particularly interesting, and provides a surprise! lesbian character which was very welcome. In fact, Alice discovering her grandmother’s affection for another woman is one of the most pointed scenes in the book; while I didn’t find Alice’s reaction particularly likeable, I did find it very believable, especially for a character based on Laura Bush.

I read Sittenfeld’s other book, Prep, a few years back and don’t really remember it; this book will definitely remain in my mind.

Grade: A-
Recommended: It’s even better if you’re a political junkie like me. If only real autobiographies were this interesting.

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Filed under 2009 Reviews, A, Fiction, Print

July 28, 2009 · 2:50 PM

Your New Favorite Book


CREATE YOUR DEBUT YA COVER (thanks, Melissa!)

1 – Go to “Fake Name Generator” or click http://www.fakenamegenerator.com/

The name that appears is your author name.

2 – Go to “Random Word Generator” or click http://www.websitestyle.com/parser/randomword.shtml

The word listed under “Random Verb” is your title.

3 – Go to “FlickrCC” or click http://flickrcc.bluemountains.net/index.php

Type your title into the search box. The first photo that contains a person is your cover.

4 – Use Photoshop, Picnik, or similar to put it all together. Be sure to crop and/or zoom in.

5 – Post it to your site along with this text.

Okay, I kind of cheated here because I didn’t use the picture with a person in it, but it was a guy dressed up like Harry Potter and I didn’t think that would be as fun. Also, I didn’t read the directions properly and I had already finished this version–haha! I think it looks kind of fun, right? Maybe just a little creepy.

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July 26, 2009 · 2:55 PM

Review: Then We Came to the End by Joshua Ferris


began reading: 7/21/2009
finished reading: 7/23/2009
# of pages: 385

The description on the hardcover edition, from indiebound.org:

This wickedly funny, big-hearted novel about life in the office signals the arrival of a gloriously talented new writer.

See the phrases “wickedly funny” and “big-hearted?” I’m convinced I read a different book. I was really excited about this one after seeing it at Barnes & Noble, and I picked it up at the thrift store in really great condition.

Then We Came to the End is ingeniously written in first-person plural, cementing the office group mentality in a way that wouldn’t be possible otherwise. The only problem is…I didn’t think it was very funny. I thought it was unnecessarily mean, if anything. I really didn’t appreciate the three plot devices in the novel, either: SURPRISE! there’s a woman who has breast cancer!; SURPRISE! there’s a disgruntled ex-employee dressed as a very scary clown but everyone ends up forgiving!; and SURPRISE! everyone, even the couple of characters who were likeable, ends up miserable!

Yeah, hilarious. Save yourself almost 400 pages of reading and skip this one.

Grade: C [points for the narrative technique and the one chapter in third person]
Recommended: If you really, really like your office.

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Filed under 2009 Reviews, C, Fiction, Print

· 12:03 PM

Review: The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd

began reading: 7/19/20 09
finished reading: 7/21/2009
# of pages: 302

Lily Owens, a fourteen year old white girl growing up in the south in the 1960s, knows she is the reason her mother is dead. Although she was only four when the gun accidentally went off, she has carried the guilt with her. She knows that if her mother were alive, everything would be better, and her father, T. Ray, would be easier to tolerate. Without her mother, Lily leans on her African-American housekeeper, Rosaleen, who is her “stand in mother.” So when Rosaleen goes to register to vote in their small southern town and ends up being beaten and jailed, Lily breaks her out and runs off to Tiburn, South Carolina, a town she knows only by a picture of a black Madonna her mother left behind. There Lily and Rosaleen find the Calendar sisters, June, May, and August, and their lives are changed forever.

This is light, fluffy reading, despite the heaviness of the issues raised. Racism is dealt with, sure, but on a superficial level: basically it comes down to “racism is bad.” The best parts of the book are when Lily begins to confront some of her own racist beliefs. She says,

T. Ray did not think colored women were smart. Since I want to tell the whole truth, which means the worst parts, I thought they could be smart, but not as smart as me, me being white. (p. 78)

It’s a decent coming of age story, but one that’s been told many times (To Kill a Mockingbird comes immediately to mind). The strong motherly women Lily knows, like Rosaleen and August, are not three dimensional and are only there to further Lily’s growth. I thought it was interesting that there are no young women of color, only older women who can be mother figures for Lily.

The Secret Lives of Bees is a decent read, but brings nothing new to the table.

Grade: B-
Recommended: No.

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July 21, 2009 · 3:50 PM

Review: Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen

began reading: 7/15/2009
finished: 7/16/2009
# of pages: 331

Jacob Jankowski, ninety or ninety-three years old (he’s not quite sure), feels like he is the only patient at the nursing home who still has the ability to think clearly. The circus has come to town, right outside the facility, and when another man claims he gave water to the elephants when he was a boy, Jacob begins to remember the time he spent with the circus, the love he found, and Rosie the elephant.

Jacob was in his early twenties and a senior at Cornell University, studying to be a veterinarian, when a devastating car accident had killed both his parents. His father, who was also a vet and had a private practice Jacob was planning to join, had been taking his payment in whatever people could afford due to the Depression—things like chickens and bread. Between that and sending Jacob to college, the Jankowskis were deep in debt, and after their deaths, the bank takes everything. Devastated, he runs out during his final exams and jumps a train, which happens to belong to the Benzini Brothers Most Spectacular Show on Earth. They end up taking him on as their animal doctor, and the story begins.

I absolutely adored this book. Gruen takes an already fascinating topic—the circus during the 1930s—and provides a heartwarming, beautiful tale of morals and love. At the beginning of every chapter are actual photographs taken of circus folk during the 1930s, and it adds an element of realism to the story. Jacob is a charming character, both as a young and elderly man. The ending was particularly surprising, and patched some of the wounds I took while reading the descriptions of how badly the animals were treated.

Grade: A
Recommended: As long as you can stomach some graphic animal violence, read this book!

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July 18, 2009 · 8:12 PM

Weekly Geeks: Best Movie Adaptations


With the release of Harry Potter and The Half Blood Prince this past week, I thought it would be good to turn once again to movie adaptations. In March, with the release of Watchmen (using that as a jumping off point for discussion), I brought up the subject of worst movie adaptations. This time, I’d like to bring up best movie adaptations (not saying if the recent Harry Potter movie is or isn’t faithful to the book since I’ll be honest I haven’t read the book, but using the subject as a jumping off point for discussion).

So what are some of your favorite movie adaptations of books? Include trailers or scenes from Youtube if you’d like.

Inkheart

Even though Cornelia Funke is appearantly the J.K. Rowling of Germany, I found the 600+ page Inkheart slow paced and difficult to get through. I almost stopped reading the book altogether several times. A friend of mine from high school had posted on Facebook saying how much she liked the movie, so Ethan and I decided to give it a chance. I hardly ever say this, but I wish the book was more like the movie! Helen Mirren as the sassy Aunt Eleanor was amazing!

The Godfather
I am a huge fan of both the book and movie versions of Mario Puzo’s The Godfather.

Bonus: The Color Purple (the musical!)
I was lucky enough to catch The Color Purple when it was in town (we even had front row seats!) I’m not a big fan of the movie, but the musical is just as beautiful and inspiring as Alice Walker’s classic.

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Filed under Lists, Weekly Events, Weekly Geeks

· 5:47 PM

Review: The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters

The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters
began reading: 7/11/2009
finished: 7/15/2009
# of pages: 462

A summary from Publisher’s Weekly:

Waters (The Night Watch) reflects on the collapse of the British class system after WWII in a stunning haunted house tale whose ghosts are as horrifying as any in Shirley Jackson’s The Haunting of Hill House. Doctor Faraday, a lonely bachelor, first visited Hundreds Hall, where his mother once worked as a parlor maid, at age 10 in 1919. When Faraday returns 30 years later to treat a servant, he becomes obsessed with Hundreds’s elegant owner, Mrs. Ayres; her 24-year-old son, Roderick, an RAF airman wounded during the war who now oversees the family farm; and her slightly older daughter, Caroline, considered a natural spinster by the locals, for whom the doctor develops a particular fondness. Supernatural trouble kicks in after Caroline’s mild-mannered black Lab, Gyp, attacks a visiting child. A damaging fire, a suicide and worse follow. Faraday, one of literature’s more unreliable narrators, carries the reader swiftly along to the devastating conclusion.

I’ve long been a Sarah Waters fan, starting with Tipping the Velvet, but when I heard her new book wasn’t going to feature any lesbians like her previous novels, I was a bit disappointed. After reading Scarlett Thomas’ rave review in the New York Times, however, I decided to go ahead and read it.

I am so very glad I did. Dr. Faraday, a man who was born to parents of low class and has, in the American sense, picked himself up by his bootstraps to become a family doctor. Unfortunately for him, he is not very successful and believes the pressure of having to pay for his costly education is what killed his parents. He carries this shame with him, and it certainly influences his associations with the Ayres family as well as their house, Hundreds Hall. Despite the unchanging attitudes of the blue blood Ayres, I found Dr. Faraday to be the least sympathetic of all the characters.

This book is not only a ghost story in the traditional sense; it is a ghost story of a changing time, of the loss of feudalism and the loss of importance of social class brought on by the end of World War II. It is a ghost story of a formerlly majestic mansion that has lost its glamour. In fact, I’m sure the case could be made that Hundreds is a symbol of the Ayres family itself.

Beautifully written, and yes, haunting, The Little Stranger may in fact be my favorite Waters book yet.

Grade: A
Recommended: If you have the patience to read a long book where a house is the central character. Make sure you have someone to discuss the ending with, too–I’m still uncertain of what I think it means.

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Filed under 2009 Reviews, A, Fiction, GLBTQ, Print

July 14, 2009 · 9:37 PM

Confession: Book Covers

Confession: I’ve betrayed the cliché to end all clichés–Don’t judge a book by its cover. And to be honest, it was well worth it. Here’s a few books I’ve read recently, based signifigantly, if not entirely on their covers, and been well rewarded.

My new favorite book of all time. In the hard cover edition, the gold accents are raised, making the cover more like a letterpress print than a boring old book cover. So much of the story is seamlessly shown here: the Crooked Man, David (the reading child), a key, and bird house and the leaves and ivory symbolizing not only the outside but the weaving of the story itself. The prose is just as beautiful as this cover.

Okay, so I listened to this book on CD, but I never would have considered it without this beautiful cover. Of course, the tree is the family free, with the branches showing little scenes of different parts of the family. Despite a couple of slow chapters, this book had me laughing like none other. Groff is now one of my favorite authors.

Groff’s short story collection, which has a story set in the same Templeton as her novel. I just love this cover.

Okay, this one doesn’t really fit with the whole theme of “good covers, good books,” but I just love the title. It’s about a White House chef who gets caught up in dangerous plot…sounds so good! But it wasn’t. In fact, it was one of the worst books I’ve read this year. At least it has a good title.

I was in the Brookline Booksmith and saw a set of beautiful new covers for Penguin classics–books like Peter Pan, The Secret Garden (one of my favorites!), and Hiedi. I wonder if we have room to display all these books in our little apartment. Hmm…

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Filed under Bookish Thoughts, Lists

July 13, 2009 · 9:06 PM

An intermission

I’m lagging in my reading. Yesterday E and I drove a total of five hours to visit my parents and go to my grandmother’s big birthday party, and by the time we got home at 10:30 I was exhausted and had to go right to bed. No reading done, all day.

Right now I’m reading The Little Stranger, the latest by Sarah Waters and American Lion, a biography of Andrew Jackson; it’s overwhelming me a little. Together I think the page count is about 1000, and even though Jackson was quite the colorful man, and even though I love Sarah Waters, I am definitely languishing. I hit the 100 page mark on The Little Stranger today at the coffee shop, which was exciting…until I realized it only meant I was 1/4 done.

Tomorrow I’m getting my desk all organized and settling in for a good, long read.

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Filed under Personal, Quick Hit

July 11, 2009 · 2:34 PM

In Between: Dead Over Heels

Charlaine Harris mysteries are my guilty pleasure reading. I started reading the Sookie Stackhouse series after seeing the first episode of True Blood, and while I was waiting for the second book to come from the library, I listened to the first Harper Conolley story, Grave Sight, on CD; I’ve been annoyingly hooked ever since.

I really liked the first installment about Aurora Teagarden; I love smart librarians and I thought the Real Murders club was a cute touch. I went through an unfortunate obsession with the Stephanie Plum books, which I finally had to stop reading because the stories started to repeat themselves and I wanted to read about a woman interested in more than just men. I thought Aurora was a good way to get my mystery fix without getting completely annoyed with the story lines…until I got to The Julius House, the fourth book where the “mystery” part doesn’t even get started until the last third! Until that point, the story is all about her bridal shower, her wedding plans, her love for Martin…it was brutal.

To put myself through more pain, I guess, I’m now reading the fifth book, Dead Over Heels. It’s set two years after the wedding, and Jack Burns, the policeman Roe has had problems with in previous books, has been killed and then pushed from a plane, dead, in her back yard. BUT NOW I THINK SHE’S GOING TO GET PREGNANT. Not particularly looking forward to that.

I can’t even be happy she’s back working at the library because of the racist way she discusses her new “pecan-colored” aide Beverly. All the other white librarians can’t stand Beverely, who seems to be the only person of color working there, and Roe is too busy thinking of her as a “project” to befriend to notice how unfair it is that she makes Beverely do all the work while Roe sits and reads (on the job). It’s obnoxious. She cries when Beverely finally confronts her about it! I can’t believe it. I actually had to close the book and walk away from it because I was so annoyed.

I’m one of those people who has to finish a series when she starts it, so I will read the rest of this book…with my fingers crossed, hoping Roe gets some sense.

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Filed under 2009 Reviews