Monthly Archives: September 2010

September 26, 2010 · 11:20 AM

Bookish Thoughts of the Week 9/26

Natalie Dee may as well have titled this drawing "Cass in Fall. Also With Allergies."

  • I got to meet Wallace! She and I met at my favorite local coffee shop, JP Licks (it’s a small franchise in Boston but the one in my neighborhood is the best), and spent an hour or so chatting before I had to leave to go to work and she had to go be a Boston tourist. I love JP Licks’ coffee passionately, even if they’re better know for their ice cream, so I was more than happy to have an (excellent) excuse to start my day there.
  • I spent three hours on Thursday listening to Dan Chaon’s mystery Await Your Reply; three hours I wish I could get back. I had previously tried to read the book in print, but I couldn’t get into it. I decided to give it a chance on audio just in case, but since the story didn’t get even vaguely interesting after three hours, I finally gave up for good. I then checked Goodreads to see what happened; somehow I was exactly right with my guess from the first twenty minutes of the story. Glad I didn’t end up wasting the full ten hours listening to that one!

    Michele Norris signing copies of A GRACE OF SILENCE at the Brookline Booksmith

  • On Thursday I went to a reading hosted by the Brookline Booksmith by NPR journalist Michele Norris for her new memoir The Grace of Silence. It was really more of a conversation between her and Robin Young, a journalist for our local NPR channel, and it was seriously the best author event I’ve attended. Norris was so smart and funny and interesting and may or may not have made me tear up a couple of times.
  • I knew absolutely nothing about Michele Norris when I bought tickets to see her speak about her new book The Grace of Silence. Okay, that’s not true: I bought the tickets because I knew she was a journalist for NPR, that she was going to be talking with Robin Young, and that the conversation was going to be taped for future broadcast on our local NPR affiliate. The tickets were only $5, and the last time Ethan and I went to an NPR taping (for the weekly “game show” Wait, Wait…Don’t Tell Me!) we paid about ten times that for two tickets–so I figured why not. Best uniformed ticket purchase ever.
  • Note: The Grace of Silence has quotes from Toni Morrison, Doris Kearns Goodwin, and Tom Brokaw, among others. Gwen Ifill (whose book on race and politics, The Breakthrough, I really loved) and Melissa Harris-Lacewell (Princeton Professor and MSNBC contributor) have both endorsed the book as well. So I obviously bought the book. I’ll admit it: I SUCCUMBED TO PRESSURE FROM SMART PEOPLE I ADMIRE.
  • You know what else was really bad for my TBR list? The September Indie Next list. I added 15 books from that mean flyer. FIFTEEN. That is 75% of the books listed! (It would have been 80% but I’ve already read I’d Know You Anywhere by Laura Lippman.)

    I am PLANNING ahead! And there's proof!

  • I really need to get cracking on The Plot Against America. It’s hard to read challenging books when you’re coughing and blowing your nose ever 2-3 minutes. Instead I listened to Myron Bolitar (the series by Harlan Coben) books. Ah, ear candy.
  • Look! I actually have planned posts for the week. It’s ca-ca-ca-crazy. Also I actually took notes when I watched The Celluloid Closet! …Okay, I know most of you plan ahead and takes notes for posts on a regular basis, so I don’t feel TOO good about myself, but still! This is revolutionary in the world of Bonjour Cass. I’m trying to keep the blog from becoming Au Revoir, Cass. (Ha, ha. See what I did there? I am so clever ;) )

Also, to the person who found my blog by searching “Which bookstore in Northampton, MA, sells Hello, Groin?” May I suggest Broadside Books? They should be able to get it for you.

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September 17, 2010 · 2:11 PM

BBAW Day 5: Bloggers, Hurdles, and the Future

Well check that out everyone! I’m officially one of those old hats who have been through two Book Blogger Appreciation Weeks! I’ve been a bit, uh, lacking in energy this week, but I wanted to take advantage of a lazy Friday and enjoy the last day of BBAW.

Warning: There is some minor- to major- sap at the end of this post. Don’t say I didn’t warn you. :)

Some Books I Wish You’d Read

Stone Butch Blues by Leslie Feinberg: A queer classic that needs more love. I’m planning on rereading it sometime this year, and I’d love to hear more people’s opinions.

Gender Outlaws: The Next Generation ed. by Kate Bornstein and S. Bear Bergman: Okay, even I haven’t read this book yet since it came out earlier this month (I’m shaking my fist at you, book buying ban!) but as soon as I do I’m going to be begging everyone to read it. I’m just getting started early.

Some Goals and All That

  • Hit “publish” more often. I draft about three times as many posts as I publish. Seriously. I have one of those complexes where I have to edit and edit and edit and then I just end up not showing it to anyone because it wasn’t edited enough. (This was very problematic when I was in college.)
  • Keep up the commenting. I’ve gotten a lot better at this since last year, but I want to make sure I stick with it.
  • Make a better blogging/reading schedule. This morning I got up an hour earlier than I had to and got to drink coffee in my own house and play around on Twitter for a while before I had to get ready for work. It felt so good. I need to do this more; and I think blogging will be easier in the morning, since it clearly isn’t going so well when I try to write at night!
  • Visit more new-to-me blogs.

Book Bloggers Are Wonderful (Or, what BBAW really stands for)
A bit of my appreciation goes out:

To Amy, for not only creating Book Blogger Appreciation Week, but for getting this non-Christian to read and enjoy reviews of Christian fiction;
To Melissa, for making me feel truly welcome in the book blogging world;
To Wallace, for reading a book completely out of her comfort zone and for her never ending creativity;
To Natasha, for hosting Bloggiesta and helping this procrastinating-prone blogger get shistuff done;
To Jodie, for writing reviews that inspire me to be a better writer;
To Amy, for being a great feminist and being so genuinely kind;
To Jill, for being a kick-ass cheerleader;
To Amanda, for getting people to read more books about the community I love so much;
To Trisha, for being a smoker and an excellent conversationalist;
To Marg, for all that loot;
To Tasha, for being the best last minute interview swap partner I could have asked for;
To Eva, for being so strong and convincing me to read basically every book she recommends;
To Judith, for reminding this American blogger that there is a big ole world out there;
To Kim, for being such a strong advocate for non-fiction;
and to Danika, for reminding me I am not, in fact, the only gay in the village.

Thanks. You’re appreciated.

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September 14, 2010 · 10:46 AM

BBAW Day 2: Interview With Tasha of Truth, Beauty, Freedom, and Books!

Please welcome Tasha of  Truth, Beauty, Freedom, and Books!

You can read her interview of me over at her blog.

How does your background in Art History influence your reading?

Obviously I’m interested in books that deal with art history, but I think it makes me a lot more critical of them and actually unable to enjoy them a lot of the time.  Like with Creation of Eve–I hated that book, and it really had more do to with the fact that I knew about the subject and had a preconceived notion of what I wanted the book to be about before I even started reading it.

But if a book has artists as the main characters and does it right, I really love it.  Like with To the Hilt, which might be one of my favoritest books this year.

Which three books do you wish more people would read?

Hm, difficult question.  I’d have to say Hebdomeros by Giorgio de Chirico, Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe, and The Great Arizona Orphan Abduction by Linda Gordon (note: I changed this list four times).

I loved your post about the children books that scared the doo-doo out of you. I hate to bring up Harold and his evil Purple crayon, lest it mar our interview, but I can’t help asking which books as a young adult freaked you out?

The Bell Jar definitely freaked me out.  I had to read it for English class, but never finished it.  I think just because I identified with the heroine’s feeling of being trapped and suffocated, and also how she had so much potential but didn’t know what do with it.  As she started to go mad, I felt like I was going mad, too.  I stopped reading just because I couldn’t take it anymore.

What do you think is the most important thing a blogger can do to be involved with the book blogging community?

Get onto twitter.  Whether it’s participating in read-a-thons or creating challenges or setting up something like book blogger con, it seems like it always happens on twitter.

Please provide an adorable photograph of someone or something adorable for our viewing pleasure. (I would not object to baby elephants.) In up to 140-characters, describe what is going on in the photo.


Marcel the Shell always wanted a dog. Sometimes he ties a piece of lint to a hair and drags it around.

I see that Jane Eyre is your favorite book: have you read Wide Sargasso Sea? How do you feel about “sequels” to novels that focus on the minor characters?

No, I haven’t read Wide Sargasso Sea.  I don’t really have a burning desire to, either.  I don’t have a problem with adaptations that feature characters from other books, but because it’s Jane Eyre I don’t really want to mess with it.

How do you balance reading and blogging with the more mundane aspects of regular life?

Balance?  What balance?  :P

It helps me to devote time to a single activity.  If I’m at school, I’m not checking my email or tweeting.  If I’m answering e-mail, that’s what I focus on.  I’m way too distractable to multitask.

Do you have a favorite quote from a novel or about reading?

It’s not necessarily a favorite, but there’s been a poster hanging in my bedroom ever since I was little that says, “The love of learning, the sequestered nooks, and all the sweet serenity of books.” I remember staring at it and wondering what the heck a sequestered nook was.

What’s your favorite guilty pleasure reading?

Romance novels, of course! :) Actually, I don’t feel that guilty about it.

Are there any books you’d like to read but find intimidating?

I’m intimidated by any book longer than 400 pages, so yes.  I keep thinking I should read Nietzsche or Classical literature like The Illiad, but I’m not sure I could handle it.
Thank you, Tasha!

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Filed under Book Blogger Appreciation Week, Interviews

September 12, 2010 · 5:44 PM

CRAZY Book Swap – The Book of Lost Things

Stories were different, though: they came alive in the telling. Without a human voice to read them aloud, or a pair of wide eyes following them by flashlight beneath a blanket, they had no real existence in our world. They were like seeds in the beak of a bird, waiting to fall to earth, or the notes of a song laid out on a sheet, yearning for an instrument to bring their music into being. They lay dormant, hoping for the chance to emerge. Once someone started to read them, they could begin to change. They could take root in the imagination, and transform the reader. Stories wanted to be read, David’s mother would whisper. They needed it. It was the reason they forced themselves from their world into ours. They wanted us to give them life.

– p. 3

The Book of Lost Things
by John Connolly
339 pages
Published 2006
Sent by Janelle of Lit Snit for the Crazy Book Swap

When Wallace announced her challenge to bloggers to exchange books we consider unputdownable, with the requirement that we read and review them, I quickly signed up because a) Wallace is awesome, and b) I love surprises and c) sometimes I need to be challenged to actually write reviews. Imagine my surprise when I opened the package from Janelle, my swap partner, and found a copy of my favorite read of 2009 and the book I usually list as my favorite of all time. I own three (now four) copies of the book: the hardcover (signed first edition), the blue paperback version, and the red paperback version, which has bonus material.

Of all the books in all the world, right? Had I not already read and loved The Book of Lost Things, the swap would have been the best in the history of all swaps, and Janelle would have gotten a parade in her honor. All was not lost, though–since I almost never reread books, I found it a treat to re-immerse myself (guilt free) in the world of a young boy named David who finds himself struggling to stay alive in a nightmarish fairy tale world.

The Book of Lost Things is the exception to my self-imposed ban on reading books about mothers who die; in fact it is the exception that proves the rule. The beauty of the language Connolly uses to describe David’s love for his mother and the grief he feels when she dies is so genuine, so close to my own feelings regarding the loss of my own mother, that it allows me to explore my very personal emotions without feeling exploited for drama or “emotion,” as many other dead mom books make me feel.

One upon a time–for that is how all stories should begin–there was a boy who lost his mother. — p. 1

Of course, these more poignant lines are mostly in the first thirty or so pages (and again, in a different way, in the end of the novel), and The Book of Lost Things is truly a coming of age tale, not a “lost mother” story. There are wolf-men and evil witches, seven Communist dwarves (yes, those dwarves) and, in the Crooked Man, a villain whose crimes are so heinous that the brief paragraphs are some of the book’s most haunting.

Grade: A
Recommended: If you can appreciate fairy tale adaptations in the vein of the Fables series and Robin McKinley’s Deerskin, or if you just enjoy lovely literature, you should be able to find something in The Book of Lost Things to love.

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Filed under 2010 Reviews, A, Blogger Events, Fiction, Print

September 1, 2010 · 6:40 AM

August Round-Up

This is what happened when I tried to read A Wish After Midnight at the table.

Total Books Read: 22

Audio: 9 — 85.25 hours
Print: 12 — 2,964 pages

By Genre

Fiction — 14

  1. Gods In Alabama by Joshilyn Jackson: I may have never been farther south than Washington, D.C., but I do have a bit of a weakness for books set there. A charming Alabama setting provides an interesting backdrop to an engaging mystery. I was surprised by just how serious Gods In Alabama actually is; based on the cover and my (very) limited knowledge of the book, I was expecting fluff. Instead, I got an engrossing look at the bonds of families and how secrets can haunt them.
  2. Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro: On the other hand, I expected to really enjoy Ishiguro’s Booker Prize shortlisted novel, but I just feel ambivalent. (I am still looking forward to the movie, however.)
  3. The Humbling by Philip Roth
  4. Beastly by Alex Flinn: Modern retelling of Beauty and the Beast, from the beast’s perspective. I didn’t agree with some of the messages it seems to give–like needing only your love and no other friends when you’re in a relationship–but to be honest, it probably would have been my favorite book as a teen.
  5. Deliver Us From Evie by M. E. Kerr: I saw this one on Huffington Post’s 13 Great Books for Gay Teens list last month. It’s a decent read, but the best part is that the representation of Evie on the cover actually LOOKS SIMILAR to the description of the character in the book! They didn’t traditional-gender-expression-wash it (I made that phrase up, bet you never would have guessed)! …I get excited over minor victories sometimes.
  6. Avalon High by Meg Cabot
  7. Hold Tight by Harlan Coben
  8. Caught by Harlan Coben
  9. A Wish After Midnight by Zetta Eliott
  10. Empress of the World by Sara Ryan
  11. Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins
  12. Deal Breaker: Myron Bolitar #1 by Harlan Coben
  13. The Boy With the Cuckoo Clock Heart by Mathias Malzieu
  14. Drop Shot: Myron Bolitar #2 by Harlan Coben

Non-Fiction — 8

Cover of

Cover via Amazon

  1. Going Rouge: An American Nightmare edited by Richard Kim and Betsy Reed
  2. Bright-Sided: How the Relentless Promotion of Positive Thinking Has Undermined America by Barbara Ehrenreich: Flashes of brilliance, but most of it was ho-hum. Worth a read just for her excellent chapter criticizing the “celebrate breast cancer” culture.
  3. In the Land of Believers: An Outsider’s Extraordinary Journey Into the Heart of the Evangelical Church by Gina Welch: Quick summary: Evangelicals are people too. They’re not all evil. (If you are already aware of this, you won’t miss much by skipping this one.)
  4. The Greatest Story Ever Sold by Frank Rich
  5. God Is Not Great by Christopher Hitchens
  6. Freakonomics by Stephen Levitt and Stephen Dubner: I missed the hype. And how is this required reading in schools?? Don’t get it.
  7. Sing Sing: The Inside Story of a Notorious Prison by Brian Denis: I wanted to learn more about the history of Sing-Sing after reading John Connolly’s Newjack, so I read this. Denis is very detailed with the blood and gore, not so much with the rest of the history. Also, the last 30 pages or so are a rehash of Newjack, just not anywhere as good.
  8. Stiff by Mary Roach

Source:
Own — 2
Borrow — 19
Publisher — 1

Countries Visited: United States, England, Scotland, France

Oldest Book Read: Deliver Us From Evie by M. E. Kerr (1994)
Newest Book Read: Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins (2010)

Favorite: Gods In Alabama by Joshilyn Jackson
Least Favorite: The Humbling by Philip Roth

Bella at A Girl Reads a Book is hosting a challenge to not buy any new books in the entire month of September. I’ve signed up to participate with these restrictions:

  • No purchases of books at bookstores, online, or through Paperback Swap.
  • Do not put any books on hold at the library.
  • Only pick up the books already waiting at the library–no extras!
  • Post about each owned and read book (not necessarily a review).

I have 142 owned and unread books on my shelf right now. My goal is to read at least fifteen of them in September.

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