Merry Christmas!

(Image via LCD Love)

Any good Christmas books to recommend?

A must read!!

The Road by Cormac McCarthy is truly a "must-read" for everyone.

I read it on the plane to VA. It was compelling - it would be hard to put down, so plan for that.

I'd be interested in comments from those who have read it!!

Inspiration

So, to make up for my lack of literary posting, I thought I'd share a link I found and quite enjoy.



The Longstockings



I LOVE the name and they have some interesting links.

A fun read

Phoebe recommended this book to me when we were there in August. So I got it.

It's a very fun read - and it's the kind of book you can read in sections - and then pick up again later. I like those kinds of books.

It reminds me of A Long Way From Chicago - Phoebe says it's like The Glass Castle only funny.

Anyway, I recommend it.

The Goose Girl

I just finished it. And I loved it!

Just thought I'd let you all know that I am, in fact, reading.

Reading fun - or how to pass the time in airports!!

I finished Home by Julie Andrews.

It was interesting - and pretty well-written.

Dad read it too and when I told him it was my book group's choice for September, he said, "Well, what is there to discuss about it?"

Note, he had enjoyed it - read it before me and kept reading passages outl oud to me.

So what do you think - is there anything to say about it??

(If you've read it that is.)

What are you reading?

So, maybe no one is reading the book blog. Haven't seen much action on it.

I am still reading Home by Julie Andrews. It's pretty good - but it's not hard to put it down. I guess I need a page turner.

I've actually been buying magazines at the checkstand and reading them instead of books - at least this week.

I need a good long-awaited Harry Potter or something.

Or maybe it's just a phase.

Halfway through a trilogy

I just finished Enna Burning by Shannon Hale. She also wrote The Goose Girl. She is LDS, lives in Utah. The Goose Girl was really good - I thought - well written - kind of an adult fairy tale.

The second book is stretching it a little too far.

I may skip the 3rd book.

I'm not sure who her target audience is - if it's adolescent, it may take hold.

I did like the first one a lot though.

Too bad - but then sequels are hard - unless you are Maud Hart Lovelace or J.K. Rowling!!

Airplane fiction

Our recent vacation to South America revealed just how much time we spend in airports and on airplanes to get to places - I had brought along a book to read and assumed it would last the entire trip. Silly me - even though I didn't spend much time reading outside of the airport, I very quickly had that book finished.

I assumed I could find an English bookstore somewhere, but it wasn't that easy. I should have borrowed a book from Alice, but didn't think that far ahead - I was still reading The Lost Art of Keeping Secrets by Eva Rice, and I guess I thought it would take forever to finish!! This was a pretty good read - about post-WW II Britain - somewhat lightweight, but well written and a nice plot line.

When we got to Chile, I combed the shelves there for an English book - Carla found a few - I ended up reading Dresses of Red and Gold by Robin Klein. It was an Australian adolescent novel - and quite "colorful" - pardon the pun - but it had enough "local flavor" to make it interesting - however, like most adolescent novels, it was indeed a "quick read." So I was back to needing another book.

I found a book on their shelves called A Name for Himself by Catherine Dunne - it had a strange plot line - it was Irish - and there is something about the Irish and literature that seems to go together. The ending was not what I expected. I wasn't finished before we left, but Carla said to take it and give it away - not to worry about returning it - so I left it in a hotel room in Lima - along with a copy of Good Housekeeping I had devoured on one of our flights.

I found a bookstore in one of the airports and bought a copy of Body Surfing by Anita Shreve. It was the perfect airplane read - pretty well-written, intriguing story line, an ending I hadn't guessed, and you could get absorbed in it and not think about how much time you were spending in the airport!

But I finished that one too - and we were then at the airport in El Salvador - and I was facing a 5 or 6 hour flight and an hour wait, so I went hunting for a bookstore with English titles - found one but the only choices were Stephen King and Sandra Brown - I went with Sandra Brown and that was a mistake - I'm not a Stepehn King fan, but I think he would have been better than she was - I fortunately fell asleep after the first 2 chapters - and I'm certainly not going to bother finishing it!

Dad handled it all well - had his Kindle with him - so when he finished the "thriller" that I can't remember the title of, he went on to the next book he'd downloaded - at my suggestion it was Home by Julie Andrews - since my book group is reading that for September - and he got really into it and is enjoying reading it. (I already had a copy - but had loaned it to one of the book group members because I hadn't wanted to carry a big paperback that I wouldn't mind discarding along the way.)

Next trip, I may just get a Kindle myself - one that has several good novels already downloaded. Although I did notice a number of travelers who had portable DVD players and were just watching movies!!

I am thinking that the next time I travel extensively, I am going to think out my reading plan ahead of time. In his book On Writing, Stephen King says to always have a book with you, because you never know when you will be stuck and need something to help you pass the time.

No truer words were ever spoken!!

Summer reading

I just came across this list: 50 best ever summer holiday books from telegraph.co.uk.

Some interesting picks. The author calls them "the books with the strongest narratives, most magnetic characters and most involving worlds. Books that will not let you down."

I am embarrassed to admit I've only read one of these books (Things Fall Apart). A few were already on my to-read list (Wild Swans; Love in the Time of Cholera), and I added a few more to my list (The Secret Agent; The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire), and I'm curious to know your opinion of the list or of any titles on this list.

I am pretty sure that no matter how hard I try, for the rest of my life I will always have a lengthy "to-read" list. Maybe that's not such a bad thing though.

Mom will appreciate this

Well, maybe she will appreciate it. I don't know. I haven't read Twilight but I thought they were interesting. Two blog posts on Twilight (by the same person):

Why I Think Twilight Sucks, and Other Important Thoughts

A sampling:

"You guys... I SO didn't get it. I thought it was very meh, starting with the main character, Bella (otherwise known as the Queen of Meh).

"(Ooooh, do you hear that sound? It's me, getting delisted from 50 Twilight loving blogs at once. But I CANNOT BE SILENCED.)

"Ugh. She was so boring and stilted and dead inside. I kind of wanted to slap her. My theory is that Bella actually has Aspergers Syndrome and also a really bad inner ear infection that destroyed her sense of balance."

And then a damage-control post, after apparently she offended a few too many people:


What My Opinion of Twilight Does Not Mean

A sampling:

-That I think you are stupid
-That I think your daughter is stupid
-That I think you have bad taste in books
-That I think my opinion should matter to you
-That my heart is made of stone
-That I am cold and dead inside
-That Edward should suck my blood so that I can understand the depths of his beautiful soul

etc.

Thought you might enjoy the perspective of other people who were less than impressed by Stephenie Meyer's writing skills.

The Twilight Phenomenon

There's a write up in the Calendar section of the LA Times today on the filming of the movie version of the best-selling young adult novel Twilight.

I'm conflicted about this - it's great to see a BYU English major grad achieve fame and fortune.

But it is so badly written, it's embarrassing!

Maybe I'm a snob, or maybe I've finally outgrown teen novels.

But The Historian, another novel about vampires, is so much better - and so much better written.

I haven't read any interviews with the author - maybe she, like many of us, said, "I can write a cheesy best selling novel!"

And then did!

(Maybe it's sour grapes!)

It mostly discourages me to see how quickly the reading public embraces bad writing. Okay, it's popular and has a good - but very predictable - story line. But people gush on and on about what a "great" book it is.

Maybe we need a new designation or some new adjectives for bad writing that resonates with the public.

Any ideas??

What is good literature?

And how is it different from a good story?

I finished Wish You Well. I said it was cheesy - it was. It had a somewhat compelling story though. And I wanted to find out how it ended.

But it really wasn't well-written. I've read better stuff in Good Housekeeping - and not even their giant fiction issue. And the "willing suspension of disbelief" had to work overtime to make it work.

(Dad is killed in a car accident. Mom is in a coma - but she can eat and drink and doesn't seem to get bed sores. And Mom and kids go to Virginia to live in the Appalachian mountains with Great Grandma. And the evil gas company illicitly mines for natural gas on Granny's property. And "Diamond Skinner - a plucky young lad who lives on his own and is always there to rescue Lou and her little brother Oz - is blown up when he runs into the mine - not knowing about the illicit activities of Southern Virginia Gas and Power. And the evil neighbor - who put the gas company onto the mine on Granny's property - burns down their barn - in the dead of winter. And then Granny has a stroke - and the gas company goes to court to get her declared mentally incompetent so they can get her land - that she earlier refused to sell to them - and the evil neighbor is on the jury - and the jury finds in favor of Southern Virginia - and you guessed it - Mom rises up from her bed of affliction and walks into the courtroom.)

I'm telling you the plot because you don't need to bother to read it.

I don't think that's what Eliot had in mind when he explained the concept of "willing suspension."

At least it was easy to skim.

I want to read Home - is it as good as the Times review said it was?

The pile - on my nightstand - is actually shrinking!!

So I finished Atonement - and really loved it!! What a compelling - and well told story! I tried to skim but couldn't - the eloquent language and the turns of phrases were riveting:

"Cambridge had changed her fundamentally and she thought she was immune. No one in her family, however, noticed the transformation in her, and she was not able to resist the power of their habitual expectations." This is pretty profound - and to realize that it's a universal thought!! (Here I thought I was the only one who got sucked back into being my old self when I went back home each summer!)

And this one:

"Above all, she wanted to look as though she had not given the matter a moment's thought, and that would take time." Do we all identify with this thought??

And:

"...and he made himself think about time, about his great hoard, the luxury of an unspent fortune." Ah, youth!!

And finally:

"It was a chilly sensation, growing up." That's certainly one way of looking at it!

But I'm a little unclear on the end - I admit I was a bit groggy when I finally finished it - stayed up late to do so - and did Robbie and Cecilia both die? I couldn't quite follow her internal conversations about the various "drafts."

Someone fill me in!

I'm reading a David Baldacci novel called Wish You Well. It's a little "cheesy" but a good friend recommended it - and I want to at least have the story line down when she asks me about it.

I skimmed it but need more details to flesh it out.

So, what is everyone else reading??

What I'm Reading Now:

I came home early from school on Wednesday and our cleaning lady was here, so I had to find a little corner to stay out of the way in - and started reading Choirboys by Joseph Wambaugh. It was terrible - I lasted for about 5 chapters and tossed it!

The same woman who had brought me that had brought me Pavilion of Women by Pearl Buck. So I started that - and I have had a hard time putting it down.

I've read about Pearl Buck before, but it's been since high school - I read a number of her books then. I may even have read Pavilion before - but I am really enjoying it.

Any of the rest of you - have you read her - what is your take? She definitely has an agenda. An intriguing one at that!

new book

My book group is reading Lady's Maid by Margaret Forster. It's about the personal maid to Elizabeth Barrett - before she was Elizabeth Barrett Browning - I think she ends up going away to Italy with Robert Browning in the book. So far it's pretty good.

More books

I feel like I've been reading a lot lately. I kind of go through phases of book book book book book, then nothing but blogs and the newspaper for awhile (with the exception of a large book or two that takes me forever to get through--like the David O. McKay bio). What about you guys?

I just can't seem to get into Goodreads, though. I feel like between blogs and Facebook it's too much for me...

Anyway I just finished Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe; only took a day, not surprisingly. I read it in college but must have really skimmed it because I remembered nothing. He (Achebe) is coming to DC in a couple of weeks for a Q&A; I am trying to decide whether to get tickets to hear him speak. If anyone ever wants to discuss it I am up for it. I wonder if his other books are as good (and as short)?

Now I am halfway through The Memory Keeper's Daughter by Kim Edwards. If you've read it, don't tell me what happens! I started it yesterday evening and literally stayed up until all hours with a flashlight under my covers. I don't know what it is about reading after Matt wants to sleep--it's too lonely to go into the living room and turn on a light. I much prefer staying in bed with a flashlight. It's cozier. Plus I feel like I'm more likely to fall asleep that way. (Usually when I stay up so late reading I'm having a mild case of insomnia.)

Anyone?

I recently started David O. McKay and the Rise of Modern Mormonism. Has anyone read this besides Mom? I am into the chapter on civil rights (the first, I should add, that really says anything less than glowing about President McKay). Talk about fascinating! If anyone wants to discuss I certainly have some thoughts--about agency, tolerance, kindness, leadership, restraint vs. "speaking out," among other things--the first of which being I definitely wish I could have known David O. McKay!

fin

Okay, I'm done with it too. And I know that Phoebe had to return her book (I have to return mine tomorrow as well), but I'm excited to talk about it.

And since I won't be able to reference it later, I'll quote the two spots that I marked in the book (I'm not a very diligent marker):

"Perhaps there was a wealth of intelligence and tenderness behind their low brows, beneath their disheveled, lifeless hair. What are we in people's eyes, Maurice and I, other than two miserable employees? It's true in a way, but in another way, we are precious and unique. I know that too" (Jeanne Michaud, p. 53).

"If events as painful as defeat and mass exodus cannot be dignified with some sort of nobility, some grandeur, then they shouldn't happen at all! I will not accept that these shopkeepers, these caretakers, these filthy people with their whining, their malicious gossip, their vulgarity, should be allowed to debase this atmosphere of tragedy. Just look at them! Look at them! There they are again. They're honking at me, for goodness sake!" (Gabriel Corte, p. 61)

I guess I must have marked them because they're somewhat related. Anyway. Good read.

DONE!...

...well, almost done. I just need to read the last appendix, which is the preface to the French edition.

So the question is, have Phoebe and Hannah finished it? I have several pages dog-eared and am going to attack with a pencil next, so I don't forget what I noticed/thought/liked/wondered about/etc. It's kind of nice actually, because I've been reading it since Friday or so and am always a little bit bummed to finish a good book. So now I have the underlining and note-making to look forward to.

Unfortunately I never did any of that with Sarah's Key. Are we still going to compare the two? I do remember a few things that stuck out.

Anyway, just following up to let you know that I have in fact read the book. Only took me what, three months to start it!

Langston & Emily

I thought while we were waiting for Suite Francaise to get finished, we could have a brief discussion about a very brief story and poem. I thought it apropos to choose this story since it is Black History month, and because I love the story (you have probably read it). You can read more about Langston Hughes here and Emily Dickinson here.

Questions are at the end of the post.

Thank You, M’am

By Langston Hughes

She was a large woman with a large purse that had everything in it but hammer and nails. It had a long strap, and she carried it slung across her shoulder. It was about eleven o’clock at night, and she was walking alone, when a boy ran up behind her and tried to snatch her purse. The strap broke with the single tug the boy gave it from behind. But the boy’s weight and the weight of the purse combined caused him to lose his balance so, instead of taking off full blast as he had hoped, the boy fell on his back on the sidewalk, and his legs flew up. the large woman simply turned around and kicked him right square in his blue-jeaned sitter. Then she reached down, picked the boy up by his shirt front, and shook him until his teeth rattled.

After that the woman said, "Pick up my pocketbook, boy, and give it here." She still held him. But she bent down enough to permit him to stoop and pick up her purse. Then she said, "Now ain’t you ashamed of yourself?"

Firmly gripped by his shirt front, the boy said, "Yes’m."

The woman said, "What did you want to do it for?"

The boy said, "I didn’t aim to."

She said, "You a lie!"

By that time two or three people passed, stopped, turned to look, and some stood watching.

"If I turn you loose, will you run?" asked the woman.

"Yes’m," said the boy.

"Then I won’t turn you loose," said the woman. She did not release him.

"I’m very sorry, lady, I’m sorry," whispered the boy.

"Um-hum! And your face is dirty. I got a great mind to wash your face for you. Ain’t you got nobody home to tell you to wash your face?"

"No’m," said the boy.

"Then it will get washed this evening," said the large woman starting up the street, dragging the frightened boy behind her.

He looked as if he were fourteen or fifteen, frail and willow-wild, in tennis shoes and blue jeans.

The woman said, "You ought to be my son. I would teach you right from wrong. Least I can do right now is to wash your face. Are you hungry?"

"No’m," said the being dragged boy. "I just want you to turn me loose."

"Was I bothering you when I turned that corner?" asked the woman.

"No’m."

"But you put yourself in contact with me," said the woman. "If you think that that contact is not going to last awhile, you got another though coming. When I get through with you, sir, you are going to remember Mrs. Luella Bates Washington Jones."

Sweat popped out on the boy’s face and he began to struggle. Mrs. Jones stopped, jerked him around in front of her, put a half-nelson about his neck, and continued to drag him up the street. When she got to her door, she dragged the boy inside, down a hall, and into a large kitchenette-furnished room at the rear of the house. She switched on the light and left the door open. The boy could hear other roomers laughing and talking in the large house. Some of their doors were open, too, so he knew he and the woman were not alone. The woman still had him by the neck in the middle of her room.

She said, "What is your name?"

"Roger," answered the boy.

"Then, roger, you go to that sink and wash your face," said the woman, whereupon she turned him loose--at last. Roger looked at the door—looked at the woman—looked at the door—and went to the sink.

Let the water run until it gets warm," she said. "Here’s a clean towel."

"You gonna take me to jail?" asked the boy, bending over the sink.

"Not with that face, I would not take you nowhere," said the woman. "Here I am trying to get home to cook me a bite to eat and you snatch my pocketbook! Maybe, you ain’t been to your supper either, late as it be. Have you?"

"There’s nobody home at my house," said the boy.

"Then we’ll eat," said the woman, "I believe you’re hungry—or been hungry—to try to snatch my pockekbook."

"I wanted a pair of blue suede shoes," said the boy.

"Well, you didn’t have to snatch my pocketbook to get some suede shoes," said Mrs. Luella Bates Washington Jones. "You could of asked me."

"M’am?"

The water dripping from his face, the boy looked at her. There was a long pause. A very long pause. After he had dried his face and not knowing what else to do dried it again, the boy turned around, wondering what next. The door was open. He could make a dash for it down the hall. He could run, run, run, run, run!

The woman was sitting on the day-bed. After a while she said, "I were young once and I wanted things I could not get."

There was another long pause. The boy’s mouth opened. Then he frowned, but not knowing he frowned.

The woman said, "Um-hum! You thought I was going to say but, didn’t you? You thought I was going to say, but I didn’t snatch people’s pocketbooks. Well, I wasn’t going to say that." Pause. Silence. "I have done things, too, which I would not tell you, son—neither tell God, if he didn’t already know. So you set down while I fix us something to eat. You might run that comb through your hair so you will look presentable."

In another corner of the room behind a screen was a gas plate and an icebox. Mrs. Jones got up and went behind the screen. The woman did not watch the boy to see if he was going to run now, nor did she watch her purse which she left behind her on the day-bed. But the boy took care to sit on the far side of the room where he thought she could easily see him out of the corner other eye, if she wanted to. He did not trust the woman not to trust him. And he did not want to be mistrusted now.

"Do you need somebody to go to the store," asked the boy, "maybe to get some milk or something?"

"Don’t believe I do," said the woman, "unless you just want sweet milk yourself. I was going to make cocoa out of this canned mild I got her."

"That will be fine," said the boy.

She heated some lima beans and ham she had in the icebox, made the cocoa, and set the table. The woman did not ask the boy anything about where he lived, or his folks, or anything else that would embarrass him. Instead, as they ate, she told him about her job in a hotel beauty-shop that stayed open late, what the work was like, and how all kinds of women came in and out, blondes, red-heads, and Spanish. Then she cut him a half of her ten-cent cake.

"Eat some more, son," she said.

When they were finished eating she got up and said, "Now, here, take this ten dollars and buy yourself some blue suede shoes. And next time, do not make the mistake of latching onto my pocketbook nor nobody else’s—because shoes come be devilish like that will burn your feet. I got to get my rest now. But I wish you would behave yourself, son, from here on in."

She led him down the hall to the front door and opened it. "Goodnight!" Behave yourself, boy!" she said, looking out into the street.

The boy wanted to say something else other that "Thank you, m’am" tto Mrs. Luella Bates Washington Jones, but he couldn’t do so as he turned at the barren stoop and looked back at the large woman in the door. He barely managed to say "Thank you" before she shut the door. And he never saw her again.

If I Can Stop One Heart from Breaking

by Emily Dickinson

If I can stop one Heart from breaking

I shall not live in vain

If I can ease one life the Aching

Or cool one Pain

Or help one fainting Robin

Unto his Nest again

I shall not live in Vain.

Questions

1. How did Roger feel when Mrs. Jones said that she, too, had once wanted things that she could not have?
2. What was Roger thinking about when Mrs. Jones left her purse out in the open where he could easily snatch it if he wanted to?
3. What was going on in Mrs. Jones' mind when she gave Roger money?
4. What did Roger mean when he said that he "did not trust the woman not to trust him"?
5. Why do you think Roger could only utter a "Thank You" before Mrs. Jones closed the door?
6. Did you like the story?
7. How do you think the story and poem are related? Do you agree?
   
8. What message do you think Hughes was trying to convey?
9. Any other comments, questions, astute observations?
   

Lagging

I still haven't read Suite Francaise!

However I have started it. I read about 2 pages about a month ago.

Hester was reading it on the plane and forgot her copy here, which I need to send back to her. I also have the copy Mom sent me (thanks Mom!).

Now I just need to sit down and read it!

Atonement

So, I'm waiting for Suite Francaise to be available at any library in Utah County (seriously, is it that popular?), and in the meantime picked up Atonement off of my roommate's bookshelf. (She's an English major... TONS of books that I haven't read, and I'm looking forward to it!)

So far I like the book a lot. It's very descriptive (although at one point the descriptive gets a little graphic), and a very compelling read.

Has anyone read it or watched the trailer for the movie?