Another book done -

I just finished Snowflower and the Secret Fan - I'm not sure who left it with me and told me how great it was - but I really enjoyed reading it.

I love novels about Chinese life and history - China is so very different - and it never ceases to amaze me.

The stories are so varied but still have a common thread. And footbinding - whoa, I will never understand that, but they went into more detail in this story than I've heard before.

I would recommend it.

I am actually reading!

Since the entire family has been hit with various forms of the flu for the last week I have taken the chance to catch up on a ton of reading. I just finished two of the sequels to Maisie Dobbs and I loved them! The perfect tone, speed and quality for reading on the couch in the afternoon. Thye are all mysteries that take place in the late 1920's early 1930's and the very capable Maisie Dobbs, Psychiatrist and Investigator is on the case!

So I officially recommend...
Maisie Dobbs
Birds of a Feather
Pardonable Lies
all by Jaqueline Winspear

Enjoy!

Another book -

I'm just ripping through the books these days! Actually I've taken a bit of a break and have been watching movies - another great way to get off my feet and elevate them!!

But I did finish Those Who Save Us by Jenna Blum. I had bought it awhile back on one of those bargain tables at Borders or Vromans - it looked pretty good - and was connected to the Holocaust - and I was doing a lot of Holcaust reading last spring. Anyway, I came across it and decided to read it.

It's a first novel - and as such starts out strong and ends up in a quandry - as if the author wasn't sure what to do now! It is not strictly a Holcaust story - rather the story of a German girl who falls in love with a Jewish doctor - but ends up as the mistress of an SS officer in order to save her life and the life of her daughter. (The child's Jewish father of course dies in the concentration camp.)

I know - this is the stuff of which melodramas are made - and this has some egregious sentimentality. The ending is far too "pat" but there are moments of good writing and suspense. I am passing the book on to a fellow book club member who thought it sounded interesting and won't care if I don't get it back.

I think it might be interesting to read more about the German side of the war - I'm certain not all Jews were Nazis - but maybe such Germans have been afraid to tell their stories.

Or maybe they are not the stuff of novels. War is horrible and perhaps the Germans simply don't want to delve - want to just forget. I know the Jews want to be sure that the world does not forget - and they are right - their stories really must be told.

My stack

For Valentine's Day Robbie and I gave each other books. He had said that he wanted to read Freakonomics for a long time (it's really good, if you haven't read it), so I bought that for him, along with a copy of The Audacity of Hope for myself. And I had mentioned to Robbie that I wanted it a while back, so he bought it for me as a gift too. Haha.

So, we went to B&N last night for Valentine's Day (we are so exciting, we're not even celebrating on the actual day) and I exchanged it for What is the What by Dave Eggers and Revolutionary Road by Richard Yates. I've heard that the first is good, the second (the movie version at least) is very depressing. I'll be the judge of that.

And in the meantime I'm still reading Why Nations Go To War by John Stoessinger (one of Robbie's old texts), but I'm now on the chapter about the Palestine/Israel conflict, so at least I'm plugging along.

Unrelated question--I saw two of Irene Nemirovsky's books at the bookstore (not including Suite Francaise) and was wondering 1) if anyone had read them, or 2) if they came out before or after SF.

C.S. Lewis

One of the presenters at our recent Women's Conference recommended A Grief Observed by C.S. Lewis for anyone who was dealing with unresolved grief issues. I don't fall into that category, but I thought that if I did feel like I wanted to recommend it to someone, I should know what was in it. Apparently the movie Shadowlands was influenced by this book also.

It is a very quick read - much like a long New Yorker article or essay. And it has some profound thoughts in it. He does reiterate often that his experience is not to be taken for everyone's experience - an important caveat I think.

It is "heavy-duty" at times - even ponderous. But on the whole I can see how it could be very helpful. I wished after I had read it that I had highlighted some of those profound or enlightening statements - someone grieving might only want to read portions and not the whole thing.

I have only read the Narnia books by C.S.Lewis so I am not familiar with his writings on Christianity. That might make a difference in my understanding and perceptions.

It was well-written of course, and the literary elements contribute to its effectiveness.

So, you might want to add it to your list.

Another one bites the dust!

My book group decided to have a book exchange - we were all going to bring a book and then take a book home. Well, everyone brought several books and everyone didn't take several home. So I ended up with a few books at my house. I picked through them and one looked intriguing, so I finally read it.

I just finished Loving Frank by Nancy Horan. It is not a "fast" read in the sense that you can put it down fairly easily. But it is an intriguing story. It is an historical novel, but it's based on a lot of fact - I googled some names and it's pretty true to the events anyway - who knows how they both really felt and lived.

Maybe what caught my interest was the idea that there are stories in people's lives - and we often don't know them. I certainly don't condone adultery and abandoning ones children - which Mamah did - Frank Wright didn't divorce his wife - or rather she didn't allow a divorce until years after the death of Mamah.

Mamah Borthick regretted some of her choices - but ultimately felt she actually had no choice - at least according to the author and some of the writings of Mamah.

I can see leaving a husband - I mean, I can imagine women doing that even though it would not be a choice of mine. But I truly can't comprehend leaving your children - and for such long periods of time and when they were both so young - 2 and 4 I think.

The horrible murder that ended the life of Mamah and her children is handled tastefully - well, as tasteful as a murder can be handled - I guess I should say there was no gore or sensationalism.

The characters were well-drawn - they seemed real. Some things seemed dragged out - it got didactic at points.

It has a lot to recommend it - but a happy ending is not one of those things!

One more book down

I have been reading Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry with my class. And I wanted to show them about the outcome of T.J.'s trial - T.J. is the young black boy who is used by two white boys to commit a crime that leads to murder - which occurs in the sequel, Let the Circle Be Unbroken.

So of course I couldn't just thumb through it to find the references - I had to read it over again. Mildred Taylor is really a fine writer. I am impressed when my students seem to recognize excellent writing - gives me hope!!

Another book -

I am doing lots of reading. Just finished The Dream, A Memoir by Harry Bernstein. It's the sequel to The Invisible Wall. They are both quite good. A reviewer said they sounded like early D.H. Lawrence, but I don't really think so. The prose is spare and effective though. Was also compared to Angela's Ashes - but it's way better than that was.

A good airplane read - or lying-on-couch-to-rest-your-aching-knees read.

Now I'm re-reading Let the Circle Be Unbroken by Mildred Taylor - my class just finished Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry, so I want to share some of it with them, since it is a sequel. They loved Roll of Thunder - as most 8th graders do.

I used to read lots of juvenile fiction - but haven't as much lately - with my penchant for resting on the couch and soaking in the tub, that's an untapped resource that I may get to!!

Another book -

So, I'm spending lots of time on the couch - my knees are really painful - and lying on the couch with a pillow under them is a good way to rest them - so is soaking in the tub.

So I'm really getting books read - but they do have to be either compelling or lightweight - if it's a struggle to read them, I just don't.

Just finished the newest Grisham - The Associate. People magazine gave it a so-so review - and People isn't my idea of excellent critical writing, but I have to agree with them.

It was lightweight and I did want to see how it ended, but it is not vintage Grisham. It's definitely Grisham, but seems like he dashed it off - there was even a typo - a major one - the name was wrong - they had substituted another character's name!!

What is this world coming to anyway??

So if you are taking a long plane ride or need a good read that you won't expect too much from, you might try this one.

But I'm wondering when he's going to get serious about writing a compelling story - like Time to Kill or Pelican Brief.

Maybe it's just a job for him now!