one shoe off

To say it has been busy around here would be a gross understatement. It’s been downright chaotic. Between summer camp and travels (both of which deserve their own posts), and sickness and renovations (neither one of which I want to write about), I’ve had hardly a spare moment. Add the 90 plus degrees we’ve been having around here and I’m plumb worn out. BUT, in the spirit of keeping up with at least one topic on my blog, I do want to share a few other books I’ve read recently.

#16 Little Bee by Chris Cleave

This book deals with the very powerful and complex issues surrounding culture and culture clashes, specifically between white European culture and that of war-torn Nigeria. It’s a book that makes you uncomfortable, and while we normally try to avoid those discomforts (mostly because I think we don’t know what to do with them), I feel like it’s necessary to move out of that comfort zone. BUT, despite the book’s powerful story, I am running into the same problem with this book as I have with others recently: I don’t like that a white dude is writing a story of violence and oppression (in this case violence and oppression against women of color) in the first person. And I’m torn because on the one hand I think that people need to know about Nigeria and what’s happened there and surely a book that hits the NY Times bestseller list helps people at least HEAR about it. But on the other hand, it grates against everything in me because, dude, you Just. Don’t. KNOW. You just can’t just take these stories and make them your own! For those that might be reading this that maybe don’t understand why this is a problem for me, I can only liken it to women who are uncomfortable seeing a male gynecologist because how on earth is he going to give you advice on dealing with PMS and childbirth when his plumbing is so very different? No, I know it’s not exactly the same, but perhaps that will help illuminate a little bit why these questions of race and the writing of racially charged stories gets my panties in a twist.

#17 Beatrice and Virgil by Yann Martel

The title characters are taxidermied animals, a donkey and a howler monkey. That should give you an idea about how very bizarre a read this was. The story follows the a writer, Henry, who befriends a taxidermist and…well, not a whole lot actually happens, you know? I enjoyed it. It was challenging and interesting, but I have to be honest, it felt way too…modernist for my liking. It reminded me a great deal of Waiting for Godot, which again is so very interesting, but the style just isn’t to my liking. If you’re looking for something challenging, definitely pick this up, but you’re going to need a lot of patience and mental fortitude to work through it.

#18 The Italian Secretary by Caleb Carr

I have long been a fan of Caleb Carr who writes historical mystery novels set in the late nineteenth century. This particular book was just as kick-ass as his previous ones. It’s a Sherlock Holmes novel and has the added bonus of being written under the commission of the estate of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, which is a pretty awesome gig, if you ask me. Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson are written convincingly (at least to my memory, and I’ll admit it’s been quite a few years since I last read Doyle), and it’s a fun, fast read. If you have any interest in Sherlock Holmes or 19th century murder mysteries, you’ll surely enjoy this.

#19 Better: A Surgeon’s Notes on Performance by Atul Gawande

I’ll preface this review by saying that I love, love, LOOOOOOOVE reading medical non-fiction, especially medical case studies, which I know isn’t for the faint of heart or the squeamish among you. Gawande is a well-known and well-regarded surgeon who in Better writes about how to be a good and competent doctor when every moment of every day you’re surrounded by the possibility of screwing up in any one of a number of spectacular ways. He explores ways in which the medical profession can improve based on documented research as well as his own experiences. Because of how I feel about the practice of medicine, books like this make me want to finish up my coursework and apply to medical school. I’m fairly certain most people won’t be left feeling that way, but nevertheless, I think it’s important even for non-medical types to understand the field in order to help themselves receive better care, and an engaging read like this one will definitely help.

I’ve got about 7 more books to share, but I’ll have to save them for another day. Happy reading, friends.

Even though I haven’t been posting much, I’ve been reading a ton. I’m a novel gal at heart and I’ve had the immense pleasure of picking up a number of really amazing novels (and some other not so great books) since I last posted. Be forewarned, this is long, but I’d definitely be interested to hear what you think about any of the books on here that you’ve read yourself.

#3 Spooner by Pete Dexter

As my dear friend Arch Support pointed out while reading the jacket, the subject matter of this book, a white dude with a white dude’s problems, isn’t exactly compelling. And we all know that white dudes are already a very well-represented segment of the literary canon. HOWEVER. Pete Dexter is an amazing story-teller with a dry wit and that was enough to get me hooked. The title character is quirky at best, but despite his obvious character flaws is somehow still quite likable, and the book tells the story of his life. Definitely worth the read.

#4 Picking Bones from Ash by Marie Mutsuki Mockett

This book is a little like Memoirs of a Geisha meets The Joy Luck Club with the benefit of being authored by a Japanese-American writer. (Seriously, I could never get over the weirdness of reading about geishas as documented by a white dude.) This book deals with some interesting questions about motherhood and daughterhood, and the what happens when people pursue the things they do the best. An excellent read.

#5 Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese

Oh, this novel was absolutely delicious. It follows the story of conjoined twins born to a nun and a British doctor, both of whom work in an Ethiopian hospital. If that doesn’t get you hooked, the rich prose and complex characters should do the trick. I loved, loved, loved this book. As in couldn’t put it down at night to sleep. Really, I can’t stress how beautiful the language in this story was to me. Can’t wait to read more by this new-to-me author.

#6 The Help by Kathryn Stockett

So I know this book has gotten a lot of positive press. And don’t get me wrong I liked the story and the characters. I didn’t like the way the story was told. If you don’t know anything about the book, it chronicles the process of a white woman writing a book about being a black servant in the South riiiight on the edge of the civil rights movement. She talks to black servants in her town and documents their stories. Fine. But I have a huge problem with this. First, the book itself was written by a white woman. Second, the book within the book is written by a white woman. So we’re reading a story about white oppression of blacks in the U.S. that has been filtered twice by white women’s voices. And I think that that is deeply, deeply problematic. I am not suggesting that white people can’t ever write characters of color. I AM suggesting that white writers who are writing specifically about oppression need to tread VERY carefully and consult with their sources extensively, which I’m not sure the author did. I am also suggesting that there is a temporal aspect to this issue as well. When we’re looking at oppression that is so very recent in our history, I think it is only right and fair to allow the voices of the oppressed to tell their own story without any interference from their oppressors. I can’t possibly imagine that there are NO black servants from the 60s still alive and well today. This book should have been written by them.

#7 The Believers by Zoe Heller

Be forewarned, this book is very dark, but very entertaining. You will not like any of the characters, but their stories will intrigue you, nevertheless. The book documents what happens to the wife and three adult children of a left-wing, atheistic lawyer when he suffers a massive stroke. The family is all manners of dysfunctional, but it’s interesting to see how each of them adjusts and copes when the central figure of the family is suddenly and unexpectedly removed from the equation.

#8 Happens Every Day by Isabel Gillies

Gillies memoir documents the disintegration of her marriage after she and her family migrate to Oberlin, Ohio to allow her husband to pursue a tenure-track faculty position in English. I…honestly didn’t love this book. I found Gillies’ narrative voice a little obnoxious, and I actually wanted very desperately for the book to end. That being said, a lot of people have loved this book, so don’t discount it just because of me. If you enjoy memoirs, this may very well appeal to you.

#9 The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein

This is a dog book a la Marley and Me, but I don’t think it was as well done. Firstly, the book was written in the voice of the dog. Fine. Second, for whatever reason, when I read the title, I assumed it referred to dogs racing (ie. running) through the rain, not people racing cars through the rain. My bad, but that completely disarmed me when I started to read and discovered that the book does talk a lot about racing cars (the narrator’s owner is a race car driver). Also frustrating, the cover of the book features what looks like a golden retriever, but the dog in the book is mixed breed and has some terrier in him. I found that really obnoxious. Overall, the book was…okay. A quick read, definitely one for the animal lovers out there, but it didn’t do it for me the way Marley and Me did.

#10 The Life of Pi by Yann Martel

I know, I know; I am totally late to the game on this one. This was, however, another one that I couldn’t put down. The narrator is an Hindu, Muslim, Christian, Indian son of a zookeeper who winds up stranded on a lifeboat with a 300 lb Bengal tiger, an orangutan, a hyena, and a wounded zebra. Loved the premise, loved the story. It raises all kinds of interesting questions about the reliability of the narrator, as well as questions about spirituality and the act of story telling. A must-read, if you haven’t already.

#11 The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows

Despite the setting (post-WWII England) and some of the subject matter (the aftermath of war), this was, dare I say it, a cute book. The story is told through a series of letters between the main character, Juliet, and various friends, including a members of the Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, which was formed as a way for the citizens of Guernsey to cope with the German occupation of their island. The characters are infinitely likable, and their stories, though sometimes quite painful, and similarly charming. A very fast, enjoyable read.

#12 Nurtureshock by Po Bronson and Ashley Merryman

This is another book that has received a great deal of press, and although I found the book useful and intriguing, I didn’t find a whole lot of new information in the book that I hadn’t already read in one form or another. It offers new data and studies that show that conventional parenting wisdom may not be all its cracked up to be, and offers some suggestions on how to parent differently. Definitely worth a read for parents of children of all ages.

#13 The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larson

The original Swedish title of this book, Men Who Hate Women, should give you an inkling that the subject matter of this mystery isn’t for the faint of heart. I have always loved mysteries, and I found that this one had me hooked immediately. By about 2/3 of the way through, I had figured out at least part of the mystery, and where that would usually frustrate me (I want to be kept in the dark, dangit!), I found that I still couldn’t stop reading because the characters were still so very compelling. I can’t wait to read the other two books in the series.

#14 A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini

Yes, I know, another one I should have read ages ago, but I only just got around to it in recent months. If you loved The Kite Runner, you will love this book, too. It is deeply sad (as I imagine almost any book about Afghanistan might be), and examines the experience of two women, married to the same man, in an unapologetically violent, and misogynistic culture. It was absolutely heart-breaking to read, but beautifully written.

#15 The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield

Another intriguing mystery, which this time I didn’t manage to solve before the end of the book. In this novel, Vida Winter, an aging British writer, engages Margaret Lea, amateur biographer and daughter of a bookshop owner, to write Miss Winter’s biography. We find out that Miss Winter has long been spinning fantastic tales about her origins, none of which have been true, but as she nears the end of her life, she’s finally ready to reveal her story. Lots of gothic castles, ghost sightings, fires, and governesses in this one, as well as interesting questions about storytelling, narration, and truth. Definitely an enjoyable read.

If you made it this far, you deserve a sticker. So what do you think? Am I completely off my rocker, or do you agree with my assessments?

By the very fact that you’re here, you know that I write (yes, yes, not as much as I should, but I do try). The other side of that coin for me, as it is for most (probably all?) writers is that I am a compulsive reader. I’ve always been this way. As a child, I would read every opportunity I could get, and I especially hated that my mother wouldn’t let me read at the table. And now as an adult, I still do it. The backs of cereal boxes, random magazines in random doctors’ offices, fliers for things I have absolutely no interest in whatsoever, and of course books, oh, wonderful books. For a year after completing my graduate degree in English, I couldn’t read for fun. I couldn’t allow myself to simply fall into a good story and enjoy it. It was always about the analysis and the greater issues and never about the pure joy of reading. But after a year, I was able to shake that and return to that which led me to pursue Literature as a field of study in the first place. And now, as of the first of this year, I noticed a meme going around where people are trying to read 50 books in the year. And I thought, surely I typically read that many in a year…don’t I? I’ve never tracked the books I read (I use Goodreads only sporadically) and I figured it would be an interesting exercise to track and share what I’m reading with you, as I suspect there are many bibliophiles among you as well.

Here’s what I’ve finished so far:

1) Loving Frank by Nancy Horan: This one I didn’t love. Historical fiction is so hit or miss for me, and it’s typically more miss than hit. Although I enjoyed the interesting questions around women’s rights, I didn’t love any of the characters and felt that the book dragged on interminably. Anybody else read this and feel differently? I’d love to be persuaded otherwise.

2) Hold Love Strong by Matthew Aaron Goodman: This one I did love. I’m always a little concerned when a Caucasian writer attempts to write the story of a minority experience; however, I would like to imagine that Goodman’s own work and activism on behalf of the disenfranchised of New York might allow him some insight into poverty in the United States that most of us cannot possibly imagine. The main character, Abraham, is beautifully, compellingly written, and I loved him and all the other characters. A wonderful read in my estimation.

I’m onto my next one already, and I’ll keep you posted. In the meantime I would certainly enjoy hearing about what you’re reading, too, so do share.