Rules of Civility

I am so far behind in writing about what I've been reading that I thought I'd just start with the most recent and add things in as I get time.  I think it's because sometimes I'm in the mood to talk about books -- and at others, I'm just in the mood to read one after another, in a haze of characters and settings and the continuing mental travel and reading affords.

So here's the book I finished last night: Rules of Civility by Amor Towles.  I found it on the new book shelf at the library, and picked it up based on the cover and the flap but without knowing much about it.  It's set in 1939 in New York, so there's a pervasive sense of life in the big city.  The main character, Katie Kontent (that name made me want to gag every time, it was so K-K-Kute), is a young single woman working in the secretarial pool at a big city law firm, while finding her way into the social world of the young, monied folk.  The story starts with a suggested competitive triangle between her friend Eve and the handsome Tinker, and then a car crash takes place that changes everything. 

So far so good, right?  Promising premise.  It had a vague F. Scott Fitzgerald feel to the story, and the delicious promise of moral doom to come.  But despite a variety of good reviews on Amazon and elsewhere (which I've read since finishing the book), it just feel flat for me.  It hit one of my pet peeves: male authors writing about women from a woman's point of view and just missing things badly.  The tone and the voice was all wrong and it just felt, well, MALE for this woman's voice.  There was a coldness to all of the characters that prevented me from caring much about any of them. 

And that turning point of the car accident?  Yes, the plot line took a turn, sort of, but it was relayed so remotely that it ended up feeling almost irrelevant, more as if the author decided he didn't want to write about the triad any more so he tried to think of a device to separate them.

I was disappointed in this.  You can tell, yes?  Really, if you're tempted to read something like this, go read Fitzgerald again.  It's far better use of time.

Book Cataloging sites

Do you keep track of the books you read?  And if so, do you use an online cataloging site?

I've kept track of the books I've read since I was a kid.  Back when we were in elementary school my sister and I started listing the books we read -- an offshoot from one of our favorite games, "Library."  (Almost all of our childhood picture books have crayon-drawn library "stamps" from when we took turns checking books in and out and recording them accordingly.)  For years, I kept notebooks and dutifully recorded what I'd read, the date I finished it, and my personal rating for it.

But some point some years ago I came across LibraryThing and GoodReads.  Being the exploratory and book-obsessed person that I am, I signed up for both of them and have used them both intermittently.  They are both online cataloging systems, where you can not only keep track of your own "have read, am reading, want to read" lists, but also see what others are reading too.

Lest you think it's odd to catalog books online, there are actually a lot of good reasons to explore these sites.  You can remind yourself of what you've read, and look back to see your own reading patterns, pace, etc.  You can find other readers who like the same sorts of things you do, and you can get book recommendations based on what you've already read.  You can read and write reviews, and keep an easily accessible list (say, from your Iphone when you're standing in the library or a bookstore trying to remember what it was you wanted to look for) of what you want to read.


I've loved both sites, for different reasons.  But really, I'm thinking it's kind of silly to be using both. So which one to choose?

The Gun Seller

I was browsing in a Waterstone's bookstore when we were in England on vacation, and stumbled on "The Gun Seller" by actor Hugh Laurie.  You probably know Laurie from "House" on TV, and maybe the BBC series "Jeeves and Wooster."  My husband adores "House" (me, I can't take the arrogant snarkiness of the main character) and I knew he'd just finished the novel he was reading, so I picked this up for him.

And, after he read it, he raved so much that I ended up reading it too. And my conclusion?  Quite good, very entertaining, a twisty engrossing plot, and great humor.  The plot involves Thomas Lang, ex-officer of the Scots Guard, who has been approached and asked to murder a man for a huge amount of money.  Not only does Lang turn the offer down; he sets out to warn the intended murder victim that someone is offering money to kill him.  Of course, complications ensue, not the least of which is Lang's fascination with the man's daughter, and everyone's assumption that he is in fact trying to kill Lang.  The story connects up art and the military industrial complex and terrorists and romance, all with high wit and genuinely skillful writing. 

It was a great find, and I hope Laurie writes more.

The Uncommon Reader

Imagine, if you will, that a bookmobile visits Buckingham Palace once a week, and on one of those visits the Queen pops in and borrows a book. This is the delightful premise of Alan Bennett's short novel "The Uncommon Reader." It is a charming and funny story of how the Queen's new-found love of reading affects those around her.

Bennett portrays the Queen as wry, intelligent, impatient, and increasingly obsessed with reading. She hides books behind the cushions in the royal carriage and figures out how to hold a book below window ledge level so she can read during processions and keep on waving. Her reactions to various books is very entertaining ('Am I alone,' she confides in her notebook, 'in wanting to give Henry James a good talking-to?' ) but even more entertaining is the discomfort of those around her as the Queen's interest in reading increases. She begins to ask visitors "What are you reading?" at royal events, thereby slowing the receiving lines and causing visitors to panic.

This is a very fun little book ( more like a long short story, really) and well with reading, especially for lovers of books about books. Pour yourself a cup of tea and indulge in this entertaining story.

Summer Vacation Reading, 2011

I'm sorry that this blog has been so silent over the last weeks. I've been having all sorts of wonderful travels and vacation fun, and sitting down to blog has not been a priority. And that's a healthy thing, I figure-- real life should always come before blogging.

But I have of course been reading all the while so I thought I'd jump back in with a short summary of what I've been reading, I should add the disclaimer that when I'm on vacation, I usually read light fluffy stuff. So I know full well that my reading material of late isn't exactly challenging literary material. That said, it was good vacation reading,

Sister by Rosamund Lupton

When Beatrice's younger sister is found dead in an abandoned shed in a London park, Beatrice becomes obsessed with finding out what happened to her, along the way, she discovers a lot she never knew about her sister, including participation in a mysterious drug trials and relationships about which she'd not known. Written as an ongoing letter to her sister, this novel is engrossing and beautifully written. It doesn't just provide a thrilling mystery-- it explores the idea of sisterhood and family. I really enjoyed this book and am looking forward to reading Lupton's new one.

Sweet Temptation by Lucy Diamond

Pure chick- lit fluff. I admit it up front. But Lucy Diamond is one of those good writers who creates characters with a bit more depth to them. Here, three strangers meet in a Weight Watchers-like group and become friends and change each other's lives. This is set in Birmingham, England which was especially fun as I was reading it while I was in Birmingham. I love that. I'm not sure if Lucy Diamond's books are available in the US, but if you like this sort of thing and are in the UK or Canada, I'd recommend giving her a go.

Tahoe Night by Todd Borg

Here's another instance of my choosing my reading material based on my location at the time. I was vacationing with family in Lake Tahoe and my brother- in-law reminded me of this Tahoe writer who sets his mysteries in the Tahoe area. In fact, he has a whole series, all with Tahoe in the title, about Lake Tahoe investigator Owen McKenna. In this one, a tv newscaster has suffered a string of horrifying events (a car crash that left her badly scarred, the death of her husband). McKenna is hired to protect her and stumbles into a painting forgery ring. These are not the best mysteries I've ever read, but the plots are entertaining and of course reading one while sitting at the beach at Lake Tahoe adds to the appeal. The characters are a bit flat, to be honest, but heck, I've read far worse.

Skipping a Beat by Sarah Pekkanen

High school sweethearts Julie and Michael have created more success for themselves than they ever imagined, She is a sought-after event planner; he owns a big sports beverage company. But Michael is starting to want a simpler life, and decides to give everything away to charity... And then he suddenly dies. Julie is left to sort out the practicalities of their life together, but also the implications of what their marriage truly was to her. This was enjoyable to read, thoughtfully written, and gave me a lot to think about.

The Rose Garden by Susanna Kearsley

I'm a sucker for time-travel novels that aren't too science fictiony, and this one suited me beautifully. It's the story of a woman who goes to Cornwall, to the old estate where she'd spent her childhood summers, to scatter the ashes of her recently deceased sister. While there, she experiences unusual time warps that return her to the estate several hundred years earlier. Not surprisingly, romance ensues. But even with the somewhat predictable plot, this was quite good. It didn't hurt that I was reading it while on vacation in England, either.

So, what do you consider good vacation reading? And what have you been reading lately?

The Provence Cure for the Brokenhearted

You know how you have some friends whose recommendations of books or movies are always spot-on for you?  You love what they love?  Well, I've found that some authors are like that for me -- and if they put a blurb on another author's book, chances are I'm going to like that book.  So when Joshilyn Jackson, whose novels I totally love, recommended "The Provence Cure for the Brokenhearted" blog, I knew I'd want to read it.  I downloaded it to my beloved Kindle, and it was my Easter weekend reading.

In this lovely, gentle novel, narrator Heidi is mourning the loss of her husband Henry two years after his death, and floundering as she tries to run her bakery and care for their young son. Her mother sends her to check on a family house in Provence, which has just suffered a small fire -- so Heidi's mission, on the surface, is to get the house repaired, and give herself, her son, and her teen-aged niece a new setting for a few weeks. But things are not as easy as Heidi imagines they will be. Upon arrival, all of their possessions are stolen. The house needs more work and will take longer to fix than she anticipated. Her niece has complications in her life that Heidi hadn't guessed. But the magic of Provence, and her family's longtime friends there, start to heal Heidi.

It's hard to lay out the bones of the plot without the story sounding sappy. But truly, this is not a sappy book. It's written lyrically with much humor, and you can just feel the Provence air and smell the lavender and baking pastries. I loved being in this world as I read the book, and so enjoyed accompanying them as their lives unfolded.

It's a beautiful and well-written book.

Something Missing

Well, I'll cut to the chase.  Something Missing by Matthew Dicks is a delightful and unusual novel.  It's not like anything else you've read, I promise.  But gosh, was it a fun and surprising read.

This novel follows Martin, a full-time thief who feels serious affection for his "clients," aka the people from whom he steals. His obsessive-compulsive disorder rules his careful theft, as Martin only those items that his clients won't miss.... two potatoes, a can of peaches, that extra bottle of laundry detergent.  And along the way, Martin stumbles into situations where he realizes he can help his clients.   And once he breaks his previously inviolate rule of remaining fully invisible, he doesn't just change his clients' lives -- he changes his own. 

I was sorry to see this novel end... and now I'm wondering about that extra can of diced tomatoes I was sure was in the cupboard...

Motor Mouth

I've read all of Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum mysteries, and they are always good for a fun and fast mystery.  But I'd never read any of her other books, and decided to give "Motor Mouth" a try when I found it at the library.  Her heroine, Barnaby, is a mechanic on a NASCAR driver's crew, and finds herself embroiled in a wild series of events.  While trying to help a friend, she discovers a dead body, which leads to stealing a truck, which leads to discovering new, coveted computer chip technology that can change racing, which leads to ... Well, you get the idea.  There is more silliness than actual serious plot, but the story rolls along in such an entertaining way that I didn't mind.  Yep, you have to suspend your disbelief a bit, but it's worth it for the sheer escapist fun.

This was a good sunny weather read.  I'm going to go see if there are other Barnaby mysteries, since I think this wasn't the first.

This is Where We Live

Here's another novel from the library "new book" shelf, "This Is Where We Live" by Janelle Brown.  And where they live is Los Angeles, on a hillside with a beautiful view, in a cute bungalow.  The "We" are a fledgling director, right off of a surprising success at Sundance, and her rock musician husband, whose new band is almost done with its first, promising album.  Their lives are on the rise, and their house symbolizes all they hope to be in this exciting city.  But that earthquake in the first chapter?  Yep, it's promises shake-ups to come.

We see Claudia's successful first film sink without a trace, leaving her wondering what to do next.  We see Jeremy's band start to fall apart, as his buddies realize that it isn't really what they envisioned doing with their lives.  The mortgage market starts to crumble, leaving them uncertain about how to -- or whether they can -- stay in their house.  What can they sacrifice to pursue their creative dreams?  Do they even want to pursue their dreams of directing and music success? 

In some ways, this novel puts you in the middle of your fears -- losing your job, potentially losing your home, having to do any job you can get to keep going -- while you wonder what is truly important in your life.  But this isn't a dreary novel, and even while it addresses the possibility of descent into literal and emotional insecurity, it does so with a grace and lightness that makes this book enjoyable.

I enjoyed this and found as I neared the end that I didn't want to put it down.

The Life You Want

I don't remember how I found Emily Barr as an author.  Probably I pulled a book of the "new book" shelf at the library.  But I do remember that I loved her writing right away, and was struck by how she could tell a story in a way that seemed different from the way anyone else would tell it.  That's not much of a description, ,I know, but I came away thinking of her as one of those authors whose books I would seek out and read because I trusted her skill.

This past week, I read "The Life You Want" by Emily Barr.  First, isn't the cover beautiful?  I love the cover and the book it promises.  There is something so appealing about that pinky-sherbet color, and the flying birds, and of course the expressive posture of the woman.

Anyway.  I loved this.  It's the story of Tansy, a thirty-something wife and mother of two small kids stifling under the weight of her suburban mommy life in London.  She's pining for the life she and her husband once had, backpacking freely in third-world countries and loving their freedom.  Suddenly, she finds herself presented with the opportunity to travel to India, without husband and kids, to help out a friend in need.

It sounds somewhat predictable, doesn't it?  But that's the wonder of Emily Barr's talent.  It's not predictable at all.  Tansy's character is all too human (slipping wine into her teacup to hide her drinking in the afternoons, flirting dangerously with a handsome teacher), but she's real and funny and understandable.  When she finds herself in the middle of something she doesn't understand, she begins to question everything.  What she wants... what she had .. what she thought she wanted.

It's an engrossing novel.

"The Rich Part of Life"

"The day we won the lottery I was wearing wax lips that my father had bought for the Nose Picker and me at a truck stop."  That's the opening sentence of The Rich Part of Life: A Novelby Jim Kikoris, and it was the wax lips that pulled me right in when I read this standing at the bookshelf at the library.  Remember those big red wax lips that used to be in the stores around Halloween?  Instant flash to childhood.

Eleven-year-old Teddy narrates this story, in which his quiet, withdrawn father buys a single lottery ticket and suddenly places the family into a whirlwind of unexpected events.  Relatives appear from out of the wodwork.  Teddy learns about his mother, who died a year ago, and watches as his father begins to open up and to date (the mother of his arch-enemy at school).  A soap-opera vampire appears on their doorstep and becomes a part of their lives.  The lovely -- and unexpected--  part of this story is that the lottery winnings provide a focal point for everyone around Teddy and his family, while all Teddy's father wants to do is retreat to his grief and his Civil War history. 

So the novel is really about family, and expectations, and remembering what the world looks like from a child's point of view.  It was funny, and sweet, and poignant and I'm glad I found this.

The City of Dreaming Books

 

A year or so ago I was browsing in a bookstore and came across Walter Moers' 13 1/2 Lives of Captain Bluebear which I bought for Caroline.  To be honest, I don't remember what it was about that book that made me think she'd like it, but it did look like her sort of thing (maybe it was the description of it as "a zany, fun-for-all ages odyssey" with a rough comparison to Harry Potter.  And if there's anything Caroline likes, it's zany.  She lapped it right up and asked if the author had written any more books.  I found and ordered a few more of his books, and The City of Dreaming Books was one of them.

Caroline read that when it came, and of course I was attracted to it myself -- a cover full of books, a title about a CITY of books, and a back cover that started like this:

Optimus Yarnspinner has inherited from his godfather an unpublished manuscript by an unknown writer.  He sets off to track down the mysterious author, who disappeared into Bookholm -- the so-called "City of Dreaming Books."  Yarnspinner falls under the spell of this book-obsessed metropolis, where an avid reader and budding author can find any number of charming attractions ... 

And yes, it was described as "another zany adventure" -- so recently when I'd exhausted my pile of library books, I picked it up.  And oh, was I delighted.

It's hard to describe this book.  It's so witty, with endless jokes and satirical references to the world of books and publishing and writing.  But it's a rip-roaring adventure, too, with a trip into the book-filled catacombs beneath the city where book-related monsters of all sizes and types lurk.  

I found myself reading this book slowly, savoring the clever and enjoyable prose.  I loved, for example, the description of the smell of  Bookholm:

You can smell the place from a long way off.  It reeks of old books.  It's as if you've opened the door of a gigantic second-hand bookshop -- as if you've stirred up a cloud of unadulterated book dust and blown the detritus from millions of mouldering volumes straight into your face.  There are folks who dislike that smell and turn on their heel as soon as it assails their nostrils.  It isn't an agreeable odour, granted.  Hopelessly antiquated, it is eloquent of decay and dissolution, mildew and mortality.  But it also has other associations:  a hint of acidity reminiscent of lemon trees in flower; the stimulating scent of old leather; the acrid, intelligent pang of printer's ink; and, overlying all else, a reassuring aroma of wood.  ... Ah yes, my intellectually inquisitive friends, you too can smell it now, the odor of forgotten knowledge and age-old traditions of craftsmanship.

See?  There is prose to linger over, word play to love, and a story that makes you want to race forward to see what happens next.  

 

I just loved this. 

Fruit of the Lemon

I picked this book, Fruit of the Lemon by Andrea Levy, off of the library shelf last week, and it looked promising and different from the mainstream genre books.  It's the story of Faith, a woman born in England of parents who emigrated from Jamaica.  With first-person narration, we learn the story of Faith's life in England, how she grew up never hearing about her parents' life in Jamaica, and becoming aware of the way racial prejudices affect her life.  I liked Faith's voice and I was impressed at how beautifully Levy kept the feeling of the story light and even funny at times, while simultaneously addressing serious issues.

And then Faith's parents decide that they want to return to Jamaica, and Faith takes a trip there for her first experience of Jamaican life and culture.  Great jumping off point, right?  I had high hopes.  But for me, here's where the novel lost focus.  Faith's voice, so clear in the first half of the novel, was diluted by sections in which the stories of Faith's Jamaican relatives were told to Faith.  If only Levy had shown us Faith discovering these aspects of Jamaican life in a more natural way -- this structure only frustrated me, as it took me away from the narrator I'd come to care about AND seemed so heavy-handed in the way it dumped out different character's histories at me.

Sadly, the part I wanted the most -- Faith's reactions to the new place, her new sense of her own history, and how that made her view and approach her parents differently -- was not really shown in this book.  The novel ends, in fact, with Faith stepping off of the plane when she returns to England so you never get to see Faith interact with her immediate family afterwards.  But I wanted to see her family dynamic, rich now with her sense of where her parents came from, unfold with the same skillful writing that set up the family dynamic in the first half of the book.

I've noticed this a lot -- the first half of a book will be good, but the second half just slides away.  I wonder -- did the author have to submit half of the novel to get the publishing contract, and didn't put as much work into the second half?  Or did the author get tired of the story and want to just wrap up fast and move on to another?  Most probably, it's that it's easier to build a good premise than it is to maintain that complex balance of character and plot as the story comes to a conclusion. 

At any rate, here's my summary:  good premise, skillful writing, but the second half of the novel didn't live up to the first half.

Secrets of Eden

In the past, I've considered Chris Bohjalian one of my favorite "go to" authors when I want something to read that will engross me and surprise me and offer me something a big different.  I loved Law of Similars and Midwives. 

So I started this book with eagerness and confidence that I was headed for a good reading ride.  And, I'm sorry to report, I was disappointed.  The plot itself held promise.  Alice and her husband have been found dead -- presumably she was strangled by her husband and in a presumed fit of drunken remorse, he then shot himself.  But as details about the scene of the bodies emerge, it appears that perhaps someone else shot the husband.  And so the mystery unfolds.

Partly it was the tone of the different narrators in the book.  None of the narrators -- Alice's minister and friend, the DA charged with overseeing the investigation of the deaths, an angel-seeing spiritualist ,and Alice's daughter -- are particularly likable.  In fact, the minister was cold and distant and almost smug at times, and Catherine, the DA was even worse, bitter and crudely portrayed.  I never really understood why the spiritualist was even in the story, except to muddy the waters a bit.  There's a point, to me, where the plot itself just won't carry me forward if I don't care about any of the characters.

I'm getting very tired of the tactic of having the narrator shift through the novel.  I get that it allows you to get inside the heads of different characters, and that it makes the point that one incident can look very different from different perspectives.  Bohjalian did it beautifully in Law of Similars and Midwives, and Jodi Picoult is another author who has used it well.  But in their early novels, it was a relatively new (or at least not commonly used) device.  Now it just feels tiresome.  Mr. Bohjalian, I think you're a very good writer.  But this shifting narrators thing feels formulaic and lazy now.  We get the point.  Try sticking to one character and see if you can tell a story that way.  (You too, Ms. Picoult.)

So here's my summary.  Promising plot, less interesting characters, and an annoyingly predictable ending.  It's like Bohjalian has made a template from some of his other novels and used it again to just fill in the blanks. 

Darn.  I expected and wanted something better.

Such a Pretty Face

Cathy Lamb is one of those authors whose books I open with the knowledge that I'm going to be in for a great reading experience.  And her newest novel, "Such a Pretty Face," did not disappoint me.

Stevie Barrett is quirky, funny, and in deep pain.  She has a new body and new sense of health, thanks to major weight loss after bariatric surgery; she has a confusing history of childhood with a schizophrenic mother, an abusive uncle, loving grandparents and crazy cousins.  She has a pile of medical bills, and works as a paralegal and dancing chicken to pay them off.  Her journey to accept herself and cope with the truth about her family form the core of this novel.

But it's not as sad or grim as it sounds.  Lamb creates a likable and admirable character, and infuses a great deal of humor into these serious subjects.

I loved this book, and can't wait for Cathy Lamb's next one.

I should have been a librarian

I read incessantly.  I love to read novels and magazines and art books and, well, pretty much any kind of book.  And I love to read what others have to say about books.  I read book reviews, and blogs about books, and blogs about book reviews about books... well, you get the idea.

Seeing as how I'm reading so much and telling others what I've read, I thought I'd collect all those things here in one comfy book-filled place.  So pull up a comfy chair, get a mug of coffee or tea, and let's talk books!