We recently redecorated the living room and changed out the framed playbills on the wall. The only sensible way to do this obviously was to spread them out on the floor so we could see everything. No this is not all of them.
Desie and George helped for a while but eventually gave up.
This is a web that Mom and I found while exploring Cades Cove. The sunlight hit it just long enough for me to take this. I started to take another shot to make sure I had it and the moment had apparently passed. This small image really doesn't do it justice. Please click on it to get a better look. Or if you're at my apartment ask to see the original print!
At the moment it's completely covered with scaffolding like the windows. I know it needs to be cleaned once in a while, but it's kind of depressing.I’m sorry to anyone who has actually been waiting with bated breath to find out what I read next. I had a very bad cold that made it impossible for me to think, much less write. Anyway, after Midwives I picked up another Amy recommendation, Three Junes by Julia Glass.
Three Junes is made up of three stories that span ten years in the life of Fenno McLeod. The first story is told from the perspective of Fenno’s father Paul, who has gone on a trip to
I didn’t love the first and third parts, but I really enjoyed the middle, and longest, story about Fenno and Mal. Glass does an amazing job of painting her characters and their complex relationships; Fenno and his father, Fenno and his brothers, the brothers and their parents, Fenno and Mal. Three Junes is an excellent character study, allowing the reader to see Fenno from various angles and perspectives.
That is what I liked about the novel. My problem with the story was the tidy way in which each story wrapped up. Each story had the central character take a break from regular life, think over the life altering events of the past and realize how to move on and truly live life. Fenno’s story doesn’t wrap up quite so tightly, he’s not entirely healed when shows up again in Fern’s story, but he has learned his lesson about being afraid of life and love.
This comes across as very uneven, which is a pretty accurate picture of my thoughts. My opinions were all over the place while I was reading, but I think I finally came down on the side of really liking it. The language is beautiful and as I’ve said repeatedly, I love a good character study. I’d recommend it to anyone who has similar tastes.
After The Lovely Bones I moved on to Midwives by Chris Bohjalian which was lent to me by Amy. This may actually be the first time that I’ve read an official Oprah’s Book Club selection. I’m not saying that there’s anything the matter with it, but it’s interesting to me. In any case, it was good, not great, but a solidly good and interesting novel.
Midwives is the story of Sibyl Danforth, a midwife who is charged with murder after one of her patients dies in childbirth. It’s told through the eyes of Connie, Sibyl’s now adult daughter, as she looks back at the trial and the events leading up to it and tries to make sense of what happened.
There’s not a tremendous amount to analyze about the story. Like I said it was interesting and solidly written. Whether Sibyl should be held responsible for
Spoilers Follow
I can’t claim to be any kind of expert on the subject of childbirth, but it did seem to me that Sibyl’s actions were justified. Even though it does appear that
I have to say I was truly surprised when Sibyl was acquitted, as I’m sure I was supposed to be considering all the buildup leading me towards the opposite conclusion. The device of having Sibyl’s journal entries scattered throughout the story worked very well and the very last one had the appropriate impact and shock value.
Before finishing this I checked an archive of Oprah’s book club selections and found that I’m wrong. To date I have read 4 other book club books: The Deep End of the Ocean by Jacquelyn Mitchard, Gap Creek by Robert Morgan, As I Lay Dying by William Falkner, and White Oleander by Janet Fitch. Again, this is not to say that there is anything inherently wrong with Oprah’s book club, I just found it interesting.
While I was on vacation I borrowed The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold from Mom. I was intrigued by the book when it came out and even more interested after reading Sebold’s other book Lucky last year. Mom endorsed The Lovely Bones and I borrowed Lucky from Jenny who had borrowed it from Amy.
The Lovely Bones is about a young woman named Susie Salmon. After Susie is raped and murdered she watches her family and friends from heaven as they grieve and attempt to move on. Her father and sister attempt to catch her killer, her mother withdraws, and her brother is too young to understand what has happened.
For the most part I really enjoyed the story. It’s an intense character study that examines the nature and effects of grief. There’s no mystery, we know who killed Susie, but there is still suspense in wondering whether Mr. Harvey will get caught. I loved how realistically each of the family members was drawn. It was amazing watching each of them react to their loss in different ways. Sebold does a wonderful job of painting each person as a three dimensional character, including Mr. Harvey, he is not simply a monster, but a damaged man who I almost, but not quite, felt sorry for.
Spoiler Warning
The only thing that I did not like about the book was towards the end when Susie possesses the body of her friend Ruth and has sex with her childhood sweetheart. I felt like it didn’t fit well with the rest of the story. The lack of sentimentality is one of the major strengths of the book and this scene was awfully trite. That said, I thought the remainder of the book’s conclusion was perfect. Having Susie “kill” Mr. Harvey with an icicle was an excellent way to close his story. It shows a lot of restraint to allow him to disappear and not tie the loose ends too neatly. It was enough for Mr. Salmon to know that he was right.
The Lovely Bones is yet another book that is being made into a movie and interestingly enough Saoirse Ronan, who is playing Lina in City of
I mentioned earlier that reading Sebold’s memoir Lucky is what made me interested in The Lovely Bones. Lucky details the story of her rape and the aftermath as she attempts to recover and move on. I can’t say that I enjoyed it, but it was incredibly moving and beautifully written. However, I have to warn anyone thinking about picking it up that the first chapter is very graphic and disturbing. I don’t want to talk anyone out or reading it because I thought it was amazing, but the reason that Jenny gave it to me to read is that she couldn’t make it past the first couple of pages.
Anyway, I don’t think that it’s necessary to read both, but I do think that they certainly inform each other. I always enjoy reading about writer’s lives to see where real life and fiction overlap. For example reading My Losing Season by Pat Conroy was fascinating since he writes so much from his own experiences. I saw characters in many of the real life people he described and it was interesting to see the real events that are mirrored in his books. Also I’ve mentioned before that I like to read about the writer’s process.
After I finished reading Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close I decided that I needed to read Jonathan Safran Foer’s first book Everything is Illuminated. For once no one suggested the book; I managed to pick it out all on my own.
Everything Is Illuminated is another about a young man, also named Jonathan Safran Foer, who travels to the
Alex’s letters and chapters are very amusing and his imperfect English is convincing. I enjoyed his evolution over the course of the book. I was less thrilled with Jonathan’s chapters. The story of Trachimbrod was both funny and tragic, but it was also odd and occasionally difficult to follow. I know it was purposefully surreal, but sometimes it was gratuitously so.
In general I liked the book, but it didn’t come close to the brilliance of Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close. I felt like this was Foer’s warm up novel where he worked out the kinks in his technique. Both books have similar themes and a similar style, but I think Foer’s second attempt is more effective. I’m interested in checking out the movie if only because I can’t imagine how it could work.
On a different but related topic, I recently read about a book called 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die by Peter Boxall on LibraryThing. I don’t know that I’ll strive to read them all, but I think the book sound interesting and it could be a good way to find new books to read. Someone on the site has created a handy spreadsheet to check off the books you’ve read and has equations that indicate what percentage that is and how many of them you’d have to read a year to read them all before you die. In case anyone is curious, I’ve read 46 of the books, which is 4.6% and I would have to read an average of 18 a year to read them all before I die. That’s just a bit morbid, isn’t it?
Lists like this must be taken for what they are, someone’s opinion, but I enjoy reading them anyway. I’m interested in looking at the book to see the reasoning behind putting some books on the list. For example, I'm surprised that The Shining is included, but not The Stand, which I think is far superior, not only as far as King’s novels, but also as a book in general. Of course I also would place Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close on the list instead of Everything is Illuminated. Anyway, I’m interested in learning more about the books that I’ve never heard of and I’m always looking for something new to read.
When I was a kid I had a hamster named Possum who looked strikingly similar to this cat toy. I love it, but no matter how hard I tried I could not make Desie interested in it. In desperation I put it on her head hoping to annoy her into playing, but instead she took it in stride and modeled her new hat like the pro that she is.
