A Reliable Wife

I have a love-hate relationship with the neighborhood book club. Basically, I love the snacks and hate most of the selected books.

Actually “hate” is too strong a word since I don’t manage to get around to reading most of the books. If the selection is too scholarly or lengthy, I won’t even seek out a copy at the library. I have far more important things to do, like catch up on “Real Housewives” marathons.

And if a book doesn’t grab me at the start, I don’t feel compelled to keep reading it (which is why I’m still not even 50 pages into The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo; I keep hoping I’ll be stranded somewhere long enough that I’ll have no choice but to get to the parts that I’m promised will suck me into the story).

So when my neighbor offered me her library copy of this month’s selection, I figured I’d page through it, then pass it along to someone more worthy. I sure didn’t expect to be sucked in so much that I finished it over one evening and morning, reading pretty much nonstop. It certainly helped that it was written in true “potboiler” style, but the characters turned out to be compelling, too.

A Reliable Wife by Robert Goolrick involves the arranged marriage of Ralph Truitt, a wealthy small-town businessman in turn-of-the-century Wisconsin who advertises for “a reliable wife, compelled by practical, not romantic reasons.” Catherine Lands answers the ad – but this is no Sarah, Plain and Tall. Both Ralph and Catherine have sordid pasts that contributed to their desperate present circumstances. While Ralph is forthcoming about the good, bad and (very) ugly of his history, Catherine is nothing close to how she has presented herself to her new spouse.

The narrative moves along at a good clip, so I won’t go into the plot any further. I will say, however, that the author does a very good job of presenting very complete characters. The reader isn’t thoroughly repulsed by character faults and weaknesses, and character development comes about very organically. Ralph, Catherine, and others who play heavily in the story have nothing to recommend them, but we are led to understand and accept why they are as they are, and how their traits and experiences influence the story.

It was also very interesting to read what could be loosely considered an historical romance that’s written by a man, not a woman. Sex plays heavily in this story, and it’s not the romance-driven sex of your typical bodice-ripper; nor is it a Victorian-era “Penthouse.” It is the blunt, sometimes graphic viewpoint of a typical male, and as a reader who isn’t into romance as a genre, I found that refreshing.

From a historical standpoint, the author was inspired by works about madness running rampant through small towns in the early 20th century. In an era of both innovation and desperation, people from all walks of life were drawn to unspeakable acts. I’m now interested in delving deeper into this time period; the author’s note mentions a book that inspired the novel’s setting, and I plan to check it out.

Best of all, this month at book club I won't be the attitude problem in the corner, hoarding the snacks.

Room

By Emma Donoghue  336 pages, winner of Amazon.com's Best of the Month, Sept 2010.

This book is very hard to put down.  It is the story of a young boy, 5 years old, who is held captive with his mother in an old shack behind the house of their captor.  We learn he is the product of a rape, and his mother does everything in her power to allow him to be as normal as possible given the circumstances.

This story is full of painful moments, but it is told through such an innocent voice. So many things that we take for granted, such as the feel of the breeze, are foreign for Jack, the narrator, and when they finally escape from their captor, a whole new world of dangers and problems arise.

It is an amazing story of survival, courage, and most of all, a mother's love.  Highly recommend!!

Freedom by Jonathan Franzen

I'd enjoyed Jonathan Franzen's first book, "The Corrections," so I thought I'd read his next. Good choice.

This was the story of two people who needed to tear themselves apart before they could be together. It's also a story of family, diverse backgrounds and ways of life.

I have more fun reading the books than talking about them; that's why I won't join a book club, even though my friend has been pestering me to join hers forever! At least here, I can say as much or as little as I want.

The Writing Circle.. by Corinne Demas

Just finished this last night.  I loved the book, the characters were vivid and engaging.  The plot was well thought out and well executed, but (you knew there was a but in there, didn't you?) I was not happy with the ending.  I won't give anything away, but I closed the book feeling like I missed something, or more aptly, was left hanging.  There were too many ends which remained loose, too many questions unanswered for the novel to feel finished.

Overall, however, I would recommend it. 

Beth's Summer Reading Extravaganza

OK. So I read a LOT this summer. It felt so GOOD to read so MUCH. In previous summers, I was plowing through graduate school, so I was doing a lot of reading, but not much that others would enjoy.

But THIS summer!!!

So here's a list, along with a sentence or two about my impressions:

1. "Bad Mother: A Chronicle of Maternal Crimes, Minor Calamities, and Occasional Moments of Grace," by Ayelet Waldman. This is a collection of essays over all things motherhood. Waldman is known for her plain speaking about motherhood, both the good and the bad. One of the things she wrote about that really resonated with me was that we need to be the parents our children need us to be, not the parents that we wish we were or that we wished we had when we were kids. I have to keep that in mind all the time, because I'm all getting worked up over some perceived injustice regarding my kids that my kids don't really care about. So I have to restrain myself.

2. "Medical Apartheid: The Dark History of Medical Experimentation on Black Americans From Colonial Times to the Present," by Harriet M. Washington. I decided to read this book after reading "The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks," which I reviewed previously. This book upset me SO MUCH. What in the hell makes people think it's OK to experiment on black people just because they're black? I was just stunned and shocked and pissed off.

3. "Columbine" by Dave Cullen. Another book that made me angry. The day that the Columbine shootings happened, I was six months' pregnant with Kyle. I am not pro-homeschooling for many reasons, but that day, that instant, I thought that all I wanted to do was keep my son in my house and not let him out for any reason whatsoever. This book was written with a journalist's eye and a lot of what I learned surprised me.

4. "My Horizontal Life" by Chelsea Handler. This was a desperation book. I had tried to read something by Sarah Vowell and it wasn't happening. So I read this one. I had heard that Chelsea Handler was hilarious, but I didn't really feel it with this book. It was OK.

5-7. "Poppy Done to Death," "Last Scene Alive," and "A Fool and His Honey," by Charlaine Harris. These are very light reading books, from the Aurora Teagarden series. They're mysteries and fairly enjoyable.

8. "Theater Geek: The Real Life Drama of a Summer at Stagedoor Manor, the Famous Performing Arts Camp: by Mickey Rapkin. This was pretty interesting. He basically gave the history of this drama camp, as well as followed some campers during their summer there. I enjoyed it.

9. "Pitch Perfect: The Quest for Collegiate A Cappella Glory" by Mickey Rapkin. A chronicle of four or so a cappella groups as they travel to nationals. Entertaining.

10. "The Accidental Billionaires: The Founding of Facebook: A Tale of Sex, Money, Genius and Betrayal" by Ben Mezrich. Follows the founding of Facebook from the college dorm room where it all began. It's a more complicated story than you'd think. It's relevant because the legal battle is still going on.

11. "Medium Raw: A Bloody Valentine to the World of Food and the People Who Cook" by Anthony Bourdain. Yum! This was a collection of essays by Bourdain. I liked it, although I wanted MORE. He talked about a dinner he was invited to at a restaurant with a bunch of famous chefs. But he didn't talk about the chefs themselves or what they said.

12. "The Demon in the Freezer: A True Story" by Richard Preston. Preston relates the story of the summer of the anthrax attacks. Fascinating.

13. "The Cobra Event" by Richard Preston. OK. Preston is known for writing non-fiction about weird illnesses and biological terrorism and stuff. So I bought this book and started reading it, thinking it was the same as his others. Except I didn't recall any of these events happening. Yep, it was total fiction. Good thing, because it was damn scary. I liked it, though.

14. "Shiprocked: Life on the Waves with Radio Caroline" by Steve Conroy. I watched "Pirate Radio" about the pirate radio ships in the international waters off Britain and wanted to know more (the movie is really good, BTW). This book served as a reference of sorts to the people who made the movie. It was interesting, although I would like a little more background to the whole thing, some history.

15. "The Raven: The Untold Story of the Rev. Jim Jones and His People," by Tim Reiterman. I am fascinated by cults. I always wonder how people fall for that crap. Well, now I know. As I started reading this HUGE book, I was thinking, "Hmmm. Jones' ideas sound pretty good to me." He advocated socialism, which I'm actually a fan of, but then it turned ugly. Whenever you involve people, a pure idea always gets turned. Anyway, the whole thing was horrifying, but incredibly interesting. Sort of like a car wreck that you can't turn away from.

16. "Whip It by Shauna Cross. I love the movie, and this is the novel upon which it was based. It's very, very close to the movie, so it was OK. I would love to find a non-fiction book about roller derby. That's really what I was looking for.

The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake

by Aimee Bender

Can a book be pretty good, but at the same time make you feel pretty bad? What an oxymoron, but that’s exactly what I thought as I read this novel. It pulls you in with its intriguing story line. You get pulled into the world of the pessimistic little girl, Rose, whose point of view the story is told from. Rose finds out on her ninth birthday that she has an unusual gift (or curse). She can taste feelings and emotions in her food. She knows immediately how the person preparing the food felt. She tastes sadness, depression, anger, loneliness and occasionally she can taste their joy. Its one thing to identify with someone’s emotions, but it’s a whole different thing to actually feel what they are feeling. The reader is swept up in waves of emotions right along with little Rose.

The characters in Rose’s family are an engaging bunch. There is her hardworking but distant father, her flighty mother, a sullen and mysterious older brother and her out of state grandmother who seems to be mailing her entire life away piece by piece. Rose, as a child, has to deal with all the emotional turmoil going inside each of them, understanding more about her parent’s true emotions and feelings in each of their relationships than any child should.

This seems to be a novel without an ending. There is no resolution or final wrap up. Things are just they way they are. It’s a journey and for awhile, you get to travel along with Rose on her journey and feel what she feels. She pulls you in as she deals with her unusual ability while juggling, school, friendships, work, and of course love over the years. Then the novel ends and you are still there - - feeling all emptiness and sadness long after the final page and in a weird way, wishing the journey wasn’t over quite so soon. The novel challenges you to think about those around you and what their true feelings may be under the mask of the smile on their face. It makes you examine your own life and your own relationships and try to taste the underlying flavors of the people that surround you every day.

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society

By Mary Ann Shaffer and Anne Barrows.  Dial Press, 279 pages

This was a tough book for me to get into, because it is unconventional in its presentation.  This story unfolds through letters written to and from the main characters.  Much like keeping the time-frame correct when reading THE TIME TRAVELERS WIFE, you need to be cognizant of the author of each letter, as well as its intended recipient.  There are holes in the story, which one would expect if only reading letters between people, and this made me a bit confused at times.

The story is, however, very worth the effort.  Its a lovely sliver of a view into the lives of people who lived on the island during the German occupation, their survival, and how they, through it all, never lost their sense of community, or their sense of humor.  There were times I laughed out loud at some of the exchanges.  I'd recommend this for times when you have both the energy and time to devote to getting into it.

The Island

by Elin Hilderbrand

I love this author - the penultimate in summer reading!  Her books are easy, fun, with dreamy settings in Nantucket that make this displaced Yankee long for summers by the rocky shores of Massachusetts.  In this latest novel, we see a weaving of four independent stories into one.  With a 3rd person omniscient point of view, we become voyeuers into their most private thoughts, and this leads to some very engaging chapters!

At its heart is a love story, or more accurately, four love stories.  There are some surprises throughout, there are areas of predictability, but overall this is a supremely satisfying summer read!  I loved it, and was very sorry to see the story end. 

Just Let Me Lie Down...

A very funny "dictionary" for working moms.  Written by the editor of REAL SIMPLE magazine (my all time favorite magazine E.V.E.R) she gathers together some commonly known terms (Getting to YES) and gives them definitions for the working mom.. or the mom who has committed herself to enough things that she is nearly crazed with stuff to do. 

The book is filled with quips and stories that will have you laughing out loud while nodding in agreement with her.  Seriously - I'd love to have a cocktail or two with this woman; I believe we are kindred spirits and would be life-long friends.

One of my favorites (or, one that is short enough to fit into this blog):  Technological Bipolarism: When you wake up in the morning and can't imagine how you would get through life without your Blackberry, but by bedtime you want to strap a bomb to it and blow it to smithereens.

Grab a cup of coffee, or a glass of wine.. this is worth savoring and is perfect for a good laugh.

Summer People

Again, I will say - I love Elin Hilderbrand!  Her books all have interesting and flawed characters, and her stories just flow.  They are easy, entertaining reads with enough romance and/or intrigue to keep you turning pages until the end.  

 

SUMMER PEOPLE is a term used by those who live in Nantucket year round, to describe the people who "come to the island, use it, and then leave".  It describes the main character's actions with people in her life, as well... she takes what she needs from them and moves on.  Only this time, she is faced with the consequences of her actions and the wake of those consequences.

It was a fun read - the characters didn't go where I wanted them to, but the novel was good, easy, entertaining.  It's a summer read - take what you need from it and move on...

Zeitoun

I just finished this book two days ago and am still thinking about it. I could not put it down and read the whole thing in 2 days. "Zeitoun" in a non-fiction novel following one family's experience living through hurricane Katrina in 1995. As I am not the most eloquent writer, I am including a review I felt summed up the feels I had about "Zeitoun":

"Imagine Charles Dickens, his sentimentality in check but his journalistic eyes wide open, roaming New Orleans after it was buried by Hurricane Katrina. He would find anger and pathos. A dark fable, perhaps. His villains would be evil and incompetent, even without Heckuva-Job-Brownie. In the end, though, he would not be able to constrain himself; his outrage might overwhelm the tale." TIMOTHY EGAN, New York Times

The Castaways

I love Elin Hilderbrand.  I have read many of her books over the last several summers - her books are the quintessential summer read.  Despite growing up in Connecticut, I have never been to Nantucket, but am quite familiar with its appeal and its lore, so I get a kick out of references to this magical (if too populated) island.   This story is a bit jumbled, however - the events take place chronologically after the death of the couple, but each surviving member of the group has his/her own sections which vascillate between flashback and current time.  I did find it challenging to track the love-triangles between the friends,  but all in all this was a fun, easy, perfect summer read.  I just prefer my summer reads to be, at times, even more brain-free than this one required of me.  I look forward to reading SUMMER PEOPLE by this author while I await my copy of FLY AWAY HOME by my other favorite summer author - Jennifer Weinner.

Best Friends Forever

After devouring the GIRL series that Beth has already reviewed, I needed something light, easy, fun and girly.  Jennifer Weiner never disappoints in that way - Her characters are never perfect, they are folks to whom you can relate easily, and her stories are fun. 

Beach Reading.. she is perfect for summer!

This story was fun, if not rather predictable.  However, even with its predictability, it is an enjoyable read from start to finish. 

Perhaps it is a kinship I feel with the author - we are the same age, and she grew up in the tiny neighboring town to mine in Connecticut.  The first book of hers I read endeared her to me from the start when she described places I knew all too well. 

Her stories will not inspire political debate, or hotly contested points of view, but if you want a feel-good, fun read, I'd highly recommend any of her books. 

Her latest, Fly Away Home, comes out this month, and I am anxious to download it!

The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest

This is the final novel in Stieg Larsson's "The Girl Who..." series. Larsson was found dead in his apartment  in 2004. I believe from the ending of this novel, he did not intend on stopping the series here, but sadly, that is what happened.

If you remember correctly, it took me a while to get into "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo." With "The Girl Who Played With Fire," I was invested from the get-go.

"The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest" required a lot more concentration and took a lot more out of me in the end.

It is, in essence, a spy story. I like those types of stories when I actually read them, but they're not my first choice. I've read three or four spy novels for my graduate classes in the past -- Graham Greene, John LeCarre, and James Clavell.

In all spy novels -- this one included -- I am completely befuddled until right before the big reveal happens in the book. I think that is the most amazing part of reading -- that an author whom you have never met before can manipulate your thoughts and bring you to where he or she is going.

This novel is tedious and takes its time getting to the point. But the end courtroom scenes are worth the trouble. I literally wanted to yell, "Hell, yeah!" when the climax of the scene happened.

The novel again involves Lisbeth Salander and Mikael Blomkvist. It picks up exactly where "The Girl Who Played with Fire" left off.

You need to have staying power if you're going to read these books. Larsson isn't going to hand you the story on a silver platter. He is going to parcel it out at an excruciatingly slow pace. I hated him for that, but in the end, I was smiling.

As a side note, this was the first novel that I pre-ordered from Amazon.com for my Kindle. Simply amazing. I ordered the novel about six weeks ago. It was due to come out on May 25. On May 25, I woke up around 2 a.m. and couldn't go back to sleep. I got up and checked my e-mail; Amazon had sent me a receipt for the novel. So I decided to turn on the wireless of my Kindle and sync it. Five minutes later, there it was!

Previously, if I wanted a new release, I'd have to give up my lunch hour to purchase it. I'd usually head to Target to see if I could get it for cheaper, and then end up having to go to Barnes & Noble to buy it anyway, THEN I'd have to run through the McDonald's drive-thru and end up eating at my desk. Because of my Kindle, I was able to take a leisurely lunch hour, something I really needed that day.

Life After Yes

I wanted to LOVE this book.  I've been following the author on her blog for some time now, and I find her witty and fun.  Someone I'd love to meet for coffee or a drink somewhere, and just chat...  I wanted to love it for all the hard work I know goes into writing a book, and this is her first novel..  She always dreamt of being an author (me too), and decided to just DO IT (like me) and I can only hope to be able to follow her path with my own book.

I loved the idea of the book - what happens AFTER you say yes to your future.  I didn't realize before reading it that the YES in question is the time between the proposal and the wedding; I expected it to be after the marriage vows were said and the guests all went home.

I wanted to love it, because I was so excited to read it.  But, I couldn't love it.  I liked it well enough, but the protagonist and I didn't jibe.  I could not understand her, or her choices.  I found her shallow, and I found the other men far more intriguing than her betrothed.  Now, all that said, I did cry at the end, and very much liked the ending, but I never felt particularly taken by any of the characters.  Maybe I am too old, maybe I am not from Manhattan, maybe engagement is too far a distant memory for me to relate to this, but I just could not buy her choices, while overall I loved the premise of the novel.

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

I am still processing this book, 10 hours after I finished it.

This book, written by Rebecca Skloot, chronicles the story of Henrietta Lacks, a black woman who went to Johns Hopkins in the early 1950s to be treated for cervical cancer and ended up influencing the medical world in a grand way.

Henrietta was the source for the HeLa cells which are still today used in all parts of cell experimentation. HeLa cells are responsible for a large amount of cancer treatments used today and for medications used to treat conditions such as herpes and epilepsy. HeLa cells were used to test the Salk polio vaccine, and have also been used for gene-mapping.

One problem: Henrietta didn't give consent for her cells to be taken. She died of cancer in 1951, and her family didn't know that part of their wife, mother, sister and friend still existed in multiple petri dishes in laboratories throughout the world.

Skloot explains the importance of HeLa, and also tells the story of Henrietta's life and that of her family. The story is heartbreaking -- Henrietta's cells have provided valuable information to science, but her family members lived most of their lives without health insurance, waiting until an emergency situation occurred to seek medical help. Labs make money off of selling HeLa cells, but the Lacks family lives in poverty. The family tried at various times to sue Johns Hopkins and the lab where the cells were initially grown, but with their lack of education and funds, nothing ever happened.

Also included in the novel is a side story about Elsie, Henrietta's oldest daughter. Elsie was an epileptic and had some neuro-deafness. Henrietta and her husband, Day, were first cousins, and Day, a womanizer, brought syphilis home to Henrietta more than once; these two things probably contributed to Elsie's health issues. In the 1940s and 50s, epileptics were considered mentally retarded and they were committed. Elsie lived and died in the Crownville Negro Hospital for the Insane. She likely died due to neglect and being subjected to dangerous medical procedures. The chapter where Deborah, Henrietta's youngest daughter, finds out what happened to her sister had me in tears.

The story is sad enough, but the afterword caught me off-guard. Even after all the legislation and HIPAA , when you go to the hospital, any tissue removed from your body is the property of the hospital.

My daughter had her adenoids removed when she was 5. I assumed that her doctor examined them for abnormalities and then the hospital incinerated them. And in all honestly, that is likely what happened.

But what IF? What if the hospital sold or donated my daughter's adenoids to a lab? What if experimentation on those cells has resulted in a scientific discovery? I would want to know, absolutely, but according to current laws, the hospital or lab has no obligation to tell me. I always thought that if it came from my body or if it came from my children's body, it essentially belonged to me.

I guess not.

The Glass Castle

Jeannette Walls tells a tale in this book that is hard to fathom being true, but you can tell from the matter-of-fact way she tells her story that it is, in fact, very true. Her parents, one an alcoholic and one an amazingly selfish and codependent person, brought their children up in abject poverty which could have easily been avoided. The children grew up quickly because they soon learned they would have to fend for themselves if they were to survive. What makes this book so amazing to read is the way Walls tells her story. She doesn't emotionalize what she is telling, much as you would imagine a child reacting to the conditions and situations she is conveying. The story manages to be uplifting as the children survive and even thrive in spite of the lack of almost every material thing, including the basics needed to survive. And, through it all, is an underlying theme of love and acceptance.

True Blood and Philosophy: We Want to Think Bad Things With You

I'm slightly obsessed with the HBO series, "True Blood." It doesn't follow the books by Charlaine Harris exactly, but I like the changes the series creator Alan Ball makes. It's racy and graphic, and most of the people in the novel seem to come out of my hometown (I live near the Texas-Louisiana border).

I took a Literary Criticism class last summer, and for my final paper, I did a Freudian analysis on "True Blood." I discussed how the vampires represent Freud's Id, Sookie represents the Superego, and Vampire Bill, ironically enough, represents the Ego. I got an A on the paper, and an A in the class.

So I thought this book would be interesting, and it was to a certain point. But there was really no middle ground in this book. The essays were either so deep that it was difficult to get through, or they were so simplistic that I wondered why the author wrote them at all.

I should have known better from the cheesy subtitle of the book. I have only myself to blame. I do not recommend this book.

This Book is Overdue! How Librarians and Cyberarians Can Save Us All

Small confession: Libraries and I do not mix. Kind of an odd revelation, considering how much I love books. I don't like that the number of books a patron can check out is limited. I don't like knowing that others have touched the books. I don't like the whole due date thing.

In short, I am a librarian's worst nightmare.

At the same time, I love libraries. I love research. At the university where I attended undergrad and graduate school, I LOVED walking through the stacks, just browsing. I'd go in for books on one subject (H.P. Lovecraft) and come out with six books on something else (Blind lesbian mystery poetry, anyone?).

"The Book is Overdue," by Marilyn Johnson, is a really great read. She discusses the different types of librarians. She discusses the different types of libraries. She talks about how libraries and librarians have adapted in the age of Google and economic downturn.

The part that I found most fascinating, however, is the story of how a group of librarians fought the government's request that they turn over their patrons' electronic card catalog searches. It was all very cloak and dagger, and I'd love to read an entire book about the event. It made me swell with pride to think that there are people in the world who still stand up for civil liberties.

Dead in the Family

I am a HUGE Sookie Stackhouse fan. I actually "discovered" the books before the brilliant HBO series came out, and I quickly read all the books (being in the middle of a hurricane helped). So I not-so-patiently wait every year for Charlaine Harris to come out with a new Sookie book.

The most recent installment was so-so. There were pages and pages of build-up, and then in the last 10 pages, everything was resolved. I hate that. In a class I took a year ago, we read "The Spy Who Came in from the Cold" by John LeCarre, and he did the same thing.

I put off starting the newest Sookie book as long as I could, because I wanted it to last. So I'm reading and reading and reading, and then I realized that there were relatively few pages left and I thought there should be a lot more story left. I'll still read the Sookie books, but the recent ones aren't as good as the ones that came before. I'm a lot more excited about the beginning of the new season of the TV show these days.