in all weathers

Lovesick/Homesick

2012-01-11T07:28:00.002-06:00

After coming up for air after reading Haruki Murakami's 1Q84 (at a well-worthwhile 925 pages), I've been seeking out shorter works of fiction. Maile Meloy's collections of stories are just the thing.

After reading Both Ways Is The Only Way I Want It, I turned to her first collection, Half in Love. Ranch girls, a lovesick ranger, a homesick serviceman, and an ice harvester all have a story to be told. For many of the characters, shaped by their environment, weather plays a devastating role. If it's not a blizzard, it's black ice. If it's not winter, it's a scorching, windy heat.

For some reason, stories featuring the hardships of Montana winters are comforting while experiencing a relatively snowless winter here in Michigan. Come February, I may need a different story to read.

With Character

2012-01-04T00:11:00.003-06:00

Looking back at last year's reading, I've compiled this list. From finding love among the headstones to cooking recipes to conjure departed cooks, these books embody quirky settings, characters, and/or situations.

Benny and Shrimp by Katarina Mazetti
The Rehearsal by Eleanor Catton
The Lover's Dictionary by David Levithan
The Mother Who Stayed: Stories by Laura Furman
The Intimates by Ralph Sassone
Talk Talk by T. Coraghessan Boyle
A Family Daughter by Maile Meloy
The Kitchen Daughter by Jael McHenry

"Appraising badminton rackets with an expert eye"

2011-12-21T08:27:00.002-06:00

One night I was sitting in my apartment in Japan wondering what the NHK offerings would be when someone knocked on my door. It was Hara-san, the tea lady from work, and a young man about my age wearing a bandana around his forehead. Through an impromptu game of charades (due to my dismal grasp of the language), I finally figured out they wanted me to come play "soft-volley" or volleyball. It turned out the community gym was open Monday nights for volleyball and badminton. Not the garden variety that I played in my grandmother's backyard, but very competitive mixed double's badminton.

This came to mind as I was reading A Question of Attraction by David Nicholls. The main character, Brian Jackson, includes badminton on his college application in an effort to look more well-rounded. It's one example of his many attempts at humor that nobody gets. Entering his first year of university, he tries to reinvent himself by wearing a vintage donkey jacket, writing poetry, and competing on a television quiz show called University Challenge.

Although I haven't finished the book, I'm looking forward to getting back to the experience it evokes. That Monday-night-soft-volley feeling of laughing with oneself instead of at oneself.

Mr. Edwards Meets Santa Claus

2011-12-14T05:12:00.004-06:00

We arrived at this chapter of Little House on the Prairie the other night.

As the chapter opens, Laura and Mary have been peering anxiously out the window for days. It's December and there has been no snow in Indian Territory. No snow of course, means no Santa. On top of that, all the rain has caused the creek to rise, and so their one Christmas guest, Mr. Edwards, won't be able to make it either. Pa brings in the Christmas turkey, but even the thought of such a fat turkey for Christmas dinner isn't enough to cheer up the little girls. Ma does let them hang up stockings, and Laura thinks her mother mentions something about white sugar as she drifts off to sleep.

The next morning, Laura is startled awake as Mr. Edwards comes in with a big bundle. He tells the girls he met Santa Claus in Independence, and Santa has asked him to fetch the gifts for the girls. After he tells the tale, the girls are allowed to look in their stockings. They both receive a tin cup, peppermint candy, cakes made with white sugar (and white flour), and a new penny.

"There never had been such a Christmas," Wilder writes.

After the girls thank Mr. Edwards ("and they meant it with all their hearts"), Pa silently shakes Mr. Edwards' hand . And shakes it again. And Laura observes how all of the adults seem to be on the verge of tears.

Yes, they are.

Security Blanket

2011-12-07T06:56:00.001-06:00

I'm hopeless when it comes to knitting, embroidery, or even sewing on a button. My daughter recently enlisted my help on a father/daughter project gone teary, and we made a teddy bear...a very long necked teddy bear. After that project, I could have used another kind of longneck.

So I find it sort of curious that when I'm feeling blue, I gravitate toward knitting novels. Having exhausted the Kate Jacobs' series and the Knit Lit books by Beth Pattillo, I picked up a copy of The Knitting Circle by Ann Hood this week.

Hood's novel follows Mary Baxter from scarf to sock to sweater. With each new project, Mary befriends another knitter who frequents the Sit and Knit. With each new stitch learned, she collects another story of lost love. Finally, Mary shares her own story about the death of her daughter Stella.

This novel is similar to other knitting yarns in that it follows a group of women who gather in the community yarn shop. The shop is warm, safe, and cozy with the bright colors of the wares and the tempting aromas of that week's shared dessert. Although the characters could almost be fashioned from the same patterns other books rely one (the aloof expert, the frazzled mother, the lovelorn artist), they too offer a kind of no surprises comfort.

Immersed in the knitters' gossip, I don't have to worry that my down jacket makes me look like an extra from an 80s John Cusack movie instead of the Land's End model mom I envisioned. I don't have to worry about brakes that don't work on ice so that swerving into the Bear Claw drive-thru is the only way I avoid plowing into a line of cars that ridiculously have Michigan license plates. All I have to worry about is getting to the library before it closes. I have The Shop on Blossom Street on reserve. With Christmas fast approaching, I'm going to need it.

Break

2011-10-26T11:07:00.001-05:00

There's a reason it's been years since I went to play pool. I'm terrible at math.

I've always suspected you needed to know something about geometry to be a decent pool player. However, for the heroine of Something Rising by Haven Kimmel, the game turns on physics. And hours of practice.

Every morning Cassie heads to the local bar and practices for three hours. There she doesn't have to worry that her dad has abandoned her. She can escape her mother musing about how her life could have been had she stayed in New Orleans. She can avoid her sister who feels more comfortable traveling to Ancient Greece than to the local supermarket.

After her mom dies, Cassie leaves Indiana for the first time and travels to New Orleans. There she discovers kind strangers and mean pool players. Picturing her mom's past, she has an eye for her own future.

What makes this a fascinating read is not the geometry or physics of the game. It's the chemistry.

Stuck

2011-10-19T07:26:00.001-05:00

Some Amazonian kinkajous compiled this "personal" list for me. I like it.

Stuck by Oliver Jeffers

Possession: A Romance by A.S. Byatt

Nightwoods by Charles Frazier

Love's Exquisite Freedom by Maya Angelou

Zombies vs Robots: The Undercity HC by Chris Ryall

Absolute Sandman Vol. 5 by Neil Gaiman

Blood, Bones, and Butter

2011-10-12T07:00:00.000-05:00

Every time I open a bag of tortilla chips, I'd love to reach for the homemade salsa we ate on our front porch in Woodburn. When it rains, I'd cry for the pan dulce we tried in Cuernavaca. Once I'm wandering hopelessly down the wine aisle in Kroger, I'd give anything to be drinking that wine poured in Due Santi.

I'm not alone in wanting to relive these food memories. There's a chapter in Gabrielle Hamilton's memoir Blood, Bones, and Butter where she makes a list. Among other experiences to savor in her new restaurant, she wants to dress the table in brown butcher paper, Cuban wedding china, and plates of her mother's recipe for veal marrow.

An accomplished chef, Hamilton has perfected the veal marrow. More importantly she has perfected the art of writing about it. She has pared her memories down to the essence. She takes us back to her first kitchen - her French mother's domain. She walks us through the drudgery of her early catering jobs. Finally, she travels to Italy and introduces us to her mother-in-law's Italian market.

Hamilton's reflection on her own childhood has inspired me to serve my children something more substantial than a reheated chicken nugget; we've been trying to be a little more adventurous. Perhaps one day they'll remember eating Mutsu apples they've just picked, spreading cherry jelly on their breakfast muffin, or sipping hot ginger-lemon tea on a cold, windy autumn day in Michigan. If they don't, I will.

This Pig Wants to Party

2011-09-21T11:37:00.002-05:00

Maurice Sendak has a new book. I've put a new link to an interview I heard yesterday under Audio. Enjoy!

Not Starring Kirk Cameron

2011-09-14T06:57:00.002-05:00

Setting a date for the Rapture is a tricky business. For the characters of The Leftovers, being left behind is even trickier. In Mapleton, the Sudden Departure has come and gone (Tom Perrotta has chosen October 14th if you're curious). Nora loses her two children and husband. Jill loses her best friend. Everyone loses Adam Sandler.

Those who remain struggle to cope. Some join cults. Jill's mom joins a group called the Guilty Remnant. Dressing themselves in white, they quit talking and take up smoking. Some follow YouTube prophets. Jill's brother Tom becomes a disciple of Holy Wayne and follows the movement to San Francisco. Some obsess over why they weren't chosen. Reverend Jamison circulates a vindictive newsletter revealing the sins of those who disappeared.

And of course others continue their annual pilgrimage to the mall for Christmas presents.

Though Perrotta's take on events is unique, he does fall back on a time-honored storyline. In the end, the salvation of at least one of his characters comes from a newborn under a starry sky.

He Forgot His Wife

2011-09-07T08:33:00.001-05:00

When my grandparents lived in Arkansas, we used to make the six hour road trip to visit two or three times a year. Our rewards for that much time in a car were afternoons spent listening to my grandmother's stories, a bag of Snickers in the produce drawer, and a coffee table stacked with magazines. My mom and I would settle in on the sofas catching up on Hollywood gossip and the latest his side/her side drama of the advice columns.

My fascination, some might say morbid curiosity, with marriage (troubled or not) led me to pick up a new novel by Carol Edgarian. In Three Stages of Amazement, we are thrown into the marriage of Lena and Charlie. And from the first paragraph, we are almost certain this marriage can't be saved. His failing startup, a baby with medical issues, and an ex-boyfriend (Italian ex-boyfriend) are but some of the factors pulling their relationship asunder.

The others? Well, you'd be amazed. And you might need a Snickers to get you through it all.

Going to Market

2011-08-31T18:16:00.004-05:00

I've been trying to teach my kids about money this summer. So far my daughter has managed to learn the difference between a penny, a dime, and a nickel. What she has a harder time realizing is that you can't really buy anything these days with a handful of change. So we've left many a zoo gift shop/museum gift shop/gift gift shop in tears when she hasn't been able to buy something (i.e. a toy) with "her money." Since she's all about instant gratification, this first book was right on the money.

Pigs Go to Market: Fun with Math and Shopping by Amy Axelrod and illustrated by Sharon McGinley-Nally

With their Halloween party guests arriving any moment, the pig family realizes they are out of candy (Grandma Pig got a little carried away). Arriving at the store, they find themselves in a frantic shopping spree that leaves them exhausted....and hungry. A helpful chart at the end will help your listener (or more advanced reader) count all the candy the pigs gobbled on the way home. Your older child can figure out how much the candy weighed.

Max Goes to the Grocery Store by Adria F. Klein and illustrated by Mernie Gallagher-Cole

Your beginning reader can follow Max and Zoe on their quest to compile all the ingredients they need for a special movie snack.

My Favorite Foods by Dana Meachen Rau and illustrated by Grace Lin

Read about loopy noodles, tangy juice, and chilly ice cream in this engaging reader that stresses counting, containers, and adjectives with crunch. I liked the parent's page at the end that suggests a grocery store scavenger hunt.

Added 9/9/11

I just found this great resource and had to add it!

These Boots

2011-08-17T07:19:00.003-05:00

E has boots on the brain. Rain boots, snow boots, cowboy boots. Every day he wants to wear a different pair. So with that in mind, (and to give him a little practice counting), I made a rain boots grid game. We roll the dice and put buttons on the same number of boot squares.

We also read some books about rain, snow, and rainbrellas:

Come On, Rain! by Karen Hesse and pictures by Jon J. Muth

For those days that "sizzle like a hot potato," parch your plants, and leave you wishing the rumble of every truck is really thunder. Muth's watercolors in funky perspectives capture both the wilting heat and quenching rain.

Jamaica and Brianna by Juanita Havill and illustrated by Anne Sibley O'Brien

Jamaica hates wearing her brother's old boots. Her friend Brianna doesn't make things any better. When Jamaica finally gets to show off some brand new boots, what will Brianna say? This book is about living with the choices we make and helping our friends understand those choices. It's also about a pair of really cool cowboy boots.

The Rainy Day by Anna Milbourne and Sarah Gill

What happens when it rains? A group of friends take a walk outside to explain. Their brightly colored clothes pop against the drizzly background.

One last thing. My mom recently told me about a fun online reading resource for kids. Click here to find it. And then click on the blue button that says TumbleBooks.

Left Neglected by Lisa Genova

2011-08-10T07:35:00.001-05:00

Persistence pays off. This is not just another book about a working mother attempting to raise three kids (with the help of a husband and nanny), succeed at her high pressure job, and justify keeping her weekend home in Vermont. Well at the beginning it is. Keep reading. Terrible to say, but the novel improves after this do-it-all/be-it-all mother (Sarah) is in a terrible car accident.

The accident damages Sarah's brain and leaves her with left neglect. She no longer has awareness of anything on her left side. Curiously when she does normal things like apply make-up, she only applies make-up to the right side of her face. However, her brain processes an image of herself fully made-up. So she really isn't aware that anything is amiss until someone tells her. She can no longer trust the reality of what she sees - or walk, or dress, or do anything as she did before the accident.

What we see is a character that reconnects with those she neglected before the accident. And is happier for it (mostly). And for a few days at least after reading this novel, we are hyper-aware of all those things we've neglected whether they are on the left or not.

A Tax on All Your Closets!

2011-08-03T07:31:00.001-05:00

The title of this post refers to an interesting fact I learned while on a tour of this local historical site. The tour guide claimed that a lot of houses of the 1800s didn't have closets because you were taxed for the number of rooms you had. (And due to the fact you sewed all of your clothes, you probably didn't have that many to store anyway). The closet-less house we toured stayed in my mind as I finished reading The Mother Who Stayed by Laura Furman.

Divided into three trios of related stories, Furman examines friendship, different eras of domestic life, and the life of a poet.

Opening the book is a set of stories about a group of families that summer together but don't manage to socialize much when they return to their city lives.

In a story in the second trio, we travel with the biographer of a writer named Marian Foster Todd as she seeks to uncover her lost correspondence. Any story that includes a setting in the library archives has me hooked. I know. I'm weird that way.

In the last set of three stories, Furman references a journal of a mother and wife of 1874. My to-do list for today (go to Kroger, empty the dishwasher) is laughable when compared to a woman who not only canned berries and finished sewing a winter coat but also killed the pigs. And that was just Monday.

An Object of Beauty

2011-07-27T05:44:00.004-05:00

I couldn't help picturing the opening credits as I was reading Steve Martin's latest novel- An Object of Beauty. Like Martin's Shopgirl (starring Clare Danes), this novel features a beautiful woman yearning to live richly (but not worrying to much about her eyelashes).

Lacey Yeager moves to New York to break into the business of art. She begins in the basement of Sotheby's but soon rises to work with upper level art dealers and collectors.. After coming into a mysterious financial windfall, Yeager is asked to leave the auction house but finds employment with a lucrative gallery. After charming clients and maintaining a transatlantic relationship with a French art collector, she achieves her dream of opening her own gallery.

Martin's cinematic style sets this book apart from the typical girl makes good in the big city tale. There's the narrator providing the voice over - he's a friend of Yeager but admits that some of what he is telling is gossip and some of it is imagination. There's the visual- photographs of some of the paintings are interspersed throughout the book. There's the dialogue - snappy, smart, and polished yet believable. Finally, Martin also includes an element of suspense. We're not sure how Yeager has financed her endeavor, but we are eager to see how the narrator will reveal it to us.

And we probably will coming to a theater near us soon.

True North

2011-07-20T06:46:00.006-05:00

True North by Jim Harrison takes place in Michigan's Upper Peninsula.

How apropos you might say.

Josephine and I signed up for library cards last week and after deliberating quite some time between the Clifford and Strawberry Shortcake DVD, we had only a few minutes in adult fiction where I grabbed the thickest book I saw (one-handedly since I was also carrying a very heavy, sleeping Elliott). But I digress...The thickest book happened to be True North.

In True North, the narrator fishes, ruminates on religion and philosophy (what he calls his "daffy trances"), and tries to atone for his father's (and grandfather's) beastly behavior. Set mostly in the U.P., the scenery enchants with verdant summers and stark winters. The narrator, David, moves somewhat restlessly in both seasons. As an adult, he has made the study of his family's decimation of the Michigan forest his life's work. Along the way he attracts women both fierce and soft, but he often requires no more company than his dog Carla. He worries there is something inherently wrong or damaged in this. Thus he tries to figure out how to (or if he should) forgive his parents who may have inflicted the damage.

While reading this book, I was reminded of W. D. Wetherell’s short story “The Bass, the River, and Sheila Mant.” I guess I'm charmed by the musings of awkward teenage boys and the introspective adults they become.

Soon I Will Be Invincible

2011-07-13T13:59:00.003-05:00

I stole this book (by Austin Grossman) off my husband's bookshelf and stuck it in my purse for the long wait at the Secretary of State's office to get my driver's license. Flashbacks to my driver's ed class in high school had me so nervous by the time I got there, I couldn't focus on more than a few pages. Luckily Michigan only requires a fee, proof of residency, and a snip off your old license and you are good to go.

That over with, I can settle down in front of the open window (78 degrees is the high today) and indulge in this novel of superheroes and evil geniuses.

State of Wonder

2011-06-29T21:30:00.000-05:00

During college, I spent a week in Ecuador with the Rostro de Cristo program. I remember walking to buy fresh bread in the morning, playing games with the neighborhood kids, and fighting off hoards of hungry mosquitoes.

Many of these images of South America came back as I was reading Ann Patchett’s book State of Wonder. In her latest book, Patchett writes about a research scientist for a pharmaceutical company. She has been sent to a remote jungle of Brazil to uncover the cause of her colleague’s death and assess the status of the development of a new fertility drug. Bullet ants, deadly snakes, and the unconventional doctor who heads the study are but a few of the foreboding obstacles she faces.

Again I’m writing about a book I haven’t quite finished. Its menacing tone was a little off-putting at first, but the intrigue has kept me itching to turn the pages. But that may just be those pesky memories from before.

"Well, my young friend. Do you remain uncurious?"

2011-06-22T06:50:00.000-05:00

"Señor, I confess, I maintain that position with increasing difficulty."

Like the protagonist of Barbara Kingsolver's The Lacuna, I remained somewhat indifferent to seeking out this novel. But the other day, the bold yellow and blue of its dust jacket beckoned. I've been in Rivera's Mexico ever since. Told in diary entries, the story follows Harrison Shepherd from his childhood with his Mexican mother, a short stint at boarding school near his American father, and his young adulthood working for Rivera and Kahlo and subsequently their house guest - Lev Trotsky.

As for what happens next, I'll have to let you know since I'm only about halfway through.

But maybe not giving away the ending is a good thing. I've found Kingsolver's work is best when discovered by chance. More than a decade ago, I came across one of her earlier works in the English section of a Japanese bookstore. Starved for anything in English, I grabbed it mainly because of its thickness. My plan for stocking up on reading material backfired. Instead of savoring it slowly over the next few weeks, I greedily finished it in a few days.

Curious? I hope so.

Mermaid Vs. Panda

2011-06-15T07:20:00.001-05:00

As I was doing an inventory of the kids' books the other day and making sure we didn't accidentally pack any library books, I realized to my chagrin that my daughter owns not one but FOUR books featuring Barbie. With an endless cast of characters who have names ending in -liah and at least one magical puppy, these books are painful to read out loud.

Luckily in my hunt, I unearthed a book from behind the bed that is more interesting to read and will capture even a two-year-old's attention. Zen Ties by Jon J. Muth features a panda named Stillwater. His nephew Koo has come for a visit. Together they picnic with Stillwater's friends and help comfort the neighborhood curmudgeon who is under the weather. She softens under the kind attention and teaches them how to make apple tea.

With its beautiful illustrations and compelling storyline, this is one book that will not get lost in the move. As for Barbie...

Take That, Read This

2011-06-08T05:33:00.002-05:00

All it takes is a little sibling ribbing to resume. To recap my reads for the last few week...um... months - Anthony Doerr.

I started About Grace while on a plane. I don't remember a word of the safety spiel or what flavor the peanut was I dropped between the seats. Instead I remember snowflakes and floods, Caribbean heat and Oedipal fear. Doerr's substantive details withstand the busiest of reading environments. It can be somewhat of a nail-biting read, but the landing is spot on.

Next came Memory Wall, a book of short stories dealing with memories and loss. Disturbingly well-crafted.

Then I arrived at The Shell Collector, another collection of stories. A boy loses his sight and is turned on to the fascinating textures of sea life. A wilderness hunter travels into civilization to marvel at his wife's magic. (Drunken) fishermen vie for the biggest fish in Europe.

Finally, summer reads to feel good about. I should know. This book and this one are waiting on my nightstand.

Playing a Part

2011-03-30T13:44:00.000-05:00

A saxophone teacher becomes the confidant for

the sister of the student

who is scandalized by the senior band teacher

and the outcast who befriends the sister.

A drama student becomes involved with the sister

while rehearsing for a play starring the scandal.

The Rehearsal by Eleanor Catton provides a unique script. The reader turns player if only to figure out who is being fed their lines, who is improvising, and who is playing whom.

A Fierce Radiance by Lauren Belfer

2011-03-16T09:16:00.001-05:00

When the book jacket reviews include those by the author of Loving Frank and Glamour, I’m going to pick it up. Then when I read the inside summary and learn the main character is a Life photographer working in the 1940s, I’m sold.

Clare Shipley is assigned a story on a new wonder-drug, penicillin. She falls for the doctor on the case and is resigned to a long-distance romance when he accepts a government job in Washington. She diligently follows up on both the romance and the story. But when her father, a millionaire, buys into a pharmaceutical company, Clare learns how cut-throat the industry can be in guarding lucrative discoveries.

After pinning up my hair in a Victory roll, I’m going to be spending the afternoon rifling through old magazines. Then I might look for some of the reference books Belfer cites in her notes: The Enchanted Ring by John C. Sheehan, The Women Who Wrote the War by Nancy Caldwell Sorel, and No Ordinary Time by Doris Kearns Goodwin.

"Vindictive Meter Maids"

2011-03-09T12:24:00.001-06:00

She is dressed in "wishy-washy" clothes. He has a "funny smell."Such are the first impressions of two who meet in a cemetery.

In Katarina Mazetti's novel, Benny and Shrimp, the characters alternate telling the rise and fall of their relationship. Desiree is a librarian and recent widow. Benny runs a dairy farm single-handedly after his mother dies. Differing on everything from decor to politics, they find themselves a surprising match in bed.

Humorous, off-putting, and familiar, this book will have you reading far into the night. Pickled herrings are meant to be eaten as a midnight snack, aren't they?

In the Beginning

2011-03-02T09:24:00.003-06:00

Your mother is always right. Well, at least mine is. She's been recommending Ahab's Wife forever. And I keep relegating it to the bottom of the to-read list. But then I came across Sena Jeter Naslund's new book, Adam and Eve.

Lucy is a recent widow. Her late husband was a physicist studying extraterrestrial life. His work threatens those who believe proof of alien life forms would debunk their own creation myths. Just before his death, he leaves Lucy his flash drive containing his latest proof. Shortly thereafter, one of her husband's friends recruits Lucy to fly an ancient codex out of Egypt. Her enemies now have two reasons to find her.

Adam is an American soldier living in Eden. Having survived a brutal beating, he has made a primitive home for himself in a lost corner of the Middle East. His prayers for a companion are answered when Lucy's plane crashes into his midst.

Naslund's description of Adam's awakening breathes new life into the story as old as Genesis. Other authors have tackled the subject, but placing the characters in a future world reminds us we probably always strive for the forbidden fruits. And after we've taken the first bite, a mother will be there to say "I know." Then you will listen.

Under the Wire

2011-02-16T23:40:00.006-06:00

In college I worked for the newspaper. My feature "Long Necks and Longer Hours" raised a few eyebrows at my conservative Catholic campus. But I did get to cover more serious subjects and even interview a few notables. Well, one notable. My senior year, I also interned at a local television station. Upon hearing my boss say something along the lines of "sell the sizzle, not the bacon," I decided TV news wasn't for me.

Despite getting most of my news via NPR these days, I'm still fascinated by the newspaper newsroom. "The Room" as it is called in a novel by Lorraine Adams has my attention this week. The Room and The Chair is presented in short scenes - jumping from a military plane crash to a news desk to a dinner party of Washington intelligentsia. The story ventures further afield to Iran and Dubai and back again to the American intelligence agent masterminding it all.

Part thriller, part social commentary, part The Way Things Work, it has a little something for everyone.

Ah, the thrill of just making the deadline.

Fresh Out of Library Books

2011-02-09T13:03:00.005-06:00

The ice storms have me feeling lazy. I'm also out of library books. Time to make more requests. Here's a list I'll be using.

In the meantime, I'll be reading this blog I stumbled across while trying to find out more about this book.

"Glued to Your Sun-Lounger"

2011-01-26T12:33:00.005-06:00

Sometimes you are in the mood for HBO. Sometimes, it has to be Lifetime. So, having finished Nicole Krauss' Great House, I was ready for something a little more Emily Giffin.

As I was headed for the "G" section of the library, I was sidetracked by a book by Lisa Jewell. I had read several of her books a few years ago, but I found one from 2007 called Roomates Wanted. Set in London, it stars Toby Dobbs who lives in a ramshackle Victorian with strays he's picked up over the years. Singer-songwriters, quick-change artists, and air-hostesses all share quarters, but don't know much about each other's lives. When Toby's oldest tenant dies, he meets the girl-next...well across-the-road. She inspires him to start making some changes. What results is not only a remodel of his house, but of his heart.

Can't you just hear the voice-over now?

How To Read the Air by Dinaw Mengestu

2011-01-19T08:51:00.002-06:00

I finished this book two weeks ago and still haven't made up my mind about it. Parts of it gave me a headache. Parts made me nod knowingly. Parts reminded me of students I've had in my classes. Parts forced me to close it and go for a walk. Which part relates to the title, I'm still wondering.

Stamp of Approval

2011-01-12T08:36:00.001-06:00

Flavia's passion is poison. Most days she's hunkered down in her chemistry lab recreating experiments she studies in old chemistry texts. With her mother dead and her father wrapped up in his stamp collection, she's left to her own amusements - aggravating her older sisters, avoiding the housekeeper's custard pie, and solving murders.

Following a trail of clues that includes a snipe, a penny stamp, and a schoolboy prank, Flavia doggedly stays on the case to vindicate her father and satisfy her own curiosity. She is, after all, eleven.

The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie is just one of the books I found out about here. I'm eager to read the others. On a related note, I'm also salivating over a new set of postage stamps. Although it's highly unlikely I will ever be a chemist like Flavia, maybe I'll turn out to be a philatelist like her father.

Awkward, At Its Best

2011-01-05T08:08:00.000-06:00

It's when you put your coat on inside out on a first date. And run two stoplights. And babble on about "The Rules" while saying goodbye at your front door instead of letting him kiss you. It's when you give a giggly wave instead of a smoldering glance.

It's Gilbert dipping Anne-with-an- e's pigtails in ink. It's Darcy scorning an indignant Elizabeth. It's Inman garnering an introduction to Ada.

Despite the dark violence, Cold Mountain is a love story at its best. Perhaps because, in much of the novel, the two are apart. Inman is trying to make his way home from the war without permission. Ada is an educated woman who doesn't know the first thing about managing a farm. Moments other authors might romanticize, Frazier leaves as is. Goodbyes are honest instead of heartfelt. Letters are left crumpled on the floor, unsent. And a much anticipated reunion is clever in its clumsiness.

Oh, and the end might make you may cry even if it's the fourth time you've read it.

So trip rather than swoon. Tango across the room...badly. You'll have a funny, even romantic, story to tell your grandkids.

Humble Pi

2010-12-22T09:56:00.002-06:00

My grandmother was a math teacher. My college roommates were math majors. My kindergartner loves the “dot game” at school. Although I am not a Mathlete like my husband, I did enjoy The Housekeeper and the Professor by Yoko Ogawa.

The professor in the story is a renowned mathematician who can’t remember anything after 1975 for more than 80 minutes. He dons a suit each morning with tiny notes pinned all over it to remind him where his medicine is, who he needs to thank for the cake, and that he has a new housekeeper who has a son.

The professor greets the housekeeper each morning with an inquiry about her birthday or shoe size. He then informs her of the significance of whatever number is the answer. Throughout her employment, he teaches her and her son about everything from factors to triangular numbers to Euler’s formula. When he’s not lecturing, he’s solving the latest puzzler from his math journals or enjoying the baseball broadcast with the young boy.

As the housekeeper begins seeing the beauty in the numbers surrounding her, you will appreciate Ogawa’s work for its elegant balance of sweet plus intriguing. And then you will send this book to your grandmother.

Persistent

2010-12-15T13:22:00.006-06:00

These are the ones I read this year that I almost abandoned, mid-read, for something less sparkly, less despondent, less wearing, less dysfunctional, and, well, less quirky. But persistence paid off.

The Rhinestone Sisterhood: A Journey Through Small Town America, One Tiara at a Time by David Valdes Greenwood

New World Monkeys by Nancy Mauro

Solar by Ian McEwan

Nothing Right: Short Stories by Antonya Nelson

A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan

Best of...

2010-12-08T10:17:00.001-06:00

I probably should read some of these.

Devouring

2010-11-17T13:24:00.003-06:00

The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake by Aimee Bender
Finally. After waiting for fifty-six other people in Dallas to read this book, it was my turn this week. Imagine being able to taste the cook's emotions in whatever food they prepare. I tried to give an extra gentle pour to the milk this morning. You never know who else might have this gift.

The School of Essential Ingredients by Erica Bauermeister
"Lillian's mother's face became a series of book covers," may very well be a sentence my children could write someday. Ironically it was this one that had my own face hidden until I had reached the end. Pancakes got burned, mismatched socks walked into school.

"The music is sweet"

2010-11-10T11:54:00.001-06:00

So I was watching this movie which reminded me of this movie which reminded me of the book I'm reading. The Song is You by Arthur Phillips.

It's about a director, Julian, who falls for an up-and-coming singer, Cait. Rather than approach her after the concert, Julian leaves Cait a set of coasters illustrated with advice on life. She takes one of the phrases from the coasters and crafts a song. He secretly takes her picture and sends it to her. She puts the picture on her concert poster. And so forth- but with better writing, pleasing dialogue, and a decent soundtrack.

If you like Nick Hornby, you'll like the story. Which reminds me...

Safeway and Lucky Charms

2010-11-03T08:00:00.001-05:00

Ruby meets a rich-boy biker whose hobbies include petty theft and manipulation. Trying to distract her from sure heartbreak, her mother invites her to the library book club she runs for seniors. The seniors are abuzz with gossip that one of their members was once the one-true-love of a famous writer.

Honey, Baby, Sweetheart by Deb Caletti takes you from the comforting exasperation of hanging out with your little brother to the exhilarating ride on the back of a motorcycle through rain-slicked streets. Just as you yell at the girl on the screen not to go in but are still mesmerized by her demise, you will be captivated by how Ruby falls for and resists his charms.

Getting My Vote

2010-10-27T22:50:00.003-05:00

I actually made it to my local rec center to cast my early ballot this week. The election officials were quite gregarious. I learned all about their grandkids (as I had my own kids with me) while we were waiting for the computer to find me (of course I didn't have my voter's registration card with me).

Identity verified, we walked over to a voting station. My two-year-old only almost-knocked-over two of the adjacent rickety voting stands before I was done with the nine touch screens. As we were leaving, my five-year-old asked me, "What was that all about?" After patiently listening to my impromptu spiel about democracy, she said, "No, what were those kids doing there?" alluding to the after-school program's roomful of kids. And, "Do they get doughnuts?"

If you are tired of the real issues being swept aside by talk of doughnuts (or in this year's case, fortune cookies), try Hope was Here by Joan Bauer.

Hope and her aunt travel from restaurant to restaurant trying to find success. Hope works as a waitress, and her aunt works wonders in the kitchen with her signature deep-dish apple pie. Moving to Wisconsin from New York, Hope is nervous about starting over...again. Fortunately, the owner of the diner they are working for decides to run for mayor. Thrown into the campaign, Hope finds friends (and hope) in the people she works with to rally support for the underdog candidate.

Bauer's style aptly captures the staccato banter of the diner counter and the campaign trail. As in all reputable YA novels, she also includes a first kiss, a wayward mother, and a funeral. So maybe when my daughter's twelve, she can read Hope was Here and get a little perspective on a small-town election. If the election theme doesn't grab her, there's always the pastries to entice her.

Sick Day

2010-10-20T22:41:00.002-05:00

We've already started with the runny noses, sore throats, and not-feeling-goods. When that happens, I try to stock up on Tylenol, tissues, and popsicles. Luckily since we live across the street from El Rio Grande, we're never lacking in the latter.

In addition to the aforementioned remedies, providing some relief this week was a copy of Carmen Tafolla's What Can You Do with a Paleta? Suggestions in this whimsical tale range from painting your tongue green to gaining an advantage during a baseball game (Rangers take note). The illustrations by Magaly Morales are soothing, bright, and dreamy.

If your son shushes you when you try to read it in Spanish, distract him with a grape one.

Fresh out? Go here. What will you do with yours?

Others to Watch (or read)

2010-10-13T13:40:00.002-05:00

Going to the Texas Book Festival? Here is my list of not-to-miss authors:

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Ingrid Betancourt

David R. Dow

Jennifer Egan

Julia Glass

Joyce Maynard

Carmen Tafolla

Abraham Verghese

David Wiesner

Have fun thinking about your own list here.

"Tomorrow is Too Far"

2010-10-06T08:55:00.001-05:00

Dust whirls. Husbands are snatched. Babies spill fresh palm-oil blood.

A girl's brother is jailed for being a suspected cult member on his university's campus. Two women from disparate backgrounds hide out from a riot in an abandoned shop. A newlywed of an arranged marriage finds out her husband is already married.

Intrigued?

You can hear Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie discuss her collection of stories called The Thing Around Your Neck here. I'll save you a seat.

A Picture is Worth...

2010-09-29T07:17:00.002-05:00

When I was little, I had a book with a picture of a girl holding a book. On her book was a picture of a little girl holding a book. On her book...When my youngest sister was little, I found a book called Zoom. On each page, the camera zooms out and you realize some detail of the previous picture is part of a larger picture. Recently I discovered a book for my son called Flotsam. A boy finds a camera on the beach. He develops the film and finds a picture of a child holding a picture of a child holding a picture...until you see a picture of the camera's original owner.

Although it is not a picture book, Click is a book of layered stories. Each story takes us a step deeper, a stop closer, into the life of a photojournalist and his family. As each of the ten stories is written by a different author, details shift from the background into the spotlight. And back again. We zoom into a Russian prison, an Australian beach house, and a French village. Along the way, we also see the photographer's impact on his grandchildren and watch them grow into adulthood.

On a side note, the jacket for this book notes that the purchase of this book benefits Amnesty International. Let's give it more exposure.

Gin Vida

2010-09-22T06:57:00.005-05:00

Some may go giddy over free publications like this, this, or even this. Me? I do a little happy dance when I see this for the taking at the library.

The latest edition mentions Vida by Patricia Engel. It is a collection of stories, tied together by a central narrator, Sabina. Sabina's parents are from Colombia, but she has grown up in New Jersey. On 9/11, she finds refuge at the home of her married guitar teacher. She watches her aunt die of cancer. She befriends a former prostitute. She battles anorexia. Not all at once. The stories shift back and forth in place and time and boyfriend.

Strangely enough, as I was reading Vida, I kept confusing it with another book I picked up this week, Gin Closet by Leslie Jamison. When her grandmother dies, Stella discovers her mother has a sister no one has heard from in years. Stella finds Tilly living in a ramshackle trailer - with more than a few empty gin bottles stashed in the closet. The pair go to live with Tilly's son to try and beat her drinking habit. Stella, too, has her ghosts - a former eating disorder, a married boyfriend, a string of dead-end jobs. Sound familiar?

Dysfunctional, gritty, "crazy-ass," and all those other buzz words to describe this kind of fiction apply. Trust me, you'll be hooked.

Marvelous Muddle

2010-09-15T11:38:00.002-05:00

Precocious Victorian children grew up and came of age in a time of war. A.S. Byatt examines this age in The Children's Book. Centered around the family of Olive Wellwood, the novel follows would be potters, writers, and suffragists as they embrace and discard the burgeoning social movements of the day.

After her husband leaves the banking industry, Olive supports the family by writing scary stories for children. She leaves the upbringing (and sometimes even bearing) of her own children to her spinster sister. For each of her children, Olive has written a personalized storybook with an ongoing tale. But closest to her heart is the story she creates for her eldest, Tom. Without consulting Tom, Olive takes Tom's story public as a play. Her collaborator on the play just happens to be a fantastical German puppeteer and the father of one of her daughters.

Questionable paternity appears often in this tale. Into the muddle of an extensive cast of characters (and bedfellows) goes pages from Olive's stories, an excerpt from a randy novelist advocating free love, letters from boarding school, poetry from the tranches, and entreaties by world leaders. Out of the muddle comes an ending which ties up nicely. Quite satisfying, really.

When a Drowning Isn't the Worst Thing

2010-09-08T08:12:00.001-05:00

Every Last One by Anna Quindlen

Mary Beth is a landscaper and mother of three. She worries about what to throw together for dinner, whether her son is depressed, and if she should be having more sex. She has best friends who call her for parenting advice and old friends that don't speak to her anymore. She fights with her daughter. She calls her mother occasionally. Then, she wakes up in the hospital.

Despite the tragedy that upends the whole thing, I fell into this life. One adage I took especially to heart (along with the recipe for chicken tetrazzini): "small children, small problems, big children, big problems."

So after reemerging from that life into my own, I hugged my son, made a cake for my husband, and read my daughter a bedtime story. One with a happy ending.

Are we there yet?

2010-09-01T10:19:00.000-05:00

Perhaps Labor Day Weekend has you taking one last road trip with the family. If that family includes anyone between the ages of four and four hundred, be sure to pack the audio book collection of The Magic Tree House by Mary Pope Osborne.

The Magic Tree House books travel with a brother/sister team (Jack and Annie) as they visit famous historical events in their time-machine tree house. Hardly rosy, the pictures Osborne paints are tremulously vivid. You'll slip with the slanting of the Titanic as it sinks, taste the grit of the San Francisco earthquake's aftermath, and smell the blood of the wounded Civil War soldiers. And you'll feel immensely relieved as they escape each adventure unharmed but not untouched.

And who knows? With these CDs on play, "Are we there yet?" may also be history.

One Night Stand (or the other)

2010-08-25T09:42:00.001-05:00

Apart from The Bookman's Promise by John Dunning, my night stand looks pretty bare this week. The other side of the bed is a different story. My husband always has a plethora of interesting reads.

Two I'm browsing this week when I grow tired of the whole crime scene-scene:

Supercharge Your Memory by Corinne Gediman and Francis Crinella
Do you remember Highlights for Kids? This is sort of like Highlights for grown-ups. Graphically pleasing, this book offers a smorgasbord of activities from recalling olfactory memories (remember that rotten carrot your mother put in your kindergarten lunchbag?) to redrawing abstract designs (was the squiggle above or below the circle thingamajig?). You'll have fun, fun, fun, till your Daddy takes your T-bird away.

The Thousand Autumns of Jacob De Zoet by David Mitchell
A fan of Mitchell (especially Black Swan Green), I swoon over everything he's written. Thousand Autumns is no exception. At almost 500 pages, this epic travels to Nagasaki Harbor and immerses us (sometimes too intimately) in the sights, sounds, and sighs of the colorful cast and crew that work for and about the Dutch East Indies Company. If this weren't novel enough, the story ventures further inland when the love-interest of the title character becomes enshrined in a remote convent. You'll be itching to find out how the last samurais face the impending interests of the British Empire.

Just Beachy

2010-08-18T07:22:00.001-05:00

Only one more week of guilt-free beach reads. I've got a stack on my nightstand to get through.

Booked to Die by John Dunning
I read about this book in The Man Who Loved Books Too Much: The True Story of a Thief, a Detective, and a World of Literary Obsession by Allison Hoover Bartlett. A closet Grisham fan, I couldn't resist seeking out a detective novel about a book collector-cop turned bookseller-detective. And happy day. It's a series!

Confections of a Closet Master Baker by Gesine Bullock-Prado
This one came recommended via the "customers who bought this" list on Amazon. The teaser on the cover tells you all you need to know about this tell-all of sorts: "One woman's sweet journey from unhappy Hollywood executive to contented country baker." It was only after a few pages that I realized that the title was "Confections" not "Confessions" as she includes scrumptious sounding recipes gleaned from her childhood in Germany.

The Blue Bistro by Elin Hilderbrand
I browsed this one on the buy-me table at a local retailer. Luckily the library had it in stock as well. A quintessential summer read: girl arrives on Nantucket, girl finds job at magical restaurant on the beach, girl falls in love with...well, you'll just have to wait til I finish it.

A Ticket to the Circus by Norris Church Mailer
This was a find (or rather found) on the library new releases shelf. Its cheerful white stripes and whimsical title should have clued me in that this would be one of those dark and dysfunctional memoirs. Delve into the musings of the woman married to Norman Mailer for thirty-three years if you are ready for summer to be over.

I laughed til I cried

2010-08-11T21:03:00.001-05:00

The Guernsey Literary And Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Barrows and Annie Shaffer is romantic, funny, and heartbreaking. Read it.

Who's your daddy?

2010-08-04T10:47:00.002-05:00

Fathers these days teach a lot of essential skills. They teach their children how to tie shoes, ride bikes, make the perfect Sunday morning waffle, and drive a stick shift. Fathers of long ago perhaps had a more daunting agenda. They were in charge of teaching their offspring how to shoot an arrow for protection and the midday meal, ride a horse, and savor the finer bouquets of monster blood.

Fire by Kristin Cashore features a cast of fathers ranging from game wardens to battle commanders to kings. And monsters. As the story unfolds, many of the characters discover their fathers are not what or even who they thought them to be.

Fire is raised by her birth father, the monster Cansrel, and in his absences, a former royal commander named Brocker. Fire, like her father, possesses mind manipulating powers. She struggles to emulate her father in honing her powers but also to follow the guidance of Brocker in respecting those under her power.

Her struggle is put to the test when Prince Brigan arrives. His brother, King Nash, is working to reverse the unjust practices of his father. He and the royal siblings need her help in uncovering the plots of traitorous lords in the north and south.

As the plot and battle unfolds, the pages turn swiftly through encounters with raptors, sure-shot archers, salacious spies, and a distastefully devious boy with two different colored eyes. Cashore deftly balances the blood and fury with quieter scenes that examine regret, honor, and responsibility. For this, maybe we have her father to thank for teaching her the importance of including both rage and reflection.

Faking It

2010-07-28T06:56:00.001-05:00

Up to forty percent of artworks being bought and sold are fakes. So I learned while listening to an interview with the author of Provenance: How a Con Man and a Forger Rewrote the History of Modern Art.

While waiting for my library request for this book to go through, I came across this article about a man who proposes to authenticate art through fingerprinting. Thus, when the book arrived last week, I was primed to read more about the art underworld.

Provenance, by Laney Salisbury and Aly Sujo, opens with the dramatis personae. Topping the list are John Drewe, mastermind, and John Myatt, painter. Together they attempted to pull off a scheme that duped art dealers, archivists, and collectors. Myatt painted the “Giocomettis” and “Turners.” Drewe created the provenance for each work. Like one of the detectives in the case, I too was not familiar with this term.

Provenance refers to the documents that track an artwork’s history of ownership. Comprised of receipts, invoices, letters, and catalogs, the provenance not only authenticates a piece but affects the value. If someone can prove a work belonged to a celebrity or was scandalously stolen and retrieved, he can negotiate a higher price for it.

Here’s how the scheme worked. After commissioning a work from Myatt, Drewe created meticulous documents to show records of ownership from the painting’s supposed inception to the most recent deal. He slipped mock catalogs into archives at institutions such as the Tate Gallery and changed sales records. He made stamps and insignias for documents. He doctored canvases to age them and used period wood for the framing. And he made thousands from unwitting dealers and collectors.

But in the end Drewe was framed – by an ex. Just as fascinating as the heist is the unraveling of the operation by the detectives and skeptical archivists. To the end, Drewe proves just as adept at feigning health problems as he was in forging gallery invoices to postpone his trial. He acts as his own counsel and weaves in arms dealing and government conspiracy to prolong the trial.

Ultimately, both men end up serving time for their deception. Though it is not made clear what Drewe is up to these days besides media interviews, his tools have ended up in Scotland Yard’s Crime Museum. Myatt, much more repentant, appears to be doing quite well by selling Genuine Fakes and starring in his own TV series.

As the book asserts, maybe crime does pay. Or at least pave the way to infamy.

Grace and Will

2010-07-21T11:06:00.003-05:00

In a land of seven kingdoms lives a young woman graced with powers to kill. On a secret mission for the Council to rescue an elder Lienid, she encounters a young man graced with fighting. Thus begins the young adult novel Graceling by Kristin Cashore.

Katsa is successful in her mission of mercy but soon tires of the killing missions her uncle, King of the Middluns, sets for her. Tired of feeling powerless, she leaves the court with Po, the Lienid fighter of her mercy mission. They set out to discover the mastermind behind his grandfather’s kidnapping.

This page turner packs in plenty of adrenaline-fueled battles, harrowing passages through harsh environments, and tension fraught love scenes. Although Katsa and Po set out to uncover the mystery of his grandfather’s capture, they end up revealing their true Graces.

Another young adult novel I opened recently, Perry Moore’s Hero, opens on a different kind of battle field - the basketball court. We learn that Thom Creed is a typical teenager. When he’s not playing defense, he tries to get along with his father (his mother having disappeared), get to work on time, and daydream about his favorite superhero, Uberman.

Turns out that Thom not only lives in a town that has a League of superheroes, but his father used to be one. And that mother who disappeared? That wasn’t a figure of speech. After Thom begins mysteriously healing people, he’s invited to try out for the League. As most superheroes do, Thom begins living a double-life. His is made a tad more complicated since he not only has to hide his daring-do from his father, but his sexual preference as well. Luckily, a young renegade named the Dark Hero comes to his rescue.

Although the two novels differ in setting and tone, they both examine the trials of coming of age. Not only do these characters learn to control their passions, but more importantly they learn not to fear them. Even those of us not graced with supernatural powers can find that lesson empowering.

Espresso Yourself

2010-07-14T07:28:00.002-05:00

I've always wanted to go to art school. Then I'd have an excuse to dye my hair purple and wear vintage lingerie. And take pictures like Sandra Juto.

Now I know where I went wrong. If you are an aspiring artiste, you have to drink coffee. Or serve it. At least this is what I gleaned from two young adult novels I read recently.

Same Difference by Siohban Vivian follows Emily from her safe suburban Starbucks hangout to summer art school in Philadelphia. After meeting a few creative types in her classes, she starts painting dead kitties on her J.Crew tanks and ditching her best friend. She soon discovers it's easier to mix media in her artwork than in her life.

The next novel, The Espressologist by Kristina Springer, has Jane whipping up a few frappycaps in hopes of collecting enough tips to go to this place. In the meantime, she jots down drink orders and the types that order them. (Can't you just picture that frazzled woman who orders a tall iced chamomile tea?) Jane takes it a step further and starts matching her customers based on their drink preferences. Sadly, finding her own love match becomes grounds for betrayal.

Pass me that camera, would you? I'm off to order a ventiwholemilkwithwhip mocha - for my soul mate.

From the Top

2010-07-07T05:29:00.002-05:00

Recently I spent the afternoon reading back issues of Dance Magazine while waiting for my daughter, who at 5 is taking her first ballet and tap class. As I flipped through the pages advertising dancewear and workshops, I wondered why 1) I don’t dance anymore and 2) I had let my collection of dance books (A Very Young Dancer, Winter Season, Holding On to the Air) gather dust on my bookshelf.

Apart from an occasional ticket to a Titus performance or Google image search for White-Nights-era Baryshnikov, I realized I’d ignored the dance world for over fifteen years. In chagrin, I turned to Twenty-Eight Artists and Two Saints by Joan Acocella.

Acocella, a critic for The New Yorker, has compiled a collection of essays on dancers, writers, and yes, a couple of saints. Here’s a sample of the fascinating figures inside:
Open to the tragic story of Lucia Joyce (James’ daughter), an aspiring dancer who eventually ends up not in the spotlight but in a straitjacket.

A few essays later, read about Vaslav Nijinksy. His ballets, staged in the nineteen teens, were among the first to deal openly with sex on the stage and relied on Stravinsky for the score.

Then meet the man responsible for American ballet as we know it, Lincoln Kirstein. He, along with George Balanchine, was responsible for founding The School of American Ballet and the New York City Ballet.

Sadly, the library’s copy is due back soon and I have yet to read about Jerome Robbins, Bob Fosse, or Twyla Tharp. Looks like I may have to make room in my permanent collection for a new acquisition. Oh, and look into that Mommy and Me merengue class.

Murakami-esque

2010-06-30T09:30:00.001-05:00

I swear I did not read the blurb on the back of this book when coming up with this comparison myself. So, Vendela Vida, I agree. Atmospheric Disturbances by Rivka Galchen is quite.

Never read Murakami? Start here.

Never heard of Galchen? Start here.

Never mind? Go here for other authors on The New Yorker's list of 20 under 40 to watch. And read.

Before I Was Gone

2010-06-23T07:35:00.001-05:00

The summer I moved to the Pacific Northwest, I read The Living by Annie Dillard.

Before I moved to Japan, I read everything I could by Banana Yoshimoto.

Since my husband recently accepted a neurology fellowship in Ann Arbor, Michigan, I reread Charles Baxter's The Feast of Love. This time I was attuned more to place names and landmarks than silly things like character and plot. Thus, I noted when someone was walking along Stadium Boulevard ("GO BLUE!"), attending a backyard barbecue in Burns Park, seeking out the tarot card reader in Ypsilanti, or playing in Allmendinger Park. Unfortunately no one mentions elementary schools or where to get a decent vegetarian meal.

Searching for more clues, I picked up Baxter's collection of stories called Believers. Although the stories aren't explicitly set in Ann Arbor, the characters have Midwestern backgrounds. The collection opens with a story about Glaze and Jodie. Jodie's wish to fall in love is granted by a genie at a breakfast counter. In the next, a dinner party has turned to talk about reincarnation. Were you a swan or a swain? Following that one is Harry's story about his finding a would-be-bomber's sketch on the street. Everyone he shows it to is confident they can identify the location. I would have liked to have read more, but the library's copy started smelling a bit too musty around page 123. I'll be sure to purchase a copy before we go.

that calculating a person

2010-06-16T08:39:00.001-05:00

It's been ages since I had to resort to reading the large print edition for a popular new title. I'd forgotten, or maybe never noticed, that words that would be italicized in a regular edition are bolded (emboldened?) in a large print edition. In the textbooks I use in my reading class, I'm accustomed to seeing the bold words as target vocabulary words. I was easily distracted then by the stark she donates fiancée playwright is dotting the pages.

In a way, Sue Miller's The Lake Shore Limited redefines is. It reexamines the familiar, revisits the past, rethinks impulse. Four characters, loosely connected, watch, perform, and write a play. We sit through opening night, rehearsals, the true life events that inspire the lines, and talk on the phone about what it all might mean after the curtain falls.

Leslie is in Boston to see a play written by Billy (short for Wilhelmina). Billy was dating Leslie's brother Gus, who was killed in the 9/11 attacks. After the play, Leslie has invited Billy out for drinks along with an old friend, Sam.

Before we meet Billy, we read lines with the play's lead, Rafe. On stage, Rafe's character's wife is on a train that has been attacked by terrorists. In real life, his wife has ALS. Prior to opening night, Rafe goes out with Billy, and they delve into an ulterior motivation for Rafe's character.

After Rafe's performance, Billy meets Leslie, Leslie's husband Pierce, and Sam for drinks. After bidding Sam a rather unpromising goodnight, she reminisces about Gus. Before his death, she was a few weeks away from breaking up with him. Instead she finds herself playing the role of the distraught not-quite-fiancée when he dies. Soon after the play, Sam asks her out. They go for a walk that ends in a sprained wrist, tears, and a lost earring.

Sam had had to call Leslie for Billy's number. They discuss the play. Everyone thinks it's about him or herself. Sam is reminded of his divorce and then about the time he loved Leslie. He takes his son to see the play. Billy icily dismisses him. And then he finds her earring. (Curtain).

Applause.

A Room of One's Dead

2010-06-09T08:44:00.001-05:00

A small, quiet dimly lit room. The walls adorned only by the portraits of the dead. This is the place Viji slips into first thing in the morning before her triplets have awoken, or her father-in-law has peed on her roses, or her professor husband has left to flirt with the undergrads he teaches.

Shanthi Sekaran's The Prayer Room examines the life of Viji and George Armitage. After meeting in an art history class in India, they marry a short time later, and find themselves on a plane back to George's home in England. After a tense stay with George's parents, they soon board another plane to the land of pudding pops and flip-flops.

Viji and George's triplets are eleven the summer George's widowed father Stan comes to Sacramento for an extended stay. They are soon won over, as are the neighborhood women, by his British charms. Viji , alone, is not amused and spends even more time cleaning her prayer room. However, Stan's presence attracts the visit of an Indian expatriate neighbor, Kamla. Soon Viji's laughter is again filling the kitchen over cups of tea with her new friend. Kamla's friendship also gives Viji the confidence to take her children for a long-put-off visit to her sister in Madras. Viji's absence proves taxing not only to her marriage vows but to her own self-perception.

If you've shooed your own on-summer-vacation kids out into the backyard, and are looking forward to a few moments of quiet, somewhat dark, contemplation, The Prayer Room may just be the refuge you seek. No dusting required.

In the Spring

2010-06-02T04:30:00.002-05:00

Some of my regular readers ("Hi, Mom!") might be wondering if I stopped reading two months ago. The short answer is no. The long answer, well, it all started with Toronto.

Despite reservations at the Downtowner and an afternoon crying while watching a Canadian-Irish film, I did enjoy the parts of the trip I spent reading. I hadn't planned on reading that much, and set out early on Saturday to see the sights. However, as most of the Toronto shops didn't open until 11, I hunkered down in the Second Cup and took out the novel I had packed, Jeffrey Lent's In the Fall.

Divided into several generations of stories, In the Fall lent itself well to the sporadic timing of travel reading. A few minutes on a metro here or several hours in the park across from there and I was back in Vermont with the Pelhams. I opened to the point where Norman is walking home after the Civil War with his new bride Leah.

Later that afternoon, on a long bus ride to here, I began the part where Norman's youngest son Jamie leaves home and tries to make his way as a bootlegger.

The next day, after I had passed through customs and "turned my change into GOLD" for the Canadian ski team, I ended up at my gate several hours too early. I welcomed the wait, though, since I had also arrived at the most gripping part of the book. After Jamie dies, his son Foster finds a stack of letters from an aunt he never knew about. Foster meets his aunts and learns that his grandmother was a runaway slave. He has just knocked on a door in Sweetboro, North Carolina to confront a man about his grandmother's past.

So after arriving home and sitting down to write a reaction, I succumbed to a bout of writer's block. Who wouldn't after reading a writer like Lent? But then all blogging got shelved for a funeral, a disheartening parent-teacher conference, a box of Bob books, 72 final exams, a job offer in Ann Arbor, a graduation, an uninvited house guest or two, and a potty-training toddler.

We'll see what happens in the summer.

Grids Gone Wild

2010-05-26T22:57:00.003-05:00

For those of you with preschoolers, the summer looms long with relentless requests for snacks and hulu cartoons. In order to thwart the boredom (and get my 4-year-old ready for kindergarten), I've been researching different ways to review (and expand) her math, reading, and writing skills. Here are three resources I'm counting on for math.

Much More Than Counting: More Whole Math Activities for Preschool and Kindergarten by Sally Moomaw and Brenda Hieronymus

In the 48 hours since I checked this book out from the library, I've created about 10 different grid games (hence the post's title). A grid game consists of two pieces of card stock marked with 16 (more or less) squares. You fill in the squares with stickers or pictures related to a children's book or theme. For example, for the book The Day Jimmy's Boa Ate the Wash by Trinka Hakes Noble and Steven Kellogg, we filled in our grid with pictures of t-shirts. Then, the first player rolls the die and picks out that number of markers (in this case mini-clothespins). The player then places the markers on the grid (or not). Once you begin playing with a preschooler, you realize why the authors didn't include more rules. My next obsession? Path games.

Math Detectives: Finding Fun in Numbers by Ricki Wortzman and Lalie Harcourt

Are you a square or a rectangle? If you didn't guess already, I'm a square. This book points out that numbers are all around us if we just take the time to look. From figuring out how long is a minute to mastering the basics of playing Nim, this book can be adapted for younger kids but seems geared toward older ones. It includes illustrated directions for each household activity and a notes section in the back gives additional information for those so inclined.

Math-terpieces by Greg Tang and Greg Paprocki

This beautifully illustrated book focuses on grouping. How many ways can you combine Cezanne's citrus, Seurat's circles, and Picasso's features to add up to the target number? It would be helpful to own this one, so younger ones can cut out the pictures and practice combining. If I can't find it at Half-Price, I may just have to attempt a little forgery.

Lent

2010-03-31T13:02:00.001-05:00

This is not about giving up chocolate. It's about sacrifice, mourning, and forgiveness. And a cello.

Jeffrey Lent's After You've Gone tells the story of Henry and Olivia. And Henry and Lydia. And Henry and his cello. Henry takes us from his childhood in Nova Scotia, to his marriage and professional career in New York, and finally to a sabbatical in Amsterdam. But not in that particular order.

Having read Lent's works A Peculiar Grace and Lost Nation (in that order), I braced myself for tragic clashes, piercing descriptions of setting, and even bloodshed or rape. However, this story seems mellower, though it does contain its fair share of heartache. Before reading this novel, I've never had a particular desire to travel to Amsterdam. If anything remains of Lent's account of its 1920s beauty, I probably should add it to my list.

I'm still mulling over the ending. Not to give anything away, I'll just say it was all wine and roses - and even chocolate- in none of the right places. But since it's Lent, all is forgiven.

A Homemade Life

2010-03-24T13:07:00.003-05:00

The library finally had a copy of Molly Wizenberg's A Homemade Life. I've only begun the introduction, but I'm already as charmed as I was by her blog.

A Cultural Revelation

2010-03-17T07:00:00.001-05:00

In 1979 China, it's a fresh torment at every turn in Muddy River.

First we follow Teacher Gu. His daughter Shan has been sentenced to die. Gu seeks help from the Huas to give her a proper burial.

The Huas, having lost their own adopted daughters, cannot help Shan, but they try to help the crippled girl Nini when they can.

Nini, twelve, eats wall paste to ward off hunger. She is being courted by nineteen -year-old Bashi.

Bashi woos Nini with a roasted hedgehog and poisons a dog called Ear just to see if he can.

Ear's master, Tong, attends a memorial rally for Shan coordinated by Kai. Tong signs his father's name to a petition.

Kai is the voice of Muddy River's radio station. She is married to Han, the son of a well-connected political family.

Han moves out with their son Ming-Ming.

Ming-Ming doesn't attend the denunciation ceremony of his mother Kai.

Yiyun Li's The Vagrants will not lift your spirits. It will not serve to pass the time waiting in the dentist's office. Instead, the novel demands constant vigilance. Your first seemingly watertight impression of either place or character will soon be found flawed. And therein lies the humanity of Li's characters.

Berne by Berne

2010-03-03T08:00:00.001-06:00

I first heard of Suzanne Berne last November. Although The Ghost at the Table is about coming home for Thanksgiving, it proves timely no matter what the season.

Cynnie lives on the West Coast writing historical fiction for girls. Her latest book is about Mark Twain's daughters. Her sister Frances (decorator/homemaker) lives back East. Their father has recently suffered a stroke and their step-mother no longer wishes to care for him. Cynnie agrees to visit for Thanksgiving to help her sister transport their father to a rest home.

Through Cynnie's eyes, the author takes us from her arrival on Frances' doorstep back to her teenage years and her mother's illness and then returns us to a train wreck of a holiday. As the novel progresses, I found myself trusting Cynnie's version of events less and less. And as the drunk Cynnie tells a devastatingly sad tale of Twain's treatment of his family, we find ourselves revising our own opinion of Cynnie from the sad, charming cynic to just sad cynic.

Taught my lesson not to trust appearances, I turned to an earlier work of Berne's called A Perfect Arrangement. Mirella is a lawyer. Howard is an architect. Their house is a mess, their son Jacob's not talking yet, and their daughter Pearl frequently throws hair brushes. In short, they need a nanny.

Randi arrives on their doorstep, entices Howard with visions of home-cooked meals, and has Jacob talking in no time. She even cleans out the cellar. But as we follow Mirella, Howard, and Randi through their days, we realize that (in no particular order) false references, unwanted pregnancies, and intern affairs will soon knock the perfect balance out of whack again.

Berne achieves an admirable level of suspense that will keep you reading -leaving your own kitchen a shambles. But you'll be thankful for the mess.

Doritos are Flammable

2010-02-24T08:52:00.001-06:00

George moves to Des Moines, meets the crush of his life (and her sister), and wrestles. Off the mat, he grapples with his feelings for Emily. Meanwhile Emily's little sister Katie gifts him with homemade comics and promises him a time capsule.

Upon opening the pages of Weeping Underwater Looks a Lot Like Laughter, the reader also slips into a high school time capsule (if you were born in or around 1976). Emily scores an extra spot on the set of The Bridges of Madison County and George rollerblades. But as the title portends, life is not all sappy adultery and hockey.

Michael J. White's debut blazes, but it might leave you with a peculiar orange residue of images and conversations not easily rinsed away.

Wait...what?

2010-02-17T07:00:00.001-06:00

I'll admit it. The thought of time-travel boggles my mind. So it was with some trepidation (years after hearing of this book) that I finally sat down with The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger.

I first knew I was in trouble when I realized each section of the novel begins with the day, month, and year as well as the ages of the two main characters. For example, the book opens in 1991 when Henry is 28 and Clare is 20. They are meeting after a two-year absence. Clare hasn't seen Henry since she was 18. Henry hasn't seen Clare since he was 36.

Here's where the title of this post comes in. If you need to go grab some Advil, I'll wait.

Better? Yes, initially the dates and ages gave me a headache, too. But persevere, suspend disbelief, and you too will be enthralled. (I'm not alone in this. Praise for this book takes up the first three pages. My favorite of which is "dizzyingly romantic.")

We read backward into the early days of courtship. We leap forward into the troubled years of marriage. We're taken back again into Henry's childhood and forward into Clare's old age. Then we are back again to discover the first physical strains of time-travel and look forward hopefully for a cure.

And if nothing else of the above compels you to open the pages, I'll just have to leave you with one other detail. One of Henry's "cures" for preventing unwanted disappearances from the present is sex.

It's worth the wait.

Eating My Words

2010-02-10T10:10:00.003-06:00

Remember that post about Julie and Julia? And how I skimmed over the parts about Julia Child?

"Abashedly," after seeing the movie, I realized I had missed out on the best part. To remedy the situation I turned to Child’s My Life in France (written with Alex Prud'homme). Part diary, part travelogue, part expat handbook, the account begins in 1948 and concludes with her later years in Provence.

While Powell sticks mainly to the story of Child's first volume of Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Child in My Life in France has documented her work on both volumes. In addition, she takes us behind the scenes of her cooking show. Of her later years, she ruminates on fame and the necessity of having a hide-away. She and Paul find respite in a small house near Simca's (her writing partner Simone Beck).

Child relies not only on her own memories, but spices it up with bits and pieces of correspondence from friends and family. Her "hold yer hat" husband Paul provides some of the most delightful excerpts while proving that those emails and texts will probably not stand the test of time when it comes to jotting down your own memoir.

So for this Valentine's Day, cook up a rich meal, write a long love letter (with a pen), or pick up this sweetheart of a tale.

Just barely

2010-02-03T16:15:00.006-06:00

made it through January. A spate of bad luck, starting a new semester, and winter doldrums all worked in conspiracy against posting anything new. Starting with a flaming vacuum and a jammed computer drive and ending with a wild dog attack, January wasn't my month.

And then I found out I was selected by What Not To Wear to receive a makeover after my sisters compiled months of footage of dowdily clad me.

Well, no, but that is one of my greatest fears. To stave off that inevitability, I picked up Just Try it On: A Month-by-Month Guide to Shopping and Style by Susan Redstone. Then I remembered why I opt for the same yoga pants and fleece every day. My day-wear works whether I'm waiting at the Toyota dealership, the ER, or running from rabid dogs. The slightly worn "extras" I'm supposed to include in my fashion emergency kit are already on my back.

At least I tried.

And though there's a slim chance I could appear on the above named TLC favorite, there's no chance that I would ever appear on the show hosted by the subject of Just Desserts.

Just Desserts - Martha Stewart: The Unauthorized Biography by Jerry Oppenheimer dishes the dirt and deflates the souffle. Guiltily I admit it was a fun read. I learned Stewart had a ghost writer for her Entertaining books and worked as a stock broker with Brian Dennehy.Oh, and they also dated after her divorce, according to Oppenheimer. Desserts was written before her prison debacle, but the inside look into her Kmart campaign and launch of her magazine is an intriguing place to end. But just.

Le Spy

2010-01-13T08:57:00.002-06:00

Spy novels, spy manuals, Othello, Edith Wharton, and the Koran supply the cryptic quotes introducing each chapter of Diane Johnson’s Lulu in Marrakech. Lulu is in Marrakech ostensibly to research female literacy programs. But her covert mission as a CIA agent is to keep an eye on the expats (including her new boyfriend Ian) and other donors who may be funding terrorist networks.

Lulu is drawn to Ian as husband material, but she suspects he isn’t telling her everything. When Gazi Al-Sayad shows up on the doorstep after leaving her Saudi Arabian husband, Lulu’s suspicions are unveiled…in a few more chapters. (Lulu is a novice after all.) With the help of her secret contact, Colonel Barka, Lulu eventually unravels the clues. Which leaves this reader to wonder, didn’t she read the epigraphs?

"Quirky Situations, Action, and Mild Language"

2010-01-06T20:48:00.001-06:00

So reads the ratings warning on the back of the Charlie and the Chocolate Factory DVD.

So, too, should read any label regarding the following five "quirkiest" reads o' mine of 2009.

My Misspent Youth by Meghan Daum

Confessions of a Window Dresser by Simon Doonan

Jeff in Venice, Death in Varanasi by Geoff Dyer

When We Were Romans by Matthew Kneale

Godmother by Carolyn Turgeon

No, Virginia

2009-12-23T09:43:00.002-06:00

There is no such thing as Santa Claus or your father’s law degree.

Laurie Sandell grows up believing her father’s stories…grenades and diamonds, stints on the National Security Council, and hobnobs with the pope. But her suspicions arise when as a teenager, she watches her father build a bomb shelter in the basement and stock an attic arsenal. Finally as a college student, her image of her father as a Rushmore-size personality begins to shrink when she discovers he’s been racking up debt in her name on ill-gotten credit card accounts.

In her “true memoir” The Imposter’s Daughter, Sandell has broken her life into graphic novel blocks illustrating her disillusionment with her adored father. While she is investigating her father’s true identity, she’s jetting around the country writing celebrity profiles for Glamour and pursuing a long distance relationship with Ben, a screenwriter she met on the Internet.

Sound fascinating? Indeed. You’ll speed through this one as fast as the author goes through her prescription for Ambien. And you'll sleep just as soundly knowing you could never write such a book about your father. Or could you?

Candy, Nuts and Ladies Underwear

2009-12-17T13:19:00.001-06:00

I would have posted yesterday, but I was up late finishing a real find.

It’s the 1930s in Middle Swan, Colorado. Hennie, who was made a young widow by the Civil War, doesn’t want to leave her mountain home, but her daughter Mae wants her to come live with her. As she enters her last seasons in Middle Swan, Hennie meets Nit, a young woman seeking to buy a prayer. Through coffee cake and quilting, Hennie helps the new arrival acclimate to life in the small gold mining town.

Through Hennie’s recollections and reflections, Sandra Dallas pieces together bits of romance, loss, and retribution in Prayers for Sale. Her language more than anything creates a sense of time and place. Nit’s husband fears being hoovered from his tenuous job on the dredge but looks forward to a tasty hereafter (dessert). Middle Swaners take leave of one another with “tap ‘er light.” The final leaving is referred to as a planting.

Should you read this one? As Nit likes to say,“Hello yes!” This one's sound as a dollar.

Going up?

2009-12-09T13:33:00.003-06:00

Blythe Young is on the lam from the IRS, numerous creditors, and a vindictive Austin socialite named Kippie Lee. After a rags-to-riches marriage unravels, Blythe seeks refuge with Millie, her former roommate who is still living in the Seneca House co-op they inhabited in college. Millie, now an un-ordained minister, spends her days feeding the homeless, the unemployed day laborers, and teen runaways that panhandle on the Drag.

No longer able to rely on the drugs and alcohol she needs to get through her day as a bankrupt extreme events coordinator, Blythe turns to her far worse habit of manipulation. After alienating Millie by forcing a love confession from her already-spoken-for-in-an-arranged-marriage-sort-of-way crush Sanjeev, Blythe is kicked out of the house. Blythe, and the novel, finally finds her groove when she successfully coordinates a last-minute retreat for Kippie Lee’s gang at the Seneca “Spa.”

Sometimes silly, sometimes trite, sometimes funny, sometimes not, How Perfect is That by Sarah Bird isn’t. What it is, however, is entertaining. Like its characters, the novel is over-the-top at every possible moment. In it you’ll find at least one characterization of every person you’ve ever met living in Austin from the Whole Foods bagger/bassist to the Westlake malpractice lawyer who hires Lyle Lovett to entertain at parties.

With reading, “sometimes you get the elevator, sometimes you get the shaft” (to borrow a line from the novel). But Bird’s writing, as evidenced in her other books I’ve read (The Mommy Club and The Flamenco Academy), never fails to give you a lift.

Find Bird's writing for Texas Monthly here.

Humbug

2009-12-02T12:08:00.001-06:00

Can't find your copy of A Christmas Carol? Click here to read a classic.

"There’s no turkey in it."

2009-11-25T08:33:00.001-06:00

This was my four-year-old’s assessment after sitting down with the first Thanksgiving book in our stack - Nickommoh! - and flipping through the pictures. Then as soon as I began reading the first page (“Kautantawwitt, the Creator…”), my listener exclaimed, “English please!” After stumbling through the pronunciation of “Taqountikeeswush” and “Qunnekamuck” I too was thinking, “English please!” Unfamiliar language aside, Jackie French Koller weaves together an intriguing story of a Narragansett harvest celebration. We watch as they build the lodge, prepare the nasaump pudding, swim in the river, and dress in paints for the singing and dancing in the Sacred Circle. The illustrations by Marcia Sewall are a pleasure to look at – from bold black lines outlining photorealistic features on one page to the rough figures sketched around a bonfire on another.

The other book we were able to procure from the library two days before Thanksgiving was Word Bird’s Thanksgiving Words by Jane Belk Moncure and illustrated by Chris McEwan. Despite the inclusion of a turkey, my (picky) listener decided this one is “not really cool because that turkey’s not cool.” Cool?

We decided to stick with this week’s Pre-K issue of the Weekly Reader for our Thanksgiving reading. Gobble up some fun Thanksgiving Facts here.

Thanks a Lot

2009-11-18T15:09:00.001-06:00

What will it be this year? Sunflower Rice Patties? Not-Too-Dirty-Rice? Cocoa Avocado Mousse?

I found these potential Thanksgiving (ahem) delicacies in the following new (to me) vegetarian cookbooks.

Get It Ripe by Jae Steele
I don’t mind the occasional “chik” on my plate, but the spellings in this vegan cookbook (Creemy Rice Pudding, Chewy Peanut Buttah Cookies) take the cutesy a bit far. I did like Steele’s section on menu ideas which divides the book’s recipes into meal and holiday plans. Although for my next “living foods feast,” I’m thinking I’ll skip dessert (Avocado Mousse). For Thanksgiving, either the Spiced Squash Muffins or The Good Shepherd’s Pie seem like safe bets.

Vegan Soul Kitchen by Bryant Terry
Each recipe in Terry’s book is accompanied by a personal comment or suggestion for improving your cooking game AND ideas for music to dice to. A palatable symphony. I’m not sure how well his “Sweet Thang” recipe for Maple Yam-Ginger Pie would go over at our table, but the Boppin’ John might be worth a try…for New Year’s.

Enemy of the Steak by Nikki and David Goldbeck
The Goldbecks’ latest book introduces the vegetarian recipes with a section called Basic Training. With detailed instructions and cooking times for stewing beans, soaking grains, and grilling vegetables, you can finally use those speckled beans that have been eyeing you from the pantry. I’ll take pity on the carnivores and opt out of the Orange Arame Salad and Rare Root Stew, but perhaps the Maple Pecan Tempeh won’t feel too neglected next to the green bean casserole and that last turkey leg.

Mrs. Somebody Somebody: Stories by Tracy Winn

2009-11-11T10:34:00.000-06:00

Lowell, Massachusetts has been popping up in any printed material I’ve picked up lately. Most recently it’s appeared as the thread binding the stories in a first collection by Tracy Winn. With characters as varied as the town’s economy, Winn will keep you reading long into third shift.

Read the title story here and see for yourself that Winn is (a Mrs.) somebody to watch.

Soup's Off?

2009-11-04T10:04:00.002-06:00

One normally doesn’t associate the kitchen of a posh hotel with human trafficking, sex workers, and blackmail but maybe I’ve just been watching too much Top Chef and not enough CSI.

Monica Ali’s In the Kitchen serves up a cast of multinational night porters, sleazy managers, and working-class siblings. One of these siblings, Gabriel Lightfoot, is the executive chef at the Imperial Hotel. Gabe is biding his time at the hotel while he tries to pull the financing together to open his own place. He is also debating proposing to his nightclub-singer-girlfriend even while sheltering one of the above-mentioned sex workers in his apartment. As if that weren’t enough of a full plate, Gabe learns his father has cancer.

You may remember Ali from her previous book Brick Lane (or seen the film). Perhaps she’s bit off too much in her latest endeavor. Not only does Kitchen tackle Gabe’s present menu of troubles, but it doesn’t blanch at including numerous flashbacks to Gabe’s childhood as well as throwing in the back story of almost all of the immigrants who work in his kitchen. We read of Gabe’s visits to his father’s mill and his delights in the antics of his madcap mother. Well, the madcap turns out to be simply mad, as Gabe learns near the end of the book, just in time for his own mental tray of dishes to come crashing down.

Like the diners who clap at the sound of shattered plates, you may applaud Ali’s efforts. Will you be praising her examination of the breadth of human folly or simply pleased the last page is imminent? It all depends on your taste. This book has a little (or should I say a little too much) for everyone. Immigrant struggle, illicit sex, sibling rivalry, and fledgling entrepreneurship - you will be sated. Bon Appétit.

Creepy-Crawly Catchy

2009-10-28T09:45:00.002-05:00

When Jezebel’s Papa leaves for the war, she runs away to the forest. Despite the “googery-boogery creepy-crawly catchy” feeling in that spooky place, she claims it for her own.

As the seasons pass, the lonely feeling of missing her Papa doesn’t. Again and again she seeks out her spot even though she’s up against spiders, swamp ghosts, and pixie lights libel to steal her soul.

The book is Jezebel’s Spooky Spot by Alice Ross and Kent Ross and illustrated by Ted Rand. Like Jezebel’s Little Brother, your listener will be hanging on to every word. And you won’t mind reading it again because how often do you get to say “lawse a mercy”?

Speaking of spooky, I've included a new link to an interview with Maurice Sendak. Look on the right side of this page under audio.

The Walking People by Mary Beth Keane

2009-10-21T13:24:00.001-05:00

The scope of this novel is deceiving. Perhaps because Irish immigration is so enmeshed with potato famines, I kept having to remind myself the story begins in the 1960s rather than the 1860s. But reading of a childhood sans electricity and indoor plumbing and the flight from Ireland not on a plane but on a ship, does put one in the mindset of Tammany Hall rather than Tammy Wynette.

The title refers to Ireland’s traveling people who wander from camp to camp doing odd jobs and begging to earn money. Michael Ward grows up in a traveling family, sleeps under the stars, but longs for a permanent roof. After running away from home, he finds shelter with the Cahill family and eventually accompanies the two Cahill sisters, Greta and Johanna, to New York.

Crossing the Atlantic, Michael and Johanna have a Titanic moment. Michael finds work in building maintenance, Greta goes to work for a department store, and Johanna abandons newborn Julia to seek her fortunes in California.

We catch up with Greta’s family in the late 70s. Rather than sparking a reunion, the death of her mother a few weeks after her daughter’s birth severs all ties to her family. Skipping ahead to the 80s, we find the family has managed to save enough to buy a house in suburbia. In the course of the move, Julia finds a tin of old letters that raises questions about why she’s never met her mother’s family.

In the novel’s final section, we delve into the preparations for Michael’s retirement party. Greta soon learns, however, that her kids have prepared a surprise for her as well. The surprise, it turns out for the reader, is just one of the many reasons that makes this novel so – as the Irish say - dear.

Mama-Grace’s Cakes

2009-10-14T09:00:00.002-05:00

You owe Gaile Parkin a big thank you. Instead of reading about Shop Your Closet by Melanie Fascitelli this week, you’ll get to enjoy Parkin’s Baking Cakes in Kigali instead.

Baking Cakes tells the story of Angel, a native of Tanzania, who lives in Rwanda. When she’s not caring for her husband and five grandchildren, Angel bakes special occasion cakes out of her apartment. Each chapter of the book introduces us to a new cake client.

These clients represent different slices of Rwanda’s tumultuous history and pieced-together present. Foreign aid workers, university professors, local shop owners, and neighbors all request cakes. And in the course of filling out their order form, they reveal their, often sad, stories over a cup of tea.

These vignettes could easily have been plated as short stories, but Parkin allows Angel to introduce one client to another – creating a community that happily pitches in for the book’s wedding celebration finale.

Though many of the stories Angel hears deal with grief, Parkin tempers all the sadness with sprinkles of humor. Baby names, condoms, and Oprah all give Angel something to smile about. Smiles she surely needs since Angel is also coming to terms with her own daughter’s AIDS-related death.

Now go rummage through your messy closet to unearth those sweat pants, grab a cupcake (or ten), and dig in.

Mama-Grace’s Cupcakes
(makes a dozen)

½ cup of sugar
½ cup of Blue Band (aka 1 stick of margarine), softened
2 eggs
1 cup of flour
1 tsp. baking powder

Preaheat the oven to 350 degrees. Cream the sugar and margarine. Add the eggs. Sift in the flour and baking powder. Mix until creamy. Spoon into cupcake molds. Bake for 20 minutes or until the tops of the cupcakes are lightly browned. When cooled, ice with the frosting of your choice.

Not Those Fugees

2009-10-07T10:47:00.000-05:00

I could have started this post by writing about living in a small town in Oregon – delivering mattresses to migrant farm worker families in the morning, eating lunch in a restaurant run by a Russian Orthodox family, and making marionberry jam with a retired farmer whose parents immigrated from Poland.

I also thought about starting this post by relaying the harrowing tales I’ve heard from my ESL students from Sudan.

Or perhaps I could have begun with the birthday party of the Kurdish women I tutored where I arrived on time (but hours early nevertheless) and delighted in watching the dancing under a hot Arlington summer sun.

Or that time I arrived for my soccer game with only one shoe…Ok, that last example didn’t happen to me. It comes from the book that awakened all these memories. Outcasts United by Warren St. John is about a youth soccer league comprised of refugees. The boys come from Liberia, Sudan, and Iraq. Their coach, Luma al Mufleh, is from Jordan. They all live in a small town outside Atlanta, Georgia.

Though they lack shoes and even at times a practice field, the team manages to win games. Even the non-sports fan will eagerly look forward to St. John’s engrossing replays of the games. Equally fascinating, are the stories that happen off the field. The players offsides include the mayor who enforces bogus park rules, police officers who are ticket happy (and at times slap happy), and the town denizens who are none too pleased with their new neighbors.

After you race through this one, you’ll want to roll out St. John’s Rammer Jammer Yellow Hammer about Alabama football. It’s another slam dunk..er..touchdown.

Barbarism in this Beauty

2009-09-30T12:16:00.002-05:00

Buntings and bourbon fly through Buenos Aires and small town New York. A teenager looks for romance in a Chinese restaurant/brothel, an invalid heiress elopes with her swim instructor, and a majorette catches herself on fire. These stories have alighted in Lauren Groff’s Delicate Edible Birds.

In the title story, a female journalist must evacuate with a team of male reporters during World War II. She is nicknamed “l’ ortolan” for the delicacy diners devour while veiling their faces with a napkin. She herself proves to be a dish when she and her colleagues are captured by a sadistic German.

When you’ve finished these stories, you’ll want to turn to Groff’s first book – The Monsters of Templeton. Truly epic in heft and scope, Monsters is a story of origin. One woman researches the town lore to discover her father’s identity. In doing so, she unravels a complicated family tree with chapters giving voice to minor characters from her past.

Mythical Realism. I don’t know if this is a thing, but Lauren Groff should be the poster child. Her work contains the same unsettling plot twists you’ve come to expect from stories of metamorphosis while her prose may prove as timeless as Sisyphus’ task.

Banzai Akita

2009-09-23T11:17:00.002-05:00

Lately I’ve been running hills. I was feeling pretty good about my endurance until I read this book about a man who also runs. Up mountains. To kill bears.

Morie Sawataishi, the subject of Dog Man by Martha Sherrill, engages in these activities to train his prize winning Akitas. Although the book describes Morie’s quest to breed the ultimate Akita, this is no Best in Show. Through chapters named for the dogs he raised over a lifetime from No Name to Shiro, we read about the venture from both Morie and his family’s perspective.

Despite the money to be made selling dogs – first to the American servicemen and then to avid Akita fans - Morie refuses to take money for a dog, preferring to give them away. This causes some raised eyebrows (and voices) in his household, since his wife Kitako, a society girl turned mountain mama, remembers the lean times. Little rice, little meat, and little heat was to be found in their remote village in post-war Japan. Despite the deprivation, the dogs never went hungry.

Later in the book we hear from Morie’s children – a vet, a Vidal Sassoon hair stylist – about Morie’s enthusiasm for all things Akita. And his reticence when it came to his own children.

This is a book about a man who loves dogs. What he loves most about them isn’t their physical appearance or their promise of riches. And he most certainly doesn’t teach them tricks. What he really strives for is a dog with kisho. Funnily enough, it’s this kisho, or life force, that Morie himself embodies in these pages.

MS+JF= BFF

2009-09-16T01:21:00.003-05:00

Some rely on Harlequin romances. Some on cat mysteries. Still others on Stephanie Myers. My guilty pleasure? Juvenile fiction.

Recently I dusted off some old favorites by Lois Lowry, Ellen Raskin, and Cynthia Voigt. Somewhat disenchanted with the last, I decided to see what young readers today have to pick from. Luckily, I've been following just the blog to help me choose.

First on the cart - Cassie was Here by Caroline Hickey. In this one, eleven-year-old Bree sways between a friend who’s too childish and one who's too mature. I found myself shifting allegiances, also. First, I was rooting for cool Cassie but then found myself feeling sad at the demise of Bree's (ahem) imaginary pal.

Next in line - My Life in Pink and Green by Lisa Greenwald. Lucy, a wannabe make-up artist, tries to save her family’s pharmacy by going green. I liked this one as well but found the beauty tips at the beginning of each chapter a little silly. But then again, I'm not exactly the target reader.

Shhhh. Don't tell.

Slide:ology by Nancy Duarte

2009-09-09T05:20:00.000-05:00

I’ve broken every rule in this book. I’d say more, but I’ve got some Power Points to revise.

“not all beer and skittles”

2009-09-02T05:54:00.003-05:00

So remarked Ezra Jack Keats after winning the Caldecott Medal for The Snowy Day. His quote reflects the controversy his books sparked for being done by a white illustrator featuring multicultural characters. Although his character Peter was inspired by a picture of a little boy he saw in a copy of Life, Keats drew from his own life - he grew up in a Brooklyn tenement during the Depression - to create Peter’s world.

All this comes from Keats’s Neighborhood, a collection of 10 stories compiled on the 40th anniversary of the publication of The Snowy Day. The treasury also includes a short biography of Keats and remembrances of his life and work from other children’s illustrators including Eric Carle and Reynold Ruffins.

My favorite story of the collection, apart from The Snowy Day, is A Letter to Amy. In this story, Peter’s having a birthday party. He decides to invite a girl to the party and writes his friend Amy a special invitation. On his way to the mailbox, a storm whips the envelope from his hand. Amy finds it, but before she can pick it up, Peter snatches it so he can mail it according to plan. The party day arrives and we wait to see if Amy will indeed show up. Waiting isn’t hard, since it gives us time to take in the details of the party hats, curtains, and Peter’s tie.

My daughter’s favorite stories in the collection include Peter’s Chair and Jennie’s Hat. In her words, “what I like about them is I like the story.” But what I like about them is the illustrations. Keats’s technique of marbeling and cutting paper for collage makes his pictures vibrantly pop off the page. From hodgepodged hats of valentines and eggs to weathered circulars peeling off the bricks outside the Chinese laundry “How Soon,” Keats can set the scene.

Charmed, I’m Sure

2009-08-26T05:54:00.001-05:00

Once upon a time there were three sisters. Fluent in the make-believe language Arnish, they spent their dreaming moments in a faery realm. Banished from her daughters’ secret world, their mother spent most of her waking moments cultivating heirloom tomatoes in her garden.

Years passed. Once so close, the sisters realigned allegiances in high school when the eldest, Elv, began rebelling. Betrayed by her sisters into rehab, Elv met Lorry. Lorry instantly ensnared her heart with a tale of a youth spent living underground in abandoned subway stations. The two storytellers, with a little help from heroin, managed a life together. Meanwhile the youngest, Claire, unable to deal with life’s loss, moved into her grandmother’s Paris apartment. After a slice of Honesty Cake (fresh eggs, flour, sugar, lemon rind, anise seed and dry cherries), Claire was hired by a family friend to work in a jewelry store. Eventually, Claire won her sister back through charms crafted for Elv’s daughter Mimi. And they all lived happily ever after.

Or did they?

Alice Hoffman, like the protagonist of The Story Sisters, is a born storyteller. She breathes life into characters that join us on our commute, read over our shoulders, linger over dessert. Like others we spend our days around, they annoy, entrance, humor, and perplex us. Equally as perplexing is the ending. Heartbreakingly tragic or sigh-of-relief sweet? I’m still not sure. Maybe I’m just disappointed the tale had to end at all.

It's Your Turn

2009-08-19T05:56:00.001-05:00

It all begins with a storybook wedding. Sex. Kids. And then either:

A) both parents work, children are cared for by someone else
B) one parent works, leaving the other parent as the “stay-at-home”
C) one parent works, one parent stays-at-home writing, and a housekeeper and nanny are hired

It’s a good thing she chose C.

Caitlin Flanagan has compiled a mope-conquering collection of essays examining woman’s work in To Hell with All That: Loving and Loathing Our Inner Housewife.

I first discovered Flanagan when I came across her article “Housewife Confidential” in the Atlantic. To Hell with All That includes an expanded version of this article which examines what the original housewife authors from Bombeck to Bracken had to say – don’t throw out your sense of humor with the dishwater.

Flanagan moves on to discuss the phenom of today’s mother’s little helper. Not valium. The nanny. After investigating the rise of the governess culminating in Disney’s Mary Poppins, Flanagan relates her own experience as the mother of twin boys and employeer of help more likely to be named Maria than Mary. Paloma, it turns out, is a godsend. She cleans, she cooks, she quiets the boys with a look. And Flanagan loves it. When she’s not questioning her own role in the whole endeavor.

After the boys have grown, Flanagan hires a housekeeper to take up where the nanny left off, which leaver her more time to manage the family’s schedule (and its clutter). Essays on both resonate and cheekily point out the ridiculousness of it all.

And then there’s the husband. Poor him. Really. He’s gone from the housewife’s main preoccupation to an afterthought somewhere between Little Gym and pet vaccinations in the stay-at-home’s day planner. Flanagan’s words from page 36:

“He must somehow seduce a woman who is economically independent of him, bone tired, philosophically disinclined to have sex unless she’s jolly well in the mood…and still doing a slow burn over his failure to wipe down the countertops and fold the dish towel after cooking the kids’ dinner. He can hardly be blamed for opting instead to check his e-mail, catch a few minutes of SportsCenter, and call it a night.”

I’m going to tape that quote to my fridge. Just as soon as I wipe that crusty stuff out of the produce bin and alphabetize the chutneys.

Gum Arabic

2009-08-12T05:55:00.003-05:00

Grand-maman presides over the table covered in her mother’s tablecloth. Beautiful people lounge in mismatched wooden chairs set on the grass. It’s Sunday and children are in from the city seeking escape from their day jobs in publishing, finance, and children’s clothing design. Carafes of wine, children in spotless white, women in tastefully wrinkled linen. Cheese for dessert.

If you’ve been waiting to recreate such a scene, here’s the manual: A Well Kept Home: Household Traditions and Simple Secrets from a French Grandmother by Laura Fronty and Yves Duronsoy.

In this book, Fronty and Duronsoy have created a tisane of beautiful photographs (straw hats, lily oil), vintage recipes (Colette’s quince water, Dumas’ butter), and practical home keeping advice (returning the shine to glassware, keeping moths away with peppercorns). Sprinkled throughout are Fronty’s reminisces about lemon balm, ivy water used to wash silk, and a time when currants, quince pips, and bergamot oil were household staples.

Although I don’t own a straw hat, my wine glasses, sadly neglected, are cloudy. I took a recipe from this book and am, as I write, hoping the vinegar/egg shell mix works its magic. If it does, I may drag my own mismatched set of wooden chairs out on the lawn, sip a glass of wine, and savor the plate of plum cake at my feet – though I daresay my children won’t be wearing white anytime soon.

Square One

2009-08-05T02:29:00.004-05:00

My dad is a man of habit. Every morning he pours a cup of coffee, opens the paper, and after reading the news, works the puzzles. From solving the Dallas Time Herald's crossword of 30 years ago or the Ft. Worth Star Telegram's sudoku of today, he is purportedly in great shape to stave off Alzheimer's. Or so I believed until picking up Dean Olsher's From Square One: A Meditation, with Digressions, on Crosswords.

Olsher doggedly fills in the pages of this book as one might solve the Sunday New York Times puzzle - going across with one topic, down to another, then back to the stumpers. Among the stumpers he tackles are why musical theater lyricists make great puzzle constructors, why more couples aren’t doing crosswords together, and why you should try belly dancing if you are really interested in delaying the onset of dementia (are you taking notes, Dad?).

Like Olsher, I habitually become obsessed with doing crosswords. Three hours into labor with my daughter found me working the Monday New York Times puzzle. Recuperating after the birth of my son, I worked through a Variety collection of word games. Usually the Sunday morning drive to church finds me listening for Will Shortz’ weekly puzzle challenge on NPR. I actually have been intending to see Wordplay, a movie Olsher mentions about competitive crossword tournaments. Now thanks to Olsher, I’ve got a new obsession – the cryptic.

By the end of his book, Olsher's moved away (or across) from crosswords to explaining the rules for solving cryptics. Perhaps Olsher's only trying to jumpstart the publishing industry with a new wave of cryptic books. After all, according to Olsher, Simon & Schuster got its start from the popularity of a series of "Cross Word" books in the 1920s. Farrar, Straus and Giroux received financial backing from Farrar's wife Margaret, who made her living as the NY Times crossword editor in the 1940s. Whatever his motive, Olsher succeeded in getting one reader to try her hand (and even more trying, her brain) at this cryptic. You can find instructions here, reader, if you are so inclined. If not, take it from Square One.

If you like...

2009-07-29T07:13:00.003-05:00

You've read everything Jodi Picoult has written. Now what?

Welcome to the world of "If you like" lists. I first discovered such lists on the Seattle Public Library website. Now, sadly, most of their resources are reserved for card holders. But a multitude of libraries have jumped on the book wagon and have lists accessible to anyone who can google.

Here are a few I found:

Clifton Park Library
Multnomah County Library
Oxford County Library
Wake County Public Libraries

By the way, if you do like Jodi Picoult, then you'll probably like Michelle Richmond's The Year of Fog and No One You Know.

Skimming the Stacks

2009-07-22T05:18:00.002-05:00

So it seems I’ve fallen out of favor with the librarians. Somebody shelved the books I had on reserve leaving me no recourse but to quickly browse the shelves for something (anything) to read.

That’s how I found these three. As usual I have a knack for picking out the funny, the lyrical, and the heartbreaking.

We Are All Fine Here by Mary Guterson

Julia & Ray & Jim & Patricia. Julia is married to Jim, sleeps with Ray, and is jealous of Jim’s infatuation with Patricia. One pregnancy at 39 later, Julia‘s frank, funny observations of her mid-life predicament make you wish you said it first.

The Sky Below by Stacey D'Erasmo

A portrait of an artist as a young man pining for the time when his mother read him Ovid morphs into a day job at 39 writing obituaries of former Rockettes. At night, he spies on the owners of his dream house, ghost-writes a best selling pulp series, and creates assemblage boxes of found objects. After being diagnosed with cancer, he travels to Mexico and falls into a camp of misfits led by an indigo child. Winged but somewhat unhinged, he begins another transformation. More Marquez than New Agez, D’Erasmo’s prose pulls it off.

The End of the Alphabet by CS Richardson

Zephyr marries Zipper. Zephyr greets the neighbors on Sundays. Zipper writes for a fashion magazine. Zephyr finds out he has 30 days to live. Zipper accompanies him on an alphabetical last-days tour…Amsterdam, Berlin, Chartres. Poignant characters carry this slim novella though the conceit loses steam around LMNOP.

"No Deal?"

2009-07-15T16:02:00.002-05:00

If I ever get Parkinson’s, don’t take me anywhere near this place. The dopamine stimulants used to treat the disease have been linked to an increased risk of gambling and other reward-based compulsive behaviors - behaviors that many might view as plain old poor decisions.

Poor decisions, and good decisions, are the subject of Jonah Lehrer’s How We Decide.
Opening with quarterbacks, Lehrer then follows a poker player, credit counselor, and soap opera director (among others) to illustrate the brain functions that guide our decisions. He delineates the different types of decisions we face from simple to complex and explains whether we should draw from the rational or emotional in making up our minds.

If a decision can be summarized in numerical terms, such as price, he suggests utilizing the prefrontal cortex. Therefore making the best decision on which cereal to spoon up or which suitcase to open on Deal or No Deal requires a little thought.

Likewise, he also suggests using reason to work out new problems. While we can rely on past mistakes and our gut when encountering most problems, novel crises require an application of logic. He cites two cases involving a firefighter and pilot who both took the time to think through their life-threatening dilemmas and saved some lives in the process.

Although it may seem counterintuitive, with more complex decisions such as buying a new house or car, Lehrer cautions us not to over think. He says you may just rationalize yourself into a third bathroom by telling yourself that hour long commute isn’t that bad. It is.

To sum up, Lehrer advises us overall to think about thinking. Be aware of the kind of decision you are faced with. Then approach it rationally or emotionally. We can learn from our mistakes and listen to the emotional brain that has formed around those mistakes. Unless, of course, you are playing the slot machines.

To read more of Lehrer, read his Frontal Cortex blog or find him at Scientific American.

Klingon Poets

2009-07-08T05:08:00.000-05:00

This summer leaves me little time to read with a growing list of books I’d love to read. Here is my short list. Small wonder they were all either written by speakers of other languages or by speakers attempting to learn other languages. Click on the highlighted words to read more about each book and/or author.

Dreaming in Hindi:Coming Awake in Another Language by Katherine Russell Rich

The Thing Around Your Neck by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Hear an interview with Adichie here.

An Elegy for Easterly by Petina Gappah
Hear an interview with Gappah here.

In the Land of Invented Languages: Esperanto Rock Stars, Klingon Poets, Loglan Lovers, and the Mad Dreamers Who Tried to Build A Perfect Language by Arika Okrent

To Peruse at Your Leisure

2009-07-01T05:30:00.003-05:00

“You are not married. Perhaps you are looking for a husband. This is for you to peruse at your leisure.”

So proposes a man named Suketu as he hands his CV to an American microbiologist traveling in India in the opening story of John Murray’s A Few Short Notes on Tropical Butterflies. Like the microbiologist, we’re both delighted and a little overwhelmed as we encounter the eccentric characters and often tragic details throughout the collection of stories.

Many of the stories explore the relationships between estranged family members. Many of the stories feature doctors. Most mention Darwin. We read about surgeons assisting refugees near the Congo border, Indian immigrants making a go of it in Vietnam-era Iowa, and mad explorers searching for Queen Alexandria’s birdwing butterfly.

Murray’s prose, like his characters’ penchant for order and adventure, is straightforward yet touching. Unfortunately, this is a debut, so other works are not available as of yet. In the meantime, I may just have to seek out a copy of The Vogage of the Beagle.

Backyard Agains

2009-06-24T06:37:00.003-05:00

Long before we were lounging by the pool, long before there was a pool, we had a gorgeous pecan tree in our backyard. One of the branches arched out perfectly to support a hammock. Since we didn’t have air conditioning, long summer afternoons often found someone in the hammock reading, a bowl of frozen grapes slowly turning soft on the makeshift brick patio.

Such afternoons were perfect for Ann Tyler: Accidental Tourist, Breathing Lessons, or my perennial favorite, Saint Maybe.

Bee and Doug Bedloe have successfully raised three happy and healthy children and are looking forward to retirement. When their son Danny unexpectedly dies, they are reluctant to start all over in raising his infant daughter and two young step-children. But after Danny’s brother Ian wanders into the Church of the Second Chance, he realizes he must drop out of college to be the one to raise the children. Twenty years fly by and as Ian turns out tables as a woodworker, the tables turn on him. Although he still worries over the children, they start worrying over him.

Whether it’s a day spent at vacation bible school, a long walk to seduce the typewriter salesman, or a disappointing Christmas visit home, Tyler’s descriptions aptly evoke the skepticism of childhood, the despair of young motherhood, and the maddening quirks of family members long set in their ways. Mundane, yes. Engrossing, definitely.

More hammock reads for kids and teens can be found here.

Grit

2009-06-17T04:30:00.003-05:00

Hearing Richard Price extolled again and again on Fresh Air for his mastery of dialogue, I decided to venture into the section of the library where many of the dust jacket blurbs proclaim “gritty.” I begrudgingly picked up Samaritan and rushed back two days later for Lush Life.

Samaritan proves you can go home again but may get a severe concussion as a result. Ray Mitchell returns to his home town after a stint as a Hollywood writer and soon ends up in the ICU after being attacked in his apartment. He refuses to name his attacker but a childhood friend, now detective, Nerese Ammons is determined to make an arrest regardless.

Lush Life takes place on the Lower East Side, where every bartender has a screenplay under the bar and every waiter has a casting call after work. When a mugging goes awry leaving one up and comer dead, detectives aren’t sure who’s telling the real story and who’s just acting the part.

Can’t afford to go see the latest summer blockbuster? Price provides an action-packed thrill with dialogue you’ll probably be hearing in next summer’s box office hit.

Find another summer reading list here.

Swimming Lessons

2009-06-10T06:48:00.007-05:00

You’ve seen one dead man’s float you’ve seen em all.

While the kids are at their swimming lesson, dive into Philip Galanes' latest. Slender in size, Emma’s Table fits quite nicely in the tote between the sunscreen and Dora towcho.

As the kids are getting into the pool, you'll be diving into a tale of an Oprah-famous decorating maven trying to regroup after a year spent in jail. Did I mention this was ficition? One Nakashima table later, Emma subsequently befriends a rival bidder, beds her ex-husband, and belittles her talented but misguided daughter.

Vanity Fair compelling, this one doesn't require too much effort to keep up with the plot. That's a good thing since you know you'll be looking up every few minutes to make sure that's not your child refusing to get her face wet.