Tuesday, December 31, 2013

A Tale for the Time Being - Review by AmberBug


A Tale for the Time Being
Ruth Ozeki
3/5

Published 2013

First Sentences"Hi!  My name is Nao and I am a time being."
Publisher's Description:
In Tokyo, sixteen-year-old Nao has decided there’s only one escape from her aching loneliness and her classmates’ bullying. But before she ends it all, Nao plans to document the life of her great-grandmother, a Buddhist nun who’s lived more than a century. A diary is Nao’s only solace—and will touch lives in a ways she can scarcely imagine.

Across the Pacific, we meet Ruth, a novelist living on a remote island who discovers a collection of artifacts washed ashore in a Hello Kitty lunchbox—possibly debris from the devastating 2011 tsunami. As the mystery of its contents unfolds, Ruth is pulled into the past, into Nao’s drama and her unknown fate, and forward into her own future.


Full of Ozeki’s signature humour and deeply engaged with the relationship between writer and reader, past and present, fact and fiction, quantum physics, history, and myth, A Tale for the Time Being is a brilliantly inventive, beguiling story of our shared humanity and the search for home.

Dear Reader,

This book was chosen for me not by me. There is a quaint bookstore down by the shore in Connecticut (might have mentioned this place before) that convinced me to sign up for a monthly club that sends you signed first edition hardcovers for only the price of the book itself. I absolutely love this deal because it makes me branch out and read something I might have otherwise left alone. Although Ozeki's novel didn't speak to me the way it did to others, I still feel like RJ Julia selected this book with care and the writing and imagination is most definitely there. A Tale for the Time Being does have a large number of readers who LOVED every word.

The story is essentially two interconnected stories in one. You have the plot line with Nao, sixteen years old and going through all the troubles a truly unique girl at that age would have to go through (if not a little more). The parts with Nao as the main focus really kept me reading and I loved almost all of it. The second story follows a couple that has some problems. We have Ruth, who becomes obsessed with this story of Nao that happened to wash up on the shore. Such a romantic idea, which I loved. However, the interaction between her and the husband had me cringing. I absolutely HATED the dynamic between the two, they didn't play nice with one another and ended up making me feel awkward (the kind of awkward feeling that comes when you happen upon a very heated lovers spat and you wish you could disappear into the wall before they bring you into it... yes that!)

Don't get me wrong, I did like this book for the most part but I had way to many dislikes to give this any higher of a rating. When I liked something in the book, I LOVED it but the same goes for when I didn't like something, it turned into an extreme DISLIKE.

Now to get into the gritty ending and for this I have to say goodbye to those who haven't read the book.

SPOILER ALERT! DON'T READ THE RED TEXT BELOW IF YOU HAVEN'T READ THE BOOK!!!

What the heck was up with that crazy explanation to tie up the ending to make it clean and happy!? I hated it. I would rather have a sad ending instead of a crazy one! It explained everything so vaguely with parallel worlds and quantum mechanics. I love sci-fi, watched every season of Stargate (also with many episodes on quantum mechanics and parallel worlds) BUT the difference being... I didn't feel it has a place in this book, it didn't really fall into place and the explanation was held by such a small thread it broke when I turned the page in the book. 

SPOILER IS OVER! YOU CAN CONTINUE READING!!!

The three stars I gave this book was for Nao and her heartwarming, compelling story that kept me reading for the entire four hundred and thirty two pages. I warn you that this is not for everyone (especially with that ending) but at least you'll have a nice journey getting there.

Yours,
AmberBug

P.S. - Check out what Arianna thought of this book!
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Thursday, December 26, 2013

A Tale for the Time Being


A Tale for the Time Being
Ruth Ozeki
4 / 5

Published 2013

First Sentences
"Hi!  My name is Nao and I am a time being."
Publisher's Description:
In Tokyo, sixteen-year-old Nao has decided there’s only one escape from her aching loneliness and her classmates’ bullying. But before she ends it all, Nao plans to document the life of her great-grandmother, a Buddhist nun who’s lived more than a century. A diary is Nao’s only solace—and will touch lives in a ways she can scarcely imagine.

Across the Pacific, we meet Ruth, a novelist living on a remote island who discovers a collection of artifacts washed ashore in a Hello Kitty lunchbox—possibly debris from the devastating 2011 tsunami. As the mystery of its contents unfolds, Ruth is pulled into the past, into Nao’s drama and her unknown fate, and forward into her own future.


Full of Ozeki’s signature humour and deeply engaged with the relationship between writer and reader, past and present, fact and fiction, quantum physics, history, and myth, A Tale for the Time Being is a brilliantly inventive, beguiling story of our shared humanity and the search for home.
Dear Reader,

Boy, am I slacking!  I'm so sorry.  I finished this book on December 17, but I didn't feel like writing a review for a while, as I was trying to figure out how I felt about this book.  Also, I audiobooked it while driving to & from work, which means that sometimes I finish a book mid-commute and will start another, and then when I get home I'm no longer in the mood to write a review.  Blerg!  (We won't even get into how I've finished ANOTHER audiobook since this one, and also have to write THAT review...)

In ANY case, hmm.  What DID I think of this book?  Well, ultimately (and for like 90% of the book), I did love it.  Ozeki told a great and very enthralling story of a girl who lives in Japan and writes regularly in her diary about her life, her family (past and present), and her feelings.  That part was fantastic, and I never wanted to pause when I was reading about Naoko.  However, Nao's stories are interspersed between those which describe a woman (Ruth, which makes you wonder how autobiographical the novel is) who found Nao's journal years after it was written, and who reads the diary entries obsessively and convinces herself that she can "save" Nao, somehow - even though she doesn't even know what has since happened to the girl.  The "Ruth parts" of the book were significantly less engaging than Nao's, and contained a lot of very annoying characters, but I didn't find them off-putting enough that it ruined the book as a whole, and I did appreciate the device the author used in order to create suspense and a larger story.

The problem is, really, that I don't like fantastical books.  Perhaps that's not the right term - maybe it's more "surreal"?  I love fantasy, if it's placed into a fantasy world or framed as such.  Just not when it's shoved into an otherwise realistic novel, a la Toni Morrison.  And Amber had warned me that this book hit a point where it just...went a bit off.  I found the worst to be the dream that Ruth found herself having, which had quite wide-reaching effects for it being all in her head.  And the parts about how the journal changed.  What didn't bother me, though, was the science with which the book ended.  I mean, it's science, and it's feasible, in its own rational way.  And I kind of liked how Ozeki introduced the scientific element into her very fanciful novel.  But it did seem very strange to tack it on at the end there, and to kind of devolve from a novel into a (very superficial and simplified) scientific text for a few pages before ending.  That just didn't sit right - perhaps I would have felt better if there were hints throughout the book of this, or even just more discussion about the phenomenon as a whole, but it just wasn't working for me, in the long run.  Hence, while this was a 5-star book for the majority of the story (I particularly loved the POV parts about Nao's great-uncle who served as a reluctant kamikaze pilot in WWII), it ended up dropping down a star in my eyes, for the way it ultimately ended.

I do waffle; perhaps it should be close to 4.5, for me.  But, I'm going to leave my initial rating as-is.  And, I would very much recommend this book for the first 90% of it.  Please do keep that in mind - I certainly didn't hate it!  It just threw me for a loop, is all.

Yours,
Arianna
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Tuesday, December 10, 2013

The Will


The Will
Harvey Swados
4 / 5


Published 1968

First Sentence
"When you were young and a friend died, Solomon Stark reflected as he steered absently through the slush on the road to the municipal airport, you wept; but when you were past seventy, the tears did not come so easily, even though the loss was correspondingly greater."


Publisher's Description:

Brothers Leo and Max Land came to America from Romania in 1911, but they took different paths in pursuit of the American dream. Even as they worked together, Max sought out material things while Leo made a simple, private life for himself. Now, after the death of both brothers, Leo’s three sons—the only surviving heirs—learn that they stand to inherit a fortune. As they battle for control, they come to expose their own deeply complicated visions of success in America. The Will is a stunning portrait of American idealism crushed under the weight of material desires.
Dear Reader,

You want to know the strangest thing?  I was pretty blown away by this book, until I realized it was a reprint of a 1968 publication.  Then, for some reason, it became slightly more so-so in my mind.  Is that saying something about the state of novels in this day and age?  Perhaps simply that things were written in a different way back then?  I can't  be sure.  I just really would have been extremely impressed if someone, writing now, could have written the late '60s so well.  Knowing that Swados was writing it during that time period made it less...magical, I guess?  Less fanciful on the part of the author, I suppose.

Despite how that happened, though, and even though this took me months and months to read (only because I was reading it as an e-book, and those tend to get lost in the shuffle from time to time!), it was still quite good.  A very well-written book about a pretty quotidian story, really.  I mean, there certainly wasn't serious originality in the book, I'd argue: it was the story of three brothers who return to their childhood home in order to stake their claim on a mysterious inheritance.  The book examined their relationships with one another, with their loved ones, with the world at large (including several people who played large roles in their collective past).  It was also a study of fatherhood, from both the point of view of the father and that of his three strikingly different sons.  The sons were stories in and of themselves, and the reader got to spend a good chunk of time with each man, learning their motives and back-story.  So in this way, it was a fantastic character study. And, the descriptions of the burgeoning city (suburbs somewhere outside of Chicago, I think?) in the postwar boom were wonderful.  What a different time it was back then.  The end of the book, however, was...pretty anticlimactic.  I still am not sure what I think about it.  It reminded me in a very loose and strange way of The Usual Suspects, where a big and supposedly game-changing secret is revealed only at the end.  But it wasn't that mind-boggling to me, and it felt like Swados rushed the resolution of his book, choosing to leave all of the relationships (these that he had been developing as hero vs. foil throughout the novel, poised to be resolved) still entirely open-ended.

I have to say, though, I did love the double nature of the title: of course, it refers to the actual document conferring inheritance, but I believe it also speaks strongly of the intense and stubborn personalities that all three of the brothers possessed - perhaps, in its own way, their true inheritance from their father and uncle, in the end.

Yours,
Arianna

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Monday, December 9, 2013

Night Film


Night Film
Marisha Pessl
4/5


Published 2013

First Sentence 
(added the second sentence because it gives a good feeling to the story)
"Everyone has a Cordova story, whether they like it or not. Maybe your next-door neighbor found one of his movies in an old box in her attic and never entered a dark room alone again."
Publisher's Description:

A page-turning thriller for readers of Stephen King, Gillian Flynn, and Stieg Larsson, Night Film tells the haunting story of a journalist who becomes obsessed with the mysterious death of a troubled prodigy—the daughter of an iconic, reclusive filmmaker.

On a damp October night, beautiful young Ashley Cordova is found dead in an abandoned warehouse in lower Manhattan. Though her death is ruled a suicide, veteran investigative journalist Scott McGrath suspects otherwise. As he probes the strange circumstances surrounding Ashley’s life and death, McGrath comes face-to-face with the legacy of her father: the legendary, reclusive cult-horror-film director Stanislas Cordova—a man who hasn’t been seen in public for more than thirty years.

For McGrath, another death connected to this seemingly cursed family dynasty seems more than just a coincidence. Though much has been written about Cordova’s dark and unsettling films, very little is known about the man himself.

Driven by revenge, curiosity, and a need for the truth, McGrath, with the aid of two strangers, is drawn deeper and deeper into Cordova’s eerie, hypnotic world.

Dear Reader,

What a fun book! Yes, this book is about a horror film director/producer and goes towards the spooky, but really this book is all about the mixed media. Pessl successfully attempted what some have tried, mixed media to go along with a novel. She really gave some thought into every detail and it shows. The novel follows McGrath, an investigative journalist who gets wrapped up in the life of the extremely famous film mogul, Cordova. This isn't his first time investigating the filmmaker and we learn early on that his career was ruined from Cordova's supporters and from the man himself. After Cordova's daughter is found dead, supposedly from suicide, McGrath starts to open up that can of worms and travels down the rabbit hole with two strangers he meets along the way.

The book has quite a few disturbing and eerie moments but I wouldn't put it in the "horror" genre but more aptly placed as a thriller/mystery. So those of you who think you'd be too scared to read this, think again, you might really enjoy it. The characters Pessl creates are richly developed and you start to fall right down that rabbit hole with them. I wanted to know what was going to happen next which kept me guessing but I kept getting it wrong! I love when a book can do that, it means the Author has thought of every scenario and picked the least likely one to trick the audience. I usually don't fall in love with mysteries because of this fact, usually the story is too predictable and simple to be a page turner. If I've figured it out too early, the book just seems dull. Surprisingly, this had me pretty much until the end. If I could say anything bad about the book it would be the length. It dragged on in quite in a few spots and I felt this story didn't warrant six hundred pages worth of content. The writing was on par with typical mystery/thriller writers if not a little more sophisticated with the trick-ability.

I was more than impressed with all the media content the Author included in the book. She has filled it (not overly) with pictures, charts, lists, letters, articles and more. Each piece she included completely fit with the story and only served to enhance it. I've come across other Authors who've tried this and failed (in my eyes). The trick is to make sure the content isn't superfluous and that it doesn't overwhelm (or underwhelm) the reader. Pessl struck a nice balance with this, and even more so with the EXTRA content that could be accessed through an App on your phone or media device. You download the App and use it to scan the image of a bird that shows up on certain pages. The extra content ranged from video, audio, pictures and even music. One of my favorites was the piano piece that Cordova's daughter plays, the song fit into the story so well that I had it playing while i read the chapter. I would recommend anyone reading this book to download that App and explore the content as you read the book.

Overall the book had many great surprises and a very solid and thrilling plot line. Although a bit long, nothing that can't be plowed through and still was worth the time reading it.  The media content elevated the book to 4 stars and it would be hard to find another book out there that has successfully done this. I can only hope that with the success of Night Film, we might see more Authors attempting to do the same.

Happy Reading,
AmberBug
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Life After Life


Life After Life
Kate Atkinson
5 / 5

Published 2013

First Sentence
"A fug of tobacco smoke and damp clammy air hit her as she entered the café."


Publisher's Description:

On a cold and snowy night in 1910, Ursula Todd is born, the third child of a wealthy English banker and his wife. Sadly, she dies before she can draw her first breath. On that same cold and snowy night, Ursula Todd is born, lets out a lusty wail, and embarks upon a life that will be, to say the least, unusual. For as she grows, she also dies, repeatedly, in any number of ways. Clearly history (and Kate Atkinson) have plans for her: In Ursula rests nothing less than the fate of civilization.

Wildly inventive, darkly comic, startlingly poignant — this is Kate Atkinson at her absolute best, playing with time and history, telling a story that is breathtaking for both its audacity and its endless satisfactions.
Dear Reader, 
I really loved this book.  It was such an interesting way to tell a story.  I learned as I read this book that it was titled "Life After Life" because it was not only a play on "life after death," but also I think an implication of "life, after life, after life, after life, etc."  This book revolved around Ursula, a girl born in England on a snowy evening in 1910.  Her very start was a rough one: she was born with her umbilical cord wrapped around her neck, and was turning blue by the time she was delivered.  This birth story and many other turning point moments in Ursula's life are told various times with various outcomes, and the snow - having been present at her birth - becomes a symbol of her many rebirths.  This book at times reminded me of The Time Traveler's Wife (another favorite), in that it jumped around in its own timeline many times.  However, it was mostly told more linearly than the Niffenegger book, and therefore I think would be easier to follow for those who weren't able to get into Clare and Henry's story because of the jagged timeline. 

I loved the world the author created, both at Ursula's childhood home in Fox Corner, and from there the World War II that she described so vividly from the UK's point of view.  She wrote the bombings and the soldiers and the rescue workers and even those working diligently in the homefront offices so well, I could imagine she had been there watching it all herself.  The quaintness and comfort of Fox Corner balanced pleasantly with the uncertainty and scariness of war-bombed London.  And the reader often gets to duck back to Fox Corner to hide briefly from the war along with Ursula and her family.

One of my favorite things about this book was how it begins: with a mysterious homicide which (although the author makes it pretty clear who the victim might be) reveals itself towards the end of the book, and all makes more complete sense.  I also loved the idea - which I think was the heart of this novel - that time and history turn on a dime: with every small moment and every decision you make, history goes one way and not another.  This is a book about second chances, about trying to right wrongs, and about how sometimes doing that, going back to try again and fix the start of a bad situation, won't always make everything turn out okay.  There are going to be joys and sorrows in life, and trying to fix the sorrows isn't going to prevent others coming along.  This was a beautiful, human, and heartfelt book, and I really enjoyed listening to it.  

Happy reading!,
Arianna

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Wednesday, December 4, 2013

The Bookman's Tale


The Bookman's Tale: 
A Novel of Obsession
Charlie Lovett
4.5 / 5


Published 2013

First Sentence
"Wales could be cold in February."
Publisher's Description:

A mysterious portrait ignites an antiquarian bookseller’s search through time and the works of Shakespeare for his lost love.

Guaranteed to capture the hearts of everyone who truly loves books, The Bookman’s Tale is a former bookseller’s sparkling novel and a delightful exploration of one of literature’s most tantalizing mysteries with echoes of Shadow of the Wind and A.S. Byatt's Possession.

Hay-on-Wye, 1995. Peter Byerly isn’t sure what drew him into this particular bookshop. Nine months earlier, the death of his beloved wife, Amanda, had left him shattered. The young antiquarian bookseller relocated from North Carolina to the English countryside, hoping to rediscover the joy he once took in collecting and restoring rare books. But upon opening an eighteenth-century study of Shakespeare forgeries, Peter is shocked when a portrait of Amanda tumbles out of its pages. Of course, it isn’t really her. The watercolor is clearly Victorian. Yet the resemblance is uncanny, and Peter becomes obsessed with learning the picture’s origins.

As he follows the trail back first to the Victorian era and then to Shakespeare’s time, Peter communes with Amanda’s spirit, learns the truth about his own past, and discovers a book that might definitively prove Shakespeare was, indeed, the author of all his plays.
Dear Reader,

Apparently, I have a thing for books about books.  I find I've been reading a LOT of them recently, and I've got a few more queued up, as well!  I don't know what it is - perhaps I just really enjoy the feeling of reading about something I love so much.  And seeing how much others love books, too.  The authors pour so much of themselves into these novels.

This one was especially good: evidenced by the fact that I stayed up FAR too late on a school night (technically, a work night, but I do work at a university, so...) to finish it up.  While it was an intriguing story right from the get-go, the action really picked up towards the end, and I could not put it down without resolving the mystery.  I have to admit, the last bit of the book reminded me quite a bit of a Robert Langdon novel, which shouldn't be too much of a surprise, because I did just finish reading one.  Also, I have a very limited knowledge of adventure-mystery books (what genre are they, really?) and therefore, that's really one of the few "detective" stories to which I can relate this book - due to my own narrow experience, though, and perhaps not that it was truly Dan Brown-esque in nature.

This story begins with that of a very recent widower named Peter, who is struggling to live again after the blow of losing his one true love, his college sweetheart.  Peter has social anxiety, and Amanda used to be his rock, the one who could make everything out in the world all right.  So his loss is manyfold: he must struggle not only to recover from losing Amanda, but also to return to the world at large, one that he would much prefer to hide from.  Peter is a rare book dealer, so luckily he can lose himself between the pages of an ancient text - usually.  However, he is startled from his quiet existence when he stumbles across an image of his dead wife...that was painted hundreds of years ago.

Desperate to solve the mysery of the painting, Peter begins a hunt which brings him in contact with a special rare book, one which may hold the answer to whether Shakespeare actually wrote the many plays attributed to him (an academic argument that has had scholars taking sides for years).  As he delves deeper into the mystery, he begins to see how the book and painting tie together - and how they might both be very, very dangerous items to possess.

Overall, a very interesting and engaging book.  The novel goes back and forth between Peter's present and the story of how he met Amanda, and the reader sees as the book progresses that many things which once seemed disparate are in fact woven closely together.  You won't want to stop reading until you figure out what the real story is!

Yours,
Arianna
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Tuesday, December 3, 2013

The Bookstore


The Bookstore
Deborah Meyler
3.5 / 5


Published 2013

First Sentence
"I am early; I can walk down Broadway for a while."
Publisher's Description:

A witty, sharply observed debut novel about a young woman who finds unexpected salvation while working in a quirky used bookstore in Manhattan.Impressionable and idealistic, Esme Garland is a young British woman who finds herself studying art history in New York. She loves her apartment and is passionate about the city and her boyfriend; her future couldn’t look brighter. Until she finds out that she’s pregnant.

Esme’s boyfriend, Mitchell van Leuven, is old-money rich, handsome, successful, and irretrievably damaged. When he dumps Esme—just before she tries to tell him about the baby—she resolves to manage alone. She will keep the child and her scholarship, while finding a part-time job to make ends meet. But that is easier said than done, especially on a student visa.

The Owl is a shabby, second-hand bookstore on the Upper West Side, an all-day, all-night haven for a colorful crew of characters: handsome and taciturn guitar player Luke; Chester, who hyperventilates at the mention of Lolita; George, the owner, who lives on protein shakes and idealism; and a motley company of the timeless, the tactless, and the homeless. The Owl becomes a nexus of good in a difficult world for Esme—but will it be enough to sustain her? Even when Mitchell, repentant and charming, comes back on the scene?

A rousing celebration of books, of the shops where they are sold, and of the people who work, read, and live in them, The Bookstore is also a story about emotional discovery, the complex choices we all face, and the accidental inspirations that make a life worth the reading.
Dear Reader,

This was a really interesting book, because the entire time I was reading it, it felt quite a bit like "chick lit", but it really was quite far from that light-hearted, utopian genre.  Maybe that's because the premise is that of a young woman living in New York City, who finds herself pregnant by a man she believes she loves.  The book had a lot of those moments where you felt as if maybe she'd realize that the pensive, kind man with whom she works is actually the right one for her, but the book doesn't turn out as perfectly packaged as most of those sorts of girly books do, so I ended up enjoying it more - because of how real it felt.  It wasn't a princess and fairy tale book, really.  It was about real life, and how imperfect it often ends up being, but how you can find joy and love even when things don't turn out how you expect.

Esme Garland is an English expatriate who is doing her graduate work at Columbia, focusing her studies on fine art.  She is an intelligent, very independent young woman who yes, sometimes makes mistakes.  The book felt so very intellectual (often mentioning books and artists who I'd never heard of), which was a bit jarring to me, beacuse it also did feel like chick lit.  I found this to be especially the case when Esme and the father of her child are planning to make a go at it, and you can see that they are just not a good fit for each other.  It made me feel frustrated, because you could really tell that she didn't in fact love Mitchell, but she was forcing herself to feel those feelings because she wanted to make things work.  Mitchell was the classic asshole boyfriend who thought only of himself.  His selfishness was apparent right from the get-go, and you'd have thought Esme would have seen right through it - and would not want to raise a child in that sort of environment.  But, I suppose that is also true to life: sometimes even the smartest girls end up trying to find the knight in shining armor, even when we know that's not how reality works.  Esme just kept gamely trying to make things work, but the reader could really tell that it was a losing battle.  Mitchell did seem to try at times, enough to make Esme feel special and as if she perhaps was choosing the right person to start a family with, but he often tempered his kindness with cruelty, most likely to protect himself.  Again, very real, very true to life.  Nobody is perfect, for sure, but it was clear that whoever Mitchell was perfect for, it certainly wasn't Esme.  He could never have been happy in a relationship where someone else gets the glory sometimes.  He needed to be the center of his world.

My favorite parts of the book were, fittingly, those that took place in the bookstore.  The rag-tag cast of characters that made up the employees and regulars of the shop were a wonderful mixture, and again felt very real.  The author herself actually worked in a bookstore, and said she drew heavily on the characters she encountered there.  Esme finds a kind of family, which is important to someone who feels so alone and so far from home.  The others rush to take care of her, each in their own ways, and I think without them she might have been lost, overwhelmed.  I also of course loved the smattering of book discussions, and the feeling of actually being inside that ecclectic shop, piled high with books and strange knick-knacks.

Overall, I do think I enjoyed this book.  I still can't get over that it felt like it was written specifically for women, which is why I can't rate it more highly (I like a book the transcends that sort of thing), but I do think I will recommend it to others, especially those who enjoy the "chick lit" genre.  I think it is a nice, more intellectual departure from the normal fare found there, but would still be enjoyed by someone who loves those kinds of female-oriented books.

Yours,
Arianna
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Tuesday, November 26, 2013

An Evening with Junot Diaz


An Evening with Junot Diaz

Thursday, November 14th, 2013
Welcome Reception 6pm  

Reading 7pm

Naugatuck Community College

750 Chase Parkway, Waterbury, CT
Mainstage Theater
3rd Floor, Arts Building


This event is free and open to the public.

Junot Diaz is the winner of the Pulitzer Prize in Fiction for "The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao". He was born in the Dominican Republic and raised in New Jersey. His new book is entitled "This Is How You Lose Her".

Below Arianna and Amber will give some thoughts and review the event itself. 

The two of us attended the above talk at Naugatuck Valley Community College in Waterbury, CT.  This was hosted by the school's very impressive newspaper, The Tamarack.  It seems that the school had a connection with Diaz through one of its professors of writing or newspaper advisers, or both?  We can't quite recall, but it was a woman who had known Diaz for years, and been dragged along to a reading of his first book, Drown, which he published in 1996.  The woman told a funny little story about how she was initially unimpressed with Diaz's work, and told him so!  Since then, they have remained friends, as Diaz has gathered accolades galore - including a Pulitzer Prize - for his writing.

The audience was made up mostly of students and faculty of NVCC, most of whom were Hispanic.  Diaz spoke often specifically to them, as he is a great inspiration, having been the first Dominican writer (and one of the first Hispanics?) to receive a Pulitzer.  So it was a great thing to have him come speak to an auditorium full of young, impressionable students.  And he seemed to really strike home with them, especially because he often lapsed into slang and Spanish, and sprinkled his speech with profanity, which made him more relatable and enjoyable to listen to.  His wasn't some dry, academic lecture on the nature of writing.  He engaged the audience, often had them laughing out loud, and really spoke to them as equals, which seemed to work very well.

All in all, the talk was light and enjoyable for the most part, although Diaz did touch on some tough subjects, such as why there is such a perceived gender disparity between how each handles relationships, and why Dominican men are "how they are."  Of course, he made the very important point that it's not just Dominican men, and it's not just men. People are people, and we all have strange but perhaps self-rationalized reasons for what they do.  It was especially interesting to listen to Diaz discuss the reasons he thought were behind why DR men act the way they do, especially when it comes to misogyny.  He pointed out that Hispanic men are given many societal (but not always logical) reasons why they should hide and mask their internal selves.  He was a great, insightful, and very honest speaker.

Diaz has a very strong and deep connection with the Caribbean which he expressed multiple times during his talk. One of the questions he was asked was about Spanish Novellas and if they inspired any of his work. Apparently, to him, Novellas should inspire everyone. His take was that Novellas took the ordinary to the extreme which then elevated a story to fantasy, when something is fantasy it then takes on a different value to a person. Books intrigue because they mirror your life in subtle or profound ways. For Diaz, if a Novella is extreme... one can only wonder what his sci-fi book, "Monstro", will be like? (Currently being written). Who knows when we'll see this book though: Diaz is notorious for taking quite a long time to finish each book (11 years to write his 2nd book and 16 years to write the 3rd!! -- And he claims he must go to his "dark place" to write!).

His honesty really stuck out and seemed to resonate with the audience. He did tend to speak quite a bit about the Hispanic culture but he also tried to connect to the other majority in the audience--the readers! He explained how a book isn't something someone has "to get", and how reading isn't a test even though some teachers might make it seem like it is. He even spoke a little about how making reading a school chore takes the fun out of it. His best advice to aspiring Authors was: "READ!" Everyone in the audience seemed to agree with nods and mumbles of accord. When Diaz was then asked why he writes... His reply? He doesn't know how to do anything else.

Some great points & concepts we took away from Diaz's talk:


  • "We live like ghosts" -- Diaz
  • A book (reading a book) isn't something to "get", it's not a test. Books intrigue because they mirror your life in subtle or profound ways.
  • The masculine & patriarchal regime of the Caribbean produces great feminist Dominican women.
  • Monogamy? Exacts a price on people. Possessive marriage has produced enormous damage in our society today.
  • Dark, deep history of the Caribbean. Most artists die trying to be "the best" but most art is born in that dark place beyond approval and applause. Diaz writes without looking for this approval, away from it all. He wants to go into that space and bring back a drop of something. Needs to be away from social pressures, he doesn't care if it's prize-worthy...only if it's art. (Which he realizes is a very subjective idea.)
  • He is currently writing his first scifi book, Monstro.  A totally new experience for him.  (from the NVCC newspaper, The Tamarack)

Want more?  Check out the Twitter hashtag #JunotDiazNVCC for other thoughts and responses from the event.


-Arianna & Amber

Monday, November 25, 2013

Behind The Candelabra: My Life With Liberace


Behind The Candelabra: My Life With Liberace
By Scott Thorson
Rating 4 out of 5

Published 1988

First Sentence
""Too much of a good thing is wonderful," Liberace used to say when commenting on a flashy new costume or wild idea for his act."
Publisher's Description:
In this unusually frank book Scott Thorson tells all: the good, the bad, and the ugly truths about a legendary entertainer who went to outrageous extremes to prevent public knowledge of his homosexuality. Liberace's unhappy childhood, dominated by a mother determined to force him into a concert career, serves as the prologue for a story that goes on to detail Liberace’s early appearances in honky-tonks, his move to New York to seek fame, and, finally, his first booking in Las Vegas, where he was courted by the Mafia. His successes create a bright counterpoint to a darker tale of a man hungry for power, given to every excess. Liberace's credo—"too much of a good thing is wonderful"—is reflected here in his acquisition of new lovers, luxurious homes, a large collection of pornography, and a total of twenty-six house dogs. Behind the Candelabra also reveals the details of the fundamentally tender love affair between Liberace and Thorson—whom Liberace sent to his own plastic surgeon to have his face remodeled in Liberace's own image! This fast-paced story, sprinkled with anecdotes about famous entertainers such as Michael Jackson and Shirley MacLaine, ends with an intimate look at Liberace's final days as he lay dying of AIDS—and his deathbed reconciliation with Scott.

Dear Reader,

I won't ever look at Liberace the same way after listening to this story.
 I didn't really have much of an opinion of Liberace since his life was before my time and he didn't create any music that influenced me. I had heard from my mother in disgusted, hushed tones that he was gay, but that wasn't a shocking or a disgusting thing for me to hear about a larger than life performer.  I would have appreciated him much more if he had owned his homosexuality but I know that wasn't a safe thing to do during his lifetime.
If we are to believe all of what Scott Thorson says, and I do,  I don't like Liberace. I feel a lot of pity for Scott.  I should say I feel a lot of empathy for him since I have experienced my own, life destroying break up.  I think that is why my anger for Liberace was so personal and visceral.  I projected my own experience on the narrative of theirs. I particularly was angered by all the times that Liberace lies and promises to take care of people in his life; for the rest of their lives. Breaking one's word or even making that kind of promise without knowing or caring if it will be fulfilled is heinous.
Despite their 5 year legal war, Scott ends up forgiving Liberace and making amends with him before he dies of AIDS.  I did take satisfaction that Scott was spared from AIDS because Liberace kicked him out before he contracted it. I was further saddened to hear from the book's afterword about Scott's life in the Witness Protection Program.  He was shot and battled drug addiction and finally in the most current related news he has become physically impaired by one the bullet wounds near his spine and also, rectal cancer. In his afterword he also comments that he is looking forward to seeing the movie version  of this story where he is played by Matt Damon.
The story in this book is very interesting and emotionally engaging but the writing is glaringly simple. It is clear that Scott Thorson is not a writter.  He repeats some points enough for me to be irritated by it and he uses the word 'outrageous' far too many times. A thesaurus could have improved that. Also in the midst of his narrative he goes off on a tangent about homosexuality amongst celebrities that doesn't transition well. I understand that he has things to say that relate to the overall life and times of Liberace, but it stuck out to me as distracting. With some consultation and editing from a true writer,  it could have been incorporated better.
Overall the content of the book moved me and I admire Scott's determination to paint an accurate picture of Lee the man, instead of the Faberge of Liberace. He did this in 1987 despite threats against him from Liberace's people at the time of publication. I recommend this book for people interested in behind the scenes reality check of celebrities in their own fame encrusted bubbles. It's also a time piece in the evolution of how far modern America has come to accept and respect the contributions of the homosexual community. It also shows that the life of expectancy of someone diagnosed with AIDs has increased from a year to several decades.

Yours,
Marsha

Mudwoman


Mudwoman
Joyce Carol Oates
4/5


Published 2012

First Sentence
"You must be readied, the woman said."
Publisher's Description:

A riveting novel that explores the high price of success in the life of one woman—the first female president of a lauded ivy league institution—and her hold upon her self-identity in the face of personal and professional demons, from Joyce Carol Oates, author of the New York Timesbestseller A Widow’s Story

Mudgirl is a child abandoned by her mother in the silty flats of the Black Snake River. Cast aside, Mudgirl survives by an accident of fate—or destiny. After her rescue, the well-meaning couple who adopt Mudgirl quarantine her poisonous history behind the barrier of their middle-class values, seemingly sealing it off forever. But the bulwark of the present proves surprisingly vulnerable to the agents of the past.

Meredith “M.R.” Neukirchen is the first woman president of an Ivy League university. Her commitment to her career and moral fervor for her role are all-consuming. Involved with a secret lover whose feelings for her are teasingly undefined, and concerned with the intensifying crisis of the American political climate as the United States edges toward war with Iraq, M.R. is confronted with challenges to her leadership that test her in ways she could not have anticipated. The fierce idealism and intelligence that delivered her from a more conventional life in her upstate New York hometown now threaten to undo her.

A reckless trip upstate thrusts M.R. Neukirchen into an unexpected psychic collision with Mudgirl and the life M.R. believes she has left behind. A powerful exploration of the enduring claims of the past,Mudwoman is at once a psychic ghost story and an intimate portrait of a woman cracking the glass ceiling at enormous personal cost, which explores the tension between childhood and adulthood, the real and the imagined, and the “public” and “private” in the life of a highly complex contemporary woman.

Dear Reader,

This is a book about the true development of a crushed human soul. A woman who has lived with a confusing and troubled past. A past that she has broken away from to become a reputable and accomplished President of a very prestigious University (the first FEMALE one). Even though M.R. has gained acclaim from her academic career, we slowly see her unravel in a horrific downward spiral. It brings the reader to a very strange place, that has you wondering what might be real and what might be hallucination. This is something that Oates does very well and really brings about that gothic and dark feel she is so known for.

We're first introduced to M.R. (Mudwoman) as a child who lives with an overtly religious zealot mother and her creepy pedophilic boyfriend. There is no mention if this man is her father, and later on even M.R. reflects on this, wondering if she ever even had a father. Within the first few chapters (might even be the first one, can't quite remember) we read in horror as her mother takes this precious little girl and throws her into a mud pit to suffocate (hence the title of the book). By the good graces of a local who is guided by this mysterious "King of Crows" (a recurring animal guide in the story), he finds this child in the mud and rescues her. This all happens very early and is even mentioned on the book flap, so I don't consider this a spoiler. The child is then taken to an orphanage and adopted shortly after by a Quaker family, very kind and loving but they have a strange story of their own. I won't get into this because I think there is a pivotal point to the back-story of this family, one I don't want to ruin for you.

The book goes back and forth from present to past as we watch M.R. slowly deteriorate and travel back to places that remind her of her past. Oates did this so smoothly, it wasn't hard to follow at all. I love when an Author has a good grasp of when to move the story from present to past without losing too much of the feeling. You find yourself wondering what exactly is going on, but not because of the time frame. This feeling is from all the daydreams, hallucinations and events that happen and you don't quite know which is which. Is what just happened a dream? Reality? It was kind of fun trying to figure it all out without getting you lost in the process.

I think my favorite part of this book is the major theme of feminism. Yes, Oates tends to have a heavy hand on this theme in most of her books... but does that make it any less important? No! Mostly because she does it so gosh darn well. You have to remember that Oates was born in the late 1930's, during a period of time that was extremely enclosed. She grew up on a farm and attended a school with only one classroom! She was given a typewriter at age 14 and has been writing ever since. She really makes the perfect feminism writer, although she claims she doesn't like that label and would rather be known as "a woman who writes". I just adore everything about this woman, so yeah... I'm pretty biased.

Getting back to the book, Mudwoman is so chock full of symbolism that at times I was wondering if I was fully understanding everything there was to the story. For example, during M.R.'s travels she came across many physical bridges that also played a huge part in unraveling her past. These bridges were big turning points for her, crossing them brought her clarity to her past. This was probably one of the most obvious symbols in the book and I'm sure I missed quite a few of the more inconspicuous ones. This would be a book to re-read, knowing that the second attempt would bring about much more clarity to the story. If you want to challenge yourself a little, I suggest reading this book and trying to reflect on what Oates really was trying to convey with Mudwoman. I would be interested to see what others thought.

Happy Reading,
AmberBug

Friday, November 22, 2013

Glitter and Glue


Glitter and Glue: A Memoir
Kelly Corrigan
3.5 / 5


To Be Published 2014

First Sentence
"Growing up, my mom was guided by the strong belief that to befriend me was to deny me the one thing a kid really needed in order to survive childhood: a mother."
Publisher's Description:

From the New York Times bestselling author of The Middle Place comes a new memoir that examines the bond—sometimes nourishing, sometimes exasperating, occasionally divine—between mothers and daughters.

When Kelly Corrigan was in high school, her mother neatly summarized the family dynamic as “Your father’s the glitter but I’m the glue.” This meant nothing to Kelly, who left childhood sure that her mom—with her inviolable commandments and proud stoicism—would be nothing more than background chatter for the rest of Kelly’s life, which she was carefully orienting toward adventure. After college, armed with a backpack, her personal mission statement, and a wad of traveler’s checks, she took off for Australia to see things and do things and Become Interesting.

But it didn’t turn out the way she pictured it. In a matter of months, her fanny pack full of savings had dwindled and she realized she needed a job. That’s how Kelly met John Tanner, a newly widowed father of two looking for a live-in nanny. They chatted for an hour, discussed timing and pay, and a week later, Kelly moved in. And there, in that house in a suburb north of Sydney, her mother’s voice was suddenly everywhere, nudging and advising, cautioning and directing, escorting her through a terrain as foreign as any she had ever trekked. Every day she spent with the Tanner kids was a day spent reconsidering her relationship with her mother, turning it over in her hands like a shell, straining to hear whatever messages might be trapped in its spiral.

This is a book about the difference between travel and life experience, stepping out and stepping up, fathers and mothers. But mostly it’s about who you admire and why, and how that changes over time.
Dear Reader,

I read this book in 3 days.  I suppose that says something about both its accessibility and its engagement level.  This book was, however, nothing like I'd expected.  Having never read anything by this author before, I wasn't prepared by her other works.  Amber and I got this book as an ARC at BEA 2013, and we'd both been eager to get to it, especially having met the author and gotten our books signed.  I think the title appealed to me most of all: it evoked memories of crafting - making paper crowns and wands with which to become a princess - with my own mother when I was little.

So, I guess in one way, I was (completely unexpectedly) prepared for this book: it was ultimately about the relationship between a mother and daughter, reflected upon by a daughter who has reached womanhood and her own motherhood, and therefore is trying to sort out her complicated and often frustrating relationship with her mom.  I think Kelly and her mother had an especially interesting relationship because Kelly was the only daughter in the family; having a sister to talk to and relate to might have helped her immensely during her adolesence.

They definitely did have an often-at-odds relationship, which I found fascinating to watch unfold throughout the book.  But, in the long run, I wasn't quite sure this book "gave" me anything.  There wasn't much of a resolution to the whole thing, besides that Kelly had come to the realization that she did, in fact, really need her mother.

It was interesting the way the author explained her coming to terms with this through the story of her experiences in Australia over a three-month period, when she was in her early twenties.   She nannied for a recent widower's children, and while they came to understand and manage life without their mother, Kelly simultaneously began to understand the connection she and her mother had.  While essentially child-rearing for the first time, she began to watch herself adopt many of her own mother's mannerisms.

I feel like maybe if I'd read a few others of Corrigan's memoirs, perhaps I would have felt as if this were a more complete story, one that fit in neatly with her other works to form a whole portrait of a person.  As it stood alone, though, I didn't feel like it was ... quite substantial enough.  I enjoyed the narrative, but in the end felt as if I'd just finished an article reflecting in detail on one part of one woman's life, not an entire book.  That's not a bad thing, though - just an observation.

I'd recommend this to women who struggle with the mother-daugther relationship, either with their mothers or their daugthers.  I think it was a heartwarming and entertaining book, which hit upon some good moments and did draw some great parallels between the author's situation in Australia and her situation at home.  Certainly a fun and light-hearted little read.  (Especially the relationship with her father; that was always adorable to watch.)

Yours,
Arianna

Friday, November 15, 2013

Inferno


Inferno
Dan Brown
3.5/5

Published 2013

First Sentences
"I am a shade.


Through the dolent city, I flee.

Through the eternal woe, I take flight."
Publisher's Description:

In his international blockbusters The Da Vinci Code, Angels & Demons, and The Lost Symbol, Dan Brown masterfully fused history, art, codes, and symbols. In this riveting new thriller, Brown returns to his element and has crafted his highest-stakes novel to date.

In the heart of Italy, Harvard professor of symbology Robert Langdon is drawn into a harrowing world centered on one of history’s most enduring and mysterious literary masterpieces . . . Dante’s Inferno.

Against this backdrop, Langdon battles a chilling adversary and grapples with an ingenious riddle that pulls him into a landscape of classic art, secret passageways, and futuristic science. Drawing from Dante’s dark epic poem, Langdon races to find answers and decide whom to trust . . . before the world is irrevocably altered.

Dear Reader,

I know, I know.  Dan Brown is a popular novelist, and people kind of either love him or hate him.  I have to admit, I think I've read everything he's written - at least all 4 of the Robert Langdon novels.  Not for the stellar writing (I recognize that it's not) but for the awesome amount of factoids that he stuffs into his books.  It's fun to "travel" along with Langdon, seeing cities I've never visited and learning fascinating tidbits about some of the world's most famous places and pieces of art.  That is what I read these books for.  I love how startling some of the things Dan Brown knows about the cities he studies can be. These are things I'll remember for a long time, and thus I have to admit (a bit begrudgingly) that I am a fan of his books.

I certainly have some complaints, though.  For instance: we know Dan Brown writes to the common denominator - he writes for the hoi polloi, as it were.  Which means he makes everything SUPER EXPLICIT.  It can be annoying to have understood what he meant to say the first time, only to have him pound a point or revelation home several times, to ensure it's gotten across to the reader.

Another issue, along that same vein, is that there are certain characters in his books: Langdon, for one, but also in this one, a genius and child prodigy named Sienna.  She's got an IQ off the charts, right?  And yet...she acts like an idiot at times.  One of the parts that stood out for me was when Langdon was explaining a certain anagram to her, and she just could NOT seem to grasp it.  -- Really?  I got it, and my IQ is certainly not near hers.  Again, this is an instance of Brown writing to the masses, knowing that he might be read by every level of reader, and trying to appeal to them all.  I'm not saying he shouldn't do that - I am just saying that can make things difficult to read.

However, I still find all of the facts and anecdotes so interesting that the book leaves an overall favorable impression with me.  I think it's a fun escapist read, and I would recommend it to anyone, really - and most especially, I'll probably recommend it to those people I know who have traveled through Italy or Turkey, because it has to be pretty cool to read and REALLY recognize those places.  (The one based in Washington, D.C. was pretty fun for me because of that.)



All right, I've babbled on enough. Time to get to my next book!
Yours,
Arianna

Wednesday, November 13, 2013

The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox


The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox
Maggie O'Farrell
3 / 5


Published 2006

First Sentence
"Let us begin with two girls at a dance."
Publisher's Description:
In the middle of tending to the everyday business at her vintage-clothing shop and sidestepping her married boyfriend’s attempts at commitment, Iris Lockhart receives a stunning phone call: Her great-aunt Esme, whom she never knew existed, is being released from Cauldstone Hospital—where she has been locked away for more than sixty-one years. 

Iris’s grandmother Kitty always claimed to be an only child. But Esme’s papers prove she is Kitty’s sister, and Iris can see the shadow of her dead father in Esme’s face. 

Esme has been labeled harmless—sane enough to coexist with the rest of the world. But she's still basically a stranger, a family member never mentioned by the family, and one who is sure to bring life-altering secrets with her when she leaves the ward. If Iris takes her in, what dangerous truths might she inherit? 

A gothic, intricate tale of family secrets, lost lives, and the freedom brought by truth, The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox will haunt you long past its final page..
Dear Reader,

Gosh, I still don't really know how I feel about this book.  I thought that it ultimately turned out to be a really interesting examination of siblinghood (is that a word?  I want it to be one) and the parallels and differences which crop up between and amongst generations.  This novel was another Overdrive audiobook find, and one which I had been looking forward to for a while, because the cover and blurb looked promising.  But, unfortunately, it was kind of a disappointing read.  It started off well, with two strong female leads (one an endearing willful child), but many messy family stories later, it felt kind of weaker to me.

I did like that two very shocking revelations weren't things I had guessed from page 1, and yet they seemed feasible enough, not out of left field.

...All right, Reader, this is silly.  I finished this book weeks ago, but haven't wanted to finish writing this review; I've let  the above sit in my drafts for what feels like ages now.  I guess that means I just don't have much to say about this book.  Hmm.  I enjoyed it, don't get me wrong, and I wouldn't advise anyone to avoid reading it.  It was a fun diverson book, but the substance of it was just a bit disappointing, considering the promising premise.  I did enjoy the period parts quite a bit; Esme was a strong, independent girl who was essentially punished for being the kind of woman many of us value today - a thinker, a reader, a woman who wanted more from life than simply to be married off.  I think I would have wanted to be her friend, had we encountered each other in childhood.  I think what might have bothered me most about the book were the parts about Iris, the bits of the book that were about the modern-day woman who seemed unmoored and uncertain about herself.  So much so that she constantly got herself into bad situations.  I guess I had hoped that her meeting Esme would have made her reexamine her own life, and perhaps it did a bit, but not enough to change her kind of whiny, self-pitying life.  There, I think I've pegged it: I did love the parts about Esme, and how her story was revealed - even the weird broken-up parts where someone was speaking in fragments and it was rather difficult to follow.  The parts about Iris, however, who I originally thought were good (she is a single woman who runs a vintage shop!) ended up just being frustrating and I felt as if they were left pretty unresolved.  Therein lies my problem with the book, I think.

All right, I'm going to sign off now so I can post this before I finish my next book!  Oy.

Yours,
Arianna
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