Strong Motion

Strong Motion Jonathan Franzen 2.5 / 5	Published 1992 First Sentence "Sometimes when people asked Eileen Holland if she had any brothers or sisters, she had to think for a moment."
Publisher's Description: Louis Holland arrives in Boston to find that a minor earthquake in Ipswich has killed his eccentric grandmother, triggering a struggle between him, his sister Eileen, and his mother Melanie over the disposition of a $22 million inheritance. During a visit to the beach, Louis meets Dr. Reneé Seitchek, a Harvard seismologist who believes she has discovered the cause of subsequent earthquakes in Peabody. Louis, Reneé, and the Hollands' affairs become entangled with the petrochemical and weapons company Sweeting-Aldren, as well as a pro-life activist commune called the Church of Action in Christ, headed by Reverend Philip Stites...
Dear Reader,  I don’t know why I stuck with this book. It was frustrating in so many ways. But I picked it up at the wonderful Autumn Leaves bookstore up in Ithaca, NY back when I lived there from 2004-2005. I believe it was right around the time I was reading The Corrections, and I figured I might like other Franzen work, as well. This was one of his first publications, and it definitely shows. Every time I read a Franzen book, I not sure whether or not I enjoy it. It’s very odd. I suppose I do ENJOY them to a certain extent, or I wouldn’t read them, but I am not sure whether I like him as an author. I don’t recall much of The Corrections, frankly. Freedom stuck with me much better. But I feel sometimes as if he is a not-so-good John Irving. I may get totally torn down for that, but it’s kind of how I feel. He writes these familial epics which have a ton of promise, but end up falling flat, for me.  In any case, what frustrated me about this book is that Franzen writes well but then shoots himself in the foot but clearly writing like an MFA student who is trying to hard. The section about cars being like mismatched shoes, shuffling around the street? It was painful, honestly. But then he writes gems like: “It was if, in nuclear terms, the configuration of forces had changed and he was no longer an oppositely charged particle attracted to her from a great distance but a particle with like charge, a proton repelled by this other person until they were right next to each other and the strong nuclear force came into its own and bound them together.” I don’t know why, but that struck me. I loved it. Sure, maybe it’s also young-author-trying-too-hard material, and on the wordy side. But it works so well. So I think I kept reading the book because of small jewels like that.  Another frustrating aspect was how confounded I was by the actions of his characters. And he didn’t do this purposefully; they weren’t supposed to be crazy, just normal people. But they constantly reacted in ways I didn’t understand. I kept feeling like I’d missed something. I read books to learn about, get inside, understand other people.I couldn’t do that with this book. I found most of the characters’ actions perplexing in many cases. Someone would suddenly start yelling or acting sullen, and I couldn’t see the impetus. It left me vaguely upset. Like I said, it wasn’t that they were intentionally hard to predict characters. It felt more like Franzen didn’t understand the human psyche as he was writing.  (I’ll admit, my impressions of Franzen may currently be a bit colored by his Iraqi adoption scheme, as well. But I thought this way about the book even before I had heard about that odd little faux pas.) In any case, I have to admit, the book was worth reading (slogging through?) if only for the ending! When the earthquake hit and things started really getting in motion (and storylines began falling into place - and people began acting in more realistic ways!), I couldn’t put it down.  Yet I waffle on whether to recommend this book. I did love the scenes of early-90s Boston, and some of the messages (women's rights, and an interestingly prescient outlook on the equivalent of fracking) from the book. But I can’t 100% recommend someone spend 500 pages on it. Even if the ending really makes it worth it. Yours, Arianna P.S. I began reading this book in April (!) because it was a Franzen book I hadn’t read and we would be seeing him speak at BEA. Well...then I got sidetracked for quite a while from it! And while I tried to read a bit every few days, I didn’t end up being able to pick it up again to focus on until last week. It’s a little weird to think that I’ve technically been reading this book for almost 6 months! Haha.

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The Boston Girl

The Boston Girl Anita Diamant 3.5 / 5	Published 2014 First Sentence "Ava, sweetheart, if you ask me to talk about how I got to be the woman I am today, what do you think I'm going to say?"
Publisher's Description: From the New York Times bestselling author of The Red Tent and Day After Night, comes an unforgettable coming-of-age novel about family ties and values, friendship and feminism told through the eyes of young Jewish woman growing up in Boston in the early twentieth century. Addie Baum is The Boston Girl, born in 1900 to immigrant parents who were unprepared for and suspicious of America and its effect on their three daughters. Growing up in the North End, then a teeming multicultural neighborhood, Addie's intelligence and curiosity take her to a world her parents can't imagine - a world of short skirts, movies, celebrity culture and new opportunities for women. Addie wants to finish high school and dreams of going to college. She wants a career and to find true love. Eighty-five-year-old Addie tells the story of her life to her twenty-two-year-old granddaughter, who has asked her "How did you get to be the woman you are today." She begins in 1915, the year she found her voice and made friends who would help shape the course of her life. From the one-room tenement apartment she shared with her parents and two sisters, to the library group for girls she joins at a neighborhood settlement house, to her first, disastrous love affair, Addie recalls her adventures with compassion for the naïve girl she was and a wicked sense of humor. Written with the same attention to historical detail and emotional resonance that made Anita Diamant's previous novels bestsellers, The Boston Girl is a moving portrait of one woman’s complicated life in twentieth century America, and a fascinating look at a generation of women finding their places in a changing world.
Dear Reader, I have had this book on my shelf for a few months, and actually partly picked it up so I would stop getting the Pushstars song stuck in my head every time I saw it. Plus, my sister (whose taste is uncannily similar to my own) really enjoyed it, and knowing Diamant from The Red Tent, I looked forward to seeing her writing in a more modern setting. I was a little disappointed though, because I think I expected more North End Boston (the one-time home of me and my sisters, at various times) and the book certainly didn't focus too much on that place, although it got its mentions. The book takes place all over Boston, which I suppose is the reason it’s not called “The North End Girl”, and the author does the entire city justice - you can see her love for its history.  I loved the conceptual notion of the main character, Addie: she was a strong, smart, independent first-generation American woman, who figured life out on her own terms. However, as much as I liked her and probably would have wanted to be her friend had I met her in real life, I felt as if there was something missing that didn't allow me to care about her as much as I would have liked. Granted, I couldn't put this book down; I sped through it in two days. But I was unable to entirely connect. Luckily, the story carries the reader along, and there is enough personality in the book from all of Addie’s family and friends that you still do grow to care to know what happens. While the point of the book is only really about the love Addie has for those she holds dear, I found myself tearing up a bit at the end. So that says something. I found the chapter titles interesting: each was a significant sentence pulled from the following pages which embodied the spirit of what was being said. I am not quite sure how I felt about that style. Knowing how things were set up, though, I often found myself flipping back to see what sentence had been pulled from the preceding pages, and taking a moment to ponder the significance. I don’t recall if that is a Diamant idiosyncrasy or if it was just used for this book, but I do think it made me sit for a moment after every chapter to consider the important phrases. I think I liked that.  Overall, the book was a lovely little portrait of a young Jewish girl finding her way in early 1900s Boston. I thought it was a charming story about family and independence. Certainly a great summer read for the beach or a long trip. Yours, Arianna

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The Soul of an Octopus

The Soul of an Octopus: A Surprising Exploration into the Wonder of Consciousness Sy Montgomery 5/5	Published May 12th, 2015 (My Birthday!) First Sentence "On a rare, warm day in mid-March, when the snow was melting into mud in New Hampshire, I traveled to Boston, where everyone was strolling along the edge of the harbor or sitting on benches licking ice cream cones."
Publisher's Description: In this astonishing book from the author of the bestselling memoir The Good Good Pig, Sy Montgomery explores the emotional and physical world of the octopus' surprisingly complex, intelligent, and spirited creature: and the remarkable connections it makes with humans. Sy Montgomery's popular 2011 Orion magazine piece, "Deep Intellect"; about her friendship with a sensitive, sweet-natured octopus named Athena and the grief she felt at her death, went viral, indicating the widespread fascination with these mysterious, almost alien-like creatures. Since then Sy has practiced true immersion journalism, from New England aquarium tanks to the reefs of French Polynesia and the Gulf of Mexico, pursuing these wild, solitary shape-shifters. Octopuses have varied personalities and intelligence they show in myriad ways: endless trickery to escape enclosures and get food; jetting water playfully to bounce objects like balls; and evading caretakers by using a scoop net as a trampoline and running around the floor on eight arms. But with a beak like a parrot, venom like a snake, and a tongue covered with teeth, how can such a being know anything? And what sort of thoughts could it think? The intelligence of dogs, birds, and chimpanzees was only recently accepted by scientists, who now are establishing the intelligence of the octopus, watching them solve problems and deciphering the meaning of their color-changing camouflage techniques. Montgomery chronicles this growing appreciation of the octopus, but also tells a love story. By turns funny, entertaining, touching, and profound, The Soul of an Octopus reveals what octopuses can teach us about consciousness and the meeting of two very different minds.
Dear Reader, The first thing I learned from this book was the correct pluralization is not octopi but octopuses. Go ahead, have a laugh... it made me giggle too but I'm also a little sad that octopi doesn't exist (THE word). Anywho... I want to be best friends with Sy Montgomery, not only because she writes about amazing animals but she usually calls her friends up to join in these adventures. Oh, how I would have loved to be the one to meet her at the New England Aquarium for the chance to "pet" an octopus. Died! I would have died from excitement. I don't know why these non-furry creatures give me such a thrill? Okay, I admit that after reading this book... I clearly know why... THEY FRAKIN' RULE. Let's get this over with... shall we? I mean, we all know I'm going to list off some fascinating facts from the book, right? Please turn your head or galavant down to the bottom paragraph if you would like to read this book blindly. I won't blame you. The facts you'll learn will have you "Ooo0ing" and "Ahhhing" quite often. However, I can't begrudge those who won't pick this book up... NO! I must convince them that reading about octopuses is entirely worth it. Which, by the way... It IS! My friend Marsha (Hi Marsha!) sent me a link to this amazing video that pretty much goes over all these amazing facts (plus the narrator is to die for!!) I highly recommend watching it AND reading this book. CLICK here to watch the amazing video! Fascinating fact #1: When an octopus is relaxed, it will appear white. Other colors can range all across the rainbow, giving them one of the most impressive camouflaging ability in the animal kingdom. As the author states in the book, "They can change color, pattern, and texture in seven tenths of a second." Relaxed Octopus - Awww! Fascinating fact #2: An octopus has three hearts (Whovian?) and a brain that wraps around its throat. Now THAT is redonkulous but guess what? It gets better. An octopus can also regrow its arm if broken off. Why? Because "three fifths of octopus' neurons are not in the brain but the arms." Dumbfounded. Where did these creatures come from? I was going to keep listing facts but I decided the best thing would be for you to experience the book for yourself. The Author is amazing, she really knows how to write a book about something that could mind numbing boring (in a scientific way) but manages to do the exact opposite. I can't wait to read more books from her. She even mentions Victor Hugo (LOVE) and many other literary and cultural references that had me excited. She also compared an octopus to a dog, how she could "pet his head or scratch his forehead... he loves it". My mission in life is to pet an octopus now. The Author also brings to life this mysterious animal. She makes this story real, not just scientific. We get to hear all about the the people who have been changed from interacting with these animals, in a wonderful heartfelt way. If you think octopuses are scary, believe me... after reading this, you'll feel differently.  Happy Reading, AmberBug P.S.- Let me leave you with another picture of an octopus (because I can) Look at that color! So beautiful!

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Small as an Elephant

Small as an Elephant Jennifer Richard Jacobson 3.5 / 5	Published 2011 First Paragraph "Elephants can sense danger. They're able to detect an approaching tsunami or earthquake before it hits. Unfortunately, Jack did not have this talent. The day his life was turned upside down, he was caught unaware."
Publisher's Description: Jack’s mom is gone, leaving him all alone on a campsite in Maine. Can he find his way back to Boston before the authorities realize what happened? Ever since Jack can remember, his mom has been unpredictable, sometimes loving and fun, other times caught in a whirlwind of energy and "spinning" wildly until it’s over. But Jack never thought his mom would take off during the night and leave him at a campground in Acadia National Park, with no way to reach her and barely enough money for food. Any other kid would report his mom gone, but Jack knows by now that he needs to figure things out for himself - starting with how to get from the backwoods of Maine to his home in Boston before DSS catches on. With nothing but a small toy elephant to keep him company, Jack begins the long journey south, a journey that will test his wits and his loyalties - and his trust that he may be part of a larger herd after all.
Dear Reader, This was an adorable and uplifting little book. It's a middle-grade book, which means it's aimed toward pre-teens. Which also meant that it was a quick read, but I quite enjoyed it. It follows the adventures of Jack, who wakes up on the first day of his camping trip to find that his mother has abandoned him - not an unusual occurrence with this woman, apparently. So Jack decides (after waiting for a bit for her to return) that it's up to him to get himself home. He refuses to ask for help because he is concerned that he will get taken from his mother. Which, yes, we all believe that he should be taken away from this woman who won't even care for her own son! But Jack is afraid because his mom is the only caretaker he's ever known, and she's effectively isolated him from the rest of their family. So if he gets caught and they realize he isn't being properly taken care of, he worries about being sent to live with his grandmother or to a foster home. So his fears make sense (he is only eleven, after all!), so he sets out on a journey from an island off the coast of Maine to his home in Boston. The characters Jack encounters in his travels are great: the gruff farm woman, the sweetheart Big Jack, the reckless teenager he rides with for a bit (to name only a few). They all stood out well and really made the story have great variety and depth. And Jack really does seem like a smart and upstanding kid: he cleverly gets his way out of scrapes and is very resourceful in his avoidance of stealing from others as much as possible. My favorite part of the book, though, was its focus on elephants: every chapter started with a little factoid about elephants, and I learned so many neat things! (Just ask my fiance, who had to listen to me read him something almost every chapter!) I don't particularly love elephants more than other animals, but I do think they are pretty darned cool creatures - and even more so now! Yours, Arianna

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The Art Forger

The Art Forger B.A. Shapiro 3 / 5	Published 2012 First Sentence "I step back and scrutinize the paintings."
Publisher's Description: On March 18, 1990, thirteen works of art worth today over $500 million were stolen from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston. It remains the largest unsolved art heist in history, and Claire Roth, a struggling young artist, is about to discover that there’s more to this crime than meets the eye. Claire makes her living reproducing famous works of art for a popular online retailer. Desperate to improve her situation, she lets herself be lured into a Faustian bargain with Aiden Markel, a powerful gallery owner. She agrees to forge a painting—one of the Degas masterpieces stolen from the Gardner Museum—in exchange for a one-woman show in his renowned gallery. But when the long-missing Degas painting—the one that had been hanging for one hundred years at the Gardner—is delivered to Claire’s studio, she begins to suspect that it may itself be a forgery. Claire’s search for the truth about the painting’s origins leads her into a labyrinth of deceit where secrets hidden since the late nineteenth century may be the only evidence that can now save her life. B. A. Shapiro’s razor-sharp writing and rich plot twists make The Art Forger an absorbing literary thriller that treats us to three centuries of forgers, art thieves, and obsessive collectors. it’s a dazzling novel about seeing—and not seeing—the secrets that lie beneath the canvas.
Dear Reader, Okay, did anyone else notice how completely self-absorbed the main character, Claire, is in this novel?!  It's so annoying.  She couldn't care one whit about her friends, never asks about their lives, but uses them to her advantage whenever she needs to.  And they seem to be okay with this!  So I guess it's not a problem in her world... For those who haven't yet read this book, it is about a woman who is asked to make a forgery of one of the famous paintings which was stolen in the Gardner heist of 1990.  Of course, the minute the painting was named, I went online to see it for myself - I like to know what is being discussed when it comes to famous artwork.  However, I it turns out that Shapiro actually invented a fifth version of Degas' "After the Bath" for her story, one which does not actually exist.  It was a pretty good idea, since the whole story is simply a fiction based on the author's idea of what might have happened to that one missing painting - she does not speculate on the disappearance of the others that were taken. Interestingly, I am reading another book right now which discusses the Gardner art heist, which is odd since I haven't really encountered the famous and intriguing story since I read Stealing Rembrandts several years ago.  (The other book I am reading, Wally Lamb's We Are Water, doesn't talk about it too much, but it was funny how they both coincided in my life at exactly the same time.)  In any case, like many others, I've been fascinated with this story since I heard about it.  I cannot wait until the paintings resurface, so the world can know how the strange robbery took place. Shapiro's book, though, at least takes a very good stab at a story behind one of the pieces - you'll never see the ending coming!  I did really enjoy reading about the process of art forgery, which many reviewers say is truly the way these things are currently done: the materials and processes that Claire uses in the book, and the people she learns from, are real and have produced paintings which have fooled many an authenticator.  Very neat stuff.  The science behind it is amazing, too. The story itself, Claire's experiences as she paints the fogery and as she recalls other problems in her career as an artist, is interesting enough, although as I pointed out above, she is not a great friend.  Luckily, her pals don't seem to mind.  They get caught up in her adventure, too, and this really was one story that had me totally uncertain of what was going to happen next - I like mysteries like that. I read the book because it took place in Boston, and I do love all the Bostonian details that Shapiro throws in here and there.  I also read it because my sister graduated from the Museum of Fine Arts school, just like Claire does in the novel.  I think I'd recommend this most to people who are interested in art, Boston, or the Gardner Museum heist.  Otherwise, it's a mystery novel that won't really appeal outside those catgeories, I think.  Still, a very fun and engaging book! Yours, Arianna

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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.) WARNING: SPOILER ALERT! I have to talk here a little bit about the overarching premise of the book now, because that was another really interesting aspect of it - the discussion of overpopulation which really was the story behind the story. It's something I struggle with a lot personally, as a woman who has the capability to plan whether or not I have children. I've always kind of waffled on the issue, because really, should I bring another person into this already strained world? Usually I'm more concerned for the state of humanity and not because it is stressing its resources to the brink of collapse, but still. It's kind of along the same lines. I want and don't want to have children, all at the same time. Additionally, along those same lines, I kind of felt in alignment with Zobrist's ideas and EVEN his execution of releasing the "plague"! I know it sounds awful to wish sterilization on a random third of the population, but really - people deal with it all the time. And who's to say who should be allowed to reproduce and who shouldn't? I definitely don't think that it should be mandated - but, at the same time, learning today that China has decided to semi-lift its birth limitations struck real fear into me. And, I kind of agree with Sienna's view that it is just the next step in our evolution - it's where we have progressed to. Does anyone else agree? Or do you all think I'm totally insane? Please feel free to leave comments and discuss this with me!! I'm still uncertain even where I stand. Mostly, I just think I'm not entirely AGAINST Zobrist's transhuman ideas. But neither can I say I'm entirely with him, or his methods. Hmm. All right, I've babbled on enough. Time to get to my next book! Yours, Arianna

People of the Book

People of the Book Geraldine Brooks 4/5	Published 2008 First Sentence "I might as well say, right from the jump: it wasn't my usual kind of job."
Publisher's Description: From the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of March, the journey of a rare illuminated prayer book through centuries of war, destruction, theft, loss, and love.
Dear Reader, This book was just beautiful. I wasn’t sure what to expect from it (I hadn’t read any of the publisher’s blurb; this was another serendipitous library Overdrive discovery), but it surprised me in such a lovely way. I audiobooked it, and of course the first thing I noticed was the heavy Australian accent of the reader (Edwina Wren) - it was very enjoyable to listen to, I thought! And her later voices -- accents from Serbian to British to American -- were also very impressive, at least to my untrained ear. In any case, the book itself was this gorgeous narration which wove back and forth between Hannah’s (a book restorer) and the book itself’s story, intermingling like the rich plaits of a thick braid. Hannah has been hired to work on the Sarajevo Haggadah, which is a real book, and is truly surrounded in mystery and intrigue: both regarding its survival through the ages (through numerous Jewish persecutions) and its contents. However, it is important to remember that Brooks’ story is only a fiction she has crafted around the questions which the book raises. Still, she devises a very clever explanation of the book’s travels and experiences, and it is a joy to listen to her storytelling. Brooks knows her history, particularly that of Eastern Europe, and I found it fascinating to learn more about the histories of the people who lived in the area from the mid-fifteenth century all the way up to the present day. While keeping in mind it is a novel, it was still chock full of historically-specific details. Brooks’ characters truly came to life for me. One of the main surprises in the book is the truth about Hannah’s own past, which she discovers as she follows the trail of the book’s history through several countries. While I certainly didn’t see the twist coming, I also thought it interesting that the revelation didn’t change the way Hannah interacted with the book, or make her quest for the truth more dear. I thought it improbable that things didn’t change more significantly for her. One truly lovely thing about this book was how its point wasn’t simply to explain the Haggadah’s origins, but also to build bridges between nationalities, religions, and backgrounds of all sorts. I felt that the Haggadah’s story represented peacefulness and connection, both in its flashback stories as well as in Hannah’s present story. Books are, at their heart, about communicating between people, even if those two people live in a very different time and place. Thus, the novel did a great job of that, as did the religious tome within. This was truly another book for book-lovers. I’ve been devouring a lot of those recently; some recommended favorites are Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore (Robin Sloan) and A Novel Bookstore (Laurence Cossé). My most favorite part of the book, though, might have been the dedication: “For the librarians”! Hurray! Best, Arianna