Bookpile: December 2011

Dah dum!!! I actually read all the books I had picked off the list. Yea me! Took some scrambling at the end trying to find a few, but I got them all and got them read. So ready to go back to just randomly reading for entertainment. Having a prescribed list has been harder than I expected.

* The Shadow of the Wind – Spain in the 1950s, and Daniel has just discovered a book called The Shadow of the Wind hiding among the stacks at the book cemetery. Turns out the book comes with a story of its own – author mysteriously dead, guy burning all copies of the books he can find. Daniel does more than just lose himself in this book as he attempts to uncover the real story of the author and the identity of the mystery burning man. It’s a compelling story, rather gothic at times, with a few memorable characters and quite a few twists and turns. A straight and directly told story it is not. Enjoyed it though.

* The Bean Trees: A Novel (P.S.) – It’s been a while since I read anything by Kingsolver, whom I tend to associate with books related to Native American characters. Which we kind of get, but really, our main characters here are transplants from Kentucky to Arizona. The main character gets an indian baby dropped in her lap (almost literally) as she goes through Oklahoma on her way west, a child she didn’t expect or want but ends up loving and fighting to keep. A really nice story that I’m surprised hasn’t been made into a movie yet given the way it highlights our many broken systems.

* Ashes in the Wind – Bah. A pedantic romance couched as historical fiction. And way, way, way too many threads going on here. It’s like she tried to squish a trilogy into one book, forcing us past obvious stopping points and on to yet another story branch. And with only minor nods to history along the way. Telling me where the rebel troops are at any point in time when it’s unrelated to our story doesn’t make for historical fiction. You get nothing much more than the fact rebels and Yankees don’t like each other (duh) by way of historical context. Anywhoo, I liked the two main characters and thought they deserved a far better story to be involved in.

* Paco’s Story: A Novel – It was short. That was good. Because the title might be Paco’s Story, but we spent a lot of time not with Paco. In fact, I’m not entirely sure I can tell you much about Paco. He’s a Vietnam vet who was the only surviving member of an explosion that took out an entire company. And it was a miracle he survived the blast, not to mention the time it took for help to arrive and medical treatments later. But we didn’t see enough of Paco before the tragedy to understand how it changed him, really. Not deeply anyway. He wasn’t anti-social before, but he was hardly some gregarious life-of-the-party type who becomes anti-social. I don’t know. I get what the author was trying to do, but I’m not entirely sure we got there. Then again, I’m kind of the choir on some of the points he was trying to make, so that might be why I was left a bit unsatisfied.

* Silence – It took me a while to figure out the title to this one, but we’re talking here about several different kinds of silence. It’s back in the 1600s, during the time when the Japanese kicked all the missionaries and foreigners out of the country. Not that it stops missionaries from going. The main character is one such, coming to bring succor to the Christians on the islands and search for a former teacher from the seminary who has reportedly repudiated his faith. It’s a time of torture and martyrdom and blind (and sometimes misplaced) faith. The silence of the title is mostly the missionary’s perception of God’s silence as his people suffer, but we also see the consequences of silence rather than repudiation as well as the need for silence about your faith in order to avoid the wrath of the government. An interesting look at a period of time often overlooked in books. And an interesting point to ponder about the lengths people will go to for faith, even if it’s faith in the wrong thing or in a misunderstood concept at best.

* The Lions of al-Rassan – Took a while to track this one down and in the course of doing so, I realized I had read another book by this author. One I really enjoyed, so I was looking forward to reading this one. And while it has its weak points, it fits into my love of long epic books with complicated politics and conflicted characters. (If frequently a smidge past believable.) Not quite sure if you could classify it as fantasy, given that there is not magic or non-humans involved, but it’s along those lines. Maybe more of a historical fantasy fiction. Kind of. Anyway, it’s basically the Iberian peninsula with warring factions frequently based on religious differences and men trying to grab and maintain power. (They’re the lions.) We have one group kind of like Muslims, one group kind of like Jews and one group kind of like Christians. And we have our zealots and fanatics and so forth. Surprise, the church is sending out a crusade. Oh, look at that, the desert warriors want to die in battle. And so forth. Very recognizable elements. Still, some interesting characters here all driving to that “can’t we all just get along” point. Battles, intrigues, ethical challenges to boot.

Stealing Jake – I got this for free for the Kindle ages ago and just discovered it’s only available as an ebook. Huh. Anyway, we’re in 1800s Illinois, starting in Chicago although most of the action takes place in the small town of Chestnut. Seems someone is shanghaiing street kids from Chicago, buying them off of the police officers arresting them for theft and shipping them (Literally. As in boxes.) off to Chestnut. In which town, we have Livvy, a former street kid now helping run an orphanage, and Jake, a former coal miner trying to save the farm by working as a policeman. A string of robberies are blamed on a gang of street kids, whom Livvy defends to Jake. In the course of uncovering the real culprits, they also uncover just what happened to the kids from Chicago and much danger and such ensues. Oh, and of course, Livvy and Jake fall in love. Really, it was an entertaining little story. Backgrounds unfold very slowly, like she couldn’t give you more than one piece of information a chapter. But overall, a nice read.

Sixteen Brides – Another free Kindle book, which I had downloaded so long ago, I had no idea just what it was. Seems we have 16 women, heading west on a train expecting to lay claim to their own homesteads. Only, they’ve been a little misled. OK, a lot misled. A few of them figure it out and refuse to continue on, choosing instead to just stay where they are in Plum Grove, Nebraska. From there, we have a prairie frontier story of determination and drive and of course, ensuing romances. Which threw a huge kink into plans that got completely ignored but bugged me. Anyway. I’ve always loved stories like Westward the Women (which I could swear I’ve seen on DVD, but maybe not). I find the guts and will and determination required of women heading west to be amazing, especially those going with little more resource than their own two hands and brains.

* The Magic of Ordinary Days: A Novel – Good grief, this one was hard to find. In book form at least. The movie was everywhere. A nice story set during the 40s in Colorado as WWII rages in Europe and the Pacific. We’ve got a woman in trouble thanks to a soldier now shipped off, a naive farmer willing to marry her, Japanese interns at a nearby camp who come to work the farm and German POWs right down the road. Nice look at how people choose to handle life when it doesn’t take the path you planned and what love can mean when you choose it.

Prime Time – Ugh. Old Sandra Brown romance. If you can call it romance. Just silly premise, unbelievable actions, manufactured conflict. Given no reason for these two to fall for each other or any reason to care. Left over from my mom’s collection and just a disappointing waste of time. Sigh.

 

 

 

 

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January 1, 2012 – 3:33 pm
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Bookpile: November 2011

On the whole, a good month of reading. Again, only books from the challenge list as I try to wrap that up, but I liked them more than I didn’t, so whee. Big improvement.

* Nights at the Circus – Did you watch Big Fish? Did you like it? In some ways, this story feels like that. Except when you take a step back, it’s a bit less – ok a lot less – fantastical than it starts out. We have a little bit of “magic”, which goes completely unexplained and unused at the times you’d think it would matter. Still, it was an interesting read, odd characters galore, global settings. But just not going to rave. Enjoyed it, but not excessively.

* Jane Eyre – Oh. Sure sign of the deficiencies of my education that I never had to read this. And I actually enjoyed it. (Thank heavens.) I was afraid it was going to be a slog, but the writing is actually quite accessible for us modern readers. (Coincidentally, my niece watched the movie version around the same time and was raving. And feels she’s been ruined forever by Bronte because – let’s face it – what man talks that passionately to a woman anymore.) Toward the end, we started having a bit more archaic and difficult to parse language, not to mention some incomprehensible motivations by some of the players. Not to mention, I never could figure out just what Jane saw in the guy. Still, love prevails in the end, and that’s all we really want, right? (Link goes to free Kindle version I read.)

* Women in the Wall – Had to stop. Just couldn’t do it. The women in the walls? They’re nuns who have walled themselves up into closet-sized spaces in the walls of the convent. Yep. That I could deal with. Especially since the description of this Middle Ages tale had me thinking it was going to be an interesting piece of historical fiction. But the constant switching of first-person narrative without any clue as to whom we were hearing from along with rambling philosophical rants on the nature of sin and so forth – annoying, tedious and far from entertaining.

* Mary Poppins – Yes, it was a book long before it was a movie. (Just saying, since I didn’t realize that until well into adulthood.) And … well, this isn’t the movie version. Mary isn’t a sweet and cuddly kind of nanny in the stories. And the stories are just that, stories. Each chapter – if you can label them that – is it’s own stand-alone story. Nice for bedtime-reading to kids, but rather disjointed when read as a book straight through. Still, glad to have experienced this classic.

* We Need To Talk About Kevin – Oh my. I picked this based on the title since my husband’s name is Kevin. Had no idea just what the story was about. Let me just say, it’s an extremely well-done book, but the story isn’t one for everyone. Told from the viewpoint of Kevin’s mom, writing letters to her husband about Kevin. Who killed a group of his classmates and a teacher and is serving time for it. She starts back when Kevin was a child, examining all the things that could have been different as well as talking about what’s happening now. I have no clue how they’re doing it, but it’s coming out as a movie early next year. Solid read, but again, not a story for everyone.

* The Time Traveler’s Wife – Sigh. In a good way. I was a little leary about this one given it was made into a movie a couple of years ago. Figured it was going to be some weak and fluffy piece of work. But absolutely not. Loved it. Strong characters, heart-string tugging, dramatic twists – they’re all there. And she deals nicely with the whole time travel part of it, given that it could have become highly confusing. Highly. Strongly recommend this one.

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December 8, 2011 – 10:07 pm
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How’s the schedule doing?

Ok, so I tend to jump on an idea and not think it through completely. Is that better or worse than taking too much time to think? Huh. Anyway …

Things are going fine so far, although I did quickly realize that scheduling has to be more flexible than I originally thought. Which is where I should have thought more about what I wanted to really accomplish here. It’s not to make my life inflexible. It’s not to confine me. It’s to focus me.

So, my minor shifts in thinking (not necessarily in my schedule) are that certain things are on the schedule to make them must dos (exercise, writing, 48 days) while others are on there to ensure they aren’t over dos (Squidoo, quilting). And I set a specific amount of time to spend with each rather than a set time of day to do them, which does give me some flexibility. I can spend more than the allotted time on Squidoo or quilting but only if I’ve done the must dos.

Which means, I’ve actually exercised every day this week, kept up with my 48 days homework and done quite a bit of writing (although none on the book – argh). Which means success in my book so far. Traveling is throwing some kinks in at the moment although I’m still getting it done, but Thanksgiving looms. We’ll see how it sticks through the end of the month.

Photo Credit: Lindsay_Silveira on flickr. CC BY-ND 2.0 license.

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November 11, 2011 – 3:16 pm
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Turning purple. Some of it on purpose …

I’ve been wanting to do this for some time and finally took the plunge. I now have purple hair!

It was actually more purple a week or so ago. I’ve washed it a few times and the purple has pretty much washed out of my normal brown. But the parts we bleached first are clinging nicely to the purple color. I’m planning to touch it up a bit this weekend, so the brown will go back to a dark burgundy-ish shade. (Actually, I look good with the darker hair color.)

The bleaching part was what made me nervous about doing this. I just envisioned serious damage going on and having to grown out hair. Which is why not doing it myself was probably the right way to go. I’ve got chunks all around my head and a few strands right around my face bleached so they just kind of poke out here and there to show off the color. Very subtle. Kind of. Ha.

Already bought some blue to try and some green for the holidays. (Can’t be on stage with purple hair, ya know.)

Ok, this isn’t purple anymore. It’s actually green and yellow at the moment, which should mean things are healing.

Not sure how well you can see it since the scratches are the only part that really stands out. I have a section of my leg bigger than my hand that is swollen and tender and bruised. And I’m officially not allowed to try to walk in the dark anymore because this is the second semi-serious injury I’ve done to myself in the past few weeks. Walked right into Plaid’s crate that’s supposed to be heading up into the attic.

Good thing I do color well. Sigh.

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November 4, 2011 – 3:00 pm
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Bookpile: October 2011

Not a lot this month since many of these were pretty chunky. But they’re all from the challenge, knocking off quite a few more as we close in on the year.

*The Book Thief – This is one of those really hot books of the past couple years and I wasn’t quite sure I was going to like it when I got started. Was coming off as just a little too strange and “daring” for me as we got going. But I like strange generally so I kept going. And I’m glad I did. this was truly a good book. Good. Not great. Not for everyone. But really worth reading.

The title is just odd to me, although it’s explained through the story. But it’s not exactly a clue to what you’re going to be reading. Still, it takes one semi-normal facet of this girl’s life to tell the story of World War II Germany, the story of normal Germans just trying to survive through the event. Too often, books around that period are about the camps or about the German leaders.

*To Kill a Mockingbird – I loved this movie, which meant I was wary about the book. Ha! Not to mention, it’s an old book and I’m finding myself less and less patient with older writing styles. But … just as good. Actually, better since the book can give us a broader and more compelling story than a movie can. The book is more broadly about attitudes and change within small-town South with the legal stuff as just background for most of it. Scout’s perspective is hilarious at times (and I totally get it having been a serious tomboy myself) and quite wise for such a young child. Definitely not something to cringe at on a required reading list.

*Sea Glass: A Novel – I almost gave up on this one. And I’m still rather ambivalent about it. It’s the story behind (beside? somewhere around?) a strike at a fabric mill in the northeast. The problem at the start was too many threads and too many characters and too many perspectives. It took quite a while for her to bring them together into one story. The stock market crashes and the Depression hits about mid-way through the book, making the upcoming strike just that much more critical. And ill-advised. Because the strike ends up causing the mills to collapse altogether, leaving everyone without jobs. It’s the kind of book with lots of symbolism and points for discussion in literature class, but not much by way of entertainment value.

*The Best Christmas Pageant Ever – Book for kids around 8, maybe? And I loved it. It’s only about 80 pages, so I had it done in just over an hour, including stops to think. The traditional Christmas pageant at the local church is turned on its ear when the neighborhood hooligans start coming to church and manage to take all the lead parts. We’re talking real rascals here who have a vague idea who Jesus is and had never heard the Christmas story. Their questions and perspective provide a great antidote to the typical church view of Christmas. Really a good read and poke in the side.

*The Golems of Gotham: A Novel – Let me say right off that I liked this one. The title is exactly the kind of thing I’m drawn to pick up off the shelf. But, I’m not sure that I loved it at all. First, each chapter was told from a different perspective, but he never tells us who, so you’re kind of lost for a couple of paragraphs until you figure it out. It gets easier once you get farther in and actually have a handle on everyone, but still rather distracting. Second, I’m not entirely sure I quite got the point Rosenbaum was trying to make. (Even his main character was having a little trouble – Never again or never forget?) The story was compelling at times, preachy at others, flat-out aimless in others. If you’re into Holocaust-oriented books, you’ll want to make sure you read this one. (It’s not specifically about the Holocaust, but survivors and the impact over the generations.)

*My Invented Country : A Memoir and *Tender Is the Night – Couldn’t read them. The first is meandering and aimless and I just don’t care about this author’s various childhood memories and stories. Decided it wasn’t worth continuing on after about 100 pages.

And Tender? I should have known better than to have picked it. I hated Gatsby with a passion and you know, this one just repeats all the reasons I hated Gatsby. Figured that out after about 30 pages and never again. (For the record, I find Fitzgerald’s characters shallow and unredeemable and at times truly vile and I refuse to consider their stories worth reading.)

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November 3, 2011 – 8:07 am
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