Monday, March 17, 2008

Books, Books, & More Books

Facing the Wind: A True Story of Tragedy and Reconciliation by Julie Salamon

This was one of those that I just tripped upon while browsing Amazon. It was not a book I would normally read, as it was a true crime story. But this one was different as it involved a man brutally and methodically killing his wife and 3 children, and after years in an mental institution was released and remarried and began a new family. I was absolutely dumbfounded as how our judicial system could allow this to happen. So my curiosity was piqued and I dove in. I am not sure I would read this category again, but I am not sorry I added this book to my list. It was like entering another world and every moment being ready to return to your own, but a little wiser through the journey.



The Weight of Water by Anita Shrive. Here is all I have to say about this book; Do you ever have someone, a friend (that you trust), perhaps, that gives you a book and says, "This is book is SO great, you HAVE to read it?" Then you do, of course, your friend gave it to you! But afterwards you want to beat your friend senseless with the book while screaming, "Why have you wasted my time?" but you still like your friend, so you don't? :)

This book had a convoluted plot, the characters were two dimensional and hard to really feel sorry for, and the writing had terrible prose that the author clearly thinks is poetic. This is not to mention the contrived and much to neatly wrapped up ending. I would tell you more about the plot, but it's not worth it. I should have known when I read that it was about a murder on "Smuttynose Island."

Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers - Mary Roach Another book mentioned in conversation that was too good to pass by, after hearing from one of my husbands friends about it I checked it out at the Library. Completely not my norm, but this book managed to somehow be completely entertaining, witty and informative. I am not a gore lover, but this book manages to not be gory. Some of the information is not for the light hearted, but Mary Roach easily delivers a book that is conversational and fun, and you will find after the end that you know more than you ever thought possible about the curious lives of human cadavers-from plastic surgery, Crucifixion, and forensics to organ donation and crash test dummies.

Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books - Azar Nafisi I have to admit, I stumbled across this book in one of my thrift store haunts and have stopped reading in mid-through so that I can read some of the books in the book. Confused? Off of Amazon-

"In 1995, after resigning from her job as a professor at a university in Tehran due to repressive policies, Azar Nafisi invited seven of her best female students to attend a weekly study of great Western literature in her home. Since the books they read were officially banned by the government, the women were forced to meet in secret, often sharing photocopied pages of the illegal novels. For two years they met to talk, share, and "shed their mandatory veils and robes and burst into color." Though most of the women were shy and intimidated at first, they soon became emboldened by the forum and used the meetings as a springboard for debating the social, cultural, and political realities of living under strict Islamic rule. They discussed their harassment at the hands of "morality guards," the daily indignities of living under the Ayatollah Khomeini's regime, the effects of the Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s, love, marriage, and life in general, giving readers a rare inside look at revolutionary Iran. The books were always the primary focus, however, and they became "essential to our lives: they were not a luxury but a necessity," she writes.

Threaded into the memoir are trenchant discussions of the work of Vladimir Nabokov, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Jane Austen, and other authors who provided the women with examples of those who successfully asserted their autonomy despite great odds."

I can never pass up an opportunity to look at life from the perspective of a woman or group of women close to my own age living in such a separate reality from my own. I hope to finish this book and compare notes with these women and perhaps gain some insight. Not to mention I am hopelessly drawn to books that refer to my two fav authors Jane Austen and F. Scott Fitzgerald. More to come on this one...

The Dogs of Babel - Carolyn Parkhurst Strange, fascinating and worth the read. Paul Iverson one day comes home to find his wife Lexy has died; she has fallen out of the apple tree in their backyard. After the tragedy, Paul a linguistics professor, becomes obsessed with teaching their dog, a Rhodesian Ridgeback named Lorelei (the sole witness to the tragedy) to speak so he can find out the truth about Lexy's death. Paul finds himself on a journey of self discovery as he also slowly puts the pieces of his wife's life, and death together. Recommended book, great and fast read.

The Shadow Of The Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon You know how people say, "If you read one book this year, make it this one!"? Well, seriously, make it this one. This book has it all; a mystery, love, scandal, tragedy, adventure, everything you could ever want wrapped up into one fascinating story and set against the lovely backdrop of Barcelona, Spain. This book "had me at hello" :) when it opened with young Daniel Sempere's kind hearted father introducing him to the Cemetery of Forgotten Books, a secret library where books "no longer remembered by anyone, books that are lost in time" reside. Each person who visits may take one book, so that life may be given back to that book, and when Daniel sees The Shadow of the Wind, he knows it "had been waiting for me there for years, probably since before I was born." Daniel takes home his book and reads it in a night. He is enchanted by the story and sets out to find more books by the author, Julian Carax only to discover that someone is finding and burning every book every written by Carax. Thus the investigation is born. A book about books. My kind of book. Ha! It was one of those reads that I wished I could unread so that I could read it again. Truly a gem for me. Highly recommended.

P.S. Referred to me by the same friend that gave me Weight of Water. Absolution granted.

The Lake of Dead Languages - Carol Goodman This book might have been somewhat worthwhile had I not previously read The Secret History of which this book is a total knock off. It bugged me all the way through. You can only read so many books about Latin snobs and Greek mythology and authors that attempt to make it appear sophisticated and grandiose that a bunch a teenage girls are attempting to learn it, but I didn't buy it.

The plot goes something like; whiny discontent woman leaves her husband that she never really liked (but doesn't make it clear as to why exactly) and takes her daughter and returns to the private girl's school of her youth to teach Latin. During her time at this school some deep dark scandalous incident happened involving her and her two roommates. Upon her return to the school, she begins to find someone is leaving her messages through her old journal which was lost the year she left the school. So someone now knows her secret and she embarks on a clandestine mission to find out who. The first story is slowly revealed as the second and current story plays out which is at times painstakingly slow. Ending can be foreseen by anyone with the tiniest bit of insight. Not to mention (possible spoiler!) I am DONE with reading books that include incest. Enough already! The Secret History, The Weight of Water, Middlesex, this book, geez. It's not mysterious. It's just gross!

Second Glance - Jodi Picoult
From Amazon-"Ghosts and ghost hunters collide in this compelling tale of the paranormal set in Vermont's green mountains. When the patriarch of the Abenaki Indian tribe that was nearly eradicated by that state's eugenics project in the 1930s encounters Ross Wakeman, the miraculous survivor of several attempted suicides who wants nothing more than to be reunited with the woman he loved and lost, they set in motion a chain of events that will unravel an ancient murder and lead to a second chance at life and love for the victim's descendants."

I couldn't dislike a Jodi Picoult novel if I tried. She is just an amazing author. This was definitely not my favorite Picoult, I was a bit surprised at the direction she went with the ghost hunting. But as usual, she had me thinking many weeks beyond the book about ethics. And the information about the America Eugenics project was mind blowing.

Up next:

A Thousand Splendid Suns - Khaled Hosseini

Patron Saint of Liars-Ann Patchett

The Road-Cormac McCarthy

1 comment:

alisonwonderland said...

i'm going to have to put some of these on my to-read list.

i read Weight of Water right at the end of last year. while i didn't love it, i definitely liked it better than you did. :)

i recently read A Thousand Splendid Suns. i'd love to hear what you thought of it.

Second Glance is one of only three Picoult novels that I haven't yet read. i just finished Picture Perfect this week.