Oh Yes I Did

I know I haven't posted here in a while, but just to let you know. I completed my Cannonball Read (or the half Cannonball Read that I signed up for). I plan to copy my reviews over here for old time's sake, but for now, if you are the least bit interested, I have my reviews up on the CBR site.

What I learned ...

• Writing the reviews is harder for me than reading the books.
• I need to read the books I have at home before I buy new ones.
• My favorite book was probably The Virgin Suicides and my least favorite, sorry, The Great Gatsby. (It probably wasn't the one I liked the least as much as the one I was most disappointed in.)

But, as they say, onward and upward. I plan to try a half Cannonball again this year.

Book 17: The Little Way of Ruthie Leming: A Southern Girl, a Small Town, and the Secret of a Good Life by Rod Dreher

(This review contains spoilers.)

I have to admit I didn't read this book, I listened to the audio book while driving to pick up my son from sleepaway camp. I'm typically not a fan of audio books, mostly because I find it harder to carve out the time to listen to a book, but in this case, I think the audio book only enhanced the novel. My version was read by the author, Rod Dreher, who has a tendency to fall into a Loo-C-Anna dialect now and then.

At its heart, The Little Way of Ruthie Leming documents the life of Ruthie, Dreher's sister, before and after she is stricken with lung cancer. While Dreher left his hometown of St. Francisville, Louisiana, during high school, his sister Ruthie married her high school sweetheart, taught at a local high school, built a home across the street from her parents and raised a family there. With her diagnosis of cancer comes an outpouring of love and support, a showing Dreher laments he wouldn't find anywhere but home. He left home to find personal, professional and spiritual fulfillment, but his search has left him largely empty. He frequently changes jobs and locales, converts to Catholicism and then to Orthodoxy, and struggles with a God who would allow cancer to happen to his beloved sister.

As you can expect the novel is heartbreaking. I found myself in tears more than once. It's also inspirational; it is likely it will make you stop to appreciate your family and rethink your priorities.

Or you might think it is overwrought. While even the most hardened reader will be moved by Ruthie and her struggle with cancer, a great deal of the book - more than I expected - details Rod's struggle with his spirituality after Ruthie passes. If you're not one for philosophizing and proselytizing, this won't be your cup of sweet tea.

Book 16: The Shining Girls by Lauren Beukes

The Shining Girls is about a time-traveling serial killer. For a reason that really isn’t explained, Harper Curtis is tasked with traveling through time to kill ‘shining girls’ or girls who have great potential. The book jumps from present to past and back again as Harper meets, stalks and kills his victims.

Kirby Mazrachi is the only woman who survives a gruesome attack by Harper. The great potential Kirby promised as a young girl (Harper often meets his victims as girls or young women to give them a token and tell them he’ll come back for them in the future) may have been squashed but now she is determined to find Harper.

Kirby gets an internship at the Chicago Sun-Times and persuades sports reporter Dan Velasquez to help her. Velasquez covered Kirby’s case years ago but moved to the sports beat after years as a crime reporter left him jaded.

As with any time travel book it can be difficult to keep track of Harper’s travels. Since he meets the girls multiple times in their lives I had to flip back and forth a bit to keep track of everyone. The concept is interesting and the story is compelling but it is also extremely violent – think what you will about the fact that all the victims are women, all are intelligent or compassionate or promising, most are also ethnic.

For me, this book suffers for two major reasons. Firstly, there are a number of clichés. Of course there is a simmering romance between Kirby and Dan. Of course Kirby, an inexperienced reporter, is able to track down a serial killer that no experienced professional could find. Of course, there is a vague ending that could lead to a sequel.

Secondly, the book tries to be a science-fiction/horror/mystery and each genre ends up diluted. Add to that some extremely graphic, misogynistic attacks, a couple implausible plot points and a silly, climactic snowball fight and the result is disappointing.

Book 15: The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman

(Just a note: I haven't stopped reading, just slowed down on posting the reviews. I may have to motor the next couple of months, but I'm still on track to finish 26 books by December 31, 2013.)

I think the word 'meh' is overused, but if someone asked me what I thought of this book, I would say shrug my shoulders and say 'meh.' I hate to say that about Neil Gaiman. And I really hate to say that about a Neil Gaiman book that received so many awards and accolades.

Like many of his books, The Graveyard Book combines elements of fantasy, horror and the supernatural. The premise is clever; a young boy is orphaned as a baby and raised by ghosts in a nearby graveyard. His foster parents name him Nobody Owens or Bod. They could've named him Anybody Owens, because, despite his upbringing, Bod is like any other kid. He is curious, introverted, bullied, love struck and eventually longs for a life beyond the graveyard. For me, the best parts of the book dealt with Bod simply as a boy navigating adolescence.

But there are parallel stories of ghosts and shifters and supernatural tokens and a secret society of killers led by 'the man Jack.' All these elements may have added pages to the story but I don't think they always complemented it.

Sometimes if I don't like a book I dismiss the author altogether. After this book I'm not dismissing Gaiman. I still hope to be a fan. This just wasn't the book that did it.

Book 14: Election by Tom Perrotta

I’m ambivalent about this book. On one hand, it was an easy read, the story is original, the writing is clever. On the other hand, it didn’t leave much of an impression. I saw the movie years ago, and in many places throughout the book I found myself thinking about the movie to supplement what was missing.

The book is written as a series of journal-like entries from the main characters. While this style gives different perspectives on the central event in the book – a high school presidential election – too often the entries blended into each other. And some entries were so short there wasn’t enough to them to really fill out each character. That’s where I kept retreating to the movie.

The story revolves around the presidential election at Winwood High. Mr. McAllister is a well-liked, passionate teacher who oversees the election. Tracy Flick is the ambitious overachiever who wants to be president because she truly believes she is superior to the other students and candidates but also because she wants to pad her resume. Paul Warren is the likable jock who runs against her at Mr. M’s recommendation. Paul’s campaign manager is Lisa Flanagan. Lisa had a secret, short-lived affair with Tammy Warren, Paul’s sister, who is also running for president.

There are other story lines that give some depth to the characters. Mr. M is having marital trouble, Tracy is rebounding from an affair with a teacher, Paul and Lisa are mixing business with pleasure. But the crux of the story is the election and the lengths the characters will go to to win or see that someone else doesn’t.

As with any movie adaptation there are differences in the book. In the movie Tracy is portrayed as slightly more villainous. In the book she’s precocious and insecure, a little more pitiable. Of course, the ending is also different, and I suppose the ending you prefer is directly related to how you feel about Tracy and Mr. McAllister.

I wouldn’t dissuade anyone from reading it, but for me it was just too slight to leave much of an impression.

Book 13: Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe

I hadn't heard of Chinua Achebe until his death in March. I'd seen Things Fall Apart in the bookstore but didn't realize its significance until I read his obituary. Not only is it one of the most widely read books in African literature, it is considered "the archetypal modern African novel" and is a staple around the world.

The novel follows the life of Okonkwo, an Ibo leader in pre-Colonial Nigeria. Okonkwo is respected because of his strength and his reputation as a wrestler, but his life has been marred by anger. Okonkwo has "no patience with unsuccessful men." He seems to be a strict follower of his village's customs, but his extreme intolerance of inaction and what he sees as cowardice ultimately leads to his downfall.

The title of the book comes from a Yeats' poem that says "Things fall apart, the center cannot hold, Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world." In the novel several things fall apart - Okonkwo's family, his village, Nigeria - due to fear, anger, tradition, British colonialism and Christian missionaries.

Toward the end of the book one of the white authorities says, "one of the most infuriating habits of these people was their love of superfluous words." I found this interesting because there is nothing superfluous about the book. It's a beautiful, sad, evocative story - part Greek tragedy, part cautionary tale, part historical fiction. I read the book, but I think it would be even more affecting to listen to the audio book, where you hear the correct pronunciations and intonations, but also because so much of this book relies on oral traditions of the Igbo people on whom this was based.

I bought my copy of Things Fall Apart at my local used bookstore. Inside was an inscription from Mrs. Bernstein to Marc. "This is a book I read in college, and I still consider it one of the greatest books I have ever read. That is why I wanted you to have a copy. You may be a little too young for it now but one day, when you have nothing to do in Texas, maybe you'll pick it up."

I hope Marc took Mrs. Bernstein's advice and read the book.

Book 12: Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel

I saw the movie "Like Water for Chocolate" years ago, so I knew the story before reading the book. Even so, I was surprised at how much I enjoyed the book.

The novel takes place in Mexico during the Mexican Revolution. It is divided into 12 chapters, each representing a month, a recipe and a significant event in the life of Tita, the youngest daughter of Mama Elena De la Garza. Mama Elena is like a Disney villainess - hypocritical, sadistic, abusive and vain. According to tradition Tita cannot marry but must take care of Mama Elena. For generations no one questioned the tradition but then Tita meets Pedro, and he announces his intent to marry her. 

Of course Mama Elena denies Pedro. Instead she offers her other daughter Rosaura, and Pedro accepts, if only to remain physically close to Tita. The rest of the novel rotates around the emotional love affair between Tita and Pedro, and their attempts to be together despite Rosaura, Pedro's children, Mama Elena and the revolution that occasionally interrupts their lives.

But the thing that brings everyone in this novel together and ties all the stories together is food. The author uses the pleasures of food, meal preparation and eating a meal as a metaphor for love and life and passion. Tita was literally born in the kitchen so she has always been "wrapped up in the delights of food." She finds comfort, inspiration, refuge and confidence in the kitchen. And through her cooking she is able to affect her family, her surroundings and her fate. Rosaura lacks Tita's passion for cooking; her life and her relationship with Pedro is bland and unappealing.

With Like Water for Chocolate Laura Esquivel has created a unique story that is appealing on many levels. It is a love story, a fairy tale and a cookbook. The relationship between Pedro and Tita is sad and sincere and intense. The descriptions of the food and the meals are lush and sensual. And the magical elements of the story - the potions and home remedies and old wives' tales - add to the story's appeal.

Book 11: Ladies and Gentlemen, the Bible! by Jonathan Goldstein

Anyone who has been to Sunday school will recognize the stories in Jonathan Goldstein's Ladies and Gentlemen, the Bible! Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel, Noah, Samson and Delilah - all the Bible's greatest hits are covered.

But rather than retell each familiar story, Goldstein embellishes them with humanity and humor. In Goldstein's depiction, Adam was a dullard who couldn't arouse any interest from Eve, and God "feared for Adam's broken heart as though the whole universe depended on it." Cain was jealous of his carefree brother and resentful of his parents "as though they had gambled away his inheritance." Grumpy "old-school" Noah saw the value of hard work and craftsmanship and feared his children, members of the 'pre-flood generation," would end up "eating daisies and making out with dolphins."

In the final chapter called "My Troubles (A Work in Progress by Joseph of N -), Joseph is depicted as a somewhat jealous boyfriend who realizes "it's flattering to think that your girl-friend is good enough for God" but still feels like "your garden-variety guy who's been cheated on. Sure, you've been cheated on with the Lord, but still."

I personally found the book to be clever and poignant and respectful of the source material. You may not want to give a copy to your devout mother-in-law but it's definitely good as an amusing and provocative retelling of the familiar Bible stories that over the years have become rote.