July 4, 2006

Virtual Book Club #6

Our summer is over in six weeks, and I haven’t provided you with any summer reading recommendations. Let me remedy that as quickly as possible! For those of you who want to look at our previous book club meetings, click here and you can read the 5th meeting. That column provides links to the previous meetings as well. Don’t forget to read the comments! Readers have given me some fabulous titles.

In fact, one author I kept hearing about ad nauseum from many of you was Jodi Picoult. I decided that not all of you could be wrong, so I went to the bookstore and stood in front of the shelf containing her many books and read one jacket after the other. It was immediately apparent that no matter which one I picked, I wasn’t going to be in for a light read, because Picoult tackles hard, up-to-date subjects.

I chose The Pact. I’m snobby about books, and the packaging of this one was downright embarrassing. Across the top the cover blared: “The Basis for the Lifetime Original Movie.” That was a definite minus, not a plus, for me. A boy and a girl were shown sitting on a wall, from the back, and beside them in ooey-gooey cursive was written “a love story.”

Readers, the fact that I bought the book at all is a testament to my devotion to you and trust in your opinions. Let me say– I could not put the book down. It involves teenage lovers, a shooting, and a trial, and it was well-written and fast-paced. I did think the premise of the couple’s longtime devotion was a bit unbelievable, but it was well-worth suspending that disbelief to enjoy the story. Those of you with teenagers may wish to choose another of her books, which is sure to tackle an equally disturbing topic.

Last summer I read a lot about the Mormons, and you can read about those books in previous book club posts. Now I’ve moved on to the Jews. Chaim Potok’s The Chosen is a story of two Jewish boys growing up in Brooklyn in the 1940’s. Anyone who is not Jewish would think that they are both pretty hardcore Jews, but in fact one is Hasidic and one is Orthodox and the differences in their beliefs and cultures is discussed, but not in a way that is hard to digest. The focus of the book is the boys’ friendship and their relationships with their respective fathers.

It is a lovely story even if you put the religion aside. However, I learned a great deal about Jewish customs, although I did not ever find out if there is a certain tool, like a curling iron or something, that is used to make the curly earlocks worn by some Jewish men.

For those with a hankering for some historical fiction, Geraldine Brooks’s Year of Wonders tells the story of the way the plague affected a small English village in 1666. The town chooses to quarantine itself to prevent the plague from spreading, and the novel explores the way the villagers react when faced with harsh circumstances. The book has everything– grisly deaths, moral lessons and a little romance. To be about such an unpleasant subject it was an entertaining read.

The Civil War is huge where I live, but I’ve never gotten into it too much, frankly. I know that Atlanta burned and that Robert E. Lee was the big guy for the South, but I’ve never been one to wallow in war stories about any war. In an attempt to gain a little understanding about war, I read The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara. The novel won a Pulitzer Prize and according to General Norman Schwarzkopf, it is “The best and most realistic historical novel about war I have ever read.”

I was underwhelmed. I had trouble keeping up with all the characters, and the main thing I learned is that these soldiers spent a lot of time sitting around waiting for things to happen. I always thought soldiers would get on opposite sides of a battlefield and start shooting, but apparently they line up and sit around and look at each other through binoculars and think about their choices and see who’s tired and who’s low on potatoes.

Don’t let me keep you from reading the book, however. Other people have raved about it, so maybe I’m just not the target audience.

Those books aren’t MINDLESS BEACH READS and I know you need some. I don’t read that many detective novels, because in general I find that they are poorly written and I get so frustrated by the split infinitives and hokey dialogue that I completely lose interest in the dead body.

Michael Connelly is a notable exception. He’s a good writer with exciting plots. I particularly like the The Harry Bosch Novels. If you’re Type A like I am, you should read them in the order they were written because there’s enough of a back story that you’ll get excited when there’s a reference to something that happened earlier in another book. Then again, it’s not that big a deal. If there’s only one book left at the library, grab it and enjoy it. He also writes thrillers with other characters that are good.

Next up on my reading list are a couple of books from the New York Times Book Review’s List of the Best Fiction of the Last 25 Years: Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried and Portnoy’s Complaint by Philip Roth. I’ve also got True Confessions by John Gregory Dunne for no good reason other than it caught my eye.

Happy reading, and let me know what you’re enjoying, or not!

January 8, 2006

Virtual Book Club #5

In early October as I was finishing up my entry for Virtual Book Club #4, I re-read the passage where I reviewed The American Way of Death Revisited, and it occurred to me that my mom might not appreciate me telling the whole Internet that she had kept her father’s cremated remains in her laundry room for over a decade. So as I left to pick up carpool on the afternoon of October 6, I called her and told her that I had referenced that fact, and asked if she minded if I published it.

“Of course not,” she said, to my great relief. And then she laughed. “But you were sweet to ask.”

I had no way of knowing that in twenty days she would be dead.

Her remark has taken on a special significance to me. As the weeks have passed since her sudden death, I have played this conversation (is it long enough to qualify as a conversation?) over and over in my mind, because it’s the only memory I have where I can remember exactly what she said and the precise way her voice sounded. My other memories of her are fuzzier, so I have a sense of them, but not the ability to recreate them in my mind.

I bring this up because I recently finished The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion. The book chronicles the year after her husband’s sudden death from a heart attack, a year in which their only daughter was seriously ill as well.

The book has made a number of Top Ten lists, and deservedly so. Didion describes her irrational feelings– that if she acted in a certain way, her husband might come back, for example. While the book has gotten great reviews, I cannot help wondering whether it speaks more clearly to those of us who have experienced the sudden death of a loved one. My copy is now underlined and tabbed with multiple Post-its, because so much of what Didion relates applies to my own life during the last ten weeks.

As Joan Didion writes, it’s not the moment of death and the funeral that are so hard to bear, it’s the weeks after, when you wake up each morning to a new reality that shocks you to the core. It’s when you can’t get the last days of her life out of your mind; trying to pin down exactly when she seemed tired, and what did we say the night before surgery, and how did it all happen so fast. It’s finding lists in her handwriting, lists that were made while she was alive, and realizing that now she’s not, and everything she’ll ever scribble down in her unorganized manner has already been written.

It’s having a question that only she can answer: “Where is the silver chafing dish; I need it for the Hot Crab Dip for Christmas?” and realizing that she can’t answer you, ever, and so the dish is not found. And it’s the “magical thinking” that defies reason: in my case, going to my parents’ empty house and truly believing that if I called her– “Mom?”– she’d come out of her bedroom smiling, with her hair still wet from the shower. I tried it. She didn’t.

Bill read the book after I did. He says that if he had read it at some other time and place before my mother’s death, he probably would have written off Joan Didion as a nutcase. However, because he’s been watching me act equally wacky, he could see that what she wrote in fact described someone working her way through unbearable grief, grief that you can’t imagine if you haven’t been there and seen the way it plays with your psyche. I’d be interested to know whether any of you have read the book, and whether it struck you as merely an interesting story, or whether it hit you on a deeper level.

In reading the Top Ten lists, I noticed that two other books I read this year got good reviews: Saturday and Never Let Me Go. I read the former at MetroDad’s suggestion, but I did not enjoy it as much as I enjoyed McEwan’s previous book, Atonement. I loved Never Let Me Go, which I reviewed in Virtual Book Club #2 if you want to check it out.

I am happy to announce that I have read another book that fits in the category Dusty Books That I Should Have Read But Have Not. I know everyone else read this years ago, but I finally managed to read Memoirs of a Geisha. I loved it. I don’t know why I could never get into it before, but once again, this experience proves that sometimes good books take a couple of tries (maybe even decades apart) to fully appreciate. I saw the review for the movie twice, and maybe unconsciously I was afraid someone would drag me to the movie before I had read the book. I am adamantly, snobbishly opposed to seeing a movie without reading the book first, so perhaps that was the underlying impetus causing me to finish it in two days. It was a vivid, exotic story full of information about Japan and the life of a geisha.

If you’ve missed the past book reviews, you can read Virtual Book Club #1, VBC #2, VBC #3,  and VBC #4 so you’ll know what’s going on.  Feel free to comment on old book club posts or this one; I’m always hungry for new books to read.

October 6, 2005

Virtual Book Club #4

It’s been a while since we’ve had a virtual book club meeting. I’ve been on a non-fiction kick, which is unusual for me.

When my grandmother died, I accompanied my mother to the funeral
home to deal with the particulars of a small service and a modest
container for the ashes. The paperwork contained all sorts of charges,
and the lawyer in me could not resist interrogating the funeral director
about the precise nature of each one.

The director did not enjoy answering these questions. He did spend a lot of time inquiring into our business, like what we planned to do with my grandmother after the cremation. He did not find it particularly amusing to learn that my mother
intended to store my grandmother in the laundry room with my grandfather,
who had died eleven years earlier. He tried desperately to offer us alternatives, most of which involved his charging my mother a monthly fee to keep the ashes somewhere, when she had already proven to herself that they could coexist peacefully with the Tide for free.

In light of this experience, The American Way of Death Revisited by Jessica Mitford was full of information. Mitford is a wonderful writer. The chapter about embalming has been included in textbooks as an example of fine, witty prose. The book examines all aspects of American funerals, especially the ways in which the funeral parlors maximize profits by preying on bereaved families.

This book is an updated edition of a previous book, which apparently got all the funeral directors in America riled up at Mitford. She clearly enjoyed educating Americans about their rights, and bore the mortuary industry’s wrath with good humor.

By the time I finished the book, I had reminded Bill several times that I would like all of my useable body parts donated to science and the rest cremated. I’ve also put the book in his reading pile. I think it’s a must read. Everyone will have to deal with this industry sooner or later. It’s best to read and learn about it now and be amused than wait until you’re weepy and desperate.

It’s rare that Bill and I read the same books, mainly because he doesn’t read many outside of work. We’ve been trying to change that, and Jon Krakauer has been the key to our success. Bill and I both enjoyed his adventure books,

Into Thin Air : A Personal Account of the Mt. Everest Disaster and Into the Wild. The latter book is about Chris McCandless, who wanted to live on his own in the wild. He severed ties with his family and moved west, and eventually ended up in Alaska, where he died. Krakauer traces his journey and interviews the people he met during his travels.

The book reveals a huge difference in the way Chris was perceived by his friends in the west and by his family and friends back home. In particular, he had a difficult relationship with his father. While the book is interesting on the surface as an adventure story, it was equally absorbing to us as parents, and as Chris’s contemporaries. Bill in particular was touched by the fact that the family cooperated with Krakauer to make the story complete, although it doing so revealed trouble within the family.

After I’d read two Krakauer books, I decided to read his last one so I could check him off my list. That’s the only reason I read Under the Banner of Heaven : A Story of Violent Faith. It was a fabulous book - I couldn’t put it down. It was different from Krakauer’s other two books in that it focuses on a murder committed by Mormon fundamentalists, not an outdoor adventure. Krakauer originally went to investigate the murder, but got so caught up in things that he ended up writing a book that traces the entire history of the Mormon religion. However, he makes every development seem exciting, not dry.

While I was on the subject of Mormons, I read Leaving the Saints : How I Lost the Mormons and Found My Faith by Martha Beck, a book recommended by a friend. Beck grew up in a family headed by a man who was a well-known Mormon apologist. The most interesting parts of the book to me were those where she explained what life is like as a Mormon– the schooling, the clothing, the sacraments.

Of course, as you can tell, neither book would be the book to read if you’re actually thinking about becoming a Mormon. Krakauer focuses much of his tale on the more “colorful” Mormons, and Beck is no longer a member of the faith, for reasons I will let you discover. But if you want to learn a little about Mormonism while reading a good story, each of these books meets that requirement.

Both books drew a lot of press, from Mormons defending their faith, from ex-Mormons agreeing with one author or the other, and so forth. You can see some of this dialogue when you read the reviews of the books. What I found most appealing about the books, however, was that reading them forces you to think about the concept of faith, what you believe, and why you believe it.

One of the books on the bestseller lists these days is Freakonomics : A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything by Steven Levitt. Bill’s favorite section was “How is the Ku Klux Klan Like a Group of Real-Estate Agents” (hint: he could have compared the KKK to funeral directors.) I thought the chapter that identified the “blackest” and “whitest” names, and what parents are trying to say by picking a particular name, was fascinating. Those who enjoyed The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference will probably enjoy this book.

Bill is going away for a couple of days and I set out several books for him to take: The Alienist; (it wouldn’t be a vacation without it!);
The 9/11 Commission Report;

Angels & Demons;

Howard Hughes: The Untold Story; and

A Civil Action.

I’ll let you know how his reading goes.

Some of you may just now be getting in on the book club action. You can read past reviews (including reviews of many of the books Bill is thinking about reading) at the first meeting, the second meeting, and the third meeting.
As always, I welcome your suggestions as well.

August 14, 2005

Virtual Book Club Meeting #3

Welcome! Thanks to Sandra for bringing such delicious appetizers. Be careful not to spill them on your keyboard.

This promises to be a stimulating and controversial meeting. Today I’m going to try to stay away from the traditional “book club books” like The Kite Runner and The Time Traveler’s Wife in favor of some books that are not on everyone’s must read list.

First, a little feedback. You will recall that last month I oohed and aahed over Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro. The Voice of Reason took it on our beach trip and was underwhelmed. I’m not sure she gave it the full attention it deserved, as she was also knitting a fuzzy purple poncho for her youngest daughter and worrying about my tooth fairy ineptitude.  Fortunately, I found a fellow book lover in MetroDad, who wrote: “Strange departure from his previous works but beautifully written. Pick any paragraph or sentence out of the book and marvel at how well it’s crafted.”

Happily, the Voice did like another of my recommendations: Confessions of a Master Jewel Thief by Bill Mason. It’s a true story written by a man who stole jewels from the rich and famous. He tells of his adventures, including the painstaking research and preparation each heist required. It was a fun, quick read.

While we’re on the topic of crime, here’s one from the past. I recently re-read Helter Skelter: The True Story of the Manson Murders, which is a gripping story about a famous crime, a tenacious investigation, and a lengthy trial. Vincent Bugliosi, the prosecutor, convicted Manson and his followers of the grisly murders, despite the fact that Manson himself was not even present during the killings of Sharon Tate and her friends. People tend to forget that now; at the time it was an overwhelming obstacle to convicting Manson for his role. It has a little something for everyone: the culture of the late 60’s, bungled police work, famous characters, and good lawyering.

After I finished that book, I checked around to see what else Bugliosi had written. Like most everyone else in the world, he has weighed in on the O.J. Simpson case in Outrage : The Five Reasons Why O.J. Simpson Got Away With Murder. The book is most interesting when Bugliosi addresses a certain piece of evidence, such as the blood drops, reviews the arguments Marcia Clark and Chris Darden made when prosecuting the case, and then in bold type sets forth the way he would have argued the same evidence. No one would accuse him of being modest, and the book is a little long, but it is fascinating to see the way he creates persuasive jury arguments. The closing argument he would have given in the case likely would have resulted in a different outcome.

I asked for The 9/11 Commission Report: Final Report of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States for Christmas, and devoured it. Although it’s a government report, it’s beautifully written. It starts out with a description of the events of 9/11 (”Tuesday, September 11, 2001, dawned temperate and nearly cloudless in the eastern United States….”) then goes back and traces the history of Al-Quaeda and the way America dealt with Al-Quaeda before 9/11. The report also analyzes the country’s response to 9/11 and makes proposals for reorganizing the government to better address the current threats we face. I guarantee you it’s the most interesting government report you’ll ever read!

On a completely different note, I have been hearing a lot about the Christian writer Francine Rivers and her book Redeeming Love. I read it and disliked it immensely. It’s the story of Hosea retold in the setting of the California Gold Rush. The harlot is subtly named “Angel.” It goes downhill from there. This book is different from The Red Tent or The Preservationist in that those books are historical fiction, while Redeeming Love is meant to be inspirational fiction. It didn’t inspire me to do anything but take a nap.

I’ll be sticking to the Bible for Christian inspiration. Now, if you want to read a bodice ripper about a harlot named Sugar, you should read The Crimson Petal and the White by Michael Faber. It is set in London in the late 1800’s and is crammed full of interesting characters. If nothing else, it will inspire you to keep your day job. I loved it.

I have run across two other books with a spiritual theme.

Blue Like Jazz: Nonreligious Thoughts on Christian Spirituality is a series of essays on Christianity, so it makes for good bedtime reading. (It doesn’t put you to sleep, but you can read a short piece and then have something to think about all night.)

Girl Meets God : A Memoir is about a girl who converts to Orthodox Judaism and practices it very seriously for years. She describes in detail many aspects of Judaism, especially the parts of the religion that are very dear to her. Later, with equal vigor, she converts to Christianity. The author is not a serial converter; she is someone who takes her spiritual life quite seriously. She packs more information about both religions into one book than I have been exposed to in a lifetime.

READER RECOMMENDATIONS

You have been wonderful about sharing your favorite books. Here are some books my readers have recently enjoyed.

Machine Dreams, Life of Pi, and Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant are books that members liked that I can personally vouch for. MetroDad also mentioned Atonement which is one of my favorites. He says Ian McEwan’s followup novel, Saturday, is even better. Because we thought alike on Ishiguro, I’m going to give it a try.

One of my friends recommended Middlesex. Middlesex is like The Kite Runner– don’t focus on what the reviews and the jacket say it’s about; just read it. At heart it’s a rollicking story about a Greek family. I read it over an enjoyable weekend.

On the non-fiction side, a new member says that the story of the Enron collapse, Conspiracy of Fools : A True Story is a captivating book.

Thanks to SMA for reminding me what irritated me so much about The Other Boleyn Girl. D’you know, after you gave me that hint, it came right back to me!

Happy reading, and keep the feedback rolling in….

Anne Glamore

July 20, 2005

Virtual Book Club Meeting #2

Welcome back to the Virtual Book Club! Have a seat in my spotless virtual living room and settle in for some thoughts on more books. If you missed our first meeting, please click here and see what you missed.

Does everyone have some munchies and a beverage? Good! Then we’re ready.

1. Enthusiastic Recommendation

Am I living in a cultural wasteland? Has no one discovered Never Let Me Go** by Kazuo Ishiguro?

I picked it up on the new releases shelf at the local library and finished it in two days. It was stunningly beautiful and I cannot figure out why it’s not on the “reserve” list with a long wait. It is one of the best books I have read in a long time.

**Important

I do NOT think you should click the link to the book– just go get it and read it. If you MUST click the link, read only the Amazon.com review, but STOP before you get to the Publisher’s Weekly review, because it will spoil everything for you.

This is the author who wrote The Remains of the Day. If you read it, please let me know what you thought!

2. Divided Thoughts on Bees

Even though I never mentioned The Secret Life of Bees during the last meeting, a number of readers wrote in to talk about it. Two readers loved it and four hated it with a passion. I am pretty neutral on the book myself.

3. Readers on My Wavelength

As I said at the first meeting, I have barely scraped the surface of my list of beloved books. However, a number of readers chimed in to recommend books that I really love, and I will list them here:

The Red Tent by Anita Diamant, which tells the story of Jacob and his wives.

(I also loved a quick read: The Preservationist by David Maine, which fills in the details of Noah’s family as they build the ark and ride out the flood. It’s a kick to listen to his daughters-in-law question his sanity!)

The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger. It took me a while to figure out how the book worked and to grasp the way the past, present and future were presented in the context of this love story. It is extremely hard to describe to other people. A local columnist here in town found the book creepy, because the main character meets her husband at different times in both their lives (she might be 6, while he is 36, for that moment at least) but I thought it was delightful. And if you did not understand the last sentence, well, that just illustrates my point that you have to read the book for yourself to understand it.

One reader mentioned several books that I love: Crossing to Safety by Wallace Stegner, anything by Anne Lamott ( I am partial to Operating Instructions, which I plugged at the last meeting, but I also enjoyed her latest, Plan B: Further Thoughts on Faith) and The Annunciation by Ellen Gilchrist. My sisters and I are all big fans of Ellen Gilchrist.

I must say that Crossing to Safety made me a little uneasy, however. I think I saw a little too much of myself in Charity when I read this in the mid-90’s. Maybe I should re-read it and see if I compare more favorably now.

Someone pointed out that Anna Quindlen is always good (she suggested Loud and Clear).

4. Historical and Historical-ish Books

I recently read the biography of Benjamin Franklin by Walter Isaacson and found it very interesting. I am eying 1776 by David McCullough for my next foray into history. Anyone have an opinion on it?

As for historical-ish books, I am sure everyone has heard of the following books, but some are great and if you missed them, you should check them out:

The Josephine Bonaparte Collection: The Many Lives and Secret Sorrows of Josephine B., Tales of Passion, Tales of Woe, and The Last Great Dance on Earth by Sandra Gulland (for an extra helping of history, when you finish them you can re-read Desiree by Annemarie Selinko and get the story from another point of view - just don’t confuse this Desiree (Josephine’s sister-in-law?) with Josephine’s Aunt Desiree who is a main character in the trilogy.

Girl with a Pearl Earring by Tracy Chevalier

Lots of people liked The Other Boleyn Girl by Philippa Gregory, and I wanted to like it, because I am all about Elizabethan history. The story was good, but there was something the author kept having the characters say that got on my nerves so bad I could hardly make it through the book. I lent the book to my mom so I cannot remember what it was, which is just as well, because I would hate to spoil your enjoyment of the book by revealing what is probably a personal idiosyncrasy on my part.

5. Alienist Update

Bill did pack The Alienist and took it on our recent trip out west. This time he did not even open it. The streak is intact!

6. It’s Growing Late

Is that your husband calling again, asking when you are coming home? The meeting has run on a while, so I must politely collect your beer cans and wine glasses and usher you out of the house. I’ll save my other comments for the next meeting.

I hope Lewis Perdue will drop by again, this time to talk about his book Slatewiper. I did read it, at his suggestion, but I still enjoyed Daughter of God much more. This is a good book to take to the beach.

TTFN,

Anne Glamore, Virtual Book Club Queen