A Four-In-One

Before you get all super impressed with me that I am writing a blog post just three and a half weeks after having a baby, let me tell you three things:

1) I have the easiest kids ever. Sorry. It's true. (At least until they hit six; then they get mouthy.)
2) I really love writing of any kind, and this is way easier than working on a novel.
3) This one-sided conversation will be one of the longest adult convos I've had in about a month.

And if you weren't super impressed with me...maybe you should be just a tiny bit.

So here goes, four books worth of what's been rattling around in my head.

Apples and Oranges: My Brother and Me, Lost and Found

Memoir by Marie Brenner

I did a report on apples in elementary school. I learned about buds and branches and varieties and seasons, at a fourth grade level of understanding. This book is part continued apple research, part Psychology Today article, part family drama. The author is writing about her relationship with her brother after having been semi-estranged from him and then reuniting to help him as he fights cancer. They grew up in Texas, she lives in New York, and he lives in good old Wenatchee,Washington (my home town, FYI,  in case I have any readers who aren't related to me). For me this book was a little dichotomous. There are too many story lines as she jumps around in their family history, her time in their three homes and on trips together, and in her feelings about her strange brother. She's also fairly critical of Wenatchee, over-using the words "apple country" and emphasizing the cheesiness of the hotel wall paper and frumpiness of the women's clothing. Interesting story but not my favorite memoir by far.

The Island
Novel by Elin Hilderbrand

This is the book I was waiting for. Two months ago. This would have been PERFECT to read while on vacation at the lake. It was pure pulp. The characters are rich and skinny and they drink crisp cold white wines and their romances all work out, eventually. The story is simple: a fifty something mother takes her two twenty something daughters and her fifty something sister back to the remote island where they summered all their lives but haven't been in 15 years, hoping to reconnect after various personal tragedies. It's full of beautiful people with posh names and only semi-serious problems. I ate it up like the many bowls of ice cream I've consumed this summer. It's a total no brainer and boy, did I need that.

The Light Between Oceans

Novel by M.L. Stedman

I thought this was going to be a metaphorical light, and in many ways it is, but it's also an actual, physical light house. In Australia. Just after World War I. The lighthouse keeper and his wife steal a baby (no plot spoiler there, it says so on the back cover) when a rowboat washes up on their tiny island, containing the baby and a dead man. The story tells their sweet and heartbreaking background, and the sweet and heartbreaking aftermath of the baby stealing. It has beautiful imagery and an engaging plot, but I thought it was a little slow moving at times. I'm just glad it wasn't called "The Lighthouse Keeper's Wife." Enough with the wife stories.

Tiny Beautiful Things: Advice on Life and Love from Dear Sugar
Compilation of Advice Letters by Cheryl Strayed

I have to admit I only read about a third of this book. It's a collection of advice columns, which sounds horrible but is really kind of fantastic because of the author. Cheryl Strayed wrote "Wild: Lost and Found on the Pacific Crest Trail" which I discussed here. Strayed writes the advice column for therumpus.net, a website by writers, and she brings her own distinct flavor to her advice. She is both tender and hard, saying essentially "Sorry, sweetie, but you need to just do what you know you need to do" to most of the advice seekers. And she adds her own vignettes to most of her advice, making it real and poignant. So why didn't I finish reading it? Well, the stories of the advice seekers were just so sad. And also, it gets a little old, reading small segments of an online magazine over and over. It's why I don't like short stories--they're just too darn short.

Next up, I'm almost done with "The Art of Hearing Heartbeats" by Jan-Philipp Sendker. It's intense; in book karma, it makes up for my gobbling up a pulpy beach read and quitting on another book and reading "The Monster Returns" to my two year old five times in one night (true story).

The Sinners and the Sea: The Untold Story of Noah's Wife

Biblical historical fiction

by Rebecca Kanner

I think I've mentioned before that genres seem to be getting both more and less specific. Knowing an incremental amount about publishing now, I think it has to do with the success and marketing of certain books. Here's a perfect example. I'm not sure if this book really qualifies even as historical fiction. I mean, it's the story of Noah's wife and so technically, it centers on a historical event and attributes fictional thoughts, motives, and dialogue to historical characters, but it's not as clear cut as, say, Ken Follett's Century Trilogy with dates and names and battles and such. On the other hand, adding the tagline biblical historical fiction is kind of making up a genre. Admittedly, I am the one calling it that, not the publishers, but it seems fitting and descriptive in that this book is very much like The Red Tent and I think tries to capitalize on that success.

All that said, I think it's a cool premise. Take an unnamed woman in a biblical story and make a whole novel about her.

It was hard not to compare to The Red Tent as I read and I don't think this is even close in quality of writing or story, but it was still compelling. Partway through the book I stopped and re-read Genesis Chapter 6 through whatever, about Noah and the flood, and realized his wife truly gets very little mention, as do his sons' wives, even though without them the point of the ark would be moot. The fleshing out of these women seems important after reading the biblical narrative, and while I didn't LOVE the characters like in TRT they are admirable and realistic. The women, that is. The men kind of suck.

And the same goes for the expansion of the story of the ark and flood and just plain biblical times. What gets a few chapters in the Bible is told in hundreds of pages here, so it's much more...fleshy. The dramatic and horrific sins of the people, the overzealous righteousness of Noah, the supposed giants living in the land and legends of them, the every day rigors of living in a tent and killing your own goats for meat. It's all there, sometimes in expected and what seems to me realistic and sometimes in unexpectedly dark or crass or just plain crazy descriptions and anecdotes. I didn't bother to read Kanner's acknowledgements at the end so I don't know how much research she did for the book and how much is imagination. I don't really care. It's her book and she can tell it how she wants, but man was some of that stuff crazy, like cannibalism and drunk children and fields of dead people.

The other part that was hard to separate from my mind as I read is a more postmodern reading of the Old Testament, truly paying attention to how wrathfully God is described and how it was apparently His will to kill everyone on Earth (or in the Middle East, depending on how literal you are reading). It's not the God I know and it's hard to understand. I had to remind myself that this was a fictional retelling and I can't really know what happened and that my faith is not based on only Old Testament crazy but New Testament love and redemption. Cause otherwise...yikes.

He's Gone

Novel by Deb Caletti

Have you ever been in a waiting room at the dentist or in line at the grocery store or any other place you thought you'd just be quietly alone and the person next to you suddenly tells you more about him or herself than you expected to hear? It's an odd moment, and for me it depends on my mood. Sometimes I feel it's touchingly human and other times I feel a little violated. Didn't want to know about your surgery or why you're mad at your spouse, but thanks. 

That's my feelings about the narrator in this book.

When I first started reading, I liked how she seems so human, so clear on every day thoughts, like how you have to wash cereal bowls right away or they are the worst to scrape out later, and how drinking coffee alone in the morning is its own little a miracle.

Then the crazy came out.

Granted, the story is about a woman who wakes up to find her husband missing and has only hazy memories of coming home from a party the night before, so that's enough to make you feel crazy right along with her. But as she spends the rest of the book trying to find out what's happened to him, you get the story of their affair together, divorces from their first spouses, and rocky marriage since then, along with all her guilt and battered woman syndrome and self doubt. It's well written but intense. Not the easy read I thought it would be from the cover. I guess I should have read the title and back cover better. Or just not judge a book by its...you know.

Death Comes to Pemberley

Fan Fiction/Murder Mystery

by P.D. James

What do you think about fan fiction? I find that I'm usually a little dismayed. I read it because I want to re-enter a world that originally enchanted me, in this case Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice. Once I'm there, though, no matter how good the writing or how close to my original vision of the characters the story stays, it's not the same. Duh, you say. It's not the same writer so it can't be the same. And I might even have the same problem with some sequels that ARE by the same writer. But still. Something lacks.

I have to admit, I have read seven, count them, SEVEN, fan fiction follow ups to Pride and Prejudice. It's one of my top all time favorite books, mini series, movies, love stories. I partially named my daughter after Elizabeth Bennett and would probably name our next child after Fitzwilliam Darcy if my husband would let me. The first three books I read comprised a very stately, Austen-worthy series from the point of view of Mr. Darcy during the same time period (Fitzwilliam Darcy, Gentleman by Pamela Aiden) and then another three that were much bawdier and followed up the story after the marriage (Pride and Prejudice Continues by Linda Berdoli), the third of which I reviewed here. I have yet to read Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, although my husband enjoyed it. Zombies scare me. Anyway, my view of this book may be tempered by the others, which I think I enjoyed more because they were more about Darcy and Elizabeth. This one is a murder mystery, plain and simple, in Austen's language.

All that said, I still chose to read this one over the NINE library books I have on my shelf right now. I just love Austen. The most satisfying part in this story was the ending, after you find out who the murderer is, as Elizabeth and Darcy are consoling each other and wrapping it all up. It gives the ending that Austen shorted us in the original P and P, the "Why did you think that?" and "I'm sorry I was such a bugger, but I loved you almost all along" conversation. The rest is just a plain murder mystery in Regency wrappings.

The Third Son

Novel by Julie Wu

I'm glad I do this for free and don't really have to think of much to say about this book to reach a word quota and earn my money. Actually, the money would be nice. However, this book was boring and I'd have to dig pretty deep to find thoughts to share. Here's the minimum:

The cover is pretty. The title is catchy. The premise is good. Neglected third son of a Taiwanese government official meets pretty girl during World War II air raid and then struggles to find her again and make good in life. Specifically, he goes to school in America and struggles to succeed as a scientist of some kind that I still don't really understand.

I think what I didn't like was the writing style and lack of any plot other than what I already described. Basically, the blurb writer did an excellent job selling the book on the inside cover, but the attraction ended there for me. The main character is kind of whiny and never really learns to let go of wanting his parents' approval or to trust himself. And while I like learning about other cultures, I think the writer assumes the reader will know more than I do about Taiwanese culture, which is heavily influenced by both the Chinese and Japanese. And the science totally lost me. Sorry, Ms. Wu. I don't get it.

Two surprises, a best bet, and a "meh"

It's that time again! That's right...vacation binge reading synopsis time! I have to get down and dirty when writing about the books I read while on vacation because there are so many. Wait, I'm a teacher, so haven't I been on vacation for a month now? Yes, but I mean a family vacation, at a lake, with grandparents and aunts and uncles who share the parenting load so I can binge on books and snacks. This year, being hugely with child, I slept more and read less than usual, which means for once I was the overpacker instead of my husband, having brought nine books and only read four. Here they are, in the order read, with random thoughts attached. Do with them what you will.

I Feel Bad About My Neck, a memoir by Nora Ephron

How have I never read Ephron before? She is HILARIOUS. You know about my love affair with Anne Lamott--Ephron is easily as funny and even more irreverent and self deprecating. For the first few vignettes in this collection of random thoughts on being a woman, I thought maybe I was reading this too young, that I wasn't going to be invested enough in the jokes on neck wattles and face creams. But she also ranges back to her time as a young mother and a struggling writer, both of which I totally get, and taking it all together provides a delicious slice of a woman's life. Totally readable.

The Thirteenth Tale, a novel by Diane Setterfield

I admit, this is a re-read. I found it at my grandma's house and thought it would be a good vacation book. It's an enthralling literary suspense (no, that is not an oxymoron) that I picked up at random a few years ago from the library and I wasn't fully prepared for how good it was or what genre it was or even what era it was taking place in (still a little unsure about that, actually), so I was confused for a good portion of the beginning and needed a refresher. It also has a "Sixth Sense" sort of twist that makes you want to reread and watch for clues the second time around. Highly recommend. The setting of a cold Yorkshire winter was a little incongruous with lounging around a lake, but a good book should take you out of your life, right?

The Next Best Thing, a novel by Jennifer Weiner

She's going downhill. That could be the title of a Jennifer Weiner book, now that I think of it. Her first few were so poignant (while still being total fun and fluff) but now that she's branching away from the fat-single-girl schtick, I think she's losing some steam. This one is about a physically scarred young woman (ok, not so far from fat single girl) who is trying to make it as a screen writer in Hollywood. Maybe I just didn't care enough about the situation. Struggling writers I get but in Hollywood? Nah. I'd skip this beach read and take another one by Diane Setterfield any day. I should check and see if she's written any more...

The Soldier's Wife, historical fiction by Margaret Leroy

This was a surprisingly great book. Even though I am morally opposed to any more books being published with the word "wife" in the title, I chose this one because it's set during the German occupation of the British Channel Island of Guernsey in World War II. That's where the fantastic book The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society takes place, which is a fabulous book of fictional letters and unexpected relationships. I wanted to go back to that world and this book did take me there, but with more melancholy than mirth (and a stupider title). Still, I would like to read more by Leroy and would have much more to say about this book if I hadn't prattled on so long already.

One of my favorite things about vacationing with my family is the book envy we all come away with. Since coming home I've started two books: another WWII novel from the library, this one set in Taiwan, and Tiny Beautiful Things, a collection of advice letters by Cheryl Strayed which my cousin was reading at the lake. I also plan to steal The Orchardist  and Maya's Notebook due to watching my mother read them with such pleasure. Oh, the joys of looking forward to a good book.

The Lacemakers of Glenmara

Novel by Heather Barbieri

Just today, I had made up my mind 100% totally and completely to stop blogging for a while. For one thing, I'm reading so many books that you all are probably sick of me. For another, I'm hugely pregnant and tired and really should be working on submitting my novel to more agents. But then I sat down after an exhausting 15 minutes of yard work and realized that nothing really makes me happy right now (except sleeping children and massages) so I may as well blog. And now I'm happy, sitting here, writing. So there you go. Welcome to my crazy.

Back to the real topic. Who asked for light summer reading? This is it, folks. This is as light as it gets. Look at the cover: the kelly green, the doily, the undetermined source of fuzzy light in the background...it's an American finding herself in Ireland and all the sweet and sappy that can possibly entail. The main character, whose name I already forgot, goes to Ireland for a break after her mother dies and her boyfriend leaves her. Sounds a little like Wild now that I think of it, but this character is a wee bit tidier emotionally than Cheryl Strayed. She stops in a village, misses a bus, and stays to learn to make lace from the old(er) women of the village, who each have their own background and tragedies they are exorcising through crochet. And of course, since it's a light read, there is some falling in love. There are some real issues addressed, like a struggling economy and spouse abuse and the slow modernization of the Catholic church, but those are the subplots. Mostly it's like a glass of sweet tea, which I don't drink, or a Weight Watchers ice cream bar. Enjoy in moderation or your mouth will pucker eventually.

Interestingly, this writer is from Seattle and so are the authors of three of the books I got at the library today in preparation for a vacation. Go Washingtonians! Make a name for us so I can get published soon. And by the way, I refused to do the awkward pregnant lady dance at the new release and book club shelves at the library. Instead, I pulled up a chair.