WHIRL Books

Happy Birthday, Edith Wharton!

2012-01-24T12:34:00.000-08:00

Today is the 150th anniversary of the birth of Edith Wharton. If you haven't yet discovered this classic author, you should give yourself an Edith Wharton birthday present today! I recommend:

Ethan Frome

The Custom of the Country

The Age of Innocence

You are in for a real treat!!!

Man Asian Literary Prize Shortlist Announced!

2012-01-12T08:23:00.000-08:00

Are you familiar with this literary prize? In an effort to widen my reading, geographically speaking, I have followed the Man Asian Literary Prize with interest. (It is sponsored by the same people who sponsor the Man Booker Prize, so sometimes this award is referred to as the Man Asian Booker Prize.) The shortlist for 2011 has just been announced, and the judges were evidently spoiled for choice. Instead of the usual five books chosen, there are seven. Here they are courtesy of the Man Asian Literary Prize website, which you can find here.

The Wandering Falcon by JAMIL AHMAD, Pakistan
Rebirth by JAHNAVI BARUA, India
The Sly Company of People Who Care RAHUL BHATTACHARYA, India
River of Smoke by AMITAV GHOSH, India
Please Look After Mom by KYUNG-SOOK SHIN, South Korea
Dream of Ding Village by YAN LIANKE, China
The Lake by BANANA YOSHIMOTO, Japan

Reading Is Fantastic for Your Mental Health!

2012-01-10T10:47:00.000-08:00

I've always said that at Literary Masters book groups and literary salons, we 'dig deep' into literary treasures, and each discussion is like an aerobics class for our brains! Now, medical research shows that reading, yes, reading is good for your mental health, and can reduce your stress level by 68%. How great is that?

Here's the article; read it and relax!

http://www.marieclaire.co.uk/news/health/314426/reading-cuts-stress-levels-by-68.html

Costa Prize Winners Announced!

2012-01-05T22:13:00.000-08:00

The winners of the Costa Prize have been announced! The Costa website doesn't seem to be updated as of this blog post, as you can see here, but you can read about the winners in this article.

I am very excited to read Pure by Andrew Miller! I'll let you know what I think of it once I've read it.

Hey, by the way, Happy 2012! What are your resolutions this year?

Should Your Book Club Read To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf?

2011-12-16T07:20:00.000-08:00

This is not an easy book. It is, however, a brilliant book. So, forgive my equivocation, but I think my answer to should your book club read To the Lighthouse depends upon...your book club. I will say that this book almost demands to be read with others so that you can talk about it and make sense of it.

To the Lighthouse was Literary Masters' December selection, and I found our discussions fascinating. Like a mirror held up to each individual reader, this book seemed to reflect unique and personal responses. Each LM member seemed to have a different interpretation of the parts, as well as the whole, of the story, much like the characters within had each an individual response to their lives. Thus, we readers were like the characters in the book, constructing our perception of reality through the prism of our own perspectives.

I could spend days here going over the themes of the book, and analyzing the imagery, and discussing the characters, and so on. And the thing is, I could spend each day looking at the above through a different lens: one day I could view the book through a historical context; one day I could do a Freudian reading, one day I could do a feminist reading, one day I could look at it through an existentialist lens, one day I could just analyze the symbolism, one day I could just analyze the colors...I think you get my point.

So what can your book club talk about if you read To the Lighthouse?

Many critics feel this book is highly autobiographical, so that may be a starting point for you if you are up for doing a little research. Even if you don't, though, you'll want to discuss the relationships in the book. Why does Mrs. Ramsey refuse to say 'I love you' to Mr. Ramsey? Whom does Lily love? What does Lily feel toward Mrs. Ramsey? What does James want?

Actually, that's a good place to start. What does each character desire? This may lead you to what I consider an overarching theme of the book, one of the main things this book is "about." And what does each character do with that desire? And what does that say about human nature?

Each reader in your book club may have a different answer to "what is this book about?" and each one may be right.

Talk about the significance time plays in the story. What is it saying about time? How do the characters feel about time? What is each character's relationship with time? Perhaps you could consider the most important thing in each character's life and go from there.

Talk about the imagery and symbolism. For example, what significance do windows hold? What about the lighthouse? Note all the gardens, trees, and other natural phenomenon and how they relate especially to Mrs. Ramsey. What is the significance of that? Talk about the house; many of my LM members felt that the house was a character in itself. What do the waves represent, if anything? Honestly, I could go on and on, but the above is probably enough to get your book club going.

This book is absolutely poetic and you may want to read passages just for the beauty of the language. You'll definitely want to talk about the unique structure: Virginia Woolf was a pioneer of 'stream of consciousness,' so you as reader will be inside the flowing thoughts of the characters. How does this affect you? And how does this form embed the themes of the book?

I highly recommend this book. It speaks to the reader on an individual level as well as speaking to us all on a universal level of things that are timeless. This is probably why it is on every list of "must read" books. It demands a little more work on the reader's part, but the rewards are well worth it.

Should Your Book Club Read A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan?

2011-11-27T13:59:00.000-08:00

A rather controversial choice--some members loved it and some did not--A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan was Literary Masters' selection for November, and the bottom line is: yes, this is an excellent choice for your book club, but you need to have a focused, disciplined discussion to get the most out of this very dense book. This blog post should help you.

One reason this book is so dense is its structure, and you'll want to explore that at some length. In an interview, Egan says she wanted to structure the book like a record album, with an "A" side and a "B" side. Explore this issue, and quite a bit comes up. You may want to consider the 'collection of chapters' as a type of record album--with some 'songs' that you like more than others. Also, consider how each chapter relates to music in its message, mood, and tone.

Some of the themes of the book are actually expressed through the structure, and this will be illuminated if you really 'dig deep' as we do in our LM literary salons. For example, one theme we discussed was how we are all separate yet connected. Egan wanted each chapter to be able to stand on its own, which each one does, but taken in the context of all the stories, each chapter takes on that much more resonance and meaning.

One of the most interesting chapters is the one done as a power-point presentation. Now, your book club will want to talk about what this entire book is saying about technology and its effect on us individually and as a society, but this chapter particularly brings up the idea of the pause and what that signifies. Now think about all the chapters--what does the "pause" mean? This brings up all sorts of different and wonderful interpretations!

I found one of the main themes of the book to be redemption. Each of us has an "A" side that eventually, for a variety of reasons--and your book club will want to explore these reasons with regard to each character--stops. But, after a pause of some sort, the music starts up again, and you're on your "B" side. Another allusion to the record album that will get your book club talking!

You'll want to consider how this is a book about time. And also about time and music. Egan says that nothing can bring you back in time like hearing a song from your past. How are the characters relating to/ considering their pasts? Read the epigraph and discuss how it relates to the book. Egan says that she was heavily influenced by Marcel Proust's Remembrance of Things Past while writing A Visit from the Goon Squad, so your more literary book club members will want to weigh in here.

Consider the title! and discuss! What is the "goon"? You should have more than one interpretation of this most interesting question!

Another theme you'll want to explore is authenticity versus artifice. Just how much "spin" is going on in each chapter? Ha! Another allusion to the record album--I love it! Many of my members found this to be a depressing topic to delve into, especially as we considered the last chapter where technology is used to an extreme to manipulate everyone's desires--and no one seems to be aware of it. Just how much free will do we have? How mediated are we in our daily lives?

This novel is very much an exploration of identity--what it is, how we acquire it, why and how we refashion it. You can spend an entire meeting discussing this one topic.

I'm just scratching the surface (no pun intended!) in this blog post as to what your book club can discuss when it comes to this highly entertaining and deeply literary book. One thing you can do to really "dig deep" is take one or two stories and concentrate on them. My favorite is "Safari, " but each one is brilliant in its own right. Happy reading!

National Book Award for Fiction 2011

2011-11-17T08:33:00.000-08:00

Salvage the Bones by Jesmyn Ward has won the National Book Award for Fiction. I have it on hold at the library, so stay tuned to find out if your book club should read it! For more on the National Book Awards, click here.

WHIRL is on a Roll!

2011-11-13T17:43:00.000-08:00

As you all know, WHIRL stands for What Have I Read Lately, and I must say, I have read some wonderful books lately. Don't you just love it when your reading is on a roll, so to speak? So.what have I read lately? Read on to find out:

You know from my previous post that I loved The Painted Veil by W. Somerset Maugham. I loved it so much, I went to the library and took out another novel by Maugham, The Razor's Edge. This was one of those books that you look forward to returning to when you've finished whatever else it is you must do. Many of the same themes are present in this novel that are in The Painted Veil, and there's much here to ponder, but, as we all know, it's the story that matters most, and this story is compelling.

Isabel is in love with Larry and he's in love with her. However, Isabel wants the good life, the fun life, the high society bourgeois life. And Larry is in search of something else. Something else entirely. So how to reconcile their differences and hold onto their love? This is a large part of the story--but not all of it. You'll meet other wonderful characters, you'll contemplate what "love" really is, you'll ponder how one should live, and what makes a successful life. This is a slow-paced page-turner, if that's not too much of an oxymoron for you.

The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes. Oh, we all know by now that this novella won the Booker Prize this year, and you probably have read many reviews on it. I quite enjoyed it, but I have to say, and you won't understand this until you've read it, I felt a little cheated when I was through. Yes, it is worth reading. Absolutely. And YES, I get that my feeling was part of the point of the book. But I just think that it came up just short of being a WOW of a book for me. I can't say why because that would give too much away. So you'll just have to read it and see what I mean. Enjoy!

Obviously I liked Barnes' writing because I went straight to the library and took out Arthur and George by the same author. Now, this book I loved. It is a bit on the slowish side, just a tad, but it is so good. It is based on the true story of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle helping to clear the erroneous conviction of George Edalji, a half-Indian son of a vicar. This is a fantastic book--it was short-listed for the Booker in 2005, and there is MUCH to 'dig deep into'--I may just choose it one of these days for a Literary Masters Salon selection.

What about you? What have you read lately?

Should Your Book Club Read The Painted Veil by W. Somerset Maugham?

2011-11-03T13:02:00.000-07:00

Yes! And if you're not in a book club, poor soul that you are, you should still read this fabulous novel on your own. It's a beautiful, lyrical, thought-provoking book that I read in two days. I would have finished it in one sitting, but I forced myself to slow down to enjoy the language and to think about the themes. I loved this book. I understand there's a film out there based on the book, but I don't think I'll see it--I don't want to ruin a good thing.

Warp-speed plot summary:

Kitty, beautiful, spoiled Kitty has married fairly "well" in order not to be left on the shelf forever. Walter, sweet, sincere, but achingly dull, has offered her a secure if not wildly passionate life in Hong Kong, where he is posted as a bacteriologist. Once there, Kitty makes up for the lack of passion in her marriage through her adulterous affair with Charlie, the charming and handsome assistant colonial secretary, an appropriately glamorous post--much more exciting than being a bacteriologist.

However, in the opening scene--really one of the best opening scenes in literature, don't you think?--Walter has found out about Kitty and her lover. And, I won't give more away, but Kitty ends up in the cholera-stricken area of China, where she is forced to deal with a life that doesn't revolve around superficial beauty and charm--a life where Kitty will need to dig deep within herself to find resources that she may just not even have.

So, what can your book club discuss?

There are so many angles at which to approach this novel. For one, it's a love story. You can discuss the different types of love in the novel and how they change. That could take an entire evening!

There is spirituality and philosophy in the novel. The characters have had to choose how they wish to live. Which path is right? Or is there a right path? And how do we find that path?

This novel is filled with deep questions. What makes life worth living? What is this novel saying about beauty? What is it saying about morality?

The language of the novel is beautiful--I for one, am going to read more of W. Somerset Maugham--and you can dig into the imagery and symbolism. What does the temple represent? What does the title mean? What does Walter's enigmatic response to Kitty mean?

You'll of course want to discuss the characters and their relationships--all of them!

And you'll want to ask yourselves--what is this book about? What is it really about? I think you'll be amazed by the answers.

The more I think about it, the more I think I just may select this book for a future Literary Masters book group or salon!

Should Your Book Club Read Nemesis by Philip Roth?

2011-10-21T12:14:00.000-07:00

Someone told me that when Nemesis came out, the reviewers said it wasn't as deep and as layered as some of Roth's other novels. Huh? I couldn't disagree more. Nemesis was Literary Master's October selection, and we had some of the best discussions ever. Nemesis has layer upon layer of meaning to dig into, and we did!

The bottom line: YES, your book club should read this novel. And if you don't belong to a book club, you should read it anyway. It is, quite simply, one of the best novels I have ever read. Philip Roth has aced it--this book is a page-turner, but it's also extremely thought-provoking.

Warp-speed plot summary: The setting is mainly a Jewish section of Newark, New Jersey, in 1944. There is an outbreak of polio, and tension mounts as the townspeople become increasingly fearful for their children. (It's also wartime, and we all know, looking back, what was happening to Jews at the time.) Bucky Cantor is the director of the playground, and he feels it's his duty to keep the kids safe and healthy. However, Bucky's girlfriend, Marcia, is a counselor at a summer camp in the cool mountains, an idyllic place where polio isn't even a concern. A job arises for Bucky there, and he has to choose between staying where he is or joining Marcia. Sounds simple, but this story is complex in a very sophisticated way.

So, what can your book club talk about?

For a start, consider the title. Can we understand this novel better in the context of a Greek tragedy--where the hero has a flaw, usually hubris, and so the spirit Nemesis puts the hero in his place? If so, what is our hero's hubris? How does it manifest itself? Or, if you just want to think of a nemesis as an enemy, what is the nemesis in our story? Is there more than one?

Consider the protagonist Bucky. What is motivating him? Why does he make the decisions that he does regarding Marcia? Why does he make the decision about the summer camp?

This book is a deeply philosophical novel, asking the BIG questions about how one should live. And of course, asking about whether God exists. Consider the characters and how they view how one should live. Take the narrator, for instance. And compare him to Bucky. What sets them apart from each other? Is the book making a judgment about how to live one's life? Is the book making a judgment about whether God exists? What is this book saying about chance?

This book is also a deeply psychological novel, delving into what makes us, as humans, tick. Do you think Bucky's actions can be explained when one considers that he feels guilty for his mother's death? A type of survivor's guilt? What about the fear that grips the townspeople? Could they have acted any other way?

This book can also, one can argue, be read on a political level. What else at the time was threatening Jews, attacking them out of nowhere, herding them into a place apart from others? Is it significant that the boys who come in and spit on the playground are Italian? Who or what does Horace represent? Is that handshake to appease him and get him to leave the playground significant? What references to Germany are present at the Indian Night ceremony? Or, can we look at the incidents at the summer camp in the context of Native American history?

This book is also exploring the concept of story-telling, asking why we tell them, and taking a close look at just what underpins our beliefs. Again, consider the ritualistic ceremony at Indian Night. What's the significance of that, do you think?

This book is filled with mythological and biblical references. Consider the scene where Bucky is talking to Dr. Steinberg in Mrs. Steinberg's garden. Dr. Steinberg represents? And consider the peach that Bucky bites into. And consider Bucky's subsequent actions...

Or perhaps, like me, you think Bucky is extremely narcissistic. And if you remember the myth of Narcissus, you'll see a deeper meaning in the scene where Bucky is diving into the water...

This book is filled with symbolism that you can 'dig deep' into. For example, what do the butterflies represent, if anything? And what about the relentless sun? Philip Roth was reading Camus' The Plague while writing Nemesis (or so I read), and Camus is also the author of The Stranger. Remember the relentless sun in The Stranger? Significant? Coincidental?

What do you make of Bucky's bad eyesight? Symbolic?

I laughed as I realized that we all were acting out a major theme of the book as we looked for meanings in the book. Did Roth intentionally put in the book all that we saw? Or was it just us bringing our own readings to it? Does life have a grand design? Or do we choose to read our own meanings into random occurrences?

I could go on, but that's enough to get your book club talking. I cannot recommend this book enough--you will NOT be disappointed!

Julian Barnes' Novel The Sense of an Ending Wins Booker!

2011-10-19T09:58:00.000-07:00

In what has proved to be a rather controversial Man Booker contest this year, Julian Barnes has won the prize with his short, compelling novel The Sense of an Ending.

For all the dish, go to:

http://www.themanbookerprize.com/

Lots of Literary News!

2011-10-13T11:45:00.000-07:00

So, you know that I love prize-winners, and there's lots of buzz surrounding this subject right now. One is that the finalists for the National Book Award have been announced. You can access all the info you need here:

http://www.nationalbook.org/

Of the fiction finalists, I have only read The Tiger's Wife, reviewed here. I have already requested two of other the titles from the library; I have to admit, I like the sound of The Buddha in the Attic. I mean literally--I like the way that title sounds.

The other buzz is about the new literary prize coming out of the UK and, if you believe all the rumors surrounding it, competing with the Man Booker Prize! The audacity! It's called The Literature Prize. There's a certain self-importance linked to that simple name, don't you think? Here's a link that you may enjoy if you'd like to follow this story:

http://www.thebookseller.com/news/new-literature-prize-establish-standard-excellence.html

Evidently this is good news for Americans because they won't be excluded from this opportunity as they are from the Booker due to estrangement from the Queen.

More literary news to come soon, so check back often!

Women WHIRLing!

2011-10-09T09:50:00.000-07:00

So, I promised to compile of list of books that Literary Masters Book Groups and Salons members devoured over the summer. In no order whatsoever, and with very little accompanying commentary, here are some of the more popular titles (numerous members read these) that you may want to check out:

Submisson by Amy Waldman; here's a link to the NY Times review of it:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/16/books/the-submission-by-amy-waldman-review.html

The Invisible Bridge by Julie Orringer; here's a link to The Washington Times review of it:
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/dec/31/book-review-the-invisible-bridge/

In the Garden of Beasts by Erik Larson (non-fiction); here's a link to the NY Times review of it:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/20/books/in-the-garden-of-beasts-by-erik-larson-review.html?pagewanted=all

The Paris Wife by Paula McLain; NY Times review here:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/20/books/review/book-review-the-paris-wife-by-paula-mclain.html

The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson (non-fiction); here's a link to the WSJ's review of it:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703467004575463852823978496.html

Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand (non-fiction); here's the NY Times link:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/21/books/review/Margolick-t.html?pagewanted=all

The Hare with the Amber Eyes by Edmund de Waal (memoir); here's a review from the Washington Post:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/09/01/AR2010090105971.html

Just in case you're looking for something to read~enjoy!

Should Your Book Club Read The Road by Cormac McCarthy?

2011-10-03T14:08:00.000-07:00

Although I found The Road by Cormac McCarthy absolutely stunning, I hesitate to recommend it for book clubs. I highly, highly recommend it for individuals, and I would even like to discuss it with someone else who has read it, but paradoxically, I cannot suggest you select it for your reading group because...

Well, I'm not sure exactly why. After all, Oprah selected it for her book club, and who am I to argue with Oprah? Let's just say that I think there are other novels better suited for book group reading, others that I would suggest instead of this one. I am currently reading another novel by Cormac McCarthy, All the Pretty Horses, so I'll let you know if you should choose that one for your group. Let me finish it and I'll get back to you.

The Road is a quick read, but one that lingers long after you finish it. It's the story of a man and his son who are traveling down a road in what seems to be a post-apocalyptic America. We don't know what has caused the destruction, but the devastation is so intense and so pervasive, every moment for the duo is a struggle to survive, and every additional day of survival is a questionable achievement in itself. After all, to live like this, wouldn't the alternative be better?

Two things pulled me along through the novel (in fact, I couldn't put the book down): one was McCarthy's poetic prose. For a long time I had avoided him because I thought he was too grim and violent, but I am so glad that I overcame my squeamishness. His writing should not be missed. (Has anyone ever compared him to Hemingway?)

The relationship between the son and his father was the other thing that captivated me. Whatever monumentally destructive event occurred, it took place before the boy was born, so his entire world has been constructed by his father. (The mother has, well, you'll have to read the book to find out.) The two are searching for other "good guys" but apparently the bad guys, and they are really bad, are more numerous. Can you imagine living in a world where every single movement of every single day has the stress of life or death importance upon it? McCarthy helps you imagine it, and for me, just doing that--imagining living that way--was a seriously intense reading experience.

Yes, this novel is bleak, but it's also filled with hope. It's grim, but it's also filled with beauty. Yes, it shows the absolute worst of mankind--no doubt. But there is something to counter that, and I'll let you find out for yourself what it is. This is one of the best books I've read this year, and I know that I am accused of liking dark literature, but I feel confident recommending this book to anyone--it's just that good.

Should Your Book Club Read Amaryllis in Blueberry by Christina Meldrum?

2011-09-15T08:30:00.000-07:00

Should your book club read Amaryllis in Blueberry by Christina Meldrum? A resounding "yes!" is the answer. This intriguing novel is the ideal choice for a book club; it's a compelling read, the writing is beautiful, and there is a lot to discuss. In fact, the publisher, Simon & Schuster, realizing the appeal Amaryllis in Blueberry would have for book clubs, produced a paperback in order to make it more affordable, and completely skipped the hardcover stage.

You may not know Meldrum's work because her first novel, Madapple, was pegged for the YA (young adult) market, where it received immediate and widespread critical and commercial success, landing as a finalist on more than one prize shortlist. (And you know how I like literary prizes!) Amaryllis in Blueberry is her first "grown up" novel, although I think this is a "crossover" book, one that would appeal to the "young adult" market as well as to the "adult" market. Hmm..not sure that's what we're called, but you know what I mean, right?

Quick synopsis:

Dick and Seena Slepy are married, but we get the feeling that their marriage has become a sort of prison for them. Each is unhappy in his/her own way, and we soon learn that each has a secret that is feeding this unhappiness. Dick decides that the only way to escape his miserable situation is to go to Africa as a medical missionary, and he drags his family--his wife and four daughters--along.

The oldest three girls each have the first name of Mary, but are called by their middle names, and each one harbors a corrosive secret of her own. The youngest daughter, Amaryllis, is called Yllis, and early in the book, Amaryllis seemingly discovers yet another family secret and opens it up to the family, unleashing an unforeseen chain of events that will change each and every one of them.

So, what can your book club discuss?

There are lots of secrets in this book, and much to discover. Meldrum weaves mythological stories into the plot of the book, and does it so well and so seemingly effortlessly that the reader ends up learning not only about the Slepy family, but also about age-old stories, and why we tell them. The book explores all sorts of stories, from religion to science to family legends to stories we tell ourselves to get through the day, and your book club will want to discuss the how and why of these tales.

Another theme running through the novel is truth or Truth--what it is, whether it exists, how we reach it, and how we hold onto it. This is quite a philosophical novel, but done in an understated way, through the very compelling main story. A philosophical page-turner, if you will.

Meldrum is a beautiful writer, and some of her prose reads almost like poetry. Your book club will have a blast with the imagery--note the literary nod to Conrad with the light/dark imagery, and have fun deciphering the symbolism in the story--do the characters represent someone or something other than themselves? What does Africa represent? Can we do a Freudian reading of this novel? Pay attention to the names and how they give meaning to the tale.

In the end, this novel seems to be about redemption, about hope, about having a second chance. As the Slepy family returns to America, forever changed by their stay in Africa, they seemed poised to take on a life without secrets. Or do they? Which secrets remain? This is something your book club will want to discuss!

Bottom line: yes, your book club should read Amaryllis in Blueberry--it's a perfect choice--and I am looking forward to more writing from this incredibly talented author!

Haruki Murakami

2011-09-13T08:17:00.000-07:00

You'll remember from my last post that I am midway through the novel Norwegian Wood by the Japanese author Haruki Murakami. This is the first novel I've read by him, and I suppose I shouldn't say that too loudly, as he is tipped by some to be the next Nobel Prize winner. Where have I been?

Now I read that he is set to "take the West by storm" with a 1000-page book bound as a trilogy entitled 1Q84. Here's the link to the article; I am definitely going to keep my eye on this one.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/sep/10/haruki-murakami-trilogy-1q84

And something else about Murakami that makes me want to get to know him better: he's a marathon runner!

Man Booker Prize 2011--The Short List!

2011-09-07T09:43:00.000-07:00

Exciting news in the world of books--and the prizes that propel them. The short list is out for the Man Booker, and guess which book is not on it! That's right, The Stranger's Child by Alan Hollinghurst! That novel is, as you all know, our Literary Masters book of the month for May 2012. Will I be changing our reading list? Hmm...stay tuned for further details...

To find out which books are on the short list, click here.

Let me know if you've read any of them--what an eclectic selection!

Where in the WHIRL Have I Been???

2011-08-28T12:15:00.000-07:00

I love you all--thanks for the flood of correspondence wondering where I've been--it's so nice to feel loved and missed! I have been away on a literary mission (!) and as soon as I get my photos downloaded, or is it uploaded?, I will post a couple and blog more about my adventure.

Have I piqued your curiosity?

For today, though, I am blogging about some books that are on my side table. These are books that I am in the midst of reading, but I've put them down because I knew at a certain point in each book that they would not work for my Literary Masters book groups and literary salons. However, these are books that I do intend to finish! We can call it a Mid-way WHIRL, if you like, or an In-Progress WHIRL:

First off, Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami. My brother, yes--the one who disdains used books, is a fan of Japanese literature, and he introduced me to Kenzaburo Oe, the author of A Personal Matter, which I reviewed here. Murakami is the author of The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, which you may have read; I never have. I decided to start with Norwegian Wood on my brother's advice, and I...like it...I don't love it, but I do like it and I am willing to persevere with a rather slowish read. I am not, to be fair, very far into the novel. So far I think I've met the key players, although not a tremendous amount of action has taken place. The back of the book describes it as:

"A magnificent blending of the music, mood, and the ethos that was the sixties with the story of one college student's romantic coming of age, Norwegian Wood brilliantly recaptures a young man's first, hopeless, and heroic love."

Umm...okay. I hope to finish this novel to see why, again stated on the back of my book, "This stunning and elegiac novel propelled Hauki Murakami into the forefront of the literary scene..."

When I do, I will review it at length. Stay tuned!

Next, Tyrant Memory, by Horacio Castellanos Moya. You'll remember that I became an instant fan of this author when I read his novel, Senselessness. I eagerly anticipated his new book, and was so impatient, I bought it instead of waiting for a library copy! Although I am thoroughly enjoying it, I don't think it measures up to Moya's previous work--but, to be fair, I have not yet finished reading it, so stay tuned...

It follows a certain family, their trials and tribulations, in El Salvador in 1944 during the month between an attempted coup and a general strike that forced out the dictator Maximiliano Hernandez Martinez. Staggering between laugh-out-loud hilarity and close-your-eyes horror, this novel is a very compelling read. I just didn't think I could subject my book groups and literary salons to it, though.

Finally, for today, The Counterlife by Philip Roth. Many consider this to be his best work, so I was excited to read it. I am a fan of Roth, although I know a lot of women have difficulty reading his work. I've said before, as you know, that one of the funniest books I've ever read is Portnoy's Complaint, which I read many, many years ago.

I am enjoying The Counterlife, and I can see why it is so highly regarded, but I have to admit, I was getting kind of bogged down in the second section, after loving the first...and I imagined my Literary Masters members getting bogged down also. The idea of the novel is a character who dies in the first section, but then who isn't dead in the next. From the little I've read, I'm surmising that we are delving into the area of parallel universes, or the lives we could have, would have, should have lived. Something I find very interesting, so I do hope to finish this book. Again, stay tuned!

Right, now that I am back turning pages and pressing keys, I hope to be posting much more frequently than I did during this past month. What about all of you, though? What Have YOU Been Reading Lately???

A Wee WHIRL

2011-07-22T14:29:00.000-07:00

I will be blogging at length about these two books shortly, but for now, just a "Wee WHIRL":

(And you all know by now that WHIRL stands for "What Have I Read Lately", right?)

State of Wonder by Ann Patchett:

I know this novel is getting lots of positive critical reviews, but I have to say, I was...underwhelmed. I loved Bel Canto, the last Patchett book I read, and I was looking forward to her latest, but I found it rather lackluster and disappointing. The story is about a woman who goes to the Amazon to investigate her company's investment in a drug that will allow women to bear children into their old age. Patchett raises many questions through multiple themes, one being the morality of scientific experiments, but I felt like she was forcing issues rather than authentically exploring them. Stay tuned for a longer review, but meanwhile feel free to weigh in with your own opinion.

Nemesis by Philip Roth:

This is one of the best books I've read all summer. I loved it, and now I want to read the three that precede it in its group, "Nemeses": Everyman, Indignation, and The Humbling. This most recent novel from Roth tells the story of one summer in 1944 in Newark, when the local boys were either off fighting WWII or home awaiting a different kind of enemy, but one that was just as deadly: polio. This is such a thought-provoking book: it raises all sorts of existential questions. I will blog at length about it shortly, but I want to say here that I highly recommend it.

WHIRLing the Summer By!

2011-07-02T13:13:00.000-07:00

No, I have not jetted off to some remote island with no internet access--far from it. I've just been busy, busy, busy reading away--trying to choose the absolute BEST books for the upcoming season of Literary Masters Book Groups and Literary Salons. So, have I finalized my list of selected books? No, but I've been having fun trying! Check out some of what I've been reading:

The Memory of Love by Aminatta Forna. This book was shortlisted for the Orange Prize and won the Commonwealth Writers' Prize this year. Is it possible to like and hate a book at the same time? That was my experience. Set in Sierra Leone, the birthplace of the author, the story involves characters who are trying to come to terms with their pasts--in a place that has recently emerged from a civil war. There is much to discuss and think about with this book, but I feel reluctant to choose it for my book groups because...well, I think it drags on too much. I am generally a very patient reader, but I found myself multiple times thinking, "get on with it." So, although I think this is a good book with an important story to tell, I'm not putting it on my list.

Red April by Santiago Roncagliolo. This book won the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize this year. I liked this book a lot, and I'm torn whether to put it on my list. Written by a Peruvian author now living in Spain, it tells the story of the incredibly officious and bureaucratic prosecutor Chalcatana investigating a series of murders. But of course, it's about so much more than that. I was so curious after reading it that I did some research on the Shining Path in Peru, and I even started reading Death in the Andes by Mario Vargas Llosa, but I feel these books could be just too grim for my groups. I recommend Red April for an individual read, though, absolutely. I haven't yet finished Death in the Andes.

Bruno's Dream by Iris Murdoch. I always wanted to read something by Iris Murdoch, and now I have. I enjoyed this book immensely, but I don't think it will do for my groups, so I'm leaving it off my list. Bruno, an old man who resembles a spider (the description of Bruno is worth reading the book for) and who collects stamps, is dying. Wanting to come to peaceful terms with his estranged son, he calls for him. I'd love to say that he then weaves a wonderful web in which he catches his son and the other characters (the book has quite a few), but alas, the metaphor is not carried through the book, or if it is, I missed it. This novel is quite good and well worth reading, but I don't think it will be on my list. I'll have to try another Iris Murdoch novel--yay!

The Sea by John Banville. This book won the Man Booker Prize in 2005, and John Banville won the Kafka Prize this year. I loved this book. It is beautifully written; it carries the reader along on a tide of lyrical prose. It's about love, loss, grief, and memory, and it is undoubtedly worth reading. I'm not sure if it will land on my list because I'm wondering if most people have already read it. We'll see.

WHIRLing Away!

2011-06-05T12:12:00.000-07:00

As you all know by now, WHIRL stands for What Have I Read Lately. Sometimes I read a book and I don't have time to post at length about it, but I don't want you to miss out on a really good read. So I WHIRL and tell you just a little bit about what I've read lately. But you should know--often these are some of the best books I've read in a long time. Here goes:

The True Deceiver by Tove Janssen. This is an odd yet thoroughly compelling book. It won the 2011 Best Translated Book Award, which is how it came onto my radar. I checked it out of the library and was surprised to find that it was written in 1982 but wasn't translated into English until 2009. Thomas Teal is the translator and my edition has an introduction by Ali Smith.

The story takes place in a snow-laden village where everyone pretty much knows everyone else's business. Or so they think. Katri Kling, always brutally honest and ferociously protective of her younger brother Mats, has earned the villagers fear and respect. Caring nothing for anyone but Mats, Katri sets out on a relentless mission to secure his future. And so they befriend Anna Aemelin, a children's book illustrator who sees the world as she paints it--full of lovable, fluffy bunnies.

What happens to these individuals as they get closer to each other makes for a thought-provoking and page-turning read. I was very grateful for Ali Smith's introduction, which I read after I finished the book. Her insight into the novel gave me much more to ponder than I would have done on my own. It was like being in a Literary Masters book group!

Senselessness by Horatio Castellanos Moya. Wow. What a book. I want others to read it so I can talk about it with them, but I hesitate to have my Literary Masters book groups read it because it is, how do I say this, not for everyone. It's a short, dense book, and I know it will stick with me for a while. I look forward to reading more from this author.

The narrator tells us his story in a kind of stream-of-consciousness ramble, with long, convoluted sentences that have lots of repetition and end up circling back on each other. He is editing a report that the Catholic Church has pulled together from the testimony of victims of military brutality during the country's civil war. We don't know exactly which country they are in, but from outside reading I've done, I understand the place to be Guatemala, and the events to have taken place in the 1960's. The narrator is fearful of the repercussions from his work; after all, the military whose crimes he is exposing is still in power.

His fear turns into paranoia, but what do paranoid people say? "Just because I'm paranoid doesn't mean they aren't out to get me." Perhaps that's a clue to this book, which is alternately hilariously funny and horrifically shocking.

This is, without a doubt, one of the best books I've read in a long time.

The Privileges by Jonathan Dee is also an excellent read. This is similar to Carol Edgarian's novel Three Stages of Amazement in that it follows the lives of two people who decide to grab their piece of the American Dream, but with vastly different results. I found this novel very literary in how it is crafted, and I would love to discuss that aspect of it with a Literary Masters book group, but even if you read it on your own, it's a terrific story. Very compelling. The kind of book I couldn't wait to get back to.

Perhaps you've heard by now that Philip Roth is the fourth writer to have won the Man Booker International Prize, awarded every other year. He's joined Alice Munro, one of my favorite authors, as well as Chinua Achebe, and Ismail Kadare. So...I went to my local library and checked out The Ghost Writer, the first of a series of novels with Zuckerman as the narrator. Now, you may know that one of my all-time-most-hilarious-fall-off-the-couch-laughing books is Portnoy's Complaint, and I like Philip Roth in general, so I was looking forward to this book.

I really enjoyed it. Many themes are in it that will surface in other Roth novels, and I even thought about picking up The Finkler Question, a book I disliked, again. Something in Roth reminded me of the best bits of Jacobson...

Montana 1948 by Larry Watson won the Milkweed National Fiction Prize, and it is a wonderful little book. I read it in a day. Narrated by a grown man who is looking back on the summer of his twelfth year, the story manages to be both lyrical and riveting. I couldn't help thinking of To Kill A Mockingbird while I read it, although the two stories are nothing alike. I think it is the coming of age quality of it, as well as the unforgettable voice of the narrator that reminded me of Harper Lee's masterpiece.

Should Your Book Club Read Three Stages of Amazement by Carol Edgarian?

2011-05-24T09:18:00.000-07:00

If you're looking for the bottom line, here it is: absolutely yes. This is a perfect book for book clubs, and if you don't belong to one and you're reading it on your own, you'll still love it.

Quick plot overview:
The story takes place during one pivotal year, 2009, the first year of Obama's presidency. The country is reeling from the financial crash of late 2008, but people are still clinging to the hope they've pinned on a new president and on the American dream that is, let's face it, their birthright. Charlie, a surgeon, and his wife Lena, a documentary film maker, want their little slice of entitlement and Charlie knows how they can get it. He's going to build a medical robot that can be used in remote locations and the venture capitalists in California will fund it and they will all live happily ever richer.

So Charlie and Lena move to San Francisco "ready for luck." They have "made their deal. Charlie would give everything to Nimbus and Lena would handle the rest." The slight glitch is that "the rest" is quite a bit, and this puts a strain on the marriage that it may not survive.

Meanwhile, in a beautiful mansion in Pacific Heights in San Francisco, live Cal and Ivy. Cal is Lena's estranged uncle, a fact that concerns Charlie immensely. Because guess who wants to invest in Nimbus and make Charlie and Lena super successful and wildly wealthy? You guessed it--Uncle Cal. Charlie is caught between a rock and a hard place, and without giving anything away, let's just say he risks getting crushed between the two.

The plot thickens as we meet Alessandro, the mysterious Italian who works for Cal but who was once Lena's lover. Alessandro's job puts him in a position to have a direct impact on Charlie's success--and on his marriage with Lena.

The opening line of Three Stages of Amazement begins "The modern marriage has two states, plateau and precipice..." And yes, this novel is about marriage. It's not about the wedding, nor the divorce. It's about that in-between part, the real thing, marriage. What creates a marriage, what's the glue that holds a marriage together, what a marriage does to the couple in it...you could spend an entire meeting over just this issue, but this novel is also about so much more. What else can your book club talk about when discussing it?

The title, for starters. The book is divided into three sections: Silence, Disbelief, and Talk. I was fortunate enough to attend an evening where the bright and beautiful Carol Edgarian spoke about her book, and when asked about the title, she tied it to how people react when they are amazed by something. First, silence--kind of a stunned silence. Next, the brain's not really accepting it, so there's disbelief. Finally, as we process what's going on, we begin to talk.

I love this explanation because it works on so many levels for this book. Many of the characters go through the three stages of amazement on a personal level as they confront various events of their lives, but also the entire country is going through the same three stages following the catastrophic crash of the financial markets. Carol Edgarian does an amazing job of capturing the zeitgeist of that little slice of time between when those cataclysmic events occurred and when people finally accepted those events as real, permanent, and part of a new way of life. You can view this novel as a coming-of-age story for an entire country, when innocence was lost and disillusionment set in.

No doubt you'll want to discuss the characters in depth, and as you do so, see how each character's desire is playing a role in the story. And their principles. And their secrets. And how all three of these interact to create unexpected results. A major theme in the book is whether or not we have any control over our lives; is there such a thing as fate, destiny, luck, or are we asserting our own will?

As summer approaches, it is perfect timing to read this book. It's fast-paced enough to read on a trip, but literary enough to keep you interested and engaged. A "cerebral beach read"--now that's the ticket! Whether you go to the beach alone or with your book club, you'll enjoy Three Stages of Amazement.

Should Your Book Club Read The 1000 Autumns of Jacob de Zoet by David Mitchell?

2011-05-20T13:23:00.000-07:00

This bursting-at-the-seams novel was the May selection for Literary Masters book groups. It proved to be a polarizing choice. Perhaps it's the time of year; I, like many others, feel like my head is inside a Magi-mixer--and the switch is on! Some members (myself included) loved the book, and others found it really hard going. Everyone appreciated the opportunity to discuss it, though. So, if you're here for the bottom line, I would say: this is a book worth reading, and if you do read it, you'll want to talk about it with others, so yes, your book club should read it!

Our groups talked about so many things, one main concern: what on earth is this novel about? You've got the first plot--the Dutch on Dejima island in Japan at the turn of the nineteenth century, based on real events--and then there's the second plot--the sisters and monks living in the mountaintop shrine. And then the British frigate, again based on true events, arrives--almost a third plot--and helps tie everything together. It's an adventure story par excellence, and it's also full of big ideas for your book club to explore.

We cover about twenty years--from 1799 until 1819 or thereabouts, yet all the major concerns of the century will be crammed in the story. Science versus superstition, tradition versus modernity, West versus East, exploration versus exploitation, and much, much more.

Several overarching themes were discussed:

The idea of man being a complicated creature, a mix of both good and evil. Are we just the sum of our deeds? Is morality an absolute, or is it relative and dependent upon our culture?
The idea of life being a zero-sum game, and we are all just living by the law of the jungle. It's always all about power--who has it, who can grab it, how to use it. Betrayal is pervasive throughout the story, which makes sense when it's an eat or be eaten world.
Stories, myths, and why we tell them. And how they form who we are. Whether we realize it or not. Refer to page 244 for a great quote on this.
How we (often times blindly) hold onto a belief or ideology that justifies any and all of our actions. How hard it is to let go of our beliefs because they form our identity and they give us power. Refer to page 205 for a wonderful quote on this.
How very difficult it is to communicate, especially across cultural or other divides. The power that an interpreter has, and the huge consequences that can arise from misinterpretation.
Imprisonment in a time of exploration. Think about it--lots of the characters either chose their own prison or were put in one by someone else.

This book is bursting with metaphors, but one I loved was the birth at the beginning of the novel--a wonderfully symbolic scene. And we all loved the language, especially the haiku-like 'interruptions'--usually tied to nature--that underscored the action. For example, when the villagers don't want to know about what's going on in the shrine on p.182, the line reads "She hears the ancient hush of falling snow," and then later, when the truth is being uncovered on p. 236, the line reads "Someone sweeps snow in the courtyard with a stiff-bristled broom." How gorgeous is that?

There's lots more to this book, but this ought to get you started with some ideas to discuss with your book club. Happy reading!

Man Booker International Prize!

2011-05-18T08:12:00.000-07:00

BIG NEWS in the literary world: Philip Roth has won the Man Booker International prize. He's the fourth person to do so, joining Chinua Achebe (read Things Fall Apart if you haven't yet), Alice Munro (one of my favorites), and Ismail Kadare (I read his Chronicle in Stone last summer--really good). One of my all-time favorite laugh-out-loud books is Portnoy's Complaint by Roth. I have never read American Pastoral (I know, hard to believe)--I've had it in my "to be read" pile for years. Perhaps this summer I will get around to it...What is your favorite Roth novel?

Bad Nature, Or With Elvis in Mexico by Javier Marias

2011-05-02T07:46:00.000-07:00

Wow, this seemingly simple story packs a powerful punch. I am constantly lamenting the gaps in my literary life, and one embarrassingly deficient area of knowledge for me is the Spanish-speaking world of literature. I am trying to rectify this, and one author that I've had on my radar for awhile but had never read is Javier Marias. I mean, Orhan Pamuk has said that Marias should win the Nobel prize for literature, and Orhan should know--he's won it himself.

One of my favorite bloggers suggested I start with this book. And I can see why. This is a quick little book; in fact, one can easily read it in a day. I think it will take much longer than that to process, however.

Quick plot overview:
The narrator is being hunted. He makes this abundantly clear to us in the first five pages of the story. In a kind of stream-of-consciousness style, he tells us just how hunted he is. For the rest of the story, we learn why there are people out to get him, but the story is so funny, I forgot about his being hunted at all.

The narrator is in Mexico to shoot a movie with Elvis Presley. There is, as one can imagine, quite a large contingent of people accompanying Elvis, and our narrator is there for one purpose: as a diction coach. His job is to see that Elvis pronounces the letter "c" as it is pronounced in Spain; Elvis doesn't want to have a Mexican accent. An easy job, as it turns out; as our narrator tells us, "Mr. Presley had to pronounce very few Spanish phrases in the course of the film..."

We learn that Mr. Presley is quite a nice guy, but is rather restless as well. When they aren't shooting the film, he and his entourage go out in search of a good time. Our narrator is with them, but he's no longer a diction coach. Instead, much to his dislike, he is forced into the role of translator. Seeing as they've all stumbled into a local bar full of hostile thugs who are intent upon insulting Elvis and his companions, the job of translator is a dangerous one indeed. Our narrator must relay the messages from Elvis to the thugs and vice-versa, all the while trying to keep the peace.

And all of a sudden, this quirky amusing novella becomes seriously intense and psychologically deep. And impossible to put down. Suffice to say, I closed the final page and my hands were practically trembling. The power of words. The power of image. The power of the medium. What is real. What we believe. I've been pondering all this and more thanks to Bad Nature, or With Elvis in Mexico. And the fact that Javier Marias worked as a translator for years--wow, that just adds more brilliance to an absolute gem of a novel.

The next Marias novel I want to try is A Heart So White. How about you? Which Marias novel is your favorite?

WHIRLing Again!

2011-04-29T06:55:00.000-07:00

You all know by now: WHIRL stands for What Have I Read Lately. There are some books I've read in the past year that I can highly recommend, but just haven't had the time to blog at length about them. Being realistic, I probably won't get around to reviewing them, but I don't want you to miss out.

The Lovers by Vendela Vida. This is a book that I enjoyed so much; I highly recommend it. I hope this doesn't sound too pretentious on my part, but I feel like Vida's writing can only get better, and she is definitely one to watch. This novel takes place in Turkey when the protagonist goes there on a trip after her husband dies. Suddenly alone and forced to do things for herself, she flounders a bit, both physically and emotionally. As we watch her make some surprising, if not poor decisions, we slowly get to know this woman and wonder if she's ever known herself.

This is one of the best books I've read recently for putting me in a place. Vida evoked Turkey for me and made me want to be there. This novel is a winner.

Ethan Frome by Edith Warton. I practically read this classic in one sitting--I was riveted.

It's short, a novella really, and it's so compelling; I only put it down because I knew I had to get up early the next morning. Which I did, only to immediately pick up the book and finish it! This was, I am sorry to admit, my first experience with Edith Wharton. Shocking, but true.I suppose what hooked me at first was the mystery. The narrator is wondering, and makes the reader wonder along with him, what has made Ethan Frome the bent and broken man he seems to be. The narrator is obsessed with Ethan and so perhaps this is why he can articulate Ethan's story so well. For Ethan, in turn, is obsessed with a lady, a lady who is not his wife.

Who knew I'd be swept along in a romantic triangle in a time of restraint and austerity. And the landscape, a huge character in the story, is a perfect metaphor for the restrained passions of Ethan and his object of affection. I would be surprised to find anyone who doesn't like this book. Almost as surprised as I was at the ending of it!

The Cookbook Collector by Allegra Goodman. I picked up this book because I read an article in The Guardian that compared it to Franzen's Freedom, stating that Goodman's book was just as good, if not better than Franzen's, but Freedom gets all the attention because the novel, like the author of it, are loud and in-your-face whereas Goodman and her novel are more nuanced and subtle.

Well, I'm not sure I agree with any of that, but I did enjoy The Cookbook Collector. It takes place in the Bay Area, and follows various people's lives, one of whom collects, you guessed it--rare cookbooks. To attempt a cooking metaphor here: at times I thought the author, as cook, threw a few too many ingredients in the pot and the flavors became too muddied; I would have preferred fewer and more distinct characters and subplots. Having said that, this is a very readable book, and one that I think book clubs would enjoy discussing.

What about you? What have you read lately?

Should Your Book Club Read The Calligrapher by Edward Docx?

2011-04-25T10:52:00.000-07:00

This book was recommended to me by one of my favorite bloggers to use for my Literary Masters book groups. Although I don't think I'll be putting it on my list for next season, I can highly recommend the book for your individual reading pleasure, and you may even enjoy a rousing discussion about it with your personal book club.

Quick plot overview:
The narrator, Jasper Jackson, is a calligrapher by profession. Living in north London, Jasper has been commissioned by a wealthy American media tycoon to transcribe thirty poems from John Donne's Songs and Sonnets. Now if you know little to nothing about calligraphy and the same amount about Donne and his poetry, you are in for a treat. More about that later, however.

Jasper Jackson is a bit of a womanizer as it turns out, and he doesn't restrict himself to one amour at a time. Constancy seems to be a bit of a problem for Jasper. But then again, Jasper hasn't really found his true love yet. Until one day, when he is gazing out his window onto the garden below, where he spies a woman so outrageously beautiful, he compares her to Helen of Troy. He also calls her, for lack of the words to do her true justice, a "real hottie." Immediately he is smitten, no make that obsessed, and it becomes his sole ambition to meet her--and more.

Now, at the start of every chapter, there's a poem by John Donne, and even if you've never read his poetry, you can figure out the gist of what it means and then, and this is the clever part, you will know what's going to happen in that chapter. If the way I've just described it makes it sound corny or cheesy, that's my fault because it's really done well. Occasionally within a chapter Jasper discusses Donne's poetry and what it means, or how difficult it is to definitively pin down, but this never comes across as heavy-handed. Instead, I found myself enjoying learning a bit about this 17th century poet and his work.

This novel is quite funny at times, although at first I felt like I was reading a guy's novel (I couldn't get too excited about Jasper's musings about woman and his wooing of them) and wondered if I would stick with it. I'm glad I did, not only because it rapidly improved and then easily hooked me, but also because there's a couple of unexpected twists in the story that lend it depth. And when considered in the broader context that encompasses Donne's poetry, one can see how these twists make a lot of sense. It makes for a very clever, or as the Brits say, a brilliant package.

I highly recommend this book for a fun literary read, and I think most book clubs will find enough in it to carry an evening's conversation. I will be keeping my eyes open for more Edward Docx for sure.

Brodeck's Report by Philippe Claudel

2011-04-16T15:26:00.000-07:00

I chanced upon this book when I was reading about past winners of the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize. Brodeck's Report (Brodeck, A Novel in the US) won this award in 2010, but for some reason, it had never crossed my radar. When I saw that the author also wrote the film I've Loved You So Long, I put down all my other reading to pick up this novel. If you haven't seen I've Loved You So Long, you are really missing out. And if you have seen it, you know exactly what I mean.

Brodeck's Report did not disappoint me. Yet, I hesitate to recommend it to all. (I think I'm suffering from being accused of reading only heavy or depressing books, an accusation that is not true. Well, not 100% true, anyway.) How do I even describe this book?

Reading it was like being in a dream. I wasn't exactly sure where the setting was. A tiny isolated village somewhere in the fluid-boundary zone of Europe, around the Germany/France border or the Austria/Hungary border. The time is post WWII, although this, too, is fluid as we follow the meanderings of the narrator's memory as he tells us his story. The characters are sometimes real, but hard to pin down. They felt sort of ephemeral to me. And at times I felt I was reading a fable or allegory.

But at the same time, I couldn't put this book down, and the messages it carried were very real and clear.

Quick plot summary: Brodeck has been charged with writing a report about the events surrounding the death of a nameless character he refers to as "the other." The people who have ordered him to write the report have actually murdered "the other," and they intimidate Brodeck into cooperating. However, as a means of resistance, Brodeck writes two reports, and the book we are reading is the "true" one. Or so one would think. Make of that what you will; at any rate, Brodeck starts his narrative with this disclaimer:

"I'm Brodeck and I had nothing to do with it. I insist on that. I want everyone to know. I had no part in it, and once I learned what had happened I would have preferred never to mention it again, I would have liked to bind my memory fast and keep it that way, as subdued and still as a weasel in an iron trap."

Ah yes, but it is terribly difficult to "bind memory," and in the midst of writing his report, Brodeck reminisces about his time in a concentration camp, from which he has recently returned. Resisting his captors was not an option for Brodeck at the camp. Instead, he performed the role that the sadistic guards demanded of him: he acted, quite literally, like a dog. This he did in order to survive and return home to his beloved Amelia and Fedorine.

As it turns out, Amelie has not been left unscathed in the village as she awaited Brodeck's return. And it isn't just the invading soldiers who are culpable; local villagers are to blame as well.

As Brodeck writes his reports, it becomes obvious to him and to the reader that he is in danger. The villagers who murdered "the other," and who have ordered Brodeck to write his report, do not trust him. "The other" was murdered because he held up a mirror to each person in the village. Now we fear Brodeck will meet the same end for shining a light on the villagers' crimes. Philippe Claudel is a master at building tension; I found this book to be a literary page-turner as I read furiously to find out what would happen.

Questions of who is to blame, who is complicit, how to survive, what we choose to remember, whether we even can choose to remember, how history becomes "fact,"--all this and much more is in this intriguing novel. It would generate a great discussion for a book club, but I'm not sure everyone would enjoy reading it. If heavy subjects don't put you off, and if you're drawn to atmospheric writing, then you'll probably like it. Whether you read it or not, do not miss the film I've Loved You So Long. And bring your tissues.

Orange Prize Short List Announced!

2011-04-12T04:51:00.000-07:00

Oh dear. The short list for the Orange Prize has been announced, and I didn't like three out of the six novels on the list. You'll recall that my Literary Masters book groups read last year's winner, The Lacuna by Barbara Kingsolver. That was a wonderfully literary novel, which I blogged about here.

This year's short list is as follows:

The Tiger's Wife by Tea Obreht. Here we go. I can just see this book sweeping the literary awards, and as you know, it left me...underwhelmed. I blogged on it here.

Great House by Nicole Krauss. Ugh. I blogged about it here.

Room by Emma Donaghue. I know that I said I wouldn't read this book, but I did. And I found it creepily compelling for the first half, and then I thought it fell apart in the second half. Yes, I, like others, found the boy's voice believable and, as I said, compelling, but that wasn't enough to sustain me.

Grace Williams Says It Loud by Emma Henderson. I haven't read it, but it takes place in an institution for the mentally ill, and is about a relationship between the two patients.

The Memory of Love by Aminatta Forna. I haven't read this either, but it's evidently about the Sierra Leonean civil war. Or the aftermath. Or both. I'm sure I'd learn a lot anyway. I think I may read this one.

Annabel by Kathleen Winter is about a hermaphrodite whose parents' choice of surgery has massive consequences in the child's life. I may read this one as well.

One book that did not make the list that I have on my TBR shelf is Jennifer Egan's A Visit from the Goon Squad.

For more on the Orange Prize and its short list, click here. And let me know what you think--which novel do you feel should win?

I Haven't WHIRLed in Ages!

2011-04-05T02:58:00.000-07:00

As you know, WHIRL stands for What Have I Read Lately. Recently I asked my Jane Austen Literary Salon what books (besides Jane's six novels that we are reading and discussing in the salon) they have enjoyed lately or what books are on their all-time faves list. Here's what they said:

Moby Dick by Herman Melville, "because the entire universe is contained in it, and it's still so compelling today."

Wow, makes me want to re-read that wonderful novel! The last time I read it was with the fabulous Professor Zimmerman in my 19th Century American Lit class.

The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver, "an amazing piece of literature."

Yep, one of my favorites, too. I am a big fan of Kingsolver; as you know, one of my Literary Masters book selections this season was The Lacuna, another winner.

Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro, a "creepy page-turner with amazing insight into people's psyches as well as very well written social interactions."

Hmm...makes me want to pick this up again. I started it awhile ago, and found it too...yes, creepy!...to continue. Perhaps I'll give it another try.

Austenland by Shannon Hale--"I listened to the book on tape on a car trip and have not laughed so much in a long, long time."

Well, I hope you weren't the one driving! I tend to close my eyes when I'm laughing that hard.

The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake by Aimee Bender. "I have not read this, but am fascinated by the concept of tasting the emotions of the cooks who prepared the foods eaten."

Hmm...I'm not sure it counts if you haven't read the book you're recommending! The same concept was explored in Chocolat, no?

The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet by David Mitchell and The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz "are wonderful books. Both are historical fiction, although Oscar Wao is much more recent."

Two fantastic books, I do agree! Literary Masters book groups read The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao last season, and everyone loved it, and we are reading The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet right now!

"The Bone People by Keri Hulme for fiction. Traveling with Pomegranates by Sue Monk Kidd and Ann Taylor Kidd for non-fiction."

I haven't read either of these books, but I like the title of the non-fiction book.

"The best recent piece of fiction is The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery. I like her as well as Jane which is saying a lot. She's also written Gourmet Rhapsody which is not as good but still very good indeed."

Very interesting...I have heard mixed reviews of The Elegance of the Hedgehog.

"There are three non-fiction books by Michael Lewis that I have read this year and that I am wild about. My favorite I guess is The Big Short, which is the most intelligible and readable account of what caused the current financial crisis. The other two are Moneyball and The Blind Side, which are about sports but there's a whole lot about people and prejudice and analytical thinking."

I just took The Big Short out of the library; I can't wait to read it!

Hey, there's more to WHIRL about, but that's all for now. Stay tuned for my next WHIRL post. And don't forget to tell me what you've been reading lately!

The Tiger's Wife by Tea Obreht

2011-03-24T20:18:00.000-07:00

I sometimes joke, with just a kernel of truth, that the secret to happiness is low expectations. And perhaps it's the same with books. I had heard so much buzz about Tea Obreht's debut novel The Tiger's Wife, I was excited to crack it open and ready to devour it. The NY Times raved; click here to read that review. The Christian Science Monitor positively gushed; click here to read that review. Even Book Pages, which I picked up at my local library, led me to believe that I had, absolutely had to read this book.

So I did. And I must say, I was slightly disappointed. Perhaps it was just my "reading mood"--I really felt like curling up with a long, atmospheric narrative into which I could escape for awhile. Instead, I found myself laboring to comprehend a novel that is structured like a set of Russian dolls, or as Kapka Kassabova calls it in her review in the Guardian (click here for review), a "matryoshka-style narrative."

I read Kassabova's review after I finished The Tiger's Wife; I was looking for some explication of its many references. I wish I had read the review before however, as it did shed some light on the novel for me.

Quick plot review: Natalia is narrating the story. She is in an unnamed Balkan country that has recently emerged from the ravages of civil war. Considering that the author was born in Belgrade, I just assumed the setting is, or could be, the former Yugoslavia. Natalia is a doctor who has crossed the new border into what was once her own country, but is now former enemy territory, to bring vaccines to a mainly suspicious and resistant audience. An arduous physical journey, this is also quite an emotional trip for Natalia because she has just found out that her beloved grandfather has died.

So that's the frame of the book. But now it's the reader's turn to travel as Natalia takes us on many journeys by way of stories that her grandfather has told her, the two main tales being about a tiger that is, or is not, a lot like Shere Khan from Kipling's The Jungle Book, and a deathless man. There are many other characters, and other tales also; at times I felt like I was reading short stories, but I knew that (I hoped that?) they would all come together in the end.

I think they did, but not as convincingly as I was hoping they would. By the time I closed the book, I was just glad to be done with it. Oh, that sounds harsh, and don't get me wrong; this is a very good book in many ways. Obreht's writing is seriously impressive, and she does know how to tell a story, building suspense along the way. However, at times I felt like I had entered a maze of fabulous tales reminiscent of...what?

I don't know what.

And perhaps that was part of my problem. I felt like I was missing a lot by not understanding what I assumed were many references--cultural, folkloric, religious, and otherwise. So I stumbled around the maze and emerged dazed, and ultimately a little disappointed.

Should Your Book Club Read A Room With A View by E.M. Forster?

2011-03-19T07:53:00.000-07:00

An Edwardian comedy of manners in the mode of Jane Austen, this little gem can be read as a simple love story--sweet, endearing, and a glimpse back in time. Yet, dig deep, and you will find this book to be very profound.

Quick plot review: Young and innocent Lucy Honeychurch has traveled from her country home in England to the land of art and passion--Florence, Italy--with her older cousin and chaperone, Charlotte Bartlett. They arrive at the Pension Bertolini, run by a Cockney from London, to find that their room has--no view! Two other guests, Mr. Emerson and his son George, offer to swap rooms, as theirs has a view and "women like looking at a view; men don't."

Charlotte Bartlett is horrified. How very improper! If they accept Mr. Emerson's generosity, and let's face it, Mr. Emerson is really not the sort of person one is used to associating with, they will be obligated to him. And Charlotte, who must protect the purity of her charge Lucy, cannot allow that.

Yet Mr. Emerson persists and asks the questions which is perhaps being asked by the book itself--addressed to everyone about everything--"Why?"

We tour Florence and its surroundings with Lucy and the other characters from the Pension Bertolini and witness a murder on the Piazza Signoria. But what can this mean? the reader wonders. Thank goodness Mr. Emerson's son, George, was there to rescue Lucy when she fainted from her shock. Not so, thinks Lucy. Something has happened on that piazza, but not only to the poor Italian who was stabbed. Something has happened to Lucy--and she is changed forever.

What has happened to her, you ask? Well, that's something your book club can--and should--discuss at length. For this scene (and Forster, like Jane Austen, writes in beautifully rendered scenes) is central to the book--on many levels. For this book is about so much--

Yes, it's a coming of age story on one level. But not only for Lucy. This was a time of tremendous change in England, when the gentle countryside was being invaded by urban grit, industry was crowding out agricultural life, and the class system was becoming destabilized. So you can read the novel as a coming of age story for England itself as it moved, inexorably, from the Victorian era into the modern age.

Lucy returns to England and becomes engaged to Cecil. All right, I must say, Forster rivals Jane Austen for his characters, and any book club should take each one and talk at length about him or her. Cecil is priceless. We know he's wrong for Lucy--we know Lucy is in love with George Emerson--but will Lucy do anything about it? Or will Fate step in? Ah, yes, another question running through this novel--is there such a thing as Fate? And going a bit further, does God exist?

I don't want to give anything away, so I'll stop with the plot review here, but if your book club does read the book, pay close attention to Forster's writing. For example, see how the imagery of light versus dark is so prominent in the novel, and how it carries the theme of "coming of age" throughout the story. One can do a wonderful psychoanalytic reading of this novel, digging deep into the unconscious layers.

Pay attention to nature, and how it is being portrayed. What is the importance, for instance, of the scene at the Sacred Lake, when Mr. Beebe, a clergyman, removes his clothes and prances around? Pay attention to the roles that art and music play in the story. And pay close attention to the settings--and how they carry the meaning of the story to the reader.

And, whatever you do, pay very close attention to the muddle. As I said above, I think this book is quite profound. It's full of religion, art, philosophy, and more. But if you miss it all, just take one little pearl of wisdom from it--and it regards the muddle. One of my favorite lines in literature is "only connect" from Forster's Howard's End, and now I have another favorite line from Forster's A Room With a View--"Beware the muddle."

If you, or your book club, reads A Room With A View, enjoy! and let me know what you think!

Orange Prize for Fiction Long List Announced!

2011-03-16T09:42:00.000-07:00

The season of literary awards is off to a brilliant start! The Orange Prize for Fiction--in its 16th year of celebrating women writers--has announced its long list. On it you'll find twenty wonderful books to keep you turning pages until the short list is announced on April 12th. I can't wait to see that list!

The winner will be announced on June 8th. Last year's winner was Barbara Kingsolver for The Lacuna, and as you know, Literary Masters book groups and literary salons kicked off our season with that excellent novel. Let's see if this year's winner lands on Literary Masters' list for the 2011/2012 season.

To see the long list and for more on the Orange Prize, click here.

Should your Book Club read Emma by Jane Austen?

2011-03-15T12:39:00.000-07:00

As you know, I am currently running a Jane Austen Literary Salon, and we just finished discussing Emma, the fifth of Jane's six novels that we're reading. One of the members, let's call her Diane, had to miss last month's discussion of Mansfield Park, but she had a good excuse--her first grandchild was born! And guess what Diane did while helping to care for her new granddaughter? She read Emma out loud to her--I love it! A little Janeite in training!

So, should your book club read Emma? Are you looking for a classic? Are you looking for one of Jane's novels to read? I can recommend Emma for the individual reader and for a book club, but I have to be honest here...this is not my very favorite of Jane's novels. Don't get me wrong--it's a wonderful, sometimes hilarious novel, with much to appreciate on many levels. I just happen to prefer Mansfield Park (usually everyone's least favorite), or Persuasion. But that's just me. Emma is usually everyone else's favorite, along with Pride and Prejudice.

If you do read Emma, there's lots to discuss.

You probably know the plot, or some of the plot. Emma is rich, spoiled, and rather self-absorbed. She's also very snobbish, but not when it comes to her new friend and pet project, Harriet. Harriet's class and rank are hard to pin down, as she has never known her parents--she is "the natural daughter of somebody"--and has lived at Mrs. Goddard's school. Emma, who sees the world as she would like it to be rather than how it is, decides with no evidence whatsoever that Harriet must be the daughter of a gentleman and therefore deserves to marry a gentleman. But which gentleman will it be? And will that chosen man see Harriet the same way Emma sees her? Emma sets her sights on the perfect man (or men?) for Harriet and the hilarity begins!

There's much more to the plot, but suffice to say that it reads like a Shakespearean comedy with all the confusion of who's in love with whom, and who's falling out with whom and who will end up with whom. As I said, it's quite funny, but there's an undertone of serious business going on, and the careful reader will pick up on that.

The serious business of marriage, for instance. Your book club will have a grand time discussing what this novel is saying about romantic love and marriage. The class system looms large in this story, and impacts everyone and everything--you can see what you think the novel is saying about class and rank in Jane's day.

Actually, the list of what you can discuss would be too long to list here. How genders are being played with in the story, and what this means, for instance. Or if Knightley has "proper pride" and whether he is an ideal man. Or how Jane's use of free indirect discourse impacts the reader's view of the characters and plot. Or what to make of the themes of duty, the individual versus society, education, and authority, to name a few.
You could spend hours just talking about the characters, like Emma's father, a pathetic hypochondriac, or the inimitable and insufferable Mrs. Elton, one of the more loathsome characters in all of English literature.

I read and re-read Jane's novels because I love her use of language. She is incomparably brilliant and I am in awe as I read. I also read her because I appreciate how there seem to be so many different, yet simultaneous, discourses in her novels. In our Jane Austen Literary Salon, we are trying to get to "know" Jane--through her texts, of course. But this is tricky, as she can be very slippery--you think you understand what the text is saying only to find it's saying something quite different elsewhere.

Bottom line, Jane's novels can be read on many levels, which may be a key to her staying power. Have a go with Emma and let me know what you think. No cheating by just watching the movie, however! As beautiful as the films of all Jane's novels are, they do not compare to reading the books--I assure you!

The Yacoubian Building by Alaa Al Aswany

2011-03-10T14:11:00.000-08:00

For those of you short on time, I will cut to the chase: Yes, read this book. I couldn't put it down. Should you choose it for your book club? Yes, with reservations.

This novel was published in 2002 but takes place in Cairo, Egypt, around the first Iraq war, way back at the start of the 1990's. Written by an Egyptian, it is a slice of life--well, actually several slices of different lives--of people who are tied to each other via The Yacoubian Building. Yes, the building is the main character of the novel. Yes, it is a metaphor for what Egypt has gone through in its recent history. However, I don't think the building itself looms as large in this story as the glass room did in Simon Mawer's novel of the same name, reviewed here.

The Yacoubian Building follows the lives of several different characters who are struggling to survive the Cairo of their present, as opposed to their past. For the past is gone in a blink (or in a coup), and those who cannot adapt, die. There is Zaki Bey, for example, whose father was one of the richest men in Egypt--before the revolution. Now Zaki is reduced to prancing around like a playboy while fighting with his sister over their inheritance. There is Kamal el Rouli, who grew up poor, but who is now in a position of power to exhort money from those who cannot escape his clutch. There is Busayna, a innocent young girl whose mother encourages her to do whatever it takes in order to bring home money to help feed the family after the man of the house dies. And there's many more. Like the fundamentalist jihadists. And the homosexual journalist. (There's a lot of sex in this novel, but none of it gratuitous or "in your face,"; still it caused quite a stir in Egypt when it was published.)

For anyone who has ever been to Cairo, you know it is a place that teems with people, and this novel is teeming with characters, so much so that there is a helpful "Cast of Characters" at the front of the novel. Don't let that intimidate you, though. The writing is so good, and the characters so well drawn, you will have no problem remembering who they are and what they are going through.

Now my gripe: I wasn't happy with the ending of the novel. In fact, I said "What? That's the end???" out loud to my book. I then met with my personal book club, and I felt a bit better after discussing it with them. Some light was shed on the story, like the "Big Man" being Mubarek. That had gone sailing clear over my head! It helps to have some knowledge about Egypt's politics, past and present, and it helps to discuss it with others who can help read between the lines and decode some of what the author has written.

So, no surprise here, if your book club is willing to put some effort into the discussion, this book can be a great selection for you. If your book club just likes to "show up and chat," you may have a much shorter evening, unless your members are already quite knowledgeable about Egypt.

This book is fascinating to read now, considering all that's going on in Northern Africa and the Middle East. And the author, Alaa Al Aswany, has been quite outspoken during the recent revolution. There is another book by the Egyptian nobel laureate Naguib Mahfouz entitled Midaq Alley, which is often compared with The Yacoubian Building. I read it a few years ago and liked it, but not as much as this novel. You should read both and let me know what you think.

Should Your Book Club Read The Glass Room by Simon Mawer?

2011-03-04T08:54:00.000-08:00

This is an easy one. The answer is absolutely yes. Not only did everyone love this book, it made for a lively discussion in all my Literary Masters book groups.

The Glass Room was short-listed for the Man Booker last year, but defeated by The Finkler Question. Go figure. I had never read anything by Simon Mawer, but now I'm looking forward to picking up The Fall, recommended by one of my Literary Masters members.

Quick plot summary: It's the late 1920's in Czechoslovakia. Victor and Leisl Landauer want to build a house that embodies the future and that has nothing to do with the past. They hire an architect who doesn't build walls and ceilings--instead he captures space and light. Blazing the trail of what will come to be known as the modernist movement in architecture, he builds the Landauer couple a glass house, the main feature of which is the glass room, a sanctuary of calm, reason, and scientific rationality.

The thing is, a lot goes on inside this sanctuary, not all of it calm, reasonable or rational at all.

The book takes us through about 7 decades, and during that time we watch as various characters--with various agendas--enter and leave the glass room. Do they transform it? Does it transform them? That was something we discussed at length in our meetings.

Simon Mawer is a wonderful writer, so it's easy to speed through this book; I found it to be a compelling page-turner. But there's a lot there to think about and reflect upon, so it's worth slowing down and savoring this novel. The characters are intriguing, to say the least, and we talked about them in depth--their motivations, their desires, their self-delusions. How they tried to escape their histories--as well as their present places in time--but to no avail. And we talked about them as metaphors for what was going on at that time in the world.

Besides the characters, some of the things your book club may want to discuss: What the glass room represents. We started off each meeting with this question, and you'd be amazed at the various answers! I always find it fascinating that we can read the same words and interpret them differently. Don't forget to discuss the onyx wall!

You can all think about what this book is saying about history. The structure of the book, with its many parallels and echoes, adds much to this conversation.

This novel explores big ideas, and your book club may want to do the same. Science versus God, Nature versus Nurture, Science versus Art, Fate/destiny versus Randomness/chaos, Darwinism, Existentialism--they are all in there in some way, and you can have fun 'digging deep' into this literary treasure. (I am only touching on some of the themes in the book here--I'm telling you, it is chock full!)

The Glass Room is not a perfect book, but it has so many wonderful qualities, a reader can easily put up with the two annoying aspects of it (as mentioned by reader after reader)--the ending, and the continual coincidences that pepper the story and strain credibility. I happened to find neither annoying, and I think the coincidences underscore one of the main themes of the book, that is fate/destiny versus randomness/chaos.

I feel very comfortable highly recommending this book for an individual reader as well as for book groups. I cannot believe that The Finkler Question won the Man Booker over The Glass Room, but that's a discussion and a blog post for another day! Please let me know if your book club reads The Glass Room--and what you all think of it.

John The Revelator by Peter Murphy

2011-02-12T11:08:00.000-08:00

A few years back I read The Gathering by Anne Enright and it put me off Irish writers for a while. Silly, I know, but I hated that book. John The Revelator, however, just could bring me back into the fold--what a book. Bottom line: Read it! But only if you like to think about what you read. Should your book club read it? I think so, yes. There's loads to discuss--again, only if your group likes to think and will make an effort to dig into the layers of this gem.

Yes, it is a gem. With multiple facets. One facet is the coming-of-age narrative of John Devine, who lives with his mother in a small village in Ireland. Their relationship is what anchors John and what, in my opinion, also anchors the book. John's mom cleans all the houses in the village and tries to keep her son clean and on the straight and narrow with the good guidance of the bible. She is occasionally helped, whether she likes it or not, by their know-it-all neighbor, Mrs. Nagle. The love John's mom has for him is palpable, wafting through the cigarette fog that surrounds her. (Like any decent Irish novel there's lots of drinking and smoking.)

Another facet is the relationship John has with his new found friend, James Corboy, "a self-styled Rimbaudian boy wonder." James experiences life like John never has, and then writes stories about it. The question is, are the stories true? Story-telling, in fact, plays a big role in this book. The Irish are known for their talent at this, right?, and John loves to hear the tales others tell him. And what about the Catholic Church? It tells some whoppers, doesn't it? A great book club discussion could be about the novel's exploration of story-telling, writing, and where the truth lies.

Don't be fooled into thinking that nothing happens in this book, that it is, as I read someone say about it, just a bunch of stories or anecdotes strung together. It is far from that. James Corboy's writing, which are quite revelatory to both John and the reader, move the plot merrily along, but they also add much depth and meaning to the novel as a whole.

Speaking of writing, that is another facet of this gem; it is superbly poetic at times. John suffers from horrible dreams, and the descriptions are wonderfully weird, full of symbolism and metaphor. Great stuff for your book club to dig into. Hmm...James Corbey. Initials JC. Significant? My suspicion is that if you were raised Catholic, you will love this book! There's lots of fodder for a discussion about religion here. There is also a crow who plays a large role in John nightmares. Hmm...there was a rather important crow in The Twin, which I reviewed here. What's up with the crows?

All these facets combine to dazzle the reader--this is one of those books that I didn't want to put down, and I looked forward to curling up with it. Don't get me wrong, though--it's not a ripping page-turner. It's surprisingly dense and it forces the reader to slowly savor it. Honestly, it is like holding a gem in your hands--you should really examine it, turning it over to appreciate all its sides, all its splendor.

John The Revelator is on the long-list for the International IMPAC Dublin Award Literary Award, and I have high hopes for it. According to the book jacket, this is Peter Murphy's debut novel. I can't wait for more from him!

Amaryllis in Blueberry by Christina Meldrum in Book Stores February 8th!

2011-02-02T11:50:00.000-08:00

This is an exciting announcement! You loved Madapple, Christina Meldrum's debut novel, and you've asked repeatedly for more from this incredibly talented author. Well, the wait is over! Her new novel, Amaryllis in Blueberry, will be in book stores February 8th--that's next Tuesday! Her publisher, Gallery Books, a division of Simon & Schuster, thinks this book will be particularly loved by book clubs. And who better to decide that than us? Please let me know what you think of it after you read it!

Here's a link to a very cool video preview of the book:
http://youtu.be/tfaz9mJ0-IE

And here's some reviews from critics:
http://www.christinameldrum.com/amaryllis.php#praise

Happy Reading!

Should Your Book Club Read Family Album by Penelope Lively?

2011-01-25T18:40:00.000-08:00

As you know, Family Album was this month's Literary Masters book groups' novel. Wow, did it generate great discussions. If you're just reading for the bottom line, here it is: this is a really good book, but not everyone likes it. Some dismiss it as too light (until they are in one of my literary salons!) and some think it's just ho-hum. Most people, though, loved it. And it is a great choice for a book club.

Quick plot summary: Nine people living under the same roof, a large Edwardian house--called Allersmead--in the English countryside, are remembering their time there as a family. And family is what Allersmead is all about. Alison, the mother, raises a brood of six children with the help of her au pair Ingrid while the father Charles writes books in his library. Alison is, well, picture a frumpy Martha Stewart on steroids. If it's something that will scream "this is what a happy family does," then Alison does it. Anything to raise a happy family, right?

But as Tolstoy told us all, "All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way." As we get to know, through the various characters, what it was like growing up in Allersmead, we begin to sense something rather dark lurking under all that happy family business. And we come to learn why the family really is quite unhappy--in its very own way.

Penelope Lively's writing is ironic, subtle, and nuanced, and her portrait of the family seems simple but is deeply complex. Your book club could spend the entire meeting discussing the varied configurations of family members alone. You can discuss Allersmead as a character, some would say the most important character of the novel, and how it is a metaphor.

But there is so much more to discuss! The novel is a meditation on how memory works in many ways, and how it constructs our reality. You can talk about whether one can ever know, really know, a sibling or parent, or one's self for that matter. You can talk about how family stories or myths are built, and how they differ among family members. You can ponder why we remember some things from our childhood but not others.

Well, I could go on, but instead why don't you contact me for "Points to Ponder" for your book club to use. Now, I want to tell you to ask your book club the following question, but stop now if you haven't yet read the book. Come back when you have finished it, and ask them: SPOILER ALERT--"Who do you think cut up Charles' manuscript?"

Now, most people will think that Clare did it, because Ingrid tells Clare that she did it. However, a very astute reader in one of my groups has a different theory.

She thinks that Ingrid did it because she was angry with Charles. Remember now, this is the scene where Ingrid says to Charles "I am a servant." When Ingrid later tells Clare that she did it, Clare has no recollection of having done so. Yet Ingrid plants the myth of Clare's guilt by telling Clare she has done it, and this becomes the "truth" so to speak. As Gina says at the beginning of the story--"I'm never sure if you remember or are told."

Now don't forget to get back to me on what your book club thinks!

The Imperfectionists by Tom Rachman

2011-01-23T21:32:00.000-08:00

If you just want a quick "bottom line," here it is: read this book. It is so good. Let me warn you, however--it is not a novel in the traditional sense, but rather a series of vignettes taking place in or about the same Rome-based English language newspaper (think International Herald Tribune) at different times, with some characters from each chapter popping up as bit players or as the main attraction of other chapters.

This bothered me at first because I thought I was reading a traditional novel, but also, and more to the point, the writing captured me immediately, and I was so drawn into the first story that I wanted more. Once I realized the structure of the book, however, I went with it and just loved it.

So, rather than review each plot or character, let me say that Tom Rachman can write. The characters, the plots, the themes, the descriptions, the metaphors, everything is a pleasure. Loosely, the time period covers from 1953, when wealthy businessman Cyrus Ott decides to found an international newspaper in Rome, and progresses through to 2007, with Ott's grandson Oliver at the helm.

The structure of alternating chapters charts the ravages of time and progress on the paper itself, followed by a chapter that illuminates the (sometimes ravaged) lives of those who work for it. Rachman is so good at drawing his characters that you feel you know them in the short time you're with them, and you also get a feel for what it's like to be a journalist. Yikes!

Along with the superb characters and their stories is the setting of Rome, a place where I have been but I don't know well. Rachman knows it well and seems to love it; I was reminded of Ian McEwan's treatment of London in Saturday. The Imperfectionists made me want to go to Rome!

I highly recommend this book. It's compelling, it's clever, it's original, and it's a darn-tooting good read. Is it a good choice for a book club? Well, I think it could be tricky because of its structure, but if you have a group that really concentrates and will sit and draw connections between all the vignettes, then it could work. If you have a chatty club that doesn't focus well or have structured discussions, then I'd suggest you choose a more traditional novel.

Tell me what you think about The Imperfectionists. And Tom Rachman, if you're reading this, please write another book soon!

Should Your Book Club Read Foreign Bodies by Cynthia Ozick?

2011-01-12T21:45:00.000-08:00

My personal book club met the other night to discuss Foreign Bodies by Cynthia Ozick and the reception was extremely tepid. I don't want to beat a dead horse here, so for my first blog post on this book, look here.

I was a tad surprised at the group's consensus on this book. Everyone felt it was confusing for no apparent reason, and came away from it saying "huh?" There were eight of us gathered, and the other seven, like me, felt that perhaps they had missed something because they hadn't read The Ambassadors by Henry James. One member, let's call her Becky, actually made the effort to read about The Ambassadors on Wikipedia, but came away from it with very little insight--into either book!

Another member, let's call her Susan, said that she thought the book was all about people who didn't fit in somewhere--or who were foreign--struggling to belong. Marvin (the horrid father) is Jewish and so hasn't had entry to many places he desired; his son Julian is a foreigner in Paris, as is his wife. Her foreign status is underscored by the fact that she's a refugee, and being Romanian, a not very welcome refugee to boot. So, yes, that is that concern running through the story.

Someone, let's call her Mary, mentioned that Bea undergoes the biggest transformation in the novel. I alluded to her change in my earlier blog post, and I can add here that she succeeds in shedding the suffocating control of her former husband and her horrid brother. Someone, let's call her Barbara, thought that the former husband was worse than Bea's brother. Which brings me to another point we discussed:

The lack of sympathetic characters in this book.

Let's call her Lisa said she did like one person--Margaret, whom Marvin had sent off to the looney bin. The rest of us, however, couldn't find anyone we cared about (well, maybe Lily a little bit), and wondered if that's what was wrong with the book. Not that I think the characters have to be likable or sympathetic for a book to be good--I don't think that at all. But there was something about this book that left us all...unsatisfied.

We then discussed the "group-think" of book critics, and wondered whether Cynthia Ozick was just getting by on her reputation. Most of us liked her writing quite a bit; you'll remember that in my earlier blog post I said it sparkled. But this novel is not as wonderful as the book critics made it out to be, and that makes me wonder about the book critics!

Now, is it a good choice for a book club? I would say yes IF you read The Ambassadors along with it. Otherwise, I'm not sure I would select it. There are other books out there I would choose first.

Do you disagree? Tell me, what do you think of Foreign Bodies?

The Hand That First Held Mine by Maggie O'Farrell

2011-01-10T07:55:00.001-08:00

Two alternating narratives, one taking place in bohemian London, mainly set in Soho during the fifties and sixties, the other mostly in North London in the present day. Seemingly unconnected at first, the trajectories of the parallel stories will arrive at the same point.

Lexie and Innes are living in Soho, trying to get a fledgling magazine on its feet. They are captivating and compelling characters, as is the time in which they live. We watch them meet, court, work together, grow as individuals, and make what mark they can on London and on history. We get drawn into their lives, but then, just as we're feeling pretty cozy with them, we switch to the story of...

...Elina and Ted in present day North London. Elina has recently given birth to Jonah, and evidently it was a horrific experience that she almost didn't survive. I'm not sure what relevance that has to the story (something your book club can discuss!), but we spend quite some time worrying with Ted over Elina's well-being and stability. We experience the daily reality of new motherhood with her, and see the impact the new baby is having on her and Ted's relationship. It takes us awhile to realize that it is Ted we should be worrying about, not Elina. What is wrong with him? What are the flashes of memory he's experiencing? What has he been through that we don't know--that he doesn't know?

Eventually the mystery starts to clear, and we can work out what the connection between the two narratives is. I don't know if I was slow or spot on at this, but even when I was fairly certain I had it all worked out, I still wanted to read on, to find out the whys and the hows and the what nexts. And I think I just wanted more of the characters. I really liked them. In fact...

I quite enjoyed this book. Although let me say up front that the same things I liked about it also annoyed me a tiny bit.

The writing, for instance. Maggie O'Farrell is a terrific writer and some passages were fabulous, really fabulous; I especially liked when she would rewind a scene, taking the reader through it as though we were actually viewing it. I felt like I was watching a screen. She also built a good deal of suspense into the story, and I was sucked into reading late into the night, needing to know more.

But--paradoxically--I found the pace of the novel somewhat slow at times. I only say this because I can imagine some book group members getting frustrated, and, after giving it some thought, I feel any reader of The Hand That First Held Mine has to...just succumb to its timing and rhythms--they are part of the beauty of the book.

Another book group frustration I'm anticipating: the characters aren't deep enough. Well, I loved these characters, every one. Did I want more of them? Yes. Could I have appreciated more depth? Yes. But these characters are so interesting, I think each one could stand his or her own novel. Again, this is something your book group can discuss.

All in all, this is a worthy novel (it did just win the Costa Award!), and one that I think is good for a book group discussion. If you want "Points to Ponder" for this novel, contact me!

A Personal Matter by Kenzaburo Oe

2011-01-07T10:00:00.000-08:00

Kenzaburo Oe won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1994, but I hadn't read any of his books until this one. My brother--the one who never goes to the library because he doesn't like used books--is really into Japanese literature. He gave me a stack of novels last week by various authors, and I chose this one because it was short--only 165 pages.

But those pages really do pack a wallop.

This book is not for everyone. And I don't think I could choose it for my Literary Masters book groups. Although it's very literary and there is much to think about, explore, and appreciate, the subject matter is quite painful. The protagonist Bird's son has just been born with a grotesque deformity protruding from his head. We follow Bird as he reacts to and tries to escape from this shocking reality, and much of the book is very bleak, bordering on kind of sick in some parts.

Yet it's really good. I found myself looking forward to getting back to it, I think because, along with all the depravity, there is also deep psychological understanding and human compassion in the story. Although Oe taps into our deepest fears, he also illuminates the resilience and courage that we are capable of.

For those who can handle the subject matter and who don't mind reading something that isn't, well, pleasant, I highly recommend this book. If you read it, let me know what you think. I am looking forward to my next novel by Kenzaburo Oe. I should go look at that stack of books my brother gave me...

Costa Award Winners by Category

2011-01-05T07:27:00.000-08:00

The Costa Awards, the prestigious literary prize formerly known as the Whitbread Awards, has announced the winners of its categories--novel, debut novel, biography, poetry, and children's book. The Hand That First Held Mine by Maggie O'Farrell has won for the novel category, and I can't wait to get my hands on it!

The overall winner for the Costa Book of the Year will be chosen from the catefory winners, and will be announced later this month, so stay tuned!

To learn more, go to http://www.costabookawards.com/index.aspx

Coffee and a great book--what's not to love?

How Not to Act Old by Pamela Redmond Satran

2011-01-04T06:02:00.000-08:00

This book is hilarious! A friend gave it to me recently (hmm...was she hinting at something?) and I have been laughing ever since. Comprised of 185 tips on how not to act old, this little gem was written precisely with me in mind, I am sure. Its aim is for anyone over the advanced and senile age of 40, but I swear, it really was written just for me.

Take, for instance, tip #52: don't yell into your cell phone. How many times have my children accused me of doing just that? Well, every time I'm on my cell phone, actually. And what about tip #32: don't be proud of being befuddled by technology. Right, I'm going to stop referring to myself as a luddite immediately. Just using the word "luddite" is probably old.

As I was gobbling down each tip as if it were a rejuvenating vitamin sure to reverse the decay and decline that has already set in, I kept thinking, yes, that's true, that's right, that's exactly how it is. I must be old!

Satran has a razor sharp eye and wit to go with it, and I thoroughly enjoyed her book. She also has a blog--from which the book was launched--you can access it at www.hownottoactold.com. You can access it? I'm sure there's a younger way to say that.

Comedy in a Minor Key by Hans Keilson

2010-12-28T10:54:00.000-08:00

Written in 1947 by Hans Keilson, this German novella, translated brilliantly by Damion Searls, is a quick little read that will stick with you for quite some time. The story is simple: Wim and Marie, a Dutch couple, take the decision to hide a Jew called Nico in their home. Although the trio is faced with an extraordinary situation, they endeavor to keep life as ordinary as possible.

Until Nico unexpectedly dies.

I didn't give anything away there; you find out about his death in the first few pages. But Wim and Marie must now deal with his body, and therein lies the 'comedy' mentioned in the title. I must warn you, though: you'll only laugh if you find the cosmic sense of humor funny.

There's a lot in this novel for a book club to discuss, but most of it will be quite heavy. If your group is up for an existential journey, then it could be a good choice. If not, I still highly recommend this book for any individual reader--it really makes you stop and think about life and its meanings, or lack thereof. For a more in-depth and wonderful review by Francine Prose of this and Keilson's other work, The Death of the Adversary, click here: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/08/books/review/Prose-t.html

2010-12-24T07:25:00.000-08:00

Literary Masters has a Facebook page. I say this with mixed feelings. I hate it when people of my generation (not that old, just not that young either, never mind the specifics) act disdainful toward the current craze of social networking and all that entails, you know, Facebook, Twitter and the like. Instant info, constant sharing, keeping it short, what's the buzz now. I'm not against any of it, I just wonder about the value of it all. And I wonder, where is it taking us?

I mean, after all, I run book groups and literary salons. We're kind of the antithesis of what I've just described. We take time to read books. We take time to think about what we've read. We take time to 'dig deep' into what we've read and we take time to discuss what we've read.

And I think every single person in every one of my groups would tell you that there is tremendous value in what we do. Not only do we connect with each other every month, we connect with readers across time, we reflect on what it means to be on this earth, and we contemplate how we want to live.

Hmm...that was a bit heavy.

Having said all that, I agree with Tracy from the musical Hairspray, who sings, "You can't stop an avalanche when it's racing down the hill," and so I am, better late than never, going to embrace my new Facebook page. I'm not sure where it's leading me, but I'm curious. So, I plan to update it frequently. Go there today and you'll find a last minute gift suggestion--one of the funniest books I've read all year.

So please visit Literary Masters on Facebook. And let me know if you "like" it!

The Writers' Block at KQED

2010-12-03T15:37:00.000-08:00

KQED, the San Francisco Bay Area affiliate of NPR, contacted me to say that Nicole Krauss, author of Great House, the novel I blogged about here, recently read from her book on KQED's weekly reading series "The Writers' Block."

KQED thought my "readers at Stick With Lit might be interested." Thanks so much, KQED!

Readers, let me know what you think. You can find the episode here:

http://www.kqed.org/arts/programs/writersblock/episode.jsp?essid=38566

You can also embed the reading - you'll find the code to the right of the
audio player.

Foreign Bodies by Cynthia Ozick

2010-11-23T08:31:00.000-08:00

This was my first introduction to Cynthia Ozick. I read two reviews of Foreign Bodies; both said it was a clever re-working of Henry James' The Ambassadors, and both assured me that one could read, understand, and enjoy the former without having read the latter.

So, I read and enjoyed Foreign Bodies in a couple of days. Did I understand it? Hmm...I think so. Although I must admit, I feel like I'm missing... something.

Quick plot summary: It's 1952 and Marvin Nachtigall has asked his sister Bea to interrupt her European vacation in order to locate Marvin's wayward son Julian and make him return to his studies in America and the life Marvin feels he should lead.

Bea does as she is asked, sort of. Resenting her horrid brother's presumptive attitude (and he really is horrid), she does locate Julian, now living in Paris with his older and traumatized wife, a Romanian refugee, but she makes little effort to repatriate him. Instead, she takes matters into her own hands.

Bea, who has been virtually absent from her brother's adult life and the lives of his children, now interacts not only with Julian, but also with Julian's narcissistic sister Iris and their mother Margaret, who has been shunted off for a stay at an asylum. (Evidently she can't take the strain of missing her son for so long, but the reader understands that she must really want to escape her horrid husband.) Bea also interacts, not only through memories but also in reality, with her former husband, Leo, another semi-horrid person.

Interacting is big for Bea, because she hasn't done much of it (that the reader can see) up until now. A life passing one by, or living the life that others have chosen for you, or being an observer of the lives of others--are all themes running through this novel, and Bea falls into all three categories. Until now. Now Bea asserts herself, and the consequences are...startling.

I liked this book, or I should say I liked Ozick's writing. It's sparkling. And inventive. And captivating. It kind of dazzles. However, I can't help feeling that I came away from the book with an appreciation of the surface of the story, but not the depths. As horrid as many of the characters were, I wanted to know more about them, and maybe in not such a clever way as Ozick delivers them.

Somehow I feel (and I could be wrong) that if I read The Ambassadors, I just might gain greater access to Foreign Bodies. Or perhaps I should have the members of my Literary Masters book groups read it, and together we can "dig deep" into it and see just what kind of literary gem we have unearthed.

What about you? Have you read Foreign Bodies? What do you think about it?

The Twin by Gerbrand Bakker

2010-11-22T10:56:00.000-08:00

The Twin by Gerbrand Bakker first came to my attention as I sought recent prize-winning novels for my Literary Masters book groups to read. The Twin won the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award for 2010. I read a couple of bloggers' reviews and the book sounded a tad slow and dull, not something that would appeal to my members. My library doesn't carry it, and I never saw it in any book store, so it sort of fell off my radar.

Then one day recently I visited a local school's book fair and there it was. And it just looked so...inviting. I know that's silly. I mean, I've blogged about whether one should judge a book by its cover, but there was something about the aesthetics of this book that compelled me to buy it.

I'm so glad that I did.

I felt like I escaped into a different world while I read this book. The prose is spare but so captivating, I had a hard time putting the book down and looked forward to curling up with it whenever I had the chance.

The setting is a farm in Holland that seems to have escaped the progress of time. Helmer, the narrator and son who lives on the farm with his now dying father, seems to have missed the progress of time, but not of his own choosing. We find out that Helmer is the surviving twin of Henk, who died twenty years previously in an accident caused by his then fiance, Riet. Banished from the family, Riet hasn't been heard from in twenty years. Out of the blue, she contacts Helmer to ask if he will take on her somewhat troubled son, also named Henk, as a farm-hand. Young Henk comes to stay for awhile, and the reader now not only spends time with Helmer, his dad, and the young Henk, but also encounters the many ghosts that Helmer conjures as he shares his memories.

The thing about this book is that the writing makes it seem like there's nothing going on; the daily life as described by Helmer, the narrator, isn't exactly exciting. He tells us about his redecorating the house, taking care of the farm animals, interacting with the few people he comes in contact with.

And then every so often, something happens--something significant--and the reader realizes that there is a whole heck of a lot going on. The writing is so subtle, though, the depth of the story as well as the depth of the characters can be missed. You know by now that when I read a book I always have my book groups in mind. Will the members find it fascinating? Does it lend itself to a good discussion? Well, I can't say the tone and pace of the book are for everyone, but there is plenty there to "dig deep into."

There is emotion and feeling pulsing beneath the restraint of the surface--of both the writing and the characters. And there's plenty of metaphors sitting there just waiting to be 'dug into' by a book group. Clocks, crows, the rooms of the house and other spaces, are just a few.

I look forward to reading this book again so I can glean more than I did the first time. And I know I'll enjoy re-reading it; it's just that pleasurable.

The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde

2010-11-20T12:40:00.000-08:00

For a review of this classic tale, please visit www.mrsmagooreads.com for a Mama Magoo Review!

The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne by Brian Moore

2010-11-17T12:44:00.000-08:00

I loved this book! I sat down and practically finished it in one reading. Written in 1955, it tells the story of Judith Hearne, a woman with a limited life view, a rigid code of behavior, an imagination that often supplants reality, and a wicked secret that threatens to destroy her.

Judith has done the right thing, much to the detriment of her own happiness. Caring for her dying aunt, Judith has missed out on life. No husband, no job, no opportunities. But she has a way of coping. Well, more than one way, but I don't want to give too much of the story away. Suffice to say, and this is what I loved about this book, one way she copes is by imagining an alternative reality. And she does it so subtly (Moore's writing is so brilliant) that you go along with her, thinking it's real until you realize, hold on, she's got it all wrong. However, by that time you can see just how and why her fantasies would have carried her so far; after all, you've been carried along as well. Moore makes Judith such a pitiable character, not only do you allow her those fantasies--you wish for them to come true.

I finished this book and put Brian Moore on my list of authors that I must read more of. His writing immediately carried me to a place and time that I now feel I know intimately. This book is a winner--run, don't walk, to your bookstore and enjoy it!

Great House by Nicole Krauss

2010-11-15T11:58:00.000-08:00

Thanks for all your emails and phone calls; I am doing just fine, thanks. The reason I've not blogged in a while is that I've been reading! As you know, my Literary Masters Book Groups' selected book for this coming February has not yet been announced. I purposely left that month open so I could choose a red-hot-just-won-the-award prize-winning novel. After all, this time of year is quite exciting; we have the Nobel in Literature, the Man Booker, and, days away, the National Book Award.

The book I'm blogging about today--Great House by Nicole Krauss--is a finalist for the National Book Award. I read a great review of this novel, and I love last year's National Book Award Winner, Let the Great World Spin, by Colum McCann. You know I love that book--it's this month's selected novel!

But back to Great House. I am so torn about this book. I feel like the author wrote the book on a pile of cards, shuffled the cards, dropped the cards, picked them and shuffled them some more, then published the book. I get the post-modern literary thing, really, I do, but I just kept thinking while reading this book, did she have to make it this so bloody difficult to follow? Is the structure carrying some meaning to me as reader?

The different chapters or sections of the book are mirror-imaged against each other, with the center (or roof if you like an image of a house) being "Lies Told by Children." The chapters are tied together through the seemingly disparate characters and a certain significant desk, although I can understand an impatient reader missing the connections altogether. I confess, I finished the book--and believe me, I read this book carefully--and I am still wondering who was related to whom and who did what. I think the lies (referred to above in the chapter title) are actually told by the father, not the children, but I'm not sure.

There are certain books with a complicated structure whose writing is so beautiful it pulls you through the difficulty of the plot and in the end you realize that the structure of the story is indeed perfect to its whole. I'm thinking of The English Patient, for example. And Let the Great World Spin, while not having an extremely complex structure, still demands a certain amount of attention from the reader to make all the wonderful connections between the ostensibly separate chapters. But McCann's writing is so poetic, the effort that the reader makes is a pleasurable one.

I'm sorry I can't say the same for Great House. Perhaps a second reading with illuminate a lot for me, but I'm not sure I want to spend my time re-reading it. On the one hand, I'd like my book groups to read it, so we can all figure it out. On the other hand, I'm not sure I want to subject my members to such a task.

I'm going to wait for the National Book Awards announcement this week. Should Great House win, I'm sure lots of people will write about it, and perhaps I can glean something from what they say. Perhaps even Nicole Krauss will shed some light on her work. So, stay tuned. Perhaps there's more to come.

Freedom by Jonathan Franzen

2010-10-14T15:19:00.000-07:00

My personal book club discussed Freedom by Jonathan Franzen last night. I was at a disadvantage; having read it three weeks ago, I couldn't remember too many details--like plot, for example. You all know by now that my memory is abominable. You know what, though? Another member, let's call her Barbara, was railing against the conventional wisdom that Freedom is the new Great American Novel. And she said that although she enjoyed it, it was not memorable in any way whatsoever. So perhaps it's not my memory at fault here. Perhaps I've forgotten about Freedom largely because it's...forgettable.

This is not to say that it's not a romping good read. I found that I was looking forward to curling up with it each night; it's very compelling. However, although I think it is fantastically popular because it zeroes in on and illuminates our zeitgeist in a brilliant fashion, I still found it lacking in any profound message or moment of sublime art. I wasn't, in a word, moved.

My book club colleagues didn't even like the book as much as I had. They found it dark, dark, dark, and they got sick of the extreme self-absorption of the characters. Barbara found it structurally flawed; she didn't find any part of it believable, and she didn't like that it seemed to slip in and out of being satirical--almost like it couldn't decide what it was.

Another member, let's call her Elizabeth, said she found the sex in the book appalling, and it had to have been Jonathan Franzen's fantasies working their way out there. No woman would have written the sex scenes as he did. I won't detail our conversation surrounding this issue, but Elizabeth had us in stitches laughing.

The characters weren't likable (not that they should be), but some of us didn't even find them realistic. The cad of the story, Richard, aka Dick for the obvious reasons, was the only honest one, we decided. Lots of smothering-type relationships going on; we liked that Joey resented his mother for smothering him, so he married someone who was the antithesis of her. Even if his wife was bizarrely self-effacing. Oh, was Joey really in love with his wife's mother? Remember the MILF reference?

Anyway, if you want the plot you can go onto one of the hundreds (it seems) stellar reviews of this novel. We did wonder if there is a bit of group-think going on with the critics when it comes to this book, by the way. Oprah? Really? But now it's been snubbed by the National Book Award powers-that-be, so maybe not. Back to plot, suffice to say here that it is, in my book club's humble opinion, overly ambitious and would have been better if Franzen had not thrown in the kitchen sink, if you know what I mean.

I did really enjoy one gem of discovery that I'd like to share with you. I read Corrections years ago and the only scene I remember has to do with I think it's the father who is suffering from Alzheimer's flinging around his poop. Or dreaming about it or something. Anyway, there was a lot of poop in the scene. And now in Freedom, there is the scene where Joey has to dig through his poop to retrieve the wedding ring he has swallowed. What's up with that? Could this scene in Freedom be a metaphor for the shit (pardon the vulgarity) that everyone has to go through in a marriage in order to retain the relationship? Could we go further and say it's a metaphor for the shit everyone has to go through in life in order to grab the golden ring?

You decide as you read it. For it really is, notwithstanding the above comments, worth reading!

Wrapping Up The Lacuna by Barbara Kingsolver

2010-09-18T15:08:00.000-07:00

Well, this was not an easy read, and some members couldn't stick with the book; I understand--Kingsolver is not for everyone. However, most of us loved The Lacuna. We liked that it is such a rich novel--there are so many layers to it and so much to discuss. And we even made an attempt to look at the novel through some lenses of literary theory: New Criticism, Cultural Criticism, and Post-colonialism.

Some of the members' insightful comments that I want to highlight here (these are almost bullet points because I am short on time--I have to move on to The Picture of Dorian Gray--and go to the grocery store!):

A big part of what this book is about is voice. Harrison has to find his and he does so by giving a voice to the "mute culture" of the ancient Mexicans. However, his own voice is then silenced by the howler monkeys--the press--as he refuses to answer or respond to their claims of 'fact' and their allegations against him. His silence here got us talking about the public vs private person of a writer or other notable. Just how much does a writer owe his/ her readers? Harrison's voice, through his words, are refused an audience as the public turns against him, but in the end, his voice, through the words of Violet Brown, are written down--and survive.

Voice leads to words and language and we all talked about the power of language and how it can create a 'reality' that is then taken for fact, but isn't necessarily 'real' or 'true.' Or perhaps isn't the entire story. This led into a discussion of perspective.

Even the structure of the book, a mix of journal, memoir, clippings, and more, seems to shout out that there are different angles from which to view something or someone. Which led us into a discussion about what truth is--is there such a thing, or is it just a perspective? Or is it a consensus of perspectives?

This led us into a discussion of the lacuna--the missing part to the story. Well, there were a lot of lacunae that we discussed. For example, one member saw the lacuna as an empty space to be given definition by others. And tied this to the identity of Harrison.

Other members saw the lacuna as a void or abyss. A scary, potentially fatal place to pass through and come into a sort of rebirth on the other side. We tied this to the birth of identity of Harrison when Frida sent him his notes and papers--when he could then become a writer.

Some members saw the lacuna as a gap to be filled--the missing part of the story--and tied this to what the press does when they don't know the full story--they just fill it in with whatever they want.

Which then got us talking--isn't there always more to the story? Can we ever know all there is to know about someone or something?

We also talked about the gap as what we fill in as readers--it's the space of interpretation between what is said and what isn't.

We all loved the howler monkeys--and we talked about the game of telephone--one person tells another who tells another and by the end of the chain--gossip, rumor, innuendo becomes fact, becomes reality, becomes truth and history.

One member brought up the fear that is pervasive in the book--Harrison's fear, the public's fear, the fear of those times, the fear of our times.

And we talked about history. Everyone agreed that the book was saying that history repeats itself--so watch out! Many of us found this to be depressing, but one member said, no, there is a hopeful message that we can get off this runaway train of history through art. I really love thinking about this...

We talked about art and politics and I look forward to more discussions about art as the season progresses. Does art, and this includes literature, have an obligation to be political? Or is it political without even trying to be? Can you separate politics from art?

Many of us agreed that this novel is an indictment of the press and of group-think. An indictment of taking what others have told us for fact and not looking deeper ourselves for the missing parts. And then, interestingly, we talked about how this novel is just another source of information that we need to consider in the context of its missing parts. Kingsolver can be pretty heavy-handed politically, and isn't she doing the exact same thing that she is criticizing others for doing? Isn't she only telling part of the story, her version of the story? Yet again, can you ever tell the whole story? Isn't there, as we asked above, always more to the story? Isn't there always another lacuna?

We talked about flatness of the characters, especially Harrison, and agreed that he is really a vehicle to get the points of the story across to us, and to take us on a journey through history. Many didn't like the book because they couldn't warm up to the characters, and one member said she absolutely hated the novel and thought it was absurd. Most everyone enjoyed reading about Frida and Diego--how could you not?

We talked about lots more, but I'm going to wrap this up right now and let YOU weigh in and POST A COMMENT. Tell me what I've forgotten, tell me your thoughts, tell me whatever you like!

Man Booker Short List Announced

2010-09-08T06:31:00.000-07:00

Six novels have made the short list cut for the prestigious Man Booker Award. Here's the link if you would like to know more:

www.themanbookerprize.com/news/stories/1451

I am bummed that The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet, our :Literary Masters book groups choice for May, didn't make the list. I do have one of the short listed books sitting on my 'To Be Read' shelf: Parrot and Olivier in America by Peter Carey. He's already won the prize twice, so there's a lot of hoopla about whether he can pull a hat trick. I'm not a big fan of his, which is one of the reasons I haven't yet read this latest one. Perhaps I'll give it a go soon.

Room, which I blogged about a couple of posts below (but you knew that, right?) made the cut and is apparently one of the favorites. I still don't want to read it.

The Long Song by Andrea Levy made the list. Now I read this book recently and really enjoyed it. It's a story told by a Jamaican slave and her voice is humorous, touching, and incredibly unique. I've been thinking about using this book for the month of February's Literary Masters book groups. Hmmm...

The winner of the prize will be announced October 12th. Until then, we can all hold our breath. How about you? Have you read any of the books on the short list?

I'll Read These Books 'Cuz the Movies Were Great!

2010-08-29T12:02:00.000-07:00

Okay, I think I'm a tad behind everyone else here, but I recently watched two films that blew me away, and now I want to read the books they were based on. The first film, Touching the Void, was so good, I did something I never do--I watched the special features about how the movie was made. And I loved that part, too!

Quick plot summary: It's 1985 and two climbing partners, both from England, head out to the Peruvian Andes to climb the 20,813 foot Siula Grande. As yet, no one has been able to do this, but that doesn't stop Simon and Joe.

The film alternates between Simon and Joe facing the camera, telling their story, and movie actors reenacting the expedition. It sounds sort of cheesy, but it works--I got so sucked in, even though I knew I was watching actors, my heart was racing as I worried for them!

I'm not giving anything away--you must know that the climb goes wrong, because there wouldn't be a film about it otherwise, right? So, anyway, the two climbers make it to the summit. It's quite dramatic along the way, and we cheer for them at the top. However--did you know that 80% of mountain accidents happen on the descent? I didn't know that, but Simon and Joe do--and they realize that their job is not even close to being over.

So, down they climb.

And things are going quite well. Until Joe breaks his leg--badly. At this point, Simon could ditch Joe, but he doesn't; instead he engineers some sort of knot and pulley system that will allow him to lower the two of them down the mountain. A brief side note here: never, ever underestimate the importance of knowing how to tie knots. I wish I had been a boy scout. Or a sailor. (I was a girl scout for a short while, and I did earn a cooking badge. No jokes, those of you who have experienced my cuisine.)

Back to the story: things are going quite well. Simon lowers Joe down via the rope, waits for his signal--a tug from Joe--and then Simon can rework the pulley system and lower himself. The system is working until, all of a sudden, things go disastrously wrong.

Joe goes flying over a precipice and is literally dangling in mid-air.

Simon, waiting well up the mountain for his signal, has no idea why Joe is not tugging. As he begins to fear the worst, Simon waits and waits. He is seated precariously on a slope, holding onto the rope, and he sees a storm blowing in. Eventually it is clear: either Simon has to cut the rope, sending Joe to a certain death, or he--Simon--will be pulled off his perch and the two of them will die.

Well, what would you do?

Simon cuts the rope, Joe plunges, and then the story really gets good. Because Joe doesn't die. And what he goes through, what he survives, what he does in his situation, is beyond astonishing. From a psychological viewpoint, I found it fascinating to listen to him speak about being so close to death--almost going through it as it were--and then finding life on the other side.

What or who do you turn to when faced with almost certain death? God? Your wits? Fate? And can there ever be something good to come out of such a harrowing experience? These and other questions are answered by Joe, but I wonder, how different would the answers be coming from someone else? How different would my own answers be? I don't want to know!

What Simon goes through is a whole other story. I'm telling you--if the book is even half as good as the film, it would be fantastic for a book group!

Okay, moving on: the next film is Revolutionary Road. First of all, can I ask, is there anything that Kate Winslet cannot do? She is extraordinary! I was reading a lot and not going to the movies the year she was nominated for two Oscars, one for The Reader and one for Revolutionary Road. It took me awhile to rent the dvd's and I must say, I really disliked The Reader.

However, I loved Revolutionary Road. Quick plot summary (really, this time I will be quick): a married couple in the 1950's thinks they are special. They have an idea of an ideal life, one that doesn't contain middle-management jobs, mortgages, and children. In other words, one that isn't exactly like the life they are living.

So they decide to throw it all in and move to Paris. The passion that Kate Winslet's character displays drives them, but will it be able to surmount all the obstacles, both societal and personal, that are thrown in their way?

Again, from a psychological viewpoint, this portrait of a 1950's marriage is riveting, and its insight into human nature and human needs grabs one by the throat with its bold truth.

I loved this movie, and cannot wait to get my hands on the book. What about YOU? Have you read either of these books? Are they as good as the films?

Two Books I Probably Won't Read

2010-08-19T07:07:00.001-07:00

I'm suffering from insomnia at the moment, so I just finished reading a couple of good articles online. One is in the NY Times and suggests that the growth in popularity of e-books is going to be for bookstores what the meteorite was for the dinosaurs. It got me thinking...without bookstores, readers won't be able to browse around the store's shelves to find books. They will rely more heavily on the reviews of professional readers, such as...hmm, let me see, oh, hello! Can I be of assistance?

The other article was in the Guardian. It discussed the novel Room by Emma Donoghue, which has been long-listed for the Man Booker prize. Evidently the book is about a five year old boy and his mother who are held captive in a room--for years. There is a man who comes in the dark to bring necessities--and to take his own--but that's the only contact, save for the television, that the mother and son have with the outside world.

I read about this book when the long list was announced, and thought yuck, I don't want to read that. However, this article:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2010/aug/13/emma-donoghue-room-josef-fritzl

makes it sound very interesting and rather worthwhile. Donoghue certainly is articulate when discussing her novel. She defends herself from the accusation that she is sensationalizing and exploiting the true-life horror story of Franz Fritzl, the Austrian who kept his daughter in a room for decades and fathered seven children by her. You've heard about him, right?

This book may have been "triggered" (Donoghue's word) by that incident, but it is not about that. The author discusses how it is about the parent/ child relationship and the love that can withstand, and transcend, the ordinary--and the strange. She says, "Really, everything in Room is just a defamiliarisation of ordinary parenthood...The idea was to focus on the primal drama of parenthood: the way from moment to moment you swing from comforter to tormentor, just as kids simultaneously light up our lives and drive us nuts. I was trying to capture that strange, bipolar quality of parenthood. For all that being a parent is normal statistically, it's not normal psychologically. It produces some of the most extreme emotions you'll ever have." She goes on to say " I wanted to focus on how a woman could create normal love in a box."

The author of the Guardian article, Sarah Crown, goes on to contrast Room with another novel that won the Orange Prize and that was "sparked" (Crown's word) by another real life tragedy--the Columbine shootings--We Need to Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver. Crown points out that in Shriver's novel "a mother and her son create hell in the heart of a middle-class idyll," while in Room, "Ma and Jack conjure humdrum beauty out of a kind of hell."

Hmm, although I know both these novels have received high praise from critics and the lay reader alike, I just don't think I want to spend my limited time with them. What about you? Have you read these books? Do you want to?

I Love You But I Hate the Book You Recommended

2010-08-18T19:44:00.000-07:00

I read a funny article in the Guardian book blog today:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/booksblog/2010/aug/18/book-recommendations-go-wrong

The author contemplates the existential questions that arise when someone you love recommends a book that you don't. He asks: "Does this mean, when a fellow book lover gives you a book you hate, the person didn't really know you, or had an erroneous idea of you in their mind? Does it mean you don't really know yourself? Does it mean the self is fundamentally unknowable, at least through the contents of a bookshelf?"

This cracked me up.

He uses as an example The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera, a book given to him by a quasi-romantic interest, and one which he has tried numerous times to read but has never finished because...he doesn't like it.

I can relate to this because my brother, you know, the one noted in earlier posts who won't read used books and never goes to the library, gave me that book as a gift. Now I'm not sure he had read it, so technically it wasn't a recommendation--and I imagine gifted books raise different existential questions than recommended books. Anyway, I absolutely could not get through it. And I really, really persevered, and was terribly disappointed that I had done so because I ended up finally just closing it with a thump! that's it!--I cannot read another word of this unintelligible rot.

Here's a confession, though--I feel like this is a book I should read, and I do feel that I will pick it up again one day and get through it. And maybe even understand it.

But what about when I am recommending an entire year's worth of books for my book group members to read? That's a lot of pressure! What if they don't like what I've chosen? Yikes!

Well, we all know that you can't please all the people all the time, and over the years some members have, believe it or not, disliked some of my choices. I know, I know, hard to believe but there you are. Anyway, I take the advice that I would give to anyone else. I use criteria by which to judge a book--for instance this year we are reading contemporary prize winners--and if I've stuck to that criteria and if I find the book is literary and worth reading--and worth discussing--then I really don't worry about whether someone likes it or not.

You see, I don't think reading a book should necessarily be easy, and I don't think books worth reading should necessarily be likable. I think books should makes us think, make us feel, make us wonder, make us question, make us...change.

Yes, I will definitely pick up The Unbearable Lightness of Being again--and I will finish it!

What do you think? Is it important for you to like what you're reading?

The Slap by Christos Tsiolkas

2010-08-16T07:23:00.000-07:00

The Slap won the Australian Literary Society Gold Medal. Really?

The Slap was shortlisted for the Miles Franklin Award and the Colin Roderick Award. Really??

The Slap is currently on the long list for the Man Booker Prize. Really???

I'm sorry, but I just don't get it. I found myself speed-reading this book to get it over with, and I cannot recommend it at all. Not at all.

Quick plot summary: Somewhere in the suburbs of Australia, a little boy is slapped at a BBQ by a man who is not his father. This event is used by the author as a device to delve into the lives of the novel's characters, eight of whom become the individual, central focus of a chapter of the book. The slap itself becomes a sort of signifier as each character places his or her meaning upon it and simultaneously takes from it what he or she wants.

Forget the seediness of the characters. Forget the ubiquitous and uninteresting sex scenes. Forget all the drug use. Forget the self-destruction running rampant through the novel. I wouldn't have a problem with any of this--not if the book were well written. But it's not. At times I thought Tsiolkas was trying to write a short story in each chapter, threading the slap through them all--to bind them together. But the chapters weren't interesting enough on their own to survive such a structure.

Instead of using the entire novel to build and develop the life of an individual character, he tried to cram it all into the one chapter devoted to that character's point of view. The result was tedious and boring. I didn't care about the characters, and consequently, I didn't care about the novel.

And I couldn't help thinking, even as I read the female voices of the novel, that this book just screams out that it was written by a man. When I'm hearing the author's voice overriding the narrators' voices, that's a problem, isn't it?

Perhaps this novel is meant to be some sort of mosaic or kaleidoscopic look at modern Australian society. Maybe. Again, I find I really don't care.

This was my "beach read" this summer. Hmm...I need another vacation. How about you? What was your "beach read"?

Brooklyn by Colm Toibin

2010-08-09T12:25:00.000-07:00

I had come across this title a few times while perusing the long and short lists for award-winning fiction. However, the description--something about Ireland, a priest, a move to New York--put me off reading it. It was while reviewing the Guardian's article on authors recommending just two reads for the summer that it caught my eye again. I believe Tom Stoppard called this novel "flawless."

Far be it from me to argue with Tom Stoppard, so I won't delve into whether I think it's flawless or not, but I will say it is a touching, thought-provoking, wonderful book. It evoked A Tree Grows in Brooklyn more than once for me, with its descriptions of New York, seen through the eyes of innocence. The atmosphere of the book absolutely captivated me.

Quick plot review: It's the fifties in Ireland. Eilis' family decides it's time for her to make her way in the world, and what better place to do it than in Brooklyn, USA, the land of promise--and where the local Irish priest has many contacts who can help Eilis get settled.

Before she knows it, Eilis finds herself sick as a dog on a ship crossing the ocean.

Toibin is able to render Eilis' experience so that the reader feels she is going through it herself. But what is so nice, so refreshing, is that after a while I realized that nothing shocking or violent or predictable was going to happen. Eilis was quite successfully making her way in the world, the New World at that.

She does well at work, she has a nice place to live, and she meets and falls for Tony, a sweet Italian boy.

Then an event calls her back to Ireland. I'm not giving anything away--the book jacket tells you this much. What it doesn't tell you is now the book gets really, really good. No more black and white--grey enters the scene big-time.

One of my favorite books is Old School by Tobias Wolff. The main character does something that made me, as the reader, want to jump into the book and shout "stop!--don't you see what you're doing?" I had that same feeling while I was reading Brooklyn; I literally felt afraid for Eilis. I can't say more without giving some of it away, so I'll stop here.

Suffice to say, I heartily recommend this book. And with both Tom Stoppard and I recommending it, you're going to read it, right?

By Nightfall by Michael Cunningham

2010-07-21T14:02:00.000-07:00

I recently got my hands on the ARC (advanced readers' copy) of Michael Cunningham's new novel, By Nightfall. I know, I know--eat your hearts out. Seriously, don't despair; you won't have to wait long as it will be in bookstores in October.

This is a very good book, thoroughly readable. What's it about, you ask? Well, very quickly:

Rebecca and Peter are living in Manhattan. Of course they are, because Michael Cunningham's descriptions of that city take the reader there to an extent that rivals Ian McEwan's ability to transport the reader to (and through) London in Saturday. In my opinion, that's an achievement.

Rebecca and Peter are middle-aged, or getting there, long-married with a daughter freshly flown from the coop, and are both working "in the arts"--she is a magazine editor; he owns an art gallery and dreams of one day discovering that historically important artist that will transcend time, place, and the mediocrity of life.

Ahh, the mediocrity of life. It looms ever greater as a final destination the more into "middle-age" one advances.

Rebecca's brother, Ethan, aka the Mistake, or Mizzy, comes to visit. And there begins the tale...Although I cannot recall at the moment why Ethan's family calls him the Mistake, what is more important is that he conjures for others their own. Mistakes, that is. In life. The takes and mis-takes that lead one to live an absolutely ordinary, mediocre life.

And thus, Peter finds himself at a crux. The effect Mizzy has on Peter (I won't give away a huge part of the book right here--even though I saw it coming like a train entering a station) is life-altering. Should Peter go off to risk finding the extraordinary? Or should he settle for his everyday, pleasant, but let's face it, hardly amazing life?

It strikes me that this book is like a coming-of-age novel, but for middle-agers--people who haven't been innocent for quite a while, but who still harbor some notion of the existence, in themselves or others, of the ideal. And this book is about what happens when they realize that hey, that Paradise is just an illusion. You took a bite out of the apple a long time ago and this is the world that is yours. From a hopeful standpoint, though, that world, your life, although not ideal, can still be wonderful and full of beauty.

How about you? Are you still searching for an ideal life?

Can You Judge a Book by Its Cover?

2010-07-03T11:38:00.000-07:00

I threw a small dinner party last night--just a few girlfriends--to celebrate a birthday. One of the guests is an author whose second novel will be released in March 2011. It's a fascinating education for me, listening to her as she talks about the publishing process.

She showed us all the mock-up cover of her book and asked us what we thought. There was a concern from someone that it looked like a Harlequin Romance novel--decidedly what this book is not.

I thought that it somewhat brought to mind a YA novel, but was, on the whole, rather nice and benign. In other words, it wouldn't turn me off from buying it. On the other hand, it wouldn't make me buy it, either. But I really don't judge a book by its cover. I don't think...

I mean, who does? And that's not a rhetorical question. Do we read a book because we've picked it up knowing nothing about it but the cover seduces us? Do you do this? I usually read about or hear about a book first, so I go to the library or book store seeking that particular title. I don't even really register the cover. In fact, of all the many books I've read lately (which you know about because you've read my WHIRL posts, right?), I cannot recall any of the covers.

Personally, I think the write-up on the back or on the inside flap is more important. And I also like to see who is recommending the book. If it's an author that I like or respect, that carries weight for me. Or if the book has won or been shortlisted for an award, that counts for me.

What do you think? Can you, DO you, should you--judge a book by its cover?

WHIRL 6

2010-06-27T12:10:00.000-07:00

My goodness, I haven't WHIRLed in ages! It isn't for lack of reading, I assure you. Hmm...shall I blame World Cup Fever, still rampaging through my house? Yes, that must be it.

So, here I WHIRL, but you may be disappointed for the moment, because I have read so many wonderful books, books that I have on my shortlist for this season's book groups, so I can't tell you those titles yet.

For instance, there's a book by one of my favorite American authors that I just loved, loved, loved! That will definitely be on my list.

Then the book by the author from Zimbabwe--I picked it up and read for two days straight without putting it down. Or so it seemed, anyway. You know, one of those great novels that you can't pull yourself away from. I may be putting that one on my list.

Tinkers by Paul Harding. This novel won the Pulitzer Prize this year, so I was excited to read it. Hmm...not loving it. And this is the second time I have picked it up--I am somewhat determined to get through it. Somewhat. We'll see.

The Appointment by Herta Muller. She was born in Romania and won the Nobel Prize, so I was really excited to read her. I am enjoying, not loving, this book, but I just don't think I will subject my book groups to it. I think I'd meet too much resistance.

Another novel by a Man Booker Prize winner--an English author whom I had never read before. Glad I picked this one up--I think it will end up on my list.

Chronicle in Stone by Ismail Kadare. Kadare is an Albanian author who has received numerous awards, one of which is the International Man Booker Prize, awarded every other year. Although I won't be putting this book on my list, I am really enjoying it. The story is narrated by a young Albanian boy who is chronicling what is happening to his village during WWII. What I love about this book is the boy's imagination, which of course hasn't been squashed by any adult logic. It's making me look at everything--stones and all--with a new eye.

I have never read any Joyce Carol Oates and I feel like I should! So I picked up Blackwater but got distracted, and then picked up another one, can't remember the title right now, but then got distracted. Oates is seriously prolific and I know she is loved, but I need some guidance here. Have you read her and can you recommend a title I should read?

What about YOU? Are you ready to WHIRL?

Sporting Advice

2010-06-20T08:35:00.000-07:00

It's World Cup fever in my house. As I blog, New Zealand is on its way to a huge upset of Italy. Hard not to root for the underdog. Right, I may have to rethink this--as I glanced up from my laptop to the TV, the shot was on the crowd--about a dozen bare-chested, overweight New Zealand men, waving their shirts in the air. Not a pretty sight.

But I digress.

For a while we had basketball fever in my house as well. But then the Lakers wrapped it all up in the seventh (rather exciting) game against the Boston Celtics. With all the in-your-face technology available these days, the TV viewer was able to hear what the coaches were saying to the players at time-outs.

Doc Rivers told his team at one critical point that he didn't want any heroes. That they should play together. As a team.

For some reason that resonated with me. I got to thinking about the question from Elyse, one of my book group members, our very first meeting. What makes a really good discussion?

Well, one thing that helps is when the group converses as a team. That sounds sort of strange, but if you think about it, it's true. If someone shows up with the mindset of being a hero--of dominating the discussion with her opinion, of being "right" in her interpretation of the book, in short--if someone shows up with an open gob but a closed mind--then the conversation will suffer.

So arrive at your next meeting with an open and curious mind. Really listen to what others say before responding, and try to remark upon--and dig deeper into--what they are saying. This sounds simple but takes some practice. Many members just want to speak what's on their minds rather than engage with what has been said by someone else. However, following one topic to it's conclusion before moving on to another can result in a much more fruitful conversation for everyone.

So thanks, Coach Rivers, for the tip. The Lakers, coached by Phil Jackson, went on to take the championship, so let's give a nod to Coach Jackson also. He has coached more championship teams than any other coach in sports. So, he must be doing something right. To find out more, log onto www.amazon.com and see the books he's written. And if you read any of them, don't forget to WHIRL!

Literary Masters of the Future

2010-06-03T15:45:00.001-07:00

There's an interesting article in the New York Times today about The New Yorker's upcoming issue in which twenty fiction writers under the age of forty are named as "ones to watch."

Here's the link:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/03/books/03under.html?hpw

According to the NY Times article, this is a big deal because it's been over ten years since The New Yorker last named any "writers to watch." So, looking at that list is pretty interesting. Jhumpa Lahiri was on it, one of my favorite authors. Have you read Interpreter of Maladies or The Namesake? How about Unaccustomed Earth? I have a very funny story about calling into NPR when Michael Krasny was interviewing Jhumpa on Forum. Remind me to tell it to you sometime.

Another fave on that list: Junot Diaz. We all loved The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, but how about his collection of short stories, Drown? Have you read that?

Jeffrey Eugenides was on it (loved Middlesex!), as was Nathan Englander, one of my favorite short story authors.

I am going to take a close look at this year's list--if the last list is anything to go by, The New Yorker knows what it's talking about. Perhaps we'll all read these "writers to watch" in our future Literary Masters book groups!

Everyone Wins at the Used Book Sale

2010-05-23T13:09:00.000-07:00

I was at my favorite local bookstore yesterday to buy the non-fiction book I'll be using in my next season of Literary Masters book groups. I can't tell you the title yet; you'll have to wait until I announce my list of books! Suffice to say, it is so captivating, I am having a hard time putting it down. I think everyone will love it!

Anyway, the bookstore was having a sale in its used book annex. The already discounted prices were 50% off to benefit the local hospice. Well, the only thing better than a great used book store is one that is having a sale, so I decided my reading (lots of reading to get through so I can complete next season's list) could wait and I went into the annex.

I came home with a pristine hardback copy of The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters, some sort of riveting gothic tale. It was longlisted for the Orange Prize for fiction. I went on Sarah's official website, and she has a page of "top ten" ghost stories. Check it out:
http://www.sarahwaters.com/top-tens.php

I also purchased for a few dollars Mister Pip by Lloyd Jones. I've been meaning to read this book for ages--it was published in 2006. Shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize, it won the Commonwealth Writers' Prize.

On my way out I picked up Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese. Everyone seems to love this book. Well, I'll see...you all know what a literary snob I can be!

Anyway, I was happy with my purchases, the bookstore was happy that I bought a current hardback book, and the hospice was happy with the money from the used books I bought. Happiness all around. See what books can do for the world?

Wrapping Up My Son's Story by Nadine Gordimer

2010-05-18T14:24:00.000-07:00

Well, isn't it funny--here this was the book I was most nervous about my groups reading; I thought people would find it too slow. Instead, save for a very few who found it a difficult read, most everyone just loved it. As you all know by now, it is one of my favorite books.

So, wrapping it up: what did everyone have to say about it? In no particular order:

Whose story is this? Well, this was answered on many levels, and more than one group pointed out that it may be the story of South Africa. Sonny, the Shakespeare-loving dad, handing over the reins to Will, who writes the true story of what happened. Or is it liberal-minded, free, and white Hannah handing over the reins to black, rebellious and silently powerful Aila?
Hey, but is the story true? Or is it, like one member pointed out, just one child's hand-held video-cam rendition of his family? Remember who is narrating the story. Yes, Will is. So, although we think at times we are getting Sonny's version, or Aila's or Baby's, we are only ever getting their version as mediated through Will.
And what kind of a narrator is Will? Hmm, as another member pointed out, only one of the least reliable narrators in literature! His motive: revenge! Will tells us, "...because I've begun a project--call it that--that needs solitude. I've found a use for the state, compromised and deserted, he dumped me in when he walked off so calmly with his blonde after an afternoon at the cinema." (196) And then later he admits to us: "In our story, like all stories, I've made up what I wasn't there to experience myself...Sometimes I can hear my voice breaking through, my judgments, my opinions elbowing in on what are supposed to be other people's. I'll have to watch out for that next time." (275) So, this really is Will's story--told by Will to us, and do we feel betrayed when we realize he's been imagining a lot of it?
Hmm...the theme of betrayal is absolutely pervasive. Every which way we connect the dots, we come up wtih betrayal. Sonny betrayed his family, the struggle, himself, and Hannah; Will betrayed his father (when he wrote the story) and his own self (by becoming his father); the struggle betrayed Sonny; Hannah betrayed them while in the country and then when she upped and left; the list goes on...
The references to Shakespeare made us all want to read more Shakespeare--King Lear and Hamlet ring throughout this story. And we read Sonnet 13, from which the epigraph is taken, and more than one member was visibly moved by it. Reading this sonnet and realizing why Will is writing the story combines to bring home the absolute devastating effects Sonny and Hannah's actions had on the family. One rather erudite member asked--are we to look at this story as a Shakespearian tragedy?
We all loved talking about the Oedipal dynamic going on between Will, Sonny, and Aila. Which brings us to Aila...her silence (representative of black South Africans under apartheid?) was, in the end, more powerful and stronger than any other force in the story. And she was committed to the struggle in a way that white Hannah showed she was not. Hannah, the liberal white wrapped up in the drama of another people. Swooping in like a savior, only to wreak destruction. See the poem on pp. 276-7. Most of us thought that the dove at the end, dashing in swift through the bars and breaking its neck against stone walls, was Hannah.
Why did Sonny go to Hannah--when it seemed like he and Aila really loved each other? Most members felt that as Sonny's identity changed, as he became more 'Sonny' than Sonny, as he became the revolutionary as perceived by others, his own identity became tangled up with Hannah--who was also involved in the struggle. The politics, the power, the passion all became intertwined, and they never separated their feelings for each other from the love of the struggle and their positions of power in it.
Some members commented on how Sonny and Hannah's relationship was more abstract than anything, well at least more abstract than Sonny and Alia's very concrete day-to-day existence. "Joy. That was what went with it. The light of joy that illuminates long talk of ideas, not the 60-watt bulbs that shine on family matters." (65)
And was Sonny treating the struggle in the abstract also? So that when he was called to act at the cleansing of the graves, he was not able to put his beliefs and values into concrete action?
Some members pondered whether Sonny's political fall affected Hannah's feelings for him.
Some members saw the venue where Will discovers Sonny and Hannah--the cinema--to be significant. I would agree, given his voyeurism that follows as he narrates their love story.
Oh gosh, there is so much more to this book, and I could just pick it up right now and read it all over again. However, I have to move on...

But how about you? What did you think of My Son's Story, if you read it? And if you haven't, do you think you will?

Wishful Thinking for Summer Reading

2010-05-17T19:48:00.000-07:00

You know what I feel like doing? I feel like curling up with The Raj Quartet by Paul Scott, all 1926 pages of it, and reading it from one end to the other. I took it out of the library the other day, something I've meant to do ever since I watched The Jewel in the Crown, the British TV series that I was obsessed with--I had to watch every single episode (again, taken from my wonderful local library) right through from the beginning to the end of the series. I was so sad when it was over, and I wanted more!

Anyway, I was meandering among the fiction shelves and I saw it--The Raj Quartet. By page nine I was hooked. I felt like I was India. I could feel the heat, see the dust. Oh, what a wonderful way to spend a summer. I put it back on the shelf, though. I am being disciplined, as I have a lot of other reading to do. You all know by now that I am furiously reading award-winning books to choose my list for next season's book groups.

SEE HOW MUCH I SACRIFICE FOR YOU?

The four books within the quartet are titled: The Jewel in the Crown, The Day of the Scorpion, The Towers of Silence, and A Division of the Spoils.

Oh, and if you haven't yet seen the television series, RUN, do not walk, but RUN, knocking down everyone in your way, to your local library or video store to procure it. Or I guess you can Netflix it or some other less energetic way of getting your hands on it. Anyway, get it and watch it--you will thank me.

WHIRL 5

2010-05-09T11:58:00.000-07:00

I just know Mrs. Magoo of www.mrsmagooreads.com will be whirling today, so I'm going to join her and tell you: What Have I Read Lately! Perhaps I should say What Haven't I Read Lately, as I've been reading quite a bit in order to choose JUST the right books for my book groups next season.

Now, because I'm not yet ready to release my book list (I haven't yet completed it!), I can't divulge some of the titles of novels I've seriously enjoyed recently. Sorry, but you'll just have to wait, or better yet, sign up for one of my book groups! I can tell you about some books that I won't be using...not because they aren't good, but for various other reasons.

Man's Search for Meaning by Victor E. Frankl. Wow. I am currently reading this non-fiction book about Frankl's psychological theory, and I am thoroughly captivated. Warning: not an easy read, especially the first part about his experiences in a German concentration camp during WWII. I will WHIRL about this book again when I finish it, so stay tuned.

Summertime by J.M. Coetzee. Hmmm, I really enjoyed this book, but felt a little less than satiated at the end. The structure is unique: Coetzee, the author, writes a fiction about a dead John Coetzee, whose biographer is interviewing five important people from John's life as research for his book. John's notebook fragments on his own writing are also included in the fiction. At times I felt like I was in some sort of hall of mirrors...I'm still really digesting this book, figuring out what I think about it, but I wouldn't mind chewing it over with others in order to extract more from it. Have you read it? What do you make of it?

Tender is the Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald. Again. A masterpiece. As always.

How about YOU? What have YOU read lately?

Wrapping Up The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

2010-04-28T08:03:00.000-07:00

The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz is truly a wonderful book. All my book groups enjoyed it, and the conversations were lively, opinionated, and everyone had something to say. It's interesting how differently individuals reacted to this book. Some found it angry while others hadn't seen that part of it. Some found it hilarious although tragic. Some found it depressing. Just about everyone found it to be an interesting read. A real page-turner.

I'll highlight below some of the points that were made in the various groups. You may or may not agree with them:

This really isn't Oscar's story. It's Yunior's story. You can hear his voice change, grow, as he narrates the book, and you can watch him change and grow, too. He comes to terms with who he is as a Dominican man.

Although the men acted macho, this story just underscored that it was all an act, a role they were playing, a mask they were wearing. The women were the really strong characters in the story. They were the ones who, although severely restricted to a limited space by the patriarchal society in which they lived, took action when action was called for. The results weren't always great, but at least they did something.

Lola took on her masks, "performing" to others' expectations, until she figured out how to be true to herself. Oscar was the only one who didn't wear a mask, who didn't play a role, perhaps because he didn't know how to.

The question of complicity came up. And destiny. How much control do we really have over our lives? How much control must we cede to others? We talked about how Trujillo was a brutal dictator, but the Dominicans helped elevate him to mythological status with their stories about him.

Speaking of stories, and histories, and TRUTH, we talked about the structure of the book, especially the narrator and how he mediated the voices of the other characters coming through him.

What stories do we tell our ourselves? We talked about this, and the reason we tell ourselves stories.

We were all interested in the Macombo (magical realism elements) versus McOndo (gritty, street-wise realism) that are opposed to each other yet work side-by-side in this novel.

Oh gosh, we talked about much more: themes of identity, belonging, the "space in between," authority--I couldn't help but view the book through the lens of post-colonialism. And we talked about the brilliance of Junot Diaz. One of my members blurted out that she just so wished she could speak to him--a bit ironic, I thought, as we were talking about authority and how we give it over to others!

Bottom line: Run, don't walk, to read this book; it's amazing.

WHIRL 4

2010-04-27T20:47:00.000-07:00

Wow! April is flying by! And I've been neglecting my blog! I'm so sorry to all of you--how have you survived? Have you had to turn to other reading? Hmmm, read anything good lately? Hmmm, What Have I Read Lately?

Ask, by Sam Lipsyte. Last time I WHIRLED, I was mid-way through this novel. Well, I finished it, and I would recommend it, sort of. I'd give it say, a 7 out of 10.

Solar, by Ian McEwan. I know the critics have panned it, but I think this novel is the funniest book I have read since Portnoy's Complaint. Run. Do not walk. Run to get your hands on this book.

Another book, an award-winner, the title of which I am not revealing because it was so good, I am using it for my next season of Literary Masters book groups. Join one of my groups if you want to know which book it is. :-)

How about you? Are you ready to WHIRL? Let me know what you've been reading lately.

Playing the Enemy

2010-04-07T16:28:00.000-07:00

I saw the movie "Invictus" a few months ago, and I absolutely loved it. I found the story riveting, and I was surprised that I had never heard about it before. Nelson Mandela, released from 27 years behind bars as a political prisoner in South Africa, is elected the first black president of that country. As civil war between whites and blacks looms, Mandela wants to draw the country together using the sport of rugby as the unifier. The problem is, rugby is seen by South Africans as a "white" sport, symbolizing the apartheid regime and all the evil that accompanied it. How Mandela manages to pull off the impossible is the stuff of fairy tales, and yet this is a true story!

I came away from this movie wanting to know more about this episode in South Africa's history, and more about the amazing person--Nelson Mandela. So I went to the library and checked out the book that the movie is based on: Playing the Enemy by John Carlin. In fact, since it was my turn to choose the book for my personal book club, my entire group read it, and we all loved it. It's a bit of a hagiography, but if you can get past that, it really is a thumping good read.

Some of my favorite lines/passages from the book follow. These probably won't mean a thing to you unless you've read the book, but while I put them down here, I'm once again savoring this delicious read.

"If Mandela had learned one thing in prison it was to take the long view. And that meant not being sidetracked by present horrors and keeping his eye firmly fixed on the distant goal."

"'Mandela,' Barnard said, 'knew how to use his power subtly. It is like comparing old money and new money. He knew how to handle power without humiliating his enemies.'"

"Paballelo was consumed by every detail of the trial. But for the white population of Upington it might have been unfolding in Borneo...Drama works on the premise of a shared humanity with the protagonists. For Upington, Paballelo was dimly lit parallel world inhabited by an alien species; best left well alone."

"Mandela, as a man of the world rather than a man of one volk, had a capacity the general lacked to penetrate the minds of people culturally different from himself. He knew when to flatter and soothe (Niel Barnard spoke of Mandela's 'almost animal instinct for tapping into people's vulnerabilities and reassuring them.'); he knew when he could go on the offensive without causing offense..."

"'There was a cause-and-effect connection between the Mandela factor and our performance in the field,' Du Plessis said..."

"The Argus then listed the five "key factors" that enabled rugby to become 'a unifying catalyst': Mandela's vociferous support for 'our boys' and his wearing of the Springbok cap; Archbishop Tutu's public support; the rugby team acting in concert with the 'One Team, One Country' slogan; the team's success on the field; the singing of the new combined anthem and the waving of the new flag."

"Mandela's weakness was his greatest strength. He succeeded because he chose to see good in people who ninety-nine people out of a hundred would have judged to have been beyond redemption...Mandela zeroed in on that hidden kernel where their better angels lurked and drew out the goodness that is inside all people...By appealing to and eliciting what was best in them...he offered them the priceless gift of making them feel like better people, in some cases transforming them into heroes."

WOW.

WHIRL 3

2010-04-04T17:05:00.000-07:00

I wonder if Mrs. Magoo from www.mrsmagooreads.com will "whirl" today. To jog your memory, WHIRL stands for What Have I Read Lately, and this blog post is my third WHIRL. I'd love to hear from you--why don't you WHIRL too? So, What Have I Read Lately?

The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz. Like Midnight's Children on speed. Absolutely wonderful. Not for the faint of heart. My book groups have been discussing this, so look for my "wrap up" soon.

A Short History of Women by Kate Walbert. My personal book club is reading this novel this month, and I'm looking forward to the discussion. I found the book a wee bit on the slow side, but I think this was due to my mood more than anything else. I found the writing beautiful, and by the end of the book, I wanted more.

Ask by Sam Lipsyte. I am in the middle of this hilarious and rather exhausting book. I don't mean to be sexist, but I keep thinking "this is such a guy's book" as I'm reading it. Shades of Portnoy's Complaint and Catcher in the Rye and perhaps even Confederacy of Dunces and who-knows-what-all-else all rolled into one. I almost put it down but now find that I can't!

What about YOU? What Have YOU Read Lately?

The Lost Man Booker Prize

2010-03-26T11:15:00.000-07:00

Yesterday the shortlist was announced for the Lost Man Booker. Now, I know all of you are well aware of the prestigious Man Booker Prize, but some of you may not know of the Lost Man Booker. In a nutshell--evidently in 1971 the rules for the Man Booker were changed; the prize became an award for literature produced in that year instead of a retrospective prize. In addition, the announcement of the winner moved from April to November. So, there were some novels from 1970 that fell through the cracks and were never considered for the Man Booker Prize that year.

Are you following this?

This literary lapse is being rectified this year, and the best part is--YOU are the judge! Well, you and lots of other readers--around the globe. Now it helps if you've read the books--and I am chagrined to say that I've only read one on the list. Still, there's plenty of time for the others before the polls close on April 23rd.

Here's the link to the shortlist and the voting sheet:

http://www.themanbookerprize.com/news/vote

Pssst, tell me--which one are you voting for???

Searching for a Happy Ending?

2010-03-21T10:47:00.000-07:00

There's an interesting article in this past week's Guardian--the British paper I love to read--in which the Chair of the Orange Prize, Daisy Goodwin, laments the dearth of feel good literature (my words) in this year's stack of books vying for the prestigious prize. Here's the link to the article:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/mar/17/misery-orange-prize-judge-authors

A woman from my personal book group always accuses me of considering only depressing books as true literature. In my defense, I don't really think that; there are plenty of 'feel good' books (sorry--I haven't had enough coffee this morning to come up with a better description) out there that are worth reading. However, I do feel that the human condition is a mix of light and dark (I agree with Ms. Goodwin there) and the world is full of darkness that must be faced--which the very best books do. There's usually some redemptive quality, however, even if it's in the work an individual does to bring purpose to one's life--I am thinking Heart of Darkness, for instance.

Ms. Goodwin "accused publishers of 'lagging behind what the public want', of not getting that readers do want pleasure and do want enjoyment when they read." Well, yes, and actually, I think I want different things from reading, depending on my mood, but by and large I want a) a great story, b) something that moves me (is this another way of saying something I can relate to?), and c) something that makes me think.

How about you? What do you look for when you're reading?

Whirl 2

2010-03-17T21:01:00.000-07:00

I was on MrsMagooReads today and saw that Mrs. Magoo has been busy whirling! She has four whirls to my, well, this is my second. So, What Have I Read Lately?

A Gate at the Stairs by Lorrie Moore. Good, but I had a little problem with how very clever the writing wanted to be. See my earlier post discussing this book.

Playing the Enemy by John Carlin. This is the book that the movie Invictus was based upon--the story of how Nelson Mandela attempted to unite black and white South Africa through the game of rugby. I loved the movie and was so moved by it, I read the book. And I was not disappointed. It's a hagiography, no doubt, but the story is just so compelling and fairy tale-like, I was able to overlook the bias and just roll with the feel good-ness of it all.

What about you? What have you read lately?

A Gate at the Stairs by Lorrie Moore

2010-03-16T09:18:00.000-07:00

Lorrie Moore can write. She can really write. I've just finished her novel, A Gate at the Stairs, which is garnering all sorts of critical attention. I must say, and I am a bit troubled to say this largely because of the sublime quality of Moore's writing, I found the book simultaneously compelling and off-putting. Or perhaps I should say annoying. Don't get me wrong--the book is definitely worth reading--but I think it would have been better (and really, who am I to say, but here I go anyway) without all the descriptive detours that Moore seems to delight in.

Moore obviously loves words, and she is a master of metaphors (many seeds she planted would burst into bloom pages later for the observant reader), but all her cleverness with words, all her philosophical meanderings and whimsical musings became exhausting after a while. I kept thinking, can't we just get on with the story?

The story is what I would call a coming-of-age novel, narrated by an incredibly erudite yet (paradoxically) innocent and tongue-tied Midwestern college girl, Tassie, who takes on a job as babysitter for a white couple who have adopted a part-African American baby. As we go through Tassie's freshman year of college with her (as reader we are only in Tassie's head, so we really do go through it with her), we experience her ups and downs and come to see, as she slowly but inexorably comes to see, that life is not all it claims to be.

This is not a book to be read in a hurry, but should be savored. Moore writes passages that just beg to be re-read, or even dissected by those who would give their left arm to be able to write like her. (Or right arm if they are, well, you know what I'm going to say.) And I just know that, even though I didn't love every bit of it, this novel with stick with me for awhile. Note the bone thrown to Jane Eyre at the end. Love it!