Book Award Rules

I am down to reading final nominations and there is a policy about "revealing" those to the public (or more importantly publishers) before the award is announced so I will not be posting my reviews until after January 22nd. Check back then for updates and the announcement of the final list.

The Translator by Leila Aboulela

The story of (oddly enough) a translator:) This is about a Sudanese widow who has embraced her Islamic religion. She is living in Scotland when she start working as an Arabic translator for an Islamic scholar who is not a believer. After they fall in love she must decide what is stronger, her love or her faith. What this novel explores with great finesse is the true nature of faith. What it means to be faithful and what it means to give your life over to that. The language in this novel is a joy to read and the story is lovely. Highly enjoyable and different look at the Islamic faith.

The Lay Of The Land by Richard Ford

I hate it when I read a book and can appreciate the good points of it but not really be able to identify with the characters or lose myself in the book. Richard Ford is a technically gifted author with a huge following of appreciative readers but I have never been that enamoured of his writing. Perhaps it is because he so often explores "boomer angst" and I cannot really relate to it.

In this novel, realtor Frank Bascombe, previously appearing in Independence Day and The Sportswriter, finds that his wife has left him, his children's lives are in upheaval and he has been diagnosed with cancer. Sprinkled with quirky characters, this novel explores what it means to confront your own mortality and make peace with it. This was an exceptionally well-done novel that does have humorous moments and clearly shows the affection the main character feels for his friends and family. It also clearly shows the impact the last election had on large numbers of Americans

The Road by Cormic McCarthy

Oh my goodness. Last night I got home from a play at 11 or so and thought I would read for a little bit. I can safely say that I read one of my best books of the year.

The Road by Cormic McCarthy was stunning and completely different than anything he has ever written before. This is the story of a father and son who are traveling through a post-apocalyptic world in search of food, warmth, survival. The father hangs on to the last shreds of his morality because of the son's continued faith in their goodness. It is an amazing journey that explores the power of love in a world of no hope. One of the most profound reading experiences of my year.

Local Author

Joe Miller, the author of Cross-X: A Turbulent, Triumphant Season with an Inner-City Debate Squad, did a presentation about the book at my Rotary club this morning. I knew he was a local author but I guess I hadn’t realized that the school he is talking about was one I visited when I was a children's/ya librarian and that he is the same guy that has a blog that I read from time to time. Funny what a small world it is.

Tigers In Red Weather: A Quest For The Last Wild Tigers by Ruth Padel

Chronicling two years, eleven countries and countless dedicated guides, the quest to find and observe the wild tiger obsesses Ruth Padel in this poetic narrative. The simple descriptions illuminate the natural world and the obvious love that the author develops for tigers shines through. Personal narrative and private heartbreak are sprinkled throughout the text but at its heart is always the plight of the ancient tiger in a modern world.

House of War

House of War is the story of the Pentagon. The author, a self-described beatnik, is the son of a general who spent his career at the Pentagon. Noting ironically that the birth of the Pentagon matches exactly the birth of the Atomic bomb he takes through the years showing how each president has effect the nuclear arms race for good and bad. He also make a point of highlighting Gorbachev's key role in ending the cold war and starting the disarmament process. Despite years of trying implement reductions each president has made it worse, so by accident, others by design. In the authors opinion George W Bush is singlehandedly responsible for the return of the nuclear arms threat and has significantly increased the possibility of a nuclear warhead being used against the United States.

This is one big, scary book that has me anxiously waiting for a new president to undo the damage that the current administration has unleashed.

Rough Crossings: Britain, the Slaves and the American Revolution by Simon Schama

Very readable nonfiction account of a little known migration that resulted in runaway slaves siding with England during the American Revolution and their struggle to become free. The promised land is Sierra Leone and the unlikely moses was Thomas Clarkson, an undistinguished second son. After getting to know some of the slaves who had risked their lives to fight with the British army, Thomas became a relentless advocate for and leader of over 1,000 ex-slaves.

Sadly, the dream of abolitionists and Thomas Clarkson of a free black self-governing colony in Sierra Leone did not come to pass but the tale is still riveting and the historical figures are well drawn.

There Is No Me Without You: One Woman's Odyssey To Rescue Africa's Children by Melissa Fay Greene

This is the book that is causing me to rethink my life and try to decide if I am living a meaningful life. Am I doing enough good or should I sell my possessions, move to Africa or India and dedicate my life to something more useful than having a socially conscious job and owning a home.

Haregewoin Teferra was a middle class woman in Ethiopia, a professional woman with an husband who was a teacher and two beautiful and beloved daughters. After her husband passes away she raises her daughters to adulthood. After one of her daughters contracts AIDS and dies, Haregewoin goes into mourning, believing her life is over. Her priest comes to her with a baby that has been orphaned by AIDS and starts her on a journey that transforms her life. She now runs an orphanage that is inundated with the children of the AIDS epidemic.

This is a appalling story of the utter waste of human life that the world has let continue long after successful treatments had been discovered to slow the disease and even reverse it in infants. It is also heartbreaking how painful death is for the millions of adults and children that have contracted the disease. The numbers of dead or dying are almost incomprehensible but threaded through it all is the reality that one person can make a difference.

This is a compelling story where facts are interspersed with personal stories of children that are alive, well and even in some cases, thriving because someone dared to ignore the stigma of AIDS to give these children a home and a chance. Better yet, it is also well researched and well written.

Ancestor Stones by Aminatta Forna

This would be an excellent book to use for a women's book discussion group. Set in Sierra Leone, it follows the lives of four sisters, born of different wives (co-wives) of a coffee plantation owner. Each of the women takes a very different path as they navigate the increasingly turbulent social and political landscape of their native county. Ironically, in the end they all end up back in their small village, living in the family compound as they tell their European born niece the stories of their lives.

Space Race: The Epic Battle Between America and the Soviet Union for Dominion of Space by Deborah Cadbury

Space Race is not a book that I would have picked up on my own but I really enjoyed it. Wernher von Braun was the scientist who was destined to find a way to take the USA to the moon. In spite of being a former Nazi with questionable knowledge of the human holocaust taking place around him, he became a star in the USA as he was praised, petted and feted by the press. Sergei Korolev toiled in obscurity for the USSR whose leaders had sent him to a Siberian prison, worked him hard enough to damage his health and contributed to the breakdown of his family.

The lives of the two dramatically illustrate the difference in the approach each government took to the race to get into space. Excellent, well written and surprisingly lively book about the great Space Race.

By A Slow River by Phillipe Claudel

By A Slow River is a French mystery. I have found that the French literary style is not a particular favorite of mine. I have a difficult time with novels that do not have one sympathetic character (or at least one that isn't too awful). The French authors I have read tend to have a writing style that creates an emotional distance from its characters. Oddly enough, I find this interesting and compelling in French movies. Can't explain why but I will give it some thought.

Anyway, because the murders take place during WWII which creates lots of interesting opportunities for plot twists and turns and I found the mystery a bit unusual, which given the number of mysteries I have read, is saying something. Ultimately though I did not find this compelling or interesting enough to keep me riveted.

Postings

Sorry it has been a while since I posted any reviews. I have about five waiting to be written but last week my uncle passed away and today my grandma did. I will try to get some of them written before I have to head home for the funeral.

Help!

It's happened. The person on the Notable Committee who hadn't turned in any nominations just turned them all in at once. They are all academic, scholarly, really big books. I was afraid of this. I am now up to about 40 books I need to read before January. Be thinking of me as I become a hermit.

No, go ahead, have fun, don't even give me, sitting alone, surrounded by teetering books, a second thought.

Music and Friends

Last night several librarian went out to hear a friend play in a band. http://www.myspace.com/thedannycooke

His band was fine (if a little odd) but the two that came after him were truly awful. Apparently they were trying for a mix between jazz and ambient but ended up with a cacaophony of sound. On the other hand, I can't remember the last time I went out with friends and laughed so much. It made a nice change in the way the rest of my social life has been going.

My Life in France by Julia Child and Alex Prud'Homme

Although this book describes Julia's love of France and the time she and her husband spent there, it is really about the creation of "Mastering The Art Of French Cooking" 1 and 2. After falling in love with the food (and the country), Julia takes a cooking class at the Cordon Bleu and finds her true calling as a chef, teacher and advocate of French cooking.

This was such a fun read. Julia's personality shine through and you get a very real sense of who she is. It also vividly shows the loving and happy relationship she has with her husband who was enormously supportive of her newly discovered career while at the same time maintaining his own very prestigious career.

Young Friends Of The Library

The Young Friends of the Library, (21 - 40'sh) in case you are wondering, started a book discussion group at the beginning of the year. We have spent the year exploring international fiction and tonight we discussed a Czech novel, Too Loud a Solitude by Bohumil Hrabal , so I don't have a book from my list to report on today. I can say that that this book has a Kafkaesque quality that made it compelling if not particularly upbeat. It was a very good read and a great book discussion.

Music for the Bus

What I am listening to while I am reading on the bus.

Warning Sign by Coldplay
The Bad Guy by Reel Big Fish
Trouble by Coldplay
You're Pretty Good Looking (for a girl) by The White Stripes
She's a Knockout by Social Distortion
Special Needs by Placebo
Welcome To The Black Parade by My Chemical Romance
Pinch Me by Barenaked Ladies
Until The Day I Die by Story Of The Year
I'm Shipping Up To Boston by Dropkick Murphys
Shelter Me by Train
You Can't Lose A Broken Heart by Billie Holiday

Golden Country: A Novel by Jennifer Gilmore

This is a Jewish immigrant story that follows three people and their families as they struggle to attain the American Dream. This is a richly textured novel that captures the struggles, disappointments and heartache that comes with achieving your dreams. In general I enjoyed this story and cared about what would happen to each of the characters.

One quibble is that this first time novelist uses the word "screamed" far too often. Her characters screamed their way through the novel and this word didn't always seem to accurately describe what was happening at that moment. This was also mainly used with the female characters and made the female characters seem much less sympathic than they otherwise would have been. After a while, it became very jarring for me and threw me out of the story.

Newest Updated Booklist

Here is the newest, updated list. Everything that is in bold print is on my current must read before January list.

Abbott, Lee K All Things, All at Once
Aboulela, Leila Translator
Adichie, Chimamanda Ngozi Half of a Yellow Sun
Adrian, Chris Children's Hospital
Alderman, Naomi Disobedience
Ali, Monica Alentejo Blue
Allende, Isabel Ines of my Soul
Antrim, Donald Afterlife
Arana, Marie Cellophane
Armstrong, Karen Great Transformation
Arsenault, Raymond Freedom Riders
Baker, Calvin Dominion
Bayard, Louis Pale Blue Eye
Beachy-Quick, Dan Mulberry
Begg, Moazzam Enemy Combatant: My Imprisonment at Guantanamo, Bagram, and Kandahar
Belozerskava, Marina Medici Giraffe
Benni, Stefano margherita Dolce Vita
Berkowitz, Edward Something Happened
Berne, Suzanne Ghost at the Table
Bigsby, Christopher Beautiful Dreamer
Binelli, Mark Sacco and Vanzetti Must Die!
Bishop, Ted Riding With Rilke
Bissoondath, Neil Unyielding Clamor of the Night
Blum, Deborah Ghost Hunters: William James And The Search For Scientific Proof Of Life After Death In The Dawn Of The 20th Century
Bonner, Jeffrey P Sailing with Noah
Boudinot, Ryan Littlest Hitler
Boyd, William Restless
Boyle, T. Coraghessan Talk Talk
Brinkley, Douglas Great Deluge: Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans and the Mississippi Gulf Coast
Brookhieser, Richard Divided Ground: Indians, Setlers, And The Northern Borderland Of The American Revolution
Brooks, Max World War Z
Brown, Frederick Flaubert: A Biography
Bruinius, Harry Better for All the World: The Secret History of Forced Sterilization and America's Quest for Racial Purity
Burt, Stephen Parallel Play
Busch, Frederick Rescue Missions
Butler, Robert Olen Severance
Cadbury, Deborah Space Race
Cahill, Carmen Bad Faith
Caldwell, Gail A Strong West Wind
Carr, Cynthia Our Town
Carrierre, Jean-Claude Please, Mr Einstein
Carroll, James House of War: The Pentagon and the Disastrous Rise of American Power
Cartledge, Paul Thermopylae: The Battle that Changed the World
Cartwright, Justin The Promise of Happiness
Cavanaugh, Jack Tunney
Chandrasekaran, Rajiv Imperial Life in the Emerald City: Inside Iraq's Green Zone
Chase, Clifford Winkie
Chayes, Sarah Punishment of Virtue:Inside Afghanistan After the Taliban
Child, Julia and Alex Prud'Homme My Life In France
Christianse, Yvette Unconfessed
Clarke, Susanna Ladies of Grace Adieu & Other Sagas
Claudel, Phillipe By A Slow River
Clover, Charles End of the Line: How Overfishing is Changing the World and What We Eat
Collins, Francis S. Language of God
Collins, Martha Blue Front
Cox, Michael Meaning of Night
Cruz, Cynthia Ruin
Dallek, Robert Let Every Nation Know
Davis, David Brion In Human Bondage: The Rise and Fall of Slavery in the New World
Davis, Dick Trick of Sunlight
Decker, Shawn My Pet Virus: The True Story of a Rebel Without a Cure
DeKok, Ingrid Seasonal Fires
Desai, Kiran Inheritance of Loss
Deslisle, Guy Shonzhen: a travelogue
Dideon, Joan We Tell Ourselves Stories: Collected
Donovan, Gerard Julius Winsome
D'Orso, Michael Eagle Blue
Drape, Joe Black Maestro
Edsall, Thomas B Building Red America: The New Conservative Coalition and the Drive for Permanent Power
Egan, Jennifer Keep
Eggars, Dave What is the What
Elliot, Jason Mirrors of the Unseen
Ensler, Eve Insecure at Last: Loosing It in Our Security-Obsessed World
Faulks, Sebastian Human Traces
Fenton, James Selected Poems
Finkel, Caroline Osman's Dream
Forbes, Charlotte Good Works of Avela Linde
Forbes, Peter Gecko's Foot
Ford, Richard Lay of the Land
Forna, Aminatta Ancestor Stones
Fountain, Ben Brief Encounters With Che Guevara
Frazier, Charles Thirteen Mooons
Freedman, Dave Natural Selection
Freudenberger, Nell Dissident
Fuentes, Carlos Eagle's Throne
Gallagher, Tess Dear Ghosts
Gaston, Bill Sointula
George, Margaret Helen of Troy
Getty, Sarah Bring Me Her Heart
Gibbons, Ann The First Human
Gien, Pamela Syringa Tree
Gilfoyle, Timothy Pickpocket's Tale, The Underworld of 19th Century New York
Gilmore, Jennifer Golden Country
Gluck, Louise Averno: Poems
Grande, Reyna Across a Hundred Mountains
Greene, Melissa Fay There Is No Me Without You: One Woman's Odyssey To Rescue Africa's Children
Greenfield, Robert Timothy Leary
Groom, Winston Patriotic Fire
Guene Faiza Kiffe Kiffe Tomorrow
Haddon, Mark Spot of Bother
Hampl, Patricia Blue Arabesque: a Search for the Sublime
Handler, Daniel Adverbs
Hayes, Terrance Wind in a Box
Heaney, Seamus District and Circle
Helms, Sarah Life In Secrets: Vera Atkins And The Missing Agents of WWII
Henderson, William Haywood Augusta Locke
Hendricks, Steve Unquiet Grave: The FBI and the Struggle for the Soul of Indian Country
Henriquez, Cristina Come Together, Fall Apart
Hix, H.L. Chromatic
Homes, A. M. This Book Will Save Your Life
Hoose, Phillip Perfect, Once Removed
Horne, Jed Breach of Faith: Hurricane Katrina and the Near Death of a Great American City
Hughes, Robert Things I Didn't Know: A Memoir
Idibly, Rayna Faith Club: A Muslim, a Christian, A Jew - Three Women Search for Understanding
Jacobson, Sid 9/11 Report: a Graphic Adaptation
Jennings, Kevin Mama's Boy, Preacher's Son
Jenson, Liz My Dirty Little Book of Stolen Time
Johnson, Steven Ghost Map
Jones, Edward P. All Aunt Hagar's Children
Joseph, Peniel E. Waiting 'Till the Midnight Hour: A Narrative History of Black Power in America
Julavits, Heidi Uses of Enchantment
Just, Ward Forgetfulness
Kammen, Michael Visual Shock: A History of Art Controversies in American Culture
Karr, Mary Sinners Welcome
Kazin, Michael Godly Hero: The Life of William Jennings Bryan
Kehlmann, Daniel Measuring the World
Kelly, James Patrick Feeling Very Strange
Kenneally, Thomas Commonwealth of Thieves: the Improbable Birth of Australia
Keret, Edgar The Nimrod Flipout
Khadra, Yasmina The Attack
Khoury, Elias Gate Of The Sun
Kinzer, Stephen Overthrow:America's Century of Regime Change
Knighton, Ryan Cockeyed: A Memoir of Blindness
Kosco, Bart Noise
Lansens, Lori Girls
Larson, Erik Thunderstruck
Lawrence, Starling The Lightning Keeper
Lawson, Mary Other Side of the Bridge
Ledgard, J.M. Giraffe
Lehrer, Jim Phony Marine
Lerner, Ben Angle of Yaw
Li, Laura Madame Chian Kai-Shek: China's First Lady
Lloyd, Seth Programming the Universe
Long, Dustin Icelander
Lord, Graham John Mortimer: The Secret Life of Rumpole's Creator: The Unauthorized Biography
Lucey, Donna M. Archie and Amerlie
Lynn, Barry W. Piety and Politics
Maathai, Wangari Unbowed
Mackey, Nathaniel Splay Anthem
Maguire, James American Bee: The National Spelling Bee and the Culture of Word Nerds
Maheu, Layne Song Of The Crow
Malarkey, Tucker Resurrection
Marchetto, Marisa Cancer Vixen
Marcus, Greil Shape of Things to Come: Prophecy and the American Voice
Markoe, Merrill Walking in Circles Before Lying Down
Masters, Alexander Stuart: A Life Backwards
McCarthy, Cormac Road
McCauley, Stephen Alternatives to sex: a gay and obsessive-compulsive post-9/11
McKay, Ami Birth House
McMichael, James Capacity
Mendelsohn, Daniel Lost: A Search for Six of Six Million
Merridale, Catherine Ivan's War: Life and Death in the Red Army, 1939-1945
Messud, Claire Emperor's Children
Miller, Joe Cross-X: A Turbulent, Triumphant Season with an Inner-City Debate Squad
Moffett, Kevin Permanent Visitors
Mosley, Walter Fortunate Son
Munro, Alice View from Castle Rock: Stories
Naslund, Sena Jeter Abundance
Nazario, Sonia Enrique's Journey
Nielsen, John Condor
Notley, Alice Grave of Light: New and Selected Poems, 1970-2005
Ours, Dorothy Man O'War
Padel, Ruth Tigers In Red Weather: A Quest To See The Last Wild Tigers
Pardos, John Safe for Democracy: the Secret Wars of the CIA
Pearce, Fred When the Rivers Run Dry: Water the Defining Crisis of the 21st Century
Perry, Michael Truck
Phillips, Julie James Tiptree, Jr.: The Double Life of Alice B. Sheldon
Pitlor, Heidi Birthdays
Pomfret, John Chinese Lesons: Five Classmates and the Story of the New China
Powers, Richard Echo Maker
Prager, Joshua Echoing Green
Robbins, James Last in their Class
Robertson, Jason Sense of the World
Russell, Karen St. Lucy's Home for Girls Raised by Wolves: And Other Stories
Rust, Elissa Minor The Prisoner Pear: Stories
Safina, Carl The Voyage of the Turtle
Sallis, Eva Fire, Fire
Sancton, Tom Song for my Fathers: A New Orleans Story in Black and White
Sanders, Scott Russell Private History of Awe
Satrapi, Marjane Chicken With Plums
Satterlee, Thom Burning Wyclif
Saunders, George In Persuasion Nation
Schaller, Thomas F Whistling Past Dixie
Schama,Simon Rough Crossings: Britain the Slaves, and the American Revolution
Schneider, Paul Brutal Journey: First Crossing of North America
Schrag, Peter California: America's High Stakes Experiment
Seife, Charles Decoding the Universe: How the New Science of Information is Explaining Everything in the Cosmos, from our Brains to Black Holes
Self, Will Book of Dave
Sheehan, Aurelie History Lesson for Girls
Slatalla, Michelle Town on Beaver Creek
Slavitt, David William Henry Harrison and Other Poems
Sloan, Richard Blind Faith
Smith, Lee On Agate Hill
Smith, Patricia Teahouse of the Almighty
Soyinka, Wole You Must Set Forth at Dawn: A Memoir
Stargardt, Nicholas Witnesses Of War: Children's Lives Under The Nazis
Stone, Peter Heist
Straight, Susan A Million Nightingales
Tallis, Frank Death in Vienna
Thomas, Scarlett End Of Mr Y
Tomlinson, Jim Things Kept, Things Left Behind
Trudge, Colin Tree: A history of What Trees Are, How they Live, and Why they Matter
Trueblood, Valerie Seven Loves
Umrigar, Thirty The Space Between Us
Unsworth, Barry Ruby in Her Navel
Vallgren, Carl Johan Horrific Sufferings of the Mind-Reading Monster Hercules Barefoot: His Wonderful Love and His Terrible Hatred
Walter, Jess Zero
Walter, Philippe Christianity
Waters, Sarah Night Watch
Wa'Thiong'O, Ngugi Wizard of the Crow
Weber, Katharine Triangle: a Novel
Welland, Sasha Su-Ling Thousand Miles of Dreams: The Journey of Two Chinese Sisters
White, Richard D. Kingfish: The Reign of Huey P. Long
Winters, Kathleen Anne Morrow Lindbergh
Woodrell, Daniel Winter's Bone
Wright, Lawrence Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11
Yeh, Jane Marabou
Yehoshua, Abraham Woman in Jerusalem
Young, Ralph F. Dissent in America
Zoellner, Tom The Heartless Stone

Fragile Things: Short Fictions and Wonders by Neil Gaiman

Short story collections are tricky. At their best, each story flows into the next, telling a different story but with an interconnectedness that makes the whole more than the sum of its parts. I adore Neil Gaiman's fiction. I find it clever, full of subtext and extremely inventive. Having said that, this collection didn't work that well for me. Individually I enjoyed all of the stories and a couple pulled me into their world (at least for a short time). I found myself thinking about them afterwards but...(don't you hate that word?) the flow wasn't there for me. The transition from one story into the next wasn't seamless and I could put down the book without having that pull to get back to the next story.

This is still a great collection and does include another Spider tale (yeah!) so for fans is well worth reading. It probably won't make my notable final list although the other committee members may disagree with me. (Silly committee members.)

The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield

This is a wonderful gothic tale that reminds me of Wuthering Heights, Rebecca, Jane Eyre, etc... The main character is a reclusive woman who works in a bookstore owned by her father. Together they spend afternoons sitting in the bookshop reading (sounds lovely doesn't it). She prefers the classics, proper stories with proper endings. She also writes short biographies about obscure people. One of these biographies catches the attention of a famous modern author who is notorious for her changing stories about her life. She asks her to come and write the "real" story about her life. What follows is a story with twists and turns , insanity, twins, murder, betrayal and secrets.

Good stuff!

Coming soon...

I have new reviews. Really, I do.

Worked to the Bone!

Worked to the Bone!
Originally uploaded by outnbout.

This is me at work tonight.

Angels Rest by Charles Davis

This is the story of a young man trying to make sense of the murder of his father, supposedly by his mother. Up until that point life had been more or less idyllic for Charlie York. A loving mother, a respected father who adores him and although not popular, Charlie has a few good friends he can count on.

All that changes after his mother is arrested. Left in the care of an elderly black man in a racist white town, he is tormented by classmates and hounded by adults. After Mr. Lacy is taken out, stripped down and forced to walk back to their house in freezing weather things go from bad to worse.

This was a beautifully written saga of small town Southern life and the coming of age of a boy facing difficult choices.

Let It Be Morning by Sayed Kashua and Miriam Shlesinger

This is set in a small Arab village in Israel and was a very interesting look at the struggle that everyday life can become in Israel for this minority. Focusing on the life of a journalist at a Jewish newspaper, the protagonist has moved back to his small village as his assignments (along with his paycheck) dry up in the face of increasing tension in Israel. Shortly after moving home the village is surrounded by tanks and the village is cut off from fresh supplies of food, water and waste disposal. As the mood in the village becomes more tense the desperate villagers start to become less and less civil, even to the extent of sacrificing some of their workers in a vain attempt to get the tanks to leave.

Goodbye Lemon by Adam Davies

Goodbye Lemon is one of those edgy, contemporary novels. Think of it like a really depressed American Nick Hornsby novel (About A Boy). The main character, Jack Tennant, is called home when his father suffers a drinking related stroke. After the death of his brother when Jack was five his family fell apart, he and his brother blame his father for being drunk and not watching him, his mother has become a control freak and his father, has managed to stay perpetually drunk. Now the brother has descended into the same kind of drunkenness and has decided that the answer to their problems is for the two of them to kill their father.

Not surprisingly, Jack is affected by the craziness, starts drinking, drives his girlfriend away, loses the (not-so-great) job he has and in general falls apart. Don't worry, the end of the novel, is redemptive and he rebuilds his life in new and surprising ways.

I actually really liked this novel. If he would have ended up a drunk in the gutter it actually would have been a more interesting novel but I do like a bit of hope at the end of my literature.

Books

You know, because I am on this book award committee, I have received almost all of the books on my post lists from the publishers. This used to be a great source of enjoyment for me. Kind of like Christmas and my birthday all rolled into one and even better yet, it occured at least once a week. Now I am starting to become a bit overwhelmed by the sheer number of books in my house and when a new box comes I don't think "oh goody, more books". Instead I think "Oh my god, where am I going to put these".

My goal has always been to stockpile enough books so that if I was stranded in my house for three months I would not face the possibility of running out. I had already achieved that goal before I started the committee and now I can safely say that if there is a disaster and I can't leave home (ignoring the utter lack of food in my house) I could stay there for a year, minimum, without running out of new reading material.

In less work intensive years I could easily do 40 - 50 books a month. You do the math:)

Tucking Your Lawnmower in for the Winter

I got this in a gardening newsletter and had to laugh. This seems like something that I would do, right?

If you are done mowing for the year, be sure to service your
mower before putting it away. Make sure you drain the gas tank of
gasoline-powered engines or use a gasoline stabilizer. Untreated
gasoline can become thick and gummy. A few drops of oil squirted inside
the spark plug hole (after you remove the spark plug) will help
lubricate the cylinder. While you have the spark plug removed, replace
it with a new one.

If your equipment has a battery, clean the battery terminals,
which usually corrode during the season. A wire-bristle brush is a good
tool for doing this. The battery can then be removed or connected to a
battery monitor that will keep it charged over winter. If you remove the
battery, be sure to store it in a protected location for the winter
season (a cool basement works best).

Now is also an excellent time to sharpen mower blades so
they'll be ready next spring.

Sharpening rotary mower blades is fairly straightforward. The
following steps will guide you through this process:
* Check the blade for major damage. If you can't fix it, it
likely will need to be replaced.* Remove grass and debris from the blade
with a moist cloth. Dry before beginning to sharpen the cutting edge.
* Remove nicks from the cutting edge, using a grinding wheel
or hand-file.
* If using a grinding wheel, match the existing edge angle to
the wheel. If hand-filing, file at the same angle as the existing edge.
* Grind or file until the edge is 1/32 inch, about the size of
a period.
* Particularly with a grinding wheel, avoid overheating the
blade as this may warp it.
* Clean the blade with solvent or oil, much like if you were
cleaning a gun, for optimum winter storage. Avoid use of water as it
will promote rust.

Following these tips can help you better prepare your mower
for winter storage and also save you some steps this coming spring. (WU)

Old Filth by Jane Gardam

Old Filth is the story of Sir Edward Feathers, a lawyer, who as a young child was sent from Malaya to England to be raised properly. His father fading into the background, his school friend killed in the war and the death of his wife, have left Edward alone. After a certain number of losses Edward stops creating new connections.

What struck me about this novel is that everything in his life was designed to train him for the moment when he is alone and must carry on. Although on the surface this is a quiet novel where "not much happens", watching endless repetitions of loss resulted in this being one of the saddest books that I have read this year.

Librarian Costume

Librarian Costume
Originally uploaded by Librarian Avenger.

Darn. I found out about this too late for Halloween. I believe in the library world they are calling it the Librarian Hooker Halloween costume.

Revolutionary Wealth by Alvin Toffler

This is the latest offering by futurists Alvin and Heidi Toffler. As always, their ideas about the future are exciting and innovative. The emerging information wealth revolution comes complete with "prosumer" class who create (those who create goods and services "for [their] own use or satisfaction, rather than for sale or exchange"). While there is no doubt that the Internet will change the world, there is some debate about what that change will mean for the future. Interesting and thought provoking as always but not one of my notable books this year.

Anomaly by Anne Fleming

a·nom·a·ly (-nm-l) n. pl. a·nom·a·lies

1. Deviation or departure from the normal or common order, form, or rule.
2. One that is peculiar, irregular, abnormal, or difficult to classify: “Both men are anomalies: they have... likable personalities but each has made his reputation as a heavy” (David Pauly).

anomaly. (n.d.). The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Retrieved October 25, 2006, from Dictionary.com website: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/anomaly

Each in her own way an anomaly, the Riggs sisters grow up with the intense love/hate bond that sisters often have (and hopefully grow out of). In addition, the older sister, Glynnis has a disabled leg and Carol is an albino making school at time a torturous experience. Each must suffer the casual cruelties of their classmates and learn how to survive the emotional damage that is done. As they get older the two girls take distinctly different paths to discover their true place in the world.

Set in the 1970's in Canada, this first novel is smooth, polished and just a little quirky. I highly enjoyed it.

The Gravedigger: A Novel by Peter Grandbois

Juan, the gravedigger, is a storyteller who gets his stories from the ghosts of the dead that he buries. While some of the stories he tells leave the family in peace others are not so comforting. Juan also struggles to raise his daughter alone after the death of his beloved wife. Esperanza, although a loving daughter, is also rebellious and tests the limits of her community by falling in love with a gypsy boy. This is an excellent example of magical realism and a novel infused with warmth. A lovely engaging story with humor to spare.

Interesting articles

I was going to post my newly updated list today but didn't quite get to it. Instead I thought I would link you to some interesting (at least to me) library related articles. #1 and #2 shows how much the Brits love their libraries:) You may notice that article #4 and #5 pulled one of the graphic novels that is on my "notable reading list".

"Thousands Blog for British Library." American Library Association. 2006.http://www.ala.org/ala/alonline/currentnews/newsarchive/2006abc/october2006a/britishblog.htm (Accessed 23 Oct, 2006)

"A Naked Display of Emotion over Library Closings." American Library Association. 2006.http://www.ala.org/ala/alonline/currentnews/newsarchive/2006abc/october2006a/kingsteignton.htm (Accessed 23 Oct, 2006)

"EPA Allegedly Plans to Reduce Access to Online Publications." American Library Association. 2006.http://www.ala.org/ala/alonline/currentnews/newsarchive/2006abc/october2006a/epasubs.htm (Accessed 23 Oct, 2006)

"Missouri Trustees Pull Graphic Novels, for Now." American Library Association. 2006.http://www.ala.org/ala/alonline/currentnews/newsarchive/2006abc/october2006a/marshallmo.htm (Accessed 23 Oct, 2006)

"Graphic Novels Draw Challenge in Missouri." American Library Association. 2006.http://www.ala.org/ala/alonline/currentnews/newsarchive/2006abc/october2006a/graphicnovels.htm (Accessed 23 Oct, 2006)

Miracle in the Andes: 72 Days on the Mountain and My Long Trek Home by Nando Parrado

Miracle in the Andes: 72 Days on the Mountain and My Long Trek Home is the account of the 1972 plane crash that left a group of young athletes from Uruguay stranded on a mountaintop with no food and little hope of rescue. Nando was the instigator of the escape trek through mountains that would have been a challenge to experienced mountain climbers with equipment, weather appropriate clothing and adequate food and water. Somehow, many of the crash victims survived and they still remain close today.

Of course, this story was made into a movie based on the book Alive so many will know the basic story. But Nando talks about it from a different angle, discussing feelings about the crash, his mother and sister's deaths and his feelings about his fellow survivors. He also looks at the portrayals of a couple of the less heroic boys with more understanding and compassion than he did as a young man and sees how emotionalism just showed the fear, not the steps these individuals took to overcome that fear.

You also find out what has happened to these men, what kind of lives they led and what they have done with these experiences which is a nice addition to the tale. Very well done and movingly told.

Exciting News

My sister and her husband asked if they could move to India for a couple of years (just for fun). Their respective bosses like the idea so it looks like it might actually happen. I will miss the easy access but on the plus side, I will get to go to India in the next couple of years. I now have to save money for a trip to Zurich and a trip to India. Guess I shouldn't give up the part-time job yet.

The Futurist by James P. Othmer

The Futurist is, oddly enough, about a man who makes his living as a futurist. In other words, someone who analyzes trends and predicts the future. After giving what should be a career ending speech exposing himself as a fraud, he is recruited by a secret government agency to find out what the rest of the world thinks about Americans. Of course, things spiral out of control and he finds himself pursued by Johnson and Johnson (agency men), Nostradamus and assorted other strange characters who have taken exception to something he has said, done or thought.

This is another of those clever books that takes a great idea and turns it in to an entertaining story. There were several other books on this year's list that had the same feel to it but I enjoyed this one more. There are a few places that the pace was a little slow but overall a solid satire of our quest to know the future.

A question (Duplicated on MySpace)

Librarians (and former librarians): Please contact me directly instead of posting comments. I am more interested in library customer’s opinions right now. Thank you.

At work I am taking a look at new technologies, formats, etc...that promote or provide alternative access to books. What does everyone think about book trailers? Would this "commercial" entice you to pick up a book (assuming that the genre was something that interested you)?

How would you feel about having them playing (most of them have very little or no sound) in a library or posted on a library webpage.

Here are some examples:
http://www.myspace.com/cosbooktrailers
http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=61479466

The Mystery Guest: An Account by Gregoire Bouillier

This is one of those very "French" novels that is hard to describe but I will do my best. Basically this is the story of a man who has been invited by his ex-lover to be the mystery guest at an artists home. The man agonizes over the meaning of the invitation since the ex-lover left him with no explanations about why she was leaving him. Asking himself such questions as "Why did she invite him?" "What could she be trying to tell him?" and even analyzing the meaning behind the number of flowers at the party. (And I thought women were the only ones who over analyzed things.)

This is not a novel that captivated me but it was interesting and had a very old fashioned literary feel to it, similar to Virginia Woolf in tone.

Moral Disorder: And Other Stories by Margaret

Margaret Atwood is my all-time favorite author. I especially love her ability to take a modern day technology and then imagine what would happen if it were taken to extremes.

Her newest collection of short stories is completely different. This beautifully written short story collection presents episodes from the life of Nell, starting with the birth of her sister. Nell's life becomes more measured as time goes on, although you never feel she has settled into her skin. There is always an edge to even the most serene and domestic of these stories. Ultimately, she becomes the caretaker for her sister, her husband and her parents and these tasks help her become comfortable with the person she is meant to be.

This was a lovely collection of short stories although I could have happily read a novel that more fully explored the life of this character.

Every Visible Thing: A Novel by Lisa Carey

Every Visible Thing is a heartbreaking novel about the loss of a child and how that affects the rest of the family.

Alternating between the two siblings, Lena and Owen tell the story of their family's struggle to deal with the loss of the oldest child, Hugh, missing and presumed dead. The inability of the parents to deal with the loss of Hugh allows the two remaining children to slip further and further into trouble. As they struggle to deal with this loss in addition to the normal problems of childhood, the lack of guidance creates situations where the two feel alienated and alone. Bad choices are made, situations spiral out of control and eventually the family faces the potential loss of another of its children.

Although the structure of this book felt off to me, alternating between first and third person, I still enjoyed and was affected by this novel.

Health Insurance

I was sitting in my office today and heard a couple of employees talking about how much co-pays for our health insurance went up at the beginning of the month. Today I also missed a call from the same health insurance company. This doesn't seem like it is going to be a good thing.

Also, http://expat-experience.blogspot.com/2006/10/passing-of-hero.html to read about the passing of Buck O'Neil

The Rug Merchant by Meg Mullins

The Rug Merchant is a lovely, slow moving novel that beautifully mirrors the profound alienation that Ushman Kahn feels living in the United States.

The main character comes to American planning to work and eventually send for his beloved wife when he had created a good life for her. As he lives an isolated lifestyle selling carpets and saving money, his wife has become pregnant and quietly divorced him. In his grief and loneliness he wanders the airport late at night and one night he meets the young, beautiful, very American, Stella. He is drawn to her youth and sense of belonging and soon is having an affair with her. Unfortunately, the very qualities that attracted him in the beginning soon leave him feeling more isolated than ever.

I did enjoy this novel but in the end, nothing has been resolved. In the end he remains alienated.

Field Notes from a Catastrophe by Elizabeth Kolbert

Field Notes From A Catastrophe is an interesting book that calmly lays out the evidence to support the fact that the earth is now the warmest it has been in the past 420,000 years. She then goes on to talk about differing scientists viewpoints of what this might mean. At the core, all of the important scientists in the field agree that the warming means that the planet is on the edge of a major climate change. The main point of contention seems to be the time frame in which that will happen and how much longer we have before that outcome is irreversible.

Very nicely done without the alarmist tone that many writers on the subject develop (probably because the potential outcomes are alarming.)

Sufficient Grace by Darnell Arnoult

Sufficient Grace is the story of a woman suffering from schizophrenia. When she starts hearing the voice of God she leaves her husband and ends up staying with the African American woman who had taken care of her as a child. Throughout the book her family struggles to come to terms with the new direction their family has taken and adapts to the changes in surprising new ways.

Interestingly enough, this book does not paint a bleak picture of the effects of mental illness on an individual or a family. In the end, everyone involved is better off than when they started. I enjoyed this book and you can tell that this was written by a poet. There were some lovely uses of language during the course of this novel.

Library conference: Day 2

Today I did several conference related sessions such as dealing with mental health issues and outreach on a budget. I also went to a fun one with one of my favorite authors, Jim Butcher. He writes a paranormal detective series. The main character is a wizard and he solves magical crimes. He started life as a SF geek but turned into a highly entertaining presenter.

Tonight I went to the awards dinner and the speaker for the evening is a writer/editor for Mad magazine talking about censorship. Very provocative and entertaining. I also won a mp3 player and got to see some people that I don't get to see very often. Best of all, my conference work is all done except for the extremely early morning meeting tomorrow.

Life is good.

Library Conference report

I went to a very interesting opening session today. The presenter was talking about the new structure of information and how the "younger" generation is accessing and using information (by the way, did you know that IQ's have been getting higher every year since the the beginning of the 1990's, they have to keep making the tests harder to make sure that "average" stays the same).

He showed some shots of brain activity of different age people as they were looking at websites, printed text, etc... I love that kind of stuff. Brains are amazing pieces of equipment. Anyway, he talked a lot about online use, social communities and online information competition. He also talked about how libraries need to reposition themselves in the coming years so that they are not perceived as obsolete.

Interesting statistic:
1.1 billion uses of libraries in the U.S. per year
.2 billion tickets are sold to all sporting events per year
(I don't know where he got this statistic but will find and put up a reference when I locate it.)

Books and Something to ponder

I am off to our state library conference tomorrow and will hopefully have some time to read between sessions, etc... If I don't start reading faster pretty soon I am going to have to take a week off to catch up. Right now I am reading Field Notes To A Disaster and Sufficient Grace. Field Notes is another book about the damage we are doing to the environment.

Have I mentioned lately that we are bad, bad people who are killing the planet.

Have a great day:)

To Ponder:
A case of access to books helping to maintain sanity?
http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=2485063

Bad librarian

I am a bad librarian. I still haven't finished a book. Personally I blame other people and mowing. (I have been told that my yard is not that big and mowing is no big deal but it is so!)

My next door neighbor's gentleman friend was going to bring me some straw bales so I did put some scarecrows out yesterday. Hopefully the bales get here soon so one of my scarecrows doesn't look like his head is suspended a couple of feet in the air above his body. That sounds much scarier than it looks. Pretty much just looks dorky.

I have been browsing amazon looking at Halloween costumes. Since my friend Brent won't get the Jack Sparrow costume I can't dress up as a pirate wench. I did see a nice Marilyn Monroe costume but I hate having to remember to talk like her all evening. If I absolutely can't decide I can always dig out the witch, nun or Lady Godiva costumes. It is always good to have a standby. I wish I could find a good Xena: Warrior Princess costume. I love Xena (no, not like that!)

Malls and Excuses

To see what has happened to the only mall I could tolerate, take a look at another KC blog http://happyinbag.blogspot.com/2006/08/mauled.html. This is what is left, give or take. I loved that mall (unfortunately for the reasons it is now a big pile of rubble). It was smallers and easy to get in and out of, not overcrowded with hoards of teenagers and still had a good selection of everything except shoes. Now it is gone and I am very sad.

I haven't got a new book for you today but it has been a busy weekend. Friday, I had a job interview, work happy hour and date. Yesterday, I worked all day and had a friends birthday/going away party/band thing and date. I am going to try to crank out a book or two today in between mowing and trying to get a couple of bushes replaced.

This summer was hard on my garden and it didn't help that I didn't have time to baby stuff along.

My article finally came out, a year and a half later. I don't know if I will get used to the time lag for scholarly journals. Once I write something I want to see it right now.

October is Sarcastic Awareness Month

I got all excited about this until I found the description...

Sarcastic Awareness Month is (1) For those who realize they are sarcastic and want to get it under control; (2) for those who are sarcastic and want to get better at it; and (3) for those who are forced to live or work with people who are sarcastic. Sponsor: Sarcastics Anonymous.

I guess the first step is to admit you have a problem:)

A sarcastic booklist courtesy of Fiction_L:

FICTION

1. Adams, Douglas. The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy
2. Armour, Richard. "It All Started With" series
3. Barry, Dave. Dave Barry's Complete Guide To Guys
4. Barry, Max. The Company
5. Buckley, Christopher. Thank You For Smoking
6. Chen-ho, Wang. Rose, Rose, I Love You
7. Cook, Glen. Garrett, P.I. series (starting with Sweet Silver Blues)
8. Crews, Harry. The Mulching Of America
9. Cuppy, Will. How To Tell Your Friends From Apes
10. Cuppy, Will. The Decline And Fall Of Practically Everybody
11. Gibbons, Stella. Cold Comfort Farm
12. Heller, Joseph. Catch-33
13. Hiaasen, Carl. Nature Girl
14. Hooker, Richard. M*A*S*H
15. Jones, Diana Wynne. The Tough Guide To Fantasyland (October 2006)
16. Leyner, Mark. The Tetherballs Of Bougainville
17. Lopez, Steve. The Sunday Macaroni Club
18. MacLeod, Charlotte. Rest You Merry
19. McCrumb, Sharyn. Bimbos Of The Death Sun
20. McCrumb, Sharyn. If I'd killed Him When I met Him.
21. Moody, Rick. The Diviners
22. Moore, Christopher. Lamb: The Gospel According To Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal
23. Moore, John. Heroics For Beginners
24. Parker, Robert B. Spenser series
25. Pascall, Jeremy. God: The Ultimate Autobiography
26. Pierre, D. B. C. Vernon God Little
27. Pratchett, Terry. Discworld books
28. Pynchon, Thomas. V
29. Recknor, Ellen. Prophet Annie: Being The Recently Discovered Memoir Of Annie Pinkerton Boone Newcastle Dearborn, Prophet And Seer
30. Shankman, Sarah. I Still Miss My Man, But My Aim Is Getting Better
31. Shuo, Wang. Please Don't Call Me Human
32. Stahl, Jerry. Plainclothes Naked
33. Stout, Rex. Nero Wolfe series
34. Townsend, Sue. The Queen And I
35. Vonnegut, Kurt Cat's Cradle
36. Waugh, Evelyn. Loved One: An Anglo-American Tragedy
37. Westlake, Donald. Sacred Monster

NONFICTION

1. Bierce, Ambrose. The Devil's Dictionary
2. Browne, Jill Connor. The Sweet Potato Queen's Book Of Love
3. Bryson, Bill. A Short History Of Nearly Everything
4. Eggers, Dave. A Heartbreaking Work Of Staggering Genius
5. Franken, Al. The Truth (With Jokes)
6. Frazier, Ian. Coyote Vs Acme
7. Grizzard, Lewis. Don't Bend Over in the Garden, Granny, You Know Them Taters Got Eyes
8. Hitchens, Christopher. A Long Short War: The Postponed Liberation Of Iraq
9. Ivins, Molly. Who Let The Dogs In?
10. Macdonald, Dwight. Parodies: An Anthology From Chaucer To Beerbohm *And After
11. Martin, Reed C. Reduced Shakespeare: The Complete Reader's Guide For The Attention-Impaired (abridged)
12. Moore, Michael. Dude, Where's My Country?
13. Nash, Ogden.Notaro, Laurie. The Idiot Girls' Action Adventure Club
14. Parker, Dorothy.Pollitt, Katha. Virginity Or Death!: And Other Social And Political Issues Of Our Time
15. Reinhardt, Susan. Not Tonight, Honey: Wait 'Til I'm A Size 6
16. Sedaris, David. Me Talk Pretty One Day
17. Stewart, Jon. America (The Book): A Citizen's Guide To Democracy Inaction
18. Twain, Mark. The Innocents Abroad
19. Walker, Douglas. The Official Rock, Paper, Scissors Strategy Guide
20. White, Bailey. Mama Makes Up Her Mind

Pound For Pound by F.X. Toole

This was a brilliant first and (sadly) last novel by F.X. Toole. In addition to having published a collection of short stories that included "Million Dollar Baby" he left this manuscript behind. I can't say that I would have picked this up on my own but I am really glad that I read it. It has all the elements of a good boxing novel.

Underdogs, shady promoters, and fixed fights have left gifted boxer Eduardo "Chicky" Garza y Duffy ready to give up on his Olympic dreams to return home to the family farm. Dan Cooley is the older gentleman trainer who has lost his loved ones and has given up on life, until he meets a dog and the young up-and-coming fighter. The messages of honesty, honor and learning your craft make this an uplifting novel that is a hallmark of all of the greatest sports stories.

More of my life with cats

Am I a bad cat mom? Instead of rescuing Abby from Spike, I took pictures.

I hate it when this happens
There are many times during my workday that having a cell phone is handy but there is one day a month when I really, really need my cell phone. That would be today. Did I bring my cell phone to work today when I almost never am without it? No. It is sitting on the counter where I put it when I went to feed the cats.

Hah! I knew I could blame this all on the cats if I tried hard enough.

Strange Piece of Paradise by Terri Jentz

BOB, it's a Nonfiction book!!! You can read my blog today.

When Terri Jentz was college, she and her roommate, Shayna, decided to take a bike trip cross-country. As the two were sleeping in their tent at Cline Falls State Park in Oregon a pickup truck ran over their tent and a man proceeded to hack them with a hatchet. Amazingly, at the last minute, the madman decided not to kill them and drove away. Terri recounts running to the road, flagging down a teenage couple, loading up Shayna, who was near death and rushing to the nearest emergency room. Because the madman was never caught, Terri remained haunted by the attack and eventually she went back to the scene of the crime and started her own investigation into the events of that night during the summer of 1977.

Terri does a magnificent job of telling her story in an emotionally compelling way. At various points as she is telling about the attack I had to stop reading because I felt physically ill. (No, really, this is a good thing in a memoir about a violent crime.) She gave her story an immediacy and urgency that moved the story along at a brisk pace for the majority of the book. I particularly liked the connections she develops with people she meets during the course of the investigation. While I am sure she would say that being a victim was not a good thing, the resulting investigation brought profound friendships into her life.

There were a few places that were repetitive and the pace slowed but I think this was due to the fact that she was describing an investigation, which I understand can be repetitious and tedious. Otherwise, it was an excellent and well thought out tale.

Oversleeping

I managed to sleep through two alarms and hang up on a friend this morning. (Hey, talking on the phone and trying to blowdry your hair at the same time is tricky.) The problem with Nyquil is that it is really hard to wake up if you take it late at night but on the up side I did get some sleep:)

I am almost finished with a couple of books. Soon I will talk books. I promise.

My Newly Updated Booklist

The list keeps getting bigger. So far I have read around 50? Only 270'ish to go:)

Abbott, Lee K - All Things, All at Once
Abel, Jessica - La Perdida
Abulthawa, Susan - The Scar of David
Adichie, Chimamanda Ngozi - Half of a Yellow Sun
Ali, Monica - Alentejo Blue
Allen, Clare - Poppy Shakespeare
Antrim, Donald - Afterlife
Arana, Marie - Cellophane
Armstrong, Karen - The Great Transformation
Arnoult, Darnell - Sufficient Grace
Arsenault, Raymond - Freedom Riders
Atkinson, Kate - One Good Turn
Atlas, Teddy - Atlas
Atwood, Margaret - Moral Disorder & Other Stories
Auster, Paul - Brooklyn Follies
Bahr, Howard - Judas Field
Baker, Calvin - Dominion
Barton, Emily - Brookland
Bausch, Richard - Thanksgiving Night
Bayard, Louis - The Pale Blue Eye
Beachy-Quick, Dan - Mulberry
Beagle, Peter S. - The Line Between
Bechdel, Alison - Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic
Begg, Moazzam - Enemy Combatant: My Imprisonment at Guantanamo, Bagram, and Kandahar
Behrens, Peter - Law of Dreams, The
Belli, Gioconda - The Scroll of Seduction
Belozerskava, Marina - The Medici Giraffe
Ben Jelloun, Tahar - The Last Friend
Berkowitz, Edward - Something Happened
Berne, Suzanne - The Ghost at the Table
Bigsby, Christopher - Beautiful Dreamer
Binelli, Mark - Sacco and Vanzetti Must Die!
Bizony, Piers - The Man Who Ran the Moon
Blehm, Eric - Last Season
Bonner, Jeffrey P - Sailing with Noah
Boren, Karen Lee - Girls in Peril
Bouillier, Gregoire - Mystery Guest: An Account
Boyle, T. Coraghessan - Talk Talk
Branch, Taylor - At Canaan's Edge: America in the King Years 1965-68
Brinkley, Douglas - The Great Deluge: Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans and the Mississippi Gulf Coast
Broad, William - The Oracle: The Lost Secrets And Hidden Messages Of Ancient Delphi
Brookhieser, Richard - The Divided Ground: Indians, Settlers, And The Northern Borderland Of The American Revolution
Brooks, Max - World War Z
Brown, Frederick - Flaubert: A Biography
Bruinius, Harry - Better for All the World: The Secret History of Forced Sterilization and America's Quest for Racial Purity
Burt, Stephen - Parallel Play
Busch, Frederick - Rescue Missions
Butler, Robert Olen - Severance
Buzbee, Lewis - The Yellow Lighted Bookshop:
Cadbury, Deborah - Space Race
Cahill, Carmen - Bad Faith
Caldwell, Gail - A Strong West Wind
Carey, Lisa - Every Visible Thing
Carey, Peter - Theft: A Love Story
Carr, Cynthia - Our Town
Carrierre, Jean-Claude - Please, Mr Einstein
Carroll, James - House of War: The Pentagon and the Disastrous Rise of American Power
Cartwright, Justin - The Promise of Happiness
Chase, Clifford - Winkie
Chayes, Sarah - The Punishment of Virtue:Inside Afghanistan After the Taliban
Cheney, Annie - Body Brokers: Inside America's Underground Trade in Human Remains
Child, Julia and Alex Prud'Homme - My Life In France
Clarke, Susanna - Ladies of Grace Adieu & Other Stories
Claudel, Phillipe - By A Slow River
Collins, Francis S. - The Language of God
Collins, Martha - Blue Front
Cox, Michael - The Meaning of Night: A Confession
Cullen, Lisa Takeuchi - Remember Me
Da Chen - Brothers
Dallek, Robert - Let Every Nation Know
D'Ambrosio, Charles - Dead Fish Museum: Stories
Davies, Adam - Goodbye Lemon
Davis, David Brion - In Human Bondage: The Rise and Fall of Slavery in the New World
Davis, Dick - A trick of Sunlight
Davis, Kathryn - The Thin Place
de Botton, Alain - The Architecture of Happiness
de Feydeau, Elisabeth - A Scented Palace: The Sercret History of Marie Antoinette's Perfumer
Dean, Debra - Madonnas of Leningrad
Decker, Shawn - My Pet Virus: The True Story of a Rebel Without a Cure
DeKok, Ingrid - Seasonal Fires
Deslisle, Guy - Shonzhen: a travelogue
Doig, Ivan - The Whistling Season
Donohue, Keith - The Stolen Child
Donovan, Gerard - Julius Winsome
D'Orso, Michael - Eagle Blue
Drape, Joe - Black Maestro
D'Souza, Tony - Whiteman
Edsall, Thomas B - Building Red America: The New Conservative Coalition and the Drive for Permanent Power
Egan, Jennifer - The Keep
Egan, Timothy - Worst Hard time
Eisenberg, Deborah - Twilight of the Superheroes
Eisenberg, John - The Great Match Race
Fenton, James - Selected Poems
Finkel, Caroline - Osman's Dream
Flannery, Tim - The Weather Makers: The History and Future Impact of Climate Change
Fleming, Anne - Anomaly
Forbes, Charlotte - The Good Works of Avela Linde
Forbes, Peter - The Gecko's Foot
Forna, Aminatta - Ancestor Stones
Fountain, Ben - Brief Encounters with Che Guevara: Stories
Franzen, Jonathan - The Discomfort Zone: a Personal History
Frazier, Charles - Thirteen Mooons
Freedman, Dave - Natural Selection
Freudenberger, Nell - The Dissident
Fuentes, Carlos - The Eagles Throne
Fugard, Lisa - Skinner's Drift
Gaiman, Neil - Fragile Things
Gallagher, Tess - Dear Ghosts
Gardam, Jane - Old Filth
Garrison, Julia Fox - Don't Leave Me This Way
Gaston, Bill - Sointula
George, Margaret - Helen of Troy
Getty, Sarah - Bring Me Her Heart
Ghosh, Amitav - Incendiary Circumstances: A Chronicle of the Turmoil of Our Time
Gibb, Camilla - Sweetness in the Belly
Gibbons, Ann - The First Human
Gien, Pamela - The Syringa Tree
Gifford, Barry - The Stars Above Verazcruz
Gilfoyle, Timothy - Pickpocket's Tale, A: The Underworld of 19th Century New York
Gilmore, Jennifer - Golden Country
Glass, Julia - The Whole World Over
Gluck, Louise - Averno: Poems
Godwin, Gail - The Making Of A Writer: The Journals Of Gail Godwin 1961 - 1963
Goleman,Daniel - Social Intelligence
Goodman, Allegra - Intuition
Gorenberg, Gershom - The Accidental Empire: Israel and the Birth of the Settlements, 1967-1977
Grandbois, Peter - Gravedigger
Grande, Reyna - Across a Hundred Mountains
Greenaway, Alice - White Ghost Girls
Greenfield, Robert - Timothy Leary
Grenville, Kate - Secret River
Groom, Winston - Patriotic Fire
Gruen, Sara - Water For Elephants
Guene Faiza - Kiffe Kiffe Tomorrow
Hamilton, Jane - When Madeline Was Young
Handler, Daniel - Adverbs
Hayes, Terrance - Wind in a Box
Heaney, Seamus - District and Circle
Hellenga, Robert - Philosophy Made Simple
Helms, Sarah - Life In Secrets: Vera Atkins And The Missing Agents of WWII
Henderson, William Haywood - Augusta Locke
Hendricks, Steve - The Unquiet Grave: The FBI and the Struggle for the Soul of Indian Country
Henriquez, Cristina - Come Together, Fall Apart
Hernandez, Gilbert - Sloth
Hessler, Peter - Oracle Bones: A Journey Between China's Past And Present
Hirschfield, Jane - After
Hogan, Lawrence D. - Shades of Glory
Holloway, Kris - Monique and the Mango Rains: Two Years with a Midwife in Mali
Homes, A. M. - This Book Will Save Your Life
Hoobler, Dorothy & Hoobler, Thomas - The Monsters: Mary Shelly & The Curse of Frankenstein
Horne, Jed - Breach of Faith: Hurricane Katrina and the Near Death of a Great American City
Hughes, Robert - Things I Didn't Know: A Memoir
Hyland, M. J. - Carry Me Down
Idibly, Rayna - The Faith Club: A Muslim, a Christian, A Jew - Three Women Search for Understanding
Jackson, Major - Hoops
Jacobson, Sid - The 9/11 Report: a Graphic Adaptation
Jennings, Kevin - Mama's Boy, Preacher's Son
Jenson, Liz - My Dirty Little Book of Stolen Time
Jentz, Terri - Strange Piece of Paradise
Jones, Edward P. - All Aunt Hagar's Children Joseph, Peniel E.
Waiting 'Till the Midnight Hour: A Narrative History of Black Power in America
Julavits, Heidi - The Uses of Enchantment
Junger, Sebastian - A Death in Belmont
Just, Ward - Forgetfulness
Kammen, Michael - Visual Shock: A History of Art Controversies in American Culture
Kaplan, Eugene - Sensuous Seas
Karr, Mary - Sinners Welcome
Kashua, Sayed - Let It Be Morning
Kazin, Michael - A Godly Hero: The Life of William Jennings Bryan
Kelly, James Patrick - Feeling Very Strange
Kelly, Stuart - The Book of Lost Books: An Incomplete History of All the Great Books You'll Never Read
Kenneally, Thomas - A Commonwealth of Thieves: the Improbable Birth of Australia
Keret, Edgar - The Nimrod Flipout
Khadra, Yasmina - The Attack
Khoury, Elias - Gate Of The Sun
King, Ross - The Judgement of Paris
Kinzer, Stephen - Overthrow:America's Century of Regime Change
Knighton, Ryan - Cockeyed: A Memoir of Blindness
Kolbert, Elizabeth - Field notes from a catastrophe: man nature and climate change
Lansens, Lori - Girls
Larson, Erik - Thunderstruck
Lavagnino, Alessandra - The Librarians of Alexandria
Lawrence, Starling - Lightning Keeper, The
Lawson, Mary - The Other Side of the Bridge
Ledgard, J. M - Giraffe
Lehane, Dennis - Coronado
Li, Laura - Madame Chian Kai-Shek: China's First Lady
Lindquist, Ulla-Carin - Rowing Without Oars: A Memoir of Living and Dying
Livaneli, O.Z. - Bliss
Lloyd, Seth - Programming the Universe
Long, Dustin - Icelander
Lord, Graham - John Mortimer: The Secret Life of Rumpole's Creator: The Unauthorized Biography
Lucey, Donna M. - Archie and Amerlie
MacLaverty, Bernard - Matters of Life & Death: Stories
Maguire, James - American Bee: The National Spelling Bee and the Culture of Word Nerds
Maheu, Layne - Song of the Crow
Maine, David - The Book of Samson
Malarkey, Tucker - Resurrection
Mankell, Henning - Chronicler of the Winds
Marchetto, Marisa - Cancer vixen
Markoe, Merrill - Walking in Circles Before Lying Down
Martin, Valerie - The Unfinished Novel and Other Stories
Masters, Alexander - Stuart: A Life Backwards
Mazya, Edna - Love Burns
McCarthy, Cormac - The Road
McCauley, Stephen - Alternatives to sex: a gay and obsessive-compulsive post-9/11
McDermott, Alice - After This
McMahon, Darrin - Happiness: A History
McPhee, John - Uncommon Carriers
Meek, James - People's Act of Love
Mendelsohn, Daniel - The Lost: A Search for Six of Six Million
Merridale, Catherine - Ivan's War: Life and Death in the Red Army, 1939-1945
Messud, Claire - The Emperor's Children
Migol, Agl - Look There: Selected Poems
Mitchell, David - Black Swan Green
Montgomery, Sy - The Good Good Pig
Moorehead, Caroline - Selected Letters of Martha Gellhorn
Morrow, James - The Last Witchfinder
Mosley, Walter - Fortunate Son
Mullane, Mike - Riding Rockets
Mullen, Thomas - Last Town on Earth
Mullen, Thomas - The Last Town on Earth
Mullins, Meg - Rug Merchant
Murakami, Haruki - Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman
Naslund, Sena Jeter - Abundance
Nazario, Sonia - Enrique's Journey
Nelson, Antonya - Some Fun: Stories and a Novella
Nemirovsky, Irene - Suite Francaise
Nielsen, John - Condor
Norton, Trevor - Underwater to Get Out of the Rain
Notley, Alice - Grave of Light: New and Selected Poems, 1970-2005
O'Brien, Edna - Light of Evening
Ohlin, Alix - Babylon
Othmer, James P. - Futurist: A Novel
Ours, Dorothy - Man O'War
Ozick, Cynthia - A Din in the Head
Parks, Tim - Rapids
Parrado, Nando - Miracle in the Andes: 72 Days on the Mountain and My Long Trek Home
Paz Soldan, Edmundo - Turing's Delirium
Pearce, Fred - When the Rivers Run Dry: Water the Defining Crisis of the 21st Century
Petterson, Per - In the Wake
Philbrick, Nathaniel - Mayflower
Phillips, Julie - James Tiptree, Jr.: The Double Life of Alice B. Sheldon
Pitlor, Heidi - The Birthdays
Pomfret, John - Chinese Lesons: Five Classmates and the Story of the New China
Powers, Richard - Echo Maker
Prager, Joshua - The Echoing Green
Robbins, James - Last in their Class
Rosenbaum, Ron - Shakespeare Wars
Roth, Philip - Everyman
Rusesabagina, Paul - An Ordinary Man
Russell, Karen - St. Lucy's Home for Girls Raised by Wolves: And Other Stories
Rust, Elissa Minor - The Prisoner Pear: Stories From the Lake
Safina, Carl - The Voyage of the Turtle
Sallis, Eva - Fire, Fire
Sancton, Tom - Song for my Fathers: A New Orleans Story in Black and White
Sanders, Scott Russell - A Private History of Awe
Satterlee, Thom - Burning Wyclif
Saunders, George - In Persuasion Nation: Stories
Savage, Sam - Firmin
Schaller, Thomas F - Whistling Past Dixie
Schama,Simon - Rough Crossings: Britain the Slaves, and the American Revolution
Schneider, Paul - Brutal Journey: First Crossing of North America
Schrag, Peter - California: America's High Stakes Experiment
Seife, Charles - Decoding the Universe: How the New Science of Information is Explaining Everything in the Cosmos from our Brains to Black Holes
Server, Lee - Ava Gardner
Setterfield, Diane - The Thirteenth Tale
Sheehan, Aurelie - History Lesson for Girls
Shukman, Henry - Mortimer of the Maghreb
Slatalla, Michelle - The Town on Beaver Creek
Slavitt, David - William Henry Harrison and Other Poems
Smith, Dominic - Mercury Visions of Louis Daguerre
Smith, Janna Malamud - My Father is a Book
Smith, Patricia - Teahouse of the Almighty
Snyder, Scott - Voodoo Heart
Soyinka, Wole - You Must Set Forth at Dawn: A Memoir
Stargardt, Nicholas - Witnesses of War: Children's Lives Under
Stashower, Daniel - Beautiful Cigar Girl
Stern, Jan & Michael - Two For The Road: Our Love Affair with American Food
Stewart, Rory - The Places In Between
Straight, Susan - Million Nightingales
Sullivan, Robert - Cross Country
Tallis, Frank - A Death in Vienna
Tiffany, Carrie - Everyman's Rules for Scientific Living
Toffler, Alvin and Heida Toffler - Revolutionary Wealth
Tomlinson, Jim - Things Kept, Things Left Behind
Toole, F.X. - Pound For Pound
Toutonghi, Pauls - Red Weather
Troost, J. Maarten - Getting Stoned With Savages: Tripping Through the Islands of Fiji and Vanuatu
Trudge, Colin - The Tree: A history of What Trees Are, How they Live, and Why they Matter
Trueblood, Valerie - Seven Loves
Umrigar, Thirty - The Space Between Us
Unsworth, Barry - The Ruby in Her Navel
Updike, John - Terrorist
Urquhart, Jane - Map of Glass, A
Vallgren, Carl Johan - The Horrific Sufferings of the Mind-Reading Monster Hercules Barefoot: His Wonderful Love and His Terrible Hatred
Vidal, Gore - Clouds & Elipses: the Collected Short Stories
Vincent, Norah - Self-Made Man: One Woman's Journey into Manhood and Back Again
Walton, Jo - Farthing
Waters, Sarah - Night Watch
Wa'Thiong'O, Ngugi - Wizard of the Crow
Weber, Katharine - Triangle: a Novel
Welland, Sasha Su-Ling - A Thousand Miles of Dreams: The Journey of Two Chinese Sisters
White, Richard D. - Kingfish: The Reign of Huey P. Long
Winter, Michael - The Big Why
Wright, Lawrence - The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11
Yamanaka, Lois-Ann - Behold The Many
Yeh, Jane - Marabou
Yehoshua, Abraham - A Woman in Jerusalem
Zoellner, Tom - The Heartless Stone

Ahhhhhhhhh

I just got the most upsetting email on myspace. This guy said he wanted to get to know me better. If I wanted a preview of his "talents" he has webcam and would be happy to "show me the goods". All of this was pretty icky but what really upset me was his closing phrase. "because i love olders wommens i can do a little show for you and we can have some fun." I am not even going to go into what the grand finale was going to be.

This is the first time ever (not counting the spinster remark which I chose to take as a joke) that I have ever been called the older woman (or olders wommens if you prefer). I think we can officially add this one to the list on myspace of things you do not say when asking a woman out for the first time. Ok we can probably add the auditioning via webcam part as well.

Stream of Consciousness

I decided to try going in to work today. I am feeling a little bit better and since I hadn't actually arranged for a sub this seemed like the right thing to do. I brought work to do from my other job but will probably play on myspace creating new backgrounds to try out. So far the three I have tried seem to have equal numbers of yes and no votes. Obviously, no matter what anyone else likes or doesn't like, I am going to pick my favorite in the end but it doesn't hurt to get feedback.

Good news: I now have a good alternate ice cream provider once my current one moves to Switzerland. My cousin just moved down the street, relatively speaking, and has a sister so I am pretty sure he will be able to understand things like bringing ice cream to sick women. (and yes, I see the pun)

My uncle is doing much better. For a couple of days the doctors didn't think his chances were very good. Today he turned that corner and it looks like he will be ok although the hospital is not going to let him out until they are pretty sure that no other setbacks will occur. Mom called me today to find out what to do while she is in Baltimore. If she had more time I would have her check out my old library and say hi to my former boss.

Between worrying about that and work I was pretty beat tonight. I ended up coming home and falling asleep on the coach for a couple of hours. I can't believe how much this cold (or plague or whatever) has taken out of me. I just hope it rains tomorrow so I don't have to think about mowing. I still feel like I could sleep for a year.

God I am tired of thinking about mowing.

I think in my eternal quest for friends I just hit the prostitution section of myspace. Wow. There are a whole lot of services here in my hometown. I have no idea how I managed to not see any of these before today.

I don't think this is related to the prostitutes but I just had one of those headaches hit that feels like I need to drill a hole in my head to get it to stop hurting. (yes I am aware that I should not drill a hole in my head.) Lately I feel like I have to spell out all my little jokes otherwise I get people emailing me saying things like "I think the guy who invented chocolate is dead"

What does it mean when I put on Rob Zombie and the kitten comes running? Of course he also comes running when those smiley faces start talking but that could mean the same thing.

NOT on my Notable list

Since I was sick I read something NOT on my list. I read a romance. You heard me, a romance. It might have even been a Harlequin. Yep it sure was and a darn good one at that. Actually, this is one of those titles that was mentioned on one of the "best of" lists a couple of years ago so I picked it up, stored with the many other books I have squirrelled away all over the house. The reason I decided to read this one today was because it was on the bookshelf closest to the couch and as I have mentioned before, I felt puny.

I like reading romance. Actually I like almost any type of book but that is beside the point. I like thinking about people's inner lives and how they view the world and romance is one of the better genres for exploring those kinds of issues. On my other blog I have been writing down the list my "getting asked on a date" pet peeves. Here is my reading pet peeve. I really hate it when people judge other people's reading material.

First of all, if you are judging someone else, you can be darn sure that someone else is turning up their nose at what you are reading. No exceptions! Not even for the literary readers among us. Everyone has a slightly different idea of what good lit. is and there are just as many people who think that the dead white authors are outdated and not worthy of mention as there are people who think that they are the only thing that should be read. The are plenty of people who think that all mysteries are dreck, that SF is juvenile, literary fiction is pretentious and romance is just a bunch of sex scenes strung together. Everyone is right and everyone is wrong. For every good romance/mystery/literary fiction novel there are eight or nine really crappy ones floating around.

If you have only read one of any particular type of book your odds were pretty good that you picked up one of the crappy ones. If you are at all interested in trying a new genre, please go and ask a librarian (preferably one who reads that genre or is really good at reader's advisory) to help you pick out something that might give you a different view of genre. There is a lot of good stuff out there in every genre, even literary fiction.:)

I want to go out to play!

I'm tired of being sick. I'm bored! All my friends are out having fun (ok probably not true but for dramatic purposes I am going to let that one stand.) I have been asked about my list of pet peeves for how not to ask a woman for a date so I am going over to myspace to work on that now.

Something to ponder: While it has been agreed upon that my kitten is very special (code for "somewhat trying") kitten he does seem to be a typical male. I haven't the TV on much in the past year or so but because I am home sick I put in a movie. My kitten plopped himself in front of the TV and stayed there the whole time the movie was on. It is probably the longest I have seen him stay still (at least while awake) ever. Is this some kind of y chromosome thing? Just a question.

Signs of hope

appeared at my front door a few minutes in the form of an almost recovered friend, and he is feeling much better today. This friend also appeared with ice cream which I am sure will help my healing process significantly. Girlfriends (and their husbands) are good because they understand the inherent value of ice cream as it applies to all situations in life. Thank you!!! Now I won't die a lonely death with no ice cream.

I am getting ready to pass out from all the cold medicine but wanted to share. I like following my friends friends out to see if I know anyone. One girl (two or three people out) has Jenna Jameson on her friends list. I briefly pondered asking to be her friend but she has 760,705 friends and I didn't want to be one of the crowd. Ok, I didn't actually consider it but I do think it is funny. What kind of statement are you trying to make to the world about you by selecting her as your friend?

I need ice cream

Preferably chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream because I am puny today. Unfortunately, the people who would be most willing to bring it to me are the ones that infected me so I doubt that they are feeling like running around bringing people ice cream at the moment. This is what I get for going off to concerts with married men.

I am not getting my book read for tonight and am probably going to have to ask my coworker to take over for me. Luckily she is really good at faking reading the book. I can never tell when she hasn't read it. In order to feel like I am making sense when I talk about a book I have to have read it. I have been waking up, reading a few pages and then falling back asleep. I am sure it is a lovely book since it won major awards but I can't seem to stay awake. It was Dirt Music by Tim Winton.

Mom called at around midnight to let me know she made it to Baltimore and that my uncle is back out of surgery and is somewhat stable for now.

Web Design

I am now officially sickly enough that I am going to take tomorrow off, assuming that I survive work tonight.

As I am sickly, I have been spending my time very productively, trying to find backgrounds for my myspace page. There are not nearly enough shoe layouts to try. There was one "I love my iPod" layout but I haven't had the iPod long enough to love it so I skipped that one (at least for now) since I have been assured that I will soon love it beyond words.

I keep finding my family on myspace but they weren't exactly lost. I usually know where to find them.

Sickly librarian

My, that 7 a.m. meeting came early this morning.

It's official. I am feeling puny (as my boss would say). I also spent my free evening playing (or more specifically getting dumped off of websites every two minutes) on the computer instead of reading my book.

There is this thing that happens when you are sick(and taking cold medicine). You can't always tell where you end and the chair or mouse or table (whatever) starts. I think I might be a little loopy. It's probably a good thing that I don't have to mow tonight.

Procratinating

Tonight I have to read a book for a Thursday night Young Friends of the Library book discussion group. Since I am the discussion leader it is probably a good idea to get the book read. Between that and mowing it is going to be a busy night.

Later that night: Yes I am blogging to keep from reading my book.

Well it's official. I just got an email inviting me to get in touch because I "am cuter than the average girls on this site". I have to let this one process a bit before I blog much about it but I am wondering who out there responds positively to this? Prettiest girl I have seen (there is a good statement) , better than average (not quite as great). There are so many other problems with this statement that I will have to explore later on but I do have a book to read.

One of my friends gets messages saying how pretty she looks or what a great smile she has and she has to point out that (apart from being married) she is a cartoon. I have this visual of guys sending out a form letter to every girl they can find. I wonder if I am cuter that my cartoon friend?

I have also noticed that putting down that you are on myspace for friends seems to means something very different to a guy than a girl. Apparently in guy speak this means that I am looking for no commitment relationships, not actual friends. I know it's crazy but when I put down friends I actually mean friends, you know, the kind I go shoe shopping with (see other blog for full rant on this subject) . I am not opposed to meeting someone to date although I initially joined myspace so my coworker would have friends and then to look up old classmates (who apparently are old fogies who don't believe that the Internet is real) and people I have lost touch with for no real reason, you know, friends.

My aunt called a while ago and said the my uncle has had complications from his surgery and is back at Johns Hopkins. He has peritonitis which is pretty serious. (I know I have been a reference librarian too long when I can spell that without having to look it up.) http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/001335.htm

After This by Alice McDermott

Hope I make sense tonight. I think I might be coming down with something because I feel a little woozy. Luckily, at work, no one has needed me to be particularly knowledgeable tonight. If there are glaring errors or nonsensical statements I will go back and fix them when I feel better.

Alice McDermott specializes in Irish-American-Catholic suburban life and is a National Book Award winner for her novel Charming Billy.

By the age of thirty Mary was not expected to marry, having settled into life taking care of her father and brother. But contrary to all expectations, the spinster meets and charms John, a war veteran. This novel follows John and Mary Keane and their children through courtship, raising children and enduring loss. When their eldest child goes to Vietnam and never returns the entire family is profoundly affected and it shapes the texture and direction of their lives (and the novel) forever.

I usually like quiet novels but for some reason I could not lose myself in the quietness of these people's lives. Part of the appeal of the quiet novel (for me) is the ability to become a part of the novel not just an onlooker and I could not quite get there with this book. Still it was beautifully written and in a different mood it might have had a profound impact on me.

Oddly enough, the small vignette that I particularly liked takes place as a priest and a pianist are waiting for the daughter's bridal party to arrive and has very little to do with the family and the rest of the novel. The priest is listening to the pianist, a student a Julliard, and thinks "and then there was a kid like this, who played in a trance......not the engine for the instrument but a conduit for some music that was already there, that had always been there, apprehensible, inscrutable, really, something just beyond the shell of earth and sky that had always been there and that needed only this boy, a boy like this, to bring it, briefly, briefly, to his untrained ear."

Isn't that what we all hope for every time we hear someone sing or play an instrument? I have heard that kind of music maybe twice in my life but am always hoping for the next performance to hear it again. Don't get me wrong, I have heard some wonderful musicians with beautiful voices, technique, etc... but only two that have transcended the composition and soared above that to achieve something extraordinary.

Oops

I might have been making up having tickets to Godsmack. It is just so much fun to tease my friend:)

Concert 2

Not as good as Tool but still a lot of fun. We had so much fun that we bought tickets for Godsmack on Tuesday night.:)

I had a bunch of freaky messages waiting for me tonight, a small horde of guys (and a few girls) contacting me for "fun with no commitments". Also a few married guys, which also falls into the no commitment category, not to mention tacky and unbelievably yucky! One of the married ones thought I sounded "nice"and did I like (description of himself)? I thought "nice" girls didn't mess around with married men but I am often wrong about this boy/girl stuff.

myspace...

obsession continued since I haven't finished my latest book.

I have found assorted people I know in myspace but not lots of people that I actually want to invite to be my friends. My ex's, ex-wife's husband is on there (his comedy club asked to be my friend), a couple of the people who were in my class in high school that I wasn't close to, a couple of other assorted people.

I am pouting now because I want some friends and I can't find them! Do you think they are hiding from me?

Oh well, I switched nights so I am working by myself tomorrow night and will have lots of time between questions to browse around. They can't hide from me forever. (use imagination to insert evil cackling sound)

I might blog tonight when I get home if the concert was worth talking about.

Concert

I have to say the date was lovely. We enjoyed our first sunset together and a special evening with a special band. Ok I better quit or I will be going to tomorrow night's concert by myself:)

The Tool concert was great.

In other news, my friend Dan mentioned me on his blog and talked about his librarian heroes and people are coming over here and instead of seeing my erudite literary posts are getting entries about heavy metal and online dating. Dan, I love you but you could have timed that better:)

Tonight's Concert:

Nickelback http://www.nickelback.com/, Hinder http://www.hinderonline.com/,

Hoobastank http://www.hoobastank.com , Chevelle http://www.chevelleinc.com/

Tool Concert

Tonight I am going on a date with my friend's husband. Actually, it isn't as bad as it sounds. My friend hates rock music and offered me up to her husband as a replacement. She keeps telling me to stop calling it a date but it is so fun to torment her that I can't resist:)

Now I have to figure out what to wear. I don't have any rock concert appropriate attire. Everything that is racy enough looks like I am going clubbing, not to Tool. http://toolband.com/ Maybe I should get my fashion guru/shopper over to assess my wardrobe.

If I am not exhausted I will give an update when I get home, otherwise you have to wait until I get to work tomorrow. Tomorrow night, Nickelback.

High Lonesome by Joyce Carol Oates

I believe I have already mentioned the heft of this particular work. This is one very large collection of Oates best short stories of which there are hundred's. In fact, the sheer amount of output is often discussed as is the consistently high quality of her work. The short stories in this collection are intense, moody and downright creepy in turn. The major themes of the book are girls and women being preyed on by men, obsession and twisted sexuality. I was particularly taken with "The Cousins" , a holocaust survivor writes to an author that she is sure is her lost cousin, and "Upon A Sweeping Flood", which explores how the mind can break after a natural disaster.

My major criticism of this collection is that her stories are often similar in tone. This can cause an emotional drag that can make it difficult to get through the book in a short time period. These stories need to be sampled over time to truly appreciate the uniqueness of each. Otherwise, this is an exceptional collection.

Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman by Haruki Murakami

Haruki Murakami is one of my favorite authors. His postmodern work alternates between full length novels and short story collections and they are always wildly innovative and thought provoking. Often compared to Kafka and Camus, his work has unexplained mystical events, mysteries that are solve with intuition rather than solid clues and unexpectedly funny moments. These stories are epiphanies in which the characters wander through surreal or magical experiences and end up with a new understanding of the world and their role in it.

Every short story collection has a story that speaks to the reader in a particular way and for me it was "Tony Takitani," a jolting story in which the main character's life begins and ends in loneliness. This work resonated with me. In the story, certain painful memories, in this case represented by ghosts, haunt Tony. When he finally exorcises those ghosts he is completely alone in the world and it is left to the reader to decide if he is better off or somehow worse when he has emptied himself of these memories? Has he attained perfection by freeing himself from worldly attachments and becoming completely alone?

At the beginning of this collection the author talks about his love of the short story form and that joy is apparent in each story in the collection.

Mayflower: A Story of Courage, Community, and War by Nathaniel Philbrick

Nathanial Philbrick is one of the new breed of non-fiction writer, whose scholarly, meticulous work is balance with a warm readable style. In the book business, they call this "non-fiction that reads like fiction". (Clever, right?) This is a smooth narrative of the settling of Plymouth colony all the way through King Philip's War.

The author attempts to demystify the first Thanksgiving, Plymouth Rock and more importantly, the relationship between the Pilgrims and the Indians, which was far friendlier and more symbiotic than conventional wisdom leads us to believe.

In fact, it wasn't until the children of the Pilgrims grew up and started to need additional land that race relations became stressed. Eventually these tensions escalated into a needless and costly war. The male population on both sides was decimated, which left the door open to less friendly invasions by hostile Indians. Ironically, hostile Indian attacks were the very thing that the Pilgrims were trying to avoid. I highly recommend this to anyone interested in this period of American history.

The Discomfort Zone: A Personal History by Jonathan Franzen

One of people who serves on the Notable committee has been quite taken with this memoir but my response has been more lukewarm. Jonathan Franzen has come home to St Louis to get his parent's house ready to sell after the death of his mother. While he is waiting for it to sell he reflects on the significant moments of his life with particular emphasis on his childhood. The language in the book is beautiful and it is well constructed but for me, the characters were flat and uninteresting. For someone who has had such a rich and varied life and writes so well I think he could have come up with more interesting things to talk about. Even when his marriage is in trouble there is such a sense of distance that it is hard to care about the outcome.

I found myself having to force my attention back to the story time and time again. On so many levels this is a lovely book but in the end I just didn't care enough. If I hadn't been reading it for the committee I probably would have stopped reading it at some point along the way.

Post 100 - No books, just more odds and ends

I am living in the house of death. Now there is a dead bird right outside my back door. I do not want to own the house where small animals come to die. This must end!

Still nothing to report on the book reading end of things because I am too busy going to plays and trying to find friends on myspace. There is nothing like seeing "Alicia has no friends" on a site to make you feel like a loser. I will also admit that I may be getting a tad obsessed with this.

A friend from high school called to let me know I missed my 20 year class reunion. I am not dealing well with turning 40. I am doing the equivalant of putting my fingers in my ears and saying really loudly, "I can't hear you."The only one more depressed than me about this milestone is my mother.

I am thinking of seeing if my knitting friend can make this for me. After all, it's never too early to start thinking about Halloween. :) http://bleuarts.blogspot.com/2006/09/free-pattern-leia-hat.html