A blog recommendation

This recommendation came from one of my customers at the library. The blog is called No Impact Man and in the blogger's own words... "For one year, my wife, my 2-year-old daughter, my dog and I, while living in the middle of New York City, are attempting to live without making any net impact on the environment. In other words, no trash, no carbon emissions, no toxins in the water, no elevators, no subway, no products in packaging, no plastics, no air conditioning, no TV, no toilets… "

After reading so many books on the subject in the past year or so, I have been increasingly concerned about the environment. I am not ready to make the kind of commitment that the author does but I really admire his dedication.

You can find his blog at http://noimpactman.typepad.com/blog/

Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows by JK Rowling

I love everything about Harry Potter. The biggest problem with book #7 is that it is the end of line. Harry is done. There will be no more to look forward to. I remember when the first one came out I stood up in front of a bunch of children's librarians and said something along the lines of "This book will be huge. It will be like Charlotte's Web, even people who don't read it will know who Harry is." What can I say, I love it when I am right.

Hallows had a couple of places that dragged in the middle but the ending was resolved in a way that made sense to me. I would like to go back and read them all back-to-back to see how the story arch worked as a whole but that will have to wait until the Notable Reading project is over. Otherwise, highly recommended for everyone except the snootiest of readers:)

Book Blog

My own recommendation from a blogger who is doing much better with book recommendations than I am...

http://dailybookbuddy.blogspot.com/

Edith Wharton by Hermione Lee

I have been struggling through Hermione Lee's exceptionally well-written biography about Edith Wharton. It is actually quite readable but it 750 pages long and that is quite a time commitment for all but the most dedicated Wharton fans. Because one of the mandates of my committee is that a book be accessible I am really struggling with this book. Does the fact that it is the definitive work on a subject override the fact that it is not as accessible as other books on the list? Luckily, I don't have to make that decision until the end of the year (or alone) so I have plenty of time to see what else rises to the top of the reading lists this year.

Having said that, if you have any interest in Edith Wharton, this is an exceptional and quite readable biography and I do highly recommend it. It is worth the time investment if you are a fan of Wharton, American literature and/or women in history.

The Ministry of Special Cases by Nathan Englander

In turn, humorous and horrifying, the new Nathan Englander novel, The Ministry Of Special Cases, revisits the events of Argentina’s “Dirty War” and it's impact on the Jewish community.

Lillian and Kaddish and their son, Pato are living ordinary lives, deliberately separated from their Jewish roots. When Pato disappears, the two parents embark on a labyrinth journey that twists and turns through various governmental agencies and eventually leads them to the Ministry of Special Cases. At times almost surreal, the novel explores remembering and forgetting, evil disguised as beaurocracy and love. This novel is powerful and immediate in the way that all good historical novels strive to become.

On Chesil Beach by Ian McEwan

Sometimes a book will trick you. You think it is a book about one thing and it turns out to be something completely different. This is one of those kind of books. I don't know exactly how to talk about it because talking too much about how profoundly it affected me will give away part of the ending. Anyway, this is a brilliant, beautifully written novel about the wedding night of two people in a time before sex was discussed, a time when innocence on the wedding night was expected. Lovely, lovely novel.

Buy, Buy, Baby by Susan Gregory Thomas and Pesthouse by Jim Crace

A couple more books that we are discussing for the award that I liked...Buy, Buy, Baby: How Consumer Culture Manipulates Parents and Harms Young Minds by Susan Gregory Thomas. One of the subjects that I am interested in and have been reading about for a long time is brain development. I have been reading about the impact that media and advertising has on the cognitive development of young children for years, starting with the brilliant book Amusing Ourselves to Death by Neil Postman. (I have also read giant stacks of books about brain differences between the sexes but that is a different story). Buy, Buy Baby is probably the most focused and accessible of the bunch. It is interesting how the (marketing hating Gen-X generation) has been manipulated by that very industry. Facinating.

I also liked Pesthouse by Jim Crace. This takes place in a post-industrial society where violence is rampant. This was very compelling although it was difficult for me to not compare it to my favorite book from last year (The Road by Cormic McCarthy) but this was such a different vision of the future that it was an engrossing read. I still like his book Being Dead better though.

A bit more than beach reads...

I went to a workshop this morning that featured hot new reads, mostly focusing on light “beach” reads. I decided to put together an “if you want to stretch yourself a bit” list. I will also do a little “Beach Reads” one later for those who just want fun reading this summer.

Books that are a bit on the challenging side…

Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami
People’s Act of Love by James Meek
Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell
On Beauty by Zadie Smith
Seeing by Jose Saramago
Suite Francaise by Irene Nemirovsky
Falling Man: A Novel by Don DeLillo
Life of Pi by Yann Martel
Death of Vishnu: A Novel by Manil Suri
Being Dead: A Novel by Jim Crace
Waiting: A Novel by Ha Jin
Voodoo Heart by Scott Snyder

And for those of you who want to go one step further…one that will make your head explode.

Against the Day by Thomas Pynchon (be sure to bone up on your Physics)

Favorite Author

I haven't been posting much although I have been reading for a couple of reasons. 1) The ever popular procrastination excuse 2) I have not been particularly wowed by what I have been reading and am finding it hard to write balanced, fair reviews of those books.



Today I got the new Margaret Drabble book, The Sea Lady, which promptly moved to the top of my stack and I started during my lunch at Andre's. Some of my finest reading moments have occurred at this restaurant and my first Margaret Drabble book was started there. Her books are quiet books where not much happens externally. If you are a reader who likes plotting and lots of action she is not an author for you. Internally, however, there is so much going on in her books that it sometimes overwhelms a reader. For me, her books are small, perfect gems that resonate with me for years afterward. I can't wait to get off work tonight to go home and read some more.

Non-book related mussings...

Last month I had a little accident with my car (actually it was pulling out of my extremely narrow garage) and took out my side mirror. On Friday I took it in to get an estimate. $273.00 for that little mistake. Sign...between that and the heavy concert schedule this month it's good that I have that part time job back. Next week is intersession though, so I won't be working the part time job for a month. I guess I need to start cutting back on the spending.

Art

I find it interesting how, when something catches your fancy you suddenly see reminders of it everywhere.

One example, the other day I was weeding the arts and crafts section at the library and I found some great books featuring some of my favorite artists. I love art. I love going to art galleries and spending hours pondering art that I like (and that I don't). Anyway, few days ago after that I ran across this great blog and thought I would share it with all of you. Take a peek. It is a great new find http://jerryandmartha.com/yourdailyart/

Finn: A Novel by Jon Clinch

This is the story of Finn (the father of Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn). This is an unrelentingly dark tale of a violent man and his impact on the world around him. It portrays Huck's father as a racist who lusts after black women and "steals" Huck's mother, keeping her a virtual prisoner, although in truth she has nowhere else to go. All of this is overseen by his family, much to the disgust of his even more racist father, "the Judge" and the sorrow of his brother. Although Finn is the more outwardly repulsive the novel slowly revels that the Judge is the more evil of the two.

After Huck is born, Finn softens briefly but soon slides back into his drunken world. As most stories of this type go, this all ends badly with everything Finn comes in contact with being damaged or destroyed. This is a brilliant novel but very difficult to read. I had to put it down several times. Also, the use of racist profanity throughout the novel was jarring and obscene. This is not a book for everyone but will probably make some best of year lists.

Books for later

Books I want to read when my Notable Year is over....

The Stranger by Albert Camus (Author), Matthew Ward (Translator)
A Bend in the River by V.S. Naipaul (Author)
Hopscotch (Pantheon Modern Writers Series) by Julio Cortazar (Author)
Waiting: A Novel by Ha Jin (Author)
The Country Life: A Novel by Rachel Cusk (Author)
Bruce Chatwin: A Biography by Nicholas Shakespeare (Author)
The Collected Stories of Eudora Welty by Eudora Welty (Author)
The Complete Stories by Flannery O'Connor (Author)
Living To Tell : A Novel by Antonya Nelson
Disgrace by J. M. Coetzee (Author)
Being Dead: A Novel by Jim Crace (Author)
Unexpected Light: Travels in Afghanistan by Jason Elliot (Author)
Can't Be Satisfied: The Life and Times of Muddy Waters by Robert Gordon (Author)
The Russian Debutante's Handbook by Gary Shteyngart (Author)
Family Matters by Rohinton Mistry (Author)
By the Lake by John Mcgahern (Author)
The Known World: A Novel by Edward P. Jones (Author)
Cloud Atlas: A Novel by David Mitchell (Author)
Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything by Steven D. Levitt (Author), Stephen J. Dubner (Author)
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close: A Novel by Jonathan Safran Foer (Author)
The Hungry Tide: A Novel by Amitav Ghosh (Author)
Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed by Jared Diamond (Author)
The Glass Castle : A Memoir (Alex Awards (Awards)) by Jeannette Walls
Madeleine Is Sleeping by Sarah Shun-lien Bynum (Author)
Snow by Orhan Pamuk (Author)
The Orientalist: Solving the Mystery of a Strange and Dangerous Life by Tom Reiss (Author)
How We Live by Sherwin B. Nuland (Author)
How We Die: Reflections on Life's Final Chapter by Sherwin B. Nuland (Author)
Waiting: A Novel by Ha Jin (Author)
The Collected Stories of Katherine Anne Porter by Katherine Anne Porter (Author)
Humboldt's Gift (Penguin Classics) by Saul Bellow (Author)
Rabbit at Rest by John Updike (Author)
Pirattitude!: So you Wanna Be a Pirate?: Here's How! by John Baur (Author), et al.
Tao Te Ching by Stephen Mitchell (Author)
Kindred (Bluestreak Black Women Writers) by Octavia E. Butler (Author)
Desert Solitaire by Edward Abbey (Author)
Field Notes on the Compassionate Life: A Search for the Soul of Kindness by Marc Ian Barasch (Author)
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay: A Novel by Michael Chabon (Author)
Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson (Author)
A Prayer for Owen Meany (Modern Library) by John Irving (Author)
Traveling Mercies: Some Thoughts on Faith by Anne Lamott (Author)
The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy (Author)
Case Histories: A Novel by Kate Atkinson (Author)
The Sea by John Banville (Author)
The Woman in White (Enriched Classics) by Wilkie Collins (Author)
Riddley Walker by Russell Hoban (Author)
The Cairo Trilogy: Palace Walk, Palace of Desire, Sugar Street (Everyman's Library) by Naguib Mahfouz (Author), Sabry Hafez (Introduction)

One last reminder about the Darfur events

One day I didn't know anything about this and the next it is all I seem to hear about. The news is full of reports of peacekeepers being killed, atrocities that make me cry when I hear them and statistics on the dead that are beyond my comprehension. My mind cannot seem to accept the reality of it. Darfur is the first genocide that people around the world have been aware of as it is happening. This seems unacceptable to me. If those of us who can stand up and protest don't, we are contributing to the problem.

These weekend, on Sunday, April 29th there will be a rally at the JC Nichols fountain on the Plaza. You can make reservations that show you will be attending at http://www.savedarfur.org/page/content/globaldays/ (if you can't make that one there will be one on the Friday night, April 27th). The following week The Format will be giving a benefit concert at the Beaumont club. I will be at the Sunday rally and (hopefully) the concert. I hope to see some of you there. If you can't attend any of it please at the very least, go to the www.savedarfur.org page and sign the petition or contact your elected officals to ask for their support.

Love Is A Mix Tape: Life And Loss, One Song At A Time by Rob Sheffield

In the memoir, Love is a Mix Tape, the author describes listening to music after his wife died, how he kept having to turn of the radio in the first days after but then listened obsessively after that. During the course of the book he listens to different tapes that he and his wife had recorded (mix tapes) and each tape brings forth a different time or aspect of their life together. At it's core, this is a meditation on the ways that music impacts and shapes the lives of music lovers.

I am finding this deeply touching because he spends time talking about his wife, who died, but this is really about how is life is shaped by music. For someone from my generation this was a familiar book. I know this man (or at least someone like him). Outstanding.

Missouri Authors

I recently went to a talk by Missouri authors and was highly entertained by Jim Butcher's talk. His series features Harry Dredsden, a private detective/wizard who solves paranormal crimes. This weekend when I was out running errands I picked up a copy of his first book, Storm Front. It is also a TV series now. When my notable reading is over (or I need a non-literary reading break) I am going to dig it out to read. I am half look forward to, half dreading finding another author I like with a large backlist.

I am already seriously behind on keeping up with many of my favorite authors although a few like Margaret Drabble, Margaret Atwood and Haruki Murakami have been on my reading lists so I managed to at least keep up with their newest. I joke on my personal blog that I only have to live until I am 921, reading a book a day, to finish my current backlist of must read novels. While that may be an exaggeration, it probably isn't that far off the mark.

Liberty Memorial Tour

On Tuesday, I took my group from India to the Liberty Memorial Museum. The last time I was there was several years ago and I remember Carl taking us around explaining his vision for the museum and showing us huge piles of artifacts. He also told us how much he thought it might cost and so, given how slowly we move in Kansas City, I thought it would be decades before it was done.

I have to admit he pulled it off. It was awesome. If you have any interest at all in history I highly recommend visiting when you are in Kansas City. It is well worth the trip. For a mini tour and more information about the exhibits go to http://www.libertymemorialmuseum.org/ and take a look. WWI was the most historically significant war of our decade and impacted every other war, as well as other major historical events. For history buffs, it is essential to learn more about this war and its impact on our world.

Pulitzer Prizes

The Pulitzer Prizes http://www.pulitzer.org/2007/2007.html were announced Monday.

Pulitzer book winners are:

Fiction: The Road by Cormac McCarthy (Knopf)
General Nonfiction: The Looming Tower by Lawrence Wright (Knopf)
History: The Race Beat by Gene Roberts and Hank Klibanoff (Knopf)
Biography: The Most Famous Man in America by Debby Applegate (Doubleday)
Poetry: Native Guard by Natasha Trethewey (Houghton Mifflin)
Drama: Rabbit Hole by David Lindsay-Abaire (Theatre Communications Group, distributed by Consortium)

For those of you who have been reading a while, what did I say my favorite book was last year? :)

Taking a break

I have read a whole series of books that haven't appealed to me lately so I am taking a short break from my literary gems and reading a romance or chicklit (haven't decided which yet). I do know I want something airy. I tend to think of these as the cheese or bread at a wine tasting, something to cleanse the palate before diving into the next weighty tome.

I have recently started back at my part time job so I won't be going to any more of my favorite wine tasting events with my favorite wine tasting friends. I do have a co-worker that I think will be willing to trade with me a bit more often than was previously possible so who knows? Maybe I will still be able to get out and about every so often.

My Newest List

Here is the latest list the committee is reading from for the Notable Book Awards.

Abulhawa, Susan - Scar of David
Alarcon, Daniel - Lost City Radio
Alexie, Sherman - Flight
Ali, Ayaan Hirsi - Infidel
Allende, Isabel - Ines of My Soul
Allison, Will - What You Have Left
Alpert, Stanley - The Birthday Party
Andersen, Kurt - Heyday
Angier, Natalie - The Canon
Anthony, Lawrence & Graham Spence - Babylon's Ark: The Incredible Wartime Rescue of the Baghdad Zoo
Armstrong, Jon - Grey
Ashbery, John - A Worldly Country
Avery, Ellis - The Teahouse Fire
Barber, Benjamin - Consumed
Bascomb, Neal - Red Mutiny
Bass, Rick - Lives of Rocks
Belbruno, Edward - Fly Me to the Moon
Benni, Stefano - Margherita Dolce Vita
Black, Benjamin - Christine Falls
Bohjalian, Chris - The Double Bind
Bolano, Roberto and Wimmer, Natasha - The Savage Detectives
Brosman, Catharine - Range of Life
Browne, Janet - Darwin's Origin of Species
Buckley, Christopher - Boomsday
Callan, Liam - All Saints
Chabon, Michael - The Yiddish Policemen's Union
Chandra, Vikram - Sacred Games
Cheever, Susan - American Bloomsbury
Chen, Pauline - Final Exam
Childs, Craig - House of Rain: Tracking a Vanished Civilization Across the American Southwest
Clinch, John - Finn: A Novel
Coyote, Ivan E. - Bow Grip
Crace, Jim - Pesthouse
Crane, Robert - Scott of the Antarctic
Cummins, Ann - Yellowcake
Cusk, Rachael - Arlington Park
Danford, Natalie - Inheritance
Davies, Peter Ho - The Welsh Girl
Davis Jill - Ask Again Later
Doctorow, Cory - Overclocked
Doty, Mark - Dog Years
Drabble, Margaret - The Sea Lady
Drake, Monica - Clown Girl
Drennan, William R. - Death in a Prairie House
Dyson, Freeman J. - The Scientist as Rebel
Edge, Arabella - The God of Spring
Ehrenreich, Barbara - Dancing in the Streets
Eig, Jonathan - Opening Day
Farah, Nuruddin - Knots
Ferris, Joshua - Then We Came To The End
Franklin, Ariana - Mistress of the Art of Death
Frayn, Michael - The Human Touch: Our Part in the Creation of the Universe
Garcia, Christina - A Handbook To Luck
Garrison, Deborah - The Second Child
Gerber, Dan - A Primer on Parallel Lives
Ginsberg, Debra - Blind Submission
Giovanni, Nikki - Acolytes
Gizzi, Peter - The Outernationale
Glavin, Terry - The Sixth Extinction
Godwin, Peter - When a Crocodile Eats the Sun
Gordon, Lois - Nancy Cunard: Heiress, Muse,
Gowdy, Barbara - Helpless
Grinberg, Henry - Variations on the Beast
Groopman, Jerome - How Doctors Think
Gutkind, Lee - Almost Human
Hahn, Susan - The Scarlet Ibis
Hamid, Mohsin - The Reluctant Fundamentalist
Hamilton, Masha - The Camel Bookmobile
Harding, Georgia - Solitude of Thomas Cave
Harlin, John - An Eiger Obsession
Harline, Craig - Sunday
Hay, Sheridan - The Secret of Lost Things
Heath, Chip and Dan Heath - Made to Stick: Why Some
Hofstadter, Douglas R - I Am a Strange Loop
Homes, A. M. - The Mistress's Daughter
Houston, James D. - Bird of Another Heaven
Howell, Georgina - Gertrude Bell: Queen of the Desert, Shaper of Nations
Hunt, Lynn - Inventing Human Rights
Igo, Sarah E. - The Averaged American:
Isaacson, Walter - Einstein: His Life and Universe
James, Clive - Cultural Amnesia: Necessary Memories From History and the Arts
Johnston, Wayne - Custodian of Paradise
Judah, Sophie - Dropped From Heaven: Stories
Kadare, Ismail - Agamemnon's Daughter
Kay, Guy Gavriel - Ysabel
Kehlmann, Daniel - Measuring the World
Kennedy, Pagan - The First Man-Made Man
Kriegel, Mark - Pistol
Lear, Linda J. - Beatrix Potter: A Life in Nature
Lee, Hermoine - Edith Wharton
Levy, Andrea - Fruit of the Lemon
MacMillan, Margaret - Nixon and Mao
Mankill, Henning - Depths
Manning, Maurice - Bucolics
Margonelli, Lisa - Oil On The Brain
Manning, Sean - The Show I'll Never Forget
Mason, Daniel - A Far Country
Matar, Hisham - In the Country of Men
McCann, Colum - Zoli
McCarthy, Tom - Remainder
Mengestu, Dinaw - The Beautiful Things That Heaven Bears
Meyers, Morton - Happy Accidents
Miller, Leslie Adrienne - The Resurrection Trade
Monaghan, Nicola - The Killing Jar
Montero, Mayra - Dancing to "Almendra"
Mundy, Liza - Everything Conceivable : How Assisted Reproduction Is Changing Men, Women, and the World
Murakami, Haruki - After Dark
Murakami, Ryu - Piercing
Murphy, Cait - Crazy '08
Nadeau, Jean-Benoit - The Story of French
Nguyen, Bich Minh - Stealing Buddha's Dinner
Nusseibeh, Sari -Once Upon A Country
O'Brien, Georffrey G. - Green and Gray
Olmstead, Robert - Coal Black Horse
Pagels, Elaine - Reading Judas
Phillips, Arthur - Angelica
Platt, Donald - My Father Says Grace
Pynchon, Thomas - Against the Day
Raban, Johnathan - Surveillance
Reza, Yasmina - Adam Haberberg
Richmond, Michelle - The Year of Fog
Savage, Jon - Teenage: The creation of Youth
Schama, Simon - The Power of Art
Shawn, Allen - Wish I Could Be There:
Sheck, Laurie - Captivity
Sheffield, Rob - Love is a Mix Tape: Life, Loss, And What I Listened
Shriver, Lionel - The Post-Birthday World
Simpson, Helen - In the Driver's Seat
Smiley, Jane - Ten Days In The Hills
Stewart, Amy - Flower Confidential: The Good, the Bad, and the Beautiful In the Business of Flowers
Stewart, David O. - The Summer of 1787: The Men Who Invented the Constitution
Stewart, Ian - Why Beauty is Truth
Stewart, Paul and others - Galapagos
Stone, Robert - Prime Green
Tally, Stephan - Empire of Blue Water: Captain Morgan's Great Pirate Army, the Epic Battle for the Americas, and the Catastrophe That Ended the Outlaws' Bloody Reign
Tammet, Daniel - Born on a Blue Day: Inside the Extraordinary Mind of an Autistic Savant
Teltscher, Kate - The High Road to China
Teo, Hsu-Ming - Behind the Moon
Thomas, Michael - A Man Gone Down
Todd, Kim - Chrysalis: Maria Sibylla Merian and the Secrets of Metamorphosis
Toibin, Colm - Mothers and Sons: Stories
Tomalin, Claire - Thomas Hardy
Torday, Paul - Salmon Fishing in the Yemen
Tremlett, Giles - Ghosts of Spain: Travels through Spain and its slent past
Trynka, Paul - Iggy Pop: Open Up and Bleed
Tyson, Neil - Death by Black Hole
Vollmann, William - Poor People
Wallis, Michael - Billy the Kid: the endless ride
Washington, Harriet - Medical Apartheid
Wilcox, James - Hunk City
Wilkinson, Alec - The Happiest Man in the World: An Account of the Life of Poppa Neutrino
Wilson, David Sloan - Evolution for Everyone
Young, C. Dale - The Second Person
Zimbardo, Philip - The Lucifer Effect