citygirl lost in books 2010

DiscussãoClub Read 2010

Entre no LibraryThing para poder publicar.

citygirl lost in books 2010

Este tópico está presentemente marcado como "inativo" —a última mensagem tem mais de 90 dias. Reative o tópico publicando uma resposta.

1citygirl
Editado: Fev 17, 2010, 9:40 am

FOR THE LIST OF READINGS PLEASE GO TO POST #16 :-S

Hello. This is my first time in Club Read, but several LTers that I follow are here, so now I am, too.

I have been logging my reading since I joined in 2007, and for the past two years have even presented an End of the Year Awards Show, quite silly, quite fun. I've also been ranking my books, which I think I'll stop: too crazy-making. So I'll find another way to categorize them.

2007-08 thread

2009 thread

I read 90+% fiction, and I'm going to try and move that number a bit this year. Fortunately autobiographies count as nonfiction, so if you know of any good ones....

I find myself lost in mysteries, especially the more "literary" ones. Ditto historical fiction (why get your history from history books? Bor-ing.) Margaret George taught me more about Henry VIII than I ever would have learned snoozing in some class. I also dip into fantasy/scifi and kid's books from time to time. The most important thing: It must be well-written. (Which is why the fact that I read the first two Twilight books and will probably read the third is completely inexplicable to me, because clearly they're dreck.) Ah, the mystery that is Book.

There was a thread on LT some time ago where people were posting the words and phrases in book blurbs that made them want to read a particular book. For me those would be something like: coming-of-age, Booker Prize, school, infidelity, NYT Book Review, New Orleans, dark, aristocracy, magical, artist, France, hard-boiled, satire, gifted, manners, writing, ironic, Washington Post Book World, travel, Southern, Publishers Weekly, medieval, Great Britain, noir and so on.

This year I'm going to try to do more discussing of books as I read them, not just when they're done. And, anyone, please feel free to post. I love to talk about books, and other stuff.

January so far:

A Question of Blood by Ian Rankin.
Why: I discovered IR last year and plunged head first into his Rebus series.
I've enjoyed these modern-day procedurals set in Edinburgh, but I found this one about an inexplicable school shooting a bit flat, disappointing. Not as compelling as others I've read. I don't know if Rebus is getting tired, or Rankin, or this reader. Maybe I'll go back to the earlier stuff.

Goldengrove - Francine Prose
Why: I read Reading like a Writer last year and enjoyed it so much that I thought I'd give Ms. Prose's fiction a try.
A fairly short, atmospheric story about a precocious (aren't they all) 13-year-old girl trying to navigate her small world in a idyllic northeastern town one summer after the death of her entrancing older sister, who was showing her how to be a woman. Prettily written, but I think I expected a bit more bang. I would try Prose again, maybe on another subject.

In the Woods by Tana French.
Why: this book had been making eyes at me in the bookstores for about a year, so I finally took it home. Very glad I did.
Debut mystery in the literary vein about a
Dublin-based Murder detective who catches the case of a raped and murdered little girl in the small town where he lived as a child. The weird twist is that he left that town at age 12 in the aftermath of the disappearance of his two best friends in the woods. He was found in those woods, bloody, bruised and traumatized, but with no recollection of the abduction. He has changed his name and speaks with an English accent so no one but his partner and close friend, Cassie, knows that he is investigating a case that might be connected to his own.
French creates a dark, hazy world against which vivid characterizations and singular descriptions beckon the reader to go deeper and deeper in. The ending is....not what I expected.

So now I'm reading the follow-up to In the Woods, The Likeness, told from the pov of the partner, Cassie. It's a weird one so far and only promises to get weirder.

2avaland
Jan 27, 2010, 3:50 pm

Welcome! I've been a big Rebus fan myself. Can't get into Rankin's other stuff though, thus I have moved on to Arnuldar Indridason, Åke Edwardson, Åsa Larsson...etc. I think my fave of the later Rebus books is Resurrection Men - I think I just liked the idea of rehabilitating cops who don't play well with others:-)

3Mr.Durick
Jan 27, 2010, 6:55 pm

I would like to recommend, by way of autobiography, to you The Education of Henry Adams. It is number one on the Modern Library non-fiction list and deserves at least roughly to be.

Robert

4janemarieprice
Jan 27, 2010, 8:42 pm

Welcome! My favorite non-fiction of last year was Zeitoun by Dave Eggers. I highly recommend it given your interest in New Orleans. Several other people here at ClubRead enjoyed it as well if I remember correctly.

5theaelizabet
Jan 27, 2010, 11:04 pm

Welcome citygirl! I'm about four or five books into the Rebus series and have greatly enjoyed the ones that I have read and I will second janicepriceestrada's recommendation of Zeitoun. I look forward to seeing what autobiographies you decide to tackle in the coming year. I'll let you know if I run into any particularly good ones!

6dchaikin
Jan 27, 2010, 11:16 pm

Hi citygirl - nothing to add, just wanted to join in welcoming you. I don't think I've crossed posts with you in a long long time. Glad to see you here.

7citygirl
Jan 28, 2010, 9:46 am

Hi, everyone! Thank you for the warm welcomes!

dchaikin, nice to see you too! I was a very inconsistent LTer last year; my RL just became too demanding, but I expect to be in full form this year.

Hi, avaland. What a great group you've made. I'm very happy to be here. Some of my favorite LTers live here, so I knew I should move in. I read Resurrection Men late last year and thought it was okay, but I didn't think it lived up to the promise of the earlier ones. I haven't tried any of Rankin's non-Rebus books, but I'm sure I'll get around to it, just to see. Also, I checked out those Scandanavian (is Iceland Scandanavian?) mystery authors you mentioned, and: Yum. I've read almost all of the Mankell's and Stieg Larsson's first.

Thank you, Robert, jane and theaelizabeth for the recs. Zeitoun sounds fascinating and the Henry Adams book very interesting...for a day when I'm feeling cerebral (let's pray that day comes soon:-s)

Has anyone else read Tana French? (I'm only halfway through the Likeness, so no spoilers, please?)

8kidzdoc
Jan 28, 2010, 1:07 pm

I agree with Jane; Zeitoun was one of my favorite nonfiction books of 2009.

9RidgewayGirl
Jan 29, 2010, 9:37 am

I read both of Tana French's books last year and fell in love with them. The plot description of The Likeness put me off, but I had enjoyed In the Woods so much I decided to give it a go and was surprised at how much better it was than the already quite good In the Woods. I like that there is just a little bit of what happened in the first book in The Likeness, told from Cassie's point of view. I am looking forward to the third installment.

Are you enjoying The Likeness as much as you did the first book? Were you put off by the ambiguity at the end of it--should both mysteries have been neatly solved?

10citygirl
Editado: Jan 29, 2010, 9:47 am

Well, since my "challenge" this year is to discuss the books while I read them, I guess I should tell you what I'm reading. I'm halfway through a bunch of books:

The Audacity of Hope - the erstwhile Senator Obama. This book sat on my shelf for the longest time. I knew I should read it, but there was always some fiction page-turner that took precedence. Then my nonstop listening to public radio, and public radio's obsession with the healthcare bill, sparked my interest in what M. le President had in mind. I have found this book interesting and easy to read. He's a much more engaging writer than most politicians I have attempted to read in the past. (I must confess I've been unable to finish Living History by HRC. But I'll do it one day.) Mr. Obama comes off as thoughtful and sincere and I have trouble relating him to the demonized figure you'll find in some *ahem* rabid right-wing *ahem* quarters. And so far, he doesn't really come off as a liberal. Quite moderate, in fact, which seems to be why he's getting into trouble these days. I don't know when I'll be done. I usually read it on the bike at the gym.

Three Minutes on Love - Roccie Hill. Guilt, guilt, guilt. This is a very late early review. First I was away from my home for several months and was unable to pick up my copy, and then when I did...I started it, but haven't been compelled to pick it up in some time. I'm going to have to make myself do it. It's nice enough, but very gauzy and so far I've not made any investment in the characters or questions presented. It seems to be about a young woman in the 60s who's making her way as a rock music photographer and some musician guy lover or something. I really should finish it soon.

Happy Hour Is for Amateurs by The Philadelphia Lawyer. I don't who or what the Phil. Lwyr is, and I don't how much of it is true. It's one of those blog-turned-novels. It serves as a cautionary tale for those entering the legal profession. I am one of the hordes of disillusioned lawyers and it's always interesting to hear the tales of my compadres. It's a quick read so it shouldn't take long to finish.

Moby-Dick for Club Read group read. I'm on page one.

Rampart Street - David Fulmer. This one hit several of my reading buttons: New Orleans, historical (1910), hard-boiled detective, byzantine race relations...I like it and I think I will read more in this series. But not as good as James Sallis.

There are more...I really should clean this up, no?

11citygirl
Editado: Jan 29, 2010, 9:46 am

RidgewayGirl, I think I may be enjoying The Likeness more than the first book. I was just wondering if French is going to play the same trick on us this time, and it sounds like she is, which kind of pisses me off. Truth be told part of the reason I started the 2d book so soon after finishing the first was b/c I was hoping for more info on the first story and what happens to Rob and what not. So, we'll see. But I love the characters and the world she creates and Cassie's voice and humor, so on I go. I really like TF and I'm sure I will continue with her despite her nasty little tricks :-{

12avaland
Jan 29, 2010, 12:29 pm

Ha! I tried reading on the bike, perhaps it's a coordination thing, but to the measure I get interested in the book, my cycling slows down....

13citygirl
Jan 29, 2010, 5:39 pm

The bike, the one where you're more horizontal than vertical, is the only stationary exercise I can do...b/c it's the only one I can read on. I see people reading on the treadmill and I don't know how they do it.

14citygirl
Jan 30, 2010, 12:02 pm

Incorrigible. This morning I set out to go to breakfast, the used bookstore and the movies. There were just a few snowflakes, but by the time I'd been out about 20 minutes there were many snowflakes, and large. And I was already at the bookstore, so.... Well, I slowly navigated back home. A little snow and the DC area just closes up. Funny, really. But I don't have snow tires.

8 books for $9.40. Score!

Feast of Murder - Jane Haddam. From a mystery series I like. Gregor Demarkian.
Final Demand - Deborah Moggach. Never heard of her, but the British newspapers seem to think she's good. And she's a Royal Fellow, whatever that means.
Memoirs of Fanny Hill -John Cleland. Shouldn't everyone have a copy? Never read tho.
Nina: Adolescence - Amy Hassinger. Never heard of her either but Robert Olen Butler and tim's wife like it.
We're So Famous - Jaime Clarke. Bret Easton Ellis likes it.
Maudie - Anonymous. One of my favorite authors.
Little Fugue - Robert Anderson. A fictionalized account of what happened between Sylvia Plath, Ted Hughes and Assia whatshername.

So, snowed in with a bunch of books and a laptop. Guess what I'll be doing?

15citygirl
Jan 30, 2010, 6:06 pm

The Likeness - Tana French.
Why: Really enjoyed her debut, In the Woods.
When you read as many books as many of us do then you know that frequently you finish one and are immediately on to the other. That one was okay, and you wonder what’s next. But sometimes you’re rewarded with a real gem that kind of sits on your chest after you close it. It’s gotten into you. The Likeness by Tana French is like that. It’s better than the first book. It’s perfect. I really wanted to know what happened next, but I read every word. The preternaturally talented Detective Cassie Maddox takes us down her own personal rabbit hole and back again. Frankly, this book is a contender for Most Implausible Plot That the Magic of Your Writing Made Me Swallow, but what magic. A dead girl is found in an abandoned country cottage and she’s wearing Cassie’s face (and height and build and age) and Cassie’s discarded undercover ID. And that’s weird enough, right? Well it turns out that she lives communally with four other Trinity graduate students and the police think that one of them may have had something to do with her death. So they tell her housemates that she survived that attack and that’s she’s coming home: Cassie, a gifted actress and undercover agent, is going to investigate from the inside. Well, that’s as much as the plot as I’ll tell you, but I will say that Cassie’s voice is indelible, each of the characters vivid. French has a particular gift for ironic description. And she’s crafted this mystery beautifully. Recommended to the utmost degree for those who like literate pageturners.

16citygirl
Editado: Abr 24, 2010, 3:24 pm

Books Completed in 2010, and Other Readings

January
A Question of Blood - Ian Rankin
Goldengrove - Francine Prose
In the Woods - Tana French
The Likeness - Tana French

February
We Need to Talk About Kevin *shudder* - Lionel Shriver
Happy Hour Is for Amateurs - Philadelphia Lawyer
The Reluctant Fundamentalist - Mohsin Hamid
A Thousand Acres - Jane Smiley
Right Ho, Jeeves (hee hee) - P.G. Wodehouse
"Jeeves Spoken Here" - Christopher Hitchens column, Vanity Fair (March 2010)
Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe - Fannie Flagg

March
The Code of the Woosters - P.G. Wodehouse
Identical Strangers - Elyse Schein/Paula Bernstein
To the Power of Three - Laura Lippmann
Rampart Street - David Fulmer
The Cutting Room - Louise Welch
Black Like Me - John Howard Griffin
Practical Irrationality - Daniel Ariely
The Snow Garden - Christopher Rice
Queenpin - Megan Abbott

April

Audition - Barbara Walters
Now, Discover Your Strengths - Marcus Buckingham and some other git
The Girl who Played with Fire - Steig Larsson
Mathilda Savitch - Victor Lodato (Awesome.)
A Density of Souls - Christopher Rice

17absurdeist
Jan 30, 2010, 7:44 pm

Nice haul citygirl! And nice to see you here too. Will be very curious to hear your take on Little Fugue, as I recently happened upon a dirt cheap copy of that as well, but unopened so far. Don't see how you could go wrong w/Plath & Hughes and Assia-what's-her-name though! ;-)

And you mentioned Bret Easton Ellis. Have you read Lunar Park by any chance? Curious to hear your thoughts on it if you have. I thought it was great. Steve Almond called it the worst novel he'd ever read. Which puts me between a rock and a hard place since I like his writing too, My Life in Heavy Metal in particular.

18citygirl
Jan 30, 2010, 8:52 pm

Hey there. How ya been?

Yes, Lunar Park was one of my top reads of 2007. I thought it was the most mature and restrained of BEE's books so far. IMHO, Ellis tends to be underrated. He takes chances, successfully, with fiction that few do, and of course, Lunar Park is an example of that. The audacity of using yourself as a character and writing an alternate life, and having that life go haywire. But you like the experimental stuff, yes?

I've not read Steve Almond. What's his story?

19absurdeist
Jan 31, 2010, 6:06 pm

Been pretty good citygirl. I screw around on LT much more than I should, as opposed to actual reading.

I completely agree with your assessment of BEE and particularly Lunar Park. The ending, I thought, was moving; I mean it was touching, BEE coming to terms with his father and forgiving him, making himself available to his father's memory. Gave me goosebumps. Quite memorable. And quite unexpected from an Ellis novel. I hope he is maturing and will continue in that direction.

Steve Almond, like just about every critic, I think, doesn't like BEE because his style is flat and dispassionate and they view his characters as all being one character; namely, the lovable (but not to them), adorable nihilist, Bret Easton Ellis. I think they're peeved too that he's sold so well (while they haven't) and thus they equate his commercial success with banality or bad writing. That's a simplistic assessment for a start, and I'd dish on and on about it, but I tend to get long winded, so I'll stop.

And yes, I do love experimental books - most of them. You must be into experimental too if you're a Lunar Park fan. Would love to hear what other experimental books have fired up your blood. And really, don't let me get started talking too much on experimental fiction, or I may never stop talking. But I loathed Only Revolutions - one of the more recent works of experimentalism run amok imo. But I loved House of Leaves. Have you tried them?

20Mr.Durick
Jan 31, 2010, 10:59 pm

Having read House of Leaves I think it has gotten more attention than it deserves. Also, I wonder how experimental it is. I have read of its difficulty and found that it didn't seem difficult to me. I just don't get what others are saying about it.

Robert

21absurdeist
Editado: Fev 1, 2010, 1:27 am

I've truly no idea how much attention HOL has received. As for how experimental it is, (and I didn't think it was that difficult either, as long as I remained patient, and searched for the seams connecting the narratives,) let's just say it's extremely unconventional in its narrative approaches, would you not agree?: Upside-down texts; sideways texts; concrete text; all-over-the-page texts; hard-to-find footnotes; and mix in some epistolary fiction; some quotes, some physics, some philosophy; artwork in the book which holds clues that unlock deeper recesses of the narrative for those wanting to hunt for trapdoors and secret hallways (they're there!); not always easy to get or understand (I'll grant you that) but highly experimental imo, if only in its format (perhaps not as much in its content). It's maybe not Tristam Shandy- or Gravity's Rainbow- or Hopscotch-good, and I'm aware that some readers deem it "unreadable," or "gimmicky," but I found it wildly entertaining and creative to the max.

22Mr.Durick
Editado: Fev 1, 2010, 2:04 am

I thought we could step outside and duke it out, but then I didn't know whether we should cower in the alley or revel in the ring. In any case we should probably unhijack the thread. Maybe there's House of Leaves group (found by putting 'house of leaves' in the search box in Groups).

Robert

23citygirl
Fev 1, 2010, 9:23 am

Oh, I don't mind hijacking, as long as you're not some 12-y-o who "luvs Edward" or a spammer.

I must say, you're making me curious about this House of Leaves. Over 5k LTers have this book in their libraries, but somehow I managed to miss it. I added it to my wishlist.

But, EF, to answer your question about experimental fiction, I haven't gone out of my way to find it. I just follow an author's trail and sometimes end up there. For example, I've enjoyed Nabokov's Pale Fire and Ada, which I think would qualify. And maybe Ellis' Glamorama would qualify.

24janemarieprice
Fev 1, 2010, 8:32 pm

Enrique - I too enjoyed House of Leaves. It made the rounds as a popular book for architects* to read a few years back. Aside from the graphics, which I thought were very creative, there are some interesting themes about creative obsession.

*Side note: Architects in general do not read very much. But about once a year they pick up some obscure title (which coincidentally the rest of the reading public already knows about) to show how avant-garde they are.

25dchaikin
Fev 2, 2010, 10:02 am

citygirl - nice review of The Likeness.

26absurdeist
Fev 2, 2010, 3:02 pm

23> Pale Fire definitely qualifies imo (not sure exactly, what the defining parameters are for "experimental") but I've always viewed it as experimental with its unorthodox/uber-original narrative structure. Have yet to read Ada, but it looks really good.

24> I can see how as an architect HOL would be appealing to you. I'd like to see some architects conceptualize something like that someday.

27citygirl
Editado: Fev 2, 2010, 5:24 pm

Thanks, dchaikin. :-)

EF, have you read Glamorama? If so, what did you think?

Oh, and from wikipedia, for the near-comatose "researcher" (that'd be me): "Experimental literature refers to written works - often novels or magazines - that place great emphasis on innovations regarding technique and style."

28absurdeist
Fev 2, 2010, 5:41 pm

Naw that's the only of his I've yet read, dang it! Or wait, I've yet read The Informers too, almost forgot. Though I have flipped through Glam. and noticed that the chapters are not listed in numerical order? So that one, presumbably, could read page 1,2,3,4,5, etc., all the way to the end, or flip around the book back-and-forth and read the chapters in order? How'd you read it? If you liked Glamorama, I bet you'd also enjoy Julio Cortazar's Hopscotch which includes what he termed "optional chapters," you may already know. Hopscotch can be read with or without the optional chaps.

Thanks for the def.!

29citygirl
Fev 2, 2010, 5:45 pm

I started at the beginning. It never occurred to me to do it the other way. It moves forward in time from the beginning. Maybe I should try it the other way :-S

30Talbin
Fev 2, 2010, 6:45 pm

citygirl - Great review of The Likeness. I'm just about to start In the Woods, which I've been saving for the right time (the middle of winter sounds good to me), and it's good to know the next book is so highly recommended.

31citygirl
Fev 5, 2010, 8:31 am

Thanks, Tracy. I have your thread starred and I look forward to reading about your reads. I hope you like Tana French.

32atimco
Fev 5, 2010, 11:27 am

*from the Currently Reading/February thread*

*waves* How are you liking Moby-Dick? I read it in college and was one of the few in the class who finished it. Silly me, I actually enjoyed it! :P

Ooh, ooh, Bleak House! Maybe it was the time in my life when I read it, maybe all the stars aligned to make me love it, but I do believe it is one of my favorite Dickens. That and Pickwick. Sheer brilliance!

33citygirl
Fev 5, 2010, 12:25 pm

*waves back* I've only made it past the first chapter of MD. As I mentioned on the Group Read thread, I've got a copy that I'm afraid to read :s, but I'm looking to make headway this weekend. I liked Billy Budd, so I expect to like MD, too.

I am looking forward to Bleak House. I meant to read a Dickens last year, and failed to, but I have such delightful memories of David Copperfield in 08. *happy sigh*Dickens...

34RidgewayGirl
Fev 5, 2010, 4:39 pm

I'm reading The Secret of Lost Things, which has as its heart an unknown Melville manuscript. It speaks eloquently of Melville's relationship with Hawthorne and of how Moby Dick destroyed his career. It has me itching to read Moby Dick and I will be eagerly following your comments here.

35citygirl
Editado: Fev 6, 2010, 10:52 am

TSLT sounds good, especially when in the Melville zone as I'll undoubtedly be after reading MD. I've made it to chapter three and so far it's okay, but a little slow.

We Need to Talk About Kevin - Lionel Shriver.Damn. This is one of the most frightening, frustrating books I've ever read. To a thirty-something woman planning motherhood, Stephen King couldn't have scared me more.
Why: This book gets a lot of praise, and I've loved the other books by Shriver that I've read.
This happily-married 37-year-old career woman has a baby because her husband wants one, and she resents the intrusion into her life. Whatever. That could be a million people. Some readers think that she's so horrible because she's cold to her uncuddly little sociopath Kevin from the beginning. I think she should have drowned him in the bathtub.
But, anyway, Shriver sure knows how to wield a pen so that the ink gets under your skin. The story just draws you in further, and the horror quotient creeps up as Kevin gets older and his mother grows increasingly powerless. His father's willful ignorance gets more and more alarming, and I just want to scream at the main character: Run, Eva, run!
Exceptionally well-done. A few flaws. I found the ending a bit implausible, but maybe not. It's very thought-provoking, but I don't want to provide spoilers. Not recommended for pregnant women.

36Kirconnell
Fev 6, 2010, 11:52 am

Hi, Citygirl. You had me rolling with laughter at your comments about We Need to Talk About Kevin. Great review! Oddly enough I picked this one up in the bookstore, but decided against reading it. Now I'm glad that I did. I think that severe nightmares would have ensued during the reading.

37RidgewayGirl
Fev 6, 2010, 1:45 pm

I spent much of We Need to Talk About Kevin trying to decide whether Shriver herself had children. I later heard an interview in which she said that if she had a child she could not have written the book--it would have been irresponsible. She does have nieces and nephews whom she is close to.

I found Eva to be an unsympathetic narrator. She did see her son as he was, but she was awfully self-absorbed and came across as a terrible person to have to live with. She was also quite smug, wasn't she?

38Mr.Durick
Fev 6, 2010, 3:29 pm

I want to read We Need to Talk About Kevin because of what has been said on LibraryThing about it, but I need some prompting. I've asked my church book group to discuss it, but they are all adamantly against it.

My copy is where it calls to me, though, so I may get to it on my own.

Robert

39citygirl
Fev 6, 2010, 3:44 pm

Hi, Kirconnell. Glad you enjoyed it. Yeah, the more I think about it I wonder if I wish I hadn't read the book, even though it's a great book and I think Shriver is an exceptional novelist. It makes me think of 1984 (which I read when I was 10) and The Handmaid's Tale and to a certain extent Bastard Out of Carolina, the way it ends anyway. Books that leave you less innocent. So, you'll probably get around to Kevin sooner or later, but it can't hurt to make it later. (I put it off for a few years myself.)

Hey, RidgewayGirl, I suppose Eva was smug, now that you say it, but I didn't find her that unsympathetic. I think one of the questions Shriver wants to leave us with is, if Kevin had been a normal child, would Eva would have adjusted to the change that motherhood brings? I kind of got the idea that she would. Or at least I hoped that she would have. Clearly she was capable of great love, and from her own self-censure it appears that no one ever introduced her to the idea that love is an act (I mean that it is something we do, not that it is a pretense) more than it is a feeling. When you look at it that way, she is more loving than her willfully oblivious husband. I think Franklin really exacerbated the situation by leaving her without an ally. I don't understand why she didn't leave, and let Franklin see for himself, and then try to re-approach the problem. I guess because she's extremely stubborn, like Kevin. I just don't know.... and I guess that's kind of the point.

40citygirl
Fev 6, 2010, 3:48 pm

Oh, hi, Robert. I just saw your post. You'll have your church group in an uproar if you bring them that book. No one seems to agree about it. But I must say, it'll definitely spark discussion.

Good luck. :-)

41citygirl
Fev 8, 2010, 8:02 am

Happy Hour Is for Amateurs - Philadelphia Lawyer.
Why: An allegedly true story by a bitter, disillusioned lawyer. Since I am a bitter, disillusioned lawyer with allegedly true stories of my own, it seemed natural.
I was wrong when I called this a blog-turned-novel, b/c it's not a novel. There are two things about this book. One: it's crude and somewhat debauched, but the debauchery seems like he's trying too hard. Perhaps it is there to demonstrate the lengths to which a miserable lawyer will go for escapism. I wasn't really impressed with this part, but Two: he tells the truth (I could recognize it) about practicing law in this country, and that's the real reason why he didn't sign his name to this book. You might think, What's the big deal, it's not like the legal profession is the Mafia. To which I would answer, hmmm.... I think, that in many (but not all) cases, to be successful in a law firm, you have bifurcate your personality, compromise your integrity, raise your BS tolerance to max level and learn to trust no one (not to mention get real comfortable with boredom), all of which are extremely painful. No one wants you to know this. That's where the value of this book lies.

The Reluctant Fundamentalist - Mohsin Hamid. Deceptively slim book in which a young Pakistani tells the story of his education at Princeton, infatuation with an American girl and his budding career as an elite financial consultant, and how it all unraveled in the wake of 9/11. I imagine this book is a bit controversial. It's controversial in my own head, causing internal arguments. It's a book about otherness, and American blase, and the Middle Eastern response to that blase (imagine an accent mark over the e, don't know how to make them). This book challenges what I thought were my liberal sensibilities, but as the "American way of life" no matter how misguided, comes under criticism by this narrator, my hackles came up. And he completely lost me with his initial, natural response to hearing about the towers falling. After that, I couldn't empathize with him anymore. Interesting book, easy to read, deceptively so.

42dchaikin
Fev 8, 2010, 9:22 am

"Not recommended for pregnant women." - lol.

Also, nice review of The Reluctant Fundamentalist.

43charbutton
Fev 8, 2010, 9:51 am

It's a good few weeks since I finished We Need to Talk About Kevin and I'm still thinking about it!

44citygirl
Fev 8, 2010, 2:58 pm

dchaikin, Thank you much, sir.

charbutton, yeah, I have a feeling it's going to linger for me, too. I read your review of it on your thread and it was spot on.

From my "research" on Wikipedia I learned that a Kevin movie starts shooting early this year, starring Tilda Swinton and John C. Reilly, and reportedly someone asked Shriver about her involvement with the film and her response was "I've had it up to here with that book." Hee.

45arubabookwoman
Fev 8, 2010, 4:59 pm

It's been several years since I read We Need to Talk About Kevin, so I'm hazy on some of the details, but I think Kevin would have been Kevin, and done what he did (or something similar) even had Eva been a warm, competent, loving mother, and even if she and her husband had been on the same page about Kevin. I'll admit that before I had kids I was somewhat judgmental of parents who had "difficult" children, but having raised 5 children (who are now all caring, wonderful adults), I sometimes think that (except in cases of abuse or neglect) we give too much blame to parents of kids who are dysfunctional, and too much credit to parents who raise successful kids. There's something to be said for "nature" over "nurture."

46citygirl
Fev 12, 2010, 9:54 am

Ah...the endless debate.

A Thousand Acres - Jane Smiley
Why: I've been dipping into Smiley's 13 Ways of Looking at the Novel and I've always found the King Lear story fascinating and problematic.
Described as a deconstruction of King Lear, this Pulitzer winner sets our troubled family on a largish farm (1000 acres) in Iowa and gives us the story through the eldest daughter's (Goneril/Ginny) point of view. I loved this book. I appreciated Smiley's setting Lear on its head by making the Lear and Cordelia characters the villains rather than Goneril and Regan. It's a deft performance. Ginny goes from an accepting farmwife and dutiful daughter seamlessly woven into her community to scorned and cheated outcast with murderous intentions, and it all seems to happen so naturally. It's an ambitious project, reinterpreting Shakespeare, but Smiley pulls it off, and adds her own poetic touch. My only complaint is that there was too much detailed description of farming practices, which is why it got 4 1/2 stars instead of 5.

47detailmuse
Fev 12, 2010, 10:55 am

Great comments citygirl, you tipped Kevin and The Reluctant Fundamentalist onto my wishlist.

48citygirl
Fev 12, 2010, 7:38 pm

Thank you, detailmuse, and you tipped The Paris Review Interviews onto mine.

I was anticipating the letdown of the next book after a really wonderful book and so decided to hop into quite different territory. I've had this Wodehouse sitting around for awhile, Right Ho, Jeeves picked up after "hearing" various LTers raving and giggling and whatnot. Every time I thought about reading it, I'd go, Nah, maybe later. But, yesterday, after those Acres I thought it might be just the thing. It took me a few minutes to acclimate, and I was still unsure whether the time was right...until I read:

'I don't suppose he has spoken to a girl for years. What a lesson this is to us, Jeeves, not to shut ourselves up in country houses and stare into glass tanks. You can't be the dominant male if you do that sort of thing. In this life, you can choose between two courses. You can either shut yourself up in a country house and stare into tanks, or you can be a dasher with the sex. You can't do both.'

Sold.

49jfetting
Fev 12, 2010, 7:52 pm

Be careful - Wodehouse is addictive!

50citygirl
Fev 12, 2010, 7:57 pm

Duly noted.

You know that's only going to make me like it more. Is there anything a book addict likes more than an addictive series?

51Medellia
Fev 13, 2010, 10:24 am

Right Ho, Jeeves was my first Wodehouse, and I loved it. I went on a Wodehouse jag in Dec/Jan when I was busy and stressed, and Wodehouse carried the day!

I also enjoyed the Jeeves & Wooster series with Hugh Laurie and Stephen Fry. I found all the episodes on YouTube, but plan to buy them on DVD.

52atimco
Fev 13, 2010, 10:34 am

Haha! I remember that bit; I listened to that one on audiobook. Wodehouse makes me laugh like no other author can. I highly recommend Jonathan Cecil's narrations for Audio Editions, if you can get your hands on them. My library has a fair number of them and I treat myself to a new one every few months. Good stuff :)

53jfetting
Fev 13, 2010, 2:49 pm

I just watched (and loved) the whole Jeeves and Wooster series on Netflix. It has a very catchy little song thingy in the opening credits that just won't get out of my head. I liked disc 1 (so I guess season 1, part 1?) the best because I loved Wooster's hair in it.

Back to books, though, I'm glad to hear that you liked The Likeness. I can't wait to read it.

54citygirl
Fev 13, 2010, 6:48 pm

Oh, you guys are giving me even more to look forward to. I think I'll read the series and then look at tv show. The audio sounds great too! Aaack! Overload!

I'm about 1/2way thru Right Ho and I know it's going to end too soon. Even though I had sort of seriously told myself that I would not be buying any books for the next few weeks, there is a used bookstore where I can get great deals....

Guess you know where I'm going tomorrow.

and jen, I can't wait to talk about The Likeness with you.

55citygirl
Fev 15, 2010, 7:09 am

Jeeves fans, last night I read Christopher Hitchens' column in this month's Vanity Fair. It's called "Jeeves Spoken Here," and it's about an audioreader named Martin Jarvis. Apparently Hitchens was reluctant to try audiobooks but this guy won him over with his reading of Right Ho, Jeeves. Have you heard him? Have you read the article?

56zenomax
Fev 15, 2010, 7:15 am

cg - Martin Jarvis has a reputation here in the Uk as the audio reader par excellence. I personally find him a little too smooth and manicured, but nevetheless he is good at his art.

57citygirl
Fev 15, 2010, 7:18 am

The way Hitchens was describing it makes me really want to try it out. I'm not a fan of audiobooks much either.

58citygirl
Editado: Fev 15, 2010, 12:02 pm

*sigh* Oh, I fear I may be a degenerate. I cannot stop buying books, no matter how firmly I tell myself to take a break. It's not like I'm dropping a couple of hundred at B&N (but I'm not going to lie to you. I can't say it's never been done.), but there's this used bookstore in the area, and if you give them a can of food, they'll let you BOGO. And yesterday I ordered three or four online. I can't even remember the titles except that two were Jeeves. One good thing: I told the register guy, who likes to talk books, about LT.

Anyway, confessional over, time to present my haul, all gotten for $18.02 including a long-sleeved tshirt with a picture of Charlotte Bronte that reads, "Read as if your mind depended on it," which I intend to wear to the gym in an ironic fashion.

The Cutting Room - Louise Welsh. I can't remember which LTer was raving about this one.
Arthur & George - Julian Barnes.
Five Quarters of the Orange - Joanne Harris
Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe - Fannie Flagg.
A Hall of Mirrors - Robert Stone.
The Magus - John Fowles.
The Witches - Roald Dahl
A Buyer's Market - Anthony Powell, Book 2 of A Dance to the Music of Time, cuz they didn't have Book 1. I don't have to read these Dance books in order, do I? Can someone tell me?

59jfetting
Fev 15, 2010, 12:20 pm

You do kinda have to read them in order - they follow the same characters through their lives, from the 1920s to the 1960s. It is hard enough keeping track of everyone, and if you start in the middle you won't understand the relationships and whatnot. Plus, the whole things is awesome and deserves to be read in order.

60citygirl
Fev 15, 2010, 12:22 pm

Thanks, jen. Okay, I'll put it on the shelf until I get the first one.

61atimco
Fev 15, 2010, 12:33 pm

I haven't listened to any audiobooks read by Martin Jarvis, but I'll put him on my list! I was never a fan of audiobooks either until I found myself with an hour commute. Suddenly they became extremely appealing.

62bonniebooks
Fev 15, 2010, 12:47 pm

So enjoying your thread! Working backwards: Wow! Good haul! What's BOGO btw? Tried my first audiobook this weekend--ugh! But going to try again. (Raised on: If at first you don't succeed...) I've bought The Reluctant Fundamentalist and am waiting for a time when I'm feeling a bit more optimistic about our government. I guess I'm going to have to eventually read We Need to Talk About Kevin. I'm with Deborah--we moms have enough to feel guilty about! Would you recommend giving Happy Hour is for Amateurs to someone who just finished law school or would that be crushing their dreams?

63citygirl
Fev 15, 2010, 1:58 pm

Hey, bonnie. BOGO: buy one get one (free). You know, usually when a book is really good I want to tell people, You have to read this. But with Kevin, I'm more like, Why don't you put it off. Sort of like losing your virginity, or going to law school. It's worthwhile, but you'll never be the same again. As for Happy Hour, I say Forewarned is forearmed.

64LisaCurcio
Fev 15, 2010, 8:40 pm

>58 citygirl:: Sympathy? Commiseration? Approbation? Nah! You go girl! No matter how many books are on the pile, one can always fit a couple of more.

65charbutton
Fev 16, 2010, 3:43 am

>58 citygirl:, join the club. My plan for this year was to plough through my TBR list only buying the books chosen for my real life book club. However, as with everything I try and deny myself, I ended up having a binge. 4 brand new books purchased on Friday afternoon. The piles of books on the mantlepiece (the last available shelf in the flat) just keep getting higher and higher!

66citygirl
Editado: Fev 16, 2010, 9:13 am

Thanks for your support :-} Silly girls.

Whadya buy, char?

Right Ho, Jeeves - P.G. Wodehouse. I've been informed by Wikipedia that it is pronounced "Woodhouse." So now I can sound as snobby as I wanna be.
Delightful book. What did I enjoy more: newt-addled Gussie? Aunt Dahlia and her insults? Anatole's speech patterns? Bertie's adorable egomania and lack of self-awareness? Bertie's handling of his engagement to "the Bassett"? Ridiculous names like "Tuppy"? Jeeves and Wooster's argument over the white mess jacket? The harrowing bike ride? Who knows? I just loved it.

67atimco
Fev 16, 2010, 9:26 am

Wikipedia is a wonderful aid in the pursuit of snobbery. I use it all the time because I tend to pronounce things phonetically — which gets me in trouble more often than not! Glad you are now a Wodehouse fan. There are plenty more of his books out there, too! :)

68theaelizabet
Editado: Fev 19, 2010, 7:18 pm

I started Code of the Woosters while traveling yesterday, my first Woodhouse :-). After all of the raving about Bertie and Jeeves, I was shocked, shocked to find that I didn't laugh out loud until page 25! Page 25! Seriously, though, Wodehouse is everything I've been told to expect and then some. Just delightful.

69citygirl
Fev 16, 2010, 12:06 pm

I know. It makes you wonder, How did I go so long without reading this? I have a few more on the way, so I'll be back in Jeevesland by week's end.

70citygirl
Editado: Fev 19, 2010, 7:06 pm

New Jeeveses have arrived! The Code of the Woosters and How Right You Are, Jeeves. I'm going to read Code first b/c then I can talk about it with theaelizabet.

And...The Paris Review Interviews 2d and 7th series. Authors interviewed in the 2d: Frost, Pound, Marianne Moore, TSEliot, Pasternak, K.A. Porter, Henry Miller, Huxley, Hemingway, S.J. Perelman, Lawrence Durrell, Mary McCarthy, Ralph Ellison and Robert Lowell.

In the 7th: Malcolm Cowley, Arthur Koestler, William Maxwell, May Sarton, Ionesco, Elizabeth Hardwick, Philip Larkin, John Ashbery, Kundera, John Barth, Edna O'Brien, Philip Roth and Raymond Carter.
I don't even know who half of these are. So, yay! Discovery!
(Thank you, detailmuse. I didn't even know these existed until you mentioned them on your thread.)

If anyone's interested, I've started a 1010 Challenge here.

71theaelizabet
Fev 19, 2010, 9:01 pm

Hey cg, will await your impressions of "Woosters." And I'm going to break down (and bypass the wishlist entirely) and buy The Paris Interviews. They all just sound too good!

72citygirl
Editado: Fev 23, 2010, 9:09 am

Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe - Fannie Flagg.
Why: This was made into one of my favorite movies and somehow I'd never gotten around to reading it.
Having seen the movie at least half a dozen times it was impossible to read the book without visualizing Mary Stuart Masterson and Mary Louise Parker and Jessica Tandy and Kathy Bates, but that wasn't a problem. The tone was very much the same. A very good book for a number of reasons.
One, it reads like an anecdotal history of 20th century Alabama, at least in one small town outside of Birmingham, and Birmingham itself.
Two, Flagg provides relaxed, deceptively lighthearted Southern storytelling that tells it like it is and lets you draw your own conclusions. It lets the characters tell you the story through their own actions and words, and lets you judge how reliable their presentation is.
Three, it's a brave book. As a black Southerner I can appreciate the guts it took a white Southern woman to put her words in the mouths of oppressed black characters, and take them into black neighborhoods without being either patronizing or overly deferential. She even addresses a modern black youth's embarrassment at his grandfather's shuffling and smiling get-along ways. These are extremely sensitive topics and not ones I've often seen white writers address, not in this way. Her "good" white characters accept the apartheid system and its proponents as part of their community without ever seeming to condone it, and, in fact, actively working to undermine it.
Four, she expresses well the complexity of living in the South. When I'm out in the world, I often find that some people (not all, but including my Canadian husband) with little firsthand exposure to the American South hold a simplistic view of its race relations or of the tolerance levels of its people, black and white. FGT does well to challenge these views.
And five, there are recipes in the back. How great is that?

73bobmcconnaughey
Fev 23, 2010, 9:53 am

a friend of our son's gave us the first season of "Jeeves and Wooster" on DVD (Hugh Laurie and Stephen Fry) and we were hooked. I started tracking down Wodehouse on Project Gutenberg - i couldn't believe our local library doesn't have ANY Wodehouse..though there are several in the system in a different branch library.

i,too, am totally surprised that my parents didn't have Wodehouse around the house and that it's taken almost 60 yrs to get to Aunt Dahlia.

74janemarieprice
Fev 23, 2010, 1:44 pm

"hold a simplistic view of its race relations or of the tolerance levels of its people" - I've been thinking this since I moved. It's nice to know I'm not alone in that feeling.

75citygirl
Mar 3, 2010, 9:18 am

Hi, everyone!

Yeah, jane, we should start a non-Southerner re-education group. Lesson One: Guess what? Integration took (mostly).

The Code of the Woosters - Wodehouse. The most sublimely ridiculous series I've come across. I'd never even heard of a cow creamer before, but now I want to see this magnificent object that drives rich Brits to criminal measures. My favorite scene? When Bertie tells Aunt Dahlia he'll willingly go to jail if she keeps Anatole, and then smoothly moves on to planning the menu for his homecoming.
So delightful that I've decided not to read anymore Wodehouse for awhile, cuz I don't want to go through them too fast. I have one more at home and I'm going to save it for a treat, maybe after I finish Moby-Dick.

Speaking of...I'm getting more and more into this whale book. There are bits that seem tedious, but I like how it's taking me into a world that I have no knowledge of, and I"m enjoying the characterizations.
I know next to nothing about Melville, but am I right that guy had to be a flaming 'mo?

Also, I have joined the public library. This may seem like a small thing, but for me it's kinda big. I stopped checking books out after it just became too expensive and so have spent thousands of dollars buying books over the last several years. I know the logic is strange, but work with me. It's one thing to spend money on a book if you get to keep it, but to spend money on it and give it back? Preposterous. But there is one category of book that I don't like to spend money on, because the prices, in the big bookstores anyway, are criminal: the audiobook. I have three reasons for wanting audiobooks: One, I want to hear some Wodehouse; two, I spend a fair amount of time in the car and crazy as it may seem, sometimes I don't want to listen to NPR (forget the other stations, I hate commercials); and three, since I enjoy public radio so much I figure I can get some nonfiction in if I can listen to it.

Jeez, I don't post for a few days and I can't shut up. Bear with me. All of this is to say that, while I'm hold for audio Right Ho Jeeves and The Code of the Woosters, I found a fascinating nonfiction book: Identical Strangers: A Memoir of Twins Separated and Reunited by Elyse Schein and Paula Bernstein. The tale of how these two smart women (and good writers) were separated as infants and adopted out, never knew about each other, and found each other when they were 35. Their personal stories are very interesting and quite relatable, but I love that they include lots of frankly fascinating scientific and anecdotal information on twins, biology, the nature vs. nurture debate, mental illness, etc. I'm about halfway through I think. Go nonfiction!

76dchaikin
Mar 3, 2010, 9:30 am

The public library became too expensive?? You have to pay? I always thought the "public" part indicated free.

77citygirl
Mar 3, 2010, 9:48 am

Well, only if you don't return the books on time. Although, I have lived in one place, and I've heard tell of others, that don't charge fines.

But I've reasoned that if I can return DVDs to Blockbuster then I can return books to the library on time. We'll see how it goes....

78dchaikin
Mar 3, 2010, 9:56 am

Ah, yes in that case we get fined, although our fines are cheap - not the like $75 the University of Kansas was going to fine me because I kept a book for two days without realizing the "checkout" was only for 2 hours.... oops! They waved the charge.

79atimco
Mar 3, 2010, 10:01 am

Three cheers for Wodehouse! I agree about spacing out his books. There are over eighty, I believe, but I don't want to spoil a good thing by overexposure all at once. I look forward to your thoughts on the audiobooks!

Library fines usually aren't very high. I think my library is ten cents a day per item. Plus you can keep track of your account and renew your items online for free. If your library doesn't offer an automatic email reminder system, you might be able to use Library Elf (http://www.libraryelf.com/), which is free.

I'm a firm proponent of public libraries. I was a shelver for three years in high school and college, and was actually going to go for a master's in library science before my career took a detour into editing. I love my library!

You might also check out library booksales, if you haven't before. www.booksalefinder.com is a helpful tool to locate nearby sales, though not all libraries advertise through it.

Enjoy! :)

80citygirl
Mar 3, 2010, 10:09 am

Ten cents a day? Where do you live? I wouldn't have a problem with that.

Here it's 35 cents/day/item.

81atimco
Mar 3, 2010, 10:18 am

Wow, that's high. I'm in Ohio. I remember they had signs posted everywhere last year when it went up to ten cents from five cents :-P

82citygirl
Editado: Mar 3, 2010, 10:25 am

*mouth hangs open*

Now I'm really curious. Anybody else want to tell how much library fines are where they live?

oh, and thanks wisewoman, for that booksale link. Guess who's going to be in Fairfax, Virginia in a few weeks?

83detailmuse
Mar 3, 2010, 10:32 am

10 cents per day per overdue item; $1/day for dvds. Every so often, the library offers amnesty -- a donation of nonperishable food waives fines.

Beware: with current economics, libraries are turning to collection agencies, and that can affect consumers' credit scores.

84dchaikin
Mar 3, 2010, 10:33 am

$ 0.10-a-day for books $0.25 for DVD's and the like.

85RidgewayGirl
Mar 3, 2010, 1:25 pm

Mine's also 0.10 a day, but since I signed up for the email notifications, I haven't had any fines. The problem was that the kids would wander off with the books once we got home, secreting them in odd corners, so that fines accumulated. Now I get a three day warning and can send the kids off to look for specific titles.

86janemarieprice
Mar 3, 2010, 3:39 pm

The Public Library is 25 cents per day (10 for children, 15 for seniors), but you can renew online which helps immensely. University library was a bit less I think, but I need to get my alumni card before I can use it again.

87citygirl
Mar 3, 2010, 4:56 pm

Hmmm. So far it looks like my library's fines are a bit exorbitant. And jane's a New Yorker. Perils of high-rent districts perhaps.

88citygirl
Editado: Mar 15, 2010, 11:48 am

Hello, diabolical book fiends!

Identical Strangers – Elyse Schein and Paula Bernstein.
Why: Needed some nonfiction for my categorical challenge and wanted to try an audio book. This seemed an interesting story.
It’s about two twins, unknowingly adopted into different families, who reunite as adults, and the paths they follow to learn the circumstances of their birth and adoption. From the start I was drawn into the women’s experience. There were two readers, because the sisters alternated telling the story. A fascinating story: Elyse, an unrooted 35 y.o. American in Paris, seeks info on her birth mother and is shocked by the revelations that she had not been born alone and that her mother was mentally ill. She contacts her blithely ignorant twin, Paula (surprise!), who is a successful journalist, wife and mother living in NYC. They are each blown away by their similarities. As the two struggle with this huge shift in identity, history and family relationships, they begin to question why anyone would do something like purposely separate identical twin babies. They discover they were part of a study, sparking their worst Orwellian fears. They spend the next few years chasing documents and hunting down any people involved in their adoption.
Their personal story is mostly compelling, but one thing that made the book so fascinating was that they interspersed their story with reports of scientific twin studies, separated twin anecdotes and lots of musing on Nature vs. Nurture. After hearing this I don’t see how Nature can be delegated to the second tier.
These women are good writers, but there were a few things I had problems with. I think the readers did good jobs, especially contrasting Elyse’s more emotional, dramatic nature with Paula’s coolly rational one, but about halfway through the Elyse-reader really started to grate. I don’t know if she was imitating Elyse’s speech patterns, badly or well, but even the most bland statements were infused with this melodramatically mournful tone, as if she were imploring her recently flattened cat, Why, Fluffy, oh why did you cross the street. If I knew anyone who talked like that in real life, and was stuck in a car with her (I listen while I drive) I’d be sore tempted to smack her. The other thing I didn’t like was that after the initial premise was introduced there was just too much repetitive navel-gazing. Oh! You were traumatically separated after spending nine months together in the womb? Oh thank you. I didn’t get it the first twenty times. Since I couldn’t figure out a way to successfully skim ahead in an audio book without missing anything good—and it was good—I just grinned and bore it. My impressions were mostly good and I think Identical Strangers is worth a read (or listen).

To the Power of Three – Laura Lippman.
Why: I try to be open-mind about mysteries and thrillers published in mass paperback if it’s an author I don’t know, but I don’t really succeed. I chose this one because I’ve recently become addicted to HBO’s soulful, gritty show, The Wire, alternately heartbreaking and hilarious. Dennis Lehane and Richard Price have written for the Wire. Lippman is married to the show’s creator/head writer,
David Simon. Now I know you cannot assume one spouse’s talent in an area matches the other (e.g., Dave Navarro and Carmen Electra; Roseanne and Tom Arnold; Whitney and Bobby; Ricky and Lucy Ricardo). But frequently they are in the same league: James Carville and Mary Matalin; Susan Sarandon and Tim Robbins; Kurt and Courtney? (But I for one think Live Through This is brilliant and I do not think Kurt wrote it. Sexist!)
I digress.
Based on the reading of this one book, Lippman is not in her husband’s league. It is not a bad book, not at all. I turned the pages very quickly. I wanted to know whodunnit and why. It’s just that after years of reading mysteries with literary aspirations and literary fiction that deals in clues and bodies, a straight genre mystery/thriller seems flat. The characters could have come from Central Casting; they had very few insights; they didn’t view the world through apt and original metaphors; and I won’t remember any of their names next week.
I don’t regret the experience, but I’ll be looking for new mystery writing elsewhere.

Rampart Street – David Fulmer.
Now here’s a mystery with literary aspirations, noir aspirations, and it’s almost good. It’s one of those books where I wonder if the problem isn’t editorial in origin rather than authorial. Mostly, I liked the book.
New Orleans, 1910, creole detective passes for white. Shady, menacing characters. Mysterious women and a potential femme fatale. Portrait of race and class conflict. Fulmer does a good job painting the dirty, dangerous streets of NOLA’s red-light district. But he tripped up on one of my pet peeves: If, as a writer, you’re going to have your characters wander up X Street, saunter down rue Y, cartwheel across Z Blvd and everywhere else in a city, and especially if you’re going to name your book after a geographical area and set it way back in history, would it kill you to add a map? I swear it makes my blood pressure go up. Damned annoying.
But other than that, the characters were pretty well drawn and definitely intriguing. The problem was in the pacing, the plotting. I broke one of the major clues clearly before I should have and I never try to. Also, I was reading the book steadily and then I took a loooong break about ¾ to the end. You really don’t want that to happen in your mystery novel. I love reading about New Orleans and I love mysteries. Maybe if Fulmer hadn’t decided to write a mystery. Valentin St. Cyr, a lovely name, pronounced French, is billed as the possessor of extraordinary detecting skills. Sherlock he’s not. He did little that other fictitious detectives don’t do, and in some cases, a good deal less.
I might give Fulmer another try—Valentin is an interesting guy—but only if I have reason to believe that any of his other books are more put-together.

I also finished The Cutting Room - Louise Welsh. More on that later.

89janemarieprice
Mar 13, 2010, 11:40 am

The Valentin St. Cyr series has been on my radar for a while, but I'm not quite sure if I should pick it up. I don't read a lot of mysteries so I have a hard time deciding if I will like it.

90citygirl
Mar 13, 2010, 12:50 pm

If you're looking for a mystery set in New Orleans with a black protagonist, Barbara Hambly and James Sallis, especially Sallis, are better, imho.

91urania1
Editado: Mar 15, 2010, 12:24 pm

Vis à vis public libraries, don’t even get me started. My county has one consolidated library, no branch or bookmobiles. The collection is one of the worst I have ever seen. The majority of the books are romance novels, probably because the librarian in charge of acquisitions is an avid reader of such novels. One person should not have sole responsibility of picking out books for the entire county. Not a single book on my top wish list is available in the library. I requested three on interlibrary loan. The price for one was $30 plus shipping both ways. One also has to pay to place a book on hold.

I can’t afford to use the book lending service of the library. The only reason I go to library is for high-speed Internet, the excellent coffee shop, and the conversation with the baristas who are a fun lot.

When pundits start saying that e-books will bring about the demise of the library, I want to shout, “The library is already dead damn it.”

92citygirl
Editado: Mar 14, 2010, 2:11 pm

Your report is most dismaying. I've always taken the public library for granted, and it was up to me whether or not I wanted to take on the challenge of returning the books on time.

You may have thought to this already, but is there a university library you can buy a membership to? And just out of curiosity, is one of your hobbies, like mine, to seek out desired books at the lowest possible prices?

The more I think about the more disturbed I am. Perhaps you should write Laura Bush; she's into libraries, right? Or attempt to unseat Mme. Harlequin. Or tell Dolly Parton: she's from Tennessee and really into people having books.

93urania1
Editado: Mar 14, 2010, 11:26 pm

The University of Tennessee is just down the road, but commoners are not allowed to check out books from its library. I do have a number of books in my personal library; that's the problem. I have too many for a person who dislikes clutter. I usually do buy used books. Dolly Parton might be the best bet for changing the library.

94bonniebooks
Mar 15, 2010, 12:16 am

Wow! You've just made me once again appreciate my library system! I'm so sorry about yours!

95atimco
Mar 15, 2010, 8:09 am

Yikes — I've never had to pay for interlibrary loans, or for holds. And acquisitions is handled by a group of librarians, not just one (I know because I was a shelver there for three years). I don't even want to ask what your late fines are...

I don't know if you've ever heard of www.bookmooch.com or www.paperbackswap.com, urania, but given the state of your public library, they might be worth checking out. I freely admit I'm addicted! :)

96detailmuse
Mar 15, 2010, 9:05 am

>88 citygirl: citygirl your comments are so entertaining

Nature vs. Nurture. After hearing this I don’t see how Nature can be delegated to the second tier.
Agree. I think Nurture sometimes physically/chemically changes what Nature has set in place (the trick is to find out how); but otherwise to act against Nature is a lifelong struggle.

urania, you've opened my eyes and added the library system to my list of aspects to investigate if we move to a new community. Right now I get tremendous benefits from that relatively tiny line item on my property tax bill.

97citygirl
Editado: Mar 15, 2010, 11:20 am

Thank you, dm, I aim to please :-D

I've never really taken a stand on nature v nurture before (what's there to take a stand about exactly?), but these separated twin stories are just too compelling to ignore. Identical Strangers repeated several anecdotes about separated twins entering the same professions, having the same hobbies, living in similar circumstances, majoring in the same subjects, making life changes at the same times. If true, and I have no reason to doubt it, the conclusion is that these people were going to be what they were going to be. I don't think it is a simple as that, however. I hypothesize that extreme circumstances will take a person off of his "natural path," so to speak. For example, in IS, the two women live vastly different lives (although they both studied film theory in college and went on to write film criticism; one of them had directed a short film and the other had worked at Variety); however, one of the twins (the more unrooted one) had suffered traumatic early losses in her adoptive family that her sister (the stable one) had not. One interesting tidbit was that your environment can cause changes in your genetic structure.

98LisaCurcio
Mar 15, 2010, 4:45 pm

>90 citygirl:, citygirl: I am familiar with Hambly having started my way through the Benjamin January series, but not with Sallis. Recommendations?

I like Hambly, although at book three she had me worried that the series was going to be same tune, different lyrics. Fortunately, she redeemed herself in Book 4!

99bonniebooks
Mar 15, 2010, 5:04 pm

>88 citygirl:: I think you can take any two strangers and find lots of similarities while ignoring the differences, especially if those two people are exactly the same age and sex, grow up in similar political and social environments, and desperately want to find the connections, but that said, there are some well-done studies of adopted children that demonstrate the primacy of "nature" over nurture. That would be a good discussion for a book group, wouldn't it? Especially if the members were mothers!

100citygirl
Mar 19, 2010, 9:11 am

Lisa, I've read two of Sallis books, The Long-Legged Fly and Moth, and I thought they were both lovely. He writes beautifully.

bb, I'm sure such a discussion would be quite enlightening!

Coming up...reviews of The Cutting Room, Black Like Me and Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions.

101citygirl
Mar 19, 2010, 1:10 pm

So, I couldn't stop my grabby little hands when faced with $.50 and $1 books at the library. That kind of makes up for their exorbitant fines. Each branch has cheap books for sale every day. So....

Queen Lucia - E.F. Benson (an old favorite, haven't read it in years)
4 Anne Tyler novels in one, including Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant
Niccolo Rising - Dorothy Dunnett - great writer of historical fiction
The Daughter of Time -Josephine Tey, highly recommended mystery
Jewel - Bret Lott. I like books about the south.
Roxanna Slade - Reynolds Price, ditto.
Black and Blue - Anna Quindlen
The All-True Travels and Adventures of Liddie Newton - Jane Smiley. Sounded like a good story, and I was really impressed with A Thousand Acres.
Think that's it.

102RidgewayGirl
Mar 19, 2010, 1:15 pm

The Jane Smiley book is great fun. That's a nice haul. The local FOL sale is at the end of April and I am already eying my shelves trying to figure out how to wedge in more books.

103citygirl
Mar 19, 2010, 1:26 pm

Get more shelves!

And I don't know if you have a husband or SO whose stuff takes up space, but s/he's probably got some stuff that can be crammed somewhere else, like the garage (especially if your SO's a he.):-D

104RidgewayGirl
Mar 19, 2010, 5:49 pm

My SO is psychologically incapable of throwing stuff away. It might come in handy later, or be good as new with a few dozen hours of refurbishment. He has the garage as his man-cave.

He is handy and a wood-worker, and someday I'll have floor to ceiling built-in bookshelves on either side of the windows in our bedroom. There are just a few hundred projects ahead of them. So, for now, I am perfecting the art of compressing paper.

105citygirl
Editado: Mar 21, 2010, 10:29 am

Quelle coincidence! Darling husband o' mine is also handy and a budding woodworker. And yes, of course: garage = man-cave. Question: once you've got compressing paper down, how are you going to un-compress it?

The Cutting Room - Louise Welch.
Debut literary mystery in the key of noir set in Glasgow. I seem to be in Scotland a lot lately.
Why: hits several of my reading buttons and fulfills my categorical challenge of "The In Crowd: Books Recommended by Smart LTers," in this case RidgewayGirl of the Great Taste (meaning she has great taste, not that she tastes great, which she may or may not. I don't know. And I am going to shut up now, cuz somebody's going to get the wrong idea, and I am so in over my head right now. Stop typing, you cityditz!)
*deep breath* Anyhoo. The book is original, in characters and prose. The prose is a distinctive and effortless (my apologies to Ms. Welch) blend of spare and pithy; elegaic; disturbing and graphic; and darkly humorous, all from the fictive mind of its narrator, who embodies the abovementioned descriptives. Rilke is a fortysomething auctioneer occupying the murky social space between respectable and seedy, purposely it seems. I handed her my card and let her look me up and down. I could almost hear her assessment: hair bad, tie, shirt, suit good, cowboy boots bad. Well, she had a point, but they were genuine snakeskin. He is resigned to living in this grey area, periodically spiking this bleakness with forays into drug use and anonymous gay sex, and his quotidian life is fueled by cigarettes and booze. He's a bit of an antihero. No angel, Rilke lets you know that he can be dangerous if challenged, and that although he allows his curiosity and libido to lead him down dark paths where the rules of engagement may be unknown, he can take care of himself.
Interestingly enough, it is Rilke's sense of morality, of decency, that won't let him abandon the investigation into the story behind a decades-old photo of snuff pornography--is it real or is it fake? Is there an unknown victim of a murderer who'd now be dead?--but his basic shadiness prevents him from turning the photos in to a friendly police detective.
Welch does that trick I like so well, of revealing her characters bit by bit, and in this case, by the end, they're still largely in shadow. We're left with the question of why Rilke and his closest friends are the way they are. There's a touch of gothic in this book, and the ending caught me by surprise.
Not recommended for those who might be squeamish about the graphic description of the intersection between sex and violence, or about sexual encounters between men. If that's not you, and you like moral ambiguity, noir and good prose, this is for you.

106RidgewayGirl
Mar 21, 2010, 9:28 am

I'm glad you liked it, although as soon as someone says that they're reading a book based entirely on my recommendation, I worry that they'll finish the book, set it down carefully and hurry to the computer to click on the little red x next to my thread.

Welsh is good, isn't she? I love that this particular genre, which was once considered particularly male, now contains so many books written by women. And I wonder what it is about Glasgow that brings out the noir.

107citygirl
Mar 21, 2010, 10:32 am

She is good. Do you know if she's got anything else coming out?

Thanks for clearing me up about Glasgow. I guess I should visit Scotland in RL so I can separate the cities in my mind.

And never fear. Someone only makes it into "The In Crowd" after I've determined that I'll like the books that she'll like. I've picked up several books on your recommendation because our reading is so similar.

108citygirl
Editado: Mar 28, 2010, 8:53 pm

Oh, so behind... but reviews, or at least blurbs, forthcoming for:

Black Like Me
Predictably Irrational
The Snow Garden - Christopher Rice (he's better than his mom!)
Queenpin - Megan Abbott

and have picked up The Girl Who Played with Fire and Gifted Grownups: The Mixed Blessings of Extraordinary Potential, and am still reading How to Read Literature like a Professor and Slash by Slash and Book Lust.

Oh, Heaven help me.

109citygirl
Editado: Mar 30, 2010, 10:27 am

Predictably Irrational by Daniel Ariely, Ph.D. Audiobook.
Why: Audio nonfiction, my new thing. Also, it discusses why people do the things they do, one of my favorite things to ponder.
Ariely is a professor at MIT’s business school (well, his website says he’s moved on to Duke) and specializes in “behavioral economics,” which seems to be marketing behavior. He explains that people often make irrational decisions that seem to defy common sense and critical thinking and he sets out to discuss his answers to “why do they/we”? Interesting stuff. Each section or chapter focuses on one aspect of the irrational decision-making, e.g., the word “free” does dangerous things to our psyches and we buy all sorts of things we wouldn’t normally to get the “free” thing; or that we think that product that costs more is more effective, even if a lower priced product is identical in all relevant ways; that we place more value to items we possess than those we do not; that we can be “primed” to think or behave a certain way; and most alarmingly, that people “anchor” on to an arbitrarily assigned initial price and forever more value a product in terms of what we first paid for it. Fascinating really.
What I think: quite informative, and, if I can keep the concepts in mind, may have an impact on the decisions I make going forward, like watching out for priming, or anchoring; or wasting time and money keeping options open. I found it amusing that he often experimented on his graduate students and MIT students as a whole, and the majority of the experiments seemed to well illustrate his points; however, some of the experiments were not convincing to me, I kept finding holes in the process, or maybe the experiment was just not explained in enough detail. Note re audio version: it was narrated by a lively English gentleman, who while enjoyable to listen to, seemed out of sync with the clearly American tone of the book. Can you imagine listening to what sounds like a proper English gentleman describe an NFL game play-by-play. Or using the word “feds” to describe the government? Very odd, and kind of distracting. Not to say that the reader must be of the same nationality/background as the author, but such a discrepancy should be avoided I think. I’d love to listen to that guy (name forgotten) read something else, more fitting.

I'm having a little trouble with Black Like Me; there's so much I want to say.

110bonniebooks
Abr 2, 2010, 11:40 am

I'm having a little trouble with Black Like Me; there's so much I want to say

I would have a hard time discussing Black Like Me as well. I read it in high school (prob. in '65) not that many years after it was published and while segregation, attaining "civil rights," and the Vietnam War were the major topics in the news and at the dining room table, so it had such a strong impact on me. I loved it, but had mixed feelings about what he did even then. I'm interested in what you're going to end up saying.

111citygirl
Abr 2, 2010, 12:40 pm

In what area did you go to high school? I imagine that might make a difference in your impressions of BLM. One thing that I'm struggling to articulate is how subjective my experience of the book must be, as fairly young black woman who was born in Atlanta and whose family has lived in Georgia for generations. And the fact that I read the book 50 years after it was written. It's almost overwhelming, but I'll plug away at it.

112bonniebooks
Abr 2, 2010, 2:54 pm

I went to high school in the Northwest, in the suburbs outside of Portland, Oregon. And, can you believe it, we didn't have a single black student in our school the four years I was there.

113citygirl
Abr 6, 2010, 9:07 am

Oh, I can believe it.

I finished The Girl Who Played with Fire by Stieg Larsson, and as a sequel to Dragon Tattoo, I found it quite similar and quite enjoyable. I liked that we got to know Lisbeth Salander quite well and that her history was finally explained. I'm going to have to get Hornet's Nest soon because Larsson (or the publishers or whoever) left Fire hanging, and the first chapter of Hornet's Nest was included and it picks up right where Fire left off. I'm tempted to say I liked the first book better, but that's the problem when you've become familiar with an author who seemed original the first time, so unless there's a huge change in quality I don't feel I can accurately judge right now.

I started Bel Canto by Ann Patchett on the recommendation of a book pusher at my favorite used bookstore and boy am I glad I did. The writing is beautiful and spellbinding, straightforward and poetic, insightful and melancholy, and I'm only on page 29.

114Mr.Durick
Abr 6, 2010, 4:27 pm

I will look forward to your judgment of Bel Canto. My church's reading group will discuss it tomorrow night. I am looking at it more and more as a comic novel that was very seriously written.

Have fun,

Robert

115citygirl
Editado: Abr 7, 2010, 1:33 pm

Interesting...I do see phrases of dark humor, but I've not yet gotten to the point where I might see it as you do. I haven't even read the back flap past a quick glimpse in the bookstore weeks ago so I'm really enjoying watching the story unfold and trying see where it's leading.

I've also really gotten into Slash, where we're in the early days of Guns 'n Roses, and I've got to say, Rock bands are many things, and many wonderful things...but, ewwww, serious gross out moments.

116absurdeist
Editado: Abr 8, 2010, 10:55 pm

Citygirl,

I want to hear about all these gross out moments in what I hope is an impending review? Yes, yes? And the not-so-gross out moments too please. Everything.

God I love Slash. I love G&Rs first four studio albums in fact. I love Appetite for Destruction especially, so much, in fact, I know exactly where I was when I first heard the first single off that album, played on KNAC in L.A. Perhaps it's tmi: but I was outside a 7/11 (late summer, '87) scoring some under-aged acquisitions of multiple Michelob long-necks.

117citygirl
Abr 9, 2010, 11:26 am

As you wish...or you could read the book (I think it's out in paperback now.) and we can talk amongst ourselves. I'm not sure too many other people are interested.

I'm not a rabid G&R fan altho they have maybe 4 to 6 songs on my alltime favorite list, and I've always found Slash a bit enigmatic, something about all that hair covering his face, cigarette poking out (I always wondered how he didn't set his hair on fire), completely blotto during interviews to the point of being unintelligible. And of course, the image of him onstage with his guitar, leather pants and aforementioned hair and cigarette. I used to think he was very sexy, and kind of still do, but the gross out stuff now gets in the way.

118citygirl
Jun 20, 2010, 11:15 am

Possibly comatose, but not dead.

I hate when people just list their books, but I'm going to have to do it. My conflicting inner citygirls--perfectionist & get-'er-dun--have been duking it out and get-'er-dun won, so...for now: with more to come (I'm at the office and don't have my books in front of me).

The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest - Stieg Larsson. A satisfying ending and wrap up to the trilogy. I hear they're making a movie out of Dragon Tattoo.

The Bookseller of Kabul - Asne Seierstad. Audio. Great British reader. Norweigan (?) journalist lives with a well-to-do (13 people in a three-room apartment) Afghan family in early 2000s and makes stories (all true) out what she witnesses. What a portrait of "modern" Afghanistan. I felt oppressed just listening to it. Highly recommended.

Self-Made Man: One Woman's Journey into Manhood by Norah Vincent. Audio, read by the author. Wow. If you're interested at all in relations between men and women, men and the world, you've got to get this candid undercover observation of what men think and feel, and what they do when ladies are not around.

The Wee Free Men - Terry Pratchett. God I love the Nac Mac Feegle.

Born Standing Up - Steve Martin. Audio, read by Martin. Humorous (of course) memoir of Martin's stand up career. Way too short. What was it, a tease?

119citygirl
Editado: Jun 20, 2010, 11:44 am

Blink - Malcolm Gladwell. Audio, read by author. Re rapid cognition. Extremely interesting. Gladwell's an excellent writer, breaking down complicated stuff for us non-scientific types.

This Body of Death - Eilzabeth George. This year's Lynley/Havers release. An intriguing new character, Isabelle Ardery, Acting Chief Superintendent, is introduced. I really loved it.

I know there are more...

120Mr.Durick
Editado: Jun 21, 2010, 12:58 am

The Swedes have made all, I think, of the Millennium Trilogy into movies. I have seen the one made from The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo; it got me into the series, and I recommend it highly. I have also read here and there that there will be an American version; I will likely see it if it comes out, but I suspect it will not be anywhere near as engaging as the Swedish movie.

I am reading and losing sleep because of it The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest.

Robert

CURSE THE TOUCHSTONES

121Mr.Durick
Editado: Jun 21, 2010, 12:56 am

An abomination has occurred, and I am covering it up.

Robert

122detailmuse
Jun 21, 2010, 9:42 am

>121 Mr.Durick: lol! *rubber-necking* alas nothing left to see

glad to see your thread pop up with new posts, citygirl! I think I like the short book comments (a few sentences) best; can always pop over to the book/reviews page for more. Especially if it's an all-or-none thing: the pressure to post reviews = languishing threads all over LT.

123citygirl
Editado: Jun 21, 2010, 4:33 pm

I missed the abomination and now very curious. What's goin' on here when I'm not looking?

detailmuse, you are so right about the languishing threads thing. Problem is that I like compliments and people compliment me on the blurbs I produce. So, no meaty blurbs = no compliments. Maybe I shouldn't be so shallow. Well, probably definitely shouldn't be so shallow, but on the other hand, I don't want to end up like Sean Penn.

Mathilda Savitch - Victor Lodato.
Why? I was grabbed by cover silhouette of a little girl who is clearly up to no good and the first sentences: I want to be awful. I want to do awful things and why not? Dull is dull is my life. and so it goes. Mathilda is twelve, I think and her older sister has been murdered and she's trying to shock her parents out of their grief stupor. I loved it. It was irreverent, perceptive, humorous and human.

More to come....

124urania1
Jun 21, 2010, 8:55 pm

Inspired by your comments, I just purchased Mathilda Savitch for my Kindle. On the joys of instant gratification.

P.S. Has anyone read Anthropology of an American Girl? This book keeps showing up everywhere in Internet Land as a recommendation for me???? I am not convinced. It sounds like it could be a 600-page train wreck . . . or it could be really good.

125citygirl
Jun 22, 2010, 9:13 am

I hadn't heard of that Anthro... but I checked it out, and I am not convinced to dive in, either. The prose is a bit dense, but it might be worth it? So. I'm right where you are.

And, Robert, I'm definitely going to check out the Swedish version of Dragon Tattoo.

126RidgewayGirl
Jun 22, 2010, 6:07 pm

I saw that. It was very faithful to the book, although Blomqvist was less of a horndog. There were some scenes that gained power for being visual.

127citygirl
Jun 30, 2010, 2:44 pm

I'll order it from Netflix. It's too bad they altered Blomqvist's character that way. It is one of the most perplexing (to me) things about him.

Oh, and some months ago I listened to Monster of Florence - Douglas Preston & Mario Spezzi. Crazy nonfiction under the heading: You Can't Make This S*** Up. Serial killer investigation in Tuscany completely FUBAR, and here I thought Italy had a judicial system. I am so naive. Well, not anymore.

Just finished audio of Kabul Beauty School by Deborah Rodriguez with Kristen Ohlsson, about a Michigan hairdresser who travels to Kabul as a relief worker and ends up running a school to train Afghan women as beauticians, thereby empowering them. Fascinating stories of the lives of Afghan women, and Debbie's story is pretty dang interesting itself. Let's just say she has a very...interesting decision-making process.

128citygirl
Editado: Jul 5, 2010, 5:07 pm

Finally, after 372 years, 8 months, 12 days, 4 hours, 42 minutes and 53 seconds, I have finished Bel Canto. That's not to say that it wasn't good (it was) or that it was boring (it wasn't). Lovely prose, interesting story, or else I wouldn't have finished it, altho that might have had something to do with Robert's saying he reads it as a comic novel, which now that I've finished it, kinda makes sense. It's a worthwhile literary experience for the prose and characterizations alone, but probably more for the challenge of it. It's beautifully, simply written, but it does leave one perplexed, and maybe seeing it as a comedy is one road to relief but not one I'm yet willing to commit to. And so, for the time being, my head is tilted and my brow is wrinkled. For those unfamiliar, Bel Canto is a modern book in which guests at a state dinner in a fictional Latin American country are taken hostage by freedom fighters/terrorists/whatevers and that's all I'm wililng to say. Not spoiling.

129Mr.Durick
Jul 5, 2010, 5:12 pm

Congratulations!

Robert

130atimco
Jul 6, 2010, 4:45 pm

Bel Canto certainly could have been a trudge. I happened to have a fair amount of free time when I read it so I got through it pretty quickly. I also saw Robert's take on it as a comic novel and you express my feelings perfectly when you say you aren't ready to commit to that road. Maybe time will clarify it more for us...?

131citygirl
Jul 6, 2010, 5:39 pm

Maybe, wisewoman, but unless one day years from now I'm just walking down a street thinking of nothing in particular and it suddenly hits me,"Aha! That's the meaning of Bel Canto!" I don't see it happening, but you never know. It's been nearly two days now and perspective has given me nuttin'.

And, thank you, Robert, I feel I do deserve congratulations. Now if I can just polish off Moby-Dick....

132dchaikin
Jul 6, 2010, 9:26 pm

I'm also puzzling over Bel Canto as humor...

133citygirl
Jul 7, 2010, 10:29 am

Well, D, how do you read Bel Canto?

134dchaikin
Jul 7, 2010, 10:47 am

Oh, I bought it completely. It mesmerized me, than that end took over my mind for awhile.

135citygirl
Editado: Out 18, 2010, 10:59 am

You know the drill. I guess I must admit that, as far as reading threads go, I, citygirl, am a flake, a dilettante, and more than a little bit unreliable. (The first step is admitting the problem, ya know?)

So, in no particular order:

The Help - Kathryn Stockett. The buzz made me read it. And boy am I glad. I fell in headfirst and proceeded to ignore my husband for a couple of days. Stockett is just really great at telling a story and a compelling story it is: Three perspectives in 196? Mississippi: two black maids for very different white women, and a white recent grad who becomes increasingly uncomfortable with the racial status quo. Loved it.

Maudie – Anonymous. A very silly little dirty book. Pass.

Money Shot – Christa Faust. Pulp fiction is back. Count me in. There’s a great little publisher, that I discovered here on LT, maybe through RidgewayGirl, called Hard Case Crimes, and they publish new (read modern-day) hard-boiled, noir-ish books, lovely and pulpy as well as some earlier novels from pulp’s heyday, and Money Shot is one of their offerings. Oh, and the covers!) Angel Dare is an ex-porn star who runs her own agency for video girls (cuz, hey, it’s better to have your sex sold by a woman than some brutish male person, or whatever). Anyway, Angel gets beaten to a bloody (pulp) and left for dead. After she claws her way back to the world she discovers she’s been framed for a friend’s murder. Well, you know what happens next, and it was fun and engaging. Angel’s pretty awesome. Not for the easily offended, obviously.

How to Read Literature like a Professor – Thomas C. Foster. Overrated. You’re better off with Francine Prose, and others.

Katherine – Anya Seton. “This classic romance novel tells the true story of the love affair that changed history-that of Katherine Swynford and John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, the ancestors of most of the British royal family.” (Sentence stolen from Amazon.) GORGEOUS. Compelling. Detailed. Heartbreaking. Sumptous. After reading Seton, I really don’t know why Phillippa Gregory bothers. I gave it five stars.

Everyone Worth Knowing by the woman who brought us The Devil Wears Prada aka Lauren Weisberger. I’d be surprised if Ms. W ever tops Devil, but this one was fun. Our misplaced twentysomething would-be writer finds herself working the NY party scene as a professional party girl and event planner. I think they call it PR. Humorous chaos and misbegotten romance ensue. A happy ending is had for the deserving. I liked it. The girl is funny.

A Density of Souls and The Snow Garden – Christopher Rice. Don’t let my laziness fool you. These books are related by nothing but an author. They are both mysteries, with dark violent events, of the psychological sort. I was quite impressed with both, with Rice. He knows how to build and use settings (New Orleans and a New England college campus, respectively). His characters are well-drawn, and I really enjoyed the dialogue. And he goes deep into psychological motives, which I always like. Definitely not riding on Mom’s coattails.

More forthcoming. But I understand if you don't believe me.

136RidgewayGirl
Out 18, 2010, 12:26 pm

Yay! Good to see you back. I'm very much hoping that Katherine Stockett continues to strive for greatness as a author instead of deciding to write comfortable books now that she's established.

I'll have to take a good look at Katherine.

137dchaikin
Out 18, 2010, 1:15 pm

citygirl - Just stopping by to wave hello. I believe dilettanteishness is quite welcome here.

138citygirl
Out 18, 2010, 1:55 pm

Hi! I'm so glad you haven't forgotten me! Such a crazy summer, like my grandmother (who was visiting the home where my mother, my husband and I live) fell in the shower, knocked her head, had emergency brain surgery, woke up the next morning complaining (so we knew she'd be alright), and has been having PT, etc., ever since, and is now planning to go back to ATL tomorrow, even though she's not ready.

You know, stuff like that.

139dchaikin
Out 18, 2010, 2:08 pm

Goodness, cg, that is terrible...crazy. Good luck to you and her. (no clue what "PT" is)

140citygirl
Out 18, 2010, 3:03 pm

Sorry. You get used to the lingo. Physical therapy. She's doing well, almost completely back to her old tricks. Thank you.

141citygirl
Out 18, 2010, 3:13 pm

And, Dan, I've lost your thread! Help!

142dchaikin
Out 18, 2010, 4:39 pm

I'm over here: http://www.librarything.com/topic/90167 (... but, I'm only up to Sep 5, :) )

143citygirl
Out 18, 2010, 4:48 pm

Thanks. You dilettante.

144citygirl
Editado: Out 18, 2010, 5:15 pm

Little Girl Lost – Richard Aleas. More Hard Case Crime pulp fiction. It was okay, but Aleas (an alias, how cute, not really) has nothin’ on Megan Abbott and Christa Faust.

The Wee Free Men and A Hat Full of Sky – Terry Pratchett. Two sequential Discworlds featuring Tiffany Aching, Teenage Witch, and The Nac Mac Feegle aka The Wee Free Men, who are just too funny to describe. Tiny blue Highlanders, well, I think they’d be Highlanders if they were on earth and back aways, timewise. Anyway, they have Scots accents, wear kilts, and love to drink and fight and steal, especially livestock, so you tell me. I had read Wintersmith, which actually comes after these two a few years ago. Love these characters and their adventures.

Body Work – Sara Paretsky. Latest in Warshawski series. I suppose I could go on and on about how this series is even better than when it began, and how Warshawski is such a deep and credible character, but if you’ve been reading my threads, you oughta know my thoughts by now, and if you haven’t been, well, I think you should go read a Warshawski mystery.

Redwall – Brian Jacques. This is the first in a children’s fantasy series starring rodents: some are just too adorable and some--well, one in particular--are quite terrifying. An order of mice live peacefully and productively in Redwall Abbey. At one time they were an order of warriors, but long peace has rendered the art of war obsolete, so they just help people, I mean woodland creatures. Until. One vicious, power-hungry, rage-filled, carnage-minded rat threatens them. I really like it so far. I think I will continue with the series.

Faithful Place – Tana French. I’ve not been shy about my regard for this gorgeous new literary mystery talent. Sorry that the previous sentence sucked, but I’m trying to do this fast. We’re still in Dublin, with Frank Mackey as the central character this time. Cassie and Rob don’t even make an appearance, but this novel delves into the makings and doings of a truly dysfunctional family, Frank’s own, when the body of the fiancée that he always believed had left him turns up in his childhood neighborhood. I didn’t love it as much as The Likeness}, but that’s not to say that it is not an outstanding book. It is, and I read it fast.

Outlander – Diana Gabaldon. Finally! A reread! I think I may have read this ten or twelve years ago, and I enjoyed it as much, maybe more than, the first time. Adventure, 18th century Scotland, romance, time travel. Really what more can you want in a guilty pleasure, that’s not really so guilty. Confession time: I recently met a very charming and intelligent Scottish gentleman who asked me if I knew who Bonnie Prince Charlie was. I did, and told him everything I knew, and he seemed to be impressed that an American lass such as myself would have such recall of Scotland’s historical events. Yeah. You guessed it. I got it all from Outlander, but I let him think that I was just that smart.

145jfetting
Editado: Out 18, 2010, 5:18 pm

I'm reading Faithful Place right now - and she's writing a fourth one (around Scorcher Kennedy, of all people). I think the book is great, especially because the version of Frank we saw through Cassie's eyes in The Likeness is not at all the Frank we see here. Like you, I don't like it as much as I did The Likeness; it's missing something, but I can't put my finger on what. Something in the mood of the book, I suppose.

edited b/c I can't spell

146citygirl
Out 18, 2010, 5:25 pm

I didn't even like Scorcher.

147citygirl
Editado: Out 24, 2010, 2:38 pm

Roxanna Slade - Reynolds Price. A view of the 20th century thorugh one woman's small, ordinary, extraordinary life. RS was born in 1900 and she is writing her memoir from the perspective of 90+ years. She spent her entire life in a small North Carolina town, and the story doesn't necessarily sound like it's going to be interesting, but the way Anna sees life, the world, herself and the people around her make this a very compelling story. It is beautifully written, with prose like simple poetry. Highly rated, highly recommended.

Snoop: What Your Stuff Says About You - Sam Gosling. Gosling is an academic psychologist offering his findings in the study of what people choose to surround themselves with. The title pretty much says it all. What I will say is, it was written in a natural, engaging style and I found the subject fascinating. Recommended.

Little Girl Lost - Richard Aleas. Aleas is the alias (how cute, not really) of one of the publishers of Hard Case Crime. A current-day PI follows the trail of his high school girlfriend's murder. Meh.

Currently Reading:
Dragonfly in Amber - Diana Galbadon; Die a LIttle - Megan Abbott (love it!); Zeitoun - Dave Eggers. At least those are the ones that seem to go places with me.

148sushidog
Nov 6, 2010, 12:20 pm

Thanks for the heads up on "Money Shot – Christa Faust". It sounds like the other books you've tried from Hard Case Crimes haven't been as good. Still sold on the publisher?

149citygirl
Nov 6, 2010, 6:02 pm

I've read four now. Three were great (and one of those was awesome) and one was meh, so yeah, I'm still sold.

Die a Little, which I'm going to talk about later when I have my copy handy so I can quote was quite striking, wonderfully written. Queenpin and Money Shot were very enjoyable too. It's just the Little Girl Lost that I didn't like.

150citygirl
Nov 29, 2010, 2:12 pm

Die a Little by Megan Abbott.
Why: I greatly enjoyed the only other book of Abbott's that I've read, Queenpin.
This book has a lovely, lovely pulp cover:



It is set in what seems to be 1950s L.A., and the story concerns the narrator, Lora, a schoolteacher probably in her late twenties, and a brother to whom she is extremely close, a fast-rising police detective named Bill. Equilibrium is upset when Bill marries the vivacious, mysterious Alice, who is not what she seems. Lora's own dark nature is exposed to her when she is willingly drawn into the world of Alice's dark past. This book was deftly done: the story gradually sheds its layers, as much as by what Lora doesn’t say as by what she does. And similarly the characters remove their coverings to reveal what is truest about them. Perhaps none of them are what they seem. I love Abbott's spin on hard-boiled prose, of which I’d love to give an example, but I don’t have the book handy. Maybe later.

Zeitoun - Dave Eggers.
Why: True story about a New Orleanian of Syrian descent and what happens to him and his family in the aftermath of Katrina. Had a lot of buzz.
This was such an emotional read for me, underscored by Eggers' unsentimental prose about real people in an extraordinary situation. I got so blue reading about the devastation of a city beloved by me, and then I was on pins and needles wanting to know why Zeitoun disappears in the middle of the book and then I was angered when I found out what had happened to him, and others. When I finished I just sobbed, and I still can't tell you why exactly. Should be required reading, a beautiful lesson in tolerance, humanity, government, and what can happen to good people when things go horribly wrong.

Persuasion - Jane Austen. Yup. Loved it.

Boston Adventure - Jean Stafford.
Why: urania touted it as an overlooked good book and she was kind enough to read one at my recommendation.
I won't go into too much detail as I want to discuss the book with urania on another thread, but suffice it to say that I am very glad I read it. A bit of a strange book.

Bedelia - Vera Caspary.
Why: if you hadn't noticed, on this pulp fiction by chicks tear.
This book, published in the forties by a popular author and screenwriter, epitomizes pulp fiction to me. Like Tarantino's movie, one of my favorites, it is hard for me to figure out just why I enjoyed it so much. The prose is simplistic, intentionally so; the characters lack depth; there were not deep insights into human nature, but I couldn't put it down. The characters, especially the title one, are vivid; and the suspense builds, so there are two reasons. Maybe it is also that it is set in 1913 and and I found the actions and words of the characters anachronous from that context, though surely Caspary would've known better than I, having grown up at that time. The parts don't add up to the sum, but what can I say: I liked it, a lot.

Actively reading The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, The Next Queen of Heaven, and ER book Where We Know: New Orleans As Home, a so far extraordinary anthology.

151RidgewayGirl
Nov 30, 2010, 12:24 pm

I'm glad you liked Die a Little.

I've just started The Tenant of Wildfell Hall myself. I had to laugh at how shocked Gilbert's family was when she tells them she won't leave her five-year-old son alone with an elderly woman for hours at a time and doesn't allow him to drink. And that not allowing a child to slug back alcohol is seen as harmful coddling. The disparity between how boys and girls are raised is also interesting.

152citygirl
Nov 30, 2010, 1:49 pm

Yeah, things were different. Actually, she was giving the boy alcohol as medicine in order to make him hate it, and the Markhams et al. were like, Why would you want to make him hate alcohol, it's one of God's gifts. There are some very interesting characters, not the least Gilbert himself. Did you get to the part where Rose is fussing over how differently she and her brothers are treated?

153citygirl
Dez 2, 2010, 11:30 am

Oh, and I forgot to tell you guys that I also read these two sometime this year:

The Magicians - Lev Grossman.
Why: Harry Potter for grownups. No, seriously. Quentin, a brilliant high school senior terminally ill at ease with his surroundings, gets invited to attend a college for magic! Yeah, baby. Of course I was going to buy and read it.
I thought it was great: complex and interesting characters; luscious magical settings; insightful and well-crafted prose; there was always something new happening; true peril, to the lives and hearts of beloved characters .... I'm just mad cuz I have to wait fo the sequel to come out.

Gifted Grownups: The Mixed Blessings of Extraordinary Potential - Marylou Kelly Streznewski.
Why: Been studying giftedness, you know, for various reasons...it's a very interesting, and, I've learned, controversial subject.
Hmmm. Well, I'm glad I read it, even though it wasn't the most well-written book, because of the information and insights presented. Streznewski interviewd a small boatload of identified gifted adults who were living in myriad ways, including several in prison. (The author quotes statistics that say that 20% of the U.S. prison population is gifted. How's that for a conversation starter?) Most of them were frustrated in some way, some were living the dream, having figured out their place. There were also chapters devoted to the challenges that women and older people face. I might recommend it to an adult who is just now realizing or coming to terms with her giftedness. You know, anything that makes you feel less lonely....

Guess what? Yeah, you guessed it. It's that time of year! Time to gather up all the year's reading and MAKE AN AWARDS SHOW!!!

Stay tuned....

154jfetting
Dez 2, 2010, 8:26 pm

I've been wondering about The Magicians - now I think I'll bite.

155charbutton
Dez 3, 2010, 4:55 am

>150 citygirl:, I loved Bedelia too! Like you say, it's not the most complex of stories but a great read.

156citygirl
Dez 3, 2010, 10:55 pm

The Time Traveler's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger POSSIBLE SPOILERS/HINTS
Why: Oh, who knows why I bought it, but it sat on my shelf for quite a time. I had unfairly prejudiced it b/c it was made into a movie and the cover didn't feature Meryl Streep or Kate Winslet or somesuch.
It takes a lot to make me cry, and this one did it. It wasn't the same sort of sobbing that I got with Zeitoun, but emphathizing with simple heartbreak. There was so much life in this book, and the nutty premise worked! You can view this as a romance or as an exploration of determinism or predetermination or fatalism, or even as a fantasy story or a story of desperate, all-encompassing love. The main characters and relationships are so well-developed and Niffenegger has the storyteller's gift. I devoured it. My husband couldn't get my attention. I have more to say about it but I should probably gather my thoughts.

157detailmuse
Dez 4, 2010, 10:56 am

>156 citygirl: you make me long for a love story (I use that tag for literature vs genre romance). I was headed off in search of one and then realized that Under Fishbone Clouds, which I'm only a couple dozen pages into, is going to be exactly that.

Gifted Grownups goes on the wishlist!

158citygirl
Dez 4, 2010, 8:27 pm

jen, I think you'll like The Magicians.

detailmuse, Fishbone sounds lovely from the one review on its page.

159janemarieprice
Dez 5, 2010, 8:28 pm

Nice thoughts on Zeitoun. I struggled with it a lot - a very hard thing to read on the subway. I just finished Where We Know: New Orleans As Home and loved it! Can't wait to hear your thoughts.

I have The Magicians on my wishlist - sounds right up my alley.

160citygirl
Dez 5, 2010, 8:42 pm

I can't imagine trying to read Zeitoun in public, especially certain parts. I should be reading Where We Know, but I'm never sure if I'm in the right frame of mind for what could be emotional. Was it emotional for you?

162citygirl
Editado: Dez 13, 2010, 11:32 am

*SPOILERS*

The Tenant of Wildfell Hall - Anne Bronte.
Why: Heard it had interesting subject matter, especially for the times.
There is a lot to say about this book:
First, it is kind of macro-epistolary novel, if that makes any sense. Meaning that the entire book is one long letter. Yes, we've seen that before, but other really long letter books don't include dozens of other letters and a diary spanning several years. So, that was interesting and maybe strains credulity. On the other hand, they didn't have tvs.
Second, the subject matter was controversial in the day. People were a bit affronted that someone would write in detail about an emotionally abusive marriage which included blatant sexual infidelity and depraved alcoholism, in a book which includes a scene in which a group of drunk men cheer on their comrade while he hits his wife. A book focused on a wife with the gumption to flout the law and run away with her kid. Weirdly enough, this story is wrapped in the context of a romance between the narrator and the protagonist.
Third, if some readers (not me) think Jane Eyre is a moralizing prig, they ought to try out Helen Huntingdon for contrast. There had to be an average of 0.75 biblical quotes and/or allusions per page. But not just the Bible. I had one of those annotated copies, and in the beginning especially, I wanted to yell at Miss Bronte, Use your words! Surely you have some of your own! But that's harsh, because the book and the story is mostly hers and
Overall, I found the book and enjoyable and enlightening read, and I would recommend it, even if it is...odd.

163RidgewayGirl
Dez 14, 2010, 9:21 am

I've been waiting for your thoughts about this book! Poor Helen was a moralizing prig, but I think that was her refuge. Also, she spent a lot of time pointing out the shortcomings of others, while excusing her own. Obnoxious, but don't we all do that to some lesser extent? I liked her anger, which seemed a healthier reaction than that of her friend.

I'm reading Agnes Grey next year--I want to read more of Anne Bronte.

164citygirl
Dez 14, 2010, 10:25 am

Yes, I agree that her anger was better. And I didn't really dislike Helen, in fact, I admired her. Her friend was a ninny, and I really liked Helen's frank intervention with the Millicent's husband.

I read Agnes Grey years and years ago, but I don't feel the need to reread it anytime soon, with so many other books unread, but I do recall that I liked it quite a bit.

I thought the Gilbert/Helen angle was bit odd. I just wasn't convinced of the development of the relationship. I found Huntingdon's pursuit of Helen more intelligible.

165citygirl
Editado: Dez 27, 2010, 12:42 pm

Long Way Home aka Buffy, Season 8, Issue I by Joss Whedon. My first graphic novel!!! I thought the artwork was gorgeous and clever, the dialogue very Joss-y. I love the story line about the oversized Dawn (what is a thricewise btw?) I've been meaning to read these for years and I loved #1 so much I've gotten 2 -4, but no time to read them at the moment.

A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens. Dickens! Even though I knew the story, as everyone does, I'd never read the book. I had a gorgeous illustrated version with creepy ghostly drawings to match Dickens' words (which made for a scarier tale than you usually see on the tv). I loved the descriptions and enjoyed how he kept things rolling, from one weird ghost to the next. Now I can read Mr. Timothy and catch all the allusions.

Oh, and earlier this year I read 45 Master Characters by Victoria Lynn Schmidt. It's an entertaining breakdown of archetypes based mostly on the Greek gods and characters, with modern examples. It was a lot of fun and maybe even a bit useful.

166theaelizabet
Dez 27, 2010, 9:59 pm

Hi Citygirl. Buffy/Whedon fan here. I've been meaning to take a look at Long Way Home for awhile. Perhaps I will do so as soon as I finish the second season of Dollhouse!

167citygirl
Dez 28, 2010, 9:18 am

I think you'll be so glad you did! Who knows...maybe I'll even get into the two Angel and Spike series, too. (Each has his own series.)

168citygirl
Jan 4, 2011, 4:19 pm

Last books of the year:

Where We Know: New Orleans As Home, an anthology on the city in the aftermath of the storm, interspersed with lovely visuals, descriptions and essays from a long time ago. Review here. It is extraordinary (the book, not the review).

The Next Queen of Heaven - Gregory Maguire
Why: Wicked is one of my top twenty favorite books ever, probably, and so I read Maguire every so often.
Away from his usual territory Maguire is. No fairy tales or Oz. Just regular people, in regular ol' America, the tiny town of Thebes, NY, upstate, to be precise. I have really mixed feelings about this book. I found it quite funny, the characters, the dialogue, the scenarios Maguire set up. He is jointly satirizing religion and exploring themes of faith, which can be compelling. You know, but it's not. It's just not. He split the view between two characters: fiesty teen slut, Tabitha, and wimpy gay Catholic church music director, Jeremy. Tabitha has all the fun, and all the fun scenes, and nutty, unpredictable thoughts. Jeremy has a friend dying of AIDS, gets no respect, and endures regular emotional torture from the now-married-to-a-woman love of his life. What a drip. Well, I guess the reasons for the mixed feelings are apparent. I can't recommend this book, and I can't not recommend it. I mean, the guy gives great prose. If only he'd used it to send Jeremy flying over a cliff.