A is for The Angel's Game - Carlos Ruiz Zafón

Let me start by saying I love, love, LOVE Zafón's THE SHADOW OF THE WIND. It's an all-time favorite and a must-read for book lovers. So with all that book baggage, picture me cracking open THE ANGEL'S GAME with mucho expectations. Now picture me disappointed when it fell mucho short.

Problemo Uno: Zafon used a key player from SHADOW OF THE WIND and his role just didn't make sense here.

Problemo Dos: Creepy kinda super-fantastical stuff which really isn't my deal.

Problemo Tres: I just didn't enjoy it.

So beware. But if you like creepy kinda super-fantastical stuff and you haven't read and fallen in love with THE SHADOW OF THE WIND, then THE ANGEL'S GAME may be your cup of tea.

Rating: 2 stars

Pages: 544

Genre: Fiction

Okay, this time I am serious. For really.

So I came back in September and said I was ready to start writing reviews again. And then I off and disappeared. What's that all about?

Well, I looked back at past reviews and felt a bit intimidated. Yes, intimidated. By my own words and the amount of time I took to put those words together into phrases and then sentences and then to publish as a blog post. I am not quite sure where I found all that time.

And then I figured out how far behind I was on reviews and rather than freak out or buckle down I just kept raising the kiddo, keeping at the job, catching a movie or two, playing with my iPhone and reading. But not writing.

And then I remembered something important.

I can do this whole reading and writing thing however I want to. Back then I devoted more time to it. Right now I can't, and that's okay. There can be a happy medium... I am sure of it. It might involve bullet points and quicker turns of phrases and likely a lot fewer words. And hopefully you won't mind. And I will try not to let it bother me.

So what am I getting at with all this rambling and geeky over thinking? I will write what I can when, I can and it will be more frequent because I miss it. And even doing a little bit of writing is better than no writing at all, right?

Happy reading, friends - whatever it is you are reading. And happy doing - whatever it is you love to do.

xoxo

Catching up, kinda

I can't believe I haven't posted since April 28, but that the reality.

Wow.

Sorry to be gone so long! I have had a lot of life happening. Good things. Moving into my own space. A little more defining of myself and growing into who I am. Sort of feels like I am starting a new at almost 40 and I find it invigorating a little exhausting, but overall good.

So now I need to catch up.

I can definitely get caught up on the book reviews. The Words of the Day? That's another story. I have been doing both, reading and wording. No book reviewing, until now. But wording on facebook and for whatever reason loading to facebook and my blog seems like too much. Maybe I will figure out an interim solution. Maybe not. I will just see how it goes.

Until then... stay tuned for some book reviews. And drop a comment and let me know if you have read anything worth sharing or avoiding.

It's all good, you know.

V is for A Visit from the Goon Squad - Jennifer Egan

When I saw the cover of Jennifer Egan's A VISIT FROM THE GOON SQUAD, I immediately wanted to read it. I mean, isn't it great? The composition and color and the tweaked out guitar strings are just perfect. And then I read the summary and I was kind of nonplussed. It seemed to echo the summaries of books like Bright Lights, Big City or Less Than Zero which I have had no desire to read (shock, horror, I know, whatever) about privileged people doing a lot of drugs and screwing up and maybe there's redemption and maybe there's not. Who knows? I haven't read them. Go figure.

But then, I needed a V book and it had that damn-near perfect cover. It also didn't hurt any that Egan just won the National Book Critics Circle Award for A VISIT FROM THE GOON SQUAD either. So I caved. Because really, I am not that shallow about books. Just shallow enough that Visit starts with V and fills a void on my alphabetical list.

Here's the thing about GOON SQUAD: There are some privileged people. There are some drugs. There's even some screwing up. But there's also some of the most creative storytelling I have read in a long time. THE GOON SQUAD is far from ordinary. It's a contemporary novel told from the various perspectives of its many and varied main characters: Sasha a younger-looking-than-she is music industry assistant with a tiny kleptomania problem; Bennie, her middle-aged manager struggling to find and book the next big act; Lou an overly tanned, skirt chasing father of 6 (by 3 different wives) who attempts to defy the passage of time; Dolly (aka La Doll) an out of work PR maven who gets her groove back making the worst (the really really worst) look their best; Jules Jones, a celebrity reporter who lands himself in jail after failing to keep his business all about the business.

That's probably only half of them. And Egan has them all interconnected, all telling their story from their own unique voice. From that perspective, it's really a sort of mini masterpiece. Never once could I tell where the story was going and that kept me not only interested, but invigorated, much like the characters at their most energetic moments. Egan accomplishes a significant amount of character development, considering how many key players there are and I was astonished how impacted I was by just a few of them who had smaller, bit parts to play (oh sweet Rolph!).

A VISIT FROM THE GOON SQUAD is different. It's unlike anything I have ever read. Perhaps had I read more (or more of the stuff I have tended to avoid), I may not feel this way. Who knows? What I do know, is I thoroughly enjoyed it, in all of the quirky, eclectic goodness that it is.

Rating: 4 stars
Pages: 352 pages
Genre: Fiction

C is for Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese

Let me start by saying I was less than thrilled to be reading CUTTING FOR STONE. Before you get the wrong idea, let me clarify that statement. I really wanted to read this book. I was actually excited when it came up for my March Book Club. But then the excitement quickly faded and I realized that it was sixhundredandeightyeight pages (gulp) and I would have just a week to read it (unlike my fellow book clubbers who would have a month). Forget the gulps. This was freak out time.

Fortunately, having done this book-a-week thing before, I had a bunch of cheerleaders in my court. Friends who believed me able to do this much more than I believed myself. So, with that support, I dove into Vergheses ambitious and epic tale of two brothers.

It quickly turned out to be one of my busier weeks in the world of life. And in two or three days' time, I had only knocked out 110 pages.

Uh oh.

But then the weekend came, and with my folks here and taking it easy, and the kiddo with his dad... I plowed. I read and read like I have never read before. And I finished CUTTING FOR STONE in a whopping three days. A feat acheivable only because the book is tremendously good.

Written by a physician, CUTTING FOR STONE is a complex and multilayered story of Mary Joseph Praise, a devout nun, who dies while delivering conjoined twin boys. Left parentless, the boys, Marion and Shiva are raised by doctors at the Missing Hospital in Adis Ababa, a hospital that cares for the poorest of poor.

Marion narrates the saga which spans over 5o years, multiple contents and conflicts that cover coming of age, connection, betrayal, renewal and redemption. Any so many ways and at so many levels, it is a love story. Love for others, self, our place in the world and our ability to impact our surroundings.

Two of my favorite passages (and there are a far many more) from the book:

As the twin boys struggled after birth, and her colleagues
struggled with the loss and shock around them, they
remembered Sister Mary Joseph Praise's regular directives:

Make something beautiful of your life.

As the boy's adoptive mother contemplates her own place in the world:

Wasn't that the definition of home? Not where you are from, but where you are wanted?

There's too much story to cover in this review, and in no way could I summarize it as beautifully as Verghese tells it. CUTTING FOR STONE is a perfectly woven, entirely engrossing novel about human experiences, while likely different from our own, tell a story we can all identify with and appreciate.

Rating: 5 stars
Pages: 688
Genre: Fiction

P is for Poke the Box by Seth Godin

I feel like I have been hearing about Seth Godin for years. I even feel like I have read some of his books, although I am not sure why that is, because I never have. Maybe it's because I have heard him talk about his books and I would always think: That sounds really interesting. I ought to pick that up, or at least add it to my amazon wish list. So, I would make a mental note to do that. I would think about picking his books up. I would make a decision that I should pick up his books, but I never would. In Godin's own words, I failed to "poke the box."

As it turns out, there's a lot of people like me, not poking the box. We think, we plan, we idealize. We may even fund or support others in poking the box, yet we don't do it.

What is Seth talking about? Starting.

Starting what? Just starting. Anything.

In POKE THE BOX, Godin's latest effort, poking the box could be starting that diet. That closet reorganization. A new process you are certain will make things better at work. And instead of waiting for approval, or all the lights to be green, or the perfect day for closet organizing to come along. You. Just. Start.

And sometimes a start will follow by a swift stop. But that's okay. Keep starting, Godin implores (yes, implores. He's pretty passionate about this box poking thing). And, while POKE THE BOX focuses on more business applications, you can poke the box, anywhere, in any environment. That's the beauty of it.

It's the idea that many starts will result in a stop, but we must keep at it. We must keep poking the box. The act of starting is the accomplishment that will ultimately (when done time and time again) result in success. And when you keep doing it, your success rate will increase.

Imagine that?

Sounds pretty novel, right? And yet, this idea of starting--or I should say action of starting--isn't rocket science. It's benefits are pretty obvious. We all beneft when we have people everywhere, poking the box. Moving the mark. Starting.

And so many of us don't. For a number of reasons, namely, fear. Fear of failure. Fear of rejection. Fear of lost time. Fear of lost energy. We can create any number of reasons why we shouldn't do something, and in that time of selfpreservation and overrationalization do you know what we could have done?

We could have just started.

Rating: 3 stars
Genre: Non-fiction
Pages: 96

D is for The Diving Bell and the Butterfly - Jean-Dominique Bauby

It's official: Size does matter. At least it does when it comes to books; and especially when we are talking about books that need to be consumed within a week. I found myself just yesterday afternoon still putting off the March book club mandate of 600+ pages and in an absolute tailspin about what to read this week that was short on pages, high on interest and starting with a letter of the alphabet that I hadn't yet covered. Oh boy.

Enter: One bookstore, a perfectly blended chai tea latte, and THE DIVING BELL AND THE BUTTERFLY by Jean-Dominique Bauby. At 131 pages, I knew I had hit the knock-it-out-in-one-sitting jackpot. But where the book lacks in length, Bauby more than makes up in heart.

THE DIVING BELL AND THE BUTTERFLY is Bauby's memoir, painstakingly dictated to a speech therapist through his only means of communication: The blinking of an eye. At 43, Bauby was full of life, living in France and working as the editor of French ELLE magazine. On the way to an event with his teenaged son, Bauby suffered a massive stroke to his brainstem and was left completely paralyzed--only to retain the functions of his brain and left eye. This type of outcome is often referred to as being "locked in" with no ability to communicate, yet complete awareness of one's surroundings, total cognition in tact. A sort of total confinement--imprisonment for a crime not ever committed.

And yet, Bauby is heroic in his effort to live. He connects with a speech therapist at the hospital who knows he is more than his incapacitated shell. She patiently works with him, and together, they devise a way to communicate with Bauby blinking at letters of the alphabet she shows him. Once realizing this capability, Bauby works with her to document his story painstakingly "written" one letter at a time.

His story, it turns out, is remarkable; especially when you know what he had to go through to tell it. Add to that only the merest traces of self pity or anguish and you have a completely compelling story. Bauby uses the strength of his mind to call up memories of his past (with his children, his work) and imagines a future he know he won't ever have (lying next to and caressing his girlfriend, experiencing delectable food). Rarely is there anger; sometimes there is sadness. More often than not, Bauby expresses humor, humility and grace sharing the simplest of details that we so often take for granted.

One of these simple details, his love of letters from friends and how they helped him get through the darker days of his recovery, Bauby beautifully wrote:

I hoard all of those letter like treasure, One day I hope to fasten them end to end in a half-mile streamer, to float in the wind like a banner raised to the glory of friendship.

It will keep the vultures at bay.

Unfortunately, Bauby won't have that opportunity. Just two days after his memoir was published, Bauby passed away from heart failure. He was making so much progress in his ability to communicate and connect with others that I found this truly heartbreaking. Despite the sadness, THE DIVING BELL AND THE BUTTERFLY is a worthy read (and as I now understand, a well received movie that I will have to check out). Bauby's story is both devastatingly simple and overwhelmingly complicated. He provides us a great reminder that we are more than our bodies--that there is so very much to appreciate in this life.

Rating: 5 stars

Pages: 131

Genre: Memoir