Finished December 29
American Widow by Alissa Torres, art by Sungyoon Choi
This book is about Alissa's experience around 9/11 and the time that followed. Her husband was killed that day, his second day on the job at Cantor Fitzgerald. Alissa was seven months pregnant at the time. This book is very personal, telling us of Alissa's feelings, even when they aren't ones normally revealed publicly. It tells of Alissa and Luis and how they met and how Luis came to the United States. It tells of Alissa's issues with bureaucracy following the disaster and how she dealt with things as they blocked her way forward. It also tells about the human side of things, showing how some resented the help offered to victims like Alissa and others purported to offer help, but weren't forthcoming with the kind of help actually needed. Hopefully this is something that we can learn from.
Choi brings the words alive with her drawings and puts faces to the people Alissa writes of. I liked the inclusion of a few photos as well and found that they added to the story.
This is a story of tragedy and fortitude and a very human one.
Monday, 29 December 2008
Short Stories
Finished December 28
One Hundred and Forty-five Stories in a Small Box (consisting of Hard to Admit and Harder to Escape by Sarah Manguso, How the Water Feels to the Fishes by Dave Eggers and Minor Robberies by Deb Olin Unferth)
This collection of three small hardcover books in a box is a nice little set of stories. I particularly enjoyed those of Manguso, all of which were a page or less. I liked Eggers stories as well, but found many of Olin Unferth's too dark for my tastes. Short stories are a nice thing to read when you are busy doing this and that around the house as I was, and these are a nice collection, personal and with a sense of humour.
One Hundred and Forty-five Stories in a Small Box (consisting of Hard to Admit and Harder to Escape by Sarah Manguso, How the Water Feels to the Fishes by Dave Eggers and Minor Robberies by Deb Olin Unferth)
This collection of three small hardcover books in a box is a nice little set of stories. I particularly enjoyed those of Manguso, all of which were a page or less. I liked Eggers stories as well, but found many of Olin Unferth's too dark for my tastes. Short stories are a nice thing to read when you are busy doing this and that around the house as I was, and these are a nice collection, personal and with a sense of humour.
Saturday, 27 December 2008
Myth Series
I recently read two books in the Myth Series that Random House has done.
The series consists of a number of books. The publisher asked authors to choose a favourite myth and retell it. A while back I read Margaret Atwood's Penelopiad, her take on the Odyssey, written from Penelope's point of view. I should say that I actually listened to the audiobook and thoroughly enjoyed it, especially the chorus bits.
This week I've read two more, and my parents gave me one for Christmas (and they didn't even know I'd been reading the series!)
Finished December 25
Weight by Jeanette Winterson
Winterson takes two myths here, those of Atlas and Heracles, and we see the story from both points of view. Atlas has been punished by the gods and forced to carry the world on his back. Heracles has been forced to work for another and made to perform difficult labours. Mixed into the story are man's exploration of space, Winterson's own baggage, and above all the story of choices. What do we really want and why? How do we figure it out? Winterson weaves it all together seamlessly and lets us see it anew. This is a wonderful retelling and I found myself going back and rereading bits of it based on later chapters. I especially liked the dog.
Finished December 26
The Fire Gospel by Michel Faber
This story relates to the myth of Prometheus and the gift of fire. It is less a retelling and more a story with a similar theme. Theo Griepenkerl is an academic visiting Iraq on behalf of a Canadian museum to offer money for rebuilding in exchange for loans of works of art and antiquity. When a bomb goes off in the museum he is visiting and the curator is killed, he finds scrolls that had lain hidden in a piece of art for two thousands years. Theo is able to translate them from the Aramaic and finds them to be another Gospel, written by an eye-witness to the last days of Jesus Christ. The publication of the translated work acts like the gift of fire in igniting mankind with many different emotions. I found this work less interesting and Theo a rather bemused naive man out of touch with reality until forced to confront it.
The series consists of a number of books. The publisher asked authors to choose a favourite myth and retell it. A while back I read Margaret Atwood's Penelopiad, her take on the Odyssey, written from Penelope's point of view. I should say that I actually listened to the audiobook and thoroughly enjoyed it, especially the chorus bits.
This week I've read two more, and my parents gave me one for Christmas (and they didn't even know I'd been reading the series!)
Finished December 25
Weight by Jeanette Winterson
Winterson takes two myths here, those of Atlas and Heracles, and we see the story from both points of view. Atlas has been punished by the gods and forced to carry the world on his back. Heracles has been forced to work for another and made to perform difficult labours. Mixed into the story are man's exploration of space, Winterson's own baggage, and above all the story of choices. What do we really want and why? How do we figure it out? Winterson weaves it all together seamlessly and lets us see it anew. This is a wonderful retelling and I found myself going back and rereading bits of it based on later chapters. I especially liked the dog.
Finished December 26
The Fire Gospel by Michel Faber
This story relates to the myth of Prometheus and the gift of fire. It is less a retelling and more a story with a similar theme. Theo Griepenkerl is an academic visiting Iraq on behalf of a Canadian museum to offer money for rebuilding in exchange for loans of works of art and antiquity. When a bomb goes off in the museum he is visiting and the curator is killed, he finds scrolls that had lain hidden in a piece of art for two thousands years. Theo is able to translate them from the Aramaic and finds them to be another Gospel, written by an eye-witness to the last days of Jesus Christ. The publication of the translated work acts like the gift of fire in igniting mankind with many different emotions. I found this work less interesting and Theo a rather bemused naive man out of touch with reality until forced to confront it.
Monday, 22 December 2008
Reading Analysis
Finished December 21
Why We Read What We Read: a delightfully opinionated journey through contemporary bestsellers by Lisa Adams and John Heath
This is an interesting read about reading. The authors looked at a number of bestseller lists for a ten year period and then looked at books by category and/or genre to see what it told them.
Some groupings were interesting such as good and evil in political nonfiction and adventure novels; and diet wealth and inspiration. The looked at commonalities between the popular books, trends, and what it said about American society.
The last chapter: Deciphering Da Code looked at the phenomenally popular Da Vinci Code and what it had that fed that popularity. It talked about the fallout from the novel and the other books that it spawned. Their interpretation of the meaning of this and what it says about the society we live in was fascinating and thought-provoking.
As a librarian I am interested in what makes different books popular and their analysis is food for thought in that area. After all, knowledge is power, right!
Why We Read What We Read: a delightfully opinionated journey through contemporary bestsellers by Lisa Adams and John Heath
This is an interesting read about reading. The authors looked at a number of bestseller lists for a ten year period and then looked at books by category and/or genre to see what it told them.
Some groupings were interesting such as good and evil in political nonfiction and adventure novels; and diet wealth and inspiration. The looked at commonalities between the popular books, trends, and what it said about American society.
The last chapter: Deciphering Da Code looked at the phenomenally popular Da Vinci Code and what it had that fed that popularity. It talked about the fallout from the novel and the other books that it spawned. Their interpretation of the meaning of this and what it says about the society we live in was fascinating and thought-provoking.
As a librarian I am interested in what makes different books popular and their analysis is food for thought in that area. After all, knowledge is power, right!
Wednesday, 17 December 2008
Mix of Fiction and Nonfiction
Finished December 17
Alfred and Emily by Doris Lessing
This is a fascinating book on Lessing's parents, Alfred Taylor and Emily McVeagh. The first part of the book is a fictional life of the two, where Lessing gives them different happier, yet not perfect lives. This is followed by an explanation where she explains what influenced her choices for the fictional lives. The last part consists of a number of chapters discussing Alfred and Emily's real lives and Doris' experience of them.
Alfred had wanted to be a farmer, but lost a leg in the first World War and had various ailments, including post-traumatic stress disorder (untreated as it often was then) that came out of his wartime experiences. Emily was a nurse at the Royal Free Hospital and became a matron at an unusually young age. The two met when Emily nursed Alfred following his injuries in the war. After the war the couple went to Persia for a few years and then took a farm in Southern Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe. Lessing's issues with her mother have appeared in many of her other works, but she discusses them here as a generational issue, arguing in favor of women working. Lessing is open about her family, recognizing her own issues in the relationships, but also compassionate in reflecting upon her parents and the lives they ended up with. As she says in her forward, she hopes they would approve the lives she has given them.
Alfred and Emily by Doris Lessing
This is a fascinating book on Lessing's parents, Alfred Taylor and Emily McVeagh. The first part of the book is a fictional life of the two, where Lessing gives them different happier, yet not perfect lives. This is followed by an explanation where she explains what influenced her choices for the fictional lives. The last part consists of a number of chapters discussing Alfred and Emily's real lives and Doris' experience of them.
Alfred had wanted to be a farmer, but lost a leg in the first World War and had various ailments, including post-traumatic stress disorder (untreated as it often was then) that came out of his wartime experiences. Emily was a nurse at the Royal Free Hospital and became a matron at an unusually young age. The two met when Emily nursed Alfred following his injuries in the war. After the war the couple went to Persia for a few years and then took a farm in Southern Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe. Lessing's issues with her mother have appeared in many of her other works, but she discusses them here as a generational issue, arguing in favor of women working. Lessing is open about her family, recognizing her own issues in the relationships, but also compassionate in reflecting upon her parents and the lives they ended up with. As she says in her forward, she hopes they would approve the lives she has given them.
Tuesday, 16 December 2008
Wide-ranging Novel
Finished December 16
The Monsters of Templeton by Lauren Groff, performed by Nicole Roberts
This is a book that is hard to categorize. The main part of the story is contemporary, with Willie Upton returning to her hometown of Templeton after a disastrous relationship experience. On the same day she arrives home, the dead body of a lake monster surfaces on the lake the town is settled around. Her mother also surprises her with the news that her father is a local Templeton man who is not aware of his role in her creation.
Templeton is modelled on the town of Cooperstown, New York, and has much in common with that real-life place. One of Upton's ancestors, Jacob Temple, appears to be modelled on the writer James Fenimore Cooper, at least in regards to his writings.
As Willie researches her lineage, following the one clue her mother has provided her in terms of her father, voices arise in interspersed chapters, telling their stories. Some stories are told as voices from the past, some from letters, some from journal entries. All bring Willie new knowledge of her forebears and their secrets as well as solving town mysteries.
This is an amazing story, touching and emotional, but full of humour and intelligence as well. A great read.
The Monsters of Templeton by Lauren Groff, performed by Nicole Roberts
This is a book that is hard to categorize. The main part of the story is contemporary, with Willie Upton returning to her hometown of Templeton after a disastrous relationship experience. On the same day she arrives home, the dead body of a lake monster surfaces on the lake the town is settled around. Her mother also surprises her with the news that her father is a local Templeton man who is not aware of his role in her creation.
Templeton is modelled on the town of Cooperstown, New York, and has much in common with that real-life place. One of Upton's ancestors, Jacob Temple, appears to be modelled on the writer James Fenimore Cooper, at least in regards to his writings.
As Willie researches her lineage, following the one clue her mother has provided her in terms of her father, voices arise in interspersed chapters, telling their stories. Some stories are told as voices from the past, some from letters, some from journal entries. All bring Willie new knowledge of her forebears and their secrets as well as solving town mysteries.
This is an amazing story, touching and emotional, but full of humour and intelligence as well. A great read.
Monday, 15 December 2008
Mystery Series
Finished December 15
Our Lady of Pain by Elena Forbes
This is the second book in the series featuring Mark Tartaglia. Tartaglia is a detective inspector on a murder investigation team in London. This story begins with the discovery of a naked, frozen body in Holland Park. The body is arranged and the clothing is nowhere to be found. Tartaglia and his partner Sam Donovan are on the case and find it hard to get to know the victim, Rachel Tenison. Rachel seems to have been a very secretive person, and even her best friend doesn't know everything she was involved in. When a journalist makes links between this case and an unsolved one from a year earlier, the loose ends grow.
The case here revolves around personalities and relationships and, while there are moments of action, the greater part of the plot is of the people involved.
I like the inclusion of the personal lives of some of the police involved. It gives the book a good feel for me to see the whole personality, rather than just the workplace persona.
Our Lady of Pain by Elena Forbes
This is the second book in the series featuring Mark Tartaglia. Tartaglia is a detective inspector on a murder investigation team in London. This story begins with the discovery of a naked, frozen body in Holland Park. The body is arranged and the clothing is nowhere to be found. Tartaglia and his partner Sam Donovan are on the case and find it hard to get to know the victim, Rachel Tenison. Rachel seems to have been a very secretive person, and even her best friend doesn't know everything she was involved in. When a journalist makes links between this case and an unsolved one from a year earlier, the loose ends grow.
The case here revolves around personalities and relationships and, while there are moments of action, the greater part of the plot is of the people involved.
I like the inclusion of the personal lives of some of the police involved. It gives the book a good feel for me to see the whole personality, rather than just the workplace persona.
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