Little Stalker

The last book I read by Jennifer Belle was Going Down, a novel about a woman turning tricks to pay her way through college. It was satisfying in that chick lit way, fun and funny, fast-paced, and a little silly. I missed her next book, High Maintenance, though I think I'll go back and read that one now. 2007's Little Stalker surprised me; Belle's writing has really come into it's own.

Rebekah Kettle has been obsessed with the films of Arthur Weeman since she was a child, attending the 10am showing of each one on opening day and always sitting in the same seat. This appears to be the only stable consistant aspect of her life. Her family is disjointed, and her love life unsuccessful. She wrote a successful novel years ago, but has been unable to follow it up. Rebekah befriends an elderly woman named Mrs Williams and soon discovers that from Mrs. Williams' apartment, she can see into Arthur Weeman's window. She begins writing him letters as 13-year-old Thalia, and spies on him to find that he is taking her comments and suggestions to heart, until their lives intersect in a way that neither of them could have predicted.

Rebekah is a fantastically imperfect character, neurotic, stubborn, and witty. Belle has crafted a story that rises far above her first novel. I love chick lit, but this isn't it - this is just great fiction from an author who has sadly been overlooked.

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In other female author news, Jennifer Weiner has been profiled in the July 2008 issue of Current Biography. You can read it here. It seems that In Her Shoes is not the last of her books to be made into a movie and, even more excitingly, Weiner has signed a contract to develop and produce shows for ABC! Anyway, it's a great article about one of my favorite writers, so you should totally check it out.

July: Independence

A review of Lord of the Flies by William Golding

A group of British schoolboys are stranded on an island, presumably after a plane crash, and in their struggle to organize some sort of society, they instead break into factions leading to violence and death. Kind of like Lost. This fits the Book a Month theme of independence very well, as it is a rather harsh coming-of-age story of young boys who suddenly must survive on their own. Thinking of the month's theme, one cannot help compare them to a newly-forming nation made up of unruly, misguided people.

What this book lacked was context. There was a discussion among the boys about being saved in which someone mentioned a bomb and how nobody was around to save them. Were they on the plane because of the war? Were they escaping from something? Was a school trip? Why did it crash? And who were they before this happened? Not knowing anything about their background, they are all blank slates on the island.

In the notes, I read that Golding intended the story to be entirely symbolic. He wanted to show that the individual is what determines the direction of society, regardless of what sorts of organizations or governments are in place. The boys on the island were a microcosm of what was going on in the world - in the midst of their war they are saved in the end by a sailor with the Royal Navy who was involved in a larger war. Golding asks "But who will save him?" While this commentary adds some depth and context to the book, I can't help but be disappointed by any novel which requires reading author comments or other criticism to have an idea of what it is actually about. Without that, it's still a decent story, but rather two-dimensional.

Two Books About Food

Since I am obsessed with food, I just finished two very different books on the subject.

Such a pretty fat : one narcissist's quest to discover if her life makes her ass look big, or why pie is not the answer by Jen Lancaster

I'll admit I read this book based entirely on the title. It is a chick lit styled memoir about a woman trying to lose weight. She had a very positive self-image and was content with her body, but her doctor convinced her that her health would be in great jeopardy if she didn't lose weight. As Lancaster noted, there would be no point to having beautiful pedicures if she lost a foot to diabetes. So she set out to get fit and lose weight. She tried Jenny Craig and Weight Watchers and rejected them both, opting instead to simply eat a sensible diet and decrease her portion sizes. Most importantly, she hired a personal trainer and pushed herself to work out regularly and become stronger and healthier.

Though it was enough that Lancaster is so hilarious, what really made this book stand out to me was her refreshingly positive view of herself - her weight loss was not a means to make her feel better about herself, or get a man, or fit into a smaller sized dress. She didn't talk numbers at all, in fact. We don't know how much she weighed or what size she wore, and indeed it was beside the point. What we did learn was how much better she felt, how strong she became, what she was able to do after getting in shape that she couldn't do before. Such a Pretty Fat is a fun book to read, but it's also inspiring and motivating.

In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto by Michael Pollan

In his follow-up to the excellent Omnivore's Dilemma, Pollan rips apart nutrition research, processed foods, and the Western diet, which he blames for the high rates of obesity, heart disease, and cancer in the US. As always, his arguments are sensible and well backed-up. I particularly liked this book because I have long been annoyed about how scientific eating has become: there is always some nutrient of the moment that is deified or vilified, many studies are touted which support contradictory claims, and there is an overwhelming feeling that we should be analyzing, graphing and charting the intake of various nutrients to make sure we are eating "correctly." Pollan urges us to go back to eating whole foods (not processed food products) as part of meals that we cook out of food ingredients (not additives or supplements) in our own kitchens and then enjoy with family and friends. Radical!

It's sad that we have to be told these things, and it's also sad that it's so difficult to do. Seriously, I challenge you to go into Stop 'n Shop and find a loaf of bread that contains whole grains, no high fructose corn syrup, and no ingredients that you can't pronounce. And these days most of us have to work for a living and don't have time to stay home and bake bread. Fortunately though, Pollan offers many helpful suggestions and guidelines that will help improve our diets. In Defense of Food is eye-opening and has certainly motivated me to make more of an effort to eat better.

Though very different on the surface, these two books have something important that they share: common sense. Lancaster knew that a packaged food plan that leaves no room for even an annual birthday cake is no way to live, and that despite what she was told by one organization, food is not "bad." She knew that she didn't have to be told what to eat for every meal, but needed to simply learn how to make more sensible choices. Similarly, Pollan argues that we do not need to read scientific studies to learn what to eat, and that we're better off eating unrefined foods - fat and all - than foods that have been stripped of all nutrition and had various things added in based on what scientists tell us we need. Hooray for sense and reason!

June: Knowledge

June's BAM Challenge is a little tricky. One could argue that every book is either about knowledge or contains knowledge, right? But perusing the list of suggested titles, I saw a number of them were on the theme of secrets and Penny Vincenzi's Sheer Abandon fits that bill perfectly.

Three young women meet at Heathrow airport as they embark on a year of backpacking. They spend a few days together in Thailand and then go their separate ways, promising to meet up again a year later when they are all back from England. One of them - we don't know who - returns to England pregnant, has her baby in a cleaning closet in Heathrow and abandons it there.

Sixteen years later, the three still haven't met up again. Jocasta is a journalist with a commitment-phobe boyfriend, Clio is a doctor, and Martha is a high-powered lawyer moving her way into politics. Kate, the abandoned baby, has grown up into a beautiful teenager hoping for a modeling career and, more importantly, wanting to find her birth mother. Their worlds all begin to approach each other, amid much drama and scandal. Their lives are all affected by the secrets they keep from each other, and there are many interesting turning points in the story that come about because of what each character decides to share, and what they keep to themselves. This novel wasn't quite as literary as many of the books I read, but it wasn't exactly Danielle Steel either (no offense to Steel - I'll readily admit to reading all of her books in high school). Sheer Abandon is a great beach read, if you care to lug it there. But don't let the 600 pages daunt you - this is perfect summer fare.

Vacation Reading

I'm way overdue on this, but better late than never! Here are short reviews on the two best books I read over my vacation:

The Dead and the Gone by Susan Beth Pfeffer

The much-awaited (by me, anyway) companion volume to Life As We Knew It takes place during the same catastrophe - the moon being knocked out of orbit, causing cataclysmic weather, deaths, and the breakdown of society - but from the perspective of a different family in another part of the country. In New York City, a teenaged boy and his two younger sisters are at home alone when it happens. Their father is in Puerto Rico at their grandmother's funeral and their mother has left for work at a hospital, neither to return, leaving the three kids to survive for themselves in a world that has become unstable and scary.

Because they're in a city and also very involved in their church, this family is much more informed of what is going on than the family in Life As We Knew It and have a bit more access to support. Like the first book, this one was filled with a mixture of desperation and hope. It is a very different story though, and did not disappoint.

The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield

The daughter of a bookshop owner is called upon to write the biography of an ailing writer who, in addition to her many novels, has told just as many untrue versions of her life story. What follows is a fantastic tale full of secrets, lies, betrayals, sinister twins, madwomen in the attic - everything you could hope for in a novel. Unpredictable and creepy, it's a gothic page-turner. If you haven't read it yet, I strongly suggest you do so. This is Setterfield's first novel, and I can't wait to see what's next.

A bit of this, a bit of that

Remember my post-apocalyptic booklist? Well, it seems that Booklist magazine has totally copied my idea! I opened the 5/15 issue to find "Core Collection: Before and After The Road" which contains many of the same books on my list. Hmm. Very suspicious if you ask me.

Have you seen this survey on the value of an MLIS? Please go fill it out!

In related news, and to further substantiate my belief that librarianship is becoming deprofessionalized, I recently found a job posting here in MA for a reference position that doesn't require an MLS. To their credit they say "MLS or extensive library experience" (emphasis mine) but still, you are just opening a can of worms there, Nevins Library!

Also - I've won more sock yarn! I know, crazy, right? Just a month after winning some Dream in Color Smooshy Sock Yarn I have now won...more Smooshy Sock Yarn! Unbelievable luck, and it happened on the last day of work before vacation just when I thought I'd lose my mind. Thanks so much, Heather!

That's right, vacation! I'll be gone all week, whisked away to the woods of Maine with very limited internet access. So no updates from me, but hopefully when I return I'll have lots of book reviews and knitting progress to show you. Because, you know, there's not a lot to do up there.

May: Mother

The Year of Fog by Michelle Richmond: a review

A photographer named Abby has recently become engaged to Jake, a single father and is trying to bond with his 6-year-old daughter. Abby takes Emma to the beach one day, looks away for a few seconds to take some photos, and when she turns back Emma is gone. Abby and Jake launch into a full-scale hunt for Emma, but the very few clues they have don't lead anywhere. The strain takes a toll on their relationship and the wedding is postponed indefinitely as their search continues with ever-dwindling hope.

I picked this book for the BAM challenge because the theme for this month is "mother" and I thought the book was about a mother who loses her child. Instead, it is a woman who hopes to soon becom a mother to a child, but instead makes a mistake and loses her. Abby is racked by guilt and questions why she ever believed she could be a mother when she can't even keep a child from harm. Woven into the story of her search for Emma are some of her childhood memories about her own mother and the rest of her family; meanwhile, Abby receives updates from her younger sister who is pregnant with her first child. There are many mothers in this story, and women who want to be mothers, and people without mothers. It fit into the theme for Mother's Day month even more than I expected.

For a large portion of the book very little is happening other than Abby's internal struggles and the impression that she and Jake are doing the same things day after day as the search for Emma stretches on for the better part of a year. But somehow it was strangely compelling and I found myself spending every moment I could spare reading this book. It was dismal, for obvious reasons, but also completely satisfying.

April: Beauty

For this month's BAM Challenge I read Dinaw Mengestu's The Beautiful Things that Heaven Bears, a novel about an Ethiopian immigrant who owns a convenience store in Washington DC. Sepha Stephanos is caught between two worlds. He cannot go back to the life he left 17 years ago, but neither can he move forward in his new life in America. He tries when he meets his new neighbor Judith and her daughter Naomi; he comes to look forward to Naomi's daily visits and hopes for a relationship with Judith. When he discovers that Naomi's father was also African, he feels as though Judith just wants to fill the space he left and that he cannot possibly do it. He is still very taken with her but they are unable to ever really come together. Meanwhile, tensions in the neighborhood are mounting with increased rents and the resulting evictions. Judith is threatened, and when her house is burned down she moves away.

Sepha's two close friends are also African immigrants. Joseph is from Zaire and Kenneth is from Kenya. Like Sepha, Joseph's father was successful, but they both have very modest lives in America. By contrast, Kenneth's father was illiterate but Kenneth is now a successful businessman who dresses in suits every day and in many way embodies the American dream. Sepha and Joseph both talk about Africa continuously but Kenneth tires of their nostalgia for home.

Many issues are addressed in this book and I see now why some cities have chosen it for their One City One Book programs. It is especially pertinent to certain areas, like Somerville, that are also struggling with issues surrounding immigration and gentrification. But it's not just a book about issues, it's a beautifully told story about a man who just wants to be happy and have a better life, which is something we can all relate to.

It's the end of the world as we know it: a booklist

Adams, John Joseph, ed. Wastelands: stories of the Apocalypse
A collection of 22 short stories about human survival at the end of the world by authors including Orson Scott Card, Elizabeth Bear, Octavia Butler, Jonathan Lethem, and Stephen King.

Brin, David. The Postman
A survivor traveling across the post-apocalypse United States assumes the role of a "Restored United States" postal inspector, restoring hope and uniting other desperate survivors.

Butler, Octavia. Parable of the Sower
In a dystopian future in which the world is ravaged by global warming, disease and racial tensions, a young woman suffers from hyperempathy syndrome, a condition that causes her to feel the pain of others as though it is her own. When she is forced to leave her home she spends her journey recruiting others to her new faith, becoming a prophet who holds hope for a new world.

Hoban, Russell. Riddley Walker
Written in a strange yet familiar pidgin English, a story about life in Britain after nuclear holocaust which has reduced humanity to a semi-literate iron age.

King, Stephen. The Stand
A mutating super flu wipes out over 99% of the world's population, leaving the survivors in a battle between good and evil that will determine the future of the planet. This lengthy, complex, and detailed novel contains a cast of richly-drawn characters and metaphysical and philosophical themes.

King, Stephen. Cell
A fast-paced novel in which cell phones turn people into zombies, and those few untouched by this technological warfare band together to protect themselves while helping one man search for his young son.

McCammon, Robert. Swan Song
Frequently compared to The Stand for it's post-apocalyptic themes of good vs. evil and it's strong characters, this novel takes place in a world ravaged by nuclear holocaust.

McCarthy, Cormac. The Road
It doesn't get any more desolate or bleak than this. A man, his son, and their shopping cart travel south after an unnamed catastrophe has destroyed the US, and possibly the world, headed towards an uncertain future.

Miller, Walter M. A Canticle for Leibowitz
This scifi classic takes place after the Simplification, a nuclear holocaust that plunges the world back into the dark ages. Following a group of monks in a Utah abbey, the novel spans hundreds of years to illustrate the cycles of humanity, and emphasize that those who don't know history are doomed to repeat it.

Pfeffer, Susan Beth. Life As We Knew It
When an asteroid knocks the moon out of its orbit and closer to Earth, severe weather wreaks havoc on the world's population. One teenage girl chronicles her life with her family as they struggle to survive in the aftermath. (Pfeffer's forthcoming companion novel is called The Dead and the Gone.)

Rosoff, Meg. How I Live Now
15-year-old Daisy leaves Manhattan to stay with her cousins at a remote farm in England, during which a world war breaks out. Her aunt, traveling in Norway, is unable to return as terrorists take over the country, including the farmhouse, and begin a years-long occupation.

Shute, Nevil. On the Beach
A classic novel of nuclear annihilation. A group of friends in Australia bide their time until the fallout reaches their shores to kill them all.

Stewart George R. Earth Abides
A plague has wiped out almost all humans, and Ish Williams becomes the leader of a small band of survivors in California. Although they escaped death, Ish realizes that the world they knew is gone forever.

Zelazny, Roger. Damnation Alley
The last surviving Hells Angel faces a choice of life in prison, or a job driving a case of antiserum across country to the plague-ridden people of Boston. He chooses the road trip across a war-destroyed America in which the population has moved to the coasts, leaving the interior of the country a dangerous wasteland.

Certain Girls: a review

When last we left Cannie Shapiro, she had a new baby, a new man in her life, and had just completed a novel. Twelve years later we rejoin her, her husband Peter, and her twelve-year-old daughter Joy. Unhappy with the publicity from her best-selling novel written in anger so many years ago, Cannie has spent the last decade secretly writing science fiction novels under a pseudonym. She has shielded much of her past from Joy, which only adds to the difficulties in their relationship in the months leading up to Joy's bat mitzvah as Joy becomes suspicious and begins investigating her family's past. IMeanwhile, Peter has decided that he wants to have a baby, sending Cannie on a search for a surrogate mother.

The perspective shifts between Cannie and Joy, allowing the reader the full story. We know what Cannie has been through, what has made her the way she is, but Joy sees only an unfashionable, overprotective mother with an embarrassingly large bosom. What she knows of Cannie's past she has gleaned from the pages of Big Girls Don't Cry, Cannie's novel full of embellished truths. Because of the addition of Joy's perspective, I was slightly less sympathetic to Cannie in this novel than when I read Good in Bed. But similarly, I was probably less sympathetic to Joy than I would have been without Cannie's perspective, so perhaps it evens out.

All in all a great book, which didn't surprise me as Jennifer Weiner's books are consistantly well-written. If you get a chance to hear her read, don't miss it! She's just as hilarious in person as she is on paper. And don't forget to check out her blog, A Moment of Jen.
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I'm still confused about why the LJ review found necessary to mention the prevalence of the word "fuck" in this novel. It does pop up now and then (and I'm sure I noticed it more having read that review) but it's not on every page, or even in every chapter. I'm baffled.

Sammy's Hill: a review

Young, idealistic Samantha works for Senator Gary in his capitol hill office as his health care policy advisor. She is smart, capable, and a hard worker. Her personal life is considerably more fragile, less organized, and fraught with neuroses. It is early in a presidential election year and Sammy begins dating a speechwriter for a smarmy Senator who also happens to be a presidential candidate. The romantic trajectory is relatively predictable, but the political climate Kristin Gore has created is exciting and a refreshing change to the chick lit genre.

Sammy is humorous at times, but so neurotic as to render her unrealistic. Her odd quirks - a love for telemarketers, odd daydreaming scenarios, an obsession with disaster-preparedness - were probably inserted to add depth to her character but feel tacked on. Still, the character is sympathetic and admirable in a lot of ways; she's obviously smart, an expert in her field, and holds political views with which I sympathize.

President Pile is a thinly veiled George W. Bush (I was tipped off by her description of his permanent "deer in the headlights" expression). Although the book was published in 2004, the presence of both Pile and female presidential candidate Melanie Spearam feel very current. Unfortunately, Spearam drops out of the race after a public emotional meltdown over a love affair; a bit too stereotypically female for me (but thank goodness, not a danger in the current real-world race!)

Despite its flaws, I was humming "Don't Stop Thinking about Tomorrow" by the end of the book and I'm very much looking forward to reading the follow-up, Sammy's House.

March: Craft

Craft is the theme for the BAM Challenge this month, and while the theme is open to interpretation, I took the narrow view and read No Idle Hands: The Social History of American Knitting by Anne L. Macdonald. Spanning from early colonial America through the 1970s, the scope of the book extends well beyond just the craft of knitting - war, the changing role of women, fashion. Still, it is mainly of interest to knitters as that is the central focus, though I must admit there were craft references that even confounded me (What the heck is "picking lint"?)

The author used primary sources and quotes are used liberally throughout the book. For this reason, I found the chapter on colonial America the most difficult to read because of the style of writing from that period. But in general, it made the history seem more real as it was told through the words of those who lived it.

My favorite chapter was "Westward Knit!" which appealed to my love of all things remotely related to Little House on the Prairie. Here is described a method of dyeing yarn by first wrapping it in corn shucks to create gentle gradations in color. Also in this chapter was a story of a woman kidnapped by Narragansetts, who knit items of clothing for them to earn their food and good will.

Macdonald described the important role knitting played during wartime. A loyal informer to the army during the Revolutionary War would insert messages containing British military information in balls of yarn and "accidentally" drop them when General Washington's troops passed by. During World War I knitting for soldiers reached frenzied heights, spurring knitting bees where participants achieved such great feats as knitting an entire sweater in one day. Many men knit for the war effort as well, including prisoners at Idaho State Penitentiary, where two prisoners braided their yarn into a 25-foot long rope and used it to escape.

Some of the anecdotes in this book sound very familiar as a knitter today:
-Women who knit bathing suits, only to find out - in the most embarrassingly ways possible - that they were impractical for swimming.
-A knitter in the 40s, when argyle was very popular, described rigging a shoebox to keep different colored yarns separate to prevent tangling, which would have been useful for me a couple of weeks ago
-When patterns finally began to regularly include gauge information, many knitters simply ignored it, beginning our long tradition of not knitting gauge swatches even though we know we should

As a knitter, it is distracting to read a book about knitting. When I read about the constant sock knitting (two socks at a time, even!) during WWI and WWII I would suddenly need to put the book down and work on my sock; when I read about knitters finding ways to knit and read at the same time, I was inspired to scour the internet for a good book stand. Despite my inability to focus, it was a very interesting book packed with information - and photos! - of knitting throughout US history. Published in 1988, it doesn't contain knitting's most recent surge in popularity, and I look forward to seeing how some future book characterizes knitting and knitters in the 2000s.

The Glass Castle

Jeannette Walls' memoir is a gripping tale of a dirt poor, nomadic family, headed by irresponsible parents who barely even tried to provide for their children. Their lives were full of pipe dreams, and plans to build a glass castle in which they would live in some unspecified future time. Their reality consisted of running from debts, living in run-down houses with no heat or water, starving, lying, and refusing any help available to them.

Maybe I'm just cynical because of the recent memoir scandals, or maybe it's just because of my general feelings about memoirs, but some of the anecdotes read like tall tales. Although I have no reason to doubt the accuracy of her story, I do not for one moment believe that she was proficient with a pistol when she was 4 years old, or that she was an excellent reader when she was 3. The story about how the family filled up the entire car with grapes and ate only grapes for weeks just made me wonder how long grapes will still be edible. They don't last for "weeks" at my house. I also don't think a wild rat - or any wild animal - is going to climb into your bed and come after you, but I suppose anything is possible. Much of this is surely based on poor memories or just the way the author perceived events as a child.

Nevertheless, I was carried through on the quick narrative flow, but I think the real strength of this book is in the characters. Walls' parents were fascinating. They were both very smart, with hippie-ish ideals, but lazy and unfocused. Their father was an alcoholic and spent any money he could get on booze; their mother was immature and selfish, and most likely mentally ill. The author is far more forgiving than I would have been and way too much of a pushover with her father. I don't care how charming the guy was - if it was between food for me and booze for him, I wouldn't hand over all the family's money to him.

An interesting story and decent writing; despite its few faults, it was better than many memoirs I have read. Most importantly, I came away feeling very grateful that my mother isn't a lunatic.

Adverbs: a review

Daniel Handler's narrative voice is that of the quirky guy you don't know if you should make a second date with. Erratic, a little neurotic, humorous from a distance, but you may not want him to be part of your life.

Adverbs is a non-linear novel, though it's sometimes described as a book of short stories. It's glimpses of sub-plots of a larger story that never quite materializes. After the first few stories/chapters, I stopped trying to remember where I had met these characters before, and just read it like short stories. Vaguely, it is about love, which all of the characters are looking for, or in, or falling out of. With whom is not always clear.

As in his other books, Handler makes profound insights that begin as generalizations and become oddly specific:

"You dream forever of the girls who stood next to you and didn't notice, as far as I can tell so far in this rainy life, or if you're gay maybe a boy in a locker-room glimpse or a wine-soaked memory of something furtive in a sleeping bag, although nothing like that has ever happened to me and I don't care what fucking Tomas says."

Or that seem like good maxims to live by if only you could figure out how they relate to your life:

"If you are going to take a lifelong journey with somebody, you can't mind if the other person believes they are leaving for that journey an hour earlier than you, as long as truly, in the real world, you are both leaving at exactly the same time."

But I enjoy reading anything by Daniel Handler, no matter how confusing it is or how little sense it makes. And I suppose it does make sense, just not in the way you would expect.

His is a dark sense of humor, and even his thoughts about love are frequently tinged with despair.

"Love is, I hope, more than two people sitting down for a while and telling secrets before help arrives."

I hope so too.

Personals

I love reading personal ads. They are enticing, pathetic, sad, sometimes unbelievable, and frequently funny. They are not, however, able to convey anything of actual importance about anyone, certainly not enough for a stranger to decide whether or not to date that person.

Those who place ads in the London Review of Books have apparently given up on trying to sell themselves and now try to outdo each other by writing the most creative, bizarre and self-deprecating ads out there. My colleague over at Notes & Comments turned me on these ads, and a little while ago I read the book in which many of them are collected, They Call Me Naughty Lola.

Here are a few of my favorites:

I like my women the way I like my kebab. Found by surprise after a drunken night out and covered in too much tahini. Before long I'll have discarded you on the pavement of life, but until then you're the perfect complement to a perfect evening. Man, 32. Rarely produces winning metaphors.

Not all female librarians and gay and called Susan. I, however, am and would like to meet non-librarian gay women to 35 with names such as Polly, Kate or Demeter.

This ad is the final phase in my plan to conquer the earth. Man, 41, seeks puppet-like trillionaire F with vast army and intergalactic fleet, ready to hand over total control of all affairs. Must also enjoy canasta and be a non-smoking vegetarian.

Lacks imagination, talks too much, frequently absent. Look at me now, Miss Webster of year 4. History professor, 56. Lacks imagination, talks too much and is frequently absent. Seeks woman.

Slut in the kitchen, chef in the bedroom. Woman with mixed priorities (37) seeks man who can toss a good salad.

The most hilarious thing about the book is the fact that there is an index, with entries such as Falcon Crest, clowns, lanolin sensitivity, Reynolds, Burt, skinny mocha latte, spork, and Yoda (footnoted within the text as "jedi master," which I'm sure is quite enlightening if you don't know who Yoda is.)

Whether or not you are looking for a date, this is a great book to pick up if you want to feel better about yourself.

What the fuck?

I was reading Library Journal at work yesterday and came across a review of Jennifer Weiner's forthcoming novel, Certain Girls. Near the end of the review, it says:

"(Note: F--k is sprinkled judiciously throughout)"

Wow, do adults now need to be warned about adult language in books written for adults?

I've seen this sort of warning in reviews for YA books, but never in a review for an adult novel. I find it hard to believe there is more swearing in this book than other novels, and even if there is - who cares? I certainly hope this isn't the beginning of a trend in LJ reviews.

I shared this with a couple of co-workers who were both equally baffled. It of course led to a library catalog search on the keyword "fuck" which brought up a number of results. One was the graphic novel The Squirrel Mother, also reviewed in LJ but without dirty-word commentary. Another was the book Expletive Deleted, which I think is delightfully ironic.

By the way, the LJ review was a glowing one, and noted the consistently high quality of Weiner's writing. She is one of my very favorite authors, and writes a hilarious blog. You can be sure I'll post my own review of Certain Girls when I read it. I've been on hold since September so I should be one of the first to get it.

The Senator's Wife: a review

The story is familiar, yet compelling - a senator and his wife are estranged because of his numerous affairs over the years. The characters are realistically complex, almost recognizable. Despite, or maybe because of, their faults and shortcomings I couldn't help but sympathize with each one of them.

Delia, despite her troubled marriage, has created a happy solitary life for herself and has taken advantage of her separation. She has a volunteer job that she loves, and an apartment in Paris to which she frequently escapes for extended visits.

After moving to the neighborhood with her husband, Meri finds work at a radio station and is happy in her job, but soon becomes pregnant with a baby she is neither ready for nor excited about. She is taken with her neighbor, Delia, from the first time they meet, and becomes secretly and invasively interested in the history of Delia's marriage to the Senator.

The story is well-rounded and complicated and sad, but I especially love the little details that Miller uses to create a rich reading experience: the slant of light coming through a window, the smell clean sheets, the crispness of an apple. Her descriptions add texture to a story that consists in great part of internal struggles and memories, and somehow anchors it.

This was the first book I've read by Sue Miller, but it certainly won't be the last.

February: Heart

This month's theme for the BAM Challenge is heart; suggestions included romances, books about cardiology, and titles containing the word "heart," including a long-standing book on my To Read list, Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad

Though the writing was somewhat inaccessible, this short novel was strangely compelling. The protagonist travels deep into the Belgian Congo, to a place so removed he likens it to entering prehistoric times. He is searching for Colonel Kurtz, who has gone over the edge, is killing for ivory, and living in a hut surrounded by human heads mounted on stakes. The strength of the story is not so much the plot but the atmosphere - whispering voices, the blur of running bodies just behind the trees, drums beating in the distances, and a vague sense of disorientation.

At the risk of sounding a bit less smarty-pants than I like to think I am, I have to admit that the entire time I was reading Heart of Darkness I kept thinking of Lost. The atmosphere is so similar: the whispered voices from nowhere, the crazy man who understands the jungle/island and doesn't want to leave, mysterious dark secrets just out of your grasp. Strangely, in last week's episode Sawyer referred to Locke as Colonel Kurtz, and then an article appeared in Entertainment Weekly comparing Lost with Heart of Darkness.

Is it a coincidence that I happened to be reading this book when these other events took place? Anyone on the island would say that it was fate...

"The horror! The horror!"

January: Time

Because I'm an over-achiever, I read not just one, but TWO books for the January Book-A-Month Challenge. Here are my thoughts on both of them.

Time Capsule: Short Stories About Teenagers Throughout the Twentieth Century edited by Donald R. Gallo

Each story in this young adult book represents one decade of the last century. Most of the stories were mediocre and oddly reminiscent of a middle-school English textbook. Some of them just didn't ring true to me and I don't know why. Maybe because those authors were writing about decades before they were born. Nevertheless, I found two of the stories to be outstanding.

"We Loved Lucy" by Trudy Krisher (1950-1959)
Nancy is caught up in the confusion of the Cold War and her father's obsession with building a bomb shelter. She escapes the doom-and-gloom of her household to watch "I Love Lucy" at her friend Brenda's house, where she is allowed to experience humor and laughter and just be a kid. Keeping her family a secret from Brenda is a challenge, and Nancy's struggles and conflicting loyalties feel realistic as a teenager's experience in any decade.

Second place goes to "Fourth and Too Long" by Chris Crutcher (1960-1969)
It is no surprise that Crutcher can capture what it is like to be a teenager. The main character in his story must decide between cutting his long hair and losing his place on the football team. What his coach doesn't understand is that his hair has nothing to do with rebellion and everything to do with hiding a disfigurement and finally fitting in with everyone else

The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger

In which a man is plagued by traveling through time against his will. His wife meets him for the first time when she is 6 years old, but he doesn't meet her until she is 20. I was confused by page 8. This should not come as a surprise given that I didn't even understood Back to the Future, and only tenuously grasped the episode of the Simpsons in which Homer time travels and keeps changing the future (you know, the one where it rains doughnuts).

However, I'm very grateful to the author for a couple of things. First, the premise that you cannot change what happens. There are no alternate universes here; you can visit the past, but you can't change it. Second, she makes it clear who is narrating by starting each section with "Henry:" or "Clare:" As someone who is frequently confused by shifting perspectives, I thank you so much, Audrey Niffenegger. There is nothing worse than suddenly realizing the narrator speaking isn't who you thought it was.

Despite the time travel, this is first and foremost a love story between two compelling characters. I just wanted to wrap myself in this book, it was so beautiful and sad.

BAM Challenge

Have you seen the Book A Month Challenge? Each month there is a theme, with the idea that you pick a book on that theme, read it, and post a review on your blog. Included with the announced theme is a list of books on the topic, though you are free to choose your own.

I waited until January's theme was posted before deciding to take part because I had no idea how specific it would be. I didn't want to sign up if the themes were along the lines of "military training in 18th century France" or "the relationship between mental illness and artistic ability," but apparently it is much more open to interpretation.

The theme for January is time. I actually have two books on my To Read list that stand out as being appropriate: one is The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger, and the other is Time Capsule: Short Stories about Teenagers Throughout the Twentieth Century. I've started reading the second title already, as it was available in the library, but if I finish early I may also pick up the Niffenegger book. It has been on my list for far too long already. You can look forward to a review on one or both of these books later this month.