B&N Standouts

My thoughts on the best of Barnes & Nobles' Review for the month of June.

Five Books - One subject per week, five books per subject.
In the 4 weeks of June the subjects covered D-Day, Grilling, Fathers and Australia. Of the 20 books offered for consideration these are the books I found most interesting:
--The Bookmaker's Daughter by Shirley Abbott
--Peace Like a River by Leif Enger
--In a Sunburned Country by Bill Bryson
--The Fatal Shore by Robert Hughes

Guest Books - Notable readers share their favorite books.
I was most interested in Issac Slade of the band The Fray
--In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan
--The Witches of Eastwick by John Updike
--The Plague by Albert Camus

The Long List - 50 books, CDS, and DVDs to know about now.
These looked good:
--Hello Goodbye by Emily Chenoweth (novel)
--The Blue Hour by Lillian Pizzichini (biography)
--Home Schooling by Carol Windley (short stories)
--The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate by Jacqueline Kelly (children's)

The Sunday Salon

This has been our first week of swimming season which is always the hardest. Our lungs aren't used to holding so much air for so long, our muscles aren't used to moving in these ways, our skin is not used to so much sunshine. But we love the summer because we spend several hours each day sitting poolside with our friends. There is a sizable group of us that schedule our swim lessons at the same time every summer so that we can share lunch and conversation. It is the stuff that fond memories are made of.

But I don't get much reading done at the pool. There are too many cheerful friends talking about too many interesting subjects. But I have been dipping in, here and there, to Serpent in the Garden of Dreams by Robin Messing. It's my first book for the Take a Chance Challenge. Though there are only 166 pages, I am not yet sure what it is all about.

Maybe this is old news for some (or all) of you but I watched Life is Beautiful this weekend and fell in love with Guido. At first I thought it was corny, like the old Pippy Longstockings movies. Then I was cracking up at all the hilarious antics Guido got in and out of(a poodle on a serving dish!). And finally I was fighting back tears and smiling with relief at the ending. Now I know what all the buzz was about when it first came out in 1997. Life is Beautiful was a truly beautiful film that I think everyone should see.

Lastly, I have family visiting for the weekend. We are busy shopping, eating pizza at Chuck E. Cheese's, and shopping again. Tomorrow we may try to go to the science museum followed by a trip to some antique stores for more shopping. Entertaining the in-laws sure is tough. ;)

Booking Through Thursday-Hot!

Now that summer is here (in the northern hemisphere, anyway), what is the most “Summery” book you can think of? The one that captures the essence of summer for you?

(I’m not asking for you to list your ideal “beach reading,” you understand, but the book that you can read at any time of year but that evokes “summer.”)

The book that evokes that summer feeling for me is Child of My Heart by Alice McDermott. It is about a teen-aged girl who is left in charge of her cousin for the summer. The sense of summer is clear throughout the book and I loved it. It brought back memories of summers spent visiting my dad who worked all day and left my sister and I to explore in the evenings. It is one of my favorite books.

Review: The Well and the Mine

The Well and the Mine
by Gin Phillips

I loved this book!

Nine year old Tess Moore is daydreaming by the well in the backyard when she sees a stranger drop a baby in it. This event challenges her imaginative view of the world as a happy and wondrous place. Within her family there are varying degrees of disruption and fascination with determining who the baby is and what would motivate a woman to commit such a terrible act.

Far from depressing, this book was the perfect combination of To Kill a Mockingbird and Little House on the Prairie. We hear the inner workings of each member of the Moore family as they wrestle with this dilemma while getting on with their life in a mining community in Alabama during the depression. Each of the characters is thoroughly different but all of them lovable, especially little Tess. The baby in the well is not so much what the book is about as the plot devise used to show how a family deals with the mystery and what it does to their ideas about life.

The writing is pitch perfect. There is a subtle dialect that is charming without being over-powering. It conjured images of Sissy Spacek and Reese Witherspoon for me. If you have seen Witherspoon's breakthrough movie, "The Man in the Moon", then you have a pretty good idea of how this book feels in portraying the daily life of this memorable family. The details of their life were plentiful and pleasant to experience. It made me wish for a simpler time like this. Though the family struggles with living on a low income and the injustice of the mining field back in that time period the author manages to make it sound appealing.

There is so much to love about The Well and the Mine. I know that my clumsy review doesn't do it justice. I highly recommend this novel to everyone of any age.

I received this book as an Advanced Review Copy. It is Gin Phillips first novel. And it's only $9.99 at Amazon right now.

Buy this book at Amazon.

Overdue Excuses

'Nearly 30,000 overdue books were returned to the San Francisco Public Library during a recent two-week amnesty period. NBC Bay Area reported that in addition to the AWOL books, patrons "were also asked to submit 'excuses' for their lateness. One apologetic library patron, known only as 'Antonio,' blamed his tardiness on a two-month abduction by aliens, the library said".' by way of Shelf Awareness. Read the rest of the little story at the above link.

Summer Reading Lists #2

NPR reports that librarian Nancy Pearl has come out with her must-read list for the summer. I recognize What Happened to Anna K. by Irena Reyn. The others look interesting as well.

It's Tuesday...Where are you?

Every Tuesday I'll post about where my reading is taking me. You can join the fun too. Visit An Adventure in Reading to find out more.

I'm back in Alabama in the 1930s. This week I'm a young girl from a mining community who witnesses a lady drop a baby in a well. I will spend the rest of the book dealing with the impact of this event.

The Well and the Mine by Gin Phillips

Review: The Merchant of Venice

The Merchant of Venice
by William Shakespeare

I was in the mood for something small and entertaining. Who better to turn to than Shakespeare? I was unfamiliar with this play, not knowing even if it was a comedy or tragedy, involving romance or war.

The Merchant of Venice is a young man, Antonio, who endebts himself to a slimy moneylender in order to help his friend, Bassanio, woo Portia, a lady of Belmont. When Antonio's ships don't come in to port, the ones he was counting on to repay the loan shark, he is required by contract to give "a pound of flesh" lying closest to the heart. Bassanio feels responsible; but a scheme is hatched by Portia that will hopefully save the day.

What can I say? Shakespeare is Shakespeare. I will always think his plays are something to marvel at. I will warn my readers that the wicked men are all Jews and referred to in the worst of lights, with the exception of Jessica, who converts to Christianity in order to run away with her true love. It didn't bother me as I looked at it through its cultural context but I've heard some feel uncomfortable with the stereotype so I mention it.

I will make one observation: consistently in the Shakespearean plays I've read so far women are always disguising themselves as men in order to play some trick on the men and make the men look foolish. This makes me wonder about Shakespeare's view of women. Did he think of women as sneaky and out to humiliate him or did he just find this type of situation funny and knew the audience would love it? I suppose it's a question I will never know the answer to. It's of little consequence to my enjoyment of his work.

Buy this book at Amazon.

Review: Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe

Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe
by Fannie Flagg

I purchased the book used a while ago but I finally found an opportunity to read it when I saw that Fannie Flagg wrote the forward for The Well and the Mine, my next read. I thought I'd better understand Fannie Flagg a little before I lent my time to newcomer Gin Phillips.

In case you haven't already seen the movie, Fried Green Tomatoes is about a middle aged woman, Evelyn, who meets an elderly lady, Mrs. Threadgoode, at an old folks home in the 1980s. Mrs. Threadgoode spends all her time reminiscing about the good old days, starting in 1929, in the small town of Whistle Stop, Alabama. She had a special fondness for the eccentric Idgie Threadgoode, her sister-in-law. The chapters move back and forth through the two time periods with the added feature of newspaper gossip columns from Whistle Stop back in the old days, a feature that exhibited the local flavor effectively. Mostly the book is about Whistle Stop and Idgie and why she was accused of murder but it is also about the power of the unexpected friendship between Evelyn and Mrs. Threadgoode.

The atmosphere of small town southern living during the Depression was an added character of the story. I learned about the food, the customs, the prejudices, the characters that were common back then. It was a taste of what it must have been like for my grandfather who grew up in Oklahoma around that time. There are some deeper subjects that are dealt with in the novel but all is written with a lightness and humor that suits the time and place. The characters are unique; the writing unobtrusive. It made for a fun and enlightening read.

Another great feature that added a little something extra was the recipes at the back of the book. I don't know that I will ever try them but I am curious about what fried green tomatoes taste like. (I'm already aware of the custom of breaking up your cornbread in a glass of milk, and I'm a fan of breaded fried okra thanks to my grandfather.)

To put it plainly, I liked this book for its local flavor, its historical context, its extra features and its quirky characters. Can anyone tell me if the movie is half as good as the book?

Buy this book at Amazon.

Take a Chance Reading Challenge

I was hoping to pick up some more challenges to guide my reading in place of ARCs and this challenge sounds totally different and cool. Basically there are 10 challenges within to help you choose random books to read between June 1st to Nov. 30th. They are odd challenges like Random Word Book, were you get a random word and find a book to read that has that word in its title, Birth Year Book, were you read a book published in your birth year, Judge a Book by Its Cover, which is self explanatory. Go here to read more about it and sign up. Here is my list:

Random Book Selection
Serpent in the Garden of Dreams by Robin Messing was the center book on the center shelf in the middle of the row in the middle of the fiction section. (my review here)

Random Word
My random word was achievement. Against the Odds: Tales of Achievement by L.M. Montgomery (my review here)

Birth Year Book
Tuck Everlasting byNatalie Babbitt (my review here)

Judge a Book By Its Cover
Tethered by Amy MacKinnon (my review here)

Phoning an Author
Breaking Her Fall by Stephen Goodwin

Public Spying
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by J.K. Rowlings (can you believe I've never read HP before?) (my review here)

Random Best Seller
Lake Wobegone Days by Garrison Keillor

Lit Riff
This is not a book but a challenge to write a story based on the lyrics of a song. I can't wait to get started with this one. (my story here)

Poetic Review
I'm to write a review of three different forms of poetry: haiku, limerick and free verse. (my review here)

Movie/Book Comparison
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly by Jean-Dominique Bauby (my review here)

Tips for Aspiring Writers

Tips for Aspiring Writers
Emily St. J. Mandel, author of Last Night in Montreal (my review here)

I think it’s important to read a lot. Reading good books will give you some sense of how a good book works—the sheer mechanics of the matter, plotting and structure and such. Occasionally you’ll come across a book that sparks something in you and changes your prose style forever. But even reading a bad book isn’t necessarily a waste of time, in that figuring out what exactly was wrong with it might help you identify pitfalls to avoid in your own prose—were the characters flat, was the ending preposterous, did you have a hard time following the plot?

Educate yourself about the publishing world. I subscribe to Shelf Awareness and Publisher’s Marketplace; I like getting articles and news about books in my inbox every morning. There are also countless blogs out there by publishing professionals, and they can be a great resource: I personally love Miss Snark’s blog at misssnark.blogspot.com. Miss Snark was the pseudonym of an anonymous NYC literary agent who took questions from writers and posted her answers on her blog for a number of years. The blog’s no longer being updated, but the archives are vast and informative.

Another great educational resource for me has been Twitter. Twitter has a shaky reputation: the popular misconception is that everyone on there is tweeting about what they ate for breakfast. And yes, admittedly, some of them are, but you don’t need to follow those people. Follow the people who are talking about books.

How, you ask, do you find these people? Go to the Twitter directory at www.wefollow.com, and enter the keywords for groups of people you’re interested in: i.e., bookseller, editor, writer, etc. I’ve learned a lot about the publishing world from the links to articles that these people post and from the conversations they have, and it’s a great way to get book recommendations: booksellers always know about the next great books that haven’t reached shelves yet.

Take your writing seriously. Writing is work. This isn’t to suggest that it’s a joyless grind—there’s nothing that I’d personally rather do with my life than write novels—but if you wait for inspiration to strike before you sit down at your desk, it will take you a very long time to finish anything. You need to spend a lot of time writing for the same reason that an athlete needs to spend a lot of time training; as with any discipline, you’ll improve with practice.

And lastly, don’t assume that the publishing world is closed to you. A sentiment that comes up fairly frequently on the blogs of aspiring writers is that the only way to get published in this day and age is to know the right people, to go to the right cocktail parties or to have attended the right MFA program, to have some sort of an inside track. I can understand how after multiple rejections a struggling writer might reach this conclusion, but it just isn’t true. I had no connections in the publishing world when I started trying to get my work published; I landed an agent by cold-querying agents until I found one who liked my work. There are always people in publishing whose job it is to find great new books.


Petunia here: Thank you Emily for this helpful advice, and for taking the time to share your knowledge with me and my readers.

It'sTuesday...Where are you?

Every Tuesday I'll post about where my reading is taking me. You can join the fun too. Visit An Adventure in Reading to find out more.

I'll be spending some time in Venice, Italy today as I follow Antonia, a merchant of Venice, in about the 1500s. The language is a challenge that is well worth the time taken to understand it.

"I hold the world but as the world, Gratiano: a stage, where every man must play a part, and mine a sad one."

The Merchant of Venice, a play by William Shakespeare

New Agatha Christy Mysteries on Masterpiece

Agatha Christy is the mother of all mystery writers. I just love her Miss Marple and Hercules Poirot series. So I was super excited to find out about this: "With grey cells firing and knitting needles clicking, Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple return to Masterpiece mystery!" There are two new Poirot mysteries starring David Suchet and an all new Miss Marple series beginning starring Julia McKenzie from Cranford. They begin next Sunday, June 21st and run for the next 6 weeks. And, best of all, at least for me, is that it will be broadcast on the internet so if you miss it on Sunday you can still watch it online anytime for the following two weeks. I plan to dig out my Agatha Christy Omnibus and read ahead in preparation. The first mystery is Cat Among the Pigeons. Anyone care to join me?

Check out the Masterpiece page to get all the details.

Review: Beach Trip

Beach Trip
by Cathy Holton

"In youth we learn; in age we understand." --Marie Von Ebner-Eschenbach
(I love this quote from the title page)

They became friends in college over 20 years ago. Now they are reuniting for a special week long beach trip. Each of these four unlikely friends has been carrying the burden of a secret from the others all these long years. Now it is time to air old grievances and shatter preconceived notions.

Does that sound just a little familiar? I can't think of any titles but there are at least a couple of movies out there about four childhood friends, all stereo-typical personality types, that get back together as adults to extinguish their prejudices about each other but ultimately prove their devotion. It's a chick thing to fantasize about lasting bonds with a small but close knit group of friends, each with their own way of seeing the world but always there for each other no matter what. It's a story that is told with some frequency and, unfortunately, without a lot of changes from one story to the next. I'm not saying this is a bad thing necessarily, just that it is not very original.

The negative:
The characters are the same as they always are in these types of stories. There is the mousy one, the goody-goody, the loudmouth and the reasonable one. There is always a tug-of-war over a boy between two of them. For me, the sameness was boring. The author sets up the stereo-types and then slowly breaks them down. It's common. And I had a hard time distinguishing each character from the others, not because they were not distinct but because the chapters kept changing prospectives. I kept a list nearby to note names, backgrounds and personal traits in order to keep up with what was going on with whom.

Another little qualm I had was the structure. The story went back and forth from past to present but often there were flashbacks within the future sections. It was confusing and made the formal divisions unnecessary. I know that it is the thing right now to switch back and forth from past to present within a story, to build suspense and to reveal the story slowly, but when it is too much it is too much. But that's a very minor complaint I could make about a lot of the modern literature I read. When done well it adds drama. If not, it is disorienting.

The positive:
There were some twists and turns I did not see coming. I was waiting for something predictable and was caught off guard by something else in its place. I'm not easily surprised (the downfall of being someone who loves to solve a mystery) so surprising elements in a novel are always a plus for me. It brought my interest up and kept me reading.

Overall, it was a pleasant read. If you're into chick-lit and you need a light poolside read then Beach Trip will fit the bill.

One last note. The author was very sweet and helpful when my copy of the book didn't show up when expected. She had a second copy in the mail immediately. Thank you Cathy. Find out more about Cathy Holton at her website and check out her blog, Surly Wench Journal. And thank you to TLC Book Tours for including me in the itinerary. I always enjoy being a part of your book tours. My computer is being finicky so for additional tour stops with lots of positive reviews check out the Beach Trip page at TLC.

Buy this book at Amazon.

It's Tuesday...Where are you?

Every Tuesday I'll post about where my reading is taking me. You can join the fun too. Visit An Adventure in Reading to find out more.

Today I am in Alabama, USA. It's in about the 1930s in a little town called Whistle Stop with a charming cafe run by some eccentric characters. They serve traditional foods from the south, including fried green tomatoes.

Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe by Fannie Flagg

Where's Waldo? On the Big Screen

Universal and Illumination Entertainment have acquired the screen rights to make a Where's Waldo movie according to Variety. I'm not sure how that will work but I'm curious to find out.

Review: The End of the World As We Know It

The End of the World as We Know It: Scenes from a Life
by Robert Goolrick

I was mesmerized by A Reliable Wife when I read it last month. Mesmerized. That was actually the word I used in the review. I knew this was an author I had to keep up with. So when I found out about his memoir from a couple of years ago I read some of the reviews at Amazon to see what the general buzz was. That's when I read a big spoiler. Now, normally I hate that. I make a point to flag my reviews with brightly colors letters when I might be giving anything away because some people don't want to know before hand. They like to experience it while they read. In this case I was glad for it. I came into my reading time knowing what to expect and it allowed me time to brace myself.

Robert Goolrick's memoir is set up in a unique manner. He starts at the present and works his way backward, making many rabbit trails along the way. The chapters start off lighthearted and interesting as he describes his dad, his mom, his mentally challenged aunt. But soon we see a foreboding. He moves us through his time in a mental hospital because of his breakdown. He tells his readers of his suicide attempt. All of this groundwork is laid out, working backward, toward the one event in his life that would change him irrevocably. This memoir will not be for everyone. For some it will be too much information.

Like I said, I was braced; so when the details were laid out clearly and with a great deal of emotion, I was able to handle it. But I hesitate to pass along spoilers of this type. If you are curious I suggest you read some of the reviews at Amazon. I will say that a great deal of the emotions and inner thoughts in A Reliable Wife came from the author's own experiences. The parts that broke my heart were a lot of the parts that were based on his reality.

The writing for this memoir was completely different than in A Reliable Wife, which at first disappointed me, but soon I saw how it worked. Goolrick tells his stories as if he is sitting around the table with you remembering his life. As the night wears on the memories become more serious and a life is explained in sad detail. It left me sore with sorrow for the ways that a life can be damaged in just a moment.

I am glad that Mr. Goolrick channelled his pain into his writing. I'm sure he found the process therapeutic. I pray for healing and peace for him.

Buy this book at Amazon.

It's Tuesday...Where are you?

I'm starting a new meme. Every Tuesday I'll post about where my reading is taking me. You can join the fun too. Visit An Adventure in Reading to find out more.

Today I am in Virginia, USA. It's the 1950s and life in a seemingly happy home is not what it appears. Dark secrets are held here that will affect its 5 year old occupant for the rest of his life; secrets that will cause him to write this memoir and then to write the wonderful novel, A Reliable Wife.

The End of the World as We Know It: Scenes from a Life by Robert Goolrick

Review: Last Night in Montreal

Last Night in Montreal

by Emily St. John Mandel

"Stop looking for me. I'm not missing; I do not want to be found. I wish to remain vanishing. I don't want to go home. - Lilia"

From the back cover: Last Night in Montreal is a story of love, amnesia, compulsive travel, the depths and limits of family bonds, and the nature of obsession. In this stunning debut, Emily St. John Mandel casts a spell that captures the reader in a gritty, youthful world...

Sounds intriguing doesn't it? I requested this book from LibraryThing's Early Reviewer program and was so excited when I received it. I too have been a compulsive traveller. 23 moves in 12 cities during my 34 years. And I have some holes in my early childhood memories, though not for the same reason as Lilia. I have learned the depths and limits of family bonds; and I have experienced the consequences of obsession. Life is a long hard road and old habits die hard. Sometimes we get trapped between our fear of being alone and our yearning to just disappear. That is the premise behind Last Night in Montreal.

It would be hard to say that I loved the characters because they can be difficult to understand sometimes but I wanted to spend my time with them. I felt their stories were important and worth my time. I hurt for each of them. I sympathized with all of them. They were whole characters because of their brokenness, if that makes sense. I understood that I was helpless to help them; all I could do for them was acknowledge their existence. Poignant for a book full of people trying to disappear.

Clearly I loved this book. Emily St. John Mandel writes well and conveys emotional turmoil brilliantly. I wish for her a long and rewarding career and look forward to discovering what else she has to contribute to the world about the realities of life.

Buy this book at Amazon.