Counting Down

The calendar says only 23 days until we leave for sabbatical. My heart knows it's true as we are starting to do things "one last time." On Saturday we met our friends from Carlsbad "one last time" at Capital Seafood in the Irvine Spectrum. 

Last night we had "one last book club" at our house where almost everyone showed up. We know that in a year we will be back with our friends, but it is still a little sad knowing that we will miss some great discussions and good company in our year away.

Choosing a Book Club Book

We have chosen July for hosting book club, the last one for us for the year before we head off to Zurich. I think that cleaning the house and getting ready for company is easier than choosing the book to discuss. I think the host should always pre-read the book before choosing it, otherwise you run the risk of a real dud.

Thinking about perhaps a Swiss theme, I thought I would peruse books about Switzerland or with a Swiss author. Know of any off the top of your head? No? Me, neither, but I discovered Max Frisch, a Zurich author. His most famous book is I'm Not Stiller. The pages number under 400, but the font is small and the lines close together, so it took awhile to read. Although I thought that the book would create a great discussion, I don't really want people to have to slog through the novel, so I returned it to the library upon completion. 

Then I tried Burial Rites by Hannah Kent. It read much, much faster, but I don't think it would lend itself to very good discussion.

I have to make up my mind in the next few weeks. During that time I have to read the book we're discussing in June. I may just have to go through my past book lists to find something suitable.

Week Round-Up in Photos

As I was out and about last week, I took photos for the blog, but didn't come up with any posts for them, so now I clump them all together. 

Book club members now live in the hills above San Bernardino. Here is the view from their 4 acres.

A walk through the Pomona farm showed us this statue. Presumably the goddess Pomona.

Streamers have been up at CMC since Alumni weekend. I like the reflection in the water.

The new arts building going up at Pomona College

Deconstruction?

I had interrupted the reading of this book club book, I Love Dick by Chris Kraus, to read the Swiss Life book. Then I went back to the assigned reading. 

I know we will have plenty to discuss about this book, which is not so much a novel as it is "something between cultural criticism and fiction." Reading the afterword was helpful to me in trying to figure out exactly what was happening in the book. Or, not really what was happening, but what the author was trying to say. Which I still don't understand. Exactly.

It reminded me of when I was in grad school in music history, and our profs thought we should try to apply the literary theory of deconstruction to the writing about music. I know we read some Derrida, and I know that I had no clue what the theorists were talking about, how it mattered to anything, especially how it mattered to music and music criticism. 

Transatlantic

So far I'm on track to read four books each month this year. Today I finished the book club selection for March, even though we won't be able to make the meeting. I thought that I would write a few paragraphs to send along to the book club hosts to share in our absence.

I have not yet written those paragraphs, because I am still thinking about the book - Transatlantic by Colum McCann. When I read Amazon reviews, I was little concerned that I wouldn't be able to follow the plot, but even with the various characters throughout 140-some years, it wasn't too difficult to keep stories straight. The novel's construction weaves the lives of unknown (and fictional) women throughout various non-fiction events that connect America and Ireland. In that way, it kept my interest.

Although some of the language is beautiful, it also calls attention to itself, and I found the paragraphs of details bogged me down. Because there are many characters, the development of said characters had to be minimized, if there was development at all.

My questions I would ask book club would be - what is the meaning of all that soggy ground? That is a detail that came back in various places. Also, why didn't anyone ever open that letter until the end? (This is not really a spoiler, I don't think.)

Take One Candle Light a Room

Our book club will be discussing Susan Straight's Take One Candle Light a Room this month. It was selected as this year's Claremont On the Same Page read. We are a little slow on the uptake since the events for the selection were in the fall.

Anyway, this book has been lauded by a variety of reviewers who, I think, have a great deal more patience than I do when it comes to this style of writing. I found the choppy style (not quite stream of consciousness, but close in some places), the plethora of characters and the amount of details which do not add either to the plot nor the tone of the story too confusing.

I think the story itself bears telling, once I sort of figured out what it was, but I felt as though I waded through so much extraneous stuff. For example, there was attention paid to the fact that the narrator was bitten by fire ants, and how that stung her legs like crazy, and then they applied some home remedies to her bites which helped some but not a lot. I have no idea how that illuminated either the plot nor the characters.

This is the second book by Straight that I have read, but I don't think I'll choose another one unless it's for a book club.

Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk

Although this book was recommended to me by a friend, I did not get around to reading it until it became our book club November choice.

When I started this book, I was not enamored of the story, but as I read on, it became clearer to me that this was not just a story, but a spotlight on American culture (during the Bush Administration and the Iraq War) that made me cringe, and yet, the writing kept me reading to find out what would happen. I particularly enjoyed the NY Times review of this book, and I also enjoyed the far-ranging discussion of the book at book club. It kept us going for over an hour with a variety of views and insights.

We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves

If you decide to read this book (and I recommend it), I suggest you not read any book reviews or press about it, at least until you are just over 1/4 of the way in so as not to hear the main spoiler. I chose the book because our book club is discussing it, so I didn't read anything about it before digging in.

Having just finished it, I heard the NPR interview with the author, read the NYT review (written by Barbara Kingsolver) and read the Q & A on Fowler's website which all reveal the surprise.

This is the most interesting book I have read so far this year (besides Cloud Atlas) and will provide for very lively book club discussion. I think I connected immediately with the narrator when she told part of the story from her 5-year-old perspective. First of all, I really enjoy writing that can get at the heart of the thinking process of young children*. But Rosemary loves to talk, and I know she is not alone in that.

"Fair warning, as it turned out - kindergarten is all about learning which parts of you are welcome at school and which are not. In kindergarten, to give you one example out of many, you are expected to spend much, much more of the day being quiet than talking, even if what you have to say is more interesting to everyone than anything your teacher is saying." - p. 26

*That's why I really like the commericals on tv these days of the guy talking to the group of children. Who else but a kid would think of taping a cheetah to the back of their grandma to make her faster?

Puma Statue

One member of our book club lives up in Mount Baldy, and I had not been up to his house for two years, so when we arrived, I was surprised to see this guy looking at us.

Apparently this mountain lion was created in Sedona, Arizona in 2010, and in 2011 they bought it. It was no mean feat to get it up the steep mountain, but here he sits, keeping watch.

The Girl Who Fell From the Sky

Another first novel with high acclaim. In fact, Heidi Durrow's book won the Bellwether Prize for Fiction given for a novel that addresses social justice issues.

When I started reading the book, I was immediately engaged with the main character, a biracial girl whose father was an African-American serviceman and mother was Danish. I usually like characters who are smart, and Rachel certainly is.

However, when it comes to plotting, I ended up not quite being sure about the novel's main idea. Was it about the issues of being biracial? Was it about a family tragedy? Was it about addiction?  The part of the story that was supposed to be, perhaps, suspenseful was not particularly so. And then the end of the book came, wham, at a sudden stop.

With a good editor, this book could have been much better, and hopefully, the author's next book will learn from the problems of this one.

Gone Girl

May's book club choice is the best-selling Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn, and I'm sure there will be plenty to talk about. Discussions abound on the web about the ending, and I will not post any spoilers here, but I will say that I was disappointed in the third section of the book.

The plotting for the first two sections is very clever, and though it ranges over 400 pages, it does read fairly quickly. Yet, it is one of those books in which none of the characters are likable. I am not averse to character flaws (I particularly liked Tony Soprano, mob kingpin and particularly bad guy with some redeeming characteristics), but there has to be something about some character that makes me care.

I know that many people will like this book, but I would not reread it.

The Testament of Mary

This novella by Colm Toibin is thankfully very short - under 90 pages. Our book club will be discussing this, and it will be interesting to see what others thought. This is the story of Jesus' death and resurrection told from his mother's point of view.

I did not think it good at all. First of all, the prose (which some say is beautiful) is dull. The sentence structure does not vary very much, and it is repetitive, making plodding. One reviewer on Amazon pointed out the complete lack of research Toibin has done in understanding the time. I'm not sure exactly what religious point the author is trying to make, and I would not recommend this book to anyone.

* * *

Day 23 and 24 - Clutter Cleanse: I've had a number of books listed on paperback swap that no one has ordered in several years, so I'm giving them away. 1) Nectar by Lily Prior (another terrible book club choice) and 2) a Dave Barry book - it was funny once through, but not a keeper

Solar

For some reason, I just knew that I had read Ian McEwan's latest book, Solar. Then I went through the blog and couldn't find it, so I thought I would check my book list for last year. Nope. The year before? Nope. I think I was remembering that my friend Jennifer did not particularly like it, and on her recommendation, I didn't read it.

Now, book club will be discussing this book, so I thought it would be a good idea if I actually did read it, and spring break gave me the time to do so. I finished the last 75 pages this afternoon while watching H umpire a softball game at Occidental College.

Parts of the book I did enjoy - the writing for one. McEwan knows his craft (I particularly enjoyed Atonement and Saturday), at least his style and character development or descriptions. However, I like a tight novel where nothing is there that doesn't add to the story, and I wonder what the whole trip to Norway was all about. It did seem to go on a bit there, as it did in other parts. I'm glad I read it, and we should have a good discussion about it, but it won't get a star from me.

* * *

Day 12 - Clutter Cleanse: I went through the two pencil holders in the house and threw out a handful of pens that don't work or don't work very well.

Broken Like This

Hey, another book read! My co-ed book club will be discussing Monica Tresandes' first novel, Broken Like This, a story about a young bisexual woman who is in an accident and how that affects the various people in her life - her boyfriend, girlfriend, mother and creepy stepfather.

Well, I think that's what it's about, although it gets all weird at the end. It's told with lots of flashbacks, which I am very used to these days, but what I found tiresome was the repetition of so much material. The back and forth between past and present was easy enough to follow that I didn't need lots and lots of reminders.

This might have made a much better novella, with some depth to the characters, and maybe a clearer theme. Getting the idea I didn't like it too much? Well, I won't put a star by it on my list. We'll see what others in book club thought.

Remembering the Ends of Books

This afternoon I am preparing for book club at our house tonight. This involves not only cleaning and making sure I have the food I want, but also rereading parts of the book.

Do you find that you remember a book you've read, but forgot the ending? I certainly do. Tonight we will be discussing The Barbarian Nurseries by Hector Tobar which I read a few months ago. I remember much of the plot, but when one of the book club members emailed me to say that she wanted me to discuss the ending, I realized I needed to remember what exactly happened. I remember that I was satisfied by the outcome, but could not recall anything specific.

I have also chosen this book for my other book club which when we meet in March, so I have hopes that with two discussions, I will have a good and complete memory of this great read.

Dearie

You might think that with all the talk I give to food in this blog that I would be a big fan of the Food Network. Not so much. Although I love to eat and try different kinds of food, I am not so much a kitchen enthusiast.  Besides, I don't think it's fun to watch people make something that I cannot eat - please pass that to me right through the tv.

So, although I knew who Julia Child was, I don't think I'd ever really watched any of her shows. I did see her kitchen at the Smithsonian, but I really didn't know anything about her. I take that back, I had seen the movie Julie & Julia, so I knew a little bit about her.

Next month our book club is discussing Bob Spitz's biography of Julia which I just finished reading. It is not quite as long as her first book, Mastering the Art of French Cooking (684 pages), but it comes close.

At first I wasn't sure how I was going to get through the book. It starts out very slowly with lots and lots of details that I will never recall with some main points that are repeated throughout the book too much. Julia loved to eat. She loved, loved, loved to eat. Julia had great disagreements with her father. They never saw eye to eye on many issues. They had a hard time talking about issues with each other. Etc.

However, by the time I got to the part where she was writing her first book, living in Paris and other European places, I slowed down and enjoyed the story. I also liked learning about how she put together her first cooking show for WGBH. She got $50 per show for The French Chef, and I think I remember reading that she had to buy the groceries herself. I found her marriage to Paul Child interesting, too.

At this point in the story, I checked out Julie & Julia from the library to rewatch, and I started looking online to see if I could see any of her early shows. For a book I was trudging through at the beginning, I seemed to have become engulfed during the process.

However, after that middle third of the book, I once again started skimming parts. I do not remember how many different iterations of her tv shows that she went through, but they were numerous and all seemed to run together for me.

This book, though comprehensive, needs a great deal more editing. It took Julia years to get her first book right, and she might have been the best editor for this one. Read the 3 star reviews on Amazon which mirror my feelings about the book.

The Sense of an Ending

Our next book club meeting will discuss Julian Barnes' The Sense of an Ending. We will have much to discuss. I knew from the first page that something was up with the narrator when he said, "but what you end of remembering isn't always the same as what you have witnessed."

This is my first Julian Barnes novel, and I am going to read more. On the one hand, this book was an easy read, and if I'd had the time, I would have tried to do it in one sitting. It's only 167 pages. Did I say easy? I meant quick. And yet, now that I am finished with it, I think I want to reread it because so many questions go unanswered. I found a blog which speculates on some of these mysteries, and so many people posted comments that I feel as though I have already gone through one book club discussion.

No spoilers here, folks. I just recommend that your book clubs choose this one if they haven't already.

The Round House

Our book club will be discussing Louise Erdrich's latest novel, The Round House this month. This book was a finalist for the National Book Award and has garnered a great deal of praise (although so many books get great reviews, it's hard to know which are really worth it).

After reading The Barbarian Nurseries, this one let me down. I so much loved Erdrich's The Master Butchers Singing Club, and I had great hopes for this one. It was fine and had some interesting information about the judicial system on Native American land, but the characters did not give me a strong enough reason to keep turning pages. Knowing that we will discuss it was the impetus that I needed to finish it.

The Light Between Oceans

On tap for book club next week is the best-seller The Light Between Oceans by M. L. Stedman. This story takes place in early 20th Century Australia with a lighthouse keeper and his wife. After Lizzie has several miscarriages, she hears the cries of a baby, and she and Tom find a boat washed up on shore with a dead man and a live infant. Against Tom's sense of right, Lizzie convinces him to keep the baby without reporting the incident.

I know that we will have lots to discuss at book club, but it will be mostly about the circumstances in the book - what is best for a child raised by foster parents who has a chance to go back to her biological parents. We will also talk about the foibles of the characters. We may talk a little bit about the style of the book, but I have to say that, like many first novels, this one leaves a little to be desired. One thing, the writer occasionally slips into the present tense, but it is totally unclear to me why. The pacing seems a little off. It feels, in some ways, like a musical. You know, the plot advances a little, and then there is a song which seems a little long and dwells on one particular emotion, and finally, the plot gets to move a a little more.

This book seems to fall in the category of fiction, but not literature. That's a pretty big category these days.

Blue Nights

Seems I'm getting into the habit of reading a book club selection well ahead of time. I think I picked up this thin book from Honnold so quickly after learning we will be discussing it in August because I have just started a very long book and feel I need to intersperse shorter books in-between.

Nonetheless, I'm sure I will reread at least a good portion of Joan Didion's Blue Nights again just before book club. What struck me as I read this book, an account of Didion's state of mind after the untimely death of her daughter, is that it reminded me, in ways, of Calvin Trillin's book about his wife, Alice, which I read not too long ago. (Turns out that Didion and Trillin are friends.) Didion's style leans away from Trillin's light into her own shadows, but this is not a gloom and doom book, nor is it a straightforward description of her daughter's illness. Rather, it roams through her memories, her thoughts and darker corners of introspection. In some instances, I could readily identify with her, but mostly her life is so different from mine that it was like traveling to another place.