Snowin’ In the New Year

They say (and by ‘they’ I mean Dawn and Lisa) that a ring around the moon forecasts snow and so that’s what happened today!

Wishing you a Blessed and Book-Full 2010!

31 Hours

Thoughts   31 Hours by Masha Hamilton, ARC Unbridled Books 2009, 229 pages

MOTIVATION for READING:    I understand that a Blog Talk Radio discussion will be this week?    Except I did not write down any info on the particulars anywhere I can find and now will have to search out whether or not this is true unless some kind person comments and lets me know (hint, hint).    Dawn at Too Fond of Books sent me this – THANKS!

WHAT’s it ABOUT:    This novel captured in a 31 hour time period in New York City follows various viewpoints of family drama and a terrorist act:   a mother intuiting that her son is in trouble, the girlfriend of the son who is worried about her sister, the sister who wants her parents to get back together, a homeless guy whose job is the subway, and the young man who is or will link them all together.     Powerfully intense and subtly wrought with emotion.    (If “subtly wrought” isn’t a contradiction.)

WHAT’s GOOD:    Tightly woven and intense.   Chilling.   I found myself feeling sympathetic and swept away with each story line.     I don’t know if I was convinced by the young man’s reasons for resorting to a terrorist act, but maybe that’s the point.

WHAT’s NOT so GOOD:    The fact that I picked this book to read NOW when a flight to Detroit was almost blown up caused me great discomfort.    I felt very depressed about the state of the world and the terror we must deal with.    And how getting through security at airports is just going to get more annoying;  I question *our* ability to stop crazy people and some of the steps we take to try.     I get upset at people who think we can or the government MUST stop them.     I get very confused and frustrated with the concept that we rely on the government to perfect our lives.  [On the other hand, I have a Libertarian friend who says the government should only be responsible for TWO things:  national defense and roads.]    This book is excellent at presenting a glimpse into terror and stirring up the ambiguities.

OTHER REViews
Dawn’s review at Too Fond of Books <–  she links to a video trailer!

S.Krishna’s review at S.Krishna’s Books

Masha Hamilton’s  website link for this book

Update Notice (TGWTDT MAP!)

Hi Friends!  It’s school vacay week and I actually feel guilty for not working (I don’t work enough to earn a vacation…)

Still, I was so excited to have a visit from Reg Keeland, the translator of Stieg Larsson’s The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, that I had to visit* his blog and guess what I found?

A MAP of Hedeby Island!    If you’ve read the book or WILL be reading the book, I think this is an awesome and helpful illustration of the setting of the crime.      Click here for more information on how to get a paper copy or just see the map…

I read TGWTDT (click for my thoughts and to see Reg’s comment) after reading The Hobbit, which everyone knows, has maps of the travels of Bilbo Baggins and his buddies.   Of course, I had the library copy which meant that the inside covers were taped up and inaccessible.   Grrrrrrr.   Review/Thoughts coming soon.

Don’t you LOVE books that include visuals/maps of crime scenes, settings, places and clues?   I do.

* I always try to visit all blogs of bloggers who comment here, really I do!

Sarah’s Key

Thoughts and Links Sarah’s Key by Tatiana de Rosnay, St. Martin’s Griffin 2007, 293 pages

My bookclub chose this for December’s discussion;  we meet on the 30th.  According to my goodreads.com, I tbr’d this after reading Lisa’s review at Books on the Brain.    I quote Lisa here as she initially describes this book as:

“…   a brilliant and beautiful novel about a horrific and under-reported event that took place during WWII, the Vel’d’Hiv’ roundup of more than 13,000 French Jews in Paris by the French police. Told alternately from Sarah’s point of view in 1942 and that of Julia Jarmond, a modern day American journalist researching the event for it’s 60th anniversary, Ms. de Rosnay seamlessly weaves the two stories together.”

Lisa also explains something that I noted;  we don’t learn Sarah’s name while she is enduring the forced leave of her home, her life, her family – until she is finally treated like a human being.    Do read the questions that Lisa’s book club were able to ask the author in this post of the interview with Tatiana de Rosnay.

When I was able to borrow this from my friend KB before I left on vacation, I was told that everyone so far was in LOVE with IT!     I wonder if that over-hyped my expectations because, I have to admit, I didn’t love it as much as I had hoped.   I don’t know what it is but I am extremely critical and picky of books lately that feature women in a contemporary setting.    I didn’t much care for the Julia Jarmond character who was finding out how her husband’s family was linked to Sarah;  I was not as into her side of the narrative but very much appreciated Sarah’s story and learning about the horrendous treatment of the French Jews during WWII.

I must direct you to an eloquent review written by Marie of Boston Bibliophile.     I agreed and shared her assessment on all points.    In her words as she discusses her interest in reading books about the Holocaust in France:

“Sarah’s Key is a worthwhile, if imperfect, entry nonetheless, and will doubtless appeal to many readers for its quick pace, its light tone and its unusual subject matter.”

And one more review I found by jumping from comments to posts above was this one by Steve of the Jewish Literary Review:  Two Families, Linked by Death, and a Secret. He seemed to have the opposite take that I had in that he was  impressed by the modern side of the story and found the historical aspects, specifically the feelings of a 10 year old, not quite as captivating.     His is a favorable and thoughtful review.

Overall, most reviews share that this international best-seller is a worthwhile read.

Found another GOOD review:   Nancy the Book Fool‘s.

Merry Christmas!

We Wish You a Merry♪♫•*¨♥ •*¨*•♫♪Christmas♪♫•*¨*•♥We Wish You A Merry ♪♫••♫♪Christmas ♪♫•*¨*•.♥ *¨*•♫♪.& A Happy NewYear!♪♫•*¨*•.¸¸.•*¨*•♫♪.

* photo courtesy of the doggie daycare that Oscar attends…

The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo

Thoughts   The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson (translated from Swedish by Reg Keeland), Vintage Crime/Black Lizard 2009, 644 pages.

MOTIVATION for READING:    I only brought two books with me on the trip ‘home’ for our pre-Christmas Christmas trip and I was done with both before I got to my parents’ house.    This is the only book that Mom had lying around that she was willing to part with and that I hadn’t read  (and was on my goodreads.com tbr – lucky me)

WHAT it’s ABOUT:     Hasn’t everyone read a review of this already somewhere in the blogosphere?    Not that that means you know what it’s about, I guess.    I never remember and try not to even read the back jacket if I have it on my list to read. After a financial reporter is sentenced to prison for libel, he is offered a job to find a missing grandniece in return for more dirt on the guy he libeled.   (That’s a verb, right?)    Along the way, we get into a chase for a psychopathic serial killer and our good guy is teamed with the girl who happens to be quite a resourceful investigator.   She has tattoos.

WHAT’s GOOD:     Like most popular thriller books, I always get swept away with the mystery and it reads fast.  The character’s are very interesting and likeable.   I was surprised how pro-feminism it was.

WHAT’s not so GOOD:    I have no complaints about the translation – I didn’t really notice many awkward spots in language.    Only one time I couldn’t decide if I was grateful for the explanation of the how Sweden handles guardianship or thought it too much and out of place, almost like an opinionated aside.     I’m also not quite sure why the girl with the dragon tattoo got the title of this, but I liked the character.   I just might have to read the next one in the series (but if you don’t like series books like I don’t, you can be assured that it is not a continuance;   this book is stand-alone and doesn’t drop off with any cliffhanger, fyi)

FINAL THOUGHTS:   I enjoyed it and was most grateful that it kept me entertained while Southwest Airline was doing their utmost to pi$s off my husband with their atypical but quite unprofessional handling of the delays on our flight home:  changing gates without telling anyone, being told “It’s not my job” when asked what is going on, and just continual “Only 15 minutes more” messages for about an hour and a half after boarding the plane and waiting in line for de-icing.

RATING:   

WORDS

p.42    ANATHEMA  “She made coffee,… but conventional office hours or work routines were anathema to her.”

a thing detested or loathed

p.78    EQUIVOCAL   “You couldn’t get more equivocal, could you?”

open to two or more interpretations; or of uncertain nature or significance

p.183    GALLIMAUFRY   “Every family had a few skeletons in their cupboards, but the Vanger family had an entire gallimaufry of them.”

odds and ends: a motley assortment of things

For more Wondrous Word Wednesdays, visit Kathy at her BermudaOnion blog.

I Nominate My Neighbor for Best of the Year

I hereby nominate my next door neighbor to the west for being the best ever awesomest!      Not only did they volunteer to pick up our mail and take out our trash (with subsequent rubbish barrel return to the garage) but then our area got hit with 18+ inches of snow and they plowed our drive!

But that’s not the only wonderful things – granted, they always seem to be the ones who do these chores for us when we go out of town.

No, the part where they really earn our appreciation and gratitude?    They have  a key to our house and we needed it this morning.   At 2:00 am.

We got home and were locked out of the house.   It was TWO in the morning.

I was actually about to suggest we get a hotel rather than call and ask for our key at 2 am in the morning.     The hub knows I never take my keys when we go on vacation!     It was so not fun.

The look on our faces when we realized no key.   Oh.  NO.     I am not calling them NOW!   You don’t have your keys?!    WHY DON’T you have a house key with your car key!??!      GRrrrrrrr.

So, good thing I picked up goodies for their kids.   Souvenirs from Kansas!  woo hoo.

OH, and it is such a nice feeling to see so many Christmas cards in our stack of mail.

Wishing you all considerate neighbors and a joyous holiday!!

As You Wish

Thoughts   As You Wish by Jackson Pearce, HarperTeen 2009, 298 pages

What I almost posted on goodreads.com:

I can’t criticize sentence structure or grammar or spelling. I didn’t see any typos or read any awkward sentences and maybe the theme of this actually hit a nerve of what I felt like in high school: the question of belonging (blahblahblah) but this girl needed to be shook – wake up, deary.    But can I only say that because I’m a 40+ yr old? I mean, didn’t we all want to be popular in HS? Seriously though, this is light YA chicklit with actually a few somewhat disturbing themes – - the worst being the guilt concept that appears frequently.    I was also annoyed that a love for a friend is so devalued as compared to love of a “BOYfriend”.     And that magic ‘turn the gay guy straight’ trickery attempt – seriously?!

OK, girl feels invisible, goes along with what the boyfriend wants because he’s ‘the boyfriend’, finally wises up to the what’s truly important: sense of self, respect.   And the cute boy who loves her for who she is?   It’s problematic that he’s not of this world, though. and on that note, at least I can truthfully be glad that at least he’s not a vampire. But it’s also not as good as Twilight.   wow, huh?

but didn’t want my secret santa to feel bad that I didn’t love this book.     Don’t feel bad, Santa!   (who are you?   please tell me?)

I do love the name of the main character:   Viola.    I had a Great Aunt Viola and always thought the name was beautiful.   And I bet that’s one of the reasons I tbr’d this.

SO.   I freely admit that I am not the target audience here.   Two pie slices for me, but I would defend anyone who loves YA the rights to enjoy this.      It’s very much the typical story of a young girl who wants to feel loved but needs to learn that she deserves love for who she is and shouldn’t sacrifice herself to fit in.    Another morality tale of “be careful what you wish for”.      It’s light; no sex and no swearing, in case anyone is wondering.

I really liked the blurb in the back about the author, Jackson Pearce:

“She began writing when the school librarian told her there weren’t any books that contained a smart girl, horses, baby animals, and magic.  Her solution was to write the book herself.”

Please consider these much more favorable reviews:

Harmony Book Reviews “The characters were amazing. Each had their own detailed personality and the emotions were heartfelt. Even the supporting characters were important – there were no filler characters. The relationships between the characters were also so true.“

Stop, Drop and Read “As You Wish is a fluffy and lovable read with its own charms. I definitely recommend it.“

Green Grass Running Water

Thoughts Green Grass Running Water by Thomas King, HarperCollins 1993/HarperPerennial 2007, 431 pages

MOTIVATION for READING:   My dear friend KB recommended this as one of her favorites and I had never heard of it.   And then! Eva reviewed it with glowing ‘must-read‘ which I could have sworn was in all caps but as I link to it, I guess I must have read it in my mind in all caps.   Go figure…   How could I not read it?   I bookmooched it.

WHAT’s it ABOUT:   Well, it’s hard to explain.    Let’s see…  there are these four very old (ancient even) Indians have escaped from their (locked) care-facility and they only seem to do so when a major catastrophe happens.    At the same time, we have a story unfolding and re-folding and folding onto itself before getting restarted all over again.    And there’s water, lots of water.   Puddles forming and sweeping away cars.    We’ve got coyotes and a narrator named “I”, and women swimming around and meeting interesting characters that merge mythology and North American history and Biblical tales and even a few literature* icons.   And the story begins again.  Sort of.      If I’ve confused you, trust me when I say that Thomas King pulls it off with clever wit and skilled sentence, paragraph and chapter construction.

I remember being told it was funny.    It’s not that it is full of jokes, but it IS comic.   A subtle clever comedy that, as Eva says, it QUIRKY.    It’s just delightful, really.

Wait!  There’s even more layers and overlapping!   ANOTHER story line involves a Canadian Native American college professor named Alberta who wants to have a baby but would prefer not to marry either of the two guys she is dating.   And few more fun characters from the reservation and we all meet up at the Sun Dance.   And by ‘all’, I mean every character and story line – they collide/merge.    I’m right now wondering how I kept it all straight and I’m bungling this review, but trust me again – it’s a fun ride.

WHAT’s GOOD:      The construction of the story is amazing from a technical standpoint and believe-you-me, that is not my forte to discuss.      I love love love the portrayal of all the women – their strengths in times of trouble, their wisdom.    The men could come off looking pretty pathetic and yet, they don’t really.    SO MUCH TO THINK ABOUT AND ADMIRE!!!! Grand sweeping theme(s)?   YES.

WHAT’s not so GOOD:     As I sit here and think about this part of my review-format and not coming up with anything, I now feel I must attempt to defend my ONLY four pie slice rating.   Why not FIVE?    I don’t know.    Just one more book that I can appreciate as masterful but won’t be able to gush obsessively as a best-I’ve-ever-read.   But it could be. Throw away the silly ratings and just consider this a GREAT READ.

FINAL THOUGHTS:       I heartily recommend this and it would be a fun one to discuss for the Women Unbound Challenge, a Canadian Reads Challenge, a Mythology Challenge, a Native** American Reading Challenge, etc etc***.    Is the What’sInAName Challenge seeking titles of ‘body of water’?   Would this count for that?

RATING: with extra whipped cream.

OTHER REVIEWS:
Eva at A Striped Armchair (I’m really not trying to stalk her)

sorry!  I had trouble linking to more!   Please check this search engine for more reviews…

footnotes
* Softdrink!   You know with all this water, that there is a reference to Moby Dick, right??!   hee hee

** Without meaning to, I happened to read four books this year with Native American (with two Canadian) themes:     Alexie’s Absolutely True Diary…, Boyden’s Through Black Spruce, Marshall’s nonfiction …Little Bighorn, and this.

*** Please enjoy the Novel Challenge blog to find all reading challenge descriptions.

UnPlugged With a Few Upcoming Posts

I’ll be out and about and away from the PC for the next few days.    I will be scheduling a few posts so I look forward to any of your comments next week.