The Mermaid of Brooklyn

Thoughts  The Mermaid of Brooklyn by Amy Shearn, A Touchstone Book Published by Simon & Schuster 2013, 339 pages

For THE BOOKIES, my local book club

First Sentence:  “Before I died the first time, my husband left me broke and alone with our two tiny children and it made me feel very depressed, etc.”

What’s it ABOUT:  This is a story of a young mother, abandoned and sleep-deprived, who either slips off a bridge or attempts suicide and has her body invaded by the soul of a mermaid. With the help of her new friend-inside-her-head, she finds the strength she never knew she had to thrive and not just get by. But then the mermaid leaves her and her husband comes home and all is well with the world. I guess.

That’s what I got out of it anyway.

What’s GOOD:  It has its funny comic moments. I think I chuckled a few times.

What’s NOT so good:  The teaser in the opening sentence sets up an expectation but the subsequent pages never build up any drama; eventually I started to get bored and wanted the story to ‘get on with it already’. The mermaid’s abrupt departure is not satisfying. When someone at club stated that our poor young mother was a whiner, she was defended with a right to whine since she was exhausted and was taking care of too little exhausting kids and had no help. I suppose I would whine, too, so I’ll concede.

FINAL thoughts: The club was split;  no one expressed over-the-top loving it but some did think it an enjoyable nice read;  a few of us either didn’t finish, didn’t like the character or was plain not impressed. We actually had an interesting discussion debating the book; we spent more time talking about this book than most.

The mermaid is also rather ambiguous – was she ‘real’?  Or … not? Interestingly enough — I *did* think this part was kind of cool — our protagonist studied Slavic folklore and Russian literature and this story element was quite effective and felt authentic. I didn’t realize mermaids were of Slavic origin.

“I lived for that twilight time when Betty snuggled up and prompted me, “Tell the fishy.” Then my oft-mocked master’s degree in Russian folklore (it sounded good at the time) got its moment to shine. “Yes,” I told Betty, working a comb through a post-bath snarl. “Once there was a fish-woman who lived at the bottom of the river. Every night she came out and danced in the meadow by the light of the moon.”

As another goodreads reviewer noted, “this book has an audience that will enjoy it immensely; I’m just not in that audience.” (thanks Jessica!)

Rating:  Two slices of pie.

Words
RANUNCULUS – p.332 - noun. A temperate plant of a genus that includes the buttercups and water crowfoots, typically having yellow or white bowl-shaped flowers and lobed or toothedleaves. • Genus Ranunculus, family Ranunculaceae: many species, including several garden ornamentals.

“We sat at her dining room table, where a mason jar of sunny ranunculus held court amid a gathering of puzzle pieces. I pressed my hands to the side of the jar, hoping the goodness of the flowers could heal me.”

The next book up for club: The Witch of Little Italy  by Suzanne Palmieri. Anyone read it? (not due until August)

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Life After Life

“Oh Sylvie,” Hugh said sadly. “Where is your heart?”

Thoughts  Life After Life by Kate Atkinson, Reagan Arthur Books 2013, 544 pages eBook

For the Dock C Book Club “Beginning of the Season” Selection

I didn’t know anything about this one when a friend suggested that we read it together. I committed it to our informal book club* of readers on the boat dock and dived right in.

It’s pretty obvious from the first quotes that it will have a Groundhog Day feel to it – but not that kind of funny. This book is not a comedy even though it isn’t all dark and dramatic, either. I thought it a terrific read.

“What if some day or night a demon were to steal after you into your loneliest loneliness and say to you: “This life as you now live it and have lived it, you will have to live once more and innumerable times more” … Would you not throw yourself down and gnash your teeth and curse the demon who spoke thus? Or have you once experienced a tremendous moment when you would have answered him: “You are a god and never have I heard anything more divine.” 

- Neitzshe, The Gay Science

The quote above was the in the Introduction to the story. I must have reread this a few times and the beginning of the book a few times more before I allowed myself to settle in and enjoy the ride. Because it did take a bit of concentration – a ‘paying of attention’, especially of the dates for they repeat often. The title 11 February 1910 is used a LOT. But settle in, I did. And I was unable to or grumbly about the times I had to interrupt my reading to do other things. I wanted to read this in one sitting if I could. It helped get me back to a rhythm of reading that I had been missing in the few weeks prior.

“To have so little self-doubt, she thought, what a thing that must be.”

From the Wiki page on Joseph Goebbels; Adolf Hitler with one of Goebbels’ daughters.

Ursula Todd is a sensible character and I really liked her. I cried with her; I cheered for her. If one can wish for rest for a fictional character, I’d do that, too.

Five slices of pie. Meat pies, pork pies, plum pies and mince.

“They bought meat pies and fried potatoes and apple turnovers and ate them sitting on a rug on the sand with backs against the rocks.”

“Ursula made an abstemious** cottage pie, followed by baked apples and custard.”

I think I will be reading more Kate Atkinson. Any suggestions?

“Ursula was left to stare at the floral wallpaper. She had never noticed before that the flowers were wisteria, the same flower that grew on the arch over the back porch. This must be what in literature was referred to as “deflowering,” she thought. It had always sounded like a rather pretty word.”  

HHH

PLEASE CLICK OVER TO the BOOK FOOL’s review cuz it is awesome and will tell you much more about this cool book…

* My Dock C Book Club has never officially met to discuss a book. Yet. We’ve read The Reliable Wife and Gone Girl.

** abstemious – marked by restraint, especially in the consumption of food or alcohol; also : reflecting such restraint.

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Copyright © 2007-2013. Care’s Online Book Club. All rights reserved. This post was originally posted by Care from Care’s Online Book Club.  It should not be reproduced without express written permission.

The Dinner (eBook & Audio)

[Updated a few hours after posting when I thought of something I meant to add...]

Thoughts  The Dinner by Herman Koch, Hogarth · Imprint of Crown Publishing Group Ltd / Random House 2013 (orig 2009), Translated from the Dutch by Sam Garrett, 304 pages eBook

 AudioGo 2013, Narrated by Clive Mantle, 8 Hours 55 Minutes

Three words:  Disturbing, Alarming, Haughty (not sure a book can be haughty but the main character/narrator certainly could be described as ‘blatantly and disdainfully proud’.)

When Marie told me via Twitter that this is a ‘tough read’ and ‘is disturbing’, I wasn’t quite sure what to expect. And when I had heard comparisons to Gone Girl, I was most intrigued. I loved Gone Girl!

Well, this one I did NOT love. Yes, it IS disturbing. The narrator of the story (not the narrator of the audio!  The fictional character) is condescending and thoroughly unlikable. He comes across very angry, in a way that you know he admires himself on how well he keeps himself in control.

Yea, well. I didn’t like him.

So it was hard to like the book. I would not say I enjoyed it. In fact, for some parts, I felt physically ill.

None of the characters have much going for them, in my opinion.

(Marie’s review is excellent, by the way. She says it is ‘masterfully written’. In fact, she argues for ONE sympathetic character and I will grant her the explanation as valid.)

As for the audio… Narrator is British and did an excellent job. He certainly was able to sound haughty and condescending. I wasn’t too impressed with one of his female voices but it was near the end of the book when I noticed it. Whispersync only worked about half the time, but it IS cool to bounce back and forth from audio to print and be immediately at the spot where you left off. I went back and forth a LOT. Sometimes, the audio was too slow for the pace of the story, if that makes sense. I kept wanting Mr. Lohman (did we ever get his first name? Serge’s brother, Claire’s husband, Michel’s father) to STOP thinking outloud and tell me what is GOING ON.

This book counts as one that happens on ONE DAY. I’m sort of collecting them.

I wrestled with giving it a two stars but also wavered with 4 stars precisely because I do think a book that provokes me so much has something powerful to credit. So I compromised with three. Three slices of CREAM pie. With blackberries, since a dessert in the story provokes one of the characters to push it away.

“Even if this head were to be pelted with rotten eggs, the smile had to remain intact. Even behind the remains of a cream pie pressed into his face by an angry activist, the smile could never, ever fade from the voters’ view.”  -p.33, 12%

Also, another reason this book hit me a bit hard was due to a post I read (and reposted) on Facebook and linked here from the blog source:  Accidental Devotional’s “The Day I Taught How Not to Rape”. Thank you Jeanne for sharing.

The post talks about how we think teenagers should KNOW about respect. And sex. And what is rape. And all the other things we think nice responsible people should  know. And this book also addresses this exact question of whether or not teenagers are CHILDREN or ADULTS. We want to assume they ‘know better’; how do we handle these tough situations when they do not ‘know better’.

WORDS
p.63 – CHANSONS – song, specifically a music-hall or cabaret song
p.64 – FRÈRE – French for ‘brother’ (figured it out from context but like to make sure)
p.76 – SLIP DE BAIN – French for ‘swim suit’
p.285 – EXCRESCENCES – disfiguring, extraneous or unwanted marks or parts

Question for my Dutch friends – The audio says something that the book wouldn’t clarify but it translated as GAS CAN. It sounded like JELLY can. Explain? Thanks!  ***THANKS Laurie! The answer is JERRYCAN. I am a much more visual learner and really needed to see how the word was spelled so I could accurately hear it. NOW I get it!

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First Half Discussion #AchilleSong

Greetings, Singers of The Song of Achilles!    by Madeline Miller. Got your lyre ready?

In my usual rambling style, I will offer questions, quotes I liked and interesting things of note that will encourage us to share what we are enjoying so for in the story and what we are not. I read the first half rather quickly – to Chapter 17: When Achilles and Patroclus arrive at the beach to meet Agamemnon, before they all set off for Troy. I was waiting to post this before I finish but am hoping it will be this afternoon!

I have read the P.S. included in my copy: the Meet the Author, Insights and Interviews, etc. Hope you have that, I hope to chat about that here, too.

FIRST. I must share that I barely know the Greek mythology. This may be obvious when I say that I do not know who Mary Renault is. The cover of my edition shows a quote by Emma Donoghue, “Mary Renault lives again!” and I have no clue who or what this Mary person is. In order to check my guess, I seek goodreads and find that Ms. Renault wrote historical fiction of ancient Greece. I actually might have heard of The King Must Die, not that I would have guessed it was about Theseus*. Has anyone read it? Want to? I think I might! so more books go onto the tbr… Ah, I see my imaginary (and very influential on my reading choices) friend Ruthiella has read this. Cool.

Second question, would you put The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller in the HISTORICAL FICTION category? Do we care? Must we genre-fy everything. (Perhaps that question is an aside best tackled another time.)

I have had the opportunity to listen to Madeline Miller speak at the 2012 Boston Book Festival and really enjoyed the talk and how she presented herself, how truly excited she is about this project of hers. Having taken 10 years to write and maybe I assume the getting it published time was added to that, the reception to this award-winning book must be a thrill and a half. I blame Softdrink’s review for first bringing this book to my attention and I know I must blame Miller herself for ensuring I WOULD read this. So thank you all again for joining me here.

Style. The prose has been said to by lyrical (appropriate, no?) and beautiful. At first encountering it, I was struck by how short and simple the sentence structure seems but the sentence and paragraph construction feels highly artistic and powerful. I marvel.

…, I would mumble from my bed, “Is she well?”

And he would answer. “Yes, she is well.” And he might add:  ”The fish are thick today” or “The bay is warm as a bath.” And then we would sleep again.
~ p.52

Spoilers. If you know your Greek gods, you know how this story will progress. Actually, the story itself more than hints that Achilles will die. Do you think the author has balanced this well for those of us who may be murky on Achilles, the Trojan War and who is who? (I guess, I framed that question to say I would agree.)  She drops in the prophecy, “Hector’s death will be first.” in the conversation between Thetis and Patroclus so we know we can expect death.

Also, in the Q&A between Miller and Gregory Maguire, he asks a question about authorial decision. A long question about combining present and past tense and techniques that as a layperson like me would likely never notice consciously (which again would speak to the author’s skill) and then Miller complements him on ‘framing the question without spoilers’! I got excited all over again to keep reading but instead starting poking around at movies about Troy,

and picked up on spoilers I kind of wish I hadn’t read/seen. Oh well. Discuss – CAN this book be spoiled?

Do you like Patroclus? Do you think he is ‘surprising’? Do you think he was ‘surprising’ because he was one boy who didn’t fawn all over Achilles AND that he had a reputation? It reminds me how we never want what is easy. We are always wanting the thing that is a little harder to get.

I love Achilles. Can’t help it. I love kids like him who are confident and don’t even know it. That are easy and smart and make eye contact. I love his father  – and boy-howdy, I did not like Patroclus’ father. I can’t help think of how much we shape our children with our expectations. Oh how subtle and obvious we are with our words and actions. “Why do you always screw up!”, “The teachers don’t get it that you have a learning disability and shouldn’t be expected to read this”, “You’ll make your best friends in college” etc…

Or has Achilles (ARISTOS ACHAION!!) already changed into something more egotistical with his choosing glory over a long life? DID he choose? or is he just embracing his destiny?

“Achilles nodded and bent over the lyre. I did not have time to wonder about his intervention. His fingers touched the strings, and all my thoughts were displaced. The sound was pure and sweet as water, bright as lemons. It was like no music I had ever heard before. It had warmth as a fire does, a texture and weight like polished ivory. It buoyed and soothed at once. A few hairs slipped forward to hang over his eyes as he played. They were fine as lyre strings themselves, and shone.” ~p.34

I’m seriously thinking I might want to read The Iliad.  I love books that only add more suggestions to my tbr.

SO FAR: My notes, trying to keep track…
Ch 1 – Son of kings, simple mother, smiling bride.
Ch 2 – Attempt to be suitor to King Tyndareus’ dot. Blood oath not to fight. (Proud of myself for thinking this important!)
Ch 3 – Killing the boy and banished. p.22 – meaning of Patroclus (“honor of the father” – ha! what was I just saying about expectations?)
Ch 4 – Meeting Achilles
Ch 5 – Therapon = companion. Confidence of a prince, “He is surprising.”
Ch 6 – Friendship (age 12) “Gods and mortals never mixed happily in our stories.” ~p.51
Ch 7 – The kiss
Ch 8 – The Centaur Chiron
Ch 9 – Learning from Chiron
Ch 10 – “She cannot see us here.” – whoa:  instant recognition of the weight of that statement!, pink quartz cave
Ch 11 – Called back to Phthia,“They never let you be famous and happy.” ~p.105
Ch 12 – Helen captured by Troy; Sycros/Lycomedes/Deidemeia & Achilles/Pyrrha (fire hair), Achilles swears to son. ~p.137 (LOTS happen in this chapter!)
Ch 13 – Deidemeia and Patroclus
Ch 14 -
Ch 15 -
Ch 16 -
Ch 17 -

WORDS
p.22  jape – to say something mockingly
p.127 moue – grimace or pout
p.144 craven – lacking the least bit of courage, contemptibly fainthearted, “as craven as you are ugly”
p.145 goad – something that pains as if by pricking

**

* I’m at risk of being deathly boring, I couldn’t tell you who Theseus is…

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The Song of Achilles Then Possession #AchilleSong #ReadByatt

We have begun the Read-Along of The Song of Achilles!  Everyone and anyone is invited to join in and I will be posting my FIRST HALF THOUGHTs on Sunday, March 3. I will probably have the whole book read by then, it’s so good!

A final post will be March 10. Feel free to post your own or just join the discussions here. We are informal. I haven’t even bothered to make a button. Is that bad? No sign-ups, no prizes, no pressure.

We do have a hashtag if you want to twitter along and post the quotes you like or your progress or questions. #AchilleSONG.

In other news…

The hosts of the A.S. Byatt’s Possession Read-Along  will have an official post up soon and have tweeted that the first check-in will be for chapters 1 – 6 on March 11.  The twitter hashtag for that is #readByatt.  Thank you Kim! Thank you Lulu! I know many of you commented on my last unplugged post that you might be interested…
.

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The Light Between Oceans

Thoughts  The Light Between Oceans by M.L. Stedman, Scribner 2012, 362 pages

For Theta* Book Club

This heart-wrenching story is about love and choices and consequences.

“Right and wrong can be like bloody snakes; so tangled up that you can’t tell which is which  until you’ve shot ‘em both, and then it’s too late.”  p.194

A young man who survives WWI finds solace in managing the most remote and isolated lighthouse off the southwest corner of Australia. He does not intend to fall in love and share his isolation but a girl he meets convinces him he can have love and a beautiful future. However. When fate brings them a baby in an atypical fashion, the decisions they make in order to be a family wreak havoc as much as any crazy storm tempest on a remote outpost.

Extremely well-written and thought-provoking. Themes of marriage and commitment, mother-child love, horrors of war, and moral conflict are all explored from many angles.

“The baby stayed at his prayers, locked in some secret conversation with God.”

Want to know more?  Check out these EXCELLENT reviews:  Lisa’s mom’s review at Lit & Life; Ti’s review at Book Chatter; and Caribou’s Mom recommends this for readers who like complex characters driven by internal conflict. For many more, try:  Results – Fyrefly’s Book Blogger Review Search Engine.

RATING: Four slices and an extra bite or two of orange chiffon pie.

“Mamma says there’ll be oranges, does she? Well, let’s keep our fingers crossed.” -p.173

WORDS (Kathy at BermudaOnion.net hosts this meme; just click on the button.)

stodge p.16  “Nor were his lungs turned to glue or his brains to stodge by the gas.” - n. heavy and filling (and usually starchy) food.

toff p.19  ”…, some toff’s daughter traveling on her own.” – n. a member of the upper class.

stoush p.25 “… the men who’d come back a bit too fond of a drink or a stoush” – n. fight or argument.

jarrah p.27  ”The long, think jetty at Point Partaguese was made from the same jarrah that rattled along it in rail carriages to be hauled onto ships.” – n. A eucalyptus tree (Eucalyptus marginata) native to western Australia, yielding durable timber.

astragal p.38  “the light room was interrupted only by the crisscrossing of astragals that kept the panes in place.” – n. a convex molding or wooden strip across a surface or separating panels, typically semicircular in cross-section.

nous p.39  ”All you need is patience and a bit of nous.” – n. the mind or intellect.

skua p.44  ”as smoothly as a skua gliding on currents of air.” – n. a large brownish predatory seabird related to the gulls.

plimsolls p.69  ”and goes without shoes whenever she can, but on the cliffs she endures plimsolls to protect her soles from the granite.” – n. BRIT. a light rubber-soled canvas shoe, worn esp. for sports.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________
scion p.113  ”The simple fact was that, sure as a graft will take and fuse on a a rosebush, the root stock of Isabel’s motherhood – her every drive and instinct, left raw and exposed by the recent stillbirth – had grafted seamlessly to the scion, the baby which needed mothering.” – n. a young shoot or twig of a plant.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________
effluction p.122  “as though the Lights were not impressed by something as prosaic as the mere effluction of time.”  NOT FOUND as spelled, but did find EFFLUXION – passing of time, legal term.

cadged p.155  ”said his prayers, and cadged reading and writing lessons from the Paster’s wife on Saturdays.” – n. BRIT, ask for or obtain something to which one is not strictly entitled.

dugite p.155  ”his cherished wife was bitten just above the ankle of her pale kid boot by a dugite” – n. a common name for the highly venomous snake, Pseudonaja affinis, an Australian species.

goanna p.249  ”The ones you need to worry about least are the fast-mover, who survive by disappearing:  the racehorse goanna, the parrots they call “twenty-eights”, the brush-tailed possum.”  - n. Australian term for monitor or iguana.

furphy p.274   “All the stories about being from Sydney – that could all be a furphy.” – n. A furphy, also commonly spelled furfie, is Australian slang for a rumour, or an erroneous or improbable story.

gobbets p.289  ”Townsfolk read the newspapers to extract what gobbets they could, but things had gone quiet of late.” – n. a piece or lump of flesh, food or other matter.

Coolgardie p.320  ”Fathers allow themselves a beer from the Coolgardie safe” – n.  cupboard with wetted hessian walls for keeping food cool: used especially in Australia.

cark p.336  ”they get a bit dark with us if the prisoners cark it before trial.” – v. to die. Of course, I guessed that but I always like to look up words and it wasn’t in the Kindle dictionary. Sure enough, the term is considered Australian slang.

H

H

* KAΘ Providence Alumnae Chapter

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Fabulist

 [ fábbyəlist ]

1. fable writer: a writer or reciter of fables
2. liar: a teller of fanciful stories

  You all know about BOOK PAGE, yes? (Click on that cover image and you will open a window to the website.) I got my print copy from my favorite local library. In the WELL READ column, is an article by Robert Weibezahl about Kurt Vonnegut. Mr. Weibezahl says something about Mr. Vonnegut being ‘equal parts fabulist and satirist’ and I heard in my head, that Mr. Vonnegut is FABULOUS. Then I realized that wasn’t the word I read, but I also thought:

because I really hadn’t even contemplated the word ‘fabulist’. oh! FABLE – ist, a person who writes fables. Had to run (actually click & type) to look up  ’fabulist’ and was struck again by the fact that I did not really know it as a word. Which had me wondering, what IS the base for FABULOUS?  (Should have been one of those word studier people…)

FABLED!  MYTHICAL!!  FANTASTICAL!!!!!  

Guess I learned something today. Are you someone that spends inordinate or unusual time wondering about the origin of words? Me, too. Have you read Vonnegut? I did, a lot; in High School. I have plans to read Slaughterhouse Five again someday. Perhaps in 2013. Let me know if you want to do a read along.

The book that BOOK PAGE was chatting about is  Letters, edited by Dan WAkefield and published by Delacorte. I think I want to read this one, too. Because I love to write letters and because… it sounds fabulous. (Click on the book cover to go to goodreads.com)

From GOOGLE:

fab·u·lous/ˈfabyələs/

Adjective:	Extraordinary, esp. extraordinarily large. Amazingly good; wonderful.
Synonyms:	fabled – mythical – fantastic – fantastical – legendary

From bing.com

Definition of fabulous (adj)

bing.com · Bing Dictionary

fab·u·lous

 [ fábbyələss ]

1. amazing: amazingly or almost unbelievably great or impressive
2. typical of fables: described in or typical of myths and legends
3. excellent: extremely good, pleasant, or enjoyable

Synonyms: excellent, wonderful, tremendous, marvelous, magnificent, great, remarkable,extraordinary, amazing, fantastic, outstanding

Urban Dictionary: fabulous

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=fabulous

The ultimate expression of enthusiasm and joy. Characterized by wonder, adoration, inspiration, exhaltation, and love.

fabulous - definition of fabulous by the Free Online Dictionary …

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/fabulous

fab·u·lous (f b y -l s). adj. 1. Barely credible; astonishing: the fabulous endurance of a marathon runner. 2. Extremely pleasing or successful: a fabulous vacation.

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Tuesdays Are For Wandering

I was just over at Aarti’s Book Lust blog reading through the posts I have missed (I don’t visit anyone every day since I gave up Google Reader) when she commented on how successful this year has been for her to read only what she wants to read when she wants to read it rather than get caught up in lists and challenges, etc. (Yikes! was that a long unwieldy sentence? Is ‘unwieldy’ a word?)

Of course, it got me thinking about how this year has been reading-wise for me. I am reading a bunch of big books. And not many that I even knew I wanted to read. (think: Stephen King, anyone?)

So, I would have to agree with Aarti that sometimes not having a plan is the BEST plan. And yet, this actually has to be a decision which thus makes it some kind of plan, afterall. Can you plan spontaneity? or only plan for prepping the right soil for the spontaneous seeds to sprout?

Isn’t spontaneity one of your favorite words? I like serendipity, too.

This random chain of thinking about blogging and reading and nonesuch propelled me to the thought of how awesome blogging is for me. And the other bloggers that make up my world. My virtual internet world of books and all things bookish and somethings not.

And how many of you have been truly influential. Aarti was one of my first prodders of re-reading. Well, I first admired and marveled at Jenny of Jenny’s Books but Aarti hosted the challenge. I did good on that one and I learned a little bit about myself. I like to re-read, I probably won’t do it often but have at least created a list of possibly re-reads for some future day. I do believe if you didn’t have the re-reading habit as a child, it is difficult to grasp the value of it as an adult. But you can say that about ANYTHING.

[Interesting side note that is likely most interesting to me and me alone: my neighbor told me how inspired and amazed she was by a little old lady in her 80s who asked her to teach her how to swim. Can you imagine? Being afraid of the water and then at the age of 80-something, you decide "What the hell - I will learn how to swim." You GO Girl! My neighbor teaches swim lessons at the Y, if you didn't figure that out...]

This whole post reminds me of Debi. One of the most joyful and loving and spunky bloggers who does 30 times what I do in a day and thinks she hasn’t done much. She’s amazing and she mails me the cutest cards and lovely little thoughts and I think she is all kinds of IMPORTANT. I value her not only for how she makes ME feel but knowing that she also has influenced quite a few other of us bloggers and I just think that is more than cool.

Which reminds me of Dewey. Could be that time of the year.

I have my group of bloggers that I call ‘my academics’. I feel smarter reading their posts, their book reviews with “wowza!” insights. Eva, Jeanne and LitLove fall into this category.

I love my readalong groupers! I can’t think of anything more wonderful about this year of reading as those troubadours who make me laugh and think and scream. Twitter would be nothing without you.

Well, have I wandered enough? Actually haven’t strayed too far off the path of my original idea of what to write about today:  bloggers I admire.

One more. I have a blogger friend who was such before I started this book blog and she now has a collection of poems available for purchase. I will be reviewing these soon. Her name is Moonbeam. Many have been encouraging her to put her literary writing and humor talents to a larger project than blogging for some years now so this is terribly exciting. I think she is wonderful: a big heart with mad writing skilz. Do check out her blog to see why I love her so:  www.MoonBeamMcQueen.com

I will be attempting to post over 50 times before the end of the year… You can expect more of these random whatnot posts because my goal is to start 2013 with my 1001th post. I’ve got 948 so far in my 5+ years of blogging. Feel free to give me some topics!

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Copyright © 2007-2012. Care’s Online Book Club. All rights reserved. This post was originally posted by Care from Care’s Online Book Club.  It should not be reproduced without express written permission.

The City and the City

Thoughts  The City and the City by China Miéville, 2010 Del Ray Trade Paperback Edition (orig 2009), 329 pages including Reader’s Guide. Winner of the 2010 Hugo Award.

FIRST SENTENCE*:  ”Deep inside the town there open up, so to speak, double streets, doppelganger streets, mandacious and delusive streets.”
- Bruno Schulz, “The Cinnamon Shops” aka The Street of Crocodiles

WHY I READ THIS:  TwitterStorm resulting in ReadAlong, see my post announcement here.

What an unusual book!

WHAT’s it ABOUT: I’m going to quote the goodreads.com blurb which happens to be the blurb on the back cover:

When a murdered woman is found in the city of Beszel, somewhere at the edge of Europe, it looks to be a routine case for Inspector Tyador Borlú of the Extreme Crime Squad. To investigate, Borlú must travel from the decaying Beszel to its equal, rival, and intimate neighbor, the vibrant city of Ul Qoma. But this is a border crossing like no other, a journey as psychic as it is physical, a seeing of the unseen. With Ul Qoman detective Qussim Dhatt, Borlú is enmeshed in a sordid underworld of nationalists intent on destroying their neighboring city, and unificationists who dream of dissolving the two into one. As the detectives uncover the dead woman’s secrets, they begin to suspect a truth that could cost them more than their lives. What stands against them are murderous powers in Beszel and in Ul Qoma: and, most terrifying of all, that which lies between these two cities.

And I reference this because I think it is accurate. (and better than what I could come up with.) I didn’t read this blurb before I started it and I’m not sure I read it even when I purchased the book back in April of this year. I wish I had. But I prefer to go in blind and so that is what I do.

(I am also of the opinion that the “A Conversation with China Miéville” doesn’t spoil it either if you happen to be the sort to read everything about a book before you begin a book. Even when the intro to this “A Conversation” is a READER BEWARE! I read it after and couldn’t find a thing in it that would spoil the experience.)

But perhaps it is because I was confused and mildly apathetic about the setting throughout this read. There. I said it. I am giving this three stars on its merit of its being extremely creative, on the vocabulary lesson I received, and the high praise it has and continues to receive from other readers that I respect.

I do not give it the fourth star because it lacked the necessary tension I want to feel when there is DANGER! and HIGH-RISK-of-BODILY-HARM! or something scary that might befall my beloved characters. The characters didn’t share enough of themselves for me to belove them. (That doesn’t quite sound right but it works for me, so I’m keeping it.) And I don’t give it the fifth star because I only liked it at the end and thus, the three star meaning “I liked it” is perfect.

I wish I had liked it more. I wanted to like this one more. Thus, I won’t give up on this author. I am looking forward to giving him more of my time. I have been told Embassytown might be a good second read but I also was invested in the Kraken excerpt that was included in this edition and so might be tempted to that one. Besides, I love the Kraken Black Spiced Rum commercials – which might have spoiled it for me because I didn’t know that the Kraken was a giant octopus..

Back to The City and the City. This is supposed to be a readalong with two parts but I kept reading! there was no way I could drag this one out. I had to get ‘er done. But hey!  This post is long enough – I’ll wait to explore further in a later post when we catch up with everyone else.  Next post will be July 22 which happens to be Pi Approximation Day. This is the perfect day to attempt to make a pie if you want to and never have. Because you can always say it is “APPROXIMATELY a pie”.

WORDS 
mendacious - not telling the truth; lying
machicolation – an opening between the corbels of a projecting parapet
encomia – glowing and warmly enthusiastic praise
nous – p.77 “Have the nous to understand” –  common sense
amphora – ancient Greek jar with large oval body, narrow neck and two handles
polysemic – multiple meanings
‘laddered stockings’ – (Thanks RUTHIELLA!) – what the Brits call a run in a stocking.
spiv – (British) a man who lives by his wits without regular employment –or– a slacker
caryatid – a draped female figure supporting an entablature
boscage – a growth of trees or shrubs
astrolabe – a compact instrument used to observe and calculate the position of celestial bodies before the invention of the sextant
enervate – lacking physical, mental or moral vigor
idiolect – the language or speech pattern of one individual at a particular period of life
orrery – an apparatus showing the relative positions and motions of bodies in the solar system by balls moved by a clockwork
lingam – a stylized phallic symbol that is worshipped in Hinduism as a sign of generative power
contumely – harsh language arising from haughtiness

 For more vocab posts, visit BermudaOnion.

An orrery

* Actually the quote on the page before the Part One BESźEL page before the book ever begins…

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Copyright © 2007-2012. Care’s Online Book Club. All rights reserved. This post was originally posted by Care from Care’s Online Book Club.  It should not be reproduced without express written permission.

The Fault In Our Stars

Thoughts  The Fault In Our Stars by John Green, DUTTON BOOKS An Imprint of Penguin Group 2012, 313 pages

Why I read this:  For The Bookies Book Club.

Fact: This is the 4th book I’ve read by John Green. This places him in a small group. Only a few authors can claim that I’ve read more than 3 of their books.  (yea, like any are keeping track.)

I enjoyed this book very much, finding all that I love about John Green’s books to be included;  the words I don’t know and then are defined within the conversation so I don’t have to look it up, travels, the loving well-meaning and usually respected parents, the reckless rule-breaking but not quite tragic and always smart teenagers, and yes – I take it back – the tragic. But always ends with a good cry and tons of hope that life really doesn’t have to suck even it if does.  I don’t quite know how he does it.

I don’t have my “THOUGHTS” post-writing skills yet dusted off so I won’t tell you what this book is about. It often gets debated that it is about cancer and that appalls some and thus they want to avoid it but cancer is everywhere and what we need to know how to do is – uh oh, I’m preaching?! – is to learn how to relate to people through the good and the bad. I loved how this book does that. With humor, with love and with respect.

I also resent the implications of some of the goodreads reviews that seem to question Green’s authority to write a book about kids with cancer and think it is totally unequivocally absurd.

Here are more reviews or you can click on the book cover above and read the goodreads.com stuff.

Nymeth says, the author ‘hoped this would be a novel that would make readers feel ALL THE THINGS, and I think it succeeds very impressively on that regard.’ Her review is actually quite brilliant and I always learn so much from her. Truly, I want to quote from every one of her paragraphs.

Softdrink had a few problems with the book and her points are valid. She also references another review so you may want to follow that trail.

and Ti’s review where she simply says, “An amazing, life affirming read.”.

.

I think my favorite of the JG novels will forever be Looking for Alaska; I still had to rate this 5 slices of pie. I rounded up since I don’t give half slices…

“FOREVER WITHIN NUMBERED DAYS.”

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Copyright © 2007-2012. Care’s Online Book Club. All rights reserved. This post was originally posted by Care from Care’s Online Book Club.  It should not be reproduced without express written permission.