Care’s Online Book Club

This post is dedicated to my ‘first niece’ Rachel.   She turns 18 soon and graduates from High School and is off to to my alma mater in the fall, Kansas State University. 

I bought her a book (which I will hide a nice check in a page somewhere?) awhile ago.  The kind of book I love for its design, its color, its inspiration.

It’s called Live Good.  Here are a few of my favorite pages:

Settle for More:  
“There is more in us thatn we know.  If we can be made to see it, perhaps, for the rest of our lives, we will be unwilling to settle for less.”  -Kurt Hahn

Do What You Love: 
“Is the life I’m living the life that wants to live in me?”   -Parker Palmer

Listen To Your Heart: 
“The mind determines what’s possible.  The heart surpasses it.” -Pilar Coolinta

Happy Birthday Day Rachel!   Congratulations Rachel!!

Review    Matrimony by Joshua Henkin

My one word to describe this book is GENTLE.    Perhaps, that is exactly what I needed after the sad-to-me fact of not being able to finish the few books I attempted prior to this one.     And YIPPEE!  I read every word of this. 

As the May/June selection for the Planet Books Book Club, I was so happy that this was available to me at my local library.     Published in 2007 by Pantheon Books, a division of Random House, Inc., this book is 291 pages, for those who like to know such things…

*** SPOILERS AHEAD ***

This starts off seeming to be a story of two guys who meet their freshman year of college.   They are thrust into friendship when the professor of their creative writing class declares them to be the best that semester as he insults their work (and all of this students), and soon becomes a gentle weaving tale of life and marriage.   Interspersed with light moments and mostly heavy ones - death, grief, betrayal;  it never becomes a burden of a story - not at all.

Julian marries Mia, his girlfriend from that first year of college.    His writing friend Carter is backdrop and counterpoint - we never quite get into Carter’s head and he doesn’t ‘grow up’ until the end.    But he does play a pivotal role.     Julian wants to be a novelist.    Mia wonders if she can survive losing her mother.    Does their marriage survive the career frustrations, the conflict of personal goals to the goal of staying together?

The story is woven and layered across the years.  Consider a movie camera that changes perspectives showing highlights from far above (like the penthouse office and home that Julian moves through with his parents), and pans across the landscapes of their love and then slowly zooms into the minds and hearts of Julian and Mia - never at the same time.   Henkin was a master of this technique of allowing the reader into pieces and parts, to get emotionally involved and yet held at a distance, much like the partner of whose ever head he was ‘inside’ at the time.    First Julian, then Mia, then Julian and then back together again.     I think that was the point:  to have us rooting for each side, to realize how separate these two are as individuals and yet how well they complement each other in the end.

I liked the pace of this book.   I was slightly frustrated that we didn’t get more of Carter, but then again - I really didn’t like him much.  But I really liked Mia and I grew to like Julian as the story of their love unfolded.     Many things were not shared and I also believe this to be part of the author’s intention - gaps in time, their wedding was barely touched on, only one religion’s influence explored, the changing question of when or IF to have a child and becoming parents, etc.    Tis true, in ‘real life’, we never really get the ‘whole’ story, even when it’s ours!  

I very much enjoyed reading the descriptions of the creative writing courses and studying the ‘art’ of writing.    Technique and style, the challenges to writer’s block, competition between classmates and how vicious critiquing can be - I had no idea!    (OK, this part isn’t ‘gentle’!)   And… I also want to say, that Henkin gives a lot of description of moving through the locations, the streets of the towns, the buildings, etc.    Made me think, if I was from Ann Arbor or NYC, I could shout, “Yes!  I KNOW that place!”   

I would rank this 3.5 out of 5 stars.

*** 1/2

I will share one of the quotes from the back of the book:

“With vibrant intelligence, Matrimony looks at the mystery of how a couple stays together and the ways even the most privileged among us are subject to the disasters wrought by our incalculable natures.   A  luminous tale, eloquently told. - Joan Silber

Links to REVIEWS I know about:  Leave a link/comment if you have one to share!

Julie P:Booking Mama

Lisa M:  Books on the Brain

One Minute Book Reviews

Theme this week for Weekly Geeks Three is fond memories of childhood books.

My top memory is of The Chronicles of Narnia.   WOW - did I fall in love with these.   And I read them all, one after the other.    I think I may have even bought the little cardboard set of the paperbacks. 

I read them again a few years ago and they tended to lose just a slight touch of the magic, unfortunately, so I have discarded THOSE second set of ‘re-read memories’ and returned my original love for these precious books to my book-bank in my head.  I gave the set to my cousins kids.

I don’t remember reading The Velveteen Rabbit (my adult review of it  here), nor the Little Prince  (My review of the author’s memoir Wind Sand Stars here.).    I don’t even have reminisces about my parents reading to me!   (Mom!   please do share YOUR memories on this?)

I can tell you that my middleschool age years, once I caught that LOVE of reading, I read like no tomorrow.    I read every Agatha Christie book  [ooo!  I felt so adult!], I read the Nancy Drews and whatever those boy detective ones were.   (boys, blech)            I never read Black Beauty.     “I was much too smart to read THAT.”    I read those English veterinary book with the long titles  OH!   All Creatures Great and Small!!   James H?  herriott? ….    Later, much later…  I’m just letting whatever bubbles up, reveal itself here….    I remember being told NOT to read any Updike JOHN IRVING - “he writes trash.”   It must have been when the World According to Garp was such a hit.   ***SEE COMMENTS: BIG OOPS****  [yea, I realize this is not a kids book but things we hear AS kids stay with us sometimes beyond other things that should have - does that make ANY sense?   It is a childhood memory of a book.   I've still never read any Irving nor any Updike, to show you how powerful that 'advice' was!]   I am definitely skewing my grade school year memories with my high school years….   Oh well.    I read Danielle Steele.   Of course, Are You There God, It’s Me Margaret and a few other Blume books.    And VC Andrews…   eek!

POINT IS?  I am extremely excited about Prince Caspian the movie!    

For more, and to help me find the buttons again…. : http://deweymonster.com/?page_id=686

Just some snippets of randomness to share this Friday…

I’ve only read 4.4% of the 1001 Books To Read Before I Die.   I think there’s more from my HS days that I just don’t want to be certain about, so it might be 4.5 or 4.6%.    

May 7 saw another high visitor count;  84 which ties the one during the book giveaway.   And I’ve had 6 spams caught, too.

I now have quite a selection of search terms gathering in the section of my dashboard and the best is ‘Past Tense of Care’.   Do you really think someone was looking just for my page called ‘Past Tense’?   Yea, me neither.    (it’s c-a-r-e-d, right?  grammar fiends?!)  

Google Reader is showing that I have 52 posts to read from some of my favorite book blogs!   Eva of A Striped Armchair is going crazy keeping us updated on her challenges.   Every time I look, her post count has increased.  I am so amazed by her energy!

I’m wondering if I should give up on A Heartbreaking Genious/Eggers for now.  It’s not that I don’t enjoy it; I’m just not getting CAUGHT into wanting to read all the time!   I want that passion back, that gripping INVOLVEMENT where I don’t want to do anything but read.    I really suspect it’s because I’m home TOO MUCH.   If that makes any sense, like the feeling that there’s just something else I should be doing even though I’m NOT doing whatever that is.    I get my best reading done when I have lots going on.  (or trapped on an airplane.)   But, with the nice weather, I have been outside, a LOT.    All day, a lot, if you know what I mean.     Sigh, this makes 3 books in a row I’ve abandoned…  for various reasons…

I may need to unplug my butt from my PC and make myself go to a library or a book cafe, just sit and READ.    OH!  And Matrimony    is on hold for me at the library!    This has been selected for PlanetBook’s latest ‘club’ read     and    Lisa of Books On the Brain has just reviewed it, too (but I have yet to read it since she has big spoiler banners waving.) That’s another blog I’m been remiss at reading fully (I’ll catch up soon, I promise)

Yesterday, I was able to visit a few shops and find just the right perky fun princessy-like gift for Amy to give her cheer.    Please see Trish for all the details.

I packaged that all up and sent if off today.   I also am sending my mother a book for Mother’s Day, Atonement.    She already knows so she can read it here without me blowing any surprises.  AND, with me posting this news here in this blog, she can also be ON-NOTICE that said package will not make it into her mailbox until mid-week, hopefully. (oops - sorry!)     I mailed a mushy card, too.   Ahhhhh!

And, what else bookish do I have to share?   I’m going broke on H.S. Graduation gifts…    One of which is a book that I wrote a post on but won’t post the post until closer to my niece’s big party so that won’t be spoiled.   I doubt she reads this anyway, even though I’ve invited her to.   What do you think?   An almost 18 yr old loggin’ on to read her Crazy Auntie Care’s Book Blog?!?!?!    Now, she’s a smart kid and all, but she’s likely not a geek…    Besides MySpace is where it’s at, so I’m told. 

Happy MOTHERS Day all you awesome Moms who read to your kids!   (you DO, don’t ya!)   and all the Moms who share the love of reading with their moms and swap books, too.   And Happy Grandmothers and Happy Aunts and Happy Moms-To-Dogs & Cats…   and Happy Step Moms and Moms To Be (soon or someday) and Happy PseudoMoms and Women and Men who do Mom-like things…  Happy Happy Everyone!   

I have nothing for this week’s Weekly Geeks.

If I understand it correctly, the idea is to link other weekly geek reviews to any review you are writing on a book(s) that also has other geeky reviews your readers might also want to read.   Right.

Since I haven’t finished any books lately and only have a negative review I’m rather put off by the task of writing, I’m going to pass on this week’s theme.   Maybe I’ll get around to picking a sidebar widget (LOVE THE ONE YOU PICKED CHARTROOSE!) or …   go back and read my book.

I did do something though in studying for this non-post…  I did the WordPress Search for the title I’m reading and got only old stuff and nothing, I don’t think, from our little fun club’s members.

If I’m wrong about that and/or you are a non-WordPresser with a recent review of A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers that you would like me to link to when I get around to reviewing and/or have any opinion on this topic and/or just want to say hi, well, please do leave a little comment.

And have a nice day.

Well, I think I just bit off more than I intended to.  I signed up for another challenge.   What with Weekly Geeks, my In Their Own Shoes Challenge, keeping up with my favorite blogs (and finding more every day!) and actually spending time reading books just so I can review them here, I really think I might be in over my head.

But then again, I don’t want to get complacent, now DO I?

Besides, this one is ONLY asking for me to give a little more, only 1% more!   No, not quite.   It’s requesting we commit to reading 1% of the currently hot and debated 1001 Books List between May 1st and …    October?  or was it the end of the year?    

Yep, that’s what I did.  Signed up before I really knew what I was in for.

If you want to print the list, follow this link.    I did, I had to see it on paper.  On 20 pieces of paper.  I even printed it on green paper and had mad/crazy thoughts about transcribing the list into my tbr sug book!   I’m excited to see that I’ve read a few, heard of a few authors, etc.    Golly Ian McEwan is all over it.

If you want to be in the challenge, go here.

And, if you want to gently exhort me to “GET BACK TO YOUR BOOK(s) AND READ SOMETHING, SILLY!”   Well, that would be appreciated, too.

At first glance, I want to read these ten:

 1. Never Let Me Go - Kazuo Ishiguro (I have been wanting to try Ishiguro)

 2. Fury - Salman Rushdie (I have never read any Rushdie)

 3. American Pastoral - Philip Roth (I am compelled to read another Roth book.)

 4. Whatever - Michel Houellebecq (gotta love the title.   Maybe not)

 5. Trainspotting - Irvine Welsh (isn’t this a movie?!)

 6. Get Shorty - Elmore Leonard (I can always cheat and see the movies?) 

 7. Like Life - Lorrie Moore (I need to include a female writers, I think)

 8. Nights at the Circus (ooo, I like Angela Carter!)

 9. The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie - Muriel Spark (has been on the list for awhile, might as well get to it.)

10.  Anna Karenina - Tolstoy (one of my 2008 must, gotta, absolutely want to finish this!)

alternates:   Ormond, The Absentee, or Castle Rackrent by Maria Edgeworth because I’ve never heard of her. 

If any of these are too long and thus intimidating, I’ll replace with a novella - there HAS to be a novella on this list somewhere!

PS - I spent a good ten minutes perusing Google Images to my search for ’slap upside the head’ but didn’t find anything I wanted to bring back here.   Saw a few whale pics…

I had been wondering why I didn’t seem to have much - no, ANY - traffic to this blog as a result of search terms.    I had poked around my profile to see if I had some box checked or unchecked and with the help of other awesome WordPressers, we discovered a box under the Privacy Options that did indeed invite search terms.   I don’t remember specifying that I did NOT want this feature available but am now inviting viewers and readers to find me via the search term method.

Let’s recap where this blog is statswise.   My total count in the approximately 8 months of writing book reviews on this blog is 3,949.   My highest day was March 29, 2008 for a count of 94 and I believe that corresponds to a book giveaway I had…   I use sitemeter and it tells me that I have an average 20 visitors per day.

I have had a total of 4 spam comments caught by Akismet.    Cool!

My motivation is not to be the busiest most read blog out there;   I only want to enjoy discussions about books, make a few friends, have some fun.   I’m just curious who will find their way here.  

(Hi!  do you like books?   Have you read anything I’ve read?   If yes, did you like it or hate it?   Do you have a recommendation to give me?    Nice to meet you!)

I subscribe to the No-Obligation-Blogging Motto (aka Blogging Without Obligation which actually addresses the need NOT to say ’sorry I haven’t posted in awhile’ which really isn’t my problem, but anyway…) and I will attempt to visit all blogs of those who leave comments but will make no promises that I will leave a comment.   Sometimes I just don’t know what to say.     On that note, feel free to leave an ‘I was here’ comment but do not feel obligated.

And please, have a nice day…  

The Novella Challenge

I think this is the first challenge I attempted that I have actually completed so I’ve also decided to do a summary or recap.    I have volunteered for a few other challenges and have totally lost track of them;   some I don’t think I ever started.   Now,  I feel so extended on my tbr pile and want-to list that I’m overwhelmed.   I have barely even picked up my latest…

Thank God for this challenge!    Read SHORT books?     I was able to tackle this and I feel really good about it.   My original post  where I listed what I said I would read  listed only 5 but I added a few and didn’t complete one for a total of 9 attempted.  Without further ado, I present the list of books I read with links to my reviews.     I list pages and my star ranking, based on 1-didn’t finish(DF)/didn’t like at all to 5-awesome!

I’jaam by Sinan Antoon, 97 pages, 5 stars,  My Review

  On Chesil Beach by Ian McEwan, 208 pages, 4 1/2 stars, My Review 

 House of Meetings by Martin Amis, <250 pages, 4 stars, Review WITH Vocabulary Lesson

 I Sent A Letter To My Love - Benice Rubens 197 pgs, 4 stars, My Review

 Everyman by Philip Roth, 182 pages, 3 1/2 stars (Didn’t love the character but well-written;  I will read another Roth book, someday.)   Sort of Review

 The Uncommon Reader by Alan Bennett,  120 pages, 3 stars, My Review

The Battle of Cowpens, 104 pages, 3 stars, Sort of Review

 Garden State by Rick Moody, 212 pages,1 star/DF,  Unfortunately, this just didn’t fit my mood, it came off as very depressing maybe due to the impressive writing?  Sort of Review

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly by Jean-Dominique Bauby (M), 144 pages, 4 stars, My Review    I read this for my “In Their Shoes” challenge, but the page length suggests I can also list it here… 

For those few who haven’t yet wandered over to meet Dewey at the Hidden Side of the Leaf, let me welcome you to a new activity being enthusiastically embraced throughout the bookblogdom:  Weekly Geeks.

The mission in this kickoff round is to explore new blogs!  Yippee!    My motivation to join was to not be left out, of course.   

On Monday, I happened to jump to some new-to-me blogs BEFORE I got to to read about the first week’s exercise.   Whoo hoo!  talk about serendipity!   (is that the right word?   I sure wish the opposite of looking up a definition could soon be invented…  ya know, when you put some long crazy combo of words that needs ONE word that means all that?   It just doesn’t quite work right for me yet, but I’ve attempted it many times…)

And then I was plagued - ok, I realize not a great word, I do not mean anything negative! - with the task of wanting to really discover new blogs that the readers of MY blog hadn’t already found through this exercise.   Which is exactly what happened when I started checking my regular blogs and found that they, too, having also declared themselves geeky, were finding new and exciting places!   which I had just found.    Uh oh.

This is getting to be a long and unwieldy post but I slog on.     What makes this a long and time-tasking post is that my linking mechanism in my wordpress editor doesn’t work because I have an outdated browser.   And I feel the need to tell you that.   But I love wordpress so I won’t change;  my goal is a new PC!     Anyway, without boring you - oh?  too late?! - I had to cut and paste and recheck my HTML to make sure the linking works…  and re-check the blogs I want to share, have to leave some comments!  and I want to tell more about why I LIKE these new-to-me blogs.

How is Dewey going to check all this?!    I am totally amazed at her enthusiastic slogging abilities!!!!  All hail Dewey!   clap clap applause…   I think there is something mentioned about all of us taking a week to suggest the next geeky thing to do, come to think of it.     Finally!   my sharings of new-to-me blogs!!!  (except, I also include blogs that I don’t check often enough, too, so some have been in my blogroll already.)

1.  Nancy J Nordenson at Just Thinking has well-written posts about books and bookshop tourism and other stuff worth of just thinking about.     I LURVE the banner at the top, too.    She doesn’t post often, but they are always insightful sharings.   She uses typepad blog.

Here’s an example of a first paragraph on a post from March:

This weekend I was in Chicago, the city that dyes its river green for St. Patrick’s Day. They tossed the dye in a few days early this year due to the Vatican’s worldwide request that celebrations take place on the weekend rather than during Holy Week. Besides stopping on Michigan Avenue next to the Wrigley Building to peer down into the river, thick and shiny like “Lucky Charm Green” poured from a can of Benjamin Moore, my husband, son, and I stopped at a few other city sites, maybe not as eye-popping but certainly equally or more gratifying.

Can’t you just see the green river?!   

 2.  Janice Harayda at One Minute Book Reviews.   Her latest post has a teaser for a book called Purplicious.    I am so looking forward to hearing about this and I want to hear it from her.  Because I love the color purple and she hints of controversy…    This site is very professional and current.    This is a WordPress blog which I found awhile ago by searching tags for book reviews.

3.  Brandon at BookStorm.   Great title, isn’t it?   I found Brandon from the comments at another of my absolute favorites:   Nonfiction Readers Anonymous.    Two reasons I am looking forward to this blog more:   he’s a guy and I want to talk with more guys who read.   That’s OK to admit, isn’t it?   for variety’s sake?    The second reason is because he’s reading Anna Karenina which I hope to get back to some month this year.   He’s another typepaddian.

4. Christine says SHE READS BOOKS.   She’s the one I found over at Bookstack and tracked back to find her post about Weekly Geeks.  Thank you Christine!   (Another wordpresser)

and,

5. Amateur de Livre’s Weblog Amateur de Livre To be honest, I’ve only read a few posts here - (thanfully,) lots of short ones! I found this blog through Chartroose over at Bloody Hell, It’s a Book Barrage! SO, this is my example of finding a new blog from another’s weekly geek post! Only fair play, I say. (Yet another wordpresser)

Wow, I need to go read more blogs now… and the actual BOOK I’ve been reading…

Lisa at Books on the Brain has a delightful Sunday Salon post full of good stuff and today, I want to answer her question of the Five Things I want to do before my next birthday.    (She said the next ‘big’ birthday, but ALL my birthdays are big!!!   I LOVE birthdays and tell EVERYONE how many days they have left to buy me a present…   You have ~40 days…)

Visit Provincetown MA

Visit the John Quincy Adams House in Quincy MA

Visit the RISD Museum

Walk the 20 mile Project Bread’s Walk for Hunger (May 4, yep, like NEXT Sunday!??!?! eek)

Create Greetings Cards for Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago (part of my volunteer efforts, discovered while looking at volunteermatch.org - an awesome website!)

If I was a bettin’ gal, I would say the least likely I will accomplish is the RISD one.  But, ya never know.   Once you WRITE DOWN YOUR GOALS, the chance of completion goes up quite considerably.    Tis true!