tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-75906732835636805672024-02-19T01:48:21.617-08:00Belben's Book Blog"The universe is made of stories, not atoms." -Muriel RukeyserCathy Belbenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16215264665264634621noreply@blogger.comBlogger53125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7590673283563680567.post-13477034541407343082011-11-14T10:10:00.000-08:002011-11-14T10:16:17.298-08:00Belben Lately<div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Inspired by my friend, author <a href="http://www.7marathons7continents.com/">Cami Ostman's selection of this blog as one of her fifteen favorites</a>, I am updating it with some new recommendations while I figure out how to manipulate the infinitely more confusing format of my new blog, Sexier Than Stupid (www.sexierthanstupid.com) over at WordPress. Holy Mother of Moses that thing is more complicated than I expected. But I own the domain name and can soon be writing posts there. Soon. Really. </span></div></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">In October, I got back into the groove with my reading. School stuff squared away, and 40 minutes twice a week during my classes' silent reading time allowed me to plow through some new titles, with fabulous results: I have some (mostly) great recommendations and am much more smarterer than ever before. </span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><br />
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<div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOVgY40z23njzqt4NSlTNZU7GzGlM5TCJ5evPrPvVvh0sAJPYy3dDOKx5ZZF3vAT2fEexrgWS4AXttENy1mrJcEM4F-PK66N2rhdjWNbWnwxG9l2Ues_fnlh9bp7RMQqvdvlisVpGn7K4/s1600/sugar+in+my+bowl.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" nda="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOVgY40z23njzqt4NSlTNZU7GzGlM5TCJ5evPrPvVvh0sAJPYy3dDOKx5ZZF3vAT2fEexrgWS4AXttENy1mrJcEM4F-PK66N2rhdjWNbWnwxG9l2Ues_fnlh9bp7RMQqvdvlisVpGn7K4/s200/sugar+in+my+bowl.jpg" width="132" /></a></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">As promised, I finished some of my nightstand pile reads, including <a href="http://www.villagebooks.com/book/9780061875762">Sugar in My Bowl</a>, a collection of essays by women about sex, edited by Erica Jong. Meh. I like reading about other women's attitudes and ideas about sex, but this wasn't (in my opinion) a particularly outstanding collection. One author writes about being a prude, Jong's daughter writes about being conservative despite growing up with one of the 70s most notorious authors, etc. I have read collections I enjoyed and remembered more. (But hey--check out that cover!)</span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><br />
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<div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><a href="http://images.indiebound.com/035/579/9780061579035.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="The Family Fang" border="0" height="200" id="TB_Image" src="http://images.indiebound.com/035/579/9780061579035.jpg" width="131" /></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.villagebooks.com/book/9780061579035">The Family Fang by Kevin Wilson</a> was amazing. Wilson's writing is of the type that makes me want to write (that's always the truest proof for me that a book is incredible: it makes me want to create something as good). Wilson's novel revolves around the Fangs, a family of four who are warped in a particularly unique way. Parents Caleb and Camille are performance artists, and have raised their children, Buster and Annie, as (mostly unwilling) participants in their various acts of improvisational chaos, an upbringing that has consequences for the two as they enter adulthood and struggle to make sense of their past and forge more normal lives outside their weird family. When personal crises send adults Annie and Buster back home to live with their parents, the elder Fangs disappear, leading everyone to wonder whether they've been the victims of foul play or are simply enacting one final, triumphant drama. The truth turns out to be even stranger than anyone would have guessed.</span></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.villagebooks.com/book/9781416585848">Dog On It by Spencer Quinn</a> is a funny mystery narrated by a dog. Every time I tried to paste the cover image here, it screwed up the formatting and caused me to swear profusely. Thusly, I deleted the image and rewrote the summary of the book three times before finally giving up. At any rate, Chet describes the case that his human, Bernie, a priviate investigator, gets embroiled in. A very sweet story, and the dog-as-narrator gimmick actually works surprisingly well. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmN2sY5Nc2-YkdroawNrRYD9pEVflv04ArPu1ACc40Ng-GO-WS6QnWAogVrWo4L1ARGzLCGxRKtJrbrl7Iob2h-T1njg2y7ujEOMgyFQt9i-Kgm0fEmvpUovT8R70VH274Al11s5OEC_0/s1600/Lies+that+Chelsea.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" nda="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmN2sY5Nc2-YkdroawNrRYD9pEVflv04ArPu1ACc40Ng-GO-WS6QnWAogVrWo4L1ARGzLCGxRKtJrbrl7Iob2h-T1njg2y7ujEOMgyFQt9i-Kgm0fEmvpUovT8R70VH274Al11s5OEC_0/s200/Lies+that+Chelsea.jpg" width="132" /></a></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><br />
I hit a blue period and bought Chelsea Handler's books, <a href="http://www.villagebooks.com/book/9780446584715">Lies That Chelsea Handler Told Me</a> and <a href="http://www.villagebooks.com/book/9780446552431">Chelsea Chelsea Bang Bang</a> because she is hilariously nasty. In the first, Chelsea's friends recount their experiences as victims of her numerous, and quite elaborate practical jokes. It's amazing, frankly, that she has any friends after the pranks she pulls. But I guess when you're gorgeous and rich and have your own TV show, you can buy your friends a new house or a car when you hurt their feelings and all is right with the world. If you're a fan of Chelsea Lately, you'll appreciate this book even more, since most of the writers are folks who appear on or behind the scenes and/or are referenced in Handler's other books. Chelsea Handler is an acquired taste. It's cold here, and dark, and it rains too much, so I've acquired a taste for tasteless humor. Cheer me up , Chelsea. Anytime.</span></div></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEir2wFQSfLsEqpmZwS0atU7_-XBRgrj8wPKIU6J7O4hJB6XHFRvZYtzfZioR9XpZ6d7e6vAzMfY0dv49Q_jBg5D2CtWjq5hT1nbqin_z0vi8-o9lV-tfwcCQGdfUo12QVjPWb47NfmJUxo/s1600/house+of+holes.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" nda="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEir2wFQSfLsEqpmZwS0atU7_-XBRgrj8wPKIU6J7O4hJB6XHFRvZYtzfZioR9XpZ6d7e6vAzMfY0dv49Q_jBg5D2CtWjq5hT1nbqin_z0vi8-o9lV-tfwcCQGdfUo12QVjPWb47NfmJUxo/s200/house+of+holes.jpg" width="128" /></a></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Nicholson Baker, one of my all-time favorite writers, has created what is either a huge joke or a brilliantly creative work of literary porn. Either way, <a href="http://www.villagebooks.com/book/9781439189511">House of Holes</a> is the nastiest (and by that I mean most sexually explicit) book I've read in a long time. So graphic in such weird, weird ways that I can't describe it here. Suffice to say, briefly, that it involves relatively normal people being sucked into a fantastical netherworld (the House of Holes) where they participate in sexual situations that are either amazingly imaginative or the by-product of creepy perversion, incredible intellect, and possible narcotic abuse. I recommend this only for readers who have exhausted every other variety of pornographic writing. And even then, I hesitate.</span><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXLEiFFpwunFsbNtuI2oXQx8cM358czqar13_4mXmWsPVbl42_G19C2klHkPpAPjl80C3civYHGIavEM6JRgRvrWQGl1RT9UXX7eUyd8ZFtn6NX7qMR62tPhA6MaQZDPqSg53dAJs-Rww/s1600/we+the+animals.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" nda="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXLEiFFpwunFsbNtuI2oXQx8cM358czqar13_4mXmWsPVbl42_G19C2klHkPpAPjl80C3civYHGIavEM6JRgRvrWQGl1RT9UXX7eUyd8ZFtn6NX7qMR62tPhA6MaQZDPqSg53dAJs-Rww/s200/we+the+animals.jpg" width="123" /></a></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.villagebooks.com/book/9780547576725">We the Animals</a> by Justin Torres is a super-short novel that I suspect is semi-autobiographical focusing on the lives of three young brothers and their parents, who are alternately passionately in love or angrily at odds with one another. The narrator is the youngest of the three boys, and through his eyes, we watch his parents struggle to make ends meet and experience the challenges he faces growing up homosexual amid brothers who are aggressively male. </span><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjo6XO4Xr_qA80slsWRqPpWX25kylJda8X0Y0F0c5DboWTWl83yw-u65AdLbs89VOgQZyP1i-cZu_pOAl0SvBx7VWjfmBDD5ykvsinKVHpHPFiia_Xst7MDBmcaV9N4j7vICV4qrTHpS7A/s1600/i+feel+bad+about+my+neck.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" nda="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjo6XO4Xr_qA80slsWRqPpWX25kylJda8X0Y0F0c5DboWTWl83yw-u65AdLbs89VOgQZyP1i-cZu_pOAl0SvBx7VWjfmBDD5ykvsinKVHpHPFiia_Xst7MDBmcaV9N4j7vICV4qrTHpS7A/s200/i+feel+bad+about+my+neck.jpg" width="130" /></a></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">I Remember Nothing by Nora Ephron disappointed me after <a href="http://www.villagebooks.com/book/9780307276827">I Feel Bad About My Neck</a>, her previous collection about the indignities of aging. I felt like the more recent collection contained a lot of "in the good old days" complaints that weren't particularly insightful or original and made "getting old" a code phrase for "getting crabby," which it might be, but I don't want to read a whole book about it. Ephron's earlier work (picture here) was much, much more enjoyable. Read it instead. And while you're at it, let me remind you about <a href="http://www.hownottoactold.com/">How Not to Act Old</a> by Pamela Redmond Satran, which is the funniest, and most helpful, book you can read about getting. Her blog's awesome, too.</span><br />
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</span></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMc9CRxdv8a99mh9YFjGYzrC9P8-naxZ5HWJdi8z8ldEaM_MJ7-Vwsa7P_Tkwtc8d7PlN2XjF0O3Pt5Rf0A7GMNZ8SIfUs8khyphenhyphen3QMCeAuHVMBDMIPYbkdiKLLwS2jazJ0D90UhLJN5VWc/s1600/talk-funny+girl.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" nda="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMc9CRxdv8a99mh9YFjGYzrC9P8-naxZ5HWJdi8z8ldEaM_MJ7-Vwsa7P_Tkwtc8d7PlN2XjF0O3Pt5Rf0A7GMNZ8SIfUs8khyphenhyphen3QMCeAuHVMBDMIPYbkdiKLLwS2jazJ0D90UhLJN5VWc/s200/talk-funny+girl.jpg" width="130" /></a></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.villagebooks.com/book/9780307452924">The Talk-Funny Girl by Roland Merullo</a> was the best book I read this month. The main character is Marjorie, a teenage girl who has been raised in isolation by parents who are members of a small, strange religious group that inflicts some unusual punishments on misbehaving children. Her parents' lack of interaction with the community around them has led them to develop bizarre speech patterns, a family dialect intelligible--but just barely--by those around them. When Marjorie's aunt finds her a job with a local man in town who is constructing his own personal cathedral in town, Marjorie's life is irrevocably changed for the better. In the shadows of her growing relationship with her employer, the stonemason, Marjorie's life is haunted by the mysterious disappearances of several local girls. The story of her growing courage to stand up to her family, the gentle, sweet relationship with her employer, and the dogged attempts by her aunt to help her escape her parents make this a thoughtful, unforgettable read.</span></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">On my reading list for November: several novels, more humor, Miranda July's new, weird-looking non-fiction book, and a thick, colorful guide to WordPress. If I get around to reading that last one (and whoa, not much more exciting than a computer manual), I'll get my new blog up and running in time for Christmas. I hope. </span></div></div>Cathy Belbenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16215264665264634621noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7590673283563680567.post-26773798533181355022011-10-16T18:59:00.000-07:002011-10-16T18:59:46.186-07:00September Slowdown<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">One of my favorite writers, Nick Hornby, wrote a column for <b><a href="http://www.believermag.com/contributors/?read=hornby,+nick">The Believer</a></b> for several years about his reading--he reviewed books, but more than that, he reflected on the reading life. His essays are collected in three short volumes (<b><i>The Polysyllabic Spree</i></b>, <b><i>Shakespeare Wrote for Money</i></b>, and <b><i>Housekeeping vs. The Dirt</i></b> that I highly recommend. He's funny, smart, and his insight into reading and books is unique. Each month, Hornby began his piece with a two column list: one side with the titles of books he'd purchased that month, the other with the titles of books he'd actually read. Like Hornby (and many other readers), I collect books; or rather, I accumulate them. I purchase books when I spot them on the shelves and know that I HAVE to read them. But they often rest, unread, on my nightstand for months (and in a few too many cases, years).</span><br />
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</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">September was a resting-book month for me. Titles I'd accumulated over the summer languished unread, while I dipped partially into others and nearly finished several. This means that for September, I have only a few recommendations. By the end of October, however, I should have a hefty list of those I started in September but didn't drag myself through until my school schedule had settled, summer had finally worn itself out, and I had more time (Tuesday and Thursday SSR time with my junior and senior English classes) to read.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.sheistoofondofbooks.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/when-parents-text.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://www.sheistoofondofbooks.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/when-parents-text.jpg" width="228" /></a></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">My first recommendation is one you should add to your Christmas-gift-buying list. <a href="http://whenparentstext.com/book">When Parents Text by Lauren Kaelin and Sophia Fraioli </a>is absolutely fantastic. The two began with a blog (of course) in which they collected texts from readers who had entertaining, confusing, bizarre, and ultimately hilarious text-message exchanges with their parents. The generational divide and the technological know-how gap combined with typical parent-child interactions (when are you coming home? call me! what do you want for dinner!) are combined with random, inexplicable messages from parents who are simply learning to communicate in a language they didn't grow up using. Parents who text and the children on the receiving end of their messages will love this one. </span><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjV8tI5dOsU6CtGOd8O4JUu4nuE5TbTBfrg1UZgEBMqeh5yltauDWF1XwCfb_1yb7MezrPBCq_2KMz69QqRQ0JWTLBScKDLT1-8mTB_XdvU-CmHU_1-3Zm0EGr6KThvEOZ7rvMaUBq-otM/s1600/the+leftovers.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjV8tI5dOsU6CtGOd8O4JUu4nuE5TbTBfrg1UZgEBMqeh5yltauDWF1XwCfb_1yb7MezrPBCq_2KMz69QqRQ0JWTLBScKDLT1-8mTB_XdvU-CmHU_1-3Zm0EGr6KThvEOZ7rvMaUBq-otM/s320/the+leftovers.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">The second book I read in September (and the only other book I read in its entirety) was Tom Perrotta's new novel, The Leftovers. Perrotta, best known for the novels Election and Little Children, both of which were made into decent movies, writes about religion in The Leftovers--sort of. The story revolves around a small town reeling from the impact of what appears to be (but is never exactly named) The Rapture--as in Revelations, wherein the faithful are taken to Heaven and the disbelievers are left behind. Families worldwide are impacted by the massive disappearance of millions of people, Christian, and otherwise, but Perrotta focuses specifically on one family affected by the event. </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Kevin's wife has left the family to join a mysterious group, The Guilty Remnant, whose exact intentions are unclear, his son has also left to pursue enlightenment with another group, and he and his teenage daughter are left to navigate their drastically altered lives alone. Both form new connections, Kevin with a young mother whose husband and two children were "taken," and his daughter with a friend who eventually moves into their home.<br />
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The premise of the story is fascinating, and the book is a quick read, although it left many questions unanswered and the situation basically unexplained in the end, which was disappointing--I would have liked more exploration into the religious implications of the disappearances and the overall theme. Because of this, it would make an excellent choice for a reading group. If anyone out there has read it, I'd welcome a discussion!</span><br />
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October, so far, has been more productive, and I hope to have many more recommendations--and a new Wordpress blog--by month's end. Stayed tuned for details!</span></div>Cathy Belbenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16215264665264634621noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7590673283563680567.post-37408178615729598322011-08-24T11:58:00.000-07:002011-08-24T11:58:22.562-07:00Highway Librarian<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://cssutton.edublogs.org/files/2011/06/simon-rich-LST075440-1q5fvll.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"></span></a></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">I spent six weeks on the road this summer, traveling through Oregon, California, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Colorado, Utah, and Idaho with my dog, Frida. We camped and spent some time with lifelong friends, and I read many, many books. Some of the highlights from the Summer I Read SOOOO Much will appear in the fall issue of Village Books' quarterly pub, <i>The Chuckanut Reader</i>, exactly or almost exactly as they appear here.</span><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://t3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRIC2UQV8Rm55pNU3JQWCAoYayVtqgG-H-lerMBYnQ5uGR8S0jsFQ" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://t3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRIC2UQV8Rm55pNU3JQWCAoYayVtqgG-H-lerMBYnQ5uGR8S0jsFQ" width="131" /></a></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><b>Bumped by Megan McCafferty</b> offers a glimpse of a future in which a virus has rendered adults over 18 infertile, thereby making the wombs of teenage girls highly sought-after property. Twin sisters separated at birth when their own parents used a surrogate are reunited when one of them discovers she has a twin and leaves the conservative religious colony where she has been raised to seek her sister. She finds her, and discovers her twin is in negotiations to have her first child. Things get complicated when the two girls are mistaken for each other by the players in the surrogacy transaction. It sounds cheesy (twins separated at birth! mistaken identity! sinister money-grubbers!) but it actually works--entertaining and thought-provoking at the same time.</span><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/f/f9/HousekeepingVsTheDirt.jpg/220px-HousekeepingVsTheDirt.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/f/f9/HousekeepingVsTheDirt.jpg/220px-HousekeepingVsTheDirt.jpg" width="125" /></a></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><b>Housekeeping vs. The Dirt and Shakespeare Wrote for Money, both by Nick Hornby</b>, a.k.a. my mental husband. Nick Hornby (About a Boy, High Fidelity, Juliet Naked) is the shit. Smart, absolutely hilarious, and brilliant when it comes to writing about reading and books. Both of these are collections of essays he wrote for <i>The Believer</i>, in which he lists the books he purchased and books he read each month and then reviews them--sort of. Mostly, he talks about reading, why it matters, how it differs from reader to reader, and how much richer life is when it is full of books and words and people who love both. </span><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://i43.tower.com/images/mm117399651/a-billion-wicked-thoughts-what-worlds-largest-experiment-ogi-ogas-hardcover-cover-art.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://i43.tower.com/images/mm117399651/a-billion-wicked-thoughts-what-worlds-largest-experiment-ogi-ogas-hardcover-cover-art.jpg" width="133" /></a></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><b>A Billion Wicked Thoughts: What the World's Largest Experiment Reveals about Human Desire by Sai Gaddam and Ogi Ogas </b>combines two of my favorite things: science and sex. The authors conducted a modern-day Kinsey study using the internet, a bunch of complicated algorithms and data filtering techniques that I will never understand, and collated their findings to come up with numerous fascinating theories about human sexual behavior based on the sexual images and text that people seek when they surf for satisfaction online. Their findings reinforce some truisms: men are more turned on by pictures than women; women like to read erotic stories more than watch porn, and Rule 34 is definitely true: if you can think of it, there is porn of it. This book was fascinating, entertaining, thought-provoking, and I will read it again soon, which is saying a lot because I don't usually read books more than once anymore.</span><br />
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<a href="http://cssutton.edublogs.org/files/2011/06/simon-rich-LST075440-1q5fvll.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://cssutton.edublogs.org/files/2011/06/simon-rich-LST075440-1q5fvll.jpg" width="124" /></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><b>Elliott Allagash</b> by Simon Rich, a writer for Saturday Night Live, is the author of two hilarious collections of humor, Ant Farm and Free-Range Chickens. In Elliott Allagash, his first novel, he writes of a teenage underdog Seymour Herson, who becomes the pet project of his exorbitantly wealthy, clever, and potentially evil classmate, Elliott Allagash. Allagash is the son of another evil-doer, and between the two of them, they manipulate, trick, and arrange other people and circumstances for amusement and personal gain. It’s all very funny and extremely clever. I loved Rich's previous books, which are collections of short, humorous essays: <b>Ant Farm </b>and <b>Free Range Chickens</b>.</span><br />
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<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Beauty Queens by Libby Bray</span></b><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://evesfangarden.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/beauty-queens.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://evesfangarden.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/beauty-queens.jpg" width="130" /></span></a></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">What if a group of teenage beauty queens crash-landed on a deserted tropical island and had to learn how to survive without their curling irons and manicurists? That’s the premise of Bray’s work, and it’s perfect for a wickedly funny send-up of our celebrity-obsessed, appearance-minded consumerist culture. The story is like a mash-up of Glee, America's Top Model, The Daily Show, and late-night informercial. Very fun, and very funny, but with some real material to think about, too.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><b>Drive: The Surprising Truth about What Motivates Us</b> by Daniel Pink helps explain why I took off for a summer of solitude and competition. Pink spent years studying human behavior, specifically motivation, and found that typical strategies used to encourage better performance are misdirected and based on psychology over a half-century old. Instead of being motivated by rewards and threats of punishment, Pink asserts, humans are compelled towards accomplishment by a desire for autonomy, mastery of their skills, and a sense of purpose, and he uses scores of examples from recent psychology, neurology, and culture to illustrate his theories. Success in the future--both for employees and those who manage them--will depend on workers who are motivated intrinsically by a desire to complete a project or see an idea to fruition because they love it, and by managers who recognize this kind of desire and make it the standard operating procedure of their company. Choosing people who love their work and then getting out of their way and trusting they will do it is the key to good management, Pink asserts. Teachers, parents, personal trainers, and anyone who wants to help themselves and others in their lives achieve their potential will find something worthy to take from this book.</span><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://t1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSXBYmWaL0njp3Y_pc3qNxBzNEi2VCnbc6OzOvs97sm-R2OMhJp" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://t1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSXBYmWaL0njp3Y_pc3qNxBzNEi2VCnbc6OzOvs97sm-R2OMhJp" width="133" /></a></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><b>Bold Spirit by Linda Lawrence Hunt</b> is the story of Helga Estby and her teenage daughter, Clara, who walked from Spokane to New York in 1896, making my little drive around the Southwest feel remarkably luxurious in comparison. Estby, the mother of nine, undertook the endeavor in order to win a cash prize that will save her family from financial ruin. Her journey and its consequences were unspoken of by her immediate family and her descendents for years after, and much of her story was lost. Hunt recreates as much as possible the trek the women undertook, its impact on her family, and the powerful importance of story-keeping and story-telling.</span><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://t3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQs0Rq1PsMiZDW7BykZTvUzKNqk3SJ1RmvxwQ3zyLvoigUWSoS5cA" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://t3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQs0Rq1PsMiZDW7BykZTvUzKNqk3SJ1RmvxwQ3zyLvoigUWSoS5cA" /></a></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><b>In You Know When the Men Are Gone by Siobhan Fallon</b>, interconnected short stories reveal the inner lives of and family secrets of women and men living in Fort Hood, Texas, one of the drive-by locations on my journey. From the outside, there’s nothing out of the ordinary about the insular Army community, but as this collection demonstrates, there is always a story beneath the surface. A cancer-stricken mother is bewildered and shaken by the disappearance of her belligerent teenage daughter; an intel officer sets up surveillance on his wife, a wife readers her husband’s email and discovers unsettling possibilities about marriage and military service—as do all of these amazing stories.</span><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://deliciousvitality.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/bad-dog-a-love-story.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://deliciousvitality.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/bad-dog-a-love-story.jpg" /></a></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><b>Bad Dog: A Love Story by Martin Kihn</b> is the only dog-memoir I’ve read specifically about the Bernese mountain dog—the breed of my dog, Frida, who accompanied me on my roadtrip. In Kihn’s story, his marriage is crumbling due to alcoholism, and his badly behaved Berner, Hola, doesn’t help matters by terrorizing his wife. When Kihn’s wife leaves, he is determined to win her back. In addition to quitting drinking, he undertakes to re-train Hola and earn the Canine Good Citizen medal, an AKC honor for pet dogs that fulfill 10 behavioral requirements. The story of Hola and her human’s adventures to improve themselves and win back their woman reveals the fun and frustration of dog-human partnership and is a terrific read for anyone who loves—and is sometimes exasperated with—their furry friends.</span><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://chazzw.files.wordpress.com/2011/01/next-a-novel-james-hynes1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://chazzw.files.wordpress.com/2011/01/next-a-novel-james-hynes1.jpg" width="128" /></a></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">I traveled through Austin, Texas, one of my favorite cities, and spent several days enjoying the sun next to Barton Springs. In <b>James Hynes’ novel, Next</b>, Kevin Quinn flies there for a job interview in the wake of several missile attacks on U.S. cities. The entire narrative traces this one day in Quinn’s life, as the attacks prompt him to reflect on his relationships, past and present, and on the meaning of his life. His reveries take us through his chronology of love, sex, various infatuations, regrets, and current desires, concluding in one of the most unforgettable, stunning endings I’ve experienced as a read. I cannot stop thinking about this book.</span><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://sarahsbookjournal.files.wordpress.com/2011/03/borrower1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://sarahsbookjournal.files.wordpress.com/2011/03/borrower1.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">How could I not read <b>Rebecca Makkai’s novel, The Borrower</b>, when it’s about a librarian on a road trip?! Lucy Hull, a 26-year-old librarian, helps a 10-year-old patron escape his fundamentalist parents, who are trying to “de-gayify” him in a controversial church program. Their roadtrip across the country struck me as implausible, but their relationship was authentic and moving. The two bond over a shared love of reading, and both are struggling with families they don’t understand—in Lucy’s case, their journey enables her to sort out her complicated feelings about her Russian émigré father, who has a mysterious past. Despite straining my credulity, I loved the road trip, the book references, and sweet, precocious Ian.</span><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.rundpinne.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/TheYearWeLeftHome.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://www.rundpinne.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/TheYearWeLeftHome.jpg" width="135" /></a></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><b>The Year We Left Home by Jean Thompson</b> was reviewed widely late this spring--I think I read about it in <i>Oprah</i>, <i>People</i>, and <i>Entertainment Weekly</i>, so Thompson has a pretty good publicity team. But for good reason--she's an incredible writer. I loved this novel, which centers around the changes in the family over several decades, swinging between each of the four siblings and their parents as they move away from one another and pursue lives independent of one another and the small farming community where they were raised. If you liked Jonathan Franzen's <i>The Corrections</i>, you'll enjoy this one.</span><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.5minutesforbooks.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/my-american-unhappiness.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://www.5minutesforbooks.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/my-american-unhappiness.jpg" width="132" /></a></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><b>My American Unhappiness by Dean Bakopoulos </b>was my favorite novel on the trip. Protagonist Zeke Pappas is the head of a government organization that distributes money for humanities projects and the overseer of a project on the reasons behind Americans’ unhappiness. As such, he interviews individuals and fields letters, phone messages, and emails from people unloading their burdens. His own unhappiness is another subject altogether—his estranged brother and sister-in-law have died, orphaning young twin daughters, and according to stipulations in a will, they will live with their mother’s sister out of town unless Zeke marries. His quest to find love—or at least-matrimony is only one of several subplots in this entertaining novel, at the core of which lies a secret that may explain all that is truly troubling Zeke.</span><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://bitsandpiecesbibliophile.files.wordpress.com/2011/02/geography-of-bliss.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://bitsandpiecesbibliophile.files.wordpress.com/2011/02/geography-of-bliss.jpg" width="131" /></a></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">On the other end of the spectrum, <b><i>The Geography of Bliss</i></b> is NPR correspondent Eric Weiner’s quest to discover not what makes people unhappy, but what makes them happy, and he travels to various points on the globe to what role, if any, geography plays in our happiness, any why places we’d expect to be misery-causing (isolated, freezing-cold Iceland, for example) are some of the most joyous on earth. Weiner, who admits that he’s not, on average, a particularly happy person, discovers and relates a great deal of wisdom about what makes a happy life, and his insights are often funny and profound. Weiner notes, in one chapter of <i>The Geography of Bliss</i>, that we often don’t know how travel changes us until long after the trip is over. I sure hope that the discoveries I made this summer, and the joy I found traveling, competing, relaxing with my dog, continue to surprise me and teach me in the months and years to come.</span><strike></strike>Cathy Belbenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16215264665264634621noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7590673283563680567.post-54269570055265410372011-06-01T04:20:00.000-07:002011-06-02T09:34:07.180-07:00May Reading Recommendations<div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">This month I think I read more books with more with than pictures than I did books with more words than pictures. If that sentence made no sense, read on and all will become clear. Ish. I just realized that I didn't read a single book this month about a disappearance, and I have no explanation for that. I included information under each title about how I came across each book and happened to read it, just because Nick Hornby does that often in his column, and I thought it was interesting. <br />
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<div style="text-align: left;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">You Know Who You Are by Ben Dolnick<br />
<span style="color: #6fa8dc;">Display table at Village Books. </span></span></b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEge_gz45q6i8uyD9gHM83KMlivVqWltZhKjrW4H0mXRBL1I3ZOgD-ToN7ENakd3tx5FEGqBW7UOOI9LouJS1V5-kM2CCia8vy193xHJ3Nyd8Fq-c117COV_GnW33nTJ7l3bztrQinWiuew/s1600/You+KNow.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEge_gz45q6i8uyD9gHM83KMlivVqWltZhKjrW4H0mXRBL1I3ZOgD-ToN7ENakd3tx5FEGqBW7UOOI9LouJS1V5-kM2CCia8vy193xHJ3Nyd8Fq-c117COV_GnW33nTJ7l3bztrQinWiuew/s200/You+KNow.jpg" t8="true" width="130" /></a></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Dolnick's novel follows protagonist Jacob as he copes with the death of his mother from cancer, his evolving relationship with his older brother, Will, some female character whose name I've forgotten, and his father, Arthur, who struggles to cope with his wife's death but eventually finds love. I liked this book, and I'm sorry I've forgotten small precious details that might encourage you to like it also. That's what happens sometimes. </span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"></span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgs1qa-C0_bxHzvgTnM76xLJVj4FzsTt55JhGvNUlcEwe44KoMpazD5Y_EHR1IlZzyH7Xsc39vTqN6yC9u_E7cl-SY7PKgEWcDkND9cl9opi8KKLtN4Xm_XNCeriLr-kIe8KWT0NvVwKGU/s1600/chronologyOfWater.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgs1qa-C0_bxHzvgTnM76xLJVj4FzsTt55JhGvNUlcEwe44KoMpazD5Y_EHR1IlZzyH7Xsc39vTqN6yC9u_E7cl-SY7PKgEWcDkND9cl9opi8KKLtN4Xm_XNCeriLr-kIe8KWT0NvVwKGU/s200/chronologyOfWater.jpg" t8="true" width="123" /></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><strong>The Chronology of Water by Lidia Yuknavitch</strong> <br />
<strong><span style="color: #3d85c6;">Recommended by Chuck Robinson at Village Books. </span></strong>This is an incredible, beautifully written memoir. Yuknavitch, a lifelong competitive swimmer, begins her story by recalling the stillborn birth of her daughter in haunting, beautiful prose. Much of the book takes place in Eugene and Portland, where Yuknavitch completed her Ph.D. and was part of one of Ken Kesey's writing workshops. She recounts her adult life, complete with failed marriages, drug addiction, and sexual rendezvous with both men and women, and retraces the relationship with her abusive father than may have contributed to her young adult recklessness. <br />
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<strong>Skin Deep by Karol Griffin</strong><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><strong>Found at Goodwill, looked like a good follow-up to Chronology of Water. </strong></span>Griffin is a tattoo artist, and her memoir recounts various characters she's encountered on the job and examines the changing culture of Wyoming towns that are encroached upon by outsiders seeking new lives in the West. </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Secrets of the Teenage Brain by Sheryl Feinstein<br />
<span style="color: #6fa8dc;">Found it at a brain conference.</span></span></b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbN0bV-1slocFvZmviLtZT3NQXPXQQHWKOqN5ZAIoyS-SC46TLZW-Ut_-6MCljGeFO-uQhgXrzy8mwFCk5ZqEOBGXvuCbjv1ZOFpwL8MRxQTdtxh6EdKNLBHujXrNHlAXIG96stNUZ95Y/s1600/secrets+teen+brain.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbN0bV-1slocFvZmviLtZT3NQXPXQQHWKOqN5ZAIoyS-SC46TLZW-Ut_-6MCljGeFO-uQhgXrzy8mwFCk5ZqEOBGXvuCbjv1ZOFpwL8MRxQTdtxh6EdKNLBHujXrNHlAXIG96stNUZ95Y/s200/secrets+teen+brain.jpg" t8="true" width="135" /></a></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Every parent and teacher I know needs to read this book in order to have a better understanding of why the adolescents in their lives behave the way they do. Feinstein clearly explains the neurological science from the past two decades which reveals that the human brain is not completely developed until the early twenties. Consistent growth--particularly in the frontal lobes, which regulate decision-making--explains much more about how teens act and learn than the old "raging hormones" idea. Feinstein's use! of exclamation! points! and slightly elementary-teacher-ish tone grated on my nerves, but the information is essential and really must be a part of a responsible, comprehensive teacher education program.</span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"></span><br />
<div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><strong>The Adults by Alison Espach<br />
<span style="color: #6fa8dc;">Read a review in O! Magazine.</span></strong></span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJWEF4_hZDuPthDSglgyA5GlIW-dJ43SFPXweavyzt34VG7FBGOEasdQq68dYYdLATvJonl65N2q3jH_kQQwum8fiB93tGnkaxM95oDBtDItevV4oBqdBOTImcuGktGBrRbtPUzPKpq4M/s1600/the_adults1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJWEF4_hZDuPthDSglgyA5GlIW-dJ43SFPXweavyzt34VG7FBGOEasdQq68dYYdLATvJonl65N2q3jH_kQQwum8fiB93tGnkaxM95oDBtDItevV4oBqdBOTImcuGktGBrRbtPUzPKpq4M/s200/the_adults1.jpg" t8="true" width="131" /></a></div><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">Emily Vidal is the precocious and witty narrator of this novel, which focuses on the adults in her life and the effect they have on her upbringing. The story opens at her father's 50th birthday party, a lavish backyard event her mother has organized, despite her impending divorce from Emily's father. Together with her neighbor and classmate, Mark, Emily uses the party to make observations about her parents and their friends, and at one point, the two discover a stunning secret about Emily's father and Mark's mother that will resonate for years. In high school, challenged by her mother's post-divorce depression and probable alcoholism, Emily finds security and comfort with a young teacher at the school, and again, the relationship reverberates for years. I loved Emily's voice, which was older-that-her-years, funny, and resilient despite the many failings of the adults she is surrounded by.<br />
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<div style="text-align: left;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">My Cool Caravan by Jane Field-Lewis and Chris Haddon<br />
<span style="color: #3d85c6;">Found it searching for books about campers on Amazon.</span></span></b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj56ysg-rwMGfrbCyqCXxVBXfRLlxRC1uvxqitd-xjLSRVVr_F1KmuXEK9neHR7Xg1cdupr0KQcnKbV0oRzLv4x5e9YSyYdJfJj3ktYH65v4v2Jsma6kzppaeQWm9yU51qF1KZP2xtGFrg/s1600/My-Cool-Caravan-9781862058781.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="169" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj56ysg-rwMGfrbCyqCXxVBXfRLlxRC1uvxqitd-xjLSRVVr_F1KmuXEK9neHR7Xg1cdupr0KQcnKbV0oRzLv4x5e9YSyYdJfJj3ktYH65v4v2Jsma6kzppaeQWm9yU51qF1KZP2xtGFrg/s200/My-Cool-Caravan-9781862058781.jpg" t8="true" width="200" /></a></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Prepping the NapCamper for my big summer adventure means doing some research into the interior decorating of travel vehicles, which you and I call "campers" and "trailers" and the Brits call "Caravans." There are a scant few books about this topic, but <em>My Cool Caravan</em> is an excellent opportunity to gaze inside some beautifully maintained and sometimes restored caravans. Most are vintage European models with exquisite upholstery and gorgeous mid-century modern lines and details. I can't transform the NC into a rare British caravan, but I can be inspired by the colors and ideas. Yum.</span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"></span><br />
<div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><strong>This Is a Book by Demetri Martin<br />
<span style="color: #3d85c6;">Found on display at Village Books and started reading it. </span></strong></span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwWAI5CQb1g881QQaEXrzx1QlqSNlczDcBu5c7d8jCtBMMlOCenlV5cmsjmuUgzLa3I6A3njNRjjohFHJLDB1hp3ZnXpbSOC4ZEocQK3eGxTDAV1EvrKbMdul_B_Y8tG5H28VTxiH4p6A/s1600/This-Is-a-Book-Martin-Demetri-9780446539708.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwWAI5CQb1g881QQaEXrzx1QlqSNlczDcBu5c7d8jCtBMMlOCenlV5cmsjmuUgzLa3I6A3njNRjjohFHJLDB1hp3ZnXpbSOC4ZEocQK3eGxTDAV1EvrKbMdul_B_Y8tG5H28VTxiH4p6A/s200/This-Is-a-Book-Martin-Demetri-9780446539708.jpg" t8="true" width="132" /></a></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">I am embarassed to admit that I had no idea who Demetri Martin was until I read this book, which I bought because I liked the cover and the fact that, upon thumbing through it at the <a href="http://www.villagebooks.com/">book store</a>, realized it also had short chapters and lots of funny charts and comics. Then I read it and laughed out loud over and over again, discovered lots more Demetri Martin (he has his own <a href="http://www.comedycentral.com/shows/important_things/index.jhtml">TV show on Comedy Central</a>! I am such a loser) and now I am obsessed with him. He makes the funniest charts, and <a href="http://ilovecharts.tumblr.com/">charts are funny</a>. Read this book and it will cancel out one day of rain and two days of 40-something-degree weather. </span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"></span><br />
<div style="text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfYRDnc4vhhSvi5FamyQp9BUyoMVCtNsPjjyMNFl_53Z1ipD_hYOSvyCLQa7xBE139Vav53TAMwl34nyN0oeKfG5JZHP42-ezvn78QQRyEMAiVabSn5NMvOHF3TR_4I-SnfJqpBT_Dscg/s1600/hornby-housekeeping.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfYRDnc4vhhSvi5FamyQp9BUyoMVCtNsPjjyMNFl_53Z1ipD_hYOSvyCLQa7xBE139Vav53TAMwl34nyN0oeKfG5JZHP42-ezvn78QQRyEMAiVabSn5NMvOHF3TR_4I-SnfJqpBT_Dscg/s200/hornby-housekeeping.jpg" t8="true" width="127" /></a></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><strong>Housekeeping vs. the Dirt: Fourteen Months of Massively Witty Adventures in Reading by Nick Hornby</strong> <br />
<strong><span style="color: #3d85c6;">Circuitous discovery via Amazon search for book on another topic.</span></strong>This is one of those books that I was sorry to see end. Finishing the final essay (all published previously as Hornby's column in The Believer) made me sorrowful because I had grown to adore Hornby's wise, funny, snarky humor about books and writing. Each month, he lists the books he purchased and the books he actually read, and then writes about the latter. But his column is really not as much a book review as it is an ongoing meditation about reading, readers, books, and culture. </span></div></div>Cathy Belbenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16215264665264634621noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7590673283563680567.post-71946646760746530292011-04-29T10:40:00.000-07:002011-04-29T10:40:31.451-07:00Damn It Rains A Lot Here. Glad I Like Reading in Bed.<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">It's almost not April anymore, and my homework for the month is nearly done. Given the enormous amounts of time I was unable (unwillingly) to go outside because the weather was bat-shit crazy, I would have expected to have read a lot more. But I didn't. Instead I read these books, and they were all entertaining, smart, and fun. Enjoy. (The red title is the Pick of the Month!)</span><br />
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<div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnJ2ccfAdw9Q34BEEygWS55ucqCrYx2kwwSKsYDJWjy2o4GHgtkCi7HDbcnv_Z3UUKsuBxqCifOVpLNnXn3oMFxQDxID6wMEamjgC96YVMhyphenhyphenjAdCk94wZx70ywu-FlCidsdbmI8HkrjUE/s1600/mennonitepaperback.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" j8="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnJ2ccfAdw9Q34BEEygWS55ucqCrYx2kwwSKsYDJWjy2o4GHgtkCi7HDbcnv_Z3UUKsuBxqCifOVpLNnXn3oMFxQDxID6wMEamjgC96YVMhyphenhyphenjAdCk94wZx70ywu-FlCidsdbmI8HkrjUE/s200/mennonitepaperback.jpg" width="131" /></a><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><strong><a href="http://www.villagebooks.com/book/9780805092257"><span style="color: red;">Mennonite in a Little Black Dress: A Memoir of Going Home by Rhoda Janzen</span></a></strong> is absolutely amazing. I want Rhoda Janzen to quit whatever she is doing right now and go write more books! After her husband of 15years leaves her for a guy named Bob that he met on gay.com, and she is severely injured in a car accident, Janzen returns home to her Mennonite parents for physical and emotional recuperation. In telling the story of her mid-life repair, she retraces her upbringing in the conservative Mennonite religion (they're the ones that wear the little white doily-ish hats) and her recounting is both hilarious and wise. Janzen, who left the Mennonites to pursue academia, nonetheless has a warm, funny story to tell about how her parents chose to raise her, how the church's strict beliefs shaped her strengths, and how she ultimately found comfort in the traditions and community of Mennonites as she rebuilds her life (i..e begins dating: "In my opinion sexiness comes down to three things: chemistry, sense of humor, and treatment of waitstaff at restaurants." Amen, Sister Rhoda.) In the end, I appreciated--admired, really--Janzen's ability to love her family and respect their faith while choosing another path.</span></div><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMvTDojL-culVL904afR6FyZRag9mV1g-C_CRGYTP5QeF06EvJeg2S2yNMqTxyHtJufITDW9Sqs4Ifwq8fDc8EYpv_w7fN5Yks_jXZIDsRNcw9g980z4jza0rXIDixHd7GhJcudBfshuA/s1600/my+horizonal+life.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" j8="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMvTDojL-culVL904afR6FyZRag9mV1g-C_CRGYTP5QeF06EvJeg2S2yNMqTxyHtJufITDW9Sqs4Ifwq8fDc8EYpv_w7fN5Yks_jXZIDsRNcw9g980z4jza0rXIDixHd7GhJcudBfshuA/s200/my+horizonal+life.jpg" width="133" /></a></div><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.villagebooks.com/book/9781582346182">My Horizontal Life: A Collection of One-Night Stands by Chelsea Handler</a> is as funny as the previous book, but in an entirely different way. This is one of those books I picked up at Goodwill, and then decided to read because <em>Mennonite in a Little Black Dress</em> was so funny and I needed another funny book as a follow-up and I was on Spring Break and therefore, unable/willing to read anything academic or erudite. And Handler is funny. She's also lewd and ridiculous, politically incorrect and occasionally disgusting, and if she's really had all the one-night stands she writes about in this book, then ew. Nevertheless, super funny if you like reading about other people's regrettable sexual exploits, which I do. Read it if you're in a funk and need to feel better about yourself. I felt like a virgin again by the time I was done with it.</span><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgc56-PYk0XjAX08scbYZSqZL5r8BoH36l6EaQ-mEN3l4MBCzarPCy57l2UX4K5x0mvoJyu9nByVoOp3PBfR9CfhizJj7qudTDTfJmUvC05whWRR-duE90rLtZkbUrNQHP_IbHm4cCtrY/s1600/Are-You-There-Vodka-Its-Me-Chelsea.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" j8="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgc56-PYk0XjAX08scbYZSqZL5r8BoH36l6EaQ-mEN3l4MBCzarPCy57l2UX4K5x0mvoJyu9nByVoOp3PBfR9CfhizJj7qudTDTfJmUvC05whWRR-duE90rLtZkbUrNQHP_IbHm4cCtrY/s200/Are-You-There-Vodka-Its-Me-Chelsea.jpg" width="140" /></a></div><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">I grabbed <strong><a href="http://www.villagebooks.com/book/9781416596363">Are You There, Vodka? It's Me, Chelsea</a></strong>, at the airport after my initial dose of Handler's deliciously gross humor. Unbeknownst to me, this book turned out to be the perfect choice, once I discovered that I was seated next to hairy-armed, bulgy-eyed man reading <strong><a href="http://www.villagebooks.com/book/9780470037157">Anger Management for Dummies</a></strong> who looked like the Phillip Seymour Hoffman character from the Todd Solodnz movie <strong>Happiness</strong> (which, if you haven't seen, do NOT go watch it and then call me up and me how sick and disgusting it is and break off being friends with me. I repeat: I did NOT recommend this movie). In addition to hogging our mutual armrest and intruding into my personal no-fly zone for the entire trip, Anger Management Man also indulged his tic of rubbing his dry palms together every 2-3 minutes. During snack time, he funneled his bag of treats into his mouth from above, spilling a portion down his shirt, and then dove for the crumbs, rustling around between his manboobs until he retrieved a half a pretzel and a fuzz-covered peanut. I mentally rehearsed my Emergency List of Ways This Could Be Worse: I could have a horrible facial deformity. I could be dirt poor. I could have a bunch of children. Thankfully, I have none of these, but I do have Chelsea Handler, and I thank her.</span><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-UC5-vBeW_ny91mLg4GDFACKoS5mnWq25OdFzEZYAwj_4atDOYUC-9N_lHd42idW1Rvs8F6DBZnTAJnHQ-1pNLdzbdl9G3njXtf8jjIqS56735mfoBpilzJEwnvTRnoV0K3FBAGP-bHw/s1600/the+uncoupling.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" j8="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-UC5-vBeW_ny91mLg4GDFACKoS5mnWq25OdFzEZYAwj_4atDOYUC-9N_lHd42idW1Rvs8F6DBZnTAJnHQ-1pNLdzbdl9G3njXtf8jjIqS56735mfoBpilzJEwnvTRnoV0K3FBAGP-bHw/s200/the+uncoupling.jpg" width="131" /></a></div><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"><a href="http://www.villagebooks.com/book/9781594487880"><strong>The Uncoupling by Meg Wolitzer</strong></a> has been reviewed a great deal lately, in <em>People</em> and <em>Entertainment Weekly</em>,among other sources, so there's a good chance you've heard the buzz. The gist is this: a new, funky drama teacher arrives in Stellar Plains, and chooses the Greek play <a href="http://www.villagebooks.com/book/9781401300425"><strong>Lysistrata</strong></a> by Aristophanes as the high school's performance. In the play, the women of Greece band together to bring an end to war by refusing to have sex with their men until peace is attained. In Stellar Plains, the production of the play has a mysterious effect on the town's residents: the popular, married high school English teacher couple finds their intimacy disrupted; the heavy, long-married guidance counselor stands up to her thoughtless husband, and even the teenage girls are denying sex to their bewildered boyfriends. The events lead them all to examine themselves and their relationships with one another; a fun, smart book.</span><br />
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</span><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"><a href="http://www.villagebooks.com/book/9781416594819"><strong>Boys and Girls Like You and Me by Aryn Kyle</strong></a><strong>.</strong></span><br />
<div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjocAaoJrvpkA61XM1PxzZMFbPp-YhfmYB-3QryrsQfuz1O4AcDUM5HCBUUgA8mDQJ9k0LPhUf0M2Bc5tiXKkEsagJULzGaG4Hm6e8m63r_MBzvSesMTQoBnoYapYD5EVQbocLbX9Jg2F4/s1600/books_arynkyle_boys-0x300.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" j8="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjocAaoJrvpkA61XM1PxzZMFbPp-YhfmYB-3QryrsQfuz1O4AcDUM5HCBUUgA8mDQJ9k0LPhUf0M2Bc5tiXKkEsagJULzGaG4Hm6e8m63r_MBzvSesMTQoBnoYapYD5EVQbocLbX9Jg2F4/s200/books_arynkyle_boys-0x300.png" width="130" /></a><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">Bunches of people won't read poetry because it makes them a) think of black berets and b) feel dumb. Also, a lot of poetry seems pretentious and full of itself, which it is, and why waste time complicating your life reading it when you can shut the door and spend 10 minutes taking a happy nap with <em>Penthouse Forum</em> instead? Short stories can seem a bit like poems, only longer, and they have characters and dialogue and sex scenes. The best short stories showcase the best a language has to offer: original word combinations, humor, subtlety, and cleverness. Aryn Kyle's collection joins my list of favorite short stories for eactly these reasons. </span></div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbzux_gMn-UiBfsZ28EHWIzEr6VU5bdzow9fGAKuwPlwfP8Km8WmcuKrjEK43TDSCNR4CLpWwXVQv0NAF1wTn7Of2ys1vyUb3GCr7cCiX353Pye3D9vY0gR4Jk_KuaRBtCpl1dfVviE68/s1600/muscle_confessions_of_an_unlikely_bodybuilder_by_samuel_fussell.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" j8="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbzux_gMn-UiBfsZ28EHWIzEr6VU5bdzow9fGAKuwPlwfP8Km8WmcuKrjEK43TDSCNR4CLpWwXVQv0NAF1wTn7Of2ys1vyUb3GCr7cCiX353Pye3D9vY0gR4Jk_KuaRBtCpl1dfVviE68/s200/muscle_confessions_of_an_unlikely_bodybuilder_by_samuel_fussell.jpg" width="143" /></a></div><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.villagebooks.com/book/9780380717637"><strong>Muscle: Confessions of an Unlikely Bodybuilder by Samuel Wilson Fussell</strong></a> is mentioned on <a href="http://www.belbensraceforcopansplace.blogspot.com/">my other blog</a> because I 've been doing a lot of weight-lifting and strength-training as I prep for a summer of triathlons, and in doing so, have become fascinated by the way bodies change in different ways in response to exercise. Fussell, an Oxford-educated writer, decided to pursue body-building in the late 80s after being harrassed repeatedly on the streets of New York City. At 6'4" and 170 pounds, he's a stickly target. Over the next two years, he progresses from this waifishness to competitive body-building stature, gaining over 80 pounds, and offers an insider's view of the steroid-and-body-oil fueled gyms of the 80s. </span><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_9Vialmq5izWQdxa9o2TyeCKfmtG_R6tBkvDL4yQU0_bnCW6xoBW4xcu9yx5qjY_T4ICJxn_HLQvgdpk_AioYHMPuPr15xkodMQrhr05XyoppPfQgKW1EniwZdqLXeBMavlwyDgBUdpw/s1600/modern-ranch-living-novel-mark-jude-poirier-hardcover-cover-art.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" j8="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_9Vialmq5izWQdxa9o2TyeCKfmtG_R6tBkvDL4yQU0_bnCW6xoBW4xcu9yx5qjY_T4ICJxn_HLQvgdpk_AioYHMPuPr15xkodMQrhr05XyoppPfQgKW1EniwZdqLXeBMavlwyDgBUdpw/s200/modern-ranch-living-novel-mark-jude-poirier-hardcover-cover-art.jpg" width="132" /></a></div><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"><a href="http://www.villagebooks.com/book/9781401300425"><strong>Modern Ranch Living by Mark Jude Poirier</strong></a> is this month's missing-person novel. A teenage Sharpie-huffing loser named Petey Vaccarino disappears one summer from a Phoenix suburb, but the real focus of the story is on two characters with whom he's loosely connected: his neighbor Merv, a 30-year-old Splash World Water Park employee who still lives at home with his mother, and Kendra Lumm, a 16-year-old weightlifter who occasionally slept with the missing boy. Both of these characters are transformed by the events of this summer, but only in part due to Petey's disappearance, and their stories are the catalyst for a funny, insightful examination of what it means to develop, change, and struggle to discover what our potential is and how to reach it. I loved reading this book--Kendra is tough, funny, and grammar-challenged; her interactions with her mother, her wimpy older brother, her classmates, and the therapist she is forced to see results in some of the wittiest, most original dialogue I've read. </span><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnxWcHXUi9QhQAuQ4q7BxQQpaOXQ79o0E8J_Ecfv3QPbygWXogUKgSJpFysrCnZSEpEyj59qj4qmJjdyfB3Ki1pfZRJsjATzsiTfM8Y6bt4LxzLSLlHRI0xBDdXIe42idN4k2uz5uSLo4/s1600/Why%252520Manners%252520Matter%252520US%252520hb.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" j8="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnxWcHXUi9QhQAuQ4q7BxQQpaOXQ79o0E8J_Ecfv3QPbygWXogUKgSJpFysrCnZSEpEyj59qj4qmJjdyfB3Ki1pfZRJsjATzsiTfM8Y6bt4LxzLSLlHRI0xBDdXIe42idN4k2uz5uSLo4/s200/Why%252520Manners%252520Matter%252520US%252520hb.jpg" width="142" /></a></div><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"><strong><u>Why Manners Matter: The Case for Civilized Behavior in a Barbarous World</u></strong> by Luncinda Holdforth is a short, provocative argument in favor of manners--voluntary social agreements to adhere to certain rules of behavior. A brief summary of her main arguments: Manners matter because 1) we are social animals with habitat to protect; 2) they are more important than laws because they are less invasive and better than social confusion; 3) they nurture equality; 4) order matters for freedom; 5) rudeness won't make us authentic; manners aren't just for right-wing bigots; manners advance social progress; 6) McDonald's doesn't own matters (you definitely have to read this chapter to get what her point is here); and 7) they give us dignity by improving communication, preventing premature intimacy, unlocking our humanity and making life beautiful. Teachers and parents take note.</span><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1Zzhu63L2XO9FNphmeL-PnSX5WwOjrkAw-tnigKx-2oPj4WANLapfU7g50u6GjPIOA1dK__NjVgMPtBfZL8JJVYDz2wVT7hvlqtxZrqWfLXs5DmXLsttVBLNHIPXqtOMiJ-TOGm4nU68/s1600/i-knew-a-woman-the-experience-of-the-female-b.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" j8="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1Zzhu63L2XO9FNphmeL-PnSX5WwOjrkAw-tnigKx-2oPj4WANLapfU7g50u6GjPIOA1dK__NjVgMPtBfZL8JJVYDz2wVT7hvlqtxZrqWfLXs5DmXLsttVBLNHIPXqtOMiJ-TOGm4nU68/s200/i-knew-a-woman-the-experience-of-the-female-b.jpg" width="133" /></a></div><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"><strong><u>I Knew a Woman by Cortney Davis</u></strong> is a nurse practioner's account of working with women over the course of her career and what she has learned about women's bodies as a result. Davis follows the cases of four clients--a pregnant teenager, a drug-addicted mother, a post-menopausal woman with cancer, and a thirty-something woman whose past, when uncovered, reveals the reason behind her sexual problems. Following each woman's story is sort of like watching an episode of Grey's Anatomy or House--a medical drama unfolds gradually and suspensely, and we learn something about medicine in the process. Davis is a gifted writer who has written books of poetry, and her talent for prose makes this a fascinating and thoughtful read. </span>Cathy Belbenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16215264665264634621noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7590673283563680567.post-73077809767351774022011-04-01T09:19:00.000-07:002011-04-01T09:19:11.806-07:00March Reads<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">YAY Books! I had the best reading month--inspiring advice, fun novels, and just a great mix of quirk and kink. <span style="color: red;">I've highlighted the one book</span> I'd most recommend once again. As always, I encourage you to support your locally owned bookstores and public libraries! </span><br />
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<div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjolS5z7bLn9e44x9r99tHZSRvlhVXJVY0fH3fsj-qytUL20cFCdW-gbzCpd-bDyn7XJ1BIKakgJO0deR0lg8GBv4hgpZ14i3ZBzuggYdMfZ3cnreMrfNff-aED0rLxZCAQIC0lkAT723E/s1600/SeeingMeNaked.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" r6="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjolS5z7bLn9e44x9r99tHZSRvlhVXJVY0fH3fsj-qytUL20cFCdW-gbzCpd-bDyn7XJ1BIKakgJO0deR0lg8GBv4hgpZ14i3ZBzuggYdMfZ3cnreMrfNff-aED0rLxZCAQIC0lkAT723E/s200/SeeingMeNaked.jpeg" width="131" /></a><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><strong>Seeing Me Naked by Liza Palmer</strong> is a quick read about Elisabeth Page, a pastry chef in Los Angeles who has long lived in the shadow of her Pulitzer-Prize-winning father, author Ben Page, and in the comfortable, familiar arms of Will, her longtime boyfriend. When she meets Daniel Sullivan, her options for the future suddenly change, she creeps out of the shadow of her wealthy, notorious family to find a life waiting for her that is much different than the one she expected. I like this kind of smart, sassy, upbeat chick lit.</span></div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgI2wBWuQs7fFrcakKdOty_uGTWYxFIF_fI-sUBRNZCQ_nAzYU3yU7RHQtJ79M5JjSGmRpRRC_ZmgZmlRhgoGlUbgNtHY1LAFwqXTChQ9G_lNqOsJG37cUExnyHryKV-KXZLAV7avVfvZo/s1600/the-lovers-dictionary.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" r6="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgI2wBWuQs7fFrcakKdOty_uGTWYxFIF_fI-sUBRNZCQ_nAzYU3yU7RHQtJ79M5JjSGmRpRRC_ZmgZmlRhgoGlUbgNtHY1LAFwqXTChQ9G_lNqOsJG37cUExnyHryKV-KXZLAV7avVfvZo/s200/the-lovers-dictionary.jpg" width="133" /></a></div><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><strong>The Lover's Dictionary by David Levithan</strong> uses a gimmick to tell the story: each page is an entry in a dictionary, with a brief vignette or observation instead of a definition. All of these short entries add up to a portrait of a relationship between members of an unnamed couple. I love Levithan's writing--poetic, spare, subtle, and original. </span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">Two quotes from the book that I appreciated: 1) "Fuck you for cheating on me. Who came up with the term <em>cheating</em>, anyway? A cheater, I imagine. Someone who thought <em>liar</em> was too harsh. Someone who thought <em>devastator</em> was too emotional. Fuck you. This isn't about slipping yourself an extra twenty dollars of Monopoly money. These are our lives. You went and broke our lives." 2) "The key to a successful relationship isn't just in the words, it's in the choice of punctuation. When you're in love with someone, a well-placed question mark can be the difference between bliss and disaster, and a deeply respected period or a cleverly inserted ellipsis can prevent all kinds of exclamations." (Try it. He's right.)</span><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkA51zZbN8LmiyMLJPixA0h0LkX_6A6k0wYWLXveWbXcaa8ru_Yn8-ykV5snnyn_H1Cgq9KIO0Lq_tkZj3TSLC-X2QVVyeeAAAtx8iNGyMUpkxydYYXgkQu-xglcHsBWCL9ExFdNbgHnA/s1600/tiger+tiger.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" r6="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkA51zZbN8LmiyMLJPixA0h0LkX_6A6k0wYWLXveWbXcaa8ru_Yn8-ykV5snnyn_H1Cgq9KIO0Lq_tkZj3TSLC-X2QVVyeeAAAtx8iNGyMUpkxydYYXgkQu-xglcHsBWCL9ExFdNbgHnA/s200/tiger+tiger.jpg" width="133" /></a></div><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><strong>Tiger, Tiger by Margaux Fragoso.</strong> I read this book so you that don't have to. Seriously, this is an 11 on the ick-factor scale, and I read it only because reviews in<em> Oprah </em>and <em>Entertainment Weekly</em> led me astray; I had heard that it would be controversial; and I want to be able to participate in the dialogue of that controversy from a knowledgeable standpoint. Not sure I'm right about that. The gist is this: Fragoso was sexually abused from the time she was 7 until the age of 22 by a man 44 years her senior, and she recounts in detail how the relationship between her and "Peter," her abuser developed as she and her mentally ill mother spent more and more time at Peter's home, in scenarios that will remind readers of the f***ed mess described by Augusten Burroughs in his memoir <em>Running With Scissors</em> (only not at ALL funny). She includes the details of their sexual encounters and I cannot stress enough how disturbing this is; although her prose is skillful and the storytelling compelling, I can't help but feel a more nuanced writer (and one who wanted to <u>warn</u> us of the danger in the world, rather than <u>share</u> it with us) would have been able to relay the sheer horror of these events without giving us an up-close-and-personal view of her tormentor's scrotum. Seriously. Yuck. </span><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQkvzsrhiYsRlq-KcdY60LrP96-W_H3a1_9CMoeekBmQ1kEq2lf4oPH_au21JrtbOQTzjqv9lnh_X6etHgBlx-tlEgvZQO5cnDkBujKT14f16qh1LAtLyskhLeIuxQ8QPRh5AYhsAA8T4/s1600/nothing.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" r6="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQkvzsrhiYsRlq-KcdY60LrP96-W_H3a1_9CMoeekBmQ1kEq2lf4oPH_au21JrtbOQTzjqv9lnh_X6etHgBlx-tlEgvZQO5cnDkBujKT14f16qh1LAtLyskhLeIuxQ8QPRh5AYhsAA8T4/s200/nothing.jpg" width="136" /></a></div><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><b>Nothing by Janne Teller</b> is a short young adult novel with long-lasting impact. Like Lord of the Flies, it offers a glimpse at the powerful and destructive nature of peers on one another, especially when those peers are children acting unregulated by experience, wisdom, and adutl guidance. In this story, a student announces to his classmates that nothing means anything, and proceeds to stop attending school and hang out in a tree instead. The other students, eager to prove him wrong, beging accumulating a mass of items that are meaningful to them by challenging each other to relinquish their most prized possessions. Their challenges escalate to the point of violence, and yet the question continues to haunt them--does anything mean anything? And if so, what? Absolutely one of the most powerful YA novels I've ever read. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";"><b>Adios, Nirvana by Conrad</b></span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjov2NgHTi8kcbKs9x0-FVXL9cYvGt26pZBP2H1EwQTrY0dpzMwtufDxDBGAgkRfinFFhLq6oCeKL21GddGWeLQuLjzcXYhbj8Y_KdLHUbym4INhu2qFmvA1HVbkJYIFJI90ObmP4kGTjA/s1600/adios+nirvana.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" r6="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjov2NgHTi8kcbKs9x0-FVXL9cYvGt26pZBP2H1EwQTrY0dpzMwtufDxDBGAgkRfinFFhLq6oCeKL21GddGWeLQuLjzcXYhbj8Y_KdLHUbym4INhu2qFmvA1HVbkJYIFJI90ObmP4kGTjA/s200/adios+nirvana.jpg" width="133" /></a></div><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">Seattle writers have made a rich contribution to the YA literature scence, and this new novel is no exception. Set in West Seattle, it is the story of Jonathan, who has recently lost his twin brother in an accident. Failing school and slacking just about everywhere else, Jonathan's only real pleasures are writing and music, both of which he excels at. His high school prinicpal gives him a chance to make up his missing credits by collaborating with a dying WWII vet on the creation of his memoir. That part of the story fell apart a little at the end, but the voice, the teen writer/musician narrator, and the presence of Eddie Vedder more than redeem this excellent story.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";"><b>Smooth: Erotic Stories for Women edited by Rachel Kramer Bussel</b></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">There's such a thing as snow porn. Who knew?</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";"><strong>Don't You Forget about Me by Jancee Dunn</strong></span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcH9Q_3QMAOia0C1LDGioG8QP_GUCsn9G4INGsvkTHk50AbwdtGBJXy4vsgucEQlC8i5PmkUavn4c5Pf0LjuMImjGvzhKDgvwxg4OqQ0TzTSrFx9XvlJmJhlYcDsXgbarxWcw4BWLaz3k/s1600/dont-you-forget-about-me-novel-jancee-dunn-hardcover-cover-art.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" r6="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcH9Q_3QMAOia0C1LDGioG8QP_GUCsn9G4INGsvkTHk50AbwdtGBJXy4vsgucEQlC8i5PmkUavn4c5Pf0LjuMImjGvzhKDgvwxg4OqQ0TzTSrFx9XvlJmJhlYcDsXgbarxWcw4BWLaz3k/s200/dont-you-forget-about-me-novel-jancee-dunn-hardcover-cover-art.jpg" width="131" /></a></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">Lillian Curtis returns to her hometown after her husband announces he wants a divorce, and finds herself reconnecting with old friends--including her gorgeous ex-boyfriend--as they prepare for their twentieth class reunion. I adored this book for lots of reasons--a narrator who was in pain without wallowing, the connection to the late 80's, and especially Lillian's boss, a 70-something ex-starlet who hosts a TV talk show and lives life to the fullest. Very sweet and the writing was great, thanks to Jancee Dunn's years and experience--including dozens of cover stories for Rolling Stone. Read it if you liked <a href="http://www.villagebooks.com/book/9780316010788">Big Love</a> and <a href="http://www.villagebooks.com/book/9780316013604">Secrets to Happiness</a> by Sarah Dunn (no relation, as far as I know).</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";"><br />
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<strong>The Art of Possibility by Rosamund Stone Zander and Benjamin Zander</strong></span><br />
<div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTIUYbNK33Jsty2O1UoqhyX8CCnYzyMCLfBy2AQZMQw2FhjiYtxJQZrgPVfwxdsK2tPZtQTxKT4KrhFtdf0gV4WwRPizNbmzLl4rGUprxpK3K4ctdI4UI_voX1btfxr3OUYMIKjJ3ZvNI/s1600/the+art+of+possibility.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" r6="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTIUYbNK33Jsty2O1UoqhyX8CCnYzyMCLfBy2AQZMQw2FhjiYtxJQZrgPVfwxdsK2tPZtQTxKT4KrhFtdf0gV4WwRPizNbmzLl4rGUprxpK3K4ctdI4UI_voX1btfxr3OUYMIKjJ3ZvNI/s200/the+art+of+possibility.png" width="137" /></a><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">Easily one of the most inspiring books I've read, the art of possibility offers guidelines for reframing our thinking to make room for possibilities that we might not have contemplated, such as remembering that "it's all invented" and we have the power to reimagine ourselves and our lives and make those imaginings a reality. In terms of offering new ideas and supporting anecdotes about how to make your work, interpersonal connections, and personal goals a reality, this is a powerful, uplifting book.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyaC_6LpsW7Ixq7sS2LVMjwDtMZ56YcZSOTV5oqwGo5Hsuo7x4GS2tGR6D4NsC_5VEvIfVl6GZWqmgK-wIhE-a0Zs21lub2h9YRWQeH8td38qQNipLGDnHEuJJYoXYxe2dkbKxfX-QCkI/s1600/3Stages.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" r6="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyaC_6LpsW7Ixq7sS2LVMjwDtMZ56YcZSOTV5oqwGo5Hsuo7x4GS2tGR6D4NsC_5VEvIfVl6GZWqmgK-wIhE-a0Zs21lub2h9YRWQeH8td38qQNipLGDnHEuJJYoXYxe2dkbKxfX-QCkI/s200/3Stages.jpg" width="134" /></a></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";"><strong>Three Stages of Amazement by Carol Edgarian</strong></span><br />
<div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">Lena and Charlie find their marriage, already made fragile by the death of their newborn twin, strained even further by a cross-country move and Charlie's tenuous grasp on a business deal. Though the writing was gorgeous, I thought this story was a real downer. So unfair to dismiss a well-crafted piece of contemporary literature this way, when it's really and admirable piece of writing, but I wasn't really in the mood for a marriage-on-the-rocks story, no matter how beautifully spun. I enjoyed both The Heights by Peter Hedges (less financial talk, more sex and tension--also some mean girl action) and The Inheritances by Jonathan Dee (still about rich people, but they're less whiny) more. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="color: red; font-family: Trebuchet MS;"><strong>Drinking Closer to Home by Jessica Anya Blau</strong></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYw2gc4YGc-iog0qyHV3CnPH37Oc9pcVVc1SgVL5a26HS5shjQJxX5lUpINxp4b1MlLLXuV8_Gf9JDOqx1Dk_AjAWHwsRNafhyphenhyphenWMzyQ7sChc4P1OYD4FoFHTPNudV46zWhEEy49GAWFQg/s1600/DRINKING%252520CLOSER%252520TO%252520HOME%252520COVER_preview.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" r6="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYw2gc4YGc-iog0qyHV3CnPH37Oc9pcVVc1SgVL5a26HS5shjQJxX5lUpINxp4b1MlLLXuV8_Gf9JDOqx1Dk_AjAWHwsRNafhyphenhyphenWMzyQ7sChc4P1OYD4FoFHTPNudV46zWhEEy49GAWFQg/s200/DRINKING%252520CLOSER%252520TO%252520HOME%252520COVER_preview.jpg" width="132" /></a></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">Every now and then, I stumble upon a book that I begin reading and have to carry with me everywhere I go in order to sneak pages while I wait in line, get stuck in traffic, or blow my nose between sets at the gym. This month, this was that book. For starters, I love funny stories wherein big, dysfunctional families with scads of adult siblings and their lovers, husbands, children, and so forth gather a la Big Chill to air their memories and grievances, and this is definitely one of those stories. Anna, Portia, and their brother Emery are summoned home when their mother, Louise, finally has the heart attack she's been smoking towards for their entire lives. Louise and her husband, Buzzy, raised their children in a filthy, pot-smoke-filled home in Santa Barbara in the 70s, and it is between then and now that we rotate, gaining a thorough and hilarious insight into the history of the family and its bizarre mechanisms. Author Jessica Blau freely admits to basing the characters on her own parents and siblings, and an interview with family members at the end of the book adds an additional, entertaining dimension to this novel. Read it. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";"></span></div>Cathy Belbenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16215264665264634621noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7590673283563680567.post-32050308285802202622011-02-15T08:28:00.000-08:002011-03-01T11:45:34.230-08:00February Reads and Recommendations<span style="color:#000000;"><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">If you're on my Facebook, you know that I whined interminably about the length of January this year. It took too long, cost too much, felt too miserable, and is now, happily, nothing but a dim blip in the rearview mirror of my life.<br /><br /></span><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">However, because it seemed to be comprised entirely of excess hours, January afforded me the opportunity to read 13 books, most of which were amazingly good. February, unlike its predecessor, whipped along in an ever-lightening frenzy, hurtling us all toward spring as if the planet spun extra-fast in sort of cosmic meth trip. Accordingly, I didn't read nearly as much. I did, however, follow my rule of reading stuff that excited me and inspired me to encourage others to pick it up, too. Here it is, a list of what I read in February, again with the title of the one book I recommend most highlighted in red just in case you don't have time for more. </span><br /></span><div><div><div><div><div><div><div><br /><div><strong><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;color:#000000;">A Thousand Cuts by Simon Celic</span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGCy2-KvQ4NpQecDM8KrNO42pvVE28yito2Qz86xMEyVqe0pKZugnF6DNYhl7z1HwP5qTBa0NbPbBo8wKyHvepPHtR-yOExr9tEG36bniDPge6esR8TT5HXajLWrAQP3dDS7hxPOdZCZo/s1600/a+thousand+cuts.jpg"><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;color:#000000;"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 214px; FLOAT: right; HEIGHT: 229px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5573959935262505442" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGCy2-KvQ4NpQecDM8KrNO42pvVE28yito2Qz86xMEyVqe0pKZugnF6DNYhl7z1HwP5qTBa0NbPbBo8wKyHvepPHtR-yOExr9tEG36bniDPge6esR8TT5HXajLWrAQP3dDS7hxPOdZCZo/s320/a+thousand+cuts.jpg" /></span></a><span style="color:#000000;"><br /></span></strong><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;color:#000000;">High school teacher Samuel Szajkowski enters a school assembly one day with a loaded gun and proceeds to take aim, killing three students, a colleague, and himself. The crime is then dissected from various angles, most of which take the form of first person narratives delivered to Lucia May, the police detective assigned to investigate the crime. May's inquiries into the cause of the event, however, make her superiors uncomfortable, as she discovers hints that the tragedy might have resulted from something other than just the deranged and psychotic impulses of a sick and twisted man. Instead, as she interviews his students, his colleagues, his former lover, and others, she learns that Samuel was tormented by students about his appearance, his teaching style, and just about everything else--bullied much like students who don't fit in are bullied--and that the mistreatment he suffered may have led to his eventual outburst. The novel offers a unique look at a crime and its potential genesis, as well as presenting an angle on bullying that isn't often handled in fiction (or otherwise).<br /></span><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"></span></div><br /><div><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;color:#000000;"><strong>All About Lulu by Jonathan Evison</strong></span></div><div><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;"><span style="color:#000000;">Evison is a Seattle writer whose latest novel, <strong><em>West of Here</em></strong>, about generations of families on the Olympic Peninsula, is receiving all kinds of acclaim, but I haven't read it; I read <strong><em>All About Lulu</em></strong> instead after seeing it </span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8tdH8qp-77gIqD1Y5R-kMG2sQn0sDMxvYJpz0KP-aY-p5nGzWRZQgP7YdDG8Ke4XWOJOz5HcOjVUDYJG4EcWSkby02-gM5NRQPcpnqjHRgOMV1V0x7gR3IfEqdeQ138vhdumGOUUg99Y/s1600/all+about+lulu.jpg"><span style="color:#000000;"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 129px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 174px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5574782784278019282" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8tdH8qp-77gIqD1Y5R-kMG2sQn0sDMxvYJpz0KP-aY-p5nGzWRZQgP7YdDG8Ke4XWOJOz5HcOjVUDYJG4EcWSkby02-gM5NRQPcpnqjHRgOMV1V0x7gR3IfEqdeQ138vhdumGOUUg99Y/s320/all+about+lulu.jpg" /></span></a><span style="color:#000000;">on display at Village Books. Set in the 80's, it's narrated by teenager Will Miller, who starts the story sounding a bit like Holden Caufield, but (thankfully) that voice doesn't persist and we get instead a smart and likeable young man slightly adrift in a family where he doesn't fit. His mother has died of cancer, leaving Will alone with his father, Bill Sr., (a.k.a. Big Bill), a competitive body builder, and his two younger brothers, Doug and Ross, identical twins who are also weightlifters and (in Will's estimation) not so smart. Family dynamics change dramatically when Big Bill meets and marries Willow, who moves into the Miller residence with her daughter Lulu. Lulu and Will become inseparable--a closeness that veers close to and eventually becomes obsession on Will's part--until one summer when Lulu returns from her grandparents' home mysteriously distant. The story follows Will through high school and beyond as he tries to solve the mystery of Lulu's disconnect and re-establish their friendship. I found myself cheering for Will, enchanted by the multi-dimensional Big Bill and his body-building younger sons, amused by the 80's setting, and entertained by the novel in more ways than I can count. </span></span><br /></div><div><br /><span style="color:#000000;"><span style="color:#ff0000;"><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><strong>Food Rules: An Eater's Manual by Michael Pollan</strong></span><br /></span><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;">I'm really lazy about reading sometimes, so I haven't ever finished Pollan's o<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhA13R5DCOLYeKJ4f5U2_nHoB0FH_hZGoT7UPfCf0mlTzM_Q0461wV8xdmoc-cRU62ZFQoM0fGauN6rzAYetYkrjw_BVVHOgjbNGJy5VKbiPe2VebeIFfRUNFVMoxEBMch_G8-OTsMirfo/s1600/food-rules-an-eaters-manual.jpg"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 148px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 186px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5574783288930363634" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhA13R5DCOLYeKJ4f5U2_nHoB0FH_hZGoT7UPfCf0mlTzM_Q0461wV8xdmoc-cRU62ZFQoM0fGauN6rzAYetYkrjw_BVVHOgjbNGJy5VKbiPe2VebeIFfRUNFVMoxEBMch_G8-OTsMirfo/s320/food-rules-an-eaters-manual.jpg" /></a>pus, <strong><em>The Omnivore's Dilemma,</em></strong> and so this brief pocket-sized guide to eating is the perfect refresher on what to eat and why. Basically, his message is simple: eat food, mostly plants, not too much. These three rules are broken down in more detail, creating a list of 64 rules total that are still pretty easy to follow, emphasizing the need to avoid processed foods, eat mostly vegetables and fruits, and to eat less. Only the exorbitantly confrontational person could find anything to argue about here; Pollan's list is based on common sense and science, and while it will undoubtably piss off the fast-food and packaged food industry, it's really tough to claim that he doesn't know what he's talking about or that he isn't right. Buy a copy and keep it in your kitchen.<br /><br /></span></span><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;"><strong><span style="color:#000000;">How to Become a Scandal by Laura Kipnis</span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiL9nRJ3cgXUwY-5imGGaOSNrCz4KAE1R_yBJnL7GYghoBU4xNyf4n8EoS6QwlRhrYentGeM2S3J3cNdzEaP7FprfcO2kaUVtahjvXyMuj820CjAM4ae3YsrO-nCLfL6fds3ueQ9zgupPU/s1600/how+to+become+a+scandal.jpg"><span style="color:#000000;"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 110px; FLOAT: right; HEIGHT: 168px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5574781626342481906" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiL9nRJ3cgXUwY-5imGGaOSNrCz4KAE1R_yBJnL7GYghoBU4xNyf4n8EoS6QwlRhrYentGeM2S3J3cNdzEaP7FprfcO2kaUVtahjvXyMuj820CjAM4ae3YsrO-nCLfL6fds3ueQ9zgupPU/s320/how+to+become+a+scandal.jpg" /></span></a></strong></span><span style="color:#000000;"><br /><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;">Kipnis deftly, and briefly, analyzes why we are obsessed with--and in many cases, gleeful about--scandals. She examines four recent, well-known scandalous events in the headlines: the case of Lisa Nowak, an esteemed astronaut who traveled 950 miles by car to confront her ex-lover's new girlfriend; the downfall of Judge Sol Wachtler; the betrayal of Monica Lewinsky by her "friend" and confidante Linda Tripp; and the exaggerations that led <strong><em>A Million Little Pieces</em></strong> author James Frey to humiliation. Rather than just summarizing the salacious events, Kipnis writes intelligently about human nature and carefully dissects why scandalous stories have such appeal, and why public interest in them reveals more about the public than it does the one who committed the offense. Timeless, entertaining, and thoughtful. </span><br /></span></div><br /><div><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;"><strong><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVe0jO7QwemQDW0oeFbTRUObNatog-gID5OPfuCTIH7HSjix-eaKkfsCw9QYgrEOi0AK5-rlHC-Mf6Mw_viMB-LkYip4-svwLAxRMf8p7sLSAG9Fv4MaWJGxPvP3FOMlPgkbFsgF6pPZo/s1600/crooked-letter1.jpg"><span style="color:#000000;"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 118px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 192px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5576589087724306834" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVe0jO7QwemQDW0oeFbTRUObNatog-gID5OPfuCTIH7HSjix-eaKkfsCw9QYgrEOi0AK5-rlHC-Mf6Mw_viMB-LkYip4-svwLAxRMf8p7sLSAG9Fv4MaWJGxPvP3FOMlPgkbFsgF6pPZo/s320/crooked-letter1.jpg" /></span></a><span style="color:#000000;">Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter by Tom Franklin</span></strong></span></div><div><span style="color:#000000;"><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;">Here it is, the monthly missing-person novel. Larry Ott is living alone, tending his chickens and minding his auto shop when he is ambushed in his home, shot and left for dead. Accused years earlier for the disappearance of a local teenage girl, Larry has spent his life living in the shadow of suspicion created by the event, and now another girl has vanished and Larry is again suspected in her disappearance. Larry's shooting is thought to be self-inflicted: unable to live with his crimes, the townspeople think, Scary Larry has finally decided to kill himself this time. But he doesn't die, and the investigation into his near-fatal shooting is headed by his old childhood friend, Silas, now the town constable. As Silas investigates Larry's attack and the missing girl, he, himself, is forced to confront his past friendship with Larry and the secrets he keeps about what happened years earlier. Dynamic, original characters paired with a gripping storyline kept me reading this through the weekend!</span><br /></span></div><br /><div><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;"><strong><span style="color:#000000;">Some Girls: My Life in a Harem by Jillian Lauren</span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSwLnwEDv6x8PEIh-8JKrIZPtF3wSGesWKpyQPlH-rELPof3r_RMNKCf5n2n9Y01FvLQQb608fyAOesoOT1Qz8pKeN_Ibh0Q3vyXxsjg0UB4fiawaT3Kke0OPfR0gy_wvqRpUt0m7sBII/s1600/some+girls.jpg"><span style="color:#000000;"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 139px; FLOAT: right; HEIGHT: 225px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5576588594607917106" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSwLnwEDv6x8PEIh-8JKrIZPtF3wSGesWKpyQPlH-rELPof3r_RMNKCf5n2n9Y01FvLQQb608fyAOesoOT1Qz8pKeN_Ibh0Q3vyXxsjg0UB4fiawaT3Kke0OPfR0gy_wvqRpUt0m7sBII/s320/some+girls.jpg" /></span></a></strong></span></div><div><span style="color:#000000;"><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;">At 19, Jillian Lauren had worked as a high-paid prostitute and stripper, and was pursuing a career as an actress when a friend in the escort business offered her an opportunity to travel to Brunei, where she would be one of about 40 young women in the harem of Prince Jefri. Eager for adventure and money, Lauren accepted the offer and spent a couple of years living among beautiful women from around the world who were competing for the attention of Prince Jefri, one of the wealthiest men on the globe. Her experience was disheartening, of course--despite the money, competition among the women was soul-crushing, privacy was non-existant, and there was little to do, as the women were allowed no personal freedom. Lauren's story is fascinating, if a little sad, and her writing is admirable. Flashbacks into her past reveal just enough about her to partly explain why she agreed to participate in the harem, but I would have liked a little more analysis and introspection.</span></span><br /></div><div><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;"><strong><span style="color:#000000;"><br />Day</span></strong><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicGO1jupXOUveic9O0CYHASi2M9fcC8LEVTG7gT_78jXgW376QXxoZK_yEaauY05OsogsklL7eUvEQflMxDkXwHGMOSQjTN7rrJbS-BsgYgaMjWRVo7L2SxG2xjbsHyEQ-icEnYw_ua6c/s1600/day+for+night.jpg"><strong><span style="color:#000000;"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 177px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 172px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5577694943393441042" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicGO1jupXOUveic9O0CYHASi2M9fcC8LEVTG7gT_78jXgW376QXxoZK_yEaauY05OsogsklL7eUvEQflMxDkXwHGMOSQjTN7rrJbS-BsgYgaMjWRVo7L2SxG2xjbsHyEQ-icEnYw_ua6c/s320/day+for+night.jpg" /></span></strong></a><span style="color:#000000;"><strong> for Night by Frederick Reiken</strong> was an absolutely fabulous read that reminded me in some ways of Jennifer Egan's book <strong><em>A Visit from the Goon Squad</em></strong>, which I recommended last month. Told by ten narrators, Reiken's novels pieces together a series of interlocking mysteries that weave characters' lives together. Included among the characters and their connections are Beverly Rabinovitz, who escaped Poland in WWII; her boyfriend, David, who is dying of leukemia; their children; an odd couple of musicians, Tim and Dee, who have a loose connection to a woman on the run from the FBI, and Dillon, Dee's 21-year-old comatose brother, and a bunch of other minor players. Somehow Reiken manages to blend these characters' stories together within a plot that involves the Holocaust, Satanic ritual abuse, manatees, and a bunch of other seemingly random topics to create a beautifully written, thoroughly engaging story that kept me riveted. </span></span></div><br /><div><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;"><span style="color:#000000;"><strong>When She Flew by Jennie Shortridge</strong> is the second novel I've read that is based loosely on the true story of a man and his adolescent daughter living in a Portland Park. <em><strong>My Abandonment</strong></em> by Peter Rock, was reviewed here awhile back, and is the more literary of the two books, both of which focus on </span><a href="http://portland.indymedia.org/en/2004/06/289883.shtml"><span style="color:#000000;">"Frank and Ruth," who in 2005 were ou</a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2CKg_PDVMQdSWL6W4KBJlwGE-4CHcGcXcp4-_0q-LvenWI69YG-nZfjsUNpVY8yzR2Jbb7_EwflT4EhKHe02tpVleLW6kTfhVZ74YugKexZwPmO_TvIoc5OGUUaen2VGD3fw2uDrWzZc/s1600/when-she-flew.jpg"><span style="color:#000000;"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 155px; FLOAT: right; HEIGHT: 218px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5579147746178994274" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2CKg_PDVMQdSWL6W4KBJlwGE-4CHcGcXcp4-_0q-LvenWI69YG-nZfjsUNpVY8yzR2Jbb7_EwflT4EhKHe02tpVleLW6kTfhVZ74YugKexZwPmO_TvIoc5OGUUaen2VGD3fw2uDrWzZc/s320/when-she-flew.jpg" /></span></a><a href="http://portland.indymedia.org/en/2004/06/289883.shtml">sted from their wilderness camp</span></a><span style="color:#000000;"> by authorities but received much support from the community at large. Shortridge's version of events switches between two point of view: that of Lindy, the 12-year-old girl who's found living in the woods, and Jess Villareal, a police officer assigned to the case. Lindy's observations are told in first-person, and reflect her love of her father and nature and aher angst at being torn from the home she's known for five years. Jess's perspective is third-person, which is unfortunate, because her side of the story feels more like something we're being told, rather than something she's telling us--her emotions are narrated, rather than shown. In addition, Villareal's response to the events hinges upon her discord with her own daughter, which worked in a Lifetime-movie-of-the-week kind of way but frankly, felt sort of artificial. </span></span></div><div><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;"></span></div><div><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;">It's March now, and I've got a lot of reading to do.</span></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div>Cathy Belbenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16215264665264634621noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7590673283563680567.post-20468522500616995032011-02-10T11:40:00.000-08:002011-02-14T13:45:43.489-08:00Happy International Quirkyalone Day!<div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj398z2XFoZZZHFoXtDfbYfq2lhGzMdvIBII7ShGthFSl5Kt4CNsumP18owrfNHSwoUPmOot0Ad41kpZfN6Nxc9aQSI7WQd6qxU0mrrZ7NENBSlYP6UX1XLbJdYzftO5jAWKzNIQ3bTHgw/s1600/quirkyalone.jpg"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 261px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 322px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5572150727397015442" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj398z2XFoZZZHFoXtDfbYfq2lhGzMdvIBII7ShGthFSl5Kt4CNsumP18owrfNHSwoUPmOot0Ad41kpZfN6Nxc9aQSI7WQd6qxU0mrrZ7NENBSlYP6UX1XLbJdYzftO5jAWKzNIQ3bTHgw/s320/quirkyalone.jpg" /></a><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">It took me almost 40 years to figure it out and own it, but I am a loner. My parents could probably have attested to this fact long ago, when, not content to simply have my own room, I rigged a hanging flashlight from the clothes rod and fashioned an even more secluded space to read The Boxcar Children in my closet.</span><br /><div><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"></span></div><br /><div><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">And now I'm all grown up and have a house and I STILL do this--squirrel away in some nook and do my own thing (usually sew or paint), praying that no one will bother me at least until this episode of Big Love is over and then I can be social in a time and place that I've already predesignated and set aside for that purpose. 7:30-7:45 p.m.: Make Small Talk With Roommates. Act Interested.<br /></span><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"></span></div><br /><div><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">I am a loner who doesn't live alone or work alone or even work out alone. I have three roommates; I work in a high school with 1000 kids and a hundred co-workers; I exercise amid the masses. Regardless, I am a consummate loner, living by myself inside my own head, moving among you, enduring you and silently judging you (just kidding, that's from <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0175880/">Magnolia</a>). </span></div><img style="MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 232px; FLOAT: right; HEIGHT: 245px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5573663524545556162" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbVO_NDrPFPHLuE7_Z6EXAAwiHxpUssrPshi9AJg32ZjJ6V5BE06oqE4Lgf-WKQ_heU2sEssiZcmvC7XBJEwMWqp8YE5p7oUllsndo-cHD7_rL_YDvrzmH0tg6b-ANKuxxIl9unXUE0rA/s320/quirkyaloneday.jpg" /><br /><div><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;"><a href="http://quirkyalone.net/">Quirkyalone: A Manifesto for Uncompromising Romantics by Sasha Cagen </a>pretty much sums up the highlights of alonedom: the belief that life is amazing and fun without a mate, and that not having a partner isn't a sign that one has failed to accomplish one thing but chosen to do another. Cagen carefully defines quirkyalone, pointing out the different between those who are merely weird and lonely from those who are social and actively pursue a solitudinous (pretty sure that's not a word) existance punctuated by forays into civilization for entertainment and comfort. She lists famous folks who prefer to live alone, chronicles the quirkyalones through history, discusses the complicated business of quirkyalones, love, and partnerships, and most of all, offers a documentation of all that is right with pursuing a life of sassy singlehood. </span><br /></div><div><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;"></span></div><br /><div><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;">It's Valentine's Day, and for an extraordinary number of us, it means not candlelights and chocolates, but another episode of Mad Men, some quality sofa time with the dog, and a Lean Cuisine. Would I rather have a foot massage and a bouquet? Maybe. But it doesn't have to happen today. I have Jon Hamm, after all, and Frida, and Cagen's book full of insight and humor. I'm not alone at all. </span></div></div>Cathy Belbenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16215264665264634621noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7590673283563680567.post-74933812975101721942011-02-02T10:45:00.000-08:002011-02-03T14:13:07.563-08:00January 2011 Reads<span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;font-size:85%;">My New Year's Goal, to laugh hard every day, was accompanied this year by a renewed commitment to read more, and to read more stuff that I sincerely want to press into the hands of my reading acquaintances. No more slogging through something just because I paid money for it--I'm determined to make better selections and to quit reading when something bogs me down, so that I can create a list of truly awesome recommendations. Here's what I read January 1-31st, 2011.</span><br /><div><div><div><div><div><div><div><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;font-size:85%;"></span></div><br /><div><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;font-size:85%;">For those of you who have lives filled with romance and adventure and unlike this narrator, don't have piles of time laying around in which to read 13 books a month, I<span style="color:#ff0000;"> have conveniently highlighted in <strong>red</strong> the title of the one book that you must absolutely read this month</span>. The others are essential, too. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;font-size:85%;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzGWd340bCvmKg_QayU6qgiqQCMfqChOQ-kDfnVTPaxJz6FjqS2aJDil5tsiczE1lZwbyNVRrHuPVx4bpRsLYQf5wBovtOBZbVrVq4v8Km2W9mzCn9UKzlhDkjgfoR-xizp0lDx5WoAgw/s1600/the+last+child.jpg"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 89px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 136px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5569508755280105714" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzGWd340bCvmKg_QayU6qgiqQCMfqChOQ-kDfnVTPaxJz6FjqS2aJDil5tsiczE1lZwbyNVRrHuPVx4bpRsLYQf5wBovtOBZbVrVq4v8Km2W9mzCn9UKzlhDkjgfoR-xizp0lDx5WoAgw/s320/the+last+child.jpg" /></a><a href="http://www.villagebooks.com/book/9780312359324">The Last Child by John Hart</a> is a quality suspense story about a teenager who is determined to solve his sister's mysterious disappearance on his own. This story is multi-layered, with well-developed subplots, dynamic, complex characters, and a plot that steers away from police-procedural formula.<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcQK9Qtxf78wFFJD7hPkC42XQ4J-Ln5VpLJhvvWhkIFD4LUK4Jx8cvavMvjKD2_ns8iZ23FpYDwShB4ab1sgnGIZ30RgVzy2kPXH74IC0dJDcwzT89ThV-0X7VqKbCdCZ_ng8qqsCQjto/s1600/neighbors.jpg"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 98px; FLOAT: right; HEIGHT: 137px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5569508963042643410" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcQK9Qtxf78wFFJD7hPkC42XQ4J-Ln5VpLJhvvWhkIFD4LUK4Jx8cvavMvjKD2_ns8iZ23FpYDwShB4ab1sgnGIZ30RgVzy2kPXH74IC0dJDcwzT89ThV-0X7VqKbCdCZ_ng8qqsCQjto/s320/neighbors.jpg" /></a></span></div><br /><div><div><div><div><div><div><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;font-size:85%;"><a href="http://www.villagebooks.com/book/9780307463869">The Neighbors are Watching by Debra Ginsberg</a> is another fantastic suspense story, this time set in Del Mar, California, a bedroom community of San Diego, during a giant wildfire. A pregnant teen has run away to live with the father she's never met, and her sudden appearance (and subsequent disappearance) wreak havoc on a small, tidy neighborhood which, it turns out, is full of seemingly upstanding citizens who are harboring a few nasty secrets of their own. </span><br /></div><div></div><div><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;font-size:85%;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1vhNcO12pg8n5a98MDPncZzH_YOBwZ0JStsAqNKPa9ADKXMSKrEiFDerNEhNxNVd2r396noqIicj89sG8k_4S-jEDXpe_iUsZ5e2fbcjup-FpF9wfsbhP40PO1iYOQ4Nzdq36EEefOck/s1600/secrets+to+happiness.jpg"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 92px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 140px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5569532015341746370" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1vhNcO12pg8n5a98MDPncZzH_YOBwZ0JStsAqNKPa9ADKXMSKrEiFDerNEhNxNVd2r396noqIicj89sG8k_4S-jEDXpe_iUsZ5e2fbcjup-FpF9wfsbhP40PO1iYOQ4Nzdq36EEefOck/s320/secrets+to+happiness.jpg" /></a><a href="http://www.villagebooks.com/book/9780316013604">Secrets to Happiness </a>by Sarah Dunn tells the story of Holly Frick, recently thrust into an unwanted singlehood after her husband leaves her, and the recipient of confessions and complaints by practically everyone, including her best friend, who divulges the secrets of her own infidelity. Holly's not looking for love, just happiness, and her quest leads her to some unique and hilarious conclusions. I loved that this story of <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfxgUg9L2O1K8gXsqqXHtPPTnaUbmUqntuhSPOEvkQ7HsV_-al0KN14bdbWE0LQ_hoq8RXiMcVeFz0tjxwlHYlEWj02gFsWfGNkNQmvnnl7U_po1bevBgoH1LWSYBxj_8FrHiBvsiFbTY/s1600/secrets+to+happiness.jpg"></a>a smart, funny single didn't rely on her finding the perfect guy and/or becoming a mother in order to be happy--a testament to those of us <a href="http://www.quirkyalone.net/qa/peoplelikeus.php">quirkyalones</a> who are building different lives. Dunn's writing, especially the dialogue, is the kind I want to read aloud to people just because it's so spot-on, so funny, and so very, very true. </span><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEiLhXYdkrOvRU0nzAZTj0d9zuMfx4ZpOKQWBSX68KHYd41R6dZu6f9qvaDYDq6zm691JEtYh2TIJKZKF0iojN7OgCo56wuKTvvqhI7slJ-VyCcIzkMVidGJfFUWbVawbQNMrZnao6SU8/s1600/accidental+billionaires.jpg"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 91px; FLOAT: right; HEIGHT: 140px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5569548928495242514" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEiLhXYdkrOvRU0nzAZTj0d9zuMfx4ZpOKQWBSX68KHYd41R6dZu6f9qvaDYDq6zm691JEtYh2TIJKZKF0iojN7OgCo56wuKTvvqhI7slJ-VyCcIzkMVidGJfFUWbVawbQNMrZnao6SU8/s320/accidental+billionaires.jpg" /></a><br /><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;font-size:85%;"><a href="http://www.villagebooks.com/book/9780307740984">The Accidental Billionaires </a>by Ben Mezrich is the basis for The Social Network, and is apparently, only ONE side of the contentious relationship between Mark Zuckerberg and his Harvard classmates who co-conceived of (depending on who you ask) Facebook. It's a quick read, and worth a few hours just so you get the background for the movie. I'm on the look-out for a more well-rounded version of events.</span><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;font-size:85%;"><a href="http://www.villagebooks.com/book/9780307592835"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 93px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 160px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5569191830662801218" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg33xi0EwWM-mNx-W7AXAnLsJFbhcHi3_zVcZiz9eyXZgPCFMt-Se4Cc5nvr83VIfRt8HRcqjcolbSS37b0TCH_P7Md9sjnH428fyVNENWaFzzOkTs4e7GSS_r5N_9OG7mOKJuB-HOs1XA/s320/a+visit.jpg" />A Visit from the Good Squad </a>by Jennifer Egan has appeared on practically every best-of-2010 list I've encountered, and with good reason. Although not told in a traditional format (one chapter is narrated in PowerPoint slides), the multiple viewpoints and non-linear travel through the characters' lives only deepen and enrich this story, which revolves around an assortment of people associated with and affected by a charismatic music producer--including his high school bandmates, his lovers, and many others. I can't describe it adequately. I also couldn't stop reading it.<br /><br /></span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibUfInuQkR3cGTXrriVg-aYFpAdbgfmO13yG_dWGDnwducbegYv1a-Bv5QPNZl9gjXpbPWpdMVC-hK58XRUO9cFvueVKIIliMbZk0V2R5vkII2qtPXUoGK8eZWkieq4Cx_hEW8rTyTIYQ/s1600/second+wind.jpg"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 93px; FLOAT: right; HEIGHT: 140px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5569549725252028978" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibUfInuQkR3cGTXrriVg-aYFpAdbgfmO13yG_dWGDnwducbegYv1a-Bv5QPNZl9gjXpbPWpdMVC-hK58XRUO9cFvueVKIIliMbZk0V2R5vkII2qtPXUoGK8eZWkieq4Cx_hEW8rTyTIYQ/s320/second+wind.jpg" /></a><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;font-size:85%;"><a href="http://www.villagebooks.com/book/9781580053075">Second Wind</a> by Cami Ostman is the non-fiction account of Ostman's journey around the world, completing a marathon on every continent, which is awesome in about a billion ways PLUS she lives in Bellingham and I know her. Her book is funny, thoughtful, and inspiring, and it will make you believe in your own ability to recreate your life and savor your talents, gifts, and challenges.</span><br /></div><div><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;font-size:85%;"><strong>Racing for Recovery</strong> is the one book I read this month that didn't really excite me. I'm training for triathlons, so I'm looking for narratives and memoirs about other triathletes--there aren't many out there--and this is one I found. A drug addict cleans up his life and becomes an ironman. The story's inspiring, the writing isn't.<br /></span><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;font-size:85%;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgcl93GMWs_YOy7yz4Bdr8_ll9UtAKVAP2PC8JzQggUsQ-OcXuvh4ITm8yZBJL4IxZ7VKNPsOd7X81ORnSVn1mQ-7nBgnHQ13P5CmCBQVAP12eiGgU8Rfi8hk1SOdI7cOEm4RTIy7iKhU/s1600/the+imperfectionists.jpg"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 91px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 140px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5569550301624782242" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgcl93GMWs_YOy7yz4Bdr8_ll9UtAKVAP2PC8JzQggUsQ-OcXuvh4ITm8yZBJL4IxZ7VKNPsOd7X81ORnSVn1mQ-7nBgnHQ13P5CmCBQVAP12eiGgU8Rfi8hk1SOdI7cOEm4RTIy7iKhU/s320/the+imperfectionists.jpg" /></a><a href="http://www.villagebooks.com/book/9780385343671">The Imperfectionists </a>by Tom Rachman is amazingly smart without being pretentious or difficult to read. Interrelated stories of characters affected by their employment or readership of an English-language, old-school newspaper in Rome tell the story of the paper's rise and fall, which sounds really dry, but it's not. Each story is a tiny, detailed, absorbing world rich with weird characters and unexpected plot twists.</span><br /><br /></div><div><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;font-size:85%;"><a href="http://www.villagebooks.com/book/9780802170828">Annabel </a>by Kathleen Winter tells the story of a baby born with both male and fema<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuISvbJXF3T55EJOoXTpk_BPZEwpd3Kx909Tf4eCIdvZ144rf2QSRVuV7mKXWx0ICDiVKx58IOslN7cz690av4sIqC_ELA0aHkU9B0uxBwh2_-DMR-zGigSiFIoj_1Ttuu8CbCBZvcIzU/s1600/Annabel.jpg"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 93px; FLOAT: right; HEIGHT: 140px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5569577041892470386" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuISvbJXF3T55EJOoXTpk_BPZEwpd3Kx909Tf4eCIdvZ144rf2QSRVuV7mKXWx0ICDiVKx58IOslN7cz690av4sIqC_ELA0aHkU9B0uxBwh2_-DMR-zGigSiFIoj_1Ttuu8CbCBZvcIzU/s320/Annabel.jpg" /></a>le genitalia to a family in rural Nova Scotia. His parents decide to raise him as a boy named Wayne and keep the truth about his anatomy secret--even from him. But secrets--their keeping and their discovery--are what make stories worth reading, and this one is no exception. But it isn't the secrecy that makes the novel so phenomenal, it's the characters and the unexpected way they respond to Wayne and the challenges that accompany his growing up. NOT a "problem novel," this is a rich portrait of isolated people attempting to deal with an unimaginable anomaly in an otherwise remote and ordinary place. Gorgeous writing, likeable characters, an unusual premise--a must-read.<br /></span><br /></div><div><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;font-size:85%;"><a href="http://www.villagebooks.com/book/9780525423645">Matched</a> by Allie <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzZBiGqp41cO3GRul0xfXwulCn3hWBALwwL_SGNNU5GD6I-JlFQ95yyLcQKtMebWphqi3u-1WI_0xffIvId8tpWyiJZ01u1Jqh6OLRGUufzl7z4WxzrOQCuAe9zWyRUhUOVsmg8TvEp7w/s1600/matched.jpg"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 93px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 140px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5569579042107874882" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzZBiGqp41cO3GRul0xfXwulCn3hWBALwwL_SGNNU5GD6I-JlFQ95yyLcQKtMebWphqi3u-1WI_0xffIvId8tpWyiJZ01u1Jqh6OLRGUufzl7z4WxzrOQCuAe9zWyRUhUOVsmg8TvEp7w/s320/matched.jpg" /></a>Condie is the only young adult book I read this month, but it was awesome. The story will remind some people of The Giver by Lois Lowry, as it takes places in the future, in a society where government manipulation allows everyone to be equal, and regulations manage everything to when and what is eaten to your job, life partner, and clothing. Cassia, at 16, is about to be "matched," or assigned her life partner. A special ceremony will reveal the mate selected for her by the government agency that studies and selects the best fit. When she attends her Match ceremony, Cassia is thrilled discover that her best friend, Xander, has been chosen as her mate. But when she reviews the data card later, she sees, for a brief instant, another image--of another boy. Curious, she begins investigating, and discovers that a technical glitch has allowed her to see something no one else has ever been allowed to see--an alternative. Cassia's exploration in options is dangerous for her and for her society, but once the possibility becomes available, it's impossible to resist. Part love story, part warning, <strong><em>Matched</em></strong> is a terrific read--and not just for teens.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;font-size:85%;"><a href="http://www.villagebooks.com/book/9780307474711">One Day </a>by David Nicholls<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0iiUE24ZOQkRAnQDFan8ftQE51tatPWQtc3Alcr-2AF35KdiKtERrscWnJsi6srgmfY_0cNQ2PzGr3Cvkmrre0-tVk_xsutPpxKNTOHgMjfissXvkkXseQkW00psgViCGTIIkOHWipOY/s1600/one+day.jpg"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 90px; FLOAT: right; HEIGHT: 140px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5569582877280907186" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0iiUE24ZOQkRAnQDFan8ftQE51tatPWQtc3Alcr-2AF35KdiKtERrscWnJsi6srgmfY_0cNQ2PzGr3Cvkmrre0-tVk_xsutPpxKNTOHgMjfissXvkkXseQkW00psgViCGTIIkOHWipOY/s320/one+day.jpg" /></a> revisits Emma and Dexter yearly on the day they originally met in college and had a one-night stand. Following their lives and intersections for twenty years, we watch as their friendship grows and changes as each pursues career goals and love interests. The affection they share is what makes the story so likeable, and I found myself pleading with them to get together once and for all through the whole book. More than just a rom-com, this story delves a little deeper into the characters' lives, motivations, mistakes, and disappointments. A younger Hugh Grant might have been cast as Dexter, but in this one (due out July 8, 2011) it's going to be Jim Sturgess alongside Anne Hathaway. I expect it to rock.</span></div><div><br /><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 97px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 140px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5569581254731311426" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZkIigaQfXGjLmqLtINZlm65m6VhtLIIqBDgkxmY78vfpwdEpIzZ3h-Gprbr7kfrXrkq4P1yCHozKoxfM1iupzyCn06aEWqNUkwDSivvwhTCeWhjyaPFZAH36XZ_1iwlG9U2lR8mVYaPY/s320/half+a+life.jpg" /><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;font-size:85%;"><a href="http://www.villagebooks.com/book/9781934781708">Half a Life </a>by Darin Strauss. As a teenager, Darin Strauss struck a classmate riding her bike while out driving, killing her. Although the death was ruled an accident, that doesn't stop it from haunting him throughout his adult life, his own success as a writer continually reminding him of the life cut short by the accident. I expected this book to make me weep, but it never strays into weepy, maudlin territory, nor does Strauss plead with us to feel his sorrow and guilt about the accident. A bad thing happened, it changed a young man's life and the lives of the family members of the young woman killed, and this story shows what that was like. Strauss's story is simply and skillfully told, a meditation on mortality and chance. </span><br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjb1-Dg1yyKvGmd-x1OEMn7F7PVRT-ka7HFt2Uf9jAIPrLmdiGLoHTn6uoUiEIWghuFf3UigD1ZHSLxSdfyyvXsPOcdyNRtwONEtXeGiZw0b4tV6o4Lba0c68IE3Areq0TIml5zSX3Hu_U/s1600/fates.jpg"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 89px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 140px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5569587386486727042" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjb1-Dg1yyKvGmd-x1OEMn7F7PVRT-ka7HFt2Uf9jAIPrLmdiGLoHTn6uoUiEIWghuFf3UigD1ZHSLxSdfyyvXsPOcdyNRtwONEtXeGiZw0b4tV6o4Lba0c68IE3Areq0TIml5zSX3Hu_U/s320/fates.jpg" /></a><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;font-size:85%;"><span style="color:#ff0000;"><strong>The Fates Will Find Their Way</strong></span> by Hannah Pittard. Well this is it--the one book I read this month that I would recommend you read if you have time for no others. And yes, it's a missing persons story (I have a weakness for those). Nora Lindell goes missing in high school, and the story follows the teenage boys who knew and admired her as they carry on with their lives, all of them imagining what might have happened to their classmate. The framework--missing girls, those she left behind--isn't what makes it remarkable. The narration however, is unique without drawing attention to itself; one of the boys--unidentified--speaks in an omniscient, plural first person that offers a collection view of Nora, her family, the neighborhood, and the time period. Perhaps most significant are the carefully crafted possible scenarios presented as explanations for what happened to Nora. I can't really say anymore...you'll just have to read it. </span></div><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;font-size:85%;"></span></div><div><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;font-size:85%;"></span><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;font-size:85%;"><div><br />And now it is February. Stay tuned. </span></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div>Cathy Belbenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16215264665264634621noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7590673283563680567.post-34930920361602776382011-01-13T10:01:00.000-08:002011-01-15T20:03:13.461-08:00Every Freaking Book I Read in 2010, Part OneIf the title is highlighted in red, that means "Hey people, this is one of my top recommendations!" I didn't even read 50 books in 2010, and that's probably because I got really into sewing, and that shit is like crack.<br /><p><strong>JANUARY-JULY (ish) 2010<br /></strong><strong><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">Ishiguro, Kazuo. Never Let Me Go. (Fiction)<br /></span></strong>An eerie, creepy novel in which the horror behind the set-up unfolds so subtly you feel almost as though you’ve been tricked into reading a story you never would have chosen. Children being raised in a boarding school-cum-orphanage develop intense relationships as they mature and discover the true reasons why they are living where and how they are.<br /><br /><strong>Schusterma</strong><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCYqGEuo1OYG3H9St3KpfrUbdUfftsW2O7azahFo8G92PcYgUZ-3pmyvHlvDlyPnU8p0OBMLXxikSZgwV-e9v43NIZW07tkpeuILXjqxSnHgRDjGVGpvlxPe5FvNhzas5X92RXhmXKjeE/s1600/Unwind.jpeg"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 91px; height: 135px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCYqGEuo1OYG3H9St3KpfrUbdUfftsW2O7azahFo8G92PcYgUZ-3pmyvHlvDlyPnU8p0OBMLXxikSZgwV-e9v43NIZW07tkpeuILXjqxSnHgRDjGVGpvlxPe5FvNhzas5X92RXhmXKjeE/s320/Unwind.jpeg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5562430744813732866" border="0" /></a><strong>n, Neal. Unwind. (Young Adult Fiction)<br /></strong>In a futuristic America, abortion is no longer legal, but parents can choose to have their children “unwound” when they turn 13—basically, have them sent to harvesting centers, where they’ll gradually be parted out.Three teens--one who's been created specifically as a donation, one who's disappointed his parents, and a third who has failed to develop her talents in a foster home--escape from their fate and try to survive on the run from the authorities.<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgb_oNyW1KMteLXNp1pFpKl4G1793AHhAVrP4_2L0c2obTeeRqdJV9o-y7b-UHQG5LpbEouAzX0rNlehELPwzj3ZUQIrwI9lmcyfFFgbA2SSX9I0fpVP8y8X8ChAaVvSkF3NveVRvABC_Q/s1600/a+friend+of+the+family.jpeg"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 110px; height: 166px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgb_oNyW1KMteLXNp1pFpKl4G1793AHhAVrP4_2L0c2obTeeRqdJV9o-y7b-UHQG5LpbEouAzX0rNlehELPwzj3ZUQIrwI9lmcyfFFgbA2SSX9I0fpVP8y8X8ChAaVvSkF3NveVRvABC_Q/s320/a+friend+of+the+family.jpeg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5562431452181099170" border="0" /></a><br /><strong><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">Grodstein, </span></strong><strong><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">Lauren. A Friend of the Family. (Fiction)<br /></span></strong>Excruciating, but well-written and un-put-downable. A father tries to stop his 20-year-old son from dating an older woman with a very dark secret in her past.<br /><br /><strong>Best Sex Writing 2010.(Mostly Fiction)<br /></strong>Meh.<br /><br /><strong>Benway, Robin. Audrey, Wait! (Young Adult Fiction)<br /></strong>Very funny YA about a girl who is made famous when her ex-boyfriend writes a song about her that becomes a hit. Perfect for Meg Cabot fans.</p><p><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiVFO1mGUtvRe-d8RC2mh-t3ocn1d5nnehb_iE79h8XtS7V-lsEngu06vp_4_Gy_26WNib2WgXW0jJcPXULmDeErsu2M0i135Ck6RT2KQQLdKhzfvLkOrv571Qh0ajmZkA3BfZhCbZbV8/s1600/the+unnamed.jpeg"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 116px; height: 180px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiVFO1mGUtvRe-d8RC2mh-t3ocn1d5nnehb_iE79h8XtS7V-lsEngu06vp_4_Gy_26WNib2WgXW0jJcPXULmDeErsu2M0i135Ck6RT2KQQLdKhzfvLkOrv571Qh0ajmZkA3BfZhCbZbV8/s320/the+unnamed.jpeg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5562431807150050962" border="0" /></a><strong><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">Ferris, Joshua. The Unnamed. (Fiction)<br /></span></strong>A man suffers from an unnamed, unexplained disorder that compels him to walk aimlessly for hours, even days, at a time. OK, so a book about a guy walking endlessly sounds boring, but in Ferris's story, it is a fascinating memoir for our times--who are we? We are we going? And most importantly, why? Unique and smart. One of my favorite novels of the year.<br /><br /><strong>Mitchell, Mary. Americans in Space. (Fiction)<br /></strong>Kind of lame story about a screwed up high school counselor. I liked the writing, but not the characters or the story.<br /><br /><strong>Pierson, DC. The Boy Who Couldn’t Sleep and Never Had To. (Fiction)<br /></strong>One teen befriends another, and the two embark on a wacky adventure to write a comic book or something. Funny for awhile, then I realized I don’t really like wacky that much.<br /><br /><strong>Hubba</strong><strong>rd, Jennifer. The Secret Year. (Young Adult Fiction)<br /></strong>A teenage boy mourns the death of the girl with whom he had a secret relationship.<br /><br /><strong>Johnson, Marilyn. This Book is Overdue! (Non-Fiction)<br /></strong>A peek into the lives of librarians. Some good stuff, but way too much about librarians in cyberspace and virtual lives. I could write better, but I probably won’t.<br /><br /><strong><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">Cross, David. I Drink for a Reason. (Non-Fiction Humorous Essays)</span></strong><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBOvZHOfDsPBtUeYbfYMQLuu5D6Vzir8Jvx-AbRnoHbXJB_-57Rxw5HEvoXwElOAyXra3eskfNwOP8a2cMwMWY6vxWWS5HpGcttnnvZknK3ge17iUTNwdpnLOYqAVEKEcEEpjg11iWaaU/s1600/i+drink+for+a+reason.jpeg"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 108px; height: 163px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBOvZHOfDsPBtUeYbfYMQLuu5D6Vzir8Jvx-AbRnoHbXJB_-57Rxw5HEvoXwElOAyXra3eskfNwOP8a2cMwMWY6vxWWS5HpGcttnnvZknK3ge17iUTNwdpnLOYqAVEKEcEEpjg11iWaaU/s320/i+drink+for+a+reason.jpeg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5562432468917759314" border="0" /></a><br /><strong>The funniest book I read all year</strong>. David Cross is a genius. There are essays in here I will quote for years, even if I don’t drink anymore. (And actually, the essays are about pop and political culture, not about drinking, anyway). David Cross=David Sedaris+Bill Maher.<br /><br /><strong>Kn</strong><strong>owles, Jo. Jumping Off Swings. (YA Fiction)<br /></strong>Another teen pregnancy story. Who cares. But then again, at least it's not about vampires.<br /><br /><strong>Stead, Rebecca. When You Reach Me. (YA Fiction)<br /></strong>Cool story about a girl receiving mysterious messages. A good recommendation for readers who liked <strong>I Am the Messenger</strong>.<br /><br /><strong>Welch. The Kids are All Right. (Non-Fiction/Memoir)</strong><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZ24tMRUWNXLpFoIwu6Ae_AztN758MTYQNkB5ajnxhq5D0MHyYW1dd7g2aotewnJSXjdsyHlQtCnhHCaZv3Bq0srXktrP-UcWwI-KTFcJFRCth8p_t2quxHi_XmqaBCNBUG57sCwUOO-o/s1600/the+kids+are+all+right.jpeg"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 147px; height: 110px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZ24tMRUWNXLpFoIwu6Ae_AztN758MTYQNkB5ajnxhq5D0MHyYW1dd7g2aotewnJSXjdsyHlQtCnhHCaZv3Bq0srXktrP-UcWwI-KTFcJFRCth8p_t2quxHi_XmqaBCNBUG57sCwUOO-o/s320/the+kids+are+all+right.jpeg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5562433122487562114" border="0" /></a><br />(Not the basis for the movie of the same title).<br />Four teens are orphaned and divided up among family friends and relatives, where each struggles to find happiness and identity before they are reunited. Very good—good recommendation for anyone who liked A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers.<br /><br /><strong><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">Udall, Brad</span></strong><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMTNB_whsghwUezYPUF8yBo_YWlCsEK-RZ-PzjRDdIL_yVhAwSv5camH3BX0hm8nstPGaKPD7Y7y505bgpSpdpJZHnFqLwdyrG09QEdy76cKMUXxtgaHHObWBzdAU9OhHWN_glw6btUcc/s1600/the+lonely+polygamist.jpeg"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 118px; height: 162px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMTNB_whsghwUezYPUF8yBo_YWlCsEK-RZ-PzjRDdIL_yVhAwSv5camH3BX0hm8nstPGaKPD7Y7y505bgpSpdpJZHnFqLwdyrG09QEdy76cKMUXxtgaHHObWBzdAU9OhHWN_glw6btUcc/s320/the+lonely+polygamist.jpeg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5562518139395350386" border="0" /></a><strong><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">y. The Lonely Polygamist. (Fiction)<br /></span></strong>I loved this novel about a polygamist with four wives and 28 children who finds himself in moral turmoil when he is attracted to another woman and caught in the midst of the complications in his own enormous family. Read this if you like reading, and also if you like <strong>Big Love</strong>.<br /><br /><strong><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">Halpern, Justin. Shit My Dad Says. (Humor)<br /></span></strong>A collection of the hilarious and usually profane remarks made by Halpern’s dad.<br /><strong><br />Levithan, David. Will Grayson, Will Grayson. (YA Fiction)<br /></strong>A gay teen named Will Grayson meets another boy with the same name, and their lives become intertwined. Good reading—Levithan is one of my favorite YA authors, and he does a really good job with LGBTQ lit.<br /><br /><strong>The Lighter Side of Life and Death. (YA Fiction)<br /></strong>A guy gets involved (read: has sex with) a much older girl. Some other stuff happens, but I’ve forgotten, so I’ll file this one under “teen drama/romance” and leave it at that.<br /><strong><br />Mulgrew, Jason. Everything is Wrong With Me.<br /></strong>Humorous essays. I keep wanting every humorist I read to be David Sedaris, and they’re not, but they’re still funny, just not as funny, which sounds like a condemnation, which it’s not.<br /><br /><strong><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">Almond,</span></strong><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxi_hb4QmLQrDEacb34mCO_EMzQhR2xgqIaZn7MdTQ_bEeIcQtvIabpDr42F9inD7h8uuBwmxIJ6sg2QQyIac2y3kf4TR73F2KbzhIYHtFDcz33lFVeKGeVFc2xTH3BylXClDp4MPt18k/s1600/rock+and+roll.jpeg"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 99px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxi_hb4QmLQrDEacb34mCO_EMzQhR2xgqIaZn7MdTQ_bEeIcQtvIabpDr42F9inD7h8uuBwmxIJ6sg2QQyIac2y3kf4TR73F2KbzhIYHtFDcz33lFVeKGeVFc2xTH3BylXClDp4MPt18k/s320/rock+and+roll.jpeg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5562579072307367330" border="0" /></a><strong><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);"> Steve. Rock and Roll Will Save Your Life. (Non-Fiction)<br /></span></strong>Steve Almond can write anything and I’ll read it. His fiction is amazing, his non-fiction is amazing, and this book was funny and insightful, just like everything he writes. But then again, I think anyone who defends their love of Styx is pretty incredible. Not just for music lovers or survivors of the 80s, this is a manifesto for lovers of music who may have felt previously that their tastes were shameful. No more. Whatever your audiological kinks, you’ll appreciate Almond’s acute observations about music.<br /><br /><strong>Green, G</strong><strong>eorge Dawes. Ravens. (Fiction)</strong>Gripping suspense story about a couple of In Cold Blood-like hoodlums who discover a family has won the state lottery before it hits the media and then hold the family hostage to extort their winnings. How the money affects the individual family members, and how the bumbling bad guys terrorize the family is scary, but it doesn't make me want to win the lottery any less.<br /><strong><strong><br />McNally, John. After the Workshop. (Fiction</strong>)</strong>A publicist who has the thankless job of escorting visiting authors to their venues is in big trouble when one of them goes missing. McNally is funny and suspenseful, and so far, I’ve enjoyed everything he’s written. This one will have special appeal for writers and anyone involved in the publishing world or the world of writers’ workshops.<br /><strong><br />Young-Stone, Michele. Handbook for Lightning Strike Survivors. (Fiction)</strong>A young woman struck twice by lightning meets another lightning strike survivor and the two begin a relationship to figure out the mysterious connection between them. I liked this book; I wish I could remember the details.<br /><br /><strong>The Late, Lamented Molly Marx. (Fiction)</strong>After she is mysteriously killed, Molly Marx continues to be cognizant of the living world, and watches as investigators and friends try to solve the mystery of her death. A light, funny, chick-lit mystery that took me too long to read.<br /><br /><strong>Nielsen, Susin. Word Nerd. (Fiction)</strong><br />Scrabble-lovers, rejoice! This is a fun YA read about Ambrose, a self-described nerd, who moves regularly with his mother. At their latest home, he begins pestering Cosmo, the adult son of the Greek neighbors. Cosmo’s been in trouble with the law, and Ambrose hangs out with him against his mother’s orders, eventually attending a local Scrabble club and becoming a favorite among the other players. His participation and his secrecy have consequences, however, that no one could have predicted. I LOVED this book—it reminded me of some of the other awesome YA/tween books like The Giver, Holes, anything by E.L. Konigsburg (The View from Saturday, etc.).Cathy Belbenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16215264665264634621noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7590673283563680567.post-314368241625523552010-11-30T10:14:00.000-08:002011-01-07T09:17:50.628-08:00Home Sweet HomeThe weather has left me trapped inside my house, unable--or at least unwilling--to spend much time saturating myself in rainwater (curly hair+precip=disaster), so I've been appreciating interiors. Occasionally my truck, often my office/library, but mostly my house. Freshly outfitted with a hand-me-over lava lamp from my dad, my bedroom (formerly the Sunset View room, now the Housepital-Blocks-My-View Room) is the perfect reading location.<br /><br /><div><div><div><div><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicFCQJbAk9IbGPdmEnqcVZXMlrvB6z1E5N-Z1746UYxynTGJHctRj3koZBpEujUjqkmOLX5Pt4jNy9tYywN19m7nQhQPKBdHZ-K3KoyT72L_x31S9lVOO7FZdQXqcOGS7gGgaDP4aWPRg/s1600/AT+Big+Book+of+Small+Cool+Spaces.jpg"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 180px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 242px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5559475039318014258" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicFCQJbAk9IbGPdmEnqcVZXMlrvB6z1E5N-Z1746UYxynTGJHctRj3koZBpEujUjqkmOLX5Pt4jNy9tYywN19m7nQhQPKBdHZ-K3KoyT72L_x31S9lVOO7FZdQXqcOGS7gGgaDP4aWPRg/s320/AT+Big+Book+of+Small+Cool+Spaces.jpg" /></a>I'm pretty sure I'm going to win the lottery soon, because I keep having these fantasies about improvements I'd like to make to the NapCastle. Before you go all ballistic and "<a href="http://www.blogger.com/www.belbensbuildingblog.blogspot.com">you just built that house TWO YEARS ago!</a>" on me, remember the Anne Frank Room, and recall that it is semi-inhabitable, eagerly awaiting the large influx of cash that will transform it into the Coolest Little Apartment Ever. If there's any chance that you think a 200-square-foot space can't be an entire residence, you need to go two places: 1) <a href="http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/">http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/</a> and 2) your local bookstore to purchase the book creater by the authors of the AT blog: <a href="http://www.villagebooks.com/book/9780307464606">Apartment Therapy's Big Book of Small, Cool Spaces</a>.</div><br /><div>Realizing the dream of home ownership has not <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjV4Zi0HgN8oRNHEwR3epAftUEsV-kNuvR58ohZgKrpdSih6Ji9Qje4Vv_ds311HJqmDLZOuucAFRh6bCxSYidLAou0sOeaG3BkClA0le0-_w9erCzglBERTBzPR5Ebi0_863WV2FRp50U/s1600/House+art+2010+002.jpg"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 115px; FLOAT: right; HEIGHT: 293px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5559475187520180514" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjV4Zi0HgN8oRNHEwR3epAftUEsV-kNuvR58ohZgKrpdSih6Ji9Qje4Vv_ds311HJqmDLZOuucAFRh6bCxSYidLAou0sOeaG3BkClA0le0-_w9erCzglBERTBzPR5Ebi0_863WV2FRp50U/s320/House+art+2010+002.jpg" /></a>squelched my obsession with homes--it's amplified it. Now that I have a house, I want to learn all about houses. I want to look at pictures of houses and decor and color schemes and weird ways to create art out of recycled stuff (see photos of poems I painted and strapped to the side of the NapCastle) and hidden spaces and beds that pop out of walls (front porch Murphy bunk, anyone?). <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvHYgKoWpA8oaKr_TbDXkwu16NEwdeZSWcxzwkJHK2_3yhl8QXJHrmOM4aWBlkbS98odV1DrjWRSb7yNP7OupYH1qDHxL6FHh6QetwPZmDB7wXgjUHLoJRIfh0-eQCLZHzrisHTgXbcTI/s1600/at+home.jpg"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 194px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 300px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5559474972206259058" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvHYgKoWpA8oaKr_TbDXkwu16NEwdeZSWcxzwkJHK2_3yhl8QXJHrmOM4aWBlkbS98odV1DrjWRSb7yNP7OupYH1qDHxL6FHh6QetwPZmDB7wXgjUHLoJRIfh0-eQCLZHzrisHTgXbcTI/s320/at+home.jpg" /></a>I recently listened to Bill Bryson read his latest book, <a href="http://www.villagebooks.com/book/9780767919388">At Home</a>, in which he uses his own centuries-old English parsonageas a framework for exploring the history of human domesticity.</div><br /><div>Traveling room by room through his own home, Bryson retraces the Western evolution of home-making, including in his typical style fascinating minutiae about how people have lived and why. I don't generally read history, but I love Bill Bryson and will listen to him read almost anything. The details in this book about food, cooking, bathing, sleeping, and every other aspect of life at home were absorbing and entertaining. They also gave me an even greater appreciation for things I take for granted, like plumbing, flapper light switches, and a bed that's not made out of dung. Now I also know why salt and pepper are standard table condiments, and my decades-long post-Amelia-Bedelia curiosity about what a "drawing room" is has been satiated. </div><br /><div>It's easy to take for granted the simple amenities that add comfort and convenience to our lives--running water, telephones, live-in servants--while we're running around like crazyheads acummulating Wiis and iPads and 400-thread count sheets. Invention and innovation are amazing, and I, for one, can say I'm thankful I don't have to share an outhouse with my roommates. But ultimately, the things that make a home don't have as much to do with the inanimate stuff as with the living creatures inside. At least, that's what I keep telling myself. But Jesus, do I have a lot of throw pillows.</div><br /><div>Also on the home front (-10 points for bad pun), I also read <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsWxDIKGV7oDu0fOprk_-nmFxsKo1zyiX4BBvfcjzcCE_rWMl6lM7iFT4R_9HcTLA4E5dL2czImoNQM3XuzHjURu8nQmgnQzrBywIEP0Rvj35mzxuwWySeWFrW8JRV14xjpQxWqKMqo8I/s1600/life+would+be.jpg"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 215px; FLOAT: right; HEIGHT: 320px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5559490021329404674" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsWxDIKGV7oDu0fOprk_-nmFxsKo1zyiX4BBvfcjzcCE_rWMl6lM7iFT4R_9HcTLA4E5dL2czImoNQM3XuzHjURu8nQmgnQzrBywIEP0Rvj35mzxuwWySeWFrW8JRV14xjpQxWqKMqo8I/s320/life+would+be.jpg" /></a>Meghan Daum's book about seeking and purchasing her first house, <a href="http://www.villagebooks.com/book/9780307270665">Life Would Be Perfect if I Lived in that House</a>. Daum's search for a home coincides with her realization that she might not marry and have a husband, children, and a "traditional" life--all things I can relate to, which may be why her quest and subsequent success made me a little sad as I read. Nevertheless, I could relate to and appreciate her obsession with space. Like me, she has longed dreamed of a home of her own, and how that house will contribute to her definition of herself. Her insight into how space shapes self is intelligent and entertaining.<br /><br />Because I do connect my space so intimately with my sense of self, I am always making mental ammendments to the NapCastle. I move artwork and rearrange furniture to match my moods and whims. I dream of additions where I can house more roommates, and outdoor patios where the sun shines EVERY DAY. It's not about having more stuff, or better stuff, or a bigger house--for me, it's about making the house I have even homier. I have THAT house, and life isn't perfect. But it's pretty amazing. </div></div></div></div></div>Cathy Belbenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16215264665264634621noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7590673283563680567.post-82191717788008377332010-10-19T10:12:00.000-07:002010-10-19T14:15:45.810-07:00Hey! That's My Bike! And My Other Bike...and My Typewriter...and My Futon...and My Barbie Collection...I don't<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQq6s4ERboxJ_anP4yfviEbBbfJdYxaxhcMsTOJQ4OZDrTNVsPwHTYdjWxDXl_yzOPAUUcOxB8jvVS72m1BwDiXMNhcf6JKQyXjHrV2ndaV58s-wDM5D2FYmyksAEwJkMI_NsgSjLwEUU/s1600/Stuff.jpg"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 208px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 320px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5529806365689899794" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQq6s4ERboxJ_anP4yfviEbBbfJdYxaxhcMsTOJQ4OZDrTNVsPwHTYdjWxDXl_yzOPAUUcOxB8jvVS72m1BwDiXMNhcf6JKQyXjHrV2ndaV58s-wDM5D2FYmyksAEwJkMI_NsgSjLwEUU/s320/Stuff.jpg" /></a> have a huge aversion to cleaning house, although there are usually other things I'd rather be doing, like napping or reading or having a <a href="http://abc.go.com/shows/modern-family">Modern Family </a>marathon. Calculating the numer of Weight Watchers Points I'll earn by working up a sweat cleaning the hair out of the drain in the boys' bathroom never serves as adequate inspiration, so I've taken to watching episodes of <a href="http://www.aetv.com/hoarders/index.jsp">Hoarders</a> online. It's reassuring to know that I'm nowhere near pathological hoarding, and the filth in the houses they feature motivates me to keep ahead of the grime, even if I will never conquer the endless tumbleweeds of dog hair that seem to regenerate themselves every time I put the broom away.<br /><br />There is some sensationalism to the TV program Hoarders, which focuses on two stories of hoarding per episode, complete with lots of footage of the hoarders' homes and lots of emotional moments wherein family members confront the hoarders or the hoarders work with therapists to confront their issues. In <a href="http://www.villagebooks.com/book/9780151014231">Stuff: Compulsive Hoarding and the Meaning of Things</a>, authors Randy O. Frost and Gail Steketee examine the causes of hoarding, as well as the manifestations of the disorder and treatment. Like the TV show, the authors of Stuff use fascinating, bizarre case studies of real people to illustrate the ways the disorder presents itself. If you enjoy watching Hoaders, you'll enjoy reading more details about the way the disorder affects their lives.<br /><br />I was intrigued by the statistics: between 2 and 5 % of the American population--about 6-15 MILLION people--suffer from some sort of hoarding disorder. That's a lot of very messy houses, whether they are stuffed with hoarded food, pets, or broken lawnmowers. And contrary to what some folks believe, hoarding doesn't just afflict people in places where there is an excess of consumerism or available products--hoarding has been found all over the globe. In addition, hoarding isn't determined by how much stuff a person has, but by how that stuff affects the quality of their lives. When it impairs one's ability to perform basic functions, it's considered pathological. In some of these cases, living conditions threaten the health of the hoarder and other occupants, and can even be deadly. One of the most famous hoarders in history, <a href="http://www.squalorsurvivors.com/squalor/famous.shtml">Langley Collyer, lived in squalor with his brother Homer for years </a>(this despite their monetary wealth). Eventually, the extensive collection of junk (and numerous booby traps) led to both of their deaths.<br /><br />Most of the scenarios on the TV show Hoarders end with some success--psychologists work with the hoarder and his or her family, 1-800-GOT-JUNK shows up with a cleaning team, and order is established. But as follow-ups on the TV show illustrate, hoarding is an extremely difficult disorder to treat, owing mainly to its deeply rooted causes, and the cases on TV rarely reflect the many years of continual therapy required for hoarders to escape their habits and live less cluttered lives.<br /><br />This is among a number of intriguing books of applied psychology books I've read that I would recommend to others. It's highly readable, adn the individual cases of hoarding are fascinating, but their analysis goes beyong mere voyeurism and offers substantial insight into an affliction that has only recently begun to be revealed and examined.Cathy Belbenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16215264665264634621noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7590673283563680567.post-30741045871167583542010-07-20T08:57:00.000-07:002010-09-15T06:35:07.258-07:00A SUMMERy of Great Reads<span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5506782588608673858" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 212px; HEIGHT: 320px" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVixc3ltM81iqoKc8FBVW4vdB6nALGdnEd91jjn9V1s4qkwQ-YqwVHr9dLN2ACEagMUWic5QgWMC9E1Ehls09as7etm3CvBUbBQg0NqWS5B0bwxyLH4qs4st1GbxwyMueQCAndHvh5rlw/s320/0409_RockandRoll-cover-298x450.jpg" border="0" />It's possibly my imagination at work, but it seems as though whenever I go on a trip, I hear 80's music the whole time--in Puerto Vallarta, in stores and hotel lobbies in San Francisco, and most recently, during my stay at L'Auberge in Del Mar. Everytime we went to the pool, it was like traveling through a time tunnel, except for the part where I'm wearing a size 5 bikini and slathering my skin with baby oil. </span><br /><br /><div><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">I am in awe of writers who can write about effectively about music; most critics either use pretentious, indecipherable language that makes me feel dumb for not knowing what a "tangible, multi-riff liquid slide" is, or the descriptions are so juvenile and insipid that they tell me nothing about the music. Let's face it, telling me that Lady Gaga's new album "pushes boundaries" tells me nothing at all. Steve Almond, who I've previously written about, has a new book that turns music into memoir and manages to describe the past, and the present, of popular music in a way that is funny, nostalgic, unapologetic, and readable. In <em>Rock and Roll Will Save Your Life</em>, Almond assures us all that we're all free to love whatever goofy pop act we find ourselves tapping our feet to. "There us no sin in the realm of taste...you can't tell someone his or her ears are wrong. You can't rescind the pleasure they derive from a particular piece of music...there's no arguing with joy." Amen. (Sound of me cranking Styx on the iPod).<br /></span></div><br /><br /><div><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">Peter Hedges (author of <em>What's Eating Gilbert Grape</em>) has <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_fNS0EUglYXcFj3QB5_ZrwOlOkTNLkfFDPHdC6hVgkvzqe1hYZZsDFy8ZEizV3CNZcVSh0musLQvxJ931mfCJExfdMdRYFbAuZHY5YR_Ffz0SbLNFmcMsWLmqr4f8X3mhdKo79Z71Ho8/s1600/the_heights.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5506783110341565362" style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 171px; HEIGHT: 275px" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_fNS0EUglYXcFj3QB5_ZrwOlOkTNLkfFDPHdC6hVgkvzqe1hYZZsDFy8ZEizV3CNZcVSh0musLQvxJ931mfCJExfdMdRYFbAuZHY5YR_Ffz0SbLNFmcMsWLmqr4f8X3mhdKo79Z71Ho8/s320/the_heights.jpg" border="0" /></a>written a far less funny, but no less absorbing, novel about the fragile ground that crumbles under couples when new and powerful third parties enter their lives in his novel, <em>The Heights</em>. A stable, happy couple in an upper-middle-class neighborhood finds their lives irrevocably altered when a woman moves in nearby and befriends them. Her wealth is only part of her mysterious allure--and both partners seek her attention and friendship, finding themselves questioning their relationship and their beliefs. Suspenseful domestic drama that twists and turns and makes you think about what it means to be committed.</span></div><div> </div><div><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><em>Ravens</em> by George Dawes Green will appeal to readers who liked <em>House of Sand Fog</em>. The Boatwright family wins a gigantic prize in the Georgia state lottery and is then terrorized by two grifters who seize the opportunity to hold them hostage and force them to split the money. Tense, action-packed, and darkly funny; a be-careful-what-you-wish-for scenario combined with a touch of <em>In Cold Blood</em>. I expect a movie with Mark Wahlberg and Toni Collette. </span><br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSCMhyIbsW7ex6OvMnMJbOXcd3UCj4lDGDg6ktc5eC7OzwaWA48sljCEkatbKEPEKzOUkgzuQgs_hMBPVc7m30B9bRQptVRmUyfe_YL9wJYO2SiuGxFY8yVDvXeHVBkAsk3uaBTQw_Av4/s1600/After-the-workshop.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5506784962065581506" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 213px; HEIGHT: 320px" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSCMhyIbsW7ex6OvMnMJbOXcd3UCj4lDGDg6ktc5eC7OzwaWA48sljCEkatbKEPEKzOUkgzuQgs_hMBPVc7m30B9bRQptVRmUyfe_YL9wJYO2SiuGxFY8yVDvXeHVBkAsk3uaBTQw_Av4/s320/After-the-workshop.jpg" border="0" /></a><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">John McNally's novel <em>After the Workshop</em> is a terrifically fun read, combining the aggravations of work with a subtle mystery. Jack Hercules Sheahan, an MFA graduate working as an escort for authors visiting local bookshops, recounts the horrors of working with demanding prima donnas, stressed publicists, and a hilarious array of pompous university professors and adjuncts. When he loses track of a particularly challenging author, he juggles the ensuing drama with the complications of his ex-girlfriend, his chronically naked next-door neighbor, and a drunken formerly-famous author who has decided to camp out in his apartment. Smart, hilarious, and perfect for MFA grads or anyone who has worked in a job where they had to cater to the whims of of others. Oh, wait--that's pretty much everyone..,</span></div><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;"></span><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;">Summer isn't technically over, but this is the best of what I read when the days were longer and the mornings warmer. Lots of new stuff to read next to the (fake) fall fire is piling up on my bedside table...</span><br /><p> </p>Cathy Belbenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16215264665264634621noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7590673283563680567.post-79165144505709882502010-05-26T09:29:00.000-07:002010-05-27T13:08:09.429-07:00Big, Big, Big Love<span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">One of my favorite TV programs, Big Love, focuses on the three </span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIdcn9q_NibcBXMN51BGQy1iE6eAgFXakWFCqrJCLaQ8L3WvThUoGgYFtWW_ZIfVRTcvIuYLQ3j4O52Bq7Cjhq35t7lS91vc-BLlobM-dXkyfYcn8mfCwM_rIwua89tHWhzGOAAJhpaq4/s1600/the+lonely+polygamist.jpg"><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 210px; FLOAT: right; HEIGHT: 320px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5475617127662567314" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIdcn9q_NibcBXMN51BGQy1iE6eAgFXakWFCqrJCLaQ8L3WvThUoGgYFtWW_ZIfVRTcvIuYLQ3j4O52Bq7Cjhq35t7lS91vc-BLlobM-dXkyfYcn8mfCwM_rIwua89tHWhzGOAAJhpaq4/s320/the+lonely+polygamist.jpg" /></span></a><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">households maintained by fictional polygamist Bill Henrickson, who practices the "Principle" of plural marriage with his three wives, Margene, Nicky, and Barb. If there's drama in a regular marriage, it's obviously multiplied when numerous women share the same man, which is part of what make <a href="http://www.hbo.com/big-love/index.html">Big Love </a>so doable--the storylines that arise from the multiple marriages are only one layer of the drama. Religious in-fighting, secrecy, and loads of other potential problems await the characters and lend themselves to endless plotlines. </span><br /><br /><p><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">The same is true in Brady Udall's novel <a href="http://www.villagebooks.com/book/9780393062625">The Lonely Polygamist</a>--Golden Richards, a man with four wives and twenty-eight children, struggles financially and morally to keep his life from falling apart. Away from his homes on a construction job, he meets and falls in love with a quiet, child-free woman who offers him respite from the complications of his marriages and children, but that relationship (like all of them) does less to alleviate his frustrations than it does increase them--and given who the woman is married to, Golden's love for her puts his family in jeopardy. His liaison with her puts him not only in moral peril, but physical danger.</span></p><p><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">But his family is falling apart anyway. His most fragile wife, Rose-of-Sharon, has recently been hospitalized with a nervous breakdown; his first wife Beverly fights constantly to maintain her control over the household and the other women, and his fourth wife, Trish, finds herself alone and lonely during Golden's absences, and contemplates a tryst of her own. The most endearing character in the book is the one whose problems also spiral out of control and yet also lead to the resolution--however heartbreaking--of this amazing book. </span><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">Eleven-year-old Rusty reminded me of the character in "The Ransom of Red Chief." Neglected amidst the chaos of his home, Rusty seeks entertainment wherever he can, primarily by sneaking out of the house and riding his bike around town and plotting ways to get his father to pay more attention to him. Unfortunately, in this regard, he eventually succeeds.</span></p><p><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">Polygamy? Not a fan. It's unfair to women and children, complicated, and disastrous in terms of the long-term well-being of families (what happens if the sole provider dies?) Besides the major issues, it's impractical and likely to be unmanageable and miserable on a daily basis. Regardless, watching <em>Big Lo</em>ve and reading <em>The Lonely Polygamist</em> (even though they are fictional) gives me a little more understanding of how and why people choose this lifestyle. "...this after all, was the basic truth they all chose to live by: that love was no infinite commodity. That it was not subject to the cruel reckoning of addition and subtraction, that to give to one did not necessarily mean to take from another; that the heart, in its infinite capacity could open itself to all who would enter, like a house with windows and doors thrown wide, like the heart of God itself, vast and accommodating and holy, a mansion of rooms without number, full of multitudes without end."</span></p><p><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">This is the best novel I've read in 2010--multi-layered, often very funny, beautifully written, and insightful. No matter how many people you live with or love, there is likely to be a piece of your truth in these pages, and even if there isn't, Golden's story of the perpetual quest to define to define oneself internally and to the world at large is unforgettable. </span></p>Cathy Belbenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16215264665264634621noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7590673283563680567.post-35312099939586906542010-04-27T09:21:00.000-07:002010-04-27T09:49:55.355-07:00Who are YOU?<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRnmoaCjEvJR_B7HLfSep_RnKr5DwOcY6O8S6pFzoYB_HOsC1zWi6pleY2kYIE-VqKe1M93NiQmale9GMJm9LRcU2wOxx4k3NcjPCkB15DpEa8VXK4h4s6QrpS_tWbXsuj-qXe__e-UJs/s1600/await-your-reply.jpg"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 210px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 320px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5464857494719290818" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRnmoaCjEvJR_B7HLfSep_RnKr5DwOcY6O8S6pFzoYB_HOsC1zWi6pleY2kYIE-VqKe1M93NiQmale9GMJm9LRcU2wOxx4k3NcjPCkB15DpEa8VXK4h4s6QrpS_tWbXsuj-qXe__e-UJs/s320/await-your-reply.jpg" /></a> <span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">This will be a short post because I don't want to take up the time I think you should be spending at the <a href="http://www.villagebooks.com/">bookstore</a> or library purchasing and reading this recommendation.</span><br /><div><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"></span></div><br /><div><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">Mysteries and thrillers often fall victim to formulaic plots and stereotyped characters (crusty old private eyes, sassy teenage girl detectives, etc.) but Dan Choan's novel, <strong><em>Await Your Reply</em></strong>, suffers from neither of these problems, and establishes itself as one of the most unique and intriguing suspense stories I've read.</span></div><br /><div><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"></span></div><div><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">Without giving too much away, the plot is a tritych of stories whose connection is woven so subtly into the events as to be eerily dreamlike--you'll find yourself wondering if you imagined mention of one clue in another part of the story as you read. </span></div><div><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"></span></div><div><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">In the opening pages, a young man with a severed hand is rushed to the hospital by his father; in the second introduction, a teenage girl with a forgettable past leaves town with her high school history teacher; in the third, a man searches the icy Canadian landscape for his missing identical twin. The thread binding them together is the mysterious nature of identity--and identity theft. </span></div><div><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><br /></div></span><div></div><div></div><div><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;"></span></div><div><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;">If you liked <em>House of Sand and Fog</em> and <em>The Garden of Last Days</em> by Andred Dubus III, Chaon's book will claim a couple of hours of your life, too--and you won't be sorry. </span></div>Cathy Belbenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16215264665264634621noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7590673283563680567.post-84494872445169043962010-02-25T08:11:00.000-08:002010-04-06T13:37:54.961-07:00<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgArXQS0As7RyBc78OrTkmktR_-RVTpicnG66jQ8X1L54QKiKKP7EkjqYVeOsynzX1Z332NiaEdAVfbUPplHZ7qNExHHFov-8mF7yhT-MmvxWsRqmMzOp2coFFsp-j9QsddcZY8K3CxxPU/s1600/Crazy+School+finish.jpg"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 207px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 320px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5452217121286176050" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgArXQS0As7RyBc78OrTkmktR_-RVTpicnG66jQ8X1L54QKiKKP7EkjqYVeOsynzX1Z332NiaEdAVfbUPplHZ7qNExHHFov-8mF7yhT-MmvxWsRqmMzOp2coFFsp-j9QsddcZY8K3CxxPU/s320/Crazy+School+finish.jpg" /></a><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">Things I will never be: a teenage boy, a person who never sleeps (or for that matter, a person who never sleeps during the day, given my proclivity for napping), a person who reads comics/graphics novels/whatever you want to call those books with all the drawings and dialogue bubbles, a person who will probably never be able to extricate herself from high school drama, humor, and life. </span><br /><br /><div><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">No matter how incredible my adult experiences (I have a truck! A house! I can go to the store and buy candy any time I want!) there is an inexplicably seductive quality to high school life--not the real thing, of course, but the imaginary world of sex, secrecy, and snark that exists in my favorite TV shows: </span><a href="http://www.nbc.com/Friday_Night_Lights/"><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">Friday Night Lights</span></a><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">, </span><a href="http://www.fox.com/glee/"><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">Glee</span></a><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">, </span><a href="http://www.thewb.com/shows/veronica-mars"><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">Veronica Mars</span></a><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">.</span><br /></div><br /><div><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">I recently flew to San Francisco for a conference and a 4-night stay in a </span><a href="http://www.hotelfranksf.com/"><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">boutique hotel </span></a><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">that looked like it was decorated by a Manhattanite with a 400-square foot apartment who thinks a $50 throw pillow is a bargain. </span><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">I flew first class because through some quirky karmic wormhole, I was bumped from my original $119 flight to first class, plus a $300 ticket voucher. I mention this not just to be an obnoxious braggart, but because it is exactly like the forces that rule high school life. No one deserves seat 1D (first row, first class) anymore than anyone else deserves backne, untameable curls and dyslexia. But teenagerhood and flight are similar that way: sometimes you're a size 4 cheerleader with a rack like Jennifer Aniston, and sometimes your flight is rerouted to Fargo and your brand-new Swiss luggage is circling a luggage carousel in Dayton, Ohio. </span></div><br /><div><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;">Being a high school teacher/librarian for the past twenty years has given me some insight into teenagers and also fortified me against many of the evils of the world. I continued to be fascinated by this weird 4-year period in life, and I keep reading about it. It's not enough to endure adolescents for seven hours a day, I also have to tack on another few hours reading about them. <a href="http://www.villagebooks.com/book/9780446198202">The Crazy School by Cornelia Read </a>is one of my recent favorites, combining some of my favorite topics: mystery, sass, boarding school, bizarre psychological stuff, and teenage life.<br /><br /></span><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;">Protagonist Madeline Dare is hired to teach at an expensive boarding school for troubled teens, and establishes a great rapport with her students, given her snarky humor and tenacity. Despite her good relationships with kids, however, Madeline is aware that something weird is going on at the academy--a student commits suicide, another disappears, and the headmaster requires everyone, students and teachers, to participate in counseling sessions. As she investigates the recent events, Madeline comes closer to discovering the dark secret at the heart of the institution, and only by joining forces with one of the academy's most dangerous students can she get to the heart of what's going on.<br /><br /></span><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;">Nothing like this ever happens to me at my school, and I'm thankful that most of our mysteries are things like <em>who spilled raspberry smoothie in the hall during first lunch?</em> and who <em>used up all of the ink in my printer?</em> Nevertheless, the high school culture and the students rang true and entertained. If you like your mysteries smart, funny, and sexy, put this one one your list!</span> </div>Cathy Belbenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16215264665264634621noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7590673283563680567.post-67798609539788375442010-02-15T08:24:00.000-08:002010-02-17T13:12:30.816-08:00Walk Right Back. Or Don't.<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4o9FPzRCGRT-C9nxeeH_UjN0YFtylCMOUWr9V2qj3gAM9D3LF9KGICnrypJojnt3dtdBphX0LyO-R5quizzjmFohCEUo2vbnNqYoVZ1MowYjbtsqrF_iH36wo-1XeNPiClG_jasaHx7E/s1600-h/the-unnamed.jpg"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 206px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 320px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5438507454770074690" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4o9FPzRCGRT-C9nxeeH_UjN0YFtylCMOUWr9V2qj3gAM9D3LF9KGICnrypJojnt3dtdBphX0LyO-R5quizzjmFohCEUo2vbnNqYoVZ1MowYjbtsqrF_iH36wo-1XeNPiClG_jasaHx7E/s320/the-unnamed.jpg" /></a><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">Tim Farnsworth, the protagonist of <a href="http://www.villagebooks.com/book/9780316034012">The Unnamed </a>by Joshua Ferris, is a lawyer leading a seemingly ideal life with his devoted wife Jane and their daughter, Becka, when he is afflicted by a nameless, unexplained compulsion to walk until he falls down.</span> <span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">He leaves his office or his home when the urge to walk becomes impossible to ignore, takes the pack that Jane has lovingly prepared for him, and sets out to wander New York City until it becomes physically impossible and his wife has to come pick him up.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">Needless to say, Farnsworth's disorder impacts every aspect of his life: his teenage daughter withdraws, his marriage becomes strained, and his work defending a wealthy and prominent murder suspect suffers. He and Jane seek advice and medical treatment from every expert they can think of, but no one is able to explain the compulsion--although it manifests physically and has serious health implications, it has the characteristics of a mental illness. </span><br /><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;"><em>The Unnamed</em> moves along briskly, fascinating for both its examination of a psyche under seige and for the legal drama lurking in the background. But what makes it so powerful a read isn't the reading, but the having read. I put this book down and could not stop asking myself, "wtf?" What did I just read? Who writes a book about a guy who just walks, inanely and dangerously, without explanation? And why? Why is it so interesting? Tim Farnsworth doesn't kill anyone or have any hidden childhood trauma or deep, dark past or engage in any bizarre sex acts. Then I remembered my secret weapon for answering questions about books I read: a B.A. in English.</span><br /><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;">I'm not claiming to have any definitive interpretation of <em>The Unnamed</em>. I'm not even claiming that there is or should be anything more than a thoughtful analysis of any work of literature. You can say whatever you want about a poem or a story or a novel and its "meaning," and that's fine with me. I might think you're a kook, but if (unlike far too many students I've worked with), you take the time to actually think about what you read and say something besides "that's stupid" or "that's boring" or "I don't get it," you're doing more with your brain than just storing it in your skull behind a sign that says Here I Am Now Entertain Me.</span><br /><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;">I want to be entertained by novels and stories and movies and songs. I want to "get" them. But there's something even more satisfying about <strong><u>not</u></strong> getting them and being forced to listen to their complexities rattle around in my brain for a few days until I form some sort of intelligible "aha!" That's what happened with The Unnamed. I went from "huh?" to "how about this...?"</span><br /><p><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;">My "how about this" regarding <em>The Unnamed</em> is that Farnsworth's compulsion to walk is a sort of metaphor or symbol for all our unexplainable compulsions--but his is just weird enough to make us stop and wonder. But then, it's not that weird. Ok, so he walks endlessly and suffers psychic and physical harm. But don't we all have compulsions, or at least habits, that are less than healthy or at least, when viewed by onlookers, a bit strange? Why do I bother to keep six chickens that don't lay eggs? Or a collection of several hundred rubber stamps that I don't use? Why do I keep ingesting cheese and candy and wine when I know they're as bad for my ass as Tim's walking was for his toes? </span></p><p><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;">There is no magical formula for understanding novels or stories or poems or (especially) other people. But what is magical is reading something and letting it tickle your brain for the time it takes to makes some sort of sense of it; once you've accomplished that, you've been entertained in the best way possible.</p></span>Cathy Belbenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16215264665264634621noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7590673283563680567.post-16028166333273423742010-01-28T10:08:00.000-08:002010-02-04T13:19:56.377-08:00That's What She Said<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5t8TRxZqMZ6PlbGOjkHRe_PTjvcmu9zf7ffJcOOC5Am9fl2_2LLSrY3CZ9UYcsCYX5caMKVkaxIJ6yrg2SoyJrpT4x5hDLyXU2QMS8Rv7v7ruvKEpM_MXkKMTqcupOIvGDTXBUSgMEfc/s1600-h/9781573443784.jpg"><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 219px; FLOAT: right; HEIGHT: 320px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5433376807686382514" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5t8TRxZqMZ6PlbGOjkHRe_PTjvcmu9zf7ffJcOOC5Am9fl2_2LLSrY3CZ9UYcsCYX5caMKVkaxIJ6yrg2SoyJrpT4x5hDLyXU2QMS8Rv7v7ruvKEpM_MXkKMTqcupOIvGDTXBUSgMEfc/s320/9781573443784.jpg" /></span></a><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">I'm a sucker for collections of articles that I probably would never have read when they were first published online or in magazines, mostly because the only magazines I ever look at are of the craft porn variety (you know, those with lots of pictures of cool projects I'll probably never get around to doing). </span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">But there are collections of articles and essays that are published every year that catch my attention for whatever reason--sometimes because of the editor (Dave Eggers and the <em><a href="http://www.villagebooks.com/book/9780618902835">Best Nonrequired American Reading</a></em>, for example), occasionally because of the provocative cover, most frequently because of the topic. Such is the case with <em><a href="http://www.villagebooks.com/book/9781573443784">Best Sex Writing 2010.</a><br /></em></span><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">Now I know there are people out there yawning and thinking <em>boorrriinnnggg, who wants to read about sex?</em> so you folks can go back to studying biscuit recipes or the latest issue of <em>Cat Fancy</em> and I'll continue writing for that segment of the audience interested in sex. You know who you are.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">Despite its tantalizing cover, this collection of essays isn't as prurient as it appears; although a few of the pieces are specifically about their authors' sexual experiences and/or interests, most are more intriguing, more political, and more about social issues related to sex than they are about exciting the reader. Nevertheless, there is a lot to be intrigued by and educated about in this collection.</span><br /><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;">Of particular interest to me were the articles about teen sexting, which is a big issue at the high school level and a concern of teachers and parents; another about sex ed and the failure of abstinence-only programs; a reassuring article by a guy who appreciates women's bodies, even the imperfect ones, and one about the crazy trend of plastic surgery on women's private parts. Yikes.</span><br /><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;">Here's my challenge, reader friends: find a book that you thought you'd never read, or one that makes you uncomfortable or a little sheepish or that you might have to hide from your kids. I think you'll find it oddly satisfying...</span> <span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;"></span><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;"></span>Cathy Belbenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16215264665264634621noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7590673283563680567.post-59286111869907598792010-01-06T11:11:00.000-08:002010-01-06T13:47:51.208-08:00This is My Story, and I'm Sticking to It<span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">"Ms. Belben, have you read <em>Moby Dick</em>?" a student asked me today. "Nope," I responded gleefully. Stunned, he stared at me for a minute. "Why not? You're a librarian! It's a literary classic!" I shrugged and gave him a variation of the same response I gave my roommate the other day when he expressed shock that I had not read <em>Lolita</em>. "I have read thousands of books," I told Q., laughing. "I prefer not to be judged by the ones I haven't read."<br /></span><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcIAcj9y1E7yNXj8Y1L-7IkhVbM1wk61RDJDSlvc6Nz6x_f0v9qJxl6ftQG6SyZu5DRxE8gv0jZ9Jl0uPHfLowwHGBy2Bo8Fm6Jv3QwRHLJxFNgGN-Fr8JMXRB3nONz0jCmg1nKh_E1so/s1600-h/fridaynightlights.jpg"><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 238px; FLOAT: right; HEIGHT: 236px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5423710107875036866" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcIAcj9y1E7yNXj8Y1L-7IkhVbM1wk61RDJDSlvc6Nz6x_f0v9qJxl6ftQG6SyZu5DRxE8gv0jZ9Jl0uPHfLowwHGBy2Bo8Fm6Jv3QwRHLJxFNgGN-Fr8JMXRB3nONz0jCmg1nKh_E1so/s320/fridaynightlights.jpg" /></span></a><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><br /></span><div><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">I also prefer not to be judged by the books I have read and have not blogged about, since my blog has been hibernating since Veterans' Day. I wish I had some witty or impressive explanation for that, like being too busy training for the Ms. Olympia contest, or having spent the past two months studying manuals on exciting new sexual techniques, but I can't claim anything of the sort. I've been reading, but I've also been lazy (BTW, if you haven't seen the first three seasons of <em><a href="http://www.nbc.com/Friday_Night_Lights/">Friday Night Lights</a></em>, they're awesome). Also, I handmade 90% of my holiday gifts this year, and it's hard to sew and read anything, let alone <em>Moby Dick</em>.<br /><br /></span></div><br /><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhYZ0wgMElhVKrcmewu6UCMSo-efBJGx0edPfDP3To7Zzw5wP88ThXGw7GurEiVEDsQplMFsJU8osviBcIuBqjg8Cyus7ckwGcqpW_J9y0SNK6U6ks3VbyH0hvfCdlPrQ0S1ZCK3bupHk/s1600-h/never+let+me+go.jpg"><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 217px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 320px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5423709821075958530" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhYZ0wgMElhVKrcmewu6UCMSo-efBJGx0edPfDP3To7Zzw5wP88ThXGw7GurEiVEDsQplMFsJU8osviBcIuBqjg8Cyus7ckwGcqpW_J9y0SNK6U6ks3VbyH0hvfCdlPrQ0S1ZCK3bupHk/s320/never+let+me+go.jpg" /></span></a><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">Perhaps if I had a clone, one that I could program and assign some of my tasks (wrangling the chickens and cleaning up after Frida come to mind), I would get more read and written. But I don't have a clone, and I don't want one. I don't think the world wants one. And after reading the amazingly well-written novel </span><a href="http://www.villagebooks.com/book/9781400043392"><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><em>Never Let Me Go</em> </span></a><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">by Kazuo Ishiguro, I'm more than a little frightened at the prospect of cloning, anyway.<br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"></span></div><div><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">When I originally began reading <em>Never Let Me Go</em>, I was following the advice of several writers (I think Steven King was one, but I can't remember) who placed the novel on their "best of the decade" list without going into detail about its plot, so I thought it was just another book about thirty-somethings reflecting on their years in an exclusive British boarding school, and all of the juicy secrets and liasions that permeate the lives of a bunch of teenagers living together.<br /><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"></span></div><div><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">But Ishiguro has created a much darker, much more sly world beneath the reminiscence-of-boarding-school facade. In this case, the students at Hailsham are, in fact, wards of the state who have been bred specifically to be used as donors for diseased and injured people. These children are the products of a society that has made the preservation of existing human life paramount, and its populace has become so accustomed to medical advances that it is a foregone conclusion that an amputation, a cancer, a failed organ will be replaced in what has become a fairly routine system. But the kicker is, the children don't know who or what they are--all they've ever known is life at the secluded school, and they haven't been told anything about what will become of them.<br /><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"></span></div><div><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">What makes this novel so stunning, so absolutely incredible and unforgettably powerful is the subtle, creepy, and truly masterful way Ishiguro subtley unveils the truth about the children's conception and their fate. Narrated by Kathy B., the story unfolds gradually but not slowly, as the 30-year-old narrator recalls the friendships she shared with others at Hailsham, specifically Ruth and Tommy. In retracing the development of their complicated threesome, she also exposes, piece by piece, the quiet clues the students pieced together through the years about the true nature of their existance. Without resorting to graphic description or gore, Ishiguro makes the culture that led to these characters' fate absolutely believable and horrible to contemplate.<br /><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"></span></div><div><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">Cultural critic and author Chuck Klosterman, a writer I consider an idea guru, has said that he doesn't think fiction has much importance anymore. "I don't think novels are shaping the way people think about the world, regardless of their merit as art." I would beg to differ with Mr. Klosterman on this point. Even if, as he points out, the best-selling novels are about wizards and vampires, I still think those shape how people see the world. Fortunately, though, there is other fiction out there that is also forcing us to reckon with the bigger, more realistic possibilities of our medical and technological advances--<em>Never Let Me Go</em> is one of them. </span></div><div><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"></span></div></div>Cathy Belbenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16215264665264634621noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7590673283563680567.post-40270933670410048622009-11-11T08:19:00.000-08:002009-11-13T10:21:14.062-08:00<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1qJrIcCE-epIXIzlenMpt57cqzcg9udUrBsoaqwt7XYxvF5xY8srR83PQ86wOyL51_MGptqpy3ho3CT3t06X6olW_48ILUWJdhS3bplbq_z2kwgosAjvCt0j-WmwzbAv-rHN7x1kkvVw/s1600-h/Where+Men+Win+Glory.jpg"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 240px; FLOAT: right; HEIGHT: 320px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5403647594722187698" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1qJrIcCE-epIXIzlenMpt57cqzcg9udUrBsoaqwt7XYxvF5xY8srR83PQ86wOyL51_MGptqpy3ho3CT3t06X6olW_48ILUWJdhS3bplbq_z2kwgosAjvCt0j-WmwzbAv-rHN7x1kkvVw/s320/Where+Men+Win+Glory.jpg" /></a><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">It's almost not entirely a coincidence that I'm writing about <a href="http://www.villagebooks.com/book/9780385522267">Where Men Win Glory: The Odyssey of Pat Tillman by Jon Krakauer</a> on (or around) Veteran's Day. I would be writing about it anyway, eventually, so why not now? Even though I'm not quite done reading it, it's well worth recommending, and far more appropriate for a solemn national holiday than the other two books I just read, one entitled </span><a href="http://www.howsexworks.org/"><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">How Sex Works</span></a><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"> and the other a young adult novel in which the plot hinges on a scene where the narrator craps his pants.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">If you're unfamiliar with the story, Pat Tillman was a professional football player who, following the 9/11 attacks, gave up his $3 million contract and joined the Army with his younger brother, Kevin. The two trained together and became members of an elite force, were sent to Afghanistan, and Pat Tillman was killed. Investigations into his death revealed that he had been accidentally shot by an American soldier and that the incident was covered up by the military.</span><br /><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;">Krakauer has a talent for delving deep into the backstory when he writes; Into Thin Air, Into the Wild, and Under the Banner of Heaven all provided thorough examinations not only of the individuals he wrote about, but the circumstances and politics surrounding their situations. His story of Pat Tillman's life and death is no different. Krakauer begins with an explanation of the conflict in Afghanistan, including the formation of the Taliban, that involved a lot of names and words that are really hard to spell and pronounce and which I will never remember. However, it did provide me with a better understanding of why the U.S. got involved.</span><br /><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;">The best parts of the book, however (and probably the reason most people will read it) are the details about Pat Tillman, his life and personality, and his almost unfathomable decision to give up his life's dream to go to war. Tillman was, as Krakauer clearly illustrates, a charismatic, intelligent and sometimes inscrutable character who doesn't fit the NFL stereotypes. Details about his life come mainly from his widow, Marie Tillman, who worked closely with Krakauer in writing the story and who continues to do work in memory of Pat Tillman.</span><br /><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;">I haven't finished reading Where Men Win Glory yet. I'm stuck on the portion about the Tillmans' relationship, their deep love for one another, and the affection that Pat Tillman wrote about regularly in letters to Marie and his own journals. The tragedy of his death is magnified by this fully realized portrait of who Pat Tillman was not just unto himself, but in the lives of those who were deeply affected by his charisma, humor, intelligence, and eventually, his death. </span>Cathy Belbenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16215264665264634621noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7590673283563680567.post-8415530852164339702009-10-30T10:37:00.000-07:002009-11-01T17:23:24.404-08:00Short, Sweet, Easy to Eat<div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEim3vE3BehsPJ1zMv0Q4GOErHyoqfs3qDbponUsRgrD1xScITkCxLqbcpe1YH2SqE5hx2TCXnRPO3eSNrLI9mJ6lZslP4fgNCRS6zhznDZfjaANZltnIvJ0RYPGV6CssDkOkB-H_cei-CE/s1600-h/nicholson_baker.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px 10px 10px 0px; width: 206px; float: left; height: 320px;" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5398452055232661794" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEim3vE3BehsPJ1zMv0Q4GOErHyoqfs3qDbponUsRgrD1xScITkCxLqbcpe1YH2SqE5hx2TCXnRPO3eSNrLI9mJ6lZslP4fgNCRS6zhznDZfjaANZltnIvJ0RYPGV6CssDkOkB-H_cei-CE/s320/nicholson_baker.jpg" border="0" /></a><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">Nicholson Baker has long been one of my favorite writers, every since I read his weirdly wonderful novel The Mezzanine years ago. In his latest novel, The Anthologist, Baker's protagonist is Paul Chowder, an anthologist charged with writing the introduction to a collection of poems. Chowder, however, has a severe case of writer's block, and can't seem to manage to eke out the 10-12 pages he needs to write. Instead, he finds himself explaining poetry--what it is, how it works, why it's wonderful. </span><br /><br /><div><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">Why it's wonderful is because Nicholson Baker is writing about it, and he has a gift for language unsurpassed by any living writer, in my opinion. Even non-poetry lovers will appreciate his humor and insight, and they'll learn some things about poems in the process, and a great deal about the art of writing, too. This is one of those books where I found myself sticky-noting passages to return to later (of course, half those sticky notes fell off when I was reading in bed and got stuck in my hair while I slept, but nevertheless). </span></div><br /><div><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">The irony, of course, in Paul Chowder's life, is that for all the time he spends explicating the art of poetry, he could have easily finished his assignment (not unlike some high school students I know who spend more time complaining than researching). Thank god he doesn't, because his observations are much more interesting. One of my favorites is his criticism of haiku, a poetic form that I've never really liked. And here it is, the reason why, perfectly articulated: "This is the kind of poetry that makes perfect, thrilling sense in Japanese, and makes no sense whatsoever in English. That's what [the teacher] should have told us. This form is completely out of step with the English language. Seven syllables, eleven syllables, five syllables? Come on, how does English poetry actually work. It doesn't work that way. I don't know Japanese, but haiku in Japanese had all kinds of interesting salt-glaze impurities going on that are stripped away in translation."</span></div><br /><div><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;">My nephew, Thomas, is just a month shy of his fourth birthday, and has become fascinated by rhymes in recent months, making Paul Chowder's commentary on rhyming especially poignant in a kind of an "a-ha! so that's why rhymes are so much fun!" kind of way. "The tongue is a rhyming fool," Baker writes. "It wants to rhyme because that's how it stores what it knows. It's got a detailed checklist for every consonant and vowel...and somewhere in there, on some neural net in your underconsciousness, stored away, all these checklists, or neuromuscular profiles, or call them sound curves, are stored away, like the parts of car bodies, or spoons, with similar shapes nested near each other...what rhyming poems do is they take all these nearby sound curves and remind you that they first existed that way in your brain..." Well, that's probably more complicated than anything Thomas understands, but it works for me. Chances are, it works for you, too.<br /></span></div></div>Cathy Belbenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16215264665264634621noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7590673283563680567.post-45186546524146967562009-09-23T13:22:00.001-07:002009-10-20T14:34:59.948-07:00Catchup Is Delicious<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7BCTG9RqMaiXQ99Lxb9hOWgn8vDR5jd0qbShIdhCNplbQLgmX0qcJY0ua7EabIVj0WennG2xS_mwHnP0QhaaY1Vi8f_BKa-1g9oRbFE7tb0QDlkKrHuRxRy8u4Ek4_e7esgqSZx9EYYA/s1600-h/10733_1209968340172_1557642795_30553159_4877409_n.jpg"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 269px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 189px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5394796459828680450" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7BCTG9RqMaiXQ99Lxb9hOWgn8vDR5jd0qbShIdhCNplbQLgmX0qcJY0ua7EabIVj0WennG2xS_mwHnP0QhaaY1Vi8f_BKa-1g9oRbFE7tb0QDlkKrHuRxRy8u4Ek4_e7esgqSZx9EYYA/s320/10733_1209968340172_1557642795_30553159_4877409_n.jpg" /></a> <span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">I returned recently from a quick weekend trip to San Francisco, where I met up with my parents, aunts Barbara and Marjorie, cousins, and good friends Steve and Amy. The time with them really made me thankful that despite its assorted weirdnesses (Aunt Barbara's collection of seasonally attired Barbie dolls, for example, and my dad's trunk full of glow-in-the-dark ephemera), my family and its extensions have really good juju.<br /></span><br /><div><div><div><div><div><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;"></span></div><div><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;">Besides traipsing around Chinatown, Haight, and NorthBeach, I also read a lot. On the plane, on BART during an extended tour of Oakland (I took the wrong train at one point), and at SeaTac during my three-hour layover waiting for a flight home to Bellingham (and yes, I realize I could practically walk home in that amount of time. Thanks, Horizon!) </span><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;">At any rate, here's a wrap-up of some of the best I've read recently:<br /></span><br /></div><div><strong><u><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><a href="http://www.villagebooks.com/book/9780525951278">This is Where I Leave You by Jonathan Tropper</a><br /></div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgf0YAF9DvKWKvWYbLln680XxMKZNnRgFg6tjuEE_NNqwULQ_wvX6R7n7pvUKDEBFUak8MlJBUxg-IwheuQ_vH7Cl0AabFY26pniwxNfBxOhiZFsxgIPRudZxQaRun9vELHaQvmBGXDSc/s1600-h/400000000000000168132_s4.jpg"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 144px; FLOAT: right; HEIGHT: 238px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5394789860692446338" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgf0YAF9DvKWKvWYbLln680XxMKZNnRgFg6tjuEE_NNqwULQ_wvX6R7n7pvUKDEBFUak8MlJBUxg-IwheuQ_vH7Cl0AabFY26pniwxNfBxOhiZFsxgIPRudZxQaRun9vELHaQvmBGXDSc/s320/400000000000000168132_s4.jpg" /></a></span></u></strong><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">Quite possibly the funniest book I've read this year, Tropper's novel </span><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">features a family with a little more baggage than mine. The four adult siblings gather to sit shiva for their recently dead father, and bring a load of issues, resentments, and current FUBAR life scenarios with them. Narrated by thirty-something Judd (whose wife has recently left him for his boss), this novel </span><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">brims with spot-on dialogue, loads of physical comedy, a simple plot that nevertheless twists and surprises, and intelligent insights that had me folding down corners. "You can sit up here," Judd muses, "feeling above it all while knowing you're not, coming to the lonely conclusion that the only thing you can ever really know about anyone is that you don't know anything about them at all." Amen.</span><br /><br /><p><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><strong><u><a href="http://www.villagebooks.com/book/9780670020324"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 148px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 233px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5394747485937190834" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7Xo_-yCElCMfsmegunMbM8WXBnhnEUD7arXKUObj5ZmRz0jLyBBkcvyYm09u6TP-EiUzjY7XOobR0jAYe-jcbj94TlCX_lwESjUaf-nnLXq9dJAqTLz8_MM7MMeJ-ug1I2NPQ7GNZOIY/s320/Songs2.jpg" />Songs for the Missing by Stewart O'Nan</a></u></strong><br /></p><div>If you're a regular reader of this blog (and who isn't, really?), you may be familiar with my appreciation for missing person stories. I love the intrigue and the tension of stories about people who've vanished, and Stewart O'Nan's latest novel,<em> Songs for the Missing</em>, has both, plus a whole lot more. The plot revolves around the disappearance of Kim Larsen during the summer before she's about to leave home for college. Like <em>The Lovely Bones</em>, the story focuses on the impact of the mystery on Kim's family and friends, and their struggle to cope with their bewilderment, grief, and (for some) sense of guilt. Could not put down. Gripping, with a satisfying ending. </div><br /><div><strong><u><a href="http://www.villagebooks.com/book/9780061256929">Accidentally on Purpose by Mary Pols (Memoir)<img style="MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 169px; FLOAT: right; HEIGHT: 198px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5394788546824181906" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-axrmrZ6je0C1djikEzSrN5H-gETmIklNFjwx8maVcuS7_JJMO9pxicK19PkWWzItkskyRuDJ3gPxZuQJsNNavwMwbmQzLnDx9kQcg_NUJ2oKr5Q_7xQ3wVriBAUGWz9Je6Bq3Ak8Tc4/s320/accidentally.jpg" /></a></u></strong></div><div>Mary Pols, at 39, gets pregnant after a one-night stand with a much-younger guy, decides to write a book about it, the book gets optioned for <a href="http://www.cbs.com/primetime/accidentally_on_purpose/">a TV show </a>and she probably has way more money now. As much as I liked the story and Pols' writing, I couldn't help but feel a little sad throughout, because even though her adorable and sexy baby-daddy carries through on his promise to stick around and help raise their son, he isn't a partner in every respect, and despite his love for their boy, he doesn't love Mary, and that emptiness echoes throughout the story. It's enough to make a person rush out to Fred Meyer and buy condoms.<br /><br /></div><div><strong><u>Juliet, Naked by Nick Hornby</u></strong><br /></div><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9i5p68arN8_MREk1KPqQGJLz5LFRRVfEFx0jfqGFdGxXntK9Rpn4DCU8MlHrw-26pHe2pP975Uo4uBRW6RJaDGMFpwgvIneS6F0FqUOH3imZQ4N1a5ik5BXwAJUC8o_ODRFm8rs5MfLc/s1600-h/9781594488870.jpg"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 177px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 238px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5394791082569284338" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9i5p68arN8_MREk1KPqQGJLz5LFRRVfEFx0jfqGFdGxXntK9Rpn4DCU8MlHrw-26pHe2pP975Uo4uBRW6RJaDGMFpwgvIneS6F0FqUOH3imZQ4N1a5ik5BXwAJUC8o_ODRFm8rs5MfLc/s320/9781594488870.jpg" /></a>The protagonists of Hornby's novel, Annie and Duncan, have been together for fifteen years, but their relationship is ending, in part because of Duncan's obsession with a reclusive musician named Tucker Crowe who hasn't recorded an album in 20 years.</div><br /><div>When Annie intercepts a recording that has been sent to Duncan by a fan of his Tucker Crowe fansite, she discovers it is a raw recording of the songs on Crowe's most famous album, <em>Juliet</em>. In listening to it before Duncan does, she violates his trust, angers him, and their relationship ends--not entirely to Annie's disappointent. She's grown weary of Duncan's obsession, wants to have a baby, and is ready to move on with her life. So she contacts Tucker Crowe herself, and the two strike up an email friendship...and that's when things really get interesting. </div><div><br />This is what planes, trains and airports are good for: getting me caught up on the towering pile of bedside table books...and now I am. Almost. Honest. </div></span></div></div></div></div>Cathy Belbenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16215264665264634621noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7590673283563680567.post-87370633406425527302009-09-02T14:41:00.000-07:002009-09-14T06:14:56.626-07:00Born to Pun (Sorry)<a style="font-family: trebuchet ms;" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNrylCDiW0lAb9KrYJfaoBrsyNUcXkI0M1EJ8O9y2CaKCB-JJh5DUrrWtvlHPEnt8p2jkD1M9TmqZmvc0al3yBMqoacx-eMKpnzSzyG5CFRKe49WlrsCKuuwi3_MN3TfhptBkgcJYTU0M/s1600-h/borntorun.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 217px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNrylCDiW0lAb9KrYJfaoBrsyNUcXkI0M1EJ8O9y2CaKCB-JJh5DUrrWtvlHPEnt8p2jkD1M9TmqZmvc0al3yBMqoacx-eMKpnzSzyG5CFRKe49WlrsCKuuwi3_MN3TfhptBkgcJYTU0M/s320/borntorun.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5380620021304817650" border="0" /></a><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;font-family:trebuchet ms;" >Runners are in the headlines lately, what with </span><a style="font-family: trebuchet ms;" href="http://www.usainbolt.com/">Usain Bolt's</a> record-setting time and the recent investigation into the sexuality of South African phenom <a style="font-family: trebuchet ms;" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caster_Semenya">Caster Semenya</a><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;font-family:trebuchet ms;" >. Also, since </span><a style="font-family: trebuchet ms;" href="http://blog.seattlepi.com/hanginintheham/archives/178646.asp">Mayor Pike has offered Jon Stewart a key to the city</a><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;font-family:trebuchet ms;" >, it seemed like a good time to recommend a book about running that I learned about from watching </span><a style="font-family: trebuchet ms;" href="http://www.thedailyshow.com/">The Daily Show</a><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;font-family:trebuchet ms;" >. (On a totally unrelated tangent, how many books do they recommend on Fox "News"?)<br /><br /></span> <div style="font-family: trebuchet ms;"> </div><a style="font-family: trebuchet ms;" href="http://www.villagebooks.com/book/9780307266309">Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World has Never</a><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;font-family:trebuchet ms;" > Seen grew out of an article Christopher McDougall wrote for Outside magazine about the Tarahumara Indians of Mexico. The Tarahumara, who live deep in the isolated Copper Canyons, have developed an amazing talent for running extreme distances--over a hundred miles a day, in some cases.In addition, they have escaped major diseases that afflict others in the Western world, such as cancer, diabetes, and obesity.<br /><br /></span><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;"> </span><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;font-family:trebuchet ms;" >Intrigued by stories of these runners, and curious about what they could teach him about running and living healthfully, McDougall ventured into the Copper Canyons to seek El Caballo Blanco, a mysterious white man rumored to live among the Tarahumara and know their secrets.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;">What follows is part mystery story, part adventure, part history lesson, part physiology 101, and altogether absorbing story of the Tarahumara, the history of ultramarathoning and the obscure and unusual group of people who train for and compete in these incredible tests of endurance.</span>Cathy Belbenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16215264665264634621noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7590673283563680567.post-88155736685176467712009-08-12T06:46:00.000-07:002009-08-13T08:13:04.795-07:00What I Did This Summer by Cathy B.<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEheNkxe7qiFOErtaIWkxAzjB0Sfrn2CelhexKfE4C51bHzZ9jQfyQvGXLvenSS3dQXL5HvH3da0-OjGB1FBgWISd6FswGCNdRLXZwFOrWB9xHgTT5K9P0eoJI9MSXxFpoPvwSBo-mtfcV0/s1600-h/Belben+craft+2"><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 262px; FLOAT: right; HEIGHT: 212px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5369466182938895554" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEheNkxe7qiFOErtaIWkxAzjB0Sfrn2CelhexKfE4C51bHzZ9jQfyQvGXLvenSS3dQXL5HvH3da0-OjGB1FBgWISd6FswGCNdRLXZwFOrWB9xHgTT5K9P0eoJI9MSXxFpoPvwSBo-mtfcV0/s320/Belben+craft+2" /></span></a><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">Summer for me, is partially officially over, since I signed up to teach a three-week summer school program for incoming ninth-graders who need a little extra boost before beginning their regular high school courses. Lest you think I’ve completely lost my whole entire mind, know that 1) I’m getting paid for this gig; 2) it’s only 4 hours a day, 4 days a week; 3) it’s kinda fun, and 4) frankly</span><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><b><i>, I wasn’t doing anything else anyway.<br /></i></b><br />I define my existance, in large part, by how I spend my summers. Referring to “the summer I_______” helps place my life’s trajectory in a timeline. “The summer I was in L.A.,” “The summer I went to school in San Dieg</span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRICPufw7dVMUSgWZgVvR3dR0CkJQXXRZOH2BIKwm9lN80im2eOCjL85wjd9GSD-Fhdmycvy2dFsGDgcBKWyCLW8iPm1pCKLi-upopCMntFxLJn6v3_A0pIMHYuIOhDAEnktmK27VICS8/s1600-h/Belben+craft"><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 250px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 169px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5369465841916891890" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRICPufw7dVMUSgWZgVvR3dR0CkJQXXRZOH2BIKwm9lN80im2eOCjL85wjd9GSD-Fhdmycvy2dFsGDgcBKWyCLW8iPm1pCKLi-upopCMntFxLJn6v3_A0pIMHYuIOhDAEnktmK27VICS8/s320/Belben+craft" /></span></a><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">o,” “The summer I nannied Wyatt,” these are all statements that allow me to pinpoint where/when/what I was at a given point in time. This summer, ’09, is notable for the following (and I am NOT bragging): it is, in no particular order: the summer I joined Facebook, the summer I nearly wore a dent in the chaise on my front porch, the summer I….frak. I can’t think of anything else. This summer may be notable only because it is the first summer I did typical summer stuff: laid around in the sun, slept in, avoided responsibility and read 8 billion books. Dreamlike in its simplicity and yet somehow unfulfilling. Teaching summer school is a welcome break from a life of relentless leisure. Seriously, one more nap and I was going to have to get prescription Neosporin for the bedsores.<br /><br /></span><div><div><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">I did manage to get a couple of projects done, and again, I’m not bragging, I’m just saying. One day I touched up all the divots in the paint around the house. Very satisfying. I washed the baseboards. I finally labeled that row of perplexing light switches in the living room. I put up towel-hooks and a bottle opener next to the hot tub. I planted lavender, basil, rosemary, and mint (only the mint died). I made serious progress on the soda-can art thingy (undefinable) I’ve been working on since 2004 and hung window frames for “privacy” in front of the hot tub. I bogarted the neighbors’ sewing machine and sewed pockets in the roommate’s sweatpants. I made a few greeting cards that also involved sewing. I did not make any more wine gift-bags from the sleeves of the shirts of a now-forgotten ex-boyfriend. I did not make any voodoo dolls. Honest.<br /><br />Knowing that I'll have less time to do it later, I also spent some of my summer making some of my Christmas gifts. </span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgCLzqlbqQno0hTISi6dplHyaCzo-_ibdYeaoasVbqBuE91_S_4OZbDnXpBk0BIF3_BZemmP0OmQntVEMgDFYZdkj3VbGkRpQv04fzNBrZogGce9ZQp1DVRipL9ZJbZ87Zs4lCYmGNHG0/s1600-h/big-ass-book-of-crafts.jpg"><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 178px; FLOAT: right; HEIGHT: 228px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5369106918167761106" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgCLzqlbqQno0hTISi6dplHyaCzo-_ibdYeaoasVbqBuE91_S_4OZbDnXpBk0BIF3_BZemmP0OmQntVEMgDFYZdkj3VbGkRpQv04fzNBrZogGce9ZQp1DVRipL9ZJbZ87Zs4lCYmGNHG0/s320/big-ass-book-of-crafts.jpg" /></span></a><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">I got a little help from my most recent favorite craft book, </span><a href="http://www.villagebooks.com/book/9781416937852"><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">The Big Ass Book of Crafts </span></a><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">by Mark Montano. I can't tell you the specifics on the projects I completed, because you might be among the eventual recipients, but let's just say that Montano has 150+ ideas, some of which will remind you of the 1970's (think macrame and glued-on pasta), but most of them are creative, fun, and not too time-consuming. Most don't require any special tools, skill, or artistic flair, and many can be adapted for kids, which, if you're at the end of summer and you have children, will probably come as a blessed relief. Something to occupy them...and use up all those popsicle sticks. Craft on!</span></p></div></div>Cathy Belbenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16215264665264634621noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7590673283563680567.post-44419203274986479062009-07-09T11:01:00.000-07:002009-07-09T11:52:54.148-07:00Stories from the Chaise...<span style="line-height: 115%;font-size:100%;" >Since school’s been out, I’ve read a bunch of fiction </span><span style="line-height: 115%;font-size:100%;" >that’s definitely worth recommending, and I’m never going to get around to writing an individual entry on each book, what with all the napping and existentialism. So here’s a summary:<o:p></o:p></span> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><span style="line-height: 115%;font-size:100%;" ><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 0, 153);">Best Book for Your Book Club</span><br />I live with a houseload of outdoorsy guys who are forever </span><span style=";font-family:trebuchet ms;font-size:100%;" ><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6w8UT_hc6UL5k5edC8WaX8GVYv1vn4G5EofBAri_H2u5T8byjSjkyD6jz9d7L2gW32hnt3jclyFD7TsDC5NSI5GillbLMWcqMHtQU57grLAq4_aYeJMF_bvkjA9N5Mm4cANwdoydAAS8/s1600-h/my_abandonment_rock.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 212px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6w8UT_hc6UL5k5edC8WaX8GVYv1vn4G5EofBAri_H2u5T8byjSjkyD6jz9d7L2gW32hnt3jclyFD7TsDC5NSI5GillbLMWcqMHtQU57grLAq4_aYeJMF_bvkjA9N5Mm4cANwdoydAAS8/s320/my_abandonment_rock.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5356522521157409906" border="0" /></a></span><span style="line-height: 115%;font-size:100%;" >hiking off into the wilderness to test the superpower capabilities of testosterone, otherwise I might forget that people can and do survive happily in the sticks and dirt. So</span><span style="line-height: 115%;font-size:100%;" >me of them live their whole lives between backpacks of Top Ramen and Belly Timber, seemingly ignorant of wonders such as the pillow-top mattress and take-out Thai. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><span style="line-height: 115%;font-size:100%;" >In <a href="http://www.villagebooks.com/book/9780151014149">My Abandonment by Peter Rock</a>, </span><span style="line-height: 115%;font-size:100%;" >a father and his 13-year-old daughter, Caroline, <span style=""> </span>live for 4 years undetected in the Portland, Oregon’s Forest Park. Completely self-sufficient, they grow their own vegetables, forage for other food and materials to use in maintaining their hidden shelter, and exist peacefully until a chance encounter reveals their situation to the p</span><span style="line-height: 115%;font-size:100%;" >ublic and their lives are irreversibly altered. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><span style="line-height: 115%;font-size:100%;" >As the story progresses, you’ll become slightly, almost imperceptibly suspicious of Caroline and her father, of their past and the how and why of their isolation and partnership. And that's why you'll want to read it with a friend--there are profound questions about the story, the characters, and it what it means to have a home. Based on a true story, this fascinating account of survival and escape will appeal to anyone who liked Cormac McCarthy’</span><span style="line-height: 115%;font-size:100%;" >s The Road.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><span style="line-height: 115%;font-size:100%;" ><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0); font-weight: bold;">Best Book for Anyone Who Likes House, Grey’s Anatomy, or Any Other o</span></span><span style="font-size:100%;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_M8A5sj3pfnmB5INkN6fEvA1hdIseYtG2F8CEavjbTuK1fykiykYHjh-42G58L1T9aqOhb9N5ymYf4p2DGh0rRSx4wW-YoesKB0-zLRYcuHCSJRcHQY6KJTJ7qo-HzRiZ4U8Xkhf3yUk/s1600-h/Oxygen.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 210px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_M8A5sj3pfnmB5INkN6fEvA1hdIseYtG2F8CEavjbTuK1fykiykYHjh-42G58L1T9aqOhb9N5ymYf4p2DGh0rRSx4wW-YoesKB0-zLRYcuHCSJRcHQY6KJTJ7qo-HzRiZ4U8Xkhf3yUk/s320/Oxygen.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5356523008209557890" border="0" /></a></span><span style="line-height: 115%;font-size:100%;" ><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0); font-weight: bold;">f the Billion Medical Dramas on TV</span><br />A writer for Salon once called Grey’s Anatomy “soft-core porn for women,” an apt description of the show that doesn’t really fit <a href="http://www.villagebooks.com/book/9781416556114">Oxygen by Carol Cassella</a>, but I’m sitting in a bar writing book reviews and I needed a segue, so there you have it.</span><span style="line-height: 115%;font-size:100%;" > Like Grey’s, Oxygen takes place in a Seattle hospital, but without nearly as much sex. The story revolves around a compelling ethical dilemma that’s far more serious than anything that whiny Meredith Grey has ever had to deal with. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><span style="line-height: 115%;font-size:100%;" >Marie Heaton is an anesthesiologist whose career is in turmoil after a child dies in her care. Accused of malpractice, Marie finds herself questioning all that she has come to believe about her abilities and role as a doctor. Legal drama, medical mysteries, and a series of unpredictable twists make this novel the perfec</span><span style="line-height: 115%;font-size:100%;" >t excuse to turn off the TV.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><span style="line-height: 115%;font-size:100%;" ><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 153, 0);">A Missing Person Novel That’s Not Really About a Missing Person</span><br />Really! It’s not! But I wasn’t disappointed. <a href="http://www.villagebooks.com/book/9781400066803">Precious by Sand</a></span><span style="line-height: 115%;font-size:100%;" ><a href="http://www.villagebooks.com/book/9781400066803">ra Novack</a> begins with the disap</span><span style="font-size:100%;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgagZw66UWVVbbMygwS7COrb_iNPisCso2EOg6sc52C0JZAMoafDgGHbWo5h_4cCN43TH2ChXBe_RX1s6YHQrRPalgeNvY-tj7-Bx6kTuzaY7wF2kzr7_R5zaWTDS5l6RIrUYgPvIFoCWw/s1600-h/Precious.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 145px; height: 194px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgagZw66UWVVbbMygwS7COrb_iNPisCso2EOg6sc52C0JZAMoafDgGHbWo5h_4cCN43TH2ChXBe_RX1s6YHQrRPalgeNvY-tj7-Bx6kTuzaY7wF2kzr7_R5zaWTDS5l6RIrUYgPvIFoCWw/s320/Precious.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5356523256703138626" border="0" /></a></span><span style="line-height: 115%;font-size:100%;" >pearance of 10-year-old Vicki Anderson in the summer of 1978. Vicki is the daughter of single mother, Ginny, an alcoholic widow, and the classmate and of Sissy Kisch, and it's the impact of the disappearance on Sissy that forms the core of the story. Sissy's mother, Natalia, has also disappeared, although under less mysterious circumstances--she's left her husband to be with another man, and has left Sissy and her sadistic older sister, Eva, in the care of their father Frank. Eva responds to her mother's abandonment by throwing herself into an affair with a married teacher, and Sissy copes by immersing herself in a fantasy world...or is it? An absorbing story about families, couples, and being present...or not.<br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><span style="line-height: 115%;font-size:100%;" ><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(204, 51, 204);">Best Book for People Who Like Books about Books</span><br />I pick what to read based on reviews I read in Booklist (the ALA's official book</span><span style="font-size:100%;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg50oaxtj13jJBH3LPbWlj2LHHJslOVII-HGN7N3XxCYU1LI6FM1cAcdShvJJEnx9LRxGiCMXNKmMXZuzX1ntAcn25uL7wGrLztkNk0OhqOt5DV_PgN3R9PEB0h1zSTO67Baiwra1dKnIA/s1600-h/How+I+became.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 185px; height: 269px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg50oaxtj13jJBH3LPbWlj2LHHJslOVII-HGN7N3XxCYU1LI6FM1cAcdShvJJEnx9LRxGiCMXNKmMXZuzX1ntAcn25uL7wGrLztkNk0OhqOt5DV_PgN3R9PEB0h1zSTO67Baiwra1dKnIA/s320/How+I+became.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5356533149259943330" border="0" /></a></span><span style="line-height: 115%;font-size:100%;" > review journal), the Indie Next list, which is distributed at independent booksellers and available online; People magazine (gotta keep up with the pop!), and Entertainment Weekly (ditto). I rarely read the list of New York Times Bestsellers because I'm not interested i</span><span style="line-height: 115%;font-size:100%;" >n what's selling well--I want to know what's written well.<br /><br />The <a href="http://www.indiebound.org/indie-next-list">Indie Next</a> list is my favorite source, because the recommendations come directly from other booklovers and are often reviews of books that are from smaller presses or new writers--work I might not hear about otherwise. Such is the case with <a href="http://www.villagebooks.com/book/9780802170606">How I Became a Famous Novelist</a>, by Steve Hely, a completely original and hilarious skewering of the American book publishing world and the financial engine that drives it. Hely's character, Pete, studies the trends in best-sellers and then writes his own--a book that he himself recognizes as crap, but nevertheless one likely to appeal to readers who like everything else that becomes popular. Hely's voice is unique, funny, and memorable.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><span style="line-height: 115%;font-size:100%;" >It may seem as though I've spent the summer (so far) lounging on my front porch, reading and sipping cool beverages. And that's pretty much exactly right. But it's work, people, work I do for you, so you won't have to pluck a crappy paperback from the grocery store check out line in a moment of panic before you board your next flight. It's a sacrifice, and you can thank me later. Hi-ho, hi-ho.<br /></span></p><span style="font-size:100%;">|<br /><br /></span>Cathy Belbenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16215264665264634621noreply@blogger.com0