Another reminder to self post: I keep forgetting to buy these two and I can’t keep carrying around this email I sent myself…
The Genius, by Jesse Kellerman (also mentioned here)
To the Power of Three, by Laura Lippman (also mentioned here)
Category Archives: Books
Book I keep reading about.
Netherland by Joseph O’Neill. Called “possibly the most impressive post-9/11 novel yet” somewhere that I copied & printed out and then promptly forgot wherefrom. Looked at it in the bookstore but couldn’t decide…
Fiction: Lush Life, by Richard Price
A bday present from Carla who must’ve seen me mention it here. 😉
Price does such a good job of sucking you into each character’s point of view. I kept changing who I was rooting for / who I thought was guilty / who deserved a serious smackdown. He is also just brilliant at maintaining the main plotline while also delving into all the little conflicts going on in the substories around it. Every character, every story, every little grouping of people is fully fleshed out and palpably human.
And the dialogue? Holy crap, no wonder they make this guy’s books into movies. The dialogue is just spot-on in every scene.
Combine this great book with Minty’s recent Coney Island and Mermaid Parade photos and I was missing NYC something fierce for a week there.
Fiction: Life Class, by Pat Barker
I really, really canNOT understand the reviews for this book: all of which seem to compare it unfavorably to her earlier Regeneration trilogy and some of which I just find ludicrous (“Tellingly, many critics mentioned as their favorite character one with little more than a walk-on—the real-life artist, teacher, and surgeon Henry Tonks, whom they hope to see more of in a sequel“. What? NO.).
I didn’t think the first half of the book was “slow” as so many have said / I thought the first half was about a bunch of very unhappy people, some of whom are actually happier when the war comes (second half) because it gives their life some direction they hadn’t seemed to be able to find before it. Life does move slower when you’re unhappy, don’t you know.
I loved the descriptions of the art in this book; I could *almost* see the paintings in my mind and I really wish most of them existed. (Similar to how I felt about the paintings in Siri Hustvedt’s “What I Loved”.)
I found it moving and insightful and while it does continue to crack me up that so many contemporary British writers are often to be found writing about WWI and II (because there just haven’t been any conflicts in the world since then, right?) in a way you don’t find quite as often on this side of the pond, I think Pat Barker is (and continues to be) one of the best.
À la Super Eggplant, currently, I am…
Eating: All I want to eat is crap. Particularly the Special Dark Hershey’s Chocolate Kisses that I bought to send to Max (and Alison) and then never put in the mail…Whoops. Their loss, my ass’s gain.
Making: Almost done with the second thick woolly sleeveless vest (WHATEVER!). Hoping to finish the top of Kysa’s Friendship Star quilt (a.k.a. Friendship Star #2) and then sandwich/baste/and quilt BOTH that AND the quick baby quilt top I whipped up over the weekend and get them in the mail to her by the 9th, which is supposedly the date on which the baby boy is going to pop out. I’m hoping he’s late (although I’m sure she’s not!!).
Reading: Was supposed to start July’s challenge book yesterday (!), but picked it up and almost had my arm drop off due to the weight. Guess I won’t be reading that one in transit!! So instead I’ve started “Trespass” by Valerie Martin which is prickly and dark and promises to get moreso.
Watching: Since my dad started watching BSG, I started watching it ALL OVER AGAIN (I know!) so that when he calls me and says OH MY GOD I CAN’T BELIEVE THIS JUST HAPPENED, I know specifically what episode he’s talking about (and in what order) and I don’t accidentally give away a spoiler like I almost did the other night… Of course I have way more time in my day than he has in his, so I’ve already gotten past where he is. Maybe I’ll wait for him to catch up. I mean, I so would, except for there being fucking nothing else for me to watch right now. And I saw “Wanted” which I loved as much as I thought I would and maybe I’ll write a post on that for ya say over the long-ass holiday weekend during which I HAVE TO WORK ON SUNDAY and will not be in Southern Illinois with all my Blonde K-Cousins as I like to call ’em. Waah.
Listening: I listened to Matt Costa (which I mentioned here and here among other places) all weekend long, over and over, after introducing someone to him on Thursday night when we were at my house “playing DJ” since we thought we were going to see Meg Hutchinson at Uncommon Ground but she wasn’t there (???) and instead there were these really pretty mediocre singers basically doing karaoke and I’m sorry but Alanis Morrisette “You Oughta Know” done on acoustic guitar with a husky Melissa Etheridge wannabe voice and admonitions to the audience to please “Join in!” ??? I don’t think so.
But now I’m listening almost exclusively to the NEW! Earlimart “Hymn and Her” out yesterday that is AWESOME. Oh I love me some Earlimart (for example, this is how much I loved their previous album and here is where they were in my favorite albums of 2007) and Hello! Score! coming to Chicago on the 26th at the teeny tiny Hideout. Woot. Yes, I bought tickets. Yay! (Or, as a former coworker would say “I’m stoked!”)
Oh and while the whole “Meg Hutchinson not being playing although that’s the only reason we went” issue sucked, I did have some incredible pistachio-encrusted tilapia that pretty much blew my mind and this wacky french Apple-flavored beer that was DELISH. So there’s that.
À la Nick Hornby, books in/books out for June.
Bought:
- Raven’s Strike, by Patricia Briggs
- Battlestar Galactica: The Official Companion, by David Bassom
- Battlestar Galactica: The Official Companion Season 2, by David Bassom
- Battlestar Galactica: The Official Companion Season 3, by David Bassom
- Breath, by Tim Winton
- Nothing to Lose, by Lee Child
Read:
- Battlestar Galactica: The Official Companion, by David Bassom
- Battlestar Galactica: The Official Companion Season 2, by David Bassom
- War with the Newts, by Karel Capek
- Raven’s Shadow, by Patricia Briggs
- The Farther Shore, by Matthew Eck
- Battlestar Galactica: The Official Companion Season 3, by David Bassom
- Raven’s Strike, by Patricia Briggs
- Life Class, by Pat Barker
- Lush Life, by Richard Price
- Dark Roots, by Cate Kennedy (stories)
- Nothing to Lose, by Lee Child
Hmmm, I think that’s the first month since I started keeping track that I’ve actually read more than I bought. WOOOT!
À la Super Eggplant, currently, I am…
So I have officially declared Wednesdays to be the “Currently” update date. Completely official until next time I forget and just don’t do it, which will most likely be next week! Ha!
Eating: I’m kinda obsessed with the Poblano Fresco (with Chicken) sandwich at Corner Bakery right now. Which is unfortunate being that it’s 900 calories (NO JOKE) which is a lot to spend on one sandwich when you are pretending to only eat 1500 calories a day…
Making: A second “vest” type garment made out of super thick, super warm, wool. Because that’s totally what you are looking for in clothing right? Something with short sleeves that’s super hot?
Reading: Just finished “”Lush Life” by Richard Price (v.v.good) and was reading short stories from Cate Kennedy “Dark Roots” except I didn’t realize how close to the end I was and finished it on the El this morning (only 182 pages and BIG print). So crap, I’m not reading ANYTHING right this second and you know I am antsy to get home and dig into the bookshelves and get moving!
Watching: Nothing. I don’t think I’ve turned on the TV this week. (Oh except to put in BSG discs which I’ve started over again for the third & fourth times (depending on the episode) and am now mid-season 2. I like to be watching around where my dad is watching so when he calls I can remember the stuff he’s raving about.) I am waiting for this weekend where I WILL see WANTED, I tell you now.
Listening: Listening to the (still relatively) new Death Cab and also Fleet Foxes and Shearwater and Joseph Arthur and Port O’Brien and Madonna and Missy Higgins and Candy Butchers… I’m all over the place. I am thinking deep thoughts about a mix someone requested so I’ll be poking about a bit until I get that done.
Fantasy: Raven’s Shadow and Raven’s Strike, by Patricia Briggs
Yes, I’m on a bit of a Patricia Briggs kick (first the Mercy Thompson books, then the dragon books I read last month (known together as “the Hurog books”); these are known as “the Raven duology.”
Reminiscent of Robert Jordan with the magic and the travelers and the sense of class/caste between magic(al) and not… As with the Hurog books, the characters in these books are so real and so easy to engage with, and the story becomes even more believable as it evolves.
The first book establishes the relationship that the second book gives you the payoff for. The enlargement of the magic world in book two is done just so, so well. Jess is my favorite (not just Jess, but the Guardian as well) but all the “orders” have their attractions.
If you like fantasy, you should be reading these. (And if you like “good literature” but haven’t been reading fantasy because you didn’t know which ones to read, this is a good place for you to start.)
Fiction: The Farther Shore, by Matthew Eck
I’ll go back to my initial reaction: Welcome to the new generation of war novelists. Tactile and gritty and completely engrossing.
A bombed-out Middle Eastern city. An isolated military unit. Sand and desert winds and sweat and dehydration and confusion. The byplay between fear and confidence.
While it is what every good war novel is…it is also something of its own. Highly recommended.
Best of May
The best movie I saw in May was Iron Man and it was fucking awesome and definitely the best movie I’ve seen this year (not that I’ve seen many) and it’s so good that even the second time around when you go to a crap ass neighborhood theater and the projector breaks and you have to watch the middle 20 minutes in two-minute increments, it’s STILL brilliant. Are you coming to Chicago? I’d be happy to go to it again!
The best books I read in May were the one-two punch of Dragon Bones and Dragon Blood by Patricia Briggs. Magical and mysterious and yet so human and irresistibly attractive. If only I could have jumped into these books and become an auxiliary character (Another “cousin” for Ward? A romantic interest for Oreg?)… She ranks right up there with Elizabeth A. Lynn as my favorite current fantasy writers.
The best gig I went to in May was probably a tie between the Long Blondes (for actual “best”) and Crowded House (for playing some of my all-time most beloved songs).
My favorite tunes in May….Honestly, I was soooo busy watching BSG over and over (see below), I really didn’t do much listening in May. Which would be why I’m now working on listening to all the many many albums I bought but did not listen to in April, May and (thus far in) June all at once. Doh!
Random personal highlights: MDS&W, not the greatest, but I did get to see my peeps. I watched like* every episode of Battlestar Galactica. Twice. (Or more, depending on how much I loved the episode and how much screen time my Future Husband had ha ha ha ha ha.) I went to visit my nephews. Met my newest cousin! And I got many back/shoulder massages at physical therapy (but see lowlights as well).
Lowlights? Physical therapy: a) the need for it, b) the stretching and lifting and pulling, ow, ow, ow, c) the ice. Hate the ice!! Had to skip a concert (Avett Brothers). Continuing buttloads of stress at the secondary browsing location.
*like used purely for valley girl emphasis, and not to approximate any less than ALL.