Category Archives: Books

Fiction: “Run” by Ann Patchett

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Since this book doesn’t come out until October in the US, I was very excited to stumble upon it in Belgium. It’s not that long of a read (it didn’t even last me the entire plane ride from Brussels to Philadelphia), but it was a really rich, satisfying read that has stayed with me since.

One of my favorite reading “things” is when unrelated books you read in short periods turn out to be thematically linked; they become a matched set to me / a good “pair.” As with “The Buffalo Soldier” which I read a week earlier, this is a story of racially-mixed adoption (white parents/black child(ren).

What truly makes a family? What makes a mother? How important are the physical links? Do the emotional ones replace them? Can your hopes and dreams for other people ever STOP hindering them / stop hindering your relationship with them when they don’t work out?

This was just really lovely. I think I’ve now read all Patchett’s books. I’m on the bandwagon. Leading the parade. They’re all really different than each other; they’ve all got at least one breathtaking, beautiful moment. This book had several. Run, Kenya, run…

Fiction: “Seven Types of Ambiguity” by Elliot Perlman

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Technically this was my vacation reading but since I didn’t want to carry it on the plane with me on the way back, I didn’t finish the last few pages until a few days after I got back thanks to the luggage screwup.

Ginger loves this book and had recommended it to me several times. Finally she just sent me a copy. Wow. Somewhat like another book I read recently, or a movie like “Memento”, as each chapter unfurls, something takes you by surprise. Yet UNLIKE say the current show “Damages”, the things that happen unexpectedly MAKE SENSE and are not blindsiding you. You weren’t expecting them, or you might not have predicted them, but it’s one of those books where things unfold in such a neat way… You have to keep reinterpreting your previous conclusions as you go.

Carrying the torch of a love long lost can lead one to do things you wouldn’t expect. Yes? No?

It’s a big, thick one. It takes a bit of time. But it’s worth it.

Fiction: “The Buffalo Soldier” by Chris Bohjalian

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Although I found some parts of this book weren’t quite where I wanted them to be (didn’t use the Buffalo Soldier analogy enough, touched on it too lightly), I found myself very emotionally attached to Alfred and I had a hard time not crying during the last few chapters. I mean, even the THOUGHT of foster kids could put me on tear’s edge some days, so reading an entire book about one… well. He felt very, very real to me. Particularly enjoyed his relationship with the neighbor, Paul.

À la Super Eggplant, currently, I am…

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I mean to do a “currently” post every week. Every week. And then…I just don’t. Ah well.

Making: Working on two Friendship Star quilts, and just started a strippy pinwheel for a little five year old girl who refers to me as Aunt Carolyn although there’s no blood tie there.

Reading: Uh oh. I just finished my book on the way home. I am not reading ANYTHING right this second, can you believe it. But I’m figuring out what to take on vacation with me on Saturday. Right now “Seven Types of Ambiguity” by Elliot Perlman is at the top of the list. Ginger’s been recommending it to me and finally she just up and sent it to me for my last birthday. So I guess I’d better get to it. It’s nice and thick, I figured that way I only have to pack the ONE book!

Watching: The Closer is the only summer series I’ve been able to consistently watch (have just LOVED the last few eps!). The TIVO keeps filling up with the others (Rescue Me, Damages, Saving Grace), and I just keep not watching them, although I think I’m almost caught up with Psych. I’m also watching Miracles, some weird show that starred with Skeet Ulrich. It’s got a LOT of religious wishy washy psychobabble crap in it though so I don’t know if my crush will be enough to get me through all four discs. I really want to see Transformers (yes, I KNOW but I DO) and maybe the new Die Hard, but I can’t seem to get to the theater…

Listening: Hilarious live album from Matt Nathanson, new tunes from Common (mellower than I expected), Carla Bruni (it’s weird, poems by Wordsworth, Dickinson, etc. put to music), Okkervil River (LOVE it! v. fun!), and the old but only so far album by Rhymefest, who I really liked at Lollapalooza.

Best of July.

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The best movie I saw in July was probably La Vie en Rose, although I don’t think it was the movie I enjoyed the most (given my ridiculous Pisces empathy trait, watching movies about people whose childhoods were just SO crappy kinda stresses me out). And despite me not liking the last 15 minutes or so, I thought Sunshine was pretty good.

The best book I read in July was “Freddy and Fredericka” by Mark Helprin, which was just side-splittingly hilarious and super sweet and nostalgic all at the same time. Worth its weight.

The best concert I went to in July was Travis. It was just a wonderful show. Really made me smile.

My favorite tunes in July? Hmmm. Well, I still spent a LOT of time listening to The National “Boxer” which is really leading the running for my number one album this year. I also really like Jason Isbell‘s solo album, the new Magic Numbers (!!), girlie music from Sara Bareille and Maria Taylor. For easy mellow listening, you can never go wrong with the new Josh Rouse or Stars.

Fiction: “Taft” by Ann Patchett

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I think this was the only Patchett book I hadn’t read yet. What the hell was I waiting for? (Woman needs to write me something new!) I LOVED it. The lead character’s voice totally sucked me in. His longings and his fears and his reality… It all rang true. His tenderness and his sometimes hesitations… The atmosphere at Muddy’s. The rain. Palpable.

A great book. I think she’s one of the best writers out there right now, and in terms of female writers, she’s right up there with Pat Barker and A.L. Kennedy. Would love to see something new. Just talked to my pops, she DOES have a new book out!! “Run”. Heading to the bookstore now!!

Fiction: “Inglorious” by Joanna Kavenna

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I didn’t love this. The lead character’s downward spiral…never really ends but it never really takes off either. I guess I needed things to either get better or get worse, but there was sort of a sameness to it all. And when it ends, it.just.ends. No resolution either way really.

But there were two things I really really loved about it. I loved her to-do lists. SO funny. (Lists where things like “Read all of Western Philosophy” receive the same weight as things like “vacuum”.) And I loved her “letters” (or pretend letters as most are things you presume she did NOT send). And I thought they were so well-written and so comedic in a very bleak way…and I thought the rest of the book SHOULD have had that tone as well. Or if it would have, then it would probably have been a book I really loved. There was a distance to the rest / sort of a bubble around the character I found inpenetrable, that totally disappeared in those moments. They were what was most engaging about the character and perhaps were used too sparingly. They almost felt like they were written by a different person.

Mystery: “Risk” by Dick Francis (reread)

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This was my company on the blanket at Lollapalooza on Sunday. Dick Francis is like comfort food to me. The mac’n’cheese of mysteries. The tomato soup in my readin’ week. I can (and have) read some of these over and over.

He rarely repeats a character, but two books of his that I have read a zillion times over are “Bolt” and “Break In” both featuring Kit Fielding. If you like mysteries, and you like horses, and jockeys, and racing, and the occasional princess, then high thee to a bookstore. You won’t be disappointed.

Mystery: “The Hard Way” by Lee Child

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Think I’m almost all caught up now, with only one Jack Reacher novel out there I haven’t read. (Mariko and I started these in Australia, with book 10 we randomly picked up in an airport. Came home to the States and started from Book 1. This was Book 11.)

There’s just not one damn thing I don’t love about Jack Reacher.

Fiction: “Remainder” by Tom McCarthy

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Very cool and mysterious book. Really takes you a place you’re not expecting. Man severely injured in an accident he can’t even remember receives an 8 million pound settlement. The way he sets about spending the money…is not anything you could ever dream up. Wow. Intricate and extremely plotted, the general evolution of his plan was quite spell-binding. I really didn’t want to put this book down.

Ultimately I felt this was a book about control, with the main character the boy version of the girls from, say, “An Invisible Sign of My Own” or “Sharp Objects”.