the weird one about twins.

 Who writes a book like this?  Terribly, terribly strange and disturbing.  Or maybe just further evidence that I am not a fan of sci fi and never will be.

Her Fearful Symmetry is the follow-up novel to Audrey Niffenegger's Time Travelers Wife.  The topic of the novel was intriguing: a quirky aunt dies and leaves her fortune to her nieces; becomes a ghost and observes them. There is a cast of equally quirky characters and an interesting setting near a cemetery in England.  That said, the relationship between the twins is at once dark and incestuous.  And what ultimately happens in the book is downright dumb.

The reviews of Her Fearful Symmetry have been horrific.  Kirkus Reviews calls the plot of this book "breathtakingly far-fetched."  The book is terribly readable but ridiculously macabre. 

This book was a gift - if you want to call it that.  I should have known the novel was a stinker from the first page.  The names of the two main characters are Edwina and Elspeth.  Shame on me that I didn't put the novel down after page 50.

the one about butchers.

I am BEYOND thrilled about my new book club.  Kate is hosting at her house next week for an eclectic group of girls (non-related except for a love of books).  I'm eager to meet some of Sarah's blogging friends and someone who lived kitty korner from me freshman year in Brandt!

But about the book.  I'm pretty sure I read Master Butchers Singing Club years ago.  It was on my shelf.  But as I read the book again ??? it was so unfamiliar.  I'm hoping this book will cement in my memory now with a lively discussion.  It is a saga of grand proportion and written by a woman who knows words.

Without revealing too much, thoughts I had about the book:
1) What must it have been like to be a German American during/after WWII?  I'm German after all.
2) Has Louise Erdrich experienced death/cancer?  B/C she writes so authentically about the experience.
3)  How in the world did Erich get to a POW camp in N.  Minnesota?  Really?
4)  How was Delphine's relationship with Fidelis any different than with Ciprine?
5)  Did TOO much drama sacrifice character dev?  The female undertaker and Step and a Half?

I'm excited to read Last Report at Little No Horse now set in the same fictional town of Argus.  And I anticipate the next assigned novel for our new book club without a name.

the lukewarm one.

I have been dying to read The History of Love by Nicole Krauss.  And now that I've read it, I'm not even sure what to say.  The book was confusing and it didn't have to be.  Just trying to understand the plot took away from reveling in the beauty of the characters.  If it weren't for old man Leo, I would have put the book on the shelf days ago. 

This seems to be a popular book attracting those that enjoyed Time Travelers's Wife and flocked to the  movie Julie and Julia.  The novel has a very devoted following.  Just hoping that someone who loved the novel can help me understand.  My brain is a muddied mess after reading the last page.

ho-hum.

another one about a blogger.

So, I just finished The Happiness Project - a novel that has been lauded all over blogland.  But I wasn't impressed.  I'm getting tired of thirty somethings with cliche ideas that can't write.  Harsh, I know.  Would I, could I be ambitious enough to publish my own little thing.  Then, I could judge.

The author Gretchen Rubin counters John Stuart Mill and his quote:
"ask yourself whether you are happy and you cease to be so."

Rubin firmly believes in the intentional pursuit of happiness.  She directs us to create a resolution checklist full of activities to bring joy to our days (i.e. straightening the piles, always accepting invitations and reading memoirs of catastrophe to build gratitude).  The checklist made me exhausted. I'm left feeling that for most of us the solution to finding happiness is to lighten up.

I'd like to recommend Geography of Bliss by Eric Weiner (a former NPR reporter) for those that want to delve into the genuinely compelling topic of happiness.  God knows, Americans don't corner the market on what it means to be happy AND Eric Weiner explores the globe to explain why.

the one about Laura Bush.

I just finished American Wife by Curtis Sittenfeld and let's just say that I have very conflicted feelings about this novel.   The novel is a fictionalized account of the life of Laura Bush.  Or maybe not, because the author recommends you put Laura and George Bush out of your head while reading.  Really? Because reading this novel without thinking of the Bush presidency is nearly impossible to do.  The similarities between Alice Lindgren and Laura Bush are just too close for comfort.  I learned that Laura Bush was in a fatal car accident in high school, that her views on abortion are complex, that she made compromises in life for love.  So many other spoilers worth reading.

If modeled after George Bush, the character of Charlie Blackwell did not help enamor me to the president.  He attends Princeton, manages a meat packing industry, owns the Brewers and basically comes across as an egocentric, entitled and rough around the edges guy.  Not making a statement here about George Bush - just Curtis Sittenfeld's Charlie.  Charlie really irritated me throughout the novel and I questioned how a woman could marry a "boy" who is scared of the dark.  Alice portrayed many admirable characteristics - just not her choice in men.

In the end, this novel is fiction.  But reading about the president's drug use and sexual proclivities made me uncomfortable.  Relationships should on some level be private and held sacred.  This novel just goes to show that people are a lot more complicated than their public perception.

I enjoy reading Curtis Sittenfeld (author of Prep).  I would recommend this novel in part.  Just wish she had pared it down by about 200 pages.  The last third of the book steers off course and seems more a political commentary than a character exploration.  The beginning of the book - LOVE.

the one where death is the author.

This book absolutely wrecked me.  I'm still scraping away tears as I write this review.  The first fifty pages had me confused, the next 400 pages held my interest and the last 50 swept me away.

I will remember images from this book forever . . . Hans Habermann keeping watch and reading with Liesel through her nightmares, Rudy Steiner asking for his kiss, Rosa calling everyone a Saumensch, the pluckishness of Liesel stealing books from the mayor's wife.

I loved the last line of this book.  "I am haunted by humans."  Stories of World War II always grip my heart but this is perhaps the best novel I have read yet about Nazi Germany - the brutality, the heroism, the complex relationships that existed then.

The narrator in the book is Death himself.  He talks about collecting souls.  If you have ever lost someone close to you and witnessed their transformation, this book will mean something different to you.  I hope my soul is "sitting up" when that time comes.

The author has such control over the reader's emotions, revealing the plot at surprising moments.  You're left breathless.  Such an amazing book.  I want to read it all over again.

the one that is a mystery.

Will summarize later but consider this book read.

the one where dogs talk.

Another book from Christmas.  Note yellow lab, front and center. 

I was disappointed in The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein.  I know this is a popular book club pick and yet I just couldn't get into the voice of Enzo as the narrator.  An interesting idea.  I guess I just don't believe that dogs are that philosophical.  I also wasn't having the metaphors about life being like a racetrack.  Not my hobby.

Others might like this book.  The plot line is extremely sad.

And if you like dogs, you might be touched.  I just really wasn't.  A quick read.

the one that EVERYONE is reading.

I can totally see this book becoming a movie.  Kathryn Stockett, the author, sounds like she's loaded and grew up without a care or concern in this world.  She's a good author though and she knows how to spin a tale.  In this case, a tale of 3 women who anonymously write a book about the domestic help in Jackson, Mississippi and the horrid racism that existed there in the 1960s and probably still lingers.

That Hilly Holbrook . . . she is about the worst villian that ever was.  Many of the characters in the book make mistakes and you find a way to forgive them for their ineptitude.  Hilly is evil.

The coming of age that Skeeter experiences and her mother's bout with cancer was emotional to read.

I can't imagine that Kathryn Stockett will write another novel quite this good.  She writes the voices in this one pitch perfect because she lived the experience.  I have heard that some critics feel this book was written to help whites feel better about the time.  That it was "soft."  That Kathryn tries to impose her idea of what it's like to be domestic help and perpetuates stereotypes.  That the book is utterly predictable and doesn't hold memorable lines.  I would perhaps agree but at least the novel initiates a conversation for the many followers it will surely find in women's book groups.  And that is a start.

Looking forward to the discussion with our Stillwater Book Club.

the one that moves too slow.

Twenty 10 is off to quite the start!  I finished my second book on January 2nd.  Don't expect to see me back here for a few days though as I'm breaking open page 1 of The Help next.

In Praise of Slowness by Carl Honore.  Learned about this book on a blog last spring.  Opened the book right away and wasn't terribly interested.  It really spoke to me though in late December when the world was crashing in.  I decided to change my schedule at work and (gasp) close the door for extended times when I was answering my email/phone messages.  I also shifted to a new way approach of handling email aka ALWAYS CLEAR OUT THE INBOX!  I stayed away from social lunches that drained my energy and actually ended up leaving work on time.

A few interesting thoughts/quotes:

"The secret of life is always to look for the tempo guisto"

Harvard Dean Harry Lewis writes a letter to every undergraduate freshman entitled "Slow Down."

In the early 1900s, many actually predicted a decreased work week (4 hours a day).  Hah!

"There is more to life than increasing it's speed"  Gandhi

A good book but it's not flashy and didn't always engage my attention.  Couldn't slow down enough to read it, I guess.  Oh the irony  . . .