Read because: I enjoyed his first novel, the Dante Club.
Traded through: www.bookins.com (although I listened to the audio book from the library)
Rating: 7 out of 10
Synopsis (from Booklist): In late 1849, Poe, traveling from his home in Virginia to Philadelphia for a lucrative editing job, went missing; however, he was found several days later, apparently drunk in a Baltimore tavern; he died after several days of delirium in a hospital and was buried unceremoniously. Press reports that Poe would be little missed so disturb Quentin Hobson Clark, a young Baltimore lawyer of independent means and a Poe admirer, that he vows to represent Poe's interests. To solve the mysterious death, Clark seeks in Paris the real-life model for Poe's fictitious detective, C. Auguste Dupin, selecting crime solver Auguste Dupont over lawyer Baron Claude Dupin. But the baron, still claiming to be Poe's model, follows Clark and Dupont to Baltimore, starting a cat-and-mouse game of detection that, because of French political implications, turns deadly.
My Review: This was one of those books that I'm really glad I listened to. I think I would have given it a lower rating had I read it, but I really appreciated Erik Singer's reading. I think it would have felt old and musty but Singer managed to bring a lot of life to the characters, especially to those who were French (the French accent in my head is ridiculously poor). In particular, I wouldn't have understood the subtleties of the names of characters, which were very important. The plot was slow and a felt a little heavy, but I liked learning more about both Poe (who really was just an ancillary character) and about Dupont and Dupin. The main character felt a little ridiculous and even irritating at times -- quick to judge and quick to get himself into trouble. I wanted to yell at him to slow down and think a bit and to stop being so impulsive. Bah.
This can't really be qualified as a book review because I haven't come anywhere close to finishing this book. I joined an online community called The Ooze Viral Bloggers. Each month, you can select one book, generally related to the more progressive end of Christianity, and they'll send it to you for free if you blog about it within thirty days. Sounds awesome, right? I thought so, so I signed up.
I chose So Beautiful by Leonard Sweet:
More than 50 years ago scientists made a remarkable discovery, proclaiming, “We have found the secret of life – and it’s so pretty!” The secret? That life’s biological code is helixical, two strands surrounding a single axis-the foundation for DNA. This design, Sweet proposes, points to an even deeper – and more poignant – secret.
Just as DNA’s three strands make life possible, three other elements work in harmony to make life not just pretty, but beautiful. And it’s in the church where we find the greatest expression, and ultimate fulfillment, of these three components to a beautiful life.
The Good Doctor Sweet presents an extraordinary look at life as it was intended to be lived, sharing secrets of God’s design for God’s people in three interwoven elements that form the heart, soul and calling of the apprenticed-to-Jesus life. In the spirit of radical inquiry – from radix, going to the root –So Beautiful unearths God’s deep-rooted dreams for the church after his own heart. Recommended for missional, organic, and house church provocateurs, as well as open-minded emerging church folks.
I've had Sweet's book for a while now, and I've picked it up several times to read it -- I'm about fifty pages in now. The other reviews of it have been fabulous, but I can't seem to get into the meat of it. I think it's because I haven't read a lot about "church theory" so there is a lot of language and structure I'm struggling through. It feels very academic, and I'm not sure I ever learned to speak "church academic." As you can see from my blog, I read a lot, so I'm struggling because I can't make this work in my brain. I find myself reading and rereading sentences to try and get what Sweet is trying to say and wondering if I'm missing something huge. I know that there is some good stuff in there. I come across nuggets like these, and they make me want to understand further:
"And the church that is incarnational prays every day a colonizing prayer: 'Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.' Every Christian is a colonizer: We are colonizing earth with heaven. We are creating 'colonies' of heaven not Christian-coated mirror cities."
In reference to evangelism: "[stop] thinking of bringing Christ to India . . . but rather [start] thinking about finding Christ already there."
"There is no spiritual life. There is only life. One life where the spiritual is not separate but the whole."
I wanted to post about this before my thirty days was up. I'm going to keep going through it, hoping that God will make Sweet's writing more clear to me, because I can feel there is some real truth in there and I'd like to dig it out. I'll write a complete review when I've finished it up and can take a step back and view it as a whole.
I just wrote a long blog about everything going on in my life and IE crashed.
I think it's because I was writing about a kite that looked like Satan.
Now you just have to use your imagination.
Satan kite.
Go.
Read for: June Avid Reader Book Club
Purchased from: the Avid Reader
My Rating: 6 out of 10
Synopsis (from School Library Journal): Adult/High School-Dumas first came to the U.S. from Iran in the early '70s when her father was sent to California on a two-year contract from the National Iranian Oil Company. Her family soon discovered that his presumed skill in English was basically limited to "vectors, surface tension and fluid mechanics." In short, humorous vignettes, the author recounts their resulting difficulties and Americans' almost total ignorance of Iran, illustrating the kindness of people and her father's absolute love of this country.
My Review: Funny in Farsi was a light read but as I read it while Tehran is in complete upheavel, it was very strange to have two completely different ideas about Iran at the same time. Dumas only lightly touched upon the Iranian revolution and the rest of the memoir is incredibly light. Not that I mind light, but it just felt...off. Anyway, I've already heard some of my book club members avidly (heh) argue that Dumas is mean to her father (they started reading it before last book club -- cheaters). I didn't really get that at all. Her father was from a different world and she expertly showed the clash between his culture and typical American culture, and the results were very funny and often had life lessons behind them. I do wish, however, that the book had been a little more organized -- I wasn't sure how old she was sometimes and it sort of skipped around in a confusing way. But overall it was a amusing little book that I recommend if you need to escape for a little while. (Finished 6/7/09)
Borrowed from: the Sacramento library
My Rating: 9 out of 10
Synopsis (from Amazon): Death himself narrates the World War II-era story of Liesel Meminger from the time she is taken, at age nine, to live in Molching, Germany, with a foster family in a working-class neighborhood of tough kids, acid-tongued mothers, and loving fathers who earn their living by the work of their hands. The child arrives having just stolen her first book–although she has not yet learned how to read–and her foster father uses it, The Gravediggers Handbook, to lull her to sleep when shes roused by regular nightmares about her younger brothers death. Across the ensuing years of the late 1930s and into the 1940s, Liesel collects more stolen books as well as a peculiar set of friends: the boy Rudy, the Jewish refugee Max, the mayors reclusive wife (who has a whole library from which she allows Liesel to steal), and especially her foster parents.
My Review: It's not often that I'm able to say that a book is like nothing I've ever read -- but I can definitely say this about the Book Thief. Zusak's prose, especially the syntax, was really original and I found myself stopping and rolling the words around in my head. For example: "Trust me, though, the words were on their way, and when they arrived, Liesel would hold them in her hands like the clouds, and she would wring them out like the rain." So pretty! The only gripe I had with the book is that every once in a great while, the language felt forced. But overall it was stunning.
The book was narrated by Death, who was a very sympathetic character. The rest of the book's characters were really interesting as well. I generally avoid books that take place during WWII because (I think I said this in my review of the Welsh Girl earlier this year) that Nazs totally freak me out. I just cannot comprehend such out and out genocide. And yes, I realize it happens today in places like Darfur -- I avoid those books as well. But I'm really glad I picked this one up. It was poignant, funny, and incredibly sad. I cried. Definitely recommended to anyone who likes their books a little on the bizarre side. (Finished 6/5/09)
Traded through: www.bookins.com
Rating: 6 out of 10
Synopsis: A treasure hunt for a Jesuit ship sunk by pirates off the coast of Spain is the plot on which Perez-Reverte's new novel turns, but a love story is the real heart of this nicely crafted, carefully told adventure. A suspended sailor happens on a maritime auction in Barcelona, where he meets the beautiful Tanger Soto, a museum curator whose winning bid buys her a 17th-century atlas that may reveal the final resting place of the Dei Gloria. Coy, the sailor, is totally smitten, so it's no surprise that he signs on to help Tanger track the sunken ship to its grave in waters he's sailed since childhood. Enlisting the aid of a diver friend, Coy and Tanger stay a few steps ahead of the crooked salvagers who've been trying to get the atlas, outmaneuvering the attempts on their lives and the efforts to keep them from the treasure.
My Review: I felt like this book moved a little more slowly than his others, but it was still a really well-crafted book. Perez-Reverte has a knack for weaving together both good plots and good characters. I wish I could have read it in its original Spanish because I think the English is great and I'd like to see how it started. This is the first book I've read in ages about a treasure hunt and although it's a really old plot device, PR made it seem new. The characters were fresh, although I thought the main character was a little uneccessarily angry sometimes. (Dude, calm down.) The girl was one of those girls who feels like she's been written by a guy, which always bugs me a bit. Still, I was entertained and I really liked how it ended. (Finished 5/29/09)
Writing a creative nonfiction essay for a continuing education class should be a reasonably straightforward assignment. This essay will lay out helpful hints for crafting a first draft. Clear your mind, find a quiet place to work, open your notebook, and begin writing. Or stare at the blank page until your eyes cross—whichever comes more naturally to you.
If you're anything like me, your type A personality knows exactly what to do — make a list. Write "Creative Non-fiction Topics" across the top of the page. Spend a few minutes deciding whether or not non-fiction should have a hyphen. Consult your dependable Chicago Manual of Style to learn that it is actually hyphenless. If you’re feeling bold, ponder if “hyphenless” should be “hyphen-less.” Then feel the satisfaction — even if you didn't write any actual creative nonfiction today, at least you learned a hyphenation rule. Go back to your notebook and replace Non-fiction with Nonfiction. Doodle stars in the margins. Flip to the next page and make a list of words that you love. Echo. Banshee. Egregious. Haberdashery. Antepenultimate. Grit. Realize that it's going to take a lot of creativity to write a nonfiction essay about a banshee. Go downstairs and make some toast.
Asking for advice from family members and friends is another surefire way to get started. It shouldn’t take more than ten minutes to explain to your parent, friend, or coworker that, no, "creative nonfiction" is not an oxymoron. Ask them if they've ever read a memoir or listened to an NPR news story, and try your best not to look appalled when they say "NP what?" Hear their suggestions, glean what you can, ignore most of it, and go back to staring at your blank piece of paper. If you have a headache at this point, you’re on the right track.
Still, if you are feeling particularly stuck, I suggest spending a few minutes wondering if the teacher decided to workshop you first because your last name begins with A. Recall how many times you had to be workshopped first during your many years of school. Throw up a prayer thanking God that Bryce Andersen was in a few of your college writing courses to occasionally knock you into second place. Resolve to marry someone whose name falls further in the alphabet before signing up for other classes.
A Facebook account is particularly helpful when writing a creative nonfiction essay, as well as for getting back in touch with Bryce Andersen. You can run ideas past friends, grumble about writer's block, and play a few, some, a lot, oodles of games of Word Twist. Add words from the game to your "Words I Like" list. Android. Monocle. Opaque. It's probably time for some more toast.
If you find that you are not completely crazy yet, it's helpful to fanatically track the Amazon package containing your surely-to-be-filled-with-inspiring-essays textbooks for the class. Once or twice an hour should suffice, unless the deadline for your paper is less than forty-eight hours away, then I recommend checking every fifteen minutes. It doesn't matter that the status hasn't changed from "Shipment has left seller facility and is in transit" in the week and a half since you placed your order. Be sure to note that the expected delivery date was five days ago.
By now, it should be somewhere between twenty four and twelve hours before your class begins, and you should almost certainly be freaking out. It’s at this point where you might want to consider putting some words on the paper, and perhaps making some more toast, just in case. The above exercises should have given you sufficient fodder for your essay.
Finally, spend tens of minutes writing about writing a creative nonfiction writing essay. Spend twice the time figuring out how to end the essay.
Read for: Avid Reader May Book Club
Purchased from: the Avid Reader
Rating: 7 out of 10
Synopsis (from Booklist): In Savage's darkly comic debut, the titular metropolitan lowlife is a rat, albeit one with lofty literary ambitions. The runt of 13 siblings spawned in the basement of a shambolic Boston bookshop, Firmin survives his lean first weeks by munching on the edges of books. He quickly develops a predilection for actually reading them, too. Tutored by a sign-language book, Firmin tries to communicate with the bookshop's owner Norman and his human brethren with predictably disastrous results until an obscure science fiction author, who writes about rats and lives above the bookshop, takes him in as a pet. There Firmin enjoys a brief respite of security, writing odes in his head and dreaming of glory, until the wrecking ball threatens the decaying neighborhood.
My Review: First of all, this book has an actual die cut out of a bite on the side of the book. I got a lot of odd looks and several people asked me what I was reading. I thought the book itself was a neat little story, although I would love it if Savage would tackle something grander and more lengthy -- he's an great writer. Even though the rat was, obviously, a rat, he was a very sympathetic character -- it was difficult for him to have the knowledge of a human but the faculties of a rat. And I loved how it took place in Boston and that I already knew some of the history of Scollay Square -- it made the book very real for me. Still, some the weird sexual feelings of the rat I could have done without. Ew.
Purchased from: Who knows. I've had a copy forever.
Rating: 7 out of 10
Summary (from Amazon): At the age of ten, Fanny Price leaves the poverty of her Portsmouth home to be brought up among the family of her wealthy uncle, Sir Thomas Bertram, in the chilly grandeur of Mansfield Park. She gradually falls in love with her cousin Edmund, but when the dazzling and sophisticated Crawfords arrive, and amateur theatricals unleash rivalry and sexual jealousy, Fanny has to fight to retain her independence.
My Review: I'm not sure how I never finished Mansfield Park before, especially since I've devoured all of Austen's other novels. I've picked it up a few times before, but never really made it very far in. Finally I got into it this year. It's good, but not nearly my favorite. The heroine, Fanny Price, is timid and shy and a little self-righteous. I like Austen's other women a lot more. This is probably the least romantic of all of her novels, and as a sappy girl, I prefer the romance. But I really liked how Austen wrote the characters of the Crawfords--especially their scheming, and how Fanny, every once in a while, isn't able to keep it all together. It made her character more realistic. And her Aunt Norris was so well written -- I could picture her more than anyone else in the book. Overall, I enjoyed Austen's wit and most of the characters, but it didn't measure up to her other novels. (Finished 5/20/09)
