Bibliosue

I'm moving ....

noreply@blogger.com (Suzanne) — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 13:34:00 +0000

.... my blog over to WordPress. I've not been entirely happy with Blogger lately, although it has for the most part served my purposes; however many of my favorite blogs are on WordPress and I've always been a bit envious of what they are able to do that I can't (at least without any advanced technical expertise).

It will be in work in progress for a short time, so pardon the dust, as it were. I will announce the winner of my giveaway of Madame Proust and the Kosher Kitchen in both places, so stay tuned!

Oh yeah -- the new address is: http://bibliosue.wordpress.com/.

Treasure Island!!!

noreply@blogger.com (Suzanne) — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 09:00:00 +0000

Treasure Island!!! by Sara Levine

Published: 2012 by Tonga Books (Europa Editions)

Source: Purchased

This novel has a very interesting premise -- a young woman (unnamed), recently graduated from college and rolling through a succession of dead-end jobs reads the classic novel Treasure Island and decides to use it as the manual to re-invent her life, using the novel's Core Values: Boldness, Resolution, Independence, and Horn-Blowing. As I am always interested in stories that might inspire me to embark on my own life-changing adventure, I read with a notebook at my side; ready to write down any nuggets of wisdom I would come across.

Alas.

It's not that the protagonist does not pursue adventure. There's plenty of it, though mostly of the unintentional kind. And she is certainly motivated by those Core Values. But to me the motivation didn't lead to anything concrete and positive; and perhaps it's because I'm older and (ahem) more mature that I just became more and more frustrated with her and wanted to just yell GROW UP ALREADY. My attention quickly re-focused to the much more entertaining supporting cast of characters: her parents, older sister, her former boss, her best friend, her ex-boyfriend; many of them seemed to exemplify the qualities the main character was pursuing.

At least the book was fairly short (172 pages), and the writing incredibly witty, otherwise I probably would have given up on this book once my impression of the main character turned negative. Maybe I'm just not in the right age group to properly appreciate the heroine's efforts.

Madame Proust and the Kosher Kitchen -- review and giveaway

noreply@blogger.com (Suzanne) — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 12:00:00 +0000

Madame Proust and the Kosher Kitchen by Kate Taylor

Published: 2003 by Anchor Canada

Source: Purchased

My favorite book of 2012. Yes, it's early to make that call, but I just loved loved loved this book.

Madame Proust and the Kosher Kitchen is a novel with three related narratives: that of Madame Proust of the title - Jeanne, mother of Marcel; of Marie Prevost, translator of Madame Proust's (fictionalized) diaries; and Sarah Bensimon, a Jewish girl who escaped Nazi-occupied Paris to a safe haven in Toronto. Aside from Jeanne and Marie's obvious connection, it is difficult at first to see how the women's stories relate to one another, but they do tie together not only with the stories, but with the themes of memory, the French language (and its use with and against English -- especially in Montreal where part of Marie's story takes place), Jewish identity, and maternal love and expectations.

Marie in fact refers to Marcel Proust as "a comrade in pursuit of memory" and begins her translation of Madame Proust's diaries as a result of her affection for In Search of Lost Time. In the Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris, her work on the diaries is intertwined with memories of her childhood in Paris, her first encounters with Jewish people, and of memories of Max Segal, a man who could not return the love she felt for him. Her thoughts on discovering a fellow student in her Parisian school I found especially interesting and vivid:

... in these Parisian days, I know few Jews personally, and David's blond hair and happy manner are utterly unlike the other Jews I do know, the ones in the pictures they show us at school. They are emaciated, living skeletons in striped pyjamas, indistinguishable one from the other.

and on learning about those "skeletons" in school:

These suffering skeletons in their striped pyjamas seem to me as noble and as distant as the bleeding Christ and weeping Virgin whose image hangs on the wall of the small classroom where we dully receive instruction on our catechism every Wednesday afternoon.

Such a lovely (yet at the same time haunting) description of Holocaust victims that I never have seen.

Sarah Bensimon's story is not as directly tied to the other two, but it is no less interesting. Living in Toronto with a Jewish foster family, she is brought up as "normally" as possible given her circumstances, though as a young woman and then as a wife and mother she seems to become a timid and insecure person who is not at all sure of her place in the world. To comply with her more observant husband's religious traditions, but to keep the culinary traditions of her homeland, she turns her attention to cooking and finding a way to combine the two. It is hard to say if this helps her at all or if it is only to please the others in her life, but to me it seems that this is the one of the few things she truly enjoys.

And of course, being set partially in Canada, winter plays a part in the story and I just loved some of the descriptions of the season, especially this declaration Max makes to Marie as they leave a party in the dark of night during a snowfall:

"Snow, it's like falling in love. Makes you see the whole world differently."

I loved this sentence especially since as I was reading it six inches of snow was falling on us in Chicagoland and as I looked out the window I could see everything look prettier and calmer.

Kate Taylor touches on heavy topics in this novel, but it is by no means a heavy read. Each narrative was well-told and woven into one another seamlessly; and as evidenced by the few quotes I've cited above, her use of words to paint a picture is perfect.

I highly highly recommend this novel, but it is a bit tricky to find. I picked it up on a visit to Toronto last week, and the only online source of it that I could find is Canada's bookstore chain Indigo. But I really really want you to read this book, so for one lucky commenter (internationally!) I would like to order the book on their behalf. Leave an e-mail address with your comment and on Sunday, January 29 I will randomly select a winner.

TLC Book Tour -- The Ruins of Us

noreply@blogger.com (Suzanne) — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 12:00:00 +0000

The Ruins of Us by Keija Parssinen

Published: 2012 by Harper Perennial

Source: Received from publisher for review

I'm a curious person and love to read about different countries and cultures, so I've always been drawn to novels set in exotic locales that provide a glimpse into the true life of its residents. When given the opportunity to participate in the tour for The Ruins of Us, I couldn't resist.

Set in Saudi Arabia, the novel is about Rosalie, an American who spent part of her childhood there and who returned to the country after marrying a Saudi man she met in college. As we meet Rosalie, she is shopping with her teenage daughter when she receives surprising news from the unlikeliest of sources - a merchant in the market: her husband has taken a second wife and in fact they have been married for two years. Since she is still considered an outsider to many in her husband's family and his associates, this news has humiliated her and she is angry, though unsure of what to do. While this is happening, Rosalie and Abdullah's teenage son, Faisal, is coming under the influence of a Muslim teacher/cleric and as he becomes more religious he becomes more confrontational with his parents and also with Dan, a friend of theirs from college now working in Saudi Arabia.

I think the major problem I had with this story is that for me it started in the middle, when Rosalie found out about the second wife (it's not a spoiler, this information is revealed on the jacket copy). Aside from the obvious issues of it being a second wife and that it had been kept a secret, why did this upset Rosalie so much? What was their marriage like in the happy, earlier days? Why did this news cause her to want to distance herself from the culture that she went to so many lengths to become part of? The few flashbacks into Rosalie and Abdullah's courtship did not provide any insight to me. As well, Faisal's storyline seemed to be a stereotype, though I don't know if that is because of my preconceived notions (I can't explain this too much without a spoiler). And, again, because I felt I was dropped in mid-story, I have questions about why Faisal was moving in the direction he chose.

There are some lovely descriptions of the Saudi landscape (not all desert) and frequent use of Arabic terms, which gave me a sensory experience of the novel's setting (though I wish there was a glossary of the terms included), but the story itself was for me not worthy of it.

For other perspectives on this novel, please visit the other stops on this tour.

bibliosue's bibliotherapy

noreply@blogger.com (Suzanne) — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 02:42:00 +0000

So I've been off of the radar for about a week but I'm back! (did you miss me?)

My day job has been driving me (more) crazy the last month or so and unfortunately it has meant that the last thing I want to do when I get home is sit in front of the computer. And I've missed it, which is I think a good sign.

Now that things at work have calmed down (a bit) and I've returned from an mood-lifting weekend in Toronto with my 2 year old nieces and 8 week old nephew I'm ready to get back in the saddle. While in Toronto, I took some time out to visit The World's Biggest Bookstore and, well, damage was done. This is the pile I came home with:

Canadian Pie by Will Ferguson
1000 Years of Annoying the French by Stephen Clarke
How to Understand Israel in 60 Days or Less by Sarah Glidden (graphic novel)
Winter: Five Windows on the Season by Adam Gopnik
Madame Proust and the Kosher Kitchen by Kate Taylor
Why I Hate Canadians by Will Ferguson (full disclosure: I am Canadian, eh?)
Concerto to the Memory of an Angel by Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt
Ulysse from Bagdad by Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt
Odette Toulemonde et autres histoires by Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt

Ok yes, I did load up on the Schmitt titles, but two of these are in French and given my improving though basic ability in the language will take me a while to read; Odette Toulemonde is the original French version of The Most Beautiful Book in the World which was one of my favorites of 2011 (reviewed here). And only some of these were impulse purchases -- I did actually go into the store with a list of what I wanted to purchase, the others just "found" their way onto the stack.

I am about halfway through Madame Proust and am loving it -- if you are able to find it please do pick it up because I would love to discuss it with someone. When I'm done I'll definitely be writing about it if you need an extra push to hunt it down (really, it is a tricky book to find).

Reading Challenge Quickie Review: Postcards from a Dead Girl

noreply@blogger.com (Suzanne) — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 12:00:00 +0000

Postcards from a Dead Girl by Kirk Farber

Published: 2010 by Harper Perennial

Source: Purchased

Reading Challenges: 2012 TBR Pile Challenge, A-Z Book Challenge

Sid sells travel packages via telephone. He is not much of a traveller. But when he starts getting postcards from various international destinations without any signatures and with relatively old postmarks, he sets out on a mini-quest to track down the origin of the postcards, thinking it my be his ex-girlfriend, Zoe, who is sending them.

The story isn't as simple as that, of course. His dead mother talks to him through a bottle of wine in the basement. The smell of lilac overcomes him on occasion without warning. He obviously has issues that he is not willing to face and he is letting everything else in his life slip by.

I initially picked up this book because of the back cover's description of a "solo European jaunt" (ok, it doesn't take much for me to pick up a book) and though that was only a small part of this story, I still enjoyed the book anyway. It's a bit hard to explain without spoiling anything, but there's a little bit of adventure, a little dark comedy, a little family drama, a little sadness and a little romance that all seems to come together and work for me. Sid is a quirky guy who I both liked and disliked and I want to see him solve his postcard mystery. Does it get solved? Well, you will have to read the book.

TLC Blog Tour - The Western Lit Survival Kit

noreply@blogger.com (Suzanne) — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 12:00:00 +0000

The Western Lit Survival Kit: An Irreverent Guide to the Classics, from Homer to Faulkner by Sandra Newman

Published: 2012 by Gotham Books

Source: Received from publisher for review

Aside from a Shakespeare play every year in high school (The Tempest, The Merchant of Venice, Macbeth, and Hamlet), my education in "classical" literature was sparse. I remember studying Bruce Springsteen's lyrics as poetry, so my English teachers were very much on the modern side of the spectrum. I am on a quest to round out my reading experience by catching up with what I've missed, but let's face it -- books labeled classic also get an intimidating label upon them.

Sandra Newman has endeavored to relieve readers of some of the intimidation in these works in this witty and informative book. Starting with the ancient Greece and moving chronologically to the early twentieth century, she provides readable synopses of "key works" (well-represented but of course subjective) that explain not only the point of the piece (novels, short stories, plays and poetry are all represented) but also discussions of the historical periods and places in which these works were written and the evolution of the genres:

While Restoration literature is the voice of the nobility, eighteenth-century literature is by, for, and about the middle class. Literature becomes professionalized, ...

... the eighteenth-century novel is subtly different from our conventional novels. It tends to break the fourth wall, reminding the reader again and again that this is a novel and that the author can, if he wishes, turn the hero into a rabbit at any moment.

The "key" players -- Homer, Dickens, Shakespeare (he gets his own chapter), Tolstoy, Hemingway, et al -- are well represented, and there are many names that I have never heard of. Most of the writers are male, but Jane Austen, the Brontes and Virginia Woolf among others are in there too. And the title says it all: Western Lit Survival Kit; Asian and African literature is not represented.

The book is written in a very tongue in cheek tone which annoyed me at times -- it seemed she felt the need to add a punch line to everything -- but it is informative and a good reference for both literature enthusiasts and neophytes alike.

Be sure to check out the other stops on the blog tour:

Monday, January 2nd: Sophisticated Dorkiness

Tuesday, January 3rd: Chaotic Compendiums
Wednesday, January 4th: DBC Reads
Thursday, January 5th: Book Hooked Blog
Friday, January 6th: Bibliophiliac
Tuesday, January 10th: Unabridged Chick
Wednesday, January 11th: The 3 R’s Blog
Thursday, January 12th: Library of Clean Reads
Friday, January 13th: Books Distilled
Monday, January 16th: Lit and Life
Tuesday, January 17th: Shooting Stars Mag
Wednesday, January 18th: Luxury Reading
Thursday, January 19th: Joyfully Retired
Friday, January 20th: Book Snob
Monday, January 23rd: Ted Lehmann’s Bluegrass, Books, and Brainstorms
Tuesday, January 24th: Sarah Reads Too Much
Wednesday, January 25th: Literary Musings
Thursday, January 26th: Between the Covers

The Warmth of Other Suns

noreply@blogger.com (Suzanne) — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 12:00:00 +0000

The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration by Isabel Wilkerson

Published: 2010 by Random House

Source: Received as a gift

I cannot give this book a proper review. Reading it made me mad, it upset me, it made me cry, but at times it also made me smile. And I don't know if I have the right to any of those emotions.

The Warmth of Other Suns is about the migration of thousands of black citizens from the segregated Jim Crow South to cities in the officially (though not always in practice) desegregated North. The general migration story is explained, but Isabel Wilkerson, herself the daughter of such migrants, specifically tells the story of three people:

Ida Mae Brandon Gladney: A sharecropper's wife in Mississippi who, with her husband and young children leave the cotton plantation to join her sister in Milwaukee, but who eventually settles in Chicago
George Swanson Starling: An agitator for better wages for orange grove pickers in Florida, he flees just ahead of the lynch mobs for New York City
Robert Joseph Pershing Foster: The son of the principal of the colored school in Monroe, Louisiana, he becomes a doctor and - not wanting to be merely a country doctor for the colored people - heads to Los Angeles to seek his fortune.

We see their stories almost in their entirety: The demeaning existence they had to endure in their hometowns (though it must be said there seemed to be an incredible sense of community within the black population which must have been what got some of them through such difficulties); the struggle to leave, the difficulties of life in a completely new environment up North. What was extremely surprising to me is how much discrimination they had to put up with even once they were settled in these large metropolises, and this is where I started feeling outrage and shame; neither myself nor my immediate ancestors had any part of this injustice but I kept wanting to just look up some of these people and apologize.

The three stories are similar, yet very different at the same time.  Ms Wilkerson tells the three stories so well that they read like fiction. I wish that some of the events described were fiction, but sadly ......

   It's a fairly long book, but it is definitely worth the effort.

   I started this book just after Christmas, and finished it on January 3, so I just might make this one of my favorite books for 2011 and 2012. Highly recommended.

bibliosue's 2012 Reading Resolutions

noreply@blogger.com (Suzanne) — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 18:00:00 +0000

Happy New Year everyone! I hope you all had a safe and wonderful holiday. Christmas was spent quietly at home, and the last week of the year was an extremely busy blur at the office so I did not do anything for New Year's Eve except relax.

So ... 2012 is upon us and I started thinking about what I want to accomplish with my reading and in turn with my blog. As much as I love getting free books to review and though a small part of me wants to be an esteemed book critic (I can be delusional sometimes), I think that for 2012 I am going to move away from this. I don't do a lot of formal reviewing but when I do it sometimes feels like I'm doing homework and that takes away some of my enjoyment of the reading experience. I still plan on writing reviews, but it will be for books that I have selected and obtained on my own.

Given the state of my to-read shelves I really should impose a book-buying embargo, but I know that just is not going to happen (I'm going up to Toronto next week and have a list of books to pick up when I'm there). What I can commit to, though, is a concentrated effort to control my impulsive book purchases so that I can catch up on what I already own and only purchase books that I genuinely want to read right away.

I don't think I will set a goal for the number of books to read in 2012. I read over 120 in each of the last two years and I think that is good enough for me. I would like to pay attention to what I'm reading rather than how much I'm reading and again given the state of my to-read shelves this is a challenge to avoid wanting to rush through one book to get to the next one.

Do you have any reading goals for the new year?

TLC Blog Tour - New

noreply@blogger.com (Suzanne) — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 12:00:00 +0000

New: Understanding Our Need for Novelty and Change by Winifred Gallagher

Published: 2011 by The Penguin Press

Source: Received from Publisher for Review

When I began reading New: Understanding Our Need for Novelty and Change, I was expecting a diatribe about how today's consumer culture gives almost every product a limited life span to encourage more and more consumption. This topic is touched upon, but instead what I found was a very interesting account of the value and importance of novelty in civilization.

As the author, Winifred Gallagher, describes, neophilia (desire for novelty) has had an evolutionary purpose; it has helped civilization react to events or situations which in turn has led us to the world we live in today, for better or worse. Using the example of Homo sapiens versus Neanderthals in prehistoric times, Gallagher notes that Homo sapiens, as strong neophiles, were able to adapt to periods of potentially disastrous change and evolve into the "human race" as we know it today, while the Neanderthals, as neophobes (novelty-resistant), preferred the comfort of their insular surroundings, didn't interact with anyone else, and as result drove themselves into extinction.

In the present era, novelty works on a spectrum. There are extreme neophiles - those who are extremely sensitive to and distracted by new stimuli in their environment - and extreme neophobes - those resistant to any newness at all - but most of us fall somewhere in between. It is a survival instinct to react to novelty and change (as Gallagher explains, a swerving car on the highway is a novelty in one's average existence and is thus reacted to as such) and how we determine an event on a separate danger spectrum is likely to determine how we react to it from a novelty point of view.

Going into my preconcieved notion of the essence of this book, Gallagher does go into the consumer side of novelty and especially how in our present day novelty is represented by the latest gadget or even the buying experience itself. This appears to be a relatively new phenomenon, which Gallagher compares to an almost religious experience:

By the lights of the old Protestant ethic consumer meant something like "spendthrift" or squanderer. the avid customers queuing up for Black Friday sales and the latest Apple productcts, however, resemble religious pilgrims who prove their devotion by sleeping in front of the shrine on the night before they're permitted to purchase the Holy Grail.

Related to this is Gallagher's thought that the pursuit of new "stuff" has resulted in society - specifically, American - losing touch with the purpose of novelty. In today's turbulent economy, with young people fearful of what the future has in store for them; and the increasing number of seniors who are typically more conservative (and more neophobic), Gallagher notes:

All of these social influences contribute to a newly fretful America that's wary of original ideas that have uncertain outcomes, much less of active problem finding.

Aside from the descriptions of studies on the science of novelty which I found uninteresting (I am NOT a science person), I found this book to be extremely interesting and a pleasant surprise to what I had originally expected. The concept of novelty is much much more than material, and is more important than I had ever thought.

Secret Santa Update!

noreply@blogger.com (Suzanne) — Sun, 25 Dec 2011 17:43:00 +0000

Merry Christmas everyone! I hope you are all enjoying a wonderful day with family and friends. My husband and I are spending a quiet day at home, but later on we will Skype with my family in Winnipeg.

Ok, I admit I couldn't wait to open my two remaining gifts from Secret Santa, but I did make it until Friday, which isn't too bad for me. And I was thrilled with what I received (over and above the reading journal and the chocolates and the coffee):

Two books on my wish list!

Funnily enough, these are the only books I received as gifts. I think people assume I've read everything or already have the books I'm interested in.

Once again, thank you to my Secret Santa, Sheila at Book Journey for the wonderful wonderful gifts. They are all perfect.

Happy holidays!

My Favorites of 2011

noreply@blogger.com (Suzanne) — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 01:00:00 +0000

With a little more than a week left of the year, I've read 123 books in 2011. Yes, it's a lot, but it's a bit short of my goal of 140 books. I read an eclectic mix of fiction and non-fiction, books published this year and books that have been sitting on my TBR shelf for a while. I've enjoyed most of them, loved a lot of them, and surprisingly disliked very few.

Rather than making a list, I thought I'd highlight some of my favorites of the year:

Favorite fiction published in 2011: The Submission by Amy Waldman
Favorite fiction published before 2011: Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese
Favorite non-fiction published in 2011: Man Seeks God by Eric Weiner (I just finished this and have yet to write about it, but it is a great book.)
Favorite non-fiction published before 2011: The Great Typo Hunt by Jeff Deck and Benjamin D. Herson

I'd also like to mention the most pleasant surprises of the year:

Something Missing by Matthew Dicks
Looking for Salvation at the Dairy Queen by Susan Gregg Gilmore (I'm not sure why I didn't write about this one)
The Revenge of the Radioactive Lady by Elizabeth Stuckey-French
The Bee-Loud Glade by Steve Himmer
The Reservoir by John Milliken Thompson

These are all books that I discovered thanks to the Books on the Nightstand Readers' Retreat I attended in April (best weekend ever). I am pretty sure I would not have selected any of these on my own and I definitely would have missed out, because these are all original novels that were a pleasure to read. I'll be attending their retreat again in 2012(in Oxford, Mississippi) and I cannot wait to see what gems they have for me this time around.

Secret Santa Came!

noreply@blogger.com (Suzanne) — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 20:15:00 +0000

I'll admit it .... after my bad experience with Secret Santa last year I was getting a bit concerned this year when as of Saturday nothing arrived at my doorstep. But today, on returning home from running a few errands I found a package on my doorstep with the following goodies:

And being an excited kid, I just had to open one of the gifts, which was:

It's a lovely reading journal which is different from many others I've seen and I can't wait to start filling it up.

The other two wrapped gifts are going to remain un-opened until Christmas (if I can wait that long); but I might have to open the chocolate and try the coffee out before then.....

And I know the Secret Santa "rules" say we aren't supposed to reveal ourselves until after Christmas but I must thank my Secret Santa -- Sheila at Book Journey. I think she went above and beyond what was necessary and I know the other two gifts waiting for me are going to be perfect.

Southern Literature Challenge

noreply@blogger.com (Suzanne) — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 13:00:00 +0000

Yup, another challenge, but unlike the others I will be participating in during 2012, this for me will be a true challenge. Because I (ahem) am sadly lacking in Southern Literature. Three of the best books I read this year - Looking for Salvation at the Dairy Queen and The Improper Life of Bezellia Grove by Susan Gregg Gilmore; and The Reservoir by John Milliken Thompson - would be perfect for this challenge, and they are the extent of my Southern Literature exposure.

Hosted by The Introverted Reader, this challenge requires reading fiction or non-fiction written by an author from the South (to clarify for my international readers, that is the Southern United States) that is set mostly in the South. I am going to aim for the "Y'all come back now, y'hear" level and read four books for this challenge.

I don't have a reading list for this challenge yet, but I am pretty sure that I will be reading some William Faulkner during the first part of 2012, as I will be attending Booktopia 2012 in Oxford, Mississippi, in June (SO EXCITED!), which happens to be where Faulkner lived. I know that I will likely pick up a lot of recommendations for this challenge (and for Mount TBR in general) when I am there, but I hope to have at least one or two books completed before then.

I'm a clean slate people -- any recommendations for me?

Half Blood Blues

noreply@blogger.com (Suzanne) — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 13:00:00 +0000

Half Blood Blues by Esi Edugyan

Published: 2011 by Serpent's Tail

Source: Purchased at an independent bookstore

Paris, 1940. Paris has fallen to the Nazis. Anyone who can leave the city does. A group of jazz musicians flee back to the U.S., knowing that they have left one of their own, trumpeter Hieronymous Falk - German and black - to an unknown fate after his arrest in a cafe.

In 1992, Sid Griffiths, the only witness to Falk's arrest, is preparing to head to Berlin with another bandmate, Chip Jones to attend the premiere of a documentary of Falk's brief and brilliant life. Having long abandoned his jazz career, Griffiths is reluctant to go, but Chip convinces him. And once Sid has committed to the trip, Chip reveals an ulterior motive -- Falk is alive and living in Poland. This causes Sid's memories to come flooding back and to come to terms with what really happened all those years ago. And so the story moves between the two periods.

In pre-war Berlin and wartime Paris, we see Sid, Chip, Hiero and their other bandmates working hard to "make it" as jazz musicians. While in Berlin, they meet Delilah, an intriguing, mysterious woman who pulls Sid in all directions and creates in him a jealousy of Hiero, his much younger and more talented colleague. That said, Sid is just as protective over "the kid" as anyone else, but Sid's ultimate goal is to make that one record that will shoot them all to stardom.

In 1992 Berlin, Chip and Sid attend the film screening, but after Chip makes an astonishing revelation in the documentary about Hiero's disappearance, Sid storms out of the theater and is ready to head back to Baltimore, not wanting anything more to do with his so-called friend. However, in a comedy of errors that Chip may or may not have staged, Sid once again reluctantly accompanies him, this time to Poland to seek out Hiero, and to right the wrong he committed back in Paris.

This novel interested me on a few levels. As I'm drawn to WWII era novels anyway, I found this one - giving the perspective of black Americans in Europe - to be rather original (at least to me). And the language used definitely created "the scene" for me; I could hear the way the characters spoke simply by the way Esi Edugyan wrote their dialogue.

The story? Well, I guess it's sad -- having to live with such a burden for so long can't be good for anyone -- but the parts where Sid and Chip are travelling are pretty funny. It's also heartwarming, but I can't explain why or that will spoil it for you.

This novel won the 2011 Giller Prize, Canada's highest literary honor. I haven't read any of the other books shortlisted (yet -- a few are on Mount TBR), but I love the fact that a Canadian writer can still be considered as such when writing a novel with hardly any mention of Canada (Delilah is from Montreal, and that is the only Canadian reference I could find in the book). (Just waving my patriotic flag).

Highly recommended.

A-Z Book Challenge

noreply@blogger.com (Suzanne) — Sat, 10 Dec 2011 15:53:00 +0000

Another challenge for 2012! The A to Z Book Challenge is hosted at Babies,Books and Signs and I found out about it thanks to Judith at leeswammes who seems to always know where everything is in the book blogosphere

The premise? Very simple -- for each letter of the alphabet, read a book with a title beginning with that letter. There are officially two options to join in on the challenge -- select your books ahead of time, or add books as you go through the year. As I'm using reading challenges to whittle down the books on my to-read shelves, I'm doing a hybrid of the two. Checking Mount TBR has already got me a decent head start:

A. The Art of Losing by Rebecca Connell
B. Broken Glass Park by Alina Bronsky
C. The Cat's Table by Michael Ondaatje
D. Dreams of My Russian Summers by Andrei Makine
E. Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer
F. The Frozen Rabbi by Steve Stern
G. The Girl with No Shadow by Joanne Harris
H. Heidegger's Glasses by Thaisa Frank
I.    Irma Voth by Miriam Toews
J.    Juliet by Anne Fortier
K
L.   Left Neglected by Lisa Genova
M. My Name is Red by Orhan Pamuk
N.
O. The Oracle of Stamboul by Michael David Lukas
P.   Postcards from a Dead Girl by Kirk Farber
Q.
R. Rondo by Kazimierz Brandys
S. The Slap by Christos Tsiolkas
T. Triangle by Katharine Weber
U. Unfinished Business by Lee Kravitz
V.
W.
X. Annexed by Sharon Dogar (X only has to be somewhere in the title)
Y.
Z.

Ok, a pretty good start. I'm overlapping with a few other challenges, so I might actually get some completed in 2012!

Any suggestions for the missing letters in my list?

Virtual Advent Tour -- Why it's great to be the grandchild.

noreply@blogger.com (Suzanne) — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 12:00:00 +0000

Welcome to my little corner of the 2011 Virtual Advent Tour. If you'll permit me a digression from the usual book talk, I'd like to share with you a Christmas ritual in my family that began as a tradition, but then morphed into something unique to us and the source of a good laugh.

Christmas has always been one of my favorite holidays. Sure the presents are an important part of it, but even when I was a kid I loved everything else that went with the holiday; decorations, Christmas cards, the truly Silent Night of Christmas Eve (in Winnipeg where I was born and raised just about everything closed by 6:00 pm on Christmas Eve and didn't re-open until the 26th - Boxing Day - or even the day after that), and of course the food. And though sometimes I felt left out of bigger celebrations, I was lucky that I come from a small family and was able to celebrate Christmas with everyone at the same time.

On Christmas Eve, my parents, two brothers and I would go to my maternal grandparents' house for dinner. My mom's family is from Denmark, and the traditional dinner was roast pork, frikadeller (my Grandma's were THE BEST) and rice pudding for dessert. The Danish tradition is to hide an almond in the pudding and whoever is lucky enough to have the almond in their serving receives a small gift (a box of chocolate or something like that). In our family anyways it became a big game to see who could hide the almond from everyone the longest.

The problem: My brothers and I hated rice pudding.  Even the thought of an extra present was not going to get us to eat the stuff.

  The first few years that I can remember, we just didn't eat dessert; but then one year my Grandma made a chocolate mousse pudding with an almond instead of rice pudding so that we could play along, and that was the Christmas Eve staple for as long as Grandma hosted Christmas Eve dinner (the last one I attended at her home was six years ago and the chocolate mousse was still there, and we all still fought over the frikadeller). It took me a few years to "win" the almond, but at that point it didn't really matter; Grandma was the best because she made us what we wanted to eat.

Christmas Day was held at our house, with my grandparents, my paternal grandmother, and my dad's aunt joining us for dinner. My mom also made rice pudding for dessert, but she was a purist: if you don't like rice pudding, then no dessert for you. So we just watched the grown-ups eat theirs and my brothers and I made our own game of guessing who was hiding the almond.

Fast forward many years.  I live in the US now and am not able to get up to spend Christmas with my family every year, and my brothers have children of their own and must split their holiday time with the other side of their families. But that Christmas six years ago again sticks in my mind. I was home and dinner was as always at my parents' house.  One of my brothers, his wife, and their two kids (about 4 and 2 at the time) were with us and we had a lovely dinner as usual. Until dessert.  There was a rice pudding for the adults in attendance and we still had to eat it if we wanted to get a prize, but my niece and nephew each got THEIR OWN bowl of CHOCOLATE PUDDING that had THEIR OWN ALMOND! My brother and I cried foul -- this was totally not fair! My parents just laughed it off -- grandparents' perogative, they said.
My Grandma passed away last year, and I've only been able to come home for Christmas once since that Christmas six years ago, so my own special treatment is but a memory. And even though my nieces and nephew have developed a taste for rice pudding, they still get their own almond at my parents' house. I guess that is the benefit of being the grandchild.

Happy Holidays everyone! May you have a grandma that makes chocolate pudding just for you.

Belated Readathon -- That's All Folks

noreply@blogger.com (Suzanne) — Sun, 04 Dec 2011 04:00:00 +0000

Time for me to pack it in.

I guess I was overly ambitious in the amount of reading I'd get done, since I only completed one book (Domestic Violets -- so good). That said, I did read 70 pages of one book before I abandoned it, about 100 pages of Half Blood Blues, and four or five chapters of Bleak House. I shouldn't be down on myself, though -- I've probably read today what some people might not read in a year.

It was more tiring than I thought it would be, partially because I didn't properly plan the snack situation (and I'm an old lady). Something to remember for next time -- coffee can only get you so far.

I only read for just over nine hours, but for the sake of my charitable donation I'm going to say I read for 10 and will be sending $50 to Sit Stay Read.

Thank you so much to Amanda at Dead White Guys (Happy Birthday!) and Brittney at The Souls of Thought for hosting this Belated Readathon.

'Nite all.

Belated Readathon Update #4

noreply@blogger.com (Suzanne) — Sun, 04 Dec 2011 00:18:00 +0000

Did you miss me?

I made a poor choice with my second book, The Disappearance at Pere Lachaise and I think that wore me down. I got about 70 pages in and it just wasn't interesting me. So after a quick run to the grocery store and dinner with the hub, I'm going to go back into Half Blood Blues and a few more chapters of Bleak House.

Sadly, I have to go to work in the morning, so I'll have to shut down at around midnight or so. I plan to get at least four more hours of reading in so that my donation to Sit Stay Read can hit $50.

Off to read ....

Belated Readathon Update #3

noreply@blogger.com (Suzanne) — Sat, 03 Dec 2011 19:48:00 +0000

Well, I've been at it for six hours. That's $30 for Sit Stay Read if you are keeping track.

I finished Domestic Violets which was a great book -- funny and touching, very relatable. I've now started The Disappearance at Pere Lachaise, which scratches my historical Paris-loving itch.

My eyes are beginning to get heavy, so I'm going to take a short break to re-charge. But (trying to sound ominous) I'LL BE BACK.

Belated Readathon Update #2

noreply@blogger.com (Suzanne) — Sat, 03 Dec 2011 17:30:00 +0000

11:30 am here in dreary Chicagoland and I'm up to page 257 of Domestic Violets (still awesome) and completed another chapter of Bleak House (there has been a suspicious death!)

My loving non-reading hub has set me up in a comfy reading chair with a computer desk at my side so I can update on my netbook rather than sit and read in my un-comfy office chair in my very cold office.

I just had a snack of some mini cheese pizzas (Weight Watchers brand, they are good and, for pizza, "healthy") so I'm good to go for a few more hours.

Belated Readathon Update #1

noreply@blogger.com (Suzanne) — Sat, 03 Dec 2011 15:12:00 +0000

Two hours in and I've read 108 pages of Domestic Violets, which is AWESOME in the fact that I'm relating perhaps a bit too much with it; and one chapter of Bleak House.

I'm off to get some more coffee and then back to the books....

The Belated Readathon Begins

noreply@blogger.com (Suzanne) — Sat, 03 Dec 2011 13:16:00 +0000

7:15 am Chicagoland time and I'm off.... to read

The weather gods deserve a shout out because it is cloudy and raining and just plain nasty outside. Perfect conditions to curl up with a few books.

I'm starting off with Domestic Violets and aim to read a chapter or two of Bleak House each hour.

If you are on twitter, follow the hashtag #readathon; and check out Amanda's posts at the host blog Dead White Guys.

Catch you later.

European Reading Challenge 2012

noreply@blogger.com (Suzanne) — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 02:42:00 +0000

I am keeping my fingers crossed that I will be make it to Europe sometime in 2012, but until then I will always have books through which I can virtually travel. This evening I came across this new challenge, The European Reading Challenge, hosted by Rose City Reader.

I think I can easily achieve the Five Star (Deluxe Entourage) status by reading five books by different European authors or books set in different European countries. Just going through my TBR shelves have provided my tentative selections for this challenge:

Prague by Arthur Phillips (Czech Republic and Hungary)
The Betrayal by Helen Dunmore (Soviet Russia)
The Days of Abandonment by Elena Ferrante (Italy)
All Our Worldly Goods by Irene Nemirovsky (France)
The Twins by Tessa De Loo (Germany and The Netherlands)

That is quite a nice little tour I've set for myself, don't you think?

What I'm Reading for the Readathon

noreply@blogger.com (Suzanne) — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 12:00:00 +0000

I will be participating in my first Readathon Saturday! Well, I'm excited about it.

I am currently in the middle of three books: Half-Blood Blues, by Esi Edugyan, The Table Comes First: Family, France, and the Meaning of Food by Adam Gopnik, and Bleak House by Charles Dickens. Bleak House will not be finished anytime soon, but I wonder if I should finish the other two before pursuing any other books. Readathon veterans, what do you think?

I've had a look at my shelves and without too much thought (thinking would require the decision process to take too long) I have selected these books as my additional readathon material:

A Christmas Memory by Truman Capote (my book club's Christmas party is Monday and this is what we'll be discussing)

The Disappearance at Pere Lachaise by Claude Izner

Domestic Violets by Matthew Norman

The Gospel According to Coco Chanel: Life Lessons from the World's Most Elegant Woman by Karen Karbo

The Hundred-Foot Journey by Richard C. Morais

These aren't in any particular order so I'll let my mood dictate what to read.

Now I have to think of my snacks ......