The Blue Bookcase

The Classics Club: Our Lists

noreply@blogger.com (ConnieGirl) — Sun, 11 Mar 2012 23:57:00 +0000

Penguin Hardcover Classics

Our good book blogging friend, Jillian, at A Room of One's Own, has acted on a fabulous idea and created a Classics Club for bloggers of classic literature to join together to blog about and discuss the classics. Interested? Read more about it here.

We've decided to join the fun. Here are our lists of classic books along with our goal deadline. Once we finish a book on our list, we will cross it out and link to our review. We will also place a link to this post at the top of our home page for easy reference.

Connie:

Goal date to finish: March 30, 2016
Date started: March 7, 2012
Prizes: some really excellent reading and hopefully some rousing discussion

I have chosen fewer books over a longer period of time. As I started creating my list, I started getting sad -- if I blow through all of my to-read classics in the next couple of years, then I will hardly have any classics to look forward to tackling for the rest of my life. And that really does make me sad. So I reserve the right to shorten my list and/or not finish within my goal date.

Finished: 0/40

British
The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins
Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte (re-read)
Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer
Possession by AS Byatt Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier
The Time Machine by H. G. Wells
Bleak House by Charles Dickens
Nicholas Nickleby by Charles Dickens
A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens (re-read)
Agnes Grey by Anne Bronte
North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
Jacob's Room by Virginia Woolf
The Waves by Virginia Woolf
A Room of One's Own by Virginia Woolf (re-read)
Night and Day by Virginia Woolf
Monday or Tuesday by Virginia Woolf
The Voyage Out by Virginia Woolf

American
O Pioneers by Willa Cather
Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy
On the Road by Jack Kerouac
The Portrait of a Lady by Henry James
A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway
Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell (re-read)
The Feminine Mystique by Betty Friedan
The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton
Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton (re-read)
The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton
The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver
Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison

Russian
Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy

French
The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas
Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert

Other
The Illiad by Homer
The Inferno by Dante
Dracula by Bram Stoker
Ulysses by James Joyce

Ingrid

Goal date to finish: March 30, 2014
Date started: March 7, 2012
Prizes: Having read a bunch of books I want to read.

Finished (0/50)

Works originally written in English:

A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
Bleak House by Charles Dickens
Ulysses by James Joyce
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett
Shadows on the Rock by Willa Cather
Sons and Lovers by D.H. Lawrence
The Ambassadors by Henry James
The Turn of the Screw by Henry James
The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway
Tales of the Jazz Age by F. Scott Fitzgerald
The Beautiful and Damned by F. Scott Fitzgerald
The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne
Return of the Native by Thomas Hardy
Far From the Maddening Crowd by Thomas Hardy
A Room With a View by E.M. Forster
A Passage to India by E.M. Forster
Light in August by William Faulkner
The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
East of Eden by John Steinbeck
On Liberty by John Stuart Mill
Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison
Out of Africa by Isak Dinesen [Karen Blixen]
The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas by Gertrude Stein
Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf
Orlando by Virginia Woolf
The Custom of the Country by Edith Wharton
French Ways and Their Meaning by Edith Wharton
The Good Soldier by Ford Madox Ford
Revolutionary Road by Richard Yates

Works in translation:

Kristin Lavransdatter by Sigrid Undset - trans. Tiina Nunnally
Chéri by Colette
The Pure and the Impure by Colette
The Brothers Karamozov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky - trans. Pevear and Volokhonsky
Notes from Underground by Fyodor Dostoyevsky - trans. Pevear and Volokhonsky
The Trial by Franz Kafka
No Exit by Jean-Paul Sartre
The Mandarins by Simone de Beauvoir
In Search of Lost Time by Marcel Proust
Book Two - In the Shadow of Young Girls in Flower
Book Three - The Guermantes Way
Book Four - Sodom and Gomorrah
Book Five - The Prisoner
Book Six - The Fugitive
Book Seven - Finding Time Again
Invitation to a Beheading by Vladimir Nabokov - trans. Dmitri Nabokov
Eugene Onegin by Alexander Pushkin - trans. Vladimir Nabokov
Letters to a Young Poet by Rainer Maria Rilke
The Betrothed by Alessandro Manzoni
What is Art? by Leo Tolstoy
If Not, Winter by Sappho
Letters by Mme de Sévigné
Elective Affinities by Goethe
Tales from Ovid - trans. Ted Hughes
Les Liasons Dangereuses by Choderlos de Laclos

Christine-Chioma (C-C)

Goal date to finish: March 30, 2016
Date started: March 7, 2012
Prizes: I will probably celebrate my success via bragging every 10 books. After I finish all 50 I might just have a party for myself which would definitely include a bowl of ice cream

Finished: 0/50

Written in English:
Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut
1984 by George Orwell
A Death in the Family by James Agee
Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons
The Member of the Wedding by Carson McCullers
Zeely by Virgina Hamilton
Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
The Turn of the Screw by Henry James
The Portrait of a Lady by Henry James
Howard's End by E.M. Forster
Animal Farm by George Orwell
Lord of the Flies by William Golding
The Color Purple by Alice Walker
Tender is the Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald
A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
Siddhartha by Herman Hesse
East of Eden by John Steinbeck
Things Fall Apart by Chiua Achebe
The Awakening by Kate Chopin
Bleak House by Charles Dickens
The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner
Cry, the Beloved Country by Alan Paton
The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton
The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne
A Separate Peace by John Knowles
Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
The Pursuit of Love by Nancy Mitford
Woman in White by Wilkie Collins
The Once and Future King by T.H. White
The Time Machine by H.G. Wells
And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie
Paradise Lost by John Milton
The Enchanted April by Elizabeth von Arnim
Wives and Daughters by Elizabeth Gaskell
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
The Talented Mr. Ripley by Patricia Highsmith
The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis (started reading, but never finished)
Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray (read half of this before)
Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery (re-read)
Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte (re-read)
Middlemarch by George Eliot (re-read)
The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers (re-read)

Written in other languages:
The Sorrows of Young Werther by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Doctor Zhivago by Boris Pasternak
The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas
Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert
Les Miserables by Victor Hugo (tried to read this in French several years ago)
One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez
Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy (re-read)

Review: Slouching Towards Bethlehem by Joan Didion

noreply@blogger.com (IngridLola) — Fri, 09 Mar 2012 11:00:00 +0000

Joan Didion in the 60s (via)

Reviewed by Ingrid

Published:1968

It's about: This is a collection of Joan Didion's early essays originally published in various publications in the 1960s. The title of this collection comes from one essay describing Didion's experience in Haight-Ashbury, and comes from a W. B. Yeats poem called "The Second Coming." You can read the poem here.

I thought: I've been hearing about Joan Didion for awhile now - first Christine-Chioma reviewed her novel Democracy here on The Blue Bookcase in 2010, then I read Benoit's review of Slouching Towards Bethlehem and knew Joan and I were meant to be. I quickly added this book to my amazon wish list, where recently it resided back on page 5 or 6 until I heard her read from her most recent book, Blue Nights, on NPR, which pushed me a little closer, then I read this essay after perusing a google search and it was a done deal - I ordered Slouching Towards Bethlehem from Amazon that night and waited by the mailbox until it came.

Now that you have sufficient background, here's what I thought. There is a personal touch to Joan's writing that is radically appealing to me, for a number of reasons. She speaks from a place that is familiar and dear to me - she is about the same age as both of my grandmas, both of whom I am very close to and influenced my mindset and outlook on life as a little girl, when I lived in Newport Beach within 5 minutes of both of them, and now, as I go visit them both a few times every year. Joan and my grandmas all lived in California in the 60s and onward in similar, what one reviewer on goodreads described as "privileged" circumstances. All three were strong, articulate, beautiful women. As I read this book, Joan and my grandmas all meshed into one voice in my brain.

I loved how Didion writes about the "real" California, with its strip malls, deserts, Santa Ana winds, and endless expectations. She captures that 60s zeitgeist so wonderfully - in this way her writing reminded me of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. In fact, the author of the articles I linked to up there says Joan Didion is like Hunter S. Thompson for women. Her writing style is so infused with details that women especially have seemed to relate to deeply - her description of the smell of jasmine, what she was wearing at certain important moments of her life, and how these and other details have affected her emotional life. Somehow she embeds these things in serious essays about society in the 60s. Of course, Joan Didion is for boys too. This is far from chick lit.

My favorite essays were the more personal ones, especially "On Keeping a Notebook" and "On Self Respect." Didion has been criticized for being too self-focused in her writing, but that is what makes her writing most appealing and significant to me. I've added my name to the waiting list at my library for Blue Nights and A Year of Magical Thinking. I'll also be borrowing another book of her essays, The White Album, from my friend Lauren. Joan and I have a lot more time to spend together.

Verdict: Stick it on the shelf.

Reading Recommendations: Check out the links above for more reviews and articles on Joan Didion. Also, I'm obsessed with this picture of Didion in her New York apartment. Especially that beautiful painting hanging above her sofa, and those sticks in the corner, the collection of framed photographs, the tidy piles of books. Beautiful.

Favorite excerpts: "Although I have felt compelled to write things down since I was five years old, I doubt that my daughter ever will, for she is a singularly blessed and accepting child, delighted with life exactly as life presents itself to her, unafraid to go to sleep and unafraid to wake up. Keepers of private notebooks are a different breed altogether, lonely and resistant rearrangers of things, anxious malcontents, children afflicted apparently at birth with some presentiment of loss."

What I'm reading next: A Natural History of the Senses by Diane Ackerman

Literary Blog Hop: March 8-11

noreply@blogger.com (IngridLola) — Thu, 08 Mar 2012 05:00:00 +0000

How do you find time to read, what's your reading style and where do you think reading literature should rank in society's priorities?

Our answer comes from Christine-Chioma aka C-C:

This question (okay questions) comes because I recently exasperatedly asked how the other girls have time to read so much. I then jokingly offered that it's because they are all married and everyone knows finding a husband is a full-time job. But in all non-sexist seriousness, it's really quite difficult to find the time to read literature. I was also inspired to come up with this by a too-true Onion article.

Typically, I try to sneak in pages while waiting in line for things (thanks to the iPhone kindle app it's pretty easy) and on my breaks and lunches at work. This kind of disjointed reading works well for young-adult books and fluff, but I've found I prefer to read literature in huge chunks usually late at night.

My reading style has definitely been influenced by studying literature. I can't read any book without a pen in my hand to make annotations, cross-references and to mark my favorite lines and themes. This is why it's really hard for me to read library books. I've always said that I read really quickly, but when a book isn't very good it goes pretty slowly (I am hesitant to pick it up). On the other hand, when I really enjoy the book I drag it out because I never want it to end.

I don't just love to read, I have to read. One of my friends put it perfectly the other day: nobody says they love to breath but it's something you have to do in order to survive--that's how I feel about reading. Between working full time, church responsibilities and social obligations there's not very much leisure time. However, I am a firmly believe that if something is important to you than you can make time for it in your life.

I do not count blogs, magazines, or the Washington Post Social Reader as "reading". I strongly believe that people should go out of their way to make sure they are reading things of literary merit at least every so often. There's a lot of media and activities vying for our attention and I think reading for pleasure is often at the bottom of the list of priorities. As a rule I typically pick spending time with live human beings over reading. (Although my favorite is being in a room with other people while reading. I feel like I am being social because there are other people around, but I also get to read!) But when by myself I always try to pick reading over movies and television.

What about you? How do you prefer to read? What are your standards on reading and how do you think society compares?

3. Add your link to the Linky List below.

Happy Hopping!

Review: My Mistress's Sparrow Is Dead, edited by Jeffrey Eugenides

noreply@blogger.com (Christina) — Wed, 07 Mar 2012 02:58:00 +0000

via

Reviewed by Christina

Full Title: My Mistress's Sparrow Is Dead: Great Love Stories, from Chekhov to Munro

Published: 2008

It's about: Jeffrey Eugenides (who is a favorite of mine, if you haven't noticed) collected a bunch of short stories about love. This is it.

I thought: Well. Since I pretty much think Mr. Eugenides is Midas, I had high hopes for this collection. Seeing so many famous stories in the table of contents ("The Lady with the Little Dog", "The Dead", "Spring in Fialta", "What We Talk About When We Talk About Love") made me even more eager to read it. And then the inclusion of "A Rose for Emily" banished any concern that it would be a cheery happy Valentine's Day-ish book.

I did enjoy revisiting those classics, as well as discovering new authors, like Deborah Eisenberg and George Saunders. The collection also gave me a chance to ponder the idea of a "love story," and whether it's possible for a good one to have a happy ending. The unifying idea, presented in the introduction, comes from two ancient Roman poems: Catallus 2 and Catallus 3. In the first, the speaker complains that his girl Lesbia's pet sparrow always comes between them. In the second, he laments that the sparrow has died and now Lesbia is overcome with sadness and therefore she is in no mood for lovin'. Eugenides argues that all love stories can be seen through the lens of these poems. Lovers are kept apart literally and/or metaphorically by symbolic sparrows and/or by the deaths of those sparrows. I loved looking for live and dead sparrows in each of these stories.

The stories themselves are quite varied- gay love, straight love, young love, old love, doomed love, charmed love (but mostly doomed). The sparrow idea gives the collection unity, and the writing itself is excellent throughout. But still, there were a couple of stories that I DESPISED. I shall name them here, so that if you come upon them you can run away: "Red Rose, White Rose" by Eileen Chang, and "Innocence" by Harold Brodkey. Both are long and boring and feature detestable sexist protagonists. Don't say I didn't warn you. But even in those cases, the style really is above reproach. If you want to take shelter in 600 pages of excellent yet varied writing, I wholeheartedly recommend My Mistress's Sparrow.

Verdict: Stick it on the shelf!

Reading Recommendations: I started reading this around Valentine's Day, thinking it would be appropriate. It's really not a bunch of prototypical romantic stories, though, so there's no reason to wait until next February to pick it up.

Warnings: lots of swears, lots of graphic sex scenes (including a 20-pager! Wowza!)

Favorite excerpts: I'd like to quote pretty much the entire introduction, but I'll try to limit myself. Here's one favorite part-
"It is perhaps only in reading a love story (or in writing one) that we can simultaneously partake of the ecstasy and agony of being in love without paying a crippling emotional price. I offer this book, then, as a cure for lovesickness and an antidote to adultery. Read these love stories in the safety of your single bed. Let everybody else suffer."

And from "Some Other, Better Otto"-
"Why did he need so many things in his life, Otto wondered; why did all these things have to be so special? Special, beautiful plates; special, beautiful furniture; special, beautiful everything. And all that specialness, it occurred to him, intended only to ensure that no one- especially himself- could possibly underestimate his value. Yet it actually served to illustrate how corroded he was, how threadbare his native resources, how impoverished his discourse with everything that lived and was human."

What I'm reading next: Empire Falls by Richard Russo (for the Dead End Follies book club!)

Review: Audible.com

noreply@blogger.com (ConnieGirl) — Tue, 06 Mar 2012 18:16:00 +0000

Reviewed by Connie

Last month, I signed up for Audible.com. They were running a fabulous offer -- one month free, plus two free audiobooks. Can't beat that, right? So for the last two months, I have been a patron of Audible, and so far, I am rather impressed.

An audible membership is $15 a month, which gets you one book credit (meaning you can download any audio book regardless of the cost) and a members-only discount on all of the other audiobooks, making many of them in the $10-$15 range.

Audible certainly has made taking advantage of the website easy. With an internet connection, I can instantly download any purchases I make on my iPhone app or have it wirelessly downloaded onto my Kindle. I have been loving listening to audiobooks from my iPhone as I get ready for work in the morning, as I drive to work, even as I fall asleep at night. The iPhone app even has a sleep feature, so the app and phone will go to sleep in 10 minutes, 15 minutes, 30 minutes, at the end of the chapter, or at the end of the section.

One feature I haven't seen yet but would like to see is the ability to sync to the furthest point listened to, so if I'm switching back and forth between my phone and kindle, I don't have to fast forward to where I left off.

Audible has been a great option for me, especially considering that I live in the middle of nowhere, and our library has a selection of about 30 random audiobooks. So far, I have listened to The Paris Wife, I'm currently loving The Count of Monte Cristo, and I just downloaded Animal, Vegetable, Miracle.

I post this now, because right now is a great time to sign up for Audible. Not only do you get your first 3 months for $7.50 instead of $15, but there is also a members-only audiobook sale going on -- over 200 audiobooks on sale for $4.95. And they're not junk ones, either. Here are just a few of the awesome deals from this sale:

The Count of Monte Cristo, formerly $39.99 for non-members and $27.99 for members
Crime and Punishment, formerly $67.20 for non-members and $43.95 for members
North and South, formerly $28.03 for non-members and $19.62 for members
Jane Eyre, formerly $28.03 for non-members and $19.62 for members
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, formerly $22.99 for non-members and $16.09 for members

This sale ends March 13th, so if you want to take advantage of it, sign up soon! Plus, since we love Audible so much, we have created a partnership with them.

When you sign up for an Audible account through the banners on our site, we get a small percentage, which all gets channeled back to you. It allows us to host more giveaways and otherwise improve the site.

Enjoy! Let us know what you think!

Review: My Antonia by Willa Cather

noreply@blogger.com (IngridLola) — Tue, 06 Mar 2012 11:00:00 +0000

Nebraska prairie (via)

Reviewed by Ingrid

Published: 1918

It's about: Jim Burden goes to live with his grandparents in Black Hawk, Nebraska after his parents die. A Bohemian (Czech) family with a beautiful little daughter the same age as Jim arrive in town on the same train. Jim develops a fascination for this girl, named Antonia Shimerda. This book is a narration of her life as seen through his eyes.

I thought: I've only read one other book by Willa Cather, O Pioneers!, when I was in high school and didn't like it at all. I've been hesitant to pick up another of her novels since then. My mom wrote her master's thesis on Willa Cather's work and has always encouraged/pressured me to give My Antonia a chance. When I found it for free in the Kindle Store ... I knew the time had come.

Aaand I loved it. The characterization in this book is absolutely phenomenal. I especially appreciated how Cather showed Antonia develop into a strong, independent woman. Her characters are all great. However, Willa Cather is known best for the way she writes about the land and how it affects her characters emotionally and psychologically. For example:

Between that earth and that sky, I felt erased, blotted out. I did not say my prayers that night: here, I felt, what would be would be.

The landscape is so much a part of this novel that it becomes a character in itself - in fact, this is probably what most people think of when they think of Willa Cather, the landscape as its character in her novels. It is at once idyllic and violent, and always lurking in the background of every scene. I liked how engaging this story was, though it didn't have a traditional plot structure - the story unfolded like the prairie itself. Lovely. An easily accessible and beautiful read.

Verdict: Stick it on the shelf.

Willa Cather (via)

Reading Recommendations: Our blogger friend Chris wrote a lovely little poem (which you can read here) based on his experience visiting the grave of Anna Pavelka, the woman who became Cather's inspiration for Antonia Shimerda. Chris also took the picture of the Nebraska prairie I put at the top of this post.

Warnings: One attempted (though not successful) rape scene. Pretty scary stuff.

Favorite excerpts: "There was a curious social situation in Black Hawk. All the young men felt the attraction of the fine, well-set-up country girls who had come to town to earn a living, and, in nearly every case, to help the father struggle out of debt, or to make it possible for the younger children of the family to go to school. Those girls had grown up in the first bitter-hard times, and had got little schooling themselves. But the younger brothers and sisters, for whom they made such sacrifices who have had 'advantages,' never seem to me, when I meet them now, half as interesting or as well educated. The older girls, who helped to break up the wild sod, learned so much from life, from poverty, from their mothers and grandmothers; they had all, like Antonia, been early awakened and made observant by coming at a tender age from an old country to a new. I can remember a score of these country girls who were in service in Black Hawk during the few years I lived there, and I can remember something unusual and engaging about each of them."

What I'm reading next: Slouching Towards Bethlehem by Joan Didion

Gone Reading

noreply@blogger.com (IngridLola) — Thu, 01 Mar 2012 19:22:00 +0000

Friends,

Today we get to offer you a unique opportunity, one we've never done here at The Blue Bookcase -- a discount on bookish supplies and a chance to promote literacy in developing countries.

Gone Reading - Brilliant Products for the Reading Lifestyle is a website that sells book t-shirts, book ends, book plates, book marks, book lights, book journals (you get the idea, book everything) to the bookish minded customer. But here's the coolest part:

We believe that when people have open access to great reading materials, life always changes for the better... That’s why Gone Reading International donates 100% of after-tax profits to provide new funding for libraries. By purchasing GoneReading brand gifts and merchandise, you’re treating yourself and the world at large to a wonderful gift. All purchases from GoneReading help contribute to our philanthropic work. (read more about their philanthropic mission here)

Gone Reading has given us a special code exclusively for Blue Bookcase readers to receive 25% off any of their products (except bookends). Simply enter the following code when you check out:

BLUEBOOKCASE25

Here are some of the cool products we liked on GoneReading's website (click on the photos to go the product page):

Jane Austen quote bookmark

"The Bookworm" book plates

"It Was a Dark and Stormy Night" -- a book board game; how well do you know your
famous first lines?

If you find something you like, now's the time to treat yourself, and support world literacy while you're at it! Then, share the love and tell all your friends. This coupon code expires March 29, 2012.

Happy reading!

Review: The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows

noreply@blogger.com (ConnieGirl) — Wed, 29 Feb 2012 15:00:00 +0000

Reviewed by Connie

Published: 2008

It's about: This epistolary novel tells the story of Juliet Ashton, a London-based author/reporter who corresponds with her publisher (who's also a dear friend), her college roommate, and a handsome man who is seeking her romantic attentions as she struggles to come up with her next book idea. By chance, she receives a letter from a man in Guernsey (a little island off the Southern coast of England) about a writer she admires, mentioning in passing the Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society. Thus begins a friendship that will change her life. Juliet in turn writes to many of the island's inhabitants, learning their stories of how reading brought them together and got them through the German occupation of their island, and the stories seem like the perfect subject for her new book. Eventually, the inhabitants of Guernsey become more real to her than the people she sees every day.

I thought: It is completely uncharacteristic of me to do this, but to talk about this book, I have to set aside my critical, literary-focused (and let's be honest, a little book snobbish) brain. So there it is, on the chair beside me, though try not to visualize that for too long. Now I can tell you, I really really enjoyed this book.

The characters are pretty flat, and it's very clearly divided between all-good characters and all-evil characters, but gosh darn it if those flat characters aren't so cozy and appealing you can't help but enjoy it. The book is overly simplistic, but in the way you longingly wish the world could really be. Though admittedly unrealistic, the characters of Guernsey are the simple, appealing characters who inhabit that quaint small town you've always dreamed of becoming a part of -- on an island you've always dreamed of escaping to.

The book is a pleasant escape. I could wax critical and point out that for a book with World War II at its core it's rather lacking in profundity, or that though the letters supposedly come from different characters, their writing styles are remarkably similar. But why should I, when I so enjoyed curling up with this book and escaping to Guernsey every evening? It reminded me of that movie, 84 Charing Cross Road (Haven't seen it? Watch it now!) Plus, it touches just enough on serious subject matters (World War II, the power of the written word, what really matters in life) that it isn't a total fluffy, guilty pleasure.

Verdict: Stick it on the shelf

Reading Recommendations: Don't read this book too critically, or you will be truly disappointed. Also, guess what? Kenneth Branagh is going to direct a film adaptation of this book starring Kate Winslett as Juliet Ashton. As I love them both, I'm very much looking forward to the movie, due out in 2013.

via

Warnings: a touch of corny romance

Favorite excerpts:
"Perhaps there is some secret sort of homing instinct in books that brings them to their perfect readers. How delightful if that were true."

"I love seeing the bookshops and meeting the booksellers -- booksellers really are a special breed. No one in their right mind would take up clerking in a book store for the salary, and no one in his right mind would want to own one -- the margin of profit is too small. So, it has to be a love of readers and reading that makes them do it -- along with first dibs on the new books."

"Men are more interesting in books than they are in real life."

"Reading good books ruins you for enjoying bad books."

What I'm reading next: To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf

Top Ten Tuesday: Christina's musical/literary pairings

noreply@blogger.com (Christina) — Tue, 28 Feb 2012 05:00:00 +0000

TTT is always fun (clickety click that pretty logo to join!), and I'm especially excited about this week's topic: Top Ten Books I'd Give a Theme Song To. In high school and college I used to listen to music while reading, so rather than Theme Songs some of these are just musical associations. They are, actually, oddly fitting in most cases. I love when I hear a certain album and remember a certain book. Do you have those kinds of mental connections between books and music?

Album/Song titles link to samples for your convenience.

1. Alice Sebold's The Lovely Bones and Björk's album Vespertine
This otherworldly, wintery album matches the creepy sad metaphysical sweetness of The Lovely Bones. I actually wasn't a huge fan of the book, but I still adore the album.

2. Stephen King's Salem's Lot and the blue disc from Smashing Pumpkin's album Melon Collie and the Infinite Sadness
I was obsessed with this album back in 1997, and I was also secretly interested in vampires. And, you whippersnappers, this was way before Edward and Bella came along. Anyway, the connection is chronological for me but the two are pretty well suited to each other. Dark, solitary, 90's-tastic nighttime music for a book about a town being overtaken by scary vampires.

3. Tolkien's The Hobbit and Rancid's album Life Won't Wait
My summer reading assignment for English was The Hobbit, and it was the same year this album came out. I hated the book, so I tried to improve the situation by listening to Rancid while I read it. I still don't really like the album, and I'm not sure whether or not it's because it has been tied to The Hobbit in my head. It's a pretty strange pairing.

4. Mary Pipher's Reviving Ophelia and Poe's album Hello
There was something very satisfying about sitting in bed, being angry at authority figures, reading about other teenage girls who were angry at adults, and listening to Poe. Tracy Bonham's song "Mother Mother" would also be a great theme song for Reviving Ophelia. 90's grrrrrl angst FTW!

5. Chuck Palahniuk's Fight Club and The National's "Squalor Victoria"
Ok, here's a true theme song that just occurred to me this morning. (You were getting tired of hearing about my teenage reading/listening habits, right?) It's subtle, but the lyrics to this one make me think of the barely undercover anarchists in Fight Club: "I'm a professional in my beloved white shirt/I'm going down among the saints/Raise our heavenly glasses to the earth."

6. Stieg Larsson's The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and Trent Reznor/Karen O's cover of Led Zeppelin's "Immigrant Song"
Ok, yes, my association here has everything to do with the song being on the opening credits for the movie. So maybe it's cheating to include it, but it's just SO PERFECT.

7. Adam Levin's The Instructions and Foster the People's "Pumped-Up Kicks"
It doesn't take a whole lot of imagination to connect these two. I love to imagine the Cage kids strutting to this song.

8. Kelly DiPucchio and Scott Campbell's Zombie in Love and Dead Man's Bones' "My Body's a Zombie for You"
Zombies.

9. Michael Patrick McDonald's All Souls and Dropkick Murphys' "I'm Shipping Up to Boston"
Another obvious one: if you know these two entities, you've probably made the connection before. Also, I seem to mention this book on just about ever top ten post I do. Sorry for the redundancy.

10. Margaret Mitchel's Gone with the Wind and Isador Philipp's Exercises for Independence of the Fingers
It was a revelatory moment when a fellow piano major confessed to me that she sometimes read novels while practicing mindless technique exercises. I couldn't believe the idea had never occurred to me before! I proceeded to read while practicing scales, arpeggios, Pischna and Philipp, and now these two things are forever linked in my brain.

Review: The Color Purple by Alice Walker

noreply@blogger.com (IngridLola) — Mon, 27 Feb 2012 11:00:00 +0000

via

Reviewed by Ingrid

Published:1982

It's about: This book is made up of letters written by a young black girl named Celie and her sister, Nettie. Celie was sexually abused by her father, had two children by him, then married young to an abusive husband. This novel documents her life over about 40 years. She befriends a woman with whom her husband had a years-long affair and develops an intimate relationship with her that teaches her more about herself and how she can learn to deal with her circumstances. During this time, Celie's sister Nettie joins with a missionary family and travels to Africa. Though Celie and Nettie are apart for most of the book, and most of the letters don't make it through the post, their sisterly bond keeps them going through extremely painful circumstances. I believe Alice Walker wrote this book as an example of one person's individual journey to come to terms with a racist and sexist world. It's an intellectual feel-good book.


Oprah Winfrey as Sofia, Celie's strong-willed daughter-in-law in the film adaptation of The Color Purple

I thought: I've had bad experiences with epistolary novels and tend to stay away from them (ahem, Pamela.) But this book was tremendous, and the epistolary form just made it that much better. I loved Celie's unique voice, and how her voice develops and matures through the novel. I love how Celie learns from Shug how to be come a strong independent woman with a voice that matters. I loved how Alice Walker wrote so honestly about how life was for black people in this era. There are White people in this story with realistic lives, with prejudices common and widespread to the time, and sometimes with good intentions, but these people aren't central to the story as they weren't central to Celie and Nettie's lives. There's no White person who comes in to fix racism (ahem .... The Help.) There are strong, mature Black women who learn to help themselves and each other. I loved how Nettie traveled to Africa and developed bonds with Black people from her native continent - and also how Walker realistically portrayed the tensions between African Blacks and American Blacks. I loved Celie's relationship with Shug. And I love, love, love, loved the beautiful ending to this book. I just felt so dang GOOD when I finished, and not in that cheap, sentimental kind of way, but in that this-world-really-can-be-a-good-place kind of way.

Verdict: Stick it on the shelf.

Reading Recommendations: If you have yet to read this book, now would be a great time! I've noticed it's been placed on many a display table in bookstores around the country in honor of Black History Month. I suggest you pick yourself up a copy. Also, check out this awesome review of The Color Purple over at Homorazzi (where I found the picture of Alice Walker at the top of this post.) But watch out ... some of their ads and pictures are NSFW, so proceed with caution.

Warnings: Sex, incest, violent physical abuse. (And an inspiring journey to overcome these things.)

Favorite excerpts:
"Here's the thing, say Shug. The thing I believe. God is inside you and inside everybody else. You come into the world with God. But only them that search for it inside find it. And sometimes it just manifest itself even if you not looking, or don't know what you looking for. Trouble do it for most folks, I think. . . .
     It? I ast.
     Yeah, It. God ain't a he or a she, but a It.
     But what do it look like? I ast.
     Don't look like nothing, she say. It ain't a picture show. It ain't something you can look at apart from anything else, including yourself. I believe God is everything, say Shug. Everything that is or ever was or ever will be. And when you can feel that, and be happy to feel that, you've found It.
     Shug a beautiful something, let me tell you. She frown a little, look out cross the yard, lean back in her chair, look like a big rose."

Audiobook Review: The Paris Wife narrated by Carrington MacDuffie

noreply@blogger.com (ConnieGirl) — Sun, 26 Feb 2012 18:54:00 +0000

Guest-reviewer Kirsten reviewed this for us in June, 2011, and Christine-Chioma also reviewed the book yesterday

Wedding of Ernest and Hadley

Reviewed by Connie

Published: 2011

It's about: This recent historical fiction memoir tells the story of Ernest Hemingway's first wife, Hadley Richardson, and their doomed 5-year marriage. It follows Hemingway from a nobody in Chicago to an up-and-coming writer in Paris in the 1920s. We also catch glimpses of some of the Hemingways' famous friends, like Gertrude Stein, Ezra Pound, and F. Scott & Zelda Fitzgerald.

I thought: I listened to this in audiobook format via my recent Audible.com membership (see the banner in the sidebar), and the first thing I had to get over was the narrator's voice. Though I grew somewhat used to her by the end, I was vexed by her presentation of Hadley's voice. It was one part whiny toddler, one part annoying mother baby-talking to that whiny toddler. Combine this with the fact that for the first half of the book, Hadley is as weak and annoying as those voices sound, and I had a rough time getting into it.

In fact, this audiobook made me consider my expectations for characters and how they affect my opinions of the book. Especially recently, I find that I grow annoyed with weak female characters. I want them all to be strong, solid, independent, and in the beginning, Hadley is anything but. She is needy and naive and sickeningly willing to fall into the background of Hemingway's life, and that made me despise her. Now, whether or not that's fair, or whether that's reason to not like a book, I'll have to save that discussion for another day.

Toward the middle of the novel, though, Hadley begins to change. There is one line in the book (I can't quote it exactly, as I don't have a hard copy) when someone refers to her as "Ernest's Hadley" and she says, "Maybe I'm my own Hadley." In a world of flappers and drunkards and "modern women" with bobs and short hemlines, Hadley remains her same old-fashioned self, still stuck on her long hair and her out-of-fashion clothes and her out-dated writers. But by the end of the novel, it becomes clear that though Hadley is no modern woman, she is ever the stronger for resisting the trend.

The book's beginnings sound like a bad romance novel, enhanced by MacDuffie's annoying voice for Hadley, full of "He held me close to him, and I wondered if he could feel my heart beating"s, but the novel follows the curve of the Hemingway's relationship, and by the end, I can comfortably say it is a natural and accurate progression. After all, I suppose we are all in a kind of bad romance novel when we first fall in love.

The writing is sometimes cliche (like the romance in the beginning) but sometimes really beautiful. MacDuffie's narration grew less annoying to me as well, so by the end, it was not a bad audiobook after all.

Verdict: Stick it on the shelf

Reading Recommendations: There's an interesting article on this book over at the Guardian, written by a writer who was named after Hadley. It's worth a read. Also, check out Ingrid's review of A Moveable Feast, Hemingway's memoir about this same time in his life. As a matter of fact, I think I'm going to start reading A Moveable Feast pretty soon, to get Hemingway's perspective.

Warnings: some drunkenness and other lasciviousness

What I'm reading next: The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows

Purchase The Paris Wife: A Novel on audiobook at Amazon.com

Purchase The Paris Wife: A Novel in paperback at Amazon.com

The Paris Wife by Paula McLain

noreply@blogger.com (Christine-Chioma) — Sat, 25 Feb 2012 13:00:00 +0000

Reviewed by Christine-Chioma (also previously reviewed here)

Published: 2011

It's about: The novel chronicles the relationship between famous writer, Ernest Hemingway and his first wife, Hadley Richardson. It depicts the beginning of their relationship and all that comes along with new love: infatuation, hope, and naiveté. As Hadley and Hemingway get married, McLain also gives insightful background into Hadley’s parents’ doomed marriage and Hadley’s depressive and restrictive upbringing. Every stage of their marriage is tragically intertwined with Hemingway’s career from the early struggles to the blissful Paris years. Within this historically accurate fictionalized memoir is a glimpse into life in 1920s as well as a study of marriage and gender.

I thought: I am not very knowledgeable about Hemingway (I’ve only read some of his short stories) but you actually do not need to know anything about him to appreciate the book. McLain is great at allowing the readers to discover the characters. I truly felt like I understood and knew them even when they didn’t know themselves. I loved knowing from the start that the relationship was doomed and being able to see it unravel despite the hopeful manner in which it started. There’s definitely the risk that the inclusion of many famous literary artists (Pound, Fitzgerald, Stein, Sherwood) would overpower the novel; McLain does a fairly good job of not allowing that to happen and their appearances never feel forced. I was actually surprised by how much I enjoyed this novel and that adultery wasn’t handled in the usual laissez-faire way that has become popular these days.

Verdict: Stick it on the shelf!

Reading Recommendations: For anyone who likes historical fiction. It might be even more interesting for a Hemingway fan, but like I said I did just fine without being one. Definitely check out the Random House website after reading it

Warnings: I was also surprised by how clean it was. Some sex scenes but nothing graphic and a little language.

Favorite excerpts:

“Not everyone believed in marriage then. To marry was to say you believed in the future and in the past, too - that history and tradition and hope could stay knit together to hold you up…But some of us, a very few in the end, bet on marriage against the odds. And though I didn’t feel holy, exactly, I did feel that what we had was rare and true—and that we were safe in the marriage we had built and were building every day.”

“It gave me a sharp kind of sadness to think that no matter how much I loved him and tried to put him back together again, he might stay broken forever.”

“Our days looked very much the same as before, but I felt the distance between us and wondered how we’d bridge it to find each other again”

“I knew then that he understood how necessary the promises we made to each other were to our happiness. You couldn’t have real freedom unless you knew where the walls were and tended them. We could lean on the walls because they existed; they existed because we leaned on them.”

Post: Tips for Reading Moby Dick

noreply@blogger.com (ConnieGirl) — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 21:30:00 +0000

Post by Connie & Ingrid

Ok, we promise this is our last post about Moby Dick. Inspired by Ingrid's post with tips for reading War and Peace, here's a quick list of our tips for reading Moby Dick ... for those of you who know you want to read it someday but need a little push.

Source: fashionsalade.com via Rhiannon on Pinterest

1. Change your expectations. This is NOT an action-packed adventure book. Some of the best advice we received upon starting this book was to view each chapter as a short story. If you start the book expecting a linear plot, you will grow very, very frustrated. Approach the book expecting a lot of non-fiction, a lot of experimentation, and a lot of jumping around, and try to enjoy it. As our fellow read-alonger Shelley at Book Clutter said in one of her posts, be ready to switch into non-fiction mode a lot in this book. And when you get discouraged, just trust, trust that the end will make it all worth it.

2. If you have a Kindle or other ebook reader, consider reading it on that. I started reading this book the old-fashioned way, but because it was so slow moving, it felt like it took FOR-EV-ER (read that in your best Sandlot voice) to even turn a page. I felt like I was making no progress at all. When I switched to the Kindle (and it's a free download), I stopped paying attention to how much progress I was making and how many more pages I had left to go, and I was able to enjoy the process much more.

3. Set a finish date. It's easy to abandon this book because it's long and some parts are . . . well, boring. Both of us had a hard time getting through some parts, but we both ended up loving it after we finished. If you set a goal to finish before a certain date, you'll be less inclined to give up.

4. Don't be afraid of supplemental reading. Ingrid read Why Read Moby Dick? by Nathaniel Philbrick while she was working through Moby Dick and found it clarifying and encouraging. Don't be afraid to read outside sources - even though they discuss the end, we think it actually might enrich your reading experience if you already know what happens in the end. So don't be afraid of spoilers. Check out our Moby Dick intro post for some more suggested reading.

Oprah.com also has some advice for reading Moby Dick and other hard books.

Good luck! And when you decide to tackle this leviathan (had to do one more leviathan joke; come on, when am I going to be able to use that one again?) make sure you stop by and tell us what you think! Happy reading.

Review: Swish by Joel Derfner

noreply@blogger.com (IngridLola) — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 11:00:00 +0000

<3 u Joel (via)

Swish: My Quest to Become the Gayest Person Ever by Joel Derfner

Reviewed by Ingrid

Published: 2008

It's about:

The delight of this book is not just in what it's about, but how it's written - so here's the description on Goodreads (which I suspect Joel wrote himself:)

Joel Derfner is gayer than you.

Don’t feel too bad about it, though, because he has made being gayer than you his life’s work. At summer day camp, when he was six, Derfner tried to sign up for needlepoint and flower arranging, but the camp counselors wouldn’t let him, because, they said, those activities were for girls only. Derfner, just to be contrary, embarked that very day on a solemn and sacred quest: to become the gayest person ever. Along the way he has become a fierce knitter, an even fiercer musical theater composer, and so totally the fiercest step aerobics instructor (just ask him—he’ll tell you himself).

In Swish, Derfner takes his readers on a flamboyant adventure along the glitter-strewn road from fabulous to divine. Whether he’s confronting the demons of his past at a GLBT summer camp, using the Internet to “meet” men—many, many men—or plunging headfirst (and nearly naked) into the shady world of go-go dancing, he reveals himself with every gayer-than-thou flourish to be not just a stylish explorer but also a fearless one. So fearless, in fact, that when he sneaks into a conference for people who want to cure themselves of their homosexuality, he turns the experience into one of the most fascinating, deeply moving chapters of the book. Derfner, like King Arthur, Christopher Columbus, and Indiana Jones—but with a better haircut and a much deeper commitment to fad diets—is a hero destined for legend.

I thought:

I loved this book. Ever since Joel commented on our blog, which lead me to read his blog, I've been obsessed. I don't know what it is with girls and gays. But I love Joel. His sense of humor is FUNNY. He is honest about his emotions in a way that comes off a bit self-deprecating, which in some cases might be irritating, but it works for Joel and gives his writing the spice that makes it just right.
This book was well balanced though between funny and meaningful. I was a mess during the second half of the book where he goes to the Evangelical conference for ex-gays. I have a friend who is making a documentary about what it's like to be gay and Mormon, and I've been helping him organize his footage. Many of the people he has interviewed have wanted desperately to change their sexual orientation, much like the people Joel met at the Evangelical conference. Since Joel has obviously embraced the gay lifestyle and identity, he had a lot of room to criticize these people (which he did, at first, and it was funny.) But the absolute best part of this section was when Joel started to empathize with the ex-gays. That's why I thought this book was so great - it was, like I said, ridiculously funny, but also deeply emotional. As I finished the book, I thought about how often what we believe informs our happiness and how we see ourselves. In some ways, the ex-gays were happy in ways Joel realized he couldn't be, and he recognized this. I loved how Joel was able to reach out beyond himself in this way.

Lastly, I'd like to direct your attention to this wonderful quote. I knew when I read this that this book and I were meant to be:

"TOM: How about these salt-and-vinegar potato chips?

JOEL (his voice full of wonder): Oh, my God, I love salt-and-vinegar potato chips!

TOM (his voice also full of wonder): Really? Me too!"

Duh!

Verdict: Stick it on the shelf.

Reading Recommendations: Check out Joel's blog here. He writes extremely entertaining posts, such as this one.

Warnings: Graphic descriptions of gay sex. Swear words.

Favorite excerpts:

"'Blessing,' said Anne Heche's mother, 'is asking God to interfere and bring somebody into the proper relationship with Him.'
Nancy Heche was speaking at the opening session of the Freedom Conference as a represetative of Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays (PFOX), a group started in 1998 that apparently modeled its title on that of another organization, Parents and Friends of LEsbians and Gays (PFLAG). Her point seemed to be that it was a direct result of her prayers that her daughter Anne had dumped Ellen DeGeneres and become heterosexual (though Nancy did not touch on the causal relathionship between her prayers and Anne's claim that as Jesus' half sister Celestia she enjoyed communicating with extraterrestrials). I opened the notebook I had bought to record my impressions of the ex-gays. 'LOVE her skirt/blouse combo!' I scribbed. 'So sparkly, looks great w/ green curtain.'"

Announcing our Literary Giveaway Hop Winner!

noreply@blogger.com (IngridLola) — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 20:50:00 +0000

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Congratulations to Jenny O. from Lit Endeavors, you won our February Literary Giveaway Hop!

Jenny chose to win The Paris Wife by Paula McLain. Jenny, I'll be emailing you today for your shipping address.

Thanks to everyone who entered our giveaway!

Review: Wit by Margaret Edson

noreply@blogger.com (Christina) — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 11:30:00 +0000

Cynthia Nixon in the current broadway run of Wit (via)

Reviewed by Christina

Published: 1993

It's about: Wit (or W;t) is a pulitzer-winning play that centers around Vivian Bearing, a professor of seventeenth-century poetry who is being aggressively treated for stage-four ovarian cancer.

I thought: Reading a play is like smelling a cake.

Wit is well-written, nicely paced, and extremely smart, with a sprinkling of wry humor. There's a cool metafictional/postmodern element with Vivian speaking many of her lines directly to the audience, calling for "action," referring to her own last lines and closing scene. The characters' voices ring true. But when I finished reading it, I wasn't satisfied. The basic story- crotchety professor on her deathbed learns the importance of human kindness- seemed shallow, moralistic, and obvious. The whole thing reminded me a bit of A Christmas Carol. I just didn't love it, and I didn't get why it is so highly regarded.

But then, in lieu of seeing it on stage, I watched the film adaptation. And I pretty much came unglued. Wit moved me when everything came together: the relationships between the characters made sense, Vivian became real and her story became profound. All the themes that I had overlooked or brushed aside in my reading suddenly struck me as undeniable truths.

Verdict: Well... Hm. I wouldn't really call this a must-read in itself. But if you have the opportunity to see it, DO. I guess it's an in-between.

Reading Recommendations: It's only 80 pages long, and it's definitely worth reading in a single sitting. And if you're going to bother reading it, you REALLY need to see the play or the movie afterward to get the full effect.

Warnings: one or two swears

Favorite excerpts:
"Grand Rounds is not Grand Opera. But compared to lying here, it is positively dramatic.
Full of subservience, hierarchy, gratuitous displays, sublimated rivalries- I feel right at home. It is just like a graduate seminar.
With one important difference: in Grand Rounds, they read me like a book. Once I did the teaching, now I am taught.
This is much easier. I just hold still and look cancerous. It requires less acting every time."

What I'm reading next: The Book of Mormon Girl by Joanna Brooks

Review: Middlemarch by George Eliot (reviewed by Ingrid)

noreply@blogger.com (IngridLola) — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 11:00:00 +0000

Connie also reviewe d Middlemarch in March 2010

Dorothea Brook and Will Ladislaw (via)

Reviewed by Ingrid

Published: 1874

It's about: Middlemarch is mostly about marriage and how much it sucks. The book goes back and forth between a large cast of characters, all at different stages in their relationships.

Jane Austen's novels all end with wedding bells and romantic notions about the future, but George Eliot shows you what happens after the wedding is over. Virgina Woolf referred to Middlemarch as "one of the few English novels for grown-up people."

I thought: There were a few things I liked, and a few things I didn't, but mostly my reaction to this book is just "meh." (Imagine me saying "meh." That's why it's in quotation marks. Also because it isn't a real word.)

I liked Eliot's honest depiction of marriage. Her characters were psychologically complex and their relationships were realistic, not idealized. I'm not a huge fan of idealism. I like dark, depressing, gritty realism. It's just how I am. This book was like that.

However, I couldn't make myself care about some of these people's problems. At some parts I thought to myself, "REALLY Dorothea? You're honestly crying over that?" The situation at the climax of this book is one that is really not that big of a deal today, so it was difficult for me to care. I like history, and I like learning about how society functioned so differently in earlier eras, but I just don't connect with Victorian era England for some reason. I think that had a lot to do with my dissatisfaction with Middlemarch.

I kept comparing this book in my mind to Anna Karenina, a book which I absolutely adore (and which was written at the same time as Middlemarch.) Tolstoy and I are soul-siblings. I just didn't feel the same connection with George Eliot's writing. I guess we just don't have chemistry.

Verdict: In between. Connie hated it, I know Christine-Chioma loves it, but I'm somewhere in the middle.

Reading Recommendations: Even though I didn't love this one, Time magazine named it one of the top ten greatest books of all time, and quite a few writers have also placed in in their top ten. It's one of those books that is worth reading to form your own opinion.

Warnings: Absolutely none. This book was written in a time when even pregnancy was referred to as "a certain condition" ...

Favorite excerpts:
"A fellow mortal with whose nature you are acquainted with solely through the brief entrances and exits of a few imaginative weeks called courtship, may, when seen in the continuity of married companionship, be disclosed as something better or worse than what you have preconceived, but will certainly not appear altogether the same."

What I'm reading next: My Antonia by Willa Cather

Literary Giveaway Hop Feb 18-22

noreply@blogger.com (IngridLola) — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 05:00:00 +0000

Go books! (via)

It's time again for the biannual Literary Giveaway Hop hosted by Leeswammes! We love participating in this Hop because it gives book bloggers a chance to interact with like-minded bloggers, it gives me a chance to enter other giveaways and win stuff, and it gives us here at The Blue Bookcase the opportunity to give away a literary book that someone otherwise may not have bought for his/herself.

You can choose to win any book we have reviewed in our reviews archive with the exception of any YA books (Young Adult).

This giveaway begins at 12:01 AM EST on Feb 18th. Please keep in mind that we will only be able to send your prize to any country to where Book Depository delivers.

Enter below:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Here are the other blogs participating in this Literary Giveaway Hop:

Review: Moby Dick by Herman Melville

noreply@blogger.com (ConnieGirl) — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 03:22:00 +0000

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Reviewed by Connie and Ingrid

Published: 1851

It's about: Do you really not know? A huge sperm whale with a white hump bit off the leg of Captain Ahab, and he's pissed. This book is about his journey to seek revenge, told from the perspective of whaling newbie Ishmael. During our readalong last month, we outlined the plot in detail. Check out our posts here:

Jan 9: Introduction

Jan 12: Chapters 1-26

Jan 19: Chapters 27-55

Jan 26: Chapters 56-93

Feb 2: Chapter 94-epilogue

Connie thought: This was not the adventure story I always thought it would be. In fact, it is pretty much devoid of adventure until the last 30 pages. And to be honest, I really, really detested parts of this book. Try as I might, I kept struggling to see each chapter as a short story, as another blogger recommended to us. Had we not been hosting a read-along, I probably would have given up on this classic yet again.

But boy, am I glad I didn't. By the end of the novel, I got it. I finally saw what it's all about -- humanity, and life and death, and the purpose of living. Goals and relationships and religion. And it's wonderful. I'm not itching to read it again, and I still don't understand the random stage directions, but I was surprised at how much I ended up liking this book.

Ingrid thought: Like Connie, I wasn't so sure about this book ... until I finished it and thought about it a little bit. Then I decided I loved it. Like I said in the last post of our read-along, my favorite thing about this book was how organized it was. This is any person with OCD's dream book. Each chapter tells you about some specific aspect about the whale or about whaling that all leads in to the climactic series of events at the end. Melville really, really wants you to fully appreciate what happens here, and so he tells you about the shape of the whale's head, its skeleton, how the ropes work on the whaling ship, exactly what happens when a whale is killed, etc etc etc. Sure, it can get a little tiring, but so what? You can take a break and come back to it. And it will be worth it.


"To be short, then, a whale is a spouting fish with a short tail. There you have him." Pg 128. Matt Kish

Verdict: On the Shelf

Reading Recommendations:
Check out Moby-Dick in Pictures: One Drawing for Every Page by Matt Kish.

To supplement our discussion during our readalong, Ingrid read Why Read Moby Dick by Nathaniel Philbrick. Vanity Fair has a short article on it here. We especially liked this quote:

"Even so, in our day, Moby-Dick is the most reluctantly read of the American classics. Not only is the book long; many of its 135 chapters appear to have nothing to do with the tale of Captain Ahab’s pursuit of the White Whale. But the novel, like all great works of art, grows on you. Instead of being a page-turner, Moby-Dick is a repository of American history and culture and the essentials of Western literature. The book is so encyclopedic that space aliens could use it to re-create the whale fishery as it once existed on the planet Earth in the midst of the 19th century.

In fact, we have become those space aliens, the inhabitants of a planet so altered by our profligate presence that we are living on a different Earth from the one Melville knew. And yet the more our world changes, the more relevant the novel seems to be."

Warnings: Other than a little spermaceti innuendo, this classic is squeaky clean

Favorite excerpts:

On the whiteness of the whale - "Is it that by its indefiniteness it shadows forth the heartless voids and immensities of the universe, and thus stabs us from behind with the thought of annihilation, when beholding the white depths of the milky way? Or is it, that as in essence whiteness is not so much a color as the visible absence of color; and at the same time the concrete of all colors; is it for these reasons that there is such a dumb blankness, full of meaning, in a wide landscape of snows- a colorless, all-color of atheism from which we shrink?"

"Consider all this; and then turn to this green, gentle, and most docile earth; consider them both, the sea and the land; and do you not find a strange analogy to something in yourself? For as this appalling ocean surrounds the verdant land, so in the soul of man there lies one insular Tahiti, full of peace and joy, but encompassed by all the horrors of the half known life. God keep thee! Push not off from that isle, thou canst never return!"

Review: The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood

noreply@blogger.com (ConnieGirl) — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 16:00:00 +0000

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Reviewed by Connie

Published: 1985

It's about: Offred is a Handmaid in the Republic of Gilead. She may leave the home of the Commander and his wife once a day to walk to food markets whose signs are now pictures instead of words because women are no longer allowed to read. She must lie on her back once a month and pray that the Commander makes her pregnant, because in an age of declining fertility, Offred and the other Handmaids are valued only if their ovaries are viable. Offred can remember the years before, when she lived and made love with her husband, Luke; when she played with and protected her daughter; when she had a job, money of her own, and access to knowledge. But all of that is gone now... (stolen from Goodreads this time)

I thought: I think it's important to mention that one of my very favorite books is 1984 by George Orwell, and it is the standard against which I hold every other dystopian novel I read. As such, I had a complicated experience with The Handmaid's Tale.

Atwood's writing style is beyond reproach, and she appears, above all, to be a talented storyteller. Her main character, Offred, is interesting and complex enough to invest interest in, which is pretty significant, considered the majority of the book consists of her inner monologue. And I loved how woman-power it was. Atwood is very successful in depicting many different women's reactions and attitudes toward the patriarchal takeover, so in that sense the book is pretty realistic. Though most of them are boiled down to the basics, when I would meet another woman, I would have the feeling that I'd met that woman before. To put it briefly, Atwood gets women.

Although this is a dystopia, I thought much of the most insightful social commentaries are relatively understated-- slipped in here and there, so if you weren't paying close enough attention, you might miss it. Like this:

"The Marthas are not supposed to fraternize with us. Fraternize means to behave like a brother. Luke told me that. He said there was no corresponding word that meant to behave like a sister. Sororize, it would have to be, he said. From the Latin."

And parts of the book certainly are moving and insightful and, occasionally, chillingly prophetic, especially read in a post-9/11 context.

However, I didn't absolutely love the book. The tale begins in the midst of the dystopian government's reign, and the history of how the government came to power and the explanation of the new society's rules are gradually disclosed. In some ways, this strategy works-- Offred describes it as "reconstructing" her life bit by bit, so when the trauma of such an upheaval is considered, the disjointed narrative seems the way to go. BUT, I found the necessary "suspension of disbelief" more difficult because of that structure. Without knowing the history and rules of the society for the beginning half of the novel, the whole situation seemed almost too far-fetched to be truly thought-provoking.

Ingrid and Christina both loved this novel, and if I remember correctly, at least one of them referred to it as life-changing. I read this with the intention of adding my approving voice, but my initial reaction was more reserved. After finishing it, I didn't find myself contemplating it, as I couldn't help but do with 1984. I didn't find in Atwood's book the same depth or the emotional impact of Orwell's. 1984 shakes you to the very foundation and demands that you reanalyze your most preciously held beliefs. For the first week or so after reading Atwood's book, I believed that The Handmaid's Tale doesn't demand as much introspection, and really, what's a dystopian novel for if not to provoke introspection?

Now, having been removed from the book for over a week, I find myself rethinking my original conclusion. I have found that while Atwood's dystopia doesn't thunder and shake like Orwell's, it quietly plants a seed of thought. As I have revisited the book to write this review, reading over passages I had highlighted, I have found myself thinking about it more and more. I believe I will need to re-read this book to truly appreciate or understand it, and I plan to.

Verdict: On the Shelf

Warnings: A couple mild descriptions of sex

Favorite excerpts:
"The Republic of Gilead, said Aunt Lydia, knows no bounds. Gilead is within you."

"There's time to spare. This is one of the things I wasn't prepared for -- the amount of unfilled time, the long parentheses of nothing. Time as white as sound. If only I could embroider. Weave, knit, something to do with my hands. I want a cigarette. I remember walking in art galleries, through the nineteenth century: the obsession they had then with harems. Dozens of paintings of harems, fat women lolling on divans, turbans on their heads or velvet caps, being fanned with peacock tails, a eunuch in the background standing guard. Studies of sedentary flesh, painted by men who'd never been there. These pictures were supposed to be erotic, and I thought they were, at the time; but I see now what they were really about. They were paintings about suspended animation; about waiting, about objects not in use.

They were paintings about boredom. But maybe boredom is erotic, when women do it, for men."

What I'm reading next: The Book of Mormon Girl by Joanna Brooks

Purchase The Handmaid's Tale on Amazon.com

Review: The Book of Tea by Kakuzo Okakura

noreply@blogger.com (IngridLola) — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 03:02:00 +0000

preparing Japanese tea Via

Reviewed by Ingrid

Published: 1906

It's about: In this long essay, Kakuzo Okakura discusses the history, development, and influence of the ritual of tea and the Japanese tea ceremony. He explains "Teaism," a view related to Daoism and Zennism, which draws philosophical and aesthetic meaning from the ceremony of drinking tea, promoting harmony, discipline, and enlightenment. He also discusses how Teaism is linked to art-appreciation, the architecture and interior of the Japaenese tea-house, and flower arranging.

This book was a major part of the Orientalist movement and influenced T. S. Eliot and Ezra Pound. It has also been said to be a major influence on Heidegger's concept of dasein, which he drew from Kakuzo's explaination of Zhuangzi's approach to Daoism.

Since Okakura was educated in the British tradition, this book (and all of Okakura's other works) was originally written in English. It is considered one of the English tea classics.

I thought: I read through this little book in one setting, with a cup of this tea in hand. (Fun fact - my husband and I stayed at a Japanese spa in New Mexico for our honeymoon where this tea was served, so it brings back good memories.) The first thing I noticed it that this book demands quite a different kind of reading than a novel. I consulted wikipedia a few times to help clarify some of the Daoist concepts Okakura discussed. I also found myself linking a lot of these concepts in my head to passages I remember discussing in a class I took last year on Asian literature when we read from The Tale of Genji, especially regarding the cult of aestheticism in traditional Japanese culture. I think the importance of beauty to Japanese culture is why Okakura included a section on art appreciation, which at first glance seems a bit out of place in a book that's supposed to be about tea. This section was actually my very favorite part of this book. I especially loved the following passage, which comes after a discussion of the tea-room as a place where one can "consecrate himself to undisturbed adoration of the beautiful." Here Okakura describes the relationship between an art masterpiece and the viewer or recipient:

The masterpiece is a symphony played upon our finest feelings. . . . At the magic touch of the beautiful the secret chords of our being are awakened, we vibrate and thrill in response to its call. Mind speaks to mind. We listen to the unspoken, we gaze upon the unseen. The master calls forth notes we know not of. Memories long forgotten all come back to us with a new significance. Hopes stifled by fear, yearnings that we dare not recognise, stand forth in new glory. Our mind is the canvas on which the artists lay their colour; their pigments are our emotions; their chiaroscuro the light of joy, the shadow of sadness. The masterpiece is of ourselves, as we are of the masterpiece.

When I first read this passage, it reminded me of one of my favorite passages from James Joyce's short story "Araby" ("My body was like a harp and her words and gestures were like fingers running upon the wires.") It also reminded me of The Tale of Genji and how it depicted emotions as beautiful in themselves, which is very different than a traditional Western approach to aesthetics. I enjoyed reading this pleasant little book. It was just long enough that the deep thinking it promoted was a delight and not a chore. I highly recommend it.

Kakuzo Okakura (via)

Verdict: Stick it on the shelf, especially if you consider yourself a lover of tea and/or Japanese culture.

Reading Recommendations: Here's a nice short article about The Book of Tea at The Guardian.

Warnings: None.

Favorite excerpts:
"There is a subtle charm in the taste of tea which makes it irresistible and capable of idealisation. Western humourists were not slow to mingle the fragrance of their thought with its aroma. It has not the arrogance of wine, the self-consciousness of coffee, nor the simpering innocence of cocoa."

"The art of life lies in a constant readjustment to our surroundings."

What I'm reading next: O Pioneers! by Willa Cather

Guest Review: Works of Love by Søren Kierkegaard

noreply@blogger.com (IngridLola) — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 03:41:00 +0000

Guest Review by Rachel Hunt Steenblik. Rachel is a philosopher, librarian, and reader. She is currently getting her PhD at Claremont Graduate University. She also blogs at tenderheartedmercy.blogspot.com.

Søren Kierkegaard via

Title: Works of Love by Søren Kierkegaard

Published: 1995. First published 1845.

It's about: Works of love, nor merely love. Kierkegaard tells us that this is the case because the book is full of Christian deliberations. What this means for us is that Kierkegaard is not giving us a theory of love. He is not giving us love as sentimentality, or passion, or feeling. Neither is he teaching us exactly what we need to do to be loving. For instance, he never says, "do this and this and this, and turn around three times, and then you are loving." Instead, he is taking a topic, love, that most people think they know something about, and he is telling them that it is both easier and harder than they think. He wants there to be an earnestness, and he wants there to be a difficulty.

More than anything, it is asking people to truly believe in love, and then to live it by practicing, and practicing again. It takes self-denial and it takes self-looking at. It also takes looking at God, and understanding the way God looks at us and those around us. We come to learn that everyone is the neighbor because everyone has the same relation before God. In the world, there is a ladder, with some people higher and some people lower. We admire some, we may not admire others. There are kings and there are poor people. There are beautiful people and there are ugly people. There are lovers and there are friends who share preferential relationships. For God and for Kierkegaard there are only neighbors. It is this neighbor love, this God love, this eternal, true love, that Works of Love is interested in.

The book itself is divided into two parts. (Fascinating fact: Kierkegaard thought he would die before he turned 34. He finished the first part, assuming that that would be all. He celebrated his birthday, and was still alive. He went to the registers to see if his birthday could possibly have been a different day. It couldn't be, so he wrote part II.) These two parts contain deliberations, or discourses on love. Each deliberation is inspired by a single verse from the New Testament. For example, one deliberation is on love's ability to believe all things from Paul's famous treatise on love in 1 Corinthians 13, but goes further and asserts that it is never deceived. Another is on love's ability to hope all things, but goes further and asserts that it is never put to shame. Still other deliberations focus on true love's ability to abide, to build up, and to cover a multitude of sins.

Kierkegaard was writing at a time when many things in his world were becoming easier. In one sense everyone was Christian because everyone belonged to the state church, but in another sense, this made it so very few people were actually Christian. Kierkegaard fought against this, and wanted to make it harder to be a Christian, so some people actually could be. He was concerned with helping people become individuals and selves, as he believed they were not born that way, but became that way by proper relations and choices. One way he did this was by writing indirectly and often pseudonymously. While Works of Love does bear Kierkegaard's own name, it does not make his task any different.

I thought: This book is beautiful, and inspiring, and challenging, and almost every deliberation called me out on things that I need to do better if I want to be a loving person, or a more loving person. It is not enough simply to love our friends or families or beloveds (though we must keep loving them too). No, 'even the pagans do the same.' Even those outside of Christianity do the same. Christian love does more: it loves the neighbor (who is everyone), and it keeps loving the neighbor, even when it is hard. Perhaps, especially when it is hard. It also loves the self and God in the right way, which requires being faced to God and the self appropriately. For Kierkegaard this means that we help the neighbor love God, and that we love ourselves as we love the neighbor, which is to help ourselves love God, and then we love God by loving the neighbor and ourselves properly.

I appreciate the way that Kierkegaard wrote this book. His writing is clear, and each deliberation is perfectly introduced, defended, and concluded. I also appreciate that he takes stories as evidence for his assertions. Some of these stories come from the Bible and concern Christ, Peter, and others. Just as many come from life, even his life, but he never labels them as such. These stories are like his pseudonymous writing, where we are presented with different options, and can find the broader message for ourselves. We also have the option of applying that broader message to ourself or not. Kierkegaard has a similarly good emphasis on language. One example is found at the beginning of his deliberation "Love Builds Up." When we talk about building up in terms of a building, we are always talking about a height dimension. Building horizontally is 'building on.' Building up, on the other hand, also requires building up from the ground up, from the foundation. He goes on to translate this building talk to talk about love. We must assume that there already exists a foundation of love. Thus, upbuilding love is to assume that there is love in the other person. Assuming that this love is present allows us to build up that person rather than tear down. It also allows us to see love everywhere. The last thing I appreciate about this book is that it can be read either simply, merely as devotionals, or philosophically with intricate arguments. Both ways of reading are valid.

Verdict: Stick it on the shelf. The text itself is sometimes dense, but as far as both philosophy and Kierkegaard goes, it is rather accessible. Some deliberations are also slower than others, but it is worth pushing through, because there are enough beautiful and uplifting gems. It is a book I have purchased and stuck on my own shelf two separate times. I don't regret it in the least, as it is one of those books I keep coming back to, and feel the necessity of coming back.

Reading Recommendations: Kierkegaard himself suggests that readers read it slowly and carefully. That is probably a good rule. You don't have to be a philosopher to get something out of it, or even a Christian. It is simply one of the best pieces of writing on love and loving.

Warnings: No warnings.

Favorite excerpts: "What is it, namely, that connects the temporal and eternity, what else but love, which for that very reason is before everything and remains after everything is gone."

"Your friend, your beloved, your child, or whoever is an object of your love has a claim upon an expression of it also in words if it actually moves you inwardly. The emotion is not your possession but belongs to the other; the expression is your debt to him, since in the emotion you indeed belong to him who moves you and you become aware that you belong to him... You should let the mouth speak out of the abundance of the heart; you should not be ashamed of your feelings and even less of honestly giving each one his due."

"There is no word in human language, not one single one, not the most sacred one, about which we are able to say: If a person uses this word, it is unconditionally demonstrated that there is love in that person... There is no work, not one single one, not even the best, about which we unconditionally dare to say: The one who does this unconditionally demonstrates love by it. It depends on how the work is done."

"The commandment is that you shall love, but ah, if you will understand yourself and life, then it seems that it should not need to be commanded, because to love people is the only thing worth living for, and without this love you are not really living. "

What I'm reading next: A Year of Magical Thinking, by Joan Didion.

Review: Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair by Pablo Neruda

noreply@blogger.com (Christina) — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 02:42:00 +0000

via

Reviewed by Christina

Published: As 20 Poemas de amor y una Canción desesperada, 1924. This translation, by W.S. Merwin, 1969

It's about: Twenty love poems. And then a song of despair.

I thought: Well. First of all, a disclaimer: I really have no right to review poetry. I know so little about it, and it's been years since I read much poetry at all. So consider this more of a response than a review if you want to.

Today I got a hankerin' for some lovey poetry ('tis the season). Enter Señor Neruda. And boy, does he deliver the goods. This is an intensely romantic collection of poems, rich with tastefully erotic imagery and nature-y symbolism. It's no surprise that nineteen-year-old Pablo Neruda was vaulted into literary stardom when 20 Poemas de amor y una Canción desesperada was first published in 1924. The romantic themes are powerfully expressed and universal: longing, stillness, anticipation, and worshipful, passionate love, all wrapped in teenage urgency. And then there's the seething Song of Despair, a breakup song if I ever heard one.

I'm not gonna lie, there are definitely lines, stanzas, whole poems in this collection that I just don't get. It probably has something to do with my inexperience with poetry. I lose my train of thought in phrases like this: "from your regard sometimes the coast of dread emerges," and then I get annoyed when I have to rearrange it in my head ("sometimes the coast of dread emerges from your regard") and I get more distracted still when I try to check my version with the Spanish original on the opposite page.

But then, out of nowhere, BAM! A simple truth like "Love is so short, forgetting is so long." Or a uniquely descriptive stanza, like this:

In you is the illusion of each day.
You arrive like the dew to the cupped flowers.
You undermine the horizon with your absence.
Eternally in flight like the wave.

Ah! Amor!

Verdict: It's not my favorite poetry ever, but it definitely still deserves a place on the shelf.

Reading Recommendations: This is a perfect V-day read, whether you're in love or not. It's very short and it'll help you remember all the wonderful and terrible things about love.
And don't get one of those editions that leaves off the Song of Despair.

Warnings: sexy!

Favorite excerpts: from XIV:
"My words rained over you, stroking you.
A long time I have loved the sunned mother-of-pearl of your body.
I go so far as to think you own the universe.
I will bring you happy flowers from the mountains, bluebells,
dark hazels, and rustic baskets of kisses.
I want
to do with you what spring does with the cherry trees."

And from the Song of Despair:
"Oh the bitten mouth, oh the kissed limbs,
oh the hungering teeth, oh the entwined bodies.

Oh the mad coupling of hope and force
in which we merged and despaired."

What I'm reading next: Still savoring My Mistress's Sparrow Is Dead

Literary Blog Hop: February 9-12

noreply@blogger.com (Christina) — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 05:00:00 +0000

Welcome to the Literary Blog Hop hosted by The Blue Bookcase!

This monthly blog hop is open to blogs that primarily feature book reviews of literary fiction, classic literature, and general literary discussion.

How do I know if my blog qualifies as "literary"? Literature has many definitions, but for our purposes your blog qualifies as "literary" if it focuses primarily on texts with aesthetic merit. In other words, texts that show quality not only in narrative but also in the effect of their language and structure. YA literature may fit into this category, but if your blog focuses primarily on non-literary YA, fantasy, romance, paranormal romance, or chick lit, you may prefer to join the blog hop at Crazy-for-books that is open to book blogs of all kinds.

Instructions for entering the Literary Blog Hop:

1. Grab the code for the Button.

2. Answer the following prompt on your blog.
(Suggestions for future prompts? Email to them us at thebluebookcase@gmail.com)

Here's our question this week:

In the epilogue for Fargo Rock City, Chuck Klosterman writes:

Our answer comes from Christina:

When I write a review, I almost always stress out about my overuse of the word "I." I worry that my posts are really more personal responses than intellectual reviews, and that my self-absorption comes through more clearly than the points I'm trying to make about the book. So when I read that quotation from Mr. Klosterman a few days ago, it really stuck out in my mind and made me think.

That same day Ingrid posted Why I Review, a discussion of the purpose of book blog reviewing. There are a bunch of smart comments on that post. One of them is from Ben: "Distance is critical. In reading, in intellectual matters and even if physical work, like boxing for example. Establishing proper distance is vital to not get punched in the face."

What's the ideal balance between autobiography and distance in an informal review? Obviously with academic writing distance is far more important than personal connection. But when I'm reading a blog post, I do like to learn a little about the reviewer while I'm also learning about the book and author. Then again, extremely emotional responses don't usually make great reviews. I don't really have an answer to this prompt, which is why I was so eager to post it. How do you find balance in your own review writing? What kind of autobiography-to-distance ratio do you prefer when you're reading a blog?

3. Add your link to the Linky List below.

Happy Hopping!
*PLEASE NOTE: if you do not answer the question and link back to The Blue Bookcase in a post on your blog, you will be removed from the Linky list.

"It's always been my theory that criticism is really just veiled autobiography; whenever someone writes about a piece of art, they're really just writing about themselves."

Do you agree?

Review: Fargo Rock City by Chuck Klosterman

noreply@blogger.com (Christina) — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 11:32:00 +0000

Reviewed by Christina

Full Title: Fargo Rock City: A Heavy Metal Odyssey in Rural Nörth Daköta

Published: 2001

It's about: Chuck Klosterman, a pop culture critic and essayist, describes his teenagerhood while providing an informal, opinionated history of 80's heavy metal. It's an unusual blend of memoir and music journalism.

I thought: Multiple people have told me that I would like Chuck Klosterman. So when I saw Fargo Rock City was a selection in the Dead End Follies Book Club, I was all "OK Chuck, let's rock." (I was also motivated by the North Dakota connection- I lived near the Canadian border when I was a kid, and you just don't see many books that have anything to do with NoDak life.)

And yes, those multiple people were right; I did like this book. Mr. Klosterman is funny, clever, and articulate. I really enjoy a good piece of music journalism, and even though I don't have any connection to 80's heavy metal I still related to a lot of the book. Chuck and his adolescent friends felt the same way about Metal as I did about Alternative ten years later: Society and The Establishment just don't "get" it! Mainstream pop sucks! People who say they like "all kinds of music" aren't to be trusted! "Sell outs" are the lowest of the low!

But I didn't always like the author himself. Chuck Klosterman has a strong personality- he's kind of an arrogant schmuck. He has some really stupid ideas about women, like how we are disloyal and overly emotional, and the section in which he lamely defends the sexism inherent in heavy metal REALLY pushed my buttons. Reading Fargo Rock City is like listening to a knowledgeable but extremely opinionated friend babble on about his favorite subject; eventually that friend is bound to get on your nerves. Like when he wants to talk to you for hours about every favorite metal album and why he likes it. Luckily with a book you can skim the boring parts. I don't think I'd like to be cornered by an inebriated Chuck in a bar.

But you know, 85% of the time I spent reading this book I was happy/amused/entertained, even though it's mostly about a subject I don't care about. And that's a real testament to Klosterman's writing skills. His chapter about theatrical satanism in metal is brilliant. And I really dug the moments when he mentioned the bands I knew and loved in the 90's. I'll definitely seek out more of his writing. And, since it's been over ten years since Fargo Rock City was published, I'll be curious to see whether his voice and/or opinions have changed over the years.

Verdict: In-Between. If you grew up with heavy metal and you like a really opinionated critic, you'll probably love it. Otherwise, you might not.

Reading Recommendations: There's a really good review of this one over at Illiterarty. And you can check out the book club discussion here.

Warnings: SWEARS and some sex talk.

Favorite excerpts: "Another good reason to hate heavy metal is Ted Nugent, or-- more accurately-- people who are like Ted Nugent. Every time I go to a big rock show, I see herds of these kind of men, and they always make me wish I had the power to give people polio."

"If your cassette collection had too many other nonmetal artists, you were bordering on being one of those goddamn eclectics who really didn't love anything. One of my primary theories as a junior high kid was that people who claimed to like every genre of music were liars and hypocrites; they lacked backbone. I never trusted open-minded people."

What I'm reading next: Still My Mistress's Sparrow is Dead