Scheduled Reads for the rest of 2011

Although I may be ahead of schedule in my 50 book challenge, I still have much more reading to get my other challenges completed, I thought I'd record them here so I would remember.

September Maisie Dobbs (British Challenge; Historical Challenge) Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (British Challenge)
October Finish Vanity Fair (British Challenge; Historical Reading) The Scarecrow of Oz (Gilmore Girls) Dr. No (British Challenge) Sherlock Holmes-A Study in Scarlet (British Challenge)
November The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (Nordic Challenge) The Girl Who Played with Fire (Nordic Challenge)
December The Moonstone (British Challenge) Ironweed (Gilmore Girls) Valley of the Dolls (Gilmore Girls) Candide (Gilmore Girls)

Through-out the rest of the year
These will be easy to do as I can read them during school and have just been waiting until I assign them.


5 essays (Essay Reading Challenge)
"Why We Crave Horror Movies"-Stephen King and others
2 Short Stories (Gilmore Girls)
1. "Snows of Killimanjaro" Ernest Hemingway
2. "The Trial" Franz Kafka


Horns by Joe Hill OCT 

(Geek Girls on Goodreads...I downloaded it on the Nook so we'll see if I like it enough to finish reading, I'm a little leery of the premise)

Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley NOV
(Chunksters on Goodreads...co-discussion leader so gotta keep that one on the table)

Stiff:The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach OCT
(Gilmore Girls on Goodreads...read it before, will love to read it again with a group)


Tomato Red by Daniel Woodrell by the end of the semester

(borrowed from senior lit teachers to see if I like his writing...)

It feels good to have everything lined up and in order! Now, off to do some paper grading before the tiny person wakes up!

50 Books in a Year: Book #36 The Lost Symbol

     I enjoy a good thriller.    
     I like when a book makes me read so fast that I get paper cuts flipping through the pages or, in the case of The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown, I read so fast I get little tini seizures from flicking through the pages on my Nook.
     I love Dan Brown.
     I love Robert Langdon.
     I'm pretty sure that I won't have anything bad to say about Mr. Brown as long as he continues to write books involving the brilliant Dr. Langdon and clues that aren't hard for me to cipher, but always surprising when I do, as long as there are tormented characters like Mal'akh, as long as there's slight sexual tension, but not enough to be distracting, as long as he writes about pretty places I've been or want to go.
     I love that Dan Brown's stories are always just a step ahead of what my head can guess.
     I do have to say though, if you have a fear of drowning or suffocating (like I do) or a fear of large sea creatures (like I do) might I suggest not reading this book (especially the last few chapters) late at night, on a trip to the Smithsonian, in a cabin in Colorado with just your kiddo beside you, or while taking a bath. I mean unless you want to be freaked out of your ever loving mind, which sometimes isn't a bad thing.

Easily

5 Stars

50 Books in a Year: Book #31 The Help

I don't really know how to talk about what I feel about this book. I didn't like this book, the thing is I also didn't dislike the book. Hmmm...maybe I'll just break it down into parts:

Things I like about The Help:
1. The story
Oh...I bet if we talked to any person who was "The Help" in the 60s, they would have such wonderful stories to tell and I believe they would be just as rich and diverse as the stories in this book. What a great, refreshing idea for a book!
2. Mae Mobley and Skeeter
Because we get to see Mae Mobley grow into a little girl, I grew to like her. I like that, although she is crying at the end of the book, she's going to be OK and we know it because of the moment she shares with Aibileen..."You is kind. You is smart. You is important." And, Skeeter, well, Skeeter is just so real that you have to love her. I find it interesting that she really isn't a strong person (she really is a woman of her culture) in the sense that we aren't going to see her at a rally, and she would marry out of duty over love, but she does see things through and she is passionate about people. I would love to meet either of these characters.
3. The setting (place and time period)
I love learning about American History, especially when it is about or enhances my knowledge of African-American culture. I also find it most interesting to read about the Civil Rights Movement, what a passionate part of America's culture.

Things I dislike about The Help:
1. The inconsistent and sometimes down-right offensive dialect
I don't like how the African-American dialect is stereotypical and really does phase in and out at inappropriate intervals. It is not consistent and detracts from the reading of the book. Frankly, just a few bits here and there would have been appropriate and we would have gotten the idea. This is not Uncle Tom's Cabin and doesn't need to be written as such, not to mention that this dialect would have been prevalent in not just the African-American community and it didn't seem to be that the dialect that is "The South" could be seen as strongly in any of the White (there I said it!) characters and that was irksome and made me feel a little bit angry while reading.
2. Each character is stereotypical and unoriginal in action and description...OK, so that seems a bit harsh, let me explain...
All the white people, even Skeeter acted how I assume and have seen people in The South act in the 60s in movies or shows or books. And, all the Black people are what I feel stereotypical Black people are, you know when you read about them and don't know them, even Minny. Everything just seemed too black and white and perfect, where's the gray? Where's more of Hilly being that perfect mother, so I'm conflicted about why I hate her? All of these characters stay in the homes in which the author has created them...and, because of that I don't really learn anything I didn't already know about The South in the 60s, even the death of Medgar Evers was sterilized and perfectly trimmed. Let's just say I didn't feel uncomfortable about anything the characters were doing, and, well, I should have!
3. The setting (place and time period)
So much could have been done and was not. I understand that the author stated that she dislikes people writing about her beloved Mississippi unless they are from there. I don't like reading about such a sensitive period in American History without feeling some of the burn and the burden. I don't like that most of the people I talk to who have read this book mention all the anecdotal stories (the pie, the toilets, the drunken wife), when there is so much more that wasn't flushed out enough for people to talk about (the child abuse, the treatment of women, Jim Crow). This book is Civil Rights-lite for those people who want to talk about it as some sort of background to tea and cake...that rubs me the wrong way.

What it amounts to is...I can think of several books and movies (Corrina, Corrina for one) that are in the same genre and do a better job of rendering characters and setting better than this one. But, the darned story is so good that I can't wait to watch the movie, as I'm sure, with such great actors, most of the things I find wrong with the book will be fixed and ring a little truer.

3 Stars

50 Books in a Year: Book #28 Ragtime

          So, I've been meaning to read Ragtime by E.L. Doctorow for about two years now. From the moment that I realized that Ragtime the Musical was based on a book, a book, that from what I understand is out of time and hard to follow. It's suppose to follow the lives of three families (a white upper middle-class family, a Jewish immigrant family and a poor black family) as they struggle with the progressive era.
          I've also read that this is the first book that is the first of its kind in the sense that Doctorow is putting his characters inside the first 20 years of the 20th century and, includes factional information within the lives of his characters. Most of his fictional characters don't have names and are called by their family station there's Mother, Father, Tateh and so forth depending on which family.
          It is a little dry so far, but I've already met Harry Houdini and a murderer, I'm looking forward to getting to the meat of the action, of course, knowing that there is no meat (or, that it's all meaty and worth my attention?) and that these characters go in and out of time in the Progressive Era teaching me what it was like to be an American so I can appreciate this concept as a Post-Modern American, way past the Progressive Era, and not waste any of the precious time I have.
          I miss the music.

50 Books in a Year: Book #26 The Heart of the Spring

          One of the coolest things about having a blog is getting to talk with authors about their books.
          Last week, my friend, Kate, and I received a rather cryptic email from a lady that we both know from church way back named Laura Valenti, she wanted to have lunch with us to talk to us about something that she hoped would benefit us (yes, it was that cryptic). Kate and I decided that we would go to the lunch together just incase she wanted us to sell Amway (no offense to those of you out there who sell or buy Amway). We met her for lunch at the Three French Hens and their Chicks, a not new, but new location, delightful restaurant and whatnot store of various and sundry things. I'd like to take a moment to talk about the food I had at this restaurant  only because I love food, especially flavorful combinations. I had the chicken salad which was good because they made it how I like it with nuts and grapes and celery on a croissant and then I had the half Maple Pear Salad...butter lettuce and some other dark lettuce with feta cheese, pears, pecans, Craisins and a maple syrup vinigrette (seriously amazing), to drink iced Jasmine tea, and for dessert coconut cream pie and a bite of Laura's burnt sugar pie. Sigh. If you are from the area and have not been to this restaurant, go now and while you are there check out the antique store, Apple Days and the wonderful booth of do-dads for kiddos including hair bows, my weakness.
          While we ate our lovely meals, Laura didn't waste time telling us about what she wanted. She'd been to a Writer's Workshop and wanted us to preview her latest book The Heart of the Spring to see if and how we could use it in our classes. And, while we were having a lovely conversation about family and teaching and summer, she gave us each a free copy of the book.

From the back cover:

Eighteen year old Becky Darling is thrilled with her first job at the Brice Inn in 1924, especially when she learns that Bennett Spring may become Missouri's first state park. It sounds like real progress until she discovers her beloved father is working hard against the idea. Life during that Prohibition summer is further complicated by her older brother's involvement in illegal moonshine, the impending birth of a new brother or sister and the surprise arrival of a state senator and his handsome aide. Becky can't help but wonder if life at Bennett Spring will ever be carefree again?

I look forward to reading this book because it is historical (Valenti did all of her own research by the way) and for young adults, young adults who, nowadays, don't care enough to know anything about the area in which they live.
          I asked her if I could talk about it on my blog and also if I could interview her later (which I hope to do later this week), right now I'm excited about reading a book detailing this area of Missouri and I am reading all about Becky and her family who 90 years ago lived just down the way in the land of trout and bass fishing.
          I am amazed at how many wonderfully talented writers there are in the state of Missouri and am looking forward to reading this book that Ellen Gray Massey said is about "fishing, moonshining, distrust of outsiders, beauty of nature, importance of family and a romance."

Oh, and if you want to know more about Laura Valenti before I post the interview, she has a website and started a blog in January all of which can be found at: www.betweenthestarandthecross.com

50 Books in a Year: Book #18 Loving Frank

          Before researching a little bit about this book, I can honestly say that I knew little about Frank Lloyd Wright other than that he was an architect who created liveable works of art sooooo beautiful and breath-taking that I remember even as a teenager wanting to live in one of his famous houses, mostly because I had this naive teenage fascination with all things Ayn Rand. (Note: some links contain spoilers)
          I was surprised by what I found when I searched the title, Taliesin, Frank and Mamah. One reviewer, from The New York Times, sums it up best when she says, "And beyond its shock value, the outcome would have ramifications not only for two ruptured families but also for architects, feminists, criminologists and armchair moralists of every stripe."
          And, that's just it, everybody has something to say about the love affair, and yes, it was an affair, of Frank Lloyd Wright and Mamah Borthwick Cheney that I'm not sure that we don't miss the point of the reason why we read about it. The point is simple, what does it mean to truly live and what does it mean to truly love someone? Not just like the look of someone, not just what the person says or does, but to find somebody that is so much like you that they become part of the foundation of you. And, what do you do when you find that person after you are married and have children? For some, that have better moral fortitude than I, the answer is simple stay in your marriage, suffer for the children, be altruistic and selfless. For some, such as I, the marriage you are trying desperately to leave would never have happened to begin with because it takes more than like and social conventions to make any marriage work. It seems that both Cheney and Wright (horrible fate aside, and some would say they both deserved it) realized what Edna and Nora did, and were able to do in real life what others could only do in fiction. They loved without conventional limitations, and, Ayn Rand would be proud, thought only of themselves.
          Many, it seems, feel that Frank Lloyd Wright didn't love Mamah Borthwick in this manner and they attribute his silence after Taliesin to cold indifference...I, however, like to be a hopeless romantic and think that when something is that painful the very idea of it breaks your heart and if you talked about it, even to a diary or God, you'd shatter into a million katrillion little pieces and couldn't do anything, not even breath.
         But, no matter how you look at it, I guess, deep down, Wright wasn't any different than most celebrities...not demi-god, only human, which is why I'm enjoying the book so much. Told through the eyes of Mamah, we learn more about Frank Lloyd Wright the person, not the architect.
         I have a long list of Frank Lloyd Wright reading ahead of me...The Women is on my Summer TBR, most definitely and his autobiography and a book about what happened at Taliesin. I'm glad I'm starting with this book, Loving Frank by Nancy Horan.

50 Books in a Year: Book #11 The Apothecary's Daughter

          When I was in junior high I read my fair share of tawdry romance novels. I blush (out of embarrassment, as well as rememberance) just thinking about the list of titles: Windmills of the Gods, Bloodline, Fine Things, Now and Forever, to name a few, Silouette and Harlequin Romances (too many to name or remember) and old gems like Forever Amber. I'd read these books at school, a group of us girls taking turns with them stuffing them in our lockers underneath our Cosmo magazines so our moms wouldn't find out about either. We'd wait in the halls or find one another at lunch and whisper about the dirty passages. I learned some of my best vocab words from these books.
          I'd like to say that I've grown up, but really, I haven't. On Fridays Christopher Lee watches the tiny tot while I go hang out and last Friday my friends and I were at the local bookstore Lebanon Books (I hadn't been since they moved across town and wanted to see the new digs), it was raining and we had an hour to kill before our movie started. We fannied about the various aisles...New Releases, Cookbooks, Classics, and ended up at the Romance section. We had to have spent at least 20 minutes there, reading the silly covers and looking for the dirty sections, which we read aloud at barely a whisper and then laughed like 7th graders. It was...well, it was hilarious, especially now that so many romances novels are about vampires and werewolves as well as pirates, prison inmates and vikings.
          You see, I'm a firm believer that romance novels aren't meant to be bought, they're meant to be laughed at in bookstores or borrowed and stuffed in lockers only to come out during lunch or study hall in junior high. So, imagine my complete and utter disappointment when, for our annual Christmas book exchange at school, I received not only a romance, but a Christian one (no dirty scenes) at that.
          It's called The Silent Governess and, frankly, I have no idea what it is about because it's been on loan to so many sophomore girls since one of them spotted it on my desk in early January that I barely remember the cover. And, everytime one brings it back she gushes about how marvelous it is and another ask to borrow it. This whole entire phenomenon has me intrigued. My curiousity was piqued even more when my cousin mentioned another book by this author, called The Apothecary's Daughter, that she downloaded for free on her Kindle. I posted about it on FB and sure enough there were more people who liked The Silent Governess and The Apothecary's Daughter, some of them even claimed that knowing me, they thought I would like them too. The Silent Governess is still on loan, but I now have The Apothecary's Daughter on my Nook...a free download.
           And, well, it's pretty good so far--really. The main character is strong-willed and determined to do what she wants, the plot is not determined by the sex scenes in the midst of it, it's set in London and other parts of England, it's a little suspenseful as Lilly is pretending her father isn't sick so she can be an apothecary and her mother just disappeared one day. It isn't quiet the clear cut read I assumed it would be. Maybe, just maybe, Julie Klassen, I'll read The Silent Governess after all, that is as soon as I finish this one!

50 books in a Year: Book #7 Little Bee

          Last week during our Snow-cation I got a lot of nuthin' accomplished. Frankly, I needed the time to just read and talk and play with the tiny person while watching PBS Kids, it was refreshing. My friend Aimee (who does not have, but should create a blog--hint, oh, hint...) reads my blog and noticed that both my friend Michelle and I are doing the British book challenge and found just the book for us. She said, and I quote, "It's British, it's World, read it and tell me if we should teach it at the Senior level".

         I did not read it right away (you all know how long it takes me to read books that are recommended: see Demian), but told her I would have it done in time enough for her to order it, if it becomes the book they choose...although I didn't buy it, didn't download it and didn't know when I was going to get the time to...lalalala *whistles* and then my husband needed work boots and we had to make a trip to Springfield. He bought boots at Bass Pro and then we went to the used bookstore.

         Now, I want to talk a minute about my delicious obsession/love/amour for used bookstores. I love the smell of used bookstores, the feeling, the old carpeting and rugs and cats (the used bookstore in Mansfield has two) and the fact that the people who work at the store know where books are without looking in a computer and I love that even though you haven't visited a used bookstore in a while those people treat you like you came in yesterday. I especially love Hooked on Books, a bookstore I've been frequenting since I started college in 1994. I no longer had any book credit, but that didn't stop me from letting the tiny tot pick out two books (I put several children's books on the floor and let her choose the ones she wanted), Imogene's Antler's and Circus Counting, and I picked out two books for myself Dr. No and this book Little Bee.
          I started reading it almost immediately (having finished Forgive My Fins rather quickly) and am in love with the main character Little Bee and her story of perseverance and determination. I also like that it is a book set in London and surrounding areas and is about a history of the Nigerian people that I am only beginning to realize. Chris Cleave has also fully developed the psyche of a woman in the other main character (this is one of those books where one voice narrates a chapter and then the other voice narrates a chapter adding to the story) and her struggles in dealing with her family. I don't really want to give too much away, and, frankly, I'm still reading so I'm in the dark about a lot of what is going on...but I am enjoying the suspense and the character development and the language. Cleave really knows how to weave a sentence into telling us the most profound details. And, look at the cover...it's so beautiful that when I'm reading I have to hide the cover so Lila doesn't grab the book out of my hand as she is prone to do.
         I can tell this books is going to be one of those that stays with me forever. And, to think, I was apprehensive in reading this book because I thought it was going to be about another spelling bee or bee keeper!

Ps. Yesterday the blog received an award I posted about it last evening, but have added some recipents, I'm now up to 12!)