Kevin and I took off for a wonderful 4 day weekend up in Bellingham to take care of Adam and Erin's dog and cat, and we had such a great time! A much needed break from our life and work, and some awesome snow time to boot! I picked up a copy of Muriel Barberry's second novel before taking off, remembering I read the first one on a similar trip to Bellingham!
This novel is very unique, in that there isn't really a driving plot so much, other than the main character, who is a renowned food critic, has learned he is dying from heart failure and has but 2 days to live. He, being a gourmand, has a flavor that is haunting his memory, and takes us on a journey through his life to discover what this taste is before he is gone. Interspersed throughout are vignettes of sorts from various people in his life; from his children who view him as a tyrant who never loved them; to his wife who never loved her children as much a she loved her husband and yearned for anytime with him; to the statue of Venus in his study and his cat and dog. Each one with a slice of their view of him, not many of which are particularly nice views!
While it was difficult to wrap my head around at times as the style of writing doesn't immediately tell the reader who is narrating, the prose is singularly beautiful. There are passages about tomatoes that I had to read out loud, several times, to different people because I couldn't get enough of how gorgeously Barberry captures the essence of eating a garden tomato. Another passage reflects on the critic's summers with his grandparents, and eating grilled sardines and never getting enough of them, or trips with his mother to Morocco where the highlight was always the bread the family shared after a day of playing in the sunshine. Each of the memories brings him a step closer to the mysterious flavor.
Admittedly, I was surprised greatly by the final chapter where he reveals his desire. I won't spoil it, but it really wasn't what I was expecting, and was a slight disappointment. However, it was a gorgeous book and I highly recommend it, especially foodies!
Showing posts with label 2012 books. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 2012 books. Show all posts
Thursday, February 23, 2012
Sunday, February 12, 2012
Book Review: Brooklyn by Colm Toibin
This novel had been recommended to me a number of times by various friends, and I nabbed it at the library a couple weeks ago. I hadn't had a lot of interest in it, as I erroneously assumed a lot about the plot without ever reading the synopsis. My friend Sarah gave me the scoop at Book Group a couple weeks ago that I would love this book, and I pretty much never doubt a suggestion from her!
The story is about a young woman in Ireland in 1951 who moves to Brooklyn, a move that is orchestrated entirely by her older sister Rose, a woman who knows exactly what she wanted out of life, and tries to make those things happen for Eilis. She moves into a boarding house with several other young Irish women, works at a clothing shop, and eventually meets a young Italian man named Tony who falls deeply in love with her. She is living a successful life, and blossoming into a certain, sure-minded woman. But when a tragedy at home forces her back to Ireland, she is faced with a desperate longing to stay in Ireland with the familiar, and that knowledge that she has an obligation to Tony to return.
Despite all the growth she seems to make throughout the novel, I was struck by the fact that she never really makes a decision about her life on her own. Others seem to arrange just about everything for her, while she silently internalizes how she would like to do things differently. While I loved the style of Toibin's writing, a very plain narrative with little in the way of dialogue, I was ultimately dissatisfied with Eilis's journey. I never felt terribly attached to her, perhaps owing to the fact that she doesn't really ever open herself up. It's certainly not that I didn't like the novel, because in fact I couldn't put it down, but that I wanted more for Eilis. I think it almost read like a very long short story, where it felt like it could end at any moment and I wouldn't have felt any differently. I am the first to admit my disliking of short stories, and so this certainly influences how I read the book. I am torn! I wanted to love this book as my friends seemed to, but I can't say that I did.
What I did really love was thinking about how I would have loved to have read this book when I was in college. I wrote my senior thesis on Irish diaspora, and this book is just ripe with it! Finding your way as an Irish person in a different country, then the return to Ireland as someone who is now Americanized and other, oh my I would have delved into this novel so deeply!
I definitely would recommend this book to anyone, it was a sweet story, and I really loved the writing and look forward to reading more by Toibin. It is not gritty and deep, but rather a nice journey with Eilis as she comes of age and discovers herself, and is a great look into at least a slice of Irish life in the 1950's.
The story is about a young woman in Ireland in 1951 who moves to Brooklyn, a move that is orchestrated entirely by her older sister Rose, a woman who knows exactly what she wanted out of life, and tries to make those things happen for Eilis. She moves into a boarding house with several other young Irish women, works at a clothing shop, and eventually meets a young Italian man named Tony who falls deeply in love with her. She is living a successful life, and blossoming into a certain, sure-minded woman. But when a tragedy at home forces her back to Ireland, she is faced with a desperate longing to stay in Ireland with the familiar, and that knowledge that she has an obligation to Tony to return.
Despite all the growth she seems to make throughout the novel, I was struck by the fact that she never really makes a decision about her life on her own. Others seem to arrange just about everything for her, while she silently internalizes how she would like to do things differently. While I loved the style of Toibin's writing, a very plain narrative with little in the way of dialogue, I was ultimately dissatisfied with Eilis's journey. I never felt terribly attached to her, perhaps owing to the fact that she doesn't really ever open herself up. It's certainly not that I didn't like the novel, because in fact I couldn't put it down, but that I wanted more for Eilis. I think it almost read like a very long short story, where it felt like it could end at any moment and I wouldn't have felt any differently. I am the first to admit my disliking of short stories, and so this certainly influences how I read the book. I am torn! I wanted to love this book as my friends seemed to, but I can't say that I did.
What I did really love was thinking about how I would have loved to have read this book when I was in college. I wrote my senior thesis on Irish diaspora, and this book is just ripe with it! Finding your way as an Irish person in a different country, then the return to Ireland as someone who is now Americanized and other, oh my I would have delved into this novel so deeply!
I definitely would recommend this book to anyone, it was a sweet story, and I really loved the writing and look forward to reading more by Toibin. It is not gritty and deep, but rather a nice journey with Eilis as she comes of age and discovers herself, and is a great look into at least a slice of Irish life in the 1950's.
Friday, February 3, 2012
Book Review: Paper Towns by John Greene
Sweet, I finished 4 books in January! Off to a good start, and I have thoroughly enjoyed all of them so far. Paper Towns is a young adult novel that has been on my list for quite some time, and came highly recommended by a number of coworkers. As luck would have it, I found a copy hanging out at my library last week, and I nabbed it up along with about 5 other books I am excited to dive into!
This is a great coming of age novel about a senior high school boy who has always had a thing for his mysterious next door neighbor, who happens to rule the school. Quentin, or "Q" as his friends call him, is a fringe player on the high school stage, he has friends but isn't popular, and is smart and quiet and ready to go to college and grow up. Margo, meanwhile, is the most popular girl in school, with a propensity for disappearing for days at a time, leaving "clues" to her whereabout that her parents never were able to interpret.
One night, Margo shows up at Q's window, demanding that he come with her on a night of adventure and intrigue. Though hesitant, Q can't resist the idea of a whole night with Margo, and ultimately has one of the best nights of his life.
Margo promptly disappears. What follows is the story of Q and his friends trying to track her down by a series of clues she has left in her wake, and what happens when you stop thinking about someone for the way the project themselves to be, and really step in their shoes. Q has to stop putting Margo on a pedestal to find her, and has to challenge how he interacts with all the people in his life.
It is a good read, though I probably would have enjoyed it a lot more several years ago when I was closer in age to the characters. I really liked how Greene lets his characters face very real problems and situations with candidness and realism, rather than anything terribly over the top and fraught. It is very true to life.
This is a great coming of age novel about a senior high school boy who has always had a thing for his mysterious next door neighbor, who happens to rule the school. Quentin, or "Q" as his friends call him, is a fringe player on the high school stage, he has friends but isn't popular, and is smart and quiet and ready to go to college and grow up. Margo, meanwhile, is the most popular girl in school, with a propensity for disappearing for days at a time, leaving "clues" to her whereabout that her parents never were able to interpret.
One night, Margo shows up at Q's window, demanding that he come with her on a night of adventure and intrigue. Though hesitant, Q can't resist the idea of a whole night with Margo, and ultimately has one of the best nights of his life.
Margo promptly disappears. What follows is the story of Q and his friends trying to track her down by a series of clues she has left in her wake, and what happens when you stop thinking about someone for the way the project themselves to be, and really step in their shoes. Q has to stop putting Margo on a pedestal to find her, and has to challenge how he interacts with all the people in his life.
It is a good read, though I probably would have enjoyed it a lot more several years ago when I was closer in age to the characters. I really liked how Greene lets his characters face very real problems and situations with candidness and realism, rather than anything terribly over the top and fraught. It is very true to life.
Wednesday, January 25, 2012
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
My first book group title review! Every month, a few of my girlfriends and I get together to chat about a book we all read, taking turns bringing selections each month. We've been meeting for nearly 2 years, and it has been one of the best ways of expanding my reading horizons. We all have pretty different tastes, so it's fun to try out a book that I wouldn't normally pick up.
Henrietta Lacks is a perfect example, a science book that I have looked at a lot but never really felt pulled toward it. I don't read much nonfiction, and particularly science titles since I often don't understand what the subject is about! However, the author Rebecca Skloot does a marvelous job of marrying the topic of cells and gene and human tissues as property with the story of the Lacks family. Henrietta Lacks was a Baltimore African American woman in the 1950's; mother of 5, generous, beautiful, and vivacious, who in her early 30's is stricken with a heinously aggressive form of cervical cancer. Her doctor took a sample of her cancer cells, without consent, and makes the world-altering discovery that her cells can grow outside of the body, something that hadn't been done before. The discovery leads to all kinds of advances in science in medicine, including a key role in the polio vaccine, and a multibillion dollar industry of cell production for research. Her family, meanwhile, has no idea of the role her cells, called Hela cells, have played, and struggle to even pay basic doctors fees for the myriad health issues that plague them. This is the story of how Skloot manages to gain the family's trust to tell the story of their mother after years of people either keeping them in the dark, or trying to take advantage of them.
Skloot manages to make the science portions of the book completely riveting and accessible, and the narrative of the Lacks family into one in which you have to root for them. You want everything to turn out well, they are such characters! Her children are all very interesting, each with their own struggles dealing with the whole situation that grew out the death of their mother when they were quite young. I highly recommend this book, and it will certainly make you question where your rights to your body tissues lie. It is a quick read despite its length. My whole book group really enjoyed reading this, it was nice to get together and discuss what feelings it brought up for each of us.
Henrietta Lacks is a perfect example, a science book that I have looked at a lot but never really felt pulled toward it. I don't read much nonfiction, and particularly science titles since I often don't understand what the subject is about! However, the author Rebecca Skloot does a marvelous job of marrying the topic of cells and gene and human tissues as property with the story of the Lacks family. Henrietta Lacks was a Baltimore African American woman in the 1950's; mother of 5, generous, beautiful, and vivacious, who in her early 30's is stricken with a heinously aggressive form of cervical cancer. Her doctor took a sample of her cancer cells, without consent, and makes the world-altering discovery that her cells can grow outside of the body, something that hadn't been done before. The discovery leads to all kinds of advances in science in medicine, including a key role in the polio vaccine, and a multibillion dollar industry of cell production for research. Her family, meanwhile, has no idea of the role her cells, called Hela cells, have played, and struggle to even pay basic doctors fees for the myriad health issues that plague them. This is the story of how Skloot manages to gain the family's trust to tell the story of their mother after years of people either keeping them in the dark, or trying to take advantage of them.
Skloot manages to make the science portions of the book completely riveting and accessible, and the narrative of the Lacks family into one in which you have to root for them. You want everything to turn out well, they are such characters! Her children are all very interesting, each with their own struggles dealing with the whole situation that grew out the death of their mother when they were quite young. I highly recommend this book, and it will certainly make you question where your rights to your body tissues lie. It is a quick read despite its length. My whole book group really enjoyed reading this, it was nice to get together and discuss what feelings it brought up for each of us.
Wednesday, January 4, 2012
Reading List 2012
Two years ago I decided to try to read 52 books in a year. I met that goal and exceeded it by a few, but by the end of the year I was tired both of reading and keeping track. So last year I didn't write down what I read at all, and probably only read 20 books. I'm disappointed that I didn't keep track, and have had a few friends mention that they liked seeing what I was reading and had used it for book inspiration for themselves. So, I am reinstating the book log for 2012! However, I am not setting a reading goal for number of books consumed, but instead would like to say a little bit about the book as I finish and hopefully that will be a happy medium for me!
Started in 2011, but finished yesterday is my first book of the year, Case Histories by Kate Atkinson. This is the second novel I have read by Atkinson, and I must say, I think I am an official devotee to her writing. The novel follows 3 different cold cases in Great Britain from 1970's to the 1990's, each of which is connected through a series of dots by Private Investigator Jackson Brodie. It is a mystery novel, but without the suspense and angst that I often feel overwhelms excellent prose. Atkinson at once draws you into the mystery of each case, while also developing increasingly interesting characters. I thoroughly enjoyed this novel, with the exception of one case that she doesn't develop nearly as thoroughly as the other two. It also wraps up entirely too quickly for my taste, but beyond that, it was simply a really good read. I would highly recommend it to anyone looking for a mystery with a little more depth that the usual cat and mouse. It was also made into a television series, which has promptly gone onto my Netflix queue!
Started in 2011, but finished yesterday is my first book of the year, Case Histories by Kate Atkinson. This is the second novel I have read by Atkinson, and I must say, I think I am an official devotee to her writing. The novel follows 3 different cold cases in Great Britain from 1970's to the 1990's, each of which is connected through a series of dots by Private Investigator Jackson Brodie. It is a mystery novel, but without the suspense and angst that I often feel overwhelms excellent prose. Atkinson at once draws you into the mystery of each case, while also developing increasingly interesting characters. I thoroughly enjoyed this novel, with the exception of one case that she doesn't develop nearly as thoroughly as the other two. It also wraps up entirely too quickly for my taste, but beyond that, it was simply a really good read. I would highly recommend it to anyone looking for a mystery with a little more depth that the usual cat and mouse. It was also made into a television series, which has promptly gone onto my Netflix queue!
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