Whine & Cheese

The Diary Of A Young Girl (#10)

It's been a pretty typical week with posts about Dancing With The Stars and American Idol... and here we make a pretty odd transition to a book post about Nazi Germany and the Holocaust...

... and arguably (or not!) the most famous memoirs of all time, The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank.   If you keep track of what I am reading via my sidebar icon, I am sure a few of you thought this was a curious book choice.  But the reason I read it lies in the name of the last book I read... Amsterdam.   While I am sure I knew it at some point (again my mind tends to be cluttered with stuff like who danced a samba on DWTS two seasons ago or the lyrics to a one-hit wonder from the 1980s), it wasn't until I started researching our upcoming Europe trip that I recalled that the Franks lived, went into hiding, and were ultimately captured by the Nazis in Amsterdam. The Anne Frank House is the most visited destination in the city and it is certainly at the top of our list.

Like many of you I am sure, I first read a version of the diary in school.  But it is certainly worth a re-read.  As an "adult" I have a better knowledge of WWII and the Holocaust... and likewise, more definitive versions of the diary have been published.  I'm guessing the "school" versions of book likely do not include Anne's budding sexuality or, even a surprise to me, a very short discussion of the female anatomy. 

While the memoir would have been amazing just from a historical angel , this is still a very personal story of a young girl (written from age 13 thru 15) who, under extraordinary conditions, still has many of the same struggles as any teenager... tenuous relations with her parents (particularly her mother) and sister, a budding romance in the secret annex, and wondering what life would bring her. 

While we know how it all ends (Anne died of typhus at Bergen-Belsen, just a month prior to the concentration camp's liberation), there is still considerable tension in the story as the Annex residents dodge some close-calls... and as the pages dwindled, there was still this foreboding sense that it will just end.

Anne writes "I still believe in spite of everything that people are really good at heart" ... while heartbreaking, also quite an inspiration... the diary is a testament to the triumph of the human spirit... with Anne's words and story living on and on...

2008 1-2-3-4-5 Reading Challenge: + 341 Pages (Total: 3,474 pages - Finished: 4/14/2008)
-179 pages ahead of pace (-200 change in pace since last book).

Amsterdam (#9)

As usual, I am a bit backed up on my reading/book posts.  I am starting to get into a bit of theme with my recent reads as our trip to Europe approaches...

... and since it is one of our destinations, it made sense to read Ian McEwan's Amsterdam.  Or I should say re-read?!   I read this one a couple of years back.  I am pretty sure Amsterdam was my first venture with McEwan and he has yet to disappoint me... Atonement was my first book of this reading year... and Saturday was the W&C Book of the Year (Fiction) in 2006.

I say pretty sure... since this re-read certainly proved my shaky memory when it comes to me and books.  I don't know if it's an age thing (can I hyper-link any more in this post?!?) or just that I read a good number of books it is the brain/memory capacity just isn't there... or else my uncanny ability to recall song titles and artists from the 1980s is taking up all my cranial space.  The good thing about this phenomena is that given my ever-growing library, I will always have something "new" to read!

Fortunately, the one thing I did remember about the book is that it is only briefly set in Amsterdam.  Now that sounds like it would shoot a big 'ole hole in my desire to read something about where we're going strategy... but alas the bulk of the novel (or more accurately, at under 200 pages, novella) takes place in London which, conveniently enough, is our first vacation stop.

The novel opens with the untimely death of Molly Lane.  At the funeral, we meet two friends and former lovers of Molly, Clive and Vernon, who tangle a bit with Molly's widower George and soon learn of her interesting relationship with Julian Garmony, a right-winger tabbed to be Britain's next prime minister.  The friendship becomes strained as both make some bad decisions ... and well... to say anything more would not be wise or nice of me!   

But I will say, I have crowned McEwan the king of the "downward spiral."  Once his characters make that leap (or sometimes just a hop) over to the dark side of the moral fence, things generally don't go very well.  If you are looking for happy endings, I suggest you look elsewhere.

2008 1-2-3-4-5 Reading Challenge: + 190 Pages (Total: 3,133 pages - Finished: 3/29/2008)
+21 pages ahead of pace (+21 change in pace since last book).

Then We Came to the End (#8)

I have been a bit negligent in keeping up with my reading/book posts... but then again, I have been a bit negligent in reading in general.  While still having a quite respectable pages read per day tally, it's going to be a real challenge to meet this year's self-imposed reading goal.

And it's also going to be a challenge "discussing" this book as I finished it several weeks ago.  It is evidence of my short-term memory loss, especially when it comes to books.  We'll talk about that phenomenon a bit more with the next book post.  But Book #8 of the 2008 was Joshua Ferris' Then We Came To The End.

Ferris' debut novel earned a place on my "to do" list thanks to making several "best of"/year-end lists last year and was also a finalist for the National Book Award.  If squint at the graphic to the left, you can probably guess it is an office place comic novel... more specifically taking place in a Chicago ad agency at the turn of the millennium and at the beginning of what becomes of big wave of massive layoffs... and thus the somewhat ominous title.

Their is a smart/hip-ness to the novel pretty much from the start (just don't think it's a literary version of The Office) as Ferris employs (ha!) a quite odd and challenging first-person plural narrator... so it is a quite foggy "we" that tells the story (for the most part).  But for anyone who has ever worked in an office you are quite aware of that special group (i.e. "us" vs. them) entity... as we weave a tale of personal tragedies, office pranks and the rumor mill, and oodles of odd personalities.

The novel is quite brilliant at times... take the opener:

We were fractious and overpaid. Our mornings lacked promise.  At least those of us who smoked had something to look forward to at ten-fifteen.  Most of us liked everyone, a few of us hated specific individuals, one or two people loved everyone and everything.  Those who loved everyone were unanimously reviled.

But ultimately, I found it all to be a bit indulgent and pretentious... and as is often the case, I succumbed to to the hype and it didn't quite meet my expectations.  As always, I always kind of feel bad about that as I should be going into a book with the proverbial blank slate... but then again, if it wasn't for the hype I wouldn't have read it in the first place.  A lot hinges on what one thinks of the narrative/tonal shift that occurs about 60% into the book.  That's where I wasn't quite sure what it was thinking or where it was headed... and it's not like I didn't like that part of the book... but it was was off-putting... but then again, I guess that's life, changing on the dime.

Ultimately it become one of the those book where I liked the parts more than the whole.

2008 1-2-3-4-5 Reading Challenge: + 383 Pages (Total: 2,943 pages - Finished: 3/24/2008)
0 pages ahead of pace (-91 change in pace since last book).

Pride and Prejudice (#6)

Back to unfinished book business... for convenience sake, last week I did a combo entry about both reading The Color Purple and seeing the musical (again)... and I promised to get back to Book #6 of 2008... and today is your lucky day!

Every so often, I try to read a classic.  Sometimes I am more than pleasantly surprised (Tolstoy's Anna Karenina?!?), other times I am not. Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice was the latter.

Now, it wasn't that it was a bad book... having certainly stood the test of time, I could certainly grasp the merit of the book... but ultimately, for me, I think it was just a case of the wrong book at the wrong time.  I had been flying along in my reading challenge (over 1,400 pages in January!) and here was a book that forced you to slow down... slow way down. 

I just opened the book to a random page and here's an example of one sentence:

To Elizabeth it appeared that, had her family made an agreement to expose themselves as much as they could during the evening, it would have been impossible for them to play their parts with more spirit or finer success; and happy did she think it for Bingley and her sister that some of the exhibition had escaped his notice, and that his feelings were not of a sort to be much distressed by folly which he must have witnessed.

After typing that out, I wouldn't say this was a typical sentence... it certainly doesn't roll easily off the tongue, so to speak... but it is an good example of the rhythm of the book, and I assume, Austen in general.  Good stuff, but not easy reading... again, perhaps just for me. 

The main reason I read this is that I had never read anything by Jane Austen... and it seemed like I should have by now.  And who hasn't know of this book?!  I'm guessing people even have heard of the lead characters, the pluckyElizabeth "Lizzie" Bennet and the object of her hate/love, Mr.Darcy.  Also, a motivation was a chance to "read the book, see the movie"... PBS has recently been airing The Complete Jane Austen on Masterpiece (it's just Masterpiece now, they've dropped the "Theater" tag)... part of this series was what many believe is the definitive film version of Pride, a 6-hour mini-series starring a young-ish Colin Firth that was produced by the BBC (I believe) and originally aired here in the States on A&E.

Since I was having such a hard time, I decided to start watching the mini-series (just up to the parts I had not read, of course!)... just to make sure I was "getting" it.  Sure enough, I wasn't missing any plot points, just struggling with the language.  It's all very prim and proper and English (and okay, stuffy)... pretty much the stereotype of what you would think would be on PBS/Masterpiece Theater.

Ultimately, I respected the book but didn't enjoy it... which kind of sounds like the expectation one would have going in and reading a "classic." 

I would certainly recommend the mini-series... and I am also curious to see the most recent big-screen version with Keira Knightley as Lizzie (though Jennifer Ehle in the mini-series was superb!)... so if I am still interested in seeing another version of Austen's work, I guess the book could not have been that bad.

Needless to say, Pride landed a big 'ole left hook to my reading challenge... the fairly slim 281-page book took me a whopping 18 days to get through (including 4 days "off")... and while granted it was a short month even with the leap day... my February tally of total pages read was 600 pages less than what I had read in January (which granted was an insane amount of reading).

Since then, my page surplus/lead has evaporated and I am pretty much right on pace to reach my goal... but I have yet to read a book this year that has really knocked my socks off.

2008 1-2-3-4-5 Reading Challenge: + 281 Pages (Total: 2,273 pages - Finished: 2/28/2008)
176 pages ahead of pace (-294 change in pace since last book).

Express Lane: Issue 47

Dutch To Legalise Gay Sex in Public Park - Who needs the hetero-centric Red Light District when you have the rose garden at Amsterdam's Vondelpark!  But there are some "rules":  evening hours only, pick up your condoms, and not around the playground areas please. (3/19/08)

'Scrubs' Star Meets 'How I Met Your Mother' - Perhaps Sarah Chalke will distract me from the potential 'jump the shark' stunt-casting of Britney Spears in the same March 24th episode of one of my sitcom faves. (3/12/08)

'No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency' Gets HBO Green Light - As a big fan of the Alexander McCall Smith books, very happy to see HBO picking up its move to the small screen with Jill Scott heading the cast as Mma Ramotswe. (3/10/08)

The Color Purple (#7)

This post is a two-fer... a "book" post and a "musical theater" post... how exciting, huh?!   Given the special circumstances, you'll also have to forgive me for jumping my book queue... I still owe you book #6, but we'll get back it... I promise!  (Are those cheers or groans I am hearing off in the distance!)

I decided to read (actually re-read, but since I originally read it in the 1980s it pretty much doesn't count) Alice Walker's The Color Purple in preparation of seeing the musical again.  We had seen it on Broadway while in NYC last June and the show is currently in the middle of a two-week stint here in AZ.

I won't spend too much time talking about the book.  If you haven't read it, I am sure many folks are familiar with the film version... but I would certainly rank it as a contemporary classic.  I think published in 1982 and "in my lifetime" qualifies as contemporary.  It is a quick and easy read as the story is told via prayers to God or letters between protagonist Celie and her sister Nettie.  While the film and stage versions do their best to bring this aspect of the novel into their medium... one of the things that makes the book great is this method, which can only be achieved through reading... or perhaps even listening to the audio book (I assume there is one).   

Onto the musical... which we saw again this past Friday night.  We loved it on Broadway, so was curious to see how it would stand up on a second viewing and without the reason we saw it the first time... the "born to play the role" Fantasia as Celie. 

I am happy to report it stood up just fine as it was quite a good cast... often with these touring productions we get C-listers at best... but not so here... as Celie, Jeannette Bayardelle understudied the role on Broadway.... the original Broadway Sofia, Felicia Fields was quite the crowd pleaser... and the show boasted two household-ish names... LaToya London as Nettie (one of my faves from Season 3 of American Idol) and Michelle Williams of Destiny's Child as Shug Avery.  For us, Bayardelle was in an impossibly tough position of the night... there was little (or I should say... nothing) she could do in our eyes to eclipse Fantasia... but she took the role/songs in different directions and did quite a good job... but it's a pretty darn good role for anyone... even the original (pre-Fantasia) Broadway Celie, LaChanze, won the lead actress in a musical Tony.

So simply put... read the book... see the show if it comes through your town (it recently ended its Broadway run)... and if the rumored movie musical comes to be, make sure to catch that as well!

2008 1-2-3-4-5 Reading Challenge: + 287 Pages (Total: 2,560 pages - Finished: 3/10/2008)
91 pages ahead of pace (-85 change in pace since last book).

Express Lane: Issue 46

Will Fantasia Star in Film of 'The Color Purple' Musical? - Yes, according to Fantasia... who says the movie turned musical to be turned movie musical will get underway once she wraps a new album and tour. (3/7/08)

Mario Lopez Will Be A Chorus Line's Next Zach - This Broadway debut seems kinda of a waste -- particularly in the adorable dimple department -- as the role is described as "mostly-unseen god-like director (heard on mic for most of the show)." (3/4/08)

Phoenix Strip Club: 'Idol' Once Danced Here - Blogosphere rumblings of David Hernandez's 3-year stint as a stripper for "mostly male" clientèle hits the mainstream media today... will be interesting to see how Idol handles this one. (3/4/08)

Pascal and Rapp Will Tour in 'Rent' in 2009 - With the show soon ending its 12 year run on Broadway, the original (and film versions of) Roger & Mark are taking their act out on the road. (2/29/08)

NBC, ABC Tussle Over 'Scrubs' - Wasn't I just thinking the show wouldn't have a SERIES finale due to the writers' strike... now it seems the ratings-challenged show may have another season on a new network. (2/29/08)

Montecito Resort Closes Its Doors - There goes my steady Josh Duhamel fix!  NBC folds on any post-strike episodes for its kitschy "Las Vegas"... the show ends just short of 5 seasons and with a "to be continued" cliffhanger... I guess we'll never know the fate of Danny & Delinda's unborn baby. (2/27/08)

Photo Gives Face to Anne Frank's "one true love" - Definitely have renewed interest in Anne and her diary ahead of our trip to Amsterdam which will very, very likely include a visit to the Franks' house. (2/27/08)

Adam fired for "[causing] tremendous damage to" the United Autism Foundation - The Big Brother 9 contestant finds himself out of a job after telling his fellow hamsters (on Day 1 no less!) that he works with 'retards.' (2/26/08)

Election (#5)

On yet another Super Tuesday, it seems only appropriate that I get around to my book blog post for...   

... Tom Perrotta's Election.  One of my last, and enjoyable, reads of last year's was Perrotta's Little Children which I figured would be hitting HBO (it briefly did last month!), but while looking for I also saw that the movie version of Election was on regular rotation on Showtime.  Since I had never seen that 1999 movie either, I recorded it and made it one of my first new book purchases of this year.

I am sure many of you are familiar with the novel thanks to the film.  The story centers around the election of high school president... with the ambitious Tracy's inevitable victory thwarted by a teacher ("Mr. M") who anonymously enlists well-liked jock Paul to enter the race.  (There's a bit more going on, but I'll leave it at that.)  The movie provided Reese Witherspoon her break-out role as the over-achieving Tracy... with Matthew Broderick as teacher Jim McAllister and Chris Klein (who had his own break-out with American Pie that same year) as Paul.

As with Little Children, Perrotta excels at exploring the underbelly of surburbia and with a good does of humor... again the easiest way / Hollywood pitch to describe Perrotta's work is Desperate Housewives-ish... keeping in mind that Perrotta pre-dates Wisteria Lane.  I blew through this one in absolutely no time.  It's really more of a novella... if I had really wanted to, I likely could have read it in one sitting (ok, probably two).

Published back in 1998, Perrotta likely never would have imagined the parallels between this book and the Democratic race for the presidency a decade later.  Now it's not totally the same, but it was pretty hard not to have a sly smile on my face when while reading this:

Tracy (internal thought): Until Paul entered the race, I was running unopposed.  People understood that I deserved to win.  They didn't necessarily like me, but they respected my qualifications.

Tracy:  I asked you a simple question, Paul. Or do you expect me to believe that you just woke up this morning and decided to run for President?

Paul: I've been thinking about it for a long time

Tracy: You're not a good liar, Paul... I've been working toward this for three years and if you think you can just jump in at the last minute and take it away from me, you're sorely mistaken.

Paul (internal thought):  It's funny.  She was trying to show me she wasn't scared, but the message I got was exactly the opposite.  For the first time, I actually believed I might be able to win.  (Aloud to Tracy) Well, I guess we'll just have to let the voters decide.

Pretty funny, huh?  Overall, an easy, enjoyable and entertaining read.

2008 1-2-3-4-5 Reading Challenge: + 200 Pages (Total: 1,992 pages - Finished: 2/10/2008)
470 pages ahead of pace (+65 change in pace since last book).

The Time Traveler's Wife (#4)

Before this blog likely turns back to the cheese of American Idol for the next couple of days, figured it was time to play catch-up (yet again!) with the book stuff... 

As I mentioned yesterday, I am struggling quite a bit with my current book... but we'll save that discussion when we get to it... but back in late January-early February I was on cruise control (and at 80mph at that!)... and Audrey Niffenegger's The Time Traveler's Wife was one of the reasons why ... averaging over 45 pages a day.   Full disclosure: very short chapters/breaks, biggish print, and some empty space -- but still pretty darn good if I do say so myself. 

This was one of the books that I had seen pretty much every time I went to a bookstore.  It's been a staple on the paperback fiction bestseller list, but judging a book by its cover I dismissed it as "chick lit"... though as I have said time and again, that doesn't necessarily exclude it from my reading list.   

Then there was the title... as you can guess, if you are not willing to keep an open mind and suspend all belief... this is not the book for you.  Again, that is not necessarily an issue for me... but it was another reason for my initial hesitation.  Still I was interested in it (or curious why it was so popular)...  put it on my "wish list" just as a "maybe"... and, much to my surprise, Mom remembered I had that list (which I hadn't used in years, at least for gift giving suggestions) and bought it for me for Christmas.

I was glad she did.... but another friendly warning is that this is very much one of those "trick"/gimmick novels.  "Gimmick" tends to viewed negatively, but again it all depends on how much of on open mind/suspend belief you can tolerate in that department as well.  In this sense, it kind of reminded me of The Curious Incident of the Dog in th Night-Time... where the concept kind of trumps the writing.  While Curious Incident got us in the mind of an autistic child, Time Traveler is often mind blowing as the lead character, Henry travels back and forth to the past, present, and future within a matter of pages.   Like Mark Haddon's Curious, this is also Niffenegger's first novel.  I suspect she will have similar issues (well to me, at least) in following up such a spectacular, original work. 

I was kinda right in thinking the book was "chick lit."  There is a epic romance of sorts as Henry does meet his titular (that always sounds so dirty) wife Clare while time traveling and when she is a mere child.  Henry comes to her at different ages ... for example, she can be age 12 and he'll come to her at age 32... the next time, she may be 13 and he'll be 27.... and likewise, in what eventually becomes the "present" he only learns new things about Clare when he gets there... like in my example, if they had a discussion when she was 12, he won't be aware of it until he is 32 in the "present".... see what I meant about mind boggling!!!   I won't give too much else away... there are some nice time travel oriented surprises (at least to me)... but no need to worry, Niffenegger masterfully executes all this and it is nowhere near as confusing as I just made it!

Given the book's success, it is no surprise that a big screen version has wrapped and is scheduled for a November 2008 release.  Again, I managed to avoid this news, so I had my own images in my head... but I think they did a pretty good job casting Eric Bana and Rachel MacAdams as the leads.  Henry's clothing doesn't time travel with him... so one can only hope they keep faithful to that part of the book with regards to yummy Bana.

2008 1-2-3-4-5 Reading Challenge: + 536 Pages (Total: 1,792 pages - Finished: 2/7/2008)
405 pages ahead of pace (+164 change in pace since last book).

Half Of A Yellow Sun (#3)

While I certainly read books to educate myself, most of the time it is for purely entertainment purposes.  But time and time again, I find myself reading a novel and thinking "Why didn't I know anything about this?"

Such was the case with Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.  The novel takes takes place in the 1960s during a Nigerian civil war and the ultimately unsuccessful attempt to create an independent republic called Biafra.  The back cover calls the Biafran War "a seminal moment in African history," but again, I shamefully plead ignorance, though I am guessing I'm not alone. 

(If you want to read more/are curious, I encourage you to check out the Wikipedia entry for Biafra which gives a good "cliffs notes" version of war.  Spoiler alert... it does give away how/where Adichie got the title for the novel.)

But if you are thinking you are not really interested in reading a book about war and genocide/ethnic cleansing, well there is a lot more going on in this book which takes place just over a decade... but has a very epic feel to it. 

The narrative shifts among five characters:  a young houseboy (Ugwu) to a university professor (Odenigbo) and his lover (Olanna)... her sister (Kainene) and her British lover (Richard).  And yes, it took me awhile to get used to those names.  But in addition to a history lesson, the novel is plentiful in other aspects... exploring issues of race, social class, and gender... sibling rivalry... politics.. love... betrayal.  A very ambitious work, all the more impressive considering Adichie was only 29 years old at publication of her second novel. 

In my continued attempt to not 100% gush in these reviews, I did find my attention/momentum flagging towards the last quarter of the book.  I can not confidently lie the blame with Adichie.  It's likely my own preferences.  Over time, I've discovered I am not a big fan of the "war novel" and the war aspect of the book does dramatically shift from backdrop to forefront.  Or it could just be a kink in all the reading I've done, I've been on a blistering pace, and even if I like a book, I can (and do!) get tired of the act of reading from time to time.

Overall, a recommended read coming from such a young/fresh voice.  Adichie won the 2007 Orange Broadband Prize, a UK prize awarded to a female author of a "written in English" novel, and was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award.  For my fellow readers, both lists are worth checking out.  It wasn't until after I finished this one, that I saw Sun was the 4th of the 5 NBCCA fiction finalists that I had recently read -- and all very good books (though the winner, The Inheritance of Loss, while still quite good was probably my least favorite of the bunch).

2008 1-2-3-4-5 Reading Challenge: + 541 Pages (Total: 1,246 pages - Finished: 1/27/2008)
241 pages ahead of pace (+101 since last book).

A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius (#2)

The 2nd book I read last year was Dave Eggers' What Is The What.  So when I was looking at my pile of "to be read" books for my 2nd book of this year... I figured, what the heck... why not go with Eggers again!?!

...and the book that put him on the literary map, his Pulitzer Prize nominated personal memoir... A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius.  This is another one of those books that had been on my radar for a loooonnng time... but as often happens, I procrastinate so long that the author comes out with another book... and rather than read the book that originally garnered my attention, I read the "new" one... and if I like the "new" book, I typically get back to the "old" book.  So here we are!

One problem in holding off on a book, particularly a buzz-worthy one, is that the raised expectations... and that's even taking into consideration that the book is self-described/titled as "staggering genius."  Can we say "hype?"  While I usually keep my "research" on a book to a minimum before reading a book, I knew enough about this one to know that folks either loved or hated it.  Being my wishy-washy self, I'm somewhere in the middle... but leaning towards "like." 

It's not giving much away to tell you the impetus of the story is the death of Eggers' parents, both to cancer within six months of each other.  The first quarter of the book are those final months in their childhood, Chicago suburb home... the rest, a young 20-something Eggers and siblings moving to California to start life anew. 

However, before getting into any of this, there is a rather lengthy introduction/prologue.  Breaking down the "fourth wall," Eggers speaks directly to the reader about what they are about to read.  It's all a bit self-indulgent and very cool/hip.  How one feels about this part of the book is a pretty good indicator of how one will feel about the entire work.  I enjoyed it to an extent, but after a while it got a bit "whatever"/"okay, okay I get it." 

I compare it to those reality show contestants that let the audience "in" that they're lying... so when they do lie, what is normally an unacceptable behavior is kinda fun and acceptable.  In this prologue, Eggers lets us in on some of the jokes.  In a pre-Oprah/James Frey world, he fesses up to the use of creative license... gives a tongue-in-cheek explanation for the book's title... and is so bold to tell readers that beyond page 123 "the book thereafter is kind of uneven."  So when the book does lose its focus, can you really fault Eggers?

All in all, it's an entertaining read even though I did not find myself relating to/empathizing with that 20-something "I'm gonna rule the world" bravado.  Ultimately, all of Eggers literary trickery and "hip"-pery do seem to unveil themselves as a defense mechanisms of sorts in dealing with the death of his parents and coming of age/finding himself... a tad over-hyped, though one can hardly blame Eggers for that.

(I know this is a pretty popular book.  Just two years after the publication of the book, the family experienced yet another tragedy... mentioned quite briefly in the "Life" section of Eggers' Wikipedia entry.)

2008 1-2-3-4-5 Reading Challenge: + 469 Pages (Total: 818 pages - Finished: 1/14/2008)
140 (+97 change) pages ahead of pace.

Atonement (#1)

Well, here we go again... a new year of books!  This book officially ends my unplanned "currently playing in a theater near you" trilogy.   While Kite Runner seems to have fallen off the award season radar, Best Picture nominations are heavily favored for No Country For Old Men and...

the Golden Globe winner for Best Drama... the film version of Ian McEwan's Atonement.  The funny thing about this one is that I myself pretty much convinced that I had already read it!  Having read a couple of his books, I have asserted that McEwan is one of the finest writers out there today... so much so that I awarded Saturday the high honor of W&C Fiction Novel of 2006.  So when the movie comes out, I don't feel the need to turn away from commercials or reviews for fear of being "spoiled"... after all, I had read the book!  But none of the plot, character names, or dialogue seem to be ringing the proverbial bell. 

I take the book off the shelf... read the back cover... read the first page or so... still nothing.  I am pretty delicate with my books... I  don't bend books wildly or "break" the spine... but it didn't take long to figure out by the feel of the book that it had never been read.  One of my quirks is really liking that new book feel... thus why I prefer to buy books... and buy them new... even if I don't read them for years and years (like this one!).

WARNING:  While I do not get into details... some of the below may be viewed as spoilers.

McEwan is master at examining life-changing moments... and usually ones that are not for the better.  The first part of Atonement takes place during one day on a schmancy estate in pre-WWII England.  In an act of jealousy and/or youthful misunderstanding, a young girl falsely accuses the son of a servant, who is in love with her old sister, of a crime against her visiting young cousin.  Accounting for nearly the first one-third of the book, the day unfolds in fascinating (or, depending on your opinion, excruciating) detail... from multiple perspectives and slightly overlapping time periods all leading up to false accusation and its immediate aftermath.  As hinted above, I have since read others' opinions of the book... and quite a few did not like this first part at all.  I absolutely loved it.  Sure a few pages basically telling me the matriarch of the family has migraines is perhaps overkill... but, as usual, I was bowled over by McEwan's amazing prose.

Where things lost me was the next section that took place during WWII.  I'll admit I am not a big fan of the war novel (one reason I didn't fully get into Suite Francaise).   As you can imagine, the folks that didn't like the first part, loved the second part.... for me, it was very difficult to get through this portion and it pretty much undid all the goodwill the book had built up thus far.  It got back onto the rails a bit in Part III... followed by a brief epilogue, taking place in the present day, that flips pretty much everything.

While I am not a fan of the last-minute flip (see The Double Bind), McEwan is a skillful enough of a writer to pull it off.  Whether or not I was thrilled by it and/or not made to feel like somewhat of a sucker... well, that's another story.  Post-reading research suggests that Atonement is McEwan's "masterpiece"... and likewise there appears to be a good probability that the big screen translation may be the Best Picture of the Year... but while quite good and no regrets, it is not my favorite McEwan novel.

The "info bar" you see below is re: my 2008 reading challenge to read 12,345 pages... if want to know what it all means, I am sparing the casual W&C reader and putting it "after the jump."

2008 1-2-3-4-5 Reading Challenge: + 246 Pages (Total: 246 pages -- Pace: +43 pages -- Change: 0)

2007: The Year In Books

Grab a drink, sit down, and get comfortable... this is a post that has been a year in the making!

Time for one more look back at the books of 2007... all part of my uber-successful Reading Challenge Goal to read 10,000 pages last year (Mission Truly Accomplished: 12,204 pages!).

Though, this year, I must read more divisible number of than 37.  There seemed to be no good way to do the below graphic without one or more of the book covers sticking out like the proverbially sore thumb... so I just relented with the 6 x 6 grid + 1!

If you want to see a bigger version of this graphic, I uploaded one over on Flickr.

By The Numbers:

37 - Number of Books Read
12,101 - Total Pages of Above Books (+103 pgs counted for '07/1st completed book of '08)
78% / 22% - Fiction vs. Non-Fiction
73% / 27% - Male vs. Female Authors
84% / 16% - Paperback vs. Hardcover
4 (11%) - Books Read Due To Oprah (The Road, Middlesex, Love In The Time of Cholera, Eat Pray Love)
4 - Authors Read More than One Book: Alexander McCall Smith (4), Nick Hornby (2), Cormac McCarthy (2), Khaled Hosseini (2)

As I always seem to say, it was a very good year for books.  But given time constraints, my selection process is pretty tough, so I would hope there would not be too many clunkers in the bunch!

(FYI, any of the book links below will go to my "review" of it)   

Given that there were so many good books... this year, I've added a "notables" category for all those books that aren't my runner-ups (one for non-fiction, two for fiction) or "book of the year."  If a book isn't listed below or "after the jump" it's still probably a pretty good book (due to the length of this entry, I am putting my "Not Best" books there... or at the end of the post for those reading this via RSS).

Non-Fiction Notables - Granted there were only 8 of them, but a tough call.  Any avid book reader (and more importantly... buyer!), will simply devour Nick Hornby's  book reading/purchasing essay collections, The Polysyllabic Spree and Housekeeping vs. The Dirt.  Similar in age and where we grew up, J.R. Moehringer's The Tender Bar certainly was an entertaining and enjoyable read.

Non-Fiction Runner-Up - Named, deservedly so, to many "best of" year-ends lists is Ishmael Beah's A Long Way Gone... a truly harrowing tale of surviving civil war in Sierra Leone... and comes out of it with optimism and faith in mankind.  (And, although fiction, for these very same reasons... I should also mention What Is The What, Dave Eggers' "truthy" memoir of Valentino Achek Deng's survival of the Darfur genocide and rocky new life in America).

Non-Fiction Book of the Year - While not an official book club selection, I had avoided the physical and spiritual travel memoir Eat, Pray, Love until the immensely likable Elizabeth Gilbert appeared on Oprah.  Even though it got a tad too new-agey for me at times, Gilbert never presents it in a judgmental manner -- in fact, quite the opposite with a lot of humor and charm.  After the James Frey fiasco, this wonderful story of restored my faith in the memoir genre.

******************************************************************************************

Fiction Notables - I thought I may have already had my book of the year with the very first one I read this year, Nicole Krauss' The History of Love... and now is likely only getting the "also ran" shaft due to my faulty memory.  I finally learned why Khaled Hosseini's The Kite Runner has been a best seller for years (and years!), though I found his follow-up A Thousand Splendid Suns to be a smidgen smoother - but both books I would recommend to anyone, even the non-everyday reader.  While not "literature," I was thrilled to read where my "friends" from Barbary Lane are doing now in Armistead Maupin's Michael Tolliver Lives (spoiler alert: Mouse is still alive!), I read this one way too fast.  If Little Children is any kind of barometer, I will certainly be reading more of Tom Perrotta's social/suburban satires... and the same for Gabriel Garcia Marquez who I finally read thanks to the Oprah pick of Love In The Time Of Cholera. Lastly, even I am a bit surprised that Jeffery Eugenides' gender-bending epic Middlesex and Carlos Ruis Zafon's thrilling The Shadow of the Wind are finishing outside my top 3... but, for sure, two of my favorites of the year.

Fiction Second Runner-Up - If I haven't hedged enough with all those fiction books listed above, I give you a Cormac McCarthy deadlock here... The Road and No Country For Old Men.  If you must force my hand, I'd give the edge to post-apocalyptic The Road which was my first exposure to McCarthy's stark, poetic, lyrical prose.  I will admit to not always "getting" McCarthy (and thus this second runner-up placing), but I am not sure my mind has the capacity to take the greatness in. Challenging reads, but in the very best way.

Fiction First Runner-Up - Jhumpa Lahiri's The Namesake was the best of both worlds... allowing me to play the book snob with some very fine writing and being entertaining/accessible enough to be able to recommend it with hardly a reservation.  With the country's emerging presence on the world scene, I've been try to learn more about the Indian (that's India, not Native American) culture... but hadn't had much luck finding something (a novel, Bollywood film) that I could embrace... until The Namesake.  I am going to do my best to find time for Lahiri's much acclaimed (and recommended!) short-story collection, Interpreter of Maladies, some time this year.

Fiction Book of the Year - Given all the books just listed, it seems like I am setting incredibly high expectations... so, keeping in mind, that if you'd ask me next week or month... the order of all these books probably would change... but after a week or so of brewing... my book of the year for 2007 is J.M. Coetzee's Disgrace.  Like McCarthy, Coetzee is a master of stark/simple prose (though, in my opinion, considerably more readable)... this tale of a middle-aged South African professor who heads off to visit his daughter after a voluntary dismissal from his teaching position packs a whallop with few words... or should I say precisely enough words.  This is not a happy or hopeful novel (and I recommend not reading the back cover or researching too much of what the book/plot is about beforehand) -- so tonally not for everyone -- but one that has swirled in around in the back of my mind since reading it in May.

Whew!  What a year!  I know I have mentioned way too many a lot of books... but I'd rather that be the case than the opposite... here's to more good books and all the time to read them!

(If you'd like to check out what made the cut last year, here's a link -- 2006: The Year In Books)

The Kite Runner (#37)

The last book of the 2007...

... and likely one of the most surprising!  Not that there's anything wrong with this particular book... but that I've have just read it now... for the first time (this isn't a re-read)!   Heck, I think my father -- who I am not sure I have ever seen hold a book in his hands -- has probably already read Khaled Hosseini's The Kite Runner by now!

I had tentatively planned on reading it after Todd read and raved about it back in the summer of 2005 (!!)... even then, it had been out for awhile... but a few months passed and Todd's Mom was interested, so we loaned it out and then it was loaned out again, and so on and so on.  I figured I would get back to it eventually (the story of me and many a book!)...

In the interim, Hosseini wrote and published his second book, A Thousand Splendid Suns, instead of a re-purchase of Kite, I figured to give this one a try.  If I liked it, I could go back... Todd, being of fan of Kite, said he would read Suns as well... thus justifying the hardcover purchase (What am I saying? I don't justify book purchases!). Long story... well, long... I liked Suns (as did Todd, though longer story... we had to buy another copy of that book... ha!).  Fast-forward to about a month ago and Todd giving me the guilt trip about not being able to see the film version of The Kite Runner because I still hadn't read the book... so it was buy it, read it... stat!

With being so late to the party on this one, I don't think there is much I can say.  It was a wonderful book and easy to see why everyone has already read it.  I certainly think it will be a book that people will still be reading for years (decades!) to come -- a modern classic.  And given the continuing troubles in Afghanistan, it certainly puts a human face on what many people view as enemy territory.  I had managed to stay, amazingly enough, unspoiled enough to not realize how much of an epic tale this is -- stretching decades and around the globe... and the American/immigrant experience part favorably reminded me of one of my favorite books of this past year, The Namesake... though that's about it, otherwise they are very different books/stories.

To avoid making this a total gush-fest,  I believe that Hosseini (who, having recently seen him in TV interview for the KR movie, is kinda hot) improved with Suns.  Not the story per se, but just a bit "cleaner" writing and better pacing... and without some of the wild coincidences and conveniences that are a part of Kite.  Now, this could just be because I read the books in "reverse"... but still it's a compliment.  As I said in my Suns review, Hosseini is clearly a gifted story-teller and while certainly a nice niche, it would be interesting if he comes out with a novel not centered in Afghanistan.  I think he can and I would certainly read it.

So that's it for 2007!  37 books... technically, 37.3333 books since I read 103 pages of Atonement (I'm on a book to "currently at your local movie theater" trilogy here!)... bringing my final tally of 12,204 pages in the 10k reading challenge.  BTW, Atonement will be my first book of the year and the balance of the pages will count towards this year's reading goal (I'm very honest!) of 12,345 pages!

There be one last piece of business before we close the book (ha!) on the 2007 books... my 2nd Annual Book wrap-up, where I try to come up with my winners (and losers) of the year.  My plan is to get that posted next week... then it's time to start all over again!

2007 10K Reading Challenge:  + 371 pages (Total Pages: 12101 pages) 

12,204

Last night marked the final night of my personal challenge to read 10,000 pages in 365 days/nights.

I reached that goal at the end of October, but kept plowing on... even to the very last night... staying up fairly late (well, for me... I won't embarrass myself and tell you what qualifies as "late" 10:40pm).

I guess I should end the suspense (because the "title"of the post and the graphic to the left is not enough)...

The final tally is ... 12,204 pages !!!

Which, even for us non-math whizzes, is an easy to figure out 22% (22.04%!) over the goal!

Considering I read just over 8,000 pages in 2006, I thought a 10k challenge would be... well, challenging!   

But not reaching the 10k goal was never in danger.  I sprinted out to a 13k+ pace early in the year and don't think I ever dipped below 12k... even as the days off started to pile up (ironically enough, some people only read on vacations... but trips to NJ/NY, Colorado, and Vegas were responsible for my biggest blocks of days off... which is totally fine with me... if travel is the reason for less reading... than let's have less reading!)

Given this final number of pages, I was considering what next year's goal should be.... two of my ideas ended up being pretty similar -- the "read more than last year" and the numerically pleasing "12345" page challenge -- so I am going to go with the latter... even though I am not sure how I am going to reach it, since I felt I read as much as I possibly could this past year... but I guess that would make it [gasp!] a challenge!

But this year's reading business is not done just quite yet.  I "owe" you one more book read in 2007... and then there's my big recap of the reading year, where I dole out my "best of" lists, etc.  So stay tuned... and then we're onto my 2008 1-2-3-4-5 Challenge... and, don't worry, I'm ditching the thermometer graphic!

Happy (Reading) New Year!

No Country For Old Men (#36)

Time for the next to last (penultimate!) book review-ish post of 2007.  Finished up my last book of the year last night and while I have two more days/nights to start a new book and add to my page count... the final tally of books will be... 37!  I, for one, am pretty impressed (last year it was 25 books)... though I won't get into how many of those books were on the slim side (okay, 8 of them were approximately/only 200-ish pages).

A big motivation for me to read a particular book is to do so before seeing the movie version of it.  For various reasons, we really don't get out to the movie theater these days.  Nevertheless, I am still anxious to read a book so that I have my own visuals in my head... and also to avoid any plot spoilers.  So when No Country For Old Men, the movie, started winning some critics awards (usually a prelude to Oscar nods), I decided that the original work by Cormac McCarthy needed to be moved up the reading list... and quickly!   

Always intending, but having never read anything by McCarthy prior to this year, I ended up being quite impressed with the Oprah-picked The Road back in April... so in addition to the movie, this gave me another McCarthy reading opportunity... which again I intended, but didn't quite expect to do so soon (that is, read two of his books in the same calendar year).

The spoiler-free, book-in-a-nutshell synopsis... a man stumbles across a bloody massacre, the result of a botched drug deal.  He take a sizable amount of money from the scene... triggering a series of often violent events as he becomes a man on the run... not only the law but a psychopathic killer looking for the cash.

With the exception of books I've read in the horror genre (which hasn't been in the last decade or so... or more), this had to be one of the most violent books I've read... made me think I wasn't too sure if I wanted to see the movie... except, of course, that it is directed by the Coen Brothers, who have proven to be masters of the violence... in the most artistic way... with movies like Blood Simple and Fargo.  While I have read some criticism that this book was basically written as a screenplay (which I find hard to believe given McCarthy's reclusive nature), it couldn't have been in better hands than those of Joel and Ethan Coen. It's no wonder that it is being talked up for awards and has made most of the "best films of the year" lists that I've seen thus far.

It is easy to see why McCarthy is viewed as one of this country's greatest living writers.  As with The Road, his prose is deceptively simple... but it is a complex and challenging read.  It's easy to find yourself reading it quickly... and that pacing-wise, it is a true page turner.... but I will freely admit to getting lost a few times. An Amazon reviewer summed it up perfectly, so I will just quote him (here's a link to the review... but a warning that this review does contain plot spoilers!)

If you like your conflicts fully resolved, you may want to look elsewhere; if you're bothered by unconventional punctuation, you may be irritated by this book; if you despise jump cuts and point of view shifts, you may find yourself rereading sections of this book to catch your bearings. Otherwise, however, you may find this one of the most original books you've read in years.

That pretty much sums it up... and oh, you are not going to get a clue that the novel gets its name from a line of the Yeats poem called Sailing to Byzantium.  I am pretty sure that would not have enhanced my reading experience to any degree if I had known that beforehand... but there you go!   If you haven't figured it out, I don't rate my reading experiences based on use of literary references, symbolism and all that other lit-class exam criteria... so, the above is not meant as a deterrence...

It's a very good read... just with some caveats.

2007 10K Reading Challenge:  + 307 pages (Total Pages: 11730 pages) 

Bel Canto (#35)

We're down to single digits left on my year-long reading challenge... so it's time to get going on these book posts.  I should be slowing down... but I seem to be doing just the opposite... thinking I will have two more books for you this year (or at least that were read and will "count" for this year).
 

Today's book post is Ann Patchett's Bel Canto.  I can't tell you how many times this book had been in my hands in a book store and put back down.  Years ago, I had read (and liked) a Patchett book, The Magician's Assistant, and this one even had more buzz about it... so I was fairly confident I would like it... it just never got purchased.  But alas thanks to the always sinister "Buy 3 for the Price of 2" offer at Borders it finally slipped in and got on my "to be read" pile.

Ok, the book in a nutshell.  In an unnamed South American country, there's a big birthday party at the Vice President's mansion for a Japanese businessman (Mr. Horokawa) in hopes to lure business to their poor country.  People of note from all around the globe are invited, including Horokawa's favorite opera singer, an American soprano named Roxane Coss.  With the intention of kidnapping the President, rebels crash the party... but with the President unexpectedly not in attendance, a hostage situation ensues... and not your typical hours-long or overnight variety... over four months long!

Although I should know this, the book was inspired by a real event... the 126-day Japanese embassy crisis that took place in Lima, Peru from December 1996 thru April 1997.  I feel less guilty not "getting" the title of the book, which to the best of my memory is not mentioned in the novel.  I guessed it was opera-related and it is... "bel canto" translates to "sing beautifully" in Italian and is also an operatic vocal technique (according to Wikipedia, a light upper register, "sweet" timbre).

It is certainly an interesting scenario.  Given the length of the crisis, things relax and surprising relationships and alliances develop over time amongst the large cast of characters, many who do not speak/understand each other's languages.  Fortunately enough,  Horokawa's assistant and translator (Gen Watanabe) is on hand and conveniently (almost far too conveniently) fluent in more than a handful of languages.

Ultimately, I felt something was just missing... what exactly... I was not sure.  It was entertaining, enjoyable, well-written.  Ironically enough, it didn't hit me until, ironically enough, I read a Q&A with Patchett on her website.  In a question about her literary influences she says of Nabokov, Garcia-Marquez, and Munro that "I don't see any of their brilliance in my work, and I wish I did" and furthermore went on to say about Chekhov, Welty, and Updike  "I only wish they would hurry up and influence me some more." 

So my "light bulb moment" on that missing intangible was the detection of this lack of confidence / self-esteem.  I sensed Patchett wanted Bel Canto to be "great" ... and while it was nominated (and won) many literary awards... I think it missed that very lofty mark of greatness... certainly a struggle that I, and I am sure a lot of us, can relate to.

2007 10K Reading Challenge:  + 318 pages (Total Pages: 11423 pages) 

Vote 2008: My Reading Challenge

For the weekend before the last weekend before Christmas, it ended up being pretty low-key.  Well, at least for me.  For me, all my gifts for others have been shipped (mostly by their originating companies) or have arrived here and just need to be wrapped.  I voluntarily discharged myself from Todd's Christmas shopping expedition after the first stop... without the dead weight (or "helping"... haha), he was able to get through all that he had left (which was quite a bit). 

Todd's parents will be joining us for Christmas Eve and Day, before they all head over to NM to see the rest of the family the day after the big day.  Food-wise, we're keeping it simple... and what's becoming our tradition of offerings of Mexican cuisine... which I guess is not all that strange... after all, it is called "Christmas" when you want both red & green chile sauce on the same plate.

But now, onto the subject of this post... and it is not so much a vote, but a request for a brainstorming session for what should be my reading challenge for next year.  The 10k page challenge was a good (and quite successful) one.  Given I am on pace to finish up with a smidgen over 12k, a repeat of the 10K challenge doesn't seem... well... challenging.

In the past few weeks, I have considered not having a reading challenge next year.  I feel that I am back in the habit enough that I don't need a goal line for motivation.  And while I know this blog is for "me"... and I have no plans at all to stop doing book-related blogs posts... with the exception of a few folks, me thinks the whole thermometer graphic tracking device was viewed as pretty hokey.

While I will (yet again) attempt to employ reverse psychology don't expect much feedback, here are the options I am considering:

a) No Reading Challenge - just read and blog about the books I read (though, of course, I will secretly maintain my anal-rific ... ooh, that sounds dirty... reading/book spreadsheet)

b) 1-2-3-4-5 Challenge -- upping last year's goal of 10,000 to the numerically pleasing 12,345 pages (and just a bit over what I will end up with this year).

c) More Than Last Year -- kinda generic, but simply topping whatever ends up being this year's final page tally... and in the spirit of "being green" -- it's recyclable each and every year!

d) Something Else -- this is where you come in

Although I would love/welcome new ideas, option "d" comes with a whole bunch of restrictions... basically boiling down not putting a limit the books I can read... i.e. "read this # of books" challenge would discourage me to read "big" books... "read only the classics" is a noble idea (and something I considered), but I want the ability/flexibility to read the "hot" book or an author I that I may be in the mood for.

And speaking of voting... and for the last time...  today is the last day for the 2007 GLBT Verve Awards. While the percentages have changed,  for the past week or so, I haven't budged much from being 2.5-3% out of the winner's circle.  I don't imagine things will change... but if you haven't done so... my fragile ego would appreciate a vote for Best Entertainment / Gossip Blog... of course, ignoring the fact that this post does not qualify as either "entertainment" or "gossip."

The Full Cupboard Of Life (#34)

With my 2007 Reading Challenge winding down, there will likely be an increased frequency of book-related posts as I play "catch-up" before now and December 28th (full disclosure: I started the challenge on 12/29/06... close enough!), when this now moot "challenge" officially ends. 

And this book should just do wonders for current 2nd Place vote standing for Best GLBT Entertainment / Gossip Blog... reading a novel, with a perceived target audience of middle-aged women, written by an old-ish English guy... and to make matters worse, this is the 5th book in the series!   Granted these books are instant bestsellers, so who knows maybe it will be the Alexander McCall Smith fag-hag voting block that pushes me over the top.  Voting ends Dec 17th (good gosh, another week of this!?!).

So yes, my latest book is The Full Cupboard of Life by Alexander McCall Smith which is the 5th in The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series... which continues totally sound like something my "inner child" would get beat up on the playground for if he was found reading it.

But as I will say over and over, the books continue to be quite charming and, dare I say, there is not a more charming protagonist out there than detective Mma (Precious) Ramotswe.  Though of any of the installments thus far, this was by far the lightest in the detective department... more focused on the personal progress of Mma Ramotswe and her fiance Mr. J.L.B. Matekoni (if you've read these book, you must refer to the characters by their full title and name). 

The relative absence of detective work is fine.  It is the little life lessons and cast of characters that are the draw/appeal of these books, not the mystery aspect -- and me thinks fans of that genre would be disappointed by these books (well, at least when it came to the mystery part... I can't imagine too many folks not being won over by Mma Ramotswe).  So, continuing my repetition (and okay, rationalization) about this series, while it kinda is... it really is not a Botswani version of Murder, She Wrote.

I have created a category for Alexander McCall Smith which includes all the books I have read in this and other series.  While it may appear I am apologetic about reading these books, I will fully and gladly admit they are always a pleasant diversion -- a quick, easy, and palate-cleansing reading experience.

2007 10K Reading Challenge:  + 196 pages (Total Pages: 11105 pages) 

Little Children (#33)

We're kicking this "Entertainment" Blog old skool today... books!   

After getting off to a quick start, I have had watched my lead slowly slip away... not that I check more than twenty-five fifteen ten eight two times a day... and this morning, for the first time since the polls opened, I have slipped to 2nd... with 3rd place definitely within my sight!  (UPDATE:  Yeesh!  I'm already tied for 3rd) Thanks to those who have voted for Whine & Cheese in the Best GLBT Entertainment/Gossip Blog... there's still time to vote (until Dec 17th)... though apparently you can't vote more than once, what's up with that?!!?  But I refuse to pander!

So how do you like the naked people on the cover of my latest book, Little Children by Tom Perrotta!?! 

Generally, I tend to avoid movie covers of books that I read... but c'mon, I couldn't really pass up the sweaty and bare bodies of Kate Winslet and Patrick Wilson.  Likewise, I usually try to read a book well before it's a movie (or, at least, before it's released) so I can have my own mental images of the characters, not the Hollywood versions.  But again, sweaty and naked Kate Winslet and Patrick Wilson are not necessarily that bad of a thing.

Anyhow, the book got onto my radar around the time the movie came out and particularly when it started getting award buzz. It seemed as if I would like the movie, so that made me research the book.  It was then I found out that Perrotta had also written Election, which likewise had been made into a well-received film starring Reese Witherspoon and Matthew Broderick.  Fast-forward a year or so... never read the book (or saw the movie for that matter) and then during a couple of recent book-centric emails with Jen, she mentioned Perrotta as a favorite... so to make a long story, well okay... long... that recommendation provided the impetus to buy the book... and more impressively, given the length of my "to be read" list, read it.

And I absolutely ate it up... granted the font size was pretty darn big, but a 50 page/day pace is still about the speediest it got for me in this year's reading challenge.  The book is an often satiric look at the underbelly of suburban life... centering around two stay-at-home (and married) parents, Sarah and Todd, who start an affair.  Oh, then there's the pesky new neighbor... a recently released child molester/possible murderer moving in with his elderly mother. 

It is a smart and sharp book... and many actual little children inhabit the book... at least one interpretation of the title comes very early in the book and is one of my favorite passages:

Not that they would, but if any of the other mothers had asked how it was that Sarah, of all people, had ended up married, living in the suburbs, and caring full-time for a small child, she would have blamed it all on a moment of weakness.  At least that was how she described it to herself, though the explanation always seemed a bit threadbare.  After all, what was adult life but one moment of weakness piled on top of another? Most people just fell in line like obedient little children, doing exactly what society expected of them at any given moment, all pretending that they'd actually made some sort of choice.

Very good stuff!!  In recommending books to help fill the impending absence of your favorite TV shows due to the writers' strike, Entertainment Weekly recently selected Little Children as a replacement for Desperate Housewives.  That's oversimplifying it in a Hollywood pitch kind of way, but I'll have to admit it's pretty accurate.

While this likely won't top my "best" list, it was one of the "most entertaining" reads of the year.  I should stop being snooty and differentiating  between those things... particularly when it's that latter group that I most often unconditionally recommend to others... though my puritanical friends/readers (wait, do I even have those?!!) might want to skip this one... since, at least for me, I found myself sympathizing with a child molester and rooting on infidelity.

2007 10K Reading Challenge:  + 353 pages (Total Pages: 10909 pages) 

Love In The Time Of Cholera (#32)

Like I need more holiday stress or feel more behind... but here I am three books behind post-wise... I guess I should stop reading so fast... or if I am being more truthful... read longer books so that I have time to catch  up blogging about them.

This latest is yet another Oprah book club selection.  I know I seem robotic at times... running to the bookstore with the masses to the get the latest book I'm told I have to read by the Queen.  Though it probably doesn't seem that way, I am selective.  For instance, earlier this year when she picked The Road that particular book had been on my radar and I was wanting to finally something by Cormac McCarthy, so I did it.

Similarly, Gabriel Garcia Marquez has been one of those authors I have been meaning to read for years and years now.  I must have been mad at O when she picked Marquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude a few years back... so when she selected Love In The Time Of Cholera, especially just ahead of the movie version, I figured what the heck!  (Though the reviews of the movie have been very iffy and, with plenty of alternative entertainment options, we've literally not been out to see a movie in well over a year!)

Here's the very basics (no spoilers!) of the plot... nothing you wouldn't read on the back cover (not that I'm looking, of course!) or in the movie trailer.  As children, Florentino Ariza and Fermina Daza fall in love... mostly via love letters and glances from afar... fast-forward several years, Fermina ultimately marries another man... and while Florentino does move on with his life... he never gets over his love for Fermina and waits fifty-one years, nine months, and four days for another shot of love with her!

Ah, the stuff of literary romance ... capital "R" Romance... or else just someone in serious need of a therapist to tell him to get over it!   For me, it was more the former.  Granted I can be a cynic at times, but I did get caught up with it. 

It's not a book to be read quickly. Garcia Marquez's lush prose slows you down, but in a good way.  I only managed to knock it out in under 2 weeks since I read it while Todd was in Asia and had quite a bit of extra "alone" time. 

Originally published in 1985, it very much reads like a "classic."  Although I doubt that high schoolers (maybe college lit classes?) will ever be reading this one in our uber-politically correct/"save the children" world.  As I mentioned, while Florentino pines for his Fermina he is certainly not celibate.  While not graphic, there are many passages revolving around his sexual conquests... or should I say "love making," since the story takes place in a steamy/tropical Caribbean port city (inspired by Cartegna, Columbia where "Gabo" spent part of his youth).

I will likely return to Garcia Marquez... when?  Well, that's the reader's dilemma... so many books, so little time!

2007 10K Reading Challenge:  + 346 pages (Total Pages: 10556 pages) 

Eat, Pray, Love (#31)

Although I finished it just about a month ago, it seems pretty appropriate that I blog about a book titled...

Eat, Pray, Love on the cusp of Thanksgiving. 

If you've been in a bookstore in the last year, there is little doubt that you seen Elizabeth Gilbert's memoir.  For that reason alone it got my attention.  While I was perfectly fine with "eat," the "pray" and "love" parts kind of turned me off and made me think this was not a book for my gender (or, for that matter, even for my sexual orientation). 

The travel aspect did interest me... the subtitle of the book is One Woman's Search For Everything Across Italy, India, and Indonesia... so the book kinda stayed on my radar... but when Gilbert appeared on... where else... Oprah!... I immediately morphed into that O-Pavlonian dog and got the book the very next day.  Now, it wasn't because of the mighty O... but Gilbert, who came across as so likable and funny and interesting... one of those people you could sit down with, as total strangers, and have a nice chat over coffee (or after reading the book, I should say gelato).

So the short, no-spoiler version of the book.  Gilbert finds herself in a life crisis - in an unhappy marriage on the verge of child-bearing, but not wanting it... realizing she is in the middle of living a life that doesn't resemble anything she wants it to be.  She begins a one-year journey (4 months each in Italy, India, and Bali) of self-discovery and as a writer (I admit I never heard of her prior to this book), finances it via the book advance for what would be this very book... and l'm guessing neither Gilbert or her publisher thought... a runaway bestseller (even pre-Oprah).

All of the charm that Gilbert displayed on Oprah was very much in evidence in the book. Very enjoyable and quite unexpectedly, funny throughout.  As someone who is not religious, Gilbert does not get preachy about her beliefs or spirituality... she takes a "this is what works for me" attitude... and that is certainly something I can respect.  With religion and God being hijacked for ulterior motives, it was encouraging to read about someone finding that inner peace and happiness ... okay, it did get a bit new-agey for me a few times, but again Gilbert presents her story so non-judgmentally that you could only wish that there was more of this kind of spirituality going on in the world today.

This passage has stuck with me and I think captures the spirit of the book:

... people universally think that happiness is a stroke of luck, something that will descend upon you like fine weather if you're fortunate enough.  But that's not how happiness works.  Happiness is the consequence of personal effort.  You fight for it, strive for it, insist upon it, and sometimes even travel around the world looking for it.  You have to participate relentlessly in the manifestations of your own blessings.  And once you have achieved a state of happiness, you must never become lax about maintaining it, you must make a mighty effort to keep swimming upward into that happiness forever, to stay afloat on top of it.  If you don't you will leak away your innate contentment.

While not a spiritual journey, and certainly not done purposely... it was kind of funny that it was this book was the one that put me over the top in my 10k reading challenge.  But reading is something that makes me happy... and it is a kind of alone time that is kind of meditative time that has become a pretty nice way to end (nearly) each day.

2007 10K Reading Challenge:  + 330 pages (Total Pages: 10210 pages) 

Special Topics In Calamity Physics (#30)

Occasionally Todd will pick up the book I am reading and say... "I don't think I would like this"...

Now granted he is judging, proverbially so, the book by its cover... or by its name... but he's usually right.  I have a feeling I won't be pushing Marisha Pessl's debut novel, Special Topics in Calamity Physics on him... and not too many other people either.

Ah!  You're thinking you've stumbled onto one of my rare "didn't like it" book reviews... but that really isn't the case.  While I don't think it will rank up there as one of my favorite (or "best" - there is a difference!) novels of the year, it was still pretty darn good... what I am trying to say is that I think it's one of those novels that just isn't for everyone (or anyone?).

It's no surprise that the newly turned 30 year old Pessl is being hailed as one of the freshest American faces in the publishing world.  This is a dazzling debut... with pop culture (mostly literary and many "imagined") references bounce off the page in head-spinning fashion as Pessl dishes out the quirky story of 16-year old Blue Van Meer, who finds herself finishing high school in a small town in North Caroline (her upteenth new school with a constant "pick up and move" college professor dad) and befriended by a hippie-ish film teacher (it's a private school) and the cool kid clique that surrounds her.  Each chapter is named after a literary work... and while I consider myself fairly well-read, I doubt there will be many folks that will be able to "get" everything. 

To make my own literary reference, it has the hip factor of a Zadie Smith novel... while the buzz and academic setting/mystery aspect reminded me of Donna Tartt's The Secret History (Not that I can remember a book that I read that long ago!  And what ever happened to Tartt?!?).

My verdict is that it is fresh and new and something different... though I didn't think it sustained it over 500+ pages.  I was immediately sucked in and impressed... but found myself a bit exhausted by the middle, which I found to be a tad sluggish before big and quick close.  I did reach the point where I got... ok, ok I get it... you're smart, cool, hip, incredibly well-read, imaginative, etc., etc.

I guess the word I am trying to come up with is "pretentious" (a word I see comes up over and over and over again now that I've taken a look at the Amazon reviews)... but can you like something you think is pretentious?   

Hmmm... do you think I'll make it to 10K pages?  Ha!

2007 10K Reading Challenge:  + 510 pages (Total Pages: 9880 pages) 

Mission Accomplished

Last night I passed my 2007 Reading Challenge Goal of 10,000 pages!

Now there has been little tension that I would not do it.  My enthusiasm to reach 10k got me off to a pretty quick start... but heck when you are doing something you truly love, it's not a difficult task... or even a task at all.

While it has slowed down, I do not believe my "pace" ever dipped below the 10k mark.  Right now (and for the last couple of months), I am on projected to pass 12k... but for awhile there, I was hovering around 13k.

It took me 299 days to reach 10,000 pages... including days when I didn't pick up a book at all... and there were over a month's worth of those... 36 days, but still a respectably low 12% (and, ironically enough, many of those days while we were on vacation -- often the only time when folks do read a book!).

If you are wondering how I am pulling all these numbers out of my ass... well, it's because of one of my other loves... spreadsheets!   I am pretty certain part of my Reading Challenge success is thanks to me being able to regularly (even daily!) update a spreadsheet.  Ok, now I've admitted something far nerdier than having my nose in a book whenever I get the chance!

It will take the book "review" post after the next one for it to officially show up... but I still felt right to mark the actual day.  Another post is on the way... so it's not like this one is just a quota filler for the day!

A Spot of Bother (#29)

Before heading out for our big weekend, figured I would take care of some business and finally get around to a long overdue book post... and besides, obsessing over what needs to be done in the next 24 hours will do no good for my mental well-being.  Though I should put my mental checklist down on paper...

Anyhow, today's book (finished at the end of last month) is Mark Haddon's A Spot of Bother.  If the author sounds familiar it's likely because you have read or, if you've ever walked into a bookstore, at least seen Haddon's universally beloved debut novel, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time... which, of course, I did universally belove!  And that's part of the problem, but more on that in a bit..

I spent much of my time with this book obsessed that I was missing the last dozen pages of it.  I have read my fair share of books and rare is the book that ends on the very last page.  There's usually a couple of blank pages, an "about the author" thing, book club/discussion questions, or hawking other books or the publishing house.  But this book just ended and at the very bottom of the page... looking like it should continue on.  I looked on various book sites and book sellers to find the number of pages... and not many of the number of page in my copy of the book.  Days later, I eventually headed back to the bookstore and paged through several copies... finally confirming that I did have the complete book.  In the spirit of someone else not thinking the same, the last word of the book is... "corkscrew."   Did I give too much away?!   

It could be that I was just as crazy as Bother's protagonist, 61-year old George Hall, who is losing it.  And literally... whether it is the start of dementia or just a good old-fashioned mental breakdown.  But he has good reason, the state of his marriage is in not so good shape, his single-mother daughter is about to get married to a man the family doesn't really know and/or like, and his gay son is in the throes of some relationship problems of his own.  So, yes this is comedy of sorts... but with a healthy dose of bittersweet and some pathos as well.

Now, if I was given this novel without the author's name or had short-term memory loss (give me a couple more years, I'm working on it), I would say this was a pretty good novel.  Heck, it is a pretty good novel (though certainly not high-brow literature, think of it as a Hugh Grant-ish, British dysfunctional family, comedy of error material).  As I alluded to above, it is impossible to not compare it to Curious... which is such a unique and, in my opinion, (in)genius novel that it was asking the impossible of Haddon to top or, even worse, try to duplicate/replicate it. 

So best to consider the two book as the proverbial "apples" and "oranges"...and just enjoy and try to forget that they are falling from the same tree.

2007 10K Reading Challenge:  + 354 pages (Total Pages: 9370 pages) 

The Historian (#28)

Believe it or not, it has been over 3 weeks since my last book post.  Granted I finished it over two weeks ago and, in my usual fashion, I have fallen behind in telling you about them (I've read another and started a new one in the interim).  However, this one did take me a whopping 23 days to get through... but in my own defense it was also the longest book I have read thus far in my 2007 reading challenge.

One of the points of not having a "number of books" related challenge was so that I wouldn't avoid -- consciously or subconsciously --  long(er) books.  As you can see above, this is Book #28 of the year.  While that seems pretty crazy to me, it is tempered by the fact that only 7 of them have been 400+ pages.   

Nevertheless, Elizabeth Kostova's debut novel The Historian pumped up my average... weighing in at 676 pages... and when I say weighing in I mean it, literally!  Even for a trade paperback it's heftiness put a strain on the 'ole wrists! 

The book had been on my radar for awhile, even when it was in hardcover.  It had that buzz, if my memory serves correct, of the likes of DaVinci Code.  But that kind of attention often makes me not wanting to read a particular book.  So, as many a book does in my life, it got put on the mental back-burner.  I kept an eye on it when it hit paperback, but when my cyber-friend Jen commented on my The Shadow of the Wind post that if I liked that I might like this one, I revisited it... and it was pretty much a done deal when it was available as one of Borders' purely evil "Buy 3 for the Price of 2" deals.   

Jen was certainly correct... both books share a quite palpable gothic, dark alleyway, foggy streets of Europe, danger in the air kind of feel... in the midst of all this mystery and intrigue, among many (many!) other things, are coming-of-age tales with both books feature young protagonists.

Kostova put a decade's worth of research into The Historian and it certainly shows (though in retrospect, it seems impressive that it was only 10 years).  The book is rich and dense as Kostova truly re-inv