First post for September...

Happy Labour Day weekend!  I'm enjoying the fact that I have yet another day off work tomorrow, so this morning has been a bit less busy than my usual Sunday mornings.  It's a lovely sunny breezy morning, and I think it's going to be a low-key lazy reading day - hurray for those types of days!!

My husband met with a former colleague of his recently just to catch up, and during their conversation, she asked for a link to this blog, as she was having a tough time finding good books to read.  She is one of the people who read Mary Doria Russell's The Sparrow upon my recommendation, and she loved it!  He forwarded her email address to me, and I sent her the link, along with what I thought was a randomly-selected book recommendation, based on something that I recently read and enjoyed, Ann Patchett's State of Wonder.  I wasn't sure if she would like it or not, because it is a very different writing style from Russell's book, but Patchett is, in my opinion, a great writer with interesting stories to tell and a wonderful writing style, despite her books being a bit "slow" - it seems to take forever for anything to happen, but she manages that really well and seems to use it to her advantage.  Anyway, the more I thought about State of Wonder, the more I realized that there are many similarities between that book and The Sparrow.  Both deal with an individual or group going off into another land or culture with a mission to learn something new that they expect will benefit their own culture or people.  The intervention of both groups on these new cultures/peoples has unexpected results, and the information learned may or may not be as beneficial as originally expected.  While the settings and styles may differ, the main themes or messages are remarkably similar, so it appears that it is not such a random selection.  I hope she enjoys that novel, but if not, she can always refer to this blog to check out what other books I've been reading and hopefully find something of interest out of those titles (which are all conveniently underlined so they are easy to pick out of the rest of the text).

This reminded me of one of the original purposes of this blog - to make book recommendations to people who don't work in the library or book industry.  I guess I don't actually make book recommendations, but I just comment on what I've been reading.  Making recommendations involves so much more information from and about the reader - what he or she has enjoyed in the past, what types of books appeal to the reader, what "reading mood" he or she is in at a particular time, what season it is, what's going on in his or her life, and many other factors.  Even with all of this information, there is still a chance that what one would recommend will not appeal to the reader, which is why the library is such a great resource.  Readers can borrow books free of charge and try them out, rather than spending money to buy books that they may or may not like and ending up with a shelf full of unread items.

So what have I been reading this past week?  I've been reading The Help by Kathryn Stockett, and am really enjoying it.  I saw the film some time ago, and feel that they did a good job of adapting the novel.  I will write more about this novel once I've finished it and after my book group discusses it next Saturday. 

And I'm listening to another Agatha Christie audiobook, The ABC Murders.  I think I read this mystery many years ago, but as I mentioned in an earlier post, Christie's books are great to listen to as audiobooks because all the important details are reviewed several times, so the listener really can't miss anything important.  I'm just downloading a few more of her books even as I write, in anticipation of this mystery's end.

Enjoy the rest of this lovely long weekend!!  Welcome, September!

Bye for now!
Julie

Last post for August...

This is the last post for August, and the summer will feel like it's truly over then, although in truth, the season extends a few weeks past Labour Day.  That's how it feels for me, and September seems like the time to get serious, to take stock of the year and make plans to complete things that you wanted to do that year but never got around to doing.  Also the book awards season is approaching, as well as the time for all the "good" movies to be released, just in time to be considered for Oscar nomination.  So it's not just me that considers the fall as a time for seriousness.

I started reading Black Dogs by Ian McEwan last week.  If you recall, I mentioned that it is the book by that author that I remember least, and as I started reading it again, I realized why this is so:  it is not very interesting, and it begins with much rambling.  I didn't feel I had the patience for that at the time - maybe I'll try it again in the winter, when I'm less impatient and more inclined to read "slow" books.  I read instead a very strange book by Canadian author Christopher Meade entitled The Last Hiccup.  It tells the story of Vladimir, a young boy in pre-WWII Russia from a small town who wakes up one morning with a case of the hiccups.  These hiccups last for 12 years, despite medical efforts to treat this problem.  Young Vlad undergoes various treatments, all to no avail, and is ultimately whisked away to Mongolia where he is left in the company of a mystic for 10 years.  As he returns to civilization in the midst of the war, he experiences readjustment problems and encounters unusual individuals and situations on his journey to return home to his mother.  It was a very strange, surrealistic novel that is not my usual fare, and while the author clearly has talent as a writer, I felt that there were huge gaps left where the story could have been fleshed out and filled in with details that were essential, at least to this reader.  I'm not sure who would enjoy this type of book... perhaps I would recommend it to males who enjoyed dark comedies.  One reviewer who is quoted on the back of the book refers to the novel as "surreal CanHumLit" (CanadianHumourLiterature), and I would agree with this classification.  It was strange, but worth reading for me, as Meade is a Canadian author with whom I was unfamiliar, and I'm always interested in trying out new Canadian authors.  I will not, however, read anything else this author has written.

I'm nearly finished listening to an Agatha Christie audiobook, Hickory Dickory Dock.  I stopped listening to Ruth Rendell's The Vault, as I felt it was too complex and I was missing too many details, since I listen to audiobooks while I walk or while I'm on the bus going to or from work.  In these situations, sound level is impossible to control, and the narrator of that particular audiobook, while excellent in terms of voice differentiation for different characters, seemed to speak at very different volumes regularly.  In this way, I was unable to adjust the volume quickly enough to catch what he was saying, and so missed too much of the novel.  With my current audiobook, this is not a problem.  Although the narrator does vary the volume of his narration somewhat, I find with Agatha Christie novels there are so many opportunities for the characters to recap what has happened that I don't feel I miss much.  If I don't catch the information the first time around, I'm fairly certain that it will be discussed and analyzed again later.  It's interesting for me that the very first audiobook I listened to was Agatha Christie's The Body in the Library.  I was going to Toronto by bus once a week at that time, and wanted some other activity to do on the busride home besides reading, so I bought an MP3 player, thinking I could listen to music.  I didn't think I would enjoy listening to audiobooks, assuming that it would be too difficult to keep track of the story, especially if I had another book on the go that I was reading in the traditional way.  I thought that one of Christie's mysteries would be a good novel to try, because  they are usually short and not too complex, and I was right -I've been hooked on audiobooks every since!  Some books are better to listen to than others.  These characteristics will differ for each person, but for this listener, the narrator is very important.  I have to like the narrator's voice and style, almost more than the content of the book.  But the book is also important, and even if it's a favourite narrator, if I don't like the book, I can't listen to it.  I also find that the book generally needs to be one that is fast-paced, or at least plot-driven.  I tried to listen to one of my favourite narrators read Lady Chatterley's Lover, which is all about language, and I had to stop listening.  I find classics are hard to listen to, better to read.  Mysteries are great to listen to, as they generally depend on plot and detail, not so much on character or language.  Unfortunately, with an audiobook, you can't just pick it up and read the first few pages to try it out.  You have to select it and download it, then start listening to it before you can make a judgment call.  I'm sure I delete as many books as I listen to, but that's OK, since I download them free from the library and I'm sometimes pleasantly surprised to discover a book or author I would never have picked up as a book, but that I really enjoyed as an audiobook.  So books are good in various formats, at different times, for various reasons.  I say now that I don't think I would like e-books, but who knows?  Maybe if I tried that format, I'd be hooked, too.

That's all for today.  Enjoy the last week of August...

Bye for now!
Julie

Short post on a perfect Sunday morning...

My post today will be short for a couple of reasons.  It is a perfect day and I would like to get outside and enjoy the pleasant weather, but also I have not read anything new since my last post, so I don't really have much to write about.

I finished reading The town that drowned by Riel Nason, and it did not disappoint.  If you recall, this book tells the story of an east coast town that is slated for flooding in the 1960s, told from the point of view of a young teen.  I believe that in a previous post I compared it to To kill a mockingbird, in that it has similarities in a number of different areas.  I'm not sure that these similarities continue to the end of the novel, as I didn't feel that comparison as I finished it, but I must have felt strongly about it during the reading of the first half, because the thought occurred to me regularly.  Anyways, it was a great read in my opinion, and I would definitely recommend it for anyone who likes quirky characters and small town settings  (strangely enough, those are not characteristics I would normally say I liked in a book, so it must have been the writing that I enjoyed in this novel).  I must find out if this author has written any more books.

I also finished listening to Mennonite in a little black dress by Rhoda Janzen.  I continued to enjoy listening to this audiobook, but can absolutely understand why some would be put off by some of the author's comments about the Mennonite culture.  I was not offended, but I certainly questioned her choice of imagery and wording in some parts of the book.  I won't go into any detail about this book here since I feel I discussed it at length in the last post, after my book club meeting.   I can just sum up by saying that I enjoyed it, but that I would recommend it with caution.  I also think it is a book better enjoyed by listening to it than by reading it.

Now I'm in a dilemma since I have to choose another book to read.  It's too early to start reading The help as our meeting is not until September 8th, and I don't like to finish reading a book club selection so far in advance.  It's also way too early to start reading The thirteenth tale as we meet for that one on September 27th.  I've been thinking about Ian McEwan lately, and looking at his books on my bookshelf.  I think the one I remember least is Black dogs, about which I remember nothing, so I think I'll read that again.  As for audiobooks, I've resumed Ruth Rendell's The Vault, but I think she is an author better read than listened to.  I feel I'm missing many of the details and I can't flip back in the book to check as I could if I were reading it.  If I had already read it, then listening to it would be OK, but as a first-time experience, I think I'll move on to something else and get the actual physical book for this one.  Not sure what I have downloaded on my MP3 player, but I'm sure I'll find something that will hold my interest.

That's all for now!  (I'm so glad that this blog is not like a school assignment, where there is a required word count!!)  Enjoy your day!

Bye for now!
Julie

Book talk on a cool Sunday mornng...

I'm listening to the birds sing in the tree in front of our house on this cool Sunday morning as the weak sunlight tries to break through the clouds in the overcast sky, just the kind of weather I have come to expect and appreciate at this time of year.  As the end of summer fast approaches, life gets busy as we anticipate the end of the season.  I am looking forward, as usual, to the crisp bright days of autumn, with the falling leaves and the cool mornings.  Ahhh, my favourite season will soon arrive.

Anyways, let's talk about books.  My book group met yesterday to discuss Mennonite in a Little Black Dress by Rhoda Janzen, a memoir about a woman in her early 40s whose husband leaves her for a man named Bob whom he met on gay.com and who shortly therafter gets injured in a car accident.  In order to deal with these crises and recover, both physically and emotionally, she returns home to her Mennonite family community in California, a community she has visited infrequently for the past 25 years.  I will admit to not knowing anything about this book when I put it on the reading list, except that it was very popular when it came out in 2009 and it had a great cover design, so I was not entirely surprised to hear from nearly everyone at the meeting that they did not like it at all.  For reasons I will not detail here, I was only able to skim the book, so I couldn't make a fair judgment, but from what I read, I was hoping to have a chance to read it in full at some point, as I was enjoying it.  I did download it as an audiobook late last week, so have listened to less than half the book, and I'm enjoying it more as an audiobook than as written pages.  Some of the comments my book club members made, and these were almost entirely held unanimously, were that the book was not well-written, it had no structure and rambled along from one topic to another seemingly with no direction.  The author used excessive scatalogical humour throughout the book, which was unnecessary and somewhat offensive.  She didn't seem able to move on from her  disappointment at being left for a man named Bob.  She was excessively hard on the Mennonite culture in general and her upbringing by her parents in that community in particular, and she misrepresented Mennonites in the stories she included in the book.  I agreed with the comments about the writing style and structure, and as I listen to the book in its entirety, I am coming across more crude images that seem to serve no real purpose and believe that points could be better illustrated using different imagery.  Having said that, it is a memoir, so the author's stories are meant to represent her own experiences, and I was able to identify with her in a number of different areas.  I am findng the book funny, straightforward, and bittersweet.  I don't feel that she is slamming the Mennonite culture so much as simplifying their values and talking of ways that they can be incorporated into today's world, and also why these values are still important and should not be forgotten in our everyday lives.  Once again, I'm not even half-way through the book, and I'm listening to it  being read aloud by the author, so my experience is different that that of the other members.  There is one member who admitted to me after the meeting that she enjoyed listening to it as well, but that her stories and attitude grew tiresome by the end.  Perhaps it is a book that, like poetry is meant to do, works better when read aloud than when read silently.  I still think that this was a successful book selection, as we had a lively and lenghty discussion about the book itself, other books about the Mennonite culture, both fiction and non-fiction, and Mennonites in general.  I'm looking forward to listening to the rest of the book, and I'm sure that our next book selection, The Help, by Kathryn Stockett, will be a more enjoyable read for most members.  This was a suggestion from one of the members, and others have either already read it or are looking forward to reading it.

I hope to have a chance to get back to the book I mentioned in my last post, The Town That Drowned by Riel Nason, and finish reading it this week.  I also began listening to Ruth Rendell's latest Inspector Wexford novel, The Vault, which I had to pause while I tried to get to Mennonite... it seems that the list grows longer as my time grows shorter...

With that thought, I think I will close and take advantage of the possibly rainy afternoon to read, read, read (or listen, listen, listen...) 

Bye for now!
Julie

Another "long weekend" posting...

This long weekend always seems to mark the midpoint in the summer for me, and I know that, once this civic holiday weekend passes, September is just around the corner.  It is muggy and overcast, with chance of thunderstorms today, perfect weather for writing about books and then spending the afternoon reading.  Tomorrow should be clear and less muggy, so I'll likely want to be outside, not inside reading - better take advantage of the weather conditions today!

I wanted to talk about one book I'm reading and one book I just finished listening to.  The Town that Drowned by Riel Nason is a novel set in the 1960s in a small fictional east coast town that is slated for flooding due to the construction of a dam.  The story is told from the point of view of a 14 year old girl who has had a "vision" of the underwater town when she fell through the ice at a skating party, long before it was announced, cementing her already somewhat outcast status.  She has an "eccentric" younger brother Percy, who likely has some degree of autism, a father who works for the government, and a beautiful mother who is a painter.  The town is filled with quirky characters who respond differently to the situation that is thrust upon them by the government in unique and often unusual ways.  It reminds me of To Kill a Mockingbird in many different ways.  Both are told from the point of view of a young girl who seems wise beyond her years, and who has a younger brother for whom she is responsible.  Both feature fathers who have some status in the small town; in Mockingbird, the father was a lawyer, in Town, he is a government employee.  Both also have a family which the town pities because the fathers drink away the family's food and shelter money, and the town helps to support them while not acknowledging this help.  I'm only half-way through the book, but I'm really enjoying it and look forward to finishing it.  Alas, for all the interest I have in this book, it seems to take me a long time to get through just a few pages, so I must set it aside and read my next book club selection, Mennonite in a Little Black Dress by Rhoda Janzen, as our meeting is next Saturday.

I finished listening to Absolute Certainty by Rose Connors yesterday.  It is the first in the "Marty Nickerson" series and it was pretty interesting.  Nickerson is an assistant district attorney who secures a murder conviction at a trial in the small town of Chatham, Massachusetts, only to discover another body using the same MO as the convicted man awaits sentencing.  While she tries to pursue justice and "do the right thing", all those around her are trying to deny that the crimes are related and that they may have convicted the wrong man.  While the story was very interesting, I found that the writing was bogged down with so much detail about the legal system in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts that I often lost track of the storyline.  Having said that, I just realized that this is the first in the series, and I have listened to another in this series some time ago and do not recall having a similar response, so perhaps she was just using this novel to set the stage for the rest of the series.  I will definitely listen to the others in this series, but not right away.

That's all I have to talk about today, so I will drink my tea and get reading.  Happy Civic Holiday!!

Bye for now!
Julie

Book talk on a Sunday afternoon...

On a lazy sunny summer Sunday afternoon, I want to take some time to look back on my week's reading experiences.  I've read, listened to, discussed and recommended a number of books since my last post.

First, I read A Large Harmonium by Sue Sorensen, an author who lives in Winnipeg.  This is her first novel, and tells the story of a woman, Janet, who is in her early 40s, an English professor with a toddler and a loving husband.  Her relationship is good, her job is uneventful, and she loves her child, yet she has doubts and second thoughts about her life, which she expresses in a most delightful way.  There is really no story to this novel, but her musings on her life made me chuckle and nod my head while simultaneously cheering her on and hoping she gets through her "motherhood" and "wife" crises.  Her husband is trying to lose weight so he suggests to Janet, or Janey, that she use the names of vegetables as pet names for him.  Throughout the novel, she refers to her husband as parsnip or radish, among other root vegetables.  Their friend, Jam, and his potential love story give the reader an opportunity to wonder what will happen next, while still maintaining interest in Janey's life experiences.  It was not a laugh-out-loud novel, but it was delightful and heartfelt.  I not only liked Janey's character, I completely identified with her - well,except the "toddler" part, but even that was not praised or idealized or even outright mocked, as in some novels about the motherhood experience.  It was just a humourous and realistic representation of an average woman's life as she faces various life situations.  It may be a bit religious for some, as God, and Janey's references to Him, make up a significant portion of the novel. Having had a semi-religious upbringing, not only was I not disturbed by this aspect, but it was yet another way for me to identify with the character.  I think I especially liked this book because the main character is telling the reader that most times, life just doesn't live up to our expectations, and that the actual experience is nothing like the experiences we read about in books; that life is sometimes "boring", but it's really like that for everyone.  Maybe no one really "fits in", even though some may appear to have it all "together".  I may have just found a new "favourite" Canadian novel, and I anxiously await Sorensen's next book.

My new book group met on Thursday and discussed Saturday by Ian McEwan, which detailed the experiences of a successful neurosurgeon in London on Saturday, one of his days off.  Of the five of us, only one other member besides me loved the novel at the beginning of the discussion (our newest member did not have a chance to finish it by the time of the meeting).  The other two members were unsure how they felt about it, but no one said they disliked it, which I appreciated, since I selected it.  By the end of the discussion, though, I suspect the two who were unsure about it felt differently, or at least had a better appreciation for the novel, the language, the characters and the author.  That often happens when there is a book discussion:  a reader has an opportunity to hear how another reader responded to the book, and it is often very different from one's personal experience.  In this case, the other person who loved the book felt very much as I did about it, that it looked at the interconnectedness of individuals in society, that it looked at personal experiences and ways in which our lives affect others, that it dealt with family and the relationships different family members have with others.  She also said that she felt McEwan was giving her a glimpse into the thoughts of a 21st century man as he experiences mid-life in a large urban centre (I'm paraphrasing, but something like that).  If you recall, I mentioned earlier that this novel was very slow, and that not much happens even by the end of the book, but that it is very much a novel of self-awareness for the main character, Henry Perowne.  It is interesting that only  the two of us who enjoyed this novel have read others by McEwan, and I wonder if that has something to do with our responses.  I suppose we were not surprised by the "lack of plot" because we knew this was a common occurrence in his novels, and that it would all be worth it in the end, as it always is.  Preconceived notions of how a book will be can affect a reader's response in various ways.  I'm sure we've all had situations when a book was so highly recommended to us that we absolutely had to read it, and yet our response to the book fell far short of our expectation.  I wonder if that is why I don't really like to get book recommendations from others, but would rather choose books based on my own various book selection methods.

I'm listening to a book by Rose Connors, Absolute Certainty, a courtroom drama/mystery about a possible wrongful conviction of a murderer in a small town near Boston.  This book is part of a series featuring Martha Nickerson, an assistant distict attorney.  I've listened to one other book in the series some time ago (can't recall the title).  It's OK, not thrilling, not so suspenseful as Defending Jacob, but it will do for now.

And we had a family BBQ at our place this weekend, so various family members were asking me for book recommendations.  I recommended Saturday to one member who I felt would appreciate the introspective nature of this book.  I recommended Chai Tea Sunday to another member who I felt would enjoy reading a book about one women's experiences dealing with and overcoming challenges in her life.  I also recommended The Daughters Who Walk This Path and The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time to this same family member, as I felt that these book might suit her reading needs at this time.  I hope she enjoys at least one of these titles.

I've run out of books to discuss, so I'll close for today.

Bye for now!
Julile

Sunday morning tea and booktalk...

I'm sitting in my cool house on this hot day (I love air conditioning!) with my cup of chai tea and thinking about what I will write today.  I have a couple of books to talk about, but I think this will be a short post.
I finished reading Saturday by Ian McEwan last night.  That is the book I selected for our book group to talk about on Thursday evening.  I mentioned last time that the main character is Henry, a successful neurosurgeon who, after witnessing a plane make an emergency landing early on a Saturday morning, contemplates the state of the world post-9/11.  It takes place during a 24-hour period on a Saturday, when a seemingly insignificant occurrance leads to a chain of more serious and unexpected events. I selected this title mainly becuase I have read many of his other books and really enjoy his writing.  This was a title I had not yet read, but I had recently picked up a copy from a flea market and was looking forward to reading it.  I have to admit that I don't think it's one of his best works.  That is not to say that it's not a good read, and maybe my opinion will change once I've had more time to think about it, as I finished it around 10pm last night.  I find that is the case with some of his books, that appreciation for them increases the more I think about them.  So, since I am the one who selected this book, I need to come to our meeting with some information about the author and/or the book, as well as a few questions, in case our discussion gets stalled.  I was thinking about this question last night, and actually throughout the reading of the book -  what is this book really about?  I think it is about many things.  Most obviously, it is about political responsibilities of idividuals and governments.  It is about individuals taking responsibility for their actions as they impact others, those close to them as well as those in society whom they may not know but who may be affected by their actions.  Conversely, it is also about the impossibility of knowing how your actions may impact others, especially, of course, those you do not know.  It is about the responsibilities those in the medical profession have towards their patients.  It is also about the generation gap, the contrast between the attitudes of the young and the not-so-young, the "mellowing", perhaps, that comes with age and experience.  It also highlights the the ways in which we can make a difference in people's lives directly as individuals through our personal choices, as opposed to taking part in a faceless demonstration to make a change on a larger scale, in this case the demonstration to stop the war in Iraq.  I think it is about the uncertainty of outcomes that exist in people's lives, and how, no matter what we do and how much we consider the outcomes of our actions, we can never know what will happen in any given situation.  We are all connected in society, and the outcome of one person's actions is related to the unknown responses of others to these actions.  I guess what I'm saying is that this book is about the human condition, which McEwan often explores in his novels, but in different ways and settings.  Other examples of this exploration in his works includes Atonement, about the outcomes a young girl's accusations have on the members of her household, both her family members and those in her family's employ.  On Chesil Beach is another book that deals with the outcomes of seemingly inconsequential actions by newlyweds on their honeymoon in the early 1960s.  Enduring Love explores the outcomes of a man's chance encounter with a stranger while witnessing a terrible accident.  He has written many other fabulous (in this reader's mind, anyways!) novels and I highly recommend just about anything he's written.  Be warned, though, that his later novels are a bit on the slow side but they are generally excellent and well worth the patience it may take to get past the slow beginnings.  I've been a fan of McEwan's since the 1990's when I read The Comfort of Strangers, a bizarre story of love and obsession that takes place in Venice - his early books, while generally much shorter than his later works, are also a bit strange, but very interesting.  I'm looking forward to our discussion on Thursday evening.

I also finished listening to Defending Jacob on Thursday.  It was fabulous!  I don't usually try to guess the outcome of mystery-dramas, don't usually try do guess whodunnit or whether the person in question is really guilty or innocent, and how this will be proven, but this one had me in suspense to the very end.  It was brilliantly written and compelling to the last... I was going to say "page", but since it was an audiobook, I guess I could say, compelling to the last "word".  I checked to see if there were any other books by William Landay available as audiobooks through the library, but there were no other titles available.  He does, however, have two other novels, The Strangler and Mission Flats - I may have to check to library catalogue for these titles in print.  I would definitely recommend Defending Jacob.

I was trying to decide on my next audiobook, and started listening to a few titles I had downloaded, but none of the titles I had available appealed to me, so I had to check out a few more titles and download them from the library.  I love the free access the library provides, as you really can't know about an audiobook until you download it and listen to it.  I'm sure I dislike and delete as many books as I listen to, so if I had to buy all of these titles, I'd probably be a very discouraged listener.  I now have a few Ruth Rendell and Agatha Christie titles downloaded, as well as some random titles by authors I know nothing about but which sounded mildly interesting.  I started listening to Rendell's Babes in the Wood yesterday, but only had a chance to listen to the prologue so far. 

Summer really is busier than fall and winter, so I can understand why people often choose to read "light" or fast-paced books during this time, as it's difficult to find enough time to devote to a "serious" novel.  I have to choose something to read over the next few weeks, as it is far too early to start reading my next book club choice - we won't be meeting until August 11th.  I have a few books in mind (none of them light!), and will have to make a decision to start one today.  Hmmm... another Ian McEwan (I have an advanced reading copy of his newest book, Sweet Tooth, a novel of espionage and desire), or something by a new author (new to me, at least)?  I'll let you know next time.

Bye for now!
Julie