Tag: book lust i

Divine Secrets of The Ya-Ya Sisterhood

gr4c54 Comments

Wells, Rebecca. The Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood. New York: Penguin, 1996.Divine Secrets

This is Rebecca Well’s second novel, a follow up to Little Alters Everywhere. Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood continues the story of Vivi Abbott Walker and her friends (known as the Ya-yas), this time through the eyes of her adult, engaged-to-be-married, daughter, Siddalee Walker. Siddalee is a flourishing theater director who falls victim to the ever-famous, word-twisting interview. A reporter from the New York Times gets Siddalee to open up her childhood box of memories and reveal dark secrets about her upbringing. Ultimately, her mother’s alcoholism and abuse are exposed and Siddalee must spend the rest of the book apologizing to her mother for the scandal. When Siddalee calls off her engagement the Ya-Yas brazenly step in. In an effort to make her daughter understand who she is, Vivi mails her daughter a scrapbook and we are taken into the wonderous, playful yet dark world of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood.
Ultimately, I identified with this story. It’s the classic yet complex struggle between mother and daughter. Secrets revealed, hearts broken, lives changed. In the end, happiness and love prevail. I know you’ve seen the movie.

BookLust Twist: Divine Secrets comes up a couple of times in Book Lust. First, on page 83 in the chapter “Family Trouble” then in the chapter called “Women’s Friendships” (p 248).

Amsterdam

gr4c5Leave a comment

AmsterdamMcEwan, Ian. Amsterdam. New York: Anchor Books, 1999.

Another book that starts with a funeral. Of course, I’m thinking of Charming Billy. But, the comparisons stop there. How to describe Amsterdam? It is a short (193 page) novel that takes place in London, England. Two men share a bond of friendship as well as a romantic past with the same woman. Vernon is an editor of a newspaper and Clive is a modern composer. While they are friends they are not above rivalies and each, through his friendship tests the bounds of morality.

I see this story as a movie. There is one particular scene where Vernon feels dead. He is about to hit himself upside the head in order to feel pain when his secretary interrupts him, “He had raised the ruler several inches above his right ear when there was a knock on his open door and Jean, his secretary, entered and he was obliged to convert the blow into pensive scratching” (p 34). Can’t you just see it?

BookLust Twist: From Book Lust. Ian McEwan has his own chapter called, “Ian McEwan: Too Good To Miss” (p 149).

Disgrace

gr4c52 Comments

I’ll call this book my “spur of the moment, read in one day, can’t put it down” book. I’ll also call it Weather Front. It started out sunny and seemingly harmless and carefree. Then the clouds roll in, the rain comes in sheets. The poison seeps in. When the winds pick up to the point of hurricane force it is nothing short of violent and tragic, destructive and disgraceful. After the storm people pick up the pieces, healing yet hurting and more storm clouds can be seen, rumbling in the distance.
In the beginning everything seems fine. Professor Lurie is happy teaching literature in South Africa. But, almost immediately Professor Lurie makes a mistake in seducing a young student. His fall from grace is swift and absolute. Having lost all his social and professional connections he reconnects with the one person who can’t turn her back on him – his flesh and blood daughter. The rest of the story is how Lurie and his daughter deal with their already strained relationship. How Lurie tries to redeems himself is baffling. I found myself asking if he was really worth redemption at all. Maybe it was the name Lurie – too close to the word lurid.

My favorite line, “Affection may not be love, but at least its cousin” (p 2).

BooklustTwist: From Book Lust and the chapter called ” Families in Trouble” (p 82).

Warning: If you are an animal lover you may not want to read this book. What happens to humans is tragic enough, but what happens to the dogs is even worse. I know it’s a fact of life but the end of this book was hard to take. Nobel prize or not.

Athenian Murders

gr4c5Leave a comment

Athenian MurdersSomoza, Jose Carlos. The Athenian Murders: a Novel. New York: Fahar, Straus & Giroux, 2002.

I read a review where a critic described this book as Russian dolls, one larger stacked upon another. It is the most accurate description I can think of. The Athenian Murders is indeed a story within a story within a story. The largest doll story takes place in Greece in the time of Plato. In fact, Plato’s Academy is center stage. Athens is plagued by the mysterious murders of several men and before the city can erupt in terror Hercules, the Decipherer of Enigmas, must solve the who-dunnit. Footnoted within the story is the second story – the nameless translator who has his own story to tell as he translates The Athenian Murders. Of course, there is a twist at the end with another story.
It took me a little while to really “get into” this story. I have to admit, I get annoyed by repetition and the word eidetic – let’s put it this way – eidetic or eidesis is used 50 times in the first 100 pages. Talk about repetition!

I have to ask. Is the scar on the right cheek (as mentioned on page 210), or on the left (p 217)?

BookLust Twist: From Book Lust and the chapter titled “The Classical World” (p 60).

Abandoned Bride

gr4c52 Comments

Abandoned BrideLayton, Edith. The Disdainful Marquis and The Abandoned Bride. New York: Signet, 2002.

One of the great things about this BookLust challenge is the fact that I get to read so many different and interesting books in order to complete the challenge. The only bad thing is romance novels are included in the list and they certainly are “different”…in other words, not my cup of tea or coffee. I simply don’t read the “bodice rippers” as I call them. They scare me. I can’t get into all that…heaving.
Luckily, out of this double feature paperback I only had to read the Abandoned Bride story, and I did it on another quick trip to Maine this past weekend. Here’s the kicker – this one wasn’t that bad. Okay, so the heroine of the story is stunningly, absolutely, beautiful (I can’t even tell you how many times her beauty was referred to – especially her “moonlight-spun gold hair.”) and the villain (who, of course, turns out to be Mr. Romance) is dashing and “trim.” But, the story really wasn’t that bad. Here’s the premise: Julia (Miss Moonspun Hair, virginal-too-good-to-be-true-at-17-years-old) is set to elope with Robin, a boyishly handsome rich guy. They run away to some lodge where he abruptly leaves her for unknown reasons. Three years later Robin’s uncle, Nick (the dashing, trim, bad guy) “kidnaps” Julia in an effort to get her and Robin together to right past wrongs. Robin is also supposed to take over his father’s inheritance and he can’t do that while he’s running away from the memory of Julia (so he claims). The immediate problem is Robin doesn’t want to be found so Nick must drag Julia, against her will, of course, across the continent looking for Robin.
As you can probably guess, the falling in love of Nick and Julia is predictable and a little silly, but the reason for Robin’s abandonment was an interesting twist. I only figured it out when Robin is finally confronted by Julia.

Here are a few favorite lines: “…the entire stack of books fell open neatly to the middle to reveal that the book covers were false and what lay within them was not pages, but a cleverly designed box containing two decanters and a set of blown crystal glasses. “Ha!” Sir Sidney said with satisfaction. “now this, I think, is what a library is really for.”” (p 102) and “I am leagues in love with you” (p 217).

My only moment of “huh?” was when Julia used a phrase similar to being buttered up and I’d like to know if someone could be flattered in the sense of being “buttered up” in 1815.

BookLust Twist: From Book Lust in the chapter called, “Romance Novels: Our Love is Here to Stay” (p 203).

Gift from the Sea

gr4c5Leave a comment

GiftsLindbergh, Anne Morrow. Gift From the Sea. New York: Vintage Books, 1991.

I have to say this is something every woman should read annually. The words and their meaning will change every single time and they will be different for every reader. In the simpliest of terms Gift From the Sea uses seashells, (whelk, moon shell, oyster) all gifts from the sea, as metaphors for life, vehicles for deeper thoughts. On vacation (ironically on an island, like me) Anne picks seashells and ponders religion, relationships, growing old, being young, nature, love and marriage…She picks at nagging thoughts like scabs, letting them bleed, revealing raw emotion and a tender heart. Here are a few of my favorite quotes:

“…I think best with a pencil in my hand” (p 9). I agree!
“…I have shed the shell of my life for these few weeks of vacation” (p 22). Since I was on vacation when I read that I had to smile because it happens to me, too.
“…social life is exhausting; one is wearing a mask” (p 32). Very true! Couldn’t have said it better myself.
“And since our communication seems more important to us than our chores, the chores are done without thinking” (p 100).

I read this in an afternoon. Gulls cried overhead, sea air salted my skin, waves crashed in the distance. It was the perfect setting for Gift from the Sea.

BookLust Twist: From the chapter called “Journals and Letters: We Are All Voyeurs at Heart” (p 130). I swear on everything holy I did NOT have More Book Lust with me when I wrote this review. I was still home without any of my Pearl books. So, I was incredibly surprised to read these words from Pearl, “Some of us still reread them yearly to remind ourselves of what’s important in this frantic world” (p 131). Pearl is referring to everything written by Lindbergh, but I had the exact same thought specifically about Gift from the Sea. Gift from the Sea is also in Book Lust in the chapter, “100 Good Reads, Decade by Decade” (p 175).

All-Bright Court

gr4c5Leave a comment

All-Bright CourtPorter, Connie. All-Bright Court. New York: HarperPerennial, 1992.

I adore debut novels. There is something about that leap of faith that a writer must take before anything else can happen. Every writer is a closet published writer. They walk around with the words in their head, barely daring to dreaming of the day those words will be sold in a big bookstore. Opened up for all the world to see.
That’s exactly how I picture Connie Porter, walking around with the words to All-Bright Court in her head, dreaming of the day they’ll be on paper. I can picture the personalities of  the All-Bright Court residents starting to take shape. It’s the story of two decades of african american families trying to make their way in a steel mill town near Buffalo, New York. All-Bright Court is the housing project that ties them all together.

“She found herself saving things to say to her, storing them away in her mind, folding them as neatly as sheets.” (p 82).
“These people lived inches away from one another, and much of what was done did not have to be told. They did not look away because they did not want to know. They looked away because they did know, and looking away was the only way to grant the woman dignity, to go on believing, to let her go on believing she was a woman” (p 85).

BookLust Twist: From Book Lust  and the chapter “African American: She Say” (p 12).

Tuck Everlasting

gr4c51 Comment

Tuck EverlastingBabbitt, Natalie. Tuck Everlasting.New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1985.

Do I dare say this book was delightful? I read it in an hour over a tuna sandwich lunchbreak. It’s a cute story about ten year old Winnie Foster and her discovery of a family that has eternal life. At first it seems impossible, but after befriending the strange family, Winnie realizes it’s true. The one complication of the story? Someone else (aka “bad guy”) knows the secret and wants to market it for himself.

Favorite line: “The first week of August was asserting itself after a good night’s sleep” (p 86). I like the imagery of this, of August saving it’s energy during the night in order to roast the day.

BookLust Twist: From Book Lust.

Sounder

gr4c5Leave a comment

SounderArmstrong, William, H. Sounder. New York: Harper & Row, 1969.

Haunting. I find this story haunting on so many different levels. Haunting and tragic. Where do I begin? Where can I begin? The copy of Sounder I picked up had the words “now a motion picture!” emblazoned across the cover with photographs of scenes from the movie inside. Of course, I studied the photos before I read a single word and saw pictures of an obviously poor black family. One picture showed the mother with three kids as a father, handcuffed, is being led away by white, mean looking “authorities.” Another picture depicts the “criminal” as he is about to be struck by a prison guard…

But, the tragic pictures couldn’t prepare me for the quiet yet strong story. The raw undercurrent of something more ominous buzzed constantly. No one in the story has a name except the family hunting dog, Sounder. The father is accused of stealing a ham and is sent to jail, the mother cracks walnuts and sells the meat in town. There are three children and the story is told from the oldest’s perspective.
During the father’s arrest, Sounder is shot. Everyone in the family thinks Sounder is dead. What amazes me is the oldest son is more worried about the dog than his own father. His father’s guilt is plain, simple and true when his mother returns what was stolen, yet because Sounder’s body cannot be found, it’s all the boy can think about. “If the deputy sherrif had turned around on the seat of the wagon and shot his father, the visiting preacher and somebody would bring him back and bury him behind the meetin’ house, the boy thought. And if Sounder dies, I won’t drag him over the hard earth. I’ll carry him. I know I can carry him if I try hard enough, and I will bury him across the field, near the fencerow, under the big jack oak tree.” (p34)

I can’t do the storyline justice, but the writing is beautiful. Here are a few of my favorite lines:

  • “And Sounder, too, settin’ on his haunches, would speak to the moon in ghost-stirrin’ tones of lonesome dog-talk” (p 38).
  • “Now the cabin was even quieter than it had been before loneliness put its stamp on everything” (p 76).

BookLust Twist: From Book Lust and the chapter called “Three-Hanky Reads.” Sounder is paired with other dog books for children like Beautiful Joe and Goodbye, My Lady (p 237).

Zelda: A biography

gr4c53 Comments

ZeldaMilford, Nancy Winston. Zelda: A biography. New York: Harper & Row, 1970.

I want to be Zelda. Zelda as a young girl, that is. From the time she was a small child and all through her teens she was a strong-will, independent, defiant, do-as-I-like girl. She was wild and free, not confined to WhatWillTheyThinkOfMe thoughts. We do have something, one thing in common, “Zelda did not have the knack for forming close friendships with girls her own age” (p16). I can relate but unlike Zelda, it’s not to say the similarity didn’t cause me considerable angst.

Zelda, as Mrs. F. Scott Fitzgerald, seem to have it all. As a couple, they roamed America and Europe carefree and extravagantly. One of their friends made a prediction, “I do not think the marriage can succeed. Both drinking heavily. Think they will be divorced in 3 years” (p67). Even parenting didn’t slow down the partying. Scottie, their daughter was pawned off on nannies most of the time.
In the summer of 1929 Zelda quietly went mad. “…Zelda sank more deeply into her private world, becoming increasingly remote from Scott and Scottie” (p 155). Her turmoil during a stay in a mental institute is well documented through letters to Scott. It was heartbreaking to read and I decided I didn’t like F. Scott and maybe I didn’t want to be Zelda anymore. But, what I am now is fascinated with Zelda’s life. I want to read her book, Save Me the Waltz. I suppose it will have to wait until after the BLC.

Probably the thing that disturbed me the most about this biography is F. Scott. He blatently took Zelda’s life as subject matter for most, if not all, of his novels. When Zelda tried to do the same thing he became jealous and domineering, demanding she edit certain parts (which she does). It’s as if he is unable to accept the possibility that his wife has talent as a writer. The inequality in their relationship speaks volumes.

BookLust Twist: From Book Lust and the chapter “People You Ought to Meet” (p 183). She called the book “compelling” and I would say she forgot to add “tragic” because by the end of Milford’s biography of Zelda I was heartbroken.

The Awakening (w/ spoiler)

gr4c52 Comments

AwakeningChopin, Kate. The Awakening. New York: New American Library, 1976.

If I had a tag for “feminism” this book would be under it. Actually, it’s more of a long short story than a book. Only 125 pages long Kate Chopin tells the story of discontented, tragic Edna Pontellier. A wife and a mother she is dutiful as both until a younger man awakens her inner rebel and sex goddess. You can see it start slowly when she states, “I feel this summer as if I were walking thrugh the green meadow again; idly, aimlessly, unthinking and unguided” (p. 17). It grows stronger when she disobeys her husband, “Another time she would have gone in at his request” (p. 33). Finally, the ultimate of rebellion reaches its peak when she is seduced by another man, Arobin. “He did not say goodnight until she had become supple to his gentle, seductive entreaties” (p. 100).

BookLust Twist: While Pearl doesn’t think anything really happened with Edna (” …poor Edna Pontellier…who doesn’t actually do anything but suffers the consequences anyway.” More Book Lust, Wayward Wives p 232), I strongly disagree. What Edna doesn’t do is be a good mother to her kids (they’re shipped off while she pretends to be an artist), or a good wife. She moved out of their home while hubby’s away. He’s left making excuses to save face (said the house was being renovated and that’s why his wife took up another residence).

In the end Edna commits suicide. She knows she’s not a good mother. She knows she isn’t a faithful wife. She can’t have the man who truly awakened her sexuality. Trapped in a life she cannot conform to she walks into the sea never to emerge.

Allegra Maud Goldman

gr4c5Leave a comment

AllegraKonecky, Edith. Allegra Maud Goldman. New York: The Feminist Press, 1990.

This was another one of those “kid books” – about a kid coming of age, I should say. I enjoyed this much better than the Angus book. Both have witty, sarcastic, growing up girl narratives only Allegra is Jewish instead of Catholic and lives in Brooklyn, New York instead of England. She isn’t afraid to use her mind, or speak it. A few of my favorite quotes:

“Just thinking about that whole library filled with ideas, things to mull over , all sorts of new people to get to know, boggled my mind.” (p88)

“”You’ll never be really happy as a woman,” Sonia said “until you have your own sweet baby at your breast.” I recognized this as something her mother was always saying to her, but I refrained from throwing up.” (p145)

I enjoyed this book a great deal. Allegra Maud Goldman is my kind of kid. Her sense of humor stands up and takes a bow in the face if that audience called insecurity that only growing up can produce.

BookLust Twist: From Book Lust in the chapter appropriately called, “Girls Growing up” (p 101). Pearl liked Allegra as much as I did saying, “…Konecky manages to write from a child’s point of view  without ending up sounding silly, condescending or false.” (p 102)

About a Boy

gr4c51 Comment

About a boyHornby, Nick. About a Boy.New York: Riverhead Books, 1998.

I have heard so much about this book. Maybe it’s because I’ve liked other Hornby books that have been made into movies~ Fever Pitch & High Fidelity. Will is a pretty interesting character. He’s a single guy, bound and determined to never work a day in his life. He spends his time watching movies, listening to music and trolling for women. His newest tactic is to join SPAT (Single Parents Alone – Together). Needless to say, he’s not a single parent. In reality he hates kids. He’s callous and shallow but you can’t help but like him, especially when he gets involved with Fiona and her 12 year old son Marcus.

“There were about seventy-nine squillion people in the world, and if you were very lucky, you would end up being loved by 15-20 of them” (p147).

One of the things that struck me about this story is the philosophical ending. Marcus is a boy who acts too old for his age, too serious for his youth while Will acts too young for his years, too immature for the adulthood he is in. In the end they learn to swap maturities – growing down and up. Now I want to see the movie.

BookLust Twist: From both Book Lust and More Book Lust. In More Book Lust About a Boy is in the Chapter, “Dick Lit” (p.79). If you are scratching your head, think chick lit. Get it?

The Paperboy (with Spoiler)

gr4c5Leave a comment

PaperboyDexter, Pete. The Paperboy. New York: Random House, 1995.

For the longest time I have been concentrating on books that begin with the letter ‘A’ such as About Time, Animal Dreams, and Awakening. As if getting through the A titles would be the most reasonable thing to do first. When The Paperboy by Pete Dexter showed up at my library I felt it was a sign to read it. Especially since it’s on The List and academics don’t keep books like The Paperboy around. I listen to signs.

The Paperboy is an intriguing first-person tale about two brothers working to prove the innocence of a man convicted of murdering Moat County Sheriff Thurmond Call. As Hillary Van Wetter sits on death row, looking as guilty as a child with his hand caught in the cookie jar, Jack James and his journalist brother Ward investigate the events leading up to the murder. They get help along the way from Van Wetter’s girlfriend – an apparent death row groupie – as well as other interesting characters.
All the evidence leads towards Van Wetter’s innocence until one day it doesn’t. Instead of all hell breaking loose purgatory unfolds, unwinds for the brothers, slow and sinister like a boa constrictor unfurling itself from a tree limb. Things go from bad to worse until dark becomes death. I couldn’t put it down for three days straight. Even though I saw Ward’s suicide coming the instant he wanted to know more about swimming it still took me by surprise when it finally happened. 

BookLust Twists: From Nancy Pearl’s Book Lust and More Book Lust. In Book Lust in the chapter “First Lines to Remember” Pearl draws attention to Dexter’s first line, “My brother Ward was once a famous man”‘ (p.86) and in More Book Lust in the chapter called “O Brother!” (p180).

13 Days to Glory

gr4c5Leave a comment

13 daysTinkle, Lon. 13 Days to Glory: The Siege of the Alamo. New York: Macgraw-Hill, 1958

“Remember the Alamo!” is all that I remember from my Texas history lessons. No matter. Reading 13 Days to Glory has brought me up to speed. Tinkle wrote 13 Days based on letters and newspaper reports and gives a day by day and even hour by hour account of the siege. I now can tell you where the phrase “Remember the Alamo” originated from, the time of year (February), the weather (cold), and characters (Jim Bowie, Davey Crockett, William Travis & Santa Ana to name a few), too.

Set up as a historical novel with character thoughts and feelings, 13 days also includes photography of portraits and of course, the Alamo then and now. The picture of the Alamo church next to the San Antonio medical arts center is impressive.
The siege was incredibly brutal. Santa Ana wanted every Texan dead – no surrenders, no escapes and he got what he wanted. Every Alamo defender was killed and unceremoniously burned. But, in defense of the Mexican General, Tinkle doesn’t spend much time telling his side of the story. It’s all about about keeping the legends of the Alamo alive. It makes me want to travel to Texas just to stand beside the legendary structure and lay a hand on its stone walls.

BookLust Twist: From Book Lust and the chapter called “Texas: A Lone Star State of Mind” (p233).