Summer reading challenge!

Hi ladies!
It's that time of year again - school is almost out, and we are almost free! Time to get out the books and start reading grown-up words again.

My first recommendation is The Summer Tree by Guy Gavriel Kay. He gets bonus points for being a Canadian author, but this book has been a classic for years. The books seems to alternately get great and terrible reviews, depending on whether the reader likes the genre. Yes, it's a fantasy book about four "normal" people plucked from the everyday and dropped into an alternate universe, but like series such as Narnia and Lord of the Rings, the concept works. The characters are real and approachable, and the new world they find themselves in is as creatively imagined as anything I've ever read. The best part for me was that GGKay obviously has read his archetypal literature, and there are themes and ideas here that I've always enjoyed.

I can lend my brother's copy if you promise to return it in good condition, otherwise it's available at any library or second-hand bookshop.

I haven't read anything else heart-stoppingly good, so I'll wait and see before I recommend anything else. Now, who's next?

Exciting, exciting!

I have just discovered a something new to me and well established to the rest of the world. Check out BookCrossings! I've caught my first book, and I was surprised to discover that it has travelled through the ex-pat community in South Korea! What a small world. I'm ridiculously excited about this.

Check out my bookshelf:
Commit random acts of literacy! Read & Release at http://www.bookcrossing.com/friend/arin13

This one's for the English majors...

Just in case you don't read Cat and Girl regularly...this one made me pee myself.

Why is popular fiction crap?

I just finished reading Arthur Golden's Memoirs of a Geisha. It was recommended to me ages ago, but I never thought of reading it until the movie came out. I always like to read the book before I see the movie, mostly because I feel most movies suck the life out of books simply for commercial profit. But that's an argument for another day.

Memoirs is a nice little book for reading on a bus or a train. There's nothing too complex about it, and every nuance is explained for the reader, just in case they are too dumb to get it on their own. I'm not saying it's a bad read. It's even a charming story and worth reading if you are interested in Japanese culture or the role of a geisha in society. While I am not the one to critique the research, there are glowing reviews of its accuracy and insight. Regardless, it's no intellectual giant. The writing is almost completely without proper metaphor. If there is one, it is shortly followed by a lengthy explanation, detailing everything the author wants me to think of when he gives me the image.

This is not new. Popular fiction has been overexplaining things for ages, it seems. Whereas the author used to be the one who was intelligent, now the power is in the hands of the readers. In earlier years, if you didn't 'get' what you were reading, you assumed it was your own fault and tried to elucidate matters on your own time. Now readers simply dump books that require any kind of a mental workout. So authors spend too much time explaining everything to the reader to avoid the possibility their book will be sidelined for being too intelligent.

What is it with the dumbing down of society?

I realize that complaining about Memoirs being too simple right after I complained that Everything is Illuminated is too vague is a complete cause for my dismissal as any kind of semi-legitimate critic, but I never pretended to make sense.

Read Memoirs. Better yet, see the movie. You aren't missing anything epic, but it sure is a sweet little book.

I'm so long-winded, I need two entries.

I couldn't throw this recommendation away at the end of that last entry.

A while ago, Nes gave me a copy of ,said the shotgun to the head by Saul Williams. It's not long to read once, but it really requires several readings. It's not a book, it's a long poem. I can't really begin to describe it, but it is a mind-altering read. He addresses so many ideas and thoughts is such a in/coherent series of images and words that reading it will leave you confused, breathless and wanting more.

It makes more sense when you read the poem, but to explain would demean the book and not get me any further along in explanation. Read the book quickly, and your brain will feel like it's had a quickie in a dark corner. Read it slowly, and your brain will be overwhelmed by sensualness and images. Either way, it's like sex in that finishing will only make you want to do it again. Great read.

I've finally read a book!

Since I started my new job, I haven't had a lot of time to read, although I've made a point of reading whenever I can. I tried to make my way through my normal (read modern-esque British) slog, but it just wasn't working. One day I was in Chapters and I saw a copy of Everything is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer. I have been waiting to get the rotating copy that all my friends are reading for so long that it almost made sense to save myself the frustration and buy it myself. (Did you hear that Kris? Don't stress yourself about getting it read by this weekend. Like you'd give it up before you were ready...) So I read a book.

When I mentioned that I was reading at work, everyone (well everyone who listens to the overopinionated newbie...) was shocked that I had any time to read, and that I even bothered to try. "Why don't you just read over the summer?" When did reading become so second-rate in out society? This is a room full of teachers, who, in theory, are trying to instill a love of reading and learning in small children, and they think that reading is something that can wait for vacations and sick days? No wonder the students don't see the point of what we teach them. We try to teach all this math, language, history, geography, science...and the kids realize that there's no point in learning anything that they aren't going to use for their everyday life and their job. They realize that they need to read well enough to get through a newspaper and office memos, but no one teaches children anymore to read so they can learn to have a true appreciation of Dickens and Thackeray. Learning isn't valued in our society anymore for the sake of being learned. As the children reflect, the only value we place on knowledge is how far it can get us; there's a far higher value placed on 'street smarts' and 'intuitive knowledge'.

It pisses me off, but I don't know what to do about it.

Regardless of that, about the book: as a general rule, I don't like books where I feel like I missed the greater point. I don't think that I didn't get this book, but I really was expecting more of an emotional thump out of it because of the way that others spoke of it. True, it's one of the better examples of Holocaust fiction that I've read, I just couldn't get as excited about it as Nes did. I was expecting more about the 'illumination' and a little less about the sexual proclivities of Sammy Davis Junior, Junior. While there was a point to the humour, and much of it was necessary to the development of the novel, I couldn't get past some of the stupidity of it for the real core of the novel. Don't get me wrong, I like the book, and I am going to get around to recommending it, but I had trouble with it. Maybe I'm a little secretly angry because I really don't like feeling stupid, but I don't think that the author is good enough to have the film rights to his next novel be bought before the book is even published!

What does the novel do? I agree that the real nature of revelation lies within Alex and Alex. If I didn't find the portrayal a little to earnest to harbour sarcasm, I'd say that the character of Jonathan exists to show how divided the Americanized descendants of tragedy are from their ancestors who actually experienced it. I can't tell. If the author is really taking potshots at people who travel back to the 'old country' to find their roots, then he's better than I give him credit for. But I found the criticism a little too subtle to be intentional - I think I'm reading into it. But if I learned one thing in my undergrad, it's that the reader's interpretation is as valid, if not more so, than what the author intended! So if I find that the unwritten social commentary destabilizes the narrative of the intended author and makes him the antihero of his own tale, then I've got all the right, if I can prove it. I digress.

The story of Alex and Alex, and how each one grows to accept the situation of his life with honour and pride is one that I truly enjoy. The story of the descendents of Trachimbrod and their ... misadventures is both riotous and heartrending. I could just do without the self-important, overly self-aware self-authoring of Jonathan Safran Foer. He's pretentious. If the author meant for him to seem that way, I think the author is brilliant. But naming a character after yourself and then making him unlikeable is a sure way to make yourself as an author seem stupid and narcissistic.

I can't wait to debate this one with Nes!

A real good novel, seriously check this one out

Have any of you read any Douglad Coupland? I read my first book by him on the weekend, and I was very much impressed. He's from Vancouver, which I didn't know.

Anyway, the book I read was called Elanor Rigby, after the Beatles song about incurable lonliness. The main character in the novel, Liz Dunn, is one of those lonely people. I don't really know how describe this book without giving it away, so I'm going to do it the sucker way and just quote from the book jacket, because I can't think of a better way to say it:

"Liz Dunn is 42 years old, and lonely. Her house is like 'a spinter's cell block', and she may or may not snore - there's never been anybody to tell her. Then one day in 1997, with the comet Hale Bopp burning bright in the blue-black sky, Liz recieves an urgent phone call asking her to visit a young man in hospital. All at once, the loneliness that has come to define her is ripped away by this funny, smart, handsome young stranger, Jeremy. Her son."

So, obviously, the kid was put up for adoption. The book unfolds and explains why, and Jeremy's character develops and you start to love him and love Liz in ways you didn't expect. And various curve-balls in the story are thrown, and you can't stop reading and reading. I finished this one in less than two days. I am a machine.

Scary Children's Books

We haven't been posting much, as all three snobs are off on teaching adventures. Kris and Linz are in their first classrooms and Nes is teaching English in South Korea. Needless to say, this doesn't leave a lot of time for reading!

Nonetheless, I have read something worth writing about. It is a children's book I was reading for my class - I wanted to see if I could use it for my October read-aloud book, but it's been scrapped for that.

Coraline is by Neil Gaiman, of Sandman fame. Apparently it's a great book for kids, and is recommended for ages eight and up. (However, one of the reviewers suggested grade 6 and up. That's a whole different story.) It's gotten rave reviews ("The most splendidly original, weird, and frightening book I have read, and yet full of things children will love." -Terry Pratchett) and I don't disagree that it is a wonderfully original and creepy tale. I just want to know who in the hell thought it would be a good idea for grade three students to read it?! It didn't scare me and much as I found it genuinely creepy. The description of the "other mother", the villain of the tale, brings up a scary monster for my imagination. I can't imagine what the little kids who read it would think. My grade four students would be more than capable of reading it, although they would need to look up some of the more eloquent words in the dictionary, but it would have scared the bloody bejeezus out of grade four me.

No, I was not that much of a wuss. It is a really frightening book.

I would recommend that anyone read it. Books for children are becoming more and more readable these days. It's not enough to plunk down some nauseatingly saccharine tale about the Secret Seven and their oh-so-family-approved hi-jinks. Although Harry Potter is the most (in)famous example of kid's books for adult readers, there are lots of books that offer a satisfying read without the sex, violence and commitment of a 500-page novel. Who has read Katherine Paterson's Bridge to Terabithia? I still cry when the ... major event happens. For more well-written books, try The Boy in the Burning House by Tim Wynne-Jones, or Adam and Eve and Pinch-Me by Julie Johnson. Books meant for children often feel weakest in the ending, as kids really need strings neatly tied at the end (at least more so than adults). But that doesn't mean they can't be fun and heart-warming up until then.

But back to my original rant: why would a book that will likely scare the bejeezus out of grade schoolers be considered a good thing? Since when do kids want/need to be scared? I realize that the fairy tales that used to be told were a whole helluva lot scarier than the watered-down versions we have now, but Coraline is a fantasy. There is no moral element that gives reason to the scariness. I guess I'm just not sure what to do about it. It's in my lending library for the kids right now, but I know if someone wants to borrow it, I'll have to write a note to the parents first. Recommended for grade threes or not, I don't want some irate mommy telling me that the book gave their kid nightmares!

An Autobiography of sorts

You guys should check out The Diary of Ma Yan: The Struggles and Hopes of a Chinese Schoolgirl. It was a birthday gift, and a very good one (thanks, Cam!). This book is a translation of Ma Yan's diary, which she wrote from age 13-14. The book in theory is a quick read due to the author's youth; however the content may make you slow down a lot.

Ma Yan is a girl living in one of the poorest regions of China: the government has declared her region uninhabitable. However, her family and most of the villagers still remain in the region because they cannot afford to go anywhere else. To give you an idea of their finances, Ma Yan went without food for about two weeks in order to afford a ballpoint pen. She survived solely on a single rice ration a day, whereas normally her money would go to vegetables to suppliment the rice.

Reading her diary reminded me of reading Anne Frank's diary. Both girls face unimaginable circumstances beyond their control, and lead exceedingly bleak and depressing lives, yet still manage to see beauty in the world. Fortunately for Ma Yan, her story ends well, and in the end you want to cry because you are happy, not because you are horribly depressed and emotionally drained, as I experienced with Anne Frank's diary.

Anyhow, this book is a definite must-read, not only for the overall beauty of Ma Yan's story, but also because of the insight it allows us into the lives of Chinese people, the details of which are often closely guarded by the government. Pick up this book (you'll have to ask Cam where he got it). I give it an 8.5/10

I've finally read something worth writing about!

I fully admit that I've been reading absolute crap for the past few weeks. Since finishing Harry Potter 6, I have been re-reading some crap that I loved as a teenager. My sister is reading Marion Zimmer Bradley's Avalon series for the first time. I read them in my late teens, and having nothing but time on my hands, I thought I'd give them another once-over. I can still see why I liked them as a kid, but they seem so trite and overdone now. How many books that I still love would seem like junk if I re-read them? Some of the books that I liked as a child I know are still good; like Richard Adam's Watership Down, C.S.Lewis' Narnia series and a little known Canadian book called Beautiful Joe, by Marshall Saunders. (Which is based on a true story from Meaford, Ontario!) There are so many others that I remember as being great, but I was no critic in those days (though I'm not much of one now, either!) Regardless, I wander.

I finished Barney's Version, by Mordecai Richler, and I highly recommend it to anyone. It's a good book, and an entertaining read. I don't know that I really got much out of it, other than a weekend's entertainment. It's part of a well respected genre of Canadian fiction: the Jewish writer in Montreal. It's also a good story, with a wry twist at the end. It's nothing to sweeping emotional sagas, like MacLeod's No Great Mischief, but it certainly has it's own ...something. Dare I say that it's a very Jewish book? It's funny, sarcastic, self-aware and sad. It covers a whole lifetime in a series of memories and moments. And despite what Craig Cardiff says, it's a wonderful book about remembering.

Speaking of good books about Jewishness, everyone should read The Archivist by Martha Cooley, which was one of our summer recommendations long before this site came into being (I think credit goes to Kris, and David Glassco for this one.) Aw, hell, read it anyways, but keep a copy of T.S. Eliot's collected poems nearby for reference.

Can anyone recommend a good Eliot biography?

Finally, the book I'm actually excited about. Julia recommended this to the Trent English ex-pats while we were at Queen's, and I've finally had the time to start it. Anita Diamant's The Red Tent is an ambitious retelling of sidelined tale of Jacob's only daughter, Dinah. In the Bible, she is merely the unwitting initiate of the downfall of her brothers (long before they sold Joseph into slavery), but Diamant makes it a rich story all in its own, with the main characters of the Bible as mere secondary characters. This is a women's book. I don't know how to describe what a women's book is, but I know that this is one, like Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale is one. Not that a man may not enjoy it as a literary work, but its main setting is the red tent of the women, where the wives of Jacob come together during menstruation. Not something that many men could be familiar with... It's a wonderful representation of the herstory that often gets left out of history. Dinah's tale is a rememberance of womens's knowledge and stories, and well as a look at how women shape the outcome of the Bible.

But it still brings the question: how does one define a women's book? I don't mean chicklit, or seedy romance novels for the bored, but books that are genuinely female in their sense and story. This doesn't just mean having a female author or a female protagonist. Like I said, I can't quite put my finger on it. Here are some books I would argue are essentially female: Diamant's The Red Tent, Atwood's Handmaid's Tale, and Angela Carter's Nights at the Circus or Wise Children (but not The Infernal Desire Machine). I would argue that Mrs. Dalloway is not a women's book, despite having both a female protagonist and author. Now I've just got myself all confused. Anyone?

Amazing book alert!

I just finished Everything is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer. Holy crap, you guys need to read this book!!

It's about a 20-year-old American man (fictional, but with the same name as the author) who goes to the Ukraine to try and find a woman who helped his grandfather escape the Nazis during WWII. That is the most basic element of the story, but there is really three stories in one. You get Jonathan's story as he searches for the then-girl who saved his grandfather; the story of the translator that Jonathan hires to navigate the Ukraine; and you also get the history of the village that Jonathan is decended from. The three stories are told interchangeably and the whole book is told in an incredibly unique way. I cannot tell very much without giving away the plot. But what you learn about Jonathan and the people he meets in the Ukraine is such an excellent story - it sucks you in and pulls you along, and you can't put the book down. It's one of the best books I've read in a long time. I don't own it, but Kyle does, so you can borrow it from him. I give the a book a 10 out of 10. Yes!

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

I finished it today. But I'll wait until the rest of the gang has caught up.
I will say that 10 hours reading marathons do make your eyes sore!

Invitation to a Beheading

I've just finished Invitation to a Beheading by Vladimir Nabokov. It was written in 1959, in the USSR. The influence Communist rule is present from the very beginning. The story is about a man named Cincinnatus C. (his last name is never given), and the book opens with Cincinnatus being sentenced to death in a court of law. The story is in the USSR, of course, but also some kind of strange, alternate reality runs parallel to the events that unfold. I don't want to give too much away: the book basically depicts Cininnatus' last days in prison, so much of the book is consumed with introspective thoughts and interactions with prison employees. But, the book reminded me of Franz Kafka's The Trial in that the reader is drawn into something serious that is happening to the main character; it is not entirely clear how he got into that position, but it is also clear that there is little the main character can do about his situation and the actions of the people around him. It is frustrating at times for this reason, but the story is gripping, and pulls you along, agressively. I recommend it to both of you, although I personally expect that Linz will like it better than Kris.

Can anyone help here?

My grandmother really wants to find out who said/wrote this, and while it isn't directly bookish, I don't know where else to pick literary brains without entering some scary forum.

"For I in thy heart/ Had dwelling/ And thou has in mine/ Forever."

I've searched the Internet in vain. All I found were records of gravestones with this written on them, and nobody seems to be particularly concerned with methods of proper literary documentation on gravestones!

Any clues?

Timothy Findley: I love you

One of Timothy Findley's recurring themes is the distruction of the family unit from within, and Not Wanted on the Voyage is no exception. I thought that it couldn't get worse than in The Last of the Crazy People, but it is possible.

Not Wanted on the Voyage is the story of Noah Noyles, his wife, their three sons, and their sons' wives. Noah is the Noah, from the Bible. The story opens with the family already in a state of decline. Then God shows up and explains to Noah that he's going to flood the world, so Noah had better build an arc ASAP, and load it up with all these animals I brought you. So Noah does just that, and completely destroys his family in the process.

The Bible tells the story of Noah in a very ho-hum, everything-is-gonna-be-cool kind of way. Everything is orderly, peaceful: the animals practicaly hold hands and skip two by two into the boat. Findley, of course, doesn't tell it that way. I normally would steer clear of a book based on a religious tale; but trust Finldey to do a very tongue-in-cheek, somewhat snide account of Biblical events, complete with gender bending and homosexual undertones.

I do not want to ruin the plot, or the ending, so I won't go much further into detail, lest I spoil it. I would, however, strongly recommend this book to anyone, religious or no. Findley himself was a gay man with very cynical views of religion - Christianity in particular. Wikipedia describes Findley as such: "His writing, typical of the Southern Ontario Gothic genre, was heavily influenced by Jungian psychology, and mental illness, gender and sexuality were frequent recurring themes in his work. His characters often carried dark personal secrets, and were often conflicted -- sometimes to the point of psychosis -- by these burdens."

This novel is no exception, so if you enjoy a little darkness, you will enjoy this book as much as I do: it is rife with psycosis and, like Crazy People, is written in a seemingly simplistic fashion, with an incredibly dark and raw underlay, wich succeeds in revealing immense amounts of information about his characters. To establish some kind of rating sytem here, if I may: 8.5/10 points. (For the record, I give The Last of the Crazy People a 9.5/10, but i read it a while ago, and do not feel comfortable giving an adequate review!)

To outsiders who wish to be in

If you're reading this and you'd like to join our little collective, please contact Linz. I, along with Kris and Nes, form a kind of ad hoc executive committee for this site. If all three of us are willing, we'll add you.

At the time of this post, we are not currently accepting anyone new, but try me sometime because we're variable people, at best.

Also, if you don't know how to contact Linz, that means we don't know who you are. For the sake of simplicity, no strangers on this site. If you really think this is unfair, then you can tell me when you find me.

Good luck.

A little flat, but still good.

I've recently read three books and had the same reaction to all of them. I'm not sure whether this is a coincidence of selection or a reflection of my mood, but caveat reader if you choose to read any of these books!

Spadework by Timothy Findley is a good book to read if you're a Findley fan or a rabid outsider of the Stratford Festival, like myself. The book was a pleasure to read, the characters are well developed...but I can't place my finger on it. It wasn't a great read. It's certainly a good read, and excellent fair if you're looking for something for a long trip, but it never made itself into greatness. The heterosexual relationships were all a little flat and passionless. You could argue that this works with the motif of failing relations, but it made it hard to care about the outcomes of the ...problems. (Can't give away the plot!) Final verdict is that it will become a member of the cottage library, which consists of books that are good to read on the dock with a beer; but it won't become part of my library as I doubt I'll ever need to refer to it again. It's a pity, as Not Wanted on the Voyage is quite a good book - but I'll leave that to Nes to review.

One of my leftovers from university, E.M. Forster's A Passage to India, was my next book. I have to admit that I was really excited about this one. The course it was from, Modern British History, was one of my absolute favourite courses, taught by the professor that I hold in the highest esteem. Geoffrey is probably 80% of the reason I've considered applying to do postgraduate work in English. To top that off, I've enjoyed the other works I've read by Forster, Howard's End being my favourite. Let's end the preliminary excitement with my personal love of colonial fiction of India, and you can see that this book had a lot to live up to. I can see exactly why is fell a little flat.
I was deeply intrigued by the plot, and the British/Indian tension in the early 20th century is always a good background. the characters were completely in keeping with what i've come to expect from Forster; Brits of quiet desperation that get trapped by their social circumstances. It's a good read if you're patient and you've an interest in the subject, but I'd advise you to skip it if you're not really into it. While there is some really intriguing reading, there is a lot of dry dialogue in between. I hear there's a movie - maybe that will be more to one's liking.

Finally, I've finished Victor Hugo's oeuvre, Les Miserables. I received a gorgeous little copy as a gift a while ago, but I haven't been able to read it until now. To begin with, it is a classic, and reading it is everything that reading a classic is: long, sometimes dull, but ultimately rewarding. If you're a serious reader and you like the story, go for it! There are so many people who only merit 'sidelines' in the musical who get more extensive treatment here. But this is not for the faint of heart! There are seven chapters (which I skipped without shame) discussin what happened at the battle of Waterloo. I am a big fan of the story of Les Mis, which I read in short form long before I heard or saw the musical. I fell in love after seeing Les misérables du vingtième siècle in my French class, and I've been gearing up to read the original book ever since. If you are never going to read the book, at least see Les misérables du vingtième siècle - with a large box of tissues. It's available with subtitles, for the non-frogified among us. As for the book, it still does not replace my favourite classic as the most rewarding read I've ever had. That dubious honour goes to George Eliot's Middlemarch. That book nearly killed me to read it, and I still think it's great. Les Mis is just another dusty old tome worth taking off the shelf if you have the time.

But enough of books that failed to impress me as I thought they would. I am currently into the second of Jasper Fforde's Thursday Next series, and I am already engrossed!

My questions to you, dear readers: What is the best "classic" you've read? What is the most disappointing book you've ever read?