When Google's Doodle Informs My Reading Choices

Anyone else add Fools Crow to their reading list this morning? 

Thank you, Google, for mentioning it. I have to admit the company often slips me a history lesson, courtesy of the morning doodle. Today's doodle featured author James Welch, a Native American who wrote novels about, among other things, the loss of a culture. 

In a long quest to find and use natural remedies that work better than pharmaceuticals, or at least sans scary side effects, I have often lamented that we likely lost volumes of vital health information when we wiped out the Native American people. 



In a nutshell, Fools Crow is the title character, a young warrior and medicine man living in Montana with a small band of Blackfeet Indians. And, now, thanks to the Google doodle, it's on my (damn long) 2R list. 

Cheers. 

Image crecdit: Google, 11-18-2016

PS: In case you still question the value of having a blog, consider: Google has one.

A Prequel/Sequel Kind of Summer Reading

It's possible I'm stuck in a bit of a rut. Most of the books I've read this summer have been only sort-of new to me. From Grey (don't judge) to Go Set A Watchman, I've been reading about characters I'd gotten acquainted with pages ago.

Now summer's slipping away and I've yet to read the season's more exciting releases, like Girl on a Train and Judy Blume's latest for-grownups title, In the Unlikely Event. And coming this week are two more on my 2R list: Barbara the Slut and The Beautiful Bureaucrat.

OK, speak up if you've read something you want to dish about. Always open to guest bloggers! More time to read for me ;)

Favorite First Novels & NaNoWriMo

What's your favorite first? Oh come on. Every geeky reader has one.

 I think mine has to be The Bean Trees, by Barbara Kingsolver.

Writing Your Own First Novel?

Graphic novel, pulp fiction, love story, confession... whatever story you're sitting on, this could be your month!

November, of course, is NaNoWriMo - National Novel Writing Month, for the uninitiated. If you're  not writing your first novel this month, why don't you share the title of the best first novel you've read so far, and tell us why you loved it?

 

Guest Posts Welcome! 

When I'm not reading I'm tweeting or liking and sharing all over Facebook. Get in touch about your favorite first novel. I'd welcome your guest post about it, whether you're the author or not ;)

~Diane Stresing

The Fault in Our Stars

John Green’s most recent novel, The Fault in Our Stars, follows Hazel Lancaster through a year in her life – a life that’s bound to be too short. Hazel has cancer.

Green uses a fictitious novel (how's that?!) to add a dimension to the story. She and her boyfriend - who is in remission; they met through a support group - ultimately travel to Amsterdam to meet Peter Van Houton, the author of An Imperial Affliction. 

And he's a jerk.

It's just one of many ways Green illustrates the fact that life ain't fair.

When  Hazel and dreamy boyfriend Augustus arrive to meet the over-esteemed Peter Van Houton, the author is not only rude, he threatens to throw them out of his house. 

Hazel and Gus cope almost too well with that, and it's a good thing - because the author's unpleasantness isn't the worst thing that happens on the trip.

Hazel also learns that Augustus has had a relapse.

Interestingly, when she delivers her eulogy for Augustus (whoops - spoiler alert: Gus doesn't make it) Hazel quotes the author who so disappointed her, explaining that she learned from him that “some infinities are bigger than other infinities.”

Fortunately, Green's book is quite a bit bigger than I've probably made it sound; and it's right on target for YA readers - particularly girls.

~Diane Stresing

Who Would Give a Queen a Sloth?

Who would give the queen a sloth, and what's up with the Dustin Hoffman cameo? I almost didn't find out.

As you can see, my dog nearly ate The Tower, the Zoo, and the Tortoise by Julia Stuart.

All right - the truth is that while "my dog ate it" would be a convenient, acceptable, and almost-true excuse for not finishing the novel, I can't blame the dog. I just took for-ev-er to read it.

Pace More Tortoise Than Hare

Why did it take me forever to read?  Well, it isn't exactly a page-turner. The action unfolds with about the same aplomb as a towel unfolds. No flash, no magic, no special effects. Still, I knew I had to finish it - any book that uses the word hirsute in its first fifty pages deserves that much - and Stuart's story is sweet. I suppose the reason I finished it, slowly, is because I couldn't help but like her almost-too-human characters. They're a miserable lot, but each one is charmingly full of quirks.

Quirky, Sad Characters

Shortly after I'd stumbled over hirsute, I found the Rev. Septimus "lost in the silent ecstasy of wearing new socks." I rest my case.

See, while I truly liked The Tower's crew, I could only spend so much time with them in one sitting.  Frankly, I found their company rather depressing. Even the animals.

It's not really my style to describe a book's plot - scads of other reviewers do that - but in case you don't know, the "zoo" in the title refers to the menagerie of animals that the Royal family received as gifts from heads of state and other Very Important People around the world.

Theme of Loss

In the end, I finally got it - the theme of the book, that is - I think.

I think it's about loss, and more specifically, about moving on after loss. Oh, I suppose the fact that main character Hebe Jones worked at the London Underground's Department of Lost Things might have been a clue, and that a whole plotline revolved around the issue of returning a lost urn might have been another, but look, give me a break. I have Stage III FTGO,* after all.

If you get to the end of this book - and I recommend it, really I do - you're going to need a tissue, but don't worry, it'll be a cathartic cry. Oh, and just for fun you'll be rewarded with a bizarre appearance by Dustin Hoffman. (Stuart could go on the lecture circuit just to explain how she came up with that.)

Now if you'll excuse me, I need to go buy a new chew toy for my dog, and look for a happier cast of characters.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

~Diane Stresing

*Failure To Grasp the Obvious. I'm sure the DSM will get around to including it one of these days...

The Invention of Wings - coming soon!

If Sue Monk Kidd's Secret Life of Bees or The Mermaid Chair is on your to-read list, you're officially on notice: you've got six months until her next (sure to be a bestseller) novel is published.

This one  definitely lands on my what2read list.

Ahem. Now, if you'll excuse me please ... I have a couple of books to read!

BTW and obviously, I learned this good news on Twitter, where you'll find my reviews are much shorter.

< Didja know Kidd (and her kid) wrote a memoir? Traveling with Pomegranates, not surprisingly, explores mother-daughter relationships.  

Several Shades of Sad: on Swimming and SM

 

I can't claim that I've got a handle on Live Tweeting yet, but I have started playing with short-form reviews on Twitter.

Today's experiment with Swimming Home by Deborah Levy seemed appropriate - the paperback version is just about 160 pages long. And it's sad, so I didn't want to delve too deeply into its meaning. (If you know me, you know I like movies and books that make me laugh, not cry.) It's clearly got something to say about sadness, and marriage, and mental health. Not necessarily in that order.

You're welcome to follow me and see what I read next (hint: I hope it makes me laugh!) Or, better yet, let me know what you're reading. Then I'll follow you.