Warm Up with a Trip to Summer Falls

Has the current deep freeze made you feel like you need a doctor?

Try Dr. Who, in Summer Falls.

Image from http://www.tumblr.com/tagged/summer-falls

Not only does the title recall higher temperatures and the book get a good review, this guest post received a very warm welcome when it initially published last May. In fact, it was the most-read post of 2013!

So, what are you waiting for? Summer?

Anderson Gets It

“If things like . . . PTSD upset adults like me, what do they feel like to the teens who are trapped by them?” -- Laurie Halse Anderson, author of Speak, and other books you should be reading. 

Seriously, if you need another reason to pick up a book by this outstanding YA author (whose titles are most certainly good enough for adults to read!) please click immediately to her interview recently published in BookPage. 

Thank you. 

Have You Finished Your 2013-2014 To-Read List?

I know I haven't! I haven't finished my 2012 list yet, either. Bygones? No, just bigger stacks. Sigh.

But since it's more fun to reflect on books I'm glad I read than books I wish I had time to read... what was your favorite read of the 2013? And would you like to blog about it? I welcome guest posts, folks!

(The best way to reach me is via my silly Facebook page or by sending a message on Twitter.)

This year, there was no doubt about my favorite book. While I read an about-even mix of fiction and non-fiction titles, the amazing story of Henrietta Lacks, so well-told by Rebecca Skloot, was my hands-down favorite.

I hope you had a favorite (or a dozen) this year, and that 2014 brings you many more worth flipping through. Cheers!

Are White Chicks All That? Notes in the Margin & Unfinished Books of 2013

DON'T LOOK NOW but there are only 27 more reading days left in 2013. Sadly, Hilton Als' White Girls is going to be on my list of unfinished books this year. And it's a long list. ~ sigh ~

Why didn't White Girls make the gotta-finish pile of books? As much as I enjoyed (all 100+ pages of!) the first essay in the compilation, Tristes Tropiques also made my head hurt a bit. On some pages, I felt lost; then Als threw me a line and I got hooked again. One that grabbed me:

Rube's Cubes from Agweb.com

Our love was a confusion of non-twinning, that is, we didn't recognize anything of ourselves in the other. [p 17]

A fine line, isn't it?  But there's a big pond of brilliant writers and too many of them beckoned me at the time.

Addicted to Nonfiction?

In addition to Ann Pachett's tempting Truth and Beauty and her dear friend's Autobiography of a Face, I'm determined to close the year with no un-read issues of National Geographic and CRJ. And that's a daunting task.

Bridget Jones' New Tricks 

Sometimes it's easy to dismiss a book. I mean, you know right away if something isn't worth your time, right? Well, I thought so until the NYT made me think again about the middle-aged Bridget Jones. Dagnabbit.

What about you? I'm always open to guest bloggers -- whether you'd like to gloat about all the books you've read this year or wallow in the guilt of a too-tall stack of unfinished books. Or play a game, like Guess Who Has the Most Library Late Fees? That's always fun.*

Contact me if you wanna be my next guest poster!

~Diane Stresing

* I swear, it wasn't me! 

Hello, Goodbye, I'm glad I stuck around

Goodbye Without Leaving by Laurie Colwin was published by Harper Perennial in 1991, and fter nearly a quarter of a century, it may be safe to say we (fickle readers) will never agree on it.

Here's my take: the first half of the book was all about characterization, and plot development just had to wait. I'm rather impatient, and I'll admit I almost didn't wait around for the action to pick up, but I'm glad I did. Once main character Geraldine, the former shake-your-thing back-up singing Shakette, got married (rather against her better judgement), got a job and had a child, things started to really move.

And, since Colwin had fleshed out the characters so that I really knew and liked them, I was rarin' to go along for the ride. When Geraldine's best friend (who was dating a married man) left to become a nun right before Geraldine's European returned to his home continent was a bit disappointing, but only because I liked those girls so much, I wanted to watch them have a little more fun. Not that nunneries aren't fun...

The point is, I found it easy to forgive Colwin for a lack of action at the beginning precisely because she spent the first several chapters letting me develop a relationship with her characters.

Of course, other reviewers have reported feeling the the complete opposite. Decide for yourself. (As if you had any other option, right?) I've made my decision, and I'll happily dive into another of Colwin's works, fiction or non-fiction.

What I particularly enjoyed about Goodbye and specifically, Geraldine's character, was her honesty in admitting her disappointment at not only not fulfilling life's expectations of her -  her, the good girl, who got good grades in a good school, with all the advantages - utterly failing to raise a perfectly manicured child and tuck a sharp corner in her slip-covered couch but also her honesty about failing herself, to be a self she could be proud of. (Hint: that self had nothing to do with slip-covers.)

Sigh. Well, speaking of unfulfilled potential, back to work I guess.

But first, maybe a stop at the library... what are you reading, anyway?

~Diane Stresing

Walls Bares, Bears Much in The Glass Castle

Jeanette Walls' adventurous childhood, thanks to her rather dangerously degenerate parents, scarred her inside and out. She also came out of the experience with a wicked sense of humor and a delightful way with words.

The Glass Castle is a book that I am glad I could not write - I didn't move halfway across the country locked in the back of a U-haul, visit call girls, or build character fighting with sewer rats while growing up, for example - but I am glad Walls wrote of her experiences.

It is a work of nonfiction that is quite difficult to believe at times.

Even more surprising, in the acknowledgement, Walls thanks just about everyone in her family for their support. Memoirs like The Glass Castle, at least the ones I know, don't come out of families where everyone is still speaking to each other. It seems the Walls family could appear together on the Dr. Phil show and no one would need to be restrained.

The book opens in the present, in New York City, with the author in a limo rolling by a dumpster where her mother is foraging. That kind of opening is called a "good grip" and Walls doesn't let go as she drags you into the past with her. First stop: the kitchen, where as a toddler, Jeanette was badly burned. She was cooking her own dinner. Which isn't necessarily neglectful or bad - why, don't you think we coddle our kids a little too much, really?

See, while the Walls kids had little growing up - including food, safety, and the records they sometimes needed to be enrolled in school - they had smart parents who expected the kids to learn and reach their full intellectual and creative potentials. It could be argued that the parents were criminally negligent, or that they did as well or better than the "average" family, whatever that is.

It certainly could be argued, too, that Walls is overly driven and has been all her life in an effort to hide from or overcome her past. It's hard to suggest she's not at least a little scarred by her upbringing; and yet, we are all better off because she chose to share the stories behind those scars.

Which makes me think maybe the Walls parents weren't quite as bad as they sound, and makes me remember something my parents taught me: people who live in glass castles shouldn't throw stones.

~Diane Stresing

Don't it figure? Just as I was about to hit 'publish,' I find out the movie is going into production. Which prompts me to say two more things: 1, Read the book before you see the movie. The book's always better. And 2, How can a 23yo director "get" this story? Wishing you luck, Jennifer Lawrence... and lots of insight. 

Picture of a Perfect Book Review

First, kudos to LA Times Book Critic David Ulin (and to LA Times, period, for having a book section).  Second, damn. Ulin's review of Hilton Als's new compilation of essays, White Girls, has it all.

Beautiful language.
Context - about the book, the author, and how each fits into the literary landscape.
Enough background and synopsis - in just a few paragraphs - to allow prospective readers to discern whether they are likely to enjoy the book.

And that's it.

Reviewing books is like a lot of other things, folks. Professionals make it look deceptively easy, and yet they produce something completely useful.

Thank you, Mr. Ulin.

So, readers - will you pick up White Girls?

~Diane Stresing