Playing Catch Up

Since my last post, I've moved and taken a new job as caregiver for my elderly grandmother. Naturally, I haven't had the time to read as much as I had for a while, nor have I really had time to post about what I DID read. So...here's a quick update.

I finished Elizabeth Gilbert's Eat Pray Love and identified with a lot of it. She has me pretty much convinced to fly off to Bali and meet some exotic fellow traveler...hmm. Definitely recommend.

Most recently, I read a little book called Angel Unaware that I found in some of Grandma's things. Dale Evans Rogers wrote it after her daughter died. That daughter was the inspiration for so many of the wonderful things that Roy & Dale Evans Rogers did. It is written as though it was spoken by little Robin to God, after her mission on earth was finished. It was short, but SO touching. If you ever have a chance, pick it up. Buy a box of Kleenex before you read it...you'll need it.


This copy was in my Grandma's things, but actually belongs to my mother, and you can see that she read it a lot. It was given to her new, but she's read and re-read it so many times that the binding is falling apart and the pages are fragile. After reading it myself, I can definitely see why it touched her so. Like I said, it is short...this copy is 63 pages...but it says so much. Please read this one!

Soul Mates

I'm currently reading Elizabeth Gilbert's book, Eat Pray Love. I tend to find something within the books I read that I really identify with, but with some books, that connection is a lot stronger and easier to see. This particular book has had me doing a lot of soul-searching.

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This was a very personal book for her to write...full of raw honesty and actual events and feelings in the year or so after her divorce. When I picked it up, it was simply because I wanted to read it before seeing the movie, but as it turns out, it's a very personal book to me, too. I totally identify with so much of what she's written (and I'm only about half-way through it right now.) The circumstances that led to my divorce were horrible, and I remember that for a while, ALL I wanted was to get AWAY. I wanted to go on a cruise or just take off to Italy or Ireland or really anywhere but here. The difference between Gilbert & me is that somebody actually paid her to do it.

After she left her husband, she fell in love with someone else very quickly. I did, too. And today, I read a chapter from her time in India that resonated with me very deeply with regard to that, and I just wanted to share it. It's part of a conversation between Liz and a man she met at the ashram she stayed at in India...Richard from Texas, who calls her Groceries (you'll have to read it to understand.)

"But I really loved him."

"Big deal. So you fell in love with someone. Don't you see what happened? This guy touched a place in your heart deeper than you thought you were capable of reaching. I mean you got zapped, kiddo. But that love you felt, that's jut the beginning. You just got a taste of love. That's just limited little rinky-dink mortal love. Wait till you see how much more deeply you can love than that. Heck, Groceries - you have the capacity to someday love the whole world. It's your destiny. Don't laugh."

"I'm not laughing." I was actually crying. "And please don't laugh at me now, but I think the reason it's so hard for me to get over this guy is because I seriously believed David was my soul mate."

"He probably was. Your problem is you don't understand what that word means. People think a soul mate is your perfect fit, and that's what everyone wants. But a true soul mate is a mirror, the person who shows you everything that's holding you back, the person who brings you to your own attention so you can change your life. A true soul mate is probably the most important person you'll ever meet, because they tear down your walls and smack you awake. But to live with a soul mate forever? Nah. Too painful. Soul mates, they come into your life just to reveal another layer of yourself to you, and then they leave. And thank God for it. Your problem is, you just can't let this one go. It's over, Groceries. David's purpose was to shake you up, drive you out of that marriage that you needed to leave, tear apart your ego a little bit, show you your obstacles and addictions, break your heart open so new light could get in, make you so desperate and out of control that you had to transform your life, then introduce you to your spiritual master and beat it. That was his job, and he did great, but now it's over. Problem is, you can't accept that this relationship had a real short shelf life. You're like a dog at the dump, baby - you're just lickin' at an empty tin can, trying to get more nutrition out of it. And if you're not careful, that can's gonna get stuck on your snout forever and make your life miserable. So drop it."

"But I love him."

"So love him."

"But I miss him."

"So miss him. Send him some love and light every time you think about him, and then drop it. You're just afraid to let go of the last bits of David because then you'll really be alone, and Liz Gilbert is scared to death of what will happen if she's really alone. But here's what you gotta understand, Groceries. If you clear out all that space in your mind that you're using right now to obsess about this guy, you'll have a vacuum there, an open spot - a doorway. And guess what the universe will do with that doorway? It will rush in - God will rush in - and fill you with more love than you ever dreamed. So stop using David to block that door. Let it go."

"But I wish me and David could - "

He cuts me off. "See, now that's your problem. You're wishin' too much, baby. You gotta stop wearing your wishbone where your backbone oughtta be."

There have been a lot of passages in this book that caught my eye, but that one just really hit home.

The Lace Reader by Brunonia Barry

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I've had a bit of ADD when it came to reading lately. I started this book a while back...right after finishing the last one I posted about...and got about half way through and totally lost interest in reading. It wasn't a loss of interest in the story at all; just a general apathy toward sitting and reading. However, yesterday, the desire to read resurfaced, so I picked this up and finished it. It was a great story! Things I thought I had pegged wound up surprising me, which was nice, and there was even a somewhat Hitchcockian element to it that just intrigued me all the more.
My mom wants to read this, now that I'm done with it...I'll need to warn her about some language first, but I think she'll like the story. My brother's girlfriend, Caitlin, wants to read it too...I've already pointed her to Cecelia Ahern's writing & that just makes me happy!
I literally bought this book because I liked the cover. I do that every once in a while...I know you're not supposed to judge a book by its cover, but sometimes, the art just draws me in, and that's what happened here. I was not disappointed :-)
The story is set in the mid-1990s in Salem. It is a mystery...one that I truly think Hitchcock would have made into a masterpiece of a film...and it really is captivating. Even while I was so disinterested in reading, I kept thinking about what I'd read so far because I just kept trying to figure it out. I don't want to say too much, because I don't want to ruin the twists for anybody who might actually read this blog...but I will say that I enjoyed it and uttered quite a few gasps at the surprises. It was a fun read!

Smith of Wootton Major and Farmer Giles of Ham

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I got off of work a little earlier than usual yesterday, and instead of going back to my apartment, I went over to one of the local coffee houses and got a blended iced latte and a chocolate cupcake with delectable strawberry icing and read through a rain storm. It was actually completely idyllic and I read the entirety of these two wonderful little stories while waiting out the rain.

The first of J.R.R. Tolkien's works I ever read was The Hobbit, which remains one of my favorite stories of all time. I remember reading these two short stories as a kid, and remember liking them, but had no recollection of the stories themselves. It was a nice treat to revisit them! And, while I read them first as a child, they're really not childrens' stories...check 'em out!

Smith of Wootton Major is something of a fairy tale...the magic that happens when the world of Faery intersects with humanity. Farmer Giles of Ham is a story of courage and cowardice, and...my favorite part...a dragon named Chrysophylax. And a dog named Garm. If I ever have a male dog, I just might name him Garm :-)

The Weed That Strings the Hangman's Bag

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This was the second in the Flavia de Luce Mystery Series by Alan Bradley. I read the first book, The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie, last October (you can read that post here) and absolutely loved it. This second novel did not disappoint!
In this adventure, Flavia befriends a woman named Nialla, the assistant to a famous puppeteer who has taken his show on the road. There is a lot of mystery about them, especially after Flavia starts to suspect a connection between Rupert, the puppeteer, and a little boy who died under strange circumstances years before. When Rupert winds up dead, Flavia finds herself once again trying to solve the mystery herself.
Just as he did in the first book, Bradley does a spectacular job of building the setting and characters in a way that the reader is transported back to that time & place. There are lots of cultural references and language usage that make the entire setting on the page come to life. One particular reference actually made me rather jealous...Flavia reminisces at one point about her father taking her & her sisters to see John Gielgud as King Lear on stage in Stratford-upon-Avon...oh, how I would have loved that!
Just as I did The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie, I heartily recommend The Weed That Strings the Hangman's Bag. The story is delightful (and deliciously dark) and one thing I love about these books is that they are clean...there is no gore or sex or bad language...just a good, slightly macabre mystery. I love this series :-) I'm not sure when the next is due out, but I can't wait!

What's Coming Next?

I've decided that my next read will be The Weed that Strings the Hangman's Bag by Alan Bradley. This is the second in the Flavia de Luce mystery series (the first of which I talked about here) and I am very much looking forward to this read! I usually don't post until the end of a book, but I just wanted to share a bit of the praise that's on the back of this one, talking about The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie. From Mystery News: "A smashing series starter - a book readers will come to the end of wishing they hadn't read, because it would be so wonderful to read it again for the first time." How great is that?! Anyway...just thought I'd share & encourage anybody who reads this blog to pick up these books & check 'em out for yourself. Or, in the words of LeVar Burton, host of Reading Rainbow: "But you don't have to take my word for it!"

By the way, Flavia has a blog: http://www.flaviadeluce.com/

:-D

Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason by Helen Fielding

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My reaction to this sequel was much the same as to Bridget Jones's Diary. It was so entirely different from the movie, that at least I didn't feel like I was reading a story I already knew well. However, I think these made better movies than books. They were diverting, and I related pretty well to Bridget, but the story really was better on screen than on the page. Oh well!

Bridget Jones's Diary by Helen Fielding

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I've just finished reading Bridget Jones's Diary by Helen Fielding, and am a few chapters into the sequel already. This book was hilarious in parts and in others, terrifyingly reflective of myself. Bridget is an extremely relatable character, though the others generally seem to be flat & archetypal. That's alright, though, because it really isn't about them. It's all about Bridget. Many of her epiphanies were good for me to see in print...things I've sort of thought but dismissed as rubbish, but that really are truth. Things I thought, but assumed no one else did. I liked that.
It isn't a great book. But it is a fun book. It reads like the film (the book came first, but I saw the movie long before I read the book) and would have been perfect to read on a plane or at the beach or something...fairly light, easy, and diverting.

Gossamer by Lois Lowry

Two posts in less than 24 hours? Whoa! I guess I've had more time for reading in the last few days. For a while there, I had none!

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I'm in a divorce recovery class and last week, one of the other ladies recommended this book. She teaches Children's Literature and I don't even know how this book came up in conversation, but it did (it has nothing at all to do with divorce...please don't get that impression!) so I decided to to go Barnes & Noble and pick it up.

I'm so glad I did! Gossamer is a sweet little book (only 140 pages) about where dreams come from. It is the story of Littlest, one of the dream-givers, and a boy to whom she bestows them. There's a battle between good and evil...the dream-givers versus the sinisteeds, who inflict nightmares...taking place over the troubled boy, but Littlest shows great courage and determination in helping him.

Lois Lowry is an expert at writing in such a way that a child could understand the words and follow the story, but an adult can read the same story and get just as much from it...have you ever read The Giver? Wow!

I loved this story. It was a quick read, but was emotionally involving and left me feeling happy. I can almost believe in the dream-givers and the sinisteeds, because I certainly have felt the presence of each, whether real or imagined. I love the way Lowry weaves reality and imagination together. Her stories are always completely believable, if not quite real, and I find that wonderful.

And I must mention this: I love the dedication in this book! I'm a lover of Shakespeare, and Lois Lowry found the perfect lines to accompany her tale.

We are such stuff
As dreams are made on;
and our little life
Is rounded with a sleep.

~William Shakespeare
The Tempest, Act 4, Scene 1

Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe by Fannie Flagg

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Prior to reading this novel, I'd seen the film only once, but had a clear enough memory to know essentially where the story was going.

I wish I hadn't known! I kept waiting for what I knew was coming, and so when those things were revealed in the novel, they didn't have quite the shock value that I think they would have possessed otherwise.

Nonetheless, I enjoyed this book. There was a surprising amount of homosexuality between the two main characters, Idgie and Ruth...not explicit, but quite clearly understood. And it seemed both known and accepted by the characters surrounding them. This seems unlikely for the time period and especially for a small town in the Bible Belt...even today, I think, in a town as small as Whistle Stop. It was nice to read and imagine it that way, though...without all the hatred and heat that seems so tied to that lifestyle from the people who are so adamantly against it. The love between Idgie and Ruth was just...love. Just good. It was matter-of-fact and didn't dwell on the rightness or wrongness or nature of the thing. That whole thing was really the only surprise I had in reading the novel...it was essentially left out of the movie (on purpose, to make it more palatable to audiences of the time.)

My dad grew up in Birmingham, Alabama, so my family visited often when I was growing up, and still goes back when finances and time allow. I loved reading a story set in so familiar a place...they talked about Ollie's Barbeque (which, in the novel, didn't compare at all to what Big George cooked up at the Cafe, but is absolutely some of the best BBQ sauce I've ever had!) and on the cover of the book is a sign for Buffalo Rock Ginger Ale, a dark ginger ale which can only be found in Alabama, and is SO much better than stuff like Canada Dry (ick!) It mentioned Ensley, a tiny town outside of Birmingham where my Grandpappy had one of his furniture stores. I half expected to see a mention of Braswell's 1811 Shoppe in there somewhere, haha! It mentioned Gus' hotdog stand down on 16th...it wasn't named, but that's Pete's Famous...THE BEST hotdogs in the world. It's a little place tucked into a space between two buildings...the walls are so close that you can touch opposite sides at once...and you pay a dollar or two for a hot dog and a dollar for a Coke in a glass bottle and $0.50 for a bag of chips...SO good...but I digress...

I just loved that, along with being an excellent story of love and family and friendship and community, it also held a lot of nostalgia for me. Ninny Threadgoode tells the story like my Granny told stories (and with the same accent, too!) and I could see and smell and hear everything, even though it was a totally different time. Summers at Granny's house had that relaxed, timeless feel, so I could easily imagine it all.

I know people who are deeply offended by homosexuality, and due to that, I cannot in good conscience recommend this to everybody...but if it doesn't bother you (or doesn't bother you *much*) I do. It does have some rather blunt descriptions of violence, and I imagine that might not sit very well with some people. I have a pretty weak stomach for that kind of thing myself, though, and those parts didn't bother me too much.

It's a different sort of story, but a good one :-)

This was borrowed from one of my dearest friends, and if I'm not mistaken, she threw in another by Fannie Flagg...I'm prepared now for her writing style...perhaps the next will hold a few more surprises for me...no movie to have spoiled all the twists, y'know? I'm looking forward to it!

**EDIT**

I watched the film tonight (after finding it in thirteen parts on You Tube, haha!) and just wanted to say one more thing about the novel. The movie was fun, and it's pretty tough to beat Jessica Tandy! However, the book, as usual, was so much better. There were more stories woven into its fabric, which I know is difficult with movies, due to time constraints and things like that. But I truly did find that the film lacked the depth of the novel. Still good...still perfectly enjoyable...but (as usual) I find that I like the book better :-D

Love, Rosie by Cecelia Ahern

Oh. My. GOODNESS. I always identify really well with Cecelia Ahern's books, but this particular one takes the cake. I didn't intend to use this blog to post about my personal life, really, but this post will be personal simply because I saw SO much of myself in this book. I've been thinking about this post for at least three weeks and still don't really know what to say, so I apologize if none of what comes out makes sense. I just finally decided that I needed to go ahead and post just to get it off my chest. Let me say this, though, before I say anything more:

I LOVED this book. LOVED it. I laughed and cried and trembled and absolutely loved every word.

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The main characters in this story are Rosie and Alex. They've been friends since they were little and know absolutely everything there is to know about each other. They grow up together and though they're in love with each other, they're too stubborn to admit it to each other. They each marry and divorce and Alex remarries...but they remain friends always. Rosie had a baby just after high school...an "Oops!" sort of pregnancy...and winds up with a little girl who absolutely becomes her life and livelihood. She's somewhat aimless for a long time...she doesn't know what to do with her life. She knows what she wants but not how to get it. Alex, meanwhile, moves to America while Rosie is left behind in Ireland, but they keep in touch, much as they always did, through letters and email and chatting online, with the occasional phone call. In fact, the entire novel is written as a collection of letters and chats, both between Alex & Rosie, and between them and a handful of their friends & family. It was an interesting writing style, and I liked it.

I see myself in Rosie's restlessness & discontent. I see, to some extent, my marriage in hers, and Mike in Greg, the man she married & divorced. I see Josh in Alex. I especially see my friendship with Josh in the relationship between Alex & Rosie. He and I communicate almost exclusively through online chat & in emails. He knows me better than ANYone else does, and I think it's safe to say that it's pretty nearly the same in reverse...he's shared a LOT with me. We've gotten each other through some really tough stuff. Josh and Alex even share some of the same quirks. Alex consistently spells "know" as "no" and Rosie corrects him all the time, and when that became evident, it reminded me of a conversation I had with Josh one night:

11:58 PM Josh: you okay?

me: -ish :-)

11:59 PM Josh: yeah

it's okay, you can say the F word

Fish

me: haha

Josh: see? it's fine

me: fish!

whew, that felt good!

Josh: WHAO! whao, now now

12:00 AM don't abuse it!

me: I'm liberated!

fish fish fish!!!

Josh: *looks left and right * shh

someone will hear you!

me: FISH FISH FISH

Josh: LOL

haha you're fun

12:01 AM me: haha

thanks

I think...

Josh: ?

me: :-)

Josh: haha

hey how do you spell whao

is it whia

whoa*

12:02 AM me: how do you pronounce it? if it's like "woe", then I'd spell it whoa

if it's like "wow" then I'd spell it...

wow...

lol

12:03 AM Josh: pshaaha

me: or whao

Josh: oh okay

huh

i've always done it whao

but i guess you're right, it is whoa

me: I've noticed :-)

Josh: : /

whoa is me

me: I think you should keep on spelling it that way!

actually, that'd be "woe is me" :-P

12:04 AM but seriously..."whao" is like one of your quirks

I like it :-)

Josh: heh

12:05 AM next you'll tell me to spell strange WIERD

keep spelling*

me: weird!

haha

I can't really recount all the specifics without ruining the book for any of you that may wish to read it (if there's anybody out there reading this anyway!) I DO heartily recommend this book, though. Cecelia Ahern definitely has a devoted reader in me. I have loved everything I've read of hers before, and now I think I've read all but perhaps one of her novels. There is always something in her books that make me think that somehow, she's in tune with me. I just see so many similarities to myself in her characters, and did I mention? one of the characters in this book was named Penelope! Not a major character, but still...AND there was a Josh, too! Anyway...have any of you seen the movie, "Stranger Than Fiction"? It stars Will Farrell, Emma Thompson, Maggie Gyllenhaal, and Dustin Hoffman. Emma Thompson is a writer, and her heroes die in all of her books. She is writing a new book, and Will Farrell (who doesn't know who she is) starts hearing a woman narrating his life. At first he thinks he's going crazy, and then after a while realizes what's happening (you'll just have to see the movie to find out how he got to that!). The more I read of Cecelia Ahern's novels, the less surprised I'd be if one day I begin to hear a young, female, Irish voice narrating my every move. We shall see, haha!

This post might make sense to absolutely no one but myself...but there it is. The book just felt so extremely personal that I'm having difficulty actually reviewing it from an objective standpoint. Pick it up & read for yourself when you get a chance...it really is good! And if you read it and hate it, blame my good review on my undoubtedly biased opinion, since after all, I'd very much like for things to turn out as well for me (though perhaps somewhat sooner than later?) as they did for Rosie & Alex. If you read it, let me know what you think of it!

Castle

I just heard via @WriteRCastle (Richard Castle's Twitter handle) that there is a second book scheduled for release! Yay! Check it out HERE. I'm excited!

The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Prisoner's Dilemma by Trenton Lee Stewart

So, I actually finished this a month ago, at least. I immediately handed it over to my mom, though, and forgot to blog about it. Oops!

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I love The Mysterious Benedict Society series. This, the third book, felt like an ending, but it made a nice little trilogy. The reading level is low, so kids can enjoy the story (these are actually marketed as children's books) but the story is delightful for an adult who just wants to escape life for a little while. This was a fun adventure, piloted by four brilliant kids. I won't say much other than that, at least for now, since I don't actually have the book in front of me. I WILL, however, highly recommend this series. It's sort of Harry Potter-esque, but without magic. Just brains and exceptional talents that are, for the most part, plausible (however rare). Pick 'em up sometime, either at a bookstore or the library! I sincerely doubt you'll regret it.