9/11

The Whole World Over by Julia Glass was my latest listen. It was a long one, 19 discs. A great book though. I ended up having to get a copy cause one of the discs didn't work at all. I tend to do this with the ones I'm listening to. Sometimes I don't have the patience to wait until I'm in the car to get further in it.

The story was hard to follow in the beginning but the characters kept me interested in knowing what would happen next in their lives. I also somehow forgot that at some point the book would work its way to 9/11. If I have any criticism of the book, it's that this did not happen until almost the very end. At the same time, at first this bothered me, but the more I think about it, the author may have known what she was doing with this placement.

The book begins by introducing Greenie, one of the main characters. As readers we learn about her family and some of her friends. There are about half a dozen characters we get to see the story from. All the characters lives intertwine in a unique way and at the end of the book we see the affects of 9/11 on these characters lives.

When I started the book I knew 9/11 would be in there somewhere. Since I was mostly listening to the book though, I forgot this information until it came up in the book. Then I literally sat up and (was reading it at the time) started frantically flipping the pages. I was taken back to my senior year of high school during homeroom when we got the news of what was going on. I wasn't close to being in New York and yet I felt scared. I felt nervous for my cousins and uncle, my cousins living in New York and my uncle in DC. I felt sick, knowing and loving New York and not knowing what was happening. It all seemed so insane that day and the days that followed. About a month after 9/11 my family and I unfortunately had to travel to NY for a funeral (unrelated to 9/11 but a tragedy for us the same). I saw ground zero around 2am as we drove in sleepy and sorrowful. I think we will all carry our own memories of that day/time with us forever.

This book put me back in that place for a moment. Back when Sister C came on the speaker and we all thought she was joking, about to say something about a chocolate bar fundraiser or something else she would normally be talking about. Seeing it through fictional characters eyes who were actually in New York was almost as scary as hearing from those I knew in New York. It was an odd place to go back to, even if for just a few pages.

Excellent read if you have the patience for a longer book.

Current Listen: Rise and Shine by Anna Quindlen (also 9/11 related I believe)

Siblings

Finished reading Fourteen: Growing up Alone in a Crowd by Stephen Zanichkowsky. Overall a good read. Zanichkowsky shares his life stories about being one of fourteen children who were all abused by their parents. He decided to write the story after his father died and then his mother died 11 months later. After his mother died and her will was read, the siblings find that they have been left with nothing from their parents. The reading of the will solidified for the author and some of his siblings what they had always thought, that their parents did not love them.

It is a sad and also hopeful story. The author is now a middle aged man looking back at his childhood and how it brought him and his siblings to their current places in life. In the current age of the Duggars and the Jon and Kate's I was drawn to this book because of the amount of siblings the author had. I think the situations are entirely different though as in this book the children were abused horribly throughout their childhoods.

I have no doubt that the Duggar kids are loved, but Zanichkowsky makes some excellent points about the effects of a larger family. Still not really my place to say how many children is too many, but it is something to think about.

Lastly, I was surprised in reading to learn that Zanichkowsky's family was Lithuanian. Thought by the last name they were Polish so it was surprise. I related to some of the Lithuanian information he shared, as my background on my mother's side is Lithuanian.

Current Read: Couplehood by Paul Reiser

Another Dog Book

So during yesterday's snow day I managed to finish How to Understand Men Through Their Dogs by Wendy Diamond. It was a quick read. I'm pretty certain it was reviewed in People or some other magazine awhile back and my mom read about it and found it interesting to pass along to me to add to my list. There is also another title How to Understand Women Through Their Cats by the same author. This one is also on the list but my library doesn't have it for some reason.

The book was cute but not really what I expected. I liked the first chapter which gave a history of dogs particularly as domesticated pets. I also enjoyed the "success stories" chapter which shared cute stories of men proposing to their women using the dogs in their lives. Cute way to propose! The last section of the book is a list of shelters in each state to find a dog to adopt. Excellent to have the list in their but it wasn't very comprehensive.

The middle of the book was where I was bored. The author lists each breed and then describes men who would own that breed. It was a bit boring and way overemphasized. Plus it only had the most popular breeds. Honestly, it was also somewhat degrading to men. I thought the book would be cute and funny about similarities between dogs and men or something along those lines. It was instead overpopulated with the references of men as dogs. I'm a feminist and often a bit bitter about the men who have been in my life, but I still think it was too much. I almost wished the whole book had been cute stories like in the success chapter.

Current Read: Fourteen: Growing up Alone in a Crowd by Stephen Zanichkowsky

Toast

Just finished reading Toast by Nigel Slater. Honestly, this book was just a bit strange. I can't even remember how it got on my list but sticking with my thought to try to work from the bottom of the list up, I ordered it from the library. I had a hard time getting started with it and almost considered giving up, which is hard for me to do once I've started a book. So after a rough start I managed to get through it as quickly as possible to be able to move on.

The beginning of the book is actually quite sweet. The concept is the author telling the story of his childhood through memories of food. This actually seems like a nice idea to start with. There are no chapters, just sections marked by subtitles, usually the name of some food item. I liked the author's memories through food. The childhood stories always having some sort of food associated with them. I was able to relate to this part of the book.

I can certainly think of memories in my childhood associated with food. Trips with my dad always evoke memories of bagels in New York or filling pasta at a hotel in Toronto. In fact it's not even so much the pasta I remember, its the free cheap plastic key chains that we got for being under whatever age, that came free with dinner. My brother always got lime green and I got a neon pink. I also remember in Toronto this wonderful restaurant that we went to that you could get anything you wanted. You got a sheet of paper when you walked in and you took it around with you to different stations where they stamped what you had ordered to charge you later.

I also think of "clouds" at my grandmas house. Eating them and also learning to make them with my grandmother. I remember sitting around with my aunts and cousins filling up on the fresh cooked dough. I think of a trip to San Francisco with my mom where I ate lunch crepes stuffed with pesto chicken. I am drooling now at the computer...

Anyways, back to Slater's story, I get the concept. It's easy to remember your childhood through the foods and feelings associated with that food. He lost me mid way through the book though. It began to morph into his adolescence and not just memories of family and adolescence, but the hormones raging sexual adolescence. Somehow the book ends with him in his 20s and the last 1/3rd of the book not so much about the good and bad of his childhood, but about his first sexual encounters with both men and women.

It seems as though the book is childhood memories through food and then bam sexual revolution through food. Strange is really the best way I can describe it. The other thing is, Slater has a forward to the book where he wonders aloud if his American audience will be able to relate as much as his British audience did. I'm not sure if his being British and the book being published in the US has anything to with my confusion at the strangeness of the book. I think my confusion is based on the fact that the book is really two different books in one.

Current Read: How to Understand Men Through Their Dogs by Wendy Diamond

10

Finished book 10 right on track to meet my goal of 20 by mid March :) Sadly have not had time to blog about it until now.

The Sleeping Beauty Proposal by Sarah Strohmeyer was book 10. I still don't think Strohmeyer is the greatest author ever, but I think I finally discovered what I like about her books. They are grown up fairy tales. She must have recognized this too as her second set of books actually uses fairy tale inspiration for the titles. The writing isn't the best and you probably won't learn anything from the books. They are however, enjoyable to read. They are easy reads that give you a momentary escape from the real world.

In real life I'm a bit of a realist and not one for unrealistic happy endings. Usually I don't like books or movies that aren't realistic, especially when it comes to romance. But I find myself enjoying the escape that is found in Strohmeyer's books. Perhaps it is because she is honest about it. She isn't trying to fool the reader into thinking her books are reality or could be reality. You know from the beginning this is never going to happen in real life. You know it's make believe. Maybe I need a little more of that "pretend" time currently and that's why I keep adding her books to my to read list.

Current Read: Toast by Nigel Slater

Glass Slippers

Finished reading The Cinderella Pact by Sarah Strohmeyer. Just a fun read in general. Not much substance but it was easy to read and was overall cute. Somewhat of an adult fairy tale I suppose. The main character, Nola (love this name!), enters a pact with her other overweight friends to lose the weight after all these years. The story is from Nola's perspective but the reader also gets a glimpse into the other characters lives through Nola's eyes. Of course there is a prince Charming and in general there is no way the story would really unfold the way it did in the real world, but still it was cute enough.

I'm a bit undecided on how I feel about it, but one of Strohmeyer's previous characters also made an appearance in the book. Bubbles makes an appearance as a friend to Nola's sister. At first it struck me as a bit odd but now I think maybe it was a clever idea. Could even get some readers to read that series if they haven't so I guess I should at least give the author props for a marketing strategy. I liked the Bubbles series too so really it shouldn't bother me. I guess though sometimes I just want to keep a character as a character and the crossing over sometimes gets to me.

This author isn't necessarily one of my absolute favorites, but something about her books draws me to them. Not sure what it says about me but after reading the Bubbles series the rest of her books have made my to read list. That said...

Current Read: The Sleeping Beauty Proposal by Sarah Strohmeyer

Magical Thinking

Finished listening to Magical Thinking by Augusten Burroughs on my way around town today. I loved this book! I've been listening to it for about the past week and I was a little sad for it to end today. For the past week that I've been listening to it I've been driving around laughing pretty hysterically. I feel slightly bad for people stuck next to me at red lights this week. They must have been wondering what could have been that funny.

Burroughs is a wonderful author. The story is a collection of essays from his personal life. The essays aren't really about anything special. It's the fact that they are everyday stories written in such a way that makes it so interesting. You also get what you see with Burroughs. I've noticed this with his books. He isn't writing to piss people off or to get people to like him. He writes it either as it was or might be, in the case of his fictional works, without apology. I like that he isn't perfect. That he didn't have this perfect cookie cutter life and he's okay with that. Or I should say he's found his way to be comfortable with that. The personal touches in the stories make them all the more worthwhile to read.

The book is a bit graphic which I find interesting because on the audio version there is an interview with the author at the end in which he says he is a bit of a prude. I find that hard to believe after listening to an essay on his experiences with getting blow jobs from Catholic priests. There are also several essays that mention trans-gender reassignment surgeries in more detail than I ever really needed to know about. If your squeamish about those sorts of things you can skip those essays, but trust me the book is worth reading.

Current Listen: The Whole World Over by Julia Glass