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

Precious

It's a good thing I decided to read something lighter first. Push by Sapphire was a tough read. I saw the movie Precious last month and knew going into the movie it would be tough to see. I'm a master's student in social work and lots of people were talking about this movie last quarter when it came out. The movie was tough to watch but for some reason the book was harder to read. Perhaps because seeing it on the screen you knew it was actors playing their role and nothing was really happening. In the book it was hard to remember this was a character. I guess this might be a compliment to the author who made it so real it was scary.

One of the most interesting things about the book to me is that it is written through Precious' perspective. It made it a little difficult to read through the spelling and grammar errors. It was interesting though because Precious was learning to read and as her reading skills improved the writing became easier to read. At times it felt like as the reader I was learning to read along with her. Many of the pages were hard to decipher just as they would be for a beginning reader. I again have to give the author credit for this creative way of placing the reader into the characters shoes.

As a social worker, the book was also interesting in seeing the character's extreme dislike of social workers. It gave me a reminder of viewing the system through the eyes of the clients and why so many of them have some trust issues or negative views with social workers involved.

Overall a heavy read but worth reading in the end.

Current Read: The Cinderella Pact by Sarah Strohmeyer

Should Have Skipped This One

Okay so I lied. I was going to read Push by Sapphire but when I actually went over to my basket of library books, I decided I was in the mood for something a little lighter first.

So I picked up The Breakup Club by Melissa Senate instead. It was definitely a lighter read. It's another book I can't figure out why it made my list but it's been on there for awhile. I do remember it coming through at the library and have to assume I must have been getting over or heading towards a break up to even consider reading it. While I guess I can't say it was the worst book I ever read, I really don't want to waste an entry on it, that's how bad it was.

Basically it's a light easy read with no substance to it at all. It read as quickly as a romance novel just without all the steamy sex scenes. It was pretty boring and I never quite got the point of the story. Perhaps you have to be in the breakup mind set or something to be reading it. Anyways, I do not recommend it.

Current Read (this time for real): Push by Sapphire

Witchy

Sometime in November my best friend called and was sad because she really wanted to go see Wicked. I didn't know much about the extremely popular play but I decided we should go because she wanted to see it so badly and because I hadn't been to see a play in such a long time. I really enjoyed the play, even without really knowing what I was getting into.

That said, short of the same characters and the same title, the play and the book have so few similarities. I've been listening to the book for the last few weeks and finally finished it. I enjoyed the book a lot more than I thought I would but I have some conflict with the fact that the play is so far from the book.

The book vaguely reminded me of the Harry Potter series, but might only be because of the magic/sorcery. I loved the introductions of new characters because the author came up with such creative names for each of his characters. I also was pulled in by the fact that this book was written with the ending somewhat already written. I found myself wondering how the author wrote the book. I'm also very curious about the next two books in the series Son of a Witch and A Lion Among Men both also by Gregory Maguire.

Lastly, the book got extra points with me simply because there is an elephant princess, Nastoya. I love elephants and just about drove off the road when this character was introduced, it put a big smile on my face.

Current Listen: Magical Thinking by Augusten Burroughs