June Reading: One Dozen!

Middlesex -Jeffrey Eugenides. Go over and read Sam's review of this book. I echo his opinion. I will add that I liked it much MUCH better than The Virgin Suicides.

My Life And Hard Times - James Thurber. I remember reading a couple of these humorous incidents when they were assigned in school. Thurber is a master with the English language, and has superb control with his comic pacing. I can see how David Sedaris was influenced by Thurber. The cleaning ladies speaking in dialect made me squirm a little, but this device was commonplace back in 1933, when the book was published. If you can get past that, it's a highly entertaining read.

High Sierra - W.R. Burnett. I've *got* to read more of Burnett's novels. He's as good as James M. Cain. He's my exciting discovery for June!

The Little Prince - Antoine de Saint Exupery. You probably won't believe this, but I have given my students the Korean translation of this story and next week, we'll read the English version together in class! Whoo!

Caught By The Sea - Gary Paulsen. Paulsen discusses his love of sailing and how he worked his way through the learning curve, sometimes in life-threatening circumstances. I love his almost -Hemingway-esque prose.

The Executioner's Song - Norman Mailer. Imagine In Cold Blood on steroids.
Heart-Shaped Box -Joe Hill. It's too soon to tell, but Cousin Joe might be even better than Uncle Steve. I liked two things in particular: the combination of wit and horror and that he knows when to end his story.

Fat Girl - Judith Moore. I think Moore intended to keep the reader at a cool remove during this memoir of growing up in the 1940s and early 50s, unloved by most of the adults around her. Her petite mother was especially furious with Judith over her size, and would put her on crash diets and abuse her verbally and physically when the number on the scale went up or stayed the same. The father, who Judith resembled, was absent in her life and went on to a new wife and child when Judith's mother threw him out. Moore also writes about her life as an overweight adult and shows the reader that her bitterness and self-loathing knows no bounds. She died of cancer soon after this book was published, and it's obvious that it was written while she was feeling the full effects of her illness and the grueling treatments that would eventually fail her. I think if she'd been healthy, she would've framed this book differently. Fat Girl book reminds me of someone in my family who also grew up fat with a svelte mother who was determined that she should be thin, and, like Moore's mother, wasn't very subtle or supportive and even to this day still comes out with unfeeling comments. This relative and Moore even have similar names. Reading Moore's memoir left me incredibly sad.

Grizzly! Real-Life Animal Attacks - Allan B. Ury. Life is a banquet, and sometimes humans are the main course. It's nothing personal, though.

Persepolis - Marjane Satrapi. Marjane Satrapi's story of growing up in 1970s and 1980s Iran as the Islamic government tightened their fanatical grasp on the people and the war with Iraq began was painful to read at times -- it was difficult to see if the worse enemy was within or without. The stark black-and-white art is incredible. If you haven't read this, please go find a copy! I read the first part, and now I want to read part two.

The Witch Of Blackbird Pond -Elizabeth George Speare. Making Kit from Barbados was a neat trick because Speare got to work in all that research about Puritan and colonial America very smoothly. I didn't realize that Quakers had such a reputation for troublemaking among the Puritans. The courting stuff reminded me pleasantly of Jane Austen -- in spite of myself, I got interested, hoping that each girl would end up with the suitor who suited her best. Although Goodwife Cruffe was harsh, judgmental and just a terribly unpleasant character right from the beginning, I hated the bit about the henpecked husband rising up suddenly and putting her in her place in front of the whole village -- it seemed like a moldy old device often used in 1950s movies or TV shows.

Monday Mourning -Kathy Reichs. The choppy sentence structure hurts my eyes, and I'm really bored when Tempe Brennan is talking about her personal life, but when she's at work, she's brilliant; I was riveted to the page.