May: Buying

Only 4 this month. I tried to keep my purchases down during May, but once I'm within the Seoul city limits I have no defenses; it's like I left them back at home in my apartment.

Underground - Haruki Murakami. I had to buy this! I'd been thwarted far too long. Couldn't find it in Japan. Saw it at Kyobo but wasn't willing to cough up the equivalent of 30 USD for a trade paperback copy. Finally, success! I found it at the Book Fair at COEX mall for the sanely low price of 12 USD.

Shanghai Girls - Lisa See. This was the May read for Talya's book group. Once again, I tasted victory. Turns out that I've accumulated so many points on my Bandi & Luni card that I was able to leave the bookstore without even opening my wallet!

Tinkers - Paul Harding. I saw several copies of this at What The Book? so I grabbed one for my Pulitzer pile.

Testament of Youth - Vera Brittain. I had some used-book credit built up, so I was able to purchase this book for only a couple of bucks. I've long wanted to read this acclaimed autobiography about life before and during WWI. Am I imagining things, or was this also a Masterpiece Theatre production back in the 1970s or 1980s?

Library Lootenanny

I feel all bloated and full of too much fiction -- you'll understand when you see my reading stats for May -- so I didn't even go into that section this week. I stayed in the nonfiction, but not for long. Unfortunately, I was wearing my Crocs and they were squeaking in stereo on the freshly waxed floors. It was a little embarrassing when everything and everyone else in the library seemed unnaturally quiet today, but it's not that easy to deter a bookworm from her shelves. This is what I picked up:

Love And Hate In Jamestown: John Smith, Pocahontas and the Heart of a New Nation - David A. Price. This book about the settling of Jamestown kicks off in 1606 and has a nice breezy style in which the author deftly separates legend from fact. There are also copious end notes and a admirably hefty bibliography, but no pictures! Wah. I like pictures, photos, maps in my nonfiction. This library copy I'm holding doesn't even have the dust jacket (pictured at left) featuring John Smith looking kind of hot. Wah again.

Fire & Roses: The Burning Of The Charlestown Convent, 1834 - Nancy Lusignan Schultz. This is a chapter in history that I'm unfamiliar with. From what I can gather by reading the prologue, an Ursuline convent in the Boston neighborhood of Charlestown burned down one night after some anti-Catholic riots. Also, it looks like Reverend Lyman Beecher (Harriet Beecher Stowe's father) may have been somewhat responsible since his Protestant self preached not one, not two, but three anti-Catholic sermons the day before the riot. Why is it all the guys named Lyman I've ever known or heard of have been Class A shits? Ooops. I probably should read the book before I start tossing out epithets. I'll get back to you about the Rev. Beecher. Anyway, Fire & Roses has the many pictures that I sorely require, and author Schultz thoughtfully included a list of "Principal Characters" at the front of the book with a brief description of how they figure into this incident.

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I claimed my loot and noisily made my way to the self-checkout machine. It was so quiet that I even hated switching her over to her "English" function. Her normally resonant and modulated Please place the book as shown came out sounding like a drunken slattern at a karaoke bar bellowing out the introduction to her last number before passing out. Everyone sitting behind the circulation desk stopped work and stared.

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Sometimes quiet is too quiet. I grabbed my receipt and squeaked the hell on out of there. Yikes. I bet they could hear me all the way down in Busan.

Challenge Check

Since it's almost midyear and I'm nearly halfway to 100, I thought this would be a good time to cast a cold, critical eye at my progress. With 3 book groups and 8 challenges, I should be checking more often to make sure I'm reading what I need to be reading instead of just lallygagging happily but ignorantly through the year.

Here's what I came up with. Some of it isn't very pretty:

1. 100+ Books Challenge - I'm working on #50. Last year, I read 104, so this year I'd like to increase that, even by just one book. So far, it looks doable.

2. Support Your Local Library Challenge - I'm working pretty feverishly on this one since I pledged to read 50 library books this year but didn't get started on the challenge until March. So far I've read a measly 12, but all is not lost: Thou shalt see me at the Bybee-ary!

3. Canadian Book Challenge - Not. Looking. Good. This challenge ends on July 1st, so it's possible that I'll go down in flames as one of the Snowshoes (people who have read 5 books). If I scurry, I could retire as a Lobster Pot (6 books). If I drop everything including work and sleep, I could be a Zamboni (11 books). Oh well, there's always next year, eh?

4. Read the Book, See The Movie Challenge - I've read/seen 4 books/movies this year and am halfway finished with a 5th and 6th pair. So much fun!

5. The 1930s Mini-Challenge - I'm at 1.5, which puts me halfway through this challenge. Leapin' Lizards!

6. Although I'm not part of any formal challenge, I always like to monitor author nationality to make sure I'm reading more globally. Looks like I'm getting around some, but still too much love for the old home country:

Australia: 1

Canada: 2
China: 1

England: 5

Germany: 1
Hungary: 1

India: 1

Japan: 1

Korea: 2

New Zealand: 1

Nigeria: 1

Scotland: 1
Sweden: 1

USA: 30

7. The Pulitzer Project - I've only read 1 so far this year. Faulkner Guy mentioned doing a group read of Beloved then backed out, but I still might do it. During my trip to the US, I'll pick up a copy of the new one, Tinkers.

8. The Newbery Project - Last summer, I got really interested in the Newberys after I read A Single Shard. Last month, I decided to be bold and start plugging those gaps in my childhood reading. What better place to start than with the award winners? So far, I've read 37 of the winner and honor books, 2 of them -- Thimble Summer and Bud, Not Buddy -- this year. Sandra is helping me with this endeavor by loaning me books that her children have outgrown. I've even got the perfect locale -- do you think that the kids at my apartment complex will understand when I tell them to make room for me on the swing set?

Scrawling My Heart Out: A Different Kind of Bookish Love?

Well, it worked. I finished The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo in time for the meeting and had a better experience than I thought I would.

I owe it all to active reading. When I was close to quitting and knew that I could NOT show up at the BOOKLEAVES meeting without completing the book that I had suggested, I decided to give active reading a try. I would "have a conversation" with the book and its author.

Writing in my books -- even a soft, penciled underlining -- is something that I just do not do. My goal as a book owner is to have people ask me if I've ever read a particular book because it looks so pristine. My friend Faulkner Guy annotates to beat the band and laughs at my looks of horror.

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Early last week when I was reading Flirting with Pride & Prejudice, one of the essayists wrote that she wasn't getting on well at all with one of the Austen books -- it was either Sense and Sensibility or Pride and Prejudice -- so she was ready to throw in the embroidered dishtowel, but one of her friends suggested that she try active reading and she ended up loving the novel and going deeper into it than she'd ever imagined.

I won't go so far as to say that I loved The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, but I was engaged. As a result, it feels as if I really know these characters and I really know the story. It's like I've almost been inside of it, like in The Eyre Affair. It's a strange and exhilarating feeling.

My plan was straightforward: If I was going to write in a book, I wouldn't hold back. As far as active writing went, you wouldn't be able to shut me up. I backtracked to page 67. That first marginal comment, the open marriage stuff is so offhand -- WTF? was torture, but then I was off and running:

God, Blomkvist, you're such a stinky ass! Beckman's the one who probably got you in legal trouble because you're doing his wife!

Millennium subplot...zzzzzzzzzzzzz

"[Salander's] anorexic figure made a career in modelling impossible." Bullshit.

Vanger: "I'm going to tell you a story in two parts." Ooooh noooo...

Blomkvist to Vanger: "I'll give you exactly 30 minutes more to tell me what you want. Then I'm calling a taxi and going home." That's how I feel about this book! Why can't I call a taxi?

Vanger: "But my story is long and complicated." No shit.

Vanger: "It was no secret that [Harriet] and I had a special relationship..." Creepy, or is it a translation thing?

After a lot of mundane detail about Blomkvist's day: OMG...killing me with too much detail...while you're at it, why don't you mention his poo stops?

Blomkvist had many cold miserable days when the temperature dropped to -35F. Oh please! You're Swedish! Don't you know winter? You wuss!

He's referring to the main characters by their surnames...hard to feel involved with them, except for Salander.

"Bjurman was on his way to being a Major Problem." You can handle him, Salander -- you're a LOT smarter than he is!

Millennium subplot: Who cares? I want Salander! What about Harriet?

"He made/she made/they made/ they ate sandwiches" (this happens about every ten or so pages or whenever someone gets hungry) I've got an idea for a drinking game. And: New English title: People Who Love Sandwiches.

"Blomkvist was reading the evening papers. Nothing much of importance was happening in the world." OK, if you say so.

Blomkvist reads a Sue Grafton novel, a Sara Paretsky novel and The Mermaids Singing: Dude's a reader. Larsson's shout-outs to the female detective writers are sort of endearing.

Too obvious! You don't have to hit readers over the head! We're not stupid!

OMG! Has Salander cracked the case? I hope so. Not Blomkvist! HA!

Let's kick some ass!

There's more, of course, but I am not a Spoiler.

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Now that I've let out this dark side of myself, I want to write in every book I read from now on! I even want to read books that I don't like -- books that would otherwise be in my DNF file! It's like I've found a great pair of seven-league boots and been given a vitamin B-12 shot -- I can read anything! I'm SuperBookWorm! My pen is a machete! Bring on the sequels! Bring on my nemesis Atlas Shrugged!

I haven't had this much fun since I discovered that the Marvel Universe is connected.

Not My Cup Of Whatever They Drink In Sweden

Nothin' seems to change/Bad times stay the same/And I can't run/Sometimes I feel/Sometimes I feel/Like I've been tied/To the whipping post/Tied to the whipping post/Tied to the whipping post/Good Lord, I feel like I'm dyin'...

-Allman Brothers-

I'm not getting on well with The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo. I'm really bored. I don't like the writing style. It is taking way too long to get off the ground. I'm 215 pages in, so I think I've been patient but I'm not being rewarded for my patience.

If this were any other book, I'd abandon it. I'd break up with it via text message. I'm curious to know what became of Harriet Vanger, but every bookworm has her limits. As it is, I feel duty-bound to finish since I'm the one who suggested it for BOOKLEAVES. How was I to know? I was so sure that reading a Swedish novel would be so cool and so hot.

The movie is getting great reviews. I'm sure I'd enjoy it tremendously because the filmmakers have already cut the sludge and bloat and waded hip-deep to retrieve the good story that I know must be in here SOMEWHERE! Hello? (hearing echoes) Hello!

From reading the blurb on the back cover, I know that Blomkvist and Salander are eventually going to meet up and work on solving the mysterious case of Harriet Vanger. I like Salander better, but so far, she's only in the book for brief pages at a time. Every time one of her sections ends I let out an obscenity because I know I'm going to have another long and interminable stretch with Blomkvist, who has had a rather interesting life, but it's detailed so blandly. No, blandly is not the right word. Blandly would feel like red-hot excitement right about now. Is it Larsson's writing or the translation? I wish I knew.

If I hope to finish this book before 1 pm on Sunday, I've got to pull out the big bookworm guns. It's time to get interactive. Although I really hate doing this, I've gotten out my pen and started writing in the margins, having a conversation with the novel. I'm making predictions, educated guesses, rants, rude comments and anything else I can think of to muscle on through and not resort to skimming. Plus, it keeps me awake. This novel has been like a healthy dose of sleeping potion. My poisoned apple. The spindle on the spinning wheel in my attic...well, you get the idea.

Here's hoping that my struggle and effort pays off. Here's hoping that things pick up and get really cliffhanger-ish and I end up loving this book so much that I quit Korea and move to Sweden.

I'm bummed that when I'm finished with The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, no one else will ever be able to comfortably read my copy. Unless the next reader feels like I do.

Read-To-Reel

I have been working on this challenge, but silently. Time to wipe the buttered popcorn grease off my fingers and report on what I've read and seen so far this year:

1. An Angel At My Table (1990) 3-part miniseries, directed by Jane Campion. Based on the three-volume autobiography (To The Is-Land, An Angel At My Table and The Envoy From Mirror City) by New Zealand author Janet Frame.

Which did you prefer, the book or the movie?

The book, but only just slightly. Campion does a good job of sticking with the text without seeming slavish to it and there's that gorgeous New Zealand scenery, but some of Janet's actions puzzled me and the book helpfully provided her thought processes and insights.

2. The Painted Veil (2006) Movie starring Edward Norton and Naomi Campbell. Based on the 1925 novel of the same name by W. Somerset Maugham.

Which did you prefer, the book or the movie?

The book, by a long shot. Maugham's prose goes down smoothly like nicely aged sherry. Also, he kept the hostile tension going a lot longer between Walter and Kitty than the movie did. I understand that moviegoers had to see Walter-the-hero at work rather than seeing everything through Kitty's point-of-view so that we'd care about what happened to him, but they didn't have to do that "patch things up" stuff so quickly and so thoroughly. With so much attention paid to turning Walter and Kitty into a couple again, a lot of good scenes from the book were cut and Kitty's change from spoiled brat to reflective, caring woman didn't seem believable. Norton and Campbell did their best and the photography was beautiful, but it was a bit of a slog to sit through.

3. The Way West (1967) Movie starring Kirk Douglas, Richard Widmark and Robert Mitchum. Based on the 1950 pulitzer prize winning novel of the same name by A.B. Guthrie, Jr.

Which did you prefer, the book or the movie?

The book! It's true that the novel was a shade predictable and there was that sudsy residue of soap opera clinging to it, but the movie took out some decent dramatic bits and threw in silly bits to pump up Douglas and Mitchum's parts. The screenwriters could have saved their energy since both of those actors seemed to be merely calling in their performances -- especially Mitchum. Mercy, played by young Sally Field, was crudely drawn as a hillbilly bimbo. Richard Widmark was left to struggle along valiantly, but there's only so much one man can do. What a mess!

4. Crazy Heart (2009) Movie starring Jeff Bridges. Based on the 1987 novel of the same name by Thomas Cobb.

Which did you prefer, the book or the movie?

This was a hard call. I loved them both. Since the story's about a musician, I'll have to give the edge to the movie and its brilliant, dark, slightly moody soundtrack. The movie followed Cobb's novel very closely and changes made to Bad Blake's story were intelligently done. I was blown away by the book's ending, but knew that there was no way that audiences would accept such a likeable actor as Jeff Bridges being left stranded at such a low point. The compromise worked though. As a bonus on the DVD, the deleted scenes included one that faithfully reproduced the book's ending which left my own crazy heart full of bittersweetness and twang.

Library Loot: I Can See Clearly Now

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. Since I appointed myself the Secret Straightener of the Shelves, I've noticed that I hone in a lot more closely on titles. Didn't check out much this week, but Flirting with Pride & Prejudice: Fresh Perspectives on the Original Chick-Lit Masterpiece appealed to me. I need a breather from what I'm currently reading -- The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo -- and this book of fluffy, light and breezy essays about the Jane Austen classic definitely hits the spot. Fun, relaxing reading -- I've already finished the first three essays, my eyes on cruise control. With the Larsson book, I feel as if someone handed me a bag of concrete chunks and told me it was my lunch.

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Flirting with P&P is edited by Jennifer Crusie and is part of the Smart Pop series published by Benbella Books which includes books about Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Star Trek, Supernatural and House, the last of which I'm absolutely dying to get my hands on -- an added plus is that my old buddy from Tulsa, Brad Sinor, contributed a piece. I'm hoping that whoever ordered Flirting with P&P for the library went ahead and decided to pick up the rest of the Smart Pops. If they did, I'll surely find them while performing my straightening duties.

April: Buying

Sigh. I got all the way to the middle of the month without buying any books, then the dam of my bookish heart could hold no more.

1. The Evolution of Shadows - Jason Quinn Malott. Book group book. New book.

2. The Man Who was Thursday - G.K. Chesterton. Book group book. New book.

3. The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo - Steig Larsson. Book group book. I'm starting to see a pattern here. New book.

4. Crazy Heart - Thomas Cobb. When the movie came out, I was determined to find this and reread it. Done and done! It also served as my reward for being pro-active and buying book #6 on this list. Nice picture of Jeff Bridges on the cover. New book.

5. Hank Williams: The Biography - Colin Escott. Reading Crazy Heart made me much more receptive to a book about a real self-destructive country singer. I couldn't resist the picture of Hank on the front. I'm looking forward to reading this with the appropriate background music as an accompaniment. It's a little strange to see an English biographer take on such a completely American icon, but often, the Brits "get" us in subtle yet exciting ways that would elude an American biographer. New book.

6. The Complete Guide To Public Speaking - Jeff Davidson. Early in the semester, I got singled out to do a presentation on how to give a good presentation. I should never answer my phone when I'm into my third or fourth beer -- my convivial side was right out there, prominently flapping in the breeze. Furthermore, the guy who asked me had a soft, stammering voice (like Michael Jackson with a Korean accent) and I thought he was one of my students as he pleaded, "Can you help me?" And that was that. I stayed firmly in denial of what I'd done for the next several weeks then decided that I didn't want to disgrace myself, so I'd better get serious. Davidson's book gave me more information about public speaking than I'll ever need, but what I could and did use was immensely useful. New book.

Wow. The numbers are starting to mount up for 2010, but I think they'd be a lot worse if I weren't monitoring myself.

Talya With Cracked Spinz And Bookleaves: My Book Groups

I'm really lucky to be part of 3 book groups. Here's a report of our recent activities:

1. Talya's Book Group: Talya has finally realized that Seoul Women's Book Club is a deadly moniker that hardly matches her vibrant personality, so she's in search of a new name for the group. Any ideas? Meanwhile, in April, we read The Evolution of Shadows by Jason Quinn Malott, a novel about three people who gather in Sarajevo to get answers about Gray Banick, a journalist they were all close to who disappeared five years before. Malott's novel capitvated almost everyone in the group. Reading the acknowledgements, I noticed that he studied writing with Steve Heller at Kansas State University. I got to meet Heller almost 20 years ago and read his short story collection The Man Who Drank A Thousand Beers as well as his novel The Automotive History of Lucky Kellerman. It's funny what a small world it can be with readers and writers. Anyway, for our next meeting, we're reading Shanghai Girls by Lisa See. A few months ago, I saw this novel everywhere. Now that I'm looking for it, I can't find it, but the meeting isn't until very late in May which gives me time to track down a copy.

2. Cracked Spinz - Unlike Bookleaves and Talya's Book Group, this one, comprised of individuals who share my workplace, is almost all-male, which makes for some interesting selections. We kicked off the new year with Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy. James had the most amusing comment -- he said that it reminded him of a video game -- the characters move into one place and there's a fight and lots of violence, then they move into another place and there's a fight, lots of violence and so on throughout the novel. Paul said that the first time he read the book he didn't get the humor as he did this time around. I was reminded of the first season of Deadwood. For our next read, Alex suggested The Man Who Was Thursday by G.K. Chesterton. I know that the novel deals with anarchy and that the author is famous for creating the detective Father Brown, but little else, so I'm looking forward to expanding my knowledge and seeing what the guys come up with next. Paul suggested Poe's only novel, The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket (1838). Gotta admit, I'm intrigued.

3. Bookleaves is already on its sixth book for the year. The only book so far that I have truly loathed was Wicked, but we switched gears big time with Say You're One of Them by Uwem Akpan, a gripping book of short stories about children living marginal, often dangerous lives in Africa. After that, we read Sea of Poppies by Amitav Ghosh, which is a feast for the senses. We're keeping up that international bent by looking to Sweden and The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson. I've been shying away from this book for my own usual stupid, stubborn awkward reasons: it's a mystery, it's a bestseller, but I've got to break free of my snobbish and narrow prejudices, or why be in a book club -- let alone three of them? The next meeting should be doubly interesting -- we're meeting at COEX on May 16, during which time there will be an International Book Fair that we'll be attending. I'm excited, but trying not to get my hopes up too much. Finally, Jill has encouraged us as a group to do more book-swapping at our meetings, which has been fun and added to our already rich and varied conversations about books. Not to mention that there's something so rich-feeling and indulgent when you see piles of books spilling over on a table that's laden with good food.

Isn't it funny that all three groups chose books whose titles mentioned people by their gender, and that the girl groups chose books with girl in the title and the almost all-male group chose a title that included the word man? I wonder if something like this could happen again...or has it in the past and I've just been lazy about spotting patterns?

What's your book group been up to lately?

April 2010 Reviews

Only 9 books this month. I'm a little disappointed with myself. Maybe May will be better.

1. Good Grief - Lolly Winston. I read a Chick Lit novel and I liked it! The taste of its cherry Chapstick...

Ahem.

36-year-old Sophie is recently widowed. After a short nervous breakdown in which she eats Oreos like a house afire and wears her bunny slippers to work, she moves to her best friend's town to make a fresh start. In about 9 months (notice that number!) she goes from almost completely broken-down to incredibly together. Imagine a combination of Rachel Ray, Amy Adams and Mother Teresa and you'll have a picture of plucky Sophie. Not really my thing, but not bad for Chick Lit. Has this been made into a romantic comedy yet?

2. Home: American Writers Remember Rooms of Their Own - In this collection of essays, the standouts were Henry Louis "Beer Summit" Gates talking about his family's living room as TV and the Civil Rights Movement took hold of the country; Jane Smiley's hymn to the bathroom/bathtub; and Lynda Barry's imagining of a teen boy's bedroom. I almost wish this had been one of Barry's comics instead of just prose, but she writes so well that I could see exactly how she'd illustrate.

3. Little House on the Prairie: A Reader's Guide - Virginia L. Wolf. The other novels in the "Little House" series are discussed in passing, but the main focus here is Little House on the Prairie. Wolf notes that it's the only novel of the eight that begins and ends with a journey (I'd never picked up on that!) so she's motif-vated to point out the circular nature of the book and go wild with symbols and patterns. Fun stuff, though. She works in some Joseph Campbell which is nice and touches on Erickson's stages of development as she charts Laura's progress from childhood to adulthood. She also takes a moment to compare the TV show (1974-1982) to the novels, but it's easy to see that she finds the TV series inferior. I like the show on its own terms, but I have to admit that I rolled my eyes a lot during those years, murmuring (softly, so my father -- rabid fan that he was -- wouldn't hear) "Arrrrghhh, not book."

4. St. Mawr - D.H. Lawrence. I rambled a fair bit about this novel during the early hours of the Readathon. Lawrence cracks me up with his ideas about men and women and love and sex and nature and I don't think that was his intention. What is it about you, Lawrence? I can't take you seriously, but I can't leave you alone. I wish I could quit you, but it's not gonna happen, no matter how many figs you peel.

5. Yi Soon-Shin - Korean Spirit and Culture Series. I changed my mind. THIS was my favorite Readathon read. Naval hero General Yi (1545-1598) is the embodiment of everything that's right and good about Korea and the Korean people. There's been a miniseries done about Yi here in Korea, but I wish that Hollywood would make a movie about his life and times and put this hero firmly on the international map. They could hire a bunch of Korean-Americans for the cast and get the utterly scrumptious Jang Dong Gun to play Yi. One small drawback: JDG's not too hot at English. But wait! I'm an EFL teacher...!

6. A Wish After Midnight - Zetta Elliott. Genna Colon lives in a Brooklyn slum with her mother and brothers and sister. She wishes for a different life by throwing a coin into a fountain in the Botanical Gardens and one night, she gets her wish. She's transported back in time to 1863 Brooklyn. Soon she finds that someone else in her life has gone spiralling through time. Elliott, who is a superbly confident writer, tackles several subjects and events with the fearlessness of a pedagogue, but it works. She's like that favorite teacher from high school who knows how to open up students' minds and enable them to see connections between the past and present. I admire her for respecting her young adult readers enough to feel that they're capable of some heavy lifting. The teacher part of me would totally love to teach this novel to a group of 9-12 graders. The reader part of me wishes that Genna's journey into the past had begun a little earlier, but it 's a minor gripe; I was thoroughly engaged and excited to find out that there's going to be a sequel! Thanks so much to Talya for lending me this book.

7. Sea of Poppies - Amitav Ghosh. This historical novel which takes place in India during the first of the Opium wars isn't just the story of individuals whose fate leads them to the Ibis, an opium ship bound for China -- it's also a feast of language. Ghosh serves up a sumptuous banquet of Creole, bedazzling his readers. He's got a Walt Whitman-esque desire to capture it all with the precision of a Flaubert in finding just the right combination of words to make his characters alive and distinctive (Gregory Maguire, take notes!) Did I mention that it's also quite witty? Readers are left wanting more of everything. Luckily Sea of Poppies is the first book of an upcoming trilogy.

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8. Crazy Heart - Thomas Cobb. I read this novel about Bad Blake, down-and-out country singer back in 1989, but I only remembered scattered bits and pieces, mostly Bad's thoughts about country music. I don't see how I forgot Crazy Heart. It could be that the 28-year-old me didn't identify with Bad Blake as much as the older, more crumpled version of me. Cobb's writing makes me realize how much I miss minimalism in fiction. This novel is gorgeously gritty and sad -- the way country songs used to be. The ending is stunning -- I read and reread it, trying to get a fix on Bad's chance at redemption. I'm eager to see the movie starring Jeff Bridges as the title character.

9. Diary of a Wimpy Kid - Jeff Kinney. I really liked this...well, I'm going to call it a graphic novel. Greg Heffley reminds me of Doug Funnie and the kids from Captain Underpants. I love that he's a flawed character -- he's constantly taunted by the bigger kids at his middle school, "gorillas who shave" but he's oblivious to his own rank behavior towards his family and his best friend, Rowley. There's that scene in which he plays a tree in the school production. The song the trees sing is laugh-out-loud awful. Speaking of awful, there's Fregley, the school misfit who Kinney manages to make both nauseating and poignant all at once. I love the way that Kinney draws Greg's little brother Manny almost as small as a bug. Finally, there's...the Cheese that's been lying on the playground so long that it would strike terror in any 7th grader's heart. Lots of fun; I'll be on the lookout for the others in the series.