Socktober

 

For some reason, I've lost a lot of socks lately. And they all belong to my Disney Princess collection. Of course I only lose one out of a pair, so on any given day, you can find me wearing Jasmine on one foot and Mulan on the other. Or Ariel. Somehow, I've been able to hold on to both Belles. Must be part of my bookworm powers at work, because I also still have both Fuck Off I'm Reading socks.

Speaking of reading, I finished five in October, and I didn't tell anyone to do...that. File under restraint.

1. Comedy Comedy Comedy Drama - Bob Odenkirk. Memoir. Better Call Saul is my new favorite show, so I was eager to read this book. The library has it, but it was checked out, so I got a wild hair and bought it, knowing that it was going to be spectacular. Um...kinda jumped the gun on that one. It's not spectacular. It's not even good. It's like Mr. Odenkirk was mumbling in his sleep and someone sat by his bed and transcribed. At various points in the book, he says himself that it's not very good, and whether or not he was being self-deprecating, he's right.

2. The Book Thief - Markus Zusak. Novel. I read this for book group. Audiobooked it, and it was wonderful. Actually, this was my second reading, but it was so many years ago -- that first year or so that I was in Korea.

3. I'm Glad My Mom Died - Jennette McCurdy. Memoir. At first, I didn't want to read this book because of the title, but everyone kept saying how good it was. And they were right! McCurdy is  a great writer and she certainly had enough material to work with. I can't count how many times my jaw dropped. This is one of the best memoirs I've ever read.

4. Daisy Jones and The Six - Taylor Jenkins Reid. Novel. I read this back in 2020 (I think) and really liked it. Then Sarah, the coordinator of the book group mentioned that the library had it in audiobook form, and it was one of the best she'd ever listened to. Mental note to myself: When Sarah speaks... All of the voice actors were on point, and Jennifer Beals as Daisy Jones was incredible. Now, thanks to this book, I've got a Fleetwood Mac thing going on.

5. Little Man, What Now? - Hans Fallada. Novel. This German novel was published in 1932, shortly before Hitler came into power. The economy in Germany is dismal, but Johannes (Sonny) gets his girlfriend Emma (Lammchen) pregnant, so they take a deep breath and plunge into matrimony. Sonny struggles with horrible and petty bosses, sketchy housing and infuriating red tape from government agencies. The Nazis are in evidence, but part of the background noise. This part of the book is well-done. There are also several colorful characters Sonny and Lammchen meet along the way, and Fallada gets sidetracked by them the way Richard Llewellyn got sidetracked away from Ernie Mott and his Ma in None But the Lonely Heart. Still, a pretty good read. I felt invested in the two main characters and their challenges, and wish that Fallada had written a sequel so we could see if Sonny and Lammchen's fortunes improved or not. My copy is a British English translation; I'd have preferred American English, but that's a minor quibble.

Right now, I'm heavily into Nonfiction November, and already eager to blog about that!

Six In September

 Three audiobooks and three paper books! I like the symmetry:

1. Miss Kopp's Midnight Confessions - Amy Stewart. Novel. Audiobook. Christina Moore's narration is simply the best. Trust me.

2. Dust Bowl Girls - Lydia Reeder. Nonfiction. Audiobook. A barnstorming women's basketball team from a small Oklahoma college were trailblazers with a forward-thinking male coach who made them into champions. Their accomplishments were astonishing. I love how their story is told in such a sweet and conventional style, mostly through their own recollections. The juxtaposition gives the story a warmth and immediacy. I enjoyed the cameos featuring Babe Didrickson, who was handed one of her few defeats by our title heroines, and First Lady Lou Henry Hoover, who frowned on women playing any kind of sports. I was reminded of the movie A League of Their Own.

3. True Biz - Sara Novic. Novel.  A groundbreaking novel about Deaf culture, and the very real threat of extinction by the well-meaning hearing community, armed with imperfect technology. Thought-provoking. The ending seems open-ended. I'm hoping for a sequel.

4. Everybody Thought We Were Crazy - Mark Rozzo. Nonfiction. Actors Dennis Hopper and Brooke Hayward got married after a whirlwind romance in 1961. They quickly discovered they shared a love for modern, often unconventional art. For a brief time, everyone flocked to their home from Hollywood royalty to Andy Warhol to The Velvet Underground to The Byrds. Hopper also finds that he has a talent for photography. A dizzying look at Pop Culture. A fun read.

5. Miss Kopp Just Won't Quit - Amy Stewart.  Novel. Audiobook. I can't stop listening to this series, and I am not a series person. Miss Kopp gets better and better with each novel.

6. The Memoirs of Stockholm Sven - Nathaniel Ian Miller. Novel. In the 1910s and 20s, the title character feels like a misfit in Swedish society. He goes to work as a miner, and gets seriously injured. After that, he decides to go farther north and live as a hermit, hunting and trapping. Although he's awkward and unpolished, people warm to him, and life hands him a few surprises. The novel seems a little uneven, but I enjoyed Sven and his cohort and his many adventures.

2021: Audiobooks In My Ears

I'm almost gleefully smug at how easy it was to add twelve books to my reading total this year. All I had to do was get in the car and drive. Alone. In this way, I could participate with my books, yelling out things like "Oh no, oh no!" "You TELL him!", an assortment of obscenities, and lots of raucous laughter.

1. The Hate U Give - Angie Thomas. Novel.

2. The Underground Railroad - Colson Whitehead. Novel.

3. All the Light We Cannot See - Anthony Doerr. Novel.

4. Little Bird of Heaven - Joyce Carol Oates. Novel.

5. The Personal Librarian - Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray. Novel.

6. The Lacuna - Barbara Kingsolver. Novel. 

7. The Casual Vacancy - J.K. Rowling. Novel.

8. Baby Teeth - Zoje Stage.

9. Behind the Beautiful Forevers - Katherine Boo. Nonfiction.

10. Why Not Me? - Mindy Kaling. Memoir.

11. A Carnival of Snackery - David Sedaris. Diaries, Humor. 

12. The Splendid and the Vile - Erik Larson. Nonfiction.

Notes:

I was vastly entertained by the books and their narrators. The only one that I would unlisten to if I could is All the Light We Cannot See. I found the fragmented structure of the novel frustrating and unnecessary. 

Little Bird of Heaven started out strong but seemed to run out of gas towards the end. I still liked it, though.

I was delighted that The Hate U Give and The Underground Railroad both had the same narrator, Bahni Turpin. She's so good. I'm going to look for more audiobooks with her name on them.

Barbara Kingsolver read The Lacuna herself. She's a talented reader.

David Sedaris read A Carnival of Snackery himself, and I loved the inspired choice of Tracey Ullmann for the UK/Australia entries.

I thought Gabra Zackman made some great narrative choices in the psychological thriller Baby Teeth. I was glad that she didn't make Hanna's voice too little-girlish, instead she went with a flat tone that added to the character's menace. I was also glad that she softened Alex's accent, not making him sound too Swedish. After all, he had lived in the United States for twenty years.

The book I'm driving down the road with right now is Billy Summers by Stephen King, and because of its length, it will be the one that travels with me into 2022. Audiobook + automobile = no limits to my reading enjoyment.

October: Booktober, Rocktober

 October was such a great reading month; it was so good, it gives me shivers. Octobrrr! Here's what happened since I was last here with my watering left eye and bulging, pounding left face:

What I read:

Peyton Place - Grace Metalious. The last time I read this was in the ninth grade. I had a copy of the first paperback edition. How did I end up with Peyton Place? I don't remember, but I think I spirited it from my grandmother's or maybe my aunt's bookshelves during a summer visit. As always, not the same book decades later. Still riveting reading with frank discussions in even franker language that resonate even nearly 70 years after Metalious wrote the novel. The version that appeared in bookstores was considerably toned down from her original manuscript, according to her biographer, Emily Toth. I'd love to read that version. I think. Because there is some problematic stuff. One character, who actually turns out to be a really nice person (not from Peyton Place) gets violent with his partner during some non-consenting sex and this is the key to unblocking her frigidity and towards morning, she is smiling. Ugh. A vile and a stenchily overused trope, even back then. There's the gratuitous use of the n-word. Ugh. And there's this really twisted chapter involving a man's affections towards his heavily pregnant wife, a troubled boy, a corpse, voyeurism, a cat, and the promise of an enema that initially had me saying ugh, but also, another part of me was recognizing that this was Grace Metalious working at full power, unrestrained, burning down her typewriter, and my ugh turned to damn, girl!

Inside Peyton Place: The Life of Grace Metalious - Emily Toth. I'm glad that Toth was able to give the finger to all the academics who sniffed at her for wanting to write about the author of Peyton Place. I'm also glad that she was able to get interviews with many of Metalious's family, friends, and contemporaries. However, the end result feels a little muted. There's something about Toth's writing style, earnest as it is that just doesn't match up with the sad and squalid train wreck that was Grace Metalious's short life. It's like she's trying to fit it into a tidy framework, and there was nothing tidy about Grace Metalious. Framework? F that, I can almost hear Metalious saying. Get me another Canadian Club and 7Up. But like I said before, I am glad, fiercely so, that Toth took on this project. After all these years (Inside Peyton Place was published in the early 1980s) I wonder if anyone would be willing give a new biography a go.

Baby Teeth - Zoje Stage. This novel was my audiobook for late October, and it was the perfect read-listen for the days leading up to Halloween. I love an unreliable narrator, and in Baby Teeth's two main characters, 7-year-old defiantly mute Hanna and her overanxious, perfectionistic and chronically ill mother, Suzette, it seemed that I had two. Or did I? Baby Teeth kept me guessing. I loved everything about the novel. I can hardly write about it because I loved its setting, characters, creepy factor so much that I want everyone to read it so we can talk. The ending feels like there's the possibility for a sequel, although it's perfect the way it is. 

What I'm Reading:

Fresh Off the Boat - Eddie Huang. This memoir, which inspired the TV show about a family from Taiwan who emigrates to the United States and settles in Central Florida in the early 1990s is poignant and pungent. I'm enjoying it, especially the multisensory descriptions of food.

How To Change Your Mind - Michael Pollan. This is my newest audiobook. Just got started, but know that I'll like it. I've been a Pollan fan since The Botany of Desire.

What I Want to Read:

The Boys - Ron Howard. This is a memoir by director/actor Ron Howard about Ron, his younger brother Clint, and their dad, Rance, all actors. A friend of mine bought this book, and I'm trying to figure out what is the polite amount of time to wait before I start demanding that he hurry up and finish reading so that I can read it. So far, it's been about 4 days.

Cheese, Sex, Death - Erika Kubick. It's finally published! Looks gorgeous.

Everything by Zoje Stage!!!

What I'm Watching:

Just finished Season 3 of The Office.

What I Cheesed:

The Cranberry Chipotle Cheddar is but a fond memory. I'm low on Butter Kase. No regrets about pitching the goat cheese. I want to go back to The Cheese Store, but I still have a brick of Garden Bruschetta waiting in the freezer. [Edited to add: Forgot to mention my sweet Bourbon Maple Cheddar, a wonderful dessert cheese. A decent-sized chunk left.]

What I Halloweened:

Every year I tell myself I'm going to be Miss Havisham, then I let planning time slip away. At the last minute I borrowed some of the cat's toys, pinned them in my chaotic just-rolled-out-of-bed hair and went as "what the cat dragged in".

Early October: More Cheese Than Books

 What I read/am reading:

In printed books, there's not much change from last week here at the Bybeeary: I'm still under the spell of American Cheese by Joe Berkowitz, and laughing my way through Andy Greene's hilarious series survey The Office: The Untold Story of the Greatest Sitcom of the 2000s. 

Warhol by Blake Gopnik still sits reproachfully on the table, judging me for not picking it up for nearly two weeks now. I really don't want this to be a DNF, but I'm starting to feel the time constraints of library-booking.

What I'm listening to:

I'm happily engaged with a new audiobook: The Casual Vacancy by J.K. Rowling. Not at all what I was expecting from this author. Rowling's examination of the small English town of Pagford following the unexpected death of a beloved city councillor, gives me yummy flashbacks to Peyton Place by Grace Metalious. 

What I watched/am watching: 

I watched Season 1 of The Office. Seeing how they all got started was great. What really struck me was the sickly lighting and the even more sickly expressions of the characters, dealing with their boss, Michael Scott. In particular, Pam, played by Jenna Fisher, actually looks like she might throw up. Yes! That's what people look like at work! The Spawn has put Season 2 on reserve at the local library, and I'm especially looking forward to the episode "The Injury" in which Michael burns his foot on his George Foreman grill. He keeps it by his bed so he can wake to the smell of bacon frying. Meanwhile, Dwight, while rushing to Michael's rescue, has a minor car accident which results in a more significant injury, apparent to everyone but Dwight himself. "The Injury" was written by Mindy Kaling. I'm so ready!

Maid, based on the nonfiction book of the same name by Stephanie Land, dropped on Netflix on October 1, and I watched the first episode. It's well-acted and intense. I felt extreme anxiety, and have had to pause for a few days before going onto the next one.

Where I went, what I ate, and what I bought:

The week seemed to drag by, but then finally it was Saturday, and I was off to The Cheese Store in Sweet Springs. I really didn't know what to expect, but I had hoped for a large selection of cheese (Check!), numerous samples of interesting cheese (Check!), and friendly, knowledgeable staff who would discuss the cheeses with me and make helpful recommendations (Check!) I tried several samples, and the one that I regret not buying was a cheddar called Bourbon Maple that started out cheesy and creamy and ended with a delicious flood of maple flavor that intensified. It's been more than 24 hours, and I can't get it out of my mind. 

Meanwhile, here are the items I brought home:

Cheese and jalapeno summer sausage. It's made by a local company called Alwel's, which always blue-ribbons at the Missouri State Fair. Ooooh, so gooood. I almost bought their buffalo summer sausage, and I regret leaving this behind as well as the Bourbon Maple cheddar.

Goat cheese. I bought this without tasting a sample, propelled by memories of Heidi, and I must say that I am full of purchase-regret. Aside from the slightest tang reminiscent of Chobani's plain yogurt, it's pretty bland. I might as well have bought a block of Philly cream cheese. I've been busy scrolling, looking for pairings that will make it more interesting. Suggestions welcome! Today I put some on a baked potato with bits of the aforementioned summer sausage. Not bad, but lesson learned: I need my cheese to be marvelous on its own.

Steakhouse Onion. Another cheddar, shot through with bits of toasted onion and in some sort of delectable alchemy, a taste like rich beef broth. THE WINNER for the day. I ate it at the store, I ate it at home with some Townhouse crackers, and I slid a little into my baked potato/goat cheese/summer sausage lunch concoction. I would eat this anywhere, including at this computer, for I just went to the refrigerator and got another sliver, so as to properly convey its awesomeness. 

Butter Kase. A simple, mild cheesy buttery cheese, a favorite for many years, since I was a little child living in Germany. Sentimental taste buds. I have to admit that I squealed like a fangirl when I saw that it was available.

Bruschetta Jack. This solid, flavorful cheese has tomato, garlic, onion, parsley and basil in it, and it's good, but I would swap it out for that Bourbon Maple in a do-over. 

Cranberry Chipotle Cheddar. Another winner! I love its spicy sweetness and can't wait to try it on a taco. Cranberries, chilies and a subtle smokiness. It's also the most eye-appealing of the group. 

I'll finish this post with a cheese-y memory: 

When I was in high school, cheese fondue was a big deal at parties, and you could usually find my little introvert self hanging over the pot, looking down into that tasty melty Swiss/Gruyere elixir, my long fork with its cube of bread carefully dipping...yeah. Flash-forward a few years, and I began dating a guy who announced that he would be bringing fondue to a party. I couldn't wait. I watched as he unpacked the pot, the long forks, the spirit lamp thingy, and...what the hell!? Oil? Tiny strips of raw steak??? This wasn't fondue! But it was. Apparently I had never learned that there were *two* kinds of fondue. My disappointment knew no bounds. For years, I referred to it as "imposter fondue" or "fon-doo-doo". The guy enthusiastically lowered his meaty fork into the hot oil for the umpteenth time as he caught my eye. "Pretty good, huh?" he said. I nodded. Now bring out the real fondue, I didn't say.

Mid-September, 2021: Way Late To The Office Party

 A few days ago, I became acquainted with the concept of "batch blogging". It's like "batch cooking", but with blogs. Apparently, it's a thing. Apparently, closer to home, The Spawn does it with his comic book blog. Now I feel as if there is a lack in me because I can't squeeze out multiple posts at one sitting to be scheduled at tidy intervals. Just getting one blog entry out is like warring with the last smears of toothpaste at the end of the tube. Is it because I have nothing to say? No, of course not. I am intrigued, and think I might try out the concept with a mini-post. Okay, enough with all this throat-clearing!

What I Read:

Who Was Frida Kahlo? - Sarah Fabiny. Biography. Kahlo figures prominently in my current audiobook, The Lacuna, so I wanted to read more about her. Fabiny paints a portrait of Kahlo that is as rich and emotional as Frida's art. She does a great job of discussing the symbolism in Kahlo's paintings, and is candid about Frida's health and relationship struggles. The illustrations by Jerry Hoare give this volume in the series an added richness and cohesiveness. So glad I bought this!

What I DNFed:

What She Ate - Laura Shapiro. Nonfiction. This was such a clever idea, combining women's lives with the food they ate, but it just didn't come together for me. I read three out of the six profiles: Dorothy Wordsworth, Helen Gurley Brown, and Barbara Pym. I struggled to the finish with Pym, and decided to take What She Ate off the table. I like the concept and can't stop thinking about it. I wonder if there is some way someone else could give this idea a try.

What I'm reading:

American Cheese - Joe Berkowitz. Nonfiction. I'm not very far along yet, but enjoying every cheese-filled reference. Joe B. has just had his Eureka! moment at the fancy cheese-tasting, and now he's branched out into making his own cheese at home with mixed results: So-so, needs improvement and distinctly horrible. He's also sampling the best and building his "cheese memory palace" cube by savory cube. I'm relating to this book remarkably well, considering that my own cheese tastes are beyond unsophisticated and I've only been in one cheese shop in my entire life. This was in The Netherlands in the 1970s, and my parents sampled several cheeses before coming out of there with a small wheel of I know not what, but remember that it was unpleasantly pungent and we ate it for months. Anyway, can't wait to take another bite out of American Cheese.

The Lacuna - Barbara Kingsolver. Novel. This book may turn out to be my favorite read for 2021. I love the panorama of disparate settings in the United States and Mexico and I'm in awe of how Kingsolver wove together a story that encompasses world events stretching from the 1920s revolution in Mexico to hideous McCarthyism in the 40s and 50s. Like Zelig, Kingsolver's main character, Harrison Shepherd is a witness to all of it. I'm also fascinated by her creation-within-a-creation -- Shepherd's historical fiction novels, set in long-ago Mexico. Her "book reviews" of his work are so convincing, I found myself wanting to put them on my wishlist. As I mentioned above, Frida Kahlo features prominently in The Lacuna, and she does something so memorable and heroic for Shepherd and his art while he appears to be doing the same for her and her art, that when it was revealed, I nearly burst into happy tears while driving down the road. I'm not finished with The Lacuna yet, and I'm not sure I want to be.

Warhol - Blake Gopnik. Biography. Not going to lie; this one is hard going. Gopnik did an incredible amount of research -- so much so that his end notes couldn't be published in the print volume because it would tack on hundreds of more pages to this already hefty tome. He seems determined not to let any of the research go to waste, jam-packing tangents, incidentals, and minute details into the story of Warhol's life. There is also a fair amount of speculation about Andy Warhol's inner psyche followed with sensible realizations that there is always going to be a barrier that even the most thorough biographer can never cross. For even the most devoted to biography fans, all of this is daunting.  I'm not giving up, though!

What I Want To Read (And Watch!):

Billy Summers - Stephen King. Novel. I'm hoping to audiobook this one.

I am so so late to the party, but after reading Mindy Kaling's book Why Not Me? last month, I finally became interested in watching The Office. One night after work, I found it on Comedy Central. The network typically runs shows all evening until ten o'clock. The first couple of episodes I watched didn't thrill me. Then, in the middle of a season 3 episode, Jim pranks Andy by hiding his phone (with its annoying ringtone of Andy's a cappella rendition of Rockin' Robin) in the ceiling, and it hit me. Now I love the show, and have been sporadically working my way through the series. At some point, I'll go back and start at the beginning. The Spawn found a library book about The Office in our local library system and it's on the way, so I'm eager to read it. My thoughts so far: The Jim and Pam romance doesn't really interest me, although I like both characters individually, especially Jim's never-ending arsenal of workplace pranks. I'm drawn to Dwight, Andy, Michael, Kelly, Meredith, Stanley, Phyllis, Oscar, Kevin, and the HR guy, Toby. Oh, and Angela, the crazy cat person. As for Ryan, played by B.J. Novak -- not sure about him yet.

 I could go on, but I really need to click this post into existence, warts and all.

Leafing August; Paging September

What I read: 

Who Is Dolly Parton? - True Kelley. This book is a treasure. Very well done. True Kelley covered a lot of ground in the meager 108 pages allowed her in this series. Not a lot of distracting sidebars for filler. I know it sounds mean, but I quite enjoyed the shade thrown in Porter Wagoner's direction. And...road trip, anyone? Dollywood???

Why Not Me? Mindy Kaling. I audiobooked this one, read by Mindy herself. I love how she's outrageous and unapologetic. My favorite line in the book is when she's talking about doing a rewrite for the pilot of The Mindy Project and she says she feels like Kal Drogo while working on a strict deadline. I feel like binge-watching alllll the episodes of The Mindy Project.

The Andy Warhol Diaries - Andy Warhol, Pat Hackett, editor. Whee! What a ride. Nearly 900 pages. Have I mentioned that SO MANY PEOPLE are mentioned in the diary? I'm boring friends and family now, I fear. When they mention a celebrity, I say something like, Oh, here's what Andy Warhol said about X. Even better than his name-dropping was the times he got meta and wished to be acquainted with other diary keepers so that they could appear in each others' diaries. So anyway, I am finished with his diary, but I'm not through with Andy Warhol. (See below.)

What I'm reading:

The Lacuna - Barbara Kingsolver. I'm audiobooking this novel, read by the author. I am surprised to find out that Kingsolver is a very talented narrator. Now this feels like what historical fiction should feel like. Harrison Shepherd, a young man (fictional character) with a Mexican mother and an American father winds up working in the home of Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo as a cook right about the time Leon Trotsky, in exile and running from Stalin for years, comes to live with them. It's intelligent and expansive. The descriptions of Mexico are intoxicating, and appeal to all the senses. The historical characters all seem very much alive, and Frida in particular jumps off the page, or in this case, out of my car stereo.

What I DNF'ed 

What She Ate - Laura Shapiro. Nonfiction. Shapiro looks at six women: Dorothy Wordsworth, Rosa Lewis, Eleanor Roosevelt, Eva Braun, Barbara Pym, and Helen Gurley Brown and examines each of their relationships to food. I'm not always convinced in these essays that food is the key to them, as Shapiro would like the reader to believe. Even if she could have successfully persuaded me, I was more often than not asleep while she meandered through the essays. I'm so disappointed. I love biography and I love reading about food and the part it plays in people's lives, but this book just didn't engage me.

What a tasty stack I found at the bookstore:

Who Was Frida Kahlo? - Sarah Fabiny. The Lacuna sent me in search of Frida's appearance in the Who Was...? series. Very much looking forward to reading it.

American Cheese - Joe Berkowitz. This nonfiction look at my favorite dairy product was on my wishlist. Guy walks into an upscale cheese store during a cheese sampling, experiences something like cheese nirvana and goes off on a cheese odyssey. I can't wait to start reading and get into the Gruyere as well. 

Fresh Off the Boat - Eddie Huang. Also from the wishlist. I was beguiled by the recent sitcom of the same name and would like to see how close it stayed to Eddie Huang's memoir. 

What I want to read:

Warhol - Blake Gopnik. A biography of Andy Warhol published in 2020. The last time I did a deep dive like this was with Susan Sontag. (Surprisingly, Sontag didn't appear anywhere in Andy Warhol's diary. New York City did, multiple cab rides did, Annie Leibowitz did, but no Sontag. Hmm. It just feels as if they should have crossed paths. Or am I coming at this with too much of a Midwestern point-of-view?)

Welcome To My Reading Week: Early July, 2021

 Okay, let's do this. I've got my Belle (Beauty and the Beast) socks on and my reading journal at my side. Here's a look at my read life from July 1-11:

What I read:

Who Is Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson? - James Buckley, Jr. Nonfiction. I know that I complained about the 50-page offerings in the Who Was...? series, but this one felt just right. Not rushed at all. I enjoyed reading about how Dwayne Johnson grew up with a father and grandfather who were famous wrestlers, and how Dwayne tried to become a successful pro football player before following in the family business and finding success in the WWE. Despite its brevity, the book did justice to Johnson's charm and charisma.

The Mayor of MacDougal Street - Dave Van Ronk. Memoir. Recently, I watched Inside Llewyn Davies, a Coen brothers movie that came out a few years ago, while I was living in Busan. It was one of the films featured at the Busan International Film Festival, but I couldn't get a ticket to see it. The story of a folksinger going through a rough patch in Greenwich Village in 1961, the title character is loosely based on Dave Van Ronk who seemed to know everyone and everybody across several musical genres, including a new kid from Minnesota called Bob Dylan. Van Ronk died in the middle of working on this memoir, so parts of it feel a bit disjointed, and while his musical insights are illuminating and entertaining, those sections are a bit rambly. Ditto for his political views. Still, I'm glad to have read The Mayor of MacDougal Street. (Many thanks to The Spawn for tracking down both the book and the movie for me.) Dave Van Ronk was a hilarious guy with a trenchant sense of humor, and his chapter about a cross-country trip from NYC to LA with a fellow musician and a 12-year-old kid in tow makes up for the unevenness of some of the other chapters. One big surprise: Dave Van Ronk was also heavily into science fiction fandom. What if he was at a convention I attended in San Francisco back in the early 1990s? My heart beats a little faster to imagine it. By the way: If anyone is working on a time machine, please consider sending me to Greenwich Village, 1958-1961. Thank you.

What I'm reading:

The Night Watchman - Louise Erdrich. Novel. At first, I didn't like the latest winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and complained about it bitterly in a couple of letters to my bookwormy friends Care and Teri. But once I got to the 170-page mark, I settled in, or Louise Erdrich settled in, and now I like it much better. 

Little Bird of Heaven - Joyce Carol Oates. Novel. I'm audiobooking this one, and I love it. Typical JCO dark and depressing and sharp with an upper New York State setting to match the bleakness of the narrative. I never thought of listening to Oates on audiobook before, but it's an inspired match. I feel a little crazy after my commute, but in a good way.

Cheeky: A Head-to-Toe Memoir - Ariella Elovic. Graphic Novel. If Elovic never does another book in her whole career, and she will, because she's only 30, she will have performed a valuable service to female humanity. This funny, frank, charming, whimsical, eye-opening memoir is her effort to change the conversation with herself about her body self-consciousness from "Imperfection!" to "I'm perfection!" I'm already halfway through Cheeky and loving every single page of it. I think it's already influencing my thinking, because I winced when a friend took a selfie of herself and her pet and asked us to excuse her unmade-up face, which is absolutely beautiful as it is. Anyway, I hope Cheeky gathers a wide audience, and I wish it could have somehow been around back in the 1970s and 1980s. There's that time machine longing again.

The Nine of July, 2018

Here are the nine books I read and listened to during July:

1. No Ordinary Time - Doris Kearns Goodwin. A portrait of Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt during the WWII years. I audiobooked this one. Found out too late that it was abridged, but the late Edward Herrmann's narration was everything.

2. The Good Daughter - Karin Slaughter. Oh no. No. Did not like. The premise was intriguing -- two sisters, their defense attorney father and a violent crime in their past that collides with the title character's present -- and I appreciated the whiffs of Flannery O'Connor and Harper Lee, but the whole thing was so overwritten and bloated.

3. A Raisin in the Sun - Lorraine Hansberry. I finally read this classic 1959 play about a Chicago family trying to move out of the inner city and all of the stumbling blocks that come from forces both outside and inside. I was impressed and moved by Hansberry's description of her characters and other aspects from the stage directions. I wish she had lived out a full lifespan, because she would be a majestic driving force in so many different art forms.

4. Kitchens of the Great Midwest - J. Ryan Stradal. Audiobook. The story of Eva, a woman with a once-in-a-lifetime palate that she seemed to have inherited from her chef father and wine connoisseur mother, is a delight. The book is structured in chapters featuring characters that all played a part in Eva's life. It's like a recipe, of sorts, which works because food is a recurring theme. It's funny and poignant. The narrators -- one male and one female -- are on point. I can't believe I hemmed and hawed about reading this book for a couple of years. One of my favorites for the month.

5. The Letters of Sylvia Plath Vol. I 1940-1956 - Sylvia Plath. Peter K. Steinberg and Karen V. Kukil, eds. I finally finished this huge tome of letters written by the youthful Sylvia. This volume takes the reader up to October, 1956. Sylvia Plath is keeping her marriage to fellow poet Ted Hughes a secret because she's afraid of losing her scholarship to Cambridge. They are living apart and finding the situation untenable. I wish I could freeze time at this point and leave them in love and trembling on the cusp of fame. Vol II 1956-1963 comes out soon. September in the UK and October 30 in the US. Steinberg and Kukil are brilliant editors. It was such a relief to read Sylvia's words without all the choppy ellipses.

6. Killing and Dying - Adrian Tomine. I was so pleased to find this graphic short story collection. I've been a big fan of Tomine's since I read Shortcomings. He's described as the graphic novel Raymond Carver, and that seems to be apt. The title comes from a story about a would-be comedian.

7. Lover of Unreason - Yehuda Koren and Eilat Negev. A biography of Assia Wevill, the woman who is best known for her part in the breakup of Sylvia Plath's and Ted Hughes' marriage. By the time she entered their lives, she was on her third marriage and had a history of infidelities. From her history, one would have predicted that Hughes would have been another scalp in her belt, to put it crudely, but she met her match. I began Lover of Unreason absolutely despising Assia, but by the end, I was surprised to feel deep sympathy. This is for readers who want to know the rest of the story -- what happened after the events of February 11, 1963.

8. Born a Crime - Trevor Noah. Noah's memoir would be entertaining in any form, but I'm glad I got the audiobook. He is so funny and such a great narrator. The people in his life, especially his mother, spring to life. The book is also educational because the reader gets thumbnail sketches of South Africa's troubled history and sharp observations about the hateful, convoluted, contrived system that was apartheid. This was my favorite read (listen) for July.

9. The Bell Jar: A Novel of the Fifties - Linda Wagner-Martin. I'd forgotten how dull literary criticism can be. The Bell Jar is so vibrant, but you'd never know it from these essays about the book that are as dry as Shredded Wheat.

Although I only read nine for July, I'm pleased with the list, which seems like a good mix, if you don't count my Plath obsession.

Get a load of this: A friend actually told me that I couldn't count the books I listened to because I didn't read them with my eyes.  I took a deep breath and explained without swearing or screaming that the books were merely coming through one of my other senses and still had to be processed by my brain. Any book processed by my brain was going into my reading journal. The End.

Hours later, I realized I'd forgotten to mention people who read in Braille.

 But really. Sheesh.

If The Book Isn't There, I'm Not There

Where am I? Doesn't matter; I've got a book on the go. Here's what with me right now:

At home:

The Collected Letters of Sylvia Plath - Sylvia Plath. This one doesn't get much farther than the patio because it's heavy. 1400 + pages. Four-and-a-half pounds. Not easy to read in bed or in the recliner. My best spot is at a desk or table where I can lay the book. I've had it for a little over a week and it's already showing signs of wear and tear...well, not tear. More like splash from a frozen strawberry lemonade. As for the contents, it's fascinating to read Plath unedited. Even the seemingly minor details.

A Book of American Martyrs - Joyce Carol Oates.  I've only just started this book. I keep it on the table in the kitchen, reading bits while waiting for coffee to brew or toast to pop up.

In my purse:

My Kindle. I started Tess of the D'urbervilles, but I'm stalled. I think it's because I know I'm going to be furious with all the men in Tess's life.

A paperback copy of The Optimist's Daughter by Eudora Welty.  Of course there must be a paper book if something were to go wrong with the Kindle, right? I had to find a skinny book. My new purse is a lovely gift from my mom, but it is narrow at the opening and widens towards the bottom. It's a triangle! Not the best shape for toting books around, but that makes me more creative about finding my reads.

In the car:

My current audio book, Destiny of the Republic: A Tale of Madness, Medicine and the Murder of a President by Candice Millard. I like to find errands to run unaccompanied so I can enjoy listening to this book. The narrator, Paul Michael, is particularly good. He has a firm, resonant Midwestern timbre for the fated James A. Garfield, a fine, peppery Scottish accent for the restless genius inventor, Alexander Graham Bell, and a flat, whiny Snidely Whiplash tone for Charles Guiteau, Garfield's assassin who was both a master manipulator and batshit crazy. Author Millard has structured a compelling narrative within an elegant prose style that feels scholarly but doesn't feel overstuffed with research.

For future audio encounters, I'm hoping the new Stephen King book, The Outsider, as well as David Sedaris's newest Calypso, will be journeying back and forth to the grocery store with me soon.

The Words Fall In, The Words Fall Out

...but they don't play pinochle in my snout. I think. I hope. Where's a mirror? I've always been rather fond of my nostrils.

The words fall in (Part I):

I'm still reading Grant by Ron Chernow. 25% finished. I thought I might mix it up and read Tess of the D'Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy, but Grant won't let me cheat on him! I feel guilty contemplating other books. I downloaded a biography of James Baldwin that was the special of the day on Amazon, but I haven't opened it yet. Grant, why do you do this to me??? Hamilton and Washington were cool when I wandered off for a month or two or three.

The words fall in (Part II):

I'm still in the first-stage giddiness regarding my crush on The Restricted Section.  Never knew there was so much beer in the world.  Or bookstores and library sales in Springfield. I'm having a great time catching up on all of Megan and Sue's videos.


The words fall out (Part I):

With Mom back in the nursing home and my working 40-plus hours a week, I suddenly had an epiphany that absolutely nothing in my life is conducive to writing a novel. Too late now! I am having fun discovering new characters (a 100-year-old female business tycoon showed up on Wednesday. I was totally charmed) and having my friend choose her own character names. It's true that the words are falling out of me reluctantly, so on those days, I resort to elaborate outlines and Q and As about what I'm truly trying to accomplish in each section. This seems to be the way I go about novel-writing; I recognize some of the same tactics from Even if the Sky Falls Down. One of my characters is trying to take over all of Chicken Diary, so I promised her that she could have her own novel. I worried that I'd be doing both simultaneously (she's that overbearing!) but she's shut up for now.

The words fall out (Part II):

I have a couple of audiobooks I'm ready to pass on to someone else. Both are novels. The first one is The Marriage Plot by Jeffrey Eugenides. I shied away from it for years, then it ended up being my favorite of his novels. The other one is A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara, about which I have so many mixed feelings that I could be in a bartender's recipe book. If you're interested in either or both, let me know and we'll work out the details.

There, There Now

My wrist is nearly healed, so I'm back to typing with both hands. The right-side shift makes me wince a bit, but it's nothing I can't handle, she said bravely.

I've read so much these past couple of months, but blogging...it's like I'm locked up, locked in. Part of this is because of the wrist, and part of it is because Mom is working on her third week in the hospital. A double feature this time out: The usual touch of pneumonia coupled with an abscess gone way WAY wrong. The details are so horrific, I can't even type them here. Both you and Mom would never forgive me. Stephen King might...well, yeah, but he doesn't read this blog.

Even with all of this, I MUST get back to blogging. As I've done before when stuck, I'll try to do short entries until I'm comfortable again. Tonight (it's 12:40 a.m.), I'll talk about what I'm reading currently:

1. Washington: A Life - Ron Chernow. I'm glad I didn't give up on this biography. I'm 10% into the book and am starting to see and appreciate the human side of the most formidable icon in American history. He's so much more than that lifeless looking unfinished painting by Gilbert Stuart.

2. Consider the Fork - Bee Wilson. Really struggling with this book, and I can't put my finger on why. Wilson devotes each chapter to the history of a particular kitchen gadget. Sounds like it should be great fun, but the prose seems quite dense. It's not a long book, but  I've been at it for weeks now. I'm determined to finish.

3. A Touch of Stardust - Kate Alcott. This is part of my keep-an-audiobook-on-the-go-at-all-times project. What a fun, frothy gem. The setting is 1939 Hollywood, the backdrop the filming of Gone with the Wind. Carole Lombard and Clark Gable are characters. It's not all classic Hollywood, though. Talk of the war in Europe is in the air, and something is brewing with Julie Crawford's Jewish boyfriend, Andy Weinstein, who is David Selznick's right-hand-man. Julie, an aspiring screenwriter, is the main character. She is Lombard's personal assistant, and like Lombard, she is from Fort Wayne, Indiana. I'm not sure if the mash-up of Old Hollywood insider gossip and the dark story that seems to be on the horizon is really going to work, but for now, I'm thoroughly entertained. I could eat this book with a spoon, it's so delectable.

So that's my Read Life right now. For my next blog post, I'll work backwards, so I don't forget everything. On the other hand, I may leap so far forward that I pull my reading hamstring. Stay tuned.

In Which I Try to Remember What I Read in December

No, I'm kidding. My December reading was fantastic. Mostly.

1. Notorious RBG: The Life and Times of Ruth Bader Ginsberg - Irin Carmon and Shana Knizhnik. (Nonfiction)  An energetic, ardent look at our second female (and first coolest!) United States Supreme Court justice. From the time RBG graduated from law school, (where she and the other female students were made to feel guilty for taking a spot that a male student could have had) she worked tirelessly to eliminate discrimination towards both women and men. As I read about her career, my admiration grew by leaps and bounds. Her lifelong romance with her husband and fellow lawyer, Marty, made me tear up. Her strong feelings about legal writing being crystal clear, her obsession with opera, her ability to do push-ups in her ninth decade had me completely in her thrall. When my son asked me to give him a list for my birthday/Christmas, I included a Notorious RBG t-shirt. And I got it! Great read. I'm not sure I absorbed all its goodness the first time, so I have plans for a reread.

2. Hillbilly Elegy - J.D. Vance. (Nonfiction, memoir)  Vance is a former Marine and a Yale Law School graduate and is light-years from his troubling upbringing in the Rust Belt. He grew up in a poor, depressed area and his mother had problems with drug abuse. After his parents divorced, his mother brought in several stepfather figures who didn't stick around long. His life seemed to be going down a similarly bad path until he moved in with his maternal grandmother. Vance often appears stunned that he made it out of that background, and rigorously examines not only his own experience, but the collective experience of the culture he refers to as hillbilly. The triangulation he uses to make sense of everything lifts this book beyond the standard memoir. I was totally engrossed and could not stop reading Hillbilly Elegy.  Highly recommended.

3. The Maid's Version - Daniel Woodrell. (Novel) After Hillbilly Elegy, I had a reading hangover that left me hungry for more stories of that kind, so I thought about rereading Winter's Bone as a complement, but instead settled on another Daniel Woodrell novel, The Maid's Version. This short novel, set in the late 1920s, packs a hell of a wallop.  It's both myth and mystery -- the story of a dance hall fire in a small Missouri town. The maid in the title is the narrator's grandmother, an old woman half-crazed by the death of her sister in that fire. All during a summer when the narrator visits her as a 12-year-old boy, she serves up southern cooking and seemingly unconnected vignettes. She's like the Ancient Mariner (floor-length gray hair instead of an albatross) with a whiff of Chaucer. The language is distinctly Ozarkian, but the early 20th century slang lends to that aura of myth. Woodrell is madly brilliant. He says more in a half of a page than many writers say in several chapters.  I'm so glad I finally read this book. I'm grateful to my reading buddy, Pablo, for introducing me to Woodrell's writing in the first place.

4. Meat: A Love Story - Susan Bourette. Bourette, a Canadian reporter, went undercover as a worker in a pork processing plant. After a couple of days of slicing hog cheeks, she understandably fled the job and intended to live out the rest of her days as a vegetarian. She lasted only a few weeks before stumbling into a diner and ordering everything meat on the menu. The rest of the book details her quest to find the perfect meat meal. Her travels take her to Alaska to hunt and eat whale, to a steakhouse in Texas, to an upscale butcher shop in New York City and game-hunting. All of her adventures were interesting, but her writing didn't draw me in very much. Her style seems perfunctory and as a reader, I felt at a cool arm's length. The subtitle, "A Love Story" implies more heat than is present. I really wanted to like this book more than I did.

The end of 2016 found me working on two books:

 The very long and involving Parade's End by Ford Madox Ford. This is actually an omnibus of four novels Ford wrote from 1924-28 about English society pre-, during, and post-WWI as observed through one character, Christopher Tietjens. I have a bit of a lovehate hatelove relationship with this book and often wonder what in God's name I've gotten myself into. Ford Madox Ford wrote in that modern stream-of-consciousness style, but he often seems uncomfortable and ham-handed with it. Or maybe it's me that's uncomfortable; I'm listening to the audiobook, and when Tietjens goes off on tangent after tangent, I'm worried that I'm going to lose the whole thread because I'm also concentrating on my driving. The narrator of the book, Steven Crossley, is wonderful and probably the force that keeps me going.

 Her Again, a biography about the early life and career of Meryl Streep.  What a pleasurable reading experience! I've followed her whole career, and I've always found her mesmerizing.  One of my fantasies is to have an uninterrupted week in which I watch or re-watch every Streep movie. If there were a Meryl Streep t-shirt, I'd wear it.

Next up:

I'll look back at what I read in 2016, revisit my biblio resolutions for that year then proceed to make new ones for 2017.

Parade's End

This is my latest bookworm project. 

Parade's End is an omnibus of four novels written by Ford Madox Ford from 1924-1928. I am very much reminded of the early seasons of Downton Abbey, since the setting is in the years prior to and during WWI.

I had the book on my Kindle...don't remember how it got there, but there it is. I also found an audiobook for a very low price at Hastings' before they closed their doors forever. It's a little awkward, but I've been both reading and audiobooking for a week now.

 The main character, Christopher Tietjens, an upper-class public servant and the people in his world are nearly incomprehensible to me and seem prissy and frivolous. There are all these subtle variances of how people should behave and how far bad behavior can be carried as long as it doesn't come off as bad form. It didn't occur to me until the end of Disc 3 that Ford means for readers to feel irritated and distanced from them because the war is going to change their world.

Even with that fresh understanding, Parade's End is challenging. I've talked back to the audiobook several times:
Who the hell cares?
 Oh, shut up. 
Stop pronouncing golf as gulf.

30 discs. Don't think I'll finish before the end of 2016. Sometimes I get that failed fainthearted Villette feeling, but I'm determined to go on. Stay tuned.

What I Read When I Read in November, 2016

Since it's now almost mid-December, this post may be a little stale, but hopefully still tasty.

Germinal - Emile Zola. Thanks to Roger Pearson's in-your-face translation, this novel was eons better on the second go-around. True to the spirit of Zola's credo, "I'm here to kick ass and write novels." Well, maybe he didn't say that, but it must have been something like that. And in French.

Tampa - Alissa Nutting. Boy-lita. I still can't believe I enjoyed this novel so much and that I don't mind admitting it. Although, looking back, I've always enjoyed a good novel about a bad character and would take that anytime over a bad novel about a good character. Maybe even a good novel about a good character.

Hungry Heart - Jennifer Weiner. I've never read one of Weiner's novels, but I loved her memoir, so I'm going to read one or more of her fictional works sometime in 2017.

City of Secrets - Stewart O'Nan. I found this novel about Brand, a refugee from WWII Europe who ends up working for the underground in Israel, very confusing at first. I wish the explanation of the backdrop had been a preface rather than a note at the end. Since O'Nan is one of my favorite authors, I'm going to do a reread. One of my reading goals for 2017 is to finish reading every book Stewart O'Nan has written.

Cooked - Jeff Henderson. My only nonfiction for November was an audiobook which I listened to on the way to and from Tulsa Thanksgiving weekend.  Wow and WOW.  Listening to Jeff Henderson narrate the story of his life -- how he went from drug dealer to prisoner to successful chef -- kept me completely entertained and enthralled for hours. The miles just melted away. My favorite read for the month.

April: 30 Days, 7 Books Part 3

As much as I enjoyed my April reads, I simply must finish this list. Get thee behind me, April! Or is that a bad thing to say??? Never mind. I'll sort it out after I make brief remarks about these last two books.

Strangers on a Train - Patricia Highsmith. (novel) I audiobooked Highsmith's 1951 debut novel, and I am so glad I did. Two words: Bronson Pinchot! His interpretation makes the madman Charles Bruno fairly leap off the page. I thought Bruno's counterpart, Guy, suffered in comparison at first, but I was mistaken. Listening to a scene while running around in Dollar General shopping for...well, who knows now?? I lost my concentration, my mind, my ability to multitask, and I wouldn't have it any other way. A crazy, crafty amusement park ride of a novel. But really: Audiobook is the way to go.

The Grand Tour: The Life and Music of George Jones - Rich Kienzle (biography) I have mixed feelings of enjoyment and disappointment about this biography of The Possum. Part of the problem is that Rich Kienzle, the music critic and Rich Kienzle, the biographer didn't meld together successfully. Although I agree 99% with his observations about country music across the years, especially the sorry state of the genre today, these outbursts read as such in a book that was supposed to be about George Jones' life. When Kienzle got his biographer hat on straight, George Jones' story was compelling and most of his anecdotes were entertaining. 

Another issue I had was that the editing seemed a little sloppy; he repeats himself unnecessarily. I noticed this mostly in the bits involving Tammy Wynette. Kienzle quotes Tammy's version of events during her marriage to George Jones, but then he constantly makes a point of mentioning that Tammy had her own problems with addiction and wasn't always honest or forthcoming. Again, perhaps it was slipshod editing, but it came across as hateful. I would like to read more of Rich Kienzle's music criticism, but I have a feeling I'll be waiting awhile for the definitive biography of George Jones.

Welcome To My Reading Week

I've got several books on the go, so I feel like a juggler running out of hands:

1. Change Your Clothes, Change Your Life - George Brescia. This is my fluff for the week. I can't help being attracted to fashion, and I only just figured out why.  It's the narrative. When they're telling you what to wear, the very best have a narrative about where you could wear this thing, and what you'd be doing. If they just say 'wear this', it leaves me cold. George Brescia hovers more towards the 'wear this' with flashes of narrative. I love what he has to say about color and form, but his insistence that heels are all-important if one is to be truly stylish...yeah, no. George, why don't you cram your tootsies in an impossibly tiny toe box? [This is really strange: Just now, as if my mother had known what I was writing about, suddenly woke up and started recounting her trousseau  from 1958 in detail! Wow. By the time she got to her red linen going-away suit, I wanted to go back and read The Lost Art of Dress.]

2. True Grit - Charles Portis. Audiobook, read by Donna Tartt.  THIS.  It's even better than I had hoped. Tartt is a superb reader and her love for the book shines through. I can't wait to get up in the mornings and do my walk so I can listen. Right now, I'm at the part where Mattie, Rooster and LaBouef are waiting to ambush Lucky Ned Pepper's gang at the sod dugout.

3. Emily, Alone - Stewart O'Nan. This is the sequel to Wish You Were Here. I love O'Nan's precise slices of life. I'm going to be so cranky when I run out of his novels. But wait! There's a nonfiction book that he co-authored with Uncle Stevie! Squeeeeees all around.

4. Discardia - Dinah Sanders. I've just started this book about turning your bouts of organization into a holiday called Discardia. I guess I'm hoping for another version of Marie Kondo to love.

5. And So We Read On - Maureen Corrigan. Corrigan discusses how she gradually fell in love with The Great Gatsby and makes her argument for why it is THE Great American Novel. She's preaching to the choir in my case.  I've also just started this book, but I've fallen into it like a warm bath. Or jumped into it the way Zelda and Scott used to jump into fountains. Good stuff.

It's nice to be in such a congenial reading mood and have so many great choices on the go. Once I finish these, here's what's next up in the queue:

Missoula - Jon Krakauer

Snow Angels - Stewart O'Nan

Last Night At the Lobster - Stewart O'Nan

Grabbing a Book and Holding On

Books! Take me away! Take me away like a Calgon bath, which is not a bad idea in itself.

I think I wrote in my last post that my first attempt at book group turned out to be a wash, but I have a new hope: According to the message board at my new place of employment, there is a non-fiction book club! Keep your fingers crossed.

Mornings still find me walking and audiobooking. Since I started this routine, I've finished three books: Bossypants - Tina Fey, Let's Explore Diabetes with Owls - David Sedaris and Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? - Mindy Kahling. My current book is Yes Please by Amy Poehler. I've enjoyed laughing so early in the day, but the books are starting to overlap a little. The comedy universe is a small and cozy one. I'm going to change it up. Do I go back to self-improvement or onto a classic novel?

While I was reading Finders Keepers by Stephen King, I was able to block out the world for a few enjoyable hours. I was appalled by Morris Bellamy, the bookworm who goes off the deep end when he feels as if his favorite author (sort of a mashup of Salinger and Updike that King has imagined so precisely while having, I am guessing, a great deal of fun) has caused his most famous character to 'sell out",  But while I was repulsed by Bellamy, I understood him, too, and even felt sorry for him. I was impatient when he was out of the novel and attention was turned to other characters. Finders Keepers is also a treasure trove for bookworms. When one of the characters references one of Zola's characters, I was all yes oh yes oh yes. Even better, there's a whiff of Shawshank.

Yesterday, I read Rick Geary's graphic novel The Beast of Chicago (about H.H.Holmes, the serial killer who terrorized Chicago during the 1893 World's Fair) in the strangest place: I was sitting in a nail salon in a nearby Walmart while the massage chair kneaded my back and a cute Chinese guy soaked, scrubbed and pumiced my feet then cut and filed and finally painted my toenails a soft metallic pink. You'd have to try out this combination yourself to get the full effect of the weirdness. Then, tonight, I was talking about this book with a true-crime fan and we were complaining (okay, it was downright bitching, I confess) that no one in Hollywood has even BOTHERED to make a movie about H.H. Holmes. Or the bloody Benders, for that matter.  Or the very excellent Manhunt. Then I looked at my Facebook news feed and discovered that Martin Scorsese and Leonardo DiCaprio are going to collaborate on a film adaptation of The Devil in the White City.  More weirdness and much squeeeee! Can the bloody Benders be far behind?

I am still having a Stewart O'Nan summer. I'm reading Wish You Were Here, a novel about an extended family's final summer at their vacation home on Lake Chautauqua.  It's slow going, but a rich and rewarding read. I love the way Stewart O'Nan is so completely invested in his characters. When I finish Wish You Were Here, I'll move to the sequel, Emily, Alone.

It's past midnight, and there goes another day, but I can't go to sleep without reading a few pages.

My My July

How do people 'bookworm' in the United States? It's such a distracting place! So much is coming at people all at once, over and over. I'm still reading (with both eyes and ears) but it's by sheer force of will. I will be a bookworm, dammit! I will!!!

Here's what I'm reading now:

Bossypants - Tina Fey. Audiobook. I could've read this a few years ago, but someone told me that the audiobook was the way to do it. Thanks, whoever you are! (Teri?) That was good advice! Even better: I've finally made (early morning!!!) exercise and reading fit together. Was it that hard? Well, awkward is the word. I feel like a chimp at my first fire.

Wish You Were Here - Stewart O'Nan. My Stewart O'Nan summer nearly floated out to sea, but I reeled it back in. There is also going to be a Stewart O'Nan autumn.

Coco Chanel - Justine Picardie. This book is gorgeous. So many photos. Drool.  I love how Picardie is so obsessed with Chanel and she's not afraid to let it show.

Here's what I just finished reading:

Hissing Cousins (Sorry, blanking on co-authors, and I'm not going to stop to look because I will finish this blog post; I will be a blogger again, dammit! I will!!!...wait! I've got it: Marc Peyser and Timothy Dwyer. Whew.) - A puckish biography of Eleanor Roosevelt and her first cousin, Alice Roosevelt Longworth, who was Theodore Roosevelt's oldest child. Cleverly and clearly written and no history is left behind. I loved this book so much!

The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up - Marie Kondo. I've read it twice on my Kindle. I bought a copy for my bookshelf of greatest hits. For my third outing with Ms. Kondo, I audiobooked it. Round and round the apartment complex I went, sweaty and illuminated. This book never gets old. There's something so dear and fresh, even in repeated readings. Excuse me. I need to go fold the things in the dryer.

Lose the Clutter, Lose the Weight - Peter Walsh. I've already been thoroughly Kondo'ed, so this book felt a little repetitive and there wasn't that piquant charm. Still, I appreciated his breaking it all down step by step. I took one of his flow charts to heart. There's also a soft spot in my heart for his old show Clean Sweep.

Here's what I'm not going to read:

Go Set a Watchman - Harper Lee. I'm not going to go into all my reasons here, but I will say that the book has made me feel uncomfortable from the moment last year that all of this came to light.

Here's what I'm going to read pretty soon:

What To Do About Alice? - Barbara Kerley. A children's nonfiction book about Alice Roosevelt that was the genesis for Hissing Cousins. My library lost/misplaced their copy, and I got all Veruca Salt and decided that I must have it NOW!!! I'm expecting a package from Amazon in a couple of days.

I know this post looks like my bookworming is still full speed ahead, but that's not what it feels like. My book group dream went belly-up earlier this month, so I've got to start from scratch again. Carving out a life here often feels more like the space is being carved for me and I must find a way to fit in it. I have to believe that bookworm power will prevail.

Jude the Obscure

I'm SO glad that I read this novel! It's not Middlemarch, but it's right up there in my affections. But why? Why did Thomas Hardy stop writing novels after Jude? He'd finally hit his stride. He lived another 30 years. I mourn to think of all the great novels stoppered up inside him. Sadly, I know why he quit and went to poetry. Couldn't he have just blown cigar smoke in his critics' faces and told them to shove it?

I'm trying to pull myself together enough to write about this novel. Sue Bridehead was hard work. My friend Mike commented that she was the original Manic Pixie Dream Girl. I understood her impulse to question everything and go with her gut, but after a while I wanted to shake her. It was a relief when she was out of the novel for a bit and Arabella would come clomping back in.

 And poor Jude! It's interesting that Hardy made him a stonemason, for he was always butting his head against stone walls, especially the academic ones that he longed to pass through. Even though he couldn't have what he wanted, he was continually willing to make the necessary adjustments to go on. Jude the Obscure reminded me of Edith Wharton's The House of Mirth, with doors endlessly slamming shut. Heartbreaking. Depressing. I was a wreck; I love this book so much. Why did I think I didn't like Hardy? Now I have to go back and read all his novels. Where should I begin?

I started out reading Jude on my Kindle, but switched to listening sometime after Sue ran away from the teachers' college. The audiobook is on YouTube and it's wonderful. It's even better than Hugh Laurie's brilliant reading of Great Expectations. I wish I knew who the reader is; his voice is gorgeous. I'd listen to him read the Kansas City phone book while washing out his sweaty socks by hand.