Wedding Night (migrated from bookblogger)

Posted on by marjorieseidenfeld

Wedding Night by Sophie Kinsella

I love Sophie Kinsella!  She can always be counted on to supply a light-hearted, fun read with a convoluted plot line that gradually untwists into an utterly happy ending.  And Wedding Night does not disappoint!

Fliss, Lottie’s older sister, cannot sit by and watch Lottie commit yet another “Unfortunate Choice,” Fliss’s name for the extreme reactions Lottie’s had after previous bad break-ups.  Unfortunately, Fliss seems to be having her own severe reaction, to the point where she’s orchestrating disaster on Lottie’s honeymoon in order to protect her.

There’s a lot of wincing and “oh, no’s” while you are reading this, but a lot of giggling as well.  It’s not Shakespeare, but it is great fun.  Perfect for the beach this summer!

All the Pretty Horses (migrated from bookblogger)

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All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy

This book was recommended by a colleague at work as a very “masculine book,” and that is quite accurate.  It is the coming of age story of John Grady and his friend Rawlins, two teenage boys from Texas who ride their horses into Mexico in order to escape their family situations, and who find themselves in even stickier ones.  The story is gritty and rough, with harsh descriptions of the varying conditions they endured.  But there are many very tender moments full of strong emotions.

The writing style is what stands out in this book.  McCarthy is king of the run-on sentence, but it works in the context of this story, somehow.  It is a rambling, prose, perhaps reminiscent of the ambling of the horses as they carry the characters over mile after mile.  And the lengthy descriptions contrast with the minimalist dialogue between the characters.  When John Grady speaks, his words are pointed and the reader almost craves his words as keys to unlock what he must be thinking about all that he endures.

The other interesting aspect of this book is the inside view of life in Mexico, of which I have personally not read a lot about.  There is a bit of the culture and the history that squeaks through and it gives the story that much more context.  Unfortunately, since I never studied Spanish, I found myself frequently frustrated that many lines of dialogue were written in Spanish with no English translation.  Thank goodness for Google Translator is all I can say!

I think that while I did like this book and found it meaningful, I think this is the kind of book that would be great to read in a class, where we might analyze the plot further and learn about the symbolism of the characters.  I am sure there is more to it than I could even imagine.

Loving Frank (migrated from Bookblogger)

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Loving Frank by Nancy Horan

This dramatic work of historical fiction is about the love affair between Frank Lloyd Wright and one of his clients, Mamah Borthwick Cheney. Both married with children, they were drawn together as they planned the house that he build for Mamah and her husband, and in spite of efforts to avoid an affair, they could not deny that they had fallen in love. The resultant relationship between the two was both poetic and tragic, as they both had to sacrifice most of what they treasured in order to have each other. As they strived for honesty in love, they had to endure the anger and the judgement of others.

Admittedly, I judged them/her too. I confess that as I sympathized with her yearning for true love and for the freedom she craved to be with the man she loved, I was angry with her too for leaving her children for months at a time. And when she missed them, I couldn’t help but think, “Well, what did you expect??” But she was also searching for her own identity, in order to see herself as an individual and not just a wife or a mother (or a mistress). For this, I respected her.

And of course there is the fun of learning more about the life of the most controversial and admired architect in the U.S. His struggle between his life and his art is apparent and is thread through the story as well.

The many layers and the many controversies make this book a solid read. Definitely a thumbs up!

Me Talk Pretty One Day (migrated from Bookblogger)

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Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris

Fun book!  When my family asked me what this book was about, I had to answer, “Nothing, really.”  It is sort of the Seinfeld of books…  David Sedaris, in his sardonic, laugh-out-loud style, describes vignettes from his childhood, his experiences living in Paris, and his various work experiences.  While he is sometimes outrageous in his tone, he describes some scenarios that any reader can relate to and in that he draws the reader in and thoroughly entertains.

In short, it’s hard not to have a great time reading this book!

 

Brain on Fire (migrated from bookblogger)

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Brain on Fire: My Month of Madness by Susannah Cahalan

This is an autobiography of a young woman who had a psychotic episode that was caused by an extremely rare disorder of the brain.  Susannah Cahalan was a young, dynamic, outgoing and talkative journalist for the New York Post who suddenly started experiencing hallucinations, seizures and disordered movements.  She deteriorated to the point of catatonia, and was then fortunate enough to have been referred to a neurologist who was essentially her savior.

What is fascinating about this autobiography is that since the author was unable to think in any logical or functional way during the acute period of her illness, she pieced together her experience through interviews with and journals by her family, boyfriend and physicians.  She creates a smooth story from this research and tells the story as if she did remember it herself, always reminding the reader that this is what she was told occurred.  Some of her hallucinations are told first hand, however, because in her mind, these images were what was real.

Of course being a physician, this case is extremely interesting, but I think anyone could appreciate how interesting her course was.  In addition, it gives the reader an insight into how rare medical conditions can masquerade as usual ones and that diagnosis and treatment of medical problems can sometimes be extremely challenging.  While physicians are trained to recognize and treat the more common medical conditions, they are also trained to recognize that when symptoms and signs don’t add up, one has to delve deeper into the medical literature and look for what we refer to as the “zebras” of medicine.  (The saying is that when you hear hooves you should think horses not zebras.  Unfortunately, there are zebras out there as well.)

As Cahalan says, also, she was uniquely fortunate to have both the emotional support of her family and boyfriend (who stayed true to her through the whole ordeal and after) as well as financial support.  This enabled her to not only get through this very difficult time but also to access the medical treatment she required.  It is touching to read about how each of the family members dealt with her illness and stood by her side even while she was unrecognizable, both physically and emotionally.

It’s a tough book to read but very interesting…

Behind the Beautiful Forevers (migrated from bookblogger)

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Behind the Beautiful Forevers by Katherine Boo

The “moral” of this book could be “Life sucks and then you die… or kill yourself.”  This is a painfully realistic depiction of life in the slums of Mumbai, derived after the author lived among these real people for four years.  It is written like a novel, focusing on a particular family who lived next door to a woman with one leg.  Fatima, or “One Leg” as she was called, was always jealous of the money the family earned by collecting recyclable trash and in a jealous rage, set her own face on fire and accused the family of triggering her suicide attempt.  Because of this, the family had to confront the unabashedly corrupt criminal justice (or IN-Justice, really) system in order to extricate themselves from this messy nightmare.  Meanwhile, in the telling of this story, the author weaves the pain and the misery of the other surrounding characters into the tale and leaves the reader plainly devastated.

The level of poverty is frightening enough, but the competition and jealousy and the level of corruption that perpetuates the poverty is just overwhelmingly depressing.  Many times while reading this book I found myself yelling at a page in outrage.  Investigators into the supposed “crime” made aggressive advances to extort bribes in exchange for reporting more favorable evidence.  Potential witnesses asked outright for bribes to speak on either side.  Another unrelated example of the corruption was when federal funds were extracted from the government to set up schools to educate these poor children and then this money was pocketed by the officials who set them up (fake accounts made for fake teachers on a fake payroll — the whole 9 yards).  And it was based on truth.

What is so sad is that the people are so disenfranchised and discouraged that they do not band together and revolt. Rather, they compete against each other and push each other down to make themselves feel elevated.  A profound quote on page 254 summarizes this by saying, “In places where government priorities and market imperatives create a world so capricious that to help a neighbor is to risk your own ability to feed your family, and sometimes even your own liberty, the idea of the mutually supportive poor community is demolished.  The poor blame one another for the choices of governments and markets, and we who are not poor are ready to blame the poor just as harshly.”

This book is difficult to read, but very eye-opening into the underbelly of India.

The Kitchen House (migrated from bookblogger)

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The Kitchen House by Kathleen Grissom

If you are looking for a book that will grip you and hold you tight until you get to the very last page, this is the one for you!  This beautifully written, historical fiction novel is about a young white girl, Lavinia, who is raised among black slaves in the south at the turn of the 19th century.  Since she’s raised among a loving, close-knit black family, she feels deeply that they are her family, but as she grows older, she is thrust into the world of the white family she is serves.  We learn, along with her, how the intimate nature of the relationships that develop between the 2 races strongly conflict with the forced, artificial separation between them.  (They love but they are not allowed to love.)  And Lavinia is tragically trapped between the two.

What really pulled me in was the beautiful characters that are so poignantly drawn.  I lived with the characters and felt their pull even when I wasn’t reading the book.  I felt as though they were my family, they were drawn so artistically and deeply.  I HAD to know what happened to each of them and when it wasn’t good, I felt it in my heart.

These characters were genuine, the story was captivating, and I couldn’t wait to find out what happened and didn’t want it to end at the very same time!  This is what the experience of reading should be!

The Tiger’s Wife (migrated from bookblogger)

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The Tiger’s Wife by Tea Obreht

I’m still trying to figure out exactly what this book is about.  Yes, I read it.  Yes, I even finished it, although I’m not sure why.  There is a thread about a young woman who is a doctor who is going on a mission with her friend to immunize children in an orphanage somewhere in the Balkans, just as she learns of her grandfather’s death.  There is a thread of her grandfather’s story about his experience in a small village where a tiger has taken over the imaginations and fears of almost everyone in the village.  And there is a “deathless man” who ties them together.

But the story is told in a torturously circuitous way, with side stories and descriptions that are both detailed and vague.  The connections between the various loops are often lost in the details and I found myself not caring enough to sew them together.

Perhaps now that I’ve finished the book I understand the whole of it, but there were more times than I care to admit that I almost did not bother to finish the book.  I’m not sure if that reflects more on me than the book??

The Night Circus (migrated from bookblogger)

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The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern

While very imaginative and mysterious, this book was almost a little too far-fetched to completely keep my interest throughout the whole telling of the story.  The story centers around Celia and Marco, who are each being groomed by their mentors for a magical duel, of sorts.  The grooming takes years and each is trained in a different way.  The venue for their contest is the Night Circus, a circus which appears without any notice and opens only at midnight for the entertainment and delight of many around the world.  And sure enough, the foes of course gradually fall in love with each other and their ultimate challenge becomes disentangling themselves from the ensnarement of their duel.

The writing in this book is very interesting — it is as mystical and dark as the story itself.  There is great imagination and description, but almost to a fault, in my opinion.  And because many of the characters are so mysterious, they remain somewhat uni-dimentional and remote.  They are, like the circus itself, not really real.

For those of you who really like fantasy, you may be enthralled with this book.  Unfortunately, I wasn’t…

 

Me Before You (migrated from bookblogger)

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Me Before You by Jojo Moyes

I accepted this book from a friend a little reluctantly…  who really wants to read a book about a woman who, desperately seeking a new job after her job at the coffee shop was terminated, is hired to care for a 35-year old quadriplegic?  I imagined it would be terribly depressing and predictable.  I was pleasantly surprised at how wrong I was.  This book was solidly written, delved into issues of class and love and the value of living life to its fullest, whatever that means.

The main character, Louisa Clark, is refreshingly unique and strong and struggles with her ward, Will, even as she is determined to push him to want to live in spite of his devastating injury.  In fact, each of the characters is sympathetic in his or her own way.  We briefly hear from the voices of each of the other main characters in the book, with the noted exception of that of Will.  Everyone is trying to read Will and understand his thinking and through the story we get to know him and what he struggles with on a day to day basis.  But the story is more about the development and growth of Louisa as she is exposed to him and this makes it more interesting, actually.

What I loved about this book is the juxtaposition of one who is limited in how he can live with those who are near him who, as he sees it, do not take advantage of living and do not live to their fullest potential.  I think there is a lesson for all of us AB’s (able-bodied) to think about…