book club: march 2011 edition

Over the course of a couple days in March I re-read Ellen Raskin’s The Westing Game and read Debbie and James Howe’s Bunnicula for the first time. Bunnicula was darling: a charming story of a ‘vampire’ bunny told from the perspective of a family’s dog. It spawned many sequels and while it is clearly written for children, you can understand why parents continued to read it to their children. The narrator’s – the dog’s - voice is so charming and clever that even the simplest story has great appeal.

I read Ellen Raskin’s The Westing Game for the first (and only other) time when I was 11 or 12. I distinctly remember being in my sixth grade classroom and, when finishing this cleverly crafted mystery, realizing how entertaining and smart books could be. The novella begins with the death of Sam Westing, the richest man in town. His great fortune is promised to the winner of the Westing game – the game he set into place to expose his killer. A broad, richly-developed cast of characters is introduced as players in the game and much intrigue, suspicion and strategy ensues. For being so short, the book is dense with tightly and expertly wound storytelling. I was so happy to find that The Westing Game held up twenty years later. I immediately bought copies for my niece and nephew – both big young readers.

That’s it. There’s not much more to say. Truly good books – even those intended for children – can be great on so many levels. It’s always worth spending some time with them.

Title: Bunnicula
Author: Debbie and James Howe
Read: NYC
Format: tiny paperback
Sweet, charming, cute: Three out of five stars

Title: The Westing Game
Author: Ellen Raskin
Read: NYC
Format: tiny paperback
Smart, intriguing, well-crafted: Five out of five stars

A Note

So it’s been awhile since I last posted anything. The main reason is that I got stuck on what to write about the books I read after Just Kids. Also, I haven’t been reading so quickly. I’m not doing anything else. I’m just not reading that much. Sue me.

Anyway, I’m going to write up something very quick about the two books that I read for March book club and then I’m going to try to catch up after that. We’ll see how it goes.

Here we go.

Just Kids :: Patti Smith

Title: Just Kids [non-fiction #2]
Author: Patti Smith
Read: Boston, NYC
Format: trade paperback

Patti Smith is cool. Everybody knows that. Robert Mapplethorpe is cool too. And I think most people know that as well. In Just Kids, Smith writes about their relationship and friendship against the backdrop of NYC in the late 60s and early 70s and all the art/artists/rock/roll/poetry of the era.

For the most part, it is well-written, and even when it isn't, it's so personal and earnest that you grant it some leeway. Plus, her lyrical memories are fun to peek into, even when the book starts to get a little tedious, which it definitely does.

Beyond being sometimes tedious, Just Kids has other shortcomings as well, I think. It's name-droppy (mostly to the effect of era-dropping the ultra-cool 70s in NYC) and the writing is often over-wrought. But even though these criticisms are things that generally make me dislike books, I still found Just Kids really, really interesting. Her New York covers similar ground to my own and considering the significant differences was, well, interesting.

In my estimation, Patti Smith is not the best writer or musician or artist of her generation. But in this book, she tells the story of her love of Robert Mapplethorpe (and the lives they built with each other's support) so sincerely that it more than makes up for any nitpicks I might have about any of her work, let alone this one. Besides, who am I anyway? I'm certainly not as cool as Patti Smith so I'll just shut up now.

Touching despite its flaws. And despite it making me feel un-artistic and unaccomplished.
3 out of 5 stars

The Magicians :: Lev Grossman

Title: The Magicians

Author: Lev Grossman

Read: NYC, Boston

Format: Kindle

It took me a long time (3+ weeks) to read The Magicians because, well, it wasn't very interesting. Friends and the internets alike suggested that the book was like The Secret History meets Harry Potter meets Narnia meets etc. And it was. It just somehow managed to be boring too. Because those great books were much more than just their great concepts, they were peopled with nuanced, three-dimensional characters and fascinating, page-turning plots.

The Magicians follows Quentin Coldwater as he grows from bookish, awkward nerd to powerful magician to fantasy adventurer. The first half or so chronicles Quentin's discovery of his magical gifts and his years of training at Brakebills, the magic college. Grossman lingers in this setting for far too long and somehow manages to do it no justice. By the time Quentin graduates I was left feeling like Brakebills was a shallow sketch filled with a series of experiences. It lacked dimension even after taking SO LONG to get through.

After graduation, Quentin and his friends move to New York City where they do standard Reality Bites-ish, angsty things until they find themselves busy with an adventure. The adventure takes them to Fillory - the imaginary-or-is-it setting of a children's book series. They see crazy things and meet amazing creatures. They fight for their lives and the liberation of this fantasy world.

The book is ambitious in scope and creativity, but I think in the end falls short of being truly good. Rather than a rich world with an exciting, adventurous arc, we get a string of fantastical scenes and vignettes. Grossman fails to create a world, despite pages and pages of effort. I don't mean to be as harsh as I sound, there's just a lot of squandered potential in these pages. If The Magicians was 25% shorter and had a little more story editing, I think it could have been really memorable and even great. As it is, though, I think it's really just okay.

I don't regret reading it, but I don't quite recommend it either.
3 out of 5 stars, but only because I'm feeling kind of generous

The Twenty-One Balloons :: William Pene du Bois

Title: The Twenty-One Balloons [book club selection, RC]

Author: William Pene du Bois

Read: MA, NYC

Format: Kindle

This month, RC chose two children's/YA books for book club. Both were excellent, but I think this one suffered (in my esteem) from having been read after the wonderful When You Reach Me. It was a fun and colorful and immensely imaginative read. Though, compared to When You Reach Me, which I think is a great book for kids TO read, I feel that The Twenty-One Balloons is a wonderful story to have read to you.

In it, Professor William Waterman Sherman sets out on a hot air balloon adventure. He is discovered too-soon after his departure on the other side of the country with twenty giant balloons rather than the one he left with. The bulk of the tale is his recount of his adventure on and escape from the volcanic island of Krakatoa.

Thoughts:

- the characters, especially the professor, are beyond charming
- Krakatoa is cleverly conceived, both physically and socially
- the Krakatoan inventions are adorably clever
- the story is so sweet and fable-like, you expect it to be moralistic in the end; happily, it's not
- there are cute illustrations

If you would like to rekindle a sense of childlike wonder, or if you are looking for a book to share with a wee person, pick this one up.

Sweet, earnest, charming.
4 out of 5 stars

Wise Blood :: Flannery O'Connor

Title: Wise Blood

Author: Flannery O'Connor

Read: NYC

Format: Trade paperback

The word is dour.

I was trying to explain Wise Blood to TG and all I could say was that the writing reminded me, in some ways, of Cormac McCarthy's The Road. But not soul-crushingly bleak like The Road. And not quite as depressing as The Road. Just a similar tone: dour. It's a testament to O'Connor's writing, then, that such a stark and gloomy tone doesn't overwhelm this very rich work.

In Wise Blood, the troubled Hazel Motes struggles with faith and religion and all that stuff. He returns from the war to no family and sets out to establish and preach his new 'Church without Christ.' He meets a blind preacher, his homely daughter, and an irritating kook named Enoch. They all play their roles in Hazel's crisis of faith and his eventual triumph/degradation to enlightenment/insanity. Find out which it is yourself.

I continue to be wowed by O'Connor's writing. Even as she explores the darker side of people and spirituality and life, as she does so well in Wise Blood, she never sacrifices or over-stylizes her characters or plot. She measures out style and substance with awesome balance.

More O'Connor please.

4 out of 5 stars

When You Reach Me :: Rebecca Stead

Title: When You Reach Me [book club selection, RC]
Author: Rebecca Stead
Read: NYC
Format: trade paperback

I don't know how to start praising Rebecca Stead's 2009 Newberry Award winner, When You Reach Me. It's a children's book with amazing heart and no subtext or moral. It's just a wonderful story made up of all the things I love:

- NYC setting
- smart, charming, non-precocious narrator
- it's just a little fantastical
- well-flushed out, believable characters
- a richly developed setting that you can almost see as you read

Miranda lives happily with her mom on Manhattan's Upper West Side when one day her life starts getting weird. First, her lifelong best friend Sal gets punched for no reason on the way home from school. He immediately decides he doesn't want to be friends with her anymore. Soon after, she starts getting mysterious notes that she doesn't know what to make of. The novel follows 11-then-12-year-old Miranda as she tries to get to the bottom of it all.

When You Reach Me is short enough to read in one sitting and I recommend doing so. You won't want to put it down, so if you have to you'll be annoyed (I was). It's the kind of book that makes children love reading and reminds adults how great storytelling can be.

Just read it. It's really good.
5 out of 5 stars

Madame Bovary :: Gustave Flaubert

Title: Madame Bovary [2011 White Whale #1]

Author: Gustave Flaubert, Lydia Davis translation (2010)

Read: NYC, Boston

Format: Kindle

I've read the first 3 pages of Madame Bovary like a billion times, but I never followed through. I blame my failures on the ratty old used-book-store paperback I've been working with. After reading a cool article in New York magazine about a new translation by renowned fiction writer Lydia Davis, I decided to give it another go. To help my cause, I bought it for my Kindle, since on it I tend to read faster.

Unlike my experience with other White Whales (namely Wuthering Heights), Madame Bovary did not disappoint. Reading novels like Madame Bovary resurrect the old English major in me, so to spare you I will simply report my musings in list form.

• Emma Bovary is a jerk. I get that she wants more than her provincial life can offer, but so does everyone else. She's unjustifiably cruel.
• Charles Bovary is some kind of pitiful rube. He hasn't got much of a backbone and is so desperate for approval and love that he is just permanently a victim. Poor guy. I liked him.
• There are a bunch of other townspeople who make regular appearances in the plot. They both underscore the provincial lifestyle. But even they, like the Bovarys, want to make more out of their small town lives.
• I never know what to say about writing when I read something in translation. What got lost? What got added? I've never read another translation (obvi), nor have I read it in French, but I found the translation beautiful nonetheless. It was incredibly descriptive, but not at all overdone. Spare, but still vivid.

I guess that's all I have to say. People often commend Madame Bovary for the patterns Flaubert develops, but I think that's why I have limited things to say. The characters kind of do the same things over and over, but it's all to show the crappy choices they keep making out of desperation. It also cements the character development further, one subplot at a time. But it's all to the same effect: to make me feel even stronger about the first two bullets I list above.

Madame Bovary is beautiful and thought-provoking. Is it the [insert superlative] novel ever written, as it is often touted to be? I'm not so sure. But I know I liked it a lot and that I'd recommend it so long as you're in the mood.

A classic worthy of that designation.

4 out of 5 stars.

Unreviewed Titles of 2010

I was going to blog about these eventually, but have decided not to (for now, anyway). A lot of them were long ago and forgettable enough that I'd have a hard time anyway. Here are star ratings for my other readings of 2010, at least.

The Music of Chance :: Paul Auster (4 stars)

Dead in the Family :: Charlaine Harris (3 stars)

Fablehaven :: Brandon Mull (3 stars, RC book club selection)

Ender's Game :: Orson Scott Card (5 stars)

The Book Thief :: Marcus Zusak (5 stars)

Scott Pilgrim vs the World, vol. 1 :: Bryan Lee O'Malley (4 stars)

Audrey, Wait! :: Robin Benway (3 stars)

Tinkers :: Paul Harding (3 stars)

The Partly Cloudy Patriot :: Sarah Vowell (4 stars, non-fiction #2)

Thank You, Jeeves :: PG Wodehouse (4 stars)

Three Men in a Boat :: Jerome K. Jerome (2 stars, MP book club selection)

The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie :: Alan Bradley (4 stars)

The Weed that Strings the Hangman's Bag :: Alan Bradley (3 stars)

Honest Illusions :: Nora Roberts (3 stars)

A Moveable Feast :: Ernest Hemingway (4 stars)

A Super Sad True Love Story :: Gary Shteyngart (4 stars)

Club Dead :: Charlaine Harris (3 stars)

Dead to the World :: Charlaine Harris (4 stars)

Born Round :: Frank Bruni (4 stars)

Mockingjay :: Suzanne Collins (5 stars)

Decoded :: Jay-Z

Title: Decoded [non-fiction #1]

Author: Jay-Z

Read: NYC

Format: Hardcover

I love Oprah and I love Jay-Z, so when the former picked the latter's new book as one of her final "Favorite Things" I knew I had to read it.

Decoded is a not exactly a memoir and not exactly a music text, but rather a little bit of both - blended perfectly into a stylish, fascinating, compulsive read. The title itself refers to the 20+ Jay-Z songs that the rapper demystifies. Decoded presents the lyrics of each song footnoted with Jay-Z's commentary about meaning, meter, references, allusions, etc. It was enlightening experience to queue up these songs and listen while reading.

Between all the explanations, Jay-Z tells stories from his life. He tracks his evolution as an artist, his life as a drug dealer, and the pivotal point in his life when he chose to focus on music rather than the street. In telling these stories, Jay-Z doesn't glorify/demonize his rise to fame or his crack-dealing. There are no lessons, it's just context. And it's riveting.

For the last few years, Jay-Z's public image has been all Beyonce and Maybachs and St. Barth's and the elite world of the TriBeCa mega-celebrity. But the reality is that less than 20 years ago, the now near-billionaire was living The Wire. I kept thinking to myself, it must be really weird to have the realities of your history and current life be so wildly different. But the reality is no less real. Great wealth and success can't erase memories, especially when those memories are as intense as those of a CRACK DEALER. I kept wondering how often intrusive thoughts of what Jay has seen creep into his mind as he lounges on a catamaran or buckles up on a private jet. How do you make sense of a life that has seen your hands handle crack rocks and shake two presidents' hands? To clarify, these emo musings are mine, not Jay's. The rapper never seeks pity or praise for his life (praise for his craft is a different thing; and arguably very deserved).

I read Decoded in one day, unable to put it down. Granted, I'm a long-time Jay-Z fan and probably was going to like it whether it was great or not. But it was better, even, than I expected. Thoughtful, personal, unsentimental, and at times nearly-academic (!), Decoded is a must-read for all hip-hop - no all MUSIC - lovers. Oh, also it's really cool-looking.

Read and enjoy this as soon as possible.

5 out of 5 stars

2010 Digest & 2011 Goals

Happy New Year!

Well, another year is over. I didn't accomplish my reading goals, but I came pretty close. I'm satisfied.

50 New Books

Not quite: I read 50 books total, including 3 re-reads.
Best: I Capture the Castle/Hunger Games Trilogy
Worst: Shadow of the Wind/A Lady of Persuasion

6 Non-Fiction Titles

Yes!

4 White Whales

Not quite: read 2, started a third. I don't think I'll ever get around to reading those Russians.

Roald Dahl Catalog

Nope. I didn't even actually try to do this in the end. My enthusiasm for Dahl's work sort of petered out by very early in the year.

For 2011, my reading goals will be:

- 50 books total

- 8 non-fiction

- 4 white whales (probably Madame Bovary, Wind Up Bird Chronicle, Anna Karenina (again), and TBD)

- The rest of Fitzgerald