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One reader's thoughts as she steps from book to book.
Books I've Finished
- "A Christmas Memory"
- by Truman Capote 12/8/12
- "Child's Christmas in Wales"
- by Dylan Thomas 12/7/12
- "One Christmas"
- by Truman Capote 11/29/12
- "The Thanksgiving Visitor"
- by Truman Capote 11/29/12
- Inside Mrs. B's Classroom
- by Leslie Baldacci 11/28/12
- The Bee Eater
- by Richard Whitmire 11/15/12
- There Are No Shortcuts
- by Rafe Esquith 10/28/12
- I'd Like to Apologize to
- Every Teacher I Ever Had
- by Tony Danza 10/21/12
- Corked
- by Kathryn Borel 10/15/12
- Year of Learning Dangerously
- by Quinn Cummings 9/30/12
- A Hologram for the King
- by Dave Eggers 8/23/12
- To Kill a Mockingbird
- by Harper Lee 7/18/12
About Me
- Christine
- I often have a few books with bookmarks in them at once. I enjoy classics more than contemporary works of fiction, often read historical fiction, and love to get glimpses into other people's lives by reading memoirs and biographies.
9 comments:
Maynard & Jennica (Delson). Thanks for the recommendation, Christine.
I liked the interconnections amongst the seemingly minor characters. I liked the vocabulary (recherché, which I haven't seen in years, sockdolager, which was brand new to me!). I liked the quirky characters--not a "normal" one in the bunch!
I didn't like the flipping viewpoints. This technique seems to be coming increasingly popular. And, at the risk of sounding unpatriotic, I didn't like the Twin Towers reference.
I had just finished another book, Usual Rules (author Maynard), also set in New York & California, which also had the Twin Towers fall as a pivotal event in the story.
Mary, I love the flipping viewpoints style. I enjoy being in several characters' heads during the same story, hearing different perspectives on events and on each other. I also like feeling omniscient without that 3rd person omniscient narrator :)
I finished my Edith Whartons; Age of Innocence was incredible and sad. Now I'm reading London, by Edward Rutherford, for a nice dose of British history.
@Mary: Isn't it an unusual book? I do like the switches in points of view, keeps me interested. Then I feel less like someone is spinning a yarn and more like I'm getting glimpses into something that simply exists. I didn't mind the inclusion of Sept 11th either because I felt that the author probably had lived in New York at that time and was incorporating a real life experience into his fiction. Also, through one of his characters, he was able to show an unpopular opinion of America and its reaction to the events of that terrible day. Interesting.---The parallels between this and the other book you just read (Usual Rules) are striking! Do you recommend it?
@Danika: I'm so glad that you liked Age of Innocence!
Still plowing through the massive (981 pages!) soon-to-be-released novel(!) from Neal Stephenson, "Reamde". So far it is not very Stephenson-ish, as no one has gone into space or plugged anything into the back of their head. However, it is quite the adventure/thriller with some characters that I am actually really caring about. The book is not due to be officially released until September but I'm reading this future book to try to counteract Danika's inability to read anything not from the hoary past.
Yes, before you ask, that IS the title. It's a deliberate misspelling of "Read Me".
@Christine:
I probably would recommend Usual Rules if I hadn't read it on the heels of M&J. Oh, and it also had the flipping viewpoints, but not as quickly as Mayard & Jennica. A person could get dizzy reading that one!
I'm starting on The Bone Market, recommended by Martha, non-fiction. Should be quite a change-up.
I'm still working on the elBulli book (almost done), but I wanted to address Mary's questions from last week's post:
Chefs that leave elBulli to open up famous restaurants: that does occur, but anecdotes like that are scattered throughout the book so it's hard to find examples. Some of the chefs who helped Ferran Adrias found elBulli are now working at other famed restaurants in Spain. But often, it's the other way around: chefs and cooks who are already working at restaurants of great renown will do a stage at elBulli: some of the stagiares featured in this book worked at places like the French Laundry and New York's Per Se *before* heading to elBulli to learn even more ways to be creative with food.
I have been occasionally stealing glances at Jaycee Dugard's A Stolen Life while working at B&N (a random page here and there), and it's kind of overwhelmingly sad and yet hopeful/inspirational at the same time. I feel such relief that she was finally found and is somehow able to get her life back and move forward. I think the women who intuited the situation and finally got her to come forward and escape should be more recognized than they are...I don't even recall their names.
I forgot to mention that The Sorcerer's Apprentices did say that many restaurants with more than one Michelin star (famous ones like elBulli) operate at a loss. I'm not sure why, but perhaps the quality of their ingredients and the equipment they use must get very expensive. Also, although every meal costs a bundle and diners are willing and able to spend that much, I don't think they do a ton of volume; the seating areas aren't super huge I don't think. So maybe that's why the restaurants don't make money after paying the staff and the overhead costs.
@Don: Hey. Rutherford published London in 1997! That's the hoary past now?
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