Reading List 2009

BOOKS READ 2009
Most currently read books are added to the top of the list
WHITETHORN WOODS by Maeve Binchy. True to her form, it weaves the characters in a small town around the “miracle” well in the woods. Actually, that is a device rather than a main draw of the book. The fun is hearing the characters stories and as they unfold, you realize who relates to whom. Not as good perhaps as TARA ROAD, it’s still entertainment for prior to bedtime or  on the go because of its mini stories. I found from time to time that it could have used an index of characters so that I could refer back to someone mentioned and see how they were linked. But then, that’s a “problem” that comes with reading fast, forgetting what might have happened 150 pages prior in a book that one is reading for the pure enjoyment and also because if you’re a Binchy reader, you already know you like her settings. Still this one has an overriding story: will a new highway go through the woods and desecrate the area OR will the old ways win out?

PUG HILL by …I forgot. Totally chick lit, and certainly for the younger set but I read it anyway, ok, partly because I like dogs and did, for awhile, consider getting a pug. Anyway, the ‘hero” of this tale is looking for love and finally finds it. Actually the ending goes along quite nicely though there were some really uneven spots and a stretch at reality right in the beginning. But hey, it is entertainment; you’re not going to learn a whole lot from this book. But it does meet my “criteria: it takes place in NYC!

HOUSE ON MANGO STREET by Sandra Cisneros is a fave. A keeper. A re-reader of a book. I think it’s the chapter titles that get me, too. That’s all I’m saying. I said enough in a previous blog entry.

 

DEAD UNTIL DARK by Charlaine Harris…a quick “bite” of a read – vampires, nouveau, north of New Orleans and as victims of a virus, they are allowed to live as second class citizens rather than having to creep around unnoticed. It’s ok. Sookie the heroine doesn’t get me for any reason. Too shrill, too skimming across the surface, always grabbing her hair into a ponytail. Her vampire lover is named Bill. Egads, where’s the exotica. But this is mainstream vampirism and  “lit.” Get it from the library, or watch the HBO series True Blood instead, I guess.

SHARK’S FIN AND SICHUAN PEPPER by Fuschia Dunlop.  I would never have read this book had it not been thrown at me to review for a foodie magazine. She’s a fine writer and weaves all the elements I love into her memoir of her years in China during her 20s and during China’s post -Mao era as she tools around, learning to cook and sharply observing everything with humor, passion and insight. Big yes!

OLD SCHOOL by Tobias Wolffe looks like a skinny little novel, but it’s not. Not for those who love to read about prep school and writing on the surface and ethics and literature in the deeper end of the pool.  I fell in love with it by the second page. The writing is tight and true and it seems the author would have had to attend such a notheastern prep to write about it but maybe not. Maybe he’s read enough books about it, too, that he could insinuate it.  It’s a tight little premise; the tension is odd, in that I foudn myself worrying about the narrator making hihs deadlines and the denouement is as impactful and important as the main story.
Read it because you love good writing. Read it because you like reading about writing and writers and Wolffe also includes a little who’s who in there referring to (obvioulsly in creative non-fiction terms)  Hemingway, Ayn Rand, and Robert Frost.  Wonderful, says I!

JANEOLOGY by Karen Harrington, a fellow blogger’s whose first book is out there making the rounds and definitely worth a read. Interesting structure and a look at DNA predicting criminality. Actually, she does a good job disassociating the wife from the husband so that we care/don’t care about what inevitably happens. Ah! see? you’ll have to read it to see what on earth I am talking about!

MATING RITUALS OF THE NORTH AMERICAN WASP by Laura Lipton is another one for the beach. Except it’s nearly fall. Yes, chick lit, very light and a bit slow, but comfortable, like your favorite prep Sperrys or cross stitch belt. Good grief, the ending is as plain as day but you finish it just for the fun of it.

ONE FIFTH AVENUE by Candace Bushnell is totally chick lit but her storytelling abilities have improved and she’s evolved to being less of a name dropper. A simple story really, about several people who live at that famed address which is real but the characters are not.

BORN ROUND by Frank…Frank…omg, I’ve forgetten his last name. It’s a wonderful book, memoir-ish and scattered with some interesting insight into the restaurant critic world and for that reason alone you should read it. He’s an excellent writer, well, he would be, he’s a NYT writer of long-standing with tons of experience but he also focused the book on the fact that he has a weight problem which sounds trite as I write it here but it is not at all the way he tells his story whose point is really: how do you succeed as  a restaurant critic for the New York Times when you are constantly battling your weight?  Give it a whirl. You’ll learn something. I’ve also reviewed it for St. Louis’s SAUCE magazine.

THE OTHER BOLEYN GIRL by Phillippa Gregory is a good read, as defined by wanting to be there, reading to see what happens. Sure, this one got a lot of splash and pop trash-ness hovering around it perhaps, esp. with the movie starring Natalie Portman as Anne Boleyn and Scarlet Johansson as Mary Boleyn. Well, there’s no point here in my rehashing history and honestly don’t know how much of the book might have been true, but that’s the fun of it, isn’t it? And though Gregory can get down in the mud and roll around in a trashy way, well, she can tell a story and throw in enough description so we’re there in the stone cold times of castles and spoiled rotten kings. This one gets an A for entertainment.

BITTER ALCHEMY by ________ (oops, forgot!) I reviewed this one for SAUCE magazine. It was a small volume, tight and narrow, much like the green hills of Vermont. Which makes sense. The author, a pastry chef and also married to a chef and they run a restaurant in Woodstock, VT, talks about growing grapes to make wine and every other chapter is about her anecdotal visits particularly to Italy and France and dealing with enjoying aperitifs, etc. It’s a nice little book. She writes well though surprisingly objectively.

PAPER SCISSORS DEATH  by Joanna Slan is not bad. It’ s corny, has some trite stuff, but maybe younger readers won’t notice. She has a  plot. She has a few characters. She has followed the formula: woman in trouble, murder, double murder, possible romance for woman with detective, family problems, a black sheep kind of thing, she must meet challenges, does, and wins only to have the book end with a cliffhanger of sorts.  All the local stuff about St. Louis read like cliche but that’s probably because I live here. Not a lot of depth here, nor shallowness of the usual type except in regard to scrapbooking. You can tell the author is in her own life completely into scarpping.  Not sure that this will win her the scrapbook crowd following but not bad for a first book. As for a mystery? Mmmm, well, the heroine is … scrappy.

MURDER IN LITTLE ITALY by Victoria Thompson is one of her typical mysteries starring Sarah Brandt, midwife, and the grumpy but affable Frank Malloy, police detective who is of course in love with Sarah.  This time, a young mother, having just delivered a child, is murdered in her bed. Every one of the in-laws is suspect.  I, for one, read to see who Sarah and Frank are getting along.

MY COUSIN RACHEL by Daphne du Maurier gets a “10.” I put off reading for months and months but it’s such a nice hardcover version (found on remainder shelf) and finally after so much mainstream and modern reading, I decided I must read it. It was a good book, and because I was in the mood for Britain in that time (late 1800s?), it was a great book.  Philip, nephew of Ambrose, falls prey to his uncle’s widow. Aching for his uncle, his sole family in the world, who left all his land and money to Philip, vows to hate this widow who certainly somehow caused the uncle’s death. Or so Phililp believes.  Once on his territory, though, Rachelweaves her magic and Philip falls in love. He is only 24 and only once out of the country and off the land he loves. And so a tense and sometimes tender story evolves. It’s totally worth reading. And Daphne does us proud with her last sentence, too.

CHASING HARRY WINSTON – L Weisberger (sp?) another chick choice from the author of DEVIL WEARS PRADA and one other. Nothing much to report here, other than the fact that I realize why I read chick lit at all: it’s complete entertainment after high level meetings (day job) and freelance research and writing (at night.) That’s it. No excuses!

LAST CHANCE SALOON – Marian Keyes. How much chick lit can a girl stand? Ah, well, it’s interspersed among other “headier” books…but I always enjoy Ms. Keyes. I must sya, if I were her editor, the books might be a bit shorter; on the other hand, they are books where you can dwaddle (is that the right spelling? … meaning to take your time.)

SPICED by Dahlia Lingstrom.  Lovely kitch lit. It’s a memoir; it’s a raucous story by a beginner as a writer who learns who way around the kitchen at Nobu in NYC. I like it, no, I really like it!

ISLE OF PALMS – forgot author.  this little paperback, with nice heft, was in the backseat of my car. I dove for it and took it along as I went for a dr.’s appt. You have to wait to see my doc; he’s worth it. Anyway, I got more than 100 pages read by the time my name was called and though it’s mainstream stuff, the author writes well. She puts some really good sentences in there. Yeah, I’ll have to look up her name once I retrieve it from the car again.

WRITERS’ HOMES – forgot author. It is a coffee table book with glorious pictures of writers homes. I haven’t even heard of some of them (European) but gorgeous places whether rococco or minimalistic. As always, the endless fascination with spaces and places where writers work.

HOW TO READ LIKE A WRITER – Farncis Prose  (Is her last name for real?)  The book is good, kinda like being in a classroom but pointing out some cool stuff about sentences and structure.

AKENFIELD – still pounding away at this one but can’t help but think it shouldn’t be done, as in, every town should have a chronicler to get the place inventoried in 10-year spurts. And with details. Now there’s a job I’d take – writing about a town by interviewing the various  working demographic, family demographic, etc. DID NOT FINISH!!

SEE JANE WRITE – gave this one up after paging quickly through it. More layout than stuffing.

PAGE AFTER PAGE by Heather Sellers.  Actually, this book about writing was good. I like the writer whose voice is throughout and she actually came up with some NEW stuff. And I love the cover art!

SNOBS by Julian Fellowes.  Loved it, very chatty gossipy, internal, 1st person narrator, upper class stuff and suited my mood perfectly throughout.