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Book report
Jan. 12th, 2016 04:08 amBig Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert - I popped in this audiobook –read by the author – on the subject of creativity. At some point early on, we learn that the author also wrote “Eat Pray Love”. I fricking hated “Eat Pray Love”. Well, actually, I never made it beyond page 40 or 50 but my favorite piece of criticism of the book comes from Kristin Newman: “I…hated the narrator for her self-involved, self-inflicted misery in the middle of a pretty amazing life.” And there are those who say her book should’ve been called “Wealthy Whiny White” and placed in the center of a genre of ‘privilege lit’. But guess what? Once I put “Eat Pray Love” out of my mind, I grudgingly admitted that “Big Magic” was good. Gilbert’s reading voice was excellent. She does have nuggets of wisdom on the subject of creativity and interesting anecdotes. I even came to look forward to my commute so I’d hear what Gilbert had to say. Yeah, she’s pretty self-referential in this book, once or twice I wanted to tell her to get over herself. But dang this book was pretty good. Grade: B
Alice in Bed by Judith Hooper – A novel of historical fiction though it is based on a real person. Alice James is a 19th century “spinster”, an intellectual, and she’s bedridden - no doctor can help her. Alice is also a lesbian, she’s cynical and bitter, frustrated by women’s low place in society and the world, and her partner is separated from her due to family commitments in another country (and the fact that their relationship is considered to have no legitimacy). I would’ve loved to see a bit more focus on both the plot and on Alice’s relationship with her partner. The author spends a bit too much time on setting and on characters. There are so many detailed segments on minor characters, so many long tangents that aren’t needed for either the plot or for understanding the main character. These sections aren’t horribly boring and they do indicate that the author has fully hashed out her protagonist’s realm, but they also make the book just longer than it should be and they weigh it down. They don’t enhance the book or help it. I kept wanting to hear more about Alice’s relationship with Katherine than every detail of a conversation she had with her brother. Still, the book was well-written and I wanted to see where things would go for Alice. Grade: C+
Hark! A Vagrant and Step Aside, Pops by Kate Beaton – Both of these are collections of comics. Kate Beaton’s work is smart, funny, literate, and weird. I didn’t “get” every comic, but others had me LOL-ing. As soon as I finished reading one collection, I got the other from the library because they were so good. Grade: B
A Language Older Than Words by Derrick Jensen – This book is a little hard to describe, but in short it is a combination of the author’s autobiography which included abuse at the hands of his father and his ruminations on subjects such as humanity’s destruction of the natural world and ourselves, and how we can live in more harmony with the planet. I do like that he struggles with many of the items I struggle with. (He’s frustrated by the destruction of the environment. He debates many different courses of action – sending money to the Sierra Club, blowing up a dam, sitting in a city council meeting, fomenting a revolution and running the risk that any replacement government would be as bad as the one it deposes, etc. I struggle with these questions too. I mean, though obv I’m not going to blow up a dam.) I can’t say the book reached any sort of easy conclusions but it was a conversation worth having. Grade: B
After the Parade by Lori Ostlund - A novel taking place in modern times. Forty-year old Aaron is leaving his long-time partner Walter and setting off for life on his own in a new city. We learn his background in copious flashbacks to his childhood and teenage years. I was pretty excited to read this – a gay main character, who is around my age and as a plus, he works as an ESL teacher. (One part of my job is hiring ESL teachers and overseeing our company ESL program). But it started to drag when the flashbacks got a bit overwhelming and the book became stacked with weird, unlikeable characters many of whom sounded just like each other. (e.g. While growing up, Aaron befriends first a dwarf and then a fat woman who works for his mother. As I read the woman’s scenes, I realized that something was off – her speaking pattern sounded just like that of the dwarf, odd and full of “big” words that not too many people actually use in real life. I realized that if given a hefty sample of either character’s dialog, I’d really have no way to tell which character it was. The two characters don’t interact with each other and aren’t related to each other, so that can’t explain it). I wanted it to get back to the narrative and trim the flashbacks a bit. But I liked the book overall. Grade: B-
Alice in Bed by Judith Hooper – A novel of historical fiction though it is based on a real person. Alice James is a 19th century “spinster”, an intellectual, and she’s bedridden - no doctor can help her. Alice is also a lesbian, she’s cynical and bitter, frustrated by women’s low place in society and the world, and her partner is separated from her due to family commitments in another country (and the fact that their relationship is considered to have no legitimacy). I would’ve loved to see a bit more focus on both the plot and on Alice’s relationship with her partner. The author spends a bit too much time on setting and on characters. There are so many detailed segments on minor characters, so many long tangents that aren’t needed for either the plot or for understanding the main character. These sections aren’t horribly boring and they do indicate that the author has fully hashed out her protagonist’s realm, but they also make the book just longer than it should be and they weigh it down. They don’t enhance the book or help it. I kept wanting to hear more about Alice’s relationship with Katherine than every detail of a conversation she had with her brother. Still, the book was well-written and I wanted to see where things would go for Alice. Grade: C+
Hark! A Vagrant and Step Aside, Pops by Kate Beaton – Both of these are collections of comics. Kate Beaton’s work is smart, funny, literate, and weird. I didn’t “get” every comic, but others had me LOL-ing. As soon as I finished reading one collection, I got the other from the library because they were so good. Grade: B
A Language Older Than Words by Derrick Jensen – This book is a little hard to describe, but in short it is a combination of the author’s autobiography which included abuse at the hands of his father and his ruminations on subjects such as humanity’s destruction of the natural world and ourselves, and how we can live in more harmony with the planet. I do like that he struggles with many of the items I struggle with. (He’s frustrated by the destruction of the environment. He debates many different courses of action – sending money to the Sierra Club, blowing up a dam, sitting in a city council meeting, fomenting a revolution and running the risk that any replacement government would be as bad as the one it deposes, etc. I struggle with these questions too. I mean, though obv I’m not going to blow up a dam.) I can’t say the book reached any sort of easy conclusions but it was a conversation worth having. Grade: B
After the Parade by Lori Ostlund - A novel taking place in modern times. Forty-year old Aaron is leaving his long-time partner Walter and setting off for life on his own in a new city. We learn his background in copious flashbacks to his childhood and teenage years. I was pretty excited to read this – a gay main character, who is around my age and as a plus, he works as an ESL teacher. (One part of my job is hiring ESL teachers and overseeing our company ESL program). But it started to drag when the flashbacks got a bit overwhelming and the book became stacked with weird, unlikeable characters many of whom sounded just like each other. (e.g. While growing up, Aaron befriends first a dwarf and then a fat woman who works for his mother. As I read the woman’s scenes, I realized that something was off – her speaking pattern sounded just like that of the dwarf, odd and full of “big” words that not too many people actually use in real life. I realized that if given a hefty sample of either character’s dialog, I’d really have no way to tell which character it was. The two characters don’t interact with each other and aren’t related to each other, so that can’t explain it). I wanted it to get back to the narrative and trim the flashbacks a bit. But I liked the book overall. Grade: B-
