I Love Books!

Five Quarters of the Orange by Joanne Harris

Mother/daughter relationships and food play a big part in this book as they did in Chocolat (by the same author).  But Five Quarters of the Orange is a much darker story.  It takes place in a small French village during and then years after the German occupation during World War II.

The protagonist, Framboise, is tenacious and clever, both as a nine year old and as the much older widow.  Her mother is a hard woman, plagued by incapacitating migraine headaches.  Few of the characters are likable in the traditional sense.  Disconcertingly, the kindest character is a Nazi soldier.  It was interesting when I realized that I didn't really like any of these people, as that's one thing that usually draws me into books.  But, I respected them, cut them some slack, perhaps because of the time during which they lived, or maybe the fact that they didn't seem to care about being likable.

Framboise inherits her mother's notebook, which is a mélange of recipes, notes, memories and entries in a foreign language that she doesn't recognize.  The notebook helps her piece together a fuller picture of the dramatic events of her ninth year.

It's interesting how we think we have the whole picture based on our own experience, and yet, the "reality" can be very different, when all the parts start coming together.

Blogging Trackbacks

I started this blog for several reasons, a few are obvious, such as I'm a reading freak.  The other reason was I wanted to understand and experiment with all the cool techno stuff that you can do with blogs (and my coaching blog isn't set up for).  Of course I'm a little behind the times and don't get how all of this stuff works.  Luckily there are people out there to help.  Kirsten Farris, who has Bulldog Marketing is awesome at explaining things, and she's the one that extolled the virtues of Typepad, ease of use being high on the list.  At any rate, I think she's finally helped me understand trackbacks.  Although I'm not sure I'm using it in the right context, I'm trying one anyway!

Three Junes by Julia Glass

This was my pick for July bookclub.  It was originally recommended to me by my Aunt.  She's a voracious reader and has turned me onto all kinds of books, from all time favorites like Bel Canto and The Kite Runner to fun reads like the Jane Whitefield series.

The title, Three Junes, refers to the three sections of the novel, each takes place during June of different years.  The sections overlap in interesting and unexpected ways.  We had quite a discussion about Fenno McLeod the main character in the second June.  His personality quirks were fascinating to some and annoying to others.  But, he was so well-developed and whole and real we spent a lot of time discussing why he might be the way he was.  Like he was an older brother or old friend we were psychoanalyzing.

Glass writes beautifully.  I re-read sentences and even entire paragraphs because the writing was so amazing.  A couple of bookclubbers mentioned doing the same thing.

I don't want to spoil the end, but I do want to say that there was something the reader knew that the characters didn't.  I kept expecting it to be revealed.  It wasn't.  I reconciled this in my mind because it seemed if there was a relationship blooming in the book that would continue after it was over and the information would eventually come out.  Now that's getting sucked into a literary world!

It turns out that Fenno shows up as a minor character in Glass' new novel, The Whole World Over.  It's on my stack of books to read.  I wonder how Fenno will be?

Writing Down the Bones by Natalie Goldberg

The book was made required reading by my writing coach.  I already owned it, and had read it before, but it was wonderful to re-read this classic on writing. 

Dozens of unnumbered, short chapters come together to become Writing Down the Bones: Freeing the Writer Within.  The chapters each stand on their own and complement one another.  You can read the book straight through, scan the table of contents to find an appropriately helpful sounding chapter, or just flip through the book randomly for writing inspiration and guidance. 

A warning though, some of the chapter titles, while intriguing don't make much sense until you read the section.  For example, "Man Eats Car."  Doesn't seem to ring with writing advice does it?   Goldberg shares a story about a man who ate an entire car.  She uses this idea of not cherry picking the choicest parts (are there choice parts of eating a car?) but just writing down all of it.  She also expands on the absurdity of a man eating a car and how that can open the imagination. 

One of the things I most appreciate about this book is Goldberg's willingness to be completely honest. She talks about all of the junk writing she does, the stuff that mortifies you when you go back and re-read it, the whiny self-pitying, berating, critical schlock that shows up more than you would hope for in a regular writing practice. 

She also reminds us that in all that junk are sometimes beautiful, truthful things, bits or more that capture something important.  Sometimes you just need a little distance.  And sometimes, it is still junk, but once it's out of the way there's a space for more interesting things to surface.

A little something on writing

Recently, I made a little to-do about adjusting the focus of this blog, adding writing to the reading.  Since I've finally gained the distance to begin editing a novel I wrote in December 2004, I wanted to have a place to write about the process.  But I've neglected to write about writing, or anything else, except reading, so now, I'm finally going to write a little bit about writing.

I've been working with a great writing coach who's helping me with the editing process and improving my writing in general.  But you probably already noticed that.  Ha. Coach L and I get together every couple of weeks and she gives me feedback on my writing and gives me assignments.  The assignments may or may not be related to the novel, although all the writing practice is definitely improving my writing.   

One of the things I've been working on are character sketches.  Little vignettes about people I'm observing.  It's been great writing and an excellent excuse for hanging out in coffee shops and cafes.  (The conversation in my head in case anyone inquired as to what I'm doing:  "No, I'm not a feckless loser with nothing better to do than hang out for two hours on a Tuesday morning nursing an iced chai.  I am a writer, honing my craft!"  Of course no one asks, probably because they don't want to be asked themselves.)

But sometimes, I don't even manage to get my arse off the chair at the kitchen table and get outside.  Sometimes I observe in the comfort of my own home.  Click here to read the result of that.

Fixing Squeak = Sexy Hotness

I'm not kidding.  I just re-watched the movie, Chocolat.  When Johnny Depp's character, Roux says to Vianne, played by Juliette Binoche, "I'll come 'round sometime and get that squeak out of your door" Oh. My. God.  It is pure sexy hotness. And makes me wonder how you can get a non-squeaky door to become squeaky.  Hmmm.

Now, I'll admit, I have a thing for Johnny.  He's my celebrity, uh, screw.  You know the one your partner gives you a free pass for should you ever have the opportunity to get it on with said celebrity.  I know, I know, don't dampen the fun of it all with talk of odds and likelihood.  It's just fun to think/talk about.  My friends and I have discussed this, one's is Val Kilmer, another chose Matthew McConaughey, another's is Bill Clinton.  My friends have diverse tastes.  My partner RP's is Jennifer Aniston.  At least it was.  I better check with him as he's in Sun Valley, Idaho right now with a better chance than normal of running into a celebrity.

So back to J.D. turning a simple handyman's phrase into pure seduction.  Phew.

And oh yes the rest of the movie.  I'd forgotten how many of the details were changed in this adaptation for film.  Most notably, the "pious" priest Reynaud becomes a righteous mayor.  The essence remains the same. 

Incidentally, I recommend having some good chocolate around while you are watching it.  Even if you normally don't care much for chocolate, you're going to want some.

What a delight.

Hooked by Matt Richtel

I came across this book through a fun kind of coincidence.  My aunt read about it and thought the author, Matt Richtel, might be the grandson of one of her late husband Herb's good friends.  While we were chatting on the phone, I googled Richtel and read her his bio.  The details seemed to fit, and it turned out he was having a reading at a store in Fresno where my aunt lives.  She called me after attending the reading, excited to share with me his comments on the writing/editing process.  She was also happy that he shared with her an entertaining dinner he had with Herb in Las Vegas.

So, about the book.  Hooked: A Thriller About Love and Other Addictions follows Nat Idle, a medical journalist, after he survives an explosion at an internet cafe.  He struggles to solve the mystery and stay alive. I normally don't go in for thrillers, mysteries and suspense as I've mentioned before, and this book proved to illustrate the point why.  I wanted to get to the end, solve the mystery, know what the hell is going on!  And sometimes, it's not okay to sit around and do nothing but read a book until you're done with it.  I'm categorizing this book as a beach read for this reason.  It was a quick read and sucked me in and kept me interested until the end.

One of the themes is our addiction to technology and how it's changed our lives and ability to connect.  I found it fascinating and so accurate.  Richtel also managed to explain why a stimulant (Ritalin) helps with ADD -- something I never could grasp before.