elegance of the hedgehog

"The Elegance of the Hedgehog" by Muriel Barbery is a French novel - and it's very French. Much pondering of Art and the nature of Art and what does Art mean in the world. These profound musings are fascinating - even if not entirely convincing. I mean, having the main character declare an intent to commit suicide and then discovering the glory of the world is rather trite. "Veronika Decides to Die" is an example, not to mention every movie where a terminal diagnosis is given.

There's also a contempt for bougeois attitudes - but it's a kind of reverse snobbery. The Japanese are held up as paragons of style and taste - which is a ridiculous generalization. But perhaps it's intended as an example of an immature perspective, as one of the narrators is a 12-year-old. (Shades of Holden.)

But I loved the conclusion that life's best use is searching for the "always within never." Lovely. Death takes away the individual, but the love remains always. You lose your mother, but the idea of the mother is eternal.

"My Own Country" by Abraham Verghese is a memoir by the author of "Cutting for Stone." It's about his experience as an infectious disease doctor in rural Tennessee during the mid-'80s when AIDS began to reach the small coal community. Everyone's phobic of AIDS as a misunderstood diease and phobic of gays. He writes about five or six patients as they try to come to terms with the illness as well as the shame and secrecy. It's very moving and compassionate. One woman finds out her husband has AIDS and gave it to her and her first thought is - shoot him, shoot the kids, then shoot herself. There was no concept of dealing with AIDS.

I also read "Parents Magazine: Best Advice I Ever Got" which was pretty meh. One good tip - use coffee filters in the training potty for easy cleanup.

Also I read "How to Never Look Fat Again" by Charla Krupp. Some advice was pretty obvious (dark colors are slimming) and some was very helpful and specific, about the yoke of jeans, for example.

you're not you

"You're Not You" by Michelle Wildgen is utterly enthralling. It's about a college student who becomes a caretaker to a wealthy woman with ALS and gets really drawn into the woman's proud and glamorous lifestyle. The young woman learns to cook and gets introduced to sophisticated things. The compelling thing is how she takes on living the life of the ill woman - she speaks for her, looks out for her interests, takes on her causes. Fantastic, thought-provoking book full of unexpected turns and indelible scenes, like tracing a body onto a former lover's mattress.

"The Opposite of Me" by Sarah Pekkanen is a funny, light read about a nerdy woman who has a gorgeous twin sister. It's kind of like Sophia Kinsella's books, complete with loving dotty parental figures. Very charming and sweet.

"In A Sunburned Country" by Bill Bryson is a hilarious travel book about Australia. It is so enjoyable and delightful. I love this book! It cracks me up. It's my favorite of his books and I've read them all. He has a line about looking for dinner in the middle of nowhere: "I have learned that the reason a man opens up a Chinese restaurant in a small town is not to dazzle the town with the subtleties of Hunan cooking..." LOL!

"The New Yorkers" by Cathleen Schine is about a street in NYC and the people and dogs who reside there. I really like this author's wit and droll take on relationships but I just wasn't really feeling this book. The characters weren't really standing out in my mind - I was maybe too distracted.

cutting for stone

I finished "Cutting for Stone" by Verghese - such a good, satisfying book. It's one of those sweeping sagas about a family entangled in a country's political revolution and spans the globe. I loved the author's medical expertise and perspective - there's a birth scene in there I will never forget! I was a bit turned off by the trope of the main character being haunted for life by the mean girl he knew as a kid and dreaming of having her virginity was the point of his life. Kinda like Pip in "Great Expectations" - it's a good way to propel the story forward while keeping in touch with their childhood but I think it's unrealistic (and creepy).

I also read "If You Follow Me" by Malena Watrous was excruciatingly fantastic! I was laughing my head off and squirming at the cultural misunderstandings experienced by an American teaching English in Japan. I've read a million books about Americans in France or Italy but never Asia, so it was fresh territory. The author did teach English in Japan so I feel she really portrayed the awkward reality of dealing with a toothache in a foreign country or trying to discard an appliance. Can you imagine having neighbors analyze your garbage every day? Yikes!

"The Gift of an Ordinary Day" by Katrina Kenison is memoir about her years building a house and watching her oldest son go off to college. It's nothing remarkable or astonishing, but she has an ability to savor each mundane day and cherish the moments of life. She can get a bit flown with herself - there are many mothers with much worse struggles than my kid doesn't want to move - but I still liked her company. I can always use more reminders to embrace these ordinary days of raising my baby.

I also read "An Exact Replica of a Figment of My Imagination" by Elizabeth McCracken - a memoir about motherhood and an American in France! My two interests combined. The author had a stillborn baby and then a healthy baby a year later. It's very moving and heartbreaking, of course. She has a precision about her emotions and how people responded to her - she's not maudlin at all. Her tale jumps around in chronology so you're anxious to find out what exactly happened. Anyway, it's very affecting and brave.

Currently reading "The New Yorkers" by Cathleen Schine (who I love) and then "The Elegance of the Hedgehog."

footnotes in gaza

I read "Footnotes in Gaza" - a graphic journalistic book about a massacre of 111 Palestinians in 1956. Joe Sacco is a comic book war correspondent. It was quite wrenching and piqued my interest in the Palestine/Israeli conflict. I have been to Israel and learned about the history from their point but this incident was new to me. It's so desperately sad as a topic and brilliantly portrayed in graphic form. I may read his other works as well. I find the graphic novel is a good way to make a story fresh.

On a completely different note, I read "The Secrets to Happiness" by Sarah Dunn. I loved her previous novel "The Big Love" and lapped up this book as well. She enlarges the cast of characters - including a somewhat unlikeable guy named Leonard with drug issues - and it's mostly about Holly's relationship with the man that her friend Amanda had an affair with. Anyway, it was witty and enjoyable.

food rules

I read "Food Rules" by Michael Pollan. It's a list of memorable standards for what to eat. I thought it was indispensible. Spend as much time eating your meal as you did cooking it. The whiter the bread, the sooner you're dead. Don't get your fuel from the same place your vehicle does.

"Homeport" by Nora Roberts is a romance novel I read in college and wanted to read again. It was very enjoyable - redhaired art historian falls in love with art thief and they have to find the killer... It's a Snickers for the brain.

"One Hundred Demons" by Lynda Barry is a comic about things she is ashamed of - I actually put it down because the first discussion was about fleas. Just distasteful.

"In The Town All Year Round" by Rotraut Berner is a utterly delightful picture book with colored pencil drawings of a happy, picturesque, busy town. People go to the park, to the train station, chase a dog, have a birthday party. It's totally adorable and I want to move into this friendly German town!

Currently I'm reading "Cutting for Stone" by Verghese. It's already amazingly good.

i can make a difference

Back from vacation where I was busy baby-wrangling and didn't read much.

"I Can Make A Difference" by Marian Wright Edelman is a fantastic children's book highlighting human values of respect, nonviolence, gratitude. Each principle is matched with different quotations, parables or poems. It's wonderfully inspiring and I want to give it to everyone I know.

"The Happiness Project" by Gretchen Rubin follows her year-long project to follow advice and make herself happier. She used to be an attorney so she's very methodical and rigorous in her actions. I really liked the way she distilled concepts into Rules or Splendid Truths or Secrets of Adulthood. She covered lots of things I've observed - a touch of deprivation makes you appreciate things anew. Helping others makes you feel good.

Some of her insights I found helpful were "Be Gretchen" - or whoever you are. Accept youself - your limitations and your strengths. I am always awaiting to be transformed into a socially confident leader and maybe I'm never going to command a room in that way. I can accept this and be happy in who I am today.

She also writes about enjoying the anticipation, expressing happiness and savoring the memories. Milk each event for all it can offer and you'll be filled with joy. I love this - I am a huge fan of talking about favorite memories and sometimes other people aren't so willing to delve into the past with me. But it's a good reminder to do so anyway!

Anyway, I loved the book!

the girls

"The Girls" by Lori Lansens has a farfetched plot - the autobiography of a conjoined twin. But similar to Eugenides' "Middlesex," this esoteric premise takes us on an epic journey to the center of the human heart.

It is amazingly real and concrete about what it feels like to be conjoined, from the small daily details. The author does not make a single misstep, she creates a totally convincing world. That is remarkable in itself. But the reason you keep reading is way you fall in love with the characters, Rose and Ruby. It's a fantastic book. I couldn't put it down and now I can't stop thinking about it.

Much weeping at the last pages:

"I have an urge to apologize for my mountain-climbing metaphors while begging patience for one more. Because, my friends, I can see the summit. It appears bitten, scalloped white against this azure sky. There are other people there too. And not all of them writers.

Everyone says, 'Don't look down,' but I did look down, at where I've been, how far I've come, how high I've climbed. Where I thought I made a single trail in the snow, I've made a thousand, blighted by debris, the bits of me I've left behind. And tools I didn't even know I had."

Also I read the Pride and Prejudice graphic novel adapted by Nancy Butler - which was a interesting way to tell the story, but of course not as rich as the actual novel. Still, it might be a fun way to introduce a kid to the story.

I read "American Widow" by Alissa Torres, a graphic novel by a 9/11 widow. It was very sad to go back to those tragic days in American history. She writes about the whole experience, including the struggles of dealing with Red Cross bureaucracy.

"Shelf Discovery" by Lizzie Skurnick was flat out fantastic! I felt like it was written FOR ME. It's a collection of essays revisiting books we read and loved as teenagers. Lois Duncan, Little House, Judy Blume, I could go on. I had read most of the books and LOVED her fond and pertinent analysis. So, so good. I have to get this book. It brought back my childhood! I flipped out when I saw her inclusion of "Caroline" by Willo Davis Roberts of the Sunfire series. OMG! I loved that book! I think I still have it boxed up.

I also really enjoyed "Encyclopedia of an Ordinary Life" by Amy Krouse Rosenthal, a delightful book of random thoughts, lists and witty observations. No one can pass a parked limousine without remarking upon it. Or, when you are calling someone's name to get their attention and they don't notice you: "no matter who they are - a lawyer, a surgeon, a Latin scholar - they look like an idiot searching for you, craning their head like that, and you question their intelligence." Ha ha.

Also read "Sleepy Little Alphabet" by Judy Sierra to the little mister. Very cute.