The Sunday Salon – On Resolutions and Non-Resolutions
Happy New Year!
It’s nice to be back. I took a slightly longer vacation than anticipated since we decided to stay a few extra days with family this past week. It’s all good though because it left me with time to think about this little space and what I want to accomplish in the coming year. I’m not one for resolutions, especially in regard to my reading. I’ve tried but never quite accomplish what I set out to do. Last year, I planned to read at least one non-fiction book a month, and was good for the first few months of 2011, then took a free fall and let it go. I did read a number of non-fiction books but not the amount I anticipated. I pictured lists upon lists of non-fiction, I got to seven. I don’t feel bad about it though. I knew it would happen; it’s my resolution pattern.
On another note, I did complete all the challenges I participated in last year. In some ways, these challenges are my reading resolutions in that I’m picky about what I sign up for — I want something that fits with my reading style but leaves me room to try new things without feeling constricted in anyway — I try to keep it to three or four and no more. I also like to find things that will help me to read more of what I want (for example: classics) without feeling like I’m forcing myself to do it as part of some doomed resolution. So maybe I do have resolutions, but the passive aggressive type. Whatever works I guess.
Looking back on my list (I did a best of list early in December), I read a lot of good books, had very few DNFs (a scant three books went unfinished), and topped out at 99. Not my best record, and it would have been nice to see 100, but I’m happy with almost everything I read so no complaints. I ended the year on a very good note with MWF Seeking BFF: My Yearlong Search for a New Best Friend by Rachel Bertsche. It was funny, cute, and made me think about the relationships I have with friends. If you’re looking for a good read, pick this one up. I hope to have a review done soon, and I warn you now, it will be a gusher.
As for the blog itself, I keep thinking and re-thinking my ratings system and how it’s working or not working for me. Most books fit into the 5 star system and I’ve allowed myself to make use of the .25, .5, and .75 stars (what they are exactly I don’t know and I don’t know how you even go about divided up a star but anyway) and while it’s useful, I’m thinking of ditching it for a I liked this book/I didn’t like this book type thing. When and if I figure it out, I’ll let you know.
I’m also going to be taking a class starting in January and will probably see my reading drop a bit at least until the class is finished. January is usually my most productive reading month due to cold weather (or what passes for cold weather in DC) but this year I’m changing things up. So, if there are a few slow days around here, please forgive. I’ll be doing some writing instead.
I’ve got long list of books to read this year so I’m off to get started.
Happy Sunday, Happy New Year, and happy reading. 
Happy Holidays
I want to take a moment to wish everyone a very joyous holiday season. I’m heading off to spend some much needed time with family and friends and will be taking a few days off to celebrate, relax with a book (or two), a glass of wine, and several dozen cookies.
Enjoy the season.
Review – 11/22/63
11/22/63
By Stephen King
Scribner
eISBN: 9781451627282
4.75 stars
Yes, Stephen King, the man who writes the scariest characters on earth, wrote a time travel book.
Jake Epping, a recently divorced teacher, lives a quiet life in a small Maine town. His divorce has left him despondent about life in general but he trudges on day after day. One of those days, he’s approached by a friend, Al Templeton, a local restaurant owner who says he has something to show him. Jake meets Al at his restaurant and is surprised to see his friend in the last stages of cancer and struggles to understand when all this happened. Unfortunately, he ends up with more questions than answers when Al shows him the time portal in the back closet of his restaurant. Jake is skeptical but goes through. Al then ropes him into his scheme — he wants Jake to go back in time to kill Lee Harvey Oswald and save John F. Kennedy.
Oh, the tale Mr. King weaves. This book feels part science fiction, part alternate reality, part fantasy. But what it really is is all wonderful. There was a time when King was a comfort read for me. That might sound strange considering he’s known more for horror but I read Carrie, Christine, Salem’s Lot, The Running Man, and The Long Walk over and over again. Each time amazed by the tension, the twists and turns, and I loved being scared by him. Eventually, I moved away from his books, not for lack of books (the man is more than prolific) but because there were other books that caught my attention. Admittedly, I probably burned myself out. A few years ago, I asked a colleague’s husband if I could borrow one of his King books. It was Duma Key and I was once again left wondering why I didn’t read more King.
When 11/22/63 came out everyone fell hard for it. I decided to wait. I wanted to read it but I tend to shy away from bestsellers and give myself space from all the wonderful reviews. And there were many wonderful reviews of this one. Then Twitter happened. Natalie over at Coffee and a Book Chick was talking about how she loved it. I asked if it was really worth it (the answer was a resounding YES) and then decided that since I needed a book for my Thanksgiving travels, I would buy it. What can I say — it was fabulous.
There’s nothing particularly scary about this book, so if you’re judging on that level, walk away. In some respects, that made it feel like I wasn’t reading a King book but I was OK with that outcome because the characters are amazing. I cared so much about what would happen to them and I came very close to tears at the end. I didn’t want it to end.
It was a rush of a story too. While it’s slow in the middle and you start wondering what if anything Jake is going to do about Oswald, you’re too caught up in his alternate life to care. It’s the life he was looking for and you’re so glad to see him finally find it that you start hoping that he won’t go through with it so he can continue with what he found.
This was a book I fell for hard. It also made me thankful that King is an author with many tomes to his name. While I can’t recreate this reading, I can revel in his other books.
Believe the hype on this one. It is that good.
Review – The Magician King
The Magician King
By Lev Grossman
Viking
ISBN: 9780670022311
3 stars
I’m torn over this review and fully admit to putting off writing it because I don’t know what I want to say about it. Did I like it? Sort of. Would I read it again? Probably not. The more I thought about it the more frustrated I became with the whole book and its predecessor, The Magicians. So here goes my attempt at some thoughts.
Quentin is now in Fillory and a full king at that along with Eilot, Janet, and Julia. But he’s bored. So bored he decides to travel to the Outer Islands of Fillory to collect, of all things, back taxes. He ends up inadvertently on a quest for the seven keys. Using the first, he and Julie, who accompanied him on the unplanned trip, end up back in the real world. The two search for a way back to Fillory both knowing they have absolutely no desire to spend any time in reality — Fillory is their reality now.
OK, first, back taxes?! This is how a quest starts?! I just, I don’t know, I wanted something less mundane and every day. Taxes are not fantasy. Beyond that I was sort of bored and annoyed. Quentin is still whiny, now he’s bored and whiny. Eliot, not sure what I thought of him, mostly I just didn’t; Janet is pretty well non-existent and I was fine with that. And then there’s Julia. We find out all about Julia and how she learned magic and it’s fascinating. It was dark, disturbing, and sad. I was right there going along with her story, having to put up with Quentin to get to Julia’s story, and then we came to the end of her story and I said out loud, “What? You went there!” and that’s when I decided to muddle through and be done with it.
I was excited for this book but sadly that excitement barely got me though. There’s much to like and many people do indeed like this book so ignore if you’re one of them. For me, this one didn’t do it.
I went back to see how I rated the first book and it was fairly high, a 4 out of 5. I remember liking it at the time too but with a few quibbles. Then, the more I thought about it the less I liked it. These thoughts may have clouded my judgment of this book.
Read it? Feel differently? Wrote a review of it? Let me know, I’m happy to link to a review that’s a completely different take than mine.
Review – The Scottish Prisoner
The Scottish Prisoner
By Diana Gabaldon
Delacourt Press
ISBN: 9780385337519
4 stars
I have a soft spot, a very soft spot, for Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander series. Jamie and Claire Fraser are among my favorite fictional characters. When I heard the latest John Grey novel would feature Jamie (the character has made appearances in the books but never as a major character), I made the decision that this would be my introduction into the Lord John Grey Outlander spinoff.
Jamie Fraser is now a paroled prisoner of war working as a stable hand on a remote farm called Helwater in the Lake District of England. While he wouldn’t say his life is satisfying without his wife and family, he is thankful for life’s small diversions. He’s no longer in prison, he spends his days working with horses, and is close to the son no one knows is his; affording him a small reprieve from his grief over losing his wife, Claire, and their child he never met. When Tobias Quinn, a friend of his from the Jacobite Rising, shows up at the farm, he tells him he wants nothing to do with the failed rebellion or with Tobias himself. He’s lost too much, namely his wife and child, and fears losing what little freedom he has gained at Helwater. When Lord John Grey summons him to London too many memories come flooding back to Jamie and he wants absolutely nothing to do with any of them.
Lord John Grey is almost as unhappy as Jamie is about the situation they find themselves in. A former warden of the jail where Jamie was held after the Jacobite Rising, he has no interest in seeing him especially since their last parting, which was on awkward terms. Lord John is in possession of documents that may contain information about a new possible uprising and he believes Jamie may be the only person who can help him figure out what the documents say. It’s an unhappy and uncomfortable match from the beginning.
One of the nice things about the Lord John Grey series is that the books are meant as standalone novels. Having the Outlander background and understanding the complicated relationship between Lord John Grey and Jamie Fraser will add more for fans of the series, but if you have a love of historical fiction, this book could be a good entrance point into the Outlander world if you’re looking to try it out. It gives you a taste of Jamie’s life, what he’s lost, and while not a full background on him, it provides enough to make you want to know more about him and the wife he lost. Although, as fair warning to fans, the Jamie you meet in The Scottish Prisoner is slightly more hardened than the more good-humored Scotsman many have grown to love. Claire is alluded to numerous times and if you’re a fan of the series, this particular book is set after the battle of Culloden when Claire has returned to her own time and Jamie has been released from prison, essentially in the 20 year time period the couple spent apart in the series.
The Scottish Prisoner is set in Ireland but the slightly mystical feeling you get from the series is still present as there is a plot in the works to steal an ancient relic that the supporters of the Rising hope will inspire their Cause and rally supporters in Ireland. While I could have done without this little twist — I personally didn’t think it added much — it did evoke the supernatural feeling of the series without the time travel element. This is my only quibble with the book though. As always, Gabaldon goes above and beyond in the entertainment department and this book will probably be a fast read for fans of the series.
In addition to this blog, I also do reviews for The Book Reporter website. The above review was done for the Book Reporter which can be found here. The book was provided to me by the publisher.
Review – A Visit from the Goon Squad
A Visit from the Goon Squad
By Jennifer Egan
Random House
ISBN: 97803074 77477
5 stars
There are books you buy because you read so many fabulous reviews that you must, absolutely must, have it as part of your personal library. Sometimes you go to a book festival and hear an author speak and you’re convinced that you must, absolutely must, own the book. You’ve been sold. You buy the book. And then you start to wonder if it will live up to the expectations, which are now so high that you consider taking the book back to the store and finding out if it would be possible to exchange it for something else. You don’t want to be disappointed. You decide to read it anyway and you’re surprised. Surprised that you love it; surprised that it lived up to your mighty expectations.
In the bathroom of a hotel in New York City, Sasha is doing her best to not steal a wallet peeking slightly out of a woman’s purse. She doesn’t want to steal it, but she has to. She can’t explain it, not even to her therapist, stealing is something she must do. And it has to be personal, new things don’t have the same effect on her. She takes it and then just as the wallet peeking out of the purse, we peek into her life. We do this by way of disjointed introductions to all the people and places that have passed through her life. Her therapist, her boss — Bennie Salazar, a music industry executive with too many problems of his own — ex-boyfriends, college friends, and family members.
This is one of those books that I will admit upfront that I will not be able to describe adequately so I won’t even try. It’s a meandering book. You’re drawn in and out of people’s lives and in some cases you’re not even sure until several paragraphs into the chapter why exactly this person has appeared. What’s amazing about it is that even in those moments when you’re wondering who this person is and why you should care about them, you begin to see the invisible strings that tie everyone together. They appear out of nowhere and this author’s ability to show, in raw details, the characters’ problems is amazing. And the writing; the writing is startling. Yes, there is a reason Jennifer Egan won a Pulitzer Prize. Yes, she deserves it.
A Visit from the Goon Squad took me several days to read and it’s not a long book; 340 pages total. I took my time wanting to savor each and every word. I went back a few times to re-read passages. I wanted to see how she said so much with so few words. The writing felt sparse to me at first and then I began to realize that even though she didn’t describe things in a widely epic fashion, I saw every single detail. I saw Sasha lift that wallet so delicately out of the purse and slip it into hers. I saw the expression on Bennie Salazar’s face when his son puts the gold flakes on his tongue and the felt the exhilaration his son felt. There’s something about her writing that is so extraordinary that I found myself reading slower and slower as I got to the end.
I’ve never read a book before that included one chapter that was an entire PowerPoint presentation. A Visit from the Goon Squad is officially that book and may retain that title for many years to come. What I thought most interesting about this chapter was that in some ways it was the most telling and sad chapter of the entire book. So poignant and strange at the same time I forgot I was reading slides and it read as a young girl’s journal, as it was intended.
I’m sure this one will make it on my best of 2011 list (it did). It was just that good. Sad, funny, confusing, and beautiful; much like life.
The Sunday Salon – Best of 2011
While I don’t like to put these lists together until the actual year has ended, I will be taking some time off around the holidays so I thought I’d break with my tradition and name my favorites of 2011.
Let me explain how I picked these books, and no, not every one of these books is a 5 star book. I thought about going that route but decided instead to look at the list and see how I feel about the books now. Honestly, if I’m still thinking about, or recommending, a book six months later, obviously it was a good book for me regardless of how I rated it at the time I wrote the review. That seems arbitrary but it’s my list and I can make it however I want. The list is done by month and my favorite(s) of the year are at the end.
So here goes:
January
The Woman in Black by Susan Hill
A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness
Garden Spells by Sarah Addison Allen
February
Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
March
The Peach Keeper by Sarah Addison Allen
Madame Tussaud by Michelle Moran
To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis
April
Un Lun Dun by China Mieville
A Clash of Kings by George RR Martin
May
The Map of Time by Felix J. Palma
June
The Dark Enquiry by Deanne Raybourn
The Postmortal by Drew Magery
July
Cleopatra: A Life by Stacy Schiff
Demon Fish: Travels Through the Hidden World of Sharks by Juliet Eilpern
August
After Dark by Haruki Murakami
Claire DeWitt and the City of the Dead by Sara Gran
A Storm of Swords by George RR Martin
September
The Taker by Alma Katsu
October
A Crimson Warning by Tasha Alexander
Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman
November
A Visit from the Good Squad by Jennifer Egan
The Twelfth Enchantment by David Liss
December
11/22/63 by Stephen King
Did I have an overall favorite? Maybe. I loved several books on this list. I will re-read several books on this list. Can I say I had an absolute favorite in 2011? No, but I was able to narrow it to three books:
Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
A Visit from the Good Squad by Jennifer Egan
Claire DeWitt and the City of the Dead by Sara Gran
So, there you have it, my best reads of 2011. What books/authors were among your favorites this year?
Review — Neverwhere
Neverwhere
By Neil Gaiman
HarperTorch
ISBN: 0380789019
4.75 stars
There are some authors you know will always cheer you up especially when you’ve had a rough day. Neil Gaiman is one of those authors. When I’ve had a day I want to forget, I know I can count on him to take me somewhere else with his words.
Neverwhere, sadly, has languished on my list for a long time, and at one point, I thought I might have read it. I was indeed wrong about that. While in my favorite bookstore one night, I gave in and bought it. I was so glad I did too.
Richard Mayhew leads a normal, rather boring life. He works in an ordinary corporate job filing reports and is engaged to a beautiful woman who slightly intimidates him. But he’s sure it’s the life he wants. It’s ordinary and normal; what everyone wants. On his way to dinner with his fiancée, he stops to aid a girl bleeding on the street. Knowing he can’t leave the girl hemorrhaging on a London sidewalk, he decides to help her and walks away from his ordinary and normal life. He finds out the London he’s been living in has a whole other side, one that feeds off of the unbelievable and a world he can’t quite understand. It’s where Richard finds himself and he’s able to let go of everything he thought he wanted and embrace a new life.
Oh, where to begin. The idea of a London underground is fascinating and Gaiman does a fantastic job making it real. The subway stops, the markets, and even the creatures. There’s something amazing about being able to slip into this world, much like good ol’ reliable Richard Mayhew, and through him be amazed. My favorite part is when he’s no longer stunned by everything and even starts to see connections and rationalizations for how things work. It changes him and for the better I thought. The new Richard wasn’t so invisible anymore. He was, well, whole — something he wasn’t before.
When I picked this book up I was in a slight reading lull. Nothing good, nothing bad; just sort of meh about the books I was reading. I wanted new, exciting and I’m sorry I didn’t look to my old favorites quicker. When I spied this on the shelf I knew it would be perfect. American Gods will soon be purchased for my reading enjoyment and probably a few more in the Sandman series. Oh, holidays, I can’t wait for you this year.
