If you feel, hit your head, and were knocked unconscious then woke up and you had forgot the last ten years, what kind of person would you be? Would you be different? What if the current you was harder and not as nice, more jaded and so now you were feeling like your younger self and had back your old feeling, perspective, and optimism, would it change the life choices you had been making before the bump on your head?
That is what happens to Alice. When she wakes up she doesn't remember anything that has happened in the past 10 years, including the birth of her three children and the crumbling of her marriage. She doesn't much like the older her and feels like the 29 year old she last remembers being. Imagine looking at your husband and loving him like crazy but being apart for something you don't remember. Imagine seeing your three children and having no memories of them at all.
What I loved most about this story was that it addressed an interesting question, what a good relationship looks like and how it grows and changes over the years. Not just the couple relationship but with our friends, siblings, children, and parents. How much are shared memories, a history that doesn't require many words to access worth in the forming and maintaining of a relationship?
This was a beautiful story of love and loss and healing.
I really enjoyed the story and the writing style so I think I will try out more books by Moriarty.
(Finished February 14, 2016)
Sunday, February 14, 2016
Thursday, February 11, 2016
When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi
Why would anyone willingly pick up a book written by a man dying from terminal cancer? Because it isn't a book about dying, it is a book about trying to figure out what it means to live.
Paul wanted to understand the link between life, the mind, and medicine. He wanted to know what link between life and the physical brain existed so he went into medical school and trained and became a very talented, compassionate, much loved, neurosurgeon.
He was young, full of life, talented, and had a pretty great life when he found out he had terminal cancer. But that didn't end his life, it just changed the path and shortened it. In the relatively small number of pages Paul will move you, make you laugh, make you think, and then his wife will make you sob in her epilogue.
Paul and Lucy make themselves open and vulnerable to share their life and pain. Paul will tell you about how he learns that you are dying from the day you are born and it is how you fill the days in between that matter and he will do it in such a way that you will feel like you know him by the end.
Please read their words.
(Finished February 11, 2016)
Paul wanted to understand the link between life, the mind, and medicine. He wanted to know what link between life and the physical brain existed so he went into medical school and trained and became a very talented, compassionate, much loved, neurosurgeon.
He was young, full of life, talented, and had a pretty great life when he found out he had terminal cancer. But that didn't end his life, it just changed the path and shortened it. In the relatively small number of pages Paul will move you, make you laugh, make you think, and then his wife will make you sob in her epilogue.
Paul and Lucy make themselves open and vulnerable to share their life and pain. Paul will tell you about how he learns that you are dying from the day you are born and it is how you fill the days in between that matter and he will do it in such a way that you will feel like you know him by the end.
Please read their words.
(Finished February 11, 2016)
Monday, February 8, 2016
Room by Emma Donoghue
My friend Lori recommended this book to me back in 2010 but I was a little afraid of it. I wasn't sure what to expect but I had a basic idea of the premise, a young woman held captive in a single room where she has the baby of her captor and spends years there. I was worried it would be a painful read and so I put it off.
Now it is a movie with Oscar buzz and I plan on seeing it at some point but I wanted to read the book first before I had the movie version in my head. And I am so glad I did.
While yes Ma (she has a name and while it is alluded to it is never told) and Jack live in a room where she has been for 7 years and he for his entire 5 years it isn't the part that stays with you by the end of the story.
The real point of the story starts to take shape after they get out of the room. Ma needs to learn who she is and help Jack find his place in a world he didn't know existed as she tries to cope and heal with the trauma she has endured.
The other characters feel real and you can, even as you feel frustrated by them, feel how difficult this all is for them. Ma's mother just wants Jack to be a normal kid and Ma's father wants Jack to never have been born and can't even look at him. Jack's Steppa (step-grandfather) ends up being one of my favorite characters in the story.
Life is for living even under the worst of circumstances and fear can be overcome, that is the message or point of this moving, and yes at times painful, story.
(Finished February 8, 2016)
Now it is a movie with Oscar buzz and I plan on seeing it at some point but I wanted to read the book first before I had the movie version in my head. And I am so glad I did.
While yes Ma (she has a name and while it is alluded to it is never told) and Jack live in a room where she has been for 7 years and he for his entire 5 years it isn't the part that stays with you by the end of the story.
The real point of the story starts to take shape after they get out of the room. Ma needs to learn who she is and help Jack find his place in a world he didn't know existed as she tries to cope and heal with the trauma she has endured.
The other characters feel real and you can, even as you feel frustrated by them, feel how difficult this all is for them. Ma's mother just wants Jack to be a normal kid and Ma's father wants Jack to never have been born and can't even look at him. Jack's Steppa (step-grandfather) ends up being one of my favorite characters in the story.
Life is for living even under the worst of circumstances and fear can be overcome, that is the message or point of this moving, and yes at times painful, story.
(Finished February 8, 2016)
Friday, February 5, 2016
Milkweed by Jerry Spinelli
Told through the eyes of a little boy on his own during the Nazi occupation of Warsaw Milkweed is powerful and painful.
Misha was given his name because he doesn't know who he is or where he came from. He just knows he is fast and good at stealing bread. When he first sees them he wants a pair of shiny black boots like the men in the parade. He doesn't understand the gravity of the world he is living in. And through his eyes we see his world and with our knowledge of history we know what is going on and it makes the story that much more heartbreaking.
Milkweed is the story of a life warped and damaged and how the love of a little girl both then and now makes living possible.
I need to thank my friend Trisha for sharing this one with me.
(Finished February 5, 2016)
Misha was given his name because he doesn't know who he is or where he came from. He just knows he is fast and good at stealing bread. When he first sees them he wants a pair of shiny black boots like the men in the parade. He doesn't understand the gravity of the world he is living in. And through his eyes we see his world and with our knowledge of history we know what is going on and it makes the story that much more heartbreaking.
Milkweed is the story of a life warped and damaged and how the love of a little girl both then and now makes living possible.
I need to thank my friend Trisha for sharing this one with me.
(Finished February 5, 2016)
Monday, January 25, 2016
The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri
“It ain't what they call you, it's what you answer to.” ― W.C. Fields
“What's your name,' Coraline asked the cat. 'Look, I'm Coraline. Okay?'
'Cats don't have names,' it said.
'No?' said Coraline.
'No,' said the cat. 'Now you people have names. Thaat's because you don't know who you are. We know who we are, so we don't need names.”
― Neil Gaiman, Coraline
“Names have power.” ― Rick Riordan, The Lightning Thief
“I read in a book once that a rose by any other name would smell as sweet, but I've never been able to believe it. I don't believe a rose WOULD be as nice if it was called a thistle or a skunk cabbage.”
― L.M. Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables
The Namesake is the story of Gogol Ganguli. But like all of us our stories don't begin with us, we are just the next chapter in a very long book so this story begins with Gogol's parents.
Ashima and and Ashoke are paired together in an arranged marriage in India and then spend their life together in the U.S. settling in Massachusetts where Ashoke is working on his Phd at MIT. Even with beginning with them, this is still really Gogol's story. His name is the thread that ties his to theirs. His parents don't have a good name for him, they are waiting a letter from Ashram's grandmother with the name to arrive from India. The letter doesn't come and they are told they need to name their son before they can leave the hospital (this is 1968). They do have a pet name for him so they put that on his birth certificate. And the name becomes a cross for him to carry for the rest of his life.
There is another thread that runs through Gogol's story, who is he apart from his parents and the rest of the Bengali community they are a part of, what does it mean for his life to be an American child but not feel like he is fully American but also to not feel like he is part of the Bengali side either. He is floating in some middle ground trying to find out what and who he is, as a child, a teen, and a man.
Something I particularly love about reading Lahiri is the way she can make the reader feel. In The Namesake you can feel the tension between Gogol and his parents, between Gogol and his peers, between Gogol and the weight he feels from his name.
A commonality between all of her books and something else I really love is the snapshot way she writes. Whether it is in her short stories (Unaccustomed Earth and interpreter of maladies) or her novels (The Lowland and The Namesake) you don't get all of the details. You get glimpses of moments in time and she makes them count. In the novels you get to spend some important moments and learn some of the story then you jump ahead and time has passed, months or even years, and the story picks up again. In the short stories the moment is jump into and there is never any backstory and then when the moment ends so does the story, these aren't typical beginning, middle, end stories just shorter than novels, these are just bits of the lives of the characters, just the part they want to share with you. While that sounds jarring or abrupt it isn't. It is an interesting way to tell you about the people on the pages. There is no back story and we don't find out where they end up you just get in intimate glimpse into a brief time. And I promise it is enjoyable.
This was my fourth Jhumpa Lahiri read:
Unaccustomed Earth
interpreter of maladies
The Lowland
(Finished January 24, 2016)
“What's your name,' Coraline asked the cat. 'Look, I'm Coraline. Okay?'
'Cats don't have names,' it said.
'No?' said Coraline.
'No,' said the cat. 'Now you people have names. Thaat's because you don't know who you are. We know who we are, so we don't need names.”
― Neil Gaiman, Coraline
“Names have power.” ― Rick Riordan, The Lightning Thief
“I read in a book once that a rose by any other name would smell as sweet, but I've never been able to believe it. I don't believe a rose WOULD be as nice if it was called a thistle or a skunk cabbage.”
― L.M. Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables
The Namesake is the story of Gogol Ganguli. But like all of us our stories don't begin with us, we are just the next chapter in a very long book so this story begins with Gogol's parents.
Ashima and and Ashoke are paired together in an arranged marriage in India and then spend their life together in the U.S. settling in Massachusetts where Ashoke is working on his Phd at MIT. Even with beginning with them, this is still really Gogol's story. His name is the thread that ties his to theirs. His parents don't have a good name for him, they are waiting a letter from Ashram's grandmother with the name to arrive from India. The letter doesn't come and they are told they need to name their son before they can leave the hospital (this is 1968). They do have a pet name for him so they put that on his birth certificate. And the name becomes a cross for him to carry for the rest of his life.
There is another thread that runs through Gogol's story, who is he apart from his parents and the rest of the Bengali community they are a part of, what does it mean for his life to be an American child but not feel like he is fully American but also to not feel like he is part of the Bengali side either. He is floating in some middle ground trying to find out what and who he is, as a child, a teen, and a man.
Something I particularly love about reading Lahiri is the way she can make the reader feel. In The Namesake you can feel the tension between Gogol and his parents, between Gogol and his peers, between Gogol and the weight he feels from his name.
A commonality between all of her books and something else I really love is the snapshot way she writes. Whether it is in her short stories (Unaccustomed Earth and interpreter of maladies) or her novels (The Lowland and The Namesake) you don't get all of the details. You get glimpses of moments in time and she makes them count. In the novels you get to spend some important moments and learn some of the story then you jump ahead and time has passed, months or even years, and the story picks up again. In the short stories the moment is jump into and there is never any backstory and then when the moment ends so does the story, these aren't typical beginning, middle, end stories just shorter than novels, these are just bits of the lives of the characters, just the part they want to share with you. While that sounds jarring or abrupt it isn't. It is an interesting way to tell you about the people on the pages. There is no back story and we don't find out where they end up you just get in intimate glimpse into a brief time. And I promise it is enjoyable.
This was my fourth Jhumpa Lahiri read:
Unaccustomed Earth
interpreter of maladies
The Lowland
(Finished January 24, 2016)
Wednesday, January 20, 2016
In the Garden of Beasts: Love, Terror, and an American Family in Hitler's Berlin by Erik Larson
In the introduction to In The Garden of Beasts Larson writes "There are no heroes here, at least not of the Schindler's List variety, but there are glimmers of heroism and people who behave with unexpected grace. That's the trouble with nonfiction. One has to put aside what we all know -now- to be true, and try instead to to accompany my two innocents through the world as they experienced it."
That is very important as you read this book. It is the telling of William E. Dodd who was U.S. Ambassador to Germany during the rise of Hitler and his daughter Martha.
When they arrive in Berlin in the early months of Hitler's time in power they are enchanted with Berlin and with Nazism. They are buying what is being sold even as there are more and more incidents of attacks on foreigners and Jews reach Dodd.
While part of me wanted to condemn them and their early praise I had to go back and remind myself of the quote above. And they were hardly the only ones to fall under the Hitler spell.
Dodd was a man of modest means in a core of diplomats with great personal wealth. This class divide put him at an immediate disadvantage. He was also seen as being not right for the job and so when he began to see the truth of what was going on he was largely dismissed.
This turned out to be a fascinating inside look at what was going on in 1933 and 1934 as the world changed. By the end my heart went out to Dodd and I felt so bad for him, a man shouting into the wind. Of course we all know what happened but think for a moment what could have been had Dodd's warnings been taken seriously.
Of course he wasn't the only one back there trying to tell the world the truth, but this book is his story.
(Finished January 20, 2016)
That is very important as you read this book. It is the telling of William E. Dodd who was U.S. Ambassador to Germany during the rise of Hitler and his daughter Martha.
When they arrive in Berlin in the early months of Hitler's time in power they are enchanted with Berlin and with Nazism. They are buying what is being sold even as there are more and more incidents of attacks on foreigners and Jews reach Dodd.
While part of me wanted to condemn them and their early praise I had to go back and remind myself of the quote above. And they were hardly the only ones to fall under the Hitler spell.
Dodd was a man of modest means in a core of diplomats with great personal wealth. This class divide put him at an immediate disadvantage. He was also seen as being not right for the job and so when he began to see the truth of what was going on he was largely dismissed.
This turned out to be a fascinating inside look at what was going on in 1933 and 1934 as the world changed. By the end my heart went out to Dodd and I felt so bad for him, a man shouting into the wind. Of course we all know what happened but think for a moment what could have been had Dodd's warnings been taken seriously.
Of course he wasn't the only one back there trying to tell the world the truth, but this book is his story.
(Finished January 20, 2016)
Saturday, January 16, 2016
Hard Choices by Hillary Rodham Clinton
Reading about our leaders isn't just about learning about the ones you are a supporter of. Depending on the author of course, you can end up getting insight you may not have had before, learn something you didn't know, and maybe even gain an appreciation for the person even if you aren't won over. It isn't about being won over it is about having a clearer picture about a moment in time and an influential person from that time. As a matter of fact one of the books I am going to be reading this year in the new book by Jon Meecham about George H.W. Bush or as Rachel Maddow calls him, Poppy Bush. It's a good example of how I choose what to read about people I am not necessarily a fan of, I pick an author I trust to be honest and objective. If you are going to have an opinion it is a good idea to arm yourself with as many facts as possible to support your ideas.
So as for Hard Choices. I have had this book for some time, started it awhile ago and then got distracted and pulled away but not because I wasn't enjoying the book, it was just kind of heavy and it made it hard to take anywhere with me. So read this but get it in paperback or e-book.
It doesn't matter if you like Hillary Clinton or not. It is an interesting glimpse into life as Secretary of State, an insider view of what was happening at the time, and really well written (her writing style is very readable). And like her as a politician or not, there can be know denying she is an advocate for women's rights and LGBTQ rights around the world and her passion for these issues is evident every time they come up.
If you don't like her at all you probably won't get the warm fuzzies from this read, but you will get a really interesting and informative inside view on what she was doing around the world. If you do like her then you will find yourself seeing more reasons to support those feelings. This is not a tell all about her personal life, this is a book about her role during her 4 years serving as Secretary of State so if you are looking for her to spill her guts about her marriage or other intimate issues you won't find them here. The only exceptions are her mother's passing which brought tears to my eyes because you could, like her or not, feel her pain at the loss, and the excitement she shares about finding out she is going to be a grandmother. In those moments there is a bit of letting her guard down and a glimpse at the woman underneath the pants suit.
And after all, all politicians are at the end of the day, only human. I think we forget that sometimes.
(finished January 16, 2016)
So as for Hard Choices. I have had this book for some time, started it awhile ago and then got distracted and pulled away but not because I wasn't enjoying the book, it was just kind of heavy and it made it hard to take anywhere with me. So read this but get it in paperback or e-book.
It doesn't matter if you like Hillary Clinton or not. It is an interesting glimpse into life as Secretary of State, an insider view of what was happening at the time, and really well written (her writing style is very readable). And like her as a politician or not, there can be know denying she is an advocate for women's rights and LGBTQ rights around the world and her passion for these issues is evident every time they come up.
If you don't like her at all you probably won't get the warm fuzzies from this read, but you will get a really interesting and informative inside view on what she was doing around the world. If you do like her then you will find yourself seeing more reasons to support those feelings. This is not a tell all about her personal life, this is a book about her role during her 4 years serving as Secretary of State so if you are looking for her to spill her guts about her marriage or other intimate issues you won't find them here. The only exceptions are her mother's passing which brought tears to my eyes because you could, like her or not, feel her pain at the loss, and the excitement she shares about finding out she is going to be a grandmother. In those moments there is a bit of letting her guard down and a glimpse at the woman underneath the pants suit.
And after all, all politicians are at the end of the day, only human. I think we forget that sometimes.
(finished January 16, 2016)
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