Orchids

I thought a break from the book reviewing was in order. Here's an orchid my mom has managed to keep alive and well. (I killed mine pretty quick...)

The Joys of Chick Lit and Book Five

There is a special place in my heart for chick lit! I decided that since this book was going to be the first book I'd read on my vacation, I wanted absolute brain candy: The Love of Her Life by Harriet Evans.

THIS was an impulse purchase if there ever was one. I'm not kidding when I say that I unpacked this book on Friday about a half hour before I was supposed to leave. It has the cheesiest cover (GLITTER everyone!!!) and I bought it without even reading the back.

I lucked out on this one. I do have to say that within the chick lit genre, anything British is like crack for me. This was no exception. All this being said. I already don't remember much about this book (I finished it less than an hour ago), and will probably never read it again.

I can't say that I'd recommend it really. There was nothing wrong with it and if you're a fan of the Shopaholic series or anything by Emily Griffin, you'll probably love it. What I mean to say that there are others I'd recommend much sooner than this. Jemima J comes to mind, and I may just make it one of my 50...

Counting My Blessings and Book Four

Still don't know what to say about book two so on to book four! Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell. I loved the vast majority of this book and I fully recommend it...

In the middle of their sophomore year, Eleanor is the new girl at school and her introduction to her classmates is less than ideal. She is thrown to the wolves on a public school bus. Park wants nothing to do with her, she is too bright, too obvious, and too big. Some small part of him takes pity though and he shares his seat with her.

From this point on they develop an unlikely friendship that becomes an even more unlikely romance.

So after my last post, I was especially determined to back away from the teen books for a bit and bury the post. If it sounded insecure and whiny, well, that's because it was. Anyway, I intended to finish a couple of the books I started before I read another teen book. Then we got this in as an advanced reader. Advanced readers are one of my favorite parts of working in a bookstore. Publishers want us to read their books so they send us copies for free, usually a few months before publication. I pretty much immediately wanted to read this book, the blurb on the back describes it as "a cross between the iconic 80's movie Sixteen Candles and the classic coming-of-age novel Looking for Alaska" (aka the as yet unreviewed book two).

I read Eleanor & Park in a couple days and am incredibly impressed with the quality of the writing. The basic story to me was pretty unoriginal. The super uncool girl gets the super cool guy (Sixteen Candles)... This book had the normal teenage shit, for example Eleanor's way of making friends: "because being assaulted by maxi pads is a great way to win friends and influence people." What impressed me though is that there is more to both of these kids than what is going on at school. They have more going on than angsty teenage crap. Eleanor is dealing with real issues. I enjoyed the way the author balanced the normal high school issues with the completely not-normal life Eleanor was living.

The biggest take-away for me from this book is that I am grateful for the things I have. Eleanor is dirt poor. She shares a bedroom with her FOUR younger siblings. She can't listen to the cassettes that Park gives her because she can't afford batteries. She brushes her teeth with salt and her finger because she doesn't have a toothbrush. And this doesn't even begin to cover the shit she goes through with her family. It made me reflect on the things that I take for granted. I tend to wish I had more a lot of the time, and this book made me reflect instead on the fortune of the things that I do have.

The Shame of Teen Books and Book Three

So, let’s be honest. It seems like I gave up on my one and only resolution in the first month. But really, what has happened is, rather than helping me get back into reading, this project of mine has hindered this. When I read for myself, I have no shame in what I am reading. What I have discovered about reading with the intention to write about it is that I become very self-conscious about the content of whatever book I have picked up. This last month, I have started but not finished six books. As you know, I loved Judging a Book by It’s Lover, and you would think that I learned the lesson I partially professed to have taken from it, which is not to be ashamed of my reading choices. The book I have read most recently is actually the third I have finished, but I still don’t know what I want to say about the second, so onward we go. 

The third of the proposed fifty - ever more daunting - was Sisterhood Everlasting by Ann Brashares, and I can honestly say that I loved it. 

I have read all of the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants series and waited until now to read the final one simply because I thought that I had outgrown them. The first one was published my senior year of high school and I bought it while working at my first bookstore job. I loved it and had no shame about it. Over the last 11 years I have developed a bit of a complex about teen books. At some point I decided that despite my love of many teen books, there was something shameful about admitting that I loved them. This has been compounded in recent years by the creation of the “teen paranormal romance” genre. To admit that you have read the Twilight books, and even (gasp) enjoyed them is tantamount to admitting that your IQ is about half what people may have previously thought. (I’ll admit, I read all of them in 5 days.) I took a class at MSU where Marcus Zusak’s The Book Thief was required reading. We spent a day’s discussion on what it means to be a young adult or teen book, what makes them different from either children’s books or adult books. I don’t remember a lot of what was concluded in that discussion, but I do remember walking away thinking that just because a book is intended for a certain audience, does not mean that it cannot be enjoyed by anyone else. I have had to remind myself of this in order to stop feeling like I should be reading within certain confines.

Back to Sisterhood Everlasting, this is a book that is not actually meant to be a teen book. It is intended to be general fiction, and simply a continuation of the series. For those of you who have not read the books, they are about four friends, who have been friends since they were born (within a month of each other) who find a pair of jeans that tie them together over four summers. The books show their struggles with becoming adults, independent of each other while still maintaining their friendship. The pants are mainly a symbol of what ties them together (love, family, friendship). So… on to the newest book.It shows where they are 10 years later. The tone of this book is much more mature and shows where the girls would realistically be on the verge of thirty. They are all spread across the world and are still struggling to come to terms with who they are and what they want out of life. At this point they are the individuals that you would expect and have grown out of the inseparability of childhood friendship. At the outset of a reunion between the four, everything changes. 

As a whole, this book (as well as its four teen counterparts) is completely sentimental. It’s pretty formulaic, it is bittersweet and at times I did feel like I could be spending my time reading something a little more intelligent. But really when it comes down to it, this book reminded me why I love reading. Because I could relate to a lot of it, and because for the day that I spent reading it, I was lost in it. I never felt like it was going to be a chore to get back to it. I wasn’t dreading writing about it, or even thinking about writing about it. And really this post hasn’t really even been about the book. I do recommend it, as with the rest of the series, if you’re willing to read it. But really what I recommend is reading what you like, not what you think you should be reading.

Resolutions and Book One

I generally believe new years resolutions are bull. My mom and I were talking about it the other day and in my cold addled logic I claimed that every day is the beginning of a new year, it's just what you use as a reference point. I know the inherent arguments for this, but when it really comes down to it, if you really want to resolve to change something about yourself, why do you have to wait to make new years resolutions. Just work towards your goals daily and if you fail, start again.

All of this being said, I am taking the opportunity of a new year and a fresh start to make a commitment, and I'm going to go ahead and call it a new years resolution. I resolve to read (this means complete) at least 50 books in 2013. Additionally I intend to write something about each of them. I haven't decided how much or little I want to write, I just know that writing is probably the thing that I miss most since graduating. I have some pretty heavy internal debate going on inside my head about whether I should include the audiobooks I listen to in this goal. I have decided that they do not count towards my 50 books but I will write about them. This challenge is to force me back into the actual act of reading.

The first book I have read is Judging a Book by Its Lover by Lauren Leto.

This was quite possibly the perfect book with which to start. I think that Lauren Leto is the perfect example of what I believe about reading: She dropped out of law school to start "Texts from Last Night", she acknowledges in the first chapter that she has read all of the Twilight books and is known to read anything Evanovich on an airplane. I feel that when someone has read what I like to call "brain candy," the content in our society that is scorn-worthy,  they have earned the right to judge it. I mean really, how many of you who scorn any of the Twilight books have actually picked them up? Does the fact that others hold this book in contempt really allow you to judge it? How can you sit in judgement of something you don't know? Because of this, I can tolerate --> — though disagree with --> — Leto's contempt for my two favorite authors. In return I am comfortable in my own bit of contempt for all things Russian literature.

I enjoyed so much about this book, it is snarky, personal, and relatable.  In between personal essays on what it is for her to be a reader, she has inserted chapters such as "Rules for Public Reading," "Your Moveable Feast" (a collection of hypothetical dinners with great literary couples), "Stereotyping People by Favorite Author"  -->(I am a kid who doesn't fit in - Salinger, and a woman whose favorite color is hunter green - Atwood), "How to Fake It" (a great real life Cliffs Notes- what Cliffs Notes ever told you to not to talk about Catcher in the Rye with a true Salinger fan?), and "Twitter-Sized Reviews of Memoirs" ("Never mind." - A Million Little Pieces).

 My three favorite quotes from the book --> — there were many --> — are these:

"My solution for all the young writers being discouraged to the point of giving up is simple. 

Murder the others. 

Poison their overpriced vodka and soda while they're in the bathroom. Shoot them in the face when they're asleep.

I'm talking about the people who read only to criticize and who talk only to condescend."

"A book read without deliberate consideration is a waste for both the author and the reader. Talking with others about our experience with the book is our way of celebrating the art. That we were pulled into the same existence and we emerged emotionally charged but each struck in a unique way is the beauty of reading."

"Great covers are not a graphical summary of the story; they're the artist's comment on the message, their interpretation of the images inside."

And if nothing else she has gotten me to Google Chuck Palahnuik's family history. 

Slaughterhouse Five - Firebombing of Dresden

I've been experimenting lately with more artistic mediums. I can't draw more than basics, nor can I paint. I am, on the other hand a fan of my success with this:

The entire book (mass market) is spread over 9 canvases.

Disclaimer: I feel compelled to comment on the morality of the subject of the destruction of books. As a general rule if the destruction is meant as censorship I am unquestionably opposed. However, I honestly believe that the use of books in art is not destructive, it is instead creating a new art from an old. I am not in any way doing this as a form of censorship, and sincerely hope that this work inspires others to read the books that I have selected. (Super sorry for the preemptive defensiveness...)

Leadville MTB 100

The Leadville MTB 100: A hundred mile mountain bike ride starting at 10,000 feet.

The Powerline

 Mom has started taking in bikers and giving them a place to stay during their races. This is Drew.

Who doesn't need a flower basket?

Antonio is a friend of dad's, he was thrilled to see us in a highly improbable place.

Antonio crossing the finish line. He beat his last years time!