2014 Year End Wrap-up

I read several really good books this year. In no particular order I want to mention these as among the best:

Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves by Karen Joy Fowler

Alena by Rachel Pastan

One Plus One by Jojo Moyes

The Signature of All Things by Elizabeth Gilbert

Wake by Anna Hope

The Ghost of the Mary Celeste by Valerie Martin

Last year I wrote a long excuse about how much my television watching was interfering with my reading. I won’t bother you again with that line of thinking, but I will say that the situation was much the same this year. I read even fewer books but watched a lot of good TV.

In an effort to get my reading back up close to earlier levels, I signed up for the Goodreads 2015 challenge and promised to read 35 books in 2015. I plan to reach that goal by listening to more audiobooks. I had forgotten how much I like them for when I’m doing housework; they keep me going when I’m tempted to sneak off and watch some TV. I am almost finished listening to Broken Harbor by Tana French and my kitchen hasn’t been this clean in a long time.

Wisconsin Book Festival Recap

I love the book festival because I love all things bookish, and I love when people pay attention to books and writers. Here's my recap of the festival, which took place (mostly) this past weekend, October 16-19, in Madison, Wisconsin.

Curtis Sittenfeld, Susanna Daniel, Michelle Wildgen, and Mary Kay Zuravleff

“What topics do you find difficult or uncomfortable to write about?” That was the question posed to these four writers, and the topic of their panel discussion.

Sittenfeld is the popular author of several novels, including Prep, American Wife and Sisterland, all of which I've written about on this blog. I've yet to read books by the other three authors, but plan to do so soon (and have just checked Wildgen's novel Bread and Butter out of the library).

So what is the most difficult topic to write about? The obvious answer is sex, though none of these women seemed to express much discomfort with the subject, and Mary Kay Zuravleff read a very funny, sexy excerpt from her novel Man Alive. Apparently Curtis Sittenfeld gives her parents redacted versions of her novels, with the sex scenes excised, and only after it’s too late for them to offer editorial suggestions. The real answer seemed to be injury to or death of a child; all four writers expressed extreme reluctance to investigate that topic. As a reader, I generally avoid books about injured or dead children, so it just seems like a good marketing decision as well. Glad we got that settled.

Rachal Pastan

Pastan is the author of Alena, a modern retelling of the Daphne Du Maurier classic novel Rebecca. She is also a former Madisonian who used to write for Isthmus, Madison’s alternative weekly newspaper for which I also write, though we didn’t overlap there. I didn’t know this when I read the book (blog post coming soon). She read from Alena, and told a funny story about the origins of her idea to write this novel: A few years ago she took a new job where she replaced an employee who was extremely competent and much beloved by her staff. Pastan reported that every time she attempted something new, her coworkers would wistfully reminisce about how her predecessor had so expertly handled a similar situation. Readers of Rebecca will understand this reference, and Pastan exploits it beautifully in Alena.

Mary Gordon

I’ve loved Mary Gordon’s books since I first started reading them in the 1980’s. Her 1998 novel Spending remains one of my favorite books of all time. (Here’s a link to a New York Times review of Spending by another of my favorite writers, Hilary Mantel.) In preparation for her talk at the book festival I read her newest book, The Liar’s Wife, which is a collection of four novellas (blog post also coming soon). Gordon chose to read a selection from the novella I liked least in the collection, and the questions after her reading centered around that, which disappointed me. I also felt like the crowd wasn’t as familiar with her work (especially her early work) as I was, and I was frustrated by the lack of depth in the questions. Gordon, too, seemed a little bored, and hurried, though she gave me a nice smile when she signed my book. Maybe book festivals aren’t really her thing.

Jordan Ellenberg

He went on about math. So does his book; here’s my review/profile at Isthmus. Ellenberg participated in a popular event called Nerd Nite Madison, where nerds get together in a bar and talk nerd stuff while drinking. This month's Nerd Nite was tied in to both the book festival and the Wisconsin Science Festival and was held not in a bar but at the Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery on the UW-Madison campus (though drinking still featured heavily; I might have had a beer).

Ann Garvin

I reviewed Garvin’s book The Dog Year for Isthmus back in July. It’s a delightful book, and she’s a delightful person: funny and entertaining. The Dog Year is kind of like that, too, a good comfort read, about someone who has some trouble but gets back up on her feet. Garvin’s message is, no one is perfect, but everyone can benefit from some perspective and the help of good friends. Garvin read from The Dog Year, and talked about her experiences as a nurse and health educator, and how they influenced the plot and tone of The Dog Year. Interestingly, she revealed that she used to do stand-up comedy, and her delivery at the book festival reflected this: well-paced, and sprinkled with one-liners. Not all writers are ideal book festival speakers (see above, Mary Gordon), but does that matter? Of all the speakers I heard this weekend, Garvin’s talk was the most fun, though her book is probably the least well known.

Stuff I Missed…

I'm sorry to have missed Anthony Doerr (All the Light We Cannot See) who apparently got a huge crowd, and Caitlin Doughty (Smoke Gets in Your Eyes); she is quite the thing right now. I also wish I could have seen Deborah Crombie, whose mystery series I used to read but haven’t kept up with. The Central Library was hopping all weekend with great choices, and there was something for everyone, including poetry, memoir, children's literature, and art books. I had a quick chat with festival organizer Conor Moran, who told me that this year’s festival far outstripped previous years in both attendance and book sales, which is great news for the festival and for the Madison Public Library Foundation.

All photos courtesy Shanna Wolf/S. Photography. Used with permission.

Hashtag Readwomen2014

I’ve been following this hashtag on Twitter for a few weeks now. It was started by Joanna Walsh, an author and illustrator, to call attention to inequities toward women authors, specifically that women authors are awarded fewer literary prizes, that they receive fewer critical reviews in mainstream literary publications, and that their books are frequently given feminine cover designs that turn off male readers, thus ghettoizing them into that dreaded category “women’s fiction” whether they belong there or not. The tag is proving to be pretty successful. Lots of people are using it and I've found links to interesting articles and events, blog posts, and book recommendations. I haven't seen as much U.S. activity (Walsh works in England) but perhaps it will catch on here too.

In her article about her initiative in the Guardian, Walsh offers this advice: examine your reading habits, and if you find an imbalance, try to correct it. (In my case this would result in my reading more books by men.) But really, I think the people who need to listen are not so much the reading public but the literary establishment. I think most avid readers will happily read books by women. But they aren’t the ones arranging for reviews or awarding the prizes. And  some people are missing the point. Just this morning I saw a tweet about the need to “equalize the gender imbalance in our collective reading habits.” Even the Guardian got it a bit wrong when they came up with a title for Walsh’s article; notice that it’s called “Will #readwomen2014 Change Our Sexist Reading Habits?” despite the fact that Walsh says nothing about sexist reading habits in her article and does talk a lot about sexist attitudes by publishers and editors. I also find it interesting that the Guardian published Walsh's article on the Women's Blog page, and not on their Books page. So this is an issue of interest only to women readers?

I want a more specific hashtag. Here are some ideas: #stopputtingpicturesofshoesonbookcovers #TLSshouldreviewmorebooksbywomen #givemoreprizestowomenauthors #takewomenwritersseriously #Nobelprizetoanotherwomannextyear #pinkbookcoverswontgiveyoucooties

I know, I KNOW, these are too long! But I think you get it.

2013 Wrap Up

2013 was the year that long-form television really started to cut into my reading time in a big way. I offer as evidence: I only read 36 books this year, the fewest number in over 30 years. On the other hand, I enjoyed a lot of really excellent, compelling stories; those stories just came in the form of TV drama rather than via the printed page. I watched Game of Thrones, The White Queen, Broadchurch, Downton Abbey, all of Doctor Who (since 2005), and am now halfway through the 2004-2009 Battlestar Galactica series. That’s over 150 hours of television and most of that time would have otherwise been spent reading.

I am a bit alarmed at how much more compelling these shows can be than whatever book I am currently reading. When offered a choice, I’ll usually choose the TV show (except before bed, because who can sleep after running from the Cylons?). I feel a bit like an addict. When denied my daily fix (episode) I get twitchy, preoccupied with finding a time to watch, and hostile to those blocking my access. While watching, I engage in behavior that is out of character, such as the other day when I screamed “Just fucking shoot her, Sharon!” at the television (insert shocked faces of my teenaged children here).

I am especially drawn to shows that combine intricate mythologies with human drama, such as Game of Thrones, Doctor Who, and Battlestar Galactica. I like how dark all these stories are, how angst-filled, and how ambiguous. All of these shows feature top-notch writing, complex characters, and moral dilemmas. They ask questions about trust, about fear, and about redemption. I love keeping track of the dozens of characters and multiseason plots, but most of all I love the complicated characters at the heart of these shows: Arya Stark, the Doctor, Admiral Adama and Starbuck. I love them as much as I love Thomas Cromwell (Wolf Hall/Bring up the Bodies), Ursula Todd (Life After Life), and Katniss Everdeen (The Hunger Games), to name a few of my recent fictional obsessions. I haven’t quite come to terms with what all this means to my identity as a reader, though some of my friends who have been TV fans for longer than I have urge me not to overthink it.

Since this post is also meant to wrap up my year in reading, I’ll end by listing my favorite books of 2013: Life After Life by Kate Atkinson, In Zanesville by Jo Ann Beard, Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walter, and Sea of Poppies by Amitav Ghosh. Of these four, only Life After Life would make it into a list of my lifetime favorites, but that is okay. It was still a great year for stories, no matter what form they took.

I Did Not Fall into the Cardiff Rift

Sorry, folks. The last three books I've read have all been for projects I'm doing for Isthmus, Madison's alternative weekly newspaper. I can't blog about them until those other pieces are published. While it's fun to have other book-related work, it does get in the way of my blogging. Also there has been some Netflix watching. Serious timesuck, that.

This week's bedtime reading is of a different flavor all together, another Persephone title by Dorothy Whipple called High Wages. I really enjoyed The Priory when I read it a few years ago. Fans of Downton Abbey might enjoy Whipple's books; they are set during the early 20th century and her characters' issues could be those of Lady Edith or someone from downstairs. More on this later.

Here are Some Bullets

• I am finishing things! In the past week I have finished two books and should finish a third in the next few days. Mind you, these are not books that I STARTED this week; they are (in most cases) long languishing projects. But hey, they count. And I’ve got several more good ones all lined up waiting for me, including the second volume of the Hunger Games trilogy. 
• I wrote a profile of Emma Straub, author of Laura Lamont’s Life in Pictures (one of the above-mentioned books) for Isthmus, our local arts weekly. Here it is. In a few days I’ll write a blog post too. 
• My library ebook provider Overdrive has significantly upgraded its collection of literary fiction for the Kindle. What used to be a vast wasteland of serial killer mysteries and fad diet books is now a useful source of good titles like The Tiger’s Wife by Tea Obreht (blog post coming right up). Hooray! However, they are still a bit vague with their classifications: Anna Karenina is listed under Romance. Which I guess it is, kind of. Also, I may have found a way to subvert the due dates on Kindle books, something to do with when you sync your Kindle, but I’m not sure. Don’t tell anyone. 
• Speaking of the Kindle, I really hate it. It’s only good for traveling and for reading really long books in bed (long books being sometimes too heavy to hold). And for reading without your glasses (adjustable type sizes available). And for when you really need a book right now but don’t want to leave your house. But otherwise I hate it.

Believe it or Not

....I am still reading Bring up the Bodies by Hilary Mantel. It's been weeks. Like its predecessor, Wolf Hall, this book is slow going. Many bodies to keep track of. Now Master Cromwell is picking apart Henry's marriage to Anne Boleyn, stitch by stitch. It takes a long time.

Just for a break I read most of A Death in Vienna by Daniel Silva. But apparently you are supposed to read this series (about Israeli spy Gabriel Allon) in order, and this book was #4. No wonder I didn't know who anyone was. I haven't finished it and am not sure if I am going to because I am pretty lost. This seems like a good series, though it made me wonder how much longer contemporary authors can have their spies track down ex-Nazis, who you would think would all be dead by now, but I guess not.

I also started reading The Postmistress by Sarah Blake. It's good so far but I'm not very far along. I think I will finish that before finally returning to Master Cromwell and his maneuverings.

Irregularly Timed Check-in #5

Summer reading is usually the same as winter reading for me, as in, I don’t read more or less at any specific time of year, or read different things depending on the season. I work just as many hours in the summer as in the winter, and our family has never been much for lazy lay-around vacations (my husband believes that 6 cities in 4 days is an excellent pace).

However, I have some vacation days that I must use by the end of the fiscal year (June 30) or they will expire. Therefore I plan to take off all next week. I’m traveling the later part of the week, but from this weekend through Wednesday I will be home, enjoying a staycation, also known as cleaning out my desk, taking bags of things to Goodwill, weeding the garden, burying the bodies, and what have you. But the big question is what should I read???

I need to finish The Passage by Justin Cronin. I am loving it, but it is so creepy and suspenseful that I can’t read it at night, which is when I get most of my reading done. However, before I return to that, I need to finish Songs for the Butcher’s Daughter by Peter Manseau for my book club on Monday night. That will be my priority for the next few days.

At the library I picked up Monica Ali’s Untold Story, a novel about Princess Diana. A friend gave me Love and Shame and Love by Peter Orner. I’ve got a free review copy of Gossip by Beth Gutcheon, which sports a “women in high heels” cover photo (has Gutcheon ventured into chicklit? I bet not; her publisher probably just thinks any novel about women in Manhatten needs that sort of photo). And on my trip next week I want to read Bowling Avenue by Ann Shayne on my Kindle. I wonder how much of this ambitious reading list I will accomplish?

Arbitrarily Timed Check-in #3

Game of Thrones 

I am still totally hooked on this. I just love seeing how beloved characters (or for that matter, hated characters) are translated from the book to the screen. I almost don’t need to watch the action since I already know what is going to happen. In the HBO adaptation some characters completely meet my expectations and look just as I had imagined them, such as Nikolaj Coster-Waldau as Jaime Lannister, and Maisie Williams as Arya Stark. Most of the others come fairly close to what I hoped for, though Sunday night we met Ygritte who is much more light-hearted (and also cleaner) than the angry earthy girl that Jon Snow falls for in my imagination. But of course I will give her a chance.

Currently Reading or Not Yet Blogged 

The Dovekeepers by Alice Hoffman. Done, blog post coming tomorrow or the next day.

The Cellist of Sarajevo by Steven Galloway. Done, post also coming soon.

Miss Timmins’ School for Girls by Nayana Currimbhoy. A surprise find on the library shelf. Really really good.

Eagerly Anticipating 

The Passage by Justin Cronin. Two friends recommended this to me independently, in the context of an e-mail conversation about guilty pleasure reading (more on which later). Vampires, but well written, they say. We shall see.

Bring up the Bodies by Hilary Mantel. Hooray, my boyfriend Thomas Cromwell returns in the sequel to 2009’s Wolf Hall.

Waiting for Sunrise by William Boyd. This was reviewed in Sunday’s New York Times Book Review. Boyd writes just the kinds of books I have been in the mood for lately and this one is set in London and Vienna during World War I, which is a bonus, as my Downton Abbey-inspired WWI phase persists. I have also been most generously provided with a free review copy of the book, so I had better get moving, preferably before I begin either of the books mentioned above.

Guilty Pleasure Reading 

I polled a group of avid reader friends about whether or not they have a weakness for certain plot devices or themes and will overlook bad writing (or at least relax their standards) when partaking of said theme. If you want to weigh in on this, leave a comment or send me a message. Can you just not resist a book about art theft, for example? Let me know.

Weekly Check-in #2*

*if, by "weekly" I mean "once every three months." This plan seemed like a good idea at the time but obviously has not been executed on the proper schedule.

True Facts about Blogging:

Did you know that it is possible to take your entire time alotted for writing a blog post and instead spend it reading episode wrap-ups of Game of Thrones Season 2? Especially compelling are those on my favorite site www.westeros.org where I can totally geek out over scene-by-scene comparisons of the book vs. the TV show.

Currently Reading:

The Dovekeepers by Alice Hoffman. If, by "reading" I mean "perused last night and promptly fell asleep." This is for my book club, and as I am scheduled to lead the discussion I had better make some progress. I am not worried about not liking it; Alice Hoffman is consistently good and this book seems like a logical next step in my current fascination with epic drama (more about which later, and in coming blog posts).

Drifting House by Krys Lee. The opposite of epic drama. Short stories, so easily parceled out into bite-sized pieces. Almost done.

Emily, Alone by Stewart O'Nan. Also unepic, undrama. Done, post coming soon, I promise.

The Glass Palace by Amitav Ghosh. Epic drama to the max! I love Burma! I love revolution and colonial strife! I love World War II in Asia! Also done, and post coming soon. 

Recently Sampled:

Swamplandia! by Karen Russell. This was okay but I didn't feel the need to read more than the sample. I have to be in the right mood for Southern Eccentricity, and for Coming of Age, both of which this book has in spades.

A Discovery of Witches by Deborah E. Harkness.  More Coming of Age, this time in the supernatural realm. I am always looking for fantasy novels with a strong female protagonist. Again, I finished the sample but wasn't interested in more. The first person narrator seemed young and naive, and let me tell you, I am done with young and naive.

The Art of Fielding by Chad Harbach. Just as I feared, it really is about baseball. I made it through two pages of the sample before deleting it in disgust from the Kindle. Really folks, I don't care what baseball is a metaphor for, and I never will.

Technology Fail

I do fine with computers but audio devices flummox me. I can never find the cord I need to sync and charge my iPod and so it spends most of its life with a dead battery in the bottom of my purse. I’ve tried checking out audiobooks from the library to put onto my iPod but you have to install that Overdrive software and who can be bothered to fiddle around with all that? I just want something that will work right away, not something I have to build from the ground up. Hence my love of Playaways, those self-contained MP3 gadgets you get from the library with the audiobook already installed. Just stick in a battery, plug in your headphones and go.

Well yes, until you get a defective one like I have now. I’m part way through The Lacuna and the Playaway has croaked. I’ve ordered up the CDs from the library, but that brings me to the other problem with the Playaways – navigation. Where the heck am I in this book? All I have is a tiny screen that says 3-8 on it (and I don’t even have that any more now that the device is dead). What does that mean? What page is that? I feel disoriented not knowing how far I’ve read. How am I going to figure out which disc I should start with?

I know I could buy this audiobook from iTunes or rent it from Audible.com but both those routes involve money and hardware. I could download it to my Kindle (also $$), which has so far been a more reliable and accessible device than my iPod. But what I think I am going to do is just get the damn hardback book from the library. Nothing to set up. No cords to wrangle. No batteries to run down. Figuring out where I am should be a cinch. How about that?

Powell's Partnership

I've decided to join Powell's Partnership program. I am doing this mostly so that I can have a legal way to grab the book cover images that I use in my posts. Now when you click on the image of the cover you will go right to the Powell's website, where you can buy the book. Apparently I get a small commission from any sales that are generated this way, though I don't really expect that to happen all that often.

Regular readers of this blog know that I am mostly a library user and if I could figure out some way to link to the copy of the book at your local library so you could automatically request it I would do that instead. But I guess that won't work. Oh well. Powell's (located in Portland, Oregon) is a very cool store and I'm happy to support it.

Book Lust Rediscovery Series

My favorite librarian-who-is-also-an-action-figure Nancy Pearl* has made a deal with Amazon to publish Nancy Pearl’s Book Lust Rediscovery series, which will release six Nancy-selected books a year of previously published but now out-of-print books. Apparently some readers have taken against this idea, accusing Pearl of collaborating with the enemy, that is, Amazon, because of their predatory policies. (You can read about that here.) I understand the pressure Amazon puts on the industry (for librarians, book sellers, and authors) but I also feel like anything that puts more books in the hands of readers can’t be all bad. I’m looking forward to checking out this series. I haven’t read either of the first two books slated for release later this year: A Gay and Melancholy Sound by Merle Miller, and After Life by Rhian Ellis.

I am still working my way (slowly) through Pearl's summer reading list. And now I see that she put a new list out in December called 7 Books with Personality. Must get going on that too! All this reminds me that I haven’t recently read anything published by Persephone, the UK-based publisher of out-of-print titles by 20th century women. I wonder if Nancy Pearl's books will look as pretty as the ones published by Persephone.

*because you know I have some favorite real-life librarians too (hey Sarah S.-C. and Lexy S.!)

Weekly Check-in

Currently Reading:

• The Frozen Rabbi by Steve Stern. Funny and odd, a bit too long. I am reading this for my book club which doesn't meet until the end of January. I don't want to post about it until I hear (and think about) everyone else's reactions. I'm reading this on the Kindle.
• The Oriental Wife by Evelyn Toynton. I discovered this on the new fiction shelf at the library. I never heard of it or the author, but it's good. It's about Jewish refugees in New York during World War II so it's from a different perspective than what I usually read. 

Recently Sampled:

• The Last Werewolf by Glen Duncan. I read the extract on the Kindle and liked it. I want to read it soon. Several people have recommended this to me.
• 11/22/63 by Stephen King. Another Kindle sample, this time not a success. I always want to like Stephen King because I like his plot ideas but I can never get beyond his overly casual writing style. I won't read this.
• Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford. My first impression was of amateurish writing and maudlin situations. This I checked out of the library but I plan to return it unread.

I'm Hearing About:

• The Art of Fielding by Chad Harbach. Everyone is talking about this and asking me if I've read it yet. Do I want to read a book about baseball? My friend Jane liked this a lot, but she likes baseball. It's the same with that TV show Friday Night Lights, which Jane also liked and about which I keep hearing. But it's about football.....
• Swamplandia by Karen Russell. Another one people keep recommending. I downloaded a sample; maybe I'll read that next.

I'm writing this blog post in an effort to be more intentional with my reading as per my New Year's resolution. I'd like to continue doing these once a week, but we'll see...

Starting Out as I Mean to Continue

My New Year's resolution for 2012 is not to read more books but to read better ones and to put in more time researching what to read. My reading in 2011 was characterized by laziness and ennui. I was too lazy to look very hard for new books and often just picked up the first thing that caught my eye at the library; these books were usually only fair and didn't hold my interest. I have a lot of good choices for ways to spend my  entertainment hours these days (Netflix on demand, podcasts, social networking websites, etc.). Often it was more satisfying to choose one of those other options than to read the mediocre novel on my bedside table.

But I am, at my core, a reader, and if that means I need to spend a bit more time on the preparation end of things to get more out of the experience, I am willing to do it. Yesterday I took the first step: I took a long careful look at the books I have on hold at the library, excised several from the list that I know were just there on a whim, and ordered up a few that sound like good bets. And today, step two: I downloaded eight first chapter samples to my Kindle. I chose books that have been recently released and have gotten a lot of press--several are from the NY Times list of notable books of 2011. I've also given myself permission to just buy the damn book if I want to, rather than endure the interminable wait for a library copy. For example, The Marriage Plot by Jeffrey Eugenides has 514 people on the hold list. I downloaded a sample of this and if I like it, I'm just going to buy it.

Wish me luck!

Pinterest

Often after I read a book I spend time on the Web reading about the book: reviews, articles about the setting, websites about the movie version, articles about the author. Occasionally I include these links in my blog post but usually not. I don't like to clutter up the post with too much extraneous stuff. But some of what I find is really interesting and I want to share it! So for the past few days I've been fooling around with the aggregator site Pinterest. Pinterest lets you create a virtual bulletin board and "pin" links to the board. You can keep your board private, or make it public so other people can see it. You can have multiple boards, collaborative boards, etc. Lots of people seem to use it for fanboards or for saving links to things they want to buy, but I have found some book-related boards, too.

Here is my board. I'll also put a link to it on my sidebar. Apparently you can also "follow me" though I'm not really sure what that entails. If you like it, check it again in a few weeks. I'll keep putting up new links as I find them.

A Book a Week on Pinterest

When Books Make You Hungry

Who knew George R. R. Martin was such a gourmand? I can't read Dance with Dragons without getting the urge to raid the refrigerator, except my refrigerator doesn't contain the bounty that his characters seem to enjoy, even the ones living on the edges of civilization.

In Pentos, Tyrion Lannister enjoys the hospitality of Magister Illyrio, where they dine on mushrooms sauted in garlic and butter, and "a heron stuffed with figs, veal cutlets blanched with almond milk, creamed herring, candied onions, foul-smelling cheeses, plates of snails and sweetbreads, and a black swan in her plumage" (which Tyrion refuses, claiming that it "reminded him of supper with his sister"). While all this sounds appealing, the dish that really pulled me in was one that Godric Borrell, Lord of Sweetsister, serves to Davos Seaworth when Davos arrives soaking wet and freezing cold at  Borrell's island castle. One of Borrell's daughters serves Davos a stew that is "thick with leeks, carrots, barley, and turnips white and yellow, along with clams and chunks of cod and crabmeat, swimming in a stock of heavy cream and butter." Oh my. It sounds like a supercharged version of clam chowder, and I want some right now. Should I keep reading, or get cooking?

ETA: An anonymous commenter just left me this link to a blog called Inn at the Crossroads. These bloggers are creating recipes based on the foods GRRM talks about throughout the series. I am so impressed and can't wait to start cooking everything. And they've beaten me to the Sister's Stew, the chowder I describe above. 

Big Heavy Books

I just about gave myself a nosebleed last night with A Dance with Dragons. At 1,040 pages in hardback, I can barely lift the book with one hand, let alone hold it up to read it in bed. What's a girl to do? Start another book for bedtime reading: Wolf Hall. Wait, that one is 560 pages. Ouch. I need to start working out with weights to keep up with my reading.

Since I am about to leave for a trip to Tucson to see my sister and her new baby, I ordered Wolf Hall on the Kindle. I've been using the Kindle a lot recently to read first chapters of books I'm considering. So far I've tried and rejected several, including the new Eric Larson book In the Garden of Beasts which I didn't like any better than I liked Devil in the White City (which is to say, not at all).

I like the feeling of security that I get from the Kindle. If I have that with me, I am never without a book because if I finish (or don't like) one I can always get another! (That's assuming I have wi-fi and a functioning credit card.) Now I no longer have to travel with books and backup books, though I still obsess about what to take on each trip.

Here is a gratuitous shot of my lovely sister and beautiful nephew, just to break up the boredom. It's my blog; I'm allowed to do this.

Emily and Seth, July, 2011

They're Alive!

I came across this paragraph about fiction recently, thought it was just brilliant and had to share it. It was from a review in the Financial Times by Lionel Shriver of Siri Husvedt’s new novel The Summer Without Men. Here you go:

Fiction relies on a baffling alchemy. At some point in the narrative, and with the best of books from the very beginning, a story the author cheerfully, even formally, concedes is invented seems actually to have happened. Through the aegis of our eagerness to be fooled, confabulated characters walk about in our heads with the authority of our own friends and relatives. It’s a wonderful and mysterious process, one I don’t pretend to understand.

Shriver goes on to say that “sometimes it doesn’t work” but that isn’t what interests me. I just loved how she expressed the role that fictional characters can take on in our lives: “confabulated characters walk about in our heads with the authority of our own friends and relatives.” That is how I feel all the time about my favorite characters. It’s my favorite part of reading fiction.

Capitulation

I just bought a Kindle. I was persuaded to do so by the drop in price and the rediscovery of a long-forgotten Amazon gift card (thanks Dad!). I like it more than I thought I would. It's simple to use and the page is easy to read. I bought my first book (The Finkler Question by Howard Jacobson) for $5.00, a bargain.

I still haven't completely adjusted to the reading experience. I feel a little removed from the book. I miss the front and back covers, the blurb, the author's photo. On the other hand I like how light the device is. I am looking forward to downloading first chapters of books for free to see if I want to read them. This feature could save me lugging a lot of books home from the library only to abandon them 15 pages in. I anticipate that my spending on books will go up a bit, but I don't see myself quitting the library any time soon.