Do Help Me Decide!

If you’re reading this, then it means I’m gone.

Gone to get hitched ya’ll! I’m getting married Saturday and have taken tomorrow and Friday off from work to prepare, gather with family, mingle, shmingle, get my nails done, and de-stress before the big W-Day. The reason for the blog you ask? I need your HELP!

This is where I’m going on my honeymoon:

I know, fabulous right? Anywhooo… we’re planning some excursions and general frolic, but I would like to (quite obviously I should think) bring a book (or two) with me for those hours by the pool when the ocean starts to bore me (as if). This is where you come in. Post your recommendations (and descriptions) for beach-side-honeymoon-relaxative books here, and I’ll pick one to bring with! I may or may not get much reading done, but I need the comfort of knowing I’ll have a book ready in case the opportunity should present itself.

I’m open to any fiction suggestions. I’ll be back at work on Tuesday before we leave Friday and can’t wait to see what you suggest!

Cheers!

Review: A Wrinkle In Time by Madeleine L’Engle

This book is one that most everyone reads at some point in time in elementary school. I don’t believe I ever did, so I felt I should catch up on what I missed out. Reading it from an adult point of view is different than what I imagine it would be like as a fifth grader. It’s still an adorably cute book, and I still love little Charles Wallace, but I also appreciate the morals and messages Mrs. Who, Mrs. Whatsit, and Mrs. Which bring to the page. I feel like it was a short, quick read, but that the end came and went much too swiftly. I know it’s meant for younger people, but I felt like more meat could have enriched the story. The drama lead up to Meg having to rescue Charles Wallace from IT on Camazotz… and then all of a sudden she’s got him, she’s crying, there’s lots of love all around, and they’re back home and Father’s home and the stories done all in the last two pages. It was such a fun read in the beginning that the end was very disappointing. But how much should I really complain? It was written in sixties, way before it’s time, and I wanted something light to read through before the madness of Wedding weekend. I appreciate that it kept me breathing and relaxed.

3 stars

The Sunday Salon: A Wrinkle In Time

 I wanted something light to read this week since I’m getting married Saturday and don’t really have the mental capacity to be reading anything serious. I’m now convinced that I’ve never read A Wrinkle In Time. I thought it was required reading in elementary school… where was I??? It’s so cute! And I just love little Charles Wallace. Have they made a movie of this yet? If not, someone should really get on that. With Where the Wild Things Grow coming out, and Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs, I feel that all these fabulous childrens books are being made in to movies and it’s so fun to watch.

What are you reading this rainy Sunday?

Review: The Ice Chorus by Sarah Stonich

Of all the stories she’s ever been told, watched on screen, or endeavored to make herself, she understands that only those that unfold naturally endure.
The Ice Chorus – Sarah Stonich

At its most basic, The Ice Chorus is a story about a woman named Liselle who had an affair, and has travelled to Ireland to get away from her life. She’s just gotten divorced from her husband, and her teenage son won’t speak to her for more than a minute. The story unfolds moving from the present through flashbacks to show Liselle’s life and how she met the man she loves, and how her relationship with her family changes, and how she ends up in the middle of nowhere on the Irish coast, asking other people how they fell in love, and documenting it all on film. That’s a brief description of the plot. A very brief description, because The Ice Chorus is quite obviously more than just the plot.

The cover of the book has a quote which says: “Any woman who ever had her heart cracked open by a man should read The Ice Chorus.” But I completely disagree. I don’t think having had your heart cracked is a requirement. I think every woman in general should read it (and men too). Yes it deals with love, and loss, and heartbreak; but it deals with more than just those emotions. It shows the fragility of women and the raw hurt of loss, but it also shows the immense strength all women possess, and the unexplainable bond of love.

I can’t rave enough about Sarah Stonich and her writing; it’s just that amazing. The characters are real, and the emotions are heartbreaking and true. She captures these stories and people in a beautifully unique and impossibly artistic way.

4 stars. Read it. And read her first book, These Granite Islands (5 stars), too.

Booking Through Thursday – 9/24/2009

Today, Booking Through Thursday questions: What’s the saddest book you’ve read recently?

I would say the saddest book I’ve read recently would be The Third Angel by Alice Hoffman. Though it doesn’t qualify as a tear-jerker by any means, it’s emotional and heart wrenching. Same as The Ice Chorus which I’m currently reading. Both books center around women and difficult things they go through, whether it be love or loss or heartbreak. They both show the fragility of women, but also their enduring strength to overcome enormous pain and grief.

What’s the saddest book you’ve read recently? Post a comment here, or on the meme.

Happy Fall!

I know I’m a day late, but I was super-duper busy yesterday and didn’t have any time to do anything bloggish. Having said that… HAPPY FALL!!! Fall is my favorite season. I love fabulous sweaters and scarves and books and reading in the Common. Hope you live somewhere where you get to enjoy this lovely time of year!

Musing Mondays: September 21, 2009

Musing Mondays is hosted by Rebecca at Just One More Page. This week she asks:

Do you listen to music while reading? Does this change if you’re reading in or out of your house? Do you have a preference of music for such occasions?

My answer is no, I do not listen to music. I’ve tried before, but I can’t focus on both reading and music at the same time, and I can’t pick just one and ignore the other. Having said that, I also have difficulty when the T.V. is on at the same time I am reading, though I can usually tune it out. Another interesting thing is that I find I do some of my best reading on the train going to/from work. I think there’s something about the mind numbing sound of shoooshing over the tracks, in combination with other people talking that it feels like a cocoon of noise that I can actually zone out. Like the time I had an MRI and the thump-thump-thump put me to sleep.

What about you? Post your answers in a comment or head over to Just One More Page.

The Sunday Salon: The Ice Chorus

 This weekend has been so obnoxiously busy that when I finally got time to sit down and read some more of The Ice Chorus it was completely refreshing. I felt relaxed, lounged on the chaise, like I was straight out of an Edith Wharton story.

As with These Granite Islands, Sarah Stonich amazes me with her writing. It’s lyrical and artistic and absorbing. She is truly amazing and I wish for everyone to go pick up her novels, because you will not regret it. The Ice Chorus follows Liselle, a documentary film-maker, fresh from divorce, who has moved to a tiny little town in Ireland. Through the villagers she meets and the stories she hears, Stonich weaves a plot full of flashbacks at just the right moment so we see hints of Liselle’s former life and how she got to this far off place. I had hoped I would enjoy this book as much as her first, and I have yet to be disappointed. Can’t wait to read more later.

Friday Finds: The Ice Chorus, The Boy Next Door, The Palace of Strange Girls

Until now I’ve only ever received one free book in the mail (A Circle of Souls). I’m fairly new to the blogging scene, so I’ve been working my way up the ladder to get ARC’s for review. Wednesday I got home and it was like Santa had come disguised as the mailman and left me fantastically magical wonderful cardboard wrapped gifts of goodness. For my Friday Finds I’ll post them here!

From Sarah Stonich I received:

The Ice Chorus by Sarah Stonich

(Description from the back cover)

“After a brief but life-changing holiday affair ends her eighteen-year marriage, Liselle Dupre moves from Toronto to a remote villiage on the west coast of Ireland. She gradually becomes acquainted with some of the locals, whose wholehearted charm and colorful stories revive her spirits and inspire her to make a documentary about their interwoven tales of romance.

While she explores her new surroundings, Liselle comes to confront her own tumultuous past and her feelings for Charlie, the Welsh painter who rekindled her passions in Mexico, realizing that to tell the stories of others, she must first reveal her own.”

Thanks to Miriam Parker at Hachette Book Groups I received two books:

The Boy Next Door by Irene Sabatini

(Description borrowed from Hachette Book Group website)

“In Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, there is a tragedy in the house next door to Lindiwe Bishop–her neighbor has been burned alive. The victim’s stepson, Ian McKenzie, is the prime suspect but is soon released. Lindiwe can’t hide her fascination with this young, boisterous and mysterious white man, and they soon forge an unlikely closeness even as the country starts to deteriorate.

Years after circumstances split them apart, Ian returns to a much-changed Zimbabwe to see Lindiwe, now a sophisticated, impassioned young woman, and discovers a devastating secret that will alter both of their futures, and draw them closer together even as the world seems bent on keeping them apart. The Boy Next Door is a moving and powerful debut about two people finding themselves and each other in a time of national upheaval.”

The Palace of Strange Girls by Sallie Day

(Description borrowed from Hachette Book Group website)

“Blackpool, England, 1959. The Singleton family is on holiday. For seven-year-old Beth, just out of the hospital, this means struggling to fill in her ‘I-Spy’ book and avoiding her mother Ruth’s eagle-eyed supervision. Her sixteen-year-old sister Helen, meanwhile, has befriended a waitress whose fun-loving ways hint at a life beyond Ruth’s strict rules.

But times are changing. As foreman of the local cotton mill, Ruth’s husband, Jack, is caught between unions and owners whose cost-cutting measures threaten an entire way of life. And his job isn’t the only thing at risk. When a letter arrives from Crete, a secret re-emerges from the rubble of Jack’s wartime past that could destroy his marriage.

As Helen is tempted outside the safe confines of her mother’s stern edicts with dramatic consequences, an unexpected encounter inspires Beth to forge her own path. Over the holiday week, all four Singletons must struggle to find their place in the shifting world of promenade amusements, illicit sex, and stilted afternoon teas in this touching and evocative novel.”

**

I can’t wait to read all three of  them, but I’ve been dying to get my hands on The Ice Chorus so I’m starting there. I’ll let you all know what I think!

What have you found on this happy Friday?

Review: This Side of Paradise by F. Scott Fitzgerald

(And deep under the aching sadness that will pass in time, Rosalind feels that she has lost something, she knows not what, she knows not why.)
This Side of Paradise – F. Scott Fitzgerald 

 Ahhhh Mr. Fitzgerald. How you woo me with your lyrical prose and bore me with your philosophical spiel.

There were times during This Side of Paradise where I was overcome by what I was reading because it was just that amazing. And then there were times where I glazed over the philosophy with dry eyes and an annoying buzz in my ears. But looking beyond those parts, I have to acknowledge Paradise as Fitz’s first novel, and therefore the good parts were made that much better since he had nothing Gatsby-like to live up to. The bits of genius were effortless and beautiful because they were the first of their kind, pure and innocent. Paradise seems like it was easy for Fitz. Fun. I feel like I can tell this is his first novel because it wasn’t until years later that the pressure of being a “good writer” hit him. For that reason, I enjoyed this novel tremendously.

This Side of Paradise revolves around Amory Blaine. There are many words to describe Amory: self-involved, self-indulgent, self-conscious. Overly dramatic, lost, found, curious, lonely, broken, bruised. Affected. Amory is a character. He’s full of life but completely lost. He’s a dreamer and an idealist and a realist all at the same time; he is one big hypocritical oxymoron, and he’s completely overwhelmingly tragic.

We begin Amory’s life from whence all his issues started: Beatrice. Beatrice is dear old mother with her delicacy and indulgences, and her personality makes Amory into the person he is because of her eccentricities and failures. We follow Amory through school and his younger years (where he’s disliked by his classmates because they don’t get him), through his college years (where he’s liked by classmates because they don’t get him), vaguely through World War I, and always through his women, until we meet Rosalind – the beginning, end, and in-between of everything Amory wanted and could never have.

Amory is always looking for himself, and never finding the person he wants. He loses himself in whatever he likes at the time, whether it be school, an idea, a place, or a person. He’s never happy and never content for long. He wants to be remembered, but never sticks to anything long enough to be cause for remembrance. He’s lost, and I feel sad for him. He never quite finds what he’s looking for.

The best description of Amory can be found on the twelfth page of the book:

“It was always the becoming he dreamed of, never the being.”

4 stars