What can I read over Winter Break???
As I started gathering my thoughts about the books that I have read and enjoyed lately, I found myself not only coming up with books that I have "read" in the literal sense but also audio books that I have listened to in the past months.
Preparation for the Honolulu Marathon (and just keeping in shape) demands a lot of time spent in solo running. Though I sometimes listen to music, I have discovered that I enjoy taking advantage of the the time and listening to audio books. Here are some of my favorites!
Wood, Patricia. Lottery [F Wood]
Having learned essential life skills from his dedicated grandmother that have helped him overcome his low IQ, Perry finds himself without a caregiver at the age of thirty-one and wins a fortune by playing the lottery, a lucrative windfall that brings him more family than he has ever wanted.
Zusak, Marcus. Book Thief. [F Zusak]
Living with a foster family in Germany during World War II, a young girl struggles to survive her day-to-day trials through stealing anything she can get her hands on, but when she discovers the beauty of literature, she realizes that she has been blessed with a gift that must be shared with others, including the Jewish man hiding in the basement.
Setterfield, Diane. Thirteenth Tale. [F Setterfield]
When her health begins failing, the mysterious author Vida Winter decides to let Margaret Lea, a biographer, write the truth about her life, but Margaret needs to verify the facts since Vida has a history of telling outlandish tales.
McCullough, David. John Adams. [B Ad12m]
Chronicles the life of America's second president, including his youth, his career as a Massachusetts farmer and lawyer, his marriage to Abigail, his rivalry with Thomas Jefferson, and his influence on the birth of the United States.
Diaz, Junot. Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao. [F Diaz]
Living with an Old World mother and rebellious sister, an urban New Jersey misfit dreams of becoming the next J.R.R. Tolkien and believes that a longstanding family curse is thwarting his efforts to find love and happiness.
Lahiri, Jhumpa. Interpreter of Maladies. [F Lahiri]
A debut collection of short fiction blends elements of Indian traditions with the complexities of American culture in such tales as "A Temporary Matter," in which a young Indian-American couple confronts their grief over the loss of a child, while their Boston neighborhood copes with a nightly blackout.
Kostova, Elizabeth. The Historian. [F Kostova]
Discovering a medieval book and a cache of letters, a motherless American girl becomes the latest in a series of historians, including her late father, who investigate the possible surviving legacy of Vlad the Impaler. I picked this one to read because it is the book that James Kakos chose for his READ poster. (Thanks, James!)
Not enough time to read and do the 60 minutes of exercise that is recommended each day? Try combining the activities by "reading" on the run.
Here are recommendations by others. Enjoy your break and read or listen to a great book!
Lahiri, Jhumpa. Unaccustomed Earth. [F Lahiri]
I have finished a very good book called "Unaccustomed Earth" by Jhumpa Lahiri, author of "The Namesake" and "Interpreter of Maladies." "Earth" is nowhere as good as Interpreter of Maladies but it's still good. The book is a series of unrelated short stories, all dealing with that difficult subject of making cultural negotiations between the old and the new. Characters are caught up in the Americanization process but at the same time, they suffer from guilt in abandoning their traditions. Especially spotlighted are the roles of Indian women who seem willing and eager to assert their independence, especially from male domination, but who must strive to shake off assumptions that Americans hold about them. All in all, this isn't a must read a second time book but it's pretty good.
-Carol Lee
Gruen, Sara. Water for Elephants. [F Gruen]
I just finished Sarah Gruen's Water for Elephants and it was an enjoyable read for several reasons: Her character Jacob Jankowski is very likable; he may be tentative in acting upon his convictions but his heart is in the right place. And the woman he falls in love with, a circus performer by the name of Marlena, is caught up in a marriage without returns for her, especially since her husband is a "paranoid schizophrenic" with erratic mood swings that leave her walking on eggshells. How it all plays out at the end is refreshing; there is happiness for a change, rather than the gloom and doom of so many realistic fiction. But what I most appreciate about this novel is the setting of the big-top circus era. Gruen has certainly done her
research, some of it entertaining, others shocking. Did you know, for instance, that Thomas Edison, in his efforts to devaluate the upcoming research of George Westinghouse, publicly electrocuted stray dogs and cats to prove his point? Edison has just fallen a notch in my book of "Greats." Gruen's weaving of the past and present, and her efforts to navigate between the two by focusing on Jankowski's former big-top circus life and his current issues with growing old lack fluid transmigration, but in the end, I am left satisfied with a happy read.
-Carol Lee
Wroblewski, David. The Story of Edgar Sawtelle. [F Wroblewski]
I'm currently reading The Story of Edgar Sawtelle and I am loving it. the author is David Wroblewski and I'm too early into the book to give you a blurb.
-Carol Lee
Galvada, Anna. Hunting and Gathering. [on order]
Barbery, Muriel. The Elegance of the Hedgehog. [on order]
2 French books that are finally translated in English: "Hunting and Gathering" by Anna Gavalda, and "the elegance of the Hedgehog" by Muriel Barbery. Beautifully written, both have been pure pleasure to my heart and soul.
-Marie-Christine Jude
Davenport, Kiana. House of Many Gods. [HC F Davenport]
Very engaging novel about Ana, a Hawaiian girl abandoned by her mother, and Nicolai, a Russian boy whose father dies in Stalin's gulag. Eventually their paths cross in this page-turner.
-Susan Clark
Russell, Karen. St. Lucy's Home For Girls Raised by Wolves. [F Russell]
Highly imaginative, unusual, and funny short stories. For something different, read this book!
-Susan Clark
Guterson, David. The Other. [F Guterson]
Boyhood friends take two different paths: Neil becomes a teacher and family man, John William becomes a hermit in the wilderness. Thought-provoking reading.
-Susan Clark
Laudan, Rachel. The Food of Paradise: Exploring Hawai'i's Culinary Heritage [HC 641.5 L36]
Ever wonder where loco moco came from originally? Or about any of the other local dishes so popular in Hawai'i? This book has all the answers and some terrific recipes as well. If you're a fan of the local food culture, you'll find this very entertaining and enlightening; just don't read it on an empty stomach because it will surely make you hungry.
-David Del Rocco
Berinobis, Sheri 'Iolani Floyd. The Spirit of Hula: Photos and Stories From Around the World. [HC 793.3 B45]
This book is full of beautiful photos and short stories showing how hula has spread far and wide throughout the world. There is a section on halau hula in Hawai'i, on the mainland in places as diverse as Colorado and Illinois, as well as an international section featuring halau from Europe, Mexico, and Japan.
-David Del Rocco
Tsujimoto, Joe. Morningside Heights: New York Stories. [F Tsujimoto]
Our friend and colleague has written a thought-provoking and entertaining collection of tales about ... well... being Joe Tsujimoto (or some elegantly crafted facsimile). The author takes the reader on a trip from childhood to adulthood, from Manhattan to Honolulu, from student of the streets to teacher of the elite. An early story in the collection begins with this observation: "Sometimes it's hard to say with any conviction that, like a dream or wish or reverie, something actually happened..."(p17) Morningside Heights reads to me like the
reverie that insists that something happened indeed.
-Tim Dyke
Miller, Neil. Out of the Past: Gay and Lesbian History from 1869 to the Present.
This comprehensive and readable history of gay and lesbian culture begins with the proposition that such history is hard to define because the terms "gay" and "lesbian" are almost certainly
modern inventions, and even to this day, there is debate about whether those words point to a collection of people, a series of behaviors, an affliction to be eradicated, or something else. The author uses his introduction to outline his understanding that from the beginning of human existence there have been people who have been attracted to others of the same sex, and in the first third of the book he reports on the way the perception and classification of such people has changed over time. According to Miller, from 1869 to the present, the modern definition of "gay and lesbian" has evolved to described a specific set of people with a specific history, and the rest of the book reports that history in a way that includes North America, Europe, and Asia. I thought I knew a lot of this stuff, but I was surprised by something in every chapter. I didn't know, for example, that Oscar Wilde travelled from Europe to have brunch with Walt Whitman one morning in Philadelphia. This is a long tome, but I found that it reads like a
fabulous novel.
-Tim Dyke
Moore, Alan. Watchmen. [on order]
I've heard about this comic book ever since it was published in the mid-80's, and though my taste in comics runs more to the snooty graphic-novel memoirs of neurotic adults than to the
pulpy genre-tales of costumed crusaders, I'd been interested in reading this ever since TIME magazine called it one of the essential books of the 20th century. So I checked it out, and it's pretty cool. The story begins with the proposition that all of those costumed super-heroes
really did exist in the 30's, 40's and 50's, and by the 80's they are mostly washed-up, spent, and full of regret. A serial killer begins to kill off these retired heroes, and a tormented masked-man named Rorshach takes it upon himself to figure out what's going on. Add to that a nuclear-enhanced crime fighter named Dr. Manhattan who has been exploited by the CIA and a couple of good love stories, and you'll get the idea of whether or not you'd like this. If it sounds appealing, I can almost guarantee that you'll enjoy it. For what it is, it's unbelievably good, and I can see why people say it reinvented the super-hero comic. I don't know if it's one of the best books of the 20th century, but I do know that I never could have created a book like Watchmen. A movie comes out in May, and it is almost surely doomed to fail. (But who knows?)
-Tim Dyke
Lamb, Wally. The Hour I First Believed.
I recently read this book, and kind of liked it, so I thought I'd put it on my list because fans of the author might really enjoy it. I can't say, though, that I fully recommend it. I had never read a book by Wally Lamb but kind of always meant to. Then I heard that this one was about an English teacher and his wife who taught at Columbine High during the massacre, and I became interested in how the author would turn that horrible event into fiction. As harrowing as it is to enter into even a fictional re-creation of a high school shooting, I thought the Columbine section
of the book was the most rewarding to read. Lamb does a good job of using that event to explore the life of a suburban school in the late '90s. His characters are believable, and he got me thinking about why bad things happen to good people (and to bad people). The last five
hundred or so pages of this long book are dedicated to the way the main characters rebuild their lives after the shooting. There is infidelity, accidental death, prison, and pastry baking. I found it all a bit overwhelming and maudlin by the end. It kind of seemed like a soap opera that used a tragic moment from recent history to fuel its plot. I also think he could have thrown in some humor in some places. I mean, I know it's not a funny subject, but every story needs some comic relief. All in all I think it's a good book to read if you know you like Wally Lamb, and if you know you don't necessarily trust the reading taste of a guy who just recommended Watchmen.
-Tim Dyke
Klosterman, Chuck. Downtown Owl. [ordered]
Oh how I love this book. I wolfed down the first three quarters in one seven-hour couch session, went to bed, then finished the rest of it before I got out from under the covers. Klosterman is best known as a music and pop-culture critic, and this is his first novel. He sets the story in a tiny North Dakota town called "Owl" in 1983 and '84. The first pages alert the reader that a fierce blizzard is coming in February, and then he goes back six months and tells you what happened to various townspeople in the days leading up to that storm. The story focuses on three characters. Mitch is a seventeen year old quarter-back who really wants to be normal but can't figure out how. Julia is a 23 year old social studies teacher who just moved from Milwaukee and can't believe how popular she's suddenly become now that she's one of the few young, single women in a tiny town full of bison farmers. Horace is a widower in his seventies with a lot of regret and insight. The chapters alternate among these three voices. The book is compelling, hilarious, sad, and full of references to early '80's metal bands. The cover flap describes it as a cross between "The Last Picture Show" and "Friday Night Lights." That's not a
bad description, but I'd say it's more like a hybrid between "Twin Peaks," "Dazed and Confused" and "Little House on the Prairie."
-Tim Dyke