Fascinating

I'm on a bit of a nonfiction kick. One of my last reads was Undress Me in the Temple of Heaven, by Susan Jane Gilman. I loved it and of course, it was another Nancy Pearl pick.

The story is Gilman's account of the time she and a friend spent backpacking through Asia in the mid 1980s. Absolutely fascinating. You think the story is just going to be a travelogue but it's not; it's a story about travel, yes, but also about people and her friendship with her traveling buddy--who apparently has secrets of her own.

I highly recommend this book.

Rating: 10/10

Totally different

Libba Bray's Going Bovine is COMPLETELY different than her previous works. Completely different. Having read her blog, it rings much closer to her natural voice.

The story follows Cameron, a teenager who's been diagnosed with mad cow disease and is dying. He's given a chance to truly live by going on a c-r-a-z-y road trip through the help of a punk rock angel, so he takes it.

I liked the book; it was crazy and interesting and, like The Sweet Far Thing, didn't resolve with sugar plums and happiness.

Rating: 8/10

Speaking of sugar plums and other foods, I just finished A Homemade Life by Molly Wizenberg. I adore Wizenberg's column in Bon Appetit, so I wanted to read her book.

It was a mix of memoir and recipes and was a lovely read. She had numerous recipes I want to try, particularly her sister's scones. Also, I like her concept of mixing to create a meal--that delicious dinners (or lunches or breakfasts) can be easy. It wasn't so much as cooking as blending various ingredients to make a simple meal.

It was a nice read and I really like Wizenberg. She's got a solid fan in me.

Rating: 8/10

Too many reads

I've been reading but not blogging about it (obviously). But I do want to keep track of what I'm reading, so here's a quick list:


A Reliable Wife by Robert Goolrick -- Eh, it was ok. Reminded me of The Outlander. I wasn't impressed either one, though. Both are very atmospheric, which is enjoyable, though.

When You Are Engulfed in Flames by David Sedaris -- Going to see a play written by him this week--exciting! I like Sedaris...this was a good read, not my favorite by him though.

Fire by Kristin Cashore -- Really good! Liked it better than her first book Graceling.

The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis -- Obviously a classic in the Christian faith, thought-provoking and good, for sure

Just decided not to finish Girl in the Arena by Lise Haines...I didn't care for the style of writing or the characters. So I flipped ahead, read the very end and find myself satisfied with my decision.

Thin Slices

I haven't been able to get into a good book all the past week. For now, I've been reading Billy Collins' Sailing Alone Around the Room. Lovely poetry in it, although I think I like the first book I read by him better. In this one, he seems a bit obsessed with death.

It's a gloomy, fall-ish day here in my town...just the sort of day to enjoy a poem or two. So here's two of my favorites from Sailing. "Marginalia" and "Victoria's Secret." Witty, twisty and lovely word imagery.

No Mountains, Ever!

Well, Jon Krakauer, I already had a fear of mountains. (I'm a Midwest girl. I like flat land and water. Mountains scare me. Even the hills of Pennsylvania, where I went to college, frightened me a little bit.) But thanks to your Into Thin Air, I will never climb a mountain. EVER.

Into Thin Air is Krakauer's account of a deadly storm that hit Mt. Everest in May 1996. He barely survived but others climbing with him didn't.

Before I read this book, I never realized how dangerous climbing truly was (or how cold!). It raises interesting thoughts on what compels people to try something so deadly.

The read was intense, organized and didn't dwell too long on "afterwards." I highly recommend it.

Rating: 10/10

Not so tasty after all

Confession: I've tried to read Julie & Julia: 365 Days, 524 Recipes, 1 Tiny Apartment Kitchen (by Julie Powell) twice--a few years apart, too--and just could not make it through either time.

I wanted to see the movie (actually just saw it last night and Meryl Streep was amazing in it; Amy Adams' haircut was awful) and of course, wanted to read the book first. But I just couldn't force myself beyond page 50.

Powell swears up a storm--I can handle a few words sprinkled in but her usage was sooo unnecessary and constant. And she keeps on bashing Republicans constantly. I'm pretty darn non-political but I'm not a Democrat, so her continual blame on that political party got old quickly.

Probably my biggest issue is the simple fact that the book is more of a memoir about her life and not really about her cooking. I don't care about your crappy apartment, Julie, or the fact that you're not-really-ok-maybe-slightly interested in guys other than your husband. It's marketed as a food book; I want it to be about food.

Rating: 2/10

Weekend/Monday Reads

I wasn't really in the mood to read much this weekend (a rare event for me). Still, I managed to finish off Mad About the Boy? by Dolores Gordon-Smith and Edna Lewis' The Taste of Country Cooking.

I love the cover on this one; it's actually what drew me into the series. The cover is evocative of the atmosphere of the novel--very 1920s.

The series feature Jack Haldean, a former Royal Flying Corps pilot turned mystery writer. While Jack is visiting relatives at their grand estate, a guest kills himself--but Jack isn't convinced. As he delves into the mystery, new complications keep on popping up, involving everyone in the family.

Gordon-Smith, as I've said before, is a good writer; it's easy to read and engrossing. I'll be reading book three, As If By Magic (and again, beautiful cover!).

Rating: 8.5/10

Another book I've been reading in bits and pieces is The Taste of Country Cooking (30th anniversary edition). I wouldn't call it a cookbook for general use but rather a look at what cooking used to be like--and I am SO GLAD that I don't have to butcher my meals. It's fascinating how much food preparation has changed in less than 100 years but also in what remains the same. Also, I was intrigued by how Lewis is a strong champion for local and organic eating--30+ years before it became a major movement.

Overall, it reminded me of Little House on the Prairie and how so much of those books involved gathering/preparing/eating food. And I loved them for that fact. But, as in those books, I don't love Edna's descriptions of slaughtered pigs with "glistening" white skin. Eww. I'm not a vegetarian nor will I ever be, but let's not test how deep my love for meat goes, okay?

Still, slaughtering descriptions aside, it was an excellent read and I do recommend it for any fan of cooking.

Delicioussssss

For my birthday, I requested Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan. I peruse through numerous food blogs and Baking always seems to pop up. And since I love baking, well, I figured I should own this classic.

Um, yeah, isn't that cover reason enough to buy this book? After paging through it, I settled upon her Coffee-Break Muffins, which use A LOT of coffee (fine by me!). I brought them into work, where reviews were mixed. The girls seemed to like them; the guys, not so much. Let's just say if you don't like coffee, you'll hate these muffins.

Anyway, I'm excited to try more out of her book--especially the chocolate recipes.

Actually a biography

In college, I read Kathleen Norris' Cloister Walk and thoroughly enjoyed her writing. So when I saw her Virgin of Bennington at a library book sale for $1, it was an easy buy decision.

From reading the cover copy, I thought it was going to be about her college years and the time afterward--how she led a wild life in NYC to developing faith and moving to one of the Dakotas. But really, the book was about her mentor and employer, Betty Kray, whom she met in NYC.

While Kray's life was interesting and important, particularly for American poetry, a mini-biography wasn't what I was expecting. It seemed as if Norris started out writing about herself but found Kray to be more fascinating.

The book itself wasn't that bad; it was just so wrongly marketed and has such a misleading cover copy that I think most people will be a bit puzzled and then annoyed that Virgin isn't at all what they thought it would be.

Ah well, at least it was my nonfiction read for the month. And it was an appropriate follow-up to Billy Collins, too.

Rating: 6/10

What I've been reading

I have been a reading roll, checking off my TBR list. First, it was Snow Angel by Jamie Carie and then The City of Falling Angels by John Berendt (which I bought at a library book sale either this summer or last year? I'm sad that I have no idea).

Snow Angel is Carie's first book and isn't it a pretty cover? Gorgeous colors. Anyway, the story follows Elizabeth, who is determined to mine for gold in Alaska. After being caught in a freak snow blizzard, she's about to freeze to death when she sees a lighted cabin. The cabin belongs to Noah, a hardy (and attractive) farmer/but-how-can-you-be-a-farmer-in-Alaska-so-yeah-I-don't-really-remember-but-he's-not-a-miner. Noah ends up falling in love with her but Elizabeth's secrets and her past hold her back.

The story had a nice faith aspect woven in, too. Connected with Elizabeth's struggle to trust Noah is her struggle to trust in God.

I didn't like it as much as Wind Dancer but Carie has restored some of my enjoyment in the Christian fiction department. I'll definitely read more of her books.

Rating: 7.5/10

I was randomly in the mood for nonfiction, which never happens, but I didn't have any checked out from the library. Thankfully I remembered I had The City of Falling Angels, which I bought because I loved Berendt's Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. Seriously Midnight was one of the first for-fun nonfiction books I ever read and it changed my thinking--nonfiction could be interesting, I realized.

I didn't love City like I did Midnight. It had one problem that I've noticed in nonfiction: a lack of a unifying theme. (And no, I didn't count "Venice" as a theme.) It rambled, examining different incidents and characters of Venice. There was a sort of "theme" in that he followed an arson case but that was truly scattered throughout. Anyway, it's an interesting look at a European city and unlike Savannah, I have no desire to visit it.

Rating: 7/10

Tom Vanderbilt's Traffic: Why We Drive the Way We Do (and What It Says About Us) scared me.

As you likely deduced, this book is all about traffic. It's about merging, signs, pedestrians, danger, death and scared the crap out of me. Basically, no one quite understands how to best control traffic because humans are unpredictable. Scary, yes.

Anyway, the book is well-researched, with tons of footnotes, which I appreciate. Also, his writing style is easy to follow and understand. All in all, a good nonfiction read, regardless of how it scared me. I think I'm going to work on my driving skills...

Rating: 7.5/10

Still chugging

I'm still chugging away at Traffic. It's interesting reading that's freaking me out about my own driving but I just can't read nonfiction as quickly or as intensely as fiction. Thus, it takes me longer. Also, when I'm reading something more serious, I have to interperse my reading with something light. And since I don't want to begin one book while reading another, I usually pop open one of the 30 magazines I have on my table, just waiting to be read. I'm getting toward the end of Traffic though, and once I'm through it, I'm thinking it will be a Carol Goodman weekend...

Scary

It's scary how time flies. It's been OVER A YEAR since I added Sarah Vowell's Assassination Vacation to be Amazon wishlist aka my to-be-read list. Where has time gone???

That being said, I'm not sure this book was worth waiting a year to read. Okay, not that I really waited a year since I kept on putting reading it off, but anyway, here's my thoughts.

This is nonfiction, which isn't my usual fare. I'm not usually too into nonfiction writing but the theme of this book sounded interesting. The author is fascinated by presidential assassinations. She visits all sorts of assassination historical sites and writes about it in a very scattered manner. That's probably my main complaint: the book is divided into just three chapters (the three presidents assassinated) but, in my opinion, could have really used tighter editing and more divided topics instead of just "Abraham Lincoln." It's probably a sign of intelligence but Vowell hops from one subject to the next sooooo quickly. It's as if she has ADD and the mention of some random little word brings up a whole other topic of discussion. While most of it is interesting, it was just too un-cohesive for me to absorb all the details.

She's also fairly liberal, so sarcastic comments about Bush and the current state of American affairs are scattered throughout, which is not something I'm looking for in a book about historical assassinations. That's why I try to avoid politics; it's such a dividing topic--you can really turn people off your work by trumpeting your beliefs. I read to escape everyday life, not to stew about how awful America is.

So while I don't necessarily recommend this book, I wouldn't try to dissuade anyone from reading it. It's just a book I read that had some interesting facts...but honestly, looking back, I still don't have a clear picture of how McKinley and Garfield were assassinated. Oh well, at least I read something nonfiction. Good for me. And I like the cover. It's unique.

Rating: 6.5/10