Recently in Books Category

(We are long overdue for a post in this category, as much as I am overdue to write a post at all - so here I will attempt the two birds, one stone trick. Hey, Presto!)

A few months ago, possibly inspired by the American Women's Book Club Brandie joined after we moved to Brooklyn, our friend Steve suggested we start a book club with some local friends. We'd meet monthly at each other's houses on a weeknight after the kids had gone to bed, have a drink, nosh on something and talk about books. Great idea, right?

It was! However due to circumstances beyond his control, poor Steve has never been able to attend a meeting (although I'm pretty sure he's read all the books on our list.) The rest of us have had a ball however, and for our fourth gathering decided to meet at The Library, a bar in downtown Wellington themed around.. well, a library.

In fact we had been there several times before without realizing it, as it's attached to a great restaurant called Chow. We'd sat at the bar while waiting for our tables, never realizing we were in a separate establishment. This time though, we entered through the front door, set in an otherwise blank white stairwell in a wall papered to look like a bookcase. Simple as it was, it felt like we were walking through a secret door in a bookcase, something out of an Eco or Zafon novel. I loved it instantly.

Just inside the door the real bookshelves started, floor to ceiling, and eventually ran out to frame each intimate table. The place was perfectly lit and loaded with books, I just wanted to wander and browse. We went to our table (Brandie had thought to make reservations) and ordered drinks and the cheese plate (I had spent the week prior drooling over the menu so it didn't take long for me to pick something out.) Other members trickled in and we started talking about the books we had read, then eventually ordered the tasting plate from the Sweets menu. It was all delicious, and hands-down the funnest place I can imagine to have a book club meeting.

http://www.thelibrary.co.nz/

I'll be the first to admit I have a bit of a book problem. We have boxes and boxes of books still in storage, and despite the effort and expense of lugging them around I still love every one. My devotion to them has become a bit of a sore spot, as we've made an conscious attempt to minimize our clutter since moving from California. I've promised to stop buying books and use the library more, but there's still the question of what to do when birthdays and holidays roll around again..

While our collection clearly demonstrates I like new reads, I also find myself returning to the same books over and over again. Obsessively. Maybe it's a desire to recapture the feeling of when that great book changed your life: it only happens so often, and it's certainly an addicting feeling. I've often wished I could forget a book and re-experience some of those amazing scenes "for the first time" again: I guess it's also a sign of powerful writing that makes you think the outcome might change every time you read it.

Here are some of those books I just can't put down: I'm probably forgetting a bunch. I'd be curious to hear what yours are, if you'd like to post a comment!

It's been a while since I've done one of these updates, but in spite of two in diapers and not doing any solo traveling I've thankfully still managed to find time here and there to squeeze in some reading.

Most recently I read Marley & Me, the best-selling book about "world's worst dog". I found it to be less about the dog and more about the dog's owners (or guardians, pending your level of canine political-correctness) whom I found to be kind of cluelessly self-centered and annoying. Given the popularity of the book I'm clearly in the minority, but I also found the author's Marley-inspired observations on life to be fairly trite. Call me a cynic, but for Marley's sake they should've picked up a copy of Good Owners, Great Dogs long before they got the poor animal.

Prior to Marley I was reading The Coming Generational Storm, a book that's been stuck in my wishlist for a while without any urgency. I haven't finished it, but so far have found it to be a fairly scathing critique of 401(k)s, Congress and a few other institutions. As far as financial self-help books go, I liked The Automatic Millionaire better.

For my birthday I got an excellent book on .mel scripting for Maya, along with David Breashears High Exposure: An Enduring Passion For Everest and Unforgiving Places. I'm a huge Into Thin Air fan, and I have to admit Jon Krakauer's intro played into my wanting the book. It was very interesting, but I found Breashear's experiences with the film industry to be fairly intimidating, to the point of discouraging.

At the moment I'm in the middle of Before the Dawn, a fascinating look at how gene research is uncovering details about early human history. There are some really interesting ideas in this book, I'd strongly recommend it. Special thanks to cousin, captain, and doctor Bob for recommending it to me!

On a recent trip to California I had the opportunity to get some uninterrupted reading time in, and was lucky enough to have two fantastic books with me. Both were very gripping, emotional novels with strong family-oriented content, which I'm a sucker for these days.

The first was The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini, which my sister lent my step-mom before I subsequently borrowed for the trip. Without giving anything away, and to steal a line from the cover, it's "a moving story of modern Afghanistan". I absolutely loved it, and got misty-eyed a few times during the read. One section near the end (no spoilers!) felt a little too "Hollywood" and contrived for me, but otherwise I thoroughly enjoyed it.

The second book was less gritty and more fantastical, written by Carlos Ruis Zafon and titled The Shadow of the Wind. It reminded me (and others, if you see the reviews) strongly of Umberto Eco's work, but either had better translation or was written in a more down-to-earth fashion. At any rate I found it much more accessible than Eco's writing, since I got most of the references and didn't feel the need to run to Wikipedia every time a new phrase was dropped. It's sort of a murder-mystery love story set in 1950s Barcelona, and is one of the best books I've read in a long time.

Run, don't walk to your library or bookseller and pick these two up! They lend well too, so if you like passing books along to friends they're worth buying.

Much like Arthur, Sophie's become quite the bookworm. Her favorites at the moment include Dr. Seuss's ABC Book, Arthur's Reading Race, Thomas the Tank Engine, I Spy: Little Animals, The Mitten and her bed-time standby, Sleepy Dog.

Her favorite passages are those with ducks or characters sneezing (which, if you're unfamiliar with The Mitten, is the main event of the book), which makes me think we should be on the lookout for books with sneezing ducks.

We recently took her to browse Barnes & Noble children's section for the first time, and it was a big hit. She found a Thomas board book at eye-level and ended up taking four copies off the shelves, then ran around looking for other familiar characters.

At home Sophie will sit by herself and read, pointing at different things and talking to herself. She prefers to be read to, but sometimes has trouble keeping her attention on one book at a time. A book is usually the first thing she wants in the morning after exiting her crib, even before having a bottle.

I still don't have mine back yet, or a place to put it, but thankfully the reading is just as good from Dad & Sue's! With any luck we'll get ours back soon.

I just finished A Million Little Pieces, the autobiography of dubious authenticity by James Frey. Thanks to all the recent hubbub over the book I spent a fair amount of time trying to figure out which parts were "embellished", which was a little distracting. Who knows if I'm right, but some scenes (admittedly the most exciting ones) seemed right out of a screenplay rather than a true-to-life account. Overall I liked the book though, and the portrayal of the addicts and rehab seemed believable enough.

On a sidenote, I noticed last night that Amazon has contracted Frey to be a guest reviewer. I wonder if that deal was struck before or after the controversy bubbled up, and whether they thought about pulling out of the deal. Or maybe the attention has helped, who knows!

I'm also still knee-deep in The World Is Flat, which is definitely a worthwhile read but at times his revelations are a little too "golly gee!" and too blatantly a pursuit of an idea he's already decided is true. I suppose that's how most things evolve, but I'd still prefer it to be more of a discovery rather than "I had this thought then ran around gathering info to prove it." The facts and ideas are still fun to read, and overall the book is exciting and even inspiring at times, but maybe a little too simplified and watered down to fit his gimmicky "flat" concept.

Sophie's getting to be quite a reader too, and enjoys going through several books at bedtime now. For a stocking stuffer we bought a 12-pack of little Sesame Street boardbooks that are all only six pages each. They're small enough for her to really manipulate, and short enough for her attention span at this age. Some nights we've gone through each of them three times apiece before turning out the light.

On the other end of the spectrum, some of those Dr. Seuss books are a little too wordy for her. The other night I was getting into Red Fish, Blue Fish and she literally leaned forward and turned around to glare at me, which I interpreted as, "You're just making it up now! There's no way all these words can be on one page!" But indeed, they are.

I just read Lord of the Flies for the first time. I am pretty sure I wrote a book report on it in high school but, like so many other kids, I didn't read it and just made my report up.

Anyhow, this book reminded me so much of my recent experience of working in an almost entirely male office. The leadership strategies, the side taking, the mob mentality. It was really frightening to realize some of the similarities.

As I was reading I was trying to imagine what would have happened if all the characters were female. Much more caretaking, hopefully more organization, and no hunting I imagine. The little children definitely would have been watched after rather than ridiculed and tormented. I doubt that there would have been a leadership struggle but I am sure there would have been plenty of fights.

I enjoyed reading the book and I would like to formally apologize to Mrs. Symmonds or Mrs. Konst for faking my book report.

Maybe now I will start on Little Women.

Or somewhere in-between California and New York, along with all our books. Before we left however, I finished reading Bill Clinton's My Life and Gene Wilder's Kiss Me Like A Stranger. My Life was long but worth the extra effort to make it through to the end. At times it felt like a very detailed West Wing episode, and it made me doubly nostalgic - for the days when Aaron Sorkin was still writing for the show and for when President Clinton gave the show inspiration.

Kiss Me Like A Stranger was very heartfelt and touching, but felt a little too "locker room" at times, when Mr. Wilder would list all his conquests. It seemed strange and harsh coming from someone who otherwise seems so compassionate.

The book I'm traveling with now was given to me by our friend Matt, and is somewhat about the area we're moving to (the Catskills) and Jack "Legs" Diamond (a Prohibition Era gangster who lived in that area.) I haven't gotten very far but what I've read is pretty neat. Thanks Matt!

I'm currently in the middle of My Life (Bill Clinton's autobiography), Winning (Jack Welch's followup to Straight From the Gut), The Witches (recommended by Brandie, one of her childhood favorites by Roahld Dahl), Bob Dylan's Chronicles Vol. I and David Sedaris's Naked.

I'm finding Naked to be less lighthearted and more consistently melancholy than the other two Sedaris books I've read (Dress Your Family In Corduroy and Denim and Me Talk Pretty One Day). I haven't laughed as heartily or as often, but maybe it's something I'm bringing into the read.

I really enjoy Bob Dylan's writing in Chronicles. I don't remember many specifics and it's possible he isn't communicating a lot. He just seems to have this easy, lyrical way of writing that's soothing and mellow as he drifts from subject to subject. It's really a joy to go along for the ride, whatever he happens to be writing about.

I loaned out the Little Britches and Little House series to Erin, and am looking forward to discussing both with her!

I've also borrowed but haven't yet read Dispossessed (Ursula LeGuin's other very popular series) from Chris, and Live From New York (a series of interviews with SNL castmembers) and Kiss Me Like A Stranger (Gene Wilder's autobiography) from John.

Lately I find myself splitting my reading time between re-reading old favorites and trying out new books (usually gifts from birthdays or Christmas that stack up.) I just finished reading a bunch of Laura Ingalls Wilder (Little House on the Prairie, The Long Winter and Farmer Boy.) It's quite a different experience reading those books as an adult and new parent: as a kid I found them to be exciting adventures of the American frontier, but as I'm older the gravity of their situations really sinks in. It's almost survival-horror.

Following that trend, I reopened Into Thin Air and couldn't put it down until I'd read through twice in a row. (Then I finally bought the Everest IMAX DVD, whose filming coincided with the disaster, but that belongs in another category.) Finally, I picked up A Wizard of Earthsea again. It's still right up there (albeit slightly below) with Lord of the Rings for my favorite fantasy books.

On the new books front, I'm in the middle of Dungeons and Dreamers: The Rise of Computer Game Culture. It's pretty interesting, mostly looking at the roots of modern day massively multiplayer communitees in D&D groups. Richard Garriot features prominently as a character, so it's fun to compare the stories we've heard from our friend Clint (who works for him in Austin.)

I also recently finished a book I'd gotten for Christmas called His Excellency: George Washington. It's a pretty accessible history, someone's making a good business out of publishing similar-looking books on the Founding Fathers (I read the John Adams book last year, and have seen others on Jefferson, Franklin, etc.) My most helpful resource in the last few months has been The New Father: A Dad's Guide to the First Year (thanks again, Em!), and following a recent re-read of the trilogy I read Sauron Defeated, a sort of making-of featurette where Christopher Tolkien compares early versions of The Lord of the Rings to the finished work.