This is a list of books for students from elementary school on up, and for adults. I've read quite a few of them. I'm putting the rest on my reading list.
Currently reading:
My signed copy that I picked up from the author Q & A at a writing conference in early August. I'm on somewhere around page 8.
Currently writing: I finished a chapter I've been stuck on rewriting for months!
Currently putting off: calling an auto body shop to fix my car.
Currently planning: a birthday adventure in September.
I enjoy my book club, I really do. But my favorite book club day is the first one of each year, where we choose the books for the rest of the year. It's sort of all downhill from there: the actual reading of the required books, with a deadline, leaves me wanting to clean out my compost container, make dreaded phone calls, or file my nails on a chalkboard, rather than read. And my book club is Serious Business. Nobody blithely saunters in announcing that they didn't read the book.
I don't think I've actually finished a book in time for book club in a year. (Shhh....don't tell them)
Until now! I finished this one. Thanks to a public transit study I was helping with, which gave me extra reading time while bus-waiting and such, and then the Readathon, which gave me the excuse to sit down at home and read for hours at a stretch. Also, it helped that I liked the book. At first, not so much, but as I got into it, I really loved it.
My one complaint is that it says on page one that Ove is 59 years old, but I forgot that and decided in my head that he was a grumpy old man in his 70s or 80s. Fifty-nine is not old! And is there seriously a 59 year old who doesn't know what an iPad is? I was under the impression that Sweden was not a backwater country where 59 is old and iPads are new-fangled inventions, but maybe I'm wrong.
With that complaint out of the way: I liked grumpy Ove. I liked his neighbors, and the cat that moved in with him against his better judgement. And, I liked the ending--which, have I mentioned, I read?
Here's a hot tip for you: book club discussions are more interesting when you've read the book. Who knew?
Playlist:
One of my favorite groups is First Aid Kit, a sister duo from Sweden. I think their song Emmylou is a good pick for this book.
Hello? Is this thing on?
All right then, let's get reading. Here's to you, Dewey.
I'll be starting with my book club book, A Man Called Ove. I'm on page 146 of 337. Book Club is Tuesday. Par for the course these days, for me.
I'm starting 2 hours late because 5 a.m. and I have spent plenty of time lying awake together lately. Sleep is a precious commodity these days and I just can't say no when my brain will do it. And, now I've spent the first half hour taking care of pets and typing this blog post on my phone. I'll check in at 8.
Hour 6 update
Well, that went quickly. It's 10:30 and I've read 85 pages and done a challenge or two. My 6 word story is on Twitter, @worducopia.
I'll be taking a break in an hour to go to a Pound class. A little exercise, I decided, should help my productivity in the long run.
Just over 100 pages to go on Ove. Let's do this! My goal is to be on to a second book by hour 8.
Laura Foley's latest book of poetry was a lovely way to start a wintery morning with a cup of tea. The collection mixes it up a bit, with prose poems interspersed among the free verse. At just 36 pages, it's the reader's equivalent of a long walk on the beach--a refreshing way to gain a new perspective on life.
This is the poetry of a woman who has been through some tough times and come out the other side a wiser and more self confident person. Foley alludes to a difficult childhood in "Ghost Street," but, as in the poem, she doesn't wish to go back there. This collection is focused on the future, on new love, and on moving gracefully into middle age.
One of the things that draws me to poetry is the way it can show the impact of an ordinary moment in a life. Foley pulls this off beautifully. My favorite example of this is "Dinner Party,"a prose poem in which Foley describes a party where she (the only poet among mostly lawyers) hasn't spoken a word in two hours. When the conversation finally turns to a topic she knows something about (burial, as it happens), she thinks she's found her chance to jump in:
"I will leap in with the story of how we buried my husband in the front yard, dug the hole ourselves--Yes, it's legal in New Hampshire, Yes, I got a vault. I'll sound smart, resourceful, witty, and everyone will like me."
But before she gets a chance to speak, the conversation moves on and the moment is over--a lost opportunity most of us can certainly relate to. Foley follows the conversation as it evolves:
"Someone's talking cat coffins, asking, maple or pine?--or shiny walnut and Thai mahogany with hot pink satin lining--"
leading away from the opportunity to connect, and towards the trivial. The poem ends with the effect of the shared experience with her new partner, Clara:
"Clara, shy and quiet, too, smiles as I do all through dinner, though she tells me later she could have explained about ashes, the ease of letting go."
The incident seems to have brought them closer through their distance from the others.
Most of the poems have a positive spin to them, without veering too close to the edge of light and fluffy. My only complaint about the collection is that I wanted more. When a poem hints at a larger incident, it can be intriguing or it can leave the reader with a sense of an unfinished story. In some cases, I felt lost with only one moment drawn from what must have been a monumental event. I could have read a whole book about Foley's partner's brain surgery, for example, but instead we just get references to it in a couple of poems. Maybe I'll have to wait for the next collection. Luckily, there are three previous collections of Foley's work to tide me over in the meantime.
___________________________________________ For Other Reviews, check out these links on the book tour schedule:
Here is a book spine poem I made in honor of April being poetry month:
That's about all I've done for poetry month so far. I should maybe, like, read some poems and stuff! Put that on the to-do list, I guess.
In other news, since I last blogged we got the sweetest dog in the world!
Pix was a rescue dog that my friend's wife adopted a little over a year ago. Sadly, his wife passed away last summer, and he has been looking for a home for Pix. We are so happy to have her here as part of our family. She has really bonded with both of my boys. Even the cat kinda likes her.
(A friend of mine told me that when a cat turns his back to you, it means he trusts you)
Currently Reading: Behind the Beautiful Forevers, by Katherine Boo. It's a fascinating and heartbreaking look at a slum inhabited by garbage-pickers near the airport in Mumbai, India. I'm reading it for book club, where we were assigned to read about something (anything) we know nothing about. I tried to get book club to read this one last year, but we had too many good books to choose from and this one didn't make the cut (it also might have been a tad bit depressing for some of them at the time).
