not a reader?! what?!

on fridays, i have a ritual.

i take the boys to school, walk around the river, go to weight watchers and then go to great harvest for my cinnamon-chip scone and tea. yes, i do see the irony.

but more importantly; as i was enjoying my scone, i was reading madhur jaffery’s climbing the mango trees. this is a beautiful memoir about this woman growing up in india, and the food memories she has. it’s a universal theme—this idea of food invoking memories. everyone has these memories from their childhood or travels…

{ring ring}

and i’m pulled out the of the heat and sepia images of picnics in india, to the wet, dreary morning in idaho falls by the guy next to me. he’s sitting alone, making calls and answering them in the effort (i surmise) to not be alone. and so i go back to india and the picnics.

"you in school?"

my eyes slide across the page to the guy, who then again asks me, “are you in school?”

“um… yeah… kinda…”

“is that why you’re reading that book?”

“um… no…”

“you’re reading for fun?”

“yes”

“that’s crazy. i can’t imagine reading for fun…”

“hmmm…” and then i though that was the saddest thing. if you’re reading this silly little blog, you read for fun… and you can understand what i’m talking about. can you imagine your life devoid of the joy you have from reading? so as the librarian i am, i say, “you haven’t met the right book.”

“what?!” now he’s startled.

“people need to meet the right book to help them enjoy reading… and i don’t think you’ve read the right book.”

“i never liked reading…”

“maybe you didn’t have anyone to show you that reading can be fun"

“i’ve never been married, either… you think i haven’t met the right woman either?”

“that’s not my area of expertise, but maybe…” and in light of other weirdness in my life, i stuck my nose back into my book, deeply.

and i was again transported back to new dehli, to family-joint homes full of aunts and uncles and cousins, the smells of cardamom, cumin, and cinnamon, the lush gardens blowing cooling breezes thru the house… and then came thoughts of what if no one had ever given me the gift of reading.

where would i be today?

i’d be sitting alone in great harvest on a dreary, wet october morning. luckily for me, i was in india this morning...

happy reading

when I was in college getting my minor in creative writing—yes, i fancied myself as a writer—i began to write this murder mystery set in denver, more specifically in the area of cherry creek. i plugged in all kinds of things i loved about the area and tried to give it a feeling of the times with clothes and music and pop-culture references… and then this girl, (yes, petty me remembers her name—jenny ashby) critiqued my progress with, “no one cares about what brand name of clothes the characters are wearing, or what restaurants they went to. using these references will date your book.”

date my book? did she think i was writing silas marner? um… have i read silas marner? i was doing what the professor asked us to do: write about what you know. i know about girls, purses, shoes, music and local denver restaurants. but i was easily detoured, and kinda let that fiction writer in me die… except when every now and then, when i read a book full of pop-culture, and that snarky little writer in me comes hissing back to life to mutter not-so-nice things about miss ashby’s comments—which is probably why i can remember her name—on a story that i started to write in 1993!

so that leads me to robert rave’s book SPIN, which i just read… and lauren weisberger’s everyone worth knowing (EWK) that i read about 3 years ago. the two books are about the “beautiful” life of being seen, about two fairly nice people who fall into the world of PR firms and get caught up in the glamour, the parties, the celebs, the gossip and the complete loss of morals to get ahead of the rest of the pack… and these books are chock full of references to current celebrities, haute-est fashion, cutting edge music and pop-culture.

SPIN is told from a man’s point of view, and is more about taylor regaining the balance of power with a “nasty” boss… when she {pretty much} neuters him. EWK is told from with a feminine protagonist. bette’s story is softer in they way that she just wants her life (and privacy) back after the tables are turned. EWK is not too far from the devil wears prada nor chasing harry winston--look! the references are right there in the title. weisenberger gives us a taste of the life that looks so much better on the surface, and then a smack of reality to put all of the bling back into proportion…

and to my fellow-student’s credit, my college efforts may not have been anywhere good enough to carry a string of pop-culture references, so i don't fault her for those comments. and these other books probably aren’t high literature now and probably never will be. but then again, look at the valley of the dolls or sidney sheldon’s novels—pure pleasure reading and saturated in references from the time they were written, but does that make them any less fun to read? no, and SPIN and EWK were just that—fun reads. i was sucked in and enjoyed being there.

by the way, both books mentioned bungalow 8. i thought it was part of weisberger’s creative license for her book, but it appears it’s to be a real nyc place, a real place to be seen. and it seems it’s as hot of a spot in 2009 as it was in 2006—maybe some cultural references are a good thing… although, i don’t think i could still get in!

happy reading!

ps: jenny ashby, a very sincere thank you for giving me something to write about!

some peoples' mothers...

you may have read my previous posting about not being able to see a certain author in denver when she was visiting the tattered cover bookstore. i was disappointed, to say the least.

so, a few weeks after that post, i'm chatting my mom up on a saturday morning...

me: so what are your plans today
she: well, i have to go do somethings at church
me: all day?
she: nooo...
me: well, what else are you doing?
she: daddy's going to a car show
me: and you...
she: i don't know if i want to tell you
me: why? {my eyes narrow in that way that only children can do so well when they are being left out of something...}
she: i'm going to tucson with daddy...
me: but you're not going to the car show
she: no... i'm going to barnes and nobel...
me: {seething silence}
she: i need to be there at two
me: {more seething silence}
she: jen?
me: is she there?
she: {holding back her sardonic giggles} yes!!

needless to say, "she" would be diana gabaldon.

i know there's at least one person out there saying something like, a year ago i couldn't get you to read the books. and now you're a groupie?

no, that's not quite how it is. my new BFF, jamie larue (librarian-extraordinaire) nailed it on the head when he said something like this: when you are in the real-life space of an author, you create a personal connection to the work. because you get a glimpse in their head... and like i've already said--i want to meet/see/ listen to the woman behind these books. i'm facinated with how she spins these tales...

my mom summed it up in the text i received that saturday afternoon:

she is DELIGHTFUL!

as if there were any doubt!

happy reading...

random literary memoirs of d-town

ok, at home i used to buy all, most, of my books at the tattered cover --

its one of those great independent bookstores that you want to support so that they stay around to keep the bookstore tyrants on their toes. i used to go all the way to the cherry creek store because it had at least 4 floors of twists-and-turns, and nooks-and-crannies to find all kinds of literary treasures... not only on the shelves were there treasures to find, but the TC always has the best authors come for readings.

my best-home-town-friend, crystal and i saw amy tan (in the LoDo TC after a very fine meal at the wynkoop brewery) when she was touring with the bonesetter's daughter. it was 2001, and it was remarkably memorable night for some reason... i remember that i had a thai cobb salad (say it out loud, it's funny) and crystal and i talked about her baby that was coming soon. i think it was the last time she and i hung out sans bebes... but anyway, amy talked about being a daughter and watching her mother grow old, and the parallel relationship between the mother and daughter in the book. i don't know how to say this without sounding like a cheeseball, but hearing her talk about drawing on her real life to create a novel, made it so much more personal... so much better!

oh, yeah... so much better... maybe because meeting the author creates a spark between the writer and book-reader, it makes the book come to life in the author's voice. when i met maeve binchy, my mom and i were in the old cherry creek TC store. it was the lent season of 1999, when i was expecting ryan and trying to give up chocolate for 6 weeks... did i mention that the TC had a wonderful coffee bar? it did, and i was able to enjoy maeve talk (with her lovely irish lilt) about her life, writing tara road and then read chapter three (the one where ria and annie are shopping) over delicious hot carmelly cocoa. in itself, it was great... but the best part of being at the TC with maeve was that we were last in line to have our book signed! what?! how is that good?! she took just 30 seconds beyond writing her name in the book said to me (me being 6 months pregnant) and say that mothers are wonderful people in world with very important jobs and SHE RUBBED MY TUMMY!

(i'm sitting here verklempt, just thinking about it!)

over the years, my "status" has offered me many opportunities to meet other authors and hear them speak, but there is nothing like the intimacy between authors and fans that is offered at the tattered cover.

with this said, and again you are asking "what's your point?" well, my point is that diana gabaldon is going to be at the highland's ranch TC tonight!!!!! i want to meet this woman who writes these HUGE and all-absorbing books, i want to hear her speak about her craft and i want to know if she writes these books to continue her (and ours) love affair with jamie fraser!!

i also just finished reading voyager, so visions of jamie and claire are fresh in my mind... so many twists and turns! i know i'm not giving too much away when i say, we are once again led to believe that jamie has died. from dragonfly in amber, claire goes back to her time, has jamie's child, stays married to frank, becomes a doctor... and yet {not unsurprising to me} during those 20 years, she still yearns for jamie. after getting some news on jamie, claire gives up everything for voyages {again} thru the stones, scotland, paris and into jamaica... and setting us up for book four--in the states!

yep, i'd love to hear diana talk about the new (7th in the series) book, an echo in the bone.

here's my question... which author have you heard and loved! the one who really made an impact on you? never met an author... how about the one you'd really like to meet? or how about this, if you could have lunch with one author, who would you invite?!

happy reading!

i couldn't help myself, part two...

i gobbled up perfect fifths like a person starved! i'm not kidding...

let me tell you about jessica darling and i... she and i met on a trip i was making from nashville back to idaho falls a few years ago. you see, flying into idaho falls isn't very easy because there are just a few flights a day that come into our little airport. so in addition to all of the plane changes from tennessee, i had a 5 hour layover in my least favorite city in the WORLD--salt lake!! luckily, i had thought ahead and packed several books. i saved sloppy firsts for last because i wasn't sure about it. on a last minute whim, i plucked off of the shelving cart as i was walking out of the library the week prior. it had a bright cover, and i thought what the hell... how bad can it be?! all it had to do was distract me from all that is SLC.

um... distract? how about absorb, fascinate, grip, bewitch, captivate, charm, enchant, hypnotize, mesmerize; monopolize... (yes, i can use a thesaurus) whatever, megan mccafferty had me--i was lost in new jersey with jessica. jessica... my kindred literary spirit. i think there are books where people can identify with characters--i'm not an elizabeth bennet, scout finch, or even the female equivalent of holden caulfield. sometimes i feel like anna karenina... and that's another story. jessica is snarky. and we all know that's one of my favorite traits in a person, as long as it's not directed to me!

needless to say, i finished sloppy firsts in the wee hours of that monday morning. i had to. i needed to get to work to get second helpings and charmed thirds... who cares about my real life? i was lost in the teen-angst of jessica as she maneuvered thru high school in new jersey and into college in the city, her family, her friends, her lusts and, whatever it was with marcus. oh, marcus... ever yearn for something that is so so so bad?!

ok, that's marcus!

then i had to WAIT! me, yes, me, wait 6 long months for the release of fourth comings {actually, my least favorite of the series} and maybe because i was let down, i fell off the jessica darling radar! and here i am in the in the local bookstore this summer when i saw this cover taunting me because i had no idea it was coming out! i had to buy it for my very own, then and there--as i actually own the whole of the series.

but you might be asking at this point, so what?!

although, i never, ever want to be in high school again, being with jessica wa kind of like being with me.. we both seemed to feel the pressure of friends, the ridiculous heavy weight of virginity, the want to feel that electrified shock from being in the full rush of first love/lust, of parents and looming future of graduation, college, and then what?! toss in the ins and outs, sometimes silence, cryptic communication of the said object of love/lust... it creates a very confused girl. a very confused girl i think almost any woman can relate to, on some level. and as we "grown ups" have survived our teens, we... i... want to see jessica out of the limbo and at peace, happy with {or without} marcus. in perfect fifths (don't you love these titles?!) jessica has been off marcus for almost 2 years and then she runs into him at the newark airport--literally runs into him as she is about to miss her plane. then in her ever-sharp wit, gut-wrenching reality of the situation and on-top-of-it popular culture ways, mccafferty ends the series...

read this series--you will be disappointed, and then not, and then again and then...

i'm not the only one who thinks this series is a gem:

• “Judy Blume meets Dorothy Parker.”—The Wall Street Journal (this one is my favorite!!)
• “Jessica offers brilliant and cutting insights into the world of the adolescent about-to-be-a-woman.”—Chicago Sun-Times
• “Megan McCafferty’s hilarious coming-of-age novels are getting better as Jess gets older. . . . Acidly funny, imaginatively profane and, above all, a sharp reflection of the what-do-I-do-now, postcollege dilemma.”—Miami Herald

oh, and don't ever forget about the greatest showman of the generation... the soundtrack to the books!

i couldn't help myself!

okay, so i didn't put the castaways aside like i said... i just couldn't!

so here is the thing:

• four sets of couples that are friends.
• one set dies.
• affairs arise.
• infatuations arise.
• hurt and anger arise.
• guilty feelings arise.
• and yet, the six remaining survive... friendships intact.
  

i didn't want to read this book any further than the point where the affair was revealved because we have these 3 couples that we pal around with, and i didn't want to think about what creepiness is lying, laying (whatever) underneath the drunken flirting and innuendos we throw at each other when we're together. there is room for wandering, fighting, jealousy, judgements and hurt because:

• none of our marriages are perfect, there are comparisons among husbands--and wives, if i should/could venture a guess...
• we raise our kids all differently, and we're all critical about each others skill of this to a fault...
• some of us are more secure financially, some are constantly struggling...

but what this book did to me, is show that i'm so blessed with this family of friends that are so entrenched with me, and i with them, that together we can weather any storm that comes our way. it sounds corny, but don't we all want friends like that?!

so thanks, elin, for writing a book that made me uncomfortable, that sucked me in, and showed me that friends are indeed the family we get to choose! oh, and for making nantucket sound even better than i'd ever imagined...

___________________

something else--because i'm feeling extra chatty tonight... as i was over at Hey Lady! Whatcha Readin'? today, and she got me thinking too! this just pisses me off: why don't people think the books i read/recommend are as good as i said they were... they didn't love them as much as i did! i mean, come on, i am a book peddler. i think i know my stuff... so to answer her questions:

• Is there a book you don’t understand why others haven’t liked it? yes-- the english patient ... okay, i read this question wrong!! I LOVE THE ENGLISH PATIENT, book and movie... but i can't seem to get into the ever popular harry potters, the lord of the rings trilogy, or the twilight series no matter how people love to tell me i'm wrong!!
• Have you ever tried to convince others about why they should have like a book? no--because i can't begin to understand what's wrong with this person who disagrees... with ME?!
• Has someone ever tried to convince you of a book’s merits? yes-- and i have a few things to say about that. (1) i don't like required reading--don't hound me. (2) i don't like fantasy or sci-fi... sorry, i can't wrap my head around it. maybe i'm not as smart as i thought, but please don't hound me about vampires and house gobblins. (3) diana gabaldon... i'm so sorry i resisted you for so long!

and... i've just cracked into the last in the series of Jessica Darling by megan mccafferty--perfect fifths. and marcus flutie still does it for me : )

happy reading!

ooooky...

i'm sorry...

i have to put the castaways aside for a bit...

elin hilderbrand has cooked up this story about four couples who are the "best" of friends... on the surface. you know, they do a bunch of stuff together: eat, raise their kids, vacation, whatnot... but now that i've read enough to dip bit below the surface, ugly things are coming into light.

so, what's the drama?! the drama for me is i have this same scenario, and all of the sudden, going to have a beer at the {new} idaho brewing company after work with my friend-- who happens to be a guy--makes me feel more than a little oooky. not because there is a reason to feel that way--no guilty feelings, but because ... oh, i don't know... it's weird how these "things" can slowly evolve... eeww...

don't get me wrong--i'm loving the book... but i need to step back and take a refreshing deep breath. have you read this book? am i being as ridiculous as always? most likely...

happy reading!