friends... what a lovely idea

ok, there is just something about cornwall that calls to me...

and while the way we were was a great read about families, friends, secrets and cornwall, it was not quite pilcher's duplicate... but then can anyone really fill those shoes? i think not. it may even be a debilitating curse, if you thought about it...

so about a third of the way thru the book, i decided to stop comparing and to enjoy it for what it is-- another book by a lovely english woman who also writes equally lovely books about cornwall. if you can separate the two, you will enjoy this book.

i'm hopeless with female friendships, and so i read about them! julia and tiggy have one of those envious friendships that surpasses their school days and went into their adult lives. it happens that tiggy finds herself pregnant and very alone in 1976, and she turns to julia--who, with her three children, is also a bit alone with her naval husband at sea. over the summer, the family pulls tiggy in tight... along with all of her secrets! then 30 years later, those same secrets become dangerous to all of them!

* * * * *

speaking of female friendships, i also just finished beach trip by cathy holton. this one was set in another favorite place--north carolina coast. four friends reunite after 20 years! i can't even imagine! so much drama, and yet they all agree to meet at one of the four's beach "cottage"... is everyone in the carolinas fabulously wealthy?! it seems like every book i read, there is a lot of money and these beach "cottages" that are coastal mansions. hmm... i was just wondering...

so, this one is also told in the "then and now" flashback approach. things start out so confusing with pieces of the puzzle missing, and then the story progresses with the flashbacks mingling with the present and things start to make sense... it's one of those books that you have to speed thru just so you know the whole story!!! but this concept of friends reminds me of anne rivers siddons outer banks (also set in north carolina with wealthy people), mary mccarthy's the group and beth gutcheon's the new girls (both new england old school money).

in the beach trip, there is so much pain among the friends that is just swept under the rug. there are betrayals that they just overlook. and there is so much unhappiness... WHY WOULD THEY DO THIS? but they do. they make the plan, spend a week together and in the end {teensy spoiler alert} they come out as better friends than they were when they were in college... it's baffling to me and yet i want it!! so then i start thinking about who i'd like to spend time with after a 20 year separation... or if i'm friends with that many people for that many years?! i can think of only one person i've been friends with for that long... weird. and then to dredge up the nastiness of youth... i'm not sure there's enough firefly to make me want to do this! hmm...

so i ask you...

what's your favorite "friend" book?

would you take a "beach trip" with people you haven't seen in 20 years... or is keeping up on facebook good enough?!?

happy reading, my friends!

the jacket says...

"marcia willett captured the hearts of rosamunde pilcher and maeve binchy fans..." any other thought and/or opinions out there about marcia willett?

i was shelving today and grabbed the way we were... actually just based on the title--oh, hubble gardner, you make me swoon!

but knowing it's author has been compared to the great ladies of the genre, i'm a little excited to see what is in store for me here...

* * * * *

a prayer for owen meany took me forever to listen to, but what an amazing book... this maybe one of my new favorite books... maybe.

what happens when your best friend thinks he's God's instrument... from the time he was 11... and after he accidentally killed your mom... your mom, whom he declared had the "best bosom" of all of the moms...

or how do you continue to be friends with him when he knows that as God's instrument, his life has a point and a mission and that all of it leads up to the day he dies? everything in his life has a reason behind it, and he knows it...

the thing i think most struck me about this book is the fact that john and owen stayed friends thru thick and thin... there was a trust there that is rare in friendships, i fear. they worked as a team, not one better than the other. they accepted (loved?) one another as the brothers they didn't have...

i highly recommend this book. i haven't read anything else by john irving, but have loved the world according to garp before i even was old enough to understand all of the humor. this one will get you hooked on john irving and you'll want to read them all! (and he's got a new one just out--last night in twisted river)

happy reading

a conscious is worth a thousand witnesses...

i love the way beth gutcheon writes. it’s clean and simple, and subtly knocks your sox right off... but in a wholly satisfying way.

i grabbed more than you know off of a display because of the cover, checked it out because of it being set in maine, and loved it so much that i went to half.com and bought all of her books that i could get my hands on. she is gem that has maybe yet to be noticed and appreciated! now, if i could get my hands on the one i lent out…

saying grace is centered around a private day school in california. it’s a progressive school, as you might have guessed, and the head of the school is rue. she’s open-minded, she’s fair, and she’s kind to those around her—and she expects the same from those she leads, works for, and teaches. and of course, few people often play by those rules. one memoriable passage is where rue is trying to teach a class about the golden rule and the meaning of the maxim: a conscious is worth a thousand witnesses...

how many people actually live by that rule? or how many rather live by: it’s only bad if you get caught! the real punishment comes from failing to squeak under the radar, not from the crime. it's an interesting thought, because how do you teach your kids to be decent people when the people--the world--around them doesn’t play by the same rules as you’re teaching?

well, you hope there are people like rue in the world. her ways may not be the popular way, but when rue is pushed into a corner, and everything starts to crumble—her school, her marriage and her family—she scrambles and claws for the “top,” hoping to rise above and keep everyone afloat with her. and then her buoy, her closest confidante, her love walks away—to his new confidante, a new love? she gracefully bows out. but in doing so, she doesn't then turn her back on her beliefs because it feels better, nor does she throw barbs to hurt those who hurt her.

this a nice reminder to be good people. because try as we might we don’t always treat each other as we would like to be treated. we get caught up in what makes us feel good at the moment, not considering other people in the process. i don’t know if that makes us bad, misguided mayhaps. at some point, we all turn to the wrong person, put faith in the wrong people and eventually get hurt... and then wish things could change back to how they used to be. and yet, saying grace shows us that things do turn around with enough patience. i’m not sure in real life that’s the case… but maybe.

happy reading!

life imitating art...

is the truth stranger than fiction, really?!

*does fiction dictate our realities?

*does fiction come from the realities of life?

*interesting stuff to contemplate...

happy reading!

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...