chatty-cathy

i'm a talker, and I like "talking" books...

i don't care for books that have very little dialog.

for example, nabokov's lolita or bernhard schlink's the readerare both are fabulous books, and are worthwhile reads. but they are too one-sided to me. i'm aware that's a literary device, and creative license, and lalalalalaaaa...

but give me somethin' that i can sink my teeth in and hear a fuller version of the story.

the help by kathryn stockett is a talking book!

there are three different voices talking about what happens when the color lines get blurred in Jackson, Mississippi in 1962. the world is on the verge of change, and it's starting to trickle south, as it were.

one thing i love about southern books, is everyone's got a nickname. think about the ya-ya sisterhood... and the help is no different. eugenia "skeeter" phelan has come home from ole miss with a degree and not an MRS like her all of her friends. she has aspirations different from the junior leaguers... skeeter wants to be a writer! sadly the only journalism job available in jackson is as the housekeeping advice columnist.

yep, there's a bit of irony there, as she's never done anything for herself because she was raised by "the help" too. but thru a series of events finds herself turning to aiblieen and minny, house maids, for help on the housekeeping column, and the column turns into a book about what it's like to be a black maid in mississippi.

in 2010, the civil rights movement is a moment in history that invokes a wide range of emotions for everyone, i'd suppose. for me, it was breaking out in goosebumps in the nashville public library's civil rights room with a lunch counter replica and ugly visions of peaceful demonstrations...

or being on the lincoln memorial with hot tears escaping down my cheeks with thoughts of dr. martin luther king having a dream for a better future while standing on the very same stepl...

or the anger, shame and disgust i feel by reading this book! these friends of skeeter's are steeped in a sweet tea of ignorance! and i know this is how the world was then, and how they were raised, but an initiative for every home having a separate bathroom for the help because they carry diseases that the whites can catch? really...!?!

the fear i feel for the help who are working with skeeter on her book, i can't help wonder what will happen when the book is completed. and what will skeeter do? will she continue to say thank you--and actually mean it--to the black women who wait on her? will what they're doing make any difference in the world in which they live?

i don't know...

obviously, i'm not done with the book yet... my ipod battery died this morning! i'm dying to finish it!!

however, here are a couple of other books I loved with good talk:

almost paradise by susan isaacs--certainly not high literature, but a good story told from two sides of a courtship, marriage, and betrayal.

the divine secrets if the ya-ya sisterhood by rebecca wells

joy luck club by amy tan

the other boleyn girl by philippa gregory

snuff by chuck palahniuk

and most of fannie flagg's books

happy reading, my friends!!

disappointed...

now, you know i really try to be positive about reading, authors and books... but i was so disappointed yesterday with listening to a new book and i feel like i need to tell you.

i love, love, love garden spells and all things sarah addison allen. this isn't new to you, i know. yesterday, i decided that i would listen to it because i had just finished listening to winter solstice by rosamunde pilcher in my office...

... the reader for winter solstice was wonderful. she carried the story beautifully. i was in scotland. i was in rosamunde pilcher's world--which you also know is another of my favorite places!

that's one of the things i love about listening to novels, is getting the dialect of the region to make it even more real in my head. i'm also listening to pat conroy's south of broad... and that reader makes me melt with gentle lilt of the carolina accent, even when talking about the vilest of vile situations. it makes me feel like i'm there, and sometimes that's what i want--an audio escape!

but this reader and her interpretation of garden spells is all wrong! she's too clipped, too abrupt, with too much emphasis in spots--making me feel not what i felt when i first read this book... i want to be awash with the gentle magic that is this book.

i understand, that it must seem that i live in this little naive book world. but i listen to a lot of books and there has only been one other book that i've felt this way about... okay maybe three books:

the birthing house by chris ransom

the girls guide to hunting and fishing by melissa banks

and fahrenheit 451 by ray brandbury

and sadly, both of the girls guide to hunting and fishing and fahrenheit 451 were read by the authors! oh, now i feel bad karma* coming my way...

quick! did i tell you

• how much i loved the privileges by jonathan dee?
• or that i'm half-way thru the fiery cross by diana gabaldon, and obviously enjoying it
• and i just finished reading the immensely cute the inn at lake devine by ellinor lipman

what is your favorite audio book?!

*or as much karma this little lutheran girl can feel... maybe some residual catholic guilt

confessions...

today, i stumbled across a new blog... a novel ideaa

sometimes it's about books,

sometimes about life, husbands and babies

and sometimes about being a feminist.

but what this blog really is about--if you ask me--is a young woman finding her place in the world. i have hoped for this for her for quite awhile, and glad to see her coming into her own. however, i have to confess that her idea of a role model kinda blew me away...

thanks alice... but if you don't reach out, no one else will either!

* * * * *

another confession... i despised "confessions of a shopaholic"

ridiculous drivel.

and i was totally not interested in another book by sophie kinsella until my beautiful and wonderfully, pushy italian friend LORI put this one in my hand... and now i have to say that i loved loved loved

can you keep a secret!

i was hooked with 5 little words:

my g-string is hurting me

how many times have you been sitting or standing somewhere, and thought that very thought? or have you wondered why you are even wearing the said item... are you wearing because someone you adore bought it for you? and are you wearing it so you don't hurt that adored person's feelers? wouldn't it be nice not to have to have these little fibs?

wouldn't it be amazing to have a relationship {any relationship} with all of your secrets out in the open...

in can you keep a secret, emma confessed all of those hidden, deep, dark secrets to the stranger next to her on the plane when she thought she was going to crash and die... and then that stranger turns out to be something more... something far more!

simple concept... does honesty on all levels makes for a better relationship? would you rather have total honesty, or have your feelers spared with little lies?

i don't know... hard call...

happy reading, my friends!

book whore

OH MY... did she really just say that?!

yes, i did...

i'm in portland, oregon and i've been to powell's books not once, not twice, but 3 times, i have had to eat divine desserts in cafes that idaho falls has never seen the likes of, and of course, i've had to have the house cocktails* and actually have enjoyed being in the rain.

but why am i here--senza famiglia?!

i'm here for work... i know, poor me!! i've been working really hard too... having to sleep in a lovely hotel room since monday... have had to attend some thought provoking and educational conference sessions about telling people what to read as well as learning more about what is out there that is worth reading... had to visit with vendors and listen to their presentations, thus getting crazy-good swag... and sadly i'll have to lug home some of my very favorite swag in the world: advanced readers copies!

these are uncorrected proofs the publishers send to conferences and to lucky readers to drum up business for the authors. that's how i came into having "the girl who chased the moon"!!

but now, i've amassed 21 new books! yes, TWENTY-ONE NEW BOOKS! of, course i'll give some to my staff who covered for me while i was slaving away here in portland; some are gifts, but many are just for me... it even says so in the front cover--yeah, they are signed by the author too : )

where will i start? well, i'm still on the diana gabaldon journey with meghan... and i very rudely dropped the ball there--sorry meghan!! but after that...

maybe the ask by sam lipsyte

or backseat saints by joshilyn jackson

the next effort by cornelia read, invisible boy

perhaps my first ivan doig book, work song

the mapping of love and death by jacqueline winspear

or mayhaps the house of tomorrow by peter bognanni...

the thing is, after my haul... i started to feel a little guilty as well as a little nervous about all of the books! nervous, because i hope i can get them home without paying an arm and a leg... and guilty because, i'm just out here on a complete pleasure trip--yeah, it's work, but i have about the best job in the world and not only do i love reading for a living, but i love that i get to go on conference to become even better at reading for a living!

whore? maybe that's a bit strong... but it's far more attention grabbing than the typical librarian's tag: bibliophile...

happy reading, my friends!

*i highly recommend tom's sidecar at jake's famous crawfish... best cocktail i've had thus far!!!

BTW: i added a poll to the bottom... i'm on a fact finding mission to see if i'm a freak because of the way i shelve my personal books at home

i hate long posts...

... so i apologize. jh

slacker... i know!

a few weeks ago, i arrived home to the usual mound of mail. there were the usual bills {which i ignore... thank God for the bill-paying husband!}, the magazines, the catalogs that are full of swim suits and spring clothes {glorious spring!} and a flat mailing envelope. nothing outstanding... so after my first glance, i walked away without another thought.

a few days later, after darling husband had paid the bills, cleared away some of the magz and catalogs, that flat envelope remained on the counter. you have to understand, i'm a "piler" and have piles of this stuff here and there, so i'm trying to keep this specific counter clutter-free, and at this point i was so irritated that there were still lego pieces, many school papers and this big envelope on my counter. in my irritation, i start huckin' lego pieces down the hall to the boys' room, and then see that MY NAME is on the said envelope. and then i see that the envelope was from random house... random house!? OH GOLLY!! did i buy another book? did i buy another book and forget that i bought it?! does the said darling husband know...

i ripped that envelope open and dumped out the most wonderfulest of wonderful surprises...

sarah addison allen's

the girl who chased the moon!

well, i can tell you that right then i gave up with clearing the counters of the legos... i clicked on the kettle, made a cup of tea, grabbed a blanket and plopped down in my sunny reading chair and jumped right in.

in true SAA fashion, we head to north carolina, and i'm a goner. hang up the "do not disturb" sign, make your own dinner... mom is reading!

so, emily returns to the north carolina town where her mother grew up to find a giant for a grandpa, a bedroom with "mood" wall paper that changes all by itself, new friends with old stories about her mother that contradict with the woman emily knew as her mother, and... a boy.

i love the magic that bubbles up from all of her books, like the bubbles from a muscato d'asti... sweet, ticklish to your insides and makes you drunk on the pure pleasure of drinking it... or reading it, in this case.

and then there's the baking... always with the cooks in these books. SAA brings in a subplot of emily's baking neighboor that weaves in and out of emily's story seamlessly, yet makes you crave (yes, the pun is intended) more of the sweet stuff.

have you read garden spells yet? what about the sugar queen?

garden spells is SAA's debut and i just loved it--so much, i recommended it to everyone who came into the library for about a month! again set in NC, a magical house with a magical garden and a group of ladies you wish you were friends with--especially claire who bakes the most wonderful yummies with the things from her garden... and cousin evanelle, who gives random {yet immensely useful} gifts...

and then speaking of random gifts, in the sugar queen chloe finds books everywhere--just when she needs them. and josie has a closet where she hides her sweet stash, her romance novels and just recently a new friend, della lee. then they all whip up some magic to change josie and chloe's lives... and what happens to della? hmm...

now that i've disected these books {like i know anything}, i think the thing i like as much as the food is the ties of female friendships. emily and julia, josie, chloe and della, and even the friendship that sneaks up on sisters like claire and syndey. and you know how i like that idea of friendship!!

and next to friendship, i like to bake... sooooo, i think that SAA's next book should be a cookbook!! what do you think?!

__________ updates & news __________

*megs and i are still reading drums of autumn, but by the way i've been sneaking it to work, we should be done soon! how can diana gabaldon still keep writing this story? and why can't i put it down?!

*i'm also listening to charlaine harris' book dead until dark... it's the sookie stackhouse series, the inspiration for the HBO series 'true blood.' my first foray in to vampire literature...

*i haven't read the percy jackson series myself, but the big kid did... and altho the movie is different from the book, he liked the movie "almost" as much as the book--and that's saying a lot from him! give the series a try!

happy reading, my friends!

more of the same...

... and i mean that in a good way!

i just was ordering books this morning, and came across this one:

a fortunate age by joanna smith rakoff.

powells.com said, "Like The Group, Mary McCarthy's classic tale about coming of age in New York, Joanna Smith Rakoff 's richly drawn and immensely satisfying first novel details the lives of a group of Oberlin graduates whose ambitions and friendships threaten to unravel as they chase their dreams, shed their youth, and build their lives in Brooklyn during the late 1990s and the turn of the twenty-first century."

i'm excited to get into this one... and all of the sudden, this apres college genre is making me think of st elmo's fire. the person you were in college doesn't always translate into the "real world." and what a slap in the face that is... but you're lucky to have friends to help you thru.

and again, speaking of friends,i just finsihed a year on ladybug farm by donna bell. three friends buy a house and promise to spend at least a year there...which challenges their preconceived ideas, their bodies--but never their friendship.

they are older (than me), they are a widow, divorcee and single gal, who left the comfortable life in baltimore to fulfill their dreams. and just like life out of college never seems to be what one would hope, these gals realize that they didn't lose their dreams, but the dreams they brought with them to ladybug farm, changed and grew with them during the year.

life has a way of doing that. i think my buddy mick said it best when he said, "you can't always get what you want... you get what you need"

happy reading, my friends

*there is a sequel to a year on ladybug farm, called at home on ladybug farm...but it's on the back burner because my reading buddy (can i say your name?) and i are about to jump into drums of autumn!