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Book of the Week: Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins

Sometimes you read a book out of a certain cultural obligation. You want to have read what everyone is reading. When there is the time around the proverbial water cooler, you will have your two cents to contribute.  There are times when you start a book in a series, and you feel that you should just read them all. This is a project you started. They are all free from the lending library on your Kindle. You should just read one once a month and finish it.

At least that was my cranky thought process. In the end these aren't truly books to me. These are ideas waiting to appear on a movie screen near you, and I will be one of those people sitting in the dark, already having seen Part One, waiting to see the other two parts in the theater, because the way they're presented, that's where these ideas belong. They're visual. They're a sketch waiting to be filled out by major special effects and talented actors.

In the end it felt like a rushed production. It felt like a contractual obligation to churn these books out. It was not a thoughtful experience. There were markers met in each book; there were twists and turns, but the world was never fully developed. It felt like pieces on a chess board, and that could have been a good thing. There was a way in that story that all of those characters in that story were exactly like pieces on a chess board, but this wasn't that fully realized emotional exploration of this theme. This was surface level plotting on how to construct a popular story. There was an oppressive government. There was a love triangle. There was major girl power. These elements created the template for a commercial blockbuster, but in ithe end, it was so poorly written that I couldn't care.  I wish we were all reading Dickens instead.

Book of the Week: Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson

A  quick blurb for a busy week. This book provided me the things that I want in a biography. Isaacson had access to all of the key players. He  conducted extensive interviews. He did not at all seemed interested in creating a hachet job or a puff piece. He seemed to be interested in capturing the full complexities of this person and in telling the history of this time. I felt like I learned a lot from reading this book.

Book of the Week: The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

This is one of those books that would be classified as a fun read. It's something that you could take to the beach in the summertime and feel both happy and smart. It is a book set in England after World War II. The story is told in correspondence between a woman writer, Juilet Ashton, her best friend, Sophie, her literary agent, Sidney, and the members of a book club, the Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. This club started out of necessity for these Guernsey residents. Their island was occupied by the Germans during the war. It was forbidden for the residents to gather together. When the soldiers discovered a group of them eating dinner together one night, they explained that they were part of a book club. That story somehow was accepted. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society was born. They read from the offerings they had. They discovered that they loved writers that had previously been unknown to them. They found they loved to read and to discuss their books.

Juliet eventually decides that she wants to write a book about the group and goes to Guernsey to visit them. From there, life ensues. I would characterize this book as a gentle pageturner. There are no explosions or whodunits awaiting you on the next turn of the page. These are just characters that, as a reader, you get to know, and you want to know what happens to them. It was a thoroughly enjoyable read.

 

Book of the Week: Until Proven Guilty by J. A. Jance

This was a book that I listened to on long car trips. It is the first of a series by J. A. Jance starting Investigator J. P. Beaumont.

I think if I had read this book, I would have liked it, but it would not have been a page turner. I most likely would have finished the book and never thought about J. A. Jance or J. P. Beaumont again.

What makes the difference is the reader, Gene Engene. His voice reminds me of William Shatner. He has a similar approach to his art: He seems to dive in feet first, damn the torpedoes. The idea of looking foolish is not on his list of concerns. Engene gives each character their own distinct voice. If it is written that a character laughs or sneezes or whistles, we are certain to hear that accompanying sound.

It suits J. P. Beaumont. If you turned on your analytic brain, which is not recommended for this experience, you would have to wonder about Beaumont's qualifications as an investigator. He seems to not understand how to be politic. He often doesn't follow protocol or even be aware that it exists. He has unfortunate taste in women. But through it all, he has this bravado, voiced by Engene, that makes it all somehow funny and endearing. When Engene reads these stories, you want to know what happens.

Book of the Week: The Kindness of Strangers: Pennliess Across America by Mike McIntyre

This was another book that I discovered through the Kindle Lending Library program. It is a memoir about a person who decided that he needed to confront his fears. His mission: To travel from San Francisco, California to Cape Fear, North Carolina penniless, relying on the kindness of strangers.

It seemed like a crazy idea. This was 1995, long past the time where hitchhiking was a standard mode of transportation. McIntyre had established himself as a journalist. He was happy in his life with his girlfriend. But he felt that this was something he had to do, despite the evident dangers of this enterprise.

My philosophy about reading has always been that if someone can write in a way that pleases my ear and engages my brain, they could write about anything, and I would gladly turn the page. McIntyre knows how to tell a story. it is one of twists and turns. It is populated with evolved souls and extremely sketchy characters. It is one where I feel he was incredibly lucky. It is interesting to see, as the story progresses, how his strategy evolves in how to make it to his destination.

McIntyre has also written The Wander Year: One Couple's Journey Around the World, where later in life, he and his partner quit their jobs to travel. It is also available in the Kindle Lending Library. I hope to get to it soon.

Book of the Week: Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins

Let me start off by saying that I am reading this trilogy through the Amazon Prime program, where once a month, you can borrow a book from the Kindle Lending Library and keep it as long as you like. Once you're willing to return the book, if a month has elapsed, you can borrow another. In May, I plan to borrow the last of trilogy.

Now spoilers abound.

I cannot dispute the fact that these books are enjoyable and that they are pageturners. However, the more I read them and think about them, the more dismayed I feel. There just seems to be too many instances where you need to suspend disbelief, particularly I think in the idea of the oppressive nature of this government. It's hard for me to believe that all these years, Katniss and Gale could hunt illegally outside their district in forbidden territory and not be caught. They don't seem particularly discreet to me at all; it doesn't make sense that they wouldn't have been arrested.

In the first book, during the Hunger Games, I liked it when the rules were changed and two people from a district could be saved. However, it felt too much to me when the rules changed again, and they announced that only one person could be saved. I also didn't buy the explanation that when the Kat and Peeta, the two remaining contestants, threatened to commit suicide rather than one killing the other, the government changed the rules again and said that they both were winners. The explanation was that the government couldn't afford the rebellion if these two now popular entertainment figures died. I believe that they could have used it as a warning  and a threat to people to buckle down and not question authority. By claiming the two as winners, the government looked weak.

Enter Book 2, Catching Fire. Here again, it was hard for me to imagine that a government that had a reputation of absolute control over their citizens would not have Kat and Peeta under complete twenty-four surveillance. So Kat and Gale continuing their hunting and Kat meeting runaways in the woods was hard for me to believe. Then Peeta's story that he and Kat were secretly married and that Kat was pregnant just seemed ludicrous to me. Again, Kat is supposedly under the radar, because her actions have stirred up the people in other districts to rebel against the government, and yet we are supposed to imagine that Peeta could tell this lie and the government wouldn't immediately know that a family ceremony hadn't taken place. In addition, if there were rumors of a pregnancy, I think the natural scene that follows is that there is some sort of government enforced medical examination. Throughout the competition, there were few references to this phony pregnancy. I would think that it would be a matter of great interest and speculations among the media and viewers of this competition and there seemed to be nothing to support the story and little to no interest in it.

I am a sap. I will read Book 3. I will most likely see the next movie. I think they are stories best suited to movies. The action and the spectacle translates better to the screen. However, I have also been watching Masterpiece's Great Expectations over the past two week. Now, that Dickens, he really knew how to buid a story, and apparently his books are free on Kindle, too.

Book of the Week: The Beginner's Goodbye by Anne Tyler

I wrote about Anne Tyler this morning in one of my other blogs, Driving in My Car, here.  She is one of my favorite writers. A new book by her is an event.

When I started reading The Beginner's Goodbye, I was reminded of Malcolm Gladwell's Outliers, where he wrote that it took ten thousand hours of practice to achieve mastery. This book is Anne Tyler's nineteenth novel. When I read her books, I marvel at the seeming ease of her prose. It is an inspiration for sitting in the chair and doing the work.

The Beginner's Goodbye starts as a ghost story. Aaron's wife has died, but now she has returned. Others can see her, but no one comments on it. The book becomes a meditation on grief, a re-examination of the past, and a time for decisions made for the future.

When I read Anne Tyler novels, I am reminded of the goodness of humanity. Her characters are inherently quirky and poignant. There is loneliness that often leads to an opportunity to love. There is a fairy tale innocence that envelop her stories. It is a distinct planet, this place that Tyler characters inhabit. You could grumble and wish for the world to expand. You could luxuriate in the sweetness. When I finished this book, I felt like I had visited an old friend, and I was sad that I had to pack up my bags and go on to other books.

Book of the Week: Life by Keith Richards

My problem with celebrity autobiographies now is there is a nagging voice in the back of my head that questions whether they really wrote them. I don't know why it matters to me so much. I think it's that Virgoan part of me that wants to know what exactly happened. My guess is that Keith recorded all of these stories, had them transcribed, and a writer/editor cleaned them up a bit but retained his voice. That's what I think. But I'm a transcriptionist. It suits my world view.

But it also fits in with the way Richards described how he and Jagger wrote songs together. It was often something that happened in a very short, intense period, often while they were recording. There was thoughts about how words are sung, where certain vowels should be to make it easier for the singer and where a certain vowel sound would tonally make sense to the ear for the purpose of the song. He talked about giving Jagger a big idea of what the song should be, giving him a few key words. There are times in the book where lyrics are printed out. I think that's a mistake. These are words that are meant to be heard with that great music around it. Alone on a page, they don't work nearly as well.

This collaborative nature of writing is also shown in the structure of the book. At times for certain events that he wants highlighted, Keith will give up the stage for a moment to another voice. There will be an account from another person who had an opinion or a recollection. It fit in well with the style of this book. It is casual in tone and yet earnest in its accounting. It is sometimes gossipy. I think if you are a guitar player, it must be heaven to read, because Keith goes into detail on how he found his particular style of playing. One thing I loved to read in the book was about his friendships with other musicians. He very much seems to be a person who admires and respects those who came before him, and I liked the way he paid tribute to other styles of music and other musicians in this book.

I also liked how honest he was about his addictions. It was often graphic and unflattering, and he was willing to depict that time in an unflinching manner. This book was a real page turner. I was glad to have read it.

NOTE (04/19/12):  When I was listening to Marc Maron's podcast this week, Stephen Merchant made reference to the Rolling Stones and said that Charlie Watts was using heroin later in his career. What? Why didn't Keith mention this? I Googled it and found that Charlie Watts had gone public about it and even credited Richards for helping him.  It's knocked my view of the book a little.

 

 

Book of the Week: Zeitoun by Dave Eggers

This was one of those books that I didn't want to put down and that I did not want to read right before I went to sleep. It was both riveting and heartbreaking to me. It was one of those books where I could think of so many friends who I think would want to read it. It was a book where, when I discovered that someone had read it, we could just look at each other and not really have to say much more. It is a profound experience to read this book.

Zeitoun is a true story. It takes place in New Orleans before and after Katrina. It tells the story of a family, the Zeitouns. Abdulrahman is an independent contractor who takes his work very seriously. He decides to stay in the city during Katrina and look after his properties. Kathy and his children leave New Orleans to stay with family and friends. The book then gives an accounting of what happens to Abdulrahman, as he tries to look after his home, his properties, and people and animals who need help in the aftermath of the storm.

It is sometimes a harrowing tale, and I very much appreciated how Eggers wrote with such simplicity and quietness. He understood that this is a story that is so inherently full of feelings and events that there is no need to try to elevate the horror of the injustices taking place. This is a book that will definitely haunt your brain. It is a noble book.

 

Zeitoun by Dave Eggers

 

Book of the Week: Mad Men Unmasked: Decoding Season 4

With Mad Men starting up again on Sunday, this seemed like the perfect primer to read beforehand. I  found it to be intelligently written. It served as a reminder to me of all the plot points of the previous season plus Engoron's commentary made me think more about the characters' trajectories. Engoron writes wtih wit and insight. I didn't always agree with her opinions (I may be the one audience member on earth who has trouble with the Sally plotline), but I appreciated her thoughts, and it did fire me up for the upcoming season.

(I do agree that Don's second marriage will be a mistake. Faye was the woman who got away.)

The book is available through Amazon. I would highly recommend it.