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Book of the Week: The Day I Ate Whatever I Wanted and Other Small Acts of Liberation by Elizabeth Berg

I learned about Elizabeth Berg through Ann Patchett. When Patchett was asked who she liked to read, she named Berg as one of her favorite writers. So I had to try one of her books.

When I started this collection of short stories, I worried a bit. Is this going to just be about counting calories? Is it just going to focus on the rebellion of eating things that make no nutritional sense? The first few pages it read that way, but then it shifted and became something genuinely real and touching. Berg pulled off this magician's feat over and over again in these stories. You're lulled into what looks like the mundane and then it becomes specific and moving.

I read these stories while hanging out with a cat. Our landlord is gone, and I said I would hang out with the cat so that she wouldn't be lonely. So I would go down there and crank up the heater and tuck into this book while the cat danced around me and seriously considered my lap, but in the end couldn't make the trip. It was one of those great holiday experiences, being surprised over and over again by the simple reality of the human condition while a cat prances around you.

 

The Day I Ate Whatever I Wanted and Other Small Acts of Liberation by Elizabeth Berg

Book of the Week: Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain

I read this book after I heard Anthony Bourdain on the WTF podcast. I would call it a work memoir. It talks of Bourdain's entry into the world of adventurous eating and how that parlayed into him eventually becoming a chef. It's a very entertaining book, and it is also educational. The title is apt. Through reading this book, I do feel that reader really does get a sense of what it would be like to be a chef and what goes on in the kitchen. Some of it is inspiring. The amount of detail that one has to consider, the knowledge, precision, and sheer work that goes into being a chef was spelled out in very believable details. Some of it made me think about the nature of brilliance, and how it is often found in the eccentrics, the rebels, the square pegs of the world. There were words of the wise to the consumer. Never order fish on Monday, as that is the last date it can be used before being thrown out. Be wary of the specials, again, often designed with the idea of what leftover food needs to be used.

At the end of the book, Bourdain explains that the chapters were originally a series of separate pieces, and I would have to say that it did read that way. One thing that I missed about this book was a unifying drive from beginning to end. There were certainly great moments, and I enjoyed the read, but I wanted one great, big through-line that would build upon each other to tell the tale of this chef's work.  That would have made this book complete for me.

Book of the Week: V is for Vengeance by Sue Grafton

I always want to read Sue Grafton's books, because I want to see what she's going to do next. It's an amazing goal to write a twenty-six book series, and I want to see each step.

When I first started reading these books, I wondered how Kiney Mulhone, the private investigator at the center of these books, would ever physically survive. In the first of these books, she suffered so much physical injury through her work that I didn't think she would be realistically able to continue her work.

After a while Grafton eased off on the action, and it became more about Milhone's internal process. I think that was probably my favorite phase of the series so far, where it had to do more with Kinsey's emotional life, how she tried to resolve her family issues and successfully navigate her intimate relationships. I enjoyed her interactions with her neighbor, Henry. I wanted to see what was going to happen to her as a person as she continued to investigate her cases.

It seems that in the past few books, Grafton has wanted to expand her writing universe. These later books have been more about the characters of the cases than they have been about Kinsey. Kinsey's role in the books have been diminished to mainly passages about her detective work. For me, this has always been the weakest part of the books. I have the impression that Grafton does a lot of research on how private investigators do their job, but sometimes to me, the research reads more like a book report rather than being integrated into the story. Some of Kinsey's actions in this book also made me wonder. She bought a flashy car, which she admitted hampered her ability to do her work. There were times when she was unable to get a license plate. She just seems to be more inexperienced than I would think that she would and should be at this point in her career.

And yet, despite my complaints, I will keep reading this series. I am very interested to see how she is developing these different muscles by writing about these criminal worlds. I like it that she is continuing her work wtih integrity. She is working hard to continue to make the books interesting and new. I just want more Kinsey. I would like to see more of how her character would develop from here to Z.

 

Book of the Week: Noah's Compass by Anne Tyler

While reading Noah's Compass, I thought a lot about a writer's terrain. I have read all of Anne Tyler's novels. She has a certain territory that she covers. The books are often set in Baltimore. The characters are often loners and introverted. They are often idiosyncratic, gently quirky. She is a master of this world.

Noah's Compass begins with Liam Pennywell being forced out of a teaching job he has held for many years. Instead of fighting against it, Liam acquiesces to the situation and decides to move across town to a more modest apartment to cut down on costs. He moves wtih the help of his daughter's boyfriend and the one person he considers a friend. At the end of the day, with the job done, they leave Liam who soon goes to sleep and then wakes up in the hospital with a head injury. He has been badly beaten by an intruder.

I couldn't wait to read what would happen next. It was as if Anne Tyler started out in her wheelhouse and then took a sharp left turn. There were several intriguing threads mentioned. His sister suspected his daughter's boyfriend. That seemed interesting. But nothing ever comes out of that, he becomes the standard, sweet, funny figure that populates Tyler's fictional world. There is mention later on of an arrest, and the mother of the young man comes to ask Liam to meet with the boy, to perhaps help him with his sentence. But the meeting never takes place. Again, I think it was a missed opportunity for Tyler to venture outside her world.

What happens instead is Liam becomes involved with a young girl, someone he sees at a doctor's office helping an older man with a head injury. Liam becomes fascinated with the notion of having a "rememberer," someone who would be with him and help him figure out what exactly happened.  It was one of those times when I, as a reader, just wanted to put my hands on the driving wheel and steer away from this story. I wasn't really interested in this romantic relationship. I wanted to read more about this introvert who was in a potentially dangerous situation with not much wits about him at the moment and see how he would survive. I had caught a glimpse of gritty from Tyler—there were bite marks on his hands from the altercation—and I wanted to see more of that side. I wished the boyfriend had been the druggie that he was rumored to be. I wanted to see more of this friend. Was it just that he wasn't a great friend or was something more going on? I wanted to know. I wanted to see Liam come face to face with his attacker. I wanted more of those fleeting glimpses that occasionally tantalized on the page.

Book of the Week Resumes this Week

We had a storm last week, 70-mile winds in the redwood = a big mess. We lost our power and our  Internet service. All my Internet time at wifi cafes was taken up with work. I'm looking forward to writing about a book later this week!