Review: Belle Weather: Mostly Sunny With A Chance of Scattered Hissy Fits, by Celia Rivenbark

Celia Rivenbark is a comedic goddess.

Belle Weather is a collection of essays written from Rivenbark's southern belle redneck perspective, a mixture that makes her humor simultaneously highbrow and mildly trashy. Her topics range from home repair problems (Possum Chokes on Packing Peanuts, Gross Film At Eleven) to children's literature (Harry Potter Bitch Slaps Nancy Drew), and they are all hysterical. HYSTERICAL, people! As in, my coffee almost beat a hasty retreat out my nose more than once.

The best part about this book is that it's not apologetic, not self-depreciating, not anything but straight-out brassy. Yet, while whipping out the bitch like nobody's business, Rivenbark still comes across as completely likable. Anyone who has read and liked Tanis-style humor over at Attack of the Redneck Mommy would love this. In fact, I need to email her and tell her to run out and get a copy, if she hasn't already. You should get one, too. Just don't drink anything while you're reading. It won't be pretty.

Rating: five out of five stars - effing hysterical, perfect for dragging you out of winter dumps

Review: 'Tis The Season, by Lorna Landvik

This is a fun book, and I can think of several people off the top of my head who would like it, like Kristi, especially.

'Tis The Season isn't a novel in the traditional sense. It makes me think a little of Griffin and Sabine, because it's built entirely of correspondence (and the occasional gossip column entry) between Caro, a young heiress / alcoholic / socialite, Astrid, Caro's her former nanny, and Cyril, the owner of a dude ranch that Caro was sent to when her father was dying. The story begins with Caro as an emotionally desperate alcoholic who has alienated not only all her friends and family, but the entire country thanks to the publication of a written drunken tirade that was stolen by a waiter and published in a gossip column. Eventually, Caro checks herself into rehab (which is mentioned but not detailed explicitly), and as a part of her recovery, has to apologize to people she has wronged in the past. Her letters to Astrid and Cyril are part of that process, but then develop into the first real emotional relationships of her life.

This is the perfect book for a lazy, snowbound morning, or a spell at the beach, or anytime you want something to read that isn't going to be difficult to put down and pick back up. The characters are engaging, and the story unfolds in an easygoing, conversational style that makes almost for a feeling of being a fly on the wall. There are a few surprises, some sadness, but mostly this is an uplifting story. The ending was entirely predictable, but I was OK with that. After all, a breezy story should have a breezy, satisfying ending.

Rating: four out of five stars: fun, quick, feel-good reading for a rainy (snowy) day

Review: The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, by Junot Diaz

Oscar Wao, a 300lb teenage virgin of Dominican heritage, endures humiliations galore in Junot Diaz's second novel. His family is a mess; his father disappeared long ago, his emotionally and physically scarred mother has breast cancer, his brother is an ex-con sexual dynamo, and his sister is such a handful that their mother sent her to live with her grandmother in the Dominican Republic. His friends, nerds themselves, are embarassed to be seen with him. His only dependable refuge lies in the role-playing universes he creates, where he envisions himself rescuing the damsel, showing her the carred body of her boyfriend, and then riding off with her into the nuclear-blasted sunset.

I was just beginning to get really into Oscar, and start rooting for him, when Diaz completely switched tactics, abandons Oscar for over a hundred pages, and instead tells the story of his sister, and his mother's adolescence. The time-jumping and character-shifting made it hard for me to really develop a relationship with the characters, and by the time Oscar was re-introduced, I had all but lost steam for the book. Neither Oscar's mother nor his sister are very likable, so getting through their portions was a struggle in itself.

Another difficulty arises in the constant switching between Spanish and English. While most of it isn't too hard to figure out, for a person who isn't fluently bilingual it definitely took away from my enjoyment of the book simply because there was so much of it. A phrase now and again is one thing; several sentences in a row, and peppering of almost every sentence, was too much. I know that there are probably additional nuances and meanings to many of the words that I missed out on by inferring their meanings and that would have increased my enjoyment of the book had I been able to understand. Additionally, there is a lot of social and cultural history of the DR presented in footers and which is constantly being referenced; this added to the language barrier was a lot to cope with.

I understand why this book has been popular, and I think I might enjoy it if it came out in movie format, simply because there would probably be some subtitles and I would have the visual connection to help bridge any gaps. Also, Diaz's descriptions are incredibly lush, and while reading extensive descriptions can be dull, actually seeing them, particularaly the scenes in the DR, would be wonderful. I have heard that Diaz's reading of the book-on-cd is great, too.

I wish there had been more of a focus on Oscar, and that he hadn't been dropped for so long right after we really got to know him. Even if it had made the book longer, to jog back and forth a few times to visit him between the backrounding of other characters, it would have been a massive improvement. The family is incredibly disjointed, so it makes sense that the novel would translate that fact, but that in turn translated into my feeling disjointed myself the entire time I was reading.

Rating: three out of five stars for my personal enjoyment; had I been able to speak Spanish, it would probably have been a lot higher

Review: How Starbucks Saved My Life, by Michael Gates Gill

I initially found out about this book when Michael Gates Gill was interviewed on NPR a couple of weeks ago. Since I am a complete Starbucks-a-holic, I was intrigued by his story, so I decided to check out the book.

How Starbucks Saved My Life: A Son of Privilege Learns to Live Like Everyone Else is Gill's memoir of his immense fall from the social elite into almost literally nothingness. After being let go from the high-paying advertising job he had been ushered into right after college thanks to the ivy league network, and losing his wife and friends thanks to an affair that led to a child, Gill found himself alone, with no money, no prospects and no way to pay his rent at the age of 63, a time when most people are hoping and planning to retire shortly. Instead, while stewing in his despair at a Starbucks across from his childhood home one day, he ended up meeting a dynamic young African American store manager who eventually gave him a job. A few weeks later, he found himself far from making ad campaign pitches to brass at the Pentagon, instead polishing the brass handles in a local Starbucks bathroom.

Surprisingly, Gill loved his new job, and learned a great deal about himself and others while scrubbing tile. Eventually, he was able to gain confidence and skills, and was promoted to Barista. However, the most important lessons he learned were about wrongs he committed in the past, when he had allowed his perceived class-based superiority to influence everything about his life, including his own hidden feelings of inferiority. Eventually, ironically, he saw that these feelings were warped - he was right to feel that he didn't deserve what he had achieved, but only because the entire basis upon which he had achieved it had been flawed. Gill cultivated a new sense of respect for himself and others, and for the first time in his life, is truly happy.

This was a quick read, and I found it to be very uplifting. While occasionally mildly repetitive, the underlying message was honest and ingratiating. Gill is a well-polished storyteller, and included many anecdotes from his previous jet-setting life about various meetings with the uber-famous, from Jackie Kennedy to Hemingway. These tidbits underscored the huge transition that Gill had made, and yet never came across as self-pitying or yearning for the past. Gill's transformation is believable, and certainly is a wonderful advertisement for Starbucks in general. I'm mildly surprised that the chain doesn't offer the book for sale in its stores (at least I haven't seen it) as it has various other novels.

Rating: three out of five stars. An interesting, uplifting evening's read.

Reviews: The Friday Night Knitting Club, and Knit Two, by Kate Jacobs

These two books, particularly The Friday Night Knitting Club, made me want to dig out my knitting needles and actually learn to make something amazing. I could almost feel the soft yarn, hear the clicking, and feel soothed. I devoured them in two days.

While this isn't to say that they're great literature, there is definitely something to be said for a book that is perfect for a cold winter's day, easy on the mind and soft for the soul. I love books that follow several intertwining stories, and allow me to see events from different perspectives. FNKC did that to an extent, and then Knit Two expanded on that concept, following every character introduced in the first book through his or her own plot line while always maintaining a solid connection to the main story.

FNKC is most completely the story of Georgia, a single mom to twelve year-old Dakota, ex-lover to the newly-returned James, and adopted daughter to Anita. Her knitting shop, Walker and Daughter, hosts the Friday Night Knitting Club, which begins as random assembly of women and evolves into a family cobbled together to feed the women's hungry spirits. Georgia wades through her initial self-concept of herself as a not - not friend, not lover, not daughter, not what she had dreamed of being - and allows herself to accept life for what it is rather than what it is not, learning to forgive others as well as herself. SPOLIER ALERT: I was not quite sure why Jacobs felt the need to have Georgia die. It seemed a little abrupt, and disheartening; figure out life, accept happiness, and then you can die, leaving all the people you have drawn into your life, including your teenaged daughter, adrift. Whee.

However, thankfully, I didn't get to reading this book until well after its sequel's publication, which soothed my upset over Georgia's death by moving forward with all the characters whose lives she touched. The sequel was really necessary, in my mind, and while K2 was much more spread out than FNKC (because it followed all the characters from K2 equally rather than picking one main vantage point and venturing out from there to others tangentally), it seemed appropriate to follow these women out from the shop into the world and back again, their stories knitted together like variegated yarn. While there were many characters, I actually was interested in almost all of them, and cared about their outcome. Anita and Catherine were my favorites, and Dakota was my least, but that may be a reflection of where I am in my own life. I suspect a younger woman might find Dakota the most compelling.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading these books. As I said, not great literature per se, but a pleasure to read. I would definitely read other books by Jacobs.

Rating: four out of five stars - enjoyable, light, well-written, engaging

Roxana Robinson on Literally Booked's Review of 'Cost'

Hey all,

Roxana Robinson, author of Cost, posted on here - she read my review! (I'll paste it below, since she didn't post the comment on my actual review, but put it on the announcement for February's book.) Unfortunately, she's surprisingly upset that I wasn't as complimentary as she would have liked. She points out that Jack is introduced early on in the book, which is true, but I stand by my original statement that his actual story line and major participation does not begin until much later, and the book would have benefited from his introduction earlier as a first-person participant. I appreciate that she read the review, and am sorry that I didn't like it as much as she would have wanted, but not everyone will like everything. In fact, I did finish the review by saying that it was a good read once the pace picked up, and that people should go to the library to get it. I almost always go to the library first, and then buy later. I think it's nice that some authors are concerned that every likes their books, even when they have received acclaim from major publications. However, just because I don't like one book as much as another doesn't mean that I don't understand it, just that I didn't enjoy it as much. All reviewers are readers, and all readers are potential reviewers, so insinuating that I am not a valuable critic, or that I'm less then intelligent, simply because my website isn't a major publication, should either mean that my opinion is less valid, and therefore be discounted entirely and not such a source of upset to an author whose work I don't rave about, or that my opinion is just as valid as everyone else's, and should therefore be respected, as those of the several people who also reviewed this novel on Amazon and agreed with many of the things I mentioned in my review.

Roxanne, in case you happen to troll the internet looking for mentions of your book again (this is the only way I can think of that you happened upon my site), Chantal wasn't looking for Cost, she was looking for The Next Thing On My List, which was last month's book club selection. I am always careful to post links to Amazon for every book I mention on here, so everyone who read my review of your novel will be able to order it by clicking onto the link. Thanks for coming by, and if I read another of your books, I'll email to let you know what I think.

******************************

Astarte:
Just to set the record straight on my book, Cost, which you trashed last month, here are a few facts: Jack is introduced in the first chapter. His drug problem is introduced early, and his heroin addiction is announced by Stephen on page 94.

As to the rest of your comments, you might be interested in reading reviews of the book by real critics in The New York Times, the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, the Chicago Tribune, People, Down East magazine and many other publications.
All of these reviewers understood the book and what it was about.
It was an Editors' Choice at the New York Times, named one of the 10 Best Books of the Year at the Washington Post, one of the Twelve Best Books of the Year by the Wall Street Journal, and one of the Best Books of the Year at the Seattle Tribune and the Chicago Tribune.

Chantal, you ought to be able to order the book at any bookstore. If not, Amazon will get it to you.

Roxana Robinson

January 19, 2009 9:45 AM

February's Book Is....

The Story of Edgar Sawtelle, by David Wroblewski. This one has been sitting on my shelf for awhile now, and I've really been wanting to get to it. I hope everyone enjoys it!! Questions will be posted around February 15th.

The Amazon review:
Amazon.com Review
Amazon Best of the Month, June 2008: It's gutsy for a debut novelist to offer a modern take on Hamlet set in rural Wisconsin--particularly one in which the young hero, born mute, communicates with people, dogs, and the occasional ghost through his own mix of sign and body language. But David Wroblewski's extraordinary way with language in The Story of Edgar Sawtelle immerses readers in a living, breathing world that is both fantastic and utterly believable. In selecting for temperament and a special intelligence, Edgar's grandfather started a line of unusual dogs--the Sawtelles--and his sons carried on his work. But among human families, undesirable traits aren't so easily predicted, and clashes can erupt with tragic force. Edgar's tale takes you to the extremes of what humans must endure, and when you're finally released, you will come back to yourself feeling wiser, and flush with gratitude. And you will have remembered what magnificent alchemy a finely wrought novel can work. --Mari Malcolm

The Next Thing On My List: Question 3: What do you think of the idea of completing someone else's list?

The Next Thing On My List: Question 2: What Kinds Of Things Would Be On Your List?

The Next Thing On My List: Question 1: Did You Like This Book? Why?

Review: The Next Thing On My List, by Jill Smolinski

The Next Thing on My List is an easy-to-read story about a young woman, June, who changes her life by completing the 'to-do' list created by Marissa, a young woman who died in June's car during an accident. Until that point, June had been a stereotypical gen X slacker, drifting through her life, not really making any effort to further herself in any way. Her guilt and devastation over being the driver of the car where someone died serve as the impetus for a six-month evolution where, thanks to Marissa's list, she overhauls her personal life, career, and emotional health.

Some of the items on the list are simple, such as eat ice cream in public, and some are tough, like kiss a stranger. A few are very, very difficult for June, such as make a major pitch at work, or find someone from Marissa's past and 'make them pay'. As June goes along the list, one checked-off item leads into another, almost like nesting-dolls of fate.

The story flows pretty well, although sometimes things were a little too easy, and the characters are interesting. Actually, I found some of the other characters more interesting than June, especially Deedee, the Little Sister she meets as a result of the item, 'change someone's life'. June's life was actually a little boring, but then, that was the point of the book, that she'd done almost nothing lasting in her life, nothing of interest. She was a blank slate. By the end of the book, June was an interesting person.

Another thing I liked about this book is that it's a reminder that, yes, we *can* all change our lives, or other people's lives, by making a few decisions, and putting ourselves out there. Our biggest enemy is usually ourselves and our own inertia.

Rating: three out of five stars: light, quick reading, entertaining, somewhat uplifting.

When You Are Engulfed In Flames, by David Sedaris

I will not be able to say as much about When You Are Engulfed In Flames as I usually do when I review, because I didn't finish it.

I put it down in disgust.

Not only did I find this book generally unfunny, although it was mildly amusing at times, I found it downright mean. As in, the kind of mean that gives the reader bad karma. Case in point: I stopped reading at the end of an essay about an elderly neighbor who suffered and died after falling from a stepstool while trying to fix something that she had asked Sedaris, who routinely went over there to watch soap operas, to take care of for her. After she died, his partner asked him why on earth she would have been on a stepstool, and he thought something about how people usually feel bad in these situations, even partially responsible, but looked at his partner and said 'beats me'.

I believe that people can be assholes and also be very, very funny, because it's an act, like Dennis Leary. David Sedaris is just an asshole, and this book was nowhere near funny enough for me to finish after that. I know that others who have read his other works have said that he is usually very, very funny, and that he is just 'off' in this book, but I will not be finding out. There are a lot of other things out there to read that don't make me feel like I'm supporting Assholery.

Rating: Zero.

Long Time, No Post!

I know I have been ignoring this blog hopelessly, but the truth is, with the holidays, I haven't been reading as much. It might also have something to do with a new DS game that has me possessed. OK, Zelda has had me under her power, but I'm almost done, so the madness will soon end!

Anyway, I have read one book, or part of one, and I've been meaning to post about it, so I'll do that in a minute. But, I wanted to thank Kristi again for picking The Next Thing On My List, and say that I'll post questions for that lovely at the usual time, around the 15th.