I love getting lost in a
good book. But sometimes I get a
little too lost. More than once I have read an entire
book only to find out after the fact that I was wrong about something big. I don’t mean like who the killer was or
how to pronounce Hermione. I mean
something BIG. Like whether it was
fiction or nonfiction. And each
time it happens I feel so betrayed.
The books I’ve read so far
in 2013 have been particularly sneaky.
Jan Reid, the author of Let the
People In: The Life and Time of Ann
Richards, confused me because I thought he was a woman, so I read most of
the book via a female voice in my head.
(Luckily, I figured out my mistake before I met him at my book club
meeting, though I do think I would have been able to stop myself from saying,
“Dude, I totally thought you were a woman.”) Pat Barker, author of Regeneration,
did the same thing to me. Pat is a
she. However, I listened to the
audio version of the novel, and it was read by a man, so it was not until I
finished the book and looked up her
other work when I realized my mistake.
Put your photo on your book jackets, people!
Regeneration duped me twice though, because it also falls into the category of
books I have read whose characters are based off of real people. Real people who I (sadly) knew nothing
about. Other books in that
category include The Chaperone (about
Louise Brooks) and Homer and Langley (about
the real Homer and Langley, two men in New York City famous for their crazy
eccentricity). In Regeneration, I knew that Sassoon was a
real person (though I knew nothing about him) but did not realize until after
the fact that Graves and Rivers and Owen and others were also historical
figures.
However, none of these
book betrayals can compare to the humiliation I felt after reading Amy Tan’s Saving Fish From Drowning back in
2007. The book is about eleven
American tourists who mysteriously disappear in Burma after sailing off on a
cruise, and it is told from the first person perspective of the tour leader who
dies at the beginning of the book but continues to watch over the eleven
tourists in spirit form, and I thought it was true.
Let me back up.
I did not believe the
story was actually written by a ghost.
I didn’t believe that the story itself was true. After all (spoiler alert here) the
tourists never make it back. So
how are we to know their story?
But I believed that the event—the disappearance of these American
tourists in Burma—was real. I
believed Amy Tan had taken a nonfiction event and spun a fictional story about
what might have happened to
them.
After I finished the book
(which I loved) I started Googling, hoping to find out more about the real-life
people and what happened to them.
And, strangely enough, every website that popped up linked me right back
to this book. This novel by Amy Tan.
I gotta tell you, it took
me a long time to get over that one.
Despite the fact that
books continue to deceive me, I continue to read them, and love them, and let
myself be deceived. So with that
in mind, here’s what I’ve been reading lately.
What I’ve Been Reading: Books #31-40 of 2013
(Books are rated using the
Goodreads method, out of 5 stars.)
31. You Are Here: A Memoir of Arrival, by Wesley Gibson – * *
This is a strange
book. I didn’t love it, but I
couldn’t put it down. There were
beautiful and powerful passages, but overall, much of it seemed directionless. For my full review on Goodreads, click here.
32. The Elements of Style, by Strunk and White - * * *
I don’t know if I’m alone
here or not, but I thought this classic book about grammar and writing style
was hilarious. It was helpful at
times and extremely unhelpful at others, but it made me grin all the way
through. Whether you agree with
the strict rules of Strunk and White or not, you’ve got to admire them for
their passion. To read my full
review of this book, click here.
 |
| Entry from Elements of Style. |
33. And the Mountains
Echoed, by Khaled Hosseini - * *
I have already posted my
review of this book. It was not a
favorite. I thought my opinions
about it might soften over time, but so far they have not. Here’s a link to the full review, but
beware—it gives away the ending.
34. Call and Response: New Poems, by Margie McCreless Roe - * * *
My review of this book is of
a personal nature, and I want to share the whole thing here:
I met Margie
McCreless Roe at BookPeople in Austin, Texas, in December of 2008. We were both
there to read our poems from the 2009 Texas Poetry Calendar. My poem, an
eight-line rhyme called "Harvest Moon", was my first published poem
ever, and I was a bundle of nerves and excitement the entire evening. About
twenty poets read that night, and though I tried to take it all in and remember
everything, that proved impossible. In the end, a few people stood out, and one
of them one Ms. Roe.
One of the
reasons her poem "South Texas, Fall" caught my attention was because
it shared the same page with my little poem, an honor for me. But I am certain
that this poet would have remained in my memory even without that coincidence.
I loved hearing her read her work aloud, and when she read her poem "God
Eats Cafe" about a diner with an unfortunate misspelling on its sign, I
knew I wanted to read more of her work. My parents gave me her book, Call
and Response for Christmas a couple of weeks later.
You may wonder
why it took me four and a half years to read it.
This is what I do
with poetry books. I buy them (or receive them as gifts-- there is no better
gift than poetry) and flip through them, reading a poem here and there, too
excited about the volume as a whole to sit down and be still and read it
properly. Then it sits on my bookshelf for a while (sometimes a long while) and
I admire its spine and pull it out now and then to read another random poem.
And then, one day, out of the blue, I decide it's time. I pick it up, I start
on page one, and I read the whole thing through. This can still take quite a
bit of time, even for a short collection. Poetry cannot be digested in large
bites; it has to be nibbled on.
I have finally
nibbled all the way through Call and Response, and it was a pleasure.
Ms. Roe's poems combine the simple everyday of life with the infinite. They dip
in and out of nature and religion and childhood and old age, like a bird
swooping for insects. Not all of these poems were my taste, but I wouldn't expect
them all to be. I rarely find a poetry collection that satisfies completely,
and I doubt that one exists that could quench every appetite. But there were
many in this book that made me pause or smile or blink back a tear. After
reading it, I am more honored than ever that my first published poem shared a
page with this poet.
I will leave you
with my favorite poem from Call and Response by Margie McCreless Roe.
The Box
I have found a
box for you.
A big one.
Sturdy.
It will hold a
good number of things
from the drawer
in your room.
In the night
after you were born
I dreamed of a
small box
where I could put
you
to keep you warm
and safe.
A brave thing I
do today--
handing you a
perfect, empty box
and my blessing.
35. Anything But Typical, by Nora Raleigh Baskin - * * * *
I really enjoyed this young
adult book told from the perspective of a boy with autism. I recommend it for parents and children
alike. Here is my full review.
36. Let the People In: The
Life and Times of Ann Richards, by Jan Reid - ***
This book (which is written by a man) is about a very interesting and very influential Texas woman, former Governor Ann Richards. I rarely read biographies, especially those of a political nature, so this book took me out of my comfort zone, but I learned a lot about Texas politics and the people who shaped the great city of Austin, and ended up really enjoying the lesson. It was also a pleasure meeting the author, who spoke to my book club about writing this book about a woman who he knew personally.
37. My Own True Name: New and Selected Poems for Young Adults, by Pat Mora - * * *
A lovely book of poems.
Pat Mora captures the diversity of her background in her work and
succeeds in showing us both the struggles and the beauty that come from belonging
to two worlds. To see my full
review of her book, click here.
38. The Secret Keeper, by Kate Morton - * * * *
One point for Carie! I figured out the twist to this story early on, allowing me to experience a rare and much-appreciated victory over these books that are always trying to trick me. To see my review of The Secret Keeper, click here.
39. Regeneration, by Pat
Barker - * * * *
The back cover of my copy
of Regeneration says, “It is a war
saga in which not a shot is fired.”
I think that’s what I enjoyed about this book. It is a beautifully-written account of the horrors of WWI,
but it plants those horrors in the readers’ hearts while still keeping them,
for the most part, out of the trenches.
The book mostly takes place in the Craiglockhart War Hospital, where
Sassoon (a famous poet and war hero) is sent for being “mentally unsound” after
he publicly protests the war.
I also want to point out
that this is the first book I have ever read via audio book. I listened to it for eight hours in the
car to and from Dallas, and it passed the time quite well. It was interesting to note, while
discussing the novel at book club, how the inflection given to certain passages
can change the mood between characters dramatically. There were certain parts of the book that seemed defensive
and defiant to other readers, but which came off to me (via the voice of Peter
Firth in my car speakers) as passive and nonchalant.
40. Bird by Bird, by Anne Lamott - * * *
I liked Bird by Bird, but even giving it three
stars seems blasphemous, because I was told by so many people that I would love
it. While there was a lot of good
writing advice within its pages and some inspirational passages, I did not feel
as motivated or as eager to get back to the keyboard as I did when I read
Stephen King’s On Writing or Ray
Bradbury’s Zen in the Art of Writing. To see my full review of Bird By Bird, click here.
Counting Down…
Eighty-one days left in
2013 and ten more books to finish to reach my goal. I think I can do it.
I’ll see you again in December for my final book blog of the year, but I’ll
be posting reviews along the way.
Happy reading!
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