Belated Blogoversary

I've had about a dozen false starts writing this post, so I’m super late with it, but that silly thing called “life” got in my way again. Anyway, this is my belated six-month blogoversary post! Yay! To start out, congratulations to the anonymous winner of the comment contest whose favourite books are the Charlaine Harris “Sookie Stackhouse” series – you’ve won a hard cover copy of J.G. Farrell’s “Troubles” & “The Siege of Krishnapur”! I hope you enjoy them as much as I did!

I had intended to give you a recap of the titles I've already read, but every time I started thinking about a book I didn't enjoy, I got frustrated and discouraged. So I've given up on that idea. Instead I'm going to list my top 5 favourite titles, so far, and why I think you should read them.

5) The Sea, The Sea by Iris Murdoch (1978)
A surreal novel about lost love and obsession, I really enjoyed the paranoia and suspense of this character driven novel.

4) Hotel du Lac by Anita Brookner (1984)
A bittersweet drama, this one is about not "settling" in love and becoming independently happy.

3) Schindler's List by Thomas Keneally (1981)
Based on a true story, this haunting novel about risking everything to do the right thing is truly a masterpiece of humanity.

2) The Bone People by Keri Hulme (1985)
If you want a novel that will make you look at the world differently, this one could be what your looking for. It's an emotionally difficult read dealing with abuse, but also about the different kinds of love in the world. It's a really brilliant novel.

1) Troubles by J.G. Farrell (Lost Man Booker Prize)
The first book in Farrell's "Empire Trilogy", this is a humorous drama set in Ireland. I loved the style of this novel. The narrative is interspersed with 'news reports' which emphasize the distance between the characters and the action of the revolution. I can't wait to reread this one!

I’m about ¾ through Peter Carey’s “Oscar and Lucinda” and ‘God-willing and the creek don’t rise’ I should be finished it and have a new post up for you by Monday. I am enjoying this novel, it's a bit silly but endearingly so. I'm getting a bit anxious that it will have a 'literary' conclusion rather than a happy one (oops, are my genre prejudices showing?) but hope springs eternal. Depending on the conclusion, this novel may worm it's way onto my top five list - the protagonists are so charmingly odd, I find myself grinning like a loon on the bus and reading while I walk. They are adorable, I really can't help rooting for them to have a lovely story book ending! Please, Mr Carey, don't break my heart on this one!!

I also thought I'd share a picture of my book list. Some days I feel like this sheet of paper is the only thing keeping me sane!




Happy Reading!

I Want To Give You A Book

I finished reading Thomas Keneally's "Schindler's Ark" late last night, having taken 12 days to read it. Slightly longer than my allotted time but I'm pretty pleased, actually. I admitted before that I was a bit apprehensive about reading this novel, and I was mostly concerned about the emotional intensity being too much for me to 'digest' in a short period of time. My apprehension was unfounded, however, and I found the story well-paced and engaging.

Most people are familiar with the story of Oskar Schindler, if not from the novel or Spielberg's masterpiece film "Schindler's List" then simply through pop-culture osmosis. It's an inspiring story about an industrial capitalist German who risks everything and spends millions to save the lives of over a thousand, mostly Polish, Jews during the Holocaust. It's a story that would be almost beyond belief as fiction, but it's true, and all the more amazing for all of Schindler's moral shortfalls. A war profiteer, an adulterer, a drinker, a charming briber who could seemingly get anything from anyone - all this, and also one of the greatest humanitarians of the twentieth century. I admit, even though I'd seen the movie, this novel kinda blew my mind. The humanity, compassion, dignity of this story was more inspiring than I ever thought it would be.

I loved this novel.

That having been said, much like Schindler, it's not perfect. Although it was well-paced, organized and easy to read, there were some stylistic decisions I disagreed with and some character arcs left unresolved. Because it is a historically true story I was able to research the unresolved stories to my own satisfaction, so that was alright. Also, the story was strong enough to over-come the minor stylistic flaws, but they are there. Overall, it did not negatively affect my enjoyment of the book.

So, I've now finished the two novels I was most worried about when I started my challenge. Neither book deserved the fear I held for them, and I'm really glad that I read them. In particular I feel that "Schindler's Ark" has deepened my belief in humanity, which is often a shaky deal (I work in retail, remember!) and therefore no small matter. For a book to actually make me believe that it is possible to make a positive impact on the world is no mean feat, and for that I am extremely grateful. It's one of the things I was hoping for when I started this crazy quest, so that's pretty awesome. Challenging fears, improving my life - books are so worth it.

On that note, I'd like to give you a book! March 12th will be the six-month mark of my Booker challenge and to celebrate I'm running a little contest. To enter, just comment on the blog between now and March 11th telling me what your favourite book is and why, and I'll enter your name in a draw to win a hard cover novel. The title is a surprise, but I will mail anywhere in the world - so, please share your favourite book with me!

My next read is Keri Hulme's "The Bone People". I've no idea what to expect from it, so I'm pretty excited!

Happy reading!

Halfway Through and a Non-Booker Book

Just a quick mid-book blog for "Schindler's Ark" because I promised I would. Caveat - I am tired, and may be slightly incoherent.

I'm very relieved by how clear and concise Keneally's prose is, considering how dark the subject matter is. I'm not closing the book puzzling over what the author is trying to say, although I am shaking my head (and maybe wiping some tears) over the state of humanity. Which, for me, is much better! I understand that some people really enjoy the intellectual challenge of deciphering an author's meanings - but I would rather just be engaged by the story, thank you very much!

Even factoring in the emotional brutality, and the unfamiliar German/Polish/Jewish words and names, I've been pleasantly surprised by how easily it flows. I'm finding the short chapters are helping me to set reading goals, which means I'm reading more than I would in a novel without chapter breaks. For example, I know two chapters will take me approximately thirty-minutes, so if I'm going to read for an hour before bed I'll be reading four chapters, instead of just reading until the most convenient story break arrives.

So, I am engaging emotionally with the story (really, how could you not?) and I am enjoying the writing style. Again, I'm only half-way through the book, but I think I'm going to be especially fond of it.

This week I also finished 'reading' a non-Booker book, Christopher Farnsworth's "Blood Oath", which was a lot of fun! When I'm knitting I usually watch TV, but I tend to miss most of the action on account of watching my hands. So I've been trying audio books while knitting, the theory being I won't miss anything and I'll be able to quench my thirst for genre fiction without taking reading time away from the Booker's. Because, let's be honest, Twitter already gets a quarter of my daily reading time. At least. Even though this audio book was only 10 hours long, it took me 42 days to get through it. Obviously I don't knit often enough!

So, yes, "Blood Oath" was fun - a spy thriller with a vampire hero, totally new concept for me! Most vampires I encounter are of the sexy variety, and even though Cade isn't as blood thirsty as one would hope for, he also is not 'touchy feely'. I enjoyed the back story especially - I happened to be listening to that portion while reading "Rites of Passage", so my brain created some lovely nocturnal crossed wires. I kept hoping Golding's parson would turn out to be a vampire, but no such luck. Anyway, if you enjoy your vampires with snarky yet lovable sidekicks, check out "Blood Oath" - I'm certainly looking forward to getting my ear buds on Farnsworth's next two volumes!

Happy reading!

Beautiful Heartbreak

I seem to be underestimating the shorter novels, much to my detriment. Although I finished reading my last book on the 19th, and I was carrying "Hotel du Lac" in my bag from the 20th on, I didn't start reading it until Monday morning! Three whole days of lost reading because I looked at the page count and thought, 'I can knock that out in one evening'! I just finished it on the bus home to tonight, so I'm feeling a little disappointed with myself.

That having been said, I did enjoy this novel and I'm already planning to read a few more titles by Anita Brookner. I struggled a bit getting into the story the first couple chapters, as I found her choice of language more refined than what I am accustomed with, to the point of being challenging. I was feeling very uneducated, which was compounded by the dialogue exchanges en francais - even though I am Canadian and took 6 years of French, my French is very weak. By the third chapter I had relaxed enough to accept that even though I wasn't familiar with some of the words, I still understood the general meaning, and the magic of story-telling took over.

I saw a lot of myself in the character of Edith Hope, and I find that a bit depressing. She's a romantic (in addition to writing romance novels) who has been disappointed in love although she seems very content with her life. After an out-of-character scandal, her friends have packed her off for a holiday of undetermined length at the eponymous hotel. It's the end of the holiday season so the hotel is nearly deserted, although there are a handful of equally depressing women still in residence who make good use of Edith as an audience. In less skilled hands this might have been a very depressing story, as it's mainly about broken hearts. As it is, I found it beautiful, empowering (there's a bit of a feminist vibe), and endearing. Yes, still heartbreaking, but that's life outside a romance novel!

I took a look at the descriptions of a few other titles by Brookner, and it seems she often uses 'exile and return' in her stories of individuals maturing. Even though Edith almost makes the same error during her exile which led to it, as she returns she seems to have gained acceptance for herself as she is, which gives her more strength and conviction. She's a very modern female hero, and I quite like her. In fact, I can think of a few girlfriends I am going to recommend this novel to!

Next up, I'm going to back-track and read Thomas Keneally's "Schindler's Ark" - hopefully I will have the fortitude to give you a mid-book blog!

Happy Reading!

I Tried To Like It, and Now I Am Cheating

I finished reading Salman Rushdie's "Midnight's Children" last night – it took me 13 days, but it probably deserved another two weeks of my time to really savor it. If you're planning on reading it I strongly suggest taking your time with it, maybe just a chapter a day. Otherwise you may find, as I did, that the style or "form" of the writing becomes really annoying. For the past five days, every time I picked up the book I said (often out loud, so I endured mockery) "I'm going to finish this book today, because if I have to it again tomorrow I'll..." Well, now I'm done, and I'm so relieved that if I weren't writing this I would be reading something else. Anything. Cereal boxes. Anything. Gosh, I feel like I'm panning this book, which is really, truly not my intention. I guess I'm just a bit disappointed. I expected, hoped, to be really blown away by the Booker of Bookers and instead I found it was a slightly irritating but ok novel.This seems deeply unfair, because I actually liked the novel. I did not love it but I did like it. The premise is super interesting, and the sentences are often gorgeous. It's going into my re-read pile as I honestly believe another look could make me fall in love with it. I can see why people love it - but right now I don't. The story is narrated by one Saleem Sinai, starting with his grandparents courtship and going right through to his own death (I maintain this is not a spoiler, as he tells you right out that he’s dying) and encompassing the history of India. Saleem was born at midnight as India became an independent nation, the premise being that they are psychic twins whose fate is intertwined. In addition, there were a thousand other children born during that first hour of independence and they all possess some magical abilities. It’s a very cool idea and I'll admit that I kind of wish a genre author had written this book to give more weight to that magical element. I feel I was tricked out of a really cool fantasy story and given historical fiction instead. Not that there's anything wrong with historical fiction, but that fantasy idea was so good, I feel it deserved a better treatment.
Beyond that, I had a couple of other issues with this novel. As I mentioned, the form, the style of Rushdie’s writing, his beautiful looping narrative and elegant sentences – well, they got really annoying. Even though the sentences are beautiful, and the descriptions are lush and deeply textured, I found myself echoing the character of Padma, begging just please come on and tell the story now, I need some action no not more political history! People, action, character motivation, please! It was driving me crazy. Saleem starts to tell a story, then stops himself and goes back because that story comes later - I mean, it's a good tease once-in-a-while but when it's every other chapter (and that's being generous) it gets to be a bit much. By which I mean totally freaking annoying. Although, I suspect (hope) that my irritation is a result of reading the book so quickly (lol!) and if I were to have spaced it out a bit more I may be enjoyed that technique. However, for this read through, it was super annoying. I also found that I really didn't have any emotional connection with these characters. There are a lot of characters, a lot of horrible things happen, there are horrible deaths, but none of it mattered to me - because, to me, it felt like none of it mattered to Saleem. Even when he's saying how angry he is, or how much he loves someone, they are just words. I don't believe any of it. The exile and amnesia segment, where there should be a different emotional pitch to the story, is only different because Saleem jumps between a first person and third person narrative. The narration is too passive, considering it is first-person. I felt alienated from the story. I don't know, maybe that was the intention, to showcase the alienation from society. Maybe this is another case of me just not getting the Art. As I said, I really liked the premise of the magical Midnight Children, but my grasp of Indian history and the politics of the 1960’s and ‘70’s is pretty weak, so I may not be the target audience on this. It could also have a lot to do with the idea of the oral tradition, of which that looping narrative is also a part. I’m not entirely sure, but it did take the edge of the pleasure of an otherwise interesting novel.I’ve been following another blog the past couple weeks, www.thinskinofculture.blogspot.com – and he’s making me feel like the slowest reader in the world! A book a day?! I can see that with a children’s book, but there is no way I could finish a book like “Midnight’s Children” in a day! So, to compensate for my feelings of inadequacy, I’m going to try to finish two books this week. Wish me luck! Also, I'm skipping ahead chronologically, because I don't feel like trying to read “Schindler's Ark” this week. I suspect it's going to take me more than the allotted 7 days, and I also suspect it's going to be an emotionally heavy read. So, I'm temporarily jumping ahead to a couple of shorter novels, starting with “Life and Times of Michael K.” by J.M. Coetzee and then “Hotel du Lac” by Anita Brookner. I feel like I’m cheating by skipping ahead, but the only real rule for my little challenge was to finish all the books within one year.

Happy reading!

It Is Possible To Like Something You Do Not Understand

I finished reading Murdoch's "The Sea, The Sea" at midnight last night, only took me twenty-freaking-days! I'm now approximately three books behind schedule, with two rather intense books looming on the reading list: Salman Rushdie's "Midnight's Children" and Thomas Keneally's "Schindler's Ark" are currently sitting at positions 3 & 4 in my queue. I'm actually rather looking forward to "Midnight's Children" but I'm slightly intimidated by it as well. I may adjust my reading schedule slightly by going back to read some of the titles I was unable to locate earlier, mainly because I don't want to be struggling with my reading during the holiday season. I will be busy and emotional as is.

Ok, back to "The Sea, The Sea". I actually really enjoyed this book, although I'm not sure I really 'got' it. There are a lot of philosophical passages where characters are just talking heads espousing their particular theories on life, love, and the cosmos - it's all relatively simple to understand, but it does slow down the plot progression quite a bit. I enjoyed the descriptions of the atmosphere (sea and buildings mostly) and also the food related passages as they continued to be very poetic and very amusing, respectively.

The purpose of the story itself remains a bit of a mystery to me, but given it's style as a diary/memoir that almost suits it. I'm sure subsequent readings will show the plot structure more clearly, in those 'aha' moments where you can see what the author is doing because you already know what comes next. It's so easy to seem bright on the second or third reading of a book! Maybe I'm just not intelligent enough to understand it the first time through.

I did enjoy Murdoch's use of mystery and paranormal elements, and also the enigma of the spiritual mysticism - quiet frankly I loved Cousin James, and I rather think he should have had his own novel! Charles was... Well, I'm left thinking he's a fairly horrible person, but I suppose he's really no different than any of us. Even if he does use terrorist tactics on his friends and family. It's really just an extreme example of what most people do.

Anyway, as I said, I did enjoy the novel, and I'm glad I purchased a copy so I'll be able to re-read it in the not-so-near future. If you haven't read it, I do recommend it. It's a very interesting read.

My next book is Penelope Fitzgerald's "Offshore" - the jacket reviews sound promising, so I'm looking forward to this one. Plus, it's only 181 pages!

Happy Reading!