Vacation Travel Reading: The East Coast

Well, I'm finally back to blogging after a summer off. It was unplanned, but it turned out that my kids were so busy this summer, I spent my time driving them around Los Angeles (even during "Carmageddon"!) instead of blogging.

My summer reading this summer has suffered from a general lack of time to laze at the beach or by the pool, but next week my family is taking it's first-ever cruise, and I'm loading up the suitcase with books! We are sailing out of Brooklyn, New York (who knew?) up to Halifax, Nova Scotia, and then down the east coast, stopping in St. John, Bar Harbor, Portland, Boston, and Newport before heading back to New York. When I travel, I like to immerse myself in the literature of the place, so I have found some New England literature to read while sailing down its coast.

On my very first visit to Maine, I'm planning to read Sarah Orne Jewett’s classic novel, The Country of the Pointed Firs, first published in 1896, for a look at what life in coastal Maine was like at the turn of the twentieth century. People praise Jewett as one of the great American writers that nobody reads any more, and I'm eager to take in her characters and the atmosphere of the rocky coast of Maine.

One of my favorite books in recent years, Olive Kitteridge, by Elizabeth Strout, is also set in Maine, but the Maine of the present, not the past. A set of interconnected stories that make up a novel, it's about ornery Maine woman Olive who looks back on her life and relationships in her small town, and it has an amazing sense of place.

There's so much good writing set in Boston that it's hard to choose one book. For non-fiction, I'd like to read David Hackett Fischer's book Paul Revere's Ride, which I've heard is an amazing piece of narrative history, and a compelling read.

I've also had a Boston novel, John P. Marquand's The Late George Apley, which won the author a Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 1938, on my to-read list for a long time. It is supposed to be another hidden gem by an author who fell out of favor in the 1960s, which satirizes the life and manners of the "Boston Brahmins" in pre-World War II Beacon Hill.

But when we round Cape Cod, I'm going to get out my old copy of Henry David Thoreau's book Cape Cod, an account of his meditative, beach-combing walking trips to Cape Cod in the 1850s, told with his trademark reverence for nature. The Cape is a wondrous place, and Thoreau's travelogue is satisfying a mixture of its folklore and natural history.

Another of my favorite books of all time is set on Cape Cod, Annie Dillard's The Maytrees. It is the chronicle of the ups and downs of a marriage over many years, set in the parabolic dunes of the very tip of the Cape, at Provincetown. I read it while sitting on a Cape beach one summer, and was captivated by Dillard's lyrical language and quirky characters.

We won't be visiting Providence, Rhode Island, this year, but it's a great city, and I was intrigued when I heard that its former mayor wrote a book about his exploits there. Politics and Pasta: How I Prosecuted Mobsters, Rebuilt a Dying City, Dined with Sinatra, Spent Five Years in a Federally Funded Gated Community, and Lived to Tell the Tale is a memoir by former Providence mayor Vincent “Buddy’’ Cianci, and I hear it's as colorful and controversial as the man himself.

When we hit the mansions of Newport, Rhode Island, I plan to pick up Thornton Wilder’s fictionalized memoir, Theophilus North. It tells the tale of a young man who spends the summer of 1926 in Newport, teaching tennis to the rich, and getting caught up in their travails, narrated by the elderly North from a distance of 50 years.

I've heard good things about John Casey’s book Spartina, winner of the National Book Award in 1989. It's about Rhode Island fisherman and boat-builder Dick Pierce, his difficult family problems, and his life among the salt marshes and crab fishermen of South County, RI.

What vacation reading have you done this summer? Has any of it reflected the places you visited? What was your favorite summer read?

Impromptu vacation

Hello again! Sorry for the unexplained absence. I kept meaning to get to the computer, but I just couldn't seem to. This is what I was doing over the last few weeks instead of blogging:


I took my unplanned blogging break because I planted a huge vegetable garden in my back yard, and then our family took an impromptu trip to Vancouver, where my husband sometimes has to work. He's been going there every once in a while for the last several years and I hadn't ever been, so we packed up the kids and had a wonderful week exploring the city.

And now there's just the craziness of three kids not in school. I feel like a chauffeur. I have yearly amnesia about just how difficult the "unstructured" time of summer is. It's harder to get the kids to their various fun things during the summer than it is to get them to and from school every day.

While in Vancouver, I managed to read Laurie Colwin's book of essays, Home Cooking: A Writer in the Kitchen. I love her fiction, and her food writing is just as good. Her voice is wonderfully confiding, and self-deprecating, and funny. Some of the recipes are dated (which doesn't actually take away from their charm) and some are timeless, but there are quite a few dog-eared pages where I marked recipes I'd like to try.

While I was away, Jose Saramago died, at age 87. I have only read his novel Blindness, but I really liked it (and wrote about it here). It was a singular reading experience. I will definitely read more of his work in the future. Here's an appreciation of Jose Saramago and his NY Times obituary.

Here's a picture of downtown Vancouver from our hotel room balcony, taken with my iPhone:
I had never been to Vancouver before, and I really, really liked it. Breathtakingly beautiful, clean, and lots of good food. I'll go back!

Where is everyone going this summer, and what are you taking to read?

Sunday Salon--Books I read a little bit of today

This week I've been slowly making my way through several books, and this weekend I've dipped into all of them.

I've been reading Alejandro Junger, M.D.'s book Clean: The Revolutionary Program to Restore the Body's Natural Ability to Heal Itself. I've always been intrigued by doing a "cleanse", and according to a holistic doctor I know, and to Gwyneth Paltrow (!), whose website I actually like, this is one of the safest cleanses out there. Junger gives reasonable reasons why, in this modern world of pollutants and stresses, our bodies need a rest from toxins every once in awhile. He also sets forth a program, with recipes, that actually seems doable. I'll let you know how it goes if I ever give it a try.

Colum McCann's Let the Great World Spin is the novel my book group chose for its next discussion. I just started reading it, and I found the beginning section to be beautifully lyrical. It is a novel about New York, and it takes place in August of 1974, when high-wire walker Philippe Petit walked on a wire between the two towers of the World Trade Center. Last year, I saw the documentary about Philippe Petit, the high-wire walker, and found it fascinating. And although Petit's exploits only provide background for the novel, I was intrigued by the scope of the story McCann is telling.

I also began the fruit of Francine Prose's close reading of Anne Frank's diary, Anne Frank: The Book, The Life, The Afterlife. I love how Prose describes her first reading of Anne Frank's diary, at an age younger than Anne was when she began to write it--it mirrors my reading experience at the same age. She immediately goes on, however, to say that on rereading the novel, feels she originally misread it as the "innocent and spontaneous outpourings" of a teenager, but now sees it as a consciously crafted work of literature. Intriguing...

I'm looking forward to sneaking in as much reading as possible this week. What's on your reading agenda for the week?

Year-End Wrap-Up 2009

We are back in town after a little Christmas jaunt up to my parents' house in Northern California. We had a lovely time. I took my daughter to see the San Francisco Ballet's production of The Nutcracker, which was magical. I'm not sure which I enjoyed more, watching the dancing, or seeing the scores of little girls in the audience, all dressed up in their holiday finery. My daughter loved it all!

I always hesitate to do a year-end reading wrap-up, because I usually haven't read that many books actually published in the year I'm wrapping up. This year I have a few books from 2009 to recommend, so I will. I'll also throw in my cousin's favorites of the year, since he's a voracious reader, he reads mostly new fiction and non-fiction, has good taste, and his favorites include a bunch of things I want to read!

Some of my favorite reads of 2009, published in 2009:

Fiction:
The Anthologist: A Novel, by Nicholson Baker
The Lacuna: A Novel, by Barbara Kingsolver
The Believers: A Novel, by Zoe Heller
A Gate at the Stairs, by Lorrie Moore
The Help, by Kathryn Stockett

Memoir:
Lit: A Memoir, by Mary Karr
Confections of a Closet Master Baker: One Woman's Sweet Journey from Unhappy Hollywood Executive to Contented Country Baker by Gesine Bullock Prado

My cousin's 2009 favorites include:

Fiction:
Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned: Stories-Wells Tower
The Believers-Zoe Heller
Sag Harbor: A Novel-Colson Whitehead
Both Ways Is the Only Way I Want It-Maile Meloy
Juliet, Naked: a novel-Nick Hornby
A Gate at the Stairs-Lorrie Moore
A Good Fall: Stories-Ha Jin

Non-fiction:
The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon-David Grann
Losing Mum and Pup: A Memoir-Christopher Buckley
The Art of Making Money: The Story of a Master Counterfeiter-Jason Kersten
True Compass: A Memoir-Ted Kennedy
Lit-Mary Karr
The Hunger: A Story of Food, Desire, and Ambition-John DeLucie
Dangerously Funny: The Uncensored Story of "The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour"-David Bianculli

What does your year-end wrap up look like this year? Do you make an accounting of what you've read in the year?

Doing my Civic Duty--which means a Blogging Break

I am on a jury, for the first time in my life. I've had jury duty before, but have never been picked for a jury, until now. I was hoping that I would have time to blog while being in court all day, but that was a fantasy.

So I'm going to take a blogging break for the next week, and get back to it after the 18th.

Every day I take two books to the courthouse with me, both of which were birthday gifts from my sweet husband: Barbara Kingsolver's The Lacuna: A Novel or Francine Prose's Anne Frank: The Book, The Life, The Afterlife. However I try to parcel out the minutes, I have no time to actually read them.

And then I'm too tired to read when I get home at night. I'll let you know if I've made progress once I'm back! In the meantime, I'll try to check in with all my blogging friends, but doubt I'll have time to write much. We'll see!

Airport Serendipity

As you probably know, I live in Los Angeles. Among other things, this means that celebrity sightings are a fairly regular part of life. Half the time a trip to the supermarket means seeing someone you think you know, but then you realize he or she was not someone you went to high school with, he or she was actually some bit part actor from a B movie that you caught late one night on cable. (Less often you might nearly get knocked over by a paparazzo trying to get a shot of Heidi Klum in her sweatpants, while she tries to buy some orange juice in peace...true story, but I digress...)

A week ago, the family and I were heading out on our trip to the east coast, and we were stuck in the airport waiting for our plane's air conditioning system to be fixed, when I saw a man who looked familiar, waiting for the same flight.

After scouring my sieve-like memory, I realized that I did not actually know the man, but had seen him online, giving a talk about education. Not just a talk about education, a really entertaining, informative and very funny talk about education. A friend had forwarded me a link to one of the TED talks.

(Do you know the TED talks? They're really great, and you should check them out here. TED is an annual conference that bills itself as "ideas worth spreading". The lectures at the TED conferences are really great, and range in subject far beyond the "Technology, Entertainment, and Design" of their acronym. The keynote speaker at their conference this year was Elizabeth Gilbert, of Eat, Pray, Love fame. Other speakers have included Al Gore and Jane Goodall. But I re-digress...)

So after I heard the man speaking with an English accent, I decided that he really was Sir Ken Robinson, the education and creativity expert I'd heard speak about how today's education is killing our kids' creativity. It's a great lecture--but more than that, it's very funny--and you can watch it here.

So I went up and said hello! Okay, except at appropriate venues like the LA Times Festival of Books, I've only once approached a total stranger in to tell him I enjoyed his work. (That was Michael Moore, while we were in line at a movie theater). And granted, I doubt Sir Ken Robinson gets recognized all the time and has to dodge fans to have a restaurant meal in peace--but still, I actually approached the man. And he was really nice! And we chatted about his book. He was charming in person, too. And he gave me his card. Which I will frame. Just kidding!

Once I was in shooting distance of a bookstore, I bought his book, which is called The Element: How Finding Your Passion Changes Everything. Reviews tell me that not only does the book tell the stories of a wide range of people who found the place where their natural talent met their personal passion--people like Paul McCartney, Vidal Sassoon, Matt Groening and Meg Ryan--it also gives practical advice to the reader for finding one's passion and quieting the naysayers who might keep you from it.

Sounds like something I could really use. I will let you know if I find it educational, entertaining, useful, or all of the above!

C is for Cookie...

I belong to my public radio station's "book club", which means that along with my membership, I pay extra so that they send me their book picks every once in awhile. They recently sent me a copy of Michael Davis's book Street Gang: The Complete History of Sesame Street. Okay, I love the title!

This book wasn't on my radar screen at all, but I must say I'm intrigued. I loved "Sesame Street" as a child! I love it as a parent! I can sing "Rubber Duckie" and "I Love Trash" with the best of them. I still remember scenes from Sesame Street that I saw when I must have been about four years old.

In the letter sent with the book, it says that author Michael Davis "talks about the creation and history of this pop culture landmark. From its inspiration in the civil rights movement, to Nixon's attempts to cut off its public funding, Davis explores how Sesame Street taught millions of children not just their letters and numbers, but also cooperation and fair play, tolerance and self-respect, and the importance of listening."

So my reading takes this unexpected turn, because I'll certainly give this book a try, though I doubt I would have bought it for myself.

Did you watch Sesame Street as a kid? Did you find it useful, either as a child or as a parent?

Review: When You Are Engulfed in Flames, by David Sedaris

The other night I sat in bed and read David Sedaris's newest book, When You Are Engulfed in Flames, in one big gulp. Like his earlier books, this is a series of essays about Sedaris's life--in fact, though he admits that his work is only "realish" and "97 percent true", his body of work feels like it adds up to one long memoir. This book was also hilarious, as all of Sedaris's books are. I kept laughing aloud, which made my husband look up from his book and say, "What?", which meant I had to read the paragraph to him. But it was okay, because the jokes were often better the second time around, and spoken aloud.

Sedaris's books often make me laugh out loud, but I'll admit the laughter is sometimes uncomfortable. This is because Sedaris is not just self-deprecating, he is unrelentingly honest. He says the stuff the rest of us are afraid to say, or at least to say out loud. And he has a finely-tuned sense of the absurdity of human nature. His observations often reveal his acceptance of the dark side of humanity, too. Yep, dark and absurd, that's what we people are, and Sedaris doesn't shy away from showing it.

Sedaris is the ultimate outsider. He writes about his painful and painfully funny childhood, his adolescence, his parents, his addiction to drugs, his homosexuality, his marginal jobs, his life as an expat, and it feels as though all of this has created an outsider in Sedaris, or it all comes from Sedaris feeling like an outsider originally. It's chicken and egg, I suppose, but that outsider's viewpoint is what makes Sedaris so funny and so sad. It's a wonderful perspective for a diarist to have, and while Sedaris's writing is self-aware and sometimes a little depressing, it's never bitter.

This book is also about mid-life, as Sedaris is approaching 50. He is obsessed with death and dying, and his mid-life crisis also includes his attempt to quit smoking. The end of the book is devoted to the three months Sedaris and his partner Hugh Hamrick spent in Japan while Sedaris was trying to quit smoking. Again, his outsider's perspective spears the absurdities of Japanese culture, but he also spears himself, as a westerner trying to learn the language and failing miserably, and trying but never succeeding in understanding Japan.

The outsider in me loved this book and will always like Sedaris's work. It's not a comforting read for anyone approaching middle age, but it will make you laugh.

Off the wagon

I went off the book diet big time. You know how it is, you get a coupon in the mail, a couple of BookMooch books arrive, you spend a gift card you forgot about, and boom, you've got a big new stack of books. Of course, I'm thrilled. To heck with the diet, anyway. It's amazing my resolution lasted this long.

The new books are in front of the beautiful flower arrangement that my husband sent me when I was feeling sick last week. If you click on the picture, it should enlarge it enough so you can see what the books are. But here's a list anyway:

The Uncommon Reader: A Novella, by Alan Bennett. I had heard quite a bit about this book, by one of my favorite playwrights, both from book bloggers and in the press. Then I read Stefanie's review of this novella, and it reinforced my desire to get it.

In a Sunburned Country, by Bill Bryson. I read and enjoyed his Notes from a Small Island a few years back, so I thought I'd mooch this, since I'm interested in the land down under.

The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox, by Maggie O'Farrell. This has been on many of my blogging friends' lists of favorite books, and it sounds like something I'll like, so here it is.

The Collected Stories of Amy Hempel, by, you guessed it, Amy Hempel. She's one of those writers I've been hearing about for years, but haven't got around to yet. Now I have no excuse.

The View from Castle Rock, by Alice Munro. Alice Munro has always been a favorite of mine, and I've been looking forward to this for awhile.

Oleander, Jacaranda: A Childhood Perceived, by Penelope Lively. This is another author I've discovered through blogging. This is a memoir of her childhood in Egypt, which sounded fascinating.

Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain, by Oliver Sacks. One of my favorite scientists writing on the extreme effects of music on the brain. I got this from my public radio station's "book club", another offering I think I will enjoy.

I'm noticing I have quite a variety of types of book here--a novella, two books of short stories, a novel, a memoir, a travelogue, and a non-fiction work about science. That's unusual for me, it's usually just a pile of novels! I'm really looking forward to reading all of the above, but I've got a few things ahead of them on the pile, so it may take me awhile...

How's my nonfiction life? A non-fiction meme

All of a sudden it feels like spring in my neighborhood. Here's a pretty vine growing on a cottage nearby.

Iliana tagged me for this non-fiction meme that was created by Gautami. I don’t read a lot of non-fiction, but I do enjoy it when I find really good or really surprising non-fiction. I just try to pick carefully. So here goes:

* a) What issues/topic interests you most in non-fiction, i.e, cooking, knitting, stitching, there are infinite topics that have nothing to do with novels? Books about food, books that explain scientific topics for general readers, biography, memoir, history, travelogues. I like all kinds of non-fiction, really. I usually don’t read how-to non-fiction unless there’s something really specific that I need to know. I do have a knitting book called Stitch 'N Bitch: The Knitter's Handbook that I really like. My favorite non-fiction book last year was Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life by Barbara Kingsolver, about a family’s experiment in growing their own food for a year. But I also read a memoir about an architect, a book about teaching 5th grade, a book about the Mayflower, and a book about a woman who tried to cook every recipe in one of Julia Child’s cookbooks.

* b) Would you like to review books concerning those? Sure. I occasionally review some non-fiction on my blog. I counted up last year’s reviews, and I reviewed only 5 works of non-fiction, but they were very varied. I tend to read fiction first, but if I hear about something really fascinating in the non-fiction arena, I read it.

* c) Would you like to be paid or do it as interest or hobby? Tell reasons for what ever you choose. I review as a hobby, and I guess the reason I’d like to keep it that way is I don’t want to feel like I have to temper my reviews, or tailor them for anyone. Also, my unofficial policy is that I don’t write reviews of things I really dislike, so I wouldn’t want to feel that I absolutely had to review anything!

* d) Would you recommend those to your friends and how? I always recommend things to my friends! They are so sick of my recommendations, I can’t tell you! I also tend to give books to people when I really think they’d like them.

* e) If you have already done something like this, link it to your post. Here are a few of my non-fiction reviews: Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, Teach Like Your Hair’s on Fire, Mayflower.

* f) Please don’t forget to link back here or whoever tags you. Iliana—thanks for the tag, and Gautami, thanks for creating the meme!


Now I’m supposed to tag 10 people. But I think most people I know have already been tagged. So I’m taking the easy way out, and saying that if you are reading this, consider yourself tagged. You’re it!

Teach Like Your Hair's On Fire, by Rafe Esquith

I finished my first challenge read--Teach Like Your Hair's on Fire: The Methods and Madness Inside Room 56 by Rafe Esquith, for the Non-Fiction Five Challenge. It is the story of an extraordinary teacher who has been teaching fifth grade at a public school in a poverty-stricken and violent Los Angeles neighborhood for the last twenty-two years, and he has created an oasis in his classroom. By challenging his kids to follow a personal code of behavior, he gets them to behave and to learn without "ruling with an iron fist".

I probably have more reason to be interested in this book than most people, because my oldest child is exactly the age of the kids that Rafe Esquith teaches. And Esquith's suggestions are great--he inspired me to introduce my child to Shakespeare, and he has many great suggestions for books, movies, music, plays, and math and science projects that I think will inspire all my (three) children.

I would have to agree with one reviewer who called Esquith's tone "arrogant", but at the same time, he tells many humble and self-deprecating stories about the mistakes he's made as a teacher over the years. It's an interesting combination. Maybe there is something approaching arrogance in the way he seems so sure about things--he is very confident in his assessments of the terrible state of many public schools today, and of the pitfalls many teachers can't seem to avoid. But I found, ultimately, that his voice didn't turn me off to his message.

I will also say that this book gave me many, many ideas about encouraging and supporting my kids' education, but it also made me feel inadequate as a parent at the same time. This guy has so many great ideas, I don't know how I would fit them all into my kids' lives. But the book did inspire me to try.

I am also interested in hearing what teachers think of this book. I think teachers would be more qualified than I am to judge it, and I'd be curious to hear what they think.

Sometimes a non-fiction gal

I always think of myself as a fiction kind of gal, happy to read a few compelling (and generally lightweight) works of non-fiction, but mostly a novel-reader. But I was gathering up books to give away on BookMooch, and I realized I have quite a stack of non-fiction that I’ve either read or started in the last year or so.

The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Mealsby Michael Pollan
Matt at A Variety of Words posted about this book, reminding me that I had put it down before finishing it. That’s not because it’s not a fascinating book, but because it’s a scary book that was making me overthink every piece of so-called food I put into my mouth. But I am going to finish the book…and probably worry about how industrial farming and high-fructose corn syrup are taking over the world…

Heat: An Amateur's Adventures as Kitchen Slave, Line Cook, Pasta-Maker, and Apprentice to a Dante-Quoting Butcher in Tuscanyby Bill Buford
A New Yorker writer gives up his day job to enter the crazy but fascinating world of fancy restaurant kitchens and works as a line cook for one of Mario Batalli’s restaurants. Then he goes to Italy to learn the arts of pasta-making and butchery. Buford’s self-deprecating humor and his anecdotes about high-end restaurant kitchens make the book. Hint: don’t order pasta after 9pm—read the book to find out why.

Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman's Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesiaby Elizabeth Gilbert
Another memoir of a writer making life-changing decisions. Gilbert breaks off her marriage and goes on a journey of self-discovery, eating her way through Italy, praying in an ashram in India, and falling in love in Indonesia. At first I found her whiny, but then she grew on me. And I found the stuff about yoga and meditation fascinating.

The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed Americaby Erik Larson
Larson weaves together the story of the nearly impossible task of building and landscaping the Chicao World’s Fair of 1893, with the story of a serial killer who preyed on women who came to see the fair’s spectacle. I found the stuff about the fair much more interesting than the story of the serial killer, but all in all, it was an entertaining read.

Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinkingby Malcolm Gladwell
This is one of those books with a great concept—it’s about how quickly people make judgments, and how deeper analysis sometimes leads to worse judgements, not better ones. It’s about how we process information subconsciously—what Gladwell calls “thin slicing”—like how we “read minds” by actually reading tiny changes in people’s facial expressions. Gladwell provides lots of entertaining examples of this from the worlds of art, business, the military, policing, even love. It’s a great read, though I’m not sure what the big picture is—it’s interesting information, but is it really useful?

I also have a few on the pile that I haven’t started, but have heard good things about:
Teach Like Your Hair's on Fire: The Methods and Madness Inside Room 56by Rafe Esquith
A memoir about teaching in inner city Los Angeles, sent by my public radio station (KPCC in Pasadena) when I joined their book club—looking forward to their future choices, too!

The Knife Man: Blood, Body Snatching, and the Birth of Modern Surgeryby Wendy Moore
The story of the 18th century Scottish medical innovator, surgeon John Hunter.

Will in the World: How Shakespeare Became Shakespeareby Stephen Greenblatt
A well-reviewed biography, with all of the usual speculation and more, that I bought because I liked the writer when I heard him on NPR.

Has anyone read any of the ones I haven’t gotten to yet? What did you think? Have any other good non-fiction suggestions for me?