What I Read Wednesday

Fates and Furies: A Novel
The fates would be Lancelot, called Lotto, the furies his wife Mathilde. Both tell the story of their marriage, but both offer differing perspectives. Lotto is the heir to a bottled water fortune, cut off from his fortune by his mom for marrying Mathilde. The two struggle to survive in the early years of marriage. While Lotto struggles to make a living as a playwright, Mathilde scrimps and saves, going without meals so that Lotto may eat, throwing potlucks so that they will be left with the food their friends bring. Despite the premise, Mathilde's story is not simply a retelling of Lotto's story. It is an entirely different perspective, bringing truth to the thought that no one is as they seem on the surface. Certainly not Lotto and certainly not Mathilde. This is not, by any means, an uplifting story, but I still found myself drawn into the chaotic whirlwind that was Lotto and Mathilde's marriage.

Darkness the Color of Snow: A Novel
This is an unusual book in that the title is never really revealed, leaving me to wonder what exactly darkness the color of snow is. Still, I enjoyed this novel. The story opens with Ronny Forbert, a smalltown policeman running a speed trap on a night with dangerous weather. He pulls over a car for speeding and for having a headlight out, only to realize that he's pulling over his childhood best friend--a boy with whom he no longer associates. True to Ronny's childhood, the driver Matt, is under the influence of both drugs and alcohol, as are the others in the car. Ronny demands they all get out--everyone but Matt easily complies. What happens next is a struggle between Ronny and Matt, one that ends with Matt falling (or was he pushed?) into the path of a car. A car that kills him, then leaves the scene of the accident. Following, the town is split, between those who believe that Ronny acted as an officer of the law and those who believe that Ronny killed him out of nothing more than a teenage grudge. The interesting thing about this book is that I didn't feel that the characters were that well-developed, but as someone from a small town... they all made sense. The ending threw me somewhat for a loop and while I might not have enjoyed it, I definitely had to close the book and sit and think on it for awhile.

Let Me Tell You
I love Shirley Jackson. I teach "The Possibility of Evil" and "The Lottery" every year, and I never tire of either. So of course, I couldn't wait to read this posthumous publication of both short stories and essays. I wouldn't recommend starting here if you've never read Shirley Jackson, but as someone who has read all of her published works, this was an unexpected treat. The first short story in the book threw me for a loop, leaving me sufficiently unnerved, but what I really enjoyed were her essays. My favorite was a rumination on being asked to write a children's book, leading her to write this: "I was given a word list, made out by a "group of educators," and asked to confine myself to this list, which included perhaps five hundred words of a basic vocabulary that was felt to be desirable for beginners. "Getting" and "spending" were on the list, but not "wishing"; "cost" and "buy" and "nickel" and "dime" were all on the list, but not "magic"; "post office" and "supermarket" were on the list, but not "Fairyland." I felt that the children for whom I was supposed to write were being robbed, persuaded to accept nickels and dimes instead of magic wishes. This is a very small quarrel; there are many groups of educators who feel that Fairyland is an unhealthy environment for growing minds, but in a choice between television ("television" was on the list) and Fairyland, I know where I would rather have my own children growing up."
I want to hang this on a wall. Oh, what Shirley Jackson would have to say about the education leaders of today, taking away play time and adding in standardized test time.

What are you reading?

What I Read Wednesday

To quote Tessie Hutchinson in "The Lottery," "I clean forgot what day it was!" I don't know how it's Wednesday already, but then again, I don't know how it's only Wednesday.

This Is Your Life, Harriet Chance!
This book was such a wonderful read. It's told from a sometimes omniscient narrator, sometimes second person, looking back through the life of Harriet Chance at different ages. This is interspersed with the present life of Harriet Chance. In present day, Harriet Chance discovers that her deceased husband purchased an Alaskan cruise. She intends to go with her best friend, but her friend backs out at the last minute, leaving Harriet with only a letter that she promises will explain. In her place, Harriet's daughter Caroline joins her on the cruise and the two attempt to revive a very embittered relationship. Harriet's story was compelling, sad and happy all at once. The basic gist of this was, what defines us? The person we were? The person we are? The person we hope to be?

Did You Ever Have A Family
The night before her daughter's wedding, June Reid loses it all. Literally, her daughter, her daughter's fiance, her boyfriend and her ex-husband all perish in a fire. This novel is told from multiple point-of-views, so you receive June's story but also others who were connected with the fire or the family--either intimately or just from a distance. At times, the multiple stories became confusing, but in the end, it did come together to create a strong novel. Although the crux of this story is tragic, there is a great deal of redemption and hope within the characters--all of whom are either reeling from grief, guilt, or both. I enjoyed that the event of the fire and how the fire/explosion began was not really the focus of the story, although it was in the story. There was much more of a focus on life and how you could possibly go on.

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What I Read Wednesday

Everything, Everything
Maddie has a life threatening disease, where she's essentially allergic to everything. The air. People. The grass. As a result, she spends her days alone with just her mom and her nurse, Carla, no visitors other than her tutor. All of that changes the day Olly moves in and he and Maddie spy one another through a window. As the two become connected, Maddie's life changes in ways she never imagined. This was a sweet, sometimes sad book, but I loved it.

In the Language of Miracles: A Novel
This story was heartbreaking but also uplifting. Samir and Nagla have it all. Assimilation into American culture in a post-9/11 world, a beautiful house, three promising children. Until one day, their eldest son Hosaam kills his girlfriend Natalie and then kills himself. This story is told a year later, as Khaled, the younger brother, struggles to live in the shadow of his brother's crime. What I loved about this book was that it didn't focus on Hosaam or why he did it, as much as it did the family and town living in the aftermath.

What are you reading?

What I Read Wednesday

I recently came across a list of book recommendations from Stephen King, so I basically requested everything on the list.

Bad Country: A Novel
Rodeo Garnet lives in the Arizona desert, alone with just his dog. A private investigator by trade, after retiring from his rodeo career, Rodeo manages to stay out of the limelight until he returns from vacation to find a dead man practically on his doorstep. Pushed by the dead man's grandma to investigate, Rodeo finds himself thrust into reservation politics and a crime that has many, many layers. This reminded me somewhat of a world that Cormac McCarthy would set forth, but I loved it. The dialogue is sometimes sparse, but at some point, I found myself drawn completely in to Rodeo's world without even realizing it. It's not a world I would like to live in, but it was enjoyable to read about.

A Head Full of Ghosts: A Novel
As an adult, Merry Barrett is fairly balanced. As a child, she grew up in a world of madness. Living in an angry household after her father lost his job, Merry was forced to reckon with her older sister Marjorie's supposed demonic possession. Marjorie is treated and medicated for mental illnesses, but nothing seemed to help so her father turned to religion. A local priest suggested an exorcism and through a twist of events, Merry and her family were suddenly starring in a reality TV show about her sister's possession. Because Merry was recounting childhood events, this book teeters on the verge of having an unreliable narrator, which makes it all the more appealing. In the end, many things are left unanswered and what was answered tugged at my mind for days after I finished this one. Was Marjorie possessed? Schizophrenic? Was she trying to destroy her family or save them?

In a Dark, Dark Wood
This book opens with the narrator, Nora, waking up in a hospital not remembering why, but noting that she has a recoil bruise from a gun on her shoulder. The rest of the book is told from the present day Nora in the hospital to her flashbacks of what happened before she ended up in the hospital. The reader learns that despite not hearing from her best friend Clare in ten years, Nora is invited to Clare's hen [bachelorette] party. She struggles with whether or not to attend, ultimately deciding to go along with their mutual friend Nina. When Nora arrives, she discovers the party to be at a glass-walled house in the middle of the woods. As the weekend moves along, neither Nora nor Nina wants to remain but it's clear that neither was able to leave before tragedy struck. As far as suspense novels go, there weren't any huge surprising twists within this book, but it moved at a fast and interesting pace.


What are you reading?

What I Read Wednesday

Orhan's Inheritance
After two friends raved about this book (Hi Barb and Lyndsay!), I thought I should probably hurry up and read it. When Kemal dies, his grandson Orhan discovers that although he has inherited the business, his grandson left his house to a completely unknown woman. Orhan finds himself faced with the dilemma of flying halfway across the world to visit this woman in a nursing home for Armenian elderly. The story flashes between the present, told by Orhan and Seda and Seda's past, as Seda slowly unravels the story of why, exactly, Kemal left her the house. This story gripped me. The fiction part was beautifully interwoven with WWI history and its impact on the country of Turkey--something I knew very little about until now. There is a lot of forgiveness and redemption in this story, along with the understanding that there's always so much more to a situation than what immediately appears.

The Secret Life of Violet Grant
Another past and present novel. This switches back and forth between Vivian Schuyler and her disgraced, never to be seen again aunt Violet Grant. In the early 1900s, Violet moved to Europe to study science, disgraced by her parents after going to school and marrying her professor. Meanwhile in the 1960s, her button pushing niece Vivian receives a mysterious package--Violet's suitcase, which was lost at the onset of WWI. Vivian sets out to find what happened to her aunt, discovering along the way that they're connected by much more than just genetics. I loved the voices in the story, although Vivian could be a bit much sometimes. Violet's story was incredibly endearing.

What are you reading?