What I Read Wednesday

The Telling Room: A Tale of Love, Betrayal, Revenge, and the World's Greatest Piece of Cheese
I didn't remember requesting this book, so when it came in from the library, I was like, "Why on earth did I want to read a book about cheese?" Except that I really like cheese, so I figured that was probably why I requested it. I am definitely glad that I did, because as the title suggests, it's about more than cheese. The author is a brilliant storyteller and weaves a tale of the small Spanish village of Guzman, a mystical cheese, the cheese maker, his wine, his stories and his betrayal. Although the book wanders at points, the tale of Ambrosio and his cheese is one that hooked me in enough to keep me reading and wanting more.

Aaaand... that's all I read this week. Somehow I had no free time and during silent reading time, my students kept interrupting to ask me how my pirate monkey book was going. Yeah. It's been of THOSE weeks. Hopefully I can tell you about my pirate monkey book next week. What are you reading?

What I Read Wednesday

Turn Around Bright Eyes: The Rituals of Love and Karaoke
This was an interesting book. When I checked it out, I was kind of thinking, Am I really going to like this? I'm not a karaoke person. How is this memoir going to work for me? But it did. Rob Sheffield examines his own life, after suddenly becoming a young widow, through karaoke. He writes of how, in a way, karaoke saved him. The book goes way beyond that, but overall, it was just an easy, enjoyable read.

Night Film: A Novel
I feel like this will either be one of those books that you love or hate, no in between (and if you read it or have read it, please tell me which category you fall into). First of all, it's a mystery novel, but it's 600 pages. So it is not the fluffy mystery novel that you take to the beach. It's also one of those books where the author has created multimedia inserts to enhance the novel, such as newspaper articles and websites, to make it more realistic. This is a touch that I love.
Scott McGrath is a journalist who has an obsession with underground film maker, Stanislav Cordova. Cordova's films are so dark that they've been banned from mainstream movie theatres and are now, literally, shown underground: in subway tunnels and other hidden venues. The director himself hasn't been seen or heard from in years and is as mysterious as his films. McGrath lost his job over calling Cordova a predator. When Cordova's daughter is found dead, McGrath sets out to find the truth about her death and about Cordova, following a twisting passageway as dark as one of Cordova's film.
This book definitely pulled me in. I didn't want to stop reading it. I would bring it to work to read during silent reading time and I would think about it sitting on my desk and want to read it right then and there. It's good. Really good.

Oryx and Crake
Apparently the final book in this trilogy was just released, so I thought it was a good time to check out the first book. Snowman, formerly known as Jimmy, is the last surviving human in a post-apocalyptic world. Unless you count the children of Crake, who are somewhat human but are engineered to have some of the more desirable qualities of various animals. Throughout the story, Jimmy weaves the present with the past as he tells what happened to bring about the end of the world. I loved it and can't wait to read the next two.

What are you reading?

What I Read Wednesday(s)

So hey, I've been reading, but every Tuesday night, I put the kids to bed and make lunches and then I'm just too tired to blog about what I'm reading. I miss summer. A lot.


Orange Is the New Black: My Year in a Women's Prison
I love the Netflix show. Like, devoured it in three days and when does season two release?! I knew that the book really only loosely followed the first three episodes, so I wasn't expecting the TV show in book form, but I was still interested to read Piper's memoir. It was interesting in a lot of ways, but not the ultimate redemption story that I was hoping for, for many reasons. I'll be honest, if I was in prison with Piper, I would've shivved her simply for the mention of all the mail she received compared to the other women. And not just mail, but special mail from her friends who have Louis Vuitton stationary. I just couldn't get past the author's uppity tone. She got more mail. The prisoners all stayed within their racial divides, except her. She was friends with EVERYONE. It's evident that she comes from a more privileged lifestyle, which is part of what's intriguing about the book, but I guess I just found some of the mentions unnecessary. I also found the ending really disappointing. She spent the entire book talking about these women she met in prison and how they were all getting out at the same time and she wrote down their information so she could connect with them outside. Here is this woman with an education and connections, who could be an honest asset to women who don't have these things... and the book ended upon her release from prison. So, did she just use the womens' stories to write a book and that was that? I would've liked a little more.

Son of a Gun: A Memoir
This is one of those memoirs that really worked. Sometimes I read a memoir and think, But why do I want to read about your life? I don't really care. This was the exact opposite. The author's mom was murdered by, presumably, his step-dad and he sets out to retrace steps and make sense of her sad life, why she died so young and why she lived through so much abuse, all the while tying in the history of the town of Tombstone, where he grew up and where his mother met the man who would eventually cause her undoing it. It was sad and really beautiful and everyone should read this one.

The Shining Girls: A Novel
I'd been looking forward to this book for a long time and it fell far flat of what I'd hope for, unfortunately. Maybe because I'd so been looking forward to it? But c'mon. A serial killer version of The Time Traveler's Wife? That's genius. Except it wasn't. The characters were all flat. I didn't feel any connection to any of them. While I was worried the book would leave me a little too on the edge, it didn't. At all. The serial killer wasn't developed enough to scare me. I didn't feel enough of a connection to the shining girls to feel sorry when he killed them. And why is he killing these girls? That's kind of developed but not really. There was just a lot missing in what could've been an amazing book. Was it a decent read? Sure. Did it grip me the way I thought it would? Not even close.

Manson: The Life and Times of Charles Manson
I took a class on cults and alternative religions in college. Topics like this have always fascinated me. That said, a 400 page book on Charles Manson is not exactly light bedtime reading, but it was absolutely fascinating. It began with his childhood and carried all the way to present day, with a look at the socio-political climate at the time the Manson family began Helter Skelter, as well as an in depth look at the media circus in the aftermath and the work it took police to finally bring them in to the courtroom. It was absolutely fascinating.

What are you reading?

Boys of Summer

Our summer is officially over. We said goodbye to it with a full day at the beach yesterday. As I tucked Tommy into bed, his hair still smelled like the beach even after a shower. If I could bottle up that smell and keep it with on long work days and long winter days, I would.

What I Read Wednesday*

On Thursday. I kind of forgot that yesterday was Wednesday, until it was 8 o'clock at night and then I just wasn't going to update my blog.

The Son
I love epic novels of the American West because I have a hope that every one of them will be Lonesome Dove. If you haven't read Lonesome Dove, please stop reading this and go add Lonesome Dove to your library list. Or order it from Amazon. Or if you live close to me, text and ask if you can borrow it. If you've seen the miniseries, that doesn't count. You need to read it and fall in love with Gus and Call. I don't care if you don't like novels of the American West. Lonesome Dove is different. It has 630 reviews on Amazon and FIVE stars. See? The people agree with me.
Anyway, back to The Son. It, of course, wasn't Lonesome Dove because nothing is, but it was still good in its own right. It was definitely an epic saga, one that swept through multi-generations. From Eli, who was stolen in a Comanche raid and then integrated into Comanche life and spends the rest of his life straddling both worlds, not knowing quite where he fits in; to his son Peter, who is disappointing for not meeting the family's vision and for falling in love with a woman from Mexico; and Eli's great-granddaughter Jeanne, a tough woman, struggling to keep the family's empire afloat and gain respect as a woman in a changing Texas. This is not a novel where you will fall in love with the characters. Many of them are flawed and broken and make huge mistakes, but they're real. While it's also a big book (500+ pages), it's action packed and I was so engaged in each story that I wanted to keep reading and find out what happened next.

Snapper
I loved this book. The author is from Indiana, it's mostly set in Indiana and it makes fun of Indiana in a way that only people from Indiana can do, without it being offensive... because they're from Indiana. The main character Nathan studies birds for a living and spends his day meandering around one national forest or another, writing down the habits of the birds he's watching. In the process, we're treated to vignettes from his childhood and his day-to-day life, some sad, some funny. Overall, I really enjoyed the tone and voice of this book.

What are you reading?

Seen on my Run [+ Sesamoiditis Update]

I don't normally run with my phone on me, but this morning, I ran on very sparsely populated country roads so I tucked it into my back pocket for safety reasons. I figured that since I had it on me, I would snap a few photos and actually update my blog for once. I didn't start taking photos until the second half of my run, figuring that if I took photos during the first four miles, I would never finish.

I've only ever done this route once. It was the last long run before my first half marathon and it was miserable. One, it was hillier than I realized and way back then, I used to avoid hills. I didn't realize that hills made you a stronger runner, even if they seemed miserable at the time, so I died on all the hills that day. Two, I got freaked out because a car pulled ahead of me and stopped, so I had to alter my route and run toward the nearest house and that threw me off. It's a really pretty, somewhat challenging route, though, so I wanted to try it again.

It starts out hilly for the first mile. A lot of up and down hills, which can be kind of scary on a country road because there aren't shoulders and some of them are blind hills. Fortunately, I saw a grand total of two cars, so I didn't have much to worry about.


After the first mile, it's just flat but there's still no shoulder and the uneven road prevents a challenge. My hips were feeling it.


I saw lots of horses

and pretty views.



I haven't run this far in months, so I just took it slow and steady. My feet are a little sore right now, but they aren't too bad. I am hopeful that I can keep these longer runs up because I miss them. I do notice they're harder on my body than they used to be, but I'm also not used to them anymore. 8 miles today felt much easier than 7 miles last week, though, so I have hope that I'll get there.

Every so often, people google search and find the sesamoiditis post that I wrote in January and ask for an update, so I suppose I should give one. In terms of sesamoiditis issues with my feet, I would say they're about 97% healed, which is AMAZING considering where I was back in the winter. Running in the Altras really helped my sesamoids. I actually wore nothing but the Altra Intuitions for months, whether it was running in them or wearing them to work. It severely limited my wardrobe, but it was the only thing that didn't leave my feet in crippling pain. Unfortunately, when my sesamoids were at their worst, I developed a secondary case of plantar fasciitis from offloading weight and walking funny. Were it not for that, I feel like I could've kept running in the Altras, but a side effect of zero drop shoes is that your calves get tight as you're adjusting to them. Tight calves irritate plantar fasciitis, so as the shoes were helping my sesamoids, my heels were getting worse. I tried to run again in my old Brooks and they felt great on my heels, but my sesamoids flared up again. Basically, I needed a Frankenstein's monster concoction between my old shoes and my new shoes where I could attach the front of my Altras to the back of my Brooks, but that wasn't an option. A whole lot of google searching later and I came across some good things on Neutral New Balance shoes. Happily, they were only $49 on Amazon, so I figured I would give them a shot.
Fortunately, they've worked really well. They've got less of a drop, which is good for sesamoiditis, but they still have a slightly built up heel so my plantar fasciitis doesn't get completely painful. Every so often, I'll step down funny and feel a flare up in my sesamoids. The plantar fasciitis is kind of on-going battle in that I have to roll my feet out and ice them all the time, but I'm still able to run. And really, the fact that I'm this far healed from the sesamoiditis is amazing to me because back in December, I could hardly walk because the pain was so crippling. So yes, there IS hope that if you're suffering from this, you can and will heal and run again!

What I Read Wednesday

One of these days, I would like to actually blog again. I always plan on it and then suddenly, it's Wednesday and I just have time to write about books. Oh, well. Maybe next week.

The Engagements
It's very rare for novels that switch perspectives to do it right, but this one did. This novel focused on Evelyn, an older married woman; James, a paramedic struggling to make ends meet; Kate, who is anti-marriage but living happily with her partner and child; Delphine who has seen stable love and exciting, daring love; and Frances Garety, who penned the well-known line "A Diamond is Forever." Although the novel bounces back and forth through the decades, it flows perfectly between the characters and their lives and I felt completely connected and engaged with each of their stories. It was a flawless transition and so wonderfully written. This was one book that I didn't want to end.


So Cold the River
I was drawn into this book at first because it was set in Chicago, then transition to Indiana, so the both settings were familiar to me. Primarily, it was set in French Lick, IN, which I've heard of but never visited. The main character stays at West Baden Springs Hotel in French Lick and refers to the how amazing the hotel is. I kept thinking, "Yeah, right. Indiana?" Until I googled it and okay, I can't believe I've lived in Indiana my entire life and had no idea something this beautiful existed. I asked Shane if we could visit, like TOMORROW, but he seemed to think that maybe that was a bit hasty. Aside from the setting, the book itself was a great read. The main character, Eric, is approached by a woman he meets a funeral (he puts together video montages for funerals) who asks him to look into her father-in-law's past. She gives him only a few scant details and a mysterious bottle of mineral water that carries the ability to remain cool when stored at room temperate and gets even colder when Eric arrives in French Lick. As the story unfolds, it becomes more supernatural in nature, but I wouldn't necessarily call it a horror story.


Sea Creatures
This was one of those gut-punch books. Georgia is married to a man who suffers from parasomnia, a sleep disorder that involves strange behavior while sleeping. Her son, Frankie, is 3.5 and doesn't speak. Not because he can't, but because he's selectively mute, possibly due to the stress of his father's condition--which has caused them to uproot from Illinois and move to Florida, where Georgia has taken a job for another lost soul, a hermit who lives on a stilt house while his wife ails in a nursing home. This was definitely a quick read because the book was full of conflicts and I wanted to see how they would be resolved by the end.