Chapter One Hundred Eighty-Eight: Auggie Wren's Christmas Story

Let's call this post my contribution to the festivities...  I decided today was probably the right day to dip into an early Christmas present from my grandmother, so after breakfast I sat down and gobbled up Auggie Wren's Christmas Story by Paul Auster.  My edition of this very short story--it was originally published on the op-ed page of the New York Times in 1990--is also accompanied by delightful illustrations by Isol, which add some warmth to this self-described unsentimental Christmas story.  And, actually, as these things go, it is pretty unsentimental, though it's a nice little story.  I can't say much more without telling the whole story myself, other than to note that I was almost tempted to believe it by the end and that it was a refreshingly different Christmas story than the ones I'm used to.

Chapter One Hundred Eighty-Seven: Britt-Marie Was Here

I enjoyed A Man Called Ove so much when I read it this summer that I knew I'd want to read some of Fredrik Backman's other novels, but I didn't want to gobble them all up at once.  Still, when I needed something that I knew would brighten up these dreary December days, I decided it was time to read another of his books, and I chose Britt-Marie Was Here.  I thoroughly enjoyed it, although--or perhaps because--it's fairly similar to A Man Called Ove, though with an undertone of female empowerment as our hero, a woman in late middle age, decides to leave her cheating husband and get a job.  But the only job she can get takes her to Borg, a small town that has been crushed by the global financial crisis.  Despite her misgivings and peculiarities, Britt-Marie, as one might expect, finds herself connecting with the people in the town and learning about herself as a person on her own, not just as someone's daughter, sister, and wife.  It's an empowering story about a woman finally deciding to recognize and go after what she wants in life, and I really enjoyed reading it.  If you liked A Man Called Ove or are looking for a character-driven story, give Britt-Marie Was Here a try.

Chapter One Hundred Eighty-Six: The Princess Diarist

So I wanted something potentially fun to listen to in the car, and I'd say the audiobook of Carrie Fisher's newest memoir, The Princess Diarist, fit the bill just right. Fisher reads it herself, mostly, except for the actual excerpts from the diary she kept while filming Star Wars: A New Hope, which is read by her daughter, Billie Lourd. While a good part of the (relatively short) book is devoted to her affair during the filming with Harrison Ford, Fisher never goes into too much detail--as she says, this isn't soft porn for hardened science-fiction fans. (And if that line doesn't convince you that this is a book worth listening to or reading, I don't think anything else I can say about it will!) Of course, Fisher also muses on her unique relationship with Princess Leia, ranging from weightier feelings like being overshadowed by her to funnier consequences, like having countless men tell her she was their first crush--and of course, no discussion of Princess Leia could be complete without a mention of the infamous golden bikini. And a good portion of the book considers the realities of celebrity, especially of doing book signings, with several pretty funny tales of interactions with the fans.  The Princess Diarist is an interesting glimpse into Fisher's life during Star Wars--she was only 19 at the time, so prepare for some angst--and offers both serious reflection and a hearty dose of humor. If you're a fan of Star Wars or just looking for an interesting memoir, I'd definitely recommend The Princess Diarist.

Chapter One Hundred Eighty-Five: Dewey: The Small-Town Library Cat Who Touched the World

So after years of meaning to read Dewey: The Small-Town Library Cat Who Touched the World, the true story of a library cat in Spencer, Iowa as written by his loving library director, Vicki Myron, I decided I would listen to the audiobook by way of having something cheery and wholesome to enjoy while in my car.  In this regard, Dewey was an excellent choice!  A quick listen (only four discs long), this memoir of an abandoned kitten's transformation into a well-loved and world-famous library cat is heartwarming without ever quite veering over the edge into sentimentality (though it sometimes comes perilously close).  Like any cat, Dewey gets up to plenty of antics, and this book is peppered with them, which cat-lovers will surely appreciate.  It was definitely worthwhile to violate my general ban on books with animals on the cover to listen to this one.  Now obviously, if you're looking for a deep and serious work of Great Literature, Dewey is not the book for you, but if you're already pre-disposed to having your heart warmed, look no farther than Dewey.

Chapter One Hundred Eighty-Four: Vinegar Girl

So Vinegar Girl, by Anne Tyler, is a modern retelling of Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew (one of my favorite Shakespeares, incidentally) from Hogarth Shakespeare, a publishing company committed to commissioning modern retellings of all the Shakespeare plays.  Many elements of The Taming of the Shrew had to be adjusted to make sense in modern context, and it was interesting to see how Tyler chose to do so.  I particularly liked her choice to reimagine the reason for Kate's marriage as a plot to get her father's research assistant American citizenship since his visa is about to expire.  While many people may dislike The Taming of the Shrew as an example of misogyny, I've never read it that way.  (I'll email a copy of my tenth-grade English essay to anyone who wants to know why, upon request, but basically I've always seen it more as a commentary on the importance of behaving kindly, for both women and men, although I can certainly see how it could be interpreted as a play about the proper (ie subservient) role of women.)  Anyway, Vinegar Girl is quite short and what it lacks in sweetness (not that sweetness is altogether lacking) it makes up for in humor.  I found the end both satisfying and slightly discomfiting--an odd combination, to say the least, but I won't say more for fear of spoiling the book.  If you enjoy The Taming of the Shrew, I definitely recommend checking out Vinegar Girl, or if you're just looking for fiction that's both entertaining and thought-provoking, give Vinegar Girl a try.

Chapter One Hundred Eighty-Three: Crosstalk

Okay, so it's actually been a month since I read Connie Willis's newest book, Crosstalk, and I really, really loved it!  But I wanted to wait just a bit to write about it to try to filter out my sheer giddy pleasure at reading it and say something even a bit sensible.  But why be sensible?  Let's be giddy just for a moment (or for most of this review) and reiterate that it's just the best book and that everyone should read it immediately!
Okay, now, to business.  Crosstalk is the hilarious tale of a young woman, Briddey, who in the very near future lets her boyfriend talk her into getting a new procedure done that allows the people in a couple to sense each other's emotions.  But as soon as she's had the procedure, Briddey finds to her horror that, instead of sensing her boyfriend's emotions, she's hearing the thoughts of one of her coworkers--and he can hear her, too!  And of course, chaos ensues.
I almost literally could not put this crazy, suspenseful and all too believable book down, devouring it in record time and thoroughly enjoying every second of it.  I haven't been so excited about a new book since J.K. Rowling's/Robert Galbraith's last mystery was published last fall--and when will the next one appear???--and that's about the highest praise I can offer to any book or author.  If you're looking for a funny book that will hold your attention and leave you feeling good, definitely read Crosstalk, and then recommend it to everyone you know!

Chapter One Hundred Eighty-Two: What the Dog Saw

This collection of Malcom Gladwell's essays for The New Yorker brings together some of the bestselling nonfiction author's favorite short pieces, ranging across topics as diverse as women's health, the Dog Whisperer, the history of hair dye in the United States, and ketchup (a more involved subject than you might at first suspect).  Whatever the topic, Gladwell was always able to gain and sustain my interest, and I picked up plenty of trivia factoids along the way.  (Did you know ketchup is so satisfying because it invokes all five major flavor groups?)  If you like short nonfiction, I'd highly recommend What the Dog Saw.

Chapter One Hundred Eighty-One: One Summer: America, 1927

Ever since listening to Hamilton, I've really been feeling I should brush up on my United States history, and Bill Bryson's One Summer fits the ticket.  While its focus is pretty narrow--the summer of 1927, as per the subtitle--Bryson didn't choose that summer at random, but because its events reflected or epitomized many of the larger historical trends of the times.  From prohibition to racism and eugenics, baseball to talking movies, the rise of aviation to the fall of the global financial system, Bryson weaves together numerous historical threads to paint an expressive (if meandering) picture of not just 1927 but the years leading up to it and the effects of some of its events on future years.  If you're looking for a highly focused history with a clear thesis, One Summer is not the book for you, but if you're willing to wander at a leisurely pace through the long, hot summer of 1927 and enjoy listening to stories that end up being more interconnected than they seem at first, One Summer offers an interesting glimpse into part of U.S. history--or at least provides a lot of trivia factoids!

Chapter One Hundred Eighty: Let's Pretend This Never Happened: A Mostly True Memoir

So I just finished listening to the audiobook of Jenny Lawson's first memoir, Let's Pretend This Never Happened: A Mostly True Memoir.*  I thoroughly enjoyed listening to this memoir, but first, an important fact about it: the cover features a taxidermied white mouse standing on its hind legs and wearing a cape and Elizabethan neck ruff, so if that scares you off, this probably isn't the book for you (although I'd still suggest giving it a try anyway because it's always good to expand your horizons).  What can I even say about Let's Pretend This Never Happened?  It's mainly hilarious (especially in the audio version, which features great sound effects (cow bells, staplers, crying babies, etc.) when appropriate and also because Lawson reads it herself, singing the title of each chapter).  Right, so Let's Pretend This Never Happened is definitely humorous, but it also offers up a nice balance of more reflective moments--it's not just Lawson mindlessly poking fun at herself or her childhood and family life.  (The key word in that last sentence was mindlessly--there's plenty of fun-poking, but never really just for its own sake.)  This memoir ranges from Lawson's childhood to her adult life (up till the time she wrote it, obviously, it's not like she tries to write a memoir of her future life, though if anyone could pull it off, it might be her), covering topics from taxidermy (duh) to her anxiety disorder to her time working in HR (hilarious!) to her attempt at being goth as a high schooler in rural, small-town Texas.  Basically, there's something for everyone in here!  But it's especially for you if you like memoirs of people with interesting daily lives, or humorous personal essays, or people who write with a really original voice.

>>Read alike: If you enjoy reading David Sedaris, definitely try Let's Pretend This Never Happened.



*You can find my thoughts about her second memoir, Furiously Happy, in a December 2015 post on this blog.  Her next book, You Are Here: An Owner's Manual for Dangerous Minds is coming out this fall, and I'm already on the waitlist at the library for it, so look for a future Jenny Lawson post, too.

Chapter One Hundred Seventy-Nine: The Night Circus

So I read Erin Morgenstern's The Night Circus about a month ago, before embarking on vacation (and actually ended up having a great conversation with the woman across the aisle from me on the plane when she saw me finishing it).  I don't know why it's taken me so long to write about it here, because I really enjoyed it and would definitely recommend it to anyone looking for a good solid fantastic love story about dueling magicians who just happen to be star-crossed lovers.  Set in the years around the fin de siècle, this story, told from multiple perspectives and not entirely chronologically, follows the movements of and main players in a literally magical circus.  The characters are vivid, the setting is engrossing, the plot is original--the whole book is really almost too atmospheric, but stops just short of being overdone and instead just creates this fantastic world that's a pleasure to inhabit for the course of the book.  (It reminds me a bit of The Swan Gondola--which I reviewed on this blog in August 2014--but where The Swan Gondola did go just that bit overboard in being atmospheric, The Night Circus gets the blend of atmosphere and action just right.  If you liked The Swan Gondola, though, do check out The Night Circus, and vice versa.)  I was so eager to find out how things would end that I couldn't read the last quarter of the book fast enough, and at some point I'd like to go back and re-read the book with a bit more of an eye toward its many details, now that the fever of wanting to know what will happen has been broken.  For an engaging and entertaining work of fantasy--or maybe magical realism is more accurate, actually--that combines intrigue and romance, take a look at The Night Circus.

Chapter One Hundred Seventy-Eight: Dark Matter

So I just, within the last hour, finished reading Dark Matter by Blake Crouch.  Not normally the type of book I'd choose on my own, I read it upon the strong and enthusiastic suggestion (exhortation, really) of a co-worker, and I see now why she was pushing it.  The first third or so of the book is... not slow, for sure, there's plenty of action--it's more that the stakes really aren't clear yet.  But at a certain point, everything shifts, and it's like [insert explosion sound effects here].  I'm not sure there are words to really describe it.  Then things get intense, and I was nearly late to work today and coming back from lunch because I was reading Dark Matter!  You have to be open to science fiction, and there's some fairly dark and violent stuff (but I generally steer clear of that sort of thing, and I was okay with this book), but if you want a book that will keep you guessing until the last page,  take a look at Dark Matter.

Chapter One Hundred Seventy-Seven: A Man Called Ove

Have you read A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman?  If not, you should definitely go and read it.  Immediately.  Yes, I liked it so much I was willing to use a sentence fragment there, for emphasis.  But really, A Man Called Ove is great, and I think most people who enjoy fiction will enjoy this read, a sleeper hit translated from the Swedish.  This story about a grumpy old (Swedish) man (the titular Ove) sucked me in right from page one: although the story is narrated in the third person, the narrator seems both in sympathy with Ove and a keen observer of him.  With a cast of interesting characters and an ever-increasing understanding of just why Ove might be so grumpy, I found this book to be really gripping--I hardly wanted to put it down even after I'd finished reading it!  I have a whole pile of unread books at home now, but sometime in the not-too-distant future, I'd definitely like to read Backman's other novels, and in the meantime, I'll recommend A Man Called Ove to anyone and everyone looking for a good story.

Chapter One Hundred Seventy-Six: The Secret Diary of Lizzie Bennet

Bear with me here: I will get to the book!  But first, some back story. So about half a year ago, one of my friends turned me onto Story Wonk, an amazing husband/wife team that, among other things, offers really great podcast seminars on some of my favorite books, including Harry Potter (the book two seminar starts next week!) and Pride and Prejudice.  While listening to the Pride and Prejudice seminar, the host mentioned a YouTube adaptation of Pride and Prejudice that he really liked, called The Lizzie Bennet Diaries.  I was skeptical.  A YouTube adaptation of Pride and Prejudice?  Set in modern-day California?  With no Mary or Kitty to speak of?  But the same friend who introduced me to Story Wonk, being I suppose less skeptical than I am, checked it out and assured me it really was good, and as soon as I saw the first episode, I was hooked!  And each episode is no more than five minutes long, so it's not much of a commitment.  In fact, I enjoyed this adaptation of Pride and Prejudice so much that when I saw a novel version of The Lizzie Bennet Diaries at the library, I had to check it out!

The Secret Diary of Lizzie Bennet by Bernie Su and Kate Rorick (both of whom were very involved in creating The Lizzie Bennet Diaries) covers much of the same content as the YouTube adaptation, but of course in a different format (written diary entries, rather than a vlog).  Consequently, we get more information about some events, but of course we don't get to actually see the events unfold.  Both versions of this retelling--on YouTube and in print--are detailed enough that each stands well on its own, and reading one or watching the other is really enough.  But if, like me, you're a compulsive re-reader or like returning to the things that bring you pleasure, then you'll probably enjoy checking out both versions of this retelling of Pride and Prejudice, which works way better than I thought it would.  Reinventing Lizzie as a grad student (saddled with debt, living at home) and Jane as a debt-ridden, underemployed 20-something (with Lydia, also at home, partying her way through community college) works way better than I thought it would, and puts the focus more on finding an ideal job than finding an ideal husband--at least for Jane and Lizzie.  Mrs. Bennet remains as fixated as ever on finding suitable marriage material, adding a layer of generational conflict to the plot.  I don't want to say too much more, because I hope you'll go watch or read it (or both), and I don't want to give too much away!  But this is definitely an interesting and fresh retelling of Pride and Prejudice, and I'd highly encourage fans of P&P or anyone who enjoys a good confessional-style story to go and give it a look.

Chapter One Hundred Seventy-Five: Eligible

So when I discovered that Curtis Sittenfeld was writing a modern version of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice--and that somehow this retelling would take Austen's fairly short novel and expand it to nearly 500 pages--I was intrigued.  Having finally gotten my hands on a copy from the library, I enjoyed reading it so much that, sooner or later, I'll probably just buy myself a copy of it!  Not having actually read anything by Sittenfeld, but being generally familiar with the kind of books she writes, I was worried that Eligible would be too gritty or edgy a rendering of Pride and Prejudice for my taste, but I was pleasantly surprised by the warmth of the narration (not that it's sappy; it has its edgy moments, but they're not overwhelming nor do they detract from the overall mood).  Without giving too much away, all of the Bennett sisters have been aged up (ranging from 23 to 40 years old when our story begins) and the brunt of the story is set in Cincinnati, Ohio.  Darcy is a neurosurgeon; Liz writes for a NYC-based women's magazine.  Chip Bingley rose to fame on reality TV show Eligible (essentially The Bachelor), while Jane is a "penniless" yoga instructor.  Different enough from the original to keep me guessing at what exactly would happen next, but close enough to Pride and Prejudice to be thoroughly and immensely satisfying, I could hardly tear myself away from Eligible, and it left me with a lot to think over.  Whether you like Pride and Prejudice or you're just looking for a good, solid piece of realistic fiction, you'll definitely want to try Eligible.

Chapter One Hundred Seventy-Four: Games Wizards Play/Young Wizards Series

Games Wizards Play is the tenth and latest installment in Diane Duane's Young Wizards series, which I started reading probably a decade or so ago (long after the first book's publication in the 1980s) and have happily kept up with ever since.  Before reading Games Wizards Play, I decided I wanted to go back and re-read the first nine books, partly because they're great and I haven't read them in maybe four years, and partly because over the course of nine books, there are a lot of characters and events and I wanted to have everything fresh in my mind before embarking on the newest book.

The big problem with this series is the timeline--I don't know how, between Duane and her editor, these otherwise well-plotted and intricate books have ended up with a jumbled and frankly nonsensical timeline.  For example, one character is mentioned as being 11 years old in books one and nine, even as the other characters have aged by several years over the course of those books.  Also, instead of keeping the series set in the late 1980s, Duane kept integrating new technology and world events into the later books, such that in the first book, there is no mention of computers, and by the tenth book, characters have cell phones, iPods, tablets, etc--even though (as best I can tell from the jumbled timeline) no more than five years of the story can have passed.  So there are some issues that need to be resolved!  Duane has released updated versions of all the books, which are supposed to correct the timeline, but these updated editions are only available as e-books, and I vastly prefer to read in print.

Okay, having said all that, I do really enjoy reading this series!  While there is some repetition of themes across the books, in general, each installment feels fresh while building on the previous books and providing more character development, not just for our main characters, Nita Callahan and Kit Rodriguez, but for the increasingly large cast of secondary characters, especially Dairine and Carmela, but also Nita's dad.  If you're someone who's put off or annoyed by YA series in which the parents are portrayed as one-dimensional and antagonistic characters, you'll find Young Wizards to be refreshingly different in that respect (not to say the parents in these books don't do things like ground our heroes, but for good reasons).  Also, as the series progresses, we get introduced to several really interesting alien characters, not just humanoids but totally different life-forms, which really helps flesh out Duane's universe-building in the series.

What I particularly appreciate about Games Wizards Play is that it finally gives us a look at Nita and Kit's wizardly life when they're not on errantry (i.e. not on a specific mission or job).  The basic premise is that there's an Earth-wide competition for the youngest wizards to show off pet projects, and Nita and Kit have been chosen to mentor one of the competitors.  No other urgent jobs come up, so we get to see more of the day-to-day practice of Nita and Kit, as well as other wizards, and get more of a sense of wizardly social life.  A potential for romance has been simmering beneath the surface of Nita and Kit's wizardly partnership for the last few books, and this aspect is also starting to be addressed directly, but the elements of romance are still pretty minimal, leaving the focus on wizardry.  (Again, if overly fast or involved or unrealistic relationships tend to put you off of YA novels, no worries here--the romance is very understated, which works well with the characters and the overall tone of the series.)

On the whole, I really enjoyed re-reading the first nine books and finally reading Games Wizards Play, and I felt surprisingly bereft when I finished the final book--like, I don't get to hang out with Nita and Kit anymore for a while?  If you're looking for an engrossing and unique fantasy series, I'd definitely suggest Young Wizards (the first book is called So You Want To Be a Wizard?), but be aware going into it that the series isn't yet complete, and you may be getting yourself into a lengthy (but rewarding) relationship!

Chapter One Hundred Seventy-Three: Eat, Pray, Love

Okay, so for years and years--nearly a decade, actually--I'd intentionally avoided reading Elizabeth Gilbert's Eat, Pray, Love mainly on the objection that the title and cover combined seemed to me to exude such complete smug pretentiousness.  The blurb on the back of the book didn't exactly help to dispel that impression, either.  But as soon as I started listening to a later book by Gilbert (Big Magic--see my previous post), I was enchanted by the author and her delightful reading voice!  So I decided, despite my apprehension about Eat, Pray, Love to give it a listen, and I was surprisingly glad I did!  I found myself enjoying this memoir despite myself.  Eat, Pray, Love gives enough of the backstory on Gilbert's messy, distressing, and drawn-out divorce that you can understand why she'd want to spend a year out of the country afterward (even if you, like me, are pretty jealous that she was in the financial and professional position to just drop everything and live abroad for a year).  For various reasons, which you'll have to read (or listen to) the book to find out, she decides to spend four months in Italy, then four months in India, and finally four months in Indonesia.  She's mostly doing some intense soul-searching, which sounds vaguely self-indulgent on her part and tiresome to experience secondhand as a reader or listener, but I was surprised at how interested and even invested in her experiences I became as I listened.  Also, she meets some fantastically interesting people along the way who also make their way into this memoir: it's not just an inner monologue, but also the best kind of travel-writing.  If you, like me, have been avoiding this book, I'd urge you to at least give it a try, and if you're interested in memoirs or travel writing, definitely check it out.

Chapter One Hundred Seventy-Two: Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear

So Big Magic was my first introduction to author Elizabeth Gilbert (of Eat, Pray, Love* fame), and I may now be hooked.  At a friend's suggestion, I listened to Big Magic as an audiobook because Gilbert reads her own works and has a really delightful voice to listen to.  I think I could listen to her read the phone book and be enthralled!  (When I've mentioned this to anyone else who's listened to her, they agreed immediately; also, one co-worker admitted to buying a copy of this book so she could re-read it as often as she liked, in case you still need convincing about this book in either format.)  Anyway, Big Magic is Gilbert's take on the creative process, not just in terms of writing but more generally, and it's surprisingly affirming and unpretentious.  Learning figure skating can be a way of living creatively, if you're passionate about it.  You don't have to become great, or even good at it, as long as you enjoy it.  Gilbert spends a lot of time on the importance of pleasure, particularly spending time de-bunking the trope of the tortured creative genius or the idea that only melancholy can produce great art or other creative endeavors.  Whether you're actively looking to increase the amount of creativity in your daily life or just want an interesting (and short) non-fiction book, definitely give Big Magic a try.

*My next post will almost certainly be talking about Gilbert's Eat, Pray, Love, which I resisted for years because it looked so smug and pretentious, but it was neither and in fact quite enjoyable!

Chapter One Hundred Seventy-One: Founding Mothers

So I've been listening to a lot of audiobooks this spring, because I do a good deal of driving in my daily life, and I realized I haven't been writing about these books I've been listening to, which is silly since I think that listening to audiobooks is just as valid as reading written books.  Also, I've listened to some really great books that you all might also want to read with your eyes or your ears!  So I'll be adding some of my favorites in the next few days!  And first up, the one I finished most recently, is Founding Mothers by Cokie Roberts.  This non-fiction book tells the stories of some of the women who were fundamental in the founding of the United States, who (like many groups) are often overlooked or sidelined in traditional histories.  Abigail Adams, Deborah Franklin (Yes, Ben had a wife! Who knew?), Sally (Franklin) Bache (their daughter), Eliza Pinckney, Betsy Hamilton (a.k.a. Eliza, to Hamilton fans), and Martha Washington are main figures, though other fascinating ladies are discussed, too.  Roberts (a former NPR correspondent who reads this audiobook with a lovely voice and great expression) really brings these women to life in a way that kept me interested and wanting to find out more about them, and I really enjoyed learning more about the American Revolution.  If you're looking for a way to (belatedly) celebrate Independence Day, or if you like history, or well-written stories, I'd definitely suggest giving Founding Mothers a try.

Chapter One Hundred Seventy: The Rosie Project (and The Rosie Effect)

So last winter my grandmother sent me several books she'd enjoyed, and Graeme Simsion's The Rosie Project was among them.  This is a title I've seen circulate at the library a good bit but never really looked at myself.  As soon as I read the first sentence, I was hooked!  The Rosie Project is narrated by its protagonist, Don, a genetics professor at a university in Melbourne (Australia!) who has a very distinctive voice and worldview that I found utterly captivating.  The book hints that he may be on the autism spectrum (i.e. by having him give a lecture on Asperger's Syndrome in the first chapter and not seeming to recognize how he fits with the characteristics he describes--subtle, I know), but I really like that this book refuses to have the narrator (or his two psychologist best friends) diagnose himself and then act from that box.  Don knows he's not the most socially adept person, but that doesn't stop him from deciding he's going to find a wife, which leads to the romantic comedy aspect of this novel, which had me laughing out loud pretty often--not at Don, but more at the world, because I could totally see where he was coming from and how much sense he makes in a world that is gloriously illogical.  I could hardly put this hilarious and heartwarming story down, and it was a perfect read for the beginning of summer!  The sequel, The Rosie Effect, is also fun, although I didn't enjoy it quite as much as the first book--a bit more on the drama and a bit less on the humor.  If you're looking for a fun and smart read that will make your heart as warm as your sunburned skin while you're lounging at the beach this summer, definitely look into The Rosie Project.

Chapter One Hundred Sixty-Nine: Lagoon

One of my friends recommended Lagoon by Nnedi Okorafor to me, and I'm so glad she did, because I doubt I would have found it otherwise, but I really enjoyed it!  Lagoon definitely falls under speculative fiction, probably sci-fi, which is a genre I'd love to read more of but somehow don't end up reading much of....  Anyway, Lagoon explores what might happen if aliens were to visit Lagos, Nigeria.  With most of the books I read being set in America, Europe, or a fantasy world, it was great to get the chance to (fictionally) travel to Nigeria, and it reminded me that I should seek out more diversity in my reading not just in terms of genre but also in terms of setting.  Lagoon is fast-paced and full of action, and the narration switches frequently between a handful of characters, some of whom speak using Nigerian slang, which is a bit of a challenge but I found it fun and not too hard to follow (there's a glossary if you get really stuck, but usually context makes the meaning clear).  I enjoyed the abundance of narrators and the constantly evolving action, but it may be a bit hectic for readers who like a slower pace (for readers who are really patient and like the slowest pace, see any of my posts on Connie Willis, one of my all-time favorite authors whom I'm always recommending and whom some people love and who others find far too slow or verbose).  But I digress!  If you're into edge-of-your-seat alien adventures, politics, friendship, family life, and giant sea monsters, definitely give Lagoon a try!

Chapter One Hundred Sixty-Eight: Orphan Train

So about a year ago, a coworker recommended Christina Baker Kline's Orphan Train to me, and for some reason the time just didn't feel right to read it, though it looked good.  Then my mother read the book and recommended it to me, so I decided I should finally check it out, and lo and behold, the recommenders were right: it was an enjoyable read!  The story is split between narrators (a teenage Penobscot Indian girl in foster care; a wealthy elderly widow) and settings (contemporary Maine; 1930s Minnesota), and while it's not super hard to figure out how the two stories are intertwined, each story is interesting enough in its own right to keep the momentum of the novel as a whole.  Also, the historical part of the story deals with so-called orphan trains (hence the title), which are a part of American history I knew nothing about, and now at least I know a little about the former practice of sending orphans from urban slums out to the Midwest in the hopes of adoption.  In addition to the interesting settings, Kline's characters are finely drawn, and the narrators in particular elicited my empathy and drew me into their stories.  For readers who enjoy historical and contemporary fiction as well as stories that foster an emotional connection to the characters, I'd definitely suggest reading Orphan Train.

Chapter One Hundred Sixty-Seven: The Thinking Woman's Guide to Real Magic

This giant book by Emily Croy Barker caught my eye on the library's shelves partly because it's so huge (upward of 500 pages), and partly because of its long title, and partly because the dust jacket is so pretty.  Nora, a struggling grad student who's just been dumped by her longtime boyfriend, accidentally wanders into another, magical world--but this world turns out to be not quite the fantasy it at first seems and in fact is quite dangerous.  Unable to return home, Nora struggles to find her footing in this mysterious new world, and I at least was enthralled by her adventures here.  Full of great world-building, intricate plots and subplots, and plenty of emotional intrigue and complicated relationships, I could hardly put this story down!

Chapter One Hundred Sixty-Six: Every Heart a Doorway

So I read this quick little book by Seanan McGuire on the recommendation of two of my coworkers at the library, and I'm so glad I decided to read it.  Ever wondered what life was like for Alice or the Pevensies or anyone else who gets through to a magical world and then has to return home?  Every Heart a Doorway explores what might happen to teens who've had adventures in other worlds and then end up back in the real world.  In this case, they end up at a boarding school run by a mysterious and sympathetic old lady who simultaneously tries to help them move on and find the doorways back to their other world.  When our heroine arrives at school, she's not sure what to expect, and when students at the school start being murdered, she's the number one suspect.  A strange mix of boarding school story, fantasy, and murder mystery, this interesting little book captured me from page with its excellent writing.  If you're willing to suspend your disbelief for a while, give Every Heart a Doorway a try.

Chapter One Hundred Sixty-Five: Lucky Us

So after a crazy spring, I'm finally coming into some free time again and will be updating my blog again, regularly, I hope!  First up: Lucky Us, by Amy Bloom.  This is one of many books my grandmother gave me that I'm finally getting around to reading, so it's not something I would have picked out on my own, but I enjoyed it nonetheless.  Lucky Us follows half sisters Iris and Eva and their haphazard family of misfits from Ohio to Hollywood to New York City in the late 1930s and into the 1940s. While Iris is the aspiring actress and Eva seems to be the sidekick wandering aimlessly through Iris's life, Eva is really the heart of this story, even as some chapters consist not of Eva's first person narration but of letters from Iris or other characters.  This story has a sort of emotionally detached feeling that doesn't usually appeal to me, but for some reason the dispassionate distance between me and the characters really worked with this story, and I enjoyed it immensely.

Chapter One Hundred Sixty-Four: Bellwether

So with Bellwether, I've concluded my unofficial Connie Willis month, although she's written many other delightful novels that I haven't read or reread in the past month.  Bellwether is the first book by Willis I'd ever read, and partly for that reason it holds a very fond place in my heart.  But I also love it because it's a little nugget of joy.  By far shorter than any of her time travel novels, Bellwether tells the tale of two corporate scientists who end up working together and discover a lot more than they'd bargained for.  Written after Doomsday Book but before the other time travel stories, many of the same themes run through this novel--especially regarding the effects of actions in chaotic systems--but Bellwether also has a healthy dose of gentle fun-poking at modern life as it urges thinking for oneself (a theme I can definitely get behind).  If you like happy, light-hearted, slightly snarky stories, I'd highly recommend Bellwether.

Chapter One Hundred Sixty-Three: Blackout and All Clear

As in past years, I'm discussing Connie Willis's monumental two-part story in one post because Blackout and All Clear really can't be read separately: it's one story that's been published in two (very long) parts.  This concludes her novel-length repertoire of time travel stories, and what a conclusion!  I first discovered these books in February of 2014, reread them last February, and now returned to them for the third time in as many years, and they're so wonderfully detailed and layered and complex that there's something new to notice with each rereading.  Without giving too much away, these books focus on three of Mr. Dunworthy's history students who are each studying a different aspect of England's involvement in WWII.  As one might expect from Connie Willis, their stories converge in interesting and unexpected ways, playing out over the course of years.  Reading these final time travel novels on the heels of Doomsday Book and To Say Nothing of the Dog, one can see that certain themes and concerns travel through these works (and also through Willis's other works, most of which I'm not rereading at the moment), especially the effects of actions in complex or chaotic systems (a concern central to perhaps my favorite novel by Willis, Bellwether, which I'll be reading next).  With so much happening throughout the book's several stories, which are not always told in chronological order (always pay attention to the date given at the beginning of the chapter!), these works are not for the faint of heart, to be sure, totaling in at over a thousand pages, but if you like intricate, carefully crafted, well researched storytelling, it's hard to beat Blackout and All Clear.

Chapter One Hundred Sixty-Two: To Say Nothing of the Dog

So next in my Connie Willis series was To Say Nothing of the Dog, another time travel book, though only loosely related, so you could read this without having read Doomsday Book and be totally fine, though I think reading them consecutively really allows one to see the themes that connect both stories (and that also run through Blackout and All Clear, her subsequent time travel books, which I'm reading presently).
But to say nothing more of these extraneous details, I'll return to the book at hand, which is by far the most light-hearted of Willis's time travel books.  Set mainly in upper class Victorian England, this book is part comedy of manners, part romance, and a big part mystery.  I hadn't really thought of it as a mystery book until this time around, when it really hit me that the whole story is one big whodunnit: what happened to the Bishop's Bird Stump, and when, and how, and why? Our intrepid time travelers have been assigned to find out, and as they work frantically to track this hideous Victorian artifact through history, they also have some hilarious misadventures along the way involving cats and dogs, butlers and boats, and the side effects of too much time traveling (extreme sentimentality).
The title references Jerome K. Jerome's delightful Three Men in a Boat, To Say Nothing of the Dog, and for those who have read that book, its influence is clear.  For those of you who haven't read it, I highly recommend it, as well as To Say Nothing of the Dog, which manages to be both funny and thought-provoking.

Chapter One Hundred Sixty-One: Doomsday Book

So to counter the gloom of February and to add to my tradition of reading Connie Willis's Blackout and All Clear during the third week of this short and dark month, I've decided to make the whole month Connie Willis month!  I like February better already.  So I started, naturally, with the first full-length book in her time traveling sequence, Doomsday Book.  I have read it and reviewed it here before, but since Connie Willis is one of my favorite under-appreciated authors, I'm more than pleased to review it again and I hope someone will decide to try it out.  I will say, Doomsday Book is not for the faint of heart: there are all sorts of illnesses, and a lot of characters to keep track of, and as the title suggests, there is plenty of doom.  Also, there's time travel, so you have to be open to that to enjoy this book, which is on the longer side.  But I think the rewards of the book more than outweigh these elements: the plot is original and intricate (well, intricate is a benefit as far as I'm concerned, anyway), the main characters feel very human and likable (with a few love-to-hate types thrown in for comedic relief), and the settings (mid-21st century Oxford and 14th century Oxfordshire) are certainly out of the ordinary, at least in terms of what I generally read.  (Maybe there are lots of books out there set in either or both of these places and I simply have yet to discover them...)  I find all of Connie Willis's novels to be absorbing, drawing me in and letting me forget it's February, at least while I'm reading them, so if you're open to time travel and enjoy long books with complicated plots (think Diana Wynne Jones, though I don't think she ever wrote about time travel), I would definitely recommend Connie Willis, and you may as well start from the beginning of her time travel sequence, which is the magnificent Doomsday Book.

Chapter One Hundred Sixty: Quiet

So Susan Cain's Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking has been vaguely on my to-read list for some time, and then I learned recently that a young readers' edition aimed at middle and high school students is being published this year.  Being the kind of person I am, I figured I'd want to read the young readers' edition and I decided it would be even more interesting if I could compare it to the original edition for adults.  I found Quiet to be interesting and highly readable, integrating data from personality psychology and related fields with accounts of people who have used their introversion to great success and with a sort of cultural studies perspective on American society and its preference for extroversion, especially as seen in modern businesses (open floor plans) and educational systems (group projects).  Another of its strong points is Cain's repeated insistence that no one is purely an introvert or purely an extrovert (think of a spectrum) and that people do not act exactly the same all of the time in all situations everywhere without fail.  If you enjoy reading theories about what makes people tick, Quiet is a great option.  I suppose if you are an extrovert surrounded exclusively by other extroverts, there may not be much of interest in this book, but if you are yourself more on the introverted side of things, or if you have close relationships with introverts, this book is a fascinating read and a useful explanatory tool as well.

Chapter One Hundred Fifty-Nine: Lady of Magick

So Sylvia Izzo Hunter has finally published a sequel to The Midnight Queen, and I thoroughly enjoyed it!  She employs the same pseudo-Regency style of writing as in the first book and crafts another intricate plot set mostly in the same alternate-history Europe (this time focusing on Scotland, alias Alba) in which Roman gods are worshipped in Britain, which excludes Scotland but includes northwestern France.  I did find the pacing of Lady of Magick a bit slow through the first half or even two thirds of the novel, but when the action came at the end, there was plenty of it--almost feeling a bit rushed.  Even so, I had fun reading this sequel to The Midnight Queen, and I will read any further sequels Hunter may publish in the future.

Chapter One Hundred Fifty Eight: Year of the Griffin

So, after trying and failing to become interested in Bone Gap, which was this year's Printz award winner (for excellence in writing for young adults), I decided to give it up and read something I knew I'd enjoy, Year of the Griffin, sequel to Dark Lord of Derkholm which I reviewed only a few posts previously.  I have not yet gone wrong with a book by Diana Wynne Jones, and Year of the Griffin was no exception!  I enjoyed it at least as much as Dark Lord of Derkholm, and possibly more.  I was only sad that it ended so soon!  But enough in that vein.  As for the book itself, it takes place eight years after the events of Derkholm, focusing on Derk's youngest griffin daughter, Elda, now 18, in her first year at the Wizards' University, which is in financial and magical chaos due to poor (and somewhat corrupt) administration.  Elda and her friends at university add a good heap of excitement to the campus, intentionally and not, making this another novel in Jones's excellent tradition of stories with deliciously complex, multi-layered plots with lots of dynamic and slightly mysterious characters.  If you enjoy fantasy novels and complex plots, this is definitely the book for you--though do read Dark Lord of Derkholm first.

Chapter One Hundred Fifty-Seven: The Weight of Feathers

As per a suggestion, I went ahead and read The Weight of Feathers, by Anna-Marie McLemore.  This recent YA novel follows two teenagers, Cluck Corbeau and Lace Paloma, who belong to rival families (think Romeo and Juliet).  Unlike Shakespeare's play, this story shares the narration between our two star-crossed protagonists, with the quotation in French (Cluck) or Spanish (Lace) informing the reader which character is narrating the chapter ahead.  At first The Weight of Feathers felt a bit too much like Romeo and Juliet for my taste, and each family's internal reinforcing of the evils wrought by the other family was a bit tiresome and obviously untrue or inaccurate.  However, as the story unfolded, it felt less like a modern remake of the play and more like an original story, becoming more nuanced and enjoyable.  I found myself really caring about both protagonists and wanting to find out what would happen to them; by the midpoint I could hardly put the book down.  However, I wasn't a huge fan of this story's version of magical realism (I might not like magical realism that much ever, actually).  I tend to prefer either realism or fantasy straight up, and I found the few magical aspects of this story somewhat distracting since they were unexplained (as they tend to be in works of magical realism).  Even so, I found this to be a compelling read, and if you like teen novels, or magical realism, or love stories, or award-winners (it was a finalist for the YA Morris Award for best debut author this year), then I'd recommend The Weight of Feathers.

Chapter One Hundred Fifty-Six: Feet on the Street: Rambles Around New Orleans

So, inspired by an upcoming trip to New Orleans, I decided I wanted to read some current travel-ish writing on the city, which I've visited briefly once before (and whose literature I took a superb undergrad class on).  Perusing my library's catalog, I found this title by Roy Blount Jr., whose name I recognized from listening to Wait! Wait! Don't Tell Me, so I decided to check it out.  Feet on the Street certainly engages in the kind of fetishization of New Orleans that so much of the writing on that city I've read also employs--it seems rather inevitable, but it isn't unpleasant once you've resigned yourself to it.  This is certainly a rambling book, but that seems to capture the flavor of the city as Blount depicts it: laid-back, meandering (or at least the Mississippi River is, but how can one separate river from city in this case?), not driven by a point or a goal but by a certain joie de vivre.  Much time is spent discussing oysters, but this is an interesting (and short!) slice of life in New Orleans as one outsider has experienced it on his numerous visits there.  Also, it's made me want to re-read A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams and The Awakening by Kate Chopin...  If you like contemporary travel writing, or books about New Orleans, I'd suggest Feet on the Street.

Chapter One Hundred Fifty-Five: Most Dangerous: Daniel Ellsberg and the Secret History of the Vietnam War

I've been meaning to read this non-fiction teen book, the latest from award-winning author Steve Sheinkin, ever since I read reviews of it last fall.  I finally checked it out from the library, and then lo and behold, at yesterday morning's Youth Media Awards at the ALA Midwinter Conference, it won the prize for Excellence in Nonfiction for Young Adults awarded by YALSA (the Young Adult Library Services Association, part of the American Library Association).  So I bumped it to the top of my list of library books to be read next (though I have mixed feelings about reading books just because they've won an award).  Although this book is written for teens, it did not feel dumbed down or over-simplified (perhaps this is due to my overwhelming ignorance about the Vietnam War and the Pentagon Papers, but I think not), and I found it to be a clear and compelling overview of how Daniel Ellsberg evolved from a U.S. Marine and a firm Cold Warrior into the anti-war activist who leaked top-secret government documents to newspapers across the country.  This book portrays Ellsberg in a favorable light while also emphasizing the complexity of any decision-making and is likely to raise many questions and strong feelings (whether favorable or not) in its readers.  I found it a fascinating look into a war and era I know little about, and I would recommend it to anyone who wants an introduction to the topic, or who enjoys nonfiction about history or government, or who simply wants an interesting read.

Chapter One Hundred Fifty-Four: Dark Lord of Derkholm

When looking for the book I read before Dark Lord of Derkholm, I came across that library's YA holdings by Diana Wynne Jones, one of my very favorite authors.  She has written dozens of books, most of which I haven't read (now that she's died, I don't want to go through them all too quickly--I'm sort of rationing them out).  But I decided it had been too long since I've read one of her books, and Dark Lord of Derkholm is a new title to me.  (It is also a fairly long book, which appealed to me because when I like a world I want to spend a good bit of time there, though it ended up reading pretty quickly, maybe because I hated to put it down!)  Anyway, Dark Lord of Derkholm was a delight, full of Jones's particular brand of humor, with a large yet interesting cast of characters, a mix of traditional mythologic influences and a unique version of magic, and a complex (some might say convoluted) multi-layer plot that ends up coming together quite nicely by the end, as her books tend to do.  If Dark Lord of Derkholm does feel like many of the other books by Jones (at least the ones I've read), that only made it more enjoyable for me, and it was certainly never predictable!  This is probably not the best book to choose if you are brand new to fantasy (or dislike fantasy), but if you enjoy fantasy and especially if you've enjoyed other books by Jones, I definitely recommend Dark Lord of Derkholm!

Chapter One Hundred Fifty-Three: The Summer Prince

Alaya Dawn Johnson's first book, The Summer Prince, is set in a fictitious far-future post-nuclear fallout enclosed city in what in our time is Brazil.  This book takes some of the best elements of post-apocalyptic and dystopian teen fiction and includes them suggestively, without being too overbearing or heavy-handed.   (Not to say that some dystopian elements are not obvious and brutal, in the post-Hunger Games tradition: a main plot point is that, every five years, the city elects a king who will be sacrificed at the end of a one-year term.)  Numerous minor and fascinating details about some of this future society's rules are slipped in throughout the text, helping create a very textured and realistic world, or at least the city of Palmares Três feels very realistic--the rest of the world is tantalizingly vague, which makes sense since the protagonist, June, has never left her glass-pyramid enclosed home city.  And as for June, she reads like many teenage characters do: passionate, creative, intelligent, and very angry with her mother (largely due to the death of her father) and lashing out at her new step-mother, too.  Her anguished relationship with her mother feels just a bit overblown and tired--haven't we seen this before in teen literature?--but the saving grace is that June's relationship with her mother is (slightly) dynamic, and June at least sometimes engages in self-reflexive thinking about her anger at and relationship with her mother, leading to some growth.  Another aspect of this book that I appreciated was its natural inclusion of a diverse array of characters, which can be hard to find in popular literature.

One of my library science/children's literature classmates recommended this book to me, and I'm so glad I took the recommendation and read it.  I could hardly bear to put it down because it kept me guessing until the end, and I would heartily recommend it.  Readers who enjoyed Lois Lowry's The Giver (and sequels), Suzanne Collins's Hunger Games trilogy, M.T. Andersen's Feed, or similar books will probably especially enjoy The Summer Prince by Alaya Dawn Johnson, or if you are looking for a way into the teen dystopian/post-apocalyptic adventure novel, this would be an excellent starting point.

Chapter One Hundred Fifty-Two Across

I couldn't resist making a little play on words in the title of this post, which is about a book called Two Across, a debut novel by Jeff Bartsch.  My grandmother sent me this book a few months ago, and I've finally had time to read it.  I love the premise of the book, which follows two over-educated teenagers, Vera and Stanley, from their tie at the National Spelling Bee when they are both 15 through their very tumultuous relationship, in which an odd importance is given to coded messages they send each other in crossword puzzles they construct and have published in major newspapers.  Stanley and Vera are both intriguing characters, though I often found Stanley in particular to be rather frustrating.  This book kept my interest, though by the last third or quarter of the book, it was starting to feel irritatingly repetitive.  (Boy loses girl and regains girl via crossword puzzles... and makes the same stupid mistake and loses her again... and finds her again via crossword puzzles... and makes a similar stupid mistake and loses her again... repeat several times...)  However, I found the ending to be generally satisfactory, which I value in a novel.  One element I disliked was the emotionally distant tone, especially in this novel that focuses on the turbulent relationship between two people in their late teenage years and in their twenties.  I prefer novels where I am made to feel the characters' emotions, rather than being told briefly and periodically about their emotions as though they are mere details rather than the glue of daily life.  This sort of emotional distance in the writing seems to me to be characteristic of a certain type of contemporary fiction for adults (I'm thinking, for example, of The Borrower and The Hundred-Year House by Rebecca Makkai, and of The Magicians by Lev Grossman, all previously reviewed on this blog).  Despite the emotional distance and repetitive plot toward the end, the story had many original elements, and I found this book to be fairly engaging.  If you enjoy contemporary U.S. fiction for adults, or stories with lots of quirk, or stories set in the 1960s and 1970s, I'd recommend this book.

Chapter One Hundred Fifty-One: My Life in France

In this autobiography by well-known chef Julia Child, she recounts how she came to learn and love cooking from her first stay in France in the late 1940s and 1950s and how she turned what started as a personal interest in cooking into a successful career as a cookbook writer and television chef.  Child also includes numerous details of her daily life (along with her husband and helper Paul) in France, Germany, Norway, and the U.S. through the early 1990s.  There are also hearty helpings of her political leanings and the tensions these caused with her father, as well as her views on American and French culture, though the focus of the book always remains on cooking and food.  By her account in My Life in France (co-written with a grand-nephew), her life was generally a happy one, despite the stresses and strains that come along with celebrity, and she certainly led an interesting life as well.  Even as someone who is relatively uninterested in food and cooking, I found this a fascinating and cheerful account of an interesting life well lived, and I would certainly recommend it to readers interested in the cultures of France and the U.S. in the late twentieth century or in biographies of chefs, or of women, or in books about generally happy people.  

Coincidentally, I have recently encountered two other books that involve Julia Child, but neither made it onto this blog originally, as one is a picture book and the other I listened to as an audiobook.  But I heartily enjoyed both of them, and as they're on the same subject, I'd like to mention them here.  The first is Minette's Feast: The Delicious Story of Julia Child and her Cat by Susanna Reich, a really charming picture book mainly about Julia Child's cat, Minette (whom Child discusses in My Life in France).  If you want an adorable picture book about a happy cat, Minette's Feast is a great choice.  The second is Provence, 1970: M.F.K. Fisher, Julia Child, James Beard, and the Reinvention of American Taste by Luke Barr, which gives some context to Child's career and offers a wider perspective on some of the events mentioned in My Life in France.  A nonfiction book, it provides a history of the evolution of food culture in the U.S. of the late twentieth century.