The Myth of You and Me by Leah Stewart

Terri, a new reader of my blog, recommended this book as one of her favorite 13 books (she couldn't stop at a top ten - familiar!) It is the story of a young woman who has been the caretaker for an old man who dies. The last thing he leaves for her to do is to re-connect with an old friend with whom she had a falling-out many years previous.

I enjoyed reading this book - the writing was very good and I was curious to find out what the story was behind the end of the women's friendship. The interpersonal interactions and character development was incredibly well-done for as short a book as this was. I also thought the resolution was fairly good and appreciated the narrator's explanation of why the story ended where it did. What most struck me about the story was how one event in someone's life could so strongly define their future.

My only criticism of the book was that while I was reading it I could never remember "what I was in the middle of" when someone asked. Once I finished it, I almost forgot to include it in the blog until I noticed it in the pile of books to go back to the library. I usually like to think that the best books are memorable, and this one was not.

Credit where credit is due

Last night I bumped into Dooyon, someone I had met last year at a party and had a great discussion with about books. I realized talking to her that she is the person who had recommended Michael Pollard's In Defense of Food to me that I so enjoyed last year.



I also remembered talking to her about starting a book club in Boston - I still can't believe that I can't find half a dozen people who want to get together and talk about a book that they have all made the effort to finish. Yikes. Laura and I are going to try it with Omnivore's Dilemma, but she is in Delaware so we will email our thoughts to each other.

Inauguration Day

Today was President Obama's inauguration. Wow. He swore his oath of office on Lincoln's bible which I think is pretty cool despite my discomfort at the strong presence of religion in the ceremony.



But, he could have chosen any book at all to swear on - or not use a book at all. It got me thinking - what book would I put my hand on if I were affirmed into office - a political statement with a Michael Pollard book? A favorite novel? Caroline's Knapp's Appetites? Something from my childhood?



Perhaps if I were someone who thrived on public service the choice would be obvious.

Girls Weekend - two new bookstores

Away this weekend with three of my best girl pals to celebrate Jamie's birthday.

As a pit stop on the way up north, we stopped at Seasoned Booksellers in Rochester, VT. http://www.seasonedbooks.com/ Cute old mansion, crammed with used and new books only loosely organized, clean bathroom, and nice coffee shop with homemade baked goods - Pure heaven. I could have spent the entire weekend there.

Later in the weekend I realized I didn't like the book I had brought with me (Sacred Games by Vikram Chandra which I will try again in the future but just don't have patience for right now). At 4:58 we flew into Tempest Book Shop in Waitsfield after a day of shopping and before Apres-ski (er...Apres-shop?) My friend Sara loyally declared we were having a "book emergency" and the proprieter was kind enough to let me scan a few piles of books until I found something I wanted - Half a Yellow Sun, by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, about Nigeria. So far so good. The Tempest (sadly, website-less although wifi-enabled in the store) was clean, bright, and had a lovely model train hoisted from the ceiling.

Though not a bookstore, it was also wonderful to reunite with Laura, whose comments on books are always thoughtful and eye-opening. She gives me hope that having kids does not preclude reading!

The Hour I First Believed by Wally Lamb

I was disappointed with this book.

And maybe my expectations were too high because I had loved Lamb's two other novels. But I did not enjoy reading this book. Late last year I wrote about being hesitant to read Garden of Last Days because it was a 9/11 book and I didn't think I wanted to read about that. This book was about both Columbine and Katrina - and it treated both of those subjects in a reasonably predictable and PTSD way - just why I didn't want to read about recent crises.

To compound this, the narrator was not very sympathetic - sort of like a meaner, more careless version of Demille's John Corey. Both he and his wife were explosive, emotionally-stunted people whom I did not like. I kept talking to them, saying "why don't you just tell her you feel that way," and "jeez, just talk to him about how you feel - let him in."

Finally, the second half of the book intersperses the current narrative with letters and a Masters Thesis about the narrator's ancestors. B-O-R-I-N-G. Over the last few years, I have developed a far greater tolerance for historical fiction and alternative methods of moving a story along than just narrative text, but this was unbearable. It was also yet another major theme to weave into an already-crowded story.

The only piece I found interesting was the narrator's visits to his wife in prison. Lamb had obviously researched life in a women's prison carefully (as evidenced by his two compendiums of non-fiction writing by women prisoners since his last novel), and it showed in the writing.

Hopefully Lamb is hard at work with something I'll like more.

What is Coming in 2009

Great preview of books to look forward to this year.

http://www.themillionsblog.com/2009/01/most-anticipated-2009-may-be-great-year.html

Thanks to everyone for your recommendations in response to my 2008 booklist. I am grinding through Wally Lamb's book right now and will post about it soon.