Saying Goodbye to 2008

In between my little cooking frenzy today to prepare for a New Year's get-together with friends, cleaning the house, reading books and helping the kids with their holiday homework projects, I've been musing over the year 2008. The year has had its challenges, joys and disappointments. Overall, however, I am blessed with a loving family, healthy kids, a supportive husband, good friends and good times. It was hard for me to even find things to put on my Christmas list this year, because I feel that I have everything I need. (Well, I am still suffering from dog sadness, so I could use a doggie around the house...)

When it comes to my computer, I had a really fun and productive year. I continued to sell off everything not nailed down in my house on Ebay. I jumped on the Facebook wagon, and reconnected with some long lost friends from high school and early adulthood. But here is the kicker. If someone would have told me a year ago that I would be reviewing books on my own book blog, I would have said "no way in hell", and maybe some other expletives. I had admired my sister's blog, and when she suggested I give it a try - what did I have to lose - I was instantly filled with an inspiration that would have to be described as something close to religious fervor. I jumped in with both feet, but I had no earthly clue what I was doing technically. I just knew that I read alot of books and I like to write, so I just started pushing buttons and hoped for the best. I've had alot of firsts. First guest post, first meme (thanks C.B. James for those, and for putting up with my inane questions) and I have signed up for my first two reading challenges. I look forward to many more firsts in 2009.

Even though I have read probably over a hundred books this year, I did not keep track of them until I started this blog in late October. I've decided not to publish a summary of my literary year because it would be incomplete, and the obsessive compulsive in me would not allow that. I'll be all over it for New Year's 2009!

Thanks to all of you that have supported me. I will do my best to entertain you in the year to come. Happy New Year!

"Tell No One" by Harlan Coban (audio)

Last week, in a moment of panic when I ran out of audio books on my iPod, I did an emergency run to the local library to find something entertaining. Now, this method of book selection is usually haphazard at best, but these were desperate times. I found "Pride and Prejudice" (an exciting morsel) and this book, Tell No One. I'm not sure I've read Harlan Coban before, but the title tickled a memory. TBR list? No, I later discovered that the movie came out recently and was very well reviewed...it is on my Netflix Q. The movie was actually directed by a French fellow, Guillaume Cadet, and takes place in France, but otherwise seems to have retained the general storyline. I remembered that several studios started bidding on the rights to the book before it was even finished, so I was extremely encouraged to read the book.



The premise may sound slightly familiar to you. A doctor's wife mysteriously disappears and is found several days later, murdered and branded, an M.O. connected with a serial killer. Eight years later, two bodies are found that seem to be related with this murder. The case is reopened and new evidence points to the doctor (Alex Beck) as the murderer of his wife. At the same time, the doctor receives haunting e-mails with hidden messages that only his wife would know about, with a plea to "tell no one". Is she alive, or is it a set up? Is he grasping at the few threads of hope still alive in his heart? Authorities launch a city-wide manhunt of Beck, and Beck attempts to chase down evidence to prove his innocence using any means possible. The deceptions and betrayals run up and down the ladder, and chasing the twists and turns leave you breathless and guessing right up to the very end.


So is it me, or does this have strains of The Fugitive in it? That's OK, though. I loved the Fugitive, and this story very quickly distinguishes itself from other familiar plotlines. It is INSANELY fast-paced with unpredictable twists - you won't be able to put this book down so don't start it before you go to bed. At the same time, however, it is a gentle, bittersweet story of a man losing his soul mate, and not getting over it. Even the subplots are satisfying with great character development and easy, flowing prose. I detected not an ounce of anything corny or cliche. And it posed to me some questions to ponder. How far would you go to save the ones you love? If you saw the line between good and evil, would you recognize it? Would you cross that line for the greater good?

Top Books of 2008 by Entertainment Weekly

I know this is a little bit of a cheat post, since I am simply repeating what I have read in EW, but I think it bears mentioning. I have found their reviews to be pretty spot on, and I use them to form my unachievable TBR list. I am embarrassed at how many of these I haven't read, but some of them did make my list. Since I have read very few, I will paraphrase EW's descriptions the best I can.

Fiction

#1. Say You're One of Them - Uwem Akpan. I have this on my list, but the wait for it at the library was quite long. This is a story collection by first-time Nigerian author, all revolving around unforgettable tales of suffering, bravery, the effect of urban poverty on the human soul. Although the stories are grim, they are also full of intelligence, wit and vibrancy, making it impossible not to empathize, and equally impossible to despair. Sounds like a downer, but I will trust them on this one!

#2. The Book of Dahlia - Elisa Albert. Spoiled LA slacker with a doting father and self-absorbed mother lays around smoking pot and eating Cheerios and waits for her life to begin. She contracts terminal cancer, and what starts out as a novel with dark humor turns into a tragedy...one unlike any you've read before.

#3. Olive Kitteridge - Elizabeth Strout. Linked stories that capture the ebb and flow of life in a small coastal Maine town. At the center of the stories is a retired schoolteacher who has taught her students life lessons that they carry with them forever, but at the same time she is frank, childish and resentful to her family members. This stout, impossible, wonderful woman is the year's most riveting fictional character. Not to be confused with Kit Kitteridge of American Girl, which is what I thought it was at first.

#4. Lush Life - Richard Price. I did read this one via audio book, and I finished it within two days. This is a colorful, gritty, dense crime novel that takes us into the boiling melting pot of downtown New York. This is not a whodunit - we know the answer to that one. It is more of a street-level view of wannabe artists in a cafe society along with African-American kids coming of age in the housing projects next door.

#5. Bottomless Belly Button - Dash Shaw. Cartoonist Shaw sketches the Looney family, whose parents are divorcing after decades of marriage. Shaw unspools the entertwined sagas - romance, neurosis, sexual awakening, and deadpan comedy that build to a bleak, haunting finale.

#6. The House on Fortune Street - Margot Livesey. The lives of four men and women who come and go from a London flat are explored in Livesey's sixth novel. The common literary motif of families that are strangers to one another is affectingly dramatized in this extraordinary book.

#7. Disquiet - Julia Leigh. A creepy, potent, moody novella whose characters are totally askew...a woman turns up at her estranged family's estate covered in bruises, her elderly mother lives in a bedroom strewn with raw chicken wings for her cats, a sister-in-law arrives with the corpse of a stillborn baby who is put to bed each night in the freezer. Huh?

#8. The Story of Edgar Sawtelle - David Wroblewski. One of the best books I have read this year. Loosely modeled on the plot of Hamlet, a mute Edgar Sawtelle assists his parents in raising and training a special breed of dog. Everything is turned upside down when his mysterious uncle arrives, his father dies suddenly, and Edgar begins harboring suspicions and seeing ghosts. This novel haunted me long after I finished it.

#9. American Wife - Curtis Sittenfeld. About the inner life of a First Lady, who has a secret abortion, a lesbian grandmother, and doubt about her husband's ability to do his job. We are also treated with lively sex scenes and wicked caricatures of a political dynasty. I wonder who this could be a parody of?

#10. What Happened to Anna K. - Irina Reyn. Reyn uses her talent and cojones to re-write Tolstoy's Anna Karenina into something more modern. Hmmm...

Non-Fiction

#1. Beautiful Boy - David Sheff. Written by the father of a boy addicted to crystal meth, and is a statement about parental love and its limitations.

#2. Nixonland - Rick Peristein. This book was on Stephen King's list as well. It is deemed an amusing analysis of Richard Nixon's pivotal role in contemporary American politics.

#3. The Forever War - Dexter Filkins. War correspondent Filkins provides a harrowing backstory to his front-page reportage on Afghanistan and Iraq.

#4. Pictures at a Revolution - Mark Harris. In this engrossing history, Harris uses stories of how five films nominated for 1967 Best Picture were made to chronicle changes in Hollywood and culture.

#5. The Bin Ladens - Steve Coll. Coll approaches the catastrophe of 9/11 as one more crisis within a big, dysfunctional family.

"Quicksand" by Iris Johansen (audio)

I made a vow awhile back that I was going to take a break from "trashy thrillers", which is what this is. But for some reason (I can't remember now) I had this book on my TBR list. It was a quick read, but fairly forgettable. This is the seventh of the Eve Duncan series...Eve Duncan is a forensic sculptor with a live-in boyfriend, Joe, who is a cop, an adult adopted daughter, Jane, as well as some other casts of characters that come and go through the series. I have read some of the books of this series before, so when I started this one, I thought "ahhh, yes I remember now". However I haven't been compelled to pursue each installment, as I do others, so that should tell you something.

In Quicksand, Eve is STILL trying to find the killer of her daughter Bonnie and to find her daughter's body. This has been going on awhile. Like for the entire series. Joe has tracked down a particularly evil gentleman by the name of Kistle, who is a child predator, torturer and killer, and who he suspects may have killed Bonnie. Nasty fellow. Joe is growing as weary of the Bonnie drama as us readers I think, and feels that until the mystery is solved, his relationship with Eve will never be complete. There is a pursuit, a little cat and mouse action, Kistle knocking off people along the way and fixating on Eve as his motivation for his actions. Also back from a couple books ago is a General Montalvo, a smooth Colombian with underworld connections who Eve bonded with on a job a few books back. Montalvo wants to help catch Kistle to impress Eve and steal her away from Joe. During the pursuit, the services of a legitimate but tortured psychic is called upon for assistance as well. It doesn't take a psychic, however, to presume we will see this character again.

Quicksand is a past-paced read and has enough action to keep you entertained. But I found myself getting annoyed with the characters and the dialogue. Joe felt very neanderthal-like with his "I'm going go to bed with you Eve, and I may be rough, but its not my fault because I'm angry" was almost laughable. I kept hearing the same expressions "My God" and "that bastard" over and over again. And I don't remember disliking Eve before, but in this segment she seemed incredibly whiny (could be the narrator, I don't know). I don't mean to sound cold...I completely respect the storyline of this woman finding closure...but frankly I think it has been milked dry. We are all ready for poor Eve to find her peace, but it appears we have to wait a little longer...

"Breaking Dawn" by Stephenie Meyer

Sigh. Merry Christmas to me. I finally finished the fourth and final book of the Twilight Series, all 754 pages of it. Now I can move on with my life! And I decided I'm not necessarily going to provide a full synopsis because I just couldn't do it justice. I loved the first book, Twilight, but was getting pretty annoyed, and even bored, with the next two. This final installment brought back the delight that I felt when I picked up the first book. No, the writing really didn't reach a higher literary level, and yes the story line was insane. But it worked, and I enjoyed every minute of it.

I must add a few words for the parents (and I don't think I'm spoiling too much here, unless you live in a cave). Bella and Edward get married and have a baby. There is some sex in this book, with shredded feather pillows, damaged beds and all that comes with it. No, Meyer does not describe the physical, nitty-gritty detail of the acts themselves, but the average 11 year old will know what is going on. It is your choice as to whether you want your kids taking notes.

Now I am off to prepare for our Christmas Eve celebration, our American/Polish wigilia. Peace on earth to all men, vampires and werewolves.

2009 Outlander Reading Challenge

Being a relatively new blogger, this is another first for me...a reading challenge! I know they are going on everywhere, but have restrained myself simply because of the volume of books on my shelf that I want to read. However, I stumbled across this one and the premise of the book series intrigued me. The rules of the challenge (see them here) allow audio tape, so that gives me a half a chance to accomplish my goal!

The challenge revolves around the Outlander Series, written by Diana Gabaldon. The specific books are:

• Outlander
• Dragonfly in Amber
• Voyager
• Drums of Autumn
• The Fiery Cross
• A Breath of Snow and Ashes

There is a seventh book in the series coming out in the fall of 2009, which prompted the challenge to re-read and prepare for its launch. Based on what I have read, the premise of the books is this: A WWII combat nurse vacations in Scotland with her husband and accidently launches herself back to the 1700's. Circumstances throw her in the path of a gallant young soldier, Jamie (quite the dude I'm told), and their love affair becomes the centerpiece of the series, which delves into Scottish history (where my ancestors are from). I expect I will learn something, as one does from historical novels. I also expect to be entertained by love, tragedy, scandal and the fantasy of time travel.

However, here is the kicker, friends. I checked my library to see if they carry the series on audio tape, and they do. I also did a little math, and in sum, there are 228 discs in the series. Gulp. And I was intimidated by "World Without End" that had 36 discs? Holy moly. Good thing I have six or seven months to accomplish this one...

"Testimony" by Anita Shreve (audio)

I have just finished the audio tape version of this book, and I am sitting here with a sick, empty and frightened feeling in the pit of my stomach. At the same time, I am also filled with a sense of awe for this author that has managed to take a fairly oft-publicized (the use of the word "common" feels wrong) tragedy and rip it wide open for all to see.

This novel documents, in a very unique way, the events that led up to, occured during, and followed in the aftermath of a very dark Saturday evening at an exclusive private boarding school in the northeast. We have heard these types of stories on the news, so this is not new territory. Several very drunk boys (all 18 and over), a very drunk, young promiscuous girl, and someone holding a camera. Why did this happen? How could this happen? Two of the three boys are good students with promises of Ivy League colleges and scholarships, coming from good families, one with a serious girlfriend. Well, I'm not sure we get a real good answer, because in reality, they just aren't there. But we hear from everyone involved...from the parents, from the "participants", the friends, the girlfriend, the headmaster of the school, even the school cafeteria lady. It is all presented to us as a combination of diary-type musings, statements of fact, or as if these individuals are being interviewed. It is uncanny. You get raw emotions, gut-reactions, all with individual, unique voices. You slip inside the minds of different mothers that feel she has contributed somehow to the downfall of her son. You hear the thoughts of fathers that are in total denial or cannot be in the same room with his son. You hear from the "victim" who attempts to reinvent herself in a different part of the country and blithely justifies her actions on the night in question. Yet, you hear a different perspective of this girl's actions from her roommate.

The effects of the incident in question are catastrophic. Lives are blown apart, some destroyed forever. One thing that I found most interesting as I was listening...with the exception of the girl, who I found to be very self-absorbed and annoying, there are no villains or heroes. When you hear of these stories on the news, it is easy to take a side and say "the boys took advantage of a young girl", or adversely, "the girl asked for it". In this story, when you are allowed to reside in the mind of each character in the story, it just isn't that black and white. Your heart breaks for each and every one of them. Personally, being the parent of a pre-pubescent son and a pubescent daughter, I am terrified at the thought of how bad judgement can implode everything you hold dear.

I'd also like to make a special note about experiencing this novel on audio tape. I've listened to many audio tapes. Up to this point, all of them but one have been a single reader that assumes different accents and tones to portray different characters. In "Testimony" there are a cast of readers, each with their own character. The effect is amazing. If you enjoy a book in this medium now and again, or have never tried it but think you might, this would be the one to pick up.