RIP VI - the most wonderful time of the year!

The days are getting cooler (not in Florida), the leaves are turning, the sweaters and jeans are coming out of storage.  Best of all, Carl from Stainless Steel Droppings just kicked off the best part of fall...R(eaders) I(mbibing) P(eril).

2011 has been a challenge-less year for me, with the exception of the TBR Dare where you had to read your own stuff.  This was a wise move for me because with the exception of book club reads, I have been doing my own thing, and have had one of the best reading years ever.

But RIP is different.  It is a no-brainer for me.  Here is the deal, in Carl's words:
 
Every September 1st through October 31st for the last 5 years I have hosted the R.eaders I.mbibing P.eril Challenge, affectionately known as the R.I.P. Challenge. I began this reader event, I blinked, and now I am hosting this for the 6th time. Wow, that is so hard to believe.

The purpose of the R.I.P. Challenge is to enjoy books that could be classified as:

Mystery.
Suspense.
Thriller.
Dark Fantasy.
Gothic.
Horror.
Supernatural.

The emphasis is never on the word challenge, instead it is about coming together as a community and embracing the autumnal mood, whether the weather is cooperative where you live or not.
So you can see why this is an easy thing for me to support.  That is why I am signing up for "Peril the First", where I need to read four "perilous" books in the two month period.  (The funny thing is, I've already read two..."Nemesis" by Jo Nesbo and "The Taker" by Alma Katsu.)

FYI, you don't have to read four books.  Carl is that kinda guy.  You can just read one, you can watch a movie instead, whatever.  It is all about the MOOD.

  

So besides the two books I've already got behind me, what else? 






Audios:
1.  The Last Werewolf - Glen Duncan (Heather and I will be listening to this on the way to SIBA)
2.  The Snowman - Jo Nesbo
3.  Warm Bodies - Isaac Marion
4.  We All Fall Down - Michael Harvey

Print (I'm listing just the applicable books that were sitting on my nightstand, I kid you not:1.  Still Missing - Chevy Stevens
2.  Mr. Peanut - Adam Ross
3.  House of Secrets - Lowell Cauffiel
4.  Turn of Mind - Alice LaPlante
5.  Blood Work - Holly Tucker
6.  The Killer of Little Shepherds - Doublas Starr

So. Obviously this is not all going to happen, but it gives me a direction in which to read over the next two months.

Are you signed up yet?  This is some of the best fun you'll have blogging...join us!

That Day In September - Artie Van Why

Before I tell you about Artie Van Why's book, I'm going to share a little bit of my 9/11 story with you.  Some of you may heard it, and to those people I apologize for repeating myself. 

My reaction was the same as the rest of the world on that day...I was devastated.  I didn't lose anyone in the terrorist attacks, but I felt that my innocence had been stolen from me.  All I wanted to do on that day was go home and be with my husband and children.  Instead, I worked for a company who wanted to seize the moment and come up with a patriotic but profitable promotion, and was asked to work late to make it happen.  Around 3:00pm, a teacher from my kids' school called me and told me my kids were the only ones remaining, and could I please come and get them?  I had to call my husband to do the honors.

I didn't quit the next day.  Who can do that financially?  But at that very moment, I made a promise that we would get our bills paid, and reprioritize our life so I could stay home and raise my children. Things were sacrificed and my husband and I made it happen.  Never again was I going to be put in that position, that my babies were going to be the last children left at school with the nation was falling apart.  It was an epiphany.  I quit my job, after a 16 year career, in 2004. 

For three or four years, I went into my shell on 9/11.  I grieved all over again.  Even now, ten years later, there is a pall cast over the day.  It is for this reason that even though I only accept 1 out of every 10 review copies, Artie's spoke to me.  Like me and thousands of people out there, he has a story to tell.

Artie worked across the street from the Twin Towers as a word processor for a law firm.  It wasn't his dream job.  He was a gay man, mostly in the closet, and had always wanted to be an actor.  Those dreams were put aside to pay the bills.  Artie was also a recovering alcoholic, and was just trying to get by day to day.     
 

 

But when the towers were hit, and Artie raced out into the street and saw bodies falling from the sky, something shifted in him.  He wished he could have saved some of them.  He walked home, changed his clothes, and went to his AA meeting.  He called his parents.  He slept with the light on.  He wouldn't leave his neighborhood.  He started when he heard an airplane.  He would silently plan his escape route if buildings started to fall as he was walking down the street.  His words are honest and raw.   

Ultimately, he quit his job and chased his dream.  He began getting his thoughts down on paper, which were published into this book.  He adapted his words into a one man show off Broadway.  He is doing what he loves.

I feel an affinity with Artie in that we both were irrevocably affected by 9/11, and made changes for the better.  His personal memoir is a testament to the human spirit, and honors the memories of all the souls lost on September 11, 2001.  This book is only 84 pages, something you can read in an hour, to help us remember a day that should never be forgotten.

4 out of 5 stars 



East of Eden - John Steinbeck (Audio)

I'm not sure how I can call myself a book lover and never have read John Steinbeck (OK, maybe I read Of Mice and Men in high school but I don't remember it).  I feel bad about that.  He is one of the American greats, and I've ignored him for 45 years?  But what my literary schooling didn't provide me, my book club does, God bless them.  They have forced some proper literature upon me.

Synopsis:  The setting is Salinas Valley in Northern California, turn of the century, when farmers are scratching out a living, and capitalism is on the rise.  It is against this backdrop that the epic story of good versus evil is told.  At the heart of the story is two half-brothers, Charles and Adam, one loved more than the other by their single father, and thus plants the seed of jealousy and competition that will endure into the next generation. 

Enter the perfect antagonist, Cathy, who believes the world is all evil, and sets out to use that to her advantage with a heart as cold as ice, for personal gain.  Not only will she infect the lives of Charles and Adam, but have a pervasive influence on the lives of her and Adam's twin sons Cal and Aron. 

Rounding out one of the most realized cast of characters in a literary novel are the supporting crew that deserve their own separate billing...Samuel Hamilton, the joyous, Irish farmer full of friendship and sage advice for his neighbors, and Lee, the Chinese American that works for Adam Trask and serves as the caretaker of Cal and Aron's souls. 

In what has been heralded as the "great American novel", the reader finds themselves overwhelmed in themes of good versus evil, jealousy, brotherly love and hate, and the notion of "timshel" or "thou mayest"...freewill to overcome that darkness which can ruin a man.

My thoughts:  To even attempt to write a synopsis on this monster is bogus, plus 90% of the reading world already knows the plot anyway, but I had to try for sport.  This is the perfect example of a novel being greater than the sum of its parts.  It is big and epic, filled with four dimensional characters (where they almost stick their fingers out of the pages and poke you in the eye, or the ear as it were), and expansive themes that my little brain almost can't comprehend.

The emotions laid before you are jarring.  There was very little here that was lukewarm.  I hated Cathy - she was as close to pure evil as you find in a book, and made my skin crawl and my stomach turn.  But I loved to hate her too!  I wanted to hug Samuel Hamilton and Lee, and befriend their warm, giving hearts.  I wanted to smack Adam, that sap.  For all the mistakes his father made, he turned around and made the same stupid mistakes with his own sons.  He was gullible as well.  Grrrr.  Then there was all that murky, oily, gut-deep turmoil between brothers.  It was expressed in such raw and feral terms, and at such a Cain and Able level of human nature, it made me uncomfortable and squrim in my chair. 

It was these violent emotions that Steinbeck so perceptively described that caused me to spiral into a malaise when I finished the audio.  The anger!  The angst!  The tragedies!  The moral ruin! While the book was brilliant, it was not uplifting.  Not even Samuel Hamilton, Lee, and the ultimate victory of timshel could save me.  I wildly grasped for a David Sedaris audio afterwards like a life preserver.

A word about the audio production:  More than a few of my book club members raised their eyebrows when I mentioned I would be "reading" this classic on audio.  Almost seems sacrilegious, doesn't it?  But it did work.  At the outset, the narrator, Richard Poe, came across as stiff and vocally inflexible.  But as the story developed, he grew on me.  For anyone that may not have the time to sit and read over 600 pages in print, I'd highly recommend the audio option.

5 out of 5 stars                   

Not So Wordless Wednesday: Norway #9

I have found that generally, Europeans make damn good draft beer.  Much better than anything we make over here on our side.  That includes the Norwegians and their Hansa beer.  What we didn't like was the price.  At approximately $15 a glass, we had to be sated with one.  And it wasn't just the beer, it was everything...food, clothing, lodging.  I don't know how people survive over there.  If I had to live in Norway, I would be thin, naked, homeless and sober.

The Taker - Alma Katsu

I literally had heard nothing (or probably more accurately remembered nothing) about this book or this author until Kathy (Bermudaonion) mentioned that we would have an opportunity to talk with Alma Katsu at SIBA in September.  I jerked to attention.  I can't meet her and not read her book!  While I was scrambling around trying to figure out how to get my hands on a copy (it releases today, September 6th), Heather (Raging Bibliomania) requested an ARC for me.  Isn't it great when you have blogger friends?  From my words to her ears. 

A couple of weeks later, Heather delivered the book to me over a lunch date.  She'd already read the book, and she summarized the book as follows:

Synopsis:  In a small town in Maine, a bedraggled young woman is found at the side of the highway, covered in blood.  She confesses to a murder, and indicates where the police can find the body.  While the local doctor examines her for injuries and mental status, she grabs a scalpel and inflicts a mortal wound upon herself, then miraculously heals in a matter of minutes.  Having gotten the doctor's attention, she begs him to help her escape.  Intrigued with WHAT she is, he sneaks her out of the hospital and to freedom.  On the way, she tells her story that dates back to the early 1800's.

My thoughts:  That is what Heather told me, and that is as much as the plot as I am going to tell you.  Armed with very little knowledge, I plunged into this book blind, and with the turn of each page I become more and more confuzzled and at the same time invigorated.  What on earth is going on here???  It is bizarre, exotic and disturbing.  It is the story of enduring love, and the ends to which one will travel for that love.  It is about the search for youth, beauty and eternal life, and the evil that accompanies these goals.

I've seen the book described as a romance.  My response would be...like hell it is.  If this is a romance, then we are all in trouble.  It is much more dark, sinister and demented than that.   

This is not a vampire story.  It is something quite different than anything else I've ever read.

Want everything wrapped up in a big red bow?  Then don't bother.  There are threads left unchecked that have the potential to keep me up at night.  The beauty is...(you know what is coming, wait for it)...yes, that's right.  It is a trilogy.  Born solely to drive us all mad.

In closing, while I thoroughly enjoyed this adventure, I can imagine that some wouldn't.  There is too much darkness and ugly personalities to make everyone happy.  For a slightly different opinion on the matter, why not hop on over to my literary sister Jill at Rhapsody in Books to see what she had to say?

4.5 out of 5 stars    
  

The Reef (2011)

For any of you that has followed the Monday Movie Meme for awhile, you know I'm a big fan of "Jaws".  It made a pretty big impression on me at a young age, to the point where I don't even feel comfortable today getting into the water much past my knees.

Another frightening shark movie was "Open Water", where a couple gets accidentally left out in the middle of shark-infested waters on a scuba trip. 

This weekend, my husband and I discovered a film on our Netflix streaming that was a perfect splice of these two movies..."The Reef".  When was this in the theaters?  It was totally off my radar. 

Based on a true story, the premise is this.  Two couples and a captain head out on a sailboat for a holiday at the Great Barrier Reef in Australia.  At low tide, the boat hits part of the reef and the boat starts to sink.  Knowing that the waters are full of sharks, the captain takes his chances hanging onto the slowly sinking boat.  The two couples take off swimming with a couple of kickboards to an island about 10 miles away.  To get there, though, they have to avoid an aggressive, hungry shark or two.

There aren't many surprises in the movie.  In fact, I was loudly declaring which person was going to die first.  You can always tell.  But it was still intense, with all of the shots of the sharks taken sans CGI or robotics.  The scenery of The Great Coral Reef was gorgeous.  And it was a true story, which ratchets things up a bit for me.  If you like "Jaws" or "Open Water", you definitely need to add this one to your queue.  

Sunday Salon: Pass the Scuba Gear James

 In a recent conversation with my blogging buddy James, he mentioned that he was so far underwater he needed scuba gear.  James always says the most perfect things at the most perfect times.  Scuba gear is what I needed this week.

For a girl who had NOTHING officially on the calendar, I sure had a stressful week.  I spent a day in the yard, two and a half (almost three) full days doing combative, angst-filled Treasurer business (my unpaid career it seems), and another day trying to catch up on e-mails, blogging, reviews and reading.  My husband was out of town, and my kids were working on my last nerve.  I did manage a nice long walk, just to prevent myself from having a coronary.

But!  Alas!  A long weekend is upon us!  Yesterday was filled with football, church and a Magical Dining Month dinner!  Some of you might remember me talking about this last year, but for the whole month of September, dozens of high-end Orlando restaurants offer a three course meal for $30 per person.  Donations are made to the Boys and Girls Club. It's a win-win. 

Mentally, I'm also gearing up for Book Blogger Appreciation Week starting September 12th.  Everyone will be posting on various subjects, I will be interviewing Anna from Diary of an Eccentric (and vicey versey), and I will be competing for Best Audiobook Blog.  A huge thank you to whoever nominated me!  I am going up against some power houses but I'm thrilled that this year I'm not alone on the list.

I'm also gearing up for my trip with Heather to SIBA in Charleston September 16 through the 20th.  We are road-tripping, so we don't have to mail 3.2 tons of books back to our homes.  We are currently planning what audios we will listen to on the way up and back. 

As far as reading was concerned this week, let's just talk about audio.  I finished "Between Shades of Gray" by Ruta Sepetys, which was ultimately heart-wrenching.  I have a few complaints, but overall a real good WWII novel.  I'm also more than halfway through "Maine" by Courtney Sullivan, for my Skype book club.  No opinion on this one yet.  It is entertaining me, but also feeling alot like other beach reads (aka distressed women coming together to the beach to heal themselves).  Stay tuned.

My print reading was hoooorrrrrrible.  I'm still in the middle of Marisa de los Santos' upcoming release "Falling Together", and it is full of dear, lovable characters and snappy dialogue.  I just can't get any momentum.  I'm going to have to lock myself in a room and just finish it.  I've got way too many other things that need reading. 

Today, I have to take my daughter for horseback riding lessons, then perhaps a movie?  Burgers on the grill?  We will see.  I love long weekends, where you have half a chance to fit everything in. 

In closing, I'm going to throw out a teaser for next week's destination.  On Friday, my husband and I will fly off to the land of Dawn, the Bumbles, Fenway Park, seafood, the North End, cupcakes, who knows what else.  It is going to be short and sweet and packed with fun.

Happy Labor Day weekend everyone!