Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter

Finally - a vampire story that I can sink my teeth into! (Sorry. I couldn't resist the cheapest of laughs. You know I live with three boys, right?). Ok, hear me now, I was NOT interested in reading this book despite the positive things I heard from coworkers who raved about it. I don't like vampire books. Period. But... 

In my quest to help my middle son to meet his dreaded Readers to Leaders requirement, I was desperate. I was familiar with this book trailer and decided to entice him to pick up the novel by playing it for him. As the video ended he asked "Can I see that again?," and I knew I was getting somewhere. After the second viewing, he asked for the book and we were in business. The thing is, though, I'm always a little skeptical about his reading - does he skip around? Miss important plot details? Read the ending first? In situations like this, I think it is best to just read the same book, so I grabbed a copy for myself (librarian perk!) and promptly lost myself in a world of American history, political strife, swinging axes and blood sucking demons.  Fabulous!

The opening chapter of the novel was set in Rhinebeck, N.Y., which immediately sucked (ha!) me in to the story.  As the time period shifted from present day to 19th century, the action-filled story kept me interested to the point I was unable to put the book down.  I loved the image of Abe Lincoln as an axe wielding assassin to bloodsuckers, be they slave owners or supernatural creatures.  Grahame-Smith does a masterful job of blending the historical and the possible to create a tale that almost seems plausible.  I highly recommend this book for teens and adults alike and must admit, that there finally is a novel in this genre that I can completely and enthusiastically endorse.  

The film adaptation of the novel opened today, June 22nd, but please read the book before you see the movie.  The movie, incidentally, is directed by Tim Burton based on a screenplay by the author Seth Grahame-Smith and so help me God, if this joint effort is a repeat of the shit show that was Dark Shadows, well, let's just say I will definitely have an axe of my own to grind.

Revolution by Jennifer Donnelly

image: jenniferdonnelly.com

Jennifer Donnelly, who resides in upstate New York, writes very engaging historical fiction.  Prior  to my reading Revolution, I had read a previous novel of hers, A Northern Light, which takes the Theodore Dreiser story An American Tragedy and changes the narrator to a female teenager working in an Adirondack boarding house.  Do you know this story?  In the early 20th century, Chester Gillette was convicted of murdering his pregnant lover Grace Brown and was put to death in the electric chair.  The novel was also adapted into a film, A Place in the Sun, starring, among others, Elizabeth Taylor and Montgomery Cliff.  You know it's a good story when books are still being inspired by it a century later.  Check that one out, too.

But, on to Revolution... Andi, a seriously depressed, Brooklyn teenager trying to survive the loss of her younger brother,  is the narrator of this novel which alternates between the 18th century French Revolution and contemporary Paris.  Andi is a gifted musician who depends upon her guitar to retain her precarious grasp on life.  Her suicidal state of mind is addressed with powerful medication, both pharmaceutical and musical, and the descriptions of both "drugs" are boldly honest.  I was struck by the following description of a very familiar, to me, Pink Floyd song:   "...a moody guitar comes in, there's a pause, and then four notes, clear and stunning: B-flat, F, G, E....David Gilmour got sadness down in four notes." 

 

The novel contains countless musical references beyond Shine on You Crazy Diamond.  As I was reading I was continually impressed with the author's knowledge of music from a wide array of genres - classical, pop, hip-hop, rap, traditional and others.  The musical descriptions were informative and added to the sensory stimulation present in the work. As someone who knows very little about the French Revolution, I found the history component to be really interesting, particularly the descriptions of the catacombs in Paris and the daily life of the royal family.  Despite her negative reputation, Marie Antoinette was portrayed with sympathy.  She may have been a shallow, spoiled woman but in this novel we are reminded that she was also a mother who has suffered the loss of numerous children.

A little history, a little mystery, some music and romance...sounds like a good summer read, friends. 

The Eternal Ones

After what feels like a long time, I've fallen in love with reading books again and have relegated the iPad to a place not on my nightstand. Yes, yes, I know that some folks read books on iPads or other electronic readers, but that isn't really my way. I like to turn pages.

Anticipating a couple of personal days contending with a civil lawsuit (intriguing, yes?), I grabbed a novel to occupy my mind - Kirsten Miller's the eternal ones. From the jacket I was able to determine that it was a tale similar to Ann Brashare's My Name is Memory and The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger. I cracked the jacket with realistic enthusiasm and proceeded to be...mildly entertained? Here's the good news - there are a couple of likable characters and the descriptions of Italy and New York City provide interest and color. The book is also a really quick read, I read faster and faster because I was so amused by the ridiculousness of the story that I couldn't wait to see what inaneness came next. The only thing unpredictable about the plot was the consistently unimagined absurd plot twists.

This book had it all - romance, religion, adventure, drug abuse, a lovable gay stereotype, fashion, travel, mystery, suspense, humor, Satan... The only thing missing was plausibility. Hey, guess you can't have everything, right? Like those hours back that I spent reading this dreck.

We All Fall Down

image from: hachettebookgroup.com

I have a dark fascination with addiction. I don't understand it, but I know that it is real and accept that it is a part of our society. It's everywhere. Of course, for every drug addict there is an ever widening circle of the people impacted by the drug addict and their actions. I think it would be very difficult to find a person who has not been touched in some way by addiction. Despite my years in the restaurant business, I have had minimal exposure to hard drugs or the people who use them. Most of my knowledge comes from reading memoirs and the experiences I learn about when there is a drug related death in a friend's life. Unfortunately on this particular day in January, I've spent time reeling from both of those occurrences in a single day.

A couple of years ago I read two nonfiction works written individually by a father and son, David and Nic Sheff. The father's book, Beautiful Boy, shares the heartbreaking story of losing a beloved child to a life of drugs, prostitution and criminal activity. And that Beautiful Boy, of course, is Nic. His tale, Tweak, told matter-of-factly, with false bravado and a persistent tone of disbelief, taught me about a world where drugs repeatedly ruined, and sometimes ended, lives. Nic has a new book out, We All Fall Down, which I just read in record (for me these days) time. The repeated trips to rehab, the 12 Steps that never were taken, and the disappointment that constantly waged war with the hope for a happy ending, made this book a real page turner. Knowing that Nic had relapsed after the original success he experienced with Tweak was disheartening, but this was one of those books that can cause a reader to hold their breath. Powerful.

Which brings me to the other part of my day. Perfectly lovely parents are not guaranteed that their children will escape the allure of hard drugs. I've been to some wakes and funerals over the years and too often they have been for people younger than myself. To witness a parent bury a child is to witness one of the deepest sorrows imaginable, and as a parent, I think it is impossible to attend these funeral services without projecting how one survives such a tragedy. I don't want to ever know.

Addiction is an illness frequently accompanied by undiagnosed mental illness. Depression is common, as is a history of abuse, and self esteem issues. Closing the book on Nic Sheff's struggles only to learn about a friend's loss of their beloved child to addiction and depression, is nothing short of shockingly sobering. On Friday morning when I share books with students as part of their class' requested "booktalks," the Sheffs' books will be included. While I've never subscribed to Nancy Reagan's Just Say No policy, I will do my best to make sure that children Know the reality and perils of drug experimentation and addiction. And then, Friday night I will attend the wake of a friend's child and do my part to offer consolation from the ultimate loss. We all fall down. I suppose that being surrounded by family and friends willing to support us, through our struggles and sorrows, is what allows us to keep picking ourselves up.

Unbroken

image from nytimesbestseller.net

I just finished an amazing book about a remarkable man. Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand relates the absolutely inspiring life story of Louie Zamperini, an Olympic athlete, a soldier in the Pacific during World War II and, ultimately, a man who did not allow the extreme challenges in his life to permanently break him. Or, perhaps Louie's story isn't so much about how to deny life the opportunity to break oneself, but is instead a story that proves that it is the way we put the pieces back together, after being broken, that truly define us.

This excerpt, from when Louie began to run seriously, moved me.  Perhaps it was my own physical proximity to where he had been decades earlier, but I felt as if I knew exactly what he had experienced.

"...he went to stay at a cabin on the Cahuilla Indian reservation, in southern California's high desert...He ran up and down hills, over the desert, through gullies...He didn't run from something or to something, not for anyone or in spite of anyone; he ran because it was what his body wished to do."

I imagine it looked like this...

Get this book for athletes, veterans, WW II history buffs, and anyone struggling with personal challenges. It is unforgettable.

From one bossypants to another...

image from Barnes and Noble

Since finally finishing Jonathan Franzen's Freedom I have regained my own personal freedom in selecting reading material.  For the record, I will never again read another of Franzen's self-indulgent, over-sized volumes about some of the least likable people in the universe.  Screw you, Pulitzer and National Book Award conferrers - the appeal of his stories simply escapes me.

image from Barnes and Noble

There have been a couple of things, however, which I read this summer and thoroughly enjoyed.  The first was Sarah's Key, written by Tatiana de Rosnay.  This fictional work about the roundup of Jews in France during World War II was near impossible for me to put down.  I've always had an interest in Holocaust literature and have read many books about this topic (one of my favorites is the Book Thief by Marcus Zusak), however, I was completely unfamiliar with this dark part of French history.  A movie starring Kristin Scott Thomas has just been released and I sincerely hope the filmmakers did this great little book justice. 

image from Barnes and Noble

I must admit, I feel a connection to Tina Fey.  Like me, she wears smart girl glasses and her character on 30 Rock, Liz Lemon, has an old school card catalog in her home.  For sheer fun, I can't recommend Tina Fey's book, Bossypants,  enough.  She is one hilarious lady and her voice carries consistently throughout this book as she shares her personal and professional lives with the reader.  I can't remember the last time I literally laughed out loud when reading a book, but this autobiography cracked me up.  If only Bossypants was the same length as Freedom my summer reading would have been much more balanced between enjoyable and an endurance contest.

What was on your summer reading list?  Winners?  Losers?

Girlbomb Birthday Party

Me and Janice!!

Ever since I read Anne Frank's Diary of a Young Girl, I've been a fan of the memoir.  The ability of a person to chronicle and express their experiences never fails to touch me - and perhaps is the reason why I find myself sharing my own life as freely as I do here on DelSo.  A number of years ago, I read a review for a newly published autobiography, Girlbomb (A Halfway Homeless Memoir), written by  NYC native, Janice Erlbaum.  Based upon the review, I purchased the title for the high school library where I worked and when it arrived, I immediately devoured it.  Although Janice is a couple of years younger than I am, I completely identified with her experiences as a smart-beyond-her-years teen growing up with limited parental involvement during the early '80's.  Our situations certainly weren't identical, but I very much shared her experience of being "underprivileged, underage and underdressed."  When I finished the book, I visited her website, girlbomb.com and sent her an email:

             "...So much of your book described my own self-medicated adolescence in the 80's.
              I also had a life with limited stability and your memoir brought so much of the     
              confusion  and contradiction right back to me in a breath-taking way."

Janice and Rachel!!

She graciously responded and through the years we've exchanged an occasional email and are, of course, requisite Facebook friends.  A couple of months ago she posted an event to celebrate the 5th birthday of Girlbomb to be held at the Bowery Poetry Club and I just knew I had to go.  Despite having lived in Albany for 20+ years, I was still somehow able to resurrect that hip, East Village, undergraduate, English major vibe, a result I'm sure of my company (my former Chelsea roomie, writer Rachel Aydt) and my attire (primarily black).  I can't describe, without gushing in a way that would completely dissolve my street creed, how excited I was to finally meet Janice and hear the words which had leaped from the page, actually fall from her lips - it was fantastic!  The club was everything you ever imagine a poetry club to be - dark, curtained off and with an appropriately creative graffiti-filled bathroom.  In addition to Janice, a number of other fabulously talented women read their work and performed for the crowd of appreciative fans.  Here's the official event notice:

          Girlbomb’s fifth birthday party! Celebrating five years since the publication
           of GIRLBOMB: A  Halfway Homeless Memoir. Readings and performances
           by author Koren Zailckas, GEMS founder Rachel Lloyd, and biffles Dana
           Piccoli and Melissa Saunders; dancing and schmoozing also on the agenda.

It was a great event and I thoroughly enjoyed feeling as if I was a part of a "scene" in NYC, if only for one night.  Thanks, Janice for an inspirational evening - and especially for writing.



Vampire Books Suck

We've already established that I'm a reader.  Unless I've had too many glasses of wine, I am literally unable to fall asleep without a book.   I always have something to read wherever I go - soccer games, doctor's appointments, vacations...  Like my palate for food, my choice of reading material is open and broad, and I'll try just about anything once.  Fiction, nonfiction, memoir, short stories, whatever - I'll give it a shot. 

Just because I'll try any book that is placed in front of me, please don't assume that I will finish it.  In recent years, I've  developed the ability to abandon a book that isn't working for me.  It may still be a struggle (what if the book gets better on the very next page?), but when you work in a space filled with thousands of books, it is fairly easy to accept there is always another option. 

About 20 years ago, (okay, 23 years ago) I worked in a small, public library in Washingtonville, N.Y.  Other than a brief stint in sixth grade as a library helper, this was my first experience working in a library and I loved it.  Patrons were always making recommendations and, when I worked the circulation desk, I could easily discern which books were popular.  There was a series of books by Anne Rice called The Vampire Chronicles which circulated an awful lot.  Based upon this observation, I picked up the first book in the series, Interview with the Vampire, (maybe you've seen the movie?) and read it.  And hated it.  Thinking that all those folks couldn't possibly be wrong - I read the next title in the series, The Vampire Lestat.  And hated it.  At that point, I either found something else to read that I loved, or I went on a prolonged blood Mary binge, (I don't remember) and forgot about those awful (to me) books.  Flash forward to the 21st century and the Twilight Series...

I think Stephenie Meyer first came to my attention because I heard something on NPR about her receiving an unprecedented $750,000 advance payment for three books - as a first time novelist.  I read the first book, Twilight, and...wait for it...hated it.  Okay, maybe I didn't hate it, but I certainly didn't love it either.  And that was that.  I haven't read another one.  I just don't get the appeal of vampires - or werewolves, for that matter, and I'm not interested.  Occasionally another book (recent ones: Liar by Justine Larbalestier or The Dark Divine by Bree Despain) combining romance and vampires/werewolves falls into my hands and I try to temporarily forget that I don't enjoy this fantasy sub-genre.  However, the truth is, if I'm suspending reality, it's more likely to involve something like how good I look in a new dress, or how immaculate my house is after I finish doing housecleaning chores without my glasses on.  When it comes to picking sides for Team Edward vs. Team Jacob, I'd much prefer to take my ball home and read something, almost anything, else.

photo from: http://fictionophile.wordpress.com/2009/05/28/vampire-fiction/

Summer Reading

I've been on a roll reading and thought I'd share a couple of titles with those of you looking for a good beach book or 2.  Although I generally read a pretty even mix of fiction and nonfiction (particularly biographies), the last three books I've read are all fiction.  Escapism is good, know what I mean?

Have you read Steig Larsson's Milennium series?  If not, what are you waiting for?  The series began with The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, continued with The Girl who Played with Fire and seemingly concluded with the recently translated and published, The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest.  The author's personal circumstances are pretty interesting, and also more than a bit tragic, which only adds to the mystique created by his outstanding series.  Steig Larsson was a Swedish journalist, like his protagonist Mikael Blomkvist,  and both were devoted to uncovering corruption and correcting injustices. Blomkvist becomes intimately connected to an antisocial, computer hacker, Lisbeth Salander, and together they expose a far reaching government plot designed to protect the undeserving at the expense of the vulnerable.  These are terrific books, well written, with characters who leap off of the page.  Lucky you, if you haven't read any of them yet - because now you have three great books to read this summer!  There is a 4th book, that Larsson left incomplete upon his unexpected death, which may someday be released but, for now, the series originally projected to include 10 titles, culminates with book three. 

Are you familiar with the father/son books Beautiful Boy and Tweak?  These are nonfiction accounts of a family's struggles with substance abuse and addiction and were published about five years ago.  They are popular books in my library and circulate regularly.  Anne Lamott has created a fictionalized account of a family and their realization that their 17 year-old daughter is more than a recreational partier in the novel Imperfect Birds.  This is one of those books that breaks your heart a little more with each page and I really enjoyed Lamott's writing.  I was surprised to learn that this book is actually related to two previous Lamott works (Crooked Little Heart and Rosie) published quite a few years ago, but I certainly didn't sense that I was missing any necessary foundation material.  A terrific story told in realistic voices which continue to resonate after the final page has been turned.

When I really grow up, I seriously want to be Anna Quindlen.  I've been reading her writing for many years and I love her ability to sensitively tell a story which contains both everyday  normalcy, as well as horrific situations.  I love, love, love her writing.  She truly understands the fragility of life and demonstrates an acceptance of the flaws which we each possess and I find her inspiring.  This novel begins by describing the ordinary circumstances of a family of five, their daily activities and their concerns and aspirations for the future.  As the book continues, an act of extreme violence occurs and Mary Beth Latham must consider where and when the original seeds of destruction were planted, and how to continue in a life dramatically changed. I could not put this book down and found myself re-reading particular passages to simply absorb the beauty of the language Quindlen masterfully uses.  Please publish another book soon, Anna.

So - go forth and read!  And don't forget to share your recommendations here.

The Kids are All Right

So, I’m reading a really good book – The Kids Are All Right. It is a memoir co-written by 4 siblings and relates their experiences after the death of their father in a car accident, followed by the death of their mother from an absolutely merciless battle with cancer. The story is set in Westchester County primarily during the 1980’s. The “chapters” are told in alternating voice and it is so interesting to read the individual perspectives on commonly shared experiences. The book is really hard to put down and will appeal, I think, to teens and adults alike. One of the authors, Liz Welch is scheduled to read on Thursday, April 1st at the Book House in Stuyvesant Plaza. I’ll be in NYC that evening and unfortunately won’t be able to attend. If any of you go, please post back here with a comment.

I know that this book is going to make me cry.