For the Record

I loved it! I thought it was nearly perfect!
(I'll post a more detailed review later!)

It's Tuesday ... Where Are You?

Hosted by raidergirl3 at
An Adventure in Reading.
Today I am in Monroeville, Alabama, in 1962. Just recently, though, I was in Hollywood for part of the filming of To Kill a Mockingbird. (I am reading I Am Scout: The Biography of Harper Lee by Charles J. Shields.)

Quote of the Day

Until I feared I would lose it, I never loved to read. One does not love breathing.

— Scout in To Kill a Mockingbird

Sizzling Sixteen by Janet Evanovich

Published in 2010. 309 pages.


I really enjoyed this most recent episode in the adventures of Stephanie Plum when I read it a couple of weeks ago. I think that the silliness - including Lula's latest diet approach and the presence of a bunch of Hobbits - was just what I needed. That is, in addition to my Ranger fix!

2010.47

Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweetby Jamie Ford

Published in 2009. 285 pages.

Jamie Ford's first novel explores the age-old conflicts between father and son, the beauty and sadness of what happened to Japanese Americans in the Seattle area during World War II, and the depths and longing of deep-heart love. An impressive, bitter, and sweet debut.

– Lisa See, author of Snow Flower and the Secret Fan

I read Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet with my book club in May. I had put the book on my to-read list in January when it was selected as a Salt Lake County Reader's Choice nominee, so I was happy to "have" to read it. Because my mother-in-law and her parents were interned in the camps during World War II, I am always interested in accounts of that regrettable part of American history. Two that I have particularly enjoyed are Snow Falling on Cedars and When the Emperor Was Divine. Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet is now another.

Despite the predictability of some aspects of the plot and a few anachronisms concerning the use of technology, I found Jamie Ford's writing to be lovely and heartfelt. Here are few of my favorite passages:

School was out of the question for the day. The thought of being tardy and facing the ridicule of his classmates was almost as horrible as the thought of enduring their happiness - their joy and satisfaction at knowing that Keiko's family, and her whole neighborhood, were being taken away. All smiles. Victorious in their home-front battle with a hated enemy. Even if that enemy spoke the same language and had said the Pledge of Allegiance alongside them since kindergarten. [p. 136]

Like so many things Henry had wanted in life - like his father, his marriage, his life - it had arrived a little damaged. Imperfect. But he didn't care, this was all he'd wanted. Something to hope for, and he'd found it. It didn't matter what condition it was in. [p. 142]

Henry was learning that time apart has a way of creating distance - more than the mountains and time zone separating them. Real distance, the kind that makes you ache and stop wondering. Longing so bad that it begins to hurt to care so much. [p. 245}

For more information, check out the following:

• Literary Feline's Review (May 19, 2009)


• Trish's Review (January 27, 2009)


• Reading Group Guide


• Jamie Ford's Website

2010.29

Every Last One by Anna Quindlen

Published in 2010. 299 pages.


First lines: This is my life: The alarm goes off at five-thirty with the murmuring of a public-radio announcer, telling me that there has been a coup in Chad, a tornado in Texas. My husband stirs briefly next to me, turns over, blinks, and falls back to sleep for another hour. My robe lies at the foot of the bed, printed cotton in the summer, tufted chenille for the cold. The coffeemaker comes on in the kitchen below as I leave the bathroom, go downstairs in bare feet, pause to put away a pair of boots left splayed in the downstairs back hallway and to lift the newspaper from the back step.

Last lines: This is my life. I am trying.

It had been some time since I'd read an Anna Quindlen novel, although I remembered those I'd read favorably. In June I'd put Every Last One on my to-read list - I think because my sister added it to her to-read list on goodreads - but it was Florinda's review at the end of July that prompted me to check the book out from the library and actually read it rather than just leave it on my ever-lengthening to-read list for some undetermined date in the future. What a great decision!

Quindlen's writing is simply beautiful. Here is a favorite passage:

You can't plan them, although I suppose those people who meditate and practice yoga think you can, but there are those moments when we experience physical happiness despite ourselves, before our minds remind us of the reasons we shouldn't. A slight breeze, a warming sun, a little bird music: Your senses say something before your good sense says something different. if only we could be creatures of the body more often. [page 276]

The story is evocative. I think every mother will be able to understand the worries and the joys that Mary Beth Latham finds through her relationships with her children. While I recommend that the book be read without much prior knowledge of the plot, I offer this edited version of a passage to which I definitely relate:

The dead place is still inside me because Nancy has said aloud only what has been a whisper ever since I half woke in the hospital. Now it is screaming, the voice that says [something bad happened] because I was not careful enough, attentive enough, good enough, awake enough. Not enough. [page 215]

2010.50

Meme of Reading Questions - Part 2

Continued from Part 1.

26. Favorite cookbook?
I don't have one, although I do enjoy collecting recipes.

27. Most inspirational book you’ve read this year (fiction or non-fiction)?
The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin.

28. Favorite reading snack?
Microwave popcorn.

29. Name a case in which hype ruined your reading experience.
There are a number of books that I was worried about reading because of the hype, but I can't think on any instance where the hype ruined my reading experience. For example, I ended up thinking that Water for Elephants was as good as everyone had said.

30. How often do you agree with critics about a book?
I don't know that I really pay attention to what the critics say.

31. How do you feel about giving bad/negative reviews?
I always try to say something good about the books I review, but I'm also not afraid to express negative opinions.

32. If you could read in a foreign language, which language would you chose?
Japanese.

33. Most intimidating book you’ve ever read?
The Stand by Stephen King.

34. Most intimidating book you’re too nervous to begin?
Les Misérables by Victor Hugo.

35. Favorite poet?
Emily Dickinson.

36. How many books do you usually have checked out of the library at any given time?
25 to 30.

37. How often have you returned a book to the library unread?
Often. (That's probably not surprising given my answer to #36.)

38. Favorite fictional character?
I was tempted to say Edward Cullen from the Twilight books - but I honestly have say Susan Caraway, also known as Stargirl.

39. Favorite fictional villain?
Aaron Stampler in Primal Fear.

40. Books you're most likely to bring on vacation?
Short, light-hearted and/or compelling books.

41. The longest you've gone without reading?
Following graduate school, when I first started working full-time as an auditor at a large CPA firm in Los Angeles, I went four or five months without doing any reading for pleasure.

42. Name a book that you could/would not finish.
Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf.

43. What distracts you easily when you’re reading?
Not a thing.

44. Favorite film adaptation of a novel?
The Joy Luck Club.

45. Most disappointing film adaptation?
Nights in Rodanthe.

46. The most money I’ve ever spent in the bookstore at one time?
I'm going to guess about $100.

47. How often do you skim a book before reading it?
Rarely.

48. What would cause you to stop reading a book half-way through?
If a particular book is going really slowly or is difficult reading for me, then I may stop reading it - but I'll likely plan to return to it at some point in the future.

49. Do you like to keep your books organized?
Not necessarily.

50. Do you prefer to keep books or give them away once you’ve read them?
If I think I'll want to re-read or reference a book again, I'll keep a copy - or sometimes I'll go buy a copy if it was a library book I was reading - but otherwise I'm happy to give books away.

51. Are there any books you’ve been avoiding?
I refuse to read The Secret and anything by Glenn Beck.

52. Name a book that made you angry.
I'm drawing a blank on this question.

53. A book you didn’t expect to like but did?
The Notebook by Nicholas Sparks.

54. A book that you expected to like but didn’t?
Willow by Julia Hoban.

55. Favorite guilt-free, pleasure reading?
Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum series.

'Twas the Night Before Mockingjay

The Hunger Games
Read in June 2009.



Catching Fire
Read in October 2009.



Mockingjay
To be read on August 24, 2010!