Read 25 books: The Year of Pleasures

Finished a book last night, finally! It's been a while since I made it through one.

 It was The Year of Pleasures, by one of my favorite authors, Elizabeth Berg. She's sort of a guilty pleasure author, although I don't feel it's quite fair to her to attach that label to her. She writes about women, mostly in their 40s or 50s, living ordinary lives, stumbling through relationships or common life happenings. Births, deaths, marriages, divorce. In this book, the protagonist, Betta, is 55 and newly widowed. Her husband was her life, a fact that sort of irked me. She had worked as a children's book writer, a fact that is mentioned a few times but never expounded on, never something that seems important to Betta. That struck me as off. Writers, even when they're not writing, typically think about writing, right? But she doesn't put pen to paper once during the book.

Instead, what she does is sell her brownstone in Boston for an obnoxious sum and moves to the Midwest, to a town she has never heard. This intrigued me. My husband and I used to have these grand plans in college to move to a place called Carefree, Arizona. We talked about it for months as if we were actually going to do it. It felt very romantic and adventurous, our plans to move to a city in the dessert based solely on its quirky name. But we never did do it. We graduated, we scored great internships, and our lives began in a much more realistic, down-to-earth kind of way. So in a sense, I appreciated Berg's plot because it held that sense of excitement that we rarely experience in "real life." But it also felt, of course, a little unreal. Not the idea, but the execution. Things worked out a little too perfectly, and sometimes nonsensically. She finds the perfect house in the perfect town and buys it with cash. She quickly meets characters she connects with, including with little trouble, finding with her old collage roommates. In "real life," these woman likely would have grown apart. Not in the book. Her three best friends are largely the same as who they were back then, and they're still best friends, and they're somewhat suspended in time, just waiting for Betta to call.

The problem is that some of these people and relationships are never fleshed out. It feels a little bit like Berg doesn't know where she's going or what the point is. Why is the 9-year-old kid from next door in her life? What's his purpose in the story? What does he teach Betta? I seriously can't answer that. Or the two 20-year-old men she befriends? They have some nice moments together, but if they fulfill some part in Betta's life or move her forward in her grief, I can't really say. Even among the best friends, only one is crystallized. Another has only one character-enhancing scene with Betta; the last is barely more than a name taking up space. There is also this ongoing thread of found scraps of paper from her deceased husband, each containing a single word or phrase. And these phrases make no sense to Betta. Or to me, the reader. And if there is ever a revelation about why he wrote down these nonsense words for Betta to find, what he hoped to convey through them, or what they actually mean, it is lost on me, never really explained. That was disappointing.

I'm being pretty harsh and the truth is, while the book left me a little stumped at the end, trying to piece together the holes and make sense of the way things worked in the world Berg created, I did enjoy reading it. Berg is pretty sentimental about very small things -- delicious food, the textiles in her character's home, the fleeting feelings and memories that are sparked in our minds. I don't mind this sentimentality. It seems to me very much the experience of being a woman. So these writing moments kept me going.

But in the end, it just didn't come together like most of her books. There were too many glaring holes in the end, too many relationships and situations that I look back at now and think, why did you take us through that if it didn't lead to any advancement in a character's life? It's sort of stumping.

I'll read Berg again, though. And now I must pick up something else! I'm pretty far behind in my goal of reading 25 books. Time to play catch up.

Book number three...

Last week I finished my third book of the year, which means, technically, I'm behind. But in any case, I'm reading a little everyday, so that's good. Lately, it's been bits and pieces of books, so I haven't finished much. But I did complete The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society. Approximately everyone I know recommended it to me, and I kept seeing it everywhere, and so finally I decided I might as well figure out what everyone was talking about.

It arrived via Paperbackswap, and I moved it to the front of the list because I wanted a novel to balance all the non-fiction bits and pieces I've been reading. I was also intrigued it's format -- it's written completely in letters. That seemed less intimidating than a classic novel. It's easy to see a big fat novel and feel overwhelmed with the thought of finishing it. I'm a mom, I work full-time, I volunteer, I try to workout, I try to take care of the house and have everyone fed... Yadda yadda, you've heard it all before. I want to add reading consistently into that line-up, too, and something about a book written in bite-sized chunks of letters worked for me, mentally.

And it was a delightful read. As delightful as a book set immediately after the Holocaust can be. The main character is Juliet, a writer for a newspaper whose book of columns is met with some unexpected success and fame. She's anxious to follow it up and find her next project, when one falls into her lap. An unexpected letter makes it her way from Guernsey, an island in the Channel Islands, which was under German occupation during the war. As Juliet begins to correspond with this person, she begins to peel back the layers of a remarkable story of how one group of friends and family survived during the occupation, partially by staying sane through reading and meeting to talk about books. Life on the island was hell --- the mothers sent all their children away, because it was thought to be the safer thing. The Germans controlled everything from where the people could be, to what they could eat, to what they could grow. One wrong step, and they'd ship you to a concentration camp. It was that atmosphere that made reading more important than ever, allowing people to escape, to stretch their minds, and to experience beauty. The Germans couldn't take that away.

There's a love story, too, as Juliet is single and upwardly mobile and attracts some attention from society-type men. At first, she seems happy to explore a relationship that's perfect on paper with a businessman who is used to getting what he wants. But slowly, especially after she travels there, the Guernsey Island chips into her soul. The down-to-earth people, the salty air, the shared appreciation for reading, and especially, a young girl orphaned by the war -- they all fight for space in Julia's heart. All of this is conveyed through letters between Julia and her editor, her best friend, and the islanders. It might seem gimmicky, but I didn't mind that gimmick at all. It made me yearn for the days when writing letters was the norm, and when communications were intimate, private, and sacred.

I had no complaints. There was some predictability in the story, but that's OK... It wasn't so much predictable as it was easy to sense what was right for Julia and to wait for her to make the realization herself. You saw what should happen and rooted for it. I like that in a book.

Only 22 to go!

A few random bits

I updated my header. What do you think? Does the photo look distorted? I wanted to get the words in a better place than Blogger was allowing me to put them, so I enlisted the help of Photoshop. But I really don't know what I'm doing on there, so please, give me your feedback.

I'm kicking butt drinking water today. Why? Because I'm working from home and the faucet and the bathroom are both mere steps away. No doubt about it, that's me biggest problem at work, getting up over and over to walk to the water and the bathroom. Lately, I haven't been doing so at all.

Started reading the Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society this week. Very good so far. And it's great for my little thing about writing a handwritten letter! It's showing me just how poor I am with my letter-writing. I just straight-up don't know what to say. Isn't that kind of sad?

I went to the library last night and checked out three books on crafting. I'm soooooo geeked. I want to make 10,000 things. I'm planning a trip to Arts and Scraps in the morning. And maybe Michael's later tonight, if I think Luke can handle it. Or if I can handle it -- I'm not feeling well, despite all my water and a cup of hot tea.

Also want to recommend this blog I came across the other day. I like it. And I'm very interested to try the whole wheat bread recipe she created.  I wonder where I would find vital wheat gluten. Whole Foods?

Finally, who can tell me the difference between whole wheat flour and WHITE whole wheat flour. Is this a fake whole grain or a real one?

Tomorrow is date night!

Do I captivate you?

Finished another book, on my way to 25 books this year. It was one I received through paperbackswap.com. It's called Captivating, Unlocking the Mysteries of a Woman's Soul.

I really liked it.

There is a very liberal part of me that wants to rebel against what this book teaches and say it's not true. But a deeper, truer part of me feels it was spot on, and there should be no shame in admitting that.

The book talks about the fall of mankind, as in, the whole Adam and Eve storyline. I'll stop right here and say that I don't believe that story in the Bible is literal, but a figurative representation of mankind's fall and the after effects of it.

I have to go to work and don't have a lot of time to right a full review right now. But here are the main things the book had me thinking about: how women are God's most cherished creation (and this is backed up with scripture); that our relationships on Earth are bound to disappoint us because we're all a bunch of screwed up, "fallen" humans; that as women, our curse is that we'll always strive for relationship but will never be able to be totally satisfied because of the aforementioned point; that God is there, waiting for us to turn to him for the ultimate relationship, one that can be perfect because God is capable of fully knowing and loving us perfectly, as no man (or friend) is. That as women, we yearn, absolutely yearn, for a few things, among them to feel like we're an irreplaceable part of an adventure, to reveal beauty and to have this question answered: "Am I lovely?"

I don't know about you.... but for me, that's pretty spot on.

It also talked about how our beauty (inner beauty, ladies, inner beauty) unleashes a man's strength. That some women "hide" their beauty through their desolation, their striving or their controlling. I think I've probably fallen into those striving and controlling camps more than once.

OK, my computer just randomly shut down and restarted so I'm outta time!

But anyway, this book was a very interesting read. I'll try to find a good except to post later!

No. 10 -- Read 25 books

Why it's on the list: Pretty clear-cut. Something we all sort of want to do, right? Read more books. I wanted to put a hard number to that. Because I like hard numbers. So 25 it is, roughly one every two weeks. That's ambitious for me right now. So ambitious, it might be impossible.

How I'll do it: Well, good question. My reading time now is mostly right before bed. I haven't been spending much weekend time reading. I think if this is going to happen for me, I need to do the following things: a) keep whatever book I am reading with me at all times, and b) read to unwind after Luke goes to bed and for some time on the weekends. This really isn't a chore at all -- I love to read. It's just setting up the situation where it will become a habit.

I probably could round up 25 books right now in my house that need to be read. I've also joined Paperbackswap.com, which is this service that lets you list books you're willing to part with and pick ones you want in exchange. Each time someone selects on of your books, you have to agree to ship it, which costs about $3. That gives you one credit to select a book of your own. My first book already arrived! It's called Why I Jumped, and it's about a woman who had postpartum depression on top of a very messed up life and tried to jump off a bridge to kill herself. I had never heard of it, even though it was caught on film and made a big viral video sensation a couple of years ago. But that description sucked me in. I don't know that I've ever read a book written by a suicide-attempt survivor.

Other sources for my book habit: the New York Times Books email that comes to my mailbox once a week, the Royal Oak Public Library, and hopefully, YOU. Recommend me a book, won'tcha? Please and thanks.

For the record, here's what I have coming to me from PBW.com...

Come Back: a Mother and Daughter's Journey Through Hell and Back (requested)

The Power of a Positive Mom (requested)

Water for Elephants (on its way)

Captivating: Unveiling the Mystery of a Woman's Soul (on its way)

Skinny Bitch (on its way)

Bridge of Sighs (on its way)

and what I have on my wish list: 

Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking

Born Round: The Secret History of a Full-Time Eater

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

Connected: The Surprising Power of our Social Netowrks and How the Shape Us

Cost

Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything

The Guersney Literary and Potato Peel Society

Hot, Flat and Crowded: Why We Need a Green Revolution and How it Can Renew America

Hurry Down Sunshine

In Defense of Food: The Myth of Nutrition and the Pleasures of Eating

Julie and Julia: My Year of Cooking Dangerously

The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals

Our Story Begins; New and Selected Stories

Such a Pretty Fat

Stones into Schools: Promoting Peace with Books, not Bombs, in Afghanistan and Pakistan

Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Mission to Promote Peace One School at a Time

The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference

Twinkie, Deconstructed

Under the Dome

If you have any strong reactions about those (either way) please let me know! And if you have a copy of any of them, and you'll let me borrow it, I will give you a cookie.