Books Numbers Two through Ten

I didn't do too bad on my New Year's Resolution to read 'better'. My first ten books of the year (the last two I'm not finished with) have included 3 non-fiction, 3 good reads, 3 romance, and 1 yal. I figure that's an intellectual score of 3:2. Now on to some comments...

The Pagan Stone, Left to Die, and Beautiful Lies: The Pagan Stone wrapped up a Nora Roberts trilogy, and as with all Nora Roberts books, I loved it. The supernatural, friendship, love, and sex...excellent. Left to Die didn't leave a lasting impression on me, but it was a good little vacation book. Beautiful Lies was my least favorite of the three, and I really just read it because I ran out of books on vacation.

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The Host: I read this because I, for better or worse, enjoyed the Twilight series, so I figured I would try another Meyer novel. And I wasn't disappointed. The Host reveals a fascinating image of a post-apocalyptic world ala Body Snatchers instead of Terminator. Actually, it is quite literally a body snatchers narrative. The importance of the eyes to determining the humanity of the individual was at once common and moving. The treatment of the other as actually being more humane than humans, but still the 'badguys,' gave the novel less of a good versus evil feel which I appreciated as I tend to believe that in reality usually good-in-a-way is fighting good-in-another-way.

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The Reader: I figure I don't have to give any summary since the movie version has become so widely known. I thought the plotline was very interesting, but I did not necessarily enjoy the way the story was told. It was a very quick read, a story told simply and concisely. I don't necessarily have a problem with simple, but in this case, something about this style of writing bothered me. The actual events, the characters, the themes, these I found intriguing. Even with the simple language, Schlink manages to convey the awesome complexity of Hanna, a character who I simultaneously pitied, hated, and admired. The more I think about the story, the more I like it. In that way, I guess this book is like the film No Country for Old Men, the first run through leaves you feeling relatively ambivalent, but the more time passes, the more it can seep into your conscious, the more appealing it gets. Maybe a re-read is necessary.

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Escape: The story of a woman who managed to leave a plural marriage within the FLDS, Escape frustrated me in that I can not possibly understand a faith which allows for spousal and child abuse, a faith which elevates the man/husband to a position of such power that even those who disagree with the way he "runs" his family will not step in and help because they still believe it is his right. I also found myself annoyed that as a country, we allow a community to violate our laws and commit oppressive and abusive acts. People say this country was founded on the concept of religious freedom, but I would like to think that personal freedom is the real foundation. And when religion calls for the subjugation of the individual, personal freedom must trump religion. We will use the civil rights violations occurring in the Middle East to encite support for a war, but we won't deal with those same civil rights violations within our own boundaries. Seems...illogical and self-destructive.

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Nocturnes: Short stories are typically not my preferred genre, but I loved this book. Each story was unique, a horror tale which drew on commonalities of the genre but didn't just repeat the same old, same old. Avid readers will see an homage here and there to other authors - Sheridan LeFanu, Stephen King, and Ray Bradbury stick out to me - but the stories, at least to me, seem uniquely Connolly's own, new but familiar. The very first story, The Cancer Cowboy Rides, offers a beautifully portrayed original villain. Miss Froom, Vampire twists without twisting . And Some Children Wander by Mistake gives us a new reason to fear clowns, who are apparently "chosen in the mudderwomb".

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Strangers in the Land of Egypt: I'm not quite half-way through this yet, but so far it's wonderful. The lead character is rather stock in nature - a teenager, who is basically good but runs with a much-less-good crowd, is assigned community service at a nursing home. It's relatively easy to see where the story is going as far as theme. Yet, I have enjoyed the interesting quirks of the characters and the twists in the plot so far. More later....

I have now finished and I truly enjoyed this book. I assumed the story was going to focus more on the Holocaust due to the fact that the main character was a boy (Jesse) arrested for breaking into a synagogue and sentenced to spend time in a nursing home with a Holocaust survivor (Mendel). I expected a coming of age story focused on Jesse's realization of lives more fraught with horror and loss than his own. Instead, I found a book focused on the details of Jesse's life, more so than Mendel's. Mendel is an influence but a quiet one, affecting change through an intense presence rather than a series of sermons. I am pained by the story, but in way which causes remembrance and reflection rather than frustration and sadness.

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The Power of Reading: This one I just started, but so far it appeals to my bookworm self in that it elevates reading to its proper place as an almost godly activity. :) More later...

Three points stick out to me from this book: 1) Reading is the key to better comprehension, grammar, spelling, writing style, and vocab; 2) Reading is more important to learning how to write well than writing practice is; and 3) light reading is intellectually, academically, and socially viable. While I'm in full agreement and excited about points 1 and 3, point 2 scares me. As a writing instructor, part of my philosophy is that to write well, one should practice writing. I've always believed reading is integral to writing, but I worry that we may swing back to old school English which placed a seriously heavy emphasis on "literature" specifically classic/canon fiction texts and poetry. What saves me from a breakdown though is that this text quite specifically states that to write academic essays, one must read academic essays; newspaper writing, newspapers; and so on.

I will definitely be reading this book again, or at least those pages I earmarked for repeat investigation. And I have written down three new ideas for my classes.

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