Foul Matter, by Martha Grimes

The book I was stuck on for months during my reader's block, and I forgot to post about it! Not much to say... cute, fun read. Completely improbable plot about hit men going after hit men going after hit men all because of an egotistical author's weird request. But Grimes wasn't going for realistic here and the plot was enjoyably silly. It was like a slamming-doors British farce. I recommend it for anyone who needs a break from too much serious reading. My only complaint was that it had a wholly unsatisfying ending. Oh well.

The Glass Castle, by Jeannette Walls

This book rocked me. Jeannette Walls upbringing was awful. I don't know how she survived. To me, her father was pretty clearly schizophrenic and her mother was a narcissist to the utmost extreme. During their time in the desert, they were always picking up and moving in the middle of the night. They lived in cars. They starved. The parents were so into their belief that kids should learn for themselves that they did not correct behavior involving fire and guns. When Jeannette was sexually abused, her mother just casually said that such things were crimes of perception and if Jeannette did not feel hurt, then there was no wrong done. The parents stole from their children. They bought booze, art supplies, and chocolate bars (that weren't shared with the kids) rather than have electricity, garbage collection, or food in their hovel of a home. It was unbelievable.

But what rocked me most was that I didn't hate these parents. I even feel that I learned from them. I have joked with friends that I think maybe I should abuse my children just a little bit so that they become as strong and self-reliant as the Walls kids were. The abuse part is truly a joke... but there are things that the parents did that were good. They emphasized reading, exploration, and pushing the learning envelope. They taught their kids to be self confident (standing up to other kids) and to face their fears (e.g. Demon hunting). Jeannette was doing her math homework in binary code, which her father taught her, when she was very young because the schoolwork was otherwise too remedial for her.

But there are many things that I will just never forgive the Wallses for, even if Jeannette has. This family will stick with me for a long time. Great book.

The Help, by Kathryn Stockett

This book is set in Jackson, Mississippi in 1962-63. It is told from 3 voices: Aibileen and Minny, who are black maids working for elite Jackson families, and Skeeter Phelan, who is a young white woman who is not comfortable with her role within her elite family. Very early on in the book, Skeeter, while visiting her best friend and Aibileen's "white lady," asks Aibileen if she ever wants to change things. Being a highly inappropriate conversation between these two women in this time and place, Aibileen keeps her mouth shut. But not forever.

This book was wonderful. It was emotional and funny. Stockett is a no-nonsense author... she can introduce you to and acquaint you with a character in 3 sentences or less. What I might have liked best of all was that it did not have a neat pretty ending. Not an ugly ending either, but, like the Civil Rights movement itself (which is still a work in progress), the lives of the maids were not suddenly all perfect. But a few of them were on their way. It added such a sense of reality to these characters and the book as a whole that there were no cataclysmic changes in the characters or the reality of the world they lived in. It was just a story of one brick in the wall of change. A story that was brilliantly told, beautifully written, and funny to boot.

Some stuff I liked about some of the characters:
Skeeter: her awkwardness and her relationship with her mother, who would never die for fear that Skeeter may wear the wrong cut of pants without her mother around to correct her wardrobe. And her toilet prank.
Aibileen: her relationship with Mae Mobley. Taking a prompt from Aibileen, I've started telling my own daughters how smart, kind, and important they are on a more regular basis.
Minny: who couldn't love the Terrible, Awful thing she did? SO FUNNY! And I love the progression of her relationship with her new "white lady," Celia Foote.
Celia: her pink dress and her drunken debacle among all the high society ladies.

Lazy reader

Yep, still no new post. I've been lackadaisically reading "Foul Matter" by Martha Grimes but I just can't commit. I think I am too distracted by my pregnancy. Or, rather, by the imminent end of my pregnancy. I am embarrassed, though, to see I finished my last book on June 14th and am only half-way through an easy read as of today.

The Art of Racing in the Rain, by Garth Stein

BEST BOOK I'VE READ IN YEARS!!! I'm not going to say too much about it because I don't want to spoil the magic of this book for anyone. Please read it. It's wonderful.

What I will say:

The premise of the book is a dog, on the eve of his death, looking back to tell you the story of his family. The book is not about the dog (Enzo), but he is a pretty fun character throughout. I loved some of the goings-on inside the head of the dog as he dealt with his instincts vs. his canine dignity. It provided some nice comic relief among the devastation that was going on in the Swift family.

The story is about the Swift family and, specifically, Denny Swift, who faces circumstances that are almost unbearable to the reader at times. But he is a champion and you can't help but stick with him no matter how things turn out for him. Yes, I stuck with him even as I almost ran into light poles on Wacker Drive since I considered my walk between the train and office to be 6 precious minutes wasted if I didn't spend them reading this book!

And I loved the juxtaposition of the moving story of this family and Denny's challenges with the racetrack. That is, NASCAR/stock car/Formula One type racetrack. I do not care for car racing, but it operated as a perfect metaphor in this book.

What I can criticize:

Nothing. And I don't think I am going to read any reviews of this book because I don't want to hear anyone else's criticism either. I'm going to keep it perfect in my mind. If you don't like it, please just don't tell me. I'm normally not like this (I normally appreciate a good debate over a book), but I'm feeling really emotionally volatile about this book.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson

I don't have a ton to say. Quick, fun read. The biggest problem with the book: it is a mystery novel and the main mystery was completely predictable. But there were plenty of side plot twists that could not have been predicted, so those kept the book interesting. You can also easily predict who Blomkvist is going to couple with, but it's not really so much a relationship book so who cares. The best part of the book is the characters. Charming, flawed, dysfunctional folks who I will definitely read about again. In fact, I think the second Blomkvist/Salandar book came out fairly recently... I'll put it on the list.

Cutting for Stone, by Abraham Verghese

Talk about falling in love with characters! Verghese's gift is making you love someone in 3 paragraphs or less. There wasn't a single character that you didn't care about here, no matter how small of a role they played. In fact, it was some of the minor characters that added that certain je ne sais quoi to this book for me, particularly Almaz (with her undying love and devotion to the doctors of Missing hospital), the Staff Probationer and Tsige (with their undying sense of responsibility/gratitude/indebtedness to Marion), and Deepak (with just plain brilliance). Of course, I loved Marion and his adoptive parents Hema and Ghosh most of all. And I hated Stone, Shiva, and Genet... but you can't hate a character without them being worthwhile enough to love them in their literary capacity. And I guess I loved them too because I cared what happened to them and kept rooting for them to right their wrongs.

Shiva, Marion's twin was fascinating. So brilliant but contained in his own mind. I am not sure about Marion's assessment that he only had the ability to look forward... he had a terrible sense of consequences for someone able to look forward.

I do tend to love "buildings roman" novels, which this is. I also tend to not like overblown, dramatic plots, which this is. But while I could not forgive Hosseini's "The Kite Runner"'s overload of plot coincidences, I did forgive it here. Even though there were a number of pretty unbelievable dramatic happenings, it flowed naturally enough that I bought it. Plus, it does seem like the Ethiopian community in New York/Boston might be fairly small, so chance happenings are not impossible.

I loved the historical backdrop in Ethiopia. I loved the medical details, although the surgical descriptions had a gross-out factor for me. I loved the writing. I loved the tease of being told where a certain segment of the story was going, but then being forced to wait out a pertinent tangent in the story before getting to the conclusion of the main segment. That definitely made for some fast reading of a long book... but I hope I didn't miss any particularly good portions by reading TOO fast!

So, overall, this book gets an A and a strong recommendation from me.