Tag: recommendations

book-review, books, Family Drama, literature, reading

Eleanor Oliphant has been here

k4books

A typical crisis for me is there are too many book to choose from. After picking book group titles last week, I had to read another title I proposed that others had already read.  Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine, by Gail Honeyman, was a joy.

At times reminiscent of The Rosie Project or A Man Called Ove, this fish out of water story had a bit of a dark twist.  While stumbling into real life, Eleanor is forced to face her past instead of drowning it in vodka. She begins to plan for a life with a man she has never met. As she executes this plan, she begins “self improvement” with a new haircut, new clothes, and new makeup. Outside of this plan, however, are interactions with people in ways she is unfamiliar with. Raymond, the tech support at her office, and Sammy, the person they helped when in distress on the street, provide her with more support than she knew she needed.

In fact, when she first met Raymond he found a virus on her computer and was able to clean it so it would be more effective. Same could be said of how he helped Eleanor. There were people to help around her always, she just needed to have some programs tweaked to have her work effectively with them. Another metaphor in the story is how she sets to cleaning her apartment. It transforms from a sad, uncared for space into a bright space looking for interesting things to add to the walls. She was a sad, uncared for person (she thought), but when she cared enough to buy herself things more than “useful” she is no longer just her scars, but a beautiful woman.

And while the dark part of the story was not hard to guess at due to the clues, the fact that she had so successfully fallen through the cracks of the system that was to help her was a sad comment on those the legal system that is meant to protect children.

books, reading

Picking titles to send to camp

k4books

When on earth did it get to be June?  Now I not only need to choose books for me, but for the kids to take to camp.  This is my opportunity to try to influence their love of learning new things and of trying something else.  See, the camps my kids go to are sleepover camps, with no electronics allowed except MP3 players with no video and “quite” time each day when they are encouraged to read. The beauty of this is many layered, but the stress of finding something appropriate, and not embarrassing to the teens I am sending, places that bar very high on stress to get this right.

So, how do I get my kids to read things that are important, impactful, and not embarrassing?  I trick them.

Last summer my daughter was preparing to enter high school.  I am aware of the things they are surrounded with, and the temptations that are there.  Without being too preachy about the perils of drugs, I selected Go Ask Alice for her.  She was thrilled that it was a grownup theme that she could relate to, and that was still relevant in this world. I know I read this in high school, myself, and I still remember some scenes vividly.  It opened a conversation for us, which had been my goal.

My son, however, was going through an “I hate reading” phase, so I found as many I Too Funny books and comics to send as I could.  My belief is that I don’t care what you are reading, just read.  And sometimes I need breaks from the heavy reads too.

I digress, however.  I am now struggling with what to send, and what to tell Grandma to send as packages.  My boy, now 13, loves fantasy and action.  A friend of his read The DiVinci Code, so he read it too, surprising himself by enjoying it.  Based upon that, my mind went right to Tom Clancy.  My boy will be receiving The Hunt for Red October from my parents within the first week of camp.  I am thinking along the lines of The Last Days of Summer, by Steven Kluger.  An entertaining story of a fatherless boy reaching out to the all star 3rd baseman of the NY Giants, as told from the letters to each other.  This story of persistence and generosity, all with a sense of humor, can teach about how you can learn from each other and how important it is to choose who you rely on.

My daughter, however, will be getting Speak from Grandma. Since this content is hard, I am hoping that getting it from Grandma will help.  Regardless of how strong she thinks she is, and how far the world has come, the violence against women and girls remains a fact.  Just read the headlines.  Learning when and how to speak for yourself is a lesson we all need to be reminded of.  So that means something a bit lighter from me, just to balance off.  That leads me to any one of the following (still not sure which to choose): Anna and the French Kiss, The Help, Just one Day, Since You’ve Been Gone  or Cinder.

Please comment with any suggestions you may have.  If not now, there are plenty of opportunities to put them around the house to be picked up….

books, reading

How do you let go of the world you live in and move on? Or How to choose the next book you will read

k4books

Leaving behind a world when you put down a book can be hard.  You have been invested in these people’s lives, and now the story is over – if you want it to be or not.  Sometimes there are other ways to continue (the next book in the series), and sometimes there are not.  Either way, you need to re-enter your own reality, and then decide how to move on.

If you are anything like me, you become fully vested and are impacted by the people we visit in our books.  When I finish a book I need some time to process what I have just experienced and re-enter my own world.  Some books need more processing than others.  A Walk Across the Sun by Corban Addison, an amazingly written and compelling story about a very difficult topic, left me stunned for days after.  Even now, months later, I am impacted by the story.  Other books do not leave as deep an imprint upon me, and are easier to move on from.

So, how then do we choose our next book?  As always, that depends.  I have been challenged to find the “perfect” answer and have tried different ways, all with hit or miss results.  Here are some of the ways I have tried.

I maintain lists of books that have been recommended to me either directly or from another source, such as Princeton Book Review, Wall Street Journal, and even Buzzfeed Books.  I keep these with information on the book in the list, and see what hits me as interesting at that time.  It was from these sources that I found A Walk Across the Sun.

If you are part of a book group, you can easily use that as the next book to read.  If you finish that one in plenty of time, it can be great to read others by that author or on that topic to have a deeper discussion around the original book.  As a book group facilitator myself, I do this.  My group read Look for Me by Edeet Ravel. I didn’t realize when the book was selected that it was a second one in a trilogy.  I was so captivated by the writing and the mood this book I immediately went to read Ten Thousand Lovers, the first book.

I receive books from friends and family that they think I need to read.  I will pick these up when I have some open time and nothing that I am burning to read.  My mother-in-law keeps trying to give me her old books, but I have read most of them already.  My mother, who is currently a member of 3 book groups, also gives me books and book titles (she is another library user – that is where I got it from.)

I try different websites, and the Goodreads.com recommendations of IF YOU LIKED THIS BOOK YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE…..  all with varying levels of success.

In short, like how you meet new people, you need to just put yourself out there and start the relationship in as many ways as possible, because you never know when you will meet “the one”.

books, reading

Graphic Novels: Complex themes/unorthodox medium – an examination in the similarities of Maus and Persepolis

k4books

This year I have been striving to be open to read different types of books than I normally would.  As part of a book group challenge on Goodreads.com, I started looking for illustrated books for adults.  What I found was so much more than comic books.

As I looked through titles, I noticed Maus, a book I had not heard of before.  My husband, and other East Coasters I spoke with had all read this in high school. I got this from the library (I am attempting to not spend money on a book this year, and our library is so amazing I want to support them), and started reading.  By the time I put the book down later that day, I was already itching to read the second one, which I did the next day.

A month later, my daughter asked me to proofread a paper for school on Persepolis, a graphic novel about the overthrow of the Shah in Iran in the late 1970s.  This time I requested BOTH volumes 1 and 2 at the same time.  That turned out to be a smart move.

In addition to both sets of graphic novels leaving me wanting more, there were striking similarities between these.  Both were autobiographical, dealing with war and oppression.  The dark themes of losing yourself, of exile from home, and of leaving behind pain are shown.  The method of the graphic novel, while making things seem “more casual” actually illuminate the history of two corrupt regimes very well.  Both periods in history show how brutal people can become in the quest for power.  The pictures help make the horrors easier to face.  There are no real faces or photos, creating a barrier for both the reader and the writer to get through the story. Maus goes so far as to depict Jews as mice, Germans as Cats and Poles as pigs, a further statement on the state of humankind.

Underpinning both stories of survival and self-discovery, both books exhibit the traits of survivor’s guilt.  Persepolis’ Marji had been able to escape the ravages of war and oppression as a displaced and lonely teenager in Vienna, but needed to return to her home before realizing she didn’t fit in there, either.  She was ultimately able to leave her country behind, but never her guilt of leaving.  It was only with the second departure that she understood that her mother, while loving her deeply, wanted Marji to live in a world where she could be more than was being allowed in Iran.

Within Maus, the survivorship takes on more layers.  Not only did he exist in the shadow of his dead brother who died in the war as did the majority of the family, but Art survived of his own mother’s suicide.  It was Art’s dealing with this guilt in an underground comic strip that lead him to ask his father’s story – to learn more of his mother.

As noted in Persepolis, it will take generations for the people to truly heal. Both stories show the evils of extremism and intolerance.  If we could all look at the world with the veil over our eyes to see only drawings, maybe we can see the complex truth in the simple lines.

 

books, literature, reading

My Journey Begins

k4books

Thanks for joining me!

“For one who reads, there is no limit to the number of lives that may be lived”  Louis L’Amour

My love with reading goes back to when I was a child.  I would lose myself in a book that made my world so much more fun and exciting.  I remember reading under the covers with flashlights and hiding books under my bed. In middle school, I was asked to run the student bookstore.  By the time I could get a “real” job, I was a page at our public library.  I continued to work at libraries throughout my college career.  The libraries, be them public or restricted, general or specialty, all called to me.  They were a safe place to be, full of friends and opportunities.

While I pursued a career outside of library science, my love of books and libraries has never waned.  I achieved a graduate degree at night school while I was working full time.  As graduation gifts my friends all gave me novels – the thing I missed most when I had homework.  I helped launch a book group for a non-profit organization, which I led for 3+ years before moving on.  I married and had children, bringing me back to books I loved.  My children loved to read with me.  They were in pre-school and kindergarten when they asked for a WII.  My husband and I decided they had to read 100 books together in order to earn this.  We didn’t care they were early readers or picture books, but they had to add the titles to the list on the fridge when they were done.  We have used this for other things too.

Then I turned 49.  A good friend asked me what I was going to do in my 50th year.  That got me thinking – what should I do?  That was when I created what I called the 50 for 50 challenge for myself.  I would read a best seller from the New York Times best seller list from the week of my birth for each year I have been alive, avoiding any re-reads and selecting from the top 10 (not necessarily the number one).

 Since that time I have continued to track my books, in excel.  I can look back and see if I have read something, and know how many I have read.  In the past few months people have begun to ask me for recommendations of books.  That made me think I should share my thoughts on titles I have read and want to read.  This is my journey – to share my love of reading with others so we can all be better people.

The blog title comes from The Source – James A Michener’s book.  This title that was number one on the New York Times Best Seller List on the day I was born.  I look forward to sharing this journey with you all.

Karen