Let's Pretend This Never Happened

I found out about Jenny Lawson (Aka, The Bloggess) from my sister's blog and was interested in checking out her book, Let's Pretend This Never Happened (A Mostly True Memoir). I had to wait a couple months before it was available at the library, but it was worth the wait. The book cracked me up. Jenny Lawson is a very funny woman and despite how obnoxious it was, I couldn't help reading parts aloud to my husband. I don't read many humor books (maybe because it is not a huge genre?) but always enjoy them when I do. I especially enjoyed this book for Lawson's warped sense of humor and the way she dramatically delivered stories. I could relate to her, particularly in the story "And Then I Got Stabbed in the Face by a Serial Killer" in which she describes her social awkwardness/ anxiety, something I myself suffer from (though thankfully not to the same degree). Another story I particularly enjoyed was "The Dark and Disturbing Secrets HR Doesn't Want You to Know," in part because I was in the process of job hunting at the time. But I don't think there was a story I didn't like. I enjoyed the entire book and definitely recommend it to everyone (except those who get easily offended).

Swamplandia!

I had read a review of Karen Russell's Swamplandia! a while back and raced out to get it from the library, only to put it down before the end of the first chapter. I wasn't into it. Then a month ago at a used book sale I saw the novel in paperback and remembering the positive review, decided to grab it and immediately gobbled it up.

Swamplandia! tells the story of Ava, a young girl who lives in an alligator-wrestling theme park on a small island and her resolve to save the park and her family. She is the youngest of three children and her mother, the park's headliner performer, has died before the novel begins. The park is in despair and her brother Kiwi wants them all to move to the mainland and go to school. When their father disagrees, Kiwi takes off and their father follows shortly after. Ava and her sister Ossie are left behind, but Ossie is wrapped up in an atypical romance and soon Ava finds herself going on a journey to save them all. It is the kind of story that keeps you guessing, not only about what is going to happen, but what is real. It's a very well written, unique novel and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I look forward to reading more of Russell's work.

The Third Wheel

I bought Isaac the latest Diary of a Wimpy Kid book, The Third Wheel. Isaac, Alan, and I all enjoyed reading the books as they came out so it's been a bit of a tradition to purchase the latest book, even though we don't buy many new books.

That tradition is over now. I hate to say it but I think this series is pretty much dead. The Third Wheel is Jeff Kinney's seventh book in the series and fifty percent of the book seemed like recycled jokes to me. And the way the book began (with Greg reminiscing about his life in utero) was both lame and weird. The end of the book (which unbelievably, I actually did get to) had some funny stuff that was enjoyable, but overall it was not good.

Blasphemy

I was excited to see Sherman Alexie had a new book coming out, slightly less excited when I found out it was a collection of short stories. But Blasphemy: New and Selected Stories did not disappoint. For a book of short stories the collection is pretty thick and the range of both length and breadth of the stories vary greatly. And yet there is a theme that holds all the stories together--they are all about identity, most about Native American characters grappling with who they are, were, or fear they will become. Many of the stories have a heaviness to them, thematically speaking. There is a sadness humming quietly in the background of most of the stories, even those sprinkled generously with humor. They're all very readable though, sucking the reader in almost immediately to feel for these characters, for these situations. My two favorite stories in the collection are "Breaking and Entering," a story I would love to discuss but can't without giving anything away and "The Search Engine," a story about a Native American girl who is smitten by a Native American writer and goes searching for him. I'd like to read both stories again sometime, if not the entire collection. He really is that good.

autobiography of a blue-eyed devil

Every book I've read that was published by Seal Press has been amazing, so a while back I checked out their website to search for ideas for my next nonfiction read. I came across a description of Inga Muscio's autobiography of a blue eyed devil: my life and times in a racist, imperialist society and immediately went out looking for it. I had to do an interlibrary loan to get the book and when I checked it out, the librarian muttered the title aloud with distaste. But I'm so glad I read it. The book is really quite extraordinary. 

Muscio is one sensitive and conscious individual. She is more awake than most of us, aware of underlying racism to which most people turn a blind eye. The book is full of Muscio's personal experiences, but the book isn't much of an autobiography. Instead it is a collection of musings, philosophy, theory, and historical facts. It is difficult to describe, in part because it is such a powerhouse of a book, one that knocked me over. While I was reading it a local woman went missing and there were posters everywhere, headlines about her disappearance were blasted all over the news. My husband asked why such a big deal was being made of her and I rationalized how sad and strange her disappearance was. He said he understood, but that the situation wasn't unique, that a variation of such a story happened all the time. As I read on in the book, it hit me that the tragedy of this missing woman was such a tragedy because she was white and had she been another ethnicity, her face would not be plastered all over town. It's hard to type these words as we like to think race doesn't matter anymore, that we have evolved past all that. But it really runs deep in our society and Muscio sees that, showing the reader the unpleasant truth about (as she calls it) 'Amerikka.' For some it may be a difficult book to swallow, but it's very poignant, forcing the reader to confront America's racist past and present.

Macbeth

Alan's class spent last month reading Macbeth. I felt like I should read it since I myself never had (which as an English major, writer, and avid reader seemed a bit of an embarrassment). And yet for weeks I just couldn't bring myself to pick up Shakespeare during my leisure reading time, which is so sparse and precious these days. Then I learned I would be subbing in his classroom, which meant that I would have to teach the play. With a sigh, I picked up the play and began to read.

It was, of course, good. I mean, there is a reason these plays are still read, performed, and discussed several hundreds of years later. And yet, I'm not a big fan of reading plays, adding on the additional burden of riffling through the language. But the copy of the book I read was the No Fear Shakespeare, which has the original text with a side by side modern translation, making it more accessible. (No, I'm not afraid or too proud to admit that.) I'm glad I read it and not only because Alan's students asked if I had read it and I could honestly tell them yes, I had. [Last week, in fact.] After combing the text, we watched a film adaptation of the scenes we had just read and the contrast between the enjoyment of watching the play being acted out, as it was intended, and reading the play aloud was stark. I walked away thinking I really should read more Shakespeare (then run out and watch the film adaptations). But I also know it'll be a long, long time before I actually do.