Coming to My Senses by Alyssa Harad

Coming to My Senses: A Story of Perfume, Pleasure, and an Unlikely Bride
by Alyssa Harad

Author Alyssa Harad is a perfumista and a contributor to Perfume-Smellin' Things, one of the perfume blogs I regularly read. In Coming to My Senses, Harad recounts her first year of perfume obsession, which just so happens to be the year leading up to her wedding.

I like perfume. I'm not fluent in the language, nor am I confident in my taste, but I'm interested in moving beyond blog-reading and effortless sampling. So I really am an ideal reader for this book.

Coming to My Senses begins with Harad's awakening to first the language of perfume lovers and then to the perfumes themselves. I enjoyed following Harad on her voyage of olfactory discovery. I loved the details, her openness, her descriptions. Harad begins to write about being a bride about a third of the way through the book. It's at that point that I worry that I'll lose interest in the narrative. As much as I like Harad by this point, I'm not sure that I want to know about her wedding-planning. I worry that it will take away from what I think is the real focus of the memoir. Luckily, Harad manages to remain true to the theme of discovery and perfume both reflecting and enhancing life despite discussing wedding preparation (and a friend's sex change). Strangely enough, though, one of my favorite parts of Coming to My Senses revolves around Harad's bridal shower.

When Harad writes about a particular perfume she doesn't always mention it by name. I understand why (she explains why in her author's note¹), but I can't help feeling a bit disappointed. Because I'm still learning about perfume and its myriad nuances, I'd find it so helpful to know exactly which perfume Harad was referencing at any given time. In any case, I enjoyed Harad's writing (especially the more contemplative passages) and her honesty. Coming to My Senses also inspired me to overcome my fear of snooty salespeople and visit a perfume boutique last time I went into New York City. I've also ordered a bunch of samples to try out at home.

One last not-directly-book-related comment -
Harad's author website, promoted in her author's note as where she'll give readers "the latest, updated scoop" (vii), is underwhelming. It has a blog with one post dated June 26, 2012 surrounded by an architecture with lots of intriguing, but empty rooms. Even the Upcoming Events page is out of date. The more I explored the site, the more disappointed I became. I wonder why the publisher's PR people would put together the site and not maintain it (the book only came out last month) and I wonder why Harad agreed to it. One nice, long blog post is worse than none.

1. I have provided the names of the perfumes featured when I felt it was crucial to the telling of the story. However, in some cases I preferred to leave the names out and keep the emphasis on the description of their scents and the emotions they evoked at the moment. Doing so allowed me to avoid recommending perfumes that may be discontinued or reformulated by the time this book is published" (vii).

disclosure: I received a review copy of Coming to My Senses from Viking via NetGalley.

The Sportsman by Dhani Jones

I do so love watching the Olympic Games. While I prefer the winter games and Canadian coverage,¹ I'm making the best of things with NBC-group coverage this year. In any case, the XXX (modern) Olympiad seemed like the perfect excuse to post about a sports memoir that I should have reviewed last year.

The Sportsman: Unexpected Lessons from an Around-the-World Sports Odyssey
by Dhani Jones with Jonathan Grotenstein

I need to open my comments on The Sportsman with the admission that I did not finish the book. Regular readers will be aware that I prefer fiction to nonfiction and that I don't often post about memoirs or sports-related books. Lest any of you think that my preferences yielded to bias against The Sportsman, I submit this confession: I am a huge Dhani Jones fan.² When Time Warner dropped the Travel Channel from our Buffalo cable package, Dhani Tackles the Globe is the show I mourned the most. If anything, my love of Dhani likely predisposed me toward his memoir.

I was excited to get my hands on a review copy of The Sportsman and couldn't wait to get an extra dose of that endearing Dhani personality. The memoir's subtitle, "Unexpected Lessons from an Around-the-World Sports Odyssey," left me expecting a narrative built upon Dhani's experiences making Dhani Tackles the Globe and presented in a style like referenced the television show.

The memoir starts from the beginning ("my parents took two years to name me," 3), explaining how Dhani developed a love of sport and how he came to play football despite his mother's objections. Dhani's first person narrative is a bit too informal (in describing his teenage attitude problems he uses "mofo" and "suck my left nut"), but I was willing to give him (and his coauthor) the benefit of the doubt. But, on page 5, the narrative is interrupted by "A note from Commander Samuel L. Jones a.k.a. Dad". This I did not like at all. Yes, it did give an alternative perspective on Dhani at that period of this life, but it was jarring and odd (shades of helicopter parenting). And, couldn't Dad's viewpoint be shared in Dhani's own words? When a note from "Dr. Nanacy Jones a.k a. Mom" cropped up on page 14, I knew that I wasn't going to make it through The Sportsman. I gave up shortly thereafter.  

I was originally reticent to post about The Sportsman since I hadn't actually read very much of it.  I wondered whether I'd given the memoir a fair chance.  And, I held out the hope that I could get Russell to read it and offer his perspective (that didn't happen, I wasn't a very good salesperson). But, going through the early pages again, I realize that I still have no desire to keep reading The Sportsman. Maybe it gets better, but there were just far too many turn-offs in the early pages for me.

But, just because I didn't like The Sportsman, doesn't mean that you won't. The Sportsman has a 4.7 star rating on Amazon (16 reviews) and a 3.55 on Goodreads (70 ratings).

1. CBC did it well, CTV does it even better. Access to Canadian Olympic coverage is one of the things I miss most about living in Buffalo.
2. And, Russell and I both went to University of Michigan where Dhani played college ball. Russell actually saw him play in The Big House, though Dhani was already playing for the Giants by the time I got to Ann Arbor for graduate school.

disclosure: I received a review copy of The Sportsman from Rodale via NetGalley.

Marrying Anita by Anita Jain

Marrying Anita: A Quest for Love in the New India by Anita Jain

A few months ago, I mentioned receiving Marrying Anita as a gift for my birthday (see post). Marrying Anita is a memoir in which the author recounts what happened when she, a 32-year-old Indian-American, grew tired of the New York dating scene decided to return to move to New Delhi to find a husband. Just to be clear, the book is not about arranged marriage despite the phrase-dropping in the synopsis and press coverage. Arranged marriage is discussed because it is an integral part of Indian culture, but the author's personal experience with arranged marriage is limited to her father managing profiles on online marriage sites for her.

I'd heard Jain interviewed on NPR when the book first came out, which is how Marrying Anita ended up on my wishlist. I have to admit that while I was intrigued by the premise, I was a bit reticent about reading it because of the baggage I carry from my first-hand experience¹ with India's marriage culture. I did read Marrying Anita though and I'm none worse for the wear.

Marrying Anita really wasn't what I expected. A full explanation would require including some spoilers and I don't like to do that. I'll stick with the things that I can mention without ruining things for future readers of the memoir. I was surprised at how open Jain is about her liaisons (and drinking and drug use). I imagine her parents being horrified and their more conservative friends and relatives (who no doubt read the book as soon as it was released) significantly more so. Jain makes much of this New India, but what's deemed acceptable among the nation's young urbanites is not necessarily indicative of culture-wide acquiescence.

I had a hard time relating to the author-narrator. I found Jain's need to pepper her narrative with SAT words (plangency² appears in the second paragraph of her prologue) a bit irritating, but I was able to ignore that as I became accustomed to her writing style. More significantly, her actions and the harshness with which she describes individuals was off-putting. It seemed like every time I warmed up to Jain, she went ahead and did or said something that made me dislike her again. I do wonder though how the book's publication has affected her life and her love life.

Marrying Anita's synopsis mentions "disarming candor" and "refreshingly honest". The author is honest and candid, often disarmingly so, but unfortunately I didn't find Marrying Anita refreshing.

1. as an inappropriate potential bride
2. plangency - n. resonance (possibly deep resonance or mournful resonance)

happy birthday to me

An explanation of my recent blog silence is forthcoming,¹ but I didn't want to skip my usual post about books I received for my birthday.

This year, I received only one book (so far). It's from my sister and I'm fairly certain that she chose it specifically because of the orange color on the cover. Seriously. All the other items I received from her were orange² so I think she decided to go with orange as a theme. Apparently there are two more items on their way so we'll see if I'm right. I could ask, but where's the fun in that.

In any case, back to the book. This particular title was on my wishlist. I'd heard the author interviewed on NPR and was intrigued.

Marrying Anita: A Quest for Love in the New India by Anita Jain

Is arranged marriage any worse than Craigslist? One smart and feisty womans year in India looking for a husband the old-fashioned way reveals a rapidly changing culture and a whole host of ideas about the best way to find a mate.
Anita Jain was fed up with the New York singles scene. After three years of frustration and awkward dates, and under constant pressure from her Indian parents to find someone, she started to wonder: was looking for a husband in a bar any less barbaric than traditional arranged marriage? After all this effort, there had to be something easier.
After announcing in a much-discussed New York magazine article her intention to try arranged marriage, Jain moves back to India—the impoverished, backward land her parents fled—to find a husband. At age thirty-two, and well past the cultural deadline for starting a family, Jain subjects herself to a whole new onslaught of expectations. Marrying Anita is an account of romantic chance encounters, nosy relatives, and dozens of potential husbands. Will she find a suitable man? Will he please her parents, aunts, uncles, and cousins? Is the new urban Indian culture in which shes searching really all that different from America?
With disarming candor, Jain tells her own romantic story even as it unfolds before her, and in the process sheds new light on a country modernizing at breakneck speed. Marrying Anita is a refreshingly honest look at our own desires and the modern search for the perfect mate.

Also, I'm so excited about one of my non-book gifts that I simply must share. I got one of Etsy seller sewtara's "caffeinating, please wait" sleeves. I've been wanting one of these ever since I first saw the listing (when my friend Jessica added it to her Etsy favorites list). My sister got sewtara to make me one with an orange load bar and lining. love!

1. Nothing substantive; things have just been very busy here
2. I'm including one of these--a non book gift--below (or above, in this case) because I just can't help myself

Such a Pretty Fat by Jen Lancaster

Such a Pretty Fat by Jen Lancaster
Subtitle: One Narcissist's Quest to Discover If Her Life Makes Her Ass Look Big, or Why Pie Is Not the Answer¹

I'm just about finished with Downward-Facing Dog when I hear a noise that makes my blood freeze. No, it's not the crack of a gunshot or the tinkle of an ice cream truck; it's the sound of feet clattering up my front steps. Before I can pull myself up, I come face-to-ass with the UPS delivery man, and I peer at him shirtless, backward, and upside down from between my legs, over the spare tire that is forcing my cabbage-rose-clad rack up around my neck, and through my uncurtained windwow.
And this? Right here? Is why I hate exercise. (99)

Such a Pretty Fat is Lancaster's third memoir. I read her first, Bitter is the New Black, last year for book club (see post).

If you haven't read Jen Lancaster, the quote above will give you a bit of a taste for her style. The passage that immediately follows the quote is one of my favorites in the book. I thought about including it as well, but decided a three-page quote was a bit excessive for the blog and, well, I didn't want to rob anyone of the experience of reading the whole scene in context.

Such a Pretty Fat is as much about who she came to write this particular memoir as it is about her quest to lose weight. Lancaster is honest about her struggles (that's one of the best things about Lancaster, her willingness to share all the pitfalls she encounters regardless of how embarrassing they are). She made me laugh. I also found some real wisdom in Such a Pretty Fat, which I wasn't really expecting.

1. Oh how I love Jen Lancaster's subtitles! She also uses footnotes and by now I'm sure my readers have realized how I feel about footnotes.

Bitter is the New Black

Bitter is the New Black by Jen Lancaster

The book's subtitle--Confessions of a Condescending, Egomaniacal, Self-Centered Smartass, Or, Why You Should Never Carry a Prada Bag to the Unemployment Office--should give any potential reader at least a taste of what the narrative will be like. Lancaster's books always seem to have these crazy subtitles that are very her (as they say).

Bitter is the New Black was the November selection for the library book club. It's Lancaster's first book, a memoir about being laid off from her cushy sales job and how the experience changed her life. One of the things she does under her unemployment is start a blog. That blog, which no longer exists, kept her from getting at least one of the jobs she applied for, but it eventually led to finding a literary agent and publishing Bitter is the New Black. (her current blog is Jennsylvania)

Lancaster is very smart and very snarky. She has no illusions about herself and is very open about her various faults. At the beginning of Bitter is the New Black (before her layoff) I wasn't sure I was going to like Lancaster because her overcritical overconfidence really turned me off (more than her fashion obsession or her attitude toward money). Over the course of the book, though, she becomes much more sympathetic because she mellows (the wind was definitely knocked out of her sails) and we as readers get to know her better.

Everyone seemed to like the book even though a couple of us didn't manage to finish it in time for the meeting. We all agreed that Lancaster's boyfriend-turned-husband is a saint for putting up with her (one of the times that I appreciated Lancaster's excess of chutzpah was when she wouldn't take no for an answer when Fletch needed something). We also found her trip to the convention center to pick up a friend's registration packet for the Chicago marathon to be the most revealing episode recounted in the book.

It seems to me that this book should be getting a lot of attention right now with so many people struggling with unemployment. Even though readers may not always be able to relate to Lancaster, Bitter is the New Black is a good reminder that others have gone and are going through the same situation.

I have a copy of her third book, Such a Pretty Fat (One Narcissist's Quest to Discover If Her Life Makes Her Ass Look Big, or Why Pie Is Not the Answer), and I plan to read it sooner rather than later.

Still Waters

Still Waters by Jennifer Lauck

I received Still Waters on cassette from a friend who was clearing out all of her audio books. Apparently Still Waters picks up after Blackbird, Lauck's earlier memoir. Normally I'd want to read Blackbird before starting Still Waters, but I needed an audio for a car trip so I decided to go ahead with it anyway.

Still Waters begins with a University of Oklahoma police report detailing the disappearance and subsequent death of a Bryan Lauck. The book will end many years after that report was written when Lauck looks into her brother's death and comes to terms with it.

The memoir's narrative opens with 12-year-old Jenny arriving at her maternal grandparents, where she expects to stay for good (both her parents have died and she's been abandoned by her stepmother, her brother sent off to live with another relative). Jenny is then shunted off to live with her father's youngest sister and her husband and young daughter. Although Aunt Georgia and Uncle Dick adopt Jenny, she feels profoundly unwanted and has to earn her keep. Still Waters follows Jenny as she grows up in this unloving home and sets out on her own. It unflinchingly chronicles her failures and disappointments. But, ultimately, Still Waters is an affirming book. Readers to follow Jenny past her tumultuous early adulthood as she comes to peace with her past and is able to trust herself enough to become a mother.

The version I listened to was read (and abridged) by Lauck. I really think Lauck being the reader added to the experience because the book is a memoir. I found it very compelling.

Lucky

Lucky by Alice Sebold

"In the tunnel where I was raped, a tunnel that was once an underground entry to an amphitheater, a place where actors burst forth from underneath the seats of a crowd, a girl had been murdered and dismembered. I was told this story by the police. In comparison, they said, I was lucky."

I'd had Lucky sitting on my bookshelf for over three years now. I got it after reading The Lovely Bones, an absolutely fantastic novel (see post), but I was reluctant to start reading it because, based on the subject matter, I expected it to be a very difficult read. I needed a non-fiction title for January's book of the month so I decided to give it a chance. When I did, I was pleasantly surprised. While Lucky is not a fun read, it was much less arduous than I expected it to be. That's not to say that the memoir isn't both brutally honest and graphic.

Lucky begins with the rape, but its scope is much broader. Readers follow Sebold through her recovery, the rapist's trial, revelations of other rapes (both close to home and not), and what might be the most horrific thing of all. Through it all Sebold's openness and honesty is what makes the book accessible.

I'll be posting about Lucky on the student services blog next week.

Mennonite in a Little Black Dress

Mennonite in a Little Black Dress by Rhoda Janzen

Subtitled "a memoir of going home," Mennonite in a Little Black Dress begins with what is arguably the worst week of author Rhoda Janzen's life. A debilitating automobile crash on the heels of her husband leaving her for a man he met through Gay.com* is more than she can handle. Janzen decides to recenter herself by spending some time with her family and the Mennonite community from which they are inseparable.

While the narrative is very open and chatty, I found Janzen to be far too self- and Mennonite-deprecating for my taste. The author doesn't portray herself as a sympathetic character. Additionally it seems that that because the Mennonite culture is perceived to be a selling-point, the author felt the need to make that the focus of the memoir. I think the book would have been stronger if I had just been about this difficult patch she went through and her going home (even with all the reminiscences about her childhood). Throughout the narrative, though, Janzen feels the need to make all kinds of witty (or snarky) observations about the Mennonite community in which she grew up. This detracts from the overall story.

I was also disappointed in the ending. Mennonite in a Little Black Dress ends with a strange appendix entitled "A Mennonite History Primer" in which Janzen goes over things that non-Mennonites need to know about Mennonites (many of which had been mentioned multiple times in the course of the memoir). I think the book would have had a better sense of closure without the appendix. The beginning of the appendix looks exactly like the beginning of any of the other chapters so readers are liable to read it as if it is the last chapter (like I did, I didn't realize it was labeled as an appendix until I sat down to write up this book) and as a last chapter it is a bit inexplicable.

This all isn't to say that I didn't enjoy parts of the book and that I didn't laugh out loud at some points, just that I was disappointed. This book seemed to have so much potential so my expectations were high. In particular, knowing that the author is an English professor, I expected the writing to be better.

* Janzen uses the phrase "Bob, a guy he met on Gay.com" many times (too many times!) during the course of the book.

Friday Find #9

We discussed a graphic novel at our book club meeting on Wednesday (see post). One of our members listened to Nancy Pearl's September podcast on graphic novels prior to the meeting and brought with her a list of the books mentioned in the episode. One in particular jumped out at me...

Stitches by David Small

One day David Small awoke from a supposedly harmless operation to discover that he had been transformed into a virtual mute. A vocal cord removed, his throat slashed and stitched together like a bloody boot, the fourteen-year-old boy had not been told that he had throat cancer and was expected to die.

Small, a prize-winning children's author, re-creates a life story that might have been imagined by Kafka. Readers will be riveted by his journey from speechless victim, subjected to X-rays by his radiologist father and scolded by his withholding and tormented mother, to his decision to flee his home at sixteen with nothing more than dreams of becoming an artist. Recalling Running with Scissors with its ability to evoke the trauma of a childhood lost, Stitches will transform adolescent and adult readers alike with its deeply liberating vision.

Holy moly! this sounds both horrible and fascinating. I'm hoping our library's graphic novel collection has a copy so I can check it out.

book club voting lists (1 of 4)

This post explains what the lists are all about...

Biographies & Memoirs:

1. Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life by Barbara Kingsolver
2. Beautiful Boy: A Father's Journey Through His Son's Addiction by David Sheff
3. Bitter is the New Black: Confessions of a Condescending, Egomaniacal, Self-Centered Smartass, Or, Why You Should Never Carry A Prada Bag to the Unemployment Office by Jen Lancaster
4. Buffalo Gal by Laura Pedersen
5. The Caliph's House: A Year in Casablanca by Tahir Shah
6. Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman's Search for Everything across Italy, India and Indonesia by Elizabeth Gilbert
7. Feeding a Yen: Savoring Local Specialties, from Kansas City to Cuzco by Calvin Trillin
8. Infidel by Ayaan Hirsi Ali
9. Letter to My Daughter by Maya Angelou
10. She's Not There: A Life in Two Genders by Jennifer Finney Boylan
11. Tweak: Growing Up on Methamphetamines by Nic Sheff

Classics and Contemporary Classics:

1. 1984 by George Orwell
2. Beloved by Toni Morrison
3. The Book of Salt by Monique Truong
4. Breakfast at Tiffany’s by Truman Capote
5. Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh
6. Hamlet
7. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
8. The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne
9. Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
10. Wings of the Dove by Henry James

General Fiction (non-genre):

1. The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein
2. Astrid & Veronika by Linda Olsson
3. The Beach House by Mary Alice Monroe
4. Buffalo Lockjaw by Greg Ames
5. The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery
6. Ella Minnow Pea by Mark Dunn
7. Eureka by Jim Lehrer
8. The Falls by Joyce Carol Oates
9. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows
10. The Help by Kathryn Stockett
11. Love Medicine by Louise Erdrich
12. Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout
13. People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks
14. Plain Truth by Jodi Picoult
15. Prodigal Summer by Barbara Kingsolver
16. Stones from the River by Ursula Hegi
17. The Story of Edgar Sawtelle by David Wroblewski
18. Those Who Save Us by Jenna Blum
19. Trans-Sister Radio by Chris Bohjalian
20. The Various Flavors of Coffee by Anthony Capella
21. We Need to Talk about Kevin by Lionel Shriver

Fun Home

Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic by Alison Bechdel

Dykes to Watch Out for author Alison Bechdel's brutally honest memoir, Fun Home, focuses on her childhood and coming-of-age. The "fun" in the graphic novel's title is both a shortening of funeral (the family runs a funeral home) and wonderfully sarcastic (her home was such a fun place to grow up).

Fun Home is as much about Bechdel growing up and developing her sense of self as it is about her relationship with her father. His untimely and somewhat suspicious death makes her father even more of an enigma and Bechdel struggles to understand both him as a person and how much she had in common with him.

One of the things I like about Fun Home is how literary it is, literary in a very accessible way. Bechdel references both well- and lesser known works of literature and uses lots of uncommon words. She also does things like this bit I photographed from page 106

(click on the image to bring up a larger, more legible version), which follows a panel depicting Bechdel and some of her lesbian friends stopping by a bar in Greenwich Village called Chumley's.

Princess

Princess by Jean Sasson

The copy that I read (printed in 1995, I believe) had the following text emblazoned across its front cover: "An Appalling Indictment of the Treatment of Women in Saudi Arabia." It's interesting to note the absence of this text on the more recently-printed editions (like the one pictured in this post). I wonder if that is because many of the shocking revelations contained in the book are now almost common knowledge to Westerners (the target audience) and the climate much different now than when the book was first published in the early 1990s.

The story of one Saudi princess' life, Princess is both horrifying and compulsively readable. "Sultana" tells readers of both of her personal experiences of life inside the royal family and those of other women in her milieu. "Sultana" is a keen, if not impartial, observer of her culture. She points out the glaring double-standards of the righteously religious, the problem of wealth and entitlement, and, of course, the brutal treatment of women.

Russell read the book after I was through and it was interesting to hear his take on it and to compare the things that shocked each of us while reading the book.

book clubbing (August-September)

My book club met today and I realized that things have been so crazy this summer that I'd forgotten to post about last month's book. Better late than never...

August: A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle

Meg Murry, her little brother Charles Wallace, and their mother are having a midnight snack on a dark and stormy night when an unearthly stranger appears at their door. She claims to have been blown off course, and goes on to tell them that there is such a thing as a "tesseract," which, if you didn't know, is a wrinkle in time.
Meg's father had been experimenting with time-travel when he suddenly disappeared. Will Meg, Charles Wallace, and their friend Calvin outwit the forces of evil as they search through space for their father?

Most of us who had read this book before hadn't read it since we were children. Personally I'd forgotten everything about the book except that it was written by Madeleine L'Engle so reading it again was really rediscovering it. We talked quite a bit about the book as it related to its time, speculating how different it would be if it had been written today.

September: 84 Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff

The true story of the 20-year correspondence between Helene Hanff, an American writer living in New York, and Frank Doel, the Manager of Messrs Marks and Co., a bookshop in London's Charing Cross Road. The story is told through the pair's letters.

This book received mixed reviews: some thought it charming, others thought it dull. It was short, but because it was told through correspondence the story itself wasn't particularly meaty. In general, we wished to know more about the books Hanff was ordering/reading and what happened to some of the other bookshop employees.

Eat, Pray, Love

Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert

Subtitled "One Woman's Search for Everything across Italy, India and Indonesia", Eat, Pray, Love is a candid memoir that focuses particularly on one year in the life of the author. After finalizing a bitter, seemingly never-ending divorce, Gilbert takes a year off to indulge her wanderlust and discover who is she outside of the confines of her life in the states.

She first goes to Italy, where she soaks up the Italian language like a sponge all the while savoring each meal that comes her way. Next to rural India, where she cloisters herself in her guru's ashram. And, finally, to Bali where she seems to find balance and, in the end, love.

I'll be the first to admit that I had a hard time getting into this book. The Italy section, particularly at the beginning, is so focused on the problems Gilbert had before embarking on the journey that it wasn't an easy read. Then once I'm finally feeling comfortable, she's off to India and there's a completely different (and in some ways less-relatable) focus to the narrative. The Balinese part seemed to me the shortest. It's the most balanced, probably because Gilbert at this point is finally feeling things come together in terms of her overarching self-discovery journey.

While I didn't think that Eat, Pray, Love was as fantastic as I'd heard it'd be (it seemed at times much too detailed and at others not detailed enough), I'm definitely be interested in reading Gilbert's follow-up memoir (Weddings and Evictions) just to find out more about how things turned out with "Felipe".

Truth & Beauty

Truth and Beauty: A Friendship by Ann Patchett

I picked up Truth and Beauty and Lucy Grealy's Autobiography of a Face around the same time after hearing that they were both fantastic books and should be read together. I read Autobiography of a Face in February (see this post), but only just got around to reading Truth and Beauty this month.

I've read Patchett before and enjoyed her writing. Truth and Beauty is compelling and Patchett seems to write honestly about Grealy and their relationship, but there is a strange edge to the book, most likely because it was written in response to Grealy's death. It's hard to take pleasure in a book when you know that it will end with the untimely demise of one of the main characters especially when that character is both sympathetic and a real person. That isn't to say that the book didn't make me laugh (the CDs on page 187, for example) and that it wasn't heartwarming in its way, it's just that the loss of Grealy tends to overwhelm everything else for me.

Also, I'm not sure that I liked the way that Patchett used Grealy's letters throughout the book. I almost wish that Patchett had omitted them and relied purely on her own words. It almost seemed that Patchett was using excerpts of Grealy's letters to prove things that didn't really need to be proven or in some way trying to create a memoir co-written by Grealy. While Patchett may have used the letters to increase the authenticity of the story, I found that their inclusion made me more likely to doubt her as a narrator (and to wonder about what Patchett chose not to include). Of course, my reading of Truth and Beauty has been clouded by my reading of Autobiography of a Face and the knowledge that Grealy's older sister was against the publication of Truth and Beauty. That may be one of the reasons why I feel the way I do about the use of Grealy's letters, with no prior knowledge I might not have even given the use of the letters much thought.

In any case, I'll be posting a little teaser review of Truth and Beauty on the student services blog on Friday.

some recent reading

The Book of Lost Things by John Connolly, read by Steven Crossley
High in his attic bedroom, twelve-year-old David mourns the death of his mother. He is angry and alone, with only the books on his shelf for company. But those books have begun to whisper to him in the darkness, and as he takes refuge in his imagination, he finds that reality and fantasy have begun to meld. While his family falls apart around him, David is violently propelled into a land that is a strange reflection of his own world, populated by heroes and monsters, and ruled over by a faded king who keeps his secrets in a mysterious book...The Book of Lost Things.

I had heard good things about this book, but didn't remember much about it. Listening to the book, I thought it was very well done, but it was much darker than I expected. I liked how Connolly incorporated fairy tales into the story and gave them a twist to serve his needs though in most cases they ended up darker and more menacing than even the usual not-so-nice versions of fairy tales.

In some ways this book reminded me of Michael Gruber's The Witch's Boy, which I read last year. It is very different, but I loved Gruber's take on the fairy tales.

I though Crossley was a wonderful reader, especially in how he brought the different characters to life through his voice.

Autobiography of a Face by Lucy Grealy
This powerful memoir is about the premium we put on beauty and on a woman's face in particular. It took Lucy Grealy twenty years of living with a distorted self-image and more than thirty reconstructive procedures before she could come to terms with her appearance after childhood cancer and surgery that left her jaw disfigured. As a young girl, she absorbed the searing pain of peer rejection and the paralyzing fear of never being loved.

I picked up Autobiography of a Face and Ann Patchett's Truth and Beauty around the same time after hearing that they were both fantastic books and should be read together.

I have yet to read Truth and Beauty, but it seems to me that it is impossible to read Autobiography of a Face and not be curious about Grealy's life beyond the part described in the memoir. In doing that supplemental reading, I discovered the tension between the two books and the fact that Suellen Grealy, Lucy's older sister, came out against Truth and Beauty in The Guardian.

Autobiography of a Face wasn't the easiest to read, but Grealy wrote about her life and struggles eloquently and with great honesty. The saddest part of her story, however, is the cause of her untimely death in 2002.* After I learned about her death, I began to see Grealy as much more of a tragic character than I did when I finished the book.

I'll be reading Truth and Beauty soon. I understand Suellen Grealy's concerns, but I know that each of the books only contains a version of the truth and, for better or for worse, Patchett, by writing Truth and Beauty has brought Grealy and Autobiography of a Face much more exposure than they would have had otherwise.

* Apparently she became addicted to prescription painkillers after her last reconstructive surgery (similar to the brief codeine addiction she describes in the book), which served as a gateway to heroine and her eventual accidental overdose.

book clubbing in July

This month's book club selection was Tracks by Robyn Davidson. The book is subtitled "a woman's solo trek across 1,700 miles of Australian outback" and is less an account of the trip itself than a chronicle of that time in the author's (mental) life.

Tracks opens with Davidson and her trusty canine companion, Diggity, arriving in Alice Springs with only $6 and a dream: to travel across the central desert with three wild camels. We follow the author through her preparations (2 years!) and the trip itself--with the accompanying mental angst, injury, romance (?),and wild animal attacks--and in the process we learn much about camels, the Australian outback, and plight of the island's aboriginal inhabitants.

Most of our book club members didn't actually read the book before our discussion today. One member quite liked the book. I thought it was just OK, I expected more (I know, I know, it's not good to come at these books with preconceived notions, but sometimes you just can't help it).

bookish memoirs

So, today is kind of a catch-up day at work. As I was cleaning out my work email, specifically the folders for my professional listservs, I starting reading through a huge (and hugely interesting) discussion that occurred last month on the Exlibris listerserv (an electronic news and discussion group for those interested in rare books, manuscripts, special collections, and librarianship in special collections).

It all started with a listserv member asking for summer reading recommendations, specifically for "the best" memoirs of book collectors and dealers. There were lots of good suggestions, so I started compiling a list. Luckily, before my list got too long, I happened to notice that another listserv member had already compiled one.

Here's a link. Take a look if you're interested.