Review: Carry the One

Carry The One

By Carol Anshaw

Simon and Schuster March 2012

253 pages

From the library

My review is up at the Atlantic Highlands Herald. Have you read Carry the One? What did you think? 

Have a wonderful weekend and a blessed Easter!

Review: Half Blood Blues

Half Blood Blues

By Esi Edugyan

Picador February 2012 

319 pages
Finalist for the Man Booker Prize/Longlisted for the Orange Prize

From the library 

Sid Griffiths, an elderly bass player, is invited to attend a festival in honor of former band mate Hieronymus Falk. The documentary shown there reveals a secret that Sid has kept for many years. He stood by and watched as Hiero was arrested by the Nazis. Everyone believes that the great trumpeter died shortly after the war, a casualty of racism and Sid’s refusal to intervene. At the festival, Sid’s friend and former band mate Chip reveals that Hiero is not dead after all. In fact, Chip and Hiero have been corresponding and now Chip thinks they should go visit him. This revelation takes Sid back to Berlin and Paris in 1939, the scenes of some of his greatest failures.

In Paris, they meet up with Louis Armstrong and start to work on a track that will be lost and then discovered after the war. This song will forever change the face of jazz music. “Of course, the recording’s cult status had to do with the illusion of it all. I mean, not just of the kid but all of us, all the Hot-Time Swingers. Think about it. A bunch of German and American kids meeting up in Berlin and Paris between the wars to make all this wild, joyful music before the Nazis kick it to pieces? And the legend survives when a lone tin box if dug out of a damn wall in a flat once belonged to a Nazi? Man. If that ain’t a ghost story, I never heard one.”

Ms. Edugyan does an excellent job of transporting the reader to Berlin and Paris on the verge of war. You feel the tension as they go from safe, familiar places to war zones. The dialect is very unique and specific to both the time period and the circles which Sid and his friends frequent. For a novel that revolves around music, it is still very accessible to someone who knows nothing about jazz.

The characters are well-written, but none of them really find their way into your head or your heart. The novel switches between past and present, and our narrator Sid is more interesting as the old man with regrets than as the jealous young musician. The other characters feel underdeveloped, especially Hiero. Although it may have been a conscious decision to make the object of Sid’s admiration and jealousy an enigma, it makes it difficult for the reader to feel anything for him. The other musicians don’t get a lot of page time, which is a loss because the little that we do get is interesting. Even Delilah, the beautiful songstress who captures Sid’s heart, remains mostly unknown to the men and to the reader.

I liked this book. I enjoyed reading about a niche group and the unique issues that the musicians faced because are black. While this is a good read, it’s not a book I feel compelled to extol to every person I encounter. With all of the buzz that this book and its author are receiving, it will be interesting to see what Esi Edugyan does next. 

Wednesdays with David: Wayside School is Falling Down

Wayside School is Falling Down

By Louis Sachar

Illustrated by Joel Schick

Lothrop, Lee and Shepard Books 1989

The story: Mrs. Jewls teaches on the thirtieth floor of Wayside School. Wayside School is thirty stories high, with just one classroom on each floor. Miss Zarves teaches on the nineteenth floor. There is no nineteenth floor. Benjamin Nushmutt can't work up the courage to tell everyone his name is not actually Mark Miller. Ron orders the infamous Mushroom Surprise from the lunchroom with startling results. Leslie finally lets Paul pull her pigtails...to save his life. Louis Sachar returns to Wayside School with 30 zany, ridiculous, and funny stories.

Mama opines: I remember loving these books as kid so, when I saw it while perusing the chapter books at the library, I snatched it up. David is finding it very funny, although we are having a few awkward moments. Over time, you forget some of the things that happen in a book...For example, I didn't remember one of the girls brings in a hobo for show and tell. Then, of course, you have to explain what exactly a hobo is...awkward sauce. We are having fun read this, but if I had remembered fully I might have waited a few years. I think we will definitely be reading all of the books in this series when David is a bit older. 

Thoughts from David: I like it because it has lots of silly stories and because they play tricks in this one!

Favorite part: When they trick the substitute teacher! 

What are you reading with your small people this week?? 

March Wrap-up

Books Reviewed: 9
Pages Read: 3006
Fiction/Non-Fiction: 7/2
Female authors/Male authors: 6/3
My books/Library Books: 2/7
Lindsey's favorite of the month: The House at Tyneford

Books reviewed with David: 4
David's favorite of the month: Skid and the Too Tiny Tunnel

Ah yes...Bumblebee Boy...an excellent choice!

What was your favorite book from the month of March??

It's Monday - Happy April!

Good morning, bibliophiles. Happy Monday! Happy April!  How were your weekends?

Here at the Literary Household, we saw my sisters in their high school production of Bye Bye Birdie on Friday night.

Aren't they cute??

On Saturday, David took part in the Easter Egg Hunt at our church. He was kind of awesome at it, if I do say so myself. He may have thanked God that night that he was so good at finding more eggs than the other kids...oh boy.

The boy in action...

Saturday afternoon was mostly spent reading and playing. I read Carry the One, the husband was reading Catching Fire (I have finally succeeded in getting him hooked!) and the little one had lots of car races. 

Sunday was Palm Sunday, as you probably know, so there was churching and palms (although I don't think I actually got one...). I do the singing thing, the husband does the interning thing, and David does the "when will it be time to leave for Sunday School??" thing.


Onwards to the books! 

Read This Week:

The Beautiful and Damned

By F. Scott Fitzgerald


Carry the One
By Carol Anshaw

Reading Now: 

Enchantments

By Kathryn Harrison

Posts From This Week:

It's Monday

Wednesdays with David: When I Get Bigger 

Reviews of The Secret History of the Mongol Queens and The Beautiful and Damned

The Laptop Blues

Coming Up:

Q

By Evan Mandery


Entwined
By Heather Dixon

What are you reading this week? Comment on, friends! 

Review: The Beautiful and Damned

The Beautiful and Damned

By F. Scott Fitzgerald

The Modern Library 2002

378 pages

From the library

Anthony Patch is living a life of luxury and waiting for his grandfather's wealth to become his own. After graduation, he courts and marries the beautiful Gloria Gilbert. They are prepared to drink, party, and see and be seen by all of the right people until their proverbial ship comes in. But things don’t go quite the way Anthony and Gloria expect.

Fitzgerald’s novels are notoriously autobiographical, and The Beautiful and the Damned is no exception. It mirrors his life with Zelda, where they squandered their money on alcohol and parties. Anthony goes into the army but, just like his creator, never goes overseas. 

Fitzgerald writes from experience about falling in love and getting married young. Anthony and Gloria are immature and selfish. Their passion for each other is immense, but so is their need to have nice things, go nice places, and be admired. Neither of them is willing to take responsibility for themselves, their relationship, or their financial stability.

This does not make them particularly likeable as characters. They are not malicious, but they are stuck in a sort of adolescent world without a care. Anthony and Gloria miss the moment when one transitions from kids with no worries to adults with responsibility and the desire to consider someone besides themselves.

“After the sureties of youth there sets in a period of intense and intolerable complexity…But by the late twenties the business has grown too intricate, and what has hitherto been imminent and confusing has become gradually remote and dim. Routine comes down like twilight on a harsh landscape, softening it until it is tolerable. The complexity is too subtle, too varied; the values are changing utterly with each lesson of vitality; it has begun to appear that we can learn nothing from the past with which to face the future – so we cease to be impulsive, convincible men, interested in what is ethically true by fine margins, we substitute rules of conduct for ideas of integrity, we value safety above romance, we become, quite unconsciously, pragmatic. It is left to the few to be persistently concerned with the nuances of relationships – and even this few only in certain hours especially set aside for the task.”

Although this book is almost a century old, it feels incredibly timely. Here is a novel about young love, about the tenuous line between riches and poverty, about a young man who graduates from college, can’t decide what to do with his life, and then can’t find a job. Fitzgerald’s brilliance is that it resonated with his peers – those of old money whose world was changing rapidly – and it resonates with the current generation that is watching their dreams fall aside to the economic and social realities of our day.

As always, Fitzgerald writes beautifully of both the decadence of wealth and the despair of having only change in your pocket. While this novel may be at its heart about a married couple that likes to have a good time, The Beautiful and the Damned is a serious look at the effect money (or the lack thereof) can have on a person and on a marriage. 

Have you read this book? What are your thoughts?

Next month, I will be reading Tales of the Jazz Age, a collection of short stories. Join me! 

The Laptop Blues

Hey there, lovely reader. How is your day going?

So I have no review for you today because my laptop shuffled off his mortal coil. That was bad news bears, people. The port where you plug your computer in burnt out and when there is no power, you get no computer.

Thankfully, that handsome husband of mine backed up my files and bought me a new laptop while I was at work. He is kind of awesome. You may all be appropriately jealous now.

This is my new friend laptop:



We will be friends. I am, though, a little behind on things since I was computer-less for a bit.

But I wouldn't let you visit and not leave you with a bookish goodie. Do you like to compare your reading speed with your friends and family? I found this cool thing on the Staples website where they time your reading and then compare it to the national average.

My dorkdom was satiated.

Check it out here: http://www.staples.com/sbd/cre/marketing/technology-research-centers/ereaders/speed-reader/index.html


Make sure to compliment your laptop tonight so it will not leave you forever. See you tomorrow, ladies and gents.