I have missed a couple of Sundays in a row because of first being away and second having no wireless connection. Needless to say, I am glad to be back and looking forward to finding out what y’all have been reading.

I’ve been reading quite a bit in the last couple of weeks. Here are some of the highlights.

Lotte’s Locket, by Virginia Sorensen. This was an RCF (re-read of a childhood favorite) and I was dying to see if it was as good as I remembered it. Basically, it’s about a little girl growing up in post-WWII Denmark. Her father was killed in the war and now her mother is getting ready to remarry an American and they will move to Texas. And Lotte doesn’t want to go. It’s sort of a quiet book, a “mood & setting” book more than anything else. I loved the same thing about it now that I remember loving then: the details about Denmark. Lots of Danish words with their mysteriously fascinating ås and øs, lots of references to foods, customs, and Hans Christian Andersen. But one thing I only notice now, as an adult, is how incredibly conservative Lotte is. There were times when I wanted to slap her: come on, Lotte, you’re about to go on an exciting adventure! Change is good! Travel is thrilling! Even so, this is a great book and I highly recommend it to upper-elementary bookworms.

In Praise of Lies, by Patricia Melo. I got this one from BookMooch. I mooched it after reading a review of it at This Book is For You. It totally lived up to expectations, and then some! Not only is it a brilliant homage to the masters of noir fiction (think Double Indemnity) but it’s also a totally hilarious send-up of the publishing industry. It’s got crimes of passion, snakes, and self-help books. What more could you possibly ask for?

The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas, by Gertrude Stein. Ok, I’ve only read half of this so far. But it is amazing. Gertrude Stein, where have you been all my life? Reading it, within the first few pages — actually, as soon as I read page 69 — I felt the shock of recognition: this is a kindred spirit.

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So, anyway. I read Geek Love this week. This is one of those books that’s been on my mental TBR list for years. Chartroose’s terrific post about conformity and alienation prompted me to finally read it.

Whoa! This was an amazing book. I can’t say I liked it, exactly, but it was amazing. Not an easy read, but worth the effort.

If you aren’t a fan of Traveling Show Lit, you may not be aware that the word geek has its origin in seedy carnival sideshows. Geeks were people who would bite the heads off of live chickens or snakes and drink the blood, for the public’s viewing pleasure. How the word ever came to have its current meaning I can’t imagine.

In Geek Love, the owner of the traveling show marries a geek and they decide to create a family of sideshow freaks. The wife takes drugs, exposes herself to radiation, etc., while pregnant, with the hope that her babies will have marketable deformities. And they do. One has flippers instead of arms and legs; two are conjoined twins, another is a bald albino hunchback, and the last appears normal… but isn’t.

The novel is about this family — how they relate with each other, how they relate to “norms,” how they get along in the world. There is much grotesquerie; I found it almost impossible to eat while reading. Chartroose is absolutely right that this book is about conformity and alienation, but not in the way you might expect. It’s not the freaks that are alienated, it’s the norms. No, scratch that. It’s the whole world that’s alienated. Freaks and norms alike. And people will go to horrifying (and futile) extremes trying to conform and find happiness.

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Aaaaaand I’m in the middle of The Eyre Affair. Also not an easy read, but for very different reasons. See, in order for alternate history to make sense, you have to know actual history. I keep scratching my head going “wait, is that right?” It took me a while (I’m sorry to say) to catch on that this story is taking place in an alternate universe. I mean, I’m pretty sure the Crimean War was over long ago, and I’m almost positive Napoleon lost at Waterloo. And I am nearly certain that at the end of the book Jane Eyre does hook up with Mr. Rochester.

Speaking of which, I’ve been racking my brain to dredge up what I can remember of Jane Eyre, which I haven’t read since I was a teenager. Let’s see… Jane starts out in an orphanage where she makes friends with a girl who dies of tuberculosis, excuse me I mean consumption, then she goes to be a governess. Somehow she ends up living in Mr. Rochester’s house, employed in some capacity which I can’t recall. Then what? She discovers his wife in the attic, right? And she leaves? And I don’t know what happens next but eventually she ends up with Mr. Rochester again — she does, doesn’t she? — and now his wife is dead and his house is burned down. Oh, and I think he is blind now, but he recognizes her voice because he loved her all along. Did I get it right? Please, if you can fill in the gaps, let me know in the comments.

Although I keep worrying that I’m missing out on clever humorous details (e.g. I read the name Millon DeFloss about five times before I saw the joke) I do like the way the plot is unfolding. I don’t like a book that makes me feel dumb, as this one does, but on the other hand the idea of fictional characters coming to life is too good to resist.

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It looks like it’s going to be a gorgeous day here in southeastern Michigan. I hope to spend a good portion of it in the hammock with my book. What does your day have in store for you?

Read & reviewed: Matrimony, by Josh Henkin. If you missed my post, do check it out. It was a very weird experience reading that particular book. Let’s just say it hit close to home. Literally!

Read but not yet reviewed: My first foray into the world of graphic novels. I read the graphic novel “adaptation” of Paul Auster’s City of Glass. I thought this would be a neat entry into the genre, since I’ve also read the original novel. But jeez, I read it so long ago that I forgot how strange and disturbing the story is. I have a soft spot for Paul Auster, though, and I do hope to post something about it later this week — if I can just figure out what to write.

And I’m in the middle of:

• Game of Kings, by Dorothy Dunnett. Kinda ground to a halt on this one. Not sure why. Not giving up yet, though.
• Geek Love, by Katherine Dunn. How did I miss this when it first came out?
• Dragon Slippers, by Jessica Day George. Kids’ book, recommended by my daughter. It’s pretty good. Reminds me of Dealing with Dragons by Patricia Wrede. If you liked that one, you’d definitely like this one.

Anyone else out there have a soft spot for Paul Auster? If so, can you explain to me what City of Glass is really about?

My reading this week was all over the map: time, place, even genre. From historical fiction to non-fiction to High Art. I’m reeling from the shock! In the best possible way, of course.

Historical fiction

First, I started into The Game of Kings by Dorothy Dunnett. It’s the first of a series, The Lymond Chronicles, that takes place in sixteenth-century Scotland. I’ve heard such good things about these books, and the historical period is fascinating. England is scheming to annex Scotland, and if they can’t do it through marriage (the infant Mary Queen of Scots to young King Edward VI, whom you may remember from The Prince and the Pauper) then they will do it by force. Yikes! All the noblemen must figure out how they will deal with this. Rebel? Join with England? Enter into the mix Francis Crawford of Lymond, an anti-hero almost as devilish as Flashy — and you’ve got a recipe for a terrific read. :-)

I was humming along quite happily with this book when all of a sudden I Iooked at the calendar and realized my book club was meeting next week. No, The Game of Kings was not our pick for this month! Alas, I had to set it down and get started, quickly, on something completely different. I went from sixteenth-century Scotland to present-day Appalachia, from historical fiction to memoir-diatribe-cookbook, in one fell swoop.

Non-fiction

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, as you’ve probably heard, is Barbara Kingsolver’s memoir of the year her family spent eating only locally-grown food.

I was a little nervous about reading this. The last time I read a book about food & diet, The China Study, I made my family go vegan. (We lasted almost a year.) Who knows what crazy thing I might foist on them after reading this?

I’m about a hundred pages into it. I’m learning a ton. I’m particularly fascinated with the things she says about botany and plant life cycles. I also was very interested to learn how we ever got the idea that it’s completely normal and natural to eat tomatoes in January, in the first place.

What I don’t like so much? It’s a little hard to read this and not feel rebuked. Not all of us live on a farm in fertile Appalachia. Not all of us have the means to turn around and start feeding our families almost entirely on home-grown produce. I hope that by the end of the book she will have given some advice to us regular people so we can do our part, too.

“High” Art

And last but not least, I renewed my friendship with Philippe Halsman’s Jump Book. I wrote about the book at length already, so I’ll just say this: he took photos of famous people… in mid-air! (At left, Peter Ustinov.) I followed up that post with some jumpshots of my extended family. You gotta see these, especially my 75yo dad. And I hope you’ll try taking some jumpshots yourself!

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Coming up next in my TBR stack: Matrimony, by Joshua Henkin, and oh! a collection of short stories: The Ladies of Grace Adieu by Susanna Clarke, recommended by the inimitable Ella at Box of Books. (Susanna Clarke is the author of Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, which I loved.) And I have a graphic novel in line, too, that I think I might actually like.

Happy reading!

I believe I’ve missed two or three Sundays in a row. All kinds of busyness, including one kid’s birthday, another’s trip to camp, rolling out a new theme for my blog (come see it!)… and so on and so forth and all the rest, et cetera et cetera et cetera. (That was a quote from a movie; did you recognize it?) Anyway, I’m very glad to be back, and I look forward to finding out what y’all have been up to. :)

I posted reviews of a couple of books this week, Finding Nouf (reviewed here) and The Position (reviewed here). I enjoyed both books tremendously. Although they were very different from each other in practically every possible way, one thing they had in common was that both belong to genres I don’t read very often. Finding Nouf is a whodunit, and The Position is… almost… chick lit. That is, it’s about love and marriage and family dynamics. So I am feeling pleased with myself for having strayed a bit from my comfort zone and discovered two books well worth reading.

Then I came across Heather’s review of her first graphic novel and it got me thinking about comfort zones some more. The graphic novel is a genre that is waaaay outside my comfort zone. I mean I have zero interest in that stuff. I don’t know why; I am a very visual person and I adore all kinds of art & graphic design. You’d think graphic novels would be right up my alley. Well, gee. Maybe they are. I wouldn’t know because I’ve never read one.

Hmmmmm… Maybe I should try reading one.

But not yet. Because I have an awesome-looking big meaty beginning-of-a-series well-within-my-comfort-zone HISTORICAL NOVEL all ready to go: The Game of Kings by Dorothy Dunnett. Sixteenth-century Scotland, here I come!!!!

Which genres are outside your comfort zone?