Jane and her family are living on the edge; Jane needs to finish and publish her second book in order to obtain tenure...Jane's husband needs to sell Jane and her family are living on the edge; Jane needs to finish and publish her second book in order to obtain tenure...Jane's husband needs to sell some of his art...Jane's family needs a place to live that the family can afford, with a diverse neighborhood and good schools...and all of these things look to be impossible. And then Jane has an idea.
Whew. What a ride. Author Danzy Senna spins a tale that takes on elements of family and race and affluence and home ownership and book publishing and writing and television that took me into a world completely new to me, a tale told with both wry humor and stark, unremitting fury, a look into a world that I'd never be allowed into on my own, I think.
The story is both a fairy tale and a tale of terror, both an amusement park roller coaster ride and a visit to a chamber of horrors. Thank you, Danzy Senna, for writing this book....more
I tried this and gave up on it; I don't know why. I read a couple of reviews (thank you, Les of Coastal Horizons!) and I decided I gave up too soon.
ThI tried this and gave up on it; I don't know why. I read a couple of reviews (thank you, Les of Coastal Horizons!) and I decided I gave up too soon.
This time I listened, and it didn't take long for me to be enamored of the characters. Our main character, Rocky, is 50-something and menopausal, trying to get accustomed to the empty nest she shares with her husband, Nick. It's summer, and it's time for a week with their young adult kids, Jamie and Willa, along with Jamie's longtime girlfriend, Maya, and Rocky's parents, at their escape in Cape Cod.
I delighted in the clever conversations between the family members. I learned a lot about young people's vocab (I think that was one of their words) and relationships, and I learned a lot about life and parenting and women's experiences from the point of view of a 50-ish woman.
Most importantly, I laughed and cried---that's, for me, the mark of a really good novel....more
Olivetti, the typewriter, has been part of the Brindle family for years. Why then, has the mom, Beatrice Brindle, sold Olivetti at the the pawn shop fOlivetti, the typewriter, has been part of the Brindle family for years. Why then, has the mom, Beatrice Brindle, sold Olivetti at the the pawn shop for one hundred and twenty-six dollars? And where has Beatrice gone?...more
Emma Wheeler wants to be a screenwriter, but she has had to set aside her ambitions in order to care for her father and younger sister after her motheEmma Wheeler wants to be a screenwriter, but she has had to set aside her ambitions in order to care for her father and younger sister after her mother's tragic death. Then an opportunity comes along to work with world-famous screenwriter Charlie Yates to rewrite a terrible rom-com he's penned, and it's an opportunity she cannot resist taking.
All the lovely elements that Katherine Center brings to her stories are here---sacrifice, joy, redemption, a bit of Texas, and humor.
Some wisdom from the story:
"Whatever story you tell yourself about your life, that's the one that'll be true..."
My dad went on, "So if I say, 'This terrible thing happened, and it ruined my life'---then that's true. But if I say, 'This terrible thing happened, but, as crazy as it sounds, it made me better,' then that's what's true."
"You believe you're better? Since the rockfall?"
"I know I am," my dad said, with so much conviction I had to believe him. "I'm wiser, I'm kinder, I'm funnier, I'm more compassionate. I can play at least ten instruments one-handed." He held up his good hand for us both to look at. "I'm more aware of how fragile and precious it all is. I'm more thankful, too---for every little blessing. A ladybug on the windowsill. A succulent sprouting a flower. A pear so ripe it just dissolves into juicy sweetness in your mouth."
***********************
"I don't know how I let myself get so cynical," Charlie went on. "I've been wondering about that a lot. All I can figure is this: it hurts to be disappointed. It hurts so much, we'd rather never get our hopes up. And it's humiliating, too---right...Humanity at its worst is an easy story to tell---but it's not the only story. Because the more we can imagine our better selves, the more we can become them."...more
Lucy and Bob become friends and walk and talk. Olive and Lucy become friends and sit and talk. Margaret and Bob don't talk much. Pam talks more to herLucy and Bob become friends and walk and talk. Olive and Lucy become friends and sit and talk. Margaret and Bob don't talk much. Pam talks more to her former husband than she does to her current one.
In this book, you can determine the meaningfulness of a relationship by how much people talk together. And there's a lot of talking---prepare yourself for it. A lot of it is conversational, chit-chat, gossip, stories that go nowhere, just like in real life.It is fine for me, but I know some people like action in a book.
There's also a death. I could almost hear Strout's editor telling the author that you can't have a book with just talking. Okay, Strout must have thought, a death then, but a death that stirs up talking.
These sound like criticisms, but I'm actually just warning you in advance; I like characters in a story, and I like to get inside their heads, and I love to see them interact, and that is this book. Small town connections over a long period of time, and the comings and goings of people, and people trying to figure out life---this is Tell Me Everything....more
Ferris and her sister, Pinky, live with their parents and Grandmother Charisse. Uncle Ted has moved into the basement and Aunt Shirley has not. CharisFerris and her sister, Pinky, live with their parents and Grandmother Charisse. Uncle Ted has moved into the basement and Aunt Shirley has not. Charisse has seen a ghost and she is convinced the ghost wants her to accomplish a difficult task. Pinky is on a rampage and her parents can't figure out what to do with her.
Jack and Elizabeth meet and fall in love and marry and have a child and buy a home...and everything falls apart. Jack and Elizabeth explore their marrJack and Elizabeth meet and fall in love and marry and have a child and buy a home...and everything falls apart. Jack and Elizabeth explore their marriage and think about their childhoods and contemplate what they have learned from science and life.
I finished this book feeling satisfied. The relationships the author described, the characters he created, the situations he shared---all felt genuine, full of conflicts and resolve and all rooted in patterns from the past....more
Penny has left her husband and quit her job. Her grandmother is living amid the squalor of a hoarder, her grandfather needs to escape from his hatefulPenny has left her husband and quit her job. Her grandmother is living amid the squalor of a hoarder, her grandfather needs to escape from his hateful second wife, and her parents are missing, lost in the wilds of Australia. Penny must find a way to help all of these people, but especially herself.
It's the humor of the quirky characters---the strange lives they lead, the odd challenges they face---that I enjoyed with this book. But mid-book, as situations began to be resolved, the story got clunky, forced at times, and the humor grew thin, even non-existent, and that was disappointing to me; I'd had such high hopes for this book....more
Jay is growing up. Even though he wants to hang out with his friends and play and run and shop at the stores and pretend to drive his Daddy's car, hisJay is growing up. Even though he wants to hang out with his friends and play and run and shop at the stores and pretend to drive his Daddy's car, his parents know it is time to sit Jay down and have The Talk with him. Jay is a young Black boy, and he lives in a world of racism. His parents must prepare him to deal with this world.
Oliver Twist is orphaned at birth, and he is sent to live in a workhouse as a child where he is starved, both for food and for love. The boys in the wOliver Twist is orphaned at birth, and he is sent to live in a workhouse as a child where he is starved, both for food and for love. The boys in the workhouse draw lots to protest, and it is Oliver who famously dares to stand up to those who run the workhouse and ask for more. Deemed a troublemaker, the result is that Oliver is farmed out, for money, to an apprenticeship where, once again, the boy is starved and is put to work doing dangerous things grown men refuse to do. Oliver can think of nothing to do but escape to live on the streets where he is recruited for a gang of pickpockets. It is only after Oliver is falsely accused of pickpocketing that his life takes a serendipitous and sharp turn toward healing.
Oliver Twist was my spin choice in February for The Classics Club. If I had to sum up the book in a few words, I would say that it is almost unremittingly grim. Reading this book explains, for me, why people can become filled with hatred and cruelty, and that's what I would have expected of Oliver Twist. Somehow, though, the boy kept his kind and generous nature through his exceptionally miserable childhood ordeals....more
I've just finished this book that I started reading, really reading---lost in the story, lost in the wondering about what was going to happen next, loI've just finished this book that I started reading, really reading---lost in the story, lost in the wondering about what was going to happen next, lost in what this story makes me want to do now that I'm finished---this morning, and I'd like to start taking those actions provoked by reading this story---hugging everyone I know and love and telling them all that I love them and don't squander it all and then hugging them again...
I didn't think I was going to like this book; I was afraid it was going to leave me feeling depressed. Instead, I feel completed elated, in love with the world and all that's in it.
I knew the story was about a boy, the sole survivor of a plane crash, a crash that took the lives of his brother and his parents. We readers get to know the boy, of course, but we also are let into the eyes of the boy's parents and his brother and many of the people on the plane. They are a mix of people---some happy, some sad; some rich, some poor; some about to move forward, others retreating; some delighted with the way their lives have gone, others with regrets.
The book alternates beautifully between the story of the boy, who was Eddie and is now Edward, and the ways he deals with life after the crash, and the stories of the people on the plane before the crash.
It's not a perfect story; it's heavily weighted with optimism. I rounded up when I rated this book, maybe to encourage more people to read it so that it can spark more hugging and life-reflection....more
Can you overload on Kafka? I am here to say that you can.
When I was sixteen, I read my first Kafka, The Metamorphosis. I thought it was brilliant, a pCan you overload on Kafka? I am here to say that you can.
When I was sixteen, I read my first Kafka, The Metamorphosis. I thought it was brilliant, a perfect depiction of the strangeness and incomprehensibility of life. And, at sixteen, life can be strange and incomprehensible.
But after reading every story Kafka wrote (well, at least all the ones that weren't burnt after he died, at his request), I might say that I'm exhausted, that I am tired of reading Kafka, that I am tired of reading stories where people do things for a very long time and never know why they are doing things, that I am tired of reading stories where people change but can never figure out why or how they changed.
Yes, life can be strange and incomprehensible, but it also can be beautiful and satisfying and meaningful.
It will be a while before I read Kafka again, I think....more
Huda is one of five sisters in a family in Michigan. The sisters are surprised to learn that the family is taking a vacation to Disney World in FloridHuda is one of five sisters in a family in Michigan. The sisters are surprised to learn that the family is taking a vacation to Disney World in Florida. Again and again, Huda struggles with trying to deal with her sisters' personalities and she runs up against prejudice and hatred from others and she is forced to find ways to cope with these problems.
A mother and father bring their child to a new land to give the child all the opportunities they desire for him. The parents sacrifice themselves to gA mother and father bring their child to a new land to give the child all the opportunities they desire for him. The parents sacrifice themselves to give to the child, and the parents steadily grow small. But in adulthood, the child sacrifices for the parents who gave so much to him.
David Brooks is a human being. And just like all human beings, he wants to connect with people. To do that, he knows we must see others deeply and we David Brooks is a human being. And just like all human beings, he wants to connect with people. To do that, he knows we must see others deeply and we must be deeply seen.
This is a book about the things Brooks has learned about how to see others deeply and how to be deeply seen.
Brooks tells a little about one thing he admires about his friend, Jimmy Dorrell: "When Jimmy sees a person, he comes in with the belief that this person is so important that Jesus was willing to die for their sake. As a result, Jimmy is going to greet people with respect and reverence." He adds that we may be an atheist, an agnostic, a Christian, a Jew, a Muslim, a Buddhist, or something else, but it is this "awareness of the infinite dignity of each person you meet" is a "precondition for seeing people well."
Brooks encourages us to be Illuminators, someone who illuminates people with a gaze that is respectful, warm, and full of admiration. To do this, he suggests the gaze be tender, receptive, filled with active curiosity and affection, generous, and holistic.
Brooks lists ways to become a better conversationalist: (1) Apply what some experts call the SLANT method: sit up, lean forward, ask questions, nod your head, track the speaker. Pay attention 100%. (2) Listen so actively that "you're practically burning calories." (3) Stick with the familiar. Find the thing the other person is most attached to. (4) Ask for stories about specific events or experiences and then go further. (5) Don't fear the pause. (5) Loop. Repeat what someone said in order to be sure you are understanding what they are saying. (6) Be a midwife; be there to make the person feel safe, but also prod. (7) Keep the gem statement, the truth underneath the disagreement, at the center. (8) Find the disagreement under the disagreement. (9) Don't be a topper.
In addition, Brooks suggests we ask big questions.
One of Brooks' friends is David Bradley, and he does this neat trick with index cards. When a person presents a problem to Bradley, he asks questions. He begins with three questions: What are your ultimate goals, your skills, and your schedule? Then he ranks the things a person really wants to do on one card and the things the person is actually doing on the other. On a third card, he writes out a strategy for how a person can get Card B to look more like Card A.
If a conversation starts to go south, Brooks knows a way to redeem it. "First, you step back from the conflict, and you try to figure out together what's gone wrong. You break the momentum by asking the other person, 'How did we get to this tense place?' Then you do something the experts call 'splitting.' Splitting is when you clarify your own motives by first saying what they are not and then saying what they are. Then you try to reidentify the mutual purpose of the conversation."
Instead of using the traditional Myers-Briggs test to define one's personality, a better choice is to look at the Big Five traits: extroversion, conscientiousness, neuroticism, agreeableness, and openness.
Finally, he sums everything up with this lovely paragraph: "She who only looks inward will find only chaos, and she who looks outward with the eyes of critical judgment will find only flaws. But she who looks with the eyes of compassion and understanding will see complex souls, suffering and soaring, navigating life as best they can."
For a taste of David Brooks, take a look at his interview with Action for Happiness host Dr. Mark Williamson here....more
Leeva's mother wants to be famous. Leeva's father wants to be rich.
Leeva's parents don't care about anything else. Especially not their daughter, LeevaLeeva's mother wants to be famous. Leeva's father wants to be rich.
Leeva's parents don't care about anything else. Especially not their daughter, Leeva.
You won't believe how little Leeva's parents care about her. And you might be surprised to find out how much you do. I did....more
The Comfort of Crows is a collection of fifty-two short essays that follow the life in the author's backyard during the course of a single year. The aThe Comfort of Crows is a collection of fifty-two short essays that follow the life in the author's backyard during the course of a single year. The author, Margaret Renkl, ties the happenings in her yard to the happenings in her family and larger community, and, in doing so, draws thoughtful observations about meaning and existence in the world....more
Deb (Readerbuzz)
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