Hey, Sis.

If you are reading this, sister of mine.  I've got two recommendations for you.

First, Alias Grace, by Margaret Atwood.  A friend of mine sent this book to me as a gift a few years ago and I was hesitant to read it because I had read The Handmaid's Tale when I was in high school and had disliked it very much (why I would ever rely on some impression I had of something in high school is beyond me).  In short, Alias Grace is the story of a servant woman who was implicated in a murder of her employer in Canada in 1843, based on a true story.  It was like one of those 20/20 shows, in a way, really it is left up to the reader as to whether she did it or not.  While I don't remember which way I ended up leaning, I do remember that I felt like I really got to know personally this accused woman and sort of understood why she would have done it.  I was captured up in the story and still even now I will have flashbacks to events in the story, it was so very well done.  I think it either won or was nominated for the Booker Prize.  Right after I read this book, I went immediately on a Atwood bender and picked up The Blind Assassin, which was almost as good.  I think I may need to revisit Atwood and read Oryx and Crake or probably The Robber Bride would be better since Oryx and Crake has been compared to that darn Handmaid's Tale.

Secondly, have you read The Good Earth yet?  Can I recommend this book enough?  I know I have already talked about it in this blog (not that anyone has read enough of it to notice the double rec.).  But, seriously, I just used an example from this book when talking to my husband last night!  And...I read it four years ago.  The book's got staying power.   Also, Pearl S. Buck wrote quite a few novels, none as lauded, as far as I know as Good Earth.  One of my dinner club pals gave me Pavilion of Women and I read that shortly after.  Which was pretty good and very very interesting.  According to Wikipedia, Pearl S. Buck was the first American woman to be awarded the Nobel Prize in literature (for The Good Earth) yet because she was raised in China (as a daughter of missionaries, as I recall), she is claimed as a Chinese author in China.  Hey, I'd claim her too, if I could.  Both books are illuminating stories of life in China.  Need I say more?  I read The Good Earth in the hospital pretty much right after giving birth to my third child.  I couldn't put it down.  It is the story of a hard scrabble life, met with the stoicism and pride of a Chinese family, their eventual rise to position and the thundering drum beat approaching of the coming revolution.  I learned so much about the beauty and honor that imbue Chinese culture, and yet was struck at how relationships transcend culture and I ached when they suffered and was ecstatic when they faced hard-won success.  Read it please at least some day so we can talk about it.  

That's all for now, I can't wait to hear what you think.

Who doesn't love food?

Okay, someone may say that food is only fuel, but really, eating is pretty enjoyable, no one can deny it.

The United States of Arugula by David Kamp is subtitled The Sun-dried, Cold-Pressed, Dark-Roasted, Extra Virgin Story of the American Food Revolution, and metaphorically speaking, I ate it up.  It was delicious.  If you care or not about cooking, even if you don't care about what you eat, the characters and stories of cooking in America were full of intrigue and surprise.  From the introduction it reads, "There are so many plots and subplots to the American-food saga, such a wealth of characters, that this book could potentially be several books, a multivolume epic of Proustian length." (p. xvii)  Who knew?

For those who thought that the recently lauded "Julie and Julia" movie whetted their appetite for cooking, buckle in, this book will take you on a delightfully filling ride.  

Bon Appetit!

Book that haunts me

Every once in a while a book haunts me.  Images and scenes come floating back into my everyday life.  While I am walking the dog, or driving the kids to school or just falling asleep at night, I will think again about a story line of a book I read long ago.  That is part of the reason I love wandering the library or bookstore, I find myself reminiscing over books like old friends.  There is a book that has been haunting me lately.  

I hate to say it, but I sort of cry a lot when I watch TV.  If someone wins a race/prize, if someone has a proud moment and of course the sad moments, they all just tear me up.  Is it because I am a mom and am trying all day long to keep it together?  Probably.  Who knows. When all the kiddos are in bed, I sometimes turn on some program and more often than not, I have tears running down my cheeks.  Okay, the other night, I flipped on The Biggest Loser and I still can't think about it because I might just cry right now and the kids are home from school and need me to not lose it just at the moment.  A woman on the show had lost her husband and two small children in a car accident and it was all I could do to hear her talk about not fearing death anymore through my sobs.  I'll probably never forget what she said.  

Well, there was a book I read that had the same effect on me:  Same Kind of Different as Me by Ron Hall and Denver Moore (with someone else, can't remember).  I guess it isn't a good recommendation to imply that if one reads a book they will be emotionally drained and out of kleenex all at the same time, but there you go.  Sometimes, just sometimes, it is cathartic to climb that emotional mountain and ruminate over sadness in life.  I once had a professor in college who wisely reminded me that if it wasn't for the darkness in life, we wouldn't know where the light was, nor would we appreciate it.  This book is about a homeless man and a successful art dealer whose paths cross, and whose lives radically change because of the selfless wife of this art dealer.  It is a true story, it is an amazing story.  Even if you don't have the faith this woman possess, you would be a cold person to not fall in love with her compassion.  This is a book that made me ponder what I say I believe vs. what I do about it.  

Life can be magnificent and grand and lovely and painful and lonely and terrible all at once.  Can we reasonably manage all this?  Can we find hope in the midst of the pain?  Ron Hall's and Denver Moore's story elevated the deepest of pain to amazing heights.  I think I may not ever forget their story either.

The book at Costco

Everyone I know was reading Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert a couple of years ago.  It was a hit and everyone I know either loved her self-exploration or  just viewed the book as grandiose self-glorification.  Well, I was definitely in camp #2; just not my gig.  The whole story left me feeling a little sorry for her.  So, you can imagine my surprise when collecting the usual 5 tons of crackers, asparagus, grape juice and other assorted items at Costco, I was instantly drawn to a book on the gargantuan pile in the middle of the store.  It was by Elizabeth Gilbert!  

I am a sucker for good titles and The Last American Man sounded just up my alley.  Why? Who knows.  It says on the cover that this book is "the finest examination of American masculinity and wilderness since Jon Krakauer's Into the Wild."  Be still my beating heart.  I LOVED Into the Wild, so I was sold.  I even recommended it to a woman in line behind me at the checkout sans examination.  So, I actually wasn't allowed to not like it, not allowed by my own self, of course (my own worst critic: hard to please, and perpetually complaining about something).  

Anyway, the book.  Eustace Conway is a real live man, still living in Western North Carolina, and is the subject of this book.  He is a self-taught naturalist (to put it mildly), a highly driven man and a genius self-promoter.  Elizabeth Gilbert makes a thorough examination of both the psychological drive of this unique and intriguing man, and at the same time a thought-provoking look at American male culture.  This is not a man-bashing book.  It is thoughtful and quite revealing.  She does an amazing job of depicting the complexities, inner conflicts and inspirations of Eustace while shedding light on the culture (both external and internal) that have created people like him.  

Eustace Conway left home at the age of 14 to live in the wilderness and has really never gone back.  He is an expert at blacksmithing, farming, husbandry, and botany; just to name a few.  He hiked the Appalachian Trail surviving off the food he scavenged, rode a horse from the Atlantic to the Pacific at mock-speed, built up a camp of acres upon acres of prime western North Carolina mountain property to train future naturalists by an uncanny genius for business, and yet he is handicapped by both his anachronistic beliefs of the "outside" world and his own unbending perfectionism.   His mission is to get people to realize that (to paraphase him) we are "sleeping in a box, eating out of a box, driving to our job in a box, working in a box that is called a cubicle, etc"...without ever interacting and enjoying this amazing, beautiful, life-giving planet we live on.  Not a shabby message, and truly, Eustace is just the guy to deliver this message.  He certainly walks his talk.  Elizabeth Gilbert actually knows Eustace, and she interviews his family members, his friends, former lovers and interns from his camp, Turtle Island.  Between her personal interactions with him and her interviews with others, she paints a vibrant picture of what makes this man tick.  

There are actually at least a couple of people in my life that I have known that remind me of Eustace.  However, while there are elements of this pioneer ideal in some of these guys, some serious ingredients are missing.  There's the one who has all the big talk of living off the land down pat, yet doesn't have more than a days worth of manual labor under his belt.  He would just fall in love with the land in the mountains, the plowing by oxen, the encyclopedic knowledge of flora and fauna...Eustace, if this guy knew him, would be his hero.  This same guy would last about 2 nanoseconds on Eustace's team.  That's just the thing, the amazing thing is, that there are a lot of people out there (both men and women) who think they are living like Eustace, but I would venture to guess he is actually the only one.  Which is pretty impressive but that is also the thing that is quite frustrating to Eustace.  He doesn't get why there is NO ONE out there who can just live like him.

There is also the other one I know who just wanted once to hear from their parents that they were proud of them.  I don't know if Eustace would have been as dedicated and successful if he had had his dad's approval.  In a funny way, it was his own father's lack of approval that created in Eustace the need for unwavering perfectionism.  But, it sure stinks if your own parents don't even seem to notice your accomplishments.  It is certainly still what is driving Eustace today.  

Lots to ponder, and that is what makes it good.

All that said, and boy was that a lot, I am glad I read it, and I would still recommend it to the lady behind me in line at the check out.