One Day by Dave Nichols

Em and Dex, Dex and Em.

I started reading this book thinking it would be kind of a light weight, happy-go-lucky, romantic-shenanigans type of affair.

Boy, was I wrong!

Emma and Dexter connect the day of their college graduation. After the first 24 hours of their meeting, they go their separate ways but remain in contact via post cards and letters.

They have various levels of contact over the years with both of them experiencing their own challenges in family, relationships, and careers. Their friendship itself  also experiences its own ups and downs.

Do they finally get together? The book answers that question. I have to say that this was not an ultimately uplifting book. It has an increasing level of "realness" as the book progresses through their lives. There was never a moment where I really cheered these two on. I really became convinced that Dexter was kind of a lead weight and a liability to Emma . For her part, Emma had plenty of awkward experiences and perhaps her storyline hit a little too close to home for me at certain points  in the story.

The book explores the deepening friendship and bond between these two individuals, for better or for worse. There is no sugar coating on this little pill of the reality of love between two people and perhaps that is the crowning achievement of this book.

Affluenza by Oliver James

It's been a while since I have updated this blog but I have been reading! I've not been reading religiously from my reading list but I have been having some wonderful reading experiences.

I would definitely use the word "wonderful" to describe this book, Affluenza, by Oliver James.

As the name suggests, it discusses the "sickness" of the affluent: the unhappiness of the never-ending pursuit of "more" and "better". This book ties in with my interest in minimalism but it goes so much deeper than just "have less stuff." It explores why we feel we need more stuff and it also tells us why capitalism has highjacked everything from feminism to how we value ourselves.

This book was an eye-opener to me as I have been completely taken in by Selfish Capitalist values...not necessarily with material possessions but I am totally guilty of using my career to define my identity and to determine my self worth.

The truth is that this has not always been the case. Prior to the rise of Selfish Capitalism, people were judged by their character, not their earning potential. Motherhood was something that women could be proud of...now society puts mothers at the bottom because they don't get paid a wage. People are unhappy because they feel they can't trust others who are also in pursuit of more and better. Can't we just relax and be happy with what we've got and who we are? Can't we enjoy the beauty of the world around us with the need to possess it? Putting family before career is the recipe for satisfaction and this is totally possible if people would let go of the need to "keep up with the Joneses" and focus simply on their needs.

I had never really thought about a lot of the points James raises in this book but I agree with all of them.

Read this book and free your mind from the never-ending cycle of consumption and dissatisfaction!

Five stars!

-Laurie

Little Children by Tom Perrota

I decided to read Little Children because I let Netflix "pick" the movie version for me a few years ago. Man, computers are smart things because I really liked the movie; reading the book was the natural thing to do.

In an exciting turn of events, I actually liked the movie version better than the book!

The movie, while dark and satirical like the book, had a heart warming ending. I thought that the two main characters, Sarah and Todd, both found what they were ultimately looking for. In the book, the characters kind of make some realizations about what each of them meant to each other and it didn't seem like they really discovered anything about themselves or made and real profound break-throughs. I guess the book is more realistic...but the idealist in me really liked seeing the more "happy" ending of the movie. The book ending is rather dark and a bit disturbing in its emotional disconnectedness.

Here are my English Class Answers about this book:

Synopsis: Todd is a stay-at-home Dad married to Kathy, a documentary film maker. Sarah is a stay-at-home Mom who takes her daughter, Lucy, to the same playground as Todd and his son, Aaron. They start an affair as they both have troubled marriages. Meanwhile, a convicted child molester has recently been released from jail and is living in the neighborhood. While Todd and Sarah are cheating on their respective spouses, the witch hunt begins for the child molester. Hilarity ensues (not really). Perrota draws many parallels between the behaviour of the children in this story and their caretakers - there is not much difference between the the selfish demands of the children and adults!

• Deep-Thought Provoking-ness: Medium
• Entertainment Value: Medium 
• Fun Factor: Medium
• Emotional Impact: Medium
• Writing Quality: Medium

Pretty much "Medium" all the way around. I would say that the movie version was more "Medium to High" on all categories.

Three one-word descriptors of the book:

1. Satire
2. Childishness
3. Perversion

Did I like it?? (yes or no) I could tell that this book was written by a man: it lacked a certain amount of emotional empathy with the characters. There was definitely a judgemental tone to the author's voice.

IV. "Read it" or "Skip it" (for all prospective readers): Read the book FIRST, then see the movie (maybe you will enjoy the book more if you proceed in this order!)

WANT!

I am really eager to get my hands on Unorthodox by Deborah Feldman.

See a synopsis here.

She is oppressed, she escapes inspiring hope and determination in the rest of us. I can't wait to read it!

I'll be popping by my friendly neighborhood book seller this weekend to see if it is on the shelves yet.

Until next time,
Laurie

My NEW Review Process

OMG, y'alls - I feel like this here blog is morphing from infant to toddler! I am rolling out a NEW review process which is based on how I evaluate books for myself. I'll still provide a more indepth review but it's also nice to have some apples-to-apples comparitive standards.

I. Book Qualities: Rating of high, medium, or low on the following qualities:

• Deep-Thought Provokingness
• Entertainment Value
• Fun Factor
• Emotional Impact
• Writing Quality

II. Three one-word descriptives of the book
III. Did I like it?? (yes or no)
IV. "Read it" or "Skip it" (for all prospective readers)

That's it! Hope you like it.

-Laurie

The Road by Cormac McCarthy

The Road was written by the same author who wrote No Country for Old Men (of which I saw the movie version). The Road has the same kind of barren, minimalist feel that NCfOM has. And the same kind of hopeless feeling, as well.

The Road is a post-apocalyptic tale about a man and his son trying to survive in a barren waste. Starvation and cannibals are a constant threat. They are following a road from north to south to avoid the approaching winter. No plant or animal life remains except for the few human survivors of a planet-wide catastrophe (the author does not elaborate on the cause...it could either be an asteroid of a nuclear winter).

The love that the man and his son share is very moving and at some points it almost brought me to tears. In the face of hopelessness, the two of them have each other and it is enough. It sustains them and keeps them pushing on in what seems like a pointless effort. The man's purpose in life is to protect the boy and he does it well. When they are almost dead with starvation, they at least know that they are not alone.

The ending is not happy but it is not hopeless, either: other "good guys" are found in a world full of ruthless, hungry animals who once were human. In the end, the story shows that honor and goodness can remain even when pushed to the extreme limits when the willingness is there to hold on to it. In the end, that is all that the survivors have.

This book won a Pulitzer prize and apparently there is a movie version - I have to find it, ASAP!

This is a good read...probably to become a modern classic. But be warned, it is not an escapist, good-time read.

Until next time,
Laurie

The Hours by Michael Cunningham

The Hours by Michael Cunningham is a book about people deciding whether or not to commit suicide or not.

The book toggles between the stories of three characters:

• Virginia Woolf: fictional depiction of the real life author's creative process of determining the fate of one of her famous characters, Mrs. Dalloway (i.e. whether or not she will kill herself). Virginia Woolf did commit suicide in real life and that is also represented in the book.
• Laura Brown: 50's housewife in Los Angeles. She feels overwhelmed and deeply unsatisfied with her seemingly perfect house, husband, and son. She also goes through a thought process of deciding if she will continue on with life or not.
• Clarissa Vaughn: modern-day Lesbian who is spending the day organizing a party for her dearest friend, Richard, who has won a very prestigious literary award for his poetry and who is also dying of AIDS.

These three stories are seemingly unconnected in the beginning of the book. As the storyline progresses, the parallels between many of the characters are revealed and the reader learns how some of the lives are connected. The thoughts and feelings of Virginia, Mrs. Dalloway, Richard, and Laura are all echoed by each other. However, different decisions are made by each of the characters for different reasons.

Also note that each of these three characters' stories are told over the course of one day (which I think is important to the author's theme).

I liked how the stories intertwined together at the end of the book. I saw the movie version of this book several years ago and missed a lot of what was going on. Reading the book gave this story a lot more depth and I was able to understand what the author was trying to communicate a lot better.

The story itself was a little bit of a bummer. People who count "the hours" of their lives like a bored employees counts the minutes until quitting time is not uplifting to me!

Ultimately, some characters cannot tolerate the wait until death, and others decide that life is too sweet to give up. Who lives and who dies lies with the pages of the book - you'll have to read it to find out.

I kind of want to learn more about Virginia Woolf after reading this book. From my very brief look on the internet, she suffered from some sexual abuse as a child which led to a lot of her mental troubles as a grown up.

That's my story and I'm sticking to it!

-Laurie