The Best Bookshop in England and a Review of Levels of Life by Julian Barnes

Before we travel, I always research the best independent bookstores in the areas we will be visiting. I figured that the Cotswolds in England would be so dotted with charming little book shops that it would be difficult to see them all. All of my research seemed to point me in the direction of Jaffe and Neale Bookshop and Cafe in charming Chipping Norton. We had no difficulty finding the place, as cafe tables sat in front of the building where large Books are my Bag banners hung in the front windows. The bookstore felt homey, with many nooks for reading throughout and even some comfy chairs scattered around. I would have gladly spent all day there, but we had an agenda for the day that involved visiting the nearby Hook Norton brewery in time for lunch.

I had been reading Rachel Joyce’s The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, a perfectly appropriate novel to read while driving around the British countryside. I saw Joyce’s new novel, Perfect, on a shelf and carried it over to the cashier to ask if this new book lived up to the delight of Harold Fry. The woman I spoke with assured me that it did, but after I explained that I was an American on vacation who really did NOT need another book in her suitcase – that if I bought a book in England at all, I could only buy one – she took it as a challenge and recommended that perhaps I should consider Diane Setterfield’s Bellman and Black instead.

Now I was tempted. A signed copy of a book not yet available in the U.S. was worth considering, so I took the two novels to one of those inviting book nooks for comparison and consideration. I was zeroing in on a choice when I noticed that my husband was engaged in a conversation with a gentleman who he was leading my way. Alerted by his wife at the cashier’s station, Patrick Neale wondered if David was with the American woman who could only buy one book in the UK. He was personally interested in the choice I was about to make since, in addition to being the proprietor of the shop, he is the current president of the British Booksellers Association – and a fascinating person to talk with about books.

David and I chatted with him about his shop and recommended some of our favorite bookstores in American. We told him about our experiences as English teachers, how we were in England for the wedding of a former student, and our favorite books in general. When he finally got around to recommending my one book for purchase, he picked up a copy of Julian Barnes’ Levels of Life. I knew Barnes from his slim novel The Sense of an Ending , which I had read and reviewed in 2012. Neale described the novel as one with no single word out of place. He was suggesting Barnes new book – which was also thankfully slim for my suitcase.
Levels of Life is a three part memoir of sorts that begins with a section about hot air ballooning, moves into a consideration of the nuances of historical photography, and finishes with Barnes own grief suffered at the loss of his wife in from a brain tumor in 2008. It is a difficult book to recommend to friends because the last section sounds like it would be so depressing. However, the overarching premise of all three parts is “You put together two things that have not been put together before. And the world is changed.” I was personally delighted to find mention of Dame Ellen Terry in the second section, which describes photographs of actress Sarah Bernhardt taken by the 19th-century photographer and inventor Gaspard-Félix Tournachon (later known simply as Nadar). Terry was Bernhardt’s acting contemporary and the subject of my undergraduate Independent Study thesis at The College of Wooster. The book’s pacing and its weaving of historical details and naturalistic descriptions reminded me of Annie Dillard and Terry Tempest Williams – two of my favorite essayists. In the end, it is life affirming rather than deflating. The metaphor of the hot air balloon and the precariousness of its flight carries the reader to consider many levels of living and loving. I put off reading the book – and writing this review – because I knew the experience would be difficult to describe for my readers. One day in my life several things were put together – the coincidence of finding the perfect Brisith bookstore, meeting the most charming British bookseller and being handed a deeply moving book that will resonate with me for as long as my photographs of my matchless vacation with my husband remain – and my reading life was changed.

The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt

My favorite book of the year!  Amazon's Book of the Year!  One of the New York Times five top works of fiction for 2013!  What else to I have to say to get you to put this book at the top of your Christmas list.  

Thirteen year old Theo Decker and his mother have just finished admiring The Goldfinch, a legendary painting by Carel Fabritius, in a New York art museum when a bomb blast rocks the building.  Theo's mother is killed, and although Theo escapes, he does so with two items that will change his life forever - an heirloom ring given to him by the dying grandfather of a girl who had caught Theo's eye AND the Fabritius painting.   The rest of the novel follows Theo through repeated moves and losses, friendships and relationships, adventures and drug-induced skirmishes.  There is something in this book for everyone.  

I agree with Stephen King, who likened the scope of the narrative to Dickens when he reviewed the book for the New York Times .  He also called it the sort of book that comes along only a few times per decade.  Such is the pattern of Donna Tartt.  I first read The Little Friend in 2002, when I received it as a Christmas gift from my, then, new husband David.  He gave me the book and an Amish rocker that Christmas, and I sat in the rocker and rarely left it until I finished the book.  I went back and read her earlier novel, The Secret History, so I guess that puts me among the Tartt fans who have been waiting over a decade for her next work.  Tartt labors over her story telling, immersing herself in writing, rarely granting interviews and never apologizing for the time that passes between masterpieces.  

I decided not to wait for the book from the library, and downloaded the Kindle version to my iPad and also ordered the Audible audio book so could enjoy listening to the book while I walked and while I worked in the sewing room.  It helped to get me through the nearly 800 pages more quickly, because once I got in to the narrative, I wanted to stay in.  In fact, although it is one of those rare books that I didn't want to finish reading, I pressed through til the end, staying up late on the night before Thanksgiving.  And as soon as I finished the book, I wanted to start re-reading.  The last several pages struck me as a love song to art, in all its forms, and were so lovely that it would do a disservice to the whole book to quote anything out of context.  

I LOVED THIS BOOK!  Final comment.  You be the judge.

The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce

Before our road trip through England, I searched for the perfect book to take along on the iPad. I wanted a book set in England that would compliment our travel route and Harold Fry was the perfect companion. At the beginning of the novel, Harold receives a note from a woman named Queenie, a brewery co-worker from his distant past. She has dictated her note to a worker at the hospice where she has presumably gone to die. Harold writes back and tells his insecure and cloying wife that he is walking to the post office with his note. But when he gets there, he decides to walk to the next post office, and then the next – believing somehow that his walking is keeping Queenie alive. His unlikely pilgrimage becomes a sort of “Forrest Gump” mission, where he is joined by other unlikely pilgrims. As we motored along on the wrong side of the road through the English countryside, we passed towns that I had seen through Harold’s eyes already on the trip. Harold Fry’s story was touching, life affirming and perfect for this trip.

(See my next review for Rachel Joyce’s Perfect)

Lookaway, Lookaway by Wilton Barnhardt

Funny, funny social satire of the South complete with Faulkner references! When I first brought this book home from the library, I wasn’t sure it would be worth the time commitment – more than 360 pages. But when I met Jerene Jarvis Johnston, the central character of the opening chapter, and her old money approach to the challenges and demons she encounters, I was hooked. The book is set in Charlotte, NC (my son lives there) and Jerene works for the Mint Museum which we have visited, so there was a point of personal connection for me. Then the book’s “Southern Discomfort” was highlighted in The New York Times Book Review on August 30. Although the alternating focus on individual characters in each chapter makes the job of piecing the family saga together the reader’s task, I enjoyed the wild ride through post-Civil War Southern politics, contemporary race and gender issues and even current campus Greek living debauchery. A holiday dinner scene in the middle of the novel includes so much physical comedy that I could see this book being adapted for the screen. On the page – three thumbs up from this reviewer!

Fin and Lady by Cathleen Schine

The main character of this “coming of age at an early age” novel is eleven year old Fin, who is orphaned in the opening chapter of this touching and sweet story. Fin must go to live with his worldly, and much older half-sister, Lady who is indulgent, careless and living in Greenwich Village. In 1963, when the novel is set, Greenwich Village is a alien landscape for young boy used to rural Connecticut. Although he hasn’t seen Lady for a few years, Fin is lovingly embraced by her and her social circle which includes a revolving set of suitors. Like Auntie Mame, Lady opens Fin’s eye to both opulence and disappointment. The strength of this novel lies in its fully drawn complex and quirky characters.

TransAtlantic by Colum McCann

 

I loved Colum McCann's Let the Great World Spin and was really looking forward to TransAtlantic, which has the same sort of interconnected story lines - this time about three memorable journeys in three distinctly different time periods.  Jack Alcock and Arthur Brown flew the first non-stop flight across the Atlantic carrying mail in 1919.  Frederick Douglass visited Dublin in 1845 to rally people around the Abolitionist cause.  And George Mitchell traveled to Belfast in 1998 to participate in peace talks in bitter Northern Ireland.  Interlaced with the stories of these men are the women whose secondary roles become primary in the latter portion of the book.  An Irish housemaid from the Douglass section becomes the mother of Emily and grandmother of Lottie who write about and photograph the Alcock and Brown flight and supply a piece of iconic mail that is the focus of the final section of the novel.  The symbolic unopened letter is passed from on generation to the next.  McCann writes, "We seldom know what echo our actions will find, but our stories will most certainly outlast us." TransAtlantic is a lushly poetic novel and McCann a master of spinning an engaging historical novel.

Instructions for a Heatwave by Maggie O'Farrell

I love it when my reading prescience is spot on!  Instructions for a Heatwave showed up in the New York Times Book Review as I was reading it.  Gretta Riordan's husband, Robert, has walked off - gone missing - in the midst of the English drought and heatwave of 1976.  In the opening section of the novel she calls each of her three children home - two from England and one from New York City - to help her deal with the disappearance.  The novel is a character study of sibling rivalry and buried secrets.  I thoroughly enjoyed O'Farrell's storytelling.  That the novel ends in Ireland with the family sitting down to eat freshly baked soda bread makes it even more appealing to me.  Back when I was teaching AP English, we used to talk about novels with central characters who appeared only briefly or not at all.  Robert Riordan is one such character who appears (spoiler) just when I expected him to - on the last page.

How to Read the Air by Dinaw Mengestu

How to Read the Air was reviewed as one of several recommended summer “road trip” novels, but I remember becoming interested in Dinaw Mengestu back when he was chosen by the New Yorker in 2010 as one of the 20 Under 40 authors to read. This is no ordinary road trip novel and Mengestu is an extraordinary storyteller. The book traces two trips – one taken by Ethiopian immigrants Yosef and Mariam to Nashville and one taken by their adult son, Josef who is anxious to retrace his parents’s tragic travel so that he might learn what truth it can shed on his own his own trouble marriage. Alternating between chapters set in the past and the present, the reader is gradually given a glimpse of the strife of acclimation – to a new land, a new language, a new job, a new relationship, and even the promise of a new life. Lush with contemplative passages about how to read the signs of life, I found myself wanting to take the journey of this novel slow.

The Execution of Noa P. Singleton by Elizabeth L. Silver

Hardly a spoiler, Noa P. Singleton is awaiting her execution for the murder she committed ten years earlier as this crime novel opens.  In sections labeled Six Months Before Execution, Five Months Before Execution, and so on, the circumstances leading up to Noa’s incarceration are revealed.  Her crime has suddenly become of interest to a young lawyer who, working with the mother of her victim, thinks he can build a case to prevent her execution.  Her victim’s mother has aligned herself with an organization called MAD, Mothers Against Death.  Little by little the reader learns about Noa’s past and her tortured relationship all of the individuals involved in her case.  Little by little, this reader tired of her as a protagonist and was secretly hoping the ending would match the title – Sorry!

The Interestings by Meg Wolitzer

I have stuck with Meg Wolitzer through several novels, although I did not care for her last one, The Uncoupling.  But my AP grading comrade and trusted reading friend, Paris, recommended it recently, so I dove in.  The novel is a sweeping book covering four decades in 468 pages, and it deals with large issues of life - friendship and family, marriage and fidelity, money and success.  It opens with a scene that suggested I was entering a Wes Anderson-style-Moonrise-Kingdom of a novel, set in a summer arts camp in Massachusetts called Spirit-in-the-Woods, where lifelong friendships are forged during an eight week season in a humid tepee full of teens who deem themselves, The Interestings.  Here protagonist Julie Jacobson becomes Jules, a far more interesting name, and meets Ash and Goodman Wolf, Ethan Figman and Jonah Bay - four characters whose lives will knit and unravel in the decades to come, against the backdrop of Vietnam, the sexual revolution, AIDS, off-shore manufacturing, 9/11 and TED talks.  I ended up liking the book very much in the way that I enjoy Jonathan Franzen or Tom Perrota who grapple with essential questions in their fiction.  The essential question of this book seems to be "What does it take to live an interesting life?"  The answer is summed up near the end of the book, when Ethan Figman, creator of a highly successful network cartoon, claims, "Everyone basically has one aria to sing over their entire life."   The book reminded me of my guarded wariness for the futures of all of the "interesting" teenagers I taught over the years - kids right out of the fictitious camp bible The Drama of the Gifted Child - who graduated from high school certain they were destined for greatness.

The Lion is In by Delia Ephron

The cover of this novel says it all.  Delia Ephron is out to entertain in this interrupted road trip novel.  Tracee, Lana and Rita are all running away from something.  Tracee is a kleptomaniac in a stolen wedding gown; Lana is an alcoholic with a keen eye for trouble; and Rita, who the two others pick up hitchhiking, is escaping a harsh minister husband.  Their car crashes just in front of The Lion, a tired bar that houses a jukebox, a few regular customers and a real lion in a cage.  Short chapters, crazy convergences, lion tricks and colorful characters make this a perfect summer chick read.

Maya's Notebook by Isabel Allende

I am a huge Isabel Allende fan and have read almost everything she has ever written, including essays and interviews.  Back in the days when Borders was in town, I once hastily pre-ordered a copy of one her books, and when it arrived, it was in Spanish.  The English edition wasn’t even available yet.  My love affair began with House of Spirits, a book full of magical realism.  Finally, after a few historical novels, Allende is back to story telling in the style of House of Spirits.
Maya is a nineteen year old in a heap of contemporary trouble.  She has been raised in Berkeley, California by her grandparents and hasn’t been herself since the death of her Popo.  Drugs, porn, violence, and a string of the wrong friends propel her grandmother to send Maya far, far away – to the remote Chilean island of Chiloe.  There her grandmother’s friend, Manuel Arias, an introvert more than twice Maya’s age, has promised to oversee Maya’s removal from society.  No internet, no contact with her past – only notebooks to record her past and recovery.  Told as first person journal entries, the story of Maya’s troubled past is revealed, along Allende’s most complete assessment of Chilean political history.  Allende’s uncle, Salvador Allende was killed in the bloody aftermath of the military coup that created a harsh military dictatorship, lead by General Augusto Pinochet.  This history is interwoven with revelations of character relationships near the novel’s end.
This may not be Allende’s best, but the book is dedicated to the “teenagers of my tribe” and is best read as a cautionary tale.  In recent interviews, Allende has shared just how autobiographic some of the events in this novel really are.   Two of her husband’s adult children have died of drug related causes.  Maya may be a mess in the beginning, as the Spanish cover of the novel clearly shows, but she pulls through with determination.

And the Mountains Echoed by Khaled Hosseini

I completely swore off my no purchasing of new hardcover books promise to get my hands on a copy of Khaled Hosseini’s new novel.  Of course, I have been a huge fan of The Kite Runner – teaching it for the last 6 years or so of AP English – and its sister novel, A Thousand Splendid Suns.  Of course, when your expectations are that high, you run the risk of being disappointed.  As soon as I finished the lovely, spell-binding opening parable, a presumed bedtime story told by a father to his son and daughter, Abdullah and Pari, I knew the author’s poetic style would still hold me in rapture.  I read the whole book in a few days, and hesitated to see it end, although the first half of the book is the best, by far.  Each chapter reads like a novella.  I found it hard to put a chapter down once I started, partly because the chapters jump so drastically in time and setting – Afghanistan, San Francisco, Paris and Greece.  Although the brother and sister of the opening chapter knit the whole book together, there are almost too many peripheral characters and I sometimes had a difficult time remembering who was who or how they figured into the whole.  Without criticizing the mechanics of the novel, which were sometimes clunkier than Hosseini’s previous two, I would highlight the positives.  This book has little of the violence and heart-break of the other novels.  Yes – it is sad and I had tears in my eyes more than once, but this is a redemptive sibling story.  It is about loss and separation – and of course the ravishing effects of war.  But is isn’t the gut wrenching sort of story that was Amir’s or Mariam and Laila’s.  The book encompasses a long stretch of time, generations of tragedy and recovery, and in the end, it sang of hope.

Reconstructing Amelia by Kimberly McCreight

Upon finishing Reconstructing Amelia, I described it in a text message to a teacher friend as a crazy trash can of a novel that most high school students would probably love.  Kimberly McCreight includes one of everything it takes to make a page turner – a possible suicide, some mean girls, a neglectful parent, a bit of lesbian love, a creepy teacher, a jealous best friend, a secret sisterhood and some lurid text messages.  The novel alternates between third person chapters in the present that focus on Kate, the mother, and first person past tense chapters narrated by her 15 year old daughter, Amelia, who has presumably jumped from the roof of her New York private school.  Through emails, blog posts, and investigations, Amelia’s life and death is reconstructed.

I have to admit, I plowed through this novel.  It held my interest even as I shook my head at its unlikely twists and turns.  It reminded me of Donna Tartt’s The Secret History, to which it has been compared, along with Jodi Picoult and Gillian Flynn’s Gone Girl which I have not read.  I know many teenage girls that would call this a perfect beach read.  For my adult friends – by all means, read it if you still miss lunchroom drama.

The Unchangeable Spots of Leopards by Kristopher Jansma

Rudyard Kipling’s How the Leopard Got its Spots is one of many pieces of literature that The Unchangeable Spots of Leopards alludes to. Perhaps the most telling allusion is the line from an Emily Dickinson poem – “Tell all the truth, but tell it slant”, since Jansma’s book is a series of slanted tales told by a highly unreliable narrator. The fact that you never really even know this narrator’s name enhances the colorful telling of the chapters that read more like individual interconnected tales than a novel. The narrator makes it clear in the opening chapter that he is a writer, and piques the reader’s interest by announcing “I’ve lost every book I’ve ever written.” His life story – from childhood to adulthood – is told through episodic adventures that take him all over the planet. Europe, Hong Kong, Sri Lanka, Iceland. For a while, he assumes the identity of Professor Wallace and teaches Methods and Practices of New Journalism in Dubai. This entertaining chapter includes a portion of one of Wallace’s supposed lectures on truth in journalism which announcing that, “Ours is a new generation of plagiarists. Armed with Wikipedia and Google, we can manufacture our own truths”. Throughout the novel he maintains a rivalry with Julian, who is also an author, and a romantic quest for Evelyn, who eventually becomes a princess.

At one point, the narrator muses, “Somewhere, once, I read that the only mind a writer can’t see into is the mind of a better writer.” Jansma is clearly a reader’s writer. The Unchangeable Spots of Leopards is a reader’s theme park of a novel. Holden Caulfield narrating The Princess Bride. Scattered throughout are literary references, doppelgängers and leopard sightings – real and imaginary. I enjoyed this book largely because Jansma fuels my faith in the value of literary fiction.

How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia by Mohsin Hamid

Oh I do love a book that you don't want to finish reading because reading it is so lovely!  Those books don't come along very often, but with the help of a knowledgable sales woman at Malaprop's Bookstore in Asheville, NC this one made its way into my hands.  Moshin Hamid is an author I discovered last year when I read The Reluctant Fundamentalist - which has lately been made into a movie!  I loved the novel and look forward to seeing the movie.

How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia is couched as a self-help book and written in second person. Chapter headings suggest earnest instructions for attaining wealth - Get an Education, Learn from a Master, Work for Yourself.  In each chapter, the individual that the speaker is giving instructions to ages until the final section - Have an Exit Strategy - when the end is near.  This nameless individual learns about life, love and business in a nameless Asia location, and ultimately realizes what is more important than riches.  

I don't know whether I agree with the reviewers who make Gatsby comparisons.  I do agree with the sales clerk who convinced me to buy the book that it is one you long to dip back into - reread sections - because the prose is as liquid as the cover image.  Near the end, the narrator cautions, 

We are all refugees from our childhoods.  And so we turn among other things, to stories.  To write a story, to read a story, is to be a refugee from the state of refugees.

If I were still teaching, this is a book I would love to discuss with students.  A relative short read, it will be a good book club book.  One that Dave Eggers calls "Completely unforgettable".

Flimsy Little Plastic Miracles by Ron Currie Jr.

Ron Currie Jr. came on my reader radar when colleagues at the high school started shoving copies of his Everything Matters in my face a few years back.  Currie is a rising talent, having won a Young Lions Fiction Award from the New York Public library in 2007 for his first books, God is Dead.  I was excited when I recently spotted this new novel on the Recent Releases display at one of the coolest independent bookstores I have visited in a long time - Malaprop's Books in Asheville, NC.  I broke my moratorium on book buying and started reading it in the car, read more in the hotel, finished it as soon as I got home, so I could give it to that Currie-loving colleague - my rationalization for buying a new book in the first place.  Flimsy Little Plastic Miracles is an experiment in metafiction.  Ron Currie is both author and main character ( a la Tim O'Brien).  One of the first things a reader notices is that some of the pages are only about one third covered with text.  Some half full.  Not many full consecutive pages in the book at all.  This is because Currie jumps subjects like a jack rabbit.  Some pages are about Ron's unquenchable love for the elusive Emma.  Some are about his father's death.  Some are about being banished to a Caribbean island where he is frequently violently knocked around by locals.  Some are, most obscurely, about Ray Kurzweil's Singularity, predicted to occur in 2045.  I kept turning pages because the book began with a hefty promise for excitement.

The first thing you need to know about me is that I am a writer. . . . I quit writing for one reason, then stayed for another.  The first reason was I killed myself, which obviously makes it hard to go on writing.

Ron Currie's suicide propels the narrative but details and motives are murky and I didn't end up believing any part of the story that the authoritative narrative voice promises is completely capital T  - true.  I wanted to love it - but in the end the ploy was as flimsy as the title.

Glamping with Mary Jane Butters

I first heard the name Mary Jane Butters when I came across her line of glamping inspired fabric for Moda.  I purchased some of the laminated red fabric to use for a placemat set for my Etsy shop.  When I first listed these placemats, I sold a set within a few hours - which means the glampers are out there!

To fuel my recent interest in glamping, I went in search of my favorite source of information - books!  After a cursory search for books on the Internet, I happened upon a book that looked like the perfect resource.  I was in luck when I found the local library could get me Glamping with Mary Jane Butters.  This book is THE manual for glampers and a feast for the eyes. It is full of gorgeous modern photographs, sepia-toned archival photos, vintage snapshots of Mary Jane's own childhood family camping adventures from the 50s, and kitschy illustrations of fifties era glamour women captioned with clipped vintage typewriter-font advice. In the introduction to this primer, she acknowledges generations of adventuresome women by "Viewing Women's History in 3-G - Grit, Grace and Glam".  

Butters is, herself, a brash and ballsy outdoors woman.  A little reading up on her life made me feel disgustingly sedentary and docile. After many camping experiences around Utah as a child with her family of seven, she took a job after high school as a fire look-out atop a mountain in northern Idaho.  I KNOW!  Then she became a wilderness ranger.  Then she built fences, herded cows and raised an organic market garden.  Then she founded PCEI.org, a regional environmental group in 1986.  Readers of her magazine and website can learn about her philosophy of simple organic living - and see her retail product line.  And, then there this great book of hers.

Every bit a how-to guidebook, the table of contents includes section titles such as Trailers, Gear and Safety, and contain information as basic as it is necessary.  The section titled "Gettin' Hitched" is literally about how to hitch a trailer and includes a glossary of towing talk defining trailer tongue, hitch ball and coupler lock.  In the Housekeeping section, Butters tackles everything from laundry and bathing to building a tote-able toilet seat and lid from materials available through Amazon.com.  Later she gets to the fun stuff - glamping eats and entertainment - and she includes recipes and DIY patterns for setting up the perfect Glamping retreat.

Butters instituted an annual International Glamping Weekend set for June 1 and 2, 2013. Maybe I'll round up a few of my gal pals, get out my Glamping accessories, whip up a pitcher of Happy Glampers punch and a batch of Smoked Bacon and Mustard Salad from her recipes, and host a backyard Glamping event!

The Dinner by Herman Koch

Dutch author, Herman Koch, serves up a multi-course meal of mental manipulation in The Dinner – a novel that became an instant international best seller after its publication in the Netherlands in 2009. The setting is a trendy and very expensive Amsterdam cafe, where ordinary people have to wait months for a table, but not when the reservation is for Serge Lohman, a diplomat presumably on the way to becoming the Prime Minister. On the evening that encompasses the entire plot present of the novel, he is dining with his wife, Babette, and his brother, Paul, and his wife, Claire. The evening, and the novel itself, is divided into five courses – Apertif, Appetizer, Main Course, Dessert and Digestif. With each new course a bit more of the story is served through flashbacks narrated by Paul. Paul is a classic unreliable narrator and my patience with him was thin even before the main course when the tragic event involving the teenage sons – cousins – of the two couples is revealed. Their boys have committed a heartless crime – but plot digression reveals that the heartlessness in this family may be thicker than a little heap of “lasagna slices with eggplant and ricotta held together with a toothpick” on Paul’s plate. This family’s moral fiber has unravelled long before this dinner. If this book is a five course meal, I have to admit it left me with a bitter taste in my mouth. All of the characters are flawed, the stealthy and riveting plot twists that the cover blurbs promise are unfulfilled. At best, the book is a dark satire about the inhumanity society is capable of accepting as palatable.

Wonder by R. J. Palacio

I read this book after seeing a full page ad for it in The New York Times Book Review and looking at the corresponding book trailer on YouTube. The main character, 10 year old August Pullman, is born with a facial deformity that makes people look away in horror and keeps him out of public schools until the beginning of 5th grade, when the book begins. He opens the narration of the book and says, “I won’t describe what I look like. Whatever you’re thinking, it’s probably worse.” His parents decide he is ready to face the stresses of Beecher Prep School. His entrance into the mainstream is supposed to be softened by his introduction to Jack, Julian and Charlotte, young “leaders” chosen by the principal to show Auggie around the school before the year begins. Of course, children don’t become friends simply because adults want them to, and kids are cruel – a lesson Auggie must learn time and time again. Wonder has won many “best book” accolades and been described as one that will make children and adults treat others better. I loved Auggie and wanted to cheer him on in the truthful, sad sections of the book that he narrates. I thought the narrative structure was weakened by the alternative voices used by the author – various friends, and Auggie’s sister, Olivia. I felt these other narrators did little more than re-narrate the same events rather than advancing the plot. But there are so many other positives about the book, one of which is the Choose Kind pledge on a Tumblr site advocating the book’s anti-bullying mission. Also, I really loved the Precepts used by one of the teachers to frame his instruction for the year -
“When given the choice between being right or being kind, choose kind.” —Dr. Wayne Dyer
“Your deeds are your monuments.” —Inscription on ancient Egyptian tomb
“Have no friends not equal to yourself.” —Confucius
“Fortune favors the bold.” —Virgil
“No man is an island, entire of itself.” —John Donne
“It is better to know some of the questions than all of the answers.” —James Thurber
“Kind words do not cost much. Yet they accomplish much.” —Blaise Pascal
“What is beautiful is good, and who is good will soon be beautiful.” —Sappho
“Do all the good you can, by all the means you can, in all the ways you can, in all the places you can, at all the times you can, to all the people you can, as long as you ever can.” —John Wesley
“Just follow the day and reach for the sun.” —The Polyphonic Spree
“Everyone deserves a standing ovation because we all overcometh the world.” —Auggie Pullman

What Teachers Make - In Praise of the Greatest Profession in the World

This book continues to give teachers hope

Taylor Mali is a teacher advocate and performance poet famous for a poem he wrote called "What Teachers Make".   The poem - and video that by now all my teaching friends have seen - grew into a crusade and now an inspiring book about the intrinsic rewards of teaching.

The poem began as a response to a lawyer who insulted Mali and the entire teaching profession at a dinner party in 1997.  In the introduction to the book, Mali explains - "For the lawyer, it really came down to how poorly compensated teachers are — no intelligent person would take a job that paid less than what he was making as a lawyer. At the party that night I was so furious inside that I couldn't come up with a clever comeback, so I bit my tongue and laughed politely. But the next day, January 1, 1998, I wrote a poem that was the forceful response I wish I had delivered that night. The poem was called "What Teachers Make."

Last year, when I heard Mali had written a book expanding the sentiments of this poem, I preordered it and read it cover to cover when it arrived.  I wanted to wave it in the face of every co-worker I knew who needed encouragement.  In the suburban school district where I taught high school English for 30 years, the last several have been really difficult for teachers.  Mali sounds a battle cry for continued professionalism in a doubting age with chapter titles including "Making Kids Work Hard", "Your Child is My Student", and "Lightbulb Moments and Happy Accidents".  These chapters elaborate on the tough work teachers do and how difficult it is to continue to be rigorous with children in a society that has become lazy.  One where parents are micro-managing the school lives of their children, but have no idea what they are really doing with the cell phones they have given them.  The happy accidents Mali refers to occur most often when effective teaching influences the desire for life-long learning by providing students with relevant assignments, alternative assessments, risk-rewarding learning environments, and engagement with the narrative of the learner’s life.

Mali also has a chapter called "Fighting Back Against the Attack on Teachers".  In it he recognizes the greed and excess that permeates so much of society.  He understands that "Profit in the short term has come to trump sustainable and equitable long term growth," and acknowledges this voracious machine has finally set its sight on teachers. What he does not understand - and frankly neither do we who have devoted our lives to teaching - is the recent characterization of teachers as lazy and greedy.  He writes, "Only someone with very little understanding of what teaching requires would say such a thing."  He suggests putting anyone who doubts the commitment it takes to succeed into a classroom for a year.  He finally illuminates the truth - "All of the teachers I have known need one hour outside the classroom for every hour they spend in the classroom.  So next time you hear someone talk about the paltry number of hours teachers put in every day, double it."  He also discusses teacher burn out and cites the statistic that fifty percent of teachers quit by the fifth year of teaching.  It is just too much work for too little pay.


I love this book.  I was reminded of it this week when a guidance counsellor friend posted the video on her Facebook page (thank you, Tara).  Last year before my husband, English department chair, and I retired, we entertained the thought of buying one for everyone in our department to take out and read on dark weekends like this one. Instead we played the video at our last department meeting and entrusted one copy to the department library.

Today, I would place this book in the lap of every one of my friends in the profession as a reminder of why you were called to teaching in the first place.  The greatest profession in the world has never been great because of what you make.  You are worth so, so, so much more.

NW by Zadie Smith

 I just finished reading NW by Zadie Smith and I'm not sure how to describe it.  It is a big book, an important book by one of the freshest voices of a new generation of writers.  I asked for the book for Christmas because reviewers compare its literary style to James Joyce - a comparison that has merit.   But her style is also analogous to video game structure, or rap music, or maybe jazz.  The title refers to the London's north west corner, where central characters Natalie (aka Keisha), Leah, Nathan and Felix grow up together in public housing (British terminology = council estate).  I was drawn into the complicated lives of these characters and found the basic thread pretty easy to follow although the narrative voice changes frequently - as does the pace, the setting, the tone and even the font.  The book is gritty, dismal and urban, and although it is distinctly British, it is filled with universal truth that will allow it to stand the test of time.  I honestly believe it may be Zadie Smith's masterpiece novel.  Coincidently, the line that made me pause near the very end - "This is one of the things you learn in a courtroom: people generally get what they deserve." - is a variation of "We accept the love we think we deserve" from The Perks of Being a Wallflower from my previous review.  Again, great literature rings with human truth.

The Perks of Being a Wallflower - A Movie Review

This slim book is THE most popular book I ever put in the hands of a high school student in my 30 years of teaching.  After finally getting around to watching the movie adaptation last night with my adult son, who is home on a visit from out of state, and two of his best friends from high school, I realized my thoughts on the importance of this book are long overdue.

I had to dig back to my old analog (notebook) reading journal to find the date when I first connected with this book.  I knew I had discovered it at the University of Pittsburgh bookstore during the summer of 1999 when I was there for a week-long AP teachers workshop.  Stephen Chobsky is from Pittsburgh and the book was on a small shelf labeled Local Authors.  I think the cover caught my eye.  I brought it home, read it in July and wrote in my reading journal that I thought it was ” . . . going to be the Go Ask Alice of a new generation of readers . . .”

When I returned to school that fall, I was finally teaching AP English.  I clearly remember waving the book and singing its praises to my students.  No one had heard of it.  I had to do a lot of cheer leading to get my one copy circulating.  But then a funny phenomena struck!  A dELiA’s store opened in the fairly new shopping mall in our town.  And on a few of the circular clothing racks throughout the store were piles of BOOKS!  Books – in the most popular local shopping magnet  for young girls!  Suddenly, girls were buying copies along with the latest trendy t-shirts and bringing them to school to pass around.  And they were sharing them with BOYS.   The Perks spark was ignited.

The Perks of Being a Wallflower is an epistolary novel, narrated by Charlie who is a freshman at a Pittsburgh high school in the 1990s.  His mental health is fragile, as he is fixated on the untimely death of his aunt with whom he was very close.  As he begins high school, he is friendless and on the fringe – a wall flower – until he is welcomed into a band of senior misfits which include Sam and her step-brother, Patrick.  The peaks and valleys of their senior year – homecoming, SATs, college acceptance letters, prom and graduation – educate Charlie almost as much as the stabilizing influence of his beloved English teacher, Mr. Anderson, who recognizes Charlie as a kid who can find solace in books.

Perhaps that is the single most potent charm of The Perks of Being a Wallflower for an English teacher.  It is a book that you can hand to almost any student.  I label them lovingly, because  every high school classroom has at least one of every type – honors kid, goth kid, stud athlete, closet gay, band nerd, cheerleader, loner.  Each type would hand it back to you with a comment about how much he could “personally relate” to it. It became a gateway book.  If it is possible that a small but potent reading experience can turn a reader on to the stronger stuff, this book made kids whisper at my desk, “Do you have anything else like this I could read?”

Over the last decade, I listened to countless oral book reports, collected numerous mix-tapes, evaluated PowerPoint presentations and book journals written about this novel, but there is no rubric for the truth.  This book smacks of the reality of high school.  Like Catcher in the Rye, it is a book you want a student to find on his own, and read without a grade attached.  But high school kids don’t grow up surrounded by books anymore.

I am normally incensed when original book covers are replaced by glossy movie star images,  (The Great Gatsby with Leonardo will give me the shakes) but this time, I don't mind.  Probably because Stephen Chobsy, a respected filmmaker, adapted his novel for the screen and directed the film.  The characters are flawlessly brought to life by Logan Lerman, Emma Watson and Ezra Miller, whose faces grace the new book cover.

The soundtrack of pop songs matches the spirit of the 90s and the Come on Eileen dance number, where Charlie looks on from his wallflower perch is pitch perfect.  The Rocky Horror Picture Show scenes were filmed at The Hollywood Theater in Dorman, Pennsylvania where Chobsky, himself,  saw the movie as a teenager.

The scene in the movie where the perfect song plays on the radio as Charlie's perfect girl appears to fly above the problems of life standing in the bed of a Ford pick-up truck was filmed in inside the Fort Pitt Tunnel.  Chobsky calls this scene a symbolic rebirth - the ultimate symbol of transition.
So, watching the movie last night with three grown kids who bonded in high school and have stayed close for six years since made the movie even better for me. They talked about how awkward high school is for everyone.   It is a marathon run through a dense fog of hormones, relationships and power plays.  The kids who seem best at it are sometimes the least prepared for the challenges of the real world, and the wall flowers are often the ones who turn up at 10 and 15 year reunions and shock everyone with their totally together lives.  The best anyone can hope for in high school is a few true friends who will buoy you up when you are down and fly with you when you are soaring.
My son talked about being a freshman in marching band.   Some senior boys took him under their wings and convinced him to play the tuba his sophomore year  (Ben, Jeff, Tim and Tres - wherever you are - I still thank you.) They were smart, funny, older boys from my AP English class who turned drudgery into fun.  They helped him transition into other new friendships.  Sophomore year he started hanging out with the two guys we watched the movie with.  They buoyed each other up when they were down and still fly around together.  They all read the book at various points of high school.  They each still have the book today.

We decided the movie is The Breakfast Club for a new generation of kids.  I would have watched it again as soon as it ended.  And I admit to having a few tears in my eyes.  The classic quote is as true for adults as it is for teens -

This is my first year as a retired English teacher.  I have read a few books in the last year I would love to wave in the faces of my students.  I miss sharing books with kids. I probably bought a half dozen copies of The Perks of Being a Wallflower in the years since 1999.  I probably loaned them all out and never got them back.  I can't find a single one in the house today and I miss seeing that book on the shelf.  I miss the classroom when I recall that as a teacher, I had the power to be a life-changer.  I got to hand a kid a book.

Hump Day giveaway

Today is the day we have been waiting for! Our re-Lit Candles were discover by Stacy at Inkspot Workshop back in January. Stacy grew up in the a Cleveland area, and loved the look and mission behind our candle venture. She sponsors a monthly giveaway on her blog where she pairs two shops and offers a chance to win $50 of free merchandise from each shop.
The contest is open today and runs through midnight on Friday, February 15. Please tell all your friends to enter. I would LOVE to have the winner be someone who is already a friend and supporter of our cause.
Remember, a portion of our proceeds go to support the good work of Ohio City Writers!

re-Lit Candles - A Recycling Initiative for Literacy

Every single day, someone asks us - "What are you doing now that you are retired?"  Well, today we finally have something to show for our fall efforts.  We have posted the first images of re-Lit Candles on Etsy, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest - and now - here.  My husband and I began meeting with our close friends during the summer to discuss what we would do in retirement besides drink wine by candlelight out on the deck late into the night.  We had retired from 30 years as high school English teachers, and our friend, Laurie, retired at the same time with the same length of tenure as a Media Specialist.  We commiserated about all of the books we brought home from school, all the changes being made in public schools - and all the wine bottles in our recycling.  Would the neighbors start to talk?

Sometime in August, we decided in earnest to set aside some of our newly acquired free time for the Greater Good.  And re-Lit Candles was born.  We played around with many names, but we wanted to keep a focus on Literature - and more importantly, Literacy.



We made up a word!  Why not!  Reliteration - noun - the purposeful enjoyment of natural light.



We wrote our "story" and David designed a Kraft paper label which we had printed by the good people at Ink It Press in Vermilion, Ohio.  The prototype labels were printed on the back of Trader Joe's bags, but we figured we would go broke shopping to keep labels in stock.  We found a source of bottles that were not being recycled.  Jim practiced cutting and sanding bottles, with much trial and error.  Laurie researched wax supply and wick resources.  We practiced filling containers, watching wicks burn - all the while drinking a bit of wine to keep encouraged.



David took advantage of some rare winter Ohio sunshine to take 150 photographs today.  This one features a school desk from the school his father and grandfather attended in Delaware, Ohio.  Old books make good props.  They burned plenty of candles in The Grapes of Wrath - didn't they?



Even Shakespeare looks like a good choice next to the right candle.



We are hoping to do a Craft Fair in Cleveland in February.  We are talking to area retailers.   I applied for a transient vendors license.  Above all, we want to keep the focus on literacy and intend to send a portion of our profits to a local literacy initiative.



What have we been doing?  What we enjoy, what makes sense, what is good.