In One Person by John Irving

 

I have long been a John Irving fan. The World According to Garp may have been my first adult pleasure read as a freshman in college. Irving's new novel is so adult that I could never consider making it summer reading for AP, even though it is a very literary book with many layered Shakespeare references. Early Shakespearean actors playing female roles introduces the central issue of the novel which is filled with transvestites, transsexuals, bisexuals, and teens grappling with sexual identities. I am not a prude or a timid reader, but I tired of the sexual tension. I wanted a "normal mom character" or character I could identify with. I didn't find the usual humor I look for in Irving. Since David read this book before me, I knew he was conflicted in his review, but I urged him to withhold his evaluation until I had a chance to read it too. Turns out withholding information is the theme here. In retrospect, I love the literary quality of the novel, but it's subject matter made me squeamish.

 

Skios by Michael Frayn

Every summer I long for a funny book. Something absurdly entertaining that will take me out of this world into a madcap world of laughter and I expected Michael Frayn, whose famous play Noises Off is very funny, to deliver. At best, it reminded me of an episode of Three's Company. Set on the private island on Skios at Greek villa conference center where wealthy philanthropists have gathered to hear world-renowned lecturer Dr. Norman Wilfred speak, a case of switched personalities occurs. Enter the surprisingly younger, more handsome Oliver Fox, who assumes Wilfred's identity at the airport and is whisked off to Skios where everyone but this reader falls for his charm and fails to see he is not who he is supposed to be. I love dramatic irony, but not simplistic dramas where people taking off their clothes in front of the wrong people and purported geniuses can't keep a cell phone charged.

 

You Came Back by Christopher Coake

I'm not one for ghost stories, but I love an Ohio connection and Christopher Coake got his MFA in fiction at The Ohio State University, so You Came Back is set in Columbus.  He mentions German Village, and Short North and even Hocking Hills, so I felt very comfortable with the setting.  I did not feel comfortable with the subject matter because the loss of a child, even in a fictional setting, is unfathomable for me.  Mark Fife's young son Brendan died after fall in their home and, although the loss results in Mark's divorce from Brendan's mother, he has moved on and found love again.  This happiness is interrupted when the woman who lives in the home where Brendan died seeks Mark out to  tell him his son "came back".  I am uncomfortable with the notion of spirits and mediums, but I stayed up late one summer's night reading until I knew how this compelling story would unfold.

The Leftovers by Tom Perrotta

I keep giving Tom Perotta one more chance - this time because one of my AP reader friends suggested I would enjoy The Leftovers.  I had avoided reading the book thus far because the premise - the recovery measures taken by a group of suburbanites left after various of their loved ones were mysteriously seized by a Rapture-type event - didn't seem appealing.  As I started the book, I thought it would be biting satire, but the people of Mapleton could be the people of any town, and Kevin Garvey, the town mayor, ends up struggling with typical and mundane stresses - a spouses' rejection, a teenager's rebellion, mid-life angst.  Parts of the plot are mildly humorous, especially the cult-like Guilty Remnants who take a vow of silence and wander the town eaves-dropping on their neighbors while smoking mandatory cigarettes.  But the book seemed so contrived by the end I was left with the vapors of a great story - a fictional smoke-trick.

The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid

A former AP student recommended this as an appropriate summer reading title for AP students, so I quickly read it on our trip to see our daughter's college graduation in Massachusetts. The main character, aptly named Changez, had been a Pakistani student studying at an American university and then a New York City businessman prior to 9/11. The episodic novel takes the form of a dialogue between Changez and an unnamed American tourist who is sitting in a cafe in Lahore. As the day fades, so do the lines between truth and memory as Changez grapples with his cultural identity and what it means to live The American Dream. Thanks for the recommendation, Bristee. I will miss hearing the discussions next fall about this enigmatic and mysterious novel.

Paris, My Sweet: A Year in the City of Light (and Dark Chocolate) by Amy Thomas

To kick off summer leisure reading, I began with the book I had given to my friend, Kathy, for Valentine's Day.  After reading it herself, she thought I would enjoy borrowing it - especially since daughter Meredith was talking about spending the summer in Paris.  Thomas was given the opportunity to leave her job in New York to spend a year in Paris as an advertising writer for Louis Vuitton.  The book compares bakeries and their specialties in New York and Paris and has quite an extensive list of bakeries and addresses for both locations in the back of the book.  I enjoyed reading the luscious and decadent descriptions of macaroons, cupcakes, madeleines and chocolates.  For a single woman living out her dream, Thomas seemed to be a bit of a whiner, but the vicarious culinary romp was enough diversion from Ohio on a summer's day to please my sweet tooth.

The Weird Sisters by Eleanor Brown

I had read a lot about the Shakespearean parallels in this new novel with an intriguing title.  And I had a student who was reading the book for her independent novel project, so I decided not to put it aside once I had started reading it.  It is a sisters book - Cordelia, Bianca and Rosalind.  They grow up in a college town in Ohio (?) under the scholarship of their Shakespeare quoting professor father.  When their mother develops breast cancer, the adult sisters have  a reason to reunite.  I was a little disappointed in the way some of the conflicts were resolved, but the plot was clever enough to keep me interested.

Summer Reading and Retirement

We decided to kick off summer at our favorite spot for reading and relaxing.

Once Again to Louisville to Grade Essays

We keep falling for it - the promise of working with other intelligent professionals as passionate about teaching literature as we are in a pretty cool "drinking town with a horse problem".   The "work" involves lots of sitting and reading student handwriting and looking forward to 15 minute breaks and cafeteria lunches in a freezing cold convention center.  Luckily, we have friends we look forward to seeing every year and a chance to dine out in some pretty cool Louisville restaurants. So another week of grading AP Literature and Composition test essays is behind us.  Time for pleasure reading to begin again!

Carmichael's Bookstore - Louisville's Oldest Independent Bookstore

One of the highlights of our yearly trip to Louisville is a visit to Carmichael's Bookstore  on Bardstown Road.  This year the whole store was full of AP readers, chatting, talking about books, recommending favorites.  It is a great bookstore with lots of posted recommendations from the bookstore staff.  This year I walked out without a book purchase.  Good girl!

New Business Card

Heading off into this we adventure called retirement, I decided to make my own business cards to share at the AP reading. For the time being, this is my effort!

Oprah Should Listen to Me

When I blogged about Wild back in April, I went in to school and told all my students that this was going to be the new - fresh and female - Into the Wild.

Now I come to find, Oprah has the same idea!  The Oprah Book Club 2.0 launched in June and her choice was Wild by Cheryl Strayed.   I have thought for some time, Oprah should just be listening to me.  Maybe she is?

Now our county library has Wild on the Summer Reading page.

I'm just saying - TOLD YOU SO!

Coming Attractions - Senior Slideshows So Awesome They Need a Trailer

AP English First Period Senior Slideshow

Senior's last day was today!  A very bittersweet day.  My last AP class at Strongsville High School.  I ended the year as I began it with Billy Collins' Aristotle and then showed this Senior Slideshow.  The principal had excused seniors from their first period classes today, but all of my students except two - you know who you are - were there.  Tissues were distributed.  Memories and a few tears.  Then they wrote their letters to next year's AP students.  I love you kids.  You inspire me to be the best teacher I can be and I mean it when I say - you all get a 5 in Life!

AP English Second Period Senior Slideshow

The Emily Dickinson House and the Little White House Poetry Project

We LOVE visiting Amherst, Massachusetts almost so much that we hated to see our daughter graduate from nearby Hampshire College. This visit, we decided to swing by Emily Dickinson's place one last time and - what a surprise. The yard and park space adjacent to the Dickinson home has been populated by little white houses painted with lines from favorite Dickinson poems. The 40 houses began as a project done by a Deerfield Academy student. We had a lovely time walking around as the sun was setting, finding favorite lines from poems, seeing Emily's garden in full bloom and bidding a sort of farewell to Amherst.

I think I could win a prize with this photo!

 

Serena by Ron Rash

So back to Park Road Books in Charlotte where the conversation the bookseller was having with the customer concerned the changes from the hardback to the paperback cover art for Serena. I bought the book because it takes place in North Carolina and later found out there is a movie in the works. Better yet! I think the book will lend itself well to the big screen. Serena is a feisty woman who married George Pemberton in 1929. Together they build a timber empire in the North Carolina woods. The opening chapter concerns a brutal act of violence that sets the tone for the rest of the novel. I'm not a huge historical fiction fan, but Ron Rash is not a timid writer and Serena is not a woman you would want to cross.

Wild by Cheryl Strayed

I picked up an IndieBound flyer when we visited Park Road Bookstore in Charlotte, NC and read the blurb for this book. Cheryl Strayed encountered loss in her twenties, but instead of going out and baking pies like Beth Howard of Making Piece, she decided to walk the Pacific Crest Trail from the Mojave Desert through California and Oregon to Washington State. She had no previous hiking experience. In fact, she had never carried a back pack until she hoisted her fully loaded "monster" onto her shoulders to begin her trek. Emotionally gripping, this memoir kept my interest and an provided an opportunity to laugh a little and cry a little.

Main Street Books in Davidson, NC

Davidson is one charming North Carolina town. We drove up from Charlotte to check out a few places - Birdsnest Music, Toast for Lunch and Main Street Books. The bookstore is small and rather haphazardly arranged. I did not see a very large fiction section but rather books about gardening, cookbooks and children's books.

Carry the One by Carol Anshaw

This book garnered lots of early praise as one where a tragic opening scene is followed by a thought-provoking study of how different individuals cope with tragedy.  Carmen marries Matt in the opening chapter, and when a car full of drunk - and drugged - wedding guests kill a young girl walking on the street on their way home from the wedding, all of these characters lives become knit in a variety of ways. The story begins in 1983 and follows the characters up through - you guessed it - 9/11.  I would call the events believable, the characters a bit shallow, and the prose clear and fresh.

A Very Cool Used Bookstore - Book Buyers in Charlotte, NC

Book Buyers is located at 1308 The Plaza # F Charlotte, NC 28205 in an area of the city we had not visited before where there are cool vintage and antique stores and a pawn shop. This used bookstore was HUGE. So large that a deconstructed airplane is hanging for the ceiling. Much browsing. No purchases.

Park Road Bookstore - Charlotte, NC

We found this independent bookstore on a visit to visit my #1 son last year during spring break. He took us for breakfast at The Flying Biscuit (highly recommended) and mentioned there was a pretty cool bookstore in the same strip center. This year we returned because I love bookstores that feature lots of employee recommendations displayed with the books. These people talk books. As I was browsing, I overheard a conversation between the bookseller and a customer - obviously a frequent customer - about the paperback cover of Ron Rash's Serena. It was a compelling enough conversation to make me find the book on the shelf and eventually buy it on the way out. Nice store!

Taylor Books - Charleston, West Virginia

Now that we live in a town without a bookstore, we crave visits to one even more, so as we set off south for a spring break trip, we pulled off the highway in Charleston, West Virginia to check out Taylor Books. Thanks to the IndieBound app on my phone, I can search for cool independent bookstore while on the road and this one has a website that describes it this way - "Located on Capitol Street in beautiful downtown Charleston, WV, Taylor Books is an independent bookstore, coffee shop, cafe, and art gallery. Opened by Ann Saville in 1995, Taylor Books has become a landmark and must-visit destination. We invite you to take advantage of our broad selection of books and wide variety of hard-to-find magazines." We found the store easily on a brick street full of other inviting bakeries, shops and galleries. The bookstore includes a large gallery space with local artists' work displayed. Since I can't leave an independent bookstore without making a supportive purchase, I bought a copy of The Chicken Chronicles: A Memoir by Alice Walker.

Making Piece: A Memoir of Love, Loss and Pie by Beth Howard

I bought this book as a gift for my mother-in-law who was holed up in a rehab center following surgery because she is arguably the Queen of Apple Pie in Athens County, Ohio. Then I read the first sentence: “I killed my husband. I asked for a divorce, and seven hours before he was to sign the divorce papers, he died.” Oh my. My mother-in-law is a widow. This might not be a cheerful little book about pie. Then, there was the line in the intro alluding to the legacy of pie appreciation she inherited from her mother which said, “If only my mom hadn’t made my dad that banana cream pie. Fuck pie.” I continued reading, and the book is now, happily, with my mother-in-law because it is the perfect book for her – and for you – if you love baking pie. Or if you love the famous American Gothic painting by Grant Wood. Making Pie is Beth Howard’s recap of her odyssey from despair in LA to the American Gothic House where she now resides in Iowa and runs the Pitchfork Pie Stand. Her journey, across American in a pie-themed RV, includes visits to famous pie establishments, her stints as a judge in county fair pie eating contests and her efforts to distribute free pie. This book charmed me.

Learn more about Beth’s story by visiting her blog - The World Needs More Pie

Arcadia by Laura Groff

I wanted to like this book a lot more than I did. I had received an Advance Readers copy and kept it on the shelf, and decided to kick-start spring break week with a fun book about a Utopian commune in New York State, circa 1970. I found the protagonist, Bit, who is little bitty small child at the beginning of the novel, charming enough. But when the sham of idealism takes over Arcadia, and the novel moves forward many years, I lost interest. Not enough hippie in me - not enough drug use? For whatever reason, I was happy to leave this perfect place.