January In Review

January has been a great month to start off my book blog. I technically started in December just to get the hang of it, but it really took off during this month. The books I read this month included:

Loving Frank by Nancy Horan
The Post-Birthday World by Lionel Shriver
A Reliable Wife by Robert Goolrick
The Brief Wonderous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz
The Help by Kathryn Stockett

I've never been a particularly fast reader and like to take my time with my books, so five in one month is actually quite a lot for me. I realized all my books were fiction, which is the genre I enjoy the most, but I'm hoping to put a few more non-fiction choices in my list in the upcoming months.

My favorite books this month were The Post-Birthday World and The Help. I think I might be the last book blogger out there to read The Help, but I'm so glad I finally got to it. Expect a review soon!

My February picks will include:
Cutting For Stone by Abraham Verghese- This book was highly recommended by several friends.
Love is a Mix Tape (Life and Loss One Song at a Time)(audio version) by Rob Sheffield- Another book blogger, although I can't remember who, made me aware of this book and it combines reading and music, my two favorite things. I was able to download this for free from my public library.
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Anne Shaffer and Annie Barrows- This is my Book Club's February pick
There will be more, I just haven't decided what yet.

This month, today actually, I won my first book giveaway. I am going to receive Handle With Care by Jodi Picoult from Nadia at A Bookish Way of Life. I am glad she is feeling better and off of her medications! Congrats Nadia and thanks for the book!

I am really enjoying my book blogging experience and am looking forward to continuing!

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

Book: The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

Author: Junot Diaz

Short Summary:
This book is about a boy named Oscar who, despite his very early success at the age of seven, was not a boy who was lucky in love. Oscar was born in the Dominican Republic and moved to New Jersey with his mother and sister early in life. As a teenager he was overweight and seen as very uncool for his awkwardness and love of all things science fiction. The book not only describes Oscar's trials and tribulations in love throughout his short life, but also those of his family's. It is believed his family's streak of bad luck is due to the fuku, a Dominican curse said to be brought on by the dictator Trujillo.

My Thoughts:
When I finished this book I could only ask myself one question, "What am I missing?" This book one the Pulitzer Prize and earned itself much critical acclaim. I feel I must have missed something because to me it was just a story, and a mediocre one at best.

Diaz did incorporate a few original concepts in the book. For example, much of the book was written in English and Spanish, many times using both languages in the same sentence. At first I was intrigued by this and was excited to test my Spanish knowledge. However, the novelty soon wore off and I found the Spanish slang to be highly annoying. Another part of the book I was excited about at first was the use of foot notes. These were included throughout the book to help give background about the history of the Dominican Republic. I honestly knew next to nothing about the country and thought these notes would give me deeper insight. Like the Spanglish, however, I soon found these to be annoying and distracting and by the end I pretty much skipped them altogether.

I found I enjoyed the parts of the book that focused more on Oscar's mother, sister, and grandmother than I did on the parts he was in. I related a little bit more to the female characters of Beli, Lola, and La Inca then I did to the male characters of Oscar, Yunior, and Ablelard. I somewhat enjoyed hearing the history of the women in the family, but still didn't totally connect with their characters.

I found the narration in this book strange. I'm still not quite sure why Yunior, who was the ever cheating love interest to Lola and roommate to Oscar, narrated the story. He knew Oscar and Lola well, but had little or no interaction with the other main characters of the book. I found it to be somewhat odd.

This book wasn't horrible, but I closed it feeling very little. I was hoping for a great epic novel but was left uninspired. I found little in the pages I could really relate to and characters I felt no emotion for. Again, I ask, "What am I missing?"

Rating: 2.5/5 stars

Waiting on Wednesday "Stuff"

“Waiting On” Wednesday is a weekly event, hosted at ‘Breaking The Spine’, that spotlights upcoming releases that we’re eagerly anticipating.

The book whose release I am anticipating is Stuff by Randy Frost.

Release Date: April 20, 2010

I have recently become slightly obsessed with the show "Hoarders" on A&E. This show looks into the lives of people who are hoarders. Some are just on the verge of having a serious problem while others are so far gone they can barely walk in their own homes. On the last episode I saw, a woman was confined to one bedroom where she brought up a mini fridge and microwave because there was no place else to move. She had stuff occupying every other room in the five bedroom house.

The hoarders work with psychologists to discover why they are hoarding and organizers to attempt to remove some of their things so that their homes are once again livable.

Why does this fascinate me? Really, I'm not sure. Everyone has their quirks and weird things about them. Everyone has things they don't want to give up. I know I do. I'm sure there are plenty of book hoarders out in the blogosphere.

I want to read this book to get into the minds of some of these people and get a better understanding of why throwing an empty plastic bottle or a rolled up ball of paper away is so difficult. I've been on a big fiction book kick, so a non-fiction choice could be a good change of pace.

Anyone else out there watch Hoarders?

A Reliable Wife

Book: A Reliable Wife

Author: Robert Goolrick

Short Summary:
In the early 1900's, Ralph Truitt, a middle-aged, bitter, lonely, yet very successful man places an ad in a newspaper looking for a reliable wife. Catherine Land, the woman who answers the ad, makes her way to Wisconsin to marry Ralph, with the intention of killing him for his money.

My Thoughts:
I really enjoyed this book, but it took a little while for me to get into. About halfway through, the book takes a turn that got me captivated during the entire second half. From that point on I had a hard time putting it down.

I really enjoyed Goolrick's writing style. I felt like I got right into the minds of the characters and were experiencing their emotions and ramblings in their heads with them. The characters were constantly changing and I felt I was learning something new about them all the time. I can see how some may find the characters inconsistent throughout the book. I did see this a little, but mostly I saw them changing in terms of what they were experiencing at the time. I'm not sure that I have a firm grasp on who any of the people in this book truly are, but trying to figure it out was one aspect of the book I found so intriguing. I also found the idea of "true identity" to be a theme throughout the story.

There is a lot of sex in this book and a plethora of sexual thoughts. While some people may not enjoy this book because of the amount of sex, it did not bother me. I thought the topic was dealt with in a tasteful way.

This is the second book I've read the past months that takes place in Wisconsin during the early 1900's. I lived in Wisconsin for 5 years and know all to well about the snow and bitter cold that fills days all winter long. I found this to be a really good setting for this book, especially since Ralph and Catherine lived way out in the country and had little else to do but interact with each other. It also showed the social contrast between life out in the country and in the booming city of St. Louis.

The phrase "Such things happen." is used througout this book to describe situations, usually unfortunate or bad ones. With every event in life you can easily say "Such things happen." This is the way of the world and I found this to work well with the story.

It's hard to say too much about the plot of this book without giving things away. Overall, I really enjoyed this book and would recommend it. I think it would spark some great discussions in book clubs or among friends.

My Rating: 4/5 stars

Birthday Girl

Today the Birthday Girl is me. 29! I'm feeling very old! Only one more year til the big 3-0. I got many Happy Birthday comments on my facebook page, but my favorite one said "Happy Birthday Julie. I hope you get many great books!" I guess a few of my almost 600 facebook friends really know me.

In other reading news, I finished A Reliable Wife by Robert Goolrick and hope to write a review soon. I am now reading The Brief Wonderous Life of Oscar Wao. I'm not quite sure how I feel about it yet, but I still have about 150 pages to go.

Our next two book club picks are The Guernsey Potato Peel Pie Society and The Girl with the Dragon Tatoo. I've heard great things about both these books and can't wait to read them!

Mountains Beyond Mountains

With all that is going on in Haiti, I wanted to inform everyone about a book that deals with this country. Mountains Beyond Mountains by Tracy Kidder is actually a book I read for graduate school. I'm very glad my professor made me aware of this book because it was something I otherwise never would have picked up.

This book is about a man named Paul Farmer who has given his life to improving health care in poor countries like Haiti. It was very well written, very inspirational, and made me thankful for all I have. I learned a lot about Haiti and the living conditions there through this story. Mountains Beyond Mountains informed me about the creation of Partners in Health, an organization that has been helping Haiti for years and now needs more help than ever. You can learn more about Partners In Health here.

Here is a summary of Mountains Beyond Mountains from barnesandnobel.com:

In Mountains Beyond Mountains, Pulitzer Prize—winning author Tracy Kidder tells the true story of a gifted man who loves the world and has set out to do all he can to cure it.

In medical school, Paul Farmer found his life’s calling: to cure infectious diseases and to bring the lifesaving tools of modern medicine to those who need them most. Kidder’s magnificent account takes us from Harvard to Haiti, Peru, Cuba, and Russia as Farmer changes minds and practices through his dedication to the philosophy that “the only real nation is humanity.” At the heart of this book is the example of a life based on hope and on an understanding of the truth of the Haitian proverb “Beyond mountains there are mountains”–as you solve one problem, another problem presents itself, and so you go on and try to solve that one too.

“Mountains Beyond Mountains unfolds with a force of gathering revelation,” says Annie Dillard, and Jonathan Harr notes, “[Paul Farmer] wants to change the world. Certainly this luminous and powerful book will change the way you see it.”

This is a great non-fiction read that I would highly recommend.

My Fortune

I went out for Chinese food last night and as always, got a fortune cookie at the end of my meal. This one really made me smile.

"Expand your horizons by reading a new book"