Becolorful

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

Have you ever read a book that you are not sure you liked but you wish you knew someone else who had read the same book so you could talk about it?

That is how I am feeling about Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close.

 

 

I haven't seen the movie yet because I wanted to finish reading the book first but I am sure after watching this trailer that the themes of loss and loneliness are the same in both formats.

 

This is a novel about a young boy, Oskar, whose father is killed in The World Trade Center on 9-11. The reader is eloquently given moving glimpses of the closeness that existed between this boy and his father and the resulting "heavy boots" the boy feels after his father's death. Several months after the "The Worst Day" Oskar discovers a vase and a key in his closet and is convinced that finding what the key unlocks will  reveal a message for him from his father and ultimately some relief from his intense grief, guilt and feelings of loss.

I was expecting so much from this book but there were a number of times when I felt like I was pushing through it just to get to a better part or maybe to the end. I found the multiple narrative voices confusing.  I realize this is a common writing technique but the transitions between narrators were annoying and I  felt that it was more of a distraction than an asset. More than once I found myself wanting to skim through the stories of the self- absorbed grandfather and the pathetic grandmother so I could get back to Oskar.  

Even Oskar isn't totally likable. He is, occasionally, borderline unbelievable. This freakishly precocious nine year old inventor, vegan, and jewelry maker would make me laugh at times and next I would think his character was overly contrived.  It will be interesting to see how they cast Oskar in the movie. He could either be adorable or just plain irritating.  I think, though, what probably makes Oskar still endearing is that his profound, 40- year- old, adult like intelligence is relieved by his childish innocence. 

Even though I felt the story was a bit implausible, the author's ability to touch the reader's soul is compelling and his use of photos placed intermittently throughout the book to allow the reader to literally see the world as Oskar was seeing it was rather genius.

The message that I will take away from this book isn't new but these words of the grandmother  describing how she never told her sister how much she loved her until it was too late vividly brought home to me again the truth that we never know what the day or tomorrow will hold and if we will ever have that next chance to say and do the things we feel are important.

 

"I said I want to tell you something.

She said, You can tell me tomorrow.

I had never told her how much I loved her.

She was my sister.

We slept in the same bed.

There was never a right time to say it.

It was always unnecessary.

The books in my father's shed were sighing.

The sheets were rising and falling around me with Anna's breathing.

I thought about waking her.

But it was unnecessary.

There would be other nights."

Would I recommend it? Yes. I crave great writing and although the story didn't meet my expectations the writing  lifted this book up to noteworthy status and I would definitely consider reading other things Jonathan Foer writes in the future.

Happy reading.

xoxo,

p

 

Book Review: The Kitchen House

A month or so ago I wrote another book review post and as it usually goes after finishing a good book I wonder what I am going to read next. I asked that very question last month and fortunately Tina came to my rescue. Tina has suggested several books to our book club and I thoroughly enjoyed everything she has come up with. She selects books that are well written and with characters that linger in your mind long after the last pages are read. When she gave me this title I knew it would be a good one. Thanks Tina. I was definitely not disappointed.

The Kitchen House is set in the South during the 1800's but before the Civil War. It is a story told from two different points of view. The first is that of a young immigrant girl. The girl, Lavinia, becomes an orphan while she and her family are traveling to America from Ireland. She is purchased  by a plantation owner who brings her back to his home as an indentured servant.  Lavinia is raised in the kitchen house with her new black family but ultimately is thrown into the privileged white world where she is forced to make many difficult choices.

The second point of view is that of a young woman who raises Lavinia like her own but must ultimately give her up to the life of privilege and comfort.

It is a story of compassion and conflict, good and evil, greed and generosity. A great read that could also make a compelling movie.

The only problem (again)  is what to read next. 

Tina? Are you reading this?

:0

I would love suggestions from all of you. Whether you read it recently or years ago, if it was great I would love to hear about it.

Have a great weekend.

xoxo,

:0

P

In the Rear View Mirror - My Summer Reads

Earlier this year I read some meatier reads including Sarah's Key,

all of the books in The Hunger Games Series, Room, and Oxygen.

With summer, though, I usually opt for lighter reading.

I started out with a humorous read by Claire Cook titled

Best Staged Plans

More Lifetime Movie than Oscar winner, I would still recommend it if you are looking for that quick fun read.

This is the relateable tale of a boomer generation house stager that is ready to downsize her home and is anxious for her twenty something son to get a plan and move on with his life so she can move on with hers. Although the plot is rather predictable and this is one of those stories that will fade from my memory in a few short years it was also one that made me laugh out loud as I saw pieces of myself and my own indecision as to what to do next in my life. For all of us decor minded bloggers, there are some fun design hints and ideas and some easy meal concepts and recipes ala Trader Joe's. Add in the life lesson to be grateful for what you have and you have the book that is Best Staged Plans.

Meaty? No. Fun? Absolutely.

 

I followed that book up with the saucier and definitely original

Georgia Bottoms.

 

Now Georigia Bottoms is one of the more intriguing characters I have run across in recent years. Her family has definitely seen better days and better financial times but Georgia is one resourceful southern cookie that wants to keep her family's misfortunes private. She is often referred to in book reviews as a modern day Scarlet O'Hara. In short, Georgia sets up an elaborate schedule of prominent men from her small community that each visit her on a different night of the week. None of these callers know about the others and although she never asks for money from her gentlemen friends, she is always grateful for their "gifts". If it happens to be money? Well that suits her just fine. Everything is going according to schedule until one of her "guests", the Baptist minister, decides to confess his sins to the congregation. Georgia takes the necessary steps to avoid this debacle and so the story begins.

Hilarious at times and totally fresh. This is a book they absolutely have to make into a movie. Who could they cast as Georgia? Mark Childress, the author suggested Sandra Bullock or Reese Witherspoon. I can see Sandra but as I was reading I kept seeing either Cameron Diaz or Julia Roberts. Someone closer to forty than thirty. 

As much as I enjoyed the book, the ending left me a little disconcerted. I feel like the story is only half told. What happens next. Georgia is one of those characters that maybe deserves a sequel.

I read my books on an iPad but I still rather look through the bookstores when I am considering a book. While at Target one day I perused one of their book end caps and ran across several titles that looked interesting so I pinned them. Don't you love Pinterest? When I got home I read some of the reviews of the books I had pinned and decided to go with The Island by Erin Hildebrand.    

This is the story of four women that spend an entire month together on a way too primitive for me island. The characters are a mother, her sister and two daughters. Each of these privileged white women bring their own emotional baggage to Tuckernuck and the outcome in the end was just a bit too nicely wrapped up for me. Maybe if I had a sister I would be able to relate better to this book. As it was, I enjoyed reading it but a year from now I will probably barely be able to recall the plot. I felt like the book was a bit too contrived. Even the names of the characters: Chess, Tate, Indie, and Birdie seemed borderline ridiculous. The story line of the daughter who breaks off her engagement and then hears that her ex fiance has fallen while rock climbing was a bit intriguing and is probably what kept me reading but ultimately I felt like this was a fluff piece that was trying to disguise itself as something much deeper and significant. I would probably give it 2 1/2 out of five stars.

The most recent book I read was the darkest of the four. That should have been obvious from the title.

The Murder's Daughters by Randy Susan Meyers

This was a book that I didn't really like but still could not stop reading. I do have a completion fetish but I am learning to close that book that I am getting nothing from. So, there was obviously something here that kept me turning the pages. It is definitely a compelling study into the psychology of how differently people deal with tragedy and the character's were complex enough to be intriguing but fortunately the subject matter is far removed for most people. The murder of these young girl's mother by their father takes place in the first chapter and the rest of the book that covers the next thirty years of their lives follows how these two girls turned women cope or don't cope with the tragedy. I found myself definitely identifying with the behavior of one sister over the other and that made me think that even though this book was disturbing at times it would make for an interesting book club discussion. If I were going to rate it today I would probably give it three stars. It is well written but still, like I said, not a book I really enjoyed reading but one I would not discourage anyone from picking up.

So what next? I have a friend that used to be in my book club and I always loved the books she chose. Two of my favorite books, Olive Kitteridge, and Mrs. Kimble were also her suggestions so I am pretty well convinced that this title that she sent my way, The Kitchen House, which tells the story of a white servant girl in a plantation house,

will be a winner too.

I'll get back to you on this one.

I am always looking for good titles so I'd love to hear what you have found to be noteworthy reading too.

Switching the subject, have you done any fall decorating at your house? If so, think about linking up to Motivated Monday here.

xoxo,

P

Oxygen - Another Recommended Read

 

 

I'm a hot mess and not in a good way.

 I've had a cold for what seems like forever.

It has been one of those hacking, nose honking, watery eyed colds that has nobody wanting to be in the same zip code as I am.

You know it is bad when you have a selection of cough drops because you have been dining on them for so long that you are now craving options. :)

That said, if you look hard enough there have been a few upsides to this whole convalescence period.

1. I haven't been in the stores for like ten days. 

   Chase Bank and American Express are getting concerned and thinking about sending out an all points bulletin.

My account balances have never been this low this many days into the month. :)

 

2. My husband doesn't want me contaminating anything in the kitchen so I haven't         cooked anything for four or five days. Not that that is terribly uncommon but I needed a number 2. 

3. I live with a germ-a- phobe so I have basically been relegated to the bedroom. which has allowed me to do a bit of extra reading.

My latest read was Oxygen by Carol Cassella

This book is gripping right from the the first page. The characters are believable and the author has an easy and insightful style of writing that help the reader to identify and empathize with several of the characters.

It is the story of an anesthesiologist that is at the top of her game and then the unthinkable happens and she loses a small child on the operating table.

The plot is an interesting dicotomy of the world of medicine and the justice system.

It is the kind of story that you can imagine hearing on the nightly news but this book explains the story behind the salacious headlines.

Although there is enough tension to make you want to keep reading just "one more chapter" I felt that this book was more about the psychology behind the story. The protagonist is going through the challenge of her life and this results in her projecting some of her own previously unresolved issues onto the mother who has lost her only child. It is a novel and successful writing technique that leads the reader through the results of the characters' choices helps  to reveal the protagonist's inner struggles.

A definite thumbs up for this one.

Now I'm onto Sarah's Key. Thank you Liz and Molly for the suggestion.

Happy reading.

xoxo,

P

 

Room by Emma Donoghue

Room.

My latest recommended read.

There are those books that are enjoyable reads but eventually they blur into a sea of past reads that we can barely remember.

You know what I mean. Somebody mentions them and you think, "I know I read that but I really can't remember much about it"

Then there are books like Room.

This is one of those haunting, lingering books that years from now I promise you will be able to recall vividly.

I used to read more but then in the last couple of years ( about the time I started blogging) I found myself picking up a book less and less often.

Maybe it was the blizzard of 2011.

Maybe it is because our book club has decided to take a break and for the first time in a long time I am reading what I want to read and not something someone else had selected.

Whatever it is, this winter I have found myself spending fewer hours in front of the computer or television and more hours curled up with my ipad.

Reading can be addictive.

So much so that lately I find myself hurrying to get through my to do lists so I can get back to my book.

With this book I cheated a lot and would skip the list and go right for the book.

It was just that good.

In short this is a story about a young woman that has been kidnapped and held captive for seven years in an 11 x 11 foot room by a man referred to only as Old Nick. During that time she has given birth to a son. When the book begins her son, Jack, is five years old. Born into captivity, the room is the only world he has ever known.

What makes the book unique is that it is told through Jack's point of view.

Donoghue does an amazing job with this technique.

We are privy to how sheltered and protected Jack is by his young mother but we are still able to glean the nefariousness and repulsiveness of Old Nick and their situation without dwelling on the salacious details.

 It is a story of not only survival but of resilience and empowerment.

Despite the darker side to this novel, there are moments of tenderness and hope.

It is available in hardback and on ibooks and Kindle.

If you have already read it I would love to hear what you think.

xoxo,

P

    

The Hunger Games

 

 

Like so many of you we have been surviving the historic Blizzard of '11.

Unlike a lot of you, I kind of relish a good storm.

As long as everybody I care about is safely off the roads, I look forward to hunkering down, and tucking in for a no- excuses- needed change- of -pace kind of time at home.

I did quite a bit of painting these past couple of days so I feel like I was at least productive.

I should be finished up with a number of my projects today and I will share them with you later this week.

I also did a lot of reading during the last couple of days.

My daughter first mentioned the book The Hunger Games to me around Christmas time.

Like me, she isn't a fan of Sci-fi but she insisted she couldn't put it down.

Well I decided that for the sake of attempting to be hip and informed I would give the book a whirl.

 

Before we went on a trip last fall I decided to break down and buy an iPad.

I had been looking at e-readers for awhile but I wasn't sure they were for me but in a moment of weakness I decided to take the plunge.

So glad I did.

I can't figure out why this series that has been such a blockbuster isn't available through itunes but I found that it was only $5.00 from Kindle so I purchased it there.

  I love that you can read Nook and Kindle books on the iPad too.

 

Liz warned me that the story line to this book would sound bizarre but if I could stick it out past the first couple of chapters that I would be hooked.

Smart girl. She was right. I couldn't put it down.

It is actually young adult literature but definitely meaty enough for the rest of us too.

It is easy an read and I read it in about a day and a half.

 The book is part of a trilogy and as soon as I turned the last page I wanted to know "Well now what? That can't be all." So yes, I bought the second book.

That is the beauty of an e-reader. You can instantly download without having to phsysically get in the car and drive somewhere.

The second book, Catching Fire, was in my hands a mere 30 seconds later.

 

 

 I doubt I will buy another hands on paper book of fiction.

I am running out of shelf space.

When it comes to magazines, coffee table books or art books, though, I still want the real thing.

So not to worry  Barnes and Noble, I will continue to peruse your aisles.

E-books are amazing but there isn't anything quite like wandering through a bricks and mortar bookstore.

I love taking in the smell of the books and the coffee the minute I come through the door and I could spend hours just meandering through the walls of books, thumbing through some of the featured titles laid out on the tables and making notes of my next reads.

With all that snow blowing around outside, though, it was  pretty sweet to experience the instant gratification of staying warm and dry and yet owning Catching Fire with just a few clicks.

 

This second book was a bit more. $7 something but it was also money well spent.

I knew I was much too engrossed in this book when during the blizzard our lights flickered.

My first fear was of losing heat but the very next thought to jump into my head was that I needed to be sure my iPad was fully charged so even if we lost power I could at least finish my book. : )

Then, as I was finishing the second book, my low battery message kept flashing at me about every five minutes.

I didn't want to stop reading so I kept hitting the dismiss button.

Now because we never did lose power, I could have plugged in the iPad and resumed reading but I didn't even want to stop long enough to do that.

I just resolved to read faster.

It was that enthralling.

So if you are looking for something that is definitely thought provoking and a bit out of the ordinary to entertain you  or your teenage readers during your hunkered down winter evenings you might want to consider these two books.

As for the third book in the series, The Mockingjay, I haven't started it yet.

I haven't even downloaded it.

The reviews are not nearly as good so I started reading something else instead.

Plus the first two left me a bit exhausted.

I felt like I had been right in the fight with the protagonist.

Still, I keep wondering about that third book and I'm thinking I should just give in to temptation and  find out how the whole story ends.

Have any of you read the books in this series?

What about Mockingjay?

I'd love to hear what you thought.

I've read that this trilogy is being made into a movie that will be out next spring.

This is one of those rare stories that could be every bit as fantastic on the big screen.

Happy reading.

xoxo,

P

Olive Kitteridge - Put It On Your Need to Read List

There are so many pluses and only one minus to being in a book club. The minus is that there are so many books out there that I would like to read. That is a problem because I never seem to find enough time to get to my "want to reads" because I am  often times slogging through my "needs to be read in time for book club" reads. As a result, this is my night table - stacked with good intentions.

 

I don't know when I will ever get them all read. Just yesterday I was at B & N and bought another one; The Roses. So the pile grows. I never seem to whittle it down.I Read one. Add one. Read one. Add one. It's a wonderfully vicious circle.

On the other hand, the upside to being in a book club, outside of the obvious time with friends, good food and good wine is that I am exposed to books that I would probably not otherwise read. Olive Kitteridge is one of those books. Until this month I wasn't even aware of its existence despite the fact that it won a Pulitzer in 2009. So thank you Molly for selecting this book. 

This novel is a series of short stories that are subtly intertwined by the repeating appearance of the namesake central character, Olive Kitteridge. The book is set in a small gossip ridden town in Maine but it is anything but provincial because these stories and events could take place anywhere.

 I really enjoyed Elizabeth Strout's complicated characters. They reminded me of various people I have known. They are neither black or white but undulating shades of grey. I would vacillate between empathizing with them in one chapter and then thinking that their particular point of view was way off the mark in the next. The author doesn't lead the reader to draw any conclusions one way or another about these people. Instead, she masterfully presents the stories and situations through the dialog of the various characters. In the end each reader brings to the story his or her own past experiences that ultimately influence the way they interpret each of the many complex characters. 

The following in one of my favorite passages from the book. It exemplifies how matter of fact Olive is and how she just tells it like she sees it. In this scene Olive is corresponding by email with a recent acquaintance about the fact that neither of them have a positive or close relationship with their adult children.

    She waited two days. Then she wrote: "My son hates me too."

    An hour later came the response. "Does it kill you? It kills me that my daughter hates me. But I know it's my fault."

    She wrote immediately. "It kills me. Like the devil. And it must be my fault too, though I don't understand it. I don't remember things the way he seems to remember them.

It is such a simple exchange yet it so raw and says so much. Whether you like Olive is a matter of opinion and perspective but you have to admire her honesty and her simple speak. This is definitely a book you should move to the top of your reading pile.

Happy reading,

Pam

 

New Inspiration - Kim Parker HOME

 

As many of you know, earlier this month I participated in The Traveling Door event at Klik's. This is the TV cabinet that was sitting in my library in an earlier post about Surviving on Zone Bars. The final product wasn't anything like the version in my head. Sometimes it just works out that way. Either mistakes or trying something new can lead me in a totally new direction. I have always been inspired by Sticks. I think that explains some of the black and white and word elements in my work. Actually the black and white and the quotes may go as far back as the Mary Engelbreit influence on me  in the late 80's and early 90's. I have always been a fan of Sister Parrish and more recently of the fabrics of Susan Sargent and the art of  Thomas McKnight. I realize it really isn't all that random. All of these artists use exuberant colors, mixed prints, and a playful style.

 

Yesterday I made what was supposed to be a quick stop at Barnes and Nobel. That really is an oxymoron because there is really no such thing as a quick stop at B and N. I went in to pick up a couple of magazines and ended up back in the crafts and home decor section. That is where I ran across this great book.

 

 

They say you can't tell a book by it's cover, but I knew from this colorful photograph that I was going to fall in love with this one. Just look at that pillow! Kim Parker is not a trained artist - another reason I am drawn to her. In fact she is actually an accomplished flutist. Her colorful designs, though, have been incorporated into rugs, dishes and prints. This book is full of contemporary floral prints that will be a great resource for color combinations and design inspiration. If you are a fan of bright color you will want to check this out.