= Okay read
= Not recommended
= Ugh! Don't waste your time.
Archive for August 31st, 2008
Sunday, August 31st, 2008Maus I and Maus II - Book Reviews
Art Spiegelman won the 1992 Pulitzer Prize under the category of Special Awards and Citations - Letters for his amazing graphic books Maus I and Maus II. The books comprise a powerful memoir which recounts the lives and survival of the author’s parents Vladek and Anja Spiegelman during WWII in Poland where they were eventually captured and transported to Auswchitz. But it is also a story about Art Spiegelman’s difficult relationship with his father, and the impact of survival on the survivor’s family.
Told in a cartoon format where the Jews are portrayed as mice and the Nazi soldiers as cats, the story gains much of its power from the form in which it is written.
Spiegelman alternates between Poland during the war (where Vladek recounts the terrible and terrifying days of the Nazi occupation) and Rego Park, New York in the 1980s (where Art and his aging father struggle to establish meaningful lives together).
The result is a story which compels the reader to keep turning the pages while terror comes to life through vivid illustrations. It is a story of survival and finally of love - love between a man and a woman which the German camps could not destroy, and love between a father and son. Maus I: My Father Bleeds History and Maus II: And Here My Troubles Began are powerful documentaries of a family who survived the Holocaust and its impact on their future and the child who was born after the war.
This was my first foray into Graphic Art as story and I was moved and touched by it. If you decide to read Spiegelman’s work, you must read both books, back to back without a rest in between.
Highly recommended.
Sunday Salon - August 31, 2008
August 31, 2008
11:00AM
Good morning, Saloners and all my other faithful readers! I have some business to take care of first, then on to the real reason for this post - thoughts on reading.
Business #1: Book Blogger Appreciation Week is September 15th through 19th (I blogged about this here). My Friend Amy is currently accepting nominations in a number of categories - have you nominated your favorite blogs yet? If you want to see all the blogs which are currently registered, check out Ocelott’s Journal where they are all listed alphabetically.
Business #2: My Sweetsmoke Giveaway closes on September 3rd. I’ll take entries until 5:00pm PCT and then I’ll draw a winner. Don’t miss out on a chance (or five) to win a signed, hardcover, first edition copy of this terrific book!
Business #3: TLC Book Tours is spotlighting Kathleen McLeary and her book House and Home beginning September 3rd. To get the schedule, visit the Authors On Tour page of TLC Book Tours. Caribousmom will be the site of this tour on September 17th and will feature a guest post by the author. Also watch my blog for a review of McLeary’s book!
Now onto reading thoughts…
I finished reading Rose Tremain’s The Colour this week (read my review). She has a tremendous gift of creating characters and immersing the reader in setting. I think I’ve found myself a new favorite author. I’m looking forward to readingl her novel Music and Silence for the CafeDeiLetterati Yahoo group in October; and Miriam from Little, Brown and Company (Hachette Book Group) has been gracious enough to offer me a review copy of Tremain’s Orange Prize winning book The Road Home. I can’t wait to sink into it (it arrived Friday!).
I zipped through Love Walked In by Marisa de los Santos (read my review) - much lighter fare than Tremain, but thoroughly enjoyable. You might remember my rave review of her sequel to this book (read my review of Belong To Me) earlier in the year. Even though I read these in reverse, it didn’t matter much. If you enjoy well-written Chick Lit (also known as Women’s Fiction or Summer Reading), I can recommend de los Santos.
I read Maus I: My Father Bleeds History, by Art Spiegelman yesterday in one big gulp and today will finish Maus II: And Here My Troubles Began by the same author. This is my first foray into graphic novels (although these are actually memoirs, not novels) and I was not sure I’d enjoy them. But, I could have saved my doubts. These are powerful books which examine how people survived the Holocaust, and how that survival not only impacted their futures, but the lives of their children as well. I would highly recommend both of these books. I’ll be posting a review of both of Spiegelman’s books later today.
So what’s on your reading pile today? Whatever it is, I hope you will enjoy it!
Sunday, August 31st, 2008The Chick Lit Challenge
June 1 - September 1, 2008
UPDATE August 31, 2008: I completed this challenge on August 29, 2008. It was really fun to read these light, very well-written novels. There wasn’t a bad one in the bunch! Thank you Debi for hosting the challenge!
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Hosted by Debi at Journey to the End of the TBR Pile, the Chick Lit Challenge is simple: Read three books from the Chick Lit genre. I have a few of these on my TBR pile, so it was hard to say no to this one! Here’s my list (subject to change):
- The Wednesday Sisters, by Meg Wait Clayton (COMPLETED June 10, 2008; rated 5/5; read my review)
- Rules for Saying Goodbye, by Katherine Taylor (COMPLETED August 4, 2008; rated 4.5/5; read my review)
- Love Walked In, by Marisa de los Santos (COMPLETED August 29, 2008; rated 4/5; read my review)
The Well-Rounded Challenge
July 1 - December 31, 2008
UPDATE: August 31, 2008: I have completed this challenge (actually reading one more book than I needed to without realizing it!). My favorite book in this challenge was a toss up between The Poisonwood Bible, The Colour, and People of the Book. I rated all of them 5/5 and can highly recommend these novels. Thank you to Jan for hosting this fun challenge!
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Jan is hosting A Well-Rounded Challenge which will help all challenge addicts get their challenge books read…How? By reading 1 book from 6 different challenges for which you’ve signed up.
Here are the rules as posted on the challenge blog:
- Any combination of challenges works.
- You must be signed up with the other challenges.
- You may listen to eAudio, cassette tapes or compact discs.
- You may read all six books from the same challenge.
- To be well-rounded however means stretching yourself to include as many challenges (and books) as you can fit into this six month time frame.
- You don’t have to blog or write a review (but you can if you want to).
- Even if a challenge begins after July you may use it for this challenge.
- Even if a challenge ends after 12/31/08 you may use it for this challenge.
My plan is to read one book from each of these challenges:
- Celebrate the Author - Hotel Du Lac, by Anita Brookner (COMPLETED July 22, 2008; rated 4.5/5; read my review)
- Every Day is a Holiday - Crossing the River, by Caryl Phillips (COMPLETED August 7, 2008; rated 4/5; read my review)
- 888 Challenge - People of the Book, by Geraldine Brooks (COMPLETED July 4, 2008; rated 5/5; read my review)
- Chick Lit - Love Walked In, by Marisa de los Santos (COMPLETED August 29, 2008; rated 4/5; read my review)
- TBR 2008 - The Poisonwood Bible, by Barbara Kingsolver (COMPLETED July 12, 2008; rated 5/5; read my review)
- Orange Prize Project - The Colour, by Rose Tremain (COMPLETED August 25, 2008; rated 5/5; read my review)
- My Year of Living Dangerously - Leftovers, by Laura Weiss (COMPLETED July 31, 2008; rated 3/5; read my review)
Love Walked In - Book Review
My life - my real life - started when a man walked into it, a handsome stranger in a perfectly cut suit and, yes, I know how that sounds. Or I know how it might sound, to the kind of person I used to be, one who spent her days skirting around the edges of adulthood, commitment, responsibility, accomplishment - whatever word you use to describe diving into the deepest part of being human. Take your pick; they’re all woefully inadequate, but they’re also all we have. -From Love Walked In, page 287-
Cornelia Brown, a cafe store manager living in Philadelphia, hasn’t decided what to do with her life. But all that changes when Martin Grace, a handsome and seemingly perfect guy, walks into the coffee shop one day and Cornelia’s life takes a turn which will forever change her future.
Love Walked In is written in two points of view - that of Cornelia as she wrestles with who she is - and that of Clare Hobbs - an eleven-year old girl who is hiding a secret and struggling to cope with her mother’s bipolar disease. In this novel about love, overcoming hardship and loss, and the power of human connection, the reader will meet Martin (a man whose narcissism is tempered by his desire to do the right thing), Linny (Cornelia’s best friend with an uncanny ability to see beneath the surfaces and discern exactly what the truth is), and Teo (Cornelia’s stunning, green-eyed brother-in-law who is almost too good to be true).
Earlier this year I read the sequel to this novel: Belong to Me (reviewed here) which I loved. The two books really should be read in order, but I found that reading them out of order did not take away any of my pleasure at getting to know the characters. Marisa de los Santos writes from the heart - she creates characters who live, breathe and dance through life; characters who could be your best friend or your brother or sister.
Love Walked In is women’s fiction (aka “chick lit”) at its best. Funny, touching and ultimately satisfying, this is a novel I can recommend to those who love this genre.
