Tess of the D'Urbervilles, Thomas Hardy (1891)

Reviewer: BeezusKiddo

Rating: 4 pierogies. It takes a LOT to get me to give something a 5. I thought this was a great book, but it didn't break into 5 territory.

Review: Although written a mere 30 years after Dickens' Great Expectations, I was surprised to find the language in Thomas Hardy's Tess of the D'Urbervilles to be significantly more accessible to a modern reader.

I selected Tess because my friend Katy described it as "COMPLETELY MISEARABLE." I cannot resist such a review.

 

Tess of the D'Urbervilles follows young Tess of a working class (nearly starving) family named "Durbeyfield" in rural England. Her father is informed that his family actually descends from a line of the D'Urbervilles, a once-thought-extinct noble family. Tess' father sends her out to "make kin" with a local family also named D'Urberville, but it turns out that they actually paid for the name.

The introduction pushes Tess into the hands of Alec D'Urberville who, well to summarize all the ups and downs of this rather long novel, RUINS HER LIFE FOREVER. Tess is a sweet and industrious woman, but she internalizes every brush with bad fortune (and there are certainly many) and blames every one of these unfortunate turns on herself.

This is completely projecting, but I saw Tess as a symbolic of modern American womanhood, and all of the challenges women are facing with health access issues and even larger cultural perceptions toward women. This is not entirely out of place-- apparently in its own time Tess brought issues of womens' morality and sexuality to the forefront of the cultural conversation. These issues cross time and country.

High school is that time where you are supposed to really get into the "Classics." (I suppose that's for college, too, but I did most of my literature classes in German, and the classes I took in English literature were usually obscure ones like Pop Culture, Chaucer, or Children's Literature). My time in high school wasted entirely too much time on Shakespeare. Yes, Shakespeare's good to read, but we didn't have to read his works every single year of high school. That's a lot of time wasted that could have been used on other authors. Tess would be perfect for an 11th or 12th grade lit class. Its language is easy and flowing, and there's enough drama and heartache to get young minds engaged. Lets give Hamlet a rest for a bit, and put Tess on those reading lists.

Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me (and other concerns), Mindy Kaling (2011)

Reviewer: BeezusKiddo

Rating: 4 delicious homemade pierogies slathered in fried onions. (fantastic, but not quite a "5")

Review: Dude, this book is funny.

 

Mindy Kaling is a producer for The Office, did some writing for SNL, and wrote a hit off-off-Broadway play. You know she's funny. Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me isn't a book of jokes. Instead its funny in that OMG I TOTALLY DO THAT, TOO kind of way.

I found myself comparing it to Tina Fey's Bossypants (probably because Bossypants was the only other comedy book I've read in a while), but loved Kaling's book a whole lot more. Bossypants is tinged with stress and anxiety, while Kaling is totally laid back and fun.

Kaling's book is assembled from a number of essays on whatever topic happened to pop in her head. She jokes about her chubby childhood, and her ascent to a hit TV show-- which was filled with plenty of ill chosen sweaters and goofing off.

You don't want to just read about Kaling, you want to jump right in and BE HER BEST FRIEND. This book was exactly the medicine I needed after just finishing the excellent but long Tess of the D'Urbervilles. This book is fast, fun, and short. I read it in 2 days, and didn't even have to stay up super late for it.

Bachelor Number One, Mishka Shubaly (2012)

Reviewer: BeezusKiddo

Rating: 3.5 pierogies

Review: I stumbled upon this book browsing through the Kindle Owners Lending Library (a feature of Amazon Prime that lets you borrow one book for free per month, and advertises itself as offering thousands of titles, but unfortunately most of them suck).



This is Shubaly's third Kindle Single, and he has a hand for writing fun and light novellas. Apparently he has had a kind of insane life, full of drinking, drugs, and getting shipwrecked. He writes these shorts about the (mis)adventures he has found himself in. They're a little pessimistic and self-depricating, but completely entertaining.

I love the accomplishment of plowing through a book in one or two evenings. Shubaly's writing is fun, and makes me feel like some genius speed reader (the whole thing is maybe like 100 pages). Bachelor Number One recounts Shubaly's turn at eligibility for a television dating show.

The book is focused on the absurdity of the whole audition process, and is rather funny (although not entirely surprising). Unfortunately, right when the book is really starting to pick up steam is where the whole thing ends. And not "ends" like in "leaves a cliffhanger for a sequel" but "ends" as in "the bottom falls out of the story and its done." I would have liked it to go a bit longer, but it is a book about his life after all, and sometimes life doesn't give you the plotline you're looking for.

Although summer reading lists are quickly coming to a close, Shubaly's a shoo-in if you need something light to read on the beach (you lucky dog, you), or on an airplane.

Cutting for Stone, Abraham Verghese (2010)

Reviewer:  BeezusKiddo

Rating:  5 glorious homemade pierogies, slathered with fried onions



One of my favorite things about the book club I'm in is that we take turns in selecting the book. Each member gets a month. She can pick whatever the heck she wants in her month, and doesn't have to deal with winning people over to her choice. The result of this is that we cover very broad ground in genre and style. Best of all-- it gets me to read books I would not otherwise pick up. Sometimes these books, like Cutting for Stone, are magnificent.

Admittedly, I almost didn't read it at all. This book was up for discussion in July, and I wasn't able to make it to the meeting. I was already running a bit behind on some other things I was reading. Also, the book was selected by my friend Viki. Viki is a wonderful person, but she and I have just about polar opposites in reading tastes, so I assumed this book wouldn't be to my liking.

The bookjacket description wasn't doing much for me either:  

Marion and Shiva Stone are twin brothers born of a secret union between a beautiful Indian nun and a brash British surgeon. Orphaned by their mother’s death and their father’s disappearance, bound together by a preternatural connection and a shared fascination with medicine, the twins come of age as Ethiopia hovers on the brink of revolution. Moving from Addis Ababa to New York City and back again, Cutting for Stone is an unforgettable story of love and betrayal, medicine and ordinary miracles--and two brothers whose fates are forever intertwined.

 Ok, love, betrayal, miracles. These are all supposed to GRAB your attention, but for me, it seemed kind of blah.

Then I had the guilt. In the year or so of this book club's operation, there has been one book I didn't finish because I just did not like it. I've never skipped a book entirely. What a bad book club member I would be if I didn't even give it a try.

This isn't the kind of novel that sucks you right in with action and adventure. It's more like sitting around a fire with an old relative, telling you a story of life in the old country...and you start to listen, and your attention to the room around you fades as you are drawn in by the words and the figures, and before you realize what has happened, you are surrounded by the story, and can't (and don't want to) pry your attention away.

 

It's hard to explain the plot of Cutting for Stone, because it's so much more about the people. There's plenty of plot in there too-- war, danger, all that exciting stuff. But this book truly shines in its characters-- devoted Ghosh, admirable Hema, flawed Genet, hardworking and heartbroken Marion, and selfish but simple Shiva.

On a scale of 1 to 5, I hand out "4's" generously. If I think something is a good use of my time, it's a "4." But a rating of "5" I withhold for books that I think are truly amazing. This book really is a 5. Nice pick, Viki.

Aftertaste, Meredith Mileti (2011)

Reviewer:  BeezusKiddo

Rating: 3 pierogies.

Review: I first learned of Aftertaste from a piece in Pop City Media. The article described Aftertaste as a story about Mira, an up and coming NY Chef, who stumbles into personal troubles and returns to her hometown of Pittsburgh, with her young daughter in tow. Returning to Pittsburgh as an adult, she discovers it to be a great town to rebuild, and a great town for food.

 

The trouble was, that's not how the book came across to me. The main character, Mira, was a foodie to a fault. As a well educated and well traveled Italian chef, she has a taste for fine foods. However, she seems to only have a taste for fine foods, and that is where she lacks depth. She discusses the exquisite baby foods she prepares for her daughter-- butternut squash souffle, and the like. There is nothing wrong with having a taste for the exquisite, but with the exception of certain biscotti (called "Bruno's biscotti" in the novel, but easily recognizable as Enrico's), she is incapable of enjoying simple pleasures.

Mira pines for the fine dining scene of New York and the restaurant she left behind. At one point she mentions visiting the Carnegie Library to research the Pittsburgh dining scene "which took like 5 minutes." Yes, 10 years ago, the dining scene could be researched top to bottom in about 5 minutes. That is certainly not the case anymore. It was unclear whether Mira's inability to appreciate the Pittsburgh dining world was due to the chip on her own shoulder, or the author's poor research. It doesn't matter which, it was frustrating.

 

Pittsburgh is not New York. It does not purport to be. Pittsburghers have a taste for meat and potatoes, comfort foods and fried things. But Pittsburghers are also eager to experiment, and incredibly supportive of new ventures. This plotline is rich with the opportunity to discuss how much Pittsburgh LOVES to see a new restaurant, and especially to see it succeed (as contrasted with the dog-eat-dog world of NYC). For a prime example, take a look at the Pittsburgh Taco Truck. The taco truck has not even opened for business, and it has already developed a massive loyal following, excited to help the business prosper.

The "aftertaste" this novel left with me was that Mira would grace the 'burgh with her refined tastes, and teach the city a bit about fine dining. It felt condescending. I wish Mileti would have dug a little deeper into Pittsburgh's food community, and explored how new ideas, innovation, and hard work are cherished. That would have been a great story.

Gone Girl: A Novel, Gillian Flynn (2012)

Reviewer:  BeezusKiddo

Rating:  3, maybe 4, pierogies

Review: Gone Girl just KEPT coming up over and over again in my recommendations on Goodreads, Amazon, etc. Initially it didn't look too interesting to me, but then stupid Gwyneth Paltrow included a blurb about it in her stupid GOOP newsletter, and I decided I did want to read it. (Gwyneth's newsletter fills me with rage at her elitism and her obliviousness to HOW NORMAL PEOPLE LIVE, yet I feel COMPELLED to continue reading it, even though it makes me cray-cray.)



I can't say too much about the plot of this book, because there are a lot of twists and turns, and I don't want to give anything away. The novel begins with Amy-- a New York transplant to Missouri, who agreed to move to her husband's hometown after they both were laid off-- going missing. Her husband, Nick, appears to have been caught unawares, but after some unusual behavior from him, the police begin to suspect him.

The rest of the novel tracks down the suspicious circumstances around Amy's disappearance, as well as explores their sometimes blissful but other times rocky marriage. Gone Girl really was the kind of novel I was looking for right now. It is a light read, requires little thinking, but is full of action.

The plot was engaging enough that I stayed up late a few nights reading it, but not so gripping as to keep me at the edge of my seat, an up all night reading just to find out what's coming next.

If you're looking for something to read on the beach or on a plane, Gone Girl is a good pick. I can't see it winning any literary awards, but it does have the chops for bestseller lists.

My Horizontal Life, Chelsea Handler (2005)

Reviewer: BeezusKiddo

Rating:  4 pierogies, of the light summer reading variety

Review:  Chelsea Handler's got a solid line of comedy-- she knows what works and she sticks with it. My Horizontal Life is the same mix of self-depricating and hilarious stories of Chelsea's sex life, with a few anecdotes about her crazy family thrown in. I find that readers run hot/cold with Chelsea. Either they think she's hilarious or they think she's boring and gross, and don't get what the hype is about. That seems to be how comedy works in general, though, either you love it or you don't.



I have an Amazon Prime membership (that free 2-day shipping is a lifesaver, for all those millions of times I've forgotten to pick up Diaper Genie refills), which includes 1 free rental per month from the Kindle Lending library. The Kindle Lending Library touts itself as offering thousands of books for free check-out, but with the exception of a few bestsellers, it's one huge dollar bin. In June, I made the mistake of checking out a book so terrible that I could not go beyond the 10th page (I suspect it was written by an angry high school student). I couldn't check it back in for another rental, thanks to the 1-free-rental per month limit, so I was anxiously awaiting July 1 so I could return that garbage and get something new.

In those long weeks of waiting I discovered that hidden between all the lending library books that NO ONE wants, a Chelsea Handler book was actually offered. Yesterday morning, when the calendar turned to July, I greedily downloaded the book and read the whole thing that same day.

The book is a super-fast no-brainer, and just the kind of light reading I was looking for to kick off this summer. It's an ideal book to bring on an airplane or to the beach, or in my case, camping. The book is a lot of fun, you don't have to think, and when you finish you feel super accomplished for reading the whole thing in just one day. Wins all around!