On Goals - Volume 2

Lest my readers fear, let me offer this information:  My goal (40 books, 40 movies [HA!] in my 40th year) is a calendar year goal.  I am not trying to reach this goal by my birthday (which looms ominously).  I am shooting for 40 books by December 31, and I'm nearly halfway through the books, and just over halfway through the year, so I'm feeling fine about it all.

Also, as has been previously discussed, my contribution to the movie side of my goal has been woefully inadequate.  To date, I still have only watched three movies this year.  Three!  Three movies in more than 6 months!  

If I could count episodes of The Family Guy towards my movie goal, I would have already knocked this one out of the park.  But that's not the goal I set for myself.  Aaaaaaanyway.  It has been pointed out that it's still POSSIBLE to watch 37 movies between now & December 31.  It would take commitment, and a definite change in my patterns.  But it's possible.

Stay tuned. 

Book #19 - The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

Though I haven't been in more than a year, I still consider myself a member of the women's book group at my church.  I follow what's on the book list, and sometimes even try to organize myself and my reading to get to a meeting.  Recently, the book group read The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot.  I didn't make it to the meeting, but I did finally read / finish the book.

It's the (nonfiction) story behind the HeLa cells -- the most prolific human cell line ever propagated.  Henrietta Lacks was a black woman in Baltimore, MD, born in 1926, who was diagnosed with cervical cancer in 1951 at Johns Hopkins Hospital.  Her physician biopsied her tumor, and used the biopsy not only to diagnose her cancer, but also as a research tool.  He realized quickly that her cells, unlike most human cells removed from a body, were incredibly vibrant: easy to reproduce, sustain, and work with.

Skloot does a good job making the story rich and interesting: she brings in family history, the background of the Johns Hopkins Hospital, the evolution of medical testing in the United States (a particularly unsavory story), and the effect (or lack thereof) of this historic scientific phenomenon on Lacks' surviving family.  

So the fact that it was a slog for me to get through the book is not a testament to the book, but rather to my weaknesses as a reader.  I just love a novel.  I just do.  I always feel virtuous after I read a nonfiction book, as though I've just had a vitamin, but I don't feel satisfied.  

Book #18 - The Magician King

I am behind on blogging, but am still reading, so fear not, fearless readers.

I read the sequel to The Magicians, which is The Magician King, by Lev Grossman.  I loved the Magicians (for reasons you can read in the previous post...), and The Magician King just blew the lid off the first book. It was Awesome Squared.

If you are not a dyed-in-the-wool [read: obsessed] fan of the Narnia Chronicles, maybe you won't love these books as much as I did.  But I think they're better than just fan fiction; I think they're great, interesting, challenging, smart novels.

I've been trying to get my Dear Husband to read the first one, and I haven't yet formulated a convincing enough sales pitch, so if any of you have better ways of describing the awesome, please share.

Book #17 - The Spellmans Strike Again (Document #4 in the Spellman Files)

Something I notice about myself (about reading, but also in general):

I go on jags.
I can eat the same lunch (Boloco black bean burrito with extra salsa and lettuce, in case you're interested) 25 work days in a row.
I can listen to the same album (Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson, in case you're interested) so many times on repeat that I dream about the lyrics.
And, apparently, I can easily fall into a pattern of reading (and more notably, forgetting to keep up with) mystery series.

I got the most recent Lisa Lutz book, Trail of the Spellmans (part of the wonderful Izzy Spellman mystery series), and I was ~15 pages in when I realized why I was so confused:  I had never read the previous book in the series.  SO, I went back and got The Spellmans Strike Again, and read that, and enjoyed it, and am now actually ready to read the most recent book in the series.

But, has anyone noticed that the last two novels I read were installments in series?
In mystery series?
In mystery series I had forgotten to keep up with?

I'm leaving this particular jag.  (For the moment, at least.)

Book #16 - The Weed that Strings the Hangman's Bag

When we drove to Canada recently, I realized that there wouldn't be kids in the car (translation: I would not have to listen -- sorry -- GET to listen to endless hours of Laurie Berkner or The (new) Muppets).  And I knew it was a long enough drive that it was likely D would want to snooze (translation: I could listen to books on CD, which put him to sleep anyway...).

So I wandered around the audio book section at our library, trying to figure out what would be fun, interesting, new, and accessible via audio.  Finally I landed on the second book in the Flavia de Luce mystery series by Alan Bradley, which is The Weed that Strings the Hangman's Bag.  [I only ended up listening to the first 1/3, so had to go to the library to get the actual paper book, to find out what happened!]

For the uninitiated:  Flavia de Luce is a 10-11 year old English girl, living in a run-down manor (? castle?) in the countryside of England, with her widower-ed* father and mean older sisters.  Flavia is passionate about (and talented with -- which is handy, when you're solving murder mysteries...) chemistry.  The novels are set in the 1940-50s (just a bit later than the Maisie Dobbs novels).

This is most definitely a series, so no one would (translation: should) jump into it with the second novel, so I am not going to go into a plot summary.  But here are two thoughts:
1)  I always thought this was a YA series, and was quite surprised to be sent downstairs to the Mystery section to find the novel.  That is not a testament to the quality of the writing -- more to the voice of the narrator / hero.
2)  I am interested in reading the third novel in the series, but I also somehow completely forgot about the series between reading the first one (2-3 years ago) and this one.  As usual, not sure if this is about me as a reader or the author's gripping ability, but I'm just throwing it out there.  To the ~twelve people who glance at this blog.

*WTH is the adjective of "widower"?

Book #15 - A Lesson In Secrets

Have you read any of the Maisie Dobbs mysteries? It's a series by Jacqueline Winspear, set in post-WWI London.  Maisie, the hero, is a WWI vet (she was a war nurse) and a psychologist-cum-private-investigator.    A Lesson In Secrets, the eighth in the series, tells of Maisie being hired by the Secret Service to go to a suspect new college in Cambridge, reportedly espousing "peace studies;" the Secret Service worries it's a breeding ground for the Red Menace.

This series of novels is so evocative of the post-War London vibe: the crippled economy, the wounded men, the pervasive anxiety of the shell-shocked nation.  However, I find that Winspear's characters are less vivid.  I can't quite remember, from novel to novel, which one is Inspector Whats-his-face, and which Detective-Whoosis.  And as for the mysteries, they are even more ephemeral.  I remember there was one with feathers, but heck if I remember what happened.  There was another one where they went picking hops, and I'm sure Maisie investigated something while there, but I haven't the faintest recollection of what she was digging into.

I'm sure this is more a reflection of my slapdash reading (a.k.a., skimming) than Winspear's talent.  Nonetheless, I'm not rushing to get the newest Maisie Dobbs book...

Book #14 - Invisible Monsters

It felt like a hurried selection, but that's because I'm a half-assed participant, but my awesome book group nominated Invisible Monsters by Chuck Palahniuk as our May novel.

I was a little nervous, because I had tried (and failed) to read Choke by the same author, and found it too...too...too much. Too graphic, too gross, too scary, too horrifying.  So I was not excited to try Invisible Monsters.

I think this blog -- and possibly my whole reading life?? -- might be about how it's really awesome to be challenged by other readers to try something I might have otherwise passed by.

Invisible Monsters was great.  Weird (but not incomprehensible), scary (but not terrifying), gripping, and relevant (as we all think about who we are, and who we want to be in the world).  I am so glad to have read it.