Party Lights
Title: The Summer We Read Gatsby
Author: Danielle Ganek
Publisher: Viking
Genre: Literary Romance
Length: 292 pages
Something about seeing all the Christmas lights go up, and holiday party planning for the winter, led me to this book – despite its summer setting in the Hamptons heat. I suppose the deep autumn of Texas has similar weather patterns to summertime in the country of New York, but I don’t know as I’ve never been there. I just know that it’s anywhere from the upper 80’s to the lower 40’s all this Thanksgiving week, depending on the moment and precipitation.
Christmas in Texas always has a flair of Fitzgerald about it to me anyway. This is the time of year when people pull out garden lights, candles, splashes of extravagant color, sparkly dresses, and dine outside where it’s cool. This is when we cook breakfast together in over crowded houses and drink mimosas until noon, only to start pouring wine in its place by lunch. (Naturally we evolve into beer and football by mid afternoon, but that’s not very Gatsby of us is it. We only have so much ridiculous classy flair before we go full on redneck, after all.)
Still, there’s an appropriate place in my winter heart for this summer read, and I loved every second and every page of this witty little romance that had a Whole Nine Yards touch of mystery. I say romance, but the romance isn’t as much for *the guy* as it is for a house – Fool’s House – and a pair of sisters.
Ganek didn’t pull any punches, she created a perfect piece of over the top fiction with all the glitter and glam of the overly fictitious. All those moments you’ve had in your life when you’re staring at people thinking, what a character, they could be in a book. They are in a book. This book. The storytellers, the actors, the gay guy, the foreigners, the artists, the deceased benefactor, the millionaire, the villains, all the archetypes that don’t quite fit their mold… they’re all here, fluttering about like a party of confetti and lights, ready to entertain.
I loved it. It’s a keeper and I’ll read it again.
Anemogram
Title: Anemogram
Author: Rebecca Gransden
Publisher: Cardboard Wall Empire
Genre: Mysterious Fiction
Length: 242 pages
anemograph: (ə·nem′ə·graf, -gräf) noun Meteorol. An instrument that makes an automatic record of the velocity, force, or direction of the wind.
anemogram: An anemographic record
From start to finish Gransden’s work had a haunting feel to it. The description itself required to ask her before I agreed to review the book if I should be concerned… if there were any Lolita elements to the story. I was not emotionally in a place to handle anything involving molestation or inappropriate relationships.
No, the author assured me. No, I assure you.
Still, page by page, there’s the constant wonder if you’re about to get hoodwinked by the story. Gransden’s prose is songlike and her subject matter is mysterious and disconcerting, without ever crossing a line. Or did it? I’m still not sure.
Just as a ghost-like girl weaves in and out of the woods, in and out of society, almost like a dream, the story weaves in and out of itself – chapter-less – smoothly, but with the momentum of a sharp breeze at your back on a day you know you should have worn a sweater.
Something of the story feels a little Elizabeth George to me, and a little bit Chuck Palahniuk. (Two authors with nothing in common, except somehow they hung out in the recesses of my brain while I read Gransden’s work.) I wonder what she thinks of them.
I write this review now because the author has been waiting for it for sometime. I was sent this book from her in exchange for an honest review, but I think I’d have to sleep on it a bit before I truly know what I think of it. It deserves pondering, and discussion. It deserves a re-read in varying moods to see if that changes my own perception of things. How much of what I feel now is Gransden’s writing skill and the mood she wanted to portray and how much is because of my own current mood?
Anemogram would make for an excellent book club selection and I’d recommend it to a group who typically chooses mysteries, although I’m hesitant to place it in the category.
Learning Dangerously
Title: The Year of Learning D
angerously
Author: Quinn Cummings
Genre: Parenting/ Education/ Humor
I found The Year of Learning Dangerously tucked on a clearance shelf at work as I was cleaning the last hour of my shift. I bought it that night on my way out the door, and spent the following day off reading it.
I laughed. I laughed so hard I couldn’t breath. I loved it, every page, every moment, every encounter Cummings had with fellow homeschool families as she tried to find “her tribe.”
I couldn’t sit and read silently, every few lines I had something to share with whoever happened to be sitting next to me. I laughed, they laughed, we laughed until we cried. We felt for Cummings, all her quirks make her endearing to me. Her anxieties and personal electro-magnetic field make her my spirit animal.
While I laughed and felt camaraderie with Cummings in all her panic attacks, all her self doubt, but ultimately in her absolute decision that this was the lifestyle for her – my husband, apparently, spent that time doubting our educational plans. Plans we’ve had in place since before kiddo was even born.
It’s interesting how everyone’s life experience can be so different despite living and breathing the same air and being part of the same bubble. I see the world for what it is and find more determination for our lifestyle choices. Others look at the exact same thing and come to a completely contradictory conclusion, and give up.
Whatever your life choices, whether you are a homeschool family or simply people who love to laugh – Quinn Cummings’s memoir is fantastic. I couldn’t put it down and my abs thank me for it.
On a kick for parenting humor, I picked up It Sucked And Then I Cried by Heather B. Armstrong. I’ll let you know how it goes, but so far her snark is outstanding.
Notes from a plane at 38,000 feet
Wonderful post…
How I like to write
Ask David Nicholls (author of One Day) why he is drawn to Thomas Hardy: ‘because it’s “big and emotional and moving and people identify with it”‘.
I watched the critically acclaimed ‘Far from the Madding Crowd’ (Thomas Vinterberg / David Nicholls adaptation) on the plane from Gatwick to Antigua (direct flights daily folks!).
With a 7.2 imdb rating I know I am not alone in the pleasure that I consumed from such a bewitching story so beautifully portrayed.
However the story got me thinking about bygone days and how much more creative we were then. The ladies yearned to play piano and everyone wrote letters with an elegant hand.
Today we are in such pursuit of endless happiness that there is a loss of creativity. In the past, people sat more with any sadness that befell them and used it. There was no Ben and Jerry’s nor…
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The Havana Treatment
Title: The Havana Treatment
Author: Peter Devine
My first Peter Devine book was True to the Code, a series of short stories that were as much historically educational as philosophically motivating. As much as I enjoyed my first taste of Devine’s prose, Havana Treatment was infinitely more riveting.
Peter Devine has an uncanny ability to put you in the middle of a character’s big moment only to take you right back out again. Each short story in Havana Treatment introduces you to a whole person in a just a few moments or hours, leaving you with a solid understanding of who they are, but wanting more of the story. Described as an exploration of the shelf life of a romance, Havana Treatment doesn’t disappoint, and each story is as compelling and oxymoronically uniquely typical as the next.
The human race is completely infatuated with the idea of love, and after spending time with Devine’s characters, it is easy to see why. A moment with someone can become a lifetime of dedication. A person’s soul can be boiled down to one momentous story that could have seemed so unimportant at the time, but because the encounter was so genuine it shapes someone forever.
Devine has such a strong grasp on these realities. His experience and all the people he has met in his life shape the wisdom in his tales; but in all his travels and worldliness, Devine still captures Americana and our ideas of romance like no other.
Meet Gwendolyn Zepeda
I love a good interview.
Interview by Nicole Melanson ~
Gwendolyn Zepeda has published three critically acclaimed novels through Hachette, four award-winning children’s books through Arte Publico Press, a short-story collection, and two books of poems.
She was born in Houston, Texas and attended the University of Texas at Austin. She was the first Latina blogger and began her writing career on the web in 1997 as one of the founding writers of entertainment site Television Without Pity.
She was also Houston’s very first poet laureate, serving a two-year term from 2013 to 2015.
Twitter: @gwentown
Sunflowers / Girasoles by Gwendolyn Zepeda
HOW DID YOU GET STARTED?
I’d been writing since I was a teenager. It the late nineties, I started blogging (called “online journaling” back then) and that really helped me find my voice and indicated there were readers who’d like my work. People hired me to write for other websites…
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TUESDAY TALK WELCOMES TARA MELANIE KERR
One of my reviews was quoted – and this is a great interview. I’m looking forward to reading Mary Green.
This morning I would like to welcome Tara Melanie Kerr. Not only has she written a prequel to Pride and Prejudice, her life is very much involved in all things Regency. In her words..’sewing her own petticoats and dreaming of Colin Firth.’
First of all, my usual opening question – tell us a little about you
I studied linguistics, English and theatre at the University of British Columbia and law at the University of Alberta. I am a reckless lover of clotted cream, a staunch defender of the semi-colon and a fierce opponent of unpleasant music.I proudly live in Edmonton, Canada, where I raise my three babies, sew my own Regency costumes, organise Regency costume events, blog on all things old and English, endeavour to take over the world and occasionally practice law. I also write novels inspired by my love of Jane Austen.
When did you first become…
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A Classic Book for Every Myers-Briggs Personality Type
Jane Austen for the INTJ win. I have a Persuasion quote tattooed on my arm.
The Best Dystopian Novels Written Before Orwell’s 1984
What an awesome list!
10 interesting works of dystopian fiction that predate George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four
George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949) is perhaps the most famous dystopian novel in the world, with the adjective ‘Orwellian’ being listed in the Oxford English Dictionary and the phrases ‘Big Brother’, ‘thoughtcrime’, and ‘newspeak’ being part of the language. But Orwell’s classic novel didn’t arise in isolation, and there were a number of earlier dystopian novels written before Orwell put pen to paper (or finger to typewriter). Here is our pick of the ten best early dystopian novels worth checking out. Okay, so they’re not all novels – there are a couple of short stories in here too. But then variety is the spice of life…
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The Curious Origins of Tweedledum and Tweedledee
I love factoids like this!
Interesting facts about the surprising history of Tweedledum and Tweedledee
Who is being described? Born in the north-west of England near Manchester, he was a literary man who was also noted in his day for his interest in science and mathematics. In terms of physical appearance, he was known for being particularly tall, considerably taller than average. He gave us Tweedledum and Tweedledee, pioneered a system of code-writing, wrote one of his most famous works for a young girl, and appears to have had an interest in the occult.
The above may sound like a description of Charles Dodgson, better known as Lewis Carroll, but in fact
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Anakalian Whims 