Review: Her Fearful Symmetry

I liked The Time Traveler's Wife. And I wanted to like Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger. I almost liked it. But toward the end, I knew what was coming in the story and I didn't want it to happen. I even stopped reading it for a few days (and much to my chagrin couldn't read anything else). I did finish it because I was so close to the end and I hoped that somehow things would end differently that I expected. They didn't.

It was also hard for me to like any of the characters. Those I liked at first made decisions that made me despise them later and those I despised at first later earned my sympathy--but not quite enough to truly like them. There were some marginal characters that were interesting and almost likable, but I really wanted to like someone in the book more than I did.

Some people might love this book. It is intriguing. It's a story of ghosts, family secrets, and twins who are uncomfortably close. I like weird books and stories, but this one was just a bit over the line where it made me uncomfortable. I don't think Niffenegger wanted her readers to be comfortable with her characters, but for me it made it hard to then care about them.

Bookshelves

“I had always thought of my books as fairly private things, not for display, but the ability to show them off seemed crucial to Gilkey. Then again, a wall in my living room is covered with bookshelves, and everyone who visits can see what I have read. If I am honest with myself, I must admit that to some degree my books are badges….” From The Man Who Loved Books Too Much by Allison Hoover Bartlett

Only once in my adult life have I had the space to have all of my books out on shelves. Most of the time, the majority of my books have had to sit in boxes in storage units and closets or shoved under the bed. Even when all my books were out on shelves, I chose carefully how they were displayed.

My best friends were on the nightstand or on a shelf near my bed—the books I read and reread until they fell apart and I had to buy a new copy. These included Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte, A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle, Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson, and my Robin McKinley books.

The books that made me look smart were on display in the front room where people would look at them to see what kind of a person I was and am. Here I displayed poetry by Emily Dickinson and Pablo Neruda, classics by Dickens and Dostoyevsky (whether I’d read them or not), anthologies of Shakespeare and Poe, stacks of books by Southern Gothic writers like Flannery O’Connor and William Faulkner, and the translated classics like the Odyssey and Dante’s Inferno.

And now that more and more of my bookshelves are being taken over by baby toys and board books, I’m even more particular about what stays and what gets boxed up. I love to look at other people’s bookshelves to learn more about them by what they read. What do your bookshelves say about you?

Content or Cover?

“’Don’t judge a book by its content!’ I had read enough about book collectors before the fair to get the joke: Many collectors don’t actually read their books. At first, I was surprised, but having given it some thought, it’s not so shocking. After all, much of the fondness avid readers, and certainly collectors, have for their books is related to the books’ physical bodies....books are historical artifacts and repositories for memories—we like to recall who gave books to us, where we were when we read them, how old we were, and so on.” From The Man Who Loved Books Too Much by Allison Hoover Bartlett

After reading The Man Who Loved Books Too Much, I was happy that I remain a person who loves books more for the content than their cover. Though I do like having nice hardbacks of my favorite books (pretty books, I call them), it’s the story inside that matters more to me than what it looks like on the outside, or how much money it’s worth.

That may be because I’ve never had the kind of money that would make collecting books even a remote possibility—I have to really love a book to be able to justify a $25 hardback cover price. (Though I suppose lack of money didn’t stop John Gilkey from trying to accumulate expensive books, but he seemed to have a few loose screws…) In my single college days I could justify paying more for a book, but these days my $25 is going to buy diapers. So I buy most of my books on sale (from an independent bookstore of course) and from used book sales at my local library.

I am glad that there are people with the time, money, and obsession to seek out and preserve the books with historical significance. I want to have the contents preserved and to be able to look at them in rare book libraries and museums. But I’ll stick to the tattered paperbacks from my childhood—words are a far richer reward for me.

Review: The Man Who Loved Books Too Much

"This book belongs to none but me
For there’s my name inside to see.
To steal this book, if you should try,
It’s by the throat that you’ll hang high.
And ravens then will gather ‘bout
To find your eyes and pull them out.
And when you’re screaming
‘Oh, Oh, Oh!’
Remember, you deserved this woe."
--Warning written by medieval German scribe

I recently read a fascinating nonfiction book: The Man Who Loved Books Too Much: The True Story of a Thief, a Detective, and a World of Literary Obsession by Allison Hoover Bartlett. A book about loving books. How can you love a book too much? Well, I don't think I can, but some of the real life characters you'll find here do. The people this book followed were interesting and often inexplicable.

Beyond the intriguing story, this book made me examine my own relationship with books. I'll leave those thoughts for future posts, but to sum up my review of the book: If you like books, you should read this book.

Newbery Review: King of the Wind

"Whenever the horseboys raced their horses beyond the city gates, Sham outran them all. He outran the colts his own age and the seasoned running horses as well. He seemed not to know that he was an earthy creature with four legs, like other horses. He acted as if he were an airy thing, traveling on the wings of the wind."

I didn't expect much from King of the Wind by Marguerite Henry (1949 Newbery winner)--I've always had a hard time with horse stories. Maybe my low expectations made this one not so bad. I may not have cared much about the horse, but I did care about what happened to his horseboy, Agba, who follows Sham from the Sultan of Morroco's stable to court of France and then the English countryside. In between, both Agba and Sham find themselves in the most desperate of situations, suffering beatings and starvation.

Once when Sham has been taken away from him, Agba is faced with the possibility of losing his cat as well: "Agba's bound hands flew out in a pleading gesture. They must not take Grimalkin away! He would have no one at all to care for." Agba's devotion to his horse is touching, but I cared much more for Agba than for his horse. And Agba's story ends when Sham's does.

Newbery Review: Strawberry Girl

“Olema began to be friendly. She pointed out the school children by name—Mary Jim Dorsey, Lank Tatum, Rofelia March, Latrelle Tatum, Coy and Loy—the Marsh twins, the Hardens—Shad, Billie Sue and Roxie May—Kossie and Kessie Cook and others.”

Strawberry Girl by Lois Lenski won the Newbery Award in 1946. Like many children’s stories of its time, this one took place on a farm. Birdie Boyer and her family are settling on a farm in Florida, but run into problems with their neighbors, the Slaters.

Mr. Slater is a lazy drunk who cuts down their fences and tries to undo their hard work at every turn. Mrs. Slater and the Slater children wave between trying to be friendly with the Boyers and being jealous of them for being “biggety.”

The story is supposed to center around the hard working Boyer family, but I couldn’t help but focus on the tragedy of the Slaters—-their extreme poverty, the vicious cycle of abuse. There is even a scene where the “good” Mr. Boyer beats one of the Slater boys. The main character Birdie Boyer doesn’t like that her father has beaten her sometimes friend and sometimes enemy, but only because it will just cause more problems with the Slaters-—not because it is a terrible thing to do.

Reading the Newbery Award winning books has been an interesting view of what was considered the best children’s literature of its time. Young readers today would never read this book. The dialogue is written in the local dialect, which makes it difficult to follow at times. I was also left with a funny feeling about the supposed wholesomeness of this story. And readers today, including me, just can’t buy the sugary sweet ending where the antagonist has a very abrupt and supposedly permanent change of heart. We’re much more apt to believe endings like the one in Pixar's Up-—people don’t always change, deadbeat dads often stay deadbeat dads. But in the world of Strawberry Girl, all it takes is religion to make the most hideous of characters suddenly saintly.

Celebrate Grammar

Anyone who's not a grammar geek like me may think that they hate grammar, but it brings order to the written word. Celebrate National Grammar Day today. Click here.

Review: Thinking About Memoir

"Writing is the way I ground myself, and it's what keeps me sane. Writing is the way I try and make sense of my life, try to find meaning in accident, reasons why what happens happens--even though I know that why is a distraction, and meaning you just have to cobble together yourself." --Abigail Thomas

While I read it, I had the feeling that I'd already read Thinking About Memoir by Abigail Thomas. But I certainly didn't mind reading it again.

It's a slim book about writing memoir. Almost a memoir in itself, it includes dozens of original writing prompts to get any stuck writer started again. Though the writing prompts could stand alone, they are much richer when you read the surrounding stories. I recommend it for any writer.

Review: Enna Burning

After some hit and miss experiences with reading Shannon Hale, I was afraid of being disappointed with Enna Burning. I had realized that I had loved the two books I read that were based on old fairy tales (Book of a Thousand Days and The Goose Girl), but after two attempts have still not been able to finish reading another one (The Princess Academy) despite its awards and glowing reviews.

Enna Burning is a spin off from The Goose Girl, and spin offs of any kind make me nervous. But I enjoyed Enna Burning. Enna was a distinct character and her experience and story were uniquely hers, despite the heroine of Goose Girl playing an important role. And even though some of Hale's scenes sometimes feel a little contrived to me, it was an enjoyable read. It's a great book for young girls and anyone who used to be a young girl (don't we all want a Finn in our lives?).

I am glad that I read a few books in between my doses of Shannon Hale, and will wait a while before picking up another of her books. One cannot live on dessert alone.