Review: On Beauty

On Beauty by Zadie Smith
4 stars

Reasons for reading: it's been on my TBR list for quite a while; Orange Prize winner for the Book Awards Challenge; English author for the Orbis Terrarum Challenge

Summary (from Booklist): "The Belsey family is multicultural as well as multinational. Howard is English, teaching art history at liberal Wellington College near Boston. His wife, Kiki, is from Florida, and as practical as her husband is intellectual. Although they love each other dearly, Howard's waning career and wandering eye have caused a strain. Their children follow their own paths: Jerome is a Christian; Zora is a socially concerned intellectual; and Levi is trying to be a black man of the streets. When Jerome falls in love with the daughter of Howard's archrival, Monty Kipps, the two families are thrown together in a personal and cultural battle. Although the romance sours, Howard and Monty's rivalry kicks up a notch, while Kiki and Mrs. Kipps develop an unlikely bond. Intermingled with the analysis of family and marriage are commentaries on affirmative action, liberal versus conservative, and prejudices in many forms."

First line: "One may as well begin with Jerome's e-mails to his father"

My thoughts: There's a lot going on in this book! Family, marriage, friendship, nationality, gender, race, class, education...the characters are brought together and pushed apart by
these.

Smith acknowledges EM Forster as one of her influences and says this book is an hommage to him. I confess, it's been a really long time since I read any Forster, probably at least 15 years ago, when I was an undergrad. So those references went completely over my head. Given the role universities play in the book, I might have gotten more out of it had I read it back when I was attending one. But still, the book had so much going on, it would be impossible not to get something out of it.

What I liked best about the book was the humour. Smith has some great turns of phrase. One of my favourites was of a chaotic house that had "too many knicks and a dangerous density of knacks." I really enjoyed her description of the Belseys' house, too, with its one stained glass window that casts a colourful patch on the floor that no family member will walk through and the parade of family photographs that follows the staircase down all 4 floors. There's also a great scene where Howard reacts to a hilarious glee club performance.

I found the differences between the black, white, American and British characters very interesting. While they're both black women, Caribbean-British matriarch Carlene Kipps is conservative, religious, and traditional and Southern American Kiki Belsey, who is a feminist and portrays herself as a big, sassy black woman, are very different in many ways, yet they find common ground and become friends. Howard and Monty Kipps are both British academics, yet not only are they different racially, they have completely different views on politics and life in general. British-born Jerome and Zora Belsey seem to enjoy their privileged, academic upbringing, while American-born Levi Belsey tries to hide his private-school education and pretends to be the epitome of "street" and longs to fit in with the local Haitian refugees (despite his iPod and $120 sneakers). The black/white and liberal/conservative angles were quite interesting to read about in the days leading up to the US election, actually.

The central character, it could be said, is Howard and he's a stunning study in self-centredness - he's a liberal academic who doesn't believe in anything. While he does love his family, he basically refuses to let them care about anything other than academic or theoretical matters. Anything that goes against his "beliefs" is met with mockery. He can't admit he's wrong or apologize. Even his life's work, the study of Rembrandt, has basically been to discredit anything good other scholars have said about the painter's works.

Beauty obviously plays a role - having it, not having it, losing it. Kiki was once very beautiful, but is now very overweight - the beauty is still in there, but it's buried. Howard is described as having been beautiful in his youth, yet it's hard to see in the middle-aged curmudgeon he's become. Victoria Kipps is stunning and knows how to use it. Zora Belsey is not and it frustrates her - she alternates between trying too hard and not trying at all.

This book took a lot of reading and sometimes, especially with the references to art and poetry, I felt like I wasn't quite getting everything I could out of it. But it has humour, it raises some thought-provoking issues, the two rival families are filled with interesting characters, and it ends with hope. I can definitely see why it won the Orange Prize and was short-listed for the Booker.

Review: 13 Reasons Why

13 Reasons Why by Jay Asher
3.5 stars

Reasons for reading: Number Title for Triple 8 Challenge; sounded interesting

Book description: "Clay Jenkins returns home from school to find a mysterious box with his name on it lying on his porch. Inside he discovers 13 cassette tapes recorded by Hannah Baker—his classmate and crush—who committed suicide two weeks earlier. On tape, Hannah explains that there are thirteen reasons why she decided to end her life. Clay is one of them. If he listens, he’ll find out how he made the list."

First line: "'Sir?' she repeats. 'How soon do you want it to get there?'"

My thoughts: I have mixed feelings about this book. The premise is really a good one - it gets you hooked from the start, wondering what the deal is with the tapes.

But I'm not really sure if I'm supposed to find Hannah stupid for her decision or truly hard-suffering. Or something in between. That's probably the point - her decision will resonate differently with different readers.

I don't want to give away too much, but I have to say, as someone who has found themselves in the pit of despair and someone who didn't have a fab time of it as a fat, weird girl in high school, I didn't have a lot of sympathy for her. Part of it could be that it's a bit hard to keep track of the timeline - the compressed nature of the taped storytelling makes it seem like weeks, yet the events seem to have taken place over two years. Hannah refers to similar events happening in the previous town her family lived in. So, I guess she's meant to have been suffering for years. Yet...some rumors, a couple of bitchy girls, a mean jerk, a creepy jerk, and one really bad guy just don't add up to suicide for me. But then, I guess that's the point - we often never know what leads to suicide and Hannah decides to try and rectify that.

Near the end, Clay says, "Some of us will be too angry at Hannah for killing herself and blaming everyone else." I'm one of those people. She could have turned one jerk in to a teacher, turned the creep over to the police, sucked it up about the bitchy girls like we all have to do... While a few of the people on the tapes really did behave terribly, most of them didn't. Kids endure sexual abuse, horrific bullying in school and online, racism, orphanhood, poverty... Hannah's problems weren't much beyond garden variety, it seemed to me. If she had endured real hardships, the tapes would be understandable, but all she's really doing is making life miserable for 8 people who may not have used the best judgement and weren't as kind as they should have been and one who really tried to help her but she refused the help. Only 3 people really deserved true punishment. Plus, Hannah herself allows a horrible thing to happen to someone else, much worse than anything she's experienced, so she shouldn't be throwing stones. But again, some things do seem to be left out of her story, so perhaps she only told the "relevant" parts to the people on her list.

Overall, though it was a really interesting book. Heavy, but thought-provoking. I hope it shows teens the importance of treating other people well and also that suicide isn't the answer.

The Well-Seasoned Reader Challenge

Melissa the Book Nut is serving up the Well-Seasoned Reader Challenge.

Here's how it works:

Rule #1: The challenge runs from January 1 to March 31.

Rule #2: You must read at least three books.

Rule #3: The books must:
have a food name in the title
OR
be about cooking/eating
OR
have a place name in the title
OR
be about one (or more) person's travel experience
OR
be about a specific culture
OR
be by an author whose ethnicity is other than your own

Rule #4: They must be middle-grade on up, but can be either fiction or non-fiction.

Here's my list!

Food in title:
By Bread Alone by Sarah-Kate Lynch

About cooking:
Dishing With the Kitchen Virgin by Susan Reinhardt

Travel experiences:
Queen of the Road by Doreen Orion

Weekly Geeks #23

The theme this week is to pick a theme and repeat it!

I'm going to combine two of them: #19 - catch up on something (in this case, reviews) and #12 list books you haven't reviewed yet and invite readers to ask questions about them (I confess, I may have missed a few from last time, I'm sorry - I must really not have had much to say about those books).

So, here they are:
1. Rumors: a Luxe novel by Anna Godbersen
2. Gregor the Overlander by Suzanne Collins
3. Breaking Dawn by Stephenie Meyer
4. The Host by Stephenie Meyer
5. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer - done!
6. The Willoughbys by Lois Lowry - done!
7. A Short History of Tractors in Ukranian by Marina Lewycka

So, if you have any questions about any of these books (or comments about them, yourself!), please post a comment and I'll do my best to answer!

Review: Artichoke's Heart

Artichoke's Heart by Suzanne Supplee
4 stars


Reasons for reading: sounded good when I ordered it for the library; love the cover; Young Adult Challenge

Description: Rosemary Goode is smart and funny and loyal and the best eyebrow waxer in Spring Hill, Tennessee. But only one thing seems to matter to anyone, including Rosemary: her weight. And when your mom runs the most successful (and gossipy) beauty shop in town, it can be hard to keep a low profile. Rosemary resolves to lose the weight, but her journey turns out to be about everything but the scale.

First line: "Mother spent $700 on a treadmill 'from Santa' that I will never use."

My thoughts: I really enjoyed this book - it had sadness, humour, romance, and a Southern twang.

Above all, it rang so true, especially the beginning, with Rosemary really struggling with her weight and self-esteem. I've felt all the same things - self-disgust, frustration, anger at yourself, anger at the people trying to "help" you with suggestions like "You should exercise." and "You should stop eating so much." I was insulted about it at school (though not quite as badly as Rosemary) and I still get the odd crack from so-called adults today. While Rosie does start to conquer her problem, she takes some missteps along the way, including making herself sick with tainted mayonnaise on purpose.

The relationships in the book are well done; they're not one-dimensional. Rosie's single mother insists everything's fine, even when she's diagnosed with cancer and Rosie can't find a way to talk to her. Rosie's Aunt Mary is one of the biggest weight bullies around and her mother always seems to side with her sister over Rosie. Rosie's budding romance with sweet, sincere jock boy Kyle always seems on the verge of being sabotaged by either Rosie's self-esteem or the bitchy Bluebirds clique who have been calling her Fat Artichoke since middle school. And Rosie's new friendship with Kay-Kay, a gorgeous, athletic girl who is as much of a target for bullying as Rosie herself.

I definitely recommend this book and look forward to reading more by Suzanne Supplee.

Tis the season to be grumpy

From Shelf Awareness:

"No. 10 on the bestseller list for much of September at the Book Works, Del Mar, Calif., as reported to the San Diego Union-Tribune, was Mr. Grumpy by Roger Hargreaves. Jet Hopster, publicity manager of the Book Works, commented: "We like to think our customers found a wonderful way to express their frustrations and worries about the economic crisis. The ultimate example of the importance of art."

Ah, I loved the Mr. Men books when I was a kid. They still make me smile, even Mr. Grumpy.

Coincidentally, (sort of) last week I met Jeremy Tankard, the author of the cute picture book Grumpy Bird, about a bird who wakes up too grumpy to fly until his animal friends snap him out of it.

Sometimes I definitely feel like Little Miss Grumpy or like Grumpy Bird and apparently other folks do at the moment, too.

Review: The New Yorkers

The New Yorkers by Cathleen Schine
4 stars

Reasons for reading: saw it in Shelf Awareness and read some really good reviews of it; October is Adopt a Shelter Dog Month for the Every Month is a Holiday Challenge; Set in New York for Triple 8 Challenge

From the publisher: "On a quiet little block near Central Park, five lonely New Yorkers find one another, compelled to meet by their canine companions. Over the course of four seasons, they emerge from their apartments, in snow, rain, or glorious sunshine to make friends and sometimes fall in love."

My thoughts: I really enjoyed Schine's writing style - she created an excellent portrait of each of her characters (and their dogs).

Jody is approaching 40 and she teaches music, plays the violin, and lives in a studio apartment with her white pit bull mix, Beatrice. Jody is outwardly a cheerful spinster, but she suffers from loneliness and terrible insomnia. When she runs into Everett and his smile (see below) on the street and later takes to looking for him from her window, she starts to long for more than her dog and violin.

Polly (who stood out the most for me) is in her mid-20's and is reeling from a break-up. Despite often not feeling confident on the inside, she was born with a very commanding voice, so people tend to listen to her. This has made her rather bossy and prone to wanting to help people whether they want it or not. Polly's dog is Howdy, a beautiful golden puppy she inherited when she moved into the apartment of a dead man. (Favourite Polly moment: "Polly put a large degree of faith in fate, once she had decided exactly what it was that fate would deliver.")

George, Polly's older brother is handsome and gallant, but aimless. Despite his conviction during his childhood that he was gifted (he was just never sure at what), he drifts from job to job and girl to girl. When Polly needs a roommate, he allows himself to be bossed into moving in, but discovers that in addition to wanting to make his sister happy, he comes to love Howdy (even when he's not using the dog as a "chick magnet.")

Everett is a recently divorced 50-year-old curmudgeon. He seems to dislike just about everything except his college-aged daughter. But he has a beautiful smile that changes his whole demeanor and this is enough to attract both Polly and Jody to him. Which woman will win his heart (a heart that's in danger of being stolen by Howdy)?

Simon is an "asocial social worker" who lives for every November, when he goes to Virginia for a month to pursue his passion - fox hunting. The rest of the year he lives in a rather dreary first-floor apartment, eating his meals at the Go Go Grill. But when he starts running into Jody and her big white dog in the neighbourhood, he thinks he might have found something to replace hunting in his heart.

The Go Go, run by gay Jamie who has a rich boyfriend and a passel of children, plays a central role - George gets a bartending job there (which is the main factor in moving in with Polly) and the restaurant allows dogs, so our lovers (both dog-lovers and lovers of each other) meet there often. The villain of the piece is Doris, an orange-haired-and-faced elderly woman who declares war on the "canine violations" of the neighbourhood and can often be heard to say "What do think this is, Paris?"

The characters are all fairly ordinary - there's nothing big or sweeping to the book, it's just a year in the life of a New York city community (which is populated by many dog-owners from all walks of life). But even small stories about dogs and their owners can be entertaining if well-written, and this book is. It's perfect for dog-lovers, city dwellers, or anyone else. Plus, isn't the cover irresistable?