Due to my current allergy situation (and resulting grumpiness), I’ve not felt like doing much more than reading in he evening. A good book is definitely something that can cheer me up and make me forget about my snuffly nose. In the past I’ve tried to keep a list of what I’ve read and books I’d like to read, but my record keeping has been pretty sporadic. Recently I discovered GoodReads, which makes keeping track so much easier. If you join, please do feel free to add me as a friend. I think you can invite me using my lucy at heylucy dot net address. It’s so easy to find, add, and rate books. I’ve been adding books I’ve read over the last couple years here and there.

So, I thought I’d share some recent reads, and ask for some recommendations. I am waiting for a couple books to arrive at the library, but you can never have too many book recommendations to fall back on, can you? Speaking of the library, does your local library have their catalog online? I love that I can just go to the San Diego County Library website, find a book, and have it sent to my little local branch. If you haven’t tried doing that with your local library, I would suggest trying it out.

My first, and strongest recommendation is The Book Thief. Set in Germany during WWII, and narrated by the Grim Reaper himself, it’s the story of a young girl growing up during the Holocaust. There were so many great characters, and I don’t want to spoil anything, but I sobbed at the end of this one, and I’m not really one to cry when reading books or watching movies.

I also recently finished Water for Elephants, which is one of those books everyone has read and loved. I did like it, but I wouldn’t call it a five star read, but I’d give it a solid three stars. There were some quirky characters, which was a lot of fun, but the story itself was a little predictable, or at least as predictable as a story set on a circus train during the Great Depression could be.

Like most women, I love Jane Austen, and can’t get enough, but I’ve always drawn the line at cheesy fan fiction. So I was a little reluctant to give Pamela Aidan’s Darcy Trilogy a fair chance, but I have to say, I really enjoyed what she did with the character. The first book, An Assembly Such as This, covers the first few meetings between Elizabeth and Darcy during his stay at Netherfield. The second book, Duty and Desire, wasn’t nearly as good, mainly because there was so little Elizabeth. It started to veer into Gothic mystery territory, but luckily didn’t go all the way there. Then, the last book in the series, These Three Remain picked up the pace, and of course had all the really great stuff, so it was worth slogging through the second book to get there.

Finally, a quick little read that I really enjoyed was The Invention of Hugo Cabret. It’s a YA book, and I checked it out from the library on the recommendation of a friend. While not really a graphic novel, there are a lot of really lovely illustrations. This story of a boy living in the walls of a Paris train station, fixing the station clocks is a big, thick book, but only took about an hour to read.

And now, a surprise for those of you who have scrolled this far in this long, long post, since you must obviously like books as much as I do. I loved The Book Thief so much that I want to share my copy with another reader. It’s the copy that I read, so it’s not a brand new book, but if you don’t mind slightly dog-eared corners, hey, it’s free! Just leave a recommendation for one of your favorite books in the comments, and I’ll draw a name this weekend, and send it to the winner! So give me your recommendations! Do you like when I get all bossy? I can’t help it, I’m an oldest child.

I got a lampshade, so that’s one project down. I took my lamp with me to Lamps Plus, and tried a bunch of different styles, and I think I was right about the drum shape, and Keri was right about the burlap-y fabric. I still think I’d like a yellow shade, but I think I’d have to do that myself. Maybe one day I’ll get brave and recover this shade, but I’m enjoying this one in the meantime. It creates a really lovely glow in the room too.

I tried a white shade and it looked really horrible, it made the lamp look rather dirty.  I mean, I know it’s old and a little dinged up, but i love that about it. In fact, when the salesman came over to help me, he changed out the old harp for a new shiny brass one. Then he thought he was being so generous and offered to let me keep the new one for free. I didn’t bother trying to explain that I like the old, tarnished one much, much better, and please get that nasty shiny one off my pretty lamp. I just smiled and nodded, and changed it back as soon as I got home. I know it doesn’t even show with the lampshade on, I just don’t see why I’d need a new harp when the old one works just fine and the patina matches the lamp. There was also a lady at the store offering me advice on the shades that I was looking at, and she was all for me getting a bell-shaped shade because it was more feminine. She claimed to be an interior designer and I didn’t know how to politely tell her that despite the fact that my lamp is, in fact, quite flowery, I didn’t want it to be too frilly. I’m such a wimp that I bought my shade and walked around the perimeter of the store to get to the exit so she wouldn’t see that I ignored her advice. It’s so good to know that I can come here, to my blog and there will be you lovely readers who understand what I’m doing. Thank you!

I stuck to my Saturday plan pretty well, and finished reading Harry Potter late that night. It was a very satisfying read, and although the book has its flaws, overall I liked it. There were a couple deaths that were particularly heartbreaking, and I was feeling emotionally drained the rest of the weekend. If anyone wants to talk about it, add your thoughts to the comments, maybe we can have a book discussion there. I really need to talk about it! So if you haven’t read it yet and want to remain un-spoiled, stay away from the comments!

And now I have another request. If you have a moment, could you go here and submit my brother‘s name for unsigned Sunday? I would love to hear his music on the radio, and if he has more fans in San Diego, that means he’ll play down here more often, and I’ll get to see him more. That would make me happy! I’ll have a little thank you giveaway later this week :o)

Lucy approves of my lampshade choice too.

Tomorrow is the big day. I don’t know about you, but I’ve got it all planned out. I’ll be getting up early to take the husband’s car for an oil change and hope to be at the bookstore at 9:00 to pick up my book. This was an important strategy, as I can then demand that I not be bothered for the rest of the day until I have finished the book. I will then be heading to Starbucks or some other coffee shop with comfortable seating and something tasty to drink, and start reading. When I need a brief break, I’ll head to the beach or the park for more relaxing and reading, and when I’m hungry enough, it’s on to my favorite Thai restaurant for a bowl of the best Tom Yum soup and, of course, more reading. It’s a quiet, cozy place, so I should have no problem concentrating. The anticipation is just about killing me.

What will you be doing? 

I don’t remember reading a lot over the past couple weeks, but I guess I did, because when I thought about it I’d read all those books you see pictured above. I tend to do things in  cycles and I guess I’ve been on a reading cycle lately, there hasn’t been much else going on creatively speaking. So here are my one (or two) paragraph reviews:

Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer: I quite enjoyed this book, and will probably read his others. This is the story of Oskar, a young boy who lost his father on September 11th, and finds a key amongst his belongings that doesn’t open any locks in his home. He decides to find the lock that belongs to the key. He also invents things, my favorite invention was a duct system flowing from everyone’s pillows in New York to a pond in Central Park that would fill with everyone’s tears. He proposes that there could then be regular reports of the water levels so people would know if there was a particularly sad day ahead. The passage was much more eloquent then that, so you’ll just have to read it for yourself.

There are some interesting illustrations and typographic techniques throughout, which I am not sure I like, such as a passage in which the type becomes progressively tighter and tighter until it overlaps itself completely and becomes illegible. Is it now necessary for authors to throw in little tricks like that to make their books different and therefore better than the competition? Is good writing no longer enough to sell books? I suppose if it’s carefully done, it can enhance the story, but if it’s becoming the trendy thing to do, I don’t like it. For the most part, such typographical tricks were well used here, but if there had been any more it would have become tiresome. The diagrams and such in Mark Haddon’s The Mysterious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime were definitely well done as well, as they illustrated the way the narrator, a boy with profound autism, saw the world with his damaged brain.

Speaking of, I also read Mark Haddon’s latest book, A Spot of Bother. Again he tackles the subject of a damaged brain, although this time it’s a recently retired man who finds himself slowly, quietly going crazy while his family members all deal with their own problems. There were some quite funny bits, which because of the subject matter are sort of bittersweet. I do like his very straightforward narration style, and while the characters are not really lovable at first, I eventually developed a real affection for them individually and for the family as a whole. It was a quick read, and very entertaining.

After finishing Cloud Atlas, I decided to read David Mitchell’s first book, Ghostwritten. He uses the same technique he used in Cloud Atlas, in that the book is actually a series of short stories, each linked to the previous. The structure isn’t as complex in Ghostwritten, but still interesting. It reminded my of a chain the way one story was linked to the next. What I like about his writing, which I mentioned when talking about Cloud Atlas, is his ability to write in many different voices so effectively.

River Secrets is the third Bayern book by Shannon Hale. I guess her books are technically considered Young Adult Literature, but I don’t care, I’ve loved them all. She can tell a story that will keep you completely enthralled and her characters are wonderfully human, flawed and yet still immensely likeable, like your best friend. I would recommend reading The Goose Girl and Enna Burning before reading River Secrets, as everything will make much more sense.

I’ve also been listening to some new music lately. With a brother who’s a musician and another brother who has a talent for finding the newest, coolest indy artists, I’m always finding good stuff to listen to. Cary introduced me to the music of Vienna Teng. I think he opened for her last year some time. Vienna is a piannist, singer, songwriter, musician extraordinnaire, and her music doesn’t fit easily into any particular genre. There’s a little jazz, a little folk, a little pop and a little something different in her sound.  I love her smooth as silk voice, which is high and sweet but never cloyingly so. If you’re looking for something soothing but not sappy, interesting and energizing, then I’d suggest giving her a listen. I’ve got all three of her albums, but I haven’t decided if there’s one I like better than the others, although Harbor on Warm Strangers is one of those songs I just loved the very first minute I heard it.

I’m not a very good reviewer, sometimes I just like what I like because, well, I like it, but maybe someone will find these little reviews interesting :o)

I went ahead with the scarf gift, and was knitting feverishly until late last night and then again for an hour this morning before work:

Luckily the recipient is a very small person, so I stopped once I knitted about 46 inches. I used the pattern for Misty Garden from the Scarf Style book. The yarn is Trendsetter Muse, a mohair/acrylic blend which is super soft and fluffy, just like a cloud. The pattern is a really easy 4 row repeat, so it was good, mindless knitting. I think it was well received, and the yarn has lots of subtle color in it, so it will go with just about anything. I like it better than a $20 gift card :o)

In between my feverish knitting and making meatballs for our potluck at work today (recipe: 2 bags frozen party meatballs from Trader Joe’s, 1 bottle Soy Vay Island Teriyaki sauce, also from TJ’s, dump all (er, both) ingredients into a crock pot, turn it on under your desk when you arrive at work in the morning, thus torturing everyone sitting near you with that delicious aroma, and serve 3 hours later, when they’re all hot and bubbly), I’ve been doing some reading lately. I’m generally a pretty fast reader, but my latest book, Cloud Atlas, by David Mitchell has taken the better part of two weeks to read. It’s challenging, in a very good way. I’m not quite done, but I keep thinking about it. Here is my review so far:
 
Cloud Atlas is really 5 novellas, split into two sections each, surrounding a sixth novella in the middle of the book. What makes the book so amazing is that each story is told in a completely different voice and all are very different styles. Some of the reviews on Amazon compare it to a Russian Nesting Doll, which is sort of apt, but not completely. In one interview I read with the author, he described the structure as if holding up a mirror. One reason I’ve taken so long with this book is the abrupt changing of styles. Each story is so fascinating and well-written, and the first halves of each novella have ended with suspenseful, cliff-hanger scenes so that I keep wanting to skip ahead. It’s just all so clever, without being pretentious. I wish I could explain it better. It’s very original and I highly recommend it, if you’re up for something a little more challenging. I’ve already requested another of his books from my library, so it should be ready and waiting for me when I’m done.

Have you read anything lately that you highly recommend? I’m always looking for good books to read! I’ll have to list some of my other recommendations, if anyone is interested.

Oh, I almost forgot, someone bought my little snowman. I can’t even tell you how excited I get when I see those e-mails from etsy and paypal. It’s always just a little unbelievable to me that someone really will pay actual money to buy something I made. I’m off to do a happy dance now! :o)