Return of the Book Blogger (aka OK So Now It's April)

Annnnnnnd... once again I have let months pass without writing a blog post or even managing to get one of my volunteer guest bloggers going.

Yeah, I've been busy.  Working and with kids and family and friends... but also because we moved to a new house and that was a giant engineering project from Hell.  But now I am in an awesome new house and I have fabulous new places to read!  Many of our books are still in storage, along with many of our book shelves... but still.  This is good.  I love the house and we have much more space to store our giant book collection, which it appears I may be physically incapable of culling.

Despite my lack of recent blog posts and my busy schedule, I have been reading for an hour every day... mostly.  If I don't manage an hour in a particular day, I catch up the next day (or the next...).  As long as it works out to at least one hour per day of book reading, I'm happy.  (No, I'm not counting listening to audio books in the car.  So that means on days that I commute I am getting extra "reading" in.  I LOVE THIS.)

So... where am I now in meeting my goal to read 52 books this year?  Well, happily I have already finished 24.  I am well on my way, and I imagine I am going to exceed the goal.  This is good!

The most recent book I finished was written by my friend Emily Rapp, The Still Point of the Turning World.  Emily's son, Ronan, was diagnosed at 9 months of age with Tay Sachs disease, a genetic illness that is invariably fatal.  Ronan died this year on February 15, about a month short of his third birthday.  Emily writes movingly of how difficult - really how impossible - her job as a parent became.  There are a few wrenching chapters (because I knew Emily personally and maybe because I am a nurse I had a hard time with the beginning, where she describes hearing the diagnosis for the first time.  The scene played out all too vividly in my mind).  Mostly, though, there is a lot of intellectual content about literature and art and parenting and how we deal with (or mostly how we deny) the reality that every single one of us is going to die someday.  This isn't a light read, but I am so glad that I read it and I'm always thankful that I knew Emily.  I just wish that I had been able to meet Ronan.

Before I got into reading that, I had been having some stellar luck with literary fiction selections.  One book that I listened to in my car, The Blood of Flowers by Anita Amirezzvani was so amazing that I bought a copy and sent it to my sister-in-law.  Historical fiction set in Iran (then Persia) in the 1600s, illuminating the plight of women in that society AND ready by a very talented actress?  If only every audio book I read was that amazing.

In print books, I read several really interesting works in a row, all of which featured twins (I did not plan it that way at all).  First, I read Audrey Niffenegger's Her Fearful Symmetry.  I loved The Time Traveler's Wife and had heard not-so-great things about this newer book, but I suspect that people who didn't like it as well wanted it to be The Time Traveler's Wife again.  It's not, but it is a compelling story that includes two strange sets of twins, a ghost, and a character with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder.  I enjoyed it.

Next, I read through Abraham Verghese's novel Cutting for Stone.  Twin boys are born to a nun in Ethiopia, setting off a chain of events that affects many.  This one is over 600 pages long and my sister complained that she didn't like it because it "didn't go anywhere."  It does meander some, but the point, I think, is the complex relationships between the characters.  I was never bored reading this and would recommend it.

Finally, I read The Memory Keeper's Daughter by Kim Edwards.  I started it with no idea what it might be about, and soon found myself pulled into a story about twins, one born with Down's Syndrome, and their parallel lives.  The circumstances of the twins' birth it unusual and the father, a physician, tells the mother that the second twin has died rather than confront the reality of living with a child with Down's.  The father instructs his nurse to take this child to an institution; not an uncommon plan for the era (the early 1960s).  Instead, the nurse leaves town and raises the child as her own. 

Those are the highlights from the past few months, although, as I said, I am cruising through a lot of reading material. 

Next up: maybe I will get that guest blogger going.  IT COULD HAPPEN, PEOPLE. 

Hello 2013, Hello Book-Related Resolutions

I read 41 books in 2012, which isn’t bad, but this year I want to do better.  One book a week seems reasonable (especially considering that I count the audio books that I listen to during my commute), so 52 books is my goal for the year.  And hopefully some of them will be books that I can read and donate or give away.  Most of our books are currently in storage as we attempt to sell our house, which adds an extra element of challenge to reading what I own, so if you are reading this, please cross your fingers that we sell our house soon and are able to move!

My secondary goal is to spend at least an hour a day reading.  This is trickiest on days when I work evening shifts in Rochester, as I wind up starting at 2 in the morning, but so far, so good.  And sitting and reading for an hour straight truly is a pleasure, and one I had nearly forgotten.

So far I’m on pace, having finished Michael Connelly’s The Black Echo and Stephen King’s fifth Dark Tower novel, Wolves of the Calla. 

I liked The Black Echo, but I’m not totally sure why so many people love Connelly’s Harry Bosch series so much.  I’ll read another one sometime soon and maybe I’ll see what I’m missing.  I mean… I liked it, but it wasn’t so compelling that I felt I had to go read the next ten immediately.

The Black Echo is also the first book that I read on my new Kindle (my husband owned it previous to me and gave it to me when he upgraded).  This means that it doesn’t add to or subract from the number of physical books in my house, and it was kind of an interesting experience.  I’m not totally sold on reading in this format.  It certainly is convenient, though, and it doesn’t take up very much space.

Wolves of the Calla is a book I’d been putting off reading for years.  The fourth Dark Tower book, Wizard and Glass, had been my favorite in the series so far, and I was hesitant to go on, especially since I’d heard vague complains about the final three books from other King readers.  For the most part, though, I found this volume compelling, and I’m curious to see where it goes in the final two books.   

I do like the way King refers to others of his works, sort of tying them all together into one world.  I didn’t expect to meet up with Father Callahan from ‘Salem’s Lot again, ever… but there he was.  One aspect of the end of Wolves did make me question what King is planning to do… but I’ll reserve judgment on that until I see where he takes it next.  The sixth volume, Song of Susannah, is currently on my Shelf of Ten, although there are a few other books I want to get through first.

Wolves of the Calla will, like all Stephen King books (even the ones I don’t particularly like), stay in my collection. 

And… back to reading.  For now.