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Monthly Archive: February 2013

Thursday

21

February 2013

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COMMENTS

The Cranes Dance

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This is a great book. Fantastic story, excellent character development, and vivid writing that didn’t feel forced. It’s what I want a book to be, frankly.

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Kate Crane is a professional dancer with an NYC ballet company. Her younger sister has just had to leave the company temporarily, and Kate is dealing with her feelings about this. The book touches on some pretty universal themes, including mental illness, loneliness, and the desire for perfection. But it does it all set against the background of this elite world. It could have gone the ‘oh, poor little gifted princess’ route so easily, but Meg Howrey instead provides us with a very real, stripped down look at the decidedly unglamorous world of professional dance.

You don’t need to know anything about ballet to enjoy this book, but you probably should have some respect for and interest in it. The narrator Kate speaks directly to the reader, telling us the story, jumping around a bit from anecdotes to the here and now. She talks about growing up with her sister, being apart from her, the challenges of making it in this profession. She also takes us through a couple of ballets, describing how they should be danced, what they are trying to show, really bringing us along to the point where we can almost hear the music.

And while it is a book about a ballet dancer, it isn’t about close-up shots of dancers’ destroyed feet, or stereotypes of disorder-eating prima donnas (I’m looking at you, Center Stage). It’s about a young woman who may be peaking and heading down in her career. It’s about family relationships and dealing with mental health. It’s about friendships, what we choose to reveal about ourselves to our families and to others. How we all try to make it through, and what ‘make it through’ even means.

That sounds little deep, but it’s not an especially heavy book. There are certainly mature themes, and some fairly vivid language. Even though I’m not gifted in my field, nor am I a (current or former) dancer, and am about a decade older than the narrator, I related to her experiences.

I waver between giving this four and five stars but settle at four because the ending, while not entirely tacked on, did sort of come out of nowhere for me. If I were to read it again it might fit better with the overall theme, but because of that I’ll go with four stars and hope you’ll still add it to your list.

Thursday

21

February 2013

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COMMENTS

I Know I Am But What Are You?

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This book was a bit of an experiment for me. I enjoy memoirs and essays from female authors (Ali in Wonderland, Bossypants, Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me?), and have read them imagining them narrated by the authors themselves, hearing Tina Fey in my mind. I run for exercise, so I figured I’d take on the audiobook option as part of this Cannonball Read and find some fun memoirs to get me through my workouts.

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My first purchase (via audible.com) was Samantha Bee’s cleverly titled I Know I Am, But What Are You? In it she chronicles her life, sharing some interesting stories, some funny stories, and some tragically funny stories.

Born to teenage parents, she spent time living with her mother, her dad and stepmom, and her grandmother. As a child she was an introvert, an animal lover, and obsessed with Jesus. Not so much in a religion sort of way, but in an ‘I’m going to wash his feet and marry him” sort of way. That story was easily my favorite of the book, although her treatise on gift-giving and -receiving is a close second.

She definitely has some interesting stories to tell, but I only found myself laughing out loud a couple of times. I’m not sure if that was even her goal. But I think I would have preferred to read this as opposed to listen to her reading of it. She reads it pretty much exactly as she narrates her segments on “The Daily Show,” and while that works in four-minute Republican take-downs, it can sometimes be a bit much in book form.

I’d say this would probably be best as a library book or a sale book loaded onto your e-reader for reading on a flight or on vacation.

Sunday

17

February 2013

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What Money Can’t Buy

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Alright, back to the non-fiction books I love. Michael Sandel is a modern philosopher who is interested in issues of justice. In fact, his book “Justice” is a fantastic read for people who are interested in philosophy but cringe at the idea of popping open Hume or Kant on a cold winter’s day.

This book looks at whether there are any moral reasons to not allow the market to ‘take care of things.’ Some of his areas of focus are likely ones that you have considered previously (possibly over a beer with friends). Should people be able to sell their kidneys? Did that student really get into Harvard because of his talent, or because his mom could buy the entire campus twice over? Is that fair? Does it matter if it is or isn’t?

Sandel argues from a premise that some might not accept: that “making markets more efficient is no virtue in itself.” Instead, he’s interested in why people might cringe at the commodification of certain components of our lives. Why, if markets are so great and supposedly will sort out the distribution of goods and services in the most efficient way possible, do some markets make us so uncomfortable?

Each example in the book addresses one of two arguments – the argument from fairness and the argument from corruption. In the first case, we might consider where a certain market is fair if the person participating may not REALLY have much of a choice. Again, think about the kidney example. Sure we all own our bodies, but the concern with allowing a market in kidneys is that only the poor would end up selling them, essentially turning them into spare parts for wealthy people, and leaving people who cannot afford kidneys at the whim of donors. The second argument looks at whether the nature of certain things might be corrupted simply by market involvement. Advertising in schools is a prime example of that.

The book is broken down into five parts – an introduction to the issues he plans to address (and a background on markets and examples of market transactions that might raise an eyebrow), a section on incentives (and how they don’t always work the way you’d think), markets replacing moral discussion, the insurance market (which features my favorite portion of the book, where he examines third-party life insurance purchasing), and the right to name different public and private spaces (think Citibank Field in NYC). The concepts are not difficult to grasp and are well-written and interesting.

While I do have a philosophy background, I want to emphasize that one is not necessary AT ALL to enjoy this book. If you’re interested in markets and a discussion about why they might not always be the best way to distribute goods, this is a really great read for you. In fact, I suggest getting your favorite discussion partner (perhaps someone who doesn’t always agree with you) to read the book at the same time so you can have a lively chat about it all.

Saturday

16

February 2013

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COMMENTS

The Good House

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This is an interesting novel, just released last month. It’s one I would recommend for those looking for a book with a little bit of mystery, a lot of character study (can we really judge ourselves accurately?) and some vivid scenery. Suggested to me by the same person who offered up ‘Defending Jacob,’ it tells the story from the perspective of Hilda Good, a divorced real estate agent in her late 50s/early 60s who still lives in the Massachusetts seaside town where she grew up. She has a bit of a drinking problem (the size of which is debated throughout the book) and not a lot of friends.

The book follows Hildy over the course of a very eventful year as she befriends a new town resident, becomes privy to some secrets perhaps she should not, and rediscovers (in various different ways) friends from her youth. Hildy is the type of character who is flawed and you see it. She isn’t hateful, or horrible; she’s just not perfect. I don’t have any experience with alcoholic parents, so I can’t say whether the depiction of her and her family would ring true to someone who does, but it did not seem cartoonish to me. Instead, the writing portrays a woman who thinks she knows her limits but may be quite close to pushing them further than she can handle.

The pacing of the book felt a little off, but I do wonder if part of that is due to reading it on an e-reader. I know it sounds odd, but even though there’s a little percentage complete box at the bottom of the screen, I have a much harder time putting that into perspective as compared to when I’m holding a physical book in my hand. My brain has spent over 30 years expecting books to flow in a certain manner relative to the amount remaining; with an e-reader those cues are gone. It did at times feel like a lot of ‘nothing’ was happening, but I never had to struggle to pick it up, finishing it in about three days, and am still able to picture the town, the houses, and all of the characters quite vividly.

I’d say this is a great little read for a weekend spent somewhere chilly. Add it to your mid-October reading list, warm up some cider and let yourself spend some time in New England.

Thursday

14

February 2013

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COMMENTS

Defending Jacob

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In my quest to read more fiction as part of this Cannonball Read, I’ve been soliciting recommendations. Some (Gone Girl) seem to roll off of everyone’s tongues. Others, like this one, I’d never heard of and am bummed I didn’t read sooner. It was one of those books that taunted me when it was sitting in my purse during the work day. I read it on the walk to work and the walk home. I chose to read it over watching mindless TV after a long day at work (a rare occurrence for me), and even balanced it on the shelves so I could keep reading it while I brushed my teeth at night. I was engrossed. I have one or two little issues, although even as I write them I realize that they do work pretty well within the book.

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Defending Jacob is another first-person narrative, this time told using a flashback device that actually works and really weaves together a tight and interesting book. The narrator is Adam Barber, an assistant DA who prosecutes homicides among other crimes. The flashback device used is Adam testifying at a grand jury hearing set a year or so after the main events of the book. It isn’t discussed in every chapter, but helps frame some parts of the discussion, introducing new components of the story. The homicide in this book is an eighth grade boy found dead in a park on weekday morning. Adam has a son, Jacob, in the same class and after a few days it becomes apparent that Jacob is the main suspect.

The book examines many different components of the issue of facing the possibility that one’s child killed another. It’s not a plea to sympathize with the parents of accused murderers; it’s an exploration of what it must be like, both to see one’s son facing such charges and wondering (or perhaps not wondering) somewhere deep inside if he did it. Does a good parent even entertain the notion? MUST a good parent entertain the notion? What is owed to the child? To society? To one’s spouse? Is the priority the child, and to hell with the marriage? Can a marriage survive that? And what happens to the family, regardless of the guilt of the accused, during and after the trial?

These themes are explored in pretty fantastic detail. While Adam gives us the perspective, because he tells the story as a retrospective, he’s able to lend clarity to what at the time may have seemed muddy or incomprehensible. He and his wife handle their son’s situation very differently, and while the author gets very close to some stereotypes of the dad vs. mom roles, he also builds them out as based more in the character of the individuals. Meaning, yes, the mother seems more emotive than the father, but the father is also a DA. Frankly, I think it would have been an even better, more interesting book if the mother were the DA and the father were a former teacher. Play around a little bit with the gendered expectations.

There are some surprises in the book, but none that come totally out of left field. It’s not predictable but it makes sense, which I think is such a great quality, and hard to come by. I like authors to avoid Deus ex Machina – it’s lazy and frustrating. But come on – we also want a little surprise in our books, right? Landay does it really well.

What most impressed me about the book is that it took a premise – the murder of a 14-year-old-boy – and kept that premise right in the middle while not making it the focus of the book. I wouldn’t describe it as a crime novel, or a thriller, but a book about a family in a very, very difficult situation.

Pick it up. It’s a good read and worth your time.

Monday

11

February 2013

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COMMENTS

New Volunteer Round! 2013 Team Works Project 1

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Two or three times a year Austin and I volunteer through the Team Works program at Seattle Works. It’s a cool way to meet people (and why I signed up when I moved back in 2010); you may remember my attempts to get money from you all this December on their behalf. In Team Works, a group of around 15 people volunteer at different projects, one Saturday per month, for four months. We’re working for four hours at a clip, doing things like pulling blackberry bushes and laying mulch at King County Parks, recycling expired car seats, or painting a not-for-profit’s interior space. It can be a lot of fun, and is often a lot of hard work.

This round started off yesterday with a stint at Roots, an overnight shelter for young men and women (18-25). They provide nightly accommodations for up to 45 guests, including dinner and breakfast, as well as an opportunity to take a shower. Austin had actually volunteered there in the past. 

This was a project that didn’t require a lot of tough outdoor manual labor, which was pretty welcome on a chilly February day. We spent the day stuffing the quarterly newsletter with donation envelopes, sealing them up and labeling them for mailing. It took twelve of us a little over three hours to get through it all, but I can’t imagine how long it would have taken one or two volunteers.

Next month we’ll be at Marra Farm. Hopefully we’ll have some good weather and have fun getting our hands dirty. 

Saturday

9

February 2013

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COMMENTS

Cinderella’s Secrety Diary

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In the past I’ve read reviews of books and thought ‘damn, that was harsh.’ And while I maintain that some critics come across as snotty jerks, after reading this book I’m starting to understand that, if forced to read many of similar quality throughout my career, I might start to lose a little bit of my tact despite my best efforts.

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As others have mentioned, Cannonball Readers were offered this book (and its sequel – which I will not be reading, because I try to avoid making the same mistake twice) for free with the understanding that we would read quickly and report back.

This is not a horrible book. In fact, I can imagine where the inspiration came – other fairy tales are starting to have origin stories (or perhaps always did, but are experiencing a resurgence now). And the idea of following the ‘happily ever after’ is really interesting. It just wasn’t well done in this instance – there is simultaneously too much and not enough going on in the storytelling, the devise used doesn’t really seem to work for this story, and the characters are, in my opinion, almost universally unlikable (including Cinderella).

I have a few issues with this book so I’ll work through them here. First off, the author is clearly not short on ideas; unfortunately there is a whole lot of telling and very little showing. Part of that likely comes from the challenge of a first person narrative in diary form, but my experience reading Silver Linings Playbook showed me that it’s possible to create a rich, complex and interesting character who is telling the story without filling it with lines like “I know you are a good person.” Cinderella may be a good person, but having her best friend say it doesn’t do much for me – I prefer a book show it to me. Or perhaps show me she ISN’T a good person, and that her friends don’t understand her. Something.

Other times statements were made that suggested something had taken place – the most glaring example was the line “All my training had prepared me for this moment.” Huh? Granted, I did find myself bored at times, but I read the whole book, and that line stood out like a sore thumb. Cinderella had been training? I know she was off with her mentor ‘getting ready’ and ‘preparing’ but what did that mean? What was the training? How was she ‘preparing’? What was she doing? It’d be much more interesting to see her in that moment if I had an understanding of what she was calling upon to get through it.

I also have to disagree with another reviewer who thought the writing was good. I don’t think it was horrible, but it wasn’t good. As the book is set in Europe during Napoleon’s time, the author tries to make the language formal and a bit flowerier. I don’t have a lot of experience with modern-day re-tellings of fairy tales but I really, really hope that they don’t all suffer from this forced language. It took me nearly half of the book to get past the feeling that every single paragraph was written in a struggle with an author’s guide to 19th century writing.

I did appreciate the author’s attempt to give the book a bit of a feminist spin, but I think he missed the mark. Nearly all the ‘good’ women in the book are witches, and every single man she encounters either directly causes her pain or is indifferent to her. If the author was going for ‘girl power’ and the idea of saving yourself, he seems to have gone a bit too far. I love that she doesn’t need a man, but does every man need to be totally unlikable?

I still want to find a book like this that I would enjoy reading – I don’t spend nearly enough time reading fiction and I know I’m missing out. I just wish that I hadn’t spent the last six days with this one.

Friday

1

February 2013

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