Bookmarked

No matter how busy life gets, I never stop reading. So even during these past few weeks when things in my regular life have been crazy, I've always had the comfort of a good book to come home to. Here's a few that have sustained me during the mayhem of April and May~

The Luncheon of the Boating Party, Susan Vreeland~Based on the Renoir painting of the same name, this book is a fictionalized account of Renoir and the friends he gathered to paint on Sunday afternoons at this terrace cafe. Narrated in turn by Renoir and each one of the subjects, which include his future wife, the story is a delightful and imaginative look at the artist at work, and la vie de France during the time following the Franco-Prussian war. This is one of my favorite Renoir paintings - it's so full of detail and joie de vivre. I've often thought it would inspire a wonderful story, and Susan Vreeland has done a marvelous job creating a slice of the artists' life.

The Sweet Life, by Lynn York: I picked this one up at the airport, and it turned out be a captivating beach book. The story of Miss Wilma Swan, choir director and piano teacher in the little town of Swan's Knob, North Carolina, her new husband, Roy, and the startling changes wrought upon their lives by the advent of Wilma's teenage grandaugher, Star, who comes to live with them. It's a charming family story, with a memorable cast of small town "characters" reminiscent of Jan Karon's Mitford series.

The Knitting Circle, by Ann Hood: The first of two novels I've read that feature knitting as the vehicle for women to form friendships and work through dilemmas in their lives. Ann Hood's novel is a poignant, understated story about a mother grieving the loss of her five year old daughter. When the novel begins, Mary Baxter is unable to pursue any of the activities that once gave meaning to her life, including her relationship with her husband. Through the women she meets in The Knitting Circle, who have each overcome their own personal disasters, Mary is able to share her own story and begin the long road back to life once more.



The Friday Night Knitting Club, by Kate Jacbobs: Another group of women joined by their interest in knitting, this novel is a bit more lighthearted and humorous than Hood's story. The crisis in this tale comes at the end, after we've become attached to Georgia Walker and her 13 year old daughter, Dakota, proprietor's of Walker and Daughter Knit Shop, where the club members meet each week to hash out not only sweater patterns, but life changing events. This is a fun read, full of characters that are instantly recognizable and likeable. Both this novel, and The Knitting Circle are part of a new genre of books that I really like to read~novels where the reader meets groups of women characters dealing with various life concerns, forming friendships, and bonding together in pursuit of a common activity, one that, in itself, becomes therapeutic for them.

Of course, I've always got a writing book or two going, and lately I've been working my way through the Gotham Writers' Workshop Guide to Writing Fiction. You can read more about what I've been learning from this collection of essays if you visit Moving Write Along (my other blog dedicated to all things writing related).

Bookmarked-The Sunday List of Dreams

Dreams are the lively and lovely desires of the heart, soul, mind, and body that should propel us through every moment of our lives. ~ The Sunday List of Dreams, by Kris Radish~

Connie Nixon, 58 years young, divorced, and newly retired from a demanding career as an RN, is now ready to embark on a new life, one fueled by her Sunday List of Dreams, a list she's been keeping and tinkering with for "as long as she can remember." There are at least 48 items on this list, everything from "buy a convertible, something flashy, put the top down and drive someplace without thinking" and "start sleeping naked" to "stop doubting yourself" and "stop being afraid." Connie's journey toward fulfilling her dreams takes on some totally surprising twists and turns, as a reunion with her oldest daughter teaches her some amzing things about herself, and leads her to a completely new interpretation of her List of Dreams.

Sunday List of Dreams is the fourth novel from author Kris Radish (The Elegant Gathering of White Snows, Dancing Naked at the Edge of Dawn, and Annie Freeman's Fabulous Traveling Funeral), whose series of books about women in mid-life and their experiences with friendship, life journeys, and learning to accept the past and embrace the future, are "chick lit" at it's best. Normally (and I hope I don't sound like a book snob when I say this) I don't read this particular genre~it seems to formulaic to me, the plots often contrived and hackneyed, the characters somewhat cairicaturistic.

I enjoyed this one though, (probably because it was such a departure from Paint it Black, the novel from Janet Finch that I finally had to set aside unfinished just before I picked this one up.)

It was a fun read, with strong and humorous women characters. Most interestingly, it brought up some very intersting issues for me.

First, The LIST. It's the backbone of the book, this list of dreams, and it informs everything Connie does. Following her progress in ticking off the items on her dream list, I was suddenly horrified to realize that I don't even have a list! Sure, I have dreams ~at least I guess you could call them that~ but they're so amorphous and vague they don't resemble anything like the 37 concise dreams Connie has documented in her brown leather notebook.

Then, there's the WAITING. For most of my life, I've been postponing even thinking about life dreams because I've been waiting for something~waiting to get through school, waiting to find a job, waiting to raise my family, waiting until I had enough money, waiting until my parents didn't need me, waiting, waiting, waiting~ and what it all comes down to is that I've been waiting for life to happen to me, and not making anything happen for myself.

SO~~~ in the spirit of creating dreams to "propel" me through the rest of my life~~~ here, in black and white, are the first three items on what I'll call my Monday Morning Dream Directive...

1. Stop waiting!

2. Take charge of your life!

3. Decide what your dreams are, and then do #1 and #2!

*Beginning today, The Sunday List of Dreams, is a featured selection of the Barnes and Noble online book club, including conversations with the author.

Bookmarked

"Reading is an escape, an education, a delving into the brain of another human being on such an intimate level that every nuance of thought, every snapping of synapse, every slippery desire of the author is laid open before you like~well, a book." ~Cynthia Heimel

It's been a good book year so far. I've been "delving into the brains" of some very fine authors, and their words have been like~well, Natural Opium, if I may borrow the title of my most current selection, a book of travel essays by Diane Johnson that reads more like a witty memoir or eclectic collection of short stories than a travelogue.

My literary travels have taken me to the court of Henry VIII via Phillipa Gregory's The Constant Princess. Gregory's portrait of the young Catherine of Aragon, Henry's first wife, and her fiery determination to be the Queen of England, puts a new spin on this often told tale. "I shall not give myself to heartbreak," Catherine writes after the death of her beloved first husband, Henry's brother Arthur. "I shall give myself to England. I shall keep my promise. I shall be constant to my husband and to my destiny. I shall plot, and plan, and consider how I shall conquer this misfortune and be what I was born to be. How I shall be the pretender who becomse the Queen." Lush with drama, atmosphere, intrique, and sensuality worthy of the finest of romance writers, this entry in Gregory's series of historical novels was both informative and enchanting.

From the courts of medieval England, I was carried to the far east where Lisa See immersed me in a fascinating novel set in 19th century China. Snow Flower and the Secret Fan, is a story two small girls who are committed to each other as laotang, or lifelong friends, and their struggle to survive in 19th century China. They communicate in nu shu, a secret "women's writing" developed by Chinese women to convey their deepest thoughts and feelings. See's writing is absolutely luminous, and her depiction of a woman's place in Chinese society is heartbreaking. "We women are expected to love our children as soon as they leave our bodies," writes Lily, the narrator of the tale. "We may love our daughters with all our hearts, but we must train them through pain. We love our sons most of all, but we can never be part of their world, the outer realm of men. So we love our families, but we understand that this love will end in the sadness of departure. All types of love come out of duty, respect, and gratitude. Most of them, as the women in my county know, are sources of sadness, rupture, and brutality."

After these travels through history, Patry Francis' first novel, The Liar's Diary, catapulted me right back to the 21st century. Liar's abound in this chilling suspense novel, and their web of deception results in devastation and death. Jeanne Cross, a school secretary married to a hotshot doctor, has spent her life portraying the part of the perfect wife and mother, ignoring the way her husband's behavior is destryoing the life of their 16 year old son, Jamie. Enter 46 year old Ali Mather, a free sprited, seductive musician, whose own secret past allows her valuable insight into the evil that lurks in Jeanne's family. Her struggle to help Jeanne and Jamie face the hard truth about their lives results in chilling psychological suspense and violent death. Francis' characters had me hooked from page one, and I eagerly followed this thrilling roller coaster ride to it's surprising and satisfying conclusion.

I've also been working my way through Reading Like A Writer, Francine Prose's "Guide for People Who Love Books and For Those Who Want to Write Them." Prose offers the idea that one should "learn to write by writing, and by example, by reading." Her book is a look into the method she uses for carefully studying great writing, for "putting every word on trial for its life," for absorbing, "almost by osmosis" what works and what doesn't in the realm of literature.

Yes, it's been a very good book year so far. And more to come...two of my favorite authors have new releases this month. Jodi Picoult, and Chris Bohjalian. Good thing my birthday's coming up...