Poison for Breakfast - Lemony Snicket

 

This was cute and quirky.  The main character finds a note under his door that says "you had poison for breakfast".  We goes on a journey to find out how and why and when and in the process reflects on life in all its bewildering glory.  

Published: 2021  Read: March 2022  Genre: Fiction, Philosophy

I Remember Nothing - Nora Ephron

Subtitle: and other reflections

I enjoyed one of the author's other books, I Feel Bad About My Neck, and her smart, snappy writing here is as good as that in her screenplays for When Harry Met Sally and Sleepless in Seattle among others.  This book is in the same spirit, though a bit more unfocused.  I laughed out loud when she explained her addiction to mobile Scrabble games.  Her life took her to all parts of the world and encounters with countless interesting people.  I enjoyed her sharing a part of it.  Sadly, she passed away shortly after the publication of this book.

Published: 2010   Read: December 2019  Genre: Memoir

The Emperor's Children - Claire Messud

I kept hoping this story would get better but I was ultimately disappointed.  Three friends who met in college are approaching 30 and wondering what to make of their lives.  One is a gay Eurasian man, another a transplanted Ohioan woman and the third a spoiled only child of a well-known writer.  They lament their lack of meaningful love and work lives while living in NYC.  It all seems like a lot of belly button gazing intended to poke fun and at the same time make some statement.  It fails on both accounts.  Not recommended unless you are into NYC culture.

Published:  2006  Read: July 2018  Genre: Fiction

In the Name of Friendship - Marilyn French

Why have I not heard of this author before?  She was a major influence on feminism with her 1977 book, The Woman's Room.  She wrote many, many scholarly articles and books as well as works of fiction.  I am so glad I found this one! 

She tells the story of four women friends, from their late 70's to early 30's.  Their voices are so real, their conversations intimate, kind, meaningful.  It is a book written completely from the female perspective, with no apologies or stereotypes - so refreshing!  I bought another one of her books and will read her first.

She did a dissertation on James Joyce's Ulysses and has written extensively on feminism in Shakespeare. 

I liked this quote :

"What really happened in aging was that every day your got more and more amenable to dying."

Published:  2005  Read: July 2018  Genre: Fiction

 

The Mockingbird Next Door - Marja Mills

subtitle:  Life with Harper Lee

Two years ago in November I went with my good friend Kathryn to the Nashville book festival.  It was marvelous.  A weekend of listening to southern writers discuss their books and the writing process.

We heard Marja Mills explain the writing of this book at the festival.  At the time, there was a controversy going on as Harper Lee had denied authorizing the biography.  When Harper Lee died recently, my library displayed this book and several others related to the famous author and I finally picked it up to read.

Marja Mills was a journalist sent from the Chicago paper she worked for to research and report on Harper Lee the year Illinois made "To Kill a Mockingbird" the Illinois book of the year.  She makes a connection with Nelle Harper Lee and her sister Alice and returns to their small town when physical disability forces her to leave her job for a while.  She lived next door to them for over a year.

As I read the story, I felt I was reading about the unfolding of a friendship.  Two people from different parts of the world find their commonalities and share the everyday activities of life.  I didn't feel the author exploited their friendship, though she was aware of its special qualities. Some may see it as taking advantage of a pair of older women who wanted to have their memories recorded.  I think everyone has a need to tell their story before they are gone and forgotten and Marja happened to be there with a sympathetic ear and a journalist's skill for capturing those stories.  I also think Marja was where she needed to have someone help her see what her own life was shaping up to be.  I suspect that the fuss was due to Lee's declining capacities as she was nearing the end of life and lost her sister, Alice, and not any betrayal of their friendship.

To me, it's the story of Marja learning to slow down and appreciate the daily rhythm of life and of Nelle deciding to trust and share that life with someone.  Nelle Harper Lee is revealed as a lover of words and writing, fun loving and shy, intensely private and loyal.  It is a shame she did not keep writing while she was alive.

Published:  2014  Read: February 2016  Genre: Biography

The Paris Wife - Paula McLain

I picked this up at the used bookstore because I'd read a blogger's review.  I hadn't known that it was the story of Ernest Hemingway's first wife, Hadley and had passed it over before.  Hadley was almost six years older when they met in their 20's.  Their marriage was spent mostly in Paris during the jazz age, among friends like Gertrude Stein, Ezra Pound and F. Scott Fitzgerald.  They had a son (one of three sons of Hemingway; he had two others with his second wife) and she was his muse during the writing of his novel, The Sun Also Rises.

I enjoyed reading of how passionate Hemingway was about writing and how much he struggled to write and get published.  At one point his wife brings all his writing to him and loses the valise carrying the papers.  It was a crushing blow and seems to have been a turning point in a relationship that was already deteriorating.

Hadley is portrayed as a traditional woman who lived a sheltered life and never embraced the wild, reckless life of the 1920's after WWI.  She was his steady anchor as he threw himself into life, running with the bulls in Paloma, skiing in the Alps, drinking in Paris.

A good read.


Published: 2011  Read: November 2015  Genre: Historical fiction

A Room of One's Own/Three Guineas - Virginia Woolf

I recently had someone inventory all my books which made it easier to see which ones I need to get rid of and which ones I haven't read in so long I can't remember them.

I'd read a fictionalized biography of Woolf earlier this year and though it would be a good idea to read (or re-read, like I said, I can't remember) the author herself, so I pulled this one from the shelf at home.

A Room of One's Own makes the case for a woman of the early 20th century being able to become a writer and be independent if she were to have a fixed income and a room of her own away from the demands of household life in which to write.  Woolf was writing about the educated, upper class women of her time who she saw as shackled by the definitions of a woman's place and restricted from earning an income.  It was originally written as a speech given at a woman's college.

Three Guinea's was written later in 1938 and responds to requests for donations from three separate entities.  In her response, Woolf gives explanation as to why the causes being appealed were related and why her help as a woman would be different from that of the patriarchal expectations of the writer.  It is written almost as a dialogue between herself and the requester and we are invited to eavesdrop.

It was easy to see why this book has endured and its appeal to feminist and pacifist.  Both stories contrast the nature of militaristic (male) society with that of the (peaceful) female one.  Woolf's missteps in only viewing the issue from the point of view of the upper class society to which she belongs but it doesn't entirely distract from her message.

It took some time to read as I found myself pondering if things are that much different these days and if so, is it for the better?


Published:1929 (A Room of One's Own) 1938 (Three Guineas)  Read: November 2015 Genre: Essay