Before I Fall

Overall opinion:  This book sucked me in and it was a very enjoyable read.  It was a guilty pleasure type book and I couldn't put it down.  It was like a mix of the movies Groundhog Day and Mean Girls.  Very interesting.  However -- all the build-up led to a really disappointing ending.  Not what I was expecting to happen at all, and it totally failed the entire book. 

The premise:  Samantha Kingston is a high school senior and is part of the most popular group of girls in the school.  Her BFF's are Lindsey, Ally, and Elody; and the four of them are definitely "mean girls."  They call underclassmen sluts and whores, and even pick on others in their own class by spreading nasty rumors or dumping beer on their heads.  They smoke, drink, wear inappropriate clothing, flirt with teachers, and of course have sex because apparently this is all the most normal behavior for teenagers nowadays.  I think that's why I was so drawn into the story -- because it was just all so shocking. 

The story starts with Samantha's alarm clock going off on Friday, February 12.  The entire day is described in minute detail, ending with a terrible car crash.  This is when we are to assume that Samantha dies.  However, she wakes up the next morning and realizes it's Friday, February 12... AGAIN. 

This happens for seven days.  As Samantha relives the same day over and over again, she slowly begins to realize how shallow her life is and begins to change.  She spends more time with her family and starts to find love with a boy that she normally brushed off as a "freak." 

It's an intriguing story and I believe there are some good lessons to be learned by young adult audience for which this book is aimed. 

A Moveable Feast

I should have read this book before I read The Paris Wife last year, but in a way, reading that one first helped me understand this one a little bit better I think.

This is a beautiful book about Hemingway's life in 1920's Paris.  Right there are three of my favorite things ever:  Hemingway, Paris, and the 1920's.  I loved this book.  I do admit it took me a bit longer to read it because I kept getting distracted by new, exciting book recommendations from my Entertainment Weekly magazine, but finally I finished it today while sipping cafe au lait (almond lait by the way) outside on the back patio.  I could just imagine I was at an outdoor cafe on the Notre Dame des Champs with "Hem" and Scott (Fitzgerald) watching the Parisians go by and pining away about writing stories.

A Moveable Feast is the posthumously published memoir of Ernest Hemingway.  Although most of his books could be considered to be loosely based on his life, this is truly the autobiographical account of an important part of Hemingway's life.

I have to include some of my favorite passages from this book:

"Now that the bad weather had come, we could leave Paris for a while for a place where this rain would be snow coming down through the pines and covering the road and the high hillsides and at an altitude where we would hear it creak as we walked home at night. (7)"

"All you have to do is write one true sentence.  Write the truest sentence that you know. (12)"


"But Paris was a very old city and we were young and nothing was simple there, not even poverty, nor sudden nor the moonlight, nor right and wrong nor the breathing of someone who lay beside you in the moonlight. (58)"

"'I've been wondering about Dostoyevsky,' I said.  'How can a man write so badly, so unbelievably badly, and make you feel so deeply?' (137)"

"When I saw my wife again standing by the tracks as the train came in by the piled logs at the station, I wished I had died before I loved anyone but her.  She was smiling, the sun on her lovely face tanned by the snow and sun, beautifully built, her hair red gold in the sun, grown out all winter awkwardly and beautifully, and Mr. Bumby standing with her, blond and chunky with winter cheeks looking like a good Vorarlberg boy. (210)"

I almost cried when I read that last passage.  It was at the very end of the book when his marriage was about to fall apart because he was having an affair.  That was the part of The Paris Wife that made me cry too.  Hemingway was such a passionate writer and it shows in his work, but his life was so messed up!  That's how it always is with the brilliant artists isn't it?

Room

This story is told completely from the point of view of a five year-old book named Jack.  I listened to the audio version and the person reading Jack's voice actually sounded like a little boy, which I believe enhanced the story greatly.

Jack and his mother live in an 11 x 11 foot room.  The room is all Jack has ever known.  His mother was kidnapped and placed as a prisoner in this room two years before he was born, and he has never stepped foot outside in all his five years of life.  Every other day or so, Jack describes a man he calls "Old Nick" coming into the locked steel door.  He hides in the wardrobe while Old Nick grunt and the bed where his mother sleeps creaks. 

This was one of those audio books I couldn't stop listening to even when the car stopped and I had reached my destination.  I love these kinds of books.  It's a very interesting story; very moving and chilling. 

Second Chance

Thing thing about Jane Green novels is that they are really boring for first half of the book.  They're kind of like those indie movies that just show a bunch of people gathered together for some reason for the entire weekend and they're just sitting around the dining room table talking the whole time and you're sitting there watching this wondering when something interesting is going to happen and if there's a point to this whole thing.  

I read all of Jane Green's earlier novels when I was in my early twenties and I loved them!  Now, however, her writing has become a bit stale.  I keep reading them because of my loyalty, and also because I have really long work trips where I need something to listen to, and these make semi-decent audio books once I get past the boring beginnings. 

In Second Chance, we see a group of old college friends reuniting after twenty years at the funeral of one of their mutual friends.  There you have it.  They sit around at a table sharing memories of their lost friend and catching up on each others lives.  We don't reach the the point of this novel until half-way through when we finally start to see everyone's current lives falling apart.  Each of the characters goes through a self-discovery period that was apparently brought on by the death of their friend and in the end they indeed receive their "second chance." 

Not that thrilling, but it turned out to be a cute and easy read.

Summer and the City, A Carrie Diaries book

Okay, I know this is a Young Adult, frivolous and girly book, but I loved it!  I'm a huge fan of Sex and the City so I love these books that tell the story of Carrie Bradshaw as a teenager.  I read the first book last year which takes place is Carrie's hometown of Castlebury, New Jersey.  In this one, however, she makes her entrance into New York City and her future is born.  This is where we are introduced to an already fabulous and glamorous 20's-something Samantha Jones, and the still teen-aged Miranda and Charlotte. 

It's a very charming story of how Carrie Bradshaw becomes a writer in New York City.  She has just graduated from high school and is spending the summer taking a writing course at the New School in Manhattan.  She meets Samantha within the first two hours of arriving in the city.  Samantha instantly whisks Carrie off to a very chic afternoon "tea" party at the house of someone famous.  The next day she meets Miranda standing in front of Saks protesting pornography.  Miranda proclaims she is a feminist and hates all men.

I know it's silly and obvious, but I was delighted by all the references to the future Carrie, Miranda, Charlotte and Samantha as we know them.  For example,  I giggled with glee when Miranda and Carrie have this providential conversation:

Miranda:  "That's what happens to women when they go against the system...and I, for one, plan to do something about it."  
Carrie:  "What?"
Miranda:  "Haven't decided yet. But I will.  You're lucky you're going to be a writer.  You can change people's perceptions.  You should write about marriage and what a lie it is.  Or even sex."

Also when Carrie had this little foreshadow of a thought:

"Maybe someday I'll be like Samantha, able to afford my own shoes."

When Carrie and Charlotte meet, Charlotte is reading a bridal magazine and explains she's not engaged but is hoping to be soon.  Oh, Charlotte, always dreaming of getting married!

This was a very cute book and fun to read.  Perfect for a lazy afternoon, sipping coffee on the patio.

The Winter of our Discontent

This is definitely not one of my most favorite Steinbeck books ever.  In fact, it was quite agonizing to get through.  But since it’s Steinbeck, I willed myself to finish it.  Now that I’m done, I have no idea what it was about.  I just didn’t get it.  So how do I explain this book?  I do not know.

Ethan Allen Hawley is the main character.   The year is 1960 and Ethan is a simple store clerk at a small town market.  The owner of the store is Marullo, a native Italian who we come to find out is an illegal.

Ethan in married to Mary and has two teenage children, Ellen and Allan.  They are just the typical happy family of the sixties, although his children resent him for being only a store clerk and for being “poor.”

One day Mary’s friend Margie Young-Hunt, who is a fortune-teller, reads Mary’s tarot cards and announces that Ethan is going to become a rich and powerful man.  Although Ethan doesn’t believe in that kind of thing, he realizes the next day that a change has come over him.  He therefore starts his journey of becoming a rich and powerful man.

That’s what I got out of it.  To me, it was a story of a tormented father and husband trying to overcome his self-pity and find a way to better provide for his family.  There was a lot going on in this book, and I’m sure there was some other deeper meaning hidden in there somewhere, but I must be too dense to figure it out right now.  I guess I could say in this book there were in place the themes of morality, familial love, and honesty.  Ethan struggles with the idea of robbing a bank while his son similarly struggles with the task of writing an essay without plagiarizing.  In the end, both do something very dishonest and humiliating. 

Of course it wouldn’t be a Steinbeck novel without his lovely descriptions and beautiful imagery.  For phrases like these, I was deeply satisfied with this novel.

“How strange the sound of heel-taps on pavement, striking in anger.” (20)

“A man who tells secrets or stories must think of who is hearing or reading, for a story has an many version as it has readers.  Everyone takes what he wants or can from it and thus changes it to his measure.  some pick out parts and reject the rest, some strain the story through their mesh or prejudice, some paint it with their own delight.  A story must have some points of contact with the read to make him feel at home in it.” (75)

“Even if teen-age children aren’t making a sound, it’s quieter when they’re gone.  They put a boiling in the air around them.  As they left, the whole house seemed to sign and settle.  No wonder poltergeists infest only houses with adolescent children.” (82)

“In poverty she is envious.  In riches she may be a snob.  Money does not change the sickness, only the symptoms.” (109)

“Farewell has a sweet sound of reluctance.  Good-by is short and final, a word with teeth sharp to bite through the string that ties past to the future.” (218)

 

Anne of Green Gables

There are just so many wonderful things to say about the story of Anne Shirley and the beautiful little town of Avonlea.  I was gripped by this beautiful story the entire way through.  Reading things like this make me wistful for a simpler, more peaceful life.  How many times did I day-dream with Anne as she gazed out her gable window!  I wished I could have been her bosom friend with Diana Berry! 

I don't know why I never read these as a kid.  I definitely watched the TV miniseries made from these books and loved it.  I watched it so many times I could see the scenes from the movie as I was reading this book.  I can see how accurately the movie/miniseries portrayed the book because it was exactly as I remembered. 

Lucy Maud Montgomery is an excellent author.  She provides perfect detail and description for these characters and their picturesque Prince Edward Island.  I laughed out loud so many times at the antics and ramblings of Anne!  She truly touches the heart of everything with whom she comes in contact!  I can't wait to read the rest of the series!