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!

Four Great Movies

I had the unusual opportunity to watch four movies this week; and I absolutely loved all of them.  Apart from Sarah's Key, all of them left me feeling incredibly happy and wonderful.  My faith has been restored in movies!  Hallelujah, there are good ones still out there!  As for Sarah's Key, it was an amazing movie with truly great acting in it.  I really liked it.  The subject, however, was simply not a happy-go-lucky subject.  Therefore instead of feeling wonderful and happy like after all the other other ones, I felt very quiet and somber, and a little spent from crying so much.

Here we go -- four great movies to watch ASAP!

Midnight in Paris-- Hello Paris in the 1920's!  I can't describe two more of my favorite things ever!  Not only that, but this movie was about all of my favorite American Authors and their lives in the Paris in the 1920's.  I read The Paris Wife earlier this year which was about this same subject, so I was thoroughly pleased with this movie depiction of Hemingway, Fitzgerald, and Gertrude Stein.

Gentlemen Prefer Blondes -- A classic Marilyn Monroe movie.  Why had I never seen this before?!  I loved everything about it: the fashion, the music, the 1950's Hollywood sound stage set and backdrops.  Marilyn Monroe and Jane Russell are absolute perfection!

The Arist - Amazing.  Absolutely amazing.  I have always been fascinated by the 1920's.  When I found out about this movie, I desperately wanted to experience what it would be like to see a silent movie in the theater.  Just like it was the 1920's!  I was the only one in the theater under the age of 70, but that's okay.  I loved it so much I could have been the happiest person in that theater.

Sarah's Key -- Like the book I read earlier this year, the story of 1942 Sarah Starsinzky was pieced together with the modern-day story of Journalist Julia Jarmond.  For the movie, this provided much needed relief from the devastatingly sad story of the Jewish roundup in Paris.  If not for the break-aways to Julia's story, I would have cried my eyes out.  The young actress who played Sarah Starsinzky portrayed such powerful emotion, I was brought to tears every time she was in a scene.

The Seamstress

The Seamstress is the memoir of Seren Tuvel, a Romanian Jewish girl who survived the holocaust.    What more is there to say about this book?  Just like any other holocaust story, it's a chilling account of the horrendous things that happened to Jews in Europe during World War II.  What makes this one different is that it takes place in Romania and Hungary, two countries I personally had never heard much about when pertaining to this subject in history.  While Jews were being shipped to Aushwitch as early as 1940, Seren doesn't get sent to a work camp until three years lately.  Meanwhile, she and her family were basically unaffected.  They were displaced several times until they finally ended up in a Jewish Ghetto in Budapest.  Throughout this whole experience, Seren served as a seamstress to wealthy Jews and Gentiles alike.  When the war finally reached Hungary, she was rounded up with ten thousand other woman and sent to Ravensbruk.

I couldn't put this book down.  After reading so many dystopian/end-of-world books lately, this one seemed like it could actually fit right into that category.  After all, it was the end of the world for almost six MILLION innocent human beings -- killed at the hand of an evil dictator.  Sounds like a theme straight from young adult fiction today.  But unlike zombies, killing arenas, or supernatural occurrences, this was real life.  This actually happened.  Every time I read a book about the holocaust I just can't believe it.  I can not believe the hatred portrayed against this race of people.  For what reason?  I don't understand it.  The passages below stood out to me so much because they show the cruelty of non-Jews.  When I read these passages I started crying because I just couldn't believe how people could be so brainwashed and cruel!

(Seren is talking the the teenage daughter of one of her clients.  The daughter doesn't know that Seren herself is a Jew.)
"If you must know, my brother and sister and I turned her in last night.  The police came and took her away."
Seren "You did such a thing?  Why?"
"She's a Jew.  Isn't that reason enough?"
Seren "But she's your mother!"
"She's not my mother any longer!  How could a Jew bitch be my mother!"
(Page 152)

(Seren and her father were temporarily taken into custody for questioning.  This occurred on the train to the prison.)
"One of the worst of the tormentors was an enormous Hungarian woman who was in the last days of her pregnancy, her belly greatly swollen and bulging from her coat.  Every time we passed her she held up her two small children, one in each arm.  The little girl spat at us and the boy flailed his feet into each passing arm.  Their mother urged them on, crying, 'Vermin!  Vermin!  Vermin!'"
(Page 98)

(After the war, Seren rented a room from a German widow who was terrified of her and avoided her at all cost.  Seren finally confronts her.)
"The widow was now covering her face with her hands.  'Please look at me,' I continued in a softer tone, knowing she was terrified.  'I have hands like you.  I have a face, like you.  I am human."
(Page 311)

This is an extremely powerful story of one woman's intense will to survive.  It will make you laugh and cry and perhaps come to an understanding of just how insane the human race is. 

Chick-Lit Mania

It's been awhile since I've immersed myself in some fun and frivolous chick-lit.  And that's exactly what these books were.  I had a long drive for a work trip, and these were perfect to listen to while I drove; not too serious and not too boring. 

In Goodnight Nobody, one housewife discovers another housewife murdered in her kitchen.  I was NOT expecting that from Jennifer Weiner, author of In Her Shoes (which moved a little too slowly for me.)  This book was a pleasant mix of feminine self-realization and cliche suburban murder mystery, a la Desperate Housewives.  I use the word cliche, but it's not such a bad thing in this instance.  Kate Klein finds herself a mother of three children under the age of five and living in a sickeningly idyllic Connecticut suburb.  While she tries to rediscover her 30-something identity ("how did I get to this place?" etc, etc.), she happens upon an unprecedented murder in her otherwise sleepy neighborhood.  She thrives in the opportunity to do some investigating on her own to see if she can come to the bottom of this mystery.

The story was face paced and exciting while still remaining true to the genre of chick-lit.  However, as soon as the audio book ended, I realized it was abridged and that really annoyed me!  I can't stop thinking about what I missed by not getting an unabridged version!  Ugh.

Anyway.

The next book was Promises to Keep by Jane Green.  Again, we find ourselves in an idyllic suburb of New York City.  For awhile, I kept getting the story mixed up with Goodnight Nobody because the characters and family profiles were so similar.  However, there was no murder to solve in Promises.  Instead, it was a heartwarming, tear-jerker of a family drama.  I usually hate family dramas, but I actually really enjoyed this one!  The characters were beautifully developed and wound together to form a wonderful tale of the importance of family and friends.  First we have sisters Callie and Steffi and Callie's best friend Lila.  Then there is Callie's adoring husband Reese, and her two children Jake and Eliza.  Finally there are Callie and Steffi's parents who have been divorced for 30 years and don't even speak to each other.  When one of them ends up with a terminal illness, the entire group comes together where they all discover something about themselves and how they relate to each other.

Now that I write it down, it kinda sounds like a pretty common storyline.  The whole time I was listening to it, I kept imagining some kind of movie starring Claire Danes, Anne Hathaway and Ryan Gosling or some other dramatic Hollywood cast.  My favorite part of the book was the vegan recipes at the end of each chapter! (Although some of the recipes weren't totally vegan.)  Hello, how awesome is it to find a book that features a vegan chef as one of the main characters?! 

I would recommend both for a fun, easy read.