The Senator's Wife - Sue Miller

I think the book cover for The Senator's Wife says it all - boring and unimaginative. Miller's latest tells the story about Delia, the wife of a former Washington senator, who hasn't lived with her philandering husband for decades. But, it is also the story of Meri, a newly married 38-year old who is pregnant with her first child. Meri and her husband Nathan move in next door to Delia, and Delia and Meri strike up a seeming friendship. My initial difficulty with the characters is that Meri is written as if she is a naive 22-year old. Miller says she is in love with her husband, but they've known each other for less than a year, he makes the decision to buy a new house without consulting her, and they seem to communicate about nothing from Meri's new job to her true feelings about having a child. She seems childlike in her interactions and reactions to situations. Meri has an unnatural obsession with Delia, whose story is told through flashbacks, but focus only on her reaction to the senator's cheating scandals - and tell nothing at all about how she has truly lived her life in the 20 years since. Eventually, there is a turn of events that brings the senator home, and which reveals Meri as a disgusting self-centered person with no care for how her actions affect others (much like the character of the senator himself). I was eager to read this novel, as I have enjoyed Miller's writing in the past. But, this one just seemed to fall flat - with unlikeable characters all around.

The Monk Downstairs - Tim Farrington

I borrowed this book based on the title alone. Who wouldn't want to read a book about a monk living downstairs? In this case, an ex-monk, who has left his monastery, disenchanted with his life of prayer and inaction. He moves into the in-law unit of single mom, Rebecca, who has decided once and for all that she no longer needs love in her life. Her 6-year old daughter plays with unicorns, adores her good-for-nothing surfer father, and takes an immediate liking to Michael Christopher, the monk. Obviously, we know Rebecca and Michael are headed for romance - and a clash of cultures. The concept for this one was ripe for a fun romantic comedy with a little theology on the side, but sadly even though the book is pretty short, it seemed to drag on and on. Throughout, Michael writes letters to a monk back at his old order, explaining his new life and his decision to leave the monastery - but the letters aren't particularly insightful, and while he hints at a scandal or major blowout with his abbot, it never turns out to be of much interest. A downstairs monk held so much promise, but unfortunately, my faith led me only to disappointment.

Gone With the Wind - Margaret Mitchell

When I was young, I spent all my summers at my grandparents' house. They had a bookshelf with glass sliding doors. Maybe it had something to do with the fact that the doors were made of glass, but I always felt like maybe I wasn't supposed to be reading the books in there, and I'd always be careful to never leave the books lying around and to always put them back in their correct spots. There was a copy of Gone With the Wind on those shelves, but it was bound in a fraying blue cloth cover, and the pages were brittle and yellow with age. I didn't dare read that book, certain that it would crumble in my hands, and I'd never be able to slide it back into place undetected. And so the years passed, and I never saw the movie or went on to another copy of the novel. Until my friend Courtney, an avid reader whose has similar taste in books to me, told me that she was shocked to discover that it was simply fantastic. So, I borrowed it from the library - all 1000+ pages of it. And she was right - within 10 pages, I was sucked into the Southern soap opera featuring the self-absorbed Scarlett O'Hara, her many suitors, and their battle against the Yankee Northerners. But, of course, my favorite character was Rhett Butler - unsavory and cavorting with ladies of the night, he is the only one who truly speaks his mind and doesn't succumb to all the silly Southern traditions. I had been warned that racism is rampant throughout the novel, but this is something I would like to read more about. Obviously, Mitchell was from the South and writing this in the 1920s-1930s when race relations were a complicated manner. But, I still felt like the black charaters in the novel were written as often much more perceptive than the white people around them - and that while the white characters expressed racist positions, as would be common at the time I'm sure, it wasn't completely obvious to me that Mitchell herself bought into them. Twice, for example, when Scarlett's character is chastised for hiring cheap convict labor at her mill and taking advantage of these "poor" men, she reminds her criticizers that they once owned slaves. Of course, Scarlett herself probably saw nothing wrong with either slave labor or convict labor, as long as she turned a profit, but I felt that the interactions between the black and white characters were complex enough to warrant more than simply that Mitchell was a racist writing during racist times. Gone With the Wind is a truly amazing and wonderful novel filled with characters to love and despise - Scarlett did get on my nerves for her inability to understand basic human nature and her general ignorance about life events, but she is an impressive survivor and someone who always finds a way to get what she wants. The novel ends on an uncertain note - Scarlett is only 28 years old, but she has lifetimes of heartache behind her. Apparently, there is a sequel (titled Scarlett, I believe, written by someone other than Mitchell - but authorized by her), which I will read just to see what happens. This is definitely one of those books that while it went on forever, I still never wanted it to end.

The Blind Side - Michael Lewis

A couple folks from Jake's work recommended this book to him, so he asked me to borrow it for him from the library. There is nothing I love more than a new book for my husband - especially one that he finds himself immediately drawn into. This means he's reading for hours before bed, and I don't have to compete with the television or chores to get in MY reading time. The Blind Side, written by the author of Moneyball and Liar's Poker, tells two stories. The first is about the evolution of the game of football and the increased importance of the position of the left tackle. The second story is about an enormous African-American kid named Michael Oher who appears seemingly out of nowhere, and is taken in by a wealthy white family on his road to becoming the nation's top college football recruit - and who plays the position of left tackle. While I like football, I don't know anything about the strategy of the game, what different positions other than the quarterback, the running back, and the receivers do, or anything about players of the past. So, my eyes kind of glazed over during the chapters on the history of the game (luckily there aren't too many of these). I instead prefered the story of Oher - but again Lewis disappointed me. While there are endless accounts of Oher adjusting to his new private school and learning to study for the first time, while his new white mom teaches him the difference between fettucine and ravioli, I felt like it was so drawn out. It's not until the last 10-15 pages that we really start to learn a little about where Oher came from - his biological mother and his dozen or so siblings, growing up in extreme poverty and neglect, but somehow surviving. This, to me, is the truly amazing part of Oher's story - not that a scout discovered him, or that a rich family was willing to invite a large black man into their home (though that is clearly a compelling story) - but rather, what is it in Oher's character and the circumstances of his life that prevented him from becoming just another statistic? The frustration I felt with Oher's silence throughout the book is, no doubt, the frustration everyone attempting to help Oher get to college also felt. And, I suppose the book I would want Lewis to write is not one about the game of football and Oher's place in it, but rather one that focuses more prominently on Oher and reflected the sociological aspects of Oher's background and development - and obviously, that is not the book that Lewis set out to write. For people who love football, this is a great book - Lewis is easy to read and has a great way of bringing the people he interviews to life (his depiction of the Ole Miss coach's Cajun accent is fantastic). But, for people like me who love those behind-the-scene vignettes about people's lives and gaining a better understanding for how people come to be where they are, I found the book lacking.

Eclipse - Stephenie Meyer

Alas, I have finished this teenage vampire/werewolf trilogy. I am probably dumber for it, but truth be told, I watch and read a lot of television shows, movies, and books that probably lead to the same result, so I can't be too harsh a critic. As with her prior two books in this series Twilight and New Moon, I was primarily interested in the background of the vampires and werewolves. This book contained some good urban legends and myths about the two cultures and where they came from. But, as with the others, I found the main character, Bella, insufferable. When she is not being an inexplicable klutz (a trait many people seem to find endearing in female characters, but I only find irritating), she is whining about how much she wants to be turned into a vampire, spending inappropriate amounts of time with a werewolf who is in love with her and then expressing profound annoyance at his declarations of love despite her encouragment, and in general setting back the feminist movement about 10,000 years. But, again, I have to admit that good stories and entertainment can still come from stereotypical and offensive characters (Harold and Kumar comes to mind...). In this allegedly final installment, the vampires and werewolves (heretofore mortal enemies) come together to protect the small town of Forks, WA from something sinister that is decimating the Seattle population. Of course, Bella, narcissist that she is, is at the center of the chaos and she must manipulate her bloodsucking boyfriend (Edward) and her canine best friend (Jacob) to put their immortal lives on the line to save hers. I am a sucker (pun intended!) for trilogies - even poorly written ones - and vampires, so Meyer's books satisfied those needs, but I think I am going to turn to Anne Rice next and see if she can also satisfy my need for well-written dialogue and likeable characters.

I Know This Much Is True - Wally Lamb

Years ago, I read Lamb's first novel, She's Come Undone, and was struck by his ability to write an incredibly believable story from the viewpoint of a woman. Since then, I've been meaning to read this follow-up novel, but honestly, the length of it has always kind of intimidated me (901 pages). Then the other day, I picked it off my shelf and became engrossed right away. The story is told from the perspective of Dominick Birdsey, a middle-aged divorced house-painter whose schizophrenic twin brother, Thomas, just cut off his own hand in public to protest the war. As Thomas is shipped off to a mental institution, Dominick finds himself in the familiar position of trying to protect his brother at the expense of his own career and love life. The story flips back and forth between present day and the past - with Dominik exploring his childhood with an abusive step-father, an unknown father, and a mother who seems to prefer Thomas and is wholly unable to protect herself and her children. At one point, Dominick discovers and begins to read an autobiography written by his maternal grandfather. The autobiography is presented as written (as opposed to simply through Dominik's retelling). While the stories within the autobiography present important issues with respect to mental health within families, and provide Dominick with a lens through which to view his upbringing, I found the chapters of the book itself to be unnecessary and distracting - not to mention LONG. But, despite this, this book is an amazing exploration of the impact mental illness can have on a family. At times, like many books that deal with these difficult issues, there was a little too much going on - in addition to the mental illness and physical abuse, there is child pornography, a hint of incest, racial tension, HIV/AIDS, institutional violence, and numerous other random life tragedies strewn throughout the narrative. But, in the end, Dominick is a likeable character and a wonderful narrator. The ending is a little too Hollywood feel-good, but I'll admit, I really don't mind ending on a happy note. I Know This Much Is True is an ambitious undertaking - for Lamb and for his readers, but certainly one well worth the effort.

A Piece of Cake - Cupcake Brown

I heard about this book when it first came out last year and have been meaning to read it for awhile. This is a memoir written by a woman practicing law at a big firm in San Francisco. But, before she broke into the corporate world, she had to overcome a horrible childhood. Her mother died when she was 11 and in an unbelievable example of how screwed up our child welfare system is, she ends up in a foster home. With a physically abusive foster mother only interested in checks from the government, Brown is then raped by the foster mother's nephew. Brown runs away repeatedly, turning tricks for money, and delving deeper and deeper into alcohol and drugs to numb herself from the horrible hell that has become her life. Each time she runs back into the law, she is sent back to her foster home, despite obvious evidence of abuse. Assuming all the events chronicles in the book are true (ever since Frey, I am quite skeptical), this is a truly amazing life story. How this woman did not end up in jail, dead or HIV positive is nothing short of a miracle. At times it felt like the bad things were piled on a bit too thick and it was all just too depressing. But, once Brown makes the difficult decision to turn her life around, things start looking up - and while her struggle to the top is painful to read, it is truly incredible.