The Wedding - Nicholas Sparks

The Wedding is the sequel to Sparks's popular novel/movie The Notebook. Wilson Lewis has been married for 30 years. A hard-working estate lawyer, he passed the years in his office while his saintly wife raised his three children. While certain that he is in love with his wife, he is absent-minded and practical, as opposed to romantic. Over the years, he has taken his relationship for granted, and when he completely forgets his 29th anniversary, he is sure that his wife is contemplating leaving him. So, he spends the entire next year planning the perfect gift for his 30th anniversary and figuring out ways to make his wife fall back in love with him - with a little help from his aging and quite ill father-in-law. Two weeks before his anniversary, Wilson's oldest daughter Anna announces that she is getting married - and quickly. Wanting her grandfather to be alive for the ceremony, she decides her parents' wedding anniversary would be a perfect date, throwing a wrench into Wilson's plans to win back his wife. But, as the planning takes on a frenzied pace, Wilson pitches in - reminiscing about the past 30 years with his wife, and being to understand that he needs to make drastic changes if he intends to live out the rest of his life with his wife as planned. This is the first Sparks novel that I've read, but it played out as I've heard all his novels do - in a romantic feel good sort of way (some might say cheesy). I kept expecting something bad to happen - and there are some twists and turns, and a few teary moments (sad and happy) - but in the end, I got the happy ending Wilson and I both wanted.

Prodigal Summer - Barbara Kingsolver

Despite the fact that Kingsolver's The Poisonwood Bible is one of my favorite books, I always hesitate to read the rest of her novels. I think I am worried that I will be disappointed. And so, Prodigal Summer has sat on my shelf for years. I decided to take it down for my current trip, as it seemed like good airplane/pool-side reading. Prodigal Summer involves three different story lines. The first is about Lusa, a well-educated scientist who has moved to the country for her husband. Shunned by her gossiping sister-in-laws, she struggles to find her place in her new environment. The second is about Deanna, a loner, who escapes society altogether by moving up into the mountains, working for the forest service, and tracking coyotes. Finally, there is Garnett, a bitter old man with no family in a neighborly dispute over pesticides. As expected, the three stories eventually intertwine, and at the heart of each one is a recognition of the power of nature, the importance of each animal (insect and mammal) in our ecosystem, and surpisingly that despite long-standing traditions and stubborn ways, that people really can change. Plot-wise this book was quite predictable, but I enjoyed learning about the different characters. My favorite story line was the one involving Lusa, and I enjoyed watching her turn from the city mouse into the country mouse, and her appreciation of the children in her life and their need for independence (though there is a bit of an uncomfortable relationship with her 17-year old nephew by marriage). Lately, I've been in a need for stories with happy endings - and I liked that this one ended, not with all the loose ends tied up, but with great hope that they would be. Prodigal Summer is a bit heavy at times on the preachy-ness of the importance of all creatures (a foreshadow of Kingsolver's Animal, Vegetable, Miracle), but ultimately, it is an enjoyable story - and perfect summer reading.

So Brave, Young, and Handsome - Leif Enger

A couple years ago, I read and loved Leif Enger's first novel, Peace Like a River. I thought it would be a great book for a teenage boy filled with advenutre and family, but also quite touching. I was eager to read Enger's latest novel set in 1915, but sadly, I was sorely disappointed. So Brave, Young, and Handsome, features Monte Beckett, a struggling writer. He passes each day in his Minnesota farmhouse trying to write 1,000 words, but finding he is inspired less and less as the days go by. When he spies an outlaw, Glendon Hale, rowing on the river near his house, he is taken under Hale's spell and compelled to leave his family and travel to Mexico. From there, the book becomes an adventurous Western, filled with outlaws and villains. I am actually a huge fan of Western movies, but have found that I just cannot stomach the stories in writing. They seem boring to me, even when the writing is beautiful - which Enger's often is. I was kind of reminded of Cormac McCarthy's All the Pretty Horses. Despite the travels and adventures, I was not getting much more out of the book. I think I needed more personal reflection from the characters. I barely had any interest in finishing this book, and if it hadn't been for my great love of Peace Like a River, I doubt I would have slogged all the way through.

The Hunger Games - Suzanne Collins

A couple weeks ago Jake showed me an article in the paper about the dark nature of recent successful Young Adult fiction. Among those included was Jay Asher's novel about teen suicide, Thirteen Reasons Why, which I read a couple months ago. Other books mentioned featured eating disorders, depression, and murder. One title that stuck in my head was The Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins who writes the Gregor Underland Series for 8-9 year olds (I read the first one and had a mixed reaction awhile back). The Hunger Games takes place in a futurisitc United States, where people live in one of 13 Districts. Katniss, the main character, takes care of her mother and younger sister, following the death of her father in the coal mines. Katniss's family is beyond poor and she has learned to survive by becoming an outlaw hunter with her best friend Gale. Once a year, the Capitol hosts the "reaping" - a festival of sorts featuring The Hunger Games. One boy and one girl from each district are chosen at random to fight to the death until only one victor remains, bringing food and much needed wealth to their district. When Katniss's 12-year old sister is chosen, Katniss volunteers in her place. Along with Peeta, the chosen boy from her district, she trains in combat and survival and is ultimately dumped with the other 23 competitors into a man-made landscape. The Games are televised, like a reality "Survivor" for the rest of the country to watch. Young children pitted against each other in a Lord of the Flies situation, is barbaric, and Collins does not hold back in her descriptions of how the kids die away. Katniss struggles with her own participation in the games - she does not want the Capitol to have control over her, but at the same time, she has a strong survival instinct, as she tries to figure out who to trust and which alliances to enter into. There is a great deal of sadness in this book - ideas of loss and control, as well as destiny and love. It is a definite page-turner. Even though I assumed things would somehow end well for Katniss, this did not stop me from being worried everytime a predator was near, or wondering how she would get herself out each successive difficult situation. I was sad to come to the end of the book, but very happy to learn that this is just the first in a series, the second of which comes out in September (Catching Fire). I look forward to hearing more about Katniss, Peeta, Gale, and everyone else in this strange new land. But, I am a bit concerned that this is the direction young adult fiction is taking, and wonder how Collins's target audience interprets the blood-thirsty nature of The Games, and what effects positive or negative this series will have on young readers.

Still Alice - Lisa Genova

Still Alice features a 50-year old psychology professor from Harvard who has just been diagnosed with early on-set Alzheimer's. At first, Alice attributes her forgetfulness to getting older and possibly to menopause. But, when the symtoms begin to include forgetting people she has just met, an inability to recall words during her lectures (ironically on the acquisition of language), she knows something more is going on. Following her diagnosis, her husband - also a Harvard professor and scientist, finds it impossibly to accept and sets about to learn as much as he can about the disease and alternate possibilities. Given the genetic link to Alzheimer's, Alice's children as also faced with the possibility of facing a similar future and treat their mother with differing levels of support, denial, and encouragement. The majority of the book is told from the first person perspective of Alice. As her disease progresses, however, the book switches to the third person, as Alice becomes unable to tell her own story completely. Lisa Genova is herself a PhD in neuroscience from Harvard and has a tremendous grasp of the neuroscience and medicine behind Alzheimer's. One of the most touching actions, I found, was Alice's forming of a support group for others in her situation, after finding that all of the organized support at her hospital was for caregivers of Alzheimer's patients. This book has been criticized for its trite dialogue, but I think those reviews miss the point. This is the first fiction book I've ever read about this disease, and I felt it really highlighted for me the torture of going from a wholly independent person to one who knows they will slowly lose the ability to remember the faces and names of the people they love the most in the world. It is a heartbreaking and difficult disease - for those who suffer from it, and for those who take care of the people they love who can no longer remember them or trust their best intentions. While incredibly sad, Still Alice goes a long way in evoking sympathy and understanding for a very complicated and scary experience.

Revolutionary Road - Richard Yates

As a general rule, once I have seen a movie based on a book, I do not go back and read the book (I do not have the reverse rule and often love seeing a movie after enjoying a book). The reason for this is that once I have seen a story play out on the screen, I have a very difficult time imagining characters on my own. I heard that Revolutionary Road was a fantastic book, and quite different from the movie. So, despite my better judgment (and after having found the movie brilliantly acted, but incredibly depressing), I borrowed it from the library. I must have heard wrong because the movie is nearly a verbatim script of the book (though the book has a bit of foreshadowing missing from the movie). And I could not help but hear Leonardo DiCaprio's voice everytime Frank Wheeler's dialogue came onto the page. But, if you have not already seen the movie - this book is quite fantastic. It is the story of a young couple living in suburbia. They lead a seemingly perfect existence. Frank spends his days at a rather mundane job in the city, and April is the consummate housewife. But, of course, there is more under the surface. April, once an aspiring actress, joins a local acting troupe and is disappointed by her performance. Her dissatisfaction in this one area is simply a manifestation of her overall unhappiness living the life everyone else wants her to lead, but which she knows she and Frank never intended. They hatch a plan to move to Paris, but when April discovers that she is pregnant, real life threatens to swallow up her dreams (she reminds me very much of Betty, Don Draper's wife in "Mad Men"). Frank too has a lot of anger and frustration surrounding his job. He has an affair with a co-worker and in many ways finds himself trapped in the role of domestic provider. There are a couple quirky characters along the way - my favorite in the book being the husband of the Wheeler's real estate agent (the role of their schizophrenic son garnered a Best Supporting Actor win from the movie). Like the movie, this book left me with a feeling of great emptiness - of the truth that survival, success, and family, often require choices which leave behind the dreams that brought us so much happiness in younger days. Revolutionary Road is about more than just the typical suburban angst and addresses some pretty shocking choices. It is finely written, but difficult for me to determine what reaction I would have had to it if I'd read the book before watching the movie. Not recommended for anyone looking for light-hearted reading.

Garlic and Sapphires - Ruth Reichl

I have reviewed Reichl's two previous books Tender at the Bone and Comfort Me With Apples. This one is probably my favorite of the three, and the most focused on Reichl's job as the restaurant critic for the New York Times. Early on, Reichl realizes that her photograph is up in every NY restaurant, and that if she wants to have an authentic experience, she will need to adopt various costumes and personas. As she dons wigs and thrift-store clothing, even her closest friends and co-workers can't make her, but without hesitation, her five year old son runs to her everytime. While Reichl adjusts to the fame and power of her new position, and its constraints on her time, I found her nods to her relationship with her son to be some of the most touching, and not overplayed, moments in the book. The incidents with her husband, however, left me a little more worried for the family situation. In each of the chapters, Reichl recounts her experience at a given restaurant, she includes her actual reviews, and a few recipes of her own. At times the book is a bit too repetitious of the actual reviews - though it was interesting to see how Reichl transformed her numerous visits to a given restaurant into one review. At times Reichl seems a bit full of herself, but this actually becomes part of the memoir. When her husband warns that she is becoming the obnoxious person she once made fun of - Reichl is forced to evaluate whether her myriad costumes are meant as a disguise from the restaurant owners or from her own self.