Twilight - Stephenie Meyer

A week ago, I'd never heard of this book. But, then my friend Raz told me it was all the rage - and suddenly I started seeing mentions of it everywhere. Jake's 15-year old cousin Emily confirmed that it was a good read, so I went and checked it out from the library. I did know going in that this was from the Young Adult section, and that it featured vampires. The main character is 17-year old Bella who has recently moved to dreary Forks, WA to live with her father. She finds herself inexplicably very popular with the boys at her new school - and in particular with an eccentric and beautiful boy named Edward. She falls immediately under his spell, and it isn't long before she discovers that he is a vampire. Not much else happens in this 570 page book. Bella and Edward have inane conversation after inane conversation about their love for each other, constantly frustrate each other, get mad and apologize - basically the typical high school relationship. There is a little action at the end involving another vampire coven, and a few interesting tidbits about the lives of Edward and his vampire family. This is by no means brilliant prose, but it's a fun story - and something I can see teenage girls falling absolutely in love with - after all, what 17-year old wouldn't want to imagine herself in a romantic relationship with a gorgeous vampire? There are two more books in the series, and a movie featuring the kid who played Cedric Diggory in the Harry Potter films on the way. Definitely a fun diversion - I'm already in the queue at the library for the second book in the series.

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn - Betty Smith

This book has been on my to-read list for awhile, but then I found out that my friend Linda was the model for the book cover back when she was 8 and growing up in Brooklyn (that's her on the left!) - and it made me even more excited to find out what this book was all about. This is the coming of age story of Francie Nolan - an impoverished Irish-American in Brooklyn pre-WWI. Her father, though doting, is an insufferable alcoholic and her mother is a hardworking janitor who just wants a better life for her children. Coming right off of Angela's Ashes, many of the topics were a bit too similar and I kept getting the characters confused. But, mostly I enjoyed learning about the world Francie creates for herself: how she takes care of her younger brother Neely, how she struggles to get noticed by the world, and how she figures out how to make something of herself. There are some colorful characters in this book - including Francie's father and her brash and scandalous Aunt Sissy. The years pass a little too quickly at the end, but overall this is a marvelous story about growing up - from the very realistic perspective of a young girl.

Angela's Ashes - Frank McCourt

My husband is generally very accomodating of my reading/book buying and borrowing obsessions. He always asks for recommendations and only once in awhile will he politely request that I try to keep all my books confined to the bookshelves instead of scattered all over the bedroom, bathroom, office, and living room. But, I have never seen him so excited about something I was reading than when he noticed I had picked up Angela's Ashes. I believe his exact words were, "You're just reading that NOW? EVEN I read that 10 years ago!!!" He then smiled gleefully and went about his business. I think I put off reading this book for so long because I'd heard it was really depressing - which probably doesn't explain why I read all the other depressing books that I read, but this time I can't pretend that I wasn't warned. This is McCourt's memoir about growing up povery-stricken in Ireland with his alcoholic father, multiple siblings, and depressed yet enduring mother. Now that the memoir genre has taken over the bestseller lists, I did feel like reading Angela's Ashes 10 years after its publication was kind of like watching "Star Wars" in 2008, after so many advances have been made in special effects. Yet, McCourt's story is brilliantly written - I particularly appreciated that he told the stories from the perspective of a child, and didn't feel the need to inject too much of an adult's explanations into his perceptions. But, it didn't hold together in a few places, and I would have liked to better understand by the end how exactly he and his brothers ended up so well educated and successful -- despite the fact that they truly came from nothing with parents who were not able properly to supervise and nurture them. The parts that really stuck with me were McCourt's enduring love and admiration for his father - no matter how many times his dad spent his wages on liquor. And, how he hoarded the small pennies he earned to spend on candy - rather than on necessities for his family. These seem to be the qualities of children that no amount of repeated disappointment or scoldings can change. Overall this is a stark window into the lives of families enduring poverty - and a picture of Irish life during a very difficult time.

East Toward Dawn - Nan Watkins

For the past couple weeks, I've been getting the travel itch again. I've spent a lot of time on-line researching all my faux vacations to Nicaragua, Belize, and Spain. So, I decided that reading travel literature might be a good way to cure my wanderlust. East Toward Dawn chronicles Watkins's 60-day journey around the world to celebrate her 60th birthday. She decides to travel alone, though she has friends and family in many of the locations she visits. Along the way, Watkins struggles to find meaning in her life as a musician, a wife, and most importantly a mother. She is now divorced (though in a new relationship) and still figuring out how to deal with the loss of her young son many years earlier. In general, I love travel literature. Reading a little always makes me want to read more. Watkins was a good reminder that I have many more places to read about and that I do enjoy learning about the world through the eyes of different types of people. Overall, however, Watkins story-telling was a bit disappointing. She seemed to try too hard to view everything through the perspective of her own personal experiences, rather than appreciating the differences in the cultures she was visiting. But, she did inspire me to pick up three more travel memoirs at the bookstore this weekend - one by Nicholas Sparks about his travels around the world with his brother, one by Paul Theroux in the South Pacific, and the last about a Thai-American who travels to Thailand to become a monk. We'll see where those stories take me in the upcoming months.

The History of Love - Nicole Krauss

I was a bit hesitant to read this book after finding out that its author is married to Jonathan Safran Foer, author of Everything is Illuminated, a book that I just couldn't get through. Not that spouses would necessarily have a similar writing style, but you can never be too sure. I'm glad I took a chance - this book revolves around two main characters - Leo Gursky, an aging Polish immigrant who once wrote a novel, but is now afraid he will vanish from the earth without anyone ever remembering him. And, Alma, a precocious young girl trying to hold together her widowed mother and eccentric brother. Alma's mother is mysteriously asked to translate a book called The History of Love. Alma discovers that she is named after the main character in the book, and becomes convinced that the character is based upon a real person. She sets out in New York to find this woman and eventually her path leads her to Leo Gursky. The plot line can get a little confusing at times, with character's memories of events often at odds with reality, but all in all this is a wonderful mystery. I particularly enjoyed the chapters that focused on Alma - the Scout Finch of her generation.

The Old Man and the Sea - Ernest Hemmingway

I've previously only read Hemingway for classes in college - The Sun Also Rises a few times and A Farewell to Arms. For the most part, reading these novels solidified my belief that in general, I am not a fan of pre-1950s American writing. But, it's been a few years, so I thought I'd give Hemingway anothre chance - and I chose his last, and arguably most famous, book for my re-introduction. I vowed that even though the book is very short, that I would read it slowly, so that I could afford myself the opportunity to really appreciate and understand Hemingway's words. From this perspective, Hemingway finally came through for me. I did enjoy the cadence of his writing and his descriptions of the fishing village in Cuba. But, alas, his subject matter is too "manly" - and I found the old man's battle with a marlin tedious. Of course, I know it is all a metaphor for something larger - perhaps the old man represents Christ's sacrifice, perhaps the marlin is a symbol of man's desperation and never-ending search for immortality. And so the conundrum: I would have enjoyed discussing this book in college, but back then, I don't think I could have slowed down long enough to appreciate the writing . I think that I will read more Hemingway - he is as popular and enduring as he is for a reason - and his books are all short enough that it doesn't take too much out of my days to keep trying to understand what the hype is all about.

The Folded World - Amity Gaige

This is one of those books that seems better to me after I've finished and sat back to think about it than it did while I was reading it. Charlie, a social worker dealing with the mentally ill, and Alice, the young daughter of a librarian, meet and fall in love with the "better" qualities of the other. Once they are married, and the parents of twins, Charlie finds himself all-consumed by his work, and in particular one client named Opal. Alice, on the other hand, finds herself overwhelmed by parenthood and Charlie's absences. She seeks to escape through the books recommended by a local bookseller - who just happens to be one of Charlie's former clients. I found the writing initially difficult to get into - the author changes the character from whom's perspective she is telling the story every couple paragraphs - and given that many of the characters suffer from mental illness, this doesn't lend itself to the easiest to follow story. But, I did think that Gaige presented a very realistic picture of relationships - how people deal with their pasts and issues within the context of their marriages, and how the reasons we come to love someone can often turn out to be the reasons we cannot ultimately make the relationship work. Overall, this book also presents an enlightened view of the mentally ill and how they are and should be cared for in our society.