Yeah, Olive!!

Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout has won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction! Hurray! I loved Olive Kitteridge and rated it 5/5 when I reviewed it in January. It was my book club's February selection; I wrote about the meeting here.

Winners were announced this afternoon. A complete list can be found here.

Short Story Monday - April 20

For this week's Short Story Monday, I decided to read a couple stories other participants have recommended. Both John and Eva read stories by Saki last week. I've never read Saki and this

seemed a good time to start. Since Eva posted a link for "Quail Seeds" along with her review, I printed it out and began reading. The story is about a small grocer lamenting the fact that shoppers seem to need more than just food. They need a shopping 'experience'... and he decides to give them one! This fun, light-hearted story was a delight to read. Other Saki stories will certainly be featured in future Short Story Monday posts!

Susan Glaspell's story "A Jury of Her Peers" really got me thinking! This is a story BookPsmith rewieved a couple weeks ago. It would be too simplistic to say it's a murder mystery, although that's what it appears to be. A woman awakens to find her husband strangled in their bed. She is put in jail as the prime suspect. The county attorney, sheriff, and a neighbor who discovered the crime scene visit the home to search for clues. The sheriff's wife and neighbor's wife also go along.

The story, published in 1917, shows quite a bit about the relationship between men and women at the time.

As the group enters the kitchen:

"Nothing here but kitchen things," he said, with a little laugh for the insignificance of kitchen things....

"Well, can you beat the woman! Held for murder and worrying about her preserves!"

"Oh, well," said Mrs. Hale's husband, with good-natured superiority, "women are used to worrying over trifles."

The men leave the women in the kitchen with instructions to 'keep your eye out...for anything that might be of use' as they continue on with their search:

"But would the women know a clue if they did come upon it?" he said.

From the objects in the kitchen, the women are able to deduce the details of the murder....details that continue to elude the men. What happens in that kitchen is, in effect, a trial by a jury of the woman's peers.

After reading this story, I was curious to learn more about it. Susan Glaspell (1876-1948) was a Pulitzer Prize winning playwright and bestselling novelist. The story "A Jury of Her Peers" is a short story adaptation of her one act play "Trifles". It was inspired by events witnessed during her years as a court reporter. A very similar murder actually did occur. At the time, women were not allowed to be jurors, so Glaspell created a jury of those female peers in her short story.

The Sunday Salon - April 19

Good morning! As I write this, Dewey's Read-a-Thon is just minutes from wrapping up and I can tell from all the blogs I've visited that it's been a huge success. While I couldn't participate due to several family commitments, I did sign on as a cheerleader. Many comments of encouragement were left at my regular blog stops and I made some new friends along the way, too.


It's been spring break here this week and the girls have been home from school. The highlight of the week was, by far, taking them to get their driver's permit. They are thrilled to be driving, but I am getting more grey hair every minute they are behind the wheel!


As for my reading, I did finish The Wapshot Chronicle by John Cheever. I really liked the book, but unfortunately a two week hiatus in the middle diminished my overall enjoyment. I still plan to read The Wapshot Scandal later this year. I also read Novel Destinations by Shannon Mckenna Schmidt and Jodi Rendon (review coming later this week) and a couple of stories for Short story Monday.


The Home-Maker by Dorothy Canfield is next up, and I look forward to talking about it with Bellezza when I'm finished. I also started The Help by Dorothy Stockett on audio. I haven't gotten very far (not much time alone in the car this week), but I already LOVE it! If I had the physical book, I'd be reading as fast as I can...


There is also this beautiful award to tell you about! Margaret from BooksPlease has given me the One Lovely Blog Award.

The rules to follow are:
1) Accept the award, post it on your blog together with the name of the person who has granted the award and his or her blog link.
2) Pass the award to 15 other blogs that you’ve newly discovered. Remember to contact the bloggers to let them know they have been chosen for this award.

I discovered many new blogs through the read-a-thon, so if you participated and don't already have this award, please consider yourself tagged. Thank you so much for this award, Margaret! It is truly the loveliest award button ever!

I hope everyone has a wonderful day and all the read-a-thonners get some well-deserved rest!

Ready, Set, Read!

Today is the day! Dewey's read-a-thon will be starting in just a few minutes.

Due to family commitments, I won't be participating this time around, but I will be visiting many of the readers.

Check out Dewey's read-a-thon website for all the details. Good luck everyone...and have fun!

A few audios...

Reviewing an audiobook is hard! I don’t have the physical book in front of me, there are no quotes flagged or written down in my notebook, and sometimes I don’t even know the correct spelling of a character's name. Although spelling wasn't an issue this time, it proved to be very problematic when I tried to write about China Road! All I have is my personal reaction to the story and the reader. When you add this to the fact that listening to a book is a very different experience from reading it (at least for me), I hesitate to even use the word ‘review’. So instead, here are some thoughts on a few recent audio books.The School of Essential Ingredients
by Erica Bauermeister
Penguin Audiobooks, 2009
Narrated by Cassandra Campbell
6 hours 4 minutes

Publisher’s summary:

Once a month on Monday night, eight students gather in Lillian's restaurant for a cooking class. Over time, the paths of the students mingle and intertwine, and the essence of Lillian's cooking expands beyond the restaurant and into the secret corners of their lives, with results that are often unexpected, and always delicious.

I knew I was going to love this book even before I started listening. Molly and Les both raved about it and I've come to trust their judgement. The language was gorgeous; the reader’s voice was as smooth as butter. This was a perfect listening experience! My only complaint was that it was too short. The classes came to an end, but I still wanted more of each of these characters!
My rating: A+

Revolutionary Road
by Richard Yates
Random House Audio, 2008
(originally published in 1961)
Narrated by Mark Bramhall
11 hours 26 minutes


Publisher’s Summary:

From the moment of its publication in 1961, Revolutionary Road was hailed as a masterpiece of realistic fiction and as the most evocative portrayal of the opulent desolation of the American suburbs. It’s the story of Frank and April Wheeler, a bright, beautiful, and talented couple who have lived on the assumption that greatness only just around the corner. With heartbreaking compassion and remorseless clarity, Richard Yates shows how Frank and April mortgage their spiritual birthright, betraying not only each other but their best selves.

Listening to this book was like a step back in time. New York City and its Connecticut suburbs of the 1950’s came to life. While I didn’t like any of the characters, I could not stop listening. Eleven hours passed very quickly! I missed the movie when it was at the theater, but will definitely watch when it becomes available through Netflix.
My rating: A

The Story of a Marriage: A Novel
by Andrew Sean Greer
Macmillan Audio, 2008
Narrated by: S. Epatha Merkerson
7 hours 23 minutes

Publisher’s summary:
“We think we know the ones we love.” So Pearlie Cook begins her indirect and devastating exploration of the mystery at the heart of every relationship: how we can ever truly know another person.
It is 1953 and Pearlie, a dutiful young housewife, finds herself living in the Sunset District in San Francisco, caring not only for her husband's fragile health but also for her son, who is afflicted with polio. Then, one Saturday morning, a stranger appears on her doorstep and everything changes. All the certainties by which Pearlie has lived and tried to protect her family are thrown into doubt. Does she know her husband at all? And what does the stranger want in return for his offer of a hundred thousand dollars? For six months in 1953 young Pearlie Cook struggles to understand the world around her, and most especially her husband, Holland.
Pearlie's story is a meditation not only on love but also on the effects of war, with one war recently over and another coming to a close. Set in a climate of fear and repression - political, sexual, and racial - The Story of a Marriage portrays three people trapped by the confines of their era, and the desperate measures they are prepared to take to escape it. Lyrical and surprising, The Story of a Marriage looks back at a period that we tend to misremember as one of innocence and simplicity.

The first-person narration, combined with the reader’s plaintive, deliberate voice made Pearlie come alive for me. Again, the 50's came to life...this time in San Francisco.
My rating: B+

My current audiobook is The Help by Kathryn Stockett and, so far, it's a winner!

Library Loot - April 15

There is some great loot from the library to share this week! I usually just run in to pick up a hold, but this week I had some extra time and came out with four books.







Tell Me A Riddle by Tillie Olsen

This was the hold I went to pick up. I read Olsen's I Stand Here Ironing for a recent Short Story Monday post and wanted to read more. The title novella won the First Prize O.Henry Award in 1961 and the stories have become staples in literature classes, but I was totally unfamiliar with her.





Novel Destinations: Literary Landmarks from Jane Austen's Bath to Ernest Hemingway's Key West
by Shannon McKenna Schmidt & Joni Rendon

I first heard about this book from BookPsmith. Now that I've had a chance to read through it, I can tell it's a book I want to own.






A Thousand Days in Venice by Marlena de Blasi

Molly at My Cozy Book Nook is hosting a Summer Vacation Reading Challenge. I'm considering Venice as a possible 'travel destination'!










A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier
by Ishmael Beah

I may be one of the only people around that hasn't read this book. It had been talked about as a book club selection, but didn't make the final cut.
I haven't read any non-fiction this year and I may start here.





Library Loot is hosted by Eva and Alessandra.

When Everyone Was Pregnant by John Updike

My relationship with John Updike has been conflicted from the beginning. I love his use of language, and recognize that he is a truly talented and prolific writer. However, his novels ( at least the few I have read) often disappoint or fail to live up to my expectations. I absolutely loved In The Beauty of The Lilies ten years ago, but didn't think as much of the novels I read after that - most recenty The Witches of Eastwick. In an attempt to leave my relationship with John Updike on a positive note, I have turned to one of his earlier short stories.

When Everyone Was Pregnant, written in 1971, is Updike's love song to the 1950's. It opens:

"I'm in securities, but I read a lot, on the train. Read yesterday that the Fifties were coming back..But my Fifties won't come back.

Kind years to me. Entered them poor and left them comfortable. Entered them chaste and left them a father...Those were the years when everyone was pregnant. Not only kind but beautiful years."

There is a hint of wistfulness from the beginning. The man on a train sends the signal that time is passing. This beautiful, lyrical love song is actually an elegy to the 50's.

"Guiltless. Our fat Fifties cars, how we loved them, revved them: no thought of pollution. Exhaust smoke, cigarette smoke, factory smoke, all romantic. Romance of consumption at its height."

"...How young we were. The men scrawny as boys. Laughable, military haircuts: the pea-brain look. The women with bangs and lipsticked smiles. We look drunk. Sometimes we were."

Surely after the 30' and 40's, the 1950's must have seemed idyllic. The Eisenhower era was good to Updike's generation. But time moved on.

"The babies got bigger. The parties got wilder...Scary tide, strong moon, could see the women had aged...over the ocean, riots. Assassinations, protests, a decade's overdue bills heaped like surf thunder on the sandbar. We were no longer young..."

The sixties have obviously arrived. The man on the train is still making these notes, but his hand is shaking. He is left wondering:

"Did the Fifties exist? ...the train slides forward. The decades slide seaward, taking us along. I am still afraid. Still grateful."

What a beautiful, yet melancholic, love story. Yes, I love John Updike again. Perhaps I should stick to his short stories.

Visit The Book Mine Set to see who else is talking about short stories today.