Booking Through Thursday - Unread

In a perfect follow up to last weeks question, as suggested by C in DC:

Is there a book you wish you could "unread"?  One that you disliked so thoroughly you wish you could just forget that you ever read it?

My answer:

In one word, no.  If a book is really that bad, I will stop reading it...unless it is for my book club.  In that case,  I will persevere to the bitter end, share my opinion, and enjoy the discussion.  If the entire group dislikes the book (and that's only happened once with White Teeth), it becomes a part of group lore that we bring up and laugh about for years to come.

Visit Booking Through Thursday to see more answers or leave your own.

The Help by Kathryn Stockett - audio version

The Help

by Kathryn Stockett

Penguin Audiobooks, 2009

Narrated by:  Cassandra Campbell, Jenna Lamia, Octavia Spencer, Bahni Turpin

18 hours 4 minutes

From AudioFile
Jackson, Mississippi, 1962. White ladies playing bridge and sipping ice tea. Colored maids cooking, cleaning, and loving the white babies. The separate, intertwined paths of these worlds are going to collide. Audio is THE way to be inside this story, brilliantly cast with four voices. The separate casting of the three voices of Stockett's debut novel is astute. Jenna Lamia embodies Miss Skeeter, the young aspiring writer who starts a project that disrupts her privileged and predictable world. Lamia's genteel Southern tones can pass off ingrained prejudice with chilling comfort, screech with outrage, and subtly reflect Skeeter's growing resolve and self-discovery. Bahni Turpin and Octavia Spencer contrast the voices of hot-headed Minny and thoughtful, inspiring Aibileen. Their musical speech and emotional connection to the characters are riveting. Listeners are swept up in the story--shocked and reminded by the times; inspired and proud of these women. 

My thoughts:

The Help by Kathryn Stockett could easily end up being my favorite audiobook of the year.  The novel has already gotten rave reviews from many bloggers (check out Sandy's review from You've GOTTA Read This or Molly's review from My Cozy Book Nook).  I will just add my two cents by saying that the audio version was fabulous!

The readers' southern accents were perfect and added so much to my overall enjoyment.  Not a single minute of this eighteen hour book dragged.  As many of you know, I listen while I'm driving alone in my car...and while listening to The Help, I'll admit to to taking the long way home more than once.  Whether you're already a fan of audiobooks or are searching for the place to start, I highly recommend The Help!

Everyday Use by Alice Walker

Due to the Memorial Day holiday here in the US, here is another Tuesday edition of Short Story Monday.  This week's short story served as my introduction to the work of Alice Walker.  Everyday Use was written early in her career and appeared in the collection In Love and Trouble:  Stories of Black Women in 1973.

In the story, an unnamed, uneducated rural black woman who lives with her younger daughter Maggie, tells the story of a disagreement over the ownership of family heirloom quilts that occurs when her elder daughter, Dee, visits from college.

Dee returns in "a dress so loud it hurts my eyes.  There are yellows and oranges enough to throw back the light of the sun...Earrings gold, too, and hanging down to her shoulders.  Bracelets dangling and making noises when she moves...It [her hair] stands straight up like the wool on a sheep.  It is black as night and around the edges are two long pigtails that rope around like small lizards disappearing behind her ears."  

 She announces she is no longer 'Dee', but Wangero Leewanika Kemanjo.  She has changed her name because  she "couldn't bear it any longer, being named after the people who oppress me."  A discussion follows in which her mother traces the root of her given name back several generations to the Civil War.

Maggie, darker, thinner, slower, and scarred from a house fire ten years earlier, is both afraid and in awe of her sister.  She remains in the background as Dee tells of her desire to take some heirloom quilts.  Her mother, with Maggie's help, tells the story behind each piece of fabric and how it is reminiscent of a family member.  When Dee hears the quilts have been promised to Maggie, she explodes.

"Maggie can't appreciate these quilts!" she said.  "She'd probably be backward enough to put them to everyday use."

The quilts will still go to Maggie, and Dee leaves in a huff telling her mother and sister that they just don't understand their heritage and that they really must try and make something of themselves.

This story was written at a time when many blacks were striving to rediscover their African roots.  While Walker doesn't appear to condemn this rediscovery, she seems to be saying that it should not occur at the expense of preserving American heritage.

Visit The Book Mine Set to see who else had a short story post this week.

The Sunday Salon - Memorial Day Edition

Happy Memorial Day weekend! Here in the US, the holiday marks the unofficial beginning of summer. And summer, of course, is that magical time when we, supposedly, can kick back, relax, and and enjoy long, leisurely afternoons of reading by the beach or pool. I'm almost finished with David Howe Colt's The Big House: A Century in the Life of An American Summer Home and, if it's possible, have grown nostalgic for a lifestyle I have never known.

"Two weeks in the days have a comforting sameness to them: mornings at the Bluff, afternoons at the Big Cove, evenings on the piazza. We live in our bathing suits. Our feet, callused from going barefoot all day, no longer cringe on the rocky shore. Rubbed by the sun, wind, and water, our city edges are wearing away. I feel as weathered s driftwood, as smooth as sea glass. When I woke this morning, I couldn't remember what day it is." (page 173)

My reality is that summer does, indeed, have a different rhythm, but I wouldn't exactly call the days leisurely! The set of activities changes from year to year as the girls' interests evolve. I've chauffeured kids to summer reading programs, a multitude of lessons, games, dance or sports camps, and various friend's homes. This summer, with 16 year old twins, our main focus is on Driver's Education. Two mornings a week will be spent in the classroom and two mornings behind the wheel. I will supplement their driving experience, too....they will do nearly all my driving this summer! My 19 year old is gaining what she hopes will prove to be valuable work experience at as she interns at a local university press.

My reading/blogging wrap-up this week:

Reviews were posted for The Home-Maker by Dorothy Canfield and Ethel & Ernest by Raymond Briggs (the most charming graphic novel ever).

Short Story Monday featured Double Birthday by Willa Cather.

I'm nearly done with The Big House...and this is a good thing, since my book club meets on Friday to discuss it!

My current audiobook is Brooklyn by Colm Toibin.

In trying to decide what to read next, I'm torn between The Secret Scripture by Sebastian Barry or diving right into Molly's summer vacation reading challenge with The Enchanted April. Decisions, decisions....

What will you be reading this holiday weekend?

Oh, Happy Day!

The sun is shining, a long weekend is beginning, and I'm off to the farmer's market.

Adding to today's happiness....


I won a book! Testimony by Anita Shreve is coming from Nise' at Under the Boardwalk (via Hachette). This is a book I've been coveting for quite some time. Now I can no longer claim to "never win anything". Thanks so much, Nise'!







...and an award! Molly at My Cozy Book Nook has given me The Friendly Blogger award. This is an award that can easily be passed on to everyone that has ever commented on this blog, and to nearly every blog I've visited. Book bloggers are the friendliest people! If you don't know Molly (but doesn't everyone?) stop by and say hello.

Now, it's off to the market...

Ethel & Ernest by Raymond Briggs

Ethel & Ernest: A True Story
by Raymond Briggs
1999, Alfred A. Knopf
104 pages

Three sentence review from Time:
A best seller in Britain, this winsome little book is one family’s twentieth century, told as a comic strip that fast-forwards through the decades. Briggs’s artful rendering of his parents’ striving captures the English working class, and as the tale progresses, you find yourself slowly sucked into their daily patter, amused by their cooing voices, impressed by their bravery. At the end,you’re hardly prepared for the emotional wallop.
My thoughts:
Last week, my experiment with graphic novels taught me that there is much more to the genre than science fiction, fantasy and super heroes. This week, thanks to Nan's recommendation, I learned that graphic novels can be as touching, moving, and beautiful as any story told solely with words.
Ethel & Ernest is classified as a biography, but it is really much more. Raymond Briggs has used his remarkable artistic talent to compose an affectionate tribute to his parents. How else would you expect the author of The Snowman to convey his love (and, at times, frustration)?

The book opens with Ethel and Ernest's chance meeting in 1928 (he was a milkman and she worked as a maid) and follows them through marriage, child-rearing, the war, and on into their golden years. We observe their political squabbles, as well as their wonder at advancing technology. I was amazed at this little book's ability to allow us to get to know Ethel and Ernest

as they make their way through life. We see their quirks and foibles as they interact with each other and with their only child.

Turning the last page, there was actually a tear in my eye. What? From a graphic novel? I was shocked! Thank you, Nan, for pointing me toward this little gem of a book.

Booking Through Thursday - A Second First Time?

Today's Booking Through Thursday asks simply:
What book would you love to be able to read again for the first time?


My answer, without hesitation, is Pride and Prejudice. Although it's been many years, I'll never forget the feeling I had reading it for the first time. Not being familiar with the plot, foremost in my mind was wondering whether Elizabeth would end up with Mr. Darcy. Now that I know the story and can practically recite many passages by heart, reading the novel brings a different type of satisfaction and comfort.

Summer plans include a re-read, so I need to settle on which book I'll read. My three choices are pictured here. A leather bound edition from The Easton Press is on the bottom of the pile. It was a Christmas gift from my husband several years ago. Next is a hardback Everyman's Library edition, which I bought long ago to replace a battered paperback. And finally, the one I'm leaning toward at the moment, is The Annotated Pride and Prejudice (edited by David M. Shapard) which came home from college with my daughter.

This question also reminded me of Daughter #1's first reading of Pride and Prejudice. Initially, she had trouble with the language, so I read the first chapter aloud to her. The rest, as they say, is history. She's gone on to read most of Jane Austen's novels, received a trip to London and Bath for her high school graduation last year, and just completed a Jane Austen in Film class at college. Twin A (16) is planning to read Pride and Prejudice for the first time this summer. I hope she, too, finds wonder and delight in the world of Jane Austen.

To see more answers, or add your own, visit today's Booking Through Thursday.