Library Loot - December 4

Library loot is a weekly event co-hosted by Eva (A Striped Armchair) and Marg (Reading Adventures) that encourages bloggers to share the books they’ve checked out from the library. It's been a couple months since I have participated, but I'm excited about this week's loot.

Wishin' and Hopin'

by Wally Lamb

I don't remember where I first heard about this, but my name went on the list (along with many other library patrons) the day it was released. Two days ago, I was third in line. Yesterday, Wishin' and Hopin' was waiting for me! Wally Lamb is a great storyteller and I've enjoyed all his books, so can't wait to get started on this one. We're traveling to Massachusetts later today for Daughter #1's basketball tournament. Now I've got some holiday reading to bring along.

The Adventure of English

by Melvyn Bragg

Jill at Fizzy Thoughts reviewed this last week and I put a hold on it right away. Now I just hope that with all the holiday hoopla, there will be time to read it!

I've also been at the top of the Wolf Hall hold list for several weeks now. (What's taking so long, anyway?) As it gets deeper into December, my reading time is sure to dwindle, and I'm worried that this will arrive at the worst possible time. Did you find anything interesting at the library this week?

Kitchen by Banana Yoshimoto

Kitchen

by Banana Yoshimoto, 1988

translated from the Japanese by Megan Backus

Grove Press, 1993

"The place I like best in this world is the kitchen. No matter where it is, no matter what kind, if it's a kitchen, if it's a place where they make food, it's fine with me. Ideally it should be well broken in. Lots of tea towels, dry and immaculate. White tile catching the light (ting! ting!)."

So opens this slim novella, and I already love it. By page 20, I'm a fan of the author and wondering if she has written anything else. Something about this crystal clear, simple prose appeals to me. The writing is crisp and elegant, but tinged with sadness.

But what is Kitchen about? A young woman, Mikage, moves in with her friend Yuichi and his mother Eriko (who used to be his father), after the death of the grandmother who raised her. The book deals with themes of love and loss, loneliness, transsexuality, coping and moving forward.

At just over 100 pages, it would be easy to speed through this novella, but there are too many sentences, beautiful and profound, that make you want to stop, reread, and think. Here are a few of my favorites:

"When was it I realized that, on this dark and solitary path we all walk, the only way we can light is our own? Although I was raised with love, I was always lonely." (page 21)

"To the extent that I had come to understand that despair does not necessarily result in annihilation, that one can go on in spite if it, I had become hardened. Was that what it means to be an adult, to live with ugly ambiguities? I didn't like it, but it made it easier to go on." (page 56)

"People aren't overcome by situations or outside forces; defeat invades from within, I thought." (page 92)

"Truly happy memories always live on, shining. Over time, one by one, they come back to life." (page 100)

"Moonlight Shadow", Yoshimoto's first short story that won the Nihon University Department of Arts Prize in 1986, is also included in the book. It deals with similar themes and is equally beautiful.

The cover of Kitchen is striking, but I haven't seen photos of the back posted. It's too good to miss, so I've included it here. Many of you also know that I like to coordinate books with bookmarks. This is the bookmark I won from our Japanese Literature Challenge hostess Bellezza, and it definitely enhanced my reading experience.

Banana Yoshimoto is one of my favorite author discoveries this year, and I look forward to reading her other books and essays. I'm grateful for all the blogger reviews I've read, particularly those from Nymeth, Eva, and Tony, but it was Mel's review that finally prompted me to pick up Kitchen. Now I must decide which 'Banana' to read next.

Christmas Stories for December

The Virago Book of Ghost Stories made October Short Story Mondays such fun, I decided to read from a holiday collection for December, too.

Perhaps I started checking the local stores too early, but neither B&N nor Borders had a collection in stock. Amazon was the next option, but the number of choices there was overwhelming. What could I do but turn to other bloggers for suggestions? A conversation on twitter and comments on my blog lead me to purchase Christmas Stories from Everyman's Pocket Classics, a book I first heard about around this time last year from Darlene.

This list of authors included reads like a literary Who's Who, and I couldn't wait to get started! Since December 1 happened to fall on a Tuesday, Short Story Monday is a day late this week.

"Vanka" by Anton Chekhov, originally appearing in The Cook's Wedding and Other Stories (1922), was the first story I chose. In it, a young orphaned boy, working as an apprenticed shoemaker for a cruel master, is writing a letter on Christmas Eve to his grandfather. The letter is a plea to be removed from the horrible situation and allowed come 'home' to the family that employs his grandfather as a night watchman.

Chekhov's description of Christmas Eve night is beautiful:

"The air is still, fresh, and transparent. The night is dark, but one can see the whole village with its white roofs and coils of smoke coming from the chimneys, the trees are silvered with hoar frost, the snowdrifts. The whole sky spangled with gay twinkling stars, and the Milky Way is as distinct as though it had been washed and rubbed with snow for a holiday..."

The letter, though, is simply sad. It reads:

"Dear grandfather, it is more than I can bear, it's simply no life at all. I want to run away to the village, but I have no boots, and I am afraid of the frost. When I grow up big I will take care of you for this, and not let anyone annoy you, and when you die I will pray for the rest of your soul, just as for my mammy's."

The boy addresses the letter "To grandfather in the village" but later adds a name to the envelope, and naively drops it in the box before returning home to dream sweet, hopeful dreams.

The story left me with an empty, somewhat bittersweet feeling... not at all what I was expecting from Christmas stories! You can read the story here. Visit The Book Mine Set for more short story posts.

TSS: Holiday Weekend Wrap-Up and A Look Ahead

Good morning! It's been long, happy, holiday weekend, but feels like I've been away from this blog for weeks. Let's get caught up...

The holiday:

First, Thanksgiving was perfect! Daughter #1 was home from college, my brother and his family were visiting from Pennsylvania, and my parents and second brother came for the day. The table was set for a relatively small crowd of 13 (all three sisters spent the day with in-laws). We enjoyed the traditional Thanksgiving meal, and the company was superb!

In anticipation of Black Friday shopping, my oldest daughter had 5 friends spend the night. They were out the door by 4AM, but Daughter #1 was back home and in bed by 9! I avoid the mall at all cost on this day. We also hosted the 'leftover feast' on Friday...same crowd as Thanksgiving, plus my three sisters and their families. The teen girls slipped out to the movie to see New Moon that evening, some for the second time!

Yesterday was the annual Family Christmas Party. Always held the Saturday after Thanksgiving, it gives us a chance to spend time with my aunt, cousins, and their families before the holiday frenzy really takes hold. The highlight is definitely the Yankee Auction gift exchange!

Today, I will brave the mall crowds and begin Christmas shopping with Daughter #1. Since her Monday morning class was cancelled, she'll stay home an extra night, avoid the holiday traffic, and return to campus tomorrow.

Reading:

Despite all the activities, time was carved out for reading. Before the leftovers on Friday, I finished North River by Pete Hamill. For some reason, I was anticipating not liking this, but was very pleasantly surprised. Hamill is also the author (and reader) of my current audiobook , Downtown: My Manhattan. A personal history, woven together with a history of the city, it is quite enjoyable in this format. Both books are in preparation for his talk at the Rosamond Gifford Lecture Series in early December.

I finished Great Expectations by Charles Dickens on audio. Initially this was a combination read at home, listen in the car book, but the reader was excellent and the audio version "won". Classics aren't my usual audio fare, but I'm wondering if I should start adding them to the mix. Do you ever listen to classics?

Bookish Plans:

I must get caught up on reviews! Kitchen by Banana Yoshimoto was fabulous, as was The Quiche of Death by M.C. Beaton (in totally different ways, of course), but I haven't managed to get anything written. North River can also be added to this list.

Short Story Mondays will take on a holiday theme for the coming month with Everyman's Pocket Classics Christmas Stories. If I get a chance to read one later today, this may even begin tomorrow!

What to read next? I'm not quite sure. A Drinking Life: A Memoir by Pete Hamill, came from the library. I seem to get more from the lectures when I've read more by the author, so this is a possibility. There are also several novels and classics I'm ready to pick up, but another Agatha Raisin cozy mystery would also fit my current mood. What's a girl to do...

Enjoy your Sunday, and I'll be by to visit this evening.

Happy Thanksgiving

... see you next week!

Teaser Tuesdays - Downtown: My Manhattan

"It [the New York version of nostalgia] involves an almost fatalistic acceptance of the permanent presence of loss. Nothing will ever stay the same. Tuesday turns into Wednesday and something valuable is behind you forever. An “is” has become a “was.” Whatever you have lost, you will not get it back: not that much-loved brother, not that ball club, not that splendid bar, not that place where you once went dancing with the person you later married. Irreversible change happens so often in New York that the experience affects character itself. New York toughens its people against sentimentality by allowing the truer emotion of nostalgia. Sentimentality is always about a lie. Nostalgia is about real things gone."

Downtown: My Manhattan

by Pete Hamill

Downtown: My Manhattan is my current audiobook. This passage really struck me yesterday as I was listening, and I was happy to find the quote on the author's website. Pete Hamill is the next speaker at the Rosamond Gifford Lecture Series.

Visit MizB at Should Be Reading for more Tuesday Teasers.

Short Story Monday: What Language Is That? by Uwem Akpan

Last week's story, "The Ex-mas Feast" from Say You're One of Them by Uwem Akpan, packed such an emotional punch, I found myself thinking about it the rest of the week and wondering how other stories from the collection would compare. Saturday is my short story morning, and the second story in this collection turned out to be more of a novella. Pre-Thanksgiving preparations were underway and there was no time to sit and read 130 pages, so I skipped ahead to the third story.

"What Language is That?" is also concerned with children, but this time the setting is Ethiopia. We are introduced to two young girls who are best friends despite the "faith differences" of their families. When riots break out in the city, communication between the girls is forbidden. It opens:

"Best Friend said she liked your little eyes and lean face and walk and the way you spoke your English. Her name was Selam. You said you liked her dimples and long legs and handwriting. You both liked to eat Smiling Cow toffees. She was the last child in her family; you were an only child. The world was only big enough for the two of you, and your secret language was endless giggles, which made the other kids jealous."

The narrative voice jumped out at me in this story. Neither an "I" first person narrator, nor a "she" third person narrator, this narrator refers to one of the girls as "You" throughout and appears to tell her her own story. Very unusual!

In the end, "What Language Is That?" was as beautiful, well-written and insightful as last week's story, but much less emotionally draining.

See more Short Story Monday posts at The Book Mine Set.