Haunting House

“Losing the possibility of something is the exact same thing as losing hope and without hope nothing can survive.” Truth.

59.12 House of Leaves

Another reviewer on Goodread’s said it best, “I think it’s a really great story. However, House of Leaves is the perfect definition of bullshit.”

He goes on to say:

“This book looks at you with this smug fucking smile on it’s face, daring you to say that you don’t like it, knowing that masses of people are going to go along with it because they don’t want to look stupid. That’s what this is. It’s the fucking Radiohead of books.”

His review has 542 likes, and you can add me to the chorus.

This book came up over and over on lists of scary books to read for Halloween.  I read the description a few times but just thought it didn’t sound like my thing. But it was everywhere and so I finally succumbed.

This is a story within a story.  A found book, about a movie, that has been edited by a dead man, and is now being read by a man falling slowly into insanity.  At the core is a house and that house is a maze.  See – already it is annoying right?  But add the many footnotes (most wrong), the backwards printing, the upside-down single words on a page, and it becomes almost smug.  I loved the main story line of the family living in this house that keeps altering itself, and did find parts of it truly scary.  I even loved a lot of the information added by Zampano, and in the beginning I felt for Johnny, but by the end I was exhausted by it all because it started to constantly remind me that it wasn’t a story, it was a grand experiment. Sometimes simple is better.

I think the whole point is that you can’t count on anything.  Not the characters you read, or the footnotes they make.  The person you marry, or the house you live in. The love of a mother for her son.  And sadly, not even the book in your hands being everything that other people have told you it could be.

Hello James

“The scent and smoke and sweat of a casino are nauseating at three in the morning.” Truth.

58.12 Casino Royale

This is the first book in the James Bond series and also the first I have read and I enjoyed it for being exactly what it is supposed to be.  A page turning, tight, spy story.  There is a bit of a mystery going on but not much, and what was most interesting for me was how much Bond is NOT a super hero.  He is more like an emotionless machine that is that way because he couldn’t do his job any other way.  About half way through the man who is the closest thing to a friend that Bond has says:

‘Surround yourself with human beings, my dear James. They are easier to fight for than principles.’

            He laughed. ‘But don’t let me down and become human yourself. We would lose such a wonderful machine.’

Kind of sad right?  The whole book felt that way.  Bond is tragic and the plot is very harsh.  It is a lot more introspective about the gray zone of good guy versus bad guy than the Bond movies tend to be.

Speaking of, if you have seen the film version, much of the plot line is going to be familiar to you as the book is essentially the middle part of the movie’s plot.  I think the movie would have been more successful if it hadn’t gone on and on and was a bit more streamlined like the book.  However, this part of the book works MUCH better on film.  You're welcome.

**I may have absolutely read this book just so I could post this picture.

Good Girl Gone Bad

“Choice was dangerous: you had to forgo all other possibilities when you chose.” Truth.

57.12 A Casual Vacancy

I wonder about the negative reviews of this book, they seemed to stem more from the Harry Potter books than from this book.  I have zero understanding about people being offended that Rowling has written a book for adults and it has - GASP! - sex, drugs, and swearing!  Some even complain about all those big words she uses.  I mean... Since when are readers in charge of what writers write?  Because she wrote a book our children (and most of us) loved?  Why does that make people turn away from her instead of embrace her?  It makes no sense to me.  Thank god I ignored the crazy reviews and read it anyway.

This is a grown up book, and it is one hell of a book.  It had more painful moments than hopeful but it was real. There are a lot of characters to keep track of which left me off kilter in the beginning but I knew I would eventually keep them all straight and I did.  They live in a small village and their lives, and the lives of their children, are hugely intertwined and this is what keeps the plot moving. I am not sure why it is being billed as a murder mystery as it really isn’t; it is more a character study. Many of them are rather awful on the inside, but mostly they are just human and trying to find happiness in their lives in the aftermath of the sudden death of a friend. 

The most well-written and interesting characters for me were the teenagers.  No surprise there – Rowling can write teens, and, as she showed us in the HP books as well, she has a true grasp on the fact that they are not just mindless mini-adults who mind their parents’ every command – they are smart and aware of what is going on around them.  Maybe this is the true reason people are giving the book bad reviews; maybe acknowledging your kids have power and may be flawed is the only thing scarier to them than Voldemort - as in the truth of it cannot be named. These kids are taking part, making things happen and we need to remember and respect that.  In fact, most of what is to be taken away from this book comes from the children: how to be brave, how to change your outlook, how not to ignore what is right in front of your face before it’s too late, how to celebrate and remember what made you care about people in the first place, and how to honor them when they are lost regardless of how you feel about them now.  I mean Rihanna as funeral dirge?  It’s brilliant, really.  The whole thing was bloody brilliant in fact.

A Great Comfort

“Unhappy people say lots of things they don’t really mean and do lots of things they wouldn’t otherwise do just to try to forget their unhappiness.” Truth.

56.12 A Great Deliverance

I am not a re-reader.  I just can’t focus on rereading books when there are so many more to be discovered, but I do love the feeling of comfort reads.  So instead of returning to old favorite books, I return to favorite characters, Inspector Lynley and DS Havers certainly fit that bill.

I was first introduced to this pair while student teaching.  Well Schooled in Murder was the best way to get anxious to graduate high school seniors through those last weeks of British Literature.  Many even admitted to it being the first book they had actually read in high school – based on both plot and an appalling lack of Sparks Notes.  Then PBS adapted the series and I have watched every episode, so when I need to book to just read read  I love a good old Lynley.

This is the first in the series and I think quite well done, although I am probably giving it a bit of space simply because I know what else is to come.  I loved seeing Havers and Lynley feeling each other out and getting to know one another – although I had forgotten that Lynley is blonde in the books.  I also hated seeing the weaknesses in both characters because I know how they continue to struggle with them through the series, especially Havers.  Overall, the plot was a bit bloated with outside characters and red herrings, but over all it is a very satisfying mystery if a little dated.

Wax Tracks

“Underneath all the other stuff. Good heart is eighty-five percent of everything in life.” Truth.

“Do what you got to do and stay fly.” Advice.

54.12 Telegraph Avenue

Chabon can be a wordy little bugger, and he is rather fond of his thesaurus as well, but I have been here before. His books take a bit to get rolling, to find their cadence; and since I have been here and loved what I found I stuck with it even though I found it harder going this time. Then there it was... Page 158. That moment where his characters become so human and do the absolute right, yet oh so simple, thing. It was there and I felt vindicated but unfortunately that feeling didn’t last even though I wanted it to so much.

Usually Chabon’s books have a sense of hope that runs through their core and that was missing here.  I had a very hard time getting into this story and staying with it because these were not very pleasant people to be around. Only when faced with loss did they recognize anyone’s importance and none of them seemed better off in the end. They all were searching for hope desperately and weren’t able to give it to one another, and some parts of the plot left me feeling truly uncomfortable.

As the main setting of the book is a record store, there are a lot of references to music that I wish I had been more familiar with, I imagine it may have connected me more to the story. But I can certainly identify with spending hours in record stores flipping trough all the stock until you found the perfect one, taking it home and oh so carefully putting the record on the player and lowering the needle, sitting on the bed and listening to the whole album and then starting it over again.  With iPods and ear-buds music has become a much more singular experience and that makes me long for the days of old when my mom would put on a record and we could hear it all through the house, but times they are a changin'.  In the end, the characters and the nostalgia of Telegraph just didn't make me. I love Chabon and think he is a very talented writer, but sadly I didn’t love this book.