Review: Sloppy Firsts by Megan McCafferty

Who needs more teen angst? Certainly not me given that I am living with a teenager and a pre-teen at the moment and at any given day the sky can be falling in on one or both of them. So despite having had this on my shelf for a very long time, I kept putting it off and putting it off. But I have looked at it consistently for more than a year, intending to finally read it. I am so glad I did. Jessica Darling is good fun and this book is delightfully entertaining.

The book opens with Jessica's best friend Hope having moved away and the book is presented in journal and letter form as Jess struggles with feeling newly alone. The journal is for those things she can't even tell Hope and the letters to Hope reinforce and illuminate some of the social and personal situations at school. Hope was really her only real friend and she is now marooned with a clique of girls with whom she's grown up but whom she can't really stand. She is frustrated by her friend Scottie's ongoing crush on her and she is mildly tormented by the school's slacker druggie suddenly latching onto her and calling her out for her superficial behaviour. Jess is a straight A student and a very gifted runner but she is moody and angry, lashing out at her parents and erecting a prickly wall that few people are willing to try and break through. When a new girl moves to school, she and Jess start to hit it off but everything is not as it seems.

The first in a series, McCafferty has managed to capture the misperceptions, uncertainties, and insecurities of high school in this book. She has created a smart, likable, bull-headed, and sometimes completely self-absorbed and casually mean narrator in Jess Darling. The wonder of it is that we do still really, really like her despite all her angst, her bouts of hypocritical behaviour, and her occasional obstreperousness. Even though I wouldn't go back to high school myself on a bet, I am looking forward to joining Jess on her further adventures in later books. More than just light good fun, this is a charming coming of age novel that manages to be both true to life and serve as a reminder that high school is rough for everybody, a reinforcement I'll need a mere year from now in dealing with my crew.

It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

If wishes were horses, beggars would ride, right? Last week I was wishing (or hoping) that back to school would mean more reading and reviewing time for me. Well, that didn't happen but at least the number of books still to be reviewed didn't get any longer! This meme is hosted by Sheila at One Person's Journey Through a World of Books.

Books I completed this week are:

Sex, Drugs and Gelfilte Fish edited by Shana Leibman
Daughter of the Queen of Sheba by Jackie Lyden
The Gerbil Farmer's Daughter by Holly Robinson
What We Have by Amy Boesky

Bookmarks are still living in the middle of:

Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens
Great Lakes Nature by Mary Blocksma (this is going to take me all year as I read her year's entries on the corresponding days of this year)
Cutting For Stone by Abraham Verghese
Chronicles of a Midlife Crisis by Robyn Harding
Half Empty by David Rakoff

Reviews posted this week:

The Blessings of the Animals by Katrina Kittle
A Certain "Je Ne Sais Quoi" by Chloe Rhodes
Still Love in Strange Places by Beth Kephart

Books still needing to have reviews written (as opposed to the ones that are simply awaiting posting):

The Last Rendevous by Anne Plantagenet
Hector and the Search for Happiness by Francois Lelord
The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake by Aimee Bender
The Quickening by Michelle Hoover
Molly Fox's Birthday by Deirdre Madden
Honolulu by Alan Brennert
Safe From the Sea by Peter Geye
The Miner's Daughter by Alice Duncan
Miss You Most of All by Elizabeth Bass
How to Mellify a Corpse by Vicki Leon
Room by Emma Donoghue
The Secret Confessions of Anne Shakespeare by Arliss Ryan
The Far Pavilions by M. M. Kaye
The Patience Stone by Atiq Rahimi
Rainy Lake by Mary Rockcastle
Ill-Equipped for a Life of Sex by Jennifer Lehr
The Girl Who Fell From the Sky by Heidi Durrow
Finding Marco by Kenneth Cancellara
Into the Beautiful North by Luis Alberto Urrea
Up From the Blue by Susan Henderson
Sweet Dates in Basra by Jessica Jiji
The Queen of Palmyra by Minrose Gwin
The Lotus Eaters by Tatjana Soli
The Laments by George Hagen
Smart Girls Think Twice by Cathie Linz
Proust's Overcoat by Lorenza Foschini
Secret Daughter by Shilpi Somaya Gowda
Georgia's Kitchen by Jenny Nelson
A Slender Thread by Katharine Davis
Cooking With Fernet Branca by James Hamilton-Paterson
Keeping the Feast by Paula Butturini
The School of Essential Ingredients by Erica Bauermeister
Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford
Sex, Drugs, and Gelfilte Fish edited by Shana Leibman
Daughter of the Queen of Sheba by Jackie Lyden
The Gerbil Farmer's Daughter by Holly Robinson
What We Have by Amy Boesky

Life with a new puppy: introducing Gatsby

For those of you who might be considering a furry new member of your family, take heed:

Your kids might finally be old enough to give you some privacy in the bathroom but the puppy will make 100% certain you aren't lonely in there. After all, there are such delectable smells. Such enticing toilet paper rolls. And the opportunity to bite at pants and underwear? How could any self-respecting small dog turn that down?

You re-learn to cover your yawns unless you like French kissing a dog. She's just trying to mine your back molars for any remnants of food the toothbrush might have missed and save you on dental bills. Because clearly you are starving your poor new baby. You never feed her at all, right?

Since we never feed our puppy, she helps rat on the kids when they have smuggled food somewhere it isn't supposed to be. It's good to have a critter that keeps them honest. The wrapper crinkles and joy in her little wriggly body give away the sneaks immediately. It's almost criminal to take the spoils away from her to throw away.

She also helps the kids pick-up their toys. And it does a parent's heart good to see such helpfulness when no one else in the house wants to remove Legos or Nerf gun bullets from the floor. Her pitching in to help could also teach the kids fiscal responsibility since it would take them far longer than a month of Sundays to pay for that $2000 foreign body removal bill from the vet. (Yeah, we've been there before.)

Her accidents are purely designed to remind you that all floors need washing multiple times a day. And sneaking off to poop in hidden corners really helps you hone your hide and seek skills, especially if you have company coming to meet the newest member of the family.

Waking you up at all hours (especially the ungodly ones) of the morning is simply designed to let you experience nature in all its different manifestations. If you weren't up at 3am, your chances of being dive-bombed by bats in search of the bugs gravitating to your body heat would be minimal. Who would want to miss that?! And you can certainly thank the fur-face for all those opportunities to see spectacular sunrises you'd otherwise have missed. And really, what is more beautiful than the sun rising over top of a dog taking a dump?

In addition to the sunrises, the early mornings are specially designed to jumpstart your day. Because if you don't get up and stay up, the puppy will romp all over your bed or whine pitiously (and loudly) in her kennel. So she's helping you get moving on all those chores you complain you never have enough time in the day to accomplish. Therefore her early morning encouragement is completely invaluable. So what if the lack of sleep makes you surly, snarly, and snappy? That just makes the puppy feel more at home because you are mimicking her dog mom's discipline.

Sleep deprivation, chewed up toys, shoes, and other assorted oddments, puddles and plops aside though, this new baby is far easier than a new baby of the human variety. At least this one is never going to grow up and sass me back!

Review: Still Love in Strange Places by Beth Kephart

Beth Kephart has written many different books: a memoir about her son's early years, another memoir on the topic of friendship, YA fiction books, and poetry. This memoir deals with her relationship with her husband, his being Salvadoran and what that means in the framework of a country that has been devastated by war and political upheaval. As in her previous books, this paean to her husband and his native land is rife with lyricism and unusual metaphors and similies. Written about several different trips to El Salvadore, Kephart works hard to graduate from pure outsider to holder of memories, especially in order to pass them along to her son. She includes some of the history, superstition, recent struggles faced by the country in order to understand all that shaped the man her husband Bill became. She flounders with Spanish, finding it quick and impenetrable but she can embrace the stories once translated. She is fascinated by the tales of Bill's grandfather and by the coffee plantation that dominated the family's life. She looks deep into the heart of her husband's origins, her son's heritage, and learns about the framework of her marriage and her own nuclear family.

The writing here is musing, ruminative, meandering from pillar to post, just as in the conversations she hears which are only half translated for her. There is a real sense of exploration and "otherness" in the book. And while Kephart does have her own unique way with words, I found the book difficult on which to stay focused. Chapter titles (Art, Luck, and Freedom are just a few examples) are not the usual sorts of topics for a memoir and perhaps this caused me difficulty. It was definitely thick, slow, dreamy going while I was reading it. But almost all of the reviewers at amazon found it exquisite so I'm clearly in the minority opinion thinking it was an okay read rather than a transcendent one.

Sunday Salon: Food books for book clubs

I am officially on the board of the Women's National Book Association, Charlotte chapter. One of the things we board members do (besides learning the super-dooper, top-secret handshake) is to compile a list of similarly themed books for our reading group month brochure. The brochure doesn't come out until October, when it is officially reading group month but we have to put everything together in advance. So I chose to focus on food books that I think will appeal to reading groups. Here's what my list looked like:

Crescent by Diana Abu-Jaber
La Cucina by Lily Prior
My Year of Meats by Ruth Ozeki
Serving Crazy with Curry by Amulya Malladi
The Hundred-Foot Journey by Richard Morais
Georgia’s Kitchen by Jenny Nelson
Alone in the Kitchen with an Eggplant edited by Jennie Ferrari-Adler
Spiced by Dalia Jurgensen
Baking Cakes in Kigali by Gaile Parkin
Candyfreak by Steve Almond
Cooking With Fernet Branca by James Hamilton-Paterson
Keeping the Feast by Paula Butturini
The School of Essential Ingredients by Erica Bauermeister
Tender at the Bone by Ruth Reichl

It's a bit of a mix between old and new, fiction and non-fiction. It skews heavily toward paperback releases but there are a few hardbacks thrown in too. I only included books I've read and enjoyed since my list could be fourteen times as long if I included those still waiting patiently in my to be read stacks. So what did I miss? Did I leave off your favorite? And most importantly, for the books that contain recipes (and not all do), has anyone made any of them successfully?

This week in my reading travels I watched a young man impersonating his twin and falling in love with a fiance not his own in Regency England, I briefly visited with young writers on the Jewish experience, I rode along as a reporter tried to illuminate and understand life growing up with her bi-polar mother, and I kept the secret of another woman's father's unusual profession: raising gerbils as lab animals. Where did your reading take you this week?

Coming soon: Bibliofeast

The Women’s National Book Association – Charlotte Presents:

The First Annual Bibliofeast
in conjunction with National Reading Group Month

The Women’s National Book Association – Charlotte invites members of the community to attend the first annual Bibliofeast – a gourmet feast for the mind and the body. Guest hosted by Charlotte Observer Reading Life Editor, Pam Kelley, Bibliofeast will feature a three course meal at Santé in downtown, historic Matthews and conversation with Carolina-based authors who will travel from table to table discussing their work.

Featured authors include Kim Wright, author of the bestselling novel Love in Mid-Air, and Minrose Gwinn, author of The Queen of Palmyra, just selected as a featured Great Group Read read during October’s National Reading Group Month by the WNBA (national). (More authors will be announced soon.)


What: Bibliofeast and National Reading Group Month, presented by the WNBA-Charlotte

When: Monday, October 11th, 6:30 pm

Where: Santé in Matthews (165 North Trade Street)

How: Tickets are $35 in advance and available at Park Road Books in Charlotte (4139 Park Road, cash or check only). Tickets include a three-course meal and one glass of wine.

For more information:
Jessica Daitch
WNBA-Charlotte publicity chair
Jessica_Daitch@yahoo.com

About WNBA-Charlotte
Founded in 2009, WNBA-Charlotte is dedicated to promoting love for the written word while simultaneously nurturing friendship and mentoring. To that end, the chapter welcomes people of all ages and stages of their career and works hard to offer programming that will interest a diverse audience. To learn more about the WNBA-Charlotte find our Facebook page and “like” the Women’s National Book Association Charlotte.

Review: A Certain "Je Ne Sais Quoi" by Chloe Rhodes

I am a word nerd. My favorite part of the National Spelling Bee is when the competitors ask for the definition or derivation of a word. I find it completely and totally fascinating to know the origins (sometimes far afield from our current usage) of the words we use in English today. English is such a polyglot language, almost a living organism picking up words from other languages that are just so appropriate for something we have yet to name. This book takes many of these words and phrases and informs the curious reader from whence they came.

Set up in a dictionary format with words and their explanations listed alphabetically, there are some delightfully tongue in cheek comments scattered throughout the text, especially in the example sentences. And the occasional cartoons illustrating some of the phrases are a complete hoot. I was surprised by how many of the words for which I already knew the origins. Even more interestingly, I use quite a few of these fabulous foreign imports in my daily life. I guess the fact that the words are listed in this book means they aren't as common as I'd thought and would explain the funny glazed expression people sometimes get on their faces when they are listening to me. (But really, who doesn't know what debacle means? Seriously.) This type of book probably doesn't have a widespread appeal but it is perfect reading for your average English major and even minor. Personally I thought it was just plain interesting. Now I have to get up the courage to read the one about math terms!

Thanks to Julie at FSB Associates for sending me a review copy of this book.