Curiouser and Curiouser (The Cement Garden by Ian McEwan)

I've read Ian McEwan before- Atonement and Saturday were both beautiful, wonderful, moving novels. And I thought that The Cement Garden would also be interesting....I've learned my lesson that you can't judge a book by the blurb on the back.

Terrible.

Horrible.

No Good.

Very bad.

Now that I've got that out of my system, let me tell you a bit about the book. It's very short, which means that I finished it very quickly (and if it was any longer, I probably wouldn't have finished it). It's a story about children who have lost their parents, and the ties that bind them together. Unfortunately, those ties include incest and other awkward things.

I was vaguely reminded of another book I hate, Catcher in the Rye. Like Catcher, the main protagonist of The Cement Garden was a teenage boy, and his behavior was certainly reminiscent of Holden Caulfield. They're both self-absorbed, miserable, off-putting characters. Ugh. Needless to say, I don't recommend this particular Ian McEwan.

I suppose, in a way, that my last read (The Likeness) led me into reading this book. Some books just set up perfectly for the next one, and I'm not sure that I really would have liked any book that I read after the last one, so I guess it's good that I read a really terrible book. Also, some of the themes were the same (such as the loss of family, which was predominant in both).

I'm taking the other three books I mentioned last time to the beach, so expect a post when I get home. Until then, Happy Reading!

Irish Coffee (The Likeness by Tana French)

I believe I mentioned a book by Tana French called In the Woods in a previous post. It was a fantastic psychological thriller that took place in Ireland and was actually rather spooky. Well, I was doing a little research on Amazon, trying to figure out if the author had written anything else, because she has a very unique and interesting style (Mrs. McMurray, my high school English teacher, would be so proud right now).

Well...I found a sequel that really isn't a sequel, but it does involve the same characters. The Likeness is also a psychological thriller, though it hinges on an extremely unlikely coincidence. This book also takes place in Ireland, and revolves around a detective named Cassie Maddox who goes undercover to help solve a murder...if I say anymore, it may give away too much, just in case you're planning on reading them.

It was an absolutely fantastic novel; I dived into it and although it took me several days to read, I really didn't want to put it down at all. Once again, I've started into my old routine of not getting enough sleep because I'm staying up so late to read a book.

So I'm off to the beach on Thursday, and I really don't know how much reading I can get done before then or while I'm there, but until then, here's a list for you.

Katie's favorite beach reads:

1. Savannah Blues/Savannah Breeze by Mary Kay Andrews

2. Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt

3. Anything ever written by David Sedaris

4. Anything ever written by Roald Dahl

5. Anything ever written by Augusten Burroughs

6. Anything ever written by Nick Hornby

7. The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger

8. Marley and Me by John Grogan

9. The Sookie Stackhouse books by Charlaine Harris

10. Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling

As you can see, I like easy/fun books when I'm at the beach, although I do read anything there as well. I'm taking with me this time these books:

The Cement Garden by Ian McEwan

Both Ways is the Only Way I Want It by Maile Meloy

Empire Falls by Richard Russo

Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin

So until next time, Happy Reading!

A Terribly Inconvenient Destination (Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by John Berendt)

Savannah has been called "la plus belle des villes d'Amerique du Nord" (the most beautiful city in North America). It is eccentric, isolated, and certainly interesting. And what Savannahians call "The Book" serves to illustrate all of those facts.

Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by John Berendt is a study of Savannah and its native inhabitants. It focuses around the murder trial of Jim Williams, who restored Mercer House in the Historic District of Savannah (it's now called Mercer-Williams House and you can take a tour. It's absolutely beautiful). The house was used in the movie Glory, and of course, the film version of The Book.

Berendt portrays a group of extremely eccentric Savannahians, beginning with the art-and-antiques dealer Williams. He also recounts his meetings with a transvestite who calls herself The Lady Chablis (and who actually still performs in Savannah!), and an ex-lawyer piano player by the name of Joe Odom. There is also Luther Driggers, who reportedly keeps a bottle of poison strong enough to kill all of Savannah if he could only put it in the water supply. Then there's Minerva, a voodoo priestess who works curses on those who stand against Williams.

As if the cast of living characters weren't enough, it's the dead that draw the most attention. The most famous Savannahians are dead, of course: Conrad Aiken, the poet, and Johnny Mercer, who wrote "Moon River" and many other famous songs. Danny Hansford, the man that Jim Williams allegedly killed, is also a central figure around which the story is focused.

This was a re-read for me. I first read the book when I was in high school, and after a trip to Savannah with my mother, I read it a second time. This was the third time for me...I very rarely read books that many times. Of course, I've been to Savannah enough times now that I can picture very easily most of the places that are talked about in The Book.

It's non-fiction that reads like fiction, and the saying is proved true: you couldn't make this stuff up. It's a must read, if only for Berendt's fluid storytelling and compelling character portraits.

No list today...but next time, in honor of my trip to the beach, I'll have a list of my favorite beach reads. Until then, Happy Reading!

Swedish Fish (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Steig Larsson)

I finished The Polysyllabic Spree last night and immediately started my next read (I'll post about it when I finish), but in the meantime, I wanted to write about a book that I read a while back and thoroughly enjoyed (note: I do not expect to like everything I read. However, this book was fantastic, and really, everyone should read it).

I am a mystery buff--I love novels that involve crime and murder and law and order. That makes me sound really creepy. I'll just throw out there that I really enjoy watching CSI and Law & Order a lot too. Anyone else bummed that L&O has been cancelled?

Anyway...The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is the first in a trilogy by this Swedish writer Steig Larsson. It would have been a series of six (I think) but Larsson died just after he finished the manuscript for the third novel. So I had been hearing a lot about these books recently and I was in Target one day and happened to see a paperback copy for something like $6. So I bought it on a whim (I don't normally go to Target for books. Everything else, yes, but not usually books) and as I was out of fresh reading material, I started it immediately when I got home.

The book was completely engrossing. The action centers around a writer, Mikael Blomkvist, and a computer hacker, Lisbeth Salander. I won't give away the plot, but I couldn't put it down! At 600+ pages, it definitely took me several days, but I just really wanted to know what happened. And I couldn't guess! Usually I can figure the ending of a book out in the first few pages, but I honestly didn't know what would happen. It was a complete surprise!

Anyway, I bought the second book in the series (The Girl who Played with Fire) when I was at Target the other day, and I haven't started it yet. I'm partly saving it because I'm looking forward to it, and I'm partly busy reading some other books, and I'm partly afraid that it won't be as good as the first one. Anyone else have any thoughts? I know I hate to be disappointed when the first book in the series is the best. And if you've read these books, let me know! I'd love to hear thoughts.

Another list for you readers out there--my favorite mystery/crime books:

1. Helter Skelter by Vincent Bugliosi and Curt Gentry (not for the faint of heart, as it's a true crime book about the Manson family)

2. In the Woods by Tana French (more of a psychological thriller, but it was fantastic)

3. Devil in the White City by Eric Larson

4. Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier

5. The Harper Connelly books by Charlaine Harris

6. Death's Acre by Dr. Bill Bass and Jon Jefferson (technically, it's about the Body Farm at UT. but it's still really good)

7. The Thursday Next books by Jasper Fforde

8. The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler

9. The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett

10. Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by John Berendt

Happy Reading!

Inspiration (The Polysyllabic Spree by Nick Hornby)

Anyone who knows me knows that I LOVE to read. I will read almost anything (with the exception of Faulkner. I have never finished a Faulkner novel.) that comes across my path. My "Books to Read" list is seven pages long, and it keeps growing. And every time I go to the bookstore, I come home with multiple titles.

So I've decided to write about what I read. The inspiration hit me as I was reading The Polysyllabic Spree by Nick Hornby earlier today. It's a book about reading books, which was...well, it was perfect. In fact, my "Books to Read" list has grown considerably while I've been reading about the books he's read...it's a vicious circle.

So this book. (note: Hornby is brilliant. If you haven't ever read anything by him, you must. High Fidelity is great, and it was his first book, so start with that.) It's great- it's a collection of essays that were published in a literary magazine several years ago, and it's about the books that Hornby read and his thoughts. I'm not quite done with it, even though it's very short, but it is very good so far. Unless it just all falls apart in the second half, it will be a book that I keep on my shelf for a long time--and that's high praise, as I have very little shelf space anymore, due to the fact that I can't stop buying books.

So a little about me, aside from the books. I'll be heading to graduate school in the fall, and I have one summer of freedom without a job to do whatever(lucky me). I wasn't an English major in college (I hate all the grammar stuff), and I don't write, but I have always had my nose in a book. I used to read two or three at a time, but I've found that I get through with them faster if I concentrate on one at a time. I do read just about anything. I don't have favorite books, either, though I used to have favorites. The list just got too long. I do, however, have a list of books I believe everyone should read:

1. To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee

2. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

3. A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway

4. In Cold Blood by Truman Capote

5. On the Road by Jack Kerouac

6. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

7. Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie

8. The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis

9. Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte

10. The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupery (in English and French)

So I suppose that's all for now...I'll be posting randomly, as I read things that I like or dislike.