Days of Love...and Lack Thereof, Day 8

Gianna:


The Lover

Marguerite Duras

I’ve noticed that many of our “romantic” books are actually very sad or even devastating books. I would like to continue that trend with today’s choice of The Lover by Marguerite Duras.

This is a “fictional memoir;" I don’t know if the reason it's “fiction” is a legal issue or if Marguerite had some memory lapses when recalling her youth. Doesn’t matter--it’s a beautiful book. The writing is absolutely stunning, told not in chronological order but almost in a dream state. The book is just over 100 pages; you’ll read it in one sitting.

Indochina, the last months of France’s colonial empire, Duras recalls her life growing up in Saigon, poor, living in an abusive home. She discovers the power of desire, or more appropriately, of being desired, at an early age. She writes of her passionate and volatile affair with a wealthy Chinese man in his mid-twenties while she was just fifteen. She is detached and even cruel throughout the affair. He is kind, helps provide for her family (although it is clear to him that she does not love him), and falls in love. It isn’t until years later that Duras realizes her feeling for this man (who goes unnamed in this book, by the way), and that is where the book actually begins. It's not as scandalous as it sounds...well, it is somewhat scandalous but it's an incredibly well-written love story.

Liz:

Okay, fine.  I admit it.  I'm single, I'm cantankerous, and I pretty much hate happy people.  I think babies are, as a rule, ugly.  All those convicts that Gianna tries to recruit for the Date a Liz Before Death Row campaign are probably smart in turning down such an opportunity.  No one wants to rub my feet.

I'm going to pretend that I'm like you people and actually pick a love book that is neither creepy nor involving acts that are felonies in most states.  Every now and then I catch a virus and sniff a whiff of compassion for all of you people, and that must have been what happened when I read One Day by David Nicholls.  One Day is charming--the love story of Dex and Emma following 20 years of their lives, one chapter for each year on July 15th.  They are friends, estranged acquaintances, pals in relationships with others, and then soul mates.  One Day is moving, funny, and full of compassion.  This book tells a wonderful love story, but one that still resonates with people who are normally too cool to read love stories (looking at you, Nick Hornby hipster kids).  For a brief moment my heart grew three sizes....and then I went back and reread Hitler's Willing Executioners.  I'm back to hating people again.  And I'm still single.

30 More Days Book Challenge: Day 6

Day 6: Chick Lit

Gianna:

I guess in many ways the term "chick lit" has become a dirty word – or to many it simply means a novel that tilts more toward the romantic. To that I say…uh, well maybe. I don’t read a lot of what may be considered chick lit but I have read some. I read the first Sophie Kinsella novel, Confessions of a Shopaholic, and found it to be pretty funny. I also recently read a book called My Husband’s Sweethearts by Bridget Asher, which had a great twist to the average chick lit novel. A woman’s ex-husband who she thought was the love of her life (until she realized he was cheating on her) calls her to tell her he is dying and he wants to spend his last days with her. So she gets drunk and decides "Sure, I will help take care of him in his last days but so will all these women he cheated on me with." So she begins calling all of these women and says, “Hey, you were there for the good times, how about you show up for the bad?” Well, the women actually start showing up to help care for him.

But as a favorite chick lit book – and I am only choosing this book because I really don’t think men read either of these two books (but they could, I think)--I would have to say either The Girls’ Guide to Hunting and Fishing by Melissa Bank (this is an example of a book I picked up and bought because I loved the cover, by the way) or Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Café by Fannie Flagg. Melissa Bank is a very good writer; I have read this one and The Wonder Spot. She is incredibly funny and dead on with dialogue. As a side note, it took Banks over a decade to write her first book. She was hit by a car while riding her bicycle and suffered post concussion syndrome, which effected her short term memory and her vocabulary. Anyway, I really do love Girls’ Guide and would easily recommend it for anyone.

Now Fried Green Tomatoes on the other hand…..this might be more of a pure Southern novel than chick lit…but you know….there is some girl action in here and that is my kind of chick lit. This is Fannie Flagg’s best book, and while Mary Louise Parker may be slinging weed these days…I will never be able to re-read this book without picturing her as Ruth to Mary Stuart Masterson’s Idgie. Of course I can’t watch the movie without seeing Kathy Bates hobbling James Caan in Misery….okay it's getting off the rails a bit. But my point is the book is a classic. Would also recommend this on audio – if you are the sort.

Girls’ Guide to Hunting and Fishing and Fried Green Tomatoes. Those are my picks.

Liz:

I hate the expression "chick lit" and generally am of the opinion that books are not written for poultry.  However, I will acknowledge that some women tend to like a certain type of book, and that type of book tends to have a pink cover.  Or soft focus.  I hate soft focus.  Those pink-covered books tend to be love stories and they tend to deal with women's issues and relationships.  By that criteria, I too have selected two titles. 

I've previously mentioned David Nicholls's novel One Day here, and more than a year after I read it I still feel strongly that it's a great read.  It's the story of Dex and Emma told over the course of 20 years, each chapter checking in on the pair on July 15th of that year.  The novel is funny, charming, and heartbreaking, and it's soon to be a major motion picture starring Anne Hathaway and the dreamy Jim Sturgess.  I've recommended this book to several friends and they still talk to me...occasionally, anyway.

Girls in White Dresses by Jennifer Close is a new release; it went on sale last week.  That's a plus--you haven't read it yet.  Also, Jennifer Close works at Politics & Prose in Washington, DC, and you should love your booksellers.  I was shocked by how much I loved this book.  These linked short stories totally nail the experiences of a group of women in their 20's as friends begin to wed.  There are the weddings, and the horrible showers, and the even worse bride's maids dresses, and the humorous hell of your friend's happiest day.  I have kept a running total of the amount of money I've spent on wedding showers, wedding gifts, destination weddings, wedding attire, etc, etc, etc, over the last ten years, and some day I'm going to collect some reciprocity.  I think I need a book nerd shower and all of my friends will buy me book stuff and make me cookies and I will NOT write thank you notes.  Anyway, Girls in White Dresses is great and you should pick up a copy soon.

Liz's Ten Best of the Year (and so much better than Gianna's....)

Okay, to know me is to know how competitive I am, and it matters to me that almost 100 people clicked on Gianna’s Top 10 list. I know that people like Gianna…it’s just that I’m counting on you all to like me more. Don’t let me down, Liz Fans.

Here they are, my favorite books of the year from the side of the company I sell. Certainly there are books on Gianna’s side that I loved (Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, for example), but she stuck to her side, I’ll stick to mine. If we were on The Brady Bunch, we’d stick a stripe of masking tape down the middle of our bedroom. Without further ado:

1. The Invisible Bridge by Julie Orringer. My favorite book of 2010 happened to be a book I read almost a full year ago, yet it still lingers in my mind and few stories have measured up to this epic. The novel tells the story of a family of Hungarian brothers during the 30’s and 40’s; it’s a love story, a war story, a Holocaust story, a family saga, a thriller, and a page turner. If there’s any justice at all in the world, this is the book that every book club in the country will be reading when the paperback releases in January. In 1937, Andras Levi travels to Paris to study architecture, where he meets and eventually falls in love with a Hungarian expatriate dancer. As World War II approaches, though, the couple must return to Hungary to renew their visas, a process complicated by the Nazi invasion of their country. Jews trapped in a Nazi-occupied country, Andras is reunited with his older brother, a medical student studying in Italy, and his younger brother, an actor who had opted to remain in Budapest, is shipped out to the Russian front. The story becomes one of survival and the strength of family as they fight to stay together. There are a ton of World War II books out there, but this one stands apart. The writing is impeccable and at so many points in her sweeping story Orringer could have taken a misstep, but the novel stays on track at every turn. If you like architecture, European history, love stories, adventure tales, family dramas, it’s all here. I simply love this book.

2. To the End of the Land by David Grossman. This pilgrimage story of three friends struggling to deal with the horrors of war should appear on every best of the year list. Grossman’s haunting novel chronicles the history of Israel and the personal costs of the continuing conflicts in that young nation through the intimate and immediate story of Ora, a mother panicked that her younger son will die at his military checkpoint, and the trip she takes walking across the country with an old family friend traumatized by the war in 1967. The novel is made all the more incredible because David Grossman’s own son died in the Israeli army as Grossman was finishing a draft of this book.



This cat is not a tiger.

3. The Tiger by John Vaillant. Two topics about which I’m obsessed—cats and Russia. How could I not love a book that involves both? This masterful account of an actual man-eating tiger hunting down villagers in the outer reaches of the already remote Siberia, and how the largest land predators struggle for survival in the face of increasing threats is a must read. Vaillant skillfully describes the conditions that surrounded this one incident of big cat/human relations (nothing like envisioning the remains of your hunting buddy fitting into a duffle bag) as well as the greater tribulations involved in surviving in Russia, both humans and tigers.

Jennifer Egan signs books
 at Texas Book Festival.

4. A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan. I’ve already written on this little blog of ours that I believe that this book at least should have been nominated for the National Book Award, and the more that I think about it, the more it strikes me as truly brilliant. Linked stories loosely centering on a record executive, what distinguishes Goon Squad is the quality of Egan’s prose and her truly inventive experimentation with form without resorting to clever trickery or losing emotional resonance. There’s an argument to be made that Jennifer Egan is one of the ten best American writers working right now.

5. The Killer of Little Shepherds by Douglas Starr. Fans of Erik Larsson and Devil in the White City take note—Douglas Starr’s newest book is every bit as good. Around the same time that H. Holmes was terrorizing the Chicago Fair, a serial killing vagrant named Joseph Vacher was wandering across France and leaving a trail of blood behind. A forensics expert named Alexandre Lacassagne worked diligently to link together the series of far-ranging murders (this in the days when police departments in neighboring towns, let alone across 1,000 miles of territory, didn’t share information) and in the process revolutionized the science of police detection. The Killer of Little Shepherds is a blend of history, true crime, and CSI thriller, and a terrific page turner. As an aside, an Italian rival of Lacassagne promoted the practice of phrenology (skull-measuring) as a means of determining criminal predilection, and based on my not-so-extensive knowledge of the practice I’m going to covertly measure Gianna’s head at our office holiday party; that woman is hiding something sinister.

6. The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake by Aimee Bender. The quirkiest novel I read this year is also one of the best. An adult fairy tale of sorts, this coming of age novel pushes the boundaries for family dysfunction and the angst and turmoil associated with being different. On her birthday, nine year-old Rose Edelstein discovers that she can taste the emotions of the people who prepare the food she eats, from her mother’s sadness to her outcast brother’s rage. Her brother, too, develops his own special gift. The empathy of children and the isolation of adolescence have never been told quite like this magical, haunting story.

7. How to Live by Sarah Bakewell. Already named to several best lists in Bakewell’s native United Kingdom, this philosophical meandering into the life and works of Montaigne takes a novel and accessible approach to the man who invented the concept of the essay. By asking the simple question “How to live?” and then answering it in a variety of ways pulling from Montaigne’s life and writing, Bakewell portrays a human, personable, flawed, funny, honest man who was at peace with the contradictions in his life. Four hundred years after he lived, Montaigne is made fresh, vibrant, and relevant to modern life in this enlightening book.

8. The Wave by Susan Casey. Waves are arguably the most destructive force on the planet, swallowing huge tanker ships and washing over oil rigs when the monsters really get to rolling. Half of Susan Casey’s book is a scientific exploration of the destructive power of monster waves, and the other half is a love letter to the thrilling world of big wave surfing and the (crazy?) surfers attempting to cruise upon the tops of 100 foot water walls. The Wave is fine adventure writing.

Anne Hathaway
and Jim Sturgess

9. One Day by David Nicholls. Rarely do I find myself so caught up in a story that centers around, well, love. Oh, and I dislike books that have gimmicky hooks in their storytelling because the gimmick often replaces the character development or emotional impact of a work. I really probably should have hated One Day. It’s a novel about Dexter and Emma, who go on one date in college, become friends, fall in love with others, and then fall in love with each other. It’s a novel with a gimmick—each chapter tells the couple’s story on one day, July 15th, over 20 years. It works, though. It’s not silly or forced, and the characters are compelling. I was rooting for them even as they made mistakes, and the whole time I was reading One Day, I kept thinking, “they have to make a movie out of this book.” Well, they are, and it’s starring Anne Hathaway and Jim Sturgess (he's dreamy).

10. Hellhound on His Trail by Hampton Sides. I already knew the outcome, I already knew many of the details of the plot, so I was shocked at how suspenseful this history of the Muther Luther King Jr. assassination turned out to be. James Earl Ray, King’s killer, is a fascinating, horrifying figure, and the details of his crime and flight from the FBI read like the best thrillers. Oh, and there were a lot of things I DIDN’T already know. Did you know that James Earl Ray was an escaped convict at the time of the assassination? Or that he tried to break into the pornographic film business in Mexico and LA? This is riveting reading of great historical significance as well as a high action true crime story of the first order. Good stuff.

Happy St. Swithin's Day!

So in spite of the fact that little of merit and much that could corrupt have appeared on this little blog, my boss actually likes it and misses it. And I live to please. After a 6 month hiatus, therefore, here you go, the return of Liz and Gianna. I, Liz, will still probably be the main source of insanity to appear here, but Gianna promises that occasionally she'll chip in and reveal which hotels have found her lost undergarments most recently.

What has happened in the last half-year, you wonder? For starters, Gianna and I won an award for sale repping which is proof that (almost) no one read this blog. Oh, and I added two states to my sales territory and am now exploring the wonders of Alabama and Louisiana. An aside, this morning I was perusing the various news websites and stumbled on an article ranking the states in order of most to least obese. Four of the five states I represent are in the Top 10, including Mississippi at #1! Woot!! I'm so proud. And don't worry, all those po-boys I've eaten in the 3 1/2 years I've had this job, I'm single-handedly, double-chin-edly, dragging Texas up to the Top 10 as well. So, some new states and roads to travel, with lots of driving and freaky roadside weirdness, such as this guy's interesting bumper decor:



I've perfected the drive-by photo snap:



and I've made snide jokes about this sign, because I really have the sense of humor of a 12 year old:



I've been busy. Heh. Grosse Tete....

Moving on. So, what is St. Swithin's Day and why should you care and what does it have to do with the book industry? Frankly, I don't think St. Swithin's Day has anything at all to do with the book business directly. From what I can tell, St. Swithin was a bishop in England(e) once upon a time who seemed to like the rain and his saintly "miracle" involved cursing the country with potentially nasty weather for 40 consecutive days each year because somebody decided to move his grave.


St. Swithin's Day, though, which happens to be July 15th, is the one day featured in David Nicholls's novel called--what else?--ONE DAY. I love this book. There's so much that could have misfired with it, from its clever conceit to the love plot, and I am a sceptical reader when it comes to clever things...and emotions. But when "clever" meets "engaging, flawed-but-likeable characters" and "cinematic storytelling," that book just might work. Since ONE DAY has burst onto the US bestseller lists as a Vintage Contemporaries paperback original, I guess I'm not the only one who found the magic in this book. So ONE DAY is the story of Dex and Emma, two British types who go on their first date on the night of their college graduation, July 15th, 1988. They don't become a couple that night--they are, after all, leaving school and heading their separate ways--but they do become friends. The novel then goes on to tell the story of their relationship, from friendship to falling out to reconnecting to love, over the course of 20 years. We only glimpse their lives, though, on July 15th of each year. It sounds like it could be super-cheesy, but David Nicholls has a knack for keeping the plot, characters, and one day concept from becoming trite. Dex and Emma are characters you want to know, for whom you root, and while reading ONE DAY I kept thinking, "This book would make a terrific movie." I typically hate romantic comedy-type things, but occasionally the right story produces an exceptional work. Think "When Harry Met Sally," or Nick Hornby's books, but with more soul and fewer hipster references. These characters seem like the people I knew in college, their struggles seem real, and the one day concept keeps the story fresh. And the movie of ONE DAY? It was destined for cinema. Anne Hathaway is set to star. READ THIS BOOK. TELL YOUR FRIENDS TO READ THIS BOOK. I promise it's really, really good.