A Good Year

Over the last few months I have rekindled my relationship with the library.  It arose initially out of financial concerns.  It seemed frivolous to be spending the amount of money I was on books, especially books that I wasn't sure I would enjoy, let alone love.  I've gotten the last few bookclub books either on loan from friends or from the library.

Over the last month I have been driving out to my suburban office for work.  Pretty much a 40 minute ride in the morning and an hour back in the evening.  Without tv in my home it was a great time to get my current events on with NPR and WXRT.  However, radio can get old after awhile. 

So last time I hit the library I decided to get myself an audiobook.  Now, the Logan Square library, while shiny and new, is still a little lacking in its overall selection of materials.  But I came across "A Good Year" by Peter Mayle.  The brief synopsis:  an overworked and newly fired English banker finds out his uncle has died and left him his estate in Provence.

I just started disc 4 out of 6 and can barely describe how much I'm enjoying it.  While barrelling down I-55 in the doom and gloom of impending winter, I am transported to a fantasy world of chateau, vineyards, simple country living, food and, of course, wine. 

I tend to eschew the idea of living in a fantasy world, preferring to be face to face with reality, and most often, the uglier side of that reality.  But my commute has become a magical time for me, free from the constraints of my quotidian existence.  Imagining myself, as Max, exploring the possibility of an entirely new life.  And in Provence no less.

Today it roused my memories of the time I was lucky enough to have spent in France.  A mere 10 days, but what a trip.  Paris and the Loire valley were incredible.  And it made me grateful, for it was me, myself who traveled by car from Frankfurt to Paris, stopping in the Champagne region along the way.  It is a permanent chapter in my life, my first glimpse of the Eiffel Tower, wandering the Rodin museum, the Louvre and my first taste of pigeon, the Hotel Diderot in Chinon and tasting wine with Catherine in her vineyard.

Life IS good. 

Reading in the new year

I am at my most voracious in regards to reading at the beginning of the new year. The parties are over, the food eaten, the wine drunk and the dishes are finally done! And all I want to do every evening is curl up with a good book.

I've managed a few so far this year:

I finished off "Animal, Vegetable, Mineral", Barbara Kingsolver's book on her and her family's year of living locally and off the land of their farm in Kentucky. I took me a couple of chapters to get into it, but once I did I was hooked. It is part novel, part resource guide and wholly inspirational. It is the life I would love to lead.

Next on the list was "Sarah's Key", by Tatiana de Rosnay, which Jason gave me for Christmas. I had spotted it in the bookstore months before and indicated my interest. The writing was so-so and the side plots and little Danielle Steele romance novel-y for me.

But at the heart of the novel is the story of the 1942 roundups in which thousands of Jews were arrested, deported from Paris to the Velodrome d'Hiver and then sent to Auschwitz and the young girl, Sarah Starzynski, who is the only member of her family to survive the atrocity. Her story is told through the eyes of a present day American woman who has lived in Paris for 25 years, married a french man whose family's history overlapped with that of the Starzynski family years before.

Essentially, the problem of this book is too little of the holocaust and too much modern day marital drama. But the book does bring to light an episode in French history that most people have been all to happy to forget.

Finally, I read finished off the book I gave to Jason for Christmas, "The Monster of Florence" by Douglas Preston with Mario Spezi. True crime novel about a serial killer who stalked the tuscany countryside in the 70s, 80s and 90s, killing young couples as they made love in cars on deserted country lanes. This was part of my "Tuscan Themed" Christmas presents I wanted to give Jason. What can I say, he said he wanted to read it. I don't even feel bad about reading it before he did! I used to devour true crime novels but have gotten away from the genre. I loved the book, the artwork on the cover is my favorite statue in the Loggia in the Piazza della Signoria, and the best treat was seeing our friend, Count Niccolo Capponi in the book! Don't worry, he was not a suspect ;-)

And my next book is the most interesting yet. However, that will be for another day...

Twilight

OK, who would have thought? I am never on the cutting edge of anything trendy (see my last post).

However, I read the entire Twilight series. And enjoyed it. And now, it is poised to be the blockbuster of the holiday season.

And so, my wonderful, intelligent, independent, some having children of their own, 6 girlfriends and I got tickets to opening night. I am never on the cutting edge of anything. I never want to be. I don't like the crowds. However, we did not buy tickets at the ghetto City North 14 by my house. We bought tickets at the Muvico. And not just any seats, but "Premier VIP Seats" So, no lines, assigned, plushy love seats and a restaurant to order food from. In short, no mingling with the hoi polloi as we like to joke.

We bought these about a month ago. And I have to admit, I have lost all sense of time. I live in some sort of time/space warp, being stretched over mulitple axes bending the space/time continuum. So, of course, I forgot and planned a trip to NYC this weekend.

Granted, this was the only weekend J and I could make it to NYC and I would not have prioritized a movie over a weekend in the Big Apple. I was just upset that I had not even put the conflict together. I can't believe it's November, let alone the week before Thanksgiving!

So, to all my friends and the teenie boppers who will be there on Friday, enjoy! The actor cast as Edward is nothing like I imagined in my mind, but I hope he does it justice. Because, really, the first book is all about him.

I'm almost happy i'm missing it. I have almost never enjoyed a movie version of a book that I have already read. I've peeked at the trailers. The Cullens in these novels are described as so breathtakingly, achingly beautiful, I feel as though they cannot ever be represented on film. And certainly not by some unknown actors and actresses. I think we will be especially disappointed by Rosalie. I'm already disappointed by Edward.

And J has promised he will go with me to see it when we get back. I expect you all to bear witness...

Library Update

My most recent library book was due on Tuesday. Unfortunately, it was also unfinished.

I went to the library and renewed the book. Can you believe it?

Progress, indeed. Yes I can!

Twilight (or I was a Teenage Vampire)

OK, I will admit, I was pissed off when Twilight was our bookclub pick this summer. I've been feeling a little out of sync with my bookclub and our selections and this one almost pushed me over the edge. I was mired in bad attitude and pretty much went to bookclub to eat, drink and smoke.

Teen horror/romance novels? Had we sunk so low?

If you haven't heard of the Twilight series, it consists of 4 novels by Stephenie Meyer. A teenage romance with a vampire as one of the main characters and the heroine's love interest. The story revolves primarily around the struggle for this human-vampire couple to establish their relationship in the face of, obviously, some complications. Hiding this from the human population, the vampire's ability to resist the sweet smell of the human's blood, other vampires who are not so civilized, and eventually werewolves.

Due to a member's giving birth on that day, the meeting was cancelled and we never formally met to discuss this novel and I was happy.

But then, I was in a reading funk. I couldn't find anything to sink my teeth into (no pun intended) and borrowed the first novel from my friend ADG.

And I was hooked. I am now on the fourth and last novel in the series, and have enjoyed each one even more than the last. This is the first time I've been looking forward to getting home and reading in a long time. They are a bit repetitive, the heroine is kind of ridiculous, and the story-line a little far fetched, but I am drawn in, and can only imagine how fervently I would have followed this story if it had come out when I was in Jr. High. Pre-teens are suckers for star-crossed lovers.

So, I need to apologize for my bad attitude. I will stand by my contention that this is not an appropriate selection for an adult bookclub. But I am happy I was able to see through the red glow of my anger and try out the books on my own.

Oh yes, and we already have our tickets for opening night of the movie.