READING, SHELF CLEANSING AND RECONNECTIONS

Let me first apologize for my extended summer absence. The only excuse to be found is that I was lost in amongst life and literature, ping-ponging from fantastic dramatic tales of adventure and woe to overwhelmingly pretentious plots that left my senses dulled and annoyed. While life kept me busy, my book shelves kept me even busier. I spent my entire summer reading, eating, sleeping, living and reading some more. It was truly a fantastic season!

While I never did actually make it to the beach with a book, I certainly discovered more than a few authors who deserved that honoured placement in my life. Now, however fortunate or unfortunate you might find it, the warm days of sunshine, shorts and staple reads are beginning to fade and the comforting breezy hang-out-on-the-front-porch-with-a-good-book days of fall are upon us.

It is time to get back to work.

First though, and in the spirit of Mr. Eckhart Tolle’s A New Earth: Awakening To Your Life’s Purpose (yes, I am still reading it...so very s-l-o-w-l-y), I have decided to call out my ego-based focus on collecting all I have read as a means of quantifying my passion and move towards that place where I can simply enjoy words on a page without feeling the drive to hoard my find.

See, I can transcend.

Now, I certainly do not mean to mock. While I joke some, and am admittedly not a genuinely philosophical soul, I honestly do see and appreciate Mr. Tolle’s message. And with that in mind, I have begun my personal awakening by cleaning out the dusty shelves and ridding myself of all my literary excess. Gone are my old text books, donated are the many of the books I have read but have never picked up twice, and finally I managed to recycle my big box of 1977 edition encyclopedias. My shelves are now clean and carrying simply the best I have read and wish to share with my daughter, as well as one single shelf of what I intend to read in the near future.

Furthermore, I have rediscovered the budget-worthy convenience of my local library and, despite the long waiting lists attached to some of the more recent releases, I am enthusiastically borrowing a great many books from its shelves. This is actually a deeply soul southing reconnection for me as when I was younger and just beginning my relationship with books I found a great deal of comfort and calm between the stacks at my local library. While currently my local library is nothing more than an oversized room with a few sadly supplied shelves, I still feel my old calm and comfort return as I place my requests in the queue and sweep my hands across the collection they do have on hand. It is a beautiful moment for me.

And on that note, I move to share with you some of what I have found during my summer reading campaign, my shelf cleansing experience and my reconnection with an old friend. Please, read and enjoy, hopefully you too will find a book worthy of your time and attention.

A Drink Before The War
Written by Dennis Lehane
Published: 2000, HarperTorch

Recently a close friends’ husband leant me a copy of Dennis Lehane’s A Drink Before The War. It was the most exciting read of my summer.

Truthfully, when I picked the book up, I expected toothpick characters stapled into generic action in order to snag my attention. Instead, I pulled back the cover and was immediately sucked into Dennis Lehane’s Kenzie-Gennaro world turning each page excitedly anxious to see what would happen next. A writer of great success, Lehane, who has seen two novels make it to the big screen (Gone Baby Gone and Mystic River), has created a compelling duo in his main characters, Patrick Kenzie and Angela Gennaro. A rare combination of what on the surface appears to be generic Dick Tracy stereotypes; they cunningly connect with the reader in an absorbing fashion revealing complex personalities not generally found in your average mystery read. One moment I would be heart pumping mad, only to to hear myself giggling or feel the damp slide of a tear down my cheek the next.

A Drink Before The War is the first in a series of Kenzie-Gennaro books rich in personality rippled with a constant thrilling spirit. While not necessarily a socially inspiring tale, Dennis Lehane has created a fantastic mystery-suspense novel that unravels itself steadily with surprisingly poignant moments, driven by a constant pace of suspense and action, unrelenting in its twists and turns. If you pick it up, I strongly suggest you assume nothing and be prepared for anything.

For mystery and suspense readers, a must read. For all others, a strong recommendation.

Favourite line from the book…

L.A. burns, and so many other cities smolder waiting for the hose that will flood gasoline over the coals, and we listen to politicians who fuel our hate and our narrow views and tell us it’s simply a matter of getting back to the basics while they sit in their beachfront properties and listen to the surf so they don’t have to hear the screams of the drowning. (page 266)


Speak
Written by Laurie Halse Anderson
Published: 2006, Penguin Group

I will start by saying I picked up Laurie Halse Anderson’s Speak and did not put it down again until I hit the very last word of the very last page. This book was fantastic. It is a must read for everyone with no reader limitations.

Anderson held an astounding chord of truth throughout her novel, never leaving me to doubt the age, thoughts or intentions of her character, Melinda. In her unique dialogue presentation she managed to effectively draw me in as a reader and forced me to be the fly on the wall, completely hung on every word. Her short paragraphs and direct descriptive nature only locked my interest further.

What happened to Melinda is sadly not uncommon. Too many women have suffered and likely will suffer the same experience either as a young girl or as an adult. So I caution any reader who might be disturbed by facts that may shadow a truth too close to home. However, regardless of whether you share an experience similar or not, how this character speaks for hers will leave you clinging to each page of this book; cheering, laughing, screaming and crying. She is an everyday girl with an inspiring voice and I truly enjoyed reading everything she had to say.

Favourite line from the book…

IT happened. There is no avoiding it, no forgetting. No running away, or flying, or burying, or hiding…It wasn’t my fault. And I’m not going to let it kill me. I can grow. [page 198]


Dirty
Written by: Megan Hart
Published: 2007, Spice Books

Once again, Megan Hart, takes what is often assumed to be missing in Erotica and proves definitively that one does not have to sacrifice a good story in order to create a solid erotic adventure. Through her character, Elle Kavanagh, Hart draws upon the mystery of ones' childhood and surrounds her reader with the possible consequences, misadventures and emotional conflicts unresolved pasts can birth. Elle, an incredibly sexy, emotionally driven personality, is fractured by her past and deeply stunted in her present. As she resists the need to face her demons and applies the only healing method she knows, we are gifted 426 pages of rousing emotional and sexual seduction. While I did not find Dirty quite as edgy as Megan Hart’s third book, Tempted, I am still incredibly impressed with her extraordinarily insightful glimpse into the deeply cavernous psyche of human drive. No ordinary erotica tale teller, Megan Hart has told the beautiful story of ones' journey to overcome her brutally damaged childhood and move towards a hope for love and happiness in the future.

Favourite line from the book…

We aren’t the only family with a white elephant in the living room, but who ever cares about anyone else’s family when their own is the one they have to live with?


Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West
Author: Gregory Maguire
Reviewed by: Jennifer Fryer

As I began to read Gregory Maguire’s Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West, I found myself slipping into a firm state of awe and reverence. This man can write, folks. No doubt about it, he is a master with the pen (or keyboard as it may be). Before I even began to absorb the incredible tale he would weave, I recognized the incredible skill he had with the words he used. It has been quite some time since I have read such a beautiful linguistic display. Maguire is a master of words, and I am but his student; hence the constant accompaniment of my word reference sources. As much as I had my nose in this book, I had it equally looking through my own dictionary. Now, in all honesty, after awhile this became somewhat distracting and altogether annoying. Whether it was because I was being reminded of the pathetic state of my own language skills or that I had to constantly set aside the story in order to look up a new word, I couldn’t say. What I can say is that I was most definitely humbled by the experience.

As for the story itself, it was certainly an impressive one. Folded in deep metaphorical “ozisms”, Wicked, at its core is merely an altered state of our own world expertly cloaked in the pre-established foundation of L. Frank Baum’s classic tale about witches, animated scarecrows, tin men and pretty shoes. I would be lying if I said I understood every aspect of Maguire’s take on Baum’s fantasy world. In fact, I will go so far as to admit I’d have to read it a few more times to catch even half of the socio, economic and political undertones presented. However, setting aside that point, the world Gregory Maguire describes and his careful tendering to details within it are impressively imaginative; my favourite moment being when he introduced the idea, although admittedly in vague suggestion, that the legendary character of Merlin once stepped foot in the equally legendary land of oz. No rock was left unturned in Maguire’s account of Elphaba’s life.

More critically, I will have to say that annoyance often accompanied my read through Wicked. Annoyed at my own lack of understanding of all Maguire spoke of, annoyance at the pretentious approach to these same themes, even more annoyance at his sometimes hesitant and vague suggestion of details (almost as if he were suddenly too shy to suggest this current take on events), and most definitely annoyed at the constant fact that absolutely nothing was what it seemed in this story. So, after setting aside my admiration for Maguire’s literary skills and getting over my appreciation for his creative ones, I have to say that, while I would certainly read another of his books, I would not do so with the innocent enthusiasm with which I picked this one up. Rather, dictionary in hand, I would settle myself in for a deeply thought provoking tale sure to annoy me and most certainly capable of entertaining me.

Favourite line from the book…

Maybe the definition of home is the place where you are never forgiven, so you may always belong there, bound by guilt. And maybe the cost of belonging is worth it. (page 178)