2/50: Room by Emma Donoghue

After watching Short Term 12 (recommended by the best movie-recommender, Julie Ritchey), I started to fangirl over Brie Larson. This fangirling led me to Room the movie... which led to me to Room the book, because obviously I wanted to read the book before seeing the movie.

So I read the book! And really, really enjoyed it. I do not have a way with words like many of you do on this blog, so I will not go into too much detail. I also do not want to give away any spoilers, so I will only say that this is the book about Jack and his Ma and their life in a tiny room they are held captive in. Jack thinks Room is the whole world, until Ma, in fear of their safety, begins devising a plan to escape into the real world.

The book is told from Jack's perspective, which made a really dark story have a little more light. I was sad for the book to end and to be out of Jack's little, innocent head.

I would give Room a 4.5/5. Now I just need to see the movie!

More Recommendations, Please!

Book friends! I am leaving on my honeymoon soon where I will lit'rully be Beach Reading. While organizing myself to go, I realized that all of the books on my nightstand pile are, well, not fun. What are some good, fun-but-not-totally-trashy pleasure reads I should grab before I skedaddle?
I trust you all implicitly and eagerly await your thoughts.
xxJR

Year of Yes: How to Dance It Out, Stand in the Sun, and Be Your Own Person - By Shonda Rhimes

To begin: A side note: I tried reading two books at the same time (this and my January themed book; A Tree Grows in Brooklyn). It is a talent that I do not yet possess and will likely need to possess if I want to even think about making it to 50 books this year. It's just difficult for me to go from one book to another, mid-story. That being said; I am now reading A Tree Grows in Brooklyn and will get that post to you at a later time.

Ok.So.

For anyone who has watched and enjoyed an episode of Grey's Anatomy, Scandal, Private Practice or even How to Get Away with Murder, you will be jive well to the writing style that Rhimes uses in YoY. She is coloquial, intimate, and has a sassy sense of humor throughout. (She refers to sex as her "client" having "meetings"; her client being her "vajayjay." See? It's sassy. Funny. Quirky.

The book takes you on a year long (plus more) journey of her deciding to say "yes" to any and everything that frightens her; she is spurred into this journey by 6 words that her sister says to her at Thanksgiving "You Never Say Yes To Anything."

First she says yes to a commencement speech for her Alma Mater; Dartmouth
Then she says yes to playing more with her children...
Yes to taking care of her body...
Yes to speaking the whole truth...
Yes to acknowledging her true feelings on relationships; romantic and otherwise....

Yes to etc...

Each chapter is a small "Yes" Journey.

How can saying Yes to those things that frighten you make you a truer more honest version of yourself, like Shonda? If we were all sitting and drinking wine and discussing this: I imagine this would be one of the questions the book would probably create for us as a discussion starter.

It's not really a "Self Help Book. She doesn't give the reader explicit instructions in every chapter on how to better their own life, but you do get a little inspiration simply from her writing style and her words on her own experiences. "I can be a 'doer', rather than a 'dreamer'." "I can be a Cristina Yang and 'be my own sun.' " (Sounds a little hippie, I know. But it didn't feel like that when I was reading it).

This was not an "OH MY GOD. It Changed My Life Book" for me. Although it might be for some people. I have a friend who read it and absolutely loved it and has been inspired to be a DOER in his endeavors.

But. It kept me engaged because I love Shonda's writing. I got sucked into Grey's many years ago and I go along with her on all of the non-believable, believable, fantastical plots; because I really do like her writing. The woman is talented, ya'll. And I think she makes some valid points throughout the 300 pages.

I would say this is a great summer/vacation/beach/airplane book. It has sass, humor, reads quickly, and doesn't condescend to those readers actually struggling with "saying yes" (#LikeMe).

Would I recommend. Yea sure! Why not? It's a fun, easy read that will make you at least think about a few deeper issues that are probably laying dormant ;)

Should have read in high school: The House on Mango Street

Book: 3/50
Author: Sandra Cisneros

Here is the awful story of why I didn't read this in high school. My high school did a play version of this and when I was told that I would not be cast in this play because I was not Latina (a COMPLETELY legitimate reason but I was a teenage asshole) I put the book aside and never picked it up again. Which means I spent the next 13 (barf) years of my life missing this absolutely gorgeous dream of a book. 31 year old me is SO annoyed with 18 year old me. That guy is a dick.

Thankfully, I rediscovered this book by way of viewing an art exhibit at the Mexican Museum of Art in Chicago which is dedicated to artists reimagining scenes from Mango Street. Sidenote: MMA is my favorite museum in Chicago, if you live here and get a chance, I highly recommend it. Then walk through the park and head east and you will find several amazing Pilsen restaurants and shops.

If you have not read this book, it is a series of small vignettes (very small, sometimes only 1 page) that follows the train of thought of a young Latina girl growing up in Chicago's Pilsen neighborhood (as Cisneros did). Her language is so precise, so image heavy I felt like my imagination was on overdrive. It has everything lush and colorful like other Latin writers like Gabriel Garcia Marquez but it's much more like poetry. It's also mostly about the women and girls in her life and the small and huge injustices they face in that culture and in that class. I found myself physically angry at the unfairness of their lives sometimes. But she doesn't dwell in darkness. The book is a moment in time and gave me so much to dream about.

Would extremely recommend to anyone--double bonus it's tiny. I read it twice in a day.

Favorite passage: "Hips: One day you wake up and they are there. Ready and waiting like a new Buick with the keys in the ignition. Ready to take you where?...They bloom like roses..."

2 Down...58 to Go!

Between the World and Me
By Ta-Nehisi Coates

Rating: Required Reading.

Written for his son, Coates, writes with the imperative of life and death. His language reads like prose, and his message is one we all must embrace: that passive understanding and indifference are at the peril of black bodies. We must do more.

I would recommend this book to anyone and everyone.

"But race is the chief of racism, not the father. And the process of naming "the people" has never been a matter of genealogy and physiognomy so much as one of hierarchy."

"It is horrific to understand yourself as the essential below of your country. It breaks too much of what we would like to think about ourselves, our lives, the world we move through and the people who surround us. The struggle to understand is our only advantage over this madness."

"The destroyers with rarely be held accountable. Mostly they will receive pensions."

"But a society that protects some people through a safety net of schools, government-backed home loans, and ancestral wealth but can only protect you with the club of criminal justice has either failed at enforcing its good intentions or has succeeded at something much darker."



What I'm reading next:
To fulfill the monthly challenge next I will be reading: The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien

What I'm listening to:
I'm still listening to American Gods, and I'm completely hooked. (7 more hours out of 19)

Erika

Hi guys!

I'm so late on this - and I'm gonna start off on the right foot by not feeling bad about it.

Because I'm here to feel good.

I lived in Chicago for about 8 years after college, doing theater, waiting tables, working as a standardized patient and lots of other weird things, and, finally, writing.

I moved to the Bay Area almost three years ago now, and my writing has been suffering ever since. NO! I'm working on it. Anyway, I'm here to read and hear about what you're reading.

I sometimes write for an online film magazine called Bright Wall/Dark Room. You should subscribe. It's fun. I most recently wrote a series of essays about the final episodes of Mad Men. (I've been recovering emotionally since then.) I asked to write about Magic Mike XXL for the end-of-the-year issue, but like four other writers beat me to it ;)

I also love: watching/thinking/talking about TV (historically a lame hobby, but to me TV is art right now); reading (seriously probably the thing I love most); musical theater (seriously love this too but somehow don't have a lot of it in my life); making weird shit with people I can laugh with (also need more of this); drinking iced tea with nowhere to be,

Reading status: I was sick for a full week right before the holiday, and kind of fell off the reading train at that point. I haven't been able to get into anything since. I started Dark Places by Gillian Flynn, thinking it'd be an easy page turner, but...it was too scary to read in bed. Not usually an issue for me, but I'll go ahead and trust my gut on that one.

Five books, in no particular order and not necessarily permanent:

1. the Emily of New Moon series (L.M. Montgomery)
I read these at least once a year. This year I noticed something HUGE that I hadn't caught before.

2. Another Country (James Baldwin)
The most beautiful and honest writer. Helps me get close to knowing things I can never truly know.

3. To Kill a Mockingbird (Harper Lee)
This book hypnotizes me. How does she do that with the child's voice but the adult's perspective but not really but but but....

4. Nicholas & Alexandra (Robert K. Massie)
Nonfiction and almost impossible to believe.

5. Rebecca (Daphne du Maurier)
Deliciously creepy with a couple of great gasp moments. I love when books make me gasp.

*bonus short story: "Black Box" by Jennifer Egan
**also love Kazuo Ishiguro, Chekhov, Fun Home was revelatory, Murakami short stories, Saunders short stories, Joan Didion, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Stephen Sondheim writing about how he works, The Great Gatsby, Hollywood history, loved All the Light We Cannot See, you know--Shakespeare...I'm open

Glad to be on board!

Erika

The One Upside of the Stomach Flu...

... I finished my book and read another!

Mating in Captivity by Esther Perel
Seeing this book on my darling friend Carie's recommendations list bumped it higher in my queue. I ordered it online last year after hearing Esther Perel interviewed on the Dear Sugar podcast.  You can download the episode here - it's a great conversation and will give you a very precise thumbnail view of Esther's philosophies and her general awesomeness.

In Mating in Captivity, therapist and erotic intelligence genius woman Esther Perel tackles the question "How do we desire what we already have?" It was empowering/realistic and filled me with lots of non-flu related feelings to be reading about the inevitable challenges of long-term relationships at the very very less-than-three-months beginning of my own marriage.  My only criticism of this book is the same one I have with nearly all non-narrative social science books - once you're on board with the thesis, the actual chapter-to-chapter unfolding can get redundant, even as it takes on slightly different angles of the issue at hand.  But still, an essential read, will definitely be forcing it on my husband, and let's all breathe a sigh of relief that functional relationships come in every imaginable stripe. *SIGH*

Liar & Spy by Rebecca Stead
I grabbed Liar & Spy after reading Rebecca Stead's winding and interesting When You Reach Me last year.  I was super interested in her unique voice as a writer of YA fiction, and curious to read more. While ultimately I found When You Reach Me to be a slightly more satisfying read, I'd definitely give L&S the thumbs up to any grown-up humans who like young adult books, or to any actual young adult humans.  My suspicion is that it will not remain tremendously memorable in my brain, even as the moment-to-moment experience of it was quite pleasurable.

The story's protagonist, Georges (the S is silent), is twelve years old and living in a new apartment in Brooklyn after his father got laid off and the family was forced to sell their house. Stead is particularly gifted at capturing the moment of early adolescence where we are still too young to fully face the world, but have outgrown the innocence of true childhood - and the nostalgia and empowerment that comes with that crossroads.  Georges befriends the unusual Safer, his upstairs neighbor, and together they embark on a mission to spy on the mysterious Mr. X. But, as always, not everything is as it seems.

The passage that won me over for good: “Here’s a piece of advice you will probably never use: If you want to name your son after Georges Seurat, you could call him George, without the S. Just to make his life easier.”

Next up..... 1984 for my January theme book and Creativity, Inc. for my heart!