Tag Archives: Elizabeth Strout

TSS – 18 July 2010

By Lu Posted in Blogging, Books, Life Tagged , , , , , , , , , , 12 Replies

I always think of summer as the finish line.  I am done with school, I have countless hours to read by the pool, on the beach, or just on my couch in the air conditioning.  Every winter and spring this is my mantra – just get to summer, you’ll be reading more then.  But the truth of the matter is that I never read more in the summer than I do in the winter and I always end up baffled by why this is.  I suppose it’s really not so complicated though.

This summer, I have the first full time job of my entire life.  I don’t think I noticed because the job I had last summer was so mentally demanding that it felt full time and I often ended up working from home when I wasn’t in the office.  This summer my job is so much fun, though occasionally stressful, and even though I’m working really long hours, I love it.  I come home and by the time I work out, eat dinner, spend some time with the people I love, I’m exhausted.  I end up going to bed around 10:30 every night, with little time for anything else.  This doesn’t leave much time for reading, unfortunately.

I have found a little time each day to pick up a book though, so I am reading, just slowly. In the mornings I read Remarkable Creatures by Tracy Chevalier while work is very quiet for half an hour.  After 7, all the kids arrive and I can no longer read until I get home.  Usually I try to read some more in the day, but some days it just doesn’t happen.  And you know?  I’m totally okay with that.  I don’t really have anymore blogging commitments now that my round of Nerds Heart YA is up and I’ve just been enjoying the leisurely reading.  It’s really what summer is supposed to be, right?  Nothing telling me what to read or when to read, just the pleasure of reading what I want when I get a few minutes.

You know what I have missed though?  Continuously blogging.  With no books to review, I’ve struggled to come up with posts that fit into Regular Rumination.  Though I have not shied away from writing about my personal life here in the past, the posts I’ve wanted to write simply haven’t fit into what I have created as Regular Rumination’s standard.  I know that I could change that in an instant, but honestly I really felt like for the posts I wanted to write I needed another blog.  I used to write in a journal daily, but have lost that as the years went on.  Now I have started a new blog, it is called At the Bridges and it will be a completely personal blog.  If you’re at all interested, I’d love for you to stop by.

Starting At the Bridges was greatly inspired by an email I received a week or so ago from Vicki at So Very Vicki.  She had really enjoyed my letter to Elizabeth Strout that I used as a review for Olive Kitteridge and asked if she could reprint it (with credit, of course).  At first I was wary, it seemed like a strange request!  But I thought, let’s check out Vicki’s blog and see.  I loved it!  It was a complete and total inspiration.  She is wonderful and the things she posts about are simply divine.  (One of my favorite words is joy too, Vicki!)  The things that Vicki had to say about Regular Rumination and my review of Olive Kitteridge were so amazing to hear.  She’s really wonderful, so please go check out her blog!

I made it my goal at the beginning of the year to find the simple, joyful things in life every day.  With school and exams and commuting, that was difficult and I eventually gave up on that.   Vicki has inspired me to start that over again.  I really feel like I should record the wonderful things that are happening, and even the not so wonderful ones, so I have them somewhere.  Everyone needs to be reminded now and again that there is joy in this world and we encounter it every day.  I won’t lie, I have my melancholy moods, but slowly reminding myself to enjoy what is beautiful about each day has been remarkable the past few days.

So enjoy your summer reading and enjoy the wonderful things that life has to offer!

Sky Coyote by Kage Baker

By Lu Posted in Books, review Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , 8 Replies

Dear Kage Baker,

Yes, I am writing you a letter.  You know that I only write letters to really special authors, right?  I wrote one to Elizabeth Strout after she blew me away with Olive Kitteridge and I wrote one to Sarah Waters after she frustrated me and wowed me with The Little Stranger.  I’m really sorry I didn’t get a chance to write you this letter before, I think I would have actually sent it to you.  I had to let you know though, I’m in love with your Company novels.

For folks who don’t know, the Company novels are science fiction books about a group of immortals (cyborgs who were once human and trained by the Company since they were young) who are employed by the Company Dr. Zeus to live through history in real time and save historical items.  Don’t worry, you can’t change the past.  Well, at least you can’t change recorded history.   Dr. Zeus is somewhat dubious, but for the most, their employees are genuinely trying to do good things, while hiding the reality of what they are.  In Sky Coyote, Joseph is a facilitator who is on a mission to save the Chumash, a Native American tribe in what will be Southern California.

I read In the Garden of Iden and I liked it, but I didn’t love it.  What I did love was what it promised me — a series that has an awesome premise and plenty of time to grow into something amazing.  You didn’t let me down, Kage.  I loved Sky Coyote.  It was charming and mysterious and funny. It has a hugely diverse cast of characters and breaks every possible stereotype that you could possibly think of.  It’s inventive and an absolute joy to read.

Like this quote.  It made me laugh out loud:

“Hey, Sky Coyote, You should have been here this morning!  We had quite a shaker!”

“Hell of a quake,” agreed Nutku, beating his best bearskin robe until the dust flew. [...]

“I know.  Khutash is very angry.  She found out about Sun’s white men last night,” I told them.  They looked surprised.

“Khutash is angry?  Is that what makes earthquakes?” Sepawit blinked.  ”Well, I guess You’d know, but we always thought it was a natural phenomenon.”

“What?” Oh, boy, I wasn’t at my quick-witted best today.

“We always thought it was the World Snakes down there under the crust of the earth, the ones who hold everything up?  We thought they got tired every now and then and bump into one another,” Nutku explained.  ”The astrologer-priest says they push the mountains up a little higher every year.”

“Oh,” I said. (229)

So thank you, Kage Baker.  For having such an original idea, for writing so many books for me to read.  Thank you for making science fiction approachable for all readers, but incorporating historical and literary elements to make any literature junkie like myself smile.  I cannot wait to read all of these books and I will be devastated when I have read them all.  I wanted to let you know all of this, even if it’s too late for me to actually tell you.  You will be greatly missed, but your voice lives on, in all its delightful humor and wit, all its tenderness.

Love, Lu

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So go read this!: now | tomorrow | next week | next month | next year | when you’ve exhausted your TBR
Also reviewed by: bookshelves of doom, Mervi’s Book Reviews.

Looking Back at 2009

By Lu Posted in Blogging, Books, Life Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , 23 Replies

2009 is on its way out and 2010 is about to usher itself into the world.  Things changed a lot in 2009, in the world and in my life and I know that the coming months and 2010 are only going to bring more changes.  One of the  biggest changes in my life was Regular Rumination and my introduction to the book blogging community was on December 28th, 2008, a date that is approaching quickly and I can hardly believe it.  It has been wonderfully enriching to get to know all of you by talking about books and I’m looking forward to another wonderful year!

It’s too early still to put up my favorite books, but there are a few that I know will already make my list.  The Things They Carried was the first novel I read in 2009 and I really can’t think of a better way to start off the year.  It’s not only the best book I’ve read this year, but one of the best books I’ve ever read.  To round off the year, in September I got to meet Mr. O’Brien and see him speak.  It was an incredibly moving experience and one I’m not likely to forget any time soon.

Book blogging brought Young Adult fiction back into my life and like reacquainted best friends who stay up all night catching up, I read a ton of it.  Some of my favorite finds were Scott Westerfeld, John Green, Patrick Ness, Justine Larbalestier, Suzanne Collins, If I Stay by Gayle Forman, and Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson.

Olive Kitteridge was a beautiful novel that not only won the Pulitzer but completely won me over, too.  Like The Things They Carried, it has staying power, at least on my top ten list.  2666 might have changed the way I read and my focus of study for my master’s.  The Grapes of Wrath and Something Wicked This Way Comes are two classics I read this year that lived up to their praise and also changed me as a reader.  Even though City of Thieves isn’t perfect, it ended up being one of my funniest reads of the year that still has me chuckling when I just think about some of the jokes included.

Graphic novels were big for me, especially graphic memoirs and non-fiction like Safe Area Gorazde by Joe Sacco and Stitches by David Small.  I made the commitment in 2009 to read more books by women and people of many different colors and nationalities; through that goal, I discovered two new favorite authors that I can’t wait to explore more: Tayari Jones and Octavia Butler.  I hope to make this an even bigger priority in 2010, with authors from around the globe.   Poetry made a comeback in my life and will only continue to become a bigger focus for next year.  I ditched all my challenges a couple months ago, but don’t worry, I’m making up for it in 2010.

Keep an eye out on my blog for a post that looks ahead to 2010 and as we get closer to the New Year, a final year end list that will be nearly impossible to put together.  Thanks everyone for making 2009 spectacular!