Books that Shiver and Suck

On my last visit to WTMJ 4's The Morning Blend I picked the following reads in honor of the Halloween season. Since I'd picked Anne Rice's The Witching Hour, one of the creepiest books I've ever loved, last year, it's not on my list this time, and neither is Jennifer Egan's The Keep, which I also love. But if you haven't read either one of these novels ... what are you waiting for?

This year, I decided to go with a few classics of the gothic and horror genres, and one quite distubing debut (in a really good way). If you have a minute, share your scariest reads with me (your recent 401K statement doesn't count).

Salem’s Lot by Stephen King and Interview With A Vampire by Anne Rice

If you’re loving the resurgence of vampires in current popular culture as I am (Twilight, True Blood, The Vampire Diaries), you owe it to yourself to read (or re-read) the mother and father of the modern reincarnation of the vampire. Both Interview and Salem’s Lot are brilliant in their ability to make us believe vampires linger among us and, particularly, in Rice’s novel, to feel some empathy for them. Rice’s book is lush and lusty and lascivious (kinda dirty) in its bloody detail (and way better than the film adaptation). King’s book is just in-your-face terrifying. Years ago when I first read SL, I made my husband close every drape and blind in the house so in a weak moment I wouldn't be tempted to invite a vampire into the house.

Peter Straub's Ghost Story

“What’s the worst thing you’ve ever done?”

From this great opening line through to the story’s end, this book haunts you. Straub is originally from Milwaukee (many of his books are set in a fictional city of Millhaven, which is his substitute for my fair city). I first read Ghost Story when it came out–right as my daughter turned two–as if that wasn’t scary enough. It’s a book that demands re-reading because the ghostly questions it raises are open to alternative possibilities as solutions. In their youth, five men accidentally kill a woman. Fifty years later when one of them dies of fright, they realize her ghost is looking for revenge. Why has she waited so long to come after them? And what can they do to stop themselves being scared to death?

The Gargoyle by Andrew Davidson

One reviewer described this dark debut novel as “the mad spawn of Stephen King and Anne Rice.” What more can I say? After the narrator is left horribly scarred from a terrible car accident (the result of his drinking and drug abuse) in a hospital burn unit, a mysterious woman comes into his life insisting they were lovers in medieval Germany. The woman is a sculptress of grotesque things like gargoyles and she seduces the narrator into her–well, is it madness or not? You decide.  

Carole's Fall Book Club Picks

I think a book club book must do the following things (with or without a glass of wine … or two).

1.    Stimulate interesting conversation among everyone in the club. To do this it helps if a book stirs some extremes in us (passion, pleasure, anger, sadness, empathy whatever)
2.    Offer some insight into a aspect of life (or the world) most of the club may not know much about
3.    Must be a fast and enduring read (one that you keeps you chatting about it as you head to your cars–or cabs, of course, if you had that second glass of wine)
4.    It shouldn’t feel like homework

Read on for my choice picks for a book club this fall. Post a comment if you want to *chat* about my choices or anything worthy that you're reading.

Hot House Flower and the 9 Plants of Desire by Margot Berwin

First of all, any novel with a title as sexy as this one is worth a read, and this one lives up to the heat in its title. Plus even though the sum total of my knowledge and interest in plants could fit in a Dixie cup, I was so enthralled by this book that about halfway into it I found myself Googling the plants and flowers in the story (sooo not me). Lila, the main character, works in advertising, which everyone thinks is glamorous, but her life is not. Her journey into the world of plants and love and adventure starts with a Bird of Paradise and the nine plants of desire (they are real plants-I googled them, remember) that are hidden in a secret room in a New York Laundromat. If you know something about tropical plants and their habitats, you’ll really love this book, and if you don’t you’ll learn everything you’ll ever need to know about their myths and their magic.

Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford

In the 1980s a hotel in Seattle was being renovated when the owners uncovered possessions belonging to Japanese Americans forced into internment camps during WWII. These possessions had gone unclaimed for decades. The author, Ford, puts this real historical event at the heart of this really lovely love story. Henry, a retired widower, spots a parasol amongst the abandoned possessions and it carries him back to his childhood and his first love, a Japanese American girl. The story shifts from Henry’s childhood and America in the 1940s to Henry in the late 1980s as he uses the possessions to discover what happened to his first love and her family. The novel will give you lots to talk about, including the nature of patriotism then and now, but after I finished it I couldn’t help thinking about what would be the one possession in my life that, like the parasol in the story, might trigger such bittersweet memories of love and loss and family. Mu husband, Kevin, is seriously considering this to use in one of his classes at Alverno.


Hurry Down Sunshine: A Father’s Story of Love and Madness by Michael Greenberg

This is a heart-breaking and gut-wrenching memoir (so my one non-fiction pick this month). It’s about the summer the author’s fifteen year old daughter, Sally, “was struck mad." I read this in one sitting (you could too–trust me) and I had to call my college-age children immediately when I finished. The author approaches metal illness and its effects on a family without any sugar-coating, but he writes so lyrically and with such compassion I think any book club would find lots to talk about from this book.

Home Repair by Liz Rosenberg

During a garage sale Eve’s second husband, Chuck, literally chucks their marriage out the window when, during a garage sale, he walks out on her. Eve so didn’t see it coming, and now she has to deal with two teenage children and a house and heart in disrepair. This novel is full of men and women and children a lot like us, and it’s a novel full of big and little surprises. If your book club has enjoyed Anne Tyler, Elizabeth Berg or Anita Shreve's novels, I think you’ll really enjoy this book too.

Cheers,
Carole




 

From Sully by the sea

I'm writing this with a view of the beautiful Welsh coastline and the sea in front of me. Sun is shining and it's not too windy. A few windsurfers dot the horizon, a couple of fishing boats, and every now and then a ship passes on its way out through the channel. 

First, thanks to all of you who sent me emails and good wishes after the Torchsong convention. They were all very sweet and much appreciated. There were just so many that I couldn't get to them before I left for the UK to work with John on a few projects. But I read them all. I also appreciated the pics that a few of you sent too. Thank you.

So second, an ankle update. John's ankle is healing well. He's been going to regular therapy and by the end of the week his leg was released from its full 'David Beckham' boot. He's now wearing one that looks a bit like small shin guards–a mini Beck. He has to limit his side-ways movements with his ankle so dancing the slosh with my mum and dad is out for awhile. He should, however, be able to get back to full shopping speed today. I think we're heading to Costco to make up for lost time.

Cheers,

Carole

A Few Words from Clare about Soap

In my U.S. Environmental History course this term, I was assigned to read "The World Without Us" by Alan Weisman (which I highly recommend). It exposed a scary truth about human invention; human beings have actually created something that will remain intact in the environment for an indefinite amount of time. The book explains that every single piece of plastic that has been created in the last fifty years, since its invention, still remains in the environment. Furthermore, there is no sign that any plastic will actually biodegrade, even after it has been reduced to small fragments. We use plastics everyday: in bags, bottles, containers, wrappers, and numerous other things. Plastics have become a fundamental material for modern life. However, I'd like to suggest is an easy and simple way to do a little to reduce your impact on the environment. Think about soap! Alan Weisman has forever changed the way I will shop for soap, and I hope I can convince you to change too. Next time you go to the store to buy body soap, read the bottle. If it doesn't say "100% natural exfolients", stop! Read the ingredients. If you see the word 'polyethylene' anywhere, do NOT buy it. This means that the exfoliating granuals in the soap are made of plastic. Yes, plastic. A scientist interviewed by Alan Weisman explains this best: "They're selling plastic meant to go right down the drain, into the sewers, into the rivers, right into the ocean. Bite-size pieces of plastic to be swallowed by little sea creatures" (147). There is no need to use soap that hurts our environment when there are alternatives that do not. It may seem small and insubstantial, but remember, those tiny bits of plastic will not ever wash away. So next time, think before you scrub!

Clare

4/09

Literary Love Stories

My choices for my favorite literary love stories are romantic novels that are alternatives to what I call the heaving bosoms and bulging biceps books. Romantic fiction can be good literature, but romance novels ot that variety rarely are. Romance novels (Barbara Cartland etc.) are like French fries or– in the spirit of Valentine’s Day– a generic chocolate heart that can fill the spot but doesn't last; whereas, romantic novels explore the complexities of relationships and the challenges and consequences of following your heart– so my literary love stories would be Godiva chocs or Lindts truffles…mmm!

1.“Birdsong: A Novel of Love and War” by Sebastian Faulks

Many classic love stories in literature are about infidelity and the consequences of falling in love with the ‘forbidden.’ For example, Madame Bovary and Anna Karenina. This is a contemporary novel in that category. It’s about a soldier in WWI in France who falls in love with the wife of a wealthy industrialist. She’s in a passionless marriage and he’s, well, he’s twenty…. her husband and the war are big obstacles to their relationship. Faulks is a really eloquent writer and a terrific storyteller . . . and let's face it if I want to have a fanatsy love affair it might as well be with a twenty year old.

2.“I Capture The Castle” by Dodie Smith (a great pick for mother/daughter book clubs)

If you love the kind of romantic stories that Jane Austen wrote (Pride and Prejudice and Emma are my favorites), you’ll adore this book. The novel was first published in 1948 and it was like Twilight to my generation. I read it when I was a teenager, re-read it with my daughter when she was about 14 (it’s one of her favorite books too), and I ended up re-reading it last week when I picked it up planning just to skim it for this blog. JK Rowling has even said that the main character, Cassandra, “is one of the most charismatic narrators” ever in literature.

Cassandra, a budding writer and full-blown romantic, lives in a decaying castle in England with her father (a famous writer suffering from severe writer’s block), her sister, Rose (cynical and an anti-romantic), her younger brother, and her father’s lover who was once a famous model in London. When a family with eligible males moves into the neighboring estate, love blooms. The novel ends with “I love you! I love you! I love you!” What’s not to like?

3. “Of Love and Shadows” by Isabel Allende

Incredibly romantic love story set in mid-twentieth century in a Latin American dictatorship (it’s really Chile) against a backdrop of political repression. Allende writes sagas that are deeply passionate and sweeping and complex. This is a love story about the daughter of a wealthy family who falls in love with a photographer and journalist. They uncover a mass grave and as they try to discover who’s responsible, their love grows in the “shadows” of political repression. My students love this novel when I assign it. It has a heart and a strong social conscience.

4. “Affinity” by Sarah Waters

Sarah Waters has won a number of prestigious literary awards in the UK. Her main characters generally play on the ‘girls team’ when it comes to romance and matters of the heart. This novel is one of a trilogy set in Victorian England and it’s engaging and thoroughly researched about what it was like for women in the 19th century who have been “put away” because they think or act differently. It’s the story of the developing relationship between two women, one an upper class woman who volunteers at a women’s prison, and the other woman is one of the prisoners who is a spiritualist. Waters is an engaging writer.

5. “High Fidelity” by Nick Hornby

Rob Fleming takes his girlfriend for granted. She walks off with another man, leaving Rob to struggle with happened. He’s a list addict (top five best songs for a first date etc.) so he makes a list of the women who’ve dumped him and decides to learn from his past mistakes and try to win the love of his life back. The book was made into a movie with John Cusack and Jack Black, but the novel is deeper and richer in its understanding of the nature of modern love. It's also set in the UK not Chicago as the film is. This novel is witty and romantic without being mushy.

Hope you enjoy these literary love stories. Have a wonderful Valentine's Day.

Cheers,

Carole