January Reads

So...we're moving.  Yes, the official announcement is here.  We bought a house and will move from our rental at the end of February.  So what does that have to do with what I read in January, you ask?  Plenty.  I embarked on a quest to deal with all of my books I suspect are "one hit wonders, meaning, I would read them once and probably not again.  Then they can be taken to the used book store and thus, less to move. So I gathered all the suspects and placed them in a row on the middle shelf of my bedside table.  Then I shouted, "Let the reading begin!" 
Not really.

 First up...

Shadow Baby by Alison McGhee - A precocious young girl with a vivid imagination and a family secret she longs to find answers to befriends an old man with his own family secrets.  I actually really liked this book.  Clara winter (spelled with a lower-case W because she hates winter) is such a lovable character.  And any book that has me shedding tears is a keeper, so this one actually made to cut to the "will read again" category and found it's home back on my book shelf.  Way to go Clara!  8

So...I did read another book after Shadow Baby, but I can't remember what it was or anything about it.  Obviously it didn't make the cut, so it is suffering it's punishment either at the used book store or Goodwill.  My wishes for a better life go out to it - whatever it was.  -1








And after that read (whatever it was), I tried a couple of the others and in a fury of frustration over what passes for literature these days, I gathered up a stack of the "one hit wonder" suspects and without any remorse took them to the used book store or Goodwill - whichever would take them.
Then I moved on to my Chapters book club book, which I wasn't looking forward to, but since a friend had lent it to me, I felt an obligation to actually read it before going to the meeting.

One Day by David Nicholls - Let the "frustration for what passes as literature these days" continue.
So, more confessions...
I may be a complete prude, but I am finding myself less and and less patient with the obligatory sprinkling of the F-bomb and graphic "romance" or even better "lust" scenes in my stories.  It has become my opinion, that one only inserts these elements when one CAN'T WRITE.  It is not difficult to communicate romance, love, passion, intimacy without spelling out every action for the reader - leave a little mystery, for crying out loud! 
So, anyway...I did not like this book. (ya think?)  And really, as far as my hobby horse goes, it wasn't the worst I've allowed myself to read.  I am just losing patience and am just done with ridiculous people who are really trying to get a movie deal rather than write a good story.  And this story did have potential - a guy and a girl after a one-night stand at graduation (ugggh!) can't stop thinking about each other and reconnect.  The book carries them through twenty years of friendship and escapades - their ups and downs and finally they marry each other and one of them dies.  Like I said, potential...well, maybe not.  3 (only because it's not the worst book I have ever read).

But then...just when I was about to swear off anything written after 1925...
The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery - Oh my, this little gem redeemed my hope that people living right now can actually write good books. Well written, funny, with such lovable characters - I didn't want it to end.  The story is told by two different voices from their own perspectives - a 54 year old concierge of a ritzy Parisian apartment building who is brilliant, but feels she has to hide her brilliance because it's not appropriate fro the concierge to be smarter than the tenants of such a noble establishment.  I fell in love with Renee - how could I not - her cat's name is Leo after Leo Tolstoy (my cat is Alyosha after Dostoevsky's beloved character in The Brother's Karamazov) and she continually quotes from Anna Karenina, which everybody knows is my favorite book!  The other voice is 12 year old Paloma -also brilliant - in fact, so brilliant, she can't stand the stupidity of the world any longer and plans to set fire to her lavish apartment and take her own life on her 13th birthday.  Unless she can find something beautiful enough worth living for.  I highly recommend this novel - it is unique, imaginative, not morbid at all, although it sounds like it could be.  With it's style and language (translated wonderfully from French),  as I read it I was relieved to find there really are still people out there that can write stunningly and with great depth.  9