The Good, the Bad, and the Okay- April Reviews

I'm proud of myself- still maintaining a steady pace of three books a month. Not a PR by any means, but maybe enough to qualify me for- okay, I'll stop. I have a half marathon on Sunday and am trying to get motivated. Not working. Here's April:

The Good
The Solitude of Prime Numbers by Paolo Giordano
288 pages
This was book club's second selection (funny story- we were actually supposed to go to Giordano's reading but got our times mixed up and ended up discussing the book stuck in traffic on the 60 freeway- oops), and we all really loved it. The novel describes two young Italians and the events that cause them to grow into broken, wounded adults that end up trying to find strength to live their lives. This novel makes you wonder how exactly the tragedies we experience in our youth impact who we grow into as adults.


The Bad
Miss New India by Bharati Mukherjee
336 pages
I may be a little harsh with the term "bad," but I really didn't enjoy this book I snagged from Amazon Vine's program. I read one of Mukherjee's collections in college and thought that this might be an interesting take on a woman trying to find social and financial independence in modern India. I was wrong. The dull plot and flat characters ruin Mukherjee's still decent prose.

The Okay
Kara Goucher's Running for Women by Kara Goucher
320 pages
I have a bit of a girl-crush on Olympic runner and new mom Kara Goucher (hmm, this fits nicely with my previous post on Dorian Gray), so I was very excited when she published her guide earlier this month. Unfortunately, it was geared more towards beginners and had some annoying "dead Kara" and "I love this quote" sections that got old. There were some interesting ideas though, (getting a good night of sleep before the night of a race isn't that big of a deal as long as you are generally well-rested) and I appreciated the chapter about running while pregnant (for future reference).

So, buy and read The Solitude of Prime Numbers, stay away from that bore Miss New India, and only read Goucher's book if you're a beginner, pregnant, or a huge fan.

Love Me Some Homoerotic Victorian Lit

In honor of new, uncensored The Picture of Dorian Gray that was released earlier this month, I'd like to climb on my soapbox for a second. I really, really hate the phrase "that's so gay." I'm a heterosexual woman, but I still find the phrase so offensive. What is it supposed to mean? When I hear it in context it's usually being used a synonym for lame, feminine, or corny. It's distasteful and rude.

Okay, I'm done. Well, at least until I receive my copy of And Tango Makes Three next week from Amazon (I fell off the wagon, but had a gift card) and go on and on about book banning and gay penguins.

For those who aren't familiar with The Picture of Dorian Gray by one of my favorite Victorian writers Oscar Wilde, it's about a man so obsessed with youth he wishes a painting would age instead of his actual body. When this actually happens he becomes a very, very naughty boy, partaking in activities that would make the fragile Victorians readers faint (alcohol, drugs, promiscuity, and homosexuality). Wilde's publisher of course toned it down, deciding to cut out most of the homoeroticism. This summary doesn't do the book justice, by the way, so please read it if you have not.

Now, 120 years later, editor Nicholas Frankel is publishing a more uncensored version, adding in more of the original text, as well as a great deal of annotation. Will it be raunchy by today's standards? I highly doubt it. Will it be that much longer of a text? No, rumor has it only five hundred additional words. But, in a time where steps have been taken to "clean up" certain classics, is it a good thing? Absofuckinglutely.

Audio"books" for Running, not Reading

I have some serious issues with audio"books." Let me just say it: listening to a book on CD/iPod is NOT THE SAME as reading.

Let me explain. So, if you listen to Water for Elephants (it seems like everyone is) during your busy commute and then tell people at work or wherever that you read it you're a liar. Liar. Reading requires eyesight and word recognition (unless you're blind; always an exception), while listening the ears and a different area of the brain for processing. I'm not saying listening to a novel is easy, since it still requires concentration and comprehension, but it's not reading. What you're doing right now- reading. What you do when the radio is on in the car- listening.

Personally, I have never listened to anything on CD and have never played audio for my high school students (I'd have my elementary students listen to stories, but only after they had read the text). I can't imagine substituting sound for the actual experience of reading a book. I enjoy the process of reading, and this is how I best comprehend information (don't even try reading directions to me). I also appreciate the option to go back and reread paragraphs if I need to or check a fact from the beginning of the text, both difficult things to do when you are trying to rewind on an iPod. It's just not the same.


Okay, let's review. Reading: great. Listening: fine. Saying you read when you listened: bad.

The reason why I bring this up is because I have read several things recently about banishing running boredom through audiobook listening. Lately I've been extremely bored while running, both outside and the treadmill and am getting desperate. I'm scheduled for something like six half marathons for the rest of the year, so quitting really isn't an option in regards to finances, pride, or how my jeans fit I know it's a rut and I'm trying to break out of it, so I suppose I'm considering an audiobook.

The issue is that there is no way I'd listen to a book that I'd ever consider reading, which is making this difficult. Purchasing a fiction audiobook is absolutely out of the question- I won't give up the reading experience and I don't want to spend money on some shitty author I wouldn't read in the first place. So now I'm considering some sort of biography or a health/fitness/diet text. The other issue I'm having is that the whole process of downloading a book seems a little too closely related to eReaders, which I loathe with every fiber of my body. I'm trying to justify an audiobook purchase with the fact that it will be for something I'd never purchase in book form to begin with. In essence, audiobooks really aren't books in my world.

It just all feels a little dirty. But, sometimes being bad is good.

Makes My Heart All Mushy

For those that don't know, I'm an English teacher at a low-performing, low-socioeconomic high school in California. One of the courses I teach is "normal" English (normal = unmotivated) for sophomores. For the last two weeks we've been reading Ray Bradbury's science fiction classic Fahrenheit 451, which the kids don't seem to hate too much.

One kid came up to me today and said, "I actually like this book, it like has a good story. This is rare, I pretty much hate reading." This was also the kid that yelled, "Holy fucking shit!" when the fire alarm was pulled during class a few weeks ago (which was the exact same thing going through my head).

When my days normally consist of complaining, followed by a little more complaining, it was nice to hear.

Top 40, Part 4

So, this is the last installment of the forty books I'd choose if for some reason I had to (Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3). I must say again, I am terrible at hypothetical situations and I'm still struggling to understand why there could only be forty. But, I didn't write the book this came from, Susan Hill did (nor have I read it). I have decided, though, that there are really only two reasons I'd have to decide on forty- stuck in a nuclear fallout shelter or a prearranged kidnapping by a somewhat kind-hearted bibliophile. So, if I really only could take forty, I think I'd want some that I hadn't read yet, since my bunker or kidnapping cell will probably lack cable or a treadmill. Here are the last ten, all books that I'm praying are great so I'll be adequately entertained while in hypothetical isolation:

31. Let the Great World Spin by Collum McCan: Tightrope walking between the Twin Towers back in 1974 (a novel). Critical praise, award nominations, pretty red cover.

32. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows by J.K. Rowling: I'm assuming that I'll read the sixth one before the world blows up (this is the seventh). I'll probably be so lonely I'll start talking to Harry and Hermione (Ron is sort of annoying, sorry).

33. The Women by T.C. Boyle: Love Boyle (the "C" stands for Coraghessan, which would make sense if you ever saw him read) and Frank Lloyd Wright stories.

34. Antibiotic Resistance: Understanding and Responding to an Emerging Crisis by Karl Drlica: I am really interested in antibiotic resistance given the fact that pediatricians dispense prescriptions like they're free samples at Costco. Don't get me started- let's just say I haven't taken any in years and have gotten over plenty of colds, sinus infections and God knows what else on my own. Although, it probably won't matter, since I'm sure Jim-Bo (my kidnapper) won't take me to the doctor.

35. Between a Rock and a Hard Place by Aron Ralston: This is written by the man from the movie 127 Hours- you know, the guy that cut off his arm when he got stuck in between two large rocks. Yeah, if he can do that I can stick out whatever situation that has called for me to choose only forty books.

36. The Imperfectionists by Tom Rachman: A (supposedly) solid, smart, witty piece of contemporary literature.

37. House of Leaves by Mark Danielewski: This book is a beast and, from what I have heard, incredibly challenging. It's important to not let your mind get mushy, even when the fallout forty feet above you is strong enough to make you bald and sterile in 0.8 seconds.

38. Howard Hughes: The Untold Story by Peter Harry Brown and Pat Broeske: I love a good biography and this one is supposed to be a really interesting take on the fascinating Howard Hughes. Plus the authors concentrate on the womanizing, which will probably be nice since I'll be awfully lonely.

39. Changing My Mind: Occasional Essays by Zadie Smith: Smith is a powerful, dynamic, brilliant author that writes on a variety of topics in these essays. She's opinionated and independent- inspiring both in and out of captivity.

40. Once a Runner by John Parker: This is supposedly the greatest sports novels to ever be written, a motivational story about a guy who becomes a champion. I'm sure it will help me with my small-space calisthenics.

Whose idea was this anyway?

All right, two favorites, folks. I won't judge (scout's honor... yes, I was a Brownie). If you were about to be dropped on an island in the Bermuda Triangle what two books would you insist on? Do it. Now. Pretty please.