Booking Through Thursday: Location, Location

Where do you do most of your reading? Do you have a favorite spot?

I can read just about anywhere: in bed, sitting/lying on the couch, in a chair, waiting for the doctor, standing in line, sitting in my car at a drive thru, riding in the car on a long trip, in the park, and the list goes one. The majority of my reading time is well divided between various parts of my house, and it's hard to pinpoint which gets more use than another. I like to stretch out on the couch on a rainy or sunny day with the blinds in the sun room opened. I like to lay in bed, lying any which way, sometimes snuggled deep under the covers. And I enjoy curling up in the home office armchair or even in the chair in front of my computer. I have even been known to pick a spot on the floor and read from there (I just have to be careful that my dog is in a napping mood or else he will want to play, which means a book won't long be in my hand).

At the office, I have a favorite armchair that I like to sit and read in during my lunch break (when I get one) that is sort of hidden behind the breakroom door. There are times when I prefer going to sit in my car to read, especially if the weather is nice or if it's raining out.

My absolute favorite reading spot is one from my childhood . . . my family used to go camping in the mountains every summer, sometimes even several times during the summer holidays. My mom, dad, and I would load up the library books and spend our days at the picnic table or lying in lounge chairs reading (my brother was more apt to be out exploring the wilderness). I loved being surrounded by forests of trees and in the fresh mountain air. On rainy days, we would all huddle in the tent and read with the thunder roaring around us. It was heaven. I sometimes think about planning a similar vacation, maybe renting a cabin in the mountains by a lake and plan to do nothing but read . . .

Once Upon a Time 2007 Challenge

I most likely will not be online for the next several months in hopes of staying on top of all these reading challenges I seem to have gotten myself involved in (who am I kidding?). As much as I should avoid joining in another one at all costs (after all, I do have a full-time job to attend to and a husband and animals that want to share my attention on occasion), I seem to have gotten myself tangled in the web of a spell--this one cast by Carl V. of Stainless Steel Droppings. What is the expression about the eyes being bigger than the appetite?

Once Upon a Time…all the great ones begin that way, don’t they? At least in our recollection? Hearkening back to childhood, those four words represent the foundation upon which story is built. In that same way, these four types of story, Mythology, Folklore, Fairytale, and Fantasy, form the very foundation of storytelling itself. It is from the roots of these genres that our latest challenge grows.

Carl offers four quests to participants (there is the option to participate in more than one if desired):

Quest One: Read at least 5 books from any of the 4 genres.
Quest Two: Read at least one book from each of the four genres of story-Mythology, Folklore, Fairytale, and Fantasy.
Quest Three: Read at least one book from each of the four genres of story, and finish up the challenge with a June reading of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
Quest Four: Read at least one book from the four genres.

For further details about the challenge, please visit Stainless Steel Droppings.

After careful consideration and discussion with Anjin over what books fit into which categories, I decided to take on Quest Two.

Fairytale - The Fire Rose by Mercedes Lackey [read 06/09/2007]

Fantasy - A Wizard of the Earthsea by Ursula Le Guin [read 04/07/2007]

Folklore - Mythago Wood by Robert Holdstock [read 05/04/2007]

Mythology - American Gods by Neil Gaiman [read 04/21/2007]

Let the adventure begin!

Dust Covered Dreams by E.A. Graham

Dust Covered Dreams by E.A. Graham
Iomam, 2006
Fiction; 249 pgs

Started: 03/10/2007
Completed: 03/11/2007
Rating: (Good)

First Sentence: The ten o’clock curfew passed as the tired woman waited patiently for her fifteen year old son, gently wringing her worn hands.

Reason for Reading: I selected this book to review for Curled Up With a Good Book.

Comments: Do not be discouraged in reading this book based on the first sentence or even the first paragraph. While the writing leaves a little something to be desired, at times too heavy in descriptors, the story itself makes this book worth reading and those little idiosyncrasies fade away as the reader gets pulled into the story--and you will get pulled into the lives of these well drawn and complex characters. The novel is the perfect length and the story moves along at such a pace that keeps the reader engaged and interested. It is full of unexpected twists and events, keeping the reader turning pages to find out what happens next.

The novel opens as Teresa Zapata sits waiting for her 15-year-old son to come home. Gabriel is out for a night on the town with his 19-year-old friend, Jose. The two boys are on their way to a party in a well-to-do neighborhood, a much different environment than the one they come from. A set of tragic events begin to unfold when the two boys are pulled over by the police, guns drawn.

Gabriel is a decent boy, dreaming of a better life for himself. He wants nothing more than to go to go to college and make something of himself. He is the youngest of four children. His oldest brother, Don, is an aspiring businessman whose feet are rooted to the ground; his brother Frank is falling from the good path after losing his dream of pursing a career in the military; and then there is Mary, an intelligent young woman with a big heart who will do anything to protect her family. Their mother, Teresa, worries about her children and their future.

The Zapata family lives on the wrong side of the tracks in the Coachella Valley, in a desert city called Indio. Poverty is a way of life; families struggle and dream for more. On the other side, in a more prominent and well-to-do part of the valley, lives the Anderson family. Judge Anderson is a powerful and influential man with political ambitions for his young son and namesake, Mark Anderson III. Mark’s mother, Sarah Anderson, is a woman going through the motions. There is Skip Anderson, Mark’s older brother, who is drowning but does not seem to know it. And then there is Mark, an ambitious attorney who seeks power and yet finds himself wondering at what cost that will come.

The two families are inexplicably linked. Their fates tied together.

Author E.A. Graham has created a powerful and haunting story about these two families, who struggle to survive each in their own way. The Zapatas want a better life for themselves. The Anderson’s seek power and to maintain what they have. Each of them dreams for something more, however right or wrong.

The novel takes readers deep into the heart of both families, touching upon moral issues, justice, and family. Dust Covered Dreams taps into issues such as racism and classism and the strength of the human spirit. It is a story of perseverance and hope. It is all these things and more. Both thought provoking and entertaining, Dust Covered Dreams is worth reading. Originally published on Curled Up With A Good Book at www.curledup.com. © Wendy Runyon, 2007

Favorite Part: I think what most drew me to this novel in the first place, why I selected to review it for Curled Up With a Good Book, was the setting. Although I do not live in the Coachella Valley, it is at most an hour’s drive away from where I live now. It is a part of the area I am familiar with and feel attached to.

My favorite scene in the novel was Teresa’s visit to the ice cream parlor for a strawberry milkshake, as she sits and watches the strangers go by. I knew then what would come next, but that wasn’t the reason that scene stuck out for me. It was a moment of peace for a weary and worried mother.

Note about the Author: Check out the author's website.

Miscellaneous: : I had to get up early this morning despite being up late last reading and it being a weekend day because the cable person is supposed to come by. Between 8 a.m. and 12 p.m. Although I do not actually expect anyone to come until closer to noon, I still cannot help but be up and dressed and wide awake in case he does show up much earlier than that. My husband, of course, is still snuggled up warm in bed. I shouldn’t blame it entirely on the cable company though. Wasn’t it my adorable early bird of a cat who tried to get me out of bed at 5 this morning? Why doesn’t he ever try to wake up my husband instead? Doesn’t he deserve a turn?

We watched Mrs. Henderson Presents last night, which I thought was good overall. Anjin talked me into watching a Japanese anime series called Witch Hunter Robin, which is proving to be interesting, although a bit on the slow side.

I finished reading Monica Pradhan's novel, The Hindi-Bindi Club, which I very much enjoyed. I will post my thoughts on the book closer to the publication date in May.

Bookfool over at Bookfoolery and Babble nominated me for the Thinking Blogger Award. I was very surprised--pleasantly so! It is nice to be recognized and praised, something I think we all deserve now and then. There are so many terrific blogs out there, and several I follow regularly (thanks to Bloglines). Each one has something to offer me, whether it be a great recommendation, inspiration, a laugh, a cry or a pause for thought. I have met some wonderful people in the blogging community. I haven't quite decided who to nominate. I have never been very good at narrowing the choices down and five seems like such a tiny number when I think of how many of you are deserving of recognition for your blogs.

Booking Through Thursday: Keeping It Short

Booking Through Thursday

Short Stories? Or full-length novels?
I am a full-length novel sort of woman. I do read short stories now and then but not very often. I find that short stories frequently leave me dissatisfied, although occasionally I find a diamond among the rough so to speak. Most often, a short story is not quite long enough for me to sink my teeth into and just when I feel like I am settling in with it, the story comes to an end. A full length novel lends itself better to character development and growth, I have found. Of course, there are always exceptions.

Sometimes all I want is something quick to fill the time without having to start a full length novel. If the short story is by a favorite author of mine, I always jump at the chance to read what they've written regardless of length.

And, what's your favorite source for short stories?
Most of the short stories I read come in anthologies, either a compilation of one author's work or that of many. For a short while I subscribed to a couple of short story journals like Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine and Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine, however, they piled up so fast without me reading them that I ended up canceling my subscriptions.

Wickett's Remedy by Myla Goldberg

Wickett’s Remedy by Myla Goldberg
Doubleday, 2005
Fiction (historical); 326 pgs

Started: 03/11/2007
Completed: 03/18/2007
Rating: (Good)


First Sentence: On D Street there was no need for alarm clocks: the drays, ever punctual, were an army storming the gates of sleep.

Where Book Came From: My husband gave me the book as a Christmas gift in 2005.

Reason for Reading: Wickett’s Remedy is my third selection for the 2007 TBR Challenge.

From the Publisher: Wickett's Remedy is an epic but intimate novel about a young Irish-American woman facing down tragedy during the Great Flu epidemic of 1918.

Wickett's Remedy leads us back to Boston in the early part of the 20th century and into the world of Lydia, an Irish-American shop girl yearning for a grander world than the cramped confines of South Boston. She seems to be well on her way to the life she has dreamed of when she marries Henry Wickett, a shy medical student and the scion of a Boston Brahmin family. Soon after their wedding, however, Henry shocks Lydia by quitting medical school and creating a mail-order patent medicine called Wickett's Remedy. And then just as the enterprise is getting off the ground, the Spanish Influenza epidemic of 1918 begins its deadly sweep across the world, drastically changing their lives.

In a world turned almost unrecognizable by swift and sudden tragedy, Lydia finds herself working as a nurse in an experimental ward dedicated to understanding the raging epidemic, through the use of human subjects.

Meanwhile, we follow the fate of Henry's beloved Wickett's Remedy as his one-time business partner steals the recipe and transforms it into QD Soda, a wildly popular soft drink.

Comments: In 1918 America joined the war in Europe while an epidemic of the Spanish Influenza spread throughout the United States and eventually other parts of the world. Over twenty million people worldwide are believed to have died as a result of the illness. Hospitals were overflowing and doctors and nurses were in short supply. Scientists and medical professionals were perplexed the exact cause of the illness and reasons why it was spreading so rapidly. Attempts to find the answers were made through human experiments, one of which involved testing on American war criminal volunteers on Gallups Island (now named Gallops Island). This type of testing raised all sorts of ethical questions, including for Lydia who at first did not fully understand what she was getting herself into.

Lydia’s inner strength and quiet determination followed her throughout her life. Wickett’s Remedy is her story as well as the story of the eventual fate of the title’s namesake, the actual remedy.

The author uses an interesting technique in telling the two stories: one through narration, following the life of Lydia, and the other through letters and brochures of sorts that offer a glimpse into the fate of Wickett's Remedy itself. The latter comes almost as afterthoughts at the end of each chapter. Occasionally there are entire conversations between unknown characters at the end of chapters, whose purpose becomes clearer as the story unfolds. There is also the occasional newspaper editorial about the Spanish Influenza.

Myla Goldberg finds a balance between the serious and the comedic in her novel, taking a difficult subject and making it easy for readers to digest. It took a short while before the novel really took off, and at first I was confused about the time period shifts in the two stories.

Wickett’s Remedy is quite different in style and story from the author’s first novel, Bee Season, which I read a year and a half ago. However, it is interesting to note that in reviewing my journal entry for Bee Season written so long ago, I find that my general impressions of the books are quite similar: the slow start, the pieces of the story coming together and winning me over, and the questions that remained in the end. I did enjoy Wickett’s Remedy overall.

Favorite Part: I was afraid I would skip over the margin notes (the voices of the dead), and in fact did a couple of times, however, they were perhaps among my favorite part of the story. They added personality to the book and at times comic relief.

Several scenes come to mind when I think of my favorites: Lydia volunteering at the hospital, the interview with Mr. Cory, the hallway discussion with Percy Cole, and the late night encounter on the island.

Character wise, I was quite fond of Lydia’s oldest brother, Mick, and Lydia herself, who proved to a courageous and generous woman. She wasn’t an aggressive person, however pursued what she wanted in a quiet sort of way, which somehow made her seem vulnerable and yet strong. She is someone I would not mind having as a friend if she were a real person.

Note about the Author: The author, Myla Goldberg, is not only a published author, but also a musician. She plays the banjo and the accordion in the band The Walking Hellos.

Miscellaneous: Anjin and I finally are all caught up with the tv show Heroes. That last episode before the break is a doozy! I hate that I have to wait until near the end of April to see what happens next.

We have three movies waiting to be watched from Netflix: Babel, Mrs. Henderson Presents and Flags of Our Fathers. I am not sure when we will get to them as neither of us seems to be in a movie watching mood these days.