The book I choose when I choose to start reading again. Two years. It's a long time. Fifth, sixth time, I choose it because I know the journey it will take me on, and I know the plot but I know the prose much better. I will find in this book the things I need to rearrange things in my mind and find the "one main sound." Sliding into it I suspect the intense changes ahead, but still have no idea; until now, my one main sound has been a private and sacred thing; but every cell of me knows it's time. It's not just mine anymore.
I suppose that being a musician and a mother is part of the experience of this book, but it doesn't have to be. Those two things just assist in scraping flesh off closer to the bone. It's a book that should be for everyone.
04.14.11: Shadow Tag - Louise Erdrich
An okay Erdrich book though nothing like her early work and the trilogy. Follows a painful marriage through to the end. Establishes a Native American context.
04.15.11: Mrs. Darcy and the Blue Eyed Stranger: New and Collected Stories - Lee Smith
Familiar Appalachian voices. Smith's early stuff is better.
04.17.11: Educating Alice: Adventures of a Curious Woman - Alice Steinbach
Former journalist, Steinbach's book is straight ahead prose and follows her world wide pursuit of travel, learning, and writing.
04.18.11: Miss American Pie - Margaret Sartor
Fun! Diary entries from Margaret's coming of age in the 1970s.
04.20.11: Love is a Mix Tape: Life and Loss, One Song at a Time - Rob Sheffield
More fun! Another memoir that refuses chronological order, Sheffield beings each chapter with the tracks of mix tapes he's made over the years. The story weaves the songs together with his life as a rockster writer for RS and his big love for his girlfriend.
04.21.11: Identical Strangers: A Memoir of Twins Separated and Reunited - Elyse Schein and Paula Bernstein
Personal as well as informative the book draws from Lawrence Wright's "Twins, and What They Tell Us About Who We Are."
04.22.11: Twenty Chickens for a Saddle: The Story of an African Childhood - Robyn Scott
Botswana! An extraordinary story extraordinarily written.
04.23.11: Galileo's Daughter - Dava Sobe
Letters to Galileo.
04.23.11: June Bug - Chris Fabry
Light and sweet. A little bit of who-dun-it.
04.25.11: The Translator: A Tribesman's Memoir of Darfur - Daoud Hari
Incredible story of one man's love, passion, and amazing courage.
04.26.11: Life Inside: A Memoir - Mindy Lewis
A young woman's story about her time spent in a mental hospital during her high school years.
04.27.11: 28 Gifts: How a Month of Giving Can Change Your Life - Cami Walker
(DF) Fast, light.
04.27.11: Hamlet's Dresser: A Memoir - Bob Smith
Very sweet story of a man who begins his lifelong career in theater by serving as Hamlet's dresser. Later in life he teaches Shakespeare to hundreds of senior citizens.
04.29.11: You'll Never Nanny in This Town Again: The True Adventures of a Hollywood Nanny - Suzanne Hansen
04.30.11: Private Life - Jane Smiley
Completely pointless and plotless. No resemblance to the author who wrote "Age of Grief" and "A Thousand Acres."
05.04.11: Olive Kitteridge - Elizabeth Strout
Short stories combined to make a novel-like narrative featuring one main character.
05.06.11: Trash - Dorothy Allison
(DF) More from the author of "Bastard Out of Carolina."
05.08.11: Dakota: A Spiritual Journey - Kathleen Norris
05.10.11: Orange is the New Black: My Year in a Women's Prison - Piper Kerman
05.13.11: Sleeping Arrangements - Laura Cunningham
Her childhood raised by two bachelor uncles.
05.18.11: The Razor's Edge - Somerset Maugham
Even though I've seen Bill Murray's version of the film a dozen times I'd never read the book - never did get comfortable with Maugham as narrator. Murray's interpretation as both screenwriter and actor makes this one of the rare times I've enjoyed a movie more than the book.
05.20.11: Somehow Form a Family: Stories That Are Mostly True - Tony Earley
Amazing memoir.
06.07.11: The Distance From the Heart of Things - Ashley Warlick
Re-read. Easily a top contender for one of the best coming of age stories.
06.10.11: Ferris Beach - Jill McCorkle
06.12.11: This Life is in Your Hands - Melissa Coleman
Memoir of back-to-the-land childhood
06.15.11: Black Mountain Breakdown - Lee Smith
Re-reading her novels. Would have like to start with the first one but it's no longer available at the library. Sad.
06.18.11: Carolina Moon - Jill McCorkle
06.21.11: Crash Diet: Stories - Jill McCorkle
06.28.11: Just Kids - Patti Smith
Amazing memoir. Accounts for years spent with Robert Maplethorpe.
07.01.11: Labor Day - Joyce Maynard
07.02.11: The Good Daughters - Joyce Maynard
Both Maynard's a complete and absolute waste of time.
07.05.11: Clear Springs, a Memoir - Bobbie Ann Mason.
07.07.11: In Country - Bobbie Ann Mason
Re-read. Every bit as good all these years later.
07.10.11: Unaccustomed Earth - Jhumpa Lahiri
07.13.11: The Sisters from Hardscraple Bay - Beverly Jensen
07.18.11: A People's History of the United States - Howard Zinn
700 pages of pure enlightenment
08.12.11: Sophie's Choice - William Styron
08.30.11: House of Prayer No. 2 - Mark Richard
Best memoir since Earley's. Fabulous.
09.02.11: Two Kisses for Maddy: A Memoir of Loss and Love - Matthew Logelin
Virginia:
09.12.11: Empire the Summer Moon - S.C. Gwynne
09.17.11: The Art of Racing in the Rain - Garth Stein
First person dog ;)
09.22.11: A Mercy - Toni Morrison
Re-read. Excellent.
09.24.11: For the Time Being - Annie Dillard
Re-read.
09.27.11: Unless - Carol Shields
Ridiculous. DF.
09.28.11: Lost in the Forest - Sue Miller
Already forgotten what it was about. Very unremarkable.
09.30.11: Beloved - Toni Morrison
Re-read, of course.
10.02.11: Drowning Ruth - Christina Schwarz
Re-read. Better the first time.
