2011 Reads

Special Note: I’ve joined GoodReads and all my book reading info is over there. I may decide to publish here later as well. Find me there under the same name: Miss Scarlett!

My poor neglected blog. I completely dropped the last 2 years in the Reads department. 😦

However, now that I work at a library (squeeeee!), I’m reading more and want to update here. It really helps to keep track of favourite (and less favourite) books.

JANUARY

The Postmistress – by Sarah Blake  – F

I had high hopes for this. The subject matter was good, the intro was great, the cover was to my liking, it was recommended by a person I respect. But…I found it only so-so. The narrative definitely lagged for about 2/3rds of the story. Which is far too much.

The story is set in Britain/Europe during the Blitz and the flight of Jews from Europe. It lightly touches on the US reluctance to join the war(at a national level) or to shelter refugees. So lightly it’s almost like a glance. The subject has such searing potential and yet the story never really goes anywhere – despite many false leads (generational guilt, war widows, refugees, the emergence of home gaurds,concentration camps/ghettos – ad nauseum) This is a real shame because the reporter’s recording project was as brilliant as it was harrowing to read/ruminate. But she doesn’t do anything with it in the end. And that is ridiculously anticlimactic.

Perhaps indicative of the books inability to follow anything through, is the title. The Postmistress. This would lead you to think the story will be about the postmistress, would it not? Even though we are introduced to her as The Story, she is not. The radio announcer could be viewed as a postmistress of a kind – but still the book is no more about her than it is any other.

I finished this book sure it would improve and…it didn’t. It reads like a good try and perhaps a made-for-tv movie. Neither of which are enough reason to recommend this.

Side note: There are some inane details included that distract greatly from the story and are of no narrative significance. They include a woman going to a doctor for a certificate of “intactness” because she is thinking of taking a ‘lover’ and another woman who is packing in a hurry who feels/describes a menstrual clot?!? WTH?

The Lampshade: A Holocaust Detective Story from Buchenwald to New Orleans – by Mark Jacobsen  – NF

The horror of Nazi atrocities is well documented. So much so that I accepted as known fact that Nazi madmen made lampshades from people. It was not until reading this book did I learn that these lampshades are much denied and contested — by Jews as well. The abomination of lampshades made from Jewish prisoners seemed a part of our collective subconcious ( I have no idea when I first heard/read of such a thing — it is something I just felt I knew)- a thing of waking nightmares.

This is exactly what the author is confronted with. Definitive proof that the lampshade his friend bought from a ‘dope fiend’ in post-Katrina New Orleans is indeed made from the skin of a human being. “Jew skin” is h0w the seller described it.

The book follows Jacobson’s search for information about this lampshade’s origins, his wrestling with it’s moral, emotional and educational implications, and ultimately his need to find a place where this lampshade belongs.

As disturbing as this was to read at times, I could not put it down. When I wasn’t reading, I was thinking about it or wishing to be reading it. There were times that reading made me feel ill and faintly dizzy – not because it is overly grim or graphic, but it is unflinching in its look at the depths of human depravity and cruelty. I have been inclined to view Nazi (and similar) war acts as insanity{ even earlier in this review I referred to the Nazis as madmen!} but this reading removed a veil for me. Uncomfortably so.

The author also provides a good deal of information about New Orleans, race relations and post Katrina re-settling. The compassion with which he relates the story of the lamphades’ seller is moving and hopeful. He takes us along as he travels from NY, to NO, to Germany and Jerusalem in the search for answers. He meets an array of Holocaust experts — and some notorious deniers.

I found it reassuring that there are so many worldwide continuing to tell the stories of the Holocaust. If we refuse to forget perhaps we can stop it from happening again.

Sidenote: The edition I read had an overlaying dustjacket of a textured vellum that greatly increased the impact of the lampshade (as if it needs that!) on the cover.

Unbearable Lightness – Portia de Rossi  – NF

Wow. What to say about this.

The opening pages feature a desperate PdR prepping her yogurt for the WEEK and giving in and eating it all in one go.
All 6 oz of it people! And the emotional hell she went through for binging on 6 oz of splenda sweetened yogurt is shocking.

When I was reading this I was actually eating a yogurt cup on my work break and looking at it I realized I didn’t even know  how many ounces it was (and still don’t the thing is in grams!), that I had given nearly no thought to an item that she would later reveal made up much of her days off – the search for lo cal, no fat yogurt (I didn’t know it was that hard to find either!) was hard to comprehend.

This book is so well written – it’s suffocating at times. It made my own ‘over’eating disorder clearer to me as I got up pretty darn often to get myself a ‘treat’ to take a break from her self cruelty. Wow. The things she would not only say but WRITE to herself. ‘You are Nothing’ for example.

And she nearly was.

82lbs. How did she survive? For a year (at least) she moved from 130 to 82 to 168  lbs while excercising like  a fiend. It’s an excruciating read.

Thank goodness for the Epilogue. I thought the book would switch part way through to chronicle her recovery – but it wasn’t until the Epilogue that happened.

Be warned, this is not your average Celebrity memoir lessons-learned tome.

I kept wondering how I hadn’t noticed her on Ally McBeal – I clearly remember Calista’s skeletal body, but…I think I must not have been watching by the time she was so thin. Billy’s balding hair was blonde, there were choirs in the bathroom – I just couldn’t really watch after the first 2 seasons. I hate to think that her struggles were so typical that I just shook my head and switched channels (although really, what else could I do?) while this woman self destroyed in front of how many impressionable girls/women? We are way too hard on ourselves and far too fixated on outside appearances.

Master Your Metabolism – Jillian Michaels – NF

Whoa! Information overload!! Excellent book to convince you of the need to STOP eating processed foods. While it tackles some complex endocrine functions and roles of hormones – the book is remains accessible.

There is some over the top advice such as: ‘Throw out all the processed foods in your cupboard/fridge. ‘Sure. If I was made of money I could do that! I mean, my stinkin’ pancake syrup had 3 kinds of sulphites in it — how crazy is that?! I guess I’m going to have to learn to like the taste of maple syrup on pancakes. yuck.

Overall I think this is well worth a read – we should all be learning what we can about the crazy things food corporations have us ingesting every day – and this is one book that helps us to do that.

*In practical terms, I prefer the Master Your Metabolism Cookbook – more succint breakdown of hormones & your metabolic system. Excellent recipes that are as delicious as they are nutritious — and no, I haven’t been paid to write this!

Coop: Michael Perry  – NF

This was a really sweet book told by a father, farmer, writer and husband about his first year on his own farm. It meandered throug h his childhood and young adulthood, but was mainly focused on his year on the farm.

By turns laugh out loud funny, melancholic, heartwarming and overly educational (waaay too much information about machines that cut hay!) this was a happy read.

February

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo: Stieg Larsson  – F

Yeah. I’m probably one of the last people out there to read this and…well…frankly, I think an editor should have done a little more chopping with this tome! I mean, it was well past 333 pages before the two main characters even met. Don’t get me started on the mystery aspect!

Then, once the main storyline was concluded things carried on for another 80 odd pages. Yowza. Well, it did confirm for me that I could not be less interested in international banking or anything related to financial systems. BORRRRING!

I also thought that the characters shared an appallingly casual view of sexual relationships. They made the relationships  feel cold and oddly disconnected.

And yet…I find myself wanting to read the next giant book…and perhaps the third. What’s wrong with me??