DNF: The Girl with Glass Feet

The Girl with Glass Feet

I do not normally abandon books. I will stick it out to the bitter end, even if I know I’m going to hate a book. I’ve always had admiration for those who have a rule that if they aren’t enjoying a book 50 or so pages in they stop and move on to something else.

Today, I declared The Girl with Glass Feet a DNF (Did Not Finish).

I made it 43 pages.

I didn’t want to give this up for a few reasons. First, I want to make it to 100 books this year, and I need to get reading. I figured I’d already invested some time, so to give up would be a waste. Plus, I already had it checked out from the library, I should just finish it. Then I realized that I was actually just wasting reading time, since it was going to take me forever to finish a book I just didn’t care about.

So why didn’t I care about it? Well, it’s outside the type of books I normally read. It has magical or fantasy elements, which isn’t what I normally go for – not that I’m against those things. They just aren’t my go to books.

Second, it’s about a girl that needs saving. This always makes me pause. Them, when we meet said girl, she’s rather…boring. BUT! The guys all luuuuuuuurrrvvvvvvvvvveeeee her.

When I came to the third guy mooning over her, her kindly “uncle” who was also in love with her now-deceased mom, I had to stop. Especially when his introductory chapter ends with him visiting the dead mother’s grave and kissing her tombstone. Enough!

Back to the library it goes.

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Literary Blog Hop

This month I'm participating in the Literary Blog Hop hosted by The Blue Bookcase!

This monthly blog hop is open to blogs that primarily feature book reviews of literary fiction, classic literature, and general literary discussion.

This month's discussion question is:
To what extent do you analyze literature? Are you more analytical in your reading if you know you're going to review the book? Is analysis useful in helping you understand and appreciate literature, or does it detract from your readerly experience?

I like to think that I analyze what I read. I mean, I'm not back in AP English, writing a full analysis of a book, covering themes, motifs, symbols, syntax, etc, but I do try to touch on those elements as they jump out at me.

My focus lately has been to analyze books from a feminist/social justice perspective. I'm less concerned with pointing out the technical merit of a work than I am with wondering what that work says about our culture and society. One of the values in blogging is that I can add my voice and perspective to the myriad others out there. While I am not (by far!) the only blogger with a feminist viewpoint, it seems that I can add to an understanding of books through my analyzing them.

Am I more analytical when I know I'm going to review a book? Maybe. If I'm not reviewing a book or discussing it at a book club, there's no real need for me to fully form my thoughts and argue for a position. That's another reason I like blogging - I'm currently without a book club, and the hubby can only nod his head and say "Unh-huh" so many times before I give up. Not that I blame him. He's never been a reader.

Being critical of a book does help me enjoy it. I want to engage in the text. Every now and then I get a wild hair to read something decidedly non-literary. Maybe my grandma's left a Nora Roberts book at my place and I pick it up. I get about halfway through I literally start to feel ill. It's like I've gorged on candy and made myself sick. Of course, I keep going! I rarely abandon a book. (I do not judge those who choose to read Nora Roberts. To each their own. Just read!)

So, are you an analyze-er?

I Want a Kitty

By Peter Steiner

Or a puppy. Well, a dog (adoption only, please!). Puppies are too much work and as much as I think kitties are adorbs, they make me sneeze something fierce. I'm willing to try allergy shots, but I'm afraid they won't work, and I'll suffer. Argh. I'd really like to snuggle up with my book and my little furbaby, reading and scritching ears simultaneously.

It's been over two years since I lost my Delilah, and I still miss her. I think I'm finally ready for another dog, but my life is so unsettled right now that I can't see fitting a dog into it. Hopefully soon things will settle down and I can see about making a family addition.

Do you have a favorite reading companion?

Me, post surgery, snuggling with Delilah

On Libraries

When I was living in Brooklyn, I used the public library a lot. The Brooklyn Public Library has an amazing selection. I've been working on reading books from every country in the world, and I could usually find what I was looking for at BPL. My local branch was a 3 minute walk from my apartment, and there was another branch about a mile away. If I couldn't find what I wanted at either of those locations, I just put in a request and within a few days The Map of Love was on its way to me (& can be on its way to you through that affiliate link!).

Unfortunately, I am no longer in Brooklyn. I graduate from law school and am now jobless. I moved back to Florida to do a temporary post-graduate fellowship. I'll take the Florida bar exam in February, and hopefully I'll eventually be able to find a job in one state or the other.

Fortunately, there is a library very close to where I live (which is also very close to my fellowship placement). Unfortunately, the selection is rather... uninspiring. I hear about all these great books on twitter or on book blogs, and I want to read them. I check at the library, and they aren't there. I try to tell myself that this is to be expected. I live in a small town that skews toward Nora Roberts and James Patterson readers. My tastes are a bit more eclectic.

However, I need to stop complaining. You know why? At least I have a library very close to me. And they may not have everything I want, but they still have books. This is the stack I currently have checked out:

My current library loot

That's Toni Morrison's A Mercy on audiobook, both Persepolis volumes by Marjane Satrapi, Anya's Ghost by Vera Brosgol (another graphic novel), Ali Shaw's The Girl with Glass Feet, and Mr. Fox, Helen Oyeyemi's newest book.

Yes, I did have to request some of these from other branches. Yes, the hold system is clunky and outdated. But the books came in quickly, and the librarian actually called me and told me when they came in. How cute!

Speaking of the librarians, they are just so darn nice. As much as I loved the BPL, the librarians I encountered were, well, Not Nice. Have you read A Tree Grows in Brooklyn? Remember the librarian who never looked up at Francie, even though she checked out a book every day? Yeah. I think the current BPL librarians are her direct descendants.

And finally, you can't beat the view from the second floor reading area of my library. Gorgeous!

The Intracoastal Waterway

Anya's Ghost

Anya's Ghost

Anya's Ghost
Written & Illustrated by Vera Brosgol

Anya's Ghost is a typical story of a high school girl struggling to fit in. Anya's ashamed of how her Russian immigrant heritage makes her stand out, of her thick thighs, of not having a boyfriend (or many friends at all). You might guess what makes it a bit different - the ghost of a dead girl named Emily.

Emily's been dead for over ninety years, stuck in the bottom of a well, just waiting for someone to find her. When Anya trips and falls down the same well, it seems like Emily has found her saving grace.

But Anya, being a rather selfish teenager, is mainly interested in how Emily can help her cheat on tests and get the guy she wants. Emily is happy to help, as she never really got to live a teenager's life before she died.

Things take a bit of a sinister turn when Emily decides that she really likes hanging out with Anya and living through her. I admit, I was a little creeped out at some of the illustrations. I won't post them, so if you read this you'll be surprised by them like I was.

Overall, I thought this was a fun, quick read. It has some mature themes (after all, the characters are in high school) so it's not a "comic book" for young kids.

Here's an interview with Brogol, with some additional examples of her illustration work. I was interested that she said she draws men all day at her day job, which is one reason she likes drawing women on her own time. I'm glad she had the opportunity to draw Anya and her friends, and get paid for it!

And finally, a book trailer for Anya's Ghost. No transcript necessary, as all the words are on the screen. I do recommend turning off the sound if you're viewing this at work. Not that anyone browses blogs at work, right?

Review: The North of God

The North of God

The North of God
Steve Stern

I started reading this little novella not really knowing what to expect. Melville House, the publisher, sent me this book back in August as part of a prize pack for participating in the Art of the Novella challenge. This is part of their (defunct? I can’t find anything on their website) Contemporary Art of the Novella series. It’s the third one that I’ve read, and all three have made me want to do their authors’ taxes, at least for the year. I remember briefly glancing at the blurb – something about Stern writing fantastical Yiddish based tales – and figured I’d like it. I didn't know it was going to morph into a Holocaust tale. Nothing wrong with that, but I wish I'd had a little warning (so I'm making sure you get one).

And I did like it. The first part was definitely a tale like none I’d read before. A “marriage” to a piece of furniture leads Herschel, a gifted Talmudic scholar, to abandon his studies and his intended bride to immerse himself in the earthly (or other-worldly) pleasures of an insatiable succubus.

The second part took a sickeningly horrific turn, to the area “to the North of God, where his jurisdiction no longer held sway.”

Velvl, a minor character in part one – takes over the narrative. He’s in a packed cattle car, standing in bodily waste, on his way to an unnamed concentration camp, telling Herschel’s story to a young mother and her child. Velvl is intent on keeping the pair entranced for as long as it takes to get to their ultimate destination.

He weaves ever more outrageous tales of how Herschel lived out the remainder of his days. Velvl’s imaginings are blasphemous, sacrilegious, darkly comic. His update on Purim, the Old Testament story in the book of Esther, is a raucous example.

The North of God is about the power or stories, or words, but also about their limitations. Because no matter how moving, a story by itself can take us only so far.

October in Review

The beginning of the October started off fine, as I finished a few books I started in September. Then  came the dreaded audiobook. Maybe it was a coincidence, but after finally finishing Sidney Poitier's The Measure of a Man, I lost all of my reading momentum. I found I was in the midst of a serious slump. I couldn't concentrate on reading anything remotely taxing. I had a hard time even concentrating on great, insightful posts by my favorite bloggers. 

So what did I do? I started another audiobook. I fell in love with it after ten minutes, and I am comfortable declaring to the world that THE SLUMP IS OVER!!! YAY!!! 

Celebration of Light

I'm almost done with the audiobook, and I read two novellas from Melville House's Contemporary Art of the Novella series (Customer Service and The North of God). Both were four star reads. 

Of course, I need to get through some books if I'm going to have any content this month. In the NaNoWriMo spirit, I've committed to blogging every day for the month of November. No, it's not a novel, but it is a commitment to my writing.

My October reading breakdown:
6 books total
4 fiction                      67%
2 nonfiction                33%
1 female authors        17%
1 work in translation 17%

Those statistics are pretty unusual for me. I normally have a much higher percentage of female authors. However, as I mentioned, two of the books I read are from the Contemporary Art of the Novella series, which is very male dominated. In fact, I want to check and see if there is even one female author. I've got a post brewing about that subject that I'm sure will come out during this month of blogging.