Challenge Update

Only went for the Bronze Medal on this one, which is a good thing. Because I have yet to even pick a book. Although I'm leaning toward "The Shipping News" by Annie Proux. I'll have to get busy because this one ends December 31st and it would be embarrassing not to be able to finish.

Have my books all picked out and numbered for this one and have figured out that I will start with Doris Kearns Goodwin's "Wait 'Til Next Year." But haven't even started reading yet.

And here is where I really get embarrassed! I had such high hopes for completing this challenge. I had six great books picked out; I even owned all six of them so no trips to the library or bookstore were required. How have I done? One read, "The Red Tent," and the deadline is December 1st.

I did finish the "Everything Austen" challenge. But I almost feel like I cheated on that one. I ended up with eight things finished but only two of them were books. That just doesn't seem right!

What I've learned about challenges: challenges and review books do not always mesh well! I've been so excited about being offered books to review that I've been unable to get to the books that I already own or the books I need to read for challenges. In the coming year, I'm really hoping to find the right balance. Which will be necessary because I've still got the Random Reading Challenge to carry into 2010 and I've signed up for the All About The Brontes challenge and The Michener Challenge.

I'm eager to host a challenge and have an idea for one that would start the first of the year. At this point, I have to decide if I have the time to put it together and run it. And to find out if there's any interest. Any Gilmore Girls fans out there?

Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout

Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout
304 pages
Published September 2008 by Random House
Source: purchased

In this Pulitzer-prize winning novel (actually it's a collection of short stories), Strout explores the life of Olive Kitteridge, a retired middle school math teacher who is the kind of person that people avoid in her small town of Crosby. Olive was not a perfect neighbor, not a perfect wife and certainly not a perfect mother. She is abrasive, outspoken, and not in the least able to communicate well with anyone in her life. Her husband, Henry, was the town pharmacist until a big chain moved into town and Henry was beloved by everyone. Her son, Christopher, does everything he can to avoid his mother after he's an adult. But somehow, in some way, Strout is able to convince us that Olive is someone we should call about.

As a mother, Olive admits that she made mistakes but she says that she loved her son and believes that she raised him in a way so that he always knew that. She has had her own issues growing up that make the reader understand why she is the way she is, so you can understand why she might have been a cold mother. But Christopher remembers things differently. As readers, we are not given a full picture of the past so that we never reach a point where we can judge either party.

In some of the stories, Olive is something of a ship passing in the night; the reader almost misses her presence in the story. In others, she is a peripheral player. It was in those stories that I felt like Strout gave us glimpses of Olive that made her a more bearable person, such as the story where she sits in a car with a suicidal young man and just talks to him until he begins to doubt his choice. And when Olive takes her revenge on her brand new daughter-in-law, readers may just think that it was the most brilliant and realistic piece of revenge they've ever read and justifiable.

Throughout the book, Strout deals with issues of love, marriage and infidelity in all of it's guises as she writes about the people in the town of Crosby that cross paths with Olive. There are cases of unfulfilled extramarital love, a case of infidelity discovered in a seemingly happy marriage of decades, and a case of infidelity in a marriage where one person has given up on the physical relationship. Strout never passes judgement; she puts these situations out for the reader to consider.

My book club read this for our November selection and everyone liked this book. There is a lot here to discuss and I do recommend it for book clubs.

The Secret of Joy by Melissa Senate

The Secret of Joy by Melissa Senate
352 pages
Published November 2009 by Simon and Shuster (Downtown Press)
Source: ARC from publisher

Rebecca's life seemed to be a track for a happily-ever-life. She has a great job as a paralegal, is dating one of the firm's partners, lives in a wonderful condo and has a terrific dad. But things aren't always what they seem. As "The Secret of Joy" opens, Rebecca has serious concerns about where her relationship with Michael is headed and her father's battle with pancreatic cancer is about over. Then Rebecca's father makes a startling deathbed confession. Twenty-four years ago, he had a daughter by another woman. He has never seen the child nor spoken to the mother since the day she called to say the baby had been born. But, he tells Rebecca, there is a stash of letters to the daughter in a safe deposit box and he would like Rebecca to read them.

When Rebecca's father passes away, she is left adrift and can't help but think that she needs to meet her half-sister. Thanks to the internet, the sister turns out to be easy to find. Rebecca hops in a car and sets off to Maine to met her half-sister.

But Joy, who operates a singles tour bus, isn't in the least bit happy to see Rebecca. But she does invite Rebecca along for a weekend tour and as Rebecca spends time with Joy and the ladies on the tour, she learns as much about herself as she does about her sister.

Senate explores relationships of all kinds in "The Secret of Joy," father/daughter, sibling, love. It's a fun, light look that takes the time to dig a little deeper than the usual novel of this type. But, of course, there's always room to add in the hunky local. I've never read any Melissa Senate before, but I know she has a huge following and I can definitely understand the appeal. I'll look for more of her works when I need that book that you know will end with the characters having learned something and having made a better life for themselves.

Thanks to Sarah Reidy and Pocket Book Blog Tours for the chance to read this book.

Sunday Salon - November 16

I know, I know--it's not Sunday...again. But I was so wrapped up in football and AMC's "The Prisoner" that I just couldn't tear myself away from the television long enough to get on the computer.

I first found out about AMC's mini-series of "The Prisoner" one evening when I was channel surfing and came across episodes of the original television program "The Prisoner" on IFC. I had to watch the episodes. It was a flashback to my childhood. My dad and I watched it together when it was on in tv in 1967 to 1968. It certainly doesn't seem like the kind of show a kid would watch, but there were only four channels in those days and none of them catered to children's programming in the evening, only family shows. We also watched "All In The Family" and "I, Spy" with Bill Cosby and Robert Culp.
My dad read to my siblings and me at bedtime. I remember us as always sitting in the hall; I have no idea why we didn't sit on the sofa except that the hall spot was right by our bedrooms. In particular, I remember Mark Twain's "Tom Sawyer" and "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn." My dad didn't just read the books to us, he performed them. Which must have been quite a feat with three little bodies pressed in against yours.

I've mentioned that my dad is an avid reader. He is also a tremendous lover of music. All kinds of music. So that while classical music was on the car radio almost exclusively when he could find it, I also remember listening to "Woodstock" on our console stereo and one night being allowed to fall asleep on the living room sofa listening to The Chambers Brothers' "The Time Has Gone." It seems an odd choice in retrospect, but I remember it being very soothing.

As the holidays approach, I always find myself thinking of the past. At Thanksgiving, in particular, I am grateful for the very normal upbringing I was given along with the twists that made our life uniquely our own.