Words for Wednesday: Blood Meridian

Right now in book club we are reading Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy.  It is a great book, even made the Time Magazine list of 100 best books written in the English Language from 1922-2005.  But oh man is it a book that takes forever to read.  It is filled with tons and tons of run-on sentences and is very similar to reading Faulkner.  If I were in uni I am sure this book would really have me going, but with my current life of job and baby, it is slow going.  However, I still reccommend it if you have time at work or are looking for a slight challenge.

Here is what Wiki says about the book, as far as a plot summary...

The majority of the narrative follows a teenager referred to only as "the kid," with the bulk of the text devoted to his experiences with the Glanton gang, a historical group of scalp hunters who massacred Native Americans and others in the United States–Mexico borderlands from 1849 to 1850 for bounty, pleasure, and eventually out of sheer compulsion. The role of antagonist is gradually filled by Judge Holden, a large, intelligent man depicted as entirely devoid of body hair and philosophically emblematic of the eternal and all-encompassing nature of war.

I will say that this book definitely opens up my mind to how bad people in the west literally had it in when settling America.  This is the complete opposite of the Little House books and can be hard to read due to its frank depictions of violence and suffering.  While reading the first part of this book I had a horrible cold and cough and I could really "feel" the scenes where the boy and a friend were wandering through the dessert.

I will also add that this book opened my mind to the idea of Mexicans fighting with Native Americans.  I mean, it should be obvious that of course the Mexicans had skirmishes with native peoples, but for some reason that whole idea had never entered my mind before.  I must also say that it is interesting to read this book and see the Mexicans as the ones with civilization while the Americans of the west are considered an unorganized, uncivilized bunch.

I haven't finished the book but just thought I would bring it up in case anyone is looking to flesh out their summer reading list.  It is a hard book, but really the type of thing that is good for me to read once in awhile.  I am ashamed at how lazy the world has become in regards to language.  Our vocabulary is becoming extinct and there is no excuse for me to be having to look up two words from every page on this book (I wouldn't go through the trouble but on the kindle you just highlight the word and the meaning comes up).

Words for Wednesday: The Roads to Sata

For book club last month we read one of my new favorites, The Roads to Sata by Alan Booth.  It is about a British man who walked from the northern most tip of Hokkaido to the southern most tip of Kyushuu in the 70's.  Though the book rambles a bit it is a great read for anyone who has been living in Japan for awhile as it is easy to relate to a lot of the experiences.

One of the most exciting parts for me was the fact that he walked through Tsuyama and Ochiai, the towns I call home.  Though he only talks about them for about half of a page, it is interesting to get his take on them.

As a group I think the book club felt that the author came off as pretty grumpy.  He complains a lot about Japanese children chasing him and calling out in weird English and also about Japanese adults who won't talk to him even when he is speaking perfect Japanese.  Though we have all felt those frustrations, and can only imagine how walking miles and miles would make those feelings escalate, we also felt that he could have left the negativity out of the book somewhat.

The book is great for showing sides of Japan that most people don't see.   The author definitely knows his stuff when it comes to history and Japanese legend, and he introduced me to many tourist destinations I had never heard of.

I am not sure how I would feel about the book if I had never lived in Japan.  Some people in the book club thought it might be a turn off.  Though the man is a bit short fused with the people he comes in contact with, I think it makes the Japanese people come off as interesting and unique.  Though the book has too many encounters to remember specific characters, I remember vividly certain comments.  For the most part the Japanese people  in the book come off as kind and welcoming.

I let a friend borrow it or otherwise I would quote it.  I guess you'll just have to read for yourself.

Words for Wednesday: No Angel and Something Dangerous

I finished King Rat but will wait to talk about it after we discuss it at book club.  I must say it did not go where I thought it would go and though it felt a bit long at times, it was a good read and definitely opened me up to a side of the war I hadn't thought about before.

Last Sunday I started Something Dangerous by Penny Vincenzi.  This was a book that I had picked up by chance at a second hadn't bookstore only to find out it is the sequel to one of my favorite books, No Angel. 



The first book follows Celia Beckanham and her marriage to Oliver Lytton from the early 1900's through to the 1920's.  Though Celia comes from a well to do family she isn't deterred by the fact that Oliver's family are from the working class.  They own a publishing house which Celia soon joins, much to the horror of her blue-blooded family.  Balancing children and work, Celia slowly becomes a woman in her own and develops opinions about the world that she wouldn't have if she had married rich and become a house wife.  With the start of WWI most of the men go off to war leaving Celia and her sister-in-law, LM, to run the business.  Due to the struggles of trying to publish in a time of thrift, the women take chances with publishing different types of material, and the men return to find a very different publishing house.

Added to all of this are numerous side stories of affairs and family secrets.  We also get to watch the children of the family grow up, as well as the adopted child Barty that Celia rescues (or steals, depending on which characters you identify with) from poverty.  The book is long but I remember reading it quickly and feeling a bit disappointed when it finally ended.

So I am thrilled to have found Something Dangerous which picks up in 1928 with the Lytton children having grown up and with Celia and Oliver coming into their twilight years.  I have just started but am already hooked.  According to the bio from the book, Penny Vincenzi used to write for magazines like Vogue and Cosmopolitan before becoming an author, and I find that she is able to strike a fine balance between a romance novel and a historical one.   I feel like her female characters are strong and overcome the obstacles that women faced before feminism became popular.  At the same time they make mistakes and sacrifices, which makes them rateable and real.

I recommend both books and am looking forward to tracking down the third, Into Temptation.

Words for Wednesday: Tomorrow When the War Began and King Rat

As I mentioned before, we have started a book club in Maniwa.  The group is made up of about 9 foreign teachers and one Japanese friend of mine.  We are meeting once a month to select and discuss a book.  The point of the club is to get us to open our minds to books we might normally read as well as to let people share stuff that they are into.

The first selection, Tomorrow When the War Began, was not exactly the type of book I normally pick up but it was a good read.  It is a young adult novel, and that might discourage some from reading it, but apart from a few "love trianlges" I think it is can suffice for an adult reader.  It is just as interesting as The Hunger Games.

Anyway, the book takes place in Australia and is about a group of teens who go camping one week only to return to find that their hometown has been taken over by a foreign army (in the first book it is hinted at where the intruders are from, but we don't get any straight answers).  Their families are being held in a POW camp at some local fairgrounds.  The teens then have to decide whether they will surrender, fight, or go back to the campsite they have spent the past week at.

I saw a member from book club last weekend and he expressed how he loved the idea and wished it had been written with adult characters.  I think the characters are old enough in the book for it to be relatable, but I wish that we had gotten more specifics on why the invasion took place and where the invadors are from.  It is hard in this current reality for me to imagine anyone wanting to invade Australia.  Or, maybe more so, anyone having the strength and numbers to invade Australia.

I haven't read too many Aussie books and I enjoyed learning some new vocab as well as learning about farm country in that part of the world.  It actually reminded me a lot of home- especially with the fairgrounds since those are things we have in Iowa.

The book has been made into a movie but it has gotten bad reviews.  Still, I think it would be fun to watch.  There are also two sequels to the book and though I don't think I will get to them, I imagine they have the answers I felt were missing in the first book.

The second book we are reading for book club is King Rat.  It is written by James Clavell.  Though I have never read any of his other books, I am familiar with his work because he is quite popular among expats in Japan- especially the guys.  He wrote the novels Shogun, Gai-jin, and Tai-pan. 

King Rat takes place in a POW camp in Singapore run by the Japanese.  The characters are British, American, Aussie, Korean, and Japanese which is interesting since those are some of the nationalities represented in our group.  So far it is reading like a lot of other war books I have read (or POW books) and though it wouldn't have been my choice, it is interesting.

There are a LOT of characters and they aren't given too much detail so I am finding I am getting a little lost with who is who.  But I like the interaction between the nationalities.  I thought the book was going to focus generally on the brutality of the Japanese, but so far we have seen very little of that.  Instead, it seems to be westerners betraying westerners.  Though they are allies, there are a lot of tensions between the armies, which is an interesting aspect of the novel.  I had also never thought much of Australia's part in the war (I went through a WWII phase where I read a lot about the war in Europe and then the Japanese as well as China).

It takes a lot of concentration, but I recommend the book.  Although personally I am thinking Gai-jin would appeal to me more.  I must admit that I am only on page 140 of 479 pages of King Rat, so my mind could change.

Words for Wednesday: Catching Fire and House of Happy Endings

(written on Wednesday May 23)

I finished the Hunger Games awhile ago and began reading the sequel, Catching Fire, right after ( this is mostly because they are on my Kindle and I had them at work).  Though the book almost felt like it was two different stories, I liked it a lot better than the first.  In discussing it with a friend, he said, "The characters had more motivation in this one."  I agree.  I said in my similar blog post that I liked Battle Royale better than The Hunger Games because I knew what the characters were thinking and why they were acting the way they were.  Though I didn't necessarily know why the different characters in Catching Fire were acting the way they were (we are made to suspect the have hidden motives), at least I had some back story and got to see more of their personalities.

 

At first with the main plot twist in Catching Fire, I felt a little like, "Really?  Again?" but I soon came to enjoy the change and was drawn into the story more after it.  I had heard others say the book wasn't as good as the first, but I strongly disagree.  I think it was because since I don't know of a sequel to Battle Royale, I could get over my "comparison" and just enjoy the story.

 

I started the third book, Mockingjay, but due to family drama and being sick, I didn't really finish it.  The nice thing about the Kindle is that it keeps my place in case I want to come back.

 

Last night I started House of Happy Endings by Leslie Garis.  I think this book was sent to me by my late mother, but I am not sure.  Anyway, I am only three chapters in but am already excited about it.  The memoir is told by Leslie, the granddaughter of Howard Garis, the man who wrote Uncle Wiggily (a popular children's series in the early 20th century).  Though that plays a part, it seems to be focusing on how her father, Roger Garis, dealt with his parents successes.  Roger Garis was also a writer but, while celebrated, he felt he couldn't live up to his father's greatness.  Right now in the book there is only a lot of hinting towards this but it is written so well that I am intrigued.

 

What is also really interesting is that Leslie's grandfather not only wrote Uncle Wiggily, but that he was also a ghost writer for several other children's books like Tom Swift, Judy Jordan, and The Bobbsey Twins books.  As a young child my mother read these to me and then as I became able, I read them to myself.  I have quite a collection of them, though they are old and fragile.  This adds another compelling part to the story as we are told Leslie's father and grandmother also wrote for these series.  If you have read those books I think this book is very interesting, though I am not sure many people have.  Though my parents were "with the times," they also valued the past greatly.  As children, my brother, sister, and I were just as excited about The Little Rascals (and I am talking the originals in black and white) and Shirley Temple as we were The Lion King and Aladdin.  I would read a Bobbsey Twin book one day and a Baby-Sitters Club book the next.

Words for Wednesday: The Hunger Games vs Battle Royale

So about a month ago I noticed that a lot of people were posting about The Hunger Games on Facebook.  Not knowing what this was, I looked it up online.  In doing that I came across a handful of blogs comparing it to Battle Royale, and old Japanese book (ok, by old I mean 1996).  I had read Battle Royale and loved it.  Now I am reading The Hunger Games.  Though the two are very different, I can see why they are being compared.  I must say that I am on team Battle Royale.  Not due to any, Oh I am so snobby and hate mainstream pop culture, but because the book was better in structure and approach.  So anyway, I thought I would write about the two.  I might accidentally give away some key elements so read with caution.  I will also say that it has been awhile since I read Battle Royale so I might get fuzzy with the details.

Battle Royale takes place in an alternative future, one in which Japan is a totalitarian state.  Though not too much is said about the history, it appears to be what would have happened if Japan had won the war.  Anyway, every year a third year Jr High class is selected to compete in an event called the program.  The class (or the grade) is taken to a secluded location and forced to kill each other.  Each classmate is given a duffel bag a map, food, and with a random weapon.  Some people get guns, some people get knives, and some people get ridiculous things like a paper fan or a yo-yo.  Resistance to the game is impossible, as we see when one student is shot when protesting the fight to the man controlling the game.  Also, the students are outfitted with these special collars that can be detonated to blow them up.  They are threatened that everyone will die this way if they don't play the game.

This is one of the plot elements that makes me like Battle Royale better than The Hunger Games.  In The Hunger Games everyone just goes into it accepting the fact that they will be killing other people.  In Battle Royale we get a mixed range of emotions.  Kids who commit suicide because they know they could never harm anyone else.  Kids who try to pull everyone together to find a way to beat the system.  I think it helps that they are classmates and thus know each other and have relationships with each other.  For example, one fat kid starts killing other people.  Not because he wants to, but because he has gone through year after year of being picked on at school.  He assumes that since no one has defended him against bullies, no one will defend him against death, and this puts him on the offense. 

In this sense, we also get reason and motive behind all of the characters (if I recall correctly- there might be one or two that we don't get to read the thoughts of).  And this even with 42 players in the game.  In The Hunger Games we get a little background into how some of the contestants have been training for the games their whole lives, but we don't really know what they are thinking.  I guess in this sense I can relate more to Battle Royale.  I can think about my own classmates and my own human nature and see where I might fit into or play the game.  The Hunger Games seems too far from reality for me to do this, thus I am slightly detatched from it.  Also, in not knowing the characters better (aside from the main ones) I don't care about their deaths.  I think there is so much spent on Katniss's history that we're not involved with the others and aren't hit emotionally when they die.  Maybe I am a hard ass, but I haven't cried at all in The Hunger Games.  I am only halfway through.  But I remember crying a lot earlier in Battle Royale because so many of the deaths are somewhat a mistake or a misunderstanding.  Like with the fat kid- everyone knows that kid in school who has been bullied and who would feel alone in the game.  Or because there is more said between lifelong friends.  Like the one girl who runs all day even though she is hurt to find her guy friend.  Or the two girls who try to call everyone together to make peace, only to get shot by the one crazy student.

I don't want to give too much away, but I also like how the game is set up in Battle Royal in regards to making students come together.  There is a map and different zones are closed down everyday.  If you step into that zone, you automatically get blown up by the device on your neck.  In The Hunger Games they use natural things put in place by the game makers, such as fires and floods, to draw players together.  And I like how smart some of the Battle Royal students are.  In using things like computers they make good headway in defeating the people running the games.  The kids are also more resourceful, using things they find around them to create explosions or to build defences.  In The Hunger Games they get gifts from sponsors, magically.  It seems to easy for them to be rescued.  Not to spoil it, but Katniss gets baddly burned only to receive a healing balm from a sponsor.  Seems a little too easy for me.

Though I haven't finished The Hunger Games, I prefer the plot twists in Battle Royal so far.  In The Hunger Games halfway through the book it is announced that the rules have changed, that there can be two winners.  Again, that seems too easy.  I was looking forward to see how the conflict was going to be resolved if Katniss and Peeta were the last two alive.  But now that storyline is no longer an issue.  In Battle Royal you are reading until the very end to see how in the world the three heroes of the story are going to manage to survive the game without killing each other.

I just want to say that, though I haven't seen all of Cato in The Hunger Games, Kazuo in Battle Royale is so much more of a badass and really scary.  His background is that he was in some sort of accident that left him with brain trauma.  He functions like a normal person, only he has lost all empathy.  Basically, he has no feelings or emotions and thus doesn't mind killing, similar to a lot of serial killers and psychopaths you hear about in real life.  Again, I don't want to give too much away, but his first act is to murder everyone in his alliance and to steal all of their weapons.

The Hunger Games takes place in a modern America where the country is ruled by one Capital City.  The country is now split into 12 districts and every district has to send a boy and a girl to fight to the death in the games.  This is punishment for the districts trying to defeat the Capital long ago.  The two kids from each district might know each other, but they don't know anyone else.  The book is similar to Battle Royal in that they are taken to a remote place to fight, but different in that the game is more complex and has more of a build up.  Like the Olympics, there are ceremonies before the games start which include TV interviews and make-overs.  I felt in the book this goes on too long without much result.  We get to see more of Katniss and Peeta, but we don't learn much about the other characters and the games don't start until further in.  It felt very slow going in reading.  Battle Royale gets right to the action and then uses falshback to tell each students story.  So we get action, story, action, story, etc  Where The Hunger Games is stooooooooooooooooooory followed by aaaaaaaaaaaaaaction.  And what's weird is, I hate action and yet prefer Battle Royal.  But then again, the action in Battle Royal is pretty clever.

In The Hunger Games the players are given nothing at first but they do have a chance to fight for supplies at the beginning.  However, most players scatter to hide and let the elite players get the goods.  There is a kind of romance in The Hunger Games, but it is kind of vague.  And Katniss friendships are slightly short-lived.  But it is a good read overall.  I have been sticking with it and will be excited to read the following two books in the series.  I just find it a bit uneven, especially in terms of character development.  Like how can she fall for Peeta when she has Gale...?  I guess I will have to keep reading.

Words for Wednesday: Shanghai Girls, Dreams of Joy, and The days the Falls Stood Still

First off sorry I have been MIA.  Went to Vietnam and then was busy welcoming new teachers and getting ready for the new school year the week I got back.  I managed to finish one book in that time and started another which is half way done.  The first one I read is actually the sequel to a book I read a few years ago so I'll talk about both.

Shanghai Girls tells the story of Pearl and May who are sisters growing up in prewar Shanghai.  Though their parents are traditional Chinese, they are quite modern and work as models for an artist who makes posters advertising various products.  They go to night clubs, wear western clothing, and consider themselves modern women.

I don't want to give too much away, but things change when their father admits to being bankrupt and the girls are forced to become arranged brides to Chinese brothers in America.  At first they refuse to go, thinking they'll make their own money through modelling, but the war comes and they end up going to America to escape the Japanese.  Their life as immigrants and brides in America is vastly different, though they do get work as extras in Hollywood films.

The book is a quick read and tells about a part of WWII that I hadn't really thought about.  I've always been interested in that era but mostly focused on Europe or Japan.  I also love the details of life as an immigrant in 1940s America.  Being an immigrant myself, I can relate to some of the issues and frustrations of a language barrier, homesickness, and racism.  Of course my life is very easy compared to what the two sisters go through.

Dreams of Joy picks up where Shanghai Girls left off.  It's hard to describe the plot without spoiling the first book, but lets just say that Pearl ends up back in Shanghai about 20 years later under communist ruled China.  Obviously things are very different and just as dangerous as they were when she left.  I have read a couple of true stories about people living through the rule of Chairman Mao and some of the hardships/horrors they faced.  While fact is great, fiction is fun.  This book is interesting as it is able to present various viewpoints- both those supporting Mao and those against.  With fact, a lot of times you just get the authors feelings.  Anyway, as a set the books are some of the best I have ever read.  A little harsh and graphic at times, but good.

The Day the Falls Stood Still is a book I picked up for $3 at Barnes & Noble.  Not one that I really thought about, just liked the price.  It is about a girl named Bess living in Canada near Niagra Falls  during WWI.  The book starts with her finding out her father has lost his job at a Niagra Falls power plant and that she is to be taken out of boarding school.  Her sister has had her engagement broken off to the new family situation, and the mother has had to start working as a dress maker.  The father spends his day drinking at a nearby hotel.  Thus the girl goes from riches to rags.  The family comes to the conclusion that the best hope they have of reclaiming their status is to marry their daughters and to marry them well.  Thus Bess finds herself transformed from school girl to debutante, a role she hates.  Added to this is a young man she meets who seems to be a bit of a nomad.  He earns his keep by fishing at the base of the falls and by bar tending.

I'm enjoying this story as I never really thought about the fact that their are people living in Niagra Falls and that those who do live their would be somewhat dependant on it for their livelihood.  Also, given the time period the description of how people go about their daily lives and how tourists see the falls is interesting.  It isn't really an amazing book, but for $3 it's pretty entertaining.

Words for Wednesday: Bossypants and The Paris Wife

So it isn't Wednesday and I am two weeks behind (or just one, I guess) but these are two books I'd like to recommend.

Tina Fey's Bossypants was sent to me by a friend back home.  If you aren't familiar with Tina Fey, she used to write for SNL and wrote the screenplay for the movie, Mean Girls (if you haven't seen it, watch it- watch it now!).  Thus her biography is filled with sarcastic, dry humor that had me laughing out loud at the schools I read it at.  I will say that it is a little choppy and sometimes read more as a collection of essays rather than an autobiography, but it is good.  I am not really a feminist, but Tina Fey makes me want  to take up the cause, and not in a bra-burning way.

She talks about being an awkward little girl, falling in love with gay men in high school, and then having to fight her way to be taken seriously in the world of comedians.  She then goes on to tackle comedy in politics, being a working mom, and breaking glass ceilings in the world of TV production.  I don't have the book with me at work or otherwise I'd quote it, but seriously, if you are looking for a good laugh, read this book.  I finished it in two days and that is with family visiting (although, with this being the end of the school year, I had a lot of free time at work).

Now I'm in the middle of reading The Paris Wife, a fictional account of Ernest Hemingway's first wife.  I've read Hemingway but was never a big fan, and yet this book is making me interested in going back and read his stuff again.  I am also liking this book as it is going into detail about the lives of expats in Paris during the years between the two world wars.  I love the book, The Book of Salt, which is about Gertrude Stein's cook during this same time and I also enjoyed the movie, Midnight in Paris, that also touched on this age of writing.

Anyway, even if you have no interest in Hemingway or don't know anything about him, the book plays out as a romance about a couple from the midwest who, at a young age, moved to a foreign country.  Though the book isn't heavily filled with action or humor, it has been reading fast and has me constantly turning to wiki to refresh myself with names like Ezra Pound and incidents like the Greco-Turkish war.  I feel like I am getting a history lesson along with the love lesson, which is my favorite combination.  Though the main character is a little weak at times (I have to remember that this was during a different age when women were far more dependent on men), her voice is strong and you can emphasize with her.

Words for Wednesday: The Woman in Black

So it's Friday today, but I started reading this book last Wednesday.  That counts, right?

I finished Daughter of Fortune and was upset at how abruptly it ended.  I would gladly have read on to read more details about whether or not Rose ever found Eliza or what really happened to Joaquin, but instead the book just tied everything up in tight little bow.  Pretty, but not satisfying.

Anyway, the new book is reading pretty quickly and I am thinking it might also end quite abruptly considering I am over half way through and I feel like the story is just getting started.  The book is called The Woman in Black and it was given to me by my friend Gemma.  I am normally not one for ghost stories or hauntings (except for Wait Til Helen Comes, Goosebumps, and R.L. Stein's books), but this one is turning out to be fun.

It is the story of a lawyer who travels north from London to attend the funeral of an old recluse and then gather her "papers" to bring them back to the firm.  I can't seem to figure out what time period it is in because it reads very old, like early 1900's, but then there seem to be mentions of cars.  I know that there were cars at that time, but there seem to be quite a lot.

Anyway, the man sees a ghost (or maybe a ghost) at the funeral and can't get anyone in town to tell him anything about what really goes on at the house the old lady lived at.  It is one of those stories that seems the same as a million others I've heard, but one that is still engaging so you read on (like romantic comedies- we all KNOW how they will end, but we go to new ones all the same).  Apparently there are a lot of stage adaptions of the book and even a new movie starring Daniel Radcliff.  It is fairly short and reads quickly, so I recommend it for vacation or light reading.

Here is the trailer for the film. It might be good to read it before the movie.

Words for Wednesday: Daughter of Fortune

Finally finished The Girl Who Played with Fire- very good.  Although I think the author tried too hard with too many characters.  I think some of the investigative team and some of the John's could have been combined into one character.  But yeah, great book but I am going to take a breather before starting the next.

I meant to start up on a book that a friend gave me for Christmas next but got stuck in a situation where I had free time at work and had a different book on me.  So now I am reading, Daughter of Fortune by Isabel Allende.  It was an Oprah's Book Club selection but I got it for $2.00 at a book sale.  It was last winter when I was using Barnes&Nobel gift cards and wanted the biggest/cheapest books- aka the most bang for my buck.

So far I have lucked out as it is pretty enthralling.  I have only been reading for about two days and I already am up to page 81.  Not impressive but at the same time good considering I had work, part-time work, choir, and house stuff on both of those days.  So far it is about an abandoned baby who is taken in by three siblings.  The siblings are grown and consist of one serious brother, one adventurous sailor brother, and an "old maid" sister who is actually just a woman shirking the conventions of a normal life in the 1840s.  She doesn't want to get married because men seem boring to her and wives even more so.

It is set in Chile which is interesting in itself.  At least the start of it is.  From reading the jacket cover it seems like we will be moving onwards soon.  The siblings are actually British so it is a unique tale considering the time period and the idea of early immigrants.

Anyway, will let you know how it goes but it already seems like a good read, and you can't beat $2.

Words for Wednesday: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and The Girl Who Played with Fire

I finished The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo and it was quite good.  I also went to see the English version of the movie and highly approved of both Danial Craig and Rooney Mara as the main characters.  There seemed to be a lot of one-liners added to Salander's part that I don't remember from the book but that were very funny.  It was obviously very graphic but in a good way- after all, the women characters kick ass.

 I didn't like that the film version took out relationship with Cecilia and took out Anita all together.  I also hated (spoiler alert) that they changed the hiding location of Harriet from Australia to England.  It was much more believeable that she had "disappeared" when she was on a different continent/hemisphere.  I also thought that someone would have put "two and two together" when Anita and her husband died.

Something that I didn't like in the book and the movie was the whole money transfer and Wennerstrom take-down at the end.  While it was great to see Salander become "get the money," it felt like the story was finished when Harriet was found.  The mystery in Hedestad felt original but the money transfer just felt like another heist film.  And to have time for the money transferring, they cut out a lot of the island mystery.  We got hardly any history of the Vanger family.

But enough of that, on to the sequel.  When I started reading, The Girl Who Played with Fire, I was a little disappointed that it first started out slow and, like the first novel, was talking a lot about math and day to day drivel that seemed to drag.  Then I became discouraged by the fact that the story seemed to be trying too hard to bring Blomkvist and Salander into similar ground.  But then the whole new murder mystery kicks in and all of a sudden the book is gripping and interesting.  Haven't gotten too far, but it is turning into a great read.  I am not a fan of crime/thrillers at all but love this series.

Words for Wednesday: K-On

I am not a big fan of manga.  However, it is impossible not to live in Japan without coming across it- especially when you work with kids.

I first came across K-On in advertisements at a convenience store.  I thought it was cute but average (the whole school girl thing is so cliche).  But, I started using it in example sentences when teaching (K- On is more popular than Naruto.  What comic books does she read?  She reads K-On. etc) and the students would get excited.

Next week I am going to help out at an English camp up north.  We will being doing workshop/discussion groups with a group of Jr High kids and one of the workshops is manga translated into English.  I decided that to be "up with it" I would buy and read the first two volumes of K-On.

I will also say that according to Wiki...

"The first volume of K-On! was the 30th highest-selling manga volume in Japan for the week of April 27 and May 3, 2009, having sold over 26,500 volumes that week.  The following week, the first and second manga volumes were the 19th and 20th highest-selling manga volumes in Japan, having sold 23,200 and 22,500 volumes each the week of May 4 and May 10, 2009. As of May 2009, the first two manga volumes each sold about 136,000 copies each.  The third volume sold over 120,000 copies the week of December 14–20, 2009, and became the 46th top-selling manga for the first half of 2010 in Japan (ending May 23), selling over 328,000 copies."

I should have remembered that while some adults buy and read manga, the majority of its customer base is in Jr High or lower.  I should have remembered Twilight...

K-On is cute.  And if you had never read a manga or if you had never been to Japan, it might be interesting.  But if you are the average adult, it is crap.  I am actually shocked at how crap it is and I hope that I am merely missing something in the translation.

The story does not flow.  Side stories and moments are picked up and dropped within a page, as if the book was merely serving as an outline for a book or cliff notes.  Also, for a book about a band we barely see any scenes of them performing (as opposed to Nana).  We also don't meet any other members besides the band, their club teacher, one other friend and a little sister.

And there seems to be a lot of inappropriate material- like the teacher forcing one girl to cosplay (wear a costume in a sexual way).  Seriously has a picture of the student in a bra trying to run away.  The teacher is female, but still....

I guess I just warned anyone from buying it, not that you would anyway... I definitely recommend One Piece or Nana over it.

I just hope I can keep my thoughts to myself at the English camp...

Words for Wednesday: The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo

Again, just about the whole world has read this book by now or they have seen the movie, but I am just getting to it.  Actually, I have seen the movie...in Swedish.  I rented it at the video store and it didn't have English subtitles so I tried with Japanese subtitles.   I didn't get too far, and ended up not finishing it.  Not a total waste, though, as Motoaki watched it.  Still, my interest was sparked and I was really excited to see that they would be making an English version (although Roger Ebert tells me that I need to see the first ones).  But being the good reader that I am, I decided to read before watching the movie (in reality, the movie isn't in Japan yet anyway).

I will start by saying that this book has two things going against it for me personally.  The first is that I am reading it on a Kindle ereader.  I have read books online before but am a little against the whole ebook movement for nostalgic, romantic, selfish reasons.  But I got the Kindle for Christmas and I couldn't find Major Pettigrews Last Stand last week for the life of me (it was under a stack of newspapers in the newspaper box- Thank you for cleaning Motoaki, but really, you shouldn't have...).

The second is that I am not a big fan of crime mystery, or mystery in general.  I find the characters to be a little bit aloof and a lot of plot twists try too hard.  Though it may be because I have sort of seen the movie and because the story is famous, I am not in anyway surprised by any of the "surprises" in the book...so far.

But I am liking the book.  I found the first couple of chapters to be a little wordy (too much about financial criminals that I have no interest in) and the Swedish to be a little tricky to keep track of, but other than that it is a smooth read.  Actaully, I will take that back and say that I am surprised that enough people managed to get through the first part to read the rest and make the book a hit.  I am a little surprised that so far I am getting far more of the Mikael Blomkvist character than the Lisbeth character.  I have learned that the original title was actually, Men Who Hate Women, and so that may explain why the "girl with the dragon tattoo" seems to be the secondary character.  But that is also probably to do with the fact that the girl character is so famous on posters, reviews of the movie, etc.

A part from the mystery, I am slowly getting more and more interested in Sweden.  Though they can be jarring, I enjoy that the metaphors are kept in their original Swedish context.  For example (forgive me, I don't have the book on me), at one point someone says something like, "I can't believe you are going to *Swedish town name*" to which another character replies, "That's not so bad.  It's not like it's *some other Swedish town name.*"  So much more refreshing than just the standard use of Timbuktu. to symbolize the middle of nowhere  It makes me realize how much I am limited in that I usually only read books in English by English speaking authors.  As an ex once quoted (or said), "I like books with maps or books that make me want to look at maps."  Sweden isn't a country I have ever been all that interested in, but this book definitely makes me think of it as a future destination.  In a random coincidence, the free song on Itunes the other day was  also by two Swedish girls and they mention Stockholm.  Funny how life connects like that.

Anyway, as with the last few books, if you haven't read it yet, I suggest The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo.  If you have a kindle, there is supposedly a way for me to lend it to you, but I am not sure how to do that yet.  But feel free to ask.  I bought the other two as well.

And who I am kidding, I suggest anything.  My biggest advise is to read read read.  Movies are great, but I think books have a greater power to crawl inside you and make you think.  Maybe because you usually read a book over a couple of days and so they stick with you (as opposed to a movie that you watch, discuss, and then forget).

Words for Wednesday: One Day and Major Pettigrew's Last Stand

So if you live in America (or the west) you are probably thinking, "well duh!  These books have only been advertised all over town from B&N to Target and in theaters..."  But if you are like me and don't get out much they are new and fresh.  Either way they are good books so if you haven't read them, get to it.

I'll start with One Day since I have already finished it.  First off I saw the previews for the movie first but thought it would be good to actually read it.  Last summer while crashing on a friends couch I had asked her what she thought about it and she had recommended it.  She works in publishing and seems to be a fairly good reader so I knew she would know what she was talking about.  I normally don't read love stories (or stories falling in the Romance Genre) but I liked the idea of this book having a "thing."

That "thing" is the stories follow the lives of a boy and girl who meet in University.  It follows them by showing one day, the same day- June 15th, every year.  They aren't always together on that day and sometimes they aren't even friends anymore on that day, but they are connected in a way, even if it is just a fleeting thought at the end of the chapter.  You have a feeling that somehow it is leading all to something so you continue reading so the book goes quickly.

The book follows Emma and Dexter, the brain and the cool kid, as they experience adulthood from 1988-2007.  Like most books they struggle with careers, find and lose love, get old and lose sight of their dreams. Unlike most books it is set in a lot of grand locations (Edinburgh, London, Greece, Paris) and reads as part love story, part "blast from the past" as the pages are littered with references to the current year through music, movies, politics, and world events.

A lot of people read things and think, "Oh that is so me!" or "I can totally relate to that," but with this book I can definitely say, "I've been there."  I'm not exactly like the main character, Emma, but I know this situation intimately.  I know what it is like to have that friend "be there" even when they are in fact miles away and when we haven't spoken or exchanged mails in over half of a year.  For me what got me with this book were the little moments.  The one line at the end of the chapter that said something along the lines of, "I wish that friend could see this..." or "If it is any consolation to my embarassment, my friend will get a kick out of the story."

I will say that I felt the story was fairly fresh until the ending which seemed a little stock and aimed at a theater audience, but I will forgive it that.  The book is claimed as being, "Hilarious!" and I will say that it is clever.  I didn't "L O L" like I do with David Sedaris, but I did smile and think about quoting some spots on facebook.  And I will give the male author huge credit for writing a female character so well.  It was interesting to read a love story that showed both the male and female equally and accurately.

Anyway, if you don't know this book I highly suggest it. 

The second book, Major Pettrigrew's Last Stand is one that I just started last night.  I have only read two chapters but I am hooked, hooked, hooked.  It is about the story of a widow getting involved with a widower.  Seems like your average premise for a novel except that the widower is a 68 year old English man and the widow is a Pakistani/English woman who runs the local shop.  The book starts with a death so already there is drama from the get go.  Will write later whether it continues or falters...

Words for Wednesday: The Sisters, The Saga of the Mitford Family

The Sisters, The Saga of the Mitford Family is one of those books that is opening me up to a whole new world of further reading.  I am finding it hard to believe that I have not heard about this family before or that my mother never mentioned them.  I feel really sad that she is not around to read this as I know she would fall in love with it.  Although I suspect that when I search her shelves at home I will find at least something about or by one of the family members.

I normally don't read non-fiction but stumbled upon this book last summer when I was in my "must stock up" phase at Barnes & Nobel.  As nice and novel as the Kindles/Nooks are, I can't help but be sad that in the future I won't be able to spend hours wandering through the bookstore randomly picking up anything that catches my eye.

ANYWAY, the Mitford sisters are/were a group of real life sisters growing up in England in the 10s,20s,30s and who were young women in the 40s.  Though the book is fact it reads like fiction as we find out how involved they were on the world stage.  As the back cover reads, "Jessica was a communist; Nancy was one of the best-selling novelists of her day; beautiful Diana married the fascist leader Sir Oswald Mosley; and Unity, a close friend of Hitler, shot herself in the head when England and Germany declared war."  What  the back cover doesn't say is that Unity practically dated Hitler and that both her sister and mother were his close friends.  It also doesn't say that the girls were distant cousins with Winston Churchill and saw him regularly.  In fact, at one point in the book Jessica receives $500 from him only to turn around and donate it to an American Communist fund.  Also in the story is Jessica's brother-in-law who marries JFK's older sister, Evelyn Waugh (who wrote Brideshead Revisited), Gaston Palewski (a man who was Charles de Gaulle's right hand man), and so on.

As I have been reading along I often find myself thinking, "No way!  This can't all be true."  It's definitely one of those books that has me constantly looking up history on Wiki.  Even if the book wasn't full of "name dropping" it would still be fascinating as the women were all intelligent, talented, and beautiful and full of creativity.  As young children two of the girls created their own language in order to communicate in secret.  One daughter wrote several novels.  All were quite passionate about the politics of the time and as teens it is written that two of the sisters that shared a room divided it down the middle with chalk with one half being decorated with posters of Hitler and Nazi symbols while the other half had pictures of Lenin and Marx.  This all about when they were 12 and 13.  Even if you don't care about history the love lives of the girls is quite shocking and interesting considering the times they lived in.

I don't want to tell you everything but I do encourage you to at least look this family up online.  Absolutely intriguing.  

Words for Wednesday: Nana manga series

I was never one to be really into Japanese culture.  I am here because originally I needed a job and wanted some adventure and because I eventually felt at home here and fell in love.  If you were to ask me about what non-American cultures I am interested in, I would definitely say a whole list of others like Turkey, Russia, or Hungary before Japan.  Thus, I was never one to be into anime or manga (Japanese comic books).  

However, when I first moved home from Japan in 2008 I found myself missing it and decided to read some Japanese manga as a way to cure my homesickness for it.  I picked up Nana vol 1 because I had seen advertisements for the movie version when I had lived in Japan.  I quickly got sucked in and now have pretty much the whole set which I am currently re-reading.

Manga usually read pretty fast so I am putting the whole series on here rather than just one book.  The story Nana is about two girls named Nana who meet by chance on a train bound for Tokyo.  By chance the girls have the same name are both moving to the city for the first time.  After a long ride, they bid farewell to each other only to meet again by chance while looking for apartments.  They both are taken to apartment 707 (the  word nana means seven in Japanese) and realize that they could save a lot of money if they split the rent.  the story then begins as they become involved in each others lives.

One Nana is really edgy and hopes to become a rock star with her band.  She also happens to be the ex-girlfriend of a guy who has now become famous as part of another rock group.

The other Nana is extremely cutesy and your stereotypical Japanese girl.  She cares about fashion and falls in love at the drop of the hat.  She is obsessed with the band that the edgy Nana's ex plays in, only cutesy Nana doesn't know about the connection.

There are of course several other characters and all sorts of secrets from both girls pasts.  If it were one novel I might be bored with it and put it down, but because it is in these short installments you get hooked on cliffhangers and feel a deep urge to buy the next.  Very similar to a TV show.  I wouldn't recommend it to everyone, but the stories are good if you are interested in Japan and if you want to try out manga.

I also recommend the movies although the first one and the sequel have different actresses playing the role of cutesy Nana.  Very annoying!!  Especially since the first one is exactly like how I pictured her to be.  The actress who plays edgy Nana is spot on, as are a lot of the lead males.

If you are interested, the books can be bought at most Barnes and Nobles and Amazon.com

Words for Wednesday: A Happy Marriage

The title of this book will probably fool a lot of readers.  Though the title fits in a way, it isn't exactly a cheerful romance.  This is another book that I picked up without really knowing what it was (dang you Barnes & Noble and your $4 books- although, thank you for getting me to buy and read great stuff that I normally would have passed over).  So I was a little surprised to actually start it and realize that this is the story of a marriage ending.  Not in divorce but in death.  The book jumps from the present to the past by having every other chapter tell about how the New York city couple met, and by having the other chapters tell how they say their good-byes as the wife dies of bladder/urinary tract cancer.  

I know, I know- you are all dying to read it now.  But really, the book has a charm despite its heavy material and I have yet to tear up.  Although I imagine tears will come.  Both the wife and the husband are rich characters and one can't help admire the realness of their love.  The story isn't the type of romance you dream about but rather the type of romance you live or that marriages you respect are made of.  They don't have all the answers and things aren't always pretty, but they do have love.

It does help that the chapters jump back and forth.  You know its a good read when, despite knowing that they end up together, I find myself fretting over whether or not they will ever get together in the chapters describing their first encounters.  He is such a nerd as a young man and she is so sophisticated that you can't help but think he is out of his league.  And the same goes for her struggle with cancer.  Though the hospice has been arranged and the funeral is being planned, there is a small part of me that thinks it isn't over yet.  I guess I'm trying to say that I am surprised to find so much hope in such a cut and dry case of a novel.

On a side, morbid note, this book definitely also plays out like a manual for how to deal with a loved one dying.  I guess it is loosely based on the author loosing his own wife, and I hope he was able to do for her in real life what he does for the characters here.  I hope I will remember this book when it comes time for me to deal with a loved one passing.

Words for Wednesday: Cold Sassy Tree

So this is a book I picked up on super sale in Washington DC last summer.  It is actually a pretty smooth read and offers interesting insights into southern small town living in the early 1900's.  The story focuses on a boy whose world is changed when his grandmother passes away and his grandfather remarries about two weeks after the funeral.  What is great about this book is that the story doesn't just stop there.  It also features numerous incidents such as a train accident and the first car that comes to town.  I am a big fan of historical fiction and this book might become a favorite.  I extremely like how it shows without telling what everyday life was like in those days.  It makes me wish that I had talked to my great grandparents more and also makes me want to speak to my Grandmother and great aunts and uncles about how their lives have changed over the decades.  I also find it interesting that the main drama in the book (the grandpa marrying so soon after the grandma's death) is one that we could find still today while other dramas (like the aunt wanting to become an actress) aren't a big deal anymore.  I wonder why our views have changed on some things and haven't on others.

Words for Wednesday: The Women and The Rules of Civility

So sorry if the first title is misleading.  The book I read is not the same as the movie, The Women, which was released in 1939 and remade in 2008.  I must admit that when I bought the book I thought it was the one for the movie ( a story that has only female characters and deals with all sorts of drama) and was quite surprised at the book starting with a Japanese man driving to Wisconsin.

For having picked out the wrong book, I lucked out as it dealt with two extremely interesting topics: Frank Lloyd Wright and a "fictional yet based on truth" Japanese apprentice.  It actually focused on the many loves of Frank Lloyd Wright and how that love influenced his buildings and his philosophy.  It also focused on his love affair with Japan, which was great since I had recently become interested in this after seeing the Imperial Tokyo Hotel (recreated at an open air museum near Nagoya) and an apartment building built by his son/grandson (I forgot) that Nana lives in near Tokyo.  This meant that not only was the book filled with crazy drama (I had no idea he had been married so many times to such characters- or about the murder/massacre of his first mistress and several employees at his home in Wisconsin), but it also had a lot of stuff about Japan and Japanese that I didn't know.  For example, I learned from this book the phrase "Sumeba miyako," which, loosely translates to "Wherever you live you come to love," which perfectly sums up how I feel about Japan.

Anyway, I highly recommend the book.  It is looong but because each of the women Frank Lloyd Wright was involved with were so different, it feels like each part is a new story.

The other book I read while I was away from blogging was The Rules of Civility which is about a group of three friends whose lives are changed during the year of 1938.  Set in New York City you get the typical "30s" feel for cocktails and anything goes life as well as a lot of fresh takes on people in their late twenties trying to make something of themselves.  I especially related with the main character, Katy, or rather I greatly admired her.  She seemed to be living the life I had once dreamed of for myself, working at an up and coming magazine (similar to what I assume Vanity Fair must have been like at that time) and getting a glimpse of what life is like for the rich.

There is one scene where a man she has been seeing comes to her place for the first time and he goes about noticing and commenting on her choice of books as well as how they are arranged.  It is silly, but it is exactly the kind of scene my Jr high self imagined for my college self.  Anyway, the book doesn't seem to have anyone significant event but it is amazing to see how the friends change and come out in the end.  Another highly recommended read.

Words for Wednesday: 100 Years of Solitude

(Written July 6th)

I finished Paper Daughter and though it kind of got off track, I enjoyed it.  It did make me think about how lazy I was as a child, though.

Anyway, after finishing that I picked up 100 Years of Solitude, a story about the origins and life of a small town in South America (although it is largely a fantasy). 

It is a book that I should have read in school but that I never did.  To be fair, I think I read an excerpt of it somewhere.  Anyway, I am only 66 pages in and have already lost my interest a bit.  It is a captivating book but it is also a rather intense read and leaves one feeling a bit exhausted.  There are easily three or four words in every chapter that I don't know and the descriptions never let up.  Though the book is heralded as a masterpiece (it won a Nobel Prize among other awards), I have to agree with some reviews that also criticize it for being wordy.  

HOWEVER, I have been leading a lazy life as of late and I think it is important for me to pick up these types of books (Faulkner, Dickens, Jane Austen, etc) off and on to keep my brain and language ability up to date.  Though my job is to teach English, it is very basic English and I am surrounded by Japanese on all other fronts.  Although everyone looses a bit of a dip in their ability after leaving school, I think I have to work twice as hard to maintain a rust/dust-free brain.  So I am going to plunge ahead and hopefully hit my stride soon.  Though I will admit to cheating last week by reading Vanity Fair on our car ride to Kurashiki and by reading David Sedaris during my break at the elementary school.  Don't judge me- it was my birthday!  I deserved to be stress free!  Not to mention I had hose pesky bites fighting my every concentrated thought.  Must say that there is nothing like, Me Talk Pretty One Day, to take your mind off of things.

On a side note...  This is an article/blog entry from Roger Ebert about the dumbing down of some novels for today's reader.  I feel he captures what I was trying to say about struggling through a book even if I don't understand all of the words.  I always tell my students that I learned English by reading... and watching TV.
http://blogs.suntimes.com/ebert/2011/07/_did_it_seem_to.html