Erin Reads – Page 10 – Notes on Books & Life

Sunday Salon: Gearing Up for Bout of Books!

I had so much fun participating in the recent readathon that I was delighted to discover there’s another reading-focused event (albeit a more laid-back one) kicking off tomorrow.

Bout of Books is completely new to me, though this is the tenth time the event is being held. As I write this post, there are more than 800 readers signed up. Whoa!

Here are the details:

The Bout of Books read-a-thon is organized by Amanda @ On a Book Bender and Kelly @ Reading the Paranormal. It is a week long read-a-thon that begins 12:01am Monday, May 12th and runs through Sunday, May 18th in whatever time zone you are in. Bout of Books is low-pressure, and the only reading competition is between you and your usual number of books read in a week. There are challenges, giveaways, and a grand prize, but all of these are completely optional. For all Bout of Books 10 information and updates, be sure to visit the Bout of Books blog. – From the Bout of Books team

I won’t be staying up till all hours or reading every spare minute; thankfully that’s not the point of this week-long event. I will, however, be doing my best to read more than usual each day this week. My reading goal is to spend the hours between dinner and bed with a book. My listening goal is to have my headphones on — listening to an audiobook — whenever I can! I’ll keep one updates post here on Erin Reads for the week and add details to it each day.

What’ll I be reading? Here are a few of the titles I’m considering digging into:

Desirable Daughters by Bharati Mukherjee
Strawberry Fields by Maria Lewycka
The Space Between Us by Thrity Umrigar
Reservation Blues by Sherman Alexie
The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro
The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury
The Natural Laws of Good Luck by Ellen Graf
Freddy and Fredericka by Mark Helprin
Gregory Maguire’s Wicked series on audio (I’ve just finished Wicked, so three more await me)

Of course, I’ll be lucky if I get through two or three of those, not counting the audiobooks! Still, it’s nice to dream…and to have plenty of variety.

What about you? Any chance you’ll be Bout-of-Booking this week, too?

Thoughts on “The Cunning Man” by Robertson Davies

Robertson Davies was first recommended to me by a fellow employee at my first bookstore job. She didn’t recommend him to everyone, she said, but for the right person, he was a treat. She thought I might be one of those people. Since then, I’ve been picking up his novels as I’ve come across them at library sales and used bookstores. His Deptford Trilogy, which I listened to last year before I came back to blogging, was excellent. So when I put my TBR Pile Challenge list together, I knew it had to include something by Davies.

About the Book:

For many years, Dr. Jonathan Hullah has been happily ensconced in a converted stable in Toronto, where he runs his unique medical practice on the first floor and has well-appointed living quarters on the second. He has his few friends and spends his time treating those patients whom other doctors cannot seem to cure.

Then a young journalist named Esme shows up, asking questions about St. Aiden’s, the old church that stands next to Hullah’s home, for her series on Toronto’s history. As she pries into the past, Hullah records in his case book — the novel — his memories, thoughts, and conjectures. He also debates which of those he should disclose to Esme and which are better left buried.

Because, you see, something strange happened at St. Aiden’s many years ago: an elderly priest fell down dead in the middle of Holy Communion. Was he a saint, as many came to believe? Or was something else going on?

My Thoughts:

My bookstore coworker was right: I do, indeed, find Robertson Davies rather delightful. The Cunning Man, for instance, begins this way:

”Should I have taken the false teeth?”

I’m not sure a more intriguing first sentence was ever written. How can you not want to read on?

If the novels by Davies I’ve read so far are a fair representation, his stories have at their center a bit of a mystery. They’re not mystery novels by any means — I’m not such a fan of those — but there is a thin filament of something at their core around which each story is loosely built. In the case of The Cunning Man, that mystery is the death of Father Hobbes. The actual mystery is just a part of the book, though. Around it loop Hullah’s back story, present-day plots, and even letters from Hullah’s neighbor to a friend in England, which seep with a personality quite different from that of our narrator. The book has that central mystery, but it is so much more than just that mystery. And the story doesn’t end when the mystery is solved. Since it’s not the point of the book but more one component of it, the narrative structure doesn’t hinge on its investigation and resolution.

From what I’ve read so far, I think Davies is a master of creating fascinatingly complicated main characters. He fills them out with interests and theories that serve as story lines in and of themselves, and there are always bigger issues at play should you care to zoom out to that level. He even sets them within their own belief systems. You can really understand how a character sees his world, why he reacts as he does, where he is likely to stumble.

The secondary characters Davies creates are just as interesting, even if less time is necessarily devoted to them. He’s quite skilled at figuring out how to give readers a secondary character’s perspective on a situation so that you’re not relying completely on the main character’s word. In The Cunning Man, for instance, the whole middle section of the novel alternates between the letters I mentioned earlier and chapters by Hullah that provide commentary and fill in the gaps. And since the letter’s author is an etcher, Hullah adds whimsical footnotes to explain where illustrations appeared in each letter and what they depicted. It’s wonderful.

Davies’ writing is just erudite enough to be satisfying without being overly dense. It’s the kind of writing you slow down just a little to process and enjoy. It works particularly well on audio, for me at least, which is how I “read” The Deptford Trilogy, but it’s lovely to read as well.

I’m happy to report I have two more trilogies by Davies on my shelves as well as a short book of ghost stories and a nonfiction title by him whose subtitle is “Reflections on Reading, Writing, and the World of Books.” I’ll be spacing them out for maximum enjoyment!

The Verdict: Enjoyable

While not as good as The Deptford Trilogy in my opinion, The Cunning Man is less of a commitment and still a fair taste of what Davies has to offer. I agree with my bookstore coworker that Robertson Davies probably isn’t for everyone. If he ends up being for you, though, you’re in for a treat!

Your Turn!

What authors do you love who aren’t right for everyone, but who delight their fans to no end?

Spring 2014 Readathon Updates!

Gooooood morning! It’s already a couple of hours into the readathon, but this is as early as I could manage to get myself up and going on the west coast of the US. It’s currently 6:45am here. I did sneak in some audiobook listening while I made breakfast, but other than that, I’m at my own personal starting line.

The plan is to update this post throughout the day instead of creating new posts for every check-in. That means if you’re reading this via email, you’ll have to click through to see updates. I’ll add new updates at the end of this post, so they stay in nice neat chronological order. Let’s start with the kick-off meme (a little late!).

Update #1: 7am PST

Kickoff Meme

1) What fine part of the world are you reading from today?
California! And my couch, hehe.

2) Which book in your stack are you most looking forward to?
Oh gosh. Probably Ella Minnow Pea by Mark Dunn, since everyone keeps telling me how good it is. Also, listening to Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell, since I was told it was only a slight exaggeration to say I was living a half life until I’d read it.

3) Which snack are you most looking forward to?
Potato chips! They’re a special occasion food only. Yum.

4) Tell us a little something about yourself!
It’s my first readathon in several years! I sort of dropped out of the book blogging scene for various reasons but came back in the fall of last year, right around the time of the previous readathon. I couldn’t make that one work, but I made sure this one could. I’m reading with my husband for the first time, so that’ll be fun, I think. Extra motivation.

5) If you participated in the last read-a-thon, what’s one thing you’ll do different today? If this is your first read-a-thon, what are you most looking forward to?
I’m trying to strike a balance between socializing and reading as well as participating full-out and making sure I’m not a total wreck in days to come due to lack of sleep. I’ve definitely gone all to one end of a spectrum or the other in past readathons, so this time I’m aiming for the middle.

My Stats

Here’s what I’m planning to track when I update:

Currently reading
Currently listening to
Running total of pages read
Running total of time spent reading
Running total of time spent listening

I’ll be doing some of the mini-challenges too, I hope. First up: The Cunning Man by Robertson Davies!

Ok…time to read! Have fun, all!

Update #2: 10am PST

Stats

It’s been a solid morning of reading so far. Here’s how it’s shaped up in terms of stats:

Currently reading: Actually, I just finished The Cunning Man by Robertson Davies. It was good, but I’m looking forward to reading something less dense. I’m about to start Ella Minnow Pea by Mark Dunn.
Currently listening to: Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell. That’s probably not going to change all day, since I’m doing more reading than listening. But it’s excellent so far!
Running total of pages read: 114
Running total of time spent reading: 2 hours, 35 minutes
Running total of time spent listening: 49 minutes

I haven’t done much in the way of socializing or mini-challenges yet. I’ve been too caught up in my reading! Aaaaand back I go…

Update #3: 1pm PST

Stats

Currently reading: Just finished Ella Minnow Pea by Mark Dunn. I’m not sure what’s next. The other two books I’d like to tackle today are quite different from one another: The ACB with Honora Lee by Kate De Goldi and Mindset by Carol Dweck. But first, some Eleanor & Park on audio and lunch!
Currently listening to: Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell. That’s probably not going to change all day, since I’m doing more reading than listening. But it’s excellent so far!
Running total of pages read: 317 (every time I do these events I remember again how slow of a reader I am!)
Running total of time spent reading: 5 hours, 18 minutes
Running total of time spent listening: 49 minutes

Mini-challenges:

Six Word Celebration Mini-Challenge: This day of books? Utter bliss.

Update #4: 2:45pm PST

Mini-challenges:

Shelfie: Here’s my shelfie! Mostly TBR books, with a small slice of read-and-kept books in the top left. Note the headphones — no reading time wasted! That’s Eleanor & Park on my iPod. Next up: heading out for an afternoon walk!

Update #5: 4:45pm PST

Mid-Event Survey

What are you reading right now? I just started Mindset by Carol Dweck, the oddball book in my stack for the day and one I’ve been waiting to get to for a long time now. I’m about halfway through Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell on audio.
How many books have you read so far? I’ve finished one I’d started before today, read a second one, started a third, and gotten through half an audiobook.
What book are you most looking forward to for the second half of the Read-a-thon? …more reading!
Did you have to make any special arrangements to free up your whole day? Somehow, no. This weekend just managed to stay free, though I had the date on my calendar months in advance and was planning to defend it if need be.
Have you had many interruptions? How did you deal with those? Not really! My husband is reading too, so it’s a very quiet, reading-focused day in our house.
What surprises you most about the Read-a-thon, so far? I’d forgotten just how fun it is. Not really a surprise, but it’s fun remembering by doing!
Do you have any suggestions for how to improve the Read-a-thon next year? I don’t think so. I LOVE this event. Huge thank-you to the organizers, hosts, cheerleaders, prize donors, and everyone else who makes this event so amazing!
What would you do differently, as a Reader or a Cheerleader, if you were to do this again next year? I actually have something I’d do again, instead: pick a small pile of not-too-dense books I really want to read. I’ve always picked huge piles before, which I know I’ll never get through. But this time I might actually make it through most of my books. Cuts down on decision fatigue when you don’t have a ton of books to pick from, too, heh.
Are you getting tired yet? I just went for an hour-and-a-half walk, so I’m a bit more energetic than I was earlier. I’m planning to switching from reading to listening while I quilt the next time my energy flags. Keeping my hands busy helps.
Do you have any tips for other Readers or Cheerleaders, something you think is working well for you that others may not have discovered? I don’t think so. I think it depends so much on individual preferences that it’s hard to make broad recommendations.

Stats

Currently reading: Mindset by Carol Dweck (just started)
Currently listening to: Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell. I’m about halfway through, I believe, and loving it.
Running total of pages read: 336
Running total of time spent reading: 5 hours, 44 minutes
Running total of time spent listening: 3 hours, 17 minutes

Mini-challenges:

First Editions: I’ve got a first edition of Mindset by Carol Dweck on my hands from my trusty library:

Update #6: 7:45pm PST

Stats

Currently reading: I’m in between books. Might start in on The ACB with Honora Lee, or I might save that one for later. I’m done with nonfiction for tonight, which means I need another novel!
Currently listening to: Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell.
Running total of pages read: 397
Running total of time spent reading: 7 hours, 31 minutes
Running total of time spent listening: 3 hours, 34 minutes

Mini-challenges:

Book Blending: Here’s me plus Desirable Daughters by Bharati Mukherjee!

Name in Titles: And here’s my name, spelled out using the spines of four of my very favorite books.

That Reminds Me of a Book: I picked this image for Susan Beth Pfeffer’s Last Survivors series. Add a giant moon and it could be one of the covers!
Page 35, Sentence 3: I’m in between books right now, but the one I know I’ll pick up before the readathon is over is The ACB with Honora Lee, so I went with that. It’s a middle grade book, but I’ve turned the third sentence on its thirty-fifth page — “Doris blew a lot of kisses.” — into the rhyming prologue/summary of a contemporary romance novel!

Doris blew a lot of kisses.
And though most of them were misses,
And her friends would always scoff,
Every time she fired one off,
She was sure she’d find her man.
Then one fine day she fired at Dan
And the rest, as you shall see,
Is the stuff of history.

Update #7: 10:30pm PST

Stats

Currently reading: I just finished The ACB with Honora Lee, and I’m finally starting to get sleepy. I’m switching to my audiobook so I can quilt at the same time. Hopefully that’ll keep me awake!
Currently listening to: Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell
Running total of pages read: 516
Running total of time spent reading: 9 hours, 2 minutes
Running total of time spent listening: 4 hours, 2 minutes

Update #8 (Last One!): 12:15am PST

Stats

Currently reading: Nothing! I finished The Cunning Man by Robertson Davies, Ella Minnow Pea by Mark Dunn, and The ACB with Honora Lee by Kate De Goldi today. Now I’m off to bed!
Currently listening to: Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell — I made it to a disc and a half from the end!
Running total of pages read: 516
Running total of time spent reading: 9 hours, 2 minutes
Running total of time spent listening: 5 hours, 38 minutes

And with that, it’s bedtime for me! If you’re still reading, best of luck in these final few hours. You can do it!!

End-of-Event Meme

Which hour was most daunting for you? From 9-10pm (hour 17?), I actually started nodding off while I was reading. Luckily, I was reading a middle grade novel, so I managed to keep going.
Could you list a few high-interest books that you think could keep a Reader engaged for next year? I thought Ella Minnow Pea by Mark Dunn was a great readathon book. Not for too late in the day, because it’s rather wordy, but it’s fun and quick and interesting. Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell was an excellent audiobook choice.
Do you have any suggestions for how to improve the Read-a-thon next year? Nope — I loved it!
What do you think worked really well in this year’s Read-a-thon? The hourly posts seemed particularly well organized. I liked the door prize approach as well. Those might not be new — it’s been a couple of years since I participated.
How many books did you read? I finished three during the event (one of which I was already maybe three quarters of the way through) and started a fourth. I also made it through six of seven discs of an audiobook.
What were the names of the books you read? The Cunning Man by Robertson Davies, Ella Minnow Pea by Mark Dunn, The ACB with Honora Lee by Kate De Goldi, Mindset by Carol Dweck, and on audio, Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell.
Which book did you enjoy most? They’re all so different, it’s hard to say! I think Eleanor & Park engaged me the most, though The Cunning Man and Ella Minnow Pea were a close second. Mindset is straight nonfiction, so I’m not really counting it here, heh.
Which did you enjoy least? The ACB with Honora Lee. It was fine, just not as good as the others because there was less substance to it.
If you were a Cheerleader, do you have any advice for next year’s Cheerleaders? N/A
How likely are you to participate in the Read-a-thon again? What role would you be likely to take next time? If my schedule works out, then absolutely I’ll participate again! I’ve done the cheerleading thing multiple times in the past and may consider it again. I’d be more likely to do the mini-challenge thing, though. I’d like to host one of those.

Thoughts on “I Know This Much Is True” by Wally Lamb

I Know This Much Is True by Wally Lamb was recommended to me a while back, as you’ll see in a moment. It’s the second book I’ve read for the 2014 TRB Pile Challenge. (Black Swan Green by David Mitchell, which was phenomenal, was the first.)

About the Book:

Dominick Birdsey has a lot going on. His twin brother, Thomas, is mentally unstable. He’s still in love with his ex-wife, Dessa, and not much into his current (and much younger) girlfriend, Joy. The only family he really has to turn to is Ray, the stepfather he’s been severely at odds with since the day Ray came into Dominick’s life. On top of all that is Dominick’s lifelong quest to discover who his real father was, something his mother withheld from him even on her deathbed. She did give him a copy of her father’s life story, written in Italian, before she passed away, but the woman Dominick hired to translate it into English disappeared shortly thereafter, taking the manuscript with her.

What unfolds over the next 897 pages is a multifaceted story. Events swirl around Dominick. Things happen to him. Memories wash over him. Surprises and coincidences ambush him. And through it all, he struggles to become a different person — maybe not perfect, but at least better — than he is when his story opens.

My Thoughts:

There’s a bit of a sentimental story behind why I Know This Much Is True found its way onto my reading list. My friend and I used to visit a particular favorite elementary school teacher after we’d moved on to high school, but after graduation we lost touch with him. After college, we found an old address for him and mailed a card that included our email addresses, hoping somehow our card would find him and we’d hear from him again. Somehow, it did, and he sent us an email. It was the last thing we heard from him before he passed away. In it, he recommended I Know This Much Is True. That was in 2008. I’ve avoided Lamb’s novels because of the mixed reviews I’ve heard of She’s Come Undone, but I decided it was time I at least gave this one a chance.

I Know This Much Is True is one of those rare novels that actually deserves to be almost 900 pages long. Anything less, and Dominick’s inner journey would have felt too compressed to be believable. As it is, the situations that pelt him throughout the story seem improbable when taken together. Yet somehow, Lamb manages to make it all hang together. He also manages to walk Dominick, if not through a soul-deep transformation, at least to the edge of it. Enough that you know he’s going to be ok, that you can close the book without worrying about what will happen to him.

Lamb does an excellent job capturing Dominick’s voice. I can still hear his pessimistic sarcasm, his quick temper, the dialogue in his head. The novel is written in the first person, so most of what we get is Dominick’s perception of the other characters and of himself. Yet Lamb also manages to show, through words and gestures and reactions, how maybe Dominick’s perspective isn’t 100 percent accurate. And gradually, reluctantly, Dominick begins to come around, too.

By no means did Lamb neglect the other characters to pour all his attention into Dominick. The novel is peopled with an impressively large and very real cast of supporting characters. They include Joy the girlfriend, Dessa the ex-wife, Ray the stepfather, Thomas the brother, Doc Patel the psychologist, Lisa the social worker, Leo the best friend, and Ralph the figure from Dominick’s past. Tertiary characters get enough attention that you actually remember them. And Lamb does a masterful job fitting all these characters into Dominick’s memories, too. Reaching all the way back to childhood, these memories show not only Dominick’s life, but the lives of those whose stories touched (and continue to touch) his. Far from being static, these tangential characters become grown-up versions of themselves, too.

I Know This Much Is True is certainly not a happy book. There are a lot of terrible things that happen in it. There’s plenty of sadness and hardship. But it’s the kind of story you’re glad you stuck with when at last you reach the final page. It was just the right balance for me, and I’m so happy I made it part of my 2014 TBR Pile Challenge list.

The Verdict: Excellent

If long, sustained stories are your thing, I think you’d like I Know This Much Is True. I thought it was very well done and was pleasantly surprised by how absorbed in the story I became and how much I liked it in the end. I have The Hour I First Believed on my shelf and am now curious to see if that one is as good!

Your Turn!

What book that you’ve read for sentimental purposes turned out to be excellent?

Sunday Salon: It’s Readathon Time!

Happy Easter, if that’s your cup of tea! If not, then happy Sunday.

A week from yesterday is a gloriously fun day: Dewey’s Read-a-Thon! That’s 24 hours of reading (by those who can go that long without sleep, at least) by participants around the world. The event happens twice a year, in the spring and fall, and is one of my favorite activities. No readathon would be complete without a prep post, so here we go!

First Up: The Books

I love perusing my shelves in preparation for a day spent reading. In the past, I’ve assembled towering stacks. I never make it through more than a couple of books, though, so this year I’m going easy on myself. Here’s the pile:

Ella Minnow Pea is on my TBR Pile Challenge list, and The ACB with Honora Lee is for review. I’m guessing they’ll both be quick reads, which I have learned from experience is a good thing when you’re going to spend hours reading. I’m already just over halfway through The Cunning Man, so hopefully I’ll be able to finish that one up as well. If I miraculously make it through those three, I have plenty more on my shelves I can grab! I’ll also have an audiobook going, though which one I haven’t yet decided. Either Eleanor & Park or The Girl of Fire and Thorns. That way I can “read” while I do the dishes, quilt, or take a walk.

Next Up: The Plans

This is the first readathon in several years for which I’ve been able to clear my schedule completely. It’s also the first time I’ll be participating from the west coast instead of the east coast. That means the event starts at — *gasp* — 5 am! My husband is doing it with me (another first), which adds some extra motivation. We may or may not actually be up and reading at 5, and no way will I be able to stay up until 5 am on Sunday, but I’m planning to make it through at least two thirds of the event! And very much looking forward to it, too.

I anticipate plenty of reading and listening interspersed with some cheerleading fun and some mini-challenge goodness. I’ll share updates in a single event-day post here on Erin Reads. I’m quite excited to get to throw myself into the event again. Woo!

What about you?

Are you readathon-ing? Let me know so I can stop by and say hi! If you’re not but you’d like to, go sign up!