A Brief Audiobook Update

I’ve fallen behind on my audiobook reporting! When last I posted on the topic, I was listening to The Graveyard Book, written and read by Neil Gaiman.

Audiobook Catchup

The story is quite good; intriguing, with those odd bits that make it Gaimanesque. There were a few parts that made me say, “Huh?” But most of his books are like that. There are ghosts, there are otehr worlds, and there is an endearing little boy who’s been raised in a graveyard.

The narration made up for any misgivings I may have had. That man can read. With the accent, the dramatic pauses, the dead-on inflection…mmm. I’d listen to Neil Gaiman read the dictionary.

Somewhat concurrently with, and then after I’d finished, The Graveyard Book, I moved on to Suite Francaise, written by Irene Nemirovsky. I picked this one out because my favorite reader, Barbara Rosenblat (from The Elegance of the Hedgehog!) does the latter half.

I’m stuck about half a CD from the end. I have this feeling something terrible is about to happen, and I can’t bear to hear it at the moment. I’m probably wrong, and I’ll get back to listening to it soon. At least…I hope I’m wrong!

In the meantime, I’ve started listening to Sara Gruen’s Water for Elephants at the gym. I’m only a chapter or so in, but I’ve definitely found another outstanding reader: John Randolph Jones, who is doing an exquisite job reeling me in as the elder Jacob. This one’ll take awhile for me to get through at just half an hour twice a week or so, but I’ll get there!

Mini Reviews: “The Big Turnoff” and “Her Fearful Symmetry”

Whew, the past few weeks have been busy! Not only has not much posting happened, but not even much reading has occurred. Here’s what I’ve gotten through:

Mini Reviews - Fiction

I really enjoyed The Big Turnoff by Ellen Currey-Wilson. Published a few years ago, the memoir follows the author’s adventures raising her son without television when she herself is a TV addict.

Currey-Wilson talks about the challenges (will her son fit in at school without knowing all the cool TV shows? How will she find time for herself without plopping her son down in front of Sesame Street?) and joys (playing with her child, being the her son’s friends’ favorite house to visit) of trying to raise a TV-free kid in the modern world while weaning herself off reruns of old sitcoms and classic movies. It was both comical and eye-opening; definitely a great read, with lots to think about without being preachy.

I will not reveal anything further about the plot. I will say that where The Time Traveler’s Wife was both emotionally and intellectually satisfying, for me Her Fearful Symmetry was delightful from an intellectual perspective but left me cold emotionally. It definitely has plenty of Audrey Niffenegger’s great writing, which is good, because I’m not sure I would have gotten through it otherwise. The book is released later this month, and I’ll be interested to hear what others think of it.

I’m currently working on Sandra Gulland’s trilogy about Josephine Bonaparte. It was lent to me by a friend of my mom’s, and so far, it’s done a good job of sucking me in!

Mini Reviews: “Cartwheels in a Sari,” “The 19th Wife,” and ”Spellbinder”

Whew, I’ve been slacking! Just on the posting though, not on the actual reading, which is an improvement!

Mini Reviews - Miscellaneous

I finished Cartwheels in a Sari by Jayanti Tamm first. It’s a very well written, interesting memoir about growing up as part of a cult.

When her parents break their guru’s rule about sex and her mother ends up pregnant, their guru tells them he has arranged for a special soul to be sent to them, a soul that will be his perfect disciple on earth. Tamm was told from infancy that she was this special soul. The story follows her into her 20s, when she finally breaks with her guru.

The thing I liked most about Cartwheels in a Sari was the honesty with which Tamm writes. In some memoirs, the author’s bias or agenda seeps heavily into the narrative. With this book, however, Tamm tells her story moment by moment as she felt about each event as it happened. The result is that in addition to being a good story, the book helps you understand the mentality of such a cult and why someone would feel the need to be a part of it. I was reading this book at the same time that I was listening to David Ebershoff’s The 19th Wife on CD, and there were a surprising number of parallels.

The 19th Wife is really two stories spliced together, plus fictional newspaper articles, school papers, letters, journal entries, and Wikipedia entries. The first story is that of Ann Eliza Young, one of Brigham Young’s wives who ended up divorcing him and becoming one of polygamy’s most outspoken critics. It is her fictional memoir, which is based on her actual memoir.

Interspersed with Ann Eliza’s story is that of Jordan Scott, a “lost boy” who was kicked out of the polygamist cult in which he was raised and left to fend for himself. When he comes across a picture of his mother online accompanying a story about her arrest for the murder of Jordan’s father, Jordan finds himself heading from California to Utah to find out what really happened.

The whole thing took up 15 CDs, which took me two months of driving to and from work plus listening at home to finish. It was a lot. I was fascinated by the two main story lines, but the supplementary “documents” got to be a lot. I think that if I’d been reading the book instead of listening it would have been better, and they certainly added depth to the two main stories. Definitely a book worth reading, and really interesting when read in conjunction with Cartwheels in a Sari, about a totally different yet eerily similar cult situation.

Finally, I just sped through a galley lent to me by a coworker: Spellbinder by Helen Stringer. It’s a young adult novel coming out next month.

Spellbinder reminded me a lot of The Prophecy of Sisters by Michelle Zink. Both follow main characters who find out there is more to their reality than they believe (think other worlds and supernatural beings) and that they have key roles to play in the overall scheme of the universe. Spellbinder has more humorous bits; even the wording itself tends toward sarcasm instead of drama. The Prophecy of Sisters, on the other hand, is very much about the drama. Spellbinder is also contemporary; Prophecy is set a couple of centuries ago. Both were fun reads. Prophecy leaves you hanging, and while Spellbinder wraps up most of the story, there’s definitely room for many sequels to come!

Thoughts on “At Least in the City Someone Would Hear Me Scream” by Wade Rouse

At Least in the City Someone Would Hear Me Scream by Wade Rouse (cover)Whew, what a title! The cover is what drew me to this book initially, followed by the title. Those, and the opening story, in which our protagonist fights of a living coonskin cap he’s acquired while taking out the trash with nothing but tube of Burt’s Bees lip gloss and some breath spray.

At Least in the City Someone Would Hear Me Scream: Misadventures in Search of the Simple Life is Wade Rouse’s memoir about giving up urban life in St. Louis and moving to rural Michigan with his partner, Gary. Inspired by Thoreau’s Walden, which his grandmother introduced him to during his rural Ozark childhood, Wade sets out to establish his own simple country existence, which he dubs Wade’s Walden.

What ensues is by turns hysterical, ridiculous, embarrassing, and touching. Whether he’s sneaking in a covert shopping binge at an outlet mall or singing Kelly Clarkson at the local karaoke bar while getting hit on by a pair of girls, Rouse’s anecdotes are always over the top and saturated with pop culture references.

The book is divided into sections, with each chronicling progress with one of the ten areas Rouse has decided to work on during his time in the country. These include getting to know his neighbors, taking care of the fuzzy woodland creatures, and deepening his relationship with Gary. At each step, Rouse must also confront the rural childhood he fled when he moved to the city so many years ago. Each section concludes with a scorecard-style tally of who’s winning: Wade’s Walden or Modern Society.

I must say I enjoyed the book. If you can handle the exaggerated style, it’s certainly fun. It even has some good messages tucked in amongst the drama.