The Twenty-fourth One

A few months ago I posted a list of books I wanted to read this year. Books I already owned. Books I already started. The following is that list:

• Fluke* by Christopher Moore
• Lullaby* by Chuck Palahniuk
• What-the-Dickens* by Gregory Maguire
• Book Thief* by Markus Zusak
• The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler
• Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan
• Dracula* by Bram Stoker
• Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
• Pride and Prejudice and Zombies* by Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith
• Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters by Jane Austen and Ben H. Winters

 I happy to announce that the past couple weeks were remarkably successful in terms of reading (unfortunately, not all that productive otherwise). The list now looks like this (notice the final book was not the original list. I was bored and in an airport and it was the only one that looked interesting).

• Fluke* by Christopher Moore
• Lullaby* by Chuck Palahniuk
• What-the-Dickens* by Gregory Maguire
• Book Thief* by Markus Zusak
• The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler
• Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan
• Dracula* by Bram Stoker
• Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
• Pride and Prejudice and Zombies* by Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith
• Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters by Jane Austen and Ben H. Winters
• Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson

So, here we go.

First of all, I believe that I have previously stated how, to a certain extent, I judge the books I read by their covers. Although I give myself a hard time, it actually works pretty well most of the time. I have, however, read some spectacular failures according to this method. This includes what I refer to as The Mistake. But I won't talk about that here. Anyway. The cover to this book is amazing and chilling and beautiful and a little bit terrifying. All adjectives which I could use to describe the story as well.

I have been a fan of Laurie Halse Anderson since reading her excellent book Speak, which deals with sexual high school, growing up, losing friends, communication (or lack there of) with parents, sexual abuse, and how to deal when all these things happen at or around the same time. I have not, however, read any of her other books until Wintergirls.

Wintergirls deals with eating disorders, cutting, depression, divorce, and living up (or failing to live up) to too high expectations. Our first introduction to the main character, Lia, is when she finds out her ex-best friend was just found dead, alone in a hotel room. As we follow Lia over the next days, weeks, months, we learn about her workaholic mother, her mostly absent father, her step-mother and stepsister, her isolation from the rest of the world, her disinterest in anything/everything, and finally her descent once again into the world of anorexia and cutting.

The content of the book is ugly, but the writing style is beautiful. So intriguing that I often forgot what I was reading. Anderson does not shy away from real issues, and she does not offer false or flimsy solutions. She takes you through a process that lasts months, not days, and the ends of her books are not  happily-ever-after endings, but rather the first chapter to the rest of the story, or rather, the rest of the characters' lives. Lia is a real girl with real problems searching to find real solutions and she is surrounded by other, equally real, people who are dealing with both their own problems and Lia's.

I firmly believe that anyone who works with teenage girls in any fashion (coach, teacher, Bible study leader, club advisor, school administrator, pastor, any sort of group organizer or volunteer, etc.) should all have to  read both this book and Anderson's other  book Speak.

A couple summers ago I read Dashiell Hammet's The Thin Man and The Maltese Falcon, thus turning me on to the world of mystery noir books. I'm not going to lie, I love this genre and Raymond Chandler's book The Big Sleep is most excellent... and super fun.

Raymond Chandler's Phillip Marlowe is intriguing with his deadpan, self-deprecating approach to life. It is no wonder Humphrey Bogart was chosen to play this character. Although, I'm going to have to go back and watch the movie again, as I have no idea how closely it follows the book's story. I remember watching and loving the movie, but I don't remember a whole lot about the movie itself...

The best part of Chandler's writing is the great metaphors. He doesn't spend a lot of time making the language beautiful, but the metaphors are no less vivid. Personal favorite was found in the first couple chapters of the book (maybe the first couple pages... I don't have my book in front of me):

The General spoke again, slowly, using his strength as carefully as an out-of-work showgirl uses her last good pair of stockings.

I wish I could actually pull off talking like that, but alas! I am not Humphrey Bogart.

I loved the book by itself and for its own merits, but it often vividly reminded me of Calvin and Hobbes. I could (and probably will at some point) spend a LOT of time just waxing poetic about Bill Watterson's comic strip. (I don't like calling it a comic strip. It makes people take this trivial view of it. Calvin, Hobbes and Bill have all influenced my life greatly. There is a strip for almost every moment/event in my life up to this point. I am constantly being reminded of "that one strip from Calvin and Hobbes.) One of the great things about Calvin is that he, like Snoopy before him, has an incredible imagination (which is actually the premise of the strip, if you think about it). This imagination enables him to become other people entirely. The most famous of these characters is probably Spaceman Spiff, but my personal favorite is Tracer Bullet. The hardened private investigator who investigates such mysteries as math problems and who broke the lamp? Without going too crazy, here's a little taste of the Bullet himself:

Now, I've taken up enough of my time. I know I have a couple books left to review, but I'm stopping here... I am supposed to be working.