Neil Gaiman and ALA

Someone's comment on an older post reminded me that I never posted anything about ALA in Chicago -- in JULY! Neil Gaiman was there as he was the winner of the Newbery Award for The Graveyard Book. Yes -- that is my signed copy of it to the left. I, for some stupid reason, did not realize he was going to be there until Babelbabe told me. And I had no clue he was going to be signing at the exhibits the day I went. My brother-in-law dropped me off early at the convention center (really early -- like 7:00am) and there were people waiting in line. I asked what the line was for and when they told me, I practically geeked out! I had no Gaiman works with me at all but the publisher was selling copies of The Graveyard Book, so I bought it so I'd have something for him to sign. I was something like the 10th person in a line that turned out to be very long. A woman in front of me must have brought everything Gaiman ever published for him to sign, including her 10 ton Absolute Sandman copies -- 4 volumes! I would never have lugged those around; he said he wouldn't have either as they were too heavy. That was the highlight of my Chicago visit.

American Wife

American Wife: Curtis Sittenfeld: I would not normally have picked up this book because I wasn't particularly interested in a novel based on the life of Laura Bush, but Samantha liked it, and we have similar taste in books. This book is not fast paced, so if you're looking for a quick read, American Wife is not for you. But if the life of a quiet woman who finds herself profoundly affected by a tragic accident in her teens and then is caught up in the swirling life of a big political family in her 30s, is of interest to you, then this is your book. Sometimes I found myself very frustrated by Alice -- it's as if, after the accident, she was a passive participant in her own life. She had excuses for everything, including the mistakes of her husband the president, rather than deal with any incident upfront. But, nevertheless, I liked her. I especially liked her the few times she showed some backbone and stood up to Charlie. American Wife is well-written and enjoyable; my only quibble is with the end, after Charlie is in the White House. The book seems to lose Alice's story here and just ends -- it's as if Sittenfeld didn't know how to end the novel. Despite the lackluster ending, American Wife is a good read and I would consider reading it again at some point.

Shelby Lynne

Shelby Lynne played the Saenger on Thursday night, and she was just wonderful. It was good to hear her live -- she doesn't just sing the songs so that you might as well be listening to a cd; she has new arrangements for them, making her songs fresh and new. She did many of my old favorites, such as Where I'm From (which I swear is on I am Shelby Lynne, but it's not listed on the amazon.com track list), a song about Alabama that is so beautiful it makes me want to stay here the rest of my life. What was really nice, however, was that she did songs from the new album she's working on --- one probably called I'm No Fool and the other most likely titled Your Alibi. Both were songs about the end of a relationship, making me wonder if that's going to be the theme of her new album. They also made me think that the new record (she actually used that word -- "record"!) is going to be more similar in tone to Suit Yourself, which is lovely, than to Identity Crisis, with its delightful surprises (like the gospel-infused 10 Rocks and the rock-country flavored Buttons and Beaus. )

The Audience

I expected a rowdy audience, even though the concert was on a Thursday night, because Shelby Lynne is a hometown girl (her grandmother and other family were in the audience) and she hasn't played Mobile since 1991. I wasn't disappointed. My ears, however, were assaulted by some woman behind me who kept whistling in this really high pitch, the frequency of which really hurt my ears, and yelling, "Shelby, we love you!" at the top of her lungs. On the other side of the theater, people were yelling, "Shelby, Shelby!" and "Welcome home, Shelby!" She was gracious about all this and didn't tell people to shut up, which I might have considered, and she seemed genuinely glad to be back in Mobile. It was great to see her -- too bad the audience also had to be there.

South of Broad

South of Broad: Pat Conroy: I love Pat Conroy; he is probably one of my favorite Southern writers. His ability to inject South Carolina's Low Country into his novels as a character, not just a setting, is breathtaking. Every time, a new Pat Conroy book comes out, I'm thrilled and can't wait to read it. That said, I'm really disappointed in South of Broad. All the usual Conroy

themes are there -- suicide, depression, abusive families, chosen family -- and there's nothing wrong with these, in general. What's wrong with them specifically in South of Broad is that Conroy does nothing new with them. The reviewer in EW

said that the main character reminds him of Tom Wingo in the far superior The Prince of Tides. I wouldn't go that far, but Leo King doesn't bring anything interesting to the world of Conroy characters. What's frustrating to me about a less than wonderful Conroy novel is that we have to wait so long in between books; he's not prolific like Stephen King, so that I can ignore the books I don't like, knowing a new one will be coming along soon. Beach Music was his last novel and that was in 1995. I hope the next Conroy novel is better -- maybe I'll still be alive for it.

Quitting Books

I've decided to officially quit reading Amy Bloom's Away. It's not that there's anything wrong with the book -- I'm just not in the mood for it. I will probably go back to it eventually but not right now. You'll notice I've read several books since I started Away, but I'm not anywhere near finishing that book -- in fact, I've only read three pages. I hate giving up on a book, but I'm doing that with this book for now.

Elegance of the Hedgehog

The Elegance of the Hedgehog: Muriel Barbery: If you're looking for a book long on plot but short on words, don't pick up this book. The plot is very very thin, yet the book is extremely wordy. It concerns a 12-year old girl and a concierge in a French apartment building populated by the rich. Neither are quite what they appear to be. Renée, the concierge, was raised in poverty yet discovered the life of the mind and is interested in Culture and the Arts (and, yes, it's Culture with a capital C that interests her, although the fact that she also loves Michael Connelly endeared her to me). This is an interest she tries to keep from the rich people in her apartment building, hiding behind the stereotypes such people would have about a concierge. Paloma, the girl, hides herself from her family, preferring to live within her thoughts, which are so gloomy that she has decided to kill herself on her 13th birthday. The lives of these two change when a new tenant, a rich Japanese businessman, moves into the building. This is also the point (nearly halfway through the book) where I finally became interested in the story -- the convergence of the lives of Renée and Paloma. Kakuro Ozu is a man who can actually "see" these two people -- he understands almost immediately that they aren't who they appear to be, and he is the instrument of change in both of them. Through him, they both learn that other people can be a source of enrichment in your life not just a source of irritation and pain. Until Ozu appeared in the book, I'd considered just quitting reading it because I'd been a little frustrated with just living in the minds of the characters -- I wanted to see what their lives were like not just their thoughts. Although I ultimately enjoyed this book, it isn't one I'll reread.

Nuttiness and Bees

I've decided that Amazon is crazy. When I follow the link in my sidebar for Laurie R. King's The Language of Bees, I get taken to the page for the book with the cover image and everything. However, if I search for The Language of Bees in Amazon, I get this result:

The Language of Bees (Hardcover)by Laurie R. King (Author) Sign up to be notified when this item becomes available.

There's no cover image -- nothing -- but this book is already out -- it's been out. I bought it and read it.

The Language of Bees: Laurie R. King: I love this series about a young American feminist, Mary Russell, married to Sherlock Holmes. She brings humanity to the character of Holmes by giving him a personal life. In The Language of Bees, we meet Holmes' adult son, Damien Adler, who is an artist and a troubled man. He enlists the help of Russell and Holmes to help him find his missing wife and child. The wife has an interesting past, so the reader is never sure for quite some time if she's really missing or if she's just left Adler. Damien Adler's past also makes you wonder how complicit he is in his wife's disappearance -- after all, he's murdered before, maybe that makes it easier for him to commit other types of crimes. I like that I, along with Russell, am kept guessing about Adler and his wife throughout this book. And I enjoyed the book. Booklist calls The Language of Bees the best in the Mary Russell series; I'm partial to Locked Rooms because we learn so much about Mary in that novel that we never knew, but The Language of Bees is easily second.