Some Luck, Jane Smiley

Some Luck: A Novel

Jane Smiley

Category: Fiction

Synopsis: The first novel in a trilogy in which each chapter represents a year in the life of an Iowa farm family.

Date finished: 4 November 2014

Rating: ****

Comments:

I love books about farms, farming, farm families, cattle, corn, chores, every bit of it. While farming is much more fun to look back on than to live, I’ll always be a farm girl at heart. So a whole book about a farm from the 1920s to the early 1950s? Amen, brother!

I’ve read a fair amount of criticism about this book being boring or “about nothing.” Welcome to farming! The thing about farms is, they look pretty much the same no matter if it’s 1920, 1950, or 2010. The machinery changes, the farmer and his wife age, but the cows, the corn, the work boots, the hard times, that all remains the same. This book captured that truism impeccably well.

Another thing Smiley does a superb job with is getting into the minds of her characters, especially the minds of small children. The observations and deductions of children are so real, so wise, they make you laugh. The book uses alternating points of view and narrations, and that lends to its authenticity.

My only gripe is that the charm of the book’s earlier chapters is kind of lost as the children grow older, and the situations become much more freewheeling. One reason I don’t read a lot of fiction is that coming-of-age stories (most novels, really) always seem to involve some moral lapse. Now granted, lots of kids have moral lapses when they reach the age of reason, but it’s so laughably textbook. You can set your watch by it. When oldest son, Frankie, goes off to college, for example, he discovers prostitutes. In Iowa City. Now, sure, there might very well have been prostitutes in Iowa City in the 1940s, and a number of Iowa farm boys may very well have availed themselves of their services. But still, you know? It felt cheap for this phenomenal book to hoe that row.

And all the communists. And eloping after a few days. And the oldest son being shipped off the war. Sure, all of these things existed, but to bring them all to one family doesn’t seem realistic. That’s my grievance with fiction, and I was sort of sad that this great book went that way too. I guess Smiley was going for a times-they-are-a-changin’ vibe, but I mourned for the part of the book when everyone was struggling through the Great Depression on the farm. (And that tells you more about me than about Smiley, I suppose.)

I really did enjoy the book overall, and I found the writing just wonderful. I enjoyed the characters and felt that I really knew them when the book ended. So I’ll suffer the dollop of unrealistic plot points and remind myself that most books aren’t as realistic as this. To each her own.

Would you recommend this to a friend?

Yes.

You might also enjoy:

Breaking Clean
Coop
Burnt Toast Makes You Sing Good

Top Ten Tuesday (looking foward to 2015)

 Hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. Click to link up.

 

 

Top 10 Books I’m Most Looking Forward to Reading in 2015

I am stoked about beginning another year of reading. (Forgive me. Do people use the word “stoked” anymore?) More than any particular book, I’m looking forward to ticking off my various bookish challenges for the year. Not that I’m not interested in which titles will do it.

 

Here are ten of the books I’m most looking forward to reading this year.

 

Brown Girl Dreaming, Jacqueline Woodson

Reason: It’s memoir. It’s poetry. And everyone is reading it.

Better than Before: Making and Breaking Our Everyday Habits to Be Happier, Stronger, and More Productive (Really), Gretchen Rubin

Reason: I love Gretchen Rubin’s books. I’d read her grocery lists if she’d publish them.

[due out on March 17]

 

Nora Webster: A Novel, Colm Toibin

Reason: I’m always looking for good character study fiction.

In Cold Blood, Truman Capote

Reason: A nonfiction classic? How could I not have read it before?

 

 

Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania, Erik Larson

Reason: I’ve only read one other book by Larson, but almost all of his titles appeal to me.
[due out on March 10]

The Wright Brothers, David McCullough

Reason: I’ve wanted to read a book by McCullough, and I love a good biography about historical figures.
[due out on May 5]

 

Mansfield Park, Jane Austen

Reason: I’m slowly working my way through Austen’s books, knowing I’ll never read them again for the first time.

Yes Please, Amy Poehler

Reason: Okay, I barely know who Amy Poehler is, but everyone’s reading this, and sometimes I like to just hop on the train to see where it goes.

The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio, Terry Ryan

Reason: I’m excited to have set a goal to re-read some of my favorites this year, and this will be the first. The book is much more positive than the movie.

Early Warning: A Novel, Jane Smiley

Reason: It’s the second in the series, and I enjoyed the first one very much.
[due out on April 28]

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? (1/19/15)

It's Monday! is sponsored by Sheila at Book Journey.

 

I've never linked up to "It's Monday! What Are You Reading?" but I've realized that unless my husband asks me what I'm reading, I don't get to spout off about my books until I review them, which is sometimes a long time. So I'm hoping to make this a weekly thing.

 

I'm starting out the year with a desire to clean off the TBR books that have been there a long time. I don't know how long that desire will last, so I'm taking advantage of it! I've also set up a number of reading goals for the year, and I'm reading to meet some of those challenges.

 

The university is closed today, so you can bet I'll be reading! Have a great week, everyone.

 

This week I'm reading Gulp: Adventures on the Alimentary Canal (from the TBR). I'm enjoying it quite a bit. It hasn't gotten gross yet, but I've been assured it will!

 

And I'm continuing with Americans' Favorite Poems which was a poetry project devised by poet laureate Robert Pinsky during his tenure. He asked poetry lovers to write in with their favorite poem and why it's a favorite. I'm reading this one because it's been on the TBR forever and to fulfill the "read a collection of classic poetry" challenge. So far, I've been reading a couple poems before bed, and at that pace, I'll be reading the book for a long time.

 

 

 

Last week, I finished A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson. It will be made into a movie this year. (Can you say, "capitalizing on the success of Wild"?) I bet Bryson was pretty cocky when Robert Redford was cast for to play him. 

 

I far preferred Wild as A Walk... kind of made me cranky. It was so uneven and doesn't show the writing brilliance that Bryson's One Summer did. I can't believe they were written by the same man! It won't be one of my favorites of the year, but I'm glad I finally read it.

 

When I'm done with Gulp, I think I'll tackle my first re-read of the year (I committed to re-reading five favorites this year). And I think it will be this:

 

 

What will you be reading this week?

 

 

Martin Luther King, Jr. Day

I'm off today for Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. I've been wondering for years just how long the country has been celebrating this day on the third Thursday in January, so I finally looked it up.

The day commemorates Martin Luther King's birthday (January 15). The holiday was signed into law in 1983 by President Reagan. For years, several states didn't celebrate the day as such for various reasons, and some refer to it by different names. The holiday was first observed in 1986 and was first observed in all 50 states in 2000.

In honor of this day, I've compiled three books about King that might interest you.

Hampton Sides

Hellhound on His Trail: The Stalking of Martin Luther King, Jr. and the International Hunt for His Assassin 

Tavis Smiley

Death of a King: The Real Story of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s Final Year

Doreen Rappaport, Bryan Collier (Ill.)

Martin’s Big Words: The Life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Friday Finds (1/16/15)

Hosted by MizB. Click on the picture to link up!

 

Ah, a new year in reading. Everything feels new and possible. I've found some books this week that I'm especially excited to read this year.

 

 

Quick. Name a nonfiction classic. Hard, isn't it? So when Amazon recommended Truman Capote's In Cold Blood, I had to take notice. I don't think true crime is really my genre, but there are so few nonfiction classics that I have to read it.

 

I'm trying to find fiction for 2015 that I'm especially interested in, and Nora Webster captured my attention. It's more character study than plot-heavy, which is my kind of book. I'm very excited about this one!

 

I finally broke down and added Killing Jesus to my TBR. I've read Killing Kennedy and Killing Patton, and Killing Lincoln is on my list for the year. Might as well read them all!

 

And a couple of memoirs:

 

It Was Me All Along is a young woman's weight-loss journey.

 

Life from Scratch is a foodie memoir. Yippee! Martin sets out to cook/eat a meal from every country in the world. It's set to release March 3. Love that cover!

 

 

I've added Cranford to my TBR on a whim. I'm always looking for classics that appeal to me, and this seems like a good fit. Plus, it's short. :)

 

Lastly, The Year of Reading Dangerously is the story of a man's quest to read 50 classics in a year. I love "project" books. And project reading is doubly fun.

 

 

What did you add to your TBR this week?

 

 

 

 

In Other Words, Bruce Taylor

In Other Words: Poems

Bruce Taylor

Category: Poetry

Synopsis: Poetry by Eau Claire, Wisconsin’s poet laureate.

Date finished: 26 October 2014 

Rating: **

Comments:

I really shouldn’t write this review because it’s not going to be terribly complete or balanced, but I promised myself I’d review everything I read this year, so here goes. I have to say, this book of poetry represents everything that’s bad about poetry, every reason why people hate it. The poems in this collection are hopelessly pedantic, full of obscure references that the average reader would never understand.

It’s not poorly written poetry, though. It’s tight and polished and well-metered. Taylor has a strong command of what he wants to say, and he says it and no more. And there were some truly charming passages, such as this from “Without You”:

If you think

I’ll get along
without you
well enough
you don’t know me
well enough.

 

What a sweet bit of verse, eh?

But the rest? I felt like I might as well have been reading German street signs in the heart of Paris. I didn’t get much out of it.

Would you recommend this to a friend?

Nope.

You might also enjoy:

I have truly enjoyed much of Taylor’s other work.

Stitches, Anne Lamott

Stitches: A Handbook on Meaning, Hope and Repair

Anne Lamott

Category: Self-help; Faith

Synopsis: Lamott discusses how to move on during difficult times.

Date finished: 27 October 2014

Rating: ****

Comments:

With a new Anne Lamott book just released last fall, I was a book behind. So I picked up Stitches and settled in for more sisterly advice from St. Anne.

And she did not disappoint. This is a thin book made of only a couple chapters (essays), but Lamott packs a punch.

The main premise is answering the question “What do you do when it all seems to fall apart?” And true to her personality, Lamott answers with faith, humor, and more than a little hysteria. The gist of her conclusion is to build yourself a community, a bedrock in a world of shifting sand. She puts a lot of stock in the importance of friends and family (if you don’t have a screwed-up one like she does).

There’s really nothing new in this volume to an avid Lamott fan, but that didn’t really bother me. This would make a nice gift for someone who’s struggling.

Would you recommend this to a friend?

Yes. I think I preferred it to her Help Thanks Wow.

You might also enjoy:

Anything else by Anne Lamott.