Books

Book 8: Bootlegger’s Daughter – Margaret Maron

You have to love a book with its first chapter titled “Rainy Days and Mondays Always Get Me Down.” I’m not positive but I think most of the chapters were song lyrics and most of them made me smile. Bootlegger’s Daughter takes place in a fictional rural county of North Carolina which vaguely resembles the surrounding counties where I grew up (thank you I-95).

As a part of my Junior AP Literature class we went to my local library (a link over on the right) and heard Ms. Maron speak. Afterward I remember having a brief conversation with her when I got my book signed, but remember very little of the talk or the conversation. I remember I loved Mysteries at the time, having started Sue Grafton’s Kinsey Milhone Alphabet series (A is for Alibi, B is for Burglar, etc.). If I read the book when I got it, I didn’t remember any of the plot. I don’t think I did for two reasons, I remember most plots after a few chapters if I’ve read the book before, and I kept my books looking brand new and probably held this even higher because of Ms. Maron’s autograph.

I won’t go into the plot too much as it is a mystery, but there were two major things that struck me about this book, aside from her witty and brilliant use of colloquialisms and ability to write the dialects.

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Books

Book 2: Out of the Pocket – Bill Konigsberg

Out of the Pocket was a random decision. I’d never heard of the author, but I got an eReader and it was one of the books I could down load from the local library, so I thought why not? It’s primarily geared towards young adults/teenage readers, (as can be seen by my quick reading) but I still enjoyed it. Although not the best book ever written, or even the most exciting book ever written, it reminded me of great sports biographies I’ve read, specifically Inside Out: Straight Talk from a Gay Jock by Mark Tewksbury.

It’s the story of a High School football player forced out of the closet, while simultaneously learning that his dad has cancer. The story was mostly believable, if not a bit too utopic sometimes. There was nothing too overtly political or challenging to stereotypes, but I honestly believe this type of book can do just as much for LGBT rights in this country as many of the protests. (There is an entire argument of assimilation, but that’s not for this blog).

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Book Group, Books

Book 1: White Teeth – Zadie Smith

White Teeth was a much more interesting read than I thought it would be. It was originally selected as one of the book group books for our AmeriCorps book group, but that sort of fell to the wayside a few months ago and I’d already purchased it.

As I was reading the book it constantly reminded me of little things in England, from mentioning my Uni (Leeds) to some of the towns and places I’d visited to foods and colloquialisms, and I think this made it much easier to read and more enjoyable than I thought it would be. Last year I attempted to read On Beauty, also by Zadie Smith, and couldn’t get through the first chapter.

Overall, the book itself was much easier to read and much more enjoyable than I first expected it to be. I attempted to read On Beauty, also by Zadie Smith, last year and couldn’t get past the first chapter. I believe a large portion of my enjoyment of this book were the title chapters, they clearly connected the title to the rest of the book, even if sometimes I kept wondering why the book was titled such.

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Quotes

Quotes from The Line of Beauty – Alan Hollinghurst

“His confessed but entirely imaginary seductions took on – partly through the special effort required to invent them and repeat them consistently – the quality of real memories. He sometimes had the sense, from a hint of reserve in people he was talking to, that while they didn’t believe him they saw he was beginning to believe himself.” – 26

“He knew he was supposed to be able to tell; in fact he tended to think people were when they weren’t, and so lived with a recurrent sense of disappointment, at them and at his own inadequate sensors. He didn’t tell Catherine, but his uncertainty on the house tour had actually been the other way around. Had his own gayness somehow put Lord Kessler off and made him seem unreliable and lightweight in the old boy’s eyes? Had Lord Kessler even registered – in his clever, unimpressionable way – that Nick was gay?’ – 57

“He felt he floated forwards into another place, beautiful, speculative, even dangerous, a place created and held open by the music but separate from it. It had the mood of a troubling dream, where nothing could be known for certain or offer a solid foothold to memory after one had woken. What really was his understanding with Wani? The pursuit of love seemed to need the cultivation of indifference. The deep connection between them was so secret that at times it was hard to believe it existed. He wondered if anyone knew – had even a flicker of a guess, an intuition blinked away by its own absurdity. How could anyone tell? He felt there must always be hints of a secret affair, some involuntary tenderness or respect, a particular way of not noticing each other…He wondered if it ever would be known, or if they would take the secret to the grave. For a minute he felt unable to move, as if he were hypnotized by Wani’s image. It took a little shudder to break the charm.” – 240-241

“The photographer was at large, and his flash gleamed in the mirrors. He slipped and lingered among the guests, approached with a smile, like a vaguely remembered bore, in his bow tie and dinner jacket, and then pouf! – he’d got them. Later he came back, he came around, because most shots catch a bleary blink or a turned shoulder, and got them again. Now they bunched and faced him, or they pretended they hadn’t seen him and acted themselves with careless magnificence. Nick dropped onto the sofa beside Catherine, lounged with one leg curled under him and a grin on his face at his own elegance. He felt he could act himself all night. He felt fabulous, he loved these nights, and whilst it would have been good to top the thing off with sex, it seemed hardly to matter if he didn’t. It made the absolute best of not having sex.” – 379