When You Are Engulfed in Flames

David Sedaris is a sure thing in my book. This is his latest collections of essays and five minutes after I got the email announcing it, I had ordered the audiobook version. This isn't quite as heart wrenching as Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim or as funny as David Sedaris Live at Carnegie Hall
(which should carrying a warning about the danger of car accidents due to laughter). It is still a great book and made me laugh harder than I have in a long time. The two discs are one piece, about traveling to Japan to quit smoking and possibly the highlight. Listen to it rather than read it, at least the first time.

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

It's been six years since the 9/11 attacks and many writers have attempted to use art to make sense of both 9/11 and its aftermath. Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close is the story of Oskar, a young boy whose father died in the World Trade Center and a parallel story about his grandfather surviving the bombing of Dresden. If I hadn't look at the Amazon review, the story about the grandfather would not have come back to me, because Oskar is far more memorable.
A highly intelligent but extremely weird kid, he travels all over New York trying to piece together the meaning behind the key his father left behind in and envelope marked "black" and to come to terms with the loss of his father. Brilliant and a little post-modern, this is a fine beginning toward an understand of the effects of 9/11 on our country and our culture.

Amy's Answering Machine

One of my favorite moments on the TV show Friends was when Monica complained that Rachel lost her messages. "What messages don't you get?" jeered Rachel "Chandler or your mom? Your mom or Chandler?". Moms love to call their kids but not many moms do so with the flair of Amy Borkowsky's mother. This book, a small volume of transcripts of the messages the author's mother left on her machine is a fun quick read. Amy's mother warns her of the danger of wearing an underwire bra through airport security, informs her that she saw on TV that a rich bachelor from Alaska was going to be in New York, and gives the vital information that her foam headphone covers could be a germ breeding ground.

The Sweetest Dream

This is a qualified recommendation. My book club read this book and my mother and I weren't crazy about it, but everyone else loved it. Doris Lessing wrote this novel instead of a third volume of her memoirs because she felt that would hurt too many vulnerable people, to paraphrase the introduction. The first half is the story of Frances, an actress who made a young marriage to the Britain's most self absorbed Communist, Comrade Johnny. After he leaves her and their two boys she is forced to become a journalist rather than taking acting jobs, move in with Johnny's German born mother, who vaguely disapproves of her, and become a den mother to seemingly dozens of young people (her sons' friends) who are drifting through the 60s. The second half concerns Sylvia, the daughter of Johnny's second wife with her previously husband (got that?) Sylvia morphs from a miserable child to a doctor in AIDS ravaged Africa. Our book group felt comparing that the attitudes towards family were interesting conversation starter.

Sweet and Low

What if your mother's family invented Sweet 'n' Low? And what if your entire branch of the family was cut out of the will? ("to Ellen and her issue I leave nothing"). The Answer is write a memoir and spill all of the family secrets. This book documents the invention first of the sugar packet (which, never having been patented is stolen from the author's grandfather) and then of Sweet 'n' Low, along with documenting the rise and fall of various artificial sweeteners and the federal investigator that sent several high ranking executives from the family business to prison. The family story is interesting but a bit repetitive and the author loves digression and some times throws in too much personal asides. Overall however, the book is engrossing and you will never look at the little pink packets the same way.

Family Shoes

Noel Streatfield wrote lots of kids books, mostly with kids who had some sort of occupation, i.e. Ballet Shoes. This book is the story of a more ordinary family, the Bells- a family of four kids who's father is a minister. Along with the sequel, New Shoes, it was one of my favorite books growing up because of the relationship the family has with their grandparents and other extended family. Usually families in kids books are either cruel and heartless or wonderful every moment of the day. Here there is true tension in the family (grandfather disapproves of the father's decision to become a minister and to consequently have much less money than the rest of the family. Nobody is a bad guy, but everyone is constantly frustrated by each other. The book is very funny, as the younger daughter is constantly scheming to get things to go her way and the younger son is a dreamer and always saying something outrageous.

A Girl Named Zippy

This memoir of growing up poor in small town Indiana in the 60's and 70's is by turns hilarous and heartbreaking. Zippy has terrible health problems and doesn't speak until she is three, and so is a bit of a miracle child. Her parents and older brother and sister love her dearly, but her world is also filled with mean teachers, dangerous situations and a crazy lady across the street. It's told with a child's perspective and is a very quick read. Zippy's story continues in She Got Up Off the Couch.

Bee Season

This is another book club selection, it's the story of nine year old Eliza, who has been the average member of her family. Her tightly wound lawyer mother, personable and talented cantor father, and older brother Aaron, who is an aspiring rabbi and the apple of her father's eye all overlook her. Then she begins winning spelling bees and her father's attention shifts to her, as he helps her learn new words and get ready for bees. This changes the family dynamic completely and everyone is revealed in a new light. A really interesting book that made for a good discussion. Myra Goldberg's most recent book, Wickett's Remedy was not as well liked, perhaps because in her first version she tried to be less "accessible" and ended up having to revise the paperback edition.

Baby Sister

I don't know if this technically qualifies as a "bad book", but I do think it's on the trashy side of Young Adult novels. And I loved it. hmmm. The book is written from the perspective of Penny, the younger sister who is completely overshadowed by Cass, two years older, brilliant, beautiful and as told from Penny's perspective, completely self involved. Penny feels inferior and is basically living through her sister, when she realized she has a gift for sewing. She eventually follows this love into a career, which Cass, who is in college and planning for law school, predictably sneers at. And then Penny starts seeing Cass' much put upon old boyfriend... I have no idea why this book spoke to me so strongly, when looking back, I am more of a Cass than a Penny. The book is unusual in a lot of ways, including an ending that is less than cookie cutter, and some interesting questions to mull about the two sisters and who is ultimately right (either, both, neither?).

Homecoming

This should have been up last night, oops! Homecoming by Cynthia Voight is the story of the four Tillerman children, Maybeth, the pretty, quiet, almost other-worldly youngest, Sammy, solid and stubborn, James, smart but with a chip on his shoulder, and Dicey, the oldest, who is charged with looking out for her siblings when their mentally ill mother abandons them in a mall parking lot. Somehow she keeps them safe and together as they travel by themselves with few resources to their great aunt's house and then their grandmother's. The sequel, Dicey's Song, about Dicey's adjustment to her new, more stable life, won the Newberry, and there are several other books about the Tillerman's and their friends.

I Capture the Castle

I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith (who also wrote 101 Dalmatians) is a "read alike" for Jane Austen, but also has a bit of the The Glass Castle in it as well. Narrator Cassandra and her sister Rose live an actual, albeit crumbling castle. Their father was once an esteemed novelist, but has been "blocked" for many years and the family is extremely poor. Their stepmother, Topaz, is a former artist's model who is closer to the girls age than their fathers, but contrary to convention, is far from wicked and actually makes real effort to mother the girls and provide for them financially. Two American heirs to the property they live on visit the village and Rose schemes to "catch" one of them in order to rescue the family, with a surprising outcome. The book is full of memorable characters and is a great read.

Tender at the Bone

One interesting thing about doing this blog is that looking over our choices, patterns start to develop. Apparently I am completely obsessed with books about cooking and food, because here is yet another food related choice. Tender at the Bone is the first of three excellent memoirs about former New York Times restaurant critic and current Gourmet editor in chief, Ruth Reichl. The book describes her childhood and her early adult years, showing how she came to love not only good food, but the meaning of cooking and serving a particular dish. From a some what privileged background, Reichl learns about food from the various excellent cooks in her life (housekeepers, family, friends) but also learns much from from her mother, who is maniac depressive and prone to serving guests spoiled food. Overall, this is a great memoir of an unusual life, as are the next two volumes, Comfort Me With Apples and Garlic and Sapphires.