Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston

This book has been sitting peacefully on the shelf for a couple years.  I really wasn't aware of its importance as a literary classic.  Florida, hurricane and love story was all I needed to take it home.  Lately it's been sitting on the coffee table as decoration.  That's how pretty the cover is.  I kept thinking it had been there long enough but never picked it up.  About a week ago Ginger decided she wasn't getting enough attention.  She climbed on the table and nabbed the book.   I guess she thought it had been there long enough too.  The beautiful cover now has more than a few teeth marks but I retrieved it before she started ripping out pages.

The dialect in The Help was flat and not real.  I felt the dialect in Same Kind of Different As Me was very good and believable.  It was only used in the chapters that were written in Denver's voice so it worked well.  In Their Eyes Were Watching God the dialect is perfection.  It's written so that I can hear the characters talking to me.  The only problem is there is so much dialog the book is very difficult to read.  It bogs down the story line.

As for the story line, there wasn't much of one.  Life in Florida in the early twentieth century was rough.  Janie's life in Eatonville was comfortable compared to others.  She was looking for love.  I don't believe she ever found it.  Tea Cake was no prize, always playing tricks on her and gambling with her money.  Nothing really unexpected or exciting happened until the last 40 pages.  Up until then she combed her hair and worked in her husband's store.  Then they were uprooted by a hurricane, Tea Cake was bitten by a rabid dog, they walked to Palm Beach and back again, and moved back into a cabin that miraculously hadn't washed away.  Janie killed Tea Cake, was put on trial, acquitted and moved back to Orlando to her home she'd left behind years ago.  All in the blink of an eye.

At the end was some information on the life of Zora Neale Hurston.  What I read in those few paragraphs made for far more interesting reading about her life that all of Their Eyes Were Watching God.  I rate this book 2 out of 5.  I'll pass it along to someone who won't mind the teeth marks.

How Can I Dig Out from Under?

I keep a log of the unread books, carefully highlighting and logging in review dates of those I finally got around to reading.   I've read twelve books since the beginning of the year.  Only twelve!

The list is still long and daunting.  Yes, I can do the math. Seventy-six minus twelve leaves sixty-four.  It's really more than that though.  Remember when I did all that purging of stuff?  I found more books to read.  I know you're all sick of hearing about the trips I make to bookstores.  Sometimes I leave empty handed.  Sometimes I don't.  And then there's those two books that I'd really like to read yet they've been missing since the move to our new home more than a year ago.   I have been able to resist the temptation to purchase them again, confident they'll soon turn up.  

I know I have some heavy duty, long and fat books coming up such as World Without End, David Copperfield, The Tenth Circle and Honolulu.  Plus I'm intermittently reading a book on how to deal with headaches which may be related to my vertigo.  I beginning to wonder if I will ever dig out from under and get a new Kindle.

I tried to think of ways to speed things up.  First is giving up when the book doesn't hook me right off the bat.  I can't do that. At least not yet.  I might miss something, like the key to my finding my own writing success.  Second, I can outright stop visiting any store that sells books.  That would rule out Walmart.  How would I eat?   Wait!  I've got the answer.  Cliff Notes!!  Do you think I can buy Cliff Notes for The Street Lawyer by John Grisham?  Doubtful.  But maybe I've found my niche.  I'll write the slimmed down version of all those New York Times Bestsellers that we can never find the time to finish.

Belong To Me by Marisa de los Santos

I picked this book from the shelf since it had been sitting there for quite some time.  I'd bought it more that a year ago during a buying spree at the book store.  Those cute rubber boots on the cover drew me in.  Early on I began to enjoy Cornelia and Teo and their move from the city to suburbia.  Once I reached about page 200, I began to wonder what all the characters had to do with one another.  I thought that halfway through the book I should have a few more missing links.  The characters were all so different from the perky Cornelia and her gorgeous doctor husband, Teo.  The precise and proper Piper is not likeable at all even as she cares for her dying friend, Elizabeth.  And Dev.  Dev is a charming and intelligent fourteen year old who melted the hearts of all who met him because of his wit and wisdom far beyond his years.  His mother, Lake holds the biggest secret of all.

The author dropped the bomb so to speak at precisely the right moment to hook me for good.  I gasped when I read it.  I cried when Cornelia and Teo at the same exact moment came to the same conclusion.  I decided that Piper wasn't a bad person after all when she became true to herself and her family for the first time in her life.  And Dev.  Dev found a family who loved him and he loved back.  They all discovered they did belong to each other.

As a writer I believe that Belong To Me is a shining example of 'show don't tell' every writer's manta.  The pacing and timing was perfect.  It's a wonderfully crafted story that will make you laugh, cry and beg for more.  I rate this book 5 out of 5 and I'm going to keep this book on the shelf for a little while as a reference.  I loved Belong To Me.  You will too.

Confessions Abound

I have to say the 12 step program just isn't working for me.  It has prompted me to do some soul searching however.  What am I really searching for in my life?  Do I want to rid myself of books?  No.  I love books. Do I want to be able to resist them?  Yes.  Am I searching for an answer to other addictions in my life?  Probably.

I ended up in the bookstore last week.  I added four new books to my list.  My shelves never seem to get any lighter even though I'm reading and reviewing at a fast pace.  I bought a book on addiction cures for atheists.  I want to see if that can shed any additional light on my dilemma.    

My sister wants me to take all my unread books to the library without reading them and be done with them.  I could start fresh.  Tempting.  I'm afraid at this point in time I may not be able to check them out of the library.  I'll go back to the bookstore and hand over the credit card for a whole new set of unread books.

A good friend wants me to stop suffering through all these bad books for the sake of reading something good and worthwhile.  How will I know it's good by looking at the cover?  So far I haven't been very successful at that.  Something that I like, the next guy may detest and vice versa.  What are the qualities of a good book?  What skills do I need to learn to pick the 'good' book out of the crowd every time?

Maybe that's what I'm looking for, a good book so that I can write my own good book and people will be dying to buy it.  Maybe all this is being driven by my dream to be a successful writer.  It's a dream so vivid that I can't shake it off.  I'm going to find the answer.  I know I am.  It's in my dreams.

Garden Spells by Sarah Addison Allen

The Waverleys are a curious family in a small town.  They all have special gifts and a special garden with a magical apple tree.  Claire and Sydney are different yet so alike as sisters, but only after Sydney returns home to escape a violent relationship do they finally get to understand one another.

Garden Spells is full of the smells, tastes and emotions of their lives.  The author's ability to make the senses come alive to the reader is superb.  Her prose is special.  But I did find myself wanting the story to end.  It was inevitable that Claire and Sydney would find true love, and that Sydney's violent past would return to try and ruin it.  I kept waiting for it to happen.  When it did it lasted for about 3 pages and the highly descriptive prose fell by the wayside.  I had to reread it to understand what really happened.  Claire and Sydney's love lives where firmly in place so the violent boyfriend scene had no impact to the story.

I am a huge fan of Ms. Allen's second novel, The Sugar Queen.  It sits on my shelf since I dream of writing a magical, mystical story someday.  Garden Spells started out as a keeper but ended in disappointment.  I rate it 4 out of 5.  I'm going to post it on Paperback Swap for someone else to enjoy.

The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson

To this book, I want to say, "Enough already!"  I've been intrigued by this book for a long time.  It's been at the front of every book story, has an interesting title and a hip and inticing cover.  I resisted buying it.  A few months ago the paperback version turned up in the clubhouse library and I snapped it up before anyone else could have it.  Selfishly it sat on my shelf until now. 

The story of Mikael Blomkvist, a journalist and his unlikely assistant Lisbeth Salander made for an interesting tale.  Coupled with a wealthy and reclusive family headed by Henrik Vanger.  Henrik hires Mikael to solve a forty year old murder of his niece, Harriet.  In doing so Mikael and Lisbeth reveal vile and repulsive family secrets. 

I finished this book at about page 450.  The remaining 150 pages were unnecessary and didn't add, in my mind, to the story.  The entire part about Blomkvist getting revenge on his rival had no meaning in the context of the rest of the story.  Lisbeth had so many unfinished parts to her life story, I was left unfulfilled.

Now I know the author has written sequels to The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, but these characters didn't thrill me enough to drool over the titles the next time I visit the bookstore.  I rate this book 3 out of 4.  I'll return it to the clubhouse library where it belongs.

Am I Desperate Yet?

I finally did read a few pages from my book on women's recovery.  I flipped it open and landed in a chapter discussing desperation.   A woman, in her third stint in prison, found herself along with the other inmates waiting for the bus to arrive carrying a new group of prisoners.  The inmates waved and cheered to welcome their friends back to the lockup.  The woman suddenly realized that she had no desire to hang out with her 'friends' in prison.  She was desperate to make a change in her life. 

Now, I'm not so desperate that I'll end up in prison.  At least I don't think I am.  But I did have a dream that I ended up on Clean House and Neicy Nash stood in my frontyard, neck high in piles of used books.  Or maybe I just don't want to admit how desperate to change I really am.  Did you notice I just flipped open the book and started reading somewhere in the middle?  Do you remember that I wanted to skip steps until I was reprimanded by those well versed in twelve step recovery?  God is working in my life but I'm just not desperate enough yet.  I'm still looking for the magic pill.

I want to read what's current, what everyone else is reading.  As a writer, I also want to be exposed to the talents of a variety of successful authors hoping one will hold the key to my own writing career.   I want to go back to the days when I never gave a second thought to how much money I spent in the bookstore.  I want things to be the same.  I want things to be different.  I want to be desperate.  Or do I? 

Where, oh, where is that magic pill?  I'm desperate to find it.