Looking Back - It Was On Fire When I Lay Down On It

Looking Back... In an effort to transfer my book journal entries over to this blog, I'm going to attempt to post (in chronological order) an entry every Friday. I may or may not add extra commentary to what I jotted down in these journals.

It Was on Fire When I Lay Down on It by Robert Fulghum

Nonfiction

1998 Ballantine Books

Read in December 2000

Rating: 3/5 (Good)

Publisher's Blurb:

Show-and-Tell was the very best part of school for me, both as a student and as a teacher.

As a kid, I put more into getting ready for my turn to present than I put into the rest of my homework. Show-and-Tell was real in a way that much of what I learned in school was not. It was education that came out of my life experience.

As a teacher, I was always surprised by what I learned from these amateur hours. A kid I was sure I knew well would reach down into a paper bag he carried and fish out some odd-shaped treasure and attach meaning to it beyond my most extravagant expectation.

Again and again I learned that what I thought was only true for me . . . only valued by me . . . only cared about by me . . . was common property. The principles guiding this book are not far from the spirit of Show-and-Tell. It is stuff from home--that place in my mind and heart where I most truly live.

P.S. This volume picks up where I left off in All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten, when I promised to tell about the time it was on fire when I lay down on it.

My Original Thoughts (2000):

Pretty good, but not as good as All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten. I enjoyed the story about the box of "Good Stuff." Also, his list of recommendations (p. 90) and motherly thoughts (p. 101)

My Current Thoughts:

I wish I had been more specific about what I enjoyed about those particular essays in this book. They are long forgotten after 20 years.

Looking Back - House of Sand and Fog

Looking Back... In an effort to transfer my book journal entries over to this blog, I'm going to attempt to post (in chronological order) an entry every Friday. I may or may not add extra commentary to what I jotted down in these journals.

House of Sand and Fog by Andre Dubus III

Fiction

2000 Vintage Books (first published in 1999)

Read in December 2000

Rating: 4/5 (Very Good)

Publisher's Blurb:

On a road crew in California, a former colonel in the Iranian Air Force sees a way to restore his family's dignity in an attractive bungalow available on county auction. But the house's owner, a recovering alcoholic and addict down on her luck, will fight for the one thing she has left. And her lover, a married cop, will be driven to extremes to win her love. In this masterpiece of American realism and Shakespearean consequence, Andre Dubus III's unforgettable characters careen toward inevitable conflict, their tragedy painting a shockingly true picture of the country we live in today.

In this riveting novel of almost unbearable suspense, three fragile yet determined people become dangerously entangled in a relentlessly escalating crisis. Colonel Behrani, once a wealthy man in Iran, is now a struggling immigrant willing to bet everything he has to restore his family's dignity. Kathy Nicolo is a troubled young woman whose house is all she has left, and who refuses to let her hard-won stability slip away from her. Sheriff Lester Burdon, a married man who finds himself falling in love with Kathy, becomes obsessed with helping her fight for justice.

Drawn by their competing desires to the same small house in the California hills and doomed by their tragic inability to understand one another, the three converge in an explosive collision course. Combining unadorned realism with profound empathy, House of Sand and Fog marks the arrival of a major new voice in American fiction.

My Original Thoughts (2000):

Very good novel! Intense and difficult to keep reading at times, but well done. Interesting conflict with both sides understandable. Suspenseful, especially the last hundred pages. Unpredictable. I felt more sympathetic toward Kathy than the Colonel and his family. He seemed so selfish and unbending. Dubus is a great storyteller.

My Current Thoughts:

I remember really enjoying this thought-provoking novel. I also watched the movie (starring Ben Kingsley), which was very good, as well. At some point, I must have decided it wasn't a book that I wanted to read again, as I no longer own a copy. 

Looking Back - Bag of Bones

Looking Back... In an effort to transfer my book journal entries over to this blog, I'm going to attempt to post (in chronological order) an entry every Friday. I may or may not add extra commentary to what I jotted down in these journals.

Bag of Bones by Stephen King

Fiction

1998 Scribner Book Company

Read in December 2000

Rating: 4.5/5 (Very Good)

Publisher's Blurb:

Stephen King's most gripping and unforgettable novel, Bag of Bones, is a story of grief and a lost love's enduring bonds, of a new love haunted by the secrets of the past, of an innocent child caught in a terrible crossfire.

Set in the Maine territory King has made mythic, Bag of Bones recounts the plight of 40-year-old bestselling novelist Mike Noonan, who is unable to stop grieving even four years after the sudden death of his wife, Jo, and who can no longer bear to face the blank screen of his word processor.

Now his nights are plagued by vivid nightmares of the house by the lake. Despite these dreams, or perhaps because of them, Mike finally returns to Sara Laughs, the Noonans' isolated summer home.

He finds his beloved Yankee town familiar on its surface, but much changed underneath -- held in the grip of a powerful millionaire, Max Devore, who twists the very fabric of the community to his purpose: to take his three-year-old granddaughter away from her widowed young mother. As Mike is drawn into their struggle, as he falls in love with both of them, he is also drawn into the mystery of Sara Laughs, now the site of ghostly visitations, ever-escalating nightmares, and the sudden recovery of his writing ability. What are the forces that have been unleashed here -- and what do they want of Mike Noonan?

As vivid and enthralling as King's most enduring works, Bag of Bones resonates with what Amy Tan calls 'the witty and obsessive voice of King's powerful imagination.' It's no secret that King is our most mesmerizing storyteller. In Bag of Bones -- described by Gloria Naylor as 'a love story about the dark places within us all' -- he proves to be one of our most moving.

My Original Thoughts (2000):

Fantastic! King has such a talent for sucking you in from the very first page. I couldn't put it down, but had to several times (at night), so I wouldn't have nightmares. Creepy story, but oh, so good!

My Current Thoughts:

This is one of my favorite books by Stephen King. After 21 years, I still have a vivid memory of a scene involving magnetic alphabet letters on a refrigerator. Eeek! Creepy. Still, I would love to read it again someday.

Looking Back - Pobby and Dingan

Looking Back... In an effort to transfer my book journal entries over to this blog, I'm going to attempt to post (in chronological order) an entry every Friday. I may or may not add extra commentary to what I jotted down in these journals.

Pobby and Dingan by Ben Rice

Fiction

2000 Alfred A. Knopf

Read in November 2000

Rating: 2/5 (Fair)

Publisher's Blurb:

This enchanting tale is at once a beautifully rendered narrative of childhood loss and a powerfully simple fable about the necessity of imagination.

Pobby and Dingan are Kellyanne Williamson’s best friends, maybe her only friends, and only she can see them. Kellyanne’s brother, Ashmol, can’t see them and doesn’t believe they exist anywhere but in Kellyanne’s immature imagination. Only when Pobby and Dingan disappear and Kellyanne becomes heartsick over their loss does Ashmol realize that not only must he believe in Pobby and Dingan, he must convince others to believe in them, too.

My Original Thoughts (2000):

A friend spoke highly of this novel and sent me her copy after I expressed an interest in it. Unfortunately, I didn't care for the book. Slim (90+ pages) book set in Australia. Young girl loses her two imaginary friends and when she becomes ill with worry & grief, the entire town helps her brother search for these friends.

My Current Thoughts:

I have no recollection of this novella. I'm sorry I didn't appreciate it more since my friend went to the trouble of sending me her copy.

Looking Back - The Distinguished Guest

Looking Back... In an effort to transfer my book journal entries over to this blog, I'm going to attempt to post (in chronological order) an entry every Friday. I may or may not add extra commentary to what I jotted down in these journals.

The Distinguished Guest by Sue Miller

Fiction

1995 Harper Collins

Read in November 2000

Rating: 2/5 (Fair)

Publisher's Blurb:

The moving story of a mother and son that touches the deepest concerns about love, art, family, and life. Lily Maynard is proud, chilly, difficult, and has become a famous writer at age seventy-two. Now, stricken with Parkinson’s disease and staying with her architect son Alan, Lily must cope with her fading powers as well as with disturbing memories of the events that estranged her from her children and ended her marriage. For Alan, her visit raises old questions about his relationship with her, about the choices he has made in his own life, and about the nature of love, disappointment, and grief. Profound and moving, The Distinguished Guest reveals a family trying to understand the meaning of its life together, while confronting inevitable loss and the vision of an immeasurably altered future.

My Original Thoughts (2000):

Didn't care much for this book. Found it somewhat dull and I didn't connect with any of the characters. 

My Current Thoughts:

I read another book (While I Was Gone) by Sue Miller a few months before I read this one. Sadly, this wasn't as enjoyable. I don't think I've read any others by this author, but I have an ARC of Monogamy on my TBR shelf and plan to get to it in 2022.

Looking Back - All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten

Looking Back... In an effort to transfer my book journal entries over to this blog, I'm going to attempt to post (in chronological order) an entry every Friday. I may or may not add extra commentary to what I jotted down in these journals.

All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten by Robert Fulghum

Nonfiction - Essays

1988 Ballantine Books

Read in November 2000

Rating: 3/5 (Good)

Publisher's Blurb:

Robert Fulghum engages with musings on life, death, love, pain, joy, sorrow, and the best chicken-fried steak in the continental United States. The little seed in the Styrofoam cup offers a reminder about our own mortality and the delicate nature of life . . . a spider who catches (and loses) a full-grown woman in its web one fine morning teaches us about surviving catastrophe . . . the love story of Jean-Francois Pilatre and his hot-air balloon reminds us to be brave and unafraid to “fly” . . . life lessons hidden in the laundry pile . . . magical qualities found in a box of crayons . . . hide-and-seek vs. sardines—and how these games relate to the nature of God. All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten is brimming with the very stuff of life and the significance found in the smallest details.

My Original Thoughts (2000):

This is the second time I've read this wonderful book and it was just as good as the first time. Nice format of vignettes for evening reading in bed. Laugh out loud humor. I agree with his thoughts on dandelions and raking leaves!

My Current Thoughts:

I no longer own a copy of this book; probably gave it away when we purged our shelves before our big move to Oregon. Since I've already read it a couple of times, I doubt it's one I'll read again. I suspect it's a bit dated at this point.

Looking Back - The Quilter's Apprentice

Looking Back... In an effort to transfer my book journal entries over to this blog, I'm going to attempt to post (in chronological order) an entry every Friday. I may or may not add extra commentary to what I jotted down in these journals.

The Quilter's Apprentice by Jennifer Chiaverini

Elm Creek Quilts #1

Fiction

2000 Plume Books (first published in 1999)

Read in October 2000

Rating: 3/5 (Good)

Publisher's Blurb:

After moving with her husband, Matt, to the small college town of Waterford, Pennsylvania, Sarah McClure struggles to find a fulfilling job. In the meantime, she agrees to help seventy-five-year-old Sylvia Compson prepare her family estate, Elm Creek Manor, for sale. As part of her compensation, Sarah is taught how to quilt by this cantankerous elderly woman, who is a master of the craft.

During their lessons, Mrs. Compson reveals how her family was torn apart by tragedy, jealousy, and betrayal, and her stories force Sarah to face uncomfortable truths about her own alienation from her widowed mother. As their friendship deepens, Mrs. Compson confides in Sarah the truth about why she wants to sell Elm Creek Manor. In turn, Sarah seeks a way to bring life and joy back to the estate so Mrs. Compson can keep her home -- and Sarah can keep her cherished friend.

The Quilter's Apprentice teaches deep lessons about family, friendship, and sisterhood, and about creating a life as you would a quilt: with time, love, and patience, piecing the miscellaneous and mismatched scraps into a beautiful whole.

My Original Thoughts (2000):

Took several chapters to get interested, but once I did, I couldn't put it down. Somewhat predictable, but entertaining. Good "fluff." Lots of quilting details. Almost makes me want to give it a try. Sarah lacked self-confidence, which annoyed me throughout the entire book.

My Current Thoughts:

I didn't care for this book enough to go on and read any more in the series.

Looking Back - London Holiday

Looking Back... In an effort to transfer my book journal entries over to this blog, I'm going to attempt to post (in chronological order) an entry every Friday. I may or may not add extra commentary to what I jotted down in these journals.

London Holiday by Richard Peck

Fiction

1999 Penguin Books (first published in 1998)

Read in October 2000

Rating: 2/5 (Fair)

Publisher's Blurb:

Lesley Hockaday is a St. Louis society woman, Margo Mayhew a Chicago schoolteacher and the mother of a teenage daughter, and Julia Steadman a single, successful Manhattan interior designer. Best friends during their Missouri childhood, the passage of time, the thousands of miles between them, and the demands of family and careers have taken a toll on their friendship. When a shocking act of violence reminds them how precious life really is, the three friends decide it's time for a reunion and embark on a long-awaited trip to London.

From the cozy confines of Mrs. Smith-Porter's bed-and-breakfast, Lesley, Margo, and Julia enter a gracious world of high tea in the garden, antique markets, picture-perfect countryside, and unexpected romance. The London holiday presents them with more than a few surprises, becomes a journey of self-discovery and a chance to renew the bonds of friendship, and holds the promise of three new lives awaiting them.

My Original Thoughts (2000):

Not very good and difficult to stay interested. The narrative was very choppy. Definitely not another Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood. The details about London were fun to read, though.

My Current Thoughts:

Nope. No recollection on this one at all. Maybe I picked it up because one of the characters' name is spelled the same way as mine (which is unusual in the U.S.).

Looking Back - Dear Stranger, Dearest Friend

Looking Back... In an effort to transfer my book journal entries over to this blog, I'm going to attempt to post (in chronological order) an entry every Friday. I may or may not add extra commentary to what I jotted down in these journals.

Dear Stranger, Dearest Friend by Laney Katz Becker

Fiction

2000 William Morrow

Read in October 2000

Rating: 5/5 (Excellent)

Publisher's Blurb:

In the bestselling tradition of Beaches comes a poignant and unforgettable novel of two very different women separated by miles and experience and the extraordinary long-distance friendship that changes and illuminates their lives.

Lara is a smart, sophisticated New Yorker who is frightened about her future. In search of answers, comfort, and advice, she goes on-line. And that's where she, "meets" Susan, a strong and steady, no-frills Midwesterner. No two women could be less alike. Yet from the moment they connect, it is clear that they share something deep and important, something that's nestled in the warmest corner of the heart.

What begins as a chance encounter on the Internet quickly blossoms into a very special relationship. As their e-mail messages fly back and forth, Susan and Lara forge a powerful bond of trust, honesty, and understanding. And soon they are sharing their lives in full -- talking of husbands and children, dreams and desires, the daily cycle of success and setback -- and together learning to laugh uproariously over the small and large absurdities of the world. When a devastating crisis arises, they are there for each other, providing the life-affirming strength and the lightness that is needed to cope with tragedy... and to triumph.

Lara and Susan originally go on-line looking for kind words and good advice. But they find in each other the greatest gift of all: a true and forever friend.

Vivid, funny, original, and profoundly moving, Laney Katz Becker's magnificent debut novel is sure to be a classic, read and reread by women everywhere, an intimate portrait of two complete strangers who become soul mates across hundreds of miles, and who discover the strength and the will to reach out and take hold of the wondrous stuff of life.

My Original Thoughts (2000):

I read this in two days! Love it, although it almost made me cry on several occasions. Wonderful format (epistolary emails). Not only is it a great story of friendship, but a wonderful source of information about breast cancer and its treatments.

Two women "meet" on the Internet. One has just found a lump on her breast and the other is a breast cancer survivor.

My Current Thoughts:

I was surprised to see that I gave this book a 5-star rating since I usually reserve those high marks for more literary works. However, I still have this book on my shelf, and although the medical information is most likely outdated, it's one that I have intended to read a second time. I love epistolary works and when I read this my online friendships were really taking hold. Remember the days when you mentioned an online friend to someone and they couldn't believe you were so close to someone you'd never met in person? Not so unusual these days, is it?

Looking Back - Amy & Isabelle

Looking Back... In an effort to transfer my book journal entries over to this blog, I'm going to attempt to post (in chronological order) an entry every Friday. I may or may not add extra commentary to what I jotted down in these journals.

Amy & Isabelle by Elizabeth Strout

Fiction

1998 Random House

Read in October 2000

Rating: 3/5 (Good)

Publisher's Blurb:

Pulitzer Prize winning author Elizabeth Strout’s bestselling and award winning debut, Amy and Isabelle—adapted for television by Oprah Winfrey— evokes a teenager's alienation from her distant mother—and a parent's rage at the discovery of her daughter's sexual secrets.

In most ways, Isabelle and Amy are like any mother and her 16-year-old daughter, a fierce mix of love and loathing exchanged in their every glance. That they eat, sleep, and work side by side in the gossip-ridden mill town of Shirley Falls—a location fans of Strout will recognize from her critically acclaimed novel, The Burgess Boys—only increases the tension. And just when it appears things can't get any worse, Amy's sexuality begins to unfold, causing a vast and icy rift between mother and daughter that will remain unbridgeable unless Isabelle examines her own secretive and shameful past.

My Original Thoughts (2000):

Not bad, but not great. Mother-daughter story. Daughter gets involved with one of her teachers and her mother finds out. Somewhat depressing. Fairly predictable, too, yet it held my attention.

My Current Thoughts:

I remember a little bit about this novel, but no longer own a copy and probably wouldn't read it a second time, based on my average rating. I've read two other books by Strout (Olive Kitteridge and My Name is Lucy Barton ) and tried to read The Burgess Boys, but couldn't get interested. Strout has quite a following, but other than Olive Kitteridge (which I loved), I haven't been too impressed. With that said, I am looking forward to reading Olive, Again and I'll give Oh William! a try.

Looking Back - Animal Farm

Looking Back... In an effort to transfer my book journal entries over to this blog, I'm going to attempt to post (in chronological order) an entry every Friday. I may or may not add extra commentary to what I jotted down in these journals.

Animal Farm by George Orwell

Classic Fiction

1946 Harcourt Brace Jovanovich

Finished in November 2000

Rating: 2/5 (Fair)

Publisher's Blurb:

“All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.” A farm is taken over by its overworked, mistreated animals. With flaming idealism and stirring slogans, they set out to create a paradise of progress, justice, and equality. Thus the stage is set for one of the most telling satiric fables ever penned—a razor-edged fairy tale for grown-ups that records the evolution from revolution against tyranny to a totalitarianism just as terrible.

When Animal Farm was first published, Stalinist Russia was seen as its target. Today it is devastatingly clear that wherever and whenever freedom is attacked, under whatever banner, the cutting clarity and savage comedy of George Orwell’s masterpiece have a meaning and message still ferociously fresh.

My Original Thoughts (2000):

Boring! Took forever to work my way through it.

My Current Thoughts:

I read this over the course of two months, after deciding to read some of the classics that I read in high school. I didn't care for this one at all.

Looking Back - The Man Who Ate the 747

Looking Back... In an effort to transfer my book journal entries over to this blog, I'm going to attempt to post (in chronological order) an entry every Friday. I may or may not add extra commentary to what I jotted down in these journals.

The Man Who Ate the 747 by Ben Sherwood

Fiction

2000 Bantam

Reading in September 2000

Rating: 3/5 (Good)

Publisher's Blurb:

Piece by piece, a farmer is eating a Boeing 747 to prove his love for a woman... Written with tenderness, originality, and insight, filled with old-fashioned warmth and newfangled humor, it is an extraordinary novel, a found treasure that marks the emergence of a major storytelling talent.

This is a story of the greatest love, ever. An outlandish claim, outrageous perhaps, but trust me--

And so begin the enchanting, unforgettable tale of J. J. Smith, Keeper of the Records for The Book of Records, an ordinary man searching for the extraordinary. J.J. has clocked the world's longest continuous kiss, 30 hours and 45 minutes. He has verified the lengthiest single unbroken apple peel, 172 feet and 4 inches. He has measured the farthest flight of a champagne cork from an untreated, unheated bottle 177 feet 9 inches. He has tasted the world's largest menu item, whole-roasted Bedouin camel.

But in all his adventure from Australia to Zanzibar, J.J. has never witnessed great love until he comes upon a tiny windswept town in the heartland of America, where folks still talk about family, faith, and crops. Here, where he last expects it, J.J. discovers a world record attempt like no other: Piece by piece, a farmer is eating a Boeing 747 to prove his love for a woman.

In this vast landscape of cornfields and lightning storms, J.J. is doubly astounded to be struck by love from the same woman, Willa Wyatt of the honey eyes and wild blond hair. It is a feeling beyond measure, throwing J.J.'s carefully ordered world upside down, proving that hearts, like world records, can be broken, and the greatest wonders in life can not be qualified.

Richly romantic, whimsical, and uplifting, The Man Who Ate the 747 is a flight of fancy from start to finish. It stretches imagination, bends physics and biology, but believe it just a little and you may find yourself reaching for your own records, the kind that really count. Written with tenderness, originality, and insight, filled with old-fashioned warmth and newfangled humor, it is an extraordinary novel, a found treasure that marks the emergence of a major storytelling tale.

My Original Thoughts (2000):

Pretty good, but not great. I met the author at a book signing. Very personable and funny. I don't know if I would have read the book if I hadn't gotten one signed. 

Quirky characters.

My Current Thoughts:

I remember that this was a very odd, quirky novel. I was working in an independent bookstore in Lincoln and Sherwood gave a reading and signed copies of his book. I doubt I would have bought the book, had I not met the author, but I wound up reading his second book (Charlie St. Cloud), which was very good.

Looking Back - Rumors of Peace

Looking Back... In an effort to transfer my book journal entries over to this blog, I'm going to attempt to post (in chronological order) an entry every Friday. I may or may not add extra commentary to what I jotted down in these journals.

Rumors of Peace by Ella Leffland

Fiction

1979 Harper & Row

Read in September 2000

Rating: 3/5 (Good)

Publisher's Blurb:

Though radio broadcasts grow more harrowing every day, and soon, swastika-marked envelopes begin to arrive from cousins overseas, but the fighting in Europe still seems far away from the idyllic California home of ten-year-old tomboy Suse Hansen. But after Pearl Harbor, everything changes. In Ella Leffland’s beautifully wrought story of a young girl’s coming of age during WWII, the fighting in Europe looms behind the tranquility of family, friends, and neighbors—until the darkness of the war becomes suddenly, irrevocably real.

My Original Thoughts (2000):

Read this for an online book group. I enjoyed it, but didn't think it was great. Didn't captivate me. Coming of age story. Young girl growing up in Mendoza, California during WWII. Great description - reminded me of Steinbeck. Probably longer than necessary.

My Current Thoughts:

I vaguely remember reading this for one of my online book groups, but the details are pretty much lost after over 20 years. 

Looking Back - Miss Julia Speaks Her Mind

Looking Back... In an effort to transfer my book journal entries over to this blog, I'm going to attempt to post (in chronological order) an entry every Friday. I may or may not add extra commentary to what I jotted down in these journals.

Miss Julia Speaks Her Mind by Ann B. Ross

Fiction

1990 Perennial

Read in September 2000

Rating: 4/5 (Very Good)

Publisher's Blurb:

Miss Julia, a recently bereaved and newly wealthy widow, is only slightly bemused when one Hazel Marie Puckett appears at her door with a youngster in tow and unceremoniously announces that the child is the bastard son of Miss Julia's late husband. Suddenly, this longtime church member and pillar of her small Southern community finds herself in the center of an unseemly scandal--and the guardian of a wan nine-year-old whose mere presence turns her life upside down.

With razor-sharp wit and perfect "Steel Magnolia" poise, Miss Julia speaks her mind indeed--about a robbery, a kidnapping, and the other disgraceful events precipitated by her husband's death. Fast-paced and charming, with a sure sense of comic drama, a cast of crazy characters, and a strong Southern cadence, Miss Julia Speaks Her Mind will delight listeners from start to end.

My Original Thoughts (2000):

What a charming book! Simply delightful. I couldn't put it down. A Southern tale about a widow, a fortune, an illegitimate child, a kidnapping, a nymphomaniac and a televangelical minister. Laugh out loud humor. Engrossing. A cast of crazy characters you'll fall in love with!

My Current Thoughts:

What a shame that I don't still own my copy of this book. It would be nice to read something light and humorous. I'll add it to my reread list and either get a copy from the library or listen to it on audio. 

Looking Back - How Reading Changed My Life

Looking Back... In an effort to transfer my book journal entries over to this blog, I'm going to attempt to post (in chronological order) an entry every Friday. I may or may not add extra commentary to what I jotted down in these journals.

How Reading Changed My Life by Anna Quindlen

Nonfiction - Essays

1998 Library of Contemporary Thought

Read in September 2000

Rating: 3/5 (Good)

Publisher's Blurb:

A recurring theme throughout Anna Quindlen's How Reading Changed My Life is the comforting premise that readers are never alone. "There was waking, and there was sleeping. And then there were books," she writes, "a kind of parallel universe in which anything might happen and frequently did, a universe in which I might be a newcomer but never really a stranger. My real, true world." Later, she quotes editor Hazel Rochman: "Reading makes immigrants of us all. It takes us away from home, but, most important, it finds homes for us everywhere." Indeed, Quindlen's essays are full of the names of "friends," real or fictional—Anne of Green Gables and Heidi; Anthony Trollope and Jane Austen, to name just a few—who have comforted, inspired, educated, and delighted her throughout her life. In four short essays Quindlen shares her thoughts on the act of reading itself ("It is like the rubbing of two sticks together to make a fire, the act of reading, an improbable pedestrian task that leads to heat and light"); analyzes the difference between how men and women read ("there are very few books in which male characters, much less boys, are portrayed as devoted readers"); and cheerfully defends middlebrow literature: Most of those so-called middlebrow readers would have readily admitted that the Iliad set a standard that could not be matched by What Makes Sammy Run? or Exodus. But any reader with common sense would also understand intuitively, immediately, that such comparisons are false, that the uses of reading are vast and variegated and that some of them are not addressed by Homer.

My Original Thoughts (2000):

Pretty good, but not as good as Ex Libris (Fadiman). A little dry and boring in spots. A few good quotes and passages. 11 great reading lists.

My Current Thoughts:

I own seven books (fiction and nonfiction) by Anna Quindlen, which I've read and loved, but this fell short of my expectations. I wish I had written down some of those good quotes and passages. Ah, well. I can probably borrow a copy from the library and see if my opinion has changed over the years.

Big Stone Gap

Looking Back... In an effort to transfer my book journal entries over to this blog, I'm going to attempt to post (in chronological order) an entry every Friday. I may or may not add extra commentary to what I jotted down in these journals.

Big Stone Gap by Adriana Trigiani

Fiction

2000 Random House

Read in September 2000

Rating: 3/5 (Good)

Publisher's Blurb:

It's 1978, and Ave Maria Mulligan is the thirty-five-year-old self-proclaimed spinster of Big Stone Gap, a sleepy hamlet in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia. She's also the local pharmacist, the co-captain of the Rescue Squad, and the director of The Trail of the Lonesome Pine, the town's long-running Outdoor Drama.

Ave Maria is content with her life of doing errands and negotiating small details--until she discovers a skeleton in her family's formerly tidy closet that completely unravels her quiet, conventional life. Suddenly, she finds herself juggling two marriage proposals, conducting a no-holds-barred family feud, planning a life-changing journey to the Old Country, and helping her best friend, the high-school band director, design a halftime show to dazzle Elizabeth Taylor, the violet-eyed Hollywood movie star who's coming through town on a campaign stump with her husband, senatorial candidate John Warner.

Filled with big-time eccentrics and small-town shenanigans, Big Stone Gap is a jewel box of original characters, including sexpot Bookmobile librarian Iva Lou Wade; Fleeta Mullins, the chain-smoking pharmacy cashier with a penchant for professional wrestling; the dashing visionary Theodore Tipton; Elmo Gaspar, the snake-handling preacher; Jack MacChesney, a coal-mining bachelor looking for true love; and Pearl Grimes, a shy mountain girl on the verge of a miraculous transformation.

Comic and compassionate, Big Stone Gap is is the story of a woman who thinks life has passed her by, only to learn that the best is yet to come.

My Original Thoughts (2000):

Pretty good. I had a tough time getting interested, but after a few chapters I was hooked. Lots of characters to keep track of. Some beautiful passages.

My Current Thoughts:

I vaguely remember this book and know I went on to read one or two of the sequels, but I no longer own a copy and I doubt I'd read it again. I wish I had written down some of those beautiful passages that I mentioned in my original notes. 

Looking Back - The Great Gatsby

Looking Back... In an effort to transfer my book journal entries over to this blog, I'm going to attempt to post (in chronological order) an entry every Friday. I may or may not add extra commentary to what I jotted down in these journals.

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

Fiction - Classic

1995 Scribner (first published in 1925)

Read in September 2000

Rating: 3/5 (Good)

Publisher's Blurb:

Jay Gatsby is the man who has everything. But one thing will always be out of his reach. Everybody who is anybody is seen at his glittering parties. Day and night his Long Island mansion buzzes with bright young things drinking, dancing, and debating his mysterious character. For Gatsby---young, handsome, and fabulously rich---always seems alone in the crowd, watching and waiting, though no one knows what for. Beneath the shimmering surface of his life he is hiding a secret: a silent longing that can never be fulfilled. And soon this destructive obsession will force his world to unravel.

My Original Thoughts (2000):

I read this in high school, but decided to read it again. (My daughter is reading it in her American Lit. class.) I can't say that I loved it, but it held my interest. Now I want to rent the video.

My Current Thoughts:

I always have great intentions to read more of the classics, but the majority of those that I have read as an adult have been somewhat disappointing. I know that The Great Gatsby is a favorite with many of my blogging friends, but I wasn't really impressed and don't see the appeal.

Looking Back - Open House

Looking Back... In an effort to transfer my book journal entries over to this blog, I'm going to attempt to post (in chronological order) an entry every Friday. I may or may not add extra commentary to what I jotted down in these journals.

Open House by Elizabeth Berg

Fiction

2000 Random House

Read in August 2000

Rating: 5/5 (Excellent)

Publisher's Blurb:

In this superb novel by the beloved author of Talk Before Sleep, The Pull of the Moon, and Until the Real Thing Comes Along, a woman re-creates her life after divorce by opening up her house and her heart.

Samantha's husband has left her, and after a spree of overcharging at Tiffany's, she settles down to reconstruct a life for herself and her eleven-year-old son. Her eccentric mother tries to help by fixing her up with dates, but a more pressing problem is money. To meet her mortgage payments, Sam decides to take in boarders. The first is an older woman who offers sage advice and sorely needed comfort; the second, a maladjusted student, is not quite so helpful. A new friend, King, an untraditional man, suggests that Samantha get out, get going, get work. But her real work is this: In order to emerge from grief and the past, she has to learn how to make her own happiness. In order to really see people, she has to look within her heart. And in order to know who she is, she has to remember--and reclaim--the person she used to be, long before she became someone else in an effort to save her marriage. Open House is a love story about what can blossom between a man and a woman, and within a woman herself.

My Original Thoughts (2000):

Excellent! Read it in one day. Perfect book to read on an airplane. Berg continues to write books that touch your heart, mind and soul. Definitely one of my favorite authors.

Woman dealing with divorce and single parenting. Rings true. Very realistic emotions.

My Current Thoughts:

I still have a copy of this book and might give it another read since I enjoyed it so well the first time around. If I read it one day, gave it a 5-star rating and kept a copy, it must have been really good. It's odd that I only have a vague memory of the story.

Looking Back - Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

Looking Back... In an effort to transfer my book journal entries over to this blog, I'm going to attempt to post (in chronological order) an entry every Friday. I may or may not add extra commentary to what I jotted down in these journals.

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J.K. Rowling

2000 Scholastic

Read in July 2000

Rating: 4/5 (Very Good)

Publisher's Blurb:

For twelve long years, the dread fortress of Azkaban held an infamous prisoner named Sirius Black. Convicted of killing thirteen people with a single curse, he was said to be the heir apparent to the Dark Lord, Voldemort.

Now he has escaped, leaving only two clues as to where he might be headed: Harry Potter's defeat of You-Know-Who was Black's downfall as well. And the Azkaban guards heard Black muttering in his sleep, "He's at Hogwarts . . . he's at Hogwarts."

Harry Potter isn't safe, not even within the walls of his magical school, surrounded by his friends. Because on top of it all, there may well be a traitor in their midst.

My Original Thoughts (2000):

Very good and suspenseful! The ending was a little confusing and I had to read over a few pages twice, but all in all it was quite entertaining. I'm ready to dive into the fourth in the series!

My Current Thoughts:

This was another entertaining installment to the series. It might be fun to listen to all of the books now that so many years have passed since I read them.

Looking Back - Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

Looking Back... In an effort to transfer my book journal entries over to this blog, I'm going to attempt to post (in chronological order) an entry every Friday. I may or may not add extra commentary to what I jotted down in these journals.

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by J.K. Rowling

2000 Scholastic

Read in July 2000

Rating: 4/5 (Very Good)

Publisher's Blurb:

Ever since Harry Potter had come home for the summer, the Dursleys had been so mean and hideous that all Harry wanted was to get back to the Hogwarts School for Witchcraft and Wizardry. But just as he’s packing his bags, Harry receives a warning from a strange impish creature who says that if Harry returns to Hogwarts, disaster will strike.

And strike it does. For in Harry’s second year at Hogwarts, fresh torments and horrors arise, including an outrageously stuck-up new professor and a spirit who haunts the girls’ bathroom. But then the real trouble begins – someone is turning Hogwarts students to stone. Could it be Draco Malfoy, a more poisonous rival than ever? Could it possibly be Hagrid, whose mysterious past is finally told? Or could it be the one everyone at Hogwarts most suspects… Harry Potter himself!

My Original Thoughts (2000):

Very entertaining. I enjoyed it just as much as The Sorcerer's Stone. I don't know if I'd go so far to say it was great, but I bought all four in hard cover and hope Rod will read them, too.

My Current Thoughts:

A very enjoyable installment to the series. I read it a second time in 2007 (reviewed here).