Found in Translation?

I'm not sure how many times I can say this, but I am so glad that I read like crazy when I had the time! I'm not nervous I wont meet my 100 book goal, but I did have a secret hope that I would annihilate it and read 120 books. This week has been pretty disappointing. I haven't finished a book! I've actually barely made any progress in my current novel. I'm not blaming the book, I'm blaming myself (maybe work, maybe the weather, but not the book.) Here are a few photos of things that have recently kept my attention away from reading!

(My little cousin's last day of preschool)

(Sounders Game)

(Brittney and Jon's Wedding)

(My garden!)

Book update book 47: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Steig Larsson

Usually I don't like to discuss my C.A.K.E club books before the actual meetings, but we have decided to restructure our club into 'a book every two months' format. Seems that I am not the only one who has been falling behind in their reading! Since waiting another month would most likely mean that I would forget most of the things I want to talk about, I have decided to review it now!

The first thing I want to say is that this is a very dark book. There are moments of extremely graphic violence. This book was also difficult for me to get into. Often with mysteries the author has to lay down a lot of details so the story will make sense. The first 100 pages are packed with lots of Swedish financial mumbo-jumbo. But, if you can get past the first 100 pages and the violence, this is a great mystery.

An easy read, this is not. I think one of the reasons is because it is "translated from the Swedish" by someone who is obviously English and not American. Some of the terms were still foreign (where there should have been a Z there was an S). One of the major revelations wasn't made clear until several chapters later because it wasn't translated at all. My final complaint about the translation is that at one point they describe the temperature outside. They use Fahrenheit instead of Celsius. Obviously this was done because American's are too stupid to understand the Metric system, but I found it very distracting. If you are going to call the trunk of a car a "boot" then why change what the thermometer says?

I just reread all of that and realize that it sounds an awful lot like I didn't like this book, but I loved it! It was a challenge to read and it was very different from everything else I've read this year. I'm looking forward to picking up the next two installments of the series and seeing the Swedish made movie.

Why I love sharing books.

Remember how I mentioned in a past post how it made me nervous to make book recommendations? Well, all my most recent suggestions have been successful! My friend Jessica, who wasn't an avid read before, texted me yesterday telling me she had already finished the two books I had loaned her and wanted more book ideas! I have her hooked! I also recently gave my friend Ryan a book for his birthday. This wasn't just any recommendation, this just so happened to be one of my favorite books-- "The Alchemist." I gave it to him with the strict instructions that if he didn't like it, I didn't want to hear it. (The one time I accept lying.) So when he told me he really liked it, I couldn't do anything but believe him! The way he talked about it made me really believe him though. So I am adding 'sharing books' to my reason why I don't use the library.

Lately I have been trying to put together a little bit of a favorite book list. This led to me skimming through books that I think might be worthy. One of those books is "The Catcher in the Rye." While looking through my hardback edition I remembered when I received it for my oldest brother for my high school graduation. I love getting books as presents*, even more so when they are given with meaning. The inscription my brother wrote was perfect for the moment (can't believe it was 6 years ago!) and it certainly seems like great advice to me today.

Congratulations,

Often times people use graduation as a time to look back and remember. While you're doing that, don't forget to look to the future and dream.

Love, your oldest brother

*When I graduated from high school I also received an equally amazing present from my other older brother. An incredibly beautiful canvas he had painted while he was an art student in college. (I just had to mention that both my brothers are pretty amazing and special... not only because they are, but also because they both might read this!)

Update book 46: Savor the Moments by Nora Roberts

This is the fourth book in the bride quartet. As I mentioned before, I am not above reading cheesy romance novels. I've read a couple of books by Nora Roberts before and haven't always been impressed. This series is actually pretty good, even though I figured out how everything would end up by the end of the first book. Sometimes you just need a good happy read (especially when your next book is pretty darn serious!)

Read, Remember, Recommend.

A few weeks ago my Mom gave me a journal called, "Read, Remember, Recommend: A Reading Journal for Book Lovers." The Journal contains over 150 pages of book lists. The lists include annual winners of the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, National Book Award winners, New York Times Best Books of the year, Oprah's book Club, and many more. The first thought I had about these lists was that no two book lists are the same. In fact there are several best books of the century lists, all with differing opinions. My next thought was one of defeat. There are too many books in the world! Thousands of books contained on these lists and new books coming out every Tuesday. Even if I were to read over 100 books every year for the rest of my life, I will never even scrape the surface of the literary masterpieces, much less all the smutty vampire novels I intend to read! The good news is that I can check off "Olive Kitteridge" the 2009 Pulitzer Prize winner for Fiction from the list.

Update Book 45: Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout

I didn't realize that this book was short stories until about a quarter of the way through. I kept waiting for the characters to come back in the next chapters. The title character Olive Kitteridge makes an appearance in each of the stories. We start off from the perspective on Olive's husband Henry. After that we move to the perspective of other inhabitants of the small town. Each chapter chronicles that person's story. Olive is a retired teacher, who appears to many as very harsh. The first topic for discussion in the back of the book is: "Do you like Olive as a person?" Halfway through my answer would have been a solid no. But Strout created a very complicated character in Olive, and by the end I think I liked her more because I understood her better.

In the past I've rarely enjoyed short story compilations. To be honest if I had known "Olive Kitteridge" was just that, I probably wouldn't have picked it up. But I'm glad I have broadened my horizons. I liked this book. This is one of those instances where I say something along the lines of, "If I were an older woman I think I would appreciate it more." Not in a condescending way, but I have not lived a long enough life to have been through any of issues that Olive had to deal with and never felt an emotional connection with her.

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11. The days are long but the years are short.

Everyone seems to agree with this happiness principle. Some days feel like they will never end, then in a blink of an eye you write down the date and realize it is May. I always hear people say, "When you get older, it just goes by quicker." This doesn't really seem fair to me. Personally, I wouldn't mind if everything just slowed down a little bit. So in the spirit of my eleventh 'Happiness Principle,' I have been trying to enjoy the moment. Here is an example: Last Sunday was such a beautiful day. Not too warm, not too cold. Just right. It seemed like the perfectness of the day was carried in the wind. I spent the morning outside working in the yard, then when it came time to go to work I decided to walk. When I got to work my mind was clear and I was in a great mood. When it came time to walk home I treated myself to an ice cream cone. I think I will always remember that walk home vividly. I don't think I past another person walking or driving, to me the rest of the whole world was completely still. I paused for a few minutes and enjoyed the view of the sun going down over the water. Sometimes you just have to take a minute, center yourself and enjoy what is around you.

I know last week I made somewhat of a promise to keep up on book updates, but I seem to have gotten out of the habit. I promise to try harder!

Update Book 41: The Mistress's Daughter by A.M. Homes

Two of the goals for my 100 book resolution were to read books that I normally wouldn't pick up and to get recommendations from other book lovers. Most non-fictions and memoirs fit the first half of that statement perfectly. I think one of the things I like about fiction is that you know the author has complete control of the story. In a non-fiction or memoir it is real life. You can only get one side of the story and most of the time the author doesn't even know all of the answers. So I always feel a little unsettled when I finish these type of books. Not that I can't enjoy them and learn from them, I just feel like real life has enough unanswered questions.

"The Mistress's Daughter," is the story of a women who was adopted at birth and now, thirty years later, is contacted by her Mother. The story is heartbreaking and sad at times. At the end she talks about how the most important thing is family, but that family isn't always the people who you are blood related to. I guess this book hit a personal note for me. My Mom was adopted and after reading this book, I realized that I had never really talked to her about it. After, we had a good conversation.

It is kind of an odd thing. People always talk about how important blood is, but I don't share a drop of blood with half of my extended family and I can't imagine that sharing DNA could make them any more important to me. A lot of things had to happen for me to be born, for me to live where I do and for me to have the grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins that I have. I feel so incredibly blessed that I have the family that I do. I guess I don't really know the right words to say about it, but I wish I did. I only know how I feel and sometimes there aren't any words.

Update Book 42: Bloodroot by Amy Greene

C.A.K.E club book numero dose. At our last meeting we chose our next three books. Rolled the dice and "Bloodroot" came up for April. "Bloodroot" was kind of hard for me to read. It is written in four sections. The first two section are from the perspective of four different people and at first it was hard to follow (just like my explanation!) Once I got into it though, I liked it. I have certainly never read a book like it. "Bloodroot" takes place in the Appalachian Mountains. This is the story of Myra and her cursed family. I couldn't believe how these people lived, it was obvious they didn't do it sanely. I don't think I ever really emotionally connected with this book. I think I just read it from afar. I read a review of it after I had finished and the reviewer said that they cried multiple times while reading it. I never had even came close while I was reading it.

Obviously neither did the other member of the book club. Two of them didn't finish! I guess I understand because I too had a hard time with it, but I was still disappointed that we couldn't share how we felt about the entire book. Hopefully everybody finishes May's book "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo."

Update Book 43: Getting the Girl by Markus Zusak

It is decided. I love everything this man writes. Yes they are all in the Young Adult section, but that doesn't change how I feel. I love the way he puts words together. I think I could basically devour anything he writes. "Getting the Girl" is one of the first books he published and you can see how much he has matured as a writer when you read "The Book Thief." But I still enjoyed this book. It was an easy read with nice big print, the story was simple but entertaining. I can't wait to get my hands on his next book.