The Sunday Salon: Summer Reading Plans (and scrapping the current quarter project)

I wasn't planning to do one of these, but since everyone else is posting their summer reading lists, I couldn't resist. Blame it on peer pressure.

Couple of months back, I planned to spend the second quarter reading science fiction and dystopian titles. And while I did read a few books from that category (Divergent, Battle Royale, Fahrenheit 451, The Knife of Never Letting Go, currently reading Unwind), I didn't quite get to as many as I had hoped to read. But mostly, none of the books I read so far have wowed me - they all fell far short of expectations. I will probably continue with more science fiction books (I still have Insurgent to read and maybe continue with the Chaos Walking series), but they may not exactly be on top of my pile. For now, I'm looking for something else to focus on.

I know that whenever I make a reading list, I never get to most of the books on that list. Reading lists, to me, are for ogling pleasure. I have no doubt, that history will repeat yet again, but lists are so much fun to make that I don't mind enjoying the whole process and patting myself for coming up with a final result. So rather than make a traditional list, I'm going for more of a project list. Moreover, summer hours are starting in a month, and I'm looking forward to using some of those weekends for reading whole chunks.

NetGalley

One of the first things I want to do is clean up my NetGalley list. I suffer from the out-of-sight-out-of-mind syndrome, so half the time I forget there are a bunch of egalleys waiting to be read. Last I checked, many have expired, but luckily, I usually download the galley files soon as I get the approval notification from NetGalley. Right now I have 12 ebooks waiting to be read or declined, and while I know that some of those don't appeal to me anymore, I know there are many there that I do want to read. I've decided not to request more titles from them until I clear off the pending ones (Ha, right!). In case, you are interested, these are some of the titles I'm looking forward to reading

1. A Hundred Flowers by Gail Tsukiyama
2. Between Gears by Natalie Nourigat
3. The Lola Quartet by Emily St. John Mandel
4. Smuggled by Christina Shea
5. White Woman on the Green Bicycle by Monique Roffey

I do realize that some of them are past the galley stage and on to the bookstore shelves stage. :)

Personal Library

There are quite a few books on my shelves that I keep glancing at every other minute, wondering when to get to them. I only read one book this year that was already on my shelf - all other books were acquired or borrowed. I don't want to ever reach a stage where I've read 90% of the books I own - I like knowing that I will always have plenty of options to choose from on a blizzard-like evening or in an apocalyptic/zombie/non-'Fahrenheit 451' world. But for now, these are the books I hope to get to this summer:

1. The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen (I'm really wondering what the whole deal over this writer is...)
2. The Year of the Flood by Margaret Atwood (And this writer...)
3. Sarah's Key by Tatiana de Rosnay (And this book...)

Chunksters

I haven't read a chunkster that wasn't fast-paced or a thriller in a long time. Mostly because I usually read in sporadic bursts, which are not suited to reading books like War and Peace or Ulysses. Not that either are on my bucket list. Just saying. Last year, I tried to read Shantaram during a readalong I hosted. That became an epic failure for many reasons. (I love readalongs! I just don't seem to be reading along.) I'm still reeling from that knowledge but that doesn't stop me from choosing the Big Read for this summer.

1. One of my top choices is Haruki Murakami's 1Q84, which although huge, may still fall in the fast-paced category. Maybe.
2. It's more likely though that I will read A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth. That ought to be challenging - last I checked the book, I saw plenty of verse in there that pretty much scared me.
3. My third option is Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace that I am adding here just for jest.

I was also thinking of reading a book or two from my PIE list. My personal goal is to read five books from the PIE list every year. I've already read four so far (The Yellow Wallpaper, The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, Fahrenheit 451, The Knife of Never Letting Go) and I'm going through the fifth one right now (Unwind), so looks like for the first time in three years I'll actually complete one of my personal goals. I've also been itching to reread some of my old favorites (To Kill a Mockingbird, A Christmas Carol, Harry Potter), but the Fall season seems to be the season for rereads. So for now, this is my summer reading list.

Intl Giveaway - Make It Stay (Joan Frank)

Yesterday, I raved about Make it Stay and today, I'm thrilled to say that I have ONE copy of this book to give away, courtesy of the publisher and TLC Book Tours. I strongly recommend this book to all readers of literary fiction. To enter, simply fill the form below.

The usual stuff:

1. You don't have to be a follower of my blog to enter the giveaway.
2. You must be over 13 years of age.
3. International giveaway - (which means you can be from anywhere on Planet Earth)
4. The giveaway will stay open until I chose the winner on May 29, 2012.
5. Fill the form.

Make it Stay by Joan Frank

I remember Neil made a show of checking his watch that day; then, facing me as if I were a point-blank gun barrel, shouted his invitation to lunch. The whole staff turned to stare. He must've thought I couldn't hear with my earphones in. Poor fellow blushed so hard I thought his head might pop off.

Neil and Rachel (aka Rae) met and got married when Rae was in her forties - much later than is considered the "normal" age for first marriages. Rae is a writer, an introvert who preferred to stay home in her PJs than meet people. Neil was more outgoing, loved cooking and hosted dinners often for their friends and acquaintances. Into this marriage, Neil brings the baggage of his long friendship with Mike, the owner of an aquarium business in downtown, and the complicated relationship between Mike and his wife, Tilda. At the moment however, something terrible had already happened, involving Mike and Tilda - something hinted at a lot, while Neil preps dinner for a gathering they were going to host soon.

I was pulled into this book mainly because of its blurb, which mentioned something of a dinner involving friends, and built a lot of anticipation over that dinner. The blurb also indicated "a mysterious catastrophe" that "propels all five individuals into uncharted realities". While that's somewhat true, the blurb in itself is heavily misleading - because the dinner in question is really nothing more than a prop for Neil to narrate a story. The crux of the plot happens before and after the dinner. I also didn't find the fifth person (Mike/Tilda's daughter Addie) to be very important to the plot. I don't typically read blurbs, except when checking out review books (so that I can gauge my interest) and the summary that I read of this book felt erroneous to me.

That said, in this one case, I was lucky that the book in itself was very engaging. Although Make it Stay is very short - just 164 pages - it packs a wallop right from the moment Neil and Rae settle down to prepare dinner for friends, until the end, when the fortunes of the characters are presented. Rae urges Neil to tell her the whole story of Mike and Tilda, and through Neil's eyes, we begin to see this dynamic couple that appeared more mismatched than made in heaven.

Mike and Tilda were heavily flawed characters, and that made them all the more believable. Mike had a very Santa Claus'-ish personality - very helpful, a huge HA! that either cracked everyone up or scared them out of their wits. He loved fishes and had an impressive collection of aquatic life swimming away in the aquariums in his shop. He was however a womanizer - a fact that Tilda suspected for very long. Tilda, on the other hand, oozed an air of indifference at all times. She was on booze and cigarettes most of the time, and reeking of bad breath as well. One night, someone commits a horrendous act that forever damages Mike - an act that Rae suspects Tilda to be guilty of, but there are no proofs. This tragedy has several long-lasting repercussions on Mike, Tilda, Neil and Rae, and while it is the turning point of the book, I wouldn't be quick to say that it was the pivotal event.

I enjoyed this book far more than I was expecting to. The underlying theme was that of friendship and how it is affected post-marriage. To any marriage, both members bring in their own friendships - some survive, some don't. Both members wish that their other half will love their friends as much as they do. Neil was always under the impression that Rae didn't care for Mike, who happens to be one of the most important people in Neil's life. Rae defends herself by saying that she prefers books to people. Rae happens to be the narrator, and in most books, the narrator is who I identify with. However, in this case, I really disliked Rae (in fact, more than Mike and Tilda). I found Rae too prejudiced and slightly racist. She was quick to bundle up people into their cultural identities, even going so far as to decorate Tilda as bisexual simply because Tilda preferred to dress in men's clothes, and calling Mike a 200-pound infant for reasons I don't want to mention here, but which I found incredibly bad in taste.

Although the (faulty) synopsis cites the phrase 'love stories', I would rather say that this book is more about a beautiful friendship that defined many of the characters in the book. I did find myself wishing that we got more of Rae's story. I found it hard to believe that only Mike/Tilda were the primary people in their lives - surely Rae had people important to her too? But the character development in this book is truly fascinating and well-done. Except for Addie, none of the characters appeared flat to me.

Although this is a small book, I took a long time getting through the first half. The writing was a lot more involved than I expected, but it was still very beautiful. I got the impression that Joan Frank didn't carelessly wield words to form the book, but rather carefully stitched them together to produce this beautiful story. I also loved the themes explored in this book - the role of friendship and marriage, the question of whether to like or hate a person who is guilty of immoral acts but is the most wonderful person otherwise. As Neil says,

When you've known someone that long, after a point it can't matter anymore how crazy they are.

I received this book for free for review from the publisher via TLC Book Tours.

Yet another Monday! (May 21, 2012)

Sheila @ Book Journey wants to know what we're reading. I'm only too happy to oblige!

A month and a half since the last time I did this, I hate to admit that I have done very little reading in the meantime. A lot of things happened, and a lot of reading just didn't happen. One of those seasonal ruts, I could say. At the moment, I'm going through a few good books so that's always good.

One of the books I'm reading right now is Joan Frank's Make it Stay. The author is new to me and the book is really short. (Short books are really deceptive - they usually take twice as long to read as a bigger book.) The events in the book are supposed to be set within the span of an evening - and a lot of surprising revelations involving 5 people are expected to be made. I find myself drawn a lot to books like these - by the time you are done, you feel like you've read a saga, but in fact, you've only sat through a day or night in the lives of the characters. (On a side note, I didn't notice until now that it's broken glass on the cover!)

Which pages were turned...

  I'm also reading Neal Shusterman's Unwind, and can I just say how glad I am that I finally got to this book?

These are the abysmal number of books I finished in the last month:
  Battle Royale by Koushun Takami
  Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
  The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness

...And other news
  Review: Dance Lessons by Aine Greaney
  Review: Silver Sparrow by Tayari Jones
  Review: I've Got Your Number by Sophie Kinsella
  Review: Narcopolis by Jeet Thayil
  Review: Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
  The New Kid on the Block

Happy reading!

The Sunday Salon: Some reading and some petting

It's been ages since I did the last Salon post and I feel pretty clueless around here for a change. I've been up since two hours ago and the hour hand is only just slowly making its way to the 8 o'clock mark. Dogs and their early morning urges! It's been two weeks since we got Rue, and it's been a lot of revelations, learnings, changes, fun, and anxiety since then. The first week was all lovey-dovey. We loved the dog, she loved us. It was all a big happy family. We were pretty relieved that Rue was turning out to be low maintenance. As with things like these, once the honeymoon ended, the nightmares started. One day I came home to see that she had pretty much upended the recycle bin and started chewing on bottles and cans and strewn the litter in the hall. The neatofreak in me had a terrible panic attack. That same evening she ran out of the house (to do her business) but she didn't return back when I called her. Anyways, the point is, we found she has separation anxiety and I have seen pretty much all the symptoms in her - she follows me around all the time, she hates sitting alone, she jumps over-excitedly when I return from work, she chews crazily, she barks madly, etc. Did I really say low maintenance?

Still, she's already become such a core part of our home that I don't remember much about how things "used to be". I'm just hoping that we can get her to reduce her barking (I sit terrified every day that some neighbor will go and complain. *fingers crossed*) Right now, she barks at every Tom, Dick, Mary and their dog. Drives me mad!

Dog tales aside, my reading is slowly picking up. Or rather, I'm making it pick up. I doubt I'll ever get back to the 'plenty of time to read and blog' kind-of life, so I might as well make the time to do either when I can, which means warming up more to ebooks. Audiobooks have never worked for me, so I doubt I'll rush over to pick them. I'd rather spend my eyes-occupied time listening to podcasts or Lady Antebellum. Last night, I finished the first book of Patrick Ness' wildly popular Chaos Trilogy series - The Knife of Never Letting Go, which has left me with mixed feelings. I plan to read the next book in the series sometime later, after I'm done with the other two reads I started yesterday - Make It Stay for a book tour and Neal Shusterman's Unwind for serendipity. Both are going great, although I'm able to get through the former only in sprints.

At the moment, I'm looking forward to a lazy Sunday and plenty of reading, and some barking frenzy during Rue's training class that we have today.