DeMerse's book #6: Upstate by Kalisha Buckhanon

A few things you might not know about me: I was not an english major. I cannot make blog posts about rhetoric and composition books sound appealing. I am used to books written in the 3rd person.

"Upstate" is about two love struck teenagers who correspond through letters. At first, I found this format annoying. I felt that I wasn't getting enough background information about the characters and that I was missing out on some important details. But I grew to like the fact that the entire book was composed of letters written by Antonio and Natasha (even after phone calls and face-to-face correspondence was available to them). The book began after Antonio was arrested for killing his father. He was only 17 and Natasha was 16. I am somewhat familiar with this type of juvenile letter writing (no felonies were involved!) and I was brought back to a point in my childhood that I try not to think about often. To be in prison at that age...to be in love with someone in prison at that age...can you imagine?! It was a heartbreaking story that left me with burning eyes.

The first letter was written by Antonio on January 25th, 1990 (my birthday) and they continue for almost 10 years. Through the years you see how they have both changed and grown...both of them educate themselves, Antonio by getting his GED in prison and Natasha by finishing high school and moving on to college, and it is visible in the text.

When someone goes to prison at the beginning of a story you wonder what can happen that will keep you involved and interested. Although I was not bored, I kept wondering what could happen next. I got my answers in the last 20 pages. It was long awaited but I was not disappointed by the ending.

DeMerse's book #5: The Friday Night Knitting Club by Kate Jacobs

I have been crocheting off and on for more than a year now and I love it. Lately, though, I have been obsessed with everything knitting. I've been listening to knitting podcasts at work, trying to teach myself to knit again, and even dreaming about yarn and stitches. So, when I was picking my next book to read it is no wonder I pulled "The Friday Night Knitting Club" from my shelves.

It is basically your typical chick lit book but instead of focusing on a male/female relationship it centered on a diverse group of women in a knitting club...

Georgia - the owner of a yarn store in New York City (the setting for the majority of the book) and a single-mother of 13 year old Dakota

Anita - an older women who worked at the store and helped Georgia get back on her feet when she found herself newly single and pregnant

Peri - a college student who worked part-time at the store

Lucie - at 42 she decided she wanted a baby. One problem - she was single with no prospects. So she went to online dating sites and found herself a 'sperm donor'.

K.C. - Georgia's friend who left a career in publishing and pursued one in law instead. Her knitting projects ended like her marriages - "they sputtered more than they failed"

Darwin - a grad student in women's studies who was researching her dissertation. She didn't knit and and believed that women who wasted time on old-fashioned activities such as knitting would never realize their full professional potential.

I hate to admit it but I love chick flicks and chick lit (minus the happy endings, of course). I liked the story and the idea of this book but I just couldn't get over some of the writing. Ex: "It was her first kiss. And it was delicious, made her insides all gooshy and twisty and jingly-jangly." Seriously...how did her editor/proof reader/whoever reads books before they are published not see that and say "Are you sure about that?!!?"

On a positive note: I actually liked the ending.

DeMerse's book# 4: The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom

The Five People You Meet in Heaven is a very quick and easy book to read. It is about Eddie, an elderly maintenance man at an amusement park. Every day is routine and boring and Eddie feels that he has done nothing with his life. On his 83rd birthday he dies while trying to save a little girl from a malfunctioned ride. When he arrives in heaven he meets five people who have influenced his life. Some were people he barely remembered and some he had never even met. They teach him lessons and help him realize the impact he had made in the lives of other. While in heaven Eddie Learns that we are all connected and the importance of love, forgiveness, and sacrifice. TFPYMIH is a nice story that helped remind me that everything we do affects other people and I hope to be more aware of that in the future. And the forgiveness thing...I really need to work on that one ;-)

DeMerse's book# 3: The Confessions of Max Tivoli by Andrew Sean Greer

I can't say that I hated this book but I can't say that I really liked it either. There were times that I liked the writing style and other times I didn't. There were parts of the story that I liked and others that I didn't. I guess that goes for a lot of books but unlike other books, I was always (and I do mean always) irritated with the main character, Max Tivoli (a.k.a. Asgar Van Daler, a.k.a. Hughie). Max was born with a disease that caused his body to age backwards. I thought this would make his character sympathetic or endearing but he was just so self-centered that I quickly lost any affection towards him. Since the book was written in first person, it didn't allow for other character development which is a shame.
When Max wasn't thinking about himself he was obsessing over Alice. Because of his tunnel vision he pushed away the only people who truly knew and cared about him. Max first met Alice when she was 14 and he was 17. Unfortunately he looked like he was in his early 50s so there was no hope for a relationship to blossom. They met again when they were both in their 30s. Somehow she did not recognize him so he reinvented himself and began courting her. They eventually parted and did not come back together until Max was in his late 50s (in the body of a 12 year old boy). Alice, of course, didn't recognize him and adopted him.
I read other reviews that talked about a 'heartbreaking love story'...blah blah blah. I thought it was creepy how he kept weaseling his way into her life over and over again.

Sometimes I hate first person...I wish I knew Alice's reaction when she found out that Max, Asgar, and Hughie were all the same person.

DeMerse’s book# 2: Goodbye Columbus by Philip Roth

I have definitely been slacking and I apologize. After canceling my internet at home is has been hard to keep up on reading the blog and since all of my books have been packed away for the majority of the year (I just started unpacking this week!) it has been hard to read a book as well.

I read Goodbye Columbus before my life got all turned upside down and when I read Erin’s post on Olive Kitteridge two days ago it all came rushing back. Like Erin, I did not know that Goodbye Columbus was a book of short stories. And unlike Erin, I’m sure, I didn’t figure that out until I was about to start the 6^th (and final) story. I probably should have realized it sooner but, in my defense, there was a wedding in the first story where a lot of characters were briefly introduced and I think at least one last name was used in another story. Although I could not remember who the person was, I thought they were going to tie things together somehow. I almost put the book down without finishing because I was so irritated and disappointed that I wouldn’t get closure with any of the characters that I had already met. Maybe my expectations and overall reaction to the book would have been different had I known from the start.

Even though it was not what I expected I did enjoy three of the six stories. The Conversion of the Jews is about a 13 year old boy, Ozzie, who constantly questions his Rabbi. When Ozzie says that the Rabbi doesn’t know anything about God (in front of the entire class), Rabbi Binder smacks him in the face (only a day after his mother had smacked him over his religious questions as well). Ozzie runs to the roof of the synagogue and a crowd gathers. He threatens to jump unless everyone kneels and says that God can do anything, even make a child without intercourse. “You should never hit anybody about God”…I concur. Defender of the Faith is about Sergeant Marx who is taken advantage of by one of his trainees. Private Grossbart manipulates everyone and uses his faith to get out of cleaning, to get out of eating the food that everyone else in the army has to eat, to get a pass to visit relatives when nobody else is allowed to leave the base, and to get stationed in New Jersey (close to his parents) when every other trainee was going to be shipped to the Pacific. Marx and I were both irritated by Grossbart’s antics but I was also irritated that Marx allowed himself to be used like that. He finally put his foot down when he found out about the future orders. He called in a favor and got them changed so that Grossbart would be shipped to the Pacific with everyone else. It was definitely harsh punishment but if I had to learn that you can’t always get what you want then everyone else should too! Epstein was my favorite story. A 59 year old man, Lou, had an affair with a neighbor lady. His wife finds out when she walks out of the bathroom after taking a bath and finds him standing naked in front of the mirror looking at a rash on his crotch. She starts yelling and throws herself on the bed while crying about her “nice clean sheets”. All of the commotion gets the attention of their daughter, her boyfriend, and their nephew who is staying with them. The three of them stand in the doorway watching the naked older couple like they were watching a car accident. The dialogue was hilarious and I wish this story would have been longer than twenty two pages.

DeMerse's Book #1: Geek Love

Geek Love is the story of the Binewski family. Al Binewski inherited his family’s traveling carnival at age 24 and within a few years its popularity began to fade. The idea to save the carnival came to Al while visiting the Rose Garden in Portland, OR. He realized, like the roses in the test garden, that children could be designed. So, he and his wife, Crystal Lil, experimented with illicit and prescription drugs, insecticides, and even radioisotopes during her pregnancies. Papa’s ‘roses’ were Arturo (Arty), who had flippers for hands and feet; Electra (Elly) and Iphigenia (Iphy), the Siamese twins; Olympia (Oly), the albino hunchback dwarf; and Fortunato (Chick), the telekinetic baby with no physical deformities.

Oly is the narrator of the novel and the majority of the story is set during her childhood. It describes her familial relationships as well as those between the Binewskis and the ‘norms’. When Oly asks Arty if reading scared him he replied “These are written by norms to scare norms. And do you know what the monsters and demons and rancid spirits are? Us, that’s what. You and me. We are the things that come to the norms in nightmares. The thing that lurks in the bell tower and bites out the throats of the choirboys—that’s you. And the thing in the closet that makes the babies scream in the dark before it sucks their last breath—that’s me.” Although Oly narrates the story I would argue that Arty is the main character. Over time he takes control of the carnival and manages to manipulate just about everyone he comes in contact with. Even those who see his dark side are still enamored and loyal. This explains how he ends up starting his own cult.

The rest of the story occurs in Oly’s mid to late 30’s. She lives in the same building as her mother and daughter yet neither know that she is anything more than a neighbor - Crystal Lil because she’s lost her mind and Miranda because she was raised by nuns and never knew who her birth mother was. I liked these later years but didn’t like the fact that they were interspersed throughout the novel…I’m not a big fan of hopping back and forth unless it adds to the overall story and I don’t feel that this did.

Geek Love took me longer to read due to my frequent closing of the book and cringing, but I was compelled to continue - with the amputations, murder, topless dancing, and lobotomies - I wanted to know what was going to happen next! Unfortunately I was a bit disappointed in both the ending of the carnival and the book’s ending. When the carnival closed Oly was forced into a world of houses without wheels and explanations. Her answer to the what-the-hell-happened-to-you-looks was "My father and mother designed me this way" and she was proud if it. All of the 'freaks' were proud to be original instead of normal but never really seemed happy. None of them had normal romantic relationships. Iphy explained that "it's OK for me to love a norm like that. But if he comes to loving me it's because I've twisted him and changed him. If he loves me he's corrupted. I can't love him anymore."

Geek Love was both engaging and deeply disturbing. It had me disgusted, envious, frustrated, and sad all at the same time. I just finished last night and I'm still not sure if I feel relieved that it's over or bereaved.

A bit about us: Demerse

Demerse: When I first got an email asking if I was interested in reading fifty books in a year I thought it was a great idea. Then I remembered that there are only 52 weeks in a year. That's about a book a week! (can you tell that I'm a math whiz?!) I love to read but I'm a slow reader so this will be a challenge. The next thought was, "How am I going to figure out what books I want to read?" I looked over at my bookshelf and started counting. There are at least 50 books that I haven't read yet...list completed! (and I don't have to spend more $$$)

On June 16th, 2007 I arrived in Portland, Oregon. It's been 2 years, 5 months, and 16 days and I have not regretted the move from Florida for a second. I grew up in Naples hating the heat and humidity and vowing I would move as soon as I could. I went to school in Tallahassee because I couldn't afford to go out of state. I got a BS in Studio Art and am now an accounting clerk at an art glass manufacturing company. I like...living alone, The Golden Girls, cheese, gin, crocheting. I dislike...papers stapled haphazardly, people who don't listen, not knowing.