The "Final" Word

"What is reading but silent conversation?" -- Walter Savage Landor

Alas, my Readers' Advisory course is wrapping up, but before I go, I felt compelled to say that it's been a most enjoyable literary ride for a bibliophile such as myself. Aside from being the perfect "excuse" to read, I've garned a fancy for audiobooks (great background "noise" no matter the endeavor. In fact, I'm listening to one as we speak). That said, nothing beats the proximity of a concrete tangible, and I'm foaming at the bit for the delectible treat that awaits me on the table (finals can't be done soon enough for oh-so-many reasons). Fittingly enough, it's none other than my beloved Augusten Burroughs A Wolf at the Table.

Word to the wise: If you want first dibs on hot stuff, get a job at your local library!

Other recent reads / listens:

Jodi Picoult's Change of Heart & My Sister's Keeper. Yes, I've finally caved & embarked on Picoult. High-Five for me. Actually, it's not bad, and I can see why readers love it--she's a master of the hook, & her multicast audio's are pretty cool. However, I think I'm done for the moment, as I've begun to notice a thematic recycling of materials...

Christopher Moore's You Suck: A Love Story. God, how I LOVE the title. So many interpretations in that little statement alone.

Umberto Eco's Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana (most intriguing).

Sue Limb's Girl, 15, Charming, but Insane series (YA books that are hilariously fun for all--and a beautiful reminder that growing older isn't necessarily so bad!)

Joshilyn Jackson's The Girl Who Stopped Swimming (an atmospheric, ghostly Southern gothic romp that became incredibly addictive...)

Which led me, at long last, too...

John Berendt's Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil (beloved by both my brothers, one who reads and one who doesn't, so, of course, I had to check it out!).

I could go on and on, but it is finals after all, so this wraps up my reflections on reads--for now...

Entry #7: "A Long Way Gone"

Beah, Ishmael. A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier.
New York: Farrar, Straus, & Giroux, 2007.

Genre: Non-Fiction (Autobiography/Memoir)

To Learn More...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5K4yhPSQEzo
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ishmael_Beah
http://www.nyc24.org/2006/newnewyorkers/childsoldier/index.html

Subjects & Themes: civil war; genocide; kidnapping, torture, murder, endless death; child soliers/children forced to kill; control; dictatorship; annhiliation; desolation & desperation; unspeakable horrors; adaptation & survival; huntering & gathering societies/tribal living; international relations; activism; rehibilitation; psychology; human development, family; forgiveness; perseverence; generosity; courage; compassion; finding one's voice; and, the ability to heal...

Reading Reaction: Where to begin? This is one of the most powerful literary experiences in recent memory. At heart, A Long Way Gone is truly an inspirational tale, and yet...It took me five starts only to determine that perhaps the audio route would be best. I just couldn't read the book (readerly immersion, for me, the utmost intimate), yet still, I sat, tears streaming down my face. Simply so raw, so simultaneously real and unreal. Nevertheless, I continued to listen, I would not turn away...I once visited the Holocaust Museum out in D.C. for much the same reason: Such stories must be heard, acknowledged, learned from, understood, even if only from afar. The continued perpetuation (and global ignorance) of such horror is enough to make an athiest pray for the existence of God, if only for the reassurance that there likewise exist the purgatories of hell for those content to create hell on earth.

Read A Likes (true tales of human atrocity--and survival):

1. Disguised: A Wartime Memoir by Rita De Clercq Zubli (2007).
2. Girl Soldier: A Story of Hope for Northern Uganda's Children by Faith McDonnell (2007).
3. God Grew Tired of Us by John Bul Day (2008).
4. Stolen Lives: Twenty Years in a Desert Jail by Malika Oufkir (2002).
5. A Woman in Amber: Healing the Trauma of War and Exile by Agate Nesaule (1997).
6. When I was a Soldier by Valerie Zenatti (2007).

Related Reads (authentic voices of innocence lost):

1. Burn Journals by Brent Runyon (2005).
2. A Child Called "It:" One Child's Courage to Survive by Dave Pelzer (1995).
3. Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls (2005).
4. Grief Girl: My True Story by Erin Vincent (2007).
5. Like Family: Growing Up in Other People's Houses by Paula McLain (2004).
6. Running With Scissors: A Memoir by Augusten Burroughs (2002).

Post Read Pick-Me-Up: Gloria Gaynor's I Will Survive (you'll need it)

Entry #6: "The Professor's Daughter"

Sfar, Joann & Emmanuel Guibert. The Professor's Daughter. New York: First Second, 1997.

Genre: Graphic Novel (originally written in French)

Author Info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joann_Sfar

Illustrator Info: http://lambiek.net/artists/g/guibert_emman.htm

Subjects & Themes: Egyptology; Victorian London; museums & mummies; archaeology & antiquity; cultural elitism, gender inequality, & social hierarchies; murder, madness, & mayhem; timeless (& unlikely) love; transformation; beating the odds; and, the living dead.

Reading Reaction: Thought the illustrations were pretty cool, alternating between panels of muted tones in black & white, and those that were colorfully vivid. As for the story, however, what can I say? Silly beyond compare. It wasn't what I expected at all (was hoping for something a bit more historically rich) with enlivening details of Ancient Egypt...Alas, The Profesor's Daughter, considered by many critics to be a modern classic within the genre, is pure fantastical escapism. If you've ever seen the movie, The Mummy, you get my drift. Such just doesn't suit my mood today.

Read-a-Likes (additional cheese, if you please,w/ a dash of (mostly) historic noir):

1. Dead High Yearbook by Ivan Velez (2007).
2. The Egyptologist by Arthur Phillips (2004).
3. The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova (2005).
4. The Labyrinth by Kate Mosse (2006).
5. Violin: A Novel by Anne Rice (1997).
6. Well Bred & Dead: A High Society Mystery (2007).

Related Reads (graphic novels for the slightly more aged reader):

1. A Contract with God by Will Eisner (2006).
2. Maus: A Survivor's Tale by Art Spiegelman (1993).
3. Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood by Marjane Satrapi (2004).
4. The Rabbit's Cat by Joann Sfar (2007).
5. Sardine in Outer Space by Joann Sfar & Emmanuel Guibert (2006).
6. Vampire Loves by Joann Sfar (2006).

Musical Accompaniment: Possum Kingdom by the Toadies (an intriguing enticement regarding the precarious promise of eternal life...)

Entry #5: "Blood Child"

"Truth is, I hate short story writing...Yet there is something seductive about writing short stories..." -- Octavia E. Butler

Butler, Octavia E. Blood Child and Other Stories. New York: Four Walls Eight Windows, 1995.

Genre: Science Fiction

Author's Website: http://www.sfwa.org/members/butler/

Butler's Obituary: http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/books/260959_butlerobit26ww.html

Subjects & Themes: death & decay; chaos & control; dystopia; catastrophe; mutants; illness, genetic disease, & heredity; women & men/women vs. men; pregnancy; family; aging; loss; hopeless; drudgery; sense (or lack there of) of community; and, the ever present threat of annhilation.

Reading Reaction: A glimmer of intrigue, yet overall, pure displeasure (a fact about which I feel a little guilty, having only recently learned of the author's demise). For, try as I might, it seems inevitable that I will never acquire a taste for the realm of science fiction. I find it confusing & I simply can't muster enough inertia to decipher the message. Don't deny the author's talent--but I'll take a raw dose reality

Read a Likes (if bleak otherworldliness be your thing):

1. The Alien Years by Robert Silverberg (1998).
2. The Boat of a Million Years by Poul Anderson (1989).
3. Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert Heinlein (1961).
4. The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury (1950).
5. The Doomsday Book by Connie Willis (1992)
6. The Handmaid's Tale Margaret Atwood (1985).

Related Reads (more infamous sci fi)

1. Dune by Frank Herbert (1965).
2. The Time Machine by H.G. Wells (1895).
3. Journey to the Center of the Earth (1864).
4. Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card (1985).
5. A Canticle for Leibowitz (1959).
6. Dragonflight by Anne McCaffrey (1968).

Suggested Tunes: soundtrack from 2001: A Space Odyssey. Repeat only if necessary.

Entry #4: "A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary for Lovers"

"Shamelessly honest, sharp, poetic, and feminine. That's the starting point for my work."

-- Xiaolu Guo, essayist, author, poet, & filmaker

"Nothing in this book is true, except for the love between her

and him." --from A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary for Lovers

Guo, Xiaolu. A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary for Lovers. New York: Doubleday, 2007.

Genre: Contemporary International Fictional/Muticultural Romance

Author's Website: http://www.guoxiaolu.com/

Subjects & Themes: language & meaning; life & meaning; linguistics; dictionaries; diaries; inward journies & outward travels; exploration; cultural immersion; passion, propriety, & perseverence; individuality vs. selfishness; Ethnocentricism; art, exploration, & creativing; isolation, adaptation, & self-discovery; sense of family, the demands of love, heartbreak & longing; sex adn sexuality; abortion; aging; and, learning to let go.

Reading Reaction: Incredibly satisfied with having found an intellectually stimulating & reverently rendered read that urged me to "slow down, digest slowly". Sadly reminded of lost love, but to have, too, survived intact. Awed by perseverence of ESL speakers, especially those

whose native tongue so vastly differs from our own. Reaffirmed: A personal passion language-- despite its intricacy and inherently tenuous nature.

Read-a-Likes ("It's better to have loved & lost than never to have loved at all...")

1. Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood (2000).
2. Cloud Mountain by Aimee E. Liu (1997).
3. Daughter of Fortune by Isabel Allende (1999).
4. Girl With a Pearl Earring by Tracy Chevalier (1999).
5. Loving Che by Ana Menbendez (2003).
6. Unburnable by Marie-Elena John (2006).

Related Reads (art, assimilation, &/or Chinese voice)

1. Beautiful Things That Heaven Bears by Dinaw Mengestu (2006).
2. The Bonesetter's Daughter by Amy Tan (2001).
3. The Forest Lover by Susan Vreeland (2004).
4. Hunger: A Novella and Stories by Samantha Lan Chang (1998).
5. The Last Communist Virgin: Stories by Wang Ping (2007).
6. Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See (2005).

Suggested Background Music: Bach's Air on a G String (repeat, most definitely repeat).

Entry #3: "The Diving Pool: Three Novellas"

"...I don't really understand couples at all. They seem like some sort of inexplicable gaseous body to me--a shapeless, coloress, unintelligible thing, trapped in a labratory beaker...And she seems quite peaceful, as if she's wandered off into a deep, cold swamp..."

--from "The Diving Pool"

Ogawa, Yoko. Translated by Stephen Snyder. The Diving Pool: Three Novellas. Picador: New York, 2008.

Genre: Psychological Suspense/Mystery/Japanese Fiction

For Further Info:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoko_Ogawa

http://www.bookforum.com/inprint/014_05/2073

Subjects & Themes: manipulation; mental torture; inexplicable rage; reality vs. dream; hallucination; secrets; confusion & control; discontent; instanity & emotional break-downs; nothingness; interior & exterior storms; nothingness & the notion of the great abyss; alienation & the elusiveness of memory; the complex dichotomy of our human appetite; and life's enigma.

Reading Reaction:

In a word: weirdo-rama. Beyond that, thoroughly creeped out, yet equally fascinated. The author's writing style is deceptively simple (makes one wonder how it reads in its native Japanese) and before you know it, you've become nsnared in one enticingly abysmal realm...But, don't be turned off, for I was impressed enough to convince my library's adult services head to add it to our collection.

Suggested Read-a-Likes (otherwise known as more seriously disturbing reads for the wanna-be seriously disturbed):

1. Blindness by Giovanni Pontiero (1997).
2. Ghostwritten: A Novel by David Mitchell (2000).
3. In the Cut: A Novel by Susanna Moore (1995).
4. The Lake of Dead Languages by Carol Goodman (2002).
5. The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka (1946).
6. Misery by Stephen King (1987).

Suggested Related Reads (more murder, mayhem, & madness--in Japan):

1. All She Was Worth by Miyabe Miyuki (1996).
2. The Bride's Kimono by Sujata Massey (2001).
3. Ring by Koji Suzuki (2002).
4. The Tattoo Murder Case by Akimitsu Takagi (1998).
5. Wind-up Bird Chronicles by Haruki Murakami (1997).
6. The Woman in the Dunes by Kobo Abe (1964).

Musical Accompaniment: Enya (the darker stuff). Or, if hankering for a heavy vibe, try So Many People by Neurosonic. It, too, takes some serious deciphering.

Entry 2: "The House of Paper"

"Books change people's destinies" -- from The House of Paper

Dominguez, Carlos Maria. The House of Paper. Orlando: Harcourt, 2005.

Genre: Contemporary (International) Fiction [and, arguably, adult fable/modern parable].

For brief author bio., visit http://www.pen.org/author.php/prmAID/28

Subjects & Themes: academia; bibliomania; loneliness vs. aloneness; missing persons; sex; human relations; authentic vs. pseudo friendships; inward journeys & outward travels; language vs. reality; gluttony & greed; need for fulfillment; history; life's vocation; time for contemplation.

(My) Reading Reaction:

Dominguez had me snickering from the get go, because, let's face it, we bibliophiles can get a little hoity toity when it comes to the (questionably) artificial intelligence spawned via our literary loves. We know it. We revel in it. So, too, does the abovementioned author. Hence, the beauty of the book. That said, despite it's brevity (A mere 112 pages! Whoopie!) there were times when the story seemed to drag. Then again, maybe I'm just not a fan of the adult fable, preferring instead tales with a bit more meat & a mite more bite than such whimsy is apt to provide. Overall, however, it still earns a thumb's up--at least in my book. For, the writer knows his craft & he wields his weapons well. And, as for Jon Stewart-esque mockery...What can I say? I'm a fan.

Suggested Read a Likes (if you're bonkers for books & the like--or otherwise obsessed):

1. The Book of Air and Shadows by Michael Grueber (2007).
2. The Book of Illusions by Paul Auster (2002).
3. The Scroll of Seduction by Giocanda Belli (2006).
4. The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon (2004).
5. The Thirteenth Tale: A Novel by Diane Setterfield (2006).
6. Zahir: A Novel of Obsession by Paulo Coelho (2005).

Suggested Related Reads (if you're somewhat bookish, slightly bonkers, &/ or like to up the ante with a little intrigue...):

1. The Bookseller of Kabul by Asne Seierstad (2003).
2. The History of Love by Nicole Krauss (2005).
3. How to Be Lost by Amanda Eyre Wood (2004).
4. Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami (2005).
5. The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana by Umberto Eco (2004).
6. Night of the Radishes by Sandra Benitez (2003).

Musical Accompaniment: Beck's Loser (repeat only if in the mood for additional self-flagellation).

Literary Itinerary (aka: My Reading Map), Entry 1: "Becoming Abigail"

"A human being alone is a thing more sad than any lost animal, and nothing destroys the soul quite like aloneness." -- from Becoming Abigail

Abani, Chris. Becoming Abigail. New York: Turnaround, 2006.

Genre: Contemporary (International) Fiction

Subjects & Themes: obsession (danger of); loneliness/isolation; self-discovery vs. self-destruction; search for home; family, love, & loss; ties that bind, ties that break; history; oppression; racism, sexism, & rape; power vs. subjugation; hope; and, the thwarted attempt to come-of-age.

"I cannot in good conscience recommend Chris Abani's "Becoming Abigail" without providing the potential reader with due warning: The experience will leave you ravaged, and you'll never again question the power of words to move and sway. Years from now, you may not remember the precise nature of the story (if it be imprinted upon you at all) but you will most definitely recall the saccharine taste it left dormant in your mouth, the inescapable after-taste of a bittersweet emotional eclipse...Becoming Abigail defies description and opposes literary categorization; it exists without beginning, merely with a definitive end. It is a short body of work with passages so painful they require a speed read--like ripping off a band-aid. It is fragmented thoughts that unite in cohesive whole...Becoming Abigail contradicts all logic, yet somehow it rings truer than anything I've ever read...It is a literary experience as it should be

--so good, it hurts."

**Review excerpt courtesy of The Madison Times, July 28-August 3, 2006, by Anna Taylor (that'd be me) provided as means of sharing my immediate reaction to the abovesaid novella.

Other Books by Abani:

1. Masters of the Board, 1985.
2. Graceland, 2004.
3. The Virgin of Flames, 2007.
4. Song for Night, 2007.

Poetry:

1. Kalakuta, 2000.
2. Daphne's Lot, 2002.
3. Dog Woman, 2004.
4. Hands Washing Water, 2006.

Author Website: http://www.chrisabani.com/

Suggested Related Reads (if you fancy another African setting):

1. Skinner's Drift: A Novel by Lisa Fugard (2006).
2. Beasts of No Nation: A Novel by Uzodinma Iweala (2005).
3. Petals of Blood by Ngugi wa Thiong'o (1977).
4. Disgrace by J.M. Coetzee.
5. Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad (1904).
6. The Madonna of Excelsior by Zakes Mda (2004).

Suggested Read a Likes (if you crave a sadly hopeful & hushed ominous aura w/ flawed, but strong central characters):

1. Veronica by Mary Gaitskill (2005).
2. Written on the Body by Jeanette Winterson (1993).
3. The Awakening by Kate Chopin (1932).
4. The Lover by Marguerite Duras (1984).
5. The Hours by Michael Cunningham (1998).
6. A Gesture Life by Chang-rae Lee (1999).

Recommended Background Music: Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata--on repeat.

"Take Two"

Turns out my final hurrah wasn't so much finale as an extended hiatus. Per (a new) professorial request, we shall now turn our attention to the wonderful world of Reader's Advisory--already a personal passion (some might say compulsion) so it'll be interesting to see how this all turns out. Please note: fellow bibliophiles, you are welcome here!

That said, instructions from the higher-ups are to create & utilize the Reader's Map format. Alas, 'til last week, I'd heard hide nor hare of such a contraption...A slight kink in the plan? That would be my own personal brand of proven spatial dyslexia. What does this mean? Well, it means many things (obviously), a number of which even I myself remain not privy. However, it is certainly safe to assume that the process shall be one of trial & error, continued evolution, involve a lot of tinkering, and probably more than a few "Oops!"

Oh, yeah, it will also be linear and literary.

(Kind of like Nancy Pearl's Book Lust @ http://booklust.wetpaint.com/page/Reading+Itineraries and

Maureen O'Connor's @ http://wordsworthyreadingpaths.pbwiki.com/
but nearly so professional, nor so cool!) :)

In other words, no flashy graphics and no flow-charts--just simple, straight-up prose.

At any rate, welcome to my world--a humble abode where simplicity is key, books are the bomb, and we're more than happy to let the words speak for themselves...

So, let the fun begin, shall we--and feel free to supply 2 cents if ever it strikes your fancy.

A "picture" of me, in case you're curious

http://www.flickr.com/photos/95269263@N00/2144267714/

"Every work of art is an uncommitted crime." -- Theodor Adorno

Proof positive that you can meet a lot of interesting cats within the walls of your local library. (FYI: A reference to the artist, not my days-gone-by 20 something self).