"Little solace comes to those who grieve...

as thoughts keep drifting

as walls keep shifting

and this great blue world of ours

seems a house of leaves

Moments before the wind."

- Untitled Poem (Pg. 563)

House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski is not a book to be taken lightly. Even in the beginning it warns “This is not for you.” It is not for the faint of heart or a quick weekend read. Be prepared to commit yourself. This book is a story within a story; a psychological drama/thriller, horror, paranormal tale. It’s about The Navidson Record, an incomplete, highly “researched” manuscript of an event that never happened, written by the old, blind man, Zampano, then found and organized by Johnny Truant, a LA tattoo artist apprentice.

The Navidson Record is a series of short films documenting a strange house on Ash Tree Lane; a house that appears normal on the outside but inside consists of extra closets appearing overnight, a five and a half minute hallway, a spiraling staircase going nowhere and an ever changing maze that nearly consumes everything and anyone that enters. It’s also about Johnny Truant’s sanity spiralling out of control from his obsession with the manuscript.

Like I said, this book cannot be taken lightly. Whoever finishes this book deserves a certificate of completion. It is intense, engaging and frustrating. I hate to admit that I almost gave up a couple of times. But I refused to let this book beat me. At times it would bore me, with the “expert” commentary and theories of The Navidson Record. But Johnny Truant’s journey and the frightening experience of the residents in the house on Ash Tree Lane totally make up for those dry areas. There are footnotes for footnotes in this book. Appendixes, incomplete exhibit instructions, you have to twist and turn the book to read some passages. I actually took out a mirror just to read a list of movie titles and decoded a letter written by Johnny Truant’s mother who was committed to an asylum. It is that engaging.

I think this book is broken

You’re doing it wrong!

Now you’re just showing off

I’m proud of myself for not giving up. And if you’re brave enough to read (and finish) it, a high five to you. Let me know if you ended up nailing tape measures to the floor and if you had odd dreams of dark mazes like I did.

* This book was read for the R.I.P. Challenge and will also be included (eventually!) in our office newsletter.

Fragile Things Group Read, Week 5

Here we go, continuing with the group read of Fragile Things by Neil Gaiman, hosted by Stainless Steel Droppings. For week 5 there were two poems and two stories, making them a very easy yet emotional read for me. I enjoyed the two poems but the two stories were not my favorite. As I go through each one I’ll explain further. Remember there will be spoilers!

The fifth week stories are:

Locks

The Problem of Susan

Instructions

How Do You Think it Feels?

Locks: I don’t know if I read this story at the right time, or the wrong time. I’d like to leave behind happy memories for my daughter and that’s one of the reasons I’ve been reading aloud to her daily. So this story, of passing on stories (or rather, as I’d like to call them, memories) to your children hit me really hard when I read it. Tears welled up in my eyes and it took me a few minutes to recover before moving on the next story. Then I had to pick up my daughter from school, so sitting in a parked car, listening to Janis Joplin on the radio, debating whether to publish my movie memories of my mom or if I wanted to keep those memories to myself, it having been the week my mom passed away four years ago... I was just overwhelmed emotionally and had a good cry. Neil wrote in the Introduction, “I believe we owe it to each other to tell stories.” I agree. We need these stories; these memories, and I cherish mine and hope to pass on some to my daughter.

The Problem of Susan: Having only read The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe and having only watched the first two Narnia movies, I had no idea what had happened to Susan until reading this story. I didn’t really connect with this one. I just haven’t felt that magic for Narnia and if I was ever to feel it, I think it has been spoiled by some of the imagery here of the lion and the witch, which was really gross.

Instructions: Instructions is basically a list of instructions to survive a fairy tale but I don’t recognize any of them except for the references made to Neil’s own stories, two of which have been covered already in the group read. But it’s still fun to read.

How Do You Think It Feels?: I’m going to get harsh here but I hated this one. I don’t hate Neil’s writing, I just hated the subject matter. The man in this story was just looking for an opportunity to cheat, and as it progressed he felt himself in love and became this miserably pathetic, weak loser. When his mistress broke up with him, after he announced he was getting a divorce, I thought, "Well, good, but she should have done that a long time ago when she found out he was married!" I think the question for this cheating husband and his lover was not how they felt, but how his wife and two daughters felt. Then when they met up again, years later and the ex-lover pursued the divorced husband, before finding out he was divorced... ugh, these are just two awful people that I don’t wish to read about again. Their reunion and acting like what happened between them didn’t destroy a marriage or possibly this man’s relationship with his daughters, made me very upset.

I read these stories all in one day. I was already emotional so I may not be entirely fair with this story. But honestly, I don’t think I’ll be reading it again to give it another chance or another opinion. Stainless Steel Droppings had some great insight to the story that helped me understand it better, the thing about the golem. But I still don’t like it and I’ll be happy to move on the next four stories, which will be:

My Life

Fifteen Painted Cards From a Vampire Tarot

Feeders and Eaters

Diseasemaker’s Croup

Happy Fragile Things Reading!

Mom Movie Memories

My mom passed away 4 years ago. She was not much of a recreational reader. I do remember her reading to my sister and I the book, The Monster at the End of this Book. But as we got older, we read a lot but my mom not so much (she usually read religious materials or magazines). We made plenty of visits to the library but while my sister and I checked out books, my mom checked out movies.

Earlier this year my husband found Superman streaming on Netflix and we sat back one afternoon to watch. It reminded me so much of sitting with my mom watching movies. This was a movie we would always watch together whenever it was on TV. I have a lot of movie memories with my mom and I wanted to share some of them:

The Man From Snowy River
We always got a thrill from the scene with the wild horses running down the steep hill. It’s so beautiful.

Footloose
This was one of our favorites. I think my mom would of have been upset about the remake. Seriously, why mess with perfection?

Back to the Future Parts 1-3
I remember we had these on VHS and we were really excited when 2 and 3 finally came out in theaters. For years we would watch the first one and say they’d never make the sequel.

Grease and Grease 2
I don’t think my mom knew there were some “questionable” lyrics to Greased Lightning considering we usually watched Grease on TV. But we were big fans of both and watched them constantly. Why are these movies not streaming on Netflix?!

The Bachelor and the Bobby Soxer
Myrna Loy (so pretty!), Cary Grant, a teenage Shirley Temple with a crush on Cary Grant’s character! It’s too too cute and my mom always got a kick out of the riddle:

Hey, you remind me of a man.
What man?
Man with the power.
What power?
Power of hoodoo.
Hoodoo?
You do.
Do what?
Remind me of a man...


Westward The Women
This one was great, especially watching the horrible colorized version.

There are plenty of other movies we’ve sat together to watch a lot. But these I will always associate with my mom. Love and miss you, Mommy!

The Magical Edition of What's New On The Shelf!

Sometimes when I look at my books and the new books I bring in I wonder if I have multiple personalities. There is not one genre I read and I move back and forth between YA and adult novels and I’m willing to sacrifice some credibility with some of my choices. Wait. I never had any credibility so who cares what I read!

Today I bring you a fun mix of books I've recently acquired. I noticed a theme with some of these new books that have made their way into my life recently...

They are magical!

Hatter and Jabberwocky by Daniel Coleman/Rose of No Man’s Land by Michelle Tea/Fairy Dust and the Quest for the Egg by Gail Carson Levine (Purchased from Amazon and Loud Voice Books)

I read a review for Hatter that fascinated me and its bright purple cover with the hat had been on my mind for over a month now. And I couldn’t leave Jabberwocky out so they’ll be making themselves at home on my shelf. Also, they both look self published and that’s awesome. Think of them as the expanded universe of Wonderland.

The Tinkerbell book caught my daughter’s eye with its lovely illustrations. Rose of No Man’s Land is not about magic but I’ve been eyeing it on my wish list and it had a magical price that I couldn’t resist!

The Magicians by Lev Grossman and Modelland by Tyra Banks (Borrowed from the library)

Harry Potter fan, a book with “magicians” in the title, I’m there! And I really want to read The Magician King.

Modelland, a book by the lady that wore jumpsuits several weeks in a row during a season of America’s Next Top Model, well, could you really blame me for NOT passing this up?! Magical, I say, just pure, ridiculous magic!

Double Dexter by Jeff Lindsay (Free from Doubleday! To be released on October 18, 2011)

This one I’m really excited about because it’s my first free book from a publisher! I think this qualifies as an extra read for the RIP reading challenge, thus making it magical since it was free and I'll get extra credit for the reading challenge.

Well, I think I'm good for the rest of the year... yeah, I don't think so! You can never have too many books, right?!

Fragile Things Group Read, Week 4

Now that I’m all caught up with the group read, you’ll be seeing these once a week until I’ve finished reading Fragile Things by Neil Gaiman. Also, I’ll be able to read at a reasonable pace now, which is a good thing for Fragile Things; I can devote my full attention to the stories.

So, carrying on, the fourth week stories are:

Good Boys Deserve Favors

The Facts in the Case of the Departure of Miss Finch

Strange Little Girls

Harlequin Valentine

I like these four stories quite a bit. It definitely was a fun group of stories. Beware (once again) there will be spoilers!

Good Boys Deserve Favors: This one about a boy who is not a very good bass player but has his moment to shine, until he breaks his bass and once fixed, never sounds the same. I really connected with this one having been a violinist as a teenager for five years. I’ve known the feeling of triumph when I’ve mastered a musical piece or frustration when it takes longer than I'd like (I didn't always practice as I should have). I’ve also had that one special school violin that did play a certain way for me and when I would try other school instruments they did not have that sound that I liked and they just didn’t feel right in my hands. I made sure each year to get that same one. I think my musical background really strengthened my connection to this story.

The Facts in the Case of the Departure of Miss Finch: A mysterious underground circus and Miss Finch, the prudish party pooper, is “asked” to participate and is never seen again after her performance during the Cabinet of Wishes Fullfill’d. I came away that this underground circus took on a life of it’s own, that it will never have another show and Miss Finch may be the one and only person to have a wish fulfilled.

Strange Little Girls: Quick peaks into the lives, thoughts and feelings of different women. Some are sad, triumphant, each story vague enough that you just barely understand what is happening in these moments but allow you to fill in the blanks yourself.

Harlequin Valentine: The stalkerish aspect in the beginning, with the nailing of a heart to a door, I found a bit disturbing. But the story turned around in the end and I found it charming and sweet (for Neil Gaiman). A secret crushed revealed and satisfied by a simple “Happy Valentines Day”, was a nice way to end this story.

I could reread these four short stories again. Especially Harlequin Valentine, it put a smile on my face and Good Boys Deserve Favors for bringing back fond memories of my high school orchestra class.

Fragile Things Group Read, Week 3 Ketchup

Week 3 group read of Fragile Things by Neil Gaiman and I’m all caught up. And as always, the ever mindful SPOILER ALERT so here we go! For the third week, the assigned stories were:

Going Wodwo

Bitter Grounds

Other People

Keepsakes and Treasures

Going Wodwo: A poem. I had to look up wodwo. It’s a wild man of the forest. The poem made a lot more sense reading it a second time. I really like this line at the beginning...

“Shedding my shirt, my book, my coat, my life

Leaving them, empty husks and fallen leaves”

Once again, Neil has a gift with words. And while I admire someone with the courage to run free, I don’t think I could live without hot running water.

Bitter Grounds: I didn’t understand the zombie coffee girls and I don't want them bringing me any coffee if it means that's it for me. So the main character said in the beginning that "In every way that counted, I was dead." Then a few lines down there was this "If I could have physically passed away, just let it all go, like that, without doing anything, stepped out of life as easily as walking through a door, I would have done." From this I got he was basically done with life. Something happened to this man and he was ready to check out. So he did. He left. Kept driving and even assumed the identity of someone else. Maybe this was his last road trip before passing on? Or maybe he was the walking dead the whole time? I haven't really decided. It reminded me of American Gods, where the main character's dead wife kept stalking him.

Other People: An interesting story of what hell and eternal torment could be like. Something to look forward to maybe; the chance to torment others once you’ve had your turn, but the path to get there? Not for me.

Keepsakes and Treasures: This too felt like it could have been part of American Gods. Myths and legends I don’t know about (or perhaps they were just made up?) and sordid people. Smith I did not like. I’m not sure if he was joking about having a preference for young girls or if he really does. I’m pretty sure he does so... GROSS. Human trafficking and men who prefer little girls... SO NOT MY FAVORITE AT ALL!

I liked the stories from the first and second weeks so far. These last four I couldn’t connect with, similar to the way I didn’t quite connect with American Gods. So far my favorites are October in the Chair and Faceless Brides in the House of Dread or whatever it’s called. It reminded me of Good Omens - a book I truly loved - with it’s cheekiness.

Banned or Challenged Books: What's On Your Shelf?

In honor of Banned Books Week I decided to sort through my collection to see what books I have that have been banned or challenged:


The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald: Challenged for language and sexual references. So it was challenged for representing normal adult behavior?

The Catcher in the Rye by JD Salinger: One of the most challenged books for its offensive language and being sexually explicit... my kind of book, obviously!

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins: Challenged for being sexually explicit, unsuited to age group, and for its violence. I can see that. It is intense, but seriously, let a parent decide, don't make that decision before they even get a chance to.

1984 by George Orwell: I haven't read this one but my husband has. The copy we have has some fun notes and newspaper clippings. Someone did their homework. It was challenged for being "pro-communist and contained explicit sexual matter". From what I do know of the book, it seems awfully familiar.

A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway: My husband picked up a huge box of free books that we then sorted through and kept what we wanted, then donated the rest. I kept this one so I would look smart with it sitting on the shelf. I think I’ve broken some unspoken rule that a reader should read Hemingway at some point. It's been banned and challenged and even burned by the Nazis! Why have I not read this yet?!

The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien: Burned?! Really?! Please tell me what’s wrong with good triumphing over evil? Book burning Nazis!

In Cold Blood, by Truman Capote: Banned then reinstated, the drama started when "a parent complained about sex, violence, and profanity in the book that was part of an Advanced Placement English Class." Ask the instructor for an alternate book to read, duh. I must get this one read by the end of the year. I will be ashamed of myself if I don’t.

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain: Challenged for it's racism. I can understand that. I only read the first part in high school and managed to get by with the assignments. Someday I'll go back and give it another go. And even with my limited knowledge of the book, I believe there is a reason it's assigned reading, such as, oh I don't know, learn from our country's past mistakes!

The Harry Potter series by JK Rowling: Challenged for promoting Satanism and it's violence. So? I've read them and as far as I know I have no desire to practice black magic. My daughter though... should I be concerned?

And there are many that have been banned or challenged that I would like to read, such as To Kill a Mockingbird, The Perks of Being a Wallflower, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, Slaughterhouse Five, etc.

So, what banned books have you read or would like to read? Which are your favorites?

Also, if you have a few minutes, check out the Virtual Read Out Youtube channel. And this put a smile on my face: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/molly-raphael/banned-books-week-censorship_b_977058.html

Fragile Things Group Read, Week 2 Ketchup

Alright, remember I’m playing ketchup with the group read for Fragile Things by Neil Gaiman. And, once again, there will be SPOILERS. For the second week, the stories were:

The Hidden Chamber

Forbidden Brides of the Faceless Slaves in the Secret House of the Night of Dread Desire

The Flints of Memory Lane

Closing Time

The Hidden Chamber: Another poem. Dark and frightening “knowing that there’s a space without a door knowing that there’s a place that’s locked but isn’t there.” That line really stood out. Gaiman really knows how to write. It’s a poem about Bluebeard. I had to do some homework and once I did and reread it, this poem made a lot more sense and was even more chilling.

Forbidden Brides of the yadda yadda yadda: This story I found quite silly and fun. It’s a “facetious” (a word a learned from Neil’s introduction and now love) gothic thriller with a pretentious writer trying to write a... gothic thriller, who then comes face to face with a long lost brother who has returned to claim his birthright to only then be killed by the writer brother. It makes me smile thinking about it. Oh, just read this!

“Yes - I! I, your elder brother, whom you thought dead these many years. But I am not dead - or, perhaps, I am no longer dead - and I have come back - aye, come back from ways that are best left untraveled - to claim what is truly mine.”

Then just a paragraph down there’s this...

“Proof? I need no proof. I claim birth-right, and blood-right - and death-right!”

Cracks me up!

The Flints of Memory Lane: This one didn’t leave much of an impression. It’s a recollection of a unimpressive ghostly encounter.

Closing Time: Okay, all I want to know is what happened to the three boys that walked into the play house and if that old man in the end was one of them, why didn’t he say what happened?!

Alright, so in this batch of stories I liked three out of four. Let’s see what the third week stories bring...

We Interrupt Our Regularly Scheduled Programming To Bring You This Very Important Message...

... for Banned Books Week from September 24th to October 1st.

Now, I don’t have plans to read a banned book this week. I believe I’ve read plenty that have been banned or challenged (The Great Gatsby, The Catcher in the Rye, Of Mice and Men, Brave New World, Gone with the Wind, The Lord of the Rings...) and will read more in the future. Also, I’m almost done with House of Leaves and I have other books waiting their turn. So, I’ve decided to participate in the Banned Books Week Virtual Read-Out.

My book of choice will be The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger. I bought a copy not too long ago just to have one. I’ve read it twice in my lifetime. I’m reading a favorite part me and a good friend of mine got a real kick out of when we first read it in high school. Also, on a side note, our English teacher at the time ran the Holden Caulfield Fencing Society, a fencing club at our high school. Cool.

Don’t ban books. If you don’t like it, don’t read it. Don’t take away the rights of others to choose for themselves.

Celebrate the right to read!

Fragile Things Group Read, Week 1 Ketchup

Stainless Steel Droppings, the same blog hosting the R.I.P. Challenge I’m participating in, also hosts group readings. One of them is a group read of Fragile Things by Neil Gaiman, a book I happen to have that had been sitting on my shelf, unread for the past year, so I figured why not.

I am, however, a bit late to the party, having missed the first three weeks of discussions, so this week I’ll be playing ketchup.

So, the first week stories are:

Introduction

A Study in Emerald

The Fairy Reel

October in the Chair

Be warned, there will be SPOILERS!

Introduction: I really liked reading about the inspiration and back-stories to some of the writings in this collection. There’s also a secret short story hidden within. Plus, there was this:

“Writing’s a lot like cooking. Sometimes the cake won’t rise, no matter what you do, and every now and again the cake tastes better than you ever could have dreamed it would.”

This made me smile and brought a tear to my eye when I first read it. Still does. I’ve been writing an original story of my own and sometimes it won’t speak to me. This made me not lose hope.

A Study in Emerald: A role reversal with Moriarty investigating a crime committed by Holmes and Watson. I’ve never read any Sherlock Holmes. My husband has and the style of Neil’s version is similar to what my husband described. However, it is not revealed who is looking for who until the end, so throughout I was under the impression it was Holmes and Watson and therefore imagining Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law. I was a little disappointed that they were the bad guys. But it was an interesting idea.

This story was a mixture of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and H.P. Lovecraft. Having not read either I didn't really get it. I'll have to revisit after doing some homework.

The Fairy Reel: A poem. I don’t read much poetry and it was nice but it didn’t leave much of an impression on me when I first read it. Neil said it was fun to read aloud so I read it to my daughter and it was quite nice.

October in the Chair: I really liked this one. I didn't really get the months of the year, portrayed as people sitting around a camp fire, who gathered together to tell stories. I did like October's story very much though. There is some lovely writing here:

“Then the railroad came and they built a stop in the next town over, and our town sort of dried up and fell in and blew away.”

“Everything waited. The night was ending. The world was holding it’s breath, preparing to begin again.”

In the Introduction, Neil wrote this was a “dry run” for The Graveyard Book, a book I will have to read on my own very very soon now.

So far so good. Looking forward to the next four stories. I’ll have a write up for them on Wednesday.