9 years later

Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides

I like a book that grabs me from the first page. This begins with, “I was born twice: first, as a baby girl, on a remarkably smogless Detroit day in January of 1960; and then again, as a teenage boy, in an emergency room near Petoskey, Michigan, in August of 1974.” It races on from there and never looks back. This book is incredible.  You understand within the first few chapters why Eugenides won a Pulitzer prize for it.  When I reached the end of this book, I was unhappy to bring it back to the library.  I felt I needed to keep it, study it.  To be honest, I only picked it up because it had a pretty gold star on it that announced it was a prize winner.  I had no preconceived ideas about it.  The last hundred pages or so really touch on the hermaphrodite issue.  Leading up to it is generations of family drama, heartbreak, success, fears and chromosomal defect.  As you are submerged in this book you realize quickly the enormous amount of work Eugenides put into it.  It starts in the early 1900's in Smyrna during the Western Front.  It follows the protagonist's, Callie or Cal, grandparents as they flee to the United States from the fires the Turks engulf the city with.  They settle with cousins in a Greek community in Detroit.  It is moves us through the Great Depression, WWII, Detroit Riots, the birth of the hippies and the sexual revolution.  It details the care of silk worms, struggles of immigrants, bootlegging, women's rights, the birth of the Motor City, the start up and running of a business, racial segregation, and finally the science behind and emotional struggles of a hermaphrodite.  The background and build up to the protagonist is extraordinary.  By the time we got to to Callie's story, I was exhausted.  I think this book is better digested over a period of a couple of months, not weeks. 
I've already explained why this is a history book, novel of emotional struggles and a family saga.  It is also philosophical.  With quotes like, “Historical fact: people stopped being human in 1913. That was the year Henry Ford put his cars on rollers and made his workers adopt the speed of the assembly line. At first, workers rebelled. They quit in droves, unable to accustom their bodies to the new pace of the age. Since then, however, the adaptation has been passed down: we've all inherited it to some degree, so that we plug right into joysticks and remotes, to repetitive motions of a hundred kinds.” and “Normality wasn't normal. It couldn't be. If normality were normal, everybody could leave it alone. They could sit back and let normality manifest itself.” you begin to believe Eugenides might actually be a genius. It is also vaguely political, touching on issues with Nixon and Henry Kissinger.
This book is a masterpiece and very deserving of its award.  I'll leave you with one final thought, that can be appreciated by most in the book world.  "I, even now, persist in believing that these black marks on white paper bear the greatest significance, that if I keep writing I might be able to catch the rainbow of consciousness in a jar."  No wonder it took him 9 years to write it.

Fum, Fie, Foe, Fee

Monsters Don't Eat Broccoli by Barbara Jean Hicks

Kids having trouble eating vegetables?  Do they carry on endlessly at the dinner table about the "yucky" broccoli?  Do they gag and run while you are steaming the cruciferous deliciousness?  If any of the above are true, YOU NEED THIS BOOK!  The monsters chant repeatedly "fum, fie, foe, fee, monsters don't eat broccoli" while chowing down trees.  Then, if you didn't notice the foreshadowing, someone points out at the end of the book they are in fact, eating broccoli.  The first time we read this, I read it to my little monsters while they were eating chicken and avoiding large piles of veggies on their plates.  By the end of the book, I had them convinced they were horrible, ravenous monsters and they started chanting fum, fie, foe fee while devouring the vegetables!  I tote it out ever few month to re-enforce.  It occurred to me that maybe the chanting was similar to hypnosis but that is totally ok with me.  It works.  Try it!!

Just might be doing it wrong...

I recently read this on John Green's web site, "A book is a conversation between a reader and a writer, but we both have to hold up our end of the bargain there. It’s possible to write a book terribly; it’s also possible to read a book terribly. (Witness, for instance, those who read Huck Finn as a defense of slavery.) "  It definitely made me wonder.  That is one of the goals of this book blog, to make me a better reader.  I've been fighting my way through "A Shadow of the Wind" by Carlos Ruiz Zafon.  Everyone loves this book.  Apparently.  So what is wrong with me?!  I don't hate it, I'm just not into it.  It isn't riveting!  It makes me think I might be doing it wrong.  It seems that the stuff going on in our lives can determine how we interpret writing.  Have you ever read a magazine article that really offends you and the next day, you can't remember why you were so upset about it?  I have that sort of trouble with books.  I know, for instance, that when I'm pregnant I must revisit old friends.  New books will not hold my attention and reading time will be skipped.  That could be happening with Zafon's book.  I'm reading a few other books (that are more interesting), I don't get enough sleep and reading is the only hobby I have right now.  All those put together means the book has to be spectacular (or at least exciting).  I'm hoping is going to get better (or I become a better reader).