Bitter in the Mouth

WOW! I love this novel! It's like a combination of Like Water for Chocolate, To Kill a Mockingbird, and Divine Secrets of the YaYa Sisterhood. I swear.

Linda Hammerick can taste words. Her name, for instance, tastes like mint. The word "mom" tastes like chocolate milk. Linda doesn't share her secret sense with very many people (obviously) and she spends a lot of time finding ways to lessen the "incomings." Tobacco, alcohol, and sex seem to do the trick, but that's not what this story is about.

Linda is a typical small-town southern girl growing up in North Carolina in the 1970's-80's. That she is different from everyone else is obvious, but she gets along fine, has a best friend and a boy who likes her. Yes, there are some very bad experiences, but Linda grows up to attend Yale and become a lawyer, and to have a pretty good life. The only thing that makes her different, we think, is her ability to taste words.

But we learn at the very end of Part One of the novel that we're wrong: there is something else that makes Linda very different from everyone she grew up with, and the second part of the novel deals with her journey to find out where she really comes from. But it's more that: it's also about discovering what constitutes a family.

There are some great southern characters in the novel - I adore Baby Harper - and many typical southern scenarios (the town gets all their gossip from the beauty shop). But the language and structure take this from mass market novel to literature: I just loved it.

Bitter in the Mouth: A Novel

The Reader

I have to admit, I had no idea what this book was about before I started reading it. I read it because it was on a list of great novels, and because the movie was on a list of great movies. I am SO glad I read it. It's a truly moving novel.

While on the surface this is the story of a young man who reads to, and falls in love with, a mysterious older woman, it is so much more than that. It is a story of forgiveness, and redemption, and deception, and a number of other moral issues. And I am not sure that the characters - or those of us who read the book - ever come to any real kind of resolution.

In a larger way, it is about how an entire country, an entire population, is able to - chooses to - move forward following a nationwide atrocity. It is in a way specifically about how the German people dealt, or didn't deal, with the shame of the Holocaust - and even how some of them didn't feel any shame. For such a simply and beautifully written short novel, it packs a lot of punch.

I've put the movie on my Netflix, at the top. I'm not sure how much I'm looking forward to seeing it, but I really want to see it. Does that make sense?

The Reader

Dream When You're Feeling Blue

Have you ever started reading a book and thought, haven't I read this before? I felt that way about this novel, like I had started it at some point but not finished it. I knew what was going to happen. I even knew how it would end, sort of.

I liked the book - I read it in 2 days, so obviously I liked it. I've enjoyed other books by Elizabeth Berg as well. This was a very sweet novel about a big family in Chicago during WWII, particularly the 3 daughters (the "dreamy" sisters). It focuses primarily on Kitty, the oldest daughter, and how she is changed by her experiences and her relationships during the war.

I like all of the period detail that Berg gives - the styles and brands of dresses, the music, the slang. And her characters are likeable (Kitty's father Frank is an Irishman straight out of central casting) if slightly superficial - Kitty is the most well-developed. But it was a nice read, and I will continue reading Berg's work in the future.

Dream When You're Feeling Blue: A Novel

At Home: A Short History of Private Life

This is a really interesting book that covers a wide range of subjects, all held together by the author's home in the English countryside. Moving from room to room in the house, Bryson basically takes us through a history of the Industrial Revolution and how it affected everything from the food we eat to the clothes we wear to the diseases we get.

It is a long book - 400-plus pages - and I admit to skimming some of it (I pretty much skipped the part about bugs and other creepy crawly things). But Bryson tells a story well, and he has a sense of humor I enjoy, so it was pretty fast reading. Bryson also obviously did a great deal of research, and tells about the real inventors of various household items and the real stories behind why we wear or don't wear certain things. For example, I now know why every business suit has those totally useless rows of buttons on the sleeves.

Even if you aren't a big history buff, this is just a really interesting book. I think everyone will find something in it that makes them say, "gee, I wondered about that." And that's pretty cool.

At Home: A Short History of Private Life

The Help

This is a fabulous novel. And, it feels kind of appropriate that I read the whole thing over MLK weekend.

I know you've all heard of this novel - it's been on the NYT best seller list for months. It's the story of a number of African-American maids and the white families they work for in Jackson, Mississippi in the early 1960's. It's a really beautifully written story about the close and complex relationships between the rich white families and "the help."

I have to admit I was a little put off at first by Stockett's use of dialect, but I got used to it very quickly and I think it adds to the novel. The characters seem very real, there are no pure angels here (though there is one outright devil), there is good and bad among both the whites and the blacks. And there were some characters who actually surprised me, which doesn't often happen in novels.

Ultimately this is a story about people and relationships, and the changes they go through. I'm so glad I spent my MLK weekend with all these folks in Jackson, I think it was a very good use of my time.

The Help

Leonardo's Swans

I enjoyed this novel about the lovely 15th century D'Este sisters, Isabella and Beatrice. As you know I am a fan of historical novels, but I usually go more for the British stuff, not the Italian. So I have no idea how true to history the story is, but it's still a very good story.

Isabella is the older, more beautiful, and more accomplished sister, but she is promised in marriage to a lesser noble to strengthen the family's position. Beatrice is a year younger, more headstrong, less learned, but she is destined for the powerful Duke of Milan. There is a great deal of intrigue between the sisters, between Isabella and Beatrice's husband Ludovico, and with Ludovico and almost everyone in Italy (and some people in France and Germany).

The affairs of state don't excite me - Italy was basically a bunch of separate nation-states during the time period, who would only ally together against an outside enemy like France - but I love the personal intrigues. I also love that these women are smarter, and better equiped to handle what life throws at them, than the men around them. And I love that Leonardo DaVinci is an important character in the novel - and that he is portrayed as a rather vague and scattered genius, something of a curiosity to the people around him, because you know he must of been just that.

Leonardo's Swans: A Novel

Great Wine Made Simple

This book was recommended by a sommelier in an online chat I read, and she was so right. This book is perfect for the person who knows nothing about wine, but also great for the knowledgeable wine drinker who wants to improve their ability to maneuver a 25-page wine list and find a wine they like, at a price they like.

Immer's style is very accessible - she's no wine snob. And what's great about the book is that you can use it as a basis for a wine club tasting schedule, because she pretty much wants you to not take her word for the wines, but to taste them for yourself. And she lists wines at every price point, so you can pay what you are comfortable paying and know you are getting a decent wine.

I haven't read the whole book - just kind of been skimming and jumping around - but the number one piece of information I've come away with so far is Immer's flavor map, and I'm going to share it with you now. In a nutshell, if you think about the various wine regions around the world and the FRUIT that grows in them, it will give you an idea of what to expect from the flavor and intensity of the WINES. It sounds simplistic but it really makes sense, and it's something that's easy to remember the next time you are faced with a list of wines you have never heard of.

As I continue to read it I may post about this book again, because I foresee it as being a source I will consult on a regular basis and from which I will continue to learn.

Great Wine Made Simple: Straight Talk from a Master Sommelier