Tag Archives: Reading

“The Imperfectionists” – Pretty Close to Perfect

21 Jan

Image: RandomHouse.com

If you missed Tom Rachman’s The Imperfectionists when it was originally published in 2010, you’re in luck.  It’s just been released in paperback.  Well-received when it debuted, the novel made several best-of-the-year lists.  There’s good reason for this.

Recently, I caught Mr. Rachman on the first night of his North American book tour.  Held at Brooklyn’s Book Court, a more accessible and intimate space than I’m used to when attending readings in Manhattan, the author read from his novel and participated in thoughtful Q&A session.  Intelligent and forthcoming, he charmed with audience with his self-deprecating wit.  Humble but confident, humorous but at the same time quite serious, I found him to be somewhat like the novel itself.

If you’re not familiar with the book, it is made up of a series of short stories centered around an American-owned, English-language newspaper based in Rome.  Each story is told from the point-of-view of a different newspaper staffer (with the exception of one story which is told in the voice of an avid newspaper reader – according to the author, the only one based on true-life events and, not surprisingly, the most outrageous).  But you don’t have to be a news lover or have an interest in the art of reportage to appreciate the the stories and how Mr. Rachman has chosen to tell them.  During the Q&A, we learned that the individual stories came first (more were written than were included in the final version) and the unifying theme later.   And while it tackles the decline of the newspapers and the printed word, much of the focus is on the messy, complicated lives of the staff away from the paper.  Only when you reach the end, do you experience the full impact of the individual narratives and, not incidentally, do you appreciate the brilliance of the novel’s structure.

So, make the trip to your local bookstore or click your mouse, set aside the weekend, and be prepared to be transported to another time and place (and, yes, to laugh and cry).  Mr. Rachman’s grasp of human nature, and his ability to translate that into the written word, make this one not to miss.

Read well.

A Very Short Post About The New York Observer’s “VERY SHORT LIST”

12 Aug

Short, Sweet Email - Great Discoveries - High/Low Culture

The New York Observer, is the insightful, weekly New York newspaper, published each Wednesday, in print and online.  Across the top of The Observer website, you’ll find a list  of their other sites, one of which is the “VERY SHORT LIST.”

Once each day, just before noon, I receive a VERY SHORT LIST (VSL) email with the day’s pick.  Each VSL email includes a Venn diagram with other, associated cultural suggestions, at the center of which lies that day’s focus.  All are interesting; none are run-of-the-mill.  According to their website:

VERY SHORT LIST points to excellent new (and sometimes vintage) entertainment and media that haven’t been hyped to within an inch of their lives. Each weekday, we recommend a single gem from the vast mass of films, TV shows, books, websites, music, and more. The focus is on products that deserve attention but haven’t already been subject to giant media pile-ons.

Take today’s VSL email, which recommended a website that I’d not heard of called “FiveBooks.”  The premise is that experts in various fields are called upon to put forth five books that they suggest be read in order to gain an understanding of a particular topic, presumably one that pertains to that field of interest.  Not sure where to start when it comes to learning about Queen Elizabeth I?  Historian and University College London Professor, Helen Hackett gives her picks.  Or perhaps you find the Israeli-Palestinian conflict confounding, Robin Yassin-Kassab, author and political blogger, makes his recommendations.  Each FiveBooks list is accompanied by an interview with expert and includes the rationale behind the suggestions, either print, as in the case of Hackett, or video, as with Yassin-Kassab.  If you have research to conduct, or are just plain interested, then you might like FiveBooks, “the authoritative way to be an authority.”

This is just one example of many from VERY SHORT LIST.  If you want to get a sense of other items they’ve covered previously, the daily emails have been archived, and can be searched.  And, you don’t need to live in New York to appreciate the gems they unearth.

Try it, you might like it.

Book Love – The Second Time Around

1 Mar

What makes us turn away from a book one day and then six months later pick it up, turn to the first page, and read spellbound, as though it’s the most beautiful thing ever written?

Has this ever happened to you?  Because it’s happened to me a few times of late.  I start to read a book, usually one that has won some award or another, or has come highly recommended by a friend or a reviewer, only to find myself slogging through, 50 odd pages in (sometimes only 30 pages in).  I keep picking the book up, knowing I should be enjoying it, but I’m not.  Then I find myself not reading for a few days, a serious no-no if  you’re a writer, until finally I talk myself into putting the book aside.  Guilt consumes me.  I get over it (more quickly now).  I  go back to the bookshelf or the bookstore and select my next literary adventure.

Then, maybe four or six months or even a year later, the castaway reasserts itself.  It falls off the nightstand, is unearthed from the pile on the floor, is mentioned on some best-of  list, and my curiosity piqued.  I pick the book up, usually dust it off, and begin again.  This time I get caught up in the story, am moved by the language, and fall in love with the characters.  I can hardly believe that I’m reading the same novel.

Books I fell in love with the second time around: The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini, The Book of Negroes (Someone Knows My Name ) by Lawrence Hill, The Sea by John Banville, Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortens0n, and even Saturday by Ian McEwan (I am still flummoxed by that one).

Why did the book draw me in, enchant me, and move me the second time but not the first?  Is there some chemistry that is required between the reader and that which is being read that was missing in original attempt?  Since it’s the same book, the same words printed on the same pages, it would follow that during the fallow period it is the reader that changed in order to meet the reading of the story in a different way, to create the right chemistry.  Maybe I’m over-analyzing this.  But knowing that I almost missed the pleasure of reading all five the titles above, this has required some thought.  Now I know that if there’s a book that I  really do believe I should appreciate, but don’t, I put it aside and return to it at some point when it tugs at me, really tugs at me.  At that point, whatever needed to change in me, must have changed.

So here’s my suggestion: if there’s a novel or fabulous non-fiction book that you’ve set aside and, after some period of time, you find yourself thinking about it, make a cup of tea, open the book to the first page, and read.

You never know what might happen the second time around.

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