"Bel Ami" by Guy de Maupassant

Publish date: 1885

Genre: Fiction/Literature

Number of Pages: 357

"Bel Ami" is a story set in 17th century Paris. A story of social repute, predominance, and coitus measure and the means of acquiring everything one desires and aspires for. The main characters are: George Duroy, Madame de Marelle (aka Clotilde), Madame Forestier (aka Madeleine, along with many other acronyms), and Madame Walter. All of the female characters have their respective spouses, but none seem to leap off the pages as these four do.

The central character is George Duroy, who arrives in Paris, penniless, after finding the military a less than desirable way to make a living. He prefers to reside in a much better habit and is in want of the easiest means possible to achieve said goal. With a few well placed friends, George procures a job as an incipient young journalist for the "Vie Française". Having been interposed to a higher society of people, he longs for riches, and above all prestige. George resorts to seducing and betraying various women of wealth in order to attain these goals.

I long to tell you how this novel ends seeing as how I am an ending person, but alas, no spoilers here! I will say that the novel was deeply engaging, but not what I predicted in the end. And for those of you who are non-readers I have some tasty tidbits for you as well! The new movie version comes out in theaters August 25th, 2011 and will be starring Robert Pattinson as George Duroy, Uma Thurman as Madame Forestier, Christina Ricci as Madame de Marelle, and (I believe) Kristin Scott Thomas as Madame Walter.

~Fin~
~E~

"Kitchen Confidential" by Anthony Bourdain

pages: 352

Why I read this book: My boss gave this book to me for my birthday, knowing how much I love Anthony Bourdain.

To state first off....Anthony Bourdain is a GOD in my foodie world. The reason? The man spent his childhood in France eating traditional french food and loved it. Early on he was a very adventerous eater and took joy  grossing out his his family by eating things such as raw oysters. Second, he is an older, Sean Connery-esque, handsome man with that bad boy edge. Third, WITTY BANTER-Tony can write astonishingly well.

OK, now on to the book itself. He really does give you a brutal view of the resturant world that most of us would never know about. Tony starts readers at the forefront of what you do not want to hear about where your beloved food comes from and initially I was intimidated to ever eat out again. I also had no idea chefs were such playboys. Apparently they get more ass than most movie stars. Like most hip 20-something punks on a careening spiral to who knows where, Tony is the master.

I do not often read nonfiction, but this was a very fresh and welcome change for me. I enjoyed his writing so much I ordered his sequel to this book ( Nasty Bits ) and will have to try on his fiction as well.

E

The Listener by Shira Nayman

Pages: 305    Publish date: Jan. 2010

    The reason I chose to read this novel is beacuse I won it in an online contest, Thank You Shira! But before I delve into the many feelings I have regarding this novel, a little about the author. Shira Nayman is an Australian who now lives in NY with her family. She is a clinical psychologist who has worked in psychiatric hospitals & has taught psychology & literature. That being said she has a natural ability in writing such a novel.

   After recieving it & re-reading the synopsis, I realized this novel was perfect for me. I have always been facinated by the daily goings on of insane asylums (or mental institutions-however you elect to refer to them). There is so much mystery to psychosis, the enviroment in which it manifests, and finally chooses to unveil itself. That alone makes it an interesting read.

  This novel takes place Fall 1947-Spring 1949, a world post WWII. The main character is Dr. Henry Harrison, Chief of Psychiatry at Shadowbrooke. Most all of the patients are admitted due to some absolute base forms of PTSD (if you can only imagine after freeing concentration camps), but not all patients are from the war. This is an exclusive asylum, so the patients are wealthy and are allowed to bring one of their own house staff with them to take care of some needs. Very unusual, but not unlikely. A few such characters are writers, artists, & scientists, which makes Shadowbrooke all the more interesting. The other main character is that of Bertram Reiner. Bertram is a self-admitted WWII veteran who came to the hospital not for treatment, but to hide from his brother whom which he believes is out to kill him. And the paraniod fixation ensues....

There are several other intirguing characters, but none can come off the page like these two.

     Nayman tantalized me early on with her (or Bertram's) thoughts on Velazquez's painting, "Las Meninas", one of the most analyzed works in Western painting. The struggle between reality and illusion, a mirror image of ourselves, in darkness. The author did actually help me understand that there is no illusion without you knowing that there is a reality to begin with. The question I am left with is, once you lose your sense of reality, what then does the illusion/alternate reality feel like? Does it manifest itself as the previous boring reality that drove you to seeing beyond all normalcy to begin with?

     There was one moment that actually got my heart racing, in an unnerving way. Although it was lucid, it still struck a chord. Dr. Harrison, in his office late at night, looks out his window and sees a figure under a tree starring up at his window. Yet startled and fearful as he is, he does nothing. From this scene I took away the fact that no matter how real things are, we still have the choice to deny it.

     I still cannot be sure as to why, but Dr. Harrison becomes drawn to Bertram. He does to such an extent that it totally consumes him. While trying not to give away an spoilers, I will say there are fair amounts of sex and drugs, which inevitabily leads to issues in Dr. Harrison's domestic life.  

     The epilogue is probably my favorite part. If you haven't noticed by now I am an ending person. It makes or breaks the book. That being said, to Shira Nayman, this epilogue was a recherche jewel.  I think this is an enjoyable read (for me), and if you like what I've written you should consider it as well.

E.

Dead Even by Brad Meltzer

Why I read this book:
I love Brad Meltzer!!!! There, I said it. It is now out in the open. I have read several of his books and loved them all. My two favorites are The Book of Lies and The Book of Fate. They are such well crafted novels. They were entertaining and kept me guessing until the very end. I had finished my book club book for next month and was standing in front of my bookshelf wondering what should I read next? I decided that I wanted to read something just for me and there it was calling my name, my Brad Meltzer section, which still held books that I have not read. So the choice was easy.

Characters:

Sara Tate- wife, brand spanking new assistant district attorney.
Jarod Tate- husband, defense attorney at prestigious law firm.
Pop- Sara's grandfather.
Conrad- Sara's mentor and fellow assistant district attorney.
Guff- Sara's assistant, but he is more than that he is her go to man for everything. He is funny and charming and added a much needed break from the seriousness and tense scenes in this book.

I had written a post that was simply gushing about Brad Meltzer and this book but then I stepped back and put my Meltzerlust aside and realized that this was a good book but it wasn't the best book I've ever read. The story was well put together. It was interesting, easy to get into and just an easy read all around. I like the characters though the story did seem to be forced at times. I kept waiting for the great revelation or some big plot twist to happen and blow me off my feet. For the most part though, the good guys were the good guys and the bad guys were the bad guys. No big hidden secrets. This is not to say that the book is without its suspense because there was plenty of that. It was an interesting premise and the story unfolded nicely.
I think my favorite part of the book is on the back cover under the author's picture. It lists all his accomplishments, that his wife is also a lawyer and that "They never fight."
This to me was a real gem.

Would I read this book again:
I probably would not read this book again, at least not read it again any time soon. I think that it's one of those books that once you know what happens you don't want to read it again for a long time. I would recommend this book to someone if they liked "lawyer fiction". I'm not sure that this is a book that I would recommend to anyone that I meet. I do have a small list of books that I do. I'll get into that more later.

Overall:
Good, enjoyable book.

All the Numbers by Judy Merrill Larsen

This book was our book club read for August. One of our members magnanimously got these for us, each personally autographed (thank you Mandy)!  I did miss the teleconference with the author due to illness :-(
If you read the blog below, my BFF did speak with her and found her pleasant.

The characters (being Ellen-the mother, Daniel-the oldest son, James-the younger son who dies, Anna and Sam-friends that own the lakehouse, and Bob-the attorney) were all very commonplace and unexceptional in my opinion. The only character I truly fancied was Bob. He developed feelings for Ellen while working on her sons' murder case. He seemed to me a very patient, kind-hearted, empathetic man/ lawyer, so I've determined he is most likely too good to be true.

The plot, being about an 11 year old boy being hit by a jet ski while on holiday and dying of a head trauma as a result, thereafter the writer shows how the family grieves and copes with death & also a lawsuit againist the 18 year old boy who hit James. This novel also tries to conquer the age-old question of "why me?", but it goes nowhere near giving the reader answers, philosophical or otherwise.

Overall, I found that the novel was a lot like a Jodi Piccoult, child-suffering, work of fiction which seems to be the popular tone these days. This was the authors first published work, so it being somewhat amateur I feel it was plain & very predictable. I do not favor this kind of reading material, so that  probably explains why others I know cried & I did not. I'm hoping my lack of tears is not because I am so synical, but I will have to say this book does not rate very high with me.
E.

All The Numbers by Judy Merrill Larsen

Why I read this book:
This was our book club book for August.  My friend Mandy bought us the opportunity to get not only autographed books from the author but also a phone chat with her at our book club meeting. This benefited the victims of the recent floods in Nashville. Needless to say we were very excited.

Characters:
Ellen- The main character in this book. She is a divorced mother of two young boys. From the very start of this book Ellen left a bad taste in my mouth. I didn't like how the author introduced her to us and it was impossible to get past my sour feelings for her. That being said she feels very real. I don't dislike the writing of the author, I just don't like this character.
Daniel- This was Ellen's older son. He is in his early teens. He seems to be a pretty "normal" teenage boy. It seemed to me that he was excluded throughout most of the book. But I feel like he also felt believable in the role. He wasn't too perfect or too mature for his age.
James- He was 11 years old when he was hit by a jet ski and killed. The boy riding the jet ski was just a teenager himself.
Tim- He is the boys father. He doesn't play a big role in this book, but you do get some of his and Ellen's history and you get to briefly see him in the father role.
Anna and Sam- Ellen's friends and owner's of the lake house that they were all staying at when the accident happened.

My thoughts:
I read this book while traveling. It made me cry in the airport and on the plane. Crying in public is not something that I like to do. I will admit that anytime I read one of these child tragedy books I get very emotionally involved. I can't help but put myself into the role of the mother. A part of me feels a very real part of that pain. I don't know how to read this type of book any differently.I do think that I would shed many fewer tears if I could figure out how to separate myself from that.
My favorite part of this book comes in the title. The story behind that in the book is that when the boys were little and Ellen would tell them that she loved them they would ask how much. They would count up as high as the boys could at that age and then Ellen would tell them that she loves them all the numbers. I thought this was very creative and had one of those why didn't I think of that moments. When talking with Judy I was able to ask her how she came up with the idea for that. She said that she used to say that to her children when they were younger. She said that she put a lot of her real life into her writing.
I was very impressed in talking with the author. I have never gotten the opportunity to do anything like that before. She was very kind and listened to and answered all our questions. I was even able to talk to her about my feelings on Ellen. She very graciously said that she feels like she is doing her job if she writes a character and people have strong feelings for them be it good or bad. I feel that this was a once in a lifetime experience. I am grateful for the generosity of Judy Merrill Larsen and also my friend Mandy.

Would I read this book again:
I would not read this book again. I would like to clarify that is it not because it is not a good book, because it is. It's just impossible not to get caught up in the sentimentality of this book.

Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte

Why I read this book: My friend Geneva talked me into reading this book for reasons that shall not be mentioned.

Characters: Heathcliff: We got to see Heathcliff as a headstrong child, as a impassioned teen and as a broken, miserable and cruel man.
Cathy- Cathy was a willful child and was torn between loves as a young adult.
Ellen- This lady played a lot of roles in this book. The story was told from her point of view. I think this was brilliant. This made it possible for us to really see the true depth of the characters without it being blurred by being told from their prospective.
There are many other characters, but in my opinion these are the most important.

This was a wonderful, painful love story. I was surprised at the depth of emotion that the characters felt and the depth of emotion that I felt for them. As much as I felt that I should, I could not have bad feelings toward Heathcliff. The depth of his love for Cathy kept me from believing him to be all evil. I felt more dislike for Cathy who, knowing that she loved Heathcliff more, married Edgar. It was that choice, in my opinion, that led to all those years of pure heartache. This choice not only affected Cathy, Edgar and Heathcliff but also their children. If she would have followed her heart rather than her pocketbook two generations would have lived happily. I do not excuse Heathcliff's actions but feel a bit of an understanding of his behavior due to his upbringing and heartbreak.

I will say that I loved this book. I've heard many differing opinions but for me it was a great read. I loved how the characters were so raw and often jumped off the deep end. It was refreshing for me to read that kind of passion.

I have some favorite quotes from this book.

Cathy speaking to Ellen about Heathcliff " If all else perished and he remained, I should still continue to be; and all else remained, and he were annihilated, the universe would turn to a mighty stranger; I should not seem a part of it. "
Heathcliff speaking to Ellen about Edgar "And there you see the distinction between our feelings-had he been in my place and I in his, though I hated him with a hatred that turned my life to gall, I never would have raised a hand against him. You may look at me incredulous, if you please! I never would have banished him from her society as long as she desired his. The moment her regard ceased, I would have torn his heart out and drank his blood! But, till then-if you don't believe me, you don't know me-till then, I would have died by inches before I touched a single hair of his head!"