I Remember Nothing: and Other Reflections  by Nora Ephron

Several years ago I read Nora Ephron's "I Feel Bad About My Neck" and loved it.  However since then, she became ill with leukemia and has since passed, so it was with trepidation that I decided to read this. It includes many personal memories and anecdotes. . . and lots of name-dropping. She grew up in Hollywood among stars, producers, and screenwriters, & it was all she knew. In 1962 with an Ivy League degree, she started out in the mailroom at Newsweek while her male counterparts were sent to the newsroom. Lots of history about her parents, marriages (one to Carl Bernstein of Watergate fame), and successes as a screen writer for such mega-hits as When Harry Met Sally & Sleepless in Seattle. But the book is less comedic and more wistfully sad.  Less mid-life hilarity, more mid-life reflection on aging.  Don't get me wrong - women of a certain age are sure to find themselves in this book, and smile at the relevancies - "I have no idea who anyone in People magazine is".  Bittersweet for anyone who admired her life. 

The Sisters Brothers by Patrick deWitt

   I normally never pick up a Western but after reading the reviews on Goodreads, this looked promising - and it had an extremely cool cover. Alas, the reviews were much more fun than the book itself - however, I seem to be in the minority on this.
   Advertised as a dark, comedic "cowboy noir" genre, it's the story of 2 notorious gunslingers for hire during the 1850's California Gold Rush.  deWitt has been compared to Cormack McCarthy? - - puuuullllllease!!!  Shallow, boring, unfunny.  I felt like I was watching a B-grade movie complete with bad acting, minimal plot, gratuitous violence, then everyone goes home.
Snoozzzzzzzzzz. . . .
But as I said, I am in the minority on this one.  What do you think?

The Casual Vacancy by J.K. Rowling

   I may be the only person on Earth to have never read a Harry Potter book so I have nothing with which to compare J. K. Rowling's first "adult" book. In my mind it stands alone as compelling & complex, a scathing pronouncement on English Society.  There are those who dismiss this book saying she "should stick to kids' books" and I can't disagree more. Yes some of the characters are dull, dim-witted, and unlikeable - really?  That's the point - and it's crucial to the story. Rowling's writing style gives them incredible dimension and credibility.

   In the modern rural English countryside, a popular council member dies of an aneurism triggering an oh-too-sophisticated scramble for the vacant seat. As the characters are slowly introduced, their relationships are woven together in a complex plot towards a tragic end. Rowling peels back their thin veneer of respectability to reveal the secrets, prejudices, pretentiousness, self-absorption and shame.
   One can understand why the Potter books are so popular once you glimpse Rowling's portrayal of children, which figure so prominently in this story.  She gets into their brains, makes you see through their eyes, feel their pain.   The adults brood about, nursing petty jealousies and feuds, either completely unaware or painfully mistaken of the effects their actions are having on the young residents of the town - until it's too late.

Her writing style is sometimes explosive and visually graphic:
“Onwards and outwards the news of Barry’s death spread, radiating, halo-like, from those who had been at the hospital....Gradually the facts lost form and focus; in some cases they became distorted. In places, Barry himself was lost behind the nature of his ending, and he became no more than an eruption of vomit and piss, a twitching pile of catastrophe, and it seemed incongruous, even grotesquely comical, that a man should have died so messily at the smug little golf club.”

This is not your grandmother's English drama.  Those expecting fast-paced action or paranormal activities will be sorely disappointed. But this is another kind of classic - more "Room With A View" with a bit of "Deathly Hallows" thrown in.

My Ideal Bookshelf by Jane Mount & Thessaly La Force

This book is a creative idea beautifully and simply brought to life by the art work of Jane Mount.  Dozens of writers, artists, designers, and other creative types were asked to write a short essay about their ideal bookshelf next to which Mount paints an image of this individual said shelf.  The result is a book filled with hours of interesting viewpoints, inspiration and at least 20 new titles to add to your to be read lists. 

The question, what books are on your ideal bookshelf?, is one of those desert island, last meal questions whose answer reflects so much about a personality.  Not to mention, technology has wiped away much of the idea or even consideration of the spine of a book. These images remind us how artful a shelf of honest to goodness books can be.

The Wild Trees by Richard Preston

An astonishing account of several unschooled naturalists obsessed with finding the largest tree on Earth.  Hiking miles into unmapped, unexplored areas of the California Redwood forests, they access areas so remote & inaccessible, no human save possibly ancient Native Americans has ever been there.  To fuel their passion, they fashion climbing apparatus and ascend hundreds of feet into the forest canopy, going as far as living atop the trees for weeks to find & observe new and undocumented species of plants & animals - a virtual Great Barrier Reef of life which has evolved entirely in the sky.  Complete with maps and drawings, this book of exploration, danger, persistance, and human folly is an unexpected joy to read, proving that there are still wonders of nature we have yet to uncover.

French Lessons  by Ellen Sussman

Loved this little book of vignettes about 3 French tutors and their 3 American students over a 2-day period in Paris.  Nothing deep, just good story telling and interesting characters grappling with life and love in all its forms. Woody Allen should base his next movie on this book. 

The Girl Who Fell to Earth  by Sophia Al-Maria

I was overdosed on Afghanistan/Taliban books, and German/Nazi occupation books, and Irish childhood misery books - so when I saw this was about a teenage girl in Qatar, I thought - meh!   Wow, was I wrong!  This book was current, poignant, enlightening, well written, and memorable.  Bedouin man speaking no English comes to America to make good; moves to Pacific Northwest & marries an earthy, self-sufficient American girl;  has children;  Father misses family & returns to Qatar.  Told from the perspective of the teenage daughter, the story is a realistic portrayal of extreme culture clash. Pacific Northwest liberalism vs. a rigid, segregated, polygamist theocracy.  Also interesting because the story ends before 9/11, so there is an undercurrent of impending disaster as the book progresses.