Reading Recommendation

I just emailed ten friends (well, eight friends, two brothers) the following:

I don't normally recommend books unasked (at least, I don't think I do), but I feel compelled to in this case, since I just finished a book that I thought was really, really good: Sonia Faleiro, Beautiful Thing: Inside the Secret World of Bombay's Dance Bars.
http://www.amazon.com/Beautiful-Thing-Sonia-Faleiro/dp/0857861697

I had some issues with the way the book handled non-English words and phrases - some were "translated," others weren't, and I couldn't always figure out from context what the characters were saying, which was a problem. But I also appreciated the way they were used to set the scene, so it might have been the right call on the author's & editors' parts. Maybe less of an issue for my Desi friends?
Overall it's an impressive book, though; incredibly funny, despite being about a prostitute - although just what she is, and isn't, is part of the story - in Bombay, and, obviously, also incredibly sad. "Leela," the main character, is just an amazing figure, though, the kind of subject I would think journalists spend their lives looking for (and the NY Times agrees - see their review). Not that this is strictly journalism, if that kind of distinction still holds in this day and age, but the book is based on the research the author did into the women who worked in Bombay's "dance bars" (kind of like clothes-on stripping, but generally stemming from sexual exploitation and poverty, and leading to more). And the relationship between the author and Leela is one of the best parts of the book.

So...anyways, of course no pressure to read it, but if anyone's looking for a book that is as easy to read as a novel, but is nonfiction, and totally engrossing, I vote for this one :)

The book really was fantastic. I want to write more, but the library called the book back, and I feel like it's so good it deserves a "review" written with book in hand, for checking stuff. So I think I will need to call it back myself.

Feeling a little better

Last week (actually, I think last Wednesday, maybe, so exactly a week ago), I felt awful because it appeared that I had barely read anything in the longest time. But then when I was packing for DC (YAY!!!) Thursday night/Friday morning, I came across three more books I had read recently:
A House for Mr Biswas V. S. Naipaul (quite good)
The Forgotten Island Sasha Troyan (okay-to-good)
The True History of Paradise Margaret Cezair-Thompson (really good; maybe not the highest art, but captivating [I passed on a nap to finish the book], thought-provoking, and GORGEOUS, evocative descriptions.

The over the past few days (including on the plane to and from DC to visit E - did I say "YAY!!!" yet??) I re-read Amitav Ghosh's fantastic, amazing, love-it-so-much Sea of Poppies in preparation for reading the newly released, second in the Ibis Trilogy, River of Smoke.

Started River of Smoke last night, and already in love. Even after a thirteen-hour Sunday-into-Monday-funday (seriously - DC with E - YAY) and then a delayed flight home, and then errands, and then drinks shading into Tuesday, and a severe insulin shortage to top it all off, I STILL didn't want to put the book down and go to sleep.  So great...

Happy Books (For V)

Was talking with V last night, and the subject of happy, or at least not-depressing, books came up, and I started trying to think of some.  So, the list I came up with as I walked home, for her & for me when I need a good but not-depressing read is:

The Monsters of Templeton, Lauren Groff (which I literally stocked up on copies of)
The War of the Saints, Jorge Amado (one of my favorites of all time)
Sea of Poppies, Amitav Ghosh (wrapped me up and swept me away; only hesitation in recommending it is that we're still waiting for the next installment of the Trilogy to come out)
The Good Thief, Hannah Tinti (I seriously almost cried, on the f***ing T, because it was so darn heartwarming)
Shark Dialogues, Kiana Davenport (it's not great lit, but I really enjoy it, and it's not crap)
In the Woods, Tana French (darker than the others - it's a murder mystery, after all - but so engaging)
The Eyre Affair, Jasper Fforde (Fforde just makes me laugh, and giggle, and snort, and laugh some more...)

More updates

This blog is rapidly getting more and more boring, but that's fine.  The important thing is when I recommended a book to C. last week, and wanted to double-check the author's name, it was super easy!
Finished East of the Sun by Julia Gregson this weekend (last week?  Not sure).  It was okay, nothing special.  But decent enough that when I was digging around for books for this week/end's bus trips yesterday at Barnes & Noble I grabbed some book about a nurse in the Crimea (no, not THAT nurse in the Crimea) by her.  So, we'll see - it was a paperback, and I had a coupon, and I bet it'll be better than the other books I picked up for the rides (I think there is generally a reason things end up with a $4.98 sticker).  

Saturday-Sunday I read The Miracles of Prato by  Laurie Albanese and Laura Morowitz: similar in as much as the story moves along, but definitely nothing special.  The writing was a little frustrating as there were times when random words were thrown in that I think were just meant to add some historical verisimilitude (I think one of the authors is a novelist, and one is some sort of non-fiction person, so I think it was just too much "local" color).  Story's about Fra Filippo Lippi and how he falls for a novitiate posing for him - entertaining, but a bit overwrought.

Weekend update

Am so far behind on my "book reports" - 1) Haunting Bombay, by Shilpa Agarwal, was really quite good.  A little uneven; parts were fantastic, parts not so much - the big surprises were not really that surprising, and the author and/or editors seem to not be quite sure what to do with the "Indian" stuff - ie, which words are italicized, which not, which need to be explained, which not, and that can get a little bumpy.  Ha - they did NOT choose to translate "benchot," but now I know how to spell my favorite Hindi swear, good times.  Over all, I really liked it, though, and I would definitely recommend it (with reservations, to the right people) and look for other books by the same author.  OH MY GOD, MIGHT TAKE THAT BACK.  Just googled Agarwal, and went to her website to see if she had any other books - and there is a TRAILER for the NOVEL.  WTF?  It is the most cheesy, ridiculous thing I have ever seen - ye olde exotic India.  Bah.  But...the book was good, so I guess I should let it go.  There's a reading guide on the website (haven't looked at it), but I think that makes sense - as I read the book I was thinking this would be a good novel for a book club to take on, because there's lots of room for interpretation and debate.  
After Haunting Bombay I read The Good Thief by Hannah Tinti which I just loved, loved,  loved.  I finished it on the T, and I was trying to hard not to cry at points, and not many books make me tear up, but it was touching and sweet, along with moments of finely delineated cruelty and ugliness and more than a few hilarious lines and scenes.  There were also a few words I had to go and look up, which I always appreciate in a book.  My only issue with the book was that I was never totally clear on when in time it was happening; I was thinking early nineteenth century at first, but then I was thinking maybe just before the Civil War?  A copy of James Fennimore Cooper's The Deerslayer plays a role in the book, and when I checked on the publication date, I knew we had to be talking post-1841.  Additionally, there was a lot of talk of older orphan boys being drafted into the army - but there was no mention of the war (that I recall), and they seem to have been mostly used out in the West, so maybe the Mexican-American War (late 1840s)?  That might make sense: the army needed free boys, but wasn't drafting - because there were all sorts of men wandering aimlessly around, so it DEFINITELY wasn't during the Civil War.  Ultimately it didn't really matter to me that I didn't have a firm idea of "when" we were in time, with the story,  but it was a minor, nagging issue.  Oddly enough, I am experiencing the same unsettlement with the book I'm reading right now, East of the Sun (or something like that), which is about English girls in India in the late 1940s (or 50s?), but the whole thing where the random white girls are swanning around being all memsahib-y while their husbands play polo with their regiments through simmering unrest is so totally classic English-in-India that it could be the 1840s or 50s and I keep forgetting when, exactly, we're supposed to be, until there's a mention of, say, Gandhi, rather than the sepoys.  In any case, more about that book later, when I have finished it.  Finally, we have
Bitter is the New Black: Confessions of a Condescending, Egomaniacal, Self-Centered, Smart-Ass, or why you should never carry  Prada Bag to the unemployment office, by Jen Lancaster.  I am not sure now, but I think I requested this book from deposit after reading that Lauren Willig was reading/liked it (or the author?), figuring that since I like LW's books, I might like what she likes.  That said, at first I HATED it.  I mean, seriously, Lancaster comes across as a raging b*tch, for real.  And I know that "raging b*tch" is a way over-used phrase, but "shrieking, insensitive, self-centered harpy" doesn't begin to describe it.  I almost put the book down after the first few pages because I hated the narrator so much, but I was stuck on the T (it didn't help that I was still trying to blink away tears from finishing The Good Thief) so I kept reading.  And I guess I'm glad I did.  Lancaster is definitely funny, and sloooooowly some evidence of nice character traits started to emerge.  The book is a memoir of sorts that takes us through Lancaster being laid off, and her increasingly desperate search for work, including the blog she starts chronicling her life, the job hunt, and the job rejections and pitfalls.  And the time she brought the Prada bag to the unemployment office.  Eventually the blog gets her noticed by a literary agent, and she gets a book deal (for Bitter), but not before hitting some really rough times with her boyfriend/husband.  It's a pretty predictable progression - she gets nicer as life gets harder - but it works.  I think we were supposed to find her initial horridness funny, but it was just too over the top for me (honestly, I was baffled for most of the book by why her boyfriend was even with her), but by the second half of the book I was laughing more, maybe because then she seemed more like a real person and less like a caricature.  Finished the book Friday night (3-4 days ago), and not sure how I feel.  Liked parts, hated parts, not sure if I loved any parts.  Don't feel like it was a waste of time, but not sure if I would read more by her...maybe.  Jury's out.

Knockin' a couple off the list

Friday was a decent day for the library and whittling down the "read at some point" list.  Picked up Mr. Darcy's Daughters by Elizabeth Aston (recommended by Jen T.)  And then, right by it on the shelf, was Haunting Bombay, by Shilpa Agarwal, which I had seen at some point (Barnes & Noble, maybe?  The day I was wandering around Back Bay with T.?) and made a note of.  Read Mr. Darcy's Daughters on the train and then at home (Mother's Day visit) Friday evening/night.  I was prepared to like it, I wanted to like it, but...just didn't.  It was totally predictable, pretty boring, and the characters, who were maybe supposed to be familiar, were simply dull.  And it was too happy-ending-y.  One of the things I love about Pride and Prejudice is that even though it has a VERY happy ending, it doesn't feel forced or unrealistic (not beyond the limits of suspended disbelief, anyhow). 

Just read the first chapter and a half of Haunting Bombay a couple of hours ago, when I got home from work.  Don't know about the story yet; it's one of those situations where there's a prologue and then the next chapter is 13 years later and I have no idea how it relates, so we'll see if the stories pull me in.  But I already love the writing.  It's lovely - confident and assured, but easy and unforced, nice use of metaphors and visual descriptions.  I might even call it lyrical, if things keep going the way they start off, as pretentious-sounding as that is!

Okay, first period intermission is wrapping up - back to Game 5 of the Bruins-Flyers series.  Flyers are kinda on fire tonight, but we're holding our own.  The last few weeks of Boston hockey have just been f***ing phenomenal.  Seriously cutting into my reading/blogging time, ha.  I feel kinda bad about the fact that I want to bone (gonna miss you, L!) Milan Lucic, seeing as how he's a baby and all (I am assuming that's legal...not so sure if I could buy him a drink beforehand, though).  But then I don't.  So cute.  In a gigantic way.  And Recchi's married, so that's a no; I think he is, anyways, but he has been great these playoffs, I hope he's getting something from someone. 

more books to read?

Did I want to read a book called Corpse at St. Andrew's?  Like Scotland?  The phrase written on the back of a DDs receipt would suggest I did...will need to investigate further.  AFTER cleaning the apartment, bah.  I could be blogging or watching House, or reading The Rose Grower,but apparently I will have a random staying at my place tomorrow night, so I need to clean.  Again, BAH.  Thank goodness for the Black Eyed Peas station on Pandora right now...briefly, though - The Rose Grower, by Michelle de Kretser, is surprisingly engaging.  Started it yesterday, liking it a lot.  Gave up on La Salle, for now - style is weird, def. too much for a exhausted/sore Friday last week!  Her Fearful Symmetry was perfect for post-electrolysis hunkering down though.  Glad I finally read it, and totally worth what I paid (which was 50% off the hardcover price to be fair though).

The Ibis Trilogy

The Ibis Trilogy, by Amitav Ghosh, opens with Sea of Poppies, which I thought was just wonderful - great characterizations (despite the fact there were several "main" characters, all were developed fully, AND maintained evenly throughout the book) and lovely, evocative descriptions of the settings (mainly India, at least for this book). I really couldn't recommend this book enough to anyone else, although I am a little concerned that it could be terribly inaccurate and I just don't know enough about that time period to know. It was interesting reading it shortly after Fish, Blood, and Bone (Leslie Forbes, opium trade, see NYTimes or The Independent for reviews), but this one left me anticipating the next installment. In the meantime, I've been having fun w/ the website, http://www.ibistrilogy.com/
My one complaint would probably be that Ghosh got waaaay more into trying to re-create period dialects and slang than needed - a little for flavor is awesome, but there were pages that made me flashback to trying to read Clockwork Orange sans that stupid little mini-dictionary.