The Girl Who Fell From the Sky

by Heidi Durrow

I look forward to reading more of this author. She's got such great voice, telling the story by showing, not explaining.

In the book a biracial girl, orphaned, has to move in with her grandmother and aunt. Previously, she had never thought much about her identity and now it is everywhere. Gradually a horrible secret is revealed, slowly explaining why the main character is so withdrawn, so willing to keep everything to herself.

As a bonus, the story takes place in Portland and so much is familiar.

I enjoyed the first half of the book more, the author captured the way children's minds think so well.

The Glass Castle

by Jeannette Walls

I'm not sure what I expected from this memoir. I guess I expected it to be like "Angela's Ashes" and it was. Tragic childhood, unimaginable deprivations, deeply flawed parents.

But it also wasn't.

In "Angela's Ashes" the parents were ignorant, superstitious and from a long line of deeply impovrished people. Their tremendous weaknesses as parents were infruiating, puzzling and hard to relate to. The only reason I didn't denounce them as totally worthless is because their abject poverty had them trapped.

In "The Glass Castle" I could totally understand the parents. Alcoholism and a near-pathological self-absorption, pared with brilliant native intelligence, made the characters totally familiar to me. Their personality weakness caused them to choose poverty and drag their children along for the ride.

That was the part that made me crazy. The things they subjected their children to, so incredibly blind to the hardships, was crazy-making. In "Angela's Ashes" the parents knew very well how their children suffered. "The Glass Castle" parents were so egotistical they couldn't see beyond themselves.

In the book the four Walls children are forced to follow their fickle parents around the country, in order to pursue whatever whim struck the mother and father, both brilliant and damaged people. After things get so bad the children steal food out of the garbage at school, they eventually squirrel away money to leave home.

There is no happy ending. The children do well, considering, and the parents continue their very messed up lives with no regret.

What was similiar was the astounding fact that both authors rose beyond their childhood to tremendous success.

What was different was the fact that in "The Glass Castle" the children found many wonderful things about their eclectic upbringing, things they continued to appreciate in adulthood. The same could not be said for "Angela's Ashes."

Family Matters

by Rohinton Mistry

This was an amazing book. I listened to it on audio, which I thing enhanced the drama and pathos of the very small family story.

It is about a small family of Parsis, which are ethnic Persians who have lived in India for centuries. On some level it is a very small story, about family resentments, personal disappointments and lives that have not turned out they way we thought they would.

The writer tells the story from the viewpoint of nearly every character, not in first person but in third, and you come to know each one intimately. Mistry's writing is very emotional and personal (or maybe not the writing, but how it makes you feel). I became very invested in the story and was sad when it ended.

I will read more of his books, to be sure.

Disgrace

by JM Coetzee

This is the novel equivalent of the indie movie. Quirky, dark and humorous, with tremendously messed-up characters and an unresolved ending.

It was great.

My daughter gave me this book. I love the full-circleness of having nurtured her love of reading by suggested authors and books when she was young, and now she introduces me to writers I never would notice otherwise.

"Disgrace" follows a university professor in South Africa whose life has unraveled, as his own doing. He flails about, unsure how to pick up the pieces. The political/racial problems in South Africa are alluded to in the novel but are written subtly, as if the author expects the reader to be accustomed to how if affects day to day life. I found that a bit too subtle in my case and therefore frustrating.

But overall, expertly written and very compelling.

Stubborn Twig

by Lauren Kessler

Picked up a copy of this nonfiction book somewhere; its name was familiar because last year Oregon choose it as a 'read together' project for its 150th birthday.

I knew it was about Japanese immigrants settling in Oregon so I thought it would be an inspiring story of the melting pot, success of a New American.

Not so much.

With its unflinching look at how absolutely horrible Oregon treating the Japanese over the decades, we come out looking pretty awful. And that's probably the way it should be. Oregon seems to have topped the country in xenophobia.

Ms. Kessler's writing reads like journalism; her narrative is simple and clear and uncluttered by flowery description. Since the story follows the first immigrant of particular family and continues profiling it 100 years, it is good that her writing is so simple.

It was not impersonal however. I came to have affection for and understand many of the characters and developed empathy for the horrific things that happened to them.

It was definitely an important book to have been written, informing people about the strong history of racism against the Japanese using a single family as an example was a wise choice. It personalizes the whole debacle and makes it human-sized.

Outliers

by Malcolm Gladwell

OMG! as my teens would say.

This book was amazing, I can't wait to read another by Gladwell.

In it, each chapter is dedicated to those individuals or groups of individuals, that stand apart as unique and exceptional. Everything from professional hockey players to Bill Gates, to a town of Italian immigrants to Jewish lawyers.

He examines who they are and how that got that way and in the most unique manner.

He's a former journalist, specializing in business and science, so he knows research and numbers and technical facts. But he has a gift for writing about very detailed stuff in a very simple, story-telling manner.

Very impressive.

Heart Full of Lies

by Ann Rule

I've read several books by this true crime writer and have enjoyed most, finding the behind-the-scenes view of damaged people, overworked police officers and both shady and dedicated lawyers fascinating. Her book "Small Sacrifices" was incredibly creepy, in fact I don't think I finished it. A woman killing her children because they're inconvenient, that's too horrible to contemplate.

This story of a self-absorbed woman who reacts with murder when the people in her life don't do everything she says was good, a fast compelling read. Not great literature but a good beach book, which is where I started it.

Reading about a narcissist with a "personality disorder" was unsettling. I always thought it was a bogus, catch-all diagnosis like "oppositional disorder' for bratty kids. But reading about people who aren't crazy, as you think of the term, but live in their own world and in denial that others are equally important, struck a bit too close to home. Likely, we've all known people like them and if we ever got a good look at them just figured they were assholes.

This book was a good example of the extreme end of the disorder.

Reading Lolita in Tehran

by Azar Nafisi

This book took me FOREVER to read. I think it's been on my nightstand for more than a year.

Typically, I avoid doing what I don't enjoy doing, so I realized early on that while I did enjoy some of this book, some of it really left me cold.

Nafisi is a college lit professor and the book details her life teaching in Iran, during its most tumultous years of the 1980s and 90s.

Basically, the parts of the book that detailed life in revolutionary Iran were fascinating. The literary tangents I could have done without -- and there were a lot of them.

I'm glad I finished the book but I won't be rushing out to force it on others, either.

Me Talk Pretty One Day

by David Sedaris

I've heard of this author for years and just never got around to picking up one of his books. The book is basically a series of unrelated essays, or really more humor columns.

He has a justifiable rep as having a twisted sense of humor and laser-sharp observation of human behavior. A large amount of his wit is reserved for himself, and I can appreciate that, using self-deprecation to amuse myself (and occasionally -- I hope -- others).

Sedaris grew up in middle class America, a nerdy gay man with no ambition. How he developed into a killer writer is anyone's guess but gives you hope for the future of slackers everywhere.

I think I'll look up some more of his stuff, that goofy snarkiness can be addicting.

Runaway

by Alice Munro

I've been reading this gradually, my daughter gave it to me more than a year ago and I kept it in my car. A book of short stories, it was perfect for quick-hitting reading pieces.

I haven't read many short stories since leaving school and wasn't thinking I'd enjoy it much but it was amazing. She's a very spare writer, not overly descriptive or florid. Her plot and characters are all the stories need. Each one reads like a mini-novel.

Perfect.

Private View: Inside Baryshinikov's American Ballet Theater

I realized this week I read a lot of nonfiction that I neglect to list here. I tend to read it in fits and starts and by the time I finish I forgotten to write it down.

I found this book at a used book store (50 cents!) and couldn't resist. I've always been such a fan of Baryshinikov and have another book about him (it was written when he was at his peak, dancing-wise).

It was excellently written, a journalist who was allowed all-access to the ballet troupe and Baryshinikov. It was written like a news feature, but much longer obviously. So it felt like quite a peek backstage. And the photos were great, very photojournalist, not coffee table type.

Really, you can't ever get enough Misha.