15th Meeting: Wise Blood

The 15th meeting of Eat, Drink, and Be Literary took place on a sunny and mild Sunday afternoon in February. One our newest members, Rachel, hosted the discussion of Wise Blood by Flannery O'Connor. I was extremely excited to read this book for many reasons- mostly, I have embarrassingly never read anything by Flannery O'Connor, and I feel as though I should considering she is a literary icon. Also, she is a graduate of the Iowa Writers' Workshop, and happened to write at least a portion of the novel while here! It is incredible to be living in the same city and walking the same streets as so many literary geniuses, and reading the works they wrote while living and studying here is just too cool.

Unfortunately, I didn't love the book-- and barring one exception, neither did most Literary Eaters & Drinkers. We had an amazing discussion though. The novel is about a maladjusted WWII veteran, Hazel Motes, who returns to the south from the war having a crisis of faith. He starts preaching and starts the "church of Christ without Christ". The cast of characters are all misguided mis-fits and the symbolism, religious themes, and dark comedy of the book are inescapable. 

I appreciate the book much more after our discussion, but while reading it, I kept feeling like I just wasn't smart enough. I didn't see the masterpiece, I didn't get the comedy, I wasn't shocked (in a good way or bad) by the religious themes. Overall? I just didn't get it. The chapters didn't seem to flow, and I was just not that engaged. At first I chalked it up to the fact that I was incredibly preoccupied with prospectus writing and applying for fellowships, but after finishing the novel, I looked it up on Wikipedia (the source of all knowledge, right?) and found out that the book was basically a compilation of multiple originally separate short stories (one of which was O'Connor's thesis at Iowa!) After I realized that the chapters were originally distinct stories, I felt much better about the whole book. And in fact, I could see merit in individual chapters and I think I would have enjoyed them much more if they were just a short story. 

Kelsey, the loan true fan of the book, is also a huge fan of O'Connor in general. She said that once you "get" the dark comedy of her work, that the rest falls into place.  So, with that endorsement, I have decided not to give up on O'Connor's work! And maybe in time, I will come back to Wise Blood and see if I can get a clue! 

14th Meeting (and a blizzard): Caramelo

We have had the most mild winter that I can remember this year. (I realize I probably just jinxed us to have the coldest snowiest March ever, but oh well). In fact, we've only had a few days with our typical sub-zero temperatures, and only one significant snow storm. Because I am so fantastic at planning things, that one measly blizzard we had fell on the day of our January book club meeting. Because of the craptastic weather, we had a pretty small group, but a great meeting. I was the host for the meeting (which meant I didn't have to drive in the snow! yay!), and I picked the book Caramelo by Sandra Cisneros.

I picked Caramelo for several reasons. First off, despite reading a wide variety of literature over the last year and a half, our book club hasn't read very many books by female authors; and we have read exactly zero books by women that are told from a woman's point of view. Considering the fact that the club is predominantly female, this is somewhat surprising! Caramelo fit both of these criteria-- Sandra Cisneros is obviously a woman, and the book is semi-autobiographical and told from the point of view of a young Mexican American girl named Celaya. The second reason I selected this book, is that Sandra Cisneros went to Loyola University Chicago for her undergraduate education (just like me!) and to the University of Iowa for her graduate education (just like me!). The third reason is that her graduate degree was from the Writer's Workshop at Iowa and I want to support anything coming out of Iowa! And the fourth and final reason I chose this book was that I already owned it. In college, I took several hispanic or latina women's writers courses with the most amazing professor, Dr. Cavallo. My friends and I adored Dr. Cavallo, her amazing pencil skirts, and her ability to make us passionate about any piece of literature. It was in her classes that I really learned how to be a critical reader and I will never forget her impact on me! Anyway, Caramelo was on the syllabus for one of her classes-- however, we got behind thanks to a discussion about some other great book, and never got around to finishing it. I have held on to the book since (for 7 years) and figured it was time I actually read it!

After that huge amount of back story, it might be fairly obvious that I was expecting great things out of the book. Seven years of build-up do that to a girl! I don't know if it was just because of my exceedingly high expectations that this book couldn't stand a chance, but I didn't really like it all that much.

Oddly enough, everyone at book club agreed with me. I say this is odd because we have all been in agreement about our feelings towards a book exactly ONE time in the 14 meetings we've had (it was at our second meeting, back when we uniformly all loved Willful Creatures by Aimee Bender picked by Beth). I am bummed that this time our unanimous opinion wasn't so great, but we still had a great discussion.

The book reads like a memoir, but is technically a novel. It is the story of a a young Mexican-American girl named Celaya and her huge, vibrant, and dysfunctional family. What was interesting about the book club's unanimous "meh" feelings towards this book, is that we all agreed that it was pleasant to read. There were passages that we thought would have made wonderful short stories, or even novellas. Throughout the entire novel, Cisneros used creative and memorable turns of phrase, and described things so colorfully that on occasion I dog-eared pages so I could jot things down later. The novel was fairly engaging, but, none of that seemed to matter-- nobody felt especially connected to any of the characters, so as pleasant as the book was, we wouldn't have thought twice about setting the book down and never picking it back up. I guess that is actually one of the good things about book club: it forces me to finish books that would otherwise turn into "never-enders" for me.

The real hit of the meeting, for those who were brave enough to rough the blizzard conditions, was the food. Since the book was largely about life in Mexico, we decided to have a Mexican inspired feast. I made tacos-- I had a chipotle pulled pork filling and my very favorite sweet potato black bean filling for the vegetarians. We had plantain chips c/o Jillian, guacamole thanks to Rachel, and the most amazing little short bread cookies with spicy chocolate dipping sauce made by Mandy. Josh and Beth brought margarita fixings (which made me wonder why we don't celebrate the "drink" portion of this blog more often) and they also managed to find the same brand of soda that Cisneros talks about in the book at Hy Vee. We had lime, mandarin, and pineapple Jaritos. (The pineapple was my favorite.) All in all, it was one of our best meals ever, especially since it fit so perfectly with the book.

On my shelf (and other stuff)

On my shelf:

I'm currently reading two books-- Wise Blood by Flannery O'Connor (which is the next book club pick!) and Mudbound by Hillary Jordan (which was a gift from my mom). I'm enjoying both, though I have to admit I'm only a few chapters into each of them. Somehow my subconscious keeps combining them into one book. In the morning I find myself searching for "Mud Blood" before I hop on the bus. If I was a maniacal Harry Potter fan, this might be more expected, but instead it's just kind of hilarious.

Other stuff:

So many of the books I've read since starting this blog have been turned into TV shows (all of the Sookie books) or movies, (the Twilight series, The Help, The Hunger Games, and Cloud Atlas), or were based on an event that is also the topic of a great documentary (Let the Great World Spin) that I have been thinking of adding a series to the blog. My goal would not be to become a movie critic (because I am just not cool enough, skilled enough, or... well, I think "cool enough" summed it up) but would just be to compare the works in written format to the works in the film format.

For example-- take the Twilight series. Twilight still makes me get butterflies and googly eyes in the written form, (I know, it's embarrassing and anti-feminist but I JUST CANNOT HELP MYSELF. I mean, he LOVES her but he wants to EAT her. How can you not swoon?) but the movie hurts my soul. My favorite scene of the book (in the meadow-- anyone? Anyone?) is completely ruined in the movie by awkward teenage actors and windchime sound effects accompanying the worst "glittery skin" special effects I have ever seen. The second and third movies  were not much better (though, the books weren't as good either so this is hardly a surprise). However, the fourth movie (which yes, I did see in theaters.... and not in an ironic way, sadly) was staggeringly better than the outrageous and ridiculous (first half of the) fourth book.

Okay-- enough talking about tween vampire romantic thrillers. But, just get ready, readers (and by "readers", I mean "Mom", because she's the only one that reads this), because more film/book comparisons are coming your way soon!

Resolutions (and some self-indulgence)

I have always been a fan of the New Year's resolution. Making resolutions that is, not always keeping them. When I was younger I tried to do too much and would resolve to change virtually everything. This of course, would lead to failure usually by 5 pm on January 1st.

The past few years, I have tried to focus on just one or two things which was much more successful. Last year, my resolution to have a better attitude actually stuck with me all year long! 

This year, I think I'm landing somewhere in between my two resolution strategies. My overall resolution is to "be better", but this is broken down into some very specific things that I hope I can tackle. 

1. Appreciate other people more. Quit worrying about whether they appreciate me. I know that I appreciate me, and that is all that matters. 

2. Do things when I'm thinking about them (this is kind of stolen from my friend Rachel). When I procrastinate, it just leads to more procrastinating and it ends in just feeling badly about myself. Doing the dishes when they need to be done is far less gross then doing them two days later when the sink smells disgusting. Blogging (ahh, yes, finally this post makes sense as part of this blog) immediately after finishing a book or a book club meeting is so much easier than trying to blog about something I read or met about months ago. 

3.  Write. This, you might think would also be blog related, but I'm really back to talking about life outside of my blog. I need to write a prospectus, a few IRB proposals, and a dissertation to graduate, and I need to write many manuscripts to actually get a job someday (and by someday, I mean next year... ahh, panic attack). I need to write more often and with less inhibition-- it doesn't need to be perfect the first time around, I just need to get it out there!

4. Be healthy. I had a lot of really goofy health issues in 2011 and I'm not excited about repeating them. I already feel like I live a healthy lifestyle-- I eat healthy and healthful foods, I exercise (though after the holidays and a month straight of an all Christmas cookie diet, this could definitely be improved upon), I drink water, and I sleep a LOT (I literally get 8 hours every night and not even a looming dissertation is going to change that) but things I maybe haven't done in the last year are take warning signs from my body very seriously. I need to speak up more at the doctor, quit reading WebMD and panicking over their bizarro diagnoses, and maybe I will even try acupuncture. 

In an effort to hold myself accountable, I am publicly (I use that term loosely since only like two people read this thing) announcing these... and since I'm on a roll I might even get around to blogging about the last two book club books while I'm at it! Happy 2012, kids. 

Thirteenth Meeting: Cloud Atlas

In December, Aaron hosted the thirteenth meeting of Eat, Drink, and Be Literary. For me, it seemed like "unlucky 13" because I did not particularly enjoy his pick Cloud Atlas, by David Mitchell. The book consisted of six short stories that wove through time and space. The book itself was like a palindrome-- the first story ended abruptly (I'm talking mid-sentence) about half way through and didn't continue until the very end of the book. In other words, it was both the first and last story, and the second was also the second-to-last.

Each story was told from the point of view of a wildly different character. First up was Adam Ewing, a sailor exploring New Zealand in the 19th century, next was Robert Frobisher, a pompous young composer in the early 20th century living in Belgium; third was Louisa Rey, a young woman living in the 1970's in California, fourth was Timothy Cavendish, a book publisher in what seemed to be present day England, fifth was Son-Mi, a clone turned revolutionary in a futuristic Korea, and finally was Zachry living in post-apocalyptic Hawaii. Each character seemed to be reincarnations of the previous character, and also read or watched the same short stories as we read.

If nothing else, I was incredibly impressed by Mitchell's abilities to write from the point of view of these wildly different people. However, it was mostly lost on me. I especially couldn't read the sections told in dialects (Zachry's in particular). I found myself turning pages without knowing at all what I was reading. The book club meeting definitely helped me appreciate the book more, and I left feeling like I should re-read the book. (I'm not going to, mind you, but I think I should).

As usual, the book had a mixed review among the group. Of eight or so people that came, I think half liked it, and half didn't... though most of us were probably hovering towards the neutral feeling. I will not be recommending this book to anyone anytime soon, unless they are a philosopher or really into thinking hard and not understanding anything... but again, I have to hand it to David Mitchell for writing such an incredible book. I feel bad that most of it was lost on me.

* This novel is being adapted into a film sometime soon, and has an incredible cast. I'm definitely going to check it out, and maybe (hopefully!) I will get more out of it.

Twelfth Meeting: Norwegian Wood

Back in October (pretend this post happened approximately two months ago), Anne hosted our tiniest, coziest book club yet. Only four people were at the meeting, but in some ways it allowed for more discussion than usual.... and definitely more food. My pants are getting tighter just thinking about Sarah's raspberry bars and Kelsey's mint hot chocolate. But I digress--

For our twelfth meeting, we read Norwegian Wood by Japanese author Haruki Murakami. The book was our group's first piece of translated literature, and I think it was a hit. The novel (the title of which you may recognize as a Beatle's song)  is a nostalgic teenage-angst ridden love story on the surface, and a deep philosophical "what is the meaning of life" story once the layers are peeled back. The novel's protagonist is Toru Watanabe, a young man living in Tokyo in the 1960's, and we follow his life as he deals with loss and love and relationships with two women, fragile Naoko and spunky Midori. I didn't really emotionally connect with any of the characters and I couldn't tell if it was a product of the translated literature, or if it was that Toru was sort of vapid and unfeeling. Despite this lack of a connection, I still found the novel engaging (and very racy at times-- wowza!).

I think by the end of the meeting we all left with more questions than we started with mostly because none of us knew anything about life in 1960's in Japan, and what things were symbolic and what things should be taken at face value. That being said, I think the discussion helped me appreciate the work a lot more.



(Note-- my Amazon Associates button has disappeared, so I can no longer link to the book.. Bummer.)

Eleventh Meeting: The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

So, as it turns out, working on my prospectus, grading papers, and having ever Saturday designated for tailgating and football not only makes me neglect blogging, but reading in general. For the past three months, I have only had time to read book club books (usually I read at least one book on the side each month too). And, I am two meetings behind in my blogging! Well, that all changes now.

September's meeting was hosted by my besty Lisa. She picked Rebecca's Skloot's The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks.  The story of Henrietta Lacks is an unusual one-- as a woman, hardly anything is known about her, but her contribution to science is infamous! Henrietta was a poor black woman living outside of Baltimore in the 1950's. When she was diagnosed with ovarian cancer, her doctors took some of her cancer cells without the knowledge or consent of her family. These cells, known as HeLa cells, were the first human cells ever able to be cultured, and they revolutionized the way we research and understand cancer and living cells in general. The book is part biography of Henrietta, part biography of HeLa, part scientific journalism, part memoir of the author uncovering this story, and reads like a novel. I found it to be incredible.

The book raises a lot of issues from racism to medical ethics to justice. Why were the HeLa cells taken without consent? Why was her family never told about the cells? How could Henrietta's cells be so influential in the face of health care today while her children can't even afford a doctor's visit? While it would be easy to point fingers and paint certain parties as villains in this book, I think that Skloot did a great job of reporting objectively, with no judgment, the role of each family member or physician.

As usual, the review of Eat, Drink, and Be Literary were mixed. While most of the book club members are psychologists, we have our fair share of experience with ethics and ethical violations, so some parties thought the book was just exploiting another example of why there are so many ethical codes now. It was really interesting to hear Lisa's point of view as a health care professional, and also to hear our friend Mandy's point of view as a biologist. Mandy works with HeLa cells and could give us the inside scoop on how prevalent they are in labs worldwide, and how much they now cost to purchase. I loved the book, and hearing everyone's points of view I loved it even more!