Tag Archives: Audiobooks

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Bogged (and Blogged) Down

I had some pretty lofty reading goals for this year.  I joined a Southern Reading Challenge, an Adoption Reading Challenge, a Read Your Own Books from Your Own Bookshelf…Mostly…and Don’t Buy (or Try Not to Buy) New Books Challenge, a Back to the Classics Challenge, and a What’s In a Name Challenge.

Then I went and lost my mind and joined the 150 Book Challenge in 2012.  Lost my mind because I have never (I repeat, never) read 150 books in one year…in my life.  And I reada lot!  But the closest I’ve ever gotten to that is 84 in one year, and that was a banner year for me.  Apparently that was not a deterrent when I had my brief moment of insanity, and I signed up for a guaranteed failure.  Yay, me.

Now, if you are familiar with my reading habits, you will understand instantly that these are ALL doable challenges for me.  Well, almost all…because I’ve gotten bogged down.  And blogged down.

I’m at a WHOPPING fifteen(ish) books for the year, and half of those are audiobooks.  Further, I am at a complete standstill on realreading.  Every book I start gets set aside after a few pages.  I am completely without motivation to pick it up again.  No, that’s not true.  I am motivated to pick it up again, but I’ve been hard pressed these days to find a book so riveting to read that I carve out chunks of time wherever I can in order to finish it.  This has not been a problem with listening.

Granted, my eyes are not what they used to be, and they get tired quicker.  But this is an excuse.  Beyond the fact that I’ve been involved in a blogging challenge that has been time consuming (and great fun), I am unsure how to explain it.  It’s also true that I’ve been reading blogs a lot more (part of the challenge), and I’ve run across a few new blogs that are on my regular rotation.  Nevertheless, this is still not an adequate explanation for a near cessation of reading.  I LOVE to read.  What is wrong with me??

It has happened in the past.  I don’t know why.  And…of all the crazy things…it does not stop me from buying more books to read.  HAH!

I knew it.

I really have gone insane.

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REVIEW: The Bonesetter’s Daughter by Amy Tan

Format:  Audio CD, 10 disks
Genre:  General Fiction, Asian/Am Lit
ISBN:  1597770760
Published:  January 2006 (audio)
Setting:  San Francisco CA / China

Rating:  4.5 of 5 stars

Back of the Book Blurb:

Ruth Young and her widowed mother, LuLing, have always had a tumultuous relationship. Now, before she succumbs to forgetfulness, LuLing gives Ruth some of her writings, which reveal a side of LuLing that Ruth has never known. . . . In a remote mountain village where ghosts and tradition rule, LiuLing grows up in the care of her mute Precious Auntie as the family endures a curse laid upon a relative known as the bonesetter. When headstrong LuLing rejects the marriage proposal of the coffinmaker, a shocking series of events are set in motion — all of which lead back to Ruth and LuLing in modern San Francisco. The truth that Ruth learns from her mother’s past will forever change her perception of family, love, and forgiveness.

My Thoughts:

There are so many things about this book to love – the setting (China, in particular); the vast scope of the story; the deft way that the author ties together the present and the past; the commitment and love between LuLing and Ruth, LuLing and GaoLing, LuLing and Precious Auntie; how Tan’s writing style and word choices seem to exude the culture she is writing about, including a subtle but still noticeable shift in tone in section two (LuLing’s story).

I connected with the story immediately, and particularly with Ruth.  I related to her inability to feel confident, to believe that she actually had something to say, to think that anyone would be interested in her words.  I got how she allowed herself to “disappear” in her relationship, never seeming to require anything concrete or real from Art, not even sure he really loves her, yet continuing on in a sort of hazy mediocrity.  I understood her choice to do the work she did – behind the scenes, anonymous or very nearly so (even if, in the end, she tended to resent the lack of credit), and risk free, meaning any criticism of the work would be directed to the author of record, not her (a “ghostwriter,” but in reality the actual author of all the books she worked on).

Perhaps more than any of the above, I had a visceral and immediate connection to her relationship with her mother.  Their conflicted, competitive, critical and volatile relationship was as familiar to me as the back of my hand.  I was transported time and again back to my own experiences as a child, an adolescent, and a young woman as I read the arguments & struggles between Ruth &  LuLing.  I found LuLing controlling, irrational, hypercritical, and impervious to reason.  I felt the frustration that Ruth felt right along with her, and when time & again she allowed herself and her own desires to be eclipsed by her mother, I wanted to shake her out of her lethargy.

And then came Section 2.

Once again, I felt like shaking someone and screaming “Wake UP!”  But this time, it was LuLing herself.  As I progressed through this middle section, I began to understand LuLing in a completely different way, and while I still didn’t (and don’t) understand the necessity of incessantly criticizing and insulting one’s daughter, I did ultimately comprehend the enormous suffering that LuLing endured & overcame.  I understood how it shaped her and hurt her, how it gutted her and made her strong.  She was so much more than Ruth’s experiences, GaoLing’s interactions or Precious Auntie’s recollections.  It was clear that Ruth needed to know her mother’s history and understand where she came from in order to appreciate her strengths, weaknesses & eccentricities.  She needed to know those things to also heal herself, to recognize that despite herself she had a good partner, and to allow herself the luxury of committing fully to the relationship, loving with reserve, and being likewise loved in return.

Amy Tan weaves this exotic, timultuous, and ultimately cathartic story in such a way that it leaves you wanting more…to continue on with the story, to find out what happens next with the characters you’ve come to love.  That’s good writing…really good writing, and it’s worthy of a place on everyone’s bookshelf.

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REVIEW: In Cold Blood by Truman Capote

Format:  Audio CD, 14 disks 
Genre:  True Crime
ISBN:  073933364X
Published:  January 2006 (audio)
Setting:  Holcomb KS
Rating:  5 of 5 stars

Back of the Book Blurb:

On November 15, 1959, in the small town of Holcomb, Kansas, four members of the Clutter  family were savagely murdered by blasts from a shotgun held a few inches from their  faces. There was no apparent motive for the crime, and there were almost no clues.

As Truman Capote reconstructs the murder and the investigation that led to the capture,  trial, and execution of the killers, he generates both mesmerizing suspense and astonishing  empathy. In Cold Blood is a work that transcends its moment, yielding poignant insights  into the nature of American violence.

My Thoughts:

This book was riveting from start to finish, and I could hardly find enough time to be in the car & listen to it.  Capote is a gifted writer, and has superbly cobbled together the story of the grisly, horrifying murder of the Clutter family from the monumental amount of files, notes, interviews, and evidence that he had at his disposal.  I was (and am) blown away by Capote’s ability to make even the most unsavory of characters somewhat sympathetic.  He was able to (initially) approach the story from a sort of journalistic aspect, and as such he seemed able to write from a relatively objective view about what was obviously a sickeningly violent incident, and an incident seemingly without motive or reason.

What became interesting as I got toward the end of the book was the fact that Capote became more sympathetic toward Perry Smith.  He seemed to see Perry as a sort of pawn in the hands of Dick Hickock.  Perhaps Dick thought so as well at times, but I got the sense from the book (despite how Capote described him) that Perry Smith was much more brutal and cold than Dick Hickock ever dreamed of being.  I find it strange that I would come to that (obvious) assumption, considering that by the end of the book, Capote was personally acquainted with both men.  However, I wondered if Capote was a little captivated by Smith, and as such (by the end) could not see him in as objective a fashion as he did at first.  It was a gut reaction, of course, and I am only speculating.

Regardless of how personally involved in their lives Capote became – and my understanding was that the prison system allowed him generous access to both Smith & Hickock – I think he did what seemed almost impossible to do, and that was to give as accurate an account of the crime as possible.  Not only did he do so, but he created what is widely regarded as the book that introduced the genre of true crime & the non-fiction novel.  In Cold Blood is in a class by itself, having set the bar of excellence in its genre so high that it has yet (in my opinion) to be equalled or surpassed.