Juggling Books

Do you find yourself juggling several books at a time? Unless I'm reading something I just can't put down or I've run out of books at hand, I'm usually always juggling several books at a time. It's like a fine art, balancing the different books that suit your various moods: there's the serious literary work that's a bit too intense to take in all at once, the light pulp fiction that alleviates the intensity of the aforementioned literary book, the non-fiction self-improvement book you're reading but can only take in small doses, and maybe lastly the classic that you're re-reading in bits and pieces before you go to bed, because if you read a new book before bed you'll never put it down to go to sleep.

My current book juggles are:

Creating a World Without Poverty, Muhammad Yunus
Written by the Nobel Peace Prize-winning professor who founded the concept of micro-financing, this book is both inspiring and challenging. And serious. This is my non-fiction, read-in-doses book.







The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Stieg Larsson
Normally I steer clear of books that are practically thrown in your face as soon as you walk into a bookstore (like Eat, Love, Pray, which I still haven't read), so it took a while to get round to this one. I'm not normally a book snob, which you'll know if you've seen some of the awful contributions to literature I've read in the past, but I don't like to be told what to read either. What changed my mind was that a member of my book club recommended it as a good read, so here I am. I've only just started it, but already it's riveting. What a shame the author died before seeing his works in print.


Captain Corelli's Mandolin, Louis de Bernieres
This is my read-at-night classic. It's interesting enough that I want to pick it up before bed, but not so absorbing that I can't put it down to go to sleep (or engage in other nocturnal activities that might present themselves :p). I've been reading it for around a week in small increments and I haven't even been introduced to Captain Corelli yet, so I'm in this for the long haul.


What books are you juggling?

Literary Lust: Mr Darcy

Okay, it doesn't get more obvious than this - especially after Colin Firth's coming-out-of-the-lake scene which is indelibly burned in the retinas of women the world over. But Pride and Prejudice has been a favourite of mine for 20 years so I won't be deterred by the obviousness of it all. It's plain and simple: Darcy is hot. The arrogance. The intelligence. The refusal to bow to society's expectations and his smoldering lust for our feisty heroine Eliza Bennett.

Re-live the magic:


Literary Lusts was started by Elena at With Extra Pulp

Google made me cry

This is the Google ad called 'Parisian Love' which aired during the 2010 Super Bowl. If for some reason you can't see it (apparently it doesn't load on some machines), just click here to view on youtube.

I thought it was sweet <3

Author Review: Jonathan Tropper

I"m getting the sense that Jonathan Tropper is the authorial version of the Hugh Grant-kind of actor - the one who never really sheds his skin so the character he plays is always the same, just different situations for different movies. Don't get me wrong, he's great at what he does. It's just that, having read three of his five books, I'm starting to get to know his protagonist all too well.

There are certain parallels that run through his books: they're all written from the perspective of 30-something, middle-class, moderately successful young men who find themselves suddenly at a juncture in their lives not of their own choosing. They all have beautiful wives/partners whose astonishing good looks add to their neuroses, and their dysfunctional families are complicated but blessed by intelligence and beauty. Every single female character in his books is incredibly beautiful (slim, sexy, smart), from partners to sisters and mothers, and the protagonists are unwaveringly witty, self-deprecating, wry and generally a good-guy, albeit with flaws.

I loved the first book I read, How to Talk to a Widower because the voice was fresh, the narrative honest and banter so witty. I loved the larger-than-life characters and got really involved in the grief and recovery of Doug Parker, after the death of his wife Hailey. It was moving and exhilarating. Then came Everything Changes. 'Hang on a minute,' I thought. 'Zach King sounds exactly like Doug Parker but now he's potentially got cancer.' Then I read This is Where I Leave You. Deja Vu.

“There is an element in all my books of people at an age when they should be established suddenly questioning the fundamental tenets on which they base their lives,”says Jonathan Tropper in an interview. “I am not sure exactly what draws me to that theme, but it may be that it is a very middle-class thing. I grew up in an upper-middle-class home and live in an upper-middle-class suburb. I think there the dangers are not so much external, because we are all pretty insulated, the dangers are internal.”

He is the master at 'internal danger' - the writer of angst-ridden monologue for intelligent young men everywhere... but I really wish he'd try something different because he is definitely a good writer and I'd love to see him stretch his craft further. There are three words lurking in the back of my head that I'm loathe to commit to paper (figuratively): one trick pony.

But even Hugh Grant broke out of the mould with his characters in About a Boy and Bridget Jones's Diary. There's hope. So please Mr Tropper, prove me wrong.

Save on Sydney

How's this for a great deal: the Viva Sydney card gives you two-for-one deals to participating restaurants, hotels, events and spas around Sydney until March 31st. You can download the card with a full list of offers, or receive it on your mobile phone via sms.

Sydney rocks! And now you can see how much for half price.

The Best Reads of 2009

Due to overwhelming demand (one request left in the comments of this blog), I've decided to review my best reads of 2009.

Top 5 reads of 2009

Maus, by Art Spiegelman
A deeply affecting graphic novel about the Holocaust experience of the artist/author's father, and their rocky father-son relationship. The immigrant English is charming and the use of animal faces for characters really work, in the strangest and most touching way.




Catch-22, by Joseph Heller
This is a difficult read in many ways, but so worth the effort. It's ridiculous and sublime, dark, funny and has the potential to send you mad.







Cooking with Fernet Branca, by James Hamilton-Paterson
This was an unexpected delight that I laughed my way through. Set in the beautiful Tuscan countryside, the novel focuses on two independently hilarious and wittily depicted characters: very English Gerald Samper and his Voynovian neighbour Marta. Well worth reading.



One Day, David Nicholls
One Day is a big book that spans two decades in a relationship between two people who will become your best friends by the time you finish the book. It's an unconventional love story that's in turns satisfying, funny, sad and wistful... much like real life.





Persuasion, Jane Austen
I had to sneak her in there somehow, and since it was still too soon for a re-read of Pride and Prejudice, I read Persuasion instead. It used to be my third favourite Austen novel after P&P and Emma, but it's quickly rising to take second place. It's a gorgeous story of lost love that is found again, and so deliciously satisfying in the end. I defy you not to fall in love with it.




Honorary Mentions

Best series: The Number One Ladies' Detective Agency series, by Alexander McCall-Smith
I've been reading this series for a few years now and it never gets old. The story of Precious Ramotswe, who opens up the first ladies' detective agency in Botswana, her assistant Mma Makutsi and fiancee-to-husband Mr JLB Matekoni is delightful in every way: tender, big-hearted and touching.


Best non-fiction: Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly, by Anthony Bourdain
Okay, I'm not a big reader of non-fiction so there wasn't a lot to choose from, but this book was an enjoyable read regardless of genre. Anthony Bourdain, a drug-addict-turned-successful-chef, reveals the underbelly of fine dining, and in doing so gives real insight and appreciation for the craft that takes place before the perfectly turned plate lands on our table.

Biggest disappointment: The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, by Junot Diaz
This Pulitzer Prize winner was a dud in my books, and certainly didn't live up to the wonderful title. There were pages-long footnotes, quotes in Spanish that weren't translated for our benefit, and the characters were not particularly endearing - particularly the title's namesake.


Best movie: District 9
Since I reviewed movies as well throughout 2009, I thought I might throw this one in here. District 9 was a brilliant movie with great visual effects, impeccable acting (especially by first-time actor Sharlto Copley in the lead role), moving character development and a fantastic storyline. It's almost too much to ask of one movie these days, but Neill Blomkamp manages to deliver it all in his directorial debut.

Badly cobbled fiction

Badly written fiction is so disappointing. Yes I'm looking at you, Alyson Noel. I recently read her chicklit book Fly Me to the Moon, and I'd be hard pressed to think of 2 more painful hours passed in recent history. The characters were stereotyped, the narrative amateurish and the climax LAME LAME LAME.

So why did I keep reading? If the whole thing was crappy I would've trashed it faster than last year's ballet flats, but it was just humorous enough, just romantic enough, just interesting enough that I read it through. In my defence, I speed read it. And I didn't have any other books on hand, having just finished my two most recent purchases. And I bought it for $3.95 at a discount book store. But I wish to God I'd just bought myself another Easy Way bubble tea with the money instead.

Enough excuses. Back to badly written fiction. It's disappointing because we expect publishers and editors to weed out the trash for us, but we should know from experience that publishers aren't always known for their literary taste, but their shark-like ability to smell money in the water. That leads me to the chicklit genre. Where there is demand, there will always be a scramble to supply, and I think this is how something like Fly Me to the Moon gets published. It has a hook (the heroine is a flight attendant so we get a sneak peek behind the matronly hair and polyester uniforms), it ostensibly has a plot (she finds her soon-to-be fiance in bed with another man and now has to rebuild her life), it has sex (modest scenes but at least we know the heroine has a libido) and most importantly in chicklit, the heroine is the underdog - the type of girl who trips over and embarrasses herself, who is attracted to but simultaneously hates the obvious hero for some perceived slight, and who has a sense of humour. Someone we might all relate to.

In short, it ticks all the right boxes. But it still sucks. Despite adhering to formula, despite falling into a popular genre and being possibly no worse than other crappy books (and there are a LOT in chicklit), this book fails because it's badly cobbled together. The heroine might travel to romantic faraway places but ultimately, it's like the teenage romance in which the guy brings his sister to the dance but the girl mistakes it as a date and throws punch in his face. Only worse and even more lame because this heroine is meant to be an adult.

The troubling thing is, Alyson Noel can write. No doubt if she wrote short stories and articles they would be a good read, but sustaining a whole novel proved too much for her with this storyline. This could have been a much better book with a better editor. Someone to tell her that the crux of the plot is lame, to give depth to her characters and cut out the more meandering parts of the novel.

Perhaps it's only in my romantic imagination that editors still do that sort of work? Refiners, so to speak, of published works. Because not all good writers make good novelists. And bad novelists write bad fiction. And bad fiction = cranky readers. Like me.