Jan
31
JANUARY READS.
1. Plath, Silvia. The Bell Jar. 1963. — i read this once before, in 10th grade. i got much more out of it this time around & got er’ done in 3 days. i rode into manhattan a saturday and sunday & got a lot of solo train time. i fully empathized with esther, and found myself reflecting on my own sources of happiness. a lot of the things that go on in the book are quite disturbing, but i kind of like that. just such a beautiful, sad, story.
2. McCarthy, Cormac. Outer Dark. 1968. — i read a lot of his work last year (all the pretty horses, the road, the crossing, no country for old men.) so i was pretty psyched to receive this gift from joe on christmas. i was then, not so relieved to see that the synopsis read, sometime around the turn of the century, a woman in appalachia bears her brothers child, a boy. the brother leaves the baby in the woods and tells his sister the child died of natural causes. discovering her brother’s lie, she sets forth alone to find her son. both brother and sister wander separately through a countryside being scourged by three terrifying and elusive strangers, heading toward an eerie apocalyptic resolution. … not exactly a light hearted frolic buthonestly i’m never surprised that cormac mccarthy can make some of the most terrifying stories seem humane. i enjoyed this book, and its mundane, early america dementia. it’s disturbing at times, yet an interesting journey of strange love and determination. the time period & characters we met were top notch. you really felt the darkness. his words & your imagination will bring you there. read it.
3. Fey, Tina. Bossypants. 2011. — okay, so i’ve had weird reservations about this book since its debut. lots of women be raving about it & reading it all over the place. i do enjoy the occasional tina fey and have always been a little curious to what her deal really was. i’ve viewed the majority of 30 rock (need to catch up on last two seasons! the finale was tonight!) – and i liked her a lot on weekend update. and mean girls. and baby mama. okay, i’m clearly a fan. so anyway, joe got me this book as well. it was the first book i read this year. i must report that i’m still having mixed emotions about it. reason being: it unveiled this world that i wasn’t groovy about. i guess she de-glamourizes the tv world, knowing that its not a glamorous world anyway. not sure if that makes sense. but, the parts i found most interesting were when she talked about her experience writing for snl, the way 30 rock came to, little tid-bits about co-stars, mostly learning about her friendship with amy poehler. and i do enjoy her sense of humor; 70/30. i just don’t care what she is saying all the time – but i get it. i feel like in general this lady is sort of a hypocrite, but i like that she is straight up sort of admitting it? or is she? idk!
4. Taylor, Cory. Me & Mr. Booker. 2012. — another gift from joe (lotsa book) – he inscribed this one “Cory’s biggest problem is her grammar. It should be “Mr. Booker and I.” i liked. this one is about this teenage girl who ends up having an affair with a married british man. he has an appealing dapper quality, with a hidden pathetic side. you end up liking his wife too, and the whole situation gets totally f’ed up. the main character, martha, also has a fucked up family. which always interests me. she also has a pretty dry outlook on life and school (i related.) the setting; small town in australia. that was pretty cool – to learn about the culture there. and try to do their accents in my head. i flew through this book, it was a good read.
picture from my 365
