Next

Do you mind if I jump in with the next book. I know I am a wee bit early but we are leaving for the traveling part of our vacation soon and will be gone at the start of the next month. I have been preparing for almost two months, searching for just the right thing for the beginning of the summer reading season. So I have a few options for you to consider.

First, there is the new-ish book by Jill Conner Browne, The Sweet Potato Queens' Wedding Planner/Divorce Guide. Below is the overview of this book:

The Sweet Potato Queens are bona fide experts at planning a marvelous marriage (and ending one—flip this book right on over if you're looking for advice on dumping a deadweight hubby!), so who better to provide this handy wedding planner? And even if you're not planning your own nuptials, surely you have dreamt about your perfect day, regardless of whether you've met Mr. Right yet! In this essential manual, you'll learn:
• How to plan a truly regal wedding
• What to wear (and what not to wear) to your own wedding, or to anyone else's
• How to organize the sassiest games and sauciest entertainment for the occasion
• How to plan and prepare the greasiest, tastiest wedding vittles for your big-ass guests
You are hereby summoned to appear . . .
The Sweet Potato Queens know a thing or two about ending a marriage (and beginning one—flip this book on over if you’re planning on attaching yourself to the ol' ball and chain!), so who better to provide this crucial divorce guide? Besides, whether you’re getting your own personal divorce or not, chances are you’ll be calling Mr. Right Mr. I-Don’t-Think-So sometime in the future! In this practical handbook, you'll learn:
• How to survive even the nastiest divorce while maintaining your queenly composure
• Why it’s appropriate—and necessary!—to throw divorce showers and send out divorce announcements
• Why love is even better the second, third, or fourth time around

If by chance you are not yet familiar with the Sweet Potato Queens, we could also read the first of her books, The Sweet Potato Queens' Book of Love. Here is a review of the book:

Unlike other beauty queens, the Jackson, Miss., Sweet Potato Queens are self-crowned, rule for life (there's no "former" tag for these gals) and are real women?figure flaws and all. Originally organized in 1982, the Queens are, by their own account, "fallen Southern belles" and "female drag queens"?and as such, they are all about attitude and humor. This buoyantly funny guide to life and love is a hoot from the get-go as ringleader Browne offers queenly observations on life's most pressing issues. Some topics may seem trivial, such as tanning, making the most of big hair and delighting in "big, sturdy, serviceable, substantial Russian immigrant underwear" for pregnant women (it's so "indescribably comfy" that "you may never go back"), but they are expertly mined for laughs. Non-cooks may reconsider when reading the hilariously artery-clogging recipes in the chapter "What to Eat When Tragedy Strikes," highlighting the four main food groups (sweet, salty, fried and au gratin) and suitable for both therapeutic and recreational eating. The life-affirming final chapter reminds readers of life's many options: "Life may indeed be short, but it is, for a fact, wide."

Finally, there is a book I read about on NPR's website, entitled Radical Prunings: A Novel : Officious Advice from the Contessa of Compost. Again, below is the overview:

A literate, funny, and surprisingly bittersweet debut from a writer with a sharp wit and a green thumb. This rather deceptive work purports to be the collected horticultural columns of one opinionated Mertensia Corydalis, a woman genteel as a rose and just as prickly. As Mertensia answers her readers’ innocent gardening questions, she reveals more than she intends about her life, her relationships (from volleys with her celebrity gardener ex-husband to questionable interactions with her employees, Miss Vong and Tran), and her own precarious state of mind. But be warned—Miss Mertensia does not entertain questions about lawn care.
Though RADICAL PRUNINGS is often laugh-out-loud funny, Bonnie Thomas Abbott’s love for gardening is serious. Her characters immerse themselves in the sensual pleasures of growing things— the earthy sensation of wet dirt between the fingers, the beauty of soil clinging to a freshly dug radish, the anticipation of a blossom slowly unfolding—even when other aspects of their lives have gone to seed

What do you think?

Jumping in

I know I'm jumping the gun a bit, but it's that or do my laundry. Ho ho.

I really enjoyed this book. I liked the way in which it didn't always provide a clear, person-to-person lineage--in several places the thread was lost a bit, or simply not stated. And some of the passages in this book had me nearly in tears:

"You think I don't already ask myself...what I did or didn't do that made
her this way? What I failed to say to her at one unknown, privately crucial day?
Tell me...how haven't I loved enough?"

"It wasn't hope that lay between that man and God. Nor was it thankfulness.
Or appreciation for a bird or a leaf. Or a kiss. Fear lived in that space... But
that wasn't the God she cared to know."

And the last line in the novel...damn.

Because of course I projected myself onto the characters, just as everyone projected themselves onto the girl in the painting. It made me think of the time I spent as a child, making up stories about the people in my grandmother's paintings...for the longest time I thought they must all be people we knew. And I've known that feeling, of standing in front of a true masterpiece (in museums only, sadly) and being absolutely destroyed by it.

I did think the author's female voices were stronger and more real than her male voices, but that isn't surprising or unusual. And perhaps my impression is again a result of feeling naturally more connected to the women.

Did anybody else read in the acknowledgements that some of these chapters were originally published separately in various publications?

Nothing to do with the book itself, per se, but the copy I got from the library was a small hardback, and it fit in my hand perfectly. That somehow made reading it all the more satisfying. Also, someone else who had read it had underlined lightly in pencil, one word in the entire book..."encumbered".

Ready, Set, Hyacinth Blue

Are we ready to discuss?

May's Book

Okay, since I have been given the green light, I thought that we could have Girl in Hyacinth Blue by Susan Vreeland (1999, Penguin Books) as our book for May. The blurb on the back says:

A professor invites a colleague from the art department to his home to see a painting that he has kept secret for decades. The professor swears it is a Vermeer - why has he hidden this important work for so long? The reasons unfold in a series of stories that trace ownership of the painting back to World War II and Amsterdam, and still further back to the moment of the work's inspiration. As the painting moves through each owner's hands, what was long hidden quietly surfaces, illuminating poignant moments in human lives. Vreeland's characters remind us, through their love of the mysterious painting, how beauty transforms and why we reach for it, what lasts, and what in our lives is singular and unforgettable.

Go forth and read!!

Book of the month

Hey! Wanna choose a new book?