Looking for Salvation at the Dairy Queen - Susan Gregg Gilmore

looking for salvation at the dairy queen
susan gregg gilmore
c. 2008
250-ish pages
completed 7/31/2008

*may contain spoilers*

I loved this book. I started reading it and couldn't put it down. It was so funny. The characters were great, they were all really well written. There were the usual small town weirdos and stereotypes, but they weren't so outrageous as to make them unbelievable. Catherine Grace's voice was wonderful, giving lots of insight and back story to every character and event.

What was especially impressive was the Christianity of the book. And by that I mean, this is a story about a preacher's daughter in small town Georgia. There was a lot of church talk and biblical references, but it was never too "preachy." And even though everyone learned to love one another and be good Christians after Catherine Grace gave her eulogy, I loved that she was like "let's be for real, that wasn't going to last long."

There were only two small things I wasn't thrilled with.

The characterization of Flora made me slightly...uncomfortable. It was a little too much of a stereotype for me. Of course this book was set in Georgia in the 70's and maybe I'm too much of a Seattle girl of the new millennium to know if that was just "how it was."

Also, the storyline of Lena Mae coming back from the dead was a little abrupt for me. I understand how it fit with the story, but there wasn't really enough explanation of why she left and couldn't come back. I know why she left, but why couldn't she come back? And then in the end, she just slipped away again.

Even with those two small issues, I still loved the book. And I look forward to more to come.

5/5

Quite a Year for Plums - Bailey White

quite a year for plums
bailey white
c. 1999
240 pages
completed 7/29/2008



I really don't have a whole lot to say for this review. I almost didn't finish this book. It wasn't that it was bad, it was just...forgettable. It took me about a week to finish and I can't really tell you anything that happened. Because nothing really did. There was no conflict. There was no character growth.

Nothing happened.

2/5

Gimmie gimmie more...

I'm so excited! Lezlie at Books and Border Collies hosted a Georgette Heyer book giveaway and I won! Well, I was one of the winners. Soon I will have a nice new book to read, The Royal Escape. Very exciting. In other news I seem to have gotten a little off track with my summer reading plan. I've been living in San Diego for six months now (six months yesterday!) and have yet to get a library card. This wasn't a problem until now. Almost everything off my summer reading list I don't own! And I keep procrastinating, so I went off the list a little bit. But I'm trying to get back on track. I have plans to visit the library tomorrow to get a card and hopefully some of the books on my list! We'll see if I get back on track.

Saturday - Ian McEwan

saturday
ian mcewan
c. 2005
304 pages
completed 7/3/2008

*may contain spoilers*

This has been my favorite new read so far this year. I loved this book. Which leads me to wonder why it would be one of the books removed from the 1001 list.

I'm so glad I decided to give McEwan the benefit of the doubt after reading The Cement Garden. Glad this went the way of Atonement instead.

This book was filled with beautiful language. So much so that for a few seconds after I was done, I wanted to be a poet (but then I remembered my not so stellar relationship with poetry). Henry's day was so simple and easy, a Saturday to be filled with nothing but life's pleasures, yet one minor inconvenience changed not only his day, but in someway probably his life, forever.

I don't know what else to say. This book basically ran through Henry's thought process of his extra-ordinary Saturday. And I loved it.

5/5

Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert

madame bovary
gustave flaubert
c. 1856
342 pages
completed 6/28/2008

*may contain spoilers*

This is the second book by a 19th century French writer that I have read this year (the first being The Red and the Black by Stendhal). Both works were filled with the "hero" involved in devious and secretive acts which eventually were the "hero's" downfall. And both ended in their sad demise.

I put hero (I guess in this case it should be heroine) in quotation marks because in both novels the protagonist was so unlikeable. Emma's constant quest for romance and sophistication so blinded her that she couldn't see the love she had until her death. Her husband was quiet and simple. He wasn't the romantic, the hero, she wanted him to be. But he truly loved her.

I also found similarities between the character of Julien in The Red and the Black and that of Rodolphe in this novel. At least, similarities in their ideas of a mistress. For both of them, it wasn't that they fell in love (or even lust, really) and took a lover. Instead, it was like a contest. They wanted to challenge themselves. But where Julien quickly fell in love with his mistress, Rodolphe saw his whole relationship as a game to be played, like chess. Something where he had strategized his every move.

I really do think that Leon was in love with Emma. I think she was just in love with the romanticism the Leon could bring to her.

I hated that Emma not only ruined herself and eventually killed herself, but she also ruined Charles who did nothing but love her, though maybe he should have been a little more involved in the running of his house. And his mother made me crazy. Even if she turned out to be right about Emma sometimes, she was kind of out of control with her constant wailing that Charles loved Emma more than her. Creepy.

3/5

Standing in the Rainbow - Fannie Flagg

standing in the rainbow
fannie flagg
c. 2003
544 pages
completed 6/18/2008

*may contain spoilers*

As a disclaimer before I actually review this book I want to point out that it was read primarily for the Southern Reading Challenge (see sidebar), however, during the reading of this book I learned that according to the author this book is NOT set in the South. I didn't realize Missouri wasn't considered the South. I have always considered it part of the South. Not the Deep South, like Alabama and Georgia and South Carolina, but the South none the less.

I have done some research and apparently it is one of the border states, like West Virginia, Maryland, and Delaware, something to do with them being part of Southern region of the US according to the Census Bureau but they didn't secede from the Union during the Civil War. So sometimes Missouri is part of the South and sometimes it's part of the Midwest. I guess they get to pick and choose. Being as I was born in West Virginia and grew up in Delaware I feel I also get to pick and choose and since my roots are in South Georgia and North Carolina, I like to think of myself as a bit of a Southerner. And for the purpose of this challenge, Missouri gets to be Southern, too.

I'm not going to lie, I was a little wary going into this book seeing as I wasn't totally thrilled with the other Fannie Flagg novel I tried, Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe (despite my total love of the film), but it turns out I was pleasantly surprised. One of my main issues with Fried Green Tomatoes was it's lack of structure, that each chapter jumped from story line to story line and jumped back in forth in time. The book similarly jumped between characters and story lines, but seemed to follow a much more stable flow of time. Time was always moving in basically one direction.

I thought this book was mostly very sweet. Most of the characters were completely lovable. There was no big plot, just little life stories from people in a small town. I think I loved reading about Mackey and Norma and their Aunt Elner the best. The Oatmans were a little too much at times, but I think that was part of their charm. The Smith Family was charming and entertaining, especially the misadventures Bobby would get himself into as a child.

I think probably the most involved storyline was that of Hamm Sparks and Betty Raye and the political races. This was a little unfortunate since this was the storyline I liked the least. I just couldn't like Hamm Sparks. I thought there was just nothing redeemable about him. I think the author tried to portray him as someone honest and unbiased in politics, but I think she fell short of that goal. The author tried to portray him as honest in his politics, but he lost all credibility to the reader for continually not keeping his word to his wife and eventually taking a mistress. And he was supposedly unbiased towards this "little man" (I know he said there's no such thing as the "little man"), but his politics continually painted those who were well off as nothing but evil and corrupt which is a bias in itself. And I think his character really unraveled at his speech about the Vietnam War at (I think) UC Berkley, though I actually think (due to the reaction of the people in the story) that the author intended for his speech to make him look better. To me, it made him seem uneducated and thoughtless.

Even when Hamm Sparks first made his appearance, I thought he was a little too slick. His courtship of Betty Raye was not romantic, it was borderline harassment. Yes, at the end of the courtship the author said Batty Raye was in love, but I almost think she wasn't. That she said yes partly out of exhaustion or not knowing what else to say. Also, I thought from that first Valentine's Day during her senior year in high school that Betty Raye should someday marry Jimmy. I like to think that they did in the end, when he went to live with her in her little red brick house.

One other part of the book that bothered me was the character of Cecil Figgs. I didn't like his depiction. To be honest, I was at times a little offended. I...THINK he was supposed to be a gay character, but this was never expressly said. If I remember correctly, I think when we went to New Orleans it was mentioned that he wanted to stay because of the pretty boys. But I didn't like that he was on more than one occasion referred to as a fairy. And he was portrayed as annoying, not really a man, obsessed with decorations and planning events. And then he ended his life by pretending to be dead so he could recreate himself as Mrs. Boom Boom and headline a nightclub. As if that great joy was the best thing a gay man could aspire to. I don't know. I wanted to like his character, but he got more and more ridiculous as time went on. And maybe I'm reading to much into his character.

Overall, I enjoyed this book. I enjoyed that it was basically a series of anecdotes, almost as if you were reading the "best of the neighbor Dorothy show."

4/5

Summertime, when the living is easy...

Rock Creek Rumblings is hosting the 2008 Summer Reading Challenge. Just like her Spring Reading Challenge (see sidebar) I have recently finished, the basic idea is to make a list for the summer and try your best to stick with it. I didn't finish last season's list (one and a half books to go), but I'm going to try for the same number of books again this time.

My booklist:

June...
The Sanctuary Sparrow: Ellis Peters
Standing in the Rainbow: Fannie Flagg
Madame Bovary: Gustav Flaubert
Saturday: Ian McEwan
Searching for Dragons: Patricia C. Wrede
July...
Looking for Salvation at the Dairy Queen: Susan Gregg Gilmore
Little Women: Louis May Alcott
The Devils' Novice: Ellis Peters
Quite a Year For Plums: Bailey White
Daisy Miller: Henry James
August...
Blonde: Joyce Carol Oates
Calling On Dragons: Patricia C. Wrede
Dr. Jeckyll and Mr. Hyde: Robert Louis Stevenson
Dead Man's Ransom: Ellis Peters
The Third Chimpanzee: Jared Diamond

We'll see how I do this time!