Natsuo Kirino

Grotesque is the story of an unnamed, plain and unpopular main character and her beautiful sister Yuriko. The story follows both women through their time at Q High School for Young Women in Tokyo where Yuriko is the belle of the ball and the sister struggles in the shadows. Both girls eventually turn to a life of prostitution and use their bodies to support themselves.

As you can probably tell by the title, this book isn’t a pretty story. Both main female characters, while having different levels of physical beauty, are rather ugly, grotesque even, on the inside.

Yuriko is one hundred percent aware of her beauty and its effect on those around her. She uses it to her full advantage. Her sister describes her as a monster because her beauty is so terrifying. But it is apparent that she is also a monsterbecause she is so cold on the inside.

The unnamed sister, the narrator,  spends most of her time struggling with jealousy and rage. She is bitter about her sister’s advantages and unhappy with her lot in life, but she isn’t willing to remove herself from the situation.

Both sisters turn to prostitution for different reasons, but both use it both as a way to make a living and to make a point.

When Yuriko turns up murdered, the novel takes on some airs of a detective story, but the mystery is never the main focus.

Grotesque is an uncomfortable read, because the narrator is so vicious and unlikeable. It is easy to question her perspective and wonder what is lying beneath the bitter lens she sees the world through. It is very obvious that she is an untrustworthy narrator and this makes for a compelling read.

The book is also interesting as a bit of insight into Japanese culture. While the idealization of beauty may be a trait in many cultures, the situations the sisters find them in are often unique to Japanese culture.

This book is a translation and at times that feels abundantly obvious. The language gets a little clunky and difficult to follow.

Overall I would recommend this book. It is hard to put down and leaves you with a lot to think about.

Author Seth Grahame-Smith is no stranger to putting bizarre spins on tradition. His first novel, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies (published in 2009) received positive reviews from a number of publications, including Entertainment Weekly and The AV Club, although more “high-brow” reviewers didn’t exactly appreciate the humor. Still, it reached number three on the New York Times bestseller list, so really, who’s the one laughing?

After the reception of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter got only mediocre response. The reviews were less favorable, and though it premiered on the bestseller list at number four, it dropped off shortly after. Still, with the movie coming out, and the massive supernatural phenomenon going on, I expect it to get a little attention.

The plot of the novel is pretty self explanatory: Abraham Lincoln has a secret life as a vampire hunter. Grahame-Smith writes in a faux biographical tone, presenting the story as something he has researched and studied, after discovering the “Secret Journal of Abraham Lincoln.”

Parodies can be tricky – they require a certain amount of silliness without being utterly ridiculous. With Tim Burton involved in the movie, ridiculousness is a given, but his kooky films have a lot of fans. As far as the book, I’d be mildly interested to read a chapter or two, but I’m not sure if it would be worth it to buy and commit to the entire thing. Grahame-Smith was definitely on to something with his idea of blending history and more modern supernatural beings, but I think the time has passed. I expect a younger, male audience to be most enthralled with this – perhaps the male version of Twilight?

Acts of Kindness: My Story

Wilma didn’t have an easy life. She was one of 11 children in a very poor community. As a young child, she went to a hospital for a rare disease and was far from her family for several years. There she met a black nurse. If this doesn’t seem like a big deal now, you have to consider the era she was living in. This black nurse would never have been accepted in her town.

Married at sixteen, her first husband left her with a young son to raise.  Chuck Norris, whom she still calls Carlos, was the first of her three children. Wieland and Arthur came along with another bad husband. Wieland died a hero in a Vietnam. Arthur is her youngest and is now a famous movie and film director. Photographs are included throughout.

Chaplain Todd DuBord  actually wrote the book from Wilma’s  stories and has managed to capture the essence of her. The storytelling is simple yet the book still maintains the honesty that commonly gets lost in other autobiographies. It is her life well told and forever enshrined in the written word. But more than that, this book is about how to find the American Dream among the struggles of life, and is a testament to her faith.

This book will appeal to many different types of people. Even if you aren’t a big fan of Chuck Norris, there is so much to take from this book. This is something you certainly should consider buying. It is also available in ebook form. You may have to go directly to the Chuck Norris website to get a copy. Also, check your local library to see if they have a copy. Amazon is currently showing that the book is unavailable, but that could change in the future.

The book itself was published in 1955. This is important because many of the things now known about the Titanic were not known during the writing of this book. Things like the ship splitting in half or the exact reasons why the Titanic sank aren’t going to be as up to date. You have to remember that the wreckage of the Titanic was still undiscovered at this point in time.

The second thing to keep in mind is not to compare the book to the movie Titanic. The book was written well before the movie version ever came out. So, you won’t find the same characters. The book attempts to encompass all the people aboard the Titanic instead of focusing on just on just a couple of characters.

A Night to Remember is very factual in nature, as Walter Lord sticks to the accounts and firsthand experiences of the passengers. You won’t find a bunch of flowery language or expounding on the different stories of individuals. The book is far too short for that. Some people may find this type of writing a bit dull in nature and a little less exciting even though many of the quotes are taken from the passengers themselves.

What’s interesting about this book is that it gives a perspective on who was actually saved, why they were saved, and why more people weren’t willing to go into the available lifeboats. There are other reasons — besides just the fact that there weren’t enough lifeboats — why more people weren’t saved. Also fairly interesting is the viewpoint people had on third class passengers of the boat and the mindset that people had in that day and age.

Additionally, there is a listing of the survivors and those who lost their lives in this tragedy, although  there is a lot of debate on these lists since the actual records of who was aboard the ship can’t be 100% verified.

The sinking of the Titanic was a tragedy that happened 100 years ago. Even though science has eventually established what actually sank the ship, nothing can really replace the firsthand account of the people who were actually on board the ship. You should read this book for this particular point of view because you will find a few surprises regarding the human aspect of the disaster.

Bring Up the Bodies

Following a seven-year battle for her hand in marriage, which saw England’s break from the Roman Catholic  Church and the creation of his own church, King Henry VIII is disillusioned with Anne Boleyn. The new queen is headstrong, bold, and keenly intelligent, and her presence at the Court threatens to alienate the king’s old allies and England’s noble families. To add to the disenchantment, she fails to bear him the son she promised, whose birth would have secured the line of the Tudors.

Now chief minister and the king’s principal secretary, Thomas Cromwell only needs the word from the king to remove Anne from the Court, so to speak. In her place, he will install Jane Seymour, whom the king is eyeing and is unflatteringly described as “plain and quiet”. Of course, the Boleyns will not go quietly into the night; thus, Cromwell has to call upon the Roman Catholic upper classes to set his plan in motion. The narrative of how the queen and her suitors are brought to trial for treason and adultery is only one part of Bring Up the Bodies .

As far as historical accuracy goes, it has not been confirmed whether Anne Boleyn was adulterous and traitorous, nor has it been ascertained if the beloved Katherine of Aragon actually consummated her marriage to her first husband, Arthur, Prince of Wales, who was Henry VIII’s elder brother. However, as with the first book, readers are assured of being drawn in by principal character Thomas Cromwell, described in history as “opaque”, but whose “sleek, plump, and densely inaccessible enigma” has proven to be fertile ground for Mantel’s machinations.

When I look down the complete book-list of a prolific children’s book author like Louis Sachar, I am often amazed by the number of stories they have written over the years. Other times, I am more amazed to realize that I actually recognize a majority of the names on the list because I have read them all. I’m surprised by all the books that I read as a young child; did I live in the library? I read the entirety of many series; I probably drove my parents nuts asking for the next book in a series, though it made Christmastime fairly easy.

Beyond Holes, (which won the 1998 U.S. National Book Award for Young People’s Literature and the 1999 Newbery Medal for the year’s “most distinguished contribution to American literature for children” and is still the only book to have ever won both awards), Sachar is the author of the Marvin Redpost Series (which I read) and a number of other children’s books such as Dogs Don’t Tell Jokes and The Boy Who Lost His Face (which I read).

More importantly (to me), Sachar is also the author of the Sideways Stories from Wayside School series, which was one of my absolute favorites! I don’t know how I ignored his name on the cover of all of those stories that I read. All of the books in the Wayside series have 30 chapters or “stories”, one for each story in the school that the characters in the series attend. It was built as a tower, with one room on each floor, and a “missing” 19th floor. There’s always something supernatural going on at Wayside Elementary, which makes for quite a fun read. Sachar did once work at an elementary school to earn college credit, and even named the 30 students in the stories after students at the elementary school where he worked, but he has said that most of his personal experiences were too boring; he derived the Wayside stories primarily from his imagination, and quite an imagination it is!

I owe some thanks to Sachar for providing some fun literature to keep me hooked on reading.

This past Saturday, my father asked me if I wanted to run a 5K road race with him. I’m no runner, but I’ve done one timed 5K before, and it’s not unusual for me to do the same on the treadmill at the gym. Called the James Joyce Ramble, this particular run was conceived in 1984 when a Dedham, Massachusetts Joyce enthusiast was reading Finnegan’s Wake, one of Joyce’s more famous pieces of work. Martin Hanley, the reader, found the work so exhaustive that he compared it to preparing for a long race. Thus, the James Joyce Ramble was formed.

This is all well and great. I appreciate literature, and I’m all for doing kooky things in its name (hello, midnight Harry Potter premieres). Along the race course, actors in period costumes stand on soapboxes reciting excerpts from Joyce’s works. It was quirky and eclectic, and I absolutely approve.

Except for one thing.

When we went to the registration desk to fill out our forms, I noticed a question asking for our most recent 10K time. Turns out, what I thought would be a simple 5K was actually double that – and on a hilly route, no less.

It was around mile 4 that the historically-dressed readers were no longer amusing, especially the ones reciting excerpts from “The Dead” at mile 6. Around mile 5, the people lining the streets cheering were no longer encouraging, but mocking. People do these things for fun?! If there’s one thing I took away from the experience – if reading James Joyce is like that, why would I ever want to read him?

Maybe it’s because Joyce is one of the most celebrated writers of all time, even if his work is also often recognized as dense and difficult to read. In a ranking of the 100 best English-language novels of the 20^th century by Modern Library, not only is Joyce listed three times, his Ulysses is number 1, and A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man is close behind at number three. Not too shabby.

After having (barely) completed the running half of this James Joyce endurance endeavor, I’m not sure if I’m ready to tackle the literary half of the task (though I do see a lot of couch-bound recovery time in my future!). Still, the showing of runners at the James Joyce Ramble is a sure sign that, even years after his death, Joyce’s work is still being celebrated. The free beer at the finish line didn’t hurt, either!