The Great Night by Chris Adrian

Posted on May 30, 2011 by pagesofjulia

This book is billed as a modern-day retelling of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, which sounds fairly ambitious. The original classic is far too much to mess around with lightly. I find it beautiful, haunting, magical, and surprisingly accessible; I think anyone and everyone should be able to enjoy a production of this play, which might not be true of all the bard’s work, no matter how wonderful. But I have to give Adrian full credit: I feel that he created something new out of it, definitely a recognizable retelling, but something new and beautiful in its own way, very different and very wonderful too.

Three young people, Henry, Will, and Molly, are all (separately) lost in Buena Vista Park in San Francisco at dusk on midsummer night’s eve. All three were on their way to the same party which none really wanted to attend; all three are tenuously connected without actually knowing one another; and all three are quite neurotic in their own ways. Meanwhile, Titania is grief-stricken, having lost her Boy to leukemia (and being unfamiliar with the mortal concept of death), and then having lost Oberon, who left her when they quarreled in their shared grief. In despair and resignation, she releases Puck from his bond of servitude, and he rages as the Beast throughout the park. Also meanwhile, a troupe of homeless aspiring actors meet to rehearse a musical play, but are separated, as the fairies come out to frolic, or flee Puck, or make mischief.

Chapter by chapter we get inside the heads of the three mortal lovers, and sometimes of Titania too. The character development is exquisite; I loved learning more about the histories of Will, Molly, and Henry, and gradually putting together the clues and learning how they’re interconnected and where their respective neuroses might have come from. The depth of these complex, nuanced, disturbed characters might have been my most favorite part of this book.

Titania gets substantially more development, too. The lengthened and deepened relationship with the Boy, and his battle with cancer, allow for her to mature and look outside herself in ways that a fairy queen would not normally be called to do. Even Puck gets a more significant personality, and desires of his own.

Part fairy tale – of course – The Great Night has all the magic and all the lavish scenery that Shakespeare’s Titania & Oberon could have wanted, helped along by the alternately lush & misty San Francisco parkland. As in the play, there are disturbing moments; but these are fully fleshed out. I guess the great difference here is that this is a lengthy novel (~300 pages) with all the exposition that comes with this format, and there is simply less opportunity in a slim play for this kind of development. But Adrian’s work is darker, and more graphic. (There is Sex. Seriously.) The ending is not lighthearted and happy as it is in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Among the mortal characters, we meet a tree doctor; men and women recovering from the suicides of loved ones; and the mess that OCD can make of a life; the lovers are gay and straight but always damaged. But the worlds are so fully realized… and the three youth are so fully developed, I ached for them. When every chapter closed, I regretted leaving that chapter’s focus character, but was happy to reunite with the next.

This was one of those books I was very sorry to see the end of. I wish there were more. Luckily, Adrian has written other books!

I recommend The Great Night. Certainly nothing is taken away from Shakespeare’s masterpiece; but this is a different realization of the same story-skeleton, in a different format, and it is absolutely an accomplishment all by itself.

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my hometown.

Posted on May 29, 2011 by pagesofjulia

I found the most delightful blog post earlier this week (last Sunday it was), by Susie over at useless beauty (which, by the way, is one of my most favorite laugh-out-loud blogs. I wish she blogged daily! three times a day! more, Susie, more!). She describes her hometown for us: the mundane details, that is, not the touristy ones. I love the concept, and since she’s a loooong way away from me, I found it fascinating because hers is a different world from mine. Here’s hoping you will also enjoy reading about my home. Thanks Susie for the inspiration.

Houston is a big city: the fourth largest in the US (after New York City, Los Angeles, and Chicago, in that order), at some 2-3 million people in “Houston proper” and an estimated 4-6 million in the “greater Houston area.” We make an excellent picture of urban sprawl; we are “car culture” incarnate. (I think this is true of the US in general, and Texas even more so, and Houston more so still). The climate and the sprawl, and the resulting car culture, conspire against bicycle riding as a way of life. And yet, we have a surprisingly large and vibrant cycling scene (in Houston, and in Texas). Maybe this is due to our large and diverse population; maybe if you put this many people in one place you’re bound to come up with some avid cyclists? Maybe Texans are accustomed to going against the grain? I don’t know, but I’m glad.

We also have a lot of non-native Texans here. Houston is a major port city, and a center of oil & gas and energy industries, and a center for health care, too. We are very international; this big city incorporates little pockets of not only Mexican and Latino populations, but also Indian, Chinese, Vietnamese, Nigerian, and more. We are a big, international city. I love that about my hometown. Our diverse population definitely does have a tendency to congregate itself into patches of black, white, and Hispanic neighborhoods. I don’t know, maybe that’s true everywhere.

But I’m getting off track. This is about what neighborhoods look like, right?

Well, so again, as a city not terribly conducive to walking or riding bicycles. There are not necessarily sidewalks in every neighborhood, and when there are sidewalks, they’re liable to be broken, have cars parked on them or trees growing them or be littered with… litter. Susie mentions cats in her neighborhood. Well, in mine, it’s dogs – lots of strays, unfortunately, including some who will chase you on your bicycle and too many who get hit by cars. 😦 But also lots of pet dogs. We don’t see cats much – probably something to do with all the free-range canines.

The city itself is, understandably, diverse; there are “nice” neighborhoods with nice sidewalks, nice pothole-less streets, large homes, and big trees (like River Oaks, which wikipedia claims is “one of the wealthiest zip codes” in the country). There are neighborhoods that absolutely feel like Mexico: street vendors, car mechanics setting up impromptu shops streetside, Tejano music blasting, the whole nine. We are diverse economically, too.

The Husband and I have recently purchased a home in a neighborhood in north inner-city Houston, meaning we’re just inside “the loop”, about 10 minutes by car from downtown. We are in a little pocket: surrounded by neighborhoods that are predominately Mexican and less affluent, our small niche has wide streets, old homes set well back from the street on large yards, and huge old trees. Many of our neighbors are original homeowners, or the family of the original homeowners. It’s a very quiet neighborhood. Having lived for years in artsy, hard-partying Montrose or the hipster, young-professional Heights, our current street feels very calm and quiet by comparison. It feels safer. (It was nice being just blocks from numerous stores and restaurants and bars in the Montrose, but I’m willing to trade a few minutes’ drive for some peace and quiet. Down there, the party’s in your backyard! and on the other hand, the party is in your backyard.)

Montrose and the Heights, along with Garden Oaks/Oak Forest and a number of other inner-loop neighborhoods, are very desirable to live in. Houston as a whole is having a little bit of a return to the city center, as gas prices have gone up and folks are less pleased with their 3-hour round-trip commute in from the suburbs. Thus, we see more and more townhouse complexes, next door to storage warehouses, so that folks can move in from their large (much more affordable) homes in the suburbs and put all their large-home possessions in storage while they live in a smaller home in the city (since that’s what they can afford, by comparison). Certain neighborhoods have done better than others at keeping their original “feel”: the Heights has worked hard (and is still working hard) to limit development to buildings that retain the historic-Heights look, while the Montrose is gradually becoming overcome by cardboard-and-aluminum monstrosities. Some creative and artistic construction, yes, but for every imaginative new home design there are ten Hardie-plank homes, built for the short-term. I’m happy to live in a neighborhood that is largely retaining its look and its feel. Here is our house:


(okay, not an ideal picture, it’s all I have at the moment.)

I don’t know that I’ve done as good a job as Susie did in describing her world, but I love where I live and it’s been fun writing about it. Houston’s not perfect; the summers are miserably hot and humid, it’s not the greatest place to be a bicycle enthusiast, and there are aspects of our culture I would take issue with. But it’s so unique: urban, international, and big-city-feeling, but also Southern and calm in a way that you can’t replicate in New York or LA. I like it here.

EDIT! I should have shared this picture of the beautiful deck that Husband built us recently! Yay Husband!

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my target audience

Posted on May 28, 2011 by pagesofjulia

Yet again, Sheila at Book Journey gives me something good to write about. This is another topic that I was just ready to write on! Thanks Sheila.

Her post from last Monday was Who Do You Write Your Book Reviews For?, and it’s a good question. She says that she was turned off, at first, at the idea of blogging just for the sake of other bloggers. It sounds like she felt it was stagnating, for the same books to make the rounds of the same bloggers; where’s the difference she hoped to make? I can sympathize, although I do think that the non-blogging public is listening, too.

So it’s a good question: who do we write for? I started my blog mostly as a way to keep track of what I’ve read and what I thought about it, with my library patrons in mind. I think I considered briefly advertising it here at the library, as a reader’s advisory service, but that idea went out the window pretty quickly. This isn’t a library blog; it’s my personal reading blog. I enjoy having visitors from all walks of life (vocations, locations…) and I really enjoy just writing about books and my personal thoughts; my audience is whoever it turns out to be. I originally just conceived of it as a tool to record my reading for me! But I love the idea that I might help someone else make decisions about what to read or what not to read (what might be suited to one’s tastes). And to the extent that I write about the events in my personal life, it’s also a way to keep friends and family up to date. I enjoy writing and this helps me to develop my “voice” and keep it honed. An all-purpose blog, perhaps.

What about you? Why do you blog, and who do you see as your target audience?

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The Long-Awaited, Much-Anticipated Julia Jenkins 26v29 Official Opinion. (preliminary.)

Posted on May 27, 2011 by pagesofjulia

This one is for my bicycle friends. My bookish friends are welcome too, of course.

Last night I rode my friend KD’s Epic 29er for the first time, at our local Memorial Park trails in town. I’ll have KD’s 29er for two weeks, which will be a great demo period (thanks KD!!). The question is this: now that I’m ready to replace both my hardtail and full-suspension mountain bikes, I need to decide whether I want to stick with the (standard, traditional-for-decades) 26-inch wheel size that I ride now, or move over to 29-inch wheels (which have gone from new-and-trendy to awfully ubiquitous). So, I’ve been fortunate to get KD’s 29er for some test rides. I have a 26er Epic, so there’s a fair comparison there (though hers is much newer and higher-end, thus my desire to upgrade).

Here’s the background: I am, if not change-averse, very cautious about changes and upgrades in technology and gadgetry. I was the last person I knew to get a cell phone; an email address; a facebook account. (And I have a website and a blog, yes. When I adopt, I do tend to do so wholeheartedly. But late.) After years of working in bike shops and racing bikes, I’m out of patience with gearheads – people who get super-psyched about upgrades and fancy equipment. It’s really a lot more about the engine than it is about your gear, people. I’m an anti-gearhead.

Thus my reluctance to “drink the kool-aid” or “go over to the dark side” or some might say, “get with the times” and get on the big wheels.

I know that 29ers hold momentum better, but I know they accelerate more slowly. I know that 29ers roll over obstacles better (any obstacle is smaller relative to a 29-inch wheel than it is relative to 26), but I also know that they’re less nimble in tight, twisty cornering scenarios.

I rode at Memorial last night just as a test ride, to get the bike set up for me. We adjusted the reach and the rear suspension a little. The real test will come this weekend at Comfort. Comfort trails beg for a 29er: wide-open, rocky, and technical. Great opportunity to roll over things with the bigger wheels, and not really any tight twisty stuff to challenge them. Memorial, meh. I’m not a huge fan of those trails these days; they’re pretty eroded and rooty (not to mention trafficked). And then of course, if I wanted to really challenge the 29er, I should take it to Lake Bryan trails, ha. Super twisty and tight; the joke is you’re looking at your own butt half the time. But that’s another story.

Very quickly during last night’s ride, I found myself liking it. It’s true that the big wheels gave me more confidence and rolled over things easier. There’s a slightly different rhythm or timing to the body English in the twistier sections, but it didn’t slow me down any; in fact it only took a minute to adjust, and it still felt right. The bike, ideally, should be like a 26er, just on a different scale. (KD is my perfect bike-trading buddy because we ride the same size – like, precisely, down to saddle height – use the same pedals, everything. So her bike definitely fits me. And this in a world where we worry about millimeters.)

But I made another odd observation: I was fighting it mentally. I didn’t want it to work! I guess I’m even more change-averse than I thought. Am I just hanging onto the thought of 26 inches because I have for so long, and I don’t want to admit I was wrong? Surely I’m not that prideful. I was looking for places it didn’t work. But I didn’t find them. And I’m sure I’m not going to find them in Comfort. In fact, I’m planning on taking both Epics (26 and 29), but I’m already feeling like the 26 might not see any dirt.

I guess if I really want to push it I should take the 29er to Bryan… and I do have the bike for another weekend.

So what do you think, friends? I want a ti hardtail! Thinking about the Ti Mariachi. And then maybe a Spearfish like Husband? Love the color… Then I’ll need a new singlespeed at some point… this is the fun part. 🙂

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book beginnings on Friday: Never Knowing by Chevy Stevens

Posted on May 27, 2011 by pagesofjulia

Thanks to Katy at A Few More Pages for hosting this meme. To participate: Share the first line (or two) of the book you are currently reading on your blog or in the comments. Include the title and the author so we know what you’re reading. Then, if you feel so moved, let us know what your first impressions were based on that first line, and let us know if you liked or did not like the sentence.

Never Knowing is by the author of Still Missing which I read a few months ago. The book begins,

I thought I could handle it, Nadine. After all those years of seeing you, all those times I talked about whether I should look for my birth mother, I finally did it.

The format appears to follow that of Still Missing, in that it has not chapters but “sessions,” apparently with a therapist.

I like the set-up in these first two sentences. We already know several things: that the narrator does not know her birth mother, that a search for her has been begun, and that the narrator has not “handled it” as she thought she could. Roll: suspense. I’m ready!

(Note: this quotation comes from an Advanced Reader Copy and is subject to change.)

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new books. help me decide?

Posted on May 26, 2011 by pagesofjulia

Just like I did a few weeks ago, I’m sharing with you some new books that have just come in here at the library. I’m actually interested in several of these that are well outside my usual areas of interest; don’t know what that’s about.

My library shelf note: “Luz puts off the trip that Abuela wants to make until it’s too late, and ends up making the trip alone, back south to meet her aunt and learn a family secret: what happened to her mother. A coming-of-age story with a Mexican twist.” I think it’s the Mexican twist that draws me to this one.

My library shelf note: “Gwyneth’s sophisticated and beautiful cousin Charlotte has been the one preparing her entire life for time travel; but by some accident, Gwyneth is the one suddenly reeling in time. She must work with Gideon, another time traveler, to solve the mystery of her heritage as they spin through different eras.” Really a YA book, but something interests me here.

My library shelf note: “In this delightful southern romp, Teeny thinks she’s on the right track: about to be married and getting her pastry career back on track. Then her fiancé cheats and slaps a restraining order on her before turning up dead. Now she must turn to her lawyer ex-boyfriend for help.” The southern angle appeals to me, although I think it’s a “cozy” mystery, which is not normally my first choice.

My library shelf note: “Sexy vampires, studly college men, and the local crime boss come to heads in Atlanta, Georgia in this wise, funny urban romp.” I have a number of patrons interested in African-American or “urban” fiction, and I should really read in this genre just to be a little more familiar.

The Butterfly’s Daughter is supposed to be literary fiction, which is fairly standard for me; but the other three combine romance, time travel, and vampires – not areas I read in much or at all! I don’t know what’s come over me, but these books are appealing to me, maybe because of the variety they offer. (That, and my endless quest to stay up to date on what my patrons are reading.)

Am I crazy? Do any of these books appeal to you? What should I pick up first?

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working the network

Posted on May 25, 2011 by pagesofjulia

Today’s theme post, as hosted by Armchair BEA, is my favorite book blogs and bloggers. This is kind of an easy one to write! You can see my blogroll over to the right –> and down a bit, but just above it you can see my *faves*! I’ll just give a quick description of each.

books i done read, by Raych, is mostly a book-review blog. I love Raych’s voice: she’s very funny and conversational and feels like someone I could hang out and laugh with. She reads a very diverse array of books: children’s or YA, classics, romance, fantasy-ish, nonfiction, all kinds of things. She exposes me to things I’d never have known about otherwise, and she makes me giggle.

Book Journey is hosted by Sheila, who is very prolific; I think she averages close to two posts a day! She reviews a great many books and a great many audiobooks, too, and she’s very down-to-earth. I like that she includes personal details, too; it makes her feel like a friend, rather than a headless book-review machine.

Stuck in a Book is a thoughtful British blog by Simon, who focuses more on quiet, British and/or women’s fiction and a bibliophile’s choice of nonfiction. He writes about the emotions a book evokes and quotes representative passages.

On a different note, TERRIBLEMINDS is another thing entirely. It’s not really a book blog at all. Chuck Wendig, freelance penmonkey, is a writer who apparently can’t get enough of writing, because he blogs daily, mostly about the hows and whys of writing for a living – something pretty foreign to me, but I find him very entertaining. Caution! This blog is R-rated for language and sexual content and all kinds of disturbing concepts, but he’s great fun if you’re up for it.

write meg! is another writerly blog, but she’s pretty heavy on the book reviews, too. Meg writes about her private life and travels and personal reflections some, which I appreciate (and I often find I can identify with her) as well as her reflective book reviews.

The Feminist Texican appeals to me for reasons that perhaps should be obvious: we have quite a few things in common. I like her feminist slant on the books she chooses to read as well as the lens through which she reviews them (although she’s not militant about it; it doesn’t take over) and I love Frida Kahlo, too. 🙂

cakes, tea and dreams by Katie is about books and also about Katie’s life in Boston as a displaced Texan. Perhaps that’s part of why I identify with her voice. I like her book reviews but I like the other stuff at least as well.

Well, there’s a short list for you of blogs I enjoy; some are more purely bookish than others but we’re all whole people, right? Not just bookies? (Is that blasphemy?) I tend to like at least a touch of the personal in the blogs I follow.

Thank you all for your lovely blogs. 🙂

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best books of 2011 so far

Posted on May 24, 2011 by pagesofjulia

Today, the Armchair BEA theme is giveaways – a number of participants will be hosting book giveaways on their blogs, so you should check those out. For those of us not giving away (ahem, me), we are writing about our favorite books of 2011. Here are mine.

Dethroning the King, Julie Macintosh. Nonfiction. Macintosh covered the hostile takeover of Anheuser Busch for the Financial Times, and later wrote this book about it. I found the story fascinating, and appreciated Macintosh’s style: she presented what could have been tedious financial and legal details in very readable and interesting narrative style, including touching on her personal experiences in researching the story.

Fire Season, Philip Connors. Nonfiction. Connors has now spent nine seasons as a fire lookout in the Gila National Forest in New Mexico, watching for signs of smoke from his tiny tower room over 10,000 feet above sea level. This book is a contemplation of solitude, a tribute to the natural world, and an examination of many aspects of our world and our Forest Service policies; it is reflective and beautifully written and artistic, and never stilted.

Heroine’s Bookshelf, Erin Blakemore. Nonfiction. Blakemore praises 12 classic works by and about women, and discusses their impact on our lives as women today. A celebration of the literature of Austen, Alice Walker, Louisa May Alcott, and more.

Iphigenia in Forest Hills, Janet Malcolm. Nonfiction. A journalist’s account of a murder trial that took place in Queens, in a community of Bukharan Jews, with no final decision as to whodunit; an interesting study of murder and of culture. Malcolm is an amazing writer of nonfiction.

Paris Wife, Paula McLain. Fiction. McLain fictionalizes the life of Hadley Hemingway, first wife of Ernest, during and after their marriage, focusing on their years together in Paris. This is a fascinating study of Hadley in which Ernest takes a backseat; I loved it both as an amateur Hemingway scholar and as a fan of literary fiction.

I cheated; some of these are 2010 releases. I read them all in 2011, though, and I hope the community will be forgiving, because the fact is that we don’t always get to read books when they’re first released (mainly because we all have such daunting TBR lists!). If you find a title here that you finally pick up in 2012, you should still enjoy it. 🙂

Thanks for stopping by! What are your favorite books of 2011?

Edit: I think The Great Night (fiction by Chris Adrian) is making this list as well! Look for my review to be up next week.

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Teaser Tuesdays: The Great Night by Chris Adrian

Posted on May 24, 2011 by pagesofjulia

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

* Grab your current read
* Open to a random page
* Share two “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
* BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
* Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

This is the modern-day re-telling of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, in which three young people wander into a San Francisco park at dusk and have adventures while Titania searches for her lost love, Oberon, who left her when they fought following the death of their Boy. So far I’m finding it to be a beautiful, evocative painting of a book. I like.

From page 146:

There was another, grander room beyond them, a cozier hall than the last, only about half as big, with grass on the floors and flowers on the walls, and a ceiling hung with hundreds of little colored lanterns. It was empty of furniture except for a table the size of a flatbed truck piled with food and surrounded by chairs of every conceivable size, and empty of people except for the girl, who had called herself Eleanor Roosevelt. She was sprawled in a chair with a bottle of wine in her hand.

“You all again,” she said.

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Who are you, and how do you Armchair?

Posted on May 23, 2011 by pagesofjulia

A lovely group of book blogger people has put together a consolation event for those of us unable to attend this year’s BEA (Book Expo America). It’s called Armchair BEA, and it allows for bloggers to network and “meet” each other and share a bookish social event, without traveling to NYC. I shall be playing along by visiting other blogs and following the theme posts every day.

Today we got our first question of the week. Asks Armchair BEA,

Who are you, and how do you Armchair? This is the time to introduce yourself and your blog. Share with us a random fact about yourself. Use the organizer interviews for inspiration. Be creative, share photos, let your personality shine through! A number of new visitors may be hitting your sites, so give us a snapshot of who you are. Simply, share how you are kicking it!

We all enjoy the chance to talk about ourselves, right? 🙂

I live in Houston, Texas, and I love my hometown. I have a wonderful husband and two wonderful little dogs, and Husband and I both love to ride bicycles a lot. I’m a bike racer, too, and although I’m a bit out of shape and struggling this spring, I intend to make a comeback. We spend a lot of weekends traveling to ride and race, and we’re great fans of craft beer, too. I work as a librarian, and aside from cycling, reading is obviously a great passion of mine. Little dogs, bicycles, books and beer, along with my family, make up my life.

To steal a few questions from the Meet the Armchair BEA Team post…

If you could put one book in the hands of everyone you come in contact with, what would it be and why?

There’s always one, but I think it always changes, too! I could name several: The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test by Tom Wolfe; The Hobbit by Tolkien; For Whom the Bell Tolls by Hemingway; The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot; My Stroke of Insight by Jill Bolte Taylor. But right now, at this moment, I am very excited about Fire Season by Philip Connors, and that’s the book I would be placing in people’s hands.

If you could have lunch with any author, living or not, who would it be and where/what would you eat?

The author that I have been most consistently fascinated by all my life is Ernest Hemingway. I am delirious with love for his work, and I like to read about him, too, because not only did he create beautiful art, but he’s an intriguing figure, too. Not entirely likeable, but definitely intriguing. I would most like to meet Ernest Hemingway, and find out if I would be drawn into his spell! He seems to have been a real jerk, eventually, to all of his four wives; but they all married him (three, after being a mistress while he was married to the wife before), and it seems clear that many other women, besides, were convinced that he was wonderful despite his bad behaviors.

We would eat at one of those sidewalk cafes he describes in Spain, in The Sun Also Rises, or a take-out picnic in a similar setting. I love his description of the cold white wine that Jake and Bill keep in the stream while they fish for trout. Something like that. In my opinion, nobody describes food and drink like Papa; I would share one of his many delectably described simple meals with him.

And finally, in the spirit of personal sharing… a few pictures for you.

I just got my first pair of glasses! Not only can I see better – I’m a real librarian now!

This picture is from last spring, but still representative: amid the bluebonnets (state flower of Texas, no it’s not the yellow rose) at Rocky Hill Ranch, where I raced yesterday.

And finally, here I am being a library-tourist at the public library in Den Haag (the Hague) in the Netherlands. (Also not a new picture; this was January 2010.)

If you’re just dying to know more about me, and see more pictures, check out my personal website.

And thanks for stopping by!

Edit: thanks Jenna for pointing this out: I need a pic of my little dogs here!

Hops (in front) and Ritchey (in back)

Hops, Ritchey, and my parents’ dog, Barley (perhaps a hint of Westie for you there?)

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