The Girl Who Fell from the Sky by Heidi W. Durrow

Rachel has brown skin and blue eyes. At 11-years old, she's taking the bus with her grandmother in Portland the first time she realizes the significance of this. It's different. Heidi Durrow draws on her own experience (raised by a Danish mother and an African-American father) to explore how Rachel comes to grips with her racial identity.

The multi-layered story opens slowly. Pieces come together and we figure out that Rachel was involved in some sort of accident in Chicago before being sent to live with her old-fashioned and grass-rootsy grandmother. A boy named Brick, an aunt named Loretta, and a job at a community center all help shape Rachel's ideas of who she is.

As the story unfolds, I loved that Rachel spoke like a young girl too smart for the world around her. Unknowingly, like every smart girl does. Durrow has already been compared to classics like Harper Lee and Carson McCullers. While I'm not ready to profess that, I will eagerly anticipate her next protagonist and hope she has half the heart that her young Rachel does.

Sleepwalk with Me by Mike Birbiglia

Mike Birbiglia is someone that I've watched for quite a while. He's a stellar stand-up comedian and an occasional NPR contributor. So when I heard him talking about his battles with cancer and sleepwalking on Fresh Air, I knew I would read this book.

Everyone looks for points of connection, and I am no exception. We're the same age, so most of the cultural references are extremely relevant for me (pop or otherwise). Birbiglia takes a lot of road trips, loves Mitch Hedberg, and vividly remembers random incidents from childhood. Plus, he likes to see if he can drink enough water to make his pee clear. Safe to say, we'd be friends in real life.

I kept waiting for it to get heavy, for the cancer issue or the sleepwalking to really culminate into something BIG. While it never did, this book was a satisfying read. (However, the stand-up may forever be ruined for me. I went back to watch one of his earlier specials and it wasn't as funny. His voice is different to me now.)

She: Understanding Feminine Psychology by Robert A. Johnson

(An interpretation based on the myth of Amor and Psyche and using Jungian psychological concepts)

In October I started preparing myself for some Jungian therapy, writing down my dreams in a journal and intending to make an appointment. In January (3 months later, in typical Jill fashion) I had my first session. I was told that "my depth was on the move" and recommended some books. Another 3 months later, I finally picked this up.

During the opening chapters I found myself remembering why I didn't study much psychology in college. It seems to me that it's a whole lotta simple repetition. Change a few words every few sentences, and inundate yourself with seemingly obvious principles. (However, just because you understand it doesn't mean you've absorbed it. As became apparent each time I went back to read and found myself having to reread the previous chapter to put myself in the right headspace.)

Using the ancient characters of Aphrodite and Psyche (not to mention Eros), Johnson delves into the traditional everywoman issues. Along the way we study cultural differences, primitive societies, parables and the universal ongoing quest for love.

This is definitely a book that I will return to, and won't comment upon too much extent. Revisiting my original thoughts on psychology, I find that as the questions get bigger, my thoughts on them get smaller. I have less to say, and mostly just nod my head in agreeance. As opposed to philosophy, whereas the questions and the ideas take on a massive shape for me, and encourage all kinds of thought and open up discussion. Perhaps that's simply because I've got my intellect pretty well lined up, but my heart is out of sorts in every regard.

The Narrows by Michael Connelly

This is the sequel to the first Michael Connelly book I read. In March. That's right, a month later and I'm back for more. (I see your smirk, Adam.)

Opening 8 years after the action from The Poet closed, it draws FBI agent Rachel Walling back. Walling had been booted from the FBI's good graces and posted in smalltown North Dakota as a result of some blunders made in the original Poet case. However, the killer really only wants Walling on his trail.

Meanwhile, Harry Bosch (Connelly's main recurring character) has been hired independently to investigate a former LAPD partner's death. Inevitably, their sleuthings lead them to each other and...dun dun dun...."the narrows". Mostly I think it's lame that the title doesn't become remotely relevant until the last few chapters.

While I won't be regaling these books as literature, or even respectable reading, Connelly can whip out 500 pages of a 2 day addiction from me. And, yes, I found The Scarecrow at a thrift store for $3, so I'll be reviewing that one soon.

Things Not Seen and Things Hoped For by Andrew Clements

Now, I recently said that I wouldn't become a science fiction fan. That's the truth. I accidentally got hooked on this series. After the previous 2 books I read, I was ready for something light (enough with the heartbreak and Holocaust, already). I went to my trusty bookshelf and this was the only young adult book there that I hadn't read.

Bobby is an 11 year old living in Chicago (holler). One day he wakes to realize that he is invisible. In the ensuing weeks, Bobby and his physicist father attempt to figure out why this happened and how to reverse the condition. Clever and realistic storylines unravel, including Bobby meeting a blind girl at the University of Chicago library.

I read Things Not Seen in one day, and immediately bought Things Hoped For online, eagerly awaiting its' arrival.

The second book revolves around Gwendolyn Page, a teenage violinist in New York City vigorously preparing for her Julliard audition. Bobby, now 17-year-old Robert, is visiting New York, for his trumpet auditions. The two unexpectedly run into one another and form a fast friendship.

Super light, super cute and just what I needed. Now I wait for Things That Are.

Beatrice and Virgil by Yann Martel

I read Life of Pi. Twice. Nearly hated it the first time, and read it again for a book club and liked it. When I saw Beatrice and Virgil on the shelf at Tattered Cover, I was excited...if only because it's been so long since Martel published a novel. It wasn't until page 82 that it dawned on me to make any sort of comparison between the two. When that idea first struck me, I was pissed. Frustrated that he would employ the same tricks, and angered that I might fall for them again.

Needless to say, I didn't love this book. Gladly, it was a short read and held some interest in that a plethora of literary references are made within the 224 pages. Orwell, Camus, Diderot and Flaubert all make appearances-and then the obvious allusion to Dante in the title characters.

Henry is a novelist, a rather famous novelist who uses a pen name. He receives a manuscript of a play from a fan, looking for ambiguous help, and Henry tracks him down. The guy is a taxidermist, and Beatrice and Virgil are not only the main characters in his play, but also stuffed animals he keeps in his shop.

Martel repeats himself in getting to his point, and uses a combination of the play and Henry's trepidation to come to a conclusion as to what this guy wants...even though it is clear to both Henry and the reader where this story is going and what has inspired it.

The most disturbing thing, for me, is that I tortured myself by reading the appendix (of sorts) called Games for Gustav. Some 18 random hypothetical situations, each more terrifying and gut-wrenching than the last. Sadly, I then read a few aloud to friends simply to relieve myself of some of the horror.

The Maytrees by Annie Dillard

I was discussing books that affect us with my friend Danielle at The Thin Man, and this book came up as one that made her cry. Trying to blog about books as I read them, I just finished this tonight.

Toby Maytree is the books' namesake. His wife, Lou, their son Petie, and a random host of friends from the Cape Cod shoreline make up the majority of the characters. The theme of the book is love. Using poetry, Plato, and Socrates the book contemplates the idea of love being a feeling, or more likely, a choice. It acutely and gently unravels the question as it tells the story of their thirty-plus year friendships. Ugh. Profound beauty lies in these quotes. Dillard has a quiet way of pondering some of the bigger questions with which we all grapple.

"With each injury you learn how that patch of you feels."

"Every day she failed to tell him about herself and her solitude led him further astray."

"Does familiarity blur lovers' clear sight of essences and make surfaces look significant?"

"He never stopped looking, for her face was his eyes' home."

"It was never too late to record the faces you love."

"Love letters do not so much document daily love's long hours as precede them."

"Anyway, how could he ever start when now was far too soon and later was impossible?"

"Only in the face of the other did each find home."

"Could a person hold all people past and present in awareness? She further wondered if doing so was, by errant chance, the point-toward what end she had no clue. Not that life required a point. But she found herself starting to sway toward eventually considering that there might be one. A point. Any point."

Love Wins by Rob Bell

I could easily write a "review" of this one, but I'd just be one of the literal millions who have thrown their opinions into the ring. Read the book. Discuss it. Open up with people you trust. Or people you don't. This is a book that begs to be dialogued through (as I did with JRe)....I'd love to hammer things out with you. I took well over 8 pages of notes, and I'll post a few quotes that moved me here.

"Love demands freedom. We are free to resist, reject, and rebel against God's ways for us. We can have all the hell we want."

"There are questions, or more accurately, there are tensions we are free to leave fully intact. We don't need to resolve them or answer them, because we can't, and so we simply respect them, creating space for the freedom that love requires."

"Grace and generosity aren't fair. That's their very essence."

"We do ourselves great harm when we confuse the very essence of God, which is love, with the very real consequences of rejecting and resisting that love, which creates what we call hell."

My paraphrase of what Bell offers is this: You have to come to terms with your own story. Regardless of how you were shaped, but realizing that your individual experience is significant.

The Man in the High Castle by Philip K. Dick

My neighbor overheard me saying that I hadn't been able to "get into" any books lately. He then suggested that I read Philip K. Dick, fully knowing that I don't do sci-fi. A few days later he gave me two books. With the preface that The Man in the High Castle loosely revolved around the I Ching, I chose this.

I easily swallowed this, as it's alternate history. The story is set in various former American cities, against a 70s backdrop wherein the Axis Powers (of Italy, Japan, and Nazi Germany) were victorious after World War II. The characters run the gamut- from a Japanese tradesman, a female American judo instructor, her estranged (and Jewish) ex-husband, to a Swedish industrialist who is actually a Reich counterintelligence representative. Lines cross, and a plethora of themes and political realities are explored.

Dick fleshes out theories and influences by employing two major works: the aforementioned I Ching, and a fictional book entitled The Grasshopper Lies Heavy. Folks from every culture turn to the I Ching for guidance, while Grasshopper is banned by the now ruling German and Japanese. Excerpts from the book are included in the story, and the characters debate the ideologies it presents.

While I won't be turning to a major science fiction fan, I enjoyed this book. The following are quotes that made me think...even if only insofar as to doubt how much I've considered my own political leanings lately. (Don't get me started on our need for an external frame of reference or how our natures are bent by our nurture...)


"It's idealism that makes him that bitter. Asking too much out of life."

"We cannot enter the monstrous schizophrenic morass of Nazi internecine intrigue; our minds cannot adapt."

"...the Doctrine of Original Sin. ...We are all doomed to commit acts of cruelty or violence or evil; that is our destiny, due to ancient factors."

"To save one life, Mr. Tagomi had to take two. The logical, balanced mind cannot make sense of that. A kindly man could be driven insane by the implications of such reality."

Going Away Shoes by Jill McCorkle

Confession: I basically bought this book for two super lame reasons. The cover is orange and there's a quote on the back from Jayne Anne Phillips. It should be mentioned that I've never actually read Phillips, but know of her for her reputation among other writers that I admire (notably that David Foster Wallace mentioned his jealously of her success as a writer and as an instructor).

Touted as a collection of stories of women and the complications of love, I was full of doubt and hope. Phillips writes, "...laugh-out-loud funny, full of sharp, incisive humor that explains us to ourselves." Explain me to myself? Sure thing.

Ultimately, I found these stories to be surface level pap on the lines of Jane Green or Sophie Kinsella...minus the humor. That'll teach me to think that I can read like a girl.