Book Nookery

"A Mind Needs Books Like A Sword Needs A Whetstone" Tyrion Lannister

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A Cup With A Crack:Sally Field Book Talk

As part of my Alumni Book Club, I had the opportunity to attend Dominican’s Lecture Series featuring Sally Field discussing her recently published memoir In Pieces.

I was introduced to Sally in her amazing role in Not Without My Daughter and opposite Robin Williams in Ms Doubtfire, and she is one of mom’s favorite actresses, so I invited her up for the weekend also to join me.

Janis Cooke Newman acted as her interviewer due to her writing a novel about Mary Todd Lincoln, a role Sally discusses in the book and in her interview with Janis as one of her favorite and most hard fought for roles.

Sally walked out on stage with Janis looking adorable as always with a timid and quiet demeanor but as the interview progressed it was easy to see her strength and passion for what she did and that she would fight with everything she had for what she really wanted in life.

I was most struck by her honesty in talking about her anxiety and how as much as she wanted certain parts she would in an odd way be grateful when she would not get called back or in for auditions because then she wouldn’t have to face this scary thing and also wouldn’t have to worry about losing something that meant so much to her. She describes this feeling as feeling like a cup with a crack in it and that all of your worth is drizzling out. I have felt this way so many times when going after a job I really want and just life in general when I feel excessively overwhelmed or not doing enough.

Sally took seven years to write this book, immersing herself fully in learning a new craft thoroughly; attending writing workshops, weeding through parts of her past that made her uncomfortable (she discussed how she would print out reviews of her roles but would never read them until years later since she didn’t want to know what critics thought of her parts, as well as not always being present during her childrens’ younger years because of her acting roles.)

Memoirs can definitely be tricky as either the person writing it doesn’t always have the writing skills or they get a co or ghostwriter and the words don’t come across as honest and genuine; based on how much she immersed herself in the process I’m extremely excited to read her memoir!

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In the book’s pages The key to a great Empire Lies, unsuspected.

It’s been an exceptionally long time since I’ve written; I started a new position at my job that has been pretty much been all time consuming (until I decided not to let it be) and get back to the joy of reading!

I’m pretty much obsessed with anything Sherlock Holmes related; I have these beautiful versions of the original stories as they were published in the Strand complete with all of the original illustrations. It is one of my favorite used bookstore finds!

I recently discovered a series written by Laurie King about Sherlock Holmes told from the perspective of his wife Mary Russell, which was a very interesting and refreshing take on the Holmes stories. I started with Dreaming Spies, which is number thirteen in the series (as I didn’t know there was such a large series) and while there are references to previous books they are definitely enjoyable without having read the others and as far as content can also be read standalone. I did enjoy it quite enough to go back and read the other stories however.

This story focuses on the two of them attempting to take a vacation on their way to a business trip (at Mary’s insistence and Holmes’ chagrin) but Holmes is quite the workaholic so of course this time to Mary’s chagrin their cruise to Japan and time there turns into a case. Each chapter is introduced by a beautiful haiku by Matsuo Basho, relevant to the storyline of the novel.They meet the very intriguing Haruki Sato on their boat and they form both the relationship of friends and tutor/student as she teaches them the language and culture of Japan in preparation for their time there.

This turns into quite an adventure of her involving them in the intrigue of blackmail, Japanese royalty, and ninjas,aka shinobi. Between Haruki, Mary, and even the villain of the novel the women in this novel are incredibly tough, smart and daring, a wonderful addition to the previously primarily male dominated series.

My only negative is that the story is split into three parts and I felt like the first two parts were suspenseful, exciting, and ended with a (albeit tragic) bang that felt like the ending to the novel but there is about another 130 pages to go that seemed to take me forever to get through. In the end it was worth it as there’s definitely more intrigue to the story but it felt much more slower paced than parts one and two so be prepared for the last part of the book to take longer to read than the first two parts.

Next reads;

Saga Vol 1 -Saga Support Group at my local comic book store (Yes this book graphic novel requires a support group so not quite sure yet what I’m getting myself into)

Sleepless by Sarah Vaughan and Leila Del Duca-Girls with Issues Comic Book Club

Kindred by Damian Duffy and John Jennings, adapted from Octavia Butler’s novel-Expanded Reading Comic Book Club

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer-for fun/to read before watching the Netflix series

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Belle-Laid; Ugly Beautiful Things; We 3 and Hinges 1-2

I’ve always thought with the exception of spiders and snakes every living creature, no matter  how “ugly” is absolutely adorable. If I could I would probably live on a farm with every kind of animal (bugs included) I could possibly have, no matter how traditionally cute they are. Particularly rats; my friend had a pet rat that would sit on your shoulder like a parrot and cuddle up with you and I loved him so much!

I was drawn in by the cover art of Hinges for this exact reason; the art of Allouet and Bauble was just too adorable for words (which are used very sparingly in this graphic novel, a feature that lends greatly to the simplicity of the story and a focus on the beautiful anime style art.)

Allouet lives in a steampunk style world where she wakes up one day and is taken to choose an outfit and what they call an Odd (as a gamer I appreciated the integration of character create mode), which is kind of like an animal companion or familiar of sorts. The characters in Allouet’s world look almost as if they’re created, with doll like faces and screws holding their limbs together, the same as their Odds. However, when Allouet goes to choose her Odd, there’s one that doesn’t look quite like the others; no joints and a cute funny face that cuddles right up with her, which of course is the one she chooses much to her guide’s chagrin. She then has to choose a role in the community, which proves difficult due to her quiet personality. However, her natural compassion and empathy come in to play both in her career choice as a mender and some unfortunate actions she’s forced to take as the novel progresses.

My comic book club read a more gut wrenching tearjerker called We 3, a tale of science and morality. Three animals have been taken for science experiments; this is humanized more by the fact that they are people’s pets and Lost Pets posters, some drawn by children, are spread throughout the novel. They justify this by saying a more domesticated element was necessary in order for them to more easily control the animals, which are being used as a form of weapon to replace soldiers and save human lives. There is talk of shutting down the experiment and killing the animals, and the doctor who turned them into soldiers loves them so much she sets them free, at which point the novel reminded me of Homeward Bound, if a much darker version as the animals try to find their way back to their humans. Despite the experiments that have been done on them, the animals act purely on their own instinct, protecting those who help them and defending themselves against those hunting them. This novel deals with a lot of moral and ethical issues when it comes to treatment of animals in terms of scientific advancement.

Both of these graphic novels were innovative in their page layout and art style while still keeping the plot line understandable for the reader, allowing the reader to focus on the bigger moral and societal issues they were trying to convey. I highly recommend reading both graphic novels and if you like the concept of We3 I would recommend Okja, the Netflix original film about the food processing industry. It is brilliantly done with superb acting, though definitely be prepared for some disturbing imagery and be ready to cry.

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Stealing the Devil’s Kitchenware: A Dual Review

Hello everyone! Thanks for coming back to the blog, and I hope you enjoyed my first review!

As I mentioned in a previous post, I’m a member of two graphic novel book clubs, and we usually start with a round table What Else Are You Reading(graphic novel or otherwise)? I had just finished a book called the Devil’s Cup and we were reading Hillbilly for the book club, a book of stories based on Appalachian folklore centering around a character named Rondel, who had received as a gift the Devil’s Cleaver, which he used to hunt down witches. One of my other book club members pointed out how everyone was stealing the Devil’s Kitchenware, which honestly I was so engrossed in both I didn’t even think of.

Starting with the Devil’s Cup, I think the reason that I enjoyed it the most was while it takes place in medieval times and most novels when they tackle that genre are focusing on kings and queens this novel focuses on regular people(albeit detectives of a sort), their day to day lives, and how they can affect events on a larger scale. While the Devil’s Cup worked fine as an independently read book, the later novels will have little footnotes reading see previous novel referencing an event or a character, which made me just want to read more. This book had such strong character development and I got so attached to the characters that I cried when one of them came to a tragic end, something I don’t think I’ve done as the result of a book since a certain battle at a certain magical school.

Hillbilly had the same affect of making me want more; it left a lot of things out that I sincerely hope they publish more so I can learn about the tragic character that is Rondel. He tells his own story to another character of how he came to be who he was at the beginning of the novel, as well as expressing sincere guilt over feeling cursed and spreading this curse to other people around him that makes you think he’s not telling the whole truth. This, along with more amazing Appalachian tales, is what I hope to read more about in future trades.

I highly recommend reading the Hawkenlye Series by Alys Clare, of which Devil’s Cup is the most recent, as well as Hillbilly in its present and any future forms.

And good luck to the Devil in his kitchen if people keep stealing his wares.

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Patience, Qi, and Hayao Miyazaki

Igort’s Japanese Notebooks, A Journey to the Empire of Signs

I pick up a lot of things because they’re pretty; books, bottles of wine, art, and so far that strategy has yet to fail me. This is a great example of my strategy working brilliantly. The cover is a subtle dark blue to emphasize the drawing of a woman in a white and pink kimono among other drawings.

The book itself is a memoir of Igort’s travels in Japan while he was working in the challenging manga industry, being told by his editor for two weeks straight “Tomorrow, a story” producing 160 pages in that time, with reflections on various aspects of Japanese culture and his experiences.

My favorite two aspects of this book were the beautiful drawings and the amount of knowledge presented in such an interesting way. The book is a series of undefined chapters that are separated by artistic style in homage to various artists, including Miyazaki,whom he met while in Japan, and Hokusai, while still being definitively Igort.

He addresses both the positive and negative aspects of Japan and it’s history, from the beauty of their peaceful temples to the presence of discrimination against the burukamin class.

I highly recommend reading this as it is a thoughtful, well put together, educational read that brings a sense of peace and inspiration to the reader. I personally feel inspired to pick up some muji rushi notebooks, Igort’s journal of choice, and start some notebooks of my own.

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Just One More Chapter

Hello everyone, and welcome to my book review blog! I’ve been book obsessed ever since I can remember; I always had a book under my pillow and was constantly being caught during nap time sneaking to the bookcase, often to read The Hobbit, one of the first books I ever read. The Shire is pretty much my dream home, which would be pretty hilarious now since my husband is 6′5. I guess we’ll have to retire to Rivendell someday instead!

My biggest problem with books now is choosing what to read; whenever I go to the library or the bookstore I walk out with a bag of books; the only reason this doesn’t break the bank is my wonderful Friends of the Library bookstore where I can get said bag of books for about $10. Currently I’m in three book clubs; two graphic novel book clubs and an alumni book club. I currently also (try to) do Goodreads Popsugar reading challenge every year, which usually equates to about a book a week.

I love reading mainly fantasy novels similar to Lord of the Rings, the Redwall series, etc but mystery novels are also among my favorites, reading Nancy Drew and Agatha Christie novels from a young age as well.

In this blog, I will be reviewing books I read through my various book clubs, for my reading challenge, and just for fun! I welcome any book suggestions and would love book discussions as well if you’ve read the books I’m reviewing. Thanks for reading!