Books
Books Rachel is Reading (and why you should read them, too)
I’ve been telling people about the books that I have been reading lately and had the same things to say about the same books so I felt that I should just write them all down on here because WHY NOT? So a majority of these are transcribed from my memory of how I described these to my friends and try to persuade everyone to read them. I also have a page that lists all the books I have read so far in 2014 and the links to their amazon accounts for more information!
1. Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
I read Gone Girl while I was on vacation in Mexico and while you may justly think, “Rachel, why would you read a novel about a man murdering his wife during a vacation?” I will tell you: that is exactly the time to read this book! Gone Girl is a story about a man who may or may not have murdered his wife after he returns home one afternoon and their house is trashed (which we later find out is suspiciously staged from the investigation team) and his wife is missing. Are you hooked yet? Each chapter of this book alternates between the husband’s POV as he deals with his wife’s disappearance and with old diary entries written by his wife throughout their relationship. You spend the entire book in constant disagreement with yourself over the husband’s innocence – one minute you believe in him and the next you doubt yourself so entirely because of course he killed her until the next minute when you are back on his side. This book keeps you on your toes with so many twists and turns and is truly an interesting (thought that sounded better than “fun”) book to read!
2. The Likeness by Tana French
This psychological thriller is the second book in French’s Dublin Murder Squad series but don’t worry, the first book is not necessary to follow 99.9% of the story (though it is a good book and I do suggest reading it, this one is much better.) The plot of this novel is not the easiest to understand so be patient while a try: Cassie Maddox used to be an undercover cop turned Murder Squad detective turned Domestic Violence detective. Cassie was undercover at a local college under the name Alexandria Madison years ago before getting stabbed and pulled out. Now Cassie, as a DV detective, is called to a murder scene of a stabbing victim who appears to be her doppelgänger and is identified as Alexandria (Lexie) Madison. So, naturally, the logical idea is to lie to everyone and pretend that Lexie survived and then send Cassie back undercover to expose her murderer. I keep trying to picture Tana French trying to pitch this to her publisher because it sounds crazy, I feel crazy even talking about it and definitely felt crazy for the first chunk of the book. But trust me, the book is just as intense as it is crazy and I could barely put it down.
3. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Raise your hand if you have seen this movie with Brad Pitt. Okay. I picked up a collection of short stories by Fitzgerald years ago when this movie came out because I wanted to read the story it was based on. I liked the movie, of course I would like the story and as a reader I am very interested in the differences between the two mediums. This past week I have finally gotten around to reading the 20-page story (I find it unacceptable to not read short story collections in order meaning I read Flappers and Philosophers and then Tales of the Jazz Age in which this story is included.) So let me make a list of the things between the movie and the book that are the same:
- Benjamin Button is born as old and grows younger
And that concludes any similarity. I am, however, not saying that either are bad; I really enjoyed the short story and the movie but view them as entirely different stories centered on characters with similar “characteristics.” This story isn’t as romantic as the movie, it has a darker edge to it: parents who get a son they don’t want, a man who can never be treated how he deserves because “he doesn’t look his age” (for example he gets chased out of Yale because he looks like a 50-year-old when he was 18 and trying to be a normal freshman.) and so on. A very good, quick read.
Z: A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald – Therese Anne Fowler
Before I begin, let me just say that I listened to this as an audiobook and to some degree I find that audiobooks are almost as deplorable as e-books. But not quite. I do get them sporadically from the library to help pass utterly dull morning commutes and to make the absurd amount of driving I do in general a bit more engaging (one can only handle the same loop of radio songs for so long). That being said, as much as I hate not having physical copies of books there is something wildly appealing about listening to someone “act out” books. The accents, tones, dramatic pauses. With Fowler’s Z I found this to be especially enticing, throughout the stories there is so much passion and drama that it added so much emotion to the story to hear. When I most recently went to the library to look at audiobooks I, at first, considered this book and ended up putting it back unsure of the story on Zelda Fitzgerald. But a couple days later had come back to browse again (truthfully I went to get some new music) and decided I had nothing to lose. Something about the case, but mainly a fascination I have with the letter “Z” in general, I suppose led me to “at least try.”
That being said, the very beginning of this book started with a quote by T.S. Elliot and from that moment on I knew I’d stumbled upon a truly good story.
“If you aren’t in over your head, how do you know how tall you are?”
Something about that line hit me – perhaps it could be the overwhelming feeling of ‘over my head-ness‘ I have been experiencing since accepting an invitation to Zambia last month. I like to think of it as a very appropriate life lesson for twenty-something’s to experience.
As far as the book is concerned, I do not know how much is Fowler taking creative license on the story or as close to fact about any two people’s motivation as an author can get. But as far as I can tell the story followed closely to what my brief internet search of the subject yielded, so I like to think this was very consciously written. I particularly like this article review and the mention of how “Fowler has determinedly imagined her own dialogue and written her own versions of Zelda’s letters, and the voice she has given her…” And finally, this is a hardly new storyline – a quick Wikipedia search can spoil any and all main plot twists (which, yes, I did) so I believe she deserves even more praise for making it feel fresh and enticing for the reader!
Things I particularly enjoyed:
F. Scott’s writing. As someone who reads so much I don’t really consider the process that goes into creating it (which, I suppose, should be the case with any well written story) so I did enjoy the struggle and inspiration that was involved within his stories. I have yet to read anything besides The Great Gatsby by him but am aware others exist, especially various short stories, but after reading how his This Side of Paradise was repeatedly rejected but when it was finally perfected was such a success. Or how their lives influenced each of the other books. How he was forced to write the short stories he hated in order to pay bills while he wrote his book (c’mon, Curious Case of Benjamin Button is way too cool or strange of an idea to just be in the back of your find and viewed lowly!) Even how he supposedly – does anyone know if this is legitimate or just assumed? – used parts of Zelda’s diary as dialogue in his books. How most of his books seemed to have some basis on his and Zelda’s life. Truly, this book made me want to go out and read all of his other works.
The Fitzgeralds’ friendships. All the people they encountered and were “literary friends” with through their lives, especially in Paris, constantly surprised me. Maybe it is just lack of context I have placed in writers while reading but Hemingway (this really shows how little prepared I was to read this book), James Joyce, Ezra Pound, none of these I would have considered from the same time. This could also be due to the fact that I haven’t read anything by these men since high school when I had little interested in older work. And Hemingway seemed like a total ass, too.
Other thoughts:
The husband-wife relationship back then is such a foreign idea to me in 2014. I enjoyed, as much as was revolted, by how this was displayed throughout the book. I think this was even more evident because they both has such bold, stubborn personalities that neither wanted or would be allowed to be lessened. I think I read something that their daughter, Scottie, had once said along the lines of they both must have been crazy, because only crazy people wouldn’t take themselves out of such a crazy situation. Their lives and marriage seemed like this wild, albeit passionate in both love and hate, unhealthy relationship where they needed each other but also didn’t.
They never stood still! It was always moving – New York City, country, St. Paul, Paris, Various cities in France and Italy, back to USA, Alabama, and so on. There is something wonderful and scary about that to me. Experiencing so much but also never really being someone – maybe that was normal back then? Probably not. They also rented this giant house for something around $140 a month. Sign me up for that!
I adore the idea of all the beautiful parties they went to and all the clothes. I adore that they wrote letters and had to travel to meet people. I adore that they had legitimate hobbies. I adore that they had summer places with all their friends.
S. – Doug Dorst, JJ Abrams
Oh. My. God.
S. (which includes Ship of Theseus) is conceived by J.J. Abrams and written by Doug Dorst. I am not even sure if words can describe exactly how phenomenal the story and style of this book.
“It’s intended to be a celebration of the analog, of the physical object. In this moment of e-mails, and texting, and everything moving into the cloud, in an intangible way, it’s intentionally tangible. We wanted to include things you can actually hold in your hand: postcards, Xeroxes, legal-pad pages, pages from the school newspaper, a map on a napkin.” (Abrams)
Firstly, there is Ship of Theseus, a story about an unknown man who is wet, alone, and has no idea who or where he is. The Washington Post does the best at finding the words to describe this story:
““Theseus” itself is a labyrinthine, Kafkaesque yarn about a man, S., who has lost his memory and sense of identity. He knows he’s in trouble, though: When S. isn’t avoiding the agents of a multinational arms dealer, he’s on a ship that seems to exist on a new level of the space-time continuum. Gloom abides: A romantic interest is out of reach, and fellow shipmates have their mouths sewn shut. “It is one thing to believe people are out to get you,” goes one typically noir-ish line. “It is another thing to know it; it is yet another to know that those people are closing in.”” (Mark Athitakis)
Theseus is thought to be a story explaining to the world of the hidden life of anonymous author V.M. Straka. Many of the main characters in both S.’s story and those “believed” to be involved with “S.” – a secret society, many of whom were potential candidates to have been Straka. Theseus had become a book studied relentlessly by scholars looking to uncover the mysteries behind Straka and the S. society.
This is where Jen and Eric come in, a undergrad and a ex-graduate student meet within the margins of this book. Handwritten notes back and forth discussing the secrets within the book. This is where it becomes truly a new reading experience – two equally strong stories come together. Along with notes (ranging from personal life ranting, plans to “finally” meet each other, deciphering coded footnotes, discussing and building theories, etc!) there are also inserts that add to more tangible discovery.
All in all I craved to understand S. and Straka, I felt like Jen and Eric could be my best friends (let’s be real, they are pretty damn cool), and I couldn’t put it down.
Slaughterhouse Five
Quote Posted on Updated on
When a person dies he only appears to die. He is still very much alive in the past, so it is “When a person dies he only appears to die. He is still very much alive in the past, so it is very silly for people to cry at his funeral. All moments, past, present and future, always have existed, always will exist. It is just an illusion we have here on Earth that one moment follows another one, like beads on a string, and that once a moment is gone it is gone forever.
Kurt Vonnegut
hello rachel elizabeth 