February Books

Shakespeare Wrote for Money by Nick Hornby, the third and final collection of book columns from Believer magazine. These columns are different from any other book reviews I’ve read – they’re funny and dead on. I have a list – a long one – of book recommendations I’ve gotten from these books. I highly recommend them.

It’s especially neat when he comments on a book I’ve read, have heard of, or otherwise know something about.

Like do you know the book The Blind Side? It’s a sports book, specifically about college football (When a quarterback throws the ball, he’s generally watching the receiver and that’s an ideal time for him to get, well, blindsided. The left defensive tackle, who helps guard the quarterback, is arguably the most important position in football.) I heard an interview with the author about Michael Oher, whose life is a story – he essentially raised himself on the streets of Memphis after being abandoned by his drug-addicted mother, was adopted by a white Christian upper class couple and he plays left defensive tackle in ball – incredible football, as in he’s already a top contender for best prospect for left tackle in the NFL and he’s still playing college ball – at Ole Miss) that’s unbelievable. Hornby had the same reaction to The Blind Side that I did...unbelievable and incredible. Inspiring.

As to Shakespeare Wrote for Money - a fun, irreverant read about books.



Sixpence House: Lost in a Town of Books by Paul Collins. I wanted to like this book a bit more than I actually did. It was kind of slow and dry and I kept waiting for the story to begin. Before I knew it, it’s ended with the couple leaving and moving back to the States.

From Publishers Weekly: ”Hay-on-Wye, a Welsh town of 1,500, is heaven on earth for people who love books, especially old books. It has 40 bookstores, and if you can't find what you want in one of them, you can fork over 50 pence and visit the field behind the town castle, where thousands more long-forgotten books languish under a sprawling tarp.

Collins can be quite funny, and he pads his sophomore effort with obscure but amusing trivia (how many book lovers know that the same substance used to thicken fast-food milk shakes is an essential ingredient in paper resizing?), but it's hard to imagine anyone beyond bibliophiles and fellow Hay-lovers finding enough here to hold their attention. Witty and droll though he may be, Collins fails to give his slice-of-life story the magic it needs to transcend the genre.”



One review called Astrid and Veronika by Linda Olsson a somber debut and I guess it is; I just didn’t think of it that way. It’s a beautiful story of friendship between two women. They share their stories – many of them heartbreaking, staggering, and painful.

It’s atmospheric, taking place in Sweden then New Zealand. The descriptions were lush and evocative. I really like it when I can see and feel a place.

The ending had me in tears, but it was a happy-sad kind of tears, if you know what I mean.



Very Valentine by Adriana Trigiani reminded me a bit of Lucia, Lucia, also by Trigiani, which I loved. Like it, Very Valentine has all these lush descriptions of fashion and surroundings and it’s very rich and textured. Trigiani is an author like Elizabeth Berg, in that I pretty much know I’ll like anything by either.

I liked that the main character, while feeling powerless in her circumstances near the beginning, by the end she thought of herself as the talented artisant she is, and chose her art over a romantic relationship that she had doubts about.

I’ve read where this book is described, not altogether flatteringly, as a frilly valentine. It is that, which I think that’s a good thing.

Also, it’s the first book in a trilogy and I first discovered Trigiani in her Big Stone Gap trilogy. I like series.

Amazon reviews: In this luscious, contemporary family saga, the Angelini Shoe Company, makers of exquisite wedding shoes since 1903, is one of the last family-owned businesses in Greenwich Village. The company is on the verge of financial collapse. It falls to thirty-three-year-old Valentine Roncalli, the talented and determined apprentice to her grandmother, the master artisan Teodora Angelini, to bring the family's old-world craftsmanship into the twenty-first century and save the company from ruin...Very Valentine is a sumptuous treat, a journey of dreams fulfilled, a celebration of love and loss filled with Trigiani's trademark heart and humor.


Grub by Elise Blackwell. Publishing fascinates me – the industry, the history. It’s books! Bestseller by Olivia Goldsmith is a hoot. It seems like I’ve read that several characters are thinly veiled versions of real people in the publishing industry. I’m not that much in the know to recognize any of them – it’s just a heckuva fun read in a Jackie Collins-kind of way. Slightly more highbrow, Another Life by Michael Korda is another book I love for its behind the scenes look at publishing. He tells the story – and swears it’s true - of the accounting department heads meeting with the higher ups and showing them, with pie charts, how if they published just the bestsellers how much more money the company would make.

So I like books about books and books about writers and books about publishing, including this one. One of the writers in the book reads up on what book clubs like, determines artists and paintings is one of them, visits an art museum, studies the bestseller lists, and drafts a plot based on what women in book clubs will like. And it works - she follows her outlines, writes, the book, and is a huge hit.

From Publishers Weekly: Three no-longer-so-young irony boys and their put-upon wives and girlfriends write, drink, pace the streets of contemporary New York City and occasionally manage to publish a novel or two in this biting remake of George Gissing's 1891 novel New Grub Street.


Along in here I tried to read a book I accidentally picked up. I mean, I bought it on purpose but I thought it was a novel and it turned out to be a memoir. I've read a lot of nonfiction lately (in fits and starts - I mostly haven't finished three different books to tell you about yet) and it was feeling like an all-fiber diet. I needed some fried green tomatoes followed by cotton candy. Anyway, this memoir book - not one of the books mentioned in this post - I didn't much care for it. Lots of other folks, did, though - it was a Family Circle Book of the Month, a featured selection of the Literary Guild and Doubleday Book Clubs, and a Booksense Reading Group Pick, so apparently I'm a rebel. :-)



The Girl With No Shadow by Joanne Harris is the sequel to Chocolat. If you saw the movie and didn’t read the book, you’re probably shrugging and thinking, “Meh.” That’s kind of what I thought about the movie, Johnny Depp not withstanding, but the book was scrumptious.

This was, too. I think the line in Entertainment Weekly says it best: Fans of Harris' original fairy-tale novel will find a darker Chocolat...but a far richer treat.

From Publishers Weekly: Harris revisits characters from 1999's bestselling Chocolat in this equally delectable modern fairy tale. More than four years have passed since Vianne Rocher pitted her enchanted chocolate confections against the local clergy's interpretation of Lent in smalltown France; since then, Vianne has renounced magic, changed her name to Yanne Charbonneau and moved with her two daughters to Paris's Montmartre district. There, Yanne embraces conformity and safety, much to the dismay of her increasingly troubled older daughter, Anouk. When Anouk becomes entranced with Zozie de l'Alba, an exotic itinerant who happens upon a job at the new shop, and the relationship grows increasingly sinister, Yanne must call up all of Vianne's powers, culinary and mystical, to save her family...Harris gives fans much to savor in this multilayered novel, from the descriptions (including Yanne's mouthwatering chocolate confections, Zozie's whimsical footwear and Anouk's artistic efforts) to the novel's classic, enduring theme of good vs. evil — and the difficulty of telling the difference.

Definitely darker than Chocolat, I found it a great read, maybe more grownup than Chocolat, not quite as sweet. Thumbs up.



Easter Parade by Richard Yates is, in a word, bleak. In another word, fabulous.

It sounds simple; the story of two sisters, children of divorced parents, that follows their lives for about 40 years beginning near World War II. It is simple and thought-provoking, and again, it's bleak. Yet arresting, much in the same way as Revolutionary Road, which I read last summer and which movie I haven't seen. I don't think I want to.

An extraordinary book but not a feel-good read.


Meet the Austins by Madeline L'Engle



Look at that cover. See how worn and ragged? I've had this book since I was about ten years old. No telling how many times I read it. NO TELLING.

I like seeing my ten year old handwriting, with the address of my childhood home, the phone number, which I was compelled to put on the inside front cover -


and on the inside of the back cover.



I loved, loved, loved the Austins series, with the first book being my favorite.

I revisited it and re-read it in a couple of hours. It was a sweet trip back and that's what it felt like - sweet and not an altogether realistic portrayal of family life but maybe that's just my reflection of these contemporary times. The book was originally published in 1960.

Fans of A Wrinkle In Time may not cotton to it as there is no fantasy element. Instead it's a golden-toned look at family life. A welcome respite.

Favorite Book of February: I read some gems but I think my very most favorite was Astrid and Veronika.

Character Who I'd Most Like to Have a Drink With: Valentine Roncalli from Very Valentine. She's so vibrant.