Liiiife Is a Hiiiighway, I Wanna Riiiide It (All Night Long) - Where's B?

I am here but also not REALLY here. What a sleight of hand, you say. See I scheduled this post for today so actually I am highway driving in Nova Scotia, screaming Tom Cochrane lyrics at the top of my lungs, sauced on 10 kinds of illegal substances, having the time of my life. This is likely mostly true, except for the part where I am a neurotic square and so am probably completely sober, hands at the ten and two position on the wheel, constantly checking my blind spots. I have left you with this cow to stare you down. I don't think he likes you very much, truth be told.

Anyway, this isn't the only goody in the bag. I'm participating in the excellent TLC Book Tours' tour for Carlene Bauer's Not That Kind Of Girl so you'll see my review pop up for that on Monday, Aug 2.

Otherwise, I'll be back mid-next week. Here's a taste of what I'm bringing to Nova Scotia to read (the first is for EYE WEEKLY's Pop Fiction book club, the second for my regular book club):

Annabel (Kathleen Winter, HC 2010): In 1968, into the beautiful, spare environment of remote coastal Labrador, a mysterious child is born: a baby who appears to be neither fully boy nor girl, but both at once. Only three people are privy to the secret -- the baby's parents, Jacinta and Treadway, and a trusted neighbour, Thomasina. Together the adults make a difficult decision: to raise the child as a boy named Wayne. But as Wayne grows to adulthood within the hyper-masculine hunting culture of his father, his shadow-self -- a girl he thinks of as Annabel -- is never entirely extinguished, and indeed is secretly nurtured by the women in his life.

Galore(Michael Crummey, PB 2010): An intricate family saga and love story spanning two centuries, Galore is a portrait of the improbable medieval world that was rural Newfoundland, a place almost too harrowing and extravagant to be real. Remote and isolated, exposed to savage extremes of climate and fate, the people of Paradise Deep persist in a realm where the line between the everyday and the otherworldly is impossible to distinguish.

Propelled by the disputes and alliances, grievances and trade-offs that bind the Sellers and Devine families through generations, Galore is alive with singular characters, and an uncommon insight into the complexities of human nature.

Brain Food: Orange Is The New Black, My Year In A Women's Prison

Piper Kerman was fresh out of Smith College when her older girlfriend, Nora, involved her in her lucrative drug business. Nora worked for a West African drug kingpen and she orchestrated the smuggling of drugs into the country.

Piper, young, impressionable and totally unsure of what to do with her life, began following Nora to exotic locales like Bali and living in luxury, while Nora worked. Afraid of the ramifications of her actions, Kerman eventually cut all ties to Nora, met her husband Larry, and started a new life in New York City.

Ten years later, she was charged for her crime and spent 13 months in Danbury, a minimum security prison in Connecticut.

As you might imagine, Kerman was terrified of being locked up and of her fellow prisoners but despite the hardships of her stay (barely edible food, having to clean your cube with maxi pads, lack of rehabilitation opportunities of any kind, having to fly Con Air to testify against another man implicated in her drug ring) she eventually found value in the experience through her interactions with her fellow prisoners.

One of the best parts about this book is the cast of vibrant characters - Sister (a nun in for illegal activism work), Yoga Janet who serenely leads yoga sessions most days, Kerman's bunkie Natalie (who diligently works in the kitchen and never speaks of her life outside prison), Little Janet (a 20-year-old girl who had been arrested in the Caribbean as a drug mule) and of course, Pop.

Pop is a Russian immigrant who had married a gangster and spent most of her life before prison on the lam. Despite her former lax morality, Pop becomes one of Kerman's best friends and shows her how to live in prison sanely and with dignity:

She has lost everything, yet managed to take a dozen years in prison and hold it all together and make the best of it. Pop was cunning and exuberant. She as kind, but she could be ruthless. She knew how to work the system and also how not to let them break you. And they were always trying.

Prison taught Kerman that thriving (not just surviving) is an art. Whatever the crimes of her fellow prisoners, Kerman (and I too) was much taken with their acute instinct for survival and yet the often boundless generosity they showed to each other. Kerman's interaction with Carlotta is a very funny example of this (and also a great example of Kerman's dry wit). Carlotta proclaims she's getting married when she's out "so bitches can hate!":

I studied Carlotta, her pretty face bright and animated as she envisioned her future - one that included her man, some bitches, and a ring around her finger. I was fairly certain that she would get what she wanted. Among all the women at the Camp, she was one who could always figure out an angle...She was a smart cookie, with an unsentimental eye on the word. Rick, I concluded, was a lucky guy.

Carlotta may want bitches to hate, but ultimately what I noticed about the women at Danbury was their strong sense of sisterhood. And this is one of the great secrets of thriving, in Danbury or the world - you won't get there without the right people in your life.

Kerman was taught that stoicism is the best reaction to a difficult situation but prison showed her that what's really important is finding your tribe, being good to those people, finding whatever faith you can that helps you get by, and sticking by your own worth.

In prison, for the first time, I understood that faith could help people see beyond themselves, not into the abyss but into the street, into the mix, to offer what was bset about themselves to others...Rose, chatting in the midst of a pedicure one day, told me what she had learned from her faith; I thought later that hers were the most powerful words a person could utter: "I've got a lot to give."

And:

If there was one thing that I had learned in the Camp, it was that I was in fact good...I was eager to offer what I had, which was more than I had realized. Judging others held little appeal to me now, and when I did it, I regretted it. Best of all, I had found other women here in prison who could teach me how to be better. I t seemed to me that my total demonstrated failure at being a good girl was more than matched by the urgency of being a good person."

This book is so much more than a lurid prison memoir - it's a survival handbook and also an eye-opening (and empowering) account of women we might otherwise see as marginalized. I was very much moved by this book. It's safe to say it's the best I've read all year. I know I've glossed over the utter inefficiency of the prison system and its inability to prepare women for life beyond bars, but please check out the reviews below for further information. And please give this wonderful book a try.

Amy Reads
The Book Lady's Blog
Slate

Orange Is the New Black/ Piper Kerman /Spiegel and Grau / HC, 2010

Sh*t My Dad Says: More Than Just Toilet Humour, Paternal Love Is In Full (Cranky) Force Here

On my first school dance: "Are you wearing perfume?...Son, there ain't any cologne in this house, only your mother's perfume. I know that scent, and let me tell you, it's disturbing to smell your wife on your thirteen-year-old son."

This book made me giggle like a Japanese school girl.

Yes, I too am wary of the blog-to-book. It smells of the cheap cash grab like a pile of week-old socks.

That said, I have to give it to Sh T My Dad Saysbecause it manages to be both uproariously funny and wonderfully heartfelt at the same time. Reading this book provided me a week's worth of laughter therapy and the best Saturday afternoon in recent memory.

Sam Halpern works in nuclear medicine. He and his second wife grew up working class and fought their way up and sacrificed to educate themselves and provide for their three boys. Justin Halpern, the know-it-all youngest son and wannabe screenwriter, was forced to move back home in his late 20's, and took to tweeting his grouchy, blunt and oddly wise father's sayings. His number of followers skyrocketed and the rest is history.

The book nicely balances Sam's caustic toilet humour, the sometimes grim realities of parenting and sacrificing for your family, and the pure joy of a father's love for his son. The last chapter is particularly affecting - I won't spoil it for you but suffice to say if only all fathers were so concerned with the self-esteem of their sons, the world would be such a better place.

I highly recommend this book for absolutely everyone (except for those who are offended by foul language, and those people shouldn't be reading this blog anyway).

My only complaint: it should have been longer. Let's hope for a sequel containing more stories of Sam Halpern, whom Justin describes as, "like Socrates, but angrier, and with worse hair."

Or maybe I'll just have to wait for the sitcom. Also, Gawker can eat sh*t for being so snide - professional jealousy sure is a b*tch.

Sh T My Dad Says/Justin Halpern / HarperCollins / HC, 2010

Thoughts on Eclipse and the Twilight Series (Warning: Team Jacob)

Last week I finished the Twilight quartet. I went to see Eclipse in theatres and there was no way in hell I'd go and see it before reading the book. That completed, I had to read the final book, Breaking Dawn, to know why people felt so betrayed as to the ending (I could take or leave the final book. It was a bit off the rails but I loved the chance to get inside Jake's head).

I was planning on writing a snarky post as to how Stephenie Meyer is ruining feminism, literature and my right not to read about thinly-veiled Mormon values. But, let's be honest here, there are a few things I really love about the Twilight series and I'm just going to let myself be as teenager fandom-y as I want this time around.

[Aside: the Eclipse movie was awful. Jill tempted me into watching the first two films with commentary and I recommend it. The commentary for the first film has Robert Pattinson on board and damn he is funny! He talks the whole time about how poncy the Edward character is and that his face is strangely flat and square (true that). The second commentary made me realize how much director Chris Weitz poured into the cinematography, mood, characters etc., something which the slapdash affair that is Eclipse sorely lacks. Check out Syllabus' rundown of all that is wrong with Eclipse the film.]

Onwards.

The best part of Eclipse is the second half, full stop. The love triangle of Jacob-Edward-Bella is full steam ahead here and boy does it pop and crackle with emotion. The book is slow to gain momentum but when it does BAM, Meyer starts giving your heartstrings the puppeteering of a lifetime.

First off, I loved the scene where Edward and Jacob discuss their mutual love for Bella while she sleeps (in the tent before the big Victoria show down). I despise Edward and his humourless, mopey, constantly agonized attitude just as much as I love Jacob's snarky, balls-out one, but the two characters reach a real understanding in this scene that levels them nicely. Their honesty in expressing their love for Bella and their pained acknowledgement that they must share her heart won me over big time. Sample quote from Jake:

But...give me a year, bl- Edward. I really think I could make her happy...You love her enough that you have to see the advantages of that plan. She thinks you're very unselfish, are youreally? Can you consider the idea that I might be better for her than you are?

My favorite scene in Eclipse, nay the entire series, is when Bella capitulates to her desire for Jake. The way Meyer put it - that Jake is meant for Bella in a world where the supernatural does not exist, that Edward's fluke presence on Earth will prevent the two from ever being happy - BROKE me, people. DESTROYED me. Whoa:

The jolt of anger unbalaned my tenuous hold on self-control; his ecstatic response overthrew it entirely. If there had been only triumph, I might have been able to resist him. But the utter defenselessness of his sudden joy cracked my determination, disabled it. My brain disconncted from my body, and I was kissing him back. Against all reason, my lips were moving with his in strange, consuming ways they'd never moved before - because I didn't have to be careful with Jacob, and he certainly wasn't being careful with me.

In this moment, the life that Bella could have with Jake (and never will) flashes before her eyes. They merge together, they share their equal pain and joy, and yet, ultimately, nothing will ever change. How's that for torment?

And finally, the END of Eclipse (which they cut out of the film to my utter horror) really wrapped the book up nicely. Jake's animal despair at losing Bella was perfect in summing up the weight of loss that fills this book.

It was almost too easy to phase. I didn't have to think. My body already knew where I was going and, before I asked it to, it gave me what I wanted...If only I could stop hearing, stop seeing what they saw. My head was so crowded, but the only way to be alone again was to be human, and I couldn't stand the pain...I pushed my legs faster, letting Jacob Black disappear behind me.

In parting, I want to drop on you some mood music to go with this angst post - Silver and Cold. I was obsessed with the band AFI in university, though I think I was mostly obsessed with Davey Havok, the lead singer. And by obsessed, I mean I still have a brain-gasm every time I watch one of AFI's videos, though Havok's tried to butch it up of late, which I am not feeling.

Sample lyrics (perfect for Eclipse!):

Your sins into me,
oh, my beautiful one.
Your sins into me.
As a rapturous voice escapes
I will tremble a prayer
and I'll beg for forgiveness.
Your sins into me,
Your sins into me
oh, my beautiful one.

Five Books Set in Nova Scotia That Don't Smell of Mildew

In honour of my upcoming trip to Nova Scotia next week, I've scoured my brain for five books set in Nova Scotia that don't reek of old school CanLit or that are patently obvious (though I do do love The Nymph and the Lamp, it is so wonderfully perfectly fraught). Notably NOT on this list: The Birth House, Fall on Your Knees, The Book of Negroes and No Great Mischief.

What Is Left the Daughter: This is a US-published novel but I was happy to discover that it's set in Nova Scotia. Recluse Wyatt Hillyer lost both his parents on the same day. Double suicide. The cause: they were involved with the same neighbor. Wyatt moves to Middle Economy (been there!) and upon the occasion of his (estranged) daughter's 21st birthday many years later, writes her a letter than contains the truth about his life. Includes actual historical happenings, such as the sinking of the Nova Scotia–Newfoundland ferry Caribou by a German U-boat. I very much want to read this.

Seven Ravens: I used to read Lesley Choyce's YA when I was a kid. I'm not sure if you've heard of Choyce before but he's very well known in NS. This book is his memoir and a meditation on his beloved Nova Scotian home. I am a complete sucker for any book about emotional ties to place, especially if that place is situated in a spruce stand by the sea. I'm assuming that the seven crows refers to this old saying (though in my day, three crows meant a letter, not a wedding-yikes). Thanks to The Indextrious Reader for cluing me into this book.

Migration Songs: Joan is a 30-year old loner living in Halifax, kept afloat by her Hungarian neighbor, British father and Chinese-Canadian mother. Haven't read this but love the sounds of it for two reasons A) Not populated solely by white fishermen B) Not reliant on place for atmosphere and meaning. Atlantic Canada needs more novels like this.

The Sea Captain's Wife: Now THIS is really my speed! In the 1860's, Azuba Galloway marries a veteran sea captain but becomes pregnant and cannot join him on his travels. Her loneliness embroils her in scandal but once finally out at sea with her husband, tragedy doesn't leave her side. Ah-mazing.

Falling: An act of recklessness claimed Damian's sister in her youth (during a summer spent in Nova Scotia) and as he and his mother heal, another incident threatens to seal their future once again. For fans of The Sea Captain's Wife (and indeed Falling is recommended by Powning!). Thanks to Lavender Lines for recommending this title

Whoa Dude: Cold Earth Cover, Blowing My Mind Since Two Seconds Ago

Cold Earth / Sarah Moss / Counterpoint / PB, 2010

Fall 2010: What Technology Wants and Proofiness=The Ultimate Nerdalicious Duo

Hey. Happy Monday. I suppose you've noticed that I haven't been reviewing any books lately. That is A) because I've been reading the rest of the Twilight series B) I've been committed to reviewing for other venues and C) I have been writing an essay for a certain literary journal that I have been obsessively (read: maniacally) crafting.

No more! Reviews to return this week. In the mean time, I'd like to get you jacked up on these two awesome nerd books set to hit stores this fall.

What Technology Wants

Kevin Kelly is the executive editor at Wired. His theory, that technology is like a living organism, is discussed in this new book. This TED video gives a better explanation than I ever could. I know the cover looks a bit off but apparently it's going to have more of a 3D effect IRL. Pubs: Oct/10

From the Publisher: This provocative book introduces a brand-new view of technology. It suggests that technology as a whole is not a jumble of wires and metal but a living, evolving organism that has its own unconscious needs and tendencies. Kevin Kelly looks out through the eyes of this global technological system to discover “what it wants.” He uses vivid examples from the past to trace technology’s long course and then follows a dozen trajectories of technology into the near future to project where technology is headed.

Proofiness

The cover, title and subtitle here are hella cool! Charles Seife is a science writer who authored the book Zero, yep a biography about the number zero. Pubs: Sept/10

From the Publisher: "Proofiness," as Charles Seife explains in this eye-opening book, is the art of using pure mathematics for impure ends, and he reminds readers that bad mathematics has a dark side. It is used to bring down beloved government officials and to appoint undeserving ones (both Democratic and Republican), to convict the innocent and acquit the guilty, to ruin our economy, and to fix the outcomes of future elections. This penetrating look at the intersection of math and society will appeal to readers of Freakonomics and the books of Malcolm Gladwell.