Book Review - Jeneration X by Jen Lancaster

 Jen Lancaster has cracked me up through the years with her humorous essays on her life. I thought I read all her books, but came across Jeneration X at the library book sale. For one  dollar, I laughed out loud multiple times.

cover blurb - Here the author gives herself and her generation a kick in the X, by facing her greatest challenge to date: acting her age. 

She's embracing investment making, mortgage carrying, life insurance having adult she's become. With each rite of passage she completes, she'll uncover a valuable - and probably humiliating- life lesson that will ease her path to full-fledged, if reluctant, adulthood. 

 Her long suffering husband, Fletch, is a hoot as he  often guides or tries to keep her on the right path. She'll admit she's selfish. She'll admit she's vindictive. And often the funniest bits are her footnotes at the bottom of the page - she can let loose the snark. 

p 212   Chapter 18 title  The One About the Monkey      (trust me, funny as hell)

and  the Reluctant Adult Lesson Learned in this chapter - You are not too cool for the Fair, but you are  too old not to practice moderation. 

I am way older than Gen X, but absolutely enjoyed Jen's Jen X journey. 

Book Review - The Matrix - it's a book , not the movie

cover blurb:  she rides out of the forest alone, seventeen years old, in the cold march drizzle, marie who comes from France

1158 - a bedraggled Marie, banished from Queen Eleanor's court, is now in England at a much maligned abbey.  Poor, starving nuns. No resources. 

Matrix by Lauren Groff is a weird little book with a very old flavor to it. Spare and yet rich - this book is a "defiant and timely exploration of the raw power of female creativity in a corrupted world." (cover blurb)

Marie is an ungainly giantess of her day, no beauty, yet cunning, smart, resourceful. She is strong-willed and soon learns to manipulate what she can to get food, secure the abbey, conquer diseases, and use her faith and visions to instill strength. This book is not long and Groff leaps through the years -covering plagues, blight, and salvation. 

p. 117 Without the first matrix (Eve, House of Death), there could be no salvatrix (Mary, House of Life), the greatest matrix of all. 

p.177 There is a fine polish of near morning upon the abbey....

p.226 Collapse is the constant state of humanity...civilization after civilization foundering to dust, until the final death of the children of Eve with the apocalypse, the seven seals, the seven trumpets, the seven angels, the seven bowls. 

I liked Marie, the various nuns - some cranky, some wily, some mad, and the style of Matrix. I almost felt I should be reading it on dusty old parchment while drinking from a chalice. Kudos to Lauren Groff. 

Book Review - Great Circle by Maggie Shipstead

 Great Circle by Maggie Shipstead is a monster of a book with two story arcs. I really liked and admired this book, the characters, the storylines, the writing, and the ambition of this author. 

1914 -  Twin babies, Marian and Jamie Graves are rescued from a sinking ocean liner. These infants are sent  to Missoula, MT and raised by an uncle. Teenager Marian begins a lifelong love of flight when she meets some barnstormers. Alas, she gets a wealthy bootlegger patron who provides a plane, lessons, and then life choices that haunt her forever. Prohibition, Alaska wilds, wartime London - Marian flies the globe and her ultimate destiny - circumnavigating the globe by flying over the North and South Pole.  (cover blurb)

Meanwhile, 2014, Hadley Baxter is cast to play Marian in a film that centers on Marian's disappearance in Antarctica. Her immersion in the character unfolds alongside Marion's own story, as the two women's destinies - and their hunger for self-determination in vastly different places and times - intersect in astonishing ways. 

Plus the side stories of Jamie Graves, the artist, the sensitive twin intertwines with Marian at various points. There's always a deep connection and understanding. 

Plus, there's Caleb, a childhood friend/lover/constant in Marian's life. 

Great Circle is a tour de force.   I could pick any page and give you a sample of lovely prose. The circling of lives, the exhilaration of early flight, and then the fears, yearnings, need for alone time. The expanse of Montana, the skies, the great ice and waters of the earth, clouds, engine hum. You will soar while reading this book. 

Moody Monday Book Review - Cathedral (short stories) by Raymond Carver

 For a mere fifty cents at the library book sale, I bought Cathedral by Raymond Carver. It's a collection of short stories from the early 1980s and considered some of his best work. 

jealousy, insecurity, isolation, detachment and connection

Old Raymond is a bummer to read. Then again, he captures a lot of quiet desperation against stark backdrops. 

Yes, the writing is good but it was a bit jarring here in 2022. The man was an alcoholic and every story, every character practically starts their day with a drink and continues from there. Plenty of smoking too. It seemed a bit dated, like watching some old black and white films. 

I try to revisit classics, but this was a tough one. 

Finally Friday Phoebe

 Comedian, writer, producer, and actress - Phoebe Robinson does it all and her latest book, Please Don't Sit On My Bed in Your Outside Clothes, is timely, funny, serious, and perfect social commentary. 

 

cover blurb - Turns out me looking like a bootleg Diana Ross on this book's cover is not enough to entice folks to read it. 

We've all been through a trying time, which is why I wrote something to make you laugh until you pee a little, feel until you want  to rage a little, and think until you want  to go back to laughing a little. 

Yep. That sums it up. She's got a wide variety - quarantining with her white British boyfriend, Black Lives Matter, a decision to not have kids, her time with Michelle Obama, black hair, and running multiple companies. I laughed out loud a lot. I also gleaned truths and learned a bit about another perspective. 

p. 104 On how she hates unnecessary Zoom meetings and believes in email:  So in the future, when you want to set a Zoom, ask yourself, Could this be an email? If the answer is "yes", then b*#ch, clickety-clack, click click on your keyboard like a Delta Airlines employee trying to rebook you on a flight and keep it moving.  

 Just that little example gives you an idea of the tone and teensy observations that are SO true. I got this book from the library and enjoyed it immensely. I'll look for her stand-up specials. Phoebe Robinson is cool, hot, gifted, and hysterical. 

Whatever Wednesday - Love

Old tale. New take. Director Joe Wright presents a lush  (light) musical (!) adaptation of Edmond Rostand's classic play Cyrano de Bergerac. This Cyrano stars lovelorn wit Peter Dinklage. It's not the nose, it's his height that keeps him yearning quietly for his dearest friend, the lovely Roxanne (Haley Bennett). She is captivated by handsome soldier Christian (Kelvin Harrison Jr). 

Christian is tongue-tied and basic but his love for Roxanne is sincere. Cyrano uses his words through letters for Christian/Roxanne to pour out his heart. Roxanne is trying to evade the disgusting suitor De Guiche (deliciously evil Ben Mendelsohn), but he has the power to send the soldiers to the front. 

The rock band the National's music is wistful, aching, and modern, and adds to the mood and nuances of this tale. Wright has directed a beautiful production. Dinklage has the most expressive face and eyes - so much emotion. Bennett's Roxanne sings, shows her smarts and beauty. Harrison's Christian has innocent youth shining through. Quite the trio of players in a love triangle. 

Swordplay, Wordplay. Love.                               Go see Cyrano!
 

Monday Moments - Serious history. Turning points.

 This meme is far too simple. I am aware of that fact.   Ukraine.  President Zelenskyy  - hero!

So much is happening. So much is crucial for Europe, NATO, alliances, democracy, people, children

I do believe that NO former President or any USA representatives should in any WAY support Putin

NO   NO   NO

I will admit I read and am way too ignorant on history, economics, etc. but this is a gut reaction post. 

I sit helpless, ignorant, and sad.   This is serious. This is pivotal. This is a world issue.