Book Review: The Paris Wife

As I mentioned yesterday, The Paris Wife, by Paula McLain, is about the relationship between Ernest Hemingway and his first wife Hadley. The first few chapters are about their brief courtship and the rest of the book follows their time in Paris as expatriates. It was during this time that Hemingway got his start as writer, writing several of his first books, including my favorite, The Sun Also Rises.

I want to do something a little different with this book review. When I read, I slightly (very slightly) fold over the bottom of the pages that have passages I really like. I wanted to share some of the passages I folded over here.

*"'I want to write one true sentence,' he said. 'If I can write one sentence, simple and true, every day, I'll be satisfied." (81) 
*"His ambitions for his writing were fierce and all encompassing. He had writing the way other people had religion." (81)

Of other interest:
*Hemingway's first works were lost on a train by Hadley. She packed them up to bring with her and lost them on the train.
*Pauline, Hemingway's second wife, was a friend of Hadley's.
*I loved seeing how life in Paris shaped The Sun Also Rises. The book also talks about the inspiration for the characters in The Sun Also Rises and takes us to the running of the bulls a few times, too.

I wonder how much of The Paris wife is fiction, and how much is biographical. I will have to check out some biographies to compare, I think.

Book Review: The Sun Also Rises

And I'm back from my weekend away! The trip was very fun overall, and my mom and I got to spend some quality time together. We did a lot of shopping, wine drinking, and mostly just relaxing. We found some good deals on clothes (yay Ann Taylor Loft!), took long morning walks, and caught up on some TV shows.

The train trip home was rather unexciting, except that I shouldn't have tried to sleep, because I didn't.. I should have just stayed up reading. I brought two books with me, a Sarah Dessen to reread and then the book I'm reviewing tomorrow and talking about today, The Paris Wife. I also got a super fun book from a friend while I was there that I can't wait to explore.

But back to The Paris Wife. This was one my mom mentioned to me, and it's about Ernest Hemingway's first wife. I kind of love Ernest Hemingway. In fact, if I had to pick my favorite book (as my friend Leah would say, quoting Cougar Town, "Gun to your head!") I would pick The Sun Also Rises.

I didn't read any Hemingway until my 20th Century Literature class my freshman year of college (second semester). I was desperate to take this class, and I took the last spot after watching the schedule for days. I was also the youngest person in the class and was intimidated, as this was the first literature-based college class I had taken. But I had a great professor who chose wonderful books and it ended up being one of the classes I did the best in and loved the most.

And Hemingway became one of the authors that I love most. You know when you read a book at just the right time in your life that you and the book just click? I think that happened with me and The Sun Also Rises. I wrote my response paper on the feeling of being lost, and while I wasn't lost in the same way as the characters, I could relate to it. I had a lot of changes going on that semester and just didn't know what I wanted. And the book seemed to capture how I was feeling, despite the immensely different time periods and circumstances.

In The Paris Wife, we actually see Hemingway and Stein and all of the "lost generation" before the books and writing that made them famous. And we see Hemingway writing The Sun Also Rises, which was really cool for me to read. I'll be back with a full review tomorrow, but after the "read more" break is my response paper for The Sun Also Rises, in case you want to check out some vintage Whitney writing. It's still one of my favorite "academic" papers I've ever written.

The Sun Also Rises
30 January 2005
A Lost Generation   

The epigraph of The Sun Also Rises includes a quote from Gertrude Stein that states, “You are all a lost generation.”  Through the characters of Jake, Robert Cohn, Bill, this statement is proven to be true, but Lady Brett Ashley is perhaps the most “lost” character of the novel, and she tries to fulfill her unhappiness by searching for love.     

Though Lady Brett Ashley is portrayed as somewhat of a masculine woman, every man that she comes in contact with loves her.  Robert calls her “Circe” (148), who was a Greek sorceress who lured men to her island and then turned them into animals.  Brett does have a certain effect on men, most notably on Robert.  Not only does he end his long-standing relationship with Frances, his personality changes, a change that Jake blames on Brett: “…until he fell in love with Brett, I had never heard him make one remark that would, in any way, detach him from other people” (52).  As the novel progresses, Robert continues to change, and his obsession with Brett impacts his relationship with the others.

The reasons for Brett’s abilities to seduce men are unclear.  Mike says that “she is the only lady [he] has ever known who [is] as charming when she [is] drunk as she [is] when she [is] sober” (66).  Brett Ashley is not only charming, but beautiful as well: Robert Cohn says that she is “remarkably attractive” (46).  But the best way to describe Brett is the following: “There’s a certain quality about her, a certain fineness.  She seems to be absolutely fine and straight…I don’t know how to describe the quality…I suppose it’s breeding” (46).  Brett’s combination of beauty, charm and breeding gives her the opportunities to find what she is really looking for, but she can’t find it.

Even though many men love her, Lady Brett Ashley is lost in that “she only wanted what she couldn’t have” (39).  She spends her time searching for the one thing she can’t have: love.  Everyone knows that “Brett’s had affairs with men before” (147), but these men are not the loves of her life.  She sleeps with many men, but it doesn’t change the fact that she is lonely. Brett has been through a great deal of heartache and has lost every real love she has ever had.  Before she married Ashley,  “her own true love had just kicked off with the dysentery” (46).  In addition to not loving her husband, she has a horrible marriage:

    “When [Ashley] came home he wouldn’t sleep in a bed.  Always made Brett sleep on the floor.  Finally, when he got really bad, he     used to tell her he’d kill her.  Always slept with a loaded service revolver…She hasn’t had an absolutely happy life…” (207).

To add to her unhappiness, Brett is desperately in love with Jake, but cannot be with him because he cannot fulfill the physical expectations of their relationship.  When Mike asks Brett and Jake why they aren’t married, Brett replies, “We have our careers” (68).  I thought this was an interesting statement made by Brett, because the only things she truly does with her time is sleep with men and drink. After first meeting Mike, she says “I rather liked the count…offered me ten thousand dollars to go to Biarritz with him” (41). I immediately felt that Brett was indirectly referring to herself as a prostitute, but then, Jake tells Robert “[Brett’s] in love with Mike Campbell and she’s going to marry him” (46). 

Later on in the book, Robert calls Jake a pimp, which, in a way, is what Jake is to Brett.  When Brett decides that she’s “in love” (187) with Pedro, it is Jake who sets them up:

    “[Pedro] looked at me.  It was a final look to ask if it were understood.  It was understood all right…when I came back and looked     in the café, twenty minutes later, Brett and Pedro Romero were gone” (190-191).

At the end of the novel, it is Jake who rescues Brett, but he does partially take blame for the situation: “Send a girl off with one man.  Introduce her to another to go off with him.  Now go and bring her back.  And sign the wire with love.  That was it all right” (243).  Since Jake is unable to fulfill the physical aspects of the relationship, he almost tries to find other men to take his place.

However, no men can take really take the place of Jake.  Jake and Brett have an emotional relationship, and this relationship is unlike any other in the book.  It is to Jake that Brett admits that she is “miserable” (32), and it is Jake who truly understands her.  He can see her true feelings, found in the descriptions of her eyes:

    “She was looking into my eyes with that way she had of looking that made you wonder whether she really saw out of her own             eyes.  They would look on and on after every one else’s eyes in the world would have stopped looking.  She looked as though         there were nothing on earth she would not look at like that, and really she was afraid of so many things” (34). 

Jake truly loves Brett and can tell that she is afraid.  He goes on to say that “her eyes had different depths, sometimes they seemed perfectly flat.  Now you could see all the way into them” (34).  By allowing Jake to look “all the way” into her eyes, Brett is almost exposing her emotions to him.  

Jake is “the only person [Brett’s] got” (185), and she claims to be in love with him: “She looked at me, hand on the table, her glass raised.  Don’t look like that…told him I was in love with you.  True, too.  Don’t look like that” (41).  She also is in love with Mike and thinks she is in love with Pedro.  With her tendencies to fall in love so quickly, it makes me wonder about whether she truly does love Jake, or if he is just a symbol for what she wants and cannot have.  If she and Jake were capable of having a relationship, I wonder if Brett would finally be happy, or if she would end up just as lost as she is throughout the novel. 

Meeting Sarah Dessen

Well, I know that I'm two days late on my update on meeting Sarah Dessen. Thursday turned into a crazy busy day with work and picking up the house and packing for my impromptu trip to Denver for the weekend. You see, I drove my old car back to my parents' house and decided to stay a while. Or at least for the weekend. So that's where I am now--writing this update before we head out shopping!

Meagan and I left Lincoln at 4:45 for our adventure. I drove the new car and loved it! We only got a little lost in Omaha, but eventually made it to the library by 5:50. There were already about 10 people waiting by the door to get in. (It started at 7.) We had seats right in the second row, almost on the end, and by 6:50, there was hardly standing room. I would say there were probably about 200 people there. She was a delight. She read from her new book, which I don't have because it's hardcover and I want it to match the rest of my paperbacks, but after hearing the first chapter, I've decided to just buy it and not worry about it. She talked about her inspiration for the book, which came from many different places, and then did some questions and answers. There was a wide variety of ages there, I would say, so she got lots of different questions. People asked about how she felt about the movie, How To Deal, which is based on two of her books, what her writing process was like, where inspiration comes from, etc. She was very funny and seemed to be very down-to-earth, and she was also very gracious to her fans. I learned that she recycles her characters, too, because she said a lot of girls were asking for sequels, and she didn't want to write them, so that was a compromise. I had never noticed that, but after I went through one book, it was so obvious, I didn't know how I missed it!

After she did a brief trivia game, which Meagan and I didn't do too well on, she did a book signing. The lady in charge promised us we would be first because she would dismiss by row, but there was a mass exit and we didn't want to get trampled, so we stayed seated. That mean there was a crazy long line, and so we just sat in the room until they started picking it up. We went ot and the line was still really long, but a nice woman and her daughter let us cut them in line so Meagan wouldn't have to stand for so long. Even from our "line cutting point" we were in line for about 50 minutes. But it was worth it--we got our books signed (I did This Lullaby, my favorite, and Meagan got the new one, What Happened To Goodbye) and a picture, and she was very nice in person. Then we headed home, with only a stop at McDonald's for dinner. It was such a fun night, and despite all of the waiting,it was so worth it. And we got some good talking time in, too.

My Celebrities

I won't lie, I love my share of celebrity culture. But when I think about the famous people that would probably make me go eeee! ahhhh! do you know who that is? if I ran into them at say, an airport or some other public place, most of them are authors. (And yes, I think I would be able to recognize my favorites if I saw them on the street.)

I've been lucky enough to hear some really interesting and cool writers. Frank Warren, PostSecret, and Anthony Bourdain, Kitchen Nightmares and others, came to the University, and my friend Kaitlyn and I went to hear them speak (and we got there super early both times, too, which meant we had awesome seats) and get books signed. At the Key West literary seminar I went to, I was able to hear lots of good writing advice and meet both established and up-and-coming writers. And stare at the back of Judy Blume's head, which was pretty cool. But one of my favorite author-meeting experiences was Kristin Gore.

I spent the summer in D.C. four years ago (I can hardly believe it's been that long now!), working an internship at a local magazine there. It was an experience, both good and bad, and while I didn't realize it at the time, I learned a lot about myself while out on my own in a strange city. I love D.C., I really do--it's one of my favorite places, and I can't wait until Nathan and I can go back and experience it together. It has so many opportunities--museums, gardens, memorials, shopping, awesome public transportation, and . . . author events. I had literally just read Kristin Gore's first book, Sammy's Hill, and I loved it. In fact, I loved it so much, I finished it and read it again because I was not ready for it to be over and also considered striking up a conversation with someone who was also reading it on the bus. And it just so happened that she was speaking at a bookstore right by my "office" (the magazine actually had the top floor of a house as an office, but ya). I was thrilled.

I got there early with my books, waiting for her to come out. And then she did! She read from her new book, the sequel to my beloved Sammy's Hill, and then answered questions. She actually got several questions about her parents (she's Al Gore's daughter) that she handled very gracefully. And then she did a signing. I was so nervous to actually meet her, and I'm pretty sure I said, "umm, ahh, I really liked your book." and then we got a picture together.

It was amazing. And tonight, I have another amazing opportunity. Sarah Dessen, one of my most favorite authors who I have been reading forever, will be in Omaha. So my wonderful friend Meagan, who is also a huge (probably more than me even) Sarah Dessen fan and I are hitting the road, hoping for an autograph and a picture. I'll be sure to spill the details tomorrow afternoon after work.

If You Give Your House A Garage . . .

. . .  it's going to want a new car to go with it. That's right, there have been lots of changes around our house the past couple of days.

Let's start with the garage. As some of you may know, back in September, TWO days after our wedding, to be specific, our carport roof blew off in a freak wind storm and landed on our roof. And, of course, it also landed on a power line. We had to stay with Nathan's grandma the next night (bless her heart!) while contractors took the carport apart and disposed of it and our power was turned back on, all before we left on our honeymoon that Saturday.

The insurance company covered the carport, but rather than replace it, we decided to add a garage, since we had plans to do that anyway. We also needed to replace the driveway, because it was really cracked and was not only incredibly annoying to shovel the snow off of but also directing water into the basement occasionally, causing leaks.

Initially, we were going to just get bids to pour the cement and the footings. Then we decided to get bids for a framed garage and we (meaning Nathan and his dad) would finish it. And what we ended up with was a contractor to build the entire garage and pour the driveway, which is really better overall.

They started bright and early Monday morning, taking a bobcat to the driveway and tearing up the back part where the actual garage will be. Shelby is not happy because she lost her backyard and refuses to go potty in the front yard. That's right--she'll go in other people's front yards, the park, the grass in front of the churches on our walk, but not our front yard.

And now, part two. Today I brought home a new used 2003 Subaru Forester. I was rear-ended back in early March and despite not having much damage, they totaled my car. We bought the car back because it was still drive-able, and I started (OK, continued) my search for the perfect car. I had basically been checking car Web sites and craigslist every day since then, but got behind this week. This weekend I was talking to Nathan about it and realized I hadn't been on and found Duff. It was love at first sight, and he is everything I wanted in a car: Low miles, good condition (my most trusted mechanic Randy checked it out beforehand, thanks to a recommendation from my mom), seat heaters and CD player, a back windshield wiper, nice storage, easy to see out of . . . and tonight, I learned it has a temperature gauge and a compass in the mirror. I know, I'm so not a car girl.

I will, however, really miss my girl Hilary (my current Subaru legacy). We had a good run, and she also had many features I had coveted in a car: CD player sunroof, easy to see out the back. But it's time to move on, and I know she will have a good home back in Colorado. Sniff.

Book (& Movie) Review: Something Borrowed

I discovered Emily Giffin the summer after my freshman year in college, and loved her books right away. The two that she had out at the time were Something Borrowed and Something Blue, and aside from catchy, awesome names and super fun cover designs (which she has carried over to the rest of her books, which someone with OCD-like tendencies with books appreciates), they are so well-written and relatable. Since then, I've bought (and read multiple times) the rest of her books, even taking the day off last year when her newest one came out. She is definitely one of my favorite authors.

With most chick lit, I really care about the story. Well, most books actually. I don't necessarily get really invested in the characters or spend my reading time thinking about the people who are actually invovled in the story, unlike some people (Nathan). But Emily Giffin's books basically force you into thinking about the characters because they're so well-developed and not perfect, stereotypes of people. If anything, they're more like real people because they have personalities, flaws, and depth.

Her storylines have depth, as well, in that the choices that the characters make and the situations they are put in aren't black-and-white in terms of what's right or wrong. For example, in Something Borrowed, Rachel falls in love with her best friend's fiance. But you find yourself understanding the circumstances surrounding the affiar. Her other books are the same, in that sense, but with different characters exploring different challenging topics, such as cheating, children, and questioning a marriage, all in the same world, meaning she does have characters from other books re-appear, which I love.

I think the characters vs. storyline really came into play in the movie adaptation. I have been so excited for Something Borrowed to come out, because I follow Emily Giffin on Facebook, and she has been talking about it from the very beginning. (This is another one of my favorite things about her--she is really excited about her fans and does lots of contests and giveaways and interacts with everyone often.) And I finally saw it Friday for girls' night. And, contrary to my normal "the book was way better and the movie sucked" reaction to most movies made from my favorite books, I really liked it, and thought it perfectly captured the spirit of the book.

There were actually few major changes in the movie, story-wise, and most of the changes seemed to be character-related. Ethan, played by Jim from the office, had a bigger role in the movie than the book, which I loved. Another character, Claire, was a little crazier but I thought it provided some good opportunities for humor. And while I didn't love the idea of Kate Hudson as Darcy, she did a great job. There were only two things I didn't love, and I can't go into them without ruining the movie.

Overall, I was very pleased, and I will definitely go again if anyone wants to go!

Friday Fancies

It's been such a busy week here work-wise, but it's nice to have a break today to get caught up on a whole bunch of things I probably should have done yesterday. That's what the weekend is for, right?

*On Monday, Shelby graduated from puppy class, even though she is in her "teenager" phase and refusing to listen to us--instead, she gives us a "why are you making me do this?" look, and then goes, FINE, I'll sit. It's fun. The lady told us that Shelby needed a job or she'll get bored, so we're going to train her to put her toys away.

*Wednesday, I was officially "sworn in" as a member of Toastmasters, which for those of you who don't know is a public-speaking club of sorts. I think it's going to be really good for me to practice something that I don't love so much but will have to do for work. It's a challenge I'm excited to make into something I might love, once the anxiety goes away.

*Next week is season finale week, and I'm very happy this year because I didn't really have any shows canceled. Normally, I'm protesting CBS to keep How I Met Your Mother or yelling at Fox for getting rid of Dollhouse. But the only show I had canceled was Life Unexpected. That means next year will probably be bad for me. Check out what's staying or gone here, my favorite TV site.

*Nathan just finished A Wrinkle In Time, which I made him read, and immediately asked where the sequel was. He was shocked that I didn't have it AND that I had never read it. I'll be heading over to the library today to get it for him (and me). Also, after searching for the title of the second book, I found out that all of the characters in books by Madeline L'Engle are connected to each other through other characters.That's my favorite thing.

*Another author who connects her characters is Emily Giffin, who is one of my favorites. My favorite book by her, Something Borrowed, was made into a movie, and we're going to see it tonight for girls' night. I can't WAIT! I'll have a review of the book and the movie next week.

Have a fantastic weekend, everyone, and I promise I'll be back to posting better next week!

Celebrations

What a weekend! Before we get into my summary, I just wanted to thank everyone for reading last week's posts as I went through my favorite childhood books. I was so happy today--we talked about the importance of childhood reading at one of my meetings, and how it's the foundation of being successful at school. So important.

We had such a full weekend of celebrations. May is always an exciting time, with the start of wedding season, graduations, babies, and Mother's Day, and we did a lot of that this weekend.

Nathan and I had our date night on Friday, and after getting gyros and stopping by the used bookstore, we headed out to the Nebraska baseball game against Texas. It was the most gorgeous night, despite a few sprinkles, and the game wasn't too bad either, even though we lost. I also read a few chapters of my book, The Diana Chronicles by Tina Brown--I'm trying to hang onto the royal wedding as long as I can!

After lunch with the in-laws Saturday, I picked up my friend Jody and we went to a baby shower for my dear friend Meagan, who's expecting her first little one in June. It was such a fun shower, and of course made me even more excited for her to start her journey as a mother. That evening, we also had a graduation party for a college friend, and in between we hit up the mall and Target. We both did great and didn't buy anything, except I did find Shelby's dog food, so I had to buy that.

Last year, we had a lunch for Nathan's mom for Mother's Day and had his parents over again this year. I broke out the fancy silverware and glasses and Nathan made roasted chicken, potatoes, and salad. We had sparkling grape juice and peanut butter cup treats for dessert. Yum. Shelby got to play outside in her pool and just went crazy, jumping in and out and over. She tried laying down in the water but quickly decided she'd rather not. She's very tired today.

I hope you all had a wonderful weekend (and Mother's Day), too.

National Children's Book Week: High School Books

I have loved going back and remembering the books that gave me the reading and writing bug.

In high school, I took practically every English class I could--basic language arts classes, creative writing, yearbook, AP English, and I read a lot, both in and outside of school. Here are some of my favorite "outside" school books.

A Ring Of Endless Light/Austin Series, Madeline L’Engle
An Old-Fashioned Girl, Louisa May Alcott
Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, Ann Brashares
All-American Girl, Meg Cabot
Princess Diaries, Meg Cabot (love the third the most!)
Sara Dessen (who I still love)

Such a good weekend ahead of us--I hope you have a wonderful one, too.

National Children's Book Week: Middle School Books

Today's list of titles isn't as long, but definitely good suggestions.

Eight Cousins, Louisa May Alcott
Summer Of My German Soldier, Bette Greene
Find A Stranger, Say Goodbye, Lois Lowry
Jacob Have I Loved, Katherine Patterson
Ann Rinaldi books--grown up American Girl doll books
Lurlene McDaniel books
The Face On The Milk Carton series, Caroline B. Cooney

National Children's Book Week: Elementary School Books

It was easier for me to pick some favorite books from elementary school, not because I was older and could remember but because I had most of them sitting on my bookshelf. I am sure that most of these books were later elementary school, but they can also be read aloud to younger children, depending on content.

Favorite Favorites
The True Confessions Of Charlotte Doyle, Avi
The Indian In The Cupboard, Lynne Reid Banks
Sarah and Me and the Lady From The Sea, Patricia Beatty
Judy Blume
Caddie Woodlawn, Carol Ryrie Brink
The Secret Garden, Frances Hodgson Burnett
Matilda, Roald Dahl
Mandy, Julie Edwards (who is actually Julie Andrews!)
Hitty: Her First 100 Years, Rachel Field
A Wrinkle In Time, Madeline L’Engle (originally read to me by my mother)
The Giver, Lois Lowry
Number The Stars, Lois Lowry
The Borrowers, Mary Norton
The Sky Is Falling series, Kit Pearson

Series I Couldn't Get Enough Of (And Still Can't)
Little House On The Prairie (and all of the companions, of course.)
American Girls: Kirsten (my beloved doll), Samantha, Felicity, Molly, and then Addy was the newest for me--now I think there's at least three more.
Betsy-Tacy, Maud Hart Lovelace
Anne Of Green Gables, L.M. Montgomery
Babysitters Club, Ann Martin

Nathan's FavoritesJames  The Giant Peach, Roald Dahl
Charlotte's Web, E.B. White

National Children's Book Week: Preschool Books

Even though I was almost too young to remember anything as a preschooler, I do remember (and treasure) the books that were read to me. And as a former preschool employee, I appreciate a certain kind of preschool book--one that doesn't make noise, is entertaining for grownups also, and doesn't get too old when you read it every day. Here are some word fancies favorites.

Reading with my sister.

The Books My Mom Read The Most Often
Sheep In A Jeep, Nancy E. Shaw
We're Going On A Bear Hunt, Michael Rosen
Carl Books, Alexandra Day
Moo Moo La La La, Sandra Boynton
Jesse Bear Books, Nancy White Carlstrom (Joe's Favorite)
The Napping House, Audrey Wood (Stephanie's Favorite)

The Books I Remember Loving Most
Hattie & The Wild Waves, Barbara Cooney
Angelina Ballerina, Katherine Holabird
Where The Sidewalk Ends, Shel Silverstein
Linnea In Monet's Garden, Christina Bjork and Lena Anderson (below, a picture with Linnea, who used to go everywhere with me and still has a special place in my heart and home.In the picture, Linnea is wearing a dress I made, with help from my mom, of course.)
Little Rabbit's Loose Tooth, Lucy Bate

Other Essential Classics
Goodnight Moon, Margaret Wise Brown
The Runaway Bunny, Margaret Wise Brown
Chicka Chicka Boom Boom, Bill Martin Jr.
It Looked Like Spilt Milk, Charles G. Shaw
If You Give A Mouse A Cookie, Laura Joffe Numeroff
Curious George, H. A. Rey

What books do you remember most?