A Changed Man by Francine Prose

Francine Prose is quickly becoming a favorite author. I loved "Goldengrove" and now "A Changed Man." So very different books!
At first, the book seemed a little slow. But not the case...keep going.
The characters are painted vividly; the plot interesting, compelling, real.
Here is a quote from the NYTimes Book Review by Lisl Schillinger that sums up the themes beautifully:

"Here Prose uses the exaggerated failings of an ideological extremist to expose the wishy-washy but more pervasive moral failures of contemporary America: detached or absent fathers; frantic, overworked mothers; undernurtured children; checkbook philanthropy; media hypocrisy; the shortage of local heroes willing to help the people around them. But for all of that, the novel isn't a sermon or a lecture. Prose doesn't sit in judgment; instead, she holds a mirror up to her characters, reflecting both their imperfections and their charms."

The ending?
I won't say. I was so curious to see how Francine would wrap it up. I was surprised!

The Bronze Horseman by Paullina Simons

Boy, did I want to love this book and I just DIDN'T! Actually, I couldn't wait for it to end, and it went on and on and on. (It took me over 4 weeks to read it; I had to renew a 4 week book! That is not normal for me.)
Anyway, perhaps if I had not recently read an excellent novel about the siege of Leningrad, I might have been more favorably inclined to this one. But Helen Dunmore's "The Siege" was such a great novel about this subject and it did not go on for 635 pages like this one did. And the love story in this novel was nauseating, I thought. I did not have to read pages and pages and pages of kissing, caressing, fondling, etc. to get a thrill.
This book was just too long and to me, too trite.
Can't wait to start my new book. Hopefully, I will enjoy more.

Caribou Island by David Vann

This is a dark and disturbing, but very well written novel of despair, regret, loneliness and unfulfilled dreams. The novel takes place in Alaska, and the locale is just as important as any of the characters. I can't imagine the story taking place anywhere else. Irene and her husband Gary are at a critical impasse in the their 30 year marriage. Gary gets the idea that they have to leave their house with heat and running water and all of the traditional trappings of life, and build a cabin in the woods on Caribou Island. Why Irene goes along with this plan is somewhat of a mystery to me. Is it fear of being alone? Habit? Female subordination? It's hard to say. The book opens with Irene recalling the day she came home from school to find her mother hanging, a suicide. So from the start, we know that Irene has lots of issues. This event colors her life and her relationship with her daughter, Rhoda.
The sea, fishing, and nature play an important role in the book and are used as strong metaphors throughout most of the story. The powerful ending is not surprising, and I won't give it away. Caribou Island is a quick read, with short chapters, told from the perspective of the different characters. It's worth reading, but not light fare, to be sure!

Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese

I waiting for a long time to read this book, and then it took me a really long time to read it. And that is because, I just couldn't REALLY get into it.  It was good, but did not compel me to read everyday. So days would go by and I would not pick it up. Then it would interest me, but my interest would wane again; I was determined to finish it because I did really want to know the whole story. Unfortunately, the whole story was not worth waiting 670 pages for. At least in my opinion.
I did learn a lot about Ethiopia and its culture and history. I liked some of the characters enough, but there was not one character - even Marion - that I was enamored with.
So, I finished it and am ready to move on with my reading.
BTW, I also had a bad experience with a Sara Gruen (Water for Elephants) book, that I didn't even finish. So that is why the big lag in my book blog.  I have to catch up! Went to Library and got a couple things today. Let's see if one, or both, pulls me in!

Just Kids by Patti Smith

I was never a big Patti Smith fan - not that I didn't like her, just that I was not really into music that much when she was hot. I was a new mom and busy with other mundane stuff. But I did enjoy this memior a lot. I learned a lot about Smith and "the scene" that was going on at the time, in music, art and literature. I especially learned a lot about Robert Maplethorpe.
The book is very well written; Smith could have found her fame in literature or poetry rather than music - and probably would have been happier for it at the time. But as this book proves - she did find her fame in writing. This book won a National Book Award for Non Fiction in 2010.

Freedom by Jonathan Franzen

As soon as I finished the book, I was tempted to pick it up and start all over again...to get perspective, to revisit many of the events that don't quite come to full circle on the last pages. I really loved these characters, not necessarily as people I would want to be friends with, but as interesting, richly drawn human beings. Franzen really paints these characters as people who jump out of the text and become someone we can hate, admire, love, and argue or agree with. Walter and Patty, the couple in the novel, are so interesting and different.  The chapters that make up Patty's autobiography were especially enjoyable.
The plot involves politics, ethics, relationship issues, consumerism, sexuality, sustainability, trust, friendship and LOTS of familial stuff. The beginning chapters describing Patty and her parents and siblings was captivating, and of course, troubling.
Anyway, I could ramble about this book but won't. What I will say is that it was difficult at times to get through - not always a page turner, but never ever dull! My opinion of Franzen has changed dramatically; I have The Corrections but never got through it, but now I am ready to give it another go.

The False Friend by Myla Goldberg

I read Goldberg's book, Bee Season, several years ago and enjoyed it, so I grabbed this when I found it in the library. It recounts the story of a pair of 11 year old girls who were best friends twenty-one years ago, but who bullied and tormented other girls who wanted to be part of their clique.  The story is told in the present, from the point of view of Celia, who is now 32 and living in Chicago, and reliving the tragic event that separated the two friends permanently. Djuna, the other half of the duo, disappeared one day in Celia's company in the woods, and Celia has reminiscences of that day that haunt her and force her to return home to tell (or find out) the truth of what really happened.
The book explores how our memories of childhood are sometimes flawed and distorted, how we change as individuals with maturation and how terribly cruel young girls can be to each other.  The book took me back to my adolescence and how I sometimes was bullied or bullied others.  Celia deals too with her aging parents and their inability to express themselves about troubling events in their lives.  Celia does witness a breakthrough one morning when her parents do open up and talk freely about her brother's suicide attempt and Celia's friendship with Djuna (and how they disapproved of her friend.) But then an hour later, it was as if these conversations never took place at all and her parents go back to thier usual selves.
I did enjoy this short novel, especially near the end when Celia really comes to terms with who she was as a youngster. It is a tough topic to tackle and you have to give Myla Goldberg credit for dealing with it in such an honest manner.