Me and Earl and the Dying Girl

Book 36 of my 2015 Reading Challenge
read from June 28 - July 3

Me and Earl and the Dying Girl by Jesse Andrews

Summary (via Goodreads)

Greg Gaines is the last master of high school espionage, able to disappear at will into any social environment. He has only one friend, Earl, and together they spend their time making movies, their own incomprehensible versions of Coppola and Herzog cult classics.
Until Greg’s mother forces him to rekindle his childhood friendship with Rachel.
Rachel has been diagnosed with leukemia—-cue extreme adolescent awkwardness—-but a parental mandate has been issued and must be obeyed. When Rachel stops treatment, Greg and Earl decide the thing to do is to make a film for her, which turns into the Worst Film Ever Made and becomes a turning point in each of their lives.
And all at once Greg must abandon invisibility and stand in the spotlight.

My Opinion

As always, I like to read the book before seeing the movie.  I loved the book but I also think it may be even better as a movie.  It's already written in the screenplay format, plus the visuals of the films they describe would add to the experience as well.

**Edit: I saw the movie.  I liked it but it was not at all what I expected...completely different experience from reading the book.

It was definitely a "just one more chapter...oh look I stayed up all night reading" book.  It's so awkward it's painful and realistic.  I read with a lump in my throat but not for the reason the title would suggest; it gave me an unexpected bad stinging in my armpits (book reference).

I learned new swear words as well - Fuckbiscuit and Fuckburglar.

A Few Quotes from the Book

"...here's the thing: I learned absolutely nothing from Rachel's leukemia. In fact, I probably became stupider about life because of the whole thing...This book contains precisely zero Important Life Lessons, or Little-Known Facts About Love, or sappy tear-jerking Moments When We Knew We Had Left Our Childhood Behind For Good, or whatever."

"My life had reached its highest point. I had no way of knowing that as soon as Mom walked in, the prime of my life was over. It had lasted about eight hours."

"Just to summarize: I lurched into Rachel's room like a zombie, freaking her out, then went in for a fist pound. It is impossible to be less smooth than Greg S. Gaines."

"I don't want to sound condescending, so I'm not going to say anything else, except that it is literally impossible to imagine a thing dumber than sports."

How to Be a Husband

Book 35 of my 2015 Reading Challenge

read from June 28 - July 2

How to Be a Husband by Tim Dowling

Summary (via the book jacket)

While this book is indeed titled How to Be a Husband, please do not mistake it for a self-help book. Tim Dowling - columnist for The Guardian, husband, father of three, a person who once got into a shark cage for money - does not purport to have any pearls of wisdom about wedded life. What he does have is more than twenty years of marriage experience, and plenty of hilarious advice for what not to do in almost every conjugal situation.

With the sharp wit that makes his Guardian columns a must-read, Dowling explores what it means to be a good husband in the twenty-first century. The bar has been raised dramatically in the last few decades; back in the day, every time you went out for cigarettes, it was simply expected you came back. Now, every time you're sent out for espresso pods and tampons, it is expected you come back with the right sort. And being a father doesn't seem to command much innate respect these days, either. When his first child was born, Dowling imagined himself eliciting a natural awe as the distant, authoritative figurehead; he did not anticipate a child hacking his Twitter account to post heartfelt admissions of loserdom like "Hi, I suck at everything I try in life."

Still, two decades of wedded bliss is nothing to sneeze at, particularly from a couple who agreed to get married with the resigned determination of two people plotting to bury a body in the woods. How to Be a Husband is a wickedly funny guide to surviving the era of "The End of Men" (hint: it involves DIY) and an unexpectedly poignant memoir about love, marriage, and staying together until death doth you part.

My Opinion

He's a good columnist and I would recommend reading this book in short spurts.  When I was near the end I finished it in a longer sitting and it got a little dull (a common issue for me when reading a book of someone's short stories or essays).  It could've also been the topic at the end - the chapter on feminism vs masculism veered off strangely to me.

I wavered between 3 and 4 stars but went with 4 because I read some parts aloud to Kevin and we both enjoyed it.

A Few Quotes from the Book

"My successful marriage is built of mistakes. It may be founded on love, trust, and a shared sense of purpose, but it runs on a steady diet of cowardice, impatience, ill-advised remarks, and low cunning. But also: apologies, belated expressions of gratitude, and frequent appeals for calm."

"Like many men, my biggest contribution to housework reduction is that I've managed to lower the bar for cleanliness."

"It is one of the luxuries of long-term marital commitment that you can buy DIY materials without having a specific project in mind. Each purchase is a tiny act of faith that says, "I will still be here when whatever this thing is supposed to fix finally breaks"."

"There is no good rejoinder to the exclamation, "I am NOT your mother!" but among the especially not good ones is "Then stop buying me ugly sweaters!" Take my word for it."

"Young men: your talent for being able to get sex over and done with really quickly is probably not much prized at the moment, but it will come in handy down the road, so don't forget how. It may be hard to believe at your age, but one day you'll reach a stage in your relationship when "Honestly - you'll hardly know I was here" becomes a surprisingly successful chat-up line, especially if your spouse knows you can deliver on the promise."

The Year of Reading Dangerously

Book 34 of my 2015 Reading Challenge

read from June 18 - 28

The Year of Reading Dangerously: How Fifty Great Books (and Two Not-So-Great Ones) Saved My Life by Andy Miller

Summary (via Goodreads)

A working father whose life no longer feels like his own discovers the transforming powers of great (and downright terrible) literature in this laugh-out-loud memoir.
Andy Miller had a job he quite liked, a family he loved, and no time at all for reading. Or so he kept telling himself. But, no matter how busy or tired he was, something kept niggling at him. Books. Books he'd always wanted to read. Books he'd said he'd read that he actually hadn't. Books that whispered the promise of escape from the daily grind. And so, with the turn of a page, Andy began a year of reading that was to transform his life completely.
This book is Andy's inspirational and very funny account of his expedition through literature: classic, cult, and everything in between. Beginning with a copy of Bulgakov's Master and Margarita that he happens to find one day in a bookstore, he embarks on a literary odyssey. From Middlemarch to Anna Karenina to A Confederacy of Dunces, this is a heartfelt, humorous, and honest examination of what it means to be a reader, and a witty and insightful journey of discovery and soul-searching that celebrates the abiding miracle of the book and the power of reading.

My Opinion

One of my rare one-star ratings.  Normally I would take the notes I jot down as I'm reading and try to edit and organize them into common themes/complete thoughts.  But I don't want to spend any more time on this book so here are my random reactions (can you pinpoint the moment in the book where I just gave up???)...

• The intro warns the book has spoilers for the books mentioned, good to know.
• Good explanation of how and why books were chosen for his list, as well as the suggestion to make your own list instead of responding with "why wasn't..." or "how could you include...".
• Will I find out what makes it reading dangerously?
• How strange, he doesn't even talk about all the books he reads.  And the title isn't correct since he only read one not-so-great one.  Instead of suggesting we scratch out the 'Two' in the title and replace it with 'One', why not just change your title?
• I'm very nervous about what I'm getting into.  But wait, don't be scared off by the intro; it's settling into a nicer writing style even though I still have no idea what this is about.
• For not liking Dan Brown, he talks about him A LOT.
• Seriously, more little asides about Dan Brown.  Put him out of your mind, it's better for your well-being.
• Maybe I should stop taking notes, I don't want to try to make sense of this any more.
• I like the part about his childhood.
• He looks down on blogs but he has one?
• It's not his writing style, it's this book.  It's pointless.
• So he suspended his blog while reading these books so he could enjoy without critiquing them but now he's writing a book reviewing them?
• Oh wait, he mentions a few times how stupid bloggers are for writing for free.  So he's found a way to get paid for essentially what his blog was providing for free.
• The number of days it took me to read this isn't accurate because most of that time was me convincing myself to just finish it and get it over with.
• There's a book writing style only men enjoy?  "Like many women, I suspect, Tina does not have much time for the Contradictatorial School. It does seem to be a style of writing that is practised and enjoyed almost exclusively by men, a fact which disappoints me."  He made that term up to describe the writing style that he and a few other authors he mentioned use.
• The following suggested discussion question for reading groups: "Did you understand what Andy Miller was trying to achieve in The Year of Reading Dangerously? If not, whose fault is that? Yours or his?"  Mine, obviously.  As a woman and a book blogger, I'm surprised I could even figure out how to open the book...I so stoopid.

A Few Quotes from the Book

I wrote some page numbers down to quote from as I usually do, but no.  I'm not opening the book again.

Born with Teeth

Book 33 of my 2015 Reading Challenge

read from June 21 - 24

Born with Teeth by Kate Mulgrew

Summary (via Goodreads)

Raised by unconventional Irish Catholics who knew "how to drink, how to dance, how to talk, and how to stir up the devil," Kate Mulgrew grew up with poetry and drama in her bones. But in her mother, a would-be artist burdened by the endless arrival of new babies, young Kate saw the consequences of a dream deferred. Determined to pursue her own no matter the cost, at 18 she left her small Midwestern town for New York, where, studying with the legendary Stella Adler, she learned the lesson that would define her as an actress: "Use it," Adler told her. Whatever disappointment, pain, or anger life throws in your path, channel it into the work.
It was a lesson she would need. At twenty-two, just as her career was taking off, she became pregnant and gave birth to a daughter. Having already signed the adoption papers, she was allowed only a fleeting glimpse of her child. As her star continued to rise, her life became increasingly demanding and fulfilling, a whirlwind of passionate love affairs, life-saving friendships, and bone-crunching work. Through it all, Mulgrew remained haunted by the loss of her daughter, until, two decades later, she found the courage to face the past and step into the most challenging role of her life, both on and off screen.
We know Kate Mulgrew for the strong women she's played--Captain Janeway on Star Trek; the tough-as-nails "Red" on Orange is the New Black. Now, we meet the most inspiring and memorable character of all: herself. By turns irreverent and soulful, laugh-out-loud funny and heart-piercingly sad, Born With Teeth is the breathtaking memoir of a woman who dares to live life to the fullest, on her own terms. 

My Opinion

The pages turned easily and quickly.  Kate is an excellent storyteller.  Some parts are tinged with bitterness, some are told in snips and pieces to leave the reader to read between the lines, and almost all paint herself in a favorable light (although she briefly touches on it in toward the end, I imagine her sons had to have been more affected by her work/lifestyle than she acknowledges).

Giving her baby up for adoption was a loss she felt throughout her life but she tried to get on as best she could, and I'm glad she found a happy ending.

The ending of the book was a bit abrupt.  I had to look up for my own curiosity if she ended up with Tim since the picture made it appear that she did but he wasn't listed in the acknowledgements.

On a personal note, the story about her character Kathryn Janeway originally being named Elizabeth made me smile.  My husband picked the name Katherine for our oldest daughter and he's always told her she was named for the strong female character (he's a sci-fi fan).  I don't know if he's teasing her or if that's really how he came upon the name, but after reading that I told Katie she could've been an Elizabeth instead (like a true fan, Kevin wasn't surprised when I told him because he already knew that fun fact).

A Few Quotes from the Book

"But Catholic girls from good families don't miss chances; they dodge bullets and slowly relinquish their dreams. They go to Mass and wait for a miracle and aren't terribly surprised when it arrives in the shape of a handsome young man with modest ambition, dry wit, and honorable intentions."

" "I'm scared, B," I said. "There doesn't seem to be any way out."

   "No," Beth corrected me, "there are, in fact, several ways out, but all of them are painful. You have to know your own tolerance for pain, what you can endure, what you know you can live with, and what you can't live without." "

"Actresses...Madly in the love with the child. Madly in love with the craft. Trying desperately to forge an alliance between the two, and constantly failing. If I were a man, I said to myself, none of this would be in question. My children would respect me, my wife would honor me, and everyone would exalt the work. But turn the knife just slightly to the left, and what you have is a harried woman sneaking out before dawn, cracking the whip for sixteen hours on a soundstage, creeping back home under cover of night, forever explaining, forever apologizing, forever in conflict."

Dept. of Speculation

Book 32 of my 2015 Reading Challenge

read from June 17 - 21

Dept. of Speculation by Jenny Offill

Summary (via the book jacket)

In the beginning, it was easy to imagine their future. They were young and giddy, sure of themselves and their love for each other. "Dept. of Speculation" was their code name for all the thrilling uncertainties that lay ahead. Then they got married, had a child, and navigated the familiar calamities of family life - a colicky baby, a faltering relationship, stalled ambitions.

When their marriage reaches a sudden breaking point, the wife tries to retrace the steps that have led them to this place, evoking everyone from Kafka to the Stoics to doomed Russian cosmonauts as she analyzes what is lost and what remains. In language that shimmers with rage and longing and wit, Offill has created a brilliantly suspenseful love story - a novel to read in one sitting, even as its piercing meditations linger long after the last page.

My Opinion

I can't sum up this book at all but it was compulsively readable.  Without the description, I would have had no idea about the Dept. of Speculation until nearly the end.

It was written in that frantic, desperate way when people have words pouring out of them and need to get it out, like a true journal.  It was a very unique writing style that kept me interested.

I wasn't ready for the book to end, both because of the writing style and because I wanted more of the story.  I would definitely read this author again.

A Few Quotes from the Book

"That one was so beautiful I used to watch him sleep. If I had to sum up what he did to me, I'd say it was this: he made me sing along to all the bad songs on the radio. Both when he loved me and when he didn't."

"Nothing is better for a man than a good wife, and no horror matches a bad one."

"Advice for wives circa 1896: The indiscriminate reading of novels is one of the most injurious habits to which a married woman can be subject. Besides the false views of human nature it will impart...it produces an indifference to the performance of domestic duties, and contempt for ordinary realities."

"A few nights later , I secretly hope that I might be a genius. Why else can no amount of sleeping pills fell my brain? But in the morning my daughter asks me what a cloud is and I cannot say."

"Three things no one has ever said about me:

  You make it look so easy.

  You are very mysterious.

  You need to take yourself more seriously."

"What the rabbi said: Three things have a flavor of the world to come: the Sabbath, the sun, and married love."

Going Off Script

Book 31 of my 2015 Reading Challenge

read from May 26 - June 18

Going Off Script by Giuliana Rancic

Summary (via Goodreads)

Giuliana Rancic is best known for interviewing A-listers on the red carpet and E! News, skewering their shocking style choices on Fashion Police, and giving viewers a front row seat to her marriage and family life on her reality show, Giuliana & Bill. What fans may not know is that she learned English from Eddie Murphy, got her American citizenship so she could be a beauty queen, and used to have a bad habit of stealing cars for fun.
Giuliana bares this and so much more in her hilarious, warm, and inspiring memoir, Going Off Script. From a young age she dreamed of being a TV anchorwoman but, because of her inclination toward mischief and away from schoolwork, her path to her dream job was far from straight. After a fateful (and mortifying) encounter with the late Senator Ted Kennedy, she learned that Hollywood news was where she belonged. Thankfully for readers, this epiphany led her to a bounty of LA misadventures (featuring notables such as Johnny Depp, Leonardo DiCaprio, and Russell Crowe) and an entertaining behind-the-scenes perspective on what our favorite celebrities are really like.
In spite of her glamorous Hollywood life, however, Giuliana could not escape some rockier times, including her battles with infertility and breast cancer. Here, for the first time, she reveals the whole truth behind her well-publicized struggles, and the highly controversial decisions she had to make. And, of course, at the heart of it all are the two loves of her life who keep her strong through everything, her husband Bill and her son, Duke.
Candid, funny, and poignant, Going Off Script is an autobiography that proves you don’t always have to follow the rules to get the life you’ve always dreamed of. 

My Opinion

I liked that it was real and actually embarrassing, not the 'oh no I fell down once aren't I a complete mess?' stories some actresses write.  She was funny too.  However, it was weird to me that her profession is to dig into celebrities' lives but she doesn't go very deep into her own; it almost felt detached, like she was reporting on someone else as opposed to actually living it.

Her childhood was interesting but the book really picked up for me when her life changed.  Whether that's because of a shift in her or because that's when I started knowing her and could picture the situations in my mind, I'm not sure.   It could also be because things that were funny to her about her childhood fell flat or sounded mean.  I would have the same issue describing my childhood because my family has a very warped sense of humor and used it to get through some tough situations.  If I told someone about the tricks we would play on my mom after she had her stroke, such as adjusting the height on her cane, we would sound like psychopaths even though I promise my mom found it funny.  So I'm not judging but am pointing it out because I could see other people being put off by some of the anecdotes.

A Few Quotes from the Book

"Weirdly enough, for all my insecurity and self-consciousness, still burning inside me was that same stubborn conviction I'd had since the age of seven, that I was meant to be on camera. I wanted everyone to look at me; I just didn't want anyone to see me."

"Three days in, I had to say things were going pretty well in L.A.: I was technically homeless but no longer entirely friendless, Johnny Depp had admired my body, sort of, and I was not yet a prostitute."

"I became the go-to girl once the producers realized that I was game for just about anything, whether it was letting Hulk Hogan pick me up and spin me around or challenging Neil Patrick Harris to an impromptu juggling contest at the SAG awards. (NPH won, but I'm self-taught and he obviously received professional training at an elite clown college or something.)"

"Battling cancer and becoming a mother at the same time changed not only how I looked at the world, but how I moved through it. There wasn't room in my life anymore for cynicism or selfishness."

Billy Joel

Book 30 of my 2015 Reading Challenge

read from April 9 - June 17

I received a copy of this book via Blogging for Books and would like to thank the author and/or publisher for the opportunity to read and honestly review it.

Billy Joel by Fred Schruers

Summary (via Goodreads)

In Billy Joel, acclaimed music journalist Fred Schruers draws upon more than one hundred hours of exclusive interviews with Joel to present an unprecedented look at the life, career, and legacy of the pint-sized kid from Long Island who became a rock icon.
Exhibiting unparalleled intimate knowledge, Schruers chronicles Joel’s rise to the top of the charts, from his working-class origins in Levittown and early days spent in boxing rings and sweaty clubs to his monumental success in the seventies and eighties. He also explores Joel’s creative transformation in the nineties, his dream performance with Paul McCartney at Shea Stadium in 2008, and beyond.
Along the way, Schruers reveals the stories behind all the key events and relationships—including Joel’s high-profile marriages and legal battles—that defined his path to stardom and inspired his signature songs, such as “Piano Man,” “Scenes from an Italian Restaurant,” “New York State of Mind,” and “She’s Always a Woman.” Throughout, he captures the spirit of a restless artist determined to break through by sharing, in his deeply personal lyrics, the dreams and heartbreaks of suburban American life.
Comprehensive, vibrantly written, and filled with Joel’s memories and reflections—as well as those of the family, friends, and band members who have formed his inner circle, including Christie Brinkley, Alexa Ray Joel, Jon Small, and Steve Cohen—this is the definitive account of a beloved rock star’s epic American journey.

My Opinion

There were some rumors I'd heard after receiving this book about Billy Joel stopping his cooperation with the author after some disagreements.  I don't know if the rumors are accurate but toward the end of the book he does quote Billy Joel's interview in a magazine, saying he "depicted the cancellation of his autobiography for fear it was being steered to "more of the sex and wives and girlfriends and drinking and divorce and the depression" --topics the interview then pursued"; whether that's referring to this book or not, I don't know.  

The author says that he spent over one hundred hours interviewing Joel personally, spanning from 2008 through 2014, as well another another hundred hours interviewing those close to him.  I would believe it because there is a lot of information in this book but unfortunately, it read to me like a book report.  There wasn't much emotion and nothing drew me in.  The long timespan spent working on the book caused a little confusion for me as well when someone that I knew to be deceased was interviewed and quoted; I drew my own conclusion that the interview must have taken place toward the beginning of his research but that wasn't made clear in the reading.

At the end of the day, I don't feel like anything new was shared that I couldn't have learned reading the numerous articles published about Billy Joel over the years.

A Few Quotes from the Book

"Who am I? I don't know anything about myself because I don't have a father to let me know what I'm supposed to be like. In some ways, this can free you up - you can be anything you want, go in any direction. But in other ways, you may not feel you ever have a center."

"...I was excruciatingly shy when I was a kid, up until my midteens. That's when I realized that I could make my piano talk for me. The piano spoke what I was feeling."

"My ethic in writing songs throughout that era was always to be talking about people, whether it's a love song, a song about a relationship, or a friend, or a barfly - it's always got to be about a particular person. If you try to write for an audience or to a concept, I don't think you're really writing for anybody. But if you're writing for a specific person and a specific situation, a lot of people might be able to identify with that."

"I think people have this idea that Billy Joel is set in concrete. They either like my stuff or they don't like my stuff. They either like me or they don't like me. I don't think they really know a lot about what I can do. Maybe I don't even know anymore what we can do, what we can't do. But I suspect there's a lot more that I can do."