Say It Like You Mean It

Speaking American: A History of English in the United States
Richard W. Bailey
History

As an English Lit major, I had to take a linguistics class in college. I was prepared not to enjoy it because I had no interest at all in linguistics, but to my surprise, I ended up loving that class. The study of dialect in America, how many different ways people speak the English language is really, really interesting. So when I saw this book, I immediately grabbed it.

Speaking American is about the history of English in America. Mr. Bailey begins his analysis in Chesapeake Bay before 1650 and ends in Los Angeles, 1950-2000. Over the course of these chapters he takes us all over the US—New Orleans, Philadelphia, and Chicago, just to name a few. He studies and describes the influence of different languages, such as French and Spanish, on English, and explains how they came to be part of our vocabulary today. As with a lot of historical non-fiction books, there’s not much dialogue and certain parts definitely drifted into academia territory (meaning I felt my eyes glaze over once or twice), but I still found the book compelling, especially the parts where he compares how one group of people say one word versus how the other group says it.

Anyone who enjoys linguistics will like this book, as will anyone looking for more insight on how American English came to be.

Power Plays

A Partial History of Lost Causes
Jennifer duBois
Fiction

This is not an uplifting read, people. I should’ve realized that going in, but I didn’t really think about it until I was halfway through and by then I knew I had to finish it.

A Partial History of Lost Causes is about Irina and Aleksandr. The chapters switch back and forth between the two, hers during 2006, his a long time ago and 2006. Aleksandr was a chess champion in Russia when he was young but then politics derailed his career and now he’s trying to run for president. Irina is just about to enter the early stages of Huntington’s disease and goes to Russia to meet Aleksandr, whom her father (who also had Huntington’s) admired and wrote once. After quite a bit of maneuvering, Irina finally gets to meet Aleksandr…and that’s all I’m going to tell you because mentioning anything else would spoil the novel.

I really, really hate when books go back and forth between two POVs. Aleksandr’s chapters were in third person and Irina’s were in first person. It was very jarring switch POVs every chapter. I got used to it by the end, but I never grew to like it. Jennifer duBois is a good writer, I’ll give her that: she managed to get me to read most of the extremely long paragraphs sprinkled throughout the book. The overall tone of Lost Causes was just so depressing, though. I knew it wouldn’t, couldn’t, have a happy ending, but what did happen shocked me. I cannot recall the last time I read a novel set in Russia that didn’t bring me down. No more Russia-based novels for me for awhile.

So I’m not sure I would recommend this. I suppose if you can stand a lot of downer stuff and you enjoy political history, you’d like it.

Behind Closed Doors

The Chaperone
Laura Moriarty
Fiction

Was anyone else read forced to read Edith Wharton in high school? I know she’s considered a classic author, but I just could not get into The Age of Innocence. However, after finishing this book, I feel like I should go back and re-read it, just to pick up some more subtleties I may have missed (Edith and her book play a small but significant role in this novel).

The Chaperone is about Cora, a married woman with two grown sons, living in 1922 Wichita. She learns that the fifteen year-old daughter of an acquaintance needs a chaperone to NYC, where she’ll be taking dance lessons for a month. Cora volunteers because she has a few secrets of her own that she needs help uncovering. And of course, when they get to NYC, complications ensue and real truths are discovered. I’d give more details, but this book is so good, I don't want to spoil anything. You should just go out and pick it up.

Ms. Moriarty is a great writer. Her descriptions and her dialogue flow with such ease I managed to finish the book in two days. Cora is a sympathetic character, even if in the beginning she seems rather prudish and stuck-up. But she has her reasons and as we get to know Cora and learn her secrets, we grow to love her. My only teeny tiny complaint would be how the book slightly drags once Cora leaves New York and returns to Kansas. Everything after that isn’t as good. Oh, well. No book is perfect.

Anyone would enjoy this, but especially history lovers who like reading about the roaring twenties.

Rx for Ungratefulness

Hot Cripple: An Incurable Smart-ass Takes on the Health Care System and Lives to Tell the Tale
Hogan Gorman
Memoir/Health

This book made me grateful I have health insurance, crappy as it may be. It made me grateful I’m healthy. But most of all, it made me want to storm Washington D.C. and demand they give everyone health insurance so no one has to go through the nightmare Ms. Gorman did.

Hot Cripple is the story of Hogan, a wanna-be actress who works as a cocktail waitress in NYC. Because of her unstable jobs, she has no health insurance. No problem, she works out a lot and is really healthy. Then she’s walking to work one day and gets hit by a car. Her head, back, and knee are all messed up. She’s in agony and since she has no insurance, she gets very little help. Ms. Gorman documents her adventures with lawyers, doctors, Social Security workers, not to mention the humbling experience of going on food stamps and Medicaid. Her story is so depressing and really makes you question our country’s terrible healthcare system. But it’s also fascinating (I finished it in one day).

I would recommend Hot Cripple to anyone living in the US because it sheds a big fat light on one of the biggest problems with our country.

Small-Town Shenanigans

Diary of a Mad Fat Girl
Stephanie McAfee
Fiction

Another chick lit novel. What’s going on with me? Well, like I said, sometimes I like to read light, fluffy books that I can zip through in a couple of hours before moving on to the heavy stuff. And zip through Diary of a Mad Fat Girl I did. Unfortunately, that doesn’t mean the book was any good. The dialogue was funny and great, but that was probably the only thing I enjoyed. It’s time for a nitpick post, folks.

Nitpick #1: Stupid Misunderstandings. Our heroine, Ace (yes, she is female), has been in love with Mason since they were both eleven and they’ve had an on-and-off relationship for years. She moves down to Florida to be with him, they’re about to get engaged, she sees him talking with an attractive woman friend in the driveway for an hour, flips out, and then leaves without telling him and moves back home. Then refuses to read or listen to his texts and voicemails. She doesn’t even let the man she’s ‘loved her whole life’ explain. It’s just so stupid and totally unbelievable.

Nitpick #2: Exclamation Points. Way too many. I’ve noticed that most chick lit novels overdo exclamation points, and it’s annoying as hell. The sentence should be strong enough to stand on its own without one. Ms. McAfee’s editor was asleep at the wheel, apparently.

Nitpick #3: Plot Overload. There was so much going on, even now, I’m still not sure exactly what happened. Not only do we have Ace dealing with Mason, but she’s fighting for her job, she’s helping her friend out of an abusive marriage, she’s helping her best friend with family issues, and she’s got a lot of guys going after her. And I’m probably missing a few other important things. There should be a list of characters at the front to keep everyone straight, I swear.

Nitpick #4: The book is called Diary of a Mad Fat Girl and it’s not in a diary format. Chapter One begins with Ace in first person present tense. First person present tense is not diary form. There’s no date and time and no Dear Diary or Dear Journal anywhere to be found. That really bugged me. Why call it Diary of if it’s not even pretending to be a diary?

So, would I recommend Diary of a Mad Fat Girl? If you’re not too picky about your chick lit, I say go for it. Otherwise, I’d stick with Sophie Kinsella.

Pass

In the past week, I've started to read four books and put them down when I realized I had no interest in finishing them. I thought I'd share with you what they are and why I moved on to other titles.

Contents May Have Shifted
Pam Houston
Fiction

I knew going into this one that it was a series of short stories put together as a novel, but I decided I would try anyway (I am not a fan of short stories and avoid them like the plague). After three chapters with the character being in a different part of the world and with different people each time, I realized I couldn't do it.

Perla
Carolina De Robertis
Fiction

I wanted to like this one. The plot was good, I was invested in the main character. But. The author switched back and forth from first person Perla to third person strange man. Also, in the man's POV, quote marks were not used around dialogue, which drives me effing insane! Makes it so hard for me to read. Also, too many long paragraphs. Way too many.

Johnson's Life of London
Boris Johnson
History

I have no idea why I keep getting all these London books all of a sudden. But this one sounded pretty interesting. Sadly, I had to put it down when I realized my eyes were glazing over. It's dense and dull. Maybe I should've just flipped to the end and read the more modern chapters (the book is chronological).

I Am Forbidden
Anouk Markovitas
Fiction

This one has been getting a lot of buzz, but when I picked it up and started reading, I actually heaved a sigh. Too much downer drama. I could tell this book would not have a happy ending, or probably even a happy middle. I mean, you can pretty much tell just by looking at the cover. Maybe I'll be in the mood for this one day. Probably not, though.

Death Becomes You

The Beginner’s Goodbye
Anne Tyler
Fiction

I love Anne Tyler. I fell hard for her in my honors junior English class, when my teacher made us read Dinner at The Homesick Restaurant (great book, go read it now). So I was excited when I saw she had a new title coming out. Her writing style is practically perfect: you can tell she puts so much thought into each and every word. Sadly, I wish the same could’ve been said for the plot of this book.

The Beginner’s Goodbye is about a man named Aaron. At the beginning of the book, he talks about how his wife is back from the dead. Then the timeline jumps to what his life was like right after she died. His sister does her best to help him, as does his co-workers and the nice guy renovating his house (a tree fell on it and basically destroyed it, also killing his wife in the process). By the end of the book we realize that Aaron is…well, I won’t spoil it. Needless to say, I was quite confused for a bit until I realized what was going on.

Much as I liked all the characters (except for the fact that his sister’s name is Nandina, which sounds totally made-up and kind of took me out of the story every time I read it), Anne Tyler has an annoying habit of skipping over the good parts. I really can’t say what she skips over that annoys me because it’s too big a spoiler, but I was peeved when I realized we wouldn’t get to see those scenes.

I would recommend The Beginner’s Goodbye to hardcore Anne Tyler fans, but if you’re new to her, I wouldn’t start out with this one.