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J.K. Rowling is BACK!

27 Sep

Well, I guess she was never really gone.  But she has released her first novel since the final book in the Harry Potter series was published in 2007.  It hit shelves (and e-readers) today.

Image via digitopoly.com

I cannot believe it’s been five years since the last Harry Potter book came out!  I remember I was on vacation in Jamaica with my family when the big day arrived.  Luckily, a shipment of the coveted final novel had been delivered to our resort’s gift shop.  I payed twice as much as I would have in the States and spent the rest of my vacation buried in the battle between HP and Voldemort.

Anyway, The Casual Vacancy is already number one on Amazon, to no one’s surprise.  Her first adult novel is described as “blackly comic, thought-provoking and constantly surprising.”  It follows drama in a small British town called Pagford after the death of a town councilman.

From Amazon.com:

Pagford is, seemingly, an English idyll, with a cobbled market square and an ancient abbey, but what lies behind the pretty façade is a town at war. Rich at war with poor, teenagers at war with their parents, wives at war with their husbands, teachers at war with their pupils… Pagford is not what it first seems.

I can’t wait to read this book, but I do wonder if it’s at all possible for it to live up to the hype.  I mean, the woman created one of the most beloved children’s book series of all time.  But as the Harry Potter books progressed, they got darker.  In some cases I think she toed the line of staying in the “young adult” category towards the end.  I am anxious to see what she does in the realm of adult literature.

Image via amazon.com

And if it flops… really… she’s still J.K. Rowling.

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Dish Read: Off Balance

12 Sep

It did not take me long to finish Dominique Moceanu’s memoir, “Off Balance.”

Image via abcnews.com

Honest, and sometimes heart-breaking, Moceanu takes us through two story lines in her life:  Her struggles and triumphs in the world of gymnastics, and discovering a sister her parents gave up for adoption at birth.

This book tells the story of Dominique’s Romanian family and her journey to become part of the gold-winning Magnificent Seven in the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta.

Image via abcnews.com

Dominique tells of verbal, physical and emotional abuse from her father.  Eerily similar was the abuse she endured from world-renowned gymnastics coach, Bela Karolyi.  He, too, was Romanian.  While he was an extremely tough coach, he held a tighter grip on Dominique compared to the other girls he coached because of her background and her family.

Image via latimesblogs.latimes.com

He kept her separated from the rest of the girls during practice and during travel.  She describes living in fear, constantly thinking about food but also being terrified of the scale.  He would weigh her in front of the others and announce her weight out loud.  (Shudder.)

The way she describes his treatment was heart-breaking.  He pushed his athletes to the point of injury, overtraining them and then admonishing them when they made mistakes out of exhaustion. Even though Dominique contributed to the team’s win at the Olympics, her joy was overshadowed by the mistake she made on vault.  Nevermind the near perfect bar, beam and floor routines.  Her father’s first words to her when he saw her with a gold medal around her neck where: “What happened on your vaults?”

Throughout the book she alternates between gymnastics and the discovery of her sister, Jennifer.  Jennifer was given up for adoption at birth because – wait for it – she was born without legs.  The Moceanu’s feared they would not be able to afford her medical treatment.  Despite her disability, Jennifer loved sports… especially gymnastics.  Because she looked so much like Dominique, she rooted for her during the Olympics and followed her career… never knowing until years later that she was her sister.

No doubt these two are sisters!  (Image via nydailynews.com)

Jennifer is now a gymnast/acrobat herself!  The story is truly amazing.

After I finished the book I discovered Dominique Moceanu has co-written a series of children’s books: the Go-for-Gold Gymnastics Series.

Image via barnesandnoble.com

Overall I really enjoyed Off Balance.  I’ve always been intrigued by the world of gymnastics and this was an interesting (though sometimes disturbing) inside peak.  I’ve read several reviews which were very critical of the writing, but I wasn’t all that put off by it.  She is an athlete telling her side of the story, who now is on a mission to make gymnastics a positive experience for the next generation of young athletes.  It makes for a quick and compelling read, and a new perspective on a sport I’ve watched for years.

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Dish Read: Paterno

6 Sep

Image via joeposnanski.com

I began the book, “Paterno” by Joe Posnanski half expecting not to finish it.  I have no personal connections to Penn State.  I am not particularly fond of college football… or any football for that matter.  (I will jump on the bandwagon in the case of an Eagles Superbowl appearance, but that’s about it.)

Over the past 10 months I’ve heard/read/wrote about as much Penn State/Jerry Sandusky coverage as I can stomach.  I know it’s still not over.

But I was still intrigued when this biography was released.  This former senior writer for Sports Illustrated was invited to follow Joe Paterno, considered to be a god among men in State College, in his final season.  His mission: to tell the story of a college football legend.

Then, in November, it happened.

Jerry Sandusky was indicted and charged with sexually abusing ten boys, some of them on Penn State’s campus.  Posnanski stayed, giving us an inside look at what it was like in the Paterno household during Joe Pa’s final months.  I was intrigued.

At the beginning of the book, Posnanski dangles a carrot for the reader:

“Why didn’t he follow up?” asks Guido D’Elia, Paterno’s close friend and public relations advisor. “Find the answer to that and you’ll have the story.”

Well, that question was never answered, leaving the reader (at least this one) unfulfilled at the end of the book.

Paterno said in public – and in the book – he wished he had done more.  At one point, the coaching legend asked Posnanski what he thought.

Posnanski writes: “I told him that I thought he should have done more when he was told about Jerry Sandusky showering with a boy. I had heard what he had said about not understanding the severity, not knowing much about child molestation, not having Sandusky as an employee. But, I said: ‘You are Joe Paterno. Right or wrong, people expect more from you.’ ”

The book did give me a greater understanding of why Paterno was so loved on campus.  His seemingly squeaky clean reputation, his devotion to education as well as football, his display of loyalty when he turned down the Patriots head coach position.

While there was a LOT of football in the book, it was written so non-football fans could understand it.  I liked the underdog stories.  I enjoyed the anecdotes from former players.  Did it make me feel sorry for Joe Pa?  No.

The book made it clear that Paterno should have retired years before he died.  He needed to be more in tune with what was happening on and off the football field.  An entire college community revered and idolized him.  Paterno, among others, did not do enough.  All the greatness described in “Paterno” only makes his fall from grace seem that much farther.

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Dish Read: Gone Girl

27 Aug

Put this on your MUST READ list. (Image via usatoday.com)

Calling this book a “page turner” doesn’t really cut it.  I read this book in about 2.5 days.  By the time I finished Gillian Flynn’s 419 page thriller my sink was full of dirty dishes, the laundry pile was overflowing (more than usual) and on one of those days I was almost late to work because “I know I should have left five minutes ago but I just need to finish this chapter!!!”

I was obsessed.  I heard buzz about this novel as one of the summer’s hottest reads, but I finally picked it up after I read Mama Dish’s rave review.  (You can read it, too – here!)  Mama Dish is usually NOT one for psychological thrillers and who-dunnit murder mysteries.  So when she wrote so glowingly about it, I had to check it out.  Because I AM one for psychological thrillers and who-dunnit murder mysteries!

As Mama Dish said, this is a tricky review to write because I don’t want to give away too much!  The book opens on Amy and Nick Dunne’s fifth wedding anniversary.  Amy has gone missing.  Overturned and broken furniture… signs of a struggle… are found in their home.  Nick quickly becomes the prime suspect.  So Nick begins his own investigation of sorts.  Because it is their anniversary, Amy has left behind her yearly treasure hunt for her husband, leading to his gift.  Nick knows he has to figure out her clues as he has done every year… especially this time.

The story is told from two points of view: Nick narrates beginning the day Amy goes missing.  Amy narrates through diary entries documenting the couple’s tumultuous relationship leading up to her disappearance.  Along the way, the reader finds out some dark and disturbing things about Nick and Amy’s marriage.

Another fun twist: a co-worker and I were reading this book at the same time.  So I would come into work and we would say things like, “I can’t believe blah blah blah happened!” or “I totally did NOT see blah blah blah coming!” or, “I was up until 2:00 a.m. reading this darn book!”

Gone Girl is the best book I’ve read in a long time.  It’s also one of the most disturbing books I’ve ever read.  On the bright side, this novel sets the marriage bar pretty low.  So by Nick and Amy Dunne’s standards, Mr. Dish and I are doing pretty darn good!

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Top Five Things I Liked About High Fidelity

22 Aug

This is one of those, “I can’t BELIEVE you’ve never seen that!” movies.  No one has ever made me watch it and I admit it – I never really knew what it was about.  So this weekend, Mr. Dish finally made me watch it.  I’m so glad he did!  In honor of one of the movie’s themes, here’s a Top Five list from yours truly!

Image via forbookssake.net

1.  It’s full of lists.  I love lists!  I constantly have some kind of ongoing shopping or to-do list in my iPhone.  I also enjoy writing list blog entries.  Rob’s lists also made for great conversation and reflection.  It was kind of fun running through our own “Top Five Most Epic Break-ups”… now that they’re over!

2. It’s about relationships from a guy’s perspective.  Girls are always trying to get into guys’ heads.  This movie didn’t just tell the story of a break-up, it dissected it down to the very emotional baggage that was picked up when Rob was a teenager!  After all the times I’ve thought to myself, “UGH!  What was he THINKING?” …watching this movie felt like a guilty pleasure.

3. Jack Black.  

Image via sallyy13.wordpress.com

He did not disappoint as the plucky sidekick just waiting to throw out a zinger.  Hilarious.  Sure, he’s had some flops over the years.  But 9 times out of 10, adding Jack Black to a movie only makes it better. (Honorable mentions go to Catherine Zeta-Jones and Lisa Bonet.)

4.  I didn’t like Laura.  I know, at first this was a bad thing.  When the movie ended, I said to Mr. Dish, “But I don’t like her!  I don’t want him to end up with her!”

One look at those BANGS and I knew I was going to have an issue with this girl. (Image via rottentomatoes.com)

Rob was made out to be a doormat, and I didn’t like it.  After some discussion, though, I realized that it made the scenario more real.  They both did some stupid things to break the relationship and in the end they were both willing to do the work to repair it.  (Even though I still get the heebie jeebies when I think about her running off with Ian.  EW!)  If she was Little Miss Perfect, it would have been a no-brainer.  But he wasn’t exactly Mr. Perfect either.

5.  It’s a book.  By Nick Hornby.  It may very well be a Dish Read in the near future!

Image via amazon.com

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Dish Read: Carry the One

14 Aug

Image via Goodreads.com

“Carry the One,” by Carol Anshaw has one of the most epic opening chapters of a novel I’ve ever read.  At the end of Chapter 1 I sat up in my beach chair, turned to Mr. Dish and said, “Listen to what JUST happened in this book!”

It begins at a wedding.  Carmen gets married, and her brother and sister are each “enjoying” the festivities in their own way.  At the end of the night, some of the guests pile into a car, with a driver who has no business being behind the wheel.  Their car hits a 10-year-old girl, killing her.

The book follows the lives of the characters after the accident.  Anshaw takes us through the ups and downs with Carmen, her sister, Alice, and her brother, Nick.

Alice is an artist and expresses her grief and guilt through her paintings in a haunting and beautiful way.  The troubled artist seems to be the glue that holds the family together.

“Because of the accident,” Alice observes, “we’re not just separate numbers. When you add us up, you always have to carry the one.”

Carmen is the responsible one, the headstrong social activist, the mother, the one who settles for a lack-luster marriage.  She has little tolerance for her drug-addict brother.

Nick goes through periods of sobriety, but always turns back to drugs and alcohol when things don’t go his way.  Alice is the one who is there to pick him up, dust him off, and ship him off to rehab.  Carmen is only there for him because she loves her sister.

This book took me a while to finish but I kept going back for more because I loved the characters so much.  Anshaw gives the reader a clear and honest look at what the accident did to this family.  The writing was concise and compelling.

My only complaint was the end.  I guess I felt it was a little anticlimactic, in contrast with the mile-a-minute beginning.  But maybe that’s what Anshaw was going for in leaving the book somewhat open-ended.  The characters spent a lifetime repenting for one mistake, without ever feeling their debt was truly repaid.

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Dish Read: Rescue

26 Jun

Thanks to my next door neighbor at work, I was able to bust through my reading slump this weekend.  About  a week ago, I reported for duty and discovered this book on my desk:

Image via Tower.com

I finished Rescue, by Anita Shreve in a little more than two days.  I read most of it on the beach.  It’s about an EMT, Peter Webster, who falls in love with a patient, Sheila Arsenault.  She is a wreckloose, who crashes her car while driving under the influence.  (I know.  So romantic.)  Their whirlwind romance takes a sudden turn toward commitment and sobriety when she becomes pregnant.  But in the end, her alcoholism is a stronger force than her new family.  She leaves, and their daughter, Rowan, stays with her father. 

Fast forward 18 years later, and Rowan is about to graduate from high school.  She’s also starting to display some troubling teenaged behavior that Peter worries could be dangerous.  The question becomes… will finding Sheila help Rowan?  Is it even possible?  Is Rowan destined to follow in her mother’s footsteps?

This is my third Anita Shreve novel.  I loved The Pilot’s Wife and I also really liked Testimony.  I thought both were very thought-provoking novels, and forced the reader to ask the question, “What would I do in this situation?”  While I zoomed through Rescue, it didn’t give me the same stimulation.  It was an emotional love story.  Whether it’s a relationship or something else, I think we can all relate to wanting something we know is wrong, or bad for us.  I guess the lesson here is that it’s never too late to try to set things right, no matter how many years have passed.  But when I finished the book I guess I was hoping for some more insight.  While the book was narrated from Peter’s point of view, I wanted more from Sheila and Rowan. 

Bottom line: It’s a quick and enjoyable read, but it’s not Shreve’s best work.

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Dish Read: I NEED ONE!

20 Jun

As you may have noticed, the Dish Reads have been absent as of late.  I started a book about a month ago called “Serena,” by Ron Rash.

Image via rusoffangency.com

This one caught my attention because it’s being made into a movie staring two of my favorite people: Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence.  (Mr Dish and I both have crushes on Bradley Cooper… and Jennifer Lawrence.)

Double swoon! (Image via insidemovies.ew.com)

It’s about a newlywed couple who travel to North Carolina in the 1920′s to start a timber empire.  He’s a successful businessman and she’s a strong-willed, independent woman with a haunted past, who also comes from a background in cutting and selling timber.  Scandal ensues in the wilderness.  (After her role in “Winter’s Bone,” Mama Dish says Lawrence “is in danger of being type cast as the tough Appalachian chick!”)

Here’s the problem.  I started the book about a month ago, I’m a few chapters in, and I haven’t touched my Kindle in weeks.  I just can’t bring myself to go back push through it.  The writing isn’t grabbing me, too many characters were introduced too quickly, and I don’t feel a real connection to any of those characters.  It’s been a month, and I’m calling it.  I’m walking away.  Sorry, Serena.

So the search for my next Dish Read has begun, especially since I’m going to the beach this weekend!  (Is it Friday yet?  No?  How about now?)  Laying on a blanket in the sand with the sun overhead listening to the ocean is my nirvana.  Just give me a book and a bottle of sunscreen and I’m good for the day.

My deskmate gave me a few suggestions, which I have put on my to-read list.  (“Rescue,” by Anita Shreve and “Carry the One” by Carol Anshaw.)  But I’m always looking for a good book, especially a good beach read!  Who’s got one?

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Dish Read: Between a Rock and a Hard Place

28 Apr

I’ve been meaning to read this book for quite some time.  Exactly nine years after the incident happened, I finally read Aron Ralston’s account of his brush with death in 2003.

Image via amazon.com

If Aron Ralston’s name or face doesn’t seem familiar, his story probably will: the hiker who was trapped in a canyon for six days, who cut his own arm off to survive. (“Oooooh, that guy!”)

The experienced outdoorsman was hiking through a slot canyon in a remote section of Utah when an 800 pound boulder fell on him, pinning his arm against the canyon wall.  He would be stuck there for six days… from Saturday until Thursday… until he commits the ultimate act of desperation to save his own life.

The book is an interesting mix of the incident itself and his past experiences in mountain climbing.  At first, I got annoyed as the chapters would jump back and forth between his days in the canyon and another previous (usually dangerous) mountain experience.  I would think, as another non-stuck-in-the-canyon chapter began… “I just want to find out what happens!  Get to the good part already!”  (Alright, I know I knew what happened to him in the end all along.  But I still wanted to hear the juicy stuff straight from the horse’s mouth.)

But once I really got deep into it, I was glad I knew more about his background.  With each risk Ralston took I understood him more.  As I read about each one of these risky solo 14,000 foot mountain climbs (in the middle of winter!) I would think, “WHY is he doing this alone!?!?  It’s so dangerous!”  His recklessness was actually kind of irritating.

But then as he sat there, dehydrated and dying in the canyon, having told NO ONE where he was going or for how long… he said what I had been thinking the whole time:

“I go out looking for adventure and risk, so I can feel alive. But I go out by myself, and I don’t tell someone where I’m going that’s just dumb. If someone knew, if I’d been with someone else, there would probably already be help on the way. Dumb, dumb, dumb.”

He was changed and humbled by the experience.  One of the more remarkable things about this whole ordeal was that he had a video camera with him, and essentially recorded his last will and testament.  He said his good-byes, his I love you’s, his wishes for cremation and where to spread the ashes.

The amputation was gruesome, but explained in amazing detail that somehow made it seem less barbaric.  I suppose when you’re forced to cut off one of your limbs, you remember every single unfortunate detail.

In his recovery, Ralston handles his new way of life with humor.  Once he had recovered, he participated in a ski race, taking “…six hours off the time Gareth Roberts and I set in 2003, when I had both my hands.  Next year, I’m going to cut off my left arm and see how much faster I can go.”

In the end, it was an incredibly inspiring book.  It truly is a testament to how much the human body and human spirit can handle.  I can’t wait to see the movie, 127 Hours.  Mama Dish actually said she liked the movie better than the book.  (Except for the amputation scene, which is obviously more gory on screen than on paper!)

In each of my marathons, I reached a point where I thought to myself, “This is crazy.  Why am I voluntarily running 26.2 miles?”  But in the end, I always answer my own question.  As Ralston says looking for adventure and risk makes him feel alive, the feeling I get when I cross the finish line of a full marathon is just that – I feel deliriously, unbelievably, blissfully alive.  I thank God that – so far – it hasn’t cost me a limb.  Reading this book made me realize that everyone should find at least one thing that really makes them feel alive… and let nothing – not even an 800 pound boulder… take it away.

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Dish Read: The Ladies’ Man

19 Apr

This author – not this book specifically – was recommended to me by Mama Dish.  So I randomly chose one of Elinor Lipman’s eight novels, and ended up with “The Ladies’ Man.”

Image via books.google.com

From reading other reviews online, some say this was their least favorite Lipman book.  While I haven’t read any of her other novels, I think to enjoy this book you have to have the right Lipman expectations, which Mama Dish set up for me quite nicely: Ridiculous plot, likable characters, don’t take it too seriously.

Given those parameters, I really enjoyed this book and finished it quickly.  Mama Dish was right.  The premise is pretty unrealistic: three sisters, all unmarried, living together in their 50′s.  A younger brother – also unmarried – who comes around to needle them and eat their food.  (OK that part isn’t so unrealistic!)  All of them are thrown for a loop when the man who jilted the oldest sister, Adele, returns to Boston from California.  After disappearing on the night of their engagement party decades ago, Harvey Nash (who, once he started his career composing commercial jingles in Hollywood, switched it to Nash Harvey) has left his long-term live-in California girlfriend and has come back to see Adele.

Once Nash returns, a series of incredulous events happen, forcing everyone out of their comfort zones.  Throughout the book, the reader questions why Nash really came back… Did he truly want to apologize?  Did he want to marry Adele?  Was he just bored?  While you’re trying to figure that out, hating his flirtatious ways and laughing at his blunders, all of the women in the novel end up making some pretty drastic life changes… changes that never would have been made without Adele’s ex-fiance’s impromptu visit.

I enjoyed how all the characters’ lives were intertwined – it kept things interesting.  And while I got annoyed with some of the characters’ decisions at times, (especially the women who are so quick to fall for this guy!) I was still rooting for them to make the right choice and listen to the little courageous voices inside each of them.

I think everyone knows someone who can be described as a “ladies’ man.”  Harvey Nash was the quintessential middle aged bachelor – good looking, non-committal, sex-driven, and constantly trying to seduce a woman with a single look… whether he was currently attached or not.

I may be strangled for writing this, but I can’t help thinking back to my high school and college days… if I were sitting around gabbing with my girlfriends and the phrase “ladies’ man” was dropped into the conversation, no doubt, the one guy we all knew who seemed to fit that description would be none other than my dear, sweet, wonderful fiance.

Back in high school (LONG before we ever dated) Mr. Dish was one of those charismatic guys who never had trouble finding a date and never seemed to have to work that hard to impress a girl.  Some guys in high school were scared to talk to a giggling gaggle of females.  Mr. Dish was NOT one of them.

So am I marrying  a ladies’ man?  I’m marrying a guy I used to think was a ladies’ man.  The difference?  Nash never grew up and never settled down.  Turns out, when you meet the right one, neither of those things seem so bad anymore.

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