In Her Shoes by Jennifer Weiner (#22)

I am now sad because I've read all of Weiner's novels. A collection of short stories will be released in stores September 5th, but it's anyone's guess when our local library will get ahold of a copy.

Weiner's stories get to me, even though I find myself wanting to discredit them for being such chick-lit reading. Sure, they're chick-lit, but they are bona-fide stories. I can't help but compare them to some books held out as fine literature (Wuthering Heights, I'm looking at you) where the story is so unappealing that I find myself placing small wagers as to how long I can keep my eyes moving across the page (three more lines, I get a coffee...three more pages, I get M&Ms with the coffee...). Take away my Good Reader card if you must, but I enjoy a book where something happens and the something that happens makes me think about my own life.

I like reading about women who are perceptive about their own lives and who are working damn hard to remind themselves that they are not broken. Let's be honest here, who doesn't have to give themselves the occasional stern talking-to in order to get out of bed and get on with the Job of Life. It's easy to shut down, to disconnect, to live in your own head to the point that your own head doesn't make any sense anymore. Weiner's heroines take risks with themselves, holding out hope that the Job of Life might, if faced bravely and with enough feigned aplomb, yield up to us a few Moments of Joy or Knowledge or Love.

So, despite the blue and pink covers featuring legs or ankles only, I think Weiner's books are worth reading because they remind us just how much story there is in our lives. Story that may be valuable only to ourselves, or story that may be shared with friends, family, or ultimately readers in many languages. Story that makes us who we are or who we want to be.

Angle of Repose by Wallace Stegner

I know I promised that I was going to finish Wuthering Heights as my personal summer reading challenge, and I'm reading it, really, I am. The more I read, the more I remember why I quit reading it all those other times. I cannot think of less likable characters than Cathy and Heathcliff. Simply can't think of any. As I was slogging through Cathy's marriage to Linton and Heathcliff's anguish about it, I kept thinking, "these two don't deserve to be happy." And I gather that they don't become so (well, Cathy's already dead, which is about where I've always quit reading. I don't know yet what becomes of Heathcliff).

But beyond that, I finished Angle of Repose a day or two ago. This book was a "Read Cheyenne" pick or some city-wide reading rah-rah like that cooked up by the local Barnes and Noble to sell mass market titles. As I was looking at it and paying for it, two different people in the store mentioned that the language Stegner uses is just so beautiful. This did not give me much encouragement as to the quality of the story. In fact it raised my suspicions that "beautiful language" might be code for "boring."

The beginning was a bit boring. But I got absorbed in the story of a fictional marriage that a fictional character is writing, using correspondence, newspaper clippings, and historical events, all fictional as well. The main character, confined to a wheelchair, is delving into the story of his grandparents marriage during the late half of the nineteenth century. The man and woman are not a perfect match, but start out promisingly enough. As they come up against numerous obstacles trying to make a living in the US western frontier, they have more difficulty fulfilling the promises of their marriage contract.

Although I think the ending was not as strong as the rest of the story, I left the story thinking about what can be forgiven between two people who are making a life together. Stenger's narrator juxtaposes his grandparents' marriage of the late 1800s with two relationships in1970, his own marriage in which his wife left him as he became sicker, and the free-love non-marriage of a young woman who works as his secretary. Although the two latter are clearly in trouble, the narrator makes inferences and connects events until he shows that perhaps the former was not as placid as it seemed.

Another thing I liked about this book was its westward expansion setting. Like the Little House books, this book set up problems of surviving in a wild place and then showed how people solved them. It might not be everyone's cup of tea, but I like it.

Overall, a fine way to spend a few days, engrossed with characters who are young, pretty much in love, and poised to accomplish great things. As they slide toward their angle of repose, their story raised questions for me about what to expect and what to demand of myself and my life.

Now With Titles

Some books I've read since June 29th (date of last post)

1. Goodnight Nobody---Jennifer Weiner
2. Never Let Me Go---Kazuo Ishiguro
3. Some more that I can't remember right now. Clearly, they left a big impression

I would like to read 50 books this year in accordance with various 50 book challenges floating around. I have also instituted my personal Summer Reading Challenge: to finish Wuthering Heights. I've started that dumb thing at least 8 times, but this time it's going to be different. I'm going to grit my teeth and get past the part where Catherine dumps Heathcliff or marries his brother or his cousin or whatever, whoever, whenever, who cares!?! This book has been a bit frustrating to me in the past.

Let me catch my breath here. My passion against this book got the best of me.

So, since I can't remember what the heck I've read, I guess I can't count them in my tally. That'll show her, myself says to myself. I've tallied up 20 based on the posts I've made here, including the two above. With five months left in the year, I know I can read 30 books. Whether I can read 30 books, clean the house, harvest the garden, cook the dinners, wash the clothing, and mow the lawn remains to be seen. But, yeah, probably I can.

So here goes.