June: Weeks One and Two

Books Bought (!):

• Past Imperfect (Julian Fellowes)

Books Read:

• Snobs (Julian Fellowes)
• Wedding Night (Sophie Kinsella)
• Tender is the Night (F. Scott Fitzgerald)

Combining two weeks into one post again - oops. No excuse, I'm just going to dive right into what I read! The name Julian Fellowes may be familiar to you...he is the screenwriter for both Downton Abbey and Gosford Park (which is one of my favorite movies, mystery lover that I am). His book Snobs is set in the present day, but examines the same class of people that Downton Abbey and Gosford Park examine so well. I couldn't decide whether to be surprised about this or not, but his writing flows really nicely, making this a very enjoyable read. I also loved the quasi-third-person-omniscent narrator - although the narrator is a character in the book and sometimes plays a role in the action, he knows everything that happens, telling it like he was actually there...there was something quite old-fashioned about this that I found appropriate. After reading Snobs, I had to buy his other book, Past Imperfect, which my local library didn't have. I got it brand new for $6 - pretty good!

The latest from Sophie Kinsella, author of the Shopaholic series, was a disappointment. Usually her characters are annoyingly stupid about something, but in an endearing way...this time, they were just plain stupid. The plot was farcical and went on for about 200 pages too many. I finished it, but only because it was a Friday night and I was trying to avoid writing a music theory paper. I don't recommend it, even if you've liked her other books.

However, I DO recommend Tender is the Night. After rereading The Great Gatsby a few weeks ago, I decided I needed to read Fitzgerald's other works. Tender is the Night was his last completed novel, and it's quite different from Gatsby. I was discussing this with a co-worker at the music library - it's almost as if Fitzgerald was ahead of his time with this book. I thought it was wonderful!

Coming up soon...new books by Dan Brown and Lauren Weisberger!

May: Week Five (and a couple of days of June)

Books Read:

• Catch-22 (Joseph Heller)
• Bossypants (Tina Fey)
• The Silver Linings Playbook (Matthew Quick)

I can't believe I haven't bought any books (not counting books for school or research) in weeks...I guess that's the benefit to living close to a public library.

Catch-22 is one of my dad's favorite books, and I finally checked it out from the library. This is one of those "classic American" novels that everyone is supposed to read at some point, and I'll agree with that. It took about 150 pages for me to become invested in this book (out of 450+), and I might have been tempted to stop reading it did I not trust my dad's recommendations. I'm glad I persevered - definitely worth the read. (Plus, isn't it interesting that the catchphrase "catch-22" came from this book? How many other titles of books have become parts of our everyday language?) I'm generally not a fan of war novels, but this isn't what you would usually expect from a war novel. If you're interested in the book, it's worth checking to see if your library has the 50th anniversary tradition - the essays in the back of the book explore what makes Catch-22 such a different book. Also, I 100% agree with the Harper Lee quote on the front of the book that says, "Catch-22 is the only war novel I've ever read that makes any sense." (I had to look up the author of the quote because the Leon County library put a barcode sticker over her name.)



Bossypants is a pretty different read from Catch-22, although, like Heller, Tina Fey does explore serious issues (mainly feminism) in a comedic fashion. Mostly, though, this book is just funny. I only watched SNL for a brief period (while I still lived at home), but that was when Fey came back to do her Sarah Palin impersonations, so I enjoyed reading about that time.

I haven't seen the movie version of The Silver Linings Playbook yet, but I've wanted to for a while. Once I found out it was based on a book by Matthew Quick, I decided to read the book first. It's a quick read - I read it in two days - and I thought it was well done. The characters have depth, especially Pat and Tiffany (although I would have liked to have read more about her - it'll be interesting to see what they do with her character in the movie...and I'm looking forward to see Jennifer Lawrence play her). Some of the supporting characters initially seemed to have stock personalities, but there were some surprises further into the book. I'd recommend it!

May: Week Four

Books Read:

• The Pastures of Heaven (John Steinbeck)

Steinbeck published The Pastures of Heaven in 1932, making it one of his earliest works. I haven't read East of Eden or The Grapes of Wrath (yet!!), but if this is his early work, I can't even imagine how good his later works are. I really enjoyed this book - it's a collection of short stories featuring a community of people who live in a valley called the Pastures of Heaven. Most of them end on a poignant or melancholy note (so certainly the same man who wrote Of Mice and Men and The Red Pony), but they are thoughtful little stories with a surprising amount of depth (lack of depth is usually my biggest complaint about short stories, but stories like these prove that it is possible to explore big ideas in a small number of pages). Definitely recommend!

Other than that, I have been reading various conducting students' dissertations and treatises about David Maslanka's music in preparation for writing my prospectus this summer. I'm also currently in the middle of Catch-22, so stay tuned for my thoughts on that next week!

May: Week Three

Books Bought:

• Concert Music, Rock, and Jazz Since 1945 (eds. Marvin and Hermann)

Books Read:

• The Great Gatsby (F. Scott Fitzgerald)
• A Fairly Honorable Defeat (Iris Murdoch)
• Heads in Beds: A Reckless Memoir of Hotels, Hustles, and So-Called Hospitality (Jacob Tomsky)

This week's list is late because I was without Internet for a few days. However, since I didn't have Internet, I had plenty of extra time to read! After seeing the new Great Gatsby movie last weekend I had to reread the book - luckily, I foresaw this and had already asked for my copy to be mailed from home. It took no time at all to reread - what a wonderful little book! Regarding the movie: I am an incredibly difficult person to please when it comes to book/movie adaptations (most recently, I was extremely disappointed in The Hobbit). I could find almost nothing wrong with The Great Gatsby, however! I enjoyed the movie almost as much as I enjoyed the book (the fact that Carey Mulligan was Daisy didn't hurt). After a semester of watching documentaries and listening to the way they use music, I can't watch anything without analyzing what's going on with the score, and I really approved of the soundtrack, anachronisms and all (best use of Rhapsody in Blue I've ever seen in a film - I have zero problem with it being two years early). More importantly, I thought the movie captured the important themes of the book - the superficiality of the jazz age, Gatsby's naive desire to change the past, the false dream symbolized by the little green light. 

Back to actual books...I came across a review of Murdoch's A Fairly Honorable Defeat and thought it sounded interesting. Originally published in 1970, this book is a black comedy that plays with human relationships as manipulated by Julius, a character who brings to mind Iago from Othello. I wasn't sure what to expect from this 400+ page book, but was pleased to find that it flew by. I would certainly be interested in reading more of Murdoch's works.

On the less literary side, Heads in Beds is absolutely hilarious. Having spend a semester working in a customer service position (and being a relatively frequent hotel guest), I really enjoyed this book about what it's like in hotels behind the scenes (Tomsky has worked in hotels for years). One of my favorite parts of the book is the list in the back appendices entitled "Standard LIES That Spew from the Mouth of a Front Desk Agent" - it's funny because it's most likely entirely accurate (examples: "I appreciate your feedback." "All the rooms are basically the same size." "My pleasure."). This would be a great airplane book - especially because you would arrive at your hotel knowing how to treat a bellman or what the most effective way to make a complaint is.

May: Week Two

Books Read:

• The Mystery of Mercy Close (Marian Keyes)
• The Cushion in the Road: Meditation and Wandering as the Whole World Awakens to Being in Harm's Way (Alice Walker)

It's wonderful to have finally begun my summer reading! And no better way to start than with Irish author Marian Keyes's latest book: The Mystery of Mercy Close is a book that Keyes's fans have been waiting for for years. The main character, Helen, is the youngest of the five Walsh sisters - Keyes has already written books about the four older sisters. Keyes is one of my favorite authors because she tackles heavy subjects in comedic fashion without taking away from the seriousness of whichever malady the main character suffers from. Helen has always been a source of comic relief in the earlier four Walsh sister books (she is a mean and scrappy private investigator), so I was curious to see what would happen to her. I wasn't surprised that the book involved a mystery, but this is not a mystery novel and the mystery itself ties more into Helen's struggles than provides a source of suspense. I usually try not to give away plot points in this blog, but we find out fairly early on that Helen has depression. However, I still wouldn't describe this as a "book about depression," just as I wouldn't describe any of Keyes's earlier books as "books about alcoholism" or "books about domestic violence." It's about Helen.

I picked up The Cushion in the Road after seeing it on the "New Books" display table at the library. I read Walker's The Color Purple back in March, so I was interested in this new collection of her essays and letters. I didn't read every essay in this book (some are very political), but I read and enjoyed the majority. Her essay on The Help was particularly thought-provoking. Others are very honest (as the full title of the book suggests) and read as calls to action. Worth reading, but it's a lot to absorb at one time. I read it over a period of two weeks, but this might be a better book to have purchased and read over a longer period of time - again, as the title suggests, many of her essays demand reflection.

May: Week One

Books Bought:

• The Sounds of Place: Music and the American Cultural Landscape (Denise Von Glahn)

Books Read:

• The Hours (Michael Cunningham)
• Naked (David Sedaris)
• The Red Pony (John Steinbeck)

Dr. Von Glahn's book The Sounds of Place is on my personal required reading list for the summer - I'm writing my master's thesis about a specific composer's connection to the American landscape, and Dr. Von Glahn is my advisor, so I need to know what she says about the topic!

I can't remember why I decided to read The Hours - I've heard of the movie but have never seen it, and I was unaware that the book won the Pulitzer. It's a pretty good book - a quick read but well thought out. I actually only read parts of Naked (another memoir told in short stories) - I didn't like it anywhere near as much as Me Talk Pretty One Day. I guess I was more interested in Sedaris's experiences in Paris than his everyday stories about his childhood/weird things that have happened to him. I read The Red Pony because I had to write an essay about the 1949 film and Aaron Copland's score earlier in the semester - I have to say that I much preferred the story in the adaptation to the four separate episodes that Steinbeck wrote. 

I didn't love any of the three books I read this week - I find it much harder to write about books I feel more ambivalent towards. 

April: Week Four

Books Bought:

• Ideas and Styles in the Western Musical Tradition (Douglass Seaton)

Books Read:

• The Best of Us (Sarah Pekkanen)
• Of Mice and Men (John Steinbeck)

As of tomorrow, my semester is basically over, which means I finally get to read whatever I want, whenever I want! I have a list of musicology books to read over the summer that either relate to my thesis or are just for my personal edification, but I'm also going to read plenty of fiction...I can't wait. 

I've been on the lookout for a cheap copy of Dr. Seaton's music history textbook for a while now, and finally found one new for $25. I've been told that this book is a great resource for studying for masters comps, which I will be taking next spring, but I'm also really interested in reading it after hearing him talk about why he wrote it in my Intro to Historical Musicology class last semester. 

I read Sarah Pekkanen's first book, The Opposite of Me, last year on the way to a grad school interview and really enjoyed it. However, since then I've read her second and third books and really didn't like them very much. The Best of Us was pretty predictable, but I enjoyed it more than the last two. I flew through it in two days, though - I just broke up with my boyfriend and needed "chick lit" therapy (although I still hate that label; I find it a little derogatory).

Last night I finally reread Of Mice and Men - I'm so glad I did because I enjoyed it a lot more than I did in high school. Back then I was so distraught by the ending that I found it impossible to appreciate the writing. Since I knew what was coming this time around, it was much easier to enjoy. I'd be interested to see the original film adaptation with the score by Aaron Copland. 

Happy end of the semester!