Bright Before Us

From the very first sentence, I knew I was going to love Bright Before Us. The debut novel from Katie Arnold-Ratliff, it reads like something by a skilled, veteran author. By the time I read the last sentence, it had become one of my new recent favorites.

Set in San Francisco, its lovely, misty prose draws the reader into the fogginess of the Bay Area and tells the story of Francis, a twenty-something teacher who becomes undone after he and his class stumble upon a decomposed dead body during a field trip to the beach. We watch him, and at times despise him, as he tells increasingly bold lies about the incident, cruelly pushes away his pregnant wife, and lets his career fall to shambles. These scenes of unraveling are interspersed with flashbacks of his relationship with a girl from his past- his first love and fleeting first wife. Through an incredibly well done first person narration--the flashback scenes are actually addressed to "you", putting the reader in the shoes of the former girlfriend-- the reader gets inside Francis's head without ever full understanding him. I found myself alternately hating Francis and rooting for him. Ultimately, though, I found myself thinking endlessly about the sympathetically complicated characters in this book.

I'm so glad I stumbled across this at the library. Katie Arnold-Ratliff better get busy. I can't wait to read what she does next.

Notes on Jane

The covers on these annotated editions of Jane Austen novels caught my eye during a recent browse at the bookstore

Flipping through them, I discovered that, instead of the dry, scholarly notes I was expecting to find, they were actually filled with charming little illustrations, showing things like what a carriage looked like, or a common ladies dress of the time period.

Okay, maybe there were some dry, scholarly notes too, but I still think these would be a nice addition to any Austen-lover's library.

May Flowers

What I'm about to say may be a bit controversial: I've never been a huge fan of spring. In fact, it might be my least favorite season. I love summer for all the obvious reasons; fall has that crisp, back-to-school-shopping feeling, plus the lead-up to the holidays; even winter, with all of its flaws, provides the perfect excuse to curl up inside with a book and some tea. But spring has never done much for me. It always seems like spring just jumps right over what it's supposed to be, breaking from the tedious cold and going right into weather that's too warm too soon, forcing pale legs to go tights-less before they're ready.

This year has been different, though. Maybe it's the perfect weather that we've been having recently, but I feel like I'm enjoying the spring season more than ever. I've especially been taking note of all the flowers and greenery in bloom everywhere.



(Yes, I know this is actually a weed!)

The Tiger's Wife

I've been putting off writing about The Tiger's Wife because I've been trying to think about how to do it justice other than simply saying that it lived up to the hype surrounding it. It's gotten a lot of buzz as being the first book by Tea Obreht. At twenty-five (but looking closer to sixteen in her author photo on the jacket) she was chosen last year as one of The New Yorker's "20 Under 40" writers. I'll admit that I was on the lookout for some flaw that would discredit all of the hype when I started reading, but had forgotten all about that by around page 40, when I found myself completely absorbed in the story.

The Tiger's Wife is a mutli-layered, meandering kind of novel. It's narrated by Natalia, a young doctor in the former Yugoslavia who, while on her way to set up a clinic at an orphanage, gets word of her grandfather's mysterious and sudden death. Natalia's story is then layered with stories of her grandfather's boyhood, which are in turn entwined with the stories that are part of the superstitions and folklore of the village where he grew up. Each section of the story is so vividly written that I can only imagine the force of creativity that it took to get it all on the page. The very end of the book didn't do quite as much as it could have, but the rich, engrossing story that preceded it makes that seem like a minor, inconsequential complaint.

Delightful Doodles

Has anyone else been enjoying the great Google Doodles that have popped up on their home page this week? Between today's mesmerizing Martha Graham animation and Monday's tribute to Roger Hargreaves' Little Miss and Mr. Man series, I've been going out of my way to search for things online just to get a look at them.

These reminded me of how much I loved those books when I was little. I probably had most of the series, but my favorites were the fascinatingly small Little Miss Tiny and Little Miss Helpful. The disastrous results of her good hearted meddling would get me every time.