Books books books!
I have been on a semi-reading hiatus the past few months, partly because Ellie's recent developmental phase led me astray. Diving into a lovely memoir or riveting piece of fiction took a back seat to reading up on sleeping habits and toddler feeding. Then, after I got these areas somewhat smoothed over, I turned to Super Freakonomics, a brilliant book, but one that quickly led me to sleepiness in the nighttime hours. It is a good book, don't get me wrong. I encourage others to read it themselves. But it is a thinky book. And sometimes thinky makes me sleepy. In that order :-) Bottom line- it took me a long time to get through it.
I asked for many, many books for Christmas, and with delight I received almost all of them and then some! In addition, I have several that have been lent to me that I still need to go through as well. The weekend before the holidays began, Ellie woke up and decided, "Hey, I think I can reach the next shelf up on the bookcase!" On a day when we meant to wrap up our holiday preparations and to also take it easy, we instead had to scramble to find new homes for our books before the great demolisher decided to yank them down and rip out all their pages. The only direction left to take was up, so up went a whole row of our books, butting out whatever lovely trinkets and decorations had previously graced the purposefully-open spots on our higher shelves. Once we could not squeeze one more book on a shelf, the remaining ones had to be turned sideways and crammed into the inches of free space left. We now have the most top-heavy book collection in the city (and we are thankful that we screwed our bookcases into the wall as part of our baby proofing). And my efforts to create a nice decorative bookcase? Turned to dust. Remember the good ole days?
The third bookshelf. Stuffed animals where books used to be
Our great bookcase redesign occurred BEFORE I brought home my new wonderful book gifts, so now I have a pile stacked next to my bed, because there is no where else to put them. I am feeling a bit bohemian, surrounded by all these piles.
Here's what I received for Christmas:
The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion
Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight by Alexandra Fuller
The Peculiar Memories of Thomas Penman by Bruce Robinson
Pilgrim at Tinker Creek by Annie Dillard
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot
Triumph of the City by Edward Glaeser
The Lacuna by Barbara Kingsolver
Clara's War by Clara Kramer
Dancing with Mrs. Dalloway by Celia Blue Johnson
My previous list of borrowed books that I still need to read includes:
The Power of Two by Isabel Stenzel Byrnes and Anabel Stenzel
In the Garden of Beasts by Erik Larson
The Great Bridge by David McCullough
Isn't it all exciting? I am pretty excited about it!
But the title of this post isn't about any of that, really. It is instead about one of the other books lent to me, by my mother, to be precise- The Paris Wife, by Paula McLain. I cannot say enough about how good this book is. The writing is just spectacular. The last book I raved about here, Evening Is the Whole Day, was written by an author who got her MFA from the University of Michigan. Lo and behold, McLain did as well. The Paris Wife is about Ernest Hemingway's first marriage to Hadley Richardson, told in first person from Hadley's point of view. It is Paris in the 1920s, and I could not put this book down (what also helped with that was my hope to finish it at my parents' house, thus freeing up an ounce of space in our present-laden CRV for the ride home. Unfortunately, I was about two days too late in being able to accomplish this, and The Paris Wife is still at my side in Chicago).
Here's where the story gets good. The night before I finished Paris Wife, my husband and I decided to watch Woody Allen's movie Midnight in Paris, which is now available for rent off of Apple TV. Oh my God, seriously, watch this movie while you are reading The Paris Wife. It is a perfect match. Midnight in Paris is such a fun movie, and it features everything you read about in The Paris Wife. I was on cloud 9 (though it doesn't take much anymore). We paused it midway through when we were overcome with a strong desire to drink some wine.
Because this book and movie pair so well together, I came up with an idea. I think it would be fabulous for a group of friends or a book club to read The Paris Wife, then get together to discuss the book, drink some wine, and then finish off the night by watching Midnight in Paris. Make everyone bring some type of 20s-inspired hors d'oeuvre or dessert (there are plenty of examples throughout the book), and just have fun. It would be fab, as long as no one goes overboard and acts like Zelda Fitzgerald. :-)
Hadley and Ernest Hemingway in Chamby, Switzerland, 1922. Photograph: Ernest Hemingway Photograph Collection, John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, Boston.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/feb/20/paris-wife-paula-mclain-review
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