Without Feathers by Woody Allen

My introduction to Woody Allen came several years ago in the form of Annie Hall… It’s hard to top that. When I came across Without Feathers, I eagerly began scanning the pages. Happily, it promised the same neurotic pessimism, wit, and sarcasm that you would expect from the author. Published in 1975, it made (and spent some time on) the New York Times Best Seller List, and has since become known as one of Allen’s best literary works.

Reading Without Feathers is as if you’ve the ability to thumb through Woody Allen’s personal notebook of scrawled thoughts, ramblings, and dissentions left abandoned on a coffee shop table in New York City. The title is the author’s fitting rebuttal to an Emily Dickenson’s quote, “Hope is the thing with feathers.” The perfection of this book is the fact that it is not one continuous thread, but rather a collection of works, musings, and humor in true Woody Allen style. The short sections, most of which had been previously published in his New York Times column (before it had become an avant-garde trend to be a Woody Allen fan) make the book great for reading in quick doses. The humorous vignettes are a great way to start or provide a much needed diversion from your day, as well as to serve as a refreshing literary break between more dense books. It’s a quick, light read, without having sacrificed intellect. Which can be a rarity.

Each chapter produces a smirk, at least, while The Whore of Mensa, and God (A Play) will defy you not to laugh out loud. Death (A Play) reads as having a Who’s-On-First approach, but hints at greater philosophical questions… not to be taken too seriously, to be sure. God (A Play) features Allen’s hallmark classic Greek references, notions of relationships with the opposite sex, and modern New York- all of which culminate in a grand ending (!) If you appreciate nothing else, it’s worthy of reading for the endless string of one liners and quotes that can be pulled from the pages. I can’t resist inserting a few here:

“Uh-oh… That’s footsteps- the maniac probably has feet… Oh, God, save me.”

“I’m used to the streets at night

“Oh?”

“Well, I’m a prostitute.”

“No kidding. Gee, I never met one before… I thought you’d be taller.”

“Kleinman, you have been judged and found guilty. You will hang. Do you have any final requests?”

“Yes, I’d prefer not to hang.”

“Still obsessed by thoughts of death, I brood constantly. I keep wondering if there is an afterlife, and if there is will they be able to break a twenty?"

Before stumbling across Annie Hall, I had been purposefully ambivalent toward Woody Allen. For two reasons: First, I didn’t want to join the trend- I enjoy having a mind of my own. Second, I had no interest in the ubiquitous tabloid fodder that surrounded his personal life. However, after simply considering the work for itself, I discovered that I really enjoy Allen’s sense of humor, writing style, and mixture of the profound and superficial. I encourage you to do the same, and consider it for yourself. If you're already a Woody Allen fan you're bound to love it.

You can find Without Feathers in the Adult Non-Fiction section, on the second floor of the Waterloo Public Library.

c Waterloo Public Library 2009

Julie & Julia by Julie Powell

I read Julie & Julia for my book club not that long ago: tonight, Mike and I went to see the movie, with Meryl Streep and Amy Adams. It was wonderful and seemed very true to the book, complete with some of Julie's disasters, emotional melt downs, and cooking triumphs. You could almost taste the food -- smell the food -- as the movie switched back and forth from scenes of Julie cooking to Julia cooking. I enjoyed the contrasting settings, with Julia walking in the streets and market places and sitting in the restaurants of Paris and Julie in her cubicle, cooking in her tiny kitchen in an apartment over a pizza place, and entertaining on the roof.

I also liked the portrayal of the two very supportive men who were separated by decades, but strikingly similar in their love for their wives, appreciation of good cooking, and ability to enjoy (do I dare say savor?) life.

For those not familar with the story, Julie & Julia is about a young secretary who works at a job that might be difficult for many to do: she works for a company helping to coordinate efforts after 9/11 and takes phone calls from angry, grieving people all day. She likes to cook but doesn't really think she is all that good; after all, she is no Julia Child. Julie is also a self proclaimed failed writer, having invested several years in a novel that did not get finished and that no one wanted to publish anyway. As her 30th birthday approaches, however, she feels a need to do something significant; talking with her husband, Eric, she decides to cook her way through Julia Child's famous cook book, Mastering the Art of French Cooking--and then blog about it. So there are a number of scenes where she sits at her laptop and composes her blog entries; I was struck again by the way she found her voice online, and how she addressed an audience that didn't exist at first.

Back in 2002, blogging was not as common and the blogosphere was less crowded, so it may have been easier to get noticed. At first, she isn't sure anyone is reading her blog except for her coworker, her mom, who is not totally supportive, and Eric. But as she makes progress through the list of recipes, and continues to document her efforts, she becomes aware that people are reading her postings. At the end of the year she has accomplished her goal of cooking all 500+ recipes, but she has gained much more than the mastery of cooking techniques. She feels that she has truly taken back her own life. At the same time, she starts getting contacted by editors and agents and the rest is history!

I loved the book; I loved the movie. While Meryl Streep is an amazing actress, I was not prepared for how much she took on the role of Julia Child; she captures the loud, exuberant voice, gestures, and seems to channel JC. She is just the way I picture Julia in the book; Stanley Tucci plays her husband, Paul, and they are wonderful together. Likewise, this is a great role for Amy Adams: she has a lovely quality that is very authentic and likeable in spite of her emotional meltdowns. She is a real woman living in post 9/11 New York city.

If you're hungry for a good read, check out Julie and Julia; you can find it at the WPL in either the CDbook area or in the nonfiction section.

You might also be interested in the movie site, which you can find at www.julieandjulia.com/

You may also want to go to Julie Powell's current blog,
http://juliepowell.blogspot.com/


c Waterloo Public Library 2009

Big Boned by Meg Cabot

Meg Cabot is the author of the popular Princess Diaries, so many people think of her as only a young adult writer. However, I just finished Big Boned and thoroughly enjoyed it. Big Boned is about Heather Wells, who is a plus sized former pop singer who is now the Assistant Dorm Director at a college in New York. She has a new boyfriend and currently lives with the brother of an old boyfriend: okay, it is a little complicated. Her boyfriend is her remedial Math teacher, Tad. He's into jogging and health food. Heather is more into walking, fancy coffee, and chocolate chip cookies. She lives with Cooper, whose brother Jordan was once Heather's teen boyfriend; Cooper is a private investigator who felt his brother treated Heather badly and offered her a room.

Heather has moved on from her teen singing career; her days are filled with dealing with emotional college students, demanding administrators, and she has made a number of friends at the Residence Hall. Her beloved former boss, Tom, recently got promoted and her new boss Owen is a rather humorless, bland person. So, imagine her surprise when Heather arrives at work one day to find that Owen has been shot in the head from the street, and is sitting at his desk with a cup of cold coffee in front of him. She calls the police and it becomes evident that she may be really well acquainted with one of them; Detective Canavan questions her and from the references to the "Death Dorm," it is clear that they have worked together before.

I loved the descriptions of the college meetings, the friendships with Pete the Security Guard and Magda the cafeteria lady, and the way Heather goes to bat for her assistant Sarah and the other students. Mix in a proposed strike by graduate students, the appearance of a well meaning but inept PR person named Muffy, a large orange cat named Garfield, and Owen's ex wife and the story is an engaging one. While many books proclaim themselves to be funny, this one REALLY IS funny; I liked the self deprecating way Heather has of describing her reaction to healthy eating and exercise, worrying that her uterus may have fallen out while running. As she tries to reach out to one of her students, Jamie, they share a dish of warm cobbler.

However, I liked the way the author developed the storylines and characters. Heather is not a perfect person; however, she handles the various crises with her graduate students with her heart, and it becomes evident that she gets a lot of satisfaction from doing her job. I also liked that each new chapter offers a stanza of song lyrics from her music. (For example, "You're not fat--though you could get toned--But it's not your fault--You're just big boned.")

Now, I can't wait for the people who checked out Cabot's other two books about the same character to be returned: Size 12 is Not Fat and Size 14 is Not Fat Either. In the meantime, if you're looking for something funny and satisfying, check out Big Boned. You can find it in the Mystery section of the Waterloo Public Library. You might also want to check out Meg Cabot's website at www.megcabot.com.

c Waterloo Public Library 2009

Listen to the Silence by Marcia Muller

I have long been a fan of Marcia Muller's series about Sharon McCone: recently, I got a chance to read one of the books that I had overlooked, Listen to the Silence (2000). When Sharon's father dies unexpectedly, she and her brother John are left with the task of going through his things.

She discovers a shocking secret when she finds her birth certificate with some other papers: she is adopted, but when she goes to her mother for more information, she is met with silence. Finally she gets some information from her aunt and uncle, and goes in search of her biological parents. One of the people she meets gives her a photo that includes her aunt--as well as a group of young Native American young people, including a young woman who looks startlingly familiar.

As Sharon unravels the story, she discovers the identity of her biological mother and a man she believes may be her father. He comes from a rich and powerful family, and his father obviously did not want his son to marry a "poor Indian girl." After she finds her mother, she also discovers that she now has a half sister and brother as well. However, her mother is struck down by a hit and run driver, and in a coma--not the best of circumstances for meeting a long lost daughter.

Muller is a master storyteller; this was a satisfying read, with plot twists, believeable characters, and a complex character at the heart of it all. Anyone who has ever stared at an old family portrait and wondered about the lives of the people in the photograph can relate to Sharon's fascination with the old photo. Of course, Sharon didn't even know who they were at first, other than her aunt.

Over the past two summers, having two surgeries, I've spent my days reading books and scanning in old family photos and putting together photo albums. When I read the wonderful description of the photograph in this book, it made me think of an old black and white photo that I found of my family. It is unusual because it is the only photograph that I have found that has all three of my grandmothers in it. Great Grandma Eva looks pensive, while Grandma Nellie is smiling; I am struck by how short she is, as my older sister Cathi stands in front of her. My grandmother Lillian was visiting from California; she stands next to my father, and I see that she is much taller than Nellie. Looking at the people in this picture helps me to understand better who I am; however, it also makes me wonder. What were their secrets, their joys, their fears? What stories did they not get a chance to share with us?

I am going back to check the online catalog to be sure that I haven't missed any other books in this series; you can find Listen to the Silence in the Mystery section of the Waterloo Public Library.



c Waterloo Public Library 2009

Bad Medicine by Aimee and David Thurlo

I just finished reading Bad Medicine, one of the earlier books (1997) in Aimee and David Thurlo's series about tribal police officer Ella Clah. As noted in my previous review of Wind Spirit (2004), this series blends good storytelling and mystery with an exploration of the Native American culture out west. The series is set on the Navajo reservation and this particular story focuses on the racial tensions between the Navajo and white workers at the local mine. Hate crimes occur on both sides, and there is talk of secret organizations. In the meantime, Ella investigates a mysterious car accident and death: the victim is Angela Yellowhair, the daughter of a powerful Navajo senator. Ella's friend, Dr. Roanhorse, the Medical Examiner, finds tainted peyote in Angela's system, but Senator Yellowhair does not want to accept this verdict.

Ella juggles the investigation, which turns into an ugly and personal attack against both her and Dr. Roanhorse with trying to figure out not only who killed Angela, but why the senator is so determined to reject the evidence found by the M. E. She also becomes acquainted with Kevin, a young lawyer who is building a home near her mother's; Kevin becomes her friend and takes on the task of getting Dr. Roanhorse reinstated at the hospital after the Senator pressures administrators to put her on suspension. The story also develops Ella's relationships with her mother, who is a very strong, wise woman and her brother, a respected medicine man who loves his sister but follows the traditional ways.

I have always enjoyed Tony Hillerman's novels for their windows into the culture of Native Americans. This series goes a step further, in a sense, because it features a woman who embraces both her own culture and that of the larger society. Ella has FBI training, has lived away from her family and culture for a number of years, and has absorbed the values of both; she is fiercely protective of her friends and family, works hard to discover the truth, and has a deep bond with her fellow police officers, including her younger cousin Justine, who assists her in the investigation. Ella also

For all of the cultural differences, however, Ella is a woman that many of us can relate to: she works hard but wonders if she will ever have a close relationship again. Her husband died some years before, and while Ella has had a few romances, she has resisted getting close to anyone else. She struggles with wanting to please her mother and family and still be her own person. She worries about her friend Dr. Roanhorse and is determined to clear her name. Ella pushes herself hard, but tries to shield her partner, Justine, from taking unnecessary risks. She is a very complex, likeable person.

I am looking forward to reading the rest of the books in this series, but as the summer comes to a close, so does my free time. However, if you're looking for a good read, check out Bad Medicine; you can find it (and all of the Thurlo's books) in the Mystery section.

c Waterloo Public Library 2009