'Tis - Frank McCourt

I am pleased to announce I am FINALLY done 'Tis by Frank McCourt. I have no idea why it took me so long to read this one. It is only 367 pages, it is interesting, and it is, in large part, related to teaching! Should have been much faster to complete.

I think why it took me so long to read is because I found Frank a frustrating character. Essentially 'Tis details his life in New York from 1949 to 1980(ish). In this period he has several jobs, lives in all types of awful apartments, goes overseas as a soldier, goes to NYU on the GI Bill, gains a long term girlfriend, gets a job teaching, gets married, and has a child. What frustrated me most in the novel was a) his up-and-down relationship with his mother and b) his drinking.

The mother thing I get, this is a real-life story, not a fictionalized account. In real life, not everything winds up happily ever after - not that anything terribly tragic happens in 'Tis. Regardless, I kept hoping for some sort of grand moment of realization and appreciation but it didn't really happen.

The drinking thing I found harder to get past. After reading Angela's Ashes and having a vivid look at the tragedy of Frank's father drinking away all his wages and leaving his family to starve, I was horrified that so much of 'Tis referenced Frank going to the pub, getting drunk, and getting into all sorts of trouble with his family, his wife, and his career. I really wanted Frank to "rise above" and turn down the booze, which I suppose he must have done eventually because he managed to write a Pulitzer-Prize Winning book. Anyway, I found it frustrating.

Overall I enjoyed 'Tis, but I'm left highly undecided about Frank as a person. Clearly he is a good writer. Clearly he tells a tragic story with wit and humour. But at the end of the day, I didn't really sympathize with him. That beign said, I do want to read Teacher Man, his third and final book. Probably more than anything becasue it details his life as a new teacher and that is fairly relevant to my life.

I think it will be awhile before I take one another McCourt book, though.

Anything Unrelated to Elephants is Irr-elephant

I am sad to say that my book reading is suffering at the expense of busy life.

I am still plugging along, but if my goal is 50 books in 52 weeks I am a bit behind as we are now almost three weeks into 2011 and I am only about halfway through my third book - 'Tis by Frank McCourt. I really am enjoying the book, but holy cow, could it be a slower read?

I read Angela's Ashes in the summer and also found it a slow read, so I am not entirely surprised that this one is going slowly for me. If you are not familiar with the storyline, Angela's Ashes and 'Tis are memoirs written by McCourt. In the first, he recounts his boyhood growing up in Ireland. In the second, he details his experiences as a young man once he has moved to New York. They are fantastically interesting, but something about them makes me read slowly. Mysterious.

Now for the Irr-elephant part: I have started a 30 day challenge at Bikram Yoga Victoria with three lovely ladies from my cohort. We bought a Groupon for a month unlimited last semester and now we are on our way to being more balanced, fit, and flexible. Or something like that.

On the weekend Bikram had an open house so there were two days of free yoga that we went to. Then we took Monday off, then started our Groupon on Tuesday. All in all I have done four days so far. On the first day I wanted to die. I have done hot yoga before, but the sit up, lay down, sit up business during the floor series in Bikram was TOUGH! I am pleased to say that after four days I am finding it less tough and I am already finding myself to be more flexible.

Now the trick is to balance an increased homework load, a month of yoga, work, and keep up with my reading schedule. Good thing I love a challenge!

Medicine River - Thomas King

The second book I undertook in 2011 was Medicine River by Thomas King. This one has been sitting on my bookshelf at home for quite awhile - a discarded library book purchased by my mom years ago.

Essentially the story follows Will, an Aboriginal photographer who moves back to his hometown of Medicine River and opens a studio. The story chronicles the adventures and misadventures of Will and a variety of friends who live both on and off the reserve.

The story is interesting as it is very conversational in tone and in terms of plot it really never goes anywhere. Not to say that nothing happens in the novel, but there is really no standard plot structure in terms of rising action, climax, falling action, and conclusion. The story is more a snapshot of Will's life, and as such there is not the "perfect storybook ending" that I was almost expecting.

Overall Medicine River was a good book. It read quicly, it was interesting, and when I did a bit of research on it I discovered that it can be/has been taught in the BC Curriculum. Check out this Unit Plan from School District 74 (Gold Trail) for ideas to use Medicine River to incorporate a Canadian Aboriginal author into your classroom!

Eat, Pray, Love - Elizabeth Gilbert

I started The 50 Book Challenge off with Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert. I must admit that I saw the movie before I read the book, but in the end I think that was probably a good thing.

Eat, Pray, Love is a memoir recounting Gilbert's personal journey across Italy, India, and Indonesia. In Italy she strives to learn the secret to worldly pleasure, in India, the secret of devotion and spirituality, and in Indonesia, the way to balance the two.

While I love the idea of Eat, Pray, Love - the whole notion of self-discovery and enjoying every moment of life - I found Gilbert a bit hard to sympathize with. I get that she was unhappy, I get that she was a strong woman and did what she needed to do, but the fact that she "dropped everything" for this grand journey around the world is a bit tarnished for me by the very fact that her trip was financed by a paid-in-advance book deal.  While I have no doubt that Gilbert's trip was a life changing expereince, it strikes me as less of a "dropping everything" expereince and more of a great opportunity to travel and call it work.

I've read memoirs before, but I found that this one made frequent reference to the fact that it was a memoir - if that makes sense. Because I was frequently reminded that the book was being written for a commercial purpose, I found that I was somewhat distracted from the larger message of the book.

On the other hand, Eat, Pray, Love couldn't have been all bad judging from the speed at which I read it. In fact, I polished it off in just a couple of days during which I also did lots of skiing and had quality family time. I found tons of "inspirational" and "quotable" lines, which for me is a sure sign that I was engaged in the book.

Even though I took issue with a few things about the book, overall Eat, Pray, Love was well worth the read.

Welcome to the 50 Book Challenge

Welcome to the 50 Book Challenge!

When I was home over Christmas/New Years I spent some time with my summertime boss at the Hope Museum. This past summer she hired quite a few new staff members, one of whom stayed on full time through the winter. Apparently he challenged her to a New Years Resolution to read 50 books in 2011 - doesn't sound so hard, until you think about the fact that there are only 52 weeks in a year.

Anyway, because I like a challenge, I am going to attempt to read at least 50 books in 2011 and to keep track of my progress I have created this lovely blog. Reading 50 books will be a challenge with full time school, a couple of practicums, and work, but I am going to make a go of it nonetheless.

Maybe this blog will entertain you, maybe it will inspire you, or maybe you will just get a few new book ideas. Regardless, 2011 promises to be filled with new adventures, experiences, and excitement - and a whole lot of reading!