Musings

Emily Haines - "Help, I'm Alive"

2009-04-20T13:05:00.000-07:00

Emily Haines is a new discovery of mine. I love her voice - sweet and edgy - and the poetry of her lyrics. I recently came across this little interview on her escape to Buenos Aires, and thought I'd share:

Do You Ever Crave Books?

2009-04-13T12:58:00.000-07:00

I locked myself out of my house for a few hours the other day and randomly picked up a used copy of "The Golden Compass" at the store to pass the time until more responsible people (with keys) happened by. I hadn't read the series in a few years and had forgotten about it until a customer came in looking for them. A little young adult fantasy seemed like just the thing to make an otherwise irritating afternoon go by.

Fastforward to that night. I was back in my house (thankfully) and couldn't seem to put the book down. I mean, it's a good book and all, but there was some...some...force that just compelled me to keep reading.

The problem, you see, was that I only had the first book in the series.

By the time I finished it around midnight, I was craving the second book so bad I could hardly fall asleep. What's a girl to do? This girl went directly to the library the next morning and checked out the other two books in the series. Which are now being read at an only slightly less frantic pace.

This ever happen to you?

Nibbles: Edgar Sawtelle, Beirut, and more...

2009-03-16T10:09:00.000-07:00

I'm catching up on a backlog of reading and music-listening today, so lots of little nibbles for you!

First off a report on Finding Beauty in a Broken World. The report mainly consists of the confession that I have not yet finished it. I got to the section on Rwanda, and then I wrote this post, and then...I just never picked it up again. Sigh...I really hate not finishing books, but my hand just keeps passing over this one... Have you finished the book? Is it worth finishing?

Next up, Beirut's new double album, March of the Zapotec and Realpeople Holland. I'm undecided how I feel about this album. I really like their previous few albums, particularly Gulag Orkestar, but this one...it's different. First off, both albums are very short. As in, less than 15 minutes each short. Or at least it feels that way. I'll just be getting into it, starting to groove (in so far as I actually "groove"), and then the album is over. It makes me cranky.

Secondly, the two albums feel very disjointed. The first is Beirut's take on the music of the Zapotec people and was influenced by Zach Condon's recent trip to Mexico. The songs on this album are a shift away from the Beirut we know from previous albums, but (in my mind) represent an interesting change of pace. The second album...the second album. It's also interesting, but it sounds a bit like music you might expect to find in a hot European night club. It's not bad, just very...unexpected.

I find myself playing these albums again and again at the store. I wouldn't say that I like them, exactly, but there's definitely something that keeps drawing me back. Have you listened to this album(s) yet? What do you think about them?

I just tore through all 575 pages of The Story of Edgar Sawtelle by David Wroblewski. Given that it contained two of my most un-favorite literary themes, tales of woe from the midwest and epic-ness, I wasn't expecting to get past the first chapter. I like it when a book surprises!

It's hard to sum up what makes this book so special in just a few sentences (I'll hopefully get a full review out sometime soon). With threads of magical realism and scenes that read like poetry, it's not like any other story you've heard elsewhere. If it were told by any less gifted author, I bet the whole premise of the story would sound contrived and insubstantial. As it was, the book was beautiful and engaging, and its climactic ending scene felt utterly inevitable. I want to immediately start reading it again. Definitely recommended.

Let's see...what else?

Hold Time by M Ward came out a few weeks ago and is a great album. It's very in keeping with his previous work - dreamy and lovely. It still manages to sound fresh, though. I like it and play it in the evenings when I want to decompress from a long day.

Neko Case's new album Middle Cyclone is also recently out and it's fantastic. She's such a unique musician and singer as it is, but you can really see her pushing herself in this new album. It's a good one to play while cooking dinner or getting ready to go out.

Oh, and I almost forgot about Santogold! This album came out a while back, but has definitely stayed in my heavy rotation. It has a little bit of everything - from R&B-esque songs to forays into electronic mixing (not to mention an appropriately disturbing album cover). It's a bit dark and edgy - definitely keeps you on your toes. I love it and feel like I hear something new in it every time I play the CD.

Finally, if you're a fan of Dave McKean, I want to point you toward an excellent interview with him that was recently posted over on Seven Impossible Things. (Click on the link to go to the interview. The interview itself starts about halfway down the page.) As if I didn't already have enough respect for this man.

Musing: On the Responsibilities of the Author

2009-02-23T11:53:00.003-08:00

I'm almost finished reading Finding Beauty in a Broken World by Terry Tempest Williams, and I thought I'd throw out a topic that has come up for me while reading it:

How much responsibility does the author have for making sure her work is understood and has meaning?

In Finding Beauty, Williams uses a very...journalistic writing style - not in the news-writing sense, but as if she's writing in her diary. The entire book is make up of short snippets that could very well have been transposed directly from her journal. They are descriptions of she's seeing in front of her, momentary impressions, and random thoughts. Open the book to any given page and the writing feels scattered and disjointed, but read it from beginning to end and you see the progression of thoughts.

My problem with this approach is that I'm not always sure what I'm supposed to be getting out of the writing. I'm not sure what Williams intends for me to understand or what her point really is. It's as if she's just laying out her experiences and then stepping back and telling us, "There! Make of that what you will!"

I felt this especially in the middle of the book when Williams really is just transcribing her field notes from the two weeks she spent observing prairie dogs. I understood that by following her exact notes, we were also making a journey as readers where the prairie dogs are transformed from wild creatures into individuals with stories and characters.

But then I wondered if I really was getting it. I wondered what I was supposed to do with this information once I had it. Is Williams asking me to take up the cause for prairie dogs? Is this a metaphor for how we should be acting when faced with other cultures and communities that we don't understand? Am I supposed to simply love the inherent beauty of the prairie dog and move on? I don't know. I don't feel like Williams really makes it clear why she's talking about prairie dogs at all, much less what lesson we should be taking away from it.

On the one hand, I like this hands-off approach. It gives the reader the bare facts of a matter and allows them to find their own meaning. It makes the reader work instead of just handing them the answer. I like the indirect approach, and I like looking for meaning within myself.

But on the other hand, I think...well...you're the writer. It's your job to make me understand what you're trying to say. That's why I'm reading your book in the first place instead of just having a conversation with myself. If I, as a reader, get confused or lost or bored, that's the author's fault for not giving me enough to go on.

With writing like this, I sometimes wonder if it's the author who is being lazy. If the author doesn't actually know what his or her own writing means, so they leave it "open to interpretation" in hopes that the reader will extrapolate the meaning.

The other problem that I have is the feeling of assumption, that the author is assuming that I'm on the same page as them so they don't need to explain things. I've felt this a lot in Finding Beauty. Throughout the book, Williams presents particular images - a prairie dog saluting the sun or fragments of bone on the floor of a church - as representative of meaning, but without explaining what it is. I think she feels these images have universal meaning, and assumes that we understand what what that is. But...these aren't necessarily universal images. These images can have a lot of different meanings and then more nuances within those meanings.

One of the big reasons why we read books is to learn how the author has interpreted those images and to understand someone else's perspective. We read books because we think the author has something new to teach us. Without a context or a structure in which to understand them, I tend to feel that the images actually lose meaning. A prairie dog saluting the sun is just a prairie dog standing on its hind legs in the dust and the bones are simply the remainders of a tragic event.

I'm torn. As I always am when I read books like this. I really like Terry Tempest Williams and I want to understand her writing. I also want to give her the benefit of the doubt and so I question my own role as the reader. Am I expecting too much? Or am I right in feeling that authors need to work to be sure their work can be understood by their audience?

What do you think?

(Image: Lawrence of Houston via Flickr Creative Commons)

Shorty Reviews: Origin, Samaritan, Twilight, and Finding Beauty in a Broken World

2009-02-16T14:13:00.000-08:00

I never really settled on a good, solid, can't-get-off-the-couch book, but I have been passing the time quite pleasantly by reading several books at once. A chapter here and there, and suddenly I seem to have finished all of them! I thought I'd share my thoughts on those while they're still fresh in my mind...

Origin by Diana Abu-Jabar (fiction)

This is a CSI-type crime drama, complete with a crime-scene analysis, sexual tension between characters, and a crazy serial killer. I couldn't put it down, and by the end, I was reading it in great gulps just to find out the next piece of the puzzle. I had some initial trouble with the whole "Ape Mother" thread of the story - the narrator reveals very early on that she was raised by apes before being rescued and adopted to a family in New York. This felt out of place and a bit forced (on the part of the author) in the context of the story's unfolding mystery, but it made more sense and started feeling more natural as the story progressed. I definitely recommend this one next time you're in the mood for some good edge-of-your-seat action.

Samaritan by

Richard Price (fiction)

This ended up being a good follow-up to Origin. It's another mystery-type novel, but this one is much more focused on the characters and their personal psychologies. It's less gripping, maybe, but more thoughtful. Ray, the main character, returns to the New Jersey projects where he grows up and winds up volunteering at his old school. As the story opens, he is in the hospital after a brutal attack but refuses to talk about who attacked him. The rest of the novel is spent figuring out how and why this has happened. The story deals with a lot of race-related issues as well as class issues, showing how fiercely knotted the two can be. At the end, I felt less of a sense of redemption and more a sense of inevitability. Definitely worth a read.

Twilight by Stephenie Meyer (fiction, young-adult)

I got such a kick out of this book. Sure it's about vampires and teenage love, and at times it feels like a very thinly-veiled rip off of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. But still...it's

just a good, fun read! I felt like the writing was fairly solid - Meyer does a good job of setting the scene and really making the reader hear the hiss of the rain and feel the marble touch of Edward's hand. The plot is pretty obvious, but it engaged me and pulled me along until the end. If you're an adult thinking about reading this book, just remember that this is very much a young adult novel written for a young adult audience - while some of the subject matter might seem childish to us, it's very real and relevant to teenagers.

Finding Beauty in a Broken World by Terry Tempest Williams (non-fiction)

At first, Williams' use of mosaics as metaphor didn't really work for me. Her opening story about learning the art of mosaics while vacationing in Italy felt a bit self-indulgent and not entirely relevant, except in in a vague "ok, I'm with you...I think" kind of way. But give it some time (and another 50 pages) and the disparate pieces start to make some sense. Not unlike (I admit) stepping back from a mosaic to see the whole picture.

The book takes a vignette approach with short paragraphs of prose strung together like poetry. There are no chapters or sections, but the narrative shifts from learning mosaics in Italy to a discussion about the roll of prairie dogs in North American ecology to the work of rebuilding a Rwandan village in the aftermath of genocide. The three stories feel disjointed and unrelated at the outset, but they share a common thread of violence and beauty living side by side. All in all, an interesting book and worth the read.

I have about six books waiting for me at the library right now - all my "on-hold" books came at once! I'm looking forward to picking them up tomorrow and sinking into some new stories.

Between Books...

2009-01-31T06:44:00.001-08:00

It's nice when the literary stars align so that you finish one book and the next one is right there waving its hand wildly in the air saying, "Pick me! Pick me!" But just as often (probably more often) you finish your book with a satisfied sigh, look up to find the next one, and...nothing. Crickets...crickets...

It's a listless feeling, this whole drama of being between books.

The picture above shows the current state of my coffee table. Those piles are the direct result of this Between Books Phenomenon. I've been wandering around my apartment for days, picking up books and then ultimately abandoning them. I imagine the books quietly consoling each other, "Shhh...it's ok. It's just not your time quite yet. She'll be back."

It would help if I knew what I was looking for, but it's an ineffable feeling, isn't it? The last book I read was Origin by Diana Abu-jaber, which was a fairly action packed thriller that had me biting my nails until the very end. Finishing it was a rush of adrenaline and relief. I have a feeling that I need something a little calmer for my next book, but equally gripping. Plus, life has been stressful lately (as it's been for many of us, I think) and I'd like a book that I can escape into for a few hours.

The search continues. I know the right book will ultimately make its way into my hands and until then I just need to be patient. But this business of being between books is a pickle, for sure.

What's the last book that really grabbed you and swept you away?

February Book Group: The Animal Girl by John Fulton

2009-01-29T11:57:00.000-08:00

Next meeting: Wednesday February 25 at 7pm

In our ongoing effort to support local writers, we have chosen The Animal Girl, a short story collection by J.P. writer John Fulton, as our next book group pick. While we typically discuss novels (and, once in a blue moon, non-fiction), here we give a much-deserved nod to the art of the short story.

I continue to be puzzled by the short story's relative lack of popularity, given how amendable it is to our busy lifestyles.
Consider the challenges faced by the short story writer:

Forget grabbing the reader with the opening chapter; you better grab them with the opening paragraph, or sentence!
The novel affords the writer the luxury of character development, which is why so many readers prefer that form--you get to know a character, often over the course of many years (of their life, not yours!). The short story writer only has time for a snapshot or two.
The short story writer doesn't have the luxury of putting their hero through a gauntlet of varied experiences and reversals of fortune; the plotting must be accomplished with great precision and economy.

Given these challenges, the short story writer must excel at his or her craft in order to pull the reader in, and make the reader care. A well-written short story is like a breath of pure oxygen, in that it distills basic truths with a minimum of words.

From the back cover, here is a brief description of Animal Girl: "Here are people in extremis, struggling mightily, and often failing, to keep it together. These powerful stories approach the often sentimentalized subject of romance with tenderness and insight into the heart-worn perspective of characters who have failed at love in the past. In lucid, revelatory prose, Fulton navigates the complexity of both mid-life courtship and adolescent rage with humor and intelligence."

Sounds to me like perfect Valentine's Day reading.

If you haven't tried (or liked) short stories before, we hope you'll give this collection a try. If you're interested in delving deeper into the world of the short story, we have a number of other stellar collections on hand to recommend, including Why the Long Face? by another local writer, Ron MacLean.

We hope you can join us for the discussion...

One (ok, Two) Trends in Fiction...To Which We're Ready to Wave Goodbye

2009-01-26T15:39:00.000-08:00

Things happen in trends. Skinny jeans, sweet-voiced British singers, foie gras - point is, it's natural. It doesn't necessarily mean that the folks at the beginning of the trend were geniuses or that those at the end are unoriginal (necessarily).

But one thing that all trends have in common is that eventually have to go, if only so that they can come back again in 15 years when it becomes retro-cool. And here's one I'm ready ready to usher on its way:

Novels set in small town America.

I came into the store this morning and saw Chuck Klosterman's new novel, Downtown Owl. Here is the first line of the dust jacket description: "Somewhere in North Dakota, there is a town called Owl that isn't there." Sigh. I want to like this book, I even want to read this book, but I was doomed the second I read that line and realized that this was another novel about the private struggles of small town American folk. There's probably a twist that makes it vaguely different from The Corrections by Jonathon Franzen or Empire Falls by Richard Russo, but I'm afraid I still can't over the gut feeling that I've read the novel before I've started it.

Well-written or otherwise, these "small town, blue-collar, Nowhere, USA" novels are inevitably the same. They're usually about middle-aged people who are struggling to understand where their dreams went and who are living out their lives in emotional isolation without realizing the connections lying just beneath the surface. Want to know why these novels are basically all the same? I'm pretty sure it's because small blue-collar towns are basically all the same. I know this because I grew up in small blue-collar towns and I recognize myself in every one of these books.

Small towns deserve their heroic novels, too. But really, I think we've had enough for the moment, don't you?

While we're on the subject, here's another trend that I think could take a breather:

Epic novels that span entire lifetimes, and also sometimes generations!

These are the novels that aren't satisfied with presenting a small, pivotal slice of someone's life with a few flashbacks or flashforwards thrown in for context. Instead they show the whole gritty thing from start to finish. This way, by the end of the novel we can't help but agree that "Yes. Yes! This really is the only way things could have happened!" And hopefully we've also learned something about ourselves in the process. (Cue music, aaaand fade out!)

The epic novel has had a good run. This trend gave us great works like Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides, The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon, and Ahab's Wife by Sena Jeter Nasland. Many epic novels are quite masterful - if only because it takes an author of particular skill and strength of character to see the project through to completion.

But here's the thing. These epic novels also require readers with particular strength of character. Starting one of these novels takes a real commitment. You're promising to see it through, to remember all the characters and their personal dramas, and to not lose track of the decade or the continent. I have no problem tackling one or two of these novels a year. It's like eating a bran muffin for breakfast after a few weeks of frosted maple-nut scones. Good for the system.

But lately, it's gotten to be too much. My backpack is heavy. My "Books To Read" shelf is sagging. I look at these doorstops and my gaze drifts over to the copy of Twilight a friend loaned me last week. All I'm asking is for these authors - these great, wonderful, brilliant, award-winning authors - to just get together and agree on some sort of time-table. Please?

And P.S. - A little shout-out to Louise Erdrich. She's got the right idea. Notice how each of her novels tells a little bit of the story? How her body of work as a whole becomes her epic tale? So nice. So bite-sized. I love you, Ms. Erdrich.

On a final note...

If you're an author with a half-finished epic novel about small town America sitting next to your keyboard as you read this, take heart. Finish your novel. Put it in the bottom of your filing cabinet. And then set yourself an Outlook reminder to go off in 15 years reminding you to find an agent for your manuscript. You'll be at the top of the NYTimes list within the week, I promise.

(Image: Dzian-Dzian via Flickr Creative Common)

Excited For...Dark Was the Night

2009-01-21T12:43:00.000-08:00

We just got a sampler for this new CD at the store and I've been playing it kinda sorta non-stop.

It features songs by all the cool kids on the block like, oh, Bon Iver, Feist, David Byrne, Andrew Bird, and the New Pornographers. You know, just to name a few... It's kind of like your best friend wanted to make you a mixed tape, except instead of mashing up songs from different albums, they just went straight to the artists with a tape recorder. What's extra cool is that some of the artists teamed together, so we get some fabulous experimentation with sounds and styles that we're not likely to get elsewhere.

The compilation is produced by the Red Hot Organization, a charity dedicated to increasing awareness of HIV/AIDs and raising funds for its research, and proceeds from sales go back to the organization. All songs were written exclusively for this project, though from what we can tell from the sampler, the songs aren't specifically about HIV/AIDs (you're allowed your own interpretation of the lyrics, though!)

This compilation is available as a double CD or triple (triple!) vinyl with a release date of February 17th, 2009. Both are available for pre-order at Rhythm & Muse.

• Check out the full list of songs and artists at Dark Was the Night.

• Hear more about the Red Hot Organization at RedHot.org.

Crooners: What's in a Name?

2009-01-14T15:28:00.001-08:00

Perhaps you can help settle something for me. See, my fiance and I are in a heated debate over what, exactly, defines a crooner. Yes. Laugh all you want, but this is a Serious Argument. Evidence has been presented. Positions have been stated. Resolution is not in sight.

For me, this is a broad category. Basically, if you sing, if it feels like you're singing right to me, and if it feels like you're wooing me with your eyes (whether you're across the room or on my iPod), then you're a crooner. You can be a Serious Crooner, a la Ben Harper or Frank Sinatra. Or you can be an Ironic Crooner, a la Robert Goulet or even John Legend (both are a matter of perspective, sure, but you can't watch this clip and tell me there isn't some Ironic Crooning going on).

My boy, S., on the other hand, only believes in the Serious Crooner. He wants to hear the crooning and really feel it, you know? He enjoys a good ironic croon from time to time, but considers that a different and as-yet-unnamed category of singing. He can get pretty torn up about Lounge Against the Machine, actually. It's kind of funny to watch.

So where do you stand? Is there room in this crazy world for two types of crooner? What do you think makes a crooner?

(Image: Evy Moon via Flickr Creative Common)

Book Review: The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down By Anne Fadiman

2009-01-10T14:15:00.000-08:00

Without Giving Too Much Away: When three-year-old Lia Lee arrives in the emergency room at Merced County Hospital in California in the grip of a massive epileptic seizure, a series of events is set into motion that will pit Western medicine against traditional Hmong medicine and that will leave all participants in the drama forever changed. Lia Lee is the daughter of two Hmong parents, refugees from Laos, and is diagnosed by the American medical system as an epileptic. However, her parents believe that Lia’s condition is spiritual in nature and resist the attempts of Lia’s American doctors (and ultimately the California state government) to interfere. The story of Lia and her family is at the center of The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down and is the crucible in which Hmong and American cultures collide.

Our Musings: I tend to approach any book or article written by a person attempting to explain a culture other than their own to an audience also not of that culture with a great deal of skepticism. At best, these books tend to be dry academic texts with little or no ethos, and at worst, they portray the cultural Other as noble savages clinging adamantly to their societal roots and native systems of belief. A very few of these kinds of books, and the very best, focus not on comparing and contrasting each culture, but on bridging the gap. This is what Anne Fadiman does in The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down and she does it fantastically.

Throughout the story of Lia Lee’s illness and her progress through the American medical system, Fadiman ties in details on the history of the Hmong people, explanations of their medical and spiritual beliefs, and explorations of their community relationships. She makes no attempt to rationalize or otherwise “Westernize” Hmong behavior, and often outright admits that she remains baffled on several points. Instead, Fadiman lays everything out as best she can, supplementing snippets of interviews and excerpts from books and articles where needed, and gives guidance on how to best understand the information. Fadiman is fair in her portrayal and examination of both American culture and Hmong culture: she praises and criticizes both with equal measure, pointing out the strengths and weaknesses of each.

Beyond the content itself, Fadiman’s skills as a writer are what bring this story to life and give it the authority needed to carry through with such a difficult, complicated subject. Her pace throughout the book is steady, pulling the reader forward at a stately progress that is never so slow the reader loses interest, but not so fast that details are lost in a blur. Fadiman’s voice throughout is firm and respectful. She is confident of her facts and her research, but not assumptive or overly didactic. Fadiman is also clear in her goals for the book and doesn’t overreach herself (as other books of this genre sometimes attempt) by trying to create a singular text on Hmong culture and history—the bibliography at the back gives an eager reader plenty of material to continue their edification.

Whatever your cultural background, it’s easy—no, that’s not the right word—it’s natural to accept behaviors from within your own cultural without question. You grew up with these behaviors and ways of thinking. Even basic things like looking before you cross the street and knocking before entering a person’s house are ingrained behaviors. In The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down, Anne Fadiman asks the reader to make an effort to examine and identify those ingrained behaviors and assumptions, whether from an American background, a Hmong background, or any other background. It is not (always) necessary to change our behavior or to ask another to change their behavior; the simple act of becoming aware of our own assumptions and increasing our sensitivity of other people's and other culture's assumptions will ultimately help to bridge cultural gaps and make it possible to find common ground.

What did you think of this book?

Happy New Year from Rhythm & Muse!

2009-01-07T09:38:00.001-08:00

Hello and Happy New Year!

Sorry for the long absence at the end of December, there. As you can imagine, it got pretty crazy in the store for a while and we're only now beginning to emerge from the chaos!

I, myself, traveled home to Minnesota and ended up re-reading all my old children's books one after the other, which seems to have become a ritual of mine whenever I'm home. It's so lovely to read an entire book from cover to cover in a single afternoon while sitting next to a crackling fire!

I didn't get any books for Christmas - my family is too scared to buying books for someone who works in a bookstore, it seems. But I did manage to score a copy of The Wise Heart by Jack Kornfield when my parents accidentally double-ordered the book, each thinking to give it to the other for Christmas (aren't they cute?). This is a book of the teachings of Buddhist psychology as explained by one of the most preeminent Buddhists and thinkers on the block. I've read some of his writings before (After the Ecstacy, the Laundry and some short pieces) and am excited to hear his take on the core principles of Buddhism.

Anyone else get any good books or music for the holidays?

(Image: Stuart Pilbrow via Flickr Creative Commons)

Book Review: The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks by E. Lockhart

2008-12-15T10:23:00.000-08:00

Without Giving Too Much Away: Frankie Landau-Banks is a sophomore at Alabaster Prep, a fancy private school north of Boston. Tired of being called "Bunny Rabbit" by her family and fading into the woodwork at school, Frankie sets out to rattle some cages and make a few changes around campus. Along with the good ol' fashioned troubles of growing-up, Frankie manages to tackle issues of feminism, social activism, and non-conformity through the course of her sophomore year exploits.

Our Musings: Writing for young adults is a tricky business. Real life young adults are often already into adult fiction, and fiction actually written for them about kids their own age by well-intentioned adults can sometimes miss the mark.

When I read the first few pages of The Disreputable History, I initially thought it had missed the mark. I was surprised when I read the scene where we first learn that Frankie is heading into her sophomore year because up until then I'd assumed a much younger main character. To me, the book felt written to a younger audience, a feeling reinforced by the coy (and unnamed) narrator who tells Frankie's story.

But still, I liked it. In some undefinable and quietly happy way, I just really liked it. I liked the story, I was intrigued by the cast of characters, and I wanted to find out what happened to them. I kept thinking about the book after I put it down - again in that same in that same undefinable and quiet way - and I looked forward to the next chance I'd have to pick it up again.

Really, it was Frankie herself who drew me in. How could she not? She's that particular teenage balance of precociousness and innocence. She's got spunk and the brains to back it up. I loved watching her turn over a new thought or idea again and again until it finally clicked into place. After the first few chapters of she settling into her own story, Frankie emerges (as she so desires) from the obscurity of normalcy and asserts her own unique and quirky presence in the order of things. Namely, the staid social order at Alabaster Prep.

Above all, this is just a really solid book. My initial criticisms quickly faded as the story swept me up and Frankie became a person instead of a character. The book reads as honest and real, partly due to the fact that it never takes itself too seriously. It was funny enough in parts to make me laugh out loud on the bus. Which, as any commuter knows, is an ultimate endorsement of quality.

Recommended: Yes, definitely. This book feels right for middle-schoolers and high school freshmen and sophomores. I think it might be hit-or-miss with anyone older. It also seems most appropriate for girls - particularly precocious, slightly awkward ones. However, this isn't to say that young men wouldn't benefit from a glimpse at Frankie's blunt and feminist perspective, although they might not exactly "enjoy" it!

A note to parents: This book talks about sex and underage drinking. Neither are central topics in the book, but they are presented as issues that exist for teenagers and that Frankie must come to terms with.

Have you - or your kids - read this book yet? What were your impressions?

Snaps and Glogg, Anyone?

2008-12-13T11:04:00.000-08:00

This really has nothing to do with anything, except that a customer came in the store this morning and told us about a Swedish Christmas party she was going to later today where they would be serving a Swedish beverage called "Glogg." It sounded so wonderful and fantastical (it's pronounced "glug," after all) that we just had to know more.

According to that Resource of Resources, the Internet, glogg is a Scandanavian version of mulled wine, but with a little more...er...punch. The wine is spiked with "snaps," or aquavit - though apparently you can just dispense with the wine part and knock the snaps back by itself if that's the way the evening goes.

I'd say this is a good drink to have with a good book beside a good fire, but I have a feeling that the words would be swimming before your eyes before too long. No, this is a socializing drink, to be sure. Maybe we need to do an R&M holiday party just to justify some glogg consuption.

Here's one of the recipes we found, courtesy of Scandanavian Travel and About.com (we love that "inexpensive" is one of the criteria for the liquor):

Glogg

Prep Time: 5 minutes
Cook Time: 45 minutes

Ingredients:

1 bottle of red wine
0.5 Liter inexpensive brandy or vodka
10 cardamom pods
1 cinnamon stick (broken down0
1/2 orange peel (dried or fresh)
1/2 lbs sugar (regular or lumps)
Optional additions: 5 cloves, 1/2 cup raisins, 1/2 cup almonds, 5 dried figs

Preparation:
Heat the wine and brandy, spices, fruit, and nuts in a pot (and any optional additions you might like.)

Be careful not to boil the mixture. Just let it simmer for approximately 45 minutes. Then, strain through a cloth to remove all additions.

Serve your Glogg hot over lumped sugar (or with regular sugar)

Optional: You can also serve the Glogg with raisons or almonds. If you'd like the drink to be stronger, use more brandy.

This Glogg recipe makes approximately 1.5 liter (close to 1/2 gallon)

Thank goodness for the internet, eh?

Playlist for a Rainy Day

2008-12-10T16:32:00.000-08:00

It's been a drizzly, rainy day over in our corner of the world. We've been happy to stay tucked inside just listening to the rain patter against the window and occasionally passing out cups of tea to sodden customers.

Days like this require tunes to soothe frayed nerves and fortify the spirits! Here's what we've been listening to:

Gossip in the Grain by Ray LaMontagne

Knives Don't Have Your Back by Emily Haines & the Soft Skeleton

Volume 1 by She and Him

Amelie (soundtrack to the movie)

Ballad of the Broken Seas by Isobel Campbell and Mark Lanegan

Raising Sand by Alison Krauss and Robert Plant

What's your soundtrack for a rainy afternoon?

(Image: Incendiary Mind via Flickr Creative Commons)

Top Books from 2008...That We'd Really Like to Read Before 2010

2008-12-08T10:34:00.000-08:00

So it turns out that coming up with a list of favorite books from 2008 is a lot harder than coming up with our favorite music albums. This is not because we can't agree. Nor is it due to any lack of good books from the past year.

It's that we realized that we haven't actually read very many of the books that came out in the last year - turns out, we're still catching up with our reading list from 2007! Which in turn included a few books from the year before. And...you get the idea, right?

In any case, a very many excellent-sounding books have come out in the past twelve months, which we really would love to spend some time with in the near future. These are a few that caught our eye or have been highly recommended by customers (who theoretically have actually read them!):

FICTION:

The Given Day, by Dennis Lehane - Historical fiction set in Boston during WWI

The Story of Edgar Sawtelle, by David Wroblewski - A mute boy flees his family home after the death of his father to live in the wilderness

The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, by Junot Diaz (fiction - and which we DID actually read!) - The story of a sci fi nerd growing up within the Dominican community in New Jersey

Shadow Country, by Peter Matthiessen - An ambitious rewrite of his trilogy "Killing Mr. Watson," "Lost Man's River," and "Bone by Bone" into one novel.

Unaccustomed Earth, by Jhumpa Lahiri - A new set of short stories from one of our favorite authors.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, by Stieg Larsson - A thriller in which a journalist researches an unsolved with the hopes that it will resurrect his career

The Soul Thief, by Charles Baxter - A graduate student loses, re-collects, and then loses again his idea of self and personal history.

NONFICTION:

What I Talk About When I Talk About Running, by Haruki Murakami - Diary entries, short essays, and other thoughts from Murakami centered around his years of long-distance running.

The Forever War, by Dexter Filkins - Short nonfiction essays giving personal accounts and observations of the war in Iraq

Finding Beauty in a Broken World, by Terry Tempest Williams - Part creative memoir and part researched nonfiction, Williams makes connections between disparate events to form a picture of the whole.

Payback, by Margaret Atwood - The idea of debt and payback explored in personal memoir, historical reflection, and conversations on current events.

An Exact Replica of a Figment of My Imagination, by Elizabeth McKracken - A memoir of a woman dealing with the grief and meaning of a miscarriage.

Nothing to be Frightened Of, by Julian Barnes - Barnes, an agnostic, muses on death, mortality, and memory.

What other books do you recommend checking out?!

(Image: Chocolate Geek via Flickr Creative Commons)

Top Ten Albums of 2008: Rhythm & Muse Style!

2008-12-06T14:28:00.001-08:00

So we're Rhythm & Muse, you know? We don't like to play favorites, see? We're more the "A for Effort!" kind of people around here. So coming up with a top ten list kinda goes against the grain. You know?

Plus we all have pretty Type A personalities, and putting together a top ten list quickly became a Quest. Yes, a Great Quest to create The Perfect List. Much debating could be heard behind the register: "Yes, the Calexico album was good, definitely. But was it really the best example of what was new and innovative in the music world this past year?" "Can we really count the new Dylan as a best album when most of these songs were recorded pre-2008?" "Dylan? Are you seriously considering Dylan? Ah. You're serious. Ok, then."

And then someone thought to ask: "Hey, haven't we, like, completely forgotten about jazz?"

Obviously, this was all far too overwhelming.

Therefore, without further ado and in no particular order, here is our list of ten albums from the past year that surprised us, inspired us, offered us something new, or simply got our toes tapping. We loved them and we think you should too:

1. Radiohead, "In Rainbows"

2. The Kills "Midnight Boom"

3. David Byrne and Brian Eno, "Everything That Happens Will Happen Today"

4. TV on the Radio, "Dear Science"

5. Ray LaMontagne, "Gossip in the Grain"

6. Silver Jews, "Lookout Mountain"

7. Mountain Goats, "Heretic Pride"

8. Calexico, "Carried to Dust"

9. Fleet Foxes, "Fleet Foxes"

10. Jenny Lewis, "Acid Tongue"

What were your favorite albums from the past year? (See! It's hard, right?!)

Events this Week!

2008-12-03T12:19:00.000-08:00

Just a few quick reminders:

BOOK GROUP TONIGHT! The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz

You've got a few more hours to finish reading! The discussion starts at 7pm here at the store and will go until the wine runs out.

JP FORUM featuring local authors Ron MacLean, Brendan Halpin, and Catherine Sasanov

This event is this Friday, December 5, from 7-9 at the First Congregational Church in Jamaica Plain (right by the Monument on Centre Street). Our own David Doyle will be MC-ing the evening! Discussion and book signing will follow.

We hope to see everyone soon!

New to Me: The Kills - Midnight Boom

2008-12-03T11:58:00.000-08:00

With much debate and a fair amount of waffling, we're attempting to put together our Top Ten (or so...) CDs of 2008. David had this one on his list and when I admitted that I hadn't heard it, he immediately elbowed me aside and put it on the store player.

And I'm glad he did! This is a fun, funky album. In these days of girl bands and boy bands, it's also really refreshing to hear a rock album that combines female and male voices to such great affect. Hmm....maybe this is kinda what I was looking for from that Isobel Campbell and Mark Campbell album...

The challenge with making a Top Ten list is not just defaulting to what has come out recently. This Kills album came out last March and it would have completely passed under my radar if David hadn't pulled it out.

Give us a hand! - what was your favorite album to come out in the first half of this year?

What Did You Read Over Thanksgiving Weekend?

2008-12-01T10:47:00.000-08:00

I don't know about you, but beginning Friday morning, my long weekend was all about curling up on the couch with a mug of coffee and a stack of good reads! I stayed there pretty much straight through to Sunday night, surfacing occasionally for a plate of leftovers or to switch out the coffee for a glass of wine once it got dark outside.

Here's what I was reading:

• Watchmen by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons - I've had this in my pile forever and I'm determined to finish it before the movie comes out. I'm liking it, yes, but am also finding it a little slow. I skip ahead a lot and scan the pictures to find out what happens. Still, there's good subtly in the plot and some really interesting thoughts on what it means to be human and a part of human society. Stay posted...

• Ahab's Wife by Sena Jeter Naslund - This is a re-read for me. I stumbled upon it a few years back and fell in love with the lyrical prose and the intensity of the story. For those who aren't familiar, this is the story of Ahab's wife, who Ahab mentions in a few of his more mournful meditations in Moby Dick. It's just a gorgeous book and a perfect read for the wintry mix weather we've been getting in Boston.

• A Mercy by Toni Morrison - This just came into the bookstore last week and I'm only a little ways into it. The story is compelling: a 17th century trader accepts a slave girl as partial payment for a debt and he ends up taking the girl into his household instead of trading her away. I'm curious to see where the story goes, but so far, so good.

Plus my backlog of cooking magazines. I can never seem to keep up with those cooking magazines...

What were you reading this weekend?

(Image: Cafemama via Flickr Creative Commons)

New Music! Bob Dylan, Isobel Campbell & Mark Lanegan, and David Byrne & Brian Eno

2008-11-29T11:34:00.000-08:00

Tell Tale Signs: The Bootleg Series Vol. 8, Rare and Unreleased

Bob Dylan

Speaking as someone who doesn't typically get too excited about Bob Dylan, I have to say that this collection is definitely worth picking up. Recorded between 1989 and 2006, all the songs on the album are previously unreleased or rare versions of released songs. The album as a whole is thoughtful and polished, but you'll still get plenty of Dylan's characteristic grit!

Sunday at Devil Dirt

Isobel Campbell and Mark Lanegan

In their second full-length album together, Isobel Campbell and Mark Lanegan continue playing off each other in the same dreamy, sometimes hypnotic duets that characterized Ballad of the Broken Seas. On my first few listens, Sunday at Devil Dirt seems even more subdued and low-key than the first album - more sultry lullaby than sea shanty this time around. I would have personally liked to see a little more experimentation with these songs. Their voices - Campbell's honey to Lanegan's gravel - and artistic styles work together so surprisingly well that I'm really curious to see what else they can do. But if you couldn't get enough of the first album, this one is sure to soothe your need!

Everything That Happens Will Happen Today

David Byrne and Brian Eno

Yes! This long-anticipated album is finally here! And it's even good! Yes, there are shades of Talking Heads with a little "St. Elmo's Fire" thrown in for good measure. But mostly this album is a cohesive and highly creative collaboration between two top-notch artists. The sound is upbeat and trippy, even whimsical at times. Smooth vocals ride over percussive electronic mixes and twine with haunting guitar chords. Definitely worth the wait, in my opinion!

Has anyone had the chance to give any of these albums a good listen? What's your take?

Check This Out: Fictional Boston in Books!

2008-11-26T11:33:00.000-08:00

This morning, one of our customers pointed us this article published in the Boston Globe, "Round Up the Fictitious Bostonians". It's an interview with Suffolk University professor Gerald Richman, who has been compiling a list of fictional books set in Boston.

But this is no casual pastime! Richman has been compiling this list for thirty years, ever since he took over the "Boston: City of Fiction" course at the universty. He doesn't have an exact count of all the titles in his bibliography, but he estimates the full list would be over 250 pages long! It sounds to us like what started as a mild curiousity has developed into a full-blown obsession of the best kind.

One of the things we love most about Richman's work is his method of organization. Instead of listing books by author's name or the title or even the date of publication, he organizes the list by the time period in which the book's story takes place. That just puts a smile in our faces, it does.

Take a minute and check out Richman's list. You might be surprised by what you find!

Gerald Richman's Annotated Bibliography of Fiction Set in Boston

Do you have a favorite book with a Boston connection?

(Image: Boston Globe)

Book Review: Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood

2008-11-24T10:41:00.000-08:00

Oryx and Crake

By Margaret Atwood

Without Giving Too Much Away: Oryx and Crake is a post-apocalyptic tale recounted by humanity's the sole survivor (or is he?). Snowman is on the brink of starvation and plagued by waking dreams from his past. Piece his ramblings together and the big picture of what went wrong and why becomes all too clear.

Our Musings: What I can't get over after reading this book is its eerie familiarity. This is, of course, Margaret Atwood's trademark. She has an uncanny ability to take all the components of the reality we know and then give them just a little half-turn to the left. Her fictional worlds are chilling in their nearness to our own.

But with Oryx and Crake, not only does it feel like this bleak future is entirely possible, but in many ways it feels as if it could have already happened - hence an eeriness that gets compounded with every turn of the page.

The book is structured almost like a conversation between the events of the past and the present those events created. In the past, we get the story of Jimmy and a world where gene-splicing and businesses with creatively spelled names (OrganInc Farms and NooSkins) are the norm. The rift between the pleebland underclass and the intellectual elites is a given and therefore arouses only cursory and passing interest on Jimmy's part. His life is spent in the guarded, sanitized corridors of the elite Compounds where all his needs are met as if by magic.

The present is the complete opposite. Snowman (who we quickly learn is, in fact, Jimmy) lives in a tree, wears a bed sheet for clothing, and is constantly battling storms, rogue animals, and a scarcity of food. As far as we can tell, he and a band of genetically engineered humans called the Children of Crake are the only survivors of an unknown and catastrophic world-wide disaster. Snowman is something of a prophet to the Children of Crake, who know nothing about the world in which they were programmed to thrive.

In his interactions with the Children of Crake, Snowman inadvertently begins building a mythology for their existence. He tells them stories to explain their origins, why the storms come, how the animals behave. The Children of Crake accept each story as truth without argument or question. And why shouldn't they? Snowman's explanations make sense! They are logical, if greatly simplified, explanations for things that the Children are not yet ready to understand.

It's here, in Snowman's part of the story, that the feeling of eeriness is most present for me. It's such a small step to go from Snowman's stories to the Children to our own creation myths. And knowing Snowman's back story, you can't help but start wondering about our back story. What were we not told? What were the symbols and what did they really mean? What were we too young and new to understand, back at the beginning of the human race?

While Atwood does such a masterful job of crafting these two realities that you can practically taste the ChickieNobs, the novel ultimately falls down on plot. Most of the book is just lead-up to the final revelation of exactly what went wrong. The teasers and foreshadowing are exciting at first, but eventually become tiresome and annoying.

When the big reveal is finally made, I was left with a big cartoon question mark hanging over my head. I just didn't get it. And even after going back and reading it a few more times, the end just doesn't hang together for me. I understand the technicalities of Atwood's End of the World, but it just doesn't make sense to me within the context of the story. After so much build up, I expected a nuanced, complicated, and elegant solution. Instead it was more like a hatchet to a glass door - obvious and over far too quickly.

I think at least part of the culprit is a lack of depth in the other characters, namely Oryx and Crake themselves. From their initial introduction to their final swan song, our narrator Jimmy/Snowman portrays these characters are evasive and impenetrable, which results in a one-dimensional feeling for us as readers. Ipso facto, their motivations and emotions in the final events of the book are a mystery and any real impact those events might have had on the reader are lost.

Perhaps even more frustrating is the lack of resolution in the Snowman thread of the story. The chronological reveal of the past events happens roughly in time with a journey Snowman takes from his tree home back to the Paradice Dome, a.k.a ground zero. When he leaves the Dome, I got the sense that some sort of catharsis was supposed to have taken place. Snowman finally makes peace with his past and his role in the events? He decides to move on and make the best of it as one of the last surviving humans? Who knows. Whatever I was supposed to understand as a reader missed me completely and I was left feeling merely puzzled.

Ultimately, this book is neither completely brilliant nor a complete dud. It is quintessential Margaret Atwood - full of black humor and inescapable truths.

Recommended: Yes, despite its shortcomings, this book is definitely worth the read. Recommended for Margaret Atwood groupies, sci fi fans, and end-of-the-world junkies.

Note: This book contains some graphic sexual and drug-related material that may not be appropriate for younger audiences.

Did you read this book? What's your take?

Book Events: Local Authors Ron MacLean and Brendan Halpin at JP Forum

2008-11-19T11:53:00.000-08:00

What: JP Forum - Celebrating JP's Local Authors

When: Friday, December 5, 7-9pm

Where: First Congregational Church in Jamaica Plain Unitarian Universalist / 3 Eliot Street / Jamaica Plain, MA 02130

We've really been looking forward to this event! Ron MacLean and Brendan Halpin are both local JP authors as well as being pretty awesome gents.

Ron will be reading from his recently published collection of short stories Why the Long Face? and Brendan will share excerpts from his recent young adult novel Forever Changes. After the readings, there will be an open discussion about the difficulties facing authors and small publishers in recent years and the current economic situation.

Update 11/23: Poet Catherine Sasanov will be joining Ron and Brendan at this JP Forum event! She is the author of two books of poetry: Tethers and Tara.

Please join us!

Welcome to the Official Blog of the Rhythm & Muse Bookstore!

2008-11-17T13:28:00.000-08:00

Hello! Thanks for stopping by!

We have a lot of things planned for this little blog. Things that will hopefully make it easier for us to tell you what's new, what's hot, and what's happening here at the bookstore. Things that will make you smile and think and react. Things that will give us another way to come together as a community.

Please bear with us while we situate ourselves and get things going!

In the meantime, feel free to leave a note and let us know what you'd like to see from us. Book reviews? Music reviews? Top seller lists? Discussion topics? Stories of all the crazy happenings that we witness from our perch overlooking Centre Street? Let us know!

Take care and we'll see you soon...