‘The time has come,’ the Walrus said,
‘To talk of many things:
Of shoes – and ships – and sealing-wax -
Of cabbages – and kings -
And why the sea is boiling hot -
And whether pigs have wings.’

Alice. The smiling Cheshire cat. The White Rabbit. The Queen of Hearts. The Jabberwocky. It seems like I grew up with these characters, and yet I had never sat down and read Alice in Wonderland or Through the Looking Glass in their entirety, as they were written by Lewis Carroll.

So, it was about time to remedy that.

There’s not really a need to review Alice in Wonderland. It’s the epitome of a classic novel and is already extremely well loved (and rightly so). But I did want to share a few thoughts and favorite passages.

Many authors cite Lewis Carroll as a source of inspiration, and there’s no question as to why. The imagination, wit, and adventure in his work is extraordinary. I love how completely quirky everything in Wonderland is. You can sort of feel your imagination growing as you read it. (As if you ate a little cake that said ‘eat me.’) Suddenly everything seems possible. That’s special.

I also want to note how much I adore the original illustrations by Sir John Tenniel. They are perfect and fantastic, and I’m glad they’re still the standard illustrations for most editions. I do not take kindly to the illustrations being changed in children’s literature to keep them more “modern.” For example, the new illustrations in the Ramona books are generic and horrid. (Ramona looks like this. And sometimes like this. Not like that.)

My book club is reading both works for our March selection, and I’m hoping to have time to read the notes in my copy of The Annotated Alice before the discussion.

~

“Oh, it’s too bad!” she cried. “I never saw such a house for getting in the way! Never!”

“Why, sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.”

“The Knight looked surprised at the question. “What does it matter where my body happens to be?” he said. “My mind goes on working all the same. In fact, the more head-downwards I am, the more I keep inventing new things.”

I’ve said it before and I will no doubt repeat myself in the future: I love Food Writing. Good authors writing about food is some of the best vicarious living through reading that you can experience. When that author also makes you laugh out loud quite frequently, that’s some good food writing.

American Fried: Adventures of a Happy Eater is the first book in Calvin Trillin’s “Tummy Trilogy” and is a collection of his articles and essays in various magazines in the 1970s. Trillin isn’t much of a cook himself, so he mostly writes about eating out, and this book takes you to restaurants all across America.

Despite being written in the 70s, and the fact that many of the establishments mentioned have doubtlessly changed or closed, the collection still feels timeless. There is one funny part that can be best summarized by the line “I admit to having been intrigued by the idea of storing restaurant information in a computer.”

I definitely recommend this collection, and can’t wait to begin the second book in the trilogy: Alice, Let’s Eat.

Here are some of the lines that made me laugh:

The other New York newsletter I have seen, The Craig Claiborne Journal, devotes more space to recipes than to restaurants, and is therefore of less use to me, since my cooking skill does not extend past a special way of preparing scrambled eggs so that they always stick to the pan. (page 78)

New York line behavior can be explained only by assuming that just about everyone in the line believes himself to be in possession of what the Wall Street people call inside information. (page 96)

He was not going to be able to meet me until a few hours after I arrived in Cincinnati, but he suggested on the phone that for my first taste of authentic Cincinnati chili, at lunch, I might want to try the unadorned product and therefore should start with what is known locally as “a bowl of plain.” He had no way of knowing, of course, that I have never eaten the unadorned version of anything in my life and that I once threatened to place a Denver counterman under citizen’s arrest for leaving the mayonnaise off my California burger. (page 129)

Fairs are good places to eat, particularly for stand-up eaters – which is one of the kinds of eaters I am, although when I eat standing up away from home I sometimes miss the familiar cool breeze coming from the open refrigerator. (page 185)

Buster’s fried chicken tastes as if it is made from chickens that have spent their entire pampered lives strolling around the barnyard pecking contentedly at huge cloves of garlic. (page 213-214)

Books Purchased:

More Six-Word Memoirs edited by Smith Magazine
The Road to McCarthy by Pete McCarthy
Ireland: True Stories of Life on the Emerald Isle edited by James O’Reilly
Little Bee by Chris Cleave
The Sixty-Eight Rooms by Marianne Malone

Books Read:

Inklings by Jeffrey Koterba (library)
Stitches by David Small (library)
Permanent Rose by Hilary McKay (library)
Nine Stories by J. D. Salinger (re-read)
The Help by Kathryn Stockett
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
Little Bee by Chris Cleave
The Sixty-Eight Rooms by Marianne Malone

Previously Reviewed: Inklings, Permanent Rose, The Help, The Sixty-Eight Rooms

Stitches is a graphic novel memoir by one of my favorite children’s book authors, David Small. Stitches is everything that his children’s books are not: dark, angry, and sad. Like his children’s books though, it’s fantastic. A graphic novel was the perfect medium for his story, the illustrations give you a unique look into his memories and experiences. While the story of his childhood is sad, it’s not a depressing book. The story ends with forgiveness, and it from what I know of his life now it seems happy and successful. I enjoyed reading Stitches, and it’s one of the best graphic novel memoirs I’ve read.

I re-read Nine Stories for our February book club, and it was interesting to revisit it now that I’ve read (and re-read) all of his other published work. Teddy and The Laughing Man were my favorites this time around.

Also in February – I finally read The Hunger Games. I’ve been hearing awesome things about this YA Dystopian series for over a year. It did not disappoint… I literally could not put the book down. I’m glad that I read it on a weekend so that I didn’t have to. :) It effortlessly brings you to that highly coveted reading place where you’re completely engrossed in a true adventure on the page.

Little Bee was an impulse purchase and read. It has a lot of critical acclaim and I’d read many positive reviews. I enjoyed reading it, and appreciated the insight into the experiences of a refugee. The point of view changes back and forth between the two main characters, and I enjoyed the narration by the refugee, Little Bee, much more. I thought it was an interesting and well written novel, but it didn’t move me the way that I expected it to, and when it ended I felt surprisingly indifferent to it, which was disappointing.

There are some types of food that do lend themselves to sophisticated techniques of interrogation. When an Italian restaurant is suggested, for instance, I always say, “Who controls the city around here?” I suppose a good Italian restaurant could exist in a city that doesn’t have enough Italians to constitute at least a powerful minority in city politics, but a man in town for only two or three meals has to go with the percentages.

From American Fried: Adventures of a Happy Eater by Calvin Trillin, pages 20-21

Teaser Tuesdays is a fun weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along!

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

Title: The Sixty-Eight Rooms
Author: Marianne Malone
Published: 2010
My edition: Random House Hardcover 2010
Purchased From: Barnes and Noble Greenwich Village
Pages: 269

Synopsis (from Strand): Every Chicagoan knows about the Thorne Rooms in the Art Institute of Chicago. Sixty-eight miniature rooms, depicting rooms from European homes throughout the centuries, in immaculate detail, precise right down to the tiny rugs and doorknobs. Sixty-eight rooms so marvelously real that they seem magic. And for Ruthie, they are. Because she has found a key that allows her to shrink down to a size where she can explore the rooms, and discover their secrets. Small enough to find that someone has been in the rooms before her, and left important clues behind.

I read this because: I love the Thorne Rooms, they are my favorite part of the Art Institute of Chicago. Combining these lovely rooms with children’s literature is a perfect fit. Also – if ever one was to judge a book by its cover, this one pretty much takes the cake. I have Kelly to thank for giving me a heads up that this book was about to be released, and you can read her review here. Thanks Kelly!

My thoughts: What a magical book. There’s a lot to love about it: likable characters, unique setting, good writing, magic, adventure, mystery, and tiny things. A great read and a wonderful escape into a magical world.

If you don’t enjoy reading children’s books yourself, first of all take a moment and think about when exactly it was that you lost your soul. :) Seriously though, if you’re not interested in this for yourself, it would make a great gift for any child in your life.

Book club worthy? For book clubs interested in children’s literature, definitely yes.

Follow up required: Reading this really makes me want to go back and visit the Thorne Rooms again soon. I also really hope there will be a sequel.

You might like this book if you like: From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E. L. Konigsburg, The Penderwicks by Jeanne Birdsall 

Links to purchase: IndieBound, Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Book Depository, Strand

My favorite passage:

It was the feeling you sometimes get when leaving the darkness of a theatre after a really exciting movie – you notice how the world around you is exactly the same as when you went in, only you feel different. (page 45)

Extras: Excerpt from the book, Marianne Malone’s Website

I’ve been enjoying the Casson family series by Hilary McKay. This month I finished the third, Permanent Rose. I don’t feel the need to post a full review of it, but here are a few of my favorite lines from the book:

“I always say a little prayer when I put cakes in the oven,” remarked Eve, as she stopped to kiss Rose good-bye.
“What do you say?”
“I say, ‘Please, God, don’t let me forget I’ve put that cake in the oven.’” (page 102)

“Where can Caddy have got to?” moaned Bill for the hundredth time. “Why doesn’t she answer her mobile?”
“It’s switched off,” said Rose.
“Why?”
“In case someone rings.” (page 183)

David, always aware of his lifetime’s collection of guilty secrets struggling to escape, had been shocked at being seen through so quickly.” (page 2)

Title: The Help
Author: Kathryn Stockett
Published: 2009
My edition: Putnam Hardcover 2009
Purchased From: Book Depository
Pages: 451

Synopsis (from Strand): Set deep in the heart of Mississippi, circa 1962, “The Help” offers readers an enchanting and original journey into the trying lives and times of three very different women who chose to come together for a common cause. In this book weare introduced to 22 year-old Skeeter, who has recently graduated school and is being pushed into marriage; Aibileen, a wise and regal maid whose troubles as an African American in Mississippi are enough on their own; and Aibileen’s best friend Minny, whose just been put out of another job and is in need of help. Through author Kathryn Stockett’s touching and remarkable characters this moving narrative will take readers by the hand and lead them to new places.

I read this because: The rare combination of a well-reviewed novel and long run on the bestseller lists is always intriguing.

My thoughts: It’s been a while since I’ve read a fantastic, page-turner of a historical novel, and I’m happy that the drought is over. I can see why this book has done so well; it’s immensely enjoyable. It’s a great story, good writing, lovable narrators and main characters, and a bit of sass. It’s also not without its villains, which is important for any good story. I expected the ending to be sadder than it was, but that’s not a criticism. Also, I think it’s been a while since I read a novel set in the south, which was lovely. I enjoyed this book a lot and had trouble putting it down for things like work and showering.

Book club worthy? Yes, I think it would be great for discussion.

Follow up required: This is Kathryn Stockett’s first novel, but I will definitely keep an eye out for her second.

You might like this book if you like: The Thirteenth Tale, and historical fiction in general. 

Links to purchase: Indie Bound, Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Book Depository, Strand

My favorite lines & passages: Even though she has zero kids and nothing to do all day, she is the laziest woman I’ve ever seen. Including my sister Doreena who never lifted a royal finger growing up because she had the heart defect that we later found out was a fly on the X-ray machine. (page 48)

“Every morning, until you dead in the ground, you gone have to make this decision.” Constantine was so close, I could see the blackness of her gums. “You gone have to ask yourself, Am I gone believe what them fools say about me today?” (page 63)

Extras: Kathryn Stockett’s Website, The Help on Facebook