Bout of Books 21 Wrap Up

I'm really enjoying my new, more relaxed reading approach this year. Not only am I officially ahead of schedule on my Goodreads reading goal (for once), but my first read of the year earned five stars!

Read
10% Happier: How I Tamed the Voice in My Head, Reduced Stress Without Losing My Edge, and Found Self-Help That Actually Works / Dan Harris

Currently Reading
I Am Malala: The Girl Who Stood Up for Education and was Shot by the Taliban / Malala Yousafzai
Meditation for Fidgety Skeptics: A 10% Happier How-To Book / Dan Harris and Jeff Warren with Carly Adler

Under the Tuscan Sun | Frances Mayes

TITLE / Under the Tuscan Sun

AUTHOR / Frances Mayes

PUBLISHER / Broadway Books

DATE OF PUBLICATION / September 2, 1997

NO. OF PAGES / 299

STARRED RATING / ★★★




"Where you are is who you are. The further inside you the place moves, the more your identity is intertwined with it. Never casual, the choice of place is the choice of something you crave."

I first saw the film Under the Tuscan Sun when I was around 11 or 12 years old, about five years before I took my first trip overseas to visit Italy with my high school choir. I absolutely fell in love with the film, with the romance of buying an old, crumbling house in some foreign country with the intention of quite literally building a new life for yourself from the ground up. I was enamored with the people Frances encountered, with the food, with the atmosphere of it all. And I would be completely lying if I said that I wasn't expecting just as much from the book, if not more.

Which brings me nicely to my first point: this memoir and the film are two completely different things. And while I found this a bit disappointing and disorienting at first, I can quite confidently say now that I am very glad that this was the case. For starters, it was easy enough to separate the book and movie in my mind and, most importantly, it meant that any frustrations I had with the book didn't affect my love of the film. In the film, Frances is a writer reeling from a sudden divorce who takes solitary refuge in the Tuscan countryside. In reality and in the memoir, Frances is a frequent traveler, an already established lover of Italy, and while her first marriage did fall apart, she buys the crumbling Bramasole estate with her then boyfriend Ed. In this case, the art of the film was inspired by life but did not mirror it exactly.

Now for my second point: Under the Tuscan Sun differs from other memoirs I've read in that there's no real "plot." Generally speaking, the memoir has a rough, chronological structure, but the narrative takes a wandering path at a slow pace. Rather than driving hard and fast towards some grand point or life lesson, Mayes leads readers through her meandering thoughts and memories as though we were touring her garden. She picks up side stories and digressions along the way, something that had many of the Goodreads reviewers at their wit's end.

Maybe these reviewers were fans of the film and were hoping for a bit more dramatic action, but as for me, I actually found this narrative style quite enjoyable. It became the perfect evening read. Mayes doesn't require much concentration and her lovely descriptions of life in the Tuscan countryside have a similar effect to a mug of tea and a warm blanket on a chilly night. And as she warns readers herself towards the beginning of the book, Under the Tuscan Sun was meant as a free form journal and record of sorts and I, for one, think it reads exactly as such.

My final point may actually be more of a warning: this isn't necessarily travel-writing for those who have never been to Italy before. Although Mayes does describe the quaintness of the Italian countryside very well, Under the Tuscan is not a book about traveling or experiencing the sights and sounds of Italy. It's a memoir about renovating a house and starting a new chapter of life. It's about deciding to take a leap of faith and all of the rewards that may follow.

By no means is this a perfect book. It's not groundbreaking, in any sense of the word. Mayes does ramble at times and I can't say I was inspired to read every single word with the greatest intensity of concentration. In fact, I found her tendency to throw in Italian words here and there fairly annoying by the end of it all. However, if you are looking for a quiet, beautifully descriptive read about the magic of creating something with your own two hands, Under the Tuscan Sun might be just the book for you.

About Under the Tuscan Sun | About Frances Mayes

Disclaimer: I received this book as part of the Blogging for Books program in exchange for an honest review. I was not paid to review or feature this book and this review is my 100% honest opinion. This is not a sponsored post.

Born a Crime | Trevor Noah

TITLE / Born a Crime

AUTHOR / Trevor Noah

PUBLISHER / Doubleday Canada

DATE OF PUBLICATION / November 15, 2016

NO. OF PAGES / 304

STARRED RATING / ★★★★.5

I listened to Born a Crime on audiobook over the course of a single work week and, boy, was that a mistake. Trevor Noah had me chuckling on more than one occasion and trying to smother my laughs into ill-timed snorts.

This shouldn't have been a surprise to me. I've recently discovered Noah's stand up comedy and, between that and his razor-sharp wit on The Daily Show, have become a real fan of his. I enjoy that he's not only able to see below the surface of the world around him but that he is also able to find the humor in it all. So when I learned that he had written a memoir of his time growing up mixed-race in South Africa, I had to pick it up.

Of course, if you're not a fan of Noah's stand up or only know him within the context of The Daily Show, you might be wondering why on earth you should read his memoir. I can give you a couple of reasons.

First of all, I have never felt so transported by a piece of nonfiction in my life. Noah paints a really vivid, vibrant, and visceral portrait of South Africa. I could really visualize the street corners he hung out on, the streets and alleys he ran through to escape from trouble. From the township to the multitude of languages, if Born a Crime is a love letter to Noah's mother, it's also a love letter to South Africa.

Which brings me to my second point: this is a book that examines post-apartheid South Africa from the inside. As much as this is Noah's coming of age story, it is impossible to separate the man and comedian he becomes from the racial, social, and political world he grew up in. As a fan of his work, I found it incredibly interesting to see the experiences from which he has gained his sometimes uncanny ability to cut through the crap and see the real heart of the issue.

As someone who is mixed-race myself, I was also really intrigued to realize that certain aspects of the mixed-race experience are universal. Although Noah's stories were obviously set against the backdrop of the extreme racial divide created by apartheid, some of the stories he told could have been lifted from my own life.

And finally, if you still need a push, read this because Trevor Noah is one heck of a storyteller. Each life episode is structured like a bit from one of his standup sets: they start off anecdotally, pull in some interesting cultural facts, and crescendo to an emotional high towards the end. Not all of the stories Noah shares are funny, but all of them ring with a real genuine sincerity and respect for experiences and characters he shares.

The only reason I have denied this book just half a star is that, sometimes, the organization of the memoir seemed a tad random. Rather than following a strict chronological structure, Noah jumps around to different moments of his life and this does occasionally get confusing. And yet, after reading the extremely poignant ending, I couldn't imagine the book structured any other way.

Now, I'm not the only one saying great things about Born a Crime. Just this last weekend Noah picked up two NAACP awards for the book. And if you're not yet convinced that this is a memoir worth reading, I guess there is little else I can say except, once more, read it. Seriously, read it and I promise you'll have no regrets.

Spinster: Making a Life of One's Own | Kate Bolick

TITLE / Spinster: Making a Life of One's Own

AUTHOR / Kate Bolick

PUBLISHER / Broadway Books

DATE OF PUBLICATION / April 19, 2016 (originally published in 2015)

NO. OF PAGES / 352

STARRED RATING / ★★★★★

When I first pulled the paperback out of the padded yellow envelope that found its way to my doorstep, my mom took one look at the title and let out a little laugh. "Better not read that one in public."

What neither of us realized at the time was that, in this immediate reaction, my mom actually proved Kate Bolick's point.

Spinster is an interesting mashup, part memoir and part sprawling cultural examination of what it means to be a single woman in American society. Bolick traces the evolution of the word "spinster," starting at its most traditional definition (an older, unmarried woman) and continuing through imore modern dating trends. By the end of the book the word is reclaimed and re-presented, not as a woman shunned by society, but as a positive: a growing sisterhood of women who actively interested in a less traditional, more solitary lifestyle.

Bolick structures the book around her own life's chronology, from her time as a young teenager indifferent to her mother's generation to a 20 and then 30-something struggling to find her way through the revered New York publishing scene. To supplement and explain her own experiences, Bolick guides her readers through the lives of five women she considers her "awakeners": columnist Neith Boyce, essayist Maeve Brennan, social visionary and writer Charlotte Perkins Gilman, poet Edna St. Vincent Millay, and novelist Edith Wharton. These are the women who first sparked Bolick's fascination with "spinsterhood" and to whose writing she turned when trying to figure out her own path in life.

I can only hope that one day Bolick decides to write a full biography of one of these extraordinary women because the life story she spins for each of her awakeners is dynamic and intriguing. Better yet, the select excerpts of their work interspersed throughout the book are meticulously chosen and illustrate Bolick's observations beautifully.

Of course, Bolick herself is also a master with words. Just over ten pages into the book, I was struck by the intense imagery of her prose:

"Each of us is a museum that opens for business the moment we're born, with memory the sole curator. ...And so the curator toils alongside us in the dark, bereft of the information needed to truly understand who we are; the individual is inseparable from context."

Yes, Bolick's subject is fascinating and yes, the way she weaves her own life in with those of her "awakeners" is seamless. But it was the honesty in her written voice and the obvious passion for her subject that kept me turning pages again and again.

Every once and a while, you come across a book that speaks to something in your soul, sparks an interest you didn't know you had, and pulls you in completely. That is what Spinster did for me and I know I do not have enough skill with my own words to describe the masterpiece that Kate Bolick has created. Yes, this can definitely be criticized as a very limited, white, and privileged perspective on what it means to be a single woman. But as one woman's personal journey to understanding that her life can be whatever it is that she wants, Spinster is a skillfully crafted and utterly engrossing success.


About Spinster | About Kate Bolick

Disclaimer: I received this book as part of the Blogging for Books program in exchange for an honest review. I was not paid to review or feature this book and this review is my 100% honest opinion. This is not a sponsored post.