dear john

I hate it when movies change the endings of the books that inspired them. However, in this movie's case, I preferred the movie ending over the book ending. Which was an unsettling realization to make.

B

moving day

Byebye York, PA:



Hello Newark, DE:

PHL-CHC

I went to Chicago with my mom to find an apartment.
I need to move to Chicago & have no explanation as to why except that it is:


Another reason:

LNC-NYP

Went to NYC



I had lovely times at the Met.
It was not very crowded at Versailles that day.


So much to say.
No time/energy to say it.
Sham on NYC, I miss you a little bit and maybe will forever.

buffalo lockjaw

I think some houses shoud get funerals. Favorite bedrooms deserve obituariaries. Certain kitchens have earned memorials. Instead we just walk away from the wrecks like amnesiacs.

This is the last book I read from the York library.

A+

19 mins

I had complicated feelings going into this book. I remember a long time ago, my dad had this book and I read the inside cover and thought it sounded like it could be good but probably wasn't. This was before I loved Jodi and my dad hadn't said he was wowed, so we the book got lumped into the donate pile. That book is probably the same one I took out of the libary to read. It made me sad to think of though, partly because anything with a dad association has a cloud around it, and partly because I wish I had read it back in the day so I could have talked to him about it. Moral of the story: always read the book.
It was a good one. There is something about school shootings that make for the best fiction, IMO. I guess because you are guaranteed a good court tangle, extreme characters, backstories/flashbacks, and just the drama of it from every angle. This book was a prime example of how JP takes seemingly straight-up situations and floods you with the specifics from life that make the unthinkable kind of understandable. She recycled two good characters fromo other books and those two characters were my stand-out favorites. I liked or loved it, but there was something about the ending that didn't click well for me.
B+

songs from humpback whale

Let me tell you a little something about love. It's different everytime. It's nothing more than a chemical reaction, an arrow over an equation, but the elements change. The most fragile kind of love is that between a man and a woman. Chemistry, again: if you introduce a new element, you never know how stable the original bond is. You may wind up with a new union, with something left behind. I believe that you can fall in love many times with many different people. However I don't think that you can fall in love the same way twice. One type of relationship my be steady. Another may be fire and brimstone. Who is to say if one of these is better than the other? The deciding factor is how it all fits together. Your love, I mean, and your life.
The problem is that when you're old enough to really find a soulmate, you're already carrying around all this extra baggage. Like where you grew up, and how much money you make, and whether you like the city or the country. And sometimes, most of the time, you fall really hard for someone who you just can't squeeze into the limits of your life. The bottom line is: when your heart sets its sights on someone, it doesn't consult with your mind.

Not my favorite JP. It felt like the leftovers from too many other books that were smushed together and made a meal that lacked order and originality. It lacked that awkwardness that is necessary for the characters to feel real and the plot to seem plausible. It felt like it could have been her first book.
B-

perfect match

PROs
The central mother central mother character was one that was more flawed than usual. I liked that that the priest molestation stuff was written as an undertone rather than as some fictious expose. Good surprises, good characters, good flow, good story.

CONs
I have no idea what the book title means.

QUOTEs
There is no cosmic rule that grants you immunity from the details just because you have come face to face with a catastrophe. The garbage cans still overflow, the bills arrive in the mail, telemarketers interrupt dinner.
This sums up 2009.

[from an interview with JP in the back]
Crawiling into the minds of characters is actually one of the best parts of writing for me. After all, I'm never going to get to be a five-year-old boy, so it's a challenge to be able to pull it off. It's a little like trying on a costume--and getting to shrug it off my shoulders when I'm finished.
JP has a little theatre major in her too, which is just one of the many reasons we are BFF.

A

heart books

I was skeptical of this book because the word heart is in the title. I just read a JP about a motherless daughter, so that element didn't wow me either. But, overall, I loved the book. It reminded me of Lost Season 1 with the flashbacks and character unpeeling. I loved the main character and kept picturing her as Ellen Page.
A


Knowing a JP book is going to be about religion is like knowing an episode of Lost is going to be about Ben: cream of the crop hour is coming. The Gnostic Christianity element was awesome. This book incorporated a few of JP's trademarks that I have come to love: a New England setting, a legal drama, a story told from a variety of narrative viewpoints, and incorporating characters from her other books. Some of the chapters were too short, though, and I didn't resonate as well with these characters are with ones in her other books.
B

the numbers are bad

This is a classic case of so good or no good.

library card

I just read my first book from the York library. It seems a shame that I finally got a library card when the end of my York days is in sight. But whatever, I read:

It was on the New Books shelf and I didn't really feel like searching for a book. The description made it seem like Closer [movie/play, not TV show or something], but it was like the Jennifer Weiner version of Closer. I didn't dislike it while I was reading it, but, afterwards, it seemed to not be worth the time.
D

not a romance for the road

After 6 years of trying, I finally got to see Dar Williams. I went with Jenny to see her at the Strand in York a week or two ago. The songs I remember from her set list:

1. Are You Out There?: I used to have this song on a mix tape and I was used to hearing an RX Bandits song afterwards. This was one I have probably heard a thousand times, so I might have cried.
2. Calling the Moon: She played this early on and it gave me a good feeling for the rest of the set. This song reminds me of a weekend in Maine and it was great & pretty.
3. After All: Weird people sitting near us aggressively requested this, so she played it.
4. Road Buddy: The guy next to me requested it and that made me like it. This song reminds me of driving in New England with Gigl when she was a baby.
5. Fly Away: About becoming a parent. So pretty and sad and LONG. Jenny said it would be a pretty song for a baptism.
6. Mercy of the Fallen
7. The Babysitter's Here
8. Spring Street: I forgot how much I loved this song.
9. Beauty of the Rain
10. You're Aging Well: This is one of my all time and initial favorites, and I was excited for Jenny to hear it because it seems her flavor.
11. If I Wrote You: I cried.
12. What Do You Hear in These Sounds?: A song about therapy that isn't depressing or weird is a pretty baller feat

back to jodi

The premise of this book was a man on trial for killing his wife who was dying of cancer. I liked that idea because it seemed like it was going to get really muddy like the other conflicts in her books. But the the whole mercy killing issue didn't really go anywhere. The characters became more developed as the plotline complicated and I was more interested in that than anything. Not what I expected, but it worked.
B-


I realized I like the JP books that have chlildren written in the storylines. I think this is because (1) the kids are never given too much page time and (2) she has a very loving & insightful voice when writing about the parent/child relationship. The kid characters are never annoying because she writes as such a parent that sees the kids realistically but with the love goggles. Reminds me of this song:

The story was about a dad who kidnapped his daughter from an alchoholic mother and set up a new life as the perfect single father. Good stuff, but a little bit dry. Sometimes the story was too close-knit, character-wise. The book needed more characters to loop throughout. It needed more, in general. It felt like the bare bones of a book that would be good once the lines were colored in.
B-

HAIR

I finally got to see Hair. After watching it win the Best Revival Tony from my brother's couch in Colorado last June and failing to get a ticket on my birthday, this day has been a long time coming. The day arrived when it did because this cast is being sent to London and being replaced by a younger, unappealing group (Diana DiGarmo as Sheila says enough). So the performance I saw ended up being the original cast's last time on Broadway.


I don't know if it was that, the familiarity of the songs, or just being a popular show, but I have never been part of a more enthusiastic audience. The opening song, Aquarius, recieved a standing ovation. And that was one of four standing ovations given before the curtain call. After curtain call, they invited everyone onstage to dance. Obviously, this is not my style but it was pretty to see.


Also, Frank Langella was there.


I love Hair and I love Caissie Levy and want her to be a bridesmaid at my wedding and I love my mom for convincing me NYC is not as far as it feels.

borrowed books

My boss at the coffeeshop has my own good taste in books and lent me these. The first two were stories set in contemporary Afghanistan. The third was very Oprah's Book Club, in the best possible way.


B+


B


A