Do the 2009 TBR challenge

My TBR Lite List, completely crossed off:
1. A.R. Ammons, Garbage

2. Elizabeth Gilbert, Eat, Pray, Love

3. Katherine Anne Porter, Ship of Fools

4. John Steinbeck, Grapes of Wrath

5. Mary Roach, Stiff

6. Jeffrey Eugenides, Middlesex

I finished Garbage by A.R. Ammons on October 12. It’s a book-length poem, all written in couplets. It’s about literal garbage (what goes into the landfill) but also about the author’s aging, and more broadly about what at first we value in adulthood and then don’t value anymore as we get older. (Things that are not valued any longer are: garbage.)

The book is short but it too me a loooong time to read. The couplet style, and also the author’s strange punctuation (nary a period in sight, colons sprinkled liberally throughout, the overall effect being that every chapter was one long run-on sentence) were always getting in the way, for me.

My TBR Lite List:

1. A.R. Ammons, Garbage

2. Elizabeth Gilbert, Eat, Pray, Love

3. Katherine Anne Porter, Ship of Fools

4. John Steinbeck, Grapes of Wrath

5. Mary Roach, Stiff

6. Jeffrey Eugenides, Middlesex

I finished Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach on August 15.

If you donate your body to medical science or scientific research, what happens to it? Mary Roach follows this question to some very interesting but sometimes gruesome answers. Some are used, as we would expect, at medical schools for dissection in anatomy classes, or for continuing ed classes for surgeons to practice new techniques on. But other cadavers end up in other sorts of research: at forensics labs, at auto-crash-test labs, all sorts of other kinds of research. The book is written with a nice blend of tacftulness and humor.

This book is not for everyone—I am used to reading over my lunch break, but this was not the kind of book I could read while eating! (The forensics lab chapter was the grossest. And a brief history of the guillotine and related experiments was almost as bad.) But if you can stomach the subject matter, Stiff is actually a very entertaining read.

Have already started book #6—the end of this Challenge is in sight!

My TBR Lite List:
1. A.R. Ammons, Garbage
2. Elizabeth Gilbert, Eat, Pray, Love
3. Katherine Anne Porter, Ship of Fools
4. John Steinbeck, Grapes of Wrath
5. Mary Roach, Stiff
6. Jeffrey Eugenides, Middlesex

I finished reading The Grapes of Wrath on June 27th. I completely enjoyed it! I had hated reading Steinbeck when in junior high school, but in the past 10 years or so gained a whole new appreciation for his work when I discovered that he wrote from a Jungian perspective.

I enjoyed all the characters, particularly Ma Joad. It was interesting to read about the Dust Bowl, and about the hard times of the Great Depression given that our economy is in a recession now. My only disappointment with the book is that we are left with the unanswered question of what happened to Tom.

I finished Ship of Fools by Katherine Anne Porter on May 22nd.

This book had a slow start. The story is told by an omniscient narrator, and the first chapter or two are told from great narrative distance. I was not drawn in at first, at all.

The story is about a bunch of different people who embark on a cruise from Mexico to Germany in 1932. All of the different characters harbor a cluster of various prejudices about the others … many of them are thrown together with each other as cabin mates for the voyage, so there is plenty of tension … and WWII is brewing in the background …. None of the characters are especially likeable, at least in the beginning of the novel. But then one day as I was reading and thinking how much I was not enjoying the various characters, I realized the title was the author’s comment on these people: they are fools. I stopped comparing the storyline to episodes of All in the Family and just went with the flow of the story the author was trying to tell.

Eventually I did come to like very much the young American couple who are so ill-suited to each other, and also the divorced American woman who celebrates her 45th birthday during the voyage. And some of the other characters grew on me, too … so much so that I ended up really liking the book and even peeking ahead at the ending because I couldn’t wait to find out how it would all turn out!

A few years back I read Pale Horse, Pale Rider and I would recommend that novella over this book. But, nevertheless, I did end up finding Ship of Fools to be a worthwhile read.

My 2009 TBR-Lite Challenge List:

1. A.R. Ammons, Garbage
2. Elizabeth Gilbert, Eat, Pray, Love
3. Katherine Anne Porter, Ship of Fools
4. John Steinbeck, Grapes of Wrath
5. Mary Roach, Stiff
6. Jeffrey Eugenides, Middlesex

I know people who have raved about Middlesex. I finished the book last night, and I thought it was only just okay. It had a few insights into what it’s like to be a male in our culture; it had a few insights into what it’s like to be a female in our culture. There were a few well-turned sentences. But, the Pulitzer Prize??? Not in my book.

. . . to finish six books in 2009.

1. A.R. Ammons, Garbage
2. Elizabeth Gilbert, Eat, Pray, Love
3. Katherine Anne Porter, Ship of Fools
4. John Steinbeck, Grapes of Wrath
5. Mary Roach, Stiff
6. Jeffrey Eugenides, Middlesex

I finished Eat, Pray, Love on Feb. 28. I thoroughly enjoyed this book! Liz Gilbert comes across as being very genuine. She offered good insight into the various cultures that she visited. It made me want to visit Bali! Or at the very least, to visit an ashram somewhere (perhaps one not as far away as India).

And, I am officially removing from my list of Alternates the book Chop Wood, Carry Water. Somehow I thought this book was a memoir, similar to Eat, Pray, Love, or that it was a sustained narrative about a Zen-like spiritual journey. Instead, it is like a compilation of magazine articles . . . and I have satisfied my curiosity about this book and do not care to read it.

I’m doing the Lite version of this challenge: Read 6 books in 2009. My selections:

1. A.R. Ammons, Garbage
2. Elizabeth Gilbert, Eat, Pray, Love
3. Katherine Anne Porter, Ship of Fools
4. John Steinbeck, Grapes of Wrath
5. Mary Roach, Stiff
6. Jeffrey Eugenides, Middlesex

Alternates:
1. Diane Ackerman, Deep Play
2. Frank J. Sulloway, Born to Rebel
3. Stanley Elkins, Van Gogh’s Room at Arles
4. Elizabeth McCracken, The Giant’s House
5. Jane Hirschfield, Nine Gates
6. Rick Fields, Chop Wood, Carry Water