Our Kindles came in on Wednesday, and we finally have the first installment of our “Unboxing Experience” ready for prime time!
Keep an eye out for future episodes of our Kindle series… we’d love to give it to you all at once, but we can only break ourselves away from them for a few minutes at a time to come up for air, feed ourselves, and edit the video. We hope you understand that we here at DSR have very strict priorities, most of which revolve around entertaining ourselves (and isn’t that the point?)
“The Rose Variations” by Marisha Chamberlain came to me as an Advanced Reader Copy (ARC) from the very awesome folks over at Soho Press. My sincere thanks to Soho for turning me on to this great first novel, and my congratulations to Marisha Chamberlain for a beautiful and consuming story. I read almost non-stop over three days, unable to part with it for long.
“The Rose Variations” follows the story of Rose MacGregor, the “Girl Composer” in residence at a St. Paul university in the 1970’s, fresh from her emancipation from a strained life back home in New Hampshire. During her years in St. Paul, we experience the highs and lows of Rose’s life, and the relationships that fill the new chapter of her life out in the world; We meet her co-workers Alan and Frances, her wild sister Natalie, addled best friend Ursula, and a host of friends and acquaintances who will have a profound effect on Rose, and on the reader. “The Rose Variations” is an intimate tale, filled with rich and complex characters, people that for all their faults you would want the chance to know in your own life.
Chamberlain acknowledges not just the instances of deep loneliness and new passion that fill our lives, but also the little storms, the near misses and might-have-beens, the triumphs and disappointments that steer our course. It is the intimate exploration of these small lives that makes this story and its characters so inviting, and makes the journey we take with Rose so compelling.
Chamberlain’s style has an earthy, tranquil appeal. She observes the world with a grounded insight, and describes it in delicious prose. The change of seasons serves to underscore the story, in the “boiling green springtime” of Rose’s arrival in Minnesota, the “flower-thickened sounds” of the summer countryside up north. Chamberlain marks the passage of time beautifully throughout the novel, immersing us in transient external and internal landscapes. Even more alluring than her eye for season and setting, Chamberlain possesses a talent for bringing fullness to her offbeat cast of characters. She has sympathy and affection for them, but even in this sympathy, the novel is not a collection of neatly packaged happy endings. Her aim is never truer than in the moments where she reminds us how crushingly unfair real life can be.
“The Rose Variations” is a beautiful first novel, one that will earn much praise and attention from critics and new fans. This fan for one is very much looking forward to Marisha Chamberlain’s future work.
I just finished reading “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” last night (see my review on the Book Reviews tab). I realized something.
Douglas Adams is a genius.
Yes his great writing and incredible faculty for humor make that a given.
But there’s something else…
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy is described as a small device with a screen, with many buttons along the bottom, that at a touch can give you any information you require, and contains within it’s memory millions of pages. It will even read the information to you. Is this ringing a bell to anyone?
The Hitchhiker’s Guide was contained on a Kindle 2. Douglas Adam’s called the existence of the world’s greatest e-reader 30 years ago.
So, does anyone know where I can find a copy of a “Don’t Panic” bumper sticker? I’d like to proudly display it on my Kindle when it arrives February 26th. I’ll post pictures of the unboxing, and the subsequent decoration!
Now, I know I’m a geek. Everyone knows I’m a geek. But I’d actually never read the Hitchhiker’s Guide!
I know, it’s like saying you have the BA in Nerd Arts, but still having 3 gen-ed credits to fill. Anyway, I was the poorer for it. It was FUNNY! I actually listened to the Audio version narrated by Stephen Fry, who is fabulous. I recommend that version for anyone out there who likes audiobooks.
Hitchhiker’s Guide is laugh-out-loud funny, savvy, down to earth, and just a really fun take. You don’t even have to be a nerd like me to enjoy it, I promise. The story is fast-paced, with sense often having to run to keep up with plot (in an enjoyable way). Adams imagery is flawless, his characters lighthearted and human (well, in some cases). It’s an adventure story in the best ways, a social satire that we can all relate to, and just a really good time If the rest of the galaxy is as it’s told by Adams, sign me up.
The movie, not as impressive. Although it benefitted from a decent cast, and Douglas Adams’ input into the screen adapt, it just couldn’t capture the same free-wheeling joie-de-vie of the book. As is usually the case, the book was light-years (sorry, I had to) ahead of it’s film counterpart.
I had seen the movie version of “Everything is Illuminated” probably about five years ago- long enough ago to let the visuals of the movie fade so I could fully enjoy the book on its own merits. As is usually the case, the book was much better.
“Everything is Illuminated” is many things; At moments, it is laugh out loud funny (I couldn’t read it at lunch in work for fear of bursting out laughing at the table!). It shows us slices of life that prove we are not all so very different. It is at times irreverent, surprising, and heartwarming. Even the dog becomes a beloved character, in a way which does not usually occur in most stories.
It is also incredibly serious, unapologetic in its depiction of the war. It deals not only in the horror experienced at the time, but the war that all survivors carry with them for decades after. Jonathan, Grandfather, even Alex, were all in their own way, victims of that war. The holocaust claimed more victims than even history books will ever calculate.
The novel is faithful in its depiction of the real life of the war as well, the life in between the atrocities. The shtetl of Trachimbrod is a symbol of the reality experienced in every village that found itself under the thundering wheels of the Nazi war machine, facing the darkness by carrying on, marrying, loving, celebrating, keeping secrets, keeping traditions. Foer accomplishes something universal in anonymizing the people of Trachimbrod, giving them only so much identity to love, and just enough universality to make us understand that it could have been anyone, even us.
This is an incredible book, touching a wide range of the emotional spectrum, holding us to the end in a firm but careful grasp.
As we can see this morning… well.. there are still a few, shall we call them “template-shaped pieces” hanging about the blog.
Eddie got a stream of Lost to catch up from our DVR biting it the other night… so you can obviously see that no more web-tweaking could take place while they were running around the island.
I think he watches for Sawyer, personally. It’s the hair. Definitely the hair.
I signed up for a few Advanced Reader Copy contests on Twitter and GoodReads this week… never thinking that I would win quite a few. (I am of course, one of these people who says “I never win anything“)
Well.. as with most things, it’s feast or famine. I won - count them - FOUR giveaways this week. So, as a blogger of my word, I’m going to read them, in order of appearance in my mailbox, and review them.
I’ll post them as they come, and as always, drop a note on my Twitter feed to let you know!
Peace!
B
About the author
I’m a writer, artist and degenerate internet addict. I have a day job only to keep the lights on and the internet working. I’m not always PG, but I’m always A+ (not to mention humble.) Please do not try to make me think before coffee. It will only end in tears.
