Our Month in Books

we read. This is what we cozied into bed with this December, and maybe we'll even let you know how we felt about it.

Louise:
Wishin' and Hopin': A Christmas Story by Wally Lamb
Twas the season...My mom had told me this guy has only ever written depressing stuff, so I was skeptical. BUT one day, my faithful NPR told me this book was hilarious...so what the hell. Yes I laughed out loud on my commute to work as a small boy explained how his teacher kept two bottles of perfume in her purse...one called whateveritwas and one called cognac. And later, he didn't understand why his teacher would drink perfume.

The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Murial Barbery
I stayed amused. It made me think some. I didn't fall in love.

The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
Why did it take me so long to read this great classic? Me: fail. Sylvia: win.

Savages by Joe Kane
Finally launching me back into my non-fiction kick, a gift from my beloved and partner in crime (see her list next), made me drop the novel by Ralph Nader I had attempted to begin. And happily so. Pretty funny, pretty scary, and pretty moving, this talks about an indigenous group in Ecuador and their struggles with the oil industry.

Thelma:
On the Road by Jack Kerouac
This book came to me by way of a random hookup, and I must say it was as good as the hookup was. For those of you who have yet to experience, On the Road, I must warn you, be ready for a crazy, somewhat unintelligble tale of what it means to be alive. In On The Road, Kerouac recounts his five cross-country trips with his friend Neal Cassidy. Above and beyond what happens on the road, Kerouac gives us a glimpse into post-war America. America is just beginning to come into its own as the largest world superpower and with that comes a redefinition of what defines a fulfilled life. Now I could go on about the meaning of life and blah, blah, blah, but here is what I think. Throughout his book, Kerouac continually refers to finding "it". Finding "it" for Cassidy and himself involved experiencing all that the new America had to offer them. To sloff off the responsibilities of the world and just be. This made me begin thinking about what is our "IT" . What does the generation that has been given everything, and grown up to think that this is ordinary life. Life is no longer an adventure but an extended vacation. Some of us try to reconnect with ourselves through Yoga or meditation.We turn to alternative life styles, that oppose capitalism. But maybe what we all need is our own adventure, our own "on the road." What can we learn about ourselves when we reduce our experience to nothing more than ourselves and the open road.