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The Wordy Shipmates, by Sarah Vowell. Two out of five bananas. This was the latest month’s book club selection. And while it was not my favorite read, there was plenty to learn from this book. It is a historical look at the puritans of early America and how our nation — particularly early colonies — were formed during lengthy debates on faith and morality and escaping the monarchy. Told in a current day, sarcastic voice, I imagine this is as interesting as the puritans get. Sarah Vowell is well known for her time on NPR and the Daily Show. For me, she’ll always be beloved for reintroducing me to John Winthrop and specifically his essay, The Model for Christian Charity.

She spends a great portion of this book explaining how this essay went on to influence politics hundreds of years later. Winthrop was such an intense pacificst, all-loving man who came to the US as a pilgrim and has this religious vision of a city on a hill. This city comes to be Boston and his writing was critical to the time. His essay went on to influence Martin Luther King, Jr. This excerpt gave me chills. (I actually walked around reading this page to friends, prefacing it with, “Holy Moses. You have to hear this:”)

“It made sense that Winthrop, a man accustomed to setting lofty goals for himself, would then set lofty goals for the colony he is about to lead. “A Model for Christian Charity” is the blueprint of his communal aspirations. Standing before his shipmates, Wintrhop stares down the Sermon on the Mount, as every Christian must.

Here, for example, is Martin Luther King, Jr., doing just that on November 17, 1957, in Montgomery’s Dexter Avenue Baptist Church. He concluded the learned discourse that came to be known as the “loving your enemies” sermon this way: “So this morning, as I look into your eyes and into the eyes of all my brothers in Alabama and all over America and over the world, I say to you, ‘I love you. I would rather die than hate you.’”

And so, this book is worthy of reading for that page alone. Page 45. Because if I could live my life by one sentence ever written, it would be that very one.

Bravo, Sarah Vowell. Thank you for making me love John Winthrop, a stodgy puritan. And thank you for reminding me of the greatness of MLK, Jr.

Next up, Hunger Games, thanks to a gift from Mini.

~K

Our book club red “Into the Beautiful North” for April; having read “The Hummingbird’s Daughter” last year, we were looking forward to Urrea’s latest. This novel takes the current immigration conversation and turns it upside down. It’s the story of Mexican women from a small southern town who decide they are tired of living in a town without men. All of the men have gone north to the US for work. And so, they create a plan to go get their men back.

There are several notable characters and the writing is colorful. That said, writing a novel that competes with the beauty of “The Hummingbird’s Daughter” is tough. Kingsolver has yet to top “The Poisonwood Bible.” Marquez will never top “100 Years of Solitude.” Courtenay’s “Power of One” was the one.

So, “Into the Beautiful North” is fun, light-hearted reading. But it isn’t Urrea’s best. We collectively agreed we wanted more. More detail, more character development, more resolution.

Three of five bananas

Similarly, in the easy reading category — “The Solitude of Prime Numbers” is an enjoyable read. I bought this on a day trip to Colorado last month and managed to finish it in one day, with flights both directions. It is one of those novels that I looked up and 200 pages had gone by. I was fully engrossed in the characters. And these characters are memorable. I’ve found myself thinking of their story several times in the last month, wondering where they are today — as if they are long, lost friends.

This novel didn’t teach me anything new about culture or take me to some far off land where I’d never traveled. But novels like this teach me more about humanity, and as a writer — more about dialog and phrasing.

Four out of five bananas, absoloodle.

I’ve also read several health books lately while riding the primal eating train. The title is horrible, but the information was worth my time — “Why You Get Fat.” I won’t preach about primal eating, but I will say I’m seeing sweeping changes in weight for friends who are following it. In my half-ass attempts, I’ve noticed how grains effect my digestion. Like so many other wild claims and great intentions I’ve shouted publicly from the blog, I’ll instead say I’m working on eating this way. (Also, a great primal eating blog.)

Four out of five bananas.

And a false start — I recently tried reading “The Diagnosis.” No go. I got 100 pages into this novel and I couldn’t enjoy the character’s mania dealing with temporary amnesia. As it goes with so many books I read, the content has to fit my mood. Thankfully, I got my Colorado library card yesterday and checked out four new novels for the next three weeks. (These lovely deer were chomping away in a front yard on my walk home. Oh, Colorado life — you are keeping things interesting. If I can make a suggestion? Fewer snakes, more deer. I saw my first evil slithery monster yesterday too. I would have taken a photo, but I was too busy screaming at the top of my lungs and fleeing in mania.)

First up, “The History of Love,” by Nicole Krauss.

What are you reading?

~K

Since my first recordable cassette tape player, I’ve used music mixes to communicate what I can’t.

Tomorrow night my friends are throwing me one hell of a going away party. In turn, I’m making party favors — my “Arizona –> Colorado!” two disc mix.

What I hope it says is: I love you. More than you could know, I love you, and this town and this state. I love the cactus, Camelback Mountain, always having a tan, the best Mexican food outside of, well, Mexico. I love how my friends’ parents adopted me after my parents moved to Texas. I love that I always have a place at Sunday dinner. I love my church. I love my community garden. I love the African in the guest room, even though he still doesn’t know how to run the dishwasher (or unload it) 2.5 years later. I love the schools I attended. I love the birds chirping outside as I type this, especially the baby quail.

But more than anything, I love the little ones. It’s my friends’ kids I will miss the most.

CD 1: Arizona

1. Windows are rolled down: Amos Lee

2. Far Away: Ingrid Michaelson

3. Dots of Maps: Say Hi

4. Summer Wind: Frank Sinatra

5. Carefree Highway: Gordon Lightfoot

6. There is no Arizona: Jamie O’Neal

7. Desert Song: Edward Sharpe + the Magnetic Zeroes

8. Draw Me a Map: Dierks Bentley

9. After the Storm: Mumford + Sons

10. Arizona: Brian Haner

Disc 2: Colorado!

1. I gotta move: Ben Kweller

2. Rocky Mountain High: John Denver

3. Colorado: Chevy Chase

4. Colorado Sunrise: 3OH!3

5. Hold you in my arms: Ray LaMontagne

6. Sn Hands: Local Natives

7. The Long Way Home: Norah Jones

8. A Change is Gonna Come: Sam Cooke

9. Don’t Fence me In: David Byrne

And in turn, I know you love my sense of adventure and wanderlust. And my sappy mix CDs.

~K

I have a couple friends who stop by here solely to see what I’ve been reading. We swap email regularly — what’s on your nightstand? What have you heard is good? What is your book club’s selection this month? Can you believe they are releasing this?

When a new coworker and friend recently put “The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay” in my hands and declared it “his favorite book of all time,” I took note. This friend recently returned from 27 months as a Peace Corps volunteer in Kazakhstan, where he said his two significant pastimes  — other than surviving the typical below freezing weather and doubling up on wool socks — were drinking and reading. He was averaging 2000 pages a week. This, after finishing at the top of his class as an English major at Boston College. When someone with that kind of hunger for literature hands you his favorite book and instructs you to immediately make time for it, you do.

I did.

And oh, if he wasn’t right.

Michael Chabon has both inspired and ruined me with this book. On one hand, it is so incredibly well written, entertaining, educational without being pedantic. He makes me want to drop everything else I’m doing in my life and study words, writing and language. I want to write like this more than anything else. It’s truly brilliant.

On the other hand, the next book I picked up — which isn’t a bad read — is so boring! It doesn’t have the same verve. I have this intense love of  for Garcia Marquez, Courtenay and Kingsolver too. They are just so very good, everything else is a bit dull by comparison.

En sum, Kavalier and Clay are cousins who create a series of comic books in New York City. En largess,  it is an epic 600-page story about war, faith, revenge, art, survival, love, loyalty and family.

One of my very favorite passages:

“At the same time, as he watched the reckless exercise of Joe’s long, cavalier frame, the display of strength for its own sake and for the love of display, the stirring of passion was inevitably shadowed, or fed, or entwined by the memory of his father. We have the idea that our hearts, once broken, scar over with an indestructible tissue that prevents their ever breaking again in quite the same place; but as Sammy watched Joe, he felt the heartbreak of that day in 1935 when the Mighty Molecule had gone away for good.”

Five out of five bananas, absoloodle.

~K

Photo by Amanda Nemec

Oh, blog friends! I have a huge favor to ask of you. There is a local competition that will honor a Phoenix author and provide much needed publicity for the little novel that could.

Would you mind spending 2 minutes to complete this form? I’m sure it is uncouth for me to make such a request. I’m also sure there are giant publishing companies with entire floors of marketers that do this for authors with agents. Alas, I am my agent.

Winning this contest would mean a LOT of people would learn about my book.

I would truly appreciate the help!

(Consider this my Melissa Leo “Consider Me” campaign. Probably just as tacky, but hey — it worked.)

Much love,

Kelli