One of my heros is Richard Burton, the Middle Eastern and African explorer. He immersed himself in cultures, learning their languages, religions and customs. He travelled widely and translated books. We gave our son the middle name of Burton in his honour. Whenever I tell people the story of the middle name they always think of the OTHER Richard Burton, the actor.

I’ve just finished an excellent book called Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walter, which includes a fictionalization of Richard Burton, the actor. The Other Richard Burton is best known for having an affair with Elizabeth Taylor on the set of the movie Cleopatra, and later marrying her twice. He is one of the “beautiful ruins” of this novel.

Beautiful Ruins is set in Italy in early 1960s. The novel tells the story of Dee Moray, a young American actress who has a minor role as a servant in the movie Cleopatra. She has an affair with Richard Burton, who is having an affair with Elizabeth Taylor as well. A canny publicist is brought in to salvage the overspent movie, and he realizes the promotional value of the scandal. When Dee becomes pregnant by Richard, the publicist tricks Dee into leaving for a small town in the Cinque Terre in Italy so that Richard will go back to Elizabeth. The town of Porto Vergogna is another beautiful ruin, where Dee meets the local inn keeper Pasquale.

This book is full of interesting characters, and it’s structured to pull you along as you wonder what will happen to them all. I highly recommend it as a happy book club choice.

The 100 Year Old Man charms me

Here's a happy book, and a funny book  too, with a happy ever after ending.  The only wrinkle- is there anything to discuss at bookclub?  Do angst filled novels lend themselves to discussion and dissection better than happy ones?  Perhaps the book club conversation could broaden to what makes everyone happy, and then everyone could proceed directly to the wine and food!

The 100 Year Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared by Jonas Jonasson bucks the rules of fiction, which usually requires that the protagonist discover his flaw and struggle to overcome it.  It's a fun satire on the usual mystery, with plot coincidences that would make a soap opera writer proud!

The most dispassionate of protagonists, Allan is 100, and very tired of the nursing home matron who won't let him drink his vodka. He makes a run for it. Allan doesn't need to change one bit. It's the world and reader who need to change to understand Allan's trust that everything will turn out as it needs to turn out. Allan calmly proceeds through every event of note in the 20th century, unflappable and self sufficient.

So why does this work? Usually I would dislike a book that was empty of any personal growth in the protagonist. It would feel like the mechanical churning of plot. This book breaks the rules of luck and coincidence as well. And yet.

Perhaps it is this flaunting of all the rules that charms with a Rube Goldberg of a plot. Perhaps it is the reader who is changed, by thinking, "You know, perhaps Allan might teach me a thing or two about equanimity and adaptability."

Allan's flaws didn't shape a crisis and epiphany. The people in the world with all their theories and doctrines have the flaw, and if they chose to have an epiphany after reading this book, well that would be just fine with Alan. He would drink to that!

Perhaps you will too.

Oh I've been a lazy blogger, but happily not a lazy reader!  Still searching for those great happy book club choices.

For those that love a crackling plot, look no further than Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn.  A mystery told alternately by a battling husband and wife, this convoluted plot is full of red herrings and twists.  It is almost impossible to put down once you start.  Lots of interesting topics to discuss at book club about the relations between the sexes!

Lulu in Marrakesh is also full of plot, but not pulled together so tightly. This is s a novel by Diane Johnson, who wrote the popular book Le Divorce. Lulu is a young American spy sent to Morocco to gather intelligence. Join Lulu as she settles into the expat community in Marrakech.  It brings up interesting questions about the relationships among nations and religions.  Plus I'm a sucker for a novel set in an interesting new place.

For some nonfiction, try Quiet by Susan Cain.  It's about the motivations of introverts, and what they bring to the world.  Then the book club can consciously check in with their introverted members to get their take on the subject!  Also Help Thanks Wow: The Three Essential Prayers by Anne Lamott is wise and honest.  She interweaves stories and practical advice.

If you love bookstores, you may go crazy over Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloane.  This is the Da Vinci Code for book nerds!  I enjoyed thinking about the evolution of searching for information, and the changing publishing world.  I also loved how just like a fairy tale, the hero Clay succeeds in his quest not because he is strongest or smartest, but because he is a good friend who can assemble a team for a quest.

The book whose language and characters have stayed in my head is Esi Edugyan's Half Blood Blues.  I can hear the narrator Sid Griffiths speaking in his slang about his jazz band in World War II.  The language can be a little daunting, so I got a bookcd.  That way the words flowed into my brain, and I didn't get hung up on a meaning of a particular word.  Just like listening to Shakespeare, I relaxed, and the meaning flowed in.

Once again, I've provided a list of books that aren't funny haha, and in fact Half Blood Blues and Gone Girl are sad.  Paired with some good friends, wine and conversation, however, I promise they will make you feel happy!

Readalike rundown

I have been so busy reading I forgot to write some reviews.  Here’s a rundown on some fall reads you might enjoy:

If you liked Bossypants by Tina Fey you might want to try Ali in Wonderland  by Alexandra Wentworth.  She’s great at delivering punch lines about her life as a rich kid in Washington, actress in Los Angeles, and mother back in Washington.  I found her more entertaining than Mindy Kaling, whose Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns) is also touted as a successor to Bossypants.  Mindy was just too young for my middle age patience.  I also tried to like another supposed Bossypants readalike, Let’s Pretend This Never Happened by Jenny Lawson, but her childhood was so sad it was depressing.

If you liked Pride and Prejudice, you will enjoy Death Comes to Pemberley by P.D. James.  This is more successful than other Jane Austen sequels I’ve read because P.D. James has perfect dialogue.  And it ends in a marriage, naturally.

If you liked the Graceling/Fire/Bitterblue trilogy of young adult fantasies by Kristen Cashore (aren’t we all stealing out of the YA section these days?) you might want to try Seraphina by Rachel Hartman.  Seraphina is half human, and half dragon, and this imaginative story presents an intriguing new world and tough heroine.  It’s the start of a series.

If you liked How To Be Good by Nick Hornby, you might like the zany world of Christopher Moore.  I zoomed through A Dirty Job about Charlie Fletcher, who discovers he is a death merchant responsible for transferring soul vessels.  That plot summary gives a good sense of Moore’s interests.  Warning- Moore doesn’t let concerns about losing the reader in gleeful idiocy get in the way of a Badump bump pun.

If you liked Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by John Berendt, you might like The Hare With the Amber Eyes by Edmund De Waal.  He’s an artist who researches the history behind his family’s netsuke collection.  These small carved Japanese animals and people were collected by his great uncle.  He tells the story of the various owners through the 20^th century, as they move around the world.

If you liked The Family Fang by Kevin Wilson, you might enjoy Object of Beauty by Steve Martin.  It’s the story of Lacey, a beautiful, smart and amoral art dealer in New York.  If you are curious about modern art and/or interested in the life of an ambitious golden girl, you might enjoy it.  I also liked it because I learned about the modern art business on the side.  It’s always good to get a little nonfiction learning in on the side during a great story!

If you liked A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry, you will enjoy the heft and drama of Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese.  This one broke my usual “nothing thicker than a phone book” rule.  However, everyone else in book club liked this story about two doctor twins in Ethiopia, so I’ll mention it for those with perseverance.

If you liked Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert you might like Wild by Cheryl Strayed.  It’s a nonfiction biography of the author’s life changing hike on the Pacific Coast Trail.  However, since Oprah has been promoting the novel, it is unlikely there are many out there who haven’t read this one!

 

The Chaperone: a lovely character study of two women

I just finished a delightful novel called The Chaperone by Laura Moriarty.  It is a character piece about the relationship between two women.  Cora is a sensitive and conservative wife and mother in 1920's Wichita, Kansas.  A fictitious character, she offers to accompany a real person, future screen actress Louise Brooks, to New York for dance training.  Cora has a personal motive for offering to play chaperone which she is too private to reveal to Louise.   I would recommend this to readers who like character driven historical fiction.  There isn't a tightly wound plot, but evocative scenes that convey rare moments of understanding between people, and how two people influence each other.  I enjoyed the setting of New York in the 1920s, when social mores were shifting.

Siblings survive their artist parents

Just finished a book that might appeal to bookclubs that enjoy something a little quirky, like Miriam Toews or Jessica Grant characters.  The Family Fang by Kevin Wilson is the story of a family of performance artists.  Caleb and Camille are completely devoted to their art.  They enlist their children Annie and Buster (called A&B) in their disruptive performances.  It is comic and painful at the same time.  It could lead to some interesting book club discussions around what exactly is art, and where is the line between being a professional and being a parent drawn?

Light and sweet British comedy of manners

Been busy reading "teen" fiction and "so junky I don't want to admit it" fiction and even a little "unhappy" fiction.  But here's a happy one I can recommend for book clubs.

Major Pettigrew's Last Stand is by Helen Simonson. Major Pettigrew is a retired widower in a small British town. He falls in love with Mrs. Ali, the Pakistani shopkeeper, who has also been widowed. Their fumbling romance is closely observed by the other inhabitants of the village. The characters are realistic and three dimensional and I've grown to love them. If I saw Major Pettigrew in the street I would rush over to shake his hand, much to his chagrin no doubt.

In high school I enjoyed books by Miss Read and Jane Austen. This has a similar tone. There's social criticism in them, but it's delivered in a light manner.