RIP Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Because I am a painfully slow reader, I seldom read more than one book by the same author.  Just gotta keep moving and take in as many authors and genres as possible.   Once in a while, I stop after a single book for a different reason though - fear that the second book, or the third may not affect me as strongly as the first. That was the case with Gabriel Garcia Marquez's Love in the Time of Cholera .

After reading of his death last week, it seemed proper to re-read this powerful piece even though second readings were quickly eliminated from my life after earning my Masters.  But there is something about this book.  You know I love magical realism and Marquez is the master of fusing reality with surrealism.  His symbolism and metaphor also appeal to me.  They sweeten the book's richness, and when I can decode their meaning, I feel smart.    

This book is a love story - a genre low on my preferred reading list, and yet it held me to the very last page.. It is not an easy book,  It is not a happy book.  Florentino and Fermina fall in love in their youth.  They believe, as did I, that they would be together forever even though Fermina's father warred against the relationship.  Eventually. Fermina opts for a perceived fuller life and marries a doctor.  Florentino deals with his grief though a series of meaningless, sexual relationships.

I know it all sounds very soap opera-ish, but the intensity of Maquez's prose takes you deep into Florentino's pain.  Graphic scenes?  You betcha - but they aren't lurid, they are sad.  For Florentino, love sickness evolves with incurable, life threatening  skill.  To him, it is a disease as real, harsh, ugly and relentless as cholera.

Well, I better stop before I find myself adding  Marquez's master work, One Hundred Years of Solitude.  to my  ever growing TBR pile.

What am I reading now?  My book discussion title for May is A Lady Cyclist's Guide to Kashgar by Suzanne Joinson.    I wasn't too sure, but by page 35, I was hooked.

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Hey...have you gotten to get your Heart-A-Rama tickets?  You better hurry.  There are still some left at the Pig in Manitowoc and Inman's Jewelers in Two Rivers.  Don't miss the chance to help laugh away heart disease.  Join us on May 1, 2, 3, 8, 9 and 10 as we Legalize Heart-A-Rama.  Check out the HAR videos at www.heartarama.blogspot.com

You Gotta Read This Book

Two weeks ago, Barb Aronson, one of my favorite sales reps dropped off this book saying "You have to read this.  Everyone is talking about it."  Turns out, this book got more recommendations for the American Booksellers monthly flyer than any other book...ever.  I get why booksellers like it.  It's about a bookstore and a cantankerous bookseller named A.J Fikry.  Fikry has been angry since the tragic death of his wife and bookstore partner, but despite that, I found him charming and fascinating.  As a bookseller, Fikry's palette is narrow.  He does not like postmodernism, or postapocalyptic works.  He won't read celeb bios, ghost written books, stories with post mortem narrators.  Books must be more than one hundred twenty pages but less than four hundred fifty.

That's the first info we learn about Fickry when (oh how ironic) a sales rep drops by with a book that he just "must read."  Beyond the title character, I found the book simple, predictable and overly sentimental.  It wasn't until I got the final pages that I learned why so many hold this book tightly and with great fondness.

Bookstores attract the right kind of folk...good people...

And I like talking about books with people who like talking about books. 

 I like paper.  I like how it feels, and I like the feel of a book in my back pocket.  I like how a new book smells, too

....this to me is as close to a church as I have known in this life.  It is a holy place. 

 With bookstores like this, I feel confident in saying

 that there will be a book business for a very long time.

I kind of get that.  When I first opened LaDeDa I switched my full time teaching job with a part time teacher.  It worked for both of us and for the school.  Eventually, a time came when class sizes increased and I was again needed full time.  From a practical standpoint it made no sense to own a bookstore and have someone else run it for me.  I had to choose between teaching and the store.  The thought of closing the store clutched in the pit of my stomach, making the decision easy.  I knew I was giving up benefits and a great pension plan, but that didn't matter.  Still doesn't.  

Spend some time with A.J. Fickry.  You can breeze through it quickly and maybe it will make you feel better about a risk you have taken....or one that has been on your mind for a while.

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Last weekend I watched a strong but troubling film called Iris, about the author Iris Murdoch and how she lost her being to Alzheimer's.  Hugh Bonneville.  Dame Judy Dench.  Kate Winslet.  You can't find a much better cast than that.  This film will stick with me for a long, long time.  I wonder, has Kate Winslet ever stayed clothed through an entire movie?

There's still time to get Heart-A-Rama tickets.

Tons of fun and good will for only $15.00

Manitowoc Piggly Wiggly and Inman's in Two Rivers

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