Book Review: Tinkers by Paul Harding

Book: Tinkers by Paul Harding
Genre: Literary Fiction
Rating:★★★☆☆
For: Community Read event
From: Free from the library

I can see why this book won the Pulitzer. It's very artistic. It's kind of like all the movies that win the Oscar, you know? Artsy and... kinda confusing. But who cares, because it's so pretty!

This book is a very poetic look at the thoughts of a dying man. As he lays there with his family around him, his thoughts go back to his own father who was a Fuller Brush man (do you know of which I speak?) and thus known as a tinker. He remembers several stories his father told, and he remembers how his father suffered from epilepsy and how is mom could not deal with it very well, and he remembers what happens in the end.

Then, his thoughts turn to his grandfather, someone he wishes his father had told him more about. After they die is not the time to think this! You know what I'm saying? Talk to your old people now! I have a very strong passion about this subject!

Anyway, so then we get a bit of the story from the dad's point of view.

In between are excerpts from several books that I'm assuming meant something to this guy, George, the one who is dying. And then, there's lots and lots of beautiful poetic stream of conscious passages that are actually pretty amazing. And so true to real life experiences. Nice when a book does that... tells the truth and all.

I'm sure a ton of it went right over my head, but I enjoyed most of it. And being such a small and tiny book, the bits I didn't get were fast and quickly over!

Bottom line: A beautiful ode to the end of a life.

P.S. If you missed it, I posted about hearing the author speak at the library last week. Come and see what I thought! His second book, Enon, has just been released and tells the story of Charlie, one of the grandsons who was watching over George in Tinkers.

Other Reviews:

Three stars for plot, but five stars for prose – for an average of four stars. From The Bluestocking Society

Tinkers is a language lover's novel. Harding wowed me with his words. From Nomadreader

This beautiful, spare novel should find its way into the hands of every reader of literary fiction. From The Boston Bibliophile

A few reviewers have said the book should be read as poetry rather than prose. Fair or not, when I hear that, I always tend to assume they mean it just doesn't work as a novel. And in this case, I think my assumption is right. From A Little Reading

Tons of TV Talk

In the TV watching front, things have picked up tremendously! How's a person to keep up?

Well, one way is to list all the shows on their blog and then get really depressed about it! Seriously, do I have time for this?

Most of these shows I watch later, online or on demand, and Netflix where available. We don't even have a DVR but really, who needs one these days, right? The way we watch TV now is so different from just a few years ago. It's crazy.

Anyway, here's the list....

Shows I'm Watching 

Sunday

What a big TV night this is! What's up with that?

Amazing Race: A show that I often do make the time to watch live. For me, it is still as fun as always, and makes me want to travel the world. It's especially cool when they do go somewhere that I've been. I love it!

Once Upon a Time: The plot for this show is so complicated that it makes my head spin, but I love it and I love the twists and turns on all the fairy tales. So so creative. Anxious to see the what's going to happen with Hook and Emma. And I still need to watch last week's show!

Revenge: This one seems to be waning lately. We heard it was going to pick up this season, so we are giving it a chance. Often though, I end up tuning out the details of the plot and just look for the character interaction. Nolan continues to fascinate me, but I have cringe at him sometimes too.

Some in my family watch (or have watched) Breaking Bad and The Walking Dead. I haven't dared try either one of those yet.

Of course, Downton Abbey will soon join the list here! Last year I watched it online when it was currently showing Britain, and in fact I have watched one episode of the new season. But then something happened and it's not available, at least where I was finding it, so now I guess I'll just wait and watch it later with everyone else.

Monday

Sleepy Hollow: I've watched several episodes of this one and they just seem to be getting better and better. That dude, Crane, is growing on my big time. I love his old fashioned character thrown into modern times. It makes for some pretty fun dialogue. The stuff that happens though, is pretty creepy scary.

Tuesday

Currently, I have no Tuesday shows!

Wednesday

Survivor: Can you believe how long this show has been on TV? Its crazy! This season they are pitting family against each other and it's been really fun and turns everyone's strategy on its head. Totally enjoying it so far.

Thursday

The Vampire Diaries: Another show that it still pretty good after all these years. Things are so different!

Parenthood: I think this one is pretty much my favorite show of all. It's so real and so ordinary and so true and so good. I do miss Mr. Cyr though! Bring him back!

Friday and Saturday

Currently no shows on these nights either! Am I missing something?

Shows I'm Pondering

Reign looks very intriguing, but I haven't sat down to watch that first episode yet. It may be added to my Thursday night line up soon!

Also, that Alice in Wonderland show looks fun too, but I haven't decided if I should really give it a shot or not.

And what about The Originals? The spin off from Vampire Diaries? I want to watch it just for Elijah!

Speaking of vampires, what about Dracula? Has that started yet? Does it look good?

I tried Agents of SHEILD, but it was boring to me.


Shows on Netflix

Buffy: I finished season three finally have started the first episode of season four. You know, this show still does not totally grab me! It seems surface-y to me, I need it to be deeper.

Dr. Who: We actually rented the DVDs from the library of the latest season... still trying to get through those, even though there's not very many. I'm enjoying Clara though. I need to catch up to be read for the big 50 anniversary "Day of the Doctor" episode. It would be fun to watch that live, but you know, I don't even know where or when to find it! Gah!

Other shows on Netflix that will be an ongoing project for me including Supernatural and Teen Wolf and I can't remember what else!

So, what shows are you watching with me? Let's discuss! What shows do you think I should add to the list? You can probably tell from this list which sorts I like, so tell me! What am I missing??

Top Ten Tuesday: Favorite Names

The prompt this week over at The Broke and the Bookish is to list some favorite book character names. I have a ton! So here's a few that come to me at the spur of the moment. (Most of them from fantasy stories, which kind of makes sense, right?) And I'm going to be lazy and not name the books... you can guess most of them I bet!

Ten Favorite Character Names

1. Finnikin
2. Kvothe
3. Perrin
4. Sage
5. Cricket
6. Heathcliff
7. Ronan
8. Seraphina
9. Karou
10. Valek

Did you guess the books? Do you agree with my choices? I seem to be heavy on the boy names, yes? What names do you love?

Author Appearance: Paul Harding

This year for our community reads event through the library, we are reading the Pulitzer Prize winning novel, Tinkers, by Paul Harding. As part of this celebration, the author himself came to visit. How often do you get to see a Pulitzer Prize winning author?! Not very often I say, so of course, I was there.

Now, I'm not very familiar with either him or his book. I started reading Tinkers during the readathon last week and after not very long decided it was not a good readathon book. It needs a bit of focus and concentration! (I have since, this weekend, read half of the book have learned that there are only a few parts that are "hard" and the rest isn't too bad at all!)

And the author, I'd never heard of until I knew about this event. So basically, I had no idea what to expect or what he would be like. But let me just say, I'm starting to understand that most authors who have won this prize have done so for a reason! This guy knew how to use his words!

I'm not much a fan of  "readings"... you know where the author opens their book and reads away. Usually it's a bit on the boring side, but this guy was fascinating to listen to. Actually, I'm thinking that his book just lends itself to being read out loud. It has that poetic feel and cadence that makes it much more easy to understand if read out loud. And when he himself did it, it was especially awesome.

Then, he simply took questions from the crowd. And his answers, instead of being one worded, short and simple things, were long beautifully worded essays! How can people think on their feet like this? It truly blows me away.

Anyway, I remember someone asked him about doing a book where one of the secondary characters in Tinkers gets the spotlight. He said that you can't set out to write a specific kind of book, that the book sort of comes to you and you just have to go with it. He thinks that if he sat down to do something like that, it just wouldn't work. He went on for quite a long time about this, going with your gut instead of forcing something to happen. 

Someone else asked about what he was doing when he got the news about winning the prize. It was a pretty funny and not-so-glamorous story. He was off away from home, teaching or something. He was lonely and a bit depressed. And  I don't think he even got a phone call or anything until after he saw the news online or somewhere. I can't remember exactly, but he did not find out ahead of time. And then they wanted him to come do press and some such thing, and he was like... "but I don't have a clean shirt!" 

I can't remember now all the questions, but it was a very enjoyable evening and I'm very glad to have taken the time to go listen to him. He was delightful! 

And now that I'm more into the book, I can say that it's being quite delightful too! That review to come soon!

In Which I Faint at the Mailbox

I've already shared these pictures with many of you. Yes, if you are on Instagram, Twitter or Facebook, you've seen my mail already. However, if you are not, how could I neglect sharing here also? I must keep sharing 'till I've shared in every single place there is! (And after this post, I promise, I will shut up about it. I think.)

So I went to the mailbox the other day... the long and arduous trek down to the end of the driveway where usually I gather all the junk mail and throw it away in the can on the way back to the house, where I then stack the rest of it to be shredded at some later time. Getting the mail is usually so disappointing. However, sometimes there's a book in the mailbox, which is always exciting, but only rarely happens these days. Sometimes, during letter month or Christmastime there's a card or a note from a real life person, though this is far and few between too.

But one this particular day there I found a postcard that looked like this:

At first I thought it might be from Melissa of Avid Reader's Musings since she's been known to send me Book Thief related things. I was thinking... ah cool! Melissa you are the best!

Then I looked on the back and saw this note:

I couldn't understand it at first, but then I realized it says THESE not THERE... and "whole lot of these" was referring to the postcards themselves.... Book Thief movie promotional materials I'm thinking. Still, it's not quite clicking in what I have in my hands.

And then I saw this on the other half of the post card:

And that's when I freaked and gasped and very much out loud there at the mailbox said, "Are you kidding me?" I looked again. Out loud, I said to no one. "Seriously? Oh! My! Gosh! Really? He didn't! He did!! Wow, he really did!"

If the neighbors had been out, I wonder what they were thinking!

I may have turned about in a circle, I may have done a happy dance, I may have giggled a little. And then I took myself quickly back in the house were I looked again, and thought "I think this is for real. This is real, right?"

About that time I managed to calm down and think rationally that I really am no one special, that he probably sent a "whole lot of these" to EVERYONE he knew... or I should say, to everyone he had an address for. And I'm sure that stack was a very large one.

But how did he get my address, you may ask. Remember back nearly two years ago at the first Letter Month? And I was brave (or crazy) enough to decide to send him a fan letter? Even though I felt pretty darn silly doing it? Remember that?

Well, sometimes it pays to write a fan letter! Especially if it's to Markus Zusak because I think he says what he means and means what he says! Back at the time, this is what he tweeted me back:

@SueySays Suey - I got your letter! Thanks. I'll reply when I've done some decent work on the new book. It's killing me. THANKS AGAIN- mz
— Markus Zusak (@Markus_Zusak) March 7, 2012

And ever since then I've wondered if he really would, but figured he really wouldn't. I mean, seriously. He has better things to do.

And yet he has! In the form of a promotional movie postcard, and, you know what? I'll take it.

A Pinteresting Update!

I've been madly working on the Pin It and Do It Challenge! Madly!

Here's a few things we've accomplished:
(links to the original Pinterest pin, but the pictures here are proof of how things turned out for me!)

A Fruit Fly Trap!

Thoughts: It worked! Though you have to tape the paper to the jar or the critters manage to escape.


Fresh Tomato Spaghetti Sauce

Thoughts: I made a huge batch and put it in the freezer!

A Halloween Wall Hanging

Thoughts: Pretty easy! I like how it turned out. How I found time to actually do this one, I'll never know.

Witch Hat Cookies

Thoughts: Extremely easy. A big hit at the party we took them to.

Pumpkin Brownie Blondies

Thoughts: Very heavy and rich. I'm not sure I really liked these.

Spiders on the Door!

Thoughts: We had to buy spider rings and cut the ring part off. Then make sure you use the heavier round magnets. We tried the thin sticky backed stuff and it did not work at all.

Seems like we've done more stuff, but I guess it was all before the challenge actually started! Anyway, let's see what we come up with during the second half of the month!

TLC Book Tour, Review and Giveaway: Fiesta of Smoke by Suzan Still

Book: Fiesta of Smoke by Suzan Still
Genre: Historical Fiction/Romance
Rating:★★★★★
For: Book Tour
From: TLC Book Tours

You know, whenever I get an email from TLC saying "Hey, Suey! I think you'll LOVE this book!" I have a hard time passing it up because... they are pretty much almost always right!

And this book was no exception. A book and author I'd never heard of, and now I'm giving it five stars? When I first saw how big it was I was a bit worried and thought, oh man, can I fit this thing in right now? Well, I blazed right through it and loved every bit of it.

This book is one of those sweeping sort of stories that covers a lot of time and territory. It follows three main characters throughout their lives and how they all connect eventually in the end. Along the way, we get many different flashbacks to other times in each of their lives, including stories within stories that they were told as they were growing up or learning or experiencing different things.

However, the main year of the story is 1992, the main location is Mexico (and a little bit of Paris) and the main conflict is the Mexican Revolution, where toward the end everything comes together in a harrowing, nail-biting climax worthy of any movie!

Speaking of movies, I couldn't help thinking a bit of Romancing the Stone while reading this book! (Switch out Michael Douglas with Antonio Banderas, change the place from Columbia to Mexico and bam!) And while the details are quite a bit different, it has that same sort of feel to it! It also reminded me a bit of Gabriel Garcia Marquez's books, only with just a touch of that magic realism stuff that is really awesome when it comes in small doses! Know what I mean?

The book starts out in Paris where a newsman named Hill happens upon our heroine, Calypso, an American writer, who appears to be running away from something or someone. He falls pretty much instantly in love with her and they talk and talk for the evening, and then she disappears. He is now obsessed with finding out more about her and learning her back story. We follow him on this quest which takes him all over the place, meeting all sorts of interesting people, and ending in Mexico.

Meanwhile, we ourselves, are learning the details of her story, which includes going to college at Berkeley when suddenly this Mexican kid (named Javier) shows up at her door. She, for some crazy reason, lets him stay. He is Gorgeous (yes with a capitol G!) and so of course, Calypso cannot resist and they hook up and it appears they fall deeply madly in love.

But then some really bad stuff happens (read the book!) and he disappears... for YEARS! She goes on with her life, which ends up quite miserable, because all she can think about is Javier.

Meanwhile, he is having quite the many adventures himself, but all he can think about is Calypso! Oh, and leading a revolution of course!

Oh my word! It's so good! The writing is totally wonderful with that rich, beautiful, flowing style that makes you feel totally immersed in the story and the world and feel the passion and emotions of these fascinating characters. They are truly something and it was a blast to read their story and feel all these things right along with them. It's one of the best overall romance stories I've read in a long long time. I totally loved it.

For those squeamish sorts of readers, do beware, there's some graphic and disturbing scenes and some strong language now and then. But for me, it had a place and was not abused, which I appreciated.

Bottom line: This book was a blast to read and I loved every minute of it.



Hey and you are all so lucky because for just one more day (through today the 17th) you can grab this book for your Kindle at Amazon for only $1.99! Totally worth it!

Also, if you are interested in winning her previous book, Commune of Women, leave me a comment here (tell me a favorite historical fiction book that you've read) and I'll randomly choose a winner and the TLC people will send you a book! 

If you'd like to see what others have to say about Fiesta of Smoke, check out the list of reviews here over at the TLC site. And be sure to drop by the author Suzan Still's, website and say hi!