Well, we made it back from Colorado and boy is it good to be home…  I look back on my previous post about how I packed enough books in case of delays and wonder if I jinxed myself!  Sunday night, Aspen was forecasted to receive 30 inches of snow and apparently did by Tuesday morning.  Fortunately, only about a foot actually fell by Monday morning, but that was enough to make our drive to Denver a little dicey.  Then, when we arrived at the airport, we were informed that Minneapolis had closed all but one runway due to snow and high winds.  Needless to say, we made it home at 1:30 a.m. and, as exhausted as we were, and as stunning as the landscape is in Aspen, we were grateful to be in our own bed last night.

We were in Aspen to spend time with my cousins who, for the past 5 years, have rented a house during the last week of the skiing season and invited friends and family to join them.  They own ShareASale and are able to work anywhere — even at 10,000 feet — and are very generous (and fun).  Until this year, my teaching schedule has never permitted me to join them, so we decided to experience a long weekend of skiing and exhilarating sights. 

The first day, as we rode the chair lift with one of my cousins, I mentioned that I had never been on a lift for that long (having only skiied in Michigan and Minnesota).  He paused, then told me we were only about 10% of the way to the top.  Needless to say, my husband and I are now very sore and very grateful to be back on a horizontal plane, even days later.  However, the scenery was gorgeous and it is an experience I’ll never forget (even if I wanted to…).

But on to what I managed to read this past week!  First, I finished The Reading Group by Elizabeth Noble and was a bit disappointed.  I did enjoy the ensemble of characters — and it did keep my attention — but it was way too long (over 400 pages), especially since the focus was more on the unhappy marriages and less on the books the women were reading.  I love the concept of structuring a novel by monthly meetings and beginning each section with the book group’s discussion, but this organizational principle felt too disjointed and disconnected, instead of integrated thematically. 

I probably will not request her upcoming novel Things I Want My Daughters To Know, about a mother who leaves her daughters letters about life (to be read after her death), but you might want to check out The Reading Group — apparently it was a hit in Britian.  I did wonder if the fact that I have just passed my 2nd year anniversary — and am still crazy about my husband — left me less patient with the unsatisfying marriages in the novel. 

After I finished Noble’s book in the Denver airport while waiting for my husband (who was working in California all week — we met in Denver and drove to Aspen), I read Julie & Julia: 365 days, 524 recipes, 1 tiny apartment kitchen by Julie Powell.  This memoir is about a 29 year old woman, working in a stultifying temp job (as a secretary for the 911 memorial committee), married to her high school sweetheart (happily, which was a relief after The Reading Group), afraid she may never get pregnant (this only comes up at the beginning and the end, by the way), who decides to cook her way through Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking in one year and blog about it. 

I liked Powell enough to enjoy her memoir — she is funny and self-depreciating — but I was glad I was able to read it in a short period of time.  It wouldn’t have sustained my interest over the course of a week, but it was a fun read for a couple of hours in an airport.  Some of the recipes are pretty graphic (extracting bone marrow, boning a duck, etc.), and she uses the f-word as an adjective, verb, and noun throughout, but her descriptions of her brother “Heathcliff” were hilarious and I wish he had played a larger role.  Honestly, at the end when Julia Childs learns about her project (Powell actually gets a LOT of press for her blog — it was 2002 and blogs were still novel), I shared Childs’ reaction (not so positive) yet felt compassionate toward Powell’s angst, too.  Chartroose recently posted about how memoirs can canonize their family members and sanitize their experiences, and Powell does not do this — to her credit — but I would only recommend it with lukewarm praise.

Last, I have just started Disgrace by J.M. Coetzee and am really enjoying it.  I’ve only just begun — although I requested the large-print edition from the library (shorter waiting list), so I feel as if I’m farther than I am.  The premise, so far, is a 50ish professor, twice divorced, who strikes up an affair with a student who then tells her father who immediately tells the administration of the university.  As I was catching up on my blog reader this afternoon, I found a review on Disgrace but did not read it.   Feel free, if you’re curious…  I’ll read it as soon as I finish the novel and see if I agree.  (It feels strange to link to something I haven’t read myself – but it’s a reputable site so I’m sure there isn’t anything objectionable in it…  I hope…).

I didn’t get a chance to finish The New Earth yet, but I will this week…

In addition, this week I plan to read The Savage Detectives by Roberto Bolano, for pleasure, and The Road by Cormac McCarthy for a kit.  Happy Reading!!

Welcome back!