Below are the 7 most recent journal entries recorded in maelaurenmae's LiveJournal:

Tuesday, March 14th, 2006
9:28 am	Short Stories I was making a list similar to this for someone in a nerd book community that I am a part of and I thought it might be useful to all. Here is a short list of short story collections that I highly recommend: The Female of the Species: Tales of Mystery and Suspense by Joyce Carol Oates Things You Should Know: A Collection of Stories by A. M. Homes The Dog of the Marriage: Stories by Amy Hempel Lizard by Banana Yoshimoto Strange Pilgrims: Twelve Stories by Gabriel Garcia Marquez Drown by Junot Diaz Pastoralia by George Saunders Lust and Other Stories by Susan Minot Cathedral by Raymond Carver Adios! (Comment on this)
Thursday, March 2nd, 2006
9:05 am	Quotation Time It’s been a storm of reading for me over the past few days and I’d like to share a few bits with you from some of books I’ve been consuming at a break-necking pace. I think both Augusten and Joyce make good points: “Now maybe I’m just ultra-judgmental, but I really feel that only two groups of people have any business collecting dolls: little girls, and grown women who lost all their children in fiery car accidents. Other than these two exceptions, doll collecting is just plain creepy.” -Augusten Burroughs, Possible Side Effects A well known writer got collard by a university student who asked, “Do you think I could be a writer?” “Well,” the writer said, “I don’t know…. Do you like sentences?” -Joyce Carol Oates, The Faith of a Writer (Comment on this)
Wednesday, January 25th, 2006
4:54 pm	A New Year of Sad Stories Not that literature is usually happy cheery sunshine all the time, but I've found the books I've read lately to be exceptionally depressing. Here's a sample: The Accident, Elie Wiesel: a fictional account of a man who survived the Holocaust and the way his life is now. He is joyless and angry. This feels like a very honest book. Hunger, an Unnatural History, Sharman Apt Russell: a short history of starvation. This title discusses everything from the Irish potato famine to current school breakfast programs in the USA. It gets gory at points, explaining exactly what happens to your body as you starve, but is very interesting. I had to put it down often, but it was 200% worth reading. Chronicle of a Death Foretold, Gabriel Garcia Marquez: a wonderful slim book with a great plot. I don't usually like to use the word "plot" since it sounds so eighth grade English class, but I feel it's useful here. The title says exactly what the book is, a chronicle of a man who everyone knows is going to be killed and then is killed. Marquez is one of the few writers who could hold your interest for 150 pages when the ending has already been given away. To summarize: my reading has been sad yet interesting. (Comment on this)
Thursday, January 5th, 2006
12:49 pm	Harold Pinter A friend at work just told me about this speech and I think it is more than worth a read through: http://nobelprize.org/literature/laureates/2005/pinter-lecture-e.html (Comment on this)
Tuesday, December 27th, 2005
2:29 pm	December Reads On I finished God of Small Things and ended up disliking it, then liking it, then disliking it and then liking it. If a book makes me think that much, then it's doing something right. So many moments in the story were unique and alive that I can forget about the less interesting segments. Next, I picked up Radio On by Sarah Vowell and am enjoying it. If you're not familiar with it, it's a diary of her experiences listening to various radio stations. Sarah Vowell is a personal writing hero of mine, so whatever she does is A+ with me. Also, I took a day to read Holidays on Ice by David Sedaris. I've read most of these essays and stories before, but they are no less hilarious the second time around. If you never read anything else by David Sedaris, take a couple of hours and consume this collection. (Comment on this)
Monday, December 12th, 2005
11:42 am	The God of Small Things I've been reading "God of Small Things" by Arundhati Roy. I've enjoyed many small pieces, but I am having a hard time getting into the overarching story. I don't feel connected to the main characters. I have a hard time even considering them main characters since they are absent for paragraphs at a time. Roy focuses on minor characters that are fascinating, but then disappear. I might just be having trouble with her style, but I think I might be able to get used to it. I'm about eighty pages in and it's a slow read, but I think I'll make it through. Perhaps the major characters will pick up the pace! (Comment on this)
11:32 am	Bookworm My new job allows for ample reading time, which makes me happier than if it made me Queen of Doughnuts. Which sounds nice, but I just made it up, so it's not a real thing to wish, hope and dream for. I'd like to take this opportunity to make some notes on the titles I have read in the past few months, in an effort to guide you in your own reading endeavors. Here's my list: The Old Man and the Sea (Ernest Hemingway): I have no idea how I made it through high school and college as a writing major without so much as reading the back cover of this book. It's super heartbreaking and worth the hour and a half it will take you to read it. Waiting (Ha Jin): This one was read by me in an effort to read as many titles as possible by BU professors, since that is where I would heart to go to grad school. It's a simply written tale about waiting thirteen years to marry a girl and then wishing you hadn't. I think the message is "no happiness for anyone at anytime." A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius (Dave Eggers): This book is a lie book. It is not heartbreaking or genius. In fact, I have a feeling he didn't even work that hard to write it. It's mostly about how he did a bad job raising his brother after his parents died and then he loses the cremated remains of his parents. Like Water for Chocolate (Laura Esquivel): A novel containing all the things I enjoy: magical realism, semi-steamy affairs and food. Pastoralia (George Saunders): George is some sort of mad genius. His stories make little to no sense logistically, but are awesomer than awesome. He writes about a human zoo and elderly ladies coming back from the grave with a new found love for curse words. I say pick this title up ASAP. This Side of Paradise (F. Scott Fitzgerald): Capitan F. Scott is a maniac. This "novel" has no cohesion whatsoever. It's like first you're reading a short story, then some love sick poetry, then you're in the middle of a screen play yelling: "WHAT'S GOING ON??" Don't get me wrong, Fitzgerald is a hero, but Max Perkins should have scrapped his first efforts. White Noise (Don DeLillo): This book is great in that it contains weird evacuation scenarios, sex in exchange for experimental drugs and experts on Hitler studies. Read up! For sure there are more books than this, but I thought I'd give you the highlights. I'm sure you don't want to hear my thoughts on "The Little Engine that Could" or obscure 80's titles like "From Rockaway" or "Tracer." (Comment on this)