We haven’t been at the pool all week (except for a short time Sunday, when the rain sent us home), because my daughter has dance in the mornings; and by the time she’s home, we’ve been plagued by afternoon thunderstorms.   Right now, as I write this, it is pouring by the bucketfuls.  My kids are not too happy about our July weather; and even less happy by the fact that back-to-school is right around the corner (three weeks from today!) — meaning the amount of pool time for them is ever-shrinking. 

So, my last poolside read — finished this Sunday – was what?  “War Dances”, by Sherman Alexie.  A short story collection with poems sprinkled in between, this was a good poolside read without being brain mush.    At 209 pages, and with the way the book was structured, this was a very quick read, as well.

This is not my first experience with Sherman Alexie; see last September post discussing three of his books “Reading Sherman Alexie“.     “War Dances”, is Mr. Alexie’s most recent — having been published fall 2009 (Grove/Atlantic).  Although I believe that the paperback edition is officially out now, I’ve  had a trade paperback copy for a while – ordered from QPB.com.  I’ve been a long-time (since college!) member of QPB — how many of you know of QPB (Quality Paperback Bookclub)?

Anyway, back to “War Dances”.  There are only six short stories in this collection; and as I mentioned, also some poetry.  But also in between these two forms are several passages written in Question and Answer format.  I think Mr. Alexie is being experimental here in how this volume is put together.  But, by “experimental”, I don’t mean that this leaves the reader scratching his or her head wondering, what the heck did he mean here?  After all, I consider him to be a fairly straightforward writer. 

Here is how I would briefly describe each short story:

“Breaking and Entering” is about a Native-American who is a free-lance film editor that does his work at his home.  One day, his home is broken in by a young African-American man.  The film editor acts in self-defense.  The rest of the story deals with the aftermath and publicity, and looks at how minorities are often seen and portrayedin the media and real life.

“War Dances” is structured a little differently than a traditional short story; with some parallelism in there — but the basic premise is a man whose alcoholic and diabetic father is in the hospital nearing the end of his life.  The son notices that the hospital blankets are ridiculously thin and unable to keep his father warm, so the son goes out in search for other Native American patients, figuring that their family members might have heavy, warm Native-American blankets.  There is more to the story than this, but that incident really stood out for me. 

“The Senator’s Son” does not have a Native-American focus. It’s about a young man whose dad is a conservative politician.  In this story, the young man relates how he loses the friendship of his best friend, Jeremy.  When they are 16, Jeremy confesses that he  is gay.  This story is somewhat sad.

“The Ballad of Paul Nonetheless” is about a man who loses his desire for his gorgeous wife (after she has had children).  He flirts with women (and does more than that, too).  He meets a woman with red Puma shoes — hence the illustration on book’s cover — and flirts with her.  The repartee between them is amusing at times, although I didn’t  like Paul.

“Fearful Symmetry” shows how a screenwriter sees his project being destroyed and dumbed-down by an arrogant film producer.  The title of this short story is based on the screenplay which itself is based on a book about Native American smoke-jumpers.  “Fearful Symmetry” borrows its’ title from stanzas of a poem by William Blake (Tyger! Tyger! burning bright…).

The last story, “Salt”, is about a summer intern at a newspaper who ends up being requested to write the obituary for the obituaries editor.  He also gets a strange phone call from someone who wants to write an obituary for her dead husband — this is somewhat a bittersweet story.

Although I liked the book “War Dances”, I think if I were to recommend one Sherman Alexie book to start with; from what I’ve read so far of him — it would be the YA title, “The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian”.

Have you read Sherman Alexie yet?

Now, I need to decide on my next poolside book (although I’m not sure when we’ll go again, because of this weather, and also having company arriving next week).  Would you like to help me decide?  I’m currently reading “Mudbound” by Hillary Jordan and “Beirut 39″,  a collection of translated Arabic writings edited by Samuel Shimon; but neither are really pool-side reads.

Here’s what I’m thinking of (I admit I narrowed them down to font appearance — some others seemed interesting, but not good for reading in the sun, even with sunglasses).  These are all novels:

• “On Beauty”, by Zadie Smith.  It’s described on the back cover as a “brilliant, hilarious send-up of the culture wars that define our age”.  There doesn’t seem to be very many chapter breaks, though.

• “The Fiction Class”, by Susan Breen.  About an author who teaches a fiction class, but her difficult mother decides to join the class.

• “The Pilot’s Wife” by Anita Shreve.  Picked up as an used book from the library sale shelf, this one is about a pilot widow who finds out her late husband had a secret life.

• “My Cousin Rachel”, by Daphne du Maurier.  I also have “Rebecca”, which I probably should read first, but “Rebecca” is a mass market paperback, too small for reading by the pool.

What do you think?

Disclosure:  As mentioned, “War Dances” was purchased from QPB.

When I woke up this morning, I was shocked to see how much snow was outside our deck.  Since this picture was taken, the lantern in the center of the table is now completely covered; and the snow is still coming down!  Needless to say, the kids are home from school today.  Of course, this makes it hard to do any real blogging.  And, the book I’m currently reading, “In Time of the Butterflies” by Julia Alvarez has gotten very depressing.  I’m taking a breather from it before I get back to it.  I also have a book waiting for me by the fireplace:  “Wildly Romantic, The English Romantic Poets: The Mad, the Bad, and the Dangerous” by Catherine M. Andronik.  Appropriate for National Poetry Month, isn’t it?

I also wanted to remind you to enter the book give-away for Linda Gillard’s “Emotional Geology”!  The author has offered to autograph and mail a copy of this book to one lucky winner.  Today is the last day to enter; but I’m not setting a time deadline.  I’ll take a look tomorrow morning, then draw a name.  I think there should be more entries, because this is a good book!  Here is the link  (includes review and author interview).  Good luck!

Now I’ll go back and sit by the fire, reading.

The snow started falling last night. I don’t think snow is a big deal after living in Michigan for several years. But this this much, this early in the season?
A view from the back of our house of the Front Range with snow cover. Pikes Peak is not visible; it’s hiding behind the clouds.

I have been enduring tinnitus in my left ear for over a year now (the tinnitus is the aftermath of an ear infection, which was hard on my ear which is “getting older” according to the ENT). Thank goodness I don’t get vertigo anymore like I did at the beginning, but I do get “motion sickness” more easily now.

The tinnitus is better than it used to be, but I still have it 2-3 days a week. One pattern I have noticed is that I get it when the weather is changing. For example, I have it today and after checking the weather forecast, sure enough, it’s expected to rain later today.

It’s annoying when I get it becasue it makes it harder for me to understand when people talk to me, it’s just like having background noise right in my ear.

Oh well, at least I don’t have it everyday! It’ll be interesting to see how my left ear acts after we move to Colorado with its’ different climate and air atmosphere.

I just found out from a friend (K.) about this cool website Library Thing. You can enter all the books you own (or whichever books of yours you want to enter) there, and have your own “virtual bookshelf”. There are also widgets that you can install on your blog page so that blog readers can see some of the books from your library and also go there to look at it. You can see my list on the right hand side of my blog. So far I’ve only entered the books I’ve done for cookbook weekends and the cookbook I’m currently reading (it may be the basis of my next cookbook weekend, which will not happen this weekend). I have a feeling this could be very addictive for me, entering all my books there! By the way, there is an option to keep it entirely private if you want to–and you don’t need to be a blogger to use Library Thing.

Today is a true snow day–no school for the kids. Snow has been falling all morning. We only have one computer for this family of five which I think is crazy, so I am not sure how much I will get to play on the computer and Library Thing today. I am sure the kids will go outside and play in the snow, but it won’t take all day. I’m feeling much better today–my abdomen is still sore but not as painful. Maybe I’ll be able to finish Martin Van Buren today and add him to my Presidential Redwork slideshow. I just have a few strands of hair left to embroider.