Bartoli - Coppi, and...

 Looks like there's room between Gino Bartali and Fausto Coppi for Pantani!

Review of Jonathan Franzen's Freedom

Thanks to Beehive customer & book reviewer, Chris Echesabal, for his review:


I liked this book. I’m just going to come right out and start with that. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. This is an important declaration to make because I absolutely did not want to like this book. I’d spent the last month purposely avoiding every article and interview about Freedom or about Jonathan Franzen and his utter genius as a novelist. I saw his face on the cover of Time magazine and I thought he looked like a joke; like the obnoxious parody of what a serious novelist is supposed to look like. Everyone was crazy about this book and so, trying to be unique and elitist, I refused to jump on the bandwagon. It was not until I stumbled upon a review of Freedom in the Economist’s arts & culture section that I was willing to give it a chance. Not a periodical prone to exaggeration, the Economist proclaimed this novel as the next in a long line of great American novels.

And so it was, as I found myself reading the novel, that nothing came to mind so much as William Faulkner’s The Sound and the Fury, a book that hadn’t once crossed my mind since I read it with great difficulty in my 10th grade English class. And then as the book progressed I began to think of it less in the style of the American classics and more like one of the great tragedies of antiquity. Finally, after the novel takes a turn that is somehow both completely unexpected and entirely predictable, I found myself unable to compare it to anything at all. It was this feeling that made me most glad that I’d read this book.

At the risk of inadequately summarizing a plot that spans several characters and several generations across a century of time, I will attempt to explain what Freedom is about. It revolves around a family, that much is easy to say. This family, the Berglunds, has its fair share of issues including dishonesty, mistrust, depression, paranoia, and an overwhelming sense of purposelessness. It’s the relatively benign nature of these issues (that is to say, none of the problems in this family are particularly overt, they all simmer beneath the surface) that drives the plot of the novel forward in its own unusually cerebral, somewhat painful way. There are few big events in Freedom but they build in such a gripping way, like a pot of water slowly boiling before dramatically spilling over.

Okay, that was a weak metaphor but I don’t want you to get the feeling that this is a boring book. It truly is not. If you’re someone who needs adventure and action in your novels then you probably will not enjoy this book. Freedom is not your fun summer read and Jonathan Franzen is not Dan Brown. Franzen’s skill comes in his creation of wholly realistic and gripping characters with serious emotional problems that, for their own individual reasons, they are entirely unwilling to deal with until the book’s dramatic conclusion. The problems within and around the Berglund family are the problems of an American, mid-western, middle class kind of family which perhaps lends Freedom its nature as a particularly American novel.

Freedom is both a painful and entirely rewarding read and, in spite of all my earliest inclinations, I found myself completely in love with this book. It’s not a short book and it’s not an easy book to get through but if you can make it all the way to the end you’ll find yourself happy that you made the effort. And when this book becomes a standard text on American lit curricula in the future you’ll impress all your classmates by having already read it.

It's a Book! It's a Classic!

Every book lover needs a copy of this hilarious picture book, which perfectly captures why the old-fashioned "book" is still a necessity in today's technology-enamored world.  It's all done with large doses of humor  and simple appealing illustrations featuring a mouse, monkey and jackass. (Just the fact that author/illustrator Lane Smith can get away with calling the donkey a "jack-ass" in a children' book and it's still a hit with teachers and librarians is proof enough that this book is a classic).
Open to the book to the first page, where you'll find Monkey quietly reading a book, and his friend, the jackass, who asks:  "What do you have there?"  Monkey replies, "It's a book," to which the befuddled jackass asks, "How do you scroll down?"  And the story is off and running, with he jackass peppering the monkey with questions like "Do you blog with it?" and "Can it text? Tweet?" and "Do you need a password?"  Finally, the monkey just hands the book to the jackass, who settles down to read. The hours go by, the jackass is hooked and he's soon headed off to the library to get a book of his own, but not without a final parting comment from the clever little mouse hiding under the monkey's hat.  I read this book to my 11-year-old son, who laughed out loud and even put down his I-pod and logged off the computer for a few moments.  Great fun!  -- Erin  
 

The Spire

                                   
The Spire, by Richard North Patterson, was a surprisingly interesting read for me.  A mystery set in a fictional Ohio town with a small liberal arts college, the setting in the book is based on Delaware and Ohio Wesleyan University, where Patterson attended college.  My primary reason for reading the book was the setting.  As I read, I was drawn farther and farther into the story. People familiar with the area and OWU will be able to catch the references to specific places like University Hall, The now closed Brown Jug restaurant, and many other Delaware landmarks. The story takes on a new vibrancy when the reader is able to actually picture what the places look like and the people might act like.
    Outside of the setting, Patterson knows how to keep a reader reading.  I typically have low expectations for the quality of writing in thrillers, but this book did a good job delving into the psychological side of the antagonist. The book has very little action in it as it follows a new college president trying to solve an embezzlement crisis and a twenty year old murder from his days as a student at the same college (not exactly gunfights and explosions, though I think financial crimes would be much more exciting with some explosions.  Think of the current financial meltdown with real melting! Riveting stuff.). Anyway,  while very little happens, Patterson manages to keep the reader guessing and for the most part throws enough twists and turns into the story to keep you reading.

My one criticism is that I found the ending slightly predictable and was not surprised by the character that turns out to be the villain.  Connections between plot points were also overly constructed in certain areas so they would fit together.  It is never explained why the main character suddenly is so interested in solving a twenty year old murder after leaving it behind for so long.  After reconciling these minor problems, it was still a relatively engaging read. I would reccomend the book as an interesting diversion, especially for someone who typically read non fiction like myself, but nothing ground breaking. People familiar with Delaware and OWU will find it entertaining to see the dramatization of the town and the school.
-Drew

Super Sad True Love Story Review

Super Sad True Love Story: a review by Beehive customer, Chris Echesabal

It’s a romance, it’s a scathing cultural and political satire, it’s an Orwellian thriller about a dystopian wasteland that was once called the United States of America. Gary Shteyngart’s newest novel Super Sad True Love Story somehow manages to achieve success as all of these things without losing believability or the beautiful humanity of its carefully designed characters. Mostly though, Super Sad is a thoroughly enjoyable novel that will delight and surprise you.

Alternating between the journal entries of the middle-aged protagonist, Lenny Ambramov, and the online social network of Eunice Park, the young and restless object of his love, Shteyngart slowly creates for us a picture of America wholly consumed by selfish consumerism, thoroughly bankrupt and indebted to the lenders of the world. In Lenny Ambramov’s America, the defining aspect of a person is their credit score and those with weak scores face deportation. Military vehicles line the streets of major cities keeping LNWIs (Low Net Worth Individuals) from causing problems for the country’s remaining rich. And, with the specter of a visit by the Chinese to determine whether or not to continue funding the whole mess, class tensions will continue to grow.

Amidst all this stands Lenny, a sad, boring kind of guy who somehow never made the cultural jump to this America. He cares less about online shopping and reality television celebrities than he does about collecting books, or as they’re called now “printed, bound, media artifacts”. Lenny works for a company that offers eternal youth to the world’s most rich and powerful; a company where youth, vigor, and hipness are constantly scored and ranked on a giant board in the lobby. Needless to say, Lenny doesn’t exactly fit in there, though he dreams one day to save up enough money to buy eternal youth himself. On a trip to Rome selling his company’s service, Lenny meets Eunice, a bored, spoiled modern teen. Though she finds him almost disgustingly bland, Lenny decides that he loves Eunice and, after bringing her back to New York with him, becomes determined that she will love him too. Eunice, on the other hand, finds herself growing more attached to New York’s LNWI’s (including many veterans without health care) living in Central Park and protecting them from the government’s neglect.

Shteyngart masterfully weaves together a narrative filled with characters so marked by human flaws and weaknesses that one wonders if the book can end in anything other than tragedy. Nonetheless, his wit and sardonic wisdom are apparent throughout. So much so that I found Super Sad True Love Story to be one of the few novels in recent memory to actually make me laugh out loud (or LOL). It’s a novel full of life, charm, and passion that warns of a terrifyingly close future of cultural and economic decay for America. But just think, by buying and reading this book, you’ve taken one step to keep Lenny Abramov’s future at bay and for that you should be proud.

***Thanks Chris for you review! 

Anyone reading Jonathan Franzen's new book (or other books) and want to review it on our blog?  e-mail us at:  readers@beehiveat25.com
--mel

MOCKINGJAY: HEARTBREAKING READ

Like all of Suzanne Collins' fans, I waited for a year for this book, Mockingjay, and finished it over two days. I am left feeling completely drained yet ultimately satisfied. It wasn't the ending I hoped for or anticipated, but it felt right and true to its characters, with a ray of hope for the future and for mankind.
The book is surprising in many ways.  Katniss is no longer a confident warrior battling defined evil. Instead, she is a reluctant heroine and sometimes pawn for the rebels in their war against the Capitol.  She is more alone in this book than ever before. While her old friend Gale is at her side, he is preoccupied with the war, developing advanced technological weapons for the rebels. Her other companion and love interest, Peeta, has been captured by the Capitol and is been tortured. Her mother and younger sister are now with her in District 13, but they are so busy trying to save wounded soldiers, and Katniss herself is so pulled by duty, they spend virtually no time together. War and survival is all anyone can think of. Close relationships -- and trust -- are nearly non-existent. Yet just when you think it's completely hopeless, there is some redemption and a reason to go on.  Mockingjay is an exciting and thought-provoking and successful conclusion to a fabulous series for both adult and young adult audiences.-- Erin


  

Writing & Reading at The Beehive

Like Iris, I discovered Beehive Books while searching for my next read. This was back in fall of 2007 and I was a senior in high school. Literature is a big deal at my house but by the end of high school I had exhausted school reading lists, my school library, and my own bookshelf. The answer? Get a job at a bookstore, of course.

Within the first hour of my first shift at Beehive, Mel introduced me to a writer whose work I've returned to many times since: Tobias Wolff. I started with his novel Old School. In this semi-autobiographical work, a boy strives to find his voice as a writer while enrolled at an elite prep school. The book's narrator remains unnamed but Wolff introduces us to fictionalized versions of Ernest Hemingway, Robert Frost, and Ayn Rand. Old School tells the story of how readers become writers and does so in Wolff's signature style: clean, spare prose peppered with words so well placed that this novel inspires and schools its reader in the craft of writing. Even for those without such pretensions, Old School will satiate readers devoted to good literature and was my introduction to one of the best American voices at work today.

I was drawn to the story of the boy writer in Old School because, as a senior in high school, I too hoped to write. By college, I figured out that hoping to write does not actually make you a writer. I mean, I was writing but I was writing about how I wanted to write. (I think that's called pretension.) I registered for a writing course. Again, Tobias Wolff was recommended to me - this time by my teacher. Last week, I finally picked up my teacher's recommendation: Wolff's memoir This Boy's Life.

I'm wary of the memoir form.  Most memoirs read like therapeutic exercises: 200 pages filled with sensational stories of the fights between parents or chronicles of abusive relationships. This Boy's Life, however, bypasses such cliches. Like his narrator in Old School, Wolff attended an elite prep school. Before that, however, Wolff followed his mother across the U.S. to Washington state. There, she remarries and Wolff finds himself struggling through high school in a bleak town called Concrete. Wolff's true story in This Boy's Life is how he constantly reincarnated himself and the effect of the labels he found himself saddled with as a boy. And while an abusive stepfather figures prominently into the landscape of his boyhood, Wolff mines his experience to illustrate the complexities of growing up. Wolff is a master of fiction, short fiction, and nonfiction. There are stories and portraits packed into this brief memoir that recall Hemingway's Nick Adams Stories and road trips that are reminiscent of Kerouac's.


It's been almost four years now and I still haven't read everything in the Beehive. The list of authors I've discovered thanks to talking to my co-workers and the readers who make Beehive their home is a long one. When you're looking for your next read, come in to the Beehive and let us help you write your own list of favorite authors.

-Rachel Miller