A Round-Heeled Woman -- Book Review
[ 28 May 2007 ]
Sorry about my lack of updates over the past two days! The weather has taken a turn for the worse & I’ve been holed up in the iCiNG Bowl, devouring books & hot chocolate & listening to the wind whistle around the building.
My most recent read has been A Round-Heeled Woman by Jane Juska. I stumbled upon it in the gender & sexuality section of the library (one of my favourite areas). The cover says, “My Late-Life Adventures in Sex & Romance”. The premise (entirely true) is this: a woman places a classified advertisement in the New York Review of Books, which says Before I turn 67 — next March — I would like to have a lot of sex with a man I like.
She receives a flood of replies, & then we’re along with her on hideous dates & romping our way through her psychological history. The whole thing is very interesting.
“Once, way back, when I was in my twenties, I sat in the No Name Bar in Sausalito drinking beer on a Saturday afternoon. Out of nowhere, a man neither young nor old passed by our table & said to me, “You’re a beautiful woman.” & he left. No one ever said that to me again, & never, but for that brief moment, would I ever feel it. The men I would know as my life continued might think I was beautiful or a woman or even both, but none of them would ever say it. & so I wasn’t.”
What have you read recently that you would recommend? I am going to make a huge list of books to work my way through this winter.
Super-love & cupcakes,
Gala 
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“In my ninetieth year, I decided to give myself the gift of a night of love with a young virgin.”
You could read what sounds like a similar tale to that you describe: “Memories of My Melancholy Whores” by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. He is one of my favorite authors but I have not read this one one yet so it is not a true recommendation.
I would reccomend Danger and Beauty by Jessica Hagedorn. I finally got around to reading the Weetzie Bat books pretty recently (I LOVED them), and they reminded me a lot of D&B. It’s not a novel, but it’s a collection of poetry and short stories written by this woman who moved from the Phillipines to California, and it’s dreamy and gritty and beautiful.
im not a huge reader, but my sisters keeper by jodi picoult, kept me hooked. i couldn’t put it down and cried like a baby.
I just finished reading “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time” by Mark Haddon. I found it in the youth-book section of the library and I liked it a lot. The main protagonist is 15 and has Asperger’s, a form of autism. I heard that some people criticized the author for some misrepresentations, but nonetheless I found the different perspective on life and emotions really fascinating. This is a really quick read, but I have another recommendation for a book that’s great for winter since it’s so long: “Gone to Soldiers” by Marge Piercy. It’s a novel about several people’s lives and experiences in WWII and I can honestly say it’s one of the best and most gripping books I ever read. Whatever you choose to read, have a good time with the books and hot chocolate! :-)
Stardust by Neil Gaiman (before the movie comes out!)
Marie Antoinette. The Journey by Antonia Fraser
anything by Bill Bryson (i love ‘the life and times of the thunderbolt kid’ and ‘mother tongue’)
and some chick lit, because i have a weakness for vapid fluffy books like bergdorf Blondes and Diary of a Manhatten Call Girl.
close inspection of my bookshelves reveal history books next to chick lit next to WWI poetry. and that’s about it. i have weird tastes!
Kori — Ooh, anything reminiscent of Dangerous Angels is a must-read, thank you!
frostpatterns — I have heard a lot of good things about that Haddon book, & my boyfriend owns it so I will borrow it sometime :>
nico — Funny! I have Diary Of A Manhattan Call Girl, I have a “thing” for books about high-class escorts. I just find the whole subject really interesting, I guess anything to do with sexuality really turns my crank. I actually read D.O.A.M.C.G. years ago, it used to be published week-by-week (or so) on salon.com, & I was obsessed with it. When I found the book I was ecstatic but ultimately a bit disappointed, when I read it on Salon I was probably about 15 or so & my expectations of reading material have since gone up. Have you ever read Belle de Jour? It is sooooo bad, & it won a Guardian Blog of the Year award! Crazy!
Shantaram!
And anything on my list:
http://www.sinister.com/~opium/books.html
Am I right in assuming that you’ve read a bunch of Anaïs Nin’s work already? If not, SHE IS WONDERFUL! Multiple exclamation marks!!!
I’ve had my nose buried in ‘Lipstick Traces: A Secret History of the Twentieth Century’ by Greil Marcus. It’s a lot to do with dada and situationism, all wrapped up in a punk package. Loving it to death and back :-D
gala- i have! in my defence, i bought the book of it whilst waiting for a delayed international flight, the quintissential trashy airport novel. i think she has another one out? i know there’s a ‘married call girl’ book floating around too.
it’s slightly embarassing that i know all this, but i do love reading escort-books. i’m sure the people that sit next to me on public transport must find it an interesting diversion as well!
Lissa — Hell yes! Anais is one of my favourite writers of all time. Have you seen ‘Henry & June’? I ask everyone who loves Anais but it is sooo good, & racy! I like racy!
nico — I bought my copy because it was part of a “buy three books for the price of two” deal… honest! Haha. Also some of the high points of my life have been on public transport, reading about Bukowski giving it to some woman while people peer over my shoulder!
“Dear Sun” The letters of Sunday Reed and Joy Hester (edited by Janine Burke). I just finished while sitting in the park yesterday and loved every part of it. The Reeds were an amazing couple and Joy Hester is a true source of inspiration for myself, and an amazing artist… To read their own words about people like Albert Tucket, Sidney Nolan and other icons of Australian art was very precious and reminds me how important letter writting and journal keeping is!
The Virgin Suicides – Jeffrey Eugenides. (Better than the movie.)
The End of Alice – A.M Homes: very disturbing, Lolita-inspired mayhem.
The Sirens of Titan – Kurt Vonnegut: my favourite Vonnegut book, brilliant and heart-breaking.
Gormenghast, Titus Groan – Mervyn Peake: made into a great mini-series with Jonathon Rhys Meyers.
The Master and Margarita – Mikhail Bulgakov – the greatest love story ever.
The Mitford Girls – Mary S Lovell: a great biography of an eccentric British family, half of which were Communists and half of which were fascists.
Oh, please don’t read ‘Stardust’! Not to badmouth anybody’s style. I really like Neil Gaiman as a writer, but that was probably my least favorite book of his. But do read something by him.
Also, read ANYTHING Truman Capote has written. ‘Other Voices, Other Rooms’ made me intensely disoriented, sick, and want to cry. Ach, that sounds horrible! But it was in a good way, I swear. Or, ‘Music for Chameleons’ is a good one to just have around, as it contains short conversations and vingettes.
Like Water For Chocolate by Laura Esquivel.
Its one of the most beautiful books I have ever read, all about food and love and sex and more food. Crazy amazing magic realism.
Everything is Illuminated – Jonathan Safran Foer
Mrs. Dalloway – Virginia Woolf
those are the last two books I’ve read, both I would highly recommend.
‘A Whale For The Killing’ by Farley Mowat. A story that shows humans at their best and shameful worst.
Anything, anything, anything by Joanne Horniman, but especially Secret Scribbled Notebooks or A Charm of Powerful Trouble.
I also enjoyed Milking the Moon, by Eugene Welty, and that may be more to your taste. I typed up an excerpt back at my old community, which you may read here:
http://community.livejournal.com/whimwham/81653.html
i’m seconding ‘everything is illuminated’ & also ‘extremely loud & incredibly close’ by jonathan safran foer.
i heard a sneaky rumour that johnny depp is co-producing & starring in the movie adaptation of shantaram :]
I just read “Animal,Vegetable, Miracle” by Barbara Kingsolver. It’s one of the best books EVER!
Also: “The Omnivore’s Dilemma” By Michael Pollan
And in fiction: “Geek Love” by Catherine Dunn
“Cruddy” by Lynda Barry
... and anything by Chuck Palahniuck, he is awesome!
Well, recently I’ve been obsessed with The Time Traveler’s Wife.
It’s going to be made into a movie (boo hoo! They better not ruin it!) and it’s a really good dark romance novel.
And I really don’t like romance at all, and yet it’s my favorite book. :D
I enjoyed Perfume by Patrick Süskind, it’s been made into a movie but as always the book is better. The Gambler by Dostoyevsky was good, at first I was like ‘where is this going?’ but then I realised it’s more about people relating to each other than the actual story line, the ending was a bit out of left field though. The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold made me cry.
Apart from that all the good books I’ve read lately have been recommended by YOU, my dear! :P
Dammit, I was just going to recommend Palahniuk and “Time Traveler’s Wife” as well, so I’ll have to second them. TTW was absolutely amazing, I read it for my book club and simply couldn’t put it down. The most recent Palahniuk I read was “Choke”—if you like racy, this is about a guy who cavorts with sex addicts and has a friend addicted to wanking off.
Recent book-loves: “The Handmaid’s Tale” by Maragret Atwood, “White Teeth” by Zadie Smith; and as my indulgence, I peruse Laurell K Hamilton’s reliably steamy vampire-sex-murder-mystery novels.
Wow! Thanks for the suggestions. I’ve read The Handmaid’s Tale, Perfume, Geek Love & The Virgin Suicides, but I think I am one of the only people in the world who doesn’t rate Chuck Palahniuk. He & Irvine Welsh, ugh, they drive me nuts! That being said, I thought the movie adaptation of Fight Club was excellent.
some of my favourite books (all easy reads, i’m not big on books that you have to drag yourself through just because they are iconic or whatever):
the poisonwood bible — barbara kingsolver
jitterbug perfume — tom robbins
the world according to garp — john iriving
dad – william wharton
popco — scarlett thomas
Have you read any Janet Frame? As a New Zealander, I highly recommend her autobiography and anything else you can find!
valuska — I have a couple of her books but I haven’t read them! I am terrible.
i pretty much left my entire book collection on the street in sydney when we moved two months ago so this comment thread is going to come in very handy!
as a suggestion i’d put “the time travellers wife” out there… when i read it i couldnt help but imagine johnny depp as the lead character in the movie adaptation. another suggestion, “sitting in the club car drinking rum and karma kola”. a short but still interesting story. i’m not sure but those two may have made the cut and come with me to melbourne.
i read about the book you mention a few years ago, i think i may have even been in new york at the time. did you get it at the city library? i’m going thursday to return some books and will need replacements :)
In general, I love anything by David Sedaris or Henry Rollins. Amy Sedaris also just put out her book “I Like You- Hospitality Under the Influence” which isn’t exactly a novel, but it’s absolutely hilarious.
I picked up a copy of “Paint It Black” by Janet Fitch in the Hong Kong airport for my flight back to Seattle last week, and ended up barely sleeping and reading the entire thing because I couldn’t put it down. It was absolutely amazing. I’m usually turned off by anything focusing around “artsy” characters or twisted love stories because I generally find them to be too tacky and overly-romanced- but Janet Fitch’s writing style just blows me away.
yeah, Paint It Black was amazing, although not as PERFECT as White Oleander. But don’t watch the movie version of that, its so average its insane.
Awww geez, White Oleander was my favourite book for a long time. Actually, around then I was also obsessed with anything by Wally Lamb — “I Know This Much Is True” & “She’s Come Undone” were great.
thank you gala! i was just thinking of this book the other day, and couldn’t remember who it was by or what it was called, having read an article about it years ago. it is next on my list.
books i would recommend with scissor kicks are:
the secret history by donna tartt
gilead by marilynne robinson
the latter is a slow burner but devastating, perfect.
White Oleander is rad, I’ve read it again & again.
I just bought “The Cloud Atlas” today. I’ve heard it’s the best book ever, but I haven’t started it yet.
gala, have you read “paint it black”, also by janet fitch? it is just as, if not more, powerful than “white oleander”.
voltaire — Nope, I haven’t! I should probably request it from the library, like so many other tomes!
I second Annabel’s PopCo recommendation.
xox
Sorry to be double-commenting so late, but whoever said The Secret History is right on the money, I just read it this weekend….it’s like drugs it’s so good.
“The Thirteenth Tale” by Diane Setterfield was excellent.
I highly recommend it.
I know it’s sort of outdated, but I was recently swept of my feet in a big “gotta tell all my girlfirends about this”-way by fear of flying by erica jong.
I can highy recommend it to all the other nonpareils out there who are trying to find themselves and their place as an independent woman in this world.
Eva — I LOVE that book. One of my absolute favourites. I remember reading it & CACKLING out loud on the bus, it felt so relevant & caustic & awesome. Looooove it!