The Art of Driving in the Rain by Garth Stein

At Thanksgiving and other family gatherings, those of us who read fiction often bring the books we've recently read and enjoyed and swap with others, so hopefully we all go home with new reading material. My find this long weekend was The Art of Racing in the Rain: A Novel by Garth Stein.

If you have a dog or at least spend time around one, you have probably faced experienced a time when you're talking to them and they look at you with a look of intelligence and experience. You can almost swear they understand you and are trying to communicate back. Alas, it seems to be a one way conversation... But with Enzo, the likable narrator of this story, you'll get a feeling for what a smart compassionate dog might be trying to tell you. Enzo is with Denny, a race car driver. Denny falls in love with Eve and they marry and have a daughter. Life is good until Enzo smells the sickness in Eve and their lives are changed forever.

The facts of the story are a bit melodramatic but still believable. But regardless of the plot line, I loved Enzo's conversations with himself (and the reader). Many of us could learn much about life and living from Enzo.

Highly recommended even if you don't like racing. (I know next to nothing but still appreciated the life lessons and story of it.)

The Story of Edgar Sawtelle

I first read The Story of Edgar Sawtelle: A Novel (P.S.) by David Wroblewski when it first came out, back in 2008. A friend of mine had seen an interview with the author and forwarded it to me, thinking it sounded like something I would like.

I loved the book! The basic skeleton of the story is a mute boy growing up with his parents, who raise and train dogs. The dad dies while the boy is present. He tries to get help but can't, due to his muteness. There is an element of the mystical and supernatural and lots of dog lore and positing about what it means to train a dog and what dogs are capable of and what the relationship might be between dogs and people. It is a long book but I found it all fascinating and recommended it to several friends.

Fast forward a year and a half and the book club I'm in chose The Story of Edgar Sawtelle as our October book. I loaned my copy out and just got it back last week, plenty of time, I thought, to skim through and remind myself of the basics. But once I started re-reading it I couldn't stop. I didn't want to "skim through" so read it slowly, enjoying all the more the second time around.

It's one sign of a good book, I think, that you can enjoy it all over again even when you know the ending. Another sign is when I start reading slower and slower as I get to the end, because I love the characters so much I don't want to leave them. This book held true on both accounts. It's an astonishing first novel.

I hope Wroblewski is at work on another novel.

Cartwheels in a Sari by Jayanti Tamm

Cartwheels in a Sari: A Memoir of Growing Up Cult is an interesting book about growing up in a cult in Connecticut and New York. Her parents were an arranged marriage by Sri Chinmoy. They were not supposed to consummate the marriage. When her mother found out she was pregnant and told the guru, Sri Chinmoy, he declared the baby to be a Chosen One.

As she matures and is disillusioned by the life she sees around her, she intially sees no alternative and has no joy. She is suicidal at one point but settles into total apathy about life, seeing no real alternative for her beyond the cult of Sri Chinmoy (she has no skills and barely a high school education since education was frowned upon). As she wrestles with her choices and eventually is pushed out of the Center (about which she later says "His freeing me was his greatest unwitting act of compassion.")


I would be interested in reading more about the life she led after leaving the cult, how she overcame the obstacles and became part of the outside world, but this was an interesting look inside the cult. Nothing surprised me and there are no randy tales of sexual exploitation (despite there being rumours of such things if you Google Sri Chinmoy). This is more a look inside an individual as she grew beyond the world in which she was raised.

Nation by Terry Pratchett

Although Nation is listed as a "young adult" novel, I thoroughly enjoyed it. A giant tidal wave destroy much, including all but one boy on the brink of adulthood on an island. A young girl from around the world is the sole survivor of a shipwreck caused by the same tidal wave. As they work out a means to cooperate and get what they need, other survivors slowly arrive.

Nation is a parallel universe story, where lots of things are the same as they are here but not quite everything. The little twists that are different are often quite amusing and also thought provoking. It's a lovely story with great characters and setting, great backstory and a fantastic climax. Highly recommended no how old you are, as long as you like a good story.

10-10-10: A Life Transforming Idea by Suzy Welch

Most of us vacillate between making decisions that resonate for the short term versus the long term. In 10-10-10: A Life-Transforming Idea, Welch gives you a framework for making decisions in a more balanced way. Rather than reacting only to one or the other view, she suggests you list out the pros and cons of a decision in terms of its impact in 10 minutes, 10 months, and 10 years.

As I read the book I found myself remembering decisions I and others had made and thought that many of us do this naturally. My sister recently decided to go back to school to get her Master's in Education. In the short term, it's a lot of work and expense for 2 years. But it will let her change her focus and amplify her effectiveness and wisdom in ways that she couldn't do otherwise. She saw where she wanted to be and figured out the discomfort of the 2 years was well worth it. Likewise, I can remember the mother of a friend of mine with 3 teenagers advising her "Just ask yourself, is the fight now worth the cost in 20 years?" That's also known as "Pick your battles." ;)

But the idea of doing this on a regular basis is quite appealing. Welch has great anecdotes of people who have used it to decide to work on a relationship or abandon it, to have children or postpone having them, to take a job or not, and so forth. It forces you to step back just a bit. Thinking through the short, medium and long term consequences and address both the emotional and logical issues is a worthy task.

It's not just about making decisions as the process forces you to come to terms with your values and to define and prioritize those values. Of course, your priorities change in time as your life circumstances change and 10-10-10 will help prevent you from making rote decisions.

If you enjoy self-help books and learning how to deal with things more effectively, I think you would enjoy this book.