The Reading Room, January Edition

I am forever in the middle of one book or another, so I thought it would be fun to share what I'm reading in 2014. The Reading Room will appear several times this year as I finish books on my list. I must warn you, however, that I tend to read more fiction than non-fiction. It's one of my holistic life goals to at least balance that out a bit with more non-fiction and biography, so we'll see how I do with that.

Here is the January edition of The Reading Room.

Gone Girl - Gillian Flynn I'd been seeing rave reviews for this book over the past year or so, so of course I had to pick it up to see what it was all about.
Nick and Amy Dunne have been soul mates from the beginning of their relationship: meant to be. When Amy disappears on the morning of their fifth wedding anniversary, Nick is devastated. What happened to her? Who would do such a thing? When all evidence points to Nick as the murderer, he realizes that his world is more out-of-control than he immediately realized.
As the story continues, the reader is the one who realizes that things are out-of-control in his or her mind. Several plot twists emerge, lies and truths swap places, and it's nearly impossible to know what to believe about whom. At its heart, the tale is one of being known, of becoming one with another, but in a way so twisted and so vile that it makes one sick. It turns the good blending of two souls into a miserable, co-dependent poison that is too fascinating not to sample.
The plot is great: twistedly great. It was so twisted that it rather worries me that I guessed what was coming; it amazes me that anyone can sit down and plot up something so intricate and soul-sick. The writing, however, I did not find so great. It's written in a modern fashion, and moves along quickly, with different narrators at different parts of the book. The various narrators work for the purpose of the author and the plot, but the last narrator was odd, and the ending abrupt, as if everything had to be tied up because a word limit was reached. Personally, I found the language offensive, even though it fit the story.
In short, a quick, thrilling read that you must leave part of your soul out of to digest fully. Brilliant, but sick. (This is also being turned into a movie - with an alternate ending - starring Ben Affleck and Rosamund Pike.)

Z: A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald - Therese Anne Fowler I've long been intrigued with the early 1900s; these were years of art, of dreams, of experimentation, of upsetting socially accepted norms. I've also been long intrigued by F. Scott Fitzgerald and his wife, Zelda, both creatives who tried so hard in their own ways to matter. I'd already read Call Me Zelda, a look at Zelda in her last years through the lens of a nurse, so I was eager to read this novel, which covers her earlier years.
We're introduced to Zelda in her hometown in Alabama. She's a fiesty one, questioning the rules of propriety for women, seeking out new ways to enjoy herself, making calculated analyses of other women's habits and demeanor, desperate for adventure. When a young soldier comes along and woos her, she is charmed, yet not so much so that she flippantly follows him wherever he goes. He must first earn the right to have her in his life by finishing - and publishing - the book he is writing. Of, course, F. Scott Fitzgerald does publish the book and he and Zelda get married in New York City, where they live in higher style than they should, but with this vignette we begin to see a pattern of their relationship.
In this novel, Zelda is portrayed as the one who holds the family together. It is she who pushes the lazy, self-centered, celebrity-seeking author to continue to write, to achieve great things. It is her words that he uses to craft his best-selling novels. It is she who repeatedly turns down her personal dreams to keep him happy and creating. It is Zelda who sacrifices her creativity and need to be known creatively so her husband can support them. F. Scott makes her play the traditional wife, but it is Zelda who has the fore-sight to save the family from ruin repeatedly.
The novel raises interesting sociological and psychological questions about the role of a woman in the 1920s and her role now. Is there value to be found by crushing a woman's dreams for the good of the family? Does the creative spirit find a way to live on in spite of being told it cannot exist and is no good? Can a woman's strength last through repeated betrayals? Should it? In the end, these are the heart of the book, and they are cloaked in the alluring life of a woman who kept fighting in her own way, as best she could.

Morning Glory - Sarah Jio I've long loved Sarah Jio's novels. They are a quick read, and a total indulgence. Each one is based in Seattle, and features a modern woman who has undergone some life-changing event, as well as a historical woman going through a similar event. As you might guess, both stories intertwine eventually, but the historical one generally unfolds as a mystery, which I enjoy.
Morning Glory sends us to Lake Union, where Ada has recently rented out a houseboat. Just in from NYC, Ada is looking for peace after a tragic accident, and is trying hard not to run away from her feelings about it, even if she did have to get out of the City and her old life. While on the houseboat, she discovers that a previous tenant, lonely housewife Penny, disappeared one night, and no one knows what happened to her. No one from that decade will share their knowledge, either. But that doesn't stop Ada's curiosity.
Much as I love Jio's stories, this one is one of her weaker ones (although now I really want to live on a Seattle houseboat for a while). It relies too heavily on the romantic side of things, and on how finding the right guy can help heal old hurts. Honestly, I appreciated her previous novels because although romance figures prominently in them, the mystery and the bonds of women at least slightly overshadowed that aspect. If you want to start reading any of Jio's novels, I recommend Blackberry Winter and The Violets of March.

Finding My Way Home - Henri Nouwen Henri Nouwen's works have been on my list of must-reads after I read The Only Necessary Thing, his book on prayer. This year I plan to finally read as many as possible. I started with Finding My Way Home.
This is a book of several essays, "The Path of Power," "The Path of Peace," and "The Path of Waiting," and another essay based on his writings and speeches, "The Path of Living and Dying." The first one looks at the different types of power, and how the true power of Christ up-ends the traditional role of power. The second one looks at how peace comes in the most unexpected ways, in particular for Nouwen, the caring of a mentally and physically handicapped young man. He remarks how there is a difference between finding peace in what one does versus who one is, and how who one is has a deeper satisfaction, no matter what society would have us believe. The third essay talks about the beauty and necessity of waiting, referencing both Mary - "She trusted so deeply that her waiting was open to all possibilities," - and Jesus - "I have allowed things to be done to me that needed to be done to me in order for me to fulfill my vocation" (an explanation of the phrase, "It is accomplished."). The last essay does not flow like the others, as it was created posthumously from various letters and speeches, but it speaks of both living and dying well, leaving some sense of an image behind while looking forward to whatever comes next.
This little book was easy to read, and laid out very logically, as Nouwen breaks up each essay into parts. My personal favorite was the one on waiting.

Have you read any of these books? What is on your reading list for the year? And what do you recommend I read during the year?