Born On A Blue Day by Daniel Tammet

Wow! I read this book because I wanted to understand more about autistic spectrum disorders since T (my grandson) was diagnosed with pervasive developmental disorder-not otherwise specified. When Born On A Blue Day first came out, I wanted it right away. What better way to learn about autism than by reading a book by a person who has it?

Daniel Tammet has another form of autism, Asperger's Syndrome. Asperger's is considered a higher functioning form of autism because the kids diagnosed with it usually don't have language delays. All ASDs involve problems with socialization and with connecting to people. One of the issues the author discusses is his lack of feeling toward other classmates. He didn't care that they teased him or tried to embarrass him. He barely noticed them. Another example is when his father became very ill. Tammet writes that he wasn't sure how to react as his father collapsed. He knew that he should stay with his father until his mother arrived. At the end of the book, he does write that he realizes how much his family loves him and as much as he is able, he loves them back.

Parts of the book just totally blew my mind away. Tammet describes how he thinks--in shapes, numbers and colors. He explains his thought processes as he solves a puzzle. There is no way I can repeat any of it here because it was beyond my ability to understand or conceptualize. We don't think that way, most of us, and that's not to say it's wrong but it is most definitely different. Reading this book helped me to understand better why our T has trouble processing language and repeating sounds.

Daniel Tammet also has savant syndrome. He is able to do the most amazing feats with numbers. He raised money for the epilepsy foundation by memorizing a record breaking number of decimal place numerals for pi--over 20,000. It took him over five hours to recite all those numbers by memory!

One of his proudest moments was meeting Kim Peek, the autistic savant upon whom Dustin Hoffman's character in Rain Man was based. Tammet has participated in a lot of research projects to help us understand more about how people with autism think and process. He is self-employed and works from home although he did recount troubles he's had with job interviews. He is in a long lasting relationship with his partner overcoming issues of becoming emotionally close with another person. He and his partner own their own home.

It's an amazing, inspiring story. Daniel Trammet is awesome. Read his book and see for yourselves!

Read With Abandon

Booking Through Thursday

Today’s suggestion is from Cereal Box Reader

I would enjoy reading a meme about people’s abandoned books. The books that you start but don’t finish say as much about you as the ones you actually read, sometimes because of the books themselves or because of the circumstances that prevent you from finishing. So . . . what books have you abandoned and why?

It's been a long time since I abandoned a book. I think the last one was a fluff book that I tossed because I didn't have the patience to "waste my time" if that makes any sense...

There have been a couple of books recently that I was really tempted to abandon because they were just not my cup of tea and I became very irritated with the plot. One was Beach Road by James Patterson and another was Brimstone by Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child.

One more book I almost put down was a recent read about the Hartford circus fire and that was because the first part was so emotionally wrenching for me at a time I was feeling very depressed.

Water For Elephants by Sara Gruen

This is one more of those very rare books I've read in which I was sorry to come to the end! It was funny, poignant, riveting and inspired anger against bullies and crooks. It had all the elements a book lover would want: mystery, action, adventure, horror, love ... and animals.

Jacob Jankowski is the narrator, telling his story at two critical points in his life: at age 90--or is it 93?--and at 23. When he is 23, he is within days of graduating with a degree in veterinary medicine and joining his father in practice. His world is shattered when his parents are suddenly and tragically killed in a car accident. It is around 1930 and his parents were penniless because of the Depression. Jacob is too grief stricken to concentrate on his studies and with no where else to go, he decides to jump a freight train.

But it's not a freight train...it's a circus train, belonging to the Benzini Brothers' Marvelous Travelling Show (or something like that). The ring master and owner is not a Benzini but an unscrupulous and ruthless fat man named Uncle Al. Jacob is befriended and protected by a circus worker named Camel, who finds him employment and shelter.

Camel warns Jacob about an especially vicious roustabout named Blackie and the cruel practice of "red lighting"--which is throwing someone from a train, usually to avoid paying them their salary. Jacob begins working for the man in charge of the animals, a seemingly charming man named August who is married to the lovely and very talented Marlena. August has a secret, though--he is a jealous man given to violent and unpredictable moods. He reminded me of the character Klaus from The Greatest Show on Earth.

Uncle Al abandons one city for another in attempt to snap up what's left of a defunct circus for a cheap price. It's there he buys a very special elephant named Rosie.

There is love and there is a murder. Who is murdered and who did it? Read and find out! It's a great book!

Typography

Booking Through Thursday

You may or may not have seen my post at Punctuality Rules Tuesday, about a book I recently bought that had the actual TITLE misspelled on the spine of the book. A glaring typographical error that really (really!) should have been caught. So, using that as a springboard, today’s question: What’s the worst typographical error you’ve ever found in (or on) a book?

Oh boy, that is some boo-boo! I belong to the Stephen King Book Club and one month they sent me a copy of Salem's Lot. Many of the pages are out of order, at least 20 of them! When I notified the company, they sent a replacement book...same problem. So I called and explained what the problem was and apparently they weren't going to redo the books because they sent me a refund. Duh!

Booked By Three For October

Shelly's Book Shelf

1. Do you have favorite sites for getting book info? Share 3 (or more!).

I sure do. My top favorite sites are:

Book Crossing
Paper Back Swap
Good Reads

2. How about favorite author sites? Share 3 (or more).

Dean Koontz

Stephen King

Diana Gabaldon

3. And finally, are there 3 or more book review blogs you never miss reading? And no, you don't have to name this one! :)

Well...the two I like to read most are:

Callapidder Days and So Many Books, So Little Time I'm looking for more book lovers' blogs myself!

The Book of the Dead by Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child

The Book of the Dead is the last of three in the Agent Pendergast series. I'm not sure why it's a trilogy, though, because there are actually six or 7 books with that character and they're all somehow related. Dance of Death and this book focus on the hatred and battle between the Pendergast brothers, FBI Special Agent Aloysius and his brilliant but murderously pathological brother Diogenes. The previous book left off with Diogenes framing his brother for some horrific crimes and then stealing millions of dollars worth of diamonds from the Museum of History. Aloysius goes to prison and Diogenes drops out of sight...or does he? These two books reunite some old favorite characters from early stories.

Of the Pendergast trilogy, I was most disappointed in this book. I know I'm in the minority because most people really enjoyed the series and I wondered if I missed the boat somehow. The first part of the book was too slow for me. There was too much time spent on trying to break Pendergast in prison, friends trying to break him out and police captain Laura Hayward being too proud to listen to Detective D'Agosta. One thing is for sure: poor Museum of Natural History, site of more brutal serial killings than any where else in the world probably. Two murders occurred before the opening of the Tomb of Senef...given the past history of disaster within the museum you'd think everyone would be more cautious? I guess those monkeys never learn. The one thread I found spooky was when Hugo Menzies/Diogenes came visiting Margo Green. Very creepy!

There was a character that turned me off and why was his last scene with the warden necessary? Agent Coffey. The man should have been deposited in a prison himself, not deported to another FBI office! Everyone of the books has had the prerequisite Ass in Charge.

A plotline that was a total turn off but ended out well: Diogenes seducing Constance Green. I guess it was predictable but it was done too easily. What came later was awesome!

The second part of the book was a lot more interesting and the only reason I gave the book 3 stars. At that point, Pendergast has been broken out of one of those "no one can escape from here prisons" and reunited with his old crime fighting buddy Vincent D'Agosta. Laura Hayward's come to her senses and realizes she needs to unite with D'Agosta and Pendergast to save all those unfortunates in the Tomb of Senef...oh, and she loves him, too.

Best of all was the sudden change in Constance Greene. Her pursuit and battle with Diogenes scenes were the best I've read in a long time.

I felt cheated by "The Event". I absolutely can see one brother goading another into trouble, I just can't see that particular outcome. Diogenes supposedly suffered brain damage in the ventromedial frontal cortex from the incident, which involved lights and sound. For revenge, he wanted to induce it in millions of people. His first two victims had total psychotic breaks and became violent. They were beyond reason and so I wondered how Diogenes was able to think at all or be around people--years of self control? Too weird. I couldn't find any information on the so-called "Higginbottom region" but maybe it's out there somewhere.

I know there's at least one more book now, one that focuses more on Constance Green. I haven't decided whether I want to read it or not. I've been alternately exasperated, bored, and enthralled with the story so far...not sure I've been enthralled enough to move on to the next level.

Live and In Person

Booking Through Thursday

I said in August, when we talked about fan mail, that I planned on expanding that to live meetings when the time was right. Well, that time is now!

* Have you ever met one of your favorite authors? Gotten their autograph? No, I wish!
* How about an author you felt only so-so about, but got their autograph anyway? Like, say, at a book-signing a friend dragged you to? I got autographs from Lara Parker and Stephen Mark Rainey at Dark Shadows festivals some years ago. I wasn't dragged there. I wanted to go and enjoyed the books they wrote, they're just not my favorites.

* How about stumbling across a book signing or reading and being so captivated, you bought the book? Nope, hasn't happened...not yet anyway!

Decorum

Booking Through Thursday

Do you have “issues” with too much profanity or overly explicit (ahem) “romantic” scenes in books? Or do you take them in stride? Have issues like these ever caused you to close a book? Or do you go looking for more exactly like them? (grin)

Once upon a time when I was younger, more curious and more passionate, I liked finding erotic passages in books. I used to go looking for more. Now that I am an old gray mare, I take them in stride but find it annoying if the scenes don't add to the story. One reason I don't like R movies is because they have gratuitous scenes of violence and/or sex. I don't read romance novels at all anymore. The only "romantic" scenes I've enjoyed in the last few years were in Diana Gabaldon's Outlander series of books. Ahhhhh, Jamie...

A Matter of Degree by Don Massey & Rick Davey

I'd never heard of the fire that nearly destroyed the Ringling Brothers Barnum & Bailey circus in 1944. Recently, I met one of the authors, Don Massey, and he gave me a copy of this book. I was curious to read it as soon as I could.

The first half of the book is very moving and sometimes difficult to read. The authors made good use of some foreshadowing of the horrific fire that occurred in Hartford, CT on July 6, 1944, including two previous small fires in the same week, a cancelled performance and a red moon--all spelling doom to suspicious circus performers and employees. In addition, one of the families followed, the Cooks, went on an outing and a young girl drowned while they were at the scene.

There is pathos in this part of the book, too, and that's what makes it so gripping. The mother, Mildred Cook, is loving and devoted to the point where she made a most painful decision. Because her worthless husband abandoned her and the children, she gave custody of the young ones to her brother so that she could work and earn money to eke out an existence to help support them. She would see her three children only rarely and that July 4th holiday of 1944, she planned some very special activities for them to enjoy.

As a mother, I can only imagine the horror of being in an enclosed place like the circus, enjoying the show with my kids--a big treat in those days--and then having this killer fire break out. In those days, tents were waterproofed by using a mixture of wax and gasoline which is deadly in a fire--it makes napalm. Because WWII was still raging, fire proofing supplies weren't available. The fire burned at such an intensity metal melted and bodies were fused together. In the stampede to escape, Mildred Cook was separated from two of her children.

Another person was introduced--a disturbed young pyromaniac recently hired by the circus. Not so coincidentally, the fires all occurred after the teenager was hired as a member of the crew who had access to lighting materials.

Most of the people killed in the fire were women and children. One young girl virtually untouched by the flames was never identified and was buried anonymously as "Little Miss 1565".

The second part of the book was devoted to the research and hard work of a fire investigator named Rick Davey. He was captivated by the little girl's picture and saddened she'd never been identified. As he worked to learn her identity, he uncovered some very shocking things that had been covered up by the investigator for the City of Hartford. He also learned the identity of the little girl lost in the terrible tragedy.

This is a very good book for those interested in our history and in justice.

Dance of Death by Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child

We have seen glimpses of the insane and diabolically evil Diogenes Pendergast in at least two earlier books by Preston & Child, dogging the steps of his brilliant and hated older brother Aloysius. Aloysius Pendergast is a special agent for the FBI with a multitude of talents, including being an escape artist and a master of disguises. I've seen him compared with the Sherlock Holmes character and I don't think I'd dispute that. Pendergast's "Dr. Watson" would have to be Lt. Vincent D'Agosta of the NYPD.

In Dance of Death Diogenes "returns from the dead" to torment and taunt his brother by killing off Aloysius' closest friends and acquaintances one by one in not only a brutal way but also a way that mimics the deaths of ancestors of the Pendergast family. Apparently, this family has a big insanity gene running through it and Aloysius seems determined not to pass it on. Diogenes is also unattached and seems not to have any children.

Why does he hate his brother so much? That's a question I asked myself throughout the book. I found Diogenes to be thoroughly despicable with not one shred of redeeming quality about him. On the other hand, Aloysius Pendergast may be emotionally distant and an oddball but he genuinely cares about his friends and partners in crime and investigation. How could two brothers be so different? There was one scene that really intrigued me but left me feeling unsatisfied. Pendergast and D'Agosta go to visit a profiler, a character that appeared in an earlier non-Pendergast book. Eli Glinn has Pendergast hypnotized to try and find out the source of Diogenes' hatred...but the episode goes no where. It just seems that Diogenes is a "bad seed". Somehow, I get a feeling it's not the whole story. Maybe it's one of those "Mother always liked you best" reasons--that's my guess anyway.

I felt frustrated by the Constance Greene character. I may have to go back and read Cabinet of Curiosities again (I believe she was introduced in that book) but I have a feeling I would still be mystified and I don't like that feeling being dragged on book after book.

This book was more interesting for me to read than the first one in the series, Brimstone. I think it was because I was anticipating this battle between the brothers in the first book and it just didn't happen. Sometimes I had the feeling I was reading a movie, not a book especially with the wild chase scene on Eastern Long Island. Look forward to the next one and I sure hope the Constance Greene mystery is eventually explained. I also noted that there is a character named Margo Green and wonder what is up with using that color as a last name?