Bookaholic

Two Books I've Read

2010-07-29T08:20:00.000-04:00

Thursday Thirteen

Yesterday I finished the second of two books I'd read since I last blogged and thought I'd do my Thursday Thirteen about them.

Beyond Blue: Surviving Depression & Anixiety and Making the Most of Bad Genes

1. This is a non-fiction book written by Therese J. Borchard.

2. It's partly a memoir, which I found especially helpful. Ms. Borchard suffers from depression, anxiety and a mood disorder--just like me. I really connected with this book because of similar experiences.

3. It's also a self-help guide, educating the reader better about what these illnesses are, how to treat them, and how to live with them.

4. The book gave me a lot of hope. I do feel better and so I'm glad I've got a "cocktail" that works. At the same time, there's a lot of helpful information so that I can stay on top of my own illnesses and work to remain stable!

Those Who Save Us

5. This is a work of fiction, written by Jenna Blum. I believe it's the first book she's published.

6. I had trouble sticking with the book because I found the two main characters, Anna and Trudy, both so unlikeable.

7. The book is set in two different places and times: Weimar, Germany during the Nazi regime of World War II and mid-1990s Minnesota.

8. Anna, the elder character, was a single mother. Only she and a friend knew the identity of her baby, Trudy's, father. In order to protect her child and to survive, Anna finds herself forced to do things she never wanted to do.

9. She never talked about her past, remaining coldly silent all Trudy's growing and maturing years. Even as adults, she and Trudy don't communicate.

10. Trudy's a professor and her "special class" is a seminar on German women during Nazi Germany. She has an undue fascination with the period and the topic, probably because she knows so little about her mother's relationship with an SS officer in a picture kept hidden for decades.

11. Trudy is cold and undemonstrative toward her mother too, choosing to put her in a nursing home after the death of her stepfather Jack.

12. After a crisis at the nursing home, Anna has to move in with Trudy. Anna learns about Trudy's seminar and about a special project she's doing, interviewing German (non Jewish) citizens about their memories of World War II.

13. Trudy eventually will learn her mother's secrets but ... there was no satisfactory conclusion. Not for me, anyway.

Beyond Blue fits into these reading challenges:

Those Who Save Us fits into these reading challenges:

Now I've finished the New Authors' Challenge. I read fifteen books by authors I'd never read before. Another challenge down, four to go!

Tempest Rising by Diane McKinney-Whetstone

2010-07-15T07:49:00.000-04:00

Thursday Thirteen

I thought I'd focus on Tempest Rising, a book I just finished, and wait a week on my favorite music from my teenage years.

Thirteen Things I Learned From Tempest Rising

1. It's written by an author I hadn't read before, Diane McKinney-Whetstone

2. The main setting is west Philadelphia, 1965.

3. The first part of the book deals with the beautiful and fragile, Clarise, who is orphaned and raised by four loving and very eccentric aunts and uncles

4. Clarise elopes with a young man, Finch, and the two start a catering business together.

5. The business does extremely well! They have three daughters: Shern, Victoria and Bliss, and they buy a large home in a well-to-do neighborhood

6. Instead of helping them, repeal of the Jim Crow laws hurts them. Their previously loyal customers flock to larger mass caterers. Finch becomes nearly bankrupt.

7. Finch loses his life in the first "tempest rising", trying desperately to save his business. His widow, Clarice, breaks down emotionally and has to be hospitalized.

8. Because of an old vendetta and an old criminal charge, the daughters are placed in a real horror of a foster home.

9. The next part of the book focuses mostly on Ramona, the seemingly mean and cold hearted daughter of the very dysfunctional foster mother, Mae.

10. The three daughters suffer abuses and neglect while staying in that foster home.

11. During the second "tempest rising", the girls run away from the foster home in a dangerous snow storm.

12. I liked the book a lot but felt it was a bit overly dramatic.

13. Reading Tempest Rising fit these book challenges:

Rhett Butler's People by Donald McCaig

2010-07-05T08:41:00.000-04:00

I hemmed and hawed about reading this one. It wasn't on any of my challenge lists originally although I'm going to switch things around so that it is and fits. I haven't been thrilled with the idea of Gone With The Wind sequels and wasn't sure I'd like this one. My daughter was clearing out her room and Rhett Butler's People was in her give-away box so I plucked it out, checked Amazon.com for reviews and decided to give it a try.

I could have passed. It wasn't a terrible book. It just wasn't my cup of tea.

First, I couldn't figure out who the book was supposed to be about. I thought Rhett Butler and, very early on, it was. I totally enjoyed the beginning, learning about Rhett's roots and why he became the person he did. It wasn't long, though, before Rhett disappeared and the focus went from him to the points of view of other characters and I went huh?. I kept reading, though, because the title was Rhett Butler's People so I supposed that meant all these extraneous people. Still, I thought the author could have kept to Rhett's point of view.

The book began to break down for me when Rhett met Scarlett again in Alanta. Either a scene was repeated, glossed over or left out. I wanted to know more about what was going on in Rhett's mind and heart at this time but I just don't feel I got that. Reconstruction and Rhett's marriage to Scarlett was especially shallow I thought. Through it, the point of view kept shifting around and I didn't like that either.

I think the end could have been exciting but by then, to be honest, I didn't care anymore and just wanted to get through it so I could say I'd read the darn thing ... and I did.

The book fits these challenges:

Les Misérables by Victor Hugo

2010-06-27T16:27:00.000-04:00

I saw a high school's production of the play Les Misérables and decided I wanted to read it as one of my classics in the 2010 Mixology challenge. My son happened to have an abridged copy and I began reading it in the beginning of the month. It is truly a big book.

One problem (or not) that I had with this particular edited version is that several sections of Les Misérables was left out. The editor had notes which described certain portions of the text that had been deleted and in other places, merely stated that such-and-such part or chapter had been left out. At times I didn't understand exactly what was going on and wondered if everything would have been explained by the missing material. On the other hand, I tend to get bored with preachy or dry facts and will skip over it or not absorb it anyway.

Les Miserables is not just one character's story as I originally believed. It's the stories of several. The main one revolves around Jean Valjean, though, a very tragic sort of guy. As a young man, he steals a loaf of bread to feed his widowed sister's children, is caught and sent to prison for years. He makes two attempts at escape and has more years tacked on. After he's released, he eventually changes and becomes a "good" man but just can't escape that past.

There's a dedicated fanatical police inspector, Javert, who will never give up the hunt and is like one of those crazy dogs that attaches itself to someone's ankle and would rather die than let go.

There's little Cosette rescued from human-demons who were fostering her by Jean Valjean, at the age of 8.

There's her very tragic mother, Fantine.

The first half of the book was great! I thought it was one of the best books I'd ever read.

In the second half, though, the focus of the story shifted to a love story between Cosette and Marius.

I thought I might like Marius at first, a poor young lawyer who'd defied his rich grandfather and gone out into the world on his own. Marius began to develop as an independently thinking human being. One day he's going for his usual walk when he sees and falls in love with the beautiful Cosette, also on a walk with her own father. Cosette also notices Marius and falls right back in love with him.

One night, though, he becomes involved in trying to rescue Jean-Valjean from the demon foster parents. It turns out demon foster father "rescued" Marius' father at the Battle of Waterloo. Actually, the father was being robbed but didn't realize it. Anyway, he's so grateful to the thief that at his death he charges Marius with doing anything possible to help this loser. When Marius realizes who this loser actually is, he freezes and I became thoroughly disgusted with him.

I'm leaving out the next important chunk of the story but that's only because I'm too lazy to go into it all and because I was so disgusted with Marius I just didn't enjoy the mini-revolution by a small band of martyrs.

This is one of the greatest stories ever written though. Seriously.

I'm also fitting this book into the "New Authors" challenge because I've never read anything by Victor Hugo before.

The Last Days of Dogtown by Anita Diamant

2010-05-15T17:45:00.000-04:00

I finished reading The Last Days of Dogtown last week sometime but was having trouble thinking about what I wanted to say about it. I was that impressed.

I might have liked it a little better if it hadn't seemed like a bunch of short stories strung together and passed off as a novel. In fact, if it was presented that way in the first place, I probably would have skipped it. I'm not a fan of short stories.

It was about ... um ... okay, it was about the death of a town. It used to be a nice place to live and then nearly everyone left. I found the back jacket description to be very appealing: "Set on the high ground at the heart of Cape Ann, the village of Dogtown is peopled by widows, orphans, spinsters, scoundrels, whores, free Africans, and 'witches'". It takes place after the War of 1812 and spans, I don't know, twenty years.

The stories were sort of related but not enough to make me happy. Some of them were set years apart. It just didn't have a smooth transitional feel -- not for me, anyway.

Ruth Diamant wrote The Red Tent which I know many people loved. If I'd liked this one more, I would have gone on to read that one but I think I'll pass.

The Last Days of Dogtown is in these challenges:

The Circus Fire by Stewart O'Nan

2010-05-03T12:16:00.000-04:00

Some time ago (I can't remember which year) I read a book by an author TB and I met, Don Massey. The book was called A Matter Of Degree and it was about the Ringley Brothers Barnum & Bailey circus fire in Hartford, CT in July 1944. The book focused on investigator Rick Davey's research into the cause and his drive to identify a child who died in the fire, identified only as Little Miss 1565. One thing that surprised me was that there was so little information about such a devastating event. My curiosity was stirred and I found another book about it, bought it and didn't get around to it until recently.

What a compelling book! The Circus Fire by Stewart O'Nan is a recounting of the fire, the aftermath, the investigation and about what happened to the people involved. Sometimes I cringed at the details of the victims' injuries. I was very moved by the stories. Some had happier endings, many did not.

Little Miss 1565 was eventually claimed and identified as Eleanor Cook but there's a lot of controversy about that. Some of the evidence contradicts the details about the little girl. It was a fascinating, absorbing read.

The Circus Fire falls into these book challenges:

Blaze by Richard Bachman/Stephen King

2010-04-22T17:00:00.000-04:00

I wasn't sure which author to credit since they're one and the same and they both appear on the cover! I'm also not sure how I'd classify Blaze. It's definitely fiction but it's not horror. I wouldn't call it a psychological thriller. I'm dithering because this is Stephen King and I'm so accustomed to his books of the macabre and terror.

King himself mentions Of Mice and Men in his foreward so I guess it's okay for me to do that too. His main character has a certain kind of charm. He's a brain-damaged con man with a heart of gold, how's that? His name is Clayton Blaisdell, Jr. but everyone calls him Blaze. Blaze was horribly injured by his alcoholic, abusive father when he was just a boy. Now he can't function on his own and needs the help of best buddy and fellow con, George. Or does he?

George and Blaze long planned a caper that would let them retire rich. It seems so simple and all the details have been worked out.

I guess that's as far as I'll go with that. In between, details about Blaze's sad childhood come out and all I could think was, gee, poor guy, what tough breaks he's had all his life. Still, I knew he was not making good choices by going with a life of crime.

Is the caper pulled off? Does Blaze retire rich or from the criminal world? I'm not telling!

This is Stephen King. It may not be his best work but it's still very engaging and moves very fast.

Blaze fits these challenges:

Moll Flanders by Daniel Defoe

2010-04-18T16:42:00.000-04:00

Now that I'm out of high school and have fulfilled all my lit requirements in college, I haven't had to read any classics. I committed myself to doing so, however, because there are so many fine works out there that are just "old" and difficult to read but definitely worth the time spent doing so. Still, I've been nervous about picking up the earlier classic books I choose to read.

I'm amazed at Moll Flanders. Daniel Defoe published this book in 1721. Was it considered "racy"? I don't know enough about the time period except to say that my belief about that time is that people were shocked and did not want to talk about prostitution. They would not look favorably on an author who had a prostitute as the "heroine". Well, maybe I'm wrong.

Moll Flanders is a prostitute. She didn't start out that way. Born to a convict mother, she was given over to foster care when her mother was deported. She might have had a terrible life but she didn't. She always wanted to be a lady. The thought of being a servant was abhorrent to her. She's pretty clever in the way she managed to avoid that fate.

Moll leads a very colorful and interesting life all right. I think that's why amazed me so much. I wouldn't want to give away too much of the story but some of her marriages (there are five) and situations she gets into are ... well, shocking.

It took me longer than usual to read the book because of the language and style. Once I got used to it, though, I was able to pick up speed. It really was a pretty good book!

Reading the book fits into these book challenges:

A Fractured Mind by Robert B. Oxnam

2010-04-10T17:37:00.000-04:00

A Fractured Mind by Robert B. Oxnam has been on my "to-be-read" shelf for at least four years! Some of these books have become buried and forgotten because I have so doggone many books and it's a real shame. This was an excellent book!

I've always been fascinated with books about multiple personality disorder, especially once I learned it's brought on by severe trauma in childhood. I read Sybil and When Rabbit Howls. This is the first time I've read about this disorder in a man. I know that it happens, it's just that there weren't many books about it.

I hadn't heard of Robert B. Oxnam before. Apparently he is a renown scholar and used to be the president of the Asia Society. It's amazing that he was able to carry himself in a way that no one suspected he had eleven different personalities. How could this have happened to him? He didn't seem to have experienced any trauma in his life and yet he struggled with alcoholism and depression. It took a very skilled and dedicated psychiatrist to help get to the root of it all.

One unique thing about the book is that the personalities speak. Some voice more strongly and more often than others and I found that fascinating. It was also fascinating to get such an up-close-and-personal look at how the personalities communicated with each other.

I won't say what happened to Oxnam and whether or not the personalities became integrated. Anyone who's interested won't be sorry to read the book and find out.

A Fractured Mind falls into these challenges:

Break No Bones by Kathy Reichs

2010-03-30T16:39:00.000-04:00

I'd heard of the TV series Bones but have never seen it nor was I aware it was based on Kathy Reichs' character, Dr. Temperance Brennan. Dr. Brennan is an archaeologist/accidental sleuth in a series. This is book #9, the first one I've read. I'm usually not a fan of serial mysteries because they follow a formula. I enjoyed much of this one though.

First of all, Dr. Brennan is a woman. I didn't have to put up with the terse, wise cracking, hard drinking male sleuth lead type character. Unfortunately, the story did follow the usual formula in a couple of different ways. There's the terse lines and attempts at wit. For some reason, there's always some talk about what the characters are eating. There's always an estranged loved one and a new romantic interest already going on or in the wings. There's always some obligatory conflict going on there. Yawn.

The first two thirds of the book held my interest. I was surprised when they made their arrest about fifty pages before the end of the story. Still, there had to be a danger scene or two thrown in there and a curve ball about that arrest. Was it the right guy or not?

In the end, as usual, all's well that ends well.

It was better than 90% of serial mysteries I've read.

Break No Bones falls into these challenges:

Cane River by Lalita Tademy

2010-03-25T09:32:00.000-04:00

Thursday Thirteen

I just finished Cane River by Lalita Tademy this morning, just in time for Thursday Thirteen. I didn't have a theme idea for today so this really comes in handy!

Thirteen Thoughts about Cane River

1. Based on her family history, Lalita Tademy wrote the book as fiction.

2. Writing the book that way was a great idea so that she could fill in details and conversations without spoiling the integrity of real-to-life history.

3. Cane River spans a period of over 100 years, beginning in 1834 and ending around 1936.

4. The book focuses on four incredibly strong women in the family: Elisabeth, Suzette, Philomene and Emily.

5. Each of the women was born into slavery.

6. The lives of slaves were pretty harsh and brutal--especially the fact that they were human beings and had no say over their lives. A white master could take a female slave and she would not be able to stop it.

7. Set in and around the Cane River in Louisiana, I learned that there were gens de coleur libre. They were well-to-do people of color who owned small farms, plantations and ... yes, slaves! They looked down their noses at the slaves. It boggles my mind that not only white people did this but so did this group!

8. There was a "bleaching" of the family line that went on almost during the entire span of the book. That meant the women bore children by white men.

9. Each mother hoped her children would be better off but it didn't work out that way.

10. The Jim Crow laws are/were sickening. Children could be robbed of their inheritance and birth rights and they could do nothing about it.

11. I learned people in the area spoke Creole French almost all the time, not English.

12. Night Riders (the Klan) could be brutal to other white people as well as black people.

13. This was an engrossing book. You learn a lot without being stifled with dry facts.

Cane River is in these challenges:

1916 by Morgan Llewellyn

2010-03-14T13:51:00.000-04:00

Morgan Llewellyn wrote a series about members of the Halloran family, focusing on key events in modern Irish history. This book is the first of the series. Although it's called 1916, it begins in 1912. Young Ned Halloran is travelling to the U.S. with his parents to attend his sister's wedding. They're booked on ... the Titanic! This part of the book was very moving as are other passages that describe events such as Bloody Sunday. If you read and enjoyed the Kent Family Chronicles, you'll enjoy this book and perhaps want to go on and read the others in the series: 1921, 1949, 1972 and 1999.

I love historical fiction and so I really wanted to enjoy the book. I didn't for a couple of reasons:

Llewellyn tried to tell too many stories at once. Instead of focusing on just the one who was supposed to be the main character (Ned Halloran), the story moved back and forth between Ned and his sister in America, Kathleen. I really didn't care about Kathleen, her controlling husband or the Catholic priest, Father Paul. I often wondered why we were "going there". That story could have made its own little book and made Ned's story more interesting.

I mentioned the Kent Family Chronicles. Members of that family interacted with real historical people too but not on an intimate level (or so it seemed to me). Ned becomes too involved too quickly with historical characters for me to believe. I don't want to give away too many of the details except to say this--if you're plotting a coup or a revolution, leaders have to be absolutely sure the people they talk to are totally trust worthy. I was surprised at how much information Ned was given so quickly.

Other than those things (which bothered me greatly unfortunately), it was a good book.

1916 was in these challenges:

Everything She Ever Wanted by Ann Rule

2010-03-06T05:11:00.000-05:00

Ann Rule is one of the best true crime writers I've ever read. She adds such feeling to the events surrounding the crimes that I get goose bumps. There were times when I was reading Everything She Ever Wanted that I just wanted to be able to grab people, shake them and yell, "Are you blind? Don't you know what's happening here?"

Patricia Radcliffe Taylor has since been nicknamed "The Deadly Magnolia". Loved and protected by her parents her entire life (probably until their deaths), Taylor has lied to and manipulated people to get what she wanted. Along the way, one of her husbands, Tom Allanson, was convicted of murdering his own parents ... but did he? I vaguely remember that story from the newspapers and the dry facts reported were pretty wild and unbelievable. It didn't end there. The road is strewn with the bodies of people Taylor drove over to get what she wanted out of life--and it was never enough.

I won't go any further into what happened in the book. It's pretty incredible and although it's disturbing and I wanted to put the book down several times, I'd say it's because Ann Rule did such a good job with her writing style and reporting. If I ever had to be in the same room as Taylor, I wouldn't be able to stay. I'd have to get as far away from that woman as I could.

Everything She Ever Wanted crosses another one off these challenges:

The Widow's War by Sally Gunning

2010-02-26T12:20:00.000-05:00

I wasn't sure if I'd like The Widow's War by Sally Gunning so I was pleasantly surprised to find myself hooked on it so quickly. I'd never written anything by Gunning before. She's done an awesome amount of research and it shows in setting, background information and even in the way the characters speak to each other.

Lyddie Berry is a whaler's wife in 1761 Cape Cod. Life has never been easy for her. She's left alone for months at a time while her husband goes to sea. Still, she's very happy with her life and with her husband. They loved each other very much.

One risk all whaler's wives face, of course, is losing their husbands to the sea and that's exactly what happens one January day. Life goes from being hard to nearly unbearable. Women in those times had little to no rights. For widows, it's even worse. In Lyddie's case, she goes from having some control of her life to none. According to law, she inherits only 1/3 of her husband's estate. The bulk of it goes to the next living male adult--in this case, it's Lyddie's controlling and thoroughly dislikeable son-in-law.

At first Lyddie tries to adjust to her new life but she is miserable. When she's encouraged to think and to make a few decisions on her own, though, she begins to break free of the repressive household she lives in. Her life becomes even more harsh and bitter but ... it's her life and circumstances now.

I was completely hooked early on as I mentioned and carried forward on a page-turning momentum to find out what happens to Lyddie. About halfway into the book, though, there were some circumstances that made me wonder if the whole point of the story had become blurred. I wasn't sure I liked the newest complications but I kept on going with the story to the end. Frankly, I think the story was much better without them but what are you going to do? Nothing's perfect.

All in all, it was a very satisfying read and I liked the ending very much. I learned a great deal in the best way possible--by enjoying a mostly well written story!

The Widow's War fit these challenges:

Nightmare House by Douglas Clegg

2010-02-21T06:31:00.000-05:00

Do you remember an old Gothic TV soap opera called Dark Shadows? I loved the show and am still a fan, even after all these years. One of the main settings of the series was the very haunted Collinwood.

Harrow House of Nightmare House by Douglas Clegg makes me think of Collinwood. It's haunted and can be evil, has very interesting and "different" characters inhabiting it, and has rooms within rooms, secret passageways and rooms and everything you'd want to have in a terrifying old house. Yet, Harrow House is not centuries old. It was built by Justin Gravesend and added on with parts of buildings he'd admired. The additions prompted the villagers to nickname it "The Mad House".

If the house doesn't have the age factor, of having had many people die there and so on, why is it haunted by evil spirits? There's a reason and it's revealed more than half way through the book. By then, of course, I was completely hooked.

I wasn't so sure at first. The story is told, in one form or another, by Justin Gravesend's grandson, Ethan. Ethan is 29 when he inherits Harrow House from his grandfather and moves there in 1926. Almost immediately, "strange things are happening"! Ethan encounters some eccentric persons, living and ... not? He uncovers that evil secret that's been kept for years.

The house --or is it someone or something else? -- moves to control Ethan.

There's definitely a gothic feel to all of it. As I said, I was very hooked after a tentative start. The book switches from first-person diary form to third person and I wasn't sure how I felt about that shift. It doesn't matter. It's a fine ghost story.

The book falls into these book challeges:

2010-02-20T18:15:00.000-05:00

I wanted to say a very grateful thank you to Imperfect Stepford Wife for giving me a "Beautiful Blogger" award. I feel honored!

Vinegar Hill by A. Manette Ansay

2010-02-14T18:56:00.000-05:00

Vinegar Hill by A. Manette Ansay is one of Oprah Winfrey's book club selections. Although many are a tough read because of gritty reality or very serious themes, I usually enjoy them very much. Not this one. It was just too depressing and there wasn't enough light in it for me to enjoy it.

Ellen Grier and her family are forced (because of financial circumstances) to move in with her husband's parents. Was there ever a grimmer, more dysfunctional couple? I might say Frank and Marie Barone from TV's Everybody Loves Raymond but at least that couple was darkly funny. This couple made me want to run screaming in horror from the room whenever they entered the scene.

Ellen's husband is totally subservient to his parents and seems to have no ambition with getting out again and getting their own place. The two children are trapped, helpless, in all that misery and dysfunction. The one glimmer of hope is...will Ellen be able to break free of all this and free herself and her children?

I wondered how she got herself in such a fix in the first place. I could understand why the husband, James, was so screwed up. Look at his parents. But Ellen? She seemed to have a loving family. Maybe it was the religious rigidity of the times? Whatever it was, I found it grating.

Maybe it's because I am from a dysfunctional family. This one was just too screwed up for me.

Reading this book fit these challenges:

2010 Mixology

New Authors Challenge

I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou

2010-02-14T09:54:00.000-05:00

I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou is another book I wouldn't have been allowed to bring into my home when it was first published. My parents would have considered it a book written by a "trouble maker". Over the years, I heard many good things about it and even read an exerpt from it (the story about little Maya visiting the dentist with her grandmother) and I always wanted to get around to reading it. Now I have.

I've read a lot of books that have given me goose bumps because of the depth of man's inhumanity to fellow beins--most recently, Schindler's List. This was such a book too. Ms. Angelou wrote about her growing up years from the time she & her brother were sent to Arkansas to live with her grandmother (she was 3) until she was a teenager and living in California with her mother again. Racism is scary in the south but it's still pervasive and ugly in California, circa 1940. Some of the memories recounted made me sick.

There were some strong, positive figures here--the grandmother (Mama) and brother Bailey. There were others that just gave me the creepiest creeps, like Maya's mother's boyfriend and that horrid white dentist.

I was all ready to talk about all the examples of racism but then I realized there might be people out there who, like me, haven't read the book yet so I decided against it. This book definitely should be in the classics category (and it is) and I really don't get why it was banned from any library. I know the reason provided but it's ridiculous--my opinion. It's a great book.

Reading this book fit these challenges:

Mixology

New Authors

For the last two challenges, I don't get why I can't copy the links and pictures. I keep putting the html in my side bar and every time I go back to copy it, I only get the pictures, not the html. I'm not going to keep going back to those pages just to get the same information time and again so I give up. I'll just list the two challenges by name.

The Given Day by Dennis Lehane (spoilers)

2010-02-01T08:42:00.003-05:00

Beware! For here there be spoilers...

I bought The Given Day by Dennis Lehane with a gift card because I have such respect for him. I thought Mystic was one of the very best books I'd ever read. One of the reviews for this book said that The Given Day "may be Lehane's finest work." Another compared it to John Dos Passos's U.S.A. That might be accurate but to be honest, I thought Mystic was and still the finest of Lehane's books.

It's set in Boston, circa 1918-19. The central focus is supposed to be on two characters, one black and one white. In the beginning, the chapters alternate between the two. When they finally meet, there isn't as clear a distinction and then new characters begin to have the limelight. The latter half of the book started to fall apart for me a little at that point, to be honest. Part of the time, I'd think: why are we reading about you? In one way, I could understand because these characters played a part in what happened later but ... maybe it would have been better to focus on them more from the beginning?

Anyway...

Luther Laurence is black and hails from the midwest. He and his long time sweetheart are expecting a baby and he's laid off. They have to move to her relatives' to make a new start and they marry. Unfortunately, Luther falls in with some shady characters and eventually has to make a run for his life. He goes from Oklahoma to Boston, Massachusetts.

Danny Coughlin is a dedicated young cop. His father's a police captain and his brother is an assistant district attorney. He was involved with Nora, who holds a sort of mysterious role in the family--not quite servant, not quite family. In the beginning, he is all about being a public servant and has no interest whatsoever in unions or other forms of "Bolshevism".

Luther and Danny meet and become friends because Luther ends up working for the Coughlin family.

I really liked Luther's character. He is basically a decent, hard working young man who just wants to do right for himself and his family. He's constantly battered by racial bigotry and a couple of really evil, ugly characters. The first one he encounters in Oklahoma. The second, a police lieutenant, is by far a particularly nasty villain. I shudder just thinking about the guy.

On the other hand, I didn't care much for Danny. I suppose he's just a reflection of his times but I found him to be something of a hypocrite and weakling at first. He is moony over Nora--but the reason they're not together is because of her "sordid" past. He wants a "respectable" woman. Nora was sold to her husband "in the old sod" at the age of thirteen. She abandoned him to run to America. It turns out later she also abandoned a stepson. Well ... so? But the way Danny (and later, the whole family) carries on about this "sordidness" made me sick.

The other issue I had with Danny was his feelings about the police union. He was such a "company" man his father and godfather trusted him to infiltrate "Bolsheviki" groups and report back to his superiors with information. Along the way, though, Danny learns that all protestors are not terrorists. He becomes active in the labor movement for policemen. All that in less than a year. Really? Amazing.

All of these characters and events are moving toward one big cataclysm. There are some very powerful scenes there.

Throughout all of this, there is a thread: Babe Ruth. Actually, it's pretty cool the way Lehane adds in snippets from Babe Ruth's story and his rise to fame.

All in all, a very good book that I would recommend highly to anyone who likes to read, especially historical fiction!

The Given Day fits into these reading challenges I signed up for:

Blood Will Tell by Carlton Smith

2010-01-27T09:56:00.002-05:00

This is another book I read in 2009. I was reading it when I went to the hospital in November. Every once in a while, I like to read "true crime" books by authors such as Ann Rule or John Walsh. I'd never read anything by Carlton Smith before.

Ken and Kristine Fitzhugh seemed to be one of those couples that were together, happy, and normal. They had two sons, both in college when she was murdered. They were involved in such wholesome activities like the PTA and Boy Scouts. She loved her job as an art teacher.

Then ... tragedy struck. Ken Fitzhugh was with two friends when he got a call from the school at which Kristine worked. She'd never shown up to teach her class and that was totally unlike her. So Ken stopped at home while the two friends waited and went to check and see what had happened. The two friends were shocked when Ken reappeared, asking for them to call 911. He'd found Kristine at the bottom of a flight of stairs. It appeared she'd fallen.

It appeared she'd fallen.

What really happened? Why?

The book goes on to explain it in that matter of fact way true crime stories unfold. I remember it was very depressing and was glad to finish it. It wasn't a bad book by any means, just sad.

Gone With The Wind by Margaret Mitchell

2010-01-25T16:52:00.000-05:00

When I was hospitalized in November, one of the first things I did was check out the floor's library. I'd read Gone With The Wind by Margaret Mitchell many times as an adolescent but I felt drawn to it. I'd watched the film with my son not too many months back and I remembered by struck by how differently I'd responded to it. I wanted to read the book for old times' sake but also to see how I'd feel about it as an adult.

I think I was about twelve the first time I read it. By the time I was fifteen, I must have re-read it a good half dozen or so times. I could never "get" what the deal was between Scarlett and Ashley, never mind what was happening with Scarlett and Rhett. Scarlett just seemed really unlucky in love. Rhett's motives were completely incomprehensible to me. Why would he want to marry Scarlett if he didn't love her and seemed contemptuous of her? I didn't understand.

I think just about everyone must have read or seen the book/movie. I decided to focus on the changes in my own understanding from the time I was a child to now.

This time around, I was really amazed by how selfish, spoiled and shallow Scarlett is. In fact, she seems to have some kind of personality disorder, almost an anti-social personality. She doesn't show feelings of empathy or connection to other people whatsoever beyond what they can do to serve her needs and wants. What kind of heroine is this? Ah, she seems to be an anti-heroine! She's pretty ruthless--using and abusing people until she's "done" with them and then she moves on with barely a backwards glance.

When I was a kid, Ashley was a knight in shining armor, the guy in the white hat. He was noble. Now, he just seemed weak and confused, unable to adapt well to the changing times brought on by the end of the Civil War. The poor guy couldn't make up his mind about Scarlett. He would say "No no no" with his words but many times his actions toward Scarlett said "Yes yes yes!" Well ... but not enough "yes"es to string her along the way he did.

What was up with that? Why was Scarlett so obsessed with Ashley? She explains it herself. She got a pretty picture into her head about him because he was the one young man she could never manipulate when she was gallivanting about the county, belle of the balls and collecting beaux. If she'd been able to "catch" him, she would have eventually become bored with him.

Melanie's the only character I "got" as both a child and as an adult. She is the true heroine of the story, an apparently weak but thoroughly strong woman in character and conviction. In the scenes I remember her best, she's doing her best to fiercely protect Scarlett. Scarlett, of course, never appreciated her in the slightest until it was too late!

I was totally clueless about Rhett until I re-read Gone With The Wind in November. It hit me overwhelmingly how much he'd loved Scarlett and how deeply she'd cut him over and over. She was the reason he kept returning to Atlanta during the war. Every time she needed help, he was always there. He did his very best to get her to love him back and she never did, not until it was too late. Why he kept on loving her is a little beyond me though. I think he tried to forget her but just couldn't.

No wonder it's called the greatest love story of all time!

Paradise Alley by Kevin Baker

2010-01-22T16:04:00.001-05:00

I found another book I read in 2009 called Paradise Alley by Kevin Baker. I was about to leave it at a book crossing, unread because I have so many. Luckily for me, I snagged it back at the last minute and decided to read it. I say luckily because it's easily one of the best historical fictions I've ever read.

It takes place in 1862, in New York City. President Lincoln had implemented a draft because of the Civil War. However, wealthy men could buy an exemption by paying to send a poor man instead. It sparked a destructive riot that went on for three days.

The book follows three women and three men during the course of that riot. They all either live or know someone in Paradise Alley, which was a waterfront slum. The riot coincides with the arrival of one of the women's deranged lovers, Dangerous Johnny Dolan. He is one of the scariest characters I've read about.

Kevin Baker is amazing. He knows his history and provides a wealth of facts without being a bore. He knows his characters. They are all unique--different backgrounds, different thoughts and beliefs, different ways of speaking and reacting. I rarely read a book that is as totally engaging and engrossing as this one.

Leave it at a book crossing site? Sorry, no. Now I plan to keep it because I'm sure I'll always want to go back and reread it!

Schindler's List by Thomas Keneally

2010-01-16T13:48:00.003-05:00

Once in a while, I’m gripped by the facts of a story so much I have to read it to the end even if I don’t like the style in which it’s told. Such is the case with Schindler’s List by Thomas Keneally. Oskar Schindler was an industrialist and speculator in Cracow, Poland during the Nazi occupation. He liked to drink and was an unashamed womanizer. He seemed an unlikely candidate for one to try and save as many of the Jewish population as possible and yet he did. He put his own life in harm’s way many times, sometimes very recklessly. Yet he did and the author couldn’t say for sure why. I say, thank God for Oskar Schindler.

At first, the Jewish people of Cracow were forced into a ghetto within the city. About a year later, the ghetto was violently shut down and the citizens rounded up and put into a nearby concentration camp run by the sadistic Amon Goeth. That guy was a monster. When he wasn’t beating or terrorizing his servants, he was out playing random shooter of prisoners. He’d go out with his gun, take aim at a prisoner (who knows why) and kill that person. Or he’d get angry over nothing and shoot a prisoner. Schindler stepped in and finagled his employees out of that horrible camp by building one of his very own behind his factory. He rescued the employees of a fellow industrialist by housing those employees in the same camp. At Schindler’s camp, the SS was not allowed to roam around beating or terrorizing inmates at will. Schindler paid and paid with bribe after bribe.

Eventually, the local concentration camp was ordered to close and every inmate was to be shipped to notorious camps like Auschwitz. Again, Schindler saved over a thousand people by relocating his factory and bribing officials to allow him to bring 1,100 of the inmates with him.

When the war was over, Schindler lost everything—all his money, property and jewelry. He and his wife had to run for their lives—accompanied by 8 of the inmates. All of the former Jewish people in the camp wanted to protect the Schindlers and wrote letters praising him for what he’d done. After the war was over, they supported him when he needed financial help and had him live with them in their homes (mostly in Israel) for several months out of the year. When he died, he was buried in Jerusalem and was mourned by people around the world.

I’d never heard of him before! I’d heard of the movie, of course, but hadn’t had a chance to see it. When I saw the book at a library sale, I picked it up and I am ever so glad I did.

The biggest challenge I had was getting through some of it because of the wording. I don’t want to use the adjective “ponderous” and I’m too lazy to find a milder word that means almost the same thing. Some really amazing stories, fables and fact came to light (for me) and so I was able to wade through the prose which just seemed really heavy. Oh well. I’m glad I read it anyway.

The book fits these challenges:

Miss American Pie

2010-01-03T14:45:00.004-05:00

Well, I just finished Book One for four of my five challenges, pretty darn good!

Miss American Pie by Margaret Sartor is actually a diary she kept between the ages of 13 and 18. When I realized what it was, I became even more interested because I could relate to it. I kept a diary starting when I was 12 or 13 and until I married my first husband.

I felt many of the things young Margaret felt: "Rained again. That's my life." "I hate these days with nothing to do." "Jesus, are you watching over me? I hope someone is." "The first time I thought about killing myself, I was about ten years old." Some of it is so mundane, some of it filled with so much pain.

Margaret is six years younger than me. She remembers many of the things I do--Watergate, for one thing. She grew up in Louisiana and remembers desegregation and rascism on a level I don't.

You can see her maturing and her ability to reason and figure things out through the years. She sure was boy crazy, I have to say that!

I have to admit that sometimes the book was boring -- but isn't that what our real lives are like?

The book fits these challenges:

Five Reading Challenges

2010-01-02T19:27:00.004-05:00

I may be crazy but I decided to participate in five reading challenges this year. I'd probably let myself get carried away and do more but I figure I better put the brakes on now. Luckily, the lists can overlap. I wasn't going to choose my books this year but I'm thinking now I ought to at least try to. Otherwise, I'll get completely discombulated!

The first one is going to be a real challenge: read 100 books between Jan 1 and December 31, 2010! It will be a miracle if I can do that, considering the rate I'm reading now. Still, I'll give it the college try. Here's the first 25 I picked:

Miss American Pie Margaret Sartor
Schindler's List Thomas Keneally
The Given Day Dennis Lehane
Brooklyn Com Tolbin
Symptoms of Withdrawal Christopher Lawford
Nightmare House Douglas Clegg
Circus Fire Stewart Nann
Widow's War Sarah Gunning
Last Days of Dogtown Anita Diament
Blind Faith Joe McGinniss
1916 Morgan Llewellyn
Three Musketeers Alexandre Dumas
The Jungle Upton Sinclair
On The Beach Neil Shute
Invisible Man Ralph Ellison
Imperial Woman Pearl S. Buck
Those Who Save Us Jenna Blom
A Fractured Mind Robert B. Oxnam
Made in the USA Billie Letts
Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee Dee Brown
Everything She Ever Wanted Ann Rule
Welcome to the World Baby Girl Fannie Flagg
Lies My Teacher Told Me James Loewen
Hood Stephen Lawhead
Always Looking Up Michael J. Fox

I'll add more in later but I figure this would be a good start.

Wish I'd Read Challenge: The very same list!

The books above that fit into the historical challenge are:

Schindler's List
The Given Day
Brooklyn
Circus Fire
Widow's War
Last Days of Dogtown
1916
Three Musketeers
The Jungle
Imperial Woman
Those Who Save Us
Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee
Hood

Memorable Memoirs:
Miss American Pie
Symptoms of Withdrawal
A Fractured Mind
Always Looking Up

New Authors (ones I've never read before):
Miss American Pie
Schindler's List
Brooklyn
Nightmare House
Widow's War
Last Days of Dogtown
On The Beach
Invisible Man
Those Who Save Us
A Fractured Mind
Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee
Welcome to the World Baby Girl
Lies My Teacher Told Me
Always Looking Up

Mixology: I decided to read 30 books. Here's the breakdown:

New (10/15):

Schindler's List
Brooklyn
Symptoms of Withdrawal
Nightmare House
Widow's War
Last Days of Dogtown
On The Beach
Invisible Man
Those Who Save Us
A Fractured Mind

Classic Literature(4/5):
The Jungle
The Three Musketeers
On The Beach
Invisible Man

Women Authors (5/5):

Imperial Woman
Made in the USA
Welcome to the World, Baby Girl
Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee
Miss American Pie

Non-Fiction (5/5):

Symptoms of Withdrawal
Blind Faith
Lies My Teacher Told Me
Always Looking Up
Everything She Always Wanted

Skipping Christmas & The Christmas Thief

2009-12-23T19:09:00.002-05:00

For True Book Addict's Christmas Challenge, I'd decided to read at least one book and then move on to the Obesity Help Rants & Raves book club pick of the month. I just couldn't get into that book, though, and so I went back to the Christmas challenge and read another book. Now I've read books 3 and 4, Skipping Christmas by John Grisham and The Christmas Thief by Mary Higgins Clark & Carol Higgins Clark.

I'd seen Skipping Christmas with TB at the movie theater when it first came out. I thought it was hilarious ... at first. Then something happened that bothered me and it sort of "spoiled" the movie for me. I realized I had a copy of the book here and I'd never read it. I picked it up and wondered if I would feel the same way about the book ... and I did. Here's why:

Luther and Nora Krank are a couple of empty nesters who find themselves facing a Christmas without their adult child, Blair. Blair's joined the Peace Corps and is going to be away, starting with the end of the Thanksgiving holiday. The parents are understandable down-spirited about this. Luther is drawn to a travel agency one day and is totally sold on the idea of a vacation cruise in lieu of staying home to celebrate Christmas. He convinces his wife by saying it won't be the same without Blair and they can afford the trip by cutting out all the expenses of Christmas. I think, in their case, it was like $7,500.

I'm thinking, great idea. Since they are leaving on Christmas day, I don't get why they have to totally forgo the celebration since they obviously have money but I won't argue that point. Nora likes the idea although she's not totally convinced about giving up the tree, the yearly Christmas Eve party, cards, and so on.

Once they put their plans into action, the Christmas terrorists come out of the wooodwork--overbearing neighbors who try to dictate when and how they decorate the outside of the house, employees that don't get the concept of not going to corporate parties or giving meaningless gifts to each other, police/boy scout/other organizations travelling around trying to force their wares (calendar/trees/other) on homeowners in the name of charities, and merchants looking for business (the guy who sells Christmas cards and so on). They think the Kranks are crazy, selfish, or grinchy for not celebrating the way everyone else does and for breaking formation.

So far, it's all funny as all get out and the Christmas Nazis are obnoxious as well as amusing. So what goes wrong?

On Christmas Eve, Blair decides to come home ... and she's bringing a fiance. She asks her mom if the usual party will be happening ... and her mother says YES.

That's what bugged me. A lot.

Luther and Nora are running around like lunatics trying to find Christmas dinner, put together a party, get a tree and yadda yadda yadda. I didn't find it funny. It was pathetic. I was annoyed. I didn't enjoy the story anymore.

I guess if Nora had said, gee, no dear, I'm sorry, we decided to take a cruise instead ... maybe it wouldn't have been "funny". Or maybe it would. Maybe we'd see what kind of daughter Nora and Luther really had. Oh well.

Mary Higgins Clark and Carol Higgins Clark have a few characters they've been reuniting the last couple of years to tell a new Christmas story. The books have been cute and predictable. It's a little too complicated for me to get into all the characters of the book because it was just an enjoyable little bit of fluff. Bottom line: the group is headed to Stowe, VT for a weekend around Thanksgiving. It turns out that the Christmas tree going to Rockefeller Center is being cut down right in that area and they want to go see it. Also headed to Vermont is a recently released con man who hid his stolen loot 12-1/2 years ago in a tree ... guess which tree? It's a nice little story, light hearted and with the usual happy ending.

A Christmas Story by Jean Shepherd

2009-12-10T21:38:00.000-05:00

I just finished the second of 3 books I definitely chose for the Christmas reading challenge.

I've always enjoyed A Christmas Story, a low budget film released in 1983. My first husband and I saw it while we were dating. At that time, I thought it focused too much on kids' "gimme gimme" attitude but it's grown on me over the years. I didn't realize until years later that it was based on a story written by Jean Shepherd--well, actually, a series of stories.

Because I've become so fond of the movie, I picked A Christmas Story up one year from one of the bookstores, probably Borders.

It's rare for me to say this but ... the movie was better. Here's why:

Jean Shepherd reworked three or four of his other stories to fit in with the actual Red Ryder BB gun/Christmas story piece. I thought they were all part of the same story or, at the very least, they all took place around Christmas time. Ahem. No.

Second, two of the short stories start out with occurrences that have nothing to do with the story that follows. For example, in the first one he's eating in an Automat with an elderly woman sporting a button that says "Disarm the toy industry". His conversation with her eventually leads to his look back at his obession with getting a Red Ryder BB gun for Christmas. It didn't feel right and didn't "fit" in my opinion. I thought it detracted from the story.

Third, it just wasn't as funny as the movie was. The movie really seemed to tell the story from the boy's point of view. The short stories were told by an adult. There's a big difference between the two perspectives. One is charming and one ... isn't.

Lasstly, the Christmas story piece came first in the book. That was a real let-down. After that, where do you go? Oh well ... I've still got the movie to look forward to!

I'm reading Skipping Christmas by John Grisham next. The story was also made into a movie just a few years ago, called Christmas With the Kranks. I sure hope I like the book better!

Push/Precious by Sapphire

2009-12-09T19:58:00.001-05:00

Wow. What. A. Powerful. Book.

I first heard about the book on another forum, Obesity Help. The poster read it and wanted to know if anyone had. The synopsis she gave sounded really depressing but I was intrigued and so I went to request it from the library. That was in *June*. The waiting list was miles long.

Since then, I forgot about it.

The book is actually called Push originally but I understand the author, Sapphire, renamed it to match the name of the heroine and the title of the newly released movie. Yes, a movie has been released, called Precious and I am scared to see it!

The heroine is a 16 year old girl named Precious Jones. She lives with her mother in Harlem and has a harsh, depressing life. She's been traumatized and severely abused by both her parents and at the beginning of the book, she is pregnant with her second baby by her father. Her mother, one of the most hateful and despicable characters I've ever had the displeasure to read about, not only blames Precious for "taking" her man away she also engages in some really perverted abuse of her own--on her own child.

Precious is illiterate but still goes to school. She sits in the back and tries to learn and actually has a good aptitude for math. No one can reach her, although she does like her math teacher.

She's suspended (or was it expelled?) from school for being pregnant. The story starts in 1987 and since when was that a reason for expulsion anymore? Anyway, the principal (if that's who it was) has a change of heart somewhat and comes to Precious' flat in Harlem to tell her about an alternative school.

That's really when Precious' life begins. She shows up to apply for admission to the program and is placed with a wonderful teacher. She is in a class with others who are struggling with their own demons and trying to learn too. The teacher wants everyone to write everyday in a journal. At first Precious is very skeptical. How can she write if she doesn't know how?

But she starts with just a few letters she knows from the words she wants to say. The teacher writes in the spelling of these words below and then adds a response. For the first time, Precious feels she's made a connection with someone and can communicate.

You would think that this is one of those feel-good books that starts out so miserably and ends on a happy note. I wish that was the case but in this story, life keeps getting in the way of Precious' plans. It's sad but it's also inspiring and more true to life this way.

It's not a big book and so I was able to finish it in just a couple of days.

Back to the Christmas challenge...although in its own way, this book was part of that too. It was a gift to read it.

Christmas Challenge

2009-12-07T22:14:00.000-05:00

I found a blog called Word Trix and learned about the Christmas Challenge on The True Book Addict. I love book challenges--especially Christmas ones! This particular challenge is easy--read 1 to 4 Christmas books. I thought of one I could do, up to 5 if there was no Obesity Help Rants & Raves Book Club choice for December.

Today, I finished the first book I picked: A Christmas Blizzard by Garrison Keillor. I've completed the challenge and yet I can go further if I want! I chose this book because it's new and I love Garrison Keillor. He writes funny stuff, very down to earth and true to life. Well...usually.

As I started to read the book, I wondered if this would be yet another variation of the bah-humbug-find-the-meaning-of-Christmas types. They're good but enough already, you know? Anyway, James Sparrow is a 42 year old successful self made man (by a lucky meeting with a down-in-his-luck chemist). Sparrow has it all--tons of money, a lovely loving wife, a successful business...but there's just one thing. He has this "thing" about cold weather, Christmas and iron water pumps.

He really wants to go to his home in Hawaii with his wife to celebrate Christmas. She's one of those people, though, that loves the traditional holiday and weather and helping people. She gets the flu. On top of that, he gets a call from his cousin. Apparently his favorite uncle is dying and so he has to fly to North Dakota.

He's only planning to go for a few hours but stuff happens, you know. Like ... a blizzard. Up until this point, the story was coherent and kind of funny in places. I started to get lost, though, when Sparrow was on his way through the snow to the uncle's but ended up back at the airport somehow. The plane is snowed in and no one's going anywhere so he decides to go stay in a fishing shack.

At that point, I felt like I entered Wonderland. I kept wondering if James was having some kind of drug trip or blizzard hallucination but some of the strange things that happened actually were real. Other things...well, were they real or were they like the scenes with Clarence the angel in It's A Wonderful Life?

I won't give away the ending but I will say I wasn't especially crazy about the story. Oh well. Better luck next time.

Booking Through Thursday: Authors

2009-11-19T19:28:00.003-05:00

Do you think any current author is of the same caliber as Dickens, Austen, Bronte, or any of the classic authors? If so, who, and why do you think so? If not, why not? What books from this era might be read 100 years from now?

Actually, I do. There are several I can think of, actually. I'm assuming authors like Harper Lee and John Steinbeck are already considered "classic". The authors I'm thinking of are "classic" for their storytelling techniques, themes, plot and character development. In my humble opinion, these are:

Mary McGarry Morris
Kevin Baker
Herman Wouk
Arthur C. Clarke
Margaret Atwood
Barbara Kinsolving
John Irving
Wally Lamb

I'm sure there's more but Survivor's on in 10 minutes and I've got to book! When I get back, it'll be interesting to see which other other bloggers suggested!

For more Booking Through Thursday, click here.

Booking Through Thursday: Too short?

2009-11-12T18:26:00.001-05:00

“Life is too short to read bad books.” I’d always heard that, but I still read books through until the end no matter how bad they were because I had this sense of obligation.

That is, until this week when I tried (really tried) to read a book that is utterly boring and unrealistic. I had to stop reading.

Do you read everything all the way through or do you feel life really is too short to read bad books?

I used to read books to the bitter end as well out of obligation but I don't do that anymore. Actually, let me take that back. I'll still do it with a book-of-the-month club I belong to. That's only because I feel committed to the club. I've read so many books I wouldn't normally read and none of them have been that bad.

That being said, if I pick a boring book or one that eventually doesn't appeal to me on my own, then I will abandon it as soon as possible. Usually that would be within the first 100 pages.

The reason I give up on it now is that I realize there are so many good books out there I could be reading. Why waste my time on something I'm not enjoying? Do I really need to inflict that kind of agita on myself when reading is supposed to be so pleasurable for me? No.

I'm teaching myself to stand up for myself in more ways than one. :)

The Gate to Women's Country by Sherri S. Tepper

2009-11-10T14:31:00.000-05:00

Discussion Questions

1. Which of the cultural innovations of the Women's Country do you think is working best for them?

Since they're trying to eliminate destruction and war, I think it was a good idea to keep women in charge of the professions (other than warriors) i.e. teachers, healers, judges.

2. Which cultural innovation is not working for them, or not working well?

Weeding out warriors genetically is a good idea, I guess, but it takes a long time! I also thought it was a terrible idea to turn the boys over to the warriors at such a young age (5) and then make them decide whether to be warriors or not at 15. Mothers can be a much better nurturing influence on their boys when they're young. At 15, most adolescents still want to "fit in" and don't want to be stigmatized. Maybe more boys would return through the women's gate if they were given to the men at an older age and if they decided what they wanted to be when they're older.

3. If you were required to practice a science, an art, and a craft, what would they be?

I think I'd be most interested in healing, music and pottery.

4. Do you think the sub-theme presented by the Homerian-style play "Iphigenia at Illium" was helpful? Did it add anything to your understanding of the story?

I understand why it was there but I didn't like it. It interrupted the "flow" for me.

5. What did or didn't you like about the book, and why?

The genetics twist was terrific. I got a good laugh out of that one. I didn't care for the fact that Stavia was so taken in by Chernon. I was really impressed with her intelligence and dismayed that she would let such a self-serving creep use her the way he did. :P I guess it just shows to go ya that "love is blind." Yuck.

The Help by Kathryn Stockett

2009-11-10T14:28:00.001-05:00

The Help was the sixth book we read. Questions asked and my answers:

• Who was your favorite character and why?

My favorite character was Aibileen. I was able to make the strongest emotional "connection" with her. Aibileen was the kindest and most loving of all, sensitive to the needs of small children--especially poor Mae Mobley, who's mother was so awful to her. Maybe the author was closest to Aibileen too--she seemed to be more fleshed out than any of the other characters. I could just about see her there, telling me her story.

• Do you think Minny was justified in her distrust of white people?

Without a doubt! Other than Skeeter and Celia Foote, I haven't seen a single white character that treated her decently.

• Were you disappointed that Miss Skeeter didn't end the engagement before Stuart did?

I was disappointed that she went back to him so easily, yes. He was rude to her on that first date so I was surprised she'd even consider going out with him again--and then he dumped her again. I was totally not surprised that he walked out on her as soon as she told him about the book. :P

• Hilly seems to be a horrible, controlling woman, but a good mother. Is that possible?

It depends. I suppose a controlling woman could be a good mother, but not one that spews hate like Hilly did. It wasn't just her bigotry it was also her spiteful revenge she'd take out on someone who has the "nerve" to cross her. Children live what they learn. Hilly might love her kids but from her, they'd learn to be bigotted, small minded and vengeful. Nope, not a good mom.

• What did you think of the pie Minny made? Justified?

Hilly deserved every bite she took. It did gross me out though. (shudder) I sure do understand why Minny did it!

• Would you have had the courage to stand up and do what Miss Skeeter did? Or would you be the type to go along with the flow and the times.

I had a little trouble with this. I'm not sure to call what Skeeter did "courage". For a long time she didn't understand the risk she was putting the lives of the maids into. When she did do something "rebellious" I wasn't sure if it was really such or not. Example: Hilly demands that Skeeter print that horrible directive of hers. I think it would have been more courageous to flat out refuse and resign or write a disagreeing editorial about it than to pull a prank and then act all innocent about it.

I'm conflicted about it because Skeeter and I would be from two different generations. Skeeter was born around WWII and there was a whole different set of "rules" then. I can remember opening up my big mouth to object rather than to just go along with the flow. Sometimes I was ostracized and it did hurt but oh well. It was better to have that than not to say anything about something that was wrong.

Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout

2009-11-10T14:23:00.001-05:00

This was the fourth book we read in the R&R book club. The person who picked the book posted a lot of discussion questions and that's how we handled it that month. The questions I picked and my answers:

1. Do you sympathize with Olive Kitteridge as a character?

I found Olive to be a difficult character to like and it's hard to sympathize with someone you don't like. I found her to be overbearing and mean in the first story and it was only gradually that I was able to feel any sympathy at all for her. In the very last story I liked her a teeny bit. I was very surprised by the sensitivity and compassion she showed in some of the stories. I wasn't sure I believed it but apparently it was part of her nature. Appearances *can* be deceiving!

5. Why does Henry tolerate Olive as much as he does, catering to her, agreeing with her, staying even-keeled when she rants and raves? Is there anyone that you tolerate despite their sometimes overbearing behavior? If so, why?

He gave in way too much to her, in my opinion. That's the way some people are, though. They always put the needs of the ones they love first. No one's going to agree all the time in any relationship and usually one or the other will give in or compromise somehow. I don't think it's particularly healthy for one person to be giving all the time and the other to be taking/controlling all the time and that's the way Henry-Olive's marriage seemed to work. Neither one was totally happy with the arrangment. :P As for me, sometimes I tolerate my DH's overbearing behavior because I love him and because he *is* trying to be more flexible. He's become less rigid in the 7 years we've been married.

7. Does it seem ﬁtting to you that Olive would not respond while others ridiculed her body and her choice of clothing at Christopher and Suzanne’s wedding?

Olive's response does seem fitting to me because it's what I would have done. I have overheard other people making fun of me because of my appearance. I've been terribly hurt but too proud to be confrontational about it. I don't want to give anyone the satisfaction of knowing they hurt me.

14. Was Christopher justiﬁed in his ﬁght with Olive in “Security”? Did he kick her out, or did she voluntarily leave? Do you think he and Ann are cruel to Olive?

I don't know for sure if Christopher was justified in what he said to Olive because I haven't seen them together often. The few times I have, however, I did get the feeling that Olive was a controlling presence in his life. Until he said so, I didn't know that her mood swings affected him. I think that he has very real mixed feelings about his mother and his feelings definitely needed to be expressed. I wouldn't say he kicked her out. She said she wanted to go. She may not have realized it but I believe she said she wanted to leave to make him feel guilty. This time, he didn't play into her hands. I absolutely do not think he and Ann were cruel to Olive.

A short answer to #15, which is a follow-up: I do believe Olive is completely oblivious to the impression she makes on others. I believe she was truly shocked by what her son said to her. She probably doesn't realize how much her former students feared her and would be surprised by that too. She would be equally shocked to know that she did make Henry miserable many times.

22. Apart from the hostage-taking, Olive Kitteridge refers to many violent or traumatic events in the lives of its characters or their friends or relatives – suicide, divorce, infidelity, miscarriages, death by drowning, a major stroke, a fatal hunting accident. Books can seem oppressive when painful events pile up, or so dark you can’t finish them. If you read all of Olive Kitteridge, how did Strout keep you reading? Why didn’t the book seem oppressive? Did it?

I'll be perfectly honest here: I kept reading because I felt committed to it. I really enjoy the R&R Book Club. If I'd picked up the book to read on the own, I wouldn't have finished it. I really did find it to be very dark and depressing.

Books I read for the R&R book club

2009-11-08T12:34:00.002-05:00

No, R&R doesn't stand for rest & relaxation! It stands for Rants & Raves and is on the Obesity Help website. In March, there was a thread about starting a book club. I was interested and I joined. These aren't real reviews, I guess, but they do give the gist of what I thought about some of these books. We started reading the books in March or April and have been going since.

1. The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls

The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls--She recounts some hair-raising experiences growing up with her sisters and brother. Her parents were totally dysfunctional even if they did love their kids...and it was hard to tell at times. I was amazed that the three older kids did so well, managing to support themselves and make good lives for themselves. I have a lot of admiration for what Jeannette Walls and her brother and sister were able to accomplish.

Personally, I grew up with a possibly bipolar, probably alcoholic and definitely raging mother and an indifferent hard drinking father. This book was good but hit a little close to home for me too!

2. Prayers for Bobby by Mary Griffith

I felt sad reading much of the book. What a waste of a young life! Bobby seemed like many teenagers, just trying to find his way in life. I think whether gay or not, lots of kids feel alienated like Bobby did and many are left to flounder on their own. But to have your own mother telling you you need to be saved or go to hell is just too much! I would have preferred to stick more to Bobby's story than to hear Mary's story, especially the last section of the book. I thought her change could have been condensed a little more. I did appreciate the afterword although I realized at that point it was written in 1996?

Just as personal experience, I was the member of a more liberal minded Presbyterian church in the 1990s and I remember the whole movement to try and have gays become ordained and open members of the session and deacons and all that. The committee I was on wrote up a report and I remember how full of hope we felt. Two of my friends wanted to be deacons but were afraid because they couldn't come out openly. One friend was a deacon but couldn't come out and it was one of those don't-ask-don't-tell BS type policies we had.

So when the whole thing was rejected out of hand we were crushed. I fell away from the church. I can't say for sure that was the reason specifically. I just felt the whole thing (organized church & its rules) was hypocritical and I just didn't want to go anymore. I thought, I don't have to be in a church to worship God and to have Jesus in my heart.

My biggest regret about that, though, is that my kids were young when I pulled out and they know very little about the stories and their own salvation. Recently I asked if they believe in God and that Jesus has saved them and I got, "well, it's a comforting idea" and "I sure hope so." I guess while I was home worshipping I didn't do a very good job passing the teaching onto my kids. All I taught them was bigotry in any form is WRONG and the do unto others rule. But that is how I try to live my life--love your neighbor as you love yourself and love God with all your heart. There are NO clauses in there that says love your neighbor except if he/she is gay/black/poor/fill-in-the-blank.

3. Napalm and Silly Putty by George Carlin

One night I needed my son Bill to drive me somewhere and he put in a George Carlin tape for us to listen to. It's funnier listening to him than reading him although I found many parts of the book hilarious. I *did* notice the repetition though. Parts of this book were on the tape which was from a different book entirely. Bill told me, yeah, he does tend to use some of his routines over and over.

A few things I enjoyed--

"Do you ever look at your watch and immediately forget the time, so you look again? And still it doesn't register so you have to look a third time. And then someone asks you what time it is, and you actually have to look at your watch for the fourth time in three minutes? Don't you feel stupid?" Heh heh, yes!

I liked the section about new speak. Carlin called them euphemisms that soften our language. Like, saying dental appliances instead of false teeth, landfill instead of dump, civil disorder instead of riot, job action instead of strike and gaming resort for gambling joint.

Some of the material I didn't find funny at all, especially the references to rape and other violence.

Booking Through Thursday

2009-10-29T16:32:00.000-04:00

Something I’ve been thinking about lately: “What words/phrases in a blurb make a book irresistible? What words/phrases will make you put the book back down immediately?”

It's easier for me to explain why I put a book back down immediately. I don't like to read formula books (i.e. detective) or romance stories. As soon as I see the word detective or investigator, the book goes down. The same thing happens if it hints of romance--like, young woman with 3 kids loses husband, moves to a new town, meets obnoxious contractor working on her new house. Bam! Down it goes. Sometimes I'll put the book down as soon as I get a good look at the author's name because of the genre they write in.

Books I'll open up and browse through:

They're "different" in that the hero/heroine is unique or has an unusual problem to handle. One example of a book I browsed further and then read is Stones From the River. Excellent book!

Maybe it's about a time travelling heroine--i.e., Outlander. I'll overlook the romance because there's enough other interesting and thrilling parts of the story.

I usually enjoy historical fiction so sometimes I'm hooked by the time period. Paradise Alley centered on a group of characters experiencing the anti-draft rioting in NYC back in 1863 (or was it 1862, duh!).

Books I read while I was unable to move around in July

2009-10-22T08:42:00.002-04:00

From This That & The Other Thing:

I did a *lot* of reading the last 10-12 days which really helped me pass the long hours. Two of them I'm holding back while I decide which book to choose for a club I belong to on another forum. The others:

Dovey Coe by Frances O'Roark Donnell: I ordered the book because I saw it was about a family with a deaf member and I was interested in it. It's actually a book for teens or young adults but I still enjoyed it. Dovey Coe is a child growing up in the mountains around the time of the Great Depression. She is a plucky character and speaks in her mountain accented voice. There's a nasty bully that rags on her deaf brother and is pursuing her pretty older sister. He lures Dovey to the store his family owns. Dovey becomes involved in an altercation with him, trying to stop him from killing her brother's dog. She's knocked out but when she comes to, the bully is dead. She's accused of murder...but did she do it?

Wait Till Next Year by Doris Kearns Goodwin: This was a thoroughly enjoyable read for me. Doris Kearns Goodwin grew up on Long Island and so a lot of the places she mentions were totally familiar. She also describes small town/block living where people knew and looked out for each other and I remember that too. She & her family were avid fans of the Brooklyn Dodgers before they defected to LA. It's a great book for anyone who grew up in the '50s and '60s!

Moloka'i by Alan Brennert: The story is about Rachel Kalama and takes place in Hawaii between 1890s to mid 1900s. Rachel is about 7 when she develops leprosy and is forcibly quarantined on Molokai. Although you'd think this would be a very sad book, it's very upbeat in many places. Rachel has a great deal of courage as do many of the other people suffering from leprosy. I enjoyed it and was moved by it.

I Heard the Owl Call My Name by Margaret Craven: This is the story of a dedicated young vicar sent to live in a very isolated village of native Americans in British Columbia. The people grow to love and trust him as he learns their language and culture. Ah...but the bishop has a very special reason for sending the young vicar--a sad one. It's a quick and easy read.

I'm holding back on: In This Sign by Joanne Greenberg and Train Go Sorry by Leah Hager Cohen

Eye Opening Books II

2009-10-22T08:41:00.001-04:00

When the civil rights movement began in the south I was still kind of little. I didn't know what was going on at first. Later, when I began watching the news for seventh grade current events, I saw the rioting in places like Watts and didn't understand. My parents explained the riots were instigated by "troublemakers".

I lived on Long Island with my parents and brother until December 1964. Our schools weren't segregated so I had no idea that they had been in the south. Later, I remember reading about the violence of busing issues in the north to fully integrate schools. The only thing I thought was how silly it was to have to ride a bus across town when there was a neighborhood school a kid could walk to. By then, I was living in Baltimore and I don't remember we really needed busing. The schools were pretty much integrated and so we went in our neighborhoods.

When Martin Luther King was assassinated, I was shocked, saddened and confused. He was only 39 years old, a preacher. Who would kill a preacher? I was confused, though, because my parents said he was a "troublemaker". How could he be? He was a preacher! Yet, there was rioting in Baltimore and smoke filled the sky. Maybe my parents were right, I thought...but why? Why were people so angry?

Well...I was dumb. I didn't know very much about what was going on in the country or in the world either until then--1968, when all hell seemed to break loose.

I read Gone With the Wind and saw the movie with my parents when it was re-released. Oho, the people in the south had owned slaves. That was very bad, I thought, but that was 100 years ago. Why was everyone still mad now?

I was thinking and seeing things like the naive child I was.

I started to get it when I read To Kill A Mockingbird. A black man was on trial for his life after being accused of raping a white woman. The first thing that troubled me was that some of the white people expected appointed lawyer Atticus Finch to put up a dummy defense. They all anticipated that Tom Robinson would be hanged anyway.

The "star" witness, Mayella Ewing, was a pathetically poor and lonely young woman who only had her child siblings for company. Their father was on the dole, an alcoholic, and the kids showed up for one day of school and that was it. They were worse off and off crummier character than anyone else, black or white, and yet she was going to be believed just because of her color. During question, it became very clear she was lying. She hadn't been raped. She'd been attracted to Tom and her father saw her hugging the terrified handyman. Tom ran out of the house and the bum father beat the hell out of his daughter.

Atticus proved there was no way Tom could have committed the crimes Mayella accused him of...yet Tom was convicted. He was "shot" while trying to "escape". I felt as sick as the kids in the story felt.

No wonder black people were mad! They were "kept in their place" by Klan mentality, shot, beaten or hanged because of what? The color of their skin. That was sickening.

I felt angry because no one had told me any of this happened. This was supposed to be a free country, why wasn't it? I began to argue with my parents about the things they said. Why did they think protesters were troublemakers? Why did they hate Puerto Ricans? Why did the government lie to us?

I still didn't know much about the civil rights movement in the '50s and '60s. It just didn't come up in school and my parents surely weren't going to talk about "troublemakers". Once I began to see footage of the police with clubs, hoses and dogs set on marching blacks I was really horrified. Those policemen and the hate filled white crowds looked more like Nazis than Americans.

I was already out of high school so it was after 1973 that I saw that old footage. I thought, what! That kind of segregation was still going on when I was a child? What! Blacks in states like Mississippi, Alabama and Louisiana couldn't all vote? What! Even in 1968, Rev. King was still working on civil rights? It hadn't happened for everyone even then? What!

I just finished reading Coming of Age in Mississippi and again my stomach turned at the hateful behavior of white Christians. They'd kill a black man for even looking at a white woman. Anne Moody writes about the murders of several young men from her town and she had to get out because she couldn't stomach all the hatred.

She wrote about her work in "the Movement", exposing herself to being beaten, arrested or killed just to be able to sit in a restaurant and be served or sit down and wait for a bus like everyone else. Segregated restaurants, bathrooms and waiting rooms? She lived in constant fear because she had the nerve to go around trying to get other blacks to register to vote. That whole system was crazy. Blacks already had the right to vote...why did they need to pass some kind of crazy test the whites thought up?

Worst of all...where was everyone? It wasn't just the white southerners and the KKK causing the trouble. And they were the troublemakers, not the protesting blacks. What's wrong for asking for what you're due? It was the whites who responded with murder. Now that is wrong wrong wrong. Anyway, where were the rest of us? Where was the government? They were quaking in their shoes, I guess. They didn't care enough or were too scared to get involved.

I don't want to come off sounding sanctimonious or righteous. It just makes me sick. Apparently we're all capable of being Nazis and Klansmen. When we look the other way, that's just as bad. That's what happened in Germany to the Jews, here to the blacks, and all around the world.

Eye Opening Books

2009-10-22T08:36:00.002-04:00

From This That & The Other Thing:

Eye Opening Books
This is probably going to be a rambly post today--sorry! I was thinking about the books I've been reading over the last several months and what eye openers they've been. Why are people so mean to each other--especially in the name of God?

I grew up with deaf parents, deaf relatives and deaf friends. I learned early about discrimination and repression of deaf people. Yes, they've been repressed too. I can't tell you how many times I was asked as a small child, "Can they talk?" "Can they read?" "How can they drive a car?" "How can they have children?" I mean, DUH!

Way back when, my parents couldn't go to school with everyone else. They went to special schools for the deaf. My dad's education was better than my mom's because the teachers and students all signed freely. At my mom's signing wasn't allowed and all the communication was through lip reading. No one was even allowed to gesture. Sign language was looked upon as dummy language. Deaf men could be printers or machinists, never managers or lawyers or doctors. Deaf women could be seamstresses or key punch operators, and certainly never managers, lawyers or doctors. Things are better now but we're not there yet.

What's that got to do with eye opening books? Now I'll get to that. I knew that Jewish people and people of color were also different but I had no idea of the extent and cruelty we could have towards one another. I read Exodus by Leon Uris, The Diary of Anne Frank by Anne Frank and To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee when I was in high school. We didn't learn about the holocaust in Nazi Germany during my school years. Up until I read Lee's book, I didn't understand what African Americans were so mad about in the late '60s. Genocide, discrimination, repression--who wouldn't be angry about that?

Here's a funny thing: although my parents suffered discrimination themselves, they also carried around very bigoted ideas. When I was growing up in the '60s, they'd ignorant things about Jewish people and people of color, specifically African Americans and Puerto Ricans. They would say that blacks are trouble makers for protesting injustices against them. They had stereotypical beliefs about Jewish people. My dad told me he would disown me if I ever dated or married a Puerto Rican. I wondered where their hatred came from. When books like Down These Mean Streets by Piri Thomas and Coming of Age in Mississippi by Anne Moody were first published, I was afraid to read them because I knew my parents would disapprove and because I was afraid of what the books might say.

I joined a book club a few months ago on a support forum I visit regularly. Recently, one of the members chose a book called Prayers for Bobby by Mary Griffith. The book is about a young gay man who killed himself because he'd learned (from his mother & prevailing religious beliefs) to hate himself. He jumped from a bridge onto a highway below because he couldn't stand to live with himself anymore. I was shocked and saddened by the things I read in the book; that the suicide rate for teenagers is highest among the gay kids; that in the name of our loving God, parents and other people would condemn gay people instead of opening their hearts and churches to them. I remembered the gay pride parades and gay rights movements but am sorry to say I hadn't given them much thought--just as I hadn't given much thought to the Jews or the African Americans until I started to read about what had happened to them.

After that, I found both Down These Mean Streets and Coming of Age in Missippi at a book sale at the library and read them. They made me feel sick to my stomach and thoroughly disgusted that these things could happen in our country, so wealthy and supposedly "the land of the free". Free, yes--if you are white and Protestant (both of which I am). But what about everyone else? This country is for all of us, not just us white heterosexual Protestants!

Now...let's see what else I've got to read around here?

Gump & Co.

2009-10-22T07:40:00.000-04:00

From This That & The Other Thing
Gump & Co. by Winston Groom

My review

rating: 3 of 5 stars
I absolutely loved the movie "Forrest Gump" so when I saw this book at a library sale, I had to have it. It picks up where the movie left off but I have to say that the first book and the movie must have been quite different. For instance, Forrest's shrimp company apparently went bankrupt and he was left flat broke. His true love Jenny didn't die as she did in the movie although she was pretty quickly dispatched in this sequel. Forrest got into plenty of adventures in this book as well, including Iran-Contra, the first Gulf War, the fall of the Berlin War, and other historical events from the 1980s. Forrest even met Tom Hanks who suggested that a movie should be made from Forrest's life. Heh. It was an amusing book, very light and easy to read.

Duma Key

2009-10-22T07:37:00.001-04:00

From This That & The Other Thing:

Duma Key by Stephen King

rating: 4 of 5 stars
I just finished reading the book and while I liked it, I don't consider it to be one of his best. My favorite is and always will be The Stand, I guess. T

Edgar Freemantle was a happily married, middle aged owner of a construction firm when a horrible accident severely injured him physically and mentally. In the aftermath of such traumatic injuries, he's changed and as a result, his life takes some dramatic changes. His therapist suggests a change of scenery and Edgar chooses to relocate from Minnesota to Duma Key, FL.

Edgar had already begun sketching by the time he moves to the house he renames "Big Pink". Suddenly, he is a prolific artist, moving on from pencil drawings to oils.

There is a chilling mystery on Duma Island. Why is the southern part overgrown with trees and plants not really native to the area? Why does no one live on that part of the island? Edgar's only neighbors are an elderly patron of the arts struggling with Alzheimer's and her caretaker. As Edgar becomes friends with them and learns more about them, his artwork takes a dark turn.

I don't want to go any further and include spoilers. I enjoyed the book but felt it was too long. That's been an issue with some King books I've read, particularly the ones since his accident. His writing has changed and while I haven't read everything he's written since then, I haven't been a big fan of the stuff I have read. The story could have ended a lot sooner. Part of the ending reminded me of something that happened in one of his other stories and I didn't think it was necessary to have it happen in this book.

I love Stephen King and will continue to read whatever he writes, including going back and re-reading the old stuff.

Hideaway

2009-10-22T07:35:00.001-04:00

From This That & The Other Thing:

Hideaway by Dean Koontz

rating: 3 of 5 stars
Hatch Harrison and his wife Lindsey were on their way back from a vacation to try and rekindle their marriage (they lost their son almost 5 years ago) when they are in a terrible car accident. Hatch is actually killed in the accident but is successfully resuscitated by a dedicated doctor at the hospital. It's this second chance at life that revitalizes their marriage and Hatch and Lindsey decide to adopt a disabled child, Regina. Unfortunately, Hatch seems to have brought back a disturbing ability with him -- he has an inexplicable connection to a psychotic serial killer and is able to see through that man's eyes.

As Hatch struggles with the disturbing visions and dreams, he soon realizes that the killer is also able to see through his eyes and that it places his new little family in danger.

Is the killer a human or some evil manifestation from hell? That's just one of the myeteries to be cleared up.

This was an exciting, very suspenseful book which became almost unbearable toward the end. There was a couple of real nail biting twists in the story, something Koontz is very skilled at introducing into his stories.

This is one of his earlier books but one I hadn't read. I'm looking forward to reading more of his books.

The Colorado Kid

2009-10-22T07:33:00.000-04:00

from This That & The Other Thing:

rating: 2 of 5 stars
I was very disappointed with The Colorado Kid by Stephen King. He wrote the book especially for "Hard Case Crime", a series of books by classic mystery writers and new ones that were supposed to have a 1940s/1950s old time mystery feel to them. I was expecting a hard boiled crime story and what I got was two old geezers in Maine telling their wide-eyed intern about some guy from Colorado who may or may not have choked to death on a steak sandwich. I kept waiting for the book to get better and it was charming but that is about all. Waste of time.

Pervasive Developmental Disorder: An Altered Perspective

2009-10-22T07:31:00.001-04:00

From This That & The Other Thing:

Someone (I wish I could remember who) recommended that I read Pervasive Developmental Disorder: An Altered Perspective (by Barbara Quinn and Anthony Malone) so that I could understand better about PDD-NOS. I would like to thank that person because yes, this book helped so much! There are some sections in the book that are a little difficult to understand because the discussion is about biology and how our brains work. However, the authors suggest that the reader start out where the greatest needs or questions lie and skip around. I learned the differences between the spectrum disorders but basically it all boils down to this: the kids with PDD have some issues all of their lives, especially with socializing. There are a lot of interventions and medications available so a diagnosis of autism or PDD is not the end of the world. The book concludes with stories told by the parents of four kids diagnosed with PDD. The stories are hopeful without being sappy, realistic without being scary. I would recommend this book to anyone whose family member has PDD.

Harry Potter & the Half Blood Prince

2009-10-22T07:30:00.001-04:00

reprinted from This That & The Other Thing:

Harry Potter & The Half Blood Prince
Reading the Harry Potter books is like watching Everybody Loves Raymond: I don't care for the main character but enjoy the supporting characters. Harry's become a cheeky, selfish bratty teenager--not all that much different from your typical adolescent. I just want to grab his shoulders and shake him for the disrespectful way he treats adults and other people he doesn't like. He's been known to criticize even those people he does like--Headmaster Dumbledore for one. He thinks he knows more than anyone else does and this in spite of all Dumbledore's wisdom and experience. Well, all right then.

Harry's been through an awful lot in his sixteen years. First, he was orphaned by the very evil Lord Voldemort when he was barely a toddler. Voldemort was trying a pre-emptive strike against Harry (the intended target) because of a prophecy made about the two of them. Harry's mother put herself between the baby and the dark lord after her husband was murdered and refused to budge, thereby saving the baby's life. Voldemort was weakened by his attack on Harry and ran off into the unknown. Dumbledore and several other protectors stepped forward to see to it that Harry survived. They left him with his aunt and uncle, a pair of truly despicable foster parents.

Once Harry was eleven, learned he was a wizard and went off to Hogwarts the wizarding school, he faced more traumatic events. For each of the years he was at Hogwarts, an attempt was made on his life. Voldemort was determined to come back to power but Dumbledore, headmaster of the school and prime champion, protected Harry throughout the years...until now. Each book has become darker with more twists, more deaths, and more tragedy for Harry. Lonely and neglected Harry learned he had a godfather--who was killed shortly thereafter by Voldemort's supporters. Not surprisingly, he's turned into a very angry boy.

Now that he is aware of the prophecy, Harry finds he has to learn all he can about Voldemort. His guide is his beloved mentor, Albus Dumbledore, who shows him through memories how Voldemort became the monster he is. At the climax, Dumbledore is betrayed by someone the headmaster believed to be an ally. Or was it a betrayal? Harry seems to think so but I'm not so inclined.

The half-blood prince refers to a certain someone who "helps" Harry get through one of his classes. It's totally ironic to me that Harry would feel such a pull toward taking the student's advice. Like Hermione, Harry's friend, I'm a bit miffed he felt it was okay to cheat. Well, we're all human right?

Speaking of seeing the human side, I also enjoyed seeing the "softer" sides to some of the previously thoroughly obnoxious characters...even Lord Voldemort was a thinking, feeling child once.

This was a very good book if you can get through the teenage angsty bits, the adolescents' crushes and loves, and other little boring details. There is enough of the good stuff to keep you going.

The last book is set to come out in print in July. Everyone is up in arms, worried that Harry Potter might die in the book. Stephen King, Lemony Snicket & other book writers have been appealling to Rowling to spare Harry. I sort of hope he lives even if he is bratty!

Cold Sassy Tree by Olive Ann Burns

2008-08-27T09:41:00.002-04:00

Cold Sassy Tree by Olive Ann Burns

My review

rating: 4 of 5 stars
There is so much to love about this book. The characters are vibrant, the language is rich and there are good life's lessons throughout--but it's not preachy. This is a story told with lots of humor although it does have it's tear-jerker moments. Young Will Tweedy is 14 at the turn of the century and is living in the town of Cold Sassy, Georgia. His grandfather causes an uproar in this sleepy little town by eloping with the beautiful young employee in his store. That's bad enough but what really sets the tongues to wagging is that Grandpa's first wife just passed three weeks ago and is barely cold in the grave. The events subsequent to this scandalous event changes Will's outlook on life forever. He has an "old" grandpa who is made young again by the pretty young wife and he himself begins to grow up as he romanticizes about women, kisses someone for the first time, and drives around town in his grandfather's new automobile. Thumbs both up!

View all my reviews.

Gump and Company by Winston Groom

2008-08-24T14:54:00.000-04:00

Gump & Co. by Winston Groom

My review

rating: 3 of 5 stars
I absolutely loved the movie "Forrest Gump" so when I saw this book at a library sale, I had to have it. It picks up where the movie left off but I have to say that the first book and the movie must have been quite different. For instance, Forrest's shrimp company apparently went bankrupt and he was left flat broke. His true love Jenny didn't die as she did in the movie although she was pretty quickly dispatched in this sequel. Forrest got into plenty of adventures in this book as well, including Iran-Contra, the first Gulf War, the fall of the Berlin War, and other historical events from the 1980s. Forrest even met Tom Hanks who suggested that a movie should be made from Forrest's life. Heh. It was an amusing book, very light and easy to read.

View all my reviews.

Duma Key by Stephen King

2008-08-10T15:27:00.000-04:00

Duma Key by Stephen King

My review

rating: 4 of 5 stars
I just finished reading the book and while I liked it, I don't consider it to be one of his best. My favorite is and always will be The Stand, I guess. T

Edgar Freemantle was a happily married, middle aged owner of a construction firm when a horrible accident severely injured him physically and mentally. In the aftermath of such traumatic injuries, he's changed and as a result, his life takes some dramatic changes. His therapist suggests a change of scenery and Edgar chooses to relocate from Minnesota to Duma Key, FL.

Edgar had already begun sketching by the time he moves to the house he renames "Big Pink". Suddenly, he is a prolific artist, moving on from pencil drawings to oils.

There is a chilling mystery on Duma Island. Why is the southern part overgrown with trees and plants not really native to the area? Why does no one live on that part of the island? Edgar's only neighbors are an elderly patron of the arts struggling with Alzheimer's and her caretaker. As Edgar becomes friends with them and learns more about them, his artwork takes a dark turn.

I don't want to go any further and include spoilers. I enjoyed the book but felt it was too long. That's been an issue with some King books I've read, particularly the ones since his accident. His writing has changed and while I haven't read everything he's written since then, I haven't been a big fan of the stuff I have read. The story could have ended a lot sooner. Part of the ending reminded me of something that happened in one of his other stories and I didn't think it was necessary to have it happen in this book.

I love Stephen King and will continue to read whatever he writes, including going back and re-reading the old stuff.

View all my reviews.

Two Mysteries

2008-07-20T08:45:00.003-04:00

I've finally managed to finish not one but two books! I'd switched to large print books because I'm having such trouble focusing on regular print. It's really driving me crazy because I have hundreds of books I want to read but am not able to do so. I have an appointment to see my eye doctor tomorrow and if there's nothing wrong with my eyes, the next step is to isolate the medicinal culprit--and I'm pretty sure I know which one(s) it is!

First I read Black Ice by Michael Connelly. Another blogger recommended him to me and I'm glad he did. The only drawback is that my blogger friend said it didn't matter in which order I read the books but I believe it does. There were references in this book made to an earlier story. It didn't detract except that I was then curious to know what the earlier book was about. Luckily, I missed only the first in the series and I now have a list of the books in chronological order.

Harry Bosch is a troubled maverick detective who becomes involved in what originally appeared to be the suicide of a cop gone bad. Although his superiors would like to cover the whole thing up, Harry just can't stay out of it especially when the autopsy results come back "inconclusive". His investigation takes him down into Mexico and involves him in the seedy dealings of drug dealers introducing a new form of dope to this country--"black ice": a mix of heroin, cocaine, and PCP.

I won't go into all the particulars and will just say that it was an enjoyable book. It's not great literature but I did get hooked and was unable to put the book down for a while. The only down side was that it seemed to drag a little in some places but that's okay.

I was very disappointed with The Colorado Kid by Stephen King. He wrote the book especially for "Hard Case Crime", a series of books by classic mystery writers and new ones that were supposed to have a 1940s/1950s old time mystery feel to them. I was expecting a hard boiled crime story and what I got was two old geezers in Maine telling their wide-eyed intern about some guy from Colorado who may or may not have choked to death on a steak sandwich. I kept waiting for the book to get better and it was charming but that is about all. Waste of time.

Empress Orchid by Anchee Min

2008-06-23T05:45:00.000-04:00

This is the story of the last empress of China, Tzu Hsi. In this book she's known as Orchid, fourth wife (or concubine) of the emperor of China. Orchid sells herself to raise enough money for her mother, brother and sister to live on. At first, she's excited about being in the Forbidden City but soon loneliness and doubt make her life miserable. The emperor, who is supposed to visit different wives every night, is not inclined to do that and Orchid spends months alone and ignored until she finds a way to attract his majesty's attention. There is jealousy and intrigue within and without the courts and this is actually the first book of two. It's very interesting and a good book but I must admit I found it moved slowly. It's great for those who enjoy historical fiction and who are curious about other countries and cultures.

The Book of Lost Things by John Connolly

2008-05-25T16:30:00.003-04:00

I enjoyed this book even though it creeped me out quite a bit. It's creepy in the way the true Grimm's Fairy Tales are creepy.

David is a 12 year old English boy during WWII who loses his mother to a debilitating illness--cancer, I think. She'd infused him with a love of books, telling him that they were alive and he takes great solace in them especially when his father eventually remarries.

Not only does his father remarry, the new little family relocates to Rose (the stepmother)'s home outside of London. Rose tries her best to be friends with the resentful David, who rebuffs her at every turn. Then, to add insult to injury, Rose has a baby and David feels even more isolated and alienated.

It's in that spirit that strange things begin to happen. He begins to have episodes where he passes out. Books "speak" to him. He begins to see a crooked man. After a particularly unpleasantly argument with Rose and his father, he runs out to the garden and a portal opens up into another world. He thinks he hears his mother calling to him and he feels compelled to go to her.

David enters an alternate world that is more nightmare than dream. There are all manners of evil creatures and weird beasts inhabiting the place as well as a few good guys sprinkled here and there. Worst of all is the crooked man, who has some really foul and evil plan for David.

So what happens to David? Read the book and find out! It's a great story!

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling

2008-05-13T20:28:00.002-04:00

As Harry Potter has gotten older, I've liked his character less and less. Maybe it's just me, but I think Rowling made a mistake by having her books become so dark. Harry became a whinier, more bitter sort of kid -- with good reason, I suppose -- and an almost thoroughly unlikeable sort of hero. He's moody, doubts his friends, and nurses this big rage against his mentor, Albus Dumbledore.

Dumbledore, who originally seemed to be a kindly caring teacher-man, was portrayed as a manipulative, calculating and power hungry old man who withheld important information from people and used them without feeling much guilt about it. I didn't like him in this book either.

A character I did enjoy wondering about, Severus Snape, made only brief appearances in the book and I was very disappointed about that. I'd wondered throughout the previous book whether he was a truly bad guy or a truly good guy in disguise. I found out but not until the end and he was so shockingly killed even before the secret came out I was totally turned off.

That brings me to the killings and the darkness of the book. So many of the deaths seemed designed just to shock. Voldemort is evil, soulless and remorseless. Let's kill some Weaseleys, house elves, and other popular characters just to make that point. That's what happened to Snape and so Harry had to find out after the fact that his old enemy was actually a sort of hero.

It all worked out in the end. Harry realized that Dumbledore wasn't so bad, just human, and that Snape also wasn't so bad, just human. The man had been in love with Harry's mother, how awful could he be?

I think I would have liked the books better if Rowling had kept to a lighter tone but that's just me.

On the other hand, the 19 years later afterward was just too smarmy for me.

I guess you just can't win.

The Medium by Noelle Sickels

2008-04-26T12:41:00.000-04:00

I enjoy historical fiction and the fact that the main character is a medium, channelling the spirits of dead soldiers and sailors, added a level of fascination and interest. The only thing is, I think the book should have ended 100 pages sooner...with the death of the fiancee, Billy.

The book begins when Helen Schneider, the young medium in training, is just 13. Her grandmother is her mentor and the elder woman is also a medium, although not always a very honest one. Helen, though, has natural and true abilities. She is a strong medium.

In the years before the war, the author weaves in real events to add to the story. She's got the Orson Welles "War of the Worlds" radio program scare that sent people into the streets in a panic because they thought the Martians were landing! I'm surprised, though, that there was no mention of the Hindenburg.

Helen has always been in love with Billy Mackey. That was the other plot line in the book. Sometimes there'd be mention of Billy's younger brother Lloyd but it was just to show what a wild young man he was.

After the war begins, Helen is visited by soldier after soldier. She also has a visual materialization involving the deaths of many Jewish people. The Army gets wind of all this and warns her about using her power. That puts a damper on Helen's abilities.

Billy starts out working for a defense plant but as he and Helen decide to get married, he feels compelled to join the service.

Up until this point, my only complaint was that the characters seemed superficial. For instance, there is anti-German-American sentiment but the feelings of the family isn't explored much about that. Even Helen's grief about Billy seemed sort of detached to me. I felt that the story really ended at that point and yet it went on.

It wasn't a bad story. It was pretty entertaining. It just ran a little too long and the last hundred pages or so were too melodramatic (Helen is arrested as a posible spy by the army)for me. Try it, you might like it a lot better than I did.

The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers

2008-04-19T09:39:00.001-04:00

The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter was written by Carson McCullers when she was only 22 or 23 years old. What a perceptive person she was at such a young age!

The central character has to be John Singer, although he is not a major player in the story. All the other characters revolve around him, however, and without him there would be no coherence in the story. John Singer is deaf, isolated by that fact and by the fact that his only friend--another deaf man--is taken away to an insane asylum. Singer is desperately lonely and while he had his friend, Antonapoulous, with him, he'd sign and sign and sign and tell everything in his soul. It didn't matter that his friend didn't respond in kind.

Once his friend is taken away, Singer can't stand the loneliness of his apartment and so he rents a room in a boardhouse run by the Kelly family. Not long after that, he has four frequent visitors who proceed to talk and talk and talk to him and it doesn't matter that he doesn't respond often. Ironic, eh?

The first visitor is Jake Blount, an alcoholic rabble rouser. Blount tries to stir up the emotions of the people, frequently ranting about their rights and the oppressive nature of the bosses and so on. No one listens to him and many times, people laugh at him. However, he believes Singer understands him and so he visits.

Another visitor is young Mick Kelly, a tomboy sort of girl with music in her head and a desire to compose. She wanders around the town at night, restless, looking for radios playing music she wants to hear.

There is Dr. Copeland, a bitter black physician who is disappointed in his children and in his people.

Finally, there's the owner of the diner/bar that Singer frequents, Biff Brannon, a timid sort of man.

Each person believes that Singer belongs to him or her, their "special" friend. One time when they all show up at the same time, Singer mistakenly believes that they'll all enjoy a good time. Instead, everyone is uncomfortable and Singer doesn't understand it. He's a very kind mind and so if he doesn't always understand what his guest is going on about he keeps it to himself.

Singer has his own secret--a yearning for his old friend. He disappears a couple of times to go and visit his friend and doesn't share where he's gone. He also keeps his hands shoved deeply in his pockets, hiding them. And then he learns that Antonapolous has died of an illness and it sets off a shocking act of violence that stuns the small group of visitors.

The book was made into a movie starring Alan Arkin. I remember going to see it with my parents and some friends of theirs. All the deaf adults hated it. They felt that Antonoupolous portrayed deaf people as fools and Arkin's Singer was the "perfect" deaf person. No deaf person could read lips so well, they declared. No hearing person would hang around the deaf.

In one way, I disagree with that. I think, in Singer, each ot those people found a captive audience...someone who would listen but not have a capability of questioning or criticizing. This was a really good book!

Daniel Isn't Talking by Marti Leimbach

2008-04-06T14:52:00.002-04:00

I am not surprised to read that Marti Leimbach has an autistic son. Anyone who could write characters as well as she either must have a lot of personal experience or is a genius. I liked the book a lot and it's a good one to read to learn about the impact autism has on family members, particularly the mother.

Melanie Marsh is an American married to a veddy proper Englishman named Stephen. His family is la-dee-dah and since Melanie is so much an individual, the first thing I wondered is how she and Stephen even got together in the first place. He turns out to be an insensitive idiot and his family is not much better, except for sister Cath.

When we first meet Melanie, she's the somewhat hysterical mother to two small but perfect (or so it seemed) children, Emily and Daniel. The thing is, Daniel's almost 3 and not talking. He's also withdrawn, seems deaf, doesn't interact with other people, doesn't play creatively...and Melanie's red flags are waving everywhere. Stephen thinks she's overreacting but it turns out she's not.

Daniel reminded me so much of our Little T in so many mannerisms and I just knew that Leimbach had to have some kind of personal experience with this.

A savior in the form of an offbeat Irish early education teacher named Andrew appears to work with Daniel and help bring him to the world.

By then the family is shattered and it's up to Melanie to keep what's left of them together. Good, informative read!

Prisoner of Tehran: A Memoir by Marina Nemat

2008-03-30T17:57:00.002-04:00

When I was a teenager, reading The Diary of Anne Frank and Exodus made me realize how blessed I was to be born in this country. I got the same feeling after reading Prisoner of Tehran and I think any teenager who read this would feel the same way. When you are sixteen years old, you are trying to break away from parents, traditions and rules to become your own person. In the United States, teens are free to speak their minds and write what they feeling. While I realize that schools can censor what the kids write, those kids aren't then placed on an arrest-to-be-tortured list.

Yet this is what happened to young Marina. When she was born, the shah was still in power and while there were abuses by the government there was also a lot more freedom and independence for women. Under the Ayatollah Kohmeini, all of that changed. Marina and several of her high school friends were arrested for "striking" against the school and for writing a protest newspaper. The strike involved a protest against teachers who chose to lecture on fundamentalist religion rather than on the topics they were supposed to teach (like calculus).

Marina was tortured in an attempt to force her to reveal the names of more friends involved in the protest. She suffered a great deal before being placed in a cell with some of her friends. Some survived; some did not. The ultimate horror--in my opinion anyway--was when Marina's interrogator fell in love with her. I recommend the book to anyone. Read it to find out what happens to Marina.

The Princes of Ireland by Edward Rutherfurd

2008-03-24T12:36:00.003-04:00

After posting a poll about whether I should finish the book, I thought about the pros and ons of each side. TThe advice I got was very similar to what I was thinking. The first half of it had interested and engaged me--maybe I would get interested again. I don't like to spend $15 on a book and then not finish it. At the same time, though, I'd struggled through 100 pages and was hopelessly bored. I didn't think I'd want to pick up the book again, not later, not no how.

Since I did read almost all of the book I thought I would write about it anyway. Edwsard Rutherfurd's been called this age's James Michener. That's not necessarily a good thing as Michener's books can drag on and be excessively wordy. Another problem is when you want to cover centuries in a book, you lose a lot of the characterization.

Early on, I found Rutherford's characters interesting and engaging. I think he spent more time fleshing them out and it probably would have been better if his Dublin Saga had been split into 2 or 3 books to give equal time to everyone. The story starts in mythic Ireland, covering a tale I'd become somewhat familiar with: Deirdre escaping with the nephew of the king and incurring the king's wrath, the great cattle raid of Cú Chulainn. Rutherford moved smoothly from mythology to the arrival of St. Patrick and Catholicism with many characters carrying over from one age to the next. The sections about the Vikings and Brian Boru were also fascinating although by then new characters were introduced. I began to get bored during the Strongbow section and struggled at the end. I struggled for 100 pages and then tried skpping around. It didn't work.

By this time, the characters weren't so rich or interesting anymore. They just seemed like incarnations of people already introduced. I lost interest, did the poll, put the book down and moved on to something else. I'm glad I did!

My book became boring! What would YOU do?

2008-03-06T22:32:00.002-05:00

I'm reading Princes of Ireland by Edward Rutherfurd, supposedly the modern James Michener. Actually, I enjoyed the first 570-odd pages of the book. Suddenly, though, the story ground to an abrupt halt. It's become so boring my eyes blur and glaze over as I struggle to continue. I struggled through 50 pages and then decided to try skipping to the next section. It's not engaging my interest, though, and I keep putting it down. There's another 200 pages to go. What would you do if this happened to you?

2008-03-06T18:53:00.004-05:00

Booking Through Thursday

It's been a long time since I got to participate in this meme and I've missed it! I'm answering the last two questions because they go together.

Who is your favorite Male lead character? And why?

My favorite male character is Atticus Finch from To Kill A Mockingbird. He is someone that I could look up to as a real hero although his children didn't appreciate the fact--he was too "old" for them. He's a man of decency and integrity and his courage is the spiritual kind, not physical. He is chosen to defend a black man accused of rape in a sleepy southern town in the 1930s. He could choose the easy way out, hang with the good old boys and just allow nature to take its course. No--he truly defends the man and even though he loses the case and the man loses his life, Atticus Finch is a real winner.

Who is your favorite female lead character? And why?

My favorite female character is Francie Nolan from A Tree Grows In Brooklyn. She is a child growing up in extreme poverty. Her mother is the sole support of the family and her beloved father is a drunkard chronically unemployed. Yet, she loves him. She reminds me very much of me, growing up in an environment where there was lots of drinking and tension. She's a bookworm and something of a loner--like me when I was a child. She grows up doing what she has to do to help her family and I just admire her so much!

Candide by Voltaire

2008-02-13T19:36:00.001-05:00

This was the best book for me to read at this moment in time! Right now, things have gone wrong with us financially, physically, emotionally and in just about every way. The last time this happened, I picked up Why Bad Things Happen To Good People and it felt "right". This time around, the satire and black humor was just right for me!

One thing that is really cool is that Candide's story is timeless, even though it was written in the 18th century! At some point, most people suffer and some more so than others. Why? Well, one theory is that everything happens for a reason so look for the silver lining in the cloud. It was meant to be. It's all for the best. Sometimes I find that idea comforting.

It's pretty clear that Voltaire didn't and, in fact, it angered him to the point he wrote a really funny book about it all.

Candide is a priviliged young man living at the estate of a very wealthy man. His tutor is Dr. Pangloss whose teachings revolve around turning Candide into the eternal optimist, no matter what awful things occur. Candide is ejected forcibly from his comfortable home for making a move on the baron's attractive daughter.

He then goes through some of the worst stuff that could possibly happen to a person. Just one of these calamaties alone would cause a person to fall into despair, but not Candide. I won't go into all of his experience here except for one example. As he, his tutor Dr. Pangloss (who's fallen into ruin himself), and their benefactor sail into Lisbon, there's a huge storm that wrecks the ship and drowns the friend who was caring for them. Dr. Pangloss explains it all away: the harbor was placed there just so that this storm could come and wreck the ship and kill almost everyone on board. Then they are hit by an earthquake, but that was as it's supposed to be, too. Earthquakes happen in Lisbon. It's the best that could happen and was meant to be.

I was just rolling on the floor laughing so hard I almost cried.

The reason this is a timeless book is that you could substitute what happened in Lisbon for what happened during the Christmas tsunami of two years ago. Try telling the survivors it was all for the best and meant to be because tsunamis happen in that part of the world.

The book isn't long at all and it's very easy to read, something that is rare in a classic (for me, anyway). I thoroughly enjoyed it and I know others would too!

What Is The What by Dave Eggers

2008-02-07T12:53:00.001-05:00

Wow.

In the preface to What Is The What, Valentino Achak Deng says that he told his story to the author, Dave Eggers, over a period of years. Eggers captured Achak's tone and spirit so closely that I kept forgetting that the author was not the man who experienced the horrors of what happened in the Sudan. Some of the passages are fictional out of some necessity and that's why I guess the book can't be classified as a true memoir. Still, it is one of the most chilling and inspiring books I've ever read.

I am one of those people almost completely ignorant of what was going on in the world in the late 1980s and all of the 1990s. My kids were being born and I was busy raising them, working and coping with other unfortunate complications like my first husband's failing health. When I saw Hotel Rwanda I thought, how could I not know about this? This is like what Hitler did.

I feel the same way after reading this book. Achak was a small boy in a poor village in southern Sudan when war and terror arrived in the form of mhraleen, invaders from Khartoum. There was always unease between the Arabs of northern Sudan and the Africans of the south although in Achak's village, they traded freely and were friendly with each other. Achak's village was burned to the ground and he had to run for his life, not knowing if any member of his family survived.

He became one of the "Lost Boys" who walked in a group what became hundreds of refugee children across the Sudan and into Ethiopia first, then Kenya. Along the way, boys died from starvation, exposure and disease. The boy Achak saw other little ones carried off by lions. They were chased and strafed by the Sudanese army. Sanctuary consisted of poor, mean little settlements and it took a long time for Achak to learn what happened to his family and make his way to the United States.

Ironically (although after everything that happens to him I shouldn't have been surprised) the plane taking him to New York was scheduled to depart September 11, 2001. We all know what happened then.

He did make it to Atlanta at last...and after going through all the suffering and misery of his young years, he opens the door one day and his home is invaded. He is beaten and robbed.

That's not even half of it.

If I ever feel too sorry for myself and complain about my woes, I'm going to go back and read this post and remember what this man experienced.

I think everyone should read his story.

The World Without Us by Alan Weisman

2008-01-21T20:40:00.000-05:00

When I saw this title first offered by one of my book clubs, I decided to pass. Do I really need to be further depressed by being reminded of how much we've damaged the earth? I read a few reviews of it, was intrigued and decided to give it a try. This is not a feel-good book, not by a long shot, although it does offer some hope for the earth if all us human destroyers were suddenly raptured or plagued or kidnapped away. I learned a lot from the book.

For one thing, I didn't know there was a "dead zone" the size of New Jersey near the mouth of the Mississippi. So much for the theory that there's so much ocean polluting it won't matter. :P I knew about the acid rain, dead fresh water lakes, blooming algae, the strangulation of the Chesapeake Bay and a few other places but not about that. I didn't know about a theory that the reason there's no mammoths left in America is because early man killed them all off ala the buffalo. Maybe the reason there are still elephants and giraffes in Africa is because man and animal evolved alongside each other. Those animals learned to be cautious around us lethal bipeds. In North America, the animals were here long before humans and when we appeared they didn't know to hide.

On the up side, life would go on and adapt even though the world would be poisoned for millions of years by heavy metals left in the soil and in the air when nuclear reactors go. It seems the world would be a better place without us. So sad...but would this book bring about change? I wish, but I'm not holding my breath.

The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield

2008-01-21T20:14:00.000-05:00

It's atypical for me to read a book if I can't identify with at least one of the characters. When I started The Thirteenth Tale, I found myself unable to make any kind of connection with the narrator, Margaret Lea, or with the elusive writer Vida Winter. What drew me in and kept me reading for more than half the book was the very strange tale the elderly Winter was spinning for Margaret. By the end of the book, although I still felt nothing for Margaret I most definitely developed a liking and affinity for Vida Winter.

I am not a twin and so I will never understand what it's like to be one. I guess that's why I couldn't connect to Margaret who just seemed to be unnecessarily self-isolating. She has no life other than books and her father's bookstore. She's fascinated with fairly obscure people who lived years ago and has written a couple of biographical essays. It comes as a great surprise when she receives a letter from the very mysterious Vida Winter, inviting Margaret to write her biography, her true story. Over the years, the writer has told a number of different tales to various resporters and interviewers and Margaret is suspicious and reluctant. Still, she goes to meet the writer.

One of Vida's many books was supposed to have 13 stories in it but apparently was a misprinted title--no copy has more than 12. People have wondered and speculated just what that thirteenth tale was supposed to be...could it be Miss Winter's life story? Margaret is mesmerized and eventually obsessed with it.

It's a very gothic tale that Miss Winter tells and includes ghosts and governesses, a very dysfunctional family and well meaning servants. There are so many salutes to Jane Eyre throughout the book and I found myself staying up later and later to read just another page more. I think people who love Jane Eyre and Rebecca will also enjoy this story.

1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die

2008-01-21T17:13:00.000-05:00

I just joined this groupon Good Reads thinking it was one of those online book reading lists and discovered it's the title of an actual book. I'm glad that the list of titles is also available online so that I could see what's on it without buying it. Gotta love the internet.

Of all the books, I've highlighted the ones I've read already. The italicized ones I own but haven't read yet.

2000s

Never Let Me Go, Kazuo Ishiguro
Saturday, Ian McEwan
On Beauty, Zadie Smith
Slow Man, J.M. Coetzee
Adjunct: An Undigest, Peter Manson
The Sea, John Banville
The Red Queen, Margaret Drabble
The Plot Against America, Philip Roth
The Master, Colm Tóibín
Vanishing Point, David Markson
The Lambs Of London, Peter Ackroyd
Dining On Stones, Iain Sinclair
Cloud Atlas, David Mitchell
Drop City, T. Coraghessan Boyle
The Colour, Rose Tremain
Thursbitch, Alan Garner
The Light Of Day, Graham Swift
What I Loved, Siri Hustvedt
The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-Time, Mark Haddon
Islands, Dan Sleigh
Elizabeth Costello, J.M. Coetzee
London Orbital, Iain Sinclair
Family Matters, Rohinton Mistry
Fingersmith, Sarah Waters
The Double, José Saramago
Everything Is Illuminated, Jonathan Safran Foer
Unless, Carol Shields
Kafka On The Shore, Haruki Murakami
The Story Of Lucy Gault, William Trevor
That They May Face the Rising Sun, John McGahern
In The Forest, Edna O’Brien
Shroud, John Banville
Middlesex, Jeffrey Eugenides
Youth, J.M. Coetzee
Dead Air, Iain Banks
Nowhere Man, Aleksandar Hemon
The Book Of Illusions, Paul Auster
Gabriel’s Gift, Hanif Kureishi
Austerlitz, W.G. Sebald
Platform, Michael Houellebecq
Schooling, Heather McGowan
Atonement, Ian McEwan
The Corrections, Jonathan Franzen
Don’t Move, Margaret Mazzantini
The Body Artist, Don DeLillo
Fury, Salman Rushdie
At Swim, Two Boys, Jamie O’Neill
Choke, Chuck Palahniuk
Life Of Pi, Yann Martel
The Feast Of The Goat, Mario Vargos Llosa
An Obedient Father, Akhil Sharma
The Devil And Miss Prym, Paulo Coelho
Spring Flowers, Spring Frost, Ismail Kadare
White Teeth, Zadie Smith
The Heart Of Redness, Zakes Mda
Under The Skin, Michel Faber
Ignorance, Milan Kundera
Nineteen Seventy Seven, David Peace
Celestial Harmonies, Péter Esterházy
City Of God, E.L. Doctorow
How The Dead Live, Will Self
The Human Stain, Philip Roth
The Blind Assassin, Margaret Atwood
After The Quake, Haruki Murakami
Small Remedies, Shashi Deshpande
Super-Cannes, J.G. Ballard
House Of Leaves, Mark Z. Danielewski
Blonde, Joyce Carol Oates
Pastoralia, George Saunders

1900s

Timbuktu, Paul Auster
The Romantics, Pankaj Mishra
Cryptonomicon, Neal Stephenson
As If I Am Not There, Slavenka Drakulic
Everything You Need, A.L. Kennedy
Fear And Trembling, Amélie Nothomb
The Ground Beneath Her Feet, Salman Rushdie
Disgrace, J.M. Coetzee
Sputnik Sweetheart, Haruki Murakami
Atomised, Michel Houellebecq
Intimacy, Hanif Kureishi
Amsterdam, Ian McEwan
Cloudsplitter, Russell Banks
All Souls Day, Cees Nooteboom
The Talk Of The Town, Ardal O’Hanlon
Tipping the Velvet, Sarah Waters
The Poisonwood Bible, Barbara Kingsolver
Glamorama, Bret Easton Ellis
Another World, Pat Barker
The Hours, Michael Cunningham
Veronika Decides To Die, Paulo Coelho
Mason & Dixon, Thomas Pynchon
The God Of Small Things, Arundhati Roy
Memoirs Of A Geisha, Arthur Golden
Great Apes, Will Self
Enduring Love, Ian McEwan
Underworld, Don DeLillo
Jack Maggs, Peter Carey
The Life Of Insects, Victor Pelevin
American Pastoral, Philip Roth
The Untouchable, John Banville
Silk, Alessandro Baricco
Cocaine Nights, J.G. Ballard
Hallucinating Foucault, Patricia Duncker
Fugitive Pieces, Anne Michaels
The Ghost Road, Pat Barker
Forever a Stranger, Hella Haasse
Infinite Jest, David Foster Wallace
The Clay Machine-Gun, Victor Pelevin
Alias Grace, Margaret Atwood
The Unconsoled, Kazuo Ishiguro
Morvern Callar, Alan Warner
The Information, Martin Amis
The Moor’s Last Sigh, Salman Rushdie
Sabbath’s Theater, Philip Roth
The Rings Of Saturn, W.G. Sebald
The Reader, Bernhard Schlink
A Fine Balance, Rohinton Mistry
Love’s Work, Gillian Rose
The End Of The Story, Lydia Davis
Mr. Vertigo, Paul Auster
The Folding Star, Alan Hollinghurst
Whatever, Michel Houellebecq
Land, Park Kyong-ni
The Master Of Petersburg, J.M. Coetzee
The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, Haruki Murakami
Pereira Declares: A Testimony, Antonio Tabucchi
City Sister Silve, Jàchym Topol
How Late It Was, How Late, James Kelman
Captain Corelli’s Mandolin, Louis de Bernieres
Felicia’s Journey, William Trevor
Disappearance, David Dabydeen
The Invention Of Curried Sausage, Uwe Timm
The Shipping News, E. Annie Proulx
Trainspotting, Irvine Welsh
Birdsong, Sebastian Faulks
Looking For The Possible Dance, A.L. Kennedy
Operation Shylock, Philip Roth
Complicity, Iain Banks
On Love, Alain de Botton
What A Carve Up!, Jonathan Coe
A Suitable Boy, Vikram Seth
The Stone Diaries, Carol Shields
The Virgin Suicides, Jeffrey Eugenides
The House Of Doctor Dee, Peter Ackroyd
The Robber Bride, Margaret Atwood
The Emigrants, W.G. Sebald
The Secret History, Donna Tartt
Life Is A Caravanserai, Emine Özdamar
The Discovery Of Heaven, Harry Mulisch
A Heart So White, Javier Marias
Possessing The Secret Of Joy, Alice Walker
Indigo, Marina Warner
The Crow Road, Iain Banks
Written On The Body, Jeanette Winterson
Jazz, Toni Morrison
The English Patient, Michael Ondaatje
Miss Smilla’s Feeling For Snow, Peter Høeg
The Butcher Boy, Patrick McCabe
Black Water, Joyce Carol Oates
The Heather Blazing, Colm Tóibín
Asphodel, H.D. (Hilda Doolittle)
Black Dogs, Ian McEwan
Hideous Kinky, Esther Freud
Arcadia, Jim Crace
Wild Swans, Jung Chang
American Psycho, Bret Easton Ellis
Time’s Arrow, Martin Amis
Mao II, Don DeLillo
Typical, Padgett Powell
Regeneration, Pat Barker
Downriver, Iain Sinclair
Señor Vivo And The Coca Lord, Louis de Bernieres
Wise Children, Angela Carter
Get Shorty, Elmore Leonard
Amongst Women, John McGahern
Vineland, Thomas Pynchon
Vertigo, W.G. Sebald
Stone Junction, Jim Dodge
The Music Of Chance, Paul Auster
The Things They Carried, Tim O’Brien
A Home At The End Of The World, Michael Cunningham
Like Life, Lorrie Moore
Possession, A.S. Byatt
The Buddha Of Suburbia, Hanif Kureishi
The Midnight Examiner, William Kotzwinkle
A Disaffection, James Kelman
Sexing The Cherry, Jeanette Winterson
Moon Palace, Paul Auster
Billy Bathgate – E.L. Doctorow
The Remains Of The Day, Kazuo Ishiguro
The Melancholy Of Resistance, László Krasznahorkai
The Temple Of My Familiar, Alice Walker
The Trick Is To Keep Breathing, Janice Galloway
The History Of The Siege Of Lisbon, José Saramago
Like Water For Chocolate, Laura Esquivel
A Prayer For Owen Meany, John Irving
London Fields, Martin Amis
The Book Of Evidence, John Banville
Cat’s Eye, Margaret Atwood
Foucault’s Pendulum, Umberto Eco
The Beautiful Room Is Empty, Edmund White
Wittgenstein’s Mistress, David Markson
The Satanic Verses, Salman Rushdie
The Swimming-Pool Library, Alan Hollinghurst
Oscar And Lucinda, Peter Carey
Libra, Don DeLillo
The Player Of Games, Iain M. Banks
Nervous Conditions, Tsitsi Dangarembga
The Long Dark Teatime Of The Soul, Douglas Adams
Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency, Douglas Adams
The Radiant Way, Margaret Drabble
The Afternoon Of A Writer, Peter Handke
The Black Dahlia, James Ellroy
The Passion, Jeanette Winterson
The Pigeon, Patrick Süskind
The Child In Time, Ian McEwan
Cigarettes, Harry Mathews
The Bonfire Of The Vanities, Tom Wolfe
The New York Trilogy, Paul Auster
World’s End, T. Coraghessan Boyle
Enigma Of Arrival, V.S. Naipaul
The Taebek Mountains, Jo Jung-rae
Beloved, Toni Morrison
Anagrams, Lorrie Moore
Matigari, Ngugi Wa Thiong’o
Marya, Joyce Carol Oates
Watchmen, Alan Moore & David Gibbons
The Old Devils, Kingsley Amis
Lost Language Of Cranes, David Leavitt
An Artist Of The Floating World, Kazuo Ishiguro
Extinction, Thomas Bernhard
Foe, J.M. Coetzee
The Drowned And The Saved, Primo Levi
Reasons To Live, Amy Hempel
The Parable Of The Blind, Gert Hofmann
Love In The Time Of Cholera, Gabriel García Márquez
Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit, Jeanette Winterson
The Cider House Rules, John Irving
A Maggot, John Fowles
Less Than Zero, Bret Easton Ellis
Contact, Carl Sagan
The Handmaid’s Tale, Margaret Atwood
Perfume, Patrick Süskind
Old Masters, Thomas Bernhard
White Noise, Don DeLillo
Queer, William Burroughs
Hawksmoor, Peter Ackroyd
Legend, David Gemmell
Dictionary Of The Khazars, Milorad Pavic
The Bus Conductor Hines, James Kelman
The Year Of The Death Of Ricardo Reis, José Saramago
The Lover, Marguerite Duras
Empire Of The Sun, J.G. Ballard
The Wasp Factory, Iain Banks
Nights At The Circus, Angela Carter
The Unbearable Lightness Of Being, Milan Kundera
Blood And Guts In High School, Kathy Acker
Neuromancer, William Gibson
Flaubert’s Parrot, Julian Barnes
Money: A Suicide Note, Martin Amis
Shame, Salman Rushdie
Worstward Ho, Samuel Beckett
Fools Of Fortune, William Trevor
La Brava, Elmore Leonard
Waterland, Graham Swift
The Life And Times Of Michael K, J.M. Coetzee
The Diary Of Jane Somers, Doris Lessing
The Piano Teacher, Elfriede Jelinek
The Sorrow Of Belgium, Hugo Claus
If Not Now, When?, Primo Levi
A Boy’s Own Story, Edmund White
The Color Purple, Alice Walker
Wittgenstein’s Nephew, Thomas Bernhard
A Pale View Of Hills, Kazuo Ishiguro
Schindler’s Ark, Thomas Keneally
The House Of The Spirits, Isabel Allende
The Newton Letter, John Banville
On The Black Hill, Bruce Chatwin
Concrete, Thomas Bernhard
The Names, Don DeLillo
Rabbit Is Rich, John Updike
Lanark: A Life in Four Books, Alasdair Gray
The Comfort Of Strangers, Ian McEwan
July’s People, Nadine Gordimer
Summer In Baden-Baden, Leonid Tsypkin
Broken April, Ismail Kadare
Waiting For The Barbarians, J.M. Coetzee
Midnight’s Children, Salman Rushdie
Rites Of Passage, William Golding
Rituals, Cees Nooteboom
A Confederacy Of Dunces, John Kennedy Toole
City Primeval, Elmore Leonard
The Name Of The Rose, Umberto Eco
The Book Of Laughter And Forgetting, Milan Kundera
Smiley’s People, John Le Carré
Shikasta, Doris Lessing
A Bend In The River, V.S. Naipaul
Burger’s Daughter, Nadine Gordimer
The Safety Net, Heinrich Böll
If On A Winter’s Night A Traveler, Italo Calvino
The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy, Douglas Adams
The Cement Garden, Ian McEwan
The World According To Garp, John Irving
Life: A User’s Manual, Georges Perec
The Sea, The Sea, Iris Murdoch
The Singapore Grip, J.G. Farrell
Yes, Thomas Bernhard
The Virgin In The Garden, A.S. Byatt
In The Heart Of The Country, J.M. Coetzee
The Passion Of New Eve, Angela Carter
Delta Of Venus, Anaïs Nin
The Shining, Stephen King
Dispatches, Michael Herr
Petals Of Blood, Ngugi Wa Thiong’o
Song Of Solomon, Toni Morrison
The Hour Of The Star, Clarice Lispector
The Left-Handed Woman, Peter Handke
Ratner’s Star, Don DeLillo
The Public Burning, Robert Coover
Interview With The Vampire, Anne Rice
Cutter and Bone, Newton Thornburg
Amateurs, Donald Barthelme
Patterns Of Childhood, Christa Wolf
The Autumn Of The Patriarch, Gabriel García Márquez
W, Or The Memory Of Childhood, Georges Perec
A Dance To The Music of Time, Anthony Powell
Grimus, Salman Rushdie
The Dead Father, Donald Barthelme
Fateless, Imre Kertész
Willard And His Bowling Trophies, Richard Brautigan
High Rise, J.G. Ballard
Humboldt’s Gift, Saul Bellow
Dead Babies, Martin Amis
Correction, Thomas Bernhard
Ragtime, E.L. Doctorow
The Fan Man, William Kotzwinkle
Dusklands, J.M. Coetzee
The Lost Honor Of Katharina Blum, Heinrich Böll
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, John Le Carré
Breakfast of Champions, Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
Fear Of Flying, Erica Jong
A Question Of Power, Bessie Head
The Siege Of Krishnapur, J.G. Farrell
The Castle Of Crossed Destinies, Italo Calvino
Crash, J.G. Ballard
The Honorary Consul, Graham Greene
Gravity’s Rainbow, Thomas Pynchon
The Black Prince, Iris Murdoch
Sula, Toni Morrison
Invisible Cities, Italo Calvino
The Breast, Philip Roth
The Summer Book, Tove Jansson
G, John Berger
Surfacing, Margaret Atwood
House Mother Normal, B.S. Johnson
In A Free State, V.S. Naipaul
The Book Of Daniel, E.L. Doctorow
Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas, Hunter S. Thompson
Group Portrait With Lady, Heinrich Böll
The Wild Boys, William Burroughs
Rabbit Redux, John Updike
The Sea Of Fertility, Yukio Mishima
The Driver’s Seat, Muriel Spark
The Ogre, Michael Tournier
The Bluest Eye, Toni Morrison
Goalie’s Anxiety At The Penalty Kick, Peter Handke
I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings, Maya Angelou
Mercier Et Camier, Samuel Beckett
Troubles, J.G. Farrell
Jahrestage, Uwe Johnson
The Atrocity Exhibition, J.G. Ballard
Tent Of Miracles, Jorge Amado
Pricksongs And Descants, Robert Coover
Blind Man With A Pistolm, Chester Hines
Slaughterhouse-Five, Kurt Vonnegut
The French Lieutenant’s Woman, John Fowles
The Green Man, Kingsley Amis
Portnoy’s Complaint, Philip Roth
The Godfather, Mario Puzo
Ada Or Ardor, Vladimir Nabokov
Them, Joyce Carol Oates
A Void, Georges Perec
Eva Trout, Elizabeth Bowen
Myra Breckinridge, Gore Vidal
The Nice And The Good, Iris Murdoch
Belle Du Seigneur, Albert Cohen
Cancer Ward, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
The First Circle, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
2001: A Space Odyssey, Arthur C. Clarke
Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep?, Philip K. Dick
Dark As The Grave Wherein My Friend Is Laid, Malcolm Lowry
The German Lesson, Siegfried Lenz
In Watermelon Sugar, Richard Brautigan
A Kestrel For A Knave, Barry Hines
The Quest For Christa T., Christa Wolf
Chocky, John Wyndham
The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, Tom Wolfe
The Cubs And Other Stories, Mario Vargas Llosa
One Hundred Years Of Solitude, Gabriel García Márquez
The Master And Margarita, Mikhail Bulgakov
Pilgrimage, Dorothy Richardson
The Joke, Milan Kundera
No Laughing Matter, Angus Wilson
The Third Policeman, Flann O’Brien
A Man Asleep, Georges Perec
The Birds Fall Down, Rebecca West
Trawl, B.S. Johnson
In Cold Blood, Truman Capote
The Magus, John Fowles
The Vice-Consul, Marguerite Duras
Wide Sargasso Sea, Jean Rhys
Giles Goat-Boy, John Barth
The Crying Of Lot 49, Thomas Pynchon
Things, Georges Perec
The River Between, Ngugi wa Thiong’o
August Is A Wicked Month, Edna O’Brien
God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater, Kurt Vonnegut
Everything That Rises Must Converge, Flannery O’Connor
The Passion According to G.H., Clarice Lispector
Sometimes A Great Notion, Ken Kesey
Come Back, Dr. Caligari, Donald Bartholme
Albert Angelo, B.S. Johnson
Arrow Of God, Chinua Achebe
The Ravishing of Lol V. Stein, Marguerite Duras
Herzog, Saul Bellow
V., Thomas Pynchon
Cat’s Cradle, Kurt Vonnegut
The Graduate, Charles Webb
Manon Des Sources, Marcel Pagnol
The Spy Who Came In From The Cold, John Le Carré
The Girls Of Slender Means, Muriel Spark
Inside Mr. Enderby, Anthony Burgess
The Bell Jar, Sylvia Plath
One Day In The Life Of Ivan Denisovich, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
The Collector, John Fowles
One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest, Ken Kesey
A Clockwork Orange, Anthony Burgess
Pale Fire, Vladimir Nabokov
The Drowned World, J.G. Ballard
The Golden Notebook, Doris Lessing
Labyrinths, Jorg Luis Borges
Girl With Green Eyes, Edna O’Brien
The Garden Of The Finzi-Continis, Giorgio Bassani
Stranger In A Strange Land, Robert Heinlein
Franny And Zooey, J.D. Salinger
A Severed Head, Iris Murdoch
Faces In The Water, Janet Frame
Solaris, Stanislaw Lem
Cat And Mouse, Günter Grass
The Prime Of Miss Jean Brodie, Muriel Spark
Catch-22, Joseph Heller
The Violent Bear It Away, Flannery O’Connor
How It Is, Samuel Beckett
Our Ancestors, Italo Calvino
The Country Girls, Edna O’Brien
To Kill A Mockingbird, Harper Lee
Rabbit, Run, John Updike
Promise At Dawn, Romain Gary
Cider With Rosie, Laurie Lee
Billy Liar, Keith Waterhouse
Naked Lunch, William Burroughs
The Tin Drum, Günter Grass
Absolute Beginners, Colin MacInnes
Henderson The Rain King, Saul Bellow
Memento Mori, Muriel Spark
Billiards At Half-Past Nine, Heinrich Böll
Breakfast At Tiffany’s, Truman Capote
The Leopard, Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa
Pluck The Bud And Destroy The Offspring, Kenzaburo Oe
A Town Like Alice, Nevil Shute
The Bitter Glass, Eilís Dillon
Things Fall Apart, Chinua Achebe
Saturday Night And Sunday Morning, Alan Sillitoe
Mrs. ‘Arris Goes to Paris, Paul Gallico
Borstal Boy, Brendan Behan
The End Of The Road, John Barth
The Once And Future King, T.H. White
The Bell, Iris Murdoch
Jealousy, Alain Robbe-Grillet
Voss, Patrick White
The Midwich Cuckoos, John Wyndham
Blue Noon, Georges Bataille
Homo Faber, Max Frisch
On the Road, Jack Kerouac
Pnin, Vladimir Nabokov
Doctor Zhivago, Boris Pasternak
The Wonderful “O”, James Thurber
Justine, Lawrence Durrell
Giovanni’s Room, James Baldwin
The Lonely Londoners, Sam Selvon
The Roots of Heaven, Romain Gary
Seize The Day, Saul Bellow
The Floating Opera, John Barth
The Lord Of The Rings, J.R.R. Tolkien
The Talented Mr. Ripley, Patricia Highsmith
Lolita, Vladimir Nabokov
A World Of Love, Elizabeth Bowen
The Trusting And The Maimed, James Plunkett
The Quiet American, Graham Greene
The Last Temptation Of Christ, Nikos Kazantzákis
The Recognitions, William Gaddis
The Ragazzi, Pier Paulo Pasolini
Bonjour Tristesse, Françoise Sagan
I’m Not Stiller, Max Frisch
Self Condemned, Wyndham Lewis
The Story Of O, Pauline Réage
A Ghost At Noon, Alberto Moravia
Lord Of The Flies, William Golding
Under The Net, Iris Murdoch
The Go-Between, L.P. Hartley
The Long Goodbye, Raymond Chandler
The Unnamable, Samuel Beckett
Watt, Samuel Beckett
Lucky Jim, Kingsley Amis
Junkie, William Burroughs
The Adventures Of Augie March, Saul Bellow
Go Tell It On the Mountain, James Baldwin
Casino Royale, Ian Fleming
The Judge And His Hangman, Friedrich Dürrenmatt
Invisible Man, Ralph Ellison
The Old Man And The Sea, Ernest Hemingway
Wise Blood, Flannery O’Connor
The Killer Inside Me, Jim Thompson
Memoirs Of Hadrian, Marguerite Yourcenar
Malone Dies, Samuel Beckett
The Day Of The Triffids, John Wyndham
Foundation, Isaac Asimov
The Opposing Shore, Julien Gracq
The Catcher In The Rye, J.D. Salinger
The Rebel, Albert Camus
Molloy, Samuel Beckett
The End Of The Affair, Graham Greene
The Abbot C, Georges Bataille
The Labyrinth Of Solitude, Octavio Paz
The Third Man, Graham Greene
The 13 Clocks, James Thurber
Gormenghast, Mervyn Peake
The Grass Is Singing, Doris Lessing
I, Robot, Isaac Asimov
The Moon And The Bonfires, Cesare Pavese
The Garden Where The Brass Band Played, Simon Vestdijk
Love In A Cold Climate, Nancy Mitford
The Case Of Comrade Tulayev, Victor Serge
The Heat Of The Day, Elizabeth Bowen
Kingdom Of This World, Alejo Carpentier
The Man With The Golden Arm, Nelson Algren
Nineteen Eighty-Four, George Orwell
All About H. Hatterr, G.V. Desani
Disobedience, Alberto Moravia
Death Sentence, Maurice Blanchot
The Heart Of The Matter, Graham Greene
Cry, The Beloved Country, Alan Paton
Doctor Faustus, Thomas Mann
The Victim, Saul Bellow
Exercises In Style, Raymond Queneau
If This Is A Man, Primo Levi
Under The Volcano, Malcolm Lowry
The Path To The Spider’s Nest, Italo Calvino
The Plague, Albert Camus
Back, Henry Green
Titus Groan, Mervyn Peake
The Bridge On The Drina, Ivo Andric
Brideshead Revisited, Evelyn Waugh
Animal Farm, George Orwell
Cannery Row, John Steinbeck
The Pursuit Of Love, Nancy Mitford
Loving, Henry Green
Arcanum 17, André Breton
Christ Stopped At Eboli, Carlo Levi
The Razor’s Edge, William Somerset Maugham
Transit, Anna Seghers
Ficciones, Jorge Luis Borges
Dangling Man, Saul Bellow
The Little Prince, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
Caught, Henry Green
The Glass Bead Game, Herman Hesse
Embers, Sandor Marai
Go Down, Moses, William Faulkner
The Outsider, Albert Camus
In Sicily, Elio Vittorini
The Poor Mouth, Flann O’Brien
The Living And The Dead, Patrick White
Hangover Square, Patrick Hamilton
Between The Acts, Virginia Woolf
The Hamlet, William Faulkner
Farewell My Lovely, Raymond Chandler
For Whom The Bell Tolls, Ernest Hemingway
Native Son, Richard Wright
The Power And The Glory, Graham Greene
The Tartar Steppe, Dino Buzzati
Party Going, Henry Green
The Grapes Of Wrath, John Steinbeck
Finnegans Wake, James Joyce
At Swim-Two-Birds, Flann O’Brien
Coming Up For Air, George Orwell
Goodbye To Berlin, Christopher Isherwood
Tropic Of Capricorn, Henry Miller
Good Morning, Midnight, Jean Rhys
The Big Sleep, Raymond Chandler
After The Death Of Don Juan, Sylvie Townsend Warner
Miss Pettigrew Lives For A Day, Winifred Watson
Nausea, Jean-Paul Sartre
Rebecca, Daphne du Maurier
Cause For Alarm, Eric Ambler
Brighton Rock, Graham Greene
U.S.A., John Dos Passos
Murphy, Samuel Beckett
Of Mice And Men, John Steinbeck
Their Eyes Were Watching God, Zora Neale Hurston
The Hobbit, J.R.R. Tolkien
The Years, Virginia Woolf
In Parenthesis, David Jones
The Revenge For Love, Wyndham Lewis
Out of Africa, Isak Dineson
To Have And Have Not, Ernest Hemingway
Summer Will Show, Sylvia Townsend Warner
Eyeless In Gaza, Aldous Huxley
The Thinking Reed, Rebecca West
Gone With The Wind, Margaret Mitchell
Keep The Aspidistra Flying, George Orwell
Wild Harbour, Ian MacPherson
Absalom, Absalom!, William Faulkner
At The Mountains of Madness, H.P. Lovecraft
Nightwood, Djuna Barnes
Independent People, Halldór Laxness
Auto-da-Fé, Elias Canetti
The Last Of Mr. Norris, Christopher Isherwood
They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?, Horace McCoy
The House In Paris, Elizabeth Bowen
England Made Me, Graham Greene
Burmese Days, George Orwell
The Nine Tailors, Dorothy L. Sayers
Threepenny Novel, Bertolt Brecht
Novel With Cocaine, M. Ageyev
The Postman Always Rings Twice, James M. Cain
Tropic Of Cancer, Henry Miller
A Handful Of Dust, Evelyn Waugh
Tender Is The Night, F. Scott Fitzgerald
Thank You, Jeeves, P.G. Wodehouse
Call It Sleep, Henry Roth
Miss Lonelyhearts, Nathanael West
Murder Must Advertise, Dorothy L. Sayers
The Autobiography Of Alice B. Toklas, Gertrude Stein
Testament Of Youth, Vera Brittain
A Day Off, Storm Jameson
The Man Without Qualities, Robert Musil
Sunset Song, Lewis Grassic Gibbon
Journey To The End Of The Night, Louis-Ferdinand Céline
Brave New World, Aldous Huxley
Cold Comfort Farm, Stella Gibbons
To The North, Elizabeth Bowen
The Thin Man, Dashiell Hammett
The Radetzky March, Joseph Roth
The Waves, Virginia Woolf
The Glass Key, Dashiell Hammett
Cakes And Ale, W. Somerset Maugham
The Apes Of God, Wyndham Lewis
Her Privates We, Frederic Manning
Vile Bodies, Evelyn Waugh
The Maltese Falcon, Dashiell Hammett
Hebdomeros, Giorgio de Chirico
Passing, Nella Larsen
A Farewell To Arms, Ernest Hemingway
Red Harvest, Dashiell Hammett
Living, Henry Green
The Time Of Indifference, Alberto Moravia
All Quiet On The Western Front, Erich Maria Remarque
Berlin Alexanderplatz, Alfred Döblin
The Last September, Elizabeth Bowen
Harriet Hume, Rebecca West
The Sound And The Fury, William Faulkner
Les Enfants Terribles, Jean Cocteau
Look Homeward, Angel, Thomas Wolfe
Story Of The Eye, Georges Bataille
Orlando, Virginia Woolf
Lady Chatterley’s Lover, D.H. Lawrence
The Well Of Loneliness, Radclyffe Hall
The Childermass, Wyndham Lewis
Quartet, Jean Rhys
Decline And Fall, Evelyn Waugh
Quicksand, Nella Larsen
Parade’s End, Ford Madox Ford
Nadja, André Breton
Steppenwolf, Herman Hesse
Remembrance Of Things Past, Marcel Proust
To The Lighthouse, Virginia Woolf
Tarka The Otter, Henry Williamson
Amerika, Franz Kafka
The Sun Also Rises, Ernest Hemingway
Blindness, Henry Green
The Castle, Franz Kafka
The Good Soldier Švejk, Jaroslav Hašek
The Plumed Serpent, D.H. Lawrence
One, None And A Hundred Thousand, Luigi Pirandello
The Murder Of Roger Ackroyd, Agatha Christie
The Making Of Americans, Gertrude Stein
Manhattan Transfer, John Dos Passos
Mrs. Dalloway, Virginia Woolf
The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald
The Counterfeiters, André Gide
The Trial, Franz Kafka
The Artamonov Business, Maxim Gorky
The Professor’s House, Willa Cather
Billy Budd, Foretopman, Herman Melville
The Green Hat, Michael Arlen
The Magic Mountain, Thomas Mann
We, Yevgeny Zamyatin
A Passage To India, E.M. Forster
The Devil In The Flesh, Raymond Radiguet
Zeno’s Conscience, Italo Svevo
Cane, Jean Toomer
Antic Hay, Aldous Huxley
Amok, Stefan Zweig
The Garden Party, Katherine Mansfield
The Enormous Room, E.E. Cummings
Jacob’s Room, Virginia Woolf
Siddhartha, Herman Hesse
The Glimpses Of The Moon, Edith Wharton
Life And Death Of Harriett Frean, May Sinclair
The Last Days Of Humanity, Karl Kraus
Aaron’s Rod, D.H. Lawrence
Babbitt, Sinclair Lewis
Ulysses, James Joyce
The Fox, D.H. Lawrence
Crome Yellow, Aldous Huxley
The Age Of Innocence, Edith Wharton
Main Street, Sinclair Lewis
Women In Love, D.H. Lawrence
Night And Day, Virginia Woolf
Tarr, Wyndham Lewis
The Return Of The Soldier, Rebecca West
The Shadow Line, Joseph Conrad
Summer, Edith Wharton
Growth Of The Soil, Knut Hamsen
Bunner Sisters, Edith Wharton
A Portrait Of The Artist As A Young Man, James Joyce
Under Fire, Henri Barbusse
Rashōmon, Akutagawa Ryunosuke
The Good Soldier, Ford Madox Ford
The Voyage Out, Virginia Woolf
Of Human Bondage, William Somerset Maugham
The Rainbow, D.H. Lawrence
The Thirty-Nine Steps, John Buchan
Kokoro, Natsume Soseki
Locus Solus, Raymond Roussel
Rosshalde, Herman Hesse
Tarzan Of The Apes, Edgar Rice Burroughs
The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists, Robert Tressell
Sons And Lovers, D.H. Lawrence
Death In Venice, Thomas Mann
The Charwoman’s Daughter, James Stephens
Ethan Frome, Edith Wharton
Fantômas, Marcel Allain and Pierre Souvestre
Howards End, E.M. Forster
Impressions Of Africa, Raymond Roussel
Three Lives, Gertrude Stein
Martin Eden, Jack London
Strait Is The Gate, André Gide
Tono-Bungay, H.G. Wells
The Inferno, Henri Barbusse
A Room With A View, E.M. Forster
The Iron Heel, Jack London
The Old Wives’ Tale, Arnold Bennett
The House On The Borderland, William Hope Hodgson
Mother, Maxim Gorky
The Secret Agent, Joseph Conrad
The Jungle, Upton Sinclair
Young Törless, Robert Musil
The Forsyte Saga, John Galsworthy
The House Of Mirth, Edith Wharton
Professor Unrat, Heinrich Mann
Where Angels Fear To Tread, E.M. Forster
Nostromo, Joseph Conrad
Hadrian The Seventh, Frederick Rolfe
The Golden Bowl, Henry James
The Ambassadors, Henry James
The Riddle Of The Sands, Erskine Childers
The Immoralist, André Gide
The Wings Of The Dove, Henry James
Heart Of Darkness, Joseph Conrad
The Hound Of The Baskervilles, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Buddenbrooks, Thomas Mann
Kim, Rudyard Kipling
Sister Carrie, Theodore Dreiser
Lord Jim, Joseph Conrad
1800s

Some Experiences Of An Irish R.M., Somerville and Ross
The Stechlin, Theodore Fontane
The Awakening, Kate Chopin
The Turn Of The Screw, Henry James
The War Of The Worlds, H.G. Wells
The Invisible Man, H.G. Wells
What Maisie Knew, Henry James
Fruits Of The Earth, André Gide
Dracula, Bram Stoker
Quo Vadis, Henryk Sienkiewicz
The Island Of Dr. Moreau, H.G. Wells
The Time Machine, H.G. Wells
Effi Briest, Theodore Fontane
Jude The Obscure, Thomas Hardy
The Real Charlotte, Somerville and Ross
The Yellow Wallpaper, Charlotte Perkins Gilman
Born In Exile, George Gissing
Diary Of A Nobody, George & Weedon Grossmith
The Adventures Of Sherlock Holmes, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
News From Nowhere, William Morris
New Grub Street, George Gissing
Gösta Berling’s Saga, Selma Lagerlöf
Tess Of The D’Urbervilles, Thomas Hardy
The Picture Of Dorian Gray, Oscar Wilde
The Kreutzer Sonata, Leo Tolstoy
La Bête Humaine, Émile Zola
By the Open Sea, August Strindberg
Hunger, Knut Hamsun
The Master Of Ballantrae, Robert Louis Stevenson
Pierre And Jean, Guy de Maupassant
Fortunata And Jacinta, Benito Pérez Galdés
The People Of Hemsö, August Strindberg
The Woodlanders, Thomas Hardy
She, H. Rider Haggard
The Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde, Robert Louis Stevenson
The Mayor Of Casterbridge, Thomas Hardy
Kidnapped, Robert Louis Stevenson
King Solomon’s Mines, H. Rider Haggard
Germinal, Émile Zola
The Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain
Bel-Ami, Guy de Maupassant
Marius The Epicurean, Walter Pater
Against The Grain, Joris-Karl Huysmans
The Death Of Ivan Ilyich, Leo Tolstoy
A Woman’s Life, Guy de Maupassant
Treasure Island, Robert Louis Stevenson
The House By The Medlar Tree, Giovanni Verga
The Portrait Of A Lady, Henry James
Bouvard And Pécuchet, Gustave Flaubert
Ben-Hur, Lew Wallace
Nana, Émile Zola
The Brothers Karamazov, Fyodor Dostoevsky
The Red Room, August Strindberg
Return Of The Native, Thomas Hardy
Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy
Drunkard, Émile Zola
Virgin Soil, Ivan Turgenev
Daniel Deronda, George Eliot
The Hand Of Ethelberta, Thomas Hardy
The Temptation Of Saint Anthony, Gustave Flaubert
Far From The Madding Crowd, Thomas Hardy
The Enchanted Wanderer, Nicolai Leskov
Around The World In Eighty Days, Jules Verne
In A Glass Darkly, Sheridan Le Fanu
The Devils, Fyodor Dostoevsky
Erewhon, Samuel Butler
Spring Torrents, Ivan Turgenev
Middlemarch, George Eliot
Through The Looking Glass, And What Alice Found There, Lewis Carroll
King Lear Of The Steppes, Ivan Turgenev
He Knew He Was Right, Anthony Trollope
War And Peace, Leo Tolstoy
Sentimental Education, Gustave Flaubert
Phineas Finn, Anthony Trollope
Maldoror, Comte de Lautréaumont
The Idiot, Fyodor Dostoevsky
The Moonstone, Wilkie Collins
Little Women, Louisa May Alcott
Thérèse Raquin, Émile Zola
The Last Chronicle Of Barset, Anthony Trollope
Journey To The Centre Of The Earth, Jules Verne
Crime And Punishment, Fyodor Dostoevsky
Alice’s Adventures In Wonderland, Lewis Carroll
Our Mutual Friend, Charles Dickens
Uncle Silas, Sheridan Le Fanu
Notes From The Underground, Fyodor Dostoevsky
The Water-Babies, Charles Kingsley
Les Misérables, Victor Hugo
Fathers And Sons, Ivan Turgenev
Silas Marner, George Eliot
Great Expectations, Charles Dickens
On The Eve, Ivan Turgenev
Castle Richmond, Anthony Trollope
The Mill On The Floss, George Eliot
The Woman In White, Wilkie Collins
The Marble Faun, Nathaniel Hawthorne
Max Havelaar, Multatuli
A Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dickens
Oblomovka, Ivan Goncharov
Adam Bede, George Eliot
Madame Bovary, Gustave Flaubert
North And South, Elizabeth Gaskell
Hard Times, Charles Dickens
Walden, Henry David Thoreau
Bleak House, Charles Dickens
Villette, Charlotte Brontë
Cranford, Elizabeth Gaskell
Uncle Tom’s Cabin; Or, Life Among The Lonely, Harriet Beecher Stowe
The Blithedale Romance, Nathaniel Hawthorne
The House Of The Seven Gables, Nathaniel Hawthorne
Moby-Dick, Herman Melville
The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne
David Copperfield, Charles Dickens
Shirley, Charlotte Brontë
Mary Barton, Elizabeth Gaskell
The Tenant Of Wildfell Hall, Anne Brontë
Wuthering Heights, Emily Brontë
Agnes Grey, Anne Brontë
Jane Eyre, Charlotte Brontë
Vanity Fair, William Makepeace Thackeray
The Count Of Monte-Cristo, Alexandre Dumas
La Reine Margot, Alexandre Dumas
The Three Musketeers, Alexandre Dumas
The Purloined Letter, Edgar Allan Poe
Martin Chuzzlewit, Charles Dickens
The Pit And The Pendulum, Edgar Allan Poe
Lost Illusions, Honoré de Balzac
A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens
Dead Souls, Nikolay Gogol
The Charterhouse Of Parma, Stendhal
The Fall Of The House Of Usher, Edgar Allan Poe
The Life And Adventures Of Nicholas Nickleby, Charles Dickens
Oliver Twist, Charles Dickens
The Nose, Nikolay Gogol
Le Père Goriot, Honoré de Balzac
Eugénie Grandet, Honoré de Balzac
The Hunchback Of Notre Dame, Victor Hugo
The Red And The Black, Stendhal
The Betrothed, Alessandro Manzoni
Last Of The Mohicans, James Fenimore Cooper
The Private Memoirs And Confessions Of A Justified Sinner, James Hogg
The Albigenses, Charles Robert Maturin
Melmoth The Wanderer, Charles Robert Maturin
The Monastery, Sir Walter Scott
Ivanhoe, Sir Walter Scott
Frankenstein, Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley
Northanger Abbey, Jane Austen
Persuasion, Jane Austen
Ormond, Maria Edgeworth
Rob Roy, Sir Walter Scott
Emma, Jane Austen
Mansfield Park, Jane Austen
Pride And Prejudice, Jane Austen
The Absentee, Maria Edgeworth
Sense And Sensibility, Jane Austen
Elective Affinities, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Castle Rackrent, Maria Edgeworth
1700s

Hyperion, Friedrich Hölderlin
The Nun, Denis Diderot
Camilla, Fanny Burney
The Monk, M.G. Lewis
Wilhelm Meister’s Apprenticeship, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
The Mysteries of Udolpho, Ann Radcliffe
The Interesting Narrative, Olaudah Equiano
The Adventures Of Caleb Williams, William Godwin
Justine, Marquis de Sade
Vathek, William Beckford
The 120 Days Of Sodom, Marquis de Sade
Cecilia, Fanny Burney
Confessions, Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Dangerous Liaisons, Pierre Choderlos de Laclos
Reveries Of A Solitary Walker, Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Evelina, Fanny Burney
The Sorrows Of Young Werther, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Humphrey Clinker, Tobias George Smollett
The Man Of Feeling, Henry Mackenzie
A Sentimental Journey, Laurence Sterne
Tristram Shandy, Laurence Sterne
The Vicar Of Wakefield, Oliver Goldsmith
The Castle Of Otranto, Horace Walpole
Émile; Or, On Education, Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Rameau’s Nephew, Denis Diderot
Julie; Or, the New Eloise, Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Rasselas, Samuel Johnson
Candide, Voltaire
The Female Quixote, Charlotte Lennox
Amelia, Henry Fielding
Peregrine Pickle, Tobias George Smollett
Fanny Hill, John Cleland
Tom Jones, Henry Fielding
Roderick Random, Tobias George Smollett
Clarissa, Samuel Richardson
Pamela, Samuel Richardson
Jacques The Fatalist, Denis Diderot
Memoirs Of Martinus Scriblerus, J. Arbuthnot, J. Gay, T. Parnell, A. Pope, J. Swift
Joseph Andrews, Henry Fielding
A Modest Proposal, Jonathan Swift
Gulliver’s Travels, Jonathan Swift
Roxana, Daniel Defoe
Moll Flanders, Daniel Defoe
Love In Excess, Eliza Haywood
Robinson Crusoe, Daniel Defoe
A Tale Of A Tub, Jonathan Swift
Pre-1700

Oroonoko, Aphra Behn
The Princess Of Clèves, Comtesse de La Fayette
The Pilgrim’s Progress, John Bunyan
Don Quixote, Miguel de Cervantes
The Unfortunate Traveller, Thomas Nashe
Euphues: The Anatomy Of Wit, John Lyly
Gargantua And Pantagruel, Françoise Rabelais
The Thousand And One Nights, Anonymous
The Golden Ass, Lucius Apuleius
Aithiopika, Heliodorus
Chaireas And Kallirhoe, Chariton
Metamorphoses, Ovid
Aesop’s Fables, Aesopus

I can understand how many of these got onto the list but am really surprised by others. I'm surprised that a lot of books I considered "classic" aren't on the list like The Good Earth by Pearl Buck or Catch-22 by Joseph Heller(unless I missed it somewhere) and how some others (like Myra Breckinridge or Portnoy's Complaint) made it to the list.

How I'll approach the list: the books I have already I will definitely read. Once I get through the almost 250 I have on my TBR, maybe I'll get around to this list.

Promise Not To Tell by Jennifer McMahon

2008-01-05T19:24:00.000-05:00

I enoyed reading this book very much! I got hooked almost immediately because it's got so many elements I love about reading: strong, realistic characters, a bit of mystery, a bit of horror, and themes I can relate to. There are actually two stories: Kate Cypher then and now, 1971 and 2002. In 1971, she was a lonely little 10 year old, new in school and wanting to be friends with people but an outcast from the start because she was "different"--she lived on a commune with her mother and a group of hippies. On a farm nearby, there was another outcast named Del Griswold--cruelly nicknamed "The Potato Girl". I remember how it was in school to want a friend and feel so lonely about it that even being friends with the class goat was preferable to no one at all. Being connected to people your own age...that's a real need, no doubt about it. Yet, when push comes to shove, Kate can't admit that she is best friends with "The Potato Girl" and Del is brutally murdered. In 2002, Kate returns to the commune to care for her mother who seems to be suffering from dementia or Alzheimer's. On the night Kate returns, another little girl is murdered in much the same way Del was. Who dunnit? Was it Kate? Or the ghost of Del? Or ... ?

Happy Thanksgiving

2007-11-22T10:59:00.000-05:00

Happy Thanksgiving!

Room For Two by Abel Keough

2007-11-19T12:15:00.000-05:00

Just a little background first: I've been reading Abel's blog online since he was on diary-x. I bookmarked it because we had one thing in common I knew of right away: we were both widowed and then had remarried. Even though there are differences in the ways we lost our spouses many of the feelings we had in the aftermath were very similar. Abel subsequently moved to another website and called that blog Running Forward which I think is a very apt name. Over the years Abel and his second wife have had 3 children and I was thrilled at the news of each birth. Yes, there is love after the death of a loved one. It can happen. I was also thrilled when Abel announced his book was being published and was eager to read it.

Room For Two was hard for me and it's not because there was anything wrong with Abel's writing style. It's a painful story and I was shocked at how many of my own feelings came back to the surface, particularly guilt that I hadn't been able to do more to save Rich. Now, I think that is universal with widowed folks. In Abel's case, he had some premonitions of danger but felt he didn't act enough on them and when he entered his apartment, he heard the gun go off. His first wife had killed herself.

Abel did all the right things. He called 911. He was also in a state of shock. When my son and I found my first husband, Rich, on the floor he was already gone but I also went into shock. I remember calling 911, trying to keep the children from their father's body and leaping around like a frightened deer scooping up Rich's medications to take to the hospital. And even though I was stunned, I was still beginning to berate myself for not insisting we go to the emergency room the night before. Well, that's another story not related to the book but the fact I'm rambling about it is just testament to the fact that reading Abel's book brought back all those memories and feelings.

After Rich died, I belonged to an online community called Widownet. There were other widowed spouses whose loved ones had committed suicide. There's a stigma associated with suicide and that was an issue that everyone could try to understand but unless you've been through it you can't really "get" the shame of saying that your spouse killed him/herself. And so there was a separate sub-board called SOS (Spouses of Suicides, I think).

Abel mentions the isolation of being widowed. Yes, he is right. Ministers of churches I talked to said "oh, yes, the widowed--that's a group of people with needs we need to address" but had just never gotten around to it. Luckily the Catholic church has a good bereavement program and that's where I met other widow/ers. My friends and relatives were all single or married and I was totally uncomfortable with married couples after Rich died. I felt like a third or fifth wheel.

Another issue Abel addressed was dating. Only the widowed person knows when is the right time and yet everyone wants to tell you what's right for you. Abel's family was shocked when he began to date after his first wife died. I think it was about six months after but it doesn't matter. I felt "skin hunger" and a deep loneliness for the sound of a man's voice and the touch of his fingers and that wasn't disloyal to Rich. When TB and I met online and then began dating, members of both of our families said, "But didn't you love ....?"

Yes we did. But our loved ones were gone, away from us forever and somehow you have to go on or dry up and die.

Anyway, Abel's written a excellent book, one that is helpful to understanding the thoughts and feelings of being widowed. I can't do justice to it because it hits me too close to home. It's definitely something everyone could read--and there is a happy, hopeful ending. You can lose your love but still find love again before your own life is over.

Changing the List

2007-11-15T21:26:00.000-05:00

I don't know if you're supposed to change a reading list after you've already made one for a challenge but I just have to do it because I need a little Christmas right now! I feel like Mame at the moment: older, colder, and in need of an angel on my shoulder!

From my original list, I read these:

Non-fiction:

A Matter of Degree: The Hartford Circus Fire and The Mystery of Little Miss 1565 by Don Massey & Rick Davey

Room For Two by Abel Keough

Fiction:

Book of the Dead by Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child

A Dangerous Woman by Mary McGarry Morris

Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen

The Cloud of Unknowing by Thomas H. Cook

And I read two that weren't on my list at all:

Born On A Blue Day by Daniel Tammet (non fiction)

The Dream Hunter by Sherrilyn Kenyon

I'm still planning to read A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens.

I'm also planning to read as many of these as I can between now and the end of the challenge...right on through the New Year:

Deck the Halls and Santa Cruise by Mary Higgins Clark & Carol Higgins Clark

The Christmas Tree by Julie Salamon

The Christmas Box by Richard Paul Evans

Christmas Feast (collection)

Christmas In My Heart (another collection)

I didn't know...

2007-11-14T21:17:00.000-05:00

...that John Robison (Look Me In The Eye) and Augusten Burroughs (Running With Scissors) are brothers! That's good to know because now I'll read one after the other!

The Cloud of Unknowing by Thomas H. Cook

2007-11-12T19:49:00.001-05:00

This is one of those very few times I've felt wishy-washy about a book. It sounded intriguing to me when I read the back cover. I hadn't read anything by Cook before. David Sears narrates The Cloud of Unknowing with two different voices in alternating chapters. David is an average attorney, partner at an average law firm. He's always been in the shadow of his older and brilliant sister, Diana, and their father--also brilliant but also a paranoid schizophrenic--has made it very clear that David is lacking.

The book starts out with David's "you" voice, seemingly disembodied and removed from himself. He mentions a story written by Leo Tolstoy about the deaths of three people and how a sense of dread grows when one person is murdered and then another...and there is this anticipation, when is the third one going to happen? David reveals he is talking to Detective Petrie. David seems to be a material witness or a suspect to ... what? Murder? And whose? The "you" David slowly spins the story of madness, grief and ...is it murder? The second David speaks in the more normal and attached to reality "I" voice. He adds to the details "you" David parcels out.

Diana was devoted to caring for her mad and brilliant father for almost all of her life. After his death, she falls in love and marries but the son she bears seems to bear the taint--"it's in the blood"--of mental illness. The boy drowns and it's ruled an accidental death...or was it an accident? Diana is obsessed with learning the truth and draws David's young daughter Patty into the increasingly weird investigation.

I'm trying to get a handle on why it is I didn't love the book. There was lots of mystery and suspense. It's pretty obvious almost from the get-go that we're supposed to think that the grief stricken Diana is losing her mind. The more I read, especially of what "you" David was telling the detective, the more I wondered who might have really gotten the schizophrenia gene. Keep that Tolstoy story in mind because I'd forgotten and it does foreshadow what's to come in this story. How many deaths were there? And how many were murders?

One thing I'm not wishy washy about: I didn't care for the title. There's no zing to it and I probably wouldn't have picked it up at all were it not for the fingertips reaching up out of the water. The title is very blah and I wonder what Cook and his editor/agent/publisher was thinking?

I liked the book enough that I wanted to read others written by Thomas H. Cook. Check it out and see if you like it!

A Dangerous Woman by Mary McGarry Morris

2007-11-08T20:08:00.000-05:00

After reading A Dangerous Woman I've decided that Mary McGarry Morris is my new favorite author. She is amazingly perceptive about people and life in small towns and makes you feel like you are there watching the story unfold--sometimes like you are a part of it! I think we all know someone like Martha Horgan: "different", difficult to talk to or to be around and someone who is just "weird". There's been something "different" about Martha her whole life. She is socially inept, painfully honest and unable to maintain an adult relationship with anyone because she becomes obsessed with that person. Is it because she's lonely? Or autistic? Or is she psychotic?

Martha was already "different" when something traumatic and horribly unspeakable happens to her when she is seventeen. After that, and particularly after the death of her father, she is sheltered by her Aunt Frances who really isn't all that much older. Frances is the one who arranges for Martha's job and room in town and is usually the one who has to deal with any of her problems.

Martha's only "true friend" is a co-worker, Birdy. To Martha's horror, Birdy becomes involved with a despicable type of man, one who uses Birdy and pilfers from the cash register. You can't tell someone in love that their lover is bad, though, and Martha just cannot understand why Birdy won't listen to her. Martha loses her job when she's falsely accused of being the thief and throughout the book, she is determined to make Birdy listen to her.

Martha just wants to be normal like you and me, to love and be loved, to have friends, a life, a purpose and to be happy.

That's what the other wonderfully depicted characters in this book want too. Frances has invested years of her life with a man she cannot claim. A ne'er do well by the name of Colin Mackey appears, a troubled man who'd like to be a famous writer and seduces both Martha and Frances. There are the ladies at the boarding house, at least one of whom appears in another great book by Morris, Songs In Ordinary Time. Now that I've read this book, I'm very much looking forward to reading other books written by this author. It's definitely an excellent book to read!

The Dream Hunter by Sherrilyn Kenyon

2007-11-08T19:23:00.000-05:00

The Dream Hunter wasn't on my original Fall Reading Challenge list but I won it in a drawing, the first time I've won anything in years and I was curious to read it. I thought it was part of a vampire hunter series and wanted to give it a try. It turns out that this is a separate new series by the same author about dream hunters.

What are dream hunters? It's a little bit involved but they are Greek in origin; they were placed under a curse by Zeus, god of all Greek gods, and haunt the dreams of humans so that they can temporarily feel emotions again. I can't remember exactly what they did to piss Zeus off so much that he condemned them to a void of emptiness, a world without emotions. One of these dream hunters, Arikos, is particularly addicted to the dreamer's emotions and when he finds someone with especially vivid dreams he tends to latch on like a drug addict.

He finds such a dreamer in Dr. Megeara Kafieri, whose father spent a lifetime seeking Atlantis. She has some pretty bitter feelings toward her father because over the years, almost everyone in her family has died in this search for Atlantis. After his death, she receives from an old family friend coins that her father found and wanted to give her. They seem to be from Atlantis and so she becomes re-energized and decides to take up the search again.

Meanwhile, Arik keeps invading her dreams. It gets to the point where one of the other dream hunter gods comes and forbids Arik to visit Megeara again but Arik is too hooked on a feeling and so he makes an outrageous bargain with Hades: make him human for two weeks in exchange for a human soul.

The beginning was all right and I rolled along thinking this was a nice light fluffy bit of story, probably best at the beach, but not terrible at all. All of a sudden, about a third to half way through the book, it bogged down and at times was very unpleasant to slog through. Too many unfamiliar characters were introduced and the story just seemed to go from whimsical to silly. Oh well. Although this particular book ended up being disappointing, I wouldn't give up on the author yet. I would still like to try one of the vampire hunter books.

Booking Through Thursday

2007-11-08T19:10:00.001-05:00

Booking Through Thursday

Would you say that you read about the same amount now as when you were younger? More? Less? Why?

I'm sorry to say that I read less now than when I was younger. One reason is because of the distraction of the internet. While TV can't keep me from my book, the internet and all its temptations can: blogging, memes, emailing, forums and other message boards, fan sites, and so on. I also don't seem to be able to read as fast as I used to nor retain information as well. It's part of the Fibro Fog I struggle with.

Oh, Horror!

2007-11-01T19:49:00.000-04:00

Booking Through Thursday

What with yesterday being Halloween, and all . . . do you read horror? Stories of things that go bump in the night and keep you from sleeping?

I thought about asking you about whether you were participating in NaNoWriMo, but I asked that last year. Although . . . if you want to answer that one, too, please feel free to go ahead and do both, or either, your choice!

The answer to both questions is: yes! I especially enjoy reading Stephen King and Dean Koontz's books, as well as Peter Straub and Anne Rice (well, not so much her anymore).

And I'm also participating in NaNoWriMo!

Born On A Blue Day by Daniel Tammet

2007-10-25T15:55:00.000-04:00

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

2007-10-25T15:46:00.000-04:00

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

2007-10-20T09:40:00.000-04:00

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

2007-10-18T17:05:00.000-04:00

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

2007-10-16T21:25:00.000-04:00

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

2007-10-11T17:25:00.001-04:00

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

2007-10-11T11:25:00.000-04:00

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

2007-10-04T15:52:00.000-04:00

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

2007-10-01T16:12:00.001-04:00

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

2007-10-01T15:12:00.000-04:00

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?

Fall Into Reading Booklist

2007-09-23T22:39:00.000-04:00

I thought I'd narrowed my "Fall Into Reading" booklist down to a final fifteen but even now as I'm typing I've decided to make some changes. This is pretty much the way I want it now:

Non-Fiction:

A Matter of Degree: The Hartford Circus Fire and The Mystery of Little Miss 1565 by Don Massey & Rick Davey

Room For Two by Abel Keough

The Purpose Driven Life by Rick Warren

Classic Literature:

A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
The Jungle by Upton Sinclair

Fiction:

Book of the Dead by Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child

A Dangerous Woman by Mary McGarry Morris

Standing in the Rainbow by Fannie Flagg

Picturing the Wreck by Dani Shapiro

Fall On Your Knees by Ann Marie McDonald

Alternates

The Case for a Creatorby Lee Strobel (non-fiction)

Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen

Lost & Found by Jacqueline Sheehan

Thirteen Moons by Charles Frazier

The Other Side of the Bridge by Mary Lawson

Those Who Save Us by Jenna Bloom

The Cloud of Unknowing by Thomas H. Cook

And before I get to those, I need to finish the two I'm reading now:

Dance of Death by Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child
The Insulin Resistance Diet by Cheryle R. Hart M.D. and Sharon Kay Grossman R.D.

Sunshine & Roses

2007-09-20T23:03:00.000-04:00

Booking Through Thursday

The reverse of last week’s question:

Imagine that everything is going just swimmingly. The sun is shining, the birds are singing, and all’s right with the world. You’re practically bouncing from health and have money in your pocket. The kids are playing and laughing, the puppy is chewing in the cutest possible manner on an officially-sanctioned chew toy, and in between moments of laughter for pure joy, you pick up a book to read . . .

What is it?

Whatever is next on my TBR (to be read) next list! If I am really feeling up and everything is going well then I am in the mood for any type of book!

Fall Into Reading

2007-09-15T14:16:00.001-04:00

Fall into Reading at Callapidder Days!

I'm falling!

For more information, click on the picture above--you, too, can fall into reading!

Reading Room

2007-09-15T14:02:00.000-04:00

T.G.I.F. had a book themed topic this week so I decided to answer it here!

1. On average, how many books do you read in a year? I guess my average is 26

2. What are your favoite books? I have many! Among them:

To Kill A Mockingbird
A Tree Grows In Brooklyn
The Stand
Outlander
Gone With The Wind
Mystic River
Odd Thomas

3. Any favorite author? I have a lot of those, too: Stephen King, Diana Gabaldon, Dean Koontz, Pearl S. Buck and Amy Tan just to name a few

4. What are your favorite magazines? Entertainment Weekly, Prevention and Readers' Digest

5. When you pick up a mag, what sections do you automatically zoom into? I look for stories or updates on my favorite TV series, Lost first

Comfort Food

2007-09-13T18:14:00.000-04:00

Booking Through Thursday

Okay . . . picture this (really) worst-case scenario: It’s cold and raining, your boyfriend/girlfriend has just dumped you, you’ve just been fired, the pile of unpaid bills is sky-high, your beloved pet has recently died, and you think you’re coming down with a cold. All you want to do (other than hiding under the covers) is to curl up with a good book, something warm and comforting that will make you feel better.

What do you read?

I don't think any book would make me feel better under those circumstances but the first one I'd probably pick up (no, not the Bible!) would be Rabbi Kushner's book about why bad things happen to good people. Even if it's not warm, it's got comforting information in it! Then I would move on to a book that would pull me into the story and help me forget my troubles. Some books I've read in the past that would work:

Odd Thomas by Dean Koontz
Outlander by Diana Gabaldon
The Stand by Stephen King
Gone With The Wind by Margaret Mitchell
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith
Christy by Catherine Marshall

Disappointed

2007-09-10T11:10:00.000-04:00

I was so looking forward to reading Brimstone by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child but I was so totally disappointed when I finished.

I have to admit that I read the books out of order, probably a bad idea. The first one I ever read was Still Life With Crows and, while I enjoyed it and liked the Pendergast character, there were a couple of sections that confused me. There were references to people I didn't know and there were a mysterious pair of eyes, one hazel, one blue. At least, I think the eyes were in that book. I didn't plan on reading any more in the series but then I came across Cabinet of Curiosities and I was totally hooked. At that point, I realized I ought to go back and read the first two and I enjoyed them as well.

By then, Brimstone and Dance of Death were out in hardcover and/or paperback. I was eager to get to them, looking forward to this confrontation between Aloysius Pendergast and his mad brother Diogenes. I thought I'd be introduced to the brother in this book but there were just a couple of references to him and that was my first disappointment.

The next one was that a mysterious character appeared, Constance Green, and she didn't make any sense to me. I get it that she was in the Harlem mansion from the Cabinet book and that she was in hiding throughout the story. I get it that experiments were done on her and that she is actually very much older than she looks (she appears 19 or 20). If I remember correctly, Pendergast's great grandfather (or some relative) was the one performing life prolonging experiments on her and then he died. Now Pendergast is taking care of her, slowly easing her into the 21st century by reading to her from newspapers. You'd think she was a very fragile being but no, Pendergast also has her research the most hideous topics like soul snatching by the Devil and what have you. I kept getting this feeling of huh? and I don't like that feeling.

The book began well with the mysterious murders of two men in New York--with the stink of brimstone in the air and the burned out shells of bodies left behind, it sure seemed the work of Satan. Enter Pendergast--who has a special interest in serial killings--and Vinnie D'Agosta, now a trivial sergeant from eastern Long Island. This was another huh? section. Apparently D'Agosta returned from the NYC police force, dragged his unwilling wife and son to Canada, went bankrupt writing books and came crawling back sans family. Okay, I can't see a city cop leaving New York, sorry.

Another WTF moment: where was obnoxious reporter Bill Smithback of the New York Post? Apparently he and his old rival Bryce Harriman swapped jobs? Now Smithback is on his honeymoon and Harriman is struggling in Smithback's old job. Why? As far as I can tell, the entire Harriman/Buck-the-preacher segment was totally irrelevant to the story. It could have been left out and I think the story would have moved a lot faster for me.

Once Pendergast and D'Agosta went to Italy I began to get bored and impatient. I didn't like Count Fosco--he was an admittedly purloined character taken to honor the author who came up with detective stories. Really? Okay...yawn. I couldn't stand Count Fosco, didn't find him really believeable as a psychopathic villain. And the authors also purloined the story from Edgar Allan Poe: The Cask of Amontillado. Give me a break. I thought that story worked better for Dark Shadows than it did for this book.

But lots of people loved this book and I didn't. I'm not sure why. Maybe it was because I wanted to see the battle between Pendergast and his brother begin. Where is Diogenes and what exactly is this perfect heinous crime he's planning? So I have to wait for Dance of Death to meet the guy? Although...

whose hazel and blue eyes peeked into that bricked up room? Well...I could have skipped this book and went right to the next one as far as I'm concerned.

Spring Moon by Bette Bao Lord

2007-08-29T14:01:00.001-04:00

I enjoyed the first part of this book very much. From the title, I assumed the main character would be Spring Moon and that the story would be told from her point of view. I read somewhere that it's been compared to Gone With The Wind but I have to disagree--except to say that it concerns a family torn apart by civil war. Other characters were introduced into the story and subsequent chapters would go between Spring Moon's point of view and some of the others. I found it distracting, particularly after Spring Moon returned home after the death of her husband. The illicit romance between Spring Moon and her uncle didn't really ring true to me and I thought it detracted from the story. Otherwise, I enjoy historical fiction and particularly learning about events in history occuring in other countries--in this case, China.

What Kind of Book Crosser Are You?

2007-08-23T19:54:00.000-04:00

What kind of bookcrosser are you Your Result: ring in bundles They come and come. Ringbooks come in herds, that's what you say! You made a basket on your mail box, otherwise the frontdoor woldn't open when you return from work. You know your postman by christian name.
Playfull RBACKer
Obsessive releaser
Thematic dropper
Talk of the toy
Love to meet
lucky lurker
strange looking bystander
What kind of bookcrosser are you Quiz Created on GoToQuiz

Indocrination

2007-08-23T13:39:00.000-04:00

Booking Through Thursday

When growing up did your family share your love of books? If so, did one person get you into reading? And, do you have any family-oriented memories with books and reading? (Family trips to bookstore, reading the same book as a sibling or parent, etc.)

The one family member who really got me into reading was my mom. I remember going to the library with her when I was about five and being totally awed that I could bring books home with me. also, when my grandmother would take me grocery shopping, she would let me choose a Little Golden Book to keep at her house. I loved to look at the pictures at first and then when I learned to read, I'd read them to my younger cousins and brother.

My mother loved to read and had a bookcase full of what would be called classics now. When I was 10 or 12, I began wanting to read those books. She made several recommendations to me: Gone With the Wind, Imperial Woman, Love Is Eternal, The Brothers Karamazov, Crime and Punishment, and many others. She'd warn me that some of the books would be difficult to understand and that I should look in a dictionary to understand more of the words.

About a year later, I began begging to go to the library and she'd take me 2-3 times a week before finally complaining it was too much. She told me to check out the max allowed on my card so that she could make fewer trips. I was delighted. I was checking out about 15 books at a time. She was always checking out books too.

Once I became an adult, we'd pass books back and forth on occasion but then our tastes began to diverge. That was okay. We could still spend an afternoon together just reading contentedly. My father and brother are not readers and they were not into that. In fact, my dad was sometimes jealous of my mother's love for reading and he'd find reasons to interrupt her.

Lucky me, my husband is a reader too!

I really appreciate this question today. I have many unhappy memories of my mother and it is really nice to remember this and be filled with a warm glow.

This Really Is Sad!

2007-08-22T16:10:00.000-04:00

I saw a post on the forums at Book Crossing called "This is so sad" and went to read the full article. One in 4 Americans didn't read any books at all last year, is that possible? To me, it's mind-boggling, totally unfathomable! Yet here is the article:

The New York Times

August 21, 2007
One in Four Read No Books Last Year
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Filed at 11:12 p.m. ET

WASHINGTON (AP) -- There it sits on your night stand, that book you've meant to read for who knows how long but haven't yet cracked open. Tonight, as you feel its stare from beneath that teetering pile of magazines, know one thing -- you are not alone.

One in four adults read no books at all in the past year, according to an Associated Press-Ipsos poll released Tuesday. Of those who did read, women and older people were most avid, and religious works and popular fiction were the top choices.

The survey reveals a nation whose book readers, on the whole, can hardly be called ravenous. The typical person claimed to have read four books in the last year -- half read more and half read fewer. Excluding those who hadn't read any, the usual number read was seven.

''I just get sleepy when I read,'' said Richard Bustos of Dallas, a habit with which millions of Americans can doubtless identify. Bustos, a 34-year-old project manager for a telecommunications company, said he had not read any books in the last year and would rather spend time in his backyard pool.

That choice by Bustos and others is reflected in book sales, which have been flat in recent years and are expected to stay that way indefinitely. Analysts attribute the listlessness to competition from the Internet and other media, the unsteady economy and a well-established industry with limited opportunities for expansion.

When the Gallup Poll asked in 2005 how many books people had at least started -- a similar but not directly comparable question -- the typical answer was five. That was down from 10 in 1999, but close to the 1990 response of six.

In 2004, a National Endowment for the Arts report titled ''Reading at Risk'' found only 57 percent of American adults had read a book in 2002, a four percentage point drop in a decade. The study faulted television, movies and the Internet.

Who are the 27 percent of people the AP-Ipsos poll found hadn't read a single book this year? Nearly a third of men and a quarter of women fit that category. They tend to be older, less educated, lower income, minorities, from rural areas and less religious.

At the same time, book enthusiasts abound. Many in the survey reported reading dozens of books and said they couldn't do without them.

''I go into another world when I read,'' said Charlotte Fuller, 64, a retired nurse from Seminole, Fla., who said she read 70 books in the last year. ''I read so many sometimes I get the stories mixed up.''

Among those who said they had read books, the median figure -- with half reading more, half fewer -- was nine books for women and five for men. The figures also indicated that those with college degrees read the most, and people aged 50 and up read more than those who are younger.

Pollyann Baird, 84, a retired school librarian in Loveland, Colo., says J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter fantasy series is her favorite. But she has forced herself to not read the latest and final installment, ''Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows,'' because she has yet to file her income taxes this year due to an illness and worries that once she started the book, ''I know I'd have to finish it.''

People from the West and Midwest are more likely to have read at least one book in the past year. Southerners who do read, however, tend to read more books, mostly religious books and romance novels, than people from other regions. Whites read more than blacks and Hispanics, and those who said they never attend religious services read nearly twice as many as those who attend frequently.

There was even some political variety evident, with Democrats and liberals typically reading slightly more books than Republicans and conservatives.

The Bible and religious works were read by two-thirds in the survey, more than all other categories. Popular fiction, histories, biographies and mysteries were all cited by about half, while one in five read romance novels. Every other genre -- including politics, poetry and classical literature -- were named by fewer than five percent of readers.

More women than men read every major category of books except for history and biography. Industry experts said that confirms their observation that men tend to prefer nonfiction.

''Fiction just doesn't interest me,'' said Bob Ryan, 41, who works for a construction company in Guntersville, Ala. ''If I'm going to get a story, I'll get a movie.''

Those likeliest to read religious books included older and married women, lower earners, minorities, lesser educated people, Southerners, rural residents, Republicans and conservatives.

The publishing business totaled $35.7 billion in global sales last year, 3 percent more than the previous year, according to the Book Industry Study Group, a trade association. About 3.1 billion books were sold, an increase of less than 1 percent.

The AP-Ipsos poll was conducted from August 6 to 8 and involved telephone interviews with 1,003 adults. It had a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.

------

AP Manager of News Surveys Trevor Tompson and AP News Survey Specialist Dennis Junius contributed to this report.

(This version CLARIFIES that people in the West and Midwest are more likely to read at least one book a year, but that Southerners who do read tend to read more books.)

Reliquary by Lincoln Child & Douglas Preston

2007-08-22T16:02:00.000-04:00

A year ago, I read the prequel to this book, Relic. I shouldn't have waited so long to read The Reliquary but I could remember enough of the basic facts from the first book so I wasn't lost. To my disappointment, Agent Pendergast wasn't introduced until almost half way through the book. I like the other characters but I didn't think they were strong enough to carry that first half. The "yellow" journalist Bill Smithback was just flat out obnoxious as was most of the upper echelon of the police department. That had a stereotypical or cliche-ish feel to it that I didn't like. You have to suspend belief in reality in several places throughout the book. Sometimes that was annoying; sometimes it was amusing. When I looked back at what I wrote about the first book it seems that I enjoyed it much more than this one. I really like the Pendergast character so I'm looking forward to the next two books--I think he's supposed to be the "star" in those...I hope so!

There is one thing that I appreciated in this book: the authors focused a lot on the issues of the homeless living underground in New York City. Many are veterans of our wars or are mentally ill; I liked the fact that the authors humanized them and brought attention to their needs.

The Great Deluge

2007-08-22T14:33:00.000-04:00

One of the saddest, stupidest things about being human is the seeming inability to learn from history--collectively, anyway. I mean that we as a group of people can repeat the same stupid mistakes over and over. Isn't the definition of crazy doing the same thing over and over but expecting a different result? Maybe we are collectively crazy.

At any rate, here is one thing I know: we are not prepared for a natural disaster. We are probably equally unprepared for a man-made disaster but I don't want to go there at the moment. If there was a massive storm, a tsunami, the worst type of tornado, an earthquake, a plague -- I think it would take FEMA about as long to get their act together as they did for Katrina. Or ... did racism really play a part? I'd hate to think so but I wondered as I read this book.

Douglas Brinkley is a historian who happened to be living in the area when Hurricane Katrina came to visit and wreak terror and death and destruction on the Gulf States the last week of August 2005. He may not have checked all his facts (that's a criticism I read elsewhere of the book) but I have to say that The Great Deluge seemed pretty spot on from everything I can remember of the horrifying media coverage.

The book begins on Saturday, August 27--before the storm hit. It was pretty apparent from all the reports that this was a significant, dangerous storm and yet Mayor Nagin of New Orleans did not order a mandatory evacuation of the city until it was too late. That was just one in a long series of stupid mistakes made on the part of government officials from the mayor on up to President Bush.

Some points struck me as being particularly horrible:

1. Worst of all, they knew it could happen. By "they" I mean everyone who whined they had no idea the levees in New Orleans could be breached. All along there have been reports that the levees were inadequate and crumbling and needed fixing. The money that could have been spent on repairing or upgrading the levees went to shipping interests--i.e. dredging and other projects to make more profit. There was even a simulation presented at least a year before Katrina. In the hurricane Pam simulation, New Orleans was flooded out -- basically it was the Katrina scenario. Did anyone pay attention? No!

2. Here's one more worst of all: it could happen again! You'd think we'd have learned from this but nooooooo, New Orleans is in the same situation it was in before! Well, duh! And duh! And duh duh duh!

3. There was never a plan to evacuate the poor and the elderly. There was a "looks good" plan on the internet talking about using buses to get the people out but no one ever intended it should happen. Huh??? And even if they had, by the time Nagin called a mandatory evacuation, it was too late to get all those people out of New Orleans--and there were a LOT of elderly, disabled and/or poor people trapped in New Orleans.

4. There was no food or water or medical supplies at the stadium for the people who had to evacuate there. Why? It's explained but not to my satisfaction!

5. Some hospitals were abandoned and left to fend for themselves! The stories of the courageous doctors and nurses and other personnel who tried to care for their sick and dying patients under the worst dire circumstances made me want to cry. I know that recently a doctor was acquitted of mercy-killing a patient...welll, if you read this book you'll agree with me when I say had I been one of those patients I would have been begging the doctors to end it for me then and there.

6. Nagin "fiddled" while New Orleans drowned. The man just seemed to come totally unglued. This isn't pick-on-Nagin day because President Bush and Governor Blanco made some very serious errors but Nagin hid in a high rise hotel, avoided the evacuees because he was afraid of them, took a week long "vacation" to Houston a week after Katrina and otherwise exhibited some pretty strange behavior.

7. Most of the New Orleans police department left their posts and some of them even stole cars! The rest, heroes all, were treated abominably by citizens and officials alike because the bad apples gave them all a bad name

8. I also had no idea about "the big dump" which just turns my stomach. I don't think there's an excuse for this kind of behavior no matter how bad things get. "The big dump" means that vandals and looters took the time to move their bowels on whatever or where ever they pleased--on desks, in deep fry cookers, in freezers, on equipment, clothes, and so on. Basically the message was supposed to be: "Shit on you." They were even dumping in public in the stadium and in the convention center. What ignorance!

In ten years, a different history will be written. That always happens--a new spin is given to a historic event. I'm sure what happened will be "cleaned up" considerably and all the mistakes will be glossed over. Maybe that's why we don't learn from the past. We are doomed to keep going 'round and 'round.

Fall Into Reading

2007-08-10T22:04:00.001-04:00

It may be a little premature but I've been thinking about which books I'd like to read between September 23 and December 21st. I need to get moving on books I've been hoarding from places like Book Crossing and Paperback Swap so here is my first tentative list (subject to change as we draw closer to the holidays!). In no particular order:

Mother of Pearl by Melinda Haynes

Standing on the Rainbow by Fannie Flagg

Midwives by Chris Bohjalian

Book of Ruth by Jane Hamilton

Picturing the Wreck by Dani Shapiro

Fall On Your Knees by Ann Marie McDonald

The Hundred Secret Senses by Amy Tan

Vanished by Mary McGarry Morris

How Mrs. Claus Saved Christmas by Jeff Guinn

The Purpose Driven Life by Rick Warren

Emotional Intelligence by Daniel Goleman

Train Go Sorry by Leah Hager Cohen

In Cold Blood by Truman Capote

The Jungle by Upton Sinclair

A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens

Summer Reading So Far

2007-08-10T21:56:00.000-04:00

Of the books I originally picked to read, I've abandoned three--two by Jonathan Kellerman (I decided I wasn't going to read any more Alex Delaware books) and My Life Among the Serial Killers. I just didn't have the stomach for that last one. I read four of the books on my list so far and have four to go. I'm in the middle of one book I substituted and finished another. I used to be able to finish a "big" book in less than a week but that was before I had kids and a busy life. I'm hoping I can finish the four I have left by mid-September, which is when the Fall Reading Challenge begins.

Bookaholic

Two Books I've Read

Tempest Rising by Diane McKinney-Whetstone

Rhett Butler's People by Donald McCaig

Les Misérables by Victor Hugo

Other books I read in May

The Last Days of Dogtown by Anita Diamant

The Circus Fire by Stewart O'Nan

Blaze by Richard Bachman/Stephen King

Moll Flanders by Daniel Defoe

A Fractured Mind by Robert B. Oxnam

Break No Bones by Kathy Reichs

Cane River by Lalita Tademy

1916 by Morgan Llewellyn

Everything She Ever Wanted by Ann Rule

The Widow's War by Sally Gunning

Nightmare House by Douglas Clegg

Vinegar Hill by A. Manette Ansay

I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou

The Given Day by Dennis Lehane (spoilers)

Blood Will Tell by Carlton Smith

Gone With The Wind by Margaret Mitchell

Paradise Alley by Kevin Baker

Other Books Read From 2009

Schindler's List by Thomas Keneally

Miss American Pie

Five Reading Challenges

Skipping Christmas & The Christmas Thief

A Christmas Story by Jean Shepherd

Push/Precious by Sapphire

Christmas Challenge

Booking Through Thursday: Authors

Booking Through Thursday: Too short?

The Gate to Women's Country by Sherri S. Tepper

The Help by Kathryn Stockett

Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout

Books I read for the R&R book club

Booking Through Thursday

Books I read while I was unable to move around in July

Eye Opening Books II

Eye Opening Books

Gump & Co.

Duma Key

Hideaway

The Colorado Kid

Pervasive Developmental Disorder: An Altered Perspective

Harry Potter & the Half Blood Prince

Cold Sassy Tree by Olive Ann Burns

My review

Gump and Company by Winston Groom

My review

Duma Key by Stephen King

My review

Two Mysteries

Empress Orchid by Anchee Min

The Book of Lost Things by John Connolly

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling

The Medium by Noelle Sickels

The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers

Daniel Isn't Talking by Marti Leimbach

Prisoner of Tehran: A Memoir by Marina Nemat

The Princes of Ireland by Edward Rutherfurd

My book became boring! What would YOU do?

Candide by Voltaire

What Is The What by Dave Eggers

The World Without Us by Alan Weisman

The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield

1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die

Promise Not To Tell by Jennifer McMahon

Happy Thanksgiving

Room For Two by Abel Keough

Changing the List

I didn't know...

The Cloud of Unknowing by Thomas H. Cook

A Dangerous Woman by Mary McGarry Morris

The Dream Hunter by Sherrilyn Kenyon

Booking Through Thursday

Oh, Horror!

Born On A Blue Day by Daniel Tammet

Read With Abandon