A Life of Reading Words
DATE: 1/6/26
Challenge Titles Finished (Totals To Date):
Titles Finished: Totals for 2025:
All titles left to go for Challenge: 3,540
Next count: 1/1/27
Gappah, Petina. Elegy for Easterly: Stories. Faber and Faber, 2009.
Reason read: Zimbabwe gained its independence in April.
The short stories:
Quotes I loved, “I thought I loved him; but that was in another country” (p 8), “And we had no jam for our bread, no milk for our tea while Peter drank away our father’s inheritance in London” (p 75), “Fame is an elastic concept especially in a place like this, where we all know the smells of one another’s armpits” (p 91).
Music: Oliver Mtukudzi, Michael Jackson, Bhundu Boys, Alick Macheso, Andy Brown and the Storm, System Tazvida and the Chazezesa Challengers, Cephas Mashakada and Muddy Face, Boyz II Men, Hosiah Chipanga and the Broadway Sounds, Mai Charamba and the Fishers of Men, Simon “Chopper” Chimbetu and Orchestra Dendera Kings, Tongai “Dehwa” Moyo and Utakataka Express, Bob Marley, Chamunorwa Nebeta and the Glare Express, Lumumbashi Stars, “Bhutsu Mutandarikwa,” and the Eagles’s “Hotel California.”
BookLust Twist: from Book Lust To Go in the chapter called “Zipping Through Zimbabwe/Roaming Rhodesia” (p 268).
Saly, M.D. Deep Work for Distracted People: Simple Methods to Stay Focused, Think Clearly and Finish What Matters. 2026.
Reason read: as a member of the Early Review Program for LibraryThing here is the correct book I was supposed to receive from M.D. Saly.
Cal Newport, Adam Grant, J.K. Rowling, Thomas Edison, Winston Churchill, reporters, engineers… They all devised ways to stay focused in times of heavy or concentrated work. Cal Newport is quoted the most as he wrote an entire book on the subject. Saly’s version, Deep Work for Distracted People: Simple Methods to Stay Focused, Think Clearly and Finish What Matters is much shorter with common sense tips for success. I found the suggestions about noise-canceling headphones and smart phone settings to be the most helpful (until I missed an important call from a not-so important number). A question though – if you are supposed to break up with your device, why encourage more apps to download? For the truly addicted this seems like a trap.
My favorite part of Deep Work for Distracted People was the information at the end of every chapter. Saly supplied a summary, the lesson learned, and specific takeaways relating to the chapter. It was a great way to sum up the extensive information covered in the previous chapter.
As an aside, I was inadvertently sent a different early review from Saly and I found Deep Work for Distracted People to be far more informative and less repetitive with subject matter. In fact, I enjoyed Saly’s writing in Depp Work for Distracted People. I was reminded of a runner I follow on Instagram who talks the same way Saly writes. I didn’t mind the analogies because I think in analogy all the time. I especially liked the comment about turning a noisy street into a quiet library.
Salak, Kira. The Cruelest Journey: 600 Miles to Timbuktu. National Geographic, 2005.
Reason read: Timbuktu gained its independence from Mali in April.
Why do we as humans do hard things? Why do we run one hundred miles in a desert? Why does Kira Salak want to travel the length of the Niger River from Old Segou to Timbuktu? Six hundred miles of enlightenment? Courage? Money? Recognition? Mungo Park, a Scottish explorer from the 1770s is an obvious inspiration for Salak. She draws upon the experiences gleaned from Park’s letters about his journey down the Niger River in 1795 Not only does Salak provide readers with a mini biography of the man, she also includes a great deal of historical context when thinking (obsessing?) about Mungo Park.
What sets The Cruelest Journey apart from other travel memoirs is that Salak lets the reader into her private thoughts and fears in a transparent manner. In addition to worrying about her safety and getting to Timbuktu in one piece, she is equally concerned about her future. Will she get married and settled down? She goes to great lengths to get answers.
I have to admit the buying of the slave girls was an odd twist at the end of the journey. Even though freeing a couple of Mali slave girls was an objective Salak claimed to have had from the very beginning, she did not mention it throughout her journey until the end. Wouldn’t this be on her mind as she travels the six hundred miles? It’s not like looking out for hippos or dealing with dysentery. Buying people just isn’t common practice for a young white girl.
As an aside, I was reminded of the nature photographers when out photographing wildlife. They cannot interfere with the circle of life no matter how distressing the situation. When Salak reaches Timbuktu she is suffering from exhaustion, dysentery, starvation, and heat stroke. Remi and his partner, Heather, act like Salak is a wild animal they are not allow to interfere with. Salak does not mention them giving her aid or anything to ease her discomfort and illness other than to offer her a bottle of water, but she repeatedly describes Remi’s personal chef and other luxuries on the boat.
Line I liked, “I’ve never been good at small talk, particularly not with people I’ve just purchased” (p 223). I was going to say this is also something we have in common, besides being left-handed and afraid of hippos, up until the part about purchasing people. My favorite line, however, is the very last sentence in the book, “…the journey will always tell you when it’s over” (p 229).
Author fact: Salak was the subject of a CBS segment in 2008.
Book trivia: even though a National Geographic photographer followed Salak down the Niger River there are no photographs in The Cruelest Journey. I was a little more than disappointed.
Confessional: Salak wrote, “As a matter of fact, I had a strange, irrational fear of hippos that was so strong it might have come out of a past life” (p 31). I, too, have that same strange fear. I do not live anywhere near the animal, but I cannot ever bear to look at them in captivity or on a television screen.
Like Salak, I too, am a southpaw.
Music: Salif Keita
BookLust Twist: from Book Lust To Go in the chapter called “Timbuktu and Beyond” (p 229).
Smith, Roger. Wake Up Dead. Henry Holt and Company, 2010.
Reason read: Jan van Riebeck founded Cape Town on April 6th, 1652.
The bad guys abound in Wake Up Dead. Even people you do not expect are violent, savage people who aren’t above torture, sodomy, and other nefarious activities. But that is life in South Africa’s Cape Town. Gun runners, drug fiends, gangsters, petty thieves, prostitutes, doctors who keep amputated body parts in the freezer, and just plain greedy individuals all prowl the pages of Wake Up Dead. Disco, Afrika, Piper, the cannibal, Maggot…they all have a score to settle with someone. At the center of the story is Roxanne Palmer, a beautiful American ex-model now married to a criminal. Everyone needs something from Roxy. Money her gun-running dead husband owes Billy Afrika. Piper needs Roxy to lead him to Afrika to finish a botched murder attempted when they were children. Disco thinks Roxy will lead him to a boatload of cash so he can steal to support his out of control drug habit. Throw in a serial killer lobbing off blonde heads and you have yourself a thriller. There is so much violence in Wake Up Dead I lost track of the dead, but I enjoyed Roxy’s strength. I cheered for her redemption.
As an aside, it is interesting to read about the practice of witchcraft in three books at the same time. The Cruelest Journey and Birds Without Wings have a witch presence as well.
Line I liked the best, “Nothing like hating someone to give you a reason to go on living” (p 279).
Author fact: Roger Smith had no way of knowing MySpace was not timeless.
Book trivia: This could be a movie with all of its violence, sex, drugs, and even a little romance.
Music: Celine Dion’s “The Power of Love” and “Because You Loved Me”, Barry White, Nirvana, J Lo, Britney, Three Tenors, Ludacris, Chet Baker’s “Old Devil Moon,” “Abide with Me,” Bob Dylan’s “Death is Not the End,” Gloria Gaynor’s “I Will Survive,” Courtney Love, and “Happy Birthday.”
BookLust Twist: from Book Lust To Go in the chapter called “South Africa” (p 215). Interestingly enough, Pearl said somewhere that she didn’t like violence (maybe it was in the Lee Child chapter?), but anyway, holy cow there is a LOT of violence in Wake Up Dead. Even the everyday descriptions of things are crude and rude.
Stout, Rex. Curtains for Three. Bantam books, 1994.
Reason read: I continue to slog through the Nero Wolfe mysteries. No. Slog is not the right word. I am enjoying the series tremendously.
Curtains for Three contains three novellas first published together in 1950:
Author fact: to be honest, I have lost track of all the Stout facts so I am skipping this one.
Book trivia: This copy of Curtains for Three included the original cover for Gun with Wings, originally published in Decemeber 1949’s issue of The American Magazine.
BookLust Twist: from Book Lust in the chapter called “Rex Stout’s Nero Wolfe: Too Good To Miss” (p 226)
Mowat, Farley. The Dog Who Wouldn’t Be. Little, Brown and Company, 1957.
Reason read: April Fool’s Day and April is Dog Month.
How much of Farley Mowat’s The Dog Who Wouldn’t Be is imaginative exaggeration? It is hard to say, but nevertheless it is a delightful read for all ages. Mowat looks back at his childhood in Saskatoon with his faithful dog, Mutt, at his side. The addition of “four cent” Mutt, a goofy, intelligent pup full of personality, lends humor into an otherwise typical 1930s household. Mutt has a personality all his own and often gets his loyal and loving family in trouble, especially while duck hunting, tangling with skunks and anything having to do with boats. Every member of the Mowat family bonds with Mutt in special ways but my favorite stories centered around a pair of mischievous owls, Wols and Weeps, who the Mowat family somehow adopts.
Disclaimer: The Dog Who Wouldn’t Be is a bit dated. Hunting practices have changed and leash laws abound these days. The carefree attitudes of the 1930s are a thing of the past.
Confessional: I unexpectedly shed a few tears at the end of The Dog Who Wouldn’t Be. Like all young children with pets, they grow up and leave their animal behind. Humans outlast most furry friends, after all. I knew Mutt was getting old so I was expecting that kind of coming of age, circle of life ending. Not even close. No spoiler alert needed. Just read the book.
Author fact: Mowat also wrote Bay of Spirits which I am slated to read for the Challenge in July of 2031.
Book trivia: The Dog Who Wouldn’t Be was illustrated by Paul Galdone and first published in 1957.
Line I liked, “I did not speak, for I had a certain intuition that silence would be safer” (p 63), “…and in twenty nine years a man can remember a good many things that ought to have happened” (p 177).
Music: “The Bonnets of Bonny Dundee.”
BookLust Twist: from Book Lust in two chapters, “Canadian Fiction (p 50) and again in “Humor” (p 116). Also in Book Lust To Go in the simple chapter called “Newfoundland” (p 154).
Roberts, Kenneth. Arundel. Doubleday and Company, 1933.
Reason read: Maine became a state in the month of March.
Steven Nason, a boy from Arundel, Maine, opens his story with the announcement that he wants to set the record straight. He looks back his childhood in 1759 when Steven is only twelve years old. His childhood sweetheart, Mary Mallison, has just been kidnapped and her father murdered. Steven’s father suspects it is the work of Henri Guerlac de Sabrevois, a Frenchman hiding out in Quebec. Calling upon the Abenaki nation for help, Steven and his father set out to rescue the fair maiden Mary. The mission takes years and Steven’s life takes many twists and turns as he and his companions get caught up in the American Revolution. As a historical fiction writer, Kenneth Roberts weaves in events so real they seem to jump off the page. I particularly enjoyed Steven’s loyalty to his friends and the fact that he had a pet seal named Eunice.
Maine towns: Arundel, Brunswick, Falmouth, Kittery, Portland, Wells, and York. I was wondering if Monhegan would make a mention and it does on page 68.
Line I liked, “I growled a little, as Maine folk do when not wishful of answering…” (p 378).
Author fact: Roberts also wrote Northwest Passage which is on my Challenge list.
Book trivia: Arundel is book one of a four-part series. I am not reading any of the other books. Incidentally, my copy of Arundel boasts an extensive list of printings starting with the first publication on November 18th, 1929 all the way through September of 1956.
Music: While I didn’t expect any music in Arundel I was pleasantly proven wrong. “Viva la Canadienne,” “”Lillibullero,” “Benny Wentworth,” “Hot Stuff,” “Yankee Doodle,”
BookLust Twist: from More Book Lust in the chapter called “Digging Up the Past Through Fiction” (p 79). Arundel is also listed in the index of Book Lust To Go int he chapter called “The Maine Chance” (p 135).
Barker, Juliet. The Brontes: a Life in Letters. Overlook Press, 1997.
Reason read: March is considered Literature Month.
Arguably one of the best researched biographies of the Bronte family and definitely unique. Riding on the coattails of success from Juliet Barker’s first book, The Brontes, she came back with a follow-up. The Brontes: a Life in Letters offers new material in the forms of letters, manuscripts, the reminiscing of friends and teachers, and school documents on the lives of four of the Bronte siblings: Charlotte, Emily, Anne, and Branwell. (Sisters Maria and Elizabeth Bronte both died when they were eleven and ten respectively.) Nineteen new letters are published for the very first time.
Barker’s careful selection of letters creates a humanizing effect. You don’t think about well known “celebrity” types being real people with real feelings and faults. For example, waiting for the reviews of Jane Eyre to come out. As it was, Charlotte suffered from an inferiority complex when it came to social settings. She was truly shocked when people referred to her as a friend. On paper Charlotte had no problem being candid about the political climate of the day or, on a lighter subject, offering book recommendations on all sorts of subjects such as poetry, history, fiction, biography, natural history, and divinity. She and her siblings liked to live in the imaginary world of Gondal and were torn between several callings: teaching or writing or painting? Less is known about Emily, Anne and Branwell. Although Branwell’s involvement with a married woman and subsequent alcoholism complicated the lives of all the Brontes. Like a sniper of the disease variety, tuberculosis picked off the Brontes one by one. Branwell, Emily, and Anne all succumbed to the illness.
One of my favorite parts was learning that the Brontes wrote to established poets to inquire about their own future success as writers. Branwell wrote to William Wordsworth and Charlotte sought the advice of Robert Southey. The biography ramps up in interest when the three Brontes sisters decided to become published authors, cleverly disguised behind androgynous pseudonyms of Currer, Ellis and Acton Bell. However, The Westminster Review and W.M. Thackery both pegged the Jane Eyre author as being a woman. Charlotte wanted her books to be considered for the words she wrote rather than the sex of the author. What a progressive idea. I can only imagine the material she could have written into her old age.
As Branwell wrote to a friend, “Death only has made me neglectful of your kindness” (p 109). I wish I could send this quote to my friend.
As an aside, it was interesting to read about the struggling success of Wuthering Heights when in present day an adaptation is in the theaters.
Interesting sidenote: I read the lines about Charlotte’s death on March 30th, one hundred and seventy years after her passing.
Author fact: According to her Wiki page, Barker was the curator and librarian of the Bronte Parsonage Museum from 1983 to 1989.
Book trivia: Brontes: a Life in Letters is thought to be a companion read to Barker’s earlier book called The Brontes. Both books are considered groundbreaking.
BookLust Twist: from More Book Lust in the chapter called “Literary Lives: the Brits” (p 146).
Feinstein, John. The Last Amateurs: Playing for Glory and Honor in Division I College Basketball. Little, Brown and Company, 2000.
Reason read: in college basketball there is a thing called March Madness. Read in honor of the hype.
John Feinstein spent a season with the basketball players of the Patriots League. What started as an assignment for the Washington Post (even though Feinstein was not working for the organization at the time) turned into The Last Amateurs. This is an in-depth peek into the lives of the players as athletes, students, sons, and brothers. Ambitious coaches become fathers and husbands. Characters become real people as personal lives are explored. Because Last Amateurs is extremely well researched readers will get a play by play of the more significant games and mini biographies of coaches, colleges, and players. All the heartbreak due to injury or losses as well as the triumphs of success. They will also get added detail like the careers and alma maters of the parents of the players. Rutgers, Holy Cross, Bucknell, Navy, Lehigh, Lafayette, Army, Colgate, Duke, Wagner, Yale, Penn State, and Villanova are the institutions to get Feinstein’s extensive coverage. Feinstein’s description of the the game between Lehigh and Lafayette was pretty exciting. I almost could feel the atmosphere in the gym as the players battled for the win.
Confessional: I had never heard of the Patriot League.
The me connection: Feinstein mentions Fairleigh Dickinson University. I earned my Bachelors degree from F.D.U.
Another connection: the Worcester Six. When Feinstein mentioned the horrible fire that took the lives of six firefighters I immediately thought of the race I have run as a fundraiser for their families.
I am always looking for ways to become a better supervisor. When Feinstein said players were always looser when the coach was not in the room it struck a chord with me.
Author fact: Feinstein has written a bunch of books on a variety of subjects. I will be reading another book about basketball and one about the PGA for the Challenge.
Book trivia: Feinstein admitted that every good book needed photographs. The Last Amateurs has a great suite of black and whites.
Music: “Happy Birthday,” and “Amazing Grace.”
BookLust Twist: from Book Lust in the chapter called “Sports and Games” (p 225).
Malamud, Bernard. A New Life. Farrar, Straus and Cuahy, 1961.
Reason read: Malamud passed away in the month of March. Read in his memory.
Moving from New York City to the Pacific Northwest, Seymour Levin has a cringy start to his new life. His boss invites him for dinner on his first night in town. He hasn’t even been to his new residence before Levin has hot soup dropped in his lap, is peed on by his boss’s young son, and is forced to wear his boss’s clothes while his are being cleaned by his boss’s overanxious wife. It is almost as if Pauline and Gerald are holding Levin hostage. Somehow right away you know Levin’s new life on the west coast isn’t going to be all that he dreamed it would be.
Once settle in Cascadia, Levin experiences a lot of firsts: first driver’s license; first ownership of a vehicle; first time out of a big city; first time teaching at the college level; first time confronting a student about cheating; first time confronting a peer about censorship; first time challenging a time-honored text. Throughout all these firsts, Levin is desperate for human companionship. A brush of a female breast at a party and he suddenly he is in love. The wife of his boss takes advantage of his loneliness to treat him as a confessional. Things spiral from there.
Levin’s professional immaturity causes him to get caught up in the political drama of the liberal arts degree and who will be the next head of the department.
All along you are wondering, what kind of life did Levin leave behind in New York? Strange that he didn’t research the area (or the job) before uprooting his entire life. And who is this Leo Duffy guy that everyone says they should not talk about and yet they do?
The more things change…”Also we are worried because he is a foreigner and everybody is touchy on that subject nowadays” (p 78). This was 1961. Nothing has changed.
As an aside, what does Levin mean when he said he killed his choices? Is it like when Natalie said she mercy killed her cravings?
As another aside, I love it when there is a connection between the books I am reading. In New Life there is a heated discussion about student athletes and how their studies take a back seat to sports. The students are more important as athletes than academics. In Last Amateurs by John Feinstein there is a very real commentary about the same controversy.
Quotes to quote, “He was dead set against the destruction of unlived time” (p 59), “The future as new life was no longer predictable” (p 164) and “Out of love he gave her up” (p 251).
Author fact: Malamud write two other books before A New Life.
Book trivia: A New Life has shades of autobiography as Malamud, a Jewish New Yorker, taught in Oregon. Was he trying to escape his past like Seymour Levin?
BookLust Twist: from Book Lust in the chapter called “The Jewish-American Experience” (p 132). Also in More Book Lust in the chapter called “Living High in Cascadia” (p 152).
Card, Orson Scott. Shadow Puppets. Read by David Birney and Stefan Rudnicki. Macmillan Audio, 2002.
Reason read: to finally finish the series started in October in recognition of Science Fiction month way back in October.
We pick up where we left off in Shadow of the Hegemon. Bean married Petra and they are trying to have children, ones without Bean’s mutated genes. As an aside, I found Petra’s fawning behavior a little unsettling considering how much of a badass she was in Shadow of the Hegemon. Did love make her mushy? Where was the smart warrior from before? Anyway, back to the characters. Achilles is somehow still terrorizing the universe despite losing his most of his backers. Peter Wiggin is trying to unite the planet Earth for survival. Peter’s parents insist on going with him everywhere (and are hilarious, I might add). A few other battle school grads pop up in interesting places with even more interesting roles.
The geopolitical parts of Shadow Puppets were more interesting than the didactic Mormon sections. I appreciated the return of Alai, an old battle schoolmate, despite his convoluted character. I think it is safe to say this was my least favorite of the Shadow series.
Author fact: Orson Scott Byron Walley Card studied theater.
Book trivia: Shadow Puppets is the third book in the Shadow series and the seventh book in the Enderverse series.
BookLust Twist: from Book Lust in the chapter called “Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror” (p 214).
Rhodes, Linda. Breaking the Barnyard Barrier: A Woman Veterinarian Paves the Way. University of Nevada Press, 2026.
Reason read: As a member of the Early Review Program for LibraryThing I get to real really interesting books. This is one of those books.
The year is 1975 Mormon Utah and six months after graduation Linda Rhodes is surrounded by a bunch of worried men and a very pregnant cow trying to give birth to a breeched 150 pound bull calf. The men in the room are not used to a woman taking charge of what is normally their world and, despite it being the middle of the night, their discomfort is palpable. I cannot imagine the pressure Rhodes must have been feeling. Her student loans were coming due and this internship was her one shot to prove she could be a capable large animal veterinarian. This is how readers are introduced to Linda and her memoir, Breaking the Barnyard Barrier.
Throughout Linda’s fight to become a large animal veterinarian she had to endure sexist comments about sewing being a “girl thing” and being called a little lady or dear. The university where she interned did not have a changing room for women. And speaking of clothes, Rhodes had to dress feminine for her interview despite the position being a farm job.
At the same time as trying to prove herself in a man’s world, Linda juggled a long-distance marriage and ailing parents. Her support system was across the country and could do very little to help.
The unexpected bonus of reading Breaking the Barnyard Barrier was learning more about Utah (the roads are numbered in relationship to how far away the towns are from the Temple) and Mormons (they do not drink coffee or have anything to do with the beverage. You can be disowned for drinking coffee!). I also appreciated the black and white photographs. Utah is beautiful.
I truly enjoyed Breaking the Barnyard Barrier and I hope Rhodes writes again. I’m sure there are plenty more stories she could tell.
As an aside, is it standard to ask a new veterinarian to put a nose ring on a bull? Linda is tested with such a task and if I remember correctly, so was James Harriet in All Creatures Great and Small.
This has got to be one of the coolest playlists yet: Jackson Browne’s “Running On Empty,” Joan Baez, Bob Dylan’s “Like a Rolling Stone,” Doc Watson, Van Morrison’s “Brown Eyed Girl,” “Oh Death,” the Grateful Dead, “Home On the Range,” Joni Mitchell, Dave Brubeck, “Ukulele Lady,” “Somebody Stole My Gal,” Jim Kweskin, and “You Can’t Always Get What You Want.”
Stout, Rex. Murder By the Book. Bantam Books, 1992.
Reason read: to continue the series started a year ago.
It is not often that Inspector Cramer needs help from Nero Wolfe, but that is exactly what happens in Murder By the Book on the very first page. Cramer is horribly stuck on a case that has gone cold as ice. Leonard Dykes, a clerk for a law firm, has drowned in the East River. It seemed to be a suicide until Joan Wellerman was killed in a hit and run accident. These two people have a connection so was it suicide and an accident or murder for both? Adding to the body count is Rachel Abrams, a stenographer thrown from her office window. She also has the same connection. Author Baird Archer seems to be in the middle of the mess as it is his unpublished manuscript which ties all three deaths together. It appears that anyone who reads it winds up dead.
Navigating the twists and turns of the case is, as always, wise-talking Archie Goodwin. He gets a chance to flirt with multiple ladies in this adventure.
This was the first Nero Wolfe mystery that I was able to listen to as an audio book. It was fun, but I think I’ll stick to print.
As an aside, my birthday is one of a few pivotal dates in the story.
Confessional: I am getting pretty sick of Stout telling his readers that Wolfe never leaves his house on business. I have not been keeping track, but the last book had Wolfe gone for months.
Author fact: I am losing track of what I have said about Mr. Stout. Did I mention he was the sixth of nine children?
Book trivia: Murder By the Book is the nineteenth book in the Nero Wolfe series.
BookLust Twist: from Book Lust in the never-ending chapter called “Rex Stout’s Nero Wolfe: Too Good To Miss” (p 226).
Kimberly Anne. Surviving the Wild: an Untamed Woman Opens Her Cage. Awaken Village Press, 2026.
Reason read: as a member of the Early Review Program for LibraryThing, I sometimes get to review fun books. this is one such book.
Kimberly Anne wants her memoir to come with instruction. My takeaways were to not be afraid to take chances, find ways to travel the world, and if you do, bring nice underwear. Kimberly begins her story twelve years earlier on a farm in Wisconsin, divorcing her husband of fifteen years. On impulse she and a girlfriend travel to Belize for a little getaway. Unexpectedly, she meets a beautiful and sexy stranger. On impulse she returns to Belize to live with him. Thus begins Kimberly’s love affair with the Caribbean, if not the man. After Belize came Costa Rica, Panama, and Puerto Rico. And more men.
In truth I would have liked to have gotten to know Kimberly Anne a little better as a traveler instead of Kimberly the horn dog with a libido the size of Alaska. Towards the end of Surviving the Wild Kimberly turns a little didactic about her personal and spiritual growth, but I still didn’t get the sense of who she was before or after her personal transformation. I know way more about her underwear situation than was necessary. She called herself “wild” and “feral” but what exactly did she mean by that? In my mind, feral is living off the land without a single modern convenience. No running water. No cooked meals. No comfy roof overhead. No dependence on anyone or anything.
One cannot help but make comparisons to Elizabeth Gilbert, intentionally or not.
As an aside, when Kimberly talked about a “tiny island” with less than 1,000 residents I thought to myself she should try an island with less than 60 people. You want to talk about knowing everybody and their business!
As another aside, Kimberly reminds me of Kathleen Edwards. Someone once told her she had the face of angel and the mouth of a sailor. I cannot confirm the angel part as there are no photographs or full names in Surviving the Wild but I can confirm the sailor bit.
Confessional: I just spent eight weeks training for a run. My trainer filmed her sessions in Costa Rica and talked about the pura vida spirit of the island. I was surprised Kimberly Anne didn’t mention this during her time on the island.
Playlist: Burna Boy, Snoop Dogg, Romeo Santos, and Taylor Swift.
Schaffert, Timothy. Devils in the Sugar Shop. Unbridled Books, 2006.
Reason read: Nebraska becomes a state in the month of March.
Devils in the Sugar Shop takes place in the Old Market district of Omaha, Nebraska, back in a time when smokers were cordoned off in dark lounges with thread-bare carpets and worn exhausted furniture. The “sugar shop” is an adult sex toy shop. Deedee Millwood is it’s top seller and has won a trip to the Bahamas. Reminds me of my aunt, only she sold cars for Toyota and was sent to Mexico several times.
All of the characters are interconnected in various ways. There isn’t much a plot in Devils in the Sugar Shop. With the advent of Valentine’s Day approaching everyone ‘s sense of priority is out of whack. Not much happens in Devils in the Sugar Shop except a lot of gossip and party planning. Everyone is screwing someone else. Deedee is nearly forty and divorced. Her best friend is Ashley Allyson. Deedee and her husband, Zeke, are taking art classes to improve their divorce (how progressive of them). Zeke is messing around with Vivian, also a friend of Ashley Allyson. Ashley’s husband, Troy, works for Mrs. Bloom at the Omaha Street, an alternate news weekly, as an editor and writer. Viviane Daily, an artist of sorts, enjoys day drinking and is receiving obscene pictures from an unknown stalker. Mrs. Bloom is also in the aforementioned art class. Mrs. Bloom used to be a birthday clown, a reverend, an art therapist at a prison, and an organizer of poetry slams for cancer patients. Ashley’s son Leo is gay. Tucker is tallish dwarf and an artist from Mississippi. Peach and Plum are twenty-something year old twins who own a bookstore. Plum is married to Mickey.
Once you get all the characters straight, Devils in the Sugar Shop is a sexy romp set in Omaha, Nebraska (of all places).
Does anyone else find it ironic that Ashley’s first novel was published with a font created by a children’s book author? Keep in mind Ashley writes erotica.
Author fact: while Shaffert wrote a bunch of other books, I am only reading Devils in the Sugar Shop for the Challenge. As an aside, Timothy Schaffert knows his shoe brands.
Book trivia: the cover of Devils in the Sugar Shop is based on a design for a Polish release of an 1968 Italian film. Cool.
Music mentioned: Garth Brooks, Vivaldi’s “Spring,” Jean Stafford, Josephine Baker, Concrete Blonde, Diana Ross, Roy Eldreidge’s “If I Had You,” Red Hot Chili Peppers, Orenda Fink, “King of the Road,” REO Speedwagon, Air Supply, Billie Holiday’s “Everything Happens to Me,” “I Must Have That Man,” and “I Don’t Want to Cry,” Bloodcow, Rufus Wainwright, Elton John, Cher, Mary J. Blige, Chet Baker, Neil Diamond and Barbra Streisand’s “You Don’t Bring Me Flowers,” “Smoke Gets in Your Eyes,” “Heart of Glass,” and Tina Turner.
BookLust Twist: from Book Lust To Go in the chapter called “Nebraska: the Big Empty” (p 148).
~*LunaSea*~ 