Author: gr4c5

I write. I read. I cook. I run. That's me, in a nutshell.

The Natural

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Malamud, Bernard. The Natural. New York: Dell, 1952.

Even though the Boston Red Sox didn’t make it to the world series this year, I still wanted to read a baseball book before the season was over. The Natural seemed like the perfect choice to wrap up October 2009 even though it was on the depressing side.

Despite being only 180 pages long Bernard Malamud packs a lot of action into the plot of The Natural. Roy Hobbs is a rookie baseball player on his way to try out for Chicago’s pro team, the Chicago Cubs. Just as he arrives in Chicago he is shot by a serial killer, a woman bent on killing professional athletes. Fastforward 16 years and Roy has survived being shot and is now playing for the New York Knights. He has made it to the big time only to have to deal with a mid-season slump, a crooked co-owner, Judge Banner, an infatuated woman who says she is carrying his child, Iris Lemon, and his unresolved relationship with the fans. When Hobbs is bribed to throw the game, he counters with a bigger bribe and the deal is done. The book ends with a newspaper boy confronting Hobbs after the game, asking “Is it true?” and Hobbs cannot reply.

I didn’t really find any lines that struck me serious.
BookLust Twist: From Book Lust in the chapter called, “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” (p 229).

Crocodile on the Sandbank (with spoiler)

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Peters, Elizabeth. Crocodile on the Sandbank. New York: Dodd, Mead & Company, 1975.

Right away I knew Crocodile on the Sandbank was going to be funny. In the opening scene, Amelia Peabody, the novel’s main character, fakes needing an interpreter in Italy so that she has someone to carry her parcels and run her errands. She is a tough-minded, strong-willed, and independent woman on the verge of 20th century modernism. Of considerable wealth and edging towards spinsterhood, Amelia decides she wants to travel to Egypt. It being the late 1800s, she needs a female traveling companion. Enter Eveyln. Evelyn Barton-Forbes is a beautiful young girl with a not-so-innocent past. Amelia takes to her immediately and the two set out for an adventure of a lifetime. What starts out as a harmless journey to Egypt turns into a mystery complete with a murderous mummy and stop-at-nothing suitors. This is the first book in the Amelia Peabody series. Other series by the same author are: Vicky Bliss, art history professor and Jacqueline Kirby, librarian.

Favorite line: “…scarcely a day went by when I was not patching up some scrape or cut, although, to my regret, I was not called upon to amputate anything” (p 78). This is after she packs instruments to help with amputations!

My only source of irritation was when Amelia meets Radcliffe for the first time. Their hatred towards one another is so exaggerated and so comical I knew they would end up getting married. It’s the kind of scene you would see in a movie and predict the end…

Note: Elizabeth Peters is a pseudonym for Barbara Merz and Barbara Michaels. If you ever get the chance, check out her website. It’s fun!

BookLust Twist: In both Book Lust and More Book Lust. In Book Lust in the chapter called, “I Love a Mystery” (p 119), and in More Book Lust in the chapter called, “Crime is a Globetrotter: Egypt” (p 61).

Empire Falls

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Russo, Richard. Empire Falls. New York: Vintage Contemporaries, 2001.

It took me forever to read Empire Falls. Aside from having several different storylines each character is artfully developed in full. People and places are vividly described to the point of comfortable familiarity for the reader.
Miles Roby is a soon-to-be divorced father who seems to have lost all passion for life. He has been working at the same restaurant, the Empire Grill, for twenty years. He suffers through constant, obnoxious reminders that his wife is marrying someone else as soon as his divorce from her is final. He tolerates a mischievous, thieving father who is always telling him how not to be a loser. He squirms under the thumb of a woman who has ruled him, his family and the entire town of Empire Falls for generations. Miles’s only solace is in his daughter, Christina (Tick, as she is affectionately known by everyone). Despite everything Miles has going against him throughout the story he remains a graceful, if not tragic, hero.
Even though Miles Roby is the main protagonist of Empire Falls the entire town comes alive by Richard Russo’s artistic and skillful writing. Like any small community Empire Falls has its fair share of quirky people and Miles Roby’s personal life is not only know by everyone else, but is commented and cared about by all.

Favorite lines: “…both men had pushed their conversations until their words burst into flame rekindling age-old resentments, reopening old wounds” (p 115), “One of the odd things about middle age, he concluded, was the strange decisions a man discovers he’s made by not really making them, like allowing friends to drift away through simple neglect” (p 261), and “Janine knew from experience that it was a lot easier to forget a thousand things you wanted to remember than the one thing you wanted to lose sight of” (p 271).

BookLust Twist: From More Book Lust in the chapter called, “New England Novels” (p 177).

When Found Make a Verse Of

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Bevington, Helen Smith. When Found, Make a Verse of. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1961.

This book has a fascinating concept. Using a phrase from Dickens’ Dombey and Son (“when found, make a note of”), Bevington changes it to “when found, make a verse of.” Throughout literature Bevington’s reaction to it is to write a poem. When Found Make a Verse Of is her way of responding to what she has read. A conversation between writer and page. Oddly enough, the poetry was my least favorite part of When Found, Make a Verse Of. I enjoyed the pieces of literature from Yeats, Cummings, Frost, Russell (to name a few) and found them just as fascinating as Bevington did. I was more thankful for the compilation of  great authors in one place than the poetry that accompanied it.

Favorite lines: In reaction to John Ruskin’s attempt to separate intellect and feeling in his diary, “Poor young man, his head was never to know what happened in the heart” (p 23).
“I am, then, a fraud as teacher, a mere slave of time in this world of morality, circling to decay? I am” (p 45). 

BookLust Twist: In More Book Lust in the chapter “Commonplace Books” (p 52).

Feminine Mystique

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Friedan, Betty. The Feminine Mystique. New York: W.W. Norton & Co, Inc. 1963.

I get my panties in a twist whenever I read books on feminism. I don’t know what it is. It’s not that I don’t believe in equal rights for women. It’s not that I’m in some sort of strange denial that for centuries women were kept practically under rocks. It’s not any of that. So, what is my problem? I guess I would rather see a woman make the most of her time fighting the inequality rather than bemoaning it. I’d rather see a woman trying to stamp out history rather than dredging it up, and reminding herself of exactly how unfair it has been. Not unlike those cigarette ads from the early 1980s – “You’ve come a long way, baby!” We know how far we have come. My gender, we know. And the sad thing is, we still have so far to go. But, enough about that – on with the review.

Betty Friedan uses The Feminine Mystique to remind women that, for decades, the only way for a woman to be feminine was to get married, have kids and keep a house. Having multiple children was the norm, and running a household was considered a career. There was room for little else. Friedan analyzes why women, brought up with these socially accepted views, are suddenly finding themselves wanting more. In the early 1960s, (when The Feminine Mystique was written) therapy was becoming all the rage. It was common for women to crowd clinics crying out for some kind of attention, demanding something better…although they didn’t understand why. If they had a husband, a house and at least two children (with a third on the way), society was telling them they had it all and they should ve grateful. Using the influences of the past like Sigmund Freud and Margaret Mead Friedan is able to paint a cultural picture of how the ideals and goals of women have been shaped and reshaped over time. Friedan cites a multitude of magazines that have practically brainwashed women into believing a husband, house and kids were the best of all worlds combined. A great deal of the Feminine Mystique is made up of quotations from other people. Interviews, magazines, lectures, books, and even a commencement address are used to support her commentary on a woman’s position throughout history. Yet, her writing is angry and sharp. She is judge and jury for the problems women face, specifically in an American culture, especially if things do not change.

Telling line, “All they [women] had to do was devote their lives from earliest girlhood to finding a husband and bearing children” (p 16). This sums up the entire book.

BookLust Twist: From More Book Lust in the chapter called, “I am Woman – Hear Me Roar” (p 120).

Fine and Private Place

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Beagle, Peter. A Fine and Private Place. New York: Viking, 1960.

For starters I have to say I love first novels. It’s that “dammit, im gonna do it” book. That leaping off point of either ‘no return and so I write’, or ‘that failed so I go back to whatever it was I had been doing before I put pen to paper’ (or whatever method they use these days). In Peter Beagle’s case I think A Fine and Private Place was a huge success.

A Fine and Private Place is haunted yet humorous. It takes place in a cemetery with a talking black bird (a sarcastic one at that) and a homeless man as its residents. The dead have issues with remembering yet have no problem complaining to the living man lurking in their midst. That man would be Mr. Rebeck, the one time druggist who now spends his days (and nights) in the New York cemetery. In fact, he hasn’t left the grounds in nearly twenty years. A Fine and Private Place delves into what it means to have a soul, even if it gets lost from time to time. It’s the story of different relationships struggling to make it despite the differences. Throughout the story there are minor mysteries. Why, for example, is Mr. Rebeck living in the cemetery? Did Michael Malone’s wife really murder him? And, what’s with the talking bird? Don’t expect a lot of action from A Fine and Private Place. The majority of the story is filled with introspective musings and the plot is centered on character development and how those characters interact with one another.

Two of my favorite lines, “He had begun to tell her about the raven when he realized that Mrs. Kapper’s credulity had been stretched as far as it would go and would snap back at the slightest mention of a profane black bird bringing him food” (p 145), and “He hastily subpoenaed a sleepy smile” (p 158).

BookLust Twist: Perfect for Halloween, although it wasn’t scary – from More Book Lust in the chapter called, “Gallivanting in the Graveyard” (p 96).

Queen’s Gambit

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Tevis, Walter. The Queen’s Gambit. New York: Random House, 1983.

This was speed reading at its best. I read this in one day. Elizabeth “Beth” Harmon started as an orphan after her mother is killed in a car accident. Having lived a sheltered life she is scared of everything. Having no friends and no security she finds comfort in institution-issued tranquilizers and learning to play chess with the janitor in the basement. As a 12-year-old she is adopted by a strangely distant couple, Mr. & Mrs. Wheatley. I was disappointed by the lack of character development for Beth’s adoptive parents. Their actions throughout the story are confusing and I found myself second-guessing their intentions, especially Mr. Wheatley. But, The Queen’s Gambit is not about Mr. or Mrs. Wheatley. It’s about Beth’s rise to fame as a top notch chess player in a male dominated world. With Mrs. Wheatley’s support Beth gets involved in the tournament scene and starts her catapult to the top, beating out the best of them. Only the Russians stand in her way of claiming world champion and the only thing holding her back is her troubled past. She never loses the addictions she found at the orphanage. As she struggles to keep sober she learns valuable lessons about what it means to need people.

The lines that sums up Beth the best: “She was alone, and she liked it. It was the way she had learned everything important in her life” (p 113).

BookLust Twist: From More Book Lust in the chapter called, “Child Prodigies” (p 43). contrary to what I said before, I read this in honor of October being “Special Child Month.”

As an aside ~ this weekend I went home for a family reunion. We all stayed at this gorgeous, huge house right on the bay. In one corner of the living room there was a chess board set up, ready for a game. After reading The Queen’s Gambit I was curious about the pieces; because there is a scene where Beth is describing the “cheapness” of someone’s set – plastic pieces on a warped board.

House on the Strand

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du Maurier, Daphne. The House on the Strand. New York: Doubleday Company, 1969.

I chose this book for October because somewhere out there someone deemed October National Starman month…whatever that means. When I think of Starmen, I think of David Bowie and Starman and Moonage Daydream. Don’t ask me why. I just do. That leads me to think of Natalie singing his version of  “keep your mouth shut, you’re squawking like a pink monkey bird” and that’s when things get really weird. And weird to me is, and will always be, October. Halloween and all that.

Dick Young and his old college chum (and biophysicist), Magnus Lane, are working on a potion that can send a person back in time. Their potion is in the planning stages and when we first meet Dick he has just tried to time-travel for the first time. His trip is successful and he finds himself in the 14th century. The travel itself is more a mental trip than a physical one. While Dick’s physical body stays in the 20th century it’s his mind that is actively in the 14th century. This explains why Dick can walk as if he is a ghost, undetected, through the past. Unhappy with his 20th century life, married to a woman with two boys from a previous relationship, Dick finds himself traveling back to the 14th century more frequently and  recklessly. It becomes an addiction to stay “connected” to the people of the time, particularly an attractive woman named Isolda. The story ends in tragedy, as it only could. Because it hasn’t been researched properly, the drug gets the best of Dick and Magnus in the startling conclusion of House on the Strand.

Oddly rational question: “The point is this: Does the drug reverse some chemical change in the memory systems of the brain, throwing it back to a particular thermodynamic situation which existed in the past, so that the sensations elsewhere in the brain are repeated?” (p 14). Hmmm…
My favorite line: “I realised at that moment, more strongly than hitherto, how fantastic, even macabre, was my presence amongst them, unseen, unborn, a freak in time, witness to events that had happened centuries past, unremembered, unrecorded; and I wondered how it was that standing here on the steps, watching yet invisible, I could so feel myself involved, troubled, by these loves and deaths” (p 68).

BookLust Twist: From More Book Lust in the chapter called, “Time Travel” (p 221).

Out of the Silent Planet

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Lewis, C. S. Out of the Silent Planet. New York: Macmillan, (no date).

Maybe I am not used to reading science fiction, but this was one of the more unusual stories I have read. Then again, isn’t science fiction supposed to be strange?

Dr. Ransom is a Cambridge philologist who inadvertently runs into two old classmates from his school days. He never really liked them and with good reason. He likes them even less when they drug and kidnap him and take him for a cruise across the universe in a spaceship. They end up on the planet of Malacandra (traditionally known as Mars) where Ransom is to be sacrificed to one of the alien creatures. Lewis tells this story as though the reader is sitting across from him beside a roaring fire. He describes Ransom’s journey and reactions to this foreign new world as oddly detached and strangely calm. Probably the most interesting part to the whole story is how Ransom relates to his new world. He almost takes to it better than his own. He is quick to determine different species and tribes.

And yet, there is humor, too: “Ther period spent in the space-ship ought to gave been one of terror and anxiety for Ransom. He was spearated by an astronomical distance from every member of the human race except two whom he had an excellent reason for distrusting” (p 27).

Another quote I liked, “The love of knowledge is a kind of madness” (p 56).

Side notes: Oddly enough, my copy of Out of the Silent Planet [ISBN 0025707906] did not have a copyright date anywhere on it and Iron Maiden has song called “Out of the Silent Planet.” Wonder if they read C.S. Lewis. Probably.

BookLust Twist: From Book Lust in the chapter called, “Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror” (p 213). This, of course, was science fiction.

View From Pompey’s Head

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Basso, Hamilton. View From Pompey’s Head. New York: Doubleday, 1954.

For the longest time I pictured someone standing on someone else’s head whenever I read the title of this book. I figured whoever Pompey was he must have had one hell of a headache. I don’t think I’ve ever heard of Pompey’s Head as a place, but southernly speaking that makes sense. South Carolina has Hilton Head. Georgia has Pompey’s Head or so Hamilton Basso has created it.

View From Pompey’s Head was a best seller and made into a movie the year after it was published. It’s smart and sexy with enough drama to make it interesting on the big screen. Anson is a stuck-in-a-rut lawyer in New York City. Married with a family he is trying to make his way in the big city despite being a small-town southern boy who hasn’t been home in 15 years. It’s not that he was running away from Old Pompey, Georgia – but trying to outgrow it. That’s his story on the surface, anyway.
Through a series of coincidences Anson has a work assignment that returns him to his old stomping grounds. A client of his law firm is being sued for embezzlement. Royalties from an author have gone missing. It looks bad for the firm because the client is dead and can’t defend himself and what is worse, all evidence points to his guilt. Anson, having ties to the author’s remote hometown, is picked to try to get to the bottom of the mystery.

I think it’s important to mention first that View from Pompey’s Head was a best seller and was made into a now hard-to-find movie.

BookLust Twist: In Book Lust twice. Once in the chapter called, “Hamilton Basso: Too Good to Miss” (p 33 & 34), and once in “Southern Fiction” (p 222). Yes, I read two from this category. Sue me.

October 2009 is…

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October is a full month of spooky. October is a small 5k charity run and a 10k walk. October is homehome and everything emotional. October is also Mary’s memorial, the death of a few trees (finally) and the end of warmer weather. For books October is the hope of:

  • Crocodile on the Sandbank  by Elizabeth Peters ~ in honor of National Crime Prevention month
  • The Feminine Mystique by Betty Freidan ~ in honor of October being Breast Cancer Awareness month
  • The Queen’s Gambit by Walter Tevis ~ in honor of October being Group Reading Month
  • Out of the Silent Planet by C.S. Lewis ~ in honor of Halloween (sci-fi being a little scary to read)
  • A Fine and Private Place by Peter Beagle ~ in honor of Halloween ( a story about ghosts)
  • House on the Strand by ~Daphne Du Maurier~  in honor of National Starman Month

For LibraryThing ~ I did get an October Early Review book. As always, I don’t want to name it until I actually see it.

September 09 was…

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September 2009 was…Back to school. I spent the first part of the month concentrating on hiring for the library and avoiding tragedy. Kisa and I took a much needed vacation – first to Fenway park (go Red Sox!) and then to Baltimore for a little getaway. September is the month I will always mourn my father, but now I add Mary Barney to the list of tears. As I have always said, everything bad happens in September. This year was no different. As you can tell, I buried myself in books.

The Escape was:

  • The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka ~ I had completely forgotten how disturbing this book was!
  • The Reivers by William Faulkner ~ a southern classic that almost had me beat.
  • A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush by Eric Newby ~ funny tale about a first-time expedition
  • Out of the Blue: the Story of September 11, 2001 From Jihad to Ground Zero by Richard Bernstein and the staff of  The New York Times ~ an unsettling journalistic account of what really happened on 9/11/01.
  • The Johnstown Flood by David McCullough ~ a nonfiction about what happens when mother nature meets bad human design.
  • Off Balance: the Real World of Ballet by Suzanne Gordon ~ a nonfiction about the ugly side of dance.
  • Sarah Canary by Karen Joy Fowler ~ magical book about three very broken people (in honor of real character month).
  • A Student of Weather by Elizabeth Hay ~ Hay’s first novel – one I couldn’t put down it was that good! This was on the September list as “the best time to visit Canada.”
  • Native Son by Richard Wright ~incredibly depressing. I’m almost sorry I read it this month.
  • The View From Pompey’s Head by Hamilton Basso ~ a last minute pick-me-up, read in honor of Basso’s birth month (but also doubled as a “southern” read).

For LibraryThing and the Early Review program: Day of the Assassins by Johnny O’Brien. Geared towards teenage boys, this was a fun, fast read.

For fun, I read a quick book called Women Who Run by Shanti Sosienski . Since our flight to Baltimore was only 40-some-odd minutes I didn’t want to bring a lengthy read. This was perfect.

Native Son

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I don’t know what my problem is. As if September isn’t hard enough I have to go and read a series of really depressing books. First I read Out of the Blue by Richard Bernstein – about the tragedy of September 11, 2001. Then I read The Johnstown Flood by David McCullough- about the tragedy of May 31, 1889. Then I read Off Balance by Suzanne Gordon – about the tragedy of the world of ballet. Now I have read Native Son by Richard Wright – and even though it is fiction (unlike the other books) it is still a tragedy. I just couldn’t believe the trouble main character Bigger gets himself into.

I realize the point Richard Wright is trying to make is one of social injustice and how racism can lead innocent people down the wrong path. I realize there is a sociological lesson to be learned from Native Son. Bigger Thomas is portrayed as a 21 year old African American sent out to work for the white man so that his mother and younger siblings have a place to live. With the 1930s as the backdrop it is portrayed that the African American man of that era has a choice – either be a church-going, loyal and submissive type, or a jaded, violent, hardened criminal type. There is no chance for anything in between. Yet, Bigger tries. He is constantly trying. Unfortunately, he is haunted by a paranoid hatred of white people. His fear that they are always out to “get him” gets him in touble time and time again. He is constantly thinking the worst of everyone around him and that causes him to make terrible decisions. There is rape, murder and the death penalty in this book.

BookLust Twist: From Book Lust in the chapter called, “100 Good Reads by Decade: 1940s” (p 177).

Women Who Run

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Sosienski, Shanti. Women Who Run. Emeryville: Seal Press, 2006.

This wasn’t on any “to read” list but it turned out to be just as important as any list book. I took Women Who Run with me to Baltimore which turned out to be the greatest strategy for the shortest flight I have ever been on. Less than an hour air time (each way) afforded me the luxury of quick chapter reads. I could start and stop without feeling disconnected. Since each chapter is “stand alone” and completely unrelated to the next one I could bounce around from story to story. I didn’t have to read them in order (and I didn’t). 16 different women (counting the author) have shared 16 different running stories. How they started running, when they felt they could officially call themselves runners, their biggest triumphs and their hardest-to-swallow defeats. These women recount the relationships they gained from running as well as the ones they lost; how running saved their lives and even, on some occasions, their souls. There are stories about how mothers juggle family life and how career women stay driven and how the lines blur when  family and business are a part of their lives. There are stories of women driven by competition while others are driven by something more personal, something more spiritual. There are stories of women who society labels as “unlikely” runners yet run, they do.  There are so many different stories I am willing to bet every reader will find a little of herself in one of them.

Student of Weather

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Hay, Elizabeth. A Student of Weather. Washington D.C.: Counterpoint, 2000.

A Student of Weather is a car without brakes. No. A Student of Weather is a car without brakes set at the top of a very tall hill. No. A Student of Weather is a car without brakes set at the top of a very tall hill…and someone gives it a push. This is what is was like to read Elizabeth Hay’s first novel. It started off easy enough, slow enough, gentle enough, harmless enough. Then, without any warning at all it is careening crazily almost out of control. Impossible to stop. Stopping the read proved impossible, too. I seriously couldn’t put it down.

As mentioned before, the story starts out simply. Maurice Dove is a researcher, come to study the weather of Saskatchewan. He stays with the Hardy family – Ernest and his two daughters Lucinda and Norma-Joyce. Both daughters, despite being very young, fall in love with Mr. Dove. From there, simplicity comes to a halt.  A Student of Weather is a novel full of contrasting themes. While Lucinda is fair-haired, beautiful and virtuous Norma-Joyce is dark-haired, impulsive and outspoken. While both sisters find ways to fall in love with their visitor, both also find ways to hate each other. Even the landscapes within the story are contrasting. Norma-Joyce’s childhood prairie home cannot compare to the bustling city of her adulthood, New York City. As time progresses and Norma-Jean grows to be a woman with a child of her own, even her child is a conflicted in personality – both shy and loud simultaneously.

On the surface this seems like a love story – two sisters vying for the affections of a traveling man who loves neither of them. Digging deeper it is a story of betrayal and survival. It is the story of pain and loss and the idea that not every broken heart gets mended.

There were many, many, many favorite lines. Here are some of the best:
“Had she been able to , she would have kept the water he washed in, the skin that flaked away, the warm breath that hovered in the cold air above his head, his footprints in the snow” (p 96). I love how each item becomes something less obtainable. Had I written the line I would have reversed the order of the last two items.
“Maybe that’s all anyone wants in the end, to be remembered rather than overlooked’ (p 112). Simple line, but I loved it.
“She understood that you can pass from summer to winter in someone’s mind without even leaving the room” (p 172). Tragically beautiful. Been there, but who hasn’t?
“But returning is never easy, and nor is September” (p 283). Since I can add a car accident and a death to September sadness, I agree. Completely.

BookLust Twist: From Book Lust in two different chapters. In ” Canadian Fiction” (p 50) and again in “First Novels” (p88).