Author: gr4c5

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

Mystic Nomad

gr4c5Leave a comment

Knopp, Annette. Mystic Nomad: A Woman’s Wild Journey to True Connection. Monkfish Book Publishing, 2025.

Reason read: as a member of the Early Review Program I get to read interesting books.

Annette shares a similar story to Elizabeth Gilbert. The entire time I was reading Mystic Nomad I was reminded of Eat, Love, Pray. Knopp spent eighteen months in India, Nepal, and Thailand searching for a way to quiet her mind. From intense meditation in an ashram to hiking in the mountains and taking classes in sculpture, Knopp tried looking within for peace. She even went to Australia to work in an opal mine. From there Knopp traveled to Japan, the United States, Costa Rica, and Peru. At thirty-two years old, she needed to come to terms with the relationship she had with the woman she called mother and more disturbing, her dependence on a predatory spiritual advisor. Her devotion to him was crippling, even after he caused her great pain. [As an aside, Annette’s relationship with Brian reminded me of Natalie Merchant’s song, “Seven Years.” When asked what the song was about all Miss Merchant would say was it was about a spiritual advisor who let her down.] Knopp’s path to self discovery was haunting and beautiful, full of joy and sorrow. She conquered obstacles and challenges while taking the time to soak up her surroundings.

Author fact: Annette Knopp has her own website here.

Book trivia: My e-version of Mystic Nomad did not have any photographs.

Music: Arthur Rubinstein, Beethoven, Sibelius, and Mozart.

Killer Smile

gr4c5Leave a comment

Scottoline, Lisa. Killer Smile. Read by Kate Burton. Harper Collins, 2004.

Reason read: I forgot to finish the series started in December of last year in honor of Pennsylvania becoming a state. Somehow I let this one fall off the list.

Mary DiNunzio works for Benny Rosato’s law firm as an associate. Mary’s latest pro bono case is on behalf of the estate of an Italian-American interned in Montana during World War I. Amadeo Brandolini committed suicide during his internment and the family wants to sue the government for reparations. DiNunzio’s mission is to sort out the legalities of Brandolini’s estate, but ends up righting a long-forgotten carriage of misjustice. What starts as a simple estate case turns complicated when people start dying; people who had dared to talk to Miss DiNunzio.
For comic relief, DiNunzio’s boss keeps sending Mary on dates with impossible men. I appreciated how Scottoline wove this side story into the bigger plot.

As an aside, Mary DiNunzio sometimes annoyed me. Lawyers are supposed to be somewhat smart. I found it irksome that Mary did not know where to find Montana on a map, she did not know what an engineer does for a living, could not identify a marlin, and she had no idea what quantum physics was. I’ll forgive her for not knowing the difference between a bow and stern of a boat. but am I making an assumption that lawyers are supposed to be savvy and book smart?
Prophetic vision: in my copy of Killer Smile there are a series of book club questions. One of them is “Do you feel safe in your country?” Killer Smile was written in 2004. Let’s ask that same question twenty one years later.

Author fact: Did I already mention that Scottoline was a trial lawyer? I am pretty sure that I did. She graduated from law school in 1981. The other fact is that Scottoline is really funny in her interviews.
Narrator fact: Kate Burton is really good!

Book trivia: Scottoline was encouraged to bring the story of Italian-Americans interned in Montana after learning the history of her grandparents’ experiences. She even shares photographs of their alien registration cards. Scottoline wanted to bring that lesser known history to light.
Killer Smile is Scottoline’s eleventh book.

BookLust Twist: from More Book Lust in the chapter called “Big Ten Country: The Literary Midwest: Pennsylvania” (p 25). Pearl mentioned this was one of her favorites.

Those Who Hunt the Night

gr4c5Leave a comment

Hambly, Barbara. Those Who Hunt the Night. Ballantine Books, 1988.

Reason read: Bram Stoker, the ultimate vampire storyteller was born in November. Read in his honor. Hambly mentions Bram Stoker and his novel.

Hambly has come up with an interesting concept for Those Who Hunt the Night. Someone is killing vampires while they sleep in their coffins. It is as simple as lifting the lid to expose the sleepers to broad daylight. Each vampire is helpless to escape the bright sun’s devastation, and if that doesn’t work, a quick wooden stake to the heart should finish them off. When in doubt, maybe a little exposure to something silver would work. With four of his fellow vampires dead, Don Simon Xavier Christien Morado de la Cadena-Ysidro has no choice but solicit the help of mere mortal Professor James Asher with an offer he can’t afford to refuse. Solve the mystery of the murders and Asher’s wife will stay alive. It’s blackmail, but what can the professor do? What Asher discovers is a variety of vampires who can grow tolerant of silver and daylight, at least partially. This means the serial killer of vampires could be one of their own. In addition to a thrilling murder mystery, Hambly manages to add a little romance to Those Who Hunt the Night.
Trivia: Don Asher rides a brand of motorcycle that was manufactured just down the road from me. I drive by the now defunct factory every single day.

As an aside, if I ever had the chance to meet a vampire and could ask him questions my very first question would be do you have a high tolerance for pain? Maybe I would ask about the incineration process when exposed to light (but that might be too sensitive a topic?).

As another aside, does Hambly contradict vampire lore? In another book vampires avoided drinking the blood of people who were ill, drug addicts, or on certain medications. They did not want to taint their own bloodstreams. In Hambly’s version, the vampires drank the blood of those affected by the Plague. In fact, the Black Plague threatened to live on through the activities of vampires.

Line I could relate to the most, “…he had long grown used to her habit of sleeping with books” (p 216). When Kisa leaves for a business trip I too cover his side of the bed with stacks and stacks of books.

Author fact: Hambly sounds like someone who was never satisfied with staying in one place. She described herself as a high school teacher, model, waitress, technical editor, clerk at a liquor store, karate instructor, and author. I am also reading A Free Man of Color for the Challenge.

Book trivia: I have to admit, the vampire on the cover of Those Who Hunt the Night is somewhat of a joke. He looks like he is wearing an odd-fitting wig and his canine teeth are much too long. In every vampire movie I have ever seen the vampire’s teeth are not visible with the mouth closed. The fangs are only revealed when he or she opens their mouth.

Music: “Till We Meet Again,” Salieri, and Tchaikovsky.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust in the chapter called “Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror” (p 213).

Adventures and Misadventures of Maqroll

gr4c5Leave a comment

Mutis, Alvaro. The Adventures and Misadventures of Maqroll. Translated by Edith Grossman. Harper Collins, 1990.

Reason read: the eruption of the Nevado del Ruiz volcano in Columbia occurred in November of 1985. The Adventures and Misadventures of Maqroll did not take place in Columbia, but Alvaro Mutis was born in Columbia.

Maqroll the Gaviero’s life is told in a series of four novellas:

  • Amirbar (92 pages) – the time Maqroll spent mining for gold until his mining partner went crazy.
  • Tramp Steamer’s Last Port of Call (59 pages) – the love affair between a tramp steamer captain and a woman named Warda. As an aside, I want to be Warda when I grow up…or at least have her style.
  • Abdul Bashur, Dreamer of Ships (105 pages) – this story includes a scam involving imitation Turkish rugs.
  • Triptych on Sea and Land (111 pages) – “Appointment in Bergen,” A True History of the Encounters and complicities of Maqroll the Gaviero and the painter Alejandro Obregon,” and “Jamil.”

It’s as if Maqroll is in the back corner of a dimly lit bar whispering his secrets. His companions share these adventures with us. The adventures take the reader all over the world.

Lines I liked, “My companion’s words held a conviction he could not fully express” (p 30), “This is how we forget: Our affairs, no matter how close to us, are made strange through the mimetic, deceptive, constant working of a precarious present” (p 111), “Human beings, I thought, change so little, and are so much what they are, that these had been only one love story since the beginning of time, endlessly repeated, never losing it’s terrible simplicity or it’s irremediable sorrow” (p 151).

Music: “El Relicano,” “Espana Cani,”

Author fact: Mutis is from Columbia.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust To Go in the chapter called “Hail, Columbia!” (p 90).

The Siege

gr4c5Leave a comment

Kadare, Ismail. The Siege. Translated by David Bellos. Canongate, 1970.

Reason read: Albania declared independence in November of 1912. They celebrate on the 29th. Read in honor of the day.

Kadare used his knowledge of the 1475 siege in Albania to write The Siege. It is not a factual nonfiction; not of actual events, but rather a retelling of war in general yet horrible terms; what any siege would sound, look, smell and even taste like. Using an army chronicler named Melva Celebi to tell the tale from the Turks’ (attackers) side of the siege, he described the actions of the janissaries, tumbrels, doctor, poet, astrologer, sultan, dervishes, architect, engineer, sappers, and wives. The alternating yet brief chapters were told from the perspective of the Albanians as they defended their citadel. Occasionally, the wives or prostitutes spoke of their perception of war.
Back to the plot: the attackers tried to breach the citadel walls with little success. First, a flurry of man to man combat. When that failed, their next move was to try to dig a tunnel up under the citadel. That also failed. Next the attackers tried to shut off the citadel’s main source of water. [As an aside, I thought using a thirsty horse to find the aqueduct was clever but cruel.] It was this tactic I found most disturbing. In order to know if the lack of water was affecting the besieged, the attackers needed a live Albanian to dissect to analyze his organs. This victim would signal if the enemy was weakened by dehydration. Not wanting to wait for the lack of water to take effect, the attackers then tried a new cannon which backfired (pun totally intended). The Turks’ final assault was to release diseased animals into the castle in hopes of poisoning the Albanians. Each attack was more frenzied than the one before while the besieged practiced stoic resilience.
In The Siege Kadare captured the utter gruesomeness of war: the chaos of men and horses screaming in pain, the slipperiness of blood and gore, the din of weaponry booming, the choking smoke, and stench of death everywhere. There is one striking scene when the chronicle and astrologer are observing a dead man’s face reflected in a shiny pool of oil, soon to be incinerated by the encroaching flames. This image will stay with me for a very long time. Kadare also describes the strategy of war: rations are running low. The attackers know they need another battle to lessen their numbers by 3-4 thousand men as a way to stretch supplies.

Line I liked, “Crows don’t pick out each other’s eyes” (p 236).

Author fact: Kadare was also a poet. He died when he was 88 years old.

Book trivia: The Siege was first titled The Drums of Rain but was changed to The Castle. The English translation is The Siege. It was the least unsatisfactory name for the English version.
And speaking of translation, I would love to know how they say willy-nilly in Albania.

Music: “Te Deum.”

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust To Go in the chapter called “Albania” (p 12). Just a note about the index for this book. There is a different book with the same title. Both books are under the same indexing, but they should have separate entries.

Trouble in Triplicate

gr4c5Leave a comment

Stout, Rex, Trouble in Triplicate. Viking Press, 1949.

Reason read: to continue the series started last year in honor of Stout’s birth month.

Trouble in Triplicate is actually three short novellas:

  • Before I Die – Dazy Perrit, king of the black market, has come to Nero Wolfe to help him with his daughters. One is blackmailing him and the other has a nervous tic Perrit thinks Wolfe can cure.
  • Help Wanted, Male – Wolfe hires a body double when his life is threatened while he works a murder case.
  • Instead of Evidence – It is not everyday that a man shows up on your doorstep and announces that he is about to die and proceeds to name his future killer. This is a mystery all about identity.

New things I learned about Archie Goodwin: he is from Ohio. He is an ankle man. He has a strange prejudice against people with the name Eugene.

Lines I liked, “He paid us a visit the day he stopped a bullet” (p 3), “If you are typing to can’t talk” (p 160), and “He sounded next door to hysterical” (p 185).

As an aside, Stout mentioned Billy Sunday in “Before I Die” and I had to wrack my brain. Where had I heard that name before? From the lyrics of Ramble On Rose by the Grateful Dead.

Author fact: Stout moved to Paris in order to write full time.

Book trivia: you get three stories for the price of one in Trouble in Triplicate and the stories are not tied together in any way.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust in the chapter obviously called “Res Stout’s Nero Wolfe: Too Good To Miss” (p 226).

Johnny Got His Gun

gr4c5Leave a comment

Trumbo, Dalton. Johnny Got His Gun. Narrated by William Dufris. Tantor Media, 2008.
Trumbo, Dalton. Johnny Got His Gun. Bantam Books, 1970.

Reason read: Armistice Day is celebrated on November 11th. Read in honor of that day.

I hope you read the copy of Johnny Got His Gun with the foreword by a mother, Cindy Sheehan, who lost her son to war. Her anger is palpable in every sentence she wrote. Her foreword throbs with an abundance of seething words. She ends with the largest question in the human lexicon – why?
Joe. What a brilliant name for a character. Just your average Joe. Joe is every man. Joe is the average man. Joe is your son. Your brother. Your father or uncle. Your husband or boyfriend. Joe could be your world. Told in flashbacks of better days, Joe was your typical teenager before World War I; he grew up with a good friend, he liked to go fishing, he had good parents, he had a best girl. Then everything changed when adulthood set in. Joe lost his best girl to his best friend. Later he left behind a perfect girl when he shipped off to fight the good fight in World War I. Did want to fight? Maybe. Did he want to become a “piece of meat” with no arms, legs, eyes, ears, or tongue? Unable to move anything but his head, unable to see, hear, or speak? Most definitely not. Joe’s incremental realization of the loss of his limbs, sight, hearing, sense of smell was terrible. Even when he wants someone to end his life he cannot get relief. As an audio book it was even more devastatingly painful to hear. I do not think I would have been able to finish it if I had to read it only in print.

Confessional: I was upset when critics would call Joe “a hunk of meat” until I learned that’s what he thought about himself. He said it first.

Author fact: While not officially banned many schools found it too disturbing to have on their shelves. Trumbo did not mind the threat of banning Johnny Got His Gun. He and his publishers decided to delay a reprinting during World War II.

Book trivia: Johnny Got His Gun won a National Book Award. Metallica used clips from the movie based on the book in one of their songs.

Audio trivia: Read by William Dufris, the narration was amazing.

Music: “After the Ball is Over.”

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust in the chapter “Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror” (p 213). At first I thought Johnny Got His Gun would be in the fiction section of the World War I chapter, but horror is the perfect place for this book.

Ender’s Game

gr4c5Leave a comment

Card, Orson Scott. Ender’s Game. Read by Stefan Rudnicki and Harlan Ellison. Macmillan Audio, 2004.

Reason read: October is Science Fiction Month.

Planet Earth is prepping for a galaxy war against the Buggers. The last skirmish was eighty years ago and Earth barely survived. Recruiting this time around has to be aggressive and highly tactical. Andrew “Ender” Wiggin, born in a society of limiting offspring: only two children per family, is known as an extra or Third. As a Third Ender must leave planet Earth at six years old for a boarding school where he trains to be a soldier. He leads an army of other children and it is here that he proves to be a natural-born leader and a prodigy at winning battles. So the saga begins.
Back home, the proverbial power struggle between good and evil begins. While Ender grows into a tactical fighter, his brother Peter demonstrates increasing violent tendencies every day. Their sister, ironically named Valentine (the symbol of love) as the token female, stands in the middle of the two brothers.
One of the most fascinating elements of Ender’s Game is that Card challenges the assumption about reality and what is “normal.”

Author fact: the idea for Ender came when Card was sixteen years old. He was fascinated by the idea of a Battle Room.

Book Audio trivia: listening to the audio was a treat because Orson Scott Card explained his process for writing Ender’s Game. I had no idea the book was meant to be read aloud. Also, when Card first presented Ender’s Game he was told it was fantasy. He needed to change some details, bring in aliens to make it science fiction.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust in the chapter called “Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror” (p 213).

Collector of Worlds

gr4c5Leave a comment

Troyanov, Iliya. Collector of Worlds: a Novel of Sir Richard Francis Burton. Translated by William Hobson. Ecco, 2010.

Reason read: Sir Richard Burton died in October. Read in his memory.

The fictional account of Sir Richard Francis Burton reads like a cinematic masterpiece. Burton’s personality comes alive. He was obsessed with disguises and liked to pose as a Muslim. One of his aliases was Mirza Abdullah from Persia. Against all odds, to survive Burton needed to blend in as a native. He was described a difficult and mysterious yet brilliant. He was a master of various languages. His concubine, Kundalini, wanted to marry him. She told him stories during sex. Troyanov takes three of Burton’s best known periods of life: as a British officer in India, Burton’s pilgrimage to Mecca, and everyone’s favorite game – where does the Nile originate? By fictionalizing Burton’s life Troyanov was able to make sweeping statements about nineteenth century culture in colonized countries. The varying literary writing styles help to separate Burton’s adventures.

Quote I loved, “She left behind a smile as small as the folded-down corner of a page in a book” (p 57). Here is another that, strangely enough, reminds me of my childhood, “Richard Francis Burton died early in the morning before you could tell a black thread from a white” (p 444). Here’s the weird parallel – when I was really young my sister had a poster of two horses, one white and one black. We would sleep together on Christmas Eve and were not allowed to get up on Christmas morning until we could see both horses distinctly.

Author fact: There are a few ways to spell Troyanov’s name. For LibraryThing, I have substituted a J where there is a Y. I am reading three of his books for the Challenge.

Book trivia: not all the foreign words are included in the glossary. I couldn’t find abbasids, bubukhanna, bazzaz, kaaba, or devadusi.

Music: “For He’s a Jolly Good Fellow.”

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust To Go in the chapter called “Star Trekkers” (p 221).

In the Footsteps of Mr. Kurtz

gr4c5Leave a comment

Wrong, Michela. In the Footsteps of Mr. Kurtz: Living on the Brink of Disaster in Mobutu’s Congo. Harper Collins, 2001.

Reason read: Mobutu Sese Seko died in October. He was Zaire’s first president. Read in his memory.

More than a biography of Mobutu Sese Seko Kuku Ngbedu wa za Banga, Michela Wrong set up to write a love letter to the Congo. Even though Mobutu was a dictator and the first and only president of Zaire, the history of his homeland is a tale that is just as interesting to tell. It is a story of great triumphs and devastating downfalls; a cautionary tale of corruption, greed and betrayal.
It is a small detail of In the Footsteps of Mr. Kurtz, but I appreciated knowing Mobutu’s origin story of his love of leopard print. I am sure it is exaggerated, but the story goes that Mobutu’s grandfather used to ridicule him for being afraid of leopards. After killing one its skin became Mobutu’s personal fashion plate for his hats. I like to think every time Mobutu wore a leopard print hat he was giving his grandfather the proverbial middle finger.
As an aside…Every time someone saw me with In the Footsteps of Mr Kurtz in my hands they would murmur, “ah…Heart of Darkness…” followed by either “I hated that book” or “I loved that book.” No one ever said it was just okay.

Chilling quote, “Knowing nothing about the past, of course, frees a population from any sense of blame for the present” (p 59). Or future, I would add.

Author fact: Wrong was a correspondent. As an aside, I found her comment about the potential spread of AIDS to be somewhat naïve. She was describing a hospital where AIDS carriers and HIV negative patients were “indiscriminately mixed together, their narrow beds only inches apart” (p 138). Even if the mixed patients were holding hands the HIV negative person would not be infected unless they shared blood.

Book trivia: the title of the book comes from a character in Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness.

Music: “As Time Goes By,” “Hotel California,” Koffi Olomide, Zaiko Langa, Papa Wemba, Mick Jagger, Bryan Ferry, Wenge Musica and its variations: Wenge Musica 4×4, Wenge Musica Maison Mere, Wenge Musica BCBG, Wenge Musica Kumbela, Wenge Musica Aile Paris, Tabuley Rochereau, Pepe Kalle, and Gregorian chants.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust in the chapter called “Africa: Today and Yesterday” (p 10).

Pagan Holiday

gr4c5Leave a comment

Perrottet, Tony. Pagan Holiday: On the Trail of Ancient Roman Tourists. Random House, 2002.

Reason read: Tony Perrotte celebrates a birthday in October.

I don’t know which is more entertaining: Perrottet’s humor or his descriptions of traveling around ancient Rome and Naples. His denial about his wife’s pregnancy was funny (“…avoiding our impending parenthood situation” (p 127) as he called it. He certainly went to great lengths to see ancient Italy as a tourist would. Diving to see the lost town of Baiae with its spas, village, and lighthouse was interesting. Visiting the ancient hook-up spots and gladiator arenas. Imagining ancient day Ubers with stables for renting mule-pulled wagons. One’s status dictated how many mules pulled a customer around and whether or not he or she had a mule driver. Speaking of driving – what about chariot road rage as compared to modern day six lane highway antics? Or imagine soliciting a prostitute at their “office” better known as the local cemetery. Perrottet also visited Greece and Turkey hauling along his increasingly pregnant wife. Learning the sex of the child while on their journey brought them both one step closer to the reality of becoming parents, but it didn’t stop Perrottet from seeking out lost cities and crawling around pyramids.

As an aside, I would like to know if the Appian way is still lined with family vaults. That would be pretty interesting to see. I also want to know if Medusa’s head still graces with Arcadian Way.

Author fact: Tony Perrottet also authored Naked Olympics which is on my Challenge list.

Book trivia: Pagan Holiday was originally published as Route 66 A.D.

Music: “O mio babbino caro,” Jim Morrison, George Michael, Ringo Starr, “Zorba,” the Beatles, “Frere Jacques,” U2’s “Still Haven’t Found What I’m looking For,” Cole Porter,

Natalie connection: Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema was a pre-Raphaelite painter featured in Pagan Holiday. His daughter wrote a poem called “If No One Ever Marries Me” which Natalie set to music.

BookLust Twist: from More Book Lust in the chapter “Dewey Deconstructed: 900s” (p 62). Also noted in Book Lust To Go in the chapter called “Where On Earth Do These Books Belong?” (p 261).

Mayor of Castro Street

gr4c5Leave a comment

Shilts, Randy. Mayor of Castro Street: the Life and Times of Harvey Milk. St. Martin’s Griffin Press, 2008.

Reason read: the “How Weird Festival” happens in October in San Francisco.

What a different (but same) time we live in. We have moved beyond having a Director of the Coors Beer Boycott and yet, yet, yet we still persecute (and prosecute) those different from us. Haven’t we learned anything? But I digress.
Shilts portrayed Harvey Milk as ambitious to a fault. Using a plethora of sources he was able to bring Milk to life, covering extensively both his political and private life. Milk would stoop to incredible lows to create controversy and promote his agenda in the name of the homosexual lifestyle. The betrayal of Bill Sipple’s privacy being just one example. What struck me the most was how Milk knew all along he would die by a bullet to the brain. His ambition was so great that even the fear of assassination couldn’t stop him from fighting for the underdog. He knew how to connect with his Castro Street constituents and collect lovers for a lifetime. Ever the consummate reporter, Shilts turned over every rock to find the detailed story of Milk’s life. Shilts interviewed over one hundred and forty people and poured over thousands of documents for his biography of Harvey Milk. He even sought the audience of Dan White and his attorneys to offer another perspective of the Castro Street Mayor’s tragic end. It is too bad he was unsuccessful.

As an aside, I had to do a deep dive into Bob’s Burgers. In Milk’s time it was a hangout spot on Polk Street in San Francisco. I wanted to know if the cartoon of the same name had anything to do with the restaurant. It does not appear so.
An ah-ha moment: discovering the muse behind Lou Reed’s “sugar plum fairy” in the song “Take a Walk on the Wild Side.”

Author fact: Shilts also wrote And the Band Played On which was on my Challenge list.

Book trivia: Mayor of Castro Street includes a smattering of photographs. I would have liked to see the Castro Street camera shop where Milk first set up a campaign office.

Setlist: “Theme from Rocky,” Jefferson Airplane, Grace Slick, “Battle Hymn of the Republic,” Joan Baez, Carmen, Bob Dylan’s “Blowin’ in the Wind,” Leslie Gore, Lou Reed’s “Take a Walk on the Wild Side,” “Danny Boy,” “Notre Dame Fight Song,” “Ain’t No Stopping Us Now,” “Happy Birthday,” “Star Spangled Banner,” Moody Blues, Rolling Stones, Cher, “As Time Goes By,” Judy Garland, “Anchors Aweigh,” “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot,” Mahler, Strauss, Donna Summer, Barbra Streisand, Wagner, Verdi, Bidu Sayao, Mills Brothers’ “Always,” Mick Jagger, Liza Minelli, Puccini’s Tosca, Meg Christian’s “The Rock Will Wear Away,” John Lennon, Jimi Hendrix, Elton John, David Bowie, Mahler, “God Save the Nelly Queens,” and “We Shall Overcome.”

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust To Go in the chapter simply called “San Francisco” (p 196).

Almost Everyone’s Guide to Science

gr4c5Leave a comment

Gribbin, John. Almost Everyone’s Guide to Science: the Universe, Life and Everything. Yale University Press, 1999.

Reason read: October is Science Month.

Atoms. Electrons. Energy. Hydrogen. Nucleus. Photons. Quantum. Particles. Molecules. Do you feel as though you are back in a physics or chemistry class? Gribbin will take you there. You’ll be reminded of the chemical action of covalent bonding and the spectral signature. You’ll meet geniuses of the day: Michael Faraday, Albert Einstein, and Isaac Newton. You’ll read up on the supercontinent of Gondwanaland. You’ll have a good chat about the Solar System, minus Pluto. There is a mention of climate change with and without human intervention. Gribbin will tell you his favorite theories with unbridled enthusiasm. You can almost hear the excitement as he warms up to his various topics. Everything Gribbin explains is done in a folksy, casual manner so as not to scare the reader away: “But the details need not bother us” (p 69). He will simplify the science by making Disney analogies and talk to you as if you are leaning over beers in a bar. This was fun.

Author fact: Gribbin also wrote Stardust which is on my Challenge list.

Book trivia: the illustrations in Almost Everyone’s Guide to Science are helpful.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust in the chapter called “Science Boks (For the Interested But Apprehensive Layperson)” (p 211).

Wild Oz

gr4c5Leave a comment

Clodd, Geoff. Wild Oz: Hilariously Unfiltered Backpacking Stories. Independently Published, 2025.

Reason read: this is a selection from LibraryThing’s Early Review program.

I do not know exactly what I was expecting from Wild Oz but this turned out to be a much different adventure. I think the subtitle about backpacking made me think he would be roughing it a little more than he did in his Oz adventures. I also thought there would be more variation to his escapades, especially through Thailand. Australia was just a string of towns where Clodd got this drunk and banged that chick. His stories start and stop without fanfare. Like a giggling kid farting for attention Clodd will tell you about crashing his moped in Thailand or trying to eat a dozen ice cream cones. The year is 2008 and he has decided to travel with a friend to Australia and Thailand for a year or more.
As an aside, Clodd interrupts himself from time to time to tell Vegas stories. That makes sense because he sustained his meager financial existence on internet gambling. I have to admit the prostitute stealing a plate was pretty funny.
Sometimes I thought Wild Oz was written by a horny fourteen year old left alone in the house without his parents for the very first time. His command of slang was pretty extensive (“suck on that!”). Chasing temporary employment and bedding various women while juggling excessive drinking and drugging, Clodd was finicky about dirty hands and paranoid about skin cancer and going bald. I think I just summed up the entire book in this last paragraph.

Fun fact: my husband and I have this game during horror movie season where we try to count the dead bodies. Exactly how many people were murdered during Nightmare on Elm Street? Sometimes we turn it into a drinking game – a swig for every time someone dies. We should take turns reading Wild Oz aloud and take a glug every time Clodd has sex with a different woman. That could be fun.

As an aside, I want to know how often Geoff has had to say “two fs and two ds” when telling someone how to spell his name.

Book trivia: Clodd makes pop references that some people may or may not get. For example, I didn’t know who Screech and Zack were.

Author fact: Wild Oz is Clodd’s first and only book on LibraryThing.

Playlist: “Let’s Get It Started” by Black Eyed Peas, Creed, Outkast, “Rape Me” by Nirvana, Janet Jackson, and Wolfmother (which I have on my run playlist).

And Be a Villain

gr4c5Leave a comment

Stout, Rex. And Be a Villain. Bantam, 1994.

Reason read: to continue the series started a year ago!

Nero Wolfe is crafty. The way he finds clients is to insert himself into a dilemma (pretty much always a murder) with the promise of a solution (usually by proving someone’s innocence)…for a price (usually pretty steep). However it is up to Archie Goodwin to sell that service and bring the client onboard. When on-air guest Cyril Orchard is murdered by cyanide poisoning during Madeline Fraser’s radio program, Archie’s spin is that the heat will be off Madeline as a suspect if she hires the great Nero Wolfe to find the real killer. Logic prevails and Madeline agrees to Wolfe’s demands; except now it looks like the poison was meant for her. Is someone out there is trying to kill her? At the same time Beula Poole is found shot to death and a seemingly unrelated gynecologist is being blackmailed. Then a third person is poisoned. Are all of these events related? The case so stumps Wolfe that he begrudgingly involves his on again-off again nemesis, Inspector Cramer. As usual, Goodwin is the star of the show.

Line I liked, “No doctor should assume responsibility for the health of one he loves or one he hates” (p 168).

Author fact: according to one biography, Rex Stout devised and implemented a school banking system.

Book trivia: As with most Stout books the publishers lets the reader peek behind this curtain. This time And Be A Villain shared Viking’s lawyers’ attempt to find any detail that resembled real people or situations.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust in the chapter called “Rex Stout’s Nero Wolfe: Too Good To Miss” (p 226).