Category: BookLust I

Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin

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Franklin, Benjamin. The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin. Minola: Dover Publications, Inc., 1996.

Originally written as a letter to his illegitimate son, Benjamin Franklin sets out to tell the story of his life’s work. It briefly covers his childhood but focuses more on his years of employment, first as a printer’s apprentice, then as a prominent political leader among many, many other things. By the end of it you will be asking what didn’t this guy do? However, it ends (abruptly) before his involvement in the Revolution or his efforts to free slaves, two aspects of his life I find most interesting. Peppered throughout the autobiography is Benjamin Franklin’s adamant call to humility, modesty, and virtue which is humorously contradictory for a man with such a long list of obvious accomplishments.

Reading Benjamin Franklin’s list of accomplishments and life interests has caused me to dub him “the most interesting man in the world” after the guy in the Dos Equis commercial.

Book Trivia: The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin has been translated into hundreds of languages.

Author Fact: Benjamin Franklin loved the ocean. Really cool.

BookLust Twist: From More Book Lust in the chapter called “Founding Fathers” (p 91). Of course.

The Hobbit

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Tolkien, J.R.R. The Hobbit, or There and Back Again. New York: Ballantine Books, 1965.

The Hobbit has got to be one of the best loved, most well known fantasy-adventure stories out there. It paved the way for the Harry Potter series for sure. The Hobbit in question is one Mr. Bilbo Baggins. He has been tricked into joining a band of dwarves on an adventure to recover stolen treasure. Handpicked by Gandolf the wizard it is unclear to the rest of the group why Mr. Baggins has been designated “burglar” of the adventure, but in time Bilbo rises to the challenge as only a bumbling hobbit can do. The grumbling group encounter an impossible variety of challenges: ogres, goblins, wolves, spiders. Each obstacle brings them closer to Smaug, the treasure-hoarding dragon where they must fight their final battle to win back their rightful bounty.

This is something I didn’t discover until the rereading of The Hobbit and yet I find it subtle and very interesting. Bilbo’s last name is Baggins. Baggins sounds a lot like baggage and I have to wonder if that was intentional because until Bilbo finds the infamous ring he is more baggage than help to his traveling companions. “It is a fact that Bilbo’s reputation went up a very great deal with the dwarves after this” (p 92).

Favorite quotes, “Now it is a strange thing, but things that are good to have and days that are good to spend are soon told about, and not much to listen to; while things that are uncomfortable, palpitating, and even gruesome, may make a good tale, and take a great deal of telling anyway” (p 51).

Author Fact: J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis were friends.

Book Trivia: The Hobbit has been made into movies, plays and award winning games. Interestingly enough, on a personal note, it was published on September 21 (my father’s date of death), 1937 (the year my father was born).

BookLust Twist: From Book Lust mentioned three times – in the introduction and two different chapters. First, in the chapter called “Christmas Books for the Whole Family to Read” (p 56) and again in the more logical chapter “Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror” (p 213). The first chapter shouldn’t count because Pearl was only making reference to a Christmas book Tolkien had written but conceding he was better known for The Hobbit.

Somewhere out there there is a picture of me reading The Hobbit. The most interesting thing about the picture isn’t my age (I think I’m eight) but rather the fact I have folded myself into a box. I have no idea why. As an another aside: I must have loved this story because I also had the reading of The Hobbit on vinyl; a 45 that spun on a very old, cheap record player. I can still remember the “Greatest Adventure” song at the end.

The Reader

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Schlink, Bernard. The Reader. New York: Vintage International, 1998.

By now I am sure everyone has seen the movie of the same name (2008). After all, Kate Winslet (did I spell that right?) won an Oscar for her portrayal of Hanna Schmitz. At least I think she did. I have not seen the movie nor did I watch the Academy Awards last year, although I hear the movie deserves to be seen if for nothing else than that reason – Hanna/Kate. However, being a librarian I think the book deserves to be read first. Without a doubt.

Anyway. Bernard Schlink paints a hauntingly beautiful love story tinged with pain. The premise is simple. Michael Berg as a young boy of 15 is seduced by a woman at least twice his age. He confuses his coming-of-age feelings with falling in love with Hanna Schmitz and becomes confused and almost devastated when she disappears from his life as suddenly as she had first entered it. Michael is a burgeoning law student when his path crosses Hanna’s again. Hanna is on trial for an unspeakable war crime. As a law student Michael can only guess as to why Hanna does not defend herself, nor does she even try. He spends the duration of the trial wrestling with her apparent guilt as well as the memories of the old passion he no longer feels for her. Obviously there is a lot more to the story but I’ll leave that for you to find out. Like I said, read the book.

Favorite lines: “We did not have a world that we shared; she gave me the space in her life that she wanted me to have” (p 77), and “Illiteracy is dependence” (p 188).

Author Fact: Bernard Schlink has written detective novels as well as short stories.

Book Trivia: The Reader has been translated in over thirty different languages. The movie thing you already know.

BookLust Twist: From Book Lust in the chapter called “What a Trial That Was!” (p 244).

Portnoy’s Complaint

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Roth, Philip. Novels, 1967-1972. New York: The Library of America, 2005.

I always garnered eyebrow raises and smirking lips whenever I mentioned reading Philip Roth. What I didn’t realize at the time was whenever I mentioned Philip Roth everyone’s minds immediately went to “Portnoy’s Complaint.” Having never read this particular novel I didn’t get the joke. Okay. I get it now.

To put it quite simply, Portnoy’s Complaint is the monologue of Alex Portnoy, a psychoanalyst’s patient, as he recounts his childhood, coming of age years and his insatiable appetite for sex (starting with masturbation) that has dominated all his life. The setting of a therapist’s office is brilliant. Where else are you allowed to be candid to the point of shocking? Where else are you encouraged to reveal your deepest and darkest, most vile desires without judgement or arrest? Roth couldn’t have his character admit these activities in any other setting without the admissions becoming pornographic and the one doing the admitting, ridiculously perverted. Alex doesn’t just admit sexual desires, though. He rants about religion, culture, World War II, education, parenting, relationships – all with comic and sarcastic ability.

There were probably over a dozen different sentences that were evocative and startling, but here are two of my favorites involving eating:
“You could even eat off her bathroom floor, if that should ever become necessary” (p 285), “But I don’t want the food from her mouth. I don’t even want the food from my plate – that is the point” (p 287).

BookLust Twist: First, from Book Lust in the chapter called “The Jewish-American Experience” (p 132), and again in More Book Lust in the chapter called “Jersey Guys and Dolls” (p 130).

To What End

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Just, Ward. To What End: Report From Vietnam. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1968.

Disclaimer: I threw this on my December list because somewhere I got the idea that Ward Just was born in December. Not so. He was born in September (so I have been told), so this was a mistake in the timeline.

Ward Just’s To What End is his first book and is a first hand account of the Vietnam War. As a journalist he begs the question everyone wanted to ask (and is still asking), “what business does the United States have fighting this war?” The entire time you are reading To What End you never lose sight of the fact that Just is a writer and not a solider. He views the war always from the point of view of plot, “there was a book as good as Farewell to Arms in the stories, if you had the wit to see it and the imagination to generalize from it” (p 165). And generalize Ward does. He doesn’t bother to cover all aspects of the Vietnam War, just the parts he is directly involved it. He doesn’t include an index because he doesn’t want to complicate the telling with too much detail. He has been advised to keep it short for the same reason. The end result is a quick straightforward commentary.

Striking lines: “It is the first war where an academic could walk about undisturbed (and relatively safe) and probe and take soundings” (p 79), and “The Vietnamese laugh both from amusement and embarrassment and you can never tell which” (p 102).

Author Fact: Ward Just born in September. I need to commit that to memory.

Book Trivia: To What End is Ward Just’s first book.

BookLust Twist: From Book Lust in the chapter called ” Ward Just: Too Good To Miss” (p 135).

A Good Man Is Hard to Find

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O’Connor, Flannery. Collected Works. Sally Fitzgerald, ed. Library of America, 1988.

A Good Man is Hard to Find is a compilation of ten short stories by Flannery O’Connor. In order they are “A Good Man is Hard to Find”, “The River”, “The Life You Save might Be Your Own”, “A Stroke of Good Fortune”, “A Temple of the Holy Ghost”, “The Artificial Nigger”, “A Circle in the Fire”, “A Late Encounter with the Enemy”, “Good Country People”, and “The Displaced Person.” All ten stories have three significant things in common: a Southern twang, underlying religious tones and lots of interesting and deep characters with problems, some problems more obvious and serious than others. The title, A Good Man is Hard to Find comes from the first short story in the compilation (my favorite) and is a phrase first uttered by a restaurant owner outside of Atlanta, Georgia. He is discussing a serial killer on a rampage last seen somewhere in Florida. The rest of the stories center mostly in the rural areas surrounding the south, especially Atlanta, Georgia.

Favorite lines: From “A Good Man in Hard to Find” – “the trees were full of silver-white sunlight and the meanest of them sparkled” (p 138).
From “The River” – “He seemed to be mute and patient, like an old sheepdog waiting to be let out” (p 155).
From “The Life You Save Might Be Your Own” – “She was ravenous for a son-in-law” (p 177).
From” “A Stroke of Good Fortune” – “…in a voice of sultry subdued wrath” (p 184. Okay, that wasn’t a complete sentence but I liked the wording. From “Good Country People” – “She took all his shame away and turned it into something useful” (p 276).

Author Fact: Flannery O’Connor continues to inspire people in all forms of artistry. Just Google her name and see the interesting things that pop up.

Book Trivia: A Good Man Is Hard to Find was referenced in an 1994 episode of the Simpsons.

BookLust Twist: From Book Lust in the chapter called “Grit Lit” (p 106).

Nop’s Trials

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McCaig, Donald. Nop’s Trials. New York: Warner Books, Inc., 1984.

Nop’s Trials was not what I expected. I was thinking since it was primarily about a Border Collie named Nop that it would be sweet and gentle, like the breed itself. Indeed, the story definitely has warm and tender moments – like when Nop is communicating with other friendly dogs – but there is definitely a harsher side to Nop’s Trials. If you know anything about Border Collies you know they are working dogs, used on farms to corral livestock like sheep or cattle. They are so agile and smart and quick to learn that people have created competitions to showcase their training abilities. These competitions are called “trials” and McCaig uses the word “trials” to steer the reader to this mode of thinking. In reality, Nop’s “trials” stem from the competition but are more of the “trials and tribulations” variety. Because Nop is a prize winner, always taking first place at the trials, a vicious man named Grady Gumm is hired to steal Nop from his owner, farmer Lewis Burkholder. This is to prevent Nop from ever competing again. Grady is an unscrupulous dog owner himself who keeps dogs for fight-to-the-death matches so pretty soon into the story there is a violent scene. I have to admit it shocked me. The good news is that Nop escapes Grady only to bounce from one trial to another. He encounters many walks of life, dog lovers and dog haters alike.
But Nop’s Trials isn’t just about Nop and his misadventures. It also delves into Lewis Burkholder’s life without Nop. It portrays a man as a farmer, a father and a husband as well as a dedicated dog owner who never gives up on Nop. The story examines the relationships between man and land, father and pregnant daughter, father and son-in-law, as well as husband and patient wife. Life’s lessons are masterfully played out while Nop’s fate remains a mystery.

Author Fact: McCaig lives pretty much the same way as Burkholder – on a farm in Virginia with Border Collies.

BookLust Twist: From Book Lust in the chapter obviously called “Great Dogs in Fiction” (p 105).

Mists of Avalon

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Bradley, Marion Zimmer. The Mists of Avalon. New York: Del Rey, 1982.

The first time I read The Mists of Avalon I was in high school. We were studying literature written by women; literature that made an impact one way or another. Marion Zimmer Bradley was in the company of women like Margaret Atwood, Robin McKinley and Ursula K. Le Guin. Guess my teacher liked fantasy.

The Mists of Avalon is a retelling of the story of King Arthur, only King Arthur isn’t really a major character. It’s all from the point of view of the women in his life – King Arthur’s sister, mother, grandmother and wife, among others. The battle isn’t over the throne or with warring neighbors, but rather the differing religions. Patriarchal Christianity is locked conflict with Matriarchal Druid magic. It’s an interesting twist of politics and feminist rule. But, Bradley also explores other conflicts in society like fate versus free will, and magical powers versus realism.

Probably the thing that took me by surprise was the subtle use of incest, rape and other sexual situations within the text.

Book Trivia: While The Mists of Avalon has garnered much praise it is also been criticized as being “feminist propaganda.” It is the retelling of King Authur from the perspective of the key women in the story; namely Morgaine, Gwynhefar, Igraine and Viviane.

Author Fact: Marion Zimmer is a New York woman, born in nearby Albany. She died of a heart attack in 1999.

BookLust Twist: Pearl dedicates a whole paragraph to Marion Zimmer Bradley’s The Mists of Avalon in Book Lust in the chapter called “King Arthur” (p 137), although King Arthur plays a very minor part in the story.

The Stand

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King, Stephen. The Stand. New York: Signet, 1980.

I think it goes without saying that The Stand is a super-long, super detailed book and the critical attention paid to character development and personality nuances plays a huge roll in its length. The other component to its heft is the fact it takes a long time to build up to the meat of the plot. The Stand contains three books, “Captain Trips”, “On the Border”, and “The Stand”. “Captain Trips” is the introduction to an influenza-like plague and its fast-paced spread of infection. You won’t look at another sneeze or cough the same way again after this. “On the Border” is convergence of the plague survivors; the good and the evil alike. They are all brought together by a shared dream of an elderly women. In the final book, “The Stand” the surviving society must take a stand on where their civilization will end up – on the side of good or evil? It’s drawn out to the point of ad-nauseam but the writing is fantastic.

Here is one of my favorite quotes from The Stand: “Denninger looked and acted like the kind of man who would ride his help and bullyrag them around but lickspittle up to his superiors like an egg-suck dog” (p 59). I just love the word bullyrag and lickspittle isn’t so bad either!

Book Trivia: Many different adaptations of The Stand exist. My favorite is a comic book series.

Author Fact: King used to haunt the halls at the University of Maine, Orono. He wouldn’t remember me but I served him coffee once in the Bear’s Den.

BookLust Twist: From Book Lust in the lengthy chapter called “Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror” (p 213). I think Pearl intended The Stand to be horror.

Victorian Lady Travellers

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Middleton, Dorothy. Victorian Lady Travellers. New York: E.P. Dutton  & Co., Inc., 1965.

It is apparent almost immediately the genuine admiration in Middleton’s voice as she describes the lives and accomplishments of each “Victorian Lady Traveller.” Each chapter is dedicated to a different prominent adventurer between 1830 and 1936, seven in all: Isabella Bird Bishop, Marianne North, Fanny Bullock Workman, May French Sheldon, Annie Taylor, Kate Marsden and the ever-famous Mary Kingsley. Middleton dedicates approximately 22 pages to each woman (including considerable chunks of quotations from each explorer’s book or journal, if she has authored one). Granted, it’s a short book so I wish Middleton had written more and quoted less.

But, speaking of quotes – Quotes from the sections on my two favorite travelers, first Isabella Bird Bishop: “In her seventieth year she ordered a tricycle because she needed more exercise” (p 53). Second, Mary Kinsley: “Avoiding the hippos, the ran into crocodiles, and the scene took on a striking resemblance to the pictures of intrepid explorers in the story-books of her childhood” (p 160).

My one other “criticism” is that I wish the photographs could have been as carefully organized as the text. For example, chapter one is all about Isabella Bird Bishop. The reader is drawn into her adventures, immersed into her life and no one else’s, so it is a little unsettling to come across a picture of Marianne North in the same chapter.

Interesting side note: out of the seven travelers covered in Victorian Lady Travellers four of them were born in October. Very cool.

Author Fact: Dorothy Middleton died on February 3rd, 1999.

BookLust Twist: From Book Lust in the chapter called “Lady Travelers” (p 142). Duh.

Primary Colors

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Anonymous. Primary Colors: a novel of politics. New York: Warner Books, 1996.

The anonymity of Primary Colors appeared calculated on many different levels. It gave the author the ultimate freedom to insert truth into fiction and fiction into trust and never check the difference. No credentials on the author’s part would guarantee the lack of fact-finding, allowing the author to come as close to the truth as fiction would allow. It is obvious Primary Colors is based upon Bill Clinton and his first presidential campaign in 1992.
Jack Stanton is a young, charismatic southern-state governor with very human vices. He has a weakness for food and pretty women. He wears his heart on his sleeve. Sound like anyone you knew in the 90s? His wife is smart, unflappable; the one one comes up with the soundbites whenever the governor is interviewed. Primary Colors is told from the point of view of his presidential campaign employee, Henry Burton. Henry is idealistic about his candidate and wants to believe he’s a man of his word, but as word and action soon start to contradict Henry must make a choice.

Best quotes: “Never attack an opponent when he is in the process of killing himself” (p 156) and “This was, if you could stand back from it, a wonderfully intricate game” (p 157).

Author Trivia: Joe Klein was adamant he didn’t write Primary Colors even after he was “outed” by a writing analyst. Weird.
Book Trivia: Primary Colors: a novel of politicswas made into a movie in 1998, starring John Travolta – never heard of it.

BookLust Twist: From Book Lust in the chapter called “Politics of Fiction” (p 189).

Death at an Early Age

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Kozol, Jonathan. Death at an Early Age: the Destruction of the Hearts and Minds of Negro Children in the Boston Public Schools. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1967.

I think the subtitle says it all; a nonfiction account of a first-time fourth grade teacher in a less than stellar school system in Roxbury, Massachusetts. “They had desks and a teacher, but they really did not have a class” (p 29). While Kozol is talking about a physical space (he had to share a large auditorium with three, sometimes four other activities (including drama and band practices), I really think he was also referring to the lack of togetherness as a group. There wasn’t a sense of community. There wasn’t a unified eagerness to learn. Nothing bound them to the reason they were there. This is to say nothing of the lack of support Kozol received as an educator from his peers and administration. He was constantly criticized for the amount of time, resources and energy he gave to “the Negro student.” Death at an Early Age is a continuous report of the different instances of abuse and neglect the students endured, culminating with Kozol’s unjustified dismissal after the inclusion of a Langston Hughes poem, “The Landlord.”

The line I could relate to the most: “One of the most grim things about teaching in such a school and such a system is that you do not like to be an incessant barb and irritation to everyone else, so you come under a rather strong compulsion to keep quiet” (p 31).

Another great line, “It is the sense that you cannot do a great many things right but that you can do almost anything wrong” (p 49).

Author Fact: Kozol has a really cool website here.

Book Trivia: Death at an Early Age was awarded a National Book Award in 1968.

BookLust Twist: From Book Lust in the chapter called “Teachers and Teaching Tales” (p 230).

I find it really bizarre that I’ve read such a title so soon after the death of my 41 year old cousin.

Buddenbrooks

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Mann, Thomas. Buddenbrooks: the Decline of a Family. Translated by H.T. Lowe-Porter. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1931.

To sum up Buddenbrooks it is a four-generational story about the downfall of a middle class family. There is no storyline other than following the lives of the Buddenbrooks from 1835 to 1877. The Buddenbrooks are a typical family. They have their problems like everyone else. Faulty business deals, unstable health, failed marriages, partnerships made and broken. My favorite parts involved daughter Tony and her relationships with her family and the men who pursued her. The way her father simultaneously protects her and throws her to the wolves is eyebrow raising, but pretty typical of a father-know-best attitude. It is no secret that this saga doesn’t end well (just look at the title).

Quotes that struck a thought: “Hopes, fears, and ambitions all slumbered, while the rain fell and the autumn wind whistled around gables and street corners” (p 45), “She had never given him either great joy or great sorrow; but she had decorously played her part beside him for many a long year…” (p 68), and “Her face had the expression children wear when one tells them a fairy story about then tactlessly introduce a generalization about conduct and duty – a mixture of embarrassment and impatience, piety and boredom” (p 215).

Author Fact: Buddenbrookswas Mann’s first book, written when he was just 26 years old.

Book Trivia: An adaptation of Buddenbrooks was made into a movie in 2008.

BookLust Twist: From Book Lust in the chapter called “100 Good Reads, Decade by Decade” (p 175).

Johnny Tremain

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Forbes, Esther. Johnny Tremain: a Story of Boston in Revolt. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1971.

This is another one of those “reread a few times” books. I can remember having a crush on Johnny when I was 13 or 14. I’m not exactly sure why. I don’t think the idea of 18th century garb was what got me. But, there was definitely something about goody boy Johnny with his artisan ego that appealed to me.

Johnny Tremain may not be the most creative of titles for Esther Forbes’s John Newbery Medal award-winning book, but it’s most appropriate as it tells the story of two years in the life of fourteen-year-old Johnny Tremain. Johnny is one of several silversmith apprentices living with the Lapham family in Boston, Massachusetts. The year is 1773 and silversmiths are in high demand. Johnny is the most gifted artisan for someone so young and he knows it. The other apprentices are jealous until one day there is an accident and Johnny’s right hand is badly maimed by molten silver. Ultimately, he loses his place with the Laphams and must find other means of employment. It isn’t long before Johnny finds a second calling. He is good with horses and becomes a dispatch rider for the Committee of Public Safety. This job brings him into the company of important men like Samuel Adams and John Hancock. It is at this point where famous events in history like the Boston Tea Party and the Battle of Lexington are woven into Johnny’s story. Fact and fiction are seamless.

Favorite lines: “Human relations never seem to stand completely still” (p 173) and “Green with spring, dreaming of the future yet wet with blood” (p 255).

Author Fact: Forbes was a Massachusetts woman.

Book Trivia: Johnny Tremain won the Newbery Medal in 1944.

BookLust Twist: From Book Lust in the chapter called “Historical Fiction for Kids of All Ages” (p 114).

Spy Trap

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Packard, Edward. Choose Your Own Adventure: Spy Trap. New York: Bantam Books, 1980.

These Choose Your Own Adventure books are really fun. My particular adventure, Spy Trap by Edward Packard puts you, the reader, in the story as a secret agent for the government. You are asked to follow a tremendous secret that would rock the marine biology world. Humback whales are disappearing and you think you have discovered where they are going through analyzing their song. These whales can communicate! All along the story there are choices that you must make. Make the wrong choice and you end the story (and often times, your life). Make the right choice and you continue on your adventure and get to live on. Sometimes the endings are death while others are implied with a sentence that trails off… Your choices could be as simple as a right or left at the fork in the road or as complicated as asking if you trust your superiors to tell them all (if so, turn to page 89) or do you NOT trust them and you keep quiet (turn to page 95)? Every decision is up to you and because of the number of decisions you can make throughout the story there are countless variations of the same story. In my version I took risks left and right and managed to live to see a happy ending. My second time through I wasn’t so lucky. It’s implied I died at sea. So sad.

Author Fact: Edward Packard created this second-person storytelling idea. Very cool.

BookLust Twist: While not mentioned in the index The Choose Your Own Adventure series is in Book Lust on page 190 in the chapter called “The Postmodern Condition.”