Category: BookLust II

Slipping Up

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Confession time. I have fallen off the path of documentation somehow. It all started when my list of accomplished (read) books for the Book Lust Challenge on LibraryThing wasn’t adding up with the list I keep in a separate spreadsheet. LibraryThing had 298 accomplished books and my spreadsheet claimed 297. What’s one book you might ask? Plenty. That means some author’s work isn’t fully accounted for.

So. I started to investigate. To my horror not only were my numbers off, but somehow I had missed reviewing 17 books. Well, that’s not entirely true. I reviewed them here, on WordPress, but somehow forgot to transfer the “clean” version to LibraryThing. For those not in the know: I post the same review twice. First I write a review complete with personal observations and favorite quotes on WordPress, then I cut out the personal stuff and post the drab, shorter  “review” on LibraryThing. Neither is really a “review” per se. I don’t critique the writer’s style, find fault with plot, criticize timelines, etc. I basically am out to prove to anyone who cares (mostly myself) that I read the book by saying a few words about the general storyline, characters, and so on.

So. Now I am in the process of searching for 17 missing reviews. Did they all make it to WordPress and not LibraryThing? I already found two that way. Was I hesitant to review an entire book when I only read one story or poem out of it? What was my problem with the review process? This will take some time to sort out. I’m afraid to ask the bigger questions. Did I just get lazy? Am I slipping up?

ps~ The missing 298th accomplished book? Native Son by Richard Wright.

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).

Off Balance

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Gordon, Suzanne. Off Balance: the Real World of Ballet. New York: Pantheon Books, 1983.

Yet another book I wasn’t supposed to read this month. I have no idea how it got on the list because it’s designated for October – National Art Month. Woops. Luckily, this was easy to read and I got through it very quickly. It didn’t take away from the books I was supposed to read.

I had only read one book about ballet and all about how difficult it is to be a dancer before reading Off Balance. Off Balance: the Real World of Ballet  was pretty much the same theme. I found the entire book to be well written but extremely depressing. Having no experience with the world of ballet (“real” or otherwise) I had to take Gordon’s word for it. According to everything I have read dancers are unhealthy, prone to injury, anorexia, and mental issues; they are socially stunted and obsessed with pleasing their teachers. Dancers don’t have formal educations, family lives, or productive interests outside of dance. The family of a dancer makes sacrifices above and beyond normal expectations. Dancers earn woefully little and they don’t get vacation pay. Workloads are exhausting yet they can get fired at a moments notice. The entire book is like this. Open any page and you will find something negative about the world of ballet. It got to be so depressing and negative that I couldn’t wait to finish the last page. I started to believe that any self-respecting person should not want to be involved in the world of ballet and if he or she did it was sheer stupidity that drove ambition. After all, as Gordon herself writes, dancers don’t think for themselves – they receive constant direction from their teachers.

BookLust Twist: From More Book Lust in the chapter called, “Dewey Deconstructed: 700s” (p 74).

Those Tremendous Mountains

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Hawke, David Freeman. Those Tremendous Mountains: the Story of the Lewis and Clark Expedition. New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 1980.

Confession time: I thought I would be bored to hell and back by this book. History was never my strong point, even if I was supposed to relate to it. Ancestry or not, I couldn’t relate to anything historical. Those Tremendous Mountains was a different story. I was really amazed by how much I enjoyed it. To say that I loved every page wouldn’t be far off the mark. Hawke blends the diaries, notes and sketches of Captains Meriweather Lewis and William Clark with his own narrative to create a lively and creative account of the famous duo’s expedition. It is not a dry retelling of the trials and tribulations of traversing  daunting mountain ranges. It is a portrait of desire, courage, friendship and loyalty. Thanks to a very specific and detailed charge by Thomas Jefferson to count every tree, flower, river, animal, and weather condition along the journey and both Lewis and Clark’s insatiable desire and curiosity to discover the world around them they documented thousands of species never seen before, making their expedition that much more famous than those gone who had before them. Their curiosity for every new plant and animal they encountered gave them a wealth of information to send back to the President. Hawke also carefully portrays Lewis and Clark as humanitarians with a keen sense of diplomacy when dealing with the Native American tribes they encountered. Knowing they would need help crossing the Rockies Lewis and Clark made sure to have plenty of gifts for the natives. Bartering for the things they needed came easier with a show a respect rather than force. 

Probably my favorite parts in the book were the displays of friendship between Lewis and Clark. While President Jefferson continuously called it Lewis’ expedition, Lewis insisted Clark was his equal and it was their expedition. Even after Jefferson downgraded Clark’s rank from captain to second lieutenant Lewis the men on the expedition “never learned of his true rank and always called him Captain” (p 51). Probably my favorite lines comes at the end: “By then the trust  between them was complete and remained so to the end” (p 248). 

BookLust Twist: From More Book Lust n the chapter called ” Lewis and Clark: Adventurers Extraordinaire” (p 136).

Turbulent Souls

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Dubner, Stephen J. Turbulent Souls: a Catholic Son’s Return to His Jewish Family. New York: William Morrow & Co., 1998.

In the beginning, Turbulent Souls started out slow for me. I’m not exactly sure why. I think, true to form, the background of any story is the least exciting. It’s the opening act, the warming up so to speak. This setting of the stage is vital to the story, though. Dubner needed to explain his Jewish parents conversion to Catholicism in order for the rest of his story to make sense.

Stephen Dubner was born into a large, upstate New York, Catholic family. Only, Stephen never really felt at home with his parents’ view on religion. Something just didn’t seem comfortable to him. As a young man in his 20’s he meets a Jewish actress who guides him to discover his family’s orginal faith. The more he learns of Jewish customs the easier it is for him to shed everything he memorized about Catholic customs. The more he practices Jewish customs the more it feels like a rediscovery, a return to a religion he left behind before birth. As a journalist Dubner begins to see his family has a story, an amazing one. He cannot ignore the fact that both his parents converted right around the time Jews were being murdered by the Nazis. He discovers Ethel Rosenberg was his mother’s first cousin. As he uncovers the secrets of his family he finds himself.

There were many, many great lines in this book. Here are a couple describing Dubner’s religious childhood: “The aberrant memory is of my father loading us all into the pink-and-gray Rambler for Sunday Mass…my father slamming his pinkie in the back door and yelling, “Shit!” I knew the word; I just didn’t know that my father did” (p 108). “The fires of Hell kept me from letting Dale Schaeffer cheat off my math test even though he offered me first a dollar and then a skull-bashing” (p 114).
Here’s one from Dubner’s college years that I particularly liked (reminded me of my house): “…but even the three of us were no match for the memories of the house. They overpowered us, sent us to bed early, made our supper conversation timid” (p 151).
And one from adulthood: “When I was an alter boy I would get nervous being alone with Father DiPace. He represented God; I represented human shortcoming” (p 201). There are many more fantastic lines, but I’ll stop there.

BookLust Twist: From More Book Lust in the chapter called, “Me, Me, Me: Autobiographies and Memoirs” (p 162).

Professor and the Madman

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Winchester, Simon. The Professor and the Madman: a Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary. New York: Harper Perennial,1999.

I was supposed to read this last August and I ended up reading something completely different by accident. The titles were nothing alike but I kept getting them confused. Go figure.

Is this a movie? If it isn’t, it should be. They say that truth is stranger than fiction and I agree. Dr. W.C. Minor was a brilliant American doctor who was found legally insane after committing murder. During his confinement in a mental institute in London, Minor embarked on a quest to help Professor James Murray compile submissions for the Oxford English Dictionary. His astounding contribution led Professor Murray to seek out Dr. Minor, learn of his confinement in an asylum for the criminally insane, and despite all that, become the closest of friends.

The story itself appears benign. Dr. Minor’s mental illness consists mostly of hallucinations and the paranoia that certain people were “messing with him.” As a result nothing could prepare me for the moment when Dr. Minor decided on December 3rd, 1902 to cut off his own penis (a procedure called autopeotomy). “In his delusional world he felt he had no alternative but to remove it. He was a doctor, of course, and so knew roughly what he was doing” (p 193). What the ??? It’s this tongue-in-cheek writing that makes The Professor and the Madman so much fun to read.

BookLust Twist: In both Book Lust and More Book Lust. In Book Lust in the chapter called, “Words to the Wise” (p 249), and in More Book Lust in the chapter called, “Dewey Deconstructed: 400s” (p 68).

Scarlet Letter

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Hawthorne, Nathaniel. The Scarlet Letter. New York: Literary Classics, 1987.

I had to write a book report on this in high school (who didn’t?) then I had to write a critical analysis complete with symbolic meaning and themes in college. I don’t remember what grade I got on the high school paper. Not to brag, but I’m sure it was an A because high school lit classes were easy. In college my paper received a B+/A- because a) I didn’t quote the professor teaching the class (he was an authority on The Scarlet Letter apparently), and b) I didn’t delve deeper in the sexual side of Hester. 19 year old me wanted to concentrate on sin and the effects of that sin on everyone. To me, that’s exactly what The Scarlet Letter is all about.

The Scarlet Letter opens with Hester Prynne being led to the stocks. She is the sinner and as a result is being publicly ridiculed. Her crime is having an adulterous affair that resulted in the birth of a baby girl. She not only won’t disclose the father of her child, but she won’t repent for her affair. She is condemned to wear the letter ‘A’ as a punishment, as a constant reminder to the community that she is an adulteress. While there is residual shame, Roger Chillingworth does not want the public to know Hester is his wife. There is honor in Hester’s scandal – because she refuses to give up the name of her lover. Dignity prevails and she outwardly bears the burden of shame alone. Her lover also shoulders the guilt of sin in his own way as he plays an important part of the community.

BookLust Twist: From More Book Lust in two different chapters. First, “Literary Lives: The Americans” (p 144). Second, “Wayward Wives” (p 231).

August ’09 Is…

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August is a long awaited trip homehome. August is the trials and tribulations of hiring. August is a little Avett Brothers, drums and Sean for music. August is getting back to cooking. August is so many different things, including a goal of 84 miles. Don’t ask. Here’s what August is for books:

  • The Professor and the Madman by Simon Winchester (the easiest way to celebrate National Language Month.)
  • The Moviegoer by Walker Percy (Marking the anniversary of hurricane Katrina later this month – The Moviegoer takes place in New Orleans.)
  • Mutual Friend by Frederick Busch (Celebrating Busch’s birth month.)
  • Turbulent Souls by Stephen J. Dubner (Blame it on someone else month. I think I’ll have to wait for the review to explain this one.)
  • These Tremendous Mountains by David Freeman Hawke (Celebrating the expedition of Lewis and Clark)
  • Wind, Sand & Stars by Antoine Du Saint (August is National Aviation Month)

And for LibraryThing it is: Sandman Slim by Richard Kadrey and I really, really should reread the one Early Review book I didn’t get around to reviewing, Honeymoon in Tehran by Azadeh Moaveni.

For fun it’s a bunch of running band vegetable books. Go figure.

July ’09 Was…

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July ’09 was yesterday, but it was also a really fun month (despite the pool letting go). First there was meeting a friend for dinner and asking her to come work for me! Then there was Rebecca Correia’s Iron Horse show. Of course I rallied the troups (all 12 of us!) and we had a great time. I really need to blog about the three-way Kisa had with the girls and who can forget the Wicked Wally?
How could I forget Boston? The trip into the city was amazing because the company couldn’t have been more perfect. They caught the mandarin fish! I have a few pictures from the day of my way, but I’m dying to see theirs!
July was also the return to running. I am proud to say I logged 35.21 miles in July.

  • The Skull Mantra by Eliott Pattison ~ this one stayed with me for awhile. I think it should be a movie.
  • The Stillmeadow Raod by Gladys Taber ~ cute.
  • Close Range: Wyoming Stories by Annie Proulx ~ ugly.
  • The Enemy by Lee Child ~ fascinating. Can’t wait to read the others!
  • Morningside Heights by cheryl Mendelson ~ middle class society in Manhattan.
  • The Light That Failed by Rudyard Kipling ~ a little tough to get into at first.
  • The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne ~ back to a classic!

For the fun of it:

  • Up the Down Staircase by Bel Kaufman

I was supposed to read a couple of Early Review books but only one arrived in July. I will have to review it in August (I’m reading it now).