Category: BookLust II

High Five

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Evanovich, Janet. High Five. New York: St. Martin’s, 1999.

I always read chick lit in a day or two. For some reason it goes by a lot faster than other, more serious reads. That doesn’t mean it wasn’t any good. I thought it was great. Perfect for New Year’s Day.

Stephanie Plum is a sassy bounty hunter who starts out High Five looking for her uncle as a family favor (seeing as how she finds people for a living). Of course, nothing is as simple as it seems, and soon Stephanie is hip-swinging deep in a murder mystery, flanked by two very attractive, very sexy, strong men vying for her attention. The action never stops for Stephanie. If she isn’t beating up an angry little person or gorging on junk food, she is being stalked by a rapist, narrowly missing being blown up by bombs (twice), or being harassed by a supposed bookie. Add a former prostitute, a sassy grandmother, an astute gerbil, and a sarcastic Arab teenager into the mix and the fun never stops. In a word, High Five is fun. Something I would appreciate of all series is the fact you don’t have to read Four to Score in order to get High Five. The characters allude to previous Plum escapades, but they don’t confuse the story at all.
It took me a little while to get the purpose of the title until I remembered the elaborate high five/handshakes Stephanie could never get the hang of throughout the story. What cracked me up was even her grandmother knew how to do one.

An example of Stephanie Plum’s sexuality, “The note wasn’t signed, but I knew it was from Morelli by the way my nipples got hard” (p 25).

Something I admired of Stephanie – after she binged on junk food she mentions not owning a scale. She didn’t own one. Instead, she judged her weight gain and loss by how her jeans fit.

BookLust Twist: From More Book Lust in the chapter called, “Ms. Mystery” (p 171). I have to admit I am thrilled I will be reading the entire series.

Walls Came Tumbling Down

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Deal, Babs A., The Walls Came Tumbling Down. New York: Doubleday & Co., 1968.

The Walls Came Tumbling Down is very much a late 1960s book. In the beginning I wasn’t sure I would get into it or even like it. It is the story of seven sorority sisters still living in the same small town, still friends as adults. Their friendships are tested when a skeleton of an infant is found in a wall of their sorority house. An investigation would prove the baby was hidden during a renovation that happened during a summer when only those same seven young women were living in the house – twenty-four years earlier. The majority of Deal’s book is filled with busybody gossip, small town snobbery and the uncovering of many secrets besides a hidden pregnancy and birth. Adulterous affairs, the inability to trust one another, and the growing suspicions and prejudices are all brought to light when literally and figuratively, the walls come down.

My favorite line: “I do not want to believe I fell in love with a smile” (p 56).
One of the most telling viewpoints of the times: “His secretary was Miss Wilson. She had been an airline hostess until she got too old. She was thirty-two: (p 109). Thirty-two is too old? Yikes?

BookLust Twist: From More Book Lust in the chapter called, “Southern-Fried Fiction (Alabama)” (p 206).

ps~ I found it interesting that Babs Deal had a small obsession with what kind of cars her characters drove.

Soloist

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Salzman, Mark. The Soloist. New York: Random House, 1994.

I hated to put this book down. I started off reading it at the same time as two other books (which shall remain nameless), but soon I found myself favoring The Soloist over the other two. Which, when you think about it, isn’t a very smart move because when I finished The Soloist I was left with the lesser liked books.
Lesson learned. There is a reason why dessert is served at the end of the meal – save the best for last. It tastes sweeter that way. That goes for books as well, especially The Soloist. I can’t wait to read Salzman’s other books.

In a nutshell The Soloist is about a man who is struggling with who he was as a child in relation to who he has become as an adult. As a child Renne Sundheimer was a prodigy who mastered the cello and thrilled audiences world-wide. As an adult, having mysteriously lost his talent, Renne has become a cello teacher for a university in Southern California. His life revolves around the music he used to make until two completely different events happen. First, Renne is summoned to jury duty where he hears a case involving a murdered Buddhist monk. Second, Renne finds himself the tutor of another cello prodigy, a nine-year old Korean boy. In both situations Renne started out an unwilling participant. He was convinced he didn’t want to serve on a jury and planned to profess an undue hardship. He was also convinced he didn’t want to give private lessons to an introverted Korean boy. In both cases he fails to extract himself from involvement and ultimately ends up changing his life.

Favorite lines: “Human beings are primates, and primates weren’t designed to tie themselves up into knots and hold still (p 99). I’m not sure how my yoga friends would take to this comment, but I found it funny.
And the last lines of the book are perfect, “I don’t think about the past as much as I used to, and I hardly ever think further than a semester ahead. I’m not sure that’s a bad thing, though. I’m starting to think that the larger picture is overrated” (p 284). Precisely.

BookLust Twist: From More Book Lust in the chapter called, “Mark Salzman: Too Good to Miss” (p 194).

Off topic comment: When Pearl introduces Salzman in her second Lust book she mentions not going to readings given by authors she likes. She is always afraid of not liking the person behind the words, or thinking of the author’s voice when reading his or her newest offering. I’m like that with music. Once I see the musician I can’t get their image out of my head and sometimes, often, it skews the music.

Tiepolo’s Hound

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Walcott, Derek. Tiepolo’s Hound. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2000.

At first glance Tiepolo’s Hound is pretty deceiving. It looks like a simple poem with gorgeous pictures. Upon closer inspection Tiepolo’s Hound becomes more complicated. One narrative becomes two. Aside from Camille Pissaro’s desire to leave St. Thomas to follow his artistic dreams, the author describes his own journey to rediscover the details of a venetian painting. The dual narration tangles the storyline and leads to an anti-climatic ending to an otherwise fascinating journey. The vivid imagery of the sights, sounds and smells of St. Thomas make the poem beautiful. The colorful descriptions of the surrounding landscapes are what successfully capture the reader’s attention and hold it until the end.

Favorite descriptor: “thunderhead cumuli grumbling with rain” (p 10)
Favorite line: “I felt my heart halt” (p 7).

Favorite aspect of the book: so many references to the sea. For example ~ blue gusting harbor, wide water, cobalt bay, quiet seas, wooden waves, furrowing whitecaps, soundless spray, sea-gnarled islets, etc, etc. Simply beautiful.

BookLust Twist: From More Book Lust in the chapter called, The Contradictory Caribbean: Paradise and Pain” (p 55).

Dingley Falls

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 Malone, Michael. Dingley Falls. New York: Harcourt, Brace & Jovanovich, 1980.

I chose Dingley Falls in honor of National Author’s Day being in November. Nothing more random than that.

Even if you didn’t know anything about Michael Malone you would swear his novel, Dingley Falls, is supposed to be a script, or at least the backdrop, to a titillating, slightly scandalous soap opera. The town of Dingley Falls, fictitiously located somewhere in Connecticut, is teeming with odd characters with even more bizarre stories to tell. It is as if the entire community has digested some mild altering hallucinogenic that causes everyone to come unglued. To give a few examples, mild-mannered Mrs. Abernathy suddenly ends up under a tree in the pouring rain having wild sex with a poet she has just met; post mistress Mrs. Haig is forced to retire because of a bad heart. It’s not the job that is stressing her out, it’s a snapping, snarling dog who chases her home five nights a week; Headmaster Mr. Saar has trouble controlling his sexual appetite and will wind up handcuffed to a bed in a seedy motel in New York City, naked and dead, if he isn’t careful. Mrs. Ransom tries masturbation for the very first time only to have some stranger catch her in the act.
The list of characters goes on and on, so much so that Malone needed to list his crazy community individual by individual at the start of his book.

When you discover Michael Malone has years and year of experience as the senior writer for One Life to Live then Dingley Falls begins to make sense. The heightened drama, the outrageous characters, the never-ending bizarre situations in Dingley Falls suddenly become par for the course…just a little more graphic with the sex scenes and violence, the things you can’t show as vividly on daytime television.

Favorite lines: “The elderly shut-in bought a new car every year – each racier than the last – as if she thought she could outdrag death if she only had the horsepower” (p 94). “‘Did you know that until I drink this cup of coffee, anything you know is knowing too much?'” (p 145). “He drank in order to pose count; not like Walter Saar, to get in touch with who he was, but to stay out of touch with who he might have been” (p 157).

BookLust Twist: In Book Lust and More Book Lust. This is a popular book in Pearl’s world. First, from Book Lust in the chapter called, “Southern Fiction” (p 222). From More Book Lust in the chapter called, “Michael Malone: Too Good To Miss” (p 160).

Invitation to Indian Cooking

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Jaffrey, Madhur. An Invitation to Indian Cooking. New Jersey: Ecco Press, 1999.

I have to start off by saying I love Madhur Jaffrey’s cookbooks. I own several and all of them are well-organized and beautifully illustrated (or have gorgeous photographs).

An Invitation to Indian Cooking might have been a more accurate title had it included the subtitle Getting to Know Indian Cuisines and Ingredients because Jaffrey not only invites you into the world of Indian cuisine she also includes history lessons and ingredient explanations in addition to recipes. While her tone is conversational I found it to be a little didactic at times. Her claims that Americans, on the whole, don’t know what well-prepared rice tastes like is one such example. Another drawback to An Invitation to Indian Cooking is its out-of-date information. Basmati rice, Jaffrey recommends, is readily available at specialty stores. That may have been true in 1973 when her first cookbook was published, but I expected the reprint to have some updated information. I also find it hard to believe that out of 50 states only 12 have stores that carry authentic Indian ingredients.
But, having said all that, I love the recipes Jaffrey includes in her first cookbook. I like her attention to detail and her comparisons between American and Indian products. For example, Jaffrey points out that American chicken is more tender than chicken purchased in India, therefore traditional Indian cooking techniques would not work well on an American-raised bird.

“The chicken available in American markets is so tender that it begins to fall apart well before it can go through the several stages required in most Indian recipes” (p 86).

If you are ambitious enough to make several Indian recipes at the same time Jaffrey includes a series of different menus to try.

BookLust Twist: From More Book Lust  in the chapter called, “India: a Reader’s Itinerary” (p 125).

Just So Stories

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Kipling, Rudyard. The Complete Just So Stories. New York: Viking, 2003.

It took me a very long time to find a version of Just So Stories  that had the exact stories I was looking for. My library has a book that it calls Just So Stories but isn’t the complete volume of all stories. It’s missing the two crucial stories I needed for the Book Lust Challenge, ” How the First Letter was Written” and “How the Alphabet was Made.” 

Despite being published in 1902 I am glad I found a 2003 republication. Isabelle Brent’s illustrations are wonderful! She took some liberties modernizing Taffy and her father who were supposed to be ancient tribal people, but her depictions of animals are accurate and her use of color is great.

I only read two stories from Just So Stories, “How the First Letter was Written” and “How the Alphabet was Made.” Both were incredibly fun to read, especially aloud. Kipling pokes fun at the stereotypes of parents and children with names like, “Lady-who-asks-a-very-many-questions” for the mother and “Small-person-with-out-any-manners-who-ought-to-be-spanked”  for the child. In both stories the theme is the need for better communication skills and are meant to be read together. The first letter makes up the alphabet later on and one story is a continuation of the other. Rumor has it that both “How the First Letter was Written” and “How the Alphabet was Made” started out as oral stories, told to Kipling’s daughter Josephine in 1900.

Favorite line: “We must make the best of  bad job” (p 70 from “How the First Letter was Written”).

BookLust Twist: From More Book Lust in the chapter called, “Alphabet Soup” (p 11).

The Life You Save

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Elie, Paul. The Life You Save May Be Your Own: an American Pilgrimage. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2003.

What do Flannery O’Connor, Thomas Merton, Dorothy Day and Walker Percy have in common? For starters, they are all authors who struggled not only with identity, but religious faith as well. It’s this search for religious truth through writing that binds them together. They conducted their searches and tested boundaries of Catholicism through the art of writing.  Mary Flannery O’Connor began her writing career in Georgia at a very young age and was considered a prodigy by many: Thomas Merton, just a couple of states north in Kentucky began his writing as a Trappist monk who wrote letters about his faith: Dorothy Day, while older than all the others, founded the Catholic Worker newspaper in New York: Walker Percy started out as a doctor in the furthest south of them all, in New Orleans, but quit medicine to become novelist. In time the group became known as the School of the Holy Ghost because of their pursuit of the answers to religion’s biggest questions. Paul Elie brings that School of the Holy Ghost back together again in a 2003 book called The Life You Save May Be Your Own containing biographies and literary criticisms of all four writers. Elie does a great job detailing all four lives and the times they lived in, but is more thorough with the women than the men. Flannery O’Connor gets the most attention while Thomas Merton gets the least.

I didn’t find any quotes that really spoke up or out, but my favorite part was Elie’s breakdown of Walker Percy’s The Moviegoer. I am almost tempted to read it again now that I have a better understanding of Percy and what he was trying to say.

BookLust Twist: From More Book Lust in the chapter called, “Group Portraits” (p 109).

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.