Category: Fiction

Life in the Air Ocean

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Foley, Sylvia. Life in the Air Ocean. New York: Alfred A Knopf, 1999.

Life in the Air Ocean is made up of nine short stories that are all interconnected.

  • “Cave Fish” introduces Daniel to the reader. Husband to Iris, he is a veteran and has a baby daughter. “Her eyes slipped back and forth like a cave fish” (p 10). I have no idea what that means.
  • “Boy Wonder” takes us back to when Daniel was an abused boy.
  • “Life in the Air Ocean” is from Iris’s point of view. “Iris knew she was dawdling on the side of madness” (p 33).
  • “Elemenopy” is Ruth’s story and alludes to a sinister secret.
  • “Off Grenada” introduces us to three year old Monica as the new addition to the Mowry family. Older sister, Ruth, is now seven years old. “Stilts of electricity were walking over the water” (p 74).
  • “Cloudland” is ominous. Allusions of sexual abuse and alcoholism are repeated.
  • “State of the Union” addresses Iris’s alcoholism and growing paranoia that her husband is cheating on her. At this point, her children have grown (Monica, the youngest, is in college) and she barely has contact with them.
  • “History of Sex” is told from Ruth’s point of view in first person and is probably the most disturbing of the stories.
  • “Dogfight” is told from the youngest daughter, Monica’s point of view.

All along bits and pieces of the story are drawn out. Ruth is a baby without a name of gender for the first two stories. It’s like a peep show where only tantalizing tidbits are introduced. As the curtain goes down on one story, you hope it opens to reveal more in the next. This was a difficult series of stories to read. Depressing doesn’t even begin to describe it. I feel like I read this and winced all the way through it.

Reason read: March is National Family Month and Pearl lumped this book in the chapter “Families in Trouble” (see Twist).

Author fact: While poking around the internet I found an epub book called Cave Fish: Stories by Sylvia Foley. It’s a free download. Hmmmm…

Book trivia:

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust in the chapter called “Families in Trouble” (p 83). I wasn’t looking forward to reading this because Pearl called Life in the Air Ocean “…one of the most depressing books” she has ever read (p 83). Oh joy.

Marching Orders List

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I am looking forward to March for many reasons. March is the St. Patrick’s Day road race. I don’t talk about it as much here as I do over there, but I am excited all the same. March is my mental month of turning a corner. Winter is making a subtle exit out the back door and spring is just about to come knocking. This is the time of year when I look to flowers and gardens and growth. And speaking of growth, here are the books:

  1. Alice I Have Been by Melanie Benjamin* (April)
  2. Andorra by Peter Cameron (November)
  3. Any Four Women Can Rob the Bank of Italy by Ann Cornelisen (November)
  4. Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz by Mordecai Richler (July)
  5. Art Student’s War by Brad Leithauser (May)
  6. Baltimore Blues by Laura Lippman (September)
  7. Beaufort by Ron Leshem* (November)
  8. Beirut Blues by Hanan al-Shaykh (August)
  9. Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks* (June)
  10. Black Lamb and Gray Falcon by Rebecca West (July)
  11. Bluebird Canyon by Dan McCall (September)
  12. Call It Sleep by Henry Roth (May)
  13. Captain Sir Richard Burton by Edward Rice (October)
  14. Caroline’s Daughters by Alice Adams (August)
  15. Cradle of Gold by Christopher Heaney (November)
  16. Culture of Disbelief by Stephen Carter (October)
  17. Dancer with Bruised Knees by Lynne McFall (June)
  18. Dark Sun by Richard Rhodes (July)
  19. Earthly Possessions by Anne Tyler (June)
  20. Eye of the World by Robert Jordan* (October)
  21. Faith Fox by Jane Gardam* (July)
  22. First Man by Albert Camus (June)
  23. Fordlandia by Greg Gandin (August)
  24. Georges’ Wife by Elizabeth Jolley (April)
  25. Gesture Life by Chang-rae Lee (August)
  26. Grass Dancer by Susan Power (November)
  27. Hall of a Thousand Columns by Tim Mackintosh-Smith (July)
  28. History Man by Malcolm Bradbury (September)
  29. House of Morgan by Ron Chernow (April)
  30. In a Strange City by Laura Lippman (October)
  31. Inside Passage by Michael Modselewski (June)
  32. Inspector Ghote Breaks an Egg by H.R.F. Keating (May)
  33. Jewel in the Crown by Paul Scott* (May)
  34. Labyrinths by Jorge Luis Borges (August)
  35. Long Way From Home by Frederick Busch (August)
  36. Peloponnesian War by Donald Kagan (May)
  37. Raw Silk by Janet Burroway (September)
  38. Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro* (August)
  39. Rose Cafe by John Hanson Mitchell (April)
  40. Rose of Martinique by Andrea Stuart (June)
  41. Thousand Ways to Please a Husband by Weaver/LeCron (September)
  42. Winners and Losers by Martin Quigley (April)
  43. You Get What You Pay For by Larry Beinhart (November)

*Planned as audio books

Here are the many, many books that are on the list for this March:

  1. Angels Weep by Wilbur Smith
  2. Careless Love by Peter Gurlink
  3. Day the Falls Stood Still by Cathy Marie Buchanan*
  4. Flower and the Nettle by Anne Morrow Lindbergh
  5. Illumination Night by Alice Hoffman (March)
  6. ADDED: Life in the Air Ocean by Sylvia Foley
  7. ADDED: Running for Mortals by John Bingham
  8. ADDED: Racing Weight by Matt Fitzgerald
  9. ADDED: Run or Die by Kilian Jornet

FINISHED:

  1. After the Dance by Edwidge Danticat
  2. Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow*
  3. Artist of the Floating World by Kazuo Ishiguro
  4. Benjamin Franklin: an American Life by Walter Isaacson
  5. Bring Me a Unicorn by Anne Morrow Lindbergh
  6. Cabin Fever by Elizabeth Jolley
  7. Civil Action by Jonathan Harr
  8. Eighth Day by Thornton Wilder
  9. Falcon Flies by Wilbur Smith*
  10. Feast of Love by Charles Baxter
  11. Hour of Gold, Hour of Lead by Anne Morrow Lindbergh
  12. It Looked Like Forever by Mark Harris
  13. Last Train to Memphis by Peter Guralink
  14. Men of Men by Wilbur Smith
  15. Now Read This II by Nancy Pearl
  16. Ocean of Words by Ha Jin
  17. Palladian Days by Sally Gable*
  18. Professor and the Housekeeper by Yoko Ogawa
  19. Sword at Sunset by Rosemary Sutcliff

I found my second “impossible to find” book. Power Without Glory by Frank Hardy. Several libraries across the country own it but are unwilling to share it. It was wildly popular in Australia in the 1950s, but not so anymore…to the point that no one will lend it without changing a fee. Bummer.

Cabin Fever

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Jolley, Elizabeth. Cabin Fever. New York: Harper Perennial, 1990.

We don’t really move forward chronologically in this “sequel” to My Father’s Moon. When we last left Vera, she was a single mother dealing with her own overbearing mother. The story bounced between Vera’s present and her past. Cabin Fever is more of the same, only with more detail about the time period. In this installment Vera is in New York for a conference but for almost all of the plot we are in the past, when Vera is a new mother trying to make ends meet. She is still as sad and lonely as she ever was. It is at this point that we learn Vera’s mother made Vera change her baby’s name from Beatrice to Helena. We also learn more about the affair between Vera and Dr. Metcalf, a doctor she worked with at the hospital. Vera bounces from one live-in nanny/housekeeper situation to another until she lands at the Georges residence (enter sequel number three). Brother and sister live together and already have a live-in, Nora. Vera finds a way to stay in the house by filling another need of the household. I’ll leave that bit unspoken. You just have to read it to find out…

Quotes that moved me, “Playful spinsters and exuberant lesbians give birth and special seminars are held to discuss the phenomenon of these people wanting to keep their babies” (p 6), “In my secret game of comparisons Bulge us far worse than I am in every respect, her hair, her stockings, her spectacles, and her shape” (p 12),

Confessional: because I didn’t really like Vera in My Father’s Moon I wasn’t looking forward to her story in Cabin Fever. By the end of Cabin Fever I didn’t learn to like her any better. There is a scene towards the end (p 164) when Vera’s daughter is crying. Vera doesn’t go to comfort her. All she can do is watch her four-year-old from across the room. It’s really sad.

Reason read: Cabin Fever continues the series I started earlier in February to honor of Jolley’s passing.

Author fact: According the the back flap of Cabin Fever Jolley conducted writing workshops in prisons. I find that so fascinating.

Book trivia: Cabin Fever is the second book in the Vera Wright Trilogy.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust To Go in the chapter called “Australia, the Land of Oz: fiction” (p 30). As with My Father’s Moon, Cabin Fever has nothing to do with Australia. Jolley started writing after she moved there. So, I guess it’s like the Olympics. You can represent a country even though you weren’t born there. You just have to have some connection to it.

Men of Men

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Smith, Wilbur. Men of Men. New York: Doubleday & co., 1983.

Because Men of Men picks up where Flight of the Falcon left off we rejoin Zouga Ballantyne. Now he is ten years older and married to a society girl named Aletta. Despite many miscarriages she has given him two boys, Ralph and Jordan. Somehow Zouga has convinced his family to join him in Africa where he is still searching for riches, only this time instead of elephants and gold it is diamonds. His eldest son, Ralph, is exposed to gambling, violence and prostitution at sixteen, literally coming of age in the bush. It’s Ralph we continue to follow for the most of Men of Men although most characters from Flight return. Robyn, Mungo, Clinton and Charoot, to name a few. In reality, it is everyone’s greed we bear witness to. As with all of Smith’s other books, Men of Men is rich with African history and adventure as well as strong characters, only there are more of them to play with.

Typical quotes, “It was a beautiful stabbing, a glory which men would sing about” (p 291),

Reason read: Men of Men continues the series started with Flight of the Falcon in December. Read in honor of Rhodesia’s Shangani Day.

Author fact: Wilbur Smith’s middle name is Addison. What a cool name!

Book trivia: Wilbur uses the same picture for his photo on the dust jacket. Except this photo has been darkened a little so there is a strange shadow across half his face.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust To Go in the chapter called “Zipping Through Zimbabwe/Roaming Rhodesia” (p 268).

Ocean of Words

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Jin, Ha. Ocean of Words. New York: Vintage International, 1996.

Ocean of Words is made up of twelve short stories, all centered around Chinese soldiers on the brink of war with Russia in the early 1970s. In every story there is a Chinese soldier wrestling with suspicion, loyalty, individualism and power. They all wave weaknesses or flaws that render them human above all else. Each character possesses a depth of personality that leaves the reader thinking about him long after the story has ended.  I particularly liked the title story in which the “ocean of words” is a dictionary indexed in Chinese, Latin and English.

In order, the short stories are:

  • “A Report”
  • “Too Late”
  • “Uncle Piao’s Birthday Dinners”
  • “Love in the Air”
  • “Dragon Head”
  • A Contract”
  • “Miss Jee”
  • “A Lecture”
  • “The Russian Prisoner”
  • The Fellow Townsmen”
  • “My Best Soldier”
  • “Ocean of Words”

My favorite quotes, “Once you’re conquered by foreigners, you’ve lost everything” (p 27), “History is a mess of chances and accidents” (p 77), and “Mind modeling is more important” (p 174).

My favorite stories: “A Contract” and “Ocean of Words.”

Reason read: Celebrating Ha Jin’s birth month.

Author fact: Ocean of Words is Ha Jin’s first fiction.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust To Go in the chapter called, “China:the Middle Kingdom” (p 61).

My Father’s Moon

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Jolley, Elizabeth. My Father’s Moon. New York: Harper & Row Publishers, 1989.

Veronica Wright (Vera) is trying to find her way. As a mother to young Helena. As a daughter to an overbearing mother. As a nurse in war-torn England. As an unpopular student at a stuffy boarding school. She find solace in the little things, like the promise of a moon she and her father can both see, no matter how far apart they may be. We start at the end, when Vera is a single mother, but then weave our way back through Vera’s beginnings. At times, the story is disjointed and meandering; I think of it as chronologically schizophrenic. I didn’t care for all the jumping around. And. I didn’t care for Vera and her miserable personality. There. I said it. There is something so hopeless and lost about Vera’s spirit.  She isn’t in touch with her feelings, doesn’t know when to laugh, is awkward around her peers, has been told she has no sex appeal, is ignored in most situations…Her relationships with fellow students, nurses and family are suspicious. Jolley drops hints about the true nature of them, but nothing is clear.

Quotes I liked, “That day she asked me what time it was, saying that she must hurry and get her wrists slashed before Frederick comes back from his holiday” (p 9), “There is something hopeless in being hopeful that one person can actually match and replace another” (p 53), “there are times when an unutterable loneliness is the only company in the cold morning” (p 69), and, last one, “The feeling I have of being able to reach out to take the sky in both hands is one of the most restful things I have ever known” (p 108).

Reason read: Jolley died in the month of February (2007). Read to honor her passing.

Author fact: Even though this was in the Australian section of Book Lust To Go, Jolley isn’t Australian. She was born in England and moved to Australia.

Book trivia: This is the first book in the Vera Wright Trilogy.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust in the chapter called “Australia, the Land of Oz (fiction)” (p 30). I’m not sure why My Father’s Moon is in this chapter.  Technically, Jolley wasn’t Australian and the book doesn’t take place in Australia. Yes, she lived in Australia, began her writing career in Australia and made herself a name as a writer there…

February Love List

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Love is in the air. Technically, this February I celebrate my fifteenth Valentine’s Day with Kisa. (15 being in the pre-wife role and I believe, even pre-girlfriend role.) He won’t agree. He thinks we were dating by this time but I call it the anniversary of MY acceptance. I truly gave in to the idea of a decent guy being in my life. For real. February also marks the anniversary of me, myself & moi being on this planet for forty some odd years. But, enough of all that. Here’s the list for month three of a different anniversary, one with a lot of books. New this time around is the addition of the month in which each book should be read:

  1. Alice I Have Been by Melanie Benjamin* (April)
  2. Andorra by Peter Cameron (November)
  3. Any Four Women Can Rob the Bank of Italy by Ann Cornelisen (November)
  4. Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz by Mordecai Richler (July)
  5. Art Student’s War by Brad Leithauser (May)
  6. Baltimore Blues by Laura Lippman (September)
  7. Beaufort by Ron Leshem* (November)
  8. Beirut Blues by Hanan al-Shaykh (August)
  9. Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks* (June)
  10. Black Lamb and Gray Falcon by Rebecca West (July)
  11. Bluebird Canyon by Dan McCall (September)
  12. Cabin Fever by Elizabeth Jolley (March)
  13. Call It Sleep by Henry Roth (May)
  14. Captain Sir Richard Burton by Edward Rice (October)
  15. Caroline’s Daughters by Alice Adams (August)
  16. Cradle of Gold by Christopher Heaney (November)
  17. Culture of Disbelief by Stephen Carter (October)
  18. Dancer with Bruised Knees by Lynne McFall (June)
  19. Dark Sun by Richard Rhodes (July)
  20. Day the Falls Stood Still by Cathy Marie Buchanan* (March)
  21. Earthly Possessions by Anne Tyler (June)
  22. Eye of the World by Robert Jordan* (October)
  23. Faith Fox by Jane Gardam* (July)
  24. First Man by Albert Camus (June)
  25. Fordlandia by Greg Gandin (August)
  26. Georges’ Wife by Elizabeth Jolley (April)
  27. Gesture Life by Chang-rae Lee (August)
  28. Grass Dancer by Susan Power (November)
  29. Hall of a Thousand Columns by Tim Mackintosh-Smith (July)
  30. History Man by Malcolm Bradbury (September)
  31. House of Morgan by Ron Chernow (April)
  32. Illumination Night by Alice Hoffman (March)
  33. In a Strange City by Laura Lippman (October)
  34. Inside Passage by Michael Modselewski (June)
  35. Inspector Ghote Breaks an Egg by H.R.F. Keating (May)
  36. Jewel in the Crown by Paul Scott* (May)
  37. Labyrinths by Jorge Luis Borges (August)
  38. Long Way From Home by Frederick Busch (August)
  39. Peloponnesian War by Donald Kagan (May)
  40. Power Without Glory by Frank Hardy (March)
  41. Raw Silk by Janet Burroway (September)
  42. Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro* (August)
  43. Rose Cafe by John Hanson Mitchell (April)
  44. Rose of Martinique by Andrea Stuart (June)
  45. Thousand Ways to Please a Husband by Weaver/LeCron (September)
  46. Winners and Losers by Martin Quigley (April)
  47. You Get What You Pay For by Larry Beinhart (November)

*Planned as audio books

Here are the six books that are on the list for this February:

  1. ADDED: Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow*
  2. Careless Love by Peter Gurlink
  3. Hour of Gold, Hour of Lead by Anne Morrow Lindbergh
  4. Men of Men by Wilbur Smith
  5. Ocean of Words by Ha Jin
  6. Palladian Days by Sally Gable*

FINISHED:

  1. After the Dance by Edwidge Danticat
  2. ADDED: Artist of the Floating World by Kazuo Ishiguro
  3. Benjamin Franklin: an American Life by Walter Isaacson
  4. Bring Me a Unicorn by Anne Morrow Lindbergh
  5. Civil Action by Jonathan Harr
  6. Eighth Day by Thornton Wilder
  7. Falcon Flies by Wilbur Smith*
  8. Feast of Love by Charles Baxter
  9. It Looked Like Forever by Mark Harris
  10. Last Train to Memphis by Peter Guralink
  11. Now Read This II by Nancy Pearl
  12. Professor and the Housekeeper by Yoko Ogawa
  13. Sword at Sunset by Rosemary Sutcliff

Artist of the Floating World

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Ishiguro, Kazuo. An Artist of the Floating World. New York: Vintage International, 1986.

This is story about a change in cultural attitudes. After World War II many things are different for artist Masuji Ono. At the very simplest, his grandson idolizes the Lone Ranger and Godzilla instead of ancient emperors. At the most complicated, Masuji’s art is not received as it once was. His war efforts are not as admirable and are now making it difficult for his youngest daughter, nearly a spinster at twenty-six, to get married. Ono does what he can to eliminate “bad interviews” when the detectives investigate the family. But, as one former acquaintance remarks, “I realize there are not those who would condemn the likes of you and me for the very things we were once proud to have achieved” (p 94). Ono’s past is a heavy threat to the happiness of his daughter’s future. Throughout the story there is the theme of bondage. The conversations are retrained. The delicate relationships are bound by decorum.

As an aside: is it customary in the Japanese culture for people to repeat themselves so often? Complete sentences are uttered time and time again.

Reason read: On the second Monday in January there is a Japanese holiday to honor the tradition of coming of age. Since An Artist of the Floating World takes place in Japan….

Author fact: Ishiguro is better known for his book Remains of the Day which is also on my list to read.

Book trivia: An Artist of the Floating World won the Whitbread book of the Year Award in 1986.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust To Go in the chapter called “Japanese Journeys” (p 116). Simple enough.

Feast of Love

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Baxter, Charles. Feast of Love. New York: Vintage Books, 2000.

This is a really clever story. Charlie Baxter (the character…or the author?) wakes from a bad dream and, like any real insomniac, chooses to walk it off. His 1am stroll leads him to a bench where he finds his neighbor, also wide awake. The two start a conversation about relationships and Charlie’s neighbor urges him to write about “real” people in “real” relationships, starting with his own twice-divorced life. From there, we are introduced to a myriad of characters. The theme throughout is love, love, love. Love of all shapes, sizes, complexities, and intricacies are on display. It is though a curtain has been drawn back and we are allowed to view the more intimate ups and downs of a relationship, for better or for worse.
As an aside, I was talking to a friend about this book and he didn’t like it because he felt the details of the relationships were too personal to be put on display like that. In some respect I agree with him. But, I think we were both drawn into the mystery of exactly who was telling the story, because I think that makes a difference. If it purely fiction it is not too personal, but. But! But, something changes when it is someone telling their story outright.

Lines I liked: “The moon, it seems, is not singing at all” (p 5), “Every relationship has at least one really good day” (p 17), “I kept reaching for his heart and finding nothing there to hold on to” (p 31),

Reason read: Michigan became a state in January and Feast of Love takes place in Michigan.

Author fact: Charles Baxter has his own website here. The schedule for readings hasn’t been updated since 2012 and I was tempted to ask why on the Q & A page…but I didn’t.

Book trivia: Feast of Love was a National Book Award Finalist. It was also a New York Times Notable Book.

BookLust Twist: from More Book Lust in the chapter called “Big Ten Country: The Literary Midwest (Michigan)” (p 26).

A Falcon Flies

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Smith, Wilbur. A Falcon Flies. Read by Stephen Thorne. Hampton: BBC Audiobooks America, 1980.

A Falcon Flies opens with Dr. Robyn Ballantyne sailing to southern Africa on a mission. She hopes to bring medical aid and Christianity to the people of her birthplace, single handedly bring an end to the slave trade, and find her famous-yet-missing missionary father. Along for the ride is her brother, Zouga. Once in Africa, Zouga plays a big part in solving the mystery of his missing father while Robyn is distracted with the attention of different men. Luckily, this only occurs in the beginning of the book. Subsequently, Robyn becomes a fierce, brave, independent woman, hellbent on finding her father and delivering kindness to every native she meets.
Wilbur Smith’s style of writing is, at times, soap-opera exaggerated. Robyn’s emotions are extremely dramatic. Once I was able to accept this bewilderment as fact I was able to enjoy the book that much more. Since it goes on for over 500 pages, this was a good thing!

As an aside: For me, personally, there is something positively creepy about a man writing about desiring a man from a woman’s point of view. I don’t know what it is, but the sexual tension scenes in A Falcon Flies seemed over the top. Smith’s description of Captain Mungo St. John’s body from Dr. Robyn Ballantyne’s point of view was a little ridiculous. Ballantyne is attracted and repelled by the captain, but you know which side wins out. The scene with her waiting in the captain’s bedchambers with pistols drawn is a little silly. Maybe I should read more bodice-rippers in an effort to get used to such high-fainting drama.

I find it increasingly frustrating to listen to an audio book that skips all the time. As a librarian, I feel it is my moral responsibility to loan material that is pleasurable to the patron. I would have deaccessioned this audio book a longtime ago!

Reason read: Shangani Day (December 4th) was an official holiday in Rhodesia, back in 1895. Read in honor of that day.

Author fact: Smith has quite the flashy website here. It was fun to poke around.

Book trivia: A Falcon Flies was published in the United States as Flight of the Falcon.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust To Go in the chapter called “Zipping Through Zimbabwe/Roaming Rhodesia” (p 269).

Sword at Sunset

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Sutcliff, Rosemary. Sword at Sunset. NewYork: Coward-McCann, 1963.

The fifth century is not always the easier time period to lose yourself in, but the writing of Rosemary Sutcliff is the exception. Her vivid imagination combined with great storytelling brings Artos the Bear to life. I will admit, I am not an avid reader of Arthurian tales. I do not have the details of the legend down-pat and would not know where Sutcliff takes artistic liberty. Probably the best part about Sword at Sunset is the personality of its hero, Artos the Bear. His complex character as a warrior and companion is crystal clear and believable, and dare I say, attractive? I think I would date him…In times of battle all of his decisions are calculated and fair. I especially liked his reaction to Minnow’s news that he must leave the company to marry a merchant’s girl who is with child. His reasoning is just. I also liked his treatment of animals, particularly his taming of a fallen commander’s wolfhound. The scenes of battle are appropriate and gut-wrenching. And speaking of gut-wrenching, the final betrayals by Bear’s best friend and son are tragic. I won’t say more because, unlike myself, you’ve always known how it ends.

Quotes to ponder, “The taste of vomit was in my very soul, and a shadow lay between me and the sun” (p 53). I think this was fancy way of saying “dread.” More quotes: “To go into battle drunk is a glory worth experiencing, but it does not make for clear and detailed memory” (p 200), “In war and in the wilderness one easily loses count of time” (p 256), “A wonderful thing is habit” (p 328), and one more, “Silence took us by the throat” (p 443). I especially like that last line the best.

Reason read: Legend has it King Arthur was born in December. If that isn’t true, Rosemary Sutcliff was born in December as well. So, read in someone’s honor.

Author fact: Rosemary Sutcliff’s website (blog page) is a pleasure to peruse.

Book trivia: Sword at Sunset continues the story where The Lantern Bearers leaves off only The Lantern Bearers is not on my list.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust in two chapters; the first called “King Arthur” (p 136) and the second called “My Own Private Dui” (p 166).

Resolution January List

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For starters, this is late. Like a week late. Sorry! January is the start of a new year but only the second month of the seventh year of the BookLust Challenge. I know, it’s confusing. I took off the planned poetry and haven’t added the short stories. I think for now, while the list is so big, I’ll keep them off.

  1. Alice I Have Been by Melanie Benjamin*
  2. Andorra by Peter Cameron
  3. Any Four Women Can Rob the Bank of Italy by Ann Cornelisen
  4. Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz by Mordecai Richler
  5. Art Student’s War by Brad Leithauser
  6. Baltimore Blues by Laura Lippman
  7. Beaufort by Ron Leshem*
  8. Beirut Blues by Hanan al-Shaykh
  9. Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks*
  10. Black Lamb and Gray Falcon by Rebecca West
  11. Bluebird Canyon by Dan McCall
  12. Cabin Fever by Elizabeth Jolley
  13. Call It Sleep by Henry Roth
  14. Captain Sir Richard Burton by Edward Rice
  15. Careless Love by Peter Gurlink
  16. Caroline’s Daughters by Alice Adams
  17. Cradle of Gold by Christopher Heaney
  18. Culture of Disbelief by Stephen Carter
  19. Dancer with Bruised Knees by Lynne McFall
  20. Dark Sun by Richard Rhodes
  21. Day the Falls Stood Still by Cathy Marie Buchanan*
  22. Earthly Possessions by Anne Tyler
  23. Eye of the World by Robert Jordan*
  24. Faith Fox by Jane Gardam*
  25. First Man by Albert Camus
  26. Fordlandia by Greg Gandin
  27. Georges’ Wife by Elizabeth Jolley
  28. Gesture Life by Chang-rae Lee
  29. Good Life by Ben Bradlee
  30. Grass Dancer by Susan Power
  31. Hall of a Thousand Columns by Tim Mackintosh-Smith
  32. History Man by Malcolm Bradbury
  33. Hour of Gold, Hour of Lead by Anne Morrow Lindbergh
  34. House of Morgan by Ron Chernow
  35. Illumination Night by Alice Hoffman
  36. In a Strange City by Laura Lippman
  37. Inside Passage by Michael Modselewski
  38. Inspector Ghote Breaks an Egg by H.R.F. Keating
  39. Jewel in the Crown by Paul Scott*
  40. Labyrinths by Jorge Luis Borges
  41. Long Way From Home by Frederick Busch
  42. My Father’s Moon by Elizabeth Jolley
  43. Ocean of Words by Ha Jin
  44. Palladian Days by Sally Gable*
  45. Peloponnesian War by Donald Kagan
  46. Power Without Glory by Frank Hardy
  47. Raw Silk by Janet Burroway
  48. Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro*
  49. Rose Cafe by John Hanson Mitchell
  50. Rose of Martinique by Andrea Stuart
  51. Thousand Ways to Please a Husband by Weaver/LeCron
  52. Wheels Within Wheels by Dervla Murphy
  53. Winners and Losers by Martin Quigley
  54. You Get What You Pay For by Larry Beinhart

*Planned as Audio books

Here are the five books that are on the list for this January:

  1. Benjamin Franklin: an American Life by Walter Isaacson
  2. Last Train to Memphis by Peter Guralink
  3. Feast of Love by Charles Baxter*
  4. Bring Me a Unicorn by Anne Morrow Lindbergh
  5. After the Dance by Edwidge Danticat

FINISHED:

  1. A Civil Action by Jonathan Harr
  2. Eighth Day by Thornton Wilder
  3. Falcon Flies by Wilbur Smith
  4. It Looked Like Forever by Mark Harris
  5. Now Read This II by Nancy Pearl
  6. Professor and the Housekeeper by Yoko Ogawa
  7. Sword at Sunset by Rosemary Sutcliff

Housekeeper and the Professor

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Ogawa, Yoko. The Housekeeper and the Professor. Translated by Stephen Snyder. New York: Picador, 2009.

Told from the point of view of the unnamed housekeeper, The Housekeeper and the Professor is a beautiful yet complex tale about an unlikely relationship. She is a single mother to a ten year old boy, cleaning the house of a once-brilliant professor. He is a mathematician who suffered a traumatic head injury that has left him with a memory that lasts only 80 minutes at a time. It’s an unusual predicament. The housekeeper must reintroduce herself to the professor every day she comes to cook and clean for the man. If she is at his tiny bungalow more than 80 minutes she must reintroduce herself in the same day. To try to compensate for his lack of memory, the professor has pinned notes about his life to help him cope. Included in his notes are details about the housekeeper and her son who the professor calls, “Root.” Despite the obvious obstacles the professor and the housekeeper develop a beautiful friendship. At the “root” of their relationship is ten year old Root, baseball, and the undying love for a left-handed pitcher.

Line that bothered me to no end, “He traced the symbol in the thick layer of dust on his desk” (p 1). This bothered me because the title of the book is The Housekeeper and the Professor. The housekeeper is speaking about the professor’s desk. Hello? Shouldn’t the desk be rid of dust if she is the housekeeper or does the definition of housekeeping differ in Japan?

As an aside, it was interesting to read two different books that have a left-handed pitcher in the plot.

Reason read: Emperor Akihot was born in the month of December.

Author fact: Ogawa also wrote The Diving Pool which is not on my list to read but seems like the better book because the back of The Housekeeper and the Professor has praise for The Diving Pool.

Book trivia: The Housekeeper and the Professor is short, only 180 pages long.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust To Go in the chapter called “Japanese Journeys” (p 117).

Christmas List

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It’s weird to start all over again. This list of finished books is tiny. It looks pathetic compared to the lists I have been working with in the last seven to eight months. But, but. But! It’s only one month’s worth of reading. Oh well. Here is the list of books read so far (December):
FINISHED:

  1. Civil Action by Jonathan Harr
  2. Eighth Day by Thornton Wilder
  3. Falcon Flies by Wilbur Smith (audio book)
  4. Housekeeper and the Professor by Yoko Ogawa
  5. In Patagonia by Bruce Chatwin
  6. It Looked Like Forever by Mark Harris
  7. Sword at Sunset by Rosemary Sutcliff

UPCOMING FOR JANUARY:

  1. Benjamin Franklin by Walter Isaacson –  in honor of Franklin’s birthday
  2. Feast of Love by Charles Baxter (audio) – in honor of when Michigan became a state
  3. Last Train to Memphis by Peter Guralink – in honor of Elvis’s birth month
  4. Men of Men by Wilbur Smith – to continue the series started in December

Eighth Day

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Wilder, Thornton. The Eighth Day. New york: Harper & Row, 1967.

In the beginning John Ashley came from New York, hired as a maintenance engineer to repair and fortify the mines of Coaltown, Illinois. Breckenridge Lansing was the managing director of the mines. This is how their paths would cross, innocently enough. Their paths would uncross when John shoots Breckenridge in the back of the head. Simple enough. After John is convicted and is on his way to be executed for the crime he somehow escapes. For the first part of the book we follow John’s trek to Chile where he resumes his mine work. The rest of the book follows the lives of the people he left behind: his wife and children, Breck’s widow and children. While the story meanders through philosophy and religion, the storyline is clear. There is something definitely amiss about this murder. John claims he is innocent and yet he was the only one with a gun.

Quotes I liked, “Gossip had solidified into convection as prejudice solidifies into self-evident truth” (p 5) and “The people of lower Illinois are not given to superstition; they did not say the house was haunted, but it was know that “The Elms” had been built in spite, maintained in hatred, and abandoned in tragedy” (p 26).

Reason read: the beginning of The Eighth Day takes place in Illinois and Illinois became a state in December.

Author fact: Wilder died in Hamden, Connecticut. According to FindAGrave, he is buried in New Haven.

Book trivia: The Eighth Day won a National Book Award.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust in the chapter called “100 good Reads, Decade By Decade (1960s)” (p 175).