Category: Fiction

Blind Descent

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Barr, Nevada. Blind Descent. New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1998.

This was the perfect book for a curl up on a snowy, sleeting, icing kind of weekend. The plot is fast paced and uncomplicated so I was able to read it in just two days. Barr’s attention to detail and description of caves and caving had me riveted. Anna Pigeon is a park ranger who has been called to help with a friend’s rescue from a subterranean cave. Anna is extremely claustrophobic and therefor not an experience caver. The location in the cave where her friend was injured is so difficult to get to I questioned why she was allowed to accompany rescue personnel on this dangerous mission. It seemed implausible that she would be allowed to participate just because her injured friend requested her. When rescue turns into murder Anna is determined to solve the mystery. Because Anna Pigeon is a reoccurring character in other Nevada Barr books her character development evolves a little at a time and the reader never gets the full picture of Anna from one book. One other detail I was bothered by was Anna was convinced her friend, Freida, has been murdered and yet she spends a great deal of time concentrating on a second murder of someone she just met. I would have thought the focus would have been more on her friend.

Favorite lines, “Gravity seemed more virulent when one’s back was turned to it” (p28) and “Where there was humor there was a fighting chance of remaining sane” (p 65).
A sign of the times (1990s), “Having babies out of wedlock was an epidemic among the poor and a fashion trend among the rich” (p 128).

Author Fact: Nevada Barr spent time as an actress and, like Anna Pigeon, as a park ranger.

BookLust Twist: From Book Lust in the chapter called “I Love a Mystery” (p 118).

Postscript ~ Did I mention that I can’t stand it when someone marks up a library book? Someone went through the entire book and changed every male specific word to a more politically correct alternative. Take the word “gunman” for example. Someone crossed it out and wrote “shooter” above it. “Rifleman”  was changed to “Killer.” You get the picture. I find this altering of the text offensive. If Barr wanted to write without gender bias she would have. I practically gloated when I found one “man” unchanged on page 102.

Jane Eyre

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Bronte, Charlotte. Jane Eyre. New York: Signet Classic, 1982.

Who hasn’t read Jane Eyre? Who hasn’t fallen in love with plucky, adventurous, moral, Jane? It’s a story everyone knows. When we first meet Jane she is ten years old and living with her deceased uncle’s family. She is despised by her aunt and cousins and considered lower than a servant (at least a servant earns her wages). As a result of Janes’s disharmonious and sometimes violent relationship with the Reed family Jane is sent away to a boarding school. From there Jane is trained as a governess and sent to the employ of Mr. Rochester. Because this is a romance it is obvious Jane and Mr. Rochester will fall deeply in love. Because this is a classic romance it is obvious there will be conflict. The conflict is Mr. Rochester is already married to a mentally ill and violent woman he keeps locked in an attic. Ever virtuous Jane leaves Mr. Rochester until telepathy steps in and Jane feels the need to rush back to Mr. Rochester. She arrives in time to see that Bertha has set the Thornfield mansion on fire and committed suicide. Mr. Rochester is blinded and loses a hand in the blaze. Jane promises to never leave Mr. Rochester again. Their love is triumphant and they live happily ever after. Of course, this is the much-condensed version!
The story of Jane Eyre has been widely criticized for its unrealistic episodes of ghosts and moments of 6th sense. Critics find it unbelievable that Jane is able to travel from one place to another as quickly and as efficiently as she does and it is downright miraculous that she finds a cousin who coincidentally has family wealth to bestow on her. Despite these criticisms Jane Eyre remains a lasting favorite. Obviously, there is a fan base willing to see the value of the suspension of belief.

Author Fact: Charlotte Bronte was one of six children born in the Bronte family. She tried her hand at being a governess (for ten years) before giving it up to write. She died at age 39 in pregnancy. Bummer.

Book Trivia: Jane Eyre has been transformed into movies, plays, operas, symphonies, ballets, and operas no less than 35 times. It has inspired countless retellings, spin-offs and songs. Its popularity resonates with young and old, men and women making it one of the best-loved classics ever.

BookLust Twist: Jane is very popular with Ms. Pearl. It is mentioned four different times between Book Lust and More Book Lust.. From Book Lust it is mentioned in the chapter called “Companion Reads” (p 64). I was to read Jane with Wide Sargasso Sea (of course) by Jean Rhys and The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde. Also in the chapter called “Romance Novels: “Our Love is Here To Stay” (p 204). From More Book Lust in two different chapters. First, in the chapter called “Brontes Forever” (p 34) and then again in the chapter called “Fractured Fairy Tales” (p 94).

March ’11 is…

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I consider March to be a month of all things serious. I will be serious about training for the Just Cause 60-mile walk. I will be serious about keeping up with my PT. I will be serious about the goals I set for myself (written and unwritten). Oh so serious! For books the list for March is modest:

  • Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte ~ in honor of March being Book Reading Month. Isn’t this just the most classic book with which to start the month?
  • Flint by Paul Eddy ~ in honor of March being Action Hero Month. I forget who told me that. I know I just ran with it! Grace Flint is the hero of the month.
  • Famished Road by Ben Okri ~ in honor of African Writer’s month. Again, I don’t know where I got that info. I’m just going with it!
  • Blind Descent by Nevada Barr ~ in honor of March being Barr’s birth month
  • Cosi Fan Tutti by Michael Dibdin~ in honor of March being Dibdin’s birth month

There is still the LibraryThing Early Review book that is still missing in action AND I just received word I have been chosen for one for March as well. As always, I won’t name them until I see them!

In other news, there is news on the job front. I suppose that should be on the list of serious as well. *sigh*

Belly of Paris

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Zola, Emile. The Belly of Paris. Los Angeles: Sun & Moon Press, 1996.

The “Belly of Paris” is quite literally a giant receptacle of food merchants. It is a humungous food market brimming with a wide array of delicacies of all shapes and sizes. In the first 50 pages I counted no less than sixty different types of food described in colorful detail. The word ‘vegetable’ alone appears over twenty times. Everything from fruits to fish, vegetables to cheese is laid out before the reader. Like the true anatomy of a stomach, from this belly of bounty wastes, filth and toxins are dispelled. There is a clash of the glorious and the gory. All of this in incredible detail serves as the backdrop to the story of Florent.
Florent has escaped from exile to return to his beloved Paris. On the verge of starvation he finds himself in a sea of food in Les Halles Centrales. From there he makes his way to his half-brother’s butcher shop that specializes in pork products. At this point Florent must decide how to live as a fugitive and a man always on the run. As he re-establishes himself in the community he is caught up in jealousies and dramas and must constantly struggle to survive.
Above all else, Belly of Paris is a story of contrasts – the richness of the market’s abundance versus the poverty and fifth of the lower classes who shop there.

Line that best illustrates Florent being swallowed by the Belly of Paris, “And at last he came to a standstill, quite discouraged and scared at finding himself unable to escape from the infernal circle of vegetables, which now seemed to dance around him, twining clinging verdue about his legs” (p 42).

Book Trivia: The Belly of Paris is the third in a series of twenty books that make up Les Rougon-Macquart. The series analyzes the effects family relations and economic status have on one family.

I will be honest. I am a little irritated I didn’t do my homework concerning Belly of Paris. I should not have read Ernest Alfred Vizetelly’s translation. From what I have read his version is not a true or exact translation. Now I am wishing I read Mark Kurlansky’s version because it received better reviews. It bothers me to think I am not reading Le Ventre de Paris as it was written. Never mind. It’s my fault for not studying French beyond first year.

BookLust Twist: From Book Lust in the chapter called “Dickens of a Tale” (p 73).

Feb ’11 was…

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February was a strange, strange month. On the one hand, my birthday (which was good), yet on the other hand, many different family dramas (not so good). Other oddities include getting robbed, the roof leaking, a mysterious flat tire, and lots of great PT (what’s different?). My list of books for the month included some behemoths – two over 700 pages long. It took me longer than expected to get through my list because I also got an Early Review book from LibraryThing and I decided to read a few “off-list” titles. February was also a month of personal challenges (yay for physical therapy and the return to running for real). I can’t forget to mention that!

  • Carry Me Home: Birmingham, Alabama: The Climactic Battle of the Civil Rights Revolution by Diane McWhorter ~ in honor of National Civil Rights month. This was a nice blend of didactic and personal.
  • Big Year: a Tale of Man, Nature, and Fowl Obsession by Mark Obmascik ~ in honor of February being a bird feeding month (as apposed to watching). Funny, funny, funny.
  • Night Soldiers by Alan Furst ~ in honor of Furst’s birth month. This was really heavy, but I actually got into it.
  • Belly of Paris by Emile Zola ~ in honor of Charles Dickens (writing style is similar). Word to the wise – don’t read this when you are hungry. The food descriptions are amazing!

For the Early Review Program with LibraryThing I finally received and read My Korean Deli by Ben Ryder Howe. I’m still waiting for a second Early Review book from LibraryThing.

  • Runner’s World The Complete Book of Running: Everything You Need To Run For Weight Loss, Fitness and Competition by Amby Burfoot. I picked this up because someone had given me a gift certificate for B&N and I wanted to get something I would keep for a very long time.
  • It Must Be..(a Grand Canyon Trip : Drawings and Thoughts From a Winter’s Trip From Lee’s Ferry to Diamond Creek (December 19, 2010 – January 2, 2011).. by Scott P. Barnes ~ this was such a surreal read for me! I’ve always wanted to see this author’s name in print.

Night Soldiers

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Furst, Alan. Night Soldiers. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1988

I have to admit this took me a little time to get into. The story starts off in 1934 with a violent bang. Khristo Stoianev is a Bulgarian teenager who witnesses the brutal beating and subsequent killing of his younger brother, Nikko. Nikko, only 15 years old, was used as an example of a growing power. Using this tragedy as a vehicle for change, Khristo is drawn into the NKVD, the Soviet intelligence service. From there he is sent to serve in the Spanish Civil war (although it is curious to note during his training he was taught English and French, not Spanish). Meanwhile,the political arena is heating up. Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia are arm wrestling over real estate in Eastern Europe. Stalin is starting to purge the undesirables and this is to include Khristo so he flees to France.
Furst paints a stunning picture of eleven years of Eastern European history complete with French underground guerrilla operations, lavish love affairs, the never ending quest for power and multidimensional aspects of war.

Most telling line, “But these were political times, and it was very important to think before you spoke. Nikko Stoianev spoke without thinking, and so he died” (p 3).
Favorite line, “The nasty scene at the Finnish embassy refused to leave his mind, and he and Andres had decided to drawn their war in a bottle of Spanish gin” (p 161).

Author fact: Alan Furst was born on February 20th, 1941. He has an ongoing love affair with Paris.

BookLust Twist: From Book Lust in the chapter called  “World War II Fiction” (p 253) even though WWII isn’t the focal point of the the story.

Ain’t Nobody’s Business

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Wesley, Valerie Wilson. Ain’t Nobody’s Business If I Do.New York: Avon, 1999.

While Kisa drove from 42 8′ 55″ N/72 36′ 29″ W to 44 6′ 13″ N/69 6′ 33″ W I read Ain’t Nobody’s Business If I Do. Four straight hours until I ran out of daylight and I ran out of words. It was the kind of reading that had me asking what would happen next. Not because the story had me on the edge of my seat in suspense, but because I had grown to care about all the characters and truly wanted to know how all their lives worked out. The biggest emotion everyone had in common was the desperate need to find the true meaning of love. Then there was the telling of how they went about finding that love.

First, there is 44 year old Hutch who ups and leaves his wife Eva, at two in the morning. He has no idea why he has to leave but he also knows there is no way he can stay. As he says, he lost his joy. No one is more baffled by Hutch’s behavior than Hutch himself, but leave he must. Eva, his second wife of ten years, oscillates between sheer rage and utter despair as she copes with a huge house she hasn’t a clue for to maintain. Hutch runs to Donald, his best friend, who is constantly cheating on his seemingly perfect wife yet Donald’s seemingly perfect wife seems like a perfect match for Hutch, especially in his confused state of mind. Eva seems best suited for her own daughter’s ex-boyfriend. It’s a merry-go-round of emotions and relationships and no relationship combination is spared: mother-daughter, father-son, best friends, lovers, old married couples, newlyweds…Everyone is looking for something just out of reach and ignoring what’s right in front of them.

Favorite line, “Raye’s eyes could always shake loose his truth” (p 41).

Two observations: The story starts out with Eva’s aunt hoo-doo magic. There is mention of dried twigs and a Vick’s VapoRub smell. I would have liked that hoo-doo to be more present throughout the story. Also, Wesley always seemed to be one stop ahead of me. Eva works as a librarian. She started out as a volunteer then asked for a paying position and got it. I questioned where was library school and the formal degree. In the very next chapter Eva’s boss is urging Eva to go to library school. There is another scene where Eva’s car breaks down and she is left stranded on the side of the road. I immediately wanted to know where her car phone and/or AAA membership was. Wesley explained those details soon enough, as if she was reading my mind.

BookLust Twist: From Book Lust in the chapter called “African American Fiction: She Say” (p 13). The “She” in question being the authors.

Feb 2011 is…

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February is a month of renewal for me. I haven’t put too many books on the list because I plan to do a lot more running and socializing this month. 🙂
Anyhoo, here are the books:

  • Carry Me Home, Alabama by Kathryn Stern ~ in honor of February being National Civil Rights Month
  • Flaubert’s Parrot by Julian Barnes ~ in honor of February being a National Bird Feeding month. I guess our feathered friends have a hard time finding food in February so someone made a month for feeding them.
  • Aint Nobody’s Business if I Do by Valarie Wilson Welsey ~ in honor of Black History Month
  • Belly of Paris by Emile Zola ~ in honor of February being the month of Dicken’s birth.

Maybe, just maybe I’ll get the EarlyReview books from LibraryThing as well. Who knows?

Flaubert’s Parrot

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Barnes, Julian. Flaubert’s Parrot. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1985.

I chose Flaubert’s Parrot in honor of February being Bird Feeding Month but really, Flaubert’s Parrot doesn’t have a whole lot to do with parrots, per se. Goeffrey Braithwait is a retired doctor looking to solve a mystery. Two different museums claim to have Flaubert’s muse, a stuffed parrot that sat on Flaubert’s desk while he wrote ‘Un Coeur simple.’ Dr. Braithwait calls himself an amateur scholar of Flaubert and yet he knows the smallest of details about the writer’s life which indicate a growing obsession. While the mystery of the two parrots is the token premise of the tale it takes on much more than that. First, it is revealed Dr. Braithwait would like to be an author. He wonders what it would be like to publish. This is a theme that runs concurrent with the search for the correct parrot. In time Dr. Braithwait’s wife suicide is revealed. He searches for meaning to her demise. There are multiple personalities of writing styles at play in the telling of Flaubert’s Parrot. First, an most obviously, is the fictional/factual biography of Flaubert. Then there is a “Dear Diary” approach to a literacy criticism of Flaubert’s work. The writing is sparse and humorous.

Flaubert’s Parrot had a few zingers that I liked: “Why does the writing make us chase the writer?” (p 12), I warned him of the dangerous tendency in this species to posthumously parthenogenesis” (p 22), and “Some people have a tender heart and a tough mind” (p 34).

Author Fact: Julian Barnes has a FaceBook page. Of course he does.

Book Trivia: Flaubert’s Parrot had two Booker Prize nominations.

BookLust Twist: From More Book Lust in the chapter called “Parrots” (p 183). Go figure.

Another Song About the King

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Stern, Kathryn. Another Song About the King. New York: Random House, 2000.

Silvie Page has the kind of mother we all dread having. The kind of mother we probably already have memories of. The kind of mother that loves us to death. Outwardly appearing to have our best interests in mind but really are so caught up in themselves that their intentions are inwardly mean and controlling. Best friends forever as a way to minimize and manipulate. Silvie’s mother, Mimi, is just that woman. When Silvie was a child it was in the way Mimi wanted Silvie to be just like her, only just not as pretty or talented.  It’s in the way she phones an adult Silvie (with a calling code that meant she should pick up no matter what) only to say ‘wear red on your first day on the job.’ All of Silvie’s life her mother has kept her in emotional limbo – one minute loving and sweet, the next competitive and conniving. Silvie tries different tactics to “escape” her mother’s grasp, starting with changing how she addresses her mother from mom to Mimi, as a way to distance herself from a blood relation. Throughout Sylvie’s life there is another shadow that looms just as large. Elvis. Mimi has an ongoing obsession with a date she had with Elvis when she was 16. It is her worst kept secret, one that in times of stress, she hauls out and elaborates on until finally the lie is bigger than the truth. She even has blue suede shoes and a crimson cape to illustrate her never-wavering loyalty to the king.
There is so much more to Another Song About the King than meets the eye. Beyond a complicated mother-daughter relationship there is an element of self-discovery and forgiveness. I couldn’t put it down.

Lines that snagged me: “I was successful in the womb – obedient and nimble, turning somersaults in those jelly seas of color and sleep” (p 9), “I’d come to lose my mother and find myself, to put some distance between her dreams and mine” (p 24), and, “But, I was sure I would lose, and winning, I knew in my bones, would raise the stakes with my mother in a game I didn’t want to play” (p 81). There were many, many more tantalizing lines, but I’ll let you find them.

Author Fact: Another Song About the King is Kathryn Stern’s first novel.

BookLust Twist: From Book Lust in the chapter called “Elvis On My Mind ” (p 78).

I, Robot

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Asimov, Isaac. I, Robot. New York: Del Rey, 1950

I Robot is a series of science fiction short stories that are linked together by the introduction. Dr. Susan Calvin is being interviewed about her career with U.S. Robot and Mechanical Men, Inc. The short stories are her memories of different cases involving robots. For example, Gloria is an eight year old child who was brought up with a robot as a protector and playmate, until her mother decided the relationship wasn’t “normal” and had the robot sent away. A reoccurring theme in all stories is the “three laws of robotics: #1 – A robot may not injure a human being, or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm. #2 – A robot must obey orders given by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law. #3 – A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second law.” My favorite story was a catch-22 of the laws. In the story ‘Liar’ a robot named Herbie could read human minds. In following the three laws of robotics he would tell people what they wanted to hear to avoid hurting their feelings. When cornered by the laws Herbie was trapped. He couldn’t answer questions that would lead to hurting the humans and yet he couldn’t avoid answering their questions because that would hurt them as well.

Favorite lines: “‘It’s about time you got the red tape out of your pants and went to work'” (p 65), and “He had once jumped out of the window of a burning house dressed only in shorts and the “Handbook.” In a pinch, he would have skipped the shorts” (p 66).

Author Fact: Asimov has published books in nine of the ten major categories of the Dewey Decimal system – all but in the 100s (philosophy and psychology). But, here’s the interesting thing: Asimov wrote a forward in a book classified in the 100s so he really has published in all ten of the major categories of the Dewey Decimal system! Other facts about Asimov are he was born on January 2, 1920 and he was a professor of biochemistry at Boston University.

Book Trivia: I, Robot was the inspiration for two movies. One starring Robin Williams (‘Bicentennial Main’) and one of the same name starring Will Smith.

BookLust Twist: From Book Lust in the chapter called “Mechanical Men, Robots, Automatons, and Deep Blue” (p 151). Obviously.

Cruddy

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Barry, Lynda. Cruddy. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1999.

From the very first pages you want to know what this Cruddy book is all about. First, you are introduced to sixteen year old Roberta Rohbeson via her bizarre suicide note. Then, hoping to shed some light on the situation, you read chapter one which is only seven sentences long which says nothing about anything. Then you encounter chapter two and read the word “Cruddy” nineteen times in the first paragraph. Funky, funky, funky was all I could say. I was not prepared for what happened next. Little did I know I would end up saying sick, sick, sick by the end of the book.

Cruddy is told from the perspective of Roberta Rohbeson at two different times in her life; as an eleven year old troubled little girl and as a sixteen year old angry teenager. Her story is tough and tragic and tinged with terrible humor. As an eleven year old she is thrust into the raging, alcohol-blurred world of her father who refuses to see her as his daughter. Instead, Roberta is not only his son, called Clyde, but his accomplice. When he discovers her in the backseat of his getaway car he takes her on a murderous journey across the desert fueled by hatred for his suicide-dead father who left him nothing.
As a sixteen year old Roberta is strung out on drugs and driven by abandonment. She befriends a group of outcast suicidal drug dealers who do nothing but fuel her craziness. One boy in particular, Turtle, gets Roberta to tell her sad tale.

This was a book I found myself wondering about long after I put it down. Was Roberta modeled after anyone Lynda knew? Where did she come up with such a violent, messed up plot? What was the acceptable age range for this book? Would parents cringe if they knew their kid was reading this under the covers late at night?

Lines that got me: Roberta’s father’s motto: “Expect the Unexpected and whenever possible BE the Unexpected!” (p 142), “He was explaining how perfect it would be because he could kill me right in the concrete ditch itself and when the water came it would gush me and all the evidence away” (p 163), and my personal favorite, “There is a certain spreading blankness that covers the mind after you kill someone” (p 273).

Author Fact: Lynda Barry was born on January 2nd, 1956 and is a cartoonist (among many other things).

Book Trivia: This was called a novel in illustration but only the start of each chapter has an illustration (creepy illustration).

BookLust Twist: From Book Lustand More Book Lust . From Book Lust in the chapter called “Graphic Novels” (p 104), even though Cruddy isn’t a graphic novel. Also in More Book Lust in the chapter called “Teenage Times” (p 217). What Pearl should have called the category for this book was “Fukced up Teenage Times.”
Book Lust trivia – Lynda Barry and Cruddy were not mentioned in the index to Book Lust. In fact, only One! Hundred! Demons! made it into Book Lust’s index.

Breath, Eyes, Memory

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Danticat, Edwidge. Breath, Eyes, Memory. New York: Vintage Contemporaries, 1994.

Breath, Eyes, Memory is the  type of story that sucks you in deep. Like tar pit, quicksand deep. From the moment I started reading I didn’t want to put it down. It was the first book I picked up in the morning and the last book I put down at night for three days straight. I stood in line at the grocery store, pumping gas, and waiting in my doctor’s waiting room with Breath, Eyes, Memory in hand.
Edwidge Danticat does an amazing job blending the culture of Haiti with the culture of family with the dynamics of women intertwined. Breath, Eyes, Memory is the story of four generations of Haitian women. Sophie is at the center. As a new mother she is learning from her mother, grandmother and aunt what it means to be protective and watchful of her young daughter while daring to shrug off disturbing traditions that haunt all the women in her family. This is not a story for the faint of heart. While the harsh realities of Haiti’s Tonton Macoute are barely mentioned they are the root of Sophie’s mother’s nightmares. There is murder, cancer, mental illness, bulemia, abuse and even suicide to contend with within the pages of Breath, Eyes, Memory. In the end there is a certain kind of peace that only comes from a letting go.

One of the harder details to discern was Sophie’s age throughout the story. The timeline is a little abstract. She starts out as 12 years old but the reader only learns that after she has turned 18 and says she had been away from Haiti for six years. From there it becomes a little hazy again. Sophie admits it has been two years since she had last seen her mother, but how old she was when she left isn’t entirely clear. By the end of the story one can assume Sophie is 21-22 years old.

Favorite lines: “If I had the power then to shrink myself and slip into the envelope, I would have done it” (p 50), “He looked like the kind o fman who could buy a girl a meal without asking for her bra in return” (p 68), “You do not have to name something to make it yours” (p 136), and probably the most poignant line in the whole entire book, “It was up to me to make sure that my daughter never slept with ghosts, never lived with nightmares, and never had her name burnt in the flames” (203). For what Sophie means by that you will just have to read the book!

Author Fact: Ms. Danticat was born in Port-au-Prince and my birthday is exactly thirteen days later than Ms. Danticat’s.

Book Trivia: Oprah chose Breath, Eyes, Memory for her book club. I wonder just how much that boosted book sales.

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

In the Gloaming

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Dark, Alice Elliot. In the Gloaming: stories. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2000.

When I first saw Ms. Dark’s photo on the inside jacket of In the Gloaming I thought it was a gloomy picture and hoped the stories inside would not reflect the author’s sad expression. In a way it was a premonition. Of all the stories in In the Gloaming only two were not tinged with sadness and general dissatisfaction. Every story is comprised of three components: characters with dilemmas or decisions to make, human interactions that depend on the outcome of the dilemma or decision, and a sparse plot serving as a thin backdrop to the character conflict.
Case in point: Mother and son get to know each other in the title story. Son is dying of AIDS while father slips out of the picture. Mother’s dilemma is whether to acknowledge her son’s inevitable demise or pretend his life has hope. Another example, in “The Jungle Lodge” two sisters are on vacation in the Amazon. One sister has the dilemma of whether or not to tell the other she had been raped while discovering her sister’s improper relationship. One last dilemma. In “Close” a man’s dilemma is which woman to continue a relationship with, his pretty mistress or his pregnant wife while learning his childhood home is up for sale.Each dilemma or decision has an impact on the supporting characters.

Favorite line, “There was something about the way they were touching that seemed to surpass the medicinal purpose they’d claimed” (p 54).

Author Fact: Alice Elliott Dark has her own blog on blogspot. I checked it out and was surprised to see only 15 posts, but then again it was only started in September 2010.

Book Trivia: The title story was made into a movie for HBO starring Glenn Close and directed by Christopher Reeves. Yes, another movie I have yet to see.

BookLust Twist: From Book Lust in the chapter called “My Name is Alice: (p 1). Funny thing, In the Gloaming was somehow omitted from the index of Book Lust. It should have been indexed between In the Footsteps of Mr. Kurtz and In the Kingdom of Air. Oh well.

Night Before Christmas

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Moore, Clement Clarke. A Visit From St. Nicholas. Mount Vernon: Peter Pauper Press, 1950.

When I was a child no five words filed my head with more wonder than, “Twas the night before Christmas…” On Christmas Eve my sister and I would crowd around the cb radio and listen to a local fisherman read Moore’s famous poem. When did he start this tradition, I have no idea. When did he stop, I haven’t the faintest. But while I was young and believed with a capital B I hung on his every word.

Who doesn’t know the rest of that first line, “Twas the night before Christmas”? It has got to be the most recited, most beloved poem of Christmas and all year round. I went years without knowing who wrote it but could recite it line for line.

Here’s the basic premise for a poem you all know by heart. It’s the night before Christmas and an overly observant man is just getting ready for bed. He makes comments about how still the house is, how the kids are sleeping, and so forth when suddenly he hears something. His wife must be a heavy sleeper for only the man hears a commotion outside. A portly man driving a sleigh with a herd of deer leading the way flies across the sky. They land on the roof and enter the house via the chimney. Somehow this doesn’t faze the homeowner at all. He takes his time describing the intruder and accepts the gifts he leaves. I suppose the detailed description would come in handy for the police should the homeowner later report the odd event. When the little man has finished unpacking his sack he disappears up the chimney again and drives out of sight exclaiming my favorite line, “Happy Christmas to all and to all a Good Night!” (p 16).

Author Fact: Moore was a professor at Columbia and taught Oriental and Greek literature.

Book Poem Trivia: Since A Visit From St. Nicholas was first published anonymously there is some controversy surrounding the true author. Interestingly enough, Nancy Pearl doesn’t give any author credit.

BookLust Twist: From Book Lust in the chapter called “Christmas Books for the Whole Family” (p 55). I have a confession to make. Because Nancy Pearl called it “The Night Before Christmas” and not “A Visit From St. Nicholas” I am assuming they are one and the same.

ps~ the version I borrowed from the library had sign language as an accompaniment to the story. Very cool.