Category: NonFiction

Seven Principles of Making Marriage Work

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Gottman, John M. and Nan Silver. The Seven Principles of Making Marriage Work. New York: Harmony Books, 2015.

Reason read: I have no idea.

I was hoping to be struck by lightning with this book. My marriage is pretty solid but I could always use improving in the relationship department (who couldn’t?). So I was a little worried when the first piece of advice sounded something like this, and I’m paraphrasing: if you can accommodate each other’s “crazy” side and handle it with caring, affection and respect, your marriage can thrive. Talk about a duh moment. Of course ANY relationship is going to benefit from caring, affection and respect. The advice gets better and as a result I do see my relationship differently. If I had had more time with the book I would have tried some of the quizzes and exercises. Maybe next time.

Guernica

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Van Hensbergen, Gijs. Guernica: the Biography of a Twentieth-Century Icon. New York: Bloomsbury, 2004.

Reason read: April is the anniversary month of the Guernica bombing during the Spanish Civil War.

[If you are reading Guernica based on Nancy Pearl’s recommendation in Book Lust To Go: the very first thing you need to know about the book Guernica is that it follows the life of Pablo Picasso’s painting and is less about the Basque region or the bombing that inspired the art. Book Lust To Go is supposed to focus on geography so if you were looking to read about Guernica the place, this isn’t the book.]
But, back to Guernica (the book): Picasso was commissioned to make a political statement through art in reaction to the three hours of horrific, indiscriminate, nonstop slaughter of the Basque town of Gernika. Later, the painting was sent to America to raise funds for the Spanish Refugee Relief Campaign to help alleviate the horrible conditions in the internment camps. Later still, Paloma Picasso used the painting as blackmail whenever a particular region wanted to show the painting in their museums. The influence of Picasso’s painting was far=reaching. After the May 16th 1968 Mylai slaughter people remembered Guernica.

Quotes worth mentioning, “We must never underestimate the idealism of many of those who had gone to Spain to fight, or the pain of the dislocated exiles who were never again going to return” (p 167) and, “It had, it must be remembered, only been a few years since the Basque writer Xabier Gereno has been jailed for committing the crime of receiving a postcard commemorating Guernica” (p 264).

As an aside, I felt like Van Hensbergen had an issue with Peggy Guggenheim, constantly calling attention to her personality by describing her as “sexually voracious” and “hotheaded.”

Author fact: Van Hensbergen’s specialty is architecture. He lectures on the subject.

Book trivia: throughout Guernica there are black and white photographs, but the showstoppers are the three color prints of Picasso’s most famous pieces of work: Weeping Woman, Guernica, and Night Fishing at Antibes.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust To Go in the chapter simply called “Guernica” (p 89).

Spark Joy

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Kondo, Marie. Spark Joy: an illustrated master class on the art of organizing and tidying up. Berkeley: Ten Speed Press, 2016.

Reason: title caught my eye.

Confessional: the phrase “tidying up” seems fussy to me, maybe even a little inconsequential. Maybe I’m confusing it with the act of shuffling things around, tucking things away, the superficial appearance of making things neat.

Even though it is a cooking term, I apply “mis en place” to my everyday life. In a chef’s world it means having all the ingredients measured out and ready to be cooked/mixed for the meal. But, in my world it means everything in its place; a place for everything.

The key to taking this book seriously is the promise of joy. You are to believe that you will actually spark joy in your life and “change it forever” by being tidy. There are six fundamental rules of Tidying: 1) commit, 2) imagine a new lifestyle, 3) discard first, 4) tidy by location, 5) follow the right order to tidying. Sounds pretty simple, right?
At first I found Kondo’s direction to be a little hokey: I couldn’t see myself holding an item and testing the spiritual connection to that item. Thanking the item before letting it go. Understanding that “tidying is the art of confronting yourself” (p 15). Hmmm. Not sure how that would work. I have the ability to feel things for inanimate objects so this doesn’t sound like a good plan for me. Case in point, my sister and I tried to abandon a box of horribly dry, outlandishly green and red Christmas cookies in a parking lot. It was Christmas day, our first after the death of our father. Backing out of the parking spot we had to pause for an oncoming car. While waiting, we looked at the cookies and my sister mentioned how “lonely” they looked sitting there…alone… on the pavement. I immediately made her pull back into the spot just so I could collect those damn cookies. Here’s the really sick part. No one knew I kept them…for three years. I saved them because I pitied them. Not because they brought me joy.
Another thing I couldn’t see doing was discarding practical items just because I felt nothing for them. Who uses their fingernails to turn a screw just because the screwdriver didn’t inspire joy? Kondo tried. What about the items you WANT to bring joy but don’t? I have a shirt of my mother’s. It was one of her favorites. And yet, when I look at it, it’s just a shirt.
Anyway, back to Kondo. She writes in a voice that is friendly and encouraging; always urging her reader to keep going.
I have to ask, what is the difference between Kondo’s advice and the old adage, “love it or lose it?”

Author fact: Kondo wrote another book called the Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up.

Book trivia: Spark Joy was translated from the Japanese by Cathy Hirano.

Grand Tour

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Moore, Tim. the Grand Tour: The European Adventure of a Continental Drifter. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2001.

Reason read: April Fools Day

Tim Moore is a little obnoxious. The best way I found to deal with him is to think of him as another Bill Bryson. Turns out that’s what everyone is supposed to think, thanks to the dust jacket and other review. What makes Moore different from Bryson is that his obnoxiousness is on another level and his humor is much edgier. He’s a bit more condescending and sarcastic, using words like ridiculous, unspectacular and disgusting to describe his surroundings during his adventures. But, that’s not my main gripe with Moore. I want to know more about why he chose to follow Coryate’s journey and what he hoped to get out of it along the way. After all, he wasn’t following Coryate literally. True, Coryate was mostly on foot while Moore was insistent in having the perfect, attention-drawing touring car, a Rolls Royce. True, Coryate didn’t wear a plush purple suit to further draw attention to himself either. According to the dust jacket I was to expect “snorts of laughter” while reading The Grand Tour. Unfortunately, none came for me. A great deal of the time my mind wandered while trying to read Grand Tour.

Weird quotes, “The whole thing was clearly an extended fart analogy” (p 10),”the patron came out to watch me as, wild of hair and damp of arse, I bundled armfuls of wet polyester into the back of the Rolls while his dog peed on my hubcaps” (p 77), and “For every vineyard there was a dark satanic mill – no wonder Soave tastes like that” (p 213).

Author fact: Moore also wrote French Revolutions which I found hysterical.

Book trivia: Surprisingly, Grand Tour has delightful illustrations.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust To Go in the chapter called “Explaining Europe: The Grand Tour” (p 82).

Green Thoughts

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Perenyi, Eleanor. Green Thoughts: a Writer in the Garden. New York: Modern Library, 2002.

Reason read: April is traditionally the time when we New Englanders start thinking about gardens. Edited to add: as of this writing, it is snowing quite heavily…we’re supposed to get up to 6″ and classes are cancelled.

I need to prepare you. There is a lot of foreplay leading up to the main event that is Green Thoughts. There are 24 pages of other “stuff” to get through before you even see the first chapter, “Annuals”: first you need to read the title page, the “Introduction to the modern library gardening series by Michael Pollan”, the “Introductions to the text by Allen Lacy”, table of contents,  the forward, and last but not least, a note on references. But! (dramatic pause…) But, once you get into Green Thoughts it is a delight to finally be there. Each chapter (in alphabetical order) is it’s own separate essays so feel free to jump around to the topics that best interest you. To be fair, some of the gardening instruction is a little labor intensive for the plant it and forget it, barely green-thumbed among us.

One of the best things I learned from reading Green Thoughts is that Cato (of Carthage fame) wrote directions for growing asparagus. That is awesome!

Quotes I liked, “I don’t subscribe to Prevention, which is dedicated to health, mostly because I haven’t the backbone to follow its precepts” (p 44), “A killing frost devastates the heart as well as the garden” (p 69) and one more, “When I look back on the long procession of incompetents, dumbbells and eccentrics, young and old, foreign and domestic, who have worked for me, I wonder how I and the garden have survived their ministrations” (p 80). She answers her own question wit “It occurs to me that I attract the mentally unbalanced” (p 81).

Author fact: Perenyi was at one time the managing editor of one of my teenage guilty pleasures, Mademoiselle Magazine.

Book trivia: You would think this book ripe for photographs, or at least illustrations. Be forewarned. There is not a one of either. Sigh.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust in the chapter called “Get On With Gardening” (p 96).

Why the Grateful Dead Matter

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Benson, Michael. Why the Grateful Dead Matter. New Hampshire: University Press of New England, 2016.

Reason read: Early review for LibraryThing.

I decided to write this review a little differently. Instead of waiting until I had read the entire thing before commenting I decided this time I would write comments as I went. Here’s what happened:

I have to admit, I found some of Benson’s writing a little hokey. When he said, “there’s an app for that” I practically groaned out loud. So, this is how it’s going to be I thought out loud.

The structure of Why the Grateful Dead Matter is a little chaotic. That is to say, there is no real structure to the chapters. Just open the book and read. Doesn’t matter where you start. Doesn’t matter where you end.

This is essentially an argument without hard facts. Don’t expect an authoritarian narrative. No works cited. No in-depth research. It’s as if this book blossomed from a late night debate (possibly fueled by alcohol?); a debate with a friend about why, 50 years later, the Grateful Dead are doing a Farewell Tour. Picture it: the debate turned into Why The Grateful Dead Matter conversation. The reasons why they matter come fast and furious from Benson, political debate style, until someone says, “Man, you should write that s–t down!” And he does.

The chapter on Ripple being so zen is flimsy and without substance. It started off as a strong argument and somehow got off topic at the end. It petered out feebly when one of the last examples of zen is the Grateful Dead playing a benefit for the Zen Center. There is little substance in regards to HOW the music is “zen” and yet, the chapter on the instruments being custom made was well organized and detailed. Benson knows their equipment and knows it well.

This is one for the fans. Read this if you already love the music and just want to share in the common interest. Read this book if you already know why the Grateful Dead matter and you just want to agree, possibly shouting “Exactly! Right on, man!”

As an aside, I just bought my husband the compilation “30 Trips” for his birthday. I’m hoping Trips will contain the versions of songs Benson mentions as outstanding in Why the Grateful Dead Matter. Here is a partial list of the songs I need to find:

  • Wharf Rat 12/31/78 (particularly Jerry Garcia’s guitar solo)
  • China Cat Sunflower 1971 (Bucknell University)

Author fact: Benson is all over with place with his interests. According to the back cover, he writes about music, sports, crime, film, the military, and politics.

Book trivia: the early review copy I received had photographs in it, some I had never seen before. Very cool.

Alice in Sunderland

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Talbot, Bryan. Alice in Sunderland. Milwaukie, OR: Dark Horse Books,  2007

Reason read: April Fools

One word: savor. Savor this book slowly. It’s only 319 pages but let every page have it’s moment in time. This is a beautiful piece of art, chock full of culture, biography, history, creative use of the English language (“follow your spirit” with a picture of someone chasing a vodka truck), a comic book inside a graphic novel, brimming with literary references (Thirty-Nine Steps and Rugby, the same school made infamous by Tom Brown’s Schooldays, to name a few) and much, much more. This is a comprehensive walk through history with a myriad of people and places leading the way. In Book Lust To Go Nancy Pearl called it “one of the richest experiences of her life (p 68).

The premise is really quite simple. Bryan Talbot has researched his hometown of Sunderland and found every possible parallel connection to Lewis Carroll’s famed The Adventures of Alice in Wonderland. It’s brilliant. Read this alongside The Annotated Alice for a healthy dose of all things Wonderland.

Best quote, “All the lives seen tonight…so many lives…” (p 290). Case in point: here’s the ridiculously long list of Who’s Who in Alice in Sunderland. How about a game? How many people do you recognize?:

  • Abraham Lincoln
  • Al Davison
  • Alan Hargreaves
  • Alexandria “Xie” Kitchin
  • Alfred Jarry
  • Alice Liddell
  • Ally Sloper
  • Andy Capp
  • Arthur Racham
  • Arthur Frost
  • Bande Dessinee
  • Beatles
  • Bede
  • Benedict Biscop
  • Benny Hill
  • Beryl Formby
  • Bessie Wilcox
  • Betty Boop
  • Bill Shakespeare
  • Blondin
  • Bobby Thompson
  • Bram Stoker
  • Bryan Ferry
  • Caedmon
  • Capt. Edward Robinson
  • Capt. Joseph Wiggins
  • Capt. William Bligh
  • Caryl Hargreaves
  • Cary Grant
  • Catherine Cookson
  • Charles Dickens
  • Charles Kingsley
  • Charles Lutwidge Dodson
  • Charles Weiss
  • Charlie Chaplin
  • Chaz Brenchley
  • Chster P Hackenbush
  • Chico Marx
  • Chris Mullin
  • Clarkson Stanfield
  • Colin Wilbourn
  • Craig Knowles
  • Dante Gabriel Rossetti
  • Dave Stewart
  • David Malan
  • David McKean
  • Dennis Potter
  • Dick Turpin
  • Disraeli
  • Doctor Who
  • Dorothy Williamson
  • Dracula
  • Duke of Wellington
  • Earl Zetland
  • Earl of Bute
  • Edgar Allan Poe
  • Edgar Atheling
  • Edith Liddell
  • Edward Bulwer Lytton
  • Edward Burne Jones
  • Edward Hylton
  • Edward Schoeder
  • Edwin Moss
  • Eileen O’Shaughnessy
  • Elizabeth I
  • Elizabeth Liddell
  • Ellen Terry
  • Emily Pankhurs
  • Emperor Claudius
  • Eric Gill
  • Florence Becker Lennon
  • Frank Caws
  • Franz Kafka
  • Frederick Cotton
  • Fredericka Liddell
  • Friar Tuck
  • George “Dubya” Bush
  • George Formby
  • George Hudson
  • George Lightfoot
  • George Lilburne
  • George Orwell
  • George Stephenson
  • George Washington
  • Gerald Frow
  • Gertrude Bell
  • Grace Slick
  • Grant Morrison
  • Harry Furniss
  • Harry Lauder
  • Harry Potter
  • Henry VIII
  • Hedworth Williams, Sr.
  • Henry George Liddell
  • Henry Holiday
  • Henry Hylton
  • Henry Irving
  • Henry Lambton
  • Henry Stanley
  • Houdini
  • Hunt Emerson
  • Ian Watson
  • Irving Berlin
  • Isabella Hazard
  • Isambard Kingdom Brunel
  • Jack Crawford
  • Jack the Ripper
  • James Herriot
  • James Joyce
  • Jan Svankmeyers
  • Jeff Smith
  • Jimmy Carter
  • Joe Nattras
  • John Bunyan
  • John George Lambton
  • John Humble
  • John Lawrence
  • John Lennon
  • John Lilburne
  • John Millais
  • John Paul Jones
  • John Proctor
  • John Ruskin
  • John Tenniel
  • Jonathan Hanker
  • Jonathan Miller
  • Jordan Smith
  • Joseph Conrad
  • Joseph Swan
  • Joseph Wiggins
  • Joshua Wilson
  • Karl Fisher
  • Karl Marx
  • Kate Adie
  • Keanu Reeves
  • Kelly Osbourne
  • Ken Russell
  • Kevin Cadwallender
  • King Athelstan
  • King Charles I
  • King Ecgfrith
  • King George I
  • King Harold
  • King James I
  • Lady Montagu Wortley
  • Lawrence of Arabia
  • Leo Baxendale
  • Leopold Hargreaves
  • Les Dawson
  • Lewis Carroll
  • Lily Lumley
  • Lizzie Webster
  • Lord Ravensworth
  • Luther Arkwright
  • MacDonald Gill
  • Manfred Mann
  • Manuella Bute Smedley
  • Margaret Thatcher
  • Marie Lloyd
  • Marilyn Manson
  • Marilyn Monroe
  • Mark Lemon
  • Marlene Dietrich
  • Mary Ann Robson Cotton
  • Mary Shelley
  • Mary Wortley
  • Max Ernst
  • Mervyn Peake
  • Michael Bute
  • Michelangelo
  • Mike D’Abo
  • Miles Standish
  • Mother Shipton
  • Mr T
  • Nannie Scott
  • Ned Kelly
  • Neil Gaiman
  • Nellie Melba
  • Nicholas Hawksmoor
  • Odo of Bayeux
  • Olga Lowe
  • Olive Hardy
  • Oliver Goldsmith
  • Oswald Moseley
  • Oswald Stoll
  • Ozzy Osbourne
  • Patrick Lavelle
  • Paul McCartney
  • Peter Camm
  • Peter O’Toole
  • Peter Smart
  • Peter Sutcliffe
  • Prince Leopold
  • Queen Elizabeth II
  • Queen Victoria
  • Ralph Steadman
  • Ravi Shankar
  • Reginald Hargreaves
  • Rev. Charles Collingwood
  • Rev. John Wesley
  • Rev. Robert Gray
  • Rex Hargreaves
  • Rhoda Liddell
  • Richard Nixon
  • Richard Thornton
  • Richard Wallace
  • Rick Griffin
  • Robert Bowes
  • Robert Graves
  • Robert Heinlein
  • Robert Liltburne
  • Robert Stephenson
  • Robin Hood
  • Robinson Duckworth
  • Roger Skelton
  • Roland Wilson
  • Rudolf Toffer
  • Saint Cuthbert
  • Saint Godric
  • Saint Hilda
  • Sally Geeson
  • Salvador Dali
  • Samuel Taylor Coleridge
  • Sarah Junner Lawrence
  • Sarah Michelle Gellar
  • Scott McCloud
  • Septimus Scott
  • Sheri Holman
  • Sidney James
  • Sir Henry Havelock
  • Sir Humphrey Davy
  • Sir John Lambton
  • Sir John Conyers
  • Sir Walter Scott
  • Sir William of Hylton
  • Stan Laurel
  • Steven Spielberg
  • Stuart Dodgson Collingwood
  • Suzy Varty
  • T Arthur
  • TS Eliot
  • Tennyson
  • Thomas Dixon
  • Thomas Edison
  • Thomas Edward Lawrence
  • Thomas Henry Liddell
  • Thomas Paine
  • Thomas Randall
  • Tom Taylor
  • Tony Blair
  • Tove Jansson
  • Trina Robbins
  • Ulysses S Grant
  • Vesta Tilley
  • Virginia Woolf
  • Vladimir Nabokov
  • WC Fields
  • WH Auden
  • Wee Georgie Woods
  • Whoopi Goldberg
  • Wilkie Collins
  • William Bell Scott
  • William Blake
  • William Clanny
  • William Hogarth
  • William Hylton
  • William Joyce
  • William McGonagall
  • William Mills
  • William Morris
  • William Mowbray
  • William Reid Clanny
  • William the Bastard
  • William the Conqueror
  • William Wilcox
  • Windson McKay
  • Winnie Davies
  • Woody Allen
  • Yehudi Menhin

Fun stuff: Ever wonder why all public doors are supposed to open outward? The answer is in Alice in Sunderland. Did you know there is a missing Alice chapter called Wasp in a Wig? Or that Grace Slick is such a huge fan of Alice that she created a whole series of Wonderland inspired paintings when she retired from music.

Favorite line, “Don’t confuse the genre with the medium” (p 187).

Author fact: Talbot has his own website here.

Book trivia: I know I said it before but this book is an oversized visual treat.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust To Go in the chapter called “Comics with a Sense of Place” (p 68).

Considerable Town

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Fisher, M.F.K. A Considerable Town. New York: Alfred A Knopf, 1978.

Reason read: Dual reasons: April is food month and Fisher is a food writer. Also, does anyone know the song, April in Paris? Need I say more?

The first thing you need to know about A Considerable Town is that it is not a travel or guide book. The first time Fisher visited Marseille the year was 1929. She is back again…only it’s 1976 (yes, you read that right). A Considerable Town was published in the same year but is full of observations of a city Fisher had obviously fallen in love with. Reading this in 2016, some sixty years later, felt a little dated and left me wondering how much, or how little, Marseille had changed in all that time. Fisher noted changes between her 1929 and 1976 visits.
The other thing you need to know about A Considerable Town is that Fisher takes you on a journey that is both thoughtful and thought-provoking. Her observations of people, places and events bring Marseille alive so much so that she accomplishes the opposite of a tour/guide book. Instead of preparing the reader to visit the region, she makes the reader feel as though he or she has already been there.
Probably the most touching part of A Considerable Town was towards the end when Fisher is trying to make her two young daughters feel at “home” in Marseille at Christmas time. Decorating the tree was especially poignant.

Quotes to quote, “During the market hours there, men sold their catches too, but it was the women who dominated, at least in decibels” (p 67), “Sobriety is a rare and dubious virtue, if that at all, with people under heavy stress like cabbies, cooks, and even politicians” (p 115) and “Every kitchen and winery has its own share of idiots, rascals and wretches” (p 120).

Author fact: Fisher spent some time at the University of Dijon in France.

Book trivia: A Considerable Town and Map of Another Town make up Two Towns in Provence. Don’t be disappointed but there are no pictures of Marseille in A Considerable Town.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust To Go in the chapter called “Florence and the South of France” (p 187).

Don’t Eat This Book

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Spurlock, Morgan. Don’t Eat this Book: Fast Food and the Supersizing of America. New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 2005.

Reason read: April is National Food Month

If you know anything about Morgan Spurlock you know he is sarcastic, funny and extremely outspoken. I should also mention smart and fearless.When it comes to the evils of fast food Spurlock is all of those things times a hundred. Mention health issues related to morbid obesity and you can practically hear his frustration ooze out in every written word. Spurlock is the man who decided to eat nothing but fast food for thirty days and document his journey. His findings are not earth shattering. They shouldn’t even be surprising and yet they prompted the writing of Don’t Eat This Book. Quite clearly, Spurlock had much more to say on the subject. Within these pages he explores diets around the country, particularly in schools, hospitals and other institutions across the United States. He interviews lawmakers and key decisions makers in an attempt to investigate and reveal the culprits behind our nation’s growing health crisis.

Edited to add: Right after I posted this blog I received an email from LiveStrong with the subject, “What’s REALLY inside McDonald’s chicken McNuggets?” I kid you not.
Eye openers:

  1. At the time of Spurlock’s book he reported McDonald’s had bought Chipotle. What the what?!? Not exactly. McDonald’s initially invested in Chipotle but by 2006 (a year after Don’t Eat This Book was published) they had fully divested itself from the chain. Phew!
  2. You support Philip Morris whenever you buy Altoids, Kraft products, or Milk-Bone dog biscuits, just to name a few.

Author fact: As I mentioned before, Spurlock made a movie which I’m sure you have either seen or at least heard about called “Supersize Me!” – all about what happens when you eat nothing but McDonald’s food for thirty days. He won the Best Director prize at Sundance for his efforts.

Book trivia: There are a lot of “side bar” notes. During the listening of Don’t Eat This Book they sounded like interruptions.

Audio trivia: Spurlock reads his own book.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust in the chapter called “Guilt-Inducing Books” (p 110).

Uncertain Grace

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Salgado, Sebastiao. An Uncertain Grace. New York: Aperture Foundation, 1990.

Reason read: Natalie Merchant

Sebastiao Salgado is a fascinating artist. His photographs are works of art. And yet. Yet, there is so much humanity and culture within each frame that they move beyond artistic interpretation into a realm of awareness and education. In a word, they teach. The lessons are hard to digest and sometimes there is a vomiting of denial and revolt. For those that dare not look away there is inspiration and heartache.

In Migrations Salgado emphasized the light. In Uncertain Grace the subliminal emphasis is on the eyes of his subjects. Through these eyes one sees hope, pain, redemption and death. Supporting the imagery are thoughtful essays by Eduardo Galeano and Fred Ritchin.

April Comes Quickly

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I don’t know where March went. I’ve looked under calendars and in date books and I still can’t figure it out. The month went by so fast! Here are the books finished for March:

  • Naked Lunch by William Burroughs
  • The Assistant by Bernard Malamud
  • Family Man by Jayne Krentz
  • Lacuna by Barbara Kingsolver
  • Gilead by Marilynne Robinson (AB)
  • The Brontes by Juliet Barker (DNF)
  • Means of Ascent by Robert Caro (DNF)
  • Center of the World by Jacqueline Sheehan (Fun)
  • In the Sanctuary of Outcasts by Neil White (would have been an Early Review book a long time ago)

On tap for April (besides a little Noodle 5k run):

  • A Considerable Town by MFK Fisher ~ in honor of April being the best time to visit France
  • The Seven Principles for Making Marriage Work by John Gottman ~ for fun
  • Green Thoughts by Eleanor Perenyi ~ in honor of gardening month
  • Alice in Sunderland by Bryan Talbot ~ in honor of April Fools
  • Don’t Eat This Book by Morgan Spurlock ~ in honor of April being Food Month (AB)
  • The Grand Tour by Tim Moore ~ in honor of Harvey Ball passing in April

The Brontes

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Barker, Juliet. The Brontes. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1994.

Reason read: March is national literature month. You can’t get any more literary than the Bronte sisters, right?

The repeating word to describe The Brontes is “thorough”. Because of its length, over 1,000 pages, many readers are filled with trepidation at the thought of even starting such a behemoth. They should know there is nothing to fear. While the narrative might be dense it is far from boring or solely didactic. One does have to keep in mind, however, that this is about the Bronte family and not just the famous sisters. With limited information, Barker tries her best to also include father Patrick, mother Maria and brother Branwell.

Author trivia: According to the dust jacket, Juliet Barker spent eleven years researching the Bronte family for this book and several others.

Book fact: Of course The Brontes has photographs. My favorites are of the various houses, Haworth Parsonage, Blake Hall and the Pensionnat Heger.

BookLust Twist: from More Book Lust in the chapter called “Literary Lives: The Brits” (p 146).

Means of Ascent

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Caro, Robert. Means of Ascent: the Years of Lyndon Johnson. New York: Vintage Books, 1991.

Reason read: to continue the series started in February for Presidents Day.

The year is 1941 and Lyndon Johnson is now 32 years old. Caro starts off this second section of the President’s biography by singing the praises of all that Johnson had accomplished at such an early age. The list is impressive, but be forewarned, there is a great deal of word for word repetition from the first book, Path to Power. To name some: Lyndon’s physical appearance as a towering young man with jet black hair; his father as the laughingstock of his town; Lyndon’s scheme to marry for money; Alice Glass teaching him which side of his face was more photogenic; even the “carrying water” note Johnson wrote to Roosevelt is repeated. Confessional: I found myself skimming the word for word parts, looking for the “new” material.
Here are the “new” parts of Lyndon Johnson’s biography. World War II brings Lyndon’s “wartime efforts” which, true to form, are grossly exaggerated. It was almost shameful how this future President of our nation lied about his active duty in combat. It left me with feelings of revulsion. At the same time, Caro’s depiction of Claudia “Lady Bird” Johnson holding down the fort in Washington during this time is poignant. His interview with her is touching.
Although Caro is tighter and more focused in his narrative of Means of Ascent, as with Path to Power, he includes a great deal more information than necessary. Case in point, there are over 30 pages dedicated to LBJ’s 1948 opponent, Coke Stevenson and his upbringing. While I appreciated the detail, if I want to read a biography on Coke Stevenson I would find a biography specifically on Coke Stevenson. I feel that the only way to make LBJ the ultimate villain is to exaggerate his competition and make him his opposite in every way.

As an aside, this is an interesting time to be reading about a political campaign.

Book trivia: The photographs are extraordinary.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust in the chapter called “Presidential Biographies” (p 193).

Migrations

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Salgado, Sebastiao. Migrations: Humanity in Transition. New York: Aperture, 2000.

Confessional: this is not on any challenge list. Less than a month ago I swore I would no longer stray from “the List” but here I am, reviewing something leisure.
Here’s why: it’s a photojournalistic account of humanity on the move. More pictures than words. I was inspired by an interview given by Natalie Merchant to look up Sebastiao Salgado’s work and I don’t regret it.I picked up two different books, the first being Migrations.

Migrations first hits you as a stark, sad and seemingly hopeless photo essay of human suffering brought on by starvation, natural disaster, religious persecution, and outright war. Scratching the surface, it is the story of people fleeing one situation straight into the arms of another. The faces are in turmoil. Fear casts a shadow over impoverished communities across Latin America, Asia and Africa. But, dear reader look closer. Amid the sick, the dying, the afraid. Look with open eyes. There is a glimmer of hope. See the sly shy smile of a child, the defiant stare of a proud mother, the hopeful grin of a gritty farmer. Salgado wants you to peer into these faces and see yourself looking back with strength and optimism. He stresses we are all one human race. Underneath it all, we all want the same things. I’m reminded of Shel Silverstein’s poem, “No Difference” for he said the very same thing.

Favorite line, “But while information is the most obvious bridge between cause and effect, it is not the only one” (p 10).

In the Sanctuary of Outcasts

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White, Neil. In the Sanctuary of Outcasts: a Memoir. New York: William Morrow, 2009.

Reason read: I was supposed to receive this as an Early Review for LibraryThing back in 2009. It never arrived. Out of curiosity I decided to borrow it from a library and review it. I think there was a part of me that was feeling guilty for the reading’s equivalent of a runner’s DNS (Did Not Start).

I have to admit now that I have read In the Sanctuary of Outcasts I can officially say I am bummed I didn’t receive this as an Early Review back in 2009. This would have been one of my favorites. Not just one of my favorites, but one of my all-time favorites, for sure.

Confessional: I sometimes skip the author’s note. I’ll admit it – I’m impatient to get to the heart of the story. Sometimes, if I particularly loved what an author had to say I will go back and read the author’s note afterwards. But not always. In this case, for some reason I read every word of In the Sanctuary of Outcasts. I started with the copyright page and I think that’s what convinced me to spend time with every word White wanted to utter.

Leprosarium. Never heard the word before. Doubt I’ll hear it again. They’ve been trying to call it Hansen’s disease. Who know there was a place on the Mississippi River called Carville, a place under one roof for Hansen’s disease patients and prison inmates? Neil White certainly hadn’t when he entered the community of Carville on May 3rd, 1993 as a convicted felon. He left behind a wife and two small children to serve eighteen months for check kiting. There is humor to White’s arrival. His initial observations of Carville are as touching as they are naive. But, the longer he stays within the walls of Carville the more he understands the people around him. They leave a lasting impression and dare I say, change his life.

Quotes that got me, “The last thing I wanted to discuss on my first day of prison was erectile dysfunction” (p 15), and “She stood fearless in the face of change and approached her own life as if it were a thrill ride” (p 174).

Book trivia: the photograph of the aging oak trees took my breath away.