Category: NonFiction

May Day List

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I don’t hold onto many books. Once I have read something I either lend it away, maybe to never see it again or I donate it somewhere, hoping to never see it again. In an effort to clean off my personal shelves I swapped out some of the titles I had been planning to borrow from other libraries for books I already have at home. This practically changes the entire list for May, but oh well. Here are the many, many books that are on the list for this May:

  1. Art Student’s War by Brad Leithauser
  2. Hall of a Thousand Columns by Tim Mackintosh-Smith
  3. Careless Love by Peter Gurlnink…yes, I am STILL reading this! I can’t seem to finish it! Grrrrr
  4. Inspector Ghote Breaks an Egg by H.R.F. Keating
  5. Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee by Dee Brown. I was going to read Jewel in the Crown by Paul Scott, but I have Bury My Heart at home.
  6. Oedipus by Sophocles. Originally I was going to read Peloponnesian War by Donald Kagan, but like Bury My Heart, I have Oedipus at home.
  7. Finishing: The Lotus Eaters by Tatjani Soli
  8. ADDED: French Revolutions* by Tim Moore. I needed something on cd.
  9. ADDED: The transcriptionist by Amy Rowland (an Early Review title from LibraryThing)

*Audio book

Here is how the rest of year eight should go:

  1. Andorra by Peter Cameron (November)
  2. Any Four Women Can Rob the Bank of Italy by Ann Cornelisen (November)
  3. Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz by Mordecai Richler (July)
  4. Baltimore Blues by Laura Lippman (September)
  5. Beaufort by Ron Leshem* (November)
  6. Beirut Blues by Hanan al-Shaykh (August)
  7. Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks* (June)
  8. Black Lamb and Gray Falcon by Rebecca West (July)
  9. Bluebird Canyon by Dan McCall (September)
  10. Captain Sir Richard Burton by Edward Rice (October)
  11. Caroline’s Daughters by Alice Adams (August)
  12. Cradle of Gold by Christopher Heaney (November)
  13. Culture of Disbelief by Stephen Carter (October)
  14. Dancer with Bruised Knees by Lynne McFall (June)
  15. Dark Sun by Richard Rhodes (July)
  16. Earthly Possessions by Anne Tyler (June)
  17. Eye of the World by Robert Jordan* (October)
  18. Faith Fox by Jane Gardam* (July)
  19. First Man by Albert Camus (June)
  20. Fordlandia by Greg Gandin (August)
  21. Gesture Life by Chang-rae Lee (August)
  22. Grass Dancer by Susan Power (November)
  23. History Man by Malcolm Bradbury (September)
  24. In a Strange City by Laura Lippman (October)
  25. Inside Passage by Michael Modselewski (June)
  26. Labyrinths by Jorge Luis Borges (August)
  27. Long Way From Home by Frederick Busch (August)
  28. Raw Silk by Janet Burroway (September)
  29. Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro* (August)
  30. Rose of Martinique by Andrea Stuart (June)
  31. Thousand Ways to Please a Husband by Weaver/LeCron (September)
  32. You Get What You Pay For by Larry Beinhart (November)

*Planned as audio books

FINISHED:

  1. After the Dance by Edwidge Danticat
  2. Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow*
  3. Alice I Have Been by Melanie Benjamin*
  4. Angels Weep by Wilbur Smith
  5. Artist of the Floating World by Kazuo Ishiguro
  6. Benjamin Franklin: an American Life by Walter Isaacson
  7. Bring Me a Unicorn by Anne Morrow Lindbergh
  8. Cabin Fever by Elizabeth Jolley
  9. Civil Action by Jonathan Harr
  10. Day the Falls Stood Still by Cathy Marie Buchanan*
  11. ADDED: Dancer and the Thief by Antonio Skarmeta
  12. Eighth Day by Thornton Wilder
  13. Falcon Flies by Wilbur Smith*
  14. Feast of Love by Charles Baxter
  15. Flower and the Nettle by Anne Morrow Lindbergh
  16. Georges’ Wife by Elizabeth Jolley – This finishes the Vera Wright Trilogy
  17. Herzog by Saul Bellow. Originally, I was going to read Call It Sleep by Henry Roth in May, but I read Herzog early in honor of Bellow’s passing in April of 2005.
  18. Hour of Gold, Hour of Lead by Anne Morrow Lindbergh
  19. House of Morgan by Ron Chernow – attempted
  20. Illumination Night by Alice Hoffman
  21. It Looked Like Forever by Mark Harris
  22. Last Train to Memphis by Peter Guralink
  23. Leopard Hunts in the Darkness by Wilbur Smith
  24. Life in the Air Ocean by Sylvia Foley
  25. Men of Men by Wilbur Smith
  26. Now Read This II by Nancy Pearl
  27. Ocean of Words by Ha Jin
  28. Palladian Days by Sally Gable*
  29. Professor and the Housekeeper by Yoko Ogawa
  30. Racing Weight by Matt Fitzgerald
  31. Rose Cafe by John Hanson Mitchell
  32. Run or Die by Kilian Jornet
  33. Running for Mortals by John Bingham
  34. ADDED: Seeing in the Dark: How Backyard Stargazers are Probing Deep Space and Guarding Earth from Interplanetary Peril by Timothy Ferris
  35. Sword at Sunset by Rosemary Sutcliff
  36. ADDED: Thrush Green by Miss Read*
  37. War Within and Without by Anne Morrow Lindbergh
  38. Winners and Losers by Martin Quigley

Poetry:

  • “Aftermath” ~ a poem by Siegfried Sassoon
  • “Romance” ~ a poem by W.J. Turner
  • “Kubla Khan” ~ a poem by Samuel T. Coleridge

 

 

Seeing in the Dark

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Ferris, Timothy. Seeing in the Dark: How Backyard Stargazers are Probing Deep Space and Guarding Earth from Interplanetary Peril. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2002.

The night sky has always held a mystical place in my imagination. I had the thrilling good fortune to grow up in a place unpolluted by artificial light. No street lights to cut the night sky, no blinking traffic lights, no neon signs burning from storefront windows. Very few private homes had electricity so at most a soft glow from candles or kerosene lamps would emit from a window or two. That’s it. It was easy to look up into the Milky Way and get lost among its population of stars. To quote Natalie Merchant, “the stars were so many there, they seemed to overlap.” My favorite line her Maniacs song, The Painted Desert. Reading Seeing in the Dark set my memories on fire. I can remember stretching out, flat on my back, searching for satellites. We made a game of it. Who could first spot the unblinking light that moved so silently across the universe? But! I am so far in the weeds with this review.

Back to my last book for April…Ferris writes with such an easy style. This isn’t just about deep space, astronomy and star gazing. It is not dry and didactic. This is a memoir about Ferris’s childhood cardboard telescope dreams becoming reality. He takes us back to when he was just a kid, looking up in the Florida night sky, dreaming about rockets and moon walks; witnessing his first solar eclipse. It’s about sharing conversations with other amateurs, proving once and for all amateur stargazers really know what they are doing, despite not having the big buck telescopes and high-end gadgets. Seeing in the Dark is also about the collaborations between backyard stargazers and the people who have the money to make research happen. Take Brian May, for example. If he hadn’t been a musician be would have been an astronomer. Because of his success with his band, Queen, he has been able to support his hobby of backyard stargazing with better technology than the average hobbyist. Lastly, Seeing in the Dark is broad-based educational. I learned of a new place I want to visit, the Roden Crater in Arizona and I learned the difference between a meteoroid, a meteor, and a meteorite. I think too many people use those words interchangeably. Ferris cleared it up for me, once and for all.

Quotes I liked, “Love affairs can make you reckless and scar you for life, but what is life without love?” (p 82), “To put your eye or any other part of your anatomy at the focal point of a telescope pointed at the sun is like volunteering to be an ant under a magnifying glass” (p 76), and “…Charon, which orbits Pluto, which probably isn’t a planet” (p 104).

Reason read: April is National Astronomy month.

Author fact: Ferris has been nominated for a Pulitzer and four of his books are on my reading list.

Book trivia: It’s such a bummer that Ferris didn’t include any celestial photography. I love the night sky.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust in the chapter called “Astronomical Ideas” (p 27).

War Within and Without

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Lindbergh, Anne Morrow. War Within and Without: Diaries and Letters of Anne Morrow Lindbergh 1939-1944. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1980.

This is the last book in Anne Morrow Lindbergh’s series of diaries and letters. War Within and Without covers 1939 – 1944. In the beginning, the Lindberghs have just left France for America. The emphasis of War Within is World War II, of course, and the not so obvious private war the Lindberghs waged with public opinion concerning Charles’s views of Germany and the U.S involvement in the war. After spending nearly three years in Europe (England and France, mostly) the family returns to America where controversy over the political views of her husband continue to be criticized. All of this worries Anne very much as her husband is very vocal on these subjects. In view of the war, she has described this last book as coming full circle. World War I was raging when she was just seven years old. Underlying Anne’s very public life is the home life she struggled to keep private. Charles is “away” a great deal and Anne must entertain guests such as Antoine de Saint-Exupery on her own. She alludes to questioning what makes a good marriage. It leads one to believe there are hints of trouble with Charles. Anne does her best to convince the reader (herself, since it was her diary?) everything is fine. All the while she is crumbling under the pressure of being a good mother, writer, housekeeper, member of society, and of course, wife.

Telling quotes: “Both wars cracked open the worlds from which they erupted” (p xiii), “It is the striving after perfection that makes one an artist” (p 29), “Must get back to life after these days living in a world of the mind alone” (p 36), and “Then Monday he went off again and I have had a long week, tired from it, angry at myself, realizing I am doing too much and none of it well” (p 391).

Reason read: This is the last book I will read in honor of January being Journal Month. Finally!

Author fact: Lindbergh received six different honorary degrees from various institutions.

Book trivia: There is one grainy photo of Anne where credit is given to Charles. It makes me wonder who took the others. They seem “professional” compared to the intimacy of the one taken by Charles.

BookLust Twist: from More Book Lust in the chapter called “Journals and Letters: We Are All Voyeurs at Heart” (p 131).

Alice I Have Been

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Benjamin, Melanie. Alice I Have Been. Read by Samantha Eggar. New York: Random House Audio, —-.

I fell in love with Alice I Have Been straight away. Alice Liddell is the famed little girl who took a tumble down the rabbit hole. Benjamin has taken her life story and presented it in a fictional yet spellbinding way. Starting with Alice as a precocious seven year old who befriends a subtly sinister gentleman by the name of Charles Lutwidge Dodgson. Everyone turns their heads to ignore the slightly inappropriate relationship Alice has with stuttering Mr. Dodgson. I found myself asking what was Benjamin’s motive for so much alluding to impropriety? There is a lot of trembling that goes on…It whispers of pedophilia and the strange this is, Alice, even at seven, is perceptive to know something is amiss. However by age ten, almost eleven she is the instigator, asking Mr. Dodgson to “wait” for her, a statement that is accompanied by the proverbial wink and nod. Years later, Alice is rumored to be involved with Prince Leopold and her childhood relationship with Mr. Dodgson is all but a faded memory…until the Prince needs to ask his mum for her approval to marry Alice. It is then all of the allusions to impropriety make sense. Everything begins to make sense.
I have only one complaint and it’s an odd one. I didn’t like Alice as child or an adult. I found her to be rude, snobbish and spoiled throughout her entire life. But. But! But, I loved Benjamin’s writing. Know how I can tell? I borrowed the audio AND print versions of the book because listening to and from work just wasn’t enough.

I don’t know what it is with audio books but lately every one that I listen to has been read by someone with an accent…usually British.

Author fact: Melanie used a pseudonym to write Alice I Have Been. She recently published a book about Anne Morrow Lindbergh. What a coincidence since I have been reading Lindbergh’s books since January.

Book trivia:Alice I Have Been is Benjamin’s first historical fiction.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust To Go in the chapter called simply “Oxford: literary fiction” (p 171).

House of Morgan

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Chernow, Ron. The House of Morgan: An American Banking Dynasty and the Rise of Modern Finance. New York: Atlantic Monthly Press, 1990.

You can tell straight away that Chernow is going to tell you a great story, especially when he uses words like “brouhaha” to describe an economic catastrophe. There is a sly humor about his writing. How can you not smirk just a little when he writes, “Gooch was being groomed for a career of permanent subordination and forelock tugging” (p 8)? Or says things like “incorrigible Wall Street rascals” (p30)? Yet, his story is vastly inclusive and extremely informative. He takes you back before a time when each state has its own banking system and debts could be settled any which way. We watch the growth of international finance and step into a “wealth” of biographical portraits, if you excuse the pun (since we are talking about banking). I loved the little details; for example, the Morgans were the first private residential household to have electrical lighting in New York and a woman named Belle Greene was Pierpont’s “saucy librarian.” My one complaint – the book is massive. That’s because the tale is massive. Chernow needs every page to tell the story.

As an aside: I love it when my reading converges. In House of Morgan Chernow mentions Dwight Morrow’s daughter, Elizabeth; how she couldn’t resist a comment about Pierpont Morgan’s legendary nose. Because I have been reading Anne Morrow Lindbergh’s diaries I know that Dwight is her brother and he named his daughter after a sister who passed away after a bout with pneumonia. If I hadn’t been reading Lindbergh the names Dwight and Elizabeth Morrow would have meant nothing to me.

Reason read: April is National Banking Month. And speaking of money, it’s also tax month…

Author fact: Chernow holds degrees from Yale and Cambridge.

Book trivia: Chernow won the National Book Award in 1990 for House of Morgan, his first book!

BookLust Twist: from More Book Lust in the chapter called “Founding Fathers” (p 92). Yeah, yeah. I know. House of Morgan is not about a founding father, per se. Pearl mentions House of Morgan as a suggestion if you liked Chernow’s Alexander Hamilton.

Rose Cafe

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Mitchell, John Hanson. The Rose Cafe: Love and War in Corsica. Emeryville, CA: Shoemaker & Hoard, 2007.

As a young adult, John Hanson Mitchell found himself on the island of Corsica with absolutely no agenda other than to work in a cafe in order to watch and listen to the people around him. As a dishwasher in the Rose Cafe he had the opportunity to mingle with the guests and learn their life stories. Forty years later he writes about his experiences, describing Corsica as otherworldly and mysterious; hinting at zombies and shadowy characters. While there isn’t a standard plot to Rose Cafe, Mitchell does an amazing job not only describing the people he met, but bringing the island’s history to life. Because he was on the island in the early 60s, World War II was still fresh in a lot of people’s minds. Mitchell himself was “in hiding” to avoid the draft.

Lines I liked, “In the end, I fell into a strange, perhaps unhealthy, lethargy at the Rose Cafe” (p 5). That pretty much sums up how Mitchell ended up working (illegally) at the Rose Cafe as a pot washer/fish cleaner.
Another line I could relate to on several levels, “The wind undid people, it was said” (p 21). Amen to that.

Reason read: April is National Food Month. I thought reading about a cafe on the island of Corsica would involve some food. Not really. Mitchell was a fish cleaner, but that’s about it.

Author fact: John has his own website here. I don’t know what I was expecting when I found it (because I just knew he would have a site) but that wasn’t it. It hasn’t been updated in a few years.

Book trivia: Rose Cafe doesn’t contain any pictures. Mitchell describes the landscape beautifully but I would have loved seeing his views, especially his view from the cottage he stayed in.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust To Go in the chapter called “Corsica” (p 72). Yup. Simple as that.

“Aftermath”

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Sassoon, Sigfried. “Aftermath.” Modern British “Poetry. Ed. Louis Untermeyer. New York: Harcourt, Brace & Co., 1920. pp 220. Print.

This is a heartbreaking poem and the message is super clear. This is a plaintive cry to Sassoon’s fellow veterans, Do not get caught up in the glories of war! Do not let anyone tell you war is an excusable act just because time has softened your memory. I think there is a country song out there with the same message, but I think it was directed towards people not forgetting about September 11, 2001. The message is the same: don’t become complacent and forgiving when you have suffered so much. Sassoon clearly did.

Author fact: There are only two poems I am reading this month. Turner and Sassoon were friends.

Poem trivia: PBS has a great site dedicated to the Great War. Supposedly, you can listen to an audio recording of “Aftermath” but I couldn’t get it to play (which is why I didn’t include the link here). Google it for yourself if you are curious.

BookLust Twist: More Book Lust in the chapter called “Living Through War” (p 237).

April Foolish Games

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March was all about running. I seemed to be obsessed with a certain 10k and added four extra books about running to the list. Now, April is almost here and I have turned my attention to a certain 60 mile walk I have at the end of next month (my 6th year participating in Just ‘Cause!!). The only difference is, this time I won’t be adding any books about walking or breast cancer to my list. After five years of doing this 60 mile walk I think I have it down. Reading is a different story all together (pun totally intended).
Here are the many, many books that are on the list for this April:

  1. Alice I Have Been by Melanie Benjamin*
  2. Careless Love by Peter Gurlnink…yes, I’m STILL reading this!
  3. House of Morgan by Ron Chernow -This, you might remember, was planned for April 2013 and I selfishly decided to put it off a year. Such a coincidence since I read another Chernow last February.
  4. Leopard Hunts in the Darkness by Wilbur Smith ~ the last Ballantyne book of the series
  5. Rose Cafe by John Hanson Mitchell
  6. War Within and Without by Anne Morrow Lindbergh ~ this finishes my reading of Lindbergh’s diaries.
  7. Winners and Losers by Martin Quigley (maybe. This book is not in ly library system so I had to place an interlibrary loan)
  8. “Aftermath” ~ a poem by Siegfried Sassoon
  9. “Romance” ~ a poem by W.J. Turner

Here is the rest of year eight:

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

*Planned as audio books

FINISHED:

  1. After the Dance by Edwidge Danticat
  2. Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow*
  3. Angels Weep by Wilbur Smith
  4. Artist of the Floating World by Kazuo Ishiguro
  5. Benjamin Franklin: an American Life by Walter Isaacson
  6. Bring Me a Unicorn by Anne Morrow Lindbergh
  7. Cabin Fever by Elizabeth Jolley
  8. Civil Action by Jonathan Harr
  9. Day the Falls Stood Still by Cathy Marie Buchanan*
  10. Eighth Day by Thornton Wilder
  11. Falcon Flies by Wilbur Smith*
  12. Feast of Love by Charles Baxter
  13. Flower and the Nettle by Anne Morrow Lindbergh
  14. Georges’ Wife by Elizabeth Jolley – This finishes the Vera Wright Trilogy
  15. Hour of Gold, Hour of Lead by Anne Morrow Lindbergh
  16. Illumination Night by Alice Hoffman – This is something I tried to listen to as an audio two years ago. The cds were so scratched I gave up.
  17. It Looked Like Forever by Mark Harris
  18. Last Train to Memphis by Peter Guralink
  19. Life in the Air Ocean by Sylvia Foley
  20. Men of Men by Wilbur Smith
  21. Now Read This II by Nancy Pearl
  22. Ocean of Words by Ha Jin
  23. Palladian Days by Sally Gable*
  24. Professor and the Housekeeper by Yoko Ogawa
  25. Racing Weight by Matt Fitzgerald
  26. Run or Die by Kilian Jornet
  27. Running for Mortals by John Bingham
  28. 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.

Graduates in Wonderland

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Pan, Jessica and Rachel Kapelke-Dale. Graduates in Wonderland: the International Misadventures of Two (Almost) Adults. New York: Gotham Books, 2014.

Reason read: Chosen as an Early Review Book for LibraryThing.

Jessica and Rachel are two graduates of Brown, out on their own, learning to become “adults.” Jessica has moved to China to study Mandarin and get back to her roots. Rachel starts out in New York City’s art scene but then decides to move to Paris, France. Their story is told through a series of no-holds-barred emails back and forth over the course of three years. They discuss everything from career paths and education to fashion and faux pas but most of all they talk about men, relationships and sex.

My only “complaint” is it was difficult to read Graduates for extended periods of time. Their writing styles are similar enough that their voices started to blend and I would lose track of who was where. It got to a point when I completely ran out of steam and put the book down for three weeks.

Book trivia: It would have been cool to have pictures of the different places the girls have been, especially Jessica’s time in China.

Flower and the Nettle

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Lindbergh, Anne Morrow. The Flower and the Nettle: Diaries and Letters 1936 – 1939. Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1976.

The Flower and the Nettle is Anne’s return to the living. It covers 1936 to 1939. After the death of her first born son she and Charles take their second son, Jon, to England for an “indefinite” stay. They are literally driven out of their own country by the media’s insatiable need to photograph and question the family. First, it was Charles Lindbergh’s fame, then it was the kidnapping and murder of their first child. It is at a rambling rented cottage in England called Long Barn that Anne and Charles can finally relax and be themselves again. Jon is allowed to play freely on the lawn without massive hyper-vigilant supervision. Anne is able to concentrate on her writing. It is here that humor returns to her diaries and letters. She says things like, “It is so delicious” (p 30), and “living passionately in the present” (p 31). Later, after her third son Land is born, Anne and her family move to Illiec off the coast of France. This is the “flower” part of her life. The “nettle” is the approach of World War II and the ensnaring politics. Following Charles to Russia for business Anne vocalizes her discontent with the country. She uses words like dirty, hideous, mediocrity, drab, shoddy, third-rate and glum to describe such things as the poor middle class. She is quick to comment negatively on their fashions and complexions. This took me by surprise. What I needed to keep in mind is the intense scrutiny Anne and her family felt. The longer they stay away from America, the more “pro-Nazi” they are “villainized” as being.

One drawback of skipping a book in a series is the potential to not understand references made to that book in the next one. Because I didn’t read Locked Doors I didn’t grasp Lindbergh’s reference to a previous trip to Russia in 1933.

Favorite lines, “One gets so cramped in ordinary living” (p 76). A good excuse to get out there and do something extraordinary!

As an aside, looking at pictures of Long Barn I can’t help but think what a wonderful place! Don’t tell my husband, but it looks like my dream home! It would have been nice if Lindbergh had included maps of not only her travel destinations, but of the places she and her family lived in Europe.

Reason read: to continue the series started in January, in honor of Journal Month.

Book trivia: Maybe because The Flower and the Nettle is a longer book, there are more photographs. For the first time, Anne includes detailed pictures of the interiors of their residence. Long Barn looks like a place where I would like to live!

Author fact: At this point in Lindbergh’s life she considers herself a serious writer despite already publishing earlier.

BookLust Twist: from More Book Lust in the chapter called “Journals and Letters: We Are All Voyeurs at Heart” (p 131).

Run or Die

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Jornet, Kilian. Run or Die. Translated by Peter Bush. Boulder, Colorado: Velo, 2013

There is no denying Kilian Jornet is tough…and maybe just a little crazy. At 18, as a burgeoning athlete, he had an injury so severe he had to have a metal plate surgically implanted around his kneecap, and still he was determined to train. In the third chapter he describes running the 165-mile Tahoe Rim Trail. In the very next chapter…well, I’ll let him tell you”…It was the idea I could run across the Pyrenees in seven days” (p 75). See? Told you. Nuts. Just so you know, he ran just under 87 miles that first day. But, what is really cool of Jornet’s character (besides the crazy ambition) is his appreciation for the world around him as he runs. He is constantly taking note of the snow-capped mountains, the way sunlight dances on water. He really drinks it in as he runs.

Quotes to inspire, “A day comes in life when you have to decide which train to take, and once you are aboard, there is no point in thinking what might have happened if you had caught a different one” (p 14). Amen to that! Here’s another, “A race is a life that is born when you get up in the morning and dies when you cross the finish line” (p 30). I like the finality of that. You do it. You finish it. You’re done. Last one, “Everyone can be king of his own castle, but outside he is vulnerable and can lose his way” (p 124). Too true.

Reason read: training to run. Yes, I went off the plan…just a little.

Book trivia: I am super excited Kilian included a photograph of his 165-mile run along the Tahoe Rim Trail. I needed to see just one of the spectacular views he described.

Author fact: In addition to being an ultrarunner, Kilian is a ski mountaineer.  In other words, he hurls himself down mountains on skis.

Racing Weight

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Fitzgerald, Matt. Racing Weight: How to Get Lean for Peak Performance. Boulder, Colorado: Velo, 2009.

So. I may get a ration of crap from some people for reading this book. I will lay it all out there: I am 5’2″ (barely), weigh anywhere from 117 – 121lbs and have had a steady BMI of 22.1 since December 30th, 2013. I am average in every sense of the word. I am not a competitive runner so why the hell do I want to research racing weight? I can hear my loved ones right now, “you are fine the way you are!” I picked up this book because I was curious. Bottom line: curious. Then I was hooked on an idea. Hooked, as in Hook. Line. Sinker. What would happen if I tried to lose a few pounds of fat? What would happen if I became a little leaner? I am, after all, training for a 10k next month…

But. But! But, my little 10k is not what Fitzgerald had in mind, I’m sure. He was writing to endurance athletes with something a little bigger than a measly 10k on their minds. I get that. I was only curious about the types of foods these super people ate. People like Ryan Hall… Bottom line, this is a great book for those a little more serious minded than myself. I picked up a couple of great tips, but it didn’t become my bible.

Reason read: training.

Author fact: Matt has his own (very interesting) website here.

Book trivia: Fitzgerald covers more sports than just running.

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.

Running for Mortals

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Bingham, John and Jenny Hadfield. Running for Mortals: a Commonsense Plan for Changing Your Life Through Running. New York: MJF Books, 2007.

If I could, I would read everything John Bingham has ever written on the subject of running. He is, without a doubt, my kind of runner. He writes with authority and humor, something that’s hard to do in this puffed up, I-Run-12-Marathons-A-Year world. He comes across as knowing his stuff but, but. But! decidedly humble about it all the while. We can connect and commiserate with his experiences. It is important to note that both John and Jenny assure the reader runner that it doesn’t matter how tall you are, how thin you are, or your previous experiences with exercise. Anyone can do it. That bears repeating: Anyone. Can Do. It. I am proof of that. To be called a runner, there is no membership. No secret password or secret handshake to get in. If you run then you are a runner. Plain and Simple. John and Jenny just help you become a better version of the runner you already are.

Reason read: the St. Patrick’s Day road race is looming and while I “trained” last year for it, I wanted to do more this year.

Author fact: John Bingham is lovingly referred to as “the penguin” because of his shape and the way he runs. He has embraced this nickname and makes the best of it.

Book trivia: there are no pictures of either John or Jenny in Running for Mortals (that I know of), but there are pictures of exercises (probably more important to the serious-minded reader).

Careless Love

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Guralnick, Peter. Careless Love: the Unmaking of Elvis Presley. New York: Back Bay Books, 1999.

If in Last Train to Memphis Elvis Aron Presley was a shy, quiet kid with diamond-in-the-rough talent, for all appearances he is now a cocky, self-assured music and movie star in Careless Love. All of the makings of a good rock and roll star are there: sex, drugs and money. At this stage of the game Elvis is dating more women than he can keep track of, taking upppers and diet pills to keep up with the party-til-3am lifestyle, and spending boatloads of money all the while. By the time he is in his early 30s he has bought his entourage push carts, motorcycles and horses. “In all he managed to pay out well over $1000,000 in approximately two weeks, an orgy of spending that seemed to momentarily pacify Elvis…” (p 252). His sincerity gets lost in the mayhem and only resurfaces when he remembers his deceased mother. His mother brings out the best in him. Without her, his struggle to know himself is heartbreaking. Yet, what he really does knows is how to work the public, especially the ladies. Guralnick doesn’t shy from this fact. He is unflinching in his quest for the truth of the legacy. He captures Presley’s demise as the epic tragedy that it was.

Quote that shocked me, “Elvis had told her before they were married that he had never been able to make love to any woman he knew to have had a child…” (p 291).

Reason read: January was Elvis Presley’s birth month. Careless Love is the second volume of Last Train to Memphis.

Author fact: Guralnick has his own website here.

Book trivia: Careless Love was a New York Times Best Seller.

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