Category: NonFiction

Common to This Country

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Munger, Susan H. Common to This Country: Botanical Discoveries of Lewis and Clark. Illustrations by Charlotte Staub Thomas. Artisan, 2003.

Reason read: August is Friendship month. Read in honor of Lewis and Clark’s relationship.

Captains Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, an exploring match made in heaven. Lewis’s specialty was botany and Clark was an expert at creating topography maps. Together, they spent two and a half years traveling the country from the Louisiana Purchase to the Pacific Ocean in search of a waterway passage. Along the way, they were tasked with collecting, preserving and recording thousands of artifacts for President Thomas Jefferson. With the help of Sacagawea and varying native tribes, the members of the Corps of Discovery made their way over hundred of miles of prairies, mountains, cataloging and describing every rock, bird, animal, flora and fauna along the way.
Munger had a diplomatic way of describing conflict with certain Native American tribes. She called their relationship “edgy.”
In addition to sharing parts of Lewis and Clark’s journals and interesting facts about each plant, Munger shares if the particular plant can be purchased in a garden center.

Here are the flowers Munger highlighted in Common to This Country:

  • Osage Orange – supposedly this plant is still growing on the University of Virginia campus. It is said to be the direct descendant of the cutting sent by Lewis.
  • Calliopsis – used as a dye or tea. I want to see if I can grow this in my garden.
  • Bur Oak – fire, drought, and pollution resistant.
  • Narrow Leaf Coneflower – used to “cure” the bite of a mad dog or rattlesnake.
  • Lewis’s Prairie Flax – each bloom only lasts one day
  • Prickly Pear – probably my favorite from the southwest.
  • Western Serviceberry
  • Snowberry – planted on the banks to hold soil in place and prevent erosion.
  • Angelica – used for respiratory ailments and as a sweetener.
  • Camas – used the root to make bread.
  • Bearberry
  • Oregon Grape Holly
  • Lewis’s Syringa – used to make needles or combs.
  • Glacier Lily – the bulb, leaves, flowers and seed pods are all edible.
  • Ragged Robin – beautiful and uniquely shaped flowers.
  • Silky Lupine – probably my favorite of the bunch highlighted since they remind me of the lupine we have at home.
  • Old Man’s Whiskers – a unique looking flower that resembles an old or wisps of smoke.
  • Shrubby Penstemon – related to the Indian Paintbrush.
  • Monkeyflower – it needs a “cool situation” in order to thrive.
  • Bearberry Honeysuckle – not edible
  • Gumbo Evening Primrose
  • Bear Grass – a very beautiful plant that can lapse for ten years between blooms.
  • Ponderosa Pine – Indians ate the inner bark, seeds and rosin.
  • Bitterroot – the state flower of Montana.
  • Wood Lily – the official flower in the emblem for the Province of Saskatchewan.

As an aside, I was thrilled to learn of the pen pal relationship of Bartram and Collinson. while they never met, the exchanged letters for thirty-five years. I find that remarkable.

Book trivia: the map to plot Lewis & Clark’s journey is stunning. Common to This Country was dedicated to “The Tennis Group” whoever they are.

BookLust Twist: from More Book Lust in the chapter called “Lewis and Clark: Adventurers Extraordinaire” (p 136).

Colony

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Tayman, John. The Colony: the Harrowing True Story of the Exiles of Molokai. Scribner, 2006

Reason read: Hawaii became a state in August. Read to celebrate the history.

It does not seem possible that our government could rule that having leprosy would be a criminal offence. In 1866, that same government also believed these assumptions: that exile was the best means of controlling leprosy, that anyone in exile was an extreme contagion and finally, that everyone suffering from a leprosy diagnosis was never, ever, going to get better: to have leprosy was to have a death sentence. [As an aside, I guess if you can have a high ranking official tell you that drinking bleach can cure Covid-19 in 2020, we could have a government with such backward beliefs about Hansen’s disease in 1866.] The language of government criminality goes even further by calling a person with an unconfirmed case of leprosy a suspect and using bounty hunters to round up these “suspects.” Even a temporary release from the confines of the colony was called “parole.” This what fear can do. People were so frightened of the disease that they made hasty decisions to exile people too quickly without setting up proper accommodations. Seven years after the colony was first started, it still lacked running water, proper housing, and basic medical supplies.
The leper colony on the Hawaiian island of Molokai started on January 8th, 1866 with a dozen individuals all thought to be suffering from what was then known as leprosy. With each chapter, the colony grows in numbers until the cures and treatment of science start to win and numbers dwindle.
Tayman was careful to stress that in addition to the illnesses, Molokai was an inhospitable place in and of itself. Landing on the island’s rocky shore was a extreme danger, crops constantly failed due to water shortages and poor soil conditions. Living quarters were made out of any material people could find and were unsanitary. Mankind’s presence didn’t make life any easier. White man’s diseases: smallpox, syphilis, gonorrhea, and influenza all plagued the islands of Hawaii throughout history. Morale within the leper community was fraught with turmoil and confusion. Besides being in pain from debilitating diseases and missing their families, patients brought their grudges and prejudices to Molokai. If all that was not bad enough, political ambitions led certain officials to wildly exaggerate the success of the experiments in the fight to cure leprosy.
My only disappointment in The Colony is actually a complaint about Tayman. Makia Malo and Olivia Breitha changed their minds about being included in The Colony. They asked to be left out of the book and Tayman not only left in their stories, he also included photographs of them. If he wasn’t going to respect their wishes, at the very least, he could have changed their names and removed the photographs from the finished publication. Having said all that, I could not help but be inspired by Olivia and Makia’s spirits. Their courage and grace astounded me.

The Colony left me thinking about the psychology of cordoning off the undesirables, the dangerous. Our country has a history of sending people somewhere else, out of the public eye. The Japanese during the war; Jews in Europe, American Indians, Molokai. What we do not understand or trust, we banish.

As an aside, there is a 1999 documentary about Father Damien and his work on Molokai and Mark Twain based his Connecticut Yankee on William Ragsdale. There is also a documentary called “Olivia & Tim: Very Much Alive” which I want to see.

Playlist: “The Star-Spangled Banner”, “Home Sweet Home” (probably not the Motley Crue version), and “My Little Grass Shack in Kealakekna”.

Author fact: while Tayman wrote more books, I am only reading The Colony for the Challenge.

Book trivia: This might be a first for me, but the notes in The Colony included photographs that Tayman mentions in the text. No photographs are in the actual text. For the purists – Tayman didn’t change a single name in The Colony.
As an aside, the cover photograph by Todd Gipstein is stunning.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust To Go in the very simple chapter called “Hawaii” (p 93). However, the book is misplaced. Pearl included it in fiction because of Father Damien mentioned in another book.

What Just Happened

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Gleick, James. What Just Happened?: a Chronicle from the Information Frontier. Pantheon Books, 2002.

Reason read: Gleick celebrates a birthday in August. Read in his honor.

Gleick needs a time machine. He wants his reader to put him or herself back in the 1990s as much as possible when reading What Just Happened. We need to remember the internet as it was just starting out. Portable phones. Pagers. ATMs. The essays cover bugs in Microsoft (essays written in August 1992 and again in June of 1997), the transformation of cellphone communication, the question of caller ID and ethics, the Y2K Crisis (for which Gleick apologizes for reporting impending doom four years prior), the idea of anonymous spending is only possible with cash (Think about it. No other form of money is without identifiers of some sort.), humorous password creations – all with a snarky tone that is just delightful.
Gleick’s opinion of internet pornography and its future is laughable. My favorite section was when Gleick unpacked an alert sent by MSN, pointing out vague language, half truths, cloudy communication, deliberate mis-directions, down playing failures, all with skillful ambiguity and clever concealment of the truth. Humor aside, Gleick makes you think about how far we have come.

Quotes to quote, “We have to learn the odd skill of speaking freely to someone who won’t hear us until later” (p 38). I wish I could teach my mother that skill. She will talk and talk on someone’s answering machine until she is cut off.

Author fact: At the time of publication, Gleick lived in the Hudson Valley. I wonder if Natalie Merchant was a neighbor?

Book trivia: What Just Happened isn’t Gleick’s only book. I am reading Chaos and Faster for the Challenge.

Playlist: “Stop in the Name of Love”, Supremes, Dolly Parton, Nat King Cole, “Naughty Angeline”, Crash Test Dummies, T-Bone Walker, Jim Fyhrie, 10,000 Maniacs (!), “Hail to the Chief”, Beastie Boys, Adiemus, Frank Sinatra, Harvey Danger, Dave Matthews Band, the Beatles, Scott Joplin, Mozart, and Madonna.

Nancy said: Pearl said What Just Happened is one of Gleick’s more accessible books. I agree 100%.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust in the chapter called “Science Books (for the Interested But Apprehensive Layperson)” (p 211).

Especially Dogs

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Taber, Gladys. Especially Dogs…Especially at Stillmeadow. J.B. Lippincott, 1968.

Reason read: I call books that make you happy “ice cream” books. In the month of July, ice cream is one of the most sought after cool treats. Additionally, I needed a book for the Portland Public Library Reading Challenge for the category of a book that makes you happy. Even though I am a cat person, this made me smile.

Dogs, dogs, dogs. All things dogs. In the beginning of Especially Dogs, Taber writes a memoir of the dogs in her life, beginning with her first dog, Timmie, the Irish Setter. [As an aside, I cannot imagine putting a dog on a train! Her parents thought it would be a good idea for Timmie to visit Gladys when she got married, so Timmie made the trip from Wisconsin to Virginia in a crate.] To name a couple more special dogs in Taber’s life, the reader will meet Honey, the Cocker Spaniel, and Holly, the Irish Setter. You might think she is obsessed when you read that, at one point, Taber had thirty-five Cocker Spaniels, three Irish Setters, and three cats, all at the same time. This was the creation of Stillmeadow Kennel with her friend and former roommate, Jill.
Moving further into Especially Dogs, the reader will get a primer on how to housebreak a dog, how to feed a dog (I had no idea oatmeal could deteriorate a dog’s coat), how to introduce new or strange dogs to one another, how to make a dog heel when walking down a busy or distracting street, and even how to put your special pooch in competitions… the list goes on.
There is no doubt Taber loved her dogs. The love and humor in her writing makes that abundantly clear. This was a joy to read.

Quotes to quote, “Her approach to anything was always that there must be a book about it and she read them all” (p 89) and “We never bought a horse because I couldn’t figure out how to get it into the house” (p 177).

Author fact: Taber has written a plethora of books on various topics. I am only reading three for the Challenge. I already finished Stillmeadow Road and will have — after Especially Dogs. Taber is a self-professed addict of professional football.

Book trivia: really cute blank and white photographs of puppies and adult dogs are sprinkled throughout Especially Dogs…Especially at Stillmeadow.

Music: Tijuana Brass.

Nancy said: Pearl shared an interesting tidbit about Taber’s origin story.

BookLust Twist: from More Book Lust in the chapter called “Cozies” (p 57). See what I mean?

Night Garden: of My Mother

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Tyler, Sandra. The Night Garden: of My Mother. Pierian Springs Press, 2024.

Reason read: I am a member of the Early Review Program for LibraryThing. This is a book I specifically requested because of my current situation.

Sandra Tyler’s The Night Garden is thought-provoking and heart-wrenching. For any daughter sandwiched between being a mother and being motherly to her own mother, this is a must read. Read it before you are in that moment as a guide for the times to come. And come they will. Read it during the struggles and you will nod in agreement every time you turn the page. Read it afterward your mother is gone and you will look back at the bittersweet memories and maybe smile, just a little. There is truth on every page. There is humor to Tyler’s story, too.
I do not have children and I will never know the balance of caring for two different generations, but I do know the slow building sadness that bubbles within while watching your mother age. The little things you took for granted will become monumental heartbreaks. When a loved one disowns you, it is hard to not take it personally because you are also busy refusing to believe they no longer know what they are saying. It takes strength to realize you cannot have it both ways – sharp intellect in contrast to a mind lost to dementia. When Tyler’s mother had to relinquish her drivers license my heart cracked in half (although my own mother has never owned a license to operate an automobile). Another piece of identity drowned.
Be forewarned – Night Garden might start you thinking about your own mortality. Tyler evokes the poem “Spring and Fall to a Young Child” by Gerard Manley Hopkins without even trying. I found myself asking “When do you do if you know it is your last (danced, movie, fill in the blank)?” Would you rather know the exact date and time of your demise or not? What about the angel date of a loved one? Would you be okay knowing, “This is my last dinner with you. Ever.”?

Tyler is just a little younger than me when she describes her relationship with her mother. Her mother married when she was in her 40s while my mother had me at 19. Even still, all throughout the story I was having these little “that could be me” moments. Our mothers complained about phones. They were both artists. They were both widowed early in their lives. I felt the helplessness when Tyler described waiting for her mother to get to the point. There is that sinking feeling when you inevitably realize, twenty minute later, that there wasn’t one. If there had ever been a point it had been lost under tons of verbal garbage. When taken-for-granted routines become unwieldy and cumbersome. Things that used to take five minutes become forever minutes. I think the first time I recognized something was wrong with my mother was when we were getting ready for a show. She knew the time to be ready and yet, when the driver arrived, she was still in just her pantyhose and blouse. No skirt. No shoes. Her hair a mess. Mom? What have you been doing for the last 45 minutes?

Music: Puccini’s Madame Butterfly, James Taylor, “From a Distance”, Judy Collins, and “Silent Night”.

Addie

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Settle, Mary Lee. Addie: a Memoir. University of South Carolina Press, 1998.

Reason read: Mary Lee Settle was born in July. Read in her honor.

There is something to be said for honoring one’s past. The oral histories of yesteryear are the cornerstones to who we are as people today. When Mary Lee Settle decided to write about her grandmother, Addie Settle, she chose to recognize not only a blood relative, but historical events: World War I, the Great Depression and mining strikes with Mother Jones leading the way. Settle honors her own personal tapestry of life by remembering family holidays from her childhood, coming of age, and the natural beauty of Kentucky and the Kanawha Valley of West Virginia. My favorite section was the poignant moment when Settle went back to Pineville, Kentucky. Sixty-five years after leaving the area as a six year old little girl, sharp memories rushed to meet her at every turn.
As an aside: when Mary Lee Settle was nine or ten years old she wrote a poem. When that poem was published someone had changed a word in the finished copy. In childish indignation she vowed never to write again. I just love that self righteous ardor for the integrity of her craft at ten years old!

An another aside: was it a typo to call it Wail Street instead of Wall Street?

Line I liked, “When your childhood has been spent on the river, the river will, wherever you are, flow through your dreams forever” (p 177). This quote reminded me of Natalie Merchant’s song, “Where I Go” – a song about finding solace on the banks of a river.
And this: “We had learned to watch for signs of that happiness as you watch the weather” (p 125). Confessional: my sister and I ask each other about the weather when we are really asking about our mother’s mood. Like weather in New England, it can change in a heartbeat.
Here is another one: “Since my mother never forgave anybody, she refused to go to the funeral when her friend died at ninety” (p 185). Does this kind of obstinate stubbornness come with old age? I see this in my own mother.

Author fact: Settle is in the Kentucky Writers Hall of Fame.

Book trivia: I am reading ten different books by Mary Lee Settle. This is my first one off the Challenge list.

Music: “Little Corey”, Guy Lombardo, “The Sweetheart of Sigma Chi”, “We shall Overcome”, “It was Sad When the Great Ship Went Down”, “In the shade of the Apple Tree”, “Down on the Farm”, Mozart, Nellie Lutcher, Flagstad & Melcior’s “Liebestod”, Hal Kemp, “If I Had the Wings of an Angel”, Tchaikovsky’s Second Piano Concerto, and “the Valley of Kentucky”.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust in the chapter called “Companion Reads” (p 62) to be read with Charms for the Easy Life because they are both about the south.

Too Much Too Young

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Rachel, Daniel. Too Much Too Young: The 2 Tone Records Story” Rude Boys, Racism, and the Soundtrack of a Generation. Akashic, 2024.

Reason read: as a member of LibraryThing I sometimes get to review cool books in the Early Review program. Too Much Too Young is one such book.

Sit down too long with Too Much Too Young and you will start to feel like you are reading an encyclopedia of song and band names. Namedropping and song humming. Daniel Rachel has done his homework and then some when it comes to the musical beginnings of the 2 Tone record label with art student Jerry Dammers. Rachel even includes a tweet from 2020. The record label’s first signed bands: the Specials, the Selecter, and the Madness (and to think they could have signed UB40). 2 Tone’s sound: from the beginning there were a British take on Jamaican music but after a while they morphed into a mad scientist blend of ska, reggae, punk, rock, Motown, funk, pop, R & B, soul, and disco. Their goal: to represent opposition to discriminations of all types, to fight for equality, and to rage against a national epidemic of violence. They encouraged positivity and joy. Their look: tonic suits, porkpie hats, skinny ties, wraparound shades, and Dr. Martens. Rachel exposes the good, bad, and the ugly of the era. Well worth the encyclopedic read even though, when you think about it, you are reading about a record label that only lasted less than two years due to creative differences, clashing egos and in-fighting.
As an aside, I did not know that Jerry Dammers introduced the concept of Musak.
Same as it ever was: sometimes all it takes is that one unexpected opportunity. The Automatics stood in for the Clash and got their sound out there. Imagine Dragons did the same thing when the lead singer for Train was unable to perform.
Same as it ever was: skinheads hated the hippies and Pakistanis. There will always be hate in this world.

Natalie Moment: when Rachel was talking about performing “Hard Time”, a pessimistic song but dancing while performing it. Natalie talked about performing “What’s the Matter Here?” being a danceable tune about child abuse.
Another Natalie Moment: Too Much Too Young = Eat For Two?

Book trivia: Too Much Too Young takes its title from the Specials song “Too Much Too Young”, their first number 1 hit.

Author fact: Rachel has written a bunch of interesting books. Too Much Too Young is my first.

Best Line possible: “A band stands or falls by its drummer” (p 270). Amen to that.

Playlist Extravaganza:

  • Songs:
    • “007”
    • “10 Commandments”
    • “19”
    • “Aint No Love in the Heart of the City”
    • “Al Capone”
    • “Alcohol”
    • “Alphabet Army”
    • “Anarchy in the UK”
    • “At the Club”
    • “Atomic”
    • “Away”
    • “Back Home”
    • “Back to Life”
    • “Backfield in Motion”
    • “Baggy Trousers”
    • “the Ballad of Robin Hood”
    • “Bank Robber”
    • “Bed and Breakfast Man”
    • “Begin the Beguine”
    • “Berlin”
    • “Best Friend”
    • “Big Shot”
    • “Bitch”
    • “Black and Blue”
    • “Bluebeat and Ska?”
    • “the Boiler”
    • “the Boxer”
    • “Braggin’ and Tryin’ Not to Lie”
    • “Break down the Door”
    • “Bright Lights”
    • “Burn the Shithouse Down (Before the Yanks Do)”
    • “Cardiac Arrest”
    • “Carolina”
    • “Carry Go Bring Come”
    • “Celebrate the Bullet”
    • “Chant Down Babylon”
    • “Chiang Kai Shek”
    • “Click Click”
    • “Conscious Man”
    • “Concrete Jungle”
    • “Conspiracy”
    • “Coward of the County”
    • “Dancing wioth Tears in My Eyes”
    • “Danger”
    • “Dawning of a New Era”
    • “Do nothing”
    • “Do the Dog”
    • “Doesn’t Make It Right”
    • “Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood”
    • “Double Barrel”
    • “Drowning in Berlin”
    • “the Easy Life”
    • “Easy Snappin'”
    • “Embarrassment”
    • “Enjoy Yourself (It’s Later Than You Think)””
    • “the Entertainer”
    • “Envy the Love”
    • “Everyday”
    • “the Feelin’s Gone”
    • “Female Chauvinistic Pig”
    • “Fiesta”
    • “Free Love”
    • “(Free) Nelson Mandela”
    • “Friday Club”
    • “Friday Night, Saturday Morning”
    • “Funky Stuff”
    • “Gangsters”
    • “Ganja”
    • “Geno”
    • “Get Off of My Cloud”
    • “Ghost Town”
    • “Girls Talk”
    • “Give It Up”
    • “Going Underground”
    • “Greek Tragedy”
    • “Guns of Navarone”
    • “Hands Off…She’s Mine”
    • “Happy Birthday”
    • “Hawaii Five-0”
    • “Hear My Sing, Violetta”
    • “He’s Gonna Step on You Again”
    • “Hey Little Rich girl”
    • “Holiday Fortnight”
    • “Hot Legs”
    • “Housebound”
    • “I Call Your Name”
    • “I Can See Clearly Now”
    • “I Can’t Stand It”
    • “I Can’t Stand Up for Falling Down”
    • “I Could Be Happy”
    • “I Don’t Want to Live with Monkeys”
    • “I Heard It Through the Grapevine”
    • “I Shot the Sheriff”
    • “I Spy for the FBI”
    • “I’ll Fly for You”
    • “I’m an Upstart”
    • “I’m Going to Kill Myself”
    • “I’m in the Mood for Dancing”
    • “In-a-Gadda-Da-Vida”
    • “Inner London Violence”
    • “the International Jet Set”
    • “the Israelites”
    • “It Aint Easy”
    • “It Mek”
    • “It Should Have Been Me”
    • “It’s Up to You”
    • “Jackpot”
    • “James Bond”
    • “Japanese Boy”
    • “Jaywalker”
    • “Jingle Bells”
    • “John Peel’s New Signature Tune”
    • “Jungle Music”
    • “Keep On Moving”
    • “King”
    • “Kingston Affair”
    • “Land of Hope and Glory”
    • “the Land of Make Believe”
    • “Let’s Clean Up the Ghetto”
    • “Let’s Do Rock Steady”
    • “Lip Up Fatty”
    • “Liquidator”
    • “Little Bitch”
    • “A Live Injection”
    • “Living a Life Without Meaning”
    • “London Bridge”
    • “Lonely Crowd”
    • “Long Live Love”
    • “Long Shot Kick de Bucket”
    • “the Lost and the Lonely”
    • “Love of the Common People”
    • “Lovers Concerto”
    • “the Lunatics (Have Taken Over the Asylum)”
    • “Maggie’s Farm”
    • “Magic Roundabout”
    • “Man at C & A”
    • “Mantrovani”
    • “Message in a Bottle”
    • “A Message to You Rudy”
    • “Messages”
    • “Mirror in the Bathroom”
    • “Mirror, Mirror (Mon Amour)”
    • “Missing Words”
    • “Mistakes”
    • “Money in My Pocket”
    • “Monkey Man”
    • “Monkey Spanner”
    • “Moonlight Sonata”
    • “Mother and Child Reunion”
    • “Mr Brown”
    • “Mr Full Stop”
    • “Mule Jerk”
    • “Murder”
    • “My Boy Lollipop”
    • “My Collie”
    • “My Ding-a-Ling
    • “My Generation”
    • “My Girl”
    • “Nee Nee Na Na Na Na Na Na Nu Nu”
    • “Neanderthal Man”
    • “Never on a Sunday”
    • “Night Boat to Cairo”
    • “Night Klub”
    • “Nutty Train”
    • “Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da”
    • “Oliver’s Army”
    • “On My Radio”
    • “One of Us”
    • “One Minute Every Hour”
    • “One Step Beyond”
    • “Our Lips are Sealed”
    • “Out on the Streets”
    • “Palm Trees”
    • “Pearl’s Café”
    • “People Get Ready”
    • “Picking the Blues”
    • “Pirates on the Airways”
    • “Plead I Cause”
    • “Poison Ivy”
    • “Police and Thieves”
    • “The Prince”
    • “Put the Punk Back in Funk”
    • “Put People First”
    • “Pussy Prince”
    • “Racist Friend”
    • “Ranking Full Stop”
    • “Raquel”
    • “Rat Race”
    • “Red, Red Wine”
    • “Red Top”
    • “Reggae in Your Jeggae”
    • “Return of Django”
    • “Riders on the Storm”
    • “Robber Dub”
    • “Rock and Roll Nightmare”
    • “Romeo and Juliet”
    • “Rough Rider”
    • “Roxanne”
    • “Rude Boys Outa Jail”
    • “Ruder Than You”
    • “Rudi Got Married”
    • “Run for Your Life”
    • “Run Me down”
    • “Runaway Boys”
    • “Rush, rush”
    • “Saturday Night Beneath the Plastic”
    • “Saturday Night Special”
    • “Save It For Later”
    • “Sea Cruise”
    • “The Selecter”
    • “Shake Some Action”
    • “Shop Around”
    • “Silly Games”
    • “Ska Wars”
    • “Skinhead Moonstomp”
    • “Skinhead Symphony”
    • “Smokestack Lightning”
    • “Smoking My Ganja”
    • “Sock it to Em JB”
    • “Son of a Preacher Man”
    • “Soul Limbo”
    • “Soulful I”
    • “SpasticusAutisticus”
    • “Speak to Me of Love”
    • “Special Brew”
    • “Stereotypes”
    • “Stepping Into Line”
    • “Street Feeling”
    • “Stupid Girl”
    • “Stupid Marriage”
    • “the Sun Has Got It’s Hat On”
    • “Sweet and Dandy”
    • “the Swinging Cats Sing”
    • “Take 5”
    • “Tarzan’s Nuts”
    • “Tear the Whole Thing Down”
    • “Tears of a Clown”
    • “the Telephone Always Rings”
    • “Texas Hold-Up”
    • “They Make Me Mad”
    • “the Third Man Theme”
    • “Three Minute Hero”
    • “Time Hard”
    • “Time is Tight”
    • “To Cut a Long Story Short”
    • “Tom Hark”
    • “Too Experienced”
    • “Too Hot”
    • “Too Much Pressure”
    • “Too Much Too Young”
    • “Too Nice to Talk to”
    • “A Touch of Velvet – A String of Bass”
    • “Touchdown”
    • “Train to Skaville”
    • “Turning Japanese”
    • “Twist and Crawl”
    • “Under My Thumb”
    • “Video Killed the Radio Star”
    • “Vienna”
    • “Walking on the Moon”
    • “War Child”
    • “War Crimes (the Crime Remains the Same”
    • “Watching the Detectives”
    • “We Don’t Talk Anymore”
    • “We’re Only Monsters”
    • “West End Girls”
    • “What I Like Best About You is Your Girlfriend”
    • “What is Soul?”
    • “Whatcha Talkin’ About?”
    • “What’s It All About, Alfie?”
    • “When I Need You”
    • “Whine and Grine”
    • “the Whisper”
    • “Whistling Song”
    • “Why?”
    • “Why Argue with Fate”
    • “Wild Boys”
    • “Window Shopping”
    • “Wonderful World, Beautiful People”
    • “Wonderwall”
    • “Wrong Attitude”
    • “X”
    • “Yeh Yeh”
    • “Ylang Ylang”
    • “You Keep Me Hanging On”
    • “Young, Gifted and Black”
    • “Young Hearts Run Free”
    • “You’re Wondering Now”
  • Bands:
    • 10cc
    • ABBA
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    • Alex Harvey Band
    • Altered Images
    • Andrew Ridgely
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    • Aretha Franklin
    • the Automatics
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    • Elvis Costello and the Attractions
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    • England World Cup Squad
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    • Haircvut 100
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    • Jolly Brothers
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    • Millie Small
    • Mistakes
    • Mo-dettes
    • Mobiles
    • the Mood Mosaic
    • the Monkees
    • Motorhead
    • New Romantics
    • Neville Hinds
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    • Victor Romero Evans
    • Wah! Heat
    • Way of the West
    • Wayne/Jayne County
    • Wham!
    • the Who
    • Working Week
    • XTC
    • Yoko Ono
    • the Young Rascals

Life on the Mississippi

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Twain, Mark. Life on the Mississippi. Oxford University Press, 1996.

Reason read: June is supposedly National River Cleanup month. I bet the Mississippi could stand a cleanup every now and again.

Twain was obviously in love with the Mississippi River. He gives a historical perspective of what was happening (and not) in the year 1542. He astounds the reader with a barrage of facts. I am not about the check validity of his claims, but here are a couple: You weren’t anyone until you got a job on the mighty river and pilot was the most coveted position. To put Life on the Mississippi into perspective, in 1874 there were only twenty-eight states and territories. The south was wide open territory.
One of the cool things about reading Life on the Mississippi is that the reader gains insight about Twain’s work in progress, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. He calls it a story about “an ignorant village boy” and shares a chapter or two. Another insight is how Samuel Clemens became Mark Twain. While piloting the Mississippi Clemens learned that the words mark twain come from a call for the measured depth of a river. And just like that a pen name is born.
All in all, Twain is a masterful storyteller. Keep that in mind when you read Life on the Mississippi because not everything he says is true and the second half of the book is all over the place. Wouldn’t it be great to have dinner with Twain and ask him what he was thinking when he put together the second half of Life on the Mississippi? My favorite part was the detailed description of New Orleans and the cemeteries.

As an aside, does anyone else think that the portrait of Mark Twain looks like a scowling grump?

Favorite quote, “…there is music in the rush of water…” (p 145). Yes, yes there is. Here is another, “I killed Brown every night for months; not in the old, stale, commonplace ways, but in new and picturesque ones, – ways that were sometimes surprising for freshness of design and ghastliness of situation and environment” (p 224).

Author fact: Samuel Clemens was a very influential person in his community.

Book trivia: my copy of Life on the Mississippi contained over three hundred illustrations. Another point to note: in addition to Twain’s story there is one page for the editor’s note, nineteen pages for the foreword (written by Shelley Fisher Fishkin), twenty-two pages for the introduction (written by Willie Morris), eighteen pages for the afterword (written by Lawrence Howe), the table of contents takes up eight pages, the list of illustrations takes up another six, and there are 30 pages of appendices.

Music: “Buffalo Gals, Can’t You Come Out?” “Battle of Prague”, “Bird Waltz”, “Arkansas Traveller”, “Rosin the Bow”, “Marseilles Hymn”, “On a Barren Isle”, “The Last Link is Broken”, “She Wore a Wreath of Roses”, “Go, Forget Me”, “Long Long Ago”, “Days of Absence”, “A Life on the Ocean Wave”, “Bird at Sea”,

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust in the chapters called “Companion Reads” (p 63) and again in “Rivers of Words” (p 202). Here’s what I find really interesting. Nancy does not have a “Mark Twain: Too Good To Miss” chapter in any of her Lust books. Why not? She certainly lists a few he has penned: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, the Adventures of Huckleberry Sawyer, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court, Innocents Abroad, Life on the Mississippi, the Man Who Corrupted Hadleyburg, Roughing It and even essays in In a Fog. Mr. Twain is indexed in all three Lust books.

Iberia

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Michener, James. Iberia: Spanish Travels and Reflections. Random House, 1968.

Reason read: There is a fiesta that happens every May in Madrid, but this took me through June.

There is an intimacy to James Michener’s Iberia. The way he lovingly describes Spain from every angle and walk of life is a work of art and the photography, even though it is in black and white, is just gorgeous. Religion, art, history, bullfighting, theater, politics, architecture, education, transportation, tourism, ecology, labor, society, food, weather, dancing, fashion, family. I don’t think there is a single subject that Michener doesn’t touch upon. Michener is proud to call Iberia: Spanish Travels and Reflections the “book of a tourist”. Indeed, he has experience as a world traveler. He spent time in Pakistan and the Soviet Union, to name a couple of places, so he developed a keen understanding of foreign cultures. This is demonstrated thoroughly in the pages of Iberia. Be forewarned! The information is extremely dated so it is hard to discern current fact from history. Is the cab situation as bad as it was in the 1960s? Michener’s now and then comparisons were humorous considering how old Iberia has become. Here are a few more examples: Madrid used to be dark, but at the time Iberia was written, new streetlights lined the roads. What about now? Fashion prices used to be low. There were few elevators, but there were more newspapers. The drink of choice used to be wine. Now in the 1960s, people drink beer. Indeed, the 1960s seems fashionable, especially when remembering what a good year 1594 was…
Interesting facts: the hideous costume of the Ku Klux Klan was “borrowed” from a religious procession in Sevilla.

Favorite quotes to quote, “What I am saying is that Spain is a very special country, and one must approach it with respect and his eyes wide open” (p 25), “…no humility to make them approach the country on its own term” (p 325), and “Any nation that can eat churros and chocolate for breakfast is not required to demonstrate courage in other ways” (p 431). I do not know what that means.

Author fact: Michener traveled Spain for forty years.

Book trivia: Iberia includes a robust 160 pages of full-sized back and white photographs taken by Robert Vavra.

Playlist: Albeniz, Alfredo Kraus, “Anchors Aweigh”, “Ave Maria”, Bach, the Beatles, Beethoven’s 5th and 3rd and 9th, Brahms, Carmen de Manuel de Falla, Claude Debussy, Don Luis Morondo, Dvorak, Garcia Lorcas, Granados Felipe Pedrell, Isaac Albeniz, Johann Sebastian Bach, Joan Sutherland, Juan del Encina, La tia de Carlos, “Lament for Ignacio Sanchez Mejias”, Mass of Pope Macellus, Mahalia Jackson’s “He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands”, Mozart’s Don Giovanni, “The Nun’s Song”, Officium Defunetorum, “Old Black Joe”, “Petenera”, Richard Strauss, Rigoletto, Schubert, Sibelius, “Soldiers Chorus”, “Torre Bermeja”, Turina, and many more.

Nancy said: Pearl called Iberia another good book to read about Spain.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust To Go in the very simple chapter called “Spain” (p 218).

Old Glory

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Raban, Jonathan. Old Glory: an American Voyage. Simon and Schuster, 1981.

Reason read: read as a companion to Life on the Mississippi by Mark Twain (which was read in honor of National River Cleanup month).

Raban was captivated by the story of Huckleberry Finn in 1949. He never forgot it, so in September of 1979 he decides to retrace Huck’s journey. Imagine traveling down the massive and mighty Mississippi River in a borrowed 16′ aluminum boat with just an outboard motor. He didn’t even have a radio to communicate with the larger tows.
Probably the biggest surprise of Old Glory was how much time Raban spends talking about being on shore comingling with the locals. He finds people to feed him and give him rides. He even spends a night or two in the homes of strangers and goes on a few dates. One date becomes serious enough for him to start using words like our garden and we went to church. He takes the time to hang out in bars to listen to the locals gossip and fight and gets caught up in both from time to time. He speaks to schoolchildren about his adventures (and they are not impressed). He hunts racoon, visits the Oscar Mayer factory workers on strike, attends a pig roast and crashes a house warming party. He stays with a taxidermist. He tries to talk politics by asking the locals about the upcoming election to get a sense of the political climate (and they are not impressed with Jimmy Carter). He romanticizes the writings of Twain, Dickens, Trollope, and Thoreau as he learns to listen to the Mississippi River’s moods and heed her whims.
One of my favorite parts was when Raban took on hitchhiking Monarch butterflies as they migrated down to Venezuela and Columbia.
In all honesty, I couldn’t tell if Raban was happy with the conclusion of his journey. Was it worth it and what did he do with the borrowed outboard motor boat?

As an aside, can I say I was shocked when Raban threw the empty cigarette pack into the river? I had to remind myself that Raban was not piloting down the Mississippi for the love of nature; that was not his goal.
On a personal note, Raban mentioned a poky little movie house in Northampton, Massachusetts; watching Twiggy in “The Boy Friend”. The year was 1972 so my husband’s family was not in town, but it was cool to see a town name I not only recognized, but had visited many, many times.

Lines I liked, “It is hard to make travel arrangements to visit a dream” (p 16) and “High wakes from towboats came rolling at me through my dreams” (p 48).

Author fact: other Raban books I have on my Challenge list include Passage to Juneau, Coasting, Waxwings, and Bad Land.

Playlist: Andre Kostelanetz, Aida, Barbra Streisand, Big Bopper’s “Chantilly Lace”, “Camptown Races”, Carol Lawrence’s “Tell All the World About Love”, Dave Brubeck, “Jingle Bell Rock”, Judy Garland’s “Meet Me in St. Louis”, “I Want That Mountain”, “It Is Well with My Soul”, Len Mink, Miles Davis, “Old Man River”, “On Blueberry Hill”, Patience and Prudence’s “Tonight You Belong To Me”, “Saints”, Scott Joplin, “Smoke Gets In Your Eyes”, Smokey Robinson’s “You Better Shop Around”, “South Rampart Street Parade”, and Verdi’s requiem “Dies Irae”.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust To Go in the forgotten chapter “Water, Water Everywhere” (p 254), and again in Book Lust twice. First, in the chapter “Companion Reads” (p 62) and again in “Rivers of Words” (p 202).

Early Days in the Range of Light

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Arnold, Daniel. Early Days in the Range of Light: encounters with legendary mountaineers. Counterpoint, 2009.

Reason read: In honor of nature.

What makes Early Days in the Range of Light so special is that Arnold not only follows in the footsteps of great naturalists and mountaineers from 1864 to 1931, he truly wants to be in their company. He says of one excursion, “I joined their little camp, too, as best I could with 143 years between us” (p 11) and “They sat on top for an hour or so, and I shared their seat for half that time” (p 216). He imagines where each adventurer slept, ate, and placed every toehold while climbing majestic mountains. There is a romance to Arnold’s writing; a deep appreciation for the California mountains and the ghosts that linger there.
Having just spent three short days exploring the wonders of Yosemite, I could picture every landmark Arnold mentioned: Half Dome, Yosemite Fall, Glacier Point, El Capitan, I could go on. Early Days in the Range of Light is probably my favorite book I have read this year.

I love it when a book teaches me something unexpected. The art of Bolton Coit Brown is fantastic and I had never heard of him before. Joseph LeConte spent sixteen years to map the entire Sierra Range in comprehensive detail, the first of its kind. Naming a mountain peak after your institution of education was a thing.

Lines I liked, “But I have begun to see the limitations imposed by the lines we draw” (p 181) and “The mountains have a way of propagating human echoes” (p 244).

Natalie Merchant connection: Every time a man left his family to climb a mountain or spend days hiking in the wilderness I thought of the line, “Can you love the land and love me, too?” from Cowboy Romance.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust To Go in the chapter called “Climb Ev’ry Mountain” (p 64).

Meetings with Remarkable Trees

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Pakenham, Thomas. Meetings with Remarkable Trees. Random House, 1998.

Reason read: Arbor Day is in June in some states (the National Arbor Day is in April).

Thomas Pakenham proclaims Meetings with Remarkable Trees to be a “book of British tree portraits” and indeed, he has personified trees into categories of natives, travelers, shrines, fantasies, and survivors. He will tell you from where certain trees have immigrated like they are refugees of war. He will give their ages like gossip out of the tabloids.
My favorite section was about the trees he called shrines. These are the mystical trees that were sacred to the landscape and continue to hold ancient secrets. Remarkably beautiful.
In reading Meetings with Remarkable Trees I discovered that I absolutely love the Ginkgo biloba tree, but the Davidia Involucrata, the Handkerchief or Dove tree, is also truly beautiful. Another jaw-dropping fact I enjoyed learning concerned the Himalayan Magnolia and how its blooms grow to be almost a foot in diameter.
The unexpected delight of Meetings with Remarkable Trees was Pakenham’s subtle humor. I giggled when he called Aelian a killjoy. When Pakenham said he didn’t normally hugged trees I had to laugh because I do hug trees on a regular basis.
The true mastery of Meetings with Remarkable Trees is Pakenham’s ability to demonstrate the sheer size of each tree. Most photographs have a person standing next to the tree’s massive trunk for perspective. At the end of the book Pakenham includes a gazetteer which provides information on the National Trust trees, the Forest Enterprise trees, the trees that are regularly accessible to the public and those that are on private property.

Author fact: Pakenham is an Earl.

Book trivia: take the time to read Pakenham’s acknowledgments. He actually takes the time to thank landowners for allowing him to photograph trees on their property.

Playlist: Handel

BookLust Twist: from More Book Lust in the chapter called “Dewey Deconstructed: 500s” (p 70).

Presenters Aren’t Robots

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Pettit, F. Annie. Presenter’s Aren’t Robots: a Practical Guide to Becoming a Fearless and Engaging Public Speaker. 2024.

Reason read: as a member of the Early Review program for LibraryThing I get to read interesting books. This is one of them.

I struggle to call Presenters Aren’t Robots a full length book. There are only seventy-five pages of text. Chapter one doesn’t begin until page eleven, but that’s me reading it on my phone. Maybe the print version will be different.
Practical is the key word to Presenters Aren’t Robots. Most of the suggestions were intuitive. I learned a few things (it was cool to see AI art options mentioned) and relearned a few things (handouts are still a thing). Some information was micro-detailed (like explaining the colored buttons on a clicker for a presentation), while other information was vague (like no suggestions of software for presentations). I appreciated the speaker checklist the most. I am sure I will use it in the future. Aside from a few typos and font changes, I found Presenters Aren’t Robots to be a helpful and friendly book.

As an aside, why all the illustrations of robots if presenters aren’t robots? Are the robots the audience?

Author fact: Pettit mentors people in public speaking and she is a marketing research author.

I Sleep Around

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Jaffarian, Sue Ann. I Sleep Around: the Humorous Memoir of a Nomadic Writer. Harbor Lane Books, 2024.

Reason read: An Early Review selection from LibraryThing…another travelogue book. I am sensing a pattern with my preferences. Ha!

How to describe I Sleep Around? Part primer on how to retire to a life on the road with tips and tricks to make the transition to fulltime traveler, part humorous travelogue and touching memoir. Sue Ann Jaffarian will help you keep your body, sanity, and snail mail healthy while on the road for long periods of time. She can help you chose an RV of the right size, the right amount of storage, and any other options you desire. She found “Novella”, her Winnebago Travato 59K, to be just perfect for her new life as a nomadic writer. When I Sleep Around takes a break from RV instruction in the first quarter of the book, Jaffarian talks about the business of writing as a professional before circling back to RV repairs. The second half detailed the places she visited along her five-year journey.
As an aside, I found it interesting that she chose to switch to RV life before officially retiring from her job as a paralegal. Juggling both the planning for a life on the road and finishing up a career must have been exhausting and emotional.
The section on RVing during the Covid-19 pandemic lockdown was interesting for those of us who were housebound for that period.
Jaffarian makes the claim that travel changes you. I would have loved for her to expound on that. Tell me more about that metamorphosis. I am so curious! Another wish – I wish Jaffarian would have included a compiled list of all of the attractions she was able to take in along her journey. It would have been cool to have a directory of interesting places to visit. High on my list is the Tabasco factory. I put that sauce on everything! Pictures would have been cool, too.

Question: has Jaffarian read Gogarty? Paul’s Coast Road is a similar excursion.

Confessional: Jaffairian’s first test camp was Yosemite. I have decided to make visiting all the U. S. national parks a life goal. My first official park since choosing this challenge is Yosemite. Other things we have in common: she and I share the “alone” trait. She likes sightseeing and sleeping alone in parking lots. I prefer to run alone, watch tv, and cook alone. As she says, “loneliness is not about being alone” (a line I hope she keeps in I Sleep Around). I fully agree.

Author fact: I love Jaffarian’s independence, confidence and humor. If she wrote I Sleep Around to get people interested in her fiction, job well done. I plan to look her up on the socials and possibly read an earlier book or two. She wrote the Odelia Grey, Granny Apples, and Zelda Bowen series; as well as the Madison Rose Vampire mysteries.

On Being Different

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Miller, Merle. On Being Different. Random House, 1987.

Reason read: Merle Miller celebrated a birthday in May. Read in his honor.

The prejudice one has for homosexuals borders on insane, yet it exists. Why anyone would see a link between homosexuality and communism is beyond me. Same with thinking marriage could be a potential “cure” for homosexuality. These are the beliefs of the ignorant. It took Miller fifty years to come out of the closet. That is an unimaginable length of time to hide one’s true self yet it happens all the time. Miller’s essay “On Being Different” is a valiant attempt to respond to the ignorant and expose the human side of love. He discusses the prejudices and fears without flinching. There is grace threaded throughout his anger.

Book trivia: the foreword was written by Dan Savage. Afterword One was written by Merle Miller. Afterword Two was written by Charles Kaiser. Acknowledgments were written by Carol Hanley. On Being Different is only a twenty-one page essay, but with all these other additions and appendices A through C is becomes a much longer book.

Confessional: I, too, like Halloween for all of its mask wearing.

Playlist: Paul Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Peggy Lee’s “Love Story”, Liberace, Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus, and “We Shall Overcome”.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust in the chapter called “Merle Miller: Too Good To Miss” (p 155).