Category: Book Reviews

Never Wipe Your…

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Robillard, Jason. Never Wipe Your Ass with a Squirrel: a Trail Running, Ultramarathon, and Wilderness Survival Guide for Weird Folks. Barefoot Running Press, 2013.

This has got to be the strangest guide to running I have ever come across. Okay, to be fair it is chock full of useful information and thensome. Hey, you even learn the names of clouds…as in cirrostratus and stratocumulus. I kid you not. That’s the tame stuff. Azz wiping is even more informative. But. But! But, it’s all organized in a bizzarro way. Here’s an example: you are reading all about wilderness dangers (because nature can kill). Robillard is covering what to do in cases of ticks, snakes, even cougars. Then all of a sudden he jumps to information about foam rollers and stretching. Just when you think he’s moved on from the hazards of nature he returns to tripping on tree roots and the importance of learning to fall correctly. More safety information. The stick/roller information seems really out of place. Having said all that, one look at the table of contents and you know this isn’t your typical runners’ guide. I would say beginner runners shouldn’t attempt to use this book as a serious guide. Serious ultrarunners will know everything he’s talking about and I would say, the more experienced the runner, the funnier Robillard gets.

Can’t quote anything from the book, even for a review…mostly because I’m too lazy to seek permission. Pretend I inserted funny examples of why you should read this book here -> “—-“(p).

Reason: okay, I admit it. The title caught my attention.

Author fact: Robillard likens himself to Tucker Max. I would say Robillard is just as funny except his writing is more interesting.

Book trivia: Oodles of typos. Not sure what to make of that.

Castle in the Backyard

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Draine, Betsy, and Michael Hinden. Castle in the Backyard: the Dream of a House in France. Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press, 2006. eBook Collection (EBSCOhost) Web 7-30 April 2015.

Before my husband and I bought our house in 2009 we spent a lot of time watching first-time home-buying shows on HGTV and the DYI network. True, we were fascinated with the process but truthfully, we were more than a little scared we would look like idiots when it came our turn to make an offer someone couldn’t refuse. Realtor aside, we had no idea what we were getting ourselves into. We had every reason to be afraid. Buying your first home is not a simple process by any stretch of the imagination even with the careful guidance of books and an expert real estate agent by your side. So, having said all that, I can only imagine what Draine and Hinden were feeling when they decided to buy a summer home in rural southern France. As a couple who got married later in life they didn’t have the opportunity to do a lot of those typical “first-time” things together, like buying a home (she moved into his). Castle in the Backyard is the romantic story of how one vacation turned into an adventure in buying French real estate. Draine and Hinden took almost a year and looked at 40 different properties before stumbling on the perfect “birdcage” of a home in Sarlat in the shadow of a castle, of course. Their retelling of the process is nothing less than perfect; dare I say cute? Even the sex (yes, there is sex) between them is sweetly implied. I loved the layers of humor (the Pepto Bismol was one of my favorites) and the seamless way Draine and Hinden took turns telling the tale.

As an aside, closing a house for the winter in Sarlat sounds not unlike closing a house on Monhegan. Lots of steps!
Biggest trivial take-aways: there is a “giant” Ikea near the Bordeaux airport, Sarlat was the foie-gras capital of France in 1995 and Draine and Hinden lived in “walnut country”.

Reason(s) read: First, there is the fact that April is a great time to visit France. Second, one of my favorite songs is “April in Paris” and my favorite version was sung by Billie Holiday (who was born on April 7th).

Author(s) fact: Draine and Hinden lived in the shadow of the castle for nearly 20 years. That must have been a beautiful time.

Book trivia: I read this an an e-book. I hope I didn’t miss out on much by not having the print and paper book in hand.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust To Go in the oddly named chapter “So We/I Bought (or Built) a House In…” (p 211).

Mastering the Marathon

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Fink, Don. Mastering the Marathon: Time-Efficient Training Secrets for the 40-plus Athlete. Guilford, CT: Lyons Press: 2010.

Reason read: the Toronto half marathon.

I picked up Mastering the Marathon because even though I am only running a half I thought the information couldn’t hurt. The unfortunate thing was I didn’t have time to use the “secrets”. The book is begins with the outline of “three magic bullets” and exactly how effective each “bullet” is to your training. The bullets are actually three different workouts designed to maximize your potential as a runner. They are as follows: marathon pacing sessions, long runs and higher-intensity repeats. I know what you are thinking – they sound like a variation of the three specific training runs you should already be doing to train for any distance. In other words, tempo, long and fartleks. The difference is Fink outlines training plans based on how fast you want to finish. The typical 16-week plans are broken down into finishing time and how much running you want to do throughout your training. Let’s say you want to finish 26.2 miles in 3-3.5 hours and you want your training to consist of only running. There’s a training plan for that. You want to finish in 3.5 – 4.5 hours and you want your training to consist of only running. There’s a plan for that. You want to finish in the same times outlined above but you want to do less running and add cross training – there’s a plan. Finally, you want to finish in the same times outlined above but you want to do the minumum bare-bones running. You guessed it, there’s a plan. A great deal is made about these training plans throughout the first part of the book. In chapters 1-4 Fink refers to them (in chapter 5) no less than a dozen times. By the time I got to chapter 5 I felt like I had reached Mecca.

But, Mastering the Marathon is not just about different training plans and the three magic bullets. Fink also includes success stories of runners who have improved their times with the help of his coaching. While they were a little repetitive (he predicts everyone will continue to get faster), I was more disappointed in the fact most of the stories were about seasoned runners than individuals who ran their first marathons after the age of 40. For every four stories about a seasoned runner there was only one about an over-40 new-to-marathons runner.

May Day

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May is going to be a crazy month. I have no idea why I have so many books scheduled for this month. Have I gone mad? I doubt I will get through nine, count ’em, nine books in 31 days but there you have it. This is the list. In other news May is was: a trip to Toronto & a half marathon; & will be a trip to Bolton and a 60 mile walk. I think I am crazy.

  1. Dragon Reborn by Robert Jordan (DNF)
  2. In a Strange City by Laura Lippman
  3. By a Spider’s Thread by Laura Lippman (AB)
  4. Recognitions by William Gaddis (DNF)
  5. Maus by Art Spiegelman
  6. Lady Franklin’s Revenge by Ken McGoogan
  7. Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao* by Junot Diaz (AB)
  8. Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson
  9. Eugene Onegin by Alexander Pushkin
  10. Shadow Rising by Robert Jordan
  11. A Good Doctor’s Son by Steven Schwartz
  12. Drinking: a Love Story by Caroline Knapp
  13. Ancient Rome on 5 Denarii a Day by Philip Matyszak
  14. Nero Wolfe Cookbook by Rex Stout
  15. Treasure Hunter by W. Jameson (ER)
  16. Maus II by Art Spiegelman (Jan)
  17. The Dew Breaker by Edwidge Danticat (AB)
  18. In Xanadu by William Dalrymple
  19. The Assault by Harry Mulisch
  20. Wild Blue by Stephen Ambrose
  21. Shot in the Heart by Mikal Gilmore
  22. Greater Nowheres by David Finkelstein/Jack London
  23. Alma Mater by P.F Kluge
  24. Old Man & Me by Elaine Dundy
  25. Dud Avocado by Elaine Dundy
  26. Good Life by Ben Bradlee
  27. Underworld by Don DeLillo
  28. Her Name Was Lola by Russell Hoban
  29. Man Who Was Thursday by GK Chesterton
  30. Fires From Heaven by Robert Jordan
  31. Finnegan’s Wake by James Joyce DNF
  32. Herb ‘n’ Lorna by Eric Kraft
  33. Polish Officer by Alan Furst – AB
  34. Lord of Chaos by Robert Jordan
  35. Walden by Henry David Throreau
  36. Reservations Recommended by Eric Kraft
  37. Selected Letters of Norman Mailer edited by J. Michael Lennon – ER
  38. Chasing Monarchs by Robert Pyle
  39. Saturday Morning Murder by Batya Gur
  40. Bebe’s By Golly Wow by Yolanda Joe
  41. Lives of the Muses by Francine Prose
  42. Broom of the System by David Wallace
  43. Crown of Swords by Robert Jordan
  44. Little Follies by Eric Kraft
  45. Literary Murder by Batya Gur
  46. ADDED: Bob Marley, My Son by Cedella Marley Booker (ER)
  47. ADDED: Night Flight by Antoine de Saint-Exupery
  48. Southern Mail by Antoine de Saint- Exupery
  49. Measure of All Things, the by Ken Alder  (AB)
  50. Two Gardeners by Emily Wilson
  51. Royal Flash by George Fraser
  52. Fifties by David Halberstam (Apr – DNS)
  53. Binding Spell by Elizabeth Arthur
  54. Crown of Swords by Robert Jordan (DNF)
  55. ADDED: Castle in the Backyard by Betsy Draine (EB)
  56. Path of Daggers by Robert Jordan (DNF)
  57. ADDED: Where Do You Stop? by Eric Kraft (May/Feb)
  58. Everything You Ever Wanted by Jillian Lauren (ER)
  59. Murder on a Kibbutz by Batya Gur (May)
  60. Flash for Freedom! by George Fraser (May)
  61. Murder in Amsterdam by Ian Buruma (May)
  62. Petra: lost city by Christian Auge (May)
  63. From Beirut to Jerusalem by Thomas Friedman (May)
  64. Jordan by E. Borgia (May)
  65. Coroner’s Lunch by Colin Cotterill (May)
  66. Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese (AB/May)
  67. Flash at the Charge by George MacDonald Fraser (Jun/Apr)
  68. ADDED: What a Piece of Work I Am by Eric Kraft (Jun/Feb)
  69. Castles in the Air by Judy Corbett (Jun)
  70. Battle Cry of Freedom by James McPherson (Jun)
  71. Thirty-three Teeth by Colin Cotterill (Jun)
  72. Millstone by Margaret Drabble (Jun)
  73. Winter’s Heart by Robert Jordan (DNF)
  74. Crossroads of Twilight by Robert Jordan (DNF)
  75. At Home with the Glynns by Eric Kraft (Jul/Feb)
  76. Disco for the Departed by Colin Cotterill (Jul)
  77. Sixty Stories by Donald Barthelme (Jul)
  78. New Physics and Cosmology by Arthur Zajonc (Jul)
  79. Grifters by Jim Thompson (Jul)
  80. Complete Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle (Jul)
  81. Snow Angels by James Thompson (Jul)
  82. Anarchy and Old Dogs by Colin Cotterill (Aug)
  83. ADDED: Leaving Small’s Hotel by Eric Kraft (Aug/Feb)
  84. Flashman’s Lady by George MacDonald Fraser (Aug)
  85. Possession by AS Byatt (Aug)
  86. In the Footsteps of Ghanghis Khan by John DeFrancis (Aug)
  87. What Just Happened by James Gleick (Aug)
  88. Game of Kings by Dorothy Dunnett (Aug)
  89. ADDED: Inflating a Dog by Eric Kraft (Sep/Feb)
  90. Curse of the Pogo Stick by Colin Cotterill (Sep)
  91. Flashman and the Redskins by George MacDonald Fraser (Sep)
  92. Queens’ Play by Dorothy Dunnett (Sep)
  93. Robber Bride by Margaret Atwood (Sep)
  94. Mysterious Affair at Styles by Agatha Christie (Sep)
  95. Beautiful Struggle by Ta-Nehisi Coates (Sep)
  96. Then She Found Me by Elinor Lipman (Oct)
  97. Merry Misogynist by Colin Cotterill (Oct)
  98. Disorderly Knights by Dorothy Dunnett (Oct)
  99. Flashman and the Dragon by George MacDonald Fraser (Oct)
  100. Dark Hills Divide by Patrick Carman (Nov)
  101. Love Songs from a Shallow Grave by Collin Cotterill (Nov)
  102. Flashman and the Mountain of Light by George MacDonald Fraser (Nov)
  103. Pawn in Frankincense by Dorothy Dunnett (Nov)
  104. Andorra by Peter Cameron (Nov)

DNF = Did Not Finish; AB = Audio Book; ER = Early Review; DNS = Did Not Start; EB = Electronic book

Nancy Clark’s Sports Nutrition

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Clark, Nancy. Nancy Clark’s Sports Nutrition Guidebook, 5th Ed. Champaigne, IL: Human Kinetics, 2013.

Nancy Clark’s Sports Nutrition Guidebook is jam-packed with all sorts of information, including eating disorders (anorexia & bulemia), which is something I didn’t encounter with other nutrition-for-athletes books I have read. While a great deal of the information is useful I also felt there was a great deal of repetition and common sense “fillers” that took up space (like her comment on plastic water bottles which has nothing to do with sports or nutrition, just her opinion). I enjoyed the clean and well organized chapters but didn’t try any of the recipes in the back. Although I initially borrowed this from a library, this is the kind of book I would buy to keep on my personal library shelves in order to refer back to it again and again.

Reason read: the Toronto Half Marathon is less than a week away. Talk about getting some last minute advice!

Book trivia: while most of the illustrations are interesting and well-meaning, some are downright goofy.

Literary Murder

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Gur, Batya. Literary Murder: a Critical Case. New York: Harper Collins Publishers, 1993.

We first met Michael Ohayon in The Saturday Morning Murder. Since then he has been promoted to Superintendent and his new case is the violent death of a famous poet, lecturer, critic and literature professor from Hebrew University. Curiously, at the same time, albeit miles away, another murder has taken place and this victim is also a member of the same department at the same university. Very interesting. What makes this case so interesting is that Ohayon must wrestle with the complexities of literary criticism, intellectual integrity, and ethics in a world of competitive academia. Everyone at the university becomes a suspect when the motive is simple envy.

One of the things that trips me up about Gur’s writing is the sheer number of characters she puts in her books. While many are well developed interesting characters many more of them are only mentioned once and never again. For some reason I decided to list them all (in alphabetically order):

  • Adiel – scholar
  • Adina Lipkin – faculty secretary
  • Agnon – poet
  • Aldandari – police
  • Anatoly Ferber – poet
  • Andre Sakarov
  • Ariyeh Levy – Major General Jerusalem Subdistrict commander
  • Ariyeh Klein – Medieval poetry professor previously on sabbatical at Columbia
  • Avidan – department investigations officer
  • Avigdor  – head of criminal identification division
  • Avraham Kalitzky – professor
  • Azariya – deputy recovering from back surgery
  • Becky Pomerantz – Uzi’s mother
  • Bialik – poet
  • Boris Zinger – Russian
  • Dana – daughter of Henry Wolf
  • Danny Balilty – intelligence officer
  • Davidov – Host of Book World
  • Dita Fuchs – professor; had an affair with Tirosh
  • Dovik – works in personnel
  • Eli Bahar – police medical examiner
  • Emanuel Shorer – Michael’s predecessor
  • Emuna Yaron – daughter of Agnon
  • Gilly – police spokesman
  • Guy – diving instructor
  • Dr Henry Wolf
  • Helena Radovensky – parent of Tirosh
  • Hirsh – pathologist worked with Michael 8 years
  • Hrabal – poet
  • Iddo Dudai – young, poet, murder victim
  • Illan Muallem – Ofakim police
  • Jan Schasky – parent of Tirosh
  • Kalman Aharonovitz
  • Malka “Mali” Arditi – Klein’s mistress
  • Manfred Herbst – condemned to a leper’s hospital
  • Manny Ezra
  • Meir Shatz – historian
  • Menucha Tishkin – teacher
  • Marom – president of the college
  • Max Lowenthal – lawyer/professor
  • Maya – Michael Ohayon’s girlfriend
  • Michael Ohayon – inspector
  • Motti – diving instructor
  • Natan Zach – poet
  • Nathan Yaron
  • Nechama Leibowitz – professor
  • Nira – Michael’s ex-wife
  • Noa – Uzi’s second wife
  • Ofra Klein
  • Perla Lindborg – Swedish biologist
  • Pnina – Crime Identification Division; forensics
  • Rabbi Sharabi
  • Racheli Luria – third year psychology undergraduate; secretary’s assistant
  • Raffi Alfandan- police
  • Raffi Weizer – Agnon archives
  • Rina – comes to comfort Ruth
  • Ruchama Shai – Tuvia’s wife, had an affair with Shaul
  • Ruth Dudai – Iddo’s wife
  • Sara Amir – frumpy professor
  • Schlomo Ibn Gabriol – poet
  • Shmaya – reporter
  • Shatz – police
  • Shaul Tirosh/Pavel Schasky – lecturer, poet, ladies man, murder victim
  • Shaul – crime scene investigator; married 10 years
  • Shaul Tchernichowsky – poet
  • Shulamith Zellermaier – older, popular lit and folklore professor
  • Tali Shatz – daughter of proefessor who supervised Ohayon’s MA
  • Tsippi Lev-Ari (Goldgraber) – Aharonivitz’s assistant
  • Tuvia Shai – married to Ruchama; professor
  • Tzesha – Racheli’s aunt
  • Tzilla Bahar- Eli’s wife & pregnant
  • Tzipporah – coworker of Ruchama
  • Uzi Rimon – Michael’s childhood friend
  • Yaakov Gafni – Tirosh’s favorite painter
  • Yael Eisenstein – wife of Tirosh (divorced 6 months later) teaching assistant
  • Yehezkiel – poet
  • Yehuda Halevi – poet
  • Youzek – ex-father-in-law
  • Yuval Ohayon – son of Michael Ohayon
  • Zvika – photographer, crime scene investigator

I’m sure I missed a few people here and there, but you see what I mean. It’s not enough for a crime scene photographer to pop in and out of a scene. He, too, must have a name and a story.
Reason read: to continue the Michael Ohayon series started in March.

Author fact: This Ohayon mystery must have been particularly close to Gur’s heart for she was a literary professor in Jerusalem (as of 1993).

Book trivia: This is book #2 in Gur’s series about Inspector Michael Ohayon.

BookLust Twist: from More Book Lust in the chapter called “Crime is a Globetrotter: Israel” (p 61).

Two Gardeners

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Wilson, Emily Herring, ed. Two Gardeners: Katharine S. White and Elizabeth Lawrence: a Friendship in Letters. Boston: Beacon Press, 2002.

Reason read: to celebrate spring (and somewhere in the world April is National Gardening Month although we had snow showers today). However, three different coworkers mentioned they worked on their gardens over the weekend so it must be true. I’m jealous! I ran 13 miles instead.

Two Gardeners is a delightful book about a friendship that just clicked from the very beginning. Emily Herring Wilson has compiled & edited the letters of Katharine White and Elizabeth Lawrence’s nineteen year correspondence (1958 – 1977) which started with a simple fan letter to Katharine from Elizabeth. Katharine White (married to E.B. White) wrote reviews about gardening catalogs and Elizabeth just happened to respond to one such seed catalog review. Their correspondence grew from strictly talking about gardening to the more personal as time went on. They grew comfortable enough to share details of illnesses (their own and of family) and the trials of growing older. A real friendship starts to bloom despite only being pen pals and meeting once. Yes, I meant that pun! I have to admit it was sad to read about their growing illnesses, especially Katharine’s because hers were more debilitating.
My only “dislike” and a minor one at that: there was a lot of name-dropping between Katharine and Elizabeth and most names had a footnote explaining the significance of each person. I found it curious that “Donna” didn’t have her own footnote. Donna, as in Hurricane Donna, of 1960. Also, relating to the footnotes: Wilson felt it necessary to correct either Katharine or Elizabeth when they made an error in their letters.
I’m sure I would cherish Two Gardeners more if I were half as passionate about gardening as Katharine and Elizabeth. Not all was lost on me, though. I would say Katharine gardened most like me, “I just put things out and let them take their chances” (p 29).
I don’t know what to make of this, but Katharine, in the beginning of their friendship, was always asking Elizabeth not to answer her letters. “Do not answer this!” (p 70).

Quotes I loved, “I suppose she though she was bound to love a fellow gardener” (p 14), and “I am always in debt to Mr. Saier because he sends things at odd times, and I wake up in the night and remember that I have owed him a quarter for three years” (p 20).

Author Editor fact: Emily Herring Wilson just looks like a gardener from her dust jacket cover.

Book trivia: Two Gardeners includes some great photographs of Katharine and Elizabeth as well as their homes and loved ones. There is even one of Katherine with Andy.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust in the chapter called “Gear Up for Gardening” (p 95). Note: both Katharine and Elizabeth published books on the subject of gardening. Pearl preferred to only mention Katharine’s.

Banana Berry Smoothies

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Larrew, Brekka Hervey. Banana Berry Smoothies and Other Breakfast Recipes (fun foods for cool cooks). Minneapolis, Minnesota: Capstone Press, 2008.

Reason read: always, always on the hunt for ways to make me & myself eat breakfast.

So. This turned out to be a cookbook for young adults. I say young “adult” because there are sharp knives, frying oil and a hot stove involved. Kids definitely need to be supervised while following the recipes if they are under the age of 8 or 9 years old. True to its title, the first recipe is a banana berry smoothie. It then moves on to other typical treats like muffins and pancakes. I thought the entire was well laid out and incredibly cute. It even had a little index. I liked the photographs of the tools needed for each recipe and the trivia facts were fun, too. Did you know Pancake Day is on Shrove Tuesday?

Author fact: Brekka is a stay-at-home mom.

Book trivia: even adults can use these recipes if they are anything like me and have trouble being inspired to eat breakfast!

New Rules of Marathon and Half-Marathon Nutrition

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Fitzgerald, Matt. The New Rules of Marathon and Half-Marathon Nutrition: a Cutting-Edge Plan to Fuel Your Body Beyond “the Wall.” Boston: Da Capo Press, 2013.

Reason read: So. I have this little run of 13.1 miles in Toronto in less than two weeks. I’m just now thinking I should research nutrition for this jaunt.

As much as I love books that are designed to make me a better anything my eyes glaze over when the information becomes too out-of-my-league. Take, for example Fitzgerald’s recommendation that runners should know “basic” information: body weight and V02 max. I can jump on a scale and figure out BMI, weight, fat % and bone density… but V02 max? I’m a middle-aged housewife just looking for a little more information on nutrition for runners. Obviously, The New Rules of Marathon and Half-Marathon Nutrition is for consumers who are much more hardcore about running than I am! But having said all that, there was a plethora of take-away information that I could (and probably will) use. Pre-race nutrition was especially helpful, as was the nutrition training plans and the chart of diet quality guidelines.

Author fact: Fitzgerald has written a few other books about running, nutrition and the like.

Book trivia: Kara Goucher, two-time Olympian, wrote the foreword for New Rules. Ryan Hall, also an Olympian, endorsed the book as well.

Royal Flash

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Fraser, George MacDonald. Royal Flash: From the Flashman Papers, 1842-3 and 1847. New York: Alfred A Knopf, 1970.

Even though I didn’t remember the plot of Flashman, the first book in Fraser’s series, one detail came rushing back to me immediately when I started Royal Flash – Harry Flashman is definitely not short on ego. He’s the same despicable cad he was in the first book. Within the first few pages of Royal Flash he describes himself as handsome, beloved, admired, and respected. And, like the first few pages of Flashman he winds up in the bed of a beautiful woman almost immediately. But, having said all that, he’s still a coward, albeit a clever one at that. He says brazenly, “The world was my oyster, and if it wasn’t my sword that had opened it, no one was any the wiser” (p 4). This time Flashy has got himself in deep. As payback for an earlier embarrassment Harry is forced to pretend he is Prince Carl Gustaf while the real royalty gets over a bout of the clap. Only, here’s the twist: he takes over for Carl on the eve of his wedding and has to marry the Irma, the frosty Duchess of Strackenz. He is assured the marriage is not binding due to his different religious faith (and the fact he is already married). True to Fraser style, all is not as it seems and Flashman finds himself in one pickle after another.

Couldn’t help myself lines I like, “Royalty – I have Bersonin’s solemn word for it – never claw at their arses to assist thought” (p 113).

Reason read: George MacDonald Fraser was born in the month of April.

Book trivia: this is the second book in the Flashman series. I read Flashman a long time ago (Oct 20, 2009) and had to review my blog to remember what I read.

Author fact: I have heard it said that Harry Flashman is George MacDonald Fraser in disguise. A womanizing coward? Yikes.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust in the chapter “George MacDonald Fraser: Too Good To Miss” (p 93).

Measure of All Things

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Alder, Ken. The Measure of All Things: the Seven-Year Odyssey and Hidden Error that Transformed the World. Read by Byron Jennings. New York: Simon & Schuster Audio, 2002.

While the French Revolution raged around them, the Royal Academy of Sciences had a plan – to measure the circumference of the world and they knew just the two scientists (astronomers also known as savants) to do it. Jean-Baptiste-Joseph Delambre was to head north from Paris while his partner, Pierre-Francois-Andre Mechain headed south. [As an aside, when Alder referred to them as the north and south going astronomers I instantly thought of Dr. Seuss & his Sneetches. Yup, I’m a seven year old at heart.] What was supposed to be a year-long adventure turned into seven but the end result was the definition of the meter and the birth of the metric system. Part biographical, part scientific, part historical and part adventure Alder adds intrigue when he delves into a secret error that only Delambre and Mechain knew about. He goes on to question exactly what is an error and he speculates on the lives of the men who changed the course of weights and measures.

Reason read: April is National Math, Science and Technology month

Author fact: Alder is the author of a couple of other books but this is the only one on my list.

Book trivia: The Measure of All Things includes illustrations and photographs. My favorite photo is of the Rodez Cathedral

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust in the chapter called “Techno-Thrillers” (p 232).

Binding Spell

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Arthur, Elizabeth. Binding Spell. New York: Doubleday, 1988.

Binding Spell is another one of those stories where you feel like you have been lifted out of your little life and plopped down in the middle of someone else’s. A lot of someone elses, really. Felicity, Indiana is a community full of interesting characters and Binding Spell has the occasional long rambling commentary on religion and the nuclear arms threat, especially when the Russians come to town. Let me back up. Meet the community of Felicity: Ryland Guthrie is a hypochondriac furniture salesman. His brother Peale has been the county sheriff for all of five months. Ryland was married to April (divorced five years) and they have a son, Clayton. Peale married Amanda but sometimes forgets she’s his wife. Bailey and Howell Bourne are brother and sister. They lost their parents in a car accident. Bailey is twenty years old and a witch in training and Howell is married to Charlene. Ada Esterhaczy is Hungarian and a self proclaimed witch. Maggie, a counselor at Powell College, is her granddaughter. She also dabbles in witchcraft. Billy Bob Watson is the maintenance man at Powell. He likes to try to run over students with his tractor. Mitch Ketchum is a down and out desperate farmer in danger of losing his farm. Murrary Anderson artificially inseminates horses and has just been dumped by his girlfriend, Rosie. Dr. Richard Minot is a professor at Howell and has the hots for Maggie. Ryland starts dating Maggie. Peale has a thing for Bailey. Ada just wants her dog to mate with Ryland’s so that she can breed puppies. Then there are is the weather. Did you get all of that? Now enter the two Russians, come to visit Powell College. Howell, Billy Bob and Mitch hatch a plan to kidnap the Russians in order to save their farms. Thinking Ada will hate the Russians due to her Hungarian heritage they bring the captives to her farm. Only Ada is too busy cooking up love potions to bind certain couples (human and animal)…and that’s when things go a little crazy.

Lines I liked, “She was less trouble than her pet cat” (p 39) and “Now, as the pain – which might, admittedly, have been caused by that ice water he had drunk down so rapidly, with some ice shards inadvertently included – poked him tenderly in the side, he could not decide whether it was pancreatic cancer or Maggie’s being late” (p 217).

Reason read: April is National Dog Month

Author fact: Arthur wrote a memoir, Island Sojourn that is not on my list.

Book trivia: Binding Spell is Arthur’s third novel but the only one I’m reading for the Challenge.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust in the chapter called “Great Dogs in Fiction” (p 105). Chance is my favorite of the dogs.

Southern Mail

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Saint-Exupery, Antoine de. Southern Mail. Translated by Curtis Cate. San Diego: Harcourt Brace & Company, 1971.

Previously published as Courrier Sad, Southern Mail introduces us to love and loneliness. Bernis is a pilot caught in a tragic love affair. It complicates his entire psyche until he is in the air, delivering the mail. Flying is his true passion but it’s also where he feels the loneliest. Woven throughout the slim volume Saint-Exupery reveals a philosophical beauty about landscapes (lots of references to the ocean) as well as the people. But, much like Night Flight the emphasis is on the timely deliverance of the mail. Nowhere is that more apparent than at the very end of the story. While the plane had crashed and the pilot was lost they still managed to salvage the mail and it, if not the pilot, arrived on safely.

Quotes that had to be quoted, “Tonight, in a moment of fleeting rapture, she would seek out this weak shoulder and bury her face in this weak refuge, like some wild wounded creature preparing to die” (p 54-55), “Yet so cruel was his loneliness that he needed her terribly” (p 74), and “His heart would have melted from sadness and joy” (p 103).

Reason read: to continue the series started in March.

Author fact: Saint-Exupery died when he was 44 years old.

Book trivia: This is another short one – only 120 pages long.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust in the chapter called “Flying High Above the Clouds” (p 90).

Everything You Ever Wanted

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Lauren, Jillian. Everything You Ever Wanted: a Memoir. New York: Penguin, 2015.

Reason read: As a member of the Early Review program for LibraryThing I occasionally review uncorrected proofs. This is my book for March/April.

It is safe to say I devoured Everything You Ever Wanted. In the midst of reading four other books I made time for Everything every single day. But, here’s the thing – her writing is so clear, so honest, so raw that I didn’t want to rush it. I wanted to savor every page, every sentence, every word (much like I did when I reviewed her earlier work, Pretty).
Lauren wrote Everything You Ever Wanted for her adopted son, Tariku; how she came to be his forever mom, his real mom. But, here’s the beautiful thing about this book – if you know anything about Jillian Lauren you know she has had a colorful past. She is a self proclaimed former addict and slut.  With her tattoos and rocker attitude she doesn’t look like the perfect candidate to adopt a child, much less one with special needs. But Everything You Ever Wanted doesn’t sugarcoat any of her experiences, past or present. It wasn’t enough to say, “hey – I have a rough history but here’s how I got beyond it.” No, she let her past struggles give her strength to deal with new ones. This is a great read for anyone who thinks they “blew it” earlier in life and can’t start over. Even the end of Everything You Ever Wanted has shafts of sunlit hope. Despite her sex & drugs former lifestyle, Lauren and her husband want to adopt for a second time to give Tariku a sibling. By now all the agencies know her story. SPOILER ALERT: she doesn’t tell you if they are successful, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t trying.

Confessional: it is so frustrating to review an uncorrected proof! There are so many great sentences I wanted to pull out of Everything You Ever Wanted if nothing more than to say, look at how beautiful this writing is!

Little Follies

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Kraft, Eric. Little Follies: the Personal History, Adventure, Experiences and Observations of Peter Leroy (So Far). New York: Crown Publishers, 1992.

Little Follies takes us back to Peter Leroy’s memories of childhood, growing up in the 50s. Each chapter was previously a short story and put together they pay homage to a classic American boyhood. There are nine novellas in all: My Mother Takes a Tumble, Do Clams Bite?, Life on the Bolotomy, The Static of the Spheres (my favorite), The Fox and the Clam, The Girl with the White Fur Muff, Take the Long Way Home, Call Me Larry and The Young Tars. Every story is so honest you get the sense there is a little (or a lot) of Eric Kraft’s own childhood in each one. I chose Static of the Spheres as my favorite because everything about it is so nostalgic and true. There’s grandpa, determined to build his grandson a shortwave radio. His tenacious ambition doesn’t allow him to give up even when the entire project is threatened by a flood in the basement. Then there’s the grandson, determined to love this radio, even when all the finished product produces is static.

Favorite line, “I knew that I was up to my knees in a disaster” (p 184).

Reason read: to continue the series started in February in honor of Kraft’s birth month.

Author fact: This is a few years old, but Bomb Magazine has a great interview with Kraft here.

Book trivia: Little Follies includes illustrations.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust in the chapter called “Eric Kraft: Too Good To Miss” (p 140).