Category: Book Reviews

Silly Rabbit Comes Early

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Month five of the Challenge. I have made a decision. I have come to the conclusion that I don’t like this big long list with book titles crossed off. While the list of books finished looks impressive I’m not liking the overall concept. I will stick this list thing out for this year, but come December we’re doing something different. Don’t know what yet but definitely something different. Here are all the books for the year with the books for April in bold:

  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. ADDED: A Good Doctor’s Son by Steven Schwartz
  12. ADDED: Drinking: a Love Story by Caroline Knapp
  13. ADDED: Ancient Rome on 5 Denarii a Day by Philip Matyszak
  14. ADDED: Nero Wolfe Cookbook by Rex Stout
  15. ADDED: Treasure Hunter by W. Jameson (ER)
  16. Maus II by Art Spiegelman (Jan)
  17. ADDED: The Dew Breaker by Edwidge Danticat (AB)
  18. ADDED: In Xanadu by William Dalrymple
  19. ADDED: 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. ADDED: Alma Mater by P.F Kluge
  24. ADDED: Old Man & Me by Elaine Dundy
  25. ADDED: 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 (Mar)
  35. ADDED: Walden by Henry David Throreau
  36. ADDED: Reservations Recommended by Eric Kraft (Mar/Feb)
  37. ADDED: Selected Letters of Norman Mailer edited by J. Michael Lennon – ER (Feb /Mar)
  38. Chasing Monarchs by Robert Pyle (Mar)
  39. ADDED: Saturday Morning Murder by Batya Gur (Mar)
  40. Bebe’s By Golly Wow by Yolanda Joe (Mar)
  41. Lives of the Muses by Francine Prose (Mar)
  42. Broom of the System (David Wallace (Mar)
  43. Crown of Swords by Robert Jordan (Apr)
  44. ADDED: Little Follies by Eric Kraft (Apr/Feb)
  45. ADDED: Literary Murder by Batya Gur (Apr)
  46. ADDED: Bob Marley, My Son by Cedella Marley Booker (ER)
  47. ADDED: Night Flight by Antoine de Saint-Exupery (Mar)
  48. ADDED: Southern Mail by Antoine de Saint- Exupery (Mar/Apr)
  49. ADDED: Measure of All Things, the by Ken Alder (Apr) AB
  50. Two Gardeners by Emily Wilson (Apr)
  51. Royal Flash by George Fraser (Apr)
  52. Fifties by David Halberstam (Apr)
  53. Binding Spell by Elizabeth Arthur (Apr)
  54. Crown of Swords by Robert Jordan (DNF)
  55. Path of Daggers by Robert Jordan (DNF)
  56. ADDED: Where Do You Stop? by Eric Kraft (May/Feb)
  57. Murder on a Kibbutz by Batya Gur (May)
  58. Flash for Freedom! by George Fraser (May)
  59. Murder in Amsterdam by Ian Buruma (May)
  60. Petra: lost city by Christian Auge (May)
  61. From Beirut to Jerusalem by Thomas Friedman (May)
  62. Jordan by E. Borgia (May)
  63. Coroner’s Lunch by Colin Cotterill (May)
  64. Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese (May)
  65. Flash at the Charge by George MacDonald Fraser (May)
  66. ADDED: What a Piece of Work I Am by Eric Kraft (Jun/Feb)
  67. Castles in the Air by Judy Corbett (Jun)
  68. Battle Cry of Freedom by James McPherson (Jun)
  69. Thirty-three Teeth by Colin Cotterill (Jun)
  70. Millstone by Margaret Drabble (Jun)
  71. Winter’s Heart by Robert Jordan (DNF)
  72. Crossroads of Twilight by Robert Jordan (DNF)
  73. At Home with the Glynns by Eric Kraft (Jul/Feb)
  74. Disco for the Departed by Colin Cotterill (Jul)
  75. Sixty Stories by Donald Barthelme (Jul)
  76. New Physics and Cosmology by Arthur Zajonc (Jul)
  77. Grifters by Jim Thompson (Jul)
  78. Complete Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle (Jul)
  79. Snow Angels by James Thompson (Jul)
  80. Ararchy and Old Dogs by Colin Cotterill (Aug)
  81. ADDED: Leaving Small’s Hotel by Eric Kraft (Aug/Feb)
  82. Flashman’s Lady by George MacDonald Fraser (Aug)
  83. Possession by AS Byatt (Aug)
  84. In the Footsteps of Ghanghis Khan by John DeFrancis (Aug)
  85. What Just Happened by James Gleick (Aug)
  86. Game of Kings by Dorothy Dunnett (Aug)
  87. ADDED: Inflating a Dog by Eric Kraft (Sep/Feb)
  88. Curse of the Pogo Stick by Colin Cotterill (Sep)
  89. Flashman and the Redskins by George MacDonald Fraser (Sep)
  90. Queens’ Play by Dorothy Dunnett (Sep)
  91. Robber Bride by Margaret Atwood (Sep)
  92. Mysterious Affair at Styles by Agatha Christie (Sep)
  93. Beautiful Struggle by Ta-Nehisi Coates (Sep)
  94. Then She Found Me by Elinor Lipman (Oct)
  95. Merry Misogynist by Colin Cotterill (Oct)
  96. Disorderly Knights by Dorothy Dunnett (Oct)
  97. Flashman and the Dragon by George MacDonald Fraser (Oct)
  98. Dark Hills Divide by Patrick Carman (Nov)
  99. Love Songs from a Shallow Grave by Collin Cotterill (Nov)
  100. Flashman and the Mountain of Light by George MacDonald Fraser (Nov)
  101. Pawn in Frankincense by Dorothy Dunnett (Nov)
  102. Andorra by Peter Cameron (Nov)

DNF = Did Not Finish; AB = Audio Book; ER = Early Review

Night Flight

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Saint-Exupery, Antoine de. Night Flight. Translated by Stuart Gilbert. San Diego: Harvest/HBJ Book, 1932.

Reason read: March 1949: B-45 Tornado bomber sets speed record at 675 miles per hour.

One single night in time. This is the simple, subtle, yet tragically beautiful story of three mail planes coming into Buenos Aires from Chile, Patagonia and Paraguay. On the ground is director Monsieur Riviere whose chief worry is the mail getting to its destination on time. He is bulldog stubborn about it despite looming dangers. Meanwhile, in the air, one of the pilots, newlywed Fabien, faces danger when cyclone – fierce storms blow in from the Andes.

This is a subtle yet powerful second installment of the aviation trilogy which begins with Wind, Sand and Stars and ends with Southern Mail. SPOILER: While Fabien’s death is never clearly spelled out, death is almost certain when his airplane never arrives in Buenos Aires.

Line I liked: “He bent his mind toward the memory” (p 18).

Author fact: Saint-Exupery was a airmail pilot himself.

Book trivia: In some cases this would have been considered a short story as it is only 88 pages long.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust in the chapter called “Flying High Above the Clouds” (p 94).

Bob Marley, My Son

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Booker, Cedella Marley. Bob Marley, My Son. Lanham: Taylor Trade Publication, 2015.

The story of Nesta Robert Marley has been told many times over. Documentaries about his tragically short life abound. Even this book, Bob Marley, My Son has been published twice before (under a different title). Ms. Booker’s biography of her son starts with her own beginnings, I think, in order to put Marley as a man into perspective. His father, “Captain” was a white man 40 years his mother’s senior and while Captain and Cedella were legally married Marley never really knew his biological father all that well. Such a trend would continue for Marley as he fathered his own families. What comes through the strongest in Bob Marley, My Son is Booker’s never-ending love and devotion to her son. She embraced nearly everything he did, if not the different women in his life. His music and even religion had the power to change people, starting with his own mother. One of the impressive elements of Bob Marley, My Son is how stoic Booker remains throughout the entire story. Right up through Bob’s death his mother carries a steadfast composure.

Truest quote of the book, “But a crying man will melt the hardest woman’s heart” (p 28). So true (at least for me anyway).
Full disclosure: this is not an early review in the traditional sense. This was published in the United Kingdom in 1996 and reprinted in 2008 under the hardcover title of Bob Marley: An Intimate Portrait by His Mother.

Reason read: As part of the Early Review program for LibraryThing.

Author fact: Ms. Booker passed away in 2008.

Book trivia: Bob Marley, My Son includes two sections of really great photographs.

Art of Lee Miller

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Haworth-Booth, Mark. The Art of Lee Miller. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2007.

Reason read browsed: I was fascinated by Lee Miller’s art after reading Lives of the Muse by Francine Prose.

Lee Miller was a beautiful woman. She spent a great deal of time in front of the camera, first as a model for her father and then as a muse for countless others. But it is Miller’s work behind the camera that is the most captivating. There is no doubt in my mind she was ahead of her time as photographer. She liked to take chances. This is especially apparent when she went to Germany to photo-journal the events of World War II. For a woman to be in the thick of it is one thing. Hundreds of women contributed to the war effort by being nurses and so forth. But for a woman to capture the haunting and often disturbing pictures that Miller did, it’s quite another. She oscillated between tongue-in-cheek and shocking. Her photography gently fanned over the ruins of burnt out buildings, horrific operations and ladies’ fashions. “Remington Silent” is one of my favorites if for nothing more than the subliminal message Miller sends. Her expose in Vogue (New York, 1945) screams absurdity as she compares German children to the burned bones of prisoners…
However, I feel this need to surprise has always been there (find the picture of the severed breast from a radical mastectomy to see what I mean). Even in her portraits Miller had the ability to send mixed messages.

Broom of the System

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Wallace, David Foster. Broom of the System. Read by Robert Petkoff. New York: Hatchette Audio, 2010.

Odd. Outlandish. Offbeat. Quirky. Inventive. Crazy. These words and more drifted through my head as I read Broom of the System. Meet Lenore Stonecipher Beadsman. She is looking for her great-grandmother who has gone missing from a Shaker Heights nursing home. When twenty-five other inmates are unaccounted for, all hell breaks loose, in an undefined kind of way. That’s the “plot” even though it is buried under pages and pages of other seemingly unrelated ramblings and doesn’t surface that often. But, don’t worry – the ramblings? they are all connected. You’ll meet Rick Vigorous, Lenore’s obsessed boss; Judith Prietht, a nosy coworker; Spatula; Alvin Spaniard; Sigurd and Blanchard Foamwhistle; the gymnast Kopek Spasova; Candy Mandible; Mindy Metalman, Peter Abbott (who must descend the tunnel to fix a cable – get it?) and many, many others. There’s a cockatiel named Vlad the Impaler who quotes the Bible and talks dirty. He gets his own religious talk show. There’s Norman Bombardini who orders nine steak dinners in one sitting. People think he’s trying to eat himself to death; Mr. Bloemker who frequents a Gilligan’s Island themed restaurant with an extremely lifelike blow-up doll (which explodes – a really funny scene). Don’t forget the Antichrist, Lenore’s brother with the wooden leg complete with built-in drawers for drugs. I could go on and on. There is a love triangle, a love square, therapy sessions and competition between baby food companies. I feel like I have covered the whole book but really, I haven’t even scratched the surface.

By the way, Robert Petkoff does an amazing job with all the different character voices. Norman Bombardini and Vlad were my favorites.

Reason read: Ohio was founded on March 1st, 1803.

Author fact: Broom of the System is Wallace’s first book.

Book trivia: This is a long book, nearly 500 pages long.

I listened to this as an audio book to and from work every day for a month. As an audio it was long and rambling. While there are solid characters and there is somewhat of a plot those details were lost on me. It was a joy just to listen to the language – even if on the surface it didn’t make sense. I know I missed a lot because I wasn’t reading the words (Case in point, the Great Ohio Desert otherwise known as G.O.D.). As I was listening I couldn’t help but picture Wallace at a party – one of those large, no one really knows anyone else, sprawling kinds of party. This is Wallace’s first go at getting published, so he wants to be noticed. He’s talking loudly for the benefit of the few people outside the circle, the ones apparently not listening to him. He keeps one eye on the people he wants to impress, hoping his witticisms will draw them into the cluster. I guess what I’m trying to say is that I found that Wallace was trying too hard to be clever. Every sentence was witty word play, full of idioms and literary tricks.

BookLust Twist: from More Book Lust in the chapter called “Big Ten Country: The Literary Midwest (Ohio)” (p 29).

Selected Letters of Norman Mailer

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Mailer, Norman. Selected Letters of Norman Mailer. Edited by J. Michael Lennon. New York: Random House, 2014.

Letters can be so revealing, especially when the author is only writing for the intended audience of the recipient(s). There is a raw honesty about true character that comes through each missive. The Selected Letters of Norman Mailer is arranged in chronological order. Starting in 1940, Mailer is a student at Harvard writing to his parents, and like any typical kid he is constantly asking for money (“I have to pay for my meals not & I hate to starve myself” p 12). What comes through (besides his self described poverty) is how serious, even then, he was about his writing…even if he was a little pompous about how “easy” it was for him to get published. [As an aside, I had to laugh when I discovered his mom typed his stories for him.] With his wife, once he is in the army in ’45, Mailer is more intimate and revealing. He confides in her about World War II in a way he couldn’t with anyone else. What I found off-putting was how he treated her through these letters, the names he called her. But if she put up with it, or even liked it, who am I to judge? Hello? Have you read 50 Shades? But, that’s not the point of this review. I’m not here to talk about the man but the book. This is definitely something for the diehard Mailer fan. It does help if you have familiar with Mailer’s work, but you don’t have to be to enjoy Selected Letters. Lennon arranges Mailer’s missives to reveal a growing artist, youthfully cocky, intensely passionate and protective of his craft. Just read the letters in which Mailer defends the use of profanity and refuses to have it culled from The Naked and the Dead. From the 40s blossoms a writer sure of himself and the his place in the world.

I liked learning new things about Mailer and his writing. For instance, I didn’t know Naked and the Dead was a play and it has never been performed.

Reason read: As a member of the Early Review program for LibraryThing, I am reviewing Selected Letters. This, amazingly, is my 91st ER/LT book.

I love it when the books I chose to read in a given month are “interlocking.” For example, Wild Blue, Maus I, Maus II, A Good Life, Polish Officer, and The Assault all took place in and around the events of World War II. It wasn’t planned that way, but they all had that common theme. In January I finished Shot in the Heart by Mikal Gilmore. Gilmore wrote a heart wrenching first hand account of his family. Now, as an Early Review award, I have read Norman Mailer’s Selected Letters. Mailer, of course, wrote The Executioner’s Song about Mikal’s brother so I knew there will be letters about Gary.

Author fact: I chose this book because I am a diehard letter writer myself. Like Mailer, it is inconceivable to me to not answer a letter. It is for this reason I share a special kinship with Mr. Mailer.

Book trivia: Over 860 pages long, Selected Letters is quite the heavy book. The subject matter was so fascinating I didn’t notice the length. What I missed, though, was a hand written letter from Mailer. I don’t know why but I wanted to see what his handwriting looks like! Lennon could have included just one! He did include photographs of himself throughout the years.

As an aside: I enjoyed jotting down some of the books Mailer mentions in his letters. They include Of Human Bondage, Walden, Anna Karenina, Walk in the Sun, Passage to India, The White Tower and Ulysses to name a few.

 

Walden

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Thoreau, Henry David. Walden or, Life in the Woods. New York: Signet Classic, 1980.

There are several words that come to mind when I think of Thoreau and his work, Walden. Right up front I have to say Walden is important, even necessary. Every student needs to read it at least once in his or her academic career, whether it be high school, college or as a postgraduate. As I said it’s important. But, there are other words that bubble to the surface as I read: didactic, preachy, bloviate. If Thoreau had kept his commentary restricted to his personal efforts to live a simple life and not generalized all of mankind it would have been a less frustrating read. At least for me. Case in point, Walden borrows an axe from a neighbor to build his house. He feels the need to point out “The owner of the axe, as he released his hold on it, said that it was the apple of his eye; but I returned it sharper than I received it” (p 32). His implication is, despite what the man said Thoreau cared for the instrument better than the owner. Couldn’t he just been grateful for borrowing the damned axe? As a former islander who lived on very little I know the importance of living simply. I just wish the reminder didn’t come as such a lecture.

As an aside, when Mailer read Walden he wasn’t impressed.

Reason read: Massachusetts became a state in February.

Author fact: Thoreau is probably better known for his work, On the Duty of Civil Disobedience.

Book trivia: My copy of Walden included an afterword by Perry Miller and a revised and updated bibliography.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust To Go in the chapter called “Walk Right In” (p 250).

Chasing Monarchs

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Pyle, Robert Michael. Chasing Monarchs: Migrating with the Butterflies of Passage. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1999.

Robert Michael Pyle (I just like using his whole name) set out to answer three questions about monarch butterflies:

  1. How do they physically do the migrating that they do?
  2. Do they navigate or follow the wind? and lastly,
  3. Why do some monarchs end up in Mexico and others in California.

My off the cuff answers would be: 1) They train. 2) Both navigation and following the wind (I like to think of butterflies riding the jet stream), and 3) I think the ones who didn’t train hard enough for Mexico, when they reached CA, said, “close enough!” I know I would!

Much like Where Bigfoot Walks, Chasing Monarchs is all about chasing something elusive, something nearly impossible to track. Like Bigfoot, Chasing Monarchs is awash with lush descriptions of the landscapes Pyle traverses; this time British Columbia, Washington, Oregon, Utah, Idaho, Nevada and California with a little dip into Mexico. I find it amazing Pyle was able to tag butterflies without hurting them. What I didn’t notice with Bigfoot is Pyle’s kaleidoscope use of colors. Here are a bunch of them from Chasing Monarchs: sage, umber, bronze, blonde, amethyst, yellow, ocher, brown, yellow, burnt sienna, apricot, coral, conch, mauve, french vanilla, buff, crimson, purple, chartreuse, beige, gold, green, cerise, emerald, indigo, jade, honey, cream, blue, copper, lime, olive, turquoise, chocolate, maroon, flesh, silver, lemon, rust, fawn, blueberry, pearl, ultramarine, wheat, cinnamon, rose, russet, persimmon, tan, and scarlet. Then there are the hyphenated colors: ham-pink, chalky-white, Mylar-blue, marine-blue, toast-brown, fox-red, fire-engine red, candy-apple red, matte-black, coal-black, and cat-black. And all the oranges: mandarin-orange, orange-juice, orange-yellow, oriole-orange, Halloween-orange, yellow-orange and lox-orange. I’m sure I’ve missed a few. One aspect of color that I didn’t appreciate is that Mr. Pyle needed to describe black folks. He doesn’t say, “I met up with so-and-so, a white woman from Omaha” but he will point out “the black family on the banks fishing.”

Reason read: March is supposedly insect month. Yay bugs!

Author fact: Pyle also wrote Where Bigfoot Walks: Crossing the Dark Divide which I read in September of 2010. I also learned that Pyle is a man who likes to name inanimate objects. His butterfly net is Marsha. His car is Powdermilk. He has an ornament hanging from his rear-view mirror named Danae.

Book trivia: Unfortunately, even though Pyle states that most people call all big and beautiful orange and black butterflies “monarchs” he doesn’t include any photographs to educate people on the differences. I would have liked some lush, vivid photographs! Even some illustrations would have been nice.

As an aside, I had been very excited to read Chasing Monarchs for some time now. Monhegan Island has annual migration of monarchs every late summer/early fall. As kids we used to watch their fiery orange and black wings beat against reedy pale green milkweeds by the dozens. Also, I would like to thank Mr. Pyle on clearing up a mystery for me. Monhegan has these weird orange spaghetti-like vines growing down at Pebble Beach. I have always wanted to look them up. I now know they are called Dodder weeds.

Convergence: Reading this was a natural extension of Henry David Thoreau’s Walden.

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

Bebe’s By Golly Wow

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Joe, Yolanda. Bebe’s By Golly Wow. New York: Dell Book, 1998.

Bebe (Beatrice Mae Thomas) is a single woman in her 40s looking for love. Isaac Sizemore is divorced firefighter father also looking for love. Only problem is Dashay Sizemore, Isaac’s thirteen year old sass of a daughter. This teenager has abandonment issues and expresses she not ready for mom to be replaced (despite the fact mom deserted the family) through rap songs. An interesting love triangle is in the works. This could get messy. Only, it doesn’t. Not really. This could be a story you see on the Hallmark Channel; something Lifetime for Women. It’s ending is predictable and sweet and the drama (violence, racism, addiction) along the way is quickly extinguished. Written in short, choppy sentences, this is a quick yet delightful read.

My only criticism? The inclusion of Sandra Mae Atkins, Bebe’s best friend, as a voice. Sandy’s side of the story seemed to pad the book for length. She didn’t have much to do with the relationship between Bebe and Isaac. For balance, Joe could have included L.A.’s gambling addiction from his point out view. That way, both friends of the couple shared their supporting stories.

Quotes I liked, “I’d rather put money between my knees and pee on it than give it away to a man I aint married to” (p 32), “It was stone-to-the-bone ugly time” (p 154), and “He left carrying a big sack of mad on his back” (p 233).

Okay. I’ll admit it. I didn’t understand the title until the very end.

Confessional – I did it again. I went and read reviews before even cracking open a page. Shame on me. In my own defense I did it to make sure I wasn’t reading a series out of order (that’s been happening to me a lot). As it turns out, Bebe is a repeat character, first introduced in He Said, She Said. Here’s the ironic thing. I thought I had already read He Said, She Said so I went ahead and ordered Bebe’s. Turns out, I haven’t read He Said but I’ve decided to read them out of order anyway. But, back to my mistake. Too many people said Bebe’s character was shallow and childish and unrealistic. And there was a problem with overuse of slang. Duly noted, but I tried not to let it influence me.

Reason read: Yolanda Joe was born in the month of March.

Author fact: Yolanda Joe also wrote He Said, She Said which is also on my list.

Book trivia: The Chicago Tribune called Bebe’s By Golly Wow “sassy.”

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust in the chapter called “African American Fiction: She Say” (p 12).

Saturday Morning Murder

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Gur, Batya. The Saturday Morning Murder: a Psychological Case. Translated by Dalya Bilu. New York: Harper Collins, 1992.

Reason read: March is supposedly the best time to visit Israel. Also, the murder in Saturday Morning Murder takes place in March.

The story begins early one Saturday morning. Shlomo Gold arrives at the Jerusalem Psychoanalytic Institute to find the dead body of senior analyst Eva Neidorf. Although she was about to give a much anticipated lecture, someone has murdered her with a single gunshot to the head. So begins The Saturday Morning Murder: a Psychological Case, Gur’s first make-you-think fictional thriller starring Chief Inspector Michael Ohayon. [Note: Gur published a collection of essays in Hebrew two year before this translated publication.] Since this is our first introduction to the Inspector, Gur builds Ohayon’s personality with much detail. Early on we learn he is a heavy smoker and doesn’t like talking to the press. He drinks his coffee like an addict and takes it with sugar. He has no problem remembering names, hates to be unshaven and drives a Renault. He is a thirty-nine year old father and has been divorced for eight years. He is involved with a married woman and wanted to get a doctorate at Cambridge. But, back to the review. Gur builds this mystery through the characters she introduced. Don’t worry about trying to remember them all. Gur tries to throw you off the scent by making you think any of them could be the killer. When the whole story is finally revealed it isn’t this big out-of-left-field moment. If you are paying attention you definitely can see it coming. Despite the transparency, this was a great read.

Author fact: Gur died in 2005.

Book trivia: I would have recommended a second editor to take a look at Saturday Morning Murder. There were a bunch of typos and other mistakes throughout the book. I should note that these mistakes did not in any way detract from the story!

BookLust Twist: from More Book Lust in the chapter “Crime is a Globetrotter: Israel” (p 61). Note: Pearl lists them out of order. I read the last published vbook Bethlehem Road Murder first.

Lives of the Muses

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Prose, Francine. The Lives of the Muses: Nine Women & the Artists They Inspired. New York: Harper Collins, 2002.

Reason read: John Lennon married his muse, Yoko Ono, on March 20th, 1969.

Francine Prose covers the lives of nine muses; the women who inspired creativity and passion in their artists. Prose’s introduction sums up the impetus behind the book saying, “The desire to explore the mystery of inspiration, to determine who or what is the “moving cause” of art, resembles the impulse to find out a magician’s secrets” (page 2). Prose begins Lives of the Muses with Hester Thrale. Despite being a married woman, her influence on Dr. Samuel Johnson was profound. Prose then moves on to such well known muses as Alice Liddell, Gala Dali, Lee Miller and of course, Yoko Ono. She also includes lesser known muses (to me, at least) such as Elizabeth Siddal, Lou Andreas Salome and Suzanne Farrell. The residual appreciation I gleaned from reading Lives of the Muses was an education in Rossetti and Miller’s art. I couldn’t read another word without looking up such pieces as Awakening Conscience, Found, Remington Silent and Night and Day, respectively. Attaching the visual to the imagination was a bonus, especially when it came to Dali’s over-the-top creativity and strangeness. The only aspect of Lives of the Muses I found detracting was the myriad of speculative opinions Prose insisted on voicing.

Best lines, “Madmen are all sensual in the lower stages of distemper. But when they are very ill, pleasure is too weak for them, and they seek pain” (p 37) and “The violation of Lizzie Siddal’s grave was only the coarsest and most explicit manifestations of the necrophilia that had tainted her relationship with Rossetti from the start” (p 103).

Convergence: Robert Pyle wrote a book about Bigfoot. Prose wrote a book called Bigfoot Dreams.

As an aside, I did not know that Samuel Johnson obsessively counted his own footsteps. I find myself keeping track, too. Other notes: Natalie Merchant chose a poem by Christina Rossetti for Leave Your Sleep. Christina was Gabriel’s sister.

Author fact: Prose is a year older than my mom and was born in Brooklyn.

Book trivia: Lives of the Muses includes some great photographs.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust in the chapter called “People You Outta Meet” (p 185). I definitely would have liked to have met Lee Miller.

Happy Birthday Benito

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Here we are, three months into a new year of the Challenge. March marks month four. Weird, I know. Here are the books. You will notice a few additions. That’s because I found out that Batya Gur wrote a series and Murder on a Kibbutz is in the middle.

  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. ADDED: A Good Doctor’s Son by Steven Schwartz
  12. ADDED: Drinking: a Love Story by Caroline Knapp
  13. ADDED: Ancient Rome on 5 Denarii a Day by Philip Matyszak
  14. ADDED: Nero Wolfe Cookbook by Rex Stout
  15. ADDED: Treasure Hunter by W. Jameson (ER)
  16. Maus II by Art Spiegelman (Jan)
  17. ADDED: The Dew Breaker by Edwidge Danticat (AB)
  18. ADDED: In Xanadu by William Dalrymple
  19. ADDED: 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. ADDED: Alma Mater by P.F Kluge
  24. ADDED: Old Man & Me by Elaine Dundy
  25. ADDED: 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 (Mar)
  35. ADDED: Walden by Henry David Throreau
  36. ADDED: Reservations Recommended by Eric Kraft (Mar/Feb)
  37. ADDED: Selected Letters of Norman Mailer edited by J. Michael Lennon – ER (Feb -?)
  38. Chasing Monarchs by Robert Pyle (Mar)
  39. ADDED: Saturday Morning Murder by Batya Gur (Mar)
  40. Bebe’s By Golly Wow by Yolanda Joe (Mar)
  41. Lives of the Muse by Francine Prose (Mar)
  42. Broom of the System (David Wallace (Mar)
  43. Crown of Swords by Robert Jordan (Apr)
  44. ADDED: Little Follies by Eric Kraft (Apr/Feb)
  45. ADDED: Literary Murder by Batya Gur (Apr)
  46. Two Gardeners by Emily Wilson (Apr)
  47. Royal Flash by George Fraser (Apr)
  48. Fifties by David Halberstam (Apr)
  49. Binding Spell by Elizabeth Arthur (Apr)
  50. Crown of Swords by Robert Jordan (Apr)
  51. Path of Daggers by Robert Jordan (May)
  52. ADDED: Where Do You Stop? by Eric Kraft (May/Feb)
  53. Murder on a Kibbutz by Batya Gur (May)
  54. Flash for Freedom! by George Fraser (May)
  55. Murder in Amsterdam by Ian Buruma (May)
  56. Petra: lost city by Christian Auge (May)
  57. From Beirut to Jerusalem by Thomas Friedman (May)
  58. Jordan by E. Borgia (May)
  59. Coroner’s Lunch by Colin Cotterill (May)
  60. Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese (May)
  61. Flash at the Charge by George MacDonald Fraser (May)
  62. ADDED: What a Piece of Work I Am by Eric Kraft (Jun/Feb)
  63. Castles in the Air by Judt Corbett (Jun)
  64. Battle Cry of Freedom by James McPherson (Jun)
  65. Thirty-three Teeth by Colin Cotterill (Jun)
  66. Millstone by Margaret Drabble (Jun)
  67. Winter’s Heart by Robert Jordan (Jun)
  68. Crossroads of Twilight by Robert Jordan (Jul)
  69. At Home with the Glynns by Eric Kraft (Jul/Feb)
  70. Disco for the Departed by Colin Cotterill (Jul)
  71. Sixty Stories by Donald Barthelme (Jul)
  72. New Physics and Cosmology by Arthur Zajonc (Jul)
  73. Grifters by Jim Thompson (Jul)
  74. Complete Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle (Jul)
  75. Snow Angels by James Thompson (Jul)
  76. Ararchy and Old Dogs by Colin Cotterill (Aug)
  77. ADDED: Leaving Small’s Hotel by Eric Kraft (Aug/Feb)
  78. Flashman’s Lady by George MacDonald Fraser (Aug)
  79. Possession by AS Byatt (Aug)
  80. In the Footsteps of Ghanghis Khan by John DeFrancis (Aug)
  81. What Just Happened by James Gleick (Aug)
  82. Game of Kings by Dorothy Dunnett (Aug)
  83. ADDED: Inflating a Dog by Eric Kraft (Sep/Feb)
  84. Curse of the Pogo Stick by Colin Cotterill (Sep)
  85. Flashman and the Redskins by George MacDonald Fraser (Sep)
  86. Queens’ Play by Dorothy Dunnett (Sep)
  87. Robber Bride by Margaret Atwood (Sep)
  88. Mysterious Affair at Styles by Agatha Christie (Sep)
  89. Beautiful Struggle by Ta-Nehisi Coates (Sep)
  90. Then She Found Me by Elinor Lipman (Oct)
  91. Merry Misogynist by Colin Cotterill (Oct)
  92. Disorderly Knights by Dorothy Dunnett (Oct)
  93. Flashman and the Dragon by George MacDonald Fraser (Oct)
  94. Dark Hills Divide by Patrick Carman (Nov)
  95. Love Songs from a Shallow Grave by Collin Cotterill (Nov)
  96. Flashman and the Mountain of Light by George MacDonald Fraser (Nov)
  97. Pawn in Frankincense by Dorothy Dunnett (Nov)
  98. Andorra by Peter Cameron (Nov)

DNF = Did Not Finish; AB = Audio Book; ER = Early Review

Reservations Recommended

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Kraft, Eric. Reservations Recommended. New York: Crown Publishers, 1990.

Meet Matthew Barber (also known as B.W. Beath). Toy designer by day (as Matthew), restaurant critic by night (as B.W.). He’s 14 months out of marriage and living in a building where the elevator barely works. His apartment has a mysterious smell and no matter how many holes they punch in the wall or carpets they pull up, maintenance cannot pinpoint its origin. Maybe it’s all in Matthew’s head, as are so many other things. Despite being a funny and intelligent reviewer, Matthew himself is fussy, slightly paranoid, embarrassed easily. He can be rude, naive and more than a little foolish. He’s always imagining himself to be someone he’s not (especially around the ladies) and relies more and more on his restaurant reviewer persona to cope with social situations. But, what happens when those personalities become indistinguishable? What happens when you not only talk to yourself, but answer back?

Confessional: I was a little taken aback when I read the inside flap of Reservations Recommended. Words like sardonic, dark, wicked, nasty, chilling, violence, and squalor were not expected; especially not after reading Herb ‘n’ Lorna.

Reason read: to continue the “series” started with Herb ‘n’ Lorna begun in February in honor of Kraft’s birth month and Valentine’s Day. To be fair, this isn’t a series in the traditional sense. Each book in the Personal History, Adventures, Experiences & Observations of Peter Leroy “series” can be read separately. In fact, when I read the description for Reservations Recommended I was confused. I will admit I did a little digging to figure out where was the connection between this book and Peter. Turns out, the protagonist in Reservations is a school mate of Peter Leroy’s. Ah. So, in fairness this isn’t about Peter Leroy’s adventures, or his experiences or his observations. We never meet Peter at all.

Author fact: Kraft is a former chairman of PEN New England.

Book trivia: While Herb ‘n’ Lorna was “sweet” this can only be described as “dark” because Matthew is a little sinister.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust in the chapter called “Eric Kraft: Too Good To Miss” (p ). But, you knew that already.

A Good Life

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Bradlee, Ben. A Good Life: Newpapering and Other Adventures. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1995.

To read A Good Life: Newpapering and Other Adventures is like sitting down with Mr. Bradlee and having a cup of coffee and a glazed doughnut. Easy. Warm. Inviting. And, depending on how sticky the doughnut (or Bradlee’s situation) potentially very funny. I imagine sitting in a chair that is overly comfortable and subsequently difficult to get out of. He unfolds his life with in twinkle in his eye and you can tell he looks back on his experiences with warmth and humor. Speaking of unfolding his life, one of the elements of Bradlee’s biography that I appreciated the most was the fact he did not go too far back into his family’s genealogy. I did not need to know where his great-great-great-great grandparents came from to appreciate Bradlee’s own beginnings. Before you are even 100 pages into the story, Bradlee is twenty years old, married and in the Navy (in fact, his wedding and entry into the Navy happened on the very same day). He moves quickly through his rise in journalism and subsequent employment with Newsweek & the Washington Post. Just as decisively he describes his marriages, first to Jean Salton, then to Tony Pinchot and finally, Sally Quinn. Probably one of the more intriguing sections of A Good Life wasn’t Watergate as you might expect, but rather Bradlee’s time with John F. Kennedy as friend and reporter before and during Kennedy’s Presidential career. [As an aside, I didn’t make the connection that it was Bradlee’s sister-in-law who was rumored to have had an affair with the President. (Rumor has it she was murdered to cover up the scandal.)] I don’t have Conversations with Kennedy on my list, but I wish I did. If it’s anything like Good Life, I’m sure it’s an interesting read.
But, back to the review. As expected, Bradlee spends a great deal of time talking about President Nixon, Watergate and the work that went into uncovering the lies. This is where Bradlee slows history down and works through the details methodically. But, he also shares some other not-so-crowning Post moments again, there is that honesty about all he reveals.

Quotes I loved: “The prunes were on the menu because my mother was preoccupied by our bowel movements” (p 24), “…loved the camaraderie, even if the odd asshole reared his ugly head every so often” (p 76), and “I didn’t just unclutter my mind. I emptied it, and found peace” (p 394).

Reason read: February is scholastic journalism month.

Author fact(s): This first one is more about the Bradlee men than author Ben – 51 Bradlees, starting in 1795, went to Harvard. Impressive. The second fact is that Ben Bradlee died at the age of 93 just a few short months ago (October 2014).

Book trivia: Note to self (and Pearl): This would have been a good book to read along side Katherine Graham’s Personal History. They go hand in hand.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust in the chapter called “The Fourth Estate” (p 93).

Underworld

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DeLillo, Don. Underworld. Read by Richard Poe. New York: Recorded Books, 2003.

Even though this is a long book I couldn’t turn the pages fast enough. From the prologue I was hooked. By the way, everyone loves the prologue best. But the book as a whole, I don’t know how to describe it. It’s a stand-alone novella in itself. I guess I could equate Underworld to a bumble bee ride. At times the plot flies over time and space, flitting from one character to another without really touching down long enough to establish foundation. But, there there are other times this bee lands, spends an inordinate amount of time digging around one particular scene and rooting among the details; rolling through the dialogue and repeating itself a lot. Diverse yet nitty gritty. If you get to the part when Nick is trying to talk to his wife while she watched a movie you’ll see what I mean. Excruciating! I found their dialogue painful.
As a whole, Underworld is a biography of 20th century American culture, flayed and dissected and analyzed. Guts and all. It’s 50 years of society spanning the country, from Arizona to New York and points in between. It’s 1951 and fifty years beyond. There is no real plot. There is no real point other than to show the complexities of the times we live in.

Reason read: February is National History Month and Underworld is chock full of history, real and imagined.

Author fact: Although Don DeLillo is mentioned five times in Book Lust I am only reading three of his books, Libra, White Noise and of course, Underworld.

Book trivia: Underworld is a huge book – over 800 some odd pages long. I had to borrow an audio recording and a print version just to finish it within the month!
Audio trivia: I just had to mention this since it’s the first time I’ve ever seen a library do this: the Westborough Public Library warned me, “the cost to replace this item is $109.75 Please handle carefully!” Why not make it an even $110? Just saying.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust in the chapter called “American History: Fiction” (p 22).