April Foolish List

gr4c5Leave a comment

I kinda like the pulse check I took last month. I have decided I like watching one list shrink while another grows.
As a result I decided to keep the lists separated for this month as well. Starting with the books that haven’t been read.

STILL TO GO:

  1. Abide By Me by Elizabeth Strout
  2. Among the Missing by Dan Chaon
  3. Apollo: the epic journey to the moon by David West Reynolds
  4. Ariel by Sylvia Plath
  5. At Home in the Heart of Appalachia by John O’Brien
  6. Beautiful Swimmers by William Warner
  7. Beneath the Lion’s Gaze by Maaza Mengist
  8. Beyond the Bogota by Gary Leech
  9. Burma Chronicles by Guy Delise
  10. Burning the Days by James Salter
  11. Cat Who Ate Danish Modern by Lillian Jackson Braun
  12. Child that Books Built by Francis Spufford
  13. Conspiracy and Other Stories by Jaan Kross
  14. Deafening by Frances Itani
  15. Death in Verona by Roy Harley Lewis
  16. Dining with Al-Qaeda by Hugh Pope
  17. Diving Bell and the Butterfly by Jean-Dominique Bauby
  18. Fixer by Joe Sacco
  19. Footnotes in Gaza by Joe Sacco
  20. Going Wild by Robert Winkler
  21. Golden Spruce by John Vaillant
  22. Grand Ambition by Lisa Michaels
  23. Guardians by Geoffrey Kabaservice
  24. House on the Lagoon by Rosario Ferre
  25. Light Infantry Ball by Hamilton Basso
  26. Nobody Knows My Name by James Baldwin
  27. Ocean of Words by Ha Jin
  28. Old Friends by Tracy Kidder
  29. Panther Soup by John Grimlette
  30. Points Unknown edited by David Roberts
  31. Return of the Dancing Master by Henning Mankell
  32. Rose Cafe by John Hanson Mitchell
  33. Scramble for Africa by Thomas Pakenham
  34. Southpaw by Mark Harris
  35. Tea Time for the Traditionally Built by Alexander McCall Smith
  36. Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini
  37. Time, Love, Memory by Jonathan Weiner
  38. What you Owe Me by Bebe Moore Campbell
  39. Wolves of Willoughby Chase by Joan Aiken
  40. Working Poor by David Shipler

ON DECK FOR APRIL:

  1. Cardboard Crown by Martin Boyd
  2. Diamond Classics by Mike Shannon
  3. Gentlemen Prefer Blondes by Anita Loos
  4. House of Morgan by Ron Chernow
  5. Added: Hole in the World by Richard Rhodes
  6. Full Cupboard of Life by Alexander McCall Smith
  7. Added: Author, Author by David Lodge (audio)
  8. Imperfect Harmony by Stacy Horn (for LibraryThing’s Early Review program
  9. Lots of poetry

FINISHED:

  1. Adventures of Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carrol
  2. Ancient Athens on 5 Drachmas a Day by Philip Matyszak
  3. Apples Are From Kazakhstan by Christopher Robbins
  4. Arctic Grail by Pierre Berton (I started this last year. No, sorry – two years ago)
  5. Before the Knife by Carolyn Slaughter
  6. Bellwether by Connie Willis
  7. Big Mouth and Ugly Girl by Joyce Carol Oates
  8. Billy by Albert French
  9. Brass Go-Between by Oliver Bleeck
  10. Breakfast with Scot by Michael Drowning
  11. Brush with Death by Elizabeth Duncan
  12. Brushed by Feathers by Frances Wood
  13. Camus, a Romance by Elizabeth Hawes
  14. Churchill, a life by Martin Gilbert
  15. City of Thieves by David Benioff
  16. Crossing to Safety by Wallace Stegner
  17. Descending the Dragon by Jon Bowermaster
  18. Domestic Manners of the Americans by Fanny Trollope
  19. The Evolution of Jane by Catherine Schine
  20. Edward Lear in Albania by Edward Lear
  21. Fanny by Edmund White
  22. Final Solution by Michael Chabon
  23. ADDED: Flamboya Tree  by Clara Olink Kelly
  24. Gabriel Garcia Marquez by Gerald Martin
  25. Galton Case by Ross MacDonald
  26. Girl in Landscape by Jonathan Lethem
  27. Gold Coast Madam by Rose Laws
  28. Good Thief’s Guide to Paris by Chris Ewan
  29. Good Thief’s Guide to Vegas by Chris Ewan
  30. Good-bye Chunk Rice by Craig Thompson
  31. Her by Christa Parravani
  32. Hole in the Earth by Robert Bausch
  33. Idle Days in Patagonia by William Hudson
  34. Joy of Cooking by Irma Rombauer
  35. Kalahari Typing School for Men by Alexander McCall Smith
  36. Lives of the Painters, vol 2, 3 & 4 by Giorgio Vasari
  37. Mortality for Beautiful Girls by Alexander McCall Smith
  38. No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith
  39. Of Human Bondage by William Maugham
  40. Playing for Keeps by David Halberstam
  41. Rabbit Hill by Robert Lawson
  42. Rosalind Franklin: Dark Lady of DNA by Brenda Maddox
  43. Scar Tissue by Michael Ignatieff
  44. Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Orczy
  45. Strong Poison by Dorothy L. Sayers
  46. Tatiana by Dorothy Jones
  47. Tattered Cloak by Nina Berberova
  48. Tears of the Giraffe by Alexander McCall Smith
  49. Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club by Dorothy Sayers
  50. Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackery
  51. Viceroy of Ouidah by Bruce Chatwin
  52. Wholeness of a Broken Heart by Katie Singer
  53. Widow for One Year by John Irving
  54. Women of the Raj by Margaret MacMillan

Snow Country

gr4c5Leave a comment

Kawabata, Yasunari. Snow Country. New York: Vintage International, 1996.

Read any review of Snow Country and you will find people making comparisons to a haiku or to music. Kawabata’s descriptions are like water, flowing easily from page to page, but indeed like water very powerful. The details of the story are like music, lilting and magical and sometimes, more often than not, sorrowful. The story itself is very stark. It’s the relationship between a wealthy businessman and his snow country geisha. Their relationship is complicated by an imbalance of feelings. She cares for him more passionately then he does for her. In fact, his feelings are as cold as the winter countryside. It is frustrating at times to know they will never bridge the cultural or emotional gap…until you remember he is married.

Favorite lines, “He knew that if he spoke he would only make himself seem the more wanting in seriousness” (p 15).

Even though I have complained about reading translations there is also something cool about learning new words like “kotatsu” which is a small heating device.

Reason read: March is supposedly one of the best times to visit Japan.

Author fact: Yasunari Kawabata has won the Nobel Prize for Literature.

BookLust Twist: From Book Lust in the chapter called “Japanese Fiction” (p 131).

Hole in the Earth

gr4c5Leave a comment

Bausch, Robert. A Hole in the Earth. New York: Harcourt, Inc., 2000.

If you are anything like me you won’t be able to decide whether you love or hate or just feel sorry for Henry Porter. On the surface he is a selfish, superficial s.o.b. who never knows the right thing to say or do. He doesn’t know how to greet Nicole, his only child he hasn’t seen in six years. He has a strained relationship with his girlfriend and doesn’t know how to respond when she tells him she is pregnant with his child. He comes across as shallow and callous. Case in point: “I calculated that if she really wanted to get my understanding, she would ask for it” he says (p 32). But, having said all that, it’s his very attitude that makes him human. We all have our moments of being selfish, superficial, shallow, awkward, cold and callous. Henry Porter is real and you can’t help but identify with him, even if it is just a little. As Henry’s life becomes more complicated (Nicole gets in trouble with a boy and Elizabeth breaks up with him) Henry starts to find his way through his inability to respond to tragedy. It’s a good thing because things go from bad to the very worst and Henry must change in order to survive.

Favorite lines, “I wanted to tell her but my mind would not surrender the words” (p 239), and “Upstairs Nicole was building a cathedral of faithful hatred…” (p 275).

Reason read: National Problem Gambling Week was three weeks ago (March 3 – 9) but in recognition of those struggling with the addiction I read A Hole in the Earth.

Author fact: I loved Robert Bausch’s short bio on the back flap of A hole in the Earth. See if you can figure out why! 😉 “He has worked as a salesman, taxi driver, library assistant, and waiter.”

Book trivia: The cover of my edition features a boy jumping off something. While he is in mid-fall he looks anticipatory and almost excited. It’s a scene from the book that is also a metaphor for Henry’s adult life.

BookLust Twist: From Book Lust in the chapter called “All in the Family: Writer Dynasties” (p 6). So, Pearl’s chapter doesn’t have anything to do with gambling. Instead A Hole in the Earth is mentioned because Robert and his brother, Richard, are both writers.

Gabriel Garcia Marquez

gr4c5Leave a comment

Martin, Gerald. Gabriel Garcia Marquez: a Life. New York: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, 2008.

This is going to sound horrible but I read the biography of Gabriel Garcia Marquez before reading a single word written by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. I have a bunch of different books by Garcia Marquez on my challenge list but his biography came up first. It’s sad to say I never read anything of his in high school or even college. You would think, I being a huge John Cusack fan, that I would have at least read Love in the Time of Cholera! (If you have no idea why I made that connection go rent Serendipity or High Fidelity.)

Surprisingly, this is one of my favorite biographies read so far. It has to be the subject matter. Like other biographies that spend an inordinate amount of time setting the stage (political and socially) or produce pages and pages of mini biographies of the subject’s great-great-great grandparents Martin does bog down with those details in the beginning. His focus is not primarily on Gabriel Garcia Marquez but rather the myriad of family members from both his mother’s and father’s sides of the family. I got lost trying to keep the just cousins straight. Forget about all the drama that went with them! But, aside from that reading about Marquez’s life was fascinating. Martin took 17 years to research his subject and it shows.
Probably my favorite aspect of the biography is the parallels Martin makes between Marquez’s life and his art. Martin doesn’t miss an opportunity to make note of people in Marquez’s life who eventually became characters in his books later. I have a deeper understanding of where the soul of One Hundred Years of Solitude came from.

Favorite quotes, “A whispy costeno moustache appeared on his adolescent lip and was left to wander where it would” (p 108), and “Acquaintances remember him always drumming his fingers on the table as we waited for his lunch , or on anything else to hand…music always wafting through him” (p 145). Guess my husband has something in common with Gabriel Garcia Marquez…always drumming on something.

Reason read: Gabriel Garcia Marquez was born in March.

Book trivia: Gabriel Garcia Marquez: a Life includes great photography. GGM’s first year picture was adorable.

Author fact: According to Martin’s Wiki page his biography of Gabriel Garcia Marquez was the first full biography to be published in English. Interesting.

BookLust Twist: From Book Lust To Go in the chapter called “Hail, Columbia!” (p 91).

Widow for One Year

gr4c5Leave a comment

Irving, John. A Widow For One Year. Read by George Guidall. New York: Random House Audio, 1998.

While meandering at times A Widow For One Year follows the life of Ruth Cole. In Part One it is 1958 and Ruth is only four years old. The plot doesn’t necessarily focus on Ruth at this point but rather on her Long Island parents – their endless grief over the accidental death of their teenage sons and the bitter end of their tumultuous marriage. Ruth’s father is a celebrated author of books for children, a closet alcoholic and a raging adulterer. He wants to divorce Ruth’s mother, Marion, but he first needs to make sure he’ll win the custody battle over Ruth. Given his drinking (he can’t even drive due to too many dui arrests) and sexual conquests outside the marriage he needs Marion to have an indiscretion of her own to level the playing field. Enter Eddie O’Hare, a sixteen year old high school student from Philips Exeter Academy. Ted hires Eddie to be his writing assistant for the summer but really Eddie is supposed to seduce Marion. It’s Eddie who I like the best in this part one. He plays the fool perfectly (oh, but what a sweet and pretty fool). Unwittingly he is a pawn for both Ted and Marion.
In Part Two Ruth, at thirty-six, is an accomplished writer living in New York. The section begins with the very same Eddie O’Hare. He is in town to introduce Ruth at one of her readings. While their paths cross only briefly at this point in the story Ruth is enlightened by Eddie’s memories of her mother. She begins to see her parent’s divorce in a whole new perspective. Before leaving for a European book tour Eddie gives Ruth a murder mystery he thinks was written by Marion. While in Amsterdam Ruth is witness to the murder of a window prostitute from the red light district.
This sets in motion Part Three which, in the beginning, focuses mostly on the murder of the prostitute from five years earlier. The lead chief inspector has a conundrum. While he was able to solve the murder he now wants to find the witness. The story jumps back fill in the story of the prostitute (which could have been a whole separate book). I don’t want to spoil the end except to say it’s nice that Irving brought the story full circle.

Favorite lines: “There are few things as seemingly untouched by the real world as a child asleep” (p 151). Don’t you love the image of that? Another favorite line, “I appear to have an old disease to share” (p 324).

As an aside, Ruth’s attitude about her American fans reminded me of how Natalie Merchant reacts to autograph signings and picture taking with her American fans. Both Ruth and Natalie are more comfortable with their European fans.

Reason read: John Irving celebrates a birthday in March, on the 18th…or so I’ve read on LibraryThing.

Author fact: John Irving was not an author Nancy Peal included in her “Too Good to Miss” chapters. Too bad because he should have been. He has written some amazing stuff.

Book trivia: The 2004 film adaptation of A Widow For One Year was “A Door in the Floor.” Note to self: put this on my movie list.

BookLust Twist: from More Book Lust in the chapter called “Wayward Wives” (p 232). I think Pearl got it wrong. Yes, the wife is wayward but her situation is completely more understandable than her husband’s. I think her husband is despicable. But, another thing: the book isn’t really about the wayward wife or husband.

Playing for Keeps

gr4c5Leave a comment

Halberstam, David. Playing for Keeps: Michael Jordan and the World He Made. New York: Random House, 1999.

There is no doubt in my mind that David Halberstam loved basketball. He may have even loved Michael Jordan even more. The care and consideration he gave both to the sport and to the athlete is exemplary. To be sure, you will also get biographies of the key people surrounding Michael Jordan’s personal life and career path as well. From mama to coaches, from friends to agents, Halberstam details each and everyone one of them. You will learn about Michael Jordan, the driven kid; Michael Jordan, the aggressive ballplayer; Michael Jordan, the savvy salesman and everything else he was in between.
My only complaint – the chronology is a bit disorganized. Because the timeline is interrupted by different basketball games throughout out Jordan’s career Halberstam’s timeline isn’t constructed in such a way that a reader could witness Michael Jordan’s rise to success smoothly. The games lend a certain drama to the biography but the timeline suffers for it.

Reason read: March is the month for Madness; college basketball madness, that is. Only I started reading this early because a friend loaned it to me.

Time for some honesty. I have a pet peeve when it comes to professional athletes and their retirements. The media goes into a frenzy. The bigger the star, the bigger the segment on ESPN. Reporters clamor for a “last” interview. Researchers comb the archives looking for footage of so-and-so’s rookie year. Childhood friends are contacted and the athlete’s mama is always asked to reminisce about the first she noticed star quality and athletic potential. The story will break for days and days and be seen on every channel several times over. It’s as if the retiring athlete hasn’t given up the sport. Instead it’s as if he or she has given up the ghost and died. That is, Until they start playing again. It’s the in and out of retirement I can’t stand. Michael Jordan was one such athlete. He retired more than once and each time the media gave him a send off fit for kings. And not the Sacramento kind.

Book trivia: Playing for Keeps boasts a lot of really cool photos.

Author fact: Halberstam has written on a myriad of subjects. Basketball only scratched the surface of the topics he covered.

BookLust Twist: From More Book Lust in the chapter called “David Halberstam: Too Good To Miss” (p 113).

Kalahari Typing School for Men

gr4c5Leave a comment

Smith, Alexander McCall. The Kalahari Typing School for Men. New York: Anchor Books, 2002.

You don’t have to read the first three Mma Ramotswe books in order to enjoy Kalahair Typing School for Men but I think you would enjoy them better if you did. In the fourth installment of The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency the plot continues to move away from solving mysteries (as it had been in Morality for Beautiful Girls) and the emphasis is placed more on character development. To bring you up to speed: Mma Precious Ramotswe is Botswana’s only female detective. She is engaged to Mr. J.L.B. Matekoni and together they have adopted two children, a brother and sister, but still haven’t set a wedding date. It seems Mr. J.L.B. Matekoni is content to stay engaged for an indeterminate amount of time. Mma Ramotswe has two cases of interest. One is a gentleman wishing to repair his not so sterling past. He wants to make amends for a series of wrongs he has done as a youth. The other mystery is a typical marital woe of a woman thinking her man is cheating on her. The title of the story comes from Mma Matakutsi’s side business of starting a typing school for men.

Now that I am actually reading I have a few favorite lines, “That was the trouble with people in general: they were surprisingly unrealistic in their expectations” (p 5) and “We do not care about other people’s hats in the same way these days, do we? We do not” (p 158).

Reason read: to continue the series (started with The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency) in honor of Mystery Month in January. Note: up until this point I have listened to the series in CD. I appreciated Lecat’s narration and pronunciation. For example, if I had read the series from the beginning I wouldn’t have known that “Zebra Drive” (where Mma Ramotswe lives) is pronounced Zeb – bra Drive and not Zee – bra Drive.

Author fact: You just have to check out the videos on Alexander McCall Smith’s website. He is quoted as saying he is very fond of Botswana and he wrote the Mma Ramotswe series as a tribute to the country. (see link on Morality for Beautiful Girls book review).

Book trivia: This is the fourth book in the series. Next up is The Full Cupboard of Life.

BookLust Twist: From More Book Lust in the chapter called “Ms. Mystery” (p 171).

Flamboya Tree

gr4c5Leave a comment

Kelly, Clara Olink. The Flamboya Tree: Memories of a Mother’s Wartime Courage. New York: Random House, 2002.

This is a short memoir. Some would say too short. Clara Olink Kelly is just four years old when her family is torn apart by the Japanese invasion of the Pacific Island of Java during World War II. Clara’s father is forced to work on the Burma railroad while Clara’s mother is left to care for two small children and a pregnant with a second son. It isn’t long before the Japanese commandeer their home and the entire family is transferred to a concentration camp, Kamp Tjideng. There Clara spends four long years enduring extreme crowding, starvation, illness and unspeakable filth. In addition she witnesses horrific abuse and violence that would haunt her for the rest of her life. The one piece of home that keeps them going is a small painting of a red flamboya tree. This painting, because it was never abused or destroyed by the Japanese, became a symbol of strength for the family. It goes wherever they go. The other symbol of strength is Clara’s mother. The beautiful thing about The Flamboya Tree is that throughout the entire story Clara’s respect and admiration for her mother never waivers. It is a lovely tribute to a mother who did everything she could to protect her children and survive the harsh conditions.

Powerful line, “She still had the audacity to hold her head high” (p 61).

Reason read: To recognize Nyepi, the Balinese Day of Silence. Last year it was celebrated at the end of March.

Author fact: Do a search for Clara Olink Kelly and she pops up on the website IMDb because she appeared on the Rosie O’Donnell show in 2002. Do an image search for Clara Olink Kelly and you will discover she looks just like her mother.

Book trivia: There is a study guide for The Flamboya Tree: Memories of a Mother’s Wartime Courage and the first question is, “would you have tried to escape?” What a loaded question!

BookLust Twist: From  Book Lust To Go in the chapter called “Indicative of Indonesia” (p 104).

Fanny

gr4c5Leave a comment

White, Edmund. Fanny: a Fiction. New York: HarperCollins, 2003.

Here’s the premise: Frances Trollope is already famous for publishing Domestic Manners of the Americans, a no-so flattering account of American society. She now sets out to write the biography of friend and feminist, Fanny Wright. Edmund White produces Fanny’s biography in manuscript form and I have to say it would have been a clever twist to present this as a reworked manuscript. Trollope’s notes to self, musings, and edit ideas would have been more effective had they been published as handwritten notes in the margins, scribbles, and parts crossed out. Instead, Trollope’s musings are in line with the text and somewhat distracting. As it is, Trollope spends more time justifying her Domestic Manners and recounting her own family’s trials and tribulations than she does on Ms. Wright’s memoir. It’s cleverly written.

Line I liked, “I had been so absorbed in the brilliant company…the look of the elegant company, that I had completely forgotten the sad reality of me” (p 44).

Reason read: Frances Trollope was born in the month of March and this was listed as a “companion” read in More Book Lust.

Book trivia: I found it really cool that Edmund White dedicated Fanny to Joyce Carol Oates.

Author fact: Edmund White has his own website here.

BookLust Twist: From More Book Lust in the chapter called “Two, or Three, Are Better Than One” (p 226).

UPDATE: Another index error in More Book Lust! Fanny: a Fiction by Edmund White is also mentioned in the chapter “Just Too Good To Miss” (p 133) of More Book Lust.

Morality for Beautiful Girls

gr4c5Leave a comment

Smith, Alexander McCall. Morality for Beautiful Girls. Read by Lisette Lecat. Prince Frederick, Maryland: Recorded Books, 2003.

Let’s recap the last two books shall we?: In The Number #1 Ladies Detective Agency Mma Ramotswe has started Botswana’s only detective agency. She not only builds the reputation of her shop but her relationship with Mr. J.L.B. Matekoni (owner of an auto repair shop). Continuing in Tears of the Giraffe Mma Ramotswe takes on more complicated cases and becomes engaged and a mother (practically at the same time). Now in Morality for Beautiful Girls Mma Ramotswe becomes more involved with Mr. J.L.B. Matekoni’s mechanic shop business and the two children she has adopted with Mr. J.L.B. Matekoni. She takes on one major case involving a government man who is convinced his brother is being poisoned by someone in the family. This case requires her to leave home overnight. Meanwhile, Mma Ramotswe’s assistant, Mma Makutsi, is climbing the business ladder as well. Not only does she become acting manager of Mr. J.L.B. Matekoni’s repair shop while he is ill she also becomes an assistant detective and handles a huge case on her own because Mma Ramotswe is out of town. It’s this case that is the title of the book. Mma Makutsi is hired to find out which contestants of a beauty competition are beautiful on the inside AND out. Mma Makutsi is charged with finding the morality in the girls. In this particular installment of the series MCcall Smith focuses on morality on all levels. The initial focus is on the beauty queens but really he questions all of Africa’s morality as well.

Reason read: This continues the series started in January in honor of Mystery month.

Author fact: Alexander McCall Smith has his own website here. I particularly like the birds flying around. It’s charming.

Book trivia: This is the third book in the series starring Mma Ramotswe. Now Mma Ramotswe’s life is getting a little complicated!

BookLust Twist: From More Book Lust from the chapter called “Ms Mystery” (p 171).

Arctic Grail

gr4c5Leave a comment

Berton, Pierre. The Arctic Gail: The Quest for the Northwest Passage and the North Pole, 1818 – 1909. New York: Viking, 1988.

This is a “take two” book. I started it in 2011 and didn’t finish it. Didn’t even come close. I think I borrowed it too late in the month of February and realized I couldn’t read all 600+ pages before the start of March. This time I was smart and ordered it before February 1st so that I could start reading it on the very first day of the month (which was a neat 25 pages per day).

The Arctic Grail: the Quest for the North West Passage and the North Pole, 1818 – 1909 is exactly that – an extensive and wide angled look at the explorers who took on the quest to find the North West Passage between 1818 and 1909. A variety of influential characters are detailed, starting with Sir John Ross and William Edward Parry and ending with Frederick Cook and Robert Edwin Peary. Parry, probably the most unique of the group, was young (only 29), big into keeping his crew entertained with music, theater and even a newspaper. He was also deeply religious. “His greatest accomplishment was his understanding of his crew and his determination to keep them healthy in mind as well as body” (p 34). Other explorers were drawn to the Arctic despite wanting family lives. Several married just before embarking on trips that would take them away from their new brides for several years. The obsession to find the North West Passage was strong and unyielding. This obsession almost takes on a quality of mental illness for some of the explorers, risking the health and even lives of their ships and crew. When John Franklin goes missing his wife, Lady Franklin, becomes just as obsessed with finding him.

Favorite and/or intriguing lines, “The British Navy was never comfortable with dogs” (p 43) and “She devoured books (295 in one three-year period) – books on every subject: travel, education, religion, social problems…” (p 122) and the sentence that sums up the obsession, “He was..obsessed with the Arctic, a quality that more and more seemed to be the prime requisite for would-be northern adventurers” (p 345).

Reason read: in honor of the birth (and death) month of Elisha Kent Kane, one of the medical officers in the British Royal Navy who attempted to find lost Navy officer Sir John Franklin. He intrigues me because he was a crowned a hero despite the fact several of his crew revolted.

Author Fact: Towards the end of Berton’s life he admitted he had been a recreational pot smoker for over 40 years. He even went on a Canadian television station to “educate” people on how to roll a joint correctly. I Kid You Not. It’s on YouTube. Funny stuff.

Book trivia: With Arctic Grail cataloged at 672 pages long this book was very heavy to carry around. I left it in the office and made sure I read 30-40 pages every lunch break.

BookLust Twist: From Book Lust in the chapter called “Here Be Dragons: The Great Explorers and Expeditions” (p 110).

Luck of the Irish List

gr4c5Leave a comment

A pulse check of a different kind. A first of the month kind of thing.

I decided to break up the list for this month, just for something different to look at. Starting with the books that haven’t been read:

STILL TO GO:

  1. Abide By Me by Elizabeth Strout
  2. Among the Missing by Dan Chaon
  3. Apollo: the epic journey to the moon by David West Reynolds
  4. Ariel by Sylvia Plath
  5. At Home in the Heart of Appalachia by John O’Brien
  6. Beautiful Swimmers by William Warner
  7. Beneath the Lion’s Gaze by Maaza Mengist
  8. Beyond the Bogota by Gary Leech
  9. Burma Chronicles by Guy Delise
  10. Burning the Days by James Salter
  11. Cardboard Crown by Martin Boyd
  12. Cat Who Ate Danish Modern by Lillian Jackson Braun
  13. Child that Books Built by Francis Spufford
  14. Conspiracy and Other Stories by Jaan Kross
  15. Deafening by Frances Itani
  16. Death in Verona by Roy Harley Lewis
  17. Diamond Classics by Mike Shannon
  18. Dining with Al-Qaeda by Hugh Pope
  19. Diving Bell and the Butterfly by Jean-Dominique Bauby
  20. Fixer by Joe Sacco
  21. Footnotes in Gaza by Joe Sacco
  22. Full Cupboard of Life by Alexander McCall Smith
  23. Gentlemen Prefer Blondes by Anita Loos
  24. Going Wild by Robert Winkler
  25. Golden Spruce by John Vaillant
  26. Grand Ambition by Lisa Michaels
  27. Guardians by Geoffrey Kabaservice
  28. Hole in the Earth by Robert Bausch
  29. House of Morgan by Ron Chernow
  30. House on the Lagoon by Rosario Ferre
  31. Light Infantry Ball by Hamilton Basso
  32. Nobody Knows My Name by James Baldwin
  33. Ocean of Words by Ha Jin
  34. Old Friends by Tracy Kidder
  35. Panther Soup by John Grimlette
  36. Points Unknown edited by David Roberts
  37. Return of the Dancing Master by Henning Mankell
  38. Rose Cafe by John Hanson Mitchell
  39. Scramble for Africa by Thomas Pakenham
  40. Southpaw by Mark Harris
  41. Tea Time for the Traditionally Built by Alexander McCall Smith
  42. Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini
  43. Time, Love, Memory by Jonathan Weiner
  44. What you Owe Me by Bebe Moore Campbell
  45. Wolves of Willoughby Chase by Joan Aiken
  46. Working Poor by David Shipler

THIS MONTH’S LIST (MARCH):

  1. Domestic Manners of the Americans by Fanny Trollope
  2. Fanny by Edmund White
  3. Flamboya Tree by Clara Olink Kelly
  4. Kalahari Typing School for Men by Alexander McCall Smith
  5. Gabriel Garcia Marquez by Gerald Martin
  6. Widow for One Year by John Irving

FINISHED:

  1. Adventures of Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carrol
  2. ADDED: After Visiting Friends by Michael Hainey
  3. Ancient Athens on 5 Drachmas a Day by Philip Matyszak
  4. Apples Are From Kazakhstan by Christopher Robbins
  5. Arctic Grail by Pierre Berton (I started this last year. no, sorry – two years ago)
  6. Before the Knife by Carolyn Slaughter
  7. Bellwether by Connie Willis
  8. Big Mouth and Ugly Girl by Joyce Carol Oates
  9. Billy by Albert French
  10. Brass Go-Between by Oliver Bleeck
  11. Breakfast with Scot by Michael Drowning
  12. Brush with Death by Elizabeth Duncan
  13. Brushed by Feathers by Frances Wood
  14. Camus, a Romance by Elizabeth Hawes
  15. Churchill, a life by Martin Gilbert
  16. City of Thieves by David Benioff
  17. Crossing to Safety by Wallace Stegner
  18. Descending the Dragon by Jon Bowermaster
  19. The Evolution of Jane by Catherine Schine
  20. Edward Lear in Albania by Edward Lear
  21. Final Solution by Michael Chabon
  22. Galton Case by Ross MacDonald
  23. Girl in Landscape by Jonathan Lethem
  24. Gold Coast Madam by Rose Laws
  25. Good Thief’s Guide to Paris by Chris Ewan
  26. Good Thief’s Guide to Vegas by Chris Ewan
  27. Good-bye Chunk Rice by Craig Thompson
  28. Her by Christa Parravani
  29. Idle Days in Patagonia by William Hudson
  30. Joy of Cooking by Irma Rombauer
  31. Lives of the Painters, vol 2, 3 & 4 by Giorgio Vasari
  32. Mortality for Beautiful Girls by Alexander McCall Smith
  33. No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith
  34. Of Human Bondage by William Maugham
  35. Playing for Keeps by David Halberstam
  36. Rabbit Hill by Robert Lawson
  37. Rosalind Franklin: Dark Lady of DNA by Brenda Maddox
  38. Scar Tissue by Michael Ignatieff
  39. Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Orczy
  40. Strong Poison by Dorothy L. Sayers
  41. Tatiana by Dorothy Jones
  42. Tattered Cloak by Nina Berberova
  43. Tears of the Giraffe by Alexander McCall Smith
  44. Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club by Dorothy Sayers
  45. Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackery
  46. Viceroy of Ouidah by Bruce Chatwin
  47. Wholeness of a Broken Heart by Katie Singer
  48. Women of the Raj by Margaret MacMillan

Hearts and Pulse Checks

gr4c5Leave a comment

I titled this blog in honor of Valentine’s Day.  Here are the books read so far and still go to. With love.

  1. Abide By Me by Elizabeth Strout
  2. ADDED: Adventures of Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
  3. Among the Missing by Dan Chaon
  4. ADDED: Ancient Athens on 5 Drachmas a Day by Philip Matyszak
  5. Apollo: the epic journey to the moon by David West Reynolds
  6. ADDED: Apples Are From Kazakhstan by Christopher Robbins
  7. Arctic Grail by Pierre Berton (I started this last year)
  8. Ariel by Sylvia Plath
  9. At Home in the Heart of Appalachia by John O’Brien
  10. Beautiful Swimmers by William Warner
  11. Before the Knife by Carolyn Slaughter
  12. ADDED: Bellwether by Connie Willis
  13. Beneath the Lion’s Gaze by Maaza Mengist
  14. Beyond the Bogota by Gary Leech
  15. Big Mouth and Ugly Girl by Joyce Carol Oates
  16. ADDED: Billy by Albert French
  17. Brass Go-Between by Oliver Bleeck
  18. Breakfast with Scot by Michael Drowning
  19. Brush with Death by Elizabeth Duncan
  20. ADDED: Brushed by Feathers by Frances Wood
  21. Burma Chronicles by Guy Delise
  22. Burning the Days by James Salter
  23. Camus, a Romance by Elizabeth Hawes
  24. Cardboard Crown by Martin Boyd
  25. Cat Who Ate Danish Modern by Lillian Jackson Braun
  26. Child that Books Built by Francis Spufford
  27. Churchill, a life by Martin Gilbert
  28. ADDED: City of Thieves by David Benioff
  29. Conspiracy and Other Stories by Jaan Kross
  30. Crossing to Safety by Wallace Stegner
  31. Deafening by Frances Itani
  32. Death in Verona by Roy Harley Lewis
  33. ADDED: Descending the Dragon by Jon Bowermaster
  34. Diamond Classics by Mike Shannon
  35. Dining with Al-Qaeda by Hugh Pope
  36. Diving Bell and the Butterfly by Jean-Dominique Bauby
  37. Domestic Manners of the Americans by Fanny Trollope
  38. ADDED: The Evolution of Jane by Catherine Schine
  39. Edward Lear in Albania by Edward Lear
  40. Fanny by Edmund White
  41. Final Solution by Michael Chabon
  42. Fixer by Joe Sacco
  43. Footnotes in Gaza by Joe Sacco
  44. Full Cupboard of Life by Alexander McCall Smith
  45. Gabriel Garcia Marquez by Gerald Martin
  46. Galton Case by Ross MacDonald
  47. Gentlemen Prefer Blondes by Anita Loos
  48. Girl in Landscape by Jonathan Lethem
  49. Going Wild by Robert Winkler
  50. Golden Spruce by John Vaillant
  51. ADDED via LibraryThing’s Early Review: Gold Coast Madam by Rose Laws
  52. Good Thief’s Guide to Paris by Chris Ewan
  53. Good Thief’s Guide to Vegas by Chris Ewan
  54. Good-bye Chunk Rice by Craig Thompson
  55. Grand Ambition by Lisa Michaels
  56. Guardians by Geoffrey Kabaservice
  57. ADDED via LibraryThing Early Review: Her by Christa P
  58. Hole in the Earth by Robert Bausch
  59. House of Morgan by Ron Chernow
  60. House on the Lagoon by Rosario Ferre
  61. ADDED: Idle Days in Patagonia by William Hudson
  62. Joy of Cooking by Irma Rombauer
  63. Kalahari Typing School for Men by Alexander McCall Smith
  64. Light Infantry Ball by Hamilton Basso
  65. Lives of the Painters, vol 2, 3 & 4 by Giorgio Vasari
  66. Mortality for Beautiful Girls by Alexander McCall Smith
  67. No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith
  68. Nobody Knows My Name by James Baldwin
  69. Ocean of Words by Ha Jin
  70. ADDED: Of Human Bondage by William Maugham
  71. Old Friends by Tracy Kidder
  72. Panther Soup by John Grimlette
  73. ADDED: Playing for Keeps by David Halberstam (only because someone gave it to me as a gift and it’s on my list)
  74. Points Unknown edited by David Roberts
  75. Rabbit Hill by Robert Lawson
  76. Return of the Dancing Master by Henning Mankell
  77. Rosalind Franklin: Dark Lady of DNA by Brenda Maddox
  78. Rose Cafe by John Hanson Mitchell
  79. Scar Tissue by Michael Ignatieff
  80. ADDED: Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Orczy ~ only because it was on my list last February and I didn’t get to it!
  81. Scramble for Africa by Thomas Pakenham
  82. Southpaw by Mark Harris
  83. ADDED: Strong Poison by Dorothy L. Sayers
  84. ADDED: Tatiana by Dorothy Jones
  85. Tattered Cloak by Nina Berberova
  86. Tea Time for the Traditionally Built by Alexander McCall Smith
  87. Tears of the Giraffe by Alexander McCall Smith
  88. Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini
  89. Time, Love, Memory by Jonathan Weiner
  90. Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club by Dorothy Sayers
  91. Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackery
  92. Viceroy of Ouidah by Bruce Chatwin
  93. What you Owe Me by Bebe Moore Campbell
  94. Wholeness of a Broken Heart by Katie Singer
  95. Widow for One Year by John Irving
  96. Wolves of Willoughby Chase by Joan Aiken
  97. ADDED: Women of the Raj by Margaret MacMillan
  98. Working Poor by David Shipler

Every time I post one of these lists I seem to add more titles. The sad truth is some books seem to pop up easier than others. If I were to not add another book I think 98 would be a good number for an annual total. Don’t you think?

After Visiting Friends

gr4c5Leave a comment

Hainey, Michael. After Visiting Friends: a Son’s Story. New York: Scribner, 2013.

Like any good reporter, Michael Hainey (who actually works for GQ) wants the truth, especially when the truth as he knows it is full of strange inconsistencies; even more so when the truth involves the details surrounding the tragic death of his own father,
Michael was only six years old when his father, respected newspaper man Bob Hainey, died of an apparent heart attack “after visiting friends.” What friends, Michael has always wondered. Even more curious – friends and family are tight lipped about that night and the details in different newspapers don’t add up. Pretty ironic for a newspaper man’s obituary. Was it really a heart attack when another reputable paper called it a cerebral hemorrhage?
Growing up, no wanted to talk to Michael about that night, no matter how many times he asked. As an adult Michael decided to write a book about his father and in doing so provided people with the opening to start talking. Little by little Michael finally uncovers the truth. What he discovers is not earth shattering for the rest of the world. These things happen all the time. But, back then there was a different kind of fierce loyalty between friends, family, and even newspaper men.
Throughout Michael’s investigation he is forced to consider and examine his relationships with family. His grandmother, with whom he has always felt a special bond; his brother, now a family man himself; his mother who has always kept a stiff upper lip and refused to show weakness; and lastly, his father, the hero he wanted to be like who turned out to be human after all.

It is fair to say that I couldn’t put this down. How terrible is it to have a haunting that lasts your entire childhood? What is worse is the truth; forcing yourself to not only be responsible for uncovering it but accepting it as well.

Death does funny things to us. While reading After Visiting Friends I found myself thinking Hainey was unraveling and revealing my innermost thoughts. I, too, lost my father to a cerebral hemorrhage. I, too, have looked for my father in the faces of strangers, in the eyes of other men on the street. I, too, expect to see him anywhere and everywhere. “You never accept the truth that they are dead. You can’t. You won’t” (p 129). Exactly. I hated Hainey for pointing out the obvious, that if ever I met my father on the street I would not fall to my knees grateful for his return, his life restored. Instead, hurtful and pitiful, I would casting a blaming eye and ask why he left.

Brushed By Feathers

gr4c5Leave a comment

Wood, Frances. Brushed By Feathers: a Year of birdwatching in the West. Golden, Colorado: Fulcrum Publishing, 2004.

On the very first page of Brushed By Feathers you are warned by Bob Righter, “Be careful when you read this book – your life could be forever changed.” You could just become a bird watcher is what he meant. Somehow I doubt that. After growing up in the migration path of thousands of the flying species and having to endure the rapture of the many Audubon societies that have flocked to my hometown I don’t think I could become one of them. I don’t know what it is about some birders but they lose all sense of reality when witnessing a rare or even an infrequently seen bird. On one occasion my husband and I were marveling at the storm pounded surf, worrying about a boat that bobbed too close to the shore. A group of birders thought we gaped at a pair of herring gulls screeching over a dead crab.

Having said all that, I loved Wood’s book! There are certain books that appeal on a level beyond words, sentences and chapters; books that feel good in the hands or evoke some kind of deep down feeling. While Brushed By Feathers didn’t turn me into a birding fanatic I was moved by it by appearance alone. With its journal-like pages and illustrations it is a book that goes beyond simple content. Its presentation is near perfection. Had it been bound with a soft cloth cover, one that would feel good in the hands, I would have said this is one book to hold onto – literally.

I also loved the presentation of the content. Each chapter is a different month of bird watching in the Pacific northwest region of the Unites States (Wood lives near Puget Sound). Wood begins each chapter with an overview of the sights and sounds one might expect to find during that particular month and then chooses a bird to detail (eagle, hummingbird, etc). She adds personal stories to connect with her audience and not be completely didactic. Also included in the beginning of each chapter is a checklist of the new birds  introduced each month with room for notes about each species.

I guess my only complaint would be that it’s very specific to the area in and around Puget Sound and Whidbey Island. If I ever get to that part of the country I’ll know what birds to look for!

Most interesting line, “During the non-breeding season, the section of a songbird’s brain that controls singing actually shrinks, making ti unable to sing, even if the urge arose” (p 167). Okay, I did not know that.

Reason read: Oddly enough, I heard that February is bird feeding month. Not watching, but feeding. Go figure.

Author fact: Frances has her own website here. It’s pretty cool.

Book trivia: Brushed By Feathers has beautiful illustrations. Wood is responsible for those as well.

BookLust Twist: From More Book Lust in the chapter called “A Holiday Shopping List” (p 116). Pearl would have given this book to an avid bird watcher. I hope he or she lives in the northwest!