Tag: book lust iii

Cold Case

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Barnes, Linda. Cold Case. Delacorte Press, 1997.

Reason read: Cold Case takes place in Boston. Massachusetts is beautiful this time of year. Read in honor of the leaves turning.

Carlotta Carlyle is a private detective and part time cab driver. A case comes to her that is as confusing as an overgrown corn maze. Thea Janis disappeared twenty-four years ago when she was only fifteen years old. After much digging Carlotta discovered Thea was a precocious and promiscuous teenager who published a book of poetry to wild success when she was fourteen. In the span of two weeks of working on the case, Carlotta uncovers a tangle of family secrets. Thea’s name was actually Dorothy Cameron, a gardener from the Cameron family employee also went missing at the same time as Thea, Thea’s sister is a schizophrenic, Thea’s brother is a politician running for office while his marriage falls apart, and more than one murder has taken place.
Maybe this is a premise I have seen too many times, but the wealth of the Cameron family bored me. Rich woman with an icy demeanor and impeccably dress code has a stranglehold on her adult son, who does nothing but disappoint her. Her beloved daughter went missing twenty-four years ago and has been presumed dead ever since a serial killer confessed to her murder. Her second daughter is in a mental facility battling with schizophrenia. What secrets are hidden beneath the cover of wealth?
On top of all this is a subplot involving Carlotta’s little sister and the mafia. Because Cold Case is the seventh Carlotta Carlyle mystery but my first, maybe I’ve missed some key details outlined in an earlier mystery.

As an aside, throughout the entire book I found myself asking does Carlotta ever drive a cab in Cold Case? Answer is yes, but not for hire.
As another aside, Liberty Café was a real place. Too bad it closed. I’m sure fans of Linda Barnes and Carlotta Carlyle would continue to see it out.
Third aside, and I would need an expert to weigh in on this but, when you open a casket after twenty four years, would the smell of death still be so strong that you would need a rag soaked in turpentine to mask the stench? Just curious.

Quotes to quote: there were a few really thought-provoking lines I would love to share, but due to the copyright language, I cannot. Too bad because they were really good.

Author fact: Linda Barnes, not to be confused with the character on Criminal Minds, has written other mysteries series.

Book trivia: as I mentioned before, Cold Case is actually the seventh book in the series. I am reading seven, eight, and nine for the Challenge.

Playlist: “Aint No More Cane on the Brazos”, Beatles, Blind Blake, Black Velvet Band, Chris Smither’s “Up on the Lowdown”, “Hard Times Blues”, Mississippi John hurt, Mozart, Muddy Waters, Robert Johnson, and Rory Block’s “Terraplane Blues”.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust in the chapter called “I Love a Mystery” (p 117). Also from Book Lust To Go in the chapter called “Boston: Beans, Bird, and the Red Sox” (p 40).

Yiddish Policemen’s Union

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Chabon, Michael. The Yiddish Policemen’s Union. Narrated by Peter Riegert. Audible Productions, 2016.

Reason read: November is Imagination month. The Yiddish Policemen’s Union takes us to an alternate history which is quite imaginative.

The Yiddish Policemen’s Union takes place in an alternate history when the Germans do not surrender the Second Great War for another four years past reality and President Kennedy is not assassinated from the grassy knoll. In this alternate history Kennedy ends up marrying Marilyn Monroe (of course he does). Sitka, Alaska is the site of a federally mandated safe refugee location for European Jews. The area was created at the height of World War II and sixty years later, the safe haven still exists. Only, now Alaska wants their territory back. The plot is great, but the characters of The Yiddish Policemen’s Union are what makes the novel hum. Chabon’s characters exude personality. To name a few: Meyer Landsman, the main protagonist, was a character I loved. This flawed policeman whose life is a mess cannot let go of one particular cold case, the murder of a drug addled chess prodigy and supposed messiah. Landsman is supervised by his ex-wife, Bina and she has ordered the force to abandon all cold cases now that the safe haven for refugees is being dismantled. Berko Shemets, his partner is half Jewish, half Tlingit and all intimidation.

As an aside, listen to the audio version narrated by Peter Riegert. Additionally, there is an interview with Michael Chabon that is not to be missed.

Author fact: Michael Chabon is also a screenwriter.

Book trivia: The Yiddish Policemen’s Union won a Hugo Award in 2008 and a Locus Award that same year.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust To Go in the chapter called “Travel to Imaginary Places” (p 236).

Lonesome Dove

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McMurtry, Larry. Lonesome Dove. Pocket Books, 1985.

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

This time, it is all about the characters in Lonesome Dove. Romantic entanglings and broken hearts. Unlike Dead Man’s Walk and Comanche Moon, the action moves at a gentler pace from Texas to Montana. Noticeably, there is less violence in Lonesome Dove (the town and the book) from the very beginning. McMurtry brings his characters alive whether they are important to the story or not. People like Dillard Brawley, Lonesome Dove’s barber, is missing a leg due to a centipede bite. Hopping around on one leg while he cuts hair doesn’t bother him one bit. True, he is a minor character but he is developed as if he will be impactful throughout the entire story (which he isn’t, but do not forget about him.)
Back to the people who are important. Call and Gus are now retired from being captains with the Texas Rangers. Bored without wives, children, or families of any kind, they take a journey to the unknown land of Wyoming to start a cattle ranch. Gone are the violent Indian scalpings that were so prevalent in The Long Walk and Comanche Moon. The buffalo herds have all but vanished. Revenge is doled out on a much smaller scale. The first real violence comes when an former prostitute named Lorena is kidnapped by Blue Duck (remember him?). Lorena is sold to the Kiowas who rape and torture her repeatedly. Rest assured, this is nothing compared to the violence in the previous novels.
For fans of Clare, she is back! Her life has changed quite a bit since she ran the general store in Austin, but rest assured, she is still as feisty. She still remains one of my favorite characters.

As an aside, I will not lie. It was tough to lose some characters. Hangings are within the letter of the law.

Quote I liked, “My ears sort of get empty” (p 512).

Author fact: a young Larry McMurtry reminds me of Woody Allen for some reason.

Book trivia: Lonesome Dove is McMurtry’s most famous book.

Setlist: “My Bonny Lies Over the Ocean”, “Buffalo Gal”, and “Lorena”.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust in the chapter called “Western Fiction (p 240) and again in Book Lust To Go in the chapter called “Texas Two-Step (After a Bob Wills Song)” (p 220).

Kennedy’s Brain

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Mankell, Henning. Kennedy’s Brain.

Reason read: October is national crime month.

Tragedy trails Louise like an unwanted stray dog. She lost her mother when she was only six years old. She has all but lost her father to grief and alcohol in the years since her mother’s tragic accident. Louise’s marriage vanished into thin air and for the last twenty-plus years she has barely seen her ex-husband, despite having a son together. She barely believes Aron exists. Now, she is facing the unexplained demise of her only son, Herik, found dead in his bed. Like Verona in The Perfect Daughter by Gillian Linscott, Henrik is found with a belly full of drugs, and with no visible signs of foul play, his death is deemed a suicide. And like Nell in The Perfect Daughter, Louise cannot find truth the forensic evidence. She refuses to believe her only son committed suicide. So begins an epic journey to uncovered what really happened to Henrik. From Athens to Barcelona and Mozambique, Louise hunts for explanations.
My one complaint about Kennedy’s Brain was the unnatural dialogue between characters. I know Mankell is using his characters to fill historical background and give context to current situations, but they, the characters, offer way more information than is realistic in their conversations. Maybe something is lost in the translation? Here is an example, Adelinho accuses Ricardo of talking too much but when speaking of his friend, Guiseppe, Adelinho reveals Guiseppe is Italian, is friendly, and visits now and then. Adelinho also says Guiseppe likes the solitude, is responsible for the navvies building roads, likes to get drunk, and goes back to Maputo every month. Why tell a stranger all of this? Another example, Lucinda, dying of AIDS needs to tell Louise something important, but she says she is tired. She’ll share the rest when she has rested. She then goes on to talk about a few other things of little consequence.

As an aside, I had trouble with Louise’s character. What archaeologist injures herself on a shard of pottery uncovered at a dig site and why is she allowed to keep the shard as a gift for her son? That didn’t sit right with me.

Line I Liked, “The horrors in store left no warning” (p 120).

Author fact: Mankell was only 67 years old when he passed away.

Book trivia: Kennedy’s Brain was made into a Swedish movie. We watched a trailer for it and my husband was not impressed.

Playlist: Bach. Note: there was a lot of music in Kennedy’s Brain but nothing specific that I could add here.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust To Go in the chapter called “Swede(n), Isn’t It?” (p 222).

Sense and Sensibility

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Austen, Jane. Sense and Sensibility. Everyman’s Library, 1992.

Reason read: Read in honor of Sense and Sensibility being published in October.

Marianne, rejected by John Willoughby, is impetuous and needs sense. Her sister, Elinor, is the sensible one who will not let on that she is crushed when Edward Ferras plans to marry another. Sense and Sensibility tells the story of two very different romances. Although both are rejected they deal with it in different ways. To utter the words extinction of the individuality is to imply that the price of marriage is a loss of one’s sense of self. Threaded through the story of romance is another, more societal, theme of male dominated lineage. Austen was extremely observant about the world around her. She chose to write abut the country gentry because they stayed in her head, sometimes for years. Like other women authors of her time, Austen published Sense and Sensibility anonymously.
As an aside, I have read a lot of critical reviews of Sense and Sensibility and I have to wonder if Jane’s ghost laughs at the critics who took their task too seriously. Is Jane a psychiatric radical? She is a philosophical conservative? How deep can one delve into the ideology of sense and sensibility? Did she fashion Fanny after the Shakespearean character of Iago?

Author fact: Jane Austen had Elinor and Marianne on her mind when she was twenty years old. She was thirty-six when Sense and Sensibility was finally published. That is a long time for characters to be floating around one’s head.

Book trivia: My version of Sense and Sensibility (Alfred A. Knopf, 1992) has an introduction by Peter Conrad.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust To Go in the chapter called “An Anglophile’s Literary Pilgrimage” (p 20).

Salvation on Sand Mountain

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Covington, Dennis. Salvation on Sand Mountain: Snake Handling and Redemption in Southern Appalachia. Da Capo Press, 1995.

Reason read: October is National Reptile Month and in honor of snakes, I am reading Salvation on Sand Mountain. I also needed a book set in the mountains for the Portland Public Library Reading Challenge of 2024.

It all started with a trial. A man in southern Appalachia Alabama was accused of trying to kill his wife with a snake. It’s an interesting way to attempt murder. Glenn Summerford put a gun to his wife’s head and forced her to reach into a box containing a bunch of venomous snakes. She was bitten four times and survived to testify against her husband. After Dennis Covington covered the trial, published his piece, and tried to put the story out of his mind, a book editor came knocking. It didn’t take much for him to convince Covington “this needs to be a full-length book” and Salvation on Sand Mountain was born. Covington immerses himself (and at times, his family) in the mysterious world of praying with dangerous snakes. What makes this journalism different is that Covington has ancestral history with preaching with snakes. As time with the congregation goes on and the more he observes their method of practicing their faith, Covington comes to care for the individual people, even Glenn Summerford. [Confessional: I sense Covington developing a crush on a member of the congregation as well.] Salvation on Sand Mountain culminates with Covington immersing himself completely by taking up a snake and preaching to the congregation he initially only wanted to write about. To think that it all began with a trial and a conviction.

Author fact: Covington has written quite a few books. Salvation on Sand Mountain is the only book I am reading for the challenge.

Book trivia: Salvation on Sand Mountain includes a small series of black and white photographs. Some contain the infamous snakes. All include the people who worship them. Salvation on Sand Mountain was a finalist for the National Book Award.

Playlist: Alabama, “In My Robe of White, I Shall Fly Away”, Liberace, Loretta Lynn, “I Saw the Light”, “How Great Thou Art”, “Only One Rose Will Do”, “I’m Getting Ready to Leave This World”, “Wading Through Deep Water”, “Will the Circle Be Unbroken”, “Prayer Bells From Heaven”, and “Jesus on My Mind”.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust To Go in the chapter called “Approaching Appalachia” (p 22). Pearl liked Salvation on Sand Mountain so much that she also included it in More Book Lust in the flattering chapter called “Just Too Good To Miss” (p 132).

London: the Biography

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Ackroyd, Peter. London: the Biography. Anchor, 2003.

Reason read: So when I think of London, I think of Lady Diana. Her funeral was in the month of September. Read in her memory.

The word thorough does not do London: the Biography justice. Think of it as a chronology of London’s biggest events from 54 BC to 2000 AD. It is an explanation and examination of culture, architecture, religion, invention, society, education, slang, literature, food, immigration, sanitation, crime, entertainment, commerce, economics, weather… I could go on. There are a lot of opinions about this book floating around. Someone said it took them six months to read it. Someone else said you have to read it before visiting London, while someone else suggested using London: the Biography as a walking guide. Good luck carrying the thing around. It’s heavy!
London is the book to read if you want to know what Charles Dickens thought about London cats or the pervasive fog; what Daniel Defoe thought about the poor, the prison system, or London’s suburbs; or Samuel Johnson’s thoughts on public intoxication or witnessing a well-attended execution in a courtyard. Ackroyd’s meticulous research has uncovered those opinions and more. You will learn about the Great Fire of 1666 and how no one knew how it started; yet it burned for five days straight. You will hear stories about the infamous London fog and how a man could get lost in the ominous mist. Speaking of ominous, penal and criminal behaviors are discussed at great length. I particularly liked the man who couldn’t stay imprisoned. Time and time again he found ways to escape.

Quote to quote, “The beard was long but the rebellion was short” (p 54).

Natalie connection: Ackroyd quotes the same poem Natalie Merchant used to name her album for and about children, Leave Your Sleep.

Author fact: I have already read two Ackroyd books. Next up are stories about the Thames River, Albion, and Troy.

Book trivia: I liked the map of London from 1800 compared to the map of London from “modern times.”

Playlist: “My Shadow is My Only Friend”, “I Wonder What it Fells Like to be Poor”, Handel’s water music, Beethoven, and Chopin.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust To Go in the chapter called “Entering England” (p 73).

Ways of Dying

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Mda, Zakes. Ways of Dying. Picador Press, 1995.

Reason read: Ways of Dying was awarded the M-Net Book Award in September. Read in recognition of that event.

Told in the collective voice of “we,” Ways of Dying unfolds the story of Toloki and Noria. The community owns the story, but keeps an emotionally safe distance. Toloki makes his living as a professional mourner. What an interesting vocation. Toloki will be there if you need someone to help carry a casket; he will wail as if he just lost his own best friend, or he can rescue a body from the morgue before officials dump it into a mass grave. Toloki’s most important task is to attend funerals to comfort the mourners. It is at one such funeral that he reconnects with someone from his childhood. As children, Toloki was always jealous of the beautiful and mysterious Noria. No matter how hard he tried to please his father, Noria was the only one his father had eyes for. Noria acted as Toloki’s father’s artistic muse. Now, years later, Noria is a changed woman after suffering so much heartache and loss. Together, they forge a new friendship.
Confession: there was so much misery in Ways of Dying that I could not trust a happy ending.

Lines I liked, “That Mountain Woman had razor blades in her tongue” (p 30), “If you don’t praise yourself while you are alive, no one else will” (p 147), and “He is willing to find more ways of living” (p 192).

Author fact: Mda was a visiting professor at Yale at the the time of Ways of Dying‘s publication.

Book trivia: Ways of Dying won the M-Net Book Prize.

Setlist: “Silent Night”

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust To Go in the chapter called “South Africa” (p 215).

Africa House

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Lamb, Christina: The Africa House: the True Story of an English Gentleman and His African Dream. Harper Collins. 1994.

Reason read: Zambia’s third president Levy Mwanawasa’s birthday was celebrated in September. Gore-Browne was credited with enabling Zambia to seek independence.

Africa House encompasses an African story that unfolds over multiple decades, pulling back the curtain on the complex life of Stewart Gore-Browne. From 1914 to 1927, Gore-Browne embarked on the ambitious endeavor of constructing his fantasy estate, driven by his aspiration to assume the role of a country squire that had captivated his imagination since his teenage years. Despite his noble ambitions, his infatuation with his married aunt added a layer of peculiarity to his character, which, coupled with his British “stiff upper lip” and rigid personality, created an unconventional and enigmatic personality. While he manages to find a wife outside the family, even that coupling was shrouded in controversy. Lorna, a woman from Gore-Browne’s youth, was truly the one who got away. When he meets Lorna’s daughter, also named Lorna, Gore-Browne seizes the chance to have his “original” Lorna back. The two marry, despite differences in ages and life ambitions. Servants call Gore-Browne’s wife “Lorna the Second” behind her back.
When Gore-Browne finally builds his dream estate, the naming of his residence as Shiwa House, in honor of a nearby lake, served as a testament to his deep connection with the Zambian land and its surroundings. Delving into the societal norms of the early 1900s, the prevalent culture among South Africa’s white population involved the employment of servants for various tasks, from carrying luggage to providing physical comfort. This reliance on servants was further highlighted when Gore-Browne took them to London with the purpose of instructing them in the etiquette of setting a formal table, enunciating clearly the stark contrast between the African and European lifestyles. This was uncomfortable to read. The evident racial divide, serving as the basis for the subsequent political turmoil in Gore-Browne’s later years, underscores the societal complexities and disparities that colored his otherwise solitary existence.

Author fact: Christina Lamb also wrote The Sewing Circles of Herat which is also on my Challenge list. These are the only two Lamb books I am reading. As an aside, I would love to know more about why Lamb chose the subject of Gore-Browne.

Book trivia: Lamb used a wide array of sources to write The Africa House. She interviewed family members (mostly grandchildren) and former servants, had access to letters, journals and photographs, and scoured the literature for facts.

Setlist: “Rule Britannia”, Mozart’s Horn Concerto, Wagner, La Boehme, Chopin, “Sonata Pathetique”, “Nkosi Sikelel Iafrika”, Purcell’s “Trumpet Tune and Air”, Bach’s “Toccata and Fugue”, “God Bless Africa”, “Wedding March”, “The Lord is My Shepherd”, Verdi’s Requiem, Jose Iturbi’s “Poloniase in A Flat”, “Ave Maria”, “Sheep May Safely Graze”, and “Once in Royal David’s City”.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust To Go in the chapter called “Zambia” (p 266).

Colony

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Fruit of the Lemon

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Levy, Andrea. Fruit of the Lemon. Picador Press, 1999.

Reason: Jamaica won its independence in August. This year it was celebrated on August 6th. Read to celebrate the history.

Faith Jackson is a Londoner just trying to make her way. She has a decent job, an apartment full of roommates, and a loving family living close by. Born to Jamaican parents, Faith does not look like a pale-skinned Englishwoman, but this has never been a problem until Faith wants to improve her life. At the corners of this seemingly content life, she starts to notice subtle roadblocks; a prejudice towards her gender and skin color. Why does she have to jump through hoops to get the job for which she is perfect?
Fruit of the Lemon will make you think about unconscious bias. There is a scene when Faith’s nationality is assumed. Even though she was born and raised in England, when people saw her dark skin, they immediately assumed she was from “away.” When she answered she was from London everyone wanted a different answer. In the end a trip to Jamaica made her realize she was more than her skin color. She was a great-granddaughter, a granddaughter, a daughter, a cousin, a niece, and an aunt.

Author fact: Levy passed away on Valentine’s Day in 2019 after a long battle with cancer.

Book trivia: Fruit of the Lemon is Levy’s third book. I am also reading Small Island and Long Song for the Challenge.

Setlist: “Lemon Tree” (as an aside, the Merrymen do a great version of “Lemon Tree”), “Danny Boy”, Louis Armstrong, Nat King Cole, “Hey Mister Tallyman”, The Sound of Music, Oliver, Shostakovich, Cilla Black, “Abide with Me”, “Away in a Manger”, Miles Davis, “Ave Maria”, “Jingle Bells”, and “God Save the Queen”.

Nancy said: Pearl said not to forget Andrea Levy.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust To Go in the chapter called “Cavorting Through the Caribbean: Jamaica” (p 56).

Iberia

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

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

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

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

Author fact: Michener traveled Spain for forty years.

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

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

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

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

Wild Sheep Chase

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Murakami, Haruki. A Wild Sheep Chase. Vintage International, 1989.

Reason read: in early June the running community celebrates a national run day. Murakami is an experience marathoner. To celebrate running and Murakami’s athleticism, I am reading A Wild Sheep Chase.

Hidden in the midst of The Wild Sheep Chase are mysteries. Early on, the nameless narrator receives a letter from someone he didn’t want to think about. He throws the letter away without opening it. As the reader, are we supposed to remember this letter? Is it important later on? I’m thinking it must be or it wouldn’t have been presented in such a way. Right? Wrong assumption. This nameless protagonist has been issued a threat – find a unique sheep with a star on its back or else. The blackmail is terrifying in an unspecific way. Get use to the vagueness of A Wild Sheep Chase. No one has a proper name. Not the narrator, ex-wife, girlfriend, business partner, or even the strange man dressed in a sheep suit.
The entire time I was reading A Wild Sheep Chase I thought it could be a video game…either that or a fever dream. You find yourself questioning chaos versus mediocrity. The negating of cognition. Part I begins in November of 1970. This date is important but you won’t realize it until long after you’ve closed the book. Like I said, fever dream.

As an aside, I was struck by this line, “…an epidemic could have swept the world…” (p 307). It was published 31 years before Covid-19 blanketed the entire world with its deadly power. Here is another line I liked, “No matter how much speed we put on there was no escaping boredom” (p 100).

Author fact: Murakami won the Norma Literary Newcomer’s Prize for A Wild Sheep Chase.

Book trivia: A Wild Sheep Chase is part of a trilogy called The Trilogy of the Rat. I am not reading the other books in this trilogy.

Setlist: Bach, the Beach Boys, Beatles, Beethoven, Benny Goodman’s “Air Mail Special”, Bill Withers, Boz Scags, Brothers Johnson, the Byrds, Chopin, Deep Purple, the Doors, “Johnny B Goode”, Johnny River’s “Midnight Special”, Maynard Ferguson, Moody Blues, Mozart, Nat King Cole, Paul McCartney, Percy Faith Orchestra’s “Perfidia”, “Roll Over Beethoven”, the Rolling Stones, “Secret Agent Man”, “Star Wars”, and “White Christmas”.

BookLust Twist: First from Book Lust twice in the chapters “Japanese Fiction (p 131) and “Post Modern Condition” (p 190). Also in Book Lust To Go in the chapter called “Japanese Journeys” (p 117). I see this BLTG addition as a cheat.

Old Glory

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Early Days in the Range of Light

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

Reason read: In honor of nature.

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

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

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

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

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