Tag: book review

Africa News Cookbook

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Africa News Service, Inc. The African News Cookbook: African Cooking for Western Kitchens. New York: Penguin, 1986.African cookbook

Another BookLust pick. There is something magical about this book. Maybe it’s from the introduction, “Cooking by the book is not the African way” (p.xiii). It’s romantic to learn the ingredients, forget the recipe and go with the heart; that’s what this book seems to be telling me.
On a serious side it’s crammed with interesting facts usually not associated with a cookbook. For starters there is a list of African nations and their capitals. Because this cookbook focuses on a geographical location there are maps. Because it focuses on a culture there are stories about African Women and food, and even how to eat with joy.
Probably my favorite aspect of this cookbook is the recognition of the origin of each recipe. From Malawi comes Masamba; from Algeria comes Dess b’l-besla. I think of Aubrey from Malawi who would write letters on onion paper and dream of traveling to Algeria.

BookLust Twist: From More Book Lust under the category of, “Africa: A Reader’s Itinerary” (p.2)

A Child’s Delight

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Perrin, Noel. A Child’s Delight. Hanover: University Press of New England, 1997.

So. After giving up All Souls Rising, I have switched to something lighter, more innocent if you will: essays on children’s classic books. Really. I needed a break and this has been the perfect remedy. This is going to sound all too punful, but this book is delightful. My word of advice though, ignore the preface. If you are like me, you don’t need a chart of what children’s stories you haven’t read much, less even heard of. I resent the list as if it insinuates I had a poor upbringing because I was in the 93rd percentile who has never heard of E. Nesbit”s The Phoenix and the Carpet. Never mind that Disney made a movie out of it. No matter. I’ll read it now. But. But. But, because of the preface I am constantly aware of what I don’t know. I actually find myself overly proud when I’ve read a Noel Perrin choice (like The Borrowers Series by Mary Norton or The Story of Ferdinand by Monroe Leaf).

Anyway, I’m taking notes on Perrin’s picks. I’m thinking my niece and nephews could benefit from my new-found knowledge of “classic” books for kids.

BookLust Twist: In Pearl’s More Book Lust under “Dewey Reconstructed, the 000s” (p.62).

All Souls’ Rising (with Disappointments)

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Bell, Madison Smartt. All Souls’ Rising. New York: Vintage Books, 1995.

I’m having a love/hate relationship with this book. Only 110 pages into it I waiver between devouring it and chucking the whole thing across the room. The first chapter opens with a description of a women nailed to a pole. She is being punished for killing her child. She drove a nail through her newborn’s skull. Lemme back up – she’s a slave and she was raped on a ship bound for Haiti. The year is 1757. Need I say more? When the woman finally dies, her feet, hands and head are chopped off and displayed as an example for other slaves. Some example! As a rule, I don’t get “into” historical fiction, especially those with such a political, violent underbelly. However, this is a Booklust book and I’m bound to at least give it a try. When I started this venture I agreed to Pearl’s 50 Page Rule (stop reading if by 50 pages you can’t get into it). In All Souls’ Rising‘s case, when I got to page 50 I was in the love phase and couldn’t put it down. C’est la vie.

Booklust Twist: Pearl labels this, “novelistic history” of Haiti (More Book Lust p55)

12/30/06: Update~ I am admitting defeat with Bell’s book. After the slave uprising it has been nothing but vivid descriptions of violence. I think this book is responsible for my week’s worth of nightmares about war. Here’s an excerpt. I warn you, this is one of the tamest scenes of cruelty!

“He cut a bracelet all around Maltrot’s wrist, just above the thong that bound it to the branch. He made a vertical incision into the palm and turned back the flaps of the skin from the whitish fatty layer underneath and began peeling it back towards the fingertips as if he were slowly taking off a glove…” (are you getting the picture?)…”Maltrot ground his teeth and bit his lips until the blood ran freely, but finally he could not contain the scream and when it came it was large and loud enough to split the sky.” (p235)

I realize flaying, raping, torturing, murdering, baby impaling, etc is common in times of war. It’s happening today. My problem is Bell. He is such the amazing storyteller that not only do I believe every eye gouging, I can almost feel it too!

BookLust Twist: Found in Pearl’s More Book Lust under the chapter, “The Contradictory Caribbean: Paradise and Pain” (p.55). She wasn’t kidding.

Banner in the Sky (w/ spoilers)

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Ullman, James Ramsey. Banner in the Sky. New York: Scholastic, Inc. 1954.

Banner I read this young adult book in one sitting. It’s cute and heroic and it won a Newbery Award. Basically, it’s the Swiss tale of a teenage boy looking to finish the challenge that finished his father – climbing the final, unconquered summit in the Alps, the Citadel. Rudi is a sweet sixteen rebel dishwasher who dreams of finishing what his father started, much to the dismay of his mother. Widowed and overprotective, mom relies on her brother to help keep her son in check. The only problem? Uncle is an accomplished guide with mountaineering in his blood. So is the kid’s restaurant boss. And his arch rival, 18 year old Klaus. Everyone looks to Citadel as the great lost challenge and Rudi’s leading the lack.

Spoiler: Rudi not only reaches the summit, but he also saves a more experienced, rival climber along along the way.

BookLust Twist: “Adventure By the Book: Fiction” (Book Lust, p. 7), Pearl describes Banner in the Sky as, “an adventure book that makes for good read for adults.”

Travels with Charley

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Steinbeck, John. Travels With Charley: In Search of America. New York: Viking Press, 1962.

Charley This could easily be my favorite Steinback story. Maybe because it’s a true one. Maybe because it hasn’t left me wanting to slit my wrist by the last page. Maybe because Steinbeck writes about something I am interested in: traveling the country. His humor and DownToEarth voice make reading easy. I was thrilled when, by the 26th page, Steinbeck had already mentioned Deerfield, MA and my father’s school (the Eaglebrook School). His own son had attended there, hence the shout out.
Steinbeck does a wonderful job describing the small towns, the set-in-their-ways locals who inhabit each place, and the passing autumn into winter scenery. Like all his other tales (fiction or not), he makes the people and places come alive with vivid realism. My favorite part: Steinbeck wants to see the birthplace of Sinclair Lewis. He asks some locals about finding the small town of Sauk. They know the sign, “Birthplace of Sinclair Lewis” but it’s obvious they have no clue who Lewis was.

Booklust Twist: Pearl hides this gem in a chapter called ‘The Beckoning Road”, (More Book Lust, p.20)

Admiral Hornblower (w/ spoiler)

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Forester, C.S. Admiral Hornblower in the West Indies. Toronto: Little, Brown and Co., 1958.

Hornblower

I guess I read this series out of order because Admiral Horatio Hornblower retires at the end of this one. Woops. Anyway – rewind: it’s peacetime, right after the Napoleonic Wars. Admiral Hornblower is riding the high seas, battling pirates, confronting revolutionaries, and roughing the winds of a hurricane. This book is the reason why I’m doing this booklust challenge. This is a book I never would have picked up otherwise. At times I thought, “this is perfect for a teenage boy.” It’s easy reading…definitely easy, but exciting. Hornblower has challenge after challenge in every chapter. I loved his bluff about Napoleon being dead and then finding out “Boney” really did die. My favorite aspect of the book however, is more psychological. I loved the necessary “game face” Hornblower has to put on in different situations. There was a certain decorum, a definite mind-game to everything he did. He couldn’t look vulnerable to anyone, including his own wife.

Booklust Twist: Pearl calls C.S. Forester “the greatest storyteller of life on the high seas.” (Book Lust p 217). Confession – I should have read this one later in the series.

Beautiful Joe

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JosephSaunders, Marshall. Beautiful Joe: A Dog’s Own Story. Storytellers Ink, 1990.

Another Booklust special. I’m not being sarcastic. This book is special. I loved it. Decidedly a children’s book with great illustrations, I dove into it for a quick-like-bunny read (think an hour or so). I think I just needed a break from Admiral Hornblower and all his blowing (more on that in another post). Beautiful Joe is the haunting story of an abused puppy told from the puppy’s point of view. Very unique. This dog suffers cruelty at the hands of his farmer owner (like his tail and ears being chopped off). If you need a good cry, pick up this book! For all its sadness, at times it also is poetic and preachy. I’ve heard of other versions being underwritten by the ASPCA, though my edition made no mention. The narration does leave the story and focus more on animal rights from time to time, but all in all it is a moving story. It has touched the hearts, and remained in the memory of many.

Spoiler: Joe is rescued and ends up in a loving household.
Booklust Twist: Pearl calls this a “three hanky read” (Book Lust p.237). If you love animals I agree!

Things Fall Apart

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Achebe, Chinua. Things Fall Apart. Portsmouth: Reed Publishing, Inc. 1992.

achebe I started The Plague (you all have read Albert Camus) before I got sick. Not a good thing while you’re puking as you can surely imagine. So, I’ve started Things Fall Apart, instead. It’s another Booklust choice (of course). My library has a pretty cool edition complete with a list of principal characters, a glossary of terms, a background history of culture, and suggestions for further reading – all before you even get into the story by Achebe. I’m only at the part where it’s announced that Ezeugo, the wife of Ogbuefi, is murdered. Page eight. More later.
12/7/06: Puzzlement: Okonkwo learns that when is father is called, “agbala” it’s not only another name for a woman, but it’s also a term for a man without a title, a purpose. A seemingly derogatory term for sure. But, wait! The Oracle was also called Agbala and people came from all over to consult it. Maybe being called, “agbala” isn’t so bad after all.

Booklust Twist: this is categorized as “African Literature in English” and as a companion read with Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad, The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver, and King Leopold’s Ghost by Adam Hoschild (Book Lust, p.15 & 63).

An Unofficial Rose

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Murdoch, Iris. An Unofficial Rose. New York: Viking Press, 1962.

I read this book in practically one night. I have mixed feelings about Murdoch’s Unofficial Rose. For starters, I never felt like I got to know the characters well enough to care about what happened to them. To be honest I was disgusted by them, all of them. The relationships could be broken at a whim. Marriages meant nothing. It reminded me of a throw of the dice. Partnerships came and went, were formed and were broken again. Nothing was permanent or sacred.
The thing I liked the most was the suspense. No one knew who was really being honest with anyone else. I didn’t know where anyone’s true heart was laid. Okay – here’s a spoiler: son wants to run off with his young mistress. He demands money from his father in the form of the sale of a beloved painting just so he can run away with said mistress. Father sells painting, even though it was his prized possession (and the very item he thinks he married his wife for). Son’s wife has a chance at divorce and a new relationship with someone who might love her and she admits loving back. She declines just in case cheating hubby changes his mind and comes back to her. I was irritated with her but I did not know the character enough to care.

Booklust Twist: Nancy Pearl recommends anything and everything by Iris Murdoch (Book Lust, p.162).

Only Daughter (with spoilers)

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Anderson, Jessica. The Only Daughter. New York: Viking, 1980.

Set in Australia 1977, this is another Book Lust choice. I’m only 8 pages in but already I see similarities between my family and the Cornock family. Sisters on the telephone comparing notes on a mother’s behavior, “Did she give you the ‘I’m getting old’ speech?” “Yup.” I’m giggling already. I’m also getting schooled on Australian dialogue. A ‘tick’ is the equivalent of our ‘sec’. “Just a tick” is the same as “Just a sec.” The only annoyance with the book is that there are so many characters (already) that the author was justified in putting a family tree in the beginning of the book.

Edit: 11/30/06 – I have finished the book and there are three things I loved about it: Anderson never needed to spell out everything that happens. She implies and that kept me guessing. One mystery – why was Siddy calling Jack, “son” when Jack died? The characters constantly surprised me. Sylvia, the “only” daughter returns to Sydney (from Rome) coincidentally (?) when her father has had a stroke. She claims she didn’t know he was dying, but… she’s only been gone 20 years and she’s only his favorite child. Suddenly she is back? Get the picture? There is a twist to the will: Sylvia gets the money, but only after her mother dies (which Molly swears she won’t do). I also loved the complexity of all the relationships. Once I got them straight, I loved the power struggles between the sexes, the constant threat of ‘I’m leaving you.’

PS~ Incidentally, the cover of my copy of the book shows a swing and a hat. Probably one of the most powerful scenes in the book, IMO. Guy, a stepson by marriage is testing a rope swing. Jack, the stroke-suffered father is sitting in his wheelchair only yards away. Guy, in an evil attempt to scare his stepfather, swings close enough to kick Jack’s hat off his head. It’s a power struggle that Jack ultimately wins.

Booklust Twist: This is categorized as simply, “Australian fiction” (Book Lust, p.29).

Here First

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Krupat, Arnold, and Brain Swann, eds. Here First: Autobiographical Essays by Native American Writers. New York: Modern Library, 2000.

Here First was, well, here first so I’m reading it first. I’m a little over 100 pages in and my first reaction is voyeurism. I’m peering into lives and seeing cultures I know little to nothing about. There is bitterness in their words, humor on the surface. Poetry in pieces. I’m having a tough time with the prejudice because I’m one of Them (being white) and not them. A perfect example is a favorite quote:
“The neighbor boy pointed to the screen laughing at the hooting Indians being chased by cavalry and told her that she was an “Indian.” I hugged my heartbroken daughter and said, “But you are an Indian.” She told me right back, “But I’m not that kind of Indian.” None of us are.” (Bird, Gloria. Autobiography as Spectacle: An Act of Liberation or the Illusion of Liberation? p65)

Booklust Twist: Categorized as “American Indian Literature”, (Book Lust, p.23).

Last River

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Balf, Todd. Last River: the tragic race for Shangri-La. New York: Crowne Publishers, 2000.

This just came in for me. Not only is this a BookLust mention, but Todd Balf is a Massachusetts man. I’m curious about this (nonfictional) story because I have a near & dear friend who does the whitewater thing. When I’m not worried about him cracking his skull open, I’m proud of him.

EDIT: I’m still reading Here First so River will just have to wait. 11/21/06

11/23/06: I gave up on Here First so I could jump into Last River.
11/25/06: Wanna hear something weird? Back when I first ordered Last River I said I was curious about the story because I have a friend who kayaks. I’m 60 pages into it and already Balf has mentioned HACKS, which my friend is a member (okay, president), and Falls River where my friend lives AND the very house my friend lives in. It doesn’t take much to excite me. I know I won’t see his name in this print, but it thrills me to know I’m delving into his world.

11/27/06: I finished Last River. Once I really started reading I couldn’t put it down. Was it the sense of imminent doom? I did know someone would die tragically. Balf was clever never to let on who would meet his doom on that monstrous river. I think that was part of it, but I think it was more out of fascination for Balf’s respect for the Tsangpo Gorge and everything that went with the October 1998 expedition. I have a deep rooted respect for the places I’ll never see, the things I’ll never do and the dangers I’ll never comprehend. This book opened my eyes to a different way of life: a life challenged and driven and obsessed by whitewater. In the end, I think I understand my friend a little better too.

Booklust Twist: Categorized as “Adventure By the Book” the kayakers are called, “gung-ho”, (Book Lust, p.8).

The Forgetting Room (w/spoiler)

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Bantock, Nick. The Forgetting Room. New York: HarperCollins Publishers, Inc. 1997.

I have always been a fan of Nick Bantock’s work. I fell in love with Griffin and Sabine and reread the trilogy a thousand times over the years. When I found out Bantock had more to offer I jumped on the chance to read them all. I just finished The Forgetting Room. Part fiction, part art and all mystery, The Forgetting Roomis one man’s journey to Spain. It’s his nine day journal about unraveling mysteries surrounding his grandfather and the life he led.  In true Bantock fashion there are glorious pages of artwork and of course, voyeuristic letters to unfold.

Spoiler: Armon doesn’t completely solve the mystery. There is romance is the air.