Tag: book review

Turtle Moon

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Hoffman, Alice. Turtle Moon. Berkley Trade, 1997.

Reason read: Alice Hoffman was born in the month of March. Read in her honor.

In a nutshell: a woman runs away from her abusive husband, taking her infant daughter to Florida. It is not a spoiler alert to say she doesn’t stay hidden for long and winds up dead. The daughter goes missing. Another woman in the same apartment complex has a surly son who has also gone missing. Police think this is not a coincidence. Now mom needs to find the identity of the murdered woman, find the missing baby, and clear her son’s name in the process. The magical realism in this story is an angel sitting up in a tree. This other-worldly figure of bright light doesn’t factor into the story all that much. As an aside (albeit a snarky one), another element of magical realism could be the jetlag Lucy claims to experience traveling from Florida to New York…which are in the same time zone.

Confessional: I am a stickler for human nature that makes sense. I didn’t get Julian Cash at all. I got Lucy Rosen even less. I’ll tackle Julian first. As a former foster kid, Julian is riddled by guilt over a car accident he survived, but his cousin did not. Hence the angel in the tree. Julian is now a K9 cop with very little to say. The chip on his shoulder is the size of a boulder. He has so many issues that he is described like an exaggerated caricature. As mentioned before, a young mother has been murdered and her under-two-year-old baby has gone missing. It’s up to Julian and his vicious dogs to find the infant. Except, Julian falls for Lucy and decides he needs to drive her car from Florida to New York. And speaking of Lucy. Her angsty son has been fingered for the crime so she figures the only way to clear his name is to find the real killer. She doesn’t know the baby-mama’s name but what a coincidence! She was married to someone Lucy went to high school with in upstate New York! The story really started to fall apart when Lucy traced her Florida neighbor back to her hometown because I didn’t care for Lucy’s treatment of her ex-husband, Evan. Evan has moved on and is even dating someone new, yet Lucy doesn’t see anything wrong with 1) staying with Evan, 2) borrowing his car (because remember, she left hers in Florida), 3) making Evan take her to their high school reunion (?!) even though he had plans to take the girlfriend), and 4) inviting Julian into Evan’s home to take a shower and have breakfast.

Lines I liked: none. I cannot quote without permission.

Author fact: I have officially finished the Hoffman collection within the Challenge: Blue Diary, Illumination Night, White Horses, and The Drowning Season join Turtle Moon on the finished shelf.

Playlist: Guns N’ Roses, and Vic Damone.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust in the chapter called “A…is For Alice” (p 1).

Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All

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Gurganus, Allan. Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All. Ivy Books, 1989.

Reason read: There is a day in March called “Hug a G.I. Day”. I don’t remember where I read that, but that’s my story and I’m sticking with it.

Do not be intimidated by the length of this book. Miss Lucille Marsden will keep you entertained through every single page. Even when she is telling you about the horrors of war, she will keep you riveted every paragraph. Even when the story is not from her point of view, she will have you glued to the sentences. Within Lucy’s monologue Gurganus lays out the entire southern society from before the Civil War up to the mid-1980s when Lucy is almost one hundred years old. History breathes in and out with every colorful sentence; from the recognition of Baby Africa and every aspect of owning another human being to life in a nursing home.
Lucy herself is a treat. Married at a mere fifteen years old, she saw the world with a sensitivity and sweetness. She cared about where people came from (Castalia from Africa) or how displaced a foreigner can feel (Wong Chow from China). Even though her husband was in his fifties when they married, Lucy became a baby factory having nine children in eleven years. Her marriage was painful as her husband could be very abusive. Sleeping with a hatchet was not out of the question for Lucy. But I digress. Take your time with Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All. Know that every character serves a purpose at the moment of introduction but may not need remembering a hundred pages later.
Confessional: I was not sure I knew what to make of William Marsden. His story jumped around quite a bit. In the beginning I thought it was poignant how Captain Marsden mourned the loss of a childhood friend more than his love for his own children. Death has a funny way of elevating one’s stature to martyrdom.

As an aside, Lucille never says the word clock. She always refers to Seth Thomas like it is an unspoken prized possession.

Line I liked, “We all need to stay a little mad” (p 15). Amen. Here’s another, “You force exposed words to spell what you want” (p 133). And another, “Fear can be the start of the truest love” (p 468).

Author fact: the only other book I am reading by Mr. Gurgangus is Plays Well with Others.

Book trivia: each chapter of The Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All begins with a quote from the Bible.

Playlist: “Aida”, Bizet, Debussy, “Dixie”, “Frozen Charlotte”, Gounod, Handel, “He was Despised”, “Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring”, “Last Rose of Summer”, “A mighty Fortress is Our God”, “The Old Reb”, “Royal Fireworks”, “Sheep May Safely Graze”, “Sherman’s Barbequeing Mother”, “The Shoe Fits”, Stephen Foster, the Supremes, “The Tailor and the Leg”, Wagner, “When the Colors Change” “Who’s Sorry Now”, “Work for the night is Coming”, and “Yankee Doodle Dandy”.

Nancy said: Pearl called Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All “pure gold” (Book Lust p 12).

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust in the chapter called “And the Award for Best Title Goes To…” (p 12). Pearl could have included Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All in the chapter called “Men Channeling Women” as well.

Ballad of the Sad Cafe

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McCullers, Carson. The Complete Novels: The Ballad of the Sad Cafe. Literary Classics of the United States, 2001.

Reason read: the infamous fight between Miss Amelia and Marvin Macy occurred on Groundhog Day, my birthday.

The question of nurture versus nature. Every major character with The Ballad of the Sad Cafe has a tendency to instigate and agitate. Everyone stirs up trouble in one way or another. Did the impulse to do this come from something nefarious in childhood or were they born to rattle cages from the very beginning? Miss Amelia Evans is a person who, if she didn’t completely understand a situation well enough to have an opinion about it, ignored it completely. Cousin Lymon is a southern Iago, prone to stirring things up with cruel intentions. When Marvin Macy comes to town it is like two criminals recognizing themselves in total strangers; they are kindred spirits, born to raise hell as a team.
Confessional: Everything about the story was sad. I think that was because you didn’t really know why everyone was so uncaring and cruel.

Author fact: McCullers was always in poor health. She ended up passing away at the age of fifty.

Book trivia: Ballad of the Sad Café was reimagined an a film in 1991 starring Vanessa Redgrave.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust in the simple chapter called “Southern Fiction” (p 222).

Long Finish

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Dibdin, Michael. A Long Finish. Pantheon Books, 1998.

Reason read: Dibdin was born in March. Read in his honor.

Do you like wine or truffles? This is a murder mystery centered around both delicacies in Alba, a small hill town in northern Italy. Aurelio Zen has been sent from the big city of Rome to aid in an unusual case. Instead of finding the real killer, he is to clear the name of a winemaker accused of (and jailed for) killing his father. Only when Zen gets to Alba, the murder case of Also Vincenzo is “solved” without his contribution or nosey interference. Strange. When the authorities try to rush him out of town he grows even more suspicious and decides to stick around. The town intrigues him and he is no hurry to leave. It becomes even more mysterious when subsequently two more people die. One by suicide and one by accident…or so it seems.
The more I read about Zen the more I remembered his character from Cosi Fan Tutti. He is still a very complicated man. He is prone to sleepwalking to the point of serious injury. When he starts receiving strange calls he doesn’t know about phone devices that can disguise voices. As a police officer, this detail surprised me. He has the ability to become unglued at a moment’s notice. An act or truth, I could not tell. He might have fathered a child out of wedlock. He doesn’t always have the best intentions but other times he will surprise you.

What exactly is a “powerful but lazy wind” (p 155)?

Author fact: Dibdin passed away in 2007.

Book trivia: Long Finish is the sixth book in the Aurelio Zen series.

Playlist: Bach, Beethoven, and Brahms.

BookLust Twist: from More Book Lust in the chapter called “Ciao, Italia!” (p 46).

Big Heart Little Stove

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French, Erin. Big Heart Little Stove: Bringing Home Meals and Moments From the Lost Kitchen. Celadon Press, 2024.

Reason read: the obsession continues! Actually, in all fairness I needed a book that fit into two genres for the Portland Public Reading Challenge and this fits the bill. Part memoir and all cookbook, I think it fits.

In a word, gorgeous. There is very little else I can say about Big Heart Little Stove without trying the recipes and telling you how they turn out. The food looks delicious. The memoir portion of the book, disguised as longer then usual introductions to each chapter and recipe, are heart-warming. The photography is stunning. My favorite is the one of French sitting with her mother at an outdoor table. French goes a step further and offers advice about setting the table, making the meal special, bringing nature to the plate… And then there is Maine. What is not to love about Big Heart Little Stove?
While the television show never focuses on the alcohol served with meals (except to say French’s mother is the ad hoc sommelier), it was interesting to see beer in some of the the photographs. The coolest shot was of the Maine Beer Company’s best seller, “Lunch”, which also happens to be a favorite of my husband’s.

Mr. Darwin’s Shooter

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McDonald, Roger. Mr. Darwin’s Shooter. Random House, 1998.

Reason read: Charles Darwin was born in February. Read in his honor.

Meet Syms Covington. Raised in Bedford and by the age of thirteen, left home and went to sea. This is no ordinary boy. Grown to reach six feet tall, Syms looked like a man. By fifteen years of age he was in the service of Charles Darwin as his hunter and collector about the HMS Beagle. In later years, Covington grapples with his religious beliefs which are in direct conflict with Darwin’s theory of natural selection.
Confessional: reading Mr. Darwin’s Shooter was like walking down a gravel road barefoot. Much of my effort was spent gingerly picking through the sentences, hoping to land on ones more comfortable and less complicated. McDonald chose to cram a lot of sharp edges into his short book. The running commentary on 19th century culture and society was important to keep the reader grounded in the time period, but ended up ensnaring and slogging the plot. Here is how I know I book will not hold my interest – I can’t remember what was happening when I left off reading. I don’t remember the last character on the page or what they did or said. Darwin isn’t even introduced until nearly 150 pages in.

Here is the most perfect line to describe anticipation, “A story tingled his arms to the fingertips and shook his shanks down to his toes with anxiety and restlessness” (p 8). Brilliant.

Author fact: Other reviewers have hinted at comparisons between McDonald and Stevenson, Melville, and Doctorow.

Playlist: Barley Mow, To Be a Pilgrim, A View to a Kill, Old Greensleeves, and A-Hunting We Will Go.

Nancy said: Pearl thinks Mr. Darwin’s Shooter is remarkable.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust To Go in the chapter called “Galloping Through the Galapagos” (p 88).

Sugaring Off

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French, Gillian. Sugaring Off. Algonquin, 2022.

Reason read: I needed a book for the Portland Public Library 2024 Reading Challenge and was struggling to find something from the North Star Award nominee list. I am nowhere near being a young adult. Sometimes I wonder if I ever qualify as adult, but that is a whole other story. I found this book and decided it fit.

The backstory: Joel Dotrice was arrested ten years ago for fracturing his daughter’s skull when she was seven years old. Imagine this – he threw her down the stairs. On purpose. Partially deaf ever since, Rochelle “Owl” Dotrice has lived with her uncle and his wife. They own a maple sugaring farm in the mountains of northern New Hampshire and life seems pretty routine…until the Dotrice family gets notice that dad has made parole and Seth hires a teen named Cody to help with the sugaring.
Whether French was intentional or not, in the beginning of Sugaring Off I felt the story of Owl moved slowly, like cold sap moving through the trunk of a maple tree. As the story heated up, like sap to syrup, it began to flow faster with more flavor and intensity. Having said that, I am not a fan of overly dramatic descriptions of characters or plots. I feel they are ploys to get the reader crack open the book. The inside cover of Sugaring Off describes Cody as “magnetic and dangerous.” Spoiler alert! For the first two thirds of the book Cody is a sullen and silent cigarette-smoking teen who wants nothing more than to stay away from adults and maybe take Owl’s virginity. Oh yeah, she’s attracted to him, too. The real threat seemed to be daddy making parole. Would he come back for revenge? It was Owl’s testimony that put him away.
As an aside, I understand why the parole of Owl’s father was pivotal to the plot, but I felt it was unnecessary trickery in the face of Cody’s mystique. More could have been done to build up Cody’s “dangerous” character because Seth’s outrage about Owl’s relationship with the teen was misplaced. If Seth thought Cody was such a threat, why did he let Owl work so closely with him? What happened to big bad dad? He drifted out of the story as more of Cody’s dark past was revealed. This was written for teens and so I thought like a teen and questioned everything.

It Was Her New York

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Moed, C.O. It Was Her New York. Rootstock Publishing, 2024.

Reason read: this was an Early Review from LibraryThing.

Not even fifty years old, Moen is taking care of a mother who rarely recognizes them. Dementia is a cruel disease. Each chapter, each page of It was Her New York reminded me of the tiny whirlpools you see in rivers when the water swirls around jagged rocks and half submerged rotting tree limbs. The vortex of water only hints at what is happening below the surface. The obvious story is Moed’s juggling of taking care of their mother, Florence. The biting humor and loving sarcasm as if the woman was another item on an ever-growing chore list. The subtext is a keen sense of observation and a valiant effort to keep Moen’s sense of self. Around the edges is a portrait of society and sexuality, religion and relationships in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Every page is painted with loving care and uses all the colors. Although there are no traditional chapters and very few proper paragraphs, It Was Her New York packs a punch, especially anyone taking care a parent in the last stages of life. Does it make sense to say there is a warmth to their bite?
As a stubborn librarian who traditionally only borrows books the highest compliment I can pay a writer is to go out and buy their book. When it comes to It Was Her New York, I bought two.

Author fact: I loved Moed’s style of writing so much I want to chase down everything they have ever written.

Book trivia: reading It Was Her New York on my phone was almost a crime. The photographs are not big or bold and some are not even in focus. Instead they are gritty, soul-baring, and brutally honest.

Playlist: “Rock Steady” by Aretha Franklin, Bach, Basie, Beethoven, “Begin the Beguine”, Brahms, Chopin, Cole Porter’s “You’re the Top”, Coltrane, “Too Hot to Trot” by the Commodores, Debussy’s “Clair de Lune”, Duke, Ella, Getz, Linszt, Mozart, Sinatra, and Torme.

Darkest England

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Hope, Christopher. Darkest England. MacMillan, 1996.

Reason read: Hope was born in February. Read in his honor.

In the darkness of the great unknown lies the expectancy of necessary exploration; the desire to fill the void with answers to questions not yet asked. This is the mystery of David Mungo Booi, the orphan child who survived a fire as an infant. He has gone to seek help from the Queen of England to find suitable land for his tribe’s expansion. Booi has subsequently disappeared. His journals are all that is left. They are returned to the tribe in a brown suitcase carried by a white woman in a blue hat.
What became of the boy after his entire family was burned to death? Where can one find the King of Bongo-Bongo-Land? What is the true color of ostrich bile? Could a settlement in England be established? Can Humpty-Bloody-Dumpty be put back together again? What is the answer to cultural identity if there is only muscular gloom? The belief that if you had been to Cape Town you knew the ways of the world. What is the Great Paper? Does Old Auntie with Diamonds in Her Hair know the truth? Speaking of truth, I wanted to laugh more when reading Darkest England. I wanted the satire to be bitingly funny. Instead I found it to be more dark than snark. In hindsight, the prison scene was kind of funny. Steel bracelets around ones wrist, being taken from one place to another in a “courtesy” vehicle, the stark “apartment”, having a toilet next to the bed was a luxury, and best of all, the devotion to privacy – all doors locked behind us.
The ability to speak English was a well-treasured accomplishment of our narrator, Booi. He repeats often that he is the only English speaking individual among the tribe and he is self-taught.

Maybe if I had bonded with any character it would have made a difference. I’m not sure I liked anyone even a little bit.
Phrases I loved, “for crying in a bucket”,

Author fact: While Hope has written a bunch of other stuff, this is the only thing I am reading for the Challenge.

Book trivia: I am not allowed to quote paragraphs from Darkest England.

Nancy said: Pearl called Darkest England a lighthearted satire. See if you agree.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust To Go in the chapter called “South African Fiction” (p 216).

City Room

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Gelb, Arthur. City Room. G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 2003.

Reason read: a long time ago I read somewhere that February was scholastic journalism month. This is journalism in February.

City Room takes place in a time in America’s history when you could jot down your resume on the back of an index card while racing to an interview in a sputtering New York City taxi cab. There is an innocence to the era in which Gelb got his start. As the story of City Room goes on, Gelb reveals so many interesting behind-the-scenes details about life at the Times. For example, the strategic military censorship came back to haunt the paper when the American public belatedly learned of the true atrocities of World War II; especially the genocide in the German concentration camps of Buchenwald. Or how he scooped the Julius and Ethel Rosenberg executions. His front row seat to the Papp/Moses battle over the free Shakespeare theater in Central Park made for fascinating reading. His interest in the arts brought Gelb and John F. Kennedy together. And speaking of Kennedy, here is something I did not know. The New York Times was in the practice of writing obituaries for people before they died. Although The Times did not have an advance obituary for President Kennedy because he was so young when he was assassinated. Everyone collectively thought they had more time. Didn’t we all? Other scoops of The Times: the Transit-Authority strike, the first Pope’s visit to the United States, the largest power outage in history, the obtaining possession of Pentagon papers regarding the Vietnam War, and pervasive police and city hall corruption. When you put in forty-five years at one paper you can accumulate a lot of stories.
Gelb was grateful for early mentors. Enough so that he included a short biography of Mr. Fairbanks, a man who gave Gelb a chance at The Times. Gelb also reveals a wicked sense of humor. The story about sending the same pound cake back and forth between couples was hilarious.

Quote to quote, “Abe and I knew that every once in a while, the story of a single individual came along that symbolized a deep, sometimes disturbing truth about human nature and life in New York” (p 376).

As an aside, I thought it was cool to see the inclusion of Myrna Loy. You don’t hear much about her. Another aside, on Grover Loud’s advice to Arthur Gelb, I want to visit Sebasticook Lake in Maine. Nope. Never been there.

Author fact: Gelb’s opinions are dated. Plumbers, don’t take offense when he implies people in your profession are dim witted. Gelb was ninety when he passed in 2014. Another interesting fact: Gelb spent 45 years with The New York Times. He never worked anywhere else.

Book trivia: there are no photographs, no illustrations in City Room. This was such a disappointment because there is a fantastic description of a photograph taken during the blackout but it is not included. It would have been cool to see.

Playlist: “Auld Lang Syne”, Barbra Streisand, The Beatles, Benny Goodman, Bill “Bojangles” Robinson, Billie Holiday’s “Strange Fruit”, Bob Dylan, Bud Freeman, Burl Ives, Cab Calloway, Canned Heat, Creedence Clearwater Rival, Country Joe and the Fish, “Deres a Man Goin’ Roun’ Takin’ Names”, “Dixie”, Ethel Waters, Frank Sinatra, George Harrison, “Hail to the Chief”, Janis Joplin, Jascha Heifetz, Jimi Hendrix, John and Lucy Allison, John Coltrane, Joseph Marais, Josh White, Ledbetter, Leopold Godowsky, Lena Horne’s “When It’s Sleepytime Down South”, Louis Armstrong, Mahalia Jackson, “Marseillaise”, Meat Loaf, Mick Jagger, Miff Mole, Miles Davis, Mischa Elman, Mugsy Spanier, the National Anthem, Nina Simone, Odetta, Paul Robeson’s “Mandy”, Pee Wee Russell, Pete Seeger, Rolling Stones, “Shenandoah”, Sly and the Family Stone, Stan Keaton, Stepin Fetchit, Tchaikovsky, Theodore Bikel, Woody Guthrie’s “Talkin’ Dust Bowl Blues”, Vladimir Horowitz playing Chopin’s Polonaise Fantaisie, and “You Are My Sunshine”.

Nancy said: Pearl called City Room interesting.

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

World at Night

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Furst, Alan. World at Night. Random House, 1996.

Reason read: Furst was born in February. Read in his honor.

We begin The World at Night on the 10th of May in 1940 before dawn. Jean-Claude Casson, film producer of forty-two years of age, is in bed with his assistant, Gabriella Vico. The phone rings…it’s Casson’s wife. Marie-Claire wants to talk about the dinner party she and Jean-Claude are throwing that night. Does this not sound like the start to a torrid romance novel? Far from it (although there is passion within the pages)! By the end of the first chapter Casson has received a telegram recalling him back to active duty. The Germans are on the move and will occupy France shortly. Without warning Corporal Casson is pulled into a completely different life and, after three months when he returns home to Paris, the old life he left behind has completely vanished. As a movie producer he needs a way to stay useful in the eyes of the enemy. What can he do to earn a living during the German occupation? Somehow, in some way, this line of work makes him the perfect recruit for espionage. The only convincing he would need would be political. Which side are you on, boy? This question becomes pertinent when a simple lie traps Jean-Claude. He realizes no one is one hundred percent evil or one hundred percent good which makes the danger all that more a stark reality. You don’t know of whom you should stay clear or who you can trust.
If you are looking for a spy thriller with lots of violence, The World at Night is not for you. The dangers are subtle and barely suggested. Instead, Furst is a master of detail. From fashion and the automobiles to the food and drink and music, the culture of Paris lives and breathes alongside its society. Furst’s imagery is perfection: what do you picture when he describes a young woman as having “hen-strangler hands”? Furst takes you into 1940s Paris with love. A commentary on authenticity. I believe authenticity comes from the ability to faithfully mimic primary sources; the ability to take first-hand accounts and recreate them exactly. Once you see faithful details repeated you assume a truthful interpretation. Such is The World at Night.
Speaking of characters and love, I could not help but fall in love with Jean-Claude Casson. His mature passion for beautiful women and the way he makes each one feel as though she were the only one in his life…sigh. When he finally settles on one particular woman you root for them to be together.

As an aside, when Casson had to turn in his automobile I needed to look up the Simca 302. I found it is a sexy looking car. Perfect for Casson. Then there was the German Horch 853. Can you imagine that thing bombing down the road today? What about the Citroen Traction Avant?
Another aside, did Furst name his book after Christopher Isherwood’s The World in the Evening?

Line I loved, “It was like being hugged by a wine-soaked onion” (p 161).

Author fact: Furst has been compared to Graham Greene, John le Carre, Somerset Maugham, Flaubert, and Balzac.

Book trivia: my copy of World at Night included a segment on the research Furst conducted to write an accurate account of Paris during the early stages of World War II. It also included a list of suggested reading. I found it curious that even though I am reading some of the same authors Furst recommended (Isherwood and Gilbert), I am not reading the exact titles.

Setlist: Adagio for Strings by Samuel Barber, Beethoven, “Begin the Beguine” (as an aside, I can remember my father telling me this was my grandmother’s favorite song), “Body and Soul”. Johnny Hess, “Marseillaise”, “Mood Indigo”, Stephane Grappelli, and “Time on My Hands”.

Nancy said: Pearl describes the plot better than some reviews I have read.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust To Go in the chapter called “We’ll Always Have Paris” (p 255).

Little Liar

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Albom, Mitch. Little Liar. Harper, 2023.

Reason read: I needed a book for the Portland Public Library Reading Challenge in the category of a book currently on the New York Times bestseller list. Little Liar was on that list when I was looking for something to read.

Where do I begin with this little book about a liar? From start to finish it was amazing. I couldn’t read for hours at a time due to the subject matter of the Holocaust, but in small doses it was fantastic. I do not want to describe the plot at all except to say the angel of truth is the first person narrator which lends an air of fairytale, but it is far from being a magical imagining from Albom’s mind. The setting is World War II. Real people like actress Katalin Karady and real events like the rescue of families waiting to be shot by Arrow Cross are faithfully reproduced in Little Liar. The magic comes from Albom bringing all characters and events, factual and fictional, to life. The characters’ human emotions come across loud and crystal clear and yet, like glass, there is a delicacy, a subtle nuance that haunts. Take, for example, how easily the small misunderstandings during childhood can quickly blossom into full blown adulthood hate. Lifelong passionate jealousies carried behind a vengeful ice cold exterior. It reminded me of the cold and heavy chains of Jacob Marley.
As an aside, what an interesting locale for Little Liar. When people speak of World War II and the Nazi regime not many people think of how the island of Greece weathered the atrocities.

As another aside, the last person to read my copy of Little Liar must have smoked like a fiend because the book reeked of old cigarette smoke. So gross. I put it in the freezer for a little while with some lavender sprigs. That seemed to do the trick.

Line I loved the most, “By the time you share what a loved one longs to hear, they often no longer need it” (p 142). I am living that truth every single day.

Author fact: I was first introduced to Albom when he published Tuesdays with Morrie. While I haven’t read everything he has ever written, I can say I have enjoyed everything I have.

Book trivia: this should be a movie.

Playlist: Lucinda Williams

Dangerous Country

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Kovic, Ron. A Dangerous Country: An American Elegy. Akaschic, 2024.

Reason read: as a member of the Early Review Program for LibraryThing I am lucky to receive interesting books to read and review.

A Dangerous Country is separated into three parts. Part One is a year-long diary written with a good friend in mind. The entries are short and this section moves along quickly. When Kovic first arrives for his second tour of duty, he is impatient for action; he has a strong desire to learn and has a few sweethearts he wishes would write more often. At goes goes on Kovic is so busy with patrols and scouting that he doesn’t have time to record what the mail did (or did not) bring him. The entire time Kovic is in Vietnam he has a fervent wish to protect our country from the threat of communist slavery. The letter written by Father Harrington to his parents about his injuries ends Part One.
The second section of A Dangerous Country begins a little more than six months after Kovic suffers his paralyzing injuries on January 20th 1968. Part Two is the political awakening Kovic has once he returns to civilian duty as a disable veteran. When you speak out against war you expose yourself to threats of being seen as anti-American because war is our middle name. We are not afraid to join it if the price is right. Criticize at your own peril. Why else would Kovic’s phone be tapped? Why else would he be arrested for speaking his mind? This is the section where Kovic starts to question the reality of God.
Part Three opens in San Francisco, California in 1982. Kovic struggles with finding his place in society. Art, writing, and theater occupy his search for self, both spiritually and sexually. As an aside, Kovic reclaiming his sexual identity was one of the most poignant parts of his story. With devastating guilt comes suicidal thoughts and all-time lows. This is the most painful part of the story. What is unclear is how much forgiveness Kovic has afforded himself by the end of A Dangerous Country. While he will never be completely free of the horrors of war (memory is a powerful weapon of self-destruction), Kovic has made great strides to live in peace. His inner strength and fighting spirit end A Dangerous Country with hope and acceptance.

I love it when two books collide. I am reading City Room at the same time as A Dangerous Country. In Kovic’s book he began his second tour of duty seeing John F. Kennedy as an inspirational leader, calling for young men to be heroes in Vietnam. Gelb, on the other hand, describes President Kennedy differently, telling of Kennedy’s need to stop reporter Halberstam from telling the truth about Vietnam.
Confessional: I had a moment of panic when I read that A Dangerous Country was part of a trilogy written by Ron Kovic. I was worried I wouldn’t get the full picture of A Dangerous Country if I had not read Born on the Fourth of July or Hurricane Street. (Second confession: I had not).
Second confessional: you never find out what happened to Kathy or Karen. They are never mentioned again. I was disappointed they were not a bigger part of his life when Kovic got home.

As an aside, my uncle does not like to talk about Vietnam at all. One day, for whatever reason, he pulled out a battered photo album and started sharing stories about the pictures within. One photograph was especially memorable to me. It was of my uncle and several members of his platoon. They were on a boat, posed with their arms around each other, trying to smile. The men were not remarkable. Their poses were not dramatic. It was what my uncle said while looking down at the smiling faces, “There was a dead man floating in the water behind us when this photo was taken.”

Author fact: I think it goes without saying that everyone knows Ron Kovic whether they realize it or not. If they have seen the movie version of Born on the Fourth of July starring Tom Cruise, they definitely know Mr. Kovic.

Book trivia: even though A Dangerous Country is only 263 pages long with short chapters, I took a long to finish it because war is never an easy subject for me to read about. Primary sources are even harder.

Playlist: “Auld Lang Syne”, “Comfort and Joy”, “Strange Days” by The Doors, “The First Noel”, Eartha Kitt, Gregorian chants, Jim Morrison, Jimi Hendrix’s version of “The Star-Spangled Banner”, John Lennon’s “Give Peace a Chance”, and The Marine Corp Hymn.

Volcano Lover

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Sontag, Susan. The Volcano Lover: A Romance. Farrar Straus Giroux, 1992.

Reason read: the Carnival of Ivrea happens in February every year. It is essentially a four-day food fight with oranges in the town of Ivrea in Northern Italy.

The Cavalier, an art dealer and British ambassador to the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, is obsessed with three things: collecting beautiful and rare pieces of art, watching Vesuvius breathe and rumble, and having a relationship with his nephew’s former lover. I know, it’s an odd beginning. When the Cavalier’s nephew, Charles, grows tired of his mistress he simply sends her to live with his uncle once the Cavalier became a lonely widower. How do you learn to love a stranger? What do you do when that love matures into devotion and passion falls by the wayside? Beyond being a story about relationships and circumstances, The Volcano Lover is also the love story of art, war, and devotion to a life well lived with passion.
There is a cleverness to Sontag’s writing. Most of the story is told in the third person with touches of first person narrative sprinkled in. Is that Sontag offering personal tidbits about herself? Who is this off-camera speaker? In the very last section of Volcano Lover the Cavalier, his wife, his mother-in-law, and the Queen all offer first person perspectives on their lives with one another. Both the Cavalier and his mother-in-law are careful to never reveal the Cavalier’s wife real name (modeled after Emma Hamilton). No one mentions the hero’s name (Lord Nelson in real life), either.

As an aside: I listened to an interview with Sontag conducted by Muriel Murch. The whole time I kept thinking one of their voices sounded familiar. There is a professor (retired now) who sounds exactly like Sontag.

Lines I liked, “Sometimes it felt like exile, sometimes it felt like a home” (p 67), “Pleasure is haunted by the phantom of loss” (p 201) and “Nothing is more hateful than revenge” (p 313).

Author fact: While Sontag has written more than The Volcano Lover, it is the only book I am reading for the Challenge.

Book trivia: The Cavalier is based on Sir William Hamilton.

Playlist: Farinelli (Carlo Broschi), “God Save the King” and “Rule, Britannia”, Mozart, Haydn’s “The Battle of the Nile”, Vivaldi, Handel, and Couperin.

Nancy said: Pearl calls The Volcano Lover a historical romance for intellectuals. She’s not wrong.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust To Go in the very simple chapter called “Naples” (p 146).

Best Roses, Herbs, and Edible Flowers

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Home Grown Gardening. Best Roses, Herbs, and Edible Flowers: Easy Plants for More Beautiful Gardens. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 1999.

Reason read: what can I say? I have fallen into a rabbit hole of discovery. From the moment I first read Finding Freedom by Erin French I have been on a culinary journey. I specifically borrowed Best Roses so I could do a little research on edible flowers.

The first chapter of Best Roses pays special attention to growing roses from the first day you put them in the ground to keeping them going for generations to come. That would make a lot of sense considering the title of the book starts with “best roses.”
In truth, I didn’t find Best Roses all that helpful. Maybe it’s because the focus is more on roses than anything else. Out of the 263 pages, the first 116 are all about identifying specific roses. There is one recipe for rose hip jam and how to transplant a rose before moving on to soil Ph, soil nutrients, propagation, and creating an aromatic garden. It isn’t until page 129 when you dig into herbs and edible flowers. The book ends with a primer on how to harvest and preserve herbs, a glossary, a hardiness zone map, credits for the gorgeous photograph, and an index.
As an aside, I was reminded of an episode of “Judging Amy” when Amy took over her mother’s house and dug up the “old” roses in the yard. Little did she know, the bush had been an irreplaceable family heirloom which had been passed down for generations. Why Amy’s mother never told her the story of the roses especially since they were so important is beyond me.

Author fact: Home Grown Gardening took most of the information from Taylor’s 50 Best Roses and Taylor’s 50 Best Herbs and Edible Flowers.

Book trivia: Roses is chock full of gorgeous photographs but short on in-depth information. I said that already.