Tag: book review

Chasing Monarchs

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Bebe’s By Golly Wow

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Saturday Morning Murder

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

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

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

Author fact: Gur died in 2005.

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

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

Lives of the Muses

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Reservations Recommended

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

A Good Life

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

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

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

Reason read: February is scholastic journalism month.

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

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

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

Underworld

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

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

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

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

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

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

Herb ‘n’ Lorna

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Kraft, Eric. Herb ‘n’ Lorna. New York: Amazon Encore, 2010.

I like beginnings that come out of nowhere and give the reader a resounding slap. Picture this: it’s the preface and our hero, Peter Leroy, gets a boner at his grandmother’s funeral. It’s worse than that because he’s not hunkered down in a pew. While up in front of fellow mourners, delivering the eulogy, he has to find a way to shift his painfully positioned penis without anyone noticing. Talk about uncomfortable! Sounds like one of those dreams when you are standing in front of the class naked, trying to recite the Gettysburg address. If I were a boy I would be cringing to read all this in such detail; instead I’m a giggling girl.
Kraft is well…crafty when it comes to Herb ‘n’ Lorna. It’s the cleverly told biography of the title’s namesakes told from the point of view of their grandson, Peter. He fills in the gaps with an “interview” with an old friend of his grandmother’s. Herb and Lorna were not your average grandparents and their life together was far from ordinary despite outward appearances to the contrary. Herb was a salesman with a passion for tinkering. He liked gadgets and he liked inventing. Lorna was an artist, skilled at carving. Independent of the other they both became involved in the creation of “course works”, little trinkets depicting erotic sex acts disguised as charms or jewelry or buttons or pocket watches. For example, Lorna carved buttons which subsequently were secreted into Red Cross care packages; sent to “cheer” the troops during the war. Herb upon receiving one such button, took these course goods a step further and gave them movement through mechanical engineering. They both picked up the trade from an uncle. They both used this secret work as a means to make extra money. How they got away with living parallel lives without the other finding out seemed a little unbelievable at times.
What makes Herb ‘n’ Lorna such a joy to read is the characters themselves. They are complicated and endearing and their relationship sticks with you long after the last page is read. And I agree with the author, read the preface!

Reason read: I guess there are two reasons for reading Herb ‘n’ Lorna. Eric Kraft was born in the month of February, so that’s reason #1. Reason #2: Herb ‘n’ Lorna is cataloged as a romance at the Monson Free Library. Valentine’s Day = romance = Herb ‘n’ Lorna. I would go a step further and almost call it erotica. It certainly is naughty! 😉

Lines I liked: Oddly enough, even though I loved the book I never thought to quote anything from it.

Book trivia: There was a lot of inner debate about in what order I should be reading Kraft’s “voluminous fiction.” There is the way Pearl recommends: in the order the stories were written and published first (beginning with Little Follies. Then there is the order I chose: in order of the saga. The entire saga (according to Kraft) is first introduced in Herb ‘n’ Lorna. According to Kraft’s website, there is no wrong order and in fact you can start with any book you want.

Author fact: Eric Kraft’s website is as interesting as his writing. You can visit it here. There is a whole section dedicated to Peter Leroy.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust in the chapter called ” Eric Kraft: Too Good to Miss” (p 141).

Polish Officer

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Furst, Alan. The Polish Officer. Read by George Guidall. New York: Recorded Books, 2005.

Alexander de Milja has been offered a miraculous choice. With Poland on the brink of surrender to the Germans, he has a decision to make: stay in the Polish army as Captain and serve on the battlefield (a guaranteed suicide) or join an underground Polish resistance group Zwiazek Walki Zbrojnej. No brainer. His first mission is to secure a successful route for Poland’s Gold Reserve to the safety of England via a refugee train headed for Bucharest. Later, in Paris de Milja poses as a Russia poet. Still later he is a Slovakian coal merchant. This is at a time when the war was filled with uneasy partnerships and extremely unstable alliances. How anybody trusted anyone else is a mystery. Even though it was everyman for himself, de Milja infiltrated a variety of groups and formed key relationships which helped him keep his disguises believable. The women embedded in the resistance were the most interesting to me.

As an aside, reading this now is perfect timing. It fits in with Maus, Maus II, and The Wild Blue – all books about World War II I’ve read in the last two months.

Reason read: Furst’s birthday is in February.

Author fact: I have read in numerous places that Alan Furst is the “next” Graham Greene. I would agree they are similar.

Book trivia: As far as I know this hasn’t been made into a movie. If it isn’t, it should.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust in the chapter called “World War II Fiction” (p 253).

Man Who Was Thursday

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Chesterton, G.K. The Man Who Was Thursday: A Nightmare. [Auckland]: The Floating Press, 2009. ebook collection (EBSCOhost). Web. February 3rd, 2015.

There are so many reviews which comment on the religious allegory of this book so I will refrain from doing that, except to say I enjoyed the “dueling with the devil” scene the most. There are also many reviews that mention how weird the story gets. Agreed. Completely. This is one of those situations in a story where purpose overshadows plot because the whole thing is really quite ridiculous. In a nutshell, Gabriel Symes is an undercover detective who infiltrates an anarchist group (Council of the Seven Days) only to find that the entire membership, with the exception of its leader, is made up of undercover New Detective Corps members. Each member goes by a day of the week for an alias, hence the Council of the Seven Days. Symes has just been nominated as “Thursday”. As a collective week they are all trying to get at the elusive leader, “Sunday”. Except, they are all in the dark as to each others true identities. What I find curious is that when Sunday sniffs out a spy his fears are confirmed when the undercover policeman reveals he is carrying his membership card to the anti-anarchist constabulary. Wouldn’t you remove that piece of evidence, especially if you bother to go through the trouble of wearing an elaborate disguise? Gogol posed as a hairy Pole, accent and all. The Professor posed as an invalid old man with a huge nose. Turns out, all six policemen are carrying the tell-tale blue identification card. Not one of them thought to leave it at home. But, I digress. For most of the story it is a cat and mouse game with the good guys chasing the bad guys (until one by one, they find out they are all good guys). The theme of “who can you trust” is ongoing.

I found a who bunch of lines and phrases I wanted to quote. Here are a few of them: “Many suitcases look a like” (p 2), “Boisterous rush of the narrative” (p 5), “The poet delights in disorder only” (p 15), “It is new for a nightmare to lead to a lobster” (p 29), and one more, “If you want to know what you are, you are a set of highly well-intentioned young jackasses” (p 263).

Reason read: Anarchy plays a huge part in Man Who Was Thursday and the Russian Revolution happened in February. You make the connection.

Author fact: Chesterton also wrote The Best of Father Brown which is also on my Challenge list.

Book trivia: The Man Who Was Thursday was first published in 1908. I cannot tell you how cool it is to be reading this an e-book 107 years later. As an aside, this is my first Challenge book from Ebsco. Another small piece of trivia: Chesterton had a thing for the sea. He mentions it no less than a dozen times throughout The Man Who Was Thursday.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust in the chapter called “100 Good Reads, Decade By Decade” (p 175).

Dud Avocado

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Dundy, Elaine. The Dud Avocado. New York: New York Review Books, 2007.

I think I would have liked to have known Elaine Dundy. Loosely based on her own life, Dud Avocado is a delicious romp through Paris, France in the 1950s. Dundy or rather Sally Jay Gorce, storms her way through the night clubs and Parisian society. Here’s the skinny on the plot: when Sally Jay Gorce was thirteen years old her uncle made her a deal: stop running away (now) and graduate from college (eventually). If she did all that he would pay for her to go anywhere for two years. No strings attached. He wouldn’t even try to contact her. After two years she could come home and tell him all about it…When we first meet Sally she is in Paris, France and it has been eight years since she made that deal. At the moment she is trying to win the favors of actor Larry Keevil, a fellow American with shiny auburn hair and gray-green eyes. She is in love. The only problem is this: Sally is currently involved with a “three-timing” man who already has a wife (1), mistress (2) and Sally (3). Sally gets mixed up in a bunch of relationships but she always keeps coming back to Larry. Only, he’s not the man she thinks he is. And she isn’t the girl she thought she was. Turns out she really did want to be a librarian.

The line that says it all for me: “We had lived there all alone for two whole months without it burning down” (p 203).

Confessional: I have to admit to an earlier confusion. Because both The Old Man and Me and The Dud Avocado were loosely based on Elaine Dundy’s personal life I thought the two books were connected. In Dundy’s early 20s she was in Paris and later she went to London. I thought the heroines of Old Man and Dud would be one and the same therefore their stories should be read in order. Nope. Two different characters based on the same author. Go figure.

Reason read: I heard this was supposed to be read before The Old Man and Me, or rather, the same leading character was in each story. Nevertheless, I have read them backwards.

Author fact: The Dud Avocado was Dundy’s first novel and was a hit, much to the jealousy of her husband (also a writer as a film critic). Much has been made about Groucho Marx’s praise of Dud.

Book trivia: According to Terry Teachout’s introduction The Dud Avocado has never been out of print in England. Pretty cool for a first novel.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust To Go in the chapter called simply “American Girls” (p 18).

Finnegans Wake

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Joyce, James. Finnegans Wake. New York: Viking, 1939.

Confessional: I was doomed right from the start. I have been calling this book Finnegan’s Wake. That should tell you something…when I can’t even get the title right. I have read a lot of reviews of Finnegans Wake. Lots of advice on how to even read the thing. When you have more reviews suggesting how to read a book rather than what the book was actually about, that should tell you something. In all honesty, I have no clue what it was about. But, I’m not alone. Tons of other people have been scratching their heads, too. But, but, but that’s not to say they aren’t without advice: I tried reading it aloud, as many suggested. I tried not taking it too seriously, as others promised would help. I tried drinking with each chapter and even that didn’t make the going any easier. Drinking just made me laugh when something wasn’t funny. It’s much like the lyrics to Phish. I don’t understand a jiboo so I don’t “get” the song. End of story.

Reason read: James Joyce was born in February – just like me, myself and moi.

Author fact: Joyce took 17 years to write Finnegans Wake and it shows. I think he randomly forgot where he was in the story and picked up any old place, even in the middle of sentences.

Book trivia: Finnegans Wake was Joyce’s last book. He died two years after its publication. I can see that.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust in the chapter called simply “Irish Fiction” (p 175) but more importantly, from Book Lust To Go in the chapter called “Ireland: Beyond Joyce, Behan, Beckett, and Synge” (p 110). Technically, I never should have picked Joyce up. As the chapter suggests, I should be reading anything but Joyce, Behan, Beckett or Synge.

Her Name Was Lola

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Hoban, Russell. Her Name Was Lola. New York: Arcade Publishing, 2003.

The first thing one needs to know about Her Name Was Lola is that it’s a short book with even shorter chapters. It’s a quick read – maybe even a lazy Sunday-in-one-sitting kind of read.

November, 2001. Max has writer’s block. As described in the first chapter, “Max writes novels that don’t sell, children’s picture books that do.” Only, the picture books aren’t getting written either. Instead, he is wandering around London, talking to himself and dealing with a dwarf demon called Apasmara on his back. Apasmara out of Hindu mythology and symbolizes Forgetfulness, Heedlessness, Selfishness, Ignorance, and Materialism. He was sent to make Max forget about Lola Bessington.
Flashback to December 1996. Max meets Lola and falls in love. She falls back. A few months later Max meets Lula and falls in love. She too falls back. Two women with similar names. One man with “blighter’s rock.” One big problem. Hoban always announces the date at the beginning of each chapter. To orientate the reader or mark the passage of time, I don’t know. It’s not a spoiler to say Max loses both women, but I think it is a spoiler when I say his fictional character is the one who gets it right. Leave to Max to create a character who is more virtuous than himself.

Reason read: Hoban’s birth month is February. Read Her Name Was Lola in his honor.

the line I liked the best, “People are composed of memories, losses, longings and regrets” (p 28).

Confessional: reading the lyrics to Barry Manilow’s “Copacabana (At the Copa)” took me right back to the late 70s when I was all of 9-10 years old. A girlfriend and I we loved the song to much we wanted to act out the lyrics – especially the “who shot who?” and the “yellow feathers in her hair” parts.

Author fact: Many people think Her Name Was Lola is autobiographical. If Hoban knows an imaginary dwarf named Apasmara then okay. That is awesome.

Book trivia: This is so short it can be read in one day.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust in the chapter “Russell Hoban: Too Good To Miss” (p). This is the penultimate Hoban book on my list. One more and I will be done with the chapter.

In Xanadu

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Dalrymple, William. In Xanadu: a Quest.Melbourne: Lonely Planet Publications, 2000.

Right off the bat I have to say I love an author who uses the word “churlish.” I could tell In Xanadu was going to be a crazy ride when he apologizes in his dedication (who does that?). William Dalrymple takes us on a journey from Lebanon to Inner Mongolia, following the historic path of Marco Polo (Travels). Dalrymple’s ultimate goal is to reach the famed palace of Xanadu, of Coleridge’s “Kubla Khan” fame. For the first half of his expedition he is accompanied by savvy traveler, Laura. The extraordinary thing is he met her at a dinner party just a few weeks before his departure. She just invited herself along because that’s the type of person she is. From the way Dalrymple describes her, he sounds a little afraid of her. The second half of his journey is with newly ex-girlfriend, Laura. While not as fierce as Laura, Louisa has endearing qualities all her own. I don’t think I will spoil it for anyone when I say they do make it to Xanadu, despite many mishaps along the way.

Quote that made me laugh out loud: “Had it not been for the machine guns they both were holding it might have been a homely scene” (p 23).

Reason read: William Dalrymple followed Marco Polo’s steps in In Xanadu. Marco Polo died in January.

Author fact: Dalrymple wrote In Xanadu when he was just 22 years old. It was his first book.

Book trivia: unfortunately, there are no photographs in In Xanadu except for an author photo in the front. Bummer.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust To Go in the chapter called “In the Footsteps Of…” (p 100).

Wild Blue

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Ambrose, Stephen E. The Wild Blue: the Men and Boys Who Flew the B-24s Over Germany.New York: Simon & Schuster, 2001.

Soap box: As a 21st century society we are so far removed from the horrors of war. For several different reasons the word ‘war’ does not strike fear into our hearts. Our soil hasn’t had World War magnitude bloodshed for generations. Even overseas, our method of battle with the enemy is by and large impersonal; remote control, if you will. Gone are the days of brutal look-you-in-the-eye hand to hand combat. Gone are the days when killing was typically up close and personal. Now it’s distant missile and drone strikes. We wince along with millions with what we witness on television but it can be as benign as watching a movie; as if it is complete with actors and ketchup. It is easy to forgot the contributions of soldiers who fought in World War II. Thankfully, there are authors like Ambrose who are here to remind us; to make our heroes flesh and blood again.

The prologue to Wild Blue illustrates the constraints to flying a B-24. The very first sentence sets the stage, “The B-24 was built like a 1930s Mack Truck, except that it had an aluminum skin that could be cut with a knife” (p 21). Ambrose goes on to describe the lack of windshield wipers, heat, bathrooms, pressurization, kitchen facilities, or even room to move. Sometimes the airmen are too large for their assigned compartments and had to remove their parachutes in order to fit. Immediately upon reading this you sense the difficulties these airmen faced just flying these planes – never mind the additional dangers of flak, combat, even the weather. Chapter One introduces you to the men (in some most cases, mere boys) responsible for flying these dangerous machines. While Ambrose lists many different individuals, his main focus is on the pilots, bombardiers, navigators, radio operators and gunners. With the help of interviews with veterans like George McGovern, Ambrose takes you into the cockpit of every “Dakota Queen” McGovern flew. Subsequent chapters of Wild Blue take us through training, combat missions, D-Day, and the final mission of April 1945. There is a semi-Cinderella happy ending to Wild Blue that was almost too good to be true, but I believed it.

Reason read: Stephen Ambrose was born in the month of January.

Author fact: Wild Blue is one of six books I have on my Challenge list. I made the mistake of poking around websites and learned that there is controversy surrounding the authenticity of Ambrose writing Wild Blue. Not wanting to contaminate my enjoyment of reading the book, I stopped poking around websites.

Book trivia: Wild Blue has a total of 15 black and white photographs clustered in the center of the book.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust in the chapter called “World War II Fiction” (p 252).