Tag: Fiction

August Ambitions

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As each month passes I get more and more excited about ditching this Big List format. I really cannot wait to return to the old way of doing things. Current month of books is in bold:

  1. Dragon Reborn by Robert Jordan (DNF)
  2. In a Strange City by Laura Lippman
  3. By a Spider’s Thread by Laura Lippman (AB)
  4. Recognitions by William Gaddis (DNF)
  5. Maus by Art Spiegelman
  6. Lady Franklin’s Revenge by Ken McGoogan
  7. Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao* by Junot Diaz (AB)
  8. Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson
  9. Eugene Onegin by Alexander Pushkin
  10. Shadow Rising by Robert Jordan
  11. A Good Doctor’s Son by Steven Schwartz
  12. Drinking: a Love Story by Caroline Knapp
  13. Ancient Rome on 5 Denarii a Day by Philip Matyszak
  14. Nero Wolfe Cookbook by Rex Stout
  15. Treasure Hunter by W. Jameson (ER)
  16. Maus II by Art Spiegelman (Jan)
  17. The Dew Breaker by Edwidge Danticat (AB)
  18. In Xanadu by William Dalrymple
  19. The Assault by Harry Mulisch
  20. Wild Blue by Stephen Ambrose
  21. Shot in the Heart by Mikal Gilmore
  22. Greater Nowheres by David Finkelstein/Jack London
  23. Alma Mater by P.F Kluge
  24. Old Man & Me by Elaine Dundy
  25. Dud Avocado by Elaine Dundy
  26. Good Life by Ben Bradlee
  27. Underworld by Don DeLillo
  28. Her Name Was Lola by Russell Hoban
  29. Man Who Was Thursday by GK Chesterton
  30. Fires From Heaven by Robert Jordan
  31. Finnegan’s Wake by James Joyce DNF
  32. Herb ‘n’ Lorna by Eric Kraft
  33. Polish Officer by Alan Furst – (AB)
  34. Lord of Chaos by Robert Jordan
  35. Walden by Henry David Throreau
  36. Reservations Recommended by Eric Kraft
  37. Selected Letters of Norman Mailer edited by J. Michael Lennon – (ER)
  38. Chasing Monarchs by Robert Pyle
  39. Saturday Morning Murder by Batya Gur
  40. Bebe’s By Golly Wow by Yolanda Joe
  41. Lives of the Muses by Francine Prose
  42. Broom of the System by David Wallace
  43. Crown of Swords by Robert Jordan
  44. Little Follies by Eric Kraft
  45. Literary Murder by Batya Gur
  46. Bob Marley, My Son by Cedella Marley Booker (ER)
  47. Night Flight by Antoine de Saint-Exupery
  48. Southern Mail by Antoine de Saint- Exupery
  49. Measure of All Things, the by Ken Alder (AB)
  50. Two Gardeners by Emily Wilson
  51. Royal Flash by George Fraser
  52. Binding Spell by Elizabeth Arthur
  53. Crown of Swords by Robert Jordan (DNF)
  54. ADDED: Castle in the Backyard by Betsy Draine (EB)
  55. Path of Daggers by Robert Jordan (DNF)
  56. Where Do You Stop? by Eric Kraft
  57. Everything You Ever Wanted by Jillian Lauren (ER)
  58. Murder on a Kibbutz by Batya Gur
  59. Flash for Freedom! by George Fraser
  60. Murder in Amsterdam by Ian Buruma
  61. Petra: lost city by Christian Auge
  62. From Beirut to Jerusalem by Thomas Friedman
  63. Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese
  64. Flashman at the Charge by George MacDonald Fraser
  65. What a Piece of Work I Am by Eric Kraft
  66. Battle Cry of Freedom by James McPherson
  67. Ruby by Cynthia Bond (ER)
  68. Winter’s Heart by Robert Jordan (DNF)
  69. Crossroads of Twilight by Robert Jordan (DNF)
  70. Murder Duet by Batya Gur
  71. Flashman in the Great Game – George MacDonald Fraser
  72. At Home with the Glynns by Eric Kraft
  73. Sixty Stories by Donald Barthelme
  74. New Physics and Cosmology by Arthur Zajonc
  75. Grifters by Jim Thompson
  76. Snow Angels by James Thompson (AB)
  77. So Many Roads: the life and Times of the Grateful Dead by David Browne (ER/AB)
  78. Short story: Drinking with the Cook by Laura Furman
  79. Short Story: Hagalund by Laura Furman
  80. ADDED: Lone Pilgrim by Laurie Colwin
  81. Not so Short story: The Last of Mr. Norris by Christopher Isherwood
  82. ADDED: short story: Jack Landers is My Friend by Daniel Stolar
  83. ADDED: short story: Marriage Lessons by Daniel Stolar
  84. ADDED: Light in August by William Faulkner
  85. Not so Short story: Goodbye to Berlin by Christopher Isherwood
  86. ADDED: A Comedy & A Tragedy by Travis Hugh Culley (ER)
  87. ADDED: Feed Zone by Biju Thomas
  88. Leaving Small’s Hotel by Eric Kraft
  89. Flashman’s Lady by George MacDonald Fraser
  90. Possession by AS Byatt
  91. In the Footsteps of Genghis Khan by John DeFrancis
  92. SWAPPED: What Just Happened for Faster! by James Gleick (AB)
    (I needed an audio and WJH didn’t come in disc form but Faster! did. So be it.)
  93. Game of Kings by Dorothy Dunnett
  94. Inflating a Dog by Eric Kraft (Sep/Feb)
  95. Castles in the Air by Judy Corbett (Sep)
  96. Flashman and the Redskins by George MacDonald Fraser (Sep)
  97. Queens’ Play by Dorothy Dunnett (Sep)
  98. Robber Bride by Margaret Atwood (Sep – this is a reread)
  99. Mysterious Affair at Styles by Agatha Christie (Sep)
  100. Beautiful Struggle by Ta-Nehisi Coates (Sep)
  101. Then She Found Me by Elinor Lipman (Oct)
  102. Disorderly Knights by Dorothy Dunnett (Oct)
  103. Flashman and the Dragon by George MacDonald Fraser (Oct)
  104. Dark Hills Divide by Patrick Carman (Nov)
  105. Flashman and the Mountain of Light by George MacDonald Fraser (Nov)
  106. Pawn in Frankincense by Dorothy Dunnett (Nov)
  107. Andorra by Peter Cameron (Nov)

DNF = Did Not Finish; AB = Audio Book; ER = Early Review; DNS = Did Not Start; EB = Electronic book

Sixty Stories

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Barthelme, Donald. Sixty Stories. New York: G. P. Putnam & Sons, 1981.

Reason read: Barthelme died July 23, 1989 of throat cancer. This is read in his honor.

I wanted to review this book by writing one sentence about each short story (60 sentences in all), but I have to confess this: I wasn’t sure what some of the stories were even about. I am glad I found other “I’m so confused” reviews. It’s nice to know I wasn’t the only one lost from time to time. I’m like the sober party-goer who doesn’t get the drunk joke that everyone else is cracking up about. Even the writing structure was strange. Sometimes a story wouldn’t have paragraphs. Other times the story was without punctuation. Or. Or! Or, something like this – the word butter written 97 times. Most of the time it was people acting oddly like writing letters to their lover’s therapist or living in the church of their denomination or killing 6,000 dogs after buying Galveston, Texas. Some stories were profound especially when they centered on the human condition. Others were just plain strange and I couldn’t wrap my brain around his motive or meaning.

Lines I liked but didn’t understand, “But stealing books is metaphysically different from stealing like money” (p 13), “Strangling the moon is wrong” (p 99), and “The bad zombies banged the Bishop’s car with a dead cow, at night” (p 351).

Book trivia: Sixty Stories even has illustrations. That’s how chock full of weirdness it is.

Author fact: Barthelme wrote novels and books for children in addition to short stories.

BookLust Twist: from More Book Lust in the chapter called “All in the Family” (p). Brothers Donald and Frederick were both writers.

Snow Angels

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Thompson, James. Snow Angels. Read by T. Ryder Smith. New York: Recorded Books, 2009.

Reason read: There is a folk festival that takes place in Finland every July.

Meet Kari Vaara. He is the inspector for a small town outside of Finland’s capital of Helsinki. Just before Christmas, during the darkest time of the year in Lapland, he is confronted with the brutal (and I do mean brutal) murder of a semi-famous immigrant Somali actress. She has been viciously sexually assaulted and a racial slur has been carved into her stomach. Sex crime? Hate crime? Both? As lead investigator Vaara must sort through the clues; clues that dredge up his own haunted past. My only complaint was as lead detective Vaara should never have been allowed to stay on the case once it looked like his ex-wife’s boyfriend was good for the crime. In my culture Vaara would have recused himself and left the investigation, especially since his ex-wife left him devastated. His fingering the boyfriend for the murder could be a revenge accusation. SPOILER ALERT: if not after the first murder, but certainly when his ex-wife is also murdered he should have handed over every part of the investigation and stepped as far back as possible. Just my two…
Okay, and I have another complaint albeit a small one. This is definitely an adult book. The themes, the language, the sex and violence…well, the violence was especially over the top and so many deaths (six in all) seemed unnecessary.

As an aside, I just watched a documentary about living in Antarctica and can’t imagine living in a region where, for a quarter of a year, there is semi-darkness 24/7. I can’t imagine being without the sun for that length of time. The nights must seem endless and I think I would experience seasonal insanity.

Quote I loved. So, here’s an odd situation. There was this laugh-out-loud moment I want to relate only since I listened to it on audio I can’t quote it. I can paraphrase – Kari is speaking to someone unpleasant and he say “he didn’t say thank you, goodbye or even fuck you.” Those weren’t the exact words, but they made me giggle.
EDITED TO UPDATE: I borrowed a copy of the print just so I could quote my favorite line, “He gives me the time and place and hangs up without saying thank you, fuck you or good-bye” (p 221). It’s still funny.

Author fact: Snow Angels is Thompson’s first novel.

Book trivia: Snow Angels starts the series starring Inspector Kari Vaara.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust To Go in the chapter called “Frolicking in Finland” (p 86).

Light in August

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Faulkner, William. Novels 1930 – 1935: Light in August. New York: The Library of America, 1996.

Reason read: I was thinking I should read this in August, just for the title. Instead, I’m reading it in July because of Faulkner’s death month. How morbid of me.

I found this to be one of the more enjoyable Faulkner stories. There was more plot and less stream-of-consciousness. The characters are fewer and more fully developed. Lena Grove is a pregnant white woman from Alabama looking for her man in Jefferson, Mississippi. Gail Hightower, a former reverend is forced into retirement and nearly run out of town for his wife’s erratic behavior and subsequent suicide. Joe Christmas, one of the strongest main characters, is an orphan who thinks he has “nigger blood” despite his pale skin.

There are several elements of repetition to Faulkner’s work. Most stories take place in Jefferson, Mississippi. There is usually one character that is mixed race and as a result, struggling with identity. A fire usually breaks out somewhere. Someone usually is pregnant. Probably the most typical reoccurring element is style. Faulkner uses flashbacks to either tell a story or fill in the gaps of one. Light in August was one of the more easier ones to follow.

Author fact: Like Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Faulkner died of a heart attack in the month of July.

Book trivia: Faulkner began writing Light in August in August 1931 and it was published in October 1932.

BookLust Twist: first, in Book Lust in the chapter called “100 Good Read, Decade By Decade: 1930s (p 177). Second, in More Book Lust in a chapter that doesn’t really make sense to me. “You Can’t Judge a Book By It’s Cover” (p 238). But, Pearl isn’t bringing up Light in August because its cover contradicts what it’s about. Faulkner is just one of the books in Alan Powers’s Front Cover.

Study in Scarlet

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Doyle, Sir Arthur Conan. “A Study in Scarlet”. The Complete Sherlock Holmes. New York: Doubleday, 1930.

Reason read: Doyle died July 7th 1930. Read in honor of his passing.

Confessional: in Book Lust Pearl lists The Complete Sherlock Holmes but what she doesn’t say is that it’s a canon of sixty stories – four novels and 56 short stories totaling 1122 pages. I knew it would be impossible to read 1122 pages in 31 days – even if it would be the only thing I read in July I still wouldn’t finish it. In addition I couldn’t stand the thought of attempting something so boring. I need to visit other characters from time to time. So, my plan is this, read each work separately. I began with the first novel of the collection, “A Study in Scarlet.”

Study in Scarlet is in two parts. Part one: “Being a Reprint from the Reminiscences of John H. Watson, M.D., Late of the Army Medical Department.” It’s here that Dr. Watson and Mr. Sherlock Holmes meet for the first time. Watson, arriving in London and  needing a place to stay, learns of Holmes looking to share his apartment. From the very beginning they are thrown together in a murder mystery. Watson is astounded by Holmes’s ability to deduce facts from the smallest pieces of evidence.

Part two: “Country of the Saints” steps back in time and tells the story of the Brigham Young and the Mormons settling in the plains of Utah. John Ferrier meets up with the four elders, Stangerson, Kemball, Jonston & Drebber and they take him and his young companion in. This story sets the backdrop for the murder mystery Holmes is trying to solve.

Quotes. First where the title of the story comes from: “There is a scarlet thread of murder running through the colourless skein of life, and our duty is to unravel it, and isolate it, and expose every inch of it” (p 36). Second, one of Sherlock’s most quoted utterances: “…where there is no imagination there is no horror” (p 37).

Author fact: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle died of a heart attack.

Book trivia: A Study in Scarlet is less than 100 pages long.

BookLust Twist (not really): from Book Lust in the chapter called “I Love A Mystery” (p 123).

At Home with the Glynns

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Kraft, Eric. At Home with the Glynns: the Personal History, Adventures, Experiences and Observations of Peter Leroy (continued). New York: Crown Publishers, Inc., 1995.

Peter Leroy is now a 13-almost-14 year old naive teenager. He has befriended the Glynn family; painting with Mr. Glynn, writing contest poetry with Mrs. Glynn and jumping into bed with their lovely twin daughters, Margot and Martha. Every member of the Glynn family has something to teach young Peter. Andy Glynn has Peter secretly improving the sketches of his art students. Rosetta Glynn instructs Peter on the art of writing with “the shock of the new, cushioned by the familiar” And the Glynn twins? Let’s just say they start him off with simultaneously manipulating two peas; rolling them under his fingertips. You get the picture.

At Home with the Glynns can only be described as fast, fun and funny. Eric Kraft has this way of mingling truth with imagination – so much so that you aren’t sure what’s really going on. Or, maybe it’s just that Peter’s memories are faulty. Memoirs are only as good as what you want to remember. For example, the twins, Martha and Margot, aren’t really twins at all.

Favorite part: the Troubled Titan Ad on page two. It’s indicative of the 1950s with its reference to “troubled times” (note the subtle bomb launched overhead). I have to wonder how many people wrote to PO Box 98 Legume, Ohio for their “Free Titan Booklet Offer.”

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

Author fact: No new fact this time around. Stay tuned.

Book trivia: This is the 6th book in the 8 book series, but as mentioned before, it is not necessary to read this as a series or in order. At Home with the Glynns is super short – close to 150 pages.

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

Grifters

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Thompson, Jim. The Grifters. New York: Black Lizard/Vintage Crime, 1990.

Reason read: In July 1901 fingerprinting was first introduced as a crime prevention tool.

Everyone once in awhile I will read reviews of a book before I can get to the actual book. Most of the time I regret that decision because it taints what I think about the story. But other times, like now, I’m actually glad I did. The reviews for The Grifters I checked out didn’t reveal too much of the plot nor the ending. Instead the reviews did caution that every character “sucked”. No one was likeable or worth rooting for. Interesting.

Twenty five year old Roy Dillon’s apple doesn’t fall far from the family tree. His mother Lilly, barely 15 years older, is a con-artist and as a result Roy grew up having to hustle to make an existence for himself. By the time he turned eighteen Roy couldn’t wait to strike out on his own; to try grifting for himself. Only he’s not that good at it. Grifters opens with Roy badly beaten and bleeding internally, staggering back to his rented hotel room after a failed attempt to con someone. His girlfriend Moira, nurse Carol and mother all take turns nursing him back to health, each with their own con game in the works. It’s a disaster waiting to happen as no one in the group is truly honest. Everyone is blinded by greed and what they think is love.

A quote – “She’d never given him anything but a hard time, which was about the extent of her generosity to anyone” (p 11).

Author fact: Thompson sold his first fiction when he was only 14 years old.

Book trivia: The Grifters is short, only 189 pages long. I was able to read it in one day. Most everyone has seen the 1990 movie with John Cusack and Anjelica Huston. Except me. I haven’t so I won’t make any comparisons.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust in the chapter Les Crimes Noir (p 67).

Flashman in the Great Game

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Fraser, George MacDonald. Flashman in the Great Game. New York: Alfred A Knopf, 1975.

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

We have been following Harry Flashman through his adventures (the Afghanistan War, encounters with Count Bismarck and Lola Montes, the African slave trade and the Crimean War). This time the year is 1856 and he is caught up in the Great Indian Mutiny and this is, by far, his bloodiest adventure yet. Flashman has been chosen to be a secret agent to discover who is cooking up the rebellion. Thanks to his knowledge of various languages and his ability to blend in with the natives Flashy is able to discern the enemy is none other than his old nemesis, Count Nicholas Pavlevitch. Once again, coward Harry Flashman is in the thick of it, battling Russian spies, secret assassins, rampaging mutineers and Thugs. But, that doesn’t mean he doesn’t have time for a quick roll in the hay with prostitutes and even Lakshmaibai, the “Jezebel of Jhansi.” Some things never change.

The great game is described as to lie low in disguise, watching, listening and waiting for the right time to strike. Considering this is about the Indian Mutiny, that sounds about right.

Quotes I liked, “The truth is we all live under false pretenses much of the time; you just have to put on a bold front and brazen through” (p 109), and “Sufficient to say that fear, shock, ignorance, and racial and religious intolerance, on both sides, combined to produce a hatred akin to madness in some individuals…” (p 327). Again, some things never change.
I also liked the dedication, “For the Mad White Woman of Papar River.”

Book trivia: portions of Flashman in the Great Game appeared in Playboy Magazine.

Author fact: I’ve got nothing new this time around but fear not! I have at least 4 or 5 more times to write something else about Mr. Fraser.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust in the chapter called “George MacDonald Fraser: Too Good To Miss” (p 93).

Murder Duet

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Gur, Batya. Murder Duet: a Musical Case. New York: Harper Collins Publishers, 1999.

Reason read: this is the last book I need to read to finish the Michael Ohayon series, started in March in honor of that month being the best time to visit Israel. Note: there is one last book in the series but I read it first, before I knew there was a whole series. Like the last two Gur mysteries, I am listing the characters here so that I can keep them straight.

  • Aliza – baby sitter
  • Andre Kestenbaum – medical examiner
  • Ariyeh Levy – Jerusalem Subdivision chief
  • Avigail – police; former girlfriend of Michael Ohayon
  • Avigdor – concertmaster
  • Becky Pomeranz – mother of a friend Michael had an affair
  • Carlo Maria Giulini – musician
  • Dalit – police recruit
  • Danny Balilty+ – police
  • Dora Zackheim – music teacher
  • Drora Yaffe – Theo’s fake alibi
  • Dr. Schumer –
  • Dr. Solomon – pathologist
  • Eli+ – police
  • Elroi – police psychologist
  • Emanuel Shorer+ – head of Criminal Investigation Unit
  • Even-Tor – conductor
  • Eyal – Tzilla’s child
  • Gabriel van Gelden – second murder victim
  • Ido – Nita’s five month old son
  • Irit – Izzy’s daughter
  • Itzhak Halevi – Zippo’s real name
  • Itzik – police
  • Izzy Mashiah – Gabriel’s boyfriend
  • Jacques+ – Michael Ohayon’s uncle (mother’s brother), dead
  • Jean Bonaventure – scholar of Baroque
  • Joann Schenk – German singer
  • Kochava Strauss – sergeant
  • Machluf Levy – police; has two kids
  • Malka – police
  • Margrit Fischer – musician
  • Matty Balilty – Danny’s wife
  • Maya+ – old girlfriend of Michael Ohayon’s
  • Meyuhas – lawyer
  • Michael Ohayon* – lead character; divorced 20 years; lives alone
  • Motti – police
  • Mr. van Gelden- first murder victim
  • Mrs. Agmon – violinist
  • Nurse Nehama – from the Child Welfare Bureau
  • Nira+ – Michael Ohayon’s ex-wife
  • Nita van Gelden – single mother
  • Professor Livnat – art expert
  • Rimon – childhood friend of Michael’s
  • Ronit – girl who had broken Yuval’s heart
  • Ruth Mashiah/Zellnicker – Director of the Child Welfare Bureau, Izzy’s exwife
  • Sergeant Malka – friend of Tzilla’s
  • Sara – Ethiopian babysitter
  • Shimshon – forensic investigator
  • Sima – forensics documents lab tech
  • Sonia – ?
  • Teddy Kolleck – Mayor of Jerusalem
  • Theo van Gelden – conductor; brother of Nita
  • Theodore Herzl – friend of the first murder victim
  • Tzilla+ – police
  • Van Gelden – neighbor in Michael’s apartment building
  • Yaffa+ – part of the forensic team
  • Yehudi Menvahin – ?
  • Yosefa – Tzilla’s child
  • Yuval – Dora’s student
  • Yuval Ohayon+ – Michael Ohayon’s son
  • Yvette+ – Michael Ohayon’s older sister
  • Zippo – older police officer
  • Zisowitz – orchestra manager

(* = main character; ? = name was mentioned only once, + = has been mentioned in several Gur mysteries)

So continues the murder mysteries of Israeli policeman Michael Ohayon. It has been two years since our last adventure with him. In the meantime he has been away from the force, studying law. Upon his return he becomes entangled in a murder with a family twist. Murder Duet starts with Ohayon wanting to spend a quiet holiday alone, listening to music in his apartment. His solitude is broken when he hears the cries of an infant in the basement of his apartment building. Abandoned in a cardboard box the baby girl is barely a month old and for some reason Ohayon takes it upon himself to care for the newborn. This gives Gur an opportunity to show Ohayon’s sensitive side and reveal some of his personality outside of work. After finding the baby Ohayon meets his neighbor, Nita van Gelden, and develops a relationship with her. That relationship is compromised when Nita’s father and brother are murdered and Ohayon is on the case.

Out of all the Gur mysteries I have read this one was my favorite. Even though the character list was extensive I felt it was more manageable than in previous stories. It was refreshing that not everyone had a name or detailed history. Some characters were just “young woman” or “fat Russian.” Past Gur books have included a detailed description of an autopsy. This one has a play by play of how a polygraph test works. There is no doubt Gur does her homework!

Line I liked, “When you want something, anything, so much you become easy prey to anyone” (p 82).

BookLust Trivia: from Book Lust To Go in the chapter called “Crime is a Globetrotter: Israel” (p 61).

Middle of the Night

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Stolar, Daniel. The Middle of the Night. New York: Picador, 2003.

Reason read: last series of short stories in honor of June being short story month.

Nancy Pearl drew attention to only two stories within The Middle of the Night by Daniel Stolar, “Jack Landers is My Friend” and “Marriage Lessons” so those will be the only two stories I review here.

Jack Landers is My Friend – a coming of age story told from the now-adult Jack Landers. He has a sad tale about growing up not quite fitting in anywhere. Jewish geek not quite athletic enough for the two spot minimum. He has always been too shy to stand up for himself even when the girl of his dreams is right in front of him. This could be the quintessential “the girl who got away” story but, fear not, there is triumph as well.

Marriage Lessons – a young woman faces losing her mother to cancer, getting married and finding the father she never knew. Each monumental event brings her closer to understanding her own issues with trust and what it means to let go. Best line, “I knew that I had cut him deep, had made him strike out and, almost in exasperation, counter my venom with some of his own” (p 146).

Author fact: Stolar is a Harvard graduate.

Book trivia: there are eight short stories within The Middle of the Night.

BookLust Twist: from More Book Lust in the chapter called “Good Things Come in Small Packages” (p 103).

July with a Bang

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Switching it up a little for July. I removed the Cotterill series since I didn’t get to the first book in May. I also removed the other books I didn’t get to even start. I think I was too ambitious with the June books! I’ll have to make sure everything I didn’t read is all on the list for next year. Ugh. Anyway, here is the tremendous list (July’s books in bold):

  1. Dragon Reborn by Robert Jordan (DNF)
  2. In a Strange City by Laura Lippman
  3. By a Spider’s Thread by Laura Lippman (AB)
  4. Recognitions by William Gaddis (DNF)
  5. Maus by Art Spiegelman
  6. Lady Franklin’s Revenge by Ken McGoogan
  7. Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao* by Junot Diaz (AB)
  8. Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson
  9. Eugene Onegin by Alexander Pushkin
  10. Shadow Rising by Robert Jordan
  11. A Good Doctor’s Son by Steven Schwartz
  12. Drinking: a Love Story by Caroline Knapp
  13. Ancient Rome on 5 Denarii a Day by Philip Matyszak
  14. Nero Wolfe Cookbook by Rex Stout
  15. Treasure Hunter by W. Jameson (ER)
  16. Maus II by Art Spiegelman (Jan)
  17. The Dew Breaker by Edwidge Danticat (AB)
  18. In Xanadu by William Dalrymple
  19. The Assault by Harry Mulisch
  20. Wild Blue by Stephen Ambrose
  21. Shot in the Heart by Mikal Gilmore
  22. Greater Nowheres by David Finkelstein/Jack London
  23. Alma Mater by P.F Kluge
  24. Old Man & Me by Elaine Dundy
  25. Dud Avocado by Elaine Dundy
  26. Good Life by Ben Bradlee
  27. Underworld by Don DeLillo
  28. Her Name Was Lola by Russell Hoban
  29. Man Who Was Thursday by GK Chesterton
  30. Fires From Heaven by Robert Jordan
  31. Finnegan’s Wake by James Joyce DNF
  32. Herb ‘n’ Lorna by Eric Kraft
  33. Polish Officer by Alan Furst – (AB)
  34. Lord of Chaos by Robert Jordan
  35. Walden by Henry David Throreau
  36. Reservations Recommended by Eric Kraft
  37. Selected Letters of Norman Mailer edited by J. Michael Lennon – (ER)
  38. Chasing Monarchs by Robert Pyle
  39. Saturday Morning Murder by Batya Gur
  40. Bebe’s By Golly Wow by Yolanda Joe
  41. Lives of the Muses by Francine Prose
  42. Broom of the System by David Wallace
  43. Crown of Swords by Robert Jordan
  44. Little Follies by Eric Kraft
  45. Literary Murder by Batya Gur
  46. Bob Marley, My Son by Cedella Marley Booker (ER)
  47. Night Flight by Antoine de Saint-Exupery
  48. Southern Mail by Antoine de Saint- Exupery
  49. Measure of All Things, the by Ken Alder (AB)
  50. Two Gardeners by Emily Wilson
  51. Royal Flash by George Fraser
  52. Binding Spell by Elizabeth Arthur
  53. Crown of Swords by Robert Jordan (DNF)
  54. ADDED: Castle in the Backyard by Betsy Draine (EB)
  55. Path of Daggers by Robert Jordan (DNF)
  56. Where Do You Stop? by Eric Kraft
  57. Everything You Ever Wanted by Jillian Lauren (ER)
  58. Murder on a Kibbutz by Batya Gur
  59. Flash for Freedom! by George Fraser
  60. Murder in Amsterdam by Ian Buruma
  61. Petra: lost city by Christian Auge
  62. From Beirut to Jerusalem by Thomas Friedman
  63. Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese
  64. Flashman at the Charge by George MacDonald Fraser
  65. What a Piece of Work I Am by Eric Kraft
  66. Castles in the Air by Judy Corbett (Originally Jun – moved to September. I’ll explain the reason in the book review)
  67. Battle Cry of Freedom by James McPherson
  68. Ruby by Cynthia Bond (ER)
  69. Winter’s Heart by Robert Jordan (DNF)
  70. Crossroads of Twilight by Robert Jordan (DNF)
  71. Flashman in the Great Game – George MacDonald Fraser (Jul)
  72. At Home with the Glynns by Eric Kraft (Jul/Feb)
  73. Sixty Stories by Donald Barthelme (Jul)
  74. New Physics and Cosmology by Arthur Zajonc (Jul)
  75. Grifters by Jim Thompson (Jul)
  76. Complete Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle (Jul)Removing because it’s in the wrong year.
  77. Snow Angels by James Thompson (Jul/AB)
  78. ADDED: So Many Roads: the life and Times of the Grateful Dead by David Browne (ER/AB/JUN-JUL)
  79. Short story: Drinking with the Cook by Laura Furman
  80. Short Story: Hagalund by Laura Furman
  81. ADDED: Lone Pilgrim by Laurie Colwin
  82. Not so Short story: The Last of Mr. Norris by Christopher Isherwood
  83. Not so Short story: Goodbye to Berlin by Christopher Isherwood
  84. Leaving Small’s Hotel by Eric Kraft (Aug/Feb)
  85. Flashman’s Lady by George MacDonald Fraser (Aug)
  86. Possession by AS Byatt (Aug)
  87. In the Footsteps of Ghanghis Khan by John DeFrancis (Aug)
  88. What Just Happened by James Gleick (Aug)
  89. Game of Kings by Dorothy Dunnett (Aug)
  90. Inflating a Dog by Eric Kraft (Sep/Feb)
  91. Flashman and the Redskins by George MacDonald Fraser (Sep)
  92. Queens’ Play by Dorothy Dunnett (Sep)
  93. Robber Bride by Margaret Atwood (Sep)
  94. Mysterious Affair at Styles by Agatha Christie (Sep)
  95. Beautiful Struggle by Ta-Nehisi Coates (Sep)
  96. Then She Found Me by Elinor Lipman (Oct)
  97. Disorderly Knights by Dorothy Dunnett (Oct)
  98. Flashman and the Dragon by George MacDonald Fraser (Oct)
  99. Dark Hills Divide by Patrick Carman (Nov)
  100. Flashman and the Mountain of Light by George MacDonald Fraser (Nov)
  101. Pawn in Frankincense by Dorothy Dunnett (Nov)
  102. Andorra by Peter Cameron (Nov)

DNF = Did Not Finish; AB = Audio Book; ER = Early Review; DNS = Did Not Start; EB = Electronic book

Berlin Stories

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Isherwood, Christopher. The Berlin Stories. New York: New Directions, 2008.

If we want to be technical about it, The Berlin Stories is actually two novels in one. The first, Mr. Norris Changes Trains (American title: The Last of Mr. Norris) is just under 200 pages while Goodbye to Berlin is just over (207). The Last of Mr. Norris contains the famous line, “I am a Camera with its shutter open, quite passive, recording, not thinking” (p 1). Even though both stories are connected, I will review each story on its own.

The Last of Mr. Norris – Mr. Norris is a mysterious man. Wealthy one minute, impoverished the next. A sexual deviant with prim and proper manners. Shady friends. He is the focal point and the most developed character of The Last of Mr. Norris. Indeed, Isherwood wanted his readers to focus solely on the character of Mr. Norris throughout the entire novel. The subtleties of this complex character needed to be teased out somehow. Isherwood found that vehicle through the first person narrative of Norris’s English friend, William Bradshaw. From Bradshaw you learn there is something sinister and cunning yet beguiling about Norris. The only other “character” is Berlin in the 1930s. Hitler is beginning to gain power. Communism. Spies. Alliances. Blackmail. How Norris moves through this world is what makes the story interesting.

Goodbye to Berlin – Isherwood explained that in order to have the reader truly focus on Norris every other character needed to be culled from The Last of Mr. Norris. In Goodbye to Berlin those orphaned characters have found a home. Characters like Sally Bowels, Frl. Schoeder, Otto Nowak, and Peter —-. As an aside, the composition of Goodbye to Berlin is a little different from The Last of Mr. Norris. This time the chapters are titled: A Berlin Diary (1930), Sally Bowles, On Ruegen Island (Summer 1931), The Nowaks, The Landauers, and A Berlin Diary (Winter 1932 -3). Favorite lins, “With a mere gesture of wealth he could alter the whole course of our lives” (p 48) and “The political moral is certainly depressing: these people could be made to believe in anybody or anything” (p 90).

Author fact: Isherwood confessed The Berlin Stories was based heavily on the diary he kept during his four years in Berlin.

Book trivia: Armistead Maupin wrote the introduction to Berlin Stories.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust in the chapter called “100 Good Reads, Decade by Decade: 1940s” (p 177). Also from Book Lust to Go in the chapter called simply, “Berlin” (p 36). I should note that I feel slightly tricked. Pearl mentioned The Berlin Stories was comprised of The Last of Mr. Norris and Goodbye to Berlin but I thought she meant they were short stories. Oops! The good news is a result of this error I was actually able to cross three titles off my list because they were all listed in the index.

Drinking with the Cook

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Furman, Laura. Drinking with the Cook. Houston: Winedale Publishing, 2001.

Reason read: June is national short story month.

Drinking with the Cook – Peggy and Don have a weird relationship. While they have been dating and seem quite serious they never really discuss anything of importance. Right away you can tell they aren’t meant to be together, especially when Peggy gives up her city apartment to live with Don in the country. She doesn’t even know if he wants her there. She is a fish out of water but blind to how wrong the situation really is. Best line: “I wish there was a way to bank fear and draw on it only when necessary” (p 19).

Hagalund – is a story for which I needed a map to guide me. Miriam, while on vacation in Colorado with her husband and son, reminisces about her time as a single girl spending a winter in Sweden. It’s during the Vietnam War, a time when no one trusted anyone else – not completely. Favorite quote: “But now that was over, and I was waiting for the next thing to happen though it was happening already” (p 155).

Author fact: Furman has her own website here: Laura Furman.

Book trivia: There are eleven other stories in Drinking with the Cook.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust in the chapter called “Good Things Come in Small Packages” (p 103).

What a Piece of Work I Am

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Kraft, Eric. What a Piece of Work I Am (a Conflabulation). New York: Crown Publishers, Inc. 1994.

Confessional: I am growing tired of Kraft’s wittiness. Even though each Peter Leroy book is nothing like the others, there is a certain repetition of cunning that is wearying. Case in point: Ariane Lodkochnikov is the subject of What a Piece of Work I Am only Peter has admitted she is the sister of his imaginary friend. Tricky. Tricky because Ariane made an appearance in the previous Leroy story as a childhood crush. Now they are older and Ariane wants Peter to help tell her life story. In telling her story Peter reinvents her a second time (hence the title of the book). But! She’s supposed to be dead as well as imaginary. I have no imagination for this. Odd, I know. Probably the most interesting part to What a Piece of Work I Am is how Kraft incorporates Leroy’s grandparents back into the story. They have an imaginative story as well. Peter’s grandmother is dying of pancreatic cancer but has always wanted to sail to Rarontonga. With the help of Ariane, Peter’s grandfather gives his wife her wish in fantasy form.

Reason read: to continue the series started in February, honoring Kraft’s birth month.

Author fact: I am running out of things to say about Eric Kraft. According to the internet he was born in 1944.

Book trivia: Curious to note: Ariane creeps around the construction site of a resort much in the same way Peter explored his high school while it was being built.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust in the chapter called “Eric Kraft: Too Good To Miss” (p 141). Like all the others, I might add…

Flashman at the Charge

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Fraser, George MacDonald. Flashman at the Charge. New York: Alfred A Knopf, 1973.

Are you paying attention? By now we are up to the fourth installment of papers owned by Mr Paget Morrison. As a reminder, Harry Flashman is the bully in Tom Brown’s Schooldays. To bring the reader up to speed, the first three packets of papers revealed Flashy’s early military career, his involvement in the 1st Afghan War, his run-in with Otto Bismark (& Lola Montez), and his escapades as a slaver in West Africa. At the end of the last packet of papers Flashman’s wife, Elspeth, was pregnant with their(?) son. Flashman admits he’s not sure it’s his, especially after he catches his wife with a lover.
In the fourth installment the year is now 1854 and this time Flashy has been appointed as special guardian to Prince William of Celle during the Crimean War. His son, Harry Albert Victor (aka “Havvy”) is five years old. I don’t think I am giving anything away when I say Flashman is taken prisoner and makes an interesting deal with his captor. The outcome of that deal is not revealed in Flashman at the Charge. Maybe in the next installment?
George MacDonald Fraser calls himself the “editor” of this packet of papers and admits he only corrected spelling and added necessary footnotes (and there are a lot of them, as always).I have to admit, I’m still not used to the downright silliness of Fraser’s writing. Case in point – in the heat of battle Flashman has gas, “I remember, my stomach was asserting itself again, and I rode yelling with panic and farting furiously at the same time” (p 105). What I liked the best about this set of papers is that there is someone who sees through Flashman’s cowardice (finally!).

Reason read: to continue the series started in April (Fraser’s birthday).

Author fact: Fraser has been called a “comic novelist”. His writing is funny, I have to admit.

Book trivia: Interesting tidbit: the back flap ends with this statement, “Read Flashman at the Charge and you’ll understand his international reputation as:” That’s it. They leave you hanging.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust in the chapter called “George MacDonald Fraser: Too Good To Miss” (p 93). I have to note that Nancy Pearl called this Flash at the Charge (both within the chapter and in the index) when it should be Flashman.