Tag: memoir

Out of Africa

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Dinesen, Isak. Out of Africa. Modern Library, 1992.

Reason read: Karen (Isak) Blixen Dinesen was born on April 17th, 1885. Read in her honor. I also needed a book for the Portland Public Library Reading Challenge in the category of a book with a bird on the cover.

Karen (Isak) Christenze Dinesen von Blixen-Finecke was a woman well ahead of her time. There is no denying her courage, independence, intelligence and strength. To be a Danish woman living alone on a four thousand acre coffee plantation in the early 1900s takes fortitude. Her famous memoir, Out of Africa, covers her adventurous life in Kenya from 1914 to 1931. Whether it is keeping a pet antelope named Lulu, being caught in the middle of a shooting tragedy, or being at the bedside of a dying Kikuyus chief, Dinesen seems to have a deep understanding of, and respect for, her surroundings. She understood the cultures of the tribes with whom she lived. Agreeing with Kikuyus custom of not burying their dead and letting the African wilderness take care of their remains is one such example. She was respected within the tribal communities.
Personally, the elephant in the Out of Africa room was who was the real squatter on this plantation. Dinesen acknowledged that the squatters (who she employed) were born there, and their fathers’ fathers before them. Instead of saying the land is their birthright she states, “they likely regarded me as sort of a superior squatter on their estate” (p 10). Note the use if the word likely. Dinesen, being from Denmark, technically had no right to claim the land as inheritably hers. By the end of Out of Africa she came to a different conclusion by saying, “It is more than their land that you take from the people, whose Native land you take” (p 385). This, as she was returning to Denmark and leaving her squatters to displacement.

Author fact: Dinesen married her second cousin but divorced him in 1921. She then took a lover until his untimely death in 1929. I appreciated the fact that Karen kept this personal part of her life out of the pages of Out of Africa. As a memoir about Kenya, her romances, failed or otherwise, had nothing to with it.

Book trivia: Out of Africa has been called a masterpiece. I would have to agree, but I would have liked to see at least one photograph besides the author photograph on the back flap of the book. Confessional: I wanted to see Denys’ face so I Googled him.

Natalie Merchant degree of separation: there is a section of Out of Africa where Dinesen discusses the killing of elephants for their ivory tusks. the entire time I was reading the passage I kept hearing the 10,000 Maniacs song, “Hateful Hate” and the line “Curiosity spilled the blood of these for their spotted skins and ivory.” If you know the song, you can hear the chains being dragged continuously through the whole song.

Quotes to quote, “It is a moving thing to work together with a demon” (p 40), “There is something strangely determinate and fatal about a single shot in the night” (p 93),

Playlist: Beethoven’s Piano Concerto in G Major.

Nancy said: since Pearl mentions Out of Africa three times, it is safe bet to say she liked it. There is a part of me, however, that wonders if she brings it up because it is a classic and, well, easy to include.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust in the chapter called “Dreaming of Africa” (p 76) and again in Book Lust To Go in the chapters called “Africa: the Greenest Continent” (p 7) and “Kenya” (p 122).

Unexpected Light

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Elliot, Jason. An Unexpected Light: Travels in Afghanistan. Picador Press,

Reason read: Victory Day in Afghanistan was on April 28th.

Elliot writes about Afghanistan with a passion that takes you along with him. You can practically smell and see the shops where one can buy shampoo, faux leather watch straps, sticky honey, blank staring heads of goats, army green grenades, prayer carpets, cooking pots, rotting vegetables, astringent medicine, wooly socks, or steel rockets…anything to suit your needs. His mission? To prove to the world that is was possible to travel alone in the places others shunned. (As an aside, what does he think of our world now? It is still possible?)
Besides passion, Elliot also writes with lyrical elegance. His statement about time being a river was stunning. It left me pondering my fishing abilities for days. Words like spectral, silent, ghostly, and luminous describe a simple ride through town, but those words also make the journey extra eerie and dangerous. He takes this imagery a step further by adding a touch of royalty by saying they are “kings in the night on our wild chariot” (p 47). It is a romantic image in a dangerous town for Elliot and his companion are out after curfew and could be shot on sight.
Speaking of danger, the section on the diabolical designs of landmines was difficult to read. I cringed as I read about explosives that were made out of plastic so that they would avoid detection by x-ray in a victim’s body. Or mines that “jumped in the air to about the height of a man’s groin before exploding” to cause a man the most damage and bleed to death…I could go on. My favorite section was when Elliot needed to distract himself from paralyzing fear. He fantasized about riding on the back of a giant fantastical simurgh and seeing with landscape from high above.
Elliot met with people with eyes open; people who supported the Taliban and even defended their actions, pointing out how order has been restored. Perception is truth to most people.
Personal observations: Can you imagine receiving a fax from someone chatting about curtain colors after you have been in the center of incoming tank rounds? It sounds inane.
When Elliot described people ripping off parts of Russian tanks and selling them for scrap I instantly thought of the opening scene to one of the Star Wars movies.
As an aside, I would understand why Elliot would want a guide traveling through unknown territories, but why does he need someone to sherpa (my verb) all his crap, too?

I mentioned before how elegant and lyrical Elliot’s writing is. Here are other examples: a brilliant description of a mood change, “…fell across my feelings” (p 208) or the removal of an ammunition belt, “slithering to the floor like an anaconda” (p 233). When Elliot described a ride in an overburdened vehicle struggling up a steep and windy mountainside I felt his fear as if I were right beside him. Here is another quote of brilliance, “Fear has its own seductive language” (p 265).

One degree of separation from Natalie Merchant moment: When describing the mysterious world of Sufi mysticism Elliot compared it to the ancient tale of the blend men and the elephant. The same story Natalie set to music on her double album, Leave Your Sleep.

Author fact: Elliot has a very simple but cool website. There isn’t a lot of information about him, but it’s still cool. If I could meet Elliot I would ask him if Beat ever read his book and if so, did he recognize himself as the one with the idiotic smile?

Book trivia: An Unexpected Light was the winner of the Thomas Cook/Daily Telegraph Travel Book Award.

Music: Mir Fakhruddin, Pavarotti’s Nessun dorma, and Puccini.

Nancy said: Pearl called An Unexpected Light perceptive and exciting.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust in the chapter called “The Islamic World” (p 126).

Poker Face

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Lederer, Katy. Poker Face: a Girlhood Among Gamblers. Crown Publishers, 2003.

Reason read: Chris Ferguson is a famous American professional poker player who celebrates his birthday in April.

To be honest, I am not sure what to think about Poker Face: a Girlhood Among Gamblers. I found Lederer’s short memoir to be incredibly sad. While she has reached critical acclaim with her poetry, I am left wanting something else by the end of Poker Face. I can’t put my finger on why or what is missing. I found everyone in the Lederer family to be depressing and I have to wonder what they thought of Lederer’s tell-all book. Dad was a teacher at a New Hampshire boarding school before authoring books on word games, while the rest of the family takes up gambling in one form or another (mom goes to work for her son). While on the surface, Poker Face is the personal memories of one woman’s coming of age, the story takes the reader deep inside the mysterious world of gambling in New York and Vegas; specifically the card game that made her siblings famous, poker. In truth, it is more a primer on the ins and outs of learning the game. I learned more about professional gambling then I ever thought possible. I had no idea someone wrote a book on “tells” – the mannerisms and facial expressions that inadvertently give away a player’s hand or next move.

As an aside, when Lederer’s mother goes on the gameshow, “Who Wants To Be a Millionaire?” I couldn’t help but think of the Oxygen taping of Natalie Merchant’s concert. The end result, what viewers at home saw, was nothing like what happened live in the studio. The magic of editing!

Confessional: if I saw my mother sitting in the dark drinking and crying, and playing solitaire I would be freaked out.

Author fact: at the time of Poker Face‘s publication, Lederer was not even calling herself a writer. She worked for a proprietary trading firm.

Setlist: the soundtrack to Alanis Morrissette, Bob Marley, Chopin, Copland, “Convoy”, Duran Duran, Elvis, Phish, Sinatra, and Tracy Chapman.

Nancy said: Pearl called Poker Face fascinating.

BookLust Twist: from More Book Lust in the chapter called “Me, Me, Me: Autobiographies and Memoirs” (p 162).

Walk of Ages

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Andersen, Withanee with Jim Andersen. Walk of Ages: a Generational Journey from Mt. Whitney to Death Valley. University of Nevada Press, 2024.

Jim Andersen made the journey from Mt. Whitney to Death Valley with three friends in 1974, back when he was thirty years old. They called themselves the Sandwalkers. Now, forty-three years later (in 2017) daughter Withanee wants to honor her father by retracing his footsteps across Death Valley as she turns thirty. She enlists the help of a coworker, her brother, and her boyfriend to accompany her on this epic journey.
With Walk of Ages only being 177 pages, and with a generous amount of photographs, the whole story can be read in one sitting. I definitely thought Withanee could have made it longer. There was so much potential for more. The landscapes are barely described in any detail. I wanted to know about their experiences besides a bum knee, blisters and beer. The different perspective of the same walk with memories from dad was interesting, but it would have been fun to have more narratives from others like Val or Shawn. What went through your mind when you kept making wrong turns and getting lost? What was it like to know you were going to propose to Withanee on this trip?
Confessional: I also want to know how many cases of beer the Sandwalkers Second Edition consumed on their journey. There seemed to be a never-ending supply on ice and I lost count of how many times they said they were motivated and/or powered by India Pale Ale! The craft beer scene has exploded since 2017. I am sure Withanee and Shawn have new favorites.
My only secret letdown was that Withenee and crew didn’t follow the original trip as faithfully as they could have. Withanee talks about walking in her father’s footsteps and while that was virtually impossible in some places, the Sandwalkers Second Edition took shortcuts to shave off miles wherever they could.

As an aside, as someone who participated in a three-day, sixty-mile cancer charity walk, I know all about the blister on blister phenomenon. The trick a series of treatments: Vaseline, moleskin, duct tape, double layer socks (Wright socks were my favorite) and cross trainers (Asics have always been my go-to shoe)…in that order. After that first year I never had another blister or hot spot.

Playlist: “Lookin’ for a Reason” by Creedence Clearwater Revival (their theme song), “Dem Bones”, and the National Anthem.

Book trivia: the title of the book is a play on the hymn Rock of Ages.

Last Resort

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Rogers, Douglas. The Last Resort: a Memoir of Zimbabwe. Harmony Books, 2009.

Reason read: Zimbabwe’s independence was won in April of 1980.

When President Robert Mugabe announced his plans reclaim Zimbabwe land from white farmers, it was not an idle threat. All across the landscape, white-owned properties and farms were first taken by decree then by force. People were arrested or even murdered and lives systematically destroyed, piece by piece and acre by acre. Douglas Rogers was born and raised in the Zimbabwe countryside with vibrant and industrious parents. His father had been a lawyer and his mother raised four children while writing a cookbook called “Recipes for Disaster.” Together they ran a game farm and tourist lodge called Drifters. By the time Mugabe was in office Ros and Lin’s children had grown and moved away. Douglas was a journalist in Europe. When Mugabe’s people threatened their property Douglas urged his parents to leave and when that didn’t work, he realized their struggle would make for a good memoir. By documenting the political strife on an extremely personal level, he would reach a wider audience and shed more light on the corrupt situation in his homeland. As the country slid into uncontrolled bankruptcy, Rogers’ parents struggle to keep their lives as normal as possible. Even when their resort was taken over as a brothel, their fields turned to pot (literally), and diamond dealers camped in their lodges. With shotgun in hand, they made light of the growing danger on their doorstep. How long can they keep their land?

As an aside, in my gluttonous life, I cannot imagine not being able to afford stamps and envelopes. I also couldn’t imagine bombs landing all around my house in the middle of the night and then to be expected to concentrate at school the next day.
As another aside, the resort Rogers’s family owned had a Friday night pizza bake. So did the show “Million Little Things.” So do I.

Playlist: 50 Cent’s “In Da Club”, Aretha Franklin, Bob Marley and the Wailers, Eminem, “Get Rich or Die Tryin'”, Hanli Slabbert, Jay-Z, Kanye West’s “Diamonds From Sierra Leone”, Kris Kristofferson, Macy Gray, Mos Def, Neil Diamond’s “Cracklin’ Rosie”, Puff Daddy, R Kelly’s “I Believe I Can Fly”, Snoop Dogg, Supergrass, Thomas Mapfumo, and “Yellow Submarine”. As an aside, “Yellow Submarine” has come up in two different books this month. Cool.

Author fact: Rogers has his own website (mentioned at the end of The Last Resort). Unfortunately, it does not have the photographs or video promised. Even the links to the podcast and ethics of visiting Zimbabwe are no longer available. I would have at least liked to see the frog that lived in the coffee pot. There is one video that still works and of course it is a promotion for the book.

Book trivia: There are no photographs in The Last Resort. Not even one of the frog. I was disappointed because at the end of The Last Resort Rogers gives the url for his website and promises photographs, a short film, and an update on his parents’ farm. Yes, the information would be old (Rogers finished The Last Resort in May of 2009), but I was hoping for at least photos.

Nancy said: Pearl called The Last Resort engrossing.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust To Go in the very last chapter called “Zipping Through Zimbabwe/Roaming Rhodesia” (p 268).

Traveling in Wonder

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Carolynn, Autumn. Traveling in Wonder: a Travel Photographer’s Tale of Wanderlust. Autumn Carolynn Photography, 2024.

Reason read: As a member of LibraryThing’s Early Review program, I often get to read interesting new releases. Also, for the Portland Public Library Reading Challenge, I needed a book in that fit into two genres. This fit the bill with being a memoir and a travelogue.

Traveling in Wonder presents itself as a memoir about a photographer traveling around the world. It is separated into four sections of Autumn Carolynn’s life: Study Abroad, Flight Attendant, Travel Agent, and Autumn Carolynn Photography. At the end of each chapter is a small selection of photographs from a particular trip. More on the photography later. Traveling in Wonder is an honest memoir, revealing situations of childhood bullying and adult mental health challenges. At times throughout Traveling in Wonder I found Carolynn immature (horsing around the Paris metro, sleeping in public places, drinking too much with strangers, leaving instead of clearing the air with travelmates, etc.), but then there are times her wise beyond her years travel savvy comes to the forefront and I am eager to know more. She was only twenty-two years old and brave enough to travel alone around Europe every weekend while in a study abroad program. I enjoyed her honesty and her writing showed signs of lyrical genius, but more often than not, I was suspicious that the whole thing had been written by AI or put through ChatGPT. Some phrasing just didn’t make sense. Here are a few examples: What exactly is a glorious satisfied defeat? Who has a personality like moonlight’s sparkling snow? How does hair become a heap of excitement? What does “bad times make up for the good” mean? How is a waterfall an eccentric beauty? How is rain designated? I just do not know many people who speak like this.
All in all, I enjoyed Traveling in Wonder although I would not recommend reading it on a phone. The photographs, a major draw of the book, were small and underwhelming when viewed on a phone. There weren’t that many of them to enjoy.

As an aside, how do you mistake a Jewish Synagogue for the Roman Colosseum?
Confessional: since she listed food and drink she wanted to try in each foreign country I wish she had written more about those experiences, especially when she decided to become vegetarian.
Contradiction: She claims to want to enjoy the silence in the new places she travels and yet, she listened to Bon Iver as she hiked around a lake.
Confessional: Caryolynn seems to get along better with guys than girls. I could relate. I was the same.

Setlist: Ann Wilson, Beatles, Blink-182, Bob Marley, Bon Iver, Death Cab for Cutie, Dropkick Murphys, Ellie Holcomb, Flogging Molly, George Harrison, Heart, Jack Johnson, John Lennon, John Mayer’s “Stop This Train”, “La Vie En Rose”, Mozart, Nancy Wilson, Paul McCartney, Police’s “Roxanne”, Ringo Starr, Shania Twain, “Strawberry Fields”, Sufjan Stevens, Trans-Siberian Orchestra, “Yellow Submarine”

As another aside, I thought the same thing when she mentioned “Irish” music and mentioned The Dropkick Murphys and Flogging Molly. As pointed out by another reviewer, they are bands from the United States. When Carolynn mentions the buskers in Dublin, I had to wonder if one of them could have been Dermot. That would have been cool.

In the Rose Garden of the Martyrs

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De Bellaigue, Christopher. In the Rose Garden of the Martyrs: a Memoir of Iran. Harper Collins, 2005.

Reason read: Iran celebrates its new year in March.

In the Rose Garden of the Martyrs made me want to travel through the Middle East if only to see the Rose Garden of the Martyrs, the seven thousand graves, each with a photograph of the dead man buried below. That must be an impressive sight.
Through riding in a taxi and listening to the radio De Bellaigue offers up a snapshot of current events: Saddam’s activities burning oil wells in Kuwait, Colin Powell’s outward facing response to send more troops in aground campaign without telling the public what that really means. And speaking of taxis, what is it about taxi drivers? They are by turns an opportunity for confession and a source of information. There are little Easter egg surprises within In the Rose Garden of the Martyrs. The mini explanation of Rumi’s birth into the world of poetry was one such treasure. The personal details of how De Bellaigue met and courted his wife, Bita. Speaking of De Bellaigue’s wife and in-laws, I had to wonder how his personal life with them altered his journalistic approach to writing In the Rose Garden of the Martyrs. The language was far more introspective and dare I say romantic?

As an aside, when De Bellaigue said some characters were a compilation of more than one person I instantly thought of Natalie Merchant’s Miss Tilly. Merchant created Miss Tilly from a variety of strong women she has known throughout her life.
As another aside, there is a point where De Bellaigue succinctly describes the premise of a show called “The Good Place.” Tell me if this doesn’t sound familiar, “At the end of our lives we must compile a log of our activities and present it to the authorities. Points are totted. Heaven, Purgatory, or hell; you go to one, and your performance on Earth determines which” (p 66).
Final aside, Here is the menu for a 1971 dinner in the ruins of Persepolis:

  • Raw camel (carpaccio camel?)
  • Stuffed quail eggs
  • Caspian caviar
  • Lamb with truffles
  • Roast peacock

Author fact: Christopher De Bellaigue has his own website here.

Playlist: Led Zeppelin, Tarkan, Ibrahim, Shirley Bassey, and Googoosh.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust To Go in the obvious chapter called “Iran” (p 108).

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.

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).

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.

Lost Kitchen

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French, Erin. Lost Kitchen: Recipes and a Good Life Found in Freedom, Maine. Clarkson Potter, 2017.

Reason read: because I was curious, plain and simple.

It all started with Finding Freedom, Erin French’s memoir about overcoming hardships to return to Maine and create one of the most sought after dining experiences in the world. It is truly a rags-to riches, triumph-over-tragedy, feel-good story. Finding Freedom led to me to television series, The Lost Kitchen and that in turn brought me to French’s cookbooks. Lost Kitchen (the cookbook) is gorgeous with just the right amount of memoir and menus. Photographs and recipes crowd nearly every single page. There is a bit of her biography in the beginning, but she glosses over the messy stuff in order to get to the endearing parts of her story: local girl comes home and makes her hometown a dining destination and here, she has shared some of her recipes with you.
Confessional: I am not interested in quail eggs, razor clams, or chicken livers. I can’t eat shrimp or grapefruit, either. What I did salivate over was anything rhubarb, fiddlehead, or parsnip. I was super excited to see the spicy tomato/tomatillo soup she made on one episode of The Lost Kitchen. She serves it as a summer soup, but I’m thinking it could even be a warm soup served with garlic croutons…

The Royal Road to Romance

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Halliburton, Richard. The Royal Road to Romance. The Bobbs-Merrill Company, 1925.

Reason read: Halliburton was born in January. Read The Royal Road to Romance in his honor.

The Royal Road to Romance opens with Halliburton’s Princeton days when the mere scent of apple blossoms could distract him from his studies. Indeed, he had an adventurous spirit from a very young age and was a self-proclaimed “horizon chaser.” Later he calls himself the “devil’s pet protégé”, unable to resist the call of the road.
Halliburton was a reckless adventurer. He yielded to illegal temptations all the time. He told a stranger he was “in quest of the pot of gold at the foot of the rainbow” (p 102). For some reason he and his roommate wanted to climb the Matterhorn so badly that they were willing to lie about their mountaineering experience and hide their lack of equipment. They traveled without an itinerary; going where the fancy took them. Halliburton made impetuous decisions – jumping off a train somewhere in Switzerland because he couldn’t get a sense of the countryside by rail, breaking into the gardens of the Generalife by scaling a wall protected by thorny rose bushes, or using lies to get where he anywhere needed to go. He told one farmer he was a horse doctor so that he could acquire a donkey. After he was arrested he told a guard he was a train robber and bigamist and then stole a copy of the Short History of Gibraltar as a souvenir of his penal adventure.
Other adventures include climbing the pyramids at night, swimming naked in the Nile, trekking to the city of Ladakh where only twelve white visitors are allowed each year (because he wants to see a town that practices polyandry) and climbing Mount Fuji in the offseason, just to say he did.

As an aside, Halliburton got me to look up the painting of Lady Recamier and the champagne, Paul Roget.

Lines I loved, “How many successes are plunged into failure by not letting well enough alone?” (p 87), “…we deliberately set about finding some way to circumvent our restrictions” (p 237), and “A common tongue is not vital to understanding when there is congeniality of spirit” (p 317).

Playlist: I only noticed Beethoven mention.

Book trivia: The Royal Road to Romance was dedicated to Halliburton’s Princeton roommates.

Author fact: It is my personal opinion that some of Halliburton’s escapades were greatly exaggerated. The attack of pirates and subsequent murders on the high seas was hard enough to swallow, but Halliburton’s reaction to it seem implausible.

Nancy said: Pearl said Halliburton’s books are a bit dated.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust To Go in the interesting chapter called “Where in the World Do These Books Belong?” (p 258).

A Full Net

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Daignault, Susan. A Full Net: Fishing Stories from Maine and Beyond. Islandport Press, 2023

Reason read: as a member of the Early Review program for LibraryThing, I occasionally review cool books.

Disclaimer: I have to say this upfront for the sake of being completely honest. I am not a fishing person. The last time I “fished” for anything, it was off the side of a 7′ skiff with my dad. We were dropping lines (complete with lead sinkers) for mackerel that were running in the harbor of Monhegan. I do not remember eating anything we caught, but I do remember winding up the line and the excitement I felt bringing up those beautiful speckled silver and blue fish. [As an aside, the general store used to smoke mackerel in a converted old fridge. They were delicious.]
Having admitted that I am not an avid fishing fan, it makes sense that I could not fully relate to Daignault’s acute passion/obsession for reeling in the biggest big one or the agony of the one(s) that got away. With the latter, I can only equate it to the pain of a DNF in the world of running road races. [There is nothing more embarrassing for a serious runner than a “did not finish” result attached to your bib number. But again, I digress.]
More importantly, because I am not passionate about fish when Daignault went deep into the fishing terminology I felt like she was speaking a foreign language. Luckily, she translates often.
Aside from fishing, as a person, I found Daignault to be an inspiration. She enthusiastically forged her way through what was considered a man’s world with fishing and her chosen career in the Coast Guard. She was the first woman assigned to the 180-foot buoy tender named Firebush in Kodiak, Alaska. Two years at sea in Alaska is no small feat!
Confessional: Beyond the fishing terminology I found A Full Net hard to read at times only because the stories are all over the place and have a chaotic timeline. One minute she is describing something from her childhood and then the story will jump to the 2020s. There is a bit of repetition I needed to battle as well (How many times could she say her family summered on Cape Cod where she had sand in her toes and salt in her hair?). It was if the chapters were written as stand-alone essays.
One last comment. The subtitle of A Full Net is Fishing Stories from Maine and Beyond. Because Daignault is so secretive about her favorite fishing spots, particularly in Maine, she could have titled her book Fishing Stories from the Southern Side of Pluto. I felt she mentioned other locals such as Costa Rica, Louisiana, Florida, the British Virgin Islands, Alaska, and Cape Cod just as often as Maine.

Book trivia: there is an abundance of photographs which add to the charm of Daignault’s story.

Finding Freedom

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French, Erin. Finding Freedom: Celadon, 2021.

Reason read: this was a gift from my sister. I read everything that comes from her, especially if it takes place in Maine.

To say Erin French is a fighter is an understatement. Let’s start with childhood with an mentally abusive father. I think about what kind of person I would be if, unless I was doing something for him, I never received honest love from my father. To watch him drown kittens would be enough to traumatize me for life. [That is the stuff of nightmares, especially if you are too young to understand the necessity of the act.]
Finding Freedom is not only a story of redemption, but one of tenacity. Coming from a small town is almost always seen as a curse. There is a stigma around being from Nowhere, America. You are considered a nobody if you can’t get out. Breaking free and escaping from your small provincial hometown to make it in the “real world” is always the unspoken goal. Erin almost made it out, but when she had a child out of wedlock and had to come crawling home to Freedom, Maine, it should have been a source of shame, but instead the act saved Erin’s life. Even though there were more adversities to come, her son Jaim gave her a reason to live, to fight, and to succeed. Because of him she was able to navigate a horrific (some would say diabolical) divorce, survive a bizarre custody battle for Jaim, conquer an all-consuming alcohol and prescription pill addiction, and find financial stability. She was able to break down every roadblock her ex-husband and her own demons put in front of her.
You may think I have given you spoilers for Finding Freedom. Believe me when I say I haven’t. There is so much more to Erin’s story. Read it for yourself to find out.

Book trivia: Each section of Finding Freedom is separated by a place in Maine: Hope, Unity, Prospect, Liberty, and Freedom. If people are not familiar with rural Maine they might think she is talking about something entirely different.

Quote to quote, “I didn’t want to live a life where dollar amounts dictated dreams” (p 52). Amen to that. My father always told me, do what you love and love what you do. If you live within the means of your passion you will never want for anything.

Playlist: Cesaria Evora, Billie Holiday, Miles Davis, Bette Midler’s “Baby of mine”, Stevie Nicks, the Sound of Music soundtrack, and Whitney Houston.

A House in Corfu

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Tennant, Emma. A House in Corfu: a Family’s Sojourn in Greece. Henry Holt and Company, 2002.

Reason read: in January 1981 Greece joined the European community.

So you want a house on the Greek island of Corfu? It is going to take a lot of work…as Emma Tennant’s parents soon found out. In A House in Corfu it is the 1960s and Emma’s parents have been entranced by a spot at the mouth of a mythological bay. Supposedly, this is the spot where Odysseus came ashore; where Nausicaa took him in. The Tennants decide to build a house they name Rovina. Emma Tennant’s romantic descriptions make Rovina sound like a fairytale when it was all said and done, but first there was the initial build where troubles naturally abounded. Water was difficult to find. (The search went on for seven weeks while the family relied on rainwater.) Supplies needed to come by boat from a tiny harbor and hauled up the countryside. Then there were the island politics to navigate. The locals used the land as shortcuts to fishing spots. Then there was the one time Tennant couldn’t return to London. Because of a military coup led by Colonel Papadopoulos the planes refused to fly.
Tennant pays tribute to other Corfu writers like Homer, Durrell, and Edward Lear.
While I enjoyed Tennant’s romantic descriptions, her parenthetic comments and run-on sentences were tiring.

As an aside, I love learning new things. I did not realize Greeks have siestas. dhen pirazei means never mind.

As another aside, I am fascinated by the Judas trees Tennant described. I was able to see one that was one hundred years old while I was in Rome. Unfortunately, it was not in bloom.

Lines I loved, “Greece has entered our blood by now, and we can no longer remember the cool summers back home or the precautions taken when embarking on a picnic or a day by the sea: waterproofs, cardigans, rug that may never be unrolled due to sudden, half-expected rain” (p 148) and “The sea is a great cleanser, of body and soul: to feel at first that you are entering the heart of a sapphire or an aquamarine, then to sink deeper into the water that has cold springs as refreshing as a subaqueous shower, is to know that you will come out transformed, like a creature in Ovid’s Metamorphoses, and begin the day again as if you had gone nowhere at all” (p 185).

Author fact: I found it interesting that Tennant does not mention a husband, only a son and friends that travel to Greece with her.

Book trivia: There are no photographs of Rovina in A House in Corfu.

Setlist: Melina Mercouri’s “Never On a Sunday”, the Beatles, Bob Dylan, Mick Jagger, and the Rolling Stones’ “I Can’t Get no Satisfaction”.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust To Go in the simple chapter called “Corfu” (p 70).