Tag: NonFiction

Ends of the Earth (Antarctic)

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Spufford, Francis (Ed.). Ends of the Earth: An Anthology of the Finest Writing on the Antarctic. Bloomsbury, 2007.

Reason read: Ernest Shackleton was born on February 15th, 1874. Read in his honor.


The Antarctic is a place of mystery. In The Ends of the Earth (Antarctic) Spufford curated a collection of writings so detailed you can almost feel the biting wind, blinding snow, and vast emptiness of snow-covered landscape. Like a siren, it drew explorers like Ernest Shackleton and Robert Falcon Scott to its icy region. What attracted these men to this forsaken place? Discovery. But, they weren’t the only ones fascinated with the South Pole. Historians, scientists, explorers, tourists, and naturalists have continued to flock to experience the Antarctic for themselves. We armchair travelers get to benefit from the words of writers like Amundsen, Mawson, Byrd, Ackerman, and Diski, to name a few, thanks to Spufford’s collection.
Confessional: I have always held a special place in my heart for the Antarctic. My father was stationed there on an ice cutter while in the Coast Guard. I have always known the gist of the Antarctic Treaty of 1961, but never really understood how it all came about. I like the idea of an ecological quarantine; a suspension of territorial claims for the sake of research.

As an aside, I am not a wine drinker (I prefer porters, stouts, sours, mezcal, and vodka. Thank you very much.). But! I did not know you are supposed to store wine on its side so that the liquid keeps the cork from drying out and ruining the wine. Who knew I would learn that from reading Ends of the Earth?

Quotes to quote, “There is something extravagantly insensate about an Antarctic blizzard at night” (The Blow by Richard Byrd p 114) and “In a strange world hardened by routine, the rub between the fantastic and the mundane creates a spellbinding itch” (p 188).

Author Editor fact: Spufford is a writer as well as editor. He has written quite a bit of fiction and nonfiction. I only had The Child That Books Built on my Challenge list which I read back on 2013.

Book trivia: Ends of the Earth (Antarctic) is bound with Ends of the Earth (Arctic). To tell them apart, one text is upside down.

Music: Elvis, “Blue Skies”, Glenn Miller, “Mood Indigo”, Beethoven, Pink Floyd’s “One of These Days (I am Going to Cut You Into Little Pieces”, Debussy, “I am a Little Teapot”, Haydn, and Bach,

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust To Go in the obvious chapter called “To the Ends of the Earth: North and South Pole” (p 230).

Ends of the Earth (Artic)

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Kolbert, Elizabeth (Ed.). Ends of the Earth: An Anthology of the Finest Writing on the Artic. Bloomsbury, 2007.

Reason read: Ernest Shackleton was born on February 15th, 1874. Read in his honor.

Straight away, as soon as you open this anthology, you know it is going to be different. The very first story is one of suspected murder. Was Charles Francis Hall murdered by Bessells? Hall’s biographer travels to the North Pole just to dig up his remains and perform an abbreviated autopsy. (As an aside, lethal amounts of arsenic were found in Hall’s body tissue…Food for thought.). Then there is the mystery of Robert Peary. Did he actually make it to the North Pole? We cannot forget that there are the humorous bits, as well. Rockwell Kent drew up a list of supplies for his time in the Arctic. It included a sketch of a young girl. Ask and you shall receive…[As an aside, Rockwell Kent was an artist who spent a great deal of time on Monhegan Island. I would have been his neighbor had I been born during his residence on the rock.]

Quote to quote, “Birds tug at the mind and heart with a strange intensity” (The Land Breathing by Barry Lopez, p 147).

Author Editor fact: Kolbert was a staff writer for the New Yorker at the time of publication.

Book trivia: Because there is a great deal of overlap with this book and others I am reading for the Challenge, I am opting to skip excerpts in Ends of the Earth.

Music: “Oh, Susanna”, “Napoleon’s March Across the Alps”, “Boston Burglar”, “Handsome Cabin Boy”, “Mr. Tambourine Man”, Marilyn Monroe’s version of “Diamonds of a Girl’s Best Friend”,

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust To Go in the obvious chapter called “To the Ends of the Earth: North and South Pole” (p 230).

Of Time and Turtles

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Montgomery, Sy. Of Time and Turtles: Mending the World, Shell By Shattered Shell. Illustrated by Matt Patterson. Mariner Books, 2023.

Reason read: my sister gave this to me as a Christmas gift. I have long since broken my rule about non-Challenge books, especially ones given to me by my sister. She is, after all, the one responsible for the Challenge in the first place.

If you remember (and it is okay if you don’t), my sister gave me another Sy Montgomery book called Soul of an Octopus. This time it is a book about turtles, my absolute favorite creature on the planet. Sy Montgomery and her friend and illustrator, Matt Patterson, spend some time volunteering with the Turtle Rescue League (TRL is not be be confused with the MTV show Total Request Live). This TRL is a Massachusetts-based organization with the sole purpose of rescuing and rehabilitating (when possible) turtles of all kinds. Think of Montgomery’s Of Time and Turtles as a love story; a memoir about her time volunteering with TRL making friends with people and rescued turtles instead of a scientific deep dive into the biological and physiological makeup of the species. She repeatedly falls in love with various snappers and sliders so much so that their stories become an integral part of the narrative. You want to know what happens to each and every rescue.
As an aside, Matt Patterson’s illustrations are fantastic.

As an aside, while I appreciated Montgomery’s openness surrounding transgender and transsexual people (she spent several pages on the topic), if she is going to talk about it, I would have liked to see her dive into the gender specifications and sexual preferences of everyone in her story: Cris, Matt, Michaela, Clint, Emily, and Heidi. I read a good blog

Author fact: Montgomery has written a plethora of books. The only other one I have read is The Soul of an Octopus given to me by, you guessed it, my sister.

Book trivia: Of Time and Turtles has a great collection of illustrations (by Matt Patterson) and a small section of photographs.

Music: Slayer, and “Sweet Home Alabama”.

Coal

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Freese, Barbara. Coal: a Human History. Perseus Publishing, 2003.
Freese, Barbara: Coal: a Human History. Narrated by Shelly Frasier. Tantor Media, Inc., 2005.

Reason read: February is Science Month.

From soup to nuts, this is the history of coal at breakneck speed (with some global warming/climate change lectures thrown in for good measure).
I will be one hundred percent honest. Before Freese’s book I had never really given thought to coal. It is an interesting topic. Every Christmas there is the joke about coal in the stocking and once in a while a coal mine collapse will make the news. I did know that it has always been a dirty fuel responsible for massive pollution in cities across the world like London and Pittsburgh. However, I don’t know anyone who burns coal for heat or locomotion. I don’t think I even know what a coal stove looks like.
After reading Coal readers will know there are different types of coal and their uses will vary. Historically, coal was used for making jewelry and as currency, in addition to being a heat and energy source. Once the dangers of mining coal were fully realized, companies put animals, children, and immigrant laborers to work in the mines. The illnesses and deaths resulting from working with coal were difficult to read. Despite being less than 300 pages, Freese reserves a good section of Coal for explaining the environmental repercussions of using coal. The statistics are staggering and eye opening.

Author fact: at the time of Coal’s publication, Freese was an Assistant Attorney General for the state of Minnesota. As an aside, I would have liked to have been a fly on the wall when Freese sat her husband down and said, “I think I want to write a book about coal.”

Book trivia: there are a few black and white photographs in Coal: a Human History.

Narrator trivia: Shelly Frasier sounds like a little like Dolly Parton. I have no idea why.

BookLust Twist: from More Book Lust in the simple chapter called “Science 101” (p 195).

Singing Creek Where the Willows Grow

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Whiteley, Opal. The Singing Creek Where the Willows Grow: the Mystical Nature Diary of Opal Whitely. Penguin Books,

Reason read: I was supposed to read The Diary of Opal Whiteley in honor of Oregon becoming a state in February, but it became too much of a pain in the ass to find the original. I settled for Singing Creek Where the Willows Grow and hope that it is considered a decent substitute. Another version is The Story of Opal: the Journal of an Understanding Heart. I will be 100% honest. I am not taking the time to learn of their differences.

Benjamin Hoff, author of The Tao of Pooh, was fascinated by Opal Whiteley. Indeed, Opal Whiteley was, and still is, a conundrum. Critics still want to know who is this child? By 1903, at six years old, Opal allegedly had written a masterpiece on paper bags and leaves and hidden the pages in a rotting log. Over one hundred years later she is considered a Cascadia pioneer who truly loved the land. In her precocious yet controversial diary, Whiteley concocted elaborate names her animals and wrote passages in French and Latin. She spoke to potatoes, gave funerals for mice, christened pigs, and listened to sap rising in the maples. She was frequently whipped by “the mama” (who she denied was her real mother), punished by teachers who didn’t understand her abilities, and was often lonely with only her beloved animals, a few neighbors, and the trees to converse with. She is forever thought of as innocence personified. Yet, to read her diary, it is full of intelligent joy. Even when she was weeding the onions, watching the baby, bringing in the firewood, washing the dishes, tending to the chickens, scouring the pots and pans, churning the butter, sewing, or sweeping the floor she was seeing to these chores with a certain level of cheerful lightheartedness. The controversy lies in the belief that Opal wrote her diary when she was much older. The only word I can use to describe Opal’s diary is sweet, even if it is fraudulent. The caveat to all this is that Opal Whitely was mentally ill. She was committed to a hospital when she was 50 years old and lived there until her death at age 92.
As an aside, obviously Opal got to Hoff as well. He tried on numerous occasions to see Miss Whiteley without success.

Quote I adored, “And when I grow up, I am going to buy her a whole rain-barrel full of singing lessons” (p 192).
Sweetest moment: Opal lost a toad in class. A classmate rescued the amphibian and returned it to Opal’s pocket without the teacher seeing a thing.

Author fact: Whiteley also write The Fairyland Around Us (1918) for children.

Book trivia: Opal’s story was published in serialized form in the Atlantic. Later, the Atlantic Monthly Press published it in book form as The Story of Opal: the Journal of an Understanding Heart. You can also find an online version from the University of Oregon.

Music: “”Ave Maria”, “Chant d’Automne”, “Gloria Patri et Filio”, “Nearer My God to Thee”, “Rockabye Baby”, and “Sanctus, Sanctus, Sanctus Dominus”.

BookLust Twist: from More Book Lust in the chapter called “Living High in Cascadia” (p 148). As an aside, I have no idea why this wasn’t in the chapter called “Child Prodigies” (from More Book Lust p 43). Even though there is skepticism that Whitely wrote her diary at age six, inclusion of her book would make more sense than The Man Who Fell to Earth.

Nine Year Cycle

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Jones, Trevor. Nine Year Cycle: a Memoir. Self Published, 2024.

Reason read: As a member of the Early Review program for LibraryThing, I get to review amazing books. This is one such book.

If I had to give Nine-Year Cycle a one word review it would be Grace with a capital G. Grace and civility, if I were to add another word to the mix. Trevor Jones writes about a theme everyone can relate to: love or rather the desire to be loved. At face value, Nine-Year Cycle is about Trevor Jones and his two great love affairs, each lasting nine years. Digging deeper, Nine-Year Cycle is a commentary on what it meant to be a gay man at the very start of the AIDS epidemic and later, the unpredictability of online dating. These are two very dangerous ventures for homosexuals.
Jones lost his first great love to AIDS. He handled the tragedy with a considerable about of grace. Thirteen years went by before he tried to find love a second time, this time on the internet. His second relationship was far more complicated, involving immigration and religion. I don’t think it is a spoiler alert to say I was nervous for him when he first met “Angelo”. The entire time I was worried it would be a scam; that Angelo had an ulterior motive. [As an aside, I watched a documentary on a serial killer who preyed on gay men by posing as a potential lover on internet dating sites. Scary stuff.]
Readers who want a happy ending will have to make their own judgement about Nine Year Cycle. Jones is far more forgiving than I could ever be.

Author fact: Jones is known for his theater work, but he has also done movies and television appearances.

Book trivia: because I had the e-book version that I was reading on my phone, I could not see the cover design.

Playlist: Jose Carreras, the Beatles, Duran Duran, Spandeau Ballet, George Michael, Mozart’s Alleluia from Exsultate Jubilate, and Stacey Kent’s “I’m Putting All My Eggs In One Basket”.

Case Closed

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Morgan, Paul. Case Closed: Ian Bailey and the Murder of Sophie Toscan du Plantier. Self-published, 2024.

Reason read: As a member of the Early Review program for LibraryThing I often review advance reader copies of interesting books. I wish I could say I liked this book more than I actually did.

Paul Morgan wrote Case Closed as a way to bring justice to Sophie Toscan du Plantier. He joins a long line of individuals who have written or speculated about the case. There is even a documentary on Netflix about the murder (which I have yet to see).
This is a murder case chock full of circumstantial evidence most of which pointed directly to Ian Bailey as the guilty party. Here is what we know: it is well documented that Bailey was a very violent man. It is on record that he put his partner in the hospital on more than one occasion. He lived very close to the victim but his whereabouts on the night of the murder cannot be positively confirmed as Bailey told too many versions of his activities on the night in question. Case Closed spends a great deal of time repeatedly sorting out the mountain of lies Bailey told. Morgan calls attention to these lies over 300 times (more than once every page).
By the end of the book readers know not much more than when they started. They know that the timeline of the murder does not make sense. We are told over and over again that the facts and circumstances do not add up. That much is true. The other truth to Case Closed is that it is obvious Morgan is a seething author. For whatever reason, this case is personal for him. He writes with barely contained sarcasm that is borderline unprofessional. He does not take an unbiased look at the facts, but instead repeats his speculations over and over again ad nauseum. The narrative is disorganized and clearly fueled by rage. Case in point, the questions he wants to ask Bailey’s lover. Morgan’s questions start unbiased then dissolve into accusatory and shaming. In all honesty, I would have enjoyed Case Closed if Morgan’s facts were laid out in an organized and unbiased fashion with less repetition.

As an aside, Ian Bailey was found guilty of Sophie’s murder by a French court (in absentia) in 2019. Because he could not be extradited, he never ended up serving time for the crime.
I have to admit, this book gave me pause. Were the people who were investigating this murder crooked? How did it become such a botched case? How does a bloody gate goes missing from evidence? Why were the claims of witness intimidation or evidence tampering not investigated?

Trekking in Shangri-la

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Seward, Daniel K. Trekking in Shangri-la: the Manaslu Circuit. Amazon, 2024.

Reason read: As a member of the Early Review Program for LibraryThing, I get to review interesting books. This is one such book.

A mere 90+ pages (including a few full-page color photographs), Trekking in Shangri-La is way too short. Seward could have gone on for a least a few more chapters about his adventures while trekking with his sister and brother in Nepal. Seward writes in such a humorous and honest way I was able to read the entire book in one sitting, but be forewarned – he does not delve too deeply into what he sees or hears along the trek. If you are looking for a serious travel book to learn more about Nepal culture, environment, or people this is definitely not the book for you. The photographs describe more than the narrative. Think of it as the private journal of a well off American experiencing the Himalayas for the first time with his siblings.
Confessional: I would like to know what beer Seward is drinking. 6% abv is nothing when it comes to craft beer! As an aside, I found Seward to be a bit immature. The feeling was strongest when he went looking to see if there would be a territorial squabble between the French and Germans over seats in the dining room, (and was disappointed when there wasn’t). The feeling grew when he was looking for people to bad mouth the French and bonding with them when they did. The entire group was like spoiled brats when they couldn’t get the ice cream that they wanted.

Author fact: Seward used to be a teacher.

Book trivia: Trekking in Shangri-La has some big, beautiful, colorful photographs. I would have liked to see more.

Setlist: Hank Williams’ “Hey, Good Lookin'”, Rihanna, and “Purple Haze” by Jimi Hendrix (confessional: I cringed when I saw Seward’s spelling of the genius’s name: Jimmy Hendricks. Obviously not a fan.).

Hunters in High Heels

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Rodriguez-Lopez, Omar. Hunters in High Heels. Akashic, 2025.

Reason read: This is a very overdue Early Review from LibraryThing. I think I was supposed to receive it in December or January. Nevertheless, it is here and I am glad I got to review it.

When it comes to photography books without narrative, I try not to dwell on the mystery. I am not one for trying to figure out what each picture means. I like to study the photography briefly and gauge my acceptance of them without thinking too much about the message (if there even is one). I can’t read the photographer’s mind, but after enjoying Hunters in High Heels, I came away with an understanding that Rodriguez-Lopez, as well as his subject matter, is complicated. Contrasts abound everywhere. The photography is at once obscured and detailed. Intimate and anonymous. Violent and gentle. Gritty and polished. Visions of chaotic and exhausting travel interspersed with brief moments of stolen stillness and respite. Boredom amidst busywork. Hurry up and wait. Timeless yet specifically incapsulated. The life and relationships of a touring rock band.
My favorite pictures were the ones that revealed the creative process at work. The mixing board, guitar pedals, mixed tapes, tools of the trade strewn across the floor in utter organized chaos. Drums in the shower!

Author fact: Omar Rodriguez-Lopez is a member of the band, Mars Volta.

Book trivia: Steph Celaya wrote the introduction.

Deep Work

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Newport, Cal. Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World. Grand Central Publishing, 2016.

Reason: professional development in 2025.

Newport may seem like he is giving advice that everyone should know, but it is much more than that. It is difficult to shut out noise and concentrate on one thing at a time, but if you can do it, according to Cal Newport you will be more successful. Did you know there is such a thing as a mental athlete? I had no idea there are some world class mental athletes out there able to memorize tremendous amounts of material.
As an aside, I am also reading Atomic Habits by James Clear and there is some overlap with the advice regarding setting up routines and developing rhythms. All good stuff!

Confessional: I had to look up where Alan Lightman spent his time writing. When Newport said it was a “tiny island” off the coast of Maine, I knew it was not Monhegan Island, but was still very curious. Not to disclose the location, I will say I knew people from that area (they have since passed).

Author fact: Newport has a plethora of material out there. YouTube, blogs, Wikis, you name it.

Lee’s Lieutenants: Manassas

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Freeman, Douglas Southall. Lee’s Lieutenants: A Study in Command, Volume One – Manassas to Malvern Hill. Arlington Edition, 1942.

Reason read: Robert E. Lee was born in January. Read in his honor.

Freeman opens the first volume of Lee’s Lieutenants by explaining why and how he started the study in command of the Civil War. He offers suggestions as to why other authors wrote the books they did on the same subject and how his is different. His version is a well-researched biography of major and minor personalities which includes a photograph portrait, a paragraph outlining the military success of each soldier, as well as an interesting fact, such as birthdays, birth places, who had a sense of humor, who had a lisp, who needed alcohol for motivation, and who had haunting eyes (and speaking of haunting eyes, I think “Stonewall” Jackson had beautiful eyes and I found Daniel Harvey Hill most attractive). Freeman used a myriad of sources, including journals, letters and previously published interviews. From these sources, he is able to provide minute by minute descriptions of each battle; of each mission.
One of the most fascinating details of Lee’s Lieutenants was the stark contrast between the assumption of a situation at Headquarters and what was actually happening on the battlefield. Glory seeking exaggerations abounded. Who could take credit for the success at Manassas is a good example. What was so sad is that despite the lack of communication, both Headquarters and the battlefield thought that the battle at Manassas would decide and end the war.

As an aside, I am constantly comparing American football to war. The similarities are endless: both have sides or teams, both wear uniforms to tell each other apart, someone is appointed captain or general to lead the battle, both have an offense and defense, both have “battle plans” and charge down the field, both wear protective gear to keep from getting hurt, both set up positions along the playing field. When a quarterback throws a ball it is often referred to as a rocket. Both have “blitzes”. When a player has a particular skill, it is referred to as a weapon (secret or not). In both football and war, a strategy is to inflict enough pain to take someone out of play.

Quotes to quote, “Involved as all this was, it might have been simplified if it had been understood. It was not” (p 55).

Author fact: Douglas Southall Freeman died nearly 72 years ago.

Book trivia: There is at least another 200 page book just of footnotes.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust in the chapter called “Civil War Nonfiction” (p 58). What Pearl does not tell you is that Lee’s Lieutenants: a Study in Command is not one 700+ page book. There are several volumes.

Travels of Marco Polo

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Polo, Marco. Travels of Marco Polo. Edited by Morris Rossabi. Sterling Signature, 2012.

Reason read: Marco Polo died in the month of January. Read in his memory.

Travels of the World or The Description of the World as it is known in Europe, details Marco Polo’s 1271 journey from Venice to China and back again. through Jerusalem, Armenia, the Gobi Desert, around the Sumatran coast and India and the Black Sea and through Constantinople. The sad thing is that Polo’s original work did not survive time. His exact words are lost forever. These days, more than one hundred versions of Travels of Marco Polo exist. Each version altered the details of the original and like a game of telephone, it is hard to tell what is true to Polo’s narrative and what has been embellished or exaggerated beyond recognition. The details are fuzzy and key figures and geography are confused. Nevertheless, the world owes a debt of gratitude towards fellow prisoner Rusticello da Pisa for collaborating with Polo to document the traveler’s exploits in the first place. There is no debating its influence. It is rumored that Christopher Columbus and Samuel Taylor Coleridge both were inspired by the travels of Marco Polo.
If you are going to pick up any version of Travels of Marco Polo, make sure you consider the version translated by Henry Yule (1971) and revised by Henri Cordier (1903) with the Morris Rossabi introduction and afterword. The maps by Karl Ryavec and Tim Collins are beautiful. You just have to get passed the “you must know” refrain that is common throughout the text.

As an aside: the more things change, the more they stay the same. In 1271 Marco Polo was given “Golden Tablets of Authority” which secured passage through a king’s dominions – a passport of sorts.

Favorite line, “But why should I make a long story out of it?” (p 245).

Author fact: Marco Polo was a mere seventeen years old when his father and uncle decided to take him on their next adventure.

Book trivia: Travels of Marco Polo is also known as Description of the World.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust To Go in the chapter called “China: the Middle Kingdom” (p 60). Interestingly enough, Pearl indexes the British version while I read the American version.

Diaries of Kenneth Tynan

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Tynan, Kenneth. The Diaries of Kenneth Tynan. Edited by John Lehr. Bloomsbury, 2001.

Reason read: Most people start a journal or diary in January; one filled with good intentions. This is in recognition of that practice.

What makes the diaries of Kenneth Tynan so fascinating is that he was a feared critic in his day but behind the scenes he was an insecure man. Outwardly, he didn’t suffer fools. Privately, even his diary entries could be scathing. The irony is that he would drop friendships when criticized…as if he couldn’t handle negativity aimed towards him. Underneath Tynan’s tough and snobby persona, truth be told, was a man who worried about appearances and cared what social circles accepted him. Example: he once did not want to attend a wedding because he did not have the proper attire, nor was he willing to rent the garb required. His diaries revealed an introspection and a strong desire to be loved by all. He loved to name-drop as if the glitterati of the day were his closest friends. In addition to being a running commentary on the who’s who of the day, Tynan tackled politics and even the philosophical concept of id, questioning what makes a soul. [As an aside, I have been bogged down by the word “my” for years. If your soul, body, and mind belong to “me” (my body, my soul, my mind), what or who is me?] His theory about Akhnaten is fascinating.
Overall, I found Tynan to be a sad individual. When Tynan’s wife reminds him of the declaration that his doctor warned against smoking – if he didn’t quit, he would be dead in five years (and he was), it broke my heart. Three years before his passing, as early as March 6th 1977, Tynan started writing about his funeral; what songs to play, etc. Diagnosed with emphysema, he was not in denial. He knew his time was limited. Like reading The Diary of Anne Frank I dreaded the coming end. Is it sacrilege to compare the two? Each journal entry nudged Anne and Kenneth closer to their demises.

As an aside, I was skeptical when I learned the Diaries of Kenneth Tynan only spanned the years from 1971 to 1980. He was born in 1927 so what happened to the rest of his diaries? Surely there was more to his life than nine years? Ah, but these were the most interesting of years!

Lines I liked, “…there is nothing more beautiful than the happy moments of unhappy men” (p 26), “Later I wrote her an appropriately corrosive letter” (p 77), and “You can accept the world; fight to change it; or withdraw from it” ( 380).
Phrases I liked, “radiant contempt” and “magnetic threat.”

Book trivia: the footnotes are helpful because it is basically a who’s who of celebrities and notables from the era. Tynan liked to name drop frequently. The footnotes also give further context or explanation to a vague comment. I have to admit they sometimes read like a gossip column, “so and so, the illegitimate child of so and so.”

Music: Adagio from Viviani’s Second Sonata for Trumpet and Organ, Al Jolson, Annie Ross, Bach, Barbra Streisand, Bartok, Beatles’ “A Day in the Life”, Benny Goodman, Carmen Miranda, Chevalier, Cohan’s “Give My Regards to Broadway”, Cole Porter, Charlie Parker, Danny Kaye, David Amram, Dinah Shore’s “Tess’s Torch Song”, Dizzy Gillespie, Earl Hines, Edie Gorme, Ethel Merman, Frank Ifield, George Brassens, George Harrison, Gershwin, Goosens, Gracie Feilds’ “the Biggest Aspidistra in the World” and “Sigh No More”, Harry Belafonte, John Lennon, Kalner-Ruby’s “Show Me a Rose”, Lena Horne, Leonardo da Vinci’s Trattato della Pittura, “Lobby Song” “Mairzy Doats”, “Melody in 4F”, Mozart’s Clarinet Quintet, Mick Jagger, Miles Davis, Nobel Sissle, Paul Desmond’s “Take Fire”, Puccini, Rodgers and Hammerstein’s “Flower Drum Song,” Ruth Etting, Salieri, Sandi Shaw’s version of “(There’s) Always Something There to Remind Me”, Schubert, Shostakovich’s 5th, Stan Getz, Steve Lawrence, “That Night in Rio”, and Wagner.

BookLust Twist: from More Book Lust from the chapter called “Journals and Letters: We Are All Voyeurs at Heart” (p 130).

Along the Ganges

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Trojanow, Ilija. Along the Ganges. Haus Publishing Limited, 2005.

Reason read: In India there is a kite festival that happens every January on Makar Sankranti. It is part of Hindu mythology.

Ilija Trojanow’s adventure along the Ganges unveils a mysterious culture of mythology and tradition in India. Traversing by boat, train, and on foot, Trojanow and his companion take in the sights, smells, sounds, and textures of the Ganges and surrounding landscape. Other reviewers are correct in saying Trojanow writes in such a way that you are right with him for every mile in India. There were times when reading Along the Ganges that I was reminded of Jeffrey Tayler’s journey down the Congo in Facing the Congo. Like Tayler on the Congo, Trojanow needed protection while navigating the Ganges. A startling difference was that Tayler seemed to have researched his journey more thoroughly than Trojanow. Whereas Tayler carefully plotted his course, Trojanow admitted that he let the current take his boat wherever it wanted (and that turned out to be a mistake).
Interspersed between Trojanow’s narrative about the Ganges, he tells the story of Shiva and Parvati, the legend of the dolphin, and the divide between castes. He meets a myriad of people from all walks of life.

Line that startled me the most, “Whenever the river branched we let the current decide our direction” (p 107). In theory, that sounds like a wonderful, lackadaisical way to travel but I was surprised by the lack of research.

Author fact: Trojanow also wrote Mumbai to Mecca which is on my Challenge list.

Book trivia: It would have been great to see some photographs in this short (127 page) book.

I did not think there would be any music mentioned in Along the Ganges. It is not like Trojanow and his companion traveled with a radio. But there was! Here are the reference to musicians: Britany Spears and Michael Jackson!

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust To Go in the chapter called “Sojourns in South Asia” (p 212).

Twice the Family

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McGue, Julie Ryan. Twice the Family: A Memoir of Love, Loss, and Sisterhood. She Writes Press, 2024.

Reason read: As a member of the Early Review Program for LibraryThing I get to read really interesting books. This is one I couldn’t put down.

Twice the Family is a narrative nonfiction about what it is like to grow up enduring circumstances, both unique and challenging. McGue tackles the emotional and psychological toll of what it means to be adopted in the 1950s. In those days, adoptions had their pros and cons. One good practice was keeping siblings together as much as possible. One mediocre practice was the well meaning but naïve practice of insisting adoptive parents match the orphan’s race and religion to eliminate too many questions later in life. One bad practice was to seal adoption records. A closed adoption meant people like McGue would never know the names of their birth parents or the circumstances surrounding their abandonment, for better or worse. In keeping with these practices, McGue was placed with a family with similar heritage, coloring, and religion. Her sister would go with her to this family but the twins couldn’t know anything about their birth parents. [In this day and age, with the progression of science and genealogy using DNA, McGue could probably get answers to her adoption questions, if she hasn’t already.]
McGue also delves into the mysteriously deep connection of twins, starting with what it must have been like to experience their birth. From their first breath together, McGue and her sister, Jenny, were inseparable. However, McGue doesn’t delve too deeply into the emotional repercussions of detaching herself from her twin despite their intrinsic bond. They even went to the same college and lived on the same dorm floor for a while. Only after they pledged different sororities did the twins begin to live unique lives.
While I thought Twice the Family was a highly entertaining story, I was distracted by McGue’s writing tic of ending chapters with ominous cliffhangers. After a while they reminded me of season finales of daytime television dramas. I know it is a play to keep the pages turning, but I was invested in her story without the dramatic teasers.

Author fact: McGue is also a columnist for the Beacher Newspapers.

Setlist: “All Are Welcome All Belong”, Neil Diamond’s “September Morn”, Pachelbel’s Canon, “Ave Maria”, “Happy Birthday”, “Frankie Valli’s “Love Will Keep Us Together”” and “You Are My Sunshine”.