Tag: NonFiction

March ’12 is…

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What is March 2012 all about? Hard to say . Or as they say on Monhegan, hard tellin’ not knowin’. Fitting I suppose for a reading project still in limbo. I’m still reading books off my own shelves and borrowing books from my own library. To those not in the know that sounds strange, but there you have it.

Here are the books I *think* I’ll be reading in March:

  • A Grain of Wheat by Ngugi Wa Thiong’o (baptized James Ngugi) ~ in honor of March being African Writers Month
  • Little Town in the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder ~ in honor of the Dakotas (series was started in January)
  • Band of Brothers: E Company, 506th Regiment, 101 Airborne from Normandy to Hitler’s Eagle’s Nest by Stephen Ambrose ~ in honor of March 4th being “Hug a GI Day.” Since I don’t have a GI to hug, I’ll hug a book about World War II.
  • Lord of the Rings: Two Towers by J.R.R. Tolkien ~ in honor of New Years (series was started in January)
  • Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte ~ in honor of March being National Literature month.

For the Early Review program for LibraryThing – I never got the February book so we’ll see if it comes in March…Incidentally, I just checked the LibraryThing website and I was awarded a March book as well. Now the race is on to see which book makes it here first.

Long Winter

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Wilder, Laura Ingalls. The Long Winter. New York: Harper Collins, 1971.

This is the weirdest thing. Maybe I am losing my mind but I cannot find a single blog that mentions The Long Winter by Laura Ingalls Wilder. I couldn’t find mentioning it on any To Read list (better known as “Is” lists. I don’t mention having read it after the fact (known as “Was” lists) and I certainly didn’t review it anywhere. Not here and not on LibraryThing. And yet. Yet, I read it. Yes, I really read it. I know I did. It was next in the series after By the Shores of Silver Lake. I read By the Shores of Silver Lake in November. If I had been keeping up with reading the series as scheduled I would have read The Long Winter sometime in December. Little Town on the Prairie would come next; slated to be read in January.

So, better late than never. The review-

When we meet up with Laura and her family in The Long Winter Laura is now 14 years old. The year is 1880 and it is the family’s first year in De Smet, South Dakota. Pa has learned that the upcoming winter will be a particularly brutal one and since his homestead isn’t finished he moves the family into town. Laura isn’t thrilled with this move. She likes the wide open prairie land. But, as the snow starts to fly and continues to fly, storm after storm, she and the family have more to worry about. When the trains cannot get through food and supply shortages start to occur. All housebound families have little to eat and find themselves on the brink of starvation. Keeping the house warm is another problem. In the end, Laura’s future husband, Almanzo Wilder, and a friend save the day by finding a supply of wheat that lasts the town through the rest of the long winter.

BookLust Twist: From More Book Lust in the chapter called “The Great Plains (The Dakotas)” (p 107).

February ’12 was…

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Considering the tumultuous way 2012 started February was a bit gentler and definitely easier to get through. I think celebrating a birthday definitely helped. It’s always good to have something to celebrate!
Here are the books read (or listened to) in February:

  • Mornings on Horseback by David McCullough ~ in honor of President’s Day (even though this had very little to do with Roosevelt being president of anything). This was an audio book and a real pleasure to listen to.
  • Bread and Jam for Frances by Russell Hoban ~ in honor of Hoban’s birth month. This was an oversized kids book!
  • Personal History by Katharine Graham ~ in honor of February being Scholastic Journalism month and this was all about Graham being involved with The Washington Post for nearly 60 years. This was a book left over from the Public Access to Library Services program.
  • Fellowship of the Ring by J. R. R. Tolkien ~ a continuation of the series that I started in January. I have two more books that I will read through March and April (Two Towers and Return of the King).
  • A Far Cry From Kensington by Muriel Spark ~ Another audio book that was extremely funny.
  • Flags of Our Fathers by James Bradley with Ron Powers ~ in honor of the day in February (the 23rd) that the American flag was raised on the island of Iwo Jima in Japan.
  • Blues Dancing by Diane Kenney-Whetstone ~ in honor of Black History month AND Valentine’s Day. Yes, it was chick lit, but yes, it was also very good.

For the fun of it I read Book Lust To Go: Recommended Reading for Travelers, Vagabonds, and Dreamers by Nancy Pearl ~ a gift from my sister.

I also did a little housekeeping and realized I never reviewed The Long Winter by Laura Ingalls Wilder. I’m not sure how that happened, but it happened. So, while I didn’t read it this month I am including it in the list.

Personal History

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Graham, Katharine. A Personal History. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1997.

Even though I categorized this as an autobiography it is not a traditional “my life” story. Instead, it is Katharine Graham’s personal history with The Washington Post first and foremost. She begins with a brief overview of how her parents met, when and where she was born, and her college years. This sets the stage for her increased involvement with the paper. From the time she was 16 years old, when her father bought the failing Washington Post at auction, until the end of her role as chairman of the board in 1991, 58 years of Graham’s life was immersed in making the paper a success. Raised without a strong mother-figure or adolescent role models Katharine Graham was a trendsetter for women in business. For her era, her rise to power was nothing short of remarkable. But, in addition what makes Personal History such a fascinating read is Graham’s unflinching view of her world. She does not hide the fact she had a strained and difficult relationship with her absentee mother. Her voice drips with contempt when she recounts her mother’s failed attempts at guidance in life. Graham addresses her husband’s mental illness and subsequent suicide in a matter of fact manner. She does not sugar coat the difficulties she faced being a woman of influence in a world traditionally reserved for the man of the house. Despite being born into privilege Graham exemplified the meaning of hard work and perseverance.

Favorite quote (but only because you can just hear the disdain in Graham’s voice as she describes her mother), “…she could often be found reclining with a book in her hand” (p 31).

Book Trivia: Personal History won a Pulitzer Prize in 1998.

Author Fact: Katharine Graham died in 2001 and is buried in one of my favorite cemeteries, Oak Hill, in Washington D.C.

BookLust Twist: From More Book Lust in the chapter called “The Fourth Estate” (p 92).

Mornings on Horseback

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McCullough, David. Mornings on Horseback: the Story of an Extraordinary Family, a Vanished Way of Life and the Unique Child Who Became Theodore Roosevelt. Narrated by Edward Hermann. New York: Simon & Schuster Audio, 2003.

I am really, really glad I chose this as an audio book. I don’t think I would have had the patience for an out and out page turning book. Don’t get me wrong. The writing is amazing. David McCullough can hold your attention like no other. The story in itself is extremely detailed and reads like a pool liner breaking – slow and trickling at first but by the end gushing out of control. It follows the lives of not just Theodore Roosevelt (the man we think of as President) but also the lives of his parents, siblings, and other important figures in his life. Indeed, the building up of Theodore Roosevelt’s childhood with his family is meticulous and yet his adult, political years and presidency are hardly touched upon with the same amount of detail. Those years are mentioned almost as an afterthought in the wrap-up.
What Mornings on Horseback is really good at is describing a culture; what it means to born into privilege. It is also really good at painting the complete picture of the Roosevelt clan from a genealogical perspective. The reader is immersed in the lives of everyone and not just the future president of the United States. From a listener standpoint I enjoyed every word.

Shocking moments: Theodore Roosevelt could be a violent man. According to McCullough Roosevelt once shot and killed a dog running beside his horse. Another shocking moment – learning TR lost his dear mother on Valentine’s Day and later that same day his wife (all of 22 years old) died as well. So sad!

I think the title of this book is misleading. Theodore Roosevelt was born Theodore Roosevelt so he didn’t become his namesake. I think it would have been more appropriate to say “…the unique child who became president.” Yes, Theodore had many nicknames (Teedee as a child) but he didn’t become Theodore Roosevelt.

Book Trivia: Mornings on Horseback won a National Book Award in 1982.

BookLust Twist: From Book Lust in the chapter called “Presidential Biographies” (p 192), and again in “What a (Natural) Disaster (p 242). Note: There are no substantial natural disasters in Mornings on Horseback.

February ’12 is…

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I feel like I should be singing that diet song that Jennifer Hudson sings – you know the one about it being a new day, a new dawn or a new whatever? Every February I see a chance to refresh, renew, in other words start the fukc over. Think New Years resolutions only a month late. But. But! But, I have my reasons. I was born in the month of February so to me, this month IS my new year. I shouldn’t be here so every year that I am is like starting over. But, enough about all that. Here are the books:

  • Bread and Jam for Frances by Russell Hoban in honor of Hoban’s birth month. I plan to read this on a smoke break. LOL
  • Personal History by Katharine Graham in honor of February being Journalism month.
  • Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer in honor of February being a big month for history.
  • Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R. Tolkien to continue the Lord of the Rings series that I started with The Hobbit last month.

I did get notification that I got an Early Review book from LibraryThing. That’s cool. What’s even cooler is that it’s a book about the Coast Guard. Having just come from an very, very classy veteran’s (air force) funeral for my uncle I am interested to explore the history of my father’s military branch.

Edited to make a correction: I misspelled Mrs. Graham’s first name as Katherine. My apologies.

I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell

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Max, Tucker. I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell. New York: Kensington, 2009.

If there really is a Hell down? there, those fated to that destination will have this book to read, over and over again. Seriously. How can I describe this thing? Honestly, in one sentence, it’s the escapades of a guy in his early 20s. Big deal. That’s it. Only this guy happens to be an alcoholic womanizer with money to burn and a posse like-minded friends to have tag along. The book is nothing more than a series of drunk-to-excess adventures hooking up with ditzy, drunk, trashy women. Sex described in minute detail. Reading it is like Bill Murray in Groundhog Day, only each story gets progressively worse and worse. Every misadventure is more and more exaggerated until you start to question the author’s grip on reality. Drink to the point of puking. Have outrageous sex with big chested blondes. Repeat. The most stupefying thing about this book is that not only was it born out of conquest-written blogs, but it was so popular that it was made into a movie. People love it (the blog, the book, the movie). Women (supposedly) throw themselves at Max and his crew at every chance they get. The more vile he is the more people adore him. His biggest dilemma used to be ‘which woman do I fukc?’ until he realized it didn’t matter. Both would have him.
I admit, there were parts of the book I giggled about. There were certain lines I had to reread because they were funny. Max does have a sense of humor. But, he can’t write. I spent more time cringing at the grammatical errors and implausible situations than anything else. Then, there is that repetition I mentioned before. I ended up skimming or even completely skipping parts if I thought they sounded too familiar (which ended up being half the book). The best thing about I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell is that I will be selling it back to the bookstore and getting my money back.

Zimmerman Telegram

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Tuchman, W. Barbara. The Zimmerman Telegram. New York: Viking Press, 1958.

I can only imagine how popular this book must have been in its day. The First Great War was not a distant memory at the time of its publication. In fact, the events of World War I were probably still fresh in everyone’s mind having just survived the Second World War. I know The Zimmerman Telegram was required reading for at least one political science course at my college.

Probably the most compelling thing about Tuchman’s writing is her ability to make even well-known history as compelling whodunnit mystery. Written as smoothly as a novel The Zimmerman Telegram recounts the events leading up to the United State’s involvement in World War I starting with a telegraph written by Arthur Zimmerman to Imperial German Minister in Mexico Von Eckhardt. This telegram was  proposing a partnership between Germany, Mexico and Japan to form an allegiance against the U.S. Intercepted by the British, it is important to point out that the U.S. was reluctant to join the war until provoked by this telegram.

The line that summed it all up for me (and was ironically enough on the first page),”Mute and passive on the paper, they gave forth no hint that a key to the war’s deadlock lay concealed in their irregular jumble” (p 3).

Disclaimer: I wasn’t supposed to read this until 2013 but I felt so bad about abandoning A Distant Mirror that I wanted to read something else by Tuchman before the month was over.

BookLust Twist: From More Book Lust in the chapter called “Barbara Tuchman: Too Good To Miss” (p 225).

Jan ’12 was…

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When I think about January I feel as though it was a month of waiting. Balancing between going somewhere and leaving something. Always on the verge of some destination I never could quite explain. I’m sure part of it stemmed from my uncle passing suddenly at the end of December. I knew there would be a funeral but when? Finally, when the date was set (1/27) it seemed so far away. Until it was 1/25 and I had to get on a plane to fly across the country. Then it seemed too soon. It was a push-me, pull-me month in all kinds of ways.

But, that’s for the other blog. Instead, here are the books:
For the Book Lust Challenge:

  • The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien in honor of First Month, First Chapter.
  • Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin by Benjamin Franklin in honor of Franklin’s birth month being in January
  • 84, Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff in honor of January being Journal Month. Okay, 84, Charing is not exactly a journal, but it’s like one.
  • All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy in honor of Celebrate Mentors Day (January 24th). I see Cole being a mentor to Rawling.
  • Midnight’s Children by Salman Rushdie in honor of January being a good time to visit India. To be honest, I didn’t get into it as much as I thought I would.
  • And speaking of books I didn’t get into – Distant Mirror by Barbara W. Tuchman in honor of Tuchman’s birth month. Okay, I admit it. I didn’t finish this one. Didn’t even come close.
  • Zimmerman Telegram also by Barbara W. Tuchman, because I was determined to honor her birth month with something!

For the hell of it I read The Gravedigger’s Daughter by Joyce Carol Oates, a recommendation from my sister. I also read A Simple Act of Gratitude by John Kralik on the flight from CT to CA. On the return trip I’m sorry to say I also read I hope They Serve Beer in Hell by Tucker Max. I don’t know how I’m going to write a review for that!

I didn’t read anything for the Early Review program for LibraryThing but I did receive notice on the last day of the month that I won a book for February.

A Simple Act of Gratitude

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Kralik, John. A Simple Act of Gratitude: How Learning to Say Thank You Changed My Life. New York: Harper, 2010.

My first “off schedule” read for 2012. Why? I was boarding a plane & heading across the country for a funeral. Flying + funerals = Frightened me lately. I needed something to distract me from the twelve plus hours we would be traveling. As for the who, what, where, when and why details I’ll leave them for another day and another place.

So, back to the book review. I chose A Simple Act of Gratitude because it looked like something I could devour on a cross-country flight. I was determined to start it on the east coast so that I could finish it and return it on the west coast. A Simple Act was that kind of book.

If you haven’t heard of this book the premise is simple: typical lawyer is losing his grip on the good life. He is going through a divorce, his company is failing and is about to be evicted, his girlfriend just broke up with him and his seven-year-old daughter has to sleep in his grungy, cramped, falling-apart apartment every time she comes to visit. He’s losing touch with friends and family because he has nothing good to say about anything or anyone. He’s even gaining weight. Then one day he has an epiphany and this is where I get a little confused. On the back of the book it describes how a thank you note from John’s ex-girlfriend inspires him to set out to write 365 thank you letters in a year, one for each day. That’s all well and good – to give the girlfriend credit – until you read page 17. On page 17 John is hiking alone on New Years Day when he is inspired by the memory of his grandfather and a story about a silver dollar and the moral of the story amounts to this, if you thank me for the silver dollar I just gave you another silver dollar will come your way. It’s that promise of “good things to come” that supposedly prompts John to write all those letters.
Regardless of who inspired John in the first place, the ex or the grandfather, amazing things do start to happen after John writes a few letters. It inspires him to write more and more and more. His life slowly starts to turn around. John’s journey to gratitude IS inspiring. He makes so many transformations you are prompted to put pen to paper yourself…just to see what happens.

Favorite lines, “I wanted to be more than another lawyer slinging hatred for a living” (p 13) and “I was way past the weirdness of writing a thank-you note to a cat lady” (p 58).

Distant Mirror

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Tuchman, Barbara W. A Distant Mirror: the Calamitous 14th Century. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1978.

Huge confession. Although many people called this a interesting read, I couldn’t get into it. I barely reached page 24 before I was groaning with boredom. It is obvious Tuchman writes really well and this isn’t a dry account of some historical beginning or tumultuous end, but I couldn’t get into it. At all. The premise is simple. Tuchman is comparing the 14th century’s turmoil (the Black Plague) with that of the horrors of World War I. Okay, it’s not only about that; Tuchman makes other comparisons between the 14th and 20th centuries, but that is mainly where the title gets its name. That’s as far as I got. Sad, I know.
I did manage to find one quote that I particularly enjoyed: “Nothing is known of this individual except his name, but once established on the hilltop, he produced in his descendents a strain of extraordinary strength and fury” (p 7).

Author Fact: Tuchman has a dormitory named after her on the Harvard College campus.

Book Trivia: A Distant Mirror has had a couple publishing reissues.

BookLust Twist: From More Book Lust in the chapter called “Barbara Tuchman: Too Good To Miss” (p 225). Obviously.

84, Charing Cross Road

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Hanff, Helen. 84, Charing Cross Road. Recorded Books, Inc., 1993. Audio cassette.

My first audio book of the training season! I have to start off with a confession. I didn’t expect 84, Charing Cross Road to be so funny. I don’t know if it’s the actual story or the way the actress reads it. Maybe it was the combination of both. I had some real laugh-out-loud moments.

The year is 1949. Helene Hanff is a Jewish writer who prefers to mail order books from Marks And Company, Booksellers, a small book shop in London, England instead of frequenting a bookstore just blocks away from her one room apartment in New York City. She doesn’t explain how she came to find this particular shop nor what first prompted her to write to them specifically, but what follows is a series of letters written between Ms. Hanff and different employees of the shop, the most notable recipient being Mr. Frank Doel. In her letters Ms. Hanff comes across as a sassy, brash, and sometimes demanding American while Mr. Doel’s British replies are decidedly courteous if not stuffy (otherwise known as prim and proper). Over time Hanff wins Doel over with her sarcastic wit and he “loosens up” little by little. So begins a 20 year love affair between book lovers. Hanff also writes others in the shop as well as their families. She generously sends post-war gifts of food and clothing (items rationed at that time) that win over the entire shop. While the book is short (just 84 pages long or two hours of audio) you are drawn into Hanff’s relationship with the employees of the book shop. You end up hoping she takes that trip across the pond to meet them.

Book Trivia: 84 Charing Cross Road was made into a movie and a play.

Author fact: Helene Hanff died of diabetes when she was 80 years old.

BookLust Twist: From More Book Lust in the chapter called “Journals and Letters: We Are All Voyeurs at Heart” (p 131).

Six Years

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I have to stop for a moment and catch my literary breath. For the past six years I have been reading at a break-neck speed. Between Early Reviews for LibraryThing (started in 2007), gifts and recommendations from friends and The BL Challenge I have been reading a lot. Tons. Here’s the thing. I never stop at the end of the each year to really review the progress. People ask me where I am at with “The List” and I can easily say how many Book Lust books I have read for the month but. but! But, that’s only half the story (or a third of it if you want to get down to brass tacks.)

So, it might seem crazy, but here is six years in review:

October- December 2006 – I read 19 books total. 12 for the Book Lust Challenge and 7 “for fun.” To be fair, I started really reading in late October. Interestingly enough, my first BL book was Last River by Todd Balf, reviewed on November 15th. Favorite book? Hands down, Travels with Charley by John Steinbeck.

2007 – I read 106 books total. Two yoga books for fun, six for the Early Review program in conjunction with LibraryThing, and 98 for the Book Lust Challenge. Favorite book? Griffin and Sabine by Nick Bantock. I will always love this book.

2008 – 100 books total. Again, two for fun, fifteen for the Early Review program, and 83 for Book Lust. Favorite Book? Without a doubt, The Translator by Daoud Hari. His words resonate with me to this day. Read it! Read it!

2009 – 123 books total. Four for fun (gifts mostly), 11 for Early Review, and 108 for Book Lust. Favorite? And the Band Played On by Randy Shilts. Astonishing.

2010 – 104 total. Again, four for fun, 14 for Early Review, and only 86 for Book Lust. Favorite has to be Homer’s Odyssey by Gwen Cooper.

2011 – 111 total. Two for fun, 11 for Early Review, and 98 for Book Lust. Favorite? It was a tie between The Long Run by Matthew Long (I am still recommending it to people, anyone who will listen) and Losing Clementine by Ashley Ream (which I will be recommended to everyone who will listen as soon as it is published in March 2012).

The grand totals for everything: 485 challenge books, 57 ER books, and 21 fun. 563 in all.

Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin

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Franklin, Benjamin. The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin. Minola: Dover Publications, Inc., 1996.

Originally written as a letter to his illegitimate son, Benjamin Franklin sets out to tell the story of his life’s work. It briefly covers his childhood but focuses more on his years of employment, first as a printer’s apprentice, then as a prominent political leader among many, many other things. By the end of it you will be asking what didn’t this guy do? However, it ends (abruptly) before his involvement in the Revolution or his efforts to free slaves, two aspects of his life I find most interesting. Peppered throughout the autobiography is Benjamin Franklin’s adamant call to humility, modesty, and virtue which is humorously contradictory for a man with such a long list of obvious accomplishments.

Reading Benjamin Franklin’s list of accomplishments and life interests has caused me to dub him “the most interesting man in the world” after the guy in the Dos Equis commercial.

Book Trivia: The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin has been translated into hundreds of languages.

Author Fact: Benjamin Franklin loved the ocean. Really cool.

BookLust Twist: From More Book Lust in the chapter called “Founding Fathers” (p 91). Of course.

December ’11 was…

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When it comes to the reading December started out with a mistake. Actually, a double mistake or a mistake I made twice but differently each time. Confused? Last year I mistakenly read Ward Just because I thought his birthday was in January. Where I got this from I’ll never know. Then this year I read Ward Just because I thought his birthday was in December. What is wrong with me? Someone just informed me Just’s birthday is in September. Oh. (I say as the light bulb comes on.) Needless to say, I moved the rest of Ward Just’s books to the September list.

The rest of the December reading was pretty much on par for what I planned to read:
New Jersey became a state in December so I read something by New Jersey born author Philip Roth. Portnoy’s Complaint by Roth took place in New Jersey as well.
Winter is the best time to travel to the south (presumably to get out of the cold) so I read A Good Man is Hard to Find by Southern author Flannery O’Connor in honor of December being one of the best months to go to Atlanta, Georgia (where a lot of O’Connor’s short stories take place).
What else? Oh yeah, I finished Madame Bovary in honor of Gustave Flaubert’s birthday being in December.
The Supreme Court appointed its first chief justice in December (John Jay) so I struggled through The People’s History of the Supreme Court by Peter Irons, Gideon’s Trumpet by Anthony Lewis, and the Reader by Bernard Schlink.

December ended up being a good month for Early Review books from LibraryThing as well (even though I never got the book about the New England Patriots I had been so looking forward to 😦 ). I received two books within the first week of the month, Cruising Attitude: Tales of Crashpads, Crew Drama and Crazy Passengers at 35,000 Feetby Heather Poole and Solomon’s Oak by Jo-Ann Mapson. I was able to breeze through Poole’s book, Cruising Attitude, within the first week of December. Solomon’s Oak took longer because I didn’t even start it until the 15th. I received a third Early Review book right before leaving for Christmas break. Perfect timing. I was able to read it in two sittings, it was that good! It was definitely my favorite ER/LT read of the month.

As a result of going to my sister’s for the holiday I have started a sister-recommended,non-challenge, non-review book, The Gravedigger’s Daughter by Joyce Carol Oates. I’m only 122 pages in, but so far it’s really good!