Tag: september

Resonance

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Miller, Ron K. Resonance: Why Music Moves Us. Open Channel Press, 2026.

Reason read: LibraryThing has this Early Review Program for members. I chose Resonance for its musical theme (obviously).

Music is powerful. We have all heard it before. Music has the ability to change someone’s emotion, their perspective on life, or even their entire future. Music can bring people together with a commonality or introduce new (and sometimes lasting) relationships. Music can be a bodily experience with synethesia or frisson. How people absorb, process and release music can be a physiological response. Music as medicine for patients with Alzheimer’s or Parkinson’s disease. Miller delves into all of this and much, much more in Resonance: Why Music Moves Us. He starts with recognition; how music can evoke an emotion or recall a memory. Later, Miller discusses reverence – how culture, science and technology is shaped by music. Even though I enjoyed Resonance a great deal, some chapters went deep enough into the science to become didactic and dry. A smaller complaint is the repetition (word for word) of some sentences which leads me to believe AI had a hand in the writing.
Some highlights for me were: Miller’s relationship to music on every level; exploring the psychology of a walk-up song in baseball, learning that there is a thing called musical anhedonia, and there are people out there who become archaeoacoustics researchers. A startling concept was the idea that music is an art form that dies as soon as a piece is over. It’s true. It drifts away like campfire smoke. It saddens me that some songs I loved as a teenager might never hit my ear again because I cannot recall the name, melody or performer. That piece of music is lost to me forever, especially if it wasn’t a radio hit at the time of its release. Maybe it was a B-side on a mixed tape someone made for me…now long lost?

Confessional: Miller once burned cds of themed music. I wish he shared the playlist of both the funeral and songs that “pulled [him] toward something better.” I am always on the hunt for new music. Further confessing: a friend of mine committed suicide recently. Before she left this world she and I shared dozens of songs that meant something to us. It is too painful to listen to any of them, but someday I hope they soothe my broken heart.

Author fact: Further proof I was paying attention. Miller is a father to a son with Down syndrome and he has a cat. When I read about his interaction with Jack White I cringed. I too had a similar experience with Natalie Merchant. Eye contact. Her turning away as disappointed; as if I missed my cue to have a greater connection.

Book trivia: I could see this being a textbook for music theory courses.

Music (and if you know what Resonance is about then you know the list is long): AC/DC’s “Hell’s Bells,” Andrew WK’s “Party Hard” and “She is Beautiful,” Angine de Poitrine, “As Tears Go By,” Bach’s D Minor Chaconne, “Baa Baa Black Sheep,” Barney Theme Song, Beatles’ “Strawberry Fields Forever” and “Get Back,” Beethoven’s Ninth and Pastoral Symphonies, Bob Weir, Bobby McFerrin, Brahms, Brian Wilson, Bruce Springsteen, Charlie Puth, Chopin, Chris Thile’s Not All Who Wander Are Lost, the Cure, Dave Matthews, David Gray’s “Babylon,” Depeche Mode, Dolly Parton’s “Jolene” and “I Will Always Love You,” Don Henley, Don McLean’s “American Pie,” Duran Duran’s “Rio,” Ed Sheeran, Eddie Vedder’s “Guaranteed,” Elvis, Emmylou Harris, Europa Singers, Five Foot Two, George Jones’s “He Stopped Loving Her Today,” “Go Rest high On That Mountain,” Grateful Dead, Howard Jones’s “Things Can Only Get Better,” Isley Brothers’ “Shout,” Jack White, Jackson Browne, Jeff Buckley, Jerry Garcia, Jewel’s “You Were Meant for Me,” (cowritten by Steve Poltz), Jimmy Buffett, John Cage’s 4’33”, John Cale, Jonh Lennon’s “Across the Universe,” John Mayer’s “3×5,” “Heavier Things,” “Clarity,” and “Room for Squares,” Joni Mitchell, Jorge Calderon, Karen Carpenter, Keith Richards, Korn’s “Blind,” Lead Belly’s “Goodnight Irene,” Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah,” Liebestraum, M83’s “Reunion,” Marvin Gaye’s “Let’s Get It On,” Maurice Ravel’s Bolero, Metallica’s “Enter Sandman” and “Master of Puppets,” Miles Davis, Moody Blues’ “Your Wildest Dreams,” Mount Eerie’s A Crow Looked at Me, Neil Peart, Nick Drake, Niel Gow, Neutral Milk Hotel’s “In the Aeroplane Over the Sea,” Nine Inch Nails, Pat Metheny, Paul McCartney’s “Yesterday,” “Pete Yorn’s musicforthemorningafter, Pink Floyd, Prince, R.E.M.’s “Everbody Hurts,” Rolling Stones’ “(Can’t Get No) Satisfaction,” Rush, Soft Cell’s “Tainted Love,” Steve Winwood, Sting, Sturgill Simpson’s “Turtles All the Way Down,” and “Mutiny After Midnight,” Stravinsky, Sufjan Stevens’ “Casimer Pulaski Day” and “Should Have Known Better,” Supergrass, Syd Barrett, Third Eye Blind’s “Semi-Charmed Life,” Tom Petty, Tom Waits, Toto’s “Rosanna,” Townes Van Zandt, Trent Reznor, “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star,” Warren Zevon’s “Keep Me In Your Heart,” Whitney Houston, “Wild Thing,” and Yoko Ono.

As an aside, here are the songs and/or musicians I was hoping Miller would mention. These are some of my favorites. “Paper Moon” by sirsy, “Vincent” by Don McLean, “Boston” by Dermot Kennedy, “”King of May” by Natalie Merchant, “Verdi Cries” by 10,000 Maniacs, “Willing and Able” by Noah Kahan, and “Henrietta, Indiana” by Josh Ritter.

Fatal Passage

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McGoogan, Ken. Fatal Passage: The Story of John Rae, the Arctic Hero That Time Forgot. Carroll and Graf Publishers, 2001.

Reason read: the hero of the story, John Rae, was born in September.

McGoogle writes with a vivid imagination about what John Rae’s world must have been like. To orientate the reader to the times, McGoogan rattles off the Who’s Who of the day: Gottschalk, Uncle Tom’s Cabin, and Charles Dickens (more on him later). John Rae’s story reads like an action thriller as if he is side by side with Rae the entire time. Chosen to look for the lost Franklin on March 25th, 1848, Rae sounds a bit like Superman: impervious to the cold (temperatures sometimes falling to below negative sixty degrees Fahrenheit), legendary snowshoer and hiker, skilled doctor (qualified to be a surgeon at aged sixteen), successful hunter, fastest of the long-distance canoe-and-boat pilots, able to display impeccable timing when it came to deciding when to turn back or push onward. The list goes on. The one attribute Rae did not possess was the ability to communicate with tact. How he chose to describe Franklin’s demise was his downfall. Researchers questioned Rae’s reports; accusing him of leaving out key details or saying too much (like announcing the probability of cannibalism among Franklin’s men). Lady Jane Franklin never forgave Rae for the latter and successfully sought to ruin him and his reputation.
Despite Rae’s downfall it cannot be disputed that he was the first explorer to rightly surmise that Victoria Land was actually an island. Rae was the first to discover relics from the Franklin expedition. Rae also discovered the hidden gateway to the Northwest Passage. Unfortunately, it was Amundsen some fifty years later who would positively confirm it.
Later in life, John Rae was hired to survey the proposed route for telegraph lines over 2,000 miles from the East Coast and over the Rockies. Sadly, the Hudson Bay Company never did build the telegraph route that Rae proposed.
As an aside, clearly, McGoogle wants justice for John Rae. By default he was not kind to Lady Jane Franklin in his descriptions of her or Charles Dickens. I had an on odd sense of vindication for Rae when McGoogan was able to travel to the very spot of Rae’s cairn and place a plaque in his honor.

Quote that had me giggling, “In 1843, Sir John Franklin, derided as a victim of petticoat domination…” (p 222).

Author fact: McGoogan has a website here (the coolest thing I learned is that McGoogan is also a musician).

Book trivia: Fatal Passage was a best seller in Canada.

Music: “Jenny Lind,” and Gottschalk.

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

Small World

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Lodge, David. Small World. Warner Books, 1984.

Reason read: September is traditionally back to school month and since Small World is about academia, why not?

Meet the academics in Small World: Persse McGarrigle is seen as the epic hero. At a typical conference full of pompous blowhards in Rummidge, he has fallen in love with a fellow conference attendee, the mysterious Angelica Pabst. He chases her all literally over the world to the point where it becomes farcical. Professor Morris Zapp is always appalled that he isn’t presenting his paper to a larger audience. He thought for sure the title of lecture, “Textuality as Striptease” would surely bring listeners into the room. [As an aside, the entire book is continuously dominated by various sexual situations.] Then there is the mystery of Joy Simpson. Her old lover thinks she is dead yet she is alive and well somewhere on the planet. Dempsey talks to a computer as if it is his therapist and becomes obsessed with her replies (readers should keep in mind this is the early 1980s and predates Siri or Alexa). I could go on, but I’ll leave the rest of the characters for you to discover.
Critics have called Small World “delightful” but I wouldn’t go that far. Even though this is supposed to be a satire about academia I was annoyed by the characters. The more verbose and didactic the dialogue, the more I tuned out. I will say my favorite scene was when Persse travels to Tokyo and learns of karaoke. Even though he is hellbent to find the woman of his dreams he manages to find time for a little fun. I won’t say whether Persse ever got his girl. It’s more about the journey than reaching the destination! Do not fret, the ending is satisfying!

Line I liked, “Professor B agreed that a law of academic life was that it was impossible to be excessive in flattery of one’s peers” (p 173). So true!

Author fact: David Lodge was an honorary professor of Modern English Literature at the University of Birmingham and it shows.

Book trivia: the title of the book, Small World, surfaces when Persse tells Akira it is a small world on page 335.

Music: Bob Dylan’s “Mr. Tambourine Man,” “Lay Lady Lay,” and “Blowin’ in the Wind,” Bee Gees, Simon and Garfunkel’s “Mrs. Robinson,” Beatles’ “Hey Jude” and “Hard Days Night,” and Diana Ross’s “Baby Love.”

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust in the chapter called “Academia: The Joke” (p 3).

Resistance

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Sheers, Owen. Resistance. Nan A. Talese, 2007.

Reason read: Sheers celebrates a birthday in September. Read in his honor.

The year is 1944 and Sheers has introduced his readers to an alternate World War II in which Germany has all but won the war. For perspective, D-Day landings are an utter failure, Dewey wins the presidency of the United States, and Britain is almost completely German occupied. In the far reaches of a remote sheep-farming countryside all of the Welsh menfolk have abruptly disappeared, leaving their wives to farm the land alone just before the harsh arrival of winter. At the center of the story is young Sarah Lewis, not yet thirty and a sheep farmer’s wife of two years. Her antagonist is a German soldier, Albrecht Wolfram, who has come with a band of soldiers to the valley in search of a map. Incidentally, this map is real. It is the Hereford Mappa Mundi, a priceless medieval map of the world. But, back to Albrecht. He is not your average World War II villain. He loves books, nature, and music. The war has made him sick of fighting; he just wants to hide from the war and Sarah’s world is the perfect hideout. It is if Sheers wants you to like Albrecht just a little despite the side he is supposed to be on. Incrementally, the sentiment is felt for all of the soldiers under Albrecht’s command. As winter approaches, the local women and the German soldiers must work together to survive. Their mutual necessity for each other forms strange relationships. Sarah and Albrecht perform a dance of growing trust and lingering suspicion while Sarah tries to hang onto the hope that her husband is still alive and will return. In the end, the community of women face a heartbreaking betrayal. There is much more to the story, but I will leave that alone.
As an aside, one of my favorite scenes in the book is when Albrecht brings Sarah a gramophone and plays her cello music of Bach. It is like a seduction for the senses as well as the heart.

Quotes to quote, “The shrapnel had numbed his world” (p 99) and “…despite his blunted senses, which had left him feeling less human than ever” (p 99). These two sentences sent shivers down my spine as they alluded to something farm more ominous about Mr. Wolfram.

Author fact: Resistance is Sheers first novel. He is also a poet which makes me wonder if he put himself in the story as the poet Sarah remembers from childhood.

Book trivia: because Resistance takes place on a sheep farm readers learn a great deal about tupping, dipping, and foot rot. Resistance was made into a movie in 2011. This is one I would definitely see.

The music is very important in Resistance. Bach’s Cello Suites No. Four, the Allemande, the Courante, the Sarabande, and the Intermezzo.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust To Go in the chapter called “Wales Welcomes You” (p 248).

Berlin Game

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Deighton, Len. Berlin Game. Pushkin Publications, 2023.

Reason read: The National Security Act of 1947 was signed in July, but most of the provisions went into effect on September 18th.

Len Deighton’s Berlin Game is the first book in the Game, Set, Match trilogy which is part of two other trilogies, Hook, Line, Sinker and Faith, Hope, Charity. In Berlin Game, Bernard Sampson is a married father who works for the secret intelligence service in London, the M16. His wife also serves as an agent, but she outranks Bernard which does not seem to bother him.
Bernard has had a desk job for years, but when Brahms Four, a British agent behind the Iron Curtain (obviously, Berlin Game takes place back with there was an East and West Germany) asks to be rescued by Bernard he cannot say no. Brahms saved his life twenty years earlier and now Bernard must return the favor. What follows is a new game of cat and mouse where everyone could be a traitor, including his own wife. Deighton lines up the suspects, each one more likelier than the last. It’s a fast moving drama, perfect for the big screen.

Confessional: I thought the ending was a little too predictable.

Author fact: Len Deighton was born on February 18th, 1929. He died earlier this year.

Book trivia: Berlin Game is the first book in the Game Set Match trilogy.
Audio book trivia: Berlin Game was read by James Lailey. Confessional: I thought his accents were terrible. I couldn’t tell if a character was German or Russian. I switched to the book format after a while.

Music: Schubert’s “Death and the Maiden,” Haydn’s Seventy-Seven C Major, and “the Trout.”

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust twice. First, in the chapter called “Cold War Spy Fiction” (p 61) and again in the chapter called, get ready, “Spies and Spymasters: the Really Real Unreal World of Intelligence” (p 223).

Member of the Wedding

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McCullers, Carson. Member of the Wedding. Library of America, 2001.

Reason read: September is Southern Gospel Month, or at least I read that somewhere. McCullers is the epitome of southern fiction.

Frankie Jasmine Addams wants people to stop calling her Frankie as if her rough and tomboy nature can be erased overnight by the new name, F. Jasmine Addams. Some would call her cheeky or obstinate in her behavior, but at times she is downright wild and violent. She should be just a twelve years old girl, dreaming of a bigger, more exciting life outside her small town. Instead, Frankie is a knife throwing, pistol toting confused preteen; impressionable and immature. Convinced Frankie is going to live with an older brother after his wedding, she repeatedly tells her father, cousin, and live-in housekeeper she is going to leave them. As the wedding date moves closer the tension builds with anticipation. Because Frankie is without any real parental supervision it seems highly possible she will make good on her threat to run away. Her widower father barely registers a parental word. Her cousin is only six and the housekeeper has her own grief to manage.

Bernice’s prayer sent shivers down my spine, “No stiff corpses hanging from the Europe trees and no Jews murdered anywhere” (p 546). Amen to that.

Favorite quote, “She planned it so that people could instantly change back and forth from boys to girls, whichever way they felt like and wanted” (p 547).

Author fact: In many of Carson’s photographs she is smoking. Despite dying at the young age of fifty in Nyack, New York, lung cancer was not the cause. She suffered from alcoholism, breast cancer, and other ailments.
Personal connect: I lived in New Jersey for a bunch of years. Every time I traveled North I went through the town of Nyack.

Book trivia: Member of the Wedding was made into a movie in 1952.

BookLust Twist: from two different books. First, in Book Lust in the chapter called “Girls Growing Up” (p 101) and again in Southern Fiction” (p 222). Pearl thought it best to also include it in More Book Lust in the chapter called “You Can’t Judge a Book By Its Cover” (p 237). Indeed! My copy has a photograph of Carson McCullers, looking all of twelve years old, smoking a cigarette.

Forward Only

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Watson, David. Forward Only: A Memoir. Self Published, 2026.

Reason read: as a member of LibraryThing’s Early Review Program I am sometimes asked to read interesting books. This is one such book. I would read this one again.

What makes a person land on the illegal side of the law time and time again? What makes a person chose to do the absolute wrong thing each and every chance they get? Sometimes there are people who love them; people who care about them. People who give them the world and still it is not enough.
David Watson lost his grandfather at an age when he needed a father figure the most. It was as if losing his grandfather sent David down a road to perpetual ruin. At age twelve David tried to run away. At age fifteen he stole money from a McDonald’s cash register and went on the run again. After that, it was a series of escapes time and time again. No matter how much his grandmother loved him, David insisted on sometimes stealing from her, lying to her and always letting her down. When David reached dating age he found girlfriends who were willing to be his partner in crime. He latched onto women who would go along with his schemes and scams. Each and every time he would swear this woman was the love of his life. The problem was he did not know how to love. David didn’t know how to be anything but a smooth talker, always wheeling and dealing. Detention, jail, and even years in prison could not stop him. Becoming a father didn’t stop him. Almost being murdered by a Mexican cartel only slowed him down. There was always another scam to be played out. His pattern of hustle was so destructive I couldn’t imagine him ever climbing out of his self imposed hell. His story kept me turning the pages to see what happened next.

If it were not for a cousin who could not or would not (?) stay out of trouble I wouldn’t believe David’s story. It seems impossible that someone could take advantage of the loved ones who are constantly bailing people like this out of sticky situations. But it happens.

Author fact: David Watson has a social media presence.

Book trivia: I don’t know if the final published copy will have photographs, but the ARC did not.

Phineas Finn

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Trollope, Anthony. Phineas Finn: The Irish Member. Gebbe and Company, 1901.

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

I feel like Phineas Finn (all three volumes) covers all the same themes as Can you Forgive Her? The male characters are vying for seats in parliament, the women are looking for financially stable men, and everyone is breaking someone else’s heart, sometimes intentionally. Every story has a hapless, heavy in debt, political wannabe who is unlucky with the women. Enter Irishman Phineas Finn. As a lawyer from Ireland he has political ambitions to be in Parliament. Lady Laura Standish, the object of Phineas Finn’s initial affections marries someone else for the convenience of wealth. Luckily, they remain friends and Laura turns out to be one of Phineas’ biggest champions. Ever the naive romantic, Phineas then turns to Violet Effingham who was supposed to be promised to Laura’s brother. Of course there needs to be a duel over Violet. It solves nothing. In the end Phineas does not win the heart of Laura or Violet. Who he turns to next is amusing and oddly beautiful.
The question remains: what is Trollope’s fascination with scheming women? Why are the female characters always bailing the men out of debt? Lady Laura marries Robert Kennedy so that Laura’s brother’s debts can be paid off.
Other similarities: weird names (Mr. Shortribs?), Trollope steps out from the narrative curtain to voice regrets in the novel, and there is even an accident during a hunt that is very similar to the accident in Can You Forgive Her?

Favorite lines, “There was to be an early dinner out in tents at five, and after dinner men and women were to walk about, or dance or make love, or hay, as suited them” (p 152). Oh those crazy Victorians! Here is another, “I think you will acknowledge that if there be a difference of opinion between you and me as to any question of social intercourse, it will be better that you should consent to adopt my opinion” (p 307).

Author fact: Trollope was just as involved in voter reform as his characters in Phineas Finn.

Book trivia: Phineas Finn contains photogravures/illustrations by C.R. Grant, Victor Perard, Hy. Leonard, and R.B. Morrison.

BookLust Twist: from More Book Lust in the chapter called “Barsetshire and Beyond” (p 15).

Lifeguard

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Fani, Eamon. Lifeguard: Absurd Tales and Minimals. Word Vulcan Press, Inc. 2026.

Reason read: as a member of the Early Program for LibraryThing it is my responsibility to write a review in exchange for reading interesting books.

Fani takes readers into a world of absurd and strange with tongue-in-cheek humor and sleight-of-hand doses of life lessons. Because there is very little substance to each story it is difficult to linger on deeper meanings. I could not become attached to characters or their stories as much as I tried. I really didn’t care about the lessons they were apparently trying to teach. Much like the person who takes your ticket as the amusement park, the characters could be anyone. All you care about is the ride. Lifeguard is definitely a ride to remember.

Short stories in no particular order:

  • The Lifeguard – Arman is eleven and wants to become a life-saving human.
  • The Beggar – a story about having trust issues.
  • The Mustache – a man is fascinated with the facial hair of a prize-winning author.
  • How My Wife Became a cat – just that.
  • Some Pens and Another Item – working in a bookstore.
  • Going – we know something the driver does not.
  • Aremestan – a que of people using an ATM
  • The Student Who Had No Ethics
  • Abyss – code for apathy
  • Ascension – sheep herding
  • The Mouse and the Moon
  • The Plane-Tree Residents Across the Alley
  • Daisies the Size of a Fried Egg
  • Stonewalls and Hedgerows

Author fact: Fani is funny. You can tell just by his dedication in Lifeguard.

Book trivia: this is volume one of Lifeguard so one can only assume there will be more.

Triple Jeopardy

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Stout, Rex. Triple Jeopardy. Viking Press, 1952.

Reason read: I am still working my way through Rex Stout’s entire Nero Wolfe canon.

Home to Roost – Mrs. Benjamin Rackell and her husband come to Nero to find out who killed their nephew. The young man died of cyanide poisoning in the middle of a dinner with five other people. Was it a communist conspiracy? Was he a plant working for the FBI? Stout tries to confuse the matter by introducing a few shady characters. Immediately, readers are supposed to suspect Fifi Goshen. She goads Nero by disturbing his orchids and pouring her cocktail into his beer. Is she trying to cause a commotion to distract everyone from the truth? And speaking of drinks, Archie has moved away from tall glasses of milk and now prefers cool coke and limes.

Cop-Killer – Two Illegal aliens working in a barbershop come to Nero Wolfe for amnesty. They are wanted for murder but cannot claim their innocence because they are too afraid of being deported back to Russia. The cop investigating the murder visited the barbershop to hunt down a lead on a hit-and-run that happened the day before. Carl and Tina Vardas fled thinking their illegal status had been discovered. Their flight makes them look guilty, but as Archie surmises, “to qualify as a hit-and-run driver you must meet certain specifications, and one of them is knowing how to dive a car” (Triple Jeopardy p 94). Dear Archie, I would beg to differ. I would argue that you are more likely to hit someone while driving a car if you have no idea what you are doing. It is during this case that Nero Wolfe leaves his brownstone to get a haircut. Shocking!

Squirt and the Monkey – Harry Koven, a comic book writer, accuses someone on his staff of stealing his gun. To reveal the culprit, Koven enlists the help of Archie. Instead of learning the identity of the thief, Archie is framed for murder, thanks to a rare tropical monkey named Rookaloo. As an aside, this case introduced me to the Sullivan Act of 1911.

True to form, Archie is always flirting with the ladies. I still think it is cute the way Wolfe cares for Goodwin’s appetite.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust in the chapter called “Rex Stout’s Nero Wolfe: Too Good To Miss” (p 226).

Claudius the God and His Wife Messalina

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Graves, Robert. Claudius the God and His Wife Messalina. Harrison Smith and Robert Haas, Inc. 1935.

Reason read: to finish the series started with I, Claudius.

Tiberius Claudius Drusus Nero Germanicus has come a long way from the weak and stuttering fool in I, Claudius. After the murder of his cousin, Caligula, Claudius is now the new emperor at fifty years old. He still is a cripple, but has gained a wisdom from carefully watching those who went before him. He creates safeguards against perceived assassination attempts. He refrains from doing anything that would make the ghosts of his family disapprove. Despite all this, and if you know the story, you know what happens to dear Claudius in the end.
Even though Claudius is deeply in love with his seventeen year old wife Messalina, she does not factor much in the beginning of the story. The life of Harold Agrippa is more fully examined than Messalina’s. Towards the middle of the tale, Messalina reveals a devious side. She encourages Claudius to have an open marriage, as long as the other women do not outrank her. Messalina begins to emerge as a strong power player in Claudius’s life, politically and emotionally. Towards the end of the tale the moral of the story is love weaves a tangled web.

Quote I loved, “I detest forensic oratory” (p 123).

Author fact: I already told you about the connection to Natalie Merchant. Graves also wrote Goodbye to All That which I have already read. Claudius the God marks the end of my time with Mr. Graves.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust in the chapter called “The Classical World” (p 60).

Absolute Truths

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Howatch, Susan. Absolute Truths. Alfred A. Knopf, 1995.

Reason read: to continue the series started in April in honor of Good Friday and Easter (the theme being religion).

Even though Absolute Truths is part of the Starbridge series, each story is self-contained and can be read on its own. It should be noted that each book is connected to the others through characters and plots. This has been said before, but never is it more true than in Absolute Truths. We come back to the character of Charles Ashworth. If you remember from the very first Starbridge novel, Glittering Images, Charles was sent to make sure there was nothing sinister happening in the Jardine household where a young woman (Lyle Christie) was serving as companion to Mrs. Jardine. Charles became obsessed with Lyle and eventually married her. When we catch up to Charles in Absolute Truths, Lyle running the perfect household. When Charles loses Lyle he has to figure out his absolute truth. I have to admit, I was disappointed to return to a character who already had the spotlight in 1937. It would have been more fun to explore the life of a younger character and move beyond the 1960s.
As with every other installment in the Starbridge series, the main character is plagued by sexual impulses and the threat of excessive alcoholic stupors. Charles Ashworth is no different. He is wracked by guilt over things he barely understands. As always, ghosts circle and demons threaten. Jon Darrow leads the charge back to sanity, asking the question: is love the absolute truth?

Quote to quote, “No degree of impatience can excuse vulgarity” (p 43).

Author fact: Wheel of Fortune is Howatch’s most notable novel.

Book trivia: Absolute Truths is the sixth and final book in the Starbridge series. Book Lust To Go only lists three of the books while More Book Lust mentions seven. Pearl is in error when she lists Wonder Worker as part of the Starbridge series.

Music: Jack Buchanan, “Tennessee Waltz,” David Rose’s “The Stripper,” “Zadok the Priest,” and “Thine Be the Glory.”

BookLust Twist: from More Book Lust in the chapter called “Fathers, Mothers, Sisters, Brothers: the Family of the Clergy” (p 86) and again in Book Lust To Go in the chapter called “Entering England” (p 76). As an aside, Pearl mentions Wonder Worker as the last Starbridge book in the series. Even though Wonder Worker does have some of the same Starbridge characters Howatch does not consider it part of the series.

Arabian Sands

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Thesiger, Wilfred. Arabian Sands. E.P. Dutton and Company, 1959.

Reason read: September is back to school month and a good time to learn about a strange region of the world.

Wilfred Thesiger was driven to go where others had not. He had a strong desire to test his limits and, where others shied away from them, unique challenges excited him. Nothing motivated him more than to say, “I know that no European had ever been here before me.” He sailed to Bahrain in a dhow simply because he wanted to have the same experience as an Arab sailor. He remembered his childhood as an explanation for his wanderlust spirit for his mother loved Africa.
In Arabian Sands Thesiger reported the Arabia he traveled in 1959 was unrecognizable from his earlier expeditions. He talked of long treks into the desert where “now” (in 1959) there were marring roads instead of endless stretches of dusty sand. [As an aside, what would he think of the region today? I am sure it has changed even more so since 1959.]
As a locust officer on behalf of the Locust Research Centre at the Natural History Museum, Thesiger was free to travel across the Empty Quarter. Although he showed no fear of danger wherever he went he had to hide behind a Syrian façade because of his Christianity. He absorbed the strange and fascinating culture of harsh people in a violent landscape. For example – the Islam faith. It regulated one’s religious observance, a man’s interactions with society and even the detailed routines of his daily life. Thesiger described the confusion of trying to identify various tribes by their saddles. It was important to know friend or foe to protect the camels from constant theft. [Speaking of camels, I found it remarkable that camels could be identified by the shape of their toes in the sand.] Thesiger became friends with Hamdu Uga who admitted he had just murdered three men. Thesiger casually reported that a mere two days later the young chief was murdered as well.

Quote to quote, “No, it is not the goal but the way there that matters, and the harder the way, the more worth the journey” (p 260).

Author fact: Thesiger was an avid hunter. He reported shooting seventy lions in the five years he was in the Sudan.

Book trivia: Maps were drawn by K.C. Jordan. Speaking of maps, there is a huge, fold-out map of the Empty Quarter at the back of Arabian Sands.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust in the chapter called “Armchair Travel” (p 24). Again, in Book Lust To Go in the chapter called “Arabia Deserta” (p 23).

Cooking as Therapy

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Borden, Debra. Cooking As Therapy: How to Improve Your Mental Health Through Cooking. Alcove Press, 2025.

Reason read: as a member of the Early Review Program for LibraryThing I often review interesting books.

Before reading a single sentence, my first thought about Cooking as Therapy was actually a question. Is this going to be cheesy? Pun fully intended. It is cheesy…to a certain degree. When you use metaphors and puns that come across like bad dad jokes, you are going to illicit a few groans here and there. (Case in point, the trademarked term of sous therapist.) The trick is finding a cooking metaphor that matches an emotion: boiling, baking, etc. My favorite analogy was washing your hands signifies cleaning out the negativity. As an aside, the use alliteration was abundant.
My second thought was another question. Can this book deliver on everything it promises: a possible fix for finding calm, banishing self-doubt, increasing self-esteem and confidence, adding positivity to my life, exploring change, improving communication, creating balance, strengthening spirit, and alleviating overall feelings of sadness?
The world is inundated with experiential therapies using activities like horseback riding, surfing, yoga, yoga with baby goats, forest walking, beach sand play, baby animal cuddling, corn mazes, nature exploring, art classes, Dialectical Behavior Therapy, EMDR, gestalt, CBT, and SFBT. Cooking is a natural fit. I have always heard that cooking is a show of love; cooking is the fastest way to a man’s heart, yadayadayada. Why not a path to the healing heart as well?
Cooking As Therapy is organized in a logical format. Part I is all about methods of cooking and Part II is all about the act of cooking (sessions). It takes nearly 160 pages before you get to the chapter called “How to Use This Book” so like watching water come to a boil, have patience. Cooking as Therapy includes a bibliography for further reading. This book is not just for tackling mental illness. Stroke* and addiction rehabilitation patients can benefit from it as well. Borden gives you the terminology to create your own therapy sessions. Verbs translate into metaphors for mindful and healing observations.
My only suggestion? Encourage people to read through the recipes several times over before beginning. It is a lot to follow the recipe and perform the associated mindfulness tasks. Not every pun or metaphor is obvious.

*How would have Gregory responded to such a therapy? The guy barely ate anything as it was.

Bonus care: Borden pointed out the index in print does not match the electronic version.
Headscratcher moment: Borden says to put away your phone. I’m reading this on my phone.

As an aside, my two degrees of separation from Borden: she mentioned the Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health. While I have never been there myself. I knew a yoga instructor and a massage therapist who worked there.

Music: Train’s “Bruises.”

Author fact: Borden dedicated her book to her brothers. Borden has her own website here.

Behind Closed Doors

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Silversmith, E.S. Behind Closed Doors: Memoirs of an American Call Girl. BCD Memoir, 2025.

Reason read: as a member of the Early Review Program for LibraryThing, I get to read interesting books. This is one of them.

Every so often I review a book that has me in a dilemma. Does Silversmith want me to cheer her on as a call girl or does she want me to grimace and shudder alongside her in shamed sympathy? Can I shrug off her story with indifference and say that the lifestyle was one hundred percent her choice? Silversmith’s stories are mostly about dangerous, dirty, and unhealthy situations she had put herself in for the sake of making a more than decent living. There are a sea of contradictions within the pages of Behind Closed Doors. I didn’t get the sense she was backed into a corner of desperation where the only dark hope of escape was being a call girl other than by the urgings of a domineering boyfriend. Yet, at another time when she is completely alone and unsure how to pay her rent she resorts to prostitution. It is true sex workers of any ilk run the dangerous risk of being infected with an STD or life threatening disease. Pregnancy or sterilization can occur if one is not careful. Beyond the threat of violence or death there is the unspoken reality of the erosion of mental health. Even worse, it is a known fact that serial killers target sex workers. The perception is these women are all alone, despite having husbands, boyfriends, and even children. Silversmith is aware of the statistics and although she calls her services “high end” she spends a fair amount of time in rundown, sketchy trailers and motels. Maybe that is why there was a fair amount of sighing, frowning, shuddering and mace and taser gripping in her stories. Luckily for her, as she says, she has a “flexible moral compass.” She is able to peel back the curtain and resolve some logistical curiosities like rules of engagement, payment options, and prescribed duration of service.

Observations: I wanted to know the end of the story about the time she couldn’t perform due to an extraordinarily heavy period but she stole the group’s booking fee anyway. Or the time her agency practiced robbery by leaving clients “high and dry” by pulling the fire alarm as a diversion.

As an aside, I envy Silversmith’s keen eyesight. From across the street, in the dark, and through a car window she could see that a client was sporting dandruff.

Music: Misfits, the Ramones, and Bob Marley.