A kid at school gave this book to me to read (since he was quoting Carlin in class all the time). I had seen a lot of George Carlin’s stand-up comedy and this book is mostly all of that in written form. Some pieces are too long for stand up and thus were new for me.
Two I really enjoyed: 1) A whole shtick on the first time “human sacrifice” was discussed. It is presented at a town meeting amongst the cave people with old business being the “constant graffiti on cave walls” and what will people think? And how IMPORTANT it is to keep the fire going. And finally the new idea of human sacrifice with its pros and cons. Rather humorous. 2) A comparison of New York and Los Angeles. The gist of it is LA is sprawling and with Hollywood and all, LA is saying “F*** me” while New York is uptight saying “F*** you”.
This is book 1 of the "Border Trilogy" and I am not sure if I will continue it or not.
This story takes place in the late 1940's in Texas and Mexico. John Grady Cole is 16, has no "life" to live at home and so he and his friend Rawlins start out from Texas and go to Mexico, picking up another guy along the way named Blevins, all riding horses. Blevins' horse is stolen. John Cole has a "way" with horses and he and Rawlins get hired on at a ranch to break horses. John Cole falls in love with the owner's daughter. John Cole and Rawlins ultimately get arrested for stealing horses and killing a man, falsely accused. They spend some time in a Mexican jail, John Cole gets in a fight while in jail, ends up in a hospital. The mistress of the aforementioned ranch pays his bail money but must leave the girl alone. He and the girl meet up again, he proposes, she turns him down. Then to prove himself innocent, he finds his own horse and the one Blevins stole and tries to find the owner (How do you find the owner of a horse? in the whole country of Mexico?). At the end, he rides off into the twilight.... And hence you read the next book.
Overall, OK. I think if you were a horse lover or a SPANISH lover you would like this book. There is quite a bit of Spanish thrown in, I could decifer quite a bit of it but am sure I left out some MEANING. Also, an English teacher would have a field day with McCarthy's writing style. There are no quotation marks, no apostrophies and run on sentences galore. You do get used to it but it takes some time.
A week ago I had found some antigue books that had come from a friend and decided I would read one called "The Guinea Stamp." It was written by a woman with her name as author and copyrighted in 1892, unusual for that date. I only found one reference in hte whole book that connected the story to the title. It definitely came from a different time and the author tended to both romanticize and preach yet had a vision to recognize stereotypes and discriminations from her time that sometimes surprised me. She was very democratic and certainly believed all people equal regardless of gender or social status despite certain ideas from the time. It was worth reading despite the preachy introductions that tried to force the reader to the same conclusions she had. It had some surprising twists on what she wrote about that I had not expected and overall, I enjoyed the story.
Another book thanks to M's care packages. Former NY model Nickie is dropped by her agent at the ripe old age of 27. She moves back to her adopted hometown in Tennessee to share a house with her best friend, Mimi, and finish her college degree. Things are not as peaceful as they seem in the small college town, however, and Nickie is attacked and raped in her own home. Can she and the other rape victims figure out who the serial rapist is before another woman is violated? Will Mimi's brother Cully ever give her a second glance? Alas, the answers to both are fairly predictable as you read.
Although I do like Harris' writing style and humor, the subject matter of this book keeps me from being able to say that I enjoyed it. It's the first book in a long time I have stayed up very late at night to finish reading - to keep from having nightmares. Some other reviews have called it "gritty" and I agree with that description; Harris is blunt and realistic about rape, along with the subsequent emotional and physical fallout. The theme throughout the book is "what did you know, and when did you know it?" The characters are good, but the mystery feels rough, and there is some clear foreshadowing that gives away both the identity of the rapist and the ending of the book way too early, in my opinion.
Recommended if you're on a mission to read all of Harris' books (don't expect anything like Sookie Stackhouse, though) otherwise, skip it.
J and I both liked Willard so much that she borrowed Sombrero Fallout from the THS library. We were both surprised they had his books in house. =) Sombrero is set up very much like Willard, short chapters and easily finished in under 2 hours.
Sombrero relates one night in the life of a popular humor writer as he copes with breaking up with his Japanese girlfriend. The subplot actually takes place in his waste paper basket. He had written a page for a new book about a sombrero falling to the ground from out of nowhere, didn't like it, ripped it up, and threw it away. As he's pining for the girl and recalling how they met, the characters on the discarded paper live out the rest of their story.
This wasn't as "lucid" as Willard, and since the rest of you didn't like that book, I don't recommend this one. I do plan on reading more Brautigan though, because I really like his style and humor.
Watch Your Back! (2005) and Get Real (2009) by Donald Westlake Gabriela, Clove and Cinnamon by Jorge Amado (in process)
I find it funny that both M and I are reading Westlake this week. =)
In Watch Your Back!, Dortmunder and crew must save their lair, the OJ Bar, from scheming New Jersey mobsters while at the same time pulling off a major "job" with no back room to plan in. Also they add another member to the gang, a baby-faced 19 year old named Judson. The plot took a while to come together, and there are some lengthy side story set-ups, but overall it was a good read. Several laugh out-loud moments and one short chapter which after reading I re-read to count the number of times a certain cuss word was repeated. 59 times in 2 pages. =) The chapter is hilarious if you read it in a thick joisey accent. Recommended.
Get Real is the last book in the Dortmunder series, and for me at least, it was the perfect way to say goodbye to the gang. Murch's taxi-driving mom picks up a fare at the airport who just happens to produce reality tv shows. As you can guess, one thing leads to another and Dortmunder and gang become stars of a new show, tentatively called The Heist, in which they will be filmed planning and carrying out a robbery! But, can they disguise their real target from the show's producers? Will they be able to collect salaries under fake names? And what the HELL is Combined Tool? Recommended to finish the series on a high note, but not as good as other Dortmunders I've read.
I am about 1/3 of the way into Gabriela, Clove and Cinnamon, and so far I really like it. It's set in a small-but-fast-growing cacao producing town in Brazil in 1925. Nacib, a bar owner and prominent citizen, needs to replace his cook (and fast!) who quit just 1 day before he is to host a dinner for 30 of the town's most important men. Among these 30 men are an aging political pit boss, an up-and-coming non-local political star, the leader of the opposition party, a Doctor who is not a doctor who is obsessed with his family tree, and a cacao planter who has just (like, earlier that same day) shot and killed his wife and her dentist - when he walked in on them in bed together. Most of these men keep mistresses on the side, frequent "cabarets" and generally just spend a lot of time thinking about sex.
Because this is translated from Portuguese, some of the phrases feel foreign. For instance, if I didn't know that "dar cuernos" (literally, to give horns) in Spanish meant to cheat on someone, I would have found it VERY strange for all the men to be saying "the only way to get rid of your horns is with bloodshed" or "if she ever gave me horns I would cut her into little bits." I think they should have been reworked into English better. Also, the names can be hard to remember and keep straight because 1) there are a TON of characters and 2) they are all authentic Portuguese names and surnames.
Secondly, I want to comment how much it reminded me of Shirley, because the title-bearing Gabriela did not appear in the book until page 88, and didn't join the main plot line until about 50 pages later.
Wow, the fact that we were both reading Westlake this week just reaffirms the adage that great minds think alike, doesn't it? And your comment about needing some Sookie/Eric action really hit home for me. I feel this intense longing to know what is happening in this story. So sad. :-) (I won't even attempt a vampire emoticon).
If you're like me, I feel like characters can only move forward when I'm reading about them, so, they are stuck in a suspended state of animation while I sleep, while I work, in between novels, etc. This is part of the reason I tend to read so quickly, so the characters can live out their stories. Somehow it seems wrong not to let them finish in "real time."
Right now there's an ENTIRE TOWN in Brazil just frozen, waiting for me. haha. Guess I'll go back to them.
Gabriela, Clove and Cinnamon by Jorge Amado This is one of the books from 1000 books that I made a special effort to find, buy and read because it looked so interesting. I’m glad I did.
My synopsis in the post above gives a pretty good set up for the book, and I’ll add that overarching plotlines are 1) bar-owner Nacib’s relationship with his cook Gabriela 2) the upcoming elections and the strife between old-school Ramiro and the young & flashy opposition leader 3) the town’s struggle to become more civilized following a prolonged period of frontier violence and anarchy.
Though there is a lot of sex happening behind the scenes in this book, very little of it is narrated; it’s not dirty, but there are adult themes.
It’s a long book, and there are a TON of characters, so if you read it, I recommend making a list to keep them straight right from the beginning. Some of them pop up again just as you’re forgetting that they ever existed. I’m not sure if it really needed so many, and it probably would have been better with some of the outlying characters eliminated altogether. On the other hand, how do you relate to the entire town without a large cast? I’m torn.
I really liked the book; then again, I love all things South American.
Recommended if you’re tired of reading the same old thing, set in the same old US of A.
Let me start by saying that this was yet another book I selected from 1,001 Books to Read Before You Die because "oh, that looks good." It's a semi-autobiographical novel by a Cuban man, relating everyday life in 1990s Havana; it has been banned in Cuba; it was a "notable book of the year" of the NY Times Book Review; I love all things Spanish-based; daily life in Cuba is really quite unknown, so how could this go wrong?
Actually, it could go wrong several ways, and it did.
1) It's not a good novel. There is no plot, unless it's the main character plotting how to have more sex, get more rum, or buy more soap. There are 3 sections "roughly" chronological, and each section is made up of chapters which may or may not deal with the main characters: Pedro Luisa, Pedro's girlfriend (he is also her pimp) in the first 2 sections Isabel, Pedro's girlfriend (he is also her pimp) in the last section Many, many chapters deal with characters that appear only once, and have NO connection to protagonists.
2) It's mostly porn. At one point about 1/3 in, Pedro Juan mentions that he is worried about having AIDS because he has had sex with 22 women. By the end of the book he has mentioned (or described in great detail) sleeping with 31 women. Of these, he was married to 1, in a live-in relationship with 5, and 6 were un-named. The number is surely quite a bit higher, as he worked as a male prostitute for female tourists for a while, until he got caught and served 2 years in jail. A brief hiatus from sex, because as he explains: "Taking some fa**ot in the ass or jerking myself off didn't count." Along the way there are also detailed descriptions of 18 other couples (or groups) in various sexual encounters, most memorably Berta (76) & Omar (23), and Roberto (mid 60s, gay) & Glenda (mid 20's, bi, owner of a whip and a previously-owned rubber dildo for Roberto).
3) It's not revolutionary. Pedro Juan describes daily life, and while it's very unflattering (putrid, even), he never gets in to the politics, never criticizes the regime, never offers suggestions to improve the society. He just gives descriptions of the decrepit buildings, non-functioning plumbing, poor hygiene, lack of medical care and rather extreme violence.
4) The ending is awful. The last three chapters introduce all new characters. Pedro Juan does not appear in any of them. Seriously?!
To sum up, not recommended, but morbid curiosity might just drive you to read it. If so, I strongly suggest you read 3:2 Stab Her, Man on an empty stomach.
This one is not a typcial Westlake book. Rather political story relating the theft of coffee (millions of pounds) from Uganda. And how this upset the coffee market worldwide. Idi Amin plays a big part.
Kahawa is the Swahili(?) word for coffee. The actual theft is interesting. The coffee is loaded on a train and the train is highjacked, the coffee is unloaded, sent out of the country, the coffee market is destroyed, the train "disappears" which drives Idi Amin crazy. The best part of the book is how the train disappears which is the last 50 pages or so.
I really didn't like this book. It is very long. The set up takes forever. There are too many characters. And too many loose ends. Some parts just didn't seem feasible. Mostly a lot of display of government corruption.
Here are some quotes from my current book that I'm sure M (and others) will love!
"..every person who pretended to nauseate the smell of another's excretions, snuffed up his own with particular complacency"
".. the last Grand Duke of Tuscany .. was so delighted with that odour, that he caused the essence of ordure to be extracted, and used it as the most delicious perfume."
".. he himself (the doctor) when he happened to be low spirited, or fatigued with business, found immediate relief and uncommon satisfaction from hanging over the stale contents of a close-stool, while his servant stirred it about under his nose"
and then later, the same doctor mentioned above brags about his cures for syphilis: " 'Sir, I have lately cured a woman in Bristol - a common prostitute, sir, who had got all the worst symptoms of the disorder..and a rather a pocky itch all over her body. By the time she had taken the second pill, sir, by Heaven! she was as smooth as my hand, and the third made her sound and as fresh as a new born infant.' 'Sir (cried my uncle peevishly)..this patient may not be so sound at the bottom as you imagine.' 'I can't possibly be mistaken (rejoined the philosopher) for I have had communication [sex] with her three times - I always ascertain my cures in that manner.' At this remark, all the ladies retired to another corner of the room, and some of them began to spit."
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows
Let me start by saying that there is an wonderful library sale going on in Ithaca right now (through Tuesday); today I got 13 books for $4.75 so if you're able, I would check it out tomorrow! It's in a large warehouse and the books are all impeccably organized. There was a whole shelf of Bronte, but only 3 copies of Shirley. You can find more info here: http://www.booksale.org/
This was one of the books I picked up for $0.25, on J's recommendation. I sat down when we got home and intended to read the first couple of pages to see if I liked it, and, well, 4 hours later I'm done with it and I only cried 5 or 6 times.
The book is set in London and Guernsey, immediately following WWII. Juliet, an author and columnist in London, is searching for ideas for her next book when she receives a letter from Dawsey (on Guernsey) who has happened upon a book she had written her name and address in, then sold. Thus begins a correspondence between her, him, her publisher, and many townsfolk from the island regarding the book club they formed during the German occupation. The entire novel is a compilation of letters between the characters, who are quirky and high-spirited. If you like British sitcoms like The Vicar of Dibley or As Time Goes By, you'll love this book.
My favorite quote comes from Isola Pribby: "I don't believe that after reading such a fine writer as Emily Bronte, I will be happy to read again Miss Amanda Gillyflower's Ill-Used by Candlelight. Reading good books ruins you for enjoying bad books."
5 stars, highly recommended, though the "strong, silent hero" bit could use a little help.
Another from my 1001BTRBYD list, and oddly, another novel in letters. There are 5 main characters, traveling together around England and Scotland, each writing to a friend back home: Matt Bramble, a Squire. Tabitha, his sister. Jerry, Matt and Tabitha's nephew. Liddy, Jerry's sister (their parents are deceased, and they are both roughly around age 20). Winifred, Tabitha's maid.
Mainly they are concerned with healing Matt's gout and digestive discomfort, visiting several of his long lost friends, finding a husband for spinster Tabitha and tracking down Liddy's heartthrob "Wilson." Hence they travel to several hot springs, sulfur springs, sea-side spas, etc. as they make their way to Scotland and then home again.
The title character, in true AMA Book Club style, makes his appearance on page 94... so I feel I am justified in saying that this book is very slow to start, and it's very quick to end. Everyone gets a nice and tidy happy ending, even the sour Tabitha. Many chapters/letters describe the countryside (I skipped these) or B-list celebrities of the day (I skipped these too); the women are almost all subject to "fits of the mother" and faint away at the least excitement (very akin to brain fevers). That being said, I'm sure the book was more shocking in its day than it is now. It does have some funny parts, and there is a lot of "lavatorial humor" as promised in the introduction. However, be prepared to read a lot of footnotes, and struggle through Winifred's phonographic spelling of 1770's servant's English.
Here's a quote from Matt Bramble: "I believe it will be found upon enquiry[sic], that 19 out of 20, who are ruined by extravagance, fall a sacrifice to the ridiculous pride and vanity of silly women, whose parts are held in contempt by the very men whom they pillage and enslave. Thank heaven, Dick, that among all the follies and weaknesses of human nature, I have not yet fallen into that of matrimony."
Smokin’ Seventeen by Janet Evanovich I liked this latest installment of the Stephanie Plum series much more than the last few books. I’m sure this is because this was a Ranger book (man oh man, was it ever! and I am a Babe girl down to my toenails) because the mystery seemed pretty Scooby-Doo lame and the action felt forced. The exploding cars are getting stale, I think Evanovich includes them because the series expects it, even when they don’t necessarily fit into the plot lines. Also I’ve noticed a shift in the books’ plots; they’re now over-focused on Stephanie and under-focused on whatever mystery she’s involved in. I think the series was best when the mystery and action were the main plot lines, and Morelli/Ranger were added bonuses.
I really liked Mooner in this book and Vinnie’s advertising kind of cracked me up too. Way to know your clientele. The vordo curse was great, and beepbeepbeep of the Porsche’s horn was hilarious. And of course I did like all the Ranger time... yum!
So, there were some redeeming moments, and I’m very curious to see where book 18 takes Stephanie romantically given the way this one ended, but I still think it’s time to end the series. All good things must come to and end, and the Plum has run her course.
Don Quixote: Man of la Mancha, by Miguel de Cervantes as retold by Judge Parry
Yes, I’ll admit that reading this "made-for-high-schoolers" version of a classic is cheating, and probably not much better than reading the cliff notes. On the other hand, some books could use some serious editing and are still good when stripped down to the bare bones (Moby Dick springs to mind immediately). That being said, I really liked it, and now am tempted to read the full version to see how much better it is.
If you’re not familiar with the story, Don Quixote is a man of a certain age who has taken to reading book about knights, and becomes so obsessed with them that he takes up the lance and shield, has himself knighted by an innkeeper, and goes in search of adventure so as to prove himself worthy of Aldonca Lorenso, a “buxom country wench with whom he was sometime in love.” To suit his knightly purposes better, he renames her Lady Dulcinea of Toboso. Together with his trusty squire, Sancho Panza, he encounters giants (windmills), armies (flocks of sheep) and an enchanted castle (a dingy roadside inn) all the while some friends from his native village are plotting how to get him safely back home again.
I really loved that the chapters in this version were named, and my favorite was “Chapter XI, Of a wonderful adventure which Don Quixote went through without peril to himself or Sancho” Chapters without peril for Sancho were few and far between...
It's a great story, and recommended, if for nothing else but that it comes up in Jeopardy all the time.
Smokin' Seventeen by Janet Evanovich. Also probably spoilers in this post.
I'm not sure I agree 100% on A with this book. I also liked it better than the past few. We're in agreement on that. However, I'm not so critical of the mystery and the shift in focus to Stephanie. This could be because I've been reading Sue Grafton's alphabet series which is too focused on the mystery and misses out on some important character moments.
I'll agree a little bit on the mystery because I had it figured out right away. However, it did its function of holding the book together, so good enough for me.
I'm conflicted on the Ranger/Morelli front. Whereas the doodah and danger-loving segment of my decision-making is all about Ranger, my head tells me Morelli would be the best bet for a happy marriage. Or even, relationship. He can be annoying, but he is basically honest and upfront with Stephanie, where Ranger is all mysterious and dangerous. Fun, but relationship killer.
I agree completely with your second and third paragraphs, A. Especially beepbeepbeep and Ranger time. Babe. Bring on 18 and a good conclusion to the series (hopefully).
Another 1001BTRBYD selection, but I didn’t care for this one; I’m glad I only paid about $0.20 for it.
This annoyingly chapterless book is divided into 3 sections that all revolve around Harry “Rabbit” Angstrom, a selfish, religious, 20-something potato peeler salesman from Southern Pennsylvania, who was a star basketball player on his high school team and is now disillusioned with his alcoholic wife and mundane lifestyle. I’ll sum up the entire book here because you should not bother reading it yourself. Ever. Section 1: Harry makes a snap decision and leaves his wife one evening while on his way to pick up his 2 year old son from the grandparents’ house. His wife Janice is 7 months pregnant. Harry goes to his old basketball coach for a place to stay. After giving Harry some sound advice to go back to his wife, the coach gets drunk and gets them hookers. Harry moves in with his hooker, Ruth, that night. Section 2: Harry and Ruth live together for 2 months, Ruth gets pregnant but Harry doesn’t know. Janice’s pastor befriends Harry and tries to rekindle their marriage. Harry leaves Ruth when he finds out Janice is in labor. Section 3: Janice and Harry move back in together following the birth of their daughter. Harry tries to have sex with Janice 9 days after giving birth, she rejects his advances (rightly so!) and he storms out to go back to Ruth. Ruth is not home, he wanders the city all night. Meanwhile, Janice stays up all night drinking whiskey, then in a frantic attempt to bathe the baby before her mother comes to visit, overfills the tub and looses her grip on the infant, who drowns. Harry reunites with Janice, then leaves her again during the funeral. He returns to Ruth, who discloses her pregnancy and rejects him unless he divorces Janice. The book ends with Harry running away from Ruth’s apartment going who-knows-where.
As if the plot alone wasn’t enough to make a bad book, the writing is long-winded, often stream of consciousness and highly metaphoric. As a sample I submit one sentence about Harry reading a magazine in the labor & delivery waiting room: “His mind can’t keep up with the words but keeps skidding up and branching away and flowering into little soft visions of Janice screaming, of the baby’s head blooming in blood, of the wicked ridged blue light Janice must be looking into if she’s conscious, if she’s conscious Eccles said, of the surgeon’s red rubber hands and gauze face and Janice’s babyish black nostrils widening to take in the antiseptic smell he smells, the smell running everywhere along the whitewashed walls, of being washed, washed, blood washed, retching washed until every surface smells like the inside of a bucket but it will never come clean because we will always fill it up again with our filth.” Now imagine 250 pages of that.
There was one (1!) very well written paragraph, when Harry returns home the night of the drowning: “He rolls back his sleeve and reaches down and pulls the plug; the water swings and the drain gasps. He watches the line of water slide slowly and evenly down the wall of the tub, and then with a crazed vortical cry the last of it is sucked down. He thinks how easy it was, yet in all His strength God did nothing. Just that little rubber stopper to lift.”
I was going to complain that I thought you were going to pick Rabbit, Run for a future book club book, but I guess after reading your synopsis that I am glad you didn't.
This is the sequel to In the Skin of a Lion, which we read sometime last year or maybe in 2009. I rather liked both books, but I think Lion was better. I know The English Patient was made into an award winning movie, but for the life of me I don’t know how because so much of the book is internal monologue, morphine-induced hallucinations, flashbacks and flash-forwards. And then there’s the ending – or better said, the lack of an ending. The reader is left to assume certain things, which I’m not sure would go over well on the big screen. Harold says the movie was boring, and mostly just music as people walked through the desert.
Back to the plot: Hana, a small child at the end of Lion, is now a 20-year-old nurse in Italy at the end of WWII. Suffering from her own version of PTSD, she refuses to leave her last patient when the rest of the hospital is relocated. The man was severely burned when he ejected from a plane in Africa and can not be moved. Caravaggio, one of her father’s friends – a thief who figured largely into Lion and who is now a war-maimed morphine addict, tracks her down and comes to live at the villa turned hospital with her. These three are then joined by Kip, an Indian sapper (bomb disposal), who makes camp in their courtyard. The story swings between the patient’s flashbacks of how he was burned, Kip & Hana’s love story and Caravaggio’s discovery of the patient’s true identity.
And even though that's a good summary of the plot, it in no way comes close to summarizing many levels of narrative in the novel.
I liked it, but then again it’s an international downer, so I don’t recommend it. _________________
M - yes, I have quite a list of books I was going to pick, but as I've been slowly acquiring them at library sales I've just HAD to read them.
I LOVED the inspiration for this book. The author goes out to dinner with friends in a restaurant called the Elephant. In the restaurant are carvings of small wooden sculptures with buildings and monuments. The author is then told that these carvings represent the journey of an elephant in 1551. Thus the story is born. From the book jacket “In 1551, King Joao III of Portugal gives Archduke Maximillian an unusual wedding present: an elephant named Solomon, along with his keeper: Subhro.” The elephant then has to be delivered to the happy couple and this book tells what might have happened as the elephant leaves Portugal and travels to Vienna.
The procession includes dignitaries, guards, the elephant and his mahout, and most importantly, the oxen pulling the cart of the elephant’s food. The whole entourage can only travel as fast as the oxen so they play a major part in the journey. Also, everyone stops every afternoon while the elephant takes a nap.
There is also a good deal of “Catch 22” by the mahout. He is responsible for the elephant and so is valuable but yet is responsible for the elephant so anything that the elephant does which is not so desirable is his fault. A lot of the book is about his precarious position.
This is the author’s last book, he died before it was edited. So this is the “zero” edition. There are some parts that severely need some editing but it was still a great read. Some paragraphs are rather rambling, a couple of chapters could be excluded, capitalization is needed (like names of cities). I don’t know if this is the author’s style (with few capital letters) or just as it was written and would have been done with the final edit.
I picked this up at a library sale for $0.25 based solely on the cover art and back cover blurb. I didn't have high expectations but I ended up devouring the book in about 2 days, and I would read more by this author.
Mrs. Kimble is a novel in 4 parts revolving around Ken Kimble, a lying, cheating minister-turned-real-estate-mogul and his 3 wives. Ken was born in 1929; the book begins and ends with his death in 1995.
Alcoholic Birdie (b. 1942, m. 1961, 2 children, divorced 1969) and Newsweek foreign correspondent Joan (b. 1930, m. 1969, no children, died 1975?) each have one section and chef Dinah (b. 1954, m. 1979, 1 child, widowed 1995) has two sections. Through their stories you can see the progression of not only Ken's selfish, greedy, a**holish personality, but also of American family values and race relations.
Haigh did a good job ending this book (high praise from me!) by giving Birdie and Dinah appropriate resolution to their conflicts, and by leaving Joan's death largely unmentioned, which given Ken's affinity for sneaking off in the night to start fresh in a new state, fits the book to a T. Dinah mentions once that in 15 years of marriage she never heard him laugh. The question Haigh wants the reader to contemplate, I'm sure, is why did each woman marry Ken, given his obvious faults? How did society/their background/ages impact their decisions and expectations of him? How did it impact the way they each responded when they discovered his lies?
Excellent writing, a good plot and difficult questions left to the reader give this book a solid "recommended" rating. Done right, it would make a great movie.
The Razor’s Edge by W. Somerset Maugham A selection on 1001BTRBYD. Story of materialism vs. spiritualism. The story takes place in the 1930’s in Chicago, London, Paris, and India. Main characters include Larry, Gray, Isabelle, and Elliot. Larry has just returned from WW1 and should be finding a job and settling down but instead wanders the earth searching for the “meaning of life”, “is there a god?”, etc. Larry was engaged to Isabelle but she does not want to wander the earth, so instead marries Larry’s best friend Gray, who loses his shirt in the stock market crash, almost commits suicide, can’t find work, and leaves Isabelle wondering if she shouldn’t have married Larry. Elliot is a pompous ass who courts anyone with money and spends his life giving and attending parties in Paris and the Riviera. Thus the contrast of materialism vs. spiritualism. This could almost be a romance novel, but has more depth, otherwise I wouldn’t have stuck it out. This would not have made my top 1000 list but I can understand why some would choose it.
Hmmmm, where to start with this one? It’s a wild ride. Tom Robbins had some really good narcotics for this book.
Sissy Shanksaw is born with an extremely large thumb on her right hand and uses it to her advantage by becoming what else? A REALLY good hitch hiker. This somewhat chronicles her rides and the people she meets. In a convoluted connection with Sissy is a ranch in North Dakota run by lesbians. The ranch is owned by a man who has made his fortune selling douche products. A flock of endangered whooping cranes nest at the ranch mainly because the girls are feeding the cranes marijuana. Bird watchers discover this and an international incident occurs between the US and Canada since the birds normally nest in Canada. A helicopter appears over the ranch and the pilot blows himself up and the helicopter freeing the cranes. Also there’s a Chinese guy at the ranch in charge of clocks. See? GOOD narcotics! It is a memorable story. I’ll never forget it.
I wanted to read this book since the newer movie just came out and people on TV were saying how the newer film more closely followed the book. I had seen the first movie with John Wayne, have not seen the newer film and had not read the book.
Now after reading the book, I have to say I don’t know what part(s) were missing from the 1st movie and this TV stuff is just hype I think. This book begs for John Wayne with words like “pardner”.
Mattie is 14 and is avenging her father’s death. She hires a US marshall, Rooster Cogburn, to find and capture the man who killed her father. She wants a man with “true grit”. Mattie accompanies Rooster as they search. They are opposites. Rooster is your quintessential marshall; Mattie quotes scripture. It’s a great old west story. I can’t imagine that the new film is any better than the old one. The book is good either way.
Yet another dysfunctional family novel in 3 parts, but this one with a twist: the three parts move backwards chronologically, starting in the early 90s and going back to around WWII.
Rayona, half black and half Native American, tells the first section. Her full-blooded N.A. mother, Christine narrates the second section, and the book winds up with Christine's mother, Ida. Christine, terminally ill, gives up her party lifestyle and on-again-off-again marriage in Seattle to take 15 year old "Ray" back to her hometown on a Montana reservation with the intention of leaving her with Ida until she turns 18. Given Ray's mixed parentage, Christine and Ida's stormy relationship, and lots of unspoken resentment you can imagine that not everything goes according to plan.
You may find this rather amusing coming from me, but I think the book would have been better if Either Ida or Christine had died at the end. As it is, the book lacks closure. Some parts are very repetitive, as all 3 characters narrate the same events, with the same dialogue, etc.. Also, I don't care for the title, or how it relates to the plot.
This line from Christine's section sums up the whole book: "I tried to make sense of where I was, searched for a reason to stay, and it wasn't long before I told myself that I was sent. I was the only photograph still breathing. Dayton needed some mess in his life, and I had plenty to spare."
The author is a friend of my coworker; I read this book as a favor. It is the first volume in “the textile trilogy.”
The story centers on the life of Catherine Duladier, heir to her family’s silk worm business. She and her sister + families move from Germany to Pennsylvania to begin a new, risky silk operation using a hybrid moth of their own creation. Religious magic plays heavily into the plot: The family worships the Black Madonna and is given the gift of ecstasy during childbirth, the women in the silk trade are able to communicate telepathically globally, through the use of certain drugs they are able to have out of body experiences, silk matrons are often visited and seduced by Imago, the great moth spirit. As Catherine struggles to overcome her adolescent rape and manage her first silk menagerie without her mother there to guide her (Will the hybrid silk be marketable? Will they have enough feed for the larvae? Will her evil brother-in-law succeed in having her tried for witchcraft? Will the investors pull their capital?) she consoles herself in an extramarital affair with Regina, one of her apprentices. Just when things are looking up, her rapists arrive from Europe to extract their pound of flesh, bringing an outbreak of cholera with them.
Overall, a good plot and decent characters that kept me interested. I think the book could be improved with some editing: > I really, really liked that the plans for the menagerie were included inside the covers of the book. Not having the slightest knowledge about silk worms, this really helped me get a good mind’s eye view of the setting, understand a lot of the technical aspects described in part three, and not be confused by all of the French terms. > The descriptions of silk worm farming were very well done; just enough to initiate the layman, not too much so as to bore a reader. I imagine Destiny did a lot of research in this area, and it shows. They were also well integrated into the plot, reader and apprentices learned together, which I liked. >The sex scenes are graphic, numerous and diverse, though separated by hefty doses of prose. The book could be helped by editing some of these scenes. Does the consummation of Catherine and Regina’s relationship truly merit 12 detailed pages? > There is a lot of “talking about talking” (especially in the second section) and the narrative constantly switches between 3rd and 1st person, which I found to be distracting. Eliminate the internal dialogue as Catherine struggles to reveal her past to Regina, and pick one point of view and stick with it. It could be1st person from multiple characters, if you need a change of perspective. > Many important plot lines are simply thrown at the reader, instead of illustrated for the reader. For instance, halfway through the book Catherine says that her brother-in-law’s constant drinking is tearing the family apart – I sat and thought, “What drinking? He’s appeared many, many times so far and hasn’t been drunk or hung over yet.” The same goes for Catherine’s opium usage. > Use italics or a different font for Dialog, and only Dialog. The reader will pick up on this in the first few pages, and after that you can eliminate all of the “Catherine pleaded in Dialog” sentences. I think this would make the telepathic language more believable and allow it to feel like an inherent part of the women. Also, Catherine constantly asks questions to others in Dialog, but we never see her receive any incoming questions or requests for advice, which seems strange. Can she turn off her Dialog receiver like a CB radio? > On the whole I think the plot was really good. I was interested to find out what would happen to Catherine and the other characters, and the magical elements feel fresh. However, some secondary plots are unnecessary and clutter up the book, such as Regina and the Underground Railroad, Wilhelm and the witchcraft and Catherine’s opium addiction. There’s already enough going on, and these things are alluded to, but don’t really affect the main story. The rapists could just have easily hid up a tree, instead of the underused slave-hiding place. Wilhelm’s negative influence with the investors is sufficient without adding a witch hunt (the bit about being mute and writing her defense for the trial was really glossed over, trying to tie everything up too quickly at the end of the book).
I enjoyed this book just as much if not more than The Woman in White. While it is set up in the same way – each character writing letters or submitting journal entries to describe events that they themselves witnessed - this book is more of a pure detective story than a thriller. In TWIW, there was a clear villain doling out premeditated evil. In The Moonstone, there is only an unplanned crime of opportunity: the theft of a rare diamond.
The origins of the Moonstone are thus: -- 11th Century: In a dream, the god Vishnu visited three priests of a newly completed temple to the moon god Soma. In the dream he breathed his divinity into a large diamond set into the statue’s forehead, which caused the diamond to respond to the different phases of the moon. Vishnu called for 3 priests to guard the stone night and day (which they did for generations) and cursed any man who dared touch the stone. -- Early 18th Century: The diamond is stolen by a conquering prince, and is followed by 3 priests, who constantly attempt to gain possession of it to return it to the temple. -- 1799: John Herncastle steals the Moonstone during the storming of Seringapatam. He is pursued in turn by 3 Hindu priests. -- 1848: John Hercastle dies and leaves the diamond as a birthday present to his niece, Rachel Verinder. She is immediately visited by 3 Indian men, and the diamond is stolen from her on the very same day she receives it (but not by the priests!)
The book then, is a classic whodunit in regards to the Moonstone’s most recent theft. There are some interesting side plots and several humorous moments. Much of the story is narrated by Gabriel Betteredge, longtime butler to the Verinders, a family of position and comfortable finances, and Franklin Blake, Rachel’s distant cousin & love interest.
Betteredge has an unshakeable attachment to a certain novel, which pops up constantly throughout the Moonstone: “I have tried that book for years – generally in combination with pipe tobacco – and I have found it my friend in need in all the necessities of this mortal life. When my spirits are bad – Robinson Crusoe. When I want advice - Robinson Crusoe. In past times, when my wife plagued me; in present times, when I have had a drop too much - Robinson Crusoe. I have worn out six stout Robinson Crusoes with hard work in my service. On my lady’s last birthday she gave me a seventh. I took a drop too much on the strength of it; and Robinson Crusoe put me right again. Price four shillings and six-pence, bound in blue, with a picture into the bargain.” Later, the local doctor speaks of Betteredge: “Whenever he looks my way, he remembers that I have not read Robinson Crusoe since I was a child, and he respectfully pities me.”
If you enjoyed TWIW, I highly recommend The Moonstone. PS: I have never read Robinson Crusoe but you better believe that it’s going on my list now.
2001 A Space Odyssey by Arthur C. Clarke Science fiction isn’t my norm but I LOVED this book. It was written in 1968 and must have caused quite a sensation in its time. Reading it in 2011 is just as interesting.
My favorite part of the book was Part 1. It is only about 20 pages but wow, starts with the beginning of the earth and primitive man and basically states that man would not have evolved to using his hands and developing tools without assistance from aliens.
Then fast forward to 2001 where the moon is a popular space station and flights to Saturn are in the planning stages. This is the story of David Bowman’s space flight along with the “power” of computers. HAL, the computer, is the ruthless villain and ends up being destroyed and leaves David Bowman’s mission in jeopardy. You read it and see how it ends, the title is apropro – it’s a space odyssey.
How did I miss this book in the last 20 years? It is amazing. Alice Walker is a phenomenal woman. If you haven't read it, you should.
This is the story of Celie, a poor uneducated black woman from Georgia, starting at age 14 (around 1915?), as told through a series of letters she writes to God and her sister. Raped by her father, she bears two children that are taken from her in infancy, possibly to be killed (but really her father gives them to a local preacher and his wife). She is then married to a brute she calls Mr. _______ and raises his 4 children, nurses his former lover Shug back to health, becomes Shug's lover herself, and endures a slew of beatings and insults in the process. The story partly focuses on her "family" in Georgia, partly on her sister's missionary work in Africa, and entirely on Celie's slow rise to self sufficiency and contentment.
My summary in no way does this masterpiece justice.
I'd been wanting to read this book and then THERE IT WAS - waiting for me at the Troy Library Book Sale.
I really enjoyed this book. It is Homer's story of growing up in Coalwood, West Virginia, a coal mining town. Homer is in 9th (?) grade when he watches the Russians launch Sputnik. He becomes fascinated with rockets. So he and his friends build one - first try they blow up their mother's picket fence. Mom, though, does NOT get upset, she actually urges them on knowing they have to do something to get out of spending their lives in the coal mines. The story follows their progress to building a rocket that flies 10,000 feet up and how their obsession takes hold of the town. Also shows just how much you can do if you study some math and science! Homer later went on to join NASA.
Excellent excellent read. There are 2 other books that follow and I think I'll continue the rocket journey. This book was also made into the movie "October Sky" which I just might watch.
Every so often I like a good cold-war spy thriller, and MacLean is just the ticket. This particular book wasn't his best (very little character development) but the action was good and there was plenty of drinking.
John Montague Talbot, underwater salvage expert turned law enforcement agent, goes undercover to avenge the death of his wife, son and twin brother. Along the way he kidnaps a millionaire's daughter, scuba dives under an oil rig at night in a hurricane and outwits an infamous criminal mastermind. Part McGyver, part James bond, is there anything that Talbot can't handle? Certainly not scotch whiskey, he handles that just fine.
Tropic of Cancer by Henry Miller (it should be subtitled "Back-Street Paris as Seen by a Hungry Man Who Thinks with His Penis")
Another from my list of 1001BTRBYD, plus who doesn't want to read a book that was banned for 30 years?
I'm torn on this book. I didn't enjoy reading it; I'm glad I stuck it out. What Kerouac got so right in On The Road, Miller seems to get all wrong. There is no plot, the protagonist's motivations are to 1) get fed and 2) get laid, the only action came from a slew of crazy prostitutes, and the end of the book is even more head-shakingly pathetic than the rest of it. The chapter structure was a bit odd too: each one started with good prose, characters, a bit of slow, forward moving action, some sly humor, enough to show you that Miller has considerable skill as a writer. However, after 10 or 15 pages they inevitably slide into a jumbled stream of consciousness ranting about war/economy/love/philosophy. Skip to the start of the next chapter to see what happens with his other ex-pats and their ladies-of-the-evening; read the philosophic rambles it you're having a hard time falling asleep.
Even after all that, it's a book that will stick with me.
As to the banned status? There is a fair bit of graphic sexual description, but probably not much that will shock today's readers.
An Englishman seeks to make his millions at sea and suffers many misfortunes, similar to Sinbad from 1001 Nights. Heavy religious overtones, especially in the last half of the book. Heavy 17th century white supremacy, especially in the last third of the book. Overall not a bad read, I'm glad I finally can slide it over to the "read" section of my library.
The entire novel takes place over 18 hours, and the chapters are chunks of time, such as 8:17 - 10:05 am.
40-year-old, downtrodden, virgin, spinster, governess-who-dislikes-children Guinevere Pettigrew is out of money, with 1 day left to pay rent before she is evicted from her dingy apartment. When her employment agency sends her to interview for a new position, she splurges on bus fare and arrives promptly at 10:00 only to find her prospective employer still in bed with one of her many lovers. Immediately “thrown to the wolves” so to speak, she spends the day helping a vibrant young lady and her friends through many awkward social situations. Along the way she also experiences her first drink, first silk underwear, first makeup and first kiss.
I borrowed this book from J, since it was on both of our 1001BTRBYD lists, and while she thought it was “ok but predictable,” I really enjoyed it. Perhaps because I’m also reading an Alice Walker book that is “heavy” I could appreciate the delightful lightness and happy ending more than normal. It’s a quick read and I recommend it.
This is the 2nd Dortmunder book, and I liked it just as much as Hot Rock, though some of the racial and political commentary has to be viewed through rose-colored time-machine glasses. This time around, Kelp has found the perfect score: a bank being remodeled is operating out of a converted mobile home. Thursday nights the safe is left full of money, and so the gang proposes not to rob the bank, but rather to bring in a truck and steal the entire building. Hilarity ensues.
We also get some backstory on the crew, mainly Dortmunder and Murch. Dortmunder, it seems, was married for a short time in his youth: "A show-biz performer she'd been, with the professional name of Honeybun Bazoom. Dortmunder had married her in San Diego in 1952 on his way to Korea ... and had divorced her again in Reno in 1954 on his way out of the army."
One of my other favorite bits, as the police are preparing to mount a search for the missing bank: "Captain Deemer closed his mouth firmly over the several things it occurred to him to say. He reminded himself that he didn't want to fight with everyone on his own team, and he waited in controlled impatience for this goddam draft-dodging useless hippie pot-smoking radical son of a bitch bastard to say whatever it was he was going to say."
A short, easy read, recommended since I know we all like Dortmunder books.
I had seen the movie back in the 70s and had always wanted to read the book so FINALLY.... (the book preceeded the movie).
A mid-ocean "earthquake" causes huge waves and FLIPS a luxury ocean liner upside down. Because of the rough seas, most passengers were sick and in their rooms. The few with strong stomachs were in the dining room and these are the survivors. They make their way to the bottom of the ship (which is now the top) to try to be rescued. Their journey is on the ceiling and each set of stairs presents a challenge as they "climb" to the bottom/top. Eventually they make their way to the engine room which basically has been destroyed with heavy machinery falling to the ceiling/ now floor. The fortunate few that survive the climb are rescued. The movie follows the book fairly well. Some characters do meet different "ends".
A good story. Recommended to see either the movie or the book. Both are not necessary.
(I've been reading quite a bit not posting as well as I should).
This is the first of the long series of Tarzan books. Disney again "cleans up" the action. Tarzan's parents are en route to Africa to do some "nature studies" when the ship is mutinied and they are left on the coast of Africa to survive with their belongings. Shortly after (say 9 months), a child is born - Tarzan. Shortly after that, the parents are killed by apes, Tarzan is rescued by a mama ape (whose baby had just died). She raises Tarzan. He eventually becomes the leader of the apes (because of his intelligence not necessarily his strength). He discovers a tribe of "black people" and steals their arrows and hunting methods. Also finds his parents' home and books and teachers himself to read but yet cannot speak.
Another ship is mutinied and people left on the coast. Tarzan befriends them (they are white people) and eventually meets Jane. He and Jane fall in love, they travel to WISCONSIN! And there the story ends for the next sequel.
There is a fair bit of bigotry evident. Tarzan doesn't like the black people and steals from them but yet feels an instant kinship with the white people.
Check off another from the 1001 Books to Read before You Die!
This is Isadora Wing's tale of woman's lib and self discovery. She is flying to Venice with her husband to a psychoanalysts' convention and has basically been "seen" by most of the passengers on the plane(psycho analysts). At the convention she meets another psycho analyst and falls in love. She then see-saws between her husband and the new love. Eventually leaves the husband and traipses across Europe with the new love. Along the way, ponders all kinds of things, mostly sex and her role in it. I fully see why this book was a best seller in its day.
Another 1001 Books to Read book checked off the list.
Harold bought us a Kindle fire as an early Christmas gift, and this is the first full book I've read on full-screen e-reader. I liked the Kindle experience, but for me I don't think it will ever compare with the joy of book sales, turning pages and just holding a proper book.
But back to the book. Here we follow the Flood family as they navigate the near war-zone streets of Londonderry, Ireland. The Floods are a highly criminal Catholic/green/Coke family, under-educated, under-funded and pretty much as downtrodden as you can get. Each of the 10 or so family members has an ongoing feud of some sort, mostly with a Protestant/orange/Pepsi rival. The main plot line is how they will find the cash to make a trip to Malta so they can rain hellfire down on their oldest daughter Moira, a lesbian who has just published a book based on the family's hateful exploits.
Beware, the book is mainly written in phonetic Irish vernacular, and almost every other line contains a derogatory term for Protestants, cops, homosexuals, women, immigrants, etc, etc.
It's supposed to be funny, but I didn't find it very humorous. Maybe it would make a decent movie with a lot of the supporting plots thrown out.
The imagined life story of Chang and Eng, two real-life conjoined twins from Siam who emigrated to the US in the early 1800s. After touring with various side shows they settled in North Carlina, married two sisters and fathered 21 children.
An interesting read but the chapter layouts jump around chronologically, which I found rather annoying.
If anyone would like to read it I'll gladly pass it along.
While this is not a sequel to The Color Purple, it does tell the full story of one of its characters, Tashi. An African woman who marries an American missionary and returns with him to the US, Tashi struggles for years to deal with her sister's death, caused by excessive bleeding following her circumcision. Tashi herself was also circumcised, and finds peace only after she has killed the tsunga who performed both procedures.
A difficult read only because the subject matter is so graphic, Walker's prose is as beautiful and poignant as her protagonist's scarred face.
A kid at school suggested I read this and so I did (to encourage reading).
It was pretty good. Story of Carlos Duarte, a high school kid, and his desire to be a supreme makeup artist. He interviews and gets a job at Macy's at the "FeatureFace" makeup counter, ponders his gayness, and finally battles his sister's boyfriend who is beating her up.
2 "peeves": 1) the overusage of "BEYOND"; beyond good looking, beyond expensive, etc. etc. 2) Name spellings. Carlos's mother refers to Carlos as Carlos, Carlos refers to himself as Carrlos. Also note the author's first name Bil rather than Bil. Why? I don't get it.
I think teenagers would enjoy this book, for me, it was OK.
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Brain Droppings by George Carlin
A kid at school gave this book to me to read (since he was quoting Carlin in class all the time). I had seen a lot of George Carlin’s stand-up comedy and this book is mostly all of that in written form. Some pieces are too long for stand up and thus were new for me.
Two I really enjoyed:
1) A whole shtick on the first time “human sacrifice” was discussed. It is presented at a town meeting amongst the cave people with old business being the “constant graffiti on cave walls” and what will people think? And how IMPORTANT it is to keep the fire going. And finally the new idea of human sacrifice with its pros and cons. Rather humorous.
2) A comparison of New York and Los Angeles. The gist of it is LA is sprawling and with Hollywood and all, LA is saying “F*** me” while New York is uptight saying “F*** you”.
Overall, a humorous light read. Recommended.
All the Pretty Horses
by Cormac McCarthy
This is book 1 of the "Border Trilogy" and I am not sure if I will continue it or not.
This story takes place in the late 1940's in Texas and Mexico. John Grady Cole is 16, has no "life" to live at home and so he and his friend Rawlins start out from Texas and go to Mexico, picking up another guy along the way named Blevins, all riding horses. Blevins' horse is stolen. John Cole has a "way" with horses and he and Rawlins get hired on at a ranch to break horses. John Cole falls in love with the owner's daughter. John Cole and Rawlins ultimately get arrested for stealing horses and killing a man, falsely accused. They spend some time in a Mexican jail, John Cole gets in a fight while in jail, ends up in a hospital. The mistress of the aforementioned ranch pays his bail money but must leave the girl alone. He and the girl meet up again, he proposes, she turns him down. Then to prove himself innocent, he finds his own horse and the one Blevins stole and tries to find the owner (How do you find the owner of a horse? in the whole country of Mexico?). At the end, he rides off into the twilight.... And hence you read the next book.
Overall, OK. I think if you were a horse lover or a SPANISH lover you would like this book. There is quite a bit of Spanish thrown in, I could decifer quite a bit of it but am sure I left out some MEANING. Also, an English teacher would have a field day with McCarthy's writing style. There are no quotation marks, no apostrophies and run on sentences galore. You do get used to it but it takes some time.
Overall, ok.
A week ago I had found some antigue books that had come from a friend and decided I would read one called "The Guinea Stamp." It was written by a woman with her name as author and copyrighted in 1892, unusual for that date.
I only found one reference in hte whole book that connected the story to the title. It definitely came from a different time and the author tended to both romanticize and preach yet had a vision to recognize stereotypes and discriminations from her time that sometimes surprised me. She was very democratic and certainly believed all people equal regardless of gender or social status despite certain ideas from the time. It was worth reading despite the preachy introductions that tried to force the reader to the same conclusions she had. It had some surprising twists on what she wrote about that I had not expected and overall, I enjoyed the story.
A Secret Rage by Charlaine Harris
Another book thanks to M's care packages.
Former NY model Nickie is dropped by her agent at the ripe old age of 27. She moves back to her adopted hometown in Tennessee to share a house with her best friend, Mimi, and finish her college degree. Things are not as peaceful as they seem in the small college town, however, and Nickie is attacked and raped in her own home. Can she and the other rape victims figure out who the serial rapist is before another woman is violated? Will Mimi's brother Cully ever give her a second glance? Alas, the answers to both are fairly predictable as you read.
Although I do like Harris' writing style and humor, the subject matter of this book keeps me from being able to say that I enjoyed it. It's the first book in a long time I have stayed up very late at night to finish reading - to keep from having nightmares. Some other reviews have called it "gritty" and I agree with that description; Harris is blunt and realistic about rape, along with the subsequent emotional and physical fallout. The theme throughout the book is "what did you know, and when did you know it?" The characters are good, but the mystery feels rough, and there is some clear foreshadowing that gives away both the identity of the rapist and the ending of the book way too early, in my opinion.
Recommended if you're on a mission to read all of Harris' books (don't expect anything like Sookie Stackhouse, though) otherwise, skip it.
Sombrero Fallout by Richard Brautigan
J and I both liked Willard so much that she borrowed Sombrero Fallout from the THS library. We were both surprised they had his books in house. =) Sombrero is set up very much like Willard, short chapters and easily finished in under 2 hours.
Sombrero relates one night in the life of a popular humor writer as he copes with breaking up with his Japanese girlfriend. The subplot actually takes place in his waste paper basket. He had written a page for a new book about a sombrero falling to the ground from out of nowhere, didn't like it, ripped it up, and threw it away. As he's pining for the girl and recalling how they met, the characters on the discarded paper live out the rest of their story.
This wasn't as "lucid" as Willard, and since the rest of you didn't like that book, I don't recommend this one. I do plan on reading more Brautigan though, because I really like his style and humor.
Watch Your Back! (2005) and Get Real (2009) by Donald Westlake
Gabriela, Clove and Cinnamon by Jorge Amado (in process)
I find it funny that both M and I are reading Westlake this week. =)
In Watch Your Back!, Dortmunder and crew must save their lair, the OJ Bar, from scheming New Jersey mobsters while at the same time pulling off a major "job" with no back room to plan in. Also they add another member to the gang, a baby-faced 19 year old named Judson. The plot took a while to come together, and there are some lengthy side story set-ups, but overall it was a good read. Several laugh out-loud moments and one short chapter which after reading I re-read to count the number of times a certain cuss word was repeated. 59 times in 2 pages. =) The chapter is hilarious if you read it in a thick joisey accent.
Recommended.
Get Real is the last book in the Dortmunder series, and for me at least, it was the perfect way to say goodbye to the gang. Murch's taxi-driving mom picks up a fare at the airport who just happens to produce reality tv shows. As you can guess, one thing leads to another and Dortmunder and gang become stars of a new show, tentatively called The Heist, in which they will be filmed planning and carrying out a robbery! But, can they disguise their real target from the show's producers? Will they be able to collect salaries under fake names? And what the HELL is Combined Tool?
Recommended to finish the series on a high note, but not as good as other Dortmunders I've read.
I am about 1/3 of the way into Gabriela, Clove and Cinnamon, and so far I really like it. It's set in a small-but-fast-growing cacao producing town in Brazil in 1925. Nacib, a bar owner and prominent citizen, needs to replace his cook (and fast!) who quit just 1 day before he is to host a dinner for 30 of the town's most important men. Among these 30 men are an aging political pit boss, an up-and-coming non-local political star, the leader of the opposition party, a Doctor who is not a doctor who is obsessed with his family tree, and a cacao planter who has just (like, earlier that same day) shot and killed his wife and her dentist - when he walked in on them in bed together. Most of these men keep mistresses on the side, frequent "cabarets" and generally just spend a lot of time thinking about sex.
Because this is translated from Portuguese, some of the phrases feel foreign. For instance, if I didn't know that "dar cuernos" (literally, to give horns) in Spanish meant to cheat on someone, I would have found it VERY strange for all the men to be saying "the only way to get rid of your horns is with bloodshed" or "if she ever gave me horns I would cut her into little bits." I think they should have been reworked into English better. Also, the names can be hard to remember and keep straight because 1) there are a TON of characters and 2) they are all authentic Portuguese names and surnames.
Secondly, I want to comment how much it reminded me of Shirley, because the title-bearing Gabriela did not appear in the book until page 88, and didn't join the main plot line until about 50 pages later.
More to come on this book.
Wow, the fact that we were both reading Westlake this week just reaffirms the adage that great minds think alike, doesn't it? And your comment about needing some Sookie/Eric action really hit home for me. I feel this intense longing to know what is happening in this story. So sad. :-) (I won't even attempt a vampire emoticon).
If you're like me, I feel like characters can only move forward when I'm reading about them, so, they are stuck in a suspended state of animation while I sleep, while I work, in between novels, etc. This is part of the reason I tend to read so quickly, so the characters can live out their stories. Somehow it seems wrong not to let them finish in "real time."
Right now there's an ENTIRE TOWN in Brazil just frozen, waiting for me. haha. Guess I'll go back to them.
Gabriela, Clove and Cinnamon by Jorge Amado
This is one of the books from 1000 books that I made a special effort to find, buy and read because it looked so interesting. I’m glad I did.
My synopsis in the post above gives a pretty good set up for the book, and I’ll add that overarching plotlines are
1) bar-owner Nacib’s relationship with his cook Gabriela
2) the upcoming elections and the strife between old-school Ramiro and the young & flashy opposition leader
3) the town’s struggle to become more civilized following a prolonged period of frontier violence and anarchy.
Though there is a lot of sex happening behind the scenes in this book, very little of it is narrated; it’s not dirty, but there are adult themes.
It’s a long book, and there are a TON of characters, so if you read it, I recommend making a list to keep them straight right from the beginning. Some of them pop up again just as you’re forgetting that they ever existed. I’m not sure if it really needed so many, and it probably would have been better with some of the outlying characters eliminated altogether. On the other hand, how do you relate to the entire town without a large cast? I’m torn.
I really liked the book; then again, I love all things South American.
Recommended if you’re tired of reading the same old thing, set in the same old US of A.
Dirty Havana Trilogy by Pedro Juan Gutierrez
Let me start by saying that this was yet another book I selected from 1,001 Books to Read Before You Die because "oh, that looks good." It's a semi-autobiographical novel by a Cuban man, relating everyday life in 1990s Havana; it has been banned in Cuba; it was a "notable book of the year" of the NY Times Book Review; I love all things Spanish-based; daily life in Cuba is really quite unknown, so how could this go wrong?
Actually, it could go wrong several ways, and it did.
1) It's not a good novel. There is no plot, unless it's the main character plotting how to have more sex, get more rum, or buy more soap. There are 3 sections "roughly" chronological, and each section is made up of chapters which may or may not deal with the main characters:
Pedro
Luisa, Pedro's girlfriend (he is also her pimp) in the first 2 sections
Isabel, Pedro's girlfriend (he is also her pimp) in the last section
Many, many chapters deal with characters that appear only once, and have NO connection to protagonists.
2) It's mostly porn. At one point about 1/3 in, Pedro Juan mentions that he is worried about having AIDS because he has had sex with 22 women. By the end of the book he has mentioned (or described in great detail) sleeping with 31 women. Of these, he was married to 1, in a live-in relationship with 5, and 6 were un-named. The number is surely quite a bit higher, as he worked as a male prostitute for female tourists for a while, until he got caught and served 2 years in jail. A brief hiatus from sex, because as he explains: "Taking some fa**ot in the ass or jerking myself off didn't count." Along the way there are also detailed descriptions of 18 other couples (or groups) in various sexual encounters, most memorably Berta (76) & Omar (23), and Roberto (mid 60s, gay) & Glenda (mid 20's, bi, owner of a whip and a previously-owned rubber dildo for Roberto).
3) It's not revolutionary. Pedro Juan describes daily life, and while it's very unflattering (putrid, even), he never gets in to the politics, never criticizes the regime, never offers suggestions to improve the society. He just gives descriptions of the decrepit buildings, non-functioning plumbing, poor hygiene, lack of medical care and rather extreme violence.
4) The ending is awful. The last three chapters introduce all new characters. Pedro Juan does not appear in any of them. Seriously?!
To sum up, not recommended, but morbid curiosity might just drive you to read it. If so, I strongly suggest you read 3:2 Stab Her, Man on an empty stomach.
Kahawa by Donald Westlake.
I was also reading Westlake.
This one is not a typcial Westlake book. Rather political story relating the theft of coffee (millions of pounds) from Uganda. And how this upset the coffee market worldwide. Idi Amin plays a big part.
Kahawa is the Swahili(?) word for coffee. The actual theft is interesting. The coffee is loaded on a train and the train is highjacked, the coffee is unloaded, sent out of the country, the coffee market is destroyed, the train "disappears" which drives Idi Amin crazy. The best part of the book is how the train disappears which is the last 50 pages or so.
I really didn't like this book. It is very long. The set up takes forever. There are too many characters. And too many loose ends. Some parts just didn't seem feasible. Mostly a lot of display of government corruption.
Not recommended.
Here are some quotes from my current book that I'm sure M (and others) will love!
"..every person who pretended to nauseate the smell of another's excretions, snuffed up his own with particular complacency"
".. the last Grand Duke of Tuscany .. was so delighted with that odour, that he caused the essence of ordure to be extracted, and used it as the most delicious perfume."
".. he himself (the doctor) when he happened to be low spirited, or fatigued with business, found immediate relief and uncommon satisfaction from hanging over the stale contents of a close-stool, while his servant stirred it about under his nose"
and then later, the same doctor mentioned above brags about his cures for syphilis:
" 'Sir, I have lately cured a woman in Bristol - a common prostitute, sir, who had got all the worst symptoms of the disorder..and a rather a pocky itch all over her body. By the time she had taken the second pill, sir, by Heaven! she was as smooth as my hand, and the third made her sound and as fresh as a new born infant.'
'Sir (cried my uncle peevishly)..this patient may not be so sound at the bottom as you imagine.'
'I can't possibly be mistaken (rejoined the philosopher) for I have had communication [sex] with her three times - I always ascertain my cures in that manner.'
At this remark, all the ladies retired to another corner of the room, and some of them began to spit."
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows
Let me start by saying that there is an wonderful library sale going on in Ithaca right now (through Tuesday); today I got 13 books for $4.75 so if you're able, I would check it out tomorrow! It's in a large warehouse and the books are all impeccably organized. There was a whole shelf of Bronte, but only 3 copies of Shirley. You can find more info here: http://www.booksale.org/
This was one of the books I picked up for $0.25, on J's recommendation. I sat down when we got home and intended to read the first couple of pages to see if I liked it, and, well, 4 hours later I'm done with it and I only cried 5 or 6 times.
The book is set in London and Guernsey, immediately following WWII. Juliet, an author and columnist in London, is searching for ideas for her next book when she receives a letter from Dawsey (on Guernsey) who has happened upon a book she had written her name and address in, then sold. Thus begins a correspondence between her, him, her publisher, and many townsfolk from the island regarding the book club they formed during the German occupation. The entire novel is a compilation of letters between the characters, who are quirky and high-spirited. If you like British sitcoms like The Vicar of Dibley or As Time Goes By, you'll love this book.
My favorite quote comes from Isola Pribby: "I don't believe that after reading such a fine writer as Emily Bronte, I will be happy to read again Miss Amanda Gillyflower's Ill-Used by Candlelight. Reading good books ruins you for enjoying bad books."
5 stars, highly recommended, though the "strong, silent hero" bit could use a little help.
Humphry Clinker by Tobias Smollet
Another from my 1001BTRBYD list, and oddly, another novel in letters. There are 5 main characters, traveling together around England and Scotland, each writing to a friend back home:
Matt Bramble, a Squire.
Tabitha, his sister.
Jerry, Matt and Tabitha's nephew.
Liddy, Jerry's sister (their parents are deceased, and they are both roughly around age 20).
Winifred, Tabitha's maid.
Mainly they are concerned with healing Matt's gout and digestive discomfort, visiting several of his long lost friends, finding a husband for spinster Tabitha and tracking down Liddy's heartthrob "Wilson." Hence they travel to several hot springs, sulfur springs, sea-side spas, etc. as they make their way to Scotland and then home again.
The title character, in true AMA Book Club style, makes his appearance on page 94... so I feel I am justified in saying that this book is very slow to start, and it's very quick to end. Everyone gets a nice and tidy happy ending, even the sour Tabitha. Many chapters/letters describe the countryside (I skipped these) or B-list celebrities of the day (I skipped these too); the women are almost all subject to "fits of the mother" and faint away at the least excitement (very akin to brain fevers). That being said, I'm sure the book was more shocking in its day than it is now. It does have some funny parts, and there is a lot of "lavatorial humor" as promised in the introduction. However, be prepared to read a lot of footnotes, and struggle through Winifred's phonographic spelling of 1770's servant's English.
Here's a quote from Matt Bramble:
"I believe it will be found upon enquiry[sic], that 19 out of 20, who are ruined by extravagance, fall a sacrifice to the ridiculous pride and vanity of silly women, whose parts are held in contempt by the very men whom they pillage and enslave. Thank heaven, Dick, that among all the follies and weaknesses of human nature, I have not yet fallen into that of matrimony."
Slightly recommended.
Spoilers!
Smokin’ Seventeen by Janet Evanovich
I liked this latest installment of the Stephanie Plum series much more than the last few books. I’m sure this is because this was a Ranger book (man oh man, was it ever! and I am a Babe girl down to my toenails) because the mystery seemed pretty Scooby-Doo lame and the action felt forced. The exploding cars are getting stale, I think Evanovich includes them because the series expects it, even when they don’t necessarily fit into the plot lines. Also I’ve noticed a shift in the books’ plots; they’re now over-focused on Stephanie and under-focused on whatever mystery she’s involved in. I think the series was best when the mystery and action were the main plot lines, and Morelli/Ranger were added bonuses.
I really liked Mooner in this book and Vinnie’s advertising kind of cracked me up too. Way to know your clientele. The vordo curse was great, and beepbeepbeep of the Porsche’s horn was hilarious. And of course I did like all the Ranger time... yum!
So, there were some redeeming moments, and I’m very curious to see where book 18 takes Stephanie romantically given the way this one ended, but I still think it’s time to end the series. All good things must come to and end, and the Plum has run her course.
Don Quixote: Man of la Mancha, by Miguel de Cervantes as retold by Judge Parry
Yes, I’ll admit that reading this "made-for-high-schoolers" version of a classic is cheating, and probably not much better than reading the cliff notes. On the other hand, some books could use some serious editing and are still good when stripped down to the bare bones (Moby Dick springs to mind immediately). That being said, I really liked it, and now am tempted to read the full version to see how much better it is.
If you’re not familiar with the story, Don Quixote is a man of a certain age who has taken to reading book about knights, and becomes so obsessed with them that he takes up the lance and shield, has himself knighted by an innkeeper, and goes in search of adventure so as to prove himself worthy of Aldonca Lorenso, a “buxom country wench with whom he was sometime in love.” To suit his knightly purposes better, he renames her Lady Dulcinea of Toboso. Together with his trusty squire, Sancho Panza, he encounters giants (windmills), armies (flocks of sheep) and an enchanted castle (a dingy roadside inn) all the while some friends from his native village are plotting how to get him safely back home again.
I really loved that the chapters in this version were named, and my favorite was “Chapter XI, Of a wonderful adventure which Don Quixote went through without peril to himself or Sancho” Chapters without peril for Sancho were few and far between...
It's a great story, and recommended, if for nothing else but that it comes up in Jeopardy all the time.
Smokin' Seventeen by Janet Evanovich. Also probably spoilers in this post.
I'm not sure I agree 100% on A with this book. I also liked it better than the past few. We're in agreement on that. However, I'm not so critical of the mystery and the shift in focus to Stephanie. This could be because I've been reading Sue Grafton's alphabet series which is too focused on the mystery and misses out on some important character moments.
I'll agree a little bit on the mystery because I had it figured out right away. However, it did its function of holding the book together, so good enough for me.
I'm conflicted on the Ranger/Morelli front. Whereas the doodah and danger-loving segment of my decision-making is all about Ranger, my head tells me Morelli would be the best bet for a happy marriage. Or even, relationship. He can be annoying, but he is basically honest and upfront with Stephanie, where Ranger is all mysterious and dangerous. Fun, but relationship killer.
I agree completely with your second and third paragraphs, A. Especially beepbeepbeep and Ranger time. Babe. Bring on 18 and a good conclusion to the series (hopefully).
Rabbit, Run by John Updike
Another 1001BTRBYD selection, but I didn’t care for this one; I’m glad I only paid about $0.20 for it.
This annoyingly chapterless book is divided into 3 sections that all revolve around Harry “Rabbit” Angstrom, a selfish, religious, 20-something potato peeler salesman from Southern Pennsylvania, who was a star basketball player on his high school team and is now disillusioned with his alcoholic wife and mundane lifestyle. I’ll sum up the entire book here because you should not bother reading it yourself. Ever.
Section 1: Harry makes a snap decision and leaves his wife one evening while on his way to pick up his 2 year old son from the grandparents’ house. His wife Janice is 7 months pregnant. Harry goes to his old basketball coach for a place to stay. After giving Harry some sound advice to go back to his wife, the coach gets drunk and gets them hookers. Harry moves in with his hooker, Ruth, that night.
Section 2: Harry and Ruth live together for 2 months, Ruth gets pregnant but Harry doesn’t know. Janice’s pastor befriends Harry and tries to rekindle their marriage. Harry leaves Ruth when he finds out Janice is in labor.
Section 3: Janice and Harry move back in together following the birth of their daughter. Harry tries to have sex with Janice 9 days after giving birth, she rejects his advances (rightly so!) and he storms out to go back to Ruth. Ruth is not home, he wanders the city all night. Meanwhile, Janice stays up all night drinking whiskey, then in a frantic attempt to bathe the baby before her mother comes to visit, overfills the tub and looses her grip on the infant, who drowns. Harry reunites with Janice, then leaves her again during the funeral. He returns to Ruth, who discloses her pregnancy and rejects him unless he divorces Janice. The book ends with Harry running away from Ruth’s apartment going who-knows-where.
As if the plot alone wasn’t enough to make a bad book, the writing is long-winded, often stream of consciousness and highly metaphoric. As a sample I submit one sentence about Harry reading a magazine in the labor & delivery waiting room:
“His mind can’t keep up with the words but keeps skidding up and branching away and flowering into little soft visions of Janice screaming, of the baby’s head blooming in blood, of the wicked ridged blue light Janice must be looking into if she’s conscious, if she’s conscious Eccles said, of the surgeon’s red rubber hands and gauze face and Janice’s babyish black nostrils widening to take in the antiseptic smell he smells, the smell running everywhere along the whitewashed walls, of being washed, washed, blood washed, retching washed until every surface smells like the inside of a bucket but it will never come clean because we will always fill it up again with our filth.”
Now imagine 250 pages of that.
There was one (1!) very well written paragraph, when Harry returns home the night of the drowning:
“He rolls back his sleeve and reaches down and pulls the plug; the water swings and the drain gasps. He watches the line of water slide slowly and evenly down the wall of the tub, and then with a crazed vortical cry the last of it is sucked down. He thinks how easy it was, yet in all His strength God did nothing. Just that little rubber stopper to lift.”
Not recommended.
I was going to complain that I thought you were going to pick Rabbit, Run for a future book club book, but I guess after reading your synopsis that I am glad you didn't.
The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje
This is the sequel to In the Skin of a Lion, which we read sometime last year or maybe in 2009. I rather liked both books, but I think Lion was better. I know The English Patient was made into an award winning movie, but for the life of me I don’t know how because so much of the book is internal monologue, morphine-induced hallucinations, flashbacks and flash-forwards. And then there’s the ending – or better said, the lack of an ending. The reader is left to assume certain things, which I’m not sure would go over well on the big screen. Harold says the movie was boring, and mostly just music as people walked through the desert.
Back to the plot:
Hana, a small child at the end of Lion, is now a 20-year-old nurse in Italy at the end of WWII. Suffering from her own version of PTSD, she refuses to leave her last patient when the rest of the hospital is relocated. The man was severely burned when he ejected from a plane in Africa and can not be moved. Caravaggio, one of her father’s friends – a thief who figured largely into Lion and who is now a war-maimed morphine addict, tracks her down and comes to live at the villa turned hospital with her. These three are then joined by Kip, an Indian sapper (bomb disposal), who makes camp in their courtyard. The story swings between the patient’s flashbacks of how he was burned, Kip & Hana’s love story and Caravaggio’s discovery of the patient’s true identity.
And even though that's a good summary of the plot, it in no way comes close to summarizing many levels of narrative in the novel.
I liked it, but then again it’s an international downer, so I don’t recommend it.
_________________
M - yes, I have quite a list of books I was going to pick, but as I've been slowly acquiring them at library sales I've just HAD to read them.
The Elephant’s Journey by Jose Saramago
I LOVED the inspiration for this book. The author goes out to dinner with friends in a restaurant called the Elephant. In the restaurant are carvings of small wooden sculptures with buildings and monuments. The author is then told that these carvings represent the journey of an elephant in 1551. Thus the story is born. From the book jacket “In 1551, King Joao III of Portugal gives Archduke Maximillian an unusual wedding present: an elephant named Solomon, along with his keeper: Subhro.” The elephant then has to be delivered to the happy couple and this book tells what might have happened as the elephant leaves Portugal and travels to Vienna.
The procession includes dignitaries, guards, the elephant and his mahout, and most importantly, the oxen pulling the cart of the elephant’s food. The whole entourage can only travel as fast as the oxen so they play a major part in the journey. Also, everyone stops every afternoon while the elephant takes a nap.
There is also a good deal of “Catch 22” by the mahout. He is responsible for the elephant and so is valuable but yet is responsible for the elephant so anything that the elephant does which is not so desirable is his fault. A lot of the book is about his precarious position.
This is the author’s last book, he died before it was edited. So this is the “zero” edition. There are some parts that severely need some editing but it was still a great read. Some paragraphs are rather rambling, a couple of chapters could be excluded, capitalization is needed (like names of cities). I don’t know if this is the author’s style (with few capital letters) or just as it was written and would have been done with the final edit.
Recommended.
Mrs. Kimble by Jennifer Haigh
I picked this up at a library sale for $0.25 based solely on the cover art and back cover blurb. I didn't have high expectations but I ended up devouring the book in about 2 days, and I would read more by this author.
Mrs. Kimble is a novel in 4 parts revolving around Ken Kimble, a lying, cheating minister-turned-real-estate-mogul and his 3 wives. Ken was born in 1929; the book begins and ends with his death in 1995.
Alcoholic Birdie (b. 1942, m. 1961, 2 children, divorced 1969) and Newsweek foreign correspondent Joan (b. 1930, m. 1969, no children, died 1975?) each have one section and chef Dinah (b. 1954, m. 1979, 1 child, widowed 1995) has two sections. Through their stories you can see the progression of not only Ken's selfish, greedy, a**holish personality, but also of American family values and race relations.
Haigh did a good job ending this book (high praise from me!) by giving Birdie and Dinah appropriate resolution to their conflicts, and by leaving Joan's death largely unmentioned, which given Ken's affinity for sneaking off in the night to start fresh in a new state, fits the book to a T. Dinah mentions once that in 15 years of marriage she never heard him laugh. The question Haigh wants the reader to contemplate, I'm sure, is why did each woman marry Ken, given his obvious faults? How did society/their background/ages impact their decisions and expectations of him? How did it impact the way they each responded when they discovered his lies?
Excellent writing, a good plot and difficult questions left to the reader give this book a solid "recommended" rating. Done right, it would make a great movie.
The Razor’s Edge by W. Somerset Maugham
A selection on 1001BTRBYD. Story of materialism vs. spiritualism. The story takes place in the 1930’s in Chicago, London, Paris, and India. Main characters include Larry, Gray, Isabelle, and Elliot. Larry has just returned from WW1 and should be finding a job and settling down but instead wanders the earth searching for the “meaning of life”, “is there a god?”, etc. Larry was engaged to Isabelle but she does not want to wander the earth, so instead marries Larry’s best friend Gray, who loses his shirt in the stock market crash, almost commits suicide, can’t find work, and leaves Isabelle wondering if she shouldn’t have married Larry. Elliot is a pompous ass who courts anyone with money and spends his life giving and attending parties in Paris and the Riviera. Thus the contrast of materialism vs. spiritualism. This could almost be a romance novel, but has more depth, otherwise I wouldn’t have stuck it out. This would not have made my top 1000 list but I can understand why some would choose it.
Even Cowgirls Get the Blues by Tom Robbins
Hmmmm, where to start with this one? It’s a wild ride. Tom Robbins had some really good narcotics for this book.
Sissy Shanksaw is born with an extremely large thumb on her right hand and uses it to her advantage by becoming what else? A REALLY good hitch hiker. This somewhat chronicles her rides and the people she meets. In a convoluted connection with Sissy is a ranch in North Dakota run by lesbians. The ranch is owned by a man who has made his fortune selling douche products. A flock of endangered whooping cranes nest at the ranch mainly because the girls are feeding the cranes marijuana. Bird watchers discover this and an international incident occurs between the US and Canada since the birds normally nest in Canada. A helicopter appears over the ranch and the pilot blows himself up and the helicopter freeing the cranes. Also there’s a Chinese guy at the ranch in charge of clocks. See? GOOD narcotics! It is a memorable story. I’ll never forget it.
True Grit by Charles Portis
I wanted to read this book since the newer movie just came out and people on TV were saying how the newer film more closely followed the book. I had seen the first movie with John Wayne, have not seen the newer film and had not read the book.
Now after reading the book, I have to say I don’t know what part(s) were missing from the 1st movie and this TV stuff is just hype I think. This book begs for John Wayne with words like “pardner”.
Mattie is 14 and is avenging her father’s death. She hires a US marshall, Rooster Cogburn, to find and capture the man who killed her father. She wants a man with “true grit”. Mattie accompanies Rooster as they search. They are opposites. Rooster is your quintessential marshall; Mattie quotes scripture. It’s a great old west story. I can’t imagine that the new film is any better than the old one. The book is good either way.
A Yellow Raft in Blue Water by Michael Dorris
Yet another dysfunctional family novel in 3 parts, but this one with a twist: the three parts move backwards chronologically, starting in the early 90s and going back to around WWII.
Rayona, half black and half Native American, tells the first section. Her full-blooded N.A. mother, Christine narrates the second section, and the book winds up with Christine's mother, Ida.
Christine, terminally ill, gives up her party lifestyle and on-again-off-again marriage in Seattle to take 15 year old "Ray" back to her hometown on a Montana reservation with the intention of leaving her with Ida until she turns 18. Given Ray's mixed parentage, Christine and Ida's stormy relationship, and lots of unspoken resentment you can imagine that not everything goes according to plan.
You may find this rather amusing coming from me, but I think the book would have been better if Either Ida or Christine had died at the end. As it is, the book lacks closure. Some parts are very repetitive, as all 3 characters narrate the same events, with the same dialogue, etc.. Also, I don't care for the title, or how it relates to the plot.
This line from Christine's section sums up the whole book:
"I tried to make sense of where I was, searched for a reason to stay, and it wasn't long before I told myself that I was sent. I was the only photograph still breathing. Dayton needed some mess in his life, and I had plenty to spare."
Not recommended.
Burning Silk by Destiny Kinal
The author is a friend of my coworker; I read this book as a favor. It is the first volume in “the textile trilogy.”
The story centers on the life of Catherine Duladier, heir to her family’s silk worm business. She and her sister + families move from Germany to Pennsylvania to begin a new, risky silk operation using a hybrid moth of their own creation. Religious magic plays heavily into the plot: The family worships the Black Madonna and is given the gift of ecstasy during childbirth, the women in the silk trade are able to communicate telepathically globally, through the use of certain drugs they are able to have out of body experiences, silk matrons are often visited and seduced by Imago, the great moth spirit. As Catherine struggles to overcome her adolescent rape and manage her first silk menagerie without her mother there to guide her (Will the hybrid silk be marketable? Will they have enough feed for the larvae? Will her evil brother-in-law succeed in having her tried for witchcraft? Will the investors pull their capital?) she consoles herself in an extramarital affair with Regina, one of her apprentices. Just when things are looking up, her rapists arrive from Europe to extract their pound of flesh, bringing an outbreak of cholera with them.
Continued below.
Burning Silk, continued:
Overall, a good plot and decent characters that kept me interested. I think the book could be improved with some editing:
> I really, really liked that the plans for the menagerie were included inside the covers of the book. Not having the slightest knowledge about silk worms, this really helped me get a good mind’s eye view of the setting, understand a lot of the technical aspects described in part three, and not be confused by all of the French terms.
> The descriptions of silk worm farming were very well done; just enough to initiate the layman, not too much so as to bore a reader. I imagine Destiny did a lot of research in this area, and it shows. They were also well integrated into the plot, reader and apprentices learned together, which I liked.
>The sex scenes are graphic, numerous and diverse, though separated by hefty doses of prose. The book could be helped by editing some of these scenes. Does the consummation of Catherine and Regina’s relationship truly merit 12 detailed pages?
> There is a lot of “talking about talking” (especially in the second section) and the narrative constantly switches between 3rd and 1st person, which I found to be distracting. Eliminate the internal dialogue as Catherine struggles to reveal her past to Regina, and pick one point of view and stick with it. It could be1st person from multiple characters, if you need a change of perspective.
> Many important plot lines are simply thrown at the reader, instead of illustrated for the reader. For instance, halfway through the book Catherine says that her brother-in-law’s constant drinking is tearing the family apart – I sat and thought, “What drinking? He’s appeared many, many times so far and hasn’t been drunk or hung over yet.” The same goes for Catherine’s opium usage.
> Use italics or a different font for Dialog, and only Dialog. The reader will pick up on this in the first few pages, and after that you can eliminate all of the “Catherine pleaded in Dialog” sentences. I think this would make the telepathic language more believable and allow it to feel like an inherent part of the women. Also, Catherine constantly asks questions to others in Dialog, but we never see her receive any incoming questions or requests for advice, which seems strange. Can she turn off her Dialog receiver like a CB radio?
> On the whole I think the plot was really good. I was interested to find out what would happen to Catherine and the other characters, and the magical elements feel fresh. However, some secondary plots are unnecessary and clutter up the book, such as Regina and the Underground Railroad, Wilhelm and the witchcraft and Catherine’s opium addiction. There’s already enough going on, and these things are alluded to, but don’t really affect the main story. The rapists could just have easily hid up a tree, instead of the underused slave-hiding place. Wilhelm’s negative influence with the investors is sufficient without adding a witch hunt (the bit about being mute and writing her defense for the trial was really glossed over, trying to tie everything up too quickly at the end of the book).
The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins
I enjoyed this book just as much if not more than The Woman in White. While it is set up in the same way – each character writing letters or submitting journal entries to describe events that they themselves witnessed - this book is more of a pure detective story than a thriller. In TWIW, there was a clear villain doling out premeditated evil. In The Moonstone, there is only an unplanned crime of opportunity: the theft of a rare diamond.
The origins of the Moonstone are thus:
-- 11th Century: In a dream, the god Vishnu visited three priests of a newly completed temple to the moon god Soma. In the dream he breathed his divinity into a large diamond set into the statue’s forehead, which caused the diamond to respond to the different phases of the moon. Vishnu called for 3 priests to guard the stone night and day (which they did for generations) and cursed any man who dared touch the stone.
-- Early 18th Century: The diamond is stolen by a conquering prince, and is followed by 3 priests, who constantly attempt to gain possession of it to return it to the temple.
-- 1799: John Herncastle steals the Moonstone during the storming of Seringapatam. He is pursued in turn by 3 Hindu priests.
-- 1848: John Hercastle dies and leaves the diamond as a birthday present to his niece, Rachel Verinder. She is immediately visited by 3 Indian men, and the diamond is stolen from her on the very same day she receives it (but not by the priests!)
The book then, is a classic whodunit in regards to the Moonstone’s most recent theft. There are some interesting side plots and several humorous moments. Much of the story is narrated by Gabriel Betteredge, longtime butler to the Verinders, a family of position and comfortable finances, and Franklin Blake, Rachel’s distant cousin & love interest.
Betteredge has an unshakeable attachment to a certain novel, which pops up constantly throughout the Moonstone:
“I have tried that book for years – generally in combination with pipe tobacco – and I have found it my friend in need in all the necessities of this mortal life. When my spirits are bad – Robinson Crusoe. When I want advice - Robinson Crusoe. In past times, when my wife plagued me; in present times, when I have had a drop too much - Robinson Crusoe. I have worn out six stout Robinson Crusoes with hard work in my service. On my lady’s last birthday she gave me a seventh. I took a drop too much on the strength of it; and Robinson Crusoe put me right again. Price four shillings and six-pence, bound in blue, with a picture into the bargain.”
Later, the local doctor speaks of Betteredge: “Whenever he looks my way, he remembers that I have not read Robinson Crusoe since I was a child, and he respectfully pities me.”
If you enjoyed TWIW, I highly recommend The Moonstone.
PS: I have never read Robinson Crusoe but you better believe that it’s going on my list now.
2001 A Space Odyssey by Arthur C. Clarke
Science fiction isn’t my norm but I LOVED this book. It was written in 1968 and must have caused quite a sensation in its time. Reading it in 2011 is just as interesting.
My favorite part of the book was Part 1. It is only about 20 pages but wow, starts with the beginning of the earth and primitive man and basically states that man would not have evolved to using his hands and developing tools without assistance from aliens.
Then fast forward to 2001 where the moon is a popular space station and flights to Saturn are in the planning stages. This is the story of David Bowman’s space flight along with the “power” of computers. HAL, the computer, is the ruthless villain and ends up being destroyed and leaves David Bowman’s mission in jeopardy. You read it and see how it ends, the title is apropro – it’s a space odyssey.
Recommended.
The Color Purple by Alice Walker
How did I miss this book in the last 20 years? It is amazing. Alice Walker is a phenomenal woman. If you haven't read it, you should.
This is the story of Celie, a poor uneducated black woman from Georgia, starting at age 14 (around 1915?), as told through a series of letters she writes to God and her sister. Raped by her father, she bears two children that are taken from her in infancy, possibly to be killed (but really her father gives them to a local preacher and his wife). She is then married to a brute she calls Mr. _______ and raises his 4 children, nurses his former lover Shug back to health, becomes Shug's lover herself, and endures a slew of beatings and insults in the process. The story partly focuses on her "family" in Georgia, partly on her sister's missionary work in Africa, and entirely on Celie's slow rise to self sufficiency and contentment.
My summary in no way does this masterpiece justice.
Highly, highly recommended.
Rocket Boys by Homer Hickam
I'd been wanting to read this book and then THERE IT WAS - waiting for me at the Troy Library Book Sale.
I really enjoyed this book. It is Homer's story of growing up in Coalwood, West Virginia, a coal mining town. Homer is in 9th (?) grade when he watches the Russians launch Sputnik. He becomes fascinated with rockets. So he and his friends build one - first try they blow up their mother's picket fence. Mom, though, does NOT get upset, she actually urges them on knowing they have to do something to get out of spending their lives in the coal mines. The story follows their progress to building a rocket that flies 10,000 feet up and how their obsession takes hold of the town. Also shows just how much you can do if you study some math and science! Homer later went on to join NASA.
Excellent excellent read. There are 2 other books that follow and I think I'll continue the rocket journey. This book was also made into the movie "October Sky" which I just might watch.
Recommended.
Fear Is The Key by Alistair ManLean
Every so often I like a good cold-war spy thriller, and MacLean is just the ticket. This particular book wasn't his best (very little character development) but the action was good and there was plenty of drinking.
John Montague Talbot, underwater salvage expert turned law enforcement agent, goes undercover to avenge the death of his wife, son and twin brother. Along the way he kidnaps a millionaire's daughter, scuba dives under an oil rig at night in a hurricane and outwits an infamous criminal mastermind. Part McGyver, part James bond, is there anything that Talbot can't handle? Certainly not scotch whiskey, he handles that just fine.
Mildly recommended if you like MacLean.
Tropic of Cancer by Henry Miller
(it should be subtitled "Back-Street Paris as Seen by a Hungry Man Who Thinks with His Penis")
Another from my list of 1001BTRBYD, plus who doesn't want to read a book that was banned for 30 years?
I'm torn on this book. I didn't enjoy reading it; I'm glad I stuck it out. What Kerouac got so right in On The Road, Miller seems to get all wrong. There is no plot, the protagonist's motivations are to 1) get fed and 2) get laid, the only action came from a slew of crazy prostitutes, and the end of the book is even more head-shakingly pathetic than the rest of it. The chapter structure was a bit odd too: each one started with good prose, characters, a bit of slow, forward moving action, some sly humor, enough to show you that Miller has considerable skill as a writer. However, after 10 or 15 pages they inevitably slide into a jumbled stream of consciousness ranting about war/economy/love/philosophy.
Skip to the start of the next chapter to see what happens with his other ex-pats and their ladies-of-the-evening; read the philosophic rambles it you're having a hard time falling asleep.
Even after all that, it's a book that will stick with me.
As to the banned status? There is a fair bit of graphic sexual description, but probably not much that will shock today's readers.
Not recommended.
Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe
An Englishman seeks to make his millions at sea and suffers many misfortunes, similar to Sinbad from 1001 Nights.
Heavy religious overtones, especially in the last half of the book. Heavy 17th century white supremacy, especially in the last third of the book. Overall not a bad read, I'm glad I finally can slide it over to the "read" section of my library.
Recommended if you read The Moonstone.
Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day by Winifred Watson
The entire novel takes place over 18 hours, and the chapters are chunks of time, such as 8:17 - 10:05 am.
40-year-old, downtrodden, virgin, spinster, governess-who-dislikes-children Guinevere Pettigrew is out of money, with 1 day left to pay rent before she is evicted from her dingy apartment. When her employment agency sends her to interview for a new position, she splurges on bus fare and arrives promptly at 10:00 only to find her prospective employer still in bed with one of her many lovers. Immediately “thrown to the wolves” so to speak, she spends the day helping a vibrant young lady and her friends through many awkward social situations. Along the way she also experiences her first drink, first silk underwear, first makeup and first kiss.
I borrowed this book from J, since it was on both of our 1001BTRBYD lists, and while she thought it was “ok but predictable,” I really enjoyed it. Perhaps because I’m also reading an Alice Walker book that is “heavy” I could appreciate the delightful lightness and happy ending more than normal.
It’s a quick read and I recommend it.
Bank Shot by Donald Westlake (1972)
This is the 2nd Dortmunder book, and I liked it just as much as Hot Rock, though some of the racial and political commentary has to be viewed through rose-colored time-machine glasses. This time around, Kelp has found the perfect score: a bank being remodeled is operating out of a converted mobile home. Thursday nights the safe is left full of money, and so the gang proposes not to rob the bank, but rather to bring in a truck and steal the entire building. Hilarity ensues.
We also get some backstory on the crew, mainly Dortmunder and Murch. Dortmunder, it seems, was married for a short time in his youth:
"A show-biz performer she'd been, with the professional name of Honeybun Bazoom. Dortmunder had married her in San Diego in 1952 on his way to Korea ... and had divorced her again in Reno in 1954 on his way out of the army."
One of my other favorite bits, as the police are preparing to mount a search for the missing bank:
"Captain Deemer closed his mouth firmly over the several things it occurred to him to say. He reminded himself that he didn't want to fight with everyone on his own team, and he waited in controlled impatience for this goddam draft-dodging useless hippie pot-smoking radical son of a bitch bastard to say whatever it was he was going to say."
A short, easy read, recommended since I know we all like Dortmunder books.
The Poseidon Adventure by Paul Gallico
I had seen the movie back in the 70s and had always wanted to read the book so FINALLY.... (the book preceeded the movie).
A mid-ocean "earthquake" causes huge waves and FLIPS a luxury ocean liner upside down. Because of the rough seas, most passengers were sick and in their rooms. The few with strong stomachs were in the dining room and these are the survivors. They make their way to the bottom of the ship (which is now the top) to try to be rescued. Their journey is on the ceiling and each set of stairs presents a challenge as they "climb" to the bottom/top. Eventually they make their way to the engine room which basically has been destroyed with heavy machinery falling to the ceiling/ now floor. The fortunate few that survive the climb are rescued. The movie follows the book fairly well. Some characters do meet different "ends".
A good story. Recommended to see either the movie or the book. Both are not necessary.
Tarzan of the Apes by Edgar Rice Burroughs
(I've been reading quite a bit not posting as well as I should).
This is the first of the long series of Tarzan books. Disney again "cleans up" the action. Tarzan's parents are en route to Africa to do some "nature studies" when the ship is mutinied and they are left on the coast of Africa to survive with their belongings. Shortly after (say 9 months), a child is born - Tarzan. Shortly after that, the parents are killed by apes, Tarzan is rescued by a mama ape (whose baby had just died). She raises Tarzan. He eventually becomes the leader of the apes (because of his intelligence not necessarily his strength). He discovers a tribe of "black people" and steals their arrows and hunting methods. Also finds his parents' home and books and teachers himself to read but yet cannot speak.
Another ship is mutinied and people left on the coast. Tarzan befriends them (they are white people) and eventually meets Jane. He and Jane fall in love, they travel to WISCONSIN! And there the story ends for the next sequel.
There is a fair bit of bigotry evident. Tarzan doesn't like the black people and steals from them but yet feels an instant kinship with the white people.
Check off another from the 1001 Books to Read before You Die!
Ok read.
Fear of Flying by Erica Jong
This is Isadora Wing's tale of woman's lib and self discovery. She is flying to Venice with her husband to a psychoanalysts' convention and has basically been "seen" by most of the passengers on the plane(psycho analysts). At the convention she meets another psycho analyst and falls in love. She then see-saws between her husband and the new love. Eventually leaves the husband and traipses across Europe with the new love. Along the way, ponders all kinds of things, mostly sex and her role in it.
I fully see why this book was a best seller in its day.
Another 1001 Books to Read book checked off the list.
Recommended for all woman's lib!
Hand in the Till by Gerald Hansen
Harold bought us a Kindle fire as an early Christmas gift, and this is the first full book I've read on full-screen e-reader. I liked the Kindle experience, but for me I don't think it will ever compare with the joy of book sales, turning pages and just holding a proper book.
But back to the book. Here we follow the Flood family as they navigate the near war-zone streets of Londonderry, Ireland. The Floods are a highly criminal Catholic/green/Coke family, under-educated, under-funded and pretty much as downtrodden as you can get. Each of the 10 or so family members has an ongoing feud of some sort, mostly with a Protestant/orange/Pepsi rival. The main plot line is how they will find the cash to make a trip to Malta so they can rain hellfire down on their oldest daughter Moira, a lesbian who has just published a book based on the family's hateful exploits.
Beware, the book is mainly written in phonetic Irish vernacular, and almost every other line contains a derogatory term for Protestants, cops, homosexuals, women, immigrants, etc, etc.
It's supposed to be funny, but I didn't find it very humorous. Maybe it would make a decent movie with a lot of the supporting plots thrown out.
Not recommended.
Chang and Eng by Darin Strauss
The imagined life story of Chang and Eng, two real-life conjoined twins from Siam who emigrated to the US in the early 1800s. After touring with various side shows they settled in North Carlina, married two sisters and fathered 21 children.
An interesting read but the chapter layouts jump around chronologically, which I found rather annoying.
If anyone would like to read it I'll gladly pass it along.
Possessing the Secret of Joy by Alice Walker
While this is not a sequel to The Color Purple, it does tell the full story of one of its characters, Tashi. An African woman who marries an American missionary and returns with him to the US, Tashi struggles for years to deal with her sister's death, caused by excessive bleeding following her circumcision. Tashi herself was also circumcised, and finds peace only after she has killed the tsunga who performed both procedures.
A difficult read only because the subject matter is so graphic, Walker's prose is as beautiful and poignant as her protagonist's scarred face.
Recommended.
Putting Makeup on the Fat Boy by Bil Wright
A kid at school suggested I read this and so I did (to encourage reading).
It was pretty good. Story of Carlos Duarte, a high school kid, and his desire to be a supreme makeup artist. He interviews and gets a job at Macy's at the "FeatureFace" makeup counter, ponders his gayness, and finally battles his sister's boyfriend who is beating her up.
2 "peeves":
1) the overusage of "BEYOND"; beyond good looking, beyond expensive, etc. etc.
2) Name spellings. Carlos's mother refers to Carlos as Carlos, Carlos refers to himself as Carrlos. Also note the author's first name Bil rather than Bil. Why? I don't get it.
I think teenagers would enjoy this book, for me, it was OK.
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