Teaser Tuesday Two-fer: To the Woods and Thunder Tree

Two teasers this week from what I lovingly refer to as "random memoirs" -- interesting books about real people living unusual lives. Both are published by OSU Press.

My father squats across the fire from me, stripping willow switches for weenie sticks with his fishing knife.  His closed lips are drawn bowlike into a broad smile; he hasn't shaved.

-- The Thunder Tree: Lessons From an Urban Wildland by Robert Michael Pyle. This is a collection of essays about growing up in Colorado, along the unfinished High Line Canal.  It is described as "an environmental coming-of-age story."

I remember a year freezing rain followed a heavy snow, encasing yellow, red, brown, and green stems in ice.  Shrubs were weighted down and bent over, like old women with crumbling bones, their long hair trapped under a layer of snow.

-- To the Woods: Sinking Roots, Living Lightly, and Finding True Home by Evelyn Searle Hess. This is the story of Hess and her husband, who moved to twenty acres of wild land in the foothills of Oregon’s coast range mountains when they were in the mid-fifties.


Teaser Tuesdays is hosted by Should Be Reading, where you can find the official rules for this weekly event. 

Mailobox Monday

Thanks for joining me for Mailbox Monday! MM was created by Marcia at A girl and her books (fka The Printed Page), who graciously hosted it for a long, long time, before turning it into a touring meme (details here).

Alyce at At Home With Books is hosting in January. Please stop by her wonderful blog!

Because I stopped at the wonderful Second Hand Prose bookstore this past weekend, I got a big stack of books last week. This is just some of them:

Map of Another Town: A Memoir of Provence by M. F. K Fisher (perfect for the European Reading Challenge, the Memorable Memoirs Challenge, and the Foodie's Reading Challenge)



Daughters-in-Law by Joanna Trollope



Back When We Were Grownups and Ladder of Years by Anne Tyler

 

Original Sin by P. D. James (Adam Dalgliesh Mystery Series #9)



The General's Daughter by Nelson DeMille (I've been in the mood every since I read, and loved, Cathedral, reviewed here)



To Jerusalem and Back by Saul Bellow (a possibility for the Memorable Memoirs Challenge and one I am particularly interested in after reading The Mandelbaum Gate by Muriel Sparks. reviewed here)



I also visited the Little Free Library in my neighborhood where I dropped off some books I've finished and snagged a couple of good ones:

Second Honeymoon by Joanna Trollope (love the cover)



Noah's Compass by Anne Tyler

Review: Dracula

Although vampire stories had been around earlier, it is Bram Stoker's sensational 1897 Dracula that promulgated the iconic version of the garlic-hating, crucifix-fearing, blood-sucking nobleman as Count Dracula, king of the vampires.

The novel is told through a series of documents, including journals, letters, telegrams, ship's logs, and newspaper stories, most written by the protagonists to memorialize their remarkable adventures.  The various writings track the growing comprehension of the vampire hunters, their planning, and the chase for Count Dracula as he attempts to relocate from Transylvania to London.

The book feels fresh and new, despite its age and multiple adaptations.  There is an innovative air to it, in part because of its fast-changing epistolary format, and also because of the gadgetry adopted by the characters.  For example, the doctor dictates his journal to phonographic cylinders and  the heroine brings a manual typewriter on their journey. 

But mostly the book is an excellent adventure story of a band of heroes fighting off an invading force of evil.  It is particularly exciting because the rules of engagement are always changing -- even as the heroes, led by Professor Abraham Van Helsing from Amsterdam, figure out the danger and adopt traditional vampire-fighting methods, Count Dracula adapts and grows stronger and wiser.  The tension is always increasing as the good guys and Dracula vie for the upper hand, right up to the breathtaking finale.

OTHER REVIEWS

Man of la Book (it counts as one of the books for his League of Extraordinary Gentlemen Challenge)

Let's Book It

If you would like your review of this book listed here, please leave a comment with a link and I will add it

NOTES

This counts as the "horror" choice for the Back to the Classic Challenge hosted by Sarah at Sarah Reads Too Much, one of the seven classics I read for the 2012 A Classics Challenge hosted by November's Autumn, and one of my "Cherchez le Homme" choices for the Vintage Mystery Challenge hosted by My Reader's Block.



It also counts as one of my audiobooks for the 2012 Audio Book Challenge. The unabridged audio version I listened to was very good, although I far preferred the male reader to the female reader.  She went a little overboard with the breathy Victorian sentimentality.  He was excellent, especially with his Dutch accent for Van Helsing that brought a necessary comic touch and made the professor the real star of the show.

2012 Challenge: Foodies Read 2

Margot and Joyfully Retired is hosting the second Foodies Reading Challenge in 2012 and I am very excited to sign up.

This was one of my favorite challenges in 2011; I read six food books for it.  My wrap-up post is here, with links to my reviews.

This year, I am signing up at the "Pastry Chef" level to read 4 - 8 food-related books. Click the button or link above to go to the main challenge page for details or to sign up.

BOOK POSSIBILITIES

There are many foodie books on my TBR shelf.  I am going to try to overlap with some of my other challenges, including my TBR challenges, the Non-Fiction Challenge, and the Memorable Memoirs Challenge.

Here are some of the possibilities:

The Raw Milk Revolution: Behind America's Emerging Battle Over Food Rights by David E. Gumpert

On the Town in New York by Michael Batterberry

Stuffed: Adventures of a Restaurant Family by Patricia Volk

The Tuscan Year: Life and Food in an Italian Valley by Elizabeth Romer

Comfort Me with Apples: More Adventures at the Table by Ruth Reichl

Alice Waters and Chez Panisse by Thomas McNamee

Epicurean Delight: The Life and Times of James Beard by Evan Jones

Vie De France: Sharing Food, Friendship and a Kitchen in the Lorie Valle by James Haller

A Cordiall Water by M. F. K. Fisher

The Feasting Season by Nancy Coons

Dumas on Food: Selections from Le Grand Dictionnaire de Cuisine by Alexandre Dumas

And it might be a good idea to include this one:

French Women Don't Get Fat: The Secret of Eating For Pleasure by Mireille Guiliano

WEEKEND COOKING

Hosted by Beth Fish Reads

Opening Sentences of the Day: The Thunder Tree and To the Woods

A green ravine creases northeast Seattle, draining into Lake Union near the University of Washington.

-- The Thunder Tree: Lessons From an Urban Wildland by Robert Michael Pyle, published by OSU Press.

From Library Journal:

"The Thunder Tree" was a huge, hollow old cottonwood in which the author and his brother once found shelter as children from a life-threatening hailstorm. The tree grew along the High Line Canal, built in the late 19th century as part of a grand plan to bring river water to the Western plains for irrigation. Only a portion of the canal was ever built, but that portion happened to run through the city of Aurora, Colorado, where the author lived as a child and young adult. This book is a collection of essays about the High Line Canal and the butterflies, magpies, cottonwoods, and other living things that existed nearby. Pyle's recollections about growing up in Aurora with his family and friends in the 1950s add a personal dimension. In a broader sense, this book is about the relationship between people and natural areas and how each affects the other. Pyle, who has a Ph.D. in ecology from Yale, is the author of Wintergreen as well as several guides to butterflies. - William H. Wiese, Iowa State Univ. Lib., Ames

In our mid-fifties, my husband and I left the toys and noise of urban society for the company of jumping mice, winter wrens, and dark nights full of stars and cricket song.

-- from the author's Preface to To the Woods: Sinking Roots, Living Lightly, and Finding True Home by Evelyn Searle Hess, also published by OSU Press.

I stumble groggily to the propane heater, match box in hand, twist open the tank valves, and depress the red button to the count of thirty.

-- from the opening chapter.

Publisher's Description:

To the Woods is a tale of adventure, inspiration, and living life in concert with nature. It is the true story of Evelyn Searle Hess, who, in her late fifties, walked away from the world of modern conveniences to build a new life with her husband on twenty acres of wild land in the foothills of Oregon’s coast range mountains. To the Woods describes Evelyn’s day-to-day struggles, failures, and discoveries. It tracks the natural history of place through the seasons. It wrestles with issues like human impact on the ecology of our planet.




A Few More Pages hosts Book Beginnings every Friday.  The event is open for the entire week.