Wednesday, May 30, 2012

Review: A Time of Hope



A Time of Hope is the third book in C. P. Snow's 11-volume Strangers and Brothers series. In it, narrator Lewis Eliot recounts his formative years, from his father's bankruptcy and his mother's death, through his school days, training to be a barrister, and early career, to his star-crossed marriage to the neurotic Sheila Knight.

Although this was the third novel of the series to be published, it is considered the first of the series chronologically. That is technically correct because it does begin with Eliot's childhood, but most of the story parallels the timeframe of the first-published volume, George Passant (reviewed here).

Eliot does a lot of soul searching and armchair analysis of his friends and professional colleagues – the kind of stuff that can make a novel enduringly interesting, or interminably dull. No doubt the series remains popular because Snow is a great storyteller who can wring a lot of insight out of a character without turning the plot to sludge. The characters are as realistic and absorbing today as when the book was first published in 1949.


OTHER REVIEWS

If you would like your review of this or any other novel in the series listed here, please leave a comment with a link and I will add it. 

NOTE

A Time of Hope dovetails with George Passant, telling Eliot's story instead of Passant's, but involving many of the same events, including Passant's criminal trial for fraud and conspiracy. Because A Time of Hope gives a condensed version of the trial, including its outcome, to read it first would spoil the story of George Passant.

Tuesday, May 29, 2012

Teaser Tuesday: Wild Delicate Seconds



The fox was fifty feet away, its coat a reddish-brown mixed with gray, white patches on the ears and tail.  It moved with its white belly coasting over the ground, its face like an arrow pulled from a quiver.  
 --  Wild Delicate Seconds: 29 Wildlife Encounters by Charles Finn, published by OSU Press.

This is a wonderful book! It makes me think about animals -- animals living right here in my neck of the woods, in a new, detailed way. 

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



Monday, May 28, 2012

Happy Memorial Day!



Mailbox Memorial Day


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).

This month, Mailbox Monday is hosted by Martha's Bookshelf.  Please take the time to visit her wonderfully eclectic blog.

Three very different books recently came into my house.  Other than all being non-fiction, there is not much they have in common.



Evolutionaries: Transformational Leadership: The Missing Link in Your Organizational Chart, by Randy Harrington and Carmen E Voillequé.

Carmen was the keynote speaker at the Portland WIFS dinner I went to last week. She talked about how businesses can plan for the future when we are no longer able to make long-term plans for the future. It was a message I needed to hear and I look forward to reading her book.



50 Audubon Birds of America: From the Original Double Elephant Folio, by John James Audubon, with an Introduction by Roger Tory Peterson. I got a copy of the paperback edition at the Rose City Used Book Fair, organized by Rachel from Second Glance Books.



The Little Book of Foodie Law by Cecil C. Kuhne. I am back on a Food Freedom tear, so this book will help me with some basic underpinnings.

Saturday, May 26, 2012

Review: Comfort Me With Apples



Well-known food writer, Ruth Reichl, began her career in California, before returning to her native New York to become the restaurant critic for The New York Times and, in 1999, the last editor-in-chief of Gourmet magazine. In her second volume of memoirs, Comfort Me with Apples: More Adventures at the Table, Reichl recounts her early days as a food critic and development as a writer, as well as the unraveling of her first marriage, a couple of formative love affairs, and her struggle to have a child.

Reichl timed it just right. She was living in a commune in Berkeley in the 1970s when Alice Waters opened Chez Panisse and local ingredients were the new big thing, giving her front line access to America's food revolution. In the 1980s, she moved on to become the food critic at The Los Angeles Times just when Wolfgang Puck and other mavericks were changing the culinary rulebook for good.

Food-wise, these were certainly exciting times, and Reichl captures the spirit of them with her honest, personable prose. As she once explained to her editor, just writing about food is boring; it is writing about the places, people, and experiences that the food is a part of that make it interesting. She is able to tie together a gastronomic history of the times with her own experiences -- travel to Paris, Thailand, and Barcelona; difficulties with her parents; her heartbreaking attempt to adopt a child – in a way that makes all of it come alive.

OTHER REVIEWS

Garlic and Sapphires: The Secret Life of a Critic in Disguise, reviewed here on Libby's Book Blog.

If you would like your review of this or any other of Ruth Reichl's books listed here, please leave a comment with a link and I will add it.

NOTES 

This is the first of Reichl's books that I have read. It counts as one of my books for the Foodie Reading Challenge, hosted by Margot at Joyfully Retired., and for the Memorable Memoirs Challenge, hosted by Melissa at The Betty and Boo Chronicles.



WEEKEND COOKING



Thursday, May 24, 2012

Book Beginnings: Wild Delicate Seconds


Please join me every Friday to share the first sentence (or so) of the book you are reading, along with your initial thoughts about the sentence, impressions of the book, or anything else the opener inspires.  Please remember to include the title of the book and the author.

I am posting early this week -- just because.

Leave a link to your post.  If you don't have a blog, but want to participate, please leave a comment with your Book Beginning.



MY BOOK BEGINNING



What follows are twenty-nine nonfiction micro-essays, each one a description of a chance encounter I had with a member (or members) of the fraternity of wildlife that call the pacific Northwest home.  
 -- from the author's Preface to Wild Delicate Seconds: 29 Wildlife Encounters by Charles Finn, published by OSU Press.

"Micro-essays" is a great term and a great format for presenting the flitting, ephemeral encounters Finn writes about in this charming book.

Wednesday, May 23, 2012

Review: The Finkler Question




Howard Jacobson won the Booker Prize for The Finkler Question, his hilarious, pitch perfect story of Jewish sensibilities in contemporary London.

In what reads like a Woody Allen adaptation of a Saul Bellow novel, two old school friends, Julian Treslove and Sam Finkler, maintain their rivalrous camaraderie mostly through a shared affection for their former professor, Libor Sevcik. Both Libor and Sam are recent widowers, struggling in different ways through the loss of their wives. Julian is a never-married father of two grown boys who, in a fumbling search for meaning and purpose in his life, becomes fascinated by Jewish culture.

The story loops around through a tangle of family ties, Jewish holidays, Holocaust deniers, Gaza politics, marriage, adultery, fatherhood, hate crimes against Jews, racial crimes by Jews, Finkler's popular philosophy books, Julian's failed career, classical music, and avant-garde theater.

While it gets a little shaggy and the ending is confusingly ambivalent, The Finkler Question is sparklingly witty, heartwarming in important ways, and will leave you pondering.

OTHER REVIEWS

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

NOTES 

The audio version is particularly entertaining because the reader, Steven Crossley, is excellent. It counts as one of my books for the Audio-Book Challenge.

This was one of my Booker choices for the 2012 Battle of the Prizes, British Version



Tuesday, May 22, 2012

Teaser Tuesday: The Secrets of Mary Bowser



We in the house were always decently dressed, while some Richmond slaves didn't even have shoes to wear on the City's unpaved streets. Though Old Master Van Lew's family held slaves, including Mama and Old Sam, when he lived in New York, neither Old Master Van Lew nor his Philadelphia-born bride could quite abide the way human chattel were treated in Virginia.
The Secrets of Mary Bowser by Lois Leveen.

See my interview of Lois, here, with links to event information, reviews, and more.




Sunday, May 20, 2012

Mailbox 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).

This month, Mailbox Monday is hosted by Martha's Bookshelf.  Please take the time to visit her wonderfully eclectic blog.

Last week, I was down in Salem to give a CLE on Oregon's rules for mandatory child abuse reporters to a group of attorneys. Whenever I am in a different town, I try to swing by the local library to see what it's like and check out the Friends' sale shelf.

I lucked out in Salem.  They have a Friends' store, not just a shelf, and it had an impressive stock of used -- but not ex-library -- books at very good prices. I got a nice little stack of books.




Independent People by Halldor Laxness (Nobel Prize winner and an Iceland choice for the European Reading Challenge)



The Field of Vision by Wright Morris (1957 National Book Award winner and possible choice for the Battle of the Prizes, American Version, Challenge)



Longshot
and For Kicks by Dick Francis (always my favorite)



The Vintage Caper by Peter Mayle (I can't resist)



Rumpole and the Reign of Terror and The Summer of a Dormouse (a memoir) by John Mortimer (I keep buying his books because they sound good to me, but I haven't read any of them yet -- hope I like them!)



A Good Hanging
by Ian Rankin (a short story collection from the John Rebus series)

Also, not from the library store, I got my copy of Jim Harrison's latest. He is an all-time favorite of mine -- so much that I am willing to buy a new hardback.



The Great Leader by Jim Harrison

Saturday, May 19, 2012

Review: Vie de France

 

Vie de France differs from other expatriate fantasy memoirs in that James Haller didn't pick up and move to an adorable French village – he just rented a house in an adorable French Village for a one-month vacation with friends. In a precursor to the blog-to-book idea, he kept notes about their daily activities and turned those notes into a book, descriptively subtitled "Sharing Food, Friendship, and a Kitchen in the Loire Valley."

Haller is a self-taught chef who owned the popular Blue Strawbery restaurant in Portsmouth, New Hampshire for over 16 years. In the late 1990s, when Haller turned 60, he and a group of friends started planning their dream trip to France. The resulting book focuses on the food the group enjoyed, some in cafes and fancy restaurants, but mostly what they bought, cooked, and ate together in their 17th Century country house.

Because Haller is not a haute cuisine chef (his cookbooks are both subtitled "Cooking (Brilliantly) Without Recipes"), his recipes are replicable as well as tasty sounding. He was inspired by traditional French cuisine and the fresh, local ingredients they found, but he cooked up easy dishes and, refreshingly, even included his creative use of leftovers. For example, after giving the instructions for his simplified version of cassoulet, he described using the leftovers to stuff a roasted chicken the next day.

The day-to-day details get a little repetitive, but for the most part Haller does a good job of bringing the reader into the party to share the group's enthusiasm. The relatively modest scope of their enterprise brings the armchair travel fantasies down to inspirational levels, leaving readers planning their own month-long visits to France.

JIM HALLER'S APRICOT LAVENDER TART

Line a tart pan with a circle of pre-made puff pastry dough.  Put a layer of pitted, but not peeled, fresh apricot halves on the dough.  Beat together one cup of sugar, six eggs, and a "little" vanilla, and pour over the apricots.  Lay three perfect strands of lavender across the top. Bake at 325 for about one hour.

NOTES

A custard made with just sugar and eggs but no cream sounds odd to me, but according to Haller, "The eggs combined with the juice from the apricots formed a custard gently flavored with the lavender."  I haven't made this yet, but I am willing to give it a try.

It counts as one of my books for the Foodie Reading Challenge, hosted by Margot at Joyfully Retired, and for the Memorable Memoirs Challenge, hosted by Melissa at The Betty and Boo Chronicles. It is also another book scratched off my French Connections list.


WEEKEND COOKING



Friday, May 18, 2012

Book Beginnings: The Secrets of Mary Bowser


Please join me every Friday to share the first sentence (or so) of the book you are reading, along with your initial thoughts about the sentence, impressions of the book, or anything else the opener inspires. Please remember to include the title of the book and the author.

Leave a link to your post.  If you don't have a blog, but want to participate, please leave a comment with your Book Beginning.



MY BOOK BEGINNING




Mama and I woke early, put on our Sunday Dresses, and stole down all three sets of stairs from the garret to the cellar, slipping out the servants' entrance before the Van Lews were even out of bed.
The Secrets of Mary Bowser by Lois Leveen.

See my interview of Lois, here, with links to event information, reviews, and more.

Wednesday, May 16, 2012

Author Interview: Lois Leveen


Portland author Lois Leveen is getting national buzz for her newly-released, debut novel, The Secrets of Mary Bowser.  Based on true events, this is the remarkable story of a former slave who spied on the Confederates during the Civil War.



The book was released this week, to glowing reviews in The Oregonian and others (see here, here, and here, for example).

AUTHOR BIO:  Award-winning author Lois Leveen dwells in the spaces where literature and history meet. A confirmed book geek, Lois earned degrees in history and literature from Harvard, the University of Southern California, and UCLA, and taught at UCLA and at Reed College. She is a regular contributor to Disunion, the New York Times coverage of the sesquicentennial of the Civil War, and her poetry and essays have appeared in numerous books, literary journals, and on NPR. Lois gives talks about American history and literature at libraries, bookstores, universities, museums, teacher training programs, and conferences throughout the country. She lives in a bright green house in Portland, Oregon, with a charming, bipedal Newfoundlander.

Lois took time from her busy promotional schedule to answer questions from Rose City Reader. 

How did you come to write The Secrets of Mary Bowser?

I first learned about the real Mary Bowser when I came across a few sentences about her espionage in a book of women's history. I couldn't stop wondering about her. How did she come to play such an amazing role in the Civil War? What experiences in the North would lead her to sacrifice her own freedom, without being certain about who would win the war and whether emancipation would really happen? What was it like to be educated, but to spend every day around people who consider you ignorant and not even human? What was the relationship between Bowser and Van Lew, two extraordinary women separated by race and class but united through their spying? I wrote the novel to answer those questions, for myself and for readers.

How did you research the historical information and detail found in your book? Do you have a background in history?

My undergraduate major was history and literature (not a double major, a special major focusing on the intersections of those two fields), and I do love to dig for details. I learned about Bowser while finishing my Ph.D. in English, with a specialty in African American literature, so I'd already read a lot of slave narratives, along with nineteenth-century poetry, fiction, essays, and speeches by African Americans, and other relevant materials, all of which helped me develop the voices of the characters.

But I still did a lot of new research for the novel. Although there is very little information about Mary Bowser's life, I did extensive research on urban slavery in Richmond, free black life in Philadelphia, and of course on the Civil War. That was the biggest surprise, because the Civil War always seemed to mean a dull laundry-list of names of generals and battlegrounds when I had to study it in high school. Suddenly, the era came alive through this fascinating story about friendship and family and what happens when you choose to do what's right rather than what's easy.

Plus I got to create some secret codes to use in the novel, which is always pretty cool.

How much of your novel is based on true, historical events?

This is a work of fiction — not a biography. Although Mary Bowser and Elizabeth “Bet” Van Lew were real people who spied on behalf of the Union, very little specific information is known about Mary Bowser (there is actually quite a bit of "information" about her on the internet and even in books by legitimate historians that is false, or at least unproven). We know from church records that she was baptized at St. John’s Episcopal Church in Richmond on May 17, 1846, and married there on April 16, 1861—dates I wove into the novel. It was extremely unusual for black people to be baptized or married in this church, which served Richmond's elite white community, indicating that the Van Lews treated her differently from other slaves or free black servants. Historical accounts indicate that Mary was educated either in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania or in Princeton, New Jersey. Few other details about her can be proven.

Nevertheless, many scenes in the novel draw on real incidents and involve real people, including leaders in the black community in Philadelphia as well as prominent white Unionists and Confederates in Richmond. Often the oddest things that Bet does in the novel are things the real Bet actually did, in a truth is stranger than fiction way. But mostly this novel is a work of invention.

At times I purposefully altered factual details for the sake of the story (I discuss these at the end of the novel and on my website, so I'll avoid any spoilers here). Despite these intentional changes, I made every effort to be historically accurate and to present events and language that were plausible for the era. As someone who loves historical research, I enjoyed the challenge of figuring out what Mary and the people she met would wear, eat, read, and do. I'm such a research hound that I'm still tracking down information about the real Mary Bowser—look for a piece I'm doing in the New York Times on May 17 or thereabouts. I can't imagine stopping if more sources emerge, even though they won't change the novel. It's a great pleasure to share the history through the eyes of such a compelling character. I will always want to honor her life, because she really is an American hero.


What did you learn from writing your book – either about the subject of the book or the writing process – that most surprised you?

I always joke about the fact that many debut novels are autobiographical—leaving the authors perplexed about what to write for the second novel. Clearly, The Secrets of Mary Bowser isn't autobiographical, yet what surprises me is how much of my own experience, or the experience of close friends, is in there. What it's like to leave your family and community to seize an educational opportunity, what happens when you find yourself courted by someone wealthy, how you go from being an unsure girl to a risk-taking woman . . . although no one would read this novel as a contemporary roman à clef, these themes aren't so distant for readers today.

What is the most valuable advice you’ve been given as an author?

The first draft is for the author—but then you must revise, revise, revise for the rest of the world. I muttered that MANY times, as I cut some scenes I loved, some lines I loved, because they weren't working for readers. In fact, I'd add another piece of advice: if you know which draft you're on (first, second, third), you are not done. I can't tell you how many times I revised a give scene or even a given sentence.

You have a terrific website and facebook page. From an author's perspective, how important are social networking sites and other internet resources to promote your book? 

Thank you--I work with a wonderful web designer, Chuck Barnes, who is extremely helpful. But the truth is, I'm torn about social networking. It's an ENORMOUS time suck for me to be on Facebook, on Twitter, re-posting from FB to my author website, etc. I'd rather be working on my next book (or reading for pleasure, which I feel like I never get to do). But I also know that people increasingly get their information from the internet, and so the book needs a presence there just as much as it does in a bookstore or a library. More, actually, because someone has to know the book exists to find it in a bookstore or library (who has time to browse any more?).

When I was updating my website recently, I asked some of the early reviewers who'd posted on Goodreads and Amazon if I could quote them on my website, and they were so charmed and flattered. I thought they'd done me a favor by saying nice things about the book, but they felt honored that the author bothered to track them down. It reminded me this is all about community. Yes, Jane Austen didn't have to worry about tweeting snappy, retweetable messages all day, but she also couldn't connect with readers around the world in the way authors do today.

Do you have any events coming up to promote your book?

Of course! See my events page or facebook page for details. And check back for new events!

Portland Area: Friday, May 18, 7:30 pm at Powell's City of Books on Burnside, Portland, OR; Thursday, May 31, 7:00 pm at St. Helen's Book Shop, 2149 Columbia Blvd. St., St. Helens, OR; and I know I'll also be at Broadway Books in a few months (they have so much planned for their 20th anniversary, we're waiting until afterwards); and hopefully other locations.

Farther Afield: Tuesday, May 22, 7:00 pm at Third Place Books, 17171 Bothell Way NE, Lake Forest Park, WA;  June 9-10 at Printers Row in Chicago; June 24 at the American Library Association annual conference (who doesn't love to party with librarians?).

Oh, and through the end of May, folks can vote to have The Secrets of Mary Bowser selected for the June Sutter Home Wine book club selection.

Who are your three (or four or five) favorite authors? Is your own writing influenced by who you read?

This is an enormously hard question for me, because my tastes vary so much by mood. And yes, my writing is influenced by what I read, to the point that I have to be careful not to start reading a book with a "voice" that is going to interfere with the voice in which I'm writing.

I can say that I read Louisa May Alcott's Little Women over and over as a child, and I'm still dazzled at how well constructed that novel is. And I often will pick up Penelope Fitzgerald's The Blue Flower and just read a few chapters from anywhere in the book, because I find it so droll. I wish I could master droll historical fiction!

Although I love narrative, I also try to read poetry pretty regularly, and I take poetry-writing workshops. Rhythm and word choice mean as much in prose as they do in poetry—at least as a reader I find that to be true—and the poets are the masters.


What are you reading now?

'Tis by Frank McCourt. I devoured Angela's Ashes, which I think is wonderful in evoking place, language, and characters. It's especially sharp on having a first-person narrator who is a bit of an innocent but not a dupe. That's a tough trick, because your narrator has to report everything for the reader, and so much of the success of the book depends on how much she or he knows and how she or he presents it. I'm a little less in love with 'Tis—maybe it was too soon to pick it up, because I miss the characters and setting from Angela's Ashes.

What’s next? Are you working on your next book?

Yes. I had a project I spent nearly a year researching. It's another "footnote from American history," and I was really excited about the topic. But when it came to writing, it was all over the place. I couldn't figure out who should narrate. There were too many characters and settings over the course of this person's life. I wrote some good scenes, some lousy scenes, but nothing emerging as a whole direction. And I had a big fear that it was going to be another long book. The Secrets of Mary Bowser is nearly five hundred pages, although it's not a slog. Still, I didn't want to write a second book that was even longer, which this was threatening to be, because I don't want to be pegged as a "long" novelist.

I work on my writing every morning, and one day after spending about four hours on that sprawling project, an idea for another book popped into my head. I spent another two hours trying to figure out if anyone had already written about the protagonist I had in mind, and doing some basic research on what I'd need to figure out how to go about writing her story. And it's been off to the races ever since. But I'm still not ready to say what that new new project is. And I'm still planning to go back to the one I'd already researched, at some point in the future.

What is the best thing about being a writer?

For years, I've said the best part is working in pajamas, with a cat on my lap. That's still a big draw—for me and for the felines in my life—but as I've begun to do public readings from The Secrets of Mary Bowser (and to read early reviews—everyone says not to do that, but I can't help myself), it's been so amazing to feel the emotional responses listeners and readers have to what I've written. That's the best thing, really: knowing your words will touch someone you may never meet, in ways you can never know.

THANKS LOIS! 

Tuesday, May 15, 2012

Teaser Tuesday: The Wisdom of John Muir



Muir looked forward to the trip and wasn't disappointed.  "I made up a package of bread, tied my notebook to my belt, and strode away in the bracing air, every nerve and muscle tingling with eager indefinite hope, and ready to give welcome to all that wilderness might offer."

-- The Wisdom of John Muir: 100 Selections from the Letters, Journals, and Essays of the Great Naturalist by Anne Rowthorn.

This is a good example both of Muir's own writing -- I love "eager indefinite hope" -- and the way Rowthorn uses it.  She uses Muir's own writing, in long passages and little snippets, interspersed with her own cogent explanations for context, to write a chronological biography of America's greatest naturalist. 

The Wisdom of John Muir is a good introduction to Muir's life and thinking.

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



Monday, May 14, 2012

Mailbox 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).

This month, Mailbox Monday is hosted by Martha's Bookshelf.  Please take the time to visit her wonderfully eclectic blog.

I got a short stack of books last week from a variety of sources:



Get Your Pitchfork On!: The Real Dirt on Country Living by Kristy Athens.  This is terrific! It is a practical, no-nonsense guide for urbanites who want to go live in the country -- and don't we all have those fantasies every now and again? Thanks go to intrepid publicist, Mary Bisbee-Beek for my copy.  This is right up my Food Freedom alley!



Songs of Power and Prayer in the Columbia Plateau: The Jesuit, the Medicine Man, and the Indian Hymn Singer by Chad S. Hamill.  This looks like a really interesting story about the connections between music, religion, and Native American spirituality.  Thanks go to OSU Press for my copy.



Skios by Michael Frayn.  I first saw Frayn's permanently-running and very funny play, Noises Off, when I went to London as a teen-ager in 1983.  His new novel looks like it could be just as funny.  Thanks go to the LibraryThing Early Reviewer program for my copy. 



Island by Aldous Huxley.  This shows up on the Anthony Burgess list of his favorite 99 Novels, so I've been looking for a copy. I found one at The Joy of Books in Libby, Montana when I was there for work.

Sunday, May 13, 2012

Opening Sentence: Comfort Me with Apples


Easy for him to say: He was independently wealthy.

-- Comfort Me with Apples: More Adventures at the Table by Ruth Reichl. She was referring to the quote from legendary food writer A. J. Liebling at the top of the page: "The primary requisite for writing well about food is a good appetite."

Reichl is the editor in chief of Gourmet magazine and the author of several foodie memoirs.  This is the first of her books that I have read. It counts as one of my books for the Foodie Reading Challenge, hosted by Margot at Joyfully Retired., and for the Memorable Memoirs Challenge, hosted by Melissa at The Betty and Boo Chronicles.



She ends several of the chapters with recipes.  The one I am going to make this weekend is so simple it isn't really a recipe.  But it sounds delicious. 

ASPARAGUS WITH BALSAMIC

Cook the fattest asparagus you can find, making sure to not overcook it.  Serve with a little bowl of the best balsamic vinegar you have.  Eat with fingers, dipping spears in the vinegar. 

Reichl's description of her first encounter with this dish brings back feelings of early food discoveries.  It was the late '70s and she had never eaten asparagus with her fingers and had never heard of, let alone tasted, balsamic vinegar. 



WEEKEND COOKING



Friday, May 11, 2012

Book Beginnings: The Wisdom of John Muir


Please join me every Friday to share the first sentence (or so) of the book you are reading, along with your initial thoughts about the sentence, impressions of the book, or anything else the opener inspires.  Please remember to include the title of the book and the author.

Leave a link to your post.  If you don't have a blog, but want to participate, please leave a comment with your Book Beginning.



Be patient with me today. I'm in Kalispell, Montana for depositions of a couple of my clients. It's going to be a jam-packed day and then I fly home at the crack of dawn tomorrow. I probably won't get around to visit all your posts until later this weekend. But I will stop by as soon as I can. Thanks for posting!

MY BOOK BEGINNING



This book is invaluable because, among many other things, it reminds us what a talented writer John Muir was.

-- from the Forward to The Wisdom of John Muir: 100 Selections from the Letters, Journals, and Essays of the Great Naturalist by Anne Rowthorn. 

I've read about John Muir, but I've never read his own writing. I am looking forward to learning more.

My copy came through the LibraryThing Early Reviewer program.

Thursday, May 10, 2012

Review: Doctor Thorne



Frank Gresham must marry money. His father has already sold off part of Gresham Park and the rest is mortgaged to the hilt. His mother wants to keep – and use – the London house. His five sisters need dowries. And no one wants to lose face with their rich De Courcy relatives. So now that Frank is twenty-one, all agree that he must marry money.

All except Frank, that is. He’s in love with Mary Thorne, the bastard niece of a country doctor. Anthony Trollope recounts the trials and tribulations of these unlucky lovers in his 1858 novel, Doctor Thorne, the third book in his Chronicles of Barsetshire.

Like the first two in the series, The Warden and Barchester Towers, Doctor Thorne is lively, witty, occasionally snarky, and thoroughly engrossing. It feels even more contemporary, perhaps because of the racy matter of illegitimacy, or because it gets away from the ecclesiastical themes of the first two in favor of more secular topics.  Side stories dealing with product recognition and election financing feel particularly current.

There are a couple of potboiler parts where the story gets repetitive and the whole thing drags on just a bit too long, but overall Doctor Thorne is a terrific read, either as part of the Chronicles or as a stand-alone.

OTHER REVIEWS

If you would like your review of this or any other Anthony Trollope book listed here, please leave a comment with a link and I will add it.

NOTES

I listened to the audiobook available for instant download at my library, so this was one of my books for the AudioBook Challenge.  There is also a free kindle edition on amazon.

Wednesday, May 9, 2012

Opening Sentence: The Finkler Question



He should have seen it coming.

-- The Finkler Question by Howard Jacobson.

If ever there was an opening sentence with infinite possibility, that is it.  I am now half-way through this Booker winner and enjoying every minute of it.  The audio version is particularly entertaining because the reader, Steven Crossley, is excellent.

This is a story about three friends -- two school buddies, now grown, and their former professor.  It is about friendship, rivalry, marriage, love, mourning, and being Jewish in modern-day London.  It is also about misbehaving middle-aged men, which is my favorite fiction genre.  The only thing missing for me is that none of the characters over drink.  Add a touch of dipsomania and it would be an all-time favorite for me.   

This is one of my Booker choices for the 2012 Battle of the Prizes, British Version



Tuesday, May 8, 2012

Teaser Tuesday: The Things You Would Have Said

 

Dear Mom,
. . . What I have learned so far is that I come from a family of very strong women.  Perhaps I have some of that strength in me.
 -- from one of the letters in The Things You Would Have Said: The Chance to Say What You Always Wanted Them to Know, edited by Jackie Hooper.

This is the book edition of the popular blog by the same name.  It contains letters written by real people to others who have passed out of their lives -- parents, friends, enemies, their childhood selves, etc.  The letters are incredible.

This could be a great idea for Mother's Day, this Sunday.

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



Monday, May 7, 2012

Mailbox 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).

This month, Mailbox Monday is hosted by Martha's Bookshelf.  Please take the time to visit her wonderfully eclectic blog.

I got one terrific book last week:



The Secrets of Mary Bowser by Lois Leveen.

Publisher's Description:
Based on a remarkable true story, The Secrets of Mary Bowser is an inspiring tale of one daring woman's willingness to sacrifice her own freedom to change the course of history.
All her life, Mary has been a slave to the wealthy Van Lew family of Richmond, Virginia. But when Bet, the willful Van Lew daughter, decides to send Mary to Philadelphia to be educated, she must leave her family to seize her freedom.  

Life in the North brings new friendships, a courtship, and a far different education than Mary ever expected, one that leads her into the heart of the abolition movement. With the nation edging toward war, she defies Virginia law by returning to Richmond to care for her ailing father—and to fight for emancipation. Posing as a slave in the Confederate White House in order to spy on President Jefferson Davis, Mary deceives even those who are closest to her to aid the Union command.
Just when it seems that all her courageous gambles to end slavery will pay off, Mary discovers that everything comes at a cost—even freedom.
This looks really, really good.  It is getting rave reviews already, one from Barbara at Views from the Countryside.  You can find links to other reviews on the author's website. You can see the trailer here.  

Leveen lives here in Portland and has agreed to do an author interview on Rose City Reader. Check back soon to see what Lois has to say about writing, reading, and her debut novel.

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