"We are living in strange times."
-- from the author's Introduction, Blue Planet in Green Shackles by Václav Klaus.
"For quite some time, I have been speaking and writing about the environment in a rather unsystematic way."
--Chapter 1, Blue Planet.
Václav Klaus is the President of the Czech Republic, a former Prime Minister of the country, and an economist by training and profession. His perspective on climate issues is fascinating.
This is my "green" pick for the Colorful Reading Challenge.
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Tuesday, August 18, 2009
Opening Sentence of the Day: Blue Planet in Green Shackles
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"We are living in strange times."
-- from the author's Introduction, Blue Planet in Green Shackles by Václav Klaus.
"For quite some time, I have been speaking and writing about the environment in a rather unsystematic way."
--Chapter 1, Blue Planet.
Václav Klaus is the President of the Czech Republic, a former Prime Minister of the country, and an economist by training and profession. His perspective on climate issues is fascinating.
This is my "green" pick for the Colorful Reading Challenge.
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"We are living in strange times."
-- from the author's Introduction, Blue Planet in Green Shackles by Václav Klaus.
"For quite some time, I have been speaking and writing about the environment in a rather unsystematic way."
--Chapter 1, Blue Planet.
Václav Klaus is the President of the Czech Republic, a former Prime Minister of the country, and an economist by training and profession. His perspective on climate issues is fascinating.
This is my "green" pick for the Colorful Reading Challenge.
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Teaser Tuesday: Underworld
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"Maybe they used to have jazz but stopped. The had a jazz policy that became a policy of no jazz, which is much the same thing if you examine it closely."
-- Underworld by Don DiLillo.
Huh? Just what does that mean? Most of this book is full of that kind of grandiose, meaningless, blather. It has a zillion characters, but almost no plot. It moves generally backwards in time, so what plot there is is a puzzle to put together as information about earlier events comes around later in the book. I find it needlessly confusing and pompous.
Another problem I have with this book is that it is, literally, full of sh*t. It is scatological enough to make it to my sh*t list. Not only do the characters think about the subject, they philosophize about it, saying things like, "All waste defers to sh*t. All waste aspires to the condition of sh*t."
I am definitely not cut out to be a DeLillo fan.
Teaser Tuesdays is hosted by Should Be Reading, where you can find the official rules for this weekly event.
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"Maybe they used to have jazz but stopped. The had a jazz policy that became a policy of no jazz, which is much the same thing if you examine it closely."
-- Underworld by Don DiLillo.
Huh? Just what does that mean? Most of this book is full of that kind of grandiose, meaningless, blather. It has a zillion characters, but almost no plot. It moves generally backwards in time, so what plot there is is a puzzle to put together as information about earlier events comes around later in the book. I find it needlessly confusing and pompous.
Another problem I have with this book is that it is, literally, full of sh*t. It is scatological enough to make it to my sh*t list. Not only do the characters think about the subject, they philosophize about it, saying things like, "All waste defers to sh*t. All waste aspires to the condition of sh*t."
I am definitely not cut out to be a DeLillo fan.
Teaser Tuesdays is hosted by Should Be Reading, where you can find the official rules for this weekly event.
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Monday, August 17, 2009
Mailbox Monday
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Three books showed up in my mailbox last week, so this is a legitimate Mailbox Monday post. In addition, I used some of my Reading Local contest winnings at Annie Bloom's Books for three other great finds.
IN THE MAIL:
Paul Newman: A Life by Shawn Levy (from the Internet Review of Books)
Homer & Langley by E.L. Doctorow (from LibraryThing's Early Reviewer program)
Good for the Jews by Debra Spark (from my friends at the University of Michigan Press)
FROM ANNIE BLOOM'S BOOKS:
The Naming of Names: The Search for Order in the World of Plants by Anna Pavord
Ex Libris: Confessions of a Common Reader by Anne Fadiman (recommended by my buddy Laura at Artscatter)
Rereadings: Seventeen Writers Revisit Books They Love, edited by Anne Fadiman
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Three books showed up in my mailbox last week, so this is a legitimate Mailbox Monday post. In addition, I used some of my Reading Local contest winnings at Annie Bloom's Books for three other great finds.
IN THE MAIL:
Paul Newman: A Life by Shawn Levy (from the Internet Review of Books)
Homer & Langley by E.L. Doctorow (from LibraryThing's Early Reviewer program)
Good for the Jews by Debra Spark (from my friends at the University of Michigan Press)
FROM ANNIE BLOOM'S BOOKS:
The Naming of Names: The Search for Order in the World of Plants by Anna Pavord
Ex Libris: Confessions of a Common Reader by Anne Fadiman (recommended by my buddy Laura at Artscatter)
Rereadings: Seventeen Writers Revisit Books They Love, edited by Anne Fadiman
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Sunday, August 16, 2009
Announcement: The IRB is Here!
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The August edition of the Internet Review of Books is up now and jam-packed with great reading. There are 13 non-fiction reviews, five fiction reviews, an essay by Eric Petersen on "The Pros and Cons of Net Books," and a good selection of brief reviews.
I am very pleased that my review of Au Revoir to All That by Michael Steinberger is included in this month's edition. When the September edition of the IRB comes out, I will post my review here on Rose City Reader. Until then, please visit the Internet Review of Books and read it there.
The August edition of the Internet Review of Books is up now and jam-packed with great reading. There are 13 non-fiction reviews, five fiction reviews, an essay by Eric Petersen on "The Pros and Cons of Net Books," and a good selection of brief reviews.
I am very pleased that my review of Au Revoir to All That by Michael Steinberger is included in this month's edition. When the September edition of the IRB comes out, I will post my review here on Rose City Reader. Until then, please visit the Internet Review of Books and read it there.
Opening Sentence of the Day: Underworld
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"He speaks in your voice, American, and there's a shine in his eye that's halfway hopeful."
-- Underworld by Don DiLillo.
And we are off on an 850+ page meandering, at least a third of which I don't understand, a third I don't care about, and a third I enjoy. I just don't think I'm cut out to be a DiLillo fan.
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"He speaks in your voice, American, and there's a shine in his eye that's halfway hopeful."
-- Underworld by Don DiLillo.
And we are off on an 850+ page meandering, at least a third of which I don't understand, a third I don't care about, and a third I enjoy. I just don't think I'm cut out to be a DiLillo fan.
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Saturday, August 15, 2009
Review of the Day: Goodbye, Columbus
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Philip Roth won the 1960 National Book Award for his first book, Goodbye, Columbus, a collection of five short stories and the title novella. He went on to create an incredible body of work – building on many themes introduced in Goodbye, Columbus – publishing 30 books to date with another on the way.
In the main novella, hero Neil Klugman is home in Newark after two years in the army. He has finished college, is working in the library, and lives with his Aunt Gladys and Uncle Max in the old neighborhood. When Neil falls in love with Brenda Patimkin, the prototypical Jewish American Princess whose family has moved to the suburbs up the hill, Roth begins the examination of American Jewish life that continues through many of his books.
The title is a reference to Ohio State University Seniors saying goodbye to college, goodbye to Columbus, Ohio, but it also signifies growing up and leaving youth behind. Neil and Brenda’s relationship demonstrates the intensity of first love, as well as the disillusionment and emotional tempering that result.
The five short stories that follow vary in force and effect. “The Conversion of the Jews” is a clever piece in which a young student starts a theological argument with his teacher along the lines of, “If God is omnipotent, can he make a rock too big for him to move?” It is fast and crisp and more than a little audacious.
How Jews, particularly secular Jews, assimilated into mid-century American culture is a common Roth theme. In “Defender of the Faith,” he looks at Jews in the military, drawing in part on his own experience in the army. This story leaves questions unanswered for later pondering: Just who defended the faith? Was it the hero, Sergeant Nathan Marx, who fought the Germans in WWII? Or the new recruit, Sheldon Grossman, who demands to follow his religious practices in boot camp? Is Grossman really looking out for the Jews in the unit, or just trying to gain preferential treatment? What about Marx? This would be an excellent pick for a lit class or book club.
“Epstein” is a morality tale about adultery on the brink of the sexual revolution. Louis Epstein learns the hard way that his generation does not get to share in the sexual frolics of the post-war, folk-singing, “socially conscious” next one.
In “You Can’t Tell a Man by the Song He Sings,” Roth touches on themes he comes back to over and over, including growing up in Newark, baseball, interactions among ethnic groups, and political ideology. The idea of a high school teacher falling into the net of anti-communist committee hearing is one that Roth later developed fully in I Married a Communist, one of his Zuckerman novels.
The last story, “Eli the Fanatic,” is the most powerful of the bunch. When a group of religious Jews sets up a Yeshiva for Holocaust orphans, the secular Jews in the “modern community” of Woodenton, New Jersey want the school closed down, fearing that it will upset the delicate balance they have achieved with their secular Protestant neighbors. Poor Eli Peck gets caught in the middle, trying to negotiate between his fellow townsfolk and the school. Peck’s eventual comprehension of the past suffering of the Yeshiva Jews and the shameful position of his cohorts leads to his emotional undoing. This is a story to mull over.
Roth won several more awards after this one, including another National for Sabbath Theater, the Pulitzer for American Pastoral, and the National Book Critics Circle Award for Counterlife, among others. He is a true man of letters and a real American treasure.
This was my National Book Award pick for the Battle of the Prizes Challenge.
OTHER REVIEWS
Hotchpot Cafe
(If you would like to have your review of this book listed here, please leave a comment with a link.)
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Philip Roth won the 1960 National Book Award for his first book, Goodbye, Columbus, a collection of five short stories and the title novella. He went on to create an incredible body of work – building on many themes introduced in Goodbye, Columbus – publishing 30 books to date with another on the way.
In the main novella, hero Neil Klugman is home in Newark after two years in the army. He has finished college, is working in the library, and lives with his Aunt Gladys and Uncle Max in the old neighborhood. When Neil falls in love with Brenda Patimkin, the prototypical Jewish American Princess whose family has moved to the suburbs up the hill, Roth begins the examination of American Jewish life that continues through many of his books.
The title is a reference to Ohio State University Seniors saying goodbye to college, goodbye to Columbus, Ohio, but it also signifies growing up and leaving youth behind. Neil and Brenda’s relationship demonstrates the intensity of first love, as well as the disillusionment and emotional tempering that result.
The five short stories that follow vary in force and effect. “The Conversion of the Jews” is a clever piece in which a young student starts a theological argument with his teacher along the lines of, “If God is omnipotent, can he make a rock too big for him to move?” It is fast and crisp and more than a little audacious.
How Jews, particularly secular Jews, assimilated into mid-century American culture is a common Roth theme. In “Defender of the Faith,” he looks at Jews in the military, drawing in part on his own experience in the army. This story leaves questions unanswered for later pondering: Just who defended the faith? Was it the hero, Sergeant Nathan Marx, who fought the Germans in WWII? Or the new recruit, Sheldon Grossman, who demands to follow his religious practices in boot camp? Is Grossman really looking out for the Jews in the unit, or just trying to gain preferential treatment? What about Marx? This would be an excellent pick for a lit class or book club.
“Epstein” is a morality tale about adultery on the brink of the sexual revolution. Louis Epstein learns the hard way that his generation does not get to share in the sexual frolics of the post-war, folk-singing, “socially conscious” next one.
In “You Can’t Tell a Man by the Song He Sings,” Roth touches on themes he comes back to over and over, including growing up in Newark, baseball, interactions among ethnic groups, and political ideology. The idea of a high school teacher falling into the net of anti-communist committee hearing is one that Roth later developed fully in I Married a Communist, one of his Zuckerman novels.
The last story, “Eli the Fanatic,” is the most powerful of the bunch. When a group of religious Jews sets up a Yeshiva for Holocaust orphans, the secular Jews in the “modern community” of Woodenton, New Jersey want the school closed down, fearing that it will upset the delicate balance they have achieved with their secular Protestant neighbors. Poor Eli Peck gets caught in the middle, trying to negotiate between his fellow townsfolk and the school. Peck’s eventual comprehension of the past suffering of the Yeshiva Jews and the shameful position of his cohorts leads to his emotional undoing. This is a story to mull over.
Roth won several more awards after this one, including another National for Sabbath Theater, the Pulitzer for American Pastoral, and the National Book Critics Circle Award for Counterlife, among others. He is a true man of letters and a real American treasure.
This was my National Book Award pick for the Battle of the Prizes Challenge.
OTHER REVIEWS
Hotchpot Cafe
(If you would like to have your review of this book listed here, please leave a comment with a link.)
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Friday, August 14, 2009
Review: To Darkness and to Death by Julia Spencer-Fleming
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Julia Spencer-Fleming’s To Darkness and to Death is the fourth novel in her top-rate mystery series featuring priest-sleuth Clare Fergusson. As with the prior three installments, Clare’s vocation as the priest at St. Alban’s Episcopal Church in Millers Kill, New York shapes her character but not the plot.
Here, Clare gets involved in the disappearance of a young woman, not because Clare is a priest, but because she is called in as one of the volunteers on the search and rescue team. Unlike the earlier books, Fleming experiments in this one with a 24-hour format. The action starts with a pre-dawn phone call summoning the search team to look for the missing Millie van der Hoeven, local heiress and co-owner of a 250,000 acre parcel of Adirondack forest. Things take off from there, with lots of moving pieces, including multiple kidnappings, assault, cover-ups, blackmail, shady dealings, murder and mayhem.
Throughout, the romantic current between Clare and the married Chief of Police, Russ van Alstyne, still hums. Probably because of the 24-hour format, the two do not spend a lot of time together on the pages, but they are always aware of each other and their relationship makes a significant step forward before the story wraps up.
This is more thriller than who-dun-it, with the pieces ultimately falling into place – or at least coming to rest – in a pretty exciting finale. For those who prefer analysis to action, clues to chaos, this lack of actual mystery solving will be a let down after the prior books. But it is still an engaging story and Spencer-Fleming is a gifted writer.
She has a good thing going with this series, which she describes as “novels of faith and murder for readers of literary suspense.” "Faith and murder" -- you've got to love that combination!
OTHER REVIEWS
SuziQoregon
(If you would like me to list your review, please leave a comment with a link.) .
Julia Spencer-Fleming’s To Darkness and to Death is the fourth novel in her top-rate mystery series featuring priest-sleuth Clare Fergusson. As with the prior three installments, Clare’s vocation as the priest at St. Alban’s Episcopal Church in Millers Kill, New York shapes her character but not the plot.
Here, Clare gets involved in the disappearance of a young woman, not because Clare is a priest, but because she is called in as one of the volunteers on the search and rescue team. Unlike the earlier books, Fleming experiments in this one with a 24-hour format. The action starts with a pre-dawn phone call summoning the search team to look for the missing Millie van der Hoeven, local heiress and co-owner of a 250,000 acre parcel of Adirondack forest. Things take off from there, with lots of moving pieces, including multiple kidnappings, assault, cover-ups, blackmail, shady dealings, murder and mayhem.
Throughout, the romantic current between Clare and the married Chief of Police, Russ van Alstyne, still hums. Probably because of the 24-hour format, the two do not spend a lot of time together on the pages, but they are always aware of each other and their relationship makes a significant step forward before the story wraps up.
This is more thriller than who-dun-it, with the pieces ultimately falling into place – or at least coming to rest – in a pretty exciting finale. For those who prefer analysis to action, clues to chaos, this lack of actual mystery solving will be a let down after the prior books. But it is still an engaging story and Spencer-Fleming is a gifted writer.
She has a good thing going with this series, which she describes as “novels of faith and murder for readers of literary suspense.” "Faith and murder" -- you've got to love that combination!
OTHER REVIEWS
SuziQoregon
(If you would like me to list your review, please leave a comment with a link.) .
Thursday, August 13, 2009
Author of the Day: Philip Roth
Philip Roth was born in 1933 in New Jersey, the setting of many of his books. His personal life was often fodder for his fiction, particularly his books chronicling the lives of 20th-Century American Jews. He created an alter-ego in Nathan Zucherman, the protagonist in nine novels. Another trilogy features college professor David Kepesh as the main character. Roth passed away in May 2018 at the age of 85.
Roth is a personal favorite. I intend to read all of his books. Those I have read so far are in red. Those currently on my TBR shelf are in blue.
Goodbye, Columbus: And Five Other Short Stories (1959) (National Book Award winner; reviewed here)
Letting Go (1962)
When She Was Good (1967)
Portnoy's Complaint (1969) (Modern Library’s Top 100 list)
Our Gang (1971)
The Breast (1972) (Kepesh)
The Great American Novel (1973)
My Life As a Man (1974) (proto-Zuckerman)
Reading Myself and Others (1976)
The Professor of Desire (1977) (Kepesh)
The Ghost Writer (1979) (Zuckerman)
Zuckerman Unbound (1981) (Zuckerman)
The Anatomy Lesson (1983) (Zuckerman)
The Prague Orgy (1985) (Zuckerman)
The Counterlife (1986) (Zuckerman) (National Book Critics Circle Award winner)
The Facts: A Novelist's Autobiography (1988) (nonfiction)
Deception (1990)
Patrimony: A True Story (1991) (nonfiction)
Operation Shylock: A Confession (1993)
Sabbath's Theater (1995) (National Book Award winner)
American Pastoral (1997) (Zuckerman) (Pulitzer Prize winner)
I Married a Communist (1998) (Zuckerman)
The Human Stain (2000) (Zuckerman) (reviewed here)
Shop Talk (2001) (nonfiction)
The Dying Animal (2001) (Kepesh)
The Plot Against America (2004) (reviewed here)
Everyman (2006)
Exit Ghost (2007) (Zuckerman)
Indignation (2008)
The Humbling (2009)
Nemesis (2010)
NOTES
Last updated May 23, 2018.Tuesday, August 11, 2009
Teaser Tuesday: Goodbye, Columbus
"Surely, I thought, the Messiah himself -- if He should ever come -- won't niggle over nickels and dimes. God willing, he'll hug and kiss."
-- From "Defender of the Faith" in Goodbye, Columbus: and Five Short Stories by Philip Roth.
There is reason why Roth is considered the chronicler of 20th Century American Jewish life. And why he won the National Book Award for this, his first book. I can't believe that this gem has been sitting unread on my shelf for so long.
Teaser Tuesdays is hosted by Should Be Reading, where you can find the official rules for this weekly event.
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Teaser Tuesdays is hosted by Should Be Reading, where you can find the official rules for this weekly event.
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Challenge Update: Battle of the Prizes
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J.G. from the super-duper Hotch Pot Cafe blog is the first one to complete the Sunshine Smackdown: Battle of the Prizes challenge. Congratulations, J.G.! And thank you so much for participating in the first Rose City Reader challenge. Having such talented reviewers participate made the challenge so much fun for me.
The challenge runs through Labor Day, so there is still plenty of time to get your reviews in. Please remember to leave a link to your reviews on the main challenge page or on any of the update posts, including this one. I am halfway through Philip Roth's Goodbye, Columbus, my National Book Award pick, so will get my third review posted shortly.
The three books J.G. read for the challenge are listed below, with links to her reviews. The rest of the reviews by participants are linked on the main challenge page.
Olive Kitteridge (J.G.'s Pulitzer choice)
The Great Fire (her National choice)
The Fixer (her double dipper)
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J.G. from the super-duper Hotch Pot Cafe blog is the first one to complete the Sunshine Smackdown: Battle of the Prizes challenge. Congratulations, J.G.! And thank you so much for participating in the first Rose City Reader challenge. Having such talented reviewers participate made the challenge so much fun for me.
The challenge runs through Labor Day, so there is still plenty of time to get your reviews in. Please remember to leave a link to your reviews on the main challenge page or on any of the update posts, including this one. I am halfway through Philip Roth's Goodbye, Columbus, my National Book Award pick, so will get my third review posted shortly.
The three books J.G. read for the challenge are listed below, with links to her reviews. The rest of the reviews by participants are linked on the main challenge page.
Olive Kitteridge (J.G.'s Pulitzer choice)
The Great Fire (her National choice)
The Fixer (her double dipper)
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Monday, August 10, 2009
Mailbox Monday
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It is not a long Mailbox Monday list, but thanks once again to Reading Local, I had some mad money to spend on books last week. I used my contest winnings at one of my favorite local bookstores, Daedalus Books in Northwest Portland.
I picked up two more P. G. Wodehouse books from the "Collector's Wodehouse" series, Doctor Sally and Nothing Serious.
And Vagabond by Colette, which is on my French Connection list.
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Sunday, August 9, 2009
Opening Sentence of the Day: Goodbye, Columbus
"The first time I saw Brenda she asked me to hold her glasses."
-- Goodbye, Columbus and Five Short Stories by Philip Roth
This is Roth's first book and is my National Book Award pick for the Battle of the Prizes Challenge.
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Saturday, August 8, 2009
Happy 70th Birthday, Dad!
This is a slow blogging weekend for me because the family has gathered (from as far away as Bavaria) to celebrate my dad's 70th birthday. It's a big day!
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Friday, August 7, 2009
Opening Sentence of the Day: Doctor Sally
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"The eighteenth hole at Bingley-on-Sea, that golfers' Mecca on the South Coast of England, is one of those freak holes -- a very short mashie-shot up a very steep hill off a tee screened from the clubhouse by a belt of trees."
-- Doctor Sally by P. G. Wodehouse
I may not be the devotee that Book Psmith is, in that I haven't dedicated my blog to P. G. Wodehouse books. But I could eat these up. Eventually, I will read them all. In a silly way, I avoid reading them because I don't want to use them up. He has 97 books or something. Even if I did read them all, by the time I did, I could start over and they would be fresh again.
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"The eighteenth hole at Bingley-on-Sea, that golfers' Mecca on the South Coast of England, is one of those freak holes -- a very short mashie-shot up a very steep hill off a tee screened from the clubhouse by a belt of trees."
-- Doctor Sally by P. G. Wodehouse
I may not be the devotee that Book Psmith is, in that I haven't dedicated my blog to P. G. Wodehouse books. But I could eat these up. Eventually, I will read them all. In a silly way, I avoid reading them because I don't want to use them up. He has 97 books or something. Even if I did read them all, by the time I did, I could start over and they would be fresh again.
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Thursday, August 6, 2009
Seriously!
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This week, Booking Through Thursday asks:
This week, Booking Through Thursday asks:
"What’s the most serious book you’ve read recently? (I figure it’s easier than asking your most serious book ever, because, well, it’s recent!)I thought this would be slam-dunk easy, since I just last week finished reading Bernard Malamud's The Fixer, the grim tale of a Russian Jew falsely accused of the ritual murder of a Christian boy. Imperial-era prison, anti-Semitism, feudal justice system, and pogroms, not to mention poverty, adultery, child abuse, murder, and general violence -- it doesn't get any more serious. This one was so serious that it won the Pulitzer and the National Book Award. But then I looked over my list of books that I've read in the last few months, and there are some contenders (linked to reviews): All Quiet on the Western Front (war) The Top Ten Myths of American Health Care (imminent crisis) Native America, Discovered and Conquered (ugly history) The Beggar (existential angst) Black Boy (American Hunger) (ugly history and existential angst) And I can't forget: The Letter from Death I need to go find my happy place. .
Wednesday, August 5, 2009
Review: The Naked and the Dead
Norman Mailer's The Naked and the Dead is a mesmerizing look at Army life in WWII. Mailer tells the story of an Intelligence and Reconnaissance platoon on a fictional Pacific Island. There are fewer battle scenes than expected. Most of the story is about the men on daily patrols, guard duty, and a week long patrol behind enemy lines. The realism of Mailer's descriptions -- particularly, of what it was like to hike for days and days in the jungle carrying 60 pounds of equipment -- are riveting. What those men went through!
Mailer personalizes the characters by interposing flashbacks highlighting the pre-war lives of several of the men. He also switches the point of view among the various characters. Still, the characters are never fully developed, which, oddly, made the story more realistic. The reader gets the kind of impressionistic views of each man in the troop that the men had of each other. These men were all thrown together to serve under horrible conditions, but they had nothing in common to start with and really did not know each other.
All in all, a great book. It is long, but it is a fast read. In Mailer’s introduction to the 50th Anniversary edition he self-deprecatingly explains that the book (his first) was a best seller and was written in the flashy language of all best sellers. But it is not the language that makes the book so good, it is the story.
OTHER REVIEWS
If you would like your review linked her, please leave a link in a comment and I will add it.
NOTES
Mailer's best seller did not win any prizes, but it did make it to the Modern Library's list of Top 100 Novels of the 20th Century, Radcliffe's competing list, The Book of the Month Club's "Well Stocked Bookcase" list, and Anthony Burgess's list of his favorite 99 novels.
Tuesday, August 4, 2009
Teaser Tuesday
This is the first time I've participated in Teaser Tuesdays, but I am going to try it. It seems like a good way to make me think more about the books I am reading as I am reading them.
Here are the official rules from the host, Should Be Reading:
* Grab your current read
* Open to a random page
* Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
* BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS!
* Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!
My current read is Forbidden Bread by Erica Johnson Debeljak, one of the books on my LibraryThing Early Reviewer guilt list. I should have read this when it first arrived because it is really, really good.
"The bureaucrat who manned the fort at the Novo Mesto municipal office was predictably unsmiling and unhelpful, sitting behind a massive manual typewriter that in another place and time might have fetched a decent sum as a collector's item. It had been our mistake, she let us know from the beginning, and perhaps she had a point there, to have settled on such an early date without consultation with the authorities, and then she went on to find fault with each and every one of the dokumenti presented for her perusal."So Debeljak describes trying to arrange a wedding in the nascent country of Slovenia.
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Monday, August 3, 2009
Mailbox Monday
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Quality beat out quantity last week, with only two books making it to my Mailbox Monday list. But both additions are pretty exciting, at least in a book-geeky sort of way.
The first is the latest from Powell's IndieSpensible program: A signed, first edition ofInto the Beautiful North by Luis Alberto Urrea. This one is a shot in the dark for me, because I had not heard of this author. The novel is about a 19-year-old girl from a remote Mexican village who heads for America with friends in order to bring back her father and some other men to repopulate the village and protect it from banditos. Sounds great!
As always, the IndieSpensible box packed a few other goodies. There was an "author's card" from Jessica Anthony, author of The Convalescent. Think oversized, hipster trading card, signed by the featured author. There was a beautifully hand-bound edition of a Portland lit journal called Poor Claudia, signed by all the contributing poets. Is there some kind of conspiracy to get me to read poetry? And, finally, there was a Powell's Books pint glass. Alcohol may help my poetry comprehension.
I am even more excited by the second book: Plum Sauce: A P. G. Wodehouse Companion by Richard Usborne. I've had my eye on this for quite a while and finally had Broadway Books special order it for me, using some of my contest winnings from Reading Local. Book Psmith is going to want a copy of this one!
Sunday, August 2, 2009
Author of the Day: Anthony Powell
English author Anthony Powell (pronounced like "toll" not "towel") was born in 1905. He was educated at Eton and Balliol College, Oxford where he met several other young writers, including Evelyn Waugh and Graham Greene. Prior to World War II he worked in publishing and as a film-script writer, before becoming a full-time novelist and literary critic.
Powell is best known for his twelve-volume novel, A Dance to the Music of Time, most commonly available in a four-volume set with three novels in each. Dance is at the top of my "Top 10" favorite books list and what always name as my "desert island" book, although that may be cheating, since it is really 12 books.
Powell wrote a number of other novels and a biography of the seventeenth-century diarist John Aubrey. He was also a prolific literary critic and book reviewer for a number of periodicals including the Daily Telegraph, the Times Literary Supplement, Punch and the Spectator. He published four volumes of memoirs, three volumes of diaries, and two volumes of his selected literary criticism.
Powell was married to the author Lady Violet Pakenham. He died in 2000 at his home in Somerset.
His books are listed below in order of publication. Those I have read, including all of Dance, are in red. Those currently on my TBR shelf are in blue. I hope to read them all some day, although several are hard to find.
Afternoon Men
Venusberg (reviewed here)
From a View to a Death
Agents and Patients
What's Become of Waring
John Aubrey and His Friends
A Question of Upbringing (Dance to the Music of Time, Vol. 1)
A Buyer's Market (Dance, Vol. 2)
The Acceptance World (Dance, Vol. 3)
At Lady Molly's (Dance, Vol. 4)
Casanova's Chinese Restaurant (Dance, Vol. 5)
The Kindly Ones (Dance, Vol. 6)
John Aubrey and His Friends a New and Revised Edition
The Valley of Bones (Dance, Vol. 7)
The Soldier's Art (Dance, Vol. 8)
The Military Philosophers (Dance, Vol. 9)
Books Do Furnish a Room (Dance, Vol. 10)
Two Plays By Anthony Powell: The Garden God & The Rest I'll Whistle
Temporary Kings (Dance, Vol. 11)
Hearing Secret Harmonies (Dance, Vol. 12)
To Keep the Ball Rolling: Infants of the Spring (Memoirs, Vol. 1)
To Keep the Ball Rolling: Messengers of Day (Memoirs, Vol. 2)
To Keep the Ball Rolling: Faces In My Time (Memoirs, Vol. 3)
To Keep the Ball Rolling: The Strangers All Are Gone (Memoirs, Vol. 4)
O, How the Wheel Becomes It!
The Fisher King
Miscellaneous Verdicts: Writings on Writers
Under Review: Further Writings on Writers, 1946-1990
Journals, 1982-1986
Journals, 1987-1989
Journals 1990-1992
Writer's Notebook
Powell is best known for his twelve-volume novel, A Dance to the Music of Time, most commonly available in a four-volume set with three novels in each. Dance is at the top of my "Top 10" favorite books list and what always name as my "desert island" book, although that may be cheating, since it is really 12 books.
Powell wrote a number of other novels and a biography of the seventeenth-century diarist John Aubrey. He was also a prolific literary critic and book reviewer for a number of periodicals including the Daily Telegraph, the Times Literary Supplement, Punch and the Spectator. He published four volumes of memoirs, three volumes of diaries, and two volumes of his selected literary criticism.
Powell was married to the author Lady Violet Pakenham. He died in 2000 at his home in Somerset.
His books are listed below in order of publication. Those I have read, including all of Dance, are in red. Those currently on my TBR shelf are in blue. I hope to read them all some day, although several are hard to find.
Afternoon Men
Venusberg (reviewed here)
From a View to a Death
Agents and Patients
What's Become of Waring
John Aubrey and His Friends
A Question of Upbringing (Dance to the Music of Time, Vol. 1)
A Buyer's Market (Dance, Vol. 2)
The Acceptance World (Dance, Vol. 3)
At Lady Molly's (Dance, Vol. 4)
Casanova's Chinese Restaurant (Dance, Vol. 5)
The Kindly Ones (Dance, Vol. 6)
John Aubrey and His Friends a New and Revised Edition
The Valley of Bones (Dance, Vol. 7)
The Soldier's Art (Dance, Vol. 8)
The Military Philosophers (Dance, Vol. 9)
Books Do Furnish a Room (Dance, Vol. 10)
Two Plays By Anthony Powell: The Garden God & The Rest I'll Whistle
Temporary Kings (Dance, Vol. 11)
Hearing Secret Harmonies (Dance, Vol. 12)
To Keep the Ball Rolling: Infants of the Spring (Memoirs, Vol. 1)
To Keep the Ball Rolling: Messengers of Day (Memoirs, Vol. 2)
To Keep the Ball Rolling: Faces In My Time (Memoirs, Vol. 3)
To Keep the Ball Rolling: The Strangers All Are Gone (Memoirs, Vol. 4)
O, How the Wheel Becomes It!
The Fisher King
Miscellaneous Verdicts: Writings on Writers
Under Review: Further Writings on Writers, 1946-1990
Journals, 1982-1986
Journals, 1987-1989
Journals 1990-1992
Writer's Notebook
OTHERS READING POWELL'S BOOKS
Books Do Furnish a Room (where you will find many Powell posts)
(If you would like your Powell-related blog posts listed here, please leave a comment with a link and I will add it.)
NOTES
Last updated December 29, 2018.
Saturday, August 1, 2009
Review of the Day: The Fixer
Based on a true story, The Fixer is the story of a Russian Jew who, in the early 1900s, is unjustly accused of murdering a Christian boy. Bernard Malamud’s 1966 novel won both the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award.
Yakov Bok has a hard luck life as a handyman, or fixer, in the Jewish Pale of Settlement. Although political reforms following the 1905 revolution gave Jews new freedoms and political clout, life in the Pale had not improved. After his childless wife abandons him for a goy, Yakov leaves the shtetl for Kiev, where he ends up working in, and living above, a Christian-owned brick factory. With an assumed name, no papers to allow him to live in that part of the city, and anti-Jewish sentiments on the rise, Yakov is headed for trouble.
When the mutilated body of a neighborhood boy is found stuffed in a cave, the evidence – circumstantial and fabricated – mounts against Yakov. He is arrested and left to rot in prison while the sham investigation drags on for years as anti-Semitic authorities try to build a case of ritual murder. With no indictment, no lawyer, and no idea of what is to come, Yakov’s situation is a downward spiral of gloom. Yakov is motivated by his dwindling hope of exoneration, only meagerly spurred on by a few rare contacts with the outside and tidbits of news about his case. Although claiming to be non-religious and non-political, Yakov worries that his case will spark violent retribution or even a new pogrom against the Jews.
Malamud incorporates Yakov’s tragedy into the larger picture by having characters discuss Russia’s anti-Semitic history and Tsarist politics. It is this contextual detail that raises Yakov’s story above that of one individual’s tribulations and makes it a morality tale about freedom and responsibility in the face of evil and suffering. One of the characters explains Malmud’s thesis:
I am somewhat of a meliorist. That is to say, I act as an optimist because I find I cannot act at all, as a pessimist. Once often feels helpless in the face of the confusion of these times, such a mass of apparently uncontrollable events and experiences to live through, attempts to understand, and if at all possible, give order to; but one must not withdraw from the task if he has some small thing to offer – he does so at the risk of diminishing his humanity.Or, as Yakov put it more succinctly as he was finally being taken to his trial, “[T]here’s no such thing as an unpolitical man, especially a Jew.”
Malamud is an incredible writer. Even though this story is horribly grim, he grabs the reader and does not let go. The Fixer is a book that everyone should read and, once read, ponder.
NOTES
This book was my "double dipper" choice for the Battle of the Prizes Challenge. i
OTHER REVIEWS
Hotch Pot Cafe
Book Psmith
(Leave a comment with a link to your review if you would like me to post it here.)
Friday, July 31, 2009
Opening Sentence of the Day: Forbidden Bread
.
"'Let's go to the top.'"
-- Forbidden Bread by Erica Johnson Debeljak.
I just finished reading Malamud's The Fixer this morning, so if there was ever a day to take my own advice and read something funny, today would be the day to start. But I am still nagged by guilt over my stack of LibraryThing Early Reviewer books, so I am going with "a touching and intelligent memoir" about a New York woman who marries a Slovenian poet and follows him back to his homeland.
Something tells me that this is not going to be the Balkan version of A Year in Provence, so I am not expecting much humor. But it definitely looks interesting. And if post-communist Yugoslav wars of succession get to be too much, I can always take a break and slip in a P.G. Wodehouse or a Nick Hornby book.
.
"'Let's go to the top.'"
-- Forbidden Bread by Erica Johnson Debeljak.
I just finished reading Malamud's The Fixer this morning, so if there was ever a day to take my own advice and read something funny, today would be the day to start. But I am still nagged by guilt over my stack of LibraryThing Early Reviewer books, so I am going with "a touching and intelligent memoir" about a New York woman who marries a Slovenian poet and follows him back to his homeland.
Something tells me that this is not going to be the Balkan version of A Year in Provence, so I am not expecting much humor. But it definitely looks interesting. And if post-communist Yugoslav wars of succession get to be too much, I can always take a break and slip in a P.G. Wodehouse or a Nick Hornby book.
.
Thursday, July 30, 2009
BTT: Recent Funny
The Booking Through Thursday theme this week is "Recent Funny," which asks the question, "What’s the funniest book you’ve read recently?"
This is a no-brainer for me, since I just laughed my way through High Fidelity by Nick Hornby. For an idea of why I found the book so funny, please read my review. But it is a good question because I realize that I usually turn to "serious" books. I should remember to seek out funny books more often.
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
List: National Book Award
The National Book Foundation awards annual prizes to American authors in the following categories: Fiction, Nonfiction, Poetry, and Young People's Literature.
I am working on the Fiction winners. Those I have finished are in red; those sitting on my TBR shelf are in blue. I will get to them all eventually.
2018 The Friend by Sigrid Nunez
2017 Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward
2016 The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead
2015 Fortune Smiles by Adam Johnson
2014 Redeployment by Phil Klay
2013 The Good Lord Bird by James McBride
2012 The Round House by Louise Erdrich
2011 Salvage the Bones by Jesmyn Ward
2010 Lord of Misrule by Jaimy Gordon (reviewed here)
2009 Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann (reviewed here)
2008 Shadow Country by Peter Matthiessen
2007 Tree of Smoke by Denis Johnson
2006 The Echo Maker by Richard Powers
2005 Europe Central by William T. Vollmann
2004 The News from Paraguay by Lily Tuck
2003 The Great Fire by Shirley Hazzard
2002 Three Junes by Julia Glass
2001 The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen
2000 In America by Susan Sontag
1999 Waiting by Ha Jin
1998 Charming Billy by Alice McDermott
1997 Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier (reviewed here)
1996 Ship Fever and Other Stories by Andrea Barrett
1995 Sabbath's Theater by Philip Roth
1994 A Frolic of His Own by William Gaddis
1993 The Shipping News by E. Annie Proulx
1992 All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy (reviewed here)
1991 Mating by Norman Rush
1990 Middle Passage by Charles Johnson (reviewed here)
1989 Spartina by John Casey
1988 Paris Trout by Pete Dexter
1987 Paco's Story by Larry Heinemann
1986 World's Fair by E.L. Doctorow
1985 White Noise by Don Delillo
1984 Victory Over Japan by Ellen Gilchrist
1983 The Color Purple by Alice Walker
1982 Rabbit is Rich by John Updike
1981 Plains Song by Wright Morris
1980 Sophie's Choice by William Styron (reviewed here)
1979 Going After Cacciato by Tim O'Brien
1978 Blood Tie by Mary Lee Settle
1977 The Spectator Bird by Wallace Stegner (reviewed here)
1976 JR by William Gaddis
1975 The Hair of Harold Roux by Thomas Williams (reviewed here)
1975 Dog Soldiers by Robert Stone
1974 Gravity's Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon
1974 A Crown of Feathers and Other Stories by Isaac Bashevis Singer
1973 Augustus by John Williams
1973 Chimera by John Barth
1972 The Complete Stories by Flannery O'Connor
1971 Mr. Sammler's Planet by Saul Bellow (reviewed here)
1970 Them by Joyce Carol Oates
1969 Steps by Jerzy Kosinski
1968 The Eighth Day by Thornton Wilder
1967 The Fixer by Bernard Malamud (reviewed here)
1966 The Collected Stories by Katherine Anne Porter
1965 Herzog by Saul Bellow
1964 The Centaur by John Updike (reviewed here)
1963 Morte d'Urban by J.F. Powers
1962 The Moviegoer by Walker Percy
1961 The Waters of Kronos by Conrad Richter
1960 Goodbye Columbus by Philip Roth (reviewed here)
1959 The Magic Barrel by Bernard Malamud
1958 Wapshot Chronicle by John Cheever
1957 The Field of Vision by Wright Morris
1956 Ten North Frederick by John O'Hara
1955 A Fable by William Faulkner
1954 The Adventures of Augie March by Saul Bellow (reviewed here)
1953 Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison
1952 From Here to Eternity by James Jones
1951 The Collected Stories by William Faulkner
1950 The Man with the Golden Arm by Nelson Algren (reviewed here)
NOTE
Last updated on March 27, 2019.
OTHERS READING THESE BOOKS
If you would like to be listed here, please leave a comment with your links to any progress reports or reviews and I will add them here.
Review: Judgment Calls
Judgment Calls is a pretty good first effort from the daughter of legendary mystery writer James Lee Burke. Like her heroine, Samantha Kincaid, Alafair Burke was a Deputy District Attorney in Portland, Oregon. Her book is packed with colorful details of life in a DA's office, although their inclusion sometimes interrupts the flow of the story. The book has a decent plot with enough complications to keep it moving along at a good pace. The conclusion is a little far fetched, but Burke builds up to it reasonably well so it did not come completely out of the blue.
Proving that someone can be smart, well educated, and loaded with material but still not produce great mystery novel, Burke's writing is second rate. The narrative is clunky, the dialog is stilted, and the jokes are flat. The writing seemed better in the second half, but that impression may be the result of reader tolerance rather than actual improvement.
As a lawyer who would like nothing better than to write mystery books, I admire any fellow member of the bar who has achieved such an accomplishment. As a Portlander, I like to find a series set in my city. So I will probably give Burke a second chance. She now has two other books in the series: Missing Justice and Close Case. But now that Burke has moved to New York and started a new series, I will probably call it quits with those two.
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
List of the Day: The BBC's Big Read
In April 2003, the BBC's Big Read began the search for Britain’s best-loved novel. Viewers voted for their favorite book until December 13, 2003, when the final list was complete.
The Top 100 list is below. The contest tallied the top 200 vote-getters, with the books ranked 101 to 200 sometimes referred to as the Bigger Read. This is definitely a people’s choice list that, while it includes many very good books, reflects popular tastes as much as literary merits.
I have read 51 of the 100. I may never get through all of these because the list includes four Harry Potter books, too many kids books, and a lot of sci-fi. There are at least 29 that I do not plan to read. Those I have read are in red. Those currently on my TBR shelf are in blue.
If anyone else is tracking this list, please feel free to leave comment with a link to your progress report and I will add it to this post.
1. The Lord of the Rings, JRR Tolkien
2. Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen
3. His Dark Materials, Philip Pullman
4. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams (reviewed here)
5. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, JK Rowling
6. To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee
7. Winnie the Pooh, AA Milne
8. Nineteen Eighty-Four, George Orwell
9. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, CS Lewis
10. Jane Eyre, Charlotte Brontë
11. Catch-22, Joseph Heller
12. Wuthering Heights, Emily Brontë
13. Birdsong, Sebastian Faulks
14. Rebecca, Daphne du Maurier (reviewed here)
15. The Catcher in the Rye, JD Salinger
16. The Wind in the Willows, Kenneth Grahame (reviewed here)
17. Great Expectations, Charles Dickens (reviewed here)
18. Little Women, Louisa May Alcott
19. Captain Corelli's Mandolin, Louis de Bernieres
20. War and Peace, Leo Tolstoy
21. Gone with the Wind, Margaret Mitchell
22. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, JK Rowling
23. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, JK Rowling
24. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, JK Rowling
25. The Hobbit, JRR Tolkien
26. Tess of the D'Urbervilles, Thomas Hardy
27. Middlemarch, George Eliot
28. A Prayer for Owen Meany, John Irving
29. The Grapes of Wrath, John Steinbeck
30. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Lewis Carroll
31. The Story of Tracy Beaker, Jacqueline Wilson
32. One Hundred Years of Solitude, Gabriel García Márquez
33. The Pillars of the Earth, Ken Follett
34. David Copperfield, Charles Dickens
35. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Roald Dahl
36. Treasure Island, Robert Louis Stevenson
37. A Town Like Alice, Nevil Shute
38. Persuasion, Jane Austen
39. Dune, Frank Herbert
40. Emma, Jane Austen
41. Anne of Green Gables, LM Montgomery
42. Watership Down, Richard Adams
43. The Great Gatsby, F Scott Fitzgerald
44. The Count of Monte Cristo, Alexandre Dumas
45. Brideshead Revisited, Evelyn Waugh
46. Animal Farm, George Orwell
47. A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens
48. Far From the Madding Crowd, Thomas Hardy
49. Goodnight Mister Tom, Michelle Magorian
50. The Shell Seekers, Rosamunde Pilcher (reviewed here)
51. The Secret Garden, Frances Hodgson Burnett
52. Of Mice and Men, John Steinbeck
53. The Stand, Stephen King
54. Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy
55. A Suitable Boy, Vikram Seth
56. The BFG, Roald Dahl
57. Swallows and Amazons, Arthur Ransome
58. Black Beauty, Anna Sewell
59. Artemis Fowl, Eoin Colfer
60. Crime and Punishment, Fyodor Dostoyevsky
61. Noughts and Crosses, Malorie Blackman
62. Memoirs of a Geisha, Arthur Golden
63. A Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dickens
64. The Thorn Birds, Colleen McCollough
65. Mort, Terry Pratchett
66. The Magic Faraway Tree, Enid Blyton
67. The Magus, John Fowles (notes here)
68. Good Omens, Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman
69. Guards! Guards!, Terry Pratchett
70. Lord of the Flies, William Golding
71. Perfume, Patrick Süskind
72. The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists, Robert Tressell
73. Night Watch, Terry Pratchett
74. Matilda, Roald Dahl
75. Bridget Jones's Diary, Helen Fielding
76. The Secret History, Donna Tartt
77. The Woman in White, Wilkie Collins
78. Ulysses, James Joyce
79. Bleak House, Charles Dickens
80. Double Act, Jacqueline Wilson
81. The Twits, Roald Dahl
82. I Capture the Castle, Dodie Smith
83. Holes, Louis Sachar
84. Gormenghast, Mervyn Peake (reviewed here)
85. The God of Small Things, Arundhati Roy
86. Vicky Angel, Jacqueline Wilson
87. Brave New World, Aldous Huxley
88. Cold Comfort Farm, Stella Gibbons (reviewed here)
89. Magician, Raymond E Feist
90. On the Road, Jack Kerouac
91. The Godfather, Mario Puzo
92. The Clan of the Cave Bear, Jean M Auel
93. The Colour of Magic, Terry Pratchett
94. The Alchemist, Paulo Coelho
95. Katherine, Anya Seton
96. Kane and Abel, Jeffrey Archer
97. Love in the Time of Cholera, Gabriel García Márquez
98. Girls in Love, Jacqueline Wilson
99. The Princess Diaries, Meg Cabot
100. Midnight's Children, Salman Rushdie (reviewed here)
NOTES
List updated on January 4, 2019.
OTHERS READING THESE BOOKS
(If you would like to be listed here, please leave a comment with your links to any progress reports or reviews and I will add them here.) .
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