Review: Cathedral

Nelson DeMille's Cathedral may be the best thriller ever written. Big words, but it's hard to think of another so well constructed and executed.

It's St. Patrick's Day in Manhattan and the city is gearing up for the big parade. Things go wrong when an IRA splinter group seizes hostages and takes control of St. Patrick's cathedral. Faced with impossible demands and bombs set to take down the cathedral at dawn, police, the National Guard, politicians, diplomats, and the Catholic Church scramble to come up with a plan.

This is a book you drink in – it doesn't even feel like reading. DeMille is a genius storyteller who knows to keep his writing out of the way of the action and make dialog snappy and realistic. Action and dialog are all there is. He tells where, what, who, when, and how and describes what things look, sound, smell, taste, and feel like. But he wastes few words on the thoughts or emotions of his characters, or any big themes that can't be gleaned from the facts described.

The only speed bump is readjusting to the pre-cell phone, pre-internet world of 1990 when the book was first published. But once passed that, the story hurtles along to the very last page. In fact, the story is more of a nail-biter now, in this post-9-11 world where buildings do actually fall down, than it would have been when it first came out.

OTHER REVIEWS

If you would like your review of Cathedral or any other book my Nelson DeMille listed here, please leave a comment with a link and I will add it.

NOTES

This counts as one of my four choices for the Chunkster Reading Challenge. It is only the second book I've read for the challenge, so so it is a good thing the challenge runs through the end of January. Maybe I can read two more by the end.

Wendy at caribousmom is hosting this fun challenge again this year.  The challenge post is here.

Opening Sentence of the Day: Discovering Main Street

This book celebrates the small towns of the Northwest as places to spend time and explore.

-- from the author's Introduction to Discovering Main Street: Travel Adventures in Small Towns of the Northwest by Foster Church.

People don't necessarily visit Estacada for its own sake; they come to play in the Clackamas River, which flows through town like green silk.

-- from "Estacada" (pop. 2,700),the first chapter. Personally, I go to Estacada every year to U-Cut my own Christmas tree.  That is a pretty part of the Willamette Valley.

I am lucky to live in the beautiful Pacific Northwest and I love exploring small towns.  This would be the travel book I wrote myself if I had time and talent.

Foster Church was a long-time Oregonian reporter who now writes a blog called Small Town Travels, "celebrating the small towns of the Pacific Northwest."

I was pleased as punch to get this from the Oregon State University Press.



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

Review of the Day: Drood

 

Drood is Dan Simmons' creative reinterpretation of the literary rivalry between Charles Dickens and Wilkie Collins. The two authors were friends and sometime collaborators from when they met in 1851 until Dickens' death in 1870. The factual friendship between the two is rich fodder for Simmons' invented tale.

Simmons takes this relationship and superimposes a fantastic story of mesmerism and murder involving a spooky underworld character called Drood. Drood may or may not be the abandoned son of an English nobleman, a high priest of ancient Egyptian religious rites, a savage mastermind of murder, or a figment of Collins' opium dreams.

The book goes on too long, the plot drags, characters disappear, and storylines fray – the same things that happen in some of Dickens' and Collins' overly long 19th century novels. But Simmons packs so much imagination into the story and maintains such an authentic tone that the book is compelling, no matter several overwrought or sluggish patches.

A Wicked Teaser Tuesday Two-fer: Wicked Autumn and From This Wicked Patch of Dust

Max wondered if Miss Pitchford had been alluding -- in her blushing, genteel, old-world way -- to the true nature of the relationship between her two former pupils.  Looking back, he realized that what she had expressed was skepticism regarding the existence of a girlfriend in Jasper's life.

-- Wicked Autumn by G. M. Malliet.  The title made this a good pick for Halloween week, even if it is too cozy to be scary. Fine with me. I love it.

This is the first in a promised series featuring Max Tudor, a former M15 agent turned Anglican priest. I got my copy from the LibraryThing Early Reviewer program.

The full moon glimmered on San Lorenzo Avenue's new pavement.  Julia unlocked the black metal gate quietly.

-- From This Wicked Patch of Dust by Sergio Troncoso. This is the inter-generational story of the Martinez family, who begin life in a shantytown on the U.S.-Mexico border and struggle with cultural clashes, different religions, and contemporary politics.

Troncoso has many readings and appearances scheduled this fall. Check his schedule here to see if he will be in your area.


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

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).

Serena at Savvy Verse & Wit is hosting in October.  Please go by and visit her wonderful blog.

Because the Friends of the Multnomah County Library had their big fall sale this past weekend, a huge stack of books came into my house.

Not counting the eight Jack Reacher books that Hubby got (he's only just now discovered Lee Child, although I've been raving for years), the stack includes:

Parnassus on Wheels and The Haunted Bookshop by Christopher Morley



Getting to Know the General: The Story of an Involvement by Graham Greene

The Complete Claudine: Claudine at School, Claudine in Paris, Claudine Married, Claudine and Annie by Colette (one of several omnibus editions I picked up; I read a lot of Colette when I was in college, but don't remember any of it; on my French Connections list)

The Complete Essays and Other Writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson (a great Modern Library edition with dust jacket)



The Diary of Anais Nin, Vol. 1: 1931-1934 and The Diary of Anais Nin, Vol. 3: 1939-1944 (I am in a Paris book reading mood, so got these to add to my French Connections list; too bad I couldn't find Vol. 2)

The Vicar of Wakefield and Other Writings by Oliver Goldsmith (another cool Modern Library edition with dust jacket)



Between the Acts by Virginia Woolf (her last novel; I have an aspiration to read more Woolf)



Cities of the Interior by Anais Nin (in for a penny . . . )



Maurice: A Novel by E. M. Forster

The Beet Queen and Love Medicine by Louis Erdrich (Love Medicine won the National Book Critics Circle award)



The Raj Quartet by Paul Scott (in a nifty boxed set of paperbacks)



Child 44 by Tom Rob Smith (I've seen this around a lot -- it looks very good and I want to read it right away)



The Secret Hangman by Peter Lovesey (I've now gathered three of his books but haven't read any of them yet -- must start)



The Complete Father Brown by G. K. Chesterton (I've been meaning to get to these; here they are in an omnibus edition)



The Gun Seller by Hugh Laurie (I took a flyer on this one)



Toward the End of Time by John Updike (I'm an Updike completist)



Absolute Truths by Susan Howatch (the sixth and last book in her series about the Church of England; I want to read the series and still need the first two)



Brief Lives by Anita Brookner (I was inspired by International Anita Brookner Day)



House Made of Dawn by Scott N. Momaday (this won the Pulitzer Prize in 1969)



Small World by David Lodge (the sequel to Changing Places, which I loved)



The Woman Who Walked into Doors by Roddy Doyle



The Avignon Quintet by Lawrence Durrell (a doorstop of an omnibus edition; Monsieur: Or, The Prince of Darkness, the first book of The Avignon Quintet, won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize))



Venice: Lion City: The Religion of Empire by Gary Wills (looks great and is going on my Venice List)



The Lion by Nelson DeMille (because I am so loving Cathedral that I am stocking up on his others)

Happy Halloween!

I love Halloween. Halloween done my way, that is, which means nothing scary and nothing ugly. I like pretty, cute, and vintage Halloween -- jack-o-lanterns and little kids in funny costumes. 

Almost every year of my adulthood I've had a dinner party on Halloween for friends who don't live in trick-or-treater neighborhoods.  This tradition has survived through a practice husband, a house with my sister, five years in San Francisco, and two houses with my keeper husband. 

But not this year.  Work demands, including having to leave early the next morning for a work trip, have trimmed my usual shindig to almost nothing.  I have one good friend coming over to use our house for trick-or-treating base camp with her six year old.  But no dinner party.  I'm disappointed.

Good thing the Jazz Cats are excited about their costumes.

Weekend Cooking: Fancy Caramel Corn

We have had one of the best autumns here in Portland -- glorious leaves, crisp weather, not as much rain as usual.  My neighborhood has gone all out for Halloween, everything from an over-the-top haunted house that kids line up around the block for, to magazine-pretty displays of pumpkins and Indian corn.

So it seems like the perfect day to make some of this caramel corn my sister keeps crowing about.  She's a chef in Bavaria, at the fancy Steigenberger Hotel about an hour west of Munich, and wanted to introduce her German co-workers to a traditional American treat to get them in the mood for Halloween. 

She says it is super easy and has been experimenting with various additions.  I'm going to try her version of Chili-Roasted Pumpkin Seed Caramel Corn.

Here are her in structions:

Pop just under one cup of popcorn kernels in regular oil and set aside. [Note: Our family has never been air poppers, but I suppose air popping the corn would work.]

Cook 2 cups regular sugar and 2 cups butter and 1/4 tsp. salt on the stove until a dark amber color, constantly stirring. Add grated fresh nutmeg and vanilla also, if you want. When caramel is ready, pour over popcorn, and throw in some handfuls of the toasted seeds, nuts, chocolate chips, coconut, whatever, and stir together until all the popcorn is coated. Spread out in a thin layer on a baking sheet and sprinkle with sea salt. Let cool. Crumble into a big bowl when cool, or into a large plastic sack to keep.

Yum! Thanks Sis!

WEEKEND COOKING

Hosted by Beth Fish Reads

Opening Sentence of the Day: Cathedral

 

"The tea has got cold."

-- Cathedral by Nelson DeMille.

A deceptively benign beginning for a story that takes off like a shot and never stops.

This counts as one of my four choices for the Chunkster Reading Challenge. It is only the second book I've read for the challenge, so so it is a good thing the challenge runs through the end of January. Maybe I can read two more by the end.

Wendy at caribousmom is hosting this fun challenge again this year.  The challenge post is here.

Opening Sentence of the Day: Wicked Autumn

Wanda Batton-Smythe, head of the Women's Institute of Nether Monkslip, liked to say she was not one to mince words.

-- Wicked Autumn by G. M. Malliet.  The title made this a good pick for Halloween week. And isn't Nether Monkslip a great name for a village?

This is the first in a promised series featuring Max Tudor, a former M15 agent turned Anglican priest.

The set up reminds me of a male version of Martha Ockley's new Faith Morgan series, featuring ex-cop, newly-ordained vicar, Faith Morgan (my review of the first book, The Reluctant Detective is here), or a male, British version of Julia Spencer-Fleming's series featuring Clare Fergusson, a former Army helicopter pilot turned Episcopalian priest.

I got this one from the LibraryThing Early Reviewer program.

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

Opening Sentence of the Day: From This Wicked Patch of Dust

Pilar Martinez stumbled into her mother's apartment, which had once been a church in El Segundo Barrio in Downtown El Paso.

-- From This Wicked Patch of Dust by Sergio Troncoso.  This book was released last week.


THE BOOK: In the border shantytown of Ysleta, Mexican immigrants Pilar and Cuauhtémoc Martinez strive to teach their four children to forsake the drugs and gangs of their neighborhood. The family's hardscrabble origins are just the beginning of this sweeping new novel from Sergio Troncoso.

Troncoso has many readings and appearances scheduled this fall. His next appearance is this coming Tuesday, November 1, 2011, at 7:00 PM at the Weiss Center for Children’s and Young Adult Literature, at New Jersey City University in Jersey City, NJ. His complete schedule is here.

Teaser Tuesday Two-fer: Where the Crooked River Rises and Potluck

Two teasers this week, from two books I received from OSU Press.

But if I say "the old Hackleman place," his face lights up with recognition.  He pictures the plunge and curve of the road off the rim, the way the two-story house sits st the head of the valley, its windows squinting into the sun.

-- from the Prologue to Where the Crooked River Rises: A High Desert Home by Ellen Waterston.  There is a lot more geology in this book than personal anecdote above would suggest.  But that is what I like about what I call "random memoirs" -- they often head off in a direction I would not have anticipated.

Waterston founded and leads the popular Bend, Oregon literary festival, The Nature of Words. She is also offers workshops and retreats for emerging writers at her Writing Ranch.


My parents now live in Bend, in Oregon's High Desert, so it is interesting to learn more about that part of my state.

There ought to be some middle ground, I think, a way for a handful of people to hole up in a tiny undeveloped cranny and make it their own, to develop a little maybe, but not a lot.  Maybe it's too much to ask anymore.

-- Potluck: Community on the Edge of Wilderness by Ana Maria Spagna, essays about "the enduring human connection to place" from OSU Press.

Since I occasionally fantasize about living in cabin on a river outside some very small mountain town, I am fascinated to read about someone who actually lives this way.  I prefer the chapters on Spagna's life in a sparsely populated valley in the North Cascades of Washington state to those about her childhood and travels.

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

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).

Serena at Savvy Verse & Wit is hosting in October.  Please go by and visit her wonderful blog.

I got two books last week:

Little Felted Animals: Create 16 Irresistible Creatures with Simple Needle-Felting Techniques by Marie-Noelle Horvath.  I bought this at Powell's the other day because the animals are adorable and I am sure I can find time for a new craft hobby. I'm sure I can.



Lift by Kelly Corrigan.  This was in the swag bag at the Women in Insurance and Financial Services (W.I.F.S.) conference I went to.  Corrigan wrote the extremely popular book, The Middle Place and was one of the keynote speakers at the conference. 

List: The Man Booker Prize

The Booker Prize is awarded each year for a "full-length novel, written by a citizen of the Commonwealth or the Republic of Ireland . . . . The novel must be an original work in English (not a translation) and must not be self-published."

If anyone else working on this list would like me to post a link to your progress report(s), please leave a comment with a link and I will add it below.

So far, I have read 30 of the 48 winners.  Here is the list, with those I have finished reading in red; those on my TBR shelf in blue:

2014: Richard Flanagan, The Narrow Road to the Deep North

2013: Elinor Catton, The Luminaries

2012: Hilary Mantel, Bring up the Bodies

2011: Julian Barnes, The Sense Of an Ending (reviewed here)

2010: Howard Jacobson, The Finkler Question (reviewed here)

2009: Hilary Mantel, Wolf Hall (reviewed here)

2008: Aravind Adiga, The White Tiger

2007: Anne Enright, The Gathering (reviewed here)

2006: Kiran Desai, The Inheritance of Loss

2005: John Banville, The Sea (reviewed here)

2004: Alan Hollinghurst, The Line of Beauty

2003: DBC Pierre, Vernon God Little

2002: Yann Martel, Life of Pi

2001: Peter Carey, True History of the Kelly Gang

2000: Margaret Atwood, The Blind Assassin

1999: J. M. Coetzee, Disgrace

1998: Ian McEwan, Amsterdam

1997: Arundhati Roy, The God of Small Things

1996: Graham Swift, Last Orders

1995: Pat Barker, The Ghost Road

1994: James Kelman, How Late it Was, How Late

1993: Roddy Doyle, Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha

1992: Michael Ondaatje, The English Patient, and Barry Unsworth, Sacred Hunger (reviewed here)

1991: Ben Okri, The Famished Road

1990: A.S. Byatt, Possession

1989: Kazuo Ishiguro, The Remains of the Day

1988: Peter Carey, Oscar and Lucinda (reviewed here)

1987: Penelope Lively, Moon Tiger

1986: Kingsley Amis, The Old Devils

1985: Keri Hulme, The Bone People (reviewed here)

1984: Anita Brookner, Hotel du Lac

1983: J. M. Coetzee, The Life and Times of Michael K (reviewed here)

1982: Thomas Keneally, Schindler's List

1981: Salman Rushdie, Midnight's Children (reviewed here)

1980: William Golding, Rites of Passage

1979: Penelope Fitzgerald, Offshore

1978: Iris Murdoch, The Sea, the Sea (reviewed here)

1977: Paul Scott, Staying On

1976: David Storey, Saville

1975: Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, Heat and Dust

1974: Nadine Gordimer, The Conservationist, and Stanley Middleton, Holiday

1973: J. G. Farrell, The Siege of Krishnapur

1972: John Berger, G (reviewed here)

1971: V.S. Naipaul, In a Free State

1970, The Lost Booker: J. G. Farrell, Troubles

1970: Bernice Rubens, The Elected Member

1969: Percy Howard Newby, Something to Answer For


NOTE

Last updated on October 15, 2014.

OTHERS READING BOOKER WINNERS

Farm Lane Books
Fresh Ink Books
Hotch Pot Cafe

If you would like to be listed, please leave a comment with links to your progress reports or reviews and I will add them here.

Opening Sentence of the Day: Where the Crooked River Rises

I ranched in the heart of Oregon's outback for nearly three decades.

-- from the Prologue to Where the Crooked River Rises: A High Desert Home by Ellen Waterston.

Waterston founded and leads the popular Bend, Oregon literary festival, The Nature of Words. She is also offers workshops and retreats for emerging writers at her Writing Ranch.

OSU Press sent this to me. I've been looking forward to it, in part because my parents live in Bend, in Oregon's High Desert.  

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

Opening Sentence of the Day: Potluck

Tables -- sheets of plywood, actually, set atop saw horses -- line the center of the Stehekin Community Hall that on Sundays serves as the Pentecostal church.

-- Potluck: Community on the Edge of Wilderness by Ana Maria Spagna, essays about "the enduring human connection to place" from OSU Press.

Since I occasionally fantasize about living in cabin on a river outside some very small mountain town, I am fascinated to read about someone who actually lives this way.

Teaser Tuesday: CakeSpy

If you really want to see something horrifying, try shipping a cupcake.  Trust me, it's not pretty.

-- Cakespy Presents Sweet Treats for a Sugar-Filled Life by Jessie Oleson. Her clever solution is to bake the cupcakes in little jars, ship them, and frost them upon arrival. They also just look cute in the jars.

Oleson is the author of the irresistible CakeSpy blog and the book is chock full of recipes, photos, and Oleson's adorable illustrations.

Oleson is on an extensive book tour this fall. She will be in Portland this week: at Pix Patisserie (3901 N. Williams Ave.) on Thursday at 5:00 pm (more details here)  and at Saint Cupcake on Saturday at 4:00 pm (more details here).  Then on to the Bay Area, Boston, new York, and beyond. Click here to find a sweet stop near you.

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