Teaser Tuesday: Discovering Main Street

Gold Beach on the southern Oregon coast feels more like a river town than an ocean place. The wild, tumbling Rogue River empties here, and given the choice between a walk on the sand or taking a jet boat one hundred and four miles into the interior of Oregon, most visitors take the later.

-- Discovering Main Street: Travel Adventures in Small Towns of the Northwest by Foster Church.

This is the kind of travel book I love because it explores off-the-beaten track, hidden corners, with a little more history and anecdote than practical advice. It is clear that Church really enjoys his exploring and knows how to find the vibe of the little towns he writes about.

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.


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).

Marcia herself is hosting in November. Seem like old times! Please go by and visit her Mailbox Monday site to see all the people participating and remember to stop by her wonderful blog.

I got a couple of good books last week and something fun:

Portland in Three Centuries: The Place and the People by Carl Abbott, published by OSU Press. It looks like a concise, readable history of Portland, and I love the cool zine cover.



A Simple Machine, Like the Lever by Evan P. Schneider, published by the super nifty Propeller Books.



I also got a fun little bookish thing from The Joy of Ex Foundation that would make a pretty great Christmas present for some ladies I know. Mine is unframed, but still very cute.  It doesn't apply all that well to my book club, because we read the books as well as the wine labels, but I appreciate the sentiment.

Review: All the King's Men

 

Robert Penn Warren won the Pulitzer Prize in 1947 for All the King's Men, his fictionalized account of Louisiana's legendary governor Huey Long. In the novel, Long is Willie Stark, an idealistic country lawyer who takes on the political machine in his state and achieves meteoric success, only to be compromised by the same system he railed against.

This book has been on my list of Top 10 favorites since I read it in the mid-1990s, shortly after law school. Robert Penn Warren's combination of beautiful writing, compelling story, and political shenanigans wholly beguiled me.

Now, getting close to 20 years later, I wanted to re-read it to see if it still packed the same punch. It did, but in a quieter way. Either because I am older now or because I was familiar with the story, the political side didn't grab me, but the personal stories of Stark's family and the narrator, Stark's operative Jack Burden, struck me even harder with their heartbreak.

Warren was a poet first and a novelist second. His writing is full of metaphor, long descriptions, philosophical musings, and some long digressions away from the central plot. All these things, if not done right, can ruin a novel for me, fan of a good yarn that I am. But Warren does it right. It is definitely a book you have to settle in to and let it lead, but it is worth the dance if you do.

OTHER REVIEWS

on Vapour Trails

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

NOTES

All the King's Men is listed on the Modern Library's list of Top 100 Novels of the 20th Century and the Time Magazine list of All-TIME best novels. 

This counts as one of my Pulitzer Prize choices for the Battle of the Prizes, American Version.  This challenge runs through January 31, 2012, so there is still time to enter -- books read since February 1, 2011 count.

A revised edition of All the King's Men was published a few years back, to little fanfare and a small dustup between Noel Polk, editor of the "restored" edition,  and Joyce Carol Oates.  It is much longer and, inexplicably, Willie Stark is called Willie Talos, which in itself would make it impossible for me to read, Willie Stark being such an icon of American fiction.

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.