Review: Another Way the River Has

To say that Another Way the River Has is a collection of essays inspired by the Pacific Northwest is both an overstatement and inadequate. The essays are inspired by the northwest corner of one Northwest state, Robin Cody’s Oregon, but they are broader in scope than their geographic setting.

Cody writes about gyppo loggers, boat builders, Coast Guard rescue crews, sheep farmers, rodeo cowboys, Indian fishermen, birders, and his own experiences as a coach, umpire, and school bus driver. The stories are fascinating in and of themselves. And Cody uses them to mull on larger topics, such as man’s impact on the natural world – and vice versa – and how people and nature adapt to life’s unfairness.

Many of the pieces were previously published in Northwest Magazine in The Sunday Oregonian and other regional publications, although several appear here for the first time.

Because they were written over a span of 25 years and for different audiences, the collection has a bit of a hodgepodge feel to it. It is easy to stumble over some of the transitions, such as the one between “Deaf Basketball,” a quirky story about refereeing a game for the Oregon State School for the Deaf, and “Hideaway Slough,” a mystically personal reflection on solitary boat camping in a sleepy Columbia River backwater. Perhaps the contrast is intentional, but it can be a little distracting.

Cody is probably best known for his popular coming-of-age novel, Ricochet River, and he won the Oregon Book Award for Voyage of a Summer Sun. The essays in Another Way the River Has further showcase Cody’s keen awareness of what makes his corner of Oregon endlessly fascinating.

OTHER REVIEWS

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NOTES

Published by OSU Press.

Review of the Day: Echoes

Maeve Binchy has the knack for making stories about ordinary people be very interesting. She is like Anne Tyler in this.

Echoes is no exception to the usual Binchy “Aga saga” formula, and it is just as absorbing as her later books. It is the story of Clare O'Brien, a shopkeeper’s daughter in a second-rate Irish beach town, and David Power, the son of the town’s only doctor. The two have mostly divergent, post-war childhoods, but meet up in Dublin in the early 1960s when Clare goes to college and David is in medical school.

It feels like Binchy took a look at an older couple she knew in the present day, went back, and told the story of how they grew up, met, and fell in love. Their lives are not extraordinary, but their story keeps your attention.

OTHER REVIEWS

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

NOTES

This counts as one of my books for the Chunkster Challenge. I am not doing so well with this challenge and think I over-committed. Luckily, the punishment for changing my participation level at this late stage is . . . nonexistent. That's the thing about blogging -- it is not obligatory.

Teaser Tuesday: Another Way the River Has

While he maneuvered to pass a towline to the disabled trawler, a breaker caught the lifeboat broadside.  The boat did what it was designed to do in overpowering conditions [-- it] began a 360-degree roll.

-- from "Surf Savvy" in Another Way the River Has: Taut True Tales from the Northwest by Robin Cody (published by OSU Press).

This is a terrific collection of essays by the author of Ricochet River.  Set in Oregon and Washington, but definitely stories with universal appeal.

For those in the area, Robin Cody will be reading from this book tomorrow night at the Press Club.  Details here.


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

Mailbox Monday and Giveaway Winner

Thanks to a book chain letter I sent out a couple of months ago, at least one book came into my mailbox last week.

Thanks go to Avis of She Reads and Reads for hosting Mailbox Monday in October.

But first:

GIVEAWAY WINNER

Congratulations to Tea at I Love to Read who won my copy of The Art of Disappearing by Ivy Pochoda. I used random.org to pick the winning number (it was 2), but Tea did a good job of increasing her odds by entering in all five of the possible ways. Thanks Tea!

And thanks to everyone else who entered. I've seen several giveaways for this book, so I wish you luck getting a copy elsewhere.

MAILBOX

44 Scotland Street by Alexander McCall Smith (this is the first of his newer series)



Canola Gourmet by Sheilah Kaufman and Sheri L. Coleman.  At first, I thought this was a chain letter book, because it came with no cover letter or note or anything. But I now realize from the return address that it came from the author.

The Jazz Cats Are Here!

I've ignored the blog this weekend to celebrate the arrival of Billie and Ella, The Jazz Cats. We picked them up yesterday from the Oregon Humane Society. Both are eight or nine weeks old and still very little.

Unlike an earlier joke, these kittens are real. And they are adorable. I promise that I won't devote this blog to pictures of cute kittens, but, really, they are cute.

BILLIE

So far, Billie is oddly docile. We can pick her up, hold her, or put her anywhere and she just sits there. She finally wandered around to get something to eat and drink, but she doesn't play or talk. She hisses at Ella, but doesn't run away or swat. She's healthy, so maybe she is just getting used to her new home. Or she is just odd.

ELLA

Ella is a bundle of kitten love. If she is awake, she is purring. She already knows her name and follows us around everywhere. She wants to be right next to one of us at all times. In fact, right now, she is sitting on the back of my neck while I hunch over like a crone. If I try to put her on my lap so I can sit up, she climbs on the laptop and types.