Opening Sentence of the Day: Massacred for Gold

"I listened on a hot July morning in 2003 as a Snake River jetboat captain, idling his boat in front of a cove known as Deep Creek, told two dozen tourists the story, or at least a story, of what happened there in 1887." -- Massacred for Gold: The Chinese in Hells Canyon by R. Gregory Nokes This is going to be a good one! It is a historical expose of the murder of over 30 Chinese workers in eastern Oregon, written by one of Oregon's most talented writers.

Teaser Tuesday: Sarah's Key

His eyes were such a pale shade of blue they seemed transparent under thick pink lids. As the group of officers passed them by, the tall thin man reached out with an endless, gray-swathed arm, and tweaked Sarah's ear.

-- Sarah's Key by Tatiana de Rosnay Book Club is tomorrow. I have mixed feelings about this one. Like with any first novel, I admire the heck out of the author simply for getting the story written and published. I think it is worth reading, but it is a little clumsy. Teaser Tuesdays is hosted by Should Be Reading, where you can find the official rules for this weekly event.

Mailbox Monday

While running errands this weekend, I made a quick stop at one of my favorite hidey-hole library book shops. This one is tucked away in the corner of a strip mall branch library and they sell everything for 50 cents -- hardback, paperback, pristine, or trashed, it is 50 cents. Worth a stop when I find myself out on the urban edges. So for my whopping $2, here is my Mailbox Monday list: The Ghost Writer by Philip Roth (as I continue gathering the Roth bibliography) The Master and the Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov (on the MLA's list of 30 Books Every Adult Should Read, among others, I'm sure) Sacred by Dennis Lehane (from his early Patrick Kenzie/Angela Gennaro mystery series) The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson (which I have always meant to read but never got around to it)

Review of the Day: The Complete Short Stories of Ernest Hemingway

How can I review a book that took me 30 years to read? This is not just a book, it is part of my life. I have been working on The Complete Short Stories of Ernest Hemingway longer than all my formal education, two marriages, and my law practice.

I read my first Hemingway short story -- "The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber" -- when I was a Freshman in high school. In fits and starts since then I have been working my way through the rest. There are some, such as “Hills Like White Elephants” and “The Snows of Kilimanjaro,” that I have read several times. Others, like all the bull fighting stories, maybe only feel like I read them over and over.

I know that I had to start this “Finca Vigia” edition several times, including reading the first half dozen or so stories out loud on road trips -- first with my practice husband and later with my keeper hubby. I made a concerted effort this year to finish this book and this project. Hemingway wrote all his short stories in a 38-year span – I did not want it to take me as long to read them. So I started again at the beginning and read the book all the way through. The Nick Adams stories were new to me, as were the boxing stories and the previously unpublished stories at the end of the book.

But I can’t review Hemingway, especially when my attitudes about his writing have changed over the decades. I was unquestionably awed as a teenager, snide as a college English major, a genuine fan as an adult, and now just a little weary. His writing is masterful. He was a genius with spare dialog and creating reality with only a few brush strokes. (Of course, because he taught Americans a new way of writing, reading the original does not pack the wallop it must have before everyone copied him.) What wore me out was the subject matter – the bull fights and the Spanish Civil War in particular. It just got to be a chore for me to get to the end.

Who knows? Maybe I’ll dip into the collection again in the future and have a completely new attitude about Hemingway. But for now, the book is going back on the shelf.


OTHER REVIEWS AND RELATED POSTS

(If you would like your review of this book or related posts about Hemingway or his books, please leave a comment with a link and I will add it here.)

List: James Tait Black Memorial Prize

First awarded in 1919, the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction is one of the oldest and most prestigious book prizes awarded for literature written in the English language. The award is based at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland and the winner is chosen by the Professor of English Literature at the University with the assistance of PhD students.

Those I have read are in red. Those on my TBR shelf are in blue. If you are also working on this list, and would like your related posts linked here, please leave a comment with links and I will list them below.

2018 Crudo by Olivia Lang

2017 Attrib. and Other Stories by Eley Williams

2016 The Lesser Bohemians by Eimear McBride

2015 You Don’t Have to Live Like This by Benjamin Markovits

2014 In the Light of What We Know by Zia Haider Rahman

2013 Harvest by Jim Crace

2012 The Deadman's Pedal by Alan Warner

2011 You and Me by Padgett Powell

2010 The Lotus Eaters by Tatjana Soli

2009 The Children's Book by A. S. Byatt

2008 The Secret Scripture by Sebastian Barry (reviewed here)

2007 Our Horses in Egypt by Rosalind Belben

2006 The Road by Cormac McCarthy

2005 Saturday by Ian McEwan

2004 GB84 by David Peace

2003 Personality by Andrew O'Hagan

2002 The Corrections by Jonathon Franzen

2001 Something Like a House by Sid Smith

2000 White Teeth by Zadie Smith

1999 Renegade or Halo2 by Timothy Mo

1998 Master Georgie by Beryl Bainbridge

1997 Ingenious Pain by Andrew Miller

1996 Last Orders by Graham Swift and Justine by Alice Thompson

1995 The Prestige by Christopher Priest (reviewed here)

1994 The Folding Star by Alan Hollinghurst

1993 Crossing the River by Caryl Phillips

1992 Sacred Country by Rose Tremain

1991 Downriver by Iain Sinclair

1990 Brazzeville Beach by William Boyd (reviewed here)

1989 A Disaffection by James Kelman

1988 A Season in the West by Piers Paul Read

1987 The Golden Bird: Two Orkney Stories by George Mackay Brown

1986 Persephone by Jenny Joseph

1985 Winter Garden by Robert Edric

1984 Empire of the Sun by J. G. Ballard and Nights at the Circus by Angela Carter

1983 Allegro Postillions by Jonathan Keates

1982 On the Black Hill by Bruce Chatwin

1981 Midnight's Children (reviewed here) and The Mosquito Coast by Paul Theroux

1980 Waiting for the Barbarians by J. M. Coetzee

1979 Darkness Visible by William Golding

1978 Plumb by Maurice Gee

1977 The Honorable Schoolboy by John le Carre

1976 Doctor Copernicus by John Banville

1975 The Great Victorian Collection by Brian Moore

1974 Monsieur, or The Prince Of Darkness by Lawrence Durrell

1973 The Black Prince by Iris Murdoch

1972 G by John Berger (reviewed here)

1971 A Guest of Honour by Nadine Gordimer

1970 The Bird of Paradise by Lily Powell

1969 Eva Trout by Elizabeth Bowen

1968 The Gasteropod by Maggie Ross

1967 Jerusalem the Golden by Margaret Drabble

1966 Such by Christine Brooke-Rose and Langrishe, Go Down by Aidan Higgins

1965 The Mandelbaum Gate by Muriel Spark (reviewed here)

1964 The Ice Saints by Frank Tuohy

1963 A Slanting Light by Gerda Charles

1962 Act of Destruction by Ronald Hardy

1961 The Ha-Ha by Jennifer Dawson

1960 Imperial Caesar by Rex Warner

1959 The Devil's Advocate by Morris West

1958 The Middle Age of Mrs Eliot by Angus Wilson

1957 At Lady Molly's by Anthony Powell

1956 The Towers of Trebizond by Rose Macauley

1955 Mother and Son by Ivy Compton-Burnett

1954 The New Men and The Masters (in sequence) by C. P. Snow

1953 Troy Chimneys by Margaret Kennedy

1952 Men at Arms by Evelyn Waugh

1951 Father Goose by W. C. Chapman-Mortimer

1950 Along the Valley by Robert Henriquez (out of print)

1949 The Far Cry by Emma Smith

1948 The Heart of the Matter by Graham Greene

1947 Eustace and Hilda by L. P. Hartley

1946 Poor Man's Tapestry by G. Oliver Onions

1945 Travellers by L. A. G. Strong

1944 Young Tom by Forrest Reid

1943 Tales From Bective Bridge by Mary Lavin

1942 Monkey by Wu Ch'eng-en (translation by Arthur Whaley)

1941 A House of Children by Joyce Cary

1940 The Voyage by Charles Morgan

1939 After Many a Summer Dies the Swan by Aldous Huxley

1938 A Ship of the Line and Flying Colours by C. S. Forester

1937 Highland River by Neil M. Gunn

1936 South Riding by Winifred Holtby

1935 The Root and the Flower by L. H. Myers

1934 I, Claudius and Claudius the God by Robert Graves

1933 England, Their England by A. G. Macdonell

1932 Boomerang by Helen Simpson

1931 Without My Cloak by Kate O'Brien

1930 Miss Mole by E. H. Young

1929 The Good Companions by J. B. Priestley

1928 Memoirs of a Fox-Hunting Man by Siegfried Sassoon

1927 Portrait of Clare by Francis Brett Young

1926 Adam's Breed by Radclyffe Hall

1925 The Informer by Liam O'Flaherty

1924 A Passage to India by E. M. Forster

1923 Riceyman Steps by Arnold Bennett

1922 Lady Into Fox by David Garnett

1921 Memoirs of a Midget by Walter de la Mare

1920 The Lost Girl by D. H. Lawrence

1919 The Secret City by Hugh Walpole

NOTE

List updated on December 31, 2018.

RELATED POSTS

Please leave comments with links to related posts -- progress reports, reviews, etc. -- and I will list them here.

Review: Alice Adams

Grounded in outmoded attitudes about class and distractingly highlighted by outmoded attitudes about race, Alice Adams has not aged well.

In his 1922 Pulitzer winner, Booth Tarkington presents a heroine striving to climb the short social ladder of her Midwestern city using only her charms and well-rehearsed mannerisms. Watching Alice struggle is painful. She has self-awareness sufficient to know she is doing things wrong, but lacks the tools to do them right. And it never seems that the game is worth the candle.

Finally, after watching Alice dither for most of the book, circumstances force her to face reality and make some difficult but intelligent decisions. The book ends on a gloriously hopeful note, which is the most redeeming feature of the story.

Opening Sentence of the Day: Sarah's Key

"The girl was the first to hear the loud pounding on the door." -- Sarah's Key by Tatiana de Rosnay I'm flying through this book because I am sick to find out what happens. Of course the pounding on the door is the police, rounding up Paris Jews during the Holocaust and, as I read on the back cover, the girl locks her little brother in a cupboard to save him. There is a modern day part of the story about the family who lives in the apartment now. I am horrified that they are going to find a toddler skeleton in the cupboard, so am reading as fast as my eyeballs can take it in so I can know one way or the other and stop fretting.

Happy Anniversary! And Happy Veterans' Day!

November 11 is Veterans' Day. Or Armistice Day, for traditionalists. At our house, it is also our wedding anniversary. This year we celebrate our Pottery Anniversary. That doesn't have the most romantic ring to it, but we'll make the best of it.

Teaser Tuesday: The Complete Short Stories of Ernest Hemingway

It was a strange country again but at the end he was not lonely and, later, waking, it was still strange and no one spoke at all but it was their country now, not his nor hers, but theirs, truly, and they both knew it. In the dark with the wind blowing cool through the cabin she said, "Now you're happy and you love me."

-- "The Strange Country" by Ernest Hemingway, from The Complete Short Stories of Ernest Hemingway: The Finca Vigia Edition The teaser for me is that this is the last story in the book and it is definitely tantalizing to think that I may soon, finally, finish a collection of short stories that I started almost 30 years ago! I read my first Hemingway short story -- "The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber" -- when I was a Freshman in high school. In fits and starts since then I have been working my way through the rest. The end is finally in sight. Teaser Tuesdays is hosted by Should Be Reading, where you can find the official rules for this weekly event.

Mailbox Monday

Just in time for Mailbox Monday, the mail man delivered: Sarah's Key by Tatiana de Rosnay This is my Book Club book for November. It might be horribly sad, since it is the story of the July 1942 roundup of Jews from Paris. Over 6,000 Jews, mostly children, were arrested by French policy acting on orders from the German occupying army, kept in a sports arena for several days, then shipped to camps, eventually Auschwitz where they all were killed. The book goes back and forth between the tragic events of 1942 and modern day Paris. This could be rough going.

Review: The Man Who Loved China

Joseph Needham’s Science and Civilization in China is still the definitive work on the subject, in continuous print since the Cambridge University Press published the first introductory volume* in 1954. In The Man Who Loved China, Simon Winchester turns his inquisitive eye and keen wit to Needham’s life and accomplishments, wrapping personality, history, politics, and science into the kind of irresistible story only Winchester can produce.

Needham was a biochemist, not a Sinologist. He became interested in the Middle Kingdom only after falling in love with Lu Gwei-Djen, a Chinese scientist in Cambridge to study with Needham and his biologist wife Dorothy. After learning Chinese, he obtained a pre-WWII diplomatic post that allowed him to explore China and send truckloads of books and documents about China’s scientific and technological history back to Cambridge.

As with his wonderful books about the making of the Oxford English Dictionary, The Professor and the Madman and The Meaning of Everything, Winchester uses the compilation and publication of Needham’s masterpiece as the backbone of this biography. He branches off from the central story to discuss the Needham’s socialist politics, his unconventional love life, and his role as one of Red China’s most “useful idiots.”

This last item concerned Needham leading a commission to investigate allegations that America used biological warfare during the Korean War. In 1953, he issued a report substantiating the claims, although it was later determined that the Chinese government, with Soviet help, staged the whole thing. As Winchester put it, “Needham was intellectually in love with communism; and yet communist spymasters and agents, it turned out, had pitilessly duped him.” Needham was under a cloud for years as a result. America refused him a visa until the 1970s. Only the quality and stupendous success of Science and Civilization finally redeemed his reputation.

Simon Winchester could write an interesting book about garden mulch, so it is no surprise that The Man Who Loved China, based on a fascinating life, is a fascinating book. This is one of his best.

* Science and Civilization in China is now a 25-volume set, although many volumes were written by others under Needham's direction and still others after his death.

OTHER REVIEWS

Age 30+ . . . A Lifetime of Books

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

Blogging Blackout

No blogging today while I am traveling for work. I put in some late posts from my hotel room the last couple of days, but I hope to finish work and drive home to Portland tonight, so no time to blog. I do hate it when my job interferes with my hobbies.

The Bio-Sphere

This week's Booking Through Thursday asks about a preference for biographies or autobiographies. My answer: both, depending on the subject. I prefer professional biographies of famous people, including historical figures, politicians, and celebrities. For instance; Thomas Paine: Enlightenment, Revolution, and the Birth of Modern Nations, by Craig Nelson (reviewed here) The Age of Reagan (Vol. II): The Conservative Counterrevolution, 1980 - 1989 by Steven F. Hayward (which I am just finishing now) Paul Newman: A Life by Shawn Levy (reviewed here) But I prefer autobiographies, or memoirs, of non-famous people. This is a new interest of mine, which I can trace back precisely to when Hubby gave me a copy of Oh! The Glory of it All!* by Sean Wilsey when we lived in San Francisco (Wilsey being the unsung son of San Francisco socialites). Since then, I have enjoyed several "random memoirs" -- as I think of them -- about non-famous people living interesting lives. These include: 7 Wheelchairs: A Life Beyond Polio by Gary Presley (reviewed here) Forbidden Bread by Erica Johnson Debeljak (reviewed here) * One of my favorite book titles of all times.

Timely Re-Run Review: The Top Ten Myths of American Health Care

In her accessible "citizen’s guide" to health care reform, Sally Pipes examines The Top Ten Myths of American Health Care and offers several patient-driven ideas for change. Pipes looks past the partisan rhetoric to explain, for example, what "46 million uninsured Americans" really means, why importing drugs cannot work, and how expanded Medicaid-type programs would make a bad situation worse. Pipes, a Canadian native, is her most persuasive when she scrutinizes Canada’s and other nationalized medical systems. Relying on her extensive research and personal experience, she spells out why long waits, restricted access to new medications, and doctors on government payrolls are not the solution to America's problems. In the debate over health care, Pipes has definitely chosen her side, championing free-market reforms such as allowing the interstate purchase of health insurance and revising the tax code to encourage individually-purchased, instead of employer-provided, insurance. But Pipes is no ranting demagogue. Her arguments are concise and supported by solid research as she tries deal rationally with an issue often freighted with emotion. While aimed at policy-makers, The Top Ten Myths is lively enough for general consumption. Good reading for anyone interesting in going beyond the soundbites and understanding some of the details of health care reform.

Teaser Tuesday: Incidents in the Rue Laugier

"Maud simply wanted to live in Paris, with or without a husband, preferably without. While careful not to let her thoughts show on her severe and slightly disdainful golden face, Maud had a secret desire to escape all forms of control." -- Incidents in the Rue Laugier by Anita Brookner I am now definitely a Brookner fan. Teaser Tuesdays is hosted by Should Be Reading, where you can find the official rules for this weekly event.

Mailbox Monday

Thanks once again to Reading Local and its monthly readers' participation contest, I have several new books to list for Mailbox Monday. I used my contest winnings at Hawthorne Boulevard Books, a bibliophile's paradise. Rambling through several rooms of an old house, the store sells used, antique, and collector's editions. The charming owners were helpful and chatty I poked my way through the extensive literature section, master list in hand. I finally settled on: Death Comes for the Archbishop by Willa Cather (a pristine 1985 Modern Library edition to replace the one I read and gave to my sister) The Counterlife by Philip Roth (winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award) Reveries of a Bachelor by "Ik. Marvel" (a an old book from the 1800s that I bought for its fancy cover and novelty) The Marmot Drive by John Hersey (for some reason, I keep buying John Hersey books, but I haven't read any of them yet)

Review of the Day: Freddy and Fredericka

Mark Helprin’s rollicking novel, Freddy and Fredericka, follows the adventures of the Prince and Princess of Wales as, plagued by scandals that threaten the continuity of the royal throne, they set off on a quest to recapture the American Colonies. The two – clearly modeled on Charles and Diane – learn to love and appreciate each other while they both grow into their crowns.

With a mix of picaresque farce, adventure, political philosophy, and love story, Helprin weaves a captivating tall tale. While the wordplay sometimes degenerates to Abbott and Costello’s “Who’s on First” level, most of the book is witty and even hilarious. Helprin’s riffs and rants on such diverse subjects as the theater of politics, avant garde art, and whether “bosom” refers to a single object or half of a pair are worth putting up with a couple jokes that get stretched thin.

Trick or Treat!

Our new neighborhood takes Halloween very seriously. Everyone has jack-o-lanterns, lights, decorations, and spooky stuff -- all geared for little kids, not teen-aged Halloween hooligans. It's great! We look like the newcomers that we are with only three jack-o-lanterns and a handful of rubber bats stuck on the window. As is our tradition, we are having a dinner party with friends so we can all enjoy the trick-or-treaters (watching them, not eating them).

Cookbook Library: Cooking With Caprial

Caprial's Bistro is one of my favorite restaurants in Portland. I also love her on her tv show and have learned a lot by watching her. For instance, I am indebted to her for fixing my pie crust -- I needed to use more water, as I learned from one show.

Too bad, then, that Cooking With Caprial: American Bistro Fair doesn't really do much for me. The recipes, like the items on Caprial's bistro menu, are deceptively simple. But the things I make never taste as good as they do at her restaurant. Of course, I'm not a world-class chef; she is. She must have secret ways (yes, called "talent") that makes things taste super yummy.

I am glad to have this one in my cookbook library, but I really do not use it very often.

Author of the Day: Kate Atkinson

Kate Atkinson is a relatively new find for me. I read her debut novel, Behind the Scenes at the Museum, a couple of years ago because it won the Costa (Whitebread) Book of the Year Award. That one book was enough to make me a fan.

I have since torn through all four of the books in her mystery series featuring Jackson Brodie. They are my favorite mysteries ever. I look forward to re-reading them.

Those I have read are in red. The one my TBR shelf is in blue.

Behind the Scenes at the Museum (1995) (reviewed here)

Human Croquet (1997)

Abandonment (2000)

Emotionally Weird (2000)

Not the End of the World (2002) (short stories)

Case Histories (2004)

One Good Turn (2006)

When Will There Be Good News? (2009)

Started Early, Took My Dog (2011) (reviewed here)

NOTE

Last updated April 19, 2012.

OTHER READERS
(If anyone has posts related to Atkinson or these books and would like me to list it here, please leave a comment with a link to your post.)

Opening Sentence of the Day: Incidents in the Rue Laugier

"My mother read a lot, sighed a lot, and went to bed early." -- Incidents in the Rue Laugier by Anita Brookner Hotel du Lac, the 1984 Booker Prize winner, is the only Anita Brookner novel I have read. I can't say that Hotel du Lac stuck with me -- so little so that I actually read it a second time without realizing it -- but Brookner has returned to my radar screen. I recently found several of her books in nice hardback editions at library book sales and something about them appealed to me. I am looking forward to this one.

Teaser Tuesday: The Age of Reagan

The Age of Reagan (Vol. II): The Conservative Counterrevolution, 1980 - 1989 by Steven F. Hayward.

"There were important aspects of foreign and defense policy that needed immediate attention, but Reagan and his team understood that restoring the economy was the prerequisite for a successful foreign and defense policy. They also knew that the first few months of 1981 would be their only window of opportunity, since that is when any new president carries the most clout with Congress and the public, and since in this particular circumstance the Democrats, having suffered large losses in the election, would be temporarily disoriented and dispirited."

This quote exemplifies the cyclical nature of politics and the economy. Substitute "Obama," "2009," and "Republicans" in that passage and it would describe the current administration. I am a little over a third of the way through this second volume of Hayward's comprehensive biography. He does a particularly terrific job in two areas: 1) making arcane policy and political issues understandable and even interesting, and 2) using contemporary news quotes to compare the perceived situation with what was really going on in Reagan's White House. Teaser Tuesdays is hosted by Should Be Reading, where you can find the official rules for this weekly event.

Mailbox Monday

It was shaping up to be a completely book-free week last week, until I got an invitation from a friend to go to her husband's book-signing party. Whew! Mailbox Monday saved! I stopped by the party on Saturday to pick up my very own signed copy of The High Definition Family by Sayer Strauch. It looks like an inspiring read. Maybe I'll get my household in shape for the holidays.

I Had a Book in Africa . . .

Natasha at Maw Books Blog is hosting this month's Bookworms' Carnival and her theme is "Africa" books -- those written by African authors, set in Africa, or with some other African connection. She has compiled an incredible list of books. If you are looking for inspiration, please visit. It is worth bookmarking the page for future reference. I was pleased that Natasha included three of my book reviews in the carnival (links to reviews): The Beggar by Naguib Mahfouz Beethoven Was One-Sixteenth Black by Nadine Gordimer The Life and Times of Michael K. by J.M. Coetzee In addition to her long list of recommended books, Natasha included a few questions for carnival participants and readers. Feel free to answer the questions on your blog or leave a comment on the carnival page: 1. Do you read a lot of books that have an African focus? If so, why do you enjoy them? I didn't think I read many books with an African focus. And I don't, at least not compared to American or British books. But thinking back. I have read quite a few and there are more on my shelves. But I tend to read books by British or American authors about Africa more than books by African authors. 2. Have you reviewed any books with an African theme? If so, feel free to highlight them. In addition to the three listed above, I reviewed two (links to reviews): Black Jews, Jews, and Other Heroes: How Grassroots Activism Led to the Rescue of the Ethiopian Jews by Howard Lenoff Middle Passage by Charles Johnson (in the carnival) 3. What are you looking forward to reading next? Anything on your radar? Limiting this question to books with an African connection, Out of Africa by Isak Dinesen and A Good Man in Africa by William Boyd are both moving towards the top of my TBR stack. 4. If you haven’t read a lot of books with an African focus, what are some books that you’d like to read? There are several others on my TBR shelves right now that I plan to get to eventually: King Leopold's Ghost by Adam Hochschild (in the carnival) The Stranger by Albert Camus Jump by Nadine Gordimer A Sport of Nature by Nadine Gordimer Burger's Daughter by Nadine Gordimer The Grass is Singing by Dorris Lessing The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver (in the carnival) Half of a Yellow-Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (in the carnival) 5. Are there any book titles showcased in this carnival that sounds interesting to you or that you’ve read? There are several books listed in the carnival that I have read, even though I did not review them: The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe Disgrace by J.M. Coetzee West With the Night by Beryl Markham And, finally, there are several books with an African connection that I have read that are not listed above and were not in the carnival: Cry, the Beloved Country by Alan Paton Scoop by Evelyn Waugh (a fictional Africa) A Bend in the River by V.S. Naipaul In a Free State by V.S. Naipaul (Booker winner) The Sheltering Sky by Paul Bowles (Modern Library's Top 100) The Alexandria Quartet by Lawrence Durrell (Modern Library's Top 100) Infidel by Ayaan Hirsi Ali The Heart of the Matter by Graham Greene The Human Factor by Graham Greene Henderson the Rain King by Saul Bellow (more fictional Africa) Skeletons on the Zahara by Dean King (my notes are here) OTHERS' ANSWERS AND RELATED POSTS IMAGENATIONS (Ghanaian author Nana Fredua-Agyeman's blog) A Senegalese Reading List (on Amateur Reader's Wuthering Expectations blog) (Leave a comment with a link to your answers and I will list your post here.)

Review of the Day: Laughing Gas

. Laughing Gas is one of Wodehouse's stand-alone novels, featuring none of his usual cast of characters up to high jinx in their usual locales. This one-off follows the adventures of Reggie, the new Earl of Havershot, who heads to Hollywood to rescue his drunkard cousin from a mis-matched marriage. The hook for the (tall) tale is that Reggie and child star Joey Cooley switch bodies while simultaneously under gas at the dentists' office. Farce ensues. The story has plenty going on and a full roster of Wodehouse's entertaining characters. But it falls short when it comes to clever, witty writing. It just is not as funny as most Wodehouse books.

Review: Joker One

Donovan Campbell joined the Marines after 9/11. A recent Princeton grad and first in his class at the Marines’ Basic Officer Course, Campbell was made the Lieutenant of a forty-man infantry platoon called Joker One. Campbell led his platoon on a tour of duty in Ramadi, Iraq, where they patrolled for IEDs, battled insurgents, and tried to win over the locals – often in temperatures over 120 degrees, carrying 50 pounds of equipment.

Joker One: A Marine Platoon's Story of Courage, Leadership, and Brotherhood is Campbell’s account of his time in Ramadi. He describes what he and his men did and learned, but also shares his heartfelt insights into what made his team so great. It is a riveting story of courage and camaraderie that should make us appreciate the efforts and sacrifices of our military.

NOTE

This book was on my Library Thing Early Reviewer list. One more down, five more to go as of today. I wish I had read this one earlier because it was a real treat.

OTHER REVIEWS

Return Customer
The White Rhino Report

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

Opening Sentence of the Day: Laughing Gas

"I had just begun to write this story, when a literary pal of mine who had had a sticky night out with the P.E.N. Club blew in to borrow a bicarbonate of soda, and I thought it would be as well to have him vet what I had done, in case I might have foozled my tee-shot." -- Laughing Gas by P. G. Wodehouse And so begins the Earl of Havershot's tale of adventure and mayhem when he visits Hollywood to save his cousin from drink and an ill-advised splice to an American pippin.

Review: The Ice Chorus

Sarah Stonich’s sophomore novel, The Ice Chorus, is one of those rare books in which all the parts come together seamlessly. The ideas, plot, characters, and images all work to entertain the reader with the rich story of Liselle’s life-changing romance with Charlie, an artist she met in Mexico.

Liselle, living in a nondescript Irish fishing town, films and interviews her new neighbors for a nascent documentary about love, waits for her artist lover to return, and mulls over her affair with Charlie, her marriage, and her tragic relationship with her father.

It is a romantic story that looks beyond mere romance to examine the way passionate love affects every part of life, including where people live and the direction of their careers.  

OTHER REVIEWS

Book Blab
Rundpinne
Vulpes Libris
The Crowded Leaf
Today is My Someday

(If you would like your review listed here, please leave a comment with a link to your review.)

Mailbox Monday

I only have one Mailbox Monday book, but it is a good one! While on a business trip to Chicago last week, I had time for a quick visit to the Art Institute where they had the most incredible special exhibit on Victorian Photocollage. Being an avid scrapbooker myself and fascinated by collage in particular, I was mesmerized by the exhibit. So I was very excited to pick up a souvenir: The Marvelous Album of Madame B: Being the Handiwork of a Victorian Lady of Considerable Talent, a replica of one of the main scrapbooks on display. Here is an example of "Victorian Photocollage":

Review of the Day: Forbidden Bread

Slovenia was a toddler of a country when Erica Johnson arrived there in 1993 to marry her black-haired poet lover, Aleš Debeljak. Slovenia had only won its independence from Yugoslavia two years earlier; war still raged in Croatia and Bosnia to the south. What was she thinking?

Johnson Debeljak answers that question in Forbidden Bread, her engrossing memoir about abandoning the life of a Manhattan commercial banker to move to a nascent post-communist state where most people still grew their own cabbage and considered themselves lucky to have a tiny Soviet car to drive. She uses her own story as the backdrop for Slovenia’s story, with its tumultuous history and rich, poetry-filled culture.

From her battles with power-abusing bureaucrats, to worries about bombs falling on her wedding, to ethnic jokes and fussing in-laws, Johnson Debeljak provides layers of detail that let the reader really understand what it would be like to live in a land so foreign. This is arm-chair travel at its best – a trip to the true heart of a country.


NOTES

My review was first published in the Internet Review of Books. In addition to being a terrific book, reading this one allows my to scratch it off my LibraryThing Early Reviewer list.

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Opening Sentence of the Day: The Age of Reagan

"Most of his senior aides didn't want him to say it." The Age of Reagan (Vol. II): The Conservative Counterrevolution, 1980 - 1989 by Steven F. Hayward. This opening sentence refers to Reagan's most famous line, "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!" Hayward goes on to observe that many of those who opposed the line now claim to have been all for it -- some even claim to have written it. He uses this incident to illustrate a central thesis of his book, which is that Reagan spent as much effort working on his own team as he did battling the Democrats. Like the first volume of Hayward's biography, this book is dense, but eminently readable. It is as entertaining as it is edifying.