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Before leaving for vacation, I had time for a quick visit to one of my favorite used book stores -- Booktique, run by the Friends of the Lake Oswego Library -- to stock up for Mailbox Monday.
Altered States by Anita Brookner (my new favorite)
Citizen Vince by Jess Walter (Edgar winner)
Author, Author by David Lodge (an old favorite)
The Sins of the Assassin by Robert Ferrigno (guilty pleasure)
Hubby and I are off to the woods for a short, pre-Thanksgiving vacation. We've rented a cabin by a river and are heading out with a box of books, a box of booze, and groceries enough for the long weekend.
I've lined up a few posts to last until we get back to town and back to wi-fi.
Do you think any current author is of the same caliber as Dickens, Austen, Bronte, or any of the classic authors? If so, who, and why do you think so? If not, why not? What books from this era might be read 100 years from now?This is a graduate-level question. I mean, Dickens, Austen, and Bronte probably did not consider whether anyone would be reading their books 100 years later. And I like to think that all my favorite authors will retain their appeal, as unlikely as that would be. So how can we know? My stab in the dark list includes: Saul Bellow Ian McEwan John Irving My thinking is not subject to close scrutiny. It is not based on thorough knowledge because I have not read everything these authors wrote. Perhaps Bellow does not even qualify because his books already have some years on them and may not count as "this era." But I think that the books by these authors might last because they are character-driven, complex fiction, not tied to a particular period of time. Although the stories may include particular historical events, the books do not depend on those events. They are enjoyable because of the people in them and how those people relate to each other. For instance, I prefer John Updike to John Irving. But I wonder if his Rabbit books will carry the same charge 100 years from now. They so perfectly capture post-WWII America -- the sexual revolution, the Vietnam home front, all of it. But will readers 100 years from now care about, or be able to appreciate the nuances of, the shifting zeitgeist that so shaped Rabbit Angstrom's life? On the other hand, books like Irving's World According to Garp or A Prayer for Owen Meany, or Bellow's Herzog or Humbolt's Gift, are great stories that do not require the reader to have first-hand experience. Like with Dickens' books, there are a lot of characters doing a lot of stuff. These books are entertaining, but intricate. McEwan is more of a flyer, and a couple of his earlier books do not deserve to be read today, let alone 100 years from now. But I included him on the list for a couple of reasons. First, because books like Atonement fit in with the above description. Even though the book is set in a certain time and involves a particular battle, the story does not depend on those events. The story is about the people. Future readers can understand all they need to about the historical events from the book itself -- they do not need independent knowledge. Second, McEwan's books are particularly clever and give the reader some big ideas to chew on after the plot fades. If idea-based novels are going to survive, McEwan's will be among them. Enough. I wish I could be around to learn the real answer.
"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.
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.
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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)
"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.
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.
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.
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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.
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 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.
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. 
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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)
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).
"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.
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.
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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.
