2009 Challenges

In 2009, I signed up for and completed four challenges:

The Sunshine Smackdown: Battle of the Prizes



I had to participate in this one -- I hosted it. I am going to host it again in 2010, but it will start earlier, so not be a summer challenge. My wrap-up post is here.  I read and reviewed three books:

1. The Fixer by Bernard Malamud (winner of both the National and the Pulitzer; reviewed here)
2. Goodbye Columbus by Philip Roth (National winner; reviewed here)
3. Advise and Consent by Allen Drury (Pulitzer winner; reviewed here)
   

The 100+ Challenge




My book total for 2009 was 11, so I completed the challenge. But I was pretty lame about posting my reviews. I did for a month or so, then stopped, went back in the summer and added several, then tapered off completely. Here is my completed list. I am signing up again for 2010, but I probably won't be any better about active participation.

The Colorful Reading Challenge



This was fun in that it got me to read several books I probably would not have gotten around to if I hadn't been looking for colors in titles. I completed the challenge on December 31 and didn't do a final wrap-up post -- this post is the closest I got. I read and reviewed nine books:

1. RED: Red Square by Martin Cruz Smith (review) 
2. BLACK: Black Cherry Blues by James Lee Burke (mini-review)
3. GOLD: Towers of Gold: How One Jewish Immigrant Named Isaias Hellman Created California by Dinkelspiel, Frances (review) 
4. GREEN: Blue Planet in Green Shackles: What Is Endangered: Climate or Freedom? by Vaclav Klaus (review) 
5. YELLOW: A Yellow Raft in Blue Water by Michael Dorris (review)
6. SILVER: The Silver Palate Cookbook by Julee Rosso (review) 
7. RUST: American Rust by Philipp Meyer (review)
8. BLUE: Blue River by Ethan Canin (review)
9. WHITE: American Lion: Andrew Jackson in the White House by Jon Meacham (review)

The Spice of Life Challenge

This one was super fun because I love books about food, and I liked that there were several different categories of books. I hope Rebecca hosts it again, because I want to sign up for a higher level. In 2009, I signed up for the "Sampler" level and read and reviewed four books

1. Au Revoir to All That by Michael Steinberger (my non-fiction choice; reviewed here)
2. The Last Chinese Chef by Nicole Mones (my fiction choice; reviewed here)
3. The Silver Palate Cookbook by Julee Rosso (my cookbook choice; reviewed here)
4. Julie and Julia by Julie Powell (my memoir/essay choice; reviewed here)
   

Opening Sentence of the Day: The Polysyllabic Spree

So this is supposed to be about the how, and when, and why, and what of reading -- about the way that, when reading is going well, one book leads to another and to another, a paper trail of theme and meaning; and how when it's going badly, when books don't stick or take, when your mood and the mood of the book are fighting like cats, you'd rather do anything bu attempt the next paragraph, or reread the last one for the tenth time.

-- The Polysyllabic Spree by Nick Hornby

Now, that's an opening sentence! Part of me (the Junior High English class dork part) wants to diagram it.

This is a collection of essays -- the first of three volumes -- that Hornby wrote for The Believer magazine, described on the cover as, "A hilarious and true account of one man's struggle with the monthly tide is the books he's bought and the books he's been meaning to read."  It's the famous person's version of a book blog.

Review of the Day: The New Confessions

“My first act on entering the world was to kill my mother.” So begins William Boyd’s The New Confessions, the pseudo-autobiography of John James Todd, a Scottish-born filmmaker whose career begins in the trenches of WWI and ends on the Hollywood blacklists of the 1950s.

Todd shares first names and outlook with his hero, French philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau, and spends his career working on an epic film based on Rousseau's memoirs, The Confessions. His quest takes him on a rollicking journey from Berlin to Hollywood, wife to lover, peaks of fame to penury, and leaves a trail of wreckage and memories behind.

Todd is an engaging Everyman anti-hero – likeable even when he is not particularly nice. The book is warm, funny, and full of life from the opening page to Todd’s concluding ruminations.

Opening Sentence of the Day: One Fat Englishman

"What's he like?"

-- One Fat Englishman by Kingsley Amis

Not much to go on, but this cocktail party chit chat opening sentence becomes a clever dialog about a visiting linguistics professor and his hot wife. Amis is a real favorite of mine, so there is not much he can do wrong in my eyes. 

Books Read in 2009

This is the list of the 112 books I read in 2009, in the order that I read them. For an explanation of my rating system, see here.

Water the Bamboo by Greg Bell (reviewed here; 4/5)

All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque (on the MLA's Top 30 list and the College Board's Top 101 list)

Sometimes a Great Notion by Ken Kesey (4.5/5) (on the Top 20 Oregon books list)

Franny and Zooey by J. D. Salinger (reviewed here; 4/5)

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver (reviewed here; 2.5/5)

Blackbird, Farewell by Robert Greer (reviewed here; 2/5)

Out of the Deep I Cry by Julia Spencer-Fleming (3.5/5)

The Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley (2.5/5)

Entres Nous: A Woman's Guide to Finding Her Inner French Girl by Debra Ollivier (which inspired my French Connections list; reviewed here; 3.5/5)

Black Cherry Blues by James Lee Burke (3.5/5)

Native America, Discovered and Conquered by Robert Miller (reviewed here; 3.5/5)

Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut (3/5)

The Top 10 Myths of American Health Care by Sally Pipes (reviewed here; 4/5)

The Great Fire by Shirley Hazzard (National Book Award winner; 3.5/5)

Prisoner of the Vatican by David Kertzer (2.5/5)

The River Why by David James Duncan (3/5)

Infidel by Ayaan Hirsi Ali (4/5)

Right Ho, Jeeves by P. G. Wodehouse (3.5/5)

Crime and Punishment by Foyder Dostoevsky (on the Easton Press Top 100 list; 4.5/5)

Towers of Gold by Frances Dinkelspiel (reviewed here; 3.5/5)

The Innocent by Ian McEwan (reviewed here; 3.5/5)

The Letter from Death by Lillian Moats (reviewed here; 1.5/5)

The Amateur Marriage by Anne Tyler (3.5/5)

Basil's Dream by Christine Hale (reviewed here; 3.5/5)

The Stettheimer Dollhouse, edited by Sheila Clark (on my LibraryThing Early Reviewer list; reviewed here; 3.5/5)

Mere Christianity by C. S. Lewis (4/5)

Pagan Babies by Elmore Leonard (3/5)

Red Square by Martin Cruz Smith (reviewed here; 3.5/5)

The Mating Season by P. G. Wodehouse (3.5/5)

The Alteration by Kinglsey Amis (3.5/5)

Davita's Harp by Chiam Potok (3.5/5)

Skeletons on the Zahara by Dean King(discussed here; 3/5)

Saturday by Ian McEwan (James Tate Black winner; 3.5/5)

The Floating Opera by John Barth (reviewed here; 3.5/5)

Nell Hill's Style at Home by Mary Carol (3.5/5)

Inside the Red Mansion by Oliver August (reviewed here; 3/5)

March by Geraldine Brooks (Pulitzer Prize winner; reviewed here; 3/5)

Atget's Paris, published by Taschen (3/5)

Advise and Consent by Allen Drury (Pulitzer Prize winner; reviewed here; 4/5)

The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame (on the BBC's Big Read list, the Observer's Top 100 list, and the MLA's Top 30 list; reviewed here; 4/5)

My Uncle Oswald by Roald Dahl (reviewed here; 3/5)

Wall Street by Steve Fraser (reviewed here; 2.5/5)

A Yellow Raft in Blue Water by Michael Dorris (reviewed here; 3/5)

High Fidelity by Nick Hornby (reviewed here; 4/5)

Birds by Jeff Fisher (4/5)

The Miserable Mill by Lemony Snicket (3/5) 

The Beggar by Naguib Mafouz (Nobel Laureate; reviewed here; 3.5/5) 

Black Boy (American Hunger) by Richard Wright (reviewed here; 3/5) 

Changing Places by David Lodge (reviewed here; 4/5)

My Latest Grievance by Elinor Lipman (reviewed here; 3.5/5)

That's Amore! The Language of Love for Lovers of Language by Erin McKean (3/5)

I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith (4/5)

The Fellowship of the Ring by J. R. R. Tolkien (the All-TIME 100 list, the BBC Big Read, the MLA's Top 30 list, Radcliffe's Top 100 list, and the Observer's Top 100 list; 3/5)

After Dinner Speaking by Fawcett Boom (reviewed here; 3/5)

Stylish Sheds and Elegant Hideaways: Big Ideas for Small Backyard Destinations by Debra Prinzing (reviewed here; 4/5) 

Super Sunday in Newport by Matt Love (2.5/5) 

Pegasus Descending by James Lee Burke (3.5/5)

Au Revoir to All That by Michael Steinberger (on my French Connection list; reviewed here; 3.5/5)

The Brothers K by David James Duncan (reviewed here; 3.5/5)

Hemingway and Bailey's Bartending Guide to Great American Writers by Edward Hemingway and Mark Bailey (3/5)

The Fixer by Bernard Malamud (National Book Award winner; Pulitzer Prize winner; reviewed here; 4/5) 

Wild Fire by Nelson DeMille (3/5) 

Forbidden Bread by Erica Johnson-Debeljak (on my LibraryThing Early Reviewer list; reviewed here; 3.5/5) 

To Darkness and to Death by Julia Spencer-Fleming (reviewed here; 3/5) 

Doctor Sally by P. G. Wodehouse (3/5) 

Goodbye, Columbus by Philip Roth (National Book Award winner; reviewed here; 4/5) 

Blue Planet in Green Shackles by Vaclav Klaus (reviewed here; 3.5/5) 

Underworld by Don DeLillo (reviewed here; 2.5/5) 

Dreams by Sigmund Freud (2.5/5) 

Paul Newman: A Life by Shaun Levy (reviewed here; 4/5)

Shalimar the Clown by Salomon Rushdie (3/5) 

The Tin Roof Blowdown by James Lee Burke (reviewed here; 3.5/5) 

The Last Chinese Chef by Nicole Mones (reviewed here; 3.5/5) 

The Time Traveler's Wife by Audry Niffinger (2.5/5) 

Plainsong by Ken Haruf (3/5) 

All Mortal Flesh by  Julia Spencer-Fleming (reviewed here; 3.5/5)


Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson (on the BBC's Big Read list, the College Board list, and the Easton Press Top 100 list; 3.5/5) 

Brick Lane by Monica Ali (3/5) 

American Rust by Philip Meyer (on my LibraryThing Early Reviewer list; reviewed here; 2.5/5) 

The Plague by Albert Camus (Nobel Laureate; on the Observer's Top 100 list; 3/5) 

Julie and Julia by Julie Powell (reviewed here; 2.5/5) 

Behind the Scenes at the Museum by Kate Atkinson (Costa Book Award winner; reviewed here; 3.5/5) 

Ice Chorus by Susan Stonich (reviewed here; 3.5/5) 

Autobiography by Benjamin Franklin (4/5) 

The Silver Palate Cookbook by Sheila Lukins and Julie Russo (reviewed here; 4/5) 

Stalin's Ghost by Martin Cruz Smith (3.5/5) 

Laughing Gas by P. G. Wodehouse (3/5) 

Joker One by Donovan Campbell (on my LibraryThing Early Reviewer list; reviewed here; 4/5) 

Freddy and Fredericka by Mark Helprin (reviewed here; 3.5/5) 

The Man Who Loved China by Simon Winchester (reviewed here; 4/5) 

The Family Man by Elinor Lipman (3/5) 

The Age of Reagan, Vol. 2 by Steven Hayward (reviewed here; 4/5) 

Alice Adams by Booth Tarkington (Pulitzer Prize winner; reviewed here; 2.5/5) 

Sarah's Key by Tatiana de Rosnay (2.5/5)

The Complete Short Stories* by Ernest Hemingway (Nobel Laureate; reviewed here; 3.5/5) 

The Tenderness of Wolves by Stef Penney (Costa Book Award winner; reviewed here; 4/5) 

The Seven Storey Mountain by Thomas Merton (3/5) 

Incidents in the Rue Laguier by Anita Brookner (reviewed here; 3/5) 

Massacred for Gold by Gregory Nokes (reviewed here; 3.5/5) 

A Century of November by W. D. Wetherell (reviewed here; 3.5/5) 

Good for the Jews by Debra Spark (reviewed here; 3.5/5) 

Gentlemen of the Road by Michael Chabon (3/5) 

The Tricking of Freya by Christina Sunley (on my LibraryThing Early Reviewer list; reviewed here; 3.5/5) 

The Italian Lover by Robert Hellinga (reviewed here; 2.5/5) 

The Fire by Katherine Neville (on my LibraryThing Early Reviewer list; reviewed here; 2/5) 

How to Save Your Own Life by Erica Jong (reviewed here; 3.5/5) 

American Lion: Andrew Jackson in the White House by Jon Meacham (reviewed here; 3.5/5) 

The Inn at Lake Divine by Elinor Lipman (3.5)

Blue River by Ethan Canin (reviewed here; 2/5)

Betrayal by John Lescroart (3/5)


* The Complete Short Stories of Ernest Hemingway includes all the stories published in several separate volumes, plus additional others. I counted this as one book, but the separate volumes subsumed by this omnibus are: In Our Time (on the Radcliffe Top 100 list), Men Without Women (on the Observer's Top 100 list), The Fifth Column and the First Forty-Nine Stories, The Snows of Kilimanjaro and Other Stories, The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber and Other Stories, The Nick Adams Stories, and maybe others.

Teaser Tuesday: The New Confessions

"From time to time, however, they break out -- lava cracking the pumice -- and dominate with the same rampaging potency. What is lust, adult lust, after all, but the desire to recapture the heady sensations of adolescent sexuality?"

-- The New Confessions by William Boyd.

This is a great book -- funny and full of life. It is entertaining from the get go as the hero describes his Scottish upbringing, WWI experiences, and nascent film career in post-war Berlin. At over 500 pages, it would count for the Chunkster Challenge if I had started it after the challenge starts on February 1. Oh well.


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

A Rose (City Reader) By Any Other Name . . .

It is a new year, so my blog has a new name. Well, I guess that is not accurate. My blog has a new address, but not a new name.

I switched the address to "RoseCityReader.com" to get rid of the "blogspot" part of the address. It seems to have worked by blogger magic. But if anyone has trouble finding me, try changing your settings to the new address.

The only thing that seems to not have made the switch is my blogroll. I needed to update and freshen it anyway, so I will get to that very soon.

Mailbox Monday

My husband gave me two wonderful books for Christmas. We were out of town last week, so they are only making it to my Mailbox Monday list today.

The Bridge of San Luis Rey by Thorton Wilder (a fancy, Easton Press edition of this book from the Modern Library's Top 100 list -- too bad I can't find a picture of the cover)


The Original of Laura by Vladimir Nabokov (instead of editing Nabokov's recently-discovered notes into a complete novel, the publishers printed actual images of his index cards, with the text typed below each one -- really cool)




What also came in the mail for me (which I found when I got back to work today), was a lovely surprise from J.G. at Hotch Pot Cafe. She sent me a Christmas card and the "perfect present" -- a mouse-shaped cheese knife. I love it! So sweet of her and such a funny surprise. What a good example of the nice friends I've met through book blogging.  Thanks J.G.!

Opening Sentence of the Day: The New Confessions

"My first act on entering the world was to kill my mother."

-- The New Confessions by William Boyd.

So begins the pseudo-autobiography of John James Todd, a Scottish-born filmmaker whose career begins in the trenches of WWI and ends on the Hollywood blacklists of the 1950s. Todd shares first names and outlook with his hero, French philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau, and spends his career working on an epic film based on Rousseau's memoirs, The Confessions.

Year in Review: 2009

It is the time for reminiscing and I have been enjoying everyone's wrap-up posts. 2009 was a good year, as far as books and blogging went. I read 110 books, which is about average for me (I will post a list soon); I reviewed about 90 books; and I posted 404 blog entries (much to my surprise).

In going over my reading list for the year brings back memories of some really good reads -- and a few I really disliked. There were a couple of books I got from publishers or publicists that I was very impressed with (The Tricking of Freya, Good for the Jews, and Basil's Dream, in particular), but my favorite books of 2009, in alphabetical order, were:

The Age of Reagan by Steven Hayward (Internet Review of Books review here)

Changing Places by David Lodge (reviewed here)

Franny and Zooey by J. D. Salinger (reviewed here)

Infidel by Ayaan Hirsi Ali

Sometimes a Great Notion by Ken Kesey

The Tenderness of Wolves by Stef Penney (winner of the Costa Book Award; reviewed here)


2009 favorites was the Booking Through Thursday question this week, although I am late to add my link.

Happy 2010!

Opportunity Lost

I am kicking myself for not having a New Year's Eve party this year. I never have a New year's Eve party. But that is why I should have had one this year -- so I could send an invitation that said, "Once in a Blue Moon . . . "

Oh well, I'll have another chance in 2028.

Happy New Year!

Review of the Day: Blue River

Blue River is the story of two estranged brothers, semi-derelict Lawrence and his successful younger brother Edward. When Lawrence shows up bedraggled on Edward’s doorstep, the uncomfortable reunion inspires Edward’s lengthy reminiscence on their shared history and reasons for the long estrangement.

Ethan Canin is an excellent writer. But his debut novel suffers, as so many first novels do, from trying too hard to tell a story without getting close enough to the story to do it justice. He is like a baker trying to make bread by smoothing and tapping and describing the dough instead of really getting in there to knead, pound, and stretch it.

Several devices keep Canin – and his readers – distanced from the story. First, instead of letting the story itself give the book strength, he strives for images. His words keep getting in the way of what he is trying to say. Sentences such as, “Sometimes it seemed to me that you had planned your own life, Lawrence, that you had sown it in rows like a field, so that later, in exactitude, it would appear before you” have more tone than substance.

Second, most of the book – the section on the brothers’ history – is narrated by Edward as if he is talking to Lawrence. As shown in the sentence above, the first-person narration is directed at a particular “you” who is Lawrence. This is an off-putting technique because it is like listening to a conversation about a story instead of watching the story directly. There is a layer between the story and the reader that does not need to be there.

Finally, and fundamentally, Blue River is no more than the “backstory” for what could be a very interesting book. The history of the two boys and the reasons they have been alienated from each other is only marginally interesting, and takes only about 200 pages. The more compelling story is the one that would start where this book ends – what now? How do the two reunite as adults, given what has kept them apart for years? That is a story that would be difficult and complicated, but more satisfying for a reader. Canin may have done better by weaving the history from Blue River into a longer book that told the “what now?” story.

OTHER REVIEWS

my review of Canin's America, America (which I liked much more)

(If you have reviewed this or any other Canin book, please leave a comment with a link and I will list it here.)

NOTES

This was my my "blue" choice for the Colorful Reading Challenge.  I have now completed the challenge -- in the nick of time, since this was the last day.

Teaser Tuesday: Blue River

"Sometimes it seemed to me that you had planned your own life, Lawrence, that you had sown it in rows like a field, so that later, in exactitude, it would appear before you.  I wonder how much of what we knew about you in those years -- the years you moved so calmly through the world -- was an invention."

-- Blue River by Ethan Canin.

Ethan Canin is an excellent writer. But his debut novel suffers, as so many do, from trying too hard. Instead of telling a story, he strives for images. His words keep getting in the way of what he is trying to say.


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

Mailbox Monday

Last week was Christmas, so of course many books came into our house. But we are on the road today, so this post is a pre-scheduled place holder that will have to do for Mailbox Monday this week. I'll catch up next week.

When I write this (on the 23rd), I know that these three book will have come into our home, because they are the books I got for my husband for Christmas. He fancies himself a fly-fisherman (although that is a theoretical designation at this point) and he loves non-fiction adventure books:

Angler Management: The Day I Died While Fly Fishing and Other Essays by Jack Ohman



Barrow's Boys: A Stirring Story of Daring, Fortitude, and Outright Lunacy by Fergus Fleming



The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon by David Grann

Opening Sentence of the Day: Blue River

"On a Sunday morning in the June of my thirty-first year I open the front door of our house looking for the newspaper and find a man standing out there: stoop-shouldered, bent, blotched-skinned, his hair and beard tangled, staring with the big, wet eyes of an animal."

-- Blue River by Ethan Canin.

This is Canin's first novel and second book after his acclaimed collection of short stories, Emperor of the Air.  I enjoyed his more recent novel, America, America, but this one is not doing anything for me. I can't seem to engage with it.

This is my my "blue" choice for the Colorful Reading Challenge. Once I finish this, I will have completed the challenge. Woo hoo!

Review of the Day: How to Save Your Own Life

How to Save Your Own Life is the sequel to Erica Jong’s debut novel, Fear of Flying. This one finds heroine – and Jong’s literary alter ego – Isabelle Wing back in New York, deciding whether or not to leave her “awful wedded husband” Bennett.

As with Fear of Flying, this novel is frank, funny, and surprisingly contemporary for being over 30 years old. It is as full of insight and spot-on commentary about the human condition as the best of Saul Bellow, Philip Roth, John Updike, or any of the other male authors Jong set out to emulate from a female perspective.

Not all aspects of the book have survived as well as others, as Jong herself recognizes in a new Afterward published in the 2006 edition. As has happened with several Roth and Updike novels, some of the sex scenes now seem dated and unhygienic. There is even an orgy scene (!) that inspires no fantasies other than a desire to scrub the pages with rubbing alcohol.

But the underlying issue of how to build a lasting marriage based on love, companionship, and mutual respect is as compelling today as when Jong first tackled it in the 1970s.

OTHER REVIEWS

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

NOTES

This book is on Anthony Burgess' list of Top 99 novels.
My very short review of Fear of Flying is here.

Merry Christmas!

A Day of Christmas Romance

No book blogging today because Hubby and I have taken the day off work and are having a Day of Christmas Romance before heading out of town to join my family tomorrow. We are going to spend the whole day together doing Christmas things: He'll wrap presents; I'll bake cookies; we are going out for dim sum lunch (because nothing says "Merry Christmas!" like a shrimp-stuffed shark fin dumpling); and we'll have a cosy champagne dinner in front of the fire and unwrap presents.

It was funny to see the the reactions of people at work when I explained -- or tried to -- the Day of Christmas Romance concept. All the women smiled, sighed, and said it sounded wonderful. All the men gave me the same nudge nudge, wink wink, say no more routine. A holiday example of how women's brains and men's brains do not work the same.

Vive la différence!

And Merry Christmas!

1 Day to Christmas

Review: American Lion

Jon Meacham packs a lot into his Pulitzer Prize-winning biography American Lion: Andrew Jackson in the White House. Focusing on Jackson's time in the White House, Meacham rushes through Jackson's childhood and early years, including the 1814 Battle of New Orleans that ended the War of 1812 against the British and propelled Jackson to national fame.

But he takes his time with Jackson's years as America's seventh President, describing in readable but thorough detail the major issues and controversies of Jackson's two terms in office. Key among these were the "nullification" issue that threatened to destroy the Union and Jackson's campaign against the Bank of America. Meacham does a good job of explaining not just what happened, but the significance of the debates.

Meacham also puts Jackson and his battles into personal and national context by examining the political and philosophical condition of the adolescent United States as well as how personal feelings, events, and tragedy affected Jackson's judgment.

Jackson had deep flaws, especially viewed from the current perspective. Chief among his flaws was his lifelong support of slavery, despite his lifelong commitment to freedom and liberty. Meacham analyzes Jackson's contradictions and presents a complete portrait of this fascinating man.

OTHER REVIEWS

Bob Sanchez's review on The Internet Review of Books
(If you would like your review listed here, please leave a comment with a link and I will add it.)

NOTE

This book is on my LibraryThing Early Reviewer list, leaving me with only three left to read.  It was also my "white" choice for the Colorful Reading Challenge. I only have my "blue" choice left to finish by the end of the year and I will complete that challenge.

2 Days to Christmas

Teaser Tuesday: Betrayal

"He'd personally overseen the transfer of nearly six million dollars to Allstrong Security in the past two weeks and apparently Jack Allstrong couldn't find one local worker to speak Arabic to the Iraqis who needed to get into his airport?  To say nothing of the fact that against all regulations he was paying his commandos to lead offensive military strikes against the civilian population."

-- Betrayal, by John Lescroart

 

In case it is not obvious, the US contractor in Iraq is the bad guy in this book. So far, most of the action has taken place in Iraq in the early days of the war. But when several San Francisco murders are linked to the contractor, Dismas Hardy, Abe Glitsky, and the rest of the crew from this long-running series get into the game. 

As with all of Lescroarts mysteries, they have a big development stage. I'm already 150 or so pages into this 530-page book and Hardy has only made a preliminary appearance in the Prologue. He probably won't come into the action for a quite a while. I like that Lescroart really takes the time to build up a complicated story.

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

3 Days to Christmas

Mailbox Monday

While doing some Christmas shopping, I picked out a little something for myself, which arrived in time for Mailbox Monday.



Everyday Drinking by Kinglsey Amis

I have wanted this book for a long time because Amis is a favorite of mine, I am intrigued by the idea of literary lushes, and my limited capacity for alcohol requires me to satisfy my enjoyment of it vicariously. I am so looking forward to reading this over one of the upcoming long holiday weekends.

4 Days to Christmas

5 Days to Christmas

Opening Sentence of the Day: Betrayal

"On a Wednesday evening in early December, Dismas Hardy, standing at the thin line of dark cherry in the light hardwood floor of his office, threw a dart."

-- Betrayal, by John Lescroart

This is the 12th (or so -- I lose track) book in Lescroart's Dismas Hardy series.  This is a great series -- my favorite -- because the stories are complex in ideas and plot and there are lots of characters whose lives have entwined as the series has progressed. Also, they are thick with details about San Francisco, which I am in the mood for because Christmastime makes me nostalgic for the years I lived there. 

6 Days to Christmas

Author of the Day: Jack Ohman

A week that included Christmas shopping with a friend for her fisherman husband, reading Erica Jong, and some seasonally-induced nostalgia for my own brief time spent as a copy aide at The Oregonian inspired me to add Jack Ohman to my list of favorite authors.

Ohman is the in-house political cartoonist for The Oregonian. His cartoons are syndicated in hundreds of newspapers and magazines.  He has also published several books -- themed collections of fly fishing and golf cartoons, and compilations of his political cartoons.  His latest book, Angler Management, is a book of essays on fly fishing and includes more than 50 original cartoons.



Those I own and have read are in red. 

Angler Management: The Day I Died While Fly Fishing and Other Essays (reviewed here)

An Inconvenient Trout

Get the Net: The Crazed Fly Fisherman's Catalog

Do I Have to Draw You a Picture

Media Mania: A Collection of Mixed Media Cartoons

Fishing Bass-Ackwards: Coming Down the Pike With Off-The-Walleye Humor

Why Johnny Can't Putt . . .

Fear of Fly-Fishing (my favorite title)

Drawing Conclusions: A Collection of Political Cartoons


Back to the '80s

NOTES

Last updated on September 21, 2010.

7 Days to Christmas

Review of the Day: The Italian Lover

The Italian Lover is a literary mash-up with a Hollywood spin – the heroine from Robert Hellenga’s debut novel, The Sixteen Pleasures, falls in love with the hero from his second novel, The Fall of a Sparrow, while her book is being made into a movie. For fans of the earlier books, this has the immediate appeal of visiting old friends. Unfortunately, the appeal wears off pretty fast.

The main problem is that the stories of Margot and Woody were told very well and in full in their own books. They faced conflict, grew as people, and, in their own ways, lived happily ever after – their “story arcs” were complete. There is nothing more to add to their stories in this book, so these beloved characters are relegated to being little more than props for the story about making the movie. They are involved in the plot, but they do not develop as characters.

The movie story is central to the book, but it is thin and choppy. Any of the several characters involved in making the movie – the newly-divorced producer, anxious to prove she can make a movie on her own; the director dying of cancer, trying to make one last good movie; the aging starlet questioning her life choices; or several peripheral others – would make good anchors for a novel. But Hellenga skips from storyline to storyline without delving deeply into any of them.

The Italian Lover is entertaining. It moves right along and is full of beautiful Florentine scenes. But unlike The Sixteen Pleasures and The Fall of a Sparrow, it lacks depth and it does not linger in the mind.

8 Days to Christmas

Announcement: The IRB is Here!

The December issue of the Internet Review of Books is posted now and is packed full of worthwhile reviews.  In addition to 11 other non-fiction reviews, I am pleased that my review of The Age of Reagan by Steve Hayward is included this month. And my short review of Massacred for Gold by Gregory Nokes tops off the Brief Reviews section.

There are also several full-length fiction reviews, including a review of Nick Hornby's new novel. I am going to read that one first.

The reviews in the December IRB may inspire some Christmas gifts, as will the IRB Holiday Gift Guide that is also posted now.

Happy holiday reading!

9 Days to Christmas

Teaser Tuesday: How to Save Your Own Life

"We deserve the blame for not picking ourselves up and walking away.  We think we are buying security with our slavery -- and then, a decade later, we leave and let them keep the furniture, realizing that it is a blessing to be rid of their tyranny at any material cost and that there is no such thing as security anyway."

-- How to Save Your Own Life by Erica Jong.

All right, "slavery" is a little histrionic, but it rings true for anyone who has been in her situation.

I am savoring this book. It is as full of insight and spot-on commentary about the human condition as the best of Saul Bellow, Philip Roth, Jim Harrison, or any of my other favorite male authors.  But it hits so much closer to home, coming from a woman's perspective. I love it.


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

10 Days to Christmas

Mailbox Monday

Since I posted several reviews of Early Reviewer books, I am apparently out of the LibraryThing dog house. At least enough to get a book from the November batch. So I have one book for Mailbox Monday.

The Wall in My Head: Words and Images from the Fall of the Iron Curtain, published by Words Without Borders Anthologies.



This looked really good to me. Ever since I read Steve Hayward's Age of Reagan recently, I've been interested in reading more about post-Cold War life in the former Soviet Union. This looks like just the book to scratch that itch.

Of course, this means that another book got added to my LibraryThing list. The guilt will start piling up again.

11 Days to Christmas

Review of the Day: The Tricking of Freya

The first couple of pages of Christina Sunley’s debut novel, The Tricking of Freya, seem a little awkward. But once it becomes clear that the narrator is writing a letter to an unknown cousin, her Aunt Birdie's child. When things fall into place, the book takes off and powers along right up to the last page.

In her never-finished letter to the cousin she hopes to find, the troubled heroine examines her family’s tribulations as well as her own, following family history from Iceland, to Canada, and back. Sunley does not flinch when writing about mental illness and how people react to it, which makes her book sometimes difficult, but more rewarding that the typical coming-of-age novel.

This is a complex story, well told and thoroughly entertaining.

NOTE

This book was on my LibraryThing Early Reviewer list. One more scratched off.

OTHER REVIEWS

Book Dilettante (review and interview)

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