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.

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.

I got two books last week:

Little Felted Animals: Create 16 Irresistible Creatures with Simple Needle-Felting Techniques by Marie-Noelle Horvath.  I bought this at Powell's the other day because the animals are adorable and I am sure I can find time for a new craft hobby. I'm sure I can.



Lift by Kelly Corrigan.  This was in the swag bag at the Women in Insurance and Financial Services (W.I.F.S.) conference I went to.  Corrigan wrote the extremely popular book, The Middle Place and was one of the keynote speakers at the conference. 

List: The Man Booker Prize

The Booker Prize is awarded each year for a "full-length novel, written by a citizen of the Commonwealth or the Republic of Ireland . . . . The novel must be an original work in English (not a translation) and must not be self-published."

If anyone else working on this list would like me to post a link to your progress report(s), please leave a comment with a link and I will add it below.

So far, I have read 30 of the 48 winners.  Here is the list, with those I have finished reading in red; those on my TBR shelf in blue:

2014: Richard Flanagan, The Narrow Road to the Deep North

2013: Elinor Catton, The Luminaries

2012: Hilary Mantel, Bring up the Bodies

2011: Julian Barnes, The Sense Of an Ending (reviewed here)

2010: Howard Jacobson, The Finkler Question (reviewed here)

2009: Hilary Mantel, Wolf Hall (reviewed here)

2008: Aravind Adiga, The White Tiger

2007: Anne Enright, The Gathering (reviewed here)

2006: Kiran Desai, The Inheritance of Loss

2005: John Banville, The Sea (reviewed here)

2004: Alan Hollinghurst, The Line of Beauty

2003: DBC Pierre, Vernon God Little

2002: Yann Martel, Life of Pi

2001: Peter Carey, True History of the Kelly Gang

2000: Margaret Atwood, The Blind Assassin

1999: J. M. Coetzee, Disgrace

1998: Ian McEwan, Amsterdam

1997: Arundhati Roy, The God of Small Things

1996: Graham Swift, Last Orders

1995: Pat Barker, The Ghost Road

1994: James Kelman, How Late it Was, How Late

1993: Roddy Doyle, Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha

1992: Michael Ondaatje, The English Patient, and Barry Unsworth, Sacred Hunger (reviewed here)

1991: Ben Okri, The Famished Road

1990: A.S. Byatt, Possession

1989: Kazuo Ishiguro, The Remains of the Day

1988: Peter Carey, Oscar and Lucinda (reviewed here)

1987: Penelope Lively, Moon Tiger

1986: Kingsley Amis, The Old Devils

1985: Keri Hulme, The Bone People (reviewed here)

1984: Anita Brookner, Hotel du Lac

1983: J. M. Coetzee, The Life and Times of Michael K (reviewed here)

1982: Thomas Keneally, Schindler's List

1981: Salman Rushdie, Midnight's Children (reviewed here)

1980: William Golding, Rites of Passage

1979: Penelope Fitzgerald, Offshore

1978: Iris Murdoch, The Sea, the Sea (reviewed here)

1977: Paul Scott, Staying On

1976: David Storey, Saville

1975: Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, Heat and Dust

1974: Nadine Gordimer, The Conservationist, and Stanley Middleton, Holiday

1973: J. G. Farrell, The Siege of Krishnapur

1972: John Berger, G (reviewed here)

1971: V.S. Naipaul, In a Free State

1970, The Lost Booker: J. G. Farrell, Troubles

1970: Bernice Rubens, The Elected Member

1969: Percy Howard Newby, Something to Answer For


NOTE

Last updated on October 15, 2014.

OTHERS READING BOOKER WINNERS

Farm Lane Books
Fresh Ink Books
Hotch Pot Cafe

If you would like to be listed, please leave a comment with links to your progress reports or reviews and I will add them here.

Opening Sentence of the Day: Where the Crooked River Rises

I ranched in the heart of Oregon's outback for nearly three decades.

-- from the Prologue to Where the Crooked River Rises: A High Desert Home by Ellen Waterston.

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.

OSU Press sent this to me. I've been looking forward to it, in part because my parents live in Bend, in Oregon's High Desert.  

A Few More Pages hosts Book Beginnings every Friday.  The event is open for the entire week.

Opening Sentence of the Day: Potluck

Tables -- sheets of plywood, actually, set atop saw horses -- line the center of the Stehekin Community Hall that on Sundays serves as the Pentecostal church.

-- 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.

Teaser Tuesday: CakeSpy

If you really want to see something horrifying, try shipping a cupcake.  Trust me, it's not pretty.

-- Cakespy Presents Sweet Treats for a Sugar-Filled Life by Jessie Oleson. Her clever solution is to bake the cupcakes in little jars, ship them, and frost them upon arrival. They also just look cute in the jars.

Oleson is the author of the irresistible CakeSpy blog and the book is chock full of recipes, photos, and Oleson's adorable illustrations.

Oleson is on an extensive book tour this fall. She will be in Portland this week: at Pix Patisserie (3901 N. Williams Ave.) on Thursday at 5:00 pm (more details here)  and at Saint Cupcake on Saturday at 4:00 pm (more details here).  Then on to the Bay Area, Boston, new York, and beyond. Click here to find a sweet stop near you.

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.

I got two books last week:



Portland's 100 Best Places To Stuff Your Faces by Jen Stevenson, illustrated by Mette Hornung Rankin. I bought this from the author at some women wellness whatever thing. Stevenson has a wonderful blog-like website called Under the Table With Jen, all about food, food in Portland, and life in Portland. Great stuff.




Catherine the Great: Portrait of a Woman by Robert K. Massie.  I got this from the LibraryThing Early Review program.  I asked for it because I loved his Peter the Great book and Hubby also loved Nicholas and Alexander.  Hubby just snagged this away from my (as I was trying to see how to spell Nicholas) because he wants to read it immediately.  

Review: The Anti-Death League

 

I read The Anti-Death League for three reasons. First, Kinglsey Amis is a favorite of mine (I have a penchant for Mid-Century, dipsomaniacal, British authors). His big hit, Lucky Jim, has been a personal favorite ever since I read it in college and I thoroughly enjoyed his Booker-winning The Old Devils. I plan to read his complete bibliography.

Second, The Anti-Death League made it to Anthony Burgess's list of his favorite 99 novels. Burgess has steered me to a couple of winners in the past, so I trusted him on this one. And, given my completist tendencies for book lists, I plan to read all 99 of Burgess's picks.

Finally, this book was published in 1966, so counts as one of my choices (perhaps the only one this year) for  Hotchpot Cafe's Birth Year Reading Challenge. 

For these reasons, I was triply disappointed. It's not that it is a bad book. As a parody of a British army novel, it is pitch perfect, positing a spy ring looking to discovery a new secret weapon in Cold War Britain on the brink of war with Korea. There are several set pieces – the first visit to the nymphomaniac widow's mansion and the lunch party at the lunatic asylum, for instance – that are very good.

As entertaining, even compelling, as individual scenes might be, none of it held together for me. The overarching theme is anger at a belligerent God who allows – perpetrates – senseless death (prompting the formation of the titled Anti-Death League and leading to a particularly bitter ending). But Amis divides the story among so many characters suffering from so many things – grief, cancer, romantic rejection, loneliness, loss of faith, fear, addiction, insanity, and more – that it is hard to get an emotional toe-hold.

Burgess concluded that the book may be "[t]heologically unsound" but "is nevertheless a noble cry from the heart on behalf of human suffering." It may be, but because it failed to engage me on an emotional level, it failed to engage me at all.

OTHER REVIEWS

My review of One Fat Englishman is here.
My review of Everyday Drinking: The Distilled Kingsley Amis is here.

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

Opening Sentence of the Day: CakeSpy

It's true: stuffing cinnamon rolls with chocolate chip cookie dough really does make them more delicious.

-- Cakespy Presents Sweet Treats for a Sugar-Filled Life by Jessie Oleson. That gives you a good idea of Oleson's over-the-top take on desserts.

Oleson is the author of the irresistible CakeSpy blog and the book is chock full of recipes, photos, and Oleson's adorable illustrations.

This has major Christmas gift potential.

A Few More Pages hosts Book Beginnings every Friday.  The event is open for the entire week.

WEEKEND COOKING

Hosted by Beth Fish Reads

How Cool is This? Deck of Chords

My wonderful friend and Renaissance woman Kirsten Rian has once again amazed me with her versatile talents.

Kirsten and photographer Lauren Henkin just produced Deck of Chords, a full deck of offset-printed playing cards. Each card front features an image of Lauren's from an unpublished portfolio titled The Lines Between Us, and on the back, a poem by Kirsten. There are 52 cards in total plus a signed cover card.

The set is completed, the prototype printed, and the final product is expected in a few weeks. Until then, Kirsten and Lauren are offering a pre-sale price of $14, which includes shipping to anywhere in the US.  Order on Lauren's website.

After November 1st, the price will go up to $24. Please email Lauren for shipping costs outside the US.

All photos © Kirsten Rian and Lauren Henkin.

Review: Real Women, Real Wisdom

Real Women, Real Wisdom: A Journey into the Feminine Soul is a collection of 17 essays by women "of a certain age," all reflecting on what they have learned from the stories they have lived. Maureen Hovenkotter, author of 42 States of Grace: A Woman’s Journey (reviewed here), edited the collection and contributed the final essay.

Each piece focuses on, or is inspired by, a "transformative" event in the author's life – death in the family, illness, divorce, or job loss, for example. One essay specifically examines suffering as part of our lives, and another the idea that things don't turn out as we expect, but the themes of suffering and unfulfilled expectations run throughout all the stories.

What makes these accounts of suffering and loss emotionally piercing instead of maudlin is that every writer concentrates on how her experience brought grace into her life, and how she used to the experience to move closer to God or grow spiritually. Many of the women are in a Catholic writers' group together, so they bring a Christian perspective, but none of the essays are dogmatic. One of the authors is a practicing Buddhist, another a self-described seeker, and all share an acceptance of traveling varied spiritual paths.

The authors aren't celebrities, but don't be put off by the somewhat amateurish nature of their publication. Most are professional writers; all are gifted storytellers. The collection will teach and inspire as the stories linger. It is the kind of book that many readers will turn to again and again as they face the same sorts of life challenges as the authors.

NOTES

This book is at the top of my gift list for women over 40 with a spiritual bent, which, when I think about it, is a LOT of women I know.

Teaser Tuesday: Fish With What You Find

After tripping, overtopping my waders and becoming terminally tangled in the logs and snags in the bottom of a hole I should have known about, I was startled by a voice.

"Fishing has an odd way of calming one's soul," said the old man standing midstream where no one had been when I fell.

-- from "The Old Man in the Riffle," in Fish with What You Find by Jim Gilsdorf.

This is a collection of articles, previously published in the Gilsdorf's local Trout Unlimited chapter newsletter, about fly fishing and fly tying. I do neither, but Gilsdorf tells great stories and the book has charmed me.

This would make a perfect Christmas present for any fly fisher. 

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. 

Many books came into my house last week from a variety of sources:

First, I had lunch with Larry Dennis to discuss his company, Turbo Leadership Systems doing some work with my law firm.  Larry gave me a copy of his book InFormation: How To Gain The 71% Advantage.  I don't read a lot of business books, but I'll read this one.



Second, Bob Sanchez, author and nonfiction editor at the Internet Review of Books, sent me a copy of his mystery, Little Mountain. I don't have a Kindle, so Bob was nice enough to send a paperback, but the Kindle edition is a steal at only $2.99! It looks great -- a Cambodian refugee now homicide cop in Lowell, Massachusetts.



Third, because I completed the Vintage Mystery Challenge, hostess Bev from My Reader's Block sent me a prize -- A PRIZE! For reading books. Does it get any better than that?  I chose An Oxford Tragedy by J. C. Masterman because this challenge has me hooked for good on vintage mysteries.



Finally, showing an uncharacteristic willingness to relinquish control, I gave a copy of my "Books to Buy and Read" list to Rachelle at my favorite Second Glance bookstore.  She found several nice copies for me, so I have a stack of new (to me) books, most of them on one or another of my book lists:

The Once and Future King by T. H. White (on the Burgess list)



One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Alexander Solzhenitsyn (on the College Board's Top 101 List and the MLA's 30 Books Every Adult Should Read Before They Die list)



What Makes Sammy Run? by Budd Schulberg (in a nice Modern Library edition; on the BOMC's Well-Stocked Bookcase list)



An Artist of the Floating World by Kazuo Ishiguro (winner of the Costa Book of the Year award)



Old Bones: A Gideon Oliver Mystery by Aaron Elkins (an Edgar Award winner)



A Case of Need by Michael Crichton (another Edgar winner)



The Second Sex by Simone de Beauvoir (in a nice Everyman's Library reissue; on my own French Connections list)



The Love of a Good Woman by Alice Munro (winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award)



The Jungle Books by Rudyard Kipling (on the Easton Top 100 list)

Review of the Day: Carry Yourself Back to Me

Carry Yourself Back to Me is Deborah Reed's debut novel under her own name, following close on the heels of the publication under her Audrey Braun pen name of the sassy thriller, A Small Fortune.

In contrast to the whirligig adventure of her thriller, Carry Yourself Back to Me is a thoughtful, intense novel with Southern gothic overtones. Set in central Florida in the middle of a freak cold snap, the story focuses on Annie Walsh, a singer-songwriter recovering from the abrupt end of a long relationship with her music producer boyfriend.

There are many threads to the story as Reed examines the relationships between Annie and her ex-lover, her brother Calder who has been accused of murdering his lover's husband, their parents, and their bachelor uncle. The story moves between the cold, snowy present, Annie and Calder's childhood, and the immediate past that left Annie alone in her cabin and Calder in jail.

By the end, as the threads come together, the reader has been woven into the tale. Reed's descriptions are so tactile – Annie's rough hands, the ice-coated branches of the citrus trees, the warm fur of her dog's coat – and her characters are so authentic that to read the book is to live inside the story.

This book is hands-down terrific.

OTHER REVIEWS

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

NOTES

Here is my interview of Deborah Reed, aka Audrey Braun.

Here is my review of A Small Fortune.

Here is some of the buzz on Carry Yourself Back to Me: Reed was interviewed on tv recently. The book got a Publisher's Weekly review.  It was the September choice for the From Left to Write Book Club. Library Journal praised the book and called Reed "an author to watch." And there is a sweet country song tie-in by Brush Prairie.

Opening Sentence of the Day: Fish With What You Find

On another day it's a muskrat or a mink or a squirrel or a possum, or even once a feral pet ferret in Michigan's upper peninsula.

-- from "Roadkill and the Fly Tyer," the first chapter in Fish with What You Find by Jim Gilsdorf.

This is a collection of articles about fly fishing and fly tying. I do neither, but it still appeals to me, maybe because of the cool illustrations of the flies.

A Few More Pages hosts Book Beginnings every Friday.  The event is open for the entire week.

2011 Challenge: The Birth Year Reading Challenge

THE CHALLENGE

I enjoyed the Birth Year Reading Challenge hosted by Hotchpot Cafe. The idea is to read books published in the year of your birth. There is no set number of books to read, but you earn a "candle" for each book and there are pretty terrific prizes.

THE YEAR: 1966

Then came 1966, a remarkable year altogether: a Jewish child was born in Spain for the first time in 374 years, Ronald Reagan was elected boss of California, Indira Gandhi was elected boss of India, the Soviets landed a Luna spacecraft on the moon, John Lennon opined dryly that the Beatles were more popular than Jesus, Haile Selassie visited Jamaica, the Grateful Dead moved to a house on Haight Street, the Americans landed a Surveyor spacecraft on the moon, Montgomery Cliff died, the Beatles released Revolver, "Star Trek" was first televised, Namibia declared independence, Jimmy Hendrix changed his name to Jimi, LSD was declared illegal, Catholics began to eat meat on Fridays, Barbados declared independence, the Americans bombed Hanoi, Walt Disney died, Kwanzaa was invented, Tom Stoppard wrote Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, Arlo Guthrie wrote "Alice's Restaurant," Hewlett-Packard introduced its first computer, Buster Keaton died, Guyana declared its independence, Malaysia and Indonesia declared peace, taekwando was invented, Lesotho declared independence, Thich Nhat Hanh visited America, [and] Bill Evans opened a long run at the Village Vanguard jazz club . . .

-- The Grail: A Year Ambling & Shambling Through an Oregon Vinyard in Pursuit of the Best Pinot Noir Wine in the Whole Wild World by Brian Doyle (leading up to the point that 1966 was also the first year that pinor noir vines were planted in Oregon, giving birth to Oregon's wine industry).

THE BOOKS

There may be several books on my TBR shelf that were published in 1966, but without going through them all, it is hard to guess which ones. The possibilities I knew of were:

I, the King by Frances Parkinson-Keyes (I'm a big FPK fan)

The Comedians by Graham Greene (on my TBR shelf)

The Anti-Death League by Kinglsey Amis (which is on the Anthony Burgess list)

REVIEWS = CANDLES

The Anti-Death League by Kinglsey Amis, reviewed here.

LAST YEAR

I did better in 2010 and got two candles for reading:

Indian Summer by John Knowles (reviewed here)
The Valley of the Dolls by Jacqueline Susann (reviewed here)

NOTE: Updated on January 2, 2012.

Opening Sentence of the Day: The Anti-Death League

A girl and an older woman were walking along a metaled pathway.

--  The Anti-Death League by Kinglsey Amis.

Kingsley Amis is one of my favorite authors. I wanted to read this one in particular because it is on Anthony Burgess's list of his favorite 99 novels.

Also, it was published in 1966, so it counts as one of my books for Hotchpot Cafe's Birth Year Reading Challenge. It may be my only candle, unless I get around to The Comedians by Graham Greene.

Teaser Tuesday: Voodoo Vintners

In the wine world, the self-important Robert Parker, with his comb-over and air of gravitas, has come to represent fustiness and, worse, buffoonery.  The new wine celebrities are young, idealistic, and borderline certifiable.

-- Voodoo Vintners: Oregon's Astonishing Biodynamic Winegrowers by Katherine Cole. She doesn't pussyfoot around.

I've been interested in learning more about biodynamic winegrowers, especially local ones, ever since I read Rowan Jacobsen chapter on biodynamic wine making in California in American Terroir: Savoring the Flavors of Our Woods, Waters, and Fields, reviewed here.

OSU Press sent this to me and it is definitely a great reminder of what terrific books they turn out.

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

Food Freedom is on Facebook and twitter. Click on the chicken for more information.