Opening Sentence of the Day: Homer & Langley

"I'm Homer, the blind brother."

-- Homer and Langley by E. L. Doctorow

It this book weren't based on a true story about real brothers, the whole blind Homer thing would be too gimmicky.

Author of the Day: William Boyd

William Boyd was born in Ghana in 1952 to Scottish parents, educated at Glasgow University and Oxford, and published his first novel in 1981. He writes short stories, novels, screenplays, essays, and criticism.

I was introduced to Boyd's writing when I found Armadillo left behind at a vacation rental. Based on the paperback format and cover, I expected a mystery and was pleased to discover a literary novel with surprising twists. I know keep an eye out for his books and have enjoyed all that I have read.

His books are listed below in publication order, starting with his debut novel. Those I have read are in red. Those on my TBR shelf are in blue.

A Good Man in Africa

On the Yankee Station and Other Stories

An Ice-Cream War

Stars and Bars

The New Confessions (reviewed here)

Brazzaville Beach (reviewed here; winner of the James Tait Black Memorial Prize)

The Blue Afternoon

The Destiny of Natalie 'X' and Other Stories

Armadillo

Nat Tate: An American Artist 1928-1960 (reviewed here)

Any Human Heart

Fascination (short stories)

Bamboo (essays and criticiscm)

Restless (reviewed here)

The Dream Lover (short stories)

Ordinary Thunderstorms

Waiting for Sunrise

Solo (a James Bond novel)

Sweet Caress

The Dreams of Bethany Mellmoth (short stories)

Love is Blind


NOTE: Last updated October 15, 2018.

OTHER READERS

If you would like your review of any of William Boyd's books listed here, please leave a comment with a link and I will add it.

Review: The Age of Reagan, Vol II

“Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!” It was Ronald Reagan’s most famous line, but his advisors didn’t want him to say it. He wrangled over the line with his senior aides, the State Department, and the National Security Council even as he flew on Air Force One to West Berlin. Now that the Berlin Wall is gone, the line memorialized forever, and Reagan celebrated for his role in ending the Cold War, many of the same advisors claim they were for the line all along—or even wrote it.

Steven F. Hayward calls the Berlin Wall speech “a perfect microcosm” of Reagan’s political career, highlighting two important things about Reagan. The first is Reagan’s insight and imagination—the way he thought about issues on a large scale. The second is the extent to which Reagan had to battle against “the conventional reflexes of much of his own party and staff” as well as the Democrats and adversarial media.

Hayward examines both aspects of Reagan’s statecraft, focusing on the second, in the long-awaited second volume of his definitive Reagan biography. While it stands alone as a history of Reagan’s presidency, The Age of Reagan (Vol. II): The Conservative Counterrevolution, 1980 - 1989 takes up where Volume I, The Fall of the Old Liberal Order, 1964-1980, leaves off—Reagan’s first Presidential election.

Several books focus on Reagan’s foreign policy, but Hayward devotes equal effort to Reagan’s domestic policy. Hayward’s thesis, which sets his book in a class apart from other biographies, is that “there was a seamless quality to Reagan’s domestic policy outlook and his Cold War grand strategy” because Reagan embodied as a statesman Abraham Lincoln’s concept that all nations have a “central idea” from which all minor thoughts radiate. Reagan’s central idea was “that unlimited government is inimical to liberty, certainly in its vicious forms such as Communism or socialism, but also in its supposedly benign forms, such as bureaucracy.” Or, as Reagan himself put it more succinctly, “Government is not the solution to our problem, government is the problem.”

Hayward recognizes that the story of Reagan’s domestic policy lacks the personal drama of fighting the Cold war against the Evil Empire. As Hayward quips, “Reagan never stood in front of the Federal Trade Commission or the Environmental Protection Agency and said, ‘Mr. Regulator, tear down this rule!’” But Hayward does a good job of making the domestic side interesting. He is a deft writer with a light touch and he effectively uses primary source materials such as contemporary headlines and Reagan’s own recently published White House diaries.

Hayward’s other strength is his ability to break down complicated matters into simple facts with enough detail for full comprehension, but without bogging down the main narrative. For example, his cogent explanations of the economics behind Reagan’s tax reductions, the convoluted politics making a tangled mess of our Central American policies, nuclear arms negotiations with the Soviets, and the Iran-Contra affair are a helpful background for understanding the significance of these events and Reagan’s role in them.

Although the book is titled The Conservative Counterrevolution, Hayward shies away from concluding that Reagan’s realignment of American politics rose to the status of a “revolution” sufficient to counter the liberal revolution of the early Twentieth Century that culminated in Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal. He admits that the idea of a “Reagan Revolution” is still an open question for those on both the right and the left.

However, Hayward argues, Reagan’s transformation of the Republican Party in his own image was an enormous, and enormously difficult, achievement in its own right. Reagan had other domestic achievements as well: he managed to slow the rate of government growth; he shifted attitudes about taxation so that reducing tax rates became widely accepted as a legitimate goal; he energized the marketplace of ideas by abolishing the Fairness Doctrine, which hobbled radio and TV commentators; and he initiated a “series of noisy open debates” on constitutional-level ideas about the nature and role of government.

Hayward finds this last point most significant. The Constitution and principles of the Founding Fathers were central to Reagan’s political rhetoric. For example, Hayward notes that Reagan mentions the Constitution ten times in his memoirs—ten times more than his four predecessors, Carter, Ford, Nixon, and Johnson, combined. Even as the Iran-Contra scandal was sapping the strength from the Reagan administration in its last days, Reagan fought for passage of five constitutional reforms packaged as the Economic Bill of Rights. These reforms included a federal spending limit, a line-item veto, a balanced budget amendment, prohibitions on wage and price controls, and a super-majority requirement for tax increases—issues still being debated today.

Hayward is a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, so it is no surprise that he approaches his subject from the right. Reagan fans will no doubt enjoy it more than Reagan detractors. But Hayward’s work is definitely biography, not hagiography. The Age of Reagan deserves a spot on any serious historian’s book shelf.

NOTES

First published on The Internet Review of Books in December 2009.

OTHER REVIEWS

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

Review: One Fat Englishman

Roger Micheldene is One Fat Englishman. An obese publisher on an extended business trip to America, Micheldene (or Mitch Dean as one gauche American insists on calling him) spends his time eating and drinking prodigiously, attempting to bed every woman he meets, and pompously mocking Americans’ intellectual pretensions and taste in cigars.

There is very little in the way of plot. Lots of things happen, but to not much purpose. The point seems to be to compare and contrast American and British sensibilities, as displayed in a mid-60’s, second-tier academic culture. The pleasure lies in Kingsley Amis’s curmudgeonly wit, in passages such as:

To be sure about nonsense he had to be able to classify it, assign it to a family tree of liberal nonsense, humanist-humanitarian nonsense, academic nonsense, Protestant nonsense, Freudian nonsense and so on. Macher’s nonsense stopped before he could get deep enough into it.

Or his dipsomaniacal observations, such as:

Not caring what one drank unfortunately did not guarantee not caring what one had drunk.

Fans will eat it up. Amis neophytes should start with Lucky Jim.

NOTE

This is one of the books I read for the 2010 Typically British Challenge.

OTHER REVIEWS

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

Teaser Tuesday Two-fer

"It's easy to get the feeling that you know the language just because when you order a beer they don't bring you oysters," Paul said.  But after seeing a movie about a clown who cried through his laughter, or laughed through his tears -- we  couldn't tell which -- even Paul felt discombobulated.

-- My Life in France by Julia Child

"Discombobulated"! 

I love this book. It's like listening to your best friend tell you a really good story.

"Elsie," he said, "you ought to start sewing a quilt for your bridal bed."

Elsie Hoover turned around fast at the oven with a peach pie on a tin plate held out in her hands.

--Eden Springs by Laura Kasischke

Uh oh. Looks like the guru of the creepy Michigan cult has his eye on a new girl.

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

Challenge: Typically British Reading Challenge

FINISHED!

This challenge paired perfectly with my Battle of the Prizes Challenge -- British Version -- as well as my reading preferences. Which is why I finished it first of all my 2010 challenges.

The challenge was to read "typically British" novels by British authors in 2010.  There are different levels of participation.  Since I typically read typically British novels, I signed up at the "Cream Crackered" level to read eight qualifying novels.

This challenge was a lot of fun and I look forward to participating next year if Book Chick City hosts it again. I hope she does!

FINISHED BOOKS AND REVIEWS

One Fat Englishman by Kingsley Amis (reviewed here)

Case Histories by Kate Atkinson (finished, not reviewed)

The New Confessions by William Boyd (reviewed here)

Three Loves by A. J. Cronin (reviewed here)

Where Angels Fear to Tread by E. M. Forster (reviewed here)

The War of the Worlds by H. G. Wells (reviewed here)

Everyday Drinking: The Distilled Kingsley Amis by Kinglsey Amis (reviewed here);

The Secret Scripture by Sebastian Barry (reviewed here)

LIKELY CANDIDATES
(MAYBE NEXT YEAR)

The Sea, the Sea by Iris Murdoch

Bolt by Dick Francis

Orlando by Virginia Woolf

NOTES

Last updated on June 23, 2010.

Mailbox Monday

 

Oh no! For the first time since I started participating in Mailbox Monday, no books came into my house last week. Not a one. My mailbox is empty.

Opening Sentence of the Day: My Life in France

"This is a book about some of the things I have loved most in my life: my husband, Paul Child, la belle France; and the many pleasures of cooking and eating. "

-- My Life in France by Julia Child

I want to be Julia Child.

Challenge: Book Awards Reading Challenge

This challenge dovetails nicely with my Battle of the Prizes Challenges -- both the American Version and the British Version -- as well as with several of the lists I am keeping track of.

The challenge involves reading ten books that won ten different prizes by November 1, 2010. My list may change, but I am thinking of reading ten from the following, because they are all on my TBR shelf now:

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz (National Book Critics Circle winner; finished, but I didn't review it)

Breathing Lessons by Anne Tyler (Pulitzer winner)

Them by Joyce Carol Oates (National winner)

The Sea, the Sea by Iris Murdoch (Booker winner)

G by John Berger (James Tait Black winner)

The Secret Scripture by Sebastian Barry (Costa winner; reviewed here) 

Citizen Vince by Jess Walter (Edgar winner; reviewed here)

Small Island by Andrea Levy (Orange winner, reviewed here)

Kristin Lavransdatter by Sigrid Undset (Nobel winner)

Seaview by Toby Olson (PEN/Faulkner winner)

The Well and the Mine by Gin Phillips (Discover Award winner; reviewed here);

NOTE

Last updated on August 12, 2010.

Housekeeping Post: 2010 BBAW Resigtration

Best Literary Fiction Reviews

1) Review of Clown Girl by Monica Drake; 

2) Review of Missing Mom by Joyce Carol Oates;

3) Review of The Marmot Drive by John Hersey;

4) Review of Cold Comfort Farm by Sheila Gibbons; and

5) Review of Portland Noir, edited by Kevin Sampsell.

Best Written Book Blog

1) Review of Leaving Brooklyn by Lynn Sharon Schwartz;

2) Review of The Grail by Brian Doyle;

3) Review of A Year in the World by Frances Mayes;

4) Review of Eden Springs by Laura Kasischke; and

5) Review of City Limits by David Oates.

Review of the Day: Play It As It Lays

Joan Didion's Play It As It Lays is brilliant and heartbreaking. It packs more raw tragedy into its 214 pages than entire bookshelves can hold.

Maria Wyeth was a promising actress who starred in two feature films (one distributed) directed by her husband. But now Maria’s career has fizzled, her marriage is on the rocks, and her four-year-old daughter is institutionalized because she has “an aberrant chemical in her brain.”

Maria is heading for a big crack up. But before she gets there, she has to face an abortion, various adulteries, some rough sex, prescription drug issues, and jaded Hollywood ennui.

Didion’s novel is bleak, spare, and cold. The characters – even Maria – are not given to introspection. The scenes in the book feel like movie shots, with the emotion coming from what is seen and heard, not what is going on inside anyone’s head.

The abortion theme is particularly brutal – this book does for abortion rights what Looking for Mr. Goodbar does for sexual independence – but the whole book is difficult. It will leave a stain on the psyche.

NOTES

This book appears on the All-TIME Top 100 list and Erica Jong's list of Top 100 books by women.

OTHER REVIEWS

(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: Eden Springs

"You dig a hole in the sandy dirt, and you lower the casket into it."

--Eden Springs by Laura Kasischke.

Ooooohhhh . . . A suitably creepy begining to this little novella about a religious colony on the shores of Lake Michigan in the early 1900s. 

Challenge: The Battle of the Prizes, American Version

This challenge pits winners of the Pulitzer Prize for fiction against the winners of the National Book Award in the American Version of the Battle of the Prizes.  (Click here for the British Version.)

Does one prize have higher standards than the other? Pick better winners? Provide more reading entertainment or educational value? Maybe challenge participants will be able to answer these and more questions – maybe they will simply read three great books!

DETAILS

Chose three books that you have not read before:

1) One that won both the Pulitzer and the National (here is a list of double dippers);
2) One that won the Pulitzer but not the National (Pulitzer winners are here); and
3) One that won the National but not the Pulitzer (National winners are here).

OPTION: For those who have already read all six of the double-dippers, or otherwise do not want to read one of those six, pick two Pulitzer winners and two National winners for a total of four books.

OFFICIAL RULES 

• Read all books between February 1, 2010 and January 31, 2011. 
  

• Overlap with other challenges is allowed -- and encouraged! The Pulitzer Project and The National Book Award Project are logical crossovers. The great thing is, for those working on both these lists, completing the challenge means reading three books, but crossing four items off the lists.
  

• You do not have to commit to your choices now; you can change your mind about books at any time.
  

• Sign up here by leaving a link to your post in a comment, or the list of your three choices in the comment. I will add the links to the participant list in this post. 
  

• As you progress, please let us know by leaving comments with links to progress reports and reviews. Reviews are not necessary, but encouraged. If you do not have a blog, put your reviews or reports in a comment on this post.
  

• You can copy and paste the button. Or, if you want me to send you the code, please leave a comment with an email and I will. I cannot figure out the fancy ways of giving directions. 

IDEAS

You can find a list of last year's participants and links to their reviews here. 

My original three choices were:

1) The Collected Stories of Katherine Anne Porter for my double dipper choice;

2) Breathing Lessons by Anne Tyler for my Pulitzer winner; and

3) Them by Joyce Carol Oates for my National winner.

I picked these three because they are all on my TBR shelf now and they give me a "prize winners by women" theme to work with.

But, I switched when I read a Olive Kitteridge and Let the Great World Spin and decided to use those instead (reviews are listed below).  My plan is to read the Porter stories and go with a short story theme instead of a books by women theme. 

PARTICIPANTS

Rose City Reader
chaotic compendiums (read her wrap-up post here)
Musings 
Oh, So Many Manias . . . 
Joy's Blog
Book In Hand
ExUrbanis 
100 Books. 100 Journeys
J.G. at Hotch Pot Cafe (read her wrap-up post here)
Remember to Breathe  (read her wrap-up post here)
Book Psmith
Man of La Book

REVIEWS

Morte d'Urban by J. F. Powers on Musings 

World's Fair by E. L. Doctorow on chaotic compendiums

Angle of Repose by Wallace Stegner on 100 Books. 100 Journeys 

The Adventures of Augie March on 100 Books. 100 Journeys 

Lonesome Dove on chaotic compendiums 

Breathing Lessons on Book Psmith

Gilead by Marilynne Robinson on Musings

The Color Purple by Alice Walker on chaotic compendiums

Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann on Musings

The Color Purple by Alice Walker on 100 Books. 100 Journeys

Tinkers by Paul Harding on Musings

The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Muchael Chabon on Man of La Book

The Collected Stories of Katherine Anne Porter on Hotchpot Cafe

The Optimist's Daughter on Hotchpot Cafe

Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann on Man of La Book

Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann here on Rose City Reader

Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout here on Rose City Reader

Opening Sentence of the Day: Play it as it Lays

"What makes Iago evil? some people ask."

-- Play It As It Lays by Joan Didion

Heroine Maria (pronounced Ma-eye-ah) follows this opener with the soul-deadened, "I never ask."

This short, bleak novel about Hollywood shows up on several "must read" lists, including the All-TIME Top 100 and Erica Jong's Top 100 books by women.  I'm tearing through it because it is mesmerizing. But what a train wreck!

Teaser Tuesday

He felt that there was something ridiculous in her proposal, and she did seem to him somewhat ridiculous. There was trouble enough in the world, he reflected, as he threw himself upon his bed, without people who were forty years old imagining they wanted to get married.

-- O Pioneers! by Willa Cather

Cather may have written O Pioneers! almost 100 years ago -- and it's been that long since Nebraskans were fighting to tame the prairie -- but there is nothing stale about her characters or this story. The love affairs and family dynamics still strike home.

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

Mailbox Monday

Thanks to Reading Local, I had a little book money in my jeans this weekend, so stopped by Broadway Books in time to pick up a little something for Mailbox Monday.

I got the two Nick Hornby books I want to read for the Bibliophilic Books Challenge.  I got a big kick out of The Polysyllabic Spree (reviewed here) and am really looking forward to reading the other two.

Housekeeping vs. the Dirt by Nick Hornby

Shakespeare Wrote for Money by Nick Hornby

I also found a used copy of It All Adds Up, a collection of non-fiction pieces by Saul Bellow.

Review of the Day: A Single Man

George is A Single Man trying to get his life back on track following the death of his lover Jim. Christopher Isherwood’s short novel follows George through one day as he navigates the social, academic, and sexual channels of 1960s Los Angeles.

George is feeling his age. His beloved canyon neighborhood has lost its pre-WWII Bohemian air – families with stay-at-home moms and salesman fathers have displaced the free-thinkers. The students in his English literature classes seem young and silly (although physically attractive). Jim’s former girlfriend is in the hospital, and George’s sodden best friend Charlotte wants to cry on his shoulder – or in his bed – every night.

This book was hailed as a break-out gay novel. But George’s grief and emotional upheaval are universal. The book is warm-hearted, optimistic, and funny. At least, it is optimistic up through the conclusion of the story. The surprise twist at the very end feels tacked-on and unnecessarily morose. And it is only funny if read on paper – the audio version leached the humor out of the words and turned it into a self-conscious melodrama.

NOTE

This was a Library Thing Early Reviewer book for me, so finishing it means I can scratch it off my ER list and avoid one nagging message from LT.

OTHER REVIEWS

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

Challenge: Bibliophilic Books

This is my organizational post for the Bibliophilic Books Challenge.

I am excited about this one, because I thought I had imagined it, but it turns out it really exists. The point is to read books about books. They can be fiction or non-fiction, so there are plenty to chose from. There are many qualifying books on my TBR shelves right now, and I have really been in the mood for them.

I signed up for the "Bibliomaniac" level, which means I have 12 to read by the end of the year. I do not have a final list yet, but I have several in mind.  There are enough choices on my TBR shelf that I chose all 12 from what I have now.

There are a lot of author biographies on my list. I think they fall within the guidelines for the challenge, because they discuss the authors' books. But if they do not count, there are plenty of other choices on my list.

FINISHED AND REVIEWED

The Polysyllabic Spree by Nick Hornby (reviewed here)

The Flaneur: A Stroll Through the Paradoxes of Paris by Edmund White (reviewed here)

Ex Libris: Confessions of a Common Reader by Anne Fadiman (reviewed here)

A Year in the World by Frances Mayes (reviewed here)

Housekeeping vs. the Dirt by Nick Hornby (not reviewed yet).

GRABBING MY ATTENTION

Shakespeare Wrote for Money by Nick Hornby


Rereadings: Seventeen Writers Revisit Books They Love, edited by Anne Fadiman

99 Novels by Anthony Burgess

The Well-Educated Mind by Wise S. Bauer

How to Read and Why by Harold Bloom

Studies in Classic American Literature by D. H. Lawrence

The Bookshop by Penelope Fitzgerald

The Club Dumas by Arturo Perez-Reverte

Wonder Boys by Michael Chabon

At Home with Books: How Booklovers Live with and Care for Their Libraries by Estelle Ellis

The Most Beautiful Libraries in the World by Guillaume de Laubier

Literary Essays by Mark Twain

Speak Memory by Vladimir Nobokov

Saul Bellow: A Biography of the Imagination by Ruth Miller

Oscar Wilde: A Certain Genius by Barbara Belford

Capote by Gerald Clarke

Greene on Capri: A Memoir by Shirley Hazzard

Walks in Hemingway's Paris: A Guide To Paris For The Literary Traveler by Noel Fitch

NOTES

This post was last updated on September 22, 2010.

Review of the Day: The Polysyllabic Spree

The Polysyllabic Spree is a collection of 14 essays that Nick 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 is the famous person’s version of a book blog.

Hornby is a funny guy, so he brings some levity to a topic that can bring out the pomposity in the best of us. He admits that his lofty intentions often outpace his attention span and his whims divert him from his goals. He admits he forgets most of what he reads. He lauds literature over all other forms of entertainment in one essay, only to recant in the next because he watched a terrific football match. He makes literary criticism jolly.

His consumption includes fiction, biography, science books, and poetry. He incorporates several reviews of the books he read into his essays and writes at length about some of his favorite authors. He salts this hotchpot with commentary about the reader’s life, such as this treat: “I’m not entirely sure why I chose those two in particular, beyond the usual attempts at reinvention that periodically seize one in a bookstore.”

There are two more volumes in this series. With luck, they will be as inspiring and entertaining as this one.

OTHER REVIEWS

Vapour Trails

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

Favorite Unknown

This week, Booking Through Thursday asks:

Who’s your favorite author that other people are NOT reading? The one you want to evangelize for, the one you would run popularity campaigns for? The author that, so far as you’re concerned, everyone should be reading–but that nobody seems to have heard of. You know, not JK Rowling, not Jane Austen, not Hemingway–everybody’s heard of them. The author that you think should be that famous and can’t understand why they’re not…

Since I tend to enjoy books by Mid-Century authors no one reads anymore (besides J.G. and C.S. at Hotch Pot Cafe, Joy, and a couple of other blogger buddies), I have several I could choose from.  Kingsley Amis springs immediately to mind, or even Helen McInnes. Or how about Frances Parkinson Keyes?

But my first choice is -- and probably always will be unless there is a massive seachange in popular taste -- Anthony Powell.

His Dance to the Music of Time is incredible and provides everything I want in a novel -- evolving characters, complex story, and England between the wars. Although published as 12 separate novels, Dance is usually listed as one "book" on "Must Read" lists like the Modern Library's list of Top 100 Novels of the 20th Century, so I fidge a little and always make it my "desert island" book. 

Powell wrote several other novels, literary criticism, and four volumes of memoirs. I hope to read all his books. And I definitely plan to re-read Dance, likely more than once.

Opening Sentence of the Day: O Pioneers!

"One January day, thirty years ago, the little town of Hanover, anchored on a windy Nebraska tableland, was trying not to be blown away."

-- O Pioneers! by Willa Cather

That is a terrific opening sentence. And it took me immediately back to my childhood in Waterloo, a little town anchored on a windy Nebraska tableland, where I spent every January trying not to be blown away.

This novel is on the Radcliffe list of Top 100 Novels of the 20th Century -- the rival to the Modern Library's list.  Finishing the Modern Library list inspired me to start this blog. Now I am inspired to get the Radcliffe list finished once and for all.

Teaser Tuesday Trifecta

My teasers have been stacking up, so I have three of them today.

So this last month was, as I believe you people say, a bust.  I had high hopes for it too; it was Christmastime in England, and I was intending to do a little holiday comfort reading -- David Copperfield and a couple of John Bunyan novels, say, while sipping an eggnog and heroically plowing my way through some enormous animal carcass or another.

-- The Polysyllabic Spree by Nick Hornby

During the two weeks before the event he would cannibalize an appropriate police uniform and the accompanying accouterments.  He had already, weeks before, got hold of a police badge and the papers of a defunct colleague -- nothing that could withstand intensive scrutiny, but good enough to pass routine inspection while approaching the cordons leading to the Bolshoi Theatre.

-- A Very Private Plot by William F. Buckley, Jr.

Since Balzac's day, of course, Paris has changed. No one is too ambitious, since its populace is now cosseted in the meagre but constant comforts of the socialist state, and the city's glory days are long in the past.

-- The Flaneur: A Stroll Through the Paradoxes of Paris by Edmund White



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

Mailbox Monday

Thanks to power-publicist Mary Bisbee-Beek, two books arrived at my house in time for Mailbox Monday.  Even though these are going straight onto my Guilt List, I am still excited about them.  Mary usually* sends me excellent books.

Eden Springs by Laura Kasischke (a historical mystery kind of thing involving the true story of a creepy religious colony on the shores of Lake Michigan in the early 1900s -- it's all I can do to not read it right this minute)



An American Map: Essays by Anne-Marie Oomen (essays inspired by travels -- so perfect for my mid-winter armchair traveler urges)



I also finally had a minute to run into Second Glance Books to briefly chat with Rachelle, my favorite Portland bookseller and use my Reading Local contest money.  I only had time to browse few the first shelves, but found three books before I even got to the "D" authors:

Nightwood by Djuna Barnes (on the Erica Jong list)

Talking it Over by Julian Barnes (I've never read his books, but Nick Hornby mentioned him favorably in The Polysyllabic Spree)



Wonder Boys by Michael Chabon (I loved the movie and think Chabon is a genius, so predict that this will percolate to the top of my TBR shelf fairly quickly)




*  I say "usually" because, although Mary has sent me several books that I have really, really enjoyed, such as Basil's Dream by Christine Hale (reviewed here) and Good for the Jews by Debra Spark (reviewed here), she is also responsible for The Letter from Death by Lillian Moats (reviewed here), my least favorite book of 2009.

List of the Day: Man Booker Prize/James Tait Black Memorial Prize Crossovers

Only three books have won both the Man Booker Prize and the James Tait Black Memorial Prize:

Last Orders by Graham Swift in 1996;

Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie in 1981; and

G by John Berger in 1972.

This may seem like no more than the answer to a random literary trivia question, but it is very important to those Anglophile readers participating in the Battle of the Prizes, British Version.

State of the Blog, Part Three: The Authors

This is the third part of my winter assessment of my 2009 reading progress and 2010 goals. Part One addressed my various lists. Part Two looked at my challenges.

This post looks at progress on my author lists.

THE AUTHORS


Kingsley Amis
Books read so far: 5/48
Books read in 2009: one (The Alteration)
Books I hope to read in 2010: at least one (One Fat Englishman, which I finished already)
Books on my TBR shelf: 6

Cara Black
Books read so far: 2/9
Books read in 2009: zero
Books I hope to read in 2010: one, if the one on my TBR shelf is the next in order
Books on my TBR shelf: one

James Lee Burke
Books read so far: 13/17 (Dave Robicheaux series only)
Books read in 2009: 3

1. Black Cherry Blues
   
2. Pegasus Descending
3. The Tin Roof Blowdown (reviewed here)
   

Books I hope to read in 2010: 2 or 3 -- I'm almost done with them
Books on my TBR shelf: 3

Lee Child
Books read so far: 11/11 (unless he has a new one)
Books read in 2009: zero
Books I hope to read in 2010: one if he gets a new one out
Books on my TBR shelf: zero

M. F. K. Fisher
Books read so far: 4/27
Books read in 2009: zero
Books I hope to read in 2010: 2, but I have not decided which ones
Books on my TBR shelf: 4

F. Scott Fitzgerald
Books read so far: 8/13
Books read in 2009: zero
Books I hope to read in 2010: probably zero, this is a future goal
Books on my TBR shelf: zero

Penelope Fitzgerald
Books read so far: 2/9
Books read in 2009: zero
Books I hope to read in 2010: one (The Bookshop)
Books on my TBR shelf: 2

Richard Ford
Books read so far: 5/10
Books read in 2009: zero
Books I hope to read in 2010: undecided
Books on my TBR shelf: 3

Jim Harrison
Books read so far: 19/19 (prose only)
Books read in 2009: zero
Books I hope to read in 2010: zero, unless he has a new prose book this year
Books on my TBR shelf: zero

Nick Hornby
Books read so far: 2/11
Books read in 2009: one (High Fidelity, reviewed here)
Books I hope to read in 2010: 3

1. The Polysyllabic Spree (which I already finished)
2. Housekeeping vs. the Dirt
3. Shakespeare Wrote for Money

Books on my TBR shelf: one

John Lescroart
Books read so far: 16/17 (Dismus Hardy series and spin offs)
Books read in 2009: one (Betrayal)
Books I hope to read in 2010: one (A Plague of Secrets)
Books on my TBR shelf: zero

Elinor Lipman
Books read so far: 4/10
Books read in 2009: 3

1. My Latest Grievance, reviewed here
2. The Family Man  
3. The Inn at Lake Divine

Books I hope to read in 2010: one (Then She Found Me)
Books on my TBR shelf: 2

David Lodge
Books read so far: 2/15 (fiction only)
Books read in 2009: one (Changing Places, reviewed here)
Books I hope to read in 2010: at least 2, but I don't know which ones
Books on my TBR shelf: 8

Ian McEwan
Books read so far: 5/13
Books read in 2009: 2

1. The Innocent(reviewed here)
2. Saturday

Books I hope to read in 2010: at least one, but I do not have any on my TBR shelf
Books on my TBR shelf: zero

Jack Ohman
Books read so far: 5/10
Books read in 2009: zero
Books I hope to read in 2010: one (Angler Management)

Books on my TBR shelf: one

Anthony Powell
Books read so far: 13/32
Books read in 2009: zero
Books I hope to read in 2010: one (Venusberg)
Books on my TBR shelf: one

Philip Roth
Books read so far: 8/30
Books read in 2009: one (Goodbye, Columbus: And Five Other Short Stories, reviewed here)
Books I hope to read in 2010: at least one, but I haven't decided which one
Books on my TBR shelf: 5

Martin Cruz Smith
Books read so far: 6/6 (Arkady Renko series only)
Books read in 2009: 2

1. Red Square, reviewed here
2. Stalin's Ghost
   

Books I hope to read in 2010: zero, unless he comes out with another one
Books on my TBR shelf: zero

Julia Spencer-Fleming
Books read so far: 5/7
Books read in 2009: 3

1. Out of the Deep I Cry
2. To Darkness and to Death (reviewed here)
3. All Mortal Flesh (reviewed here)
   

Books I hope to read in 2010: 2

1. I Shall Not Want
2. One Was a Soldier 

Books on my TBR shelf: zero

William Styron
Books read so far: 2/10
Books read in 2009: zero
Books I hope to read in 2010: probably zero
Books on my TBR shelf: 3

Anne Tyler
Books read so far: 4/18
Books read in 2009: one (The Amateur Marriage)
Books I hope to read in 2010: probably one, but I do not know which one
Books on my TBR shelf: 5

John Updike
Books read so far: 8/26
Books read in 2009: zero
Books I hope to read in 2010: at least one, but I do not know which one
Books on my TBR shelf: 9

Andrea U'ren
Books read so far: zero/2
Books read in 2009: zero
Books I hope to read in 2010: hopefully both of them
Books on my TBR shelf: zero

Simon Winchester
Books read so far: 5/16
Books read in 2009: zero
Books I hope to read in 2010: two

1. The Map That Changed the World: William Smith and the Birth of Modern Geology
2. Krakatoa: The Day the World Exploded

Books on my TBR shelf: one

Review: Massacred for Gold

The Snake River divides the northeast corner of Oregon from Idaho and carved Hell’s Canyon, the deepest canyon in North America. In 1887, Chinese immigrants followed a trail of gold dust into the canyon to Dead Line Creek, a stream flowing over a large gravel bar to the Snake River. There, while mining for gold, as many as 34 of them were shot, axed, and beaten to death by a gang of horse-thieving outlaws from nearby Wallowa County.

This mass slaughter – undetected until bodies started floating into Lewiston, Idaho – went virtually uninvestigated and unavenged for over a century, until newspaperman Gregory Nokes covered a story about trial documents “discovered” in an unused safe in the county courthouse in Enterprise, Oregon. Nokes turned amateur historian, spending over ten years wringing every clue and theory out of the scant evidence he could dig up. The result is Massacred for Gold: The Chinese in Hells Canyon.

The book covers the history of this long-forgotten incident, describing the varied contemporaneous accounts, the lackluster investigation, the escape of the three main culprits, and the halfhearted trial and foreseeable acquittal of three others. But he goes beyond the dry facts to question why no one at the time showed great concern for the victims – never bothering to learn or record more than eleven names of the people killed – and why even now the story tends to be hushed up and the victims forgotten without any lasting monument.

Nokes’s personal involvement and first person narration may be a little off-putting for those looking for a straight-forward historical account. But his approach is an effective way of presenting his opinions and highlighting questions raised by the skimpy facts without muddying the story. The reader knows what the evidence is, and what Nokes argues the evidence shows, and can make his own conclusions.

While Massacred for Gold has regional ties, Nokes puts the tragedy in national context. Any reader interested in the experience of 19th Century Chinese immigrants or the development of the American West will find this story fascinating.

NOTE

A slightly shorter version of this review was first published in the Internet Review of Books in December.

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.)

Opening Sentence of the Day: The Flaneur

"Paris is a big city in the sense that London and New York are big cities and that Rome is a village, Los Angles a collection of villages and Zurich a backwater."

-- The Flaneur: A Stroll Through the Paradoxes of Paris by Edmund White

January is the month for armchair travel and this book is just the ticket.

State of the Blog, Part Two: The Challenges

I am not a big challenge person, although I appreciate the effort and hard work that bloggers go to to host so many enticing projects. I am too compulsive to sign up for a challenge and not complete it, so I do not sign up for many.

In 2009, I joined and completed four challenges. There are more I want to sign up for in 2010, but I am sticking with challenges focusing on the types of books I like to read.

2009 WRAP UP

The Sunshine Smackdown: Battle of the Prizes



I had to participate in this one -- I hosted it. The idea was to read one book that won the National Book Award, one that won the Pilutzer Prize, and one that won both. 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 111, 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 of books read in 2009, with links to reviews. 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 & Julia by Julie Powell (my memoir/essay choice; reviewed here)

2010 CHALLENGES

Battle of the Prizes: American Version

It's the National Book Award winners v. the Pilutzer Prize winners, Round Two.

I am going to host this challenge again this year, but instead of just taking place in the summer, it is going to start February 1 and run to the end of the year. Otherwise, the same rules as last year will apply. I'll get the sign up page posted soon.

Battle of the Prizes: British Version

I am going to add a new challenge this year -- a British version of the Battle of the Prizes. This one will pit Man Booker Prize winners against the James Tait Black Memorial Prize winners.  I hope too get it up by February 1, but I have to make a challenge button first and I am having trouble finding a good picture.

Chunkster Challenge

I am kicking myself for not signing up for this last year because I read enough books to meet the requirements. So I am going to sign up in 2010 for the "Mor-book-ly Obese" level. I am not sure which six 450+-page books (or three 750+-pagers) I will read, but there are several biggies on my TBR shelf that are vying for my attention.


Bibliophilic Books Challenge



I am excited about this one, because I thought I had imagined it, but it turns out it really exists. The point is to read books about books. They can be fiction or non-fiction, so there are plenty to chose from. There are many qualifying books on my TBR shelves right now, and I have really been in the mood for them.

I am signing up for the "Bibliomaniac" level, which means I have 12 to read by the end of the year. I do not have a final list yet, but I have several in mind, starting with Nick Hornby's The Polysyllabic Spree.


100+ Challenge



Even with my anticipated mediocre participation (see above), I am signing up because I am pretty sure I'll read more than 100 books this year.