The Shadow of the Wind -
(Carlos Ruiz Zafon) Barcelona, 1945 - Just after
the war, a great world city lies in shadow, nursing its wounds, and a
boy named Daniel awakes one day to find that he can no longer remember
his mother's face. To console his only child, Daniel's widowed father,
an antiquarian book dealer, initiates him into the secret of the
Cemetery of Forgotten Books, a library tended by Barcelona's guild of
rare-book dealers as a repository for books forgotten by the world,
waiting for someone who will care about them again. Daniel's father
coaxes him to choose a book from the spiraling labyrinth of shelves,
one that, it is said, will have a special meaning for him. And Daniel
so loves the book he selects, a novel called The Shadow of the Wind by
one Julian Carax, that he sets out to find the rest of Carax's work.
To his shock, he discovers that someone has been systematically
destroying every copy of every book this author has written. In fact,
he may have the last of Carax's books in existence. Before Daniel
knows it, his seemingly innocent quest has opened a door into one of
Barcelona's darkest secrets, an epic story of murder, magic, madness,
and doomed love, and before long he realizes that if he doesn't find
out the truth about Julian Carax, he and those closest to him will
suffer horribly.
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Carolyn:
Mysterious pre-war Barcelona. Passion of a child.
Evil. Friendships over generations. A long-abandoned
mansion and true love. These all combine in a web of fog that
keeps you turning pages.
The Time Traveler's Wife -
(Audrey Niffenegger) A dazzling novel in the most
untraditional fashion, this is the remarkable story of Henry DeTamble,
a dashing, adventuresome librarian who travels involuntarily through
time, and Clare Abshire, an artist whose life takes a natural
sequential course. Henry and Clare's passionate love affair endures
across a sea of time and captures the two lovers in an impossibly
romantic trap, and it is Audrey Niffenegger's cinematic storytelling
that makes the novel's unconventional chronology so vibrantly
triumphant.
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Carolyn:
Strange and disorienting. Wonderful love story that
reinforces the timelessness of love. Those who touch us
never really leave us when we hold them in our hearts.
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Bangkok 8 -
(John Burdett) "Under a Bangkok bridge, inside a
bolted-shut Mercedes: a murder by snake - a charismatic African
American Marine sergeant killed by a methamphetamine-stoked python and
a swarm of stoned cobras." "Two cops - the only two in the
city not on the take - arrive too late. Minutes later, only one is
alive: Sonchai Jitpleecheep - a devout Buddhist, equally versed in the
sacred and the profane - son of a long-gone Vietnam War G.I. and a
Thai bar girl whose subsequent international clientele contributed
richly to Sonchai's sophistication." Now, his partner dead,
Sonchai is doubly compelled to find the murderer, to maneuver through
the world he knows all to well - illicit drugs, prostitution, infinite
corruption - and into a realm he has never before encountered: the
moneyed underbelly of the city, where desire rules and the human body
is no less custom-designable than a raw hunk of jade. And where
Sonchai tracks the killer - and a predator of an even more sinister
variety.
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Carolyn: Voyeuristic
look into another world. Keeps you turning those pages.
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When the Emperor Was Divine -
(Julie Otsuka) Julie Otsuka’s commanding debut
novel paints a portrait of the Japanese internment camps unlike any we
have ever seen. With crystalline intensity and precision, Otsuka uses
a single family to evoke the deracination—both physical and
emotional—of a generation of Japanese Americans. In five chapters,
each flawlessly executed from a different point of view—the mother
receiving the order to evacuate; the daughter on the long train ride
to the camp; the son in the desert encampment; the family’s return
to their home; and the bitter release of the father after more than
four years in captivity—she has created a small tour de force, a
novel of unrelenting economy and suppressed emotion. Spare, intimate,
arrestingly understated, When the Emperor Was Divine is a haunting
evocation of a family in wartime and an unmistakably resonant lesson
for our times. It heralds the arrival of a singularly gifted new
novelist.
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Carolyn:
US WWII internment camps sequestering the entire
Japanese-American population seem a lot like POW camps. This
reads like a first hand account. You can read it in a day,
but you remember it for a lifetime. Read it a second time to
discover the depth of Otsuka's beautiful spare writing
style.
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The Lake of Dead Languages -
(Carol Goodman) Twenty years ago, Jane Hudson fled the
Heart Lake School for Girls in the Adirondacks after a terrible
tragedy. The week before her graduation, in that sheltered wonderland,
three lives were taken, all victims of suicide. Only Jane was left to
carry the burden of a mystery that has stayed hidden in the depths of
Heart Lake for more than two decades. Now Jane has returned to the
school as a Latin teacher, recently separated and hoping to make a
fresh start with her young daughter. But ominous messages from the
past dredge up forgotten memories. And young, troubled girls are
beginning to die again–as piece by piece the shattering truth slowly
floats to the surface.
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Carolyn:
Gothic mystery set in a second-line girls' prep school.
Many interesting concepts here that could have developed into a
good read, but way too obvious - I guessed three of the four
mysteries well before the mid-point. The fourth reveal
was just so pollyanna, who would have though she would throw that
in along with the kitchen sink. Even fifth graders who
follow Harry Potter can handle more sophistication than this
mystery assumes, and it was written for adult book groups.
My early alternate ending would have been far better - and truly
gothic. The characterizations had no complexity and were
twisted to meet the needs of her mystery. The author made
this just too ham-fisted and should have cut at least a third of
the book. Doesn't quite rise to the level of beach book.
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The
Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time -
(Mark Haddon) Christopher John Francis Boone knows all the
countries of the world and their capitals and every prime number up to
7,057. He relates well to animals but has no understanding of human
emotions. He cannot stand to be touched. Although gifted with a
superbly logical brain, Christopher is autistic. Everyday interactions
and admonishments have little meaning for him. Routine, order and
predictability shelter him from the messy, wider world. Then, at
fifteen, Christopher’s carefully constructed world falls apart when
he finds his neighbor’s dog, Wellington, impaled on a garden fork,
and he is initially blamed for the killing. Christopher decides that
he will track down the real killer and turns to his favorite fictional
character, the impeccably logical Sherlock Holmes, for inspiration.
But the investigation leads him down some unexpected paths and
ultimately brings him face to face with the dissolution of his parents’
marriage. As he tries to deal with the crisis within his own family,
we are drawn into the workings of Christopher’s mind. And herein
lies the key to the brilliance of Mark Haddon’s choice of narrator:
The most wrenching of emotional moments are chronicled by a boy who
cannot fathom emotion. The effect is dazzling, making for a novel that
is deeply funny, poignant, and fascinating in its portrayal of a
person whose curse and blessing is a mind that perceives the world
literally. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time is one of
the freshest debuts in years: a comedy, a heartbreaker, a mystery
story, a novel of exceptional literary merit that is great fun to
read.- Jump
to the New York Times review. Second
Review Essay
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Carolyn: A
page-turner and a quick read. Christopher is the ultimate
uncompelling character - he has screaming fits and passes out when
life gets too personal. Yet he is our hero, and you hold
your breath at each new challenge he faces. How can life
possibly become bleaker for him? But it does. It's a
good thing connecting emotionally is impossible for him, neither
parent is equipped, but Christopher rises to the occasion.
Just one or two lapses in continuity of the premise. Haddon
is one to watch - can he continue to engage us with such diabolical
creativity?
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A Brief History of the Human Race
- (Michael Cook) Why has human history been
crowded into the last few thousand years? Why has it happened at all?
Could it have happened in a radically different way? What should we
make of the disproportionate role of the West in shaping the world we
currently live in? This witty, intelligent hopscotch through human
history addresses these questions and more. Michael Cook sifts the
human career on earth for the most telling nuggets and then uses them
to elucidate the whole. From the calendars of Mesoamerica and the
temple courtesans of medieval India to the intricacies of marriage
among an aboriginal Australian tribe, Cook explains the sometimes
eccentric variety in human cultural expression. He guides us from the
prehistoric origins of human history across the globe through the
increasing unification of the world, first by Muslims and then by
European Christians in the modern period, illuminating the
contingencies that have governed broad historical change. 11 maps, 28
illustrations.- Jump
to the New York Times review.
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Carolyn: Couldn't
connect, having read and loved the seminal work: Guns, Germs and
Steele.
The Ha-Ha -
(Dave King) An unforgettable first novel about silence,
family, and the imperative of love. Howard Kapostash has not spoken in
thirty years. Ever since a severe blow to the head during his days in
the Army, words unravel in his mouth and letters on the page make no
sense at all. Because of his extremely limited communication
abilities-a small repertory of gestures and simple sounds-most people
think he is disturbed. No one understands that Howard is still the
same man he was before enlisting, still awed by the beauty of a
landscape, still pining for his high school sweetheart, Sylvia. Now
Sylvia is a single mom with troubles of her own, and she needs
Howard's help. She is being hauled into a drug rehab program and she
asks Howard to care for her nine-year-old son, Ryan. The presence of
this nervous, resourceful boy in Howard's life transforms him utterly.
With a child's happiness at stake, communication takes on a fresh
urgency, and the routine that Howard has evolved over the
years-designed specifically to minimize the agony of human
contact-suddenly feels restrictive and even dangerous. Forced out of
his groove, Howard finds unexpected delights (in baseball, in work, in
meals with his housemates). His home comes alive with the joys,
sorrows, and love of a real family. But these changes also open Howard
to the risks of loss and to the rage he has spent a lifetime
suppressing.- Jump
to the New York Times review.
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Carolyn:
A page-turner. I read this book in two sittings, and
Howard lives with me still. Right up to the last pages, you're not
sure how this book is going to resolve itself. Here's a 50
year-old disabled Vietnam vet who lives in his head - just getting by, taking no
risks.
-
-
In
my mid-life, it's just the book that speaks to me. Should he
lean in for a kiss? Howard asks himself, "How
long has it been since I took a chance?...I can't risk getting set
in my ways." In the end, he picks his priorities - it's
the life with the woman he wants - his lousy job is good enough for
now. He considers what his charge Ryan will think about
keeping that demeaning job. "What ...does a child know of
compromise?" Howard's been given a second chance.
We only surmise how it will end.
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
- (J.K. Rowling) The war against Voldemort
is not going well; even Muggle governments are noticing. Ron scans the
obituary pages of the Daily Prophet, looking for familiar names.
Dumbledore is absent from Hogwarts for long stretches of time, and the
Order of the Phoenix has already suffered losses. And yet... As in all
wars, life goes on. Sixth-year students learn to Apparate -- and lose
a few eyebrows in the process. The Weasley twins expand their
business. Teenagers flirt and fight and fall in love. Classes are
never straightforward, though Harry receives some extraordinary help
from the mysterious Half-Blood Prince. So it's the home front that
takes center stage in the multilayered sixth installment of the story
of Harry Potter. Here at Hogwarts, Harry will search for the full and
complex story of the boy who became Lord Voldemort -- and thereby find
what may be his only vulnerability.- Jump
to the New York Times review.
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- Carolyn:
J.K. Rowling is setting up her surprise ending for the last
book of the series, and at the same time, providing Harry with the
break he needs to become the true hero by struggling alone to
battle the arch villain of his world. With this book, it's
clear to me how the series will be resolved. Rowling's
brightest talent is in creating this incredibly rich world -
enough to lose yourself when you're reading - and on for
days later.
Saturday - (Ian
McEwan) "Saturday, February 15, 2003. Henry Perowne
is a contented man, a successful neurosurgeon, the devoted husband of
Rosalind and the proud father of two grown-up children, one a
promising poet, the other a talented blues musician. Unusually, he
wakes before dawn, drawn to the window of his bedroom and filled with
a growing unease. What troubles him as he looks out at the night sky
is the state of the world, the impending war against Iraq, a gathering
pessimism since 9/11 and a fear that his city, its openness and
diversity, and his happy family life are under threat."
"Later, Perowne makes his way to his weekly squash game through
London streets filled with hundreds of thousands of anti-war
protestors. A minor car accident brings him into a confrontation with
Baxter, a fidgety, aggressive young man, on the edge of violence. To
Perowne's professional eye, there appears to be something profoundly
wrong with him." Towards the end of a day rich in incident, a
Saturday filled with thoughts of war and poetry, of music, mortality
and love, Baxter appears at the Perowne home during a family reunion,
with extraordinary consequences.- Jump
to the New York Times review. NYT
Arts and Culture NYT
Leisure NYT
Article
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- Carolyn:
For the first three quarters of this book, you enjoy the
McEwan's beautiful writing, but don't engage with the
characters. They are a family of perfect, talented, privileged,
beautiful people. Yawn. Then for the rest of the book, you
hold your breath. This is McEwan's Mrs.
Dalloway.
Falling Angels -
(Tracy Chevalier) - A fashionable London cemetery, January 1901: Two
graves stand side by side, one decorated with an oversize classical
urn, the other with a sentimental marble angel. Two families, visiting
their respective graves on the day after Queen Victoria's death,
teeter on the brink of a new era. The Colemans and the Waterhouses are
divided by social class as well as taste. They would certainly not
have become acquainted had not their two girls, meeting behind the
tombstones, become best friends. And, even more unsuitably, become
involved with the gravedigger's muddy son. As the girls grow up, as
the new king changes social customs, as a new, forward-thinking era
takes wing, the lives and fortunes of the two families become more and
more closely intertwined-neighbors in life as well as death. Against a
gas-lit backdrop of social and political history, Tracy Chevalier
explores the prejudices and flaws of a changing time. Jump
to the New York Times review.
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Carolyn:
Not the grabber Chevalier's Girl with a Pearl Earring
was. I know much more about the era's history and social
customs, so the details of London in 1905 don't hold me like those
of 17th Century Delft. And the situation and
characters didn't hold me as much. Maude, Lavinia and Simon
are more thoroughly described and idealized than Griet.
Yet the book has less engaging characters and situation.
Perhaps it's because I have personal knowledge of my grandparents
and others of the era. I live in a home steeped in the
environment of 1900 Victoriana. I expect more depth and
complexity. These characters are one dimensional - to make
the author's point. But really, social conventions haven't
changed so much since the beginning of the 20th century. In
fact, the car has enabled us to isolate ourselves even more by
economic, ethnic, religious and social class. We feel less
dependant on each other, less connected. In Falling
Angels, Kitty Coleman, the wealthiest character in the book,
is dependant on her relationship with Jenny, her servant and
Simon, the son of a gravedigger to obtain an abortion. Her
secret connects the children. These days, our interdependence
is felt obliquely, through the actions of a disaffected class of
terrorists.
Blink - The Power of Thinking Without
Thinking - (Malcolm Gladwell) How do
we make decisions--good and bad--and why are some people so much
better at it than others? That's the question Malcolm Gladwell asks
and answers in the follow-up to his huge bestseller, The Tipping
Point. Utilizing case studies as diverse as speed dating, pop music,
and the shooting of Amadou Diallo, Gladwell reveals that what we think
of as decisions made in the blink of an eye are much more complicated
than assumed. Drawing on cutting-edge neuroscience and psychology, he
shows how the difference between good decision-making and bad has
nothing to do with how much information we can process quickly, but on
the few particular details on which we focus. Leaping boldly from
example to example, displaying all of the brilliance that made The
Tipping Point a classic, Gladwell reveals how we can become better
decision makers--in our homes, our offices, and in everyday life. The
result is a book that is surprising and transforming. Never again will
you think about thinking the same way.- Jump
to the New York Times review.
-
Carolyn:
This book only confirms my life-long reliance on my first
thought - I have always trusted it. Often you have to set
the stage to make sure you can tap into that first
impression. My method is to tap the first impression,
explore where it comes from, then systematically look at the
detail. Very rarely do I change my stance, but I always
check "the math". Gladwell doesn't follow the
thread as tightly as he did in The Tipping Point. This might
have suffered a bit as I "read" in in an audiobook read
by the author.
The Kalahari Typing School for Men
- (Alexander McCall Smith) Now that her business,
the No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency, is firmly established, the agency's
founder, Precious Ramotswe, can look upon her life with pride: she's
reached her late thirties ("the finest age to be") and she
has a house, two adopted children, a good fiance, and many satisfied
customers. But life is never without its problems. Her adopted son has
a somewhat troubling hobby. Her assistant wants a husband but can't
find one. Meanwhile, the Satisfaction Guaranteed Detective Agency has
opened up across town and seems to be getting all the attention. In
this latest volume from Alexander McCall Smith's The No. 1 Ladies
Detective Agency series, Precious manages to cope with these and other
more serious problems with her customary mix of insight and
good-heartedness.- Jump
to the New York Times review.
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Carolyn:
I'm a big fan of Mma Ramotswe. In this book you see her
use her talent of patience: sitting back and waiting to see if the
situation will rectify itself. A valuable life tool, but it
doesn't make for the most exciting of this series of books.
I was a little disappointed in this one. However, as usual,
those who are wise usually come to the truth eventually. Mma
Makutsi is featured prominently in this one. She falls
briefly into a period where flattery outshines her good judgment,
but eventually her judgment prevails. We are still waiting
for Mr. J.L.B. Matekoni to set the date.
Requiem for a Lost Empire -
(Andrei Makine) - "The narrator is a young Russian army
doctor; sent to distant shores to bind the wounds of those in third-
and fourth-world countries in Africa, the Near East, and South America
that are pawns in the global political chess game during the Cold War
between America and the U.S.S.R. Later recruited by an old-time
intelligence agent, the narrator spends three years deeply involved in
the mini-wars - the revolutions and counterrevolutions - that
constantly erupt all over the globe." "The book flashes back
to the narrator's grandfather, Nikolai, a Red cavalry soldier fighting
the Whites in 1920 who one day, overwhelmed by all the senseless
killing, deserts and returns to his native village. On his way home,
in a forest riddled with the graves of soldiers who had been buried
alive by their killers, he finds and disinters a young woman whom be
saves and eventually marries. A son is born, Pavel, the narrator's
father, whose story of World War II is invoked with a passion and
force that bear comparison to the best writing on the subject. But,
war weary like his father, Pavel retreats to a remote forest in the
Caucasus, in a vain attempt to escape the increasing tyrannies of the
post-war Soviet era. It is there, in that idyllic retreat from the
world, that the narrator is born."-- Jump
to the New York Times review.
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- Carolyn: As usual, Makine's writing takes your breath
away with it's fluid descriptiveness. The scope of this book
missed, though. Two stories are intertwined: The narrator's
odd love story with his colleague in the spy game, entwined with
his family history, told through the stories of his grandfather,
father and himself: the story of unending chaos and war: Russia's
story. Unfortunately Makine turns his talent for striking
description to make memorable the cruel, gruesome costs of
war. The images are hard to shake, even many books
later - too tough for me to like.
If you think this glorifies West versus East - it does
not. The U.S. come off as a monster of self interest,
documenting cruelty when it serves a purpose. "What was
it old Marx said? 'Offer a capitalist a three hundred percent profit
and there's no crime he won't commit.'
In being asked for an emergency contact at the airport, the narrator
realizes only his dead love, the woman who raised him and the man
who recruited him would make the list: two dead and one incommunicado.
This is a book about painful isolation and how geo-politics creates
a no-win situation for humanity. The main characters are not named
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The Plot Against America -
(Philip Roth) - When the renowned aviation hero and rabid
isolationist Charles A. Lindbergh defeated Franklin Roosevelt by a
landslide in the 1940 presidential election, fear invaded every Jewish
household in America. Not only had Lindbergh, in a nationwide radio
address, publicly blamed the Jews for selfishly pushing America toward
a pointless war with Nazi Germany, but, upon taking office as the
thirty-third president of the United States, he negotiated a cordial
"understanding" with Adolf Hitler, whose conquest of Europe
and whose virulent anti-Semitic policies he appeared to accept without
difficulty. What followed in America is the historical setting for
this startling new book by Pulitzer Prize winner Philip Roth, who
recounts what it was like for his Newark family-and for a million such
families all over the country-during the menacing years of the
Lindbergh presidency, when American citizens who happened to be Jews
had every reason to expect the worst. Jump
to the New York Times review.
-
Carolyn: Creepy reconstruction of my country's
history. For all those American children of the 50's and
60's who explained the unexplainable by seeing the pre-WW II
German population as "Other", Roth's novel shows how the
steps toward inhumanity are accomplished in an American democracy.
It raises the question: You aren't really paranoid if they ARE out
to get you.
-
Philip is He's 9. Sandy's an opportunist.
"Look for advantage for themselves and to hell with
everything else." Selling out". Sandy -
trying to protect us - "Just Folks" Brother owns a
market. Mom Bess Dad: Herman Roth - Jewish Insurance agent
in Newark from Elizabeth. Families conscripted to move in
downstaairs. Italian. Metropolitan, in compliance with
a request from Homestead 42, office of American Absorption, US
Department of the Interior, our company is offering relocation
opportunities to senior employees like yourself, deemed qualified
for inclusion in OAA's bold new nationwide initiative. - to enrich
their Americanness over the generations. Danville, KY
Lindberg's peacetime America, where noone is in jeopardy except
us., Mom, Sandy, Alvin, Seldon Wishnow , stamp collection -
"I wanted to be a boy on the smallesyt scale possible.
I wanted to be an orphan." he wanted to be an orphan runs
away - beat up, stamp collection stolen, 'you people' $19.50
in pockets of Seldon's stolen pants. His mom doesn't ask him
why, and never tells his father - the secrets one parent keeps
from another - bond between parent anc child. Sunday
evenings at 9.Walter Winchell calls Lindberg out...
imperfect Walter was incorruptable. Lindbergh's decorum is
hideous. , gunned down in Louisville. Nazis of america.
LaGuardia, "Where is Lindberg? Wed, Oct 2, 1942 takes
off and is never seen again. 2 days, martial law.
mirroring the kidnapping of his son in 1932. British report
L alive in Berlin. 122 Americans loose lives in anti Semitic
riots (97 are Jews, including Seldon's mom.). Saved by Anne
Marrow Lindberg. (escapes from Walter Reed, reoccupies the Whhite
House (media broadcast her calls for restoration of . Two
weeks later Democrats sweep the House and Senate. Next month
Japanese bomb Pearl Harbor. 8 yr. old son raised as model of
Hitler youth. 225 families relocated from the
northeast."What;s paranoid?' "Someone who's afraid
of this own shadow." "Somebody who thinks the whole
world's against him." Aunt Evelyn, the brown-nose
(token) rabbi's girlfriend. "Go out into the world
like Sandy and prove you're just as good as anyone." "I
only wanted to disappear into a forgetfull sleep and wake up in the
morning somewhere elsre." Father beloeves in the system -
it will never happen here. Mother wants to follow neighbors
and go to Canada. I'm not running away. This is our
country. Company relocates them to Kentucky.
Breakfront's liquor cabinet untouched - inkepping with the
matter-of-fact temperance practiced in the bulk of the homes of that
first inductrious American-born generation." Riots:
President Roosevelt detained by NY police.
In the midst of chaos mom anguishing confusion one could do
nothing right without also doing something wrong chaos reigned and
everything at stake,, but to do nothing was also to do
something. there is no system for managing so sinister a
mess. being battered about by the most anguishing
confusion. Philip is going to run I would run away
from everything that was after me and everything that hated me and
wanted to kill me. I would run away from everything I'd done and
everything I hadn't done, and start out fresh a a boy nobody knew. -
to Elizabeth, to the pretzel factory. he'll save his money and
run away to Boys Town where Father Flanagan will take him in where
he'll learn to become a good citizen. hardly the person
responsible for the death of Mrs. Wishnow and the orphaning of her
son. Finds his aunt in the basement - I know the
truth. More than thirty million Christian families in American
and and only about a million Jewish families, why really
should the events of the day bother them? (rioting, deaths, arrests,
etc.) @ days since heard from father and Sandy. Trip
across the country during the riots. 1913 'little factory
girl" murdered in Atlanta pencil factory - her Jewish supervisor
Leo Frank was convicted - lynch mob pulled him from the jail and from
a tree. hung him
Ford: pub 1920-1927 - The International Jew - the world's
problem" - circ 300,000. lost $5 million. Shut down after
lawsuit settled out of court for defamation of a Jewish
lawyer. America First Committee.
Start with something small and get away with it.
Friday Night Lights -
(GH Bissinger) - H.
G. Bissinger's exquisitely written account brings into sharp focus the
bitter struggle between sports and education in Odessa, Texas, as well
as in high schools and colleges nationwide. "A biting indictment
of the sports craziness that grips...most of American society, while
at the same time providing a moving evocation of its powerful
allure."(--New York Times Book Review) "A remarkable book,
fascinating from start to finish, full of surprises."(--David
HalberstamA) "An engrossing story...Exciting, funny and, above
all, horrifying."(--Tracy KidderA). NYT
Article. About
the film.
-
Carolyn: You learn as much
about Midland-Odessa Texas as you do about the all-consuming religion
of football in those parts. Bissinger followed the 1988
Permian High team during the energy bust period of the late 1980's,
but the excesses of the boom periods are chronicled as well.
To see film footage of the people featured in the book, rent the DVD
and check out the special features.
Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell
- (Susanna Clarke) - English
magicians were once the wonder of the known world, with fairy servants
at their beck and call; they could command winds, mountains, and
woods. But by the early 1800s they have long since lost the ability to
perform magic. They can only write long, dull papers about it, while
fairy servants are nothing but a fading memory. But at Hurtfew Abbey
in Yorkshire, the rich, reclusive Mr Norrell has assembled a wonderful
library of lost and forgotten books from England's magical past and
regained some of the powers of England's magicians. He goes to London
and raises a beautiful young woman from the dead. Soon he is lending
his help to the government in the war against Napoleon Bonaparte,
creating ghostly fleets of rain-ships to confuse and alarm the French.
All goes well until a rival magician appears. Jonathan Strange is
handsome, charming, and talkative-the very opposite of Mr Norrell.
Strange thinks nothing of enduring the rigors of campaigning with
Wellington's army and doing magic on battlefields. Astonished to find
another practicing magician, Mr Norrell accepts Strange as a pupil.
But it soon becomes clear that their ideas of what English magic ought
to be are very different. For Mr Norrell, their power is something to
be cautiously controlled, while Jonathan Strange will always be
attracted to the wildest, most perilous forms of magic. He becomes
fascinated by the ancient, shadowy figure of the Raven King, a child
taken by fairies who became king of both England and Faerie, and the
most legendary magician of all. Eventually Strange's heedless pursuit
of long-forgotten magic threatens to destroy not only his partnership
with Norrell, but everything that he holds dear. Jump
to the New York Times review.
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Carolyn: Nearly 800 pages. Much too detailed and
properly slow-moving to hold my attention. I read about 100
pages, then skipped to the end. I think that was about
right. This is not Harry Potter for adults. You
care about Harry. I just didn't care about any of these
characters - not enough to follow the story. Whatever
ironies and insights were embedded in the tale weren't worth the
time to read it all.
Angry Housewives Eating Bon Bons
- (Lorna Landvik) - Sometimes life is like a bad waiter—it
serves you exactly what you don’t want. The women of Freesia Court
have come together at life’s table, fully convinced that there is
nothing good coffee, delectable desserts, and a strong shoulder can’t
fix. Laughter is the glue that holds them together—the foundation of
a book group they call AWEB—Angry Wives Eating Bon Bons—an
unofficial “club” that becomes much more. It becomes a lifeline.
The five women each have a story of their own to tell. There’s
Faith, the newcomer, a lonely housewife and mother of twins, a woman
who harbors a terrible secret that has condemned her to living a lie;
big, beautiful Audrey, the resident sex queen who knows that good
posture and an attitude can let you get away with anything; Merit, the
shy, quiet doctor’s wife with the face of an angel and the private
hell of an abusive husband; Kari, a thoughtful, wise woman with a
wonderful laugh as “deep as Santa Claus’s with a cold” who knows
the greatest gifts appear after life’s fiercest storms; and finally,
Slip, activist, adventurer, social changer, a tiny, spitfire of a
woman wholooks trouble straight in the eye and challenges it to arm
wrestle.
Holding on through forty eventful years—through the swinging
Sixties, the turbulent Seventies, the anything-goes Eighties, the
nothing’s-impossible Nineties—the women will take the plunge into
the chaos that inevitably comes to those with the temerity to be alive
and kicking. Angry Housewives Eating Bon Bons depicts a special slice
of American life, of stay-at-home days and new careers, children and
grandchildren, bold beginnings and second chances, in which the power
of forgiveness, understanding, and the perfectly timed giggle fit is
the CPR that mends broken hearts and shattered dreams. Tthere is
nothing like the saving grace of best friends.
-
Carolyn: Nice forty year journey with a group of women grappling
with the burdens of life.
Birth of Venus -
(Sarah Dunant) - "Alessandra Cecchi is not quite fifteen when her
father, a prosperous cloth merchant, brings a young painter back from
northern Europe to decorate the chapel walls in the family's
Florentine palazzo. A child of the Renaissance, with a precocious mind
and a talent for drawing, Alessandra is intoxicated by the painter's
abilities." But their burgeoning relationship is interrupted when
Alessandra's parents arrange her marriage to a wealthy, much older
man. Meanwhile, Florence is changing, increasingly subject to the
growing suppression imposed by the fundamentalist monk Savonarola, who
is seizing religious and political control. Alessandra and her native
city are caught between the Medici state, with its love of luxury,
learning, and dazzling art, and the hellfire preaching and increasing
violence of Savonarola's reactionary followers. Played out against
this turbulent backdrop, Alessandra's married life is a misery, except
for the surprising freedom it allows her to pursue her powerful
attraction to the young painter and his art.
-
Carolyn: A page-turner, gripping historical fiction.
Jump
to the NYT Review. 2nd
review.
Gellhorn: A Twentieth-Century Life
- (Caroline Moorehead) - Martha Gellhorn's heroic
career as a reporter brought her to the front lines of virtually every
significant international conflict between the Spanish Civil War and
the end of the Cold War; her wartime dispatches rank among the best of
the century. From her birth in St. Louis in 1908 to her death in
London in 1998, the tall, glamorous blonde passed through Africa,
Cuba, Panama, and most of the great cities of Europe. She made friends
easily -- among them Eleanor Roosevelt, Leonard Bernstein, and H. G.
Wells -- but happiness often eluded her despite her professional
success: both of her marriages ended badly, the first, to Ernest
Hemingway, dramatically and publicly so. Drawn from extensive
interviews and exclusive access to Gellhorn's papers and
correspondence, this seminal biography spans half the globe and almost
an entire century to offer an exhilarating, intimate portrait of one
of the defining women of our times.
-
Carolyn: There's something about an energized, flawed
person that attracts me. People absolutely certain in their
opinions. Martha - so cruel, so dynamic, so instantly
correct and consistent her whole life. Her biographer,
Caroline Moorehead was the daughter of one of Martha's best
friends, Lucy Moorehead. Lucy was there in the Italian
campaign in Fiesole in 19 , when Martha was searching for an
Italian war orphan to adopt and when she hit and killed a small
African child driving on a dark back road. Caroline had 20
cartons of Martha's papers archived at BU as a
resource.
Jump
to the NYT Review. 2nd
review.
Breakfast of Champions
-
(Kurt Vonnegut) - Dwayne Hoover, a Midwestern automobile salesman,
with a troubled marriage, meets Vonnegut's famous character, the hack
writer, Kilgore Trout, on the eve of Trout's receiving the Nobel
Prize. Filmed in 1998 with Bruce Willis, this is another of Vonnegut's
savage satires of middle American values and their racketeering.
Breakfast of Champions is vintage Vonnegut. One of his favorite
characters, aging writer Kilgore Trout, finds to his horror that a
Midwest car dealer is taking his fiction as truth. The result is
murderously funny satire as Vonnegut looks at war, sex, racism,
success, politics, and pollution in America and reminds us how to see
the truth.
-
Carolyn: Much too disjointed for a mind interrupted by
personal thoughts, sugar-overload and hormonal flips. Great
insight in 1973 - less insightful 30 years later.
Between Silk and Cyanide: A Codemaker's War 1941-1945 -
(Leo Marks) - In 1942, Leo Marks left his father's famous bookshop, 84
Charing Cross Road, and went off to fight the war. He was twenty-two.
Soon recognized as a cryptographer of genius, he became head of
communications at the Special Operations Executive (SOE), where he
revolutionized the codemaking techniques of the Allies and trained
some of the most famous agents dropped into occupied Europe, including
"the White Rabbit" and Violette Szabo. As a top codemaker,
Marks had a unique perspective on one of the most fascinating and,
until now, little-known aspects of the Second World War. Writing with
the narrative flair and vivid characterization of his famous
screenplays, Marks gives free rein to his keen sense of the absurd and
his wry wit, resulting in a thrilling and poignant memoir that
celebrates individual courage and endeavor, without losing sight of
the human cost and horror of war.
-
Carolyn: This became a page-turner after the first clutch of chapters. I spent my days wondering how it was
going for Leo Marks. He lived in my head. This is as
much a book about surviving bureaucracy as it is about war. A
rule-breaker who survived because his god-given skills were indispensable.
And sardonic... - as he tells it, his mother's black market
goodies seem to get much of the credit for his success. His
single-minded determination to invent the most secure codes for
agents dropped behind enemy lines had him bucking every military bureaucrat
and breaking all the rules - and getting away with it. Most disturbing: the story he tells of how the war office treated convincing
evidence of the true situation in Holland - his belief that almost
all our agents were captured (over years) and that it was really
German agents on the end of the wireless to whom the War Office
was feeding intelligence. To this day, the truth remains
secret. It's a
wonder we won the war. Leo Marks became a screenwriter.
Not only is this an incredible story - it is beautifully
written. Jump
to the NYT Review. Biography.
2nd
review.
And Still We Rise
- (Miles Corwin) - Author and journalist Miles
Corwin spent an entire school year with a remarkable group of
individuals: the students in the senior Advanced Placement English
class at Crenshaw High School—young ghetto scholars who have managed
to excel despite living in the hostile world of South Central Los
Angeles. This book is a moving chronicle of their courage, achievements,
strength, and resilient spirit—their personal crises, setbacks,
catastrophes, and triumphs—over an unforgettable 10 month period. It
is a fascinating visit to the dynamic, electrically charged classroom
of Toni Little, an inspiring but volatile and wildly unpredictable
white educator determined to imbue her minority students with a
passion for great literature. Corwin also spent the year with Anita
"Mama" Moultrie, a flamboyant black teacher whose
Afrocentric teaching style was diametrically opposed to Little's
traditional approach. The exceptional students provide a ground-zero
perspective on the affirmative action debate and will remain with the
readers long after they finish the book.
-
Carolyn: Too real for school. I recognize these
teachers and some of the students. Interesting that this
seems to have been picked up as conservative reading, as if only
the gifted and talented are worth saving. Despite the detritus
floating everywhere, this school is a place where kids can find encouragement.
Many are raising themselves following a chaotic and violent home
life. There just isn't enough
of a safety net for the ones truly out on their own. The book
is most damning of the foster care system. All these students
cry out for the kind of therapy only Olivia got once she was in
lockup. A calm place to live and therapy - that's where I
would put resources.
-
-
The book ends with an epilogue two years after
graduation. Looking back at the ones who were still in
college: they all had at least one parent (or brother) who was a
source of support, some of them, despite the worst of living
conditions (Sadi, Venola, Miesha, Claudia, Curt, Willie, Naila,
Danielle, Princess). With the exception of Olivia, all the
rest who didn't make it through two straight years of college had
two things in common: violence in their childhoods and only
themselves to rely on. (Toya, Sabreen, Latisha). These
are the ones your heart aches most for. I hope they find
their way back to their dreams. It confirms my belief that
violence and abuse at a young age is the most difficult to
overcome. The cliché is that most children in neighborhoods
like South-Central have violent and abusive childhoods. In
fact, most are more like the rest of us - only exhausted and
dragged by the realities of poverty.
-
-
Olivia is the exception. She had the
most violent of childhoods and was living on her own, yet managed
to attend the college of her choice. In many ways her story
drives this book. Her survival mode: defiant arrogance and
working all the angles, plus extraordinary intelligence. I
think being locked up saved her life. It finally got her
attention and allowed her to get therapy. According to
Venola, who ran into her in 2000, Olivia did attend Babson, her
dream school.
-
-
There didn't seem to be a safety net for the
teachers, either: one teacher clearly one foot over the edge,
another decked by a student and the system takes the student's
word above the teacher's. It isn't the best teaching or
administration that gets rewarded. In the end, reward
goes to those who can survive.
-
-
Corwin's bottom line for this book is
affirmative action. In an interview with the Christian Science
Monitor, Corwin says he agrees affirmative action is imperfect,
but that it's the right thing to do. The kids may have been
given an edge, but many of their classmates have been given an
edge their whole lives. In 2003 the Supreme Court ruled that
minority students may be given an edge when applying for
admissions to universities, but limited how much of a factor race
can play in selection of students. They struck down U
of Michigan undergraduate point system, but upheld the U of
Michigan Law School system based on achieving a critical mass of
minorities. If our country can successfully figure this out,
there may be hope for us yet.
-
Jump to
summary of school and students.
Jump
to the NYT Review. Jump
to LA Weekly review. Jump
to Venola's Colby profile. Jump
to Venola's CSM article. See
Scott Braxton. Jump
to Christian Science Monitor review. Jump
to Book Magazine review.
Founding Mothers
- (Cokie Roberts) - While the
"fathers" were off founding the country, what were the women
doing? Running their husband’s businesses, raising their children
plus providing political information and advice. At least that’s
what Abigail Adams did for John, starting when he went off to the
Continental Congress, which eventually declared the independence of
the American colonies from the British. While the men were writing the
rebellious words, the women were living the revolution, with the
Redcoats on their doorsteps. John’s advice to Abigail as the
soldiers approached Braintree: if necessary "fly to the woods
with our children." That was it, she was on her own, as she was
for most of the next ten years while Adams represented the newly
independent nation abroad. Abigail Adams is the best known of the
women who influenced the founders, but there are many more, starting
with Martha Washington, who once referred to herself as a “prisoner
of state” for the constraints placed on her as the first First Lady.
She was the one charged with balancing the demands of a Republic of
the "common man" on the one hand, while insisting on some
modicum of courtliness and protocol so that the former colonies would
be taken seriously by Europe. She also took political heat in the
press from the president’s political opponents when he was too
popular to criticize. And there are women like Esther Reed, married to
the president of Pennsylvania, who, with Benjamin Franklin’s
daughter Sarah Bache, organized a drive to raise money for Washington’s
troops at Valley Forge. In 1780 the women raised more than three
hundred thousand dollars. Reed wrote a famous patriotic broadside
titled The Sentiments of an American Woman, calling on women to wear
simpler clothing and hairstyles in order to save money to contribute
to the cause. It worked! The women who ran the boarding houses of
Philadelphia where the men stayed while writing the now sacred
documents of America had their quite considerable say about the
affairs of state as well. This will be the story of some of those
women, as learned through their seldom seen letters and diaries, and
the letters from the men to them. It will be a story of the beginnings
of the nation as viewed from the distaff side.
-
Carolyn: In just the first few chapters I learned
things about the reality of the Revolutionary War I haven't picked
up in decades of interest in reading biographies of the founding
fathers. Women's writing shares more about feelings and
daily life. At Lexington and Concord, families took to the
woods to hide for days among the trees - with just the clothes on
their backs.
Jump
to the NYT Review. Second
review.
The Rule of Four
- (Ian Caldwell & Dustin Thomanson) -
"Princeton. Good Friday, 1999. On the eve of graduation, two
students are a hairsbreadth from solving the mysteries of the
Hypnerotomachia Poliphili, a Renaissance text that has baffled
scholars for centuries. Famous for its hypnotic power over those who
study it, the five-hundred-year-old Hypnerotomachia may finally reveal
its secrets - to Tom Sullivan, whose father was obsessed with the
book, and Paul Harris, whose future depends on it. As the deadline
looms, research has stalled - until an ancient diary surfaces. What
Tom and Paul discover inside shocks even them: proof that the location
of a hidden crypt has been ciphered within the pages of the obscure
Renaissance text." Armed with this final clue, the two friends
delve into the bizarre world of the Hypnerotomachia - a world of
forgotten erudition, strange sexual appetites, and terrible violence.
But just as they begin to realize the magnitude of their discovery,
Princeton's snowy campus is rocked: a longtime student of the book is
murdered, shot dead in the hushed halls of the history department.
- Comment:
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Carolyn: Pretty predictable, amateur writing.
Some interesting, suspenseful bits. Not the interest that
had been recommended.
Jump
to the NYT Review. Second
review.
Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim
-
(David Sedaris) - "My writing is just a desperate attempt to get
laughs. If you get anything else out of it, it's an accident,"
claims author and playwright Sedaris. That may be, but one can't help
but notice that this collection of essays about his childhood, his
first major collection in four years, features a "kinder,
gentler" Sedaris ("The End of the Affair" is an
especially touching tribute to his partner Hugh). But make no mistake;
Sedaris is still the master of the well-delivered scathing punch
line-even if it is directed at himself. Fans of his previous work will
find that this collection contains much of the snappy (and sometimes
snippy) writing that has become his trademark. He is particularly
skilled at creating grossly unflattering yet affectionate portraits of
family members, as when Sedaris's brother presses the rewind button
during the video of his daughter's first bowel movement. With Me Talk
Pretty optioned for film treatment, Sedaris's star will only continue
to rise. And he will undoubtedly have something both poignant and
side-splitting to say about that as well. Highly recommended. [Library
Journal].
-
Carolyn: Comment pending
Jump
to the NYT Review. Second
review.
The Kite Runner -
(Khaled Hosseini) - An epic tale of fathers and sons, of friendship
and betrayal, that takes us from the final days of Afghanistan’s
monarchy to the atrocities of the present. The unforgettable,
heartbreaking story of the unlikely friendship between a wealthy boy
and the son of his father’s servant, The Kite Runner is a
beautifully crafted novel set in a country in the process of being
destroyed. It is about the power of reading, the price of betrayal,
and the possibility of redemption. And it is also about the power of
fathers over sons -- their love, their sacrifices, their lies. The
first Afghan novel to be written in English, The Kite Runner tells a
sweeping story of family, love, and friendship against a backdrop of
history that has not been told in fiction before, bringing to mind the
large canvasses of the Russian writers of the nineteenth century. But
just as it is old-fashioned in its narration, it is contemporary in
its subject -- the devastating history of Afghanistan over the past
thirty years. As emotionally gripping as it is tender, The Kite Runner
is an unusual and powerful debut. Author Biography: Khaled Hosseini
was born in Kabul, Afghanistan, the son of a diplomat whose family
received political asylum in the United States in 1980. He lives in
northern California, where he is a physician. The Kite Runner is his
first novel.
-
Carolyn: Couldn't put this book down - almost 400 pages
in three days. It is not so much a novel as a full-length parable.
This is a powerful portrayal of Amir, our central character, and Hassan,
Amir's boyhood companion/servant/blood brother and
'Baba', Amir's father who clearly prefers Hassan to his own
son. Like many parables, this book has pure good and
pure evil where the sins of the fathers are visited on the sons. God as mentor
is played by Baba's best friend, Rahim Khan - always loving and
nurturing, influencing Amir with a light touch behind the scenes -
but always providing him free choice. Khan knows all,
understands all. Hassan, is Christ-like; pure good,
genuinely pious, always forgiving and humble. Aching
jealousy consumes Amir, in the face of his father's preference for
Hassan, the son of Baba's old servant. Hassan sacrifices
himself for love of his friend even after Amir has betrayed
him. Assef is the abusive bully turned Satin.
Afghanistan goes from civilized independence to Russian
occupation to oppressive rule by the Taliban in just 8
years. This period begins in 1981 when Amir and his dad
become expatriates, first in Pakistan, then rapidly fleeing to the
US for safety during the Russian occupation of Afghanistan.
America is "one last gift for Amir", a place with
"no ghosts, no memories, and no sins." 1989 was
the year the Russians withdrew from Afghanistan. It was also
the year the Berlin Wall came down and the year of Tiananmen
Square. And it's also the year Amir begins to plan a family
with his bride Soraya. Soraya tells her most shameful secret
to Amir, who envies her. She has the great relief of a clean
slate.
One of the more interesting facets of the book is Hassan's
changing social status and growth as his homeland careens from
colonial pre-war Afghanistan through the chaos of the Russian
invasion, and finally, fatally to the rule of the Taliban.
Hazara is the pejorative term for the Shi'a in Sunni-dominated
Afghanistan. Hassan is devout Shi'a - a despised
minority. As such, the talented Hassan can not be educated
or rise above servant in colonial Afghanistan. He is like so
many servants in the South, beloved by the family, but
nonetheless, kept firmly in place. But during the freedom of
the chaos created by war with the Russians, Hassan moves to a
community of peers, finds education for himself, marries his true
love and raises a sensitive, talented son of his own. He has the
leeway to become the man he was meant to be. By the time the
Taliban take power, Hassan is left dreaming that someday kites
will fly again in the skies of the Kabul of his youth. At
the aging Rahim Khan's request, once again Hassan sacrifices
himself - this time protecting Amir's family homestead from
racist, greedy Taliban.
-
-
The civilized Kabul
of Amir's boyhood echos Sarajevo before the Balkans exploded in a
like racist clash of neighbor against neighbor. We
can't believe how rapidly the veneer of civilization can disappear
when bigotry is allowed to tip towards power. These periods
leave just enough space for the power-hungry abusers to dehumanize
us. Read this book for the perspective, read it for the
modern history, read it for the heart-rending relationships.
It spoke to me. I loved it, clichéd flaws and
all. Jump
to the NYT Review. Interview
with the Author. Interview.
The Known World -
(Edward P. Jones) - Henry Townsend, a black farmer, bootmaker, and
former slave, has a fondness for Paradise Lost and an unusual mentor -
William Robbins, perhaps the most powerful man in antebellum
Virginia's Manchester County. Under Robbins's tutelage, Henry becomes
proprietor of his own plantation - as well as of his own slaves. When
he dies, his widow, Caldonia, succumbs to profound grief, and things
begin to fall apart at their plantation: slaves take to escaping under
the cover of night, and families who had once found love beneath the
weight of slavery begin to betray one another. Beyond the Townsend
estate, the known world also unravels: low-paid white patrollers stand
watch as slave "speculators" sell free black people into
slavery, and rumors of slave rebellions set white families against
slaves who have served them for years. An ambitious, luminously
written novel that ranges seamlessly between the past and future and
back again to the present, The Known World weaves together the lives
of freed and enslaved blacks, whites, and Indians - and allows all of
us a deeper understanding of the enduring multidimensional world
created by the institution of slavery.
-
Carolyn: This one pulls you in to a much more complex
world of slavery than ever presented. Pulitzer.
Jump
to the NYT Review. Second
Review. Article.
Life of Pi -
(Yann Martel) - Growing up in Pondicherry, India, Piscine Molitor
Patel -- known as Pi -- has a rich life. Bookish by nature, young Pi
acquires a broad knowledge of not only the great religious texts but
of all literature, and has a great curiosity about how the world
works. His family runs the local zoo, and he spends many of his days
among goats, hippos, swans, and bears, developing his own theories
about the nature of animals and how human nature conforms to it. Pi’s
family life is quite happy, even though his brother picks on him and
his parents aren’t quite sure how to accept his decision to
simultaneously embrace and practise three religions -- Christianity,
Hinduism, and Islam. But despite the lush and nurturing variety of Pi’s
world, there are broad political changes afoot in India, and when Pi
is sixteen his parents decide that the family needs to escape to a
better life. Choosing to move to Canada, they close the zoo, pack
their belongings, and board a Japanese cargo ship called the Tsimtsum.
Travelling with them are many of their animals, bound for zoos in
North America. However, they have only just begun their journey when
the ship sinks, taking the dreams of the Patel family down with it.
Only Pi survives, cast adrift in a lifeboat with the unlikeliest
oftravelling companions: a zebra, an orang-utan, a hyena, and a
450-pound Royal Bengal tiger named Richard Parker. Thus begins Pi
Patel’s epic, 227-day voyage across the Pacific, and the powerful
story of faith and survival at the heart of Life of Pi. Worn and
scared, oscillating between hope and despair, Pi is witness to the
playing out of the food chain, quite aware of his new position within
it. When only the tiger is left of the seafaring menagerie, Pi
realizes that his survival depends on his ability to assert his own
will, and sets upon a grand and ordered scheme to keep from being
Richard Parker’s next meal. As the days pass, Pi fights both boredom
and terror by throwing himself into the practical details of surviving
on the open sea -- catching fish, collecting rain water, protecting
himself from the sun -- all the while ensuring that the tiger is also
kept alive, and knows that Pi is the key to his survival. The
castaways face gruelling pain in their brushes with starvation,
illness, and the storms that lash the small boat, but there is also
the solace of beauty: the rainbow hues of a dorado’s death-throes,
the peaceful eye of a looming whale, the shimmering blues of the ocean’s
swells. Hope is fleeting, however, and despite adapting his religious
practices to his daily routine, Pi feels the constant, pressing weight
of despair. It is during the most hopeless and gruelling days of his
voyage that Pi whittles to the core of his beliefs, casts off his own
assumptions, and faces his underlying terrors head-on.
- Comment:
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-
Carolyn: One hundred pages in, I can't connect with Life
of Pi. Never finished
it. Jump
to the NYT Review.
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier &
Clay - (Michael Chabon) -
It is New York City in 1939. Joe Kavalier, a young artist who has also
been trained in the art of Houdiniesque escape, has just pulled off
his greatest feat to date: smuggling himself out of Nazi-occupied
Prague. He is looking to make big money, fast, so that he can bring
his family to freedom. His cousin, Brooklyn's own Sammy Clay, is
looking for a collaborator to create the heroes, stories, and art for
the latest novelty to hit the American dreamscape: the comic book. Out
of their fantasies, fears, and dreams, Joe and Sammy weave the legend
of that unforgettable champion the Escapist. And inspired by the
beautiful and elusive Rosa Saks, a woman who will be linked to both
men by powerful ties of desire, love, and shame, they create the
otherworldly mistress of the night, Luna Moth. As the shadow of Hitler
falls across Europe and the world, the Golden Age of comic books has
begun.
-
Carolyn: A genuine page-turner. Great writing -
great characters - great plot. The nearly 700 pages are a
little much, but easy to skim over the bits of less interest, if
you're not a die-hard comics aficionado. The circuit of Joe
Kavalier's life drives the lives of all the other
characters. He's a master escapist who ultimately teaches
his loved ones how not to have to escape anymore. This is a
real New York book Jump
to the NYT Arts and Culture Review.
Jump
to the NYT Review. Interview
with the author for purchase.
Mountains Beyond Mountains -
(Tracy Kidder) - When a Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award
winner stumbles upon a crusading Harvard physician and medical
anthropologist battling TB and crushing poverty in Haiti ("the
most disease-ridden country in the hemisphere"), the result is
nothing short of a defining moment in publishing. For his first foray
into biography, Tracy Kidder, a master of the nonfiction narrative
(Hometown, Old Friends, Among Schoolchildren, House, The Soul of a New
Machine), applies his journalistic expertise and gentle storytelling
skills to the life of Dr. Paul Farmer, an infectious-disease expert
who's made the world's poorest and sickest his life work. Kidder
weaves a tale that is full of drama, hope, and triumph, as he
accompanies the pale, skinny, disheveled doctor from the mud huts of
rural Haiti and the slums of Peru to Siberia's prisons, where
drug-resistant strains of TB thrive. Writing in the first person but
only occasionally interjecting himself into the story, the author
recounts Farmer's unconventional childhood and describes his grueling
travel schedule on behalf of his nonprofit organization, Partners in
Health, and his saintly devotion to his cause. More than a biography
of Dr. Farmer, Mountains Beyond Mountains is a chilling head-on look
at global public health care. Trite as it sounds, this is a book that
has the power to change everyone who reads it. Sallie Brady,
Barnes and Noble review. Jump
to the New York Times Review. Second
Review.
-
Carolyn: Farmer isn't possible, and if he is, if he can
do the impossible, then the burden is ever greater on the rest of
us for not trying more.
Three Junes -
(Julia Glass) - Three Junes is a vividly textured symphonic novel set
on both sides of the Atlantic during three fateful summers in the
lives of a Scottish family. In June of 1989, Paul McLeod, the recently
widowed patriarch, becomes infatuated with a young American artist
while traveling through Greece and is compelled to relive the secret
sorrows of his marriage. Six years later, Paul's death reunites his
sons at Tealing, their idyllic childhood home, where Fenno, the
eldest, faces a choice that puts him at the center of his family's
future. A lovable, slightly repressed gay man, Fenno leads the life of
an aloof expatriate in the West Village, running a shop filled with
books and birdwatching gear. He believes himself safe from all
emotional entanglements--until a worldly neighbor presents him with an
extraordinary gift and a seductive photographer makes him an unwitting
subject. Each man draws Fenno into territories of the heart he has
never braved before, leading him toward an almost unbearable loss that
will reveal to him the nature of love. Love in its limitless
forms--between husband and wife, between lovers, between people and
animals, between parents and children--is the force that moves these
characters' lives, which collide again, in yet another June, over a
Long Island dinner table. This time it is Fenno who meets and
captivates Fern, the same woman who captivated his father in Greece
ten years before. Now pregnant with a son of her own, Fern, like Fenno
and Paul before him, must make peace with her past to embrace her
future. Elegantly detailed yet full of emotional suspense, often as
comic as it is sad, Three Junes is a glorious triptych about how we
learn to live, and live fully, beyond incurable grief and betrayals of
the heart--how family ties, both those we're born into and those we
make, can offer us redemption and joy. Jump
to the New York Times Review.
-
Carolyn: Julia Glass's first novel. It seems a
standard enough tale, but Julia Glass draws you in and makes you
care about the lives of her characters. A parable. A
roadmap. Poignant, personal, achievable, hopeful. We
need more hope. National Book Award.
The Stone Diaries -
(Carol Shields) - Canadian writer Shields's novels and short stories (
Swann ; The Republic of Love , etc.) are intensely imagined, humanely
generous, beautifully sustained and impeccably detailed. Despite rave
reviews on both sides of the Atlantic, she has yet to achieve an
audience here; one hopes this latest effort, shortlisted for the
Booker Prize, will be her breakthrough. It is at once a playful sendup
of the art of biography and a serious exploration of the essential
mystery of human lives; the gist of this many-faceted story is that
all biographies are only versions of the facts. Shields follows her
heroine, Daisy Goodwill Hoad Flett, from her birth--and her mother's
death--on the kitchen floor of a stonemason's cottage in a small
quarry town in Manitoba through childhood in Winnipeg, adolescence and
young womanhood in Bloomington, Ind. (another quarry town), two
marriages, motherhood, widowhood, a brief, exhilarating career in
Ottawa--and eventually to old age and death in Florida. Stone is the
unifying image here: it affects the geography of Daisy's life, and
ultimately her vision of herself. Wittily, ironically, touchingly,
Shields gives us Daisy's version of her life and contrasting
interpretations of events from her friends, children and extended
family. (She even provides ostensible photographs of Daisy's family
and friends.) Shields's prose is succint, clear and graceful, and she
is wizardly with description, summarizing appearance, disposition and
inner lives with elegant imagery. Secondary characters are equally
compelling, especially Daisy's obese, phlegmatic mother; her meek,
obsessive father, who transforms himself into an overbearing
executive; her adoptive mother, her stubborn father-in-law.
-
Carolyn: Interesting to see Shields' notion of a
woman's life - from inception to her legacy through her descendants,
and all the people who make up the fabric of her long life.
Loved her best friends - often - each with different perspectives
of each other. How she takes in her dead husband's pregnant
niece. Especially how she is devastated when her achievement
of creating a notable garden column is snatched from her by
the weasel with the full-time job (ever the part-time woman's
lot). Most poignant is how her depressive
reaction is discussed by all - each with their own
interpretation. No matter how wonderful the writing, Daisy
and her family remained outsiders to me.
Nine Parts of Desire: The
Hidden World of Islamic Women -
(Geraldine Brooks) - Nine Parts of Desire: The Hidden World of Islamic
Women is the story of Brook's intrepid journey toward an understanding
of the women behind the veils, and of the often contradictory
political, religious, and cultural forces that shape their lives. In
fundamentalist Iran, Brooks finagles an invitation to tea with the
ayatollah's widow - and discovers that Mrs. Khomeini dyes her hair. In
Saudi Arabia, she eludes the severe segregation of the sexes and
attends a bacchanal, laying bare the hypocrisy of this austere,
male-dominated society. In war-torn Ethiopia, she watches as a female
gynecologist repairs women who have undergone genital mutilation
justified by a distorted interpretation of Islam. In villages and
capitals throughout the Middle East, she finds that a feminism of
sorts has flowered under the forbidding shroud of the chador as she
makes other startling discoveries that defy our stereotypes about the
Muslim world. Nine Parts of Desire is much more than a captivating
work of firsthand reportage; it is also an acute analysis of the
world's fastest-growing religion, deftly illustrating how Islam's
holiest texts have been misused to justify the repression of women. It
was, after all, the Shiite leader Ali who proclaimed that "God
created sexual desire in ten parts, then gave nine parts to
women." Jump to a
review of: Geraldine
Brooks: YEAR
OF WONDERS: A NOVEL OF THE PLAGUE
-
Carolyn: It's almost 10 years old, but Nine Parts of
Desire is still the best overview of women's treatment in
various Muslim countries. Excellent background on the
history of the various sects and range of fundamentalism middle
eastern countries. Loved every page.
Middlemarch -
(George Eliot aka Mary Anne Evans) - Strangled by the confining
terms of her late husband's will, an idealistic young woman throws
herself into the struggle for medical reforms advocated by a visionary
doctor. Considered by many to be Eliot's finest work and one of the
best novels in English ever written. Jump to a
review of: GEORGE
ELIOT: The Last Victorian by Kathryn Hughes.
-
Carolyn: With sentences the size of paragraphs, my
summer brain just couldn't handle the work. When full
attention was applied, Elliot cuts sharper than Austen in
satirically describing her mid-eighteenth century characters
that make up the community inhabited by the Brooke girls.
Middlesex -
(Jeffrey Eugenides) -
In the spring of 1974, Calliope Stephanides finds herself
drawn to a classmate at her girls' school in Grosse Point, Michigan.
That passion -- along with her failure to develop -- leads Callie to
suspect that she is not like other girls. The explanation for this is
a rare genetic mutation -- and a guilty secret -- that have followed
Callie's grandparents from the crumbling Ottoman Empire to
Prohibition-era Detroit and beyond, outlasting the glory days of the
Motor City, the race riots of 1967, and the family's second migration,
into the foreign country known as suburbia. Thanks to the gene, Callie
is part girl, part boy. And even though the gene's epic travels have
ended, her own odyssey has only begun. Jump
to the New York Times Review.
-
Carolyn: This is two books in one - the history of one
family of Greek immigrants to America - settled finally in
Detroit, and the personal saga of the youngest of the family,
Calliope, raised as a girl, but discovered to be genetically male
at the age of 14. It's an interesting device, a paragraph at
the beginning of each chapter is the running tale of this child,
Cal in
full adulthood - at the age of 41. The Greek immigrant
tale is the fully developed side.
-
A Round-Heeled Woman: My
Late-Life Adventures in Sex and Romance -
(Jane Juska) -
“Round-heeled” is an
old-fashioned label for a woman who is promiscuous—someone who
nowadays might be called “easy.” It’s a surprising way for a
cultured English teacher with a passion for the novels of Anthony
Trollope to describe herself, but then that’s just the first of many
surprises to be found in this poignant, funny, utterly unique memoir.
Jane Juska is a smart, energetic divorcée who decided she’d been
celibate too long, and placed the following personal ad in her
favorite newspaper, The New York Review of Books: Before I turn 67—next
March—I would like to have a lot of sex with a man I like. If you
want to talk first, Trollope works for me. This closing reference was
a nod to her favorite author, of course. The response was
overwhelming, and Juska took a sabbatical from teaching to meet some
of the men who had replied. And since her ad made it clear that she
wasn’t expecting just hand-holding, her dates zipped from first base
to home plate in record time. Juska is a totally engaging, perceptive
writer, funny and frank about her exploits. It’s high time someone
revealed the fact that older single people are as eager for sex and
intimacy as their younger counterparts. Jane Juska’s brave, honest
memoir will probably raise eyebrows and blood pressure, but it will
undoubtedly appeal to the very large audience of grown-up readers who
will be fascinated and inspired by her daring adventure.
Jump to the NYT article.
-
Carolyn: Wow!. This is guts no amount of therapy
would uncover in me. But don't be fooled, in between the
juicy bits, most of the content of the book is Juska's life
commentary on literature and what it means to her and those she
has touched. It seems an honest rendition of her life - from
a certain, and unusual perspective. Food for thought.
The Devil in the White City - (Erik Larson) -
"Two men, each handsome and unusually adept at his chosen work,
embodied an element of the great dynamic that characterized America's
rush toward the twentieth century. The architect was Daniel Hudson
Burnham, the fair's brilliant director of works and the builder of
many of the country's most important structures, including the
Flatiron Building in New York and Union Station in Washington, D.C.
The murderer was Henry H. Holmes, a young doctor who, in a malign
parody of the White City, built his "World's Fair Hotel"
just west of the fairgrounds - a torture palace complete with
dissection table, gas chamber, and 3,000-degree crematorium. Burnham
overcame tremendous obstacles and tragedies as he organized the
talents of Frederick Law Olmsted, Charles McKim, Louis Sullivan, and
others to transform swampy Jackson Park into the White City, while
Holmes used the attraction of the great fair and his own satanic
charms to lure scores of young women to their deaths. What makes the
story all the more chilling is that Holmes really lived, walking the
grounds of that dream city by the lake." The Devil in the White
City draws the reader into a time of magic and majesty, made all the
more appealing by a supporting cast of real-life characters, including
Buffalo Bill, Theodore Dreiser, Susan B. Anthony, Thomas Edison,
Archduke Francis Ferdinand, and others. In this book the smoke,
romance, and mystery of the Gilded Age come alive as never before.
Jump
to the New York Times Review.
-
Carolyn: Half this book sets the stage for it's
heart-stopping build, careening towards the end. You have to
get through the interesting set-up to reach the pay-off at the
end. Most fascinating for me was the description of
recession in 1893, ignored for awhile during the magic of the fair
and exacerbated at it's close. The descriptions of the
now-closed magnificent dream-city crumbling and occupied by the
homeless touched me. Understandable, Burnham's view of its
fitting ending in a fireball of cinders to preserve it's mighty
memory.
Morality for Beautiful Girls
- (Alexander McCall Smith) - In Morality for Beautiful Girls, Ramotswe
tangles with a feral child, the finalists in a beauty pageant and a
suspicious cook. Jump
to the New York Times Review.
-
Carolyn: Another fast read. McCall Smith
focuses on Mma Ramotswe's discovery that her fiancé has
depression. Her skillful manner of sliding solutions on the
right path is skillful and fascinating to American sensibility -
where we are taught to address everything head-on. Yes,
there is much to learn from these seemingly simple books.
Her assistant, 28 year old Mma Makutsi, proves to be a
surprisingly talented manager of the auto shop in Mr. Matekoni's absence.
All problems are satisfyingly solved in McCall Smith's world- so
tempting for those of us requiring a little book-candy.
-
Iron and Silk -
(Mark Salzman) - Salzman captures post-cultural revolution China through his
adventures as a young American English teacher in China and his
shifu-tudi (master-student) relationship with China's foremost martial
arts teacher.
-
Carolyn: "There's a regulation." This
book was written in 1986 - a world away from the China I visited
in 2004. Read as I was on a 14 hour, non-stop flight to
Beijing, I laughed as I saw a hotel rent-a cop, refusing our motor
coach access to the back entrance of our luxury hotel. Our diminutive
female tour-guide jumps out for the confrontation - which always
came in China - each touting the credentials of their authority
over even the smallest of activities. There is still a regulation,
but most of them are designed to propel China on the fast-track to world economic
domination. The tour guide trumped the rent-a-cop, each
impacably dressed to indicate maximum authority.
I loved this fast-read, written in 1986. Most notably, the 9
year old runaway we meet - bound for Hong Kong. This kid's
basic nature bucks everything conformist Chinese society
requires. All the young Chinese disapprove of him - he needs
re-education. One older educator's assessment: "He has
imagination". China has everything it needs to
takeover the world - imagination seems to be only an impediment.
Madame Secretary: A Memoir
- (Madeline Albright) - "It
was a quarter to ten. I was sipping coffee, but by then my body was
manufacturing its own caffeine. I still couldn't allow myself to
believe. Finally, at 9:47, the call came. 'I want you to be my
Secretary of State.' These are his first words. I finally believed
it." For eight years, during Bill Clinton's two presidential
terms, Madeleine Albright was an active participant in the most
dramatic events of recent times—from the pursuit of peace in the
Middle East to NATO's humanitarian intervention in Kosovo. Now, in an
outspoken memoir, the highest-ranking woman in American history shares
her remarkable story and provides an insider's view of world affairs
during a period of unprecedented turbulence.
The story begins with Albright's childhood as a Czechoslovak
refugee, whose family first fled Hitler, then the Communists. Arriving
in the United States at the age of eleven, she grew up to be a
passionate advocate of civil and women's rights and followed a zigzag
path to a career that ultimately placed her in the upper stratosphere
of diplomacy and policy-making in her adopted country. She became the
first woman to serve as America's secretary of state and one of the
most admired individuals of our era. Refreshingly candid, Madam
Secretary brings to life the world leaders Albright dealt with
face-to-face in her years of service and the battles she fought to
prove her worth in a male-dominated arena. There are intriguing
portraits of such leading figures as Vaclav Havel, Yasser Arafat,
Ariel Sharon, Benjamin Netanyahu, King Hussein, Vladimir Putin,
Slobodan Milosevic, and North Korea's mysterious Kim Jong-Il, as well
as Bill and Hillary Clinton, Colin Powell, and Jesse Helms. Besides
her encounters with the famous and powerful, we get to know Albright
the private woman: her life raising three daughters, the painful
breakup of her marriage to the scion of one of America's leading
newspapers families, and the discovery late in life of her Jewish
ancestry and that her grandparents had died in Nazi concentration
camps. Jump
to the New York Times Review.
Jump
to the New York Times Review #2
-
Carolyn: Comment Pending.
The Big House: A
Century in the Life of an American Summer Home
-
(George Howe Colt) - In this intimate and poignant history of a sprawling century-old
summer house on Cape Cod, George Howe Colt reveals not just one
family's fascinating story but a vanishing way of life. Faced with the
sale of the treasured house where he had spent forty-two summers, Colt
returned for one last August with his wife and young children. The Big
House, the author's loving tribute to his one-of-a-kind family home,
interweaves glimpses of that elegiac final visit with memories of
earlier summers spent at the house and of the equally idiosyncratic
people who lived there over the course of five generations. Built by
Colt's great-grandfather one hundred years ago on a deserted Cape Cod
peninsula, the house is a local landmark (neighboring children know it
as the Ghost House): a four-story, eleven-bedroom jumble of gables,
bays, sloped roofs, and dormers. The emotional home of the Colt
family, the Big House has watched over five weddings, four divorces,
and three deaths, along with countless anniversaries, birthday
parties, nervous breakdowns, and love affairs. Beaten by wind and
rain, insulated by seaweed, it is both romantic and run-down, a symbol
of the faded glory of the Boston Brahmin aristocracy. With a mixture
of amusement and affection, Colt traces the rise and fall of this
tragicomic social class while memorably capturing the essence of
summer's ephemeral pleasures: sailing, tennis, fishing, rainy-day
reading. Time seems to stand still in a summer house, and for the
Colts the Big House always seemed an unchanging place in a changing
world. But summer draws to a close, and the family must eventually say
good-bye. Jump
to the New York Times Review.
-
Carolyn: For me, two of the most striking vignettes of
this family's saga seen through the window of their homestead:
"Is there a history of mental illness in the family?...No..
and then I remembered my grandmother. And my
great-grandmother. And my great-great uncle. And
an aunt. And two cousins." You would think mental
illness in the family would be self-evident - but it isn't - not
unless some thing outside yourself makes you stop and count.
The interesting thing: the women seemed to be able to get through
it and resume normality.
-
-
The other vignette: "A few years after that party, Mum
learned that Dad had been unfaithful. Indeed after she found
out, she had driven to Wings Neck, knowing it would likely be the
last time she'd ever see the Big House. ...she eventually decided
that if they could intersect again, she wanted to stay with
him. She told Dad her conditions: he must stop drinking, he
must never see the woman again, and he must tell every member of
the family what he had done. (My mother had long believed
that secrecy had only compounded the family's problems.)
...My father agreed to my mother's conditions...he consented to
enter couples therapy. Slowly, painfully, they began to
change...When Mum...returns from a poetry reading or a weeklong
silent meditation, dad wants to hear all about it; when he returns
from a football game or a lunch with a newly widowed friend, she
wants to hear all about it....Mum and Dad didn't need us anymore,
at least not in the intense, everyday way they once had.
They had each other.
So much is familiar - the pull of the seaside place - the family
drawing card - the odd and strong family members, the third
generation slide to middle-class, the attempts of solving the
search to keep the property no one member can really afford
anymore. The disposition of the stuff collected down the
generations. Here it is recounted as a more civilized
process - but I think it just seems so in the re-telling. A
very good and honest family history with a resolved and happy
ending. Cheers to George Howe Colt.
Tears of the Giraffe
- (Alexander McCall Smith) - From Publisher's Weekly:
Alexander McCall Smith (The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency) offers the
second .... installment of his dignified, humorous Botswanan series. In
Tears of the Giraffe, PI Precious Ramotswe tracks a missing American man
whose widowed mother appeals to Ramotswe; meanwhile, the imperturbable
detective is endangered at home by her fiance's resentful maid. Jump
to the New York Times Review.
-
Carolyn: I have a tender spot in my heart for Mma
Precious Ramotswe and the recurring characters that fill her
world. To me these are like book candy - consumed non-stop
until the last page. Each reserved to be read when there is
need for sweet.
Incidents in the Rue Laugier
- (Anita Brookner) - Anita Brookner tells of Maud Gonthier, a
demure and serious young woman from Dijon, who is introduced to desire
by the fascinating, rich David Tyler. They meet one summer at her
aunt's comfortable country home; the innocent Maud falls instantly and
passionately in love. She follows Tyler to Paris, and when he abruptly
disappears, Maud is left with his friend Edward to pick up the pieces
of her life. Jump
to the New York Times Review.
-
Carolyn: Audio. Read by Lindsay Sandison.
Story out of the early 60's, but set in 1971. Boy meets
girl, girl bedded by boy's flashy fickle friend who dumps
girl. Girl gets pregnant. Boy marries girl to save her
honor. Both live a life surrounded by misunderstandings and
barriers, knowing they are a mismatch. He loves her, she
finds no chemistry with him, but settles because he is kind and
she is content enough. He suffers, wanting her to love him,
knowing she is only content. The narrator turns out to be
the couple's only child, who has written this account to fill in
an explanation of the meager evidence of her parent's life.
Mildly engaging, but not a grabber.
The Namesake -
(Jhumpa Lahiri) - In The Namesake, Lahiri
enriches the themes that made her collection an international
bestseller: the immigrant experience, the clash of cultures, the
conflicts of assimilation, and, most poignantly, the tangled ties
between generations. ... The Namesake takes the Ganguli family from
their tradition-bound life in Calcutta through their fraught
transformation into Americans. On the heels of their arranged
marriage, Ashoke and Ashima Ganguli settle together in Cambridge,
Massachusetts. An engineer by training, Ashoke adapts far less warily
than his wife, who resists all things American and pines for her
family. When their son is born, the task of naming him betrays the
vexed results of bringing old ways to the new world. Named for a
Russian writer by his Indian parents in memory of a catastrophe years
before, Gogol Ganguli knows only that he suffers the burden of his
heritage as well as his odd, antic name. Lahiri brings great empathy
to Gogol as he stumbles along a first-generation path strewn with
conflicting loyalties, comic detours, and wrenching love affairs. With
penetrating insight, she reveals not only the defining power of the
names and expectations bestowed upon us by our parents, but also the
means by which we slowly, sometimes painfully, come to define
ourselves. Jump
to the New York Times Review.
Jump
to the New York Times Review #2.
-
Carolyn: Stunningly poignant. The last pages as
clutching as the beginning is slow to build. We pull meaning
for our lives from many sources: what we are meant to be,
how we pull away in search of self, how loss and
return come together at mid-life. From time to time,
Lahiri's chapters make a life jump for her characters that we are
not yet ready to make for them. It reminds us of moments in
our own lives that we are not prepared for either. But
change sometimes comes willy-nilly, and life is put on a fast
track while we try to adapt. There is a bitter-sweet
agony of growing older and wiser - of growing into the unknown
that is ourselves. Lahiri's only miss is assuming that the
immigrant experience is unique in this self-definition journey -
it's only intensified. A timeless, beautiful book. I
cried.
The Human Stain
- (Philip Roth) -
Audio tape, read by Arliss Howard and Debra Winger. It is 1998, the year in which America is whipped
into a frenzy of prurience by the impeachment of a president, and in a
small New England town, an aging classics professor, Coleman Silk, is
forced to retire when his colleagues decree that he is a racist. The
charge is a lie, but the real truth about Silk would have astonished
even his most virulent accuser. Coleman Silk has a secret, one which
has been kept for fifty years from his wife, his four children, his
colleagues, and his friends, including the writer Nathan Zuckerman. It
is Zuckerman who stumbles upon Silk's secret and sets out to
reconstruct the unknown biography of this eminent, upright man,
esteemed as an educator for nearly all his life, and to understand how
this ingeniously contrived life came unraveled. And to understand also
how Silk's astonishing private history is, in the words of The Wall
Street Journal, "magnificently" interwoven with "the
larger public history of modern America." Jump
to the New York Times Review.
Jump
to the New York Times Review #2.
-
Carolyn:
We are
all affected by our experiences. The human stain isn't just a
black man trying to pass - it isn't the stain of the color of
his skin - it's the human condition - our world stains the child -
every child. The premise is so good, but there is so much
about this book I railed against - was it just because it is a guy's book,
or was there too much anti-liberal cheap trickery, designed to
look cleaver?
-
-
Two brothers: one is followed in too much minutia, the other
a shadow, only alluded to in order to make the
counter-point. Coleman is born, lives a wonderful, protected, easy
childhood, then suddenly flips 180 degrees over one racial epithet
and an isolation experience at a Black college. He decides
to "pass". Walt experiences the same childhood,
but he becomes the angry Black man, isolating himself from
Whites. Where does Walt get his anger and Coleman his acquiescence?
The only explanation, offered off-hand, is innate personality
differences between the two. Black women are the
only ones who seem to be able to live with themselves in a
combined world - combined, except for the sons who make
integration within the family impossible. Coleman's sister
who is a teacher, politely chastises the narrator for not being
aware of famous men of color who have achieved great things
- all the while protesting that you shouldn't need a special month
to teach people these things.
-
-
Coleman rises to his potential in a lifetime of achievement - only to sustain
a knock-out over political correctness at the end. Can
small-college politics
really pull down a perfectly honorable man? The book really seems to favor separate worlds.
- just when you begin to sympathize with
the sadistic Vietnam vet, the author jerks you back. Why the thread over the
French professor? Life makes her vindictive, too. We had to understand all the
players. Why did the narrator go out on the iced-over lake - to
push that guy in? Only to become another one on his list to
stalk? I didn't care about the protagonist - He
was a boxer - a guy thing. It was the sports that raised him
up - not his other abilities. The lover who worked as
a janitor and pretended to be illiterate could have re-connected with her real
father - she didn't have to choose a life of poverty and hiding.
What is her life-choice trying to
say? -That degradation did that to her. So much minutia is explored, but not
the right minutia.
-
-
This book has a huge theme. It spotlights the dilemma
of our century - it just doesn't offer any solutions. In the
end, it becomes a long book of loose ends, supremely frustrating.
The No.1 Ladies' Detective
Agency - (Alexander McCall Smith) -
The No.1 Ladies´ Detective Agency, located in
Gaborone, Botswana, consists of one woman, the engaging Precious
Ramotswe. A cross between Kinsey Millhone and Miss Marple, this
unlikely heroine specializes in missing husbands, wayward daughters,
con men and imposters. When she sets out on the trail of a missing
child she is tumbled headlong into some strange situations and not a
little danger. Deftly interweaving tragedy and humor to create a
memorable tale of human desires and foibles, the book is also an
evocative portrait of a distant world. Jump
to the New York Times Review.
-
Carolyn: Clever wisdom beguilingly practical and simple
- because it comes from a women. Nice African life,
situations and settings. I loved this book, and will
probably read the entire series. This is a book that isn't work -
it's satisfying, and makes you smile.
Better Than Prozac: Creating
the Next Generation of Psychiatric Drugs
- (Samuel H. Barondes) -
Every day millions of people take psychiatric
drugs. In Better Than Prozac Samuel Barondes considers the benefits
and limitations of Prozac, Ritalin, Valium, Risperdal, and other
widely used medications, and the ways that superior ones are being
created. In tracing the early history of these drugs Barondes
describes the accidental observations that led to their discovery, and
their great impact on our view of mental illness. He goes on to show
how their unexpected therapeutic effects were attributed to their
influence on neurotransmitters that carry signals in the brain, and
how this guided their improvement. But Barondes reminds us that, like
the originals, current psychiatric drugs don't always work, and often
have negative side effects. Furthermore, none were crafted as remedies
for known brain abnormalities. In contrast, the design of the drugs of
the future will be based on a different approach: an understanding of
the molecular mechanisms that give rise to specific patterns of mental
symptoms. Using colorful examples of contemporary research, he shows
how it is gradually leading to a new generation of psychiatric
medications. A lucid evaluation of psychopharmacology, Better Than
Prozac offers a deep understanding of psychiatric drugs for people who
take them, those who are considering them, and those who are just
fascinated by the powerful effects of these simple chemicals on our
thoughts and our feelings.
-
Carolyn: Deciding what to prescribe is as much art as
it is science. Someday we will all be routinely
genetic-tested to customize our prescriptions. We will do it
to avoid becoming the rare bad reaction that ends up in the
emergency room. In the meantime it is cheaper for the drug
companies to roll out variations of the same discoveries from
decades before, better yet, capitalize off of drugs they have
already developed for other purposes.
Letters to a Young Therapist
- (Mary Pipher) -
"Letters to a Young Therapist gives voice to
Mary Pipher's practice with a mix of storytelling and sharp-eyed
observation. Much of what she tells us is profound in its simplicity:
"Good therapy helps people be kinder, calmer and more authentic.
They become more awake, more tolerant and altruistic."" Mary
Pipher takes a refreshingly inventive approach to therapy - fiercely
optimistic, free of dogma or psychobabble, and laced with generous
wisdom. In an increasingly stressful world, she offers "therapy
for our times," showing us how to revitalize our emotional
landscapes and get back to basics. Whether she's recommending daily
swims for a sluggish teenager, encouraging a timid husband to become
bolder, or simply bearing witness to a bereaved parent's sorrow,
Pipher's warmth and insight shine from every page of this powerfully
engaging guide to living a healthy life.
-
Carolyn: At 56, Mary Pipher has packaged everything she
knows about surviving and celebrating life in one quick
read. For her, less is more. The simple solution, the
best. Live your life on purpose. It goes by very
quickly.
A Mighty Heart -
(Mariane Pearl) -
In A Mighty Heart, a courageous woman tells us
the terrifying and unforgettable story of her husband's life and
death. For five weeks the world watched and worried about Danny Pearl,
a reporter for the Wall Street Journal, kidnapped in Karachi,
Pakistan. And then came the news of his shocking and brutal murder.
Danny's reasons for being in Karachi, the complete story of his
abduction, and the intense effort to find him are told here for the
first time. Mariane and Danny Pearl were working in South Asia, as
they had been elsewhere in the world, because they believed that good
reporting is essential to our understanding of ethnic and religious
conflict around the globe. They knew the risks inherent in the life
they chose and took conscientious precautions. The courage of Danny
and Mariane is extraordinary, yet we are dependent on brave
journalists everywhere to produce news coverage that educates us.
There are many mighty hearts in the Pearl story, many brave people who
helped Mariane in her search for her abducted husband. We learn,
through the urgent tracing of Danny's last movements, about the
terrorists' methods, ideologies, and ruthless violence. As soon as
Pearl was discovered missing, a global effort began to locate him and
identify his captors - a race against the clock that spanned the
dangerous fissures of culture and politics and language that separate
Islamic terrorists and America. Jump
to the New York Times Review.
-
Carolyn: Compelling. Real. Couldn't put it
down. A seemingly depressing topic, and yet uplifting and
hopeful. There's a life-message here.
The Fortress of Solitude
- (Jonathan Lethem) -
This is the story of two boys, Dylan Ebdus and
Mingus Rude. They are friends and neighbors, but because Dylan is
white and Mingus is black, their friendship is not simple. This is the
story of their Brooklyn neighborhood, which is almost exclusively
black despite the first whispers of something that will become known
as "gentrification." This is the story of 1970s America, a
time when the most simple human decisions—what music you listen to,
whether to speak to the kid in the seat next to you, whether to give
up your lunch money—are laden with potential political, social and
racial disaster. This is the story of 1990s America, when no one cared
anymore. This is the story of punk, that easy white rebellion, and
crack, that monstrous plague. This is the story of the loneliness of
the avant-garde artist and the exuberance of the graffiti artist. This
is the story of what would happen if two teenaged boys obsessed with
comic book heroes actually had superpowers: They would screw up their
lives. This is the story of joyous afternoons of stickball and dreaded
years of schoolyard extortion. This is the story of belonging to a
society that doesn't accept you. This is the story of prison and of
college, of Brooklyn and Berkeley, of soul and rap, of murder and
redemption. This is the story Jonathan Lethem was born to tell. This
is The Fortress of Solitude. Jump
to the New York Times Review.
-
Carolyn: Lethem's writing
is so rich, each sentence must be read with care for fear of
loosing multi-layered allusions plucked from decades past.
This is a book about a boy struggling to make sense of his unusual
life as
he grows to manhood. Rachel is
Dylan's mom, born and raised in Brooklyn. She has moved her family
to Dean Street - virtually next door to the projects. The
neighborhood is Gowanus, but Isabel Vendle, the neighborhood
booster has renamed it Boerum Hill, more in keeping with it's
potential as an upscale area. Dylan remembers his mother as being "wild with
information he couldn't yet use... She was too full for the
house, had to vent herself constantly into the telephone while Dylan
worked Rachel's margins..."
Eventually she would "usher Dylan
to the front door, point out the children playing on the sidewalk,
insist that he join them." The gang on the street
featured kids one step up from the projects, playing a magical
version of stickball with a newborn pink spaldeen.
-
-
One day the Solver girls moved in - proof that the
revitalization was working. "The girls on wheels were the new thing, spotlit to start the
show: white people were returning to Dean Street. A few.
Dylan had to consider forever whether to grasp
that he'd felt a yearning preference already then, that before
years of seasons, the years of hours to come on the street, before
Robert Woolfolk or Mingus Rude, before "Play That Funky
Music, White Boy" before Intermediate School 293 or anything
else, he'd wished, against his mother's vision, for the Solver
girls to sweep him away into an ecstasy of blondness and matching
outfits, tightened laces, their wheels barely touching the slate,
or only marking it with arrows pointing elsewhere, jet trails to
escape." The Solver girls moved away.
-
-
When Rachel is quizzed
on her decision to send Dylan to PS 38, she says, "I
believe in public school." In response to the usual protest,
"He'll be with children who never learn", she responds, "It's a problem
for him to solve, school. I did it, so can he... Dylan is one of three white children in the whole school."
He
is six, and the year is 1969. Thirty years later,
Dylan describes his school experience as being "pushed out like a blind finger,
to probe a nonexistent space, a whiteboy integrating public
schools which were just then being abandoned, which were becoming
only rehearsals for prison."
Dylan's journey to solve his life is entwined with his best
boyhood friend: Mingus, and his boyhood taunter: Robert Woolfolk.
Mingus protects Dylan and Dean Street in ways no one ever
recognized. Even the bullies have stories, faces, and so engender
sympathy. Robert, the neighborhood bully gives Dylan a
warning, and one free chance, "If you come around here
with that old lady's money next time I might have to take it off
you." Just about Dylan's mother's last act before leaving is
to intimidate Robert. "Your mother kicked
his ass, right out on Bergen Street. He was crying and
everything." Ultimately, Mingus becomes savior to even Robert Woolfolk who
can never seem to help himself.
Fifth grade - Dylan's mom walks out on the family. Dylan's oblivious dad,
Abraham, spends his days upstairs, working every day on a piece of
art that will never be finished - by design. Dylan isn't just forced to
solve school on his own - he has to solve his life on his own.
Rachel's middle space of hope became Dylan's daily yoking - a form
of urban intimidation to shake you down for your lunch money.
-
'Middle space' is Lethem's term for the most minute slice of hope when
things are momentarily right against all odds of culture - a minimalist
expectation of life.
"We all pined for those middle spaces,
those summer hours when Josephine Baker lay waste to
Paris... A
middle space opened and closed like a glance, you'd miss it if you
blinked." Rachael's middle
space was built on faith in the commonality of humans - even poor
ones. Dylan calls it her
mistake, "so beautiful, so stupid, so
American. It terrified my small mind, it always had.
Abraham had the better idea, to try to carve the middle space on a
daily basis, alone in his room." - no wonder Dylan prizes his father's distance
- his fortress of solitude - a way to cope.
-
-
The women easily
connect with others - orchestrate connections for others.
The men
cope through solitude, and if they're lucky, find a woman to help
them connect. Abraham stumbles onto such a woman: Francesca
who orchestrates everybody's life. Dylan tries to connect
with Abby, his middle-class black girlfriend. She
describes his obsession with black singers as, "a million
whining moaning singers, ten million depressed songs, and five or
six happy songs - which remind you of being beaten up when you
were thirteen years old. You live in the past, Dylan.
I'm sick of your secrets. What happened to you? Your
childhood is some privileged sanctuary you live in all the time,
instead of here with me. You think I don't know that? But I
was never willing to be collected for my moods, man. You
collected my depression, you cultivated it like a cactus, like a
sulky cat you wanted around to feel sorry for. I never
expected that. I never did." But Dylan makes a mistake
during their reconciliation phone conversation: he mentions he's
had a revelation - the Four Tops stayed together -they were Jewish. She sees it as the race
card, again and hangs up on him. Life is very delicate in
Lethem's world. Perhaps he'll find it with Katha - sturdy hips and a Drew Barrymore smile.
Katha who keeps an alcove bed just in case she can get her sister
out of foster care. Finding middle spaces is too rare for real
satisfaction.
-
-
As the mother of a grown son influenced forever by his urban gentrifying
upbringing, I'm still processing the middle
space I provided in the lives of my family - the influences have
been powerful - mostly positive. Thirty years later - for us, a good
decision. But who knows if my middle space will prove to be as nurturing
for my son as it has been for me? I can't stop thinking about
this powerful work.
Looking for Spinoza; Joy,
Sorrow, and the Feeling Brain - (Antonio Damasio) -
"Here, in a humane work of science, Damasio
draws on his innovative research and on his experience with
neurological patients to examine how feelings and the emotions that
underlie them support the human spirit's greatest creations."
Damasio's new book focuses on what feelings are and reveals the
biology of our survival mechanisms. It rediscovers a thinker whose
work prefigures modern neuroscience, not only in his emphasis on
emotions and feelings, but also in his refusal to separate mind and
body. Together, the scientist and the philosopher help us understand
what we are made of and what we are here for. Based on laboratory
investigations but mindful of society and culture, Looking for Spinoza
offers unexpected grounds for optimism about the human condition and
is a masterwork of science and writing. Jump
to the New York Times Review.
- Comment:
![](https://www.angelfire.lycos.com/images/diamstar/star_bul.gif)
-
Carolyn: Details of Spinoza's life and philosophy
fascinating. Want to know much more about him and his
impact. Everything else impossibly dense and obscure.
The Piano Shop on the Left Bank
- (Thad Carhart) -
Walking his two young children to school every morning, expatriate
Thad Carhart passes an unassuming little storefront in his Paris
neighborhood that seems to hide rather than advertise its wares. One
day, intrigued by its simple sign--Desforges Pianos--and the arcane
collection of repair tools in its curtained window, he enters, only to
have his way barred by the atelier's imperious owner. But, unable to
stifle his curiosity, he finally lands the proper introduction and the
doors open to the quartier's most intriguing hangout. On Fridays the
hidden back of the shop, crammed full of dismantled pianos, becomes an
improbable cafe, where locals--from university professors to car
mechanics--gather to discuss music, love, and life over a glass of
wine. Jump
to the New York Times Review.
-
Carolyn: This sweet book
takes you roaming through Carhart's discovery of the real Paris
and the rediscovery of his lost love of music. When he's finally
admitted into the society of the piano shop, you are treated to the journey into a
world known by only a very few. To Luc, the shop's
proprietor, pianos are living, breathing icons, representing both their
creator's care and their nations' persona. Luc
repairs and resells dozens of pianos a week. A magnificent
rosewood American Steinway, a harpsichord-shaped French Pleyel, a
Gaveau with a lemonwood cabinet, a Charles X Erard, Beethoven's
piano - a dusty hulk by Gotting and an Eavestaff, an English
mini-piano are each in turn Luc's dream piano.
"You can never have too many dream pianos." Gradually,
Luc lets Carhart into his world, and they become friends.
-
-
The quartier is filled with secret places, high,
ceilinged and dusty with the ages. Carhart finds his
daughter's music school through word of mouth. The school began as a convent- a refuge for Stuart loyalists in the late
17th century - the body of James the II was interred there - it
housed Benjamin Franklin, writing the pre-amble of the
Constitution, it was a prison during the French Revolution, a cotton mill,
a prep school and finally a private school for music, dance and
theater. In Paris, history is an infusion.
-
-
Carhart is casually looking for a tuck-away upright piano for
his small French apartment when he first enters the atelier, but
learns that finer grand pianos are a bargain in Paris because
everyone is short on space. He falls for a baby grand Stingl
made in the 1930's in Vienna and he and his wife find the perfect
corner for it. We are introduced to a cast of characters
surrounding Carhart's purchase of a piano: Jos, the drunken piano
tuner, Miss Pemberton who took the joy out of playing for
eight-year old Carhart, Anna and her German-made Bechstein , his
teacher who reintroduces him to the pleasure of playing,
Jean-Paul, neighbor and gifted accompanist, Paolo Fazioli, maker
of contemporary pianos of perfection, and Mathilde, who becomes
Luc's love. In the process, you learn the intricacies of
piano innards, the theory of music, playing techniques and
something about people. Luc's wisdom - never fully tighten
anything on a piano, and above all - a piano needs to be
played. It is the living, breathing interaction of the parts
that keep it fit. Somehow, you feel it's true of other
relationships - they need to be played to keep them
fit.
The Da Vinci Code
- (Dan Brown) -
While in Paris on business, Harvard symbologist
Robert Langdon receives an urgent late-night phone call: the elderly
curator of the Louvre has been murdered inside the museum. Near the
body, police have found a baffling cipher. While working to solve the
enigmatic riddle, Langdon is stunned to discover it leads to a trail
of clues hidden in the works of Da Vinci -- clues visible for all to
see -- yet ingeniously disguised by the painter. Langdon joins forces
with a gifted French cryptologist, Sophie Neveu, and learns the late
curator was involved in the Priory of Sion -- an actual secret society
whose members included Sir Isaac Newton, Botticelli, Victor Hugo, and
Da Vinci, among others. In a breathless race through Paris, London,
and beyond, Langdon and Neveu match wits with a faceless powerbroker
who seems to anticipate their every move. Unless Langdon and Neveu can
deipher the labyrinthine puzzle in time, the Priory's ancient secret
-- and an explosive hysterical truth -- will be lost forever. Jump
to the New York Times review.
-
Carolyn: Fast and utterly compelling at the beginning -
becomes more predictable toward the end. It's a nice
conjunction of little-known history and scholarship wound
around a mystery set in Paris and London.
A Patriot's Handbook
- (ED: Caroline Kennedy) -
Caroline Kennedy shares an inspiring collection
of patriotic poems, song lyrics, historical documents, and speeches.
The Best-Loved Poems of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis was a blockbuster
success, remaining on the New York Times bestseller list for 15 weeks
with more than 500,000 copies in print. Now, Caroline Kennedy shares
with readers an assortment of her own favorite American writings. The
works collected here -- which span centuries and styles -- have one
thing in common: all are emblematic of our country's patriotism and
pride. Caroline Kennedy researched all of the selections included in A
Patriot's Handbook, wrote the introduction, and added personal
commentary to each section. This elegantly packaged collection is the
perfect gift for anyone in search of a reminder of what our country's
spirit is made of. "Over the past year we have all thought about
what it means to be an American. I realized that I want my own
children to know more about the ideals upon which this country was
founded and the sacrifices that have been made to pass them on to us.
This book is intended to help families explore the foundations of our
freedom and to celebrate our heritage."(Caroline Kennedy) Jump
to the New York Times review.
-
Carolyn: This is a keeper - a reference for all
Americans.
The Thief Lord -
(Cornelia Funke) -
Prosper
and Bo are orphans on the run from their cruel aunt and uncle. The
brothers decide to hide out in Venice, where they meet a mysterious
thirteen-year-old boy who calls himself the "Thief Lord."
Brilliant and charismatic, the Thief Lord leads a ring of street
children who dabble in petty crimes. Prosper and Bo delight in being
part of this colorful new family. But the Thief Lord has secrets of
his own. And soon the boys are thrust into circumstances that will
lead them to a fantastic, spellbinding conclusion.
-
Carolyn: A child's fantasy, where the impossible has a
happy ending - perfect for vegging out on a return trip to Venice.
Why Is It Always About You
- (Sandy Hotchkiss) -
If you pick up this book hoping to understand or
deal with the narcissist(s) in your life, more than likely you'll walk
away figuring you're one yourself. You know the old adage: "It
takes one to know one." And guess what, after reading this book,
you'll know even more about yourself! Sound narcissistic? According to
Hotchkiss, we've all got a touch of that ancient Greek god in us, but
some of us, unfortunately, might have an extra helping of some of the
characteristics associated with narcissism -- egomania, greediness,
insensitivity, etc., etc., etc. Well, now you can learn to keep those
darned navel-gazers at bay with the tips and information in this
guide. And, just for good measure, you might learn a thing or two
about improving the way you relate to others. (Barnes and Nobel
Editors)
-
Carolyn: Frightenly descriptive picture of a
narcissist. Misses on just a few points, and lacks some
sympathy for the narcissist. If you've ever been touched by
one, provides practical survival techniques, and the disappointing
message, "They're never going to get
better". Almost twelve of my friends have bought it on
my recommendation. An increasingly necessary book for the
times.
The Language of Feelings -
(David Viscott) -
-
Carolyn: Written in the late 1970's, this is a view of
healthy relationships based on honest assertiveness - i.e. if
you're angry, show the anger. In healthy relationships, both
parties are whole as separate entities, and therefore learn to
handle the honest emotions and desires of the other, and work together
towards a solution that provides both satisfaction.
Currently out-of-print.
Q is for Quarry -
(Sue Grafton) -
"She was a "Jane Doe," an unidentified white
female whose decomposed body was discovered near a quarry off
California's Highway 1. The case fell to the Santa Teresa County
Sheriff's Department, but the detectives had little to go on. The woman
was young, her hands were bound with a length of wire, there were
multiple stab wounds, and her throat had been slashed. After months of
investigation, the case remained unsolved." "That was eighteen
years go. Now, the two men who found the body, both nearing the end of
long careers in law enforcement, want one last shot at the case. Old and
ill, they need someone to do the legwork for them, and they turn to
Kinsey Millhone. They will, they tell her, find closure if they can just
identify the victim. Kinsey is intrigued with the challenge and agrees
to work with them." But revisiting the past can be a dangerous
business, and what begins with the pursuit of Jane Doe's real identity
ends in a high-risk hunt for her killer.
-
Carolyn: More of the Kinsey Family secrets revealed -
makes this one special. Began to wonder how Grafton would
wrap up her famous character when she gets to 'Z' - Z is for zelot?
Self-Esteem - (Matthew McKay) -
Are you your own worst enemy? Are you devastated by criticism?
Do you have trouble telling your loved ones what you really need? If you
said yes, you're a victim of low self-esteem. Learn to be your own best
friend! This easy, step-by-step program can start changing that today!
You can radically improve the way you feel about yourself and discover
an attractive, confident, and happier you.
-
Carolyn: Comment pending
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix -
(J. K. Rowling) -
There is a Door at the end of a silent corridor.
And it's haunting Harry Potter's dreams. Why else would he be waking
in the middle of the night, screaming in terror? Here are just a few
things on Harry's mind: A Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher with a
personality like poisoned honey. A venomous, disgruntled house-elf.
Ron as keeper of the Gryffindor Quidditch team. The looming terror of
the end-of-term Ordinary Wizarding Level exams ... and of course, the
growing threat of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named. In the richest installment
yet of J. K. Rowling's seven-part story, Harry Potter is faced with
the unreliability of the very government of the magical world and the
impotence of the authorities at Hogwarts. Despite this (or perhaps
because of it), he finds depth and strength in his friends, beyond
what even he knew; boundless loyalty; and unbearable sacrifice. Though
thick runs the plot (as well as the spine), readers will race through
these pages and leave Hogwarts, like Harry, wishing only for the next
train back.
-
Carolyn: Read it once, fast to catch the story, then
skimmed it again for the details. Harry's world slowly
expands to reveal more of the wizarding world, and his reputation
is vindicated, but not without serious cost, and just in time to
reveal Harry's destiny.
The Metaphysical Club - A
Story of Ideas in America - (Louis
Menand) -
The Civil War made America a modern
nation, unleashing forces of industrialism and expansion that had been
kept in check for decades by the quarrel over slavery. But the war
also discredited the ideas and beliefs of the era that preceded it.
The Civil War swept away the slave civilization of the South, but
almost the whole intellectual culture of the North went with it. It
took nearly half a century for Americans to develop a set of ideas, a
way of thinking, that would help them cope with the conditions of
modern life. That struggle is the subject of this book. The story told
in The Metaphysical Club runs through the lives of Oliver Wendell
Holmes, Jr., a Civil War hero who became the dominant legal thinker of
his time; his best friend as a young man, William James, son of an
eccentric moral philosopher, brother of a great novelist, and the
father of modern psychology in America; and the brilliant and troubled
logician, scientist, and founder of semiotics, Charles Sanders Peirce.
Together they belonged to an informal discussion group that met in
Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 1872 and called itself the Metaphysical
Club. The club was probably in existence for only nine months, and no
records were kept. The one thing we know that came out of it was an
idea an idea about ideas, about the role beliefs play in people's
lives. This idea informs the writings of these three thinkers, and the
work of the fourth figure in the book, John Dewey -- student of Peirce,
friend and ally of James, admirer of Holmes. The Metaphysical Club
begins with the Civil War and ends in 1919 with the Supreme Court
decision in Abrams v. U.S., the basis for the modern law of free
speech. It tells the story of the creation of ideas and values that
changed the way Americans think and the way they live.
Jump
to the New York Times review.
-
Carolyn: Comment pending
Inventing Wonderland - Victorian
Childhood as Seen Through the Lives and Fantasies of Lewis Carroll,
Edward Lear, J.M. Barrie, Kenneth Grahame and A.A. Milne
- (Jackie Wullschlager) -
In creating Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, girl-obsessed
loner Charles Dodgson (Lewis Carroll) achieved a breakthrough in
children's literature, a work unparalleled in its freedom of thought
and spirit, observes Wullschlager. In her judgment, Edward Lear's
fantastical poems celebrate his escape from Victorian
narrow-mindedness but also hint at a sense of alienation heightened by
his secret homosexuality. Peter Pan- the naughty boy who refuses to
grow up - mirrors his creator, James M. Barrie, an "emotional
outsider" who idealized his mother, was unable to relate to his
wife and compulsively played with other people's children. Frustrated
banker Kenneth Grahame poured into The Wind in the Willows his
disappointments, fears and hopes, partly reflecting his inability to
accept his disabled, semi-blind son Alastair, who committed suicide at
19. For Financial Times feature writer Wullschlager, A.A. Milne's
Winnie-the-Pooh series crystallizes the 1920s' desire for escape,
light-headedness and nostalgia. A joy to read, the author's
delightfully illustrated study revises our understanding of children's
literature as a cultural barometer mirroring adult anxieties and
aspirations. -- From Publishers Weekly
Jump
to the New York Times Review.
-
Carolyn: Reads like a dissertation, but lots of
fascinating bits about the development of English children's literature
unique to Victorian and Edwardian times, and the commonalities of the lives of these men
who created a new type of literature which strongly influences us
today. All of them required escape into childhood for
various reasons, and all lost a parent at a young age.
Interesting to see it all in one comparison. As much a
commentary on society as it is the men she analyses. A very quick
book to skim. Published in 1995, it just misses the Harry
Potter phenomenon.
The Professor and the Madman - A
Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of the Oxford English
Dictionary - (Simon Winchester) -
The creation of the Oxford English Dictionary began in 1857,
took seventy years to complete, drew from tens of thousands of
brilliant minds, and organized the sprawling language into 414,825
precise definitions. But hidden within the rituals of its creation is
a fascinating and mysterious story - a story of two remarkable men
whose strange twenty-year relationship lies at the core of this
historic undertaking. Professor James Murray, an astonishingly learned
former schoolmaster and bank clerk, was the distinguished editor of
the OED project. Dr. William Chester Minor, an American surgeon from
New Haven, Connecticut, who had served in the Civil War, was one of
thousands of contributors who submitted illustrative quotations of
words to be used in the dictionary. But Minor was no ordinary
contributor. He was remarkably prolific, sending thousands of neat,
handwritten quotations from his home in the small village of
Crowthorne, fifty miles from Oxford. On numerous occasions Murray
invited Minor to visit Oxford and celebrate his work, but Murray's
offer was regularly - and mysteriously - refused. Thus the two men,
for two decades, maintained a close relationship only through
correspondence. Finally, in 1896, after Minor had sent nearly ten
thousand definitions to the dictionary but had still never traveled
from his home, a puzzled Murray set out to visit him. It was then that
Murray finally learned the truth about Minor - that, in addition to
being a masterful wordsmith, Minor was also a murderer, clinically
insane - and locked up in Broadmoor, England's harshest asylum for
criminal lunatics.. Jump
to the New York Times Review.
-
Carolyn: This is a
meticulously researched and fascinating tale, weaving together tidbits on
missionary life in Indonesia in the 1830's, Civil War disciplinary
practice, boarding houses in the slums of Victorian London, the
history of dictionaries
and frightening glimpses of a life lived in paranoia. The
most impressive realization is that someone completely debilitated
by mental illness can make a serious contribution over 20 years to
as monumental an achievement as the development of the OED.
Not surprising that Minor's contribution involved a compulsive
cataloguing of every word that he found in his rare collection of
16th and 17th century books, delivered from imprisonment. We seek to beat away our
demons
by carefully controlling our world - by literally putting every
word in its place. Minor's insight was in determining he could
deliver the one thing the editor of the OED had forgotten - a just-in-time
ready list of words to be documented as they were needed.
Since the first volume (A-B) took 9 years to complete, Minor's
contribution probably saved the early project from dying under its
own weight. I
identified with with the compulsion, the insight and the desire to
contribute to something important anonymously. All Minor
needed was validation from one person who knew the import of his
contribution. I understood that, too. This very compelling and quick read
barely lost it's four-star rating over a couple of slightly annoying
sections - It also didn't help that I read it just after Graham
Greene. Tough act to follow.
John Adams -
(David McCullough) -
One of America's greatest storytellers has
turned to one of America's greatest stories as the source for his most
recent inspiration: a tale of one of the most influential, and often
the most misunderstood, Founding Fathers: John Adams. The result is a
tour de force and pure joy for the reader. Pulitzer. Jump
to the New York Times Review.
-
Carolyn: A man of accurate insight and the courage to
buck public opinion. Always spoke his mind - on occasion in
a flash of temper (which got him into trouble on more than one
occasion and damaged his reputation). A man of integrity and
faith and love of a simple life. A great man, if only for
the reason that he engendered the true love of America's most
remarkable woman, his wife and soul mate, Abigail. He was
the voice of the Constitution, while Jefferson was the pen.
It was Adams who was the earliest of advocates and convinced the
Continental Congress to act. As the nation's second
president, Adams' foresight saved the nation in establishing peace
with Napoleon against all forces in his own party pressing for
war, at the same time pressuring Congress to vote money for a
strong US navy (while undercutting the US army - and Hamilton's
ambitions to create an independent military power in this
country). Like so many presidents to follow, his successor
reaped the credit for his unpopular actions, enabling Jefferson to
make a deal with the French for the Louisiana territory, and stave
off British aggression. Adams comes off as a much more
admirable man than Jefferson, whom McCullough reveals on many
occasions as a two-faced, back-stabbing schemer.
-
-
McCullough doesn't just recount the stirring details of this
memorable life, John Adams is a real man, revealed. Someone
you know. He and Abigail raised a future president in the
remarkable John Quincy Adams, their first-born. The other
three living children did not fare so well in adulthood.
Nabby, their beloved daughter, fell for an ambitious gad-about who
neglected her. At 47, she endured a painful mastectomy
(without anesthesia), and died two years later from the
cancer. Their younger sons both became alcoholics, Charles
abandoning his family and dying of the disease. Abigail took
in all the grandchildren, and raised her niece, as well.
Despite his trials - Adams was an optimistic man.
Interesting to note that all of the first group of US presidents
left office much poorer than than they entered. They knew
service to the country would keep them from earning a regular
living. (It was Abigail who stepped in to run the Adams farm
-while giving birth to 5 children and raising them.) My, how
times have changed in this respect - seems we elect men who only gain
personal benefit from power.
-
-
It was comforting to read this inspiration from the country's
birth when our country is now at war again - a way to both hide
from today's oppressive rhetoric and as a reminder that the
US began this way with warts and all and still managed greatness
in the concept of a government by the people. Adams
walked miles every day almost through the end of his 91 years, and
was a joyful man. Having outlived his wife, all his close
friends, and three of his children, he wrote: "Griefs upon
griefs! Disappointments upon disappointments. What
then? This is a gay, merry world notwithstanding."
The Red Tent -
(Anita Diamant) -
Her name is Dinah. In the Bible, her life is only hinted at in a
brief and violent detour within the more familiar chapters of the Book
of Genesis that are about her father, Jacob, and his dozen sons. Told
in Dinah's voice, this novel reveals the traditions and turmoils of
ancient womanhood - the world of the red tent. It begins with the
story of her mothers - Leah, Rachel, Zilpah, and Bilhah - the four
wives of Jacob. They love Dinah and give her gifts that are to sustain
her through a damaged youth, a calling to midwifery, and a new home in
a foreign land. Jump
to the New York Times Review.
-
Carolyn: Immersion into another world - a world
of women and another time and place - the ancient desert.
Quick reading, but feels sensual and languorous - for a while, you
feel you're living at a slower pace - noticing the patterns of the
sun in the sand, the touch of homespun in your fingers. You
care about the characters, but the biblical account jars the tale
- a disconnect to the story and characters. Thought-provoking and
affirming.
On Writing -
(Stephen King) -
Part memoir, part master class by one of the bestselling authors
of all time, this superb volume is a revealing and practical view of
the writer's craft, comprising the basic tools of the trade every
writer must have. King's advice is grounded in his vivid memories from
childhood through his emergence as a writer, from his struggling early
career to his widely reported near-fatal accident in 1999 -- and how
the inextricable link between writing and living spurred his recovery.
Brilliantly structured, friendly and inspiring, On Writing will
empower and entertain everyone who reads it -- fans, writers, and
anyone who loves a great story well told.. Jump
to the NY Times Review.
-
Carolyn: The most powerful image of King's memoir is of
his wife, pulling a crumpled few paragraphs of Carrie out
of the garbage, saying she wanted to know more about these
characters. King credits his talented wife with a large part
of his success - very sweet. You wonder how she feels about
sticking it out - over 25 years of life with an alcoholic and
addict. It seems as if his passion for writing saved King -
he never had self-doubts about whether writing was his life's
work. No self doubts - that's a gift. King is a blunt
writer, and his rules on writing are simple and good for any genre
- not just suspense-thrillers.
Bridget Jones's Diary
- (Helen Fielding) -
Bridget
struggles to keep her life on an even keel — or at least afloat.
Whenever her plans meet with disaster, she manages to pick herself up,
go out on the town, and tell herself it will be all right in the
morning, when life will definitely be different this time and totally
alcohol, calorie, and perverted-misogynist free. Jump
to the NY Times Review.
-
Carolyn: A lark. A fluffy, funny, quick read with
much painful truth about the reality of many lives of single
30-somethings. Fielding gives a nod to Jane Austin's Pride
and Prejudice with a loose association to the plot.
Unlike in Austin's time, her characters have total social freedom
- but not much substance. Truer to Austin's plot than the movie,
but the book is all over the lot - not as tightly woven. Had
I been in a better mood, it would have been funnier.
Hateship, Friendship, Courtship,
Loveship, Marriage - (Alice Munro) -
Nine stories draw us immediately into that
special place known as Alice Munro territory–a place where an
unexpected twist of events or a suddenly recaptured memory can
illumine the arc of an entire life. The fate of a strong-minded
housekeeper with a “frizz of reddish hair,” just entering the
dangerous country of old-maidhood, is unintentionally (and
deliciously) reversed by a teenaged girl’s practical joke. A college
student visiting her aunt for the first time and recognizing the
family furniture stumbles on a long-hidden secret and its meaning in
her own life. An inveterate philanderer finds the tables turned when
he puts his wife into an old-age home. A young cancer patient stunned
by good news discovers a perfect bridge to her suddenly regained
future. A woman recollecting an afternoon’s wild lovemaking with a
stranger realizes how the memory of that encounter has both changed
for her and sustained her through a lifetime. Men and women are subtly
revealed. Personal histories, both complex and simple, unfold in rich
detail of circumstance and feeling. Hateship, Friendship, Courtship,
Loveship, Marriage provides the deep pleasures and rewards that Alice
Munro’s large and ever- growing audience has come to expect. Jump
to the NY Times Review. Original
NYT Review.
-
Carolyn: Few can rival Alice Munro's ability to tell a
story that's powerful and with complete characters - and Alice
Munro accomplishes this in a matter of pages in each short
story. These stories are gems that speak the
truth. A soft-edged Margaret Drabble.
-
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