The book list starts off a Michael Connelly book, Nine Dragons In my very limited opinion, he’s one of the best crime writer today. Add to the list John Grisham books, The Summons and The Broker, Nelson DeMille’s Spencerville and John Sandford’s Buried Prey. Tom and I listened to them on some recent travels. Best of the bunch, the Michael Connelly or Grisham books.
The book I’ve been reading for the past two months is America Aflame, How the Civil War Created a Nation. It was fascinating reading, but over 500 pages. It read more like a textbook than other non-fiction books I’ve read lately. If you think political squabbles, ineffective legislators, greed, financial collapse are something new to our era, this account will change that perception. The relevance to today’s events was uncanny.
Two quick reads were A Vintage Affair by Isabel Wolff and I married you for Happiness by Lily Tuck. Vintage Affair was about a young woman who resigns from Sotheby's auction house to open a Vintage clothing boutique. It is filled with descriptions of the clothing and the designers who made them. The plot however is more serious. If you enjoyed Russian Winter, you would like this book.
I Married you for Happiness is a slim book that is spare, but very powerful. On the first page you learn that the narrator's husband has died and the rest of the book is remembrances of their lives together. Sounds maudlin, but it's not. Lots of mathematics and probability references. I'm not a mathematician, but I found them very interesting. It is a post-modern book, so the does not move in a straight line, and often dreams are mixed with the present as well as the past. Not an easy book to read, but compelling. It will make the best of the bunch list for 2011.
Showing posts with label reading list. Show all posts
Showing posts with label reading list. Show all posts
Tuesday, December 20, 2011
Monday, September 26, 2011
What I’m reading
On a recent trip, we listened to two Michael Connelly books, The Closers and The Brass Verdict. Good listening, but not memorable
The Greater Journey by David McCullough was a wonderful book. It’s long, took me nearly a month to read it, but I truly enjoyed it. It is subtitled, Americans in Paris, and documents the influx of Americans to Paris between 1830 and 1900. I found the chapters on the siege of Paris at the end of the Franco Prussian war gripping, and the chapters on Augustus St. Gaudens fascinating. Recommend for artists, Francophiles and history lovers.
Tomatoland by Barry Estabrook Estabrook is a journalist who writes mostly for Culinary publications. In this book he begins by searching for what happened to the taste of tomatoes. His search takes him to the Andes where the first tomatoes were found, to the hostile infertile fields of Florida, to laboratories and to an old school farmer in Pennsylvania. Much of the book focuses on the plight of Florida migrant workers. Recommend
Partitions by Amit Majmudar is one of those rare and beautiful books that is a treasure to read. It’s just over 200 pages, but each page is poetry set in prose. Every word counts. It is about the displacement of four people during the civil war in India following the partition of India and Pakistan in 1947. The travelers are an ageing doctor, twin five year old boys and a sixteen year old girl. Their journeys are separate, but strangely connected. It’s the best book I’ve read in a long time.
We are going to be taking a road trip soon, here’s the stash of audio books we are taking with us.
The Greater Journey by David McCullough was a wonderful book. It’s long, took me nearly a month to read it, but I truly enjoyed it. It is subtitled, Americans in Paris, and documents the influx of Americans to Paris between 1830 and 1900. I found the chapters on the siege of Paris at the end of the Franco Prussian war gripping, and the chapters on Augustus St. Gaudens fascinating. Recommend for artists, Francophiles and history lovers.
Tomatoland by Barry Estabrook Estabrook is a journalist who writes mostly for Culinary publications. In this book he begins by searching for what happened to the taste of tomatoes. His search takes him to the Andes where the first tomatoes were found, to the hostile infertile fields of Florida, to laboratories and to an old school farmer in Pennsylvania. Much of the book focuses on the plight of Florida migrant workers. Recommend
Partitions by Amit Majmudar is one of those rare and beautiful books that is a treasure to read. It’s just over 200 pages, but each page is poetry set in prose. Every word counts. It is about the displacement of four people during the civil war in India following the partition of India and Pakistan in 1947. The travelers are an ageing doctor, twin five year old boys and a sixteen year old girl. Their journeys are separate, but strangely connected. It’s the best book I’ve read in a long time.
We are going to be taking a road trip soon, here’s the stash of audio books we are taking with us.
Monday, July 25, 2011
What I’m Reading
Patron Saint of Liars—Ann Patchett
I think this was probably her first published novel, written when she was still in her 20’s. It’s set in the 60’s, near Owensboro, Kentucky, and is about the people who live and work in a home for pregnant women who will be giving their children up for adoption. Patchett shines in her ability to give life to her characters. Good read.
Cleopatra—Stacy Schiff
This was not an easy book to get into. The author is primarily a historian who takes pains to use sources as close to the original as possible, but there are no sources from Cleopatra's contemporaries so there is a lot of speculation and reference to the variety of sources. I received an overdue notice from the library when I was on page 121. Oh well.
The Thoughtful Dresser--Linda Grant
I read Grant's novel, The Clothes on Their Backs several weeks ago and while it was good, this one is much better. the subtitle of the book is The Art of Adornment, the Pleasures of Shopping, and Why Clothes Matter. Lest you think yourself exempt from the frivolity of fashion and shopping, her multitudes of examples leave very few women out of the equation. Recommend, for women of all ages.
We Had it So Good Linda Grant
I'm on a Linda Grant kick, in fact, this was the book I heard about that got me started looking for her books. It's a multi-generational novel with good character development and very good writing. It spans the years from the mid 1950's to the present day. When I read the last page, my word for it was depressing. Enough of that, move on. If you want a good Linda Grant book, read The Thoughtful Dresser.
In the Sanctuary of Outcasts--Neil White
This was the book selected for incoming freshmen at Davidson College to read for orientation discussion groups. The author was convicted of bank fraud and sentenced to a minimum security federal prison in Carville, Louisiana. During the time he served, the prison grounds and buildings also housed the last isolated colony of those disfigured by leprosy. The mix of patients, guards, inmates, provides for great reading. It is fascinating, recommend.
I think this was probably her first published novel, written when she was still in her 20’s. It’s set in the 60’s, near Owensboro, Kentucky, and is about the people who live and work in a home for pregnant women who will be giving their children up for adoption. Patchett shines in her ability to give life to her characters. Good read.
Cleopatra—Stacy Schiff
This was not an easy book to get into. The author is primarily a historian who takes pains to use sources as close to the original as possible, but there are no sources from Cleopatra's contemporaries so there is a lot of speculation and reference to the variety of sources. I received an overdue notice from the library when I was on page 121. Oh well.
The Thoughtful Dresser--Linda Grant
I read Grant's novel, The Clothes on Their Backs several weeks ago and while it was good, this one is much better. the subtitle of the book is The Art of Adornment, the Pleasures of Shopping, and Why Clothes Matter. Lest you think yourself exempt from the frivolity of fashion and shopping, her multitudes of examples leave very few women out of the equation. Recommend, for women of all ages.
We Had it So Good Linda Grant
I'm on a Linda Grant kick, in fact, this was the book I heard about that got me started looking for her books. It's a multi-generational novel with good character development and very good writing. It spans the years from the mid 1950's to the present day. When I read the last page, my word for it was depressing. Enough of that, move on. If you want a good Linda Grant book, read The Thoughtful Dresser.
In the Sanctuary of Outcasts--Neil White
This was the book selected for incoming freshmen at Davidson College to read for orientation discussion groups. The author was convicted of bank fraud and sentenced to a minimum security federal prison in Carville, Louisiana. During the time he served, the prison grounds and buildings also housed the last isolated colony of those disfigured by leprosy. The mix of patients, guards, inmates, provides for great reading. It is fascinating, recommend.
Wednesday, June 15, 2011
What I’m Reading
Sister by Rosamund Lupton
Sister is a beautiful debut novel. The main character receives word that her younger sister is missing. She flies from her home in New York to London only to find that her sister's body is discovered in a desolate area. Although her death is ruled a suicide, her sister refuses to believe it, and thus begins a crime novel and a book about grief. I read it in two days. The writing is superb. Recommend.
State of Wonder by Ann Patchett
Loved it! My daughters used to play a computer game, Amazon Trail. This book was reminiscent of the birds and wildlife of that game, but on a deeper level, there are parallels to Joseph Conrad's classic, Heart of Darkness. The book is skillfully written, and the story is compelling. Basic premise: a research pharmacologist travels to the outer reaches of the Amazon river to follow up on her colleague who has died in the field, and to check on research for a new drug taking place among a tribe with a very unusual culture. Exciting things happen. Recommend.
Caleb's Crossing by Geraldine Brooks
Caleb's Crossing is a historical novel, based on the character, Caleb Cheeshahteaumuck, who was the first native American to graduate from Harvard University in 1665. The next member of his tribe, the
Wampanoag, graduated in May 2011. It is a story of the clash of cultures written when the native Americans were still "selling" land to the new immigrants. Well written, recommend.
March by Geraldine Brooks
Having read and enjoyed both Year of Wonder and Caleb's Crossing, I launched into reading March, another historal novel by Geraldine Brooks. It is a fictionalized account of the father of the March girls who left to join the Union army in his 40's. I found the characters too sentimental and almost put it down several times. Geraldine Brooks should leave the Civil War writings to her husband Tony Horowitz, whose non-fiction book Confederates in the Attic, about Civil War re-enactments was a treasure.
The Poacher's Son by Paul Doiron
A friend I reconnected with at my high school reunion sent me this book as the author is an aquaintance of hers. The central character is a wildlife officer in central Maine. It's at once a crime novel, but also very much a novel with a sense of place. It made me want to learn more about the area where the book is set. The author is the editor of Down East, the Magazine of Maine, and he has a new release, Tresspasser. It was a change of pace for me and I enjoyed it.
House of Prayer No. 2
Even though we have moved from Indiana to Florida, I continue to subscribe to an electronic newsletter from the Vanderburgh County Public Library. House of Prayer No. 2 was one of their non-fiction recommendations. My library in Port Orange had a copy and I started reading it without knowing much about it. I was initially put off by the second person narrative which began the story with short choppy sentences, but I became accustomed to it, and the sentences grew in length and depth as the character moved from childhood to maturity. It's a medical history, a writer's memoir, and a spiritual autobiography rolled into one. Recommend.
Best of the Bunch
State of Wonder
Caleb's Crossing
Sister
House of Prayer No. 2
If you are interested in subscribing to the newsletters available from the Evansville-Vanderburgh Public Library, here's the address. You do not need to be a cardholder or a resident to receive the email newsletters.
I subscribe to two newsletters
Fiction A-Z
History and Current Events
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Sister is a beautiful debut novel. The main character receives word that her younger sister is missing. She flies from her home in New York to London only to find that her sister's body is discovered in a desolate area. Although her death is ruled a suicide, her sister refuses to believe it, and thus begins a crime novel and a book about grief. I read it in two days. The writing is superb. Recommend.
State of Wonder by Ann Patchett
Loved it! My daughters used to play a computer game, Amazon Trail. This book was reminiscent of the birds and wildlife of that game, but on a deeper level, there are parallels to Joseph Conrad's classic, Heart of Darkness. The book is skillfully written, and the story is compelling. Basic premise: a research pharmacologist travels to the outer reaches of the Amazon river to follow up on her colleague who has died in the field, and to check on research for a new drug taking place among a tribe with a very unusual culture. Exciting things happen. Recommend.
Caleb's Crossing by Geraldine Brooks
Caleb's Crossing is a historical novel, based on the character, Caleb Cheeshahteaumuck, who was the first native American to graduate from Harvard University in 1665. The next member of his tribe, the
Wampanoag, graduated in May 2011. It is a story of the clash of cultures written when the native Americans were still "selling" land to the new immigrants. Well written, recommend.
March by Geraldine Brooks
Having read and enjoyed both Year of Wonder and Caleb's Crossing, I launched into reading March, another historal novel by Geraldine Brooks. It is a fictionalized account of the father of the March girls who left to join the Union army in his 40's. I found the characters too sentimental and almost put it down several times. Geraldine Brooks should leave the Civil War writings to her husband Tony Horowitz, whose non-fiction book Confederates in the Attic, about Civil War re-enactments was a treasure.
The Poacher's Son by Paul Doiron
A friend I reconnected with at my high school reunion sent me this book as the author is an aquaintance of hers. The central character is a wildlife officer in central Maine. It's at once a crime novel, but also very much a novel with a sense of place. It made me want to learn more about the area where the book is set. The author is the editor of Down East, the Magazine of Maine, and he has a new release, Tresspasser. It was a change of pace for me and I enjoyed it.
House of Prayer No. 2
Even though we have moved from Indiana to Florida, I continue to subscribe to an electronic newsletter from the Vanderburgh County Public Library. House of Prayer No. 2 was one of their non-fiction recommendations. My library in Port Orange had a copy and I started reading it without knowing much about it. I was initially put off by the second person narrative which began the story with short choppy sentences, but I became accustomed to it, and the sentences grew in length and depth as the character moved from childhood to maturity. It's a medical history, a writer's memoir, and a spiritual autobiography rolled into one. Recommend.
Best of the Bunch
State of Wonder
Caleb's Crossing
Sister
House of Prayer No. 2
If you are interested in subscribing to the newsletters available from the Evansville-Vanderburgh Public Library, here's the address. You do not need to be a cardholder or a resident to receive the email newsletters.
I subscribe to two newsletters
Fiction A-Z
History and Current Events
Monday, June 13, 2011
Blocked Creativity
Lately I've spent a lot more time reading than in my studio. The last sewing project I undertook was to recover the cushions on the porch furniture. My creative spirit seems to be in deep hiding, and my studio gathers dust.
Possible causes:
Disintegration of monthly art group
Rejection of creative project article by national magazine
Sale of personal items on EBay takes a lot of time
Solutions:
Find another quilt guild and make a commitment to attend
Move on after rejection, lots of people get rejected on their first try
Take some local classes at quilt shops
Keep selling the good stuff on EBay and donate the other stuff. Clutter removed allows space for creativity.
Attend CREATE, mixed media retreat in Chicago.
That said, I have read some great books of late.
By the Rivers of Babylon – Nelson DeMilleIn April we spent four days in the car traveling to and from Kentucky. We drove over 1600 miles, and this book on 14 cd’s consumed a lot of time. It is set sometime in the 1980’s and involves a peace delegation from Israel and a band of renegade Palestinians who have hijacked their plane. Nothing particularly memorable, but it was an engrossing travel book. Lots of Biblical references to Babylon.
In the Woods--Tana French
I previously read her third novel Faithful Place and this one had many of the same themes. It involves a team of detectives investigating a murder at an archaeological site. One of the detectives was a victim of a crime committed at the same site some twenty years earlier. As with Faithful Place, a dysfunctional Irish family is at the heart of the novel.
Russian Winter--Daphne Kalotry
This is a gem of a novel. It has so many overlapping themes and layers. I absolutely recommend it. It chronicles the life of a Russian ballet dancer during the Stalin era: her acceptance into the Bolshoi school, her rise through the ranks, her defection to the West, and her auction of her jewelry to benefit the Boston Ballet. It has romance, entanglements, family strife, political repression, search for birth parents, and auction house intrigue. Recommend.
So Much Pretty--Cara Hoffman
A novel about violence directed towards women, this time a young waitress who disappears in a rural town in New York. I read this one fairly quickly, but like much current fiction, it's told in fragments. This one uses different voices as well as varied materials as if the reader were a journalist researching a topic from original sources. Maybe I'm a lazy reader, but I find this style of writing annoying and difficult to read. That said, the story line was compelling. (History of Love uses several of the same constructs, but the author is more skillful than Cara Hoffman.)
Among the Truthers --Jonathan Kay
We are fascinated by conspiracy theories, some of us much more so than others. In this non-fiction book, Canadian, Jonathan Kay explores the world of conspiracy theorists whose numbers have grown significantly with the rise of the Internet. True converts to a particular theory live almost exclusively in the cyber world with like minded people. He examines conspiracy theories of all stripes, medical, (Autism is caused by vaccines), literary (Shakespeare was a fraud), alien abductions, Obama was born in Kenya, messiah narratives, and the biggest of all, the conspiracies behind the 9/11 disaster. A look at current American culture through the eyes of an outsider.
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks--Rebecca Skloot
Outstanding, a wonderful companion read to Autobiography of Cancer which I reviewed in the last post. This is a very readable non-fiction book which becomes increasingly difficult to put down. Cells taken from Henrietta Lacks continue to grow in labs today and have been very valuable in research for cures for disease. This book looks at how those cells have helped advance research, but also how her family was ignored during the whole process. One of her relatives asks the question, "If her cells were so important, if so many companies have made money selling her cells to other research institutes, why can't we get health insurance"?
The Clothes on their Backs--Linda Grant
This book was short listed for the Man Booker Prize, Britain's top prize for fiction. OK, but not great. I heard about this author on a radio spot promoting her book about life in Great Britain in the post WWII years. I'm still looking for that book at my local library, We Had it so Good.
The History of Love --Nicole Krauss
Beautiful book, artfully constructed. It's difficult to describe without giving away too much. There are three generations of people who are connected only by the book, A History of Love. The book was written in 1938 by a 20 year old in Poland before he fled to the woods to escape the Holocaust. The story unfolds as we discover how the book survived, was published and how it affects the lives of the primary characters. As soon as I finished it, I picked it up to read again just to savor the words. Recommend.
The Man in the Rockefeller Suit --Mark Seal
The account of an impostor, who as a teenager emigrates to the US from Germany under the guise of a foreign exchange student. He adopts an upwardly mobile set of identities and eventually bluffs his way into exclusive clubs, adopts the persona, Clark Rockefeller, a fictional cousin of the cousins of the family of John D. Rockefeller. Interesting reading, it was recommended in Newsweek as one of the must reads of the summer.
Best of the bunch? History of Love, Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, and Russian Winter
Books on my saved list at the library
Sister
The Postmistress
The Girl's Guide to Homelessness
The Alice behind Wonderland
Cleopatra, A Life
America Aflame: How the Civil War created a Nation
We had it so Good --Not yet available at my library
State of Wonder
Wonder if I will get through all of them?
Possible causes:
Disintegration of monthly art group
Rejection of creative project article by national magazine
Sale of personal items on EBay takes a lot of time
Solutions:
Find another quilt guild and make a commitment to attend
Move on after rejection, lots of people get rejected on their first try
Take some local classes at quilt shops
Keep selling the good stuff on EBay and donate the other stuff. Clutter removed allows space for creativity.
Attend CREATE, mixed media retreat in Chicago.
That said, I have read some great books of late.
By the Rivers of Babylon – Nelson DeMilleIn April we spent four days in the car traveling to and from Kentucky. We drove over 1600 miles, and this book on 14 cd’s consumed a lot of time. It is set sometime in the 1980’s and involves a peace delegation from Israel and a band of renegade Palestinians who have hijacked their plane. Nothing particularly memorable, but it was an engrossing travel book. Lots of Biblical references to Babylon.
In the Woods--Tana French
I previously read her third novel Faithful Place and this one had many of the same themes. It involves a team of detectives investigating a murder at an archaeological site. One of the detectives was a victim of a crime committed at the same site some twenty years earlier. As with Faithful Place, a dysfunctional Irish family is at the heart of the novel.
Russian Winter--Daphne Kalotry
This is a gem of a novel. It has so many overlapping themes and layers. I absolutely recommend it. It chronicles the life of a Russian ballet dancer during the Stalin era: her acceptance into the Bolshoi school, her rise through the ranks, her defection to the West, and her auction of her jewelry to benefit the Boston Ballet. It has romance, entanglements, family strife, political repression, search for birth parents, and auction house intrigue. Recommend.
So Much Pretty--Cara Hoffman
A novel about violence directed towards women, this time a young waitress who disappears in a rural town in New York. I read this one fairly quickly, but like much current fiction, it's told in fragments. This one uses different voices as well as varied materials as if the reader were a journalist researching a topic from original sources. Maybe I'm a lazy reader, but I find this style of writing annoying and difficult to read. That said, the story line was compelling. (History of Love uses several of the same constructs, but the author is more skillful than Cara Hoffman.)
Among the Truthers --Jonathan Kay
We are fascinated by conspiracy theories, some of us much more so than others. In this non-fiction book, Canadian, Jonathan Kay explores the world of conspiracy theorists whose numbers have grown significantly with the rise of the Internet. True converts to a particular theory live almost exclusively in the cyber world with like minded people. He examines conspiracy theories of all stripes, medical, (Autism is caused by vaccines), literary (Shakespeare was a fraud), alien abductions, Obama was born in Kenya, messiah narratives, and the biggest of all, the conspiracies behind the 9/11 disaster. A look at current American culture through the eyes of an outsider.
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks--Rebecca Skloot
Outstanding, a wonderful companion read to Autobiography of Cancer which I reviewed in the last post. This is a very readable non-fiction book which becomes increasingly difficult to put down. Cells taken from Henrietta Lacks continue to grow in labs today and have been very valuable in research for cures for disease. This book looks at how those cells have helped advance research, but also how her family was ignored during the whole process. One of her relatives asks the question, "If her cells were so important, if so many companies have made money selling her cells to other research institutes, why can't we get health insurance"?
The Clothes on their Backs--Linda Grant
This book was short listed for the Man Booker Prize, Britain's top prize for fiction. OK, but not great. I heard about this author on a radio spot promoting her book about life in Great Britain in the post WWII years. I'm still looking for that book at my local library, We Had it so Good.
The History of Love --Nicole Krauss
Beautiful book, artfully constructed. It's difficult to describe without giving away too much. There are three generations of people who are connected only by the book, A History of Love. The book was written in 1938 by a 20 year old in Poland before he fled to the woods to escape the Holocaust. The story unfolds as we discover how the book survived, was published and how it affects the lives of the primary characters. As soon as I finished it, I picked it up to read again just to savor the words. Recommend.
The Man in the Rockefeller Suit --Mark Seal
The account of an impostor, who as a teenager emigrates to the US from Germany under the guise of a foreign exchange student. He adopts an upwardly mobile set of identities and eventually bluffs his way into exclusive clubs, adopts the persona, Clark Rockefeller, a fictional cousin of the cousins of the family of John D. Rockefeller. Interesting reading, it was recommended in Newsweek as one of the must reads of the summer.
Best of the bunch? History of Love, Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, and Russian Winter
Books on my saved list at the library
Sister
The Postmistress
The Girl's Guide to Homelessness
The Alice behind Wonderland
Cleopatra, A Life
America Aflame: How the Civil War created a Nation
We had it so Good --Not yet available at my library
State of Wonder
Wonder if I will get through all of them?
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
What I’m Reading
I used to read mostly fiction, but lately I have found I read a good sprinkling of non-fiction.
The Emperor of all Maladies a biography of cancer- by Siddhartha Mukherjee
This was a brilliant book. Like many of you I have lost loved ones to cancer and several family members are currently survivors of surgery, chemo and radiation. It’s paragraphs like this that brought tears to my eyes.
But the story of leukemia—the story of cancer—isn’t the story of doctors who struggle and survive moving from one institution to another. It is the story of patients who struggle and survive, moving from one embankment of illness to another. Resilience, inventiveness, and survivorship—qualities often ascribed to great physicians—are reflected qualities, emanating first from those who struggle with illness and only then mirrored by those who treat them. If the history of medicine is told through the stories of doctors, it is because their contributions stand in place of the more substantive heroism of their patients.
Above all it is a book of hope. I recommend, however, there is a lot of technical information about the behavior of cancer in DNA. It took me over a month to read it, but I consider it time well spent
Blackbird by Jennifer Lauck
This book was like many other memoirs of an awful childhood, raw and poingnant. The author was the daughter of a teen mother who was forced to give her up for adoption in 1963. The situation she ended up in left her homeless and rootless at the age of 10. I've probably told you more than you need to know. It's a quick read.
Found by Jennifer Lauck
In this continuation of her Blackbird memoir, the author writes about coming to terms with the losses she experienced as a child and the search for her first mother who gave her up as an infant. The book will be compelling for those in the birth mother, adoptee, adoptive parents triangle, but the rest of us can only appreciate her struggles on a surface level.
Word Freak by Stephen Fatsis
I confess, I'm borderline addicted to the smart phone/ipad/itouch app, Words with Friends. The author wrote this book several years ago after he took a leave of absence from his job with the Wall Street Journal to immerse himself in the world of Scrabble tournaments. I don't think I'll ever memorize the hundreds of acceptable 2 and 3 word entries or the acceptable entries with Q and no U, but I am finding that QI and QAT are helpful to know. Don't look for me on the scrabble tournament circuit, but if you too are addicted to WWF, send me your UN, and I'll send you a bubble. See, I'm already deep into the lingo.
Parrot and Olivier—by Peter Carey
Some books just have too many words. This one included. It had a lot of references to French and English history and literature. The author assumed you knew a lot, and I found myself doing a internet research such as a time-line search for the return to the French monarchy after the Napoleonic era. I found the two narrator style to be confusing as they were often commenting on things that had not yet happened, or were filling in the gaps of previous narrative. It was fiction, but not an easy book to read. Skip the book and read the summary on Amazon, and you will know everything you need to know to converse brilliantly.
The Emperor of all Maladies a biography of cancer- by Siddhartha Mukherjee
This was a brilliant book. Like many of you I have lost loved ones to cancer and several family members are currently survivors of surgery, chemo and radiation. It’s paragraphs like this that brought tears to my eyes.
But the story of leukemia—the story of cancer—isn’t the story of doctors who struggle and survive moving from one institution to another. It is the story of patients who struggle and survive, moving from one embankment of illness to another. Resilience, inventiveness, and survivorship—qualities often ascribed to great physicians—are reflected qualities, emanating first from those who struggle with illness and only then mirrored by those who treat them. If the history of medicine is told through the stories of doctors, it is because their contributions stand in place of the more substantive heroism of their patients.
Above all it is a book of hope. I recommend, however, there is a lot of technical information about the behavior of cancer in DNA. It took me over a month to read it, but I consider it time well spent
Blackbird by Jennifer Lauck
This book was like many other memoirs of an awful childhood, raw and poingnant. The author was the daughter of a teen mother who was forced to give her up for adoption in 1963. The situation she ended up in left her homeless and rootless at the age of 10. I've probably told you more than you need to know. It's a quick read.
Found by Jennifer Lauck
In this continuation of her Blackbird memoir, the author writes about coming to terms with the losses she experienced as a child and the search for her first mother who gave her up as an infant. The book will be compelling for those in the birth mother, adoptee, adoptive parents triangle, but the rest of us can only appreciate her struggles on a surface level.
Word Freak by Stephen Fatsis
I confess, I'm borderline addicted to the smart phone/ipad/itouch app, Words with Friends. The author wrote this book several years ago after he took a leave of absence from his job with the Wall Street Journal to immerse himself in the world of Scrabble tournaments. I don't think I'll ever memorize the hundreds of acceptable 2 and 3 word entries or the acceptable entries with Q and no U, but I am finding that QI and QAT are helpful to know. Don't look for me on the scrabble tournament circuit, but if you too are addicted to WWF, send me your UN, and I'll send you a bubble. See, I'm already deep into the lingo.
Parrot and Olivier—by Peter Carey
Some books just have too many words. This one included. It had a lot of references to French and English history and literature. The author assumed you knew a lot, and I found myself doing a internet research such as a time-line search for the return to the French monarchy after the Napoleonic era. I found the two narrator style to be confusing as they were often commenting on things that had not yet happened, or were filling in the gaps of previous narrative. It was fiction, but not an easy book to read. Skip the book and read the summary on Amazon, and you will know everything you need to know to converse brilliantly.
Sunday, February 27, 2011
What I'm Reading
Faithful Place by Tana French. It's on a few best lists for 2010. It's a murder mystery set in Dublin over a span of 20 years. My brother tells me it is the third in this author's books about a cop in Dublin, Ireland.
Gilead. Started it twice, determined to finish it. I hate to dis a Pulitzer prize winner, but besides from some beautiful prose, the novel went nowhere. She did quote the fourth verse from a beautiful Isaac Watts hymn, O God Our Help in Ages Past.
Time, like an ever rolling stream,
Bears all its sons away;
They fly, forgotten, as a dream
Dies at the opening day.
Country Driving by Peter Hessler--Hessler lived in China when he was a Peace Corps volunteer right out of college. After teaching in a town on the Yangtze River for two years he became the Beijing correspondent for the New Yorker magazine. His first book River Town was about his Peace Corps experience. It was a book I enjoyed. Country Driving may be even better. It is an account of the monumental changes sweeping across China as they move from farm to factory. The first section is about a road trip he takes paralleling the Great Wall. Before taking off hefirst he had to pass a Chinese driving exam. Here are a couple of excerpts from the study book.
After passing another vehicle, you should
a) wait until there is a safe distance between the two vehicles, make a right turn signal, and return to the original lane.
b) cut in front of the other car as quickly as possible.
c) cut in front of the other car and then slow down.
When overtaking another car, a driver should pass
a) on the left
b) on the right
c) wherever, depending on the situation
There are 429 multiple choice questions in the study book and 256 true/false questions, i.e.
In a taxi, it's fine to carry a small amount of explosive material
The conversations with the car rental company he uses are hilarious. It was a very well written book, recommend.
I got pulled in to another Ken Follett novel, Fall of Giants, when my brother loaned it to me a a few weeks ago. It is amazing how fast 985 pages can go. I do have to say that I considered buying some kind of reader after holding this 4 pound book. The book covers the build up to WW1 and the changes that happened in Europe after the war. It was an interesting period, but I didn't like it as much as Pillars of the Earth and World Without End. Fall of Giants is the first in his century trilogy. I'll likely read the others too. I have an idea he will use some of the same characters.
Factory Girls by Lesley Chang. The author, Peter Hessler's wife, takes a look at the young women in China who leave their homes in small villages to come to factory towns in southern China. The book was fascinating from a social science perspective. China is experiencing a huge wave of migration as well as an industrial revolution. I think the author tried to cover too much territory. I would have preferred that she write solely about the women who "go out" rather than weaving her own family's narritive into the book.
The Imperfectionists by Tom Rachman. This is a very different book, really a collection of vignettes about the staff of an English language newspaper in Rome. It is very cleverly written, and many of the stories have an unexpected twist. It's the best fiction book in the bunch.
Gilead. Started it twice, determined to finish it. I hate to dis a Pulitzer prize winner, but besides from some beautiful prose, the novel went nowhere. She did quote the fourth verse from a beautiful Isaac Watts hymn, O God Our Help in Ages Past.
Time, like an ever rolling stream,
Bears all its sons away;
They fly, forgotten, as a dream
Dies at the opening day.
Country Driving by Peter Hessler--Hessler lived in China when he was a Peace Corps volunteer right out of college. After teaching in a town on the Yangtze River for two years he became the Beijing correspondent for the New Yorker magazine. His first book River Town was about his Peace Corps experience. It was a book I enjoyed. Country Driving may be even better. It is an account of the monumental changes sweeping across China as they move from farm to factory. The first section is about a road trip he takes paralleling the Great Wall. Before taking off hefirst he had to pass a Chinese driving exam. Here are a couple of excerpts from the study book.
After passing another vehicle, you should
a) wait until there is a safe distance between the two vehicles, make a right turn signal, and return to the original lane.
b) cut in front of the other car as quickly as possible.
c) cut in front of the other car and then slow down.
When overtaking another car, a driver should pass
a) on the left
b) on the right
c) wherever, depending on the situation
There are 429 multiple choice questions in the study book and 256 true/false questions, i.e.
In a taxi, it's fine to carry a small amount of explosive material
The conversations with the car rental company he uses are hilarious. It was a very well written book, recommend.
I got pulled in to another Ken Follett novel, Fall of Giants, when my brother loaned it to me a a few weeks ago. It is amazing how fast 985 pages can go. I do have to say that I considered buying some kind of reader after holding this 4 pound book. The book covers the build up to WW1 and the changes that happened in Europe after the war. It was an interesting period, but I didn't like it as much as Pillars of the Earth and World Without End. Fall of Giants is the first in his century trilogy. I'll likely read the others too. I have an idea he will use some of the same characters.
Factory Girls by Lesley Chang. The author, Peter Hessler's wife, takes a look at the young women in China who leave their homes in small villages to come to factory towns in southern China. The book was fascinating from a social science perspective. China is experiencing a huge wave of migration as well as an industrial revolution. I think the author tried to cover too much territory. I would have preferred that she write solely about the women who "go out" rather than weaving her own family's narritive into the book.
The Imperfectionists by Tom Rachman. This is a very different book, really a collection of vignettes about the staff of an English language newspaper in Rome. It is very cleverly written, and many of the stories have an unexpected twist. It's the best fiction book in the bunch.
Friday, December 17, 2010
what I'm reading
A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens. This was a wonderful book. Even though I knew how it ended, I was spellbound for the last thirty pages. I may have to re-read Great Expectations. I was astonished to learn that Oprah had chosen those two books for her 2011 book list.
At Home by Bill Bryson could have been a lot shorter. It was interesting, but I've forgotten most of the interesting facts he wrote about. It was easy to pick up and put down.
Nature Girl by Carl Hiaasan, and Angels Flight by Michael Connely were audio books we listened to while traveling during Thanksgiving. It's easy to miss exits when you are in the midst of a mystery. Neither one memorable, but good travel companions.
Room by Emma Donoghue has the most unusual narrator of any book I've read recently. I don't want to give too much of it away, but the narrator is five year old Jack who has lived all his life with his mother in a single room. Very quick read that stays with you. I highly recommend this book.
Waiting for Snow in Havana and Waiting to Die in Miami by Carlos Eire are both fascinating books. I lived in Florida during the years leading up to and several years following the the Cuban revolution. Before he was deposed and went to live in Spain, the Cuban dictator Batista had a home in my community. For a few years I went to a private school which was also attended by Cuban children. I returned to public school in the winter of 1959 when armed bodyguards became a fixture at the school. Later in high school I became friends with two boys who were part of the Pedro Pan airlift. Between 1960 and 1962, 14,000 Cuban children left Cuba and their families for life in the United States. Carlos Eire was one of those children and these two books tell his story of life in Cuba before the revolution and life in the United States after he left everything behind. Both are beautifully written books which I highly recommend.
At Home by Bill Bryson could have been a lot shorter. It was interesting, but I've forgotten most of the interesting facts he wrote about. It was easy to pick up and put down.
Nature Girl by Carl Hiaasan, and Angels Flight by Michael Connely were audio books we listened to while traveling during Thanksgiving. It's easy to miss exits when you are in the midst of a mystery. Neither one memorable, but good travel companions.
Room by Emma Donoghue has the most unusual narrator of any book I've read recently. I don't want to give too much of it away, but the narrator is five year old Jack who has lived all his life with his mother in a single room. Very quick read that stays with you. I highly recommend this book.
Waiting for Snow in Havana and Waiting to Die in Miami by Carlos Eire are both fascinating books. I lived in Florida during the years leading up to and several years following the the Cuban revolution. Before he was deposed and went to live in Spain, the Cuban dictator Batista had a home in my community. For a few years I went to a private school which was also attended by Cuban children. I returned to public school in the winter of 1959 when armed bodyguards became a fixture at the school. Later in high school I became friends with two boys who were part of the Pedro Pan airlift. Between 1960 and 1962, 14,000 Cuban children left Cuba and their families for life in the United States. Carlos Eire was one of those children and these two books tell his story of life in Cuba before the revolution and life in the United States after he left everything behind. Both are beautifully written books which I highly recommend.
Friday, November 5, 2010
What I’m reading
I finished Freedom by Jeffrey Franzen. New book, lots of hype, but I liked it a lot. It was a very complex plot with lots of layers and recurring themes. Just what a great novel is supposed to be.
I took a break from current fiction and read The Good Earth, Pearl Buck’s Pulitzer prize winner from the ‘30’s. Excellent book, I understand how it has stood the test of time.
Ken Follett, World Without End is 929 pages of medieval history. This book has it all, sex, politics, back stabbing, black death, murder and romance. It was a page turner.
Loving medieval history, I couldn't help myself and started reading Ken Follett's companion to World without End, Pillars of the Earth. It was 983 pages long. More sex, treachery, concealed identities, and of course murder. The book culminates with the murder of the Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Becket in 1170.
Although I read it a couple of years ago, another medieval history novel was Year of Wonders by Geraldine Brooks. It's about a village affected by the plague that cut itself off from the outside world to prevent the villagers from leaving and infecting others.
For non-fiction, I read The Forger's Spell: A True Story of Vermeer, Nazis, and the Greatest Art Hoax of the Twentieth Century by Edward Dolnick. . Makes you wonder how many fakes are hanging in museums. Very good book.
Bury Your Dead, by Louise Penny. I do not recommend. It's about a murder investigation in Quebec. I don’t have enough background in Canadian history, especially Quebec separatists, to appreciate it. Don't know why I continued to read it except it had a mystery and I wanted to know what happened.
Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese. An absolutely splendid novel about complicated family relationships centered on twins abandoned at birth. Set in a mission hospital in Ethiopia and an urban hospital in the US, it was a fabulous book. Highly recommend.
Next up: A Tale of Two Cities. Charles Dickens classic about the French revolution. My sixth grade teacher read this book to us every day after lunch. I can remember the whole class being mesmerized by the story. Last year I read Anthony Trollope's The Way We Live Now, a loooong Victorian novel about greed, politics, power and financial ruin.
Friday, September 17, 2010
What I’m Reading
After Laurel’s wedding I had a hysterectomy. I’m four weeks out now. Progress has been unremarkable, but slow. I still have to limit activities, so instead of making quilts and art, I have been reading (and watching Mad Men DVD’s)
Little Bee by Chris Cleave
The Stieg Larsson Trilogy
Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Girl Who Played with Fire
Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest
So Brave, Young and Handsome by Leif Enger
Waiting by Ha Jin
My current books: Empire of the Summer Moon by S. C. Gwynne and Freedom by Jonathan Franzen
Little Bee—Liked, unusual story, compelling characters
Larsson Trilogy—suspenseful page turners. Dragon Tattoo is a stand alone book, the second and third book are part one and two of the same story. Don’t start reading Girl Who Played with Fire without knowing where you are going to get Hornet’s Nest.
So Brave, Young and Handsome—best book I have read this year. Absolutely beautiful prose. It’s a wonderful story wonderfully told, and if you haven’t read his first novel, Peace Like a River, read it too. They are completely different stories, but equally beautifully written. He and Elizabeth Strout are among my favorite authors.
Waiting—It took a long time for this book to get interesting, (thus the title?) but I did enjoy it. It’s a post cultural revolution look at social mores in China.
Empire of the Summer Moon—This is the only non-fiction book in the group, but it reads like a novel. Fascinating story of the Comanche the most powerful tribe in American history. I’ve stopped reading it for now as I just picked up Jonathan Franzen’s new book from the library.
Freedom—So far I am really enjoying this book. I’ve read about a hundred pages. The only bad thing is that a heavy smoker read the book before me…the downside of a library book.
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