“Guarded by soldiers in machine-gun towers, none of them were charged with any crime against the United States. In COMPREHENSIVE, INFORMATIVE AND SAD.
“Guarded by soldiers in machine-gun towers, none of them were charged with any crime against the United States. In fact, there was not a single American of Japanese descent, alien or citizen, charged with espionage or sabotage during the war.�—page 6
As national policy blunders go, Executive Order 9066 was a doozie. The forced removal, and indeterminate imprisonment in concentration camps, of more that one hundred and twenty thousand Japanese Americans (seven out of ten of whom were U. S. citizens) in truly horrible conditions—in the words of Depression-era photographer, Dorothea Lange, “entirely on the basis of what blood may be coursing through a person’s veins…� (page 156)—and place of residence, was unconscionable.
Richard Reeves’s book INFAMY: The Shocking Story of the Japanese American Internment in World War II, offers an insightful, illuminating, and comprehensive look at the times, the people and the attitudes of the period. It is also the first time that I learned about the two thousand Latin Americans of Japanese descent who were kidnapped, held imprisoned in Crystal City, Texas, and used to exchange for diplomatic Americans held in Japan. [That moves Jan Jarboe Russell’s book, The Train to Crystal City up my to-read list.]
The role and riots of the Tule Lake segregation center—for those considered and/or confused into seeming ‘disloyal’—was new to me, too.
Kudos to Dorothea Lange, Ansel Adams and Pearl Buck. Shame on you Dr. Seuss. Shame on you Earl Warren. Shame on you Aimee Semple McPherson. Quadruple shame on you Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
Recommendation: Read, study, and think about the similarities of attitudes prevailing then and now.
“When Private Shiro Kashino, who joined the army from Minidoka, first saw the row of huts behind barbed wire at Dachau, he said, ‘This is exactly what they had built for us in Idaho.' �—page 209
“The Japanese American experience clearly answered the question, ‘Could it happen here?� It did.�—page 240
”As a dancer, you don’t have to arrive at a destination, you only have to travel beautifully.�—page 82
Pygmalion with almond-shapeAN ENTERTAINING READ.
”As a dancer, you don’t have to arrive at a destination, you only have to travel beautifully.�—page 82
Pygmalion with almond-shaped eyes and a great sense of balance.
Culture, tradition, poverty, and just plain clumsiness all conspire to keep ABC (American Born Chinese), Charlie Wong the ugly duckling she sees herself to be; in Jean Kwok’s latest novel, Mambo in Chinatown, about immigrant life in America. That is, until happenstance and a great looking foot, launch her on a new career path as a ballroom dancing instructor, and the mostly beautiful swan she is gets to emerge.
Recommendation: Though a bit juvenile at times, the story does manage to be interesting and entertaining; and it does offer some uncomfortable glimpses at the difficulties for both first- and second-generation immigrants.
”Every change has a hello and a good-bye in it, you know? You always have to leave in order to go on to something new.�—page 158
With one big, chatty, gossipy, hug of a memoir, THE MOCKINGBIRD NEXT DOOR: LIFE WITH HARPER LEE, Marja Mills reminisces aboWARM AND FUZZY AND MUNDANE.
With one big, chatty, gossipy, hug of a memoir, THE MOCKINGBIRD NEXT DOOR: LIFE WITH HARPER LEE, Marja Mills reminisces about befriending, being befriended by, and spending some time living next door, in small-town Alabama, to two semi-reclusive, somewhat guarded, very old, but spry enough, spinster sisters: Alice and Nelle. Of feeding the ducks at the local pond, of drinking gallons of McDonald’s coffee together, and even of sharing laundry chores at the laundromat—mostly with the younger, more mobile, sister.
Oh. And did she happen to mention that this septuagenarian/octogenarian queen of the coin-operated launderette was also the Pulitzer Prize winning novelist, Harper Lee—beloved by many, marveled at by mostly all—whose mother was definitely not a crazy lady, despite what Truman Capote, who even as a boy only ever told lies, might have had to say on the matter.
Recommendation: You cannot not read this memoir. It’s by someone who actually knows, and is real friends with, Nelle Harper Lee, for crying out loud. Only wish there were more insights into what makes the great lady tick.
“It was never clear whether Scott Fitzgerald ‘invented� the flapper, ‘discovered� her, or exploited her.�
FroINTERESTING, INFORMATIVE AND ENTERTAINING.
“It was never clear whether Scott Fitzgerald ‘invented� the flapper, ‘discovered� her, or exploited her.�
From the untenable mores of the Victorian-Era to the ‘Unaffordable Excess� of the Jazz Age; the opening decades of the twentieth century saw western culture turned on its head. Style, celebrity, journalism, fashion, consumerism, entertainment, and most especially, attitudes all underwent radical changes in a very short span of time. And aren’t we the lucky ones for it.
Joshua Seitz offers up many interesting and entertaining perspectives on the cultural and sociological causes and effects of the ‘Roaring 20s� in his enjoyable book: FLAPPER: A Madcap Story of Sex, Style, Celebrity, and the Women Who Made America Modern. From F. Scott Fitzgerald and Zelda Sayre; to the girl with “a mind full of fabulations,� Coco Chanel; to screen idol, Clara Bow—the ‘It� girl, who never really got what ‘It� was—this book is jammed packed with exciting times, places and people.
Recommendation: Of course you should read this one. And recommend it to you book club, too.
“The flapper was, in effect, the first thoroughly modern American.”—page 301
“Limp with sudden languishment, Frieda drops her pencil; her fingers hold the shape of its absence.”—page 13FIVE-STAR MATERIAL, ONE-STAR PRESENTATION.
“Limp with sudden languishment, Frieda drops her pencil; her fingers hold the shape of its absence.”—page 130
The best passage of CHARITY GIRL, by Michael Lowenthal comes not within the novel, but in the ‘Author’s note� at the end of the book; when Lowenthal sets the historical context:
“During World War I, driven by an unprecedented alliance between military efficiency experts and antiprostitution activists, the United States government detained some thirty thousand women; more than fifteen thousand, found to carry venereal diseases, were incarcerated for months at a time. Because it was practically impossible to distinguish the criminal from the merely adventuresome, the government's crusade targeted women indiscriminately. They were arrested and taken into custody for the “crimes� of dressing provocatively or walking though certain neighborhoods without an escort. Only one third of the arrested women were ever charged with prostitution, the majority were detained without having been charged with any offense.”—page 299
Dynamite material. Right? Outrageous, fist-shaking injustice. Should make for captivating reading.
In the hands of a T. C. Boyle this novel would have sizzled with engaging characters, situations and events; and had me loving and hating it at the same time, I’m sure. It would, and should have have been, in other words, a real page turner.
Too many times while reading Michael Lowenthal’s rendition, though, I had to wonder why it seemed to be taking me so long to plow through? Had I forgotten how to read? Had my passion for reading somehow ‘languished'? The characters, the situations, and the events are all here; but the storytelling, I’m afraid, turned this whole novel—dare I say it, “limp with […] languishment.�
Recommendation: Find someone else’s version of this story to read. I hope to.
“Alice’s body boasts a slender, muscular austereness, her high pragmatic hips like fine woodwork.”—page 159 (I’m still scratching my head over the concept of ‘high pragmatic hips’—let alone they’re being ‘like fine woodwork�.)
"Johnson is a polymath. . . . [it's] exhilarating to follow his unpredictable trains of thought."—Twitter quote from @latimFASCINATING AND FANTASTIC.
"Johnson is a polymath. . . . [it's] exhilarating to follow his unpredictable trains of thought."—Twitter quote from @latimes
“Thanks to the printing press, the Continent was suddenly populated by people who were experts at manipulating light through slightly convex pieces of glass. These were the hackers of the first optical revolution.”—page 21
A 'companion-book' to what's shaping up to be an excellent, six-part documentary series on PBS, HOW WE GOT TO NOW: Six Innovations That Made the Modern World, by Steven Johnson stands very well on its own. Extremely interesting, informative, entertaining, (and short), it offers fascinating, 'long-zoom' histories of innovations—some of their surprising causes, consequences, and ramifications—in six major fields, its chapter titles: Glass, Cold, Sound, Clean, Time and Light.
Recommendation: Prepare to be amazed. This book should be a "must read" for everyone; especially for every eighth-grader (are you reading this, NE?) you know. Stream and watch the PBS documentary, if you have the chance, too.
"We like to organize the world into neat categories: photography goes here, politics there. But the history of 'Blitzlicht' reminds us that ideas always travel in networks. They come into being through networks of collaboration, and once unleashed on the world, they set into motion changes that are rarely confined to single disciplines. One century's attempt to invent flash photography transformed the lives of millions of city dwellers in the next century." —page 137
“Visions without execution are hallucinations.”—page 501
“Once again, the greatest innovation would come not A ‘MUST READ� FOR ALL US CYBERTRIBALISTS.
“Visions without execution are hallucinations.”—page 501
“Once again, the greatest innovation would come not from the people who created the breakthroughs but from the people who applied them usefully.”—page 382
THE INNOVATORS: How a Group of Hackers, Geniuses and Geeks Created the Digital Revolution, by Walter Isaacson, offers an interesting and entertaining collection of vignettes and glimpses into the personal and public lives and times of many of those who led the digital revolution: from Ada [Byron] Lovelace [1815-1852] to Google geeks, Sergey Brin and Larry Page. It is a great introduction, and an even better sentimental rehash of, the history of the digital revolution.
Recommendation: If you like reading about wonderfully weird and brilliant people, enjoying an amazing adventure, and doing insanely great things, this is the book for you.
“The theme from Chariots of Fire began to play, and the word MACINTOSH scrolled horizontally across the screen, then underneath it the words insanely great! appeared in elegant script� Most had never seen or even imagined, something so spectacular”—page 384
“Imagine a world in which every single person on the planet is given free access to the sum of all human knowledge.”—page 465
NOOKbook edition, 606 pages (510 pages, sans acknowledgements and notes). ...more
"How quickly civilization could dissolve into its more ugly elements."—page 112
Eighty to ninety percent of the 'novel' LIFE AFTER LIFE, MOSTLY BORING.
"How quickly civilization could dissolve into its more ugly elements."—page 112
Eighty to ninety percent of the 'novel' LIFE AFTER LIFE, by Kate Atkinson, is annoying, confusing, and mostly boring. Maybe ten to twenty percent (mostly in the second half)—the tales about Izzie, Pamela and Eva; the stories about life during the 'Blitz' in London and life in Germany just prior to and during WWII—made for some interesting and enjoyable reading.
Perhaps this 'novel' might have worked better as a collection of loosely connected, disjointed short stories. Just thinking out loud, here.
Recommendation: I wouldn't have wanted to miss those really good stories, but I'm hard pressed to recommend this long novel for such small rewards.
"Would she really be able to come back and start again? Or was it, as everyone told her, and as she must believe, all in her head? And so, what if it was—wasn't everything in her head real too? What if there was no demonstrable reality? What if there was nothing beyond the mind?"—page 171
"Gripping, heroic and important, 'Enrique's Journey' captures the heart. Most AmericaENRIQUE'S JOURNEY, by Sonia Nazario
HEART-WRENCHING. EYE-OPENING.
"Gripping, heroic and important, 'Enrique's Journey' captures the heart. Most Americans or their forebears came to the United States from other countries. They experienced difficult journeys and wrenching family separations—all in the hope of finding a better life in this new land. Enrique's story is 'our' story, beautifully told."—Edward James Olmos, page 229
"She [Enrique's mother] left for the United States out of love. She hoped she could provide her children an escape from their grinding poverty, a chance to attend school beyond the sixth grade."—page 7
Edward James Olmos, quoted above, says it far better than I could. Migrant stories are quite often not affirmative and uplifting; more often they are filled with hardship, heartache, sorrow, and grief. ENRIQUE'S JOURNEY, by Sonia Nazario, offers up all that plus an up close and personal perspective on how harrowing the migration experience can really be. It could help make some of us third- and forth-generation folks more appreciative of our great good fortune; and of the costs at which it might have come.
Recommendation: 'Entertainment Weekly' says, "...turn[s] the current immigration controversy from a political story into a personal one"—page 229.
ENRIQUE'S JOURNEY is a 'should-read' for concerned folks of every political stripe. Young people, most especially. Read also: ACROSS A HUNDRED MOUNTAINS, by Reyna Grande.
"Many Americans understand that being born in the United States, with all the opportunities that entails, is a matter or serendipity. They are happy to share a bounty few countries possess."—page 193
"Yet what is right except that which makes happiness and what is wrong except that which makes sorrow?"–page 132
The novelPLEASURE READING AT ITS BEST.
"Yet what is right except that which makes happiness and what is wrong except that which makes sorrow?"–page 132
The novels of Pearl S. Buck never fail to remind me just what 'reading for pleasure' is really all about.
PEONY: A Novel of China—the story of the beautiful Chinese bondservant, raised and indentured, in the household of a noted, China-born, family of European Jews; who witnesses the fascinating closing days of the complete assimilation of the Kaifeng (China) Jewish community/culture—is another sterling example of the warmth, wisdom, and compelling character development of Ms. Buck's wonderful stories.
Recommendation: Read PEONY for the sheer joy of great storytelling, and for glimpses of little-known times and cultures.
"All sober souls were in bed and asleep, but the young and the old who were lovers of life were making the most of the moon." . . . . "It was the hour to seize joy with both hands."—page 142
"It was 1958; in Virginia, in half the country, their [interracial] wedding would break the law."—page 40
CelestePOORLY CONTRIVED MELODRAMATIC PIFFLE.
"It was 1958; in Virginia, in half the country, their [interracial] wedding would break the law."—page 40
Celeste Ng's novel EVERYTHING I NEVER TOLD YOU is nothing I'd ever really care to hear. The more I read this story, the less I liked it. Who knew that dysfunctional family dynamics—even with a dead teen thrown in for good measure—could be so enormously dull?
And a raft of inane phrases, such as: "A drop of water trickled out of Nath's hair, like a shy little mouse..."—page 144; and "Years of yearning had made her sensitive, the way a starving dog twitches its nostrils at the faintest scent of food."—page 145; and "...smells the sweet scent of him, like toast, mellowed and organic and bittersweet"—page 194; and "...for the first time in a long time, he looks Jack in the eye, brown on blue."—page 196, just put a finer point on the drivel. I was about ready to help the whole damn family into the lake.
Recommendation: Not really.
"...the law reminding them that Almighty God had never intended white, black, yellow, and red to mix, that there should be no 'mongrel citizens�, no 'obliteration of racial pride'."—page 43
"Artificial intelligence wasn't something to be trifled with, particularly if you didn't have the documePHANTASMAGORICAL FUN, FROLIC, AND PHILOSOPHY.
"Artificial intelligence wasn't something to be trifled with, particularly if you didn't have the documentation that went with the hardware. Purloined military microchips wired into a homemade logic board, set to the task of creating consciousness from a kabbalistic stew of African songs, biographies, and broken dreams, all of the above encased in a pop art egg shell... Well, gods and devils had been born from a lot less, hadn't they?"—page 220
I could only wish to have a mind agile enough to follow all the crazy and bizarre characters and plot twists of Matt Ruff's novel, SEWER, GAS & ELECTRIC: The Public Works Trilogy. Not since reading Tom Robbins's JITTERBUG PERFUME, decades ago, have I been so confused by a story and it's characters, and yet been quite so entertained.
Recommendation: Definitely an acquired taste, but, if you like Tom Robbins, you might just like Matt Ruff as well. Ruff's writing is a bit more sophomoric—if that's possible—but still hilarious at times.
"It's easy to renounce physical violence when you aren't any good at it."—page 373
"People automatically estimate a mom's IQ at around her children's ages, maybe dividing by the number of kids, rounding up to theSOMEWHAT LESS THAN...
"People automatically estimate a mom's IQ at around her children's ages, maybe dividing by the number of kids, rounding up to the nearest pajama size."—page 76
FLIGHT BEHAVIOR: A Novel, by Barbara Kingsolver was somewhat less than I had expected, somewhat less than I had hoped, somewhat less than entertaining, somewhat less than enlightening, and in no way, shape, or form enriching. Goodreader, Jeanette said it best in her review, "Redneck environmentalism. Now there's a contradiction in terms. Kingsolver's writing is up to its usual high standards, and her character development is outstanding. [not sure I agree] She just tried to stuff way too many things into one sausage casing. The result is something tough to chew, sometimes bland, and slow to digest." Thank-you, Jeanette.
Recommendation: You might want to consider passing on this one.
"Back when they used their feet for something other than framing the view of the television set."—page 8
"I hated my father long before I knew there was a word for hate."�(from the Prologue)—page 10
"No one has ever loved writing his faIMPACTFUL... INSANE.
"I hated my father long before I knew there was a word for hate."�(from the Prologue)—page 10
"No one has ever loved writing his father's funeral scene more than I did. I relished every word of it."—page 70
How do you love so deeply someone you hate so much? The simplest answer might just be that all those Conroy's—and all them Peeks, too, for that matter—every last one of them, have always been as crazy as they come. The simplest and probably the truest.
Pat Conroy's memoir—does he write anything but?—THE DEATH OF SANTINI: The Story of a Father and His Son, takes the weirdness of family dynamics—dysfunctional behavior, blatant toxicity—to new levels. The flagrant and flamboyant hurt and lasting harm these people inflicted on each other, and those around them, is almost incomprehensible. It's hard to take at times, but very well told.
Recommendation: The Epilogue: Pat Conroy's Eulogy for the Great Santini is almost worth the price of the book by itself.
"We [the children of fighter pilots] were raised by the men who made the United States of America the safest Country on earth in the bloodiest century in all recorded history."—page 316
"The first time the United States dropped an H-bomb from a plane, we hit the wrong target."—page 282
"Comedian Bob Hope had another perspecINFORMATIVE.
"The first time the United States dropped an H-bomb from a plane, we hit the wrong target."—page 282
"Comedian Bob Hope had another perspective on this Operation: 'As soon as the war ended, we located the one spot on earth that hadn't been touched by the war and blew it to hell.' "—page 184
I was hoping to learn more about the tests conducted at Eniwetok and Bikini Atolls in the 1950s, and to catch a glimpse of what it was like for the military men who were part of the experience. Michael Harris's book THE ATOMIC TIMES: My H-Bomb Year at the Pacific Proving Ground—a Memoir, offers a satisfactory peek at both.
Unfortunately, the first half of his 'memoir' offers up far too much information on his personal life before,'Wetok. The second half of the book is much better than the first.
Recommendation: Probably of interest more to those involved, in someway or another, with the Pacific Proving Grounds, nuclear testing, and/or life on an isolated Pacific atoll.
"His wife had written him that the pieces of shell and coral he sent looked beautiful when she put them in the clay lots filled with their plants and flowers... A week later she wrote that all the plants and flowers were dead."—page 349
"In war, there ain't no morals. There are just winners, losers, and those that got their asses fried sunny side up."—pagINCREDIBLY GOOD STORYTELLING.
"In war, there ain't no morals. There are just winners, losers, and those that got their asses fried sunny side up."—page 205
Pat Conway's novel, THE GREAT SANTINI, is amazingly well constructed and well written. A very engaging and compelling read.
Protagonist, Marine, Fighter Pilot, Yankee, Irish, Catholic, Bull Meecham, is a character out of time and place, who is hard not to like—and equally hard, or harder, not to dislike. A warrior without a war. A bull in the china shop of family. And yet, he is 'The Great Santini'.
Recommendation: I've no idea what a 'southern' novel is—but this is one of the best 'southern' novels I've read.
"Bull wanted to pass on the gift of fury to his oldest son, a passion to inflict defeat on others, even humiliation."—page 157
Adobe Digital (ePub) edition. 445 pages.
Other quotables...
"Time had encircled her softly, enriched and deepened her beauty as the years tiptoed past her."—page 19
"He's a small little turd, but he's built like a fire plug, low, squat, and he's got the face of a man who likes to hit cripples"—page 184
"The Marine Corps takes a small ego and makes it gigantic, it takes a large ego and then steps back to see how large it can grow"—page 196...more
"The sixties, you see, were characterized not by manners but by fantasy."—page 249
'Tommy Rotten' is an octogenarian. WhINTERESTING AND ENTERTAINING...
"The sixties, you see, were characterized not by manners but by fantasy."—page 249
'Tommy Rotten' is an octogenarian. Where's the fairness in that?
In my personal pantheon of heroes Tom Robbins, arguably the greatest wordsmith of the twentieth century, has long ranked above the Norse Gods and Goddesses. I have read, and vastly enjoyed, all ten of the books listed on the 'also by tom robbins' page.
Thus it was to my chagrin and dismay that I found portions of his 'quasi-memoir,' TIBETAN PEACH PIE: A True Account of an Imaginative Life, rather dull and lacking, somewhat, of that inimitable imagination. Perhaps the years have blunted our mental cutlery—his, and mine.
Recommendation: It's by, and about, Tom Robbins—of course you should read it.
"From the beginning, imagination has been my wild card, my skeleton key, my servant, my master, my bat cave, my home entertainment center, my floatation device, my syrup of wahoo; and I plan to stick with it to the end, whenever and however that end might come, and whether or not there is another act to follow."—page 366
“I think there’s probably a controlling intelligence in the universe, a being that decided the rules, such as E = mc2, and the value A NOSTALGIC READ.
“I think there’s probably a controlling intelligence in the universe, a being that decided the rules, such as E = mc2, and the value of pi. But that being isn’t likely to care whether we sing its praise or not, I doubt whether its decisions can be manipulated by praying to a statue of the Virgin Mary, and I don’t believe it will organize special treatment for you on account of what you have around your neck.� � Ken Follett, Edge of Eternity
Ken Follett is consistently a five-star storyteller, and the third installment of his ‘The Century Trilogy,� EDGE OF ETERNITY, merits every one of those stars. Set in the years from 1961 - 1989, a period bracketed by the building and the demolition of the infamous Berlin Wall; it simply boggles my mind to realize that the many, true, huge, earth-shaking events included in this story all took place within a fraction of my own adult lifetime. From the building of The Wall; to Freedom Riders, and the Civil Rights Movement; to the Bay of Pigs fiasco; to the Cuban Missile Crisis; to the assassinations of John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King and Robert F. Kennedy; to the War in Vietnam, and the resultant Protest Movements around the world; to the advent of Rock ’n Roll, and of Megastars; to the Solidarity Movement in Poland; to Perestroika, and Glasnost in the USSR; to the incredible Implosion of the Soviet Empire—how many times in those brief twenty-eight years did we verge on the Edge of Eternity?
Recommendation: Read all three books of this trilogy. Especially this last one. Especially if you have memories of any of these events.
“A white American can orbit the earth, but a black American can’t enter a restroom.� � Ken Follett, Edge of Eternity
“Nowadays he avoided political discussions with outsiders. They usually had easy answers: send all the Mexicans home, put Hells Angels in the army, castrate the queers. The greater their ignorance, the stronger their opinions.� � Ken Follett, Edge of Eternity
SAIGON: An Epic Novel of Vietnam, by Anthony Grey is an histSAIGON: An Epic Novel of Vietnam, by Anthony Grey
AN EXCELLENT READ FROM BEGINNING TO END.
SAIGON: An Epic Novel of Vietnam, by Anthony Grey is an historical novel in the mode of Michener and Clavell. Rife with soap opera, melodrama, and bittersweet sorrow and suffering SAIGON tells a poignant tale of places and times, much changed and gone, but still worthy of reflection—even nostalgia.
Recommendation: Especially poignant for those of us who lived through America's 'Vietnam era.' All those with a touch of fondness for the past should also enjoy this epic novel.
"Wasn't there any way of preventing grown men and women from injuring and wounding one another grievously generation after generation?"—page 581
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