Amy's bookshelf: all en-US Sat, 28 Sep 2024 04:47:23 -0700 60 Amy's bookshelf: all 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg <![CDATA[Stalin's Genocides (Human Rights and Crimes against Humanity)]]> 9533069
Norman Naimark, one of our most respected authorities on the Soviet era, challenges the widely held notion that Stalin's crimes do not constitute genocide, which the United Nations defines as the premeditated killing of a group of people because of their race, religion, or inherent national qualities. In this gripping book, Naimark explains how Stalin became a pitiless mass killer. He looks at the most consequential and harrowing episodes of Stalin's systematic destruction of his own populace--the liquidation and repression of the so-called kulaks, the Ukrainian famine, the purge of nationalities, and the Great Terror--and examines them in light of other genocides in history. In addition, Naimark compares Stalin's crimes with those of the most notorious genocidal killer of them all, Adolf Hitler.]]> 176 Norman M. Naimark 1400836069 Amy 0 to-read, arcs-or-review-copy 3.86 2010 Stalin's Genocides (Human Rights and Crimes against Humanity)
author: Norman M. Naimark
name: Amy
average rating: 3.86
book published: 2010
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/28
shelves: to-read, arcs-or-review-copy
review:

]]> Complete Tales and Poems 23920 Collected here is the ultimate Kindle edition of the complete works of Edgar Allan Poe—all of his tales and poems in one convenient, easy-to-use volume at a fantastic price.

Included in Edgar Allan Poe: The Complete Tales and Poems are:

The complete text of all of the tales and poems written by Edgar Allan Poe (over 125 works), each elegantly formatted for ease of use and enjoyment on your Kindle reader.
Links to free, full-length audio recordings of the poems and tales in this collection.
An individual, active Table of Contents for each section accessible from the Kindle “go to� feature.
Perfect formatting in rich text compatible with Kindle’s Text-to-Speech features.
A low, can't-say-no price!
The Complete Tales and Poems
All of Poe's tales, poems, and essays are included—over 125 works. Some of the most notable are:

Tales:
"The Fall of the House of Usher"
"The Masque of the Red Death"
"The Pit and the Pendulum"
"The Premature Burial"
"The Purloined Letter"
"The Tell-Tale Heart"
Poems:
"Annabel Lee"
"The Bells"
"The City in the Sea"
"A Dream Within a Dream"
"To Helen"
"Lenore"
"The Raven"
"Ulalume"
Other Works:
The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket—Poe's only complete novel
Collected Essays
Additional Fan Resources
Also included are special features for any Poe enthusiast, including:

A list of films and television series, both directly and indirectly inspired by the works of Edgar Allan Poe.
A Reading Guide to fictional works that feature the historical Edgar Allan Poe as a character.
Links to free, full-length audio recordings of the major poems and short stories in this collection.]]> 864 Edgar Allan Poe 0785814531 Amy 0 4.42 1849 Complete Tales and Poems
author: Edgar Allan Poe
name: Amy
average rating: 4.42
book published: 1849
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/08/07
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Forgotten Man: A New History of the Great Depression]]> 3419805 568 Amity Shlaes 0060936428 Amy 0 3.96 2007 The Forgotten Man: A New History of the Great Depression
author: Amity Shlaes
name: Amy
average rating: 3.96
book published: 2007
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/04/12
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Lady with Lapdog and Other Stories]]> 208294
Grief
Agafya
Misfortune
A Boring Story (From an Old Man's Notebook)
The Grasshopper
Ward No. 6
Ariadne
The House with an Attic
Ionych
The Darling
The Lady with the Lapdog

Anton Pavlovich Chekhov may be likened to his contemporaries, the "pointilliste" painters. Piece by piece, episode by episode, character by character, he constructs in prose a survey of the human condition. As David Magarshack writes in his introduction, on reading these stories 'one gets the impression of holding life itself, like a fluttering bird, in one's cupped hands'.]]> 288 Anton Chekhov 0140441433 Amy 0 to-read 4.18 1899 Lady with Lapdog and Other Stories
author: Anton Chekhov
name: Amy
average rating: 4.18
book published: 1899
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/04/03
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Spoon River Anthology 292667 248 Edgar Lee Masters 1580493394 Amy 0 4.04 1915 Spoon River Anthology
author: Edgar Lee Masters
name: Amy
average rating: 4.04
book published: 1915
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/11/04
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Memoir of a Gulag Actress (NIU Series in Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies)]]> 9668788 495 Tamara Petkevich 0875804284 Amy 5 to-read, arcs-or-review-copy
I am not sure what I was expecting when I started this book. The idea that any form of entertainment was possible in the Gulag prison camps seemed bizarre. Yet her part in a theatre troupe is not the most amazing part of the book-the book as a whole is a fascinating exploration into personal character in the face of paralyzing evil.


First off, we learn that Tamara was regularly beaten by her somewhat mysterious father-she faced extreme punishment in the home for the slightest perceived error. However, her father was captured and imprisoned, taken away from the family, and leaving her mother and three sisters without assistance. The mystery of her father's 'crime' became meaningless as just finding sustenance for one day became a challenge. She feels deeply concerned about providing for her family, given her mother's emotional instability and the changing political climate. Eventually, she decides to marry a man who has been exiled to a distant city because he was a doctor, part of the intelligentsia that the Soviet's so despised. Her move to him there, in the hopes that she could send money home to her family in Leningrad, was possibly the worst mistake she could make.

The Soviet paranoia couldn't understand why someone would willfully choose exile, so she was under suspicion immediately. Not only was she unable to help her family (her mother and a sister died during the Siege of Leningrad), but her so-called friends and acquaintances turned her in and made up charges against her (likely to receive basic necessities for themselves or some sort of leeway in their own troubles). Imprisoned and sentenced, she ends up in the Gulag, serving hard labor by harvesting and processing hemp.

There's so much about this book that is covered--personal life, Russian politics, family interactions (her mother-in-law is a piece of work!), and unimaginable horror, that it's hard to review and not tell it all. There's so much beyond just the facts but how she processed them as they occurred. It left me with many questions.

Namely, given that she doesn't appear to have many close friends that have remained loyal, no family to count on, no spiritual connection to draw on, and very few examples of courage, how did she remain sane and decent? What gave her the strength to go through it all, essentially alone in every aspect? A cheating husband, a sister who can't forgive her for leaving (and failing to protect her), a son ripped from her arms who ends up never wanting to be part of her life? The physical pain of hard labor, starvation, and beatings?

As a personal history, it's astounding. Her voice throughout it is never self-pitying, and in fact, at a few points I imagined she was being a little too positive about the situations. Was it just in her nature to look for the best in it all? Suicide was an option of many-for her it was unimaginable.

It's very fast-paced and dramatic, and while a knowledge of some Russian history is helpful, I wouldn't think it's essential. A few moments of confusion occurred for me as many of the names were not only difficult but she didn't use each name consistently, sometimes she would use a nickname or a surname or the Russian patronymics (patronyms?) interchangeably. I felt like I needed a sheet to keep track of names. Also, it gave me a bit of pause to consider that she doesn't really reveal anything negative about herself: no flaws or weaknesses. Genuine history generally shows both sides, the good and the bad, to merit accuracy. Yet, it's her biography so I'm sure it was her right to share only what she wished. I just kept hoping she'd be a little more human and lose her temper with her conniving and hideous mother-in-law or give her cad husband a little more grief.

However, I'd recommend this to anyone interested in Russia. It's a clean read too, nothing explicit or unsavory, so even young teens could read this and learn just how ugly history can be. I can't help but think anyone who reads this is better off in their own life by seeing just how, by contrast, our society is pampered and simple.
eat your hearts out, Daisy, Lisa, and Erma!]]> 4.58 2001 Memoir of a Gulag Actress (NIU Series in Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies)
author: Tamara Petkevich
name: Amy
average rating: 4.58
book published: 2001
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2023/09/27
shelves: to-read, arcs-or-review-copy
review:
Astonishing. Painful. And incredibly difficult to put down...

I am not sure what I was expecting when I started this book. The idea that any form of entertainment was possible in the Gulag prison camps seemed bizarre. Yet her part in a theatre troupe is not the most amazing part of the book-the book as a whole is a fascinating exploration into personal character in the face of paralyzing evil.


First off, we learn that Tamara was regularly beaten by her somewhat mysterious father-she faced extreme punishment in the home for the slightest perceived error. However, her father was captured and imprisoned, taken away from the family, and leaving her mother and three sisters without assistance. The mystery of her father's 'crime' became meaningless as just finding sustenance for one day became a challenge. She feels deeply concerned about providing for her family, given her mother's emotional instability and the changing political climate. Eventually, she decides to marry a man who has been exiled to a distant city because he was a doctor, part of the intelligentsia that the Soviet's so despised. Her move to him there, in the hopes that she could send money home to her family in Leningrad, was possibly the worst mistake she could make.

The Soviet paranoia couldn't understand why someone would willfully choose exile, so she was under suspicion immediately. Not only was she unable to help her family (her mother and a sister died during the Siege of Leningrad), but her so-called friends and acquaintances turned her in and made up charges against her (likely to receive basic necessities for themselves or some sort of leeway in their own troubles). Imprisoned and sentenced, she ends up in the Gulag, serving hard labor by harvesting and processing hemp.

There's so much about this book that is covered--personal life, Russian politics, family interactions (her mother-in-law is a piece of work!), and unimaginable horror, that it's hard to review and not tell it all. There's so much beyond just the facts but how she processed them as they occurred. It left me with many questions.

Namely, given that she doesn't appear to have many close friends that have remained loyal, no family to count on, no spiritual connection to draw on, and very few examples of courage, how did she remain sane and decent? What gave her the strength to go through it all, essentially alone in every aspect? A cheating husband, a sister who can't forgive her for leaving (and failing to protect her), a son ripped from her arms who ends up never wanting to be part of her life? The physical pain of hard labor, starvation, and beatings?

As a personal history, it's astounding. Her voice throughout it is never self-pitying, and in fact, at a few points I imagined she was being a little too positive about the situations. Was it just in her nature to look for the best in it all? Suicide was an option of many-for her it was unimaginable.

It's very fast-paced and dramatic, and while a knowledge of some Russian history is helpful, I wouldn't think it's essential. A few moments of confusion occurred for me as many of the names were not only difficult but she didn't use each name consistently, sometimes she would use a nickname or a surname or the Russian patronymics (patronyms?) interchangeably. I felt like I needed a sheet to keep track of names. Also, it gave me a bit of pause to consider that she doesn't really reveal anything negative about herself: no flaws or weaknesses. Genuine history generally shows both sides, the good and the bad, to merit accuracy. Yet, it's her biography so I'm sure it was her right to share only what she wished. I just kept hoping she'd be a little more human and lose her temper with her conniving and hideous mother-in-law or give her cad husband a little more grief.

However, I'd recommend this to anyone interested in Russia. It's a clean read too, nothing explicit or unsavory, so even young teens could read this and learn just how ugly history can be. I can't help but think anyone who reads this is better off in their own life by seeing just how, by contrast, our society is pampered and simple.
eat your hearts out, Daisy, Lisa, and Erma!
]]> Caribou Island 8584946 On a small island in a glacier-fed lake on Alaska's Kenai Peninsula, a marriage is unraveling. Gary, driven by thirty years of diverted plans, and Irene, haunted by a tragedy in her past, are trying to rebuild their life together. Following the outline of Gary's old dream, they're hauling logs to Caribou Island in good weather and in terrible storms, in sickness and in health, to build the kind of cabin that drew them to Alaska in the first place.

But this island is not right for Irene. They are building without plans or advice, and when winter comes early, the overwhelming isolation of the prehistoric wilderness threatens their bond to the core. Caught in the emotional maelstrom is their adult daughter, Rhoda, who is wrestling with the hopes and disappointments of her own life. Devoted to her parents, she watches helplessly as they drift further apart.

Brilliantly drawn and fiercely honest, Caribou Island captures the drama and pathos of a husband and wife whose bitter love, failed dreams, and tragic past push them to the edge of destruction. A portrait of desolation, violence, and the darkness of the soul, it is an explosive and unforgettable novel from a writer of limitless possibility.

]]> 293 David Vann 0061875724 Amy 2 arcs-or-review-copy 3.45 2010 Caribou Island
author: David Vann
name: Amy
average rating: 3.45
book published: 2010
rating: 2
read at: 2011/04/27
date added: 2023/07/28
shelves: arcs-or-review-copy
review:

]]> Dark Places 5886881
Since then, she has been drifting. But when she is contacted by a group who are convinced of Ben's innocence, Libby starts to ask questions she never dared to before. Was the voice she heard her brother's? Ben was a misfit in their small town, but was he capable of murder? Are there secrets to uncover at the family farm or is Libby deluding herself because she wants her brother back?

She begins to realise that everyone in her family had something to hide that day... especially Ben. Now, twenty-four years later, the truth is going to be even harder to find.

Who did massacre the Day family?]]> 424 Gillian Flynn 0307341569 Amy 2
Not a fan, but I did order her other books. Go figure.]]> 3.95 2009 Dark Places
author: Gillian Flynn
name: Amy
average rating: 3.95
book published: 2009
rating: 2
read at: 2021/07/12
date added: 2021/07/29
shelves:
review:
Terrible people doing terrible things. The author doesn't paint life in black and white, which is realistic. However, all those shades of grey make everything distasteful. Including child victims somehow, by virtue of their being nosy or say, childish, being an excuse for their murder. No single character has appeal. The denouement is hurried and nonsensical.

Not a fan, but I did order her other books. Go figure.
]]> Anna Karenina 151
«Nos capítulos iniciais de Anna Karénina, somos conduzidos, uma e outra vez, a um sentido de analogia musical. Há efeitos de contraponto e harmonia no desenvolvimento das principais tramas do “prelúdio Oblonski� (o acidente na estação ferroviária, a zombadora discussão sobre o divórcio entre Vronski e a baronesa Chilton, o deslumbramento do fogo vermelho diante dos olhos de Anna). O método de Tolstoi é polifónico; mas as harmonias principais desen- volvem-se com uma tremenda força e amplitude. As técnicas musicais e linguísticas não podem comparar-se de um modo exato. Mas como poderíamos elucidar de outro modo o sentimento de que as novelas de Tolstoi surgem de um princípio interior de ordem e vitalidade, enquanto as dos escritores menos importantes parecem alinhavadas?»

«Anna Karénina morre no mundo do romance; mas cada vez que lemos o livro ela ressuscita, e mesmo depois de o termos acabado adquire outra vida na nossa recordação. Em cada personagem literária existe algo da Fénix imortal. Através das vidas perduráveis das suas personagens, a própria existência de Tolstoi teve a sua eternidade.» [George Steiner, Tolstoi ou Dostoievski]]]> 838 Leo Tolstoy 0143035002 Amy 0 4.11 1878 Anna Karenina
author: Leo Tolstoy
name: Amy
average rating: 4.11
book published: 1878
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2020/11/29
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Making Writing Matter: Composition in the Engaged University]]> 10062088 0 Ann M. Feldman 0791478661 Amy 0 arcs-or-review-copy, to-read 0.0 2008 Making Writing Matter: Composition in the Engaged University
author: Ann M. Feldman
name: Amy
average rating: 0.0
book published: 2008
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2020/03/05
shelves: arcs-or-review-copy, to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Final Year (Studies in Austrian Literature, Culture and Thought-translation Series)]]> 8841529 151 Ilse Tielsch 1572411678 Amy 0 to-read, arcs-or-review-copy 3.00 2006 The Final Year (Studies in Austrian Literature, Culture and Thought-translation Series)
author: Ilse Tielsch
name: Amy
average rating: 3.00
book published: 2006
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2019/06/21
shelves: to-read, arcs-or-review-copy
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Norton Anthology of American Literature (Shorter Seventh Edition)]]> 776661 3008 Nina Baym 0393930572 Amy 0 3.88 The Norton Anthology of American Literature (Shorter Seventh Edition)
author: Nina Baym
name: Amy
average rating: 3.88
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2019/03/21
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Signs of Life in the USA [with Hacker's Pocket Style Manual]]]> 6575595 0 Sonia Maasik 0312556705 Amy 0 0.0 1994 Signs of Life in the USA [with Hacker's Pocket Style Manual]
author: Sonia Maasik
name: Amy
average rating: 0.0
book published: 1994
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2019/01/28
shelves:
review:

]]> Impossibly Small Spaces 41807287
"The short story dwells within narrow corridors and, in Impossibly Small Spaces, a collection that seamlessly matches form with content, Lisa C. Taylor gifts the reader with cut-glass explorations of the diminishing spaces and of the freedoms--illusory, fleeting, elusive--so craved by a heartbreakingly real cast of characters. Wonderful." -Alan McMonagle (author of Ithaca)

"Hugely perceptive, sizzling with electric images, this is top-class writing where grace and precision are brought to bear on lives that glow brightly in the reader
s mind long after the last page." -Geraldine Mills (author of Hellkite and Gold)

"The first sentences grab you, the plots take you to unexpected places, and the endings shake you up. What a pleasure to read!" -Ellen Meeropol (author of Kinship of Clover and On Hurricane Island)]]> 146 Lisa C. Taylor Amy 5
A universal sentiment to be sure, but the angle Lisa C. Taylor takes in this collection of short stories is defining who most needs that protection. Stepping back from a more traditional world view, Taylor demonstrates in Impossibly Small Spaces that it is a tiny corner of our most private self that is most at risk. How that secret self gets protected, and what defines safety, is the core of the stories that take a fresh perspective on what we do when the unpredictable occurs.

I had read her previous book, Growing a New Tail, a few years ago. I was knocked out by how she painted characters in absolutely ordinary situations who dealt with both the mundane and the ugly in their own unique way. The flip side to this new collection is that it is the situations that are nothing ordinary, and the character reactions are complicated. Self-preservation by denial and running from grief is a tactic these characters find necessary. They aren’t making grand gestures of expansive good works to society. Rather, they are in survival mode, which can take many forms, some of which are no good at all.

In one story, two strangers awaiting a plane arrival briefly acknowledge each other before the worst news crashes in on them. They don’t react as if in a Hallmark happy-ending movie plot. Their next actions are spontaneous, slightly insane, poorly thought out, and terribly real. It’s that kick of the reality of what they do that drives many of the stories: no one prepares us for crisis, so no one can say we are doing it wrong.

Many of the stories have the basis of strangers in pairs trying to navigate a crisis. One woman needs a date for a wedding, but finds that getting one means revealing her most fragile secret. Another character creates secrets to hide his own reality, but loses himself so deeply in falsehoods that nothing is real for him anymore.

In a moment of self-reflection, he considers a fish tank: “Did [the fish] have the consciousness to know he was in a prison or did every body of water feel the same?� The reader senses that the alternate reality he’s created is probably more prison than safety, even though he has no intention of escape.

Throughout the stories, which stand alone and are not linked, Taylor’s insightful character studies mean they are not easily forgotten. Weeks after I first read it, I remembered certain characters with a sort of wistful, “what if� thought as to their survival skill. It was as if I’d read a newspaper article about real people.

“A life with this much colour requires a mute button.� That mute button is the key to finding the impossibly small spaces that let us survive whatever happens. Taylor’s stories are rich and complex, and entirely unforgettable.]]> 5.00 2018 Impossibly Small Spaces
author: Lisa C. Taylor
name: Amy
average rating: 5.00
book published: 2018
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2019/01/18
shelves:
review:
�...it isn’t fair that one species can exploit another and that sometimes even when I want to, I can’t protect those who need it most�.

A universal sentiment to be sure, but the angle Lisa C. Taylor takes in this collection of short stories is defining who most needs that protection. Stepping back from a more traditional world view, Taylor demonstrates in Impossibly Small Spaces that it is a tiny corner of our most private self that is most at risk. How that secret self gets protected, and what defines safety, is the core of the stories that take a fresh perspective on what we do when the unpredictable occurs.

I had read her previous book, Growing a New Tail, a few years ago. I was knocked out by how she painted characters in absolutely ordinary situations who dealt with both the mundane and the ugly in their own unique way. The flip side to this new collection is that it is the situations that are nothing ordinary, and the character reactions are complicated. Self-preservation by denial and running from grief is a tactic these characters find necessary. They aren’t making grand gestures of expansive good works to society. Rather, they are in survival mode, which can take many forms, some of which are no good at all.

In one story, two strangers awaiting a plane arrival briefly acknowledge each other before the worst news crashes in on them. They don’t react as if in a Hallmark happy-ending movie plot. Their next actions are spontaneous, slightly insane, poorly thought out, and terribly real. It’s that kick of the reality of what they do that drives many of the stories: no one prepares us for crisis, so no one can say we are doing it wrong.

Many of the stories have the basis of strangers in pairs trying to navigate a crisis. One woman needs a date for a wedding, but finds that getting one means revealing her most fragile secret. Another character creates secrets to hide his own reality, but loses himself so deeply in falsehoods that nothing is real for him anymore.

In a moment of self-reflection, he considers a fish tank: “Did [the fish] have the consciousness to know he was in a prison or did every body of water feel the same?� The reader senses that the alternate reality he’s created is probably more prison than safety, even though he has no intention of escape.

Throughout the stories, which stand alone and are not linked, Taylor’s insightful character studies mean they are not easily forgotten. Weeks after I first read it, I remembered certain characters with a sort of wistful, “what if� thought as to their survival skill. It was as if I’d read a newspaper article about real people.

“A life with this much colour requires a mute button.� That mute button is the key to finding the impossibly small spaces that let us survive whatever happens. Taylor’s stories are rich and complex, and entirely unforgettable.
]]> Hamlet 1436 This revised Norton Critical Edition of one of the series' most widely read texts is based on the second quarto (1604-05). Where necessary, the editor has also drawn from the folio text, recording all departures from the quarto in the Textual Notes. Punctuation and stage directions for the play have been refined, and textual annotations have been revised and expanded.

The "Intellectual Backgrounds" and "Extracts from the Sources" sections, both highly praised, remain as germane as ever. Intellectual Backgrounds includes important readings on melancholy, demonology, the nature of man, and death, including works by Peter de la Primaudaye, Timothy Bright, Lewes Lavater, G. Gifford, Michel de Montaigne, and Heironymous Cardanus. Extracts from the Sources provides pre-Shakespearean accounts of the story of Hamlet, reprinting substantial excerpts from Saxo Grammaticus's Historia Danica and Belleforest's Histoires Tragiques.

"Criticism" has been revised to accommodate the most significant recent interpretations of Hamlet while retaining the seminal essays of the First Edition. Twenty-three critical analyses are featured, including those by Samuel Johnson, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, William Hazlitt, A. C. Bradley, D. H. Lawrence, T. S. Eliot, G. Wilson Knight, C. S. Lewis, Harry Levin, Peter J. Seng, Rebecca West, Arnold Kettle, Margaret W. Ferguson, Jacqueline Rose, and William Empson.

An updated Selected Bibliography is also included.

]]> 297 William Shakespeare 0393956636 Amy 0 4.37 1601 Hamlet
author: William Shakespeare
name: Amy
average rating: 4.37
book published: 1601
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2018/11/28
shelves:
review:

]]> Black Alley 8280199 216 Mauricio Segura 1897231903 Amy 0 arcs-or-review-copy 3.64 2003 Black Alley
author: Mauricio Segura
name: Amy
average rating: 3.64
book published: 2003
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2018/04/28
shelves: arcs-or-review-copy
review:

]]> A Castle in Romagna 1198398 103 Igor Štiks 0975444409 Amy 5


This could easily have been the introductory sentence for Igor Stiks� A Castle in Romagna, an amazing novel that explores parallel stories from two different time periods. Both stories feature the theme of betrayal, by close companions, from the least expected sources.

It begins in Northern Italy in 1995 where three friends go to visit an ancient castle in Romagna. They are there to visit the castle because of the internment there, centuries before, of the poet Enzo Strecci. Before they can explore the ruins, one of them is delayed by a caretaker, who is fascinated that he comes from Bosnia, at the time a scene of frequent violence. As the other two go to explore, the Bosnian tries to politely escape from the talkative caretaker. But soon, the man reveals that he, too, is from Bosnia, and begins telling his own life story as well as the story of Enzo Strecci.

His story takes place when the schism occurred between General Tito and Josef Stalin. This led to Yugoslavia trying to become autonomous, with the result that eventually it divided into the complicated political region where Bosnia is located. The caretaker recounts how he barely escaped with his life from those convinced he was a Communist informer. He ends up, scarred and mutilated, in Italy. He describes his own connection with the castle while explaining how Strecci ended up at the same location during the Renaissance, and how it ended in Strecci’s execution.


It’s clear that at first the listener feels like he’s missing out on exploring the ruins, but the story revealed soon becomes far more fascinating. The voice of the caretaker is witty and nostalgic, but he’s not wasting anyone’s time. He reveals only the relevant details in both accounts, which makes the novel move very quickly. The style is unusual but the essential meaning has almost a fairy-tale quality to it. While it’s easy to predict what’s going to happen, watching it unfold is thought- provoking because of the corelation of both accounts. The concepts of trust, vengeance, and betrayal are all classic story lines, but explored here in a way to remind the reader that often the danger lies closer to us than we may wish to realize. The fate of Strecci may be appropriate, but it’s a poignant moment when all his former friends are called to testify against him to save their master. He realizes then the “logic of power.�

I was fascinated by this book, as it’s the first Croatian translation that I’ve read, and because the author is relatively young. He says a great deal about human nature with very few words, and he points at the blind spots most people have when it comes to reason. Historically, I never really understood the divide between Tito and Stalin and what it meant for the residents of Yugoslavia. This book may be difficult to find but worth the search, as it's a fascinating look at little-known time and place.
]]> 3.29 2000 A Castle in Romagna
author: Igor Štiks
name: Amy
average rating: 3.29
book published: 2000
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2018/01/22
shelves:
review:
Once upon a time, in a land far, far away�.



This could easily have been the introductory sentence for Igor Stiks� A Castle in Romagna, an amazing novel that explores parallel stories from two different time periods. Both stories feature the theme of betrayal, by close companions, from the least expected sources.

It begins in Northern Italy in 1995 where three friends go to visit an ancient castle in Romagna. They are there to visit the castle because of the internment there, centuries before, of the poet Enzo Strecci. Before they can explore the ruins, one of them is delayed by a caretaker, who is fascinated that he comes from Bosnia, at the time a scene of frequent violence. As the other two go to explore, the Bosnian tries to politely escape from the talkative caretaker. But soon, the man reveals that he, too, is from Bosnia, and begins telling his own life story as well as the story of Enzo Strecci.

His story takes place when the schism occurred between General Tito and Josef Stalin. This led to Yugoslavia trying to become autonomous, with the result that eventually it divided into the complicated political region where Bosnia is located. The caretaker recounts how he barely escaped with his life from those convinced he was a Communist informer. He ends up, scarred and mutilated, in Italy. He describes his own connection with the castle while explaining how Strecci ended up at the same location during the Renaissance, and how it ended in Strecci’s execution.


It’s clear that at first the listener feels like he’s missing out on exploring the ruins, but the story revealed soon becomes far more fascinating. The voice of the caretaker is witty and nostalgic, but he’s not wasting anyone’s time. He reveals only the relevant details in both accounts, which makes the novel move very quickly. The style is unusual but the essential meaning has almost a fairy-tale quality to it. While it’s easy to predict what’s going to happen, watching it unfold is thought- provoking because of the corelation of both accounts. The concepts of trust, vengeance, and betrayal are all classic story lines, but explored here in a way to remind the reader that often the danger lies closer to us than we may wish to realize. The fate of Strecci may be appropriate, but it’s a poignant moment when all his former friends are called to testify against him to save their master. He realizes then the “logic of power.�

I was fascinated by this book, as it’s the first Croatian translation that I’ve read, and because the author is relatively young. He says a great deal about human nature with very few words, and he points at the blind spots most people have when it comes to reason. Historically, I never really understood the divide between Tito and Stalin and what it meant for the residents of Yugoslavia. This book may be difficult to find but worth the search, as it's a fascinating look at little-known time and place.

]]> <![CDATA[Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America]]> 2293666

The bestselling, landmark work of undercover reportage, now updated

Acclaimed as an instant classic upon publication, Nickel and Dimed has sold more than 1.5 million copies and become a staple of classroom reading. Chosen for “one book� initiatives across the country, it has fueled nationwide campaigns for a living wage. Funny, poignant, and passionate, this revelatory firsthand account of life in low-wage America—the story of Barbara Ehrenreich’s attempts to eke out a living while working as a waitress, hotel maid, house cleaner, nursing-home aide, and Wal-Mart associate—has become an essential part of the nation’s political discourse.

Now, in a new afterword, Ehrenreich shows that the plight of the underpaid has in no way eased: with fewer jobs available, deteriorating work conditions, and no pay increase in sight, Nickel and Dimed is more relevant than ever.

]]> 256 Barbara Ehrenreich 0805088385 Amy 0 3.65 2001 Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America
author: Barbara Ehrenreich
name: Amy
average rating: 3.65
book published: 2001
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2017/10/17
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Red Badge of Courage and Four Stories]]> 35223
The Red Badge of Courage / The Open Boat / The Blue Hotel / The Upturned Face / The Bride Comes to Yellow Sky]]> 240 Stephen Crane 0451526473 Amy 0 3.35 The Red Badge of Courage and Four Stories
author: Stephen Crane
name: Amy
average rating: 3.35
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2017/10/05
shelves:
review:

]]> Vi, de druknede 1725625 We, the Drowned is the story of the port town of Marstal, whose inhabitants sailed the world’s oceans aboard freight ships for centuries. Spanning over a hundred years, from the mid-nineteenth century to the end of the Second World War � from the barren rocks of Newfoundland to the lush plantations of Samoa, from the roughest bars in Tasmania to the frozen coasts of northern Russia � We, the Drowned is a magnificent tale of love, war, and adventure, of the men who go to sea and the women they leave behind.

Ships are wrecked and blown up in wars, they are places of terror and violence, yet they continue to lure each generation of Marstallers. Among them are Laurids Madsen, who vanishes in the South Pacific; his son Albert, who searches the globe for his father; Knud Erik and his widowed mother, Klara, who takes on the town and the seas. There are cannibals here, shrunken heads, prophetic dreams, forbidden passions, cowards, heroes, devastating tragedies, and miraculous survivals � everything that a town like Marstal has actually lived. We, the Drowned is a novel destined to take its place among the greatest seafaring literature.]]> 696 Carsten Jensen 8702047233 Amy 0 4.29 2006 Vi, de druknede
author: Carsten Jensen
name: Amy
average rating: 4.29
book published: 2006
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2017/05/06
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[A Short Residence in Sweden / Memoirs of the Author of 'The Rights of Woman']]> 195545
A Short Residence in Sweden is the record of Wollstonecraft's last journey in search of happiness, into the remote and beautiful backwoods of Scandinavia. The quest for a lost treasure ship, the pain of a wrecked love affair, memories of the French Revolution, and the longing for some Golden Age, all shape this vivid narrative, which Richard Holmes argues is one of the neglected masterpieces of early English Romanticism.

Memoirs is Godwin's own account of Wollstonecraft's life, written with passionate intensity a few weeks after her tragic death. Casting aside literary convention, Godwin creates an intimate portrait of his wife, startling in its candour and psychological truth. Received with outrage by friends and critics alike, and virtually suppressed for a century, it can now be recognized as one of the landmarks in the development of modern biography.]]> 320 Mary Wollstonecraft 0140432698 Amy 0 wishlist 3.66 A Short Residence in Sweden / Memoirs of the Author of 'The Rights of Woman'
author: Mary Wollstonecraft
name: Amy
average rating: 3.66
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2017/02/21
shelves: wishlist
review:

]]> Pride and Prejudice 1886 This is an alternative cover edition for ISBN 9780141439518

Since its immediate success in 1813, Pride and Prejudice has remained one of the most popular novels in the English language. Jane Austen called this brilliant work "her own darling child" and its vivacious heroine, Elizabeth Bennet, "as delightful a creature as ever appeared in print." The romantic clash between the opinionated Elizabeth and her proud beau, Mr. Darcy, is a splendid performance of civilized sparring. And Jane Austen's radiant wit sparkles as her characters dance a delicate quadrille of flirtation and intrigue, making this book the most superb comedy of manners of Regency England.]]> 367 Jane Austen Amy 0 4.29 1813 Pride and Prejudice
author: Jane Austen
name: Amy
average rating: 4.29
book published: 1813
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2017/02/14
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review:

]]> A Rusty Gun 8576940 A Few Kind Words and a Loaded Gun, and describes how he came to realize that the game wasn't worth the candle. In his mid-forties he applied to enter Grendon, then the only prison in Britain offering intense therapeutic treatment to hardened criminals. He went from a brutal high-security prison, HMP Whitemoor, to an institution where he was encouraged to investigate just why his life had been given over to violence and crime. Smith paints an unforgettable portrait of the hardened and severely damaged inmates of Grendon, many of them guilty of famous crimes, and their attempts to turn round their lives. And in particular his own arduous five-year journey to re-enter society as a straight citizen.]]> 320 Noel 'Razor' Smith 0670915491 Amy 0 4.67 2010 A Rusty Gun
author: Noel 'Razor' Smith
name: Amy
average rating: 4.67
book published: 2010
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2016/09/21
shelves:
review:

]]> Yannis Ritsos: Poems 9762461
Ritsos writes of seasons shifting to reflect a coming darkness. The bitter desolation that is war. Hard, sharp, hostile words that paint a time too painful to remember and yet which must be written.

Ritsos writes about life and in this collection, spanning so many years, the reader is gifted with the true sense of a life experienced. One is able to see a poet play with form and style to reflect an abundance of shifting moods and experiences, each poem telling its own story but also echoing the larger story of life. Each poem is a snapshot of a place in time, of a moment in a life, of a story being told. The reader is invited to browse through a truly amazing anthology of observations, both personal and public. This collection reflects a depth and vastness that must be savoured and digested, revisited and reviewed.

� Cathi Shaw]]> 553 Yiannis Ritsos 1926763076 Amy 5

A careful hand is needed to translate the poems of Yannis Ritsos, and Manolis is the ideal poet to undertake such an enormous task. Born in Crete, Manolis’s youth was intermingled with the poetry of Ritsos. Once a young man moved by the Theodorakis version of Epitaphios, he’s now a successful poet in his own right who is still moved to tears hearing the refrains of those notes from half a century ago. His Greek heritage, with its knowledge of the terrain, people, history and cultural themes, makes his translation all the more true to what Ritsos intended. Having visited the very places of which Ritsos wrote, he knows how the light and sea shift, and how Ritsos imagined those changes as being a temperament and personality of the Greece itself.




The parallels in their lives are uncanny: when Ritsos was imprisoned, Manolis� father also was imprisoned on false charges. Both men dealt with the forces of dictators and censorship, and experienced the cruel and unreasoning forces of those times. In fact, they even lived for a time in the same neighborhood. In his foreword to Poems, Manolis relates that he viewed him as a comrade, one whose “work resonated with our intense passion for our motherland and also in our veracity and strong-willed quest to find justice for all Greeks.�




In Poems, Manolis chose to honor Ritsos first by not just picking and choosing a few titles to translate, although that might have been far easier. Instead, he undertook the complex task of translating fifteen entire books of Ritsos work-an endeavor that took years of meticulous research and patience. It should be noted that along with the translation, edited by Apryl Leaf, that he also includes a significant Introduction that gives a reader unfamiliar with Ritsos an excellent background on the poet from his own perspective.




Dated according to when Ritsos composed them, it’s fascinating to see how some days were especially productive for him. These small details are helpful in understanding the context and meaning. For example, in Notes on the Margins of Time, written from 1938-1941, Ritsos explores the forces of war that are trickling into even the smallest villages. Without direct commentary, he alludes to trains, blood, and the sea that takes soldiers away, seldom to return. Playing an active role in these violent times, the moon observes all, and even appears as a thief ready to steal life from whom it is still new. From “In the Barracks�:




The moon entered the barracks

It rummaged in the soldiers� blankets

Touched an undressed arm Sleep

Someone talks in his sleep Someone snores

A shadow gesture on the long wall

The last trolley bus went by Quietness




Can all these be dead tomorrow?

Can they be dead from right now?




A soldier wakes up

He looks around with glassy eyes

A thread of blood hangs from the moon’s lips


In Romiosini, the postwar years are a focus (1945-1947), and they have not been kind. The seven parts to this piece each reflect a soldier’s journey home.



These trees don’t take comfort in less sky

These rocks don’t take comfort under foreigners�

Footsteps

These faces don’t take comfort but only

In the sun




These hearts don’t take comfort except in justice.




The return to his country is marked by bullet-ridden walls, burnt-out homes, decay, and the predominantly female populace, one that still hears the bombs falling and the screams of the dead as they dully gaze about, looking for fathers, husbands, and sons. The traveler’s journey is marked by introspection and grim memories reflected on to the surfaces of places and things he thought he knew.




And now is the time when the moon kisses him sorrowfully

Close to his ear

The seaweed the flowerpot the stool and the stone ladder

Say good evening to him

And the mountains the seas and cities and the sky

Say good evening to him

And then finally shaking the ash off his cigarette

Over the iron railing

He may cry because of his assurance

He may cry because of the assurance of the trees and

The stars and his brothers




An entirely different feeling is found in Parentheses, composed 1946-1947. In it, healing is observed and a generosity of spirit exerts itself among those whose hearts had been previously crushed. In “Understanding�:



A woman said good morning to someone –so simple and natural

Good morning�

Neither division nor subtraction To be able to look outside

Yourself-warmth and serenity Not to be

‘just yourself� but ‘you too� A small addition

A small act of practical arithmetic easily understood�



On the surface, it may appear simple, a return to familiarity that may have been difficulty in times of war. Yet on another level, he appears to be referring to the unity among the Greek people-the ‘practical arithmetic� that kept them united though their political state was volatile. Essentially timeless, his counsel goes far beyond nationalism.




Moonlight Sonata, written in 1956, is an impossibly romantic and poignant lyric poem that feels more like a short story. In it, a middle-aged woman talks to a young man in her rustic home. As he prepares to leave, she asks to walk with him a bit in the moonlight. “The moon is good –it doesn’t show my gray hair. The moon will turn my hair gold again. You won’t see the difference. Let me come with you�




Her refrain is repeated over and over as they walk, with him silent and her practically begging him to take her away from the house and its memories:



I know that everyone marches to love alone

Alone to glory and to death

I know it I tried it It’s of no use

Let me come with you




The poem reveals her memories as well as his awkward silence, yet at the end of their journey, she doesn’t leave. Ritsos leaves the ending open: was it a dream? If not, why did she not go? What hold did the house have over her? Was it just the moonlight or a song on the radio that emboldened her?




In 1971, Ritsos wrote The Caretaker’s Desk in Athens, where he was under surveillance but essentially free. At this time he seems to be translating himself-that of how he was processing his own personal history. Already acclaimed for his work, perhaps he was uncertain of his own identity.




From “The Unknown�,




He knew what his successive disguises stood for

(even with them often out of time and always vague)

A fencer a herald a priest a ropewalker

A hero a victim a dead Iphigenia He didn’t know

The one he disguised himself as His colorful costumes

Pile on the floor covering the hole of the floor

And on top of the pile the carved golden mask

And in the cavity of the mask the unfired pistol




If he is indeed discussing his identity, it’s with incredible honesty as to both his public persona and his private character. After all, he’d been nominated for the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1968 (and eight more times) and he was likely weighing, in his later years, all that he’d endured.



The beauty of this particular translation is that, while subjects and emotions change over time, they still feel united by the underlying character of Ritsos. Some translators leave their own imprint or influence, yet this feels free of such adjustment. It’s as if Ritsos� voice itself has been translated, with the pauses, humor, and pace that identify the subtle characteristics of an individual.

]]> 4.86 2010 Yannis Ritsos: Poems
author: Yiannis Ritsos
name: Amy
average rating: 4.86
book published: 2010
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2016/06/26
shelves:
review:



A careful hand is needed to translate the poems of Yannis Ritsos, and Manolis is the ideal poet to undertake such an enormous task. Born in Crete, Manolis’s youth was intermingled with the poetry of Ritsos. Once a young man moved by the Theodorakis version of Epitaphios, he’s now a successful poet in his own right who is still moved to tears hearing the refrains of those notes from half a century ago. His Greek heritage, with its knowledge of the terrain, people, history and cultural themes, makes his translation all the more true to what Ritsos intended. Having visited the very places of which Ritsos wrote, he knows how the light and sea shift, and how Ritsos imagined those changes as being a temperament and personality of the Greece itself.




The parallels in their lives are uncanny: when Ritsos was imprisoned, Manolis� father also was imprisoned on false charges. Both men dealt with the forces of dictators and censorship, and experienced the cruel and unreasoning forces of those times. In fact, they even lived for a time in the same neighborhood. In his foreword to Poems, Manolis relates that he viewed him as a comrade, one whose “work resonated with our intense passion for our motherland and also in our veracity and strong-willed quest to find justice for all Greeks.�




In Poems, Manolis chose to honor Ritsos first by not just picking and choosing a few titles to translate, although that might have been far easier. Instead, he undertook the complex task of translating fifteen entire books of Ritsos work-an endeavor that took years of meticulous research and patience. It should be noted that along with the translation, edited by Apryl Leaf, that he also includes a significant Introduction that gives a reader unfamiliar with Ritsos an excellent background on the poet from his own perspective.




Dated according to when Ritsos composed them, it’s fascinating to see how some days were especially productive for him. These small details are helpful in understanding the context and meaning. For example, in Notes on the Margins of Time, written from 1938-1941, Ritsos explores the forces of war that are trickling into even the smallest villages. Without direct commentary, he alludes to trains, blood, and the sea that takes soldiers away, seldom to return. Playing an active role in these violent times, the moon observes all, and even appears as a thief ready to steal life from whom it is still new. From “In the Barracks�:




The moon entered the barracks

It rummaged in the soldiers� blankets

Touched an undressed arm Sleep

Someone talks in his sleep Someone snores

A shadow gesture on the long wall

The last trolley bus went by Quietness




Can all these be dead tomorrow?

Can they be dead from right now?




A soldier wakes up

He looks around with glassy eyes

A thread of blood hangs from the moon’s lips


In Romiosini, the postwar years are a focus (1945-1947), and they have not been kind. The seven parts to this piece each reflect a soldier’s journey home.



These trees don’t take comfort in less sky

These rocks don’t take comfort under foreigners�

Footsteps

These faces don’t take comfort but only

In the sun




These hearts don’t take comfort except in justice.




The return to his country is marked by bullet-ridden walls, burnt-out homes, decay, and the predominantly female populace, one that still hears the bombs falling and the screams of the dead as they dully gaze about, looking for fathers, husbands, and sons. The traveler’s journey is marked by introspection and grim memories reflected on to the surfaces of places and things he thought he knew.




And now is the time when the moon kisses him sorrowfully

Close to his ear

The seaweed the flowerpot the stool and the stone ladder

Say good evening to him

And the mountains the seas and cities and the sky

Say good evening to him

And then finally shaking the ash off his cigarette

Over the iron railing

He may cry because of his assurance

He may cry because of the assurance of the trees and

The stars and his brothers




An entirely different feeling is found in Parentheses, composed 1946-1947. In it, healing is observed and a generosity of spirit exerts itself among those whose hearts had been previously crushed. In “Understanding�:



A woman said good morning to someone –so simple and natural

Good morning�

Neither division nor subtraction To be able to look outside

Yourself-warmth and serenity Not to be

‘just yourself� but ‘you too� A small addition

A small act of practical arithmetic easily understood�



On the surface, it may appear simple, a return to familiarity that may have been difficulty in times of war. Yet on another level, he appears to be referring to the unity among the Greek people-the ‘practical arithmetic� that kept them united though their political state was volatile. Essentially timeless, his counsel goes far beyond nationalism.




Moonlight Sonata, written in 1956, is an impossibly romantic and poignant lyric poem that feels more like a short story. In it, a middle-aged woman talks to a young man in her rustic home. As he prepares to leave, she asks to walk with him a bit in the moonlight. “The moon is good –it doesn’t show my gray hair. The moon will turn my hair gold again. You won’t see the difference. Let me come with you�




Her refrain is repeated over and over as they walk, with him silent and her practically begging him to take her away from the house and its memories:



I know that everyone marches to love alone

Alone to glory and to death

I know it I tried it It’s of no use

Let me come with you




The poem reveals her memories as well as his awkward silence, yet at the end of their journey, she doesn’t leave. Ritsos leaves the ending open: was it a dream? If not, why did she not go? What hold did the house have over her? Was it just the moonlight or a song on the radio that emboldened her?




In 1971, Ritsos wrote The Caretaker’s Desk in Athens, where he was under surveillance but essentially free. At this time he seems to be translating himself-that of how he was processing his own personal history. Already acclaimed for his work, perhaps he was uncertain of his own identity.




From “The Unknown�,




He knew what his successive disguises stood for

(even with them often out of time and always vague)

A fencer a herald a priest a ropewalker

A hero a victim a dead Iphigenia He didn’t know

The one he disguised himself as His colorful costumes

Pile on the floor covering the hole of the floor

And on top of the pile the carved golden mask

And in the cavity of the mask the unfired pistol




If he is indeed discussing his identity, it’s with incredible honesty as to both his public persona and his private character. After all, he’d been nominated for the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1968 (and eight more times) and he was likely weighing, in his later years, all that he’d endured.



The beauty of this particular translation is that, while subjects and emotions change over time, they still feel united by the underlying character of Ritsos. Some translators leave their own imprint or influence, yet this feels free of such adjustment. It’s as if Ritsos� voice itself has been translated, with the pauses, humor, and pace that identify the subtle characteristics of an individual.


]]> <![CDATA[Olive Kitteridge (Olive Kitteridge, #1)]]> 5552635
As the townspeople grapple with their problems, mild and dire, Olive is brought to a deeper understanding of herself and her life—sometimes painfully, but always with ruthless honesty. Olive Kitteridge offers profound insights into the human condition—its conflicts, its tragedies and joys, and the endurance it requires.]]> 286 Elizabeth Strout 0812971833 Amy 0 3.75 2008 Olive Kitteridge (Olive Kitteridge, #1)
author: Elizabeth Strout
name: Amy
average rating: 3.75
book published: 2008
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2016/02/20
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Norton Anthology of English Literature]]> 1432465 3024 M.H. Abrams 0393928284 Amy 0 school 4.30 1962 The Norton Anthology of English Literature
author: M.H. Abrams
name: Amy
average rating: 4.30
book published: 1962
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2016/01/14
shelves: school
review:

]]> Don Quixote 3835 Don Quixote chronicles the adventures of the self-created knight-errant Don Quixote of La Mancha and his faithful squire, Sancho Panza, as they travel through sixteenth-century Spain. You haven't experienced Don Quixote in English until you've read this masterful translation.]]> 940 Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra 0060934344 Amy 0 4.12 1615 Don Quixote
author: Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra
name: Amy
average rating: 4.12
book published: 1615
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2016/01/05
shelves:
review:

]]> Les Misérables 119485 896 Victor Hugo 1593080662 Amy 0 4.33 1862 Les Misérables
author: Victor Hugo
name: Amy
average rating: 4.33
book published: 1862
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2015/11/16
shelves:
review:

]]> The Fragile Day 25245549 34 Amy MacLennan 1934828165 Amy 5


You know when all-around good girl and role model Nancy Drew starts lamenting her perfect life, that this is no ordinary book of poetry. Amy MacLennan's chapbook is rich with alternative viewpoints and rich metaphors, and the poem cited above, "When Nancy Drew the Line," is just one of them.



Many times she addresses the contemplations of an imperfect life...the thoughts that assail us when we should be sleeping, or the sense that we could worry less if we only had "facts splayed out, a plan, a map" to guide us. A runaway truck hints at lives that feel out-of-control, desperately needing a safe place to land, and an afternoon thunderstorm is pictured perfectly as "a sulky girl slamming the door".



"In the Labor Room" summons that quiet moment right before birth, when the concept of new life mingles with the recognition of the passage of time, and that despite years of friendship and change, "we haven't even aged." I loved this one, and how it felt to me like acknowledging that despite my getting older and having children of my own, I still feel like a child.



My absolute favorite was "If You Write a Love Letter to Disappointment", where MacLennan instructs the reader on how to address defeat.



"Avoid sarcasm, but accept grief.

Draft the letter as if

you could only write it once.

Use a long salutation

and a short goodbye."



MacLennan's poetry is accessible and relatable. It doesn't come off as overly structured and pretentious--it's simple, yet the meanings are deep. It's not Language Poetry, that ends up confusing me and making me feel like a dolt for not getting it (aka Armantrout's Versed). Instead, this feels like a gift of conversation, and the style reminds me of Tobi Cogswell, Susan Rich, and Angela Long.



]]> 5.00 2011 The Fragile Day
author: Amy MacLennan
name: Amy
average rating: 5.00
book published: 2011
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2015/10/04
shelves:
review:
"I've done the right thing my whole life. Kept my father's house, solved every case, never broke the rules. It's not easy being this good."



You know when all-around good girl and role model Nancy Drew starts lamenting her perfect life, that this is no ordinary book of poetry. Amy MacLennan's chapbook is rich with alternative viewpoints and rich metaphors, and the poem cited above, "When Nancy Drew the Line," is just one of them.



Many times she addresses the contemplations of an imperfect life...the thoughts that assail us when we should be sleeping, or the sense that we could worry less if we only had "facts splayed out, a plan, a map" to guide us. A runaway truck hints at lives that feel out-of-control, desperately needing a safe place to land, and an afternoon thunderstorm is pictured perfectly as "a sulky girl slamming the door".



"In the Labor Room" summons that quiet moment right before birth, when the concept of new life mingles with the recognition of the passage of time, and that despite years of friendship and change, "we haven't even aged." I loved this one, and how it felt to me like acknowledging that despite my getting older and having children of my own, I still feel like a child.



My absolute favorite was "If You Write a Love Letter to Disappointment", where MacLennan instructs the reader on how to address defeat.



"Avoid sarcasm, but accept grief.

Draft the letter as if

you could only write it once.

Use a long salutation

and a short goodbye."



MacLennan's poetry is accessible and relatable. It doesn't come off as overly structured and pretentious--it's simple, yet the meanings are deep. It's not Language Poetry, that ends up confusing me and making me feel like a dolt for not getting it (aka Armantrout's Versed). Instead, this feels like a gift of conversation, and the style reminds me of Tobi Cogswell, Susan Rich, and Angela Long.




]]> <![CDATA[The White Road: Journey Into an Obsession]]> 25241462 The Hare with Amber Eyes'.

In The White Road, bestselling author and artist Edmund de Waal gives us an intimate narrative history of his lifelong obsession with porcelain, or "white gold." A potter who has been working with porcelain for more than forty years, de Waal describes how he set out on five journeys to places where porcelain was dreamed about, refined, collected and coveted - and that would help him understand the clay's mysterious allure. From his studio in London, he starts by travelling to three "white hills" - sites in China, Germany and England that are key to porcelain's creation. But his search eventually takes him around the globe and reveals more than a history of cups and figurines; rather, he is forced to confront some of the darkest moments of twentieth-century history.

Part memoir, part history, part detective story, The White Road chronicles a global obsession with alchemy, art, wealth, craft and purity. In a sweeping yet intimate style that recalls The Hare with Amber Eyes, de Waal gives us a singular understanding of "the spectrum of porcelain" and the mapping of desire.]]> 416 Edmund de Waal 0307362108 Amy 0 to-read 3.81 2015 The White Road: Journey Into an Obsession
author: Edmund de Waal
name: Amy
average rating: 3.81
book published: 2015
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2015/08/26
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Singer's Gun 7617564 287 Emily St. John Mandel 1936071649 Amy 5


“It’s never easy. You have to be creative sometimes. You have to make things happen for yourself.�


What does it mean to be a good person? Can you justify a tiny bit of crime, maybe by simply looking the other way, if your intent is good? Are you saving the world if you ignoring your own child?

The Singer’s Gun is an incredible novel, one that has consumed me since I began reading it. Tension and suspense are mixed in with significant questions regarding morality and family honor in a world changed by 9/11. Anton is the protagonist, a man who wishes to wash his hands of his family’s criminal links, but finds that doing that requires its own sort of dishonesty. This novel discusses the complex links that connect us to our past and lead to our future. How desperate do we have to be to make a new beginning?

The novel makes you consider all these things without ever getting preachy or dull. The stride is brisk, and the characters are all unique and compelling. As in real life, very few people are completely good or completely bad: this explores all the mysterious layers and inconsistencies of everyday life. Anton is appealing: after all, he adopts a one-eyed cat and shows up at his job reliably, long after he’s been quietly fired. Yet he’s lost, gripped by an inertia brought on by not wanting to do wrong but not having the courage to do “right�.

What I really enjoyed, besides the completely unique characters, was that the plot continually rotates, changing viewpoints, so that you can observe scenes through another characters eyes and thus see their own justifications. It complicates the drama and adds tension. The author subtly weaves little threads of foreshadowing here and there to add another dimension. Some seemingly unrelated minor events appear that actually serve to rough up and texture the identities of the characters. My only minor irritation was that the character Elena kept "looking at her reflection" in the window over and over...I don't know why I got hung up on that but in most of the scenes she appears in, there is some sort of comment on her looking at the glass. I thought it was a nod to something about her character, something that would present itself later, but I don't think it did. It was just a phrase that seemed to get overused in an otherwise perfectly written story.

I had heard raves about the author before: now I know why! I spent most of today’s unusual heat wave parked in front of a fan with The Singer’s Gun, and was sad to see it end. I should have savored it more! This one would be ripe for a sequel, because the moral ambiguities can never be completely resolved.
]]> 3.79 2010 The Singer's Gun
author: Emily St. John Mandel
name: Amy
average rating: 3.79
book published: 2010
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2015/06/18
shelves:
review:
“Sometimes regular channels aren’t open to you, and then you have to improvise. Find your own way out. Think about it, Anton. What does it take to succeed in this world?�



“It’s never easy. You have to be creative sometimes. You have to make things happen for yourself.�


What does it mean to be a good person? Can you justify a tiny bit of crime, maybe by simply looking the other way, if your intent is good? Are you saving the world if you ignoring your own child?

The Singer’s Gun is an incredible novel, one that has consumed me since I began reading it. Tension and suspense are mixed in with significant questions regarding morality and family honor in a world changed by 9/11. Anton is the protagonist, a man who wishes to wash his hands of his family’s criminal links, but finds that doing that requires its own sort of dishonesty. This novel discusses the complex links that connect us to our past and lead to our future. How desperate do we have to be to make a new beginning?

The novel makes you consider all these things without ever getting preachy or dull. The stride is brisk, and the characters are all unique and compelling. As in real life, very few people are completely good or completely bad: this explores all the mysterious layers and inconsistencies of everyday life. Anton is appealing: after all, he adopts a one-eyed cat and shows up at his job reliably, long after he’s been quietly fired. Yet he’s lost, gripped by an inertia brought on by not wanting to do wrong but not having the courage to do “right�.

What I really enjoyed, besides the completely unique characters, was that the plot continually rotates, changing viewpoints, so that you can observe scenes through another characters eyes and thus see their own justifications. It complicates the drama and adds tension. The author subtly weaves little threads of foreshadowing here and there to add another dimension. Some seemingly unrelated minor events appear that actually serve to rough up and texture the identities of the characters. My only minor irritation was that the character Elena kept "looking at her reflection" in the window over and over...I don't know why I got hung up on that but in most of the scenes she appears in, there is some sort of comment on her looking at the glass. I thought it was a nod to something about her character, something that would present itself later, but I don't think it did. It was just a phrase that seemed to get overused in an otherwise perfectly written story.

I had heard raves about the author before: now I know why! I spent most of today’s unusual heat wave parked in front of a fan with The Singer’s Gun, and was sad to see it end. I should have savored it more! This one would be ripe for a sequel, because the moral ambiguities can never be completely resolved.

]]> <![CDATA[Burning Down George Orwell's House]]> 22889888 A darkly comic debut novel about advertising, truth, single malt, Scottish hospitality—or lack thereof—and George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four.

Ray Welter, who was until recently a highflying advertising executive in Chicago, has left the world of newspeak behind. He decamps to the isolated Scottish Isle of Jura in order to spend a few months in the cottage where George Orwell wrote most of his seminal novel, Nineteen Eighty-Four. Ray is miserable, and quite prepared to make his troubles go away with the help of copious quantities of excellent scotch.

But a few of the local islanders take a decidedly shallow view of a foreigner coming to visit in order to sort himself out, and Ray quickly finds himself having to deal with not only his own issues but also a community whose eccentricities are at times amusing and at others downright dangerous. Also, the locals believe—or claim to believe—that there’s a werewolf about, and against his better judgment, Ray’s misadventures build to the night of a traditional, boozy werewolf hunt on the Isle of Jura on the summer solstice.]]> 272 Andrew Ervin 1616954949 Amy 5 arcs-or-review-copy Or, maybe� was it in an advertisement? Someone selling paint? Easy-Gro plants? Detergent? You may find yourself questioning the origin of your dream cottage (admit it…you have one, if not by the sea, by a lake) when you get submerged in Andrew Ervin’s new novel, Burning Down George Orwell’s House.
Sure, we know that such a fantasy, were it to happen, would be full of inconveniences. It would be completely worth going without electricity, internet, and Amazon just to be able to think and get away from other humans. And this is the plan that Ray Welter makes a reality when he heads to the island of Jura, just off the Scottish mainland, fleeing both a failing marriage and a dubious job decision as an advertising executive at the cutting-edge firm, Logos. Cutting off all ties to his life, he packs a few books and sets out to find the time and space to think.
“Ray wanted to know again, to be able to delineate right and wrong in an un-deconstructed world of certainty. He wanted to feel the security of binary opposition. Good and bad.�
To be sure, Ray’s cottage is far different from ours in its providence: it was once the home of George Orwell, writer of one of the most readable books on the required reading list of any high school. I studied 1984 in 1984, and everyone in our age bracket immediately understood the significance of Doublespeak and Big Brother. It seemed extreme, but possible. In the thirty years since, it isn’t inevitable, it simply is.
Getting a cold and bumpy start, Welter finds that many inconveniences are eased by drinking whisky and napping. Lots of whisky. In fact, it appears to be the only thing that keeps Jura functional, and the good stuff is distilled right on the island. The rain is endless, and the few residents he meets are an odd and cantankerous bunch that makes me fear Gerard Butler may be as bizarre and scary as them. That thought alone would garner a dram of whisky.
While intending to study Orwell and get a sense of what inspired his most original and frightening vision of the future, Welter offends nearly everyone in his journey, until he’s finally alone at the cottage (more like a palace but I’ve committed to a cottage). And then, with the dream a complete reality, and the nasty world behind him, and the cottage fire going, Welter is surprised to find himself a bit lost, maybe even bored. Having time to think may not be in his best interests:
“As long as Ray could remember, since he was a little kid running amok in the endless rows of corn, his mind had contained partitioned rooms he knew not to enter; in them were countless self-perceptions better left un-thought about and which generated moods that later in life –particularly after his career at Logos took off � his personal safety required him to avoid. But left by himself for days on end, half-dozing next to a dying fire, with the large amounts of whisky unable to fight off the constant din of the rain, he couldn’t help himself from picking open those locks and peering inside.�
Strange parallels of his life twist into irony that is Orwellian. The first week there, he feels watched, as if every movement is being observed by a nefarious unknown. And while he wanted to observe that gorgeous and refreshing seascape, the rain blots out any vision: he’s blind to what he’s looking for. Death pays a visit too, as he’s being gifted with disemboweled animals on his porch, attributed quite simply to one of the islander’s being a werewolf.
As werewolves go, this one is pretty wise. He tells Welter, “remember that the difference between myth and reality isn’t quite as distinct here on Jura as you might believe.� This dichotomy plays out in both the scenery and his interactions with the island’s residents in scenes that are often tense but sometimes very funny.
Welter’s study of Orwell is distracted by an abused young woman (of the jailbait variety) and her villainous father who hates all intruders into what he considers the old and traditional life Jura holds (tourists be damned). Change is feared by all on the island, but Welter comes with the mindset of an advertiser, where change is encouraged and necessary to remain profitable, and thus to exist. Strange neighbors, endless sheep, torture by bagpipe, and the arduous terrain keeps him from ever finding a comfort zone, and this is probably the point that Ervin is directing us towards.
This is most telling in a particularly revelatory tour of the Jura distillery, where Welter learns that the process of aging whiskey to perfection has a distinct subtext of living life to the full, in the present:
“The size of the cask and the location, that’s how every malt gets its distinct flavors. And from the geographical location of the distillery and the tiniest variations of coastline and altitude too.�
Whiskey as metaphor. Of course. The collision between stasis and change form a battle that goes beyond the novel. It reels in Welter’s reflections from his time on Jura to his pre-Jura meltdown, even to the times of his childhood where Ervin sneaks in some tiny details that are revealing later. It extends across economic, geographic, and family connections and surprises with an unexpected lightness rather than despondence.

Releases today, May 5, 2015.
Special thanks to Soho Books for the Review Copy.
]]> 3.51 2015 Burning Down George Orwell's House
author: Andrew Ervin
name: Amy
average rating: 3.51
book published: 2015
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2015/05/04
shelves: arcs-or-review-copy
review:
I think everyone has held the “cottage by the sea� dream aloft in our imagination, thinking at times it to be the ideal solution for when life gets messy or our decisions turn out to be disasters. I can see my cottage so clearly that I wonder where I saw it; what gave me the definite image of the white shutters on the gray siding, the crisp brick chimney placed just so? Climbing roses tumbling down around a small fence, with the ubiquitous Adirondack chair (painted bright turquoise) facing a lovely calm bay? Was it described in a book? A dubious Hallmark movie?
Or, maybe� was it in an advertisement? Someone selling paint? Easy-Gro plants? Detergent? You may find yourself questioning the origin of your dream cottage (admit it…you have one, if not by the sea, by a lake) when you get submerged in Andrew Ervin’s new novel, Burning Down George Orwell’s House.
Sure, we know that such a fantasy, were it to happen, would be full of inconveniences. It would be completely worth going without electricity, internet, and Amazon just to be able to think and get away from other humans. And this is the plan that Ray Welter makes a reality when he heads to the island of Jura, just off the Scottish mainland, fleeing both a failing marriage and a dubious job decision as an advertising executive at the cutting-edge firm, Logos. Cutting off all ties to his life, he packs a few books and sets out to find the time and space to think.
“Ray wanted to know again, to be able to delineate right and wrong in an un-deconstructed world of certainty. He wanted to feel the security of binary opposition. Good and bad.�
To be sure, Ray’s cottage is far different from ours in its providence: it was once the home of George Orwell, writer of one of the most readable books on the required reading list of any high school. I studied 1984 in 1984, and everyone in our age bracket immediately understood the significance of Doublespeak and Big Brother. It seemed extreme, but possible. In the thirty years since, it isn’t inevitable, it simply is.
Getting a cold and bumpy start, Welter finds that many inconveniences are eased by drinking whisky and napping. Lots of whisky. In fact, it appears to be the only thing that keeps Jura functional, and the good stuff is distilled right on the island. The rain is endless, and the few residents he meets are an odd and cantankerous bunch that makes me fear Gerard Butler may be as bizarre and scary as them. That thought alone would garner a dram of whisky.
While intending to study Orwell and get a sense of what inspired his most original and frightening vision of the future, Welter offends nearly everyone in his journey, until he’s finally alone at the cottage (more like a palace but I’ve committed to a cottage). And then, with the dream a complete reality, and the nasty world behind him, and the cottage fire going, Welter is surprised to find himself a bit lost, maybe even bored. Having time to think may not be in his best interests:
“As long as Ray could remember, since he was a little kid running amok in the endless rows of corn, his mind had contained partitioned rooms he knew not to enter; in them were countless self-perceptions better left un-thought about and which generated moods that later in life –particularly after his career at Logos took off � his personal safety required him to avoid. But left by himself for days on end, half-dozing next to a dying fire, with the large amounts of whisky unable to fight off the constant din of the rain, he couldn’t help himself from picking open those locks and peering inside.�
Strange parallels of his life twist into irony that is Orwellian. The first week there, he feels watched, as if every movement is being observed by a nefarious unknown. And while he wanted to observe that gorgeous and refreshing seascape, the rain blots out any vision: he’s blind to what he’s looking for. Death pays a visit too, as he’s being gifted with disemboweled animals on his porch, attributed quite simply to one of the islander’s being a werewolf.
As werewolves go, this one is pretty wise. He tells Welter, “remember that the difference between myth and reality isn’t quite as distinct here on Jura as you might believe.� This dichotomy plays out in both the scenery and his interactions with the island’s residents in scenes that are often tense but sometimes very funny.
Welter’s study of Orwell is distracted by an abused young woman (of the jailbait variety) and her villainous father who hates all intruders into what he considers the old and traditional life Jura holds (tourists be damned). Change is feared by all on the island, but Welter comes with the mindset of an advertiser, where change is encouraged and necessary to remain profitable, and thus to exist. Strange neighbors, endless sheep, torture by bagpipe, and the arduous terrain keeps him from ever finding a comfort zone, and this is probably the point that Ervin is directing us towards.
This is most telling in a particularly revelatory tour of the Jura distillery, where Welter learns that the process of aging whiskey to perfection has a distinct subtext of living life to the full, in the present:
“The size of the cask and the location, that’s how every malt gets its distinct flavors. And from the geographical location of the distillery and the tiniest variations of coastline and altitude too.�
Whiskey as metaphor. Of course. The collision between stasis and change form a battle that goes beyond the novel. It reels in Welter’s reflections from his time on Jura to his pre-Jura meltdown, even to the times of his childhood where Ervin sneaks in some tiny details that are revealing later. It extends across economic, geographic, and family connections and surprises with an unexpected lightness rather than despondence.

Releases today, May 5, 2015.
Special thanks to Soho Books for the Review Copy.

]]> <![CDATA[The Complete Prose Tales of Alexandr Sergeyvitch Pushkin]]> 2194906 512 Alexander Pushkin 0099264919 Amy 0 to-read 3.67 1828 The Complete Prose Tales of Alexandr Sergeyvitch Pushkin
author: Alexander Pushkin
name: Amy
average rating: 3.67
book published: 1828
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2015/04/21
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Sea of Storms: A History of Hurricanes in the Greater Caribbean from Columbus to Katrina (The Lawrence Stone Lectures)]]> 21981634
Taking readers from the voyages of Columbus to the devastation of Hurricane Katrina, Schwartz looks at the ethical, political, and economic challenges that hurricanes posed to the Caribbean's indigenous populations and the different European peoples who ventured to the New World to exploit its riches. He describes how the United States provided the model for responding to environmental threats when it emerged as a major power and began to exert its influence over the Caribbean in the nineteenth century, and how the region's governments came to assume greater responsibilities for prevention and relief, efforts that by the end of the twentieth century were being questioned by free-market neoliberals. Schwartz sheds light on catastrophes like Katrina by framing them within a long and contentious history of human interaction with the natural world.

Spanning more than five centuries and drawing on extensive archival research in Europe and the Americas, "Sea of Storms" emphasizes the continuing role of race, social inequality, and economic ideology in the shaping of our responses to natural disaster.]]> 472 Stuart B. Schwartz 0691157561 Amy 5
Stuart B. Schwartz has created a history of Hurricanes in the region that seems them the most…the Caribbean. Scores have occurred that usually stay above the midline of South America and further up the East Coast of the US, centering mainly on the Caribbean from Mexico to the Bahamas and other islands. When my parents lived in Belize, I heard stories of people tying themselves into palm trees to survive the occasional hurricane. I didn’t believe it, but apparently, it’s not a rare plan when you are faced with a mighty storm, flooding, and no shelter.

Schwartz begins with one of the earliest recorded hurricanes and the written histories available from it, and goes on to explore the scientific basis for the cause of them. Sailors often could tell when something was awry, but how that knowledge was dispersed was unlikely to help many people. Starting with this hurricane in Veracruz, he weaves together the human and scientific elements that inevitably alter our history.

The first storm described was one that hit Veracruz in 1552, one described by the author as a “sixteenth-century Katrina�. The aftermath led many to conclude it was God’s punishment that led to such devastation: “they were set in a social, political, and conceptual frame that made an understanding of this catastrophe a moment for reflection on human sin and moral failure as the cause of God’s anger� (3). Despite scientific evidence to the contrary, increasing in every century since, this opinion is still widely shared and proposed as the reason for modern day hurricanes and similar storms.

Since hurricanes were not well-known meteorological behavior in many climates, when information about them reached Europe and other Northern regions, many of the details were converted into object lessons regarding good and evil. It took a great deal of time for research into changes in weather, ocean conditions, and even animal behavior to be undertaken to prevent such disasters.

One chapter discusses early European forays into the Caribbean, with a somewhat ironic tale of two enemies whose fate was determined by such weather. Columbus� enemy Francisco de Bobadilla was the investigator who chained up Columbus and returned him to Spain with a very unfavorable report. Years later, they meet again in Santo Domingo, where Bobadilla is heading out with a fleet of gold. One of those ships held gold that belonged to Columbus that was being carried to Seville. Columbus warned both him and the governor that a huge storm was coming, but neither wanted advice from him. He was even refused entry into the port. So Columbus found a small port to shelter in temporarily, and held out during the storm, while the others headed out.

Unfortunately for them, the prophecy of Columbus, who used his experience with observation of weather changes and water behavior, came true. Only the ship carrying Columbus� gold survived. The rest, some twenty six boats, went down in the storm. Sadly, five hundred plus sailors and the remaining gold sank. Columbus may have felt vindicated, but he then suffered rumors of being “in concert with the Devil and that he had actually called down the storm upon his enemy� (11). I’m not a big fan of Columbus, but wow. Major burn.

When scientists set about trying to predict and prevent hurricanes, their ideas ranged from ridiculous to somewhat on target, but always at a cost.

Whatever the scientific value of such attempts at weather modification, these hurricane projects and those to increase or decrease rainfall were always politically controversial, since changing the course of a hurricane or changing areas of rainfall might save one area from injury, but place another in danger. Fidel Castro claimed the United States was carrying out environmental warfare by trying to divert rainfall from Cuba to ruin its agriculture (274).

Interestingly, it was Castro as a leader who was the one most interested in responding successfully to the next hurricane, Flora, where “all of the institutions of the regime were mobilized for the relief effort � militias, the army…the Red Cross and police �(288). He interacted with victims and played a visible role in the country by seeking out more information about the storms and relief available. This was in sharp contrast to the nearby regions of Haiti and the Dominican Republic, most brutally were the dictator Duvalier appeared to care not at all by the damage or his people’s losses.

Throughout the centuries since the hurricane in Veracruz, the responses are strangely the same. Not all take advantage of warnings given (which are not always clear), and when the damage is done, blame is given to the people themselves for abandoning God or living a lifestyle deserving of such disaster. An example of this, outrageous as it is, is Hurricane Katrina. The failures on so many levels is sobering and obscene.

First, despite Hurricane Andrew that hit Florida in 1992, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) was gutted after the election of George W. Bush. Bush’s campaign manager called it “an oversized entitlement program� and its level of preparedness was diminished (entitlement being the code word for helping the poor). After all, after 9/11 there were less funds allotted to it, and then it came under the direction of Homeland Security with a focus more on “anti-terrorist activities�. Good intentions may have led to very poor decisions, but it appears there was a more sinister attitude in play. One journalist, Eric Holderman, is quoted in the book as warning via the Washington Post that “hurricanes, tornadoes, earthquakes, volcanoes, tsunamis, floods, windstorms, fires and flu were destined to be a national concern on a weekly or daily basis. They are coming for sure, sooner or later, even as we are, to an unconscionable degree, weakening our ability to respond to them� (318).

He makes a valid point. Reducing protection across the board in case of a natural disaster weakens the US as a whole, as a terrorist act garners more of a reaction. And never can this been seen more than in Hurricane Katrina. When it occurred, I was on a rafting trip in Northern California. Away from news, even radio, for a week, made coming home to the disaster seem as if Armageddon had arrived in New Orleans. For many, it might as well have been.

New Orleans reeling from a hurricane is no surprise. First, the location. Dangerous levees, a low ground point in comparison to Lake Ponchartrain, and the levels of the Mississippi all contribute to a region surrounded by water (so much so that graves are raised on concrete platforms in the city cemeteries rather than in the ground). In addition, about a quarter of the city lived below the poverty line, and was 67% African American. This demographic was not considered politically valuable and thus efforts to help Louisiana were largely pushed aside, despite credible warnings.
We can all picture the Superdome and its intense overcrowding, but less known is the more insidious wrongs that took place:

Doctors were turned away from aiding victims because they did not have state licenses; buses were not mobilized [for evacuation] because they lacked air-conditioning or toilets; bus drivers were not allowed to serve until they had the required sexual harassment training; the governor’s request for national aid was delayed for five days because it had not been made in writing (324).

It’s hard not to quote this entire chapter as it is so shocking. I had no idea that FEMA tried to suppress photos of the dead or of those trapped on roofs or hanging on to flimsy floating boards. Were they worried about bad PR? Food was not provided to Superdome evacuees. While 80% of the city had been evacuated, those that remained were blamed in the press for not leaving in a timely way, despite that many of these were the poor and elderly that did not have the means to escape (remember the lack of buses?). The fact that not ALL could escape was already predicted by expert projection made no difference: no plan was implemented to change that, so this television visibility “drove home a message of social and racial inequalities�.

Now, all of this is tragic, and yet many people still feel that the situation was impossible to prevent and thus impossible to prepare for. Yet, attitudes of leaders and TV buffoons illuminate a further, racially biased attitude that had to contribute to the disaster, either in beliefs about it or towards its victims. While you may have the TV pundits say dumb things, like Bill O’Reilly, who “suggested that those who had not evacuated were drug addicts unwilling to leave their suppliers�, it’s more troubling when the political leadership in the US and especially that region (people in a position to change and improve policy) also speak ignorantly of the disaster. Robert Baker, a Baton Rouge congressman, stated “We finally cleaned up public housing in New Orleans. We couldn’t do it, but God did.� Rick Santorum (fun to google him), a Republican candidate for President, felt that those who didn’t evacuate should be penalized. As if they weren’t already by the sub-human conditions.

Additionally, many TV outlets emphasized and exaggerated the occurrences of crime and looting. In fact, many of the looters were taking only food, milk, toilet paper and bread.

And of course, there were the interpreters, such as many ministers who suggested, just like in Veracruz centuries before, that an angry God was in punishment mode. Ray Nagin, the mayor of New Orleans, “said in his reelection campaign that God had punished New Orleans for the war in Iraq�. Such blame was attributed widely in many circles, namely Republican and Fundamental.
As Schwartz states so elegantly near the end of the book, “Providentialism was, as it has usually been, employed to support existing political convictions rather than as a catalyst for new interpretations or changes of heart (335)�.

The book concludes with an overview of Hurricane Sandy and the political clout that was banked upon in the aftermath, as well as the unnecessary damage and suffering to New Jersey residents.

There is no sense of this being a complete downer, but more an example of how attitudes (religious, secular, and political) often ignore the scientific basis for how things occur, and even avoid learning more about what science can tell us about hurricanes and other natural disasters. Much of the science behind hurricanes is discussed in the book, and knowledge of such is possible, not so much to prevent but to prepare.

Hurricane season starts June 1, 2015.
]]> 3.92 2014 Sea of Storms: A History of Hurricanes in the Greater Caribbean from Columbus to Katrina (The Lawrence Stone Lectures)
author: Stuart B. Schwartz
name: Amy
average rating: 3.92
book published: 2014
rating: 5
read at: 2015/04/18
date added: 2015/04/19
shelves:
review:
Hurricanes have the power to fascinate us, as do earthquakes and tornadoes, in their total power and seeming randomness (and in a small way to an epically bad final episode of Dexter). Every hurricane season takes a toll on some region of the US or elsewhere, and while the news reports can be disturbing and frightening, it’s in the handling of these natural disasters that political policy, social attitudes, and scientific ignorance is most seen and least commented upon.

Stuart B. Schwartz has created a history of Hurricanes in the region that seems them the most…the Caribbean. Scores have occurred that usually stay above the midline of South America and further up the East Coast of the US, centering mainly on the Caribbean from Mexico to the Bahamas and other islands. When my parents lived in Belize, I heard stories of people tying themselves into palm trees to survive the occasional hurricane. I didn’t believe it, but apparently, it’s not a rare plan when you are faced with a mighty storm, flooding, and no shelter.

Schwartz begins with one of the earliest recorded hurricanes and the written histories available from it, and goes on to explore the scientific basis for the cause of them. Sailors often could tell when something was awry, but how that knowledge was dispersed was unlikely to help many people. Starting with this hurricane in Veracruz, he weaves together the human and scientific elements that inevitably alter our history.

The first storm described was one that hit Veracruz in 1552, one described by the author as a “sixteenth-century Katrina�. The aftermath led many to conclude it was God’s punishment that led to such devastation: “they were set in a social, political, and conceptual frame that made an understanding of this catastrophe a moment for reflection on human sin and moral failure as the cause of God’s anger� (3). Despite scientific evidence to the contrary, increasing in every century since, this opinion is still widely shared and proposed as the reason for modern day hurricanes and similar storms.

Since hurricanes were not well-known meteorological behavior in many climates, when information about them reached Europe and other Northern regions, many of the details were converted into object lessons regarding good and evil. It took a great deal of time for research into changes in weather, ocean conditions, and even animal behavior to be undertaken to prevent such disasters.

One chapter discusses early European forays into the Caribbean, with a somewhat ironic tale of two enemies whose fate was determined by such weather. Columbus� enemy Francisco de Bobadilla was the investigator who chained up Columbus and returned him to Spain with a very unfavorable report. Years later, they meet again in Santo Domingo, where Bobadilla is heading out with a fleet of gold. One of those ships held gold that belonged to Columbus that was being carried to Seville. Columbus warned both him and the governor that a huge storm was coming, but neither wanted advice from him. He was even refused entry into the port. So Columbus found a small port to shelter in temporarily, and held out during the storm, while the others headed out.

Unfortunately for them, the prophecy of Columbus, who used his experience with observation of weather changes and water behavior, came true. Only the ship carrying Columbus� gold survived. The rest, some twenty six boats, went down in the storm. Sadly, five hundred plus sailors and the remaining gold sank. Columbus may have felt vindicated, but he then suffered rumors of being “in concert with the Devil and that he had actually called down the storm upon his enemy� (11). I’m not a big fan of Columbus, but wow. Major burn.

When scientists set about trying to predict and prevent hurricanes, their ideas ranged from ridiculous to somewhat on target, but always at a cost.

Whatever the scientific value of such attempts at weather modification, these hurricane projects and those to increase or decrease rainfall were always politically controversial, since changing the course of a hurricane or changing areas of rainfall might save one area from injury, but place another in danger. Fidel Castro claimed the United States was carrying out environmental warfare by trying to divert rainfall from Cuba to ruin its agriculture (274).

Interestingly, it was Castro as a leader who was the one most interested in responding successfully to the next hurricane, Flora, where “all of the institutions of the regime were mobilized for the relief effort � militias, the army…the Red Cross and police �(288). He interacted with victims and played a visible role in the country by seeking out more information about the storms and relief available. This was in sharp contrast to the nearby regions of Haiti and the Dominican Republic, most brutally were the dictator Duvalier appeared to care not at all by the damage or his people’s losses.

Throughout the centuries since the hurricane in Veracruz, the responses are strangely the same. Not all take advantage of warnings given (which are not always clear), and when the damage is done, blame is given to the people themselves for abandoning God or living a lifestyle deserving of such disaster. An example of this, outrageous as it is, is Hurricane Katrina. The failures on so many levels is sobering and obscene.

First, despite Hurricane Andrew that hit Florida in 1992, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) was gutted after the election of George W. Bush. Bush’s campaign manager called it “an oversized entitlement program� and its level of preparedness was diminished (entitlement being the code word for helping the poor). After all, after 9/11 there were less funds allotted to it, and then it came under the direction of Homeland Security with a focus more on “anti-terrorist activities�. Good intentions may have led to very poor decisions, but it appears there was a more sinister attitude in play. One journalist, Eric Holderman, is quoted in the book as warning via the Washington Post that “hurricanes, tornadoes, earthquakes, volcanoes, tsunamis, floods, windstorms, fires and flu were destined to be a national concern on a weekly or daily basis. They are coming for sure, sooner or later, even as we are, to an unconscionable degree, weakening our ability to respond to them� (318).

He makes a valid point. Reducing protection across the board in case of a natural disaster weakens the US as a whole, as a terrorist act garners more of a reaction. And never can this been seen more than in Hurricane Katrina. When it occurred, I was on a rafting trip in Northern California. Away from news, even radio, for a week, made coming home to the disaster seem as if Armageddon had arrived in New Orleans. For many, it might as well have been.

New Orleans reeling from a hurricane is no surprise. First, the location. Dangerous levees, a low ground point in comparison to Lake Ponchartrain, and the levels of the Mississippi all contribute to a region surrounded by water (so much so that graves are raised on concrete platforms in the city cemeteries rather than in the ground). In addition, about a quarter of the city lived below the poverty line, and was 67% African American. This demographic was not considered politically valuable and thus efforts to help Louisiana were largely pushed aside, despite credible warnings.
We can all picture the Superdome and its intense overcrowding, but less known is the more insidious wrongs that took place:

Doctors were turned away from aiding victims because they did not have state licenses; buses were not mobilized [for evacuation] because they lacked air-conditioning or toilets; bus drivers were not allowed to serve until they had the required sexual harassment training; the governor’s request for national aid was delayed for five days because it had not been made in writing (324).

It’s hard not to quote this entire chapter as it is so shocking. I had no idea that FEMA tried to suppress photos of the dead or of those trapped on roofs or hanging on to flimsy floating boards. Were they worried about bad PR? Food was not provided to Superdome evacuees. While 80% of the city had been evacuated, those that remained were blamed in the press for not leaving in a timely way, despite that many of these were the poor and elderly that did not have the means to escape (remember the lack of buses?). The fact that not ALL could escape was already predicted by expert projection made no difference: no plan was implemented to change that, so this television visibility “drove home a message of social and racial inequalities�.

Now, all of this is tragic, and yet many people still feel that the situation was impossible to prevent and thus impossible to prepare for. Yet, attitudes of leaders and TV buffoons illuminate a further, racially biased attitude that had to contribute to the disaster, either in beliefs about it or towards its victims. While you may have the TV pundits say dumb things, like Bill O’Reilly, who “suggested that those who had not evacuated were drug addicts unwilling to leave their suppliers�, it’s more troubling when the political leadership in the US and especially that region (people in a position to change and improve policy) also speak ignorantly of the disaster. Robert Baker, a Baton Rouge congressman, stated “We finally cleaned up public housing in New Orleans. We couldn’t do it, but God did.� Rick Santorum (fun to google him), a Republican candidate for President, felt that those who didn’t evacuate should be penalized. As if they weren’t already by the sub-human conditions.

Additionally, many TV outlets emphasized and exaggerated the occurrences of crime and looting. In fact, many of the looters were taking only food, milk, toilet paper and bread.

And of course, there were the interpreters, such as many ministers who suggested, just like in Veracruz centuries before, that an angry God was in punishment mode. Ray Nagin, the mayor of New Orleans, “said in his reelection campaign that God had punished New Orleans for the war in Iraq�. Such blame was attributed widely in many circles, namely Republican and Fundamental.
As Schwartz states so elegantly near the end of the book, “Providentialism was, as it has usually been, employed to support existing political convictions rather than as a catalyst for new interpretations or changes of heart (335)�.

The book concludes with an overview of Hurricane Sandy and the political clout that was banked upon in the aftermath, as well as the unnecessary damage and suffering to New Jersey residents.

There is no sense of this being a complete downer, but more an example of how attitudes (religious, secular, and political) often ignore the scientific basis for how things occur, and even avoid learning more about what science can tell us about hurricanes and other natural disasters. Much of the science behind hurricanes is discussed in the book, and knowledge of such is possible, not so much to prevent but to prepare.

Hurricane season starts June 1, 2015.

]]> The Book Thief 1118668
It is 1939. Nazi Germany. The country is holding its breath. Death has never been busier, and will be busier still.

By her brother's graveside, Liesel's life is changed when she picks up a single object, partially hidden in the snow. It is The Gravedigger's Handbook, left behind there by accident, and it is her first act of book thievery. So begins a love affair with books and words, as Liesel, with the help of her accordian-playing foster father, learns to read. Soon she is stealing books from Nazi book-burnings, the mayor's wife's library, wherever there are books to be found.

But these are dangerous times. When Liesel's foster family hides a Jew in their basement, Liesel's world is both opened up, and closed down.

In superbly crafted writing that burns with intensity, award-winning author Markus Zusak has given us one of the most enduring stories of our time.

READING GROUP GUIDE ENCLOSED]]> 550 Markus Zusak Amy 0 4.43 2005 The Book Thief
author: Markus Zusak
name: Amy
average rating: 4.43
book published: 2005
rating: 0
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date added: 2015/03/26
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]]> <![CDATA[The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair That Changed America]]> 259028 447 Erik Larson 0375725601 Amy 0 3.97 2003 The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair That Changed America
author: Erik Larson
name: Amy
average rating: 3.97
book published: 2003
rating: 0
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date added: 2015/03/09
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]]> Selected Poems 131668 176 Robert Burns 0753816636 Amy 0 3.65 1898 Selected Poems
author: Robert Burns
name: Amy
average rating: 3.65
book published: 1898
rating: 0
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date added: 2015/01/20
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]]> <![CDATA[Bryson's Dictionary for Writers and Editors]]> 1798100 From one of America's most beloved and bestselling authors, a wonderfully useful and readable guide to the problems of the English language most commonly encountered by editors and writers.

What is the difference between “immanent� and “imminent�? What is the singular form of graffiti? What is the difference between “acute� and “chronic�? What is the former name of “Moldova�? What is the difference between a cardinal number and an ordinal number? One of the English language's most skilled writers answers these and many other questions and guides us all toward precise, mistake-free usage. Covering spelling, capitalization, plurals, hyphens, abbreviations, and foreign names and phrases, Bryson's Dictionary for Writers and Editors will be an indispensable companion for all who care enough about our language not to maul, misuse, or contort it.

This dictionary is an essential guide to the wonderfully disordered thing that is the English language. As Bill Bryson notes, it will provide you with “the answers to all those points of written usage that you kind of know or ought to know but can’t quite remember.�

]]> 416 Bill Bryson 0767922697 Amy 0 3.79 2008 Bryson's Dictionary for Writers and Editors
author: Bill Bryson
name: Amy
average rating: 3.79
book published: 2008
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[Engineers of the Soul: In the Footsteps of Stalin's Writers]]> 3216163
Frank Westerman sweeps the reader along to the dramatic final confrontation between writers and engineers that signalled the end of the Soviet empire.]]> 320 Frank Westerman 0099461641 Amy 0 to-read, arcs-or-review-copy 4.06 2002 Engineers of the Soul: In the Footsteps of Stalin's Writers
author: Frank Westerman
name: Amy
average rating: 4.06
book published: 2002
rating: 0
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date added: 2014/10/30
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]]> Heart of Darkness 4901 Heart of Darkness remains an indisputably classic text and arguably Conrad's finest work.

This extensively revised Norton Critical Edition includes new materials that convey nineteenth-century attitudes toward imperialism as well as the concerns of Conrad's contemporaries about King Leopold's exploitation of his African domain. New to the Fourth Edition are excerpts from Adam Hochschild's recent book, King Leopold's Ghost, and from Sir Roger Casement's influential "Congo Report" on Leopold's atrocities. "Backgrounds and Contexts" also provides readers with a collection of photographs and a map that bring the Congo Free State to life.

A new section, "Nineteenth-Century Attitudes toward Race," includes writings by, among others, Hegel, Darwin, and Sir Francis Galton. New essays by Patrick Brantlinger, Marianna Torgovnik, Edward W. Said, Hunt Hawkins, Anthony Fothergill, and Paul Armstrong debate Chinua Achebe's controversial indictment of the novel's depiction of Africans and offer differing views about whether Conrad's beliefs about race were progressive or retrograde.

A rich selection of writings by Conrad on his life in the Congo is accompanied by extensive excerpts from his essays about art and literature. "Criticism" presents a wealth of new materials on Heart of Darkness, including contemporary responses by Henry James, E.M. Forster, Ford Madox Ford, and Virginia Woolf. Recent critical assessments by Peter Brooks, Jeremy Hawthorn, Daphna Erdinast-Vulcan, Andrew Michael Roberts, J. Hillis Miller, and Lissa Schneider cover a ranger of topics, from narrative theory to philosophy and sexuality. Also new to the Fourth Edition is a selection of writings on the connections between the novel and the film Apocalypse Now.

This Norton Critical Edition is again based on Robert Kimbrough's meticulously re-edited text of the novel. An expanded Textual Appendix allows the reader to follow Conrad's revisions at different stages of the creative process. A Chronology has been added, and the Selected Bibliography has been revised and updated.]]> 528 Joseph Conrad Amy 0 3.41 1899 Heart of Darkness
author: Joseph Conrad
name: Amy
average rating: 3.41
book published: 1899
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[The Gulag Archipelago: An Experiment in Literary Investigation, Volume 1]]> 246421 660 Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn 0061253715 Amy 0 4.42 1973 The Gulag Archipelago: An Experiment in Literary Investigation, Volume 1
author: Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
name: Amy
average rating: 4.42
book published: 1973
rating: 0
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date added: 2014/08/12
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]]> Jane Eyre 2409331 545 Charlotte Brontë 0099511126 Amy 0 4.28 1847 Jane Eyre
author: Charlotte Brontë
name: Amy
average rating: 4.28
book published: 1847
rating: 0
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date added: 2014/08/05
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]]> Stories I Stole 1727888
Stories I Stole is a wonderful example of a writer tackling an unconventional subject with such wit, humanity and sheer literary verve that one is unable to imagine why one never learnt more about Georgia before. Stories I Stole is a magnificent first book: erudite, engaged, candid and blissfully poetic. PROLOGUE: The author visits a bizarre “Stalin theme park� culminating in the eery viewing of Stalin’s death mask
SHASHLIK, TAMADA, SUPRA
The author visits Khaketi, where she is introduced to the tamada culture of “exaggerated hospitality; a point-of-honour hospitality.� During a marathon toasting session at dinner she realizes “It is a kind of aggression. When they did not know you well, they filled your glass and filled it again and carefully watched how you drank it� This was the Georgian way, friend or enemy with nothing in between. History was lost in tradition, drinking a way of remembering and forgetting at the same time.�


SHUKI
The frustration of living with unpredictable power and water supplies during extremely cold winters; the heat and/or electricity is often turned off due to reasons ranging from sabotage, corruption, non-payment, theft, “black clan economics,� and incompetence. Nevertheless this leads to a particular happiness when the light does come on. The author discovers the heavenly comfort of public baths. “Times were difficult; people had very little money. A lot of men were unemployed and all the old good professional jobs, teachers, nurses, police, engineers, were state jobs and paid less than $50 a month� Half Tbilisi owed the other half money.�

ETHNIC CLEANSING
The author visits Abkhazia, where a refugee has asked her to find the apartment that war caused him to flee. She finds a woman living there who is a refugee herself—after her own house was burned down, she discovered the fully furnished house in Abkhazia shortly after it was vacated, and has been living there ever since, proudly tending the garden of the previous occupant.

WHO ARE THE ABKHAZ
On the beach with Shalva, whom she suspects is “Abkhaz KGB.� He feeds her the party line about the Abkhaz occupation and she feels like screaming truths at him. “You won the war. You threw out all the Georgians. You have your homeland to yourselves (apart from the Armenian villages and the pockets of Russians) and what is this place? It’s a black hole. There are barely any cars, barely any petrol, no factories, nothing works, no private businesses, a curfew, no salaries, barely any pensions, a shell of a university, a terrible hospital, etc. etc.� But Shalva doubts that the West is paradise: “Here we have everything we need. The land is fertile.�

THE DUEL
The story of Dato and Aleko—they get into a car wreck and Dato’s face is horribly scarred. Aleko steals Dato’s wife and Dato challenges him to a fight. When Aleko beats Dato up, Dato pulls a gun and shoots the man until he is almost paralyzed. Dato, meanwhile, lives the rest of his life with his mother, hooked on heroin. “Not really Pushkin is it?�

LARGE ABANDONED OBJECTS
The author drives to Abkhazia with several journalists to see incumbent Ardzinba win the presidential election (the journalists rename it the “presidential farce,� since Ardzinba is the only one running. The author marvels over the abandoned relics of the USSR she sees along the roadside—rusting tractors, bits of pipline, lines of coal cars shunted and left along a rail line, etc. For her birthday, the author goes to Gorbachev’s dacha, a palatial house he built but never got to inhabit because of the collapse of the Soviet Union. The house is a metaphor for the USSR: “impressive only for its sheer size but actually full of empty space and tat.�

]]> 288 Wendell Steavenson 080214067X Amy 0 to-read 3.86 2002 Stories I Stole
author: Wendell Steavenson
name: Amy
average rating: 3.86
book published: 2002
rating: 0
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date added: 2014/07/31
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]]> <![CDATA[Facing the Lion: Memoirs of a Young Girl in Nazi Europe]]> 298870 192 Simone Arnold Liebster 0967936691 Amy 0 4.60 2000 Facing the Lion: Memoirs of a Young Girl in Nazi Europe
author: Simone Arnold Liebster
name: Amy
average rating: 4.60
book published: 2000
rating: 0
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date added: 2014/07/25
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]]> Middlesex 929618 --back cover]]> 529 Jeffrey Eugenides Amy 0 4.08 2002 Middlesex
author: Jeffrey Eugenides
name: Amy
average rating: 4.08
book published: 2002
rating: 0
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date added: 2014/06/17
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]]> In Cold Blood 9920
On November 15, 1959, in the small town of Holcomb, Kansas, four members of the Clutter family were savagely murdered by blasts from a shotgun held a few inches from their faces. There was no apparent motive for the crime, and there were almost no clues.

Five years, four months and twenty-nine days later, on April 14, 1965, Richard Eugene Hickock, aged thirty-three, and Perry Edward Smith, aged thirty-six, were hanged for the crime on a gallows in a warehouse at the Kansas State Penitentiary in Lansing, Kansas.

In Cold Blood is the story of the lives and deaths of these six people. It has already been hailed as a masterpiece.]]> 343 Truman Capote 0375507906 Amy 0 4.16 1966 In Cold Blood
author: Truman Capote
name: Amy
average rating: 4.16
book published: 1966
rating: 0
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]]> The Adventures of Tom Sawyer 445405 Mississippi he usually manages to come out on top. From petty triumphs over his friends and over his long-suffering Aunt Polly, to his intervention in a murder trial, Tom engages readers of all ages. He has long been a defining figure in the American cultural imagination.

Alongside the charm and the excitement, the novel also raises questions about identity, and about attitudes to class and race. Above all, Twain's study of childhood brings into focus emergent notions of individual and literary maturity.]]> 256 Mark Twain 0192806823 Amy 0 3.83 1876 The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
author: Mark Twain
name: Amy
average rating: 3.83
book published: 1876
rating: 0
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]]> A River Runs Through It 38300 A River Runs Through It is an American classic. Based on Norman Maclean's childhood experiences, A River Runs Through It has established itself as one of the most moving stories of our time; it captivates readers with vivid descriptions of life along Montana's Big Blackfoot River and its near magical blend of fly fishing with the troubling affections of the heart.

This handsome edition is designed and illustrated by Barry Moser. There are thirteen two-color wood engravings.

Norman Maclean (1902-90), woodsman, scholar, teacher, and storyteller, grew up in the Western Rocky Mountains of Montana and worked for many years in logging camps and for the United States Forestry Service before beginning his academic career. He retired from the University of Chicago in 1973.]]> 161 Norman Maclean 0226500608 Amy 0 wishlist 4.18 1976 A River Runs Through It
author: Norman Maclean
name: Amy
average rating: 4.18
book published: 1976
rating: 0
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date added: 2014/03/29
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]]> <![CDATA[Tales from Ovid: 24 Passages from the Metamorphoses]]> 133951 A powerful version of the Latin classic by England's late Poet Laureate, now in paperback.When it was published in 1997, Tales from Ovid was immediately recognized as a classic in its own right, as the best rendering of Ovid in generations, and as a major book in Ted Hughes's oeuvre. The Metamorphoses of Ovid stands with the works of Homer, Virgil, Dante, and Milton as a classic of world poetry; Hughes translated twenty-four of its stories with great power and directness. The result is the liveliest twentieth-century version of the classic, at once a delight for the Latinist and an appealing introduction to Ovid for the general reader.
]]> 257 Ted Hughes 0374525870 Amy 0 4.24 1997 Tales from Ovid: 24 Passages from the Metamorphoses
author: Ted Hughes
name: Amy
average rating: 4.24
book published: 1997
rating: 0
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]]> The Tree 256020 John Fowles (1926 - 2005) is widely regarded as one of the preeminent English novelists of the twentieth century — his books have sold millions of copies worldwide, been turned into beloved films, and been popularly voted among the 100 greatest novels of the century.

To a smaller yet no less passionate audience, Fowles is also known for having written The Tree, one of his few works of nonfiction. First published a generation ago, it is a provocative meditation on the connection between the natural world and human creativity, and a powerful argument against taming the wild. In it, Fowles recounts his own childhood in England and describes how he rebelled against his Edwardian father's obsession with the “quantifiable yield” of well-pruned fruit trees and came to prize instead the messy, purposeless beauty of nature left to its wildest.

The Tree is an inspiring, even life-changing book, like Lewis Hyde's The Gift, one that reaffirms our connection to nature and reminds us of the pleasure of getting lost, the merits of having no plan, and the wisdom of following one’s nose wherever it may lead—in life as much as in art.

]]> 122 John Fowles 0316289574 Amy 4 arcs-or-review-copy


"Do we feel that unless we create evidence-photographs, journal entries, picked and pressed flowers, tape recordings, pocketed stones-we haven't actually been intimate with nature?"



Fowles was known for writing The French Lieutenant's Woman as well as other fiction titles. Here, in this book, he discusses via anecdotes the relationship between humans and nature, and the juxtaposition between nature on its own and our experience of nature. First, the introduction by Barry Lopez comfortably sets the scene, and hints that this is no simple environmental manifesto. And never does Fowles lecture about how people should view nature; rather, he talks about what nature may or may not mean in a larger sense.


For example, he talks about his childhood home where his father cultivated small garden and fruit trees. Nothing was out of place, and while it was in the city, his father managed to tame anything unruly from the garden. Clearly it was his goal to conquer the plot of land. He was the victor over it. Yet his son, Fowles, purchases property that is larger, but by no means tame. Fowles neither cultivates or cuts back, he sees no point in amending the soil, pruning the trees, and to the horror of his father, the parcel of land is wild. Is it a moral battle over who conquers the natural world? Is it nature if you've directed its every movement? Fowles doesn't presume to answer, he just asks.



In a further irony, which tells a great deal about his father, Fowles recalls how his father could walk for miles in the city, yet would only hike a few hundred meters in the countryside. The untame pastoral scene frightened him or inhibited him, likely because of its chaos. Thus, Fowles discusses chaos in nature, and how the most lovely of scenes is never the most natural. He also makes a valid point that our modern society, with three decades of hindsight added since this was written, has used film and photography to 'show' nature, making the interaction with it less urgent. How often do people seek it out? Is putting a pot of daisies on the patio nature or decor? Do we travel to faraway places to imbibe unique cocktails or are we willing to hike in a forest for no other purpose than to look? Again, he gives no condescending or judgmental answer, he just asks thought provoking questions.


Since the last few years have produced epic and beautiful DVD collections for large screen televisions, like Planet Earth, does nature seem to be something we order up on the Netflix queue or purchase at Costco? It should be noted that this is not a nature 'journal', nor a guide to trees. There are no photos or etchings to illustrate it, and that's appropriate in that Fowles doesn't feel a photograph can replicate nature satisfactorily. I enjoyed this very much, and wish that Fowles would have spent a bit more time discussing his own experiences, as well as suggested ideas for conservation and preservation.



Special thanks to Rachel Bressler and Michael McKenzie at Ecco Books for the Advance Review Copy. This title is newly released.
]]> 3.80 1979 The Tree
author: John Fowles
name: Amy
average rating: 3.80
book published: 1979
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2014/01/08
shelves: arcs-or-review-copy
review:
This is the 30th anniversary edition of John Fowles legendary essay about trees. Or rather, what trees mean in a greater sense than just the biological. At first, I expected this to be similar to Rachel Carson's Silent Spring-both were written decades ago. However, this slim text is more of a set of questions rather than answers. In fact, despite the title, it could be said that trees are just the smallest portion of his purpose.



"Do we feel that unless we create evidence-photographs, journal entries, picked and pressed flowers, tape recordings, pocketed stones-we haven't actually been intimate with nature?"



Fowles was known for writing The French Lieutenant's Woman as well as other fiction titles. Here, in this book, he discusses via anecdotes the relationship between humans and nature, and the juxtaposition between nature on its own and our experience of nature. First, the introduction by Barry Lopez comfortably sets the scene, and hints that this is no simple environmental manifesto. And never does Fowles lecture about how people should view nature; rather, he talks about what nature may or may not mean in a larger sense.


For example, he talks about his childhood home where his father cultivated small garden and fruit trees. Nothing was out of place, and while it was in the city, his father managed to tame anything unruly from the garden. Clearly it was his goal to conquer the plot of land. He was the victor over it. Yet his son, Fowles, purchases property that is larger, but by no means tame. Fowles neither cultivates or cuts back, he sees no point in amending the soil, pruning the trees, and to the horror of his father, the parcel of land is wild. Is it a moral battle over who conquers the natural world? Is it nature if you've directed its every movement? Fowles doesn't presume to answer, he just asks.



In a further irony, which tells a great deal about his father, Fowles recalls how his father could walk for miles in the city, yet would only hike a few hundred meters in the countryside. The untame pastoral scene frightened him or inhibited him, likely because of its chaos. Thus, Fowles discusses chaos in nature, and how the most lovely of scenes is never the most natural. He also makes a valid point that our modern society, with three decades of hindsight added since this was written, has used film and photography to 'show' nature, making the interaction with it less urgent. How often do people seek it out? Is putting a pot of daisies on the patio nature or decor? Do we travel to faraway places to imbibe unique cocktails or are we willing to hike in a forest for no other purpose than to look? Again, he gives no condescending or judgmental answer, he just asks thought provoking questions.


Since the last few years have produced epic and beautiful DVD collections for large screen televisions, like Planet Earth, does nature seem to be something we order up on the Netflix queue or purchase at Costco? It should be noted that this is not a nature 'journal', nor a guide to trees. There are no photos or etchings to illustrate it, and that's appropriate in that Fowles doesn't feel a photograph can replicate nature satisfactorily. I enjoyed this very much, and wish that Fowles would have spent a bit more time discussing his own experiences, as well as suggested ideas for conservation and preservation.



Special thanks to Rachel Bressler and Michael McKenzie at Ecco Books for the Advance Review Copy. This title is newly released.

]]> The Poems of Dylan Thomas 99275 352 Dylan Thomas 0811215415 Amy 0 4.37 1965 The Poems of Dylan Thomas
author: Dylan Thomas
name: Amy
average rating: 4.37
book published: 1965
rating: 0
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]]> Selected Poems 1855-1892 293924
Unlike the many other available editions, all drawn from the final authorized or "deathbed" Leaves of Grass , this collection focuses on the exuberant poems Whitman wrote during the creative and sexual prime of his life, roughly between 1853 and 1860. These poems are faithfully presented as Whitman first gave them to the world-- fearless, explicit, and uncompromised-- before he transformed himself into America's respectable, mainstream Good Gray Poet through thirty years of revision, self-censorship, and suppression.

Whitman admitted that his later poetry lacked the "ecstasy of statement" of his early verse. Revealing that ecstasy for the first time, this edition makes possible a major reappraisal of our nation's first great poet.]]> 560 Walt Whitman 0312267908 Amy 0 4.30 1980 Selected Poems 1855-1892
author: Walt Whitman
name: Amy
average rating: 4.30
book published: 1980
rating: 0
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date added: 2013/11/23
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]]> <![CDATA[Three Generations, No Imbeciles: Eugenics, the Supreme Court, and Buck v. Bell]]> 8733641 Buck v. Bell. The ruling allowed states to forcibly sterilize residents in order to prevent "feebleminded and socially inadequate" people from having children. It is the only time the Supreme Court endorsed surgery as a tool of government policy. Paul Lombardo’s startling narrative exposes the Buck case’s fraudulent roots.

In 1924 Carrie Buck—involuntarily institutionalized by the State of Virginia after she was raped and impregnated—challenged the state’s plan to sterilize her. Having already judged her mother and daughter mentally deficient, Virginia wanted to make Buck the first person sterilized under a new law designed to prevent hereditarily "defective" people from reproducing. Lombardo’s more than twenty-five years of research and his own interview with Buck before she died demonstrate conclusively that she was destined to lose the case before it had even begun. Neither Carrie Buck nor her mother and daughter were the "imbeciles" condemned in the Holmes opinion. Her lawyer—a founder of the institution where she was held—never challenged Virginia’s arguments and called no witnesses on Buck’s behalf. And judges who heard her case, from state courts up to the U.S. Supreme Court, sympathized with the eugenics movement. Virginia had Carrie Buck sterilized shortly after the 1927 decision.

Though Buck set the stage for more than sixty thousand involuntary sterilizations in the United States and was cited at the Nuremberg trials in defense of Nazi sterilization experiments, it has never been overturned. Three Generations, No Imbeciles tracks the notorious case through its history, revealing that it remains a potent symbol of government control of reproduction and a troubling precedent for the human genome era.]]> 384 Paul A. Lombardo 0801898242 Amy 0 4.18 2008 Three Generations, No Imbeciles: Eugenics, the Supreme Court, and Buck v. Bell
author: Paul A. Lombardo
name: Amy
average rating: 4.18
book published: 2008
rating: 0
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date added: 2013/10/03
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]]> The Meowmorphosis 9169741
Thus begins The Meowmorphosis—a bold, startling, and fuzzy-wuzzy new edition of Franz Kafka’s classic nightmare tale, from the publishers of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies! Meet Gregor Samsa, a humble young man who works as a fabric salesman to support his parents and sister. His life goes strangely awry when he wakes up late for work and finds that, inexplicably, he is now a man-sized baby kitten. His family freaks out: Yes, their son is OMG so cute, but what good is cute when there are bills piling up? And how can he expect them to serve him meals every day? If Gregor is to survive this bizarre, bewhiskered ordeal, he’ll have to achieve what he never could before—escape from his parents� house. Complete with haunting illustrations and a provocative biographical exposé of Kafka’s own secret feline life, The Meowmorphosis will take you on a journey deep into the tortured soul of the domestic tabby.]]> 208 Coleridge Cook 159474503X Amy 3 arcs-or-review-copy




In this mash-up, the anonymous writer “Coleridge Cook� twists Kafka’s tale of a man waking up to find himself as a bug into a tamer form: he wakes as an adorable kitten instead. Gregor as a cat experiences the same sort of issues as Gregor the bug, except that he’s more inclined to nap than scuttle around under furniture.




Staying fairly true to Kafka’s outline, it really does change the way you react to the scenes. It makes it wickedly funny to see his family react with such outrage and fear to what should be normal: a fat and lazy housecat. In this retelling, aside from his irresistible urge to sleep, Gregor does get out and has a run-in with some other cats. This ties into another Kafka story, The Trial, which I haven’t read but which Cook is clearly familiar with. I think I lost a bit of meaning here because I could sense that the names and actions of the other cats is important to understanding this version. My friend Lisa Hayden discusses the important relevance between The Trial and Kafka himself in her review of the book and read her explanation of the connection between both Kafka books at her blog. She’s smart like that!



"...which all led to the conclusion that for the time being he would have to keep calm and --with patience and the greatest consideration for his family--tolerate the troubles that in his present condition he was now forced to cause them."



"He had never acted according to his desires alone, but only according to the dicta of his kin, his duty, and that great filial ledger that ruled his life....That difference of spirit he had always felt on the inside was now evident on the outside..."




Now if you’ve never read The Metamorphosis, I think you’d enjoy this version for its play on images. Having read it recently, however, made me feel that the overall take from the story is just too different to get the same meaning as Kafka intended. For all of his images of absurdity with the bug, the idea of a man waking to find himself a horrifying insect was not the point of The Metamorphosis. What I took from it was more how absurd his family reacted and raised the question of why Gregor had put up with their dependence long before he turned into a bug. In this, the question is still there—but the cat contrast distracts a bit from the actual horror of his family situation.




I think this would be an excellent way to introduce someone to Kafka’s work, and since you can hardly find a book that isn’t described as “Kafkaesque� these days, it might be a good way start, as the majority of it stays very close to Kafka's telling. The illustrations are a fun addition as well...who doesn't love a cat?

]]> 2.96 2011 The Meowmorphosis
author: Coleridge Cook
name: Amy
average rating: 2.96
book published: 2011
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2013/07/16
shelves: arcs-or-review-copy
review:
This is the first literary “mash-up� I’ve ever read…a new format that combines classic texts with a modern twist. Quirk Classics have produced these, and Pride and Prejudice and Zombies and Android Karenina were early successes. I was a little hesitant at first, having found Kafka’s The Metamorphosis so intriguing.





In this mash-up, the anonymous writer “Coleridge Cook� twists Kafka’s tale of a man waking up to find himself as a bug into a tamer form: he wakes as an adorable kitten instead. Gregor as a cat experiences the same sort of issues as Gregor the bug, except that he’s more inclined to nap than scuttle around under furniture.




Staying fairly true to Kafka’s outline, it really does change the way you react to the scenes. It makes it wickedly funny to see his family react with such outrage and fear to what should be normal: a fat and lazy housecat. In this retelling, aside from his irresistible urge to sleep, Gregor does get out and has a run-in with some other cats. This ties into another Kafka story, The Trial, which I haven’t read but which Cook is clearly familiar with. I think I lost a bit of meaning here because I could sense that the names and actions of the other cats is important to understanding this version. My friend Lisa Hayden discusses the important relevance between The Trial and Kafka himself in her review of the book and read her explanation of the connection between both Kafka books at her blog. She’s smart like that!



"...which all led to the conclusion that for the time being he would have to keep calm and --with patience and the greatest consideration for his family--tolerate the troubles that in his present condition he was now forced to cause them."



"He had never acted according to his desires alone, but only according to the dicta of his kin, his duty, and that great filial ledger that ruled his life....That difference of spirit he had always felt on the inside was now evident on the outside..."




Now if you’ve never read The Metamorphosis, I think you’d enjoy this version for its play on images. Having read it recently, however, made me feel that the overall take from the story is just too different to get the same meaning as Kafka intended. For all of his images of absurdity with the bug, the idea of a man waking to find himself a horrifying insect was not the point of The Metamorphosis. What I took from it was more how absurd his family reacted and raised the question of why Gregor had put up with their dependence long before he turned into a bug. In this, the question is still there—but the cat contrast distracts a bit from the actual horror of his family situation.




I think this would be an excellent way to introduce someone to Kafka’s work, and since you can hardly find a book that isn’t described as “Kafkaesque� these days, it might be a good way start, as the majority of it stays very close to Kafka's telling. The illustrations are a fun addition as well...who doesn't love a cat?


]]> <![CDATA[The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian (National Book Award Winner)]]> 843804
In his first book for young adults, Sherman Alexie tells the story of Junior, a budding cartoonist who leaves his school on the Spokane Indian Reservation to attend an all-white high school. This heartbreaking, funny, and beautifully written tale, featuring poignant drawings that reflect the character's art, is based on the author's own experiences. It chronicles contemporary adolescence as seen through the eyes of one Native American boy.

Illustrated in a contemporary cartoon style by Ellen Forney.]]> 230 Sherman Alexie 0316013692 Amy 0 4.17 2007 The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian (National Book Award Winner)
author: Sherman Alexie
name: Amy
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2007
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2013/06/27
shelves:
review:

]]> John Adams 2124272
This is history on a grand scale -- a book about politics and war and social issues, but also about human nature, love, religious faith, virtue, ambition, friendship, and betrayal, and the far-reaching consequences of noble ideas. Above all, John Adams is an enthralling, often surprising story of one of the most important and fascinating Americans who ever lived.]]> 751 David McCullough 141657588X Amy 0 4.43 2001 John Adams
author: David McCullough
name: Amy
average rating: 4.43
book published: 2001
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2013/05/28
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Birds of a Lesser Paradise: Stories]]> 12188594
From a prizewinning young writer whose stories have been anthologized in The Best American Short Stories and New Stories from the South comes a heartwarming and hugely appealing debut collection that explores the way our choices and relationships are shaped by the menace and beauty of the natural world.

Megan Mayhew Bergman's twelve stories capture the surprising moments when the pull of our biology becomes evident, when love or fear collide with good sense, or when our attachment to an animal or wild place can't be denied. In "Housewifely Arts," a single mother and her son drive hours to track down an African Gray Parrot that can mimic her deceased mother's voice. A population control activist faces the ultimate conflict between her loyalty to the environment and her maternal desire in "Yesterday's Whales." And in the title story, a lonely naturalist allows an attractive stranger to lead her and her aging father on a hunt for an elusive woodpecker.

As intelligent as they are moving, the stories in Birds of a Lesser Paradise are alive with emotion, wit, and insight into the impressive power that nature has over all of us.]]> 224 Megan Mayhew Bergman 1451643357 Amy 0 to-read 3.86 2012 Birds of a Lesser Paradise: Stories
author: Megan Mayhew Bergman
name: Amy
average rating: 3.86
book published: 2012
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2013/03/12
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Metro Stop Dostoevsky: Travels in Russian Time]]> 705104
The daughter of Russian émigrés, Ingrid Bengis grew up wondering whether she was American or, deep down, “really Russian.� In 1991, naïvely in love with Russia and Russian literature, she settled in St. Petersburg, where she was quickly immersed in “catastroika,� a period of immense turmoil that mirrored her own increasingly complex and contradictory experience.

Bengis’s account of her involvement with Russia is heightened by her involvement with B, a Russian whose collapsing marriage, paralleling the collapse of the Soviet Union, produces a situation in which “anything could happen.� Their relationship reflects the social tumult, as well as the sometimes dangerous consequences of American “good intentions.� As Bengis takes part in Russian life—becoming a reluctant entrepreneur, undergoing surgery in a St. Petersburg hospital, descending into a coal mine—she becomes increasingly aware of its Dostoevskian duality, never more so than when she meets the impoverished, importuning great-great-granddaughter of the writer himself. Beneath the seismic shifting remains a centuries-old preoccuption with “the big questions�: tradition and progress, destiny and activism, skepticism and faith. With its elaborate pattern of digression and its eye for the revealing detail, Bengis’s account has the hypnotic intimacy of a late-night conversation in a Russian kitchen, where such questions are perpetually being asked.]]> 352 Ingrid Bengis 0865476721 Amy 0 to-read 3.45 2003 Metro Stop Dostoevsky: Travels in Russian Time
author: Ingrid Bengis
name: Amy
average rating: 3.45
book published: 2003
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2013/03/08
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[A Little Party Dress: Lyric Essays]]> 6746112 90 Christian Bobin 0975444484 Amy 5



First, I have to admit I didn't know what a lyric essay was, so I had to look it up. Turns out it has nothing to do with music (LOL), but is rather a sort of hybrid between an essay and a poem. Then I started reading this book, A Little Party Dress, by Christian Bobin, and I realized there must be a better definition. In these lyric essays, each section is more like an informal commentary on a theme, without coming across as being a lecture or a self-help book. The book itself defines it as "meditative prose".



However you define it, it's lovely. It includes thoughtful reflections on time, books, family, and indirectly, our attitude in life. Bobin discusses books in many places, such as in "A Story Nobody Wanted":

"The wall between readers and everyone else goes far deeper into the earth, beneath faces. There are wealthy people who never touch a book. There are poor people who are consumed by their passion for reading. Who is rich, and who is poor; who is dead, and who is living? Those who never read are a taciturn race. Objects take the place of words: cars with leather seats for those who have money, ornaments on doilies for those who don't. A life without reading is a life one never leaves, a life piled up upon itself, stifled by everything it holds on to...." He describes the void felt by those who can't look out into another world in books, who are left closed in by their own fences. Given that he's essentially preaching to the choir, because those reading these essays are obviously readers already, it might seem self-aggrandizing and smug. It isn't. Instead it reminds the reader to read meditatively and to slow down and enjoy simple pleasures.



In "May He Be Left In Peace", he talks about fatigue and life's constant rush, set in the context of Percival's quest and his ultimate realization:

"Tired people are good at business, they build houses, pursue careers. To flee their fatigue they do all these things, and in fleeing they sumbit to fatigue. Their time is lacking in time. Everything they do more and more of, they do less and less of. Their lives are lacking in life."



One of my favorites is "Promised Land" where he describes the plight of the 'mass-produced' businessman, travelling, rushing and controlling:

"In his haste he takes the void with him. However often he speaks, he hears only himself. However far he goes, he finds only himself. Whereever he goes he leaves behind a stain of gray; he sleeps in the midst of what he sees. And so you say to yourself: these people who travel so much never take a single step forward. To really see something, you have to be able to touch its opposite...The businessman is merely the latest avatar, the most recent version of the pale man...He is the man with the weakest identity-that of keeping things in their place, that of the eternal lie of living in society."

He contrasts this man with a simpler man, of seeming no importance. And comparitively reflects on the meaningfulness of each in a way that isn't dismissive but insightful.



The translator, Alison Anderson, describes Bobin's work: "He’s not edgy, or trendy, or experimental; he’s deeply reflective, almost religious. Maybe people aren’t used to thinking about life in a philosophical way, at least not through literature." (from Scott Esposito at Two Words: Center for the Art of Translation at )



Of everything I've read this past year, this is one I think I will return to, enjoying the short essays and the honest style of the prose. The author writes in such a beautiful way, it's almost as if this review needs a special font to illustrate it. Their is no arrogance in the writing, even though it points at many of the flaws in modern life.
]]> 3.85 1991 A Little Party Dress: Lyric Essays
author: Christian Bobin
name: Amy
average rating: 3.85
book published: 1991
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2013/02/27
shelves:
review:
Translated from the French by Alison Anderson




First, I have to admit I didn't know what a lyric essay was, so I had to look it up. Turns out it has nothing to do with music (LOL), but is rather a sort of hybrid between an essay and a poem. Then I started reading this book, A Little Party Dress, by Christian Bobin, and I realized there must be a better definition. In these lyric essays, each section is more like an informal commentary on a theme, without coming across as being a lecture or a self-help book. The book itself defines it as "meditative prose".



However you define it, it's lovely. It includes thoughtful reflections on time, books, family, and indirectly, our attitude in life. Bobin discusses books in many places, such as in "A Story Nobody Wanted":

"The wall between readers and everyone else goes far deeper into the earth, beneath faces. There are wealthy people who never touch a book. There are poor people who are consumed by their passion for reading. Who is rich, and who is poor; who is dead, and who is living? Those who never read are a taciturn race. Objects take the place of words: cars with leather seats for those who have money, ornaments on doilies for those who don't. A life without reading is a life one never leaves, a life piled up upon itself, stifled by everything it holds on to...." He describes the void felt by those who can't look out into another world in books, who are left closed in by their own fences. Given that he's essentially preaching to the choir, because those reading these essays are obviously readers already, it might seem self-aggrandizing and smug. It isn't. Instead it reminds the reader to read meditatively and to slow down and enjoy simple pleasures.



In "May He Be Left In Peace", he talks about fatigue and life's constant rush, set in the context of Percival's quest and his ultimate realization:

"Tired people are good at business, they build houses, pursue careers. To flee their fatigue they do all these things, and in fleeing they sumbit to fatigue. Their time is lacking in time. Everything they do more and more of, they do less and less of. Their lives are lacking in life."



One of my favorites is "Promised Land" where he describes the plight of the 'mass-produced' businessman, travelling, rushing and controlling:

"In his haste he takes the void with him. However often he speaks, he hears only himself. However far he goes, he finds only himself. Whereever he goes he leaves behind a stain of gray; he sleeps in the midst of what he sees. And so you say to yourself: these people who travel so much never take a single step forward. To really see something, you have to be able to touch its opposite...The businessman is merely the latest avatar, the most recent version of the pale man...He is the man with the weakest identity-that of keeping things in their place, that of the eternal lie of living in society."

He contrasts this man with a simpler man, of seeming no importance. And comparitively reflects on the meaningfulness of each in a way that isn't dismissive but insightful.



The translator, Alison Anderson, describes Bobin's work: "He’s not edgy, or trendy, or experimental; he’s deeply reflective, almost religious. Maybe people aren’t used to thinking about life in a philosophical way, at least not through literature." (from Scott Esposito at Two Words: Center for the Art of Translation at )



Of everything I've read this past year, this is one I think I will return to, enjoying the short essays and the honest style of the prose. The author writes in such a beautiful way, it's almost as if this review needs a special font to illustrate it. Their is no arrogance in the writing, even though it points at many of the flaws in modern life.

]]> New and Selected Poems 1676937 272 Dennis O'Driscoll 0856463736 Amy 0 to-read 4.08 2005 New and Selected Poems
author: Dennis O'Driscoll
name: Amy
average rating: 4.08
book published: 2005
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2013/02/14
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> On Chesil Beach 827227 166 Ian McEwan Amy 0 3.69 2007 On Chesil Beach
author: Ian McEwan
name: Amy
average rating: 3.69
book published: 2007
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2013/02/12
shelves:
review:

]]> Crime and Punishment 160296
Crime and Punishment is one of the greatest and most readable novels ever written. From the beginning we are locked into the frenzied consciousness of Raskolnikov who, against his better instincts, is inexorably drawn to commit a brutal double murder.

From that moment on, we share his conflicting feelings of self-loathing and pride, of contempt for and need of others, and of terrible despair and hope of redemption: and, in a remarkable transformation of the detective novel, we follow his agonised efforts to probe and confront both his own motives for, and the consequences of, his crime.

The result is a tragic novel built out of a series of supremely dramatic scenes that illuminate the eternal conflicts at the heart of human existence: most especially our desire for self-expression and self-fulfilment, as against the constraints of morality and human laws; and our agonised awareness of the world's harsh injustices and of our own mortality, as against the mysteries of divine justice and immortality.

Alternate edition of ISBN-13: 9781840224306]]> 485 Fyodor Dostoevsky Amy 0 4.16 1866 Crime and Punishment
author: Fyodor Dostoevsky
name: Amy
average rating: 4.16
book published: 1866
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2013/01/05
shelves:
review:

]]> Angels in America 72003 304 Tony Kushner 1559362316 Amy 0 to-read, school 4.27 1995 Angels in America
author: Tony Kushner
name: Amy
average rating: 4.27
book published: 1995
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2013/01/03
shelves: to-read, school
review:

]]> The Hundred Secret Senses 761903 The Hundred Secret Senses is an exultant novel about China and America, love and loyalty, the identities we invent and the true selves we discover along the way. Olivia Laguni is half-Chinese, but typically American in her uneasiness with her patchwork family. And no one in Olivia's family is more embarrassing to her than her half-sister, Kwan Li. For Kwan speaks mangled English, is cheerfully deaf to Olivia's sarcasm, and sees the dead with her "yin eyes."

Even as Olivia details the particulars of her decades-long grudge against her sister (who, among other things, is a source of infuriatingly good advice), Kwan Li is telling her own story, one that sweeps us into the splendor, squalor, and violence of Manchu China. And out of the friction between her narrators, Amy Tan creates a work that illuminates both the present and the past sweetly, sadly, hilariously, with searing and vivid prose.]]> 358 Amy Tan 0375701524 Amy 0 3.87 1995 The Hundred Secret Senses
author: Amy Tan
name: Amy
average rating: 3.87
book published: 1995
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2012/12/25
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Tales of Priut Almus: Participant Observation in a Russian Children's Shelter]]> 7317477 These are just three of the children who were living at Priut Almus, a children's shelter in St. Petersburg, Russia, when author Robert Belenky began his visits in 1998. He returned many times during the next ten years. In Tales of Priut Almus he presents his interviews with children and staff as he participates in this humane and innovative shelter unusual in that it focused on preparing children to create and live in a democracy. Finally, we meet Almus' founding director, enigmatic man of the theater, Mikhail Markarievich, who provided the courageous vision.

The fifth in a series of books focusing on raising children whose lives have not been easy, "Tales of Priut Almus" describes how this home has become a monument to the spirited and humane ways to raise children who are in need. Priut Almus is a model of what may be possible for the United States in the realm of education and child care.

]]> 320 Robert Belenky 1440131538 Amy 3 arcs-or-review-copy





“It is a chronic condition of unfulfilled needs; of children huddled under railway station platforms, of orphans abandoned to fate, of victimization by way, disease, and abuse, of derelicts, scroungers, vagabonds, thieves, and crooks who inspire only revulsion in our hearts.�




Thus, he travels to Russia to stay in Priut Almus, a shelter for these “surplus children�, the majority of whom have lost their family structure due to alcoholism. The priut (which means shelter) houses a coed group of children in ages ranging from 3 to 17. The facility features combined sleeping rooms, an in-house medical facility, cooking facilities, and a large community room for eating and tasks. “Vospitatilnitsa� are the caregivers that keep order among the children. Chores are assigned for each child, and an informal ‘government’of children meets to discuss various decisions in the prius.




In this prius, the children are part of the community, attending school along with neighborhood kids, and are allowed to leave the prius on errands and field trips. However, the children are only allowed to stay in an almus like this for one year, after which they must leave and return home, transfer, or be lost to the streets.




Living in the prius as he does his research, Belenky is immersed in the schedule and the children bond instantly with him. Taking comprehensive notes on their behavior and interactions, he compiles what he feels are strengths and weaknesses to the facility design. His immediate concerns relate to the variance in ages and the mix of sexes, particularly of teenagers within the prius. On his visit though, all seems to be appropriate, and he notes a particular tenderness and instinct for protection that the older children feel for the younger.




Strengths of the prius include the healthy meals, structured schedules, and loving caregivers that, despite being grossly underpaid, attempt to provide stability and a measure of permanence. Included in Tales of Priut Almus are black and white photographs of many of the children: heartbreaking faces that display innocence and hope even in their tired eyes. To start this book, one should examine the photos first, as they make the connection to his observations more personal.




An absorbing read, I did find a few distractions. One was a large number of typos that should have been caught on an editorial level. These were especially noticeable in the second portion of the book but rare in the first half. I’m not sure how that came about, but it gave an amateur feel to the book despite the high credentials of its author. Given his devotion to this cause, making a number of trips over ten years at his expense, I can’t help but wish his information was presented better. At other times, his commentary rambled and seemed repetitive, with small details that weren't always necessary.




The other thing that bugged me was a particular word choice he used. He describes the emotional needs of the children as well as the physical needs. “…not touching a needy child is also a form of child abuse. Children such as those who live in Almus must be touched-their hair must be brushed, they must be allowed to sit on one’s lap and they must be embraced as the occasion warrants, with honesty, warmth, safety, and sensuality.� I was agreeing with him until he arrived at “sensuality�. He repeats it and tries to clarify that he doesn’t mean sexuality, but I can’t find a synonym for sensual that doesn’t imply gratification on a sexual level. I understand what he’s trying to get across, but again, I think on an editorial level this word could have been removed and replaced with a more neutral choice. As it was, his phrasing sort of haunted me throughout the rest of the book and made me realize just how vulnerable children in this situation would be.



Belensky clearly knows how to advocate for children, and his insights into the structure and how it works successfully is a valuable tool in assessing other shelters and systems. Not jumping in to change or alter the system, but rather neutrally observing makes both the children and staff comfortable in airing their concerns.
]]> 3.00 2009 Tales of Priut Almus: Participant Observation in a Russian Children's Shelter
author: Robert Belenky
name: Amy
average rating: 3.00
book published: 2009
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2012/12/24
shelves: arcs-or-review-copy
review:
Robert Belenky is a clinical child psychologist who has chosen to spend his time working to study the dynamics of children who are abandoned or removed from their homes, in order to learn the best ways to help them grow to successful adults. With years of success in the US, he branched out to make voluntary trips to Haiti and Russia to observe the children in their temporary homes and determine how to more effectively design a shelter program. In Tales of Priut Almus, he relates






“It is a chronic condition of unfulfilled needs; of children huddled under railway station platforms, of orphans abandoned to fate, of victimization by way, disease, and abuse, of derelicts, scroungers, vagabonds, thieves, and crooks who inspire only revulsion in our hearts.�




Thus, he travels to Russia to stay in Priut Almus, a shelter for these “surplus children�, the majority of whom have lost their family structure due to alcoholism. The priut (which means shelter) houses a coed group of children in ages ranging from 3 to 17. The facility features combined sleeping rooms, an in-house medical facility, cooking facilities, and a large community room for eating and tasks. “Vospitatilnitsa� are the caregivers that keep order among the children. Chores are assigned for each child, and an informal ‘government’of children meets to discuss various decisions in the prius.




In this prius, the children are part of the community, attending school along with neighborhood kids, and are allowed to leave the prius on errands and field trips. However, the children are only allowed to stay in an almus like this for one year, after which they must leave and return home, transfer, or be lost to the streets.




Living in the prius as he does his research, Belenky is immersed in the schedule and the children bond instantly with him. Taking comprehensive notes on their behavior and interactions, he compiles what he feels are strengths and weaknesses to the facility design. His immediate concerns relate to the variance in ages and the mix of sexes, particularly of teenagers within the prius. On his visit though, all seems to be appropriate, and he notes a particular tenderness and instinct for protection that the older children feel for the younger.




Strengths of the prius include the healthy meals, structured schedules, and loving caregivers that, despite being grossly underpaid, attempt to provide stability and a measure of permanence. Included in Tales of Priut Almus are black and white photographs of many of the children: heartbreaking faces that display innocence and hope even in their tired eyes. To start this book, one should examine the photos first, as they make the connection to his observations more personal.




An absorbing read, I did find a few distractions. One was a large number of typos that should have been caught on an editorial level. These were especially noticeable in the second portion of the book but rare in the first half. I’m not sure how that came about, but it gave an amateur feel to the book despite the high credentials of its author. Given his devotion to this cause, making a number of trips over ten years at his expense, I can’t help but wish his information was presented better. At other times, his commentary rambled and seemed repetitive, with small details that weren't always necessary.




The other thing that bugged me was a particular word choice he used. He describes the emotional needs of the children as well as the physical needs. “…not touching a needy child is also a form of child abuse. Children such as those who live in Almus must be touched-their hair must be brushed, they must be allowed to sit on one’s lap and they must be embraced as the occasion warrants, with honesty, warmth, safety, and sensuality.� I was agreeing with him until he arrived at “sensuality�. He repeats it and tries to clarify that he doesn’t mean sexuality, but I can’t find a synonym for sensual that doesn’t imply gratification on a sexual level. I understand what he’s trying to get across, but again, I think on an editorial level this word could have been removed and replaced with a more neutral choice. As it was, his phrasing sort of haunted me throughout the rest of the book and made me realize just how vulnerable children in this situation would be.



Belensky clearly knows how to advocate for children, and his insights into the structure and how it works successfully is a valuable tool in assessing other shelters and systems. Not jumping in to change or alter the system, but rather neutrally observing makes both the children and staff comfortable in airing their concerns.

]]> Klimt (Classic Stories) 1294986 0 Laura Payne 1405429836 Amy 0 3.25 2000 Klimt (Classic Stories)
author: Laura Payne
name: Amy
average rating: 3.25
book published: 2000
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2012/12/23
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Literary Rogues: A Scandalous History of Wayward Authors]]> 15818316
Vice wasn't always the domain of rock stars, rappers, and actors. There was a time when writers fought both with words and fists, a time when writing was synonymous with drinking and early mortality. The very mad geniuses whose books are studied in schools around the world are the very ones who fell in love repeatedly, and either outright killed themselves or drank or drugged themselves as close to death's door as they could possibly get. Literary Rogues turns back the clock to celebrate historical and living legends of Western literature, such as: Edgar Allan Poe, Oscar Wilde, Zelda and F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, Dorothy Parker, Hunter S. Thompson, and Bret Easton Ellis.

Part nostalgia, part serious history of Western literary movements, and Literary Rogues is a wholly raucous celebration of oft-vilified writers and their work, brimming with interviews, research, and personality.]]> 297 Andrew Shaffer 0062077287 Amy 0 to-read 3.58 2013 Literary Rogues: A Scandalous History of Wayward Authors
author: Andrew Shaffer
name: Amy
average rating: 3.58
book published: 2013
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2012/12/16
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Out Stealing Horses 2204441 We were going out stealing horses. That was what he said, standing at the door to the cabin where I was spending the summer with my father. I was fifteen. It was 1948 and oneof the first days of July.

 Trond's friend Jon often appeared at his doorstep with an adventure in mind for the two of them. But this morning was different. What began as a joy ride on "borrowed" horses ends with Jon falling into a strange trance of grief. Trond soon learns what befell Jon earlier that day--an incident that marks the beginning of a series of vital losses for both boys.

Set in the easternmost region of Norway, Out Stealing Horses begins with an ending. Sixty-seven-year-old Trond has settled into a rustic cabin in an isolated area to live the rest of his life with a quiet deliberation. A meeting with his only neighbor, however, forces him to reflect on that fateful summer.]]> 238 Per Petterson 0312427085 Amy 0 3.76 2003 Out Stealing Horses
author: Per Petterson
name: Amy
average rating: 3.76
book published: 2003
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2012/11/29
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics: Fourth Edition]]> 13748222 The Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics has built an unrivaled reputation as the most comprehensive and authoritative reference for students, scholars, and poets on all aspects of its subject: history, movements, genres, prosody, rhetorical devices, critical terms, and more. Now this landmark work has been thoroughly revised and updated for the twenty-first century. Compiled by an entirely new team of editors, the fourth edition--the first new edition in almost twenty years--reflects recent changes in literary and cultural studies, providing up-to-date coverage and giving greater attention to the international aspects of poetry, all while preserving the best of the previous volumes

At well over a million words and more than 1,000 entries, the Encyclopedia has unparalleled breadth and depth. Entries range in length from brief paragraphs to major essays of 15,000 words, offering a more thorough treatment--including expert synthesis and indispensable bibliographies--than conventional handbooks or dictionaries.



This is a book that no reader or writer of poetry will want to be without.


Thoroughly revised and updated by a new editorial team for twenty-first-century students, scholars, and poets More than 250 new entries cover recent terms, movements, and related topics Broader international coverage includes articles on the poetries of more than 110 nations, regions, and languages Expanded coverage of poetries of the non-Western and developing worlds Updated bibliographies and cross-references New, easier-to-use page design Fully indexed for the first time]]> 1680 Roland Greene 0691154910 Amy 5 arcs-or-review-copy


Given that I prefer to focus on Eastern European and Russian literature, I decided to explore the entries for nations that didn’t even exist or were brand new entities when the third edition came out. First, some general information about the book: this is not an encyclopedic collection of poets. There are no entries for Whitman or Dickinson or Ginsberg. Rather, it focuses on the literary terms and styles of poetry, including sections for the poetry specific to certain nations and cultures.



The sections on smaller, new nations are comprehensive and complete, containing a bit of the political scene but focusing more on the influences and poets before and after major crises occurred.

From Slovakia: Mila Haugova, Jan Buzassy, and Daniel Hevier are listed as contemporary poets, and reference is made to a 2010 release “Six Slovak Poets� (available here: ) that promises to explore the seriousness and humor unique to the region. Yes, I must have it!



Slovenia: Gregor Podlagar, Maja Vidmar, and Lucija Stupica.

Croatia: Slavko Mihalic, Daniel Dragojevic, and Drago Stambuck



Bosnia: Abdulah Sidran, whose poetry the editors remarked as “imbued with a sadness resulting from his perception of disharmony in the world.� Given his locale, the exploration of this poet should be fascinating while likely tragic. The editors state, “His poems give the impression of settling accounts with life.� Comparing his work to those of the same region but differing political bases should make for a fascinating study. It would also be interesting to use the Encyclopedia to compare these contemporary poets with early 20th century poets in the same regions suffering other types of oppression.

Czech Republic: Petr Borkovec writes about the “upheaval in Czech culture� that occurs with the disintegration of political lines while the peoples and culture remain in static.



Serbia: Novica Tadic and Aleksandar Petrov

Albania: Dritero Agolli and Ismail Kadare (also known for his fiction). Fun fact: despite chaos in the region and the intellectual suppression of dictator Hoxha, “verse collections…account for more than 50% of literary output� (31). An astonishing amount, considering that an expert in poetics in the US, Maggie Balistreri, estimates about 2100 books of poetry are published in the US per year () while according to Wiki (I know, sorry!) the remainder of published works runs well over 300,000.


Another worthy mention is that this version lists useful websites for further research, notably The Poetry International Web Net () that allows you to search by country.

I think my only disappointment was that Belarus didn't have it's own entry, as it was combined with the Russian section, and that makes for the lack of mention of Valzhyna Mort, an amazing poet and ardent supporter of freedom in Belarus.




]]> 4.69 2012 The Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics: Fourth Edition
author: Roland Greene
name: Amy
average rating: 4.69
book published: 2012
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2012/11/18
shelves: arcs-or-review-copy
review:
Slavko Mihalic, Aleksandar Petrov, and Ferida Durakovic may not be household names in the US, but if you’re a fan of global poetry, you may be delighted to discover their work. Consider them treasures to find as you explore a new treasure map for poetry enthusiasts: The Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics has released a new fourth edition. The time that has passed since the third edition appeared (in 1993) has meant dramatic changes in the political and geographical atmosphere, and this new edition explores a host of new names to research and discover.



Given that I prefer to focus on Eastern European and Russian literature, I decided to explore the entries for nations that didn’t even exist or were brand new entities when the third edition came out. First, some general information about the book: this is not an encyclopedic collection of poets. There are no entries for Whitman or Dickinson or Ginsberg. Rather, it focuses on the literary terms and styles of poetry, including sections for the poetry specific to certain nations and cultures.



The sections on smaller, new nations are comprehensive and complete, containing a bit of the political scene but focusing more on the influences and poets before and after major crises occurred.

From Slovakia: Mila Haugova, Jan Buzassy, and Daniel Hevier are listed as contemporary poets, and reference is made to a 2010 release “Six Slovak Poets� (available here: ) that promises to explore the seriousness and humor unique to the region. Yes, I must have it!



Slovenia: Gregor Podlagar, Maja Vidmar, and Lucija Stupica.

Croatia: Slavko Mihalic, Daniel Dragojevic, and Drago Stambuck



Bosnia: Abdulah Sidran, whose poetry the editors remarked as “imbued with a sadness resulting from his perception of disharmony in the world.� Given his locale, the exploration of this poet should be fascinating while likely tragic. The editors state, “His poems give the impression of settling accounts with life.� Comparing his work to those of the same region but differing political bases should make for a fascinating study. It would also be interesting to use the Encyclopedia to compare these contemporary poets with early 20th century poets in the same regions suffering other types of oppression.

Czech Republic: Petr Borkovec writes about the “upheaval in Czech culture� that occurs with the disintegration of political lines while the peoples and culture remain in static.



Serbia: Novica Tadic and Aleksandar Petrov

Albania: Dritero Agolli and Ismail Kadare (also known for his fiction). Fun fact: despite chaos in the region and the intellectual suppression of dictator Hoxha, “verse collections…account for more than 50% of literary output� (31). An astonishing amount, considering that an expert in poetics in the US, Maggie Balistreri, estimates about 2100 books of poetry are published in the US per year () while according to Wiki (I know, sorry!) the remainder of published works runs well over 300,000.


Another worthy mention is that this version lists useful websites for further research, notably The Poetry International Web Net () that allows you to search by country.

I think my only disappointment was that Belarus didn't have it's own entry, as it was combined with the Russian section, and that makes for the lack of mention of Valzhyna Mort, an amazing poet and ardent supporter of freedom in Belarus.





]]> Steel Valley 11043065 106 Michael Adams 1929878176 Amy 4 arcs-or-review-copy





Thus writes Michael Adams in his poetry and short prose collection, Steel Valley. The collection is diverse, but most of it dwells with the historicity of Pennsylvania’s steel industry, one that had dominated the world up until the 1980s. It was known as the largest steel producing region in the world, one that supplied materials, iron, and armor to Union soldiers in the Civil War, and through the 60s and Vietnam (source: ).




“Iron ran an endless river � to railroad cars, rolling mills, tanks, Camaros, refrigerators, machine guns. It was a river that ran while King and Kennedy were killed. A river that ran through the guns of the soldiers-kids like me�.A river that ran in a bloody stream stretched halfway round the world to sear the flesh of men and women I would never know, but start another river running, redder and hotter than molten steel.� (from “Steel�, p. 17)




Besides providing work for generations, the industry made its own mark on the region. The valley likely imagined its steel domination as permanent, not foreseeing the devastation left in its decline. Adams similarly addresses human nature’s tendency to assume what is in place will always remain, allowing it to be taken for granted, instead of understanding that there’s always an end. In “Monongahela�, Adams describes his ambivalence about the river that twisted through the steel valley:




“Looking back now, forty years gone, my lack of curiosity about the river I lived with daily disappoints me. Maybe that’s the way of youth, to be fixated on origins and ends � things far off, the cold mountain spring, the distant sea, not the everyday�.I carried with me in those days, before life touched me with failure and some sympathy, the hard stone of intolerance that the young may bear for the familiar, to mask their fear and uncertainty.�





I only wish I could show the enjambment he used to heighten the impact of his realization. He contrasts this with an appreciation for the hills he hiked, in a nod to Thoreau. “With friends, with lovers, or alone, but always with the woods, happy, broken-hearted or not knowing which, wandering the wild rugged hills.� (“I Went Out�, p 27)




My overall response to his collection is a sense of permanence, and how one person can be marked by a place no matter how far away from it they travel, literally or figuratively. It combines unsentimental reality with the fragile emotions of memories. And too, he gives a sort of manly acknowledgement of the frailties of life; he picks up on the hardship suffered by the nameless faces we meet. He sums this up in “Do You See That Woman� on page 37:




“Okay, you’re young, and you’ve never had to face it, how it wears you down, the small daily humiliations that come at you from all directions, but here’s something you should know. Everybody wants to take pride in their work. Learn that one thing, really learn it, and you’ll do okay in life.�




]]> 4.29 2010 Steel Valley
author: Michael Adams
name: Amy
average rating: 4.29
book published: 2010
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2012/11/16
shelves: arcs-or-review-copy
review:
“Maybe it’s all for the better. You weigh the clean air and water, the way the rivers have come back to life, against the boarded up storefronts, abandoned downtowns, suicides and divorces, low wage jobs or no jobs at all�.I don’t have the heart to balance the scales of misery and hope and come up with an answer.�






Thus writes Michael Adams in his poetry and short prose collection, Steel Valley. The collection is diverse, but most of it dwells with the historicity of Pennsylvania’s steel industry, one that had dominated the world up until the 1980s. It was known as the largest steel producing region in the world, one that supplied materials, iron, and armor to Union soldiers in the Civil War, and through the 60s and Vietnam (source: ).




“Iron ran an endless river � to railroad cars, rolling mills, tanks, Camaros, refrigerators, machine guns. It was a river that ran while King and Kennedy were killed. A river that ran through the guns of the soldiers-kids like me�.A river that ran in a bloody stream stretched halfway round the world to sear the flesh of men and women I would never know, but start another river running, redder and hotter than molten steel.� (from “Steel�, p. 17)




Besides providing work for generations, the industry made its own mark on the region. The valley likely imagined its steel domination as permanent, not foreseeing the devastation left in its decline. Adams similarly addresses human nature’s tendency to assume what is in place will always remain, allowing it to be taken for granted, instead of understanding that there’s always an end. In “Monongahela�, Adams describes his ambivalence about the river that twisted through the steel valley:




“Looking back now, forty years gone, my lack of curiosity about the river I lived with daily disappoints me. Maybe that’s the way of youth, to be fixated on origins and ends � things far off, the cold mountain spring, the distant sea, not the everyday�.I carried with me in those days, before life touched me with failure and some sympathy, the hard stone of intolerance that the young may bear for the familiar, to mask their fear and uncertainty.�





I only wish I could show the enjambment he used to heighten the impact of his realization. He contrasts this with an appreciation for the hills he hiked, in a nod to Thoreau. “With friends, with lovers, or alone, but always with the woods, happy, broken-hearted or not knowing which, wandering the wild rugged hills.� (“I Went Out�, p 27)




My overall response to his collection is a sense of permanence, and how one person can be marked by a place no matter how far away from it they travel, literally or figuratively. It combines unsentimental reality with the fragile emotions of memories. And too, he gives a sort of manly acknowledgement of the frailties of life; he picks up on the hardship suffered by the nameless faces we meet. He sums this up in “Do You See That Woman� on page 37:




“Okay, you’re young, and you’ve never had to face it, how it wears you down, the small daily humiliations that come at you from all directions, but here’s something you should know. Everybody wants to take pride in their work. Learn that one thing, really learn it, and you’ll do okay in life.�





]]> <![CDATA[My Life as a Russian Novel: A Memoir]]> 7720135 288 Emmanuel Carrère 0805087559 Amy 0 3.59 2007 My Life as a Russian Novel: A Memoir
author: Emmanuel Carrère
name: Amy
average rating: 3.59
book published: 2007
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2012/11/12
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[I Feel Bad About My Neck and Other Thoughts on Being a Woman]]> 40084 I Feel Bad About My Neck, a candid, hilarious look at women who are getting older and dealing with the tribulations of maintenance, menopause, empty nests, and life itself.

Ephron chronicles her life as an obsessed cook, passionate city dweller, and hapless parent. But mostly she speaks frankly and uproariously about life as a woman of a certain age. Utterly courageous, uproariously funny, and unexpectedly moving in its truth telling, I Feel Bad About My Neck is a scrumptious, irresistible treat of a book, full of truths, laugh out loud moments that will appeal to readers of all ages.]]> 137 Nora Ephron 0307276821 Amy 0 3.76 2006 I Feel Bad About My Neck and Other Thoughts on Being a Woman
author: Nora Ephron
name: Amy
average rating: 3.76
book published: 2006
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2012/11/09
shelves:
review:

]]> The Plague of Doves 2227528 The unsolved murder of a farm family still haunts the white small town of Pluto, North Dakota, generations after the vengeance exacted and the distortions of fact transformed the lives of Ojibwe living on the nearby reservation.

Part Ojibwe, part white, Evelina Harp is an ambitious young girl prone to falling hopelessly in love. Mooshum, Evelina's grandfather, is a repository of family and tribal history with an all-too-intimate knowledge of the violent past. And Judge Antone Bazil Coutts, who bears witness, understands the weight of historical injustice better than anyone. Through the distinct and winning voices of three unforgettable narrators, the collective stories of two interwoven communities ultimately come together to reveal a final wrenching truth.

]]> 314 Louise Erdrich 0060515120 Amy 0 3.78 2008 The Plague of Doves
author: Louise Erdrich
name: Amy
average rating: 3.78
book published: 2008
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2012/10/29
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[No Space for Further Burials, a Novel on Afghanistan]]> 1224643 195 GAUHAR 8188965316 Amy 4 arcs-or-review-copy



It begins with a US soldier being captured by rebels in a mountainous region near his base. It's his own fault, curiousity got the best of him and he thought it would be safe to explore a bit. After being taken captive, he's placed in an insane asylum/hospital, a sort of drop-off place for injured civilians, orphaned children, and the mentally ill. While it previously had a Canadian doctor and nurses caring for these victims, they were gone now, the nurses captured and taken. Now it's nearly abandoned, cared for by a few Afghans who try to feed and comfort the residents with next to nothing.



The soldier, unnamed, is distraught and eager to be rescued. His training as an EMT makes him helpful, yet he isn't trained to deal with the horrors he faces with the many inmates. He tries to adjust to the lack of food, clothing, or even a blanket; hiding in his cell when the inevitable raids take place. He finds that, while trained in an 'immersion' program to help soldiers in the region, he really has no idea what the religious and tribal people are really like.



"It's not just a question of not having a decent meal or proper bed to sleep in, or even the knowledge that nothing is certain here except death. What nags me most are the things we were taught before we arrived in this land, the tenets of war, the rules of engagement. I keep going over them in my head, the virtues of our coming here, the need to liberate these people, the absolute necessity of enduring freedom. Enduring. Freedom. Two words that don't mean anything to me anymore."



The longer he's there, the likelihood of rescue slims, in fact, it's doubtful his fellow soldiers would even know where to look. He settles into the surreal environment: nearly everyone is crippled in some way, including the children. The soldier learns of religious traditions that harm women, and the senseless hate that includes brutalizing even the most helpless of children and the elderly. Besides the physical damage (burns, loss of limbs, blindness, and battle scars), many are mentally damaged as well. This is a region that is so highly volatile that no one family is intact: death is everywhere and even the youngest inmates are dulled in emotion. Suicide is an option many consider, in fact, that was the way out the Canadian doctor chose to escape.



Staying alive, finding food, and digging graves is his new routine. Without a way to speak with the people, limited only to gestures and scratching in the dirt, he finds himself alone as never before:



"I have come to understand what it means to live inside the landscape of one's own mind, where one can create an entire new world, keeping it secret from others. And I have also come to understand the silence of these people here, locked up in their own stories of loss and love and longing. I do not want to intrude into their thoughts, and have learned that the silence between the words they speak carries more than all the words I have ever spoken."



As the story continues, he begins to refer to this strange mixture of people as his tribe. He begins to change as well, as he accepts his future in the harsh place. This is where the heart of the story is-who he was and who he is to become. It's a thoughtful story, but the brutality in points is hard to take. You are reminded throughout how evil and wicked humans can be to each other, and how fragile life is in any location. Note: Reading this may have an effect on how you interpret the nightly newscasts!
]]> 3.00 2003 No Space for Further Burials, a Novel on Afghanistan
author: GAUHAR
name: Amy
average rating: 3.00
book published: 2003
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2012/10/26
shelves: arcs-or-review-copy
review:
Afghanistan is seldom the region that inspires happy stories full of contentment and joy. This novel is no exception: it's startling and brutal and yet unlike most other stories that have similar themes. What makes it unique is the premise that it begins with, and the way the plot unfolds. Completely unpredictable, as the storyline you expect changes direction several times.




It begins with a US soldier being captured by rebels in a mountainous region near his base. It's his own fault, curiousity got the best of him and he thought it would be safe to explore a bit. After being taken captive, he's placed in an insane asylum/hospital, a sort of drop-off place for injured civilians, orphaned children, and the mentally ill. While it previously had a Canadian doctor and nurses caring for these victims, they were gone now, the nurses captured and taken. Now it's nearly abandoned, cared for by a few Afghans who try to feed and comfort the residents with next to nothing.



The soldier, unnamed, is distraught and eager to be rescued. His training as an EMT makes him helpful, yet he isn't trained to deal with the horrors he faces with the many inmates. He tries to adjust to the lack of food, clothing, or even a blanket; hiding in his cell when the inevitable raids take place. He finds that, while trained in an 'immersion' program to help soldiers in the region, he really has no idea what the religious and tribal people are really like.



"It's not just a question of not having a decent meal or proper bed to sleep in, or even the knowledge that nothing is certain here except death. What nags me most are the things we were taught before we arrived in this land, the tenets of war, the rules of engagement. I keep going over them in my head, the virtues of our coming here, the need to liberate these people, the absolute necessity of enduring freedom. Enduring. Freedom. Two words that don't mean anything to me anymore."



The longer he's there, the likelihood of rescue slims, in fact, it's doubtful his fellow soldiers would even know where to look. He settles into the surreal environment: nearly everyone is crippled in some way, including the children. The soldier learns of religious traditions that harm women, and the senseless hate that includes brutalizing even the most helpless of children and the elderly. Besides the physical damage (burns, loss of limbs, blindness, and battle scars), many are mentally damaged as well. This is a region that is so highly volatile that no one family is intact: death is everywhere and even the youngest inmates are dulled in emotion. Suicide is an option many consider, in fact, that was the way out the Canadian doctor chose to escape.



Staying alive, finding food, and digging graves is his new routine. Without a way to speak with the people, limited only to gestures and scratching in the dirt, he finds himself alone as never before:



"I have come to understand what it means to live inside the landscape of one's own mind, where one can create an entire new world, keeping it secret from others. And I have also come to understand the silence of these people here, locked up in their own stories of loss and love and longing. I do not want to intrude into their thoughts, and have learned that the silence between the words they speak carries more than all the words I have ever spoken."



As the story continues, he begins to refer to this strange mixture of people as his tribe. He begins to change as well, as he accepts his future in the harsh place. This is where the heart of the story is-who he was and who he is to become. It's a thoughtful story, but the brutality in points is hard to take. You are reminded throughout how evil and wicked humans can be to each other, and how fragile life is in any location. Note: Reading this may have an effect on how you interpret the nightly newscasts!

]]> <![CDATA[Tuesdays with Morrie: An Old Man, A Young Man and Life's Greatest Lesson]]> 546384
Maybe, like Mitch, you lost track of this mentor as you made your way, and the insights faded. Wouldn't you like to see that person again, ask the bigger questions that still haunt you?

Mitch Albom had that second chance. He rediscovered Morrie in the last months of the older man's life. Knowing he was dying of ALS - or motor neurone disease - Mitch visited Morrie in his study every Tuesday, just as they used to back in college. Their rekindled relationship turned into one final 'class': lessons in how to live.]]> 192 Mitch Albom Amy 0 4.19 1997 Tuesdays with Morrie: An Old Man, A Young Man and Life's Greatest Lesson
author: Mitch Albom
name: Amy
average rating: 4.19
book published: 1997
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2012/10/15
shelves:
review:

]]> Thunderstruck 826342
In Thunderstruck , Erik Larson tells the interwoven stories of two men—Hawley Crippen, a very unlikely murderer, and Guglielmo Marconi, the obsessive creator of a seemingly supernatural means of communication—whose lives intersect during one of the greatest criminal chases of all time.

Set in Edwardian London and on the stormy coasts of Cornwall, Cape Cod, and Nova Scotia, Thunderstruck evokes the dynamism of those years when great shipping companies competed to build the biggest, fastest ocean liners; scientific advances dazzled the public with visions of a world transformed; and the rich outdid one another with ostentatious displays of wealth. Against this background, Marconi races against incredible odds and relentless skepticism to perfect his the wireless, a prime catalyst for the emergence of the world we know today. Meanwhile, Crippen, “the kindest of men,� nearly commits the perfect murder.

With hisunparalleled narrative skills, Erik Larson guides us through a relentlessly suspenseful chaseover the waters of the North Atlantic. Along the way, he tells of a sad and tragic love affair that was described on the front pages of newspapers around the world, a chief inspector who found himself strangely sympathetic to the killer and his lover, and a driven and compelling inventor who transformed the way we communicate.]]> 392 Erik Larson 1400080673 Amy 0 3.81 2006 Thunderstruck
author: Erik Larson
name: Amy
average rating: 3.81
book published: 2006
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2012/10/13
shelves:
review:

]]> The Breaking of Eggs 7629775 The Breaking of Eggs is the story of the curmudgeonly Feliks Zhokovski, Polish by birth, Communist at heart, who at age 61 finds that just about everything he has based his life on is crumbling. Separated from him family as a child when the Nazis invaded Poland, Feliks is currently living in Paris and his life's work is a travel guide to the old Eastern bloc. But unfortunately for Feliks, it's 1991: the Berlin Wall has fallen, Communism has collapsed, East Germany isn't the economic miracle he wants it to be, and he's forced to confront the fact that his travel-writing days are numbered. His guide was a flourishing business, but the old pro-Communist descriptions won’t do, for Western visitors will now be able to see for themselves. So he makes the (extremely difficult) decision to sell his guide to a big, capitalist American publisher. This sets in motion a chain of events that will reunite him with a brother living in Ohio that he hasn't seen in fifty years, reveal the truth about the mother he thought abandoned him and offer him a second chance with a long-lost love.

Equal parts hilarious and moving, The Breaking of Eggs is the story of a man who closed himself off from everyone and everything years ago and now awakens to discover the world has changed dramatically and he must change with it. The Breaking of Eggs also has the added bonus of being a crash course in 20th century European history, subtly told as a backdrop to Feliks' riveting personal story. Imagine Everything is Illuminated meets The Elegance of the Hedgehog, then forget all the publishing clichés and discover this incredible new voice.]]> 342 Jim Powell 0143117262 Amy 0 to-read, peter 3.84 2010 The Breaking of Eggs
author: Jim Powell
name: Amy
average rating: 3.84
book published: 2010
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2012/10/05
shelves: to-read, peter
review:

]]> Brenner and God 13144414
Wanting out of high-stress detective work, Simon Brenner takes a calming job as a chauffeur, shuttling a two-year-old girl back and forth in a soothing ride along the Autobahn between her father, a construction tycoon in Munich, and her mother, an abortion doctor in Vienna.

Except then one day he stops at a gas station to buy the little girl a chocolate bar and comes back to find she’s been kidnapped . . . and suddenly he’s out of a job, thoroughly stressed out, and a detective again.

With no shortage of leads—both the father’s latest development and the mother’s clinic are under siege by protestors—Brenner makes his way through a powerful cast of characters and a growing pile of bodies to solve the crime in the only way he knows By being in precisely the right place at the worst possible time.

Told with sharp-edged wit, suspense that’s even sharper, and one of the most quirky, hilarious, and compelling narrative voices ever.]]> 215 Wolf Haas 1612191134 Amy 5 arcs-or-review-copy
“Personally, I prefer to look on the positive side of life these days. Not just Murder He Wrote all the time, and who-got-who with a bullet, a knife, an extension cord, or what else I don’t know. Me, I’m far more interested in the nice people now, the quiet ones, the normals, the ones who you’d say—they lead their regular lives, abide by the law, don’t mistake themselves for the good lord when they get up in the morning, just nice tidy lives.

Look at Kressdor’s chauffeur, for example.�

That chauffeur is Brenner, or Herr Simon, a former police officer now assigned to be the personal driver of a two-year-old little girl whose wealthy and high-profile parents need to make sure she’s safe from being kidnapped. It seems a lowly task, except that right off, Brenner admits that his most interesting converations in life so far have been with Helena, the babbling child, and he’s paid well for what he finds comforting and solid work. His biggest challenge appears to be how to sneak Helena a chocolate bar without her parents finding out. But, it’s this very chocolate bar that gets him in trouble, because in purchasing it, he lowers his guard, just the once, and she is taken.

Brenner is a brooder, and his instinct is to tear himself apart with guilt, and go back to figuring out how to find her. Now, there’s no shortage of brooding, ex-cops turning into vengeful detectives in modern fiction, but Brenner is compelling because he’s brought to light by the omniscient narrator of the novel, who lets us in on Brenner’s inner struggles. He’s suffered recent depression, gets really excited about clean sheets, seems an linguistic expert in dialects, adores Jimi Hendrix, and can’t keep his eye off the clock…counting the moments since she’s gone missing and hoping against the worst. And we learn why he loves to drive:

“…Because that’s one of the many advantages of a car. You can listen to music in private, you can enjoy nature without exertion, and when in despair, you can let out a cry.�

As the reader learns about Brenner, and watches him search, they soon begin to wonder about the narrator as well. Because this isn’t some neutral observer: this narrator is an in-your-face and aggressive voice who tells the reader to “listen up� and “pay attention�. He’s clearly on Brenner’s side even when the kidnapping plot gets messy:

“Between the seventy-fourth and the eighty-eighth hours, Brenner did some first-rate investigative work that was never fully appreciated afterward�.a detective can’t be praised for everything he did right. But because everyone glossed right over it, I’d like to at least touch on it briefly. I have to say it was brilliant... […] He achieved peak detective form there, and there’s only one thing to be said: hats off.�

For those who enjoy detective novels, this is no procedural. Much of the actual work of solving the crime is left out in favor of developing the plot: mainly, what is going on with Helena’s parents, an abortion doctor and a mega-developer, that may be related to her disappearance. Brenner’s musings on both of their occupations gets far more time than chasing down forensic evidence, which keeps this from feeling like so many popular crime novels that appear to be repeats of CSI episodes, where the story is lost in the jargon.

My only minor qualm about the story was the curious introduction of one character, a police officer named Peinhaupt. He’s all set up to be a prime character, and drawn with incredible detail. I was surprised to see that his character sort of vanishes in the action of the mystery, only to reappear later in a minor scene. While this is part of a series of books about Brenner, the seventh in fact, it is the first Brenner novel to appear in English. I’m curious if Peinhaupt might have had a role in earlier Brenner novels that might explain his appearance here, or if he may be in line for a series of his own.

Time, in minutes, hours, and days, plays a huge factor in the plot…the narrator and Brenner both dwell on every hour that goes by (pay attention, you’re reminded). And while Brenner searches and the narrator speculates, these time stamps are the real events that make up this fast-paced story:

“Then the worst thing that can happen to a detective happened to Brenner. Fifty-seven hours after the girl’s disappearance, he became innocent.�

]]> 3.30 2009 Brenner and God
author: Wolf Haas
name: Amy
average rating: 3.30
book published: 2009
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2012/09/19
shelves: arcs-or-review-copy
review:
Translated from the German by Annie Janusch

“Personally, I prefer to look on the positive side of life these days. Not just Murder He Wrote all the time, and who-got-who with a bullet, a knife, an extension cord, or what else I don’t know. Me, I’m far more interested in the nice people now, the quiet ones, the normals, the ones who you’d say—they lead their regular lives, abide by the law, don’t mistake themselves for the good lord when they get up in the morning, just nice tidy lives.

Look at Kressdor’s chauffeur, for example.�

That chauffeur is Brenner, or Herr Simon, a former police officer now assigned to be the personal driver of a two-year-old little girl whose wealthy and high-profile parents need to make sure she’s safe from being kidnapped. It seems a lowly task, except that right off, Brenner admits that his most interesting converations in life so far have been with Helena, the babbling child, and he’s paid well for what he finds comforting and solid work. His biggest challenge appears to be how to sneak Helena a chocolate bar without her parents finding out. But, it’s this very chocolate bar that gets him in trouble, because in purchasing it, he lowers his guard, just the once, and she is taken.

Brenner is a brooder, and his instinct is to tear himself apart with guilt, and go back to figuring out how to find her. Now, there’s no shortage of brooding, ex-cops turning into vengeful detectives in modern fiction, but Brenner is compelling because he’s brought to light by the omniscient narrator of the novel, who lets us in on Brenner’s inner struggles. He’s suffered recent depression, gets really excited about clean sheets, seems an linguistic expert in dialects, adores Jimi Hendrix, and can’t keep his eye off the clock…counting the moments since she’s gone missing and hoping against the worst. And we learn why he loves to drive:

“…Because that’s one of the many advantages of a car. You can listen to music in private, you can enjoy nature without exertion, and when in despair, you can let out a cry.�

As the reader learns about Brenner, and watches him search, they soon begin to wonder about the narrator as well. Because this isn’t some neutral observer: this narrator is an in-your-face and aggressive voice who tells the reader to “listen up� and “pay attention�. He’s clearly on Brenner’s side even when the kidnapping plot gets messy:

“Between the seventy-fourth and the eighty-eighth hours, Brenner did some first-rate investigative work that was never fully appreciated afterward�.a detective can’t be praised for everything he did right. But because everyone glossed right over it, I’d like to at least touch on it briefly. I have to say it was brilliant... […] He achieved peak detective form there, and there’s only one thing to be said: hats off.�

For those who enjoy detective novels, this is no procedural. Much of the actual work of solving the crime is left out in favor of developing the plot: mainly, what is going on with Helena’s parents, an abortion doctor and a mega-developer, that may be related to her disappearance. Brenner’s musings on both of their occupations gets far more time than chasing down forensic evidence, which keeps this from feeling like so many popular crime novels that appear to be repeats of CSI episodes, where the story is lost in the jargon.

My only minor qualm about the story was the curious introduction of one character, a police officer named Peinhaupt. He’s all set up to be a prime character, and drawn with incredible detail. I was surprised to see that his character sort of vanishes in the action of the mystery, only to reappear later in a minor scene. While this is part of a series of books about Brenner, the seventh in fact, it is the first Brenner novel to appear in English. I’m curious if Peinhaupt might have had a role in earlier Brenner novels that might explain his appearance here, or if he may be in line for a series of his own.

Time, in minutes, hours, and days, plays a huge factor in the plot…the narrator and Brenner both dwell on every hour that goes by (pay attention, you’re reminded). And while Brenner searches and the narrator speculates, these time stamps are the real events that make up this fast-paced story:

“Then the worst thing that can happen to a detective happened to Brenner. Fifty-seven hours after the girl’s disappearance, he became innocent.�


]]> What Is Left the Daughter 7406846
Howard Norman, widely regarded as one of this country's finest novelists, returns to the mesmerizing fictional terrain of his major books--The Bird Artist, The Museum Guard, and The Haunting of L--in this erotically charged and morally complex story.

Seventeen-year-old Wyatt Hillyer is suddenly orphaned when his parents, within hours of each other, jump off two different bridges--the result of their separate involvements with the same compelling neighbor, a Halifax switchboard operator and aspiring actress. The suicides cause Wyatt to move to small-town Middle Economy to live with his uncle, aunt, and ravishing cousin Tilda.

Setting in motion the novel's chain of life-altering passions and the wartime perfidy at its core is the arrival of the German student Hans Mohring, carrying only a satchel. Actual historical incidents--including a German U-boat's sinking of the Nova Scotia-Newfoundland ferry Caribou, on which Aunt Constance Hillyer might or might not be traveling--lend intense narrative power to Norman's uncannily layered story.

Wyatt's account of the astonishing--not least to him-- events leading up to his fathering of a beloved daughter spills out twenty-one years later. It's a confession that speaks profoundly of the mysteries of human character in wartime and is directed, with both despair and hope, to an audience of one.

An utterly stirring novel. This is Howard Norman at his celebrated best.]]> 243 Howard Norman 0618735437 Amy 0 daisy, to-read 3.45 2010 What Is Left the Daughter
author: Howard Norman
name: Amy
average rating: 3.45
book published: 2010
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2012/09/17
shelves: daisy, to-read
review:

]]> The Last Man 13558836 116 R.L. Swihart 1937131157 Amy 0 to-read 4.45 2012 The Last Man
author: R.L. Swihart
name: Amy
average rating: 4.45
book published: 2012
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2012/09/03
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[How Did I Get Here?: The Ascent of an Unlikely CEO]]> 8112320 The most famous skateboarder ever shares the business secrets to his success!He's the man who put skateboarding on the map. He's the first to land a 900 (two and a half full rotations). He's also among the richest pitchmen in any sport. And, in a sport that's especially youth-oriented, Tony Hawk, a 40-something father of four, still connects with his audience by staying true to who he is.Moving easily between the ramp and the boardroom, Tony currently runs one of the most acclaimed action sports companies, a clothing line, and video game series bearing his name that has sold over $1 billion worldwide, making it the biggest selling action sports game franchise in game history. He has secured endorsement deals with major brands such as McDonalds, Intel, T-Mobile and Kohl's; started the Boom Boom HuckJam action sports tour; and achieved worldwide acclaim from the ESPN X Games.Filled with Tony's typical modesty and humor, How Did I Get Here? tells the amazing story behind Tony Hawk's unprecedented success from skateboarder to CEO, and the secrets behind his lasting appeal. You'll find out how authenticity has served him well in all his achievements. You'll also understand how his story has shaped many of his fundamental values, including his huge desire to win and his strong sense of realism.Get the inside story of Tony Hawk beyond the skateboard as he answers the How Did I Get Here?]]> 224 Tony Hawk 047063149X Amy 0 arcs-or-review-copy, to-read 3.77 2010 How Did I Get Here?: The Ascent of an Unlikely CEO
author: Tony Hawk
name: Amy
average rating: 3.77
book published: 2010
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2012/08/28
shelves: arcs-or-review-copy, to-read
review:

]]> The History of History 8592844
A young woman named Margaret stumbles one morning from a forest outside Berlin, hands dirty, clothes torn. She can remember nothing of the night in the woods, nor—she soon realizes—anything of the previous months. She returns home to her former life.

Two years later, she receives a letter from a mysterious doctor, who summons her to an appointment, claiming to be concerned for her fate. Margaret keeps the appointment, but when she leaves the doctor’s office, the entire city is transformed. Nazi ghosts manifest as preening falcons; buildings turn to flesh; reality itself wheels.

This is the story of Margaret’s race to recover her lost history—the night in the forest, and the chasm that opened in her life as a result. Awash in guilt, careening toward a shattering revelation, Margaret finds her personal amnesia resonating more and more clamorously with a nation’s criminal past, as she struggles toward an awakening that will lead her through madness to the truth, and to the unanswerable agony of her own actions.

Ida Hattemer-Higgins has written a novel about amnesia—individual, cultural, historical—about memory and oblivion, fantasy and reason, myth and redemption in our time. An unforgettable story from a bold and prodigiously gifted young talent.]]> 336 Ida Hattemer-Higgins 030727277X Amy 0 to-read 3.26 2011 The History of History
author: Ida Hattemer-Higgins
name: Amy
average rating: 3.26
book published: 2011
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2012/08/26
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Heading Out to Wonderful 13404803 296 Robert Goolrick 1565129237 Amy 3 arcs-or-review-copy
Long before we identify the narrator, as readers we find ourselves asking those same questions, even though we know it is 'just' a story, set in Brownsburg, Virginia in 1948. This small town feels familiar--you can imagine driving through it and stopping for soda on a long car trip. Goolrick describes it precisely, from the simple customs of returning home each day for lunch to the evenings where families sat on porches listening to the single radio station playing. In some places, it felt reminiscent of Scout and Boo's neighborhood in To Kill a Mockingbird, or as a less-jaded version of The Sound and the Fury. The almost numbing perfection of homes and streets creates a sort of unexpected tension...it's not readily apparent where or when the inevitable conflict will appear in the story.



In any case, the town setting is almost a game board of potential friction, and when Goolrick adds his complicated characters to the mix, he enriches the story in varying layers. There are seven greatly significant characters (I'm avoiding spoilers here, so I'm going to be as cryptic as possible) that each could carry the novel on their own, as they are so unique and unexpected. Each could be a subject for study in the subtext of the overall story.

Charlie Beale is a newcomer to the town, quickly buying up land while working in a butcher shop. He becomes very close to a married couple with a precocious little boy, Sam. Sam finds a nearly mythic figure in Charlie Beale, and idolizes him immediately. Charlie settles into this new town with every advantage and a mysterious box of money. What could go wrong?

Things do go wrong, but not in the ways I was predicting. I thought I knew where the story was headed and my assumptions led me astray, but I think Goolrick intended to mess a bit with what we may be expecting in this sort of story.

In creating the fictional city, Goolrick worked in all-too-real issues that his characters were facing (the budding resistance to traditional gender roles and race relations) so that each of their stories felt authentic and fully developed. Beyond these issues, the novel itself, a simple story made up of complicated people, pushes us to consider the drama on our own terms. Exactly at what point do you cut off a friendship that appears doomed? If everyone is lying, how do you find the strength to tell the truth? How do you decide when to step away from a problem and turn your back? Are you complicit if you don't?

I would have rated it higher if the complicated characters interacted more...I would have liked to see the reactions and responses between them. It would have added a level of depth that could have been explored.]]> 3.53 2012 Heading Out to Wonderful
author: Robert Goolrick
name: Amy
average rating: 3.53
book published: 2012
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2012/08/02
shelves: arcs-or-review-copy
review:
"I still ask myself sometimes late at night, about what happened, how it all turned out, about the life I've led, you know. Everything. I ask myself the same questions they ask me, these people who've only heard about it, who weren't even around when it all took place. What happened and why did it have to happen in the way it did?"

Long before we identify the narrator, as readers we find ourselves asking those same questions, even though we know it is 'just' a story, set in Brownsburg, Virginia in 1948. This small town feels familiar--you can imagine driving through it and stopping for soda on a long car trip. Goolrick describes it precisely, from the simple customs of returning home each day for lunch to the evenings where families sat on porches listening to the single radio station playing. In some places, it felt reminiscent of Scout and Boo's neighborhood in To Kill a Mockingbird, or as a less-jaded version of The Sound and the Fury. The almost numbing perfection of homes and streets creates a sort of unexpected tension...it's not readily apparent where or when the inevitable conflict will appear in the story.



In any case, the town setting is almost a game board of potential friction, and when Goolrick adds his complicated characters to the mix, he enriches the story in varying layers. There are seven greatly significant characters (I'm avoiding spoilers here, so I'm going to be as cryptic as possible) that each could carry the novel on their own, as they are so unique and unexpected. Each could be a subject for study in the subtext of the overall story.

Charlie Beale is a newcomer to the town, quickly buying up land while working in a butcher shop. He becomes very close to a married couple with a precocious little boy, Sam. Sam finds a nearly mythic figure in Charlie Beale, and idolizes him immediately. Charlie settles into this new town with every advantage and a mysterious box of money. What could go wrong?

Things do go wrong, but not in the ways I was predicting. I thought I knew where the story was headed and my assumptions led me astray, but I think Goolrick intended to mess a bit with what we may be expecting in this sort of story.

In creating the fictional city, Goolrick worked in all-too-real issues that his characters were facing (the budding resistance to traditional gender roles and race relations) so that each of their stories felt authentic and fully developed. Beyond these issues, the novel itself, a simple story made up of complicated people, pushes us to consider the drama on our own terms. Exactly at what point do you cut off a friendship that appears doomed? If everyone is lying, how do you find the strength to tell the truth? How do you decide when to step away from a problem and turn your back? Are you complicit if you don't?

I would have rated it higher if the complicated characters interacted more...I would have liked to see the reactions and responses between them. It would have added a level of depth that could have been explored.
]]> <![CDATA[The Year of Fog: A Novel (Bantam Discovery)]]> 1226406
Six-year-old Emma vanished into the thick San Francisco fog. Or into the heaving Pacific. Or somewhere just to a parking lot, a stranger’s van, or a road with traffic flashing by. Devastated by guilt, haunted by her fears about becoming a stepmother, Abby refuses to believe that Emma is dead. And so she searches for clues about what happened that morning—and cannot stop the flood of memories reaching from her own childhood to illuminate that irreversible moment on the beach.

Now, as the days drag into weeks, as the police lose interest and fliers fade on telephone poles, Emma’s father finds solace in religion and scientific probability—but Abby can only wander the beaches and city streets, attempting to recover the past and the little girl she lost. With her life at a crossroads, she will leave San Francisco for a country thousands of miles away. And there, by the side of another sea, on a journey that has led her to another man and into a strange subculture of wanderers and surfers, Abby will make the most astounding discovery of all—as the truth of Emma’s disappearance unravels with stunning force.

A profoundly original novel of family, loss, and hope—of the choices we make and the choices made for us� The Year of Fog beguiles with the mysteries of time and memory even as it lays bare the deep and wondrous workings of the human heart. The result is a mesmerizing tour de force that will touch anyone who knows what it means to love a child.]]> 400 Michelle Richmond 0385340125 Amy 0 3.56 2006 The Year of Fog: A Novel (Bantam Discovery)
author: Michelle Richmond
name: Amy
average rating: 3.56
book published: 2006
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2012/07/29
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[San Francisco and the Bay Area: The Haight-Ashbury Edition]]> 14581308
But the Haight-Ashbury neighborhood does not exist in isolation. Its history and culture are intertwined with the City of San Francisco and the Greater Bay Area that surround it hence the structure and title of the book.

For the production of this book Dick worked closely with his long time photo-editor, Yasemin Kant. Ben Fong-Torres, noted Bay Area writer and former founding editor of Rolling Stone magazine, wrote the Foreword and section introductions. The background research was provided by local guide and historian Stannous Flouride.]]> 208 Dick Evans 1926932129 Amy 5 Not the usual angles

This comment by photographer Dick Evans serves as a theme for exploring his book, San Francisco and the Bay Area-The Haight-Ashbury Edition, because his focus is not on the expected and typical presentations of this gorgeous city by the bay. San Francisco has an image in pop culture that focuses on the Golden Gate Bridge, the hippie scene from the 60s in the Haight, and occasionally the Victorian “Painted Ladies� that often serve as a backdrop for commercials and movies. How accurate is that image versus the reality?

The beauty is undeniable in either case, and Evans does have a few shots of those iconic places. But more than that, he explores the lesser-known images that ultimately have a deeper connection to the viewer simply because they are more unusual. Instead of distancing himself and shooting those cityscape skylines (where you could move a few buildings and have virtually any city), he is up close and partaking in the action instead of simply observing. He gets street-level, with shots of everyone from tourists to bums, and shows them in a variety of lights: sometimes ironic, sometimes silly, but always magnetic. It’s less clinical, and more personal, like discovering an old box of photos you suddenly find of distant family.

Ben Fong-Torres writes in the Foreword, “What you get is a strong sense of the neighborhood’s roots; its unending interest in artistic expression as part of the streetscape.� This is another factor that makes the photographs unique: they serve to document the artistic interaction that the city itself has with the art community, priding itself on promoting street art rather than eradicating it. Thus, Banksy can be found over Broadway, and nearly every surface has an element of art included. It makes for a strange juxtaposition: one trendy mom pushes a designer stroller up a street while gothic and frightening faces peer out from Howl. What does that baby see, while mom is chatting about the grocery list for Whole Foods? Images from nightmares? Or simply images of the neighborhood? Because over and over it seems that these shots reveal how multi-dimensional the city as a whole is, as well as each neighborhood, such as the Haight. It’s sort of a circle back to the individuals who participate in the daily life here.

Some photographs feature the same neighborhood at differing times of day, which is a simple trick to give a place a greater sense of depth. Yet, Evans use of light and shadow seems to reveal more than just a different image, but almost a different mood. They show variations between quiet and melancholic to blustery and loud, with moments of panic and goofiness thrown in as well. That one place can have all those feelings gives it an organic feel with an almost discernible pulse.

My favorite is CAL SURPLUS, a chalky storefront that is boarded up with bright cyan paint. The mind immediately registers surplus as excess, yet the closed store doesn’t follow through—there is nothing to purchase or see. What is the surplus here? Or is Evans gently hinting at California in general, with vast attributes but often operating at a bare minimum? The irony of the street scene is implicit.

Another is EVOLUTION AND THE KHARMANN GHIA, featuring the iconic car in pale yellow, classic and curvy, parked in front of a large wall mural featuring abstract art in the colors of jewels. They don’t fit together—the car looks almost bashful while the art intimidates it from up above, yet it tells a story of time and change. The scene simply wouldn’t work with any other car or any other mural.

The biggest surprise is the picture entitled WHERE BEAT WAS BORN, showing the Beat Museum on Broadway. It looks implausibly banal and institutional compared to the street art that surrounds it, more like a Planet Hollywood than the location of a historical literary site. Evans seems to capture a point where a viewer has to ask, whose art? How does one decide which artistic vision gets exposure in the Haight? Is it enough to make the attempt at some sort of intriguing image, or is there a standard somehow required? Because as the photos show, you just sort of know, intuitively, what fits and what doesn’t. How does that work in real-time? How much involvement does the city and neighborhood have in keeping the Haight-Ashbury from descending into theme-park placidity?

Enjoyable as an art book, I can’t help but think it would also be useful to those involved with city planning to see, demonstrated and documented herein, what goes right when art is freed from traditional venues and is allowed to interact with the community.

Side note: I also found a new neighborhood for my dream home, Belvedere Cove, which is clearly out of my budget but still tops my current wish list! I could seriously drink some coffee watching that view! Stunning.
]]> 4.62 2011 San Francisco and the Bay Area: The Haight-Ashbury Edition
author: Dick Evans
name: Amy
average rating: 4.62
book published: 2011
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2012/07/10
shelves:
review:
GG Bridge
Not the usual angles

This comment by photographer Dick Evans serves as a theme for exploring his book, San Francisco and the Bay Area-The Haight-Ashbury Edition, because his focus is not on the expected and typical presentations of this gorgeous city by the bay. San Francisco has an image in pop culture that focuses on the Golden Gate Bridge, the hippie scene from the 60s in the Haight, and occasionally the Victorian “Painted Ladies� that often serve as a backdrop for commercials and movies. How accurate is that image versus the reality?

The beauty is undeniable in either case, and Evans does have a few shots of those iconic places. But more than that, he explores the lesser-known images that ultimately have a deeper connection to the viewer simply because they are more unusual. Instead of distancing himself and shooting those cityscape skylines (where you could move a few buildings and have virtually any city), he is up close and partaking in the action instead of simply observing. He gets street-level, with shots of everyone from tourists to bums, and shows them in a variety of lights: sometimes ironic, sometimes silly, but always magnetic. It’s less clinical, and more personal, like discovering an old box of photos you suddenly find of distant family.

Ben Fong-Torres writes in the Foreword, “What you get is a strong sense of the neighborhood’s roots; its unending interest in artistic expression as part of the streetscape.� This is another factor that makes the photographs unique: they serve to document the artistic interaction that the city itself has with the art community, priding itself on promoting street art rather than eradicating it. Thus, Banksy can be found over Broadway, and nearly every surface has an element of art included. It makes for a strange juxtaposition: one trendy mom pushes a designer stroller up a street while gothic and frightening faces peer out from Howl. What does that baby see, while mom is chatting about the grocery list for Whole Foods? Images from nightmares? Or simply images of the neighborhood? Because over and over it seems that these shots reveal how multi-dimensional the city as a whole is, as well as each neighborhood, such as the Haight. It’s sort of a circle back to the individuals who participate in the daily life here.

Some photographs feature the same neighborhood at differing times of day, which is a simple trick to give a place a greater sense of depth. Yet, Evans use of light and shadow seems to reveal more than just a different image, but almost a different mood. They show variations between quiet and melancholic to blustery and loud, with moments of panic and goofiness thrown in as well. That one place can have all those feelings gives it an organic feel with an almost discernible pulse.

My favorite is CAL SURPLUS, a chalky storefront that is boarded up with bright cyan paint. The mind immediately registers surplus as excess, yet the closed store doesn’t follow through—there is nothing to purchase or see. What is the surplus here? Or is Evans gently hinting at California in general, with vast attributes but often operating at a bare minimum? The irony of the street scene is implicit.

Another is EVOLUTION AND THE KHARMANN GHIA, featuring the iconic car in pale yellow, classic and curvy, parked in front of a large wall mural featuring abstract art in the colors of jewels. They don’t fit together—the car looks almost bashful while the art intimidates it from up above, yet it tells a story of time and change. The scene simply wouldn’t work with any other car or any other mural.

The biggest surprise is the picture entitled WHERE BEAT WAS BORN, showing the Beat Museum on Broadway. It looks implausibly banal and institutional compared to the street art that surrounds it, more like a Planet Hollywood than the location of a historical literary site. Evans seems to capture a point where a viewer has to ask, whose art? How does one decide which artistic vision gets exposure in the Haight? Is it enough to make the attempt at some sort of intriguing image, or is there a standard somehow required? Because as the photos show, you just sort of know, intuitively, what fits and what doesn’t. How does that work in real-time? How much involvement does the city and neighborhood have in keeping the Haight-Ashbury from descending into theme-park placidity?

Enjoyable as an art book, I can’t help but think it would also be useful to those involved with city planning to see, demonstrated and documented herein, what goes right when art is freed from traditional venues and is allowed to interact with the community.

Side note: I also found a new neighborhood for my dream home, Belvedere Cove, which is clearly out of my budget but still tops my current wish list! I could seriously drink some coffee watching that view! Stunning.

]]> Pure 10116927
At first Baratte sees this as a chance to clear the burden of history, a fitting task for a modern man of reason. But before long, he begins to suspect that the destruction of the cemetery might be a prelude to his own.]]> 346 Andrew Miller 1444724258 Amy 5

But, all his plans of illustrious success are somewhat hampered by the assignment he receives, one that is couched in a veiled threat. His job will be to demolish a dangerously aged Medieval church as well as removing the entire cemetery attached to it, on the Rue de Les Innocents. The minister explains,

"It is poisoning the city. Left long enough, it may poison not just local shopkeepers but the king himself. The king and his ministers.

Yes, my lord.

It is to be removed.

Removed?

Destroyed. Church and cemetery. The place is to be made sweet again. Use fire, use brimstone. Use whatever you need to get rid of it."

Given such a grotesque assignment, he quickly realizes that the challenge lies in more than just removing bodies. The task itself is monumental, given the crowded city and the few who wish to work on such a gory task. Baratte hesitates to begin, and as he settles in to his new job, he finds avoidance is his first impulse. What better time to buy a new suit and get drunk? A fashionable pistachio green suit that is purchased by trading in his father’s dark classic suit is a symbolic gesture that sets the scene for his new undertaking, and his new pal Armand, organ player at the Church, shows him exactly what and how to drink in order to forget the dead he’ll soon be faced with.

Thus, the novel begins, with Baratte and Armand and several other characters dealing with the sentimental and awkward removal of a beloved church. Each character is fully developed, and fascinating in the way they interact. Besides the intriguing plot, just seeing the ensemble of unlikely individuals become close-knit among grave circumstances makes the narrative surprisingly enjoyable. Virtually everyone changes in some way, and none more than Baratte.

"But are his ambitions what they were? Are they, for example, less ambitious? And if so, what has replaced them? Nothing heroic, it seems. Nothing to brag of. A desire to start again, more honestly. To test each idea in the light of experience. To stand as firmly as he can in the world’s fabulous dirt; live among uncertainty, mess, beauty. Live bravely if possible. Bravery will be necessary, he has no doubt of that. The courage to act. The courage to refuse. "

Given his thoughts above, you may imagine the fate of the pistachio suit.

The story is unique and clever, and astonishingly fast-paced. I’m not normally a fan of the historical fiction genre, and I’m completely unfamiliar with this period in French history, but I was completely absorbed. However, I have to mention, in hopes of assisting others, that some reviews of the book (most notably the New York Times) seem to imply a supernatural element, of vampires and some sort of wolf-spirit. I didn’t get that at all. One strong wind was described as howling like a wolf, but that’s it. Two well-preserved bodies are inexplicably uncovered in the removal, but no indication or allusion is made to them of being vampires. So, while there is madness and community resistance to Baratte’s assignment, there’s nothing that feels otherworldly about the story.

]]> 3.58 2011 Pure
author: Andrew Miller
name: Amy
average rating: 3.58
book published: 2011
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2012/07/04
shelves:
review:
Jean-Baptiste Baratte is a modern man, well-versed in Voltaire and ready to leave his peasant upbringing behind. Eager to display his engineering talents, he meets the minister at Versailles to receive his first significant appointment. Confident, composed, although a bit cocky, he really can’t foresee any challenge his enlightened education can’t overcome.


But, all his plans of illustrious success are somewhat hampered by the assignment he receives, one that is couched in a veiled threat. His job will be to demolish a dangerously aged Medieval church as well as removing the entire cemetery attached to it, on the Rue de Les Innocents. The minister explains,

"It is poisoning the city. Left long enough, it may poison not just local shopkeepers but the king himself. The king and his ministers.

Yes, my lord.

It is to be removed.

Removed?

Destroyed. Church and cemetery. The place is to be made sweet again. Use fire, use brimstone. Use whatever you need to get rid of it."

Given such a grotesque assignment, he quickly realizes that the challenge lies in more than just removing bodies. The task itself is monumental, given the crowded city and the few who wish to work on such a gory task. Baratte hesitates to begin, and as he settles in to his new job, he finds avoidance is his first impulse. What better time to buy a new suit and get drunk? A fashionable pistachio green suit that is purchased by trading in his father’s dark classic suit is a symbolic gesture that sets the scene for his new undertaking, and his new pal Armand, organ player at the Church, shows him exactly what and how to drink in order to forget the dead he’ll soon be faced with.

Thus, the novel begins, with Baratte and Armand and several other characters dealing with the sentimental and awkward removal of a beloved church. Each character is fully developed, and fascinating in the way they interact. Besides the intriguing plot, just seeing the ensemble of unlikely individuals become close-knit among grave circumstances makes the narrative surprisingly enjoyable. Virtually everyone changes in some way, and none more than Baratte.

"But are his ambitions what they were? Are they, for example, less ambitious? And if so, what has replaced them? Nothing heroic, it seems. Nothing to brag of. A desire to start again, more honestly. To test each idea in the light of experience. To stand as firmly as he can in the world’s fabulous dirt; live among uncertainty, mess, beauty. Live bravely if possible. Bravery will be necessary, he has no doubt of that. The courage to act. The courage to refuse. "

Given his thoughts above, you may imagine the fate of the pistachio suit.

The story is unique and clever, and astonishingly fast-paced. I’m not normally a fan of the historical fiction genre, and I’m completely unfamiliar with this period in French history, but I was completely absorbed. However, I have to mention, in hopes of assisting others, that some reviews of the book (most notably the New York Times) seem to imply a supernatural element, of vampires and some sort of wolf-spirit. I didn’t get that at all. One strong wind was described as howling like a wolf, but that’s it. Two well-preserved bodies are inexplicably uncovered in the removal, but no indication or allusion is made to them of being vampires. So, while there is madness and community resistance to Baratte’s assignment, there’s nothing that feels otherworldly about the story.


]]> 's Nachts komen de vossen 6696797 Librarian's Note: this is an alternate cover edition - ISBN 13: 9789023438700

In 's Nachts komen de vossen dwaalt Cees Nooteboom naar mensen en gebeurtenissen uit het verleden: weg van de waan van de dag, weg van de levenden. Er is een prachtige lijn te ontdekken in het schrijverschap van Nooteboom. Waar in zijn debuutroman Philip en de anderen de jonge auteur op zoek ging naar de gebeurtenissen en stof zocht voor zijn schrijverschap, blikt hij nu terug en weet hij ontmoetingen, personen en gebeurtenissen te verweven tot ragfijne, maar ook spannende verhalen.]]> 160 Cees Nooteboom Amy 0 currently-reading 3.66 2009 's Nachts komen de vossen
author: Cees Nooteboom
name: Amy
average rating: 3.66
book published: 2009
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2012/05/23
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> Penguin Lost 186501 Death and the Penguin fleeing Mafia vengeance on an Antarctica-bound flight booked for Penguin Misha � seizes a heaven-sent opportunity to return to Kiev with a new identity. Clear now as to the enormity of abandoning Misha, then convalescent from a heart-transplant, Viktor determines to make amends. Viktor falls in with a Mafia boss who engages him to help in his election campaign, then introduces him to men who might further his search for Misha, said to be in a private zoo in Chechnya.

What ensues is for Viktor both a quest and an odyssey of atonement, and, for the reader, an experience as rich, topical and illuminating as Death and the Penguin.]]> 256 Andrey Kurkov 0099461692 Amy 0 currently-reading 3.80 2005 Penguin Lost
author: Andrey Kurkov
name: Amy
average rating: 3.80
book published: 2005
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2012/05/23
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Last Gasp: The Rise and Fall of the American Gas Chamber]]> 8986765 344 Scott Christianson 0520945611 Amy 0 arcs-or-review-copy
From the advantage of current access to court cases and other documents, Scott Christianson has compiled a weighty tome devoted to the history of the Gas Chamber. The book is heavily referenced and authoritative. Christiansons� background as an investigative reporter and historian uniquely qualifies him to take on this subject. Personal and political ties influenced many decisions in regard to the development and use of deadly chemicals. In his detailed account, names are named and you will recognize them.

In the early 1900s, racism was pervasive. Immigrants were viewed with suspicion. Many prominent persons believed the defective and unfit did not deserve to live and certainly not to reproduce.

“If I had my way, I would build a lethal chamber as big as the Crystal Palace, with a military band playing softly, and a Cinematograph working brightly, and then I’d go out in back streets and main streets and bring them all in, all the sick . . . the maimed; I would lead them gently, and they would smile a weary thanks.�
---D. H. Lawrence.

German troops introduced chemical warfare in 1915. It had the advantage of rendering a battlefield uninhabitable, but the greatest impact was psychological. Before WWI the use of gases was considered dishonorable under the rules of warfare, but after the German’s use of it the Allies decided that “there was no choice on their part and that they had to retaliate in like manner.� In secret, America’s chemists rushed to catch up to Germany’s chemical development. They tested more than 1600 compounds on mice, rats, dogs, and other animals, as well as on American soldiers.

After the war, the powerful chemical lobby wanted to keep the gas technology they had developed, but turn it into “constructive peacetime uses.� Scientists were testing poisons to fight fires, make dyes, exterminate insects and animals, make fertilizers, to fumigate ships in all of America’s ports, and to fumigate fruits and other foods. It was used in the miningindustry to separate silver, gold, copper, lead, and other ores. Claims were even made that poison gases could rid the world of cancer and other dreaded diseases. In 1921 Nevada enacted the Humane Execution Law and became the first state in the world to require the administration of lethal gas to legally end human life. The news of the first two executions flashed around the world. Other states followed Nevada’s lead. But in harmony with the eugenics of the time, it was often the poor, the mentally handicapped, and minorities who were killed.

“Hitler’s concept of concentration camps as well as the practicality of genocide owed, so he claims, to his studies or English and United States history.�

I was amazed at the degree that American financiers bankrolled fascist regimes in WWII, as well as the secret alliances of prominent men that were hidden through a web of trade agreements. They are named in this book and referenced, and I congratulate Christianson for his thoroughness in following the paper trail.

At the advent of America’s entry into WWII many feared Germany’s use of chemical warfare again. Winston Churchill stated, “The only reason they have not used it against us is that they fear the retaliation.�

“Hitler used the press of war to secretly authorize a euthanasia program that at first was ostensibly limited to eliminating an incurable sick patient . . . �

Hitler emptied the mental hospitals in his ‘mercy killings�, and upon public outcry, the euthanasia action secretly shifted to concentration camps. Christianson lists these camps and their methods in stark detail.

“The word went out . . . about the immense scope of the genocide. Yet nobody noted that it been the United States Army and American scientists, industrialist and politicians who had invented the gas chamber in the first place . . . Nobody stated the lamentable fact that the radical eugenicists and racial supremacists seemed to have gotten what they had wished for.�

“Pursuing this haunted path has brought great sadness; my battered heart grieves in the memory of those lost.� ----author Scott Christianson

This book is fascinating yet brutal. He spares no detail in the descriptions of just how these chemicals work, and his history proceeds seamlessly from early development to current uses of these poisons. He combines history and science, as well as legal reasoning with humanitarian concerns. It's not a happy read, but one that reveals a relatively unknown part of modern history.]]> 3.70 2010 The Last Gasp: The Rise and Fall of the American Gas Chamber
author: Scott Christianson
name: Amy
average rating: 3.70
book published: 2010
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2012/04/27
shelves: arcs-or-review-copy
review:
“The earliest gas chamber for execution purposes was constructed in the Nevada State Penitentiary at Carson City and first employed on February 8, 1924 . . . the first execution by gas arose as a byproduct of chemical warfare research conducted by the U. S. Army’s Chemical Warfare Service and the chemical industry during the First World War . . .�

From the advantage of current access to court cases and other documents, Scott Christianson has compiled a weighty tome devoted to the history of the Gas Chamber. The book is heavily referenced and authoritative. Christiansons� background as an investigative reporter and historian uniquely qualifies him to take on this subject. Personal and political ties influenced many decisions in regard to the development and use of deadly chemicals. In his detailed account, names are named and you will recognize them.

In the early 1900s, racism was pervasive. Immigrants were viewed with suspicion. Many prominent persons believed the defective and unfit did not deserve to live and certainly not to reproduce.

“If I had my way, I would build a lethal chamber as big as the Crystal Palace, with a military band playing softly, and a Cinematograph working brightly, and then I’d go out in back streets and main streets and bring them all in, all the sick . . . the maimed; I would lead them gently, and they would smile a weary thanks.�
---D. H. Lawrence.

German troops introduced chemical warfare in 1915. It had the advantage of rendering a battlefield uninhabitable, but the greatest impact was psychological. Before WWI the use of gases was considered dishonorable under the rules of warfare, but after the German’s use of it the Allies decided that “there was no choice on their part and that they had to retaliate in like manner.� In secret, America’s chemists rushed to catch up to Germany’s chemical development. They tested more than 1600 compounds on mice, rats, dogs, and other animals, as well as on American soldiers.

After the war, the powerful chemical lobby wanted to keep the gas technology they had developed, but turn it into “constructive peacetime uses.� Scientists were testing poisons to fight fires, make dyes, exterminate insects and animals, make fertilizers, to fumigate ships in all of America’s ports, and to fumigate fruits and other foods. It was used in the miningindustry to separate silver, gold, copper, lead, and other ores. Claims were even made that poison gases could rid the world of cancer and other dreaded diseases. In 1921 Nevada enacted the Humane Execution Law and became the first state in the world to require the administration of lethal gas to legally end human life. The news of the first two executions flashed around the world. Other states followed Nevada’s lead. But in harmony with the eugenics of the time, it was often the poor, the mentally handicapped, and minorities who were killed.

“Hitler’s concept of concentration camps as well as the practicality of genocide owed, so he claims, to his studies or English and United States history.�

I was amazed at the degree that American financiers bankrolled fascist regimes in WWII, as well as the secret alliances of prominent men that were hidden through a web of trade agreements. They are named in this book and referenced, and I congratulate Christianson for his thoroughness in following the paper trail.

At the advent of America’s entry into WWII many feared Germany’s use of chemical warfare again. Winston Churchill stated, “The only reason they have not used it against us is that they fear the retaliation.�

“Hitler used the press of war to secretly authorize a euthanasia program that at first was ostensibly limited to eliminating an incurable sick patient . . . �

Hitler emptied the mental hospitals in his ‘mercy killings�, and upon public outcry, the euthanasia action secretly shifted to concentration camps. Christianson lists these camps and their methods in stark detail.

“The word went out . . . about the immense scope of the genocide. Yet nobody noted that it been the United States Army and American scientists, industrialist and politicians who had invented the gas chamber in the first place . . . Nobody stated the lamentable fact that the radical eugenicists and racial supremacists seemed to have gotten what they had wished for.�

“Pursuing this haunted path has brought great sadness; my battered heart grieves in the memory of those lost.� ----author Scott Christianson

This book is fascinating yet brutal. He spares no detail in the descriptions of just how these chemicals work, and his history proceeds seamlessly from early development to current uses of these poisons. He combines history and science, as well as legal reasoning with humanitarian concerns. It's not a happy read, but one that reveals a relatively unknown part of modern history.
]]> <![CDATA[Why Calories Count: From Science to Politics]]> 13498683 Why Calories Count, Marion Nestle and Malden Nesheim explain in clear and accessible language what calories are and how they work, both biologically and politically. As they take readers through the issues that are fundamental to our understanding of diet and food, weight gain, loss, and obesity, Nestle and Nesheim sort through a great deal of the misinformation put forth by food manufacturers and diet program promoters. They elucidate the political stakes and show how federal and corporate policies have come together to create an “eat more� environment. Finally, having armed readers with the necessary information to interpret food labels, evaluate diet claims, and understand evidence as presented in popular media, the authors offer some candid advice: Get organized. Eat less. Eat better. Move more. Get political.]]> 304 Marion Nestle 0520262883 Amy 5




Sure, it talks about how unhealthy most Americans are, and without a doubt the most troubling aspect is the rising obesity rates in children. But, given how many low-calorie and "diet" options are out there, why aren't people eating better?



The answers are pretty disturbing. First off, human nature is an issue, and how impressionable our minds can be. If a food item says it has low calories or is low-fat, we tend to tell ourselves it's okay to eat more. Some more shockers:

"When fast-food restaurants position themselves as healthy, customers tend to underestimate the calories....and choose higher-calorie side dishes, drinks, or desserts." Think Subway plus that lovely chocolate chip cookie next to the register, which is okay now, because the sandwich was so healthy!
"When portions are labeled small, people believe they are eating fewer calories regardless of the number of calories the foods contain or their actual size." So small fries aren't really great even if they are small. Damn.
"When Oreo cookies are labeled as organic, people perceive them as having fewer calories than conventional Oreos....even when the study subjects have been shown package labels indicating their calories are equal..." Yikes.
Another surprise: if the label grants that the product has some beneficial component, such as "vitamins added" or "contains probiotics", many of us will assume it's healthier and thus the calories "don't count nearly as much". Ouch.



Then it looks at some diet claims: apparently the Negative Calorie Diet claims that eating certain foods will make the body burn calories instead of store fat. Of course, it's not possible, and the dynamics of the claim are analyzed.



One example of this is given of how people interpret or imagine calories work when faced with a choice. Sort of like the "diet coke plus cheeseburger" phenomenon we may not want to admit to, this one is disturbing. A scientist did an experiment with bowls of chili and salad. With the chili alone, participants guessed that the portion contained 700 calories. But when the same bowl of chili was placed with a green salad, they guessed that the meal was 655 calories. That somehow, the salad magically eradicated chili calories!



Beyond those terrible details, there's the whole idea of how badly we underestimate portions, and how even children aren't able to understand what is or isn't reasonable. What makes this such an issue is that junk food and high-calorie treats are big business; manufacturer's aren't really interesting in you eating less because you'll buy less. Sure, they may offer a 100-calorie snack pack, but the increased price makes up for their losses. And it's sort of disturbing to see just how involved this large corporations get into political lobbying to keep healthy food out of schools, and using this power to simply redesign their products to gain imaginary approval.



It seems like the cards are stacked against anyone eating healthy, but this shows ways a consumer can analyze ridiculous claims, see through the hype, and understand just how nutrition works. Also, with that knowledge, a person can make better choices and realize just how much a business model is manipulating their health.



One area I would have like to seen explored a bit more is just how to make good choices for people on the go for whom the worst of the food choices are aimed. I'd like to be able to explain to my sons why a Monster energy drink and a King Size Snickers is not a meal, because their crazy schedules don't allow them much time for planning or prepping something healthy. A list of "yes, you can buy this at 7-Eleven before work and still be healthy" foods would have been nice, but probably not realistic. And I think that is another point the book makes very clear: we are in charge of our health. We can't leave it to fast-food companies or convenience stores to provide the healthiest choices...they simply have no incentive to do so unless people change their habits. It really can't be left to chance or as an afterthought.

]]> 3.84 2012 Why Calories Count: From Science to Politics
author: Marion Nestle
name: Amy
average rating: 3.84
book published: 2012
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2012/04/18
shelves:
review:
This is not a diet book. While it is probably considered a health book, it could easily be shelved in the political/current affairs section of any bookstore. Because what it talks about goes far beyond weight and waistlines into the very political structure of the weight-loss industry and big business.





Sure, it talks about how unhealthy most Americans are, and without a doubt the most troubling aspect is the rising obesity rates in children. But, given how many low-calorie and "diet" options are out there, why aren't people eating better?



The answers are pretty disturbing. First off, human nature is an issue, and how impressionable our minds can be. If a food item says it has low calories or is low-fat, we tend to tell ourselves it's okay to eat more. Some more shockers:

"When fast-food restaurants position themselves as healthy, customers tend to underestimate the calories....and choose higher-calorie side dishes, drinks, or desserts." Think Subway plus that lovely chocolate chip cookie next to the register, which is okay now, because the sandwich was so healthy!
"When portions are labeled small, people believe they are eating fewer calories regardless of the number of calories the foods contain or their actual size." So small fries aren't really great even if they are small. Damn.
"When Oreo cookies are labeled as organic, people perceive them as having fewer calories than conventional Oreos....even when the study subjects have been shown package labels indicating their calories are equal..." Yikes.
Another surprise: if the label grants that the product has some beneficial component, such as "vitamins added" or "contains probiotics", many of us will assume it's healthier and thus the calories "don't count nearly as much". Ouch.



Then it looks at some diet claims: apparently the Negative Calorie Diet claims that eating certain foods will make the body burn calories instead of store fat. Of course, it's not possible, and the dynamics of the claim are analyzed.



One example of this is given of how people interpret or imagine calories work when faced with a choice. Sort of like the "diet coke plus cheeseburger" phenomenon we may not want to admit to, this one is disturbing. A scientist did an experiment with bowls of chili and salad. With the chili alone, participants guessed that the portion contained 700 calories. But when the same bowl of chili was placed with a green salad, they guessed that the meal was 655 calories. That somehow, the salad magically eradicated chili calories!



Beyond those terrible details, there's the whole idea of how badly we underestimate portions, and how even children aren't able to understand what is or isn't reasonable. What makes this such an issue is that junk food and high-calorie treats are big business; manufacturer's aren't really interesting in you eating less because you'll buy less. Sure, they may offer a 100-calorie snack pack, but the increased price makes up for their losses. And it's sort of disturbing to see just how involved this large corporations get into political lobbying to keep healthy food out of schools, and using this power to simply redesign their products to gain imaginary approval.



It seems like the cards are stacked against anyone eating healthy, but this shows ways a consumer can analyze ridiculous claims, see through the hype, and understand just how nutrition works. Also, with that knowledge, a person can make better choices and realize just how much a business model is manipulating their health.



One area I would have like to seen explored a bit more is just how to make good choices for people on the go for whom the worst of the food choices are aimed. I'd like to be able to explain to my sons why a Monster energy drink and a King Size Snickers is not a meal, because their crazy schedules don't allow them much time for planning or prepping something healthy. A list of "yes, you can buy this at 7-Eleven before work and still be healthy" foods would have been nice, but probably not realistic. And I think that is another point the book makes very clear: we are in charge of our health. We can't leave it to fast-food companies or convenience stores to provide the healthiest choices...they simply have no incentive to do so unless people change their habits. It really can't be left to chance or as an afterthought.


]]> A Spy in the Ruins 2365115 543 Christopher Bernard 1587901110 Amy 4 arcs-or-review-copy In Christopher Bernard’s novel, A Spy in the Ruins, a disaster has devastated a city. Or perhaps, it only affected a small region, a block, a person, or just a moment. The reader begins by being uncertain as to exactly what happened, and more importantly, why. This vague beginning is intended, and offers the first clue in grasping the scope of this complicated study of the human mind, memory, and hopes. Various characters appear, but one can’t be sure if they are indeed individuals or fragments of one consciousness.
Various literary devices are used in a surprising way: poetry and narrative intermingle throughout. Phrases may appear on a single page, and paragraphs can last for pages. Some paragraphs are absent all almost all punctuation, which creates a sense of propulsion towards the next word, speeding the text into a tense pace that feels urgent. Alternatively, other paragraphs are full of fragments, such as quoted above, driving the reader to stop. Listen. Question.
I have to admit, as I began, I wasn’t sure where the story was headed, or if it even was a story. It doesn’t follow Campbell’s Heroic Journey mythology. And I can’t really say that it is character or plot driven. I continued, because I was intrigued, and began to make marginal notes whenever a concrete location or person appeared…something to anchor the narrative to reality (or at least a fictional one). My marginal notes were minimal. It didn’t take long to figure out that such anchoring wasn’t the point, but rather the emotional and mental state of each action was what Bernard was toying with. With this in mind, it became easier to see that this was a piece of metafiction that was more about exploring the line between reality and constructions.
“It came as something of a surprise to learn that the will was written in invisible ink. So much trickier the task of deciphering a text on a blank and tumultuous page.�
Such deciphering continues as the novel continues, and without being held to the typical story arc, it is free to examine random perceptions about youthful confusion, aged wisdom, and the struggle to conjoin the two. A young man and woman both appear, but separately, and are written so differently one would imagine they were separate species rather than human. Their thoughts are rambling, sometimes incoherent, but also painfully honest. In a typical story, an author would be hard-pressed to have a character speak (or think) so honestly without alienating the reader. Because these are beings we can’t know, their anonymity allows us to view them without judgment.
“One day he opened a book. It was as though an arm rose from the pages and seized him by the throat and a voice angry learned and terribly clear said look hear listen act. Who are you. What do you know. What do you believe. What have you done. What will you do. What will your life have been worth.�
For some reason, that quote from the book reminded me of T.S. Eliot’s reaction to Joyce’s Ulysses, and how Joyce’s authorial voice challenged his way of looking at fiction forevermore. I can’t find the quote now (of course), to confirm it, but I’ve heard similar reactions to Joyce because of the unconventional style he employed. In any case, this novel’s unconventional style is mesmerizing. Throughout, the idea of books as challenges to consciousness and thought prevails. Bernard insists, through the poems and prose, that only books can reach the interior of the mind and the honesty of private contemplation.
“Chaos facing its reflection in a mirror becoming symmetry and order.�
Once the reader can grasp that the intention of the book is to question consciousness (that’s my take…I hope I’m not way off base!) rather than take a reader from point A to B, it begins to read more personally. No doubt, this is a complicated book, one that requires consideration and reflection. If I were to advise a reader, I’d suggest that they read it slowly and enjoy the play on words, the images created that only hint at reality, but that feel familiar.
]]> 4.14 2005 A Spy in the Ruins
author: Christopher Bernard
name: Amy
average rating: 4.14
book published: 2005
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2012/04/12
shelves: arcs-or-review-copy
review:
“In the wreckage of a life contained like a seed in the wreckage of love. Since that is what it is meant to have been all about. Wasn’t it. Was it not. Where is it. The nightmare again. Flung. Out. Far.�
In Christopher Bernard’s novel, A Spy in the Ruins, a disaster has devastated a city. Or perhaps, it only affected a small region, a block, a person, or just a moment. The reader begins by being uncertain as to exactly what happened, and more importantly, why. This vague beginning is intended, and offers the first clue in grasping the scope of this complicated study of the human mind, memory, and hopes. Various characters appear, but one can’t be sure if they are indeed individuals or fragments of one consciousness.
Various literary devices are used in a surprising way: poetry and narrative intermingle throughout. Phrases may appear on a single page, and paragraphs can last for pages. Some paragraphs are absent all almost all punctuation, which creates a sense of propulsion towards the next word, speeding the text into a tense pace that feels urgent. Alternatively, other paragraphs are full of fragments, such as quoted above, driving the reader to stop. Listen. Question.
I have to admit, as I began, I wasn’t sure where the story was headed, or if it even was a story. It doesn’t follow Campbell’s Heroic Journey mythology. And I can’t really say that it is character or plot driven. I continued, because I was intrigued, and began to make marginal notes whenever a concrete location or person appeared…something to anchor the narrative to reality (or at least a fictional one). My marginal notes were minimal. It didn’t take long to figure out that such anchoring wasn’t the point, but rather the emotional and mental state of each action was what Bernard was toying with. With this in mind, it became easier to see that this was a piece of metafiction that was more about exploring the line between reality and constructions.
“It came as something of a surprise to learn that the will was written in invisible ink. So much trickier the task of deciphering a text on a blank and tumultuous page.�
Such deciphering continues as the novel continues, and without being held to the typical story arc, it is free to examine random perceptions about youthful confusion, aged wisdom, and the struggle to conjoin the two. A young man and woman both appear, but separately, and are written so differently one would imagine they were separate species rather than human. Their thoughts are rambling, sometimes incoherent, but also painfully honest. In a typical story, an author would be hard-pressed to have a character speak (or think) so honestly without alienating the reader. Because these are beings we can’t know, their anonymity allows us to view them without judgment.
“One day he opened a book. It was as though an arm rose from the pages and seized him by the throat and a voice angry learned and terribly clear said look hear listen act. Who are you. What do you know. What do you believe. What have you done. What will you do. What will your life have been worth.�
For some reason, that quote from the book reminded me of T.S. Eliot’s reaction to Joyce’s Ulysses, and how Joyce’s authorial voice challenged his way of looking at fiction forevermore. I can’t find the quote now (of course), to confirm it, but I’ve heard similar reactions to Joyce because of the unconventional style he employed. In any case, this novel’s unconventional style is mesmerizing. Throughout, the idea of books as challenges to consciousness and thought prevails. Bernard insists, through the poems and prose, that only books can reach the interior of the mind and the honesty of private contemplation.
“Chaos facing its reflection in a mirror becoming symmetry and order.�
Once the reader can grasp that the intention of the book is to question consciousness (that’s my take…I hope I’m not way off base!) rather than take a reader from point A to B, it begins to read more personally. No doubt, this is a complicated book, one that requires consideration and reflection. If I were to advise a reader, I’d suggest that they read it slowly and enjoy the play on words, the images created that only hint at reality, but that feel familiar.

]]> Blind Your Ponies 8875214
Sam Pickett never expected to settle in this dried-up shell of a town on the western edge of the world. He's come here to hide from the violence and madness that have shattered his life, but what he finds is what he least expects. There's a spirit that endures in Willow Creek, Montana. It seems that every inhabitant of this forgotten outpost has a story, a reason for taking a detour to this place--or a reason for staying.

As the coach of the hapless high school basketball team (zero wins, ninety-three losses), Sam can't help but be moved by the bravery he witnesses in the everyday lives of people--including his own young players--bearing their sorrows and broken dreams. How do they carry on, believing in a future that seems to be based on the flimsiest of promises? Drawing on the strength of the boys on the team, sharing the hope they display despite insurmountable odds, Sam finally begins to see a future worth living.]]> 400 Stanley Gordon West 1565129849 Amy 0 to-read, arcs-or-review-copy 3.85 2001 Blind Your Ponies
author: Stanley Gordon West
name: Amy
average rating: 3.85
book published: 2001
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2012/04/11
shelves: to-read, arcs-or-review-copy
review:

]]> Niagara Digressions 13237170 E. R. Baxter III is a Niagara County Community College professor emeritus of English and has been a recipient of a New York State Creative Service Award for fiction and a Just Buffalo Award for Fiction. Previous publications include Looking for Niagara (Slipstream Press) and various chapbooks.]]> 250 E.R. Baxter III 0983740526 Amy 5 arcs-or-review-copy
Ferns, wildflowers, and grasses should be permitted to grow unmowed on some of the shore, trimmed grass in other areas�.Mature trees, native to the region, not nursery ornamentals, should also be left to grow on the shores, establishing groves or small forests. There should be no artificial lighting.�

When I hit this section of E.R. Baxter’s new book, Niagara Digressions, I couldn’t help but think he was talking about more than simply viewing a landscape. The quote above felt more fitting in describing this book, a collection of stories, musings, and history by a writer who is unpretentious and honest. There’s nothing artificial or hyped up about his recollections, and there’s nothing showy in the famous names he drops.

As Eric Gansworth, who wrote the introduction, states, “this book, in its more unorthodox style, is closer to truth than most of those memoirs with which you might already be familiar. It’s an aesthetic representation of the way we really see our lives, if we are at all careful listeners and viewers, witnessing the way we perceive the world.� Baxter is all over the place in how he recalls events that were significant in his life, and ultimately, in the history of that region and even in literary culture. And the almost rambling path he takes isn’t annoying, it’s endearing. Better yet, he’s not one of those figures who nostalgically look back and whitewash realities that are easier forgotten. His voice is honest, and just as importantly, unadorned with anything extraneous.


In one part of the book, he speaks extensively about his Uncle Bill McCoy, cataloguing details of his life that tell their own story, right down to the personal effects left when he died. These included numerous photographs of his life at sea:

“Photographs: there are photographs of ships at sea, foggy, misty, too far off to be recognizable, street scenes, all taken from too great a distance to be focused on individuals, but more on the aggregate, picture of a lone man on a deserted street at dusk, almost half a block distant, nearly a silhouette, walking away.�

Somehow the description feels eerily poetic, filling out the stories he’s already told about Bill to make him both complicated and endearing. Besides colorful characters he’s known, and some especially dishy gossip about Ginsberg and W.S. Burroughs, he also speaks seriously about toxic chemicals in the region, the romantic life of red foxes, Shredded Wheat, the annoying habit of people who stir their coffee too long, and the beauty of flaws in old houses. The play between dead serious and wry wit is compelling, and makes you wish you could sit by a fire and listen to him talk. His reflections, like those found in the pond he described, can only have come through his personal perception. Yes, that’s obvious, but unfortunately, it’s rare. Few people can talk about life without whining or trying to instill some all-important message.

The title is based on his lifelong location on the Niagara River, and many, but not all, of the 'digressions' are from this location. From his website (), he explains simply the subjects about which he writes: "it all rises from here, originates, is foundationally from here, the place that increasingly these days becomes the imagined landscape I call home."

Ultimately, Baxter’s work here coincides with his vocation as a teacher. He wants readers to observe and think, to write well for having interpreted for themselves life around them. It’s fitting that when again, he discusses the reflecting pond, he asks, “Where are you in the picture, standing or sitting tentatively near the edge, staring down?�
]]> 4.10 2012 Niagara Digressions
author: E.R. Baxter III
name: Amy
average rating: 4.10
book published: 2012
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2012/04/11
shelves: arcs-or-review-copy
review:
“The ideal reflecting pool is smaller, rather than larger…deep enough to suggest mystery and to sustain schools of minnows or other small fish so that these may be observed in the shallows.

Ferns, wildflowers, and grasses should be permitted to grow unmowed on some of the shore, trimmed grass in other areas�.Mature trees, native to the region, not nursery ornamentals, should also be left to grow on the shores, establishing groves or small forests. There should be no artificial lighting.�

When I hit this section of E.R. Baxter’s new book, Niagara Digressions, I couldn’t help but think he was talking about more than simply viewing a landscape. The quote above felt more fitting in describing this book, a collection of stories, musings, and history by a writer who is unpretentious and honest. There’s nothing artificial or hyped up about his recollections, and there’s nothing showy in the famous names he drops.

As Eric Gansworth, who wrote the introduction, states, “this book, in its more unorthodox style, is closer to truth than most of those memoirs with which you might already be familiar. It’s an aesthetic representation of the way we really see our lives, if we are at all careful listeners and viewers, witnessing the way we perceive the world.� Baxter is all over the place in how he recalls events that were significant in his life, and ultimately, in the history of that region and even in literary culture. And the almost rambling path he takes isn’t annoying, it’s endearing. Better yet, he’s not one of those figures who nostalgically look back and whitewash realities that are easier forgotten. His voice is honest, and just as importantly, unadorned with anything extraneous.


In one part of the book, he speaks extensively about his Uncle Bill McCoy, cataloguing details of his life that tell their own story, right down to the personal effects left when he died. These included numerous photographs of his life at sea:

“Photographs: there are photographs of ships at sea, foggy, misty, too far off to be recognizable, street scenes, all taken from too great a distance to be focused on individuals, but more on the aggregate, picture of a lone man on a deserted street at dusk, almost half a block distant, nearly a silhouette, walking away.�

Somehow the description feels eerily poetic, filling out the stories he’s already told about Bill to make him both complicated and endearing. Besides colorful characters he’s known, and some especially dishy gossip about Ginsberg and W.S. Burroughs, he also speaks seriously about toxic chemicals in the region, the romantic life of red foxes, Shredded Wheat, the annoying habit of people who stir their coffee too long, and the beauty of flaws in old houses. The play between dead serious and wry wit is compelling, and makes you wish you could sit by a fire and listen to him talk. His reflections, like those found in the pond he described, can only have come through his personal perception. Yes, that’s obvious, but unfortunately, it’s rare. Few people can talk about life without whining or trying to instill some all-important message.

The title is based on his lifelong location on the Niagara River, and many, but not all, of the 'digressions' are from this location. From his website (), he explains simply the subjects about which he writes: "it all rises from here, originates, is foundationally from here, the place that increasingly these days becomes the imagined landscape I call home."

Ultimately, Baxter’s work here coincides with his vocation as a teacher. He wants readers to observe and think, to write well for having interpreted for themselves life around them. It’s fitting that when again, he discusses the reflecting pond, he asks, “Where are you in the picture, standing or sitting tentatively near the edge, staring down?�

]]> <![CDATA[Stein and Hemingway: The Story of a Turbulent Friendship]]> 12036589 220 Lyle Larsen 0786460563 Amy 4
First off, who selected the photos for the cover art for this book? Seriously, it sets the mood immediately: Gertrude Stein looking mean and shrill and Ernest Hemingway with an amiable Dos Equis half-smile, his cap at a jaunty angle. Would I have perceived the book differently had she looked a bit more congenial?



In any case, this is a fascinating read full of gossip and name-dropping of just about every major literary figure in the US and UK in the early 20th century. The book covers more than just the friendship between Stein and Hemingway, as Eliot, Pound, Fitzgerald and others (Picasso!) are interspersed in the stories. Somehow it surprises me to see just how catty and vindictive many of these authors and poets were, especially that they seemed to focus a great deal on revealing the faults of each other rather than promoting the writing art.



Stein seems to have all the great lines. In one case, the book explores the numerous times writers came to visit Stein at 27 rue de Fleurus. One night, Ezra Pound stopped by. "Gertrude Stein liked him but did not find him amusing. She said he was a village explainer, excellent if you were a village, but if you were not, not." Ouch! Another night T.S. Eliot shows up: "Eliot and Gertrude Stein had a solemn conversation, mostly about split infinitives and other grammatical solecisms". Stimulating! But when Hemingway came to see her, their conversations and subsequent friendship became a random mixture of mutual admiration and dismissive gestures, mind games and begrudged respect.


Stein's opinion of Hemingway thereafter, and her part in his success is revealed in a conversation she had with Sherwood Anderson. As Larsen writes, "Hemingway had been formed by the two of them, and they were both a little proud and a little ashamed of the work of their minds."



William Carlos Williams got a knock in when he remarked on her endless piles of manuscripts, asking her "are you sure that writing is your metier?....things that children write have seemed to me so Gertrude Steinish in their repetitions." Score WCW. Naturally, she refused to see him again.



Hemingway, once matured and successful on his own, looked at Stein as lazy and disagreeable. He felt that she theorized more than she actually created. He was harsh and overly worked up about a new way she wore her hair, closely cropped, "like a Roman emperor". That her haircut was tied into her sexuality was obvious to Hemingway, and it could that he didn't like this "unambiguous statement of her sexual alignment." In any case, their friendship was pretty much over. As he explains, "But I could never make friends again truly, neither in my heart nor in my head. When you cannot make friends any more in your head is the worst."



Another character in this real-life soap opera is Alice Toklas, Stein's companion and to all accounts, a troublemaker eager to separate Stein from her literary peers. Larsen offers insight into why she may have been so controlling.



It occurred to me that much of the friendship between this pair (as well as the other authors and artists mentioned) was dependent so much on face to face interaction...they made efforts to seek out each other's company, often staying for long periods of time in each other's homes. Alternatively, they'd write extensive letters documenting their thoughts. Given our technological excesses, it makes me wonder if modern authors would even interact in such ways today. Maybe firing off a Facebook post or a Tweet in response to another's work, but does the same 'peer-review' sense of conversation about artistic works still occur? Has globalization made it easier to come together, so much so that everyone takes it for granted and remains distant?
]]> 4.00 2011 Stein and Hemingway: The Story of a Turbulent Friendship
author: Lyle Larsen
name: Amy
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2011
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2012/04/04
shelves:
review:


First off, who selected the photos for the cover art for this book? Seriously, it sets the mood immediately: Gertrude Stein looking mean and shrill and Ernest Hemingway with an amiable Dos Equis half-smile, his cap at a jaunty angle. Would I have perceived the book differently had she looked a bit more congenial?



In any case, this is a fascinating read full of gossip and name-dropping of just about every major literary figure in the US and UK in the early 20th century. The book covers more than just the friendship between Stein and Hemingway, as Eliot, Pound, Fitzgerald and others (Picasso!) are interspersed in the stories. Somehow it surprises me to see just how catty and vindictive many of these authors and poets were, especially that they seemed to focus a great deal on revealing the faults of each other rather than promoting the writing art.



Stein seems to have all the great lines. In one case, the book explores the numerous times writers came to visit Stein at 27 rue de Fleurus. One night, Ezra Pound stopped by. "Gertrude Stein liked him but did not find him amusing. She said he was a village explainer, excellent if you were a village, but if you were not, not." Ouch! Another night T.S. Eliot shows up: "Eliot and Gertrude Stein had a solemn conversation, mostly about split infinitives and other grammatical solecisms". Stimulating! But when Hemingway came to see her, their conversations and subsequent friendship became a random mixture of mutual admiration and dismissive gestures, mind games and begrudged respect.


Stein's opinion of Hemingway thereafter, and her part in his success is revealed in a conversation she had with Sherwood Anderson. As Larsen writes, "Hemingway had been formed by the two of them, and they were both a little proud and a little ashamed of the work of their minds."



William Carlos Williams got a knock in when he remarked on her endless piles of manuscripts, asking her "are you sure that writing is your metier?....things that children write have seemed to me so Gertrude Steinish in their repetitions." Score WCW. Naturally, she refused to see him again.



Hemingway, once matured and successful on his own, looked at Stein as lazy and disagreeable. He felt that she theorized more than she actually created. He was harsh and overly worked up about a new way she wore her hair, closely cropped, "like a Roman emperor". That her haircut was tied into her sexuality was obvious to Hemingway, and it could that he didn't like this "unambiguous statement of her sexual alignment." In any case, their friendship was pretty much over. As he explains, "But I could never make friends again truly, neither in my heart nor in my head. When you cannot make friends any more in your head is the worst."



Another character in this real-life soap opera is Alice Toklas, Stein's companion and to all accounts, a troublemaker eager to separate Stein from her literary peers. Larsen offers insight into why she may have been so controlling.



It occurred to me that much of the friendship between this pair (as well as the other authors and artists mentioned) was dependent so much on face to face interaction...they made efforts to seek out each other's company, often staying for long periods of time in each other's homes. Alternatively, they'd write extensive letters documenting their thoughts. Given our technological excesses, it makes me wonder if modern authors would even interact in such ways today. Maybe firing off a Facebook post or a Tweet in response to another's work, but does the same 'peer-review' sense of conversation about artistic works still occur? Has globalization made it easier to come together, so much so that everyone takes it for granted and remains distant?

]]> <![CDATA[La petite fille de Monsieur Linh]]> 1071035 162 Philippe Claudel 2234057744 Amy 5 arcs-or-review-copy
“Sitting on this bench which, within the space of just two days, has become a familiar little spot, a chunk of floating wood he could cling to in the midst of a strange, broad, swirling torrent. And nestling cosily against him he clasps the last twig of the branch, sleeping its fearless sleep for the time being, without melancholy or sadness; that sleep of a satisfied infant, happy to have found the warmth of the skin it loves, its pleasant smoothness and the caress of a loving voice.�

Monsieur Linh has lost almost everything: his wife, his son, and even his city, as war has displaced him and made him a refugee in a French city. To his joy, he has one remaining connection to the past and a hope for the future: his infant granddaughter. Brought with him on the rough journey to France, his only concern is her safety and welfare. In the crowded refugee center, he quietly launders her baby clothes, holds her as she sleeps, and in his traditional garb, becomes an eccentric sight to the other visitors. During the day, he takes her out walking for fresh air.

“’I am your grandfather,� Monsieur Linh tells her, ‘and we are together, there are two of us, the only two, the last two. But don’t be afraid, I am here, nothing can happen to you. I am old, but I’ll still have enough strength, as long as it is needed, as long as you are a little green mango in need of an old mango tree.’�

It’s on these walks that he finds the wood park bench described above, where he watches the city go by and tries to make sense of its foreign tongue. Soon he meets Monsieur Bark, another man beset by losses, and both find the bench to be their place to come to grips with their pasts and the uncertain future. They become virtually inseparable, despite the fact that neither of them can speak each other’s language. Theirs becomes a friendship made up of the language of nods, shared sighs, and companionship. And when difficult changes occur, this unique bond becomes unbreakable.

This is an impossibly elegant novel, one that makes you sort of wistful at the beauty of the words and their meaning. It’s only appropriate that this be an example of translated literature, because the translation of feelings, gestures and moods is at the heart of it, far beyond the translation of mere words. I actually (this is super corny) put it down and sighed a few times…it’s that gorgeous.

The author, Philippe Claudel, has crafted something that manages to combine melancholy and sentimentality without becoming mawkish. The writing is lean and powerful and each character retains a mystery. The mystery is what pushes you on to understand how each man will survive their loss, and how mysterious the nature of friendship can be. The novel asks the reader to examine what makes two people feel connected. Does loss leave a mark that only another kindred spirit can discern? Do the words we speak mean less than who we are? I couldn’t help but think that the story would be entirely different if the two men did share a language, and that Claudel may be commenting on how, very often, words can get in the way.
]]> 3.96 2005 La petite fille de Monsieur Linh
author: Philippe Claudel
name: Amy
average rating: 3.96
book published: 2005
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2012/03/26
shelves: arcs-or-review-copy
review:
Translated from the French by Euan Cameron

“Sitting on this bench which, within the space of just two days, has become a familiar little spot, a chunk of floating wood he could cling to in the midst of a strange, broad, swirling torrent. And nestling cosily against him he clasps the last twig of the branch, sleeping its fearless sleep for the time being, without melancholy or sadness; that sleep of a satisfied infant, happy to have found the warmth of the skin it loves, its pleasant smoothness and the caress of a loving voice.�

Monsieur Linh has lost almost everything: his wife, his son, and even his city, as war has displaced him and made him a refugee in a French city. To his joy, he has one remaining connection to the past and a hope for the future: his infant granddaughter. Brought with him on the rough journey to France, his only concern is her safety and welfare. In the crowded refugee center, he quietly launders her baby clothes, holds her as she sleeps, and in his traditional garb, becomes an eccentric sight to the other visitors. During the day, he takes her out walking for fresh air.

“’I am your grandfather,� Monsieur Linh tells her, ‘and we are together, there are two of us, the only two, the last two. But don’t be afraid, I am here, nothing can happen to you. I am old, but I’ll still have enough strength, as long as it is needed, as long as you are a little green mango in need of an old mango tree.’�

It’s on these walks that he finds the wood park bench described above, where he watches the city go by and tries to make sense of its foreign tongue. Soon he meets Monsieur Bark, another man beset by losses, and both find the bench to be their place to come to grips with their pasts and the uncertain future. They become virtually inseparable, despite the fact that neither of them can speak each other’s language. Theirs becomes a friendship made up of the language of nods, shared sighs, and companionship. And when difficult changes occur, this unique bond becomes unbreakable.

This is an impossibly elegant novel, one that makes you sort of wistful at the beauty of the words and their meaning. It’s only appropriate that this be an example of translated literature, because the translation of feelings, gestures and moods is at the heart of it, far beyond the translation of mere words. I actually (this is super corny) put it down and sighed a few times…it’s that gorgeous.

The author, Philippe Claudel, has crafted something that manages to combine melancholy and sentimentality without becoming mawkish. The writing is lean and powerful and each character retains a mystery. The mystery is what pushes you on to understand how each man will survive their loss, and how mysterious the nature of friendship can be. The novel asks the reader to examine what makes two people feel connected. Does loss leave a mark that only another kindred spirit can discern? Do the words we speak mean less than who we are? I couldn’t help but think that the story would be entirely different if the two men did share a language, and that Claudel may be commenting on how, very often, words can get in the way.

]]> <![CDATA[The Member of the Wedding: The Play (New Directions Paperbook)]]> 149997 The Member of the Wedding—which became an award-winning play and a major motion picture—showcases McCullers at her most sensitive, astute, and best.]]> 144 Carson McCullers 0811216551 Amy 0 3.73 1951 The Member of the Wedding: The Play (New Directions Paperbook)
author: Carson McCullers
name: Amy
average rating: 3.73
book published: 1951
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2012/03/24
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Zona: A Book About a Film About a Journey to a Room]]> 11291982
In Zona, Geoff Dyer attempts to unlock the mysteries of a film that has haunted him ever since he first saw it thirty years Andrei Tarkovsky’s Stalker, widely regarded as one of the greatest films of all time. (“Every single frame,� declared Cate Blanchett, “is burned into my retina.�) As Dyer guides us into the zone of Tarkovsky’s imagination, we realize that the film is only the entry point for a radically original investigation of the enduring questions of life, faith, and how to live.

In a narrative that gives free rein to the brilliance of Dyer’s distinctive voice—acute observation, melancholy, comedy, lyricism, and occasional ill-temper� Zona takes us on a wonderfully unpredictable journey in which we try to fathom, and realize, our deepest wishes.

Zona is one of the most unusual books ever written about film, and about how art—whether a film by a Russian director or a book by one of our most gifted contemporary writers—can shape the way we see the world and how we make our way through it.]]> 240 Geoff Dyer 0307377385 Amy 0 currently-reading 3.74 2012 Zona: A Book About a Film About a Journey to a Room
author: Geoff Dyer
name: Amy
average rating: 3.74
book published: 2012
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2012/03/16
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> <![CDATA[A History of Russian Literary Theory and Criticism: The Soviet Age and Beyond (Russian and East European Studies)]]> 12747981 The chapters follow early movements such as formalism, the Bakhtin Circle, Proletklut, futurism, the fellow-travelers, and the Russian Association of Proletarian Writers. By the cultural revolution of 1928, literary criticism became a mechanism of Soviet policies, synchronous with official ideology. The chapters follow theory and criticism into the 1930s with examinations of the Union of Soviet Writers, semantic paleontology, and socialist realism under Stalin. A more “humanized� literary criticism appeared during the ravaging years of World War II, only to be supplanted by a return to the party line, Soviet heroism, and anti-Semitism in the late Stalinist period. During Khrushchev’s Thaw, there was a remarkable rise in liberal literature and criticism, that was later refuted in the nationalist movement of the “long� 1970s. The same decade saw, on the other hand, the rise to prominence of semiotics and structuralism. Postmodernism and a strong revival of academic literary studies have shared the stage since the start of the post-Soviet era.
For the first time anywhere, this collection analyzes all of the important theorists and major critical movements during a tumultuous ideological period in Russian history, including developments in émigré literary theory and criticism.]]> 424 Evgeny Dobrenko 0822944111 Amy 4


My favorite chapter had to do with the experience of Russian emigrants into other nations between WWI and WWII. Since most of the intelligentsia had to leave or be exterminated, an entirely new form of Russian writing, from outside of Russia, began to exist. This presents two issues that editors Evgeny Dobrenko and Galin Tihanov address. One is how their substitute home, a "host culture" as they say, contributed to their writing in scope and subject matter. The remaining issue is what about the writers who did not leave during this time: how were they affected by the works of their comparatively free peers as the emigre writing became accessible in Soviet Russia? French culture had an enormous contribution to the emigrant writings, as many were handled by Parisian publishing houses.



"Emigre writing was increasingly interpreted as flight from symbolism, toward realism", and the editors designate Ivan Bunin as an example of this "resilient emigre". But from there the subject gets even trickier, as the function of writing literary criticism about emigre works became "little more than a weapon in settling domestic scores." This goes into length in examining the nature of the literary criticism by who was writing it: critics were influenced by political allies and personal friendships, and subject to both financial incentives and self-promotion.



In another direction, the editors discuss the events resulting from Alexander Solzhenitsyn's Fourth Congress of the Union of Soviet Writers in 1967 where he demanded an end to censorship and was supported by many other writers. This was late in the period known as "the Thaw", a significant and turbulent time in Russian literary criticism. During the Thaw, two forms of definitive Soviet literature appeared, "village prose and war prose". Additionally, this was the time period in which the government went after Boris Pasternak, "aimed at his novel Doctor Zhivago, which had won him the Novel Prize." The time period was rife with attempts to divide writers by designating who had supported the people and who had been known to "stir up" the political situation, and the result is described in detail, showing how the entire face of Russian literature changed during the time. Repressed writers were able to develop their works, while other writers were returning home to Russia different from when they had left. But since writing is the tool that can unite as well as divide, political ideology factored heavily in the work during this period.



On what appears to be a lighter note (although deeply significant) is the explanation of the reception of the scandalous Strolls with Pushkin, a work by Andrei Sinyavsky that had many worked up as it was considered vulgar. However, dissing Pushkin in any way is akin to sacrilege, and Solzhenitsyn rips apart Sinyavsky for his treatment of Pushkin in what should have been enlightened times: "could we have naturally expected that the new criticism, barely freed from the unbearable repression of Soviet censorship, that the first thing for which it would employ its freedom would be a strike against Pushkin?" (from an article by D. Galkovskii quoted in the book).



All the big names of Russian literature are here, in ways not often explained in Western press. I had no idea that one critic considered Nabokov, Sorokin, Tertz and my beloved Vasilii Grossman as "the virus of Russophobia." And I think that is what makes this collection of essays so interesting: it's not so much biographical sketches that we see but the back-room politics of literary criticism in a super-heated environment where classic authors are revered or dismissed, per whatever political ideology is in place. So I don't suggest this as a collection of Russian literature per se, but an inside view of the process of publication of Russian literature.

]]> 3.50 2011 A History of Russian Literary Theory and Criticism: The Soviet Age and Beyond (Russian and East European Studies)
author: Evgeny Dobrenko
name: Amy
average rating: 3.50
book published: 2011
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2012/03/13
shelves:
review:
First off, this is not Russian "lite"...this is a scholarly work from the Pitt Series in Russian and East European Studies, so it's serious business. The focus of this reference work is "the Soviet Age and Beyond", and it covers well-known literary figures as well as a few unknowns.



My favorite chapter had to do with the experience of Russian emigrants into other nations between WWI and WWII. Since most of the intelligentsia had to leave or be exterminated, an entirely new form of Russian writing, from outside of Russia, began to exist. This presents two issues that editors Evgeny Dobrenko and Galin Tihanov address. One is how their substitute home, a "host culture" as they say, contributed to their writing in scope and subject matter. The remaining issue is what about the writers who did not leave during this time: how were they affected by the works of their comparatively free peers as the emigre writing became accessible in Soviet Russia? French culture had an enormous contribution to the emigrant writings, as many were handled by Parisian publishing houses.



"Emigre writing was increasingly interpreted as flight from symbolism, toward realism", and the editors designate Ivan Bunin as an example of this "resilient emigre". But from there the subject gets even trickier, as the function of writing literary criticism about emigre works became "little more than a weapon in settling domestic scores." This goes into length in examining the nature of the literary criticism by who was writing it: critics were influenced by political allies and personal friendships, and subject to both financial incentives and self-promotion.



In another direction, the editors discuss the events resulting from Alexander Solzhenitsyn's Fourth Congress of the Union of Soviet Writers in 1967 where he demanded an end to censorship and was supported by many other writers. This was late in the period known as "the Thaw", a significant and turbulent time in Russian literary criticism. During the Thaw, two forms of definitive Soviet literature appeared, "village prose and war prose". Additionally, this was the time period in which the government went after Boris Pasternak, "aimed at his novel Doctor Zhivago, which had won him the Novel Prize." The time period was rife with attempts to divide writers by designating who had supported the people and who had been known to "stir up" the political situation, and the result is described in detail, showing how the entire face of Russian literature changed during the time. Repressed writers were able to develop their works, while other writers were returning home to Russia different from when they had left. But since writing is the tool that can unite as well as divide, political ideology factored heavily in the work during this period.



On what appears to be a lighter note (although deeply significant) is the explanation of the reception of the scandalous Strolls with Pushkin, a work by Andrei Sinyavsky that had many worked up as it was considered vulgar. However, dissing Pushkin in any way is akin to sacrilege, and Solzhenitsyn rips apart Sinyavsky for his treatment of Pushkin in what should have been enlightened times: "could we have naturally expected that the new criticism, barely freed from the unbearable repression of Soviet censorship, that the first thing for which it would employ its freedom would be a strike against Pushkin?" (from an article by D. Galkovskii quoted in the book).



All the big names of Russian literature are here, in ways not often explained in Western press. I had no idea that one critic considered Nabokov, Sorokin, Tertz and my beloved Vasilii Grossman as "the virus of Russophobia." And I think that is what makes this collection of essays so interesting: it's not so much biographical sketches that we see but the back-room politics of literary criticism in a super-heated environment where classic authors are revered or dismissed, per whatever political ideology is in place. So I don't suggest this as a collection of Russian literature per se, but an inside view of the process of publication of Russian literature.


]]> The Brothers 13323733 128 Asko Sahlberg 095628406X Amy 5
"I sensed that motherhood was terrible, perhaps sweet at times, but above all terrible. Not because one human child would be more horrendous than another, nor is it so that offspring cannot bring joy when little and be useful when grown up, but because motherhood makes it possible for future generations to be rocked by dark tragedies."

The Old Mistress in this snowy and tense Finnish tale reflects on her early impressions of motherhood, and what sort of legacy her two sons would be for her. It's right that she worries, for she is desperately miserable in her desolate forest home, where she has to deal with "people whose speech tells you they have rough palms" as well as a sickly husband. Added to this, she has furtive servants and two wildly opposing boys, Erik and Henrik.

Erik and Henrik are introduced as quarrelsome boys who end up on opposite sides during the war between Sweden and Russia (this takes place in 1809). Neither character is fully exposed, so the tension between the two is immediately apparent while the meaning behind it is delayed. As the plot twists, the reader can see that this was intended...for the reader is given no easy clues to unravel the family's drama.

"...for a time I was able to watch the boys grow up with at least distant pride. But boys are fated to grow into men, and a mother has to follow this tragedy as a silent bystander. And now it seems they will kill each other, and then this, too, can be added to my never-ending list of losses."

The character of their mother, the Old Mistress, is one of the most powerful female characters to be found in modern fiction: she has no saving grace that makes her likable or even necessary. Her anger and rage doesn't make her a stereotypical obstacle: rather, she intrigues the reader and pulls out an interest in her that detracts a bit from the animosity between the boys. And author Sahlberg makes her a key to the plot-- a veritable loose cannon as the plot proceeds.

"I took up the habit of moving all the yesterdays and tomorrows discreetly to one side. I have never deceived myself in this respect: I gulp down spirits like a sailor".

Along with the Old Mistress, other characters speak in the first person voice, including both boys. But while the world orbits between their opposite poles, another character begins to invade the literal and figurative world of the desolate farm. This outsider quietly alters the lives of everyone involved, and controls the plot to its remarkable ending.

Several details of note: the subtle writing definitely follows the rule of "show, don't tell". Broken veins on the cheeks of a character are a detail not elaborated on, yet critically important. Scenes between silent characters are so detailed that even without the dialogue, one reads an entire conversation. These kind of details made me wish I could go back and read it again, slower, to catch the amazing writing that can capture so many variants of meaning with the same words, even the same characters, at different times. This subtlety seems to mirror the cold, snowy landscape.

I have to confess, I searched a thesaurus to find other ways to say 'tension' and 'subtle'! I really can't emphasize the taut and bare style of the work enough without saying "tension" repeatedly. So, let me just throw it out there: tension. Everywhere.

Here’s a great link to the actual details of the war the brothers fought in, with some painfully ironic remarks about the changing nature of their uniforms.
]]> 3.71 2010 The Brothers
author: Asko Sahlberg
name: Amy
average rating: 3.71
book published: 2010
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2012/03/06
shelves:
review:
Translated from the Finnish by Emily Jeremiah and Fleur Jeremiah

"I sensed that motherhood was terrible, perhaps sweet at times, but above all terrible. Not because one human child would be more horrendous than another, nor is it so that offspring cannot bring joy when little and be useful when grown up, but because motherhood makes it possible for future generations to be rocked by dark tragedies."

The Old Mistress in this snowy and tense Finnish tale reflects on her early impressions of motherhood, and what sort of legacy her two sons would be for her. It's right that she worries, for she is desperately miserable in her desolate forest home, where she has to deal with "people whose speech tells you they have rough palms" as well as a sickly husband. Added to this, she has furtive servants and two wildly opposing boys, Erik and Henrik.

Erik and Henrik are introduced as quarrelsome boys who end up on opposite sides during the war between Sweden and Russia (this takes place in 1809). Neither character is fully exposed, so the tension between the two is immediately apparent while the meaning behind it is delayed. As the plot twists, the reader can see that this was intended...for the reader is given no easy clues to unravel the family's drama.

"...for a time I was able to watch the boys grow up with at least distant pride. But boys are fated to grow into men, and a mother has to follow this tragedy as a silent bystander. And now it seems they will kill each other, and then this, too, can be added to my never-ending list of losses."

The character of their mother, the Old Mistress, is one of the most powerful female characters to be found in modern fiction: she has no saving grace that makes her likable or even necessary. Her anger and rage doesn't make her a stereotypical obstacle: rather, she intrigues the reader and pulls out an interest in her that detracts a bit from the animosity between the boys. And author Sahlberg makes her a key to the plot-- a veritable loose cannon as the plot proceeds.

"I took up the habit of moving all the yesterdays and tomorrows discreetly to one side. I have never deceived myself in this respect: I gulp down spirits like a sailor".

Along with the Old Mistress, other characters speak in the first person voice, including both boys. But while the world orbits between their opposite poles, another character begins to invade the literal and figurative world of the desolate farm. This outsider quietly alters the lives of everyone involved, and controls the plot to its remarkable ending.

Several details of note: the subtle writing definitely follows the rule of "show, don't tell". Broken veins on the cheeks of a character are a detail not elaborated on, yet critically important. Scenes between silent characters are so detailed that even without the dialogue, one reads an entire conversation. These kind of details made me wish I could go back and read it again, slower, to catch the amazing writing that can capture so many variants of meaning with the same words, even the same characters, at different times. This subtlety seems to mirror the cold, snowy landscape.

I have to confess, I searched a thesaurus to find other ways to say 'tension' and 'subtle'! I really can't emphasize the taut and bare style of the work enough without saying "tension" repeatedly. So, let me just throw it out there: tension. Everywhere.

Here’s a great link to the actual details of the war the brothers fought in, with some painfully ironic remarks about the changing nature of their uniforms.

]]> Three Candles 13324148 250 Will Corcoran 1468533142 Amy 5 It’s not your typical memoir on a bad childhood, although Corcoran (writing under a pseudonym) certainly had a horrific one. And it’s not a goody-two-shoes “I triumphed and you can too� motivational story that leaves you feeling preached to. Instead, Corcoran simply writes about his life, detailing childhood memories but leaving out his reaction to them (you figure that out on your own�). Demonstrating the small steps he took daily to move away from the horror, he never tries to promote himself above regular-guy status. Which makes his journey from child to successful adult that much more endearing.
As an adult, Corcoran becomes a caring and involved parent, but suddenly finds himself in another fight. His son Henry is born with severe health issues that take years to be fully diagnosed. Ultimately, the family learns that Henry’s diet and health problems are permanent, and that it will take family unity and perseverance to move forward. The focus then becomes on how to make Henry’s life as normal and happy as possible…kind of a tough thing to learn when you haven’t had a “normal� childhood yourself.
Throughout, readers get a glimpse of the frustration families endure, especially children, when searching for a diagnosis. Especially noteworthy is the way Corcoran and his wife unitedly tackle the problems they face, each in different ways but never at odds. They make a special effort to help their other children remain important in their lives when Henry’s illness gets so much of their attention. Best of all is Henry, a sweet kid that doesn’t ask for pity.
This book was especially powerful for me, as I had a baby in the NICU at the same time as Henry. I can relate to those scenes where you just don’t know what is going on and you are scared to death. I can’t express enough how uncontrived and real this book is…too many memoirs slide into whining or blame. This does neither. Instead, you feel, not that your own problems are meaningless—because pain is pain—no matter what, but that you can endure them and get through with dignity and grace.
Be warned: there is a scene early on with a small teddy bear in pieces that will break your heart. I had to put it down for awhile�
]]> 4.93 2011 Three Candles
author: Will Corcoran
name: Amy
average rating: 4.93
book published: 2011
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2012/02/29
shelves:
review:
This book broke my heart and then glued it back together�
It’s not your typical memoir on a bad childhood, although Corcoran (writing under a pseudonym) certainly had a horrific one. And it’s not a goody-two-shoes “I triumphed and you can too� motivational story that leaves you feeling preached to. Instead, Corcoran simply writes about his life, detailing childhood memories but leaving out his reaction to them (you figure that out on your own�). Demonstrating the small steps he took daily to move away from the horror, he never tries to promote himself above regular-guy status. Which makes his journey from child to successful adult that much more endearing.
As an adult, Corcoran becomes a caring and involved parent, but suddenly finds himself in another fight. His son Henry is born with severe health issues that take years to be fully diagnosed. Ultimately, the family learns that Henry’s diet and health problems are permanent, and that it will take family unity and perseverance to move forward. The focus then becomes on how to make Henry’s life as normal and happy as possible…kind of a tough thing to learn when you haven’t had a “normal� childhood yourself.
Throughout, readers get a glimpse of the frustration families endure, especially children, when searching for a diagnosis. Especially noteworthy is the way Corcoran and his wife unitedly tackle the problems they face, each in different ways but never at odds. They make a special effort to help their other children remain important in their lives when Henry’s illness gets so much of their attention. Best of all is Henry, a sweet kid that doesn’t ask for pity.
This book was especially powerful for me, as I had a baby in the NICU at the same time as Henry. I can relate to those scenes where you just don’t know what is going on and you are scared to death. I can’t express enough how uncontrived and real this book is…too many memoirs slide into whining or blame. This does neither. Instead, you feel, not that your own problems are meaningless—because pain is pain—no matter what, but that you can endure them and get through with dignity and grace.
Be warned: there is a scene early on with a small teddy bear in pieces that will break your heart. I had to put it down for awhile�

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