Monday, February 29, 2016

Planetary Omnibus

The Planetary Omnibus by Warren Ellis, 864 pages

Cover image for This book was one of my table finds. By that I mean a patron left this on a table and I discovered it when picking up the books at the end of the day. Now normally I do not read many comic books. I read a fair number of graphic novels, and a large amount of manga, but something about comics never really hold my attention. I think this is likely because the hero nearly always wins and does so in an honest way. Seeing them do that over and over really takes away from what I look for in every book, believability. But something about this omnibus was different. There was a grittiness that made it enjoyable.


Until I read this book, I had never heard of the Planetary Group, or any of the super heroes that are featured. I like that most of them are the no nonsense, kill what gets in the way type. And to make it even better this is not the standard the earth is doomed story. Basically the Earth is rule by four people with extraordinary power. If they fight together no one can stand up to them. But Planetary is tired of being ruled, so they take the fight to them.

I enjoyed this omnibus, but then I have enjoyed nearly everything that Warren Ellis has written. I think if you also enjoy other graphic novels, or even comics by Ellis, then you will enjoy this as well.

People in the Trees

People in the Trees by Hanya Yanagihara, 496 pages
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This is another one of those books that I never would have read if not for the book group. Once again it is just not my genre. People in the Trees is a fiction book with a large dose of science. The entire story is presented as an autobiography of Norton Perina, a doctor who helped discovered an isolated tribe of people who seem to have discovered immortality. The secret lies in a rare species of turtles that are only found on that island, and are treated reverently. 


This book starts off with two strikes against it. In the opening pages Dr. Perina is charged, tried and convicted of child molestation and we find out that all of the turtles are dead. If the story had been overly dull I think I would have given up on this book, but luckily it was at least mostly interesting. Since this book was written as an autobiography, complete with made up footnotes, I at times forgot that this was in fact fiction. I even went as far as Googling some of the articles mentioned.

The Porcupine Of Truth

The Porcupine Of Truth by Bill Konigsberg, 325 pages

Carson is spending the summer in Billings, MT to be with his dying dad who he hasn’t seen since he was three.  Carson and his mom live in New York City and his mom left his alcoholic dad but is back to take care of him.  Billings is nothing like New York and Carson is sure that it will be the worst summer ever until he meets Aisha.  Aisha is hot, but she’s also an African-American lesbian who’s been kicked out of her home by her Christian dad.  Carson and Aisha manage to find a way to have an epic adventure and learn a few things along the way.  This was an awesome book that I think a lot of teens would like.

A Song For Ella Grey

A Song For Ella Grey by David Almond, 268 pages

This book is a modern day retelling of the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice.  Orpheus is still Orpheus but Eurydice is Ella.  The story is told from the point of view of Ella’s best friend, Claire.  They are in the senior year of high school when Claire and her friends meet Orpheus, who makes music that is out of this world.  They forget themselves, the birds stop singing, the wildlife sits and listens, the wind stops blowing.  But Orpheus falls in love with Ella.  Anyone who has read the myth knows how the story ends, basically, but it is well written and the characters are very real.  A great teen read.

How To Flirt With A Naked Werewolf

HowTo Flirt With A Naked Werewolf by Molly Harper, 371 pages

“Even in Grundy, Alaska, it's unusual to find a naked guy with a bear trap clamped to his ankle on your porch. But when said guy turns into a wolf, recent southern transplant Mo Wenstein has no difficulty identifying the problem. Her surly neighbor Cooper Graham--who has been openly critical of Mo's ability to adapt to life in Alaska--has trouble of his own. Werewolf trouble.  For Cooper, an Alpha in self-imposed exile from his dysfunctional pack, it's love at first sniff when it comes to Mo. But Cooper has an even more pressing concern on his mind. Several people around Grundy have been the victims of wolf attacks, and since Cooper has no memory of what he gets up to while in werewolf form, he's worried that he might be the violent canine in question.  If a wolf cries wolf, it makes sense to listen, yet Mo is convinced that Cooper is not the culprit. Except if he's not responsible, then who is? And when a werewolf falls head over haunches in love with you, what are you supposed to do anyway? The rules of dating just got a whole lot more complicated. . .”  I really enjoyed the humor and romance.  People who like the supernatural romances will want to check this out.

Beside Myself

Beside Myself by Ann Morgan.  313 pages.

This is a literary psychological thriller about two identical twins, Helen and Ellie, who swap places when they are six years old.  At first, it's a fun game, but when Ellie refuses to swap back, Helen is thrown into a lifelong tailspin.   As their lives sharply veer apart, it's uncertain if the truth will ever be revealed, and at what cost.

I found this book to be disturbing, very much so at times, and yet couldn't stop turning the pages.  I hadn't planned to sit down with it on a Sunday afternoon and read it all, but I just kept gulping down the pages.   You get the story from Helen's viewpoint, which at times becomes skewed, as it becomes apparent that she is suffering from mental illness.   When the twins swap identities for one day, it shouldn't be a big deal.  However, Helen is the favored child, the one who does well in school and whose behavior is always good.   Ellie, the daughter who seems troubled, and always a bit of a mess, obviously relishes the opportunity to play Helen for the day.  When Ellie refuses to reveal their swap to their mother, and their mother (awfully) can't tell the difference between them, Helen is thrown off track.  No one will believe her that she's the real Helen, and Ellie is starting to do such a convincing Helen impression that there's no going back.  Over the years, Helen (called Smudge when we begin the story, with her as an adult reflecting back) unravels, spiraling into dangerous, self-harming behavior as Ellie (or "Hellie" as Helen calls her) seems to be on a successful path.  

However, when Ellie has an accident and lapses into a coma, Helen finally is able to confront the awful truth of what happened.   However, it's unclear if this will really help anything.

I found Helen to be a very compelling character, even though I would read and cringe at the same time.  She gets caught up in an awful kind of life, and her mother is an absolute monster.  As the story progressed, I couldn't be sure what was going to happen next, but I liked that.   The book was strange, and disturbing . . . but I couldn't look away.   Is it a book for everyone?  Definitely not.  But if you're looking for a different kind of psychological thriller, with a potentially unreliable narrator, this is your kind of story.

Witch & Wizard

Witch & Wizard: the manga Vol. 1-3 by James Patterson, 751 pages (3 books)
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Witch and Wizard, the manga, is about two kids named Wisty and Whit who thought they were like all of the other kids until government agents break into their home and arrest them and their parents. The charges witchcraft. Now this is not one of those time were people are wrongly accused, they certainly can do magic but why that is illegal is very suspect. Separated from their parents, Wisty and Whit must learn to control their magic and escape, after all it seems the world is relying on them.
So I originally thought all three books in this series were all adapted pieces of the source novel Witch and Wizard. Having never read the actual book, this delusion continued right up until I started researching this series to write this post. It turns out that each manga book is based off a book in the novel series. The first follows Witch and Wizard, the second was based off of The Gift, and the last “completed” the series with The Fire. Patterson has two more book in the novel series, though I cannot find anything that says these will be adapted. I find this directly correlated manga to be quite strange. Typically when a book is adapted into this format it becomes several volumes. I have to wonder how much of the storyline was cut out for a one to one adaptation.

Y: The Last Man

Y: The Last Man Vol. 1-10 by Brian Vaughan, 1484 pages (10 books)

Cover image for My reasons for reading Y: The Last Man were threefold. The first, it was recommended to me by Goodreads, who I commonly turn to for recommended reading though they don’t always pick good books. Second this series is written by Brian Vaughan who did the Saga series which I have loved so far and continue to read as they come out. And finally it looked interesting when my brother was reading it. They couldn't all be good reasons.
Cover image for Y: The Last Man follows the life of struggling magician Yorick and his monkey Ampersand after all the other males have suddenly dropped dead. Babies, seniors, teens, all of them. This holds true for all the other species as well, if it was male it is dead. Searching for answers he pairs up with a special agent named 355 and a geneticist and cloning expert named Alison Mann. But can they figure out what not only caused all the men to die but also a way to avert disaster before the Amazon’s (a radical hate group convince that this plague was God’s wraith) manage to finish off poor Yorick.

This series was certainly an interesting read, though it only barely scrapes by in the plausibility sector. If there was only one person of a gender left after a plague sweeps the earth, the chances of that person dying in some sort of disaster are astronomical. Especially when the book mentions the out of control fires, planes crashing all over the world, etc. I am also fairly certain that this book would have been a much darker horror story if it was reversed, meaning that there was only one woman left alive.

Moral Matters

Cover image for Moral Matters: A Philosophy of Homecoming by Mark Dooley, 198 pages

"Man is born free but is everywhere in chains."  So Rousseau famously wrote.  But Mark Dooley has his own emendation for the modern world: Man is free to go anywhere but is nowhere at home.  The latter is the result of the former - a destructive philosophy which sees home, family, nation, and the whole of past history as instruments for the enslavement of the autonomous individual.  This vision of freedom inevitably leaves its pursuers alienated instead of liberated.  The reason is that the illusion of mastery and self-sufficiency conceals the reality that no one is entirely independent.  Only with a philosophy of interdependence, a philosophy of love and sacrifice, a philosophy grounded in respect and reverence, can human beings find their place in this world, he argues. 

Moral Matters is more of a manifesto than the careful philosophical reflection its subtitle might suggest.  As a result of this emphasis on rhetoric, it is somewhat muddled, with the distinction between the alienation of modernity (and post-modernity) and the alienation of techno-consumerism effectively blurred.  Similarly, the author never seems to be able to clearly define the tradition he is fighting for in concrete terms, instead resorting to vague slogans.  Yet Dooley remains convincing in his passion to save future generations from the narrow minds of innovators and iconoclasts.

Furiously Happy


Furiously Happy: A Funny Book About Horrible ThingsFuriously Happy: A Funny Book about Horrible Things, by Jenny Lawson, 329 pages

Jenny Lawson writes Furiously Happy… for “all who walk the dark path, and to those who walk in the sunshine but hold out a hand in the darkness to travel beside us…” (p. 323) In other words, for the 1 in 5 Americans who suffer from a mental illness (NAMI ), but especially depression and anxiety. 

Sounds… funny?  Surprisingly… yes- at times.  Lawson manages to write about depression and anxiety in a way that is upfront and unapologetic,  heartbreaking and hilarious.

Some of the book is inexplicable and laugh-out-loud funny, like when she tries to get her cats to allow a taxidermied raccoon to ride on their backs long enough for photos.  (Check out her blog to see if her humor is for you.) Other parts are refreshing simply for her candor regarding how other people treat those who suffer from depression.  Long excerpt, but I just have to include this part that really resonated with me, about when people tell her to "just cheer up":

“It’s pretty much the equivalent of telling someone who just had their legs amputated to ‘just walk it off.’ Some people don’t understand that for a lot of us, mental illness is a severe chemical imbalance rather than just having ‘a case of the Mondays.’ Those same well-meaning people will tell me that I’m keeping myself from recovering because I really ‘just need to cheer up and smile.’ That’s when I consider chopping off their arms and then blaming them for not picking up their severed arms so they can take them to the hospital to get reattached… ‘Honestly it’s like you don’t even want to have arms.’ (p. 134)

Her writing style may not be for everyone, but I think that if you have depression and/or anxiety or want to better understand someone you know or love who does, it’s worth a read. Also, come on- the cover is the cutest one to pass through the library in awhile.  

Saturday, February 27, 2016

Murder 101

Murder 101 by Faye Kellerman.  374 pages

This is #22 in the Peter Decker and Rina Lazarus series, which finds Detective Peter Decker, newly working for the Greenbury Police Department, investigating the theft of stained glass panels from a mausoleum.  However, that seemingly simple theft broadens into something much bigger when it's discovered the panels were made by Tiffany and have been replaced with forgeries.  And then there are murders.   With his new partner, Decker is drawn into a web of "dark secrets, cold case crimes, international intrigue, and ruthless people who kill for sport."

I read this book for an upcoming project, so I came to it without reading any of the previous books. Happily, that didn't stand in the way of feeling like I could get to know the characters or enjoy the story.  I felt like there was enough background story for  Decker and Lazarus, without the author getting heavy-handed.  I could get a handle on their relationship, and move forward without too many "huh" moments.  Decker's new partner, McAdams, is a jerk, but I felt it made the story interesting.  I admit, aside from solving the mystery, I was hoping this kid's character was going to have some growth.   Or get smacked around.

I felt Kellerman worked in a lot of details about art, and art theft, which made for an interesting read. Aside from solving a murder, there's a lot in here that Decker (and thus the reader) is learning about art forgery and art theft.  Personally, I found this more interesting than some of the character development of Decker and his wife, Rina.  I'm not sure if I will go back and read my way through 1-22 in this series, but this was an enjoyable read.


I'm Glad About You

I'm Glad About You by Theresa Rebeck.  369 pages.

This is the story of two people, Alison and Kyle, who meet in high school and fall in love . . but then go their separate ways.  Told over time, we see Alison moving to New York City and getting her lucky break as an actress, and Kyle staying in Ohio, and pursuing a career as a pediatrician.   The back of the book states, "I’m Glad About You is a glittering study of how far the compromises two people make will take them from the lives they were meant to live."

I wanted to like this book more than I actually did.  I think the idea is interesting, where you have two characters who go separate ways and then come together from time to time.  You see their lives independently, and then see them intersect, and what influence that has on the next part of their lives. However, I guess I just didn't really like the characters.   I found Alison got on my nerves (for example, she moves to New York and has no idea how expensive everything is.  She takes a job and then quits with no backup plan.  Personally, she grated on me).   I also didn't like Kyle too much.  He marries a woman (who also is not likable) seemingly on a whim, and then doesn't seem at all invested in his marriage or his relationship with his children.   Neither of the main characters seem to be very happy, but don't seem to take steps to change this, either.

Was I glad I read this book?  Meh.

Friday, February 26, 2016

Deadman Wonderland 1 to 6

Deadman Wonderland Volumes 1 to 6 by Jinsei Katoka, (6 books - 1186 pages)

Cover image for Ganta’s life already sucks, first he lost nearly everybody he knew in the big earthquake ten years ago and now a grinning psychopath massacred everyone in his class at school except him. He quickly gets tried, convicted, and sentenced to death at Deadman Wonderland, a prison/amusement park. Upon arrival he gets fitted with a collar that will kill him unless he eats a piece of “candy” every so often. The warden and guards control only give out this “candy” if you stay useful to them and help entertain the amusement park guests. But Ganta soon realizes that the prison is not entirely what it seems and he has special powers that could be very useful. Well useful if he can stay alive long enough to figure out how to use them.

Cover image for Deadman Wonderland, despite its violent and gory opening, starts off rather dull. I feel that I saw that a lot with manga and graphic novels but I cannot help but feel that way. Maybe there is something about entire books being devoted to setting the scene and character development that makes them feel slow. This feeling is likely enhanced when you realize that you have read 200 pages and all that has happened is Ganta has been sent to prison. I know that if that same amount of text was condensed it likely would not even reach 20 pages, but something in my brain is already bored.
The series really picks up from there and becomes more of the action packed, gory mess that I picked it up and wanted to read it for. Some of the plots are a still a little shaky, and the character development is odd at best, but it wasn’t awful and killed some time. Think of it as a cartoon, not the best thing you have ever watched, but something you will watch more of to pass the time.

Shadows in Flight

Cover image for Shadows in Flight by Orson Scott Card, 237 pages

So this book by Card finishes up the Shadows series and the life of Bean. For those that have not read any of the books yet, go read them like I have told you before! But if you are still going to ignore me, Bean is another super smart, though somewhat altered child that attended battle school with Ender. In fact if Ender had started to falter, Bean would have been the one to continue the war with the Formics. When we left off in this series Bean had just taken himself and three of his children into space. The idea was to stay at near light speed travel until a cure could be developed for their genetic condition. But those plans get sidetracked when they happen upon another starship, one that belongs to a previously thought dead enemy.
Shadows in Flight is somewhat humorous, especially seeing the childhood squabbles of super geniuses, but also quite sad. It is rare to come across a series of books where you can see a person grow up. Sure it is easy to find books that quickly jump through a person’s life, but do three hundred pages really tell their story? Even less common are well written series that you slowly watch the characters grow. Rarer still are these same types of series that follow that person through their entire life. Watching a character that we have seen grow up throughout the books, especially in the detail oriented style that Card uses, leaves an emotional imprint on the reader. To then see that character you know and love on their deathbed really hits home.
I know I say this a lot, but I enjoyed reading this series. But this book leaves a lot of questions unanswered, especially what happens after this. If you are one of those readers that need everything tied up in a nice pretty bow at the end, then skip over this series. But if you like reading science fiction, and liked Ender’s Game, then this book and this series should be on your list.

Precious Blood

The Precious Blood, or, The Price of Our Salvation by Frederick William Faber, 362 pages

Fr Faber, best known as the author of the hymn "Faith of Our Fathers", wrote this devotional work on the subject of the Precious Blood of Jesus in 1860.  A poet as well as a theologian, a parish priest as well as a hymnist, a friend of both Wordsworth and Bl John Henry Newman, Faber combines intelligence, eloquence, and empathy in his writing.

Faber finds in his exalted subject the principle of creation, incarnation, and redemption, and the binding unity of the three.  This brings him into contact with the vast mystery of eternity, God's foreknowledge, and His suffering.  His meditation ends where it began, with the reality of the total self-giving love of God as it is revealed in the shedding of His Most Precious Blood.

Wednesday, February 24, 2016

Zurbaran

Cover image for Zurbaran: A New Perspective, 187 pages

Regular visitors to the St Louis Art Museum should be familiar with St Francis Contemplating a Skull, one of a number of works on that theme by 17th century Spanish painter Francisco de Zurbaran.  One of the masters of the golden age of Spanish painting, Zurbaran is noted for his remarkable still lifes as well as his religious paintings, and indeed the best features of the latter reflect the strengths of the former, particularly the stunning monumental character of his human figures.  Unfortunately, as the commentary concedes, Zurbaran was less successful when it came to arranging multiple figures within a single composition.

The "New Perspective" exhibition organized by the Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza in 2015 also incorporated works by other painters influenced by Zurbaran, most notably his son Juan, whose still lifes may surpass his father's.  Unfortunately, Juan de Zurbaran died of the plague at the age of 29, and his potential was never able to fully mature.  Long obscure, a number of Juan's works have been identified in the last few decades, allowing a new appreciation for his unfortunately limited corpus.

Shades of Grey

Cover image for Shades of grey : the road to High Saffron / Jasper Fforde.Shades of Grey: the Road to High Saffron, by Jasper Fforde, 390 pages

In this world that is like our own, but far in the future and apparently in Wales, the population has limited ability to see the color spectrum.  The higher end of the spectrum that one can see, the higher their social status.  Young Eddie Russet is at the bottom of the spectrum- in the Reds- just barely higher than the Greys, who see the world only in shades of grey.  When a series of mishaps takes Eddie away from his home and to the fringes of society, he begins to question the system and realize that right and wrong is not as black and white as he thought, but really more like... shades of grey. (THAT'S THE NAME OF THIS BOOK, YOU GUYS!!)

This book was such a treat!  (But for reading, not eating.  Don't eat this book.) It's just that it was full of smart writing- the kind where you have to pause for a minute in order to go look things up.  It was also pretty hilarious.  I just loved lines like this:  "I'm not a big fact person," said Mr. Crimson, who was honest, even if a twit.  "Unproved speculation is more my thing."  (p. 221)  Eddie reminded me of a more likable Arthur Dent- he is caught up in a world that is so bizarre that it isn't even totally explained to the reader- you're just sort of taken along for the ride and you catch the bits of the scenery that you can.  I would say that this is primarily a work of world-building.  But when the world is this fascinating, it's a really fun place to hang out in for about 390 pages. Looking forward to the sequel that may or may not happen!  

Cut to the Bone

Cut to the Bone by Jefferson Bass.  353 pages

In 1992, Dr. Bill Brockton, head of the Anthropology Department, launches a new kind of research facility: a body farm.   Brockton is determined to revolutionize the study of forensics in order to help law enforcement better solve crimes.   However, his plans for this facility are derailed when a murder leaves him reeling.  And this murder is followed by another, and then another, bearing scary resemblances to his past cases.

I'm no stranger to forensic crime/procedural books.  I am, however, a stranger to the rest of this series, as I hadn't realized that this was a prequel when I picked it up.  That would explain why the characters seemed to have highly developed relationships and inside jokes.   However, it was a quick read, and while the killer is unpleasant (as you might expect), the murders weren't too off-putting (although there's a bit in the beginning with an animal that I just skipped past.  Can't read about animal cruelty, personally).   I guess reading a lot of Kathy Reichs and Patricia Cornwell (as well as watching the TV show "Bones") has inured me to some of that.   There are many viewpoints in the story, so it's more like solving a puzzle than anything else.   This book was okay, but not enough to make me search out the rest of the series unless I was taking books with me on a trip (and would want some page-turners for a long plane ride).

I will note that it's helpful that there illustrations in the back of the book which show the different bones of the skull, as well as the human skeleton.    If you aren't already familiar with these, it can be helpful to refer to them while reading the book.

Tuesday, February 23, 2016

The Girl in the Red Coat

The Girl in the Red Coat by Kate Hamer.  304 pages.

This is a thriller with a bit of a twist.  Carmel, an eight year-old girl, has always been a bit of a dreamer, who seems different from other children.  Beth, her newly single mother, worries about Carmel, but is determined to make a life for the two of them.   However, when she takes Carmel to a local storytelling festival, the most awful thing imaginable happens: Carmel goes missing.   This is in the beginning of the story, and the book continues with the alternating viewpoints of Beth and Carmel: Beth trying to find Carmel, determined to never give up, and Carmel, on a terrifying journey of her own, with a man she believes could be her grandfather.

I've been reading missing-child-thriller books lately, and while I thought this one was okay, I found myself skimming at times because I wasn't quite engaged with the characters.   It's less of a thriller than it is a story that's insightful about the bond between mother and child.  There isn't as much about the investigation into Carmel's disappearance as there is their individual stories.   Both characters are realistically written, and it's interesting to go back and forth between the adult voice of Beth and the child's perspective from Carmel.  However, I found my interest in the storyline would waver from time to time.   Somehow, it just didn't keep me fully engaged from start to finish.

Monday, February 22, 2016

The Robber Bride

The Robber Bride by Margaret Atwood.  466 pages

Three women become unlikely friends after each of them encounters Zenia, a smart, beautiful, and manipulative woman.   Entering their lives when they were in college, in the 1960s, and then over the next thirty years, she damages each of them.   Then, out of the blue, they are notified that she is dead. Or is she?

This is another one of Atwood's books that I have read several times because I enjoy it so much.  I enjoy revisiting the story, and the character, and even though I know what's going to happen, I enjoy the book each time I read it.    In this book, we have three different women: Tony, a university professor who focuses on the history of war, Roz, a top-level executive, and Charis, a woman who seems a bit stuck in her flower-child past.   Because each of them has a different kind of encounter with Zenia, it makes Zenia seem like a different women.   Roz, Tony and Charis all come from different backgrounds, but it is Zenia who binds them together, bringing out their different strengths.

I had just re-read Cat's Eye, and then grabbed The Robber Bride, which made me notice something I hadn't picked up on before.  Because both books have the same setting, and are in the same time period, more or less, there were some similarities.  Some of the observations by the characters felt a bit interchangeable between the two books, for example.

A Step Toward Falling

A Step Toward FallingA Step Toward Falling by Cammie McGovern, 364 pages

This book reminded me of Will Grayson, Will Grayson, in quite a few ways. While it does tackle some very serious subject matter, this is a relatively light, easy read. Still, the characterizations are good. On the surface, there are obvious themes here - don't judge others on appearances, forgive others and seek forgiveness, treat others with dignity and compassion, and "Choose carefully the people whose approval you seek." (pg. 350) - but thankfully, they all go a bit deeper than that.

Worth noting, the characters who have special needs aren't put on a pedestal, perfect in every way apart from their disability - they get angry and make mistakes just like any of the other characters. If Belinda (the main character with special needs) weren't as richly painted, it would be hard to take the book seriously. Emily (the main character without special needs), on the other hand, comes across as a pretty typical YA lead. The real depth of the book comes from alternating between the two, showing that while society labels them differently, they are both human, with at least as many similarities as differences.

Anathemata

The Anathemata by David Jones, 243 pages

"Anathemata" is a word Jones re-purposed from Greek, "the things set aside for the gods".  In Jones' personal usage, this includes not only sacred things in the narrow sense, but all of those things which formed him and sustain him.  The Anathemata therefore incorporates personal experience, Welsh folklore, British history, and the Latin liturgy into the eternal moment that is the life of the poet.

The Anathemata is not easy reading - it is complex and multi-layered and obscure, full of Joycean wordplay and notes in the tradition of Eliot, which form their own text even as they modify the text of the poem.  It is the sort of poetry that must either be carefully read and reread or not read at all.

Saturday, February 20, 2016

Fall of the Berlin Wall

Cover image for The Fall of the Berlin Wall by William F Buckley Jr, 192 pages

This book could more accurately be titled "The Rise and Fall of the Berlin Wall".  Buckley briefly explains the nature of the post-war Allied settlement and the development of a - seemingly permanently - divided city.  The construction of the Wall itself and the crisis which followed (the only time, Buckley claims, that American and Soviet tanks actually had their guns trained on one another) is covered more thoroughly, followed by discussion of attempts to circumvent the barrier or to come to terms with it.  Finally, there is a broad overview of the events leading up to the moment when, anti-climatically, the East German government announced in a routine press conference that the Wall was irrelevant, and the epochal repercussions of that announcement.

There isn't any special insight here - it is neither a detailed history of the fall of the Wall (The Collapse) nor an insider's eyewitness account of the events of 1989 (The Magic Lantern), but there is a solid overview of the history of one of the world's most infamous structures.  Throughout, the author allows the mere fact of the Wall to speak eloquently of the nature of the regime that built it.  Buckley's talents as a storyteller make the tale readable and compelling.

Thursday, February 18, 2016

The Nest

The Nest by Kenneth Oppel, 244 pages

Creepy, odd and wonderful book!  Steve has a new baby brother who is ill but no one seems to know exactly what’s wrong.  He needs surgery, but he likely will need a lot more than that and he may never be completely normal.  Steve has started having dreams in which he has been talking to some kind of being, but he’s not sure what it is.  She keeps telling him that she is going to fix the baby.  Steve is sure that it’s just a dream but it feels very real too.  At first, the dreams make him feel better but as more time passes, he becomes less sure about what she means about fixing the baby.  I would highly recommend this to upper grade school kids who like scary stories.

Rhythm Ride: A Road Trip Through The Motown Sound

Rhythm Ride: A Road Trip Through The Motown Sound by Andrea Davis Pinkney, 166 pages

This book follows Motown from its very beginning through today.  The book discusses the founder, Berry Gordy, in his childhood and early life and goes on to discuss the various groups that made up the sound of Motown.  Some of the early groups, like The Miracles, with Smokey Robinson, and The Marvelettes get a lot of attention in this book, as does singer, Mary Wells.  But lots of other singers and groups also get mention, like Stevie Wonder, Diana Ross and the Supremes, and The Jackson 5.  The book also talks about the Civil Rights movement and how Motown affected and was affected by the turmoil going on during that time.  Pinkney is an excellent writer and the book is informative and entertaining.  There was at least one spot where the names being mentioned in a group didn't seem to work quite right.  The group members were listed and then a different person, not mentioned in the original list, was said to have left the group, which was a little confusing.  Despite this flaw, overall I really enjoyed it and kids who are interested in African American history will want to read this.

This Side of Wild

This Side of Wild by Gary Paulsen, 120 pages

This book is an autobiography of Paulsen.   There are five chapters, each a different story from a time in his life.  Most of his stories involve dogs, because he has always had dogs in life, including sled dogs, as he has run the Iditarod three times.  Although you'd think these stories, about him running the Iditarod and others like it, would be the main focus of this book, you would be wrong.  His stories start out much more simply, like rescuing a dog from a pound that later saves his life.  Or a story about a dog that had learned to communicate and train people.  Paulsen is a great storyteller and this book reflects his skills.  Kids who like biographies or stories about animals will love this. 

In The Company of Educated Men

In The Company of Educated Men by Leonce Gaiter, 177 pages

Julie E-C reviewed this in March of 2015 and her review is what prompted me to read it.  I had to wait a while for the library to get a copy, but it was worth the wait.  Julie covered as much plot as I would and I’m not going to recap much of it.  It’s a book about three friends and a road trip and a lot of unexpected happenings.  Because the book changes time perspectives, it’s also about reflection.  I think I liked it almost as much as Julie did and I would highly recommend this book to anyone who likes realistic fiction.  Definitely a must read, in my opinion.

Wednesday, February 17, 2016

American Terrorist

Cover image for American Terrorist: Timothy McVeigh and the Oklahoma City Bombing by Lou Michel and Dan Herbeck, 388 pages

On April 19, 1995, three tons of nitromethane explosives packed into the back of a Ryder truck were detonated outside the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, instantly demolishing over half the building and killing 168 people, wounding hundreds more.  The bomb was built, placed, and detonated by Timothy McVeigh, a decorated veteran of Desert Storm who had become convinced that the US government was preparing for a war against its own people.  April 19 was a double anniversary, of the battles of Lexington and Concord that began the American Revolution, and of the fiery end of the siege of the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas two hundred years later, which McVeigh saw as emblematic of a new tyranny.  How an all-American kid from upstate New York grew into a soldier in a one man war against the federal government is the subject of American Terrorist, written by a pair of journalists from Buffalo with unequalled access to the McVeigh family.

Their account makes it clear that McVeigh was not, himself, the victim of injustice at the hands of the government.  To the contrary, American Terrorist reveals his remarkable attempts to provoke authorities - from flatly refusing to return extra money erroneously paid to him during his military service to speculating about whether he could shoot down a police helicopter with a flare gun in the presence of a man he knew was an undercover cop to trespassing at Groom Lake - without consequences.  Only with the bombing would he become, in his own eyes, the martyr he always wanted to be, sacrificing himself for The Cause.

One issue that the authors are unable to settle concerns McVeigh's attitudes on race.  McVeigh himself, while in prison, denied being a racist, and a number of witnesses support him on this.  Yet he did, at one point, join the Klan, he was cited while in the Army for using racial slurs, he associated with white supremacists such as those at Elohim City, and he was fixated on the virulently racist novel The Turner Diaries, to the point that he handed out copies like an evangelist might hand out Bibles.  Perhaps, as he claimed, the racial slurs were just locker room talk, his mail order KKK membership was a mistake, and the Elohim City and Turner Diaries connections were the result of a shared anger with the US government and not a shared racist ideology.

This reflects the major question surrounding this book - as reliant as it is on McVeigh's own account, to what extent can we trust McVeigh?  Surprisingly for a true crime book, in this case the subject comes across as quite candid - after all, McVeigh wanted people to know what he had done and why.  Michel and Herbeck communicate this effectively, and their tale of McVeigh's road to mass murder reveals more than about their subject than he intended.

Monday, February 15, 2016

All the Truth Is Out


In the spring of 1987, the presumptive Democratic nominee for President was the charismatic young Senator from Colorado, Gary Hart, who represented the emergent generation of "New Democrats" later associated with Bill Clinton.  Hart's campaign imploded following media reports that he was having an affair with a model named Donna Rice, reports that the candidate responded to with a combination of self-righteous anger and implausible denial.  There was some self-examination on the part of journalists over how to distinguish the personal from the political - if there was anything to distinguish - but it is Matt Bai's theme that even the most perceptive commentators missed the true significance of the moment, which marked a crucial point in the transition between the more careful traditional journalism and the celebrity infotainment that prevails today.

Although his journalistic recounting of the scandal is solid (he corrects many longstanding misperceptions, such as the belief that the infamous "Monkey Business" photo of Hart and Rice surfaced at the beginning rather than at the end of the scandal), it is undermined somewhat by Bai's attempt to add additional weight to his narrative by exaggerating Hart's gifts - had Hart been elected in '88, it seems, all of the negative events that have happened since, from the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait to the subprime mortgage crisis, would have been avoided.  This is largely forgivable since the real subject of the book is the press and not Hart, but on one occasion it becomes a jaw-dropping instance of ideological blindness, as Bai breathlessly reports Hart's plan to invite Gorbachev to his inauguration and sign an arms-control deal on the spot, and "possibly the Cold War would have ended right there", as if the Cold War could have been ended by an arms-control agreement that would not have released a single prisoner from the Gulag, permitted a single opposition candidate on the ballot, or removed a single stone from the Berlin Wall.  It is extremely damaging when a figure touted as always ahead of his time seems not to have comprehended the nature of events that happened nearly thirty years ago.

Bai also exaggerates the uniqueness of the Hart scandal - only four years earlier Rep Dan Crane's career had been destroyed by revelations he had a sexual relationship with a Congressional page, and seven years before that Rep Wayne Hays' thirty-seven year career ended when his mistress made their relationship public.  At the time of the latter scandal, The Los Angeles Times reported that "the press' recent preoccupation with sex on Capitol Hill" had replaced the attitude that a "man's drinking or dalliance generally was considered irrelevant and out-of-bounds", and questioned whether "a government official's personal habits and life-style give an insight into the character of the public servant."  "Character", a word Bai suggests is a flimsy pretext for prying into personal lives, was already an issue to which Hart's famous challenge to reporters to "follow me around" was a direct response even though, as Bai makes clear, it did not directly inspire the reporters who broke the story.

While Bai briefly raises the question of whether the traditional journalistic approach, with its cozy relationship between politicians and reporters (Hart did some of his womanizing while rooming with journalistic legend Bob Woodward), wasn't in many ways worse than the more recent adversarial relationship, he does not really address it substantively.  Indeed, the boundaries are not always clear - Hart's friend, journalist Jack Germond, is touted as a paragon of the old school even though he was a regular panelist on The McLaughlin Group, one of the milestones of the ascendant chattering punditry.  In every respect, then, Bai's attempt to cast Hart's downfall as an utterly unprecedented event fails.

In the end, Bai deserves perhaps the highest praise a journalist of his generation can receive - sometimes he tells the truth in spite of himself.  Although he sets out to debunk the myth of Hart as a tragic figure done in by his own hubris, his portrait is that of a man of monumental arrogance - although it was EJ Dionne who compared him to the central figure in Plato's parable of the cave, Hart clearly sees himself in those terms, as an enlightened visionary willing to come down from the mountaintop to give the American people the gift of his leadership.  Hart, however willing he may have been to lead the American people, never seemed to want to give himself to them.  This pride even in defeat almost makes Bai's idolatry sensible - Hart as Coriolanus, the last candidate unwilling to humble himself and wring his hands on television, begging forgiveness from the masses.

Sunday, February 14, 2016

The Story of Lucy Gault

 
The Story of Lucy Gault by William Trevor  240 pages

Taking place in the early 1920s, this 2002 novel from Trevor, one of the finest writers of contemporary times.

The Gault family is driven from their beloved home, Lahardane, in 1921. When a trio of rowdy local teenagers tries to set the rural Irish mansion afire, Lucy’s father, a wealthy Irish army captain, wounds one of them. The Gault, fearing for their safety, decide to fell to England. They will leave their home in the care of two faithful servants.

Lucy, who has known no other home, disagrees with her parents’ decision. She flees into the woods on the eve of their departure. She cannot be found.  Days later, a scrap of her clothing is found on one of the beaches Lucy loves so much. Convinced she has drowned, her parents leave Ireland for a lifetime of grieving and wandering across Europe.

Lucy is found several days after her parents’ departure, starved and barely alive. The servants, Bridget and Henry, move into the house and take care of Lucy, treating her as their own as she grows into womanhood. Lucy refuses to leave Lahardane, even when the possibilities of love and a life of her own, until her parents return. She is convinced they will come back.

I found it implausible that the lawyer, who oversaw Lahardane’s finances is unable to get in touch with Lucy’s parents and let them know that she is alive. Nor do the parents contact the servants or even check on Lahardane.


I give this novel of a quiet, sad life 4 out of 5 stars.

The Mapmaker's Children

 

The Mapmaker’s Children by Sarah McCoy  336 pages

The Mapmaker’s Children spans two centuries with overlapping areas of commonality. But first, we must meet the two women who are the story’s main protagonists: Sarah Brown is an artist and the daughter of abolitionist John Brown. A century and half later, Eden Anderson is starting a new life in West Virginia with her husband Jack. Told in mostly alternating chapters, Sarah’s story occurs in the years between 1859 and 1889. Eden’s story is much more condensed and lot less well developed; it occurs 2010-2014. Sarah’s story could have stood on its own, but the addition of Eden’s and her discovery about the house she lives in succeeds in uniting the two women.

When readers first encounter Sarah, she is very sick. The severe dysentery leaves her barren. Eden and Jack have been trying everything to conceive a child for the last seven years.

Barely well, Sarah rises from her sick bed upon hearing the voices of her father and two of his most trusted allies. She volunteers to paint landscapes that can be used as maps in their work with the Underground Railroad. She has learned the quilt codes and other means of communicating to the runaway slaves the path to freedom.

After her father’s hanging for his instigation of the raid on Harper’s Ferry, the Brown family stays in close contact with the Hill family of New Charlestown, West Virginia. She and one of the Hill sons, Freddy, develop deep feelings for each other. Those feelings grow, but Sarah refuses his proposal due to her infertility.

When Jack brings home a new puppy, Eden wants nothing to do with the golden furball. She is considering leaving Jack. Yet is the newly christened Cricket who finds the door to the root cellar. As it is opened for the first time in many years, Eden finds a porcelain doll’s head. As fascinated as she is by the discovery, it becomes a secondary plot in Eden’s sections of the book, yet it is important as it unites Sarah and Eden and the house they both share. The main plot in Eden’s chapters is watching her develop close ties with the neighbor girl, Cleo, whom Jack hires as Cricket’s caretaker.

Thankfully neither woman is subjected to a sappy the-doctor-was-wrong-now-and-I’m-pregnant ending. It’s much better.

I give The Mapmaker’s Children 4 out of 5 stars.


I received this book from Blogging for Books in exchange for this review. 

Snakewood

Snakewood by Adrian Selby.  432 pages  (read as an e-galley, courtesy of Edelweiss.  Title is on order for the Library, March 2016)

This is the story of a band of mercenaries who had built a reputation throughout their lands, and who are now being hunted down and killed, one by one.   As the tagline for the book says, "A lifetime of enemies has its own price."

I enjoyed this story overall.  The cast of characters is large (which at times meant I had to remind myself who was who), and the world the author has created is easy to imagine.   I especially liked how the author worked a type of plant magic into the story, where plants, or concoctions and infusions of plants, give characters enhanced abilities.  And, true to well-written magic, there is a price for the use of these plants (which I liked).  The pace picks up as the story progresses, and there is a good mix of adventure and intrigue.  And, the author isn't afraid to add grittiness to the storyline, which adds to the realistic feeling of it.

The one complaint I had was that it was sometimes tricky for me to keep track of the characters.  I made a small chart, which then made it easier for me to remember who was who, how they related to someone else, and what their own storyline was.  The other thing that made it tricky was that the timeline in the story would change, depending on whose perspective you're reading.  So, it was sometimes hard to keep track of the story without making some notes.


Food Whore

Food Whore by Jessica Tom.  166 pages read  (book is 344 pages - I stopped at page 166)

Tia Monroe is fresh out of college, in a graduate program, and trying to get a coveted internship.  However, when that plan doesn't come through, and she winds up interning at a restaurant, instead, she crosses paths with a legendary food critic.   As it turns out, the critic lets Tia in on a secret: he's lost his sense of taste.   After listening to Tia describe the food at her restaurant, he decides to take her on as an assistant, ghostwriting his reviews.

I tried this book because I had just finished a book and wanted something quick and light.  I got about halfway through and ... meh.  I didn't believe the characters, and I found the story too farfetched.   The funny thing is, I read a lot of science fiction and fantasy, and while I can suspend my disbelief in those stories pretty easily, I just couldn't with this book.   I found Tia annoying.   I couldn't quite buy it that she had been a foodie in college, and somehow, had vast enough knowledge to, right out of school, be able to assist someone in the way described in the book.   I couldn't buy that the critic had the money he had.  It's a lovely idea to imagine that he'd be able to have a personal shopper send Tia clothes from top-level designers (and that Tia, miraculously, has a figure to accommodate said clothes with no alteration).   But, I didn't buy it.

Meh.

Saturday, February 13, 2016

Between the World and Me

Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates.  152 pages.

“This is your country, this is your world, this is your body, and you must find some way to live within the all of it.”   Written as a letter to his son, Coates explores race through history, and what it means t him today.  "Coates shares with his son—and readers—the story of his awakening to the truth about his place in the world through a series of revelatory experiences, from Howard University to Civil War battlefields, from the South Side of Chicago to Paris, from his childhood home to the living rooms of mothers whose children’s lives were taken as American plunder. "   (courtesy of Goodreads).  

I borrowed the Goodreads summary a bit because I felt I wouldn't be able to describe this book as well.   It's a short book, but I felt it was powerfully written, and thought-provoking.   Getting Coates' views on American history, as well as his personal history, is an interesting way to analyze race and history.   I found the way the book was written, as a personal letter, was emotional and made the book resonate with me.  This is definitely an example of the personal as political, and the historical as personal and political.  

The Ghost in My Brain

The Ghost in My Brain
by Clark Elliott, PhD.  297 pages.

This book is about the author's experience with a concussion, which resulted in traumatic brain injury.   His car was rear-ended, and overnight, he started suffering odd symptoms which kept getting worse.   Doctors couldn't find anything wrong with him, and then once they suspected a brain injury, just told him that he'd have to live with it, and wouldn't recover.   However, Dr. Elliott was determined, and after eight years of struggling, he met two Chicago-area research-clinicians who changed his life, and got him back on the road to recovery.

This is a fascinating book, although I admit I could only read it in bits and pieces, because not only was there a lot of information to take in, but it also freaked me out a bit.   The idea that what seemed like a simple car accident could lead to such traumatic brain injury was really sobering.   In addition, the fact that this man, a brilliant man in his own right, couldn't get doctors to listen to him, or even really help him, was disturbing.   In the beginning of the book, right after the accident, he goes to doctors to get help, but he's quickly dismissed, which is frustrating, but also frightening.

But, I digress.   Dr. Elliott's journey to recovery, and what the research-clinicians were able to do to help him is fascinating.  Brain injuries aren't something I have a lot of familiarity with, so it was interesting to learn about things like the correlation between the sensory input into the brain and then the resulting behavior.   For example, Dr. Elliott, in the beginning, was easily overwhelmed by auditory input (listening to people on the phone, for instance) and basically, his reactions, physically, would just shut down.      Definitely a good book if brain injuries, or brain science, is something that interests you.

Friday, February 12, 2016

Not with a Bang but a Whimper

Cover image for Not with a Bang but a Whimper: The Politics and Culture of Decline by Theodore Dalrymple, 241 pages

Not with a Bang but a Whimper is a collection of essays by Anthony Daniels, the (now retired) London prison psychiatrist who established himself as one of the 21st century's leading social critics with his masterpiece Life at the Bottom, published under the pseudonym Theodore Dalrymple, summarizing decades of work with the British underclass.  This book, written between 2004 and 2008, ranges more freely over subjects from Samuel Johnson to A Clockwork Orange, but his themes remain consistent - that 20th century intellectual fads have led to the decline of culture and the rise of the state, producing an increasingly infantilized populace which is less and less capable of finding true meaning or joy in life.

Dalrymple's greatest strength, as a critic and as a psychologist, is his ability to spot deception, and especially self-deception, which reaches an apogee of absurdity in his reflection on Tony Blair's time as Prime Minister, "Delusions of Honesty".  Somehow, he manages to say more about Modernism in the course of a sixteen page essay on Ibsen than Peter Gay could in 500 pages.  Dalrymple shows himself possessed of not only the moral courage to view social problems without evasion or illusion, but a humane sympathy that refuses to abandon others to life in barbaric conditions or the creeping barbarism of a nihilistic anti-culture.

Thursday, February 11, 2016

Career Of Evil

Career Of Evil by Robert Galbraith, 497 pages

Ed W reviewed this recently so you can see his review for plot.  I'm going to say that I agreed with his assessment also, almost exactly.  I thought it was good and I really enjoy these characters and their development and I thought this was a great story.  I'm really looking forward to the next books in this series.

Juba

Juba by Walter Dean Myers, 201 pages

This is a fictionalized story about a real person.  Juba was a freeborn African American in the 1800s.  He grew up in New York and all he wanted to do was dance.  He was lucky enough to get a few breaks and actually was able to make a living doing what he loved, and became fairly well known in his time, especially in England.  Charles Dickens had seen him dance and written about him so many people were interested in Juba.  I really liked this story. I would probably call it a slice of life type of story, but kids who like historical fiction will probably enjoy it.