Extras

Extras by Scott Westerfeld, 399 pages

“Extras, the final book in the Uglies series, is set a couple of years after the "mind-rain," a few earth-shattering months in which the whole world woke up. The cure has spread from city to city, and the pretty regime that kept humanity in a state of bubbleheadedness has ended. Boundless human creativity, new technologies, and old dangers have been unleashed upon the world. Culture is splintering, the cities becoming radically different from each other as each makes its own way into this strange and unpredictable future . . .  One of the features of the new world is that everyone has a "feed," which is basically their own blog/myspace/tv channel. The ratings of your feed (combined with how much the city interface overhears people talking about you) determines your social status--so everyone knows at all times how famous they are.  As Scott Westerfeld explored the themes of extreme beauty in the first three Uglies books, now he takes on the world's obsession with fame and popularity. And how anyone can be an instant celebrity.”  This book was really good.  I think it was my favorite out of this series, actually.  The more Westerfeld books I read, the more I understand the hype.  

Earth Flight

EarthFlight by Janet Edwards, 365 pages

“Jarra never wanted to be a celebrity. All she ever wanted was to gain some respect for the people left on Earth: the unlucky few whose immune system prevents them from portaling to other planets.  Except now she's the most famous Earth girl in the universe - but not everyone in the universe is happy about it, nor the fact that she has found love with a norm. Jarra's actions have repercussions that spread further than she ever could have imagined, and political unrest threatens to tear apart the delicate balance of peace between humanity's worlds.  On top of everything, the first alien artifact ever discovered appears to be waiting for Jarra to reveal its secrets. But to do so, she must somehow find a way to leave Earth - or else the alien artifact will be lost forever. Is there a way for Jarra to travel to another planet? Or is her destiny only to look to the stars - but never to reach them?”  I loved the finale to this series.  These books just kept getting better in my opinion.  This series is a must for teen science fiction fans.

Earth Star

Earth Star by Janet Edwards, 287 pages

In this sequel to Earth Girl, Jarra is once again called upon to help save the Earth from possible destruction.  When an alien sphere appears in the sky above Earth, Jarra and her boyfriend, Fian, are drafted into the military so that they can help with the crisis from a historian standpoint.  Jarra's status as Handicapped but from a military family makes her uniquely qualified to assist with what the military has in mind.  The situation is extremely dangerous, as no one knows if the sphere is hostile and it has not responded to any communication efforts.  If a peaceful solution cannot be reached, the governments may decide to take aggressive action, which could easily end up with the destruction of Earth.  I think I liked this book better than the first and can't wait to finish the third book also.  I would definitely recommend this series to teen science fiction fans.

Mr. Lemoncello's Library Olympics

Mr. Lemoncello's Library Olympics by Chris Grabenstein, 278 pages

This book is a sequel to Escape from Mr. Lemoncello's Library, which was a great book.  I wouldn't have thought it possible, but the sequel is at least as good as the first book.  In this story, many kids throughout the country are angry that they didn't have a chance to play in the first set of library games so Mr. Lemoncello has begun a new competition and teams of middle schoolers will have the chance to compete in the Library Olympics.  The winners will get a free ride to the college of their choice.  Kyle and his friends are excited to have a chance to compete again but Kyle is nervous about what will happen if they lose.  This book is full of fun puzzles and plenty of action.  I would highly recommend it to almost any kid who enjoys reading at all.

Unlikely Warrior: a Jewish Soldier in Hitler’s Army

UnlikelyWarrior: a Jewish Soldier in Hitler’s Army by Georg Rauch, 324 pages

The title really says it all about this book.  Although he was up front about his Jewish status, Georg was recruited into the Nazi army.  This book recounts his story, partially from letters he wrote to his parents while serving.  While difficult to read at times, this was a pretty amazing account that I think would have both adult and teen appeal.  I’ve always been fascinated with this time period in history and I think this is a good addition to current offerings.

Palace of Lies

Palaceof Lies by Margaret Peterson Haddix, 355 pages

“Desmia and her twelve sister-princesses are ruling Suala together at last, a united front. The kingdom seems to have finally gotten its happily ever after, but Desmia, trained by a lifetime of palace intrigue, is not so sure. She desperately wants to believe all is well, but she can't help seeing danger around every corner.  And then the unthinkable happens, and Desmia's worst fears are confirmed. Now, without the support of the sister-princesses she's grown to rely on or the trappings of royalty that have always convinced people to listen to her, Desmia must find the courage to seek out the truth on her own terms-and to determine the course of two kingdoms.”  I think the conclusion was my favorite book in this series.  This is very enjoyable and a must-read for fans of the fairy-tale retellings.

Stephanie Plum Series books 9-19

To the Nines, Ten Big Ones, Elven on Top, Twelve Sharp, Lean Mean Thirteen, Fearless Fourteen, Finger Lickin’ Fifteen, Sizzling Sixteen, Smokin’ Seventeen, Explosive Eighteen, and Notorious Nineteen by Janet Evanovich (11 books, 3494 pages)

These books represent volumes nine through nineteen of the Stephane Plum Mystery series by Janet Evanovich.

So, as you can probably tell, I am quickly blowing through this mystery series. It helps that all of the books are light, quick reads with little bits of humor thrown in. If you don’t know about this series, it follows the life of Stephanie Plum, who might be one of the most klutzy, yet still somehow successful bounty hunters in the world. Though she certainly is living the motto “if at first you don’t succeed…” To complicate her life even further, she is so hopelessly stuck in a love triangle, that even she has no idea who to choose. Add in the explosions, dead bodies and comic relief and you get nice easy read.

The only problem I have with the series is its repetitiveness. It seems that once Evanovich found the right “formula” to consistently sell books and make the bestseller list, she just repeats it over and over again. Every book will have the following; dinner with the parents, at least one destroyed car, Stephanie and Lulu getting knocked over by an escaping fugitive, lots and lots of eating and food, and Ranger coming to Stephanie’s rescue. Don’t get me wrong the formula works, but I would love to see this series expand beyond this.

If you need something that passes the time and does not require too much focus or deep thinking you can certainly give this series a try, but I would recommend starting at the beginning.

Six of Crows

Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo, 465 pages

Six dangerous (to varying degrees) teenage criminals team up and hatch a plot to infiltrate an impenetrable fortress and rescue (or kidnap? or murder?) a high-value prisoner, for glory and huge amounts of cash.

This ranks up there with The Raven Cycle as one of the best, most interesting YA series I've read - certainly the best ones still in progress. That's not to say that it's perfect, but most of my criticisms are minor and spoiler-heavy.

The characters are diverse and well-defined, the action is over-the-top and exciting, the world itself is creative and complex. It tackles themes of prejudice and unhealthy (to varying degrees) relationships with a deft touch. While it occasionally succumbs to a "Summer blockbuster" mentality, there's so much to like that even with my minor complaints, it's still a huge success. Highly recommended - I'm already anxiously awaiting the sequel.

Notorious RBG

Notorious RBG: the Life and Times of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, by Irin Carmon and Shana Knizhnik, 240 pages

One of the Read Harder challenges that someone introduced me to this year was to read a biography, which is not a genre in which I typically dabble.  So I think I typed in something like "not+terrible+biographies" or "biographies+when+you+don't+like+biographies," and this one came across my path.  It was an interesting read, for a few reasons. 

The main reason is that Justice Ginsburg is, simply put, awesome.  She is incredibly smart, and put up with some ridiculous patronizing in the days when a woman had to be 20 times better than a man in order to be considered to be his legal clerk.  She was one of those women balancing professional and personal life before it was considered possible.  She was a pioneer for equal rights- angered when they were referred to as "women's" rights.   I found her logic and methods to be fascinating and brilliant; if you need to convince a panel of nine men that equal rights are important, she realized that you had to frame it around men.  This meant that many of her "women's rights" cases were arguing against laws that were unfairly beneficial to women.  Because equal means equal, regardless of partisanship or trends.  And her dissent at the 2013 Shelby County v. Holder decision (the one that basically threw out the Voting Rights Act) was just brilliant: "like throwing away your umbrella in a rainstorm because you are not getting wet." Basically, I'm excited to know more about this pretty amazing woman. 

But a couple of other notes... I had no idea when I started this that it was was actually based on a fan-created Tumblr page dedicated to Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.  So there's alot of fan art and comics and general whimsy throughout about a lady who is pretty notoriously straitlaced, which is delightful.  But if you're reading this on your phone, you may have a really hard time actually looking at said art; also because of the digital version, the formatting was outright bizarre- there would be an excerpt from a Ginsburg dissent, and then paragraphs later what turned out to be the author's notes about a bolded sentence in the paragraph.  Very frustrating, actually- especially because it took a long time to even figure out that was what was occurring. 

Living in Truth

Living in Truth by Vaclav Havel, edited by Jan Vladislav, 294 pages

This collection of essays was published in 1986, on the occasion of the author receiving the Erasmus Prize for his "opinion that every human being must personally bear his or her responsibility" and his opposition to "all threats to a humane culture".  In the included writings, Havel defies a "revolutionary ideology in which the ideal of man's total liberation has a central place" but whose anthropology imagines man as a "creature whose only aim is self-preservation", and therefore brings about "the gradual erosion of all moral standards, the breakdown of all criteria of decency and the widespread destruction of confidence in the meaning of values such as truth, adherence to principles, sincerity, altruism, dignity, and honour."  He advocates instead a society of voluntary associations which respects the private sphere of individual conscience.

The Havel revealed in these essays is not a political figure, if "political" refers to a programmatic approach to concrete issues and specific problems.  He is, rather, a cultural, social, and ultimately moral critic.  This is consistent with his characterization of the "dissident" as simply an individual who affirms that certain values are worth suffering and, potentially, dying for.  His dissent is therefore not limited to the peculiarities of communist Czechoslovakia, but extends to the West and the twenty-first century as well, for he rejects both the faceless power of impersonal technocracy and the cynicism that is the natural result of the wreck of utopianism.

Living in Truth also includes tributes to Havel from literary figures including Samuel Beckett, Milan Kundera, Arthur Miller, and Tom Stoppard.

The War That Saved My Life

The War That Saved My Life, by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley, 316 pages

Ada is a young girl living with her mother and little brother in a one room apartment in London, and it's only months before England enters WWII.  The plan is to send many of the children of London away to the countryside, with the expectation that the city will be bombed by Germany.  But for Ada, this means that her brother will be sent away- not her.  Why?  Because she has never been allowed outside the apartment due to having a clubfoot that her mother says made her unlovable and evil and she would only disgust anyone who met her.

Record scratch.

Yikes- reading children's books with prominent child abuse, both mental and physical, is not something I enjoy doing.  But I will say this- the abuse is never, ever treated as a convenient plot point, or something that some fresh air in the country fixes; it's treated like the wound that it is- one that will never go away, but with the right kind of love, can become a scar one day.

I found myself raging alongside Ada at her mother, society and the world, but also frustrated with her for continuing to love her mother, and then frustrated at myself for victim-shaming a make-believe character.  It's a children's book, and one that I really feel could enter the canon of classics, but I did not find it easy to read. And I think I mean that in a really good way.

Ashley Bell

Ashley Bell by Dean Koontz     560 pages

Bibi Blair think she's having a stroke at the young age of twenty-two.  When she gets to the hospital, she gets the bad news that she's dying from inoperable brain cancer.  However, two days later, she's cured.  But how?   Obsessed with the idea that her life has been spared so that she can save someone else named Ashley Bell, Bibi sets off on a journey unlike any other.   There are dark forces at work, fast in pursuit of Bibi, who has to untwist a long trail of mysteries to reach Ashley.

It's been a long time since I read a book by Dean Koontz, but this one has been getting a lot of good reviews.   And, when I saw an extra copy on the New Books shelf, I felt it was a sign.   I found the book to be quite good, and wound up whipping through it pretty quickly.  It's what I like to think of as dark psychological suspense, with a bit of a supernatural feel.  What I really enjoyed was that there is a big twist a little more than halfway through the book which makes you question some of what you just read, and wonder what is really happening in the story.  Personally, I like it when I'm not sure if I can trust a main character, so I was happy that there was this big twist.   I also liked the main character; she's fierce, but she has a sense of humor, and I liked her determination to face up to her fears, even when things seemed overwhelming.

So, a definite thumbs-up to this book (and I'll be looking forward to the next one from Koontz).

The Ocean at the End of the Lane

The Ocean at the End of the Lane, by Neil Gaiman, 181 pages

There's this special category of book- the kind that is short and seemingly simple; if you read it just for the surface story, you may think "Well, wasn't that a weird little tale," and report back to the book club group that you just don't "get" fantasy.  But... if you let yourself spend some time in it, you realize that it's far richer than that.  In this simple tale, a man returns to his childhood town for a funeral, and reflects on fantastic memories of his youth.  But if you spend a little longer in the story, you'll read about loss of innocence, the question of whether we'll think our lives were worth it when we reach the end of them, and what it means to be lonely.  And despite how that sounds... you leave the story with a sense of hope.  I thought this was simply beautiful.

In conclusion: I just can't quit you, Neil.  You pulled me in with Sandman, and lost me with American Gods.  You won me again with Marvel, 1602, but made me say "meh," with The Sleeper and the Spindle.  Do I just like your graphic novels?  No, because I loved Good Omens.  Was that primarily Terry Pratchett?  I just don't know!  Reveal your mystery to me- what is it about you that I like alot when I like it and dislike alot when I don't?  You beautiful, silent enigma, you!

Too Big To Fail

Too Big To Fail by Andrew Ross Sorkin, 539 pages

Too Big To Fail is the definitive journalistic account of the financial crisis of 2008. as seen through the eyes of the bankers and brokers as they tried desperately to find a solution to the problems they themselves had created.  Their efforts range from the almost heroic - in one thirteen hour workday, Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson was involved in no fewer than sixty-nine phone calls and meetings - to the comic - an AIG vice president hustling through the streets of New York carrying a briefcase stuffed with $14 billion in bonds - to the entirely absurd - several dozen Goldman Sachs traders reacting to the news that the UK had imposed a moratorium on short-selling their company's stock by rising to their feet and singing "The Star-Spangled Banner".  Sorkin, who covered the meltdown for The New York Times, goes into truly impressive, almost overwhelming detail about the events of September 2008.

The book is badly organized at times - Sorkin first tells the story of John Thain's overhaul of the New York Stock Exchange, then his life story up until became CEO of NYSE, and then continues with his later leadership of Merrill Lynch.  This further confuses a narrative already burdened by hundreds of characters and dozens of companies and government agencies.  Sorkin also - whether through journalistic objectivity or simple myopia - seems blind to the absurdity of some of the situations he describes, like AIG's scramble to ensure that the brokers who lost 5 billion dollars of the company's money wouldn't leave for their competitors.  Perspective is easy to lose - Sorkin is so engaging in his description of the titanic struggle to save Wall Street that it is easy to forget that even the failures wound up wealthy far beyond most people's imagining.

Too Big To Fail is a tremendous accomplishment within the limits it sets for itself.  The story of what happened as the 2008 crisis climaxed is covered exhaustively.  How it happened, how it affected ordinary people, and what it ultimately cost is outside its scope - for that, we must turn to books like Madrick's Age of Greed, Stockman's The Great Deformation, or Barofsky's Bailout.  The occasional mention of how the unfolding of the crisis might affect ordinary Americans only serves to underscore how little such concerns matter on the highest levels of our political and economic systems.

Life of Christ

The Life of Christ by Fulton Sheen, 658 pages

In The Life of Christ, Archbishop Sheen walks step by step through the Gospels, from the Annunciation to the Ascension.  The whole enterprise is rooted deeply in Scripture, with hardly a paragraph that does not include a corresponding passage from the Bible taken from Msgr Knox's beautiful translation.

Sheen's retelling focuses on the unity of the Gospel story, emphasizing the connections between the various events as the narrative moves forward.  In Sheen's reflections, the entire life of Christ - indeed, all of human history - is one long Way of the Cross, a continuous act of sacrifice, revelation, and redemption.  Behind the shadow of the Cross, however, the light of the Resurrection is always present.

The Never-Open Desert Diner

The Never-Open Desert Diner by James Anderson  304 pages

How can anyone resist a novel with a title like The Never-Open Desert Diner? I couldn’t and for the readers who pick it up, they are in for a wonderful trip through the Utah desert. I’m not one much for series, but I hope that author James Anderson is contemplating writing more stories featuring his protagonist, Ben Jones.

Ben is a self-employed delivery driver. It’s amazing that he hasn’t been put out of business by FedEx, DHL, or UPS. He almost is, as the bills are piling up faster than the noonday desert heat. He doesn’t think he’s going to make it to the end of the month.

He’s a quiet sort of guy, self-deprecating almost to a fault. He runs his truck up and down Utah’s Route 117, delivering all sorts of packages to some quirky characters. Three stand out.

First is Walt Butterfield who owns the Well-Known Desert Diner, famous for being in a number of movies.Walt keeps the place spotless and in tip-top shape. However, the diner has been closed since 1987. Walt fixes Ben a meal once in a while, but mostly his tinkers with his extensive collection of rare motorcycles. Second, is John, but most call him Preach. He runs a church in an abandoned hardware store and spends the majority of his time carrying a solid oak cross up and down the shoulder of Route 117. Last, and certainly not least, is Ginny, a very pregnant seventeen-year old Ben befriends one middle of the night in a Wal-Mart. She’s not alone and expecting, she is homeless, often living in her car. As we learn about the lies of these characters, it reminds of me of lives lived in quiet desperation.

One day as Ben is cruising down 117, he notices a glimmer in the desert that blinks and winks at him. Intrigued and having to take a piss like there is no tomorrow, he pulls onto the shoulder and walks up a small incline. On the other side, is an abandoned housing development. He heads down to check out the one house, and as looks in the window, he sees a naked woman sitting on a green chair playing the cello. Relieving himself against the side of the house, the woman come out to investigate. Her name is Claire.

As Ben and Claire begin to fall in love, some rather unsavory people show up along Route 117. Don’t want to say anything more that will spoil the amazing adventures Ben has, falling in love, trying to help Claire, trying to save his rig and his business. It’s a wonderful story.

I was surprised to learn that author Anderson grew up in the Pacific Northwest, but he must have spent some time in Utah to understand the desert as he does.

I give The Never-Open Desert Diner 6 out of 5 stars.

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

Deus Caritas Est

Deus Caritas Est by Pope Benedict XVI, 108 pages

Deus Caritas Est - "God is Love" - was Pope Benedict XVI's first encyclical, released on Christmas Day 2005.  It is the first of a trilogy on the theme of the three theological virtues - Spes Salvi ("Saved in Hope") was issued in 2007 and Benedict's successor Francis released Lumen Fidei ("The Light of Faith") in 2013.

Pope Benedict begins with the familiar distinction between eros (desiring love) and agape (selfless love).  He attempts to establish that, contrary to popular misconceptions, the two are complementary rather than competing.  Eros draws lovers out of themselves and towards the beloved - it is, as Plato demonstrated, both a form of ecstatic divine madness and a longing for fulfillment - but it also easily turns possessive and destructive.  As grace perfects nature, so agape purifies eros in the love of the God who is Love.

Key to this purification is the role of the Church.  Love, by its very nature, cannot exist in a vacuum - it creates and sustains communities.  To thrive, then, it requires order and direction.  The Church exists both as the ordinary channel of divine love through the sacraments and a nexus of the neighborly charity which is the only genuine response to an encounter with that divine love.  Benedict distinguishes this charity from impersonal philanthropy by stressing that it seeks the good of the entire human person.  The struggle for social justice, while vital for a healthy society, can never replace charity precisely because it can never minister to spiritual needs, primary among which is the need to love and be loved.

The Guest Room

The Guest Room by Chris Bohjalian.  318 pages

This story focuses on multiple viewpoints after a horrific event.   We have Richard Chapman, who has decided to host his younger brother's bachelor party, complete with Russian strippers.   We also have the viewpoint of Alexandra, one of the strippers.  Finally, there is Kristin, Richard's wife.

The bachelor party has all of the correct elements for something bad to happen: a bunch of drunk men, two young strippers, alcohol . . . and when one of the young women stabs their Russian bodyguards to death and then flees the house, life will never be the same for anyone involved.  Now, Richard's job puts him on indefinite leave and his wife finds himself unable to forgive him for the intimate moment he shared with one of the girls.   However, the person in the most danger is Alexandra, on the run trying to escape both the police and her gangster captors.

Typical of this author, I found this story to be compelling, fast-paced, and with a few twists.  I felt he really did a good job of capturing the three different voices of the characters, so that their viewpoints felt authentic.  Alexandra's story, in particular, is heartbreaking, and I appreciated that the author didn't shy away from any of the ugliness.   It is a fact that young women are trapped into sexual slavery all over the world, and it's not a pretty situation.

The front of the book has a quote from author Geraldine Brooks which says this book" Couples the urgency of a compulsively readable crime thriller with a quiet meditation on the meaning of family."  I think this is true, and that the author does a great job of making a story which is a page-turner, but then which sticks in your mind long after you've closed the book.

Moonlight Over Paris

Moonlight Over Paris by Jennifer Robson    352 pages

           

December 1923.  Lady Helena Montagu-Douglas-Parr is near death in her London home. Doctors have told her parents to start planning for the worse. I believe that her illness was scarlet fever, but that didn’t come out until about halfway through the story. Robson would have readers believe that her broken engagement has caused her illness.

She feels the shame and shun or her relatives, friends, and strangers. Her five-year engagement to Edward is over. The Great War changed him, but it wasn’t her who broke off the relationship; it was Edward. Now Helena is 28, and her prospects are few.

A letter arrives from her bohemian, free-spirited Aunt Agnes in Paris. She invites Helena to come and visit her. Helena quickly agrees, despite her parents’ concerns.

Helena has always been drawn to art and enrolls in an art school under the tutelage of Maitre Czerny. She drops her title and simply becomes Helena Parr.

Although Robson is an excellent writer and researcher, the story becomes predictable. She does her best at art but is never noticed by Czerny. She becomes fast friends with three of her classmates and, together, they rent a studio. She meets a handsome American, Sam Howard, to whom she is attracted. They hit it off and are smitten with each other, yet…

There are a lot of wonderful details in the work. I enjoyed watching Helena become an artist and gain self-confidence that he broken engagement destroyed.

Although it’s predictable, Moonlight Over Paris has strong characters and character development. Since I didn’t expect anything different, I really enjoyed this read.

I give Moonlight Over Paris  4 out of 5 stars.

What Happened, Miss Simone?

What Happened, Miss Simone? by Alan Light.  260 pages (not including discography and notes)

This is a biography of artist Nina Simone, who wasn't just a singer, but a classically trained pianist and civil rights activist.  Alan Light is a former music journalist, and brings that writing style to this book.  Using rare archival footage, audio recordings, interviews and personal diaries, Light puts together a nuanced portrait of a complex and compelling woman.

I had been familiar with Simone's work for a while, but I didn't really know that much about her before reading this book.  It was interesting to read about her personally, but admittedly, I found some of the writing about her musicianship to be fascinating.   A classically trained pianist, Simone brought that deep understanding of classical music into her performances.  At the time she was first performing, this was very unusual, and unexpected.   Unfortunately, Ms. Simone's personal life often overshadowed her artistic life.   However, reading about her personal struggles and how they influenced her music made me want to pull up more recordings and listen to them.   Very interesting reading.

Acedia and Its Discontents

Acedia and Its Discontents: Metaphysical Boredom in an Empire of Desire by RJ Snell, 127 pages

The diabolically active Judge Holden (from Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian) may seem like a strange figure to use as a representative of acedia, the "deadly sin" usually translated as "sloth", but that is exactly what RJ Snell does in the first pages of Acedia and Its Discontents.  His purpose is plain - acedia is not what we think it is.  Sloth is not laziness, but aimlessness, not a lack of energy, but a lack of purpose, a denial of purpose, and ultimately the hatred of any purpose, order, or discipline.

Snell's solution to this empire of depression lies in a renewed understanding of the nature of work.  Good work, as opposed to mere busy-ness, is more than the manipulation of resources in an attempt to satisfy one's desires - it engages with the world, respecting both creation and the exalted human role of co-creator, accepting responsibility instead of fleeing from it.  Good work, as Snell defines it, is essentially contemplative, directed towards transcendental values, focused on the good of creation rather than its usefulness.

The Old Man and The Sea

The Old Man and The Sea by Ernest Hemingway  128 pages

I haven’t read this novella since I was in junior high school (I think it’s called middle school now). I didn’t care for it then. I have never been a Hemingway fan. But I had three reasons for picking it up again.

First, it was my turn to pick the book for my writing group. I knew I wanted something short, as one of our members isn’t a big reader. Second, March’s topic for the On the Same Page with Central Library Goodreads challenged its readers to re-read a hated book from high school. Third, is I’m a big fan of Paula McLain’s The Paris Wife.

The copy I checked out at the Library has an introduction by Charles Scribner, Jr. Interesting I thought as his father was one of the two men to whom Hemingway dedicated this book. If you pick up this copy, DON’T read the introduction; it gives the whole story away. I remembered how it ended, but I didn’t need to be reminded of the details.

The Old Man has been without a catch for 84 days. Everyone in his Cuban village claims he is unlucky and begins to shun him. NOTE: Hemingway went to Cuba and fished as part of his research. Still he goes out, sure that today would be his lucky day.  He hooks the fish of a lifetime and spends the next four days, barely eating, drinking, or sleeping, reeling it in.

I so enjoyed this story; it was unputdownable. It did take me two evenings to read, but I tried to read slow and enjoy the adventure. I have to admit that I wanted to read fast, but Scribner’s spoiler spoiled some of the fun.

After finishing this story of the old man who has hooked the fish of a lifetime, I may go back and try to read some more Hemingway.

I give The Old Man and The Sea 6 out of 5 stars.

Daring to Date Again

Daring to Date Again by Ann Anderson Evans   290 pages

Having just turned 60 myself and only married (this time) for almost five years, I was intrigued by the idea of Ann’s memoir. After 12 celibate years, she is ready for anything that will appease the hunger. To put it bluntly, she’s as horny as an 18-year-old boy

How does a woman of our age go about dating in the early years of the 21^st century? It’s a whole different world out there (I knew my newish husband from work). And what about sex? Is it as available as television, movies, etc. make it out to be? Where do women of certain ages go to meet men? Is Internet dating as scary as it seems? Ann’s memoir seems to answer all these questions, but the answers are not rules or guides for single women; the book is Ann telling the reader her experiences. I would never classify this book as self-help (unless it’s to gain confidence that there is sex available.)

Get ready to laugh, cry and enjoy all the emotions in between. Ann’s first adventure to conquer the sexual gnawing is with a guy Larry, who turns out to be a transvestite. Ann doesn’t care about that, but she is looking for a male with male longings.

Ann dates many, many men. So many, by the end of the book, I couldn’t keep them all straight. I’ve been so worried about stalkers I would never allow a virtual stranger into my home, much less my bed. Maybe it’s because Ann is a confident woman. I loved Chapter 13, Strategy. She makes a chart that will help guide her through the e-mails and flirts from the Internet. There are three columns: Indispensable, pro, and con. That list serves her well, until she meets Guy.

I was starting to get a little bored with the whole dating/sleeping around when Ann and Guy connect. I was astounded that Ann went to Zimbabwe to spend some time Guy. But that put the zip back into the story.

I enjoyed Ann’s voice; it was like a best friend/sister talking to me, telling me her adventures. I felt as if I was dating again vicariously through Ann, and all I can say, is please God, never let me single and horny again.

I give Daring to Date Again 5 out of 5 stars.

Romanesque Art in Europe

Romanesque Art in Europe, edited by Gustav Kuenstler, 322 pages

The Romanesque style of art and architecture flourished during the eleventh and twelfth centuries.  As illustrated in Romanesque Art in Europe, its reach extended from Sicily to Scandinavia, with corresponding local variations, from Byzantine influences in Italy to the "insular style" of Britain.  The versatility of the Romanesque embraces both the ornate exuberance of the Cluniac monasteries and the severe plainness of the Cistercians.  

Often dismissed as artless and clumsy, particularly when contrasted with the Gothic style which it birthed, this book demonstrates the power of Romanesque, from impressively detailed stone portals to soaring interior spaces to wonderfully expressive sculptures.  The book is filled with fantastic full-page photographs, but, sadly, none are in color, which rather reinforces the popular image of medieval art as grey and monotonous.  The captions manage to compensate for this shortcoming, providing each image with a paragraph of commentary and context.

Fun Home

Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic by Alison Bechdel.  232 pages

This is a graphic memoir by Alison Bechdel that focuses on her relationship with her late father.  Bruce Bechdel was an English teacher and also director of the town funeral home (which the family referred to as the Fun Home).   After college, Alison, who had recently come out as a lesbian, discovered that her father was also gay.

I was familiar with Alison Bechdel's long-running comic, Dykes to Watch Out For, but I didn't know much about her.   In this graphic novel, it was interesting to learn about Alison's family, especially her relationship with her father.   And, it is an interesting read, although I found it kind of depressing.  Her father was a complex person, and his relationship with her wasn't at all warm.   Her parents seem at odds with each other, and not that interested in their children, either.   But, this memoir is about the author putting together the pieces of what she has learned about her father, and the book actually ends in a way that makes it seem that she is not finished.

I enjoy her writing style and her art, so I think I enjoyed this graphic memoir more because it was graphic.  I'm not sure if it would have been as interesting if it had been a memoir with no pictures, and no art.  Combining her writing with her drawings really brought the story to life with a great deal of emotion that I think would be hard to portray in any other way.

This book was made into a Broadway musical, so if this book sounds like your kind of read, there's now a musical adaptation.

Erasmus of Rotterdam

Erasmus of Rotterdam by Stefan Zweig, translated by Eden and Cedar Paul, 247 pages

Desiderius Erasmus was a giant of his time, the center of the republic of letters, a friend of St Thomas More and Martin Luther, the man whose Greek edition of the New Testament became the basis for the Textus Receptus recognized as authoritative for three centuries.  A master scholar and master ironist, Erasmus managed to simultaneously fulfill the roles of Europe's leading intellectual and her leading fool.

Stefan Zweig was one of the most celebrated biographers of the early twentieth century, and it is easy to see why - rather than attempting to construct a detailed photograph of his subject's life, he paints an engrossing word-portrait.  In his estimation, Erasmus was the first of a new type - the man of the book, set apart equally from the man of war, the man of the land, and the man of the Church.  He lived his life, it seems, in the pages of books, either reading or, far more often, writing.  Indeed, Zweig provides a rare example of the term "ivory tower" being used in a positive sense, although even he expresses a little frustration at a subject who often "lighted up a problem" but "never solved one."  An Austrian writing in 1934, like Zweig, might view a lifelong refusal to commit to a cause - any cause - as an admirable trait, but readers in other times and places might not.  If it is true that his is an "essentially modern spirit", an evaluation of Erasmus as a brilliant but ultimately hollow man has a much broader application than the historical figure himself.

The Past

The Past by Tessa Hadley.  310 pages.

This story focuses on three adult sisters and their brother, who meet up at their grandparents' country home for their annual holiday of three weeks.  This may the last summer they all have together in this house, as they may need to sell it.  Naturally, with even the closest of siblings, there are bound to be tensions.  

The summary of the book via Goodreads says, "With uncanny precision and extraordinary sympathy, Tessa Hadley charts the squalls of lust and envy disrupting this ill-assorted house party, as well as the consolations of memory and affection, the beauty of the natural world, the shifting of history under the social surface. From the first page the reader is absorbed and enthralled, watching a superb craftsperson unfold the lives of these unforgettable siblings."

Admittedly, I didn't love this book.  I kept turning the pages because I was curious if anything was really going to happen in the story (perhaps a startling revelation from one of the characters? A tragic secret?), but it was hard for me to care about any of the characters.  The writing style is interesting, but for me, the characters . . . weren't.   The sister who seems to have some kind of inner turmoil and secrets isn't that compelling, and the one sister who seems to always be dramatically saying this and that wasn't compelling to me, either.    There isn't much of a plot, so the book is basically just these people interacting with each other (although there is a middle section that is set in the past).

I can see where some readers really respond to this author's writing style, but I'm not one of them.

What Alice Forgot

What Alice Forgot by Liane Moriarty.  459 pages

Alice Love is 29 years old, crazy about her husband, and eagerly expecting their first child. Or is she?   When she falls and hits her head in spin class, Alice comes to with the firm belief that she is 29 years old.  However, after her visit to the hospital, she learns the truth: she is 39 years old, is in the middle of an ugly divorce, and has 3 children.   With the past 10 years a complete blank, Alice now has to piece together her life and find out just how she's gotten to where she is . . . and if there is any way to go back.

I have read other books by this author, and had anticipated the same kind of fast-paced read as before.   I thought the story here was interesting, where Alice has to use what she learns from other people to piece together what has happened in the last ten years.  Because what other people tell her can be subjective, it's especially tricky.   But, like her other books, Moriarty does a nice job of weaving together characters' lives, with ups and downs.   And, it's interesting to picture yourself in Alice's position.   At times, it felt a little too unreal, but this was a good Sunday afternoon read.

Once Upon a Flock

Once Upon a Flock: Life with my soulful chickens by Lauren Scheuer.  241 pages (with loads of illustrations).

When illustrator Lauren Scheuer was looking for a new project, she got the idea to raise backyard chickens.  Her family was skeptical, but soon fell in love with the chicks.   This book focuses on the three chickens: "Hatsy, the little dynamo; Lil’White, the deranged and twisted Buff Orpington; Pigeon, the fixer-upper chicken; and Lucy, the special-needs hen who bonds with Lauren and becomes a fast friend."

This is a charming book, filled with photos and illustrations of Scheuer's chickens.  I had been expecting an entertaining read, but found I was learning more about chickens than I had expected. Scheuer's illustrations are wonderful, and you really get the different personalities of the chickens.  And, it's not a worry-free life: there are definite bumps in the road, and a few sad spots in this book. But, overall, it's light-hearted.  And did I say charming?  Definitely.

Celtic Christianity

Celtic Christianity: Making Myths and Chasing Dreams by Ian Bradley, 232 pages

This is not a book about Celtic Christianity - the form of Christianity that thrived in Ireland and evangelized Scotland in the fifth and sixth centuries - but rather a book about the many attempts that have been made to claim and shape its legacy.  Indeed, near the end the author raises the question as to whether the label refers to any genuine subject at all, or whether "Celtic Christianity" only exists as a succession of constructions made by subsequent eras.

The book begins with the hagiographers of the seventh and eighth centuries, who idealized the not-so-distant past into a golden age as a way of both condemning and inspiring their own era, as well as promoting the preeminence of certain religious and political centers.  A succeeding Celtic revival arose in the first centuries of the second millennium, following the Norman conquest, as Britons, Normans, and Anglo-Saxons all sought to claim the blessings and legacies of the indigenous saints.  It was also during this era that the Arthurian mythos took shape.  When the Reformation was brought to Britain, Protestants appealed to the Celtic saints as indigenous, erastian Anglican or Presbyterian figures, with the otherwise much-maligned monks becoming a claim for the primitive simplicity of the British Church prior to Augustine's arrival in Canterbury.  In the Romantic era, the aura of mystery surrounding the Celts provided fertile ground for an idealized myth of the Druids, who in turn, it was imagined, transitioned into an equally idealized non-Roman Christian priesthood.  The syncretism of the Romantic approach - holding some legendary Druids as the pinnacle of natural religion awaiting only the Christian revelation to be perfected - has characterized "Celtic Christianity" in the popular imagination ever since.  The twentieth century saw some sober criticism by historians and an increasing tendency to view the subject in terms of contemporary social issues such as feminism and environmentalism.

Bradley is not only the author, but is himself one of the mythmaking dreamers, and as a result he tends to treat his subjects with considerable affection - perhaps too much, as he seems unwilling to actually judge any factual claims once he leaves the Middle Ages.  It is possible to question the discontinuity Bradley evidently sees between the "golden age" and his first two, medieval groups of mythmakers, a discontinuity which excises a considerable amount of traditional "Celtic" material but is necessary in order to provide room for certain alternative interpretations of what remains.  He especially perceives a contradiction between the popular image of St Patrick as the fearless evangelist of Ireland and the self-doubting figure revealed in the Confessio, the only writing of Patrick's which survives, but history is filled with individuals (and especially missionary saints, beginning with St Paul, who is clearly Patrick's model in the Confessio) who are both confident and self-effacing.  The sons of St Bernard used the Celtic tradition in the same manner as St Bede had centuries earlier, to urge a return to a stricter, simpler, "purer" form of monasticism.  Likewise, he asserts that the Arthurian legends are essentially non-Christian, which seems like a highly debatable claim.

Celtic Christianity gains energy and coherence when it begins its discussion of the Victorian fad for all things Celtic and the simultaneous Celtic Twilight movement, and the book might have been stronger if it had begun there (or shortly before) and focused exclusively on the modern era.  This, in turn, might have facilitated a clearer presentation of the different distinctive (though interacting) strains within the contemporary Celtic Christian movement - charismatics, New Agers, Western Orthodox, Anglicans, Welsh nationalists, etc.  Bradley is clearly passionate about his subject and an active participant in its development, but his unsuccessful efforts to shed light on the long-ago only serve to confuse matters in the here-and-now.  In the end, he concludes that enlisting the legends of Celtic Christianity in the service of social justice is preferable to medieval relic-collecting contests, which seems to suggest that politics is more important than the quest for holiness, a conclusion which the great saints of the past would surely have denied.  The true conflict is between seeing those saints as models to be imitated or as brand names to be exploited.

The Green Road

The Green Road by Anne Enright   304 pages

Longlisted for the 2015 Man Booker Prize

I wasn’t familiar with Anne Enright’s work before I was given The Green Road as a gift. The synopsis sounds wonderful:

From internationally acclaimed author Anne Enright comes a shattering novel set in a small town on Ireland's Atlantic coast. The Green Road is a tale of family and fracture, compassion and selfishness―a book about the gaps in the human heart and how we strive to fill them.

Spanning thirty years, The Green Road tells the story of Rosaleen, matriarch of the Madigans, a family on the cusp of either coming together or falling irreparably apart. As they grow up, Rosaleen's four children leave the west of Ireland for lives they could have never imagined in Dublin, New York, and Mali, West Africa. In her early old age their difficult, wonderful mother announces that she’s decided to sell the house and divide the proceeds. Her adult children come back for a last Christmas, with the feeling that their childhoods are being erased, their personal history bought and sold.

A profoundly moving work about a family's desperate attempt to recover the relationships they've lost and forge the ones they never had, The Green Road is Enright's most mature, accomplished, and unforgettable novel to date.

I even saved it until I had to spend some time in an airport. It starts out pretty good, but quickly goes downhill in my opinion. The beginning and the ending are the best parts.

The story starts in 1980 with Hanna, seemingly the youngest of the Madigan brood. Mom Rosaleen has taken to her bed after the oldest, Dan, announces he wants to become a priest. The story then shifts to focus on Dan. It is 1991. He is living in New York. Not sure what his occupation is as the story is more about his life as a gay man and the AIDS epidemic more than anything. The next section focuses on Constance, stilling living in Ireland, in 1997. She is at a hospital to determine if the lump in her breast is cancer. The next shift is on Emmet, who is, I think, a missionary in Mali in 2002. As I read these sections, I felt that Enright kept the reader at arm’s length. Then the story jumps back to the Madigan home for Christmas 2005.

The father, who we don’t see much of, died ten years (I think) earlier. Rosaleen is the same melodramatic matriarch that she was in Hanna’s section. There are no explanations of how the four ended up like they did, which made me feel disconnected to the character’s problems.

I give The Green Road 2 out of 5 stars.

The History Major by Michael Phillip Cash

The History Major by Michael Phillip Cash   152 pages

It’s the beginning of a new school year. Amanda Green is rooming with friends. However, the night before classes are to start, Amanda has a heated argument with her boyfriend; his demands seem completely out-of-line. She crosses to the other side of the local watering hole and commences to tie one on.

The next morning she has a monster of a headache, and there is a strange female in her room who is insisting that she is late for class and that they are roommates. In addition, something menacing is hanging around, just outside her peripheral vision.

By the time Amanda gets it together enough to head for class, she’s not only late, but there seems to be a mix-up in her schedule. She would never, ever take a history course. Receiving no help from the college, she goes to class.

Things there are just a little weird. It seems the entire student body is taking the class. The professor is a wacko, that weird vision is beating on the closed doors, and the only person who seems to notice her is the guy in the next seat, Nick Fortune.

This is an odd little story that is compulsively readable. I had had to know what the heck was going on, yet in my wildest dreams, I hadn’t thought of the answer that Cash provides. I wish I could talk more about the ending, but no spoilers allowed.

I give The History Major 4 out of 5 stars. It gets knocked down a star for the format; that line space between each paragraph is not necessary and drove me nuts.

Little Rice: Smartphones, Xiaomi and the Chinese Dream

Little Rice: Smartphones, Xiaomi and the Chinese Dream by Clay Shirky.  128 pages.

I found this small book to be entertaining, as well as quite informative.  Xiaomi has become the world's third-largest mobile phone carrier, with products tailored to the Chinese and emerging Markets (and yes, it even outsells Samsung).    Xiaomi (or "little rice") is more than a startup company that has risen to be a titan, but it's also representative of how mobile phones offer the kind of freedom and connectivity that autocratic countries fear.

It was really interesting to read about how this company started, and how they handle their business, especially in light of the fact that they are in China, a country notorious for clamping down on Internet access and the sharing of information.   Shirky has an engaging writing style, and is very well versed in the ins-and-outs of the Chinese market.    For example, on page 23, he writes, "China, remarkably, has managed to create an alternate path, building a country where information moves like people, in highly identified and constrained ways, with the government always reserving the right to refuse entry from elsewhere, along with the ability to apprehend rogue information locally."  The fact that Xiaomi has been able to thrive is really quite a feat and a demonstration of the fascinating balance between the company and the Chinese government.

The Red Room

The Red Room by Ridley Pearson.  399 pages.

This is the third in the Risk Agent series, and finds John Knox again dealing with David Dulwich, his contact at Rutherford Risk.  When he's handed a photo of a transaction he recently facilitated in the Middle East, Knox is a bit disturbed, especially since he is shown the photo in the Red Room, Rutherford's high-security underground bunker.    Pressed into accepting a job as an art broker in Istanbul, Knox is paired (again) with Grace Chu to navigate a risky deal.

I would say the same thing about this book that I did about the previous Pearson book: reading this story is like watching a Jason Bourne movie.   It's a fast-paced thriller with steady catch-and-release tension and complex characters.   Generally, I thought the book was okay, and felt like Pearson does a good job of making the setting feel real, along with the action.   However, there were times when it started to feel a bit far-fetched and thinly stretched, plot-wise.  The action is good, but at the same time, it feels like it's being used to distract me from the places where the plot isn't holding together.    I liked Choke Point better, and I'm not sure if I'll be eager to grab White Bone (Risk Agent, #4) when it comes out in July.

Mind of the Oxford Movement

The Mind of the Oxford Movement, edited by Owen Chadwick, 233 pages

First published in 1960 as part of the Library of Modern Religious Thought series, The Mind of the Oxford Movement brings together an array of typical writings highlighting the nature and aims of the Movement.

In his long introduction, editor Chadwick stresses the affinities between the Oxford Movement and its contemporaries Romanticism and Evangelicalism, primary among them a stress on lived experience which differentiated the Movement from its high church forebears going back to Hooker, Donne, and Laud.  This brings with it an appreciation of the role of poetry in the Movement, which Chadwick understands as congruent with the liturgical concerns which were its most visible aspect.

The selection and organization of material is excellent, minimizing redundancy while allowing for a relatively full presentation of the authors' positions.  Although pre-conversion Newman is certainly well represented, Keble and Pusey are not overshadowed, and lesser lights are allowed their opportunity to shine as well.