No Country for Old Men

No Country for Old Men by Cormac McCarthy, 309 pages

Llewelyn Moss is a poor man living in a small Texas town who happens across a satchel containing two million dollars in drug money.  Like a fairy tale gift, the satchel is also cursed, in this case with Anton Chirguh, out to retrieve the cash and kill anyone who impedes or even inconveniences him.  Pursuing them both, and trying to make sense of it all, is the protagonist, aged Sheriff Bell.

The entire novel has an apocalyptic tint, a sense of virtues gone sour, of a world abandoned by God and running down towards some squalid, preordained end.  Both Moss and Chirguh stubbornly refuse to ever quit, and this leads directly to their respective fates, but the kindly Bell lacks that fortitude.  It is difficult to believe that the author of Blood Meridian means us to take seriously the notion that the world has become that much worse (certainly Chirguh, as terrifying as he is, is no Judge Holden), and certain revelations about the past of the Sheriff and his family reinforce the impression that Bell may be fooling himself by thinking the past was any better than the present.  There may be some hope for the future, after all, presented by the end.  Two boys headed in different directions suggest the possibility of choice, and that the path the world is on (if it is on a path, and not in a place) is perhaps not inevitable, but if that is so, it is one of the few times in the novel anyone seems to have a choice, as the logic or illogic of events push and pull them onward and downward.  Perhaps some of that is the result of the power of McCarthy's writing, which here as elsewhere has an intensity that holds the reader captive and fixes the story firmly in the memory.

Gregory the Great

Gregory the Great: Perfection in Imperfection by Carole Straw, 260 pages

Sixth century Italy was a turbulent place.  The Gothic kingdom of Theodosius was reconquered by the Roman Empire under Justinian, but the Emperor ruled from the capital at Constantinople, never setting foot in Italy.  Much of Imperial Italy was then conquered by the Lombards, leaving only Ravenna, Rome, and a thin strip of land connecting them in Roman hands.  The Emperor's representative, the exarch, resided in Ravenna, and the Eternal City became increasingly dependent on the papacy for patronage and even basic governance.  One pope was deposed by Justinian's general Belisarius, another was imprisoned by Justinian until he gave his assent to the rulings of the Second Council of Constantinople - and the conditional assent he eventually gave led to a significant schism, with the formation of a new church in northern Italy supported by the Lombards and headed by the bishop of Aquileia.

St Gregory the Great was born into an aristocratic Roman family in the midst of this turmoil.  After years of public service, he found peace in a monastery, but his gifts resulted in him being pressed into ecclesiastical service as a papal emissary, and later elected pope himself.  During his fourteen year reign St Gregory organized the defence of Rome against the Lombards, dealt with plague outbreaks, dispatched St Augustine of Canterbury to Kent to begin the reevangelization of England, inaugurated the papal title "Servant of the Servants of God", and, most enduringly, reformed the Roman liturgy - legend would associate him with the origins of "Gregorian" chant.

Straw is only passingly concerned with this biography - her interest is in the saint's thought, as it is expressed in his extensive writings.  St Gregory is a Doctor of the Church, and is commonly identified as the figure who marks the definitive transition between the classical and medieval worlds.  His eventful life was marked by the dual search for equilibrium, found in reason, and stability, found in love of God and neighbor.  For Gregory, the cosmos is founded in harmony, a harmony which is disturbed by sin and restored by sacrifice.  Sacrifice finds its ultimate significance in the sacrifice of Christ, both on the Cross and in the Mass, which unites heaven and earth.  This distinguishes the Christian saint from the Stoic philosopher, for while the latter pursues an ultimately solitary perfection, the saint is drawn into an often painful communion with others.  As Straw explains it, Gregory's Christian worldview is marked by an understanding of the ambiguity of a fallen world and the hidden complementarity of seeming opposites - prosperity and adversity, solitude and community, sorrow and joy, fear and love, flesh and spirit, God and man.

The Girls

The Girls by Emma Cline.  368 pages.

Northern California, at the end of the 1960s, seems to embody a combination of place and time where people kept finding themselves, or reinventing themselves, or just trying to figure out where and how they fit into the world.  Evie is no different.  A young teen, she thinks she's happy enough . . . until she spots a group of girls in the park who obviously seem much freer than Evie.  Soon, Evie starts hanging out with these girls and becomes especially attached to Suzanne, one of the older girls in the group.  Living in a ranch in the hills, Suzanne and the other girls are part of a larger group that are all drawn to Russell, a larger-than-life personality.  However, it's not an idyllic life and soon, it becomes clear that things are getting darker and more dangerous.  Question is: how far is Evie willing to go?

I felt the book is very well written, enough so that when I didn't really want to keep reading, I kept reading. Evie (as a character) can be very frustrating, even if you understand that she is motivated by a lack of sense of self.  It's sometimes hard to understand why she continues her connection to Suzanne and the others, although the way that those characters are written, you can grudgingly accept that Evie would have come under their spell.

This is the kind of book where when I was reading it, I could feel like I was there (and, in fact, sometimes, smell like I was there).  It's easy to become immersed in the story and the characters.  It's an insightful kind book, where there is no judgment, and no explaining things away.  Rather, it's a "this is what happened.  This is what I did and then when I looked back, I could see what was really happening" kind of story.  Evie makes some interesting observations about how society sees women and girls, and I think this made the story a more compelling read for me.

Dehumanization of Man

The Dehumanization of Man by Ashley Montagu and Floyd Matson, 220 pages

It is the argument of social scientists Montagu and Matson that the progress of the twentieth century saw an increasing threat of the reduction of human beings to machines through applied technique.  In their view, under the pressure of modernity the self shriveled into variations of the "Malevolent Robot" epitomized by Adolf Eichmann and the "Cheerful Robot" best represented by Hugh Hefner - the killing machine and the copulating machine.  The slide into anti-humanism was greased by the amateur pornography of Masters and Johnson, which clinicized sex, and the shift of the American economy from mass production to mass persuasion.

The Dehumanization of Man was published in 1983, and it is when the authors survey then-contemporary culture that the book both shifts into high gear and runs into problems.  Their rapid-fire evocation of the pop culture of the '60s and '70s is at times thrilling, at times dizzying.  Unfortunately, the authors are not immune to the occasional misstep which suggests that they are not, in fact, really that familiar with the material, as when they lump George Romero in among horror directors whose films "lack social concern" or suggest that intelligent women are more likely to be killed in slasher films (Laurie Strode disagrees).

It is also in this section that the book threatens to become a sensationalistic catalog of cultural outrages.  Obviously, this firmly dates the book, although consideration of how certain trends highlighted here have continued or fizzled in the subsequent decades is certainly worthwhile.  It may be difficult to see a picture of Alice Cooper on a golf course and consider him a symptom of dehumanization, but perhaps the damage is invisible because it has already been done.  It is similarly easy to dismiss as irrelevant Bernardine Dohrn's "terrorist chic" celebration of the Manson murders, until it is remembered that one of the world's most powerful corporations, Google, recently celebrated Yori Kochiyama, who idolizes Osama bin Laden.

Alice in the Country of Hearts

Alice in the Country of Hearts Volumes 1-6 by QuinRose, 1142 pages (6 books)

Alice in the Country of Hearts is a manga loosely based on Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll. In QuinRose’s version Alice is abducted by Peter White, who has bunny ears and can turn into a rabbit, and is brought to Wonderland or more specifically the Country of Hearts. The Country of Hearts is split into three warring factions; the Queen of Hearts named Vivaldi, the Hatters who are led by Blood Dupre or The Hatter, and finally the Amusement Park run by the Duke Mary Gowland. At the center of these three factions is the Clock Tower. It is there that Alice comes to reside while she figures out how to get back home.

I suppose this manga would fall under the harem qualification as Alice is basically the only woman and most of the men pine for her affections. Besides harem, I would also add in action and romance.

Alice in the Country of Hearts was well worth the read. The characters were believable, especially considering that this takes place in Wonderland, and were quite well fleshed out. By the end I only had one complaint, it ended too soon.

Pandora Hearts Volumes 1-11

Pandora Hearts Volumes 1-11 by Jun Mochizuki, 2040 pages (11 books)

 

Pandora Hearts is a manga that follows the life of Oz Vessalius a rich noble whose life is about to change. At his coming of age ceremony he is cast into an alternate reality prison known as the Abyss. He is saved by making an illegal contract with a girl named Alice the Black Rabbit. Upon his escape Oz explores deeper into what exactly is the Abyss, who/what is Alice, and what is Pandora up to. Pandora is the organization that Oz meets when he leaves the Abyss. They also have contracts with powerful beings from the Abyss, though theirs are not quite the same.

Pandora Hearts is more of a mystery manga than anything else. Yes there is action, romance, and such, but it is the shadowy nature of Pandora, and the investigation into why this happened to Oz that really drives the story. The story itself seems to be somewhat influenced by the Alice in Wonderland series, especially with the Abyss beings.

I found this manga hard to follow at times. There are a lot of flashbacks, recovered memories, long tales and similar looking characters. There is also a lot of world building and character development throughout these books. By the fifth or sixth book there are at least a dozen characters that are flitting in and out of the story with no indications to whether or not they are important. To say the least, it was at times challenging. Despite these flaws I still enjoyed the series thus far. Being a sucker for anything Wonderlandish certainly helps. While I cannot say that this is my favorite manga, I would still recommend it.

Mercy Thompson Series

Moon Called, Blood Bound, Bone Crossed, Silver Borne, Iron Kissed, Frost Burned, River Marked, Night Broken, and Fire Touched by Patricia Briggs, 3111 pages (9 books)

Collectively these books all make up the Mercy Thompson series. The series follows the life of Mercedes Thompson who is a Volkswagen mechanic living in Washington. Blessed/cursed by her ancestry, she has the ability to change into a coyote. Much like the Coyote of legend she gets into and causes all sorts of trouble for her next door neighbor Adam, who happens to be a werewolf. Throughout the series there is also plenty of encounters with the fae, vampires, and other supernatural beasts and legends.

Brigg’s series is much like the Kate Daniels series by Ilona Andrews. They both have a strong female protagonist, an underlying romance story, magic, werewolves, vampires, etc. Where the series really differ in the setting. Where Kate is in a dystopian future ravaged by magic, Mercy is set in everyday life. It looks at how the public would react if they found out fae and werewolves exist. Both are somewhat gory in their descriptions at times, but the Mercy Thompson series is less hard boiled.

The Mercy Thompson series is well worth the read and there are several short side novels and one off based around the same characters. While it is possible to read each book by itself, they do build upon each other and I would recommend reading them in order. Brigg’s also has another series (Alpha and Omega) that takes place in the same world she has built but follows different characters. I imagine eventually there will be a crossover.

Priority of Christ

The Priority of Christ: Toward a Postliberal Catholicism by Robert Barron, 342 pages

According to Bishop Barron, the history of modern theology has been, to a substantial extent, the story of the application of prior philosophical commitments to the Christian faith.  What he proposes in The Priority of Christ is a return to a theology which begins with the person of Christ as He is revealed in Scripture and Tradition.  This involves the development of an epistemology which recognizes Christ as the Logos who orders creation and through whom creation is best understood.  Above all, it necessitates a recognition of the non-competitive relationship between the human and the divine, as demonstrated in the union of the two in the God-man.  This coinherence of divinity and humanity - the rediscovered complementarity of nature and grace - not only renders null many of the unprofitable theological arguments of the past few centuries, it also has profound implications for the moral and religious life.

The Priority of Christ, originally published in 2008, is considerably more academic and difficult than some of Barron's more popular works aimed at a mass audience, including Catholicism and Seeds of the Word.  Barron's evangelical commitment to lead others "out into the deep" is just as marked, however, as the metaphysical discussion is never divorced from practical realities - the book concludes with an application in the lives of four modern holy women (St Teresa Benedicta of the Cross, St Therese of Lisieux, St Katherine Drexel. and Bl Teresa of Calcutta) as exemplars of classical virtues elevated by grace.

Wrecks of the Medusa

The Wreck of the Medusa: The Most Famous Sea Disaster of the Nineteenth Century by Jonathan Miles, 249 pages

and

Wreck of the Medusa: Mutiny, Murder, and Survival on the High Seas by Alexander McKee, 290 pages

In 1816, the frigate Medusa, enroute from France to Senegal with 400 passengers and crew, ran aground on a sandbar in the Bay of Arguin off the Mauritanian coast.  The ship's boats could not carry everyone, and 147 people were crammed onto a hastily built raft.  The initial plan to tow the raft to safety was swiftly abandoned - if it was ever seriously intended - and the craft was left to drift with the current.  Fighting soon broke out over the limited supplies and space, cannibalism followed, and finally the weaker survivors were tossed overboard in order to conserve what little remained.  When rescued 12 days later, only 15 men survived, five of whom died within days.  

This remarkable story of shipwreck and survival created a sensation in a France still divided by the Revolution and Bonaparte, and there were immediate attempts to capitalize on the tragedy as emblematic of the incompetence and venality of the restored Bourbon monarchy.  It was soon immortalized by painter Theodore Gericault in his 1819 masterpiece The Raft of the Medusa, which continues to inspire interest in the tale of the ill-fated frigate two centuries later.

Alexander McKee's Wreck of the Medusa was originally published in 1976 as Death Raft, while The Wreck of the Medusa by Jonathan Miles was published in 2007.  The lurid original title of the former honestly announces its nature as a pulp adventure tale, while the latter book is more interested in the broader significance of the event than the details of the event itself.  Unexpectedly, it is the adventure tale which is more open about conflicts in the primary sources - Miles seems to have ignored competing claims until his conclusion.  Miles' account quickly becomes jumbled and confused, clumsily shifting between the story of the Medusa and the life of Gericault and doing a better job describing the latter, especially immediately after the wreck when even a straightforward retelling is forced to deal with no fewer than six separate groups of survivors.  McKee, for his part, only briefly deals with Gericault, but includes details of other analogous incidents from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries which, besides being interesting in themselves, illumine the main story, though not as much as the author claims.

Mountain Interval

Mountain Interval by Robert Frost  84 pages

Choices of past seem to be a theme with me lately it seems. Recently I was induced to read a collection of poetry for my book group. Luckily for me, one of America’s most beloved poets, Robert Frost, was chosen.

From Frost’s many collections, my friend chose Mountain Interval. These 30 poems were originally published in 1916. However, Frost made several changes to the collection’s sequencing and released the new (and improved?) edition in 1920.

I’ve read both the 1916 version and the 1920 version (thank God for libraries), and I don’t feel that it makes any difference as to the order. This collection contains one of the most well-known and cherished pieces of prose in American history: “The Road Not Taken.”

The collection is divided into six sections: Christmas Trees (probably my favorite ones), In the Home Stretch, Birches, The Hill Wife, The Bonfire, and Snow (my second favorite). Do I see another pattern here with the winter? Yes, I do love winter. And snow.

I give Mountain Interval 5 out of 5 stars.

Life After Life

Life After Life by Kate Atkinson    560 pages

Kate Atkinson’s novel is tricky. In this novel, with death not an ending but a beginning, it’s hard to know what is reality. The story opens in November 1930. The main protagonist, Ursula, kills Adolph Hitler for an unknown reason. Then the novel reverts to a cold, snowy, January night in 1910. Sylvie Todd is giving birth; the doctor does not arrive before the baby makes its appearance. However, the baby girl dies, strangled by the umbilical cord. In the next chapter, taking place on the same night and almost under the same circumstances, the results are very different. The doctor is able to make it through the snow and the baby, named Ursula, does not die.

Reincarnations, like Ursula’s birth, that are the crux of Atkinson’s novel and these types of episodes appear over and over although not in a linear structure. The novel moves over the course of the early 20^th century. Most of the story takes places between 1910 and 1947, with one chapter stretching to 1967.

At times the plot was difficult to understand. Just about the time I got into a linear stretch, the time moved again. I felt as if I was reading basically a linear plot that continually moved forward, yet had room for the “what if’s?” of  life.

There was one chapter where Ursula is best friends with Eva Braun, is married and has a child. That seemed to come from nowhere and was, for me, quite confusing.

By the time I was turned the last page, I had gotten to know these characters very, very well, perhaps more so than if Life After Life was a traditional love. It was starting to get a little old about two-thirds through the 560 pages, which I why I’m giving Life After Life 4 out of 5 stars. However, I do think this is a book that can be read over and over and over. As a person moves through his or her life, like Ursula, a new reading, I think, will create even newer worlds.

Hungerfield

Hungerfield and Other Poems by Robinson Jeffers, 115 pages

The title poem centers around the character of Hungerfield, an impetuous brawler and ex-soldier who shares a home with his wife, young son, ailing mother, and brother.  When his mother is on her deathbed, Hungerfield grapples with Death until the reaper flees, but the family soon learns to mourn the act.  This is followed by a poetic dramatic adaptation of Euripides' Hippolytus, retitled The Cretan Woman.  A set of shorter - but not necessarily lesser - poems round out the collection.

Throughout, Jeffers is haunted by death, but the specter is understood and accepted as a part of nature which cannot be evaded without consequences.  Indeed, the author seems to find it easier to accept death than its

     ... sister named Life, an opulent treacherous woman,

     Blonde and a harlot, a great promiser,
          and very cruel too.

His poetry is full of vivid descriptions of nature,

     ... the enormous unhuman beauty of things; rock, sea and stars, fool-proof and permanent,

which Jeffers loves rather more than he loves human beings, though

     Humanity has its lesser beauty, impure and painful; we have to harden our hearts to bear it.

Much of his poetry mocks at man and his illusions of self-importance, his pretence of mastery.  As The Cretan Woman prophetically concludes

     In future days men will become so powerful

     That they seem to control the heavens and the earth,

     They seem to understand the stars and all science -

     Let them beware.  Something is lurking hidden.

     There is always a knife in the flowers.  There is always a lion just beyond the firelight.

Grunt: The Curious Science of Humans at War

Grunt: The Curious Science of Humans at War

by Mary Roach.  288 pages.

If you're familiar with Mary Roach, you know that she's never afraid to ask the questions that you might think of, but wouldn't dare ask.  She's not afraid to explore the icky, sticky (or worse) and gives you a ton of information in a book that's as readable as page-turning fiction.   Well, that's at least my take on Mary Roach; I'm a big fan,

In this newest book, Roach explores the science of "keeping human beings intact, awake, sane, uninfected, and uninfested in the bizarre and extreme circumstances of war."  So, there are chapters on uniform materials and design, noise and hearing damage, how combat medics train for the stresses they encounters, and . . . poop.   Seems like just about every book by Mary Roach has at least one mention of poop.  But seriously, the way that she writes, it's not gross.  Maybe a little gross.  But pretty interesting, too.  

I was, as I expected I would be, surprised by how much I learned. The author really asks some interesting questions of people, and while I'm sure they are sometimes surprised by what she asks, I'm glad that she asks --- because sometimes, I wonder about things but either wouldn't know who to ask, or would feel like it's an impolite question.  After reading this book, I have learned much more about military procedures and what people in the military face, which is both enlightening and sobering.  

Lamb's Supper

The Lamb's Supper: The Mass as Heaven on Earth by Scott Hahn, 163 pages

The Lamb's Supper is a book-length explication of the Divine Liturgy as the marriage feast of heaven and earth, the divinely given means by which the reconciliation between God and man is effected and the Church on earth drawn together and upraised into unity with the whole communion of saints into the inner life of God.  Hahn devotes much of the text to an examination of the book of Revelation, which he claims cannot be properly understood outside of a liturgical context.  In the process, he attempts to rescue the Apocalypse from the modern tendency to view it as a secret code of future predictions and restore its meaning as an unveiling of present and eternal spiritual realities, while reinvigorating the appreciation of the liturgy by reemphasizing its eschatological aspects.

As a writer, Hahn manages to be consistently interesting without compromising intellectually.  The greatest flaw about the book is its short length - Hahn could no doubt elaborate considerably on some of the points he makes, and it would be a pleasure to listen to him do so.

Shadow and Claw

Shadow and Claw by Gene Wolfe, 413 pages

Shadow and Claw is an omnibus edition collecting the first two volumes of Wolfe's Book of the New Sun series - The Shadow of the Torturer and The Claw of the Conciliator.  They are ostensibly manuscripts from the far future authored by one Severian, a journeyman of the Torturers' Guild disgraced after allowing a victim to kill herself before the prescribed torture was complete.  Exiled into a world he knows hardly better than we do, Severian comes into the possession of a gem called "The Claw of the Conciliator" with miraculous but unpredictable powers, which may or may not be tied to the fading of the Old Sun and the prophesied coming of the New.

Not only does Wolfe manage to create memorable characters, he creates characters who are capable of surprising the reader without seeming to be cheating.  Indeed, throughout the entire book Wolfe seems to be playing an elaborate game with the expectations of his readers.  The Book of the New Sun can be read and enjoyed as a combination of science fiction and fantasy in the tradition of Jack Vance, but it also contains an invitation to put together the pieces of a larger puzzle, the pieces of which have the ambiguous borders of memories, dreams, and symbols.

Magruder's Curiosity Cabinet

Magruder's Curiosity Cabinet by H.P. Wood.  368 pages.

In 1904 New York City, Coney Island's newest amusement park, Dreamland, has just opened.  Kitty Hayward and her mother arrive by steamer from South Africa, but Kitty's mother suddenly takes ill. Their hotel doctor sends Kitty across town to get medicine, but when she returns, her mother has disappeared and Kitty is forced out of the hotel.  Alone and wandering the boardwalk, Kitty meets some of the members of Magruder's Curiosity Cabinet.  These people, who call themselves Unusuals, take Kitty under their wing and try to help her figure out what happened to her mother.  However, at the same time, something awful is starting to spread through Coney Island, placing everyone under quarantine.  Soon, the Unusuals discover that helping Kitty is the least of their problems, and that the most important thing now is survival.

This is an interesting combination of real history, some real history from other places added in, and a mix of characters who feel like they could have been pulled straight from history, as well.  The author did a lot of research into Coney Island and the history of places like Magruder's and this is reflected in the story.  The author's notes at the end of the book are really interesting, and I appreciated how she explains how she took things from history and blended them together in this story.   Circuses, carnivals and amusement parks have long held a fascination for me, so I already had some knowledge about Dreamland and places like Magruder's (the link I've got here is to a great article about the history of Dreamland and includes photos and videos).   Wood includes real elements of Dreamland in her story, such as Midgetland, and some of the daily performances in the park.

Dreamland, however, is just the setting that brings together people who probably wouldn't have encountered each other otherwise.  And to me, it's the people, and how they come together to help each other, that really makes this a great story.  Sure, I find the setting and historical elements to be fascinating, but I found it was the characters who stuck out in my mind.  I appreciated that Wood wrote people in a realistic way, and developed those characters.   The focus also just solely on Kitty and her predicament; instead, you get a much fuller story of a number of different people.  These people are an unlikely group of friends who are thrown together out of circumstance, whether it's working at the Curiosity Cabinet, being a part of Dreamland, or a chance encounter.  The dynamics between them felt very real, as did the dynamics between these people and the people on the outside of Dreamland, who frequently viewed people such as those at Magruder's as "freaks."

One of the things I also want to mention is that the author doesn't shy away from realistic details of the illness that starts to sweep through Coney Island.  I won't say more than that, but I appreciated that this also felt very realistic.

This is a good story to pair with Alice Hoffman's book, The Museum of Extraordinary Things, which is also based on real places, people and events.

Leave Me

Leave Me by Gayle Forman.  352 pages.  Due out 9/13/16.  I read a galley.

Maribeth Klein is so busy with her job and taking care of her family that she doesn't even realize it when she suffers a heart attack.  Instead, she just keeps pushing through her day until she lands in the hospital and undergoes emergency surgery.  Afterwards, it becomes clear that she isn't going to be able to recuperate the way she needs to.  Her mother comes to take care of Maribeth and her family, but instead, just creates more havoc.  Maribeth's husband seems to expect that she'll be up on her feet and back to normal in a few days, and her children seem resentful that she needs rest.  So, Maribeth does the unthinkable: she packs a bag and walks out.  Once she is away from everyone she knows, and completely out of contact, Maribeth can focus on herself for once, and finally face up to some of her own secrets.

This is Forman's first book for adults, and I found it read just as smoothly and easily as her other books.  This book is character-driven, and touches on a number of different issues, including trust, jealousy, and facing up to not only fears, but facing up to the fact that expectations don't always match reality.   I thought it was interesting that there really isn't a straight plot line here.  There isn't an end goal, other than for Maribeth to understand how to come to terms with some of the choices that she has made.  The reader gets insight into Maribeth's life through the narrative and through flashbacks in the story, but it's hard to predict what's going to happen by the end of the story.  However, I think that may be part of the point of this story; it's not where you end up, but the journey that counts.

I think that for some readers, it may be hard to understand how Maribeth could walk out on her children.  However, I appreciate that Forman gives us a character who does just that, and who grapples with that decision, but who also focuses on getting back to herself, instead of just continuing to be miserable and going further into the rut that she's in.  While I didn't necessarily relate to the story on a personal level,  I found this to be a very readable story with realistic characters, and I liked the focus on family dynamics.

Cardinal Wyszynski

Cardinal Wyszynski: A Biography by Andrzej Micewski, translated by William and Katarzyna Brand, 463 pages

Stefan Wyszynski became Archbishop of Warsaw and Primate of Poland in 1948.  He remained in that position for 33 years, all of them spent under an aggressively atheist totalitarian dictatorship.  During that time, he lead the Church in Poland through his nine-year Great Novena of the Millennium (the first millennium of Polish Christianity, 966-1966) to the consecration of Poland to the Virgin Mary "to bring aid to the universal Church and the family of man."  Although he died in 1981, he survived long enough to see his junior colleague, the Archbishop of Cracow, elected Pope, and in many ways St John Paul II carried forward Wyszynski's program into the universal Church. 

The author describes his nearly 500 page book as merely a "sketch of his biography... intended only as initial research into his life."  A large portion of the text is taken up by paraphrases of the minutes of committee meetings - hardly the exciting, dramatic material one might hope for in a record of over three decades of resistance to tyranny.  Yet Micewski repeatedly makes the obvious comparison between Wyszynski and Cardinal Mindszenty of Hungary in order to contrast their approaches to Communist oppression, the former attempting to accommodate the authorities wherever possible without compromising core principles, while the latter refused to even speak of dialogue with his persecutors.  This starkly demonstrates Micewski's central theme, that Stefan Wyszynski not only had the courage to be a martyr, but also the wisdom to be a true pastor.

Defenders of the Unborn

Defenders of the Unborn: The Pro-Life Movement Before Roe v Wade by Daniel K Williams, 268 pages

The pro-life movement did not begin in 1973.  By the time of the Roe v Wade decision, pro-life organizations had been struggling to win the hearts and minds - and votes - of Americans for decades.  During that time the movement underwent many changes in its membership, leadership, organization, aims, and methods - beginning with small groups of concerned legal and medical professionals and growing steadily but painfully into a mass movement representing the full spectrum of American society.  The story of that growth and those changes is the subject of Defenders of the Unborn.

Among the developments Williams highlights as significant are the broadening of the pro-life movement from a primarily Catholic concern into a truly ecumenical endeavor.  To accomplish this, it was necessary to abandon a comprehensive natural law worldview and adopt narrower arguments based on human rights.  As a result of this change, political maneuvering by the major parties over the issue of abortion, and the growing presence of conservative evangelicals within the movement, the pro-life position became increasingly associated with the Republican party, and pro-life issues entangled with others on the political right.  The reality of this shift and the nature of its causes casts a new light not only on the past of pro-life advocacy, but its present and future as well.

Our Lady of Guadalupe

Our Lady of Guadalupe: The Origins and Sources of a Mexican National Symbol 1531-1797 by Stafford Poole, CM, 225 pages

According to the story believed by millions of devotees, over the course of three days in 1531 the Virgin Mary appeared to a Nahua native, St Juan Diego, on Tepeyac hill near Mexico City, the last time leaving a miraculous image of herself on his cloak, which still hangs in the shrine today.  In the traditional retelling, the apparition led to a wave of conversions among the native population, solidly establishing Catholicism in Mexico.  By the end of the eighteenth century, a revisionist account began to develop, questioning the historicity of the apparitions and identifying the Virgin of Guadalupe as an amalgam of Mary and a Mesoamerican earth goddess, providing the natives with an icon of maternal care and rebirth after the trauma of the Conquest.

Poole casts doubt over both of these narratives.  According to his research, the devotion to Our Lady of Guadalupe began in earnest not with the native population of Mexico, but with the creoles, and not in the sixteenth century, but in the seventeenth.  It was in the development of this tradition that Guadalupe became one of the chief symbols of Mexican identity.  Poole's command of the primary sources is strong, even if there is enough ambiguity in the early records to question his interpretations, and enough lacunae to cast doubts upon some of his conclusions.  What cannot be doubted, however, are Poole's integrity and learning, making his history an indispensable contribution to research into the origins and development of the Guadalupe devotion. 

April AND May Totals!

Congrats to Dennis M, who read the most books and pages and earned the most points in April and to Jen O who read the most books and pages in May!
Thanks for blogging!

April Stats:

Blogger	Books	Pages	Points
Dennis M	12	4,037	17
Krista	12	3,251	12
Jen O	6	1,758	6
Julie E-C	7	1,636	7
Jason S	2	1,191	2
Molly P	2	576	2
Steve J	1	350	1
TOTALS	43	12,799	47

May Stats:

Blogger	Books	Pages	Points
Jen O	15	4,955	15
Dennis M	13	3,330	16
Krista R	7	2,588	7
Jason S	5	1,608	5
Julie E-C	4	1,032	4
TOTALS	44	13,513	47

13 ways of looking at a fat girl

13 ways of looking at a fat girl by Mona Awad.  224 pages.

Lizzie has never liked the way she looks.  She dates guys online, but she's afraid to send a picture because she knows no one would want her if they could really see what she looks like.  So, she decides to knuckle down and lose weight.  She counts miles logged, pounds dropped, and grows up and gets think.  However, no matter how much she loses, will she ever see herself as anything other than a fat girl?

This is a book where you laugh at one moment and wince at the next.  The author uses the story to give us a portrait of a difficult young woman whose life is hijacked by her drive to conform to what she feels society demands.  While on the one hand, Lizzie disagrees with the cultural norms that tell women they have no value outside their physical appearance, she still struggles to make herself look the way she thinks she should look.  I didn't necessarily like Lizzie, but I found it interesting to read the story and see what happened to her.

Church of Spies

Church of Spies: The Pope's Secret War Against Hitler by Mark Riebling, 250 pages

Church of Spies is a history of the clandestine contacts between German anti-Nazi circles and the Vatican of Pope Pius XII, centering on the combative Munich lawyer Josef Mueller, nicknamed "Joey Ox", who worked as a go-between for Admiral Wilhelm Canaris, head of German Military Intelligence, and Church leaders in Germany and Rome.  Between Mueller's connection to Canaris and a circle of Jesuits working with General Ludwig Beck, the pope and his agents - dubbed the "Black Chapel" by the SS - were tied directly or indirectly to virtually every German resistance group, including Claus van Stauffenburg's conspiracy, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, and the White Rose.

There are some surprises in Riebling's book, especially how early the alliance between the Pope and the anti-Hitler plotters was forged - already during the Phoney War of 1939 contacts were established with the British government for a Vatican-brokered peace agreement in the event of Hitler's overthrow.  Unfortunately, the book is marred somewhat by Riebling's sensationalistic tendencies (Catholic Action is described as "a practice" used "to cultivate influence agents" and form "'front' groups"), a fault which is exacerbated by his sloppiness (he tells the story of the Scholls without even mentioning their comrade Christoph Probst, who was arrested and executed with them).  These flaws do not stop the book from being consistently interesting and intensely dramatic, but the book would have been superior if it had dealt less with the remarkable personal story of Mueller and more with the discussions within the resistance concerning the aftermath of a successful coup which, Riebling hints, laid the groundwork for post-war Germany and Europe.

Can a Princess be a Firefighter?

Can a Princess be a Firefighter? By Carole P. Roman with Illustrations by Mateya Arkova    36 pages

In this delightfully illustrated poem, two little girls, sisters I think, ask their Daddy (I think), “Can a princess be a firefighter?” The illustrations convince me that I’m right.

Daddy goes onto tell them that they can be anything they want, whenever they want. But the girls are worried they’d have to give up their fairy wings and if they would have to stop princessing. Daddy’s answer is what every little girl wants—and needs and should---hear.

Very inspirational for girls of all ages.

I give Can a Princess be a Firefighter? 5 out of 5 stars.

Catharsis

Catharsis by Noorilhuda    270 pages

I almost hate to admit it, but I read this entire book. Not because it was a great read, but because I was infatuated with one of the main characters. And it has great bones.

Basically this book is about a Daniel, a ten-year-old boy who is kidnapped. He’s quickly found by police with minimal effort. The story starts off at a frantic pace. That’s Fiction Writing 101: Drop your readers in the middle of the action. But this time it didn’t pay off.  Police officer Aurora Fox is brutal. Immediately she’s unlikeable, and one of the major flaws in the story is that the main protagonist has to have one redeeming quality, one thing that the readers can latch onto.

Aurora is aided by a local puppeteer who came to the police station to offer his help. He knew where Daniel was being held and who was behind it. He’s right, but that doesn’t make Aurora trust him. I found the puppeteer to be the character I was fascinated with. I had hoped to learn about this craft or see how he was able to empathize with Aurora and Daniel, but that never came to be. Instead, he turned into a creepy Norman Bates-esque character.

Part of the problem with this story is that English in not the author’s language and it shows in the choppy sentence structure and the badly placed backstories.

Another irritant is that smackdab in the middle of the book, the reader learns who kidnapped Daniel. 

After that revelation, the book is a mishmash irrelevant happenstances.

I give Catharsis 1 out of 5 stars.

Dodgers

  

Dodgers by Bill Beverly       304 pages

East is 15 years-old and lives/works in the inner city section of South Central Los Angeles called The Boxes, that’s about as poverty stricken as can be. He has seen more than most of us ever see in a lifetime. He’s in a gang; it’s works the midnight shift keeping watch over a drug den. Most nights, after work, he breaks into an office building’s basement and sleeps, undetected, under a box.

The gang’s leader, Fin, has a soft spot for East. However, a soft spot in a drug dealer is much different than soft spots in others.

The house is busted one night, but everyone gets way. Fin has a new job for East: kill a judge who is the key eyewitness in an upcoming trial. East, ready to be a man, steps up to the challenge. Following Fin’s orders, he climbs in a ratty van along with three others: Michael Wilson, oldest of the bunch; Walter, the fat kid, and Ty, East’s equally-hardened younger brother. East has never been outside of his neighborhood, and the trip is both frightening and exciting.

The quartet sets off for Wisconsin where the judge is hiding until the trial begins. Author Bill Beverly does an amazing job of making the reader feel as h/she is along for the ride. The trip takes about half of the story, but Beverly does an excellent job in keep the sentences fresh. Writing about driving halfway across the country and keeping it fresh, even with their side adventure, is a masterful feat. Tension rides high on each page.

The hit is completed, but there are complications. Complications that have a lasting, deep impact on East. I can’t give too much away, but East is at a crossroads. Does he go back to LA and live with the consequences or does he stay in the Midwest and start over?

East winds up in Iowa, at a paintball range, sleeping in the storage room under a box. Perry, the range’s owner, becomes somewhat of a father figure to the young man. When East’s past resurfaces, it’s up to him to determine his fate.

I think this was an amazing book. I don’t often care to read book about gangs and violence, but this one captured my attention from the opening paragraph. Beverly shows a lot of empathy toward East, who in many, many ways reminded me of Richard Wright’s Bigger Thomas. Beverly writes with such first-hand knowledge of an African-American teen, I was truly surprised to discover that he is a white dude. Tagged as a young adult novel, Dodgers deftly crosses the line into adult fiction.

I give Dodgers 5 out of 5 stars. I received this book from Blogging for Books in exchange for this review.

Dream of Gerontius

The Dream of Gerontius by Bl John Henry Newman, 94 pages

Bl John Henry Newman wrote the long narrative poem The Dream of Gerontius in 1865.  Combining influences from the Roman liturgy to Cicero's Somnium Scipionis, the story follows Gerontius (an "old man") from his deathbed into the afterlife, where he is greeted by his guardian angel and conducted through the celestial spheres to be presented before the throne of God.  Newman, living in a time when churchmen were expected to be literary men, still unites in a unique way psychological perspicuity, theological wisdom, aesthetic judgement, and a command of the English language.  It is not difficult to agree with Dr Alexander Whyte, "It is a poem that every man should have by heart who has it before him to die."

The Dream of Gerontius was magnificently set to music by Edward Elgar in 1900.  The 1916 edition includes darkly dramatic full page illustrations by Stella Langdale and an extended introduction by Gordon Tidy.