Trashed

Trashed by Derf Backderf; 244 pages

I made the mistake of using Trashed as my lunch break reading this week.  The fact-laden, lightly-plotted story made it a good choice for reading in small chunks, but the subject matter was less than ideal for reading at mealtime.  Exploding garbage bags.  Maggots.  A disgusting substance known to sanitation workers as "garbage soup".  YUCK.

As our protagonist, J.B., points out -- most people don't give much thought to what happens to their garbage after it goes out on the curb or into the alley.  I like to think that I've given the matter some thought from time to time, but nothing has driven home the point more soundly than Trashed.  We generate A LOT of garbage and a lot of energy goes into collecting and storing that garbage.  Recommended for anybody wondering about the nitty-gritty details of trash collection.  Not recommended for mealtime reading.

Alphabet Series O to V

Letters O, P, Q, R, S,T, U, and V by Sue Grafton, eight books totaling 3100 pages

This is the continuation of Sue Grafton’s Alphabet series which I previously blogged about.

The basic premise of the stories remained unchanged. Each book is still a separate case from Kinsey’s files from being a private investigator. As you would suspect, these books are all mysteries, and lean more towards cozy than hard boiled. These letters however, marked a change in the writing style from Grafton. Whereas the first batch of novels all followed the story line solely from Kinsey’s point of view, these not only added other points of view, but also jumps in time. Thankfully Grafton tends to do most of these cuts by chapter, which aids the reader in following along. Though I must admit the first time we had a hop back in time it took me a minute to figure out what was going on.

As you can tell from my continued reading and blogging about this series, I have enjoyed it. I would not say it is my favorite series, or even my favorite mystery series, but it holds up well. Despite having nearly the same plot for every book, Kinsey investigates something, Grafton still manages to keep each book unique enough to make it worth reading. And while I would certainly lobby for you to start with A is for Alibi, each book can stand up perfectly fine by itself. Unfortunately for me I have nearly caught up to Grafton who only recently released X.

New 52's Suicide Squad Vol 1-5

Suicide Squad Comics Vol 1-5 by assorted artists, five books totaling 848 pages

After seeing all of the trailers promoting this movie, I went in search of the comic that started it all, or at least the next best thing. The only Suicide Squad comics I found are not from the originals, but the rebooted New 52 DC universe. (Comic readers know what I mean). In Suicide Squad a shadowy government organization, through the use of force and threats are using supervillains to fight worse evils. The cast varies from the well-known Harley Quinn and Deadshot to somewhat lesser villains like Yo-yo and Captain Boomerang.

Personally I had never read the original series, but I did enjoy reading the reboot. I think the characters were accurate and, despite some flaws, acted as expected when you force a bunch of villains to work together. There was constant bickering, fights and plots to kill each other and their employer. I am not a fan of rebooting an entire comic universe, like DC does here, but for the most part it seems to be working, though the Joker gets a hard rap.

Legal Drug Omnibus

Legal Drug Omnibus by CLAMP, 560 pages

The Legal Drug manga follows the lives of Kazahaya and Rijuo, both employees at a rather strange drug store. To help make ends meet, and in favor to the shop owner, they both take unusual side jobs. Jobs that push them and their fledgling super natural powers to the limits.

So I actually read this entire omnibus online though SLPL’s subscription to Hoopla. In all honesty I started reading Legal Drug just to test out Hoopla's comic viewer, and then got hooked by the weird story and the unique characters. The story line though is somewhat silly and at times disoriented, but everything was slowly coming together by the end of this tome. I did not see a second omnibus when I read this book, but it is quite obvious the story does not end here. In fact after a little research, I found some of these same characters reappear in other manga.

Truth Always Kills

Truth Always Kills by Rick Ollerman   256 pages

St. Pete, Florida, homicide detective Jeff Prentiss’ life is falling apart. His wife, Lori, has just left him and taken their daughter, Roxy. He’s exactly sure why, but he believes it has to do with the recent release of her jailbird ex, Roy Lee Evans.

As he is wallowing in his grief, he is called to the beach, where a body has been discovered, an apparent suicide. The body belongs to the King of Cats, Randy Shawcross. It took me about a fourth of the book before I truly understood that Shawcross was a cat burglar, which seems so odd.  Across the bay in Tampa, a politician is also murdered.

Prentiss is up to his eyeballs in trouble back in the squad room. But now he must circumvent his superiors as he investigates the link between the two violent deaths.

Truth Always Kills is a typical PI book. I found that it lacked tension for me. I was never truly pulled in. Well, wait, there is that one scene that did have me gasping, but I cannot divulge any of it here as it would be a huge spoiler. Truth Always Kills is an okay read, which is why I’m giving it 3 out of 5 stars, but it’s not a memorable read…nor is Prentiss and his supporting cast.  

Still Here

Still Here by Lara Vapnyar   320 pages

In her seventh novel, author Lara Vapynyar deals with the immigrant experience and identity, specifically a person’s online identity after his or her demise.

The novel centers around four Russian immigrants, friends since their school days. Now in their mid-40s, the four have come to the crossroads that often plague the lives of the middle-aged. The friends---Vica, Vadik, Sergey and Regina---all live in New York City.

Sergey and Vica are married and have a son, Eric. Sergey is constantly being laid off from his job as a financial analyst. Vica works as a medical technician at a local cancer treatment center. Just after the story opens, the couple split. Sergey goes to stay with Vadik and decides to devote all his time to developing an app that he calls “Virtual Grave.” The idea is that the app will peruse a person’s emails, text, voice mails, etc. to continue to recreate his or her online presence after death.

Vadik  is a programmer and is single. He lives the bachelor life, dating woman after woman. I thought he was the lesser drawn of the characters. He had been in love with Rachel, but there were two Rachel’s in Vadik’s life, referred to as Rachel 1 and Rachel 2. I found that utterly confusing.

Then there is Regina. A famous literary translator back in Russia, she spends her days grieving over her lost career and her mother. She’s marred to Bob, a wealthy American. Readers never get to see Bob except in passing and when he shows up, it is sometimes confusing because I always had trouble remembering who he was.

The book seems less to do with app and how it would than it does the four trying to navigate the daily struggle of life. I also had trouble in remembering who Vica and Vadik were…I kept getting them confused.

The story didn’t grab me. I plodded along with, much like the characters do in their lives. The book was okay, but I’ve read better books that deal with the same subject (virtual life after death) that were much better. I did like all the literary references. I give Still Here 3 out of 5 stars.

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

Beyond Politics

Beyond Politics by Christopher Dawson, 136 pages

In Beyond Politics, renowned cultural historian Dawson diagnoses the crisis of his time (the book was published in 1939) as fundamentally cultural rather than political in nature.  In his view, the power of the ideologies which were preparing to plunge the world into war was precisely their nature as primarily cultural and spiritual movements - a challenge that liberal democracy, with its division between private and public spheres, was wholly unprepared to meet.  Indeed, any essentially political effort to face these ideologies on their own ground must itself succumb to the totalitarian temptation.  The maintenance of freedom is therefore dependent on the activity of independent organizations to cultivate community.

The Most Dangerous Place on Earth

The Most Dangerous Place on Earth by Lindsey Lee Johnson.268 pages,    due out 1/13/17 (I read a galley)

This story centers on a small, wealthy community in California, where new teacher Molly Nicoll has just joined the staff at the high school.  Molly is intrigued by some of her students, and as she soon discovers, there is more to some of them than meets the eye.

The book is told through multiple viewpoints, so while you get Molly's view of things, you also see the viewpoints of several of the students.  The book actually begins in middle school, where several students are involved in the bullying of a student which has tragic consequences.  When Molly Nicoll meets these students, their relationships with each other have changed from middle school, although they have some connections.  I found their stories compelling, even if I didn't necessarily like all of the characters.  The author has an evocative writing style, so it was easy to imagine these teens, and what their lives were like.  The author also does a great job of bringing their stories to life, and making it clear that for all of them, they live their lives in a balance between the real and the online world, where the smallest decisions can have large consequences.

I felt Calista was one of the most compelling characters.  She is directly involved with the tragedy in middle school, and as a result of that event, changes drastically.  She's introspective, which makes her perspectives in the story especially interesting.  She's mature, and seems to observe many of her friends at a bit of a distance.  Her viewpoint makes the story as a whole compelling, as she seems to take in a larger view of things than some of her classmates, who focus more on their immediate situations.

In No Strange Land

In No Strange Land: The Embodied Mysticism of Saint Philip Neri by Jonathan Robinson of the Oratory, 274 pages

In No Strange Land is not quite a biography, although it has biographical elements, and Robinson has clearly put a great deal of thought and study into his understanding of St Philip Neri's life and work.  Robinson's main goal, however, is to examine the ways in which mysticism is inevitably embodied within a religious context, and that it cannot be abstracted outside of that context without serious deformation.  This presents a direct challenge to the school of thought which is epitomized by William James' The Varieties of Religious Experience.

While Robinson's study of mysticism is a solid contribution to an unfortunately underdeveloped field, it is the biographical elements of his book that will interest most readers.  St Philip Neri lived in a time of crisis and upheaval in the Church and in the world, and pursued his own unique vocation of reform and renewal, crafting a work that has reverberated down the centuries.  Sadly, he still has not received a great biographical study, but Robinson, like Bl John Henry Newman before him, provides fragments towards one.

Epoch and Artist

Epoch and Artist: Selected Writings by David Jones, 307 pages

Epoch and Artist is a selection of essays written by David Jones between 1937 and 1958, primarily on the subject of art, both visual and poetic.  The strong theme uniting the essays (and indeed, Jones' work as a whole) is the connection between the universality of art and the particularity of the artist.  For Jones, the vocation of the artist is that of redeeming the present, making of here and now but for eternity.  He illustrates his basic understanding with examples stretching from the distinctively British expression of universal Christianity in The Dream of the Rood to Joyce's use of his native Dublin.

Readers who have struggled through In Parenthesis or The Anathemata will be frustrated to discover that Jones is capable of writing prose nearly as dense and opaque as his poetry, but gratified to learn it is also nearly as rewarding.

The Other Einstein

The Other Einstein by Marie Benedict.  304 pages.  due out October - title is on order

So you think you know Albert Einstein (maybe), but do you know anything about his first wife?  You may have never heard of Mileva Maric, but she was a physicist in her own right, and a tremendous influence on Einstein.  In fact, it may be that Mileva worked with Einstein on three fundamental papers that were published in 1905 (published under his name only) that eventually led to Albert Einstein receiving the Nobel Prize in 1921.

In 1896, Mileva was the only woman studying physics at an elite school in Zurich.  While there, she met Albert, and while she did finish the physics program there, she started a relationship with Einstein which resulted in a child out of wedlock.  They did eventually marry, but Mileva put her own career to the side to support Albert.

In this book, Benedict, who has done research on Mileva Maric, explores the story of this woman who was a brilliant physicist in her own right, and whose gifts fell into the shadows once she married Albert Einstein. The author says, in afterword, that some readers "may be curious as to how precisely how much of the book is truth and how much is speculation.  Whenever possible, in the overarching arc of the story - the dates, the places, the people - I attempted to stay as close to the facts as possible, taking necessary liberties for fictional purposes."  She invites readers to learn more about Maric, and look at the collection of papers and letters about Albert and Mileva here (Princeton site).

I found the book an enjoyable read, although a frustrating one; what happened to Mileva Maric, unfortunately, is not unusual.  It was not uncommon for women to put the desires of their husbands for a "dutiful wife" above any of their own ambition, and it also was not uncommon for the few women who dared to study at such a level to be harassed by their male instructors and fellow students.  I don't know much about Albert Einstein on a personal level, but this book certainly points out some very unlikable characteristics.   I felt the author did a nice job with this historical fiction, bringing Mileva to life, and also giving context and perspective to now only Mileva's life and the decisions that she made, but also to understanding her decisions in her relationship with Einstein.. The actual final conflict between Mileva and Albert comes somewhat late in the story, which was a little frustrating; I would have enjoyed it if the author had brought this into the story a bit earlier and then given a bit of Mileva's story post-Einstein.  However, overall, this was an interesting book, and has made me want to learn more about Mileva Maric.

I did find more sites about Mileva Maric, including this one from the Tesla Memorial Society of New York.

Peasant of the Garonne

The Peasant of the Garonne: An Old Layman Questions Himself about the Present Time by Jacques Maritain, translated by Michael Cuddihy and Elizabeth Hughes, 277 pages

This is Maritain's final testament, written from his retirement among the Little Brothers of Jesus in Toulouse, along the banks of the Garonne.  It is, however, more of a look ahead than a look back.  In the wake of the Second Vatican Council, Maritain chose "to offer known or unknown friends an opportunity... to hear some imprudent talker stammer out truths which are not welcome."

The first of those truths concerns the relationship between the Church and the world, a central theme of the Council.  Maritain distinguishes the different senses in which Scripture and Tradition speak of the world, criticizing those who would entirely reject the world as fundamentally wicked, but more pressingly warning against embracing the world uncritically, substituting its natural ends for the supernatural ends of the Church.  He moves on to a criticism of modern philosophy, which he maintains is better described as ideosophy, divorced from reality most powerfully experienced in the intuition of being.  This leads naturally to a consideration of the post-conciliar state of Thomism, about which Maritain proves remarkably sanguine, regarding the particular virtues of St Thomas Aquinas and his thought as necessary for the development of understanding, however infrequently his disciples have shared those virtues.  For the celebrated worker in the groves of academe now a humble peasant in a house of prayer, the only hope - for Thomism, philosophy, the Church, and the world - is in the activity of a clerisy of small groups and individuals who possess and share a sense of the love of God deepened through lives devoted to contemplation, in the cloister but especially outside.

1971 - Never a Dull Moment

1971: Never a Dull Moment -- the Year that Rock Exploded by David Hepworth. 320 pages.

David Hepworth gives us a tour of major moments in music in 1971.  Friday, New Year's Day, 1971, the Beatles had officially broken up.  Within the next year, people would see the rise of bands like Led Zeppelin and The Who, among others.  Hepworth shows how musicians came together that year, sometimes working with each other, to start a musical era that lasted well beyond what anyone would have expected.

This was an interesting book, although I wouldn't say it was a riveting read.  Some parts were interesting, especially if I knew the musician the author was writing about.  And, the author does have a flair for a bit of snark here and there.  He's definitely got opinions about the music and the musicians, and that made the book entertaining.

Example, p. 219 "These patchouli plutocrats seemed a new type of human being.  They were immensely wealthy but required by their profession to conduct themselves like vagabonds... The heightened sensitivity everyone applauded in their songs was often achieved at the expense of their own personal relationships, where they moved decisively to dispense with any romantic relationship that was in danger of subtracting more than it was adding."

It's an interesting book, even if I felt like the author veered off topic a few times.  If nothing else, he calls attention to some of the more important songs and music to come out of that year (and inspire me to look through the library's catalog for some of the albums he lists in the book).

Apostles of Reason

Apostles of Reason: The Crisis of Authority in American Evangelicalism by Molly Worthen, 265 pages

American Evangelicalism, an amorphous movement that is notoriously difficult to define, has long struggled with many tensions, few as deep-seated as that between the high value evangelicals place on education and their distrust of secular learning.  Apostles of Reason is an attempt to follow the intellectual and anti-intellectual currents in evangelicalism from its emergence out of the fundamentalist movement of the early 20th century.  Indeed, according to Worthen's account, the struggles over intellectualism are the direct product of the fundamentalist-modernist battles, which left evangelicalism with a lack of strong authority and a tradition of fragmentation over doctrinal issues, and as a result committed to an interpretation of sola scriptura which necessitated a strong defense of biblical inerrancy.

Unfortunately, Apostles of Reason is hopelessly muddled.  While there can be no doubt as to the breadth or depth of Worthen's knowledge on the subject, she is unable to bring the pieces together to form a coherent picture.  She jumps back and forth between decades in a manner which makes it very difficult to discern developments or patterns.  Long digressions into evangelical political activism on both the left and right, while serving the laudable purpose of demonstrating the diversity of evangelicalism, do not seem to contribute much to the primary theme of the book.  Although Worthen clearly makes an effort to be fair to all parties, problems repeatedly arise as she habitually slips into the cliches of elite journalism.  The opponents of conservatives are generally described as moderates rather than liberals or progressives, while conservative groups are tagged as "shadowy" and conservative activists as "infiltrators".  In the same vein, Worthen generally tends to conflate intellectualism and progressivism, a quirk that occasionally crosses over into silliness - at one point she seems to imply that intellectual seriousness is served by employing an art teacher whose work involves plaster casts of his wife's genitalia.

Therein lies the central paradox, which Worthen seems to at least suspect.  Evangelicals are upbraided for their rejection of reason due to their rejection of the elite intellectual consensus, a consensus which itself rejects reason.  They are faulted for their resistance to dialogue with opposing viewpoints by a modern mindset utterly uninterested in meaningful engagement with opposing viewpoints.  For evangelicalism, far from being a reactionary throwback to a premodern era, is itself a thoroughly modern phenomenon.

Christian Crisis

Christian Crisis by Michael de la Bedoyere, 210 pages

Surveying the world in the dark year of 1940, Catholic journalist de la Bedoyere chose to explore the truth and meaning of the cliche that the solution to the world's ills could be found in Christianity.  He begins with the fundamental truth that man is a moral animal - that is, that all human beings seek the good.  It is the identification of the good that is at issue in the struggles between men and nations.  In these conflicts, Christianity has yielded its place as the major spiritual force in Europe to "Dawnism", the progressive drive expressed in distinct yet complementary ways by British laissez faire capitalism and the demands for egalitarian utopia and national renewal emerging out of the French Revolution, inspiring the mass movements of Socialism and Nationalism.  Unfortunately, in de la Bedoyere's view, the response of Catholics to the discontinuity this shift introduced between the sacred and the secular spheres has generally been either to retreat into an entirely ecclesiastical understanding which wholly denies the importance of the secular or to prioritize the secular and restrict the sacred sphere to what happens inside a church.

For de la Bedoyere, these changes are self-destructive, both for secular society and for the Church.  The values central to Dawnism and its offspring are Christian values, but removed from their Christian context and fetishized.  This being so, what the Church offers society is a framework into which these values are integrated and within which their competing claims can be assessed, without which they become warring absolutes and end in tyranny, as with fascism and communism.  In order to carry out this task, however, the Church requires an educated and energized laity aware of the dignity of both the secular and the sacred.

The Book that Matters Most

The Book That Matters Most by Ann Hood.  348 pages.

Ava joins a book group, a bit out of desperation.  Her marriage of 25 years has fallen apart and her two grown children and pursuing their own lives, away from her.  Joining her friend's book group, she hopes to meet some new people, and find a bit of purpose.  This year, the group's goal is for each member to present the book that matters most to them.  Ava chooses a book from her childhood, which helped her through a traumatic time.
This story alternates perspectives between Ava and her daughter, Maggie, who is supposed to be studying in Florence, Italy, but who has decided to go to Paris, instead.  Caught in a destructive relationship, Maggie seems to be going from bad to worse.  At the same time, Ava is struggling with her own challenges.  However, Ava's mission to find the author of the book she chooses takes her on a journey that may offer her the chance to remake her life.

I enjoyed this book, although at times, I found one of the characters to be frustrating (that would be Maggie, who makes bad choice after bad choice, like she is helpless to do anything else).   I found the idea of the book group's decision to have people choose the book that matters most to be intriguing.  For a book group, it's a good way to make sure that people read a variety of books, but it also allows people to get to know each other a bit differently than they might otherwise.

I liked reading about Ava's journey, and even though I found Maggie's story to be extremely frustrating (and, at times, disturbing), I enjoyed the story.  I was intrigued by Ava's quest to find the author of the book she chose, and also found myself doing a bit of reflection.  How do you choose a book that matters most?  If you choose one, do you really want to explain why you chose it?  And what makes a book matter most?  Definitely an interesting idea, and a good book.

The Real Liddy James

The Real Liddy James by Anne-Marie Casey.  336 pages

Liddy James is one of New York's top divorce attorneys, a bestselling author and mother of two. What's her secret to having it all?  "I don't do guilt!"  Her ex-husband, however, isn't quite as happy.  He has a new partner, Rose, but the two of them are entangled with Liddy, seeing as he and Liddy share custody of one of their children. Their system seems to be working...however, when Rose announces she is pregnant and Liddy starts to have problem upon problem of her own, it becomes clear that Liddy's days as a guilt-free woman may be over.

I wanted to like this book more than I did.  The story could have been more interesting, but I found the characters to be uninspiring.  Overall, they seemed to take each other so much for granted that I found them unsympathetic.  Rose seems pretty nice, but when I got to the part where she was dumbstruck upon realizing that Liddy has been basically paying for all of Rose and Peter's bills (and all of the children's schooling), I didn't quite like her very much. I didn't really care for Liddy, and I also didn't care too much about what happened to her.  I stuck with the story, but by the end, was happy to move on to my next book.

The summary from the publisher says "Fun, fearless, and full of heart, The Real Liddy James takes a fresh look at the balancing act every family performs."  I didn't find this book fun, and while I appreciated some of the storyline, I didn't think this reflected the usual balancing act that families deal with.  Maybe it's just me, but I don't know anyone like Liddy, who relies on her ex-husband and her ex-husband's partner, to take care of most of her parenting responsibilities and seems to blithely just go through life without accepting any real responsibilities.  I believe there are readers who will enjoy this book; unfortunately, it's not the book for me.

The Dime Museum Murders

  

The Dime Museum Murders: A Harry Houdini Mystery (Book 1 of 3) by Daniel Stashower   256 pages

I loved the way this story opened: It’s Halloween. Every year reporters track down the now forty-nine-year-old Dash Hardeen, younger brother of Erich Weiss, more commonly known as Harry Houdini, to interview him about his brother. Harry is already dead. Dash loves the attention that the night and the new reporters bring. It makes him feel close to Harry again.

The reporter, Jack Matthews, asks his questions; the same ones that all other reporters before him have asked, especially on Halloween. Matthews picks up a heavy gold medallion and asked Dash about it. Dash tells him that it is “a memento from the very first time that Harry Houdini ever died.” Now he really has Matthews’ attention, and Matthews wants to hear more. It’s a long story, Dash tells him, and then real story begins.

It’s 1897 in New York. Harry is still trying to make it. He has small name recognition but isn’t yet the superstar he is to become. To make ends meet, Harry and his beloved wife, Bess, are working the dime museum, or a ten-in-one. The patron pays a dime and gets to see ten acts, each act lasting three minutes.

Across the city, toy tycoon Branford Wintour is murdered in a locked room. The police call on Harry to help them solve the case. At least that’s what Harry believes. What the police really want is or Harry to identify a priceless and, some thought forgotten, automation. Although the police discourage the brothers, they continue to investigate.

The novel is well written. Not the page-turner I was hoping for, but it has a nice steady pace. Author Stashower does an excellent job in showing what an ego-manic, jerk of a personality that Houdini was. Dash is the more, much, much, much more likable character. I enjoyed reading about the magic and how hard Harry worked at becoming Houdini. I was also fascinated by the automations and the toy story that the brothers’ mentors ran.

There is a major flaw with this book: The title indicates that the murders take place where Harry and Bess perform. They don’t.  

I give The Dime Museum Murders: A Harry Houdini Mystery (Book 1 of 3) 3 out of 5 stars.

Slaughterhouse: Chicago's Union Stock Yard and the World It Made

Slaughterhouse: Chicago's Union Stock Yard and the World It Made by Dominic Pacyga.  256 pages.

Yes, this is just what it says: a nonfiction book about the Chicago slaughterhouses and industry.  Maybe you don't think that would make for an interesting book, but I have an interest in Chicago history (and am from the Chicago area), and I'm also a fan of this author's work, so when I saw he had a new book out, I jumped at a chance to read it.

Pacyga has written several books on the history of Chicago and currently a professor at Columbia College in Chicago.  It's the 150th anniversary of the opening of the Chicago stockyards, so the book is timely.  Pacyga focuses on the Union Stock Yard, but also chronicles the packing industry in relation to the rest of what was happening in not only Chicago, but the outside world.  When the Union Stock Yard opened on Christmas Day in 1865, it was a must-see tourist attraction.  Innovations made here affected other industries, and also affected Chicago as a whole.  " At their height, the kill floors employed 50,000 workers and processed six hundred animals an hour, an astonishing spectacle of industrialized death."

Pacyga covers the start of the stock yards, chronicles the rise and fall of the industry, but also writes about how the yards shaped the surrounding neighborhoods.  He goes into detail about the Union Stock Yard's political and economic power, and how it affected labor relations.  Admittedly, a few times, I felt like I was getting a little overloaded with facts, especially when in the sections that focused on labor relations.  Admittedly, I would have liked a little more of the human factor, and more stories from people who worked in the yards.  However, overall, I enjoyed this book and wouldn't mind adding it to my personal collection of Chicago history books.

In case you think Pacyga only looks to the past, he also writes about the current-day state of the stockyard properties, which are now home to some of Chicago's most successful green agriculture companies.   If your only exposure to the packing industry is The Jungle by Upton Sinclair (which is mentioned in this book), and you're curious and want to know more, this might be the book you're looking for.

Transport to Summer

Transport to Summer by Wallace Stevens, from The Collected Poems of Wallace Stevens, 123 pages

Once again Stevens,

     ...the total man of glubbal glub

turns out a superb collection of intriguing, perplexing, delightful poetry.  At times he seemingly despairs of his work...

     This structure of ideas, these ghostly sequences

     Of the mind, result only in disaster.  It follows,

     Casual poet, that to add your own disorder to
          disaster

     Makes more of it...

At others he has complete confidence...

     This is the thesis scrivened in delight,

     The reverberating psalm, the right chorale.

His poetry sparkles with

     Happy fecundity, flor-abundant force

This is especially evident in his use of color - red, yellow, blue, violet form a secret language.

     We ought not to be awake.  It is from this

     That a bright red woman will be rising

     

     And, standing in violent golds, will brush her hair.

     She will speak thoughtfully the words of a line.

     She will think about them not quite able to sing.

     Besides, when the sky is so blue, things sing themselves...

The result is like a kaleidoscopic stained glass window, with a hidden glow within the World, and especially within people, for unlike Jeffers he is not interested in Nature as something over and against humanity but with Being under and for us.

     It is possible, possible, possible.  It must

     Be possible.  It must be in that time

     The real will from its crude compoundings come,

     

     Seeming, at first, a breast disgorged, unlike,

     Warmed by a desperate milk.  To find the real,

     To be stripped of every fiction except one...

Perdido Street Station

Perdido Street Station by China Mieville.  623 pages.

I try not to do this, but this time, I'm using the Goodreads summary of this book:  "Beneath the towering bleached ribs of a dead, ancient beast lies the city of New Crobuzon, where the unsavory deal is stranger to no one--not even to Isaac, a gifted and eccentric scientist who has spent a lifetime quietly carrying out his unique research. But when a half-bird, half-human creature known as the Garuda comes to him from afar, Isaac is faced with challenges he has never before encountered. Though the Garuda's request is scientifically daunting, Isaac is sparked by his own curiosity and an uncanny reverence for this curious stranger. Soon an eerie metamorphosis will occur that will permeate every fiber of New Crobuzon--and not even the Ambassador of Hell will challenge the malignant terror it evokes."

Honestly, I don't know if I could summarize what this book is about, because it's about so many things: love, and science, and horror and desperation, and (perhaps) hope.  You can look at the summary above and think, "A Garuda?  What's that?"  The garuda isn't the only creature you're meet here.  New Crobuzon is a city of many races and species, including Khepri, Cactacae, humans, and many, many others.

This is one of my favorite books, and one that I have re-read many times.  I have found that when I talk to people about China Mieville's books, he seems to be a somewhat polarizing author; either people really like his work, or they don't.  I haven't found many people who have a middle-of-the road opinion.   With this book, the first in the "Bas-Lag" series, Mieville doesn't explain a lot.  Instead, you just start with the viewpoint of Yagharek, a garuda who comes seeking the help of Isaac, a scientist who dabbles in all kinds of theories. And, the story progresses from there.  You're plunged into a world you don't know anything about, full of characters and things that aren't explained.  When I tell people about this book, I say, just sit back and relax into the story. Don't worry about what things are; just let the story wash over you and draw you in.  You'll figure it out as you go along.

Or maybe not.  Just because I love this book (and admittedly, have a huge author crush on China Mieville.  The first time I met him at a signing, I thought I was going to pass out because my heart was beating so hard), I have met people who can't get through this book.  And that's fine, of course.

I think one of the things I love most about this book is Mieville's writing style.  He can combine the most interesting words into fluid phrases that shape a place, or a character, into being.  I read one review on Goodreads where someone wrote,
"I was warned about the linguistic complexity of this story. It is true -Mieville's prose can be dense and complicated and at times deliciously pompously pretentious, studded with adverbs and adjectives. Usually I would contemptuously and exasperatedly shrug my shoulders and walk away from that. 

However, Mieville does something amazing with his fascinating language and melodic flow of narration (especially Yagharek's interludes), making me love it in a perversely masochistic way while reaching for the dictionary."  (reviewer Nataliya)

Definitely.  I feel like every time I read this book, I see something new, or understand another part of the story that I hadn't quite grasped before.  His books aren't easy reads, giving you smooth storylines and characters you love. Instead, I find that his books challenge me to stretch my brain around ideas, and imagine the worlds and people he creates, and then challenge myself, asking if I truly do understand just what he's writing about.  He's a fantastically intelligent person and is actively involved in left-wing politics in the United Kingdom.  He published his PhD thesis on Marxism and international law as a book.  I find that his world view and political background do work their way into his stories, but I never feel like I'm being beaten over the head with his views.  Instead, I find myself immersed in a world filled with fantastical, awful, amazing things and characters, where I just savor my reading.  And if there are some politics mixed in there, fine with me.  

The Girl with the Lower Back Tattoo

The Girl with the Lower Back Tattoo by Amy Schumer.  323 pages.

This memoir is written like a series of essays, and takes the reader through parts of Amy Schumer's life as she shares stories about her teenage life, family and relationships (and yes, even writes about sex).  While there are a lot of humorous parts in this book, there are also some pretty reflective and touching stories here.  Amy Schumer writes the way you expect she might: up front and unapologetic.

I had been curious about whether this book would be a mix of things, and it definitely was; there are parts that are super-funny, but also parts where Amy Schumer writes about her family. Her stories about her father are especially touching.  If you're also thinking some of the stories might be cringe-worthy, you're right.  However, I found it to be a good book, and I came away from it with even more respect for Amy.  While I don't agree with everything she says, I certainly had a few "YES" moments when I was reading this.  And I also had a few times where I started laughing pretty hard, so it was good that I read this book at home.

Arrowood

Arrowood by Laura McHugh.  270 pages.

This story centers on a young woman's return to her childhood home, and how she deals with her family's secrets.  Arrowood is one of the grandest historical homes on the Mississippi River in southern Iowa.  However, this house, as beautiful as it is, has a mystery that has never been revealed: it's where Arden Arrowood's twin sisters vanished twenty years ago, never to be seen again.  After their disappearance, Arden's parents divorced and left the big house.  However, now that Arden is an adult, and trying to get her own life back on track, she returns to Arrowood, the house she has inherited after her father's death.  Returning to her home town, Arden is greeted by people with curiosity, but is also welcomed back by old friends and her first love, Ben Ferris.  As it turns out, Ben's family knows more about the secrets the house may hold.  With the help of an amateur investigator, Arden tracks down the man who was the main suspect in her sisters' kidnapping.  However, when she starts to uncover what appears to be truth, things aren't any clearer at all.

I feel like I cannot stop reading this author's books.  She creates unforgettable, realistic characters and settings that are characters unto themselves.  Combined with an evenly increasing pace, I find myself easily drawn into her stories.  I found this book to be a "matroyshka type" of story where things are revealed, only to open up and reveal something else.  Even by the very end of the story, it appears there is a truth that is being revealed, and you're left mostly sure, but not completely sure, just like the main character.

Looking for Mr Goodbar

Looking for Mr Goodbar by Judith Rossner, 284 pages

On New Years Day 1973, schoolteacher Roseann Quinn was stabbed to death in her New York City apartment by John Wayne Wilson, an unbalanced drifter she had met only a couple of hours earlier in a local bar.  The crime, surrounded by a haze of sordid rumors about the life of a single woman in the depths of the sexual revolution, became an immediate tabloid sensation.  Coverage of the case inspired novelist Judith Rossner to write Looking for Mr Goodbar, which begins with the capture of the murderer of Theresa Dunn, a New York City schoolteacher.  The killer, Gary Cooper White, is nonplussed when he learns of her profession - "Boy, some of the people they got teaching kids, I'm keeping mine out of school."

The novel then retraces the life of Theresa from early childhood to violent consummation.  Rossner's imaginative reconstruction of Quinn is remarkable for its ambiguity.  Theresa's first sexual relationship, with a manipulative professor, is a case in point - although the professor is a thorough (and thoroughly believable) bastard, Theresa is not a simple innocent victimized by an older man in a position of authority, but neither is her sexual awakening a purely positive experience.  Her double life is lampshaded by the lives of her two sisters - one, married and boring, the other, liberated but miserable.  The same dichotomy is expressed in the two men with whom she carries on simultaneous relationships in the latter half of the novel - James, the caring lawyer who connects with her emotionally, and Tony, the violent hoodlum who both arouses and satisfies her lust.  It is this lust which connects her to Gary and his world, but it is her fear of losing an empty freedom which drags her down to her end.

The Fire This Time: A New Generation Speaks about Race

The Fire This Time: A New Generation Speaks about Race edited by Jesmyn Ward.  226 pages

Using James Baldwin's book on race, The Fire Next Time, as inspiration, Jesmyn Ward here collects poems and essays on race. Baldwin's 1962 book included a famous piece titled, "Letter to My Nephew," in which Baldwin addressed his nephew on the 100th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation.

In this book, Ward gathered short stories, memoir pieces and poems to engage the question of race in the United States.  Divided into three parts, the book includes ten pieces written specifically for this book.  "Contributors include Carol Anderson, Jericho Brown, Garnette Cadogan, Edwidge Danticat, Rachel Kaadzi Ghansah, Mitchell S. Jackson, Honoree Jeffers, Kima Jones, Kiese Laymon, Daniel Jose Older, Emily Raboteau, Claudia Rankine, Clint Smith, Natasha Trethewey, Wendy S. Walters, Isabel Wilkerson, and Kevin Young"

I found this book to be powerful and thought-provoking. Reading through it, I found it was helpful to read one or two pieces, and then stop, think about them, and come back to the book.  I feel it's important to read books like this, because as a reader, you gain insight into what other people's lives are like.

Illiberal Reformers

Illiberal Reformers: Race, Eugenics, and American Economics in the Progressive Era by Thomas C Leonard, 191 pages

Thomas Leonard defines Progressivism as "first and foremost, an attitude about the proper relationship of science (personified in the scientific expert) to the state, and of the state to the economy and polity."  Its chief principles he enumerates as "anti-individualism, social control, efficiency, and the authority of scientific experts".  This, in turn, explains its paradoxical tendency to treat the poor and marginalized simultaneously as "helpless victims in need of state uplift and as dangerous threats requiring state restraint."  In Illiberal Reformers, he demonstrates how these tensions played out in the early progressive enthusiasm for eugenics, prohibition, and even the minimum wage, which was initially supported as much as a prophylactic against cheap, "inferior" immigrant labor as a boon to "superior" native-born workers.

The narrative of Illiberal Reformers spans the Progressive Era (1890-1930) and the focus is on economics - Leonard rarely strays outside of these frames.  Unfortunately, his work sometimes gives the impression of being rather more comprehensive than it is.  Within the limits it sets for itself, Illiberal Reformers profoundly illuminates a vitally important moment and movement that are often fundamentally misunderstood, and lays bare the troubled history of certain basic assumptions that continue to shape our political debate, but it should be clear that the motives of the reformers of a century ago cannot be reflexively ascribed to their contemporary counterparts, nor can man be reduced to a mere homo economicus.

Cold Blooded

Cold Blooded by Lisa Regan  310 pages

I was first introduced to Lisa Regan’s work when I read Finding Claire Fletcher. Tautly written---except of the last couple of chapters---it was one of the best-rounded kidnapping stories that I have read in recent years.

Regan stays within the same mystery/suspense/thriller genre, but this time the story revolves around a terminally ill former detective, Augustus Knox, and a cold case. The story is set in 2014 with the murder of Sydney Adam, high school track star, occurred in 2002.

Knox is a drunk, the unresolved murder of Sydney has haunted---and ruined---him. I’m not sure why, but I pictured him as a rather obese man, but the description of his jaundice and thin, frail frame just didn’t jive with me. Maybe if it was brought up earlier. Now Knox has congestive heart failure and COPD. His doctor believes he will be dead in three to four months, but he isn’t ready to give up entirely. He is bound and determined to find Sydney’s killer.

He enlists the help of the private detective Jocelyn Rush and her partner Anita. Rush. Jocelyn has a whole set of her own problems and is scarred individual, physically, mentally, and emotionally. But she’s still a good detective.

Now it’s up to the three of them to determine if the person of interest all those years ago can finally be brought to justice. There are some interesting twists as Jocelyn, Anita, and Know draw closer to the truth…which was shocking. Cold Blooded is a good read; I give it 4 out of 5 stars.

Malcolm Muggeridge

Malcolm Muggeridge: A Biography by Gregory Wolfe, 423 pages

From an early age, Thomas Malcolm Muggeridge - the "Thomas" was apparently dropped even by family members early on - combined an appreciation for the power of language with an keen understanding of the difference between appearance and reality.  A long career in journalism, in print, radio, and finally television, only affirmed the importance of these perceptions, and their entanglement - for language can be used to disguise or unmask reality.  Muggeridge spent much of his career as an unhappy iconoclast, bouncing between jobs, trying and failing to become appreciated as a novelist or dramatist.  He worked as a correspondent in India, Egypt, Moscow, and Washington DC, forming friendships with the likes of George Orwell and Graham Greene.  Predicting the dissolution of the British Empire, reporting on the murderous famines in the Soviet Union, and criticizing the soap opera atmosphere surrounding Britain's Royal Family earned him a remarkably diverse set of detractors, however nothing brought more sustained criticism than his gradual conversion to Christianity, first to a Lewisian "mere Christianity" and eventually to the fullness of Catholicism.  To those who had admired Muggeridge as the quintessential outsider and slaughterer of sacred cows, such a surrender seemed a treasonous betrayal so wholly out of character with the man as to suggest a nervous breakdown or senility.

It is the major theme of Gregory Wolfe's excellent biography that Muggeridge's conversion, far from an uncharacteristic aberration, was in fact the product of a lifelong struggle to answer the question Christ posed to His disciples - "Who do you say that I am?"  "St Muggs" the septuagenarian apologist is, in Wolfe's narrative, the same child who read the Bible in secret so as not to scandalize his socialist father, the same college student who spent time at the Oratory of the Good Shepherd in the company of Wilfred Knox, and the same young man whose first overseas adventure was as a teacher hired by a missionary group.  In Muggeridge's case, at least, the eye so adept at detecting the flaws of others was not blind when turned inward, and the seeker after truth could not be satisfied, in the end, with anything less than Truth Himself.

Trust

Trust: In Saint Faustina's Footsteps by Grzegorz Gorny and Janusz Rosikon, 325 pages

St Maria Faustina Kowalska was born Helena Kowalska in 1905 in a land that had once been Poland and would soon be Poland again.  She died just thirty-three years later, mere months before Poland was again removed from the map by a conspiracy of Russians and Germans.  Throughout her life, she claimed to have seen visions of Jesus Christ, who commanded her to disseminate a devotion to His Divine Mercy, but at the time of her death these visions were barely known outside of a few Polish priestly circles already endangered by the genocidal Nazi and Communist ideologies descending upon Eastern Europe.  Just as discouraging, the Church hierarchy, both in Rome and in Poland itself, viewed the devotion and the purported visions from which it derived with their usual skepticism.

Like most true visionaries (prominently St Margaret Mary Alacoque, St Bernadette Soubirous, and Sister Lucia), St Faustina's life was one of humility and self-effacement - she was nothing, the message was everything.  Eighty years after St Faustina's death, the Divine Mercy chaplet is perhaps the second most popular Catholic devotion in the world, surpassed only by the Rosary.  Such is St Faustina's stature that, when millions of Catholic young people gathered in Krakow in July of 2016 for World Youth Day, it was considered entirely appropriate to open the event with a procession of her relics alongside those of St John Paul II.

Trust follows the life of St Faustina from her materially impoverished but spiritually rich childhood, through her time working as a domestic servant scrimping and saving to acquire the dowry she would need to enter the convent, through her struggles with doubts and doubters, and then to her life beyond life, the spread of the Divine Mercy devotion worldwide and her own ascent to the altars of the universal Church.  The book is straightforward hagiography, with no pretense to objectivity, if objectivity is even possible in a case where the subject must be either a saint, a fraud, or a madwoman.  It is lavishly illustrated - the book would be less than half as long without the many photographs, often taking up an entire page.  The overall effect is less artistic than documentary, which has the fortunate effect of turning the book into a kind of printed pilgrimage.

Faithful

Faithful by Alice Hoffman.  272 pages.  (comes out November 1, 2016 - will be ordered for the library.  I read an e-galley courtesy of Edelweiss).

Shelby Richmond leads an otherwise unremarkable life until the one night that her best friend's future is destroyed in an accident that Shelby walks away from.  Living with the guilt, Shelby is a survivor, but with a pretty bleak outlook on life.  This story shows us a young woman who is making her way in the world.  Living in New York City, Shelby knows what she likes: Chinese food and rescuing dogs.  What she doesn't like is the man she's living with, who she feels she is unable to love.  As time passes, she finds herself in a circle of lost and found souls, and what her own place in this world is.

Alice Hoffman is one of my favorite authors, and this book ranks right up there with ones I've read multiple times (The Ice Queen, and Blue Diary).  Hoffman sometimes employs a bit of subtle (and sometimes not subtle) magic into her stories and while this one doesn't have overt magic, it still has the feel of something extraordinary shimmering underneath the ordinary.

Shelby is a compelling character, at once spiky and odd, but honest and true to what she believes herself to be.  As the story continues, we see her get to know herself, and figure out how what she believes about herself and the world fits into the real world.  Throughout the story, she receives postcards from a mysterious stranger, whose simple instructions encourage her. I liked how the story felt realistic and hopeful, even though things that happen in the story aren't always happy and wonderful.  Hoffman has a beautiful writing style, and I tend to feel completely transported into her stories.

Devil in the White City

The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America by Erik Larson, 390 pages

The Columbian Exposition of 1893 - the Chicago World's Fair - was a historical landmark, defining a nation and an era in the same manner as the 1851 London Great Exhibition and 1889 Paris Exposition Universalle.  Timed to commemorate the 400th anniversary of Columbus' discovery of the New World, the Fair looked towards the future as much as the past, its monumental neo-classical buildings painted stark white and illuminated at night by tens of thousands of electric lights, forming an ideal "White City", an attainable future of unimpeded progress.  As Erik Larson relates, however, the real contemporary city formed a contrasting "Black City" of stockyards, smokestacks, and slaughterhouses, shady figures and dark streets which swallowed people whole.  In the midst of this Chicago squatted the misshapen "castle" of Herman Mudgett, also known as HH Holmes or a galaxy of other aliases, a conman and serial murderer.

Larson divides his narrative largely between Holmes and Daniel Burnham, the architect who, more than anyone else, shaped the Fair.  Frederick Law Olmstead, who designed the landscaping, George Washington Ferris, who designed the famous Wheel, and Sol Bloom, who managed the Midway, all receive due attention as well, and Larson interweaves their threads skillfully to complement Burnham's story and fill in the broader tapestry of the Fair.  Less interesting are the chapters dedicated to Patrick Pendergast, a disappointed, delusional office seeker and assassin, who is either too prominent or not prominent enough, distracting from other narratives without yielding any real insight.  

The greatest difficulty Larson faces is Holmes.  An inveterate liar, conman, polygamist, and sociopath, much of Holmes' life remains mysterious, with even known facts colored by rumor and supposition.  A writer must be careful in separating reality from fantasy.  Disappointingly, Larson does not engender confidence in this regard, even reimagining a scene from Holmes' childhood to equip him with a Lecter-grade cold, intimidating stare.  Further undermining the reader's trust are some bald errors - Mary Kelly, last of the canonical victims of Jack the Ripper, was not pregnant at the time of her murder.  Thankfully, Larson regains some measure of skepticism before the end of the book, lest Holmes appear to be the only predator in 1893 Chicago.

There may be better books about the Columbian Exposition - Harold Schechter's Depraved is certainly a better book about Holmes.  What The Devil in the White City does so well is telling the stories in parallel, allowing similarities to emerge without ostentatiously drawing attention to them.  Burnham and Holmes were men of their time, like many others drawn to Chicago as a city on the move, where a man could be whoever he wanted to be.  Each struggled and strived to live that dream or nightmare.

Saffire

Saffire by Sigmund Brouwer   336 pages

The protagonist of Sigmund Brouwer’s new novel, Saffire, is James Holt. He was a member of Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show and rode with Teddy Roosevelt’s Rough Rider. He is stranger neither to fear or death.

Currently, in the year 1909, he is quietly living his life in the Dakota Badlands, trying his hand at ranching, raising his eight-year-old daughter, Winona.  His wife had died several years earlier. That’s an interesting story that I wish had been delved further into as a flashback.

The ranch isn’t doing well; in fact, Holt is so far behind in his mortgage payments that he is in danger of foreclosure. His old friend, TR, hires him to do some investigating down in South America at the building site of the Panama Canal, and he jumps at the opportunity. All he has to do is show up to get paid. And that is exactly what Hold plans to do. He travels six weeks to get there, and all he wants is his check, to catch the next streamer home, save his ranch and live the rest of his life watching Winona grow up.

But if the money was that easy to get, Brouwer wouldn’t have been able to write such a fascinating new novel. Holt arrives at 6 a.m. Sunday morning. He strolls a bit, watching the construction. Brouwer does an excellent job in making the reader hear the noise, feel the heat, and see the controlled chaos that was part of such a mammoth undertaking in joining the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans.

Holt’s first order of business is to meet with Colonel George Goethals. On Sundays, Col. Goethals opens his office to anyone who would like to submit a complaint. And on this particular Sunday morning, the room is jammed with people, waiting their turn. Holt becomes fascinated by a young girl, Saffire (because a p and an h are silly letters to form an f sound). All Saffire wants is for someone to investigate her mother’s disappearance.

Soon, Holt is neck-deep in sabotage, political corruption, racism, conspiracies and collusions. He seems to always be in trouble of some kind.

Saffire got off to a slow start for me, which is why I’m giving it 4 out of 5 stars. However, by page 51, I was completely engrossed.

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