A Right to Be Hostile

A Right to Be Hostile by Aaron McGruder  Book: 255 pages

Two young black boys and their grandfather move from the South side of Chicago to the suburbs and hilarity ensues. This book had me laughing and really the only reason it's so funny is that all the leftist diatribe is coming from a school-aged boy. If these lines were spoken by a grown man this would just be a political comic, but coming from a boy of maybe 10 it is hilarious. I'm not sure why it's funny when children talk like adults, but it's a formula that works. Huey (named after Huey P. Newton of course) is a revolutionary whose goal it is to take down the capitalist, racist regime known as the American government. His views on society, entertainment and especially politics are unwavering. This comic is controversial and it's easy to see why, but it is also easy to see why it's so popular. Huey's younger brother Riley wants to be "gangsta" complete with cars, money, girls (even though he doesn't want them to touch him!), and the fear of the people around him. Grandad adds his own special quality to the picture, being a traditionalist and thinking Huey really needs to calm himself down and act like other kids his age and Riley needs to do better in school and be less disrespectful. Along the way they meet some interesting characters that also add to the humor. Caesar is my favorite, he is basically the straight-man to Huey's insanity, agreeing with him on some things but calling him insane on others. I would recommend this book for those who are not easily offended because it does have some views with which certain people would strongly disagree.  

Morgan Kingsley series books 1-5

Morgan Kingsley series books 1 -5 (Devil Inside, Devil You Know, Devil’s Due, Speak of the Devil, and Devil’s Playground) by Jenna Black, 1699 pages

In a world where people can host demons, legally and illegally, there is always a need for exorcists. They serve the public as paranormal executioners, casting out illegal demons, and those that have broken the law. Exorcists like demons come in different strengths, and Morgan Kingsley is one of the strongest exorcists around. But after an abnormally strong demon exorcism goes wrong, she is haunted by weird dreams, bouts of sleepwalking, and fears she may have a demon inside her.

I wasn’t sure which direction this science fiction series was going to take. Was I going to get a detective series, where Morgan has to research various demons, learn their names or history and then cast them out type series, which would get rather dull and repetitive. Or would Morgan discover something weird with the demons/herself and have to figure it out to save the world? It is definitely this. Frankly I think the “save the world” motif is a little overused in science fiction, but it is hard to come up with a better compelling threat. Luckily Black was able to keep this world ending threat both interesting and unique enough to make this series quite the read. I will also give her credit for staying away from the standard holy items kill demon motif. I enjoyed reading this series, and blew through it in under a week. I would recommend this to people looking for a twist on demon science fiction.

Note: I read these online, as the library only owns Speak of the Devil

The Fifth Letter

The Fifth Letter by Nicola Moriarty.  288 pages

Joni, Eden, Trina and Deb have been best friends since high school, sharing a bond that has taken them into adulthood.  However, time and circumstances have started to pull them away from each other and as she plans their yearly vacation, Joni wonders if she can find a way to draw them all back together again. After they meet up for their vacation, Joni comes up with an idea one evening: each woman will write an anonymous letter, spilling their darkest secrets, and then each letter will be read aloud during dinner a following night. This game quickly turns from fun to something more devastating, exposing cracks in their previously strong friendships, including a dark secret one of them harbors about harming one of the other women.

I read this book in an afternoon, skimming along and enjoying the story.  I knew that at the end, the mystery of the fifth letter would be solved, and at least most (if not all) of the issues between the women would be resolved.  However, I was still kept guessing about some of the elements of the story and was a bit surprised by part of the ending.  This was a great escapist book for a weekend read.

The Next Best Thing

The Next Best Thing by Jennifer Weiner         Audio Book: 12 hours, 9 minutes     Book: 416 pages    

An interesting look at how to get your idea for a t.v. show on the air.   It’s a fictional account, but, a well written overview of some of the processes on how to make it in Hollywood as a writer.   While there is a love story involved, too, I was more taken with the process of getting an idea from one’s own head to being cast as a prime time show on a major television network.     The romance seemed just an aside, really.    I have to say, this is another case of my getting mad at one of Jennifer Weiner’s written characters.   Brief glimpse of the story:  a girl whose parents were killed in a car wreck is raised by her grandmother.    When the girl is 23 years old she and her seventy year old grandmother decide to move from their home in Massachusetts to start over in Los Angeles, California.   The young woman, Ruth, wants to make it as a screenwriter.    She works at various positions over the next few years until she finally lucks into an interview a couple of successful writers who have a number of hits under their belts.   They become mentors and friends as time goes by and eventually Ruth goes for it and writes a script about her life with her grandmother which she feels would make a great comedy series.    After going through the channels and politics in Hollywood her dream comes to fruition but with the dream comes the old adage, “Be careful what you wish for because you might just get it.”   With the joy of realizing her dream as a writer, Ruth now has to deal with the network executives changing her scripts, ignoring her input on how her characters should be presented and even going over her head and hiring actors of their own choices for the roles even when she has given her recommendations on which actors auditioning for the roles she feels fit best.     Ruth acquiesces to every change the network executives make with little more than feeble attempts to keep some resemblance to her original intent.    It’s a tightrope walk between integrity and wanting to have her dream fulfilled even if it isn’t exactly on her terms.    All this time her grandmother is going out on calls for extras and is showing up on t.v. shows and films.    When Ruth lets her grandmother know the network has picked up her idea and they are going to film a pilot  they are both deliriously excited.   Ruth neglects to tell her grandmother there have been a few changes to the character that is based on her grandmother.   Of course, her grandmother is just so proud and when the pilot airs on t.v. grandma has bragged to all her new friends she has made in Cali about the pilot and how the characters Ruth wrote are based on her and Ruth.   Grandma invites a houseful of her new friends to come over and watch the pilot with them.   Which they do.    Now, I know this is fiction, I know this is just a story but, here is my beef with Ruth – she didn’t tell her grandmother, the woman who raised her, the woman who has supported her in all her endeavors all of her life and been right there for her cheering Ruth on and helping her to pursue her dream – Ruth doesn’t tell this poor woman that the network has rewritten her as a wanton boozy floozy who has little good to say about anyone and uses men to make her way in the world.    Ruth knows this.   To get her show on the air, she went along with it with very little to say against their changing the whole persona of how her grandmother should be represented.    But the biggest thing – she let her grandmother be humiliated in front of all those people without so much as a hint as to the total remake the executives did to her representation.    For that, this is another of Jennifer’s characters that I don’t like.    So again, that is the sign of a good writer when they can get you so invested in a story that you react to the things the people in the story say or do but I get that Ruth is a sell-out because that is what she feels she has to do to get the carrot at the end, but, why burn her grandmother in the process?   Family loyalty?   Whaaaat?    In the end the sacrifices the woman made to care for her mean nothing when it comes to Ruth getting her 15 minutes of fame?    It makes for good storytelling, but, I feel sorry for grandma who got thrown under the bus and not only that but the bus was full of people!   All the people looking at the character on t.v. then looking back at the woman sitting in the room.   I can feel her cheeks burning.    Again, a good story that would-be screenwriters could learn a thing or two from, like how NOT to burn the folks who helped you get where you are.   Lots more happens and while a good story, I’m still mad at the main character.  You don’t burn Grandma!

Counterknowledge

Counterknowledge: How We Surrendered to Conspiracy Theories, Quack Medicine, Bogus Science, and Fake History by Damian Thompson, 139 pages

"Counterknowledge" is journalist Damian Thompson's term for the opposite of knowledge - not ignorance, not mistakes, but claims made in direct contradiction of the facts.  It is, he demonstrates, a booming industry.  Old standards have fallen as mainstream television programs have endorsed 9/11 conspiracy theories and The Secret, while books purporting to give the "real story" behind The Da Vinci Code have found their way into the history sections of bookstores and libraries, and major universities have dabbled in alternative medicine.  Most dramatically, of course, the Internet has proven to be a uniquely successful vector for counterknowledge, not only disseminating untruths more broadly, but allowing the cross-fertilization of ideas between groups that would not normally interact, such as Christian and Muslim creationists or white and black racists.

Thompson is not primarily interested in either cataloging or systematically debunking different forms of counterknowledge, rather, the book is an analysis of what makes counterknowledge so widespread in such an allegedly rational, skeptical age.  According to the author, a decline in standards, increased specialization, and a general failure of education all play important parts.  More significantly, the dual triumphs of postmodernism and identity politics have established a relativist ideology which refuses to judge between competing truth claims and which is particularly strong among the very elites who might otherwise act as responsible gatekeepers.  Meanwhile, consumerism promotes the attitude that objective truth matters less than how a "truth" makes the consumer feel while simultaneously encouraging a profits-first mentality among producers.  Most important, however, has been the dissolution of public trust - in a culture that habitually confuses consensus with conspiracy, fact and fantasy are indistinguishable.  Unfortunately, Thompson's preferred tactic against counterknowledge - merciless mockery - will not solve that problem.

Blue Plate Special

Blue Plate Special: An Autobiography of my Appetites by Kate Christensen.     368 pages.


Reading this book was an interesting experience. Admittedly, I picked up the book thinking it was going to be a chef's autobiography (and didn't read the inside flap) and then it turns out that Kate Christensen is an author.  So, it took until about halfway through the book for the light to click on for me.  However, I still enjoyed reading the book, even though I wasn't familiar with the author at all.

So now, after reading what I just wrote, it becomes very obvious that I picked this book up without looking up anything about it --- because per Goodreads:
"That the greatly admired novelist Kate Christensen has turned to the memoir form after six novels makes this book an event. Readers of memoirs of high literary quality, particularly those with food themes—most conspicuously Ruth Reichl's Comfort Me with Apples and Gabrielle Hamilton's Blood, Bones, and Butter—as well as admirers of M. F. K. Fisher and Laurie Colwin will be a large and eager audience."

Well, apparently I need to become more aware of novelists, because I didn't know who Kate Christensen is.  The funny thing is, I have read all of Ruth Reichl's books, have read Gabrielle Hamilton's books, and everything by Laurie Colwin.

I did find this to be an interesting book, maybe for the main reason that I didn't know anything about the author.  Reading the book was a complete introduction to her, and her life has definitely been interesting so far.  I am intrigued enough to pick up one of her novels now, and realize that this is an exercise that is usually reversed (usually, you read a novel, and then might read the author's autobiography).

Mop Men: Inside the World of Crime Scene Cleaners

Mop Men: Inside the World of Crime Scene Cleaners by Alan Emmins        306 pages              

Excellent book!   I literally couldn’t put it down once I started reading it.   Fascinating!    I had never really thought about crime scene cleaning as an occupation until once on the t.v. show, “Insomniac,” with Dave Atell as host, he rode along with a crime scene cleaner one night.     Interesting, I thought.   I never really considered that there was a business that actually did that.    I guess I thought outside crime scenes just got washed with fire hoses and people cleaned up their own in homes and hotel staff cleaned up in hotels.   It didn’t cross my mind particularly how blood and such got cleaned up.  Watching the staff work on cleaning up various scenes while kind of gross, yet, like one of those things you can’t seem to avert your eyes from I kept watching.    Hmmm.    Then when the independent film, “Sunshine Cleaning,” (Amy Adams, Emily Blunt, Alan Arkin), came out in 2008 it’s topic was about a lady and her younger sister who need money and find out there is income to be made from cleaning up crime scenes they begin doing so and go from novices, tossing bloody mattresses in dumpsters while not wearing any protective gear to top level professionals complete with all the proper gear, chemicals, appropriate training and licenses.   A fun film choice by the way.   But the topic peaked my interest.   I even watched the film over a couple of times in the years since it came out.    However, when I was browsing through the library holdings online for another title I came across, “MopMen…” and had to stop and eyeball it.   When I saw what it was about well, I definetly wanted to see what was in those pages!   I was not disappointed.   Alan Emmins relates verbatim conversations with the owner of the Crime Scene Cleaners Co.,  Neal Smithers.   He lets Neal tell the story of how he decided to open such a business, what he had to learn in order to be the success he is and how he fended off naysayers in his family and friends who told him it would never work he would go bankrupt, etc.     But Neal had the fortitude to persevere and to this day is still doing everything he can to get his company’s name out there, he meets with people all the time pressing the flesh like a politician stumping for votes.   You really get a sense of what this guy is like and what his staff is like.    They are so thorough in their quest to clean every spot of any body fluid or crud that may be lurking at the job they are on.   They even remove floor boards to clean any possible seepage that may have taken place, then replace the floorboards and put sealant on the floor then once dry they sanitize it all again.   They go anywhere, attics, crawl spaces, homes, hotel rooms, wherever the job request takes them and clean not only crime scenes but also homes of hoarders, animal hoarders, animal infestations where there is urine and feces damage, they clean out hazardous material sites – whatever – Neal likes money and he will go wherever he and his team need to and clean up, clean out or clean off any thing folks can come up with.   He first goes out as owner to the client that has contacted him and as any contractor gives the client a price estimate and explains what all his staff will need to do to clean up and sanitize the area requiring his services.   He works for the famous, the infamous and anyone with a need.    He likens himself to “the Wolf,” played by Harvey Keitel in the film, “Pulp Fiction.”    Since he has been in business, some of the people who originally worked for him have either franchised their own branch of his business or have gone on their own and opened their own cleaning service and compete for the business in the state of California and in the other states he has franchises in.    Neal is a good talker though and does what he can to constantly promote his business.   Neal has a wicked sense of  humor and there are times when you will laugh out loud at things he says, sings or does.    An eye-opening read and a visit to a sector of society not much talked about but with all the CSI fans out there I don’t think I am the only one with morbid curiosity that will marvel at the things not thought of but that will be revealed to you in this read.   Excellent!   Made me go online to see if St. Louis has their own Crime Scene Cleaners.   We do, and more than one.   One of them is affiliated with Cory Chalmers, who is a regular on the A&E cable channel on “Hoarders.”     Maybe one of them is a franchise of Neal’s?   He was branching out and franchising to several states in the northwest and southwest (Neal lives in Los Angeles, CA).    His goal was to be in every state so it is quite possible.     I invited Alan Emmins to come do a sequel in St. Louis.

The Travelers

The Travelers by Chris Pavone 464  pages

One of the things that drew me to The Travelers is right there on the cover: “Hitchcockian.” This was the first Chris Pavone novel that I tried to read. However, instead of the master of suspense director, I say that the story is more William Faulknerish. With its long, convoluted sentences that meander through from subject to subject, I found this novel less than enthralling.  

The other thing that enticed me to this book where the different locales in which the action (or lack thereof, depending on your point of view) takes places: Argentina, Dublin, New York City, Paris, Barcelona, the North Atlantic Ocean, and other exotic areas. It jumped around a lot, switching characters constantly until I had to re-read sections to figure out what was going happening.

I like books that make me think, but not books that cause me to struggle trying to figure out what was happening. When I think spy novel, I think edge-of-my-seat read. Unfortunately, this was a slow, tedious read for me.  The Travelers receives 1 out of 5 stars in Julie’s world.

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

Humans of New York: Stories

Humans of New York: Stories by Brandon Stanton 428 pages

This is a combination of several photographs and interviews done by Stanton on the streets of New York. It is mixed with happy and sad stories, funny quotes and strange ramblings. There's love, hate, grief, excitement, something for everyone.

This was an enjoyable and easy read. (1 day!) There were compelling stories combined with equally compelling photographs. Anyone who reads this book will find someone they identify with and/or someone they think is way off base and I think that is the beauty of it. It's just humans in New York. They come from all backgrounds and geographical locations. I'm glad the author chose all different kinds of people with all different kinds of views or else this would have been a one-dimensional book. It lets you know he probably encountered people with which he himself did not agree, however he put them in anyway (example atheist and Christian views). The adorable smiles of the children, the love in the eyes of the couples, the loneliness of the grieving, and the sadness of the lonely (to name a few) make for a pictorial I definitely recommend.

I Capture the Castle

I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith   343 pages

This book is Cassandra's journal but it doesn't read like a journal. Her family is from the upper class but they are poor and live in a rundown castle. They are an eccentric lot. Her dad is a writer who wrote one successful book but hasn't written anything since.

The status quo changes when their landlord passes away. The Cottons inherit Scoatney Hall and show up one day. Cassandra and her sister Rose are intrigued by the Cotton brothers. Rose becomes engaged to the older brother Simon. The Cottons seem to have inspired her dad to start writing again but the family is not sure. Things are not so simple though. Does Rose love Simon? Has her dad just gone mad? Along the way, Cassandra matures and hijinks ensue with an ambiguous ending that might upset some readers.

I certainly enjoyed this book. There are memorable characters and a good plot. There are some humorous parts in this book that may have you laughing. I would recommend this book to anyone that likes coming of age stories or period dramas.

   

Red Queen

Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard.  383 pages

In this world, you're either a Red or a Silver.  Silvers are elite, with god-like superpowers, and the Red are the commoners, serving the Silvers and also fighting their wars.  To Mare, a Red living in the poverty-stricken Stilts area, it seems like nothing will ever change.  However, when she finds herself working in the Silver palace, she discovers she has an unusual power of her own.  Afraid of Mare's potential, and her potential to bring down the carefully constructed social norms, the Silvers hide her in plain view, declaring Mare to be a long-lost princess, raised among Reds. Putting herself in great danger, Mare decides to silently work to help a Red resistance group.  However, it's soon clear that no one, Red or Silver, can necessarily be trusted and Mare's in even more danger than she thought.

I'd describe this book, the first one in a planned trilogy, to be Hunger Games meets X-Men.  Kind of.  The powers that the Silvers have are pretty awesome: manipulating water, manipulating metal, and even manipulating minds are just a few.  Mare is our rebellious outsider, coming from the trodden-down class and now infiltrating the upper class.  She's smart and independent, but unsure of who she can trust, and even what her own powers may be.  I enjoyed this book and really liked the world that Aveyard has created, with its layers of society and layers of intrigue and danger.  This book is aimed at younger readers, so as an adult, I can see some foreshadowing and predict a few things. However, that doesn't make this book less enjoyable, and I always appreciate a female character who is independent, and whose main strength doesn't rest solely in her physical appearance.

Romantic Fairy Tales

Romantic Fairy Tales by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Ludwig Tieck, Friedrich de la Motte Fouque, and Clemens Brentano, translated by Carol Tully, 159 pages

Romantic Fairy Tales collects a series of original "artistic" fairy tales (Kunstmaerchen) written by some of the most celebrated German authors at the dawn of Romanticism between 1795 and 1817.  Goethe's Fairy Tale, also known as The Green Snake and the Beautiful Lily or simply The Tale, is a fantastic dream, lacking real characters or logic but full of magical creatures and seemingly arbitrary rules, any of which might represent something real or nothing at all.  Tieck's Eckbert the Fair is a moralistic fable on patience and desire, the story of a young runaway who finds herself living in an isolated cabin with an old woman and a magical bird who lays jeweled eggs.  Fouque's Undine tells the tragic tale of a gallant knight's love affair with the titular water nymph.  Finally, Brentano's The Tale of Honest Casper and Fair Annie is a story of death and honor featuring unfortunate lovers and a magical sword belonging to the local executioner.

All four stories are told with the mastery to be expected of such renowned authors.  Fairy Tale stands apart from the others in both content and style, just as Goethe's genius rises above the others, but the stories are all united in their vital sense of wonder and enchantment.

Cat Chat

Cat Chat by Meredith Phillips            32 pages                                    

What a nice chat about cats, truly!    It goes in to the history of domesticated cats as we know them today – spoiler alert – the ancient Egyptians domesticated African bobtailed wildcats 4,000 years ago.   Farmers near the Nile River liked having them around to keep the rats away and they found out cats are great at getting rid of deadly snakes, too.   Bonus.    The farmers and their families loved these furry little defenders of their food supply so much they started showing them affection.   The wild cats found out they liked people and the affection they bestowed.    The Egyptians revered these little furry superheroes so much they depicted them in their art, in the architecture and even in their deities.    Over the centuries, while the varying species of both big cats and domestic cats evolved, their skeletal structures remained the same.   Regardless of size (lion, tiger, cheetah, leopard, or tabby, etc.) the way all cats move, use their claws and attack are all the same.    The book states there are millions of domestic cats in the world and 50 types are pedigreed with papers on them showing their lineage these are the types of cats that are entered into cat shows and judged against a set of criteria unique to each breed with the ones deemed best of their breed winning ribbons and other prizes.   It discusses how cats come in all shapes, sizes, colors, patterns, long-haired, short-haired, slim, sleek, striped, some with folded ears, some with long tails some with bobbed ones, or no tail at all.    All are unique and beautiful with retracting claws that make them all great climbers.   Most domestic (house) cats weigh between 5 to 18lbs. whose bodies are roughly 2 ½ feet long with tails that extend their length by an additional 9 inches or so.     They use their tails to help them balance and their tails along with their flexible spines can help them to land on all 4 feet when falling.    It talks about how a cat’s whiskers serve them just like a human’s fingertips gives them sensory information at a touch.    It mentions how a cat will smell it’s human’s shoes/feet and the cuffs of their pants to see what is going on in the outside world.   Cats can rotate their ears 180 degrees to focus on a particular sound hence how they pick up the tiny sounds a mouse makes when scurrying around the house in what we think is silence.     Cats have all the cool attributes, motion detection, agility in jumping, terrific depth perception, and vision that not only allows them to see in very miniscule light, but also allows them to see everything around them except what is actually right behind their heads.    The book discusses many different breeds and what is specific to that particular breed.    It talks about how in the wild as a rule cats don’t live in packs, but, prefer a more solitary life with just their mate or young until they move on.     Domestic cats form a bond with the person who feeds and grooms them,  who takes care of them.     Cats are creatures of habit and don’t like change.     Grooming a cat will save them from getting hairballs or at least not as many.   GOOD TO KNOW.   I had never much thought about that.   I always learn from every book I read.   The book also goes in to how cats need meat to be healthy they are predators and carnivores afterall, but they also need crunchy dry food to keep their teeth strong and their mouth clean.   The amount of food they need varies with weather, activity level and age which are all good things to know, too.    And the book dispels the old wives tale that cats should drink milk.    While they like milk it is hard for them to digest the book says.   (Mine love milk and whipped cream, though their dalliances are few and far between – my rule – not theirs.)   Something a lot of people don’t think about – cats need to drink lots of water and they don’t always.   I learned you can entice them with a little juice from a can of tuna in their water.   Just a helpful hint.     Favorite cat things:  Sleeping, laying in the sun, being in high places, stalking prey or toys.    The book also tells about cat essentials, scratching posts, litter pan, beds either one for them or they will try to share yours, and toys.    Cats rule in the U.S.   The Humane Society of the United States estimates there are 73 million owned cats in this country making cats the most popular pet (that surprised me, I figured dogs had the edge).   In Japan there are waving cat statues for good luck.   The cat statures wave the owner out of harm’s way.   In India’s Hindu culture the cat is a sign of luck or plenty.   Each person is responsible for feeding a cat to extend the life of his or her human family members.   Many Indians also honor a cat god called Sasti.    There is a wealth of good information in this book on cats.    They can jump 6 times their length,  the growth hormone is released during sleep hence why kittens sleep so much.  The oldest cat known was 36 years old and lived in Devonshire, England, tiniest cat recorded was 2.75 inches tall and 7.5 inches long and weighed 1lb.6 ounces.    Largest cat on record, a tabby named Himmy, lived in Queensland, Autrailia and weighed 47 lbs.,  largest litter on record – 19 kittens,   most births over a cat’s lifetime recorded – 420 kittens!  ( There is an advertisement for spaying and neutering.)      And cats are like potato chips the saying goes, you can’t have just one but the Guiness Book of World Records has recorded a couple owning the most cats known so far as having 689!    Cats are superheroes if Europe hadn’t started associating cats with witches and killing cats off they wouldn’t have had to endure that unchecked RAT population that brought the bubonic plague.   From the cave cats known as Smilodons with huge incisors to Andrew Lloyd Weber’s musical, “Cats”  from the pet cat muses of writers Colette and Cleveland Amory to the cartoon cat, “Garfield,” cats are friends, family and heroes (“Mourka” helped the Russian troops communicate by carrying messages back and forth across a dangerous street during the battle of Stalingrad and was recognized as a hero of WWII ).    This book is chock full of good cat information.   Excellent read.

Cat Speak

Cat Speak:Revealing Answers to the Strangest Cat Behaviors by Maureen Webster       32 pages  

I saw this title in the catalog and as I am a cat owner, I am always intrigued by any books pertaining to my feline family members.    A very good book that touches on many cat behaviors.     Cats are funny, they do so many things that make you shake your head and laugh at and this book explains some of those and offers explanations as to why cats do some of things they do.    It’s also the first book that told that not all cats react with delirous happy abandon when confronted with catnip it stated that while that state of joyous delirium can happen catnip can also cause some cats to react in an aggressive way or make them paranoid so don’t always expect your cat(s) to come off like extras from an early Cheech and Chong film.    It also explains that cat in a sack thing.    My cats love paper grocery bags.   One never enters the house without they take turns getting inside it and stalking each other when they try to open it or enter it.     The photography in this book is stunning.   Gorgeous photos on the cover and throughout.   My compliments to the photographer,  Phillipa Jenkins and the Door County Humane Society.     I think this book should be a must read for anyone with cats or kittens.   It is a good beginning manual to give the cat owner some clues as to what is up with their new friend.     It gives you an in on cat-ese or cat-speak as it teaches you how to gage your furry buddy’s mood by the direction of his/her ears and also of his/her tail – these are MUST KNOWs for all cat owners or cat owners-to-be.    I never knew cats could make over 100 different sounds, though, I can tell my cats by their voices even when I can’t see them.   And who knew cats have over 200 million scent receptors as opposed to humans with 5 million.    I knew they had more highly sophisticated senses of smell but that is even more highly evolved than I had a clue to.   Also, I knew cats rubbed their faces against things to leave their scent on them, but, when I see cats rubbing their flanks against something, I just thought it was the cat being cute or maybe fluffing up some loose hair to knock it loose.    I learned that there are also scent glands in cats flanks so they aren’t just scratching an itch like a bear does on a tree,  they are letting other felines know they have been there.    I see my cats touch noses and thought it was cute, but, I learned from this book that is a way that cats who know each other very well greet one another.    There are so many good things to learn about cat behavior in this book.    The best way to learn about a subject is to find the topic in a children’s book – what you are looking for will be broken down in to understandable terms and you will come away learning so much because the information will be direct and presented in a user friendly format.   This book is all that and more.   Loved it!

Norman, Speak!

Norman, Speak!  By Caroline Adderson & Qin Leng      32 pages                  

Like a variation of Sir Mix A Lot’s “Baby Got Back,”   -  “I like kid’s books that I can’t deny.”  J     Or more to the point -  I like books, it doesn’t matter who they might be geared to if a book looks interesting to me – I’m going to read it.    Enter, “Noman, Speak!”   What a great story!   Poor Norman was in a shelter hoping for a forever home.     Norman had been there longest of all the dogs and things weren’t looking too good for him.     He was brown and white, had a stump for a tail and had been living on the streets when someone found him and brought him in to the shelter.   Since they didn’t know his name they called him Norman.      A family came in one day and couldn’t decide which dog to take home when they decided they would go with the dog that was the saddest which was Norman because he had been waiting for a forever home longer than the rest.   The mom, dad and son agreed Norman was going home with them he was the one they wanted.   When they let him out of his cage, Norman wagged his back side to the left and right so hard he looked like he was doing a hula dance of joy.   The young boy set to teaching Norman tricks but Norman didn’t respond.    Is he deaf the family wondered?    Or could he just not be very smart?   He would look at them when they talked to him.   He would turn his head and cock an ear up but he just didn’t get what they were saying.    He didn’t seem to know his name was Norman, either.    They gave up and just accepted that Norman wasn’t too bright.  They took him to the dog park one day.    Norman started playing and running with a big black dog.     When the black dog’s owner called out to him the black dog ran to him and so did Norman.  The black dog’s owner gave some commands in another language to his dog and no matter what he asked his dog to do, sit, shake hands, etc. Norman did it too.   The man gave his dog a treat then he gave a treat to Norman, too.   The family was amazed and went over to the man and the two dogs.     The two dogs were listening to the man’s every word.    The family didn’t understand a word the man said.     Then the man turned to the family and asked if Norman was their dog?  They answered that yes he was.   The man laughed.   He told them their dog understood Chinese and asked if they knew he could do that?     The family was amazed and said, “Norman, why didn’t you say so?”     They immediately signed up for Chinese lessons the following Saturday.   The class was held in a church basement.    The boy wanted to bring Norman since he already understood Chinese and they were just beginning, but his Dad said, “No, we can’t take a dog into a church!”   The teacher’s name was Mrs. Wang and she would not speak a word in English she only spoke in Chinese.    She opened class saying, “Ni hao,” (hello)  to which all the students except Norman’s family who hadn’t learned the words, yet,  replied, “Ni hao.”  (hello)      Mrs. Wang then said, “ Wo shi Wang Laoshi.”  (My name is Teacher Wang.)    The students replied their names were,  “Wo shi Emily,  Wo Shi Morris,” etc.   ( My name is Emily, My name is Morris and so on.)   After class the family waited till all of the students had left then talked to Mrs. Wang telling her they did not understand a word of what was going on in class.    She gave them a private lesson to catch up.    All the way home they practiced the Chinese words they had learned in their heads so they could speak to Norman once they got home.   Once they got home Norman was so excited to see them he started doing his  hula dance of happiness again.   The boy let him lick his face but they had forgotten the Chinese words they had learned that day.   The boy told Norman he must be really smart.     The family did not feel like they were very smart.    They just couldn’t get the words and retain them till they got home to speak them to Norman.   They felt as dumb as they had thought Norman was before they learned he could speak a foreign language.    They decided that they were friendly and funny but not too smart when it came to picking up a new language but they hung in and persevered week after week trying hard to get it.    The boy picked up how to count and how to say the days of the week and how to say, “ Gou lai!”  (Come dog or Dog Come) and how to say “Zuoxia.”  (Sit.)    The family learned to say, “Henhao, Norman!”  (Good Norman)  because he was a good dog.    And then they learned to hug him and say, “Women ai ni, Norman,”   (We love you, Norman.), because they do love Norman.    So from then on when they would speak Chinese to Norman at the dog park people would come up to them and ask,  “what language does your dog speak?”  The family would say, “Chinese.”    People would be in awe.    They would tell the family, “Chinese!  It’s so difficult to learn.    What a smart dog!”    And the family would answer, “He is, but that’s not why we love him.”       Great story about how we often sell others short until we truly understand the why behind their behavior.    So simple, yet so profound.   Don’t jump to conclusions learn the why of a thing before getting judgemental.    Great story.   And cool bonus – you get to learn some words and phrases in Chinese.

Hungry Heart

Hungry Heart: Adventures in Life, Love and Writing  by Jennifer Weiner                                 Audio Book:   13 hours, 15 minutes       416 pages                        

OMgosh!   What a life this gal has lived and how hilarious she tells about her experiences even the difficult ones.    She went from growing up in a happy home to her father philandering and her mother finally kicking him out over it.    Her father becomes addicted to heroin and crack in his senior years and her mother comes out of the closet as a proud lesbian and marries her second girlfriend.      That right there is enough fodder for a t.v. sitcom but wait!     There is so much to take in as you look through Jennifer’s eyes at her life so far.     Always a step outside the norm, the girls she grew up with were always bingeing and purging their meals while Jennifer ate everything she wanted to dealing with their cutting remarks but not letting it stop her from being the person she was meant to be.     She never lacked for boyfriends as a size 16 and while her feelings got hurt because she was profiled as a “fat girl” pretty much all her life it has in no way ever stopped her from anything she wanted to do, well, there was that time at Princeton when she joined the rowing team and the coach insisted she lose weight or get thrown off the team and she argued that regardless of her size she was a heck of a rower and what did size have to do with anything, anyway?    She could outdo most if not all of her thin teammates.   She has dealt with prejudices over her size, over her being Jewish, over her lack of finances – ie. While working and attending Princeton  she was barely squeaking by on her paycheck (her Dad had decided to stop paying her tuition without telling her) so she would stop in at a bar that had free food out during their happy hour and she would try to fill up while nursing a drink which the barmaid would give her hard looks over though Jennifer did her best to ignore them because she couldn’t afford to buy food and she loved to eat.   She even got dissed over her writing – while both were featured guest speakers on a  writing panel, Kurt Vonnegut called her a hack!.    Her sister was always vying  to be the center of attention though in later years they teamed up and were always there for one another along with her two brothers.   She and her sister would always try to get a rise out of their mother (and everyone else).   They would say things just trying to frazzle their mother because she was perpetually positive and always spouting old adages whether they were actually appropriate for the situation or not.   Her younger sister was always goading their grandmother, too, and she would mouth words instead of saying them out loud when their grandmother’s hard of hearing boyfriend was around just to get under her grandmother’s skin.    Jennifer married twice, has two grown daughters and has loved and lost a dog who totally understood her and she mourned for days inconsolable when she lost him.    When her father died, she asked if she could pay for his funeral with her American Express card so she could at least get bonus points for all the money she was spending.        She is funny, smart, says what she thinks and makes no apologies,  she has been through a lot and come out on top (bestselling author on the NYT bestseller list, 14 books under her belt, one of her titles was made into a film with Toni Collette and Cameron Diaz, mom, wife, friend)– take that mean girls from her past, rowing coach, departed father, Kurt Vonnegut and all other naysayers !    A fun read, treat yourself, you will laugh out loud, and appreciate a fellow soul who takes good and bad in stride and valiantly marches on with a hilarious comment or several.

Evelyn Waugh

Evelyn Waugh: A Life Revisited by Philip Eade, 336 pages

A friend once described Evelyn Waugh as possessing "an odious, indeed a psychopathic character".  Waugh listed his own faults in a letter to his eventual wife - "I am restless & moody & misanthropic & lazy & have no money except what I earn and if I got ill you would starve" - on his suitability for marriage, "I can't advise you in my favour because I think it would be beastly for you, but think how nice it would be for me."  Yet Graham Greene declared the author of Brideshead Revisited, the Sword of Honour trilogy, and Decline and Fall "the greatest novelist of my generation", an opinion echoed by Robert Henriques, who called Waugh "the best writer of our generation, both morally and in ways I can't define."  Waugh himself understood the complementarity of his famously difficult personality and his craft: "Humility is not a virtue propitious to the artist.  It is often pride, emulation, avarice, malice - all the odious qualities - which drive a man to complete, elaborate, refine, destroy, renew, his work until he has made something that gratifies his pride and envy and greed.  And in doing so he enriches the world more than the generous and good, though he may lose his own soul in the process.  That is the paradox of artistic achievement."

Eade's biography of Waugh charts this paradox as it follows him from his troubled childhood to his schooldays when he first "declared war on dullness", through to Oxford with the Aesthetes and London with the Bright Young Things, his initial literary success, disastrous first marriage, and subsequent conversion to Catholicism, his happy second marriage and service as a commando in World War II, the writing of his later masterpieces, struggles with alcohol, mental breakdown, semi-retirement and death.  Eade is less interested in Waugh's literary output than in the people and personalities that surrounded him, although given the extent to which Waugh used (and often abused) friends and acquaintances as models for characters in his work this is understandable - even moreso if considered in the light of Waugh's notorious contempt for critics.

Cancel Your Own Goddam Subscription

Cancel Your Own Goddam Subscription: Notes & Asides from National Review by William F Buckley Jr, 275 pages

For nearly four decades, National Review ran a regular column titled "Notes & Asides", curated by founder William F Buckley, collecting odds and ends of correspondence to and from the magazine.  The flotsam and jetsam collected in Cancel Your Own Goddam Subscription includes a letter from a high school student wanting to know what "to immanetize the eschaton" means, a note from Ted Kennedy correcting the record on his Senate votes, and the announcement of the formation of the National Committee to Horsewhip Drew Pearson*.  Space is also devoted to grammatical questions such as whether Americans insert superfluous prepositions into phrases ("early on", "enter into the fray") and the common origins of the words "heist" and "hoist", as well as dispatches from Buckley's battles with unions representing the printing trades, television and radio artists, and film actors.

There is no disguising the fact that most of what is presented here is less amusing now than it probably was when it was first published.  The running gags sometimes drag and the in-jokes fall flat.  Still, even if not quite "exfoliated daily from angels' wings", Cancel Your Own Goddam Subscription contains more wit and amusement than most books.

* - Because of what he said about Shirley Temple Black.**

** - Whatever that was.

Girl in Disguise

Girl in Disguise by Greer MacAllister   320 pages (due out March, 2017. I read a galley)

"For the first female Pinkerton detective, respect is hard to come by. Danger, however, is not."

Kate Warne, the first female Pinkerton detective and a widow with a knack for manipulation, descends into numerous undercover operations in the years of the Civil War. Based in Chicago, she can infiltrate the city in ways that her fellow detectives can't, which makes her an asset to Pinkerton. However, to be a good agent also means leading a pretty lonely life.

This book was inspired by the real story of Kate Warne, and definitely captures her fiercely independent spirit. To do what she did took a lot of determination, intelligence and wit. The author does a nice job of bringing Kate to life, along with the setting of Chicago in the 1860s. The political turmoil of the time definitely underscores the danger that Kate and her fellow agents faced.  I found this book to be a good read, and definitely an interesting story. Kate is believable and I found it easy to imagine her in her adventures.

Every Wild Heart

Every Wild Heart by Meg Donohue.  304 pages  (due out March, 2017 - I read an e-galley)

Radio personality Gail Gideon is beloved by millions of single women who tune in for her advice on the power of self-reinvention and relationships. However, not everyone is a fan, which becomes apparent when she starts receiving hateful messages.  Her daughter, Nic, is fourteen and feels she's always in her mother's shadow. Plagued by a fear of social situations, Nic keeps to herself, at most comfortable at the stable where she takes riding lessons. When an accident lands Nic in the hospital, she awakens from a short coma a changed girl. Suddenly, she has no fear at all, and no one, least of all her mother, can guess what she'll do next.

This was an okay book, although I found it to be too predictable for my taste.  I liked the characters well enough, and especially liked how the dynamic between mother and daughter was explored. However, I felt like I knew what was going to happen before it did, and while I kept turning the pages out of curiosity, I wasn't surprised when the book ended (and was just when I got to the last page).

At Work At Home by Neal Zimmerman

At Work At Home by Neal Zimmerman   300 pages                              

Excellent, beautiful ideas for creating a work space in your home.    I love the simplicity of Neal Zimmerman’s explanations and his careful detail.   It’s like the man knows me.   He is imbuing me with his incredible architectural and interior design knowledge, yet, he gets me in that he breaks all that wonderful stuff down to newbie terms so that I, who knows what a hammer is, but, not necessarily how to use it in a professional manner,  can understand what he is talking about.     While most of his ideas are elegant, I’m sure catering to his upper eschalon clientele’s taste, he also has loads of beautiful, creative ideas for making workspaces out of nooks, crannies, closets, hallways, kitchen counter space pretty much anywhere you have enough space to spread out on a flat surface he can help with ideas you can use to create not just a work space but a fabulous workspace.   He even designed this cool cacoon of bookshelves that has books double housed on the shelves on both sides, it looks kind of like a tall igloo or a bee hive with that swirly thing going on but the user would be totally enveloped in this bunch of books hidden from view, yet, in this incredibly cush work spot.    I would love that one!   Like you are master of your own domain in your own lair.   You’d be saying, “I’m Bookman,”   and want a red phone on your desk just like that Gotham City guy.     Man!   I would so love that!  J   He takes in to account the who of you when discussing make a space workable.    It’s not just, “oh that looks great – I want that look,”  but, he goes in to the who of you – Who are you?  What are your likes?   Dislikes?   What are you passionate about?   What are your needs for the space ie. what is it you need to do in the space and what supplies and storage do you need to accomplish your goals?    Do you need to perform office functions, are you running a business so you require more space, do you basically need a flat surface to work on or are you working with employees and/or clients and need to configure space that is workable for not just what you are doing but that is also  convenient  and serving the needs of what you are trying to accomplish as well as not disrupting the other people in your home and or making things accessible for all involved (ie. Do you need to install a second bathroom to accommodate your staff and your clients without holding family members up with everyone waiting to use 1 bathroom?    Do you have access to entries/exits without having to parade through the whole house while your kids are trying to do homework?    Do you have access to kitchen/breakroom facilities without disrupting your spouse’s cooking, etc. )   Great ideas that I would not have necessarily thought of, he takes lots of things into account.      He even considers the electrical equipment you may require in your workspace.    Do you need a computer or laptop?     Lighting?    Will you be using tools or require projectors, monitors, microphones, etc. set up?     Are your workspace needs personal or will you need to accommodate several people in your work area?   Ie. Classroom situation, exercise/dance floor situation,  printing, weaving equipment, etc.?   All require differing spatial needs.     He even goes into how the user should take into account his/her height standing and sitting and adjust lighting, computer screens, monitors, furniture to where it is set best for your comfort.  (Think ergonomically speaking.)    He even has a suggestion for using a wooden door in a horizontal position to serve as a flat surface workspace which I am anxious to try since I just so happen to have a spare door available sitting in my garage.    Not only are his ideas sound and good ones they will inspire you to put your own spin on work spaces you want to create in your own home, basement, attic, garage, alcove, etc.   I’m still loving that book hive.   Gotta try it!     Excellent book and tool.

The More of Less

The More of Less:  Finding the Life You Want Under Everything You Own by Joshua Becker                        Audio Book: 6 hours, 30 minutes      Book:  240 pages                

Joshua Becker could be a preacher.    A preacher of the minimalist lifestyle.    I always knew I could do with less stuff.   Many things I own or have on a shelf or in a closet or a box are not things I need or particularly want any more.    They are things that for whatever reason at the time, spur of the moment, it seemed like the right price or maybe I liked it (but didn’t LOVE it)  maybe I had a plan for it at the time or maybe I got it for some occasion long passed that it didn’t make it to, whatever the reason, I have stuff.    Joshua Becker and his family had stuff, too.    He decided to clean out his garage one day and after 6 hours of intense work – he had brought all his garage stuff out on his driveway, worked all day and hadn’t made a dent in the pile of stuff covering his driveway and the day was passing and he still had to decide what to do with all the stuff and what he might want to find a place for and return it to the garage in a much cooler organized fashion.    He took a break and was talking to his neighbor lady about what a job it was and how overwhelming having all that stuff was when she said to him, “You just need less stuff.”   So simple.   So pure.   So true.    It was like he was hit with a lightning bolt.    The answer was right there in front of him, literally.    It wasn’t about finding places to restore all this unused, untouched stuff, it was downsizing and getting rid of all the mass of clutter that was not serving him in any way.   So began his quest for the minimalist life.    He shared his aha moment with his wife.   They discussed and yes, she too, became a convert to the minimalist philosophy with the caveat there were dishes she might not use every day, but, wanted to keep for sentimental reasons she was not ready to let go of.    Done.   Compromise in place.    After explaining to their kids and getting them onboard though parting with well loved but no longer played with toys brought a few tears, the kids began to find the game in it all.    Well, there was an exception.    His son saved up his money to buy a skateboard.   He had been wanting it for a long time but when Joshua took his son to the store to buy the skateboard so many other items caught his eye that he and his son both went in to tantrum mode.    All the glitzy marketing ploys distraced his son’s attention from what he came in for to make him think he could not live without a dinosaur tent, some race cars and a number of other things between the door and the aisle with  the skateboards.   Joshua was adamant – you came in for a skateboard and that is what you are leaving with nothing else!   They finally agreed on if his son would wait a few days and see if he still wanted the other things he could save up and get them, too, but, the deal was he couldn’t get them that day, he had to wait and think about it.    His son left with the skateboard he had come in for and never went back for the other stuff.    Joshua Beck’s point is people are so blasted with all marketing ads telling us how we can’t live without a thing that companies pay billions of dollars to marketing firms to find the right combination to our psyches to make us want something we never thought about before and honestly don’t need.   It is like the difference between having a real hunger or having a taste for something.    You are either actually in need of food or something just crossed your mind that you think you want though you may not even be hungry at all.   It is thanks to marketing that we over indulge our appetites for food and for stuff and either our waistlines increase or our homes overflow with too many things in the space we have to live in or both.    Joshua’s point is we can be happier, healthier and mentally less fatigued if we have less things to worry about.    And stockpiling stuff only feels good in the moment not the long term.    We may be happy with some nugget we have unearthed and feel we are king of our castle but once the things take over and revolt against us, the things take over our lives and we are stuck with less space to enjoy in our own homes.    Instead of being master of all we survey, we become slaves to all the crap we have amassed.    If all of our excess space is taken up with excess stuff we are not getting the joy out of our homes, our cars, our attics, basements, garages you name it because we are paying merely for storage space not usuable family space.    Joshua and his family set the example here for why do we need 6 of anything when 2 or 4 will do?   Why do we need to own 500 DVDs if we can go to the Library and borrow them then return them and not have them clutter our space and require dusting taking more of our time away we could be enjoying outside doing something fun?   The man makes excellent and memorable points.   I loved this book.    I am going to start paring down right now.      Cheers to the minimalist lifestyle.     Better living with less to maintain and store.              

The Light From Another Country

The Light From Another Country:  Poetry From American Prisons Edited by Joseph Bruchac         326 pages                  

A book of poetry written by inmates throughout the American prison system.     It really weaves a tapestry of many nationalities bringing a blend of many backgrounds, many experiences, many viewpoints together in one book form.   I enjoyed it very much.   From the witty to the sullen, from the gritty to the soulful.     Many are like psalms, words that could be spoken to music like cries from within to a higher power.   Some are angry shaking a proverbial fist in the face of what they are dealing with confined behind walls and bars within those walls.    Some are avant garde going in new and unusual directions or themes,  but gripping in their intensity and purpose.     Some share folklore from their childhoods woven into retellings to keep the old ways alive but in condensed new versions.    Some recall love lost or waiting outside the walls or in their dreams at night or newly found within the walls -the love that shall not be named, that cannot be openly expressed for fear of repercussion from the prison officials, but continues to  exist and many declare in their odes within the pages found here.    It is so touching and heart rending to read the words of the prisoner waiting for the moonlight to show through the bit of view they have of a window or the prisoner in the hole who’s only human contact is when their ration of food is pushed through the slot in the door and no one speaks to them and they are not allowed to speak nor hear anything nor know anything of the outside, even their photos of home and loved ones taken away from them and destroyed.   They often describe the stone of the walls, the humiliation of sharing a cell and the smells of bodily waste that cannot be gotten away from or the burning pain of tears held back,  of the guilt they feel for hurting their mothers, disappointing their fathers or missing a loved one’s funeral or being led in the mortuary in chains, handcuffs and shackles, the fear from day to day what might come and the horror of watching inmates kill and be killed with makeshift implements and how cons become so accustomed to the fighting and expiration of fellow inmates that they can joke about how the expired one didn’t like eggs and that is what they were having on the menu that day so he got out of that.    Some have the cavalier “Cool Hand Luke” attitude of Paul Newman’s character in the film, some have the militant tones of Huey Newton raging against the injustice and lack of respect for their human rights while some of the poets and writers muse on the crimes they were incarcerated for.     While nothing could ever totally describe what life must be like in prison, these writers each  give us a glimpse through their eyes capturing the time, the emotion and the ultimate experience in their own words.    Bravo!   Well done.  

Disconnected

Disconnected by Jennifer Weiner            Audio Book: 1hour, 16 minutes       eBook:  32 pages            

A short listen, a short read, but a heavy story.    Shannon the main character has issues.    She’s hooked on heroin,  she’s a thief but she assures that she doesn’t steal from anyone she knows (that makes it o.k., Shannon?  I don’t think so.).   Her druggie past has severed her relationship with her parents.   After her fifth time in rehab they tell her basically they are done that they are getting rid of her stuff, don’t come back home the only thing of yours still here is the dress we will bury you in.    Sound of door slamming on her past.   She struggles to get by but does have the moxy to get a job at a publishers where she sends out the letters telling would be published authors they have not been accepted by that publisher.   She also submits her own writing to various publications and makes enough on the bits and pieces and slamming photos of celebrities (them out of makeup, them on a drinking binge, them after having gained weight, etc.)   she comes up with to be able to barely scrape by.   (Hence the stealing – usually food.)    Through a strange twist of fate – a new cellphone offers a redeeming opportunity.    Her past, present and future collide like a 40 foot wave hitting the shore.    Interesting how angels show up in one’s life and sometimes we can be angels unaware.     It might take a second read to get it all there is so much here.    I re-read it or relistened as it were, 3 times to really decide what was real and what may have been illusory.    A different walk in Jennifer Weiner’s writing.     No sunny story here but worth the listen.

Complete Francis of Assisi

The Complete Francis of Assisi, translated and edited by Jon M Sweeney, 397 pages

The wealthy cloth merchant Bernardone was on a business trip in France when his son was born, so he named the boy "Francis".  As an adult, Francis stripped naked in the town square and handed his clothes to his father as the sacrament of his renunciation of any earthly inheritance, then went inside the cathedral wrapped in the cope of the bishop to seek imperishable treasure.  When he returned to Assisi to die he owned nothing except a worn brown robe he had patched himself, a robe in which he had begged for bread and stones, fasted and sang, and preached to the birds of the air as well as sultans, emperors, and popes.  Armed soldiers were sent to accompany him on his final journey to guard against kidnappers attempting to claim for their cities the honor of his burial.  Eight centuries later, this most Christ-like of men is still loved and revered the world over, not only by the tens of thousands of men and women who have solemnly vowed to follow his Rule, but by millions of others, including non-Catholics and even non-Christians.

The Complete Francis of Assisi, part of the "Paraclete Giants" series, collects many of the writings of the saint.  As St Francis actually wrote very little, these are sandwiched between two biographies - the modern Protestant The Life of St Francis of Assisi written by Paul Sabatier and the medieval Catholic The Little Flowers of St Francis written by his friends and followers.  There is a certain fitness to the resulting dominance of biography, for although Francis most likely never literally said, "Preach the Gospel at all times, use words when necessary", the famous aphorism is nonetheless an excellent refinement of his actual words and example.  

Kindred Spirits

Kindred Spirits by Sarah Strohmeyer    Audio Book: 9 hours, 45 minutes      Paperback: 326 pages                      

Fun story of 4 female friends, Lynne, MaryKay, Beth and Carol, who as young mothers met at a PTA meeting and became bffs ever after meeting once  a month and more often as required to laugh, talk out their home issues, relationship issues, mother issues and any other issues that they had over martinis.   They created a club entitled “The Ladies Society for the Conservation of Martinis,” named after an aged cookbook they had found with a similar name.    They help each other during times of crisis and console each other and commiserate as friends do over everything they go through, until, Lynne is diagnosed with Stage 4 cancer.   Still close, still there to help they continue to be supportive of one another, though now there is a dark harbinger hanging over them.    Lynne asks her friends to not let her husband nor kids, nor her mother-in-law nor sister-in-laws go through her things when she dies.   She wants the club to do it.   They agree.    Then without saying anything further, Lynne picks a beautiful sunny day to chat with some folks and enjoy the day, then she commits suicide so she won’t have to go through the worst of the cancer treatments nor the pain of the incurable at this point disease.     This puts her friends in a bit of a precarious position given that they have to wade through the house full of in-laws giving them the stink eye for carrying out their task, but, it is what Lynne wanted and she made sure her immediate family knew it.     Of course Lynne told her family it would be too hard for them to have to deal with it but there was more to the story than that.     There is a mystery Lynne wanted her friends to discover and then solve.     With plenty of Martinis and ingredients for many, many more martinis in hand the remaining three friends pack their bags and go on a roadtrip in honor of their friend Lynne.   Good times, bad times, and lots of eye-opening times along with a great adventure lead the gals here, there and back again with some wonderful and hilarious happenings.    A good book and a great tale for friends to share in a book group.    I must say,  pack the martinis, though, this book will make you want to get your drink on and join the party.

St. Louis Noir

St. Louis Noir edited by Scott Phillips 240  pages

This is the latest installment of Akashic Noir’s Midwest series, following Chicago, the Twin Cities and Kansas City. In total, the Akashic Noir Series has about 75 titles, set around the world.

This particular collection has 14 entries, 13 dark, short stories and one poetic interlude. I recognized six of the authors for a variety of reasons. John Lutz and Scott Phillips are nationally recognized for their work: Lutz for “Single White Female” and Phillips for “The Ice Harvest.” Poet Michael Castro is the City of St. Louis’ Poet Laureate and locally famous before he was awarded the position. Jedidiah Ayres I’ve heard of from writer Joe Schwartz, and L. J. Smith I know from the local writing scene. Calvin Wilson is a reporter for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

It was fun reading stories that take is familiar landmarks. The book is broken into four section, much like the metropolitan area itself: the City, the County, and Across the River (Illinois). The poetic interlude speaks to the large network of creative talent that call St. Louis home.

Phillips did a bang-up job with his Introduction: “High and Low Culture.” That describes St. Louis to a tee, past and present.

The collection gets off to strong start with the first story, “Abandoned Places” by S. L. Coney. In this story, after Ian’s father disappears, most assume he’s dead. But Ian isn’t so sure. He follows his stepmother one night and discovers that his father is held prisoner. There is some wonderfully vivid imagery especially involving the slitting of a throat. Without giving anything away (I hope), that one sentence that stood out among the rest was: “The skin gaped on either side, of that opening, giving (deleted to prevent a spoiler detail) a second smile.” This always gives me the shivers.

While “Abandoned Places” was my favorite, my least favorite was “Deserted Cities of the Heart,” by Paul D. Marks. It was rather existential, really didn’t have a plot and mostly seemed to center around loner Daniel Hayden lying under the Gateway Arch.

The rest of the authors cover the bases; it’s all here: a 1950s story about racism that also has no plot, a mentally unstable African-American man after a tour in Vietnam, slackers, femme fatales, divorces, death, missing children, skinheads, ending with a twist, convicts and drugs and drug dealers.

All in all, except for the first story, I felt that all the others were just okay. St. Louis Noir receives 3 out of 5 stars in Julie’s world.

The Honor Code

The Honor Code by Anthony Appiah   264 pages

Appiah argues that morality isn't enough to effect changes in whether people do things that are considered bad. Honor and what is considered honorable has to shift in order for people to act. To make his case, he provides three examples: the death of the duel, the end of foot binding in China and the ending of Atlantic Slavery. He describes some of the historical context and explains how a shift in what was conceived of as honorable changed what people did. Finally, he indicates how this information can be applied to "honor killings".


Appiah makes a pretty compelling case to explain how moral revolutions happen. This book is philosophy but it is written for the layman and is very accessible. I thought it was a good read and would recommend it to others.

The Black Jewels Trilogy

The Black Jewels Trilogy: Daughter of the Blood, Heir to the Shadows, Queen of the Darkness (The Black Jewels #1-3)  by Anne Bishop  1204 pages

The Black Jewels trilogy takes place in a world where some people and animals have magical powers, depending on the color of the Jewel they wear. The Dark Kingdom is preparing itself for the arrival of a new Queen, a Witch who is the fulfillment of an ancient prophecy and who will wield more power than even the High Lord of Hell.  However, this new Queen is quite young and vulnerable to influence and corruption.  When three sworn enemies start a ruthless game of intrigue, politics and betrayal, the destiny of an entire world is at stake.

The first book in the series introduces Jaenelle, who is Witch (or Dreams Made Flesh).  She holds an immense amount of power (which she's pretty unaware of) and has a charming, open personality that endears her to those she encounters. However, because she has this power, she is in danger; however, she is also quite dangerous.  This first book lines up some of the characters who are integral to the entire trilogy and the next two books take Jaenelle through her teen years and into adulthood, with the danger building to a climax at the end of the third book.

If there's a silver lining to the bad cold I've been suffering through for a few days, it's that when I get up in the middle of the night, I have some prime reading time.  I've read these books before (and own them) and it was nice to revisit the stories again.  These are what I call "light fantasy fiction,." although readers should be forewarned that there are descriptions of sex and violence in this book (especially since sex ties into power in the world of the Jewels). While the author's writing style sometimes rubs me a bit the wrong way (for example, she uses the same descriptive terms over and over again), I like the world and magic system she creates here, and I like some of the characters.  I also like that there aren't happy endings for all of the characters, which makes the story a little more realistic.  Bishop clearly defines the Jewel system and has an explanation of the different societal levels in each book, so it's easy to get the hang of things right away.