|
Click to flag this message as abuse
What is abuse? (1) personal attacks, (2) commercial solicitation, (3) spam. See terms of use. 
Welcome to Chapter 3 of my 2009 reading. Blackdogbooks' Chapter 1 thread is here. And....... Blackdogbooks' Chapter 2 thread appears here. Thanks for sniffin' around.  Hello there from blackdogbooks, aka 'BDB', aka 'Mac'. My reading goal this year is to finish at least one of the 100 best lists I have been nibbling at for awhile. Prop2gether, knowing of my obssession with lists and books, turned me onto the 1001 books list which is closer to 1300 books. Sadly, I must finish what I start before I begin again. Along the way, there will be King and Steinbeck and Hemingway. I plan to be much more organized this year, keeping a running list at the top of my thread here for ease. And I am also going to be better about making note of books suggested by you 75'ers this year. Y'all post too much and I am constantly having to search back to figure out who made a recommendation. Good reading!!! 2009 list: 1. Joker One by Donovan Campbell 2. A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway 3. The Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison 4. Animal Farm by George Orwell 5. To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf 6. An American Tragedy by Theodore Dreiser 7. The Way of All Flesh by Samuel Butler 8. Appointment in Samarra by John O'Hara 9. A Passage to India by E.M. Forster 10. Henderson the Rain King by Saul Bellow 11. Winesburg, Ohio by Sherwood Anderson 12. American Rust by Philipp Meyer 13. Internal Affairs by Connie Dial 14. The Hot Zone by Richard Preston 15. The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down by Anne Fadiman 16. Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin 17. Peasant Wars of the Twentieth Century by Eric R. Wolf 18. You Learn by Living by Eleanor Roosevelt 19. Favorite Dog Stories by James Herriot 20. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen 21. For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway 22. The Night Battles by M.F. Bloxam 23. Shimmer by Eric Barnes 24. The Prince of Tides by Pat Conroy 25. Joy Writing by Kenn Amdahl 26. The Night Watchman by Mark Mynheir 27. The Dirty Secrets Club by Meg Gardiner 28. The Drowning Tree by Carol Goodman 29. The Case of the Missing Books by Ian Sansom 30. Amagansett by Mark Mills 31. Out by Natsuo Kirino 32. Primitive People by Francine Prose 33. The 6th Lamentation by William Brodrick 34. The Absence of Nectar by Kathy Hepinstahl 35. The Time Traveler's Wife by Audry Niffenegger 36. Hiddenby Paul Jaskunas 37. The Memory of Running by Ron McLarty 38. Sweeping Up Glass by Carolyn Wall 39. Caught Stealing by Charlie Huston 40. Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri 41. Case Histories by Kate Atkinson 42. USA by John Dos Passos (Only finished the first book in the trilogy) 43. I, Claudius by Robert Graves 44. Howard's End by E.M. Forster 45. This Year You Write Your Novel by Walter Mosley 46. Tender is the Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald 47. Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott 48. Water Witch by Deborah LeBlanc 49. Go Tell It on the Mountain by James Baldwin 50. This Year You Write Your Novel by Walter Mosley 51. On Writing by Stephen King 52. Homer and Langley by E.E. Doctorow 53. City of Refuge by Tom Piazza 54. the Rainbow by D.H. Lawrence 55. Dracula by Bram Stoker 56. Beg, Borrow, Steal: The Life of a Writer by Michael Greenberg 57. The Wood Wife by Terri Windling 58. The Island of Dr. Moreau by H.G. Wells 59. The House of Seven Gables by Nathaniel Hawthorne 60. A Better Angel by Chris Adrian Message edited by its author, Nov 14, 2009, 5:26pm. Book #46, Tender is the Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald My Review on the book's home page: We break ourselves against one another; shattering our spirits against the unyielding hardness, the unforgiving and jagged defenses which protect our loved ones’ spirits. It is a necessary and all too familiar part of life. Sometimes the collision chokes a relationship, killing it before it can grow, and other times, it nurtures a bond until it flowers and sustains life. F. Scott Fitzgerald’s life was filled with such collisions, most notably his marriage to Zelda. Zelda’s fragile and oft broken psyche and the strained love between her and Fitzgerald clearly inspired him to write Tender is the Night. The novel follows the Divers, Dick and Nicole. Dick, a psychiatrist, falls in love with a patient, Nicole and begins a life altering obsession to cure her. During one of Nicole’s interludes of sanity, the couple meets Rosemary, a self-obsessed, narcissistic teenage actress. She tempts Dick and they have a brief love affair. Dick’s betrayal forever alters his love of Nicole, as she becomes increasingly paranoid and distrustful and he wallows in guilt and weakness. The book’s story is not particularly engaging, as these spoiled and selfish people seem to randomly careen around, bumping into each other. But on several occasions, Fitzgerald’s pain and anguish over his wife’s malady and their tenuous bond to each other bleed through the rest of the story and characters, quickening the novel. I can’t say I enjoyed reading Tender is the Night, though it certainly seized me in the occasional moment of raw emotion and pain. Fitzgerald wasn’t always telling a good story but often transposed powerful feelings, ones which must have afflicted him, into the book. And most every page offers graceful, harmonic language. Often, I turned off the processes in my mind with sort through story and plot and character to simply absorb the rich, powerful prose. !!!!Bottom Line: A classic for two reasons: the way Fitzgerald can string words together and the glimpse it offers into lives cursed by madness. 4 bones!!!!  Message edited by its author, Jul 26, 2009, 6:45pm. The following 'review's is more of an essay with a review embedded. Hope it isn't too long for y'all but, after reading the book, I had a lot to say; usually a sign of a good book!! Book #47, Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott Non-Fiction Books and Writing 269 pages My Review on the book's home page: I have a secret. It haunts me every waking minute of every day and sometimes steals my sleep. It invades my thoughts, filling my mind with promise and fear and anxiety and doubt. Mostly the doubt overtakes the other feelings, so I end up feeling unsure about myself more than anything else. Last week, in support of this thing I am hiding from everyone, I went into the local Barnes and Noble. That’s not an uncommon event in my life by any means. But on this day, instead of perusing the remainders and bargains or the local author display, I clandestinely ventured up the escalator to the second floor, searching for a section of books I’d never dared look at before. I glanced over my shoulder furtively several times as I snaked through the shelves, worried someone might be following me. When I spied the titles I was looking for, I looked both ways, ever wary, just like a kid about to pull his first shoplifting caper. My first steps towards the target were quickly retraced as a friendly employee asked if I was finding everything alright. Nervously, with wringing hands locked behind my back, I assured the helpful clerk that I was fine and moved quickly away. Once the coast was clear again, I darted between two shelves and gazed up at the subject of my secret: writing. I have a secret. I want to write. No, if I’m honest with myself, it’s more. I need to write and, what’s even more, I think I can write. The vanity that fuels such a notion in me is staggering. The idea that anything I produced, any story I told, would be interesting to anyone, that it would be readable, is ludicrous. There’s a healthy dose of that doubt I mentioned earlier. Nourishing my conceit, I ran my hands over the spines of several studies on writing. There were the familiar ‘Dummies’ guides, offering everything you need to know on writing your first novel, having it published in under a year, and selling the screen rights in under two. There were short, cryptic monographs, offering the least amount of information and support necessary to achieve publication. These little diatribes were published, it seemed, by authors interested only maintaining the mysteries of the profession, authors intent on protecting their own status as big fish in a little pond. There was even a picture book, offering ten or twelve witty quips, with comic book illustrations. Then, my hand came to rest on Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott, a title which seemed out of place until you notice the full title on the front cover includes the phrase, Some Instructions on Writing and Life. Securing the book under my arm to hide the title from anyone who might figure me for one of those people who dreamed up talent and wit wildly beyond their true capabilities, one of those people who are constantly imagining that they are only a few words from being discovered as the next great American novelist or poet, I scurried downstairs and checked out, hoping the cashier wouldn’t roll her eyes at me. Lamott’s book is one part writing class, one part therapeutic treatment, one part theological essay, and one part George Carlin stand-up routine. Such a mix demands attention. And, if that combination wasn’t enough, Lamott’s sardonic personality penetrates throughout, displaying a truly unique and funny voice. It turns out that Lamott offers as much thought on life as she does on the practice of writing. She sees the act as more of a tool of self-realization and self-expansion than a profession; sees it as more of an extension of our basic human need to be understood. Not everyone is drawn to this frightening outlet in their search for visibility and understanding but anyone who harbors the secret desire of writing or who is a constant and dedicated reader will recognize themselves immediately in this book. For Lamott, writing is ultimately an exercise in opening yourself up and paying attention to the world around you and then allowing yourself to translate those personal experiences to the page, offering them back to the world as a gift. Don’t despair; the book is not all so ethereal and touchy-feely. Lamott also gives practical, everyday advice on sitting at the desk or in front of a computer and getting words onto paper. She breaks down the daunting act of writing into simple, reachable goals, what she calls, ‘short assignments.’ She provides tips on plot and character and story building. But Lamott never abandons her message of writing simply for the sake of writing, for the growth and perspective it offers. And, though Lamott touches briefly on the publishing world, publication is decidedly not her goal in writing. Sure, Lamott admits, she harbored fantasies about publishing her work to a chorus of praise and a shower of money; she longed to stroke her own ego in reaching millions of readers with her personal thoughts. But Lamott eventually realized that the true reward of writing is in how it affects your own life, not in how it affects others. All of the authors I love, the best authors, always seem to be working through something for themselves, something personal, in creating their stories and characters. When a book pierces my heart, calls to some part of me, it is usually because the author has hit on some unrequited feeling or unfulfilled need, or, perhaps, because the author has captured a person or a part of life so artfully, so adroitly, that it bears the absolute and terrible ring of truth. In A Moveable Feast, Hemingway described a recurring conversation he had with himself in jumpstarting his writing. He repeatedly told himself, “All you have to do is write one true sentence. Write the truest sentence that you know.” Lamott puts it this way, “If something inside you is real, we will probably find it interesting, and it will probably be universal. … Tell the truth as you understand it. If you’re a writer, you have a moral obligation to do this. And it is a revolutionary act – truth is always subversive.” That search for universal truth in life and the sincere desire to translate it for fellow travelers makes for great writing. Tapping into your own soul, your own inner most thoughts and feelings, is both the goal and its own reward. I have a secret. And it’s a secret that I may never share with many folks. But books like Bird by Bird and Joy Writing by Ken Amdahl have helped define the secret and invest me in its reality. So, I will write, however conceited it makes me feel, however doubtful I may be of myself. But, in the process, I hope to discover myself, discover the world around me, and, maybe, the truth that reside in both. Bottom Line: A favorite! If you are a reader or a writer to be or just a thinker, read this book. 5 bones!!!!!  Message edited by its author, Aug 2, 2009, 7:01pm. Book #48, Water Witch by Deborah LeBlanc ARC book Horror My Review on the book's home page: “It was a dark and stormy night.” Now, don’t get me wrong; a dark and stormy night can be pretty frightening. With the crashing of thunder, and lightning strikes flashing through a house darkened by power outages, and candles flickering from the wind penetrating through window seals, well, things can get pretty spooky. And, if there’s a killer on the loose, escaped from an institution for the criminally insane, I might feel downright panicky. But all of these clichés don’t necessarily make for a well written novel or horror story. The signs are usually there in the first few pages of a book; one you feel like you need to put down in favor of the Hemingway or Steinbeck that’s been waiting for you on your night-table, gathering dust. But, like that third piece of pecan pie you force down at Thanksgiving, the one you know will end in heartburn and that odd belt-loosening ritual, you go right ahead. You push past the nameless and vaguely described villain, clear only in the barely believable details identifying him as the killer, knowing that his veiled identity is necessary for the twist surely lurking in the final pages. You skim over the loosely constructed, if fatal, plight of the overly pure victim, knowing that some unseen, beneficent power will save the innocent from certain death, delivering her to a new life, even better than her old one. You ignore the self doubts and early missteps of the hero, waiting for his superhuman strength or otherworldly power to kick in. In the end, just like that extra piece of pecan pie leads inevitably to antacid, the book leads undeniably to all of these trite conclusions; and then you wonder why you bothered, why you wasted your time. Deborah LeBlanc’s Water Witch hits each of these high notes, introducing her psycho-killer, Olm, in the first pages of the book as he begins a descent into madness and ritual sacrifice and murder. His thinking and actions are clearly those of a madman, one who is quickly decompensating into ever more disorganized and violent behavior. What’s truly amazing about Olm is that he is able to shut this crazy spigot off, turning back to such normal and pedestrian behavior that he is unidentifiable in a small town with only a few hundred inhabitants. True to the formula, LeBlanc reveals Olm’s identity only in the last few pages. There are few clues about the true identity of the villain and absolutely no attempts to foreshadow his identity until he slices through the last pages, accompanied by blood and tears and dead bodies. As the book begins, Olm has captured two young children for a patched together, ancient Indian ritual sacrifice, one which will bestow upon him untold dark power. The two children face their certain death with wisdom and courage far beyond their years. Enter our hero, Dunny, a six fingered freak, eking out a desolate life in West Texas, a result of her extra digit’s paranormal power. Her sixth finger, you see, can locate lost or valuable things, literally pointing the way like a divining rod. Dunny travels to backwater Louisiana, a place where both her circus appendage and its power seem to fit right in, hoping to locate the two children before they meet their doom in Olm’s twisted vision quest. In the end, though typically reluctant and doubtful about herself, Dunny saves the day, just like I knew she would. And, from the survivors and other sideshow characters, she forms a new, eccentric nuclear family, and lives happily ever after. Should you beware of this ‘dark and stormy night’ book? Well, it all depends on what you’re after. I know it sounds like I didn’t care much for Water Witch, and I suppose I didn’t really care all that much for it. The thing is, I have read worse books; I have seen weaker stories made into movies and aired on the Lifetime or SciFi Channel. So, for some folks, this will be a comfortable and safe read; it will fit like an old pair of jeans. The familiar formula, the expected twists and turns, the cutout characters, introduced with enough detail to be interesting but not too interesting, all combine for an undemanding read. Sure, there are better horror novels, better thrillers, and I can recommend a few authors who go beyond the formula to create complex, challenging characters and stories. But, if you’re looking for ‘a dark and stormy night,’ Water Witch fits the bill. Bottom Line: Make sure this is what you want to spend your time reading.....no judgements if you're looking for a guilty pleasure. 2 bones!!  Message edited by its author, Aug 19, 2009, 8:13pm. Book #49 Go Tell It on the Mountain by James Baldwin Fiction Classic My Review on the book's home page: I am the son of a preacher, so, forgive me if I tend to view books and stories in the context of man’s struggle for salvation. Part of my concept of salvation includes the battle to recognize one’s true self, both our darker and better natures, and the fight to repel the former while giving rein to the latter. This seems to be one of life’s universal truths, a common experience shared by all in the human journey. Hundreds of world religions and denominations share this concept and thousands of secular writers have penned books on it. In one of my favorites on the subject, Steinbeck’s East of Eden, the principal characters discuss the story of Cain and Abel from the fourth chapter of Genesis. After Cain slays Abel, God tells him that sin is at his door and that he must deal with it. But how the passage is translated from the Hebrew, whether God commands Cain to master sin or whether he presents Cain with a choice, can change the meaning drastically. From East of Eden: “Now, there are many millions in their sects and churches who feel the order, ‘Do thou,’ and throw their weight into obedience. And there are millions more who feel predestination in ‘Thou shalt.’ Nothing they may do can interfere with what will be. But ‘Thou mayest’! Why, that makes a man great, that gives him stature with the gods, for in his weakness and his filth and his murder of his brother he has still the great choice. He can choose his course and fight it through and win.” James Baldwin’s Go Tell It on the Mountain takes up this same discussion. John Grimes, an adolescent at the crossroads of manhood, opens the book examining his life. His very family name, Grimes, suggests the mark of sin and, as he shares his mind, we see the turmoil in his spirit, tempted by the base things of the world while struggling for the pure. His father, Gabriel, a preacher and a deacon harboring a murky pas, rules the household with fear and violence. His terminally tired mother, Elizabeth, appears to have even forgotten John’s birthday, marching through her oppressive daily routine. The battle for John’s life and soul plays out over the course of one day and one gathering at their church. As the assembly worships, Gabriel and Elizabeth and John’s Aunt Florence, a woman whose lost her faith, all offer prayers to God, examining the course of their lives. Each of them agonize over the choices they’ve made, the opportunities they faced to either act with their better nature or give in to their selfish side. Too often people saddle religion and faith with unfair sentiments, ones which leave the blame at God’s door rather than ours. Oh, for a dime for all the folks who’ve told me they can’t truck with organized religion. Who do you think ‘organized’ religion, anyway? We don’t seem to have the same problem with any other activity organized by humans. I mean, most of us go to jobs and join clubs and participate in political organizations on some level. But we rarely hear complaints about organized employment or organized politics. No, the trouble is always us, the fallible human. Baldwin, along with Steinbeck, correctly identifies the human element of faith, showing it to be a conscious and deliberate choice, one which we don’t always live up to. But the idea of “Thou mayest,” that we may make better choices and live better lives, that’s where hope lives. Bottom Line: A beautiful morality tale examining the lives of one family and the struggle against one’s darker nature. 4 bones!!!! Book #50, This Year You Write Your Novel by Walter Mosley Non-Fiction Reading and Writing My Review on the book's home page: Bottom Line: Passable instruction on the basics of writing a novel but light on reading and writing as life. When I look for books about reading and writing, I tend to pick up titles by authors who have published their own work, authors who have been tested by the publication process. Not that there aren’t plenty of struggling writers out there who have so far failed to unlock the mysteries of the publishing world but who could offer sound and inspirational advice. But I’ve found, so far, that writing is about battling inner demons, ones with eight heads and razor-sharp teeth and fire for breath. Self-doubt and anxiety killed far more writers than alcohol and opium ever did. So, I tend to try and find the writing help from folks who’ve already faced those demons and won a few rounds. Walter Mosley is, by all accounts, an accomplished writer. Writing in the mystery genre, he has published over twenty-five novels. I recognized his name immediately, even though I’ve never read any of his books. The only story of his I was familiar with was the movie version of Devil in a Blue Dress. But whether or not I’ve read the author’s fiction isn’t as important to me as knowing that the author has some miles on him in the world of creative writing. Mosley’s thin treatise is direct and pithy. He doesn’t talk about his life or his thoughts or his beliefs. He refers to his own writing, the process of his art, only rarely and usually to make a very particular point. He organizes his advice around the idea that you can write, though not necessarily sell or publish, a novel in one year, completing a passable first draft in about three months. He opines about narrative voice, character development, plot, and all of the other things that make up a book, each topic covering little more than a page or two. At the conclusion, Mosley offers a short congratulatory paragraph, noting that writing your first novel will transform you and give you a deeper understanding of yourself. I’d put this short book more in the category of a writing check-list. I’ll admit that the Mosley’s effort pales in comparison to a few other books on writing that I’ve read recently, Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott, Joy Writing by Kenn Amdahl, and On Writing by Stephen King. But it doesn’t appear that Mosley really set out with the same purpose in mind as these authors. Lamott, Amdahl, and King all seem to be more interested in detailing how the creative writing process is a thread that runs through their lives rather than a point by point list to be followed in producing a novel. They write much about their lives and their thoughts and their values and how all are informed by and, in turn, inform their writing. Believe me, you could do worse than This Year You Write Your Novel. I know, I have sampled these shelves at the bookstore. But, if you are truly committed to the idea of writing as a part of your life, don’t look to this twelve-step type of book. Try the authors who seem to be searching for life in their writing and vice-versa, rather than the authors who boil writing down to a list. 2 1/2 bones!!!!  Message edited by its author, Aug 22, 2009, 2:38pm. Book #51, On Writing by Stephen King Non-Fiction Books and Writing My Review on the book's home page: WARNING: Constant Reader ahead!!! ‘Constant Readers’ is the title King knighted his fans with. For me, it’s an apt description, as King’s books and short stories and essays have filled my life for the better part of three decades. When he published On Writing ,shortly after being run down by a reckless driver, it was the first indication that King was not retiring or fatally broken or permanently blocked. Hundreds of thousands of relieved gasps could be heard around the world, mine among them. I went directly to the book store and purchased a new, hardbound copy, ignoring my typical rule about finding one used or on remainder table. I have now read the book twice. Whether you like King’s fiction or not, On Writing is a wonderful book. Did you really expect me to say anything else? Okay, let me try to defend my opinion. King starts out by recounting childhood memories and events, many of which will evoke a sense of déjà vu in any Constant Reader, as he’s used many of these memories to fuel his fiction. While King insists there’s no common thread running through the stories, it’s clear that the events, good, bad, and in-between, all conspired to make him the writer and the man he is today. The stories are hilarious and sad and bittersweet. From the night young Stephen and his brother darkened a full city block to the two sad, picked-on girls who inspired Carrie to the tireless, brutal, blue collar ethic of his mother, desperate to make their meager funds last through another payday, to King’s alcohol and cocaine addled mid-life, you’ll be hooked. Then, King turns his eye towards the writer’s toolbox, focusing on vocabulary and grammar, relentlessly championing Strunk and White. There are a few rants, one in particular saved for adverbs and another for passive voice. Like every other author I’ve heard or read, he recommends reading everything you can get your hands on. King hammers on the simple, the basic, the spare style. If you can get by with one or two details about a character, why use seventeen. If you can get by with the first word called to mind, why thumb the Thesaurus for some substitute. After gearing up the tool-box, favoring the simple and basic forms of all of those tools, King begins to explain what writing is. For King, it is the unadulterated story, translated to the page, allowed to go where it will without any planning. Just a “What if….” carried to a conclusion. In summarizing, King returns to his own life, describing his excruciating recovery after being run over. He didn’t lose the ability or the will to write but he did suffer a healthy round of self-doubt. Coaxed on by a loving wife, King finished this book and several others, many of which have been compared to his earlier, more fundamental books. The message rings clear, writing is who King is; it lingers in every nook and cranny of his life. It’s changed and helped define his life. And he believes that writing is more than just a profession or an art; it is a tool for life, one which can help you work things out, discover and process the world around you and your place in it. Bottom Line: A great memoir, a helpful writing aid, and a thoughtful rumination on the intersection of life and writing. 4 1/2 bones!!!!  Message edited by its author, Aug 22, 2009, 2:48pm. Book #52, Homer and Langley by E.L. Doctorow Fiction ER Book My Review on the book's home page: What would it be like to watch a time lapse movie centered on one location over a period of about 70 years? What if you could hear the conversations of people as they crossed in front of the camera; or if you could focus the camera on one man in particular, observing the course of his life and the substance of his relationships; or if you could even crawl inside that one man’s head and listen to his thoughts, attend his commentary on the passing of ages? EL Doctorow created just such a diorama with Homer and Langley, breathing life into the sculpted characters of the exhibit. The landscape displays Homer and Langley Collyer, brothers and heirs to a fortune that includes an epic Fifth Avenue manse. Homer, the blind brother as he calls himself, serves as the color commentator, offering his thoughts and feelings on the world and its changes as time passes. Covering a generation beginning before the First World War and ending sometime in the cold war era, Homer and Langley encounter corrupt policemen, mob bosses, immigrants from all over the globe, and hippies. The brothers desperately try to shutter themselves from the world, but with each new attempt to hide, the world rushes in on them more. No intricate story or plot hinders this fictional memoir. Told completely in the first person by Homer, each new character or event is merely a piece of Homer’s life, exposed for the world to view. Tinged with the hues of another time, Doctorow’s prose plays out in long, meandering sentences, mimicking unspoken thought. Homer bares all, giving voice to his every desire and fear, all of his joy and love, connecting him inescapably to every reader. Bottom Line: Captivating first person fictional memoir, as told by an intriguing and unique character. 4 bones!!!! Message edited by its author, Aug 27, 2009, 6:32pm. Book #53, City of Refuge by Tom Piazza Fiction My Review on the book's home page: Tom Piazza riffs like a jazz musician in his novel City of Refuge, mixing angry and discordant phrases with smooth and harmonious ones. Underneath the ebb and flow of these melodies, his themes of home and identity pulse like a heartbeat. The book examines the lives of two New Orleans families in the days before and after Hurricane Katrina. SJ Williams lives in the doomed Lower Ninth Ward with his sister and nephew; Craig Donaldson and his family live in a middle class enclave across town. With the deadly storm bearing down, the Donaldson’s decamp the city while SJ and his relatives hunker down. Everything changes when the levees break and baptize the city in grimy, unholy water. SJ’s family is torn apart, packed and shipped to opposite ends of the country, while Craig’s family escapes to Chicago, together. Emptiness and confusion plague Craig and SJ as they try to patch together a life separate from New Orleans, each worried that their identities will disintegrate like the city they long for. With stark and brutal language, Piazza filters the tragedy of Katrina through the prism of Craig and SJ’s struggles to define their lives. The characters are so familiar that the reader must ponder the same questions of home and identity. True to the jazz feel of the book, though, Piazza creates a wide range of experiences in his characters. They strike out in every direction like solo improvisations on a theme. In the end, there is room for everyone, refuge for all in this tune. Bottom Line: Poignant fictional account of Katrina that connects personally on themes of home and identity. 4 bones!!!! Message edited by its author, Sep 7, 2009, 8:43am. Book #54, The Rainbow by D. H. Lawrence My Review on the book's home page: Passions run high in Lawrence’s introduction of the Brangwen family, a family he later returns to in Women in Love. Beginning with Tom’s marriage to a Polish widow, Mrs. Lensky, the tale follows their bloodline for two more generations. Lawrence focuses the story on the inner turmoil of Tom, his adopted daughter Anna, and Anna’s daughter, Ursula as they come of age and meet their fated loves. Each engages in a battle between feelings of love and commitment on the one hand and the fear of losing oneself in a life of self-immolation. Lawrence frequently and consistently describes the relations between these head-strong characters and those whom they love in the language of war. The Brangwens seem intent on “destroying” or “annihilating” their loves, fearing the same fortune for themselves. The Rainbow, and Women in Love after it, were praised for Lawrence’s presentation of a new sexual relationship, one that does not involve the merging of personal identity but glorifies the mutual independence of each individual. He presents any other type of relations between people as inherently destructive. While I don’t disagree with Lawrence’s premise that healthy relationships require fully formed and independent personalities, such an ideal is rarely achieved in the messy, conflicted regions of the heart. Personally, I find myself to be a confident, independent soul only about 10% of the time. The rest of the time is filled with endless inner conflict which inevitably spills into my relationships. Sure, I destroy and am, in turn, destroyed in my love for my wife and my family and my friends. But the struggle is where the good stuff is, not the bad. Lawrence’s book is not unreadable; the language is beautiful, the characters are interesting, and some rabbit trails, like Ursula’s foray in elementary teaching, lifted the story for long sections. But the need to put the idealized romance to death ends up looking a whole lot like just poor judgment in his character’s choices. And the Brangwen’s circular, repetitive thoughts on the matter grow tired after the third time or so. Don’t get me wrong, I know plenty of folks who have had painful, unfulfilled relationships. And all struggles do not necessarily lead to bliss and enlightenment. I just don’t think Lawrence was preaching a new concept, even for his day. And I certainly don’t agree with the notion, sometimes pondered by his characters, that they’d by better off alone. Humans are communal by nature, even if the mix is sometimes messy, even if we sometimes give rein to our contradictory nature. Bottom Line: Beautiful, if tiring, book to read. Interesting, if maddening, characters.  Message edited by its author, Sep 13, 2009, 10:04am. Book #55, Dracula by Bram Stoker My Review on the book's home page (TadAd's and Girlunderglass' reviews are also here.) Every night, as I settled in with this classic horror tale, I felt as though a dark, heavy drape was closing in around me, blocking out the light and isolating me. Sights and sounds took on a sinister air; shadows moved around me menacingly. Bram Stoker cast the mold for all vampire stories to come, piecing together myths and folktales to create one of the most disturbing and creepy villains of all time. Count Dracula comes complete with the breath of decomposing flesh, sharpened teeth, red shining eyes, and hairy palms. His hypnotic command over the creatures of the world and people, together with his ability to shape shift, also make him one of the most powerful villains of all time. Stoker also added a great deal to the mythology of victims in horror tales. The people whom Dracula chooses as his victims are riddled with self-doubt and fear. Jonathon Harker, who introduces the Count to us, is perhaps the best example. He ignores the warnings and pleadings of local villagers, trusting in his own rational mind, and flies directly into the vampire’s web. Once there, he ignores his own growing sense of doom for far too long before attempting to free himself. Harker rubs many folks the wrong way, with his constant inner debate over whether the Count is evil or whether he is just an eccentric old man; a debate that the reader can settle immediately. In defense of Harker, I wonder whether he bothers us because he epitomizes our own self-doubt and fear. Indeed, when Harker is brave, climbing down the wall of the castle, opening the vampire’s coffin, and searching the vile beings pockets for a key to freedom, we cheer him on. But when he falls back into his victim mentality, we want to cast him off. Perhaps, Harker represents the inner struggle we all face to get over ourselves. Another character who seems to cause a good deal of head shaking is Harker’s betrothed, Mina Harker. This smart young woman often outshines the males in the hunt for Dracula, culling together overlooked clues and evidence. Later in the story, some argue that she is abandoned as just so much feminine dead weight, ignored as too fragile to help, requiring protection rather inclusion. For me, the story carried a heavy moral in the group’s choice to exclude Mina. At the very moment when Van Helsing chooses to cut Mina off, Dracula gains the upper hand. When Mina is again made part of the circle, the group is able to locate and gain ground on the vampire. Stoker seemed to be making a pretty clear point to me that the gifts Mina offered in the search for Dracula were vital to success. And he also seemed to be reiterating that their endeavors were only hindered by separating their once singular mind. The execution of the Count in the final pages seems to herald the very death of myth itself. Throughout the entire hunt for the vampire, Van Helsing makes much of open-minded thought. But, even in his inclusion of folklore and myth, the Dutch professor relies on logic and reason to process this alternative information, eventually locating the villain through an early form of behavioral profiling. When Dracula is surrounded by men armed with Winchester rifles and then dispatched with steel knives, rather than a wooden stake, Stoker ushers in a new modern era of industry and commerce, killing forever the dark days of myth and folklore. Stoker’s novel deserves its place hall of the classics. He single-handedly spawned an entire genre of story-telling. So many of the popular vampire tales or our day follow the paths he trail-blazed. Dracula is the standard by which all recent vampire stories should be judged. The original is the best. Bottom Line: A frightening book. Stoker is a master at mood and tone. His vampire is second to none. 4 1/2 bones!!!! Book #56, Beg, Borrow, Steal: A Writer's Life by Michael Greenberg My Review on the book's home page The language in Michael Greenberg’s new memoir, Beg, Borrow, Steal: A Writer’s Life, startles with the beauty of verse and the throb of a violent, tempestuous city. Greenberg’s words, though, form the only true unifying thread for this loosely fitted biography. The book patches together what appear to have been columns about life in New York City. Each chapter introduces eccentric characters from the city, including quite a few members of the author’s family. We meet Greenberg’s father, a middle-class, immigrant scrap-metal tycoon; a fixer with a mail-order law degree; a master chef practicing his art in a soup kitchen; and an ex-patriot Chilean filmmaker. Greenberg tries to weave his encounters into a common story about his struggles to become and support himself as a writer. But many of the stories and characters fit into the fabric of Greenberg’s life only because he wrote about them, not because they offer any insight into his life or art. In the end, the most compelling stories are the personal ones, as they are more emotionally raw and more relevant to his writing. A Writer’s Life is an appropriate title for such a personal account, as it signals that this is just one man’s path to the art, and not necessarily a path that should be followed by others. Indeed, Greenberg consistently turns his nose up at any endeavor save writing and regularly lashes out at anyone who would suggest something different. The result is a life spent just above the poverty line, and often alienated from loved ones. For a writer, the language is the thing. Here, Greenberg is on track. The most consistent and pleasing element of his work is the words he strings together. So, while the book suffers from strained attempts to seam together stories, the language overshadows these shortcomings. Bottom Line: A sometimes disjointed group of stories told in colorful and lively language. 3 ½ bones  Book #57, The Wood Wife by Terri Windling My Review on the book's home page: The Wood Wife, by Terri Windling, exposes the often unnoticed beauty of the desert, and, with it, a hidden world of spirits and shape-shifters. Maggie Black takes up residence in Davis Cooper’s home in the high desert of the Rincon Mountains, which frame the eastern range of Tuscon, Arizona, hoping to use the old poet’s papers to write his biography. As Maggie sifts through Cooper’s things, she begins to see the magic and beauty of the hard land around her. With this newfound openness, Maggie is introduced to a world of creatures that live in a borderland between the seen and the unseen, changing forms to reflect those who gaze on them. Few people see the beauty of the desert. It is, after all, a hard place, bristling everywhere with spiny cacti and rough stone, all baked by a blazing yellow heat. The needles and rocks and hard earthen crust, though, are only an outer protective layer for a subtle and delicate beauty. Windling expands on that dynamic, creating a whole world of eccentric, colorful creatures, seen only by those who are willing to open their hearts to the magic of the desert. Seeing these creatures and interacting with them, for Windling’s heroine, is only the first step in setting her life on a new path, one open to unseen possibility. Nearly all of Windling’s characters are driven by creative pursuits; they are either musicians or poets or artists. She is clearly at home in such a world, and the beautiful, haunting prose of the novel only echoes her own wizardry. Windling creates a fantastic world in The Wood Wife that doesn’t read like fantasy because she convinces the reader to walk a path of discovery and openness along with the characters. Bottom Line: Fantasy that doesn’t read like fantasy; a plea for wild and unnoticed beauty. 5 bones!!!!! 127: just finished the Master and Margarita so yes, I am ready to start on Moreau - maybe tomorrow or the day after (need a break to process the book). You know I thought at first it wasn't Halloween-related but ...well it's a book about - among others - Satan and one of the main characters is a black cat so I would say it fits in with the theme :P Plus, look at that cover:  Isn't it totally Halloween-ish? Book #59, The Island of Dr. Moreau by H.G. Wells My Review on the book's home page: Wells’ story of an evil scientist and the madman’s unnatural creations can be read on many different levels, including as pure horror. Many of the reviews correctly identify a Jonathon Swift-like satire of blind faith in religion, science, and class. But, if you’re in the mood to switch off critical thought, the novel pounds with fear. From shipwreck to chase to murder, Wells never slows the pace. Bottom Line: Read it as political and social commentary or as unadulterated fright fare. 4 bones!!!! Message edited by its author, Oct 18, 2009, 5:56pm. Book #58, The House of Seven Gables by Nathaniel Hawthorne My Review on the book's home page: Hawthorne’s gothic tale is a study in original sin, moral corruption, and redemption. Several generations of the Pyncheon family are cursed by an ancestor’s obsession with wealth and power. Each new generation falls into a common pattern of greed and manipulation, bankrupt of the redeeming qualities of love and humility. Redemption is won when a few simple and pure members of the family overcome the baser urges of their kin, banding together to care for one another. This is not a book to speed through. There are no quick characterizations. There is no rollercoaster plot. Hawthorne’s prose, while dense and slow, is rich and absorbing. He meticulously designs his characters, sometimes pausing for whole chapters to pore over one person’s thoughts and feelings. The resulting experience is engrossing, with the dark mood of the story folded into every line. Bottom Line: An absorbing and moody read, rich in meticulous detail and character design. 4 bones!!!! Message edited by its author, Oct 18, 2009, 5:55pm. Book #60, A Better Angel by Chris Angel My Review on the book's home page: Chris Adrian’s stories, collected in A Better Angel, play out in an abnormal and frightening territory. Ghosts and psychopaths and demons haunt every page, interacting with twisted and desperate characters. With each new tale, Adrian focuses on a special brand of suffering or sadness, like a pathologist fleshing out wounds in a corpse. “High Speeds,” the first story in the collection, couples a sarcastic and bitter adolescent malcontent with a deranged substitute teacher. Drawn to the darkness in one another, they dare into increasingly dangerous high speed car rides. The second story, “The Sum of Our Parts,” is told by the disembodied spirit of a suicidal woman awaiting a liver transplant. As she eavesdrops and spies on the hospital staff, she longs for them to let her body surrender to death. In a final ghostly embrace with an unhappy lab technician, she glimpses the human connection previously missing in her life. “Stab” chronicles the high jinks of a young girl, budding into a psychopath, who befriends the mute, surviving twin from a conjoined pair. She eventually turns her knife on her new found friend, bored with killing neighborhood animals. Adrian’s shockingly brutal stories are not for the faint of heart. On the other hand, there is a strange hope that pervades the collection. Not every character finds relief from their suffering, but Adrian infuses each lost soul with a rugged and gripping beauty in the way they face it. In addition to a sharp and creepy imagination, Adrian is blessed with a singular gift for language. Whether writing in first person narrative, as in “High Speeds,” or in omniscient point of view, like “The Sum of Our Parts,” he maintains a solid narrative and always uses vivid and colorful prose. Not all of the stories reach the same height as the first three, and some are unusual enough to inspire serious head scratching. But even the weakest story is thought provoking. Bottom Line: Frightening and sad stories worth the reading if you have the stomach for them. You won’t put the book down thinking that this author is recycling already over-used ideas. 4 bones!!!! Message edited by its author, Nov 14, 2009, 5:20pm. Book #61, Woman from Shanghai by Xianhui Yang, translated by Wen Huang My Review on the book's home page: History is replete with examples of the human capacity for evil. Over the decades, Nazi concentration camps, Soviet gulags, and American internment camps have plumbed the depths of depravity. But in each of these sad places of wickedness and cruelty, there have always been stories of nobility and courage and survival. Xianhui Yang has collected thirteen such stories, all based on true accounts from survivors of the Chinese forced labor camp at Jiabiangou. Between 1957 and 19060, thousands of Chinese citizens labeled as Rightists were re-educated through forced labor. They were forced to live in one-room shacks or caves in large numbers and little food was available. After three years in the harsh desert, just five hundred survivors were relocated from the camps. Yang is spare and plain, straightforward to a fault. The style is both an asset and a liability. While the lives of these survivors are described in detail, the stories seem dulled. Yang’s account lacks the raw, volatile emotion of Elie Wiesel’s “Night” or Victor Frankl’s “Man’s Search for Meaning,” stories told by holocaust survivors. Though some moments in Yang’s tales carry an inherent shocking affect, the remainder of the story usually remains flat. Whether because of a cultural gap in narrative forms or because the stories are based on interviews with real survivors whose emotions were blunted in the experience, these stories seem to cry out for a more evocative style. Yang’s stories are important in a historical and anthropological sense. Even if they don’t make an immediate emotional connection, they still deserve attention, as they bear witness to the capacity of the human spirit for both good and evil. Bottom Line: An important collection of stories for which the emotional content seems somewhat dulled for the subject matter. 4 bones!!!! Book #62, Dirty Little Angels by Chris Tusa My Review on the book's home page: Hailey’s father, a drunk who can’t keep a job, is having an affair with an exotic dancer in between 9-ball games at the local watering hole. Her mama, a born-again nurse, home-bound with a back ailment, whiles the day away with pain medication and television. And her brother, a three time loser with the law, has a temper with a violent streak that he vents with brass knuckles. Given the set up for these characters, the ending of the story requires little imagination. Tusa just tries too hard with his first novel. There are glimpses of good storytelling throughout the book, but they are hidden in overly descriptive prose dripping with metaphors. Tusa, first published as a poet, brings a poet’s pen to the novel, sometimes overdoing it a bit. For example, in just one paragraph closing the first chapter, the moon is a cataract, the clouds are crying rain, a Nova is growling down the road, and the dripping rainwater is a wristwatch. The mind tires in processing all of the descriptive language. The storytelling never overcomes the affected prose. Early on in the story, Hailey meets the exotic dancer’s husband, who is in a terminal cancer ward. Hailey’s dad is sleeping with the man’s wife while he wastes away. Hailey is taken by the man and a strange friendship is born. The unusual tension and unlikely relationship made for interesting reading. Sadly, Tusa doesn’t explore this relationship much, and doesn’t create other interesting moments of plot beyond the stereotypical. The events in the book are tossed at the characters and the reader, with little explanation to allow either to catch up. On balance, Tusa’s book doesn’t do his apparent ability justice. It reads like a first or second draft that needed more plotting and story and a good editor to tone down the descriptive language a bit. Bottom Line: Either wait for the re-write or for Tusa’s next novel. 2 bones!! Message edited by its author, Nov 25, 2009, 11:12am. Book #63, The Information Officer by Mark Mills
My Review on the book's home page: On the island of Malta, in the early days of World War II, a dance hostess is violently murdered, apparently by a British submariner. Max Chadwick, the British Information Officer for the island, investigates the murder, hoping to maintain the fragile solidarity struck between the islanders and their colonial patrons. As the Germans threaten to invade the lonely outpost, unleashing a daily barrage of bombs, finding the murderer is nearly too much for Max. Told alternately by Max and the unidentified killer, the story focuses on more than just the investigation. Each recounts the men’s lives in rich detail up to the point of the murder. The resulting characters – one, a good man caught between responsibility to his country and loyalty to his principals, and the second, a creative psychopath – propel the story far beyond the regions of the typical police procedural. Mills takes his time with these two men, framing the boundaries of their psyches and describing their lives outside the context of the murder at hand. My one complaint with the novel was the abrupt ending to the story. About three quarters through the book, Mills replaces the languid and indulgent pace with an urgency that seems born of an editor’s page count. Max receives a thunder bolt revelation and identifies the killer. A quick, and uncharacteristically sparely written, confrontation follows. Then, all of the books loose ends are tied up in an exposition laden conversation. The ending not withstanding, Mills has penned a unique and singular literary mystery. The book exhibits a rare intelligence and an even rarer understanding of the human elements in storytelling. Bottom Line: An intelligent literary mystery with a rushed ending. 4 bones!!!! Debug test: your member name is: |
Touchstone worksTouchstone authorsChris Adrian Kenn Amdahl Sherwood Anderson Kate Atkinson Margaret Atwood Jane Austen Richard Bachman James Baldwin Eric Barnes Saul Bellow Adolfo Bioy Casares M.F. Bloxam William Brodrick Mikhail Bulgakov Samuel Butler Wilkie Collins Pat Conroy Colin Cotterill Robertson Davies E. L. Doctorow Theodore Dreiser Ralph Ellison Anne Fadiman F. Scott Fitzgerald E. M. Forster Meg Gardiner Nikolai Gogol Carol Goodman Robert Graves Michael Greenberg Nathaniel Hawthorne Ernest Hemingway Kathy Hepinstall James Herriot Susan Hill Charlie Huston Henry James Stephen King Anne Lamontt Anne Lamott Lawrence D. H. Lawrence Deborah LeBlanc Dennis Lehane Alan Lightman Ron McLarty Philipp Meyer Mark Mills Greg Mortenson Walter Mosley Mark Mynheir Audrey Niffenegger John O'Hara George Orwell Tom Piazza Edgar Allan Poe Richard Preston Francine Prose Eleanor Roosevelt Ian Sansom John Steinbeck Bram Stoker Chris Tusa Carolyn D. Wall H. G. Wells T. H. White Terri Windling Eric R. Wolf Virginia Woolf Xianhui Yang William Zinsser |
