Arubabookwoman Takes the Fifth (Year)

Talk 75 Books Challenge for 2013

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1arubabookwoman
Edited: Dec 31, 2012, 11:25 pm

This is my fifth year in The 75 Group. Because of the number of threads and number of posts, I sometimes have difficulty keeping up (ok--almost always have trouble keeping up), but I try to read as many threads as I can even if I don't always comment. I review every book I read, and I hope to have some of you follow my thread if you find my reading interesting and comment if you can. My 2012 thread and reviews can be found here:

I am a recently-retired tax attorney, married 42 years, with five wonderful kids. I live in the Seattle area, but travel frequently to the East Coast, where my three boys live, and to Houston where Daughter # 1, her husband and my one and only grandson live. (Grandson # 2 will arrive in NYC in April--I'm so excited!). Daughter # 2 just started graduate school in California, so we will probably be visiting there a lot too--especially to get out of the gray, Northwest weather. In my non-reading time I am a fiber artist.

My reading tastes trend toward translated fiction (I've been participating in Reading Globally for a few years), classics and some non-fiction. I also read a smattering of science fiction and mysteries. For the past few years I've been reading Zola's Rougon-Macquart series in order and I am now half-way through. Since Zola is the year-long author in the Author Theme Reads Group, I might actually finish the series this year. I frequently choose books from the 1001 list, though I am not systematically reading through that list. I often find myself disappointed by some current literary fiction, but still occasionally read those types of books too. I get many, many recommendations from LT as well, and my wishlist is constantly expanding. (Not to mention the 800+ TBR books already on my bookshelves).
My 2012 thread is here: http://www.librarything.com/topic/130738#t

Right now I'm expecting that my first reads of 2013 will be The Ladies' Paradise by Zola and Means of Ascent by Robert Caro.

2arubabookwoman
Edited: Dec 31, 2012, 9:13 pm

Favorites of 2012--No particular order:

TOP 10
Path to Power by Robert Caro
The Emperor of All Maladies by Siddhartha Mukherjee
Nana by Emile Zola
Cousin Bette by Honore Balzac
Riders in the Chariot by Patrick White
The Vivisector by Patrick White
David Copperfield by Charles Dickens
The Cairo Trilogy by Naguib Mahfouz
Blonde by Joyce Carol Oates
The Inheritors by William Golding

THE SECOND TEN

The Long Ships by Frans Bengtsson
The Parson's Widow by Marja--Liisa Vartio
Gulag: A History by Ann Applebaum
The Lost Steps by Alejo Carpentier
Grass For My Pillow by Saiichi Maruya
Salvage the Bones by Jesmyn Ward
The Lost Memory of Skin by Russell Banks
1984 by George Orwell
To Mervas by Elisabeth Rynell
Book of Chameleons by Eduardo Agualusa
The Solid Mandela by Patrick White

(Oops--that's 11)

My Star System (which is nebulous and variable)

5 stars: A book that if I were Queen of the World I would require everyone to read; or
A book I believe will still be read in 100 years.

Caveat: In the afterglow of a book I loved I sometimes give 5 stars to books that don't meet this definition.

4 stars: An excellent book that I would recommend everyone read;

4 1/2 stars: Somewhere in-between 4 and 5 in a dictatorial and sometimes irrational sort of way.

3 stars: A very good book; one I'd recommend if it sounds like something you'd want to invest your time in.

3 1/2 stars: A 3 star book that had something extra that really spoke to me personally.

2 stars: A book I thought had significant flaws, but was not unreadable; or
A book that I strongly disliked.

2 1/2 stars: A book I had some quibbles about; or
A book I didn't care for but someone else might.

1/2 to 1 1/2 stars: These books range from unreadable books that should never have been published to books that are poorly written. These are books I cannot recommend.

11arubabookwoman
Edited: Jan 8, 2013, 11:33 am

NOBEL READING 1901-1925

1924 Wladyslaw S. Reymont

TBR: The Comedienne

1923 William Butler Yeats

READ: assorted poems

1922 Jacinto Benavente y Martinez

1921 Anatole France

TBR: Penguin Island; Thais

1920 Knut Hamsun

READ: Growth of the Soil
TBR: Mysteries; Hunger; Pan

1919 Carl F. G. Spittelet

1918 No Award

1917 Karl Gjellerup and Henrik Pontoppidan

1916 Verner von Heidenstamm

1915 Romain Rolland

1914 No Award

1913 Rabindranath Tagore

READ: Gitanjali
TBR: The Tagore Omnibus

1912 Gerhart Hauptman

1911 Maurice Maeterlinck

1910 Paul J. L. von Heyse

1909 Selma Lagerlof

1908 Rudolph C. Eucken

1907 Rudyard Kipling

READ: Kim; Jungle Book

1906 Giosue Carducci

1905 Henryk Sienkiewicz

READ: Quo Vadis

1904 Frederic Mistral and Jose Echegaray

1903 Bjornesterne Bjornson

1902 Theodor Mommsen

1901 Rene F. A. Sully-Prudhomme

12Trifolia
Jan 1, 2013, 1:07 am

Happy New Year, Deborah!
I've starred your thread and am very much looking forward to what you read in 2013.

13PaulCranswick
Jan 1, 2013, 10:06 am

Deborah - found you, starred you, happy new yeared you!

14cushlareads
Jan 1, 2013, 10:11 am

Happy New Year, Deborah!

Am looking forward to seeing your reviews, as usual. I got very behind last year but this year will be different! I have some Zola here and it's on my radar - I've been surprised by how much I've enjoyed the classics I've read in the last couple of years.

15labfs39
Jan 1, 2013, 11:17 am

I love how organized your thread is. I would like to track my Nobel reading too. Thanks for the reminder. I think Peggy or Linda was the first to turn me on to this idea. I haven't gotten set up for 2013 yet. I was so hoping to review my last 6 books of 2012 first, but they are home and I am in Maine, so I guess that won't happen. :-( I hate unfinished business. If my jet lag isn't too bad, I'm going to try and meet you and Karen at Third Place on Saturday. Happy New Year!

16drneutron
Jan 1, 2013, 1:47 pm

Welcome back! I'm about 140 pages into Caro's The Path to Power, and am loving his writing very much. How's the second one?

17PiyushC
Jan 1, 2013, 3:04 pm

Novel prize winning author reading sounds fun!

18RebaRelishesReading
Jan 1, 2013, 3:47 pm

Hi Deborah -- just found your thread this morning. I'm working on the Nobel winners too so will enjoy following our progress.

19katiekrug
Jan 1, 2013, 9:54 pm

Hi Deborah. Thanks for stopping by my thread. I'm starring yours and foresee many new additions to my TBR shelves.... Happy New Year!

20DorsVenabili
Jan 3, 2013, 6:33 am

Hi! I have you starred. I have Blonde and To Mervas in my TBR pile. Glad to hear they were favorites last year.

21PaulCranswick
Jan 3, 2013, 6:39 am

Deborah - I love the Zola Rougon-MacQuarts and will re-read some of the ones that I have not read for a long time soon. I am planning to read The Kill - number 2 in the series, possibly next month.

22rebeccanyc
Jan 3, 2013, 9:09 am

The Kill was stunning! Both of you should come over to the Author Theme Reads group where the year-long author is Zola!

23Donna828
Jan 3, 2013, 9:19 am

Hi Deborah, your star is hung. I can always count on you to introduce me to new books and authors I might otherwise overlook. I'll be following your Nobel reading with interest. Hope the new year brings many new books and life experiences to you.

24PaulCranswick
Jan 5, 2013, 9:32 am

Rebecca - I will be there! I have just ordered The Fortune of the Rougons to restart the series all over again.
Wishing you a wonderful weekend Deborah.

25RebaRelishesReading
Jan 5, 2013, 11:38 am

Hi Deborah - happy weekend.

26EBT1002
Jan 6, 2013, 8:37 pm

Found your thread. Hope to see you again in 2013, perhaps at the next Seattle meet-up.

27arubabookwoman
Jan 7, 2013, 8:08 pm

Welcome to Monica, Paul, Cushla, Lisa, Piyush, Chautauquan, Katie, Kerry, Donna, Ellen, Rebecca, DrN, and Donna. Wow--so many visitors!

DrN--re the LBJ biographies, my Kindle tells me I'm 20% in to the second volume, and it's just as good as volume one. It covers the period of time after LBJ's loss on his first senate run. While he remained in the House of Representatives, he wasn't as fervid about politics, and Caro presents this volume as being focused on how LBJ acquired his massive fortune.

Paul--In my view The Kill is one of the masterpieces in the Rougon-Macquart series. I gave it 5 stars. Can't say the same of The Fortune of the Rougons. That is my least favorite so far, and if it had been the first Zola I read, I probably wouldn't have read any more.

Rebecca--I see we agree about The Kill.

I've filled in the information in posts 7-11 about the Nobelists I've read and intend to read. In fact, I finished the first Nobel Prize winner I've read this year, Viper's Tangle by Francois Mauriac last night. For now, however, I'm reviewing my first read of the year, which is from the Rougon-Macquart series:

1. The Ladies' Paradise by Emile Zola

The Ladies' Paradise can be approached on three levels: as a somewhat conventional 19th century love story, as a study of the inner workings of the retailing business in the late 19th century, and as an indictment of the rampant consumerism. First, the love story:

Denise and her two younger brothers have come to Paris, where their uncle, a small shopkeeper, had promised her a position in his shop after their parents died. When they arrive at their uncle's store, Denise finds that the store is suffering and her uncle is unable to offer her a position, primarily because a large and growing establishment, The Ladies' Paradise, is siphoning off his customers. Other small shops in the area are also in decline, and Denise feels fortunate to obtain a position at The Ladies' Paradise.

The owner of The Ladies' Paradise is Octave Mouret, who was featured in the previous Rougon-Macquart novel Pot Luck; however, none of the characters or events in that novel spill over to the current novel. In the interval between the two books, Octave has married the widow of the owner of The Ladies' Paradise, she has died in an accident, and he has succeeded to sole ownership. Octave is now a wealthy womanizer, seducing and discarding shopgirls on a regular basis. Initially he is not attracted to Denise, who is described as slight, and somewhat plain, except for a magnificent mane of hair. Denise overcomes a series of hardships, including the disdain of her fellow shopgirls, and Octave gradually takes notice of her and attempts to seduce her. She resists, focuses on her work and family, and is able to work her way into positions of greater responsibility and compensation. Denise gradually comes to love Octave, but doesn't want to be another of his throwaways. SPOILER SPOILDER SPOILER. She holds out for marriage, and in the end he marries her, and I guess they live happily ever after.

This story-line aspect of the novel is the weakest part of the book and the part I liked least. In fact, it was due to my recollection of this story-line that I almost skipped this one in my Rougon-Macquart challenge, since I had initially read it within the last 10 years. While I liked Denise's character, especially in the beginning when she felt something like Jane Eyre to me, after a while she began to grate on me as being too perfect. I found myself wondering what a Dickens heroine was doing in a Zola novel. And, as noted above, unlike any other Zola novel I've read, there's a sappy, happy ending.

Nevertheless, The Ladies' Paradise is a worthy component of the Rougon-Macquart series. It gives us an insider's view of the inner-workings of a major department store at the end of the 19th century, when surprisingly many of the retailing techniques we think of as modern were beginning to be utilized. We see the nitty-gritty mechanics of the business, including the living arrangements of the shopgirls (in dorms over the shop), how receipts are collected and counted, how inventory is controlled, how deliveries are made, even how shoplifters are treated. In addition, we watch as Octave institutes the innovations that allow him to drive the small shopowners out of business and maximize profits.

For example, he begins partially basing compensation of the sales force on their sales receipts: "To make people do their best--and to keep them honest--it was necessary to excite their selfish desires first." He begins a practice of heavy advertising, and begins catelogue sales. He adopts a policy allowing returns, on the theory that the belief that an item can be returned will induce a customer to buy more--will be the tipping factor for whether to purchase an item or not. He scientifically arranges the merchandise and the location of the departments so each customer will have to traverse a larger portion of the store and make impulse purchases. The grand innovation of course is the development of a store in which many categories of goods are sold, rather than just one--the "department" store.

Mouret exploits the greed of his customers. He lures them in with low-advertised prices on a particular item, knowing that the enjoyment of buyers "is doubled when they think they are robbing the tradesman. " He recognizes that if one item is seen as a bargain, other items can be sold at as high a price as anywhere else, and "they'll still think yours are the cheapest." He uses sales in order to expedite turnover of inventory: "He had discovered that she could not resist a bargain, that she bought without necessity when she thought she saw a cheap line, and on this observation he based his system of reductions in price of unsold items, perferring to sell them at a loss, faithful to his principle of continual renewal of the goods."

Throughout, the madness of consumerism is condemned. Many of the new retailing techniques are based on a low opinion of the customer. For the most part the customer is female, and as a woman she is implicitly compared to the victim of sexual seduction:

"Mouret's unique passion was to conquer woman. He wished her to be queen in her house, and he had built this temple to get her completely at his mercy. His sole aim was to intoxicate her with gallant attentions, and traffic on her desires, work on her fever. Night and day he racked his brain to invent fresh attractions."

Then, "...when he had emptied her purse and shattered her nerves, he was full of the secret scorn of a man to whom a woman had just been stupid enough to yield herself."

However, the woman is not excused:

"It was the woman that they were continually catching in the snare of their bargains, after bewildering her with their displays. They had awakened new desires in her flesh; they were an immense temptation, before which she succumbed fatally, yielding at first to reasonable purchases of useful articles for the household, then tempted by their coquetry, then deoured. In increasing their business tenfold, in popularizing luxury, they became a terrible spending agency, ravaging the households, working up the fashionable folly of the hour, always dearer. And if woman reigned in their shops like a queen, cajoled, flattered, overwhelmed with attentions, she was an amorous one, on whom her subjects traffic, and who pays with a drop of her blood each fresh caprice."

I found myself fascinated with these two aspects of the book, perhaps because, unlike Denise, the seductions of The Ladies' Paradise prevailed over the good sense of its customers.

4 stars

28alcottacre
Jan 7, 2013, 8:12 pm

I am happy to see that your reading year is off to such a good start, Deborah!

I love the list of the Nobel Prize winners. One of these days, I will tackle that particular challenge.

29SandDune
Jan 8, 2013, 3:28 am

#27 Great review Deborah! The only Zola I've read is Germinal but I think I might give this one a go. They've had a series based on this on the BBC recently transplanted to the north of England, but I get the impression that it was considerably more fluffy than the original.

30kidzdoc
Jan 8, 2013, 6:13 am

Excellent review of The Ladies' Paradise, Deborah!

31Linda92007
Jan 8, 2013, 9:23 am

Great to see your list of Nobelists up, Deborah. I have only been listing those I have read, but I think I may at some point borrow your approach and include my TBRs, if for no other reason than to not lose track of them. I'm looking forward to your review of Viper's Tangle.

32maggie1944
Jan 9, 2013, 7:39 am

I enjoyed reading your review of The Ladies Paradise. How little things have changed, ed? Looking forward to keeping up with your thread this year.

I'm still working my way through Anna Karènina, the graphic novel version of Howl, and a Green Dragon GR of The Last Unicorn. I think I'll work on the latter today.

33wilkiec
Jan 11, 2013, 6:11 am

Happy weekend, Deborah!

34PaulCranswick
Jan 11, 2013, 8:13 pm

Deborah - Very good review of The Ladies' Paradise.
Looking forward to your thoughts on The Viper's Tangle which is now on deck for me.
Have a lovely weekend.

35Whisper1
Jan 11, 2013, 8:42 pm

Happy New Year Deborah. I found your thread and it is now stared. I'll stop in often.

36brenzi
Jan 18, 2013, 12:35 am

Well I can't believe I've just sound my way to your thread Deborah. Oh my your 2012 Favorites is making me want to drop everything and read the ones I see that are already on my shelves, especially Blonde, David Copperfield, The Long Ships, and Gulag: A History. I hope to add to the Nobel laureates that I've already read too and have quite a few of those sitting on my shelves too. Looking forward to following your reviews this year again.

37PaulCranswick
Jan 18, 2013, 6:44 pm

Not seen you around for a couple of weeks Deborah and I hope all is well. I bought Ladies' Paradise again yesterday as your review reminded me that I need to collect all the Rougon MacQuarts together in KL for a breeze through sometime soon.
Have a lovely weekend.

38Prop2gether
Jan 23, 2013, 12:08 pm

Stopping by to say "hi"--I've been cruising around the threads for about a year now, and rarely leaving notes, but I love your introduction to your reading and the lists. I find I'm reading off the 1001 Must Read list in a similar fashion--that is, nothing is forced, but it's all available. I've been setting "999" goals for myself for several years--9 books in a category I select times 9 (or 13 this year), which allows me to blend in the popular and teen fiction with the classics and "must read" authors. You have a marvelous start to the new year. Enjoy!!

39RebaRelishesReading
Jan 26, 2013, 11:57 am

Good morning! Happy weekend :-)

40arubabookwoman
Edited: Feb 1, 2013, 7:53 pm

I can't believe it's February already! I've been avoiding my thread to delay having to do reviews, but I need to get busy now that January's over. The only excuse I have is that I've been in Houston the last 10 days or so chasing after now-two-year-old Boden. Great fun, but limited access to computers. We also really enjoyed the temperatures in the 70's and the sun, which is pretty much non-existent in this area at this time of year.

Stasia--I'm so glad to see that you are posting on LT again.
Rhian--Thanks for stopping by. I'm guessing you liked Germinal--it's one of my favorites. I don't think The Ladie's Paradise ranks with it.
Daryl--Thanks for the compliment. I see that Rebecca, I, and probably others haven't yet been able to entice you to read Zola yet.
Karen, Wilkie, Paul, Linda, Bonnie and Reba--I'm so glad you stopped by. I'm looking forward to seeing more of you.
laurie--Thank you for posting. Are you keeping a thread in the 1001 group? I am, even though I rarely update.

Time to try to do a few reviews:

2. Viper's Tangle by Francois Mauriac

" I am one of those who has never known what it is to be young, never known what it is to be unselfconscious. I am by nature one of Nature's wet blankets."

Francois Mauriac won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1952, "for the deep spiritual insight and the artistic intensity with which he has in his novels penetrated the drama of human life." Viper's Tangle, first published in 1932 and translated in 1951, is representative of Mauriac's focus on the spiritual. Although it has been cited as a classic example of the "Catholic" novel, a reader does not have to be religious to appreciate Viper's Tangle, which movingly portrays the life of a wealthy attorney and landowner, a man who states that he has created "about myself nothing but a wasteland."

As the novel opens, Louis is on his death bed at his country estate, surrounded by his family. His family fears that he is going to cheat them out of their inheritance, and in fact that is what Louis intends to do. The entire novel, with the exception of a short chapter at the end, consists of the letter Louis is writing to his wife to explain why he intends to disinherit his family--"a single act of vengeance upon which I have been brooding for almost half a century."

As he addresses his wife, Louis recounts the story of his life. Past, present and future are seamlessly interwoven. Frequently Louis's reflections on his past life are interrupted by fragments of conversations he overhears between his wife and children, and by the ordinary events of the progression of daily life on his estate as he awaits death. The shifts of time and event, and the continual juxtaposition of things that happened years ago, what happened minutes ago, and what might happen in the future are fluid and seamless. As we acquire more information, or as facts we were previously told or assumed are disproved, we must frequently reevaluate and reinterpret Louis's motives and his relationship with his family. Louis, too, evolves and reverts as he evaluates his life.

While this description may make the book sound claustophobic and static, there is in fact a lot of action--fortunes are made and lost, there are marriages of convenience and marriages of passion, a child dies, an illegitimate child appears, and so goes life.

Over the course of this remarkable book, we as readers come to sympathize with Louis, a venal, misanthropic, and thoroughly unlikeable man. On the basis of this one novel, I can agree that Mauriac is a writer deserving of a Nobel. I will be reading more by him. (I also have Mauriac's Lines of Life on my shelf).

4 stars

41labfs39
Feb 1, 2013, 8:24 pm

I can't believe Boden is two. Wow. Time flies.

Following the example of you and Linda, I have started a Nobel list too. I will have to keep Viper's Tangle in mind. I see Penguin Classics published it as The Knot of Vipers. Who published your copy? P.S. Your touchstone for Lines of Life goes to Wuthering Heights. I've tried to fix the record so that the English title comes up.

42arubabookwoman
Feb 1, 2013, 8:58 pm

3. The Maimed by Hermann Ungar

If I had to describe this book in one word it would be "depressing." Or maybe " grotesque." Or "perverse." You get the idea. The book was written in 1920/21, but was not published until 1923. The author had reservations, fearing scandal, and the publisher feared obscenity charges.

Franz Polzer is a bank clerk in an unnamed central European city. He was abused as a child by his father and aunt, and still suffers from nightmares in which they feature prominently. Franz is a tortured individual, neurotic and perhaps detached from reality, but is able to manage day-to-day life by maintaining extreme control and order over every aspect of his life. He has boarded for years with Frau Pogue, a widow who manages the details of everyday living for him, although he has never been in the same room with her for more than a few minutes. The slightest deviaiton in routine creates havoc for Franz.

Franz's orderly life starts to disintegrate when Frau Pogue begins insinuating herself into his life, at first in somewhat innocent ways, by pressuring him to accompany her on Sunday outings. Her demands soon become more extreme, and she forces herself on him sexually. He thinks about moving, but is paralyzed by fears--where should he look; did he have the strength to handle the effort; people are dishonest and might take advantage of him; how could he face Frau Pogue; if he snuck out in the night, how would he get his things; there might be children in the new building; etc. etc.

"Sleep eluded him. He knew he would not be able to bear all these worries. Maybe he would become ill and have to miss a few days at the bank. Work would pile up on his desk. A new pile came every day, and by the time he returned it would have grown into an enormous heap."

Franz's one social contact was with Karl, a friend from his childhood. Karl is now suffering from an unnamed disease which causes abcesses all over his body and which has resulted in his being a multiple amputee. Karl now faces the amputation of an arm. When the possibility arises that Karl may have to become a boarder at Frau Pogue's after the operation (Karl's wife Dora has accused him of sexual torture; Karl has accused Dora of staying with him only for his money), Franz becomes more unhinged. His anxiety is manifest by his obsession with ensuring that all of his things are in order:

"He realized by counting his things he could make sure that nothing had been stolen, but that told him nothing about other types of losses. It was possible that moths would eat holes in all his clothing and underwear, making them unwearable, and that since he had never thought of this before perhaps they already had."

Franz begins to use his nights "to conduct a precise inventory of all his possessions. He listed everything on a sheet of paper in order to be sure."

When Karl does in fact become a boarder at Frau Pogue's after his operation, he is accompanied by an attendant, a former butcher who still possesses his butcher knives, which he keeps wrapped in a blood-stained white apron. Franz's breakdown accelerates:

"Everything Franz Polzer had dreaded began to come true. The door had been opened. Now that order had been destroyed, only lawlessness could follow. A gap had been created and the unforseen broke through it, spreading fear. The maimed man lay in the room with the furniture that was covered with white sheets. At night one heard him groan. The pus ate deeper into the flesh, and oppressive dreams tormented him. Polzer listened. Death was in the house, waiting."

As I said, depressing...grotesque...perverse. While this doesn't make The Maimed a bad book--indeed it is a well-written and compelling book--it is a distasteful book. My recommendation is that you read it at your own risk.

3 stars

(One reviewer on Amazon suggested that in essence, this book is the literary equivalent of the artistic expressionism movement, which was going on contemporaneously. I agree.)

43alcottacre
Feb 1, 2013, 9:05 pm

I think I can safely give The Maimed a pass.

Boden cannot possibly be 2! No way.

44arubabookwoman
Feb 1, 2013, 9:16 pm

Hi Lisa and Stasia! Yes indeed--Boden is two. That means his favorite word is NO. At least for his Mom and Dad. With grandparents, he is more compliant. Or perhaps with our greater experience we have sneakier ways of making 2 year olds say yes. :).

We were also thrilled to learn that Boden will get a brother or sister in August. With Teddy who will arrive in April (via my son and his wife in NYC) we will be the grandparents of three by the end of 2013. :).

45alcottacre
Feb 1, 2013, 9:23 pm

Cool beans, Deborah! Congratulations on the additions to your family!

46phebj
Feb 1, 2013, 9:39 pm

Congratulations on the upcoming new arrivals, Deborah!

47arubabookwoman
Feb 1, 2013, 9:41 pm

4. The Pendragon Legend by Antal Szerb

This book has a similar central European feel (to The Maimed), but rather than an air of dark perversity, it has an air of manic zaniness, reminescent of a Pink Panther or Inspector Clousteau (?) movie with Peter Sellers. It combines humor and mysticism with elements of the gothic horror story, an Arthurian romance, a murder mystery, and a tale of the supernatural.

As the novel opens, the young Hungarian scholar/dilettante, Janos Batky, meets the reclusive Earl of Gwynedd, Owen Pendragon. Invited to the Earl's castle in Wales, Janos receives a message warning him not to go, a warning he ignores. He travels to Wales with his new-found friend, the Connemara man Maloney, a larger-than-life figure: "His first story concerned a routine tiger hunt, but he went on to set entire Borneo villages aflame to make the point that Connemara men could light their pipes even in a stiff breeze." (Maloney is later referred to as "the most amiable assassin I ever met."). Accompanying them is the beautiful and mysterious Eileen St. Clare, who declines to go to the castle, but who requests that Janos give the Earl a mysterious ring.

On arrival, Janos learns that attempts have been made and continue to be made on the life of the Earl. These attempts may or may not have to do with the Earl's obsessive search for the secret of eternal life, which involves experimentation with translucent aquatic lizard-like animals, or the attempts may or may not have to do with a disputed inheritance. Janos joins forces with the Earl's nephew Osborne and his niece Cynthia to try to solve the mystery of the murder attempts. Osborne is a shy, young man, unversed in the ways of Woman--at least until Janos's friend, fellow scholar and man-eater Lene Kretzsch joins the sleuths, although she spends more time trying to seduce Osborne than trying to solve the mystery. Janos pines after Cynthia, whom he has idealized into a romantic young maiden: "The Cynthia of my imagination was the sort of a girl who, on the one hand, would swoon if she caught her beloved devouring a hot dog...."

As I said: zany--but I find myself wondering if there is anything else to the book. Parts were very funny, and there were many witticisms I though worthy of highlighting on my Kindle. However, when it was all over, I was not sure what the point was. Maybe there doesn't have to be a point--but I couldn't absorb The Pendragon Legend as a cohesive work.

2 1/2 stars

48alcottacre
Feb 1, 2013, 9:48 pm

#47: Too bad about that one. I own it, although I have not read it yet.

49labfs39
Feb 1, 2013, 10:29 pm

Your review of The Maimed is oddly compelling, even though you didn't care for it, it's like a train wreck, I can't look away. I may have to read it some day. Twisted Spoon has a fascinating biography of the author.

I'm not sure if you know about the first quarter Reading Globally theme read. It is on the literature of Central and Eastern Europe. I think it would be wonderful if you posted both of these reads to the thread.

50arubabookwoman
Feb 1, 2013, 10:48 pm

Stasia--don't let my comments deter you from reading it. In my warped way of rating (as set forth in the first entry above) 2 1/2 just means a book I had quibbles with. I just read the LT reviews, and Tiffin has a very positive review of it, which I don't disagree with.

Lisa--thank you for the link to Ungar's biography. I'll look at it in a bit. I do remember reading some information about Ungar and about Szerb, but right now I can't remember which was which.

As I said, The Maimed is a good book, just distasteful. I agree it's like watching a train wreck. I don't regret reading it, but it's just not for everyone.

I'll also post to the Reading Globally Thread. In fact, I was motivated to read them by the Central and Eastern Europe theme, just forgot to post.

51maggie1944
Feb 2, 2013, 8:45 am

I have enjoyed catching up with your thread this morning. Happy reading!

52Prop2gether
Feb 4, 2013, 11:41 am

Hello again, and, *sigh*, for adding to my TBR lists. Yes, I have a thread this year, and so far, I am posting fairly regularly, but we'll see how the year progresses. You've read some interesting books so far.

53brenzi
Feb 4, 2013, 6:09 pm

Congratulations on the upcoming births Deborah. And add me to those who can't believe Boden is already 2!

54DorsVenabili
Feb 6, 2013, 6:39 am

Hi Deborah!

Congrats on the upcoming grandchildren additions!

I enjoyed reading your reviews of The Maimed and The Pendragon Legend, but will keep them off the wishlist for now.

55arubabookwoman
Feb 8, 2013, 11:22 pm

Thank you all for your congratulations and comments.

Some more reviews:

5. Soldiers of Salamis by Javier Cercas

Part I of this book begins with a journalist named Javier Cercas learning of an event that occurred near the end of the Spanish Civil War. The Republicans knew the war was lost, and as they fled for the border, they lined up a group of about 50 Nationalist prisoners for execution by firing squad. Sanchez Mazas, a founder of the Falangist party, was one of those prisoners, but he was able to escape the squad by fleeing into the forest in the confusion. While he was hiding in the woods, he was discovered by a Republican soldier who was dispatched to look for him. The Republican soldier looked him in the eye, and then turned away and let Mazas escape.

The journalist Javier Cercas decided to research this event and write a book about Mazas, who through his writings, "inflamed the imaginations of hundreds of youth and would eventually send them to their slaughter {and was} more responsible for the victory of Francoist armies than all the inept military manoeuvers of the inept nineteenth century general who was Francisco Franco." The remainder of Part I of Soldiers of Salamis is the tale of the journalist's search for witnesses of the event, interviews with them, and research about Mazas's life. He wonders whether the statements of the witnesses, "would fit the reality of events or whether, perhaps inevitably, they'd be varnished with that gloss of half-truth and fibs that always augment an episode distant and perhaps legendary to its protagonists."

I knew nothing of this book before I began it, and as I was reading Part I, I assumed I was reading a non-fiction account of how the author Javier Cercas came to write this book. Then some weird things began happening. The journalist Javier Cercas's girlfriend entices him in public by not wearing underwear, Javier and the girlfriend have lots of good sex, etc. As a reader. I had to adjust my understanding of the book from nonfiction to fiction. Whether it was fiction or nonfiction, however, my opinion is that the girlfriend added nothing, and in fact detracted from the book. I can't think why she plays a part in the book (other than that she encourages the journalist Javier Cercas to continue the project when he is discouraged).

Part II of Soldiers of Salamis reads like an encyclopedia entry for the life of Sanchez Mazas. (I should note that Mazas is an actual historical figure and the events of his life, including that he was a founding member of the Falangists, and that he narrowly escaped a firing squad in the final days of the war by hiding in the forest for several days. Mazas even told of a Republican soldier who looked him in the eye and let him go,). We are to assume (at least I did) that Part II is the book written by the journalist Javier Cercas. The journalist Cercas states that he has written, "a sort of biography of Sanchez Mazas which, focusing on an apparently anecdotal but perhaps essential episode in his life--his botched execution at Collell would propose an interpretation of his character and, by extension, of the nature of Falangism; or more precisely, of the motives that induced the handful of cultivated and refined men who founded the Falange to pitch the country into a furious bloodbath."

I was somewhat disappointed by Parts I and II, but Part III more than makes up for this--it is enthralling. The Journalist Cercas, because he is disappointed in his efforts and feels something is missing, has set the book aside. Then, in his capacity as a journalist he interviews the writer Roberto Bolano. During the interview, Bolano offhandedly mentions a Republican soldier, Miralles, who he met and befriended while Bolano was working at a campsite over four years. The journalist Javier Cercas is intrigued and begins to research the life of Miralles, who was a hero not only of the Republican side of the Spanish Civil War, but also a World War II hero. He becomes increasingly convinced that Miralles might have been one of the Republican soldiers at Collell, where the botched execution took place, or even the soldier who spared Mazas's life. He decides that presenting Miralles's story and his version of the massacre is the part he believed was missing from his book.

The problem is that no one knows where Miralles is--his contact with Bolano was many years before. Despite the best efforts of the journalist Javier Cercas, the trail is cold. He discusses this failure with Bolano, who says that since Miralles can't be found to just make it up. Bolano tells him, "Reality always ends up betraying us; it's best not to give her the chance and get in there first. The real Miralles would only disappoint you. Better to make him up; the invented one will surely be more real than the real one." When the journalist Cercas protests that he is not writing a novel, but a "true tale" with real events and character, Bolano replies: "Same difference...All good tales are true tales, at least for those who read them, which is all that counts."

Part III--the search for Miralles and the discussions with Bolano raise the themes of the nature of reality, as well as questions of what makes an individual a hero, not to mention an engrossing detective story. Are the discussions with Bolano real or fictional? Does it matter? Perhaps as Bolano told Cercas, making something up is more real than reality.

4 stars

(P.S. In my Kindle version, Bolano is sometimes referred to as Bolano and sometimes as Bolaino (in both cases with a tilde over the n, which I don't know how to do). Is this deliberate or is it a typo? Also,in Bolano's book The Skating Rink one of the main characters works at a campground on the coast of Spain. Bolano's descriptions in that book are reminescent of his descriptions in his interviews with journalist Cercas.)

56Whisper1
Feb 8, 2013, 11:25 pm

Congratulations on the good news that you will have another grand child!

Now that I found your thread, it is starred, and I'll be back often.

All good wishes!

57arubabookwoman
Feb 8, 2013, 11:45 pm

Hi Linda--Thanks for the congratulations.

6. The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel by Deborah Moggach

If you are interested in reading this because you loved the movie (as I did), don't. If you are interested in reading this and haven't seen the movie, see the movie instead. This is one of those rare cases in which the movie is far superior to the book.

The book brings in a lot of characters who did not feature in the movie, particularly the children of various of the hotel residents. This means that the residents are mere sketches, and do not come to life. We can't understand their motivations or relationships or come to know them in anything other than a superficial way.

There are many unbelievable and/or wildly coincidental events involving the children. For example, Evelyn's (the character played by Judi Dench) ugly duckling daughter just happens to meet Muriel's (character played by Maggie Smith) son at the local market, and they immediately hop off to bed and become lovers. Muriel's son is on the lam, and Muriel has had no idea of his whereabouts for months. Imagine everyone's surprise when Evelyn's daughter shows up for Christmas dinner with Muriel's son. But then one of the characters thinks that in India sooner or later you bump into the person you want to meet, so maybe it makes sense.

The sense of place permeated the movie. In the book, it would be easy to imagine the story taking place in a retirement home anywhere.

I can't point to any specific faults with the author's prose. It is just bland. It is the story itself that compares so unfavorably with the movie.

1 1/2 stars

58arubabookwoman
Feb 9, 2013, 12:07 am

7. The Truth About Tristrem Varick by Edgar Saltus

In some ways this novel reminds me of a novel by Edith Wharton--a glimpse of upper society in New York City in the early years of the 20th century. But it is a dark and threatening Edith Wharton. It begins: "It is just as well to say at the onset that the tragedy in which Tristrem Varick was the central figure has not been rightly understood. The world in which he lived, as well as the newspaper public, have had but one theory between them to account for it, and that theory is that Tristrem Varick was insane." In the book, Tristrem Varick falls in love with Viola Rarick, a beautiful and enigmatic woman. He idealizes her, pursues her, wins her, loses her, pursues her again, and all ends in the tragedy referred to at the outset of the novel. In all this, there are elements of mystery, adultery, incest and murder.

The author Edgar Saltus was a well-known writer in his time, and a friend of Oscar Wilde, although now he is an obscure and forgotten writer. He was American, and wrote "lurid" histories of Ancient Rome and Russia, in addition to his novels. One critic described his style as "unique" with prose that "wavers between the lurid excess of a romantic poem and the spare, dangerous staccato of a telegram." Saltus himself wrote: "{I}n literature only three things count: style, style polished, style repolished. Style may be defined as harmony of syllables, the fall of sentences, the absence of metaphor, the pursuit of repetition even unto the thirtieth and fortieth line, the use of the exact term no matter what the term may be." And Oscar Wilde said, "In Edgar Saltus's work passion struggles with grammar on every page."

I agree that the prose in this book is lush and unique. However, there's a darn good story here too.

3 stars

59xieouyang
Feb 9, 2013, 7:55 am

Hi, as always your reviews are a joy to read-- even better than the books!

In reference to the Bolano or Bolaino ways of writing the name. Is the second one a typo? When I write in Spanish, because I also haven't figured out how type the tilde over the n, I write instead "ni" that sounds like the n with tilde. So for tomorrow I write maniana, or pequenio for small. It's particularly important for the word year, that I write as anio, othewise it's a naughty word. I imagine other people do the same.

60kidzdoc
Feb 9, 2013, 10:19 am

I'll get the "ñ" from the Character Map utility on Windows, the built in keyboard on my iPad, or from a web page using Google Search (e.g., if I do a search for "ano nuevo" I get hits for several pages that have "Año Nuevo" in the title.

61rebeccanyc
Feb 9, 2013, 10:24 am

If you are using Firefox, you can click on the Edit tab and then on Special Characters, and get all the accented letters, etc., you could want.

62thornton37814
Feb 9, 2013, 10:44 am

Do you have an extension on your Firefox to have an edit tab?

63rebeccanyc
Feb 9, 2013, 11:09 am

No, but maybe it's a Mac thing, although I think I also have it on Firefox on my Windows XP computer at work. Gong from the left, there's Firefox/File/Edit/View/History/Bookmarks/Tools/Window/Help.

64RebaRelishesReading
Feb 9, 2013, 1:21 pm

Thanks for the Best Marigold heads-up. I did love the movie and certainly won't have to look for the book now. Sounds like the screen writers and directors (not to mention the wonderful cast) did a good job.

65cushlareads
Feb 9, 2013, 1:21 pm

Hi Deborah - am catching up and have really enjoyed your 3 new reviews! I can't believe Boden's 2 either - I remember when he was born. Lovely news about the new grandchild.

Soldiers of Salamis sounds interesting. I have read precious little about the Spanish Civil War, but would like to change that. I got halfway through Antony Beevor's history a few years ago but put it aside because I was finding it too detailed for my intro to the war. I have Winter in Madrid by C J Sansom here though and expect that'll be easier to follow!

66maggie1944
Feb 9, 2013, 1:53 pm

Just for the record: I read The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel and loved it. Did not go see the movie.

67SandDune
Feb 9, 2013, 3:38 pm

I read the Best Exotic Marigold Hotel last year and while I liked it more than you I did wonder what all the fuss was about. Sounds like I really need to watch the film.

68arubabookwoman
Edited: Feb 9, 2013, 5:24 pm

Manuel, Daryl, Rebecca, Lori--Thanks for the instructions about the tilde. If I ever need to use it again, I'll probably just use Manuel's suggestion to add an "i". Talk about lazy (or computer-phobic).

Manuel--that was my question: were the two spellings typos or were they meant to differentiate between two writers, one real, one fictional. I suspect the former.

Reba--see Karen's (Maggie 1944) comment--she loved the book, so maybe you would too. However, Karen didn't have the movie to compare it too.

Hi Cushla--I wouldn't recommend Soldiers of Salamis as a way to learn about the Spanish Civil War--it's more about things like memory, and what makes something real. The Spanish Civil War was only a backdrop to that. It was also a meditation on what makes a hero. One of the points made was that soldiers who fought in the Spanish Civil War (or any other war) are as distant and forgotten to us as the soldiers who fought at Salamis.

Karen--I'm glad you liked the book. If you don't mind movies, though, I'd recommend the movie even if you loved the book.

Rhian--I think you would really like the movie.

I just thought I'd mention a bit of what my loose reading plans for this year are. Each month I want to read one of the Rougon Macquart novels, one Nobelist, one 1001, and one nonfiction. Then whatever takes my fancy. I basically met that goal for January. We'll see how February goes, but it seems an easy enough goal to meet.

I have these books on the to be reviewed list:

Means of Ascent, Happy Like Murderers,The Dig, The Golovyov Family, The Crime of Father Amaro, and Jean and Pierre.

I'll try to get back later today with some reviews.

69LizzieD
Edited: Feb 9, 2013, 5:43 pm

I don't know how I've missed you this year, Deborah - not by intent certainly! Congratulations on Grandbaby! (We've been married 42 years too, but since we didn't have children, we can't expect grands.)
I'm very happy to see another Patrick White fan. I need to move him up on Mt. Bookpile again. I'm also happy to see that you're reading Caro's LBJ. I have Master of the Senate to read, and then #4 will be out in pb, and I'll grab a copy.
I get a tilde by typing &lettertilde;. That should work --- ñ Yep.

70maggie1944
Feb 9, 2013, 7:43 pm

Oh, Caro! My hero. I have the last book sitting here next to me: I appear to be about 1/2 the way through it. Need to get back to it, soon!

71RebaRelishesReading
Edited: Feb 10, 2013, 12:52 am

&ntilde -- nope, must be missing something

72Linda92007
Feb 10, 2013, 9:39 am

Great review of Soldiers of Salamis, Deborah, which is on my Kindle TBR list.

Also, I'm now curious about Edgar Saltus. I have not heard of him before, but am intrigued by the observations on his writing style that you quote. His works are readily available as ebooks in the public domain, so I will download a few later on.

73ursula
Feb 10, 2013, 9:49 am

>71 RebaRelishesReading: You're missing the semicolon at the end. The & at the beginning and ; at the end are what turn it into a code.

74Donna828
Feb 10, 2013, 10:46 am

Hi Deborah, I'm glad you had some Boden time in Houston. I can see why there is a lapse in your posting. Two-year-olds can be so much fun...and so exhausting. Double congrats on two more grandchildren this year. Haley will get her little sister in April making five for me.

Thanks for taking one for the team on Marigold, the book. Loved the movie! I'm looking forward to the rest of your reviews.

75RebaRelishesReading
Edited: Feb 10, 2013, 9:34 pm

ñ -- Yea!! thank you

76xieouyang
Edited: Feb 10, 2013, 9:49 pm

&n~;

What am I doing wrong?

77ursula
Feb 10, 2013, 11:06 pm

>76 xieouyang: You need to actually type out "tilde." :)

78xieouyang
Edited: Feb 11, 2013, 6:13 am

ñ

Got it-- thanks for your patience I am slow, very sloooow

79EBT1002
Edited: Feb 13, 2013, 7:07 pm

ñ

sorry, Deborah, I just couldn't resist.

80arubabookwoman
Feb 18, 2013, 4:34 pm

ñ So There!

81arubabookwoman
Edited: Feb 19, 2013, 11:35 am

I feel so technologically superior now that I can make an "n" with a tilde on my computer. :)

I'm feeling extremely untechnological now that I've got a new computer with Windows 8 on it. Everything I learned (which was not much) on my old computer has gone out the window. I just bought Windows 8 For Dummies, so maybe someday soon I will be able to mark something as a favorite, put in photos, and not have the screen go all weird on me if I might the slightest wrong move.

8. Pierre and Jean by Guy de Maupassant

This novel opens with a family outing. The outing is uneventful, but we learn a lot about the characters. The father is a silly old man, harmless but not to be taken seriously. The mother is serene and kind. Her two adult sons adore her. The sons, Pierre and Jean, also love each other, but are a bit competitive.

When the family returns home, they learn that a wealthy family friend, Marechal, has died and has left his entire estate to the younger son, Jean. At first, Pierre is jealous in a way that might be expected in these circumstances, but his feelings soon develop into something much more sinister--he begins to suspect that Jean may have been Marechal's son, the result of an illicit affair between their mother and Marechal. "It was no longer jealousy that made him seek an answer, nor the rather unworthy but natural envy he knew was hidden inside him and that he had been fighting for three days, but a terror of an appalling thing. Terror of believing that his brother Jean was the son of this man."

There follows a psychological game of cat and mouse between Pierre and his mother, of which his father and Jean remain blissfully ignorant for the most part. There is very little action, and most of the narration takes place in Pierre's mind. This is a masterful work. De Maupassant is able to convey so much in so few words, and on such a small stage. Highly recommended.

4 stars

82arubabookwoman
Feb 18, 2013, 5:38 pm

9. The Dig by John Preston

This is a fictional account of the excavation of the historically important Anglo-Saxon burial ship discovered at Sutton Hoo in 1939. The find was extremely important as evidence that the "Dark Ages" were not so dark after all.

The novel is narrated in the first person by a number of the individuals connected with the find in somewhat chronological order. The first section is narrated by Edith Pretty, the widowed owner of the land. She has long suspected that the mounds on her land may contain artifacts, but has been unable to convince any professional or academic archeologist that the mounds are worthy of excavation. Since this is fiction, there are lots of extraneous details--her worries over her son growing up without a father, her attempts to contact her deceased husband through a medium, her problems with servants.

Mrs. Pretty hires Basil Brown, a local amateur archeologist to begin excavating the mounds, and Basil Brown narrates the next section of the book. Although he has no professional training, he conducts the dig according to the standards of the time. Again, since this is fiction and we are in Brown's mind, there is a lot of extraneous matter--his thoughts about his wife, his growing relationship with Mrs. Pretty's young son who is fascinated with the dig and wants to help. It is Brown who discovers the ship, and he immediately recognizes its significance.

Once the discovery becomes known, the professionals move in and take over from Brown. The narration is now provided by a succession of experts and professionals who continue Brown's work, and who discover the treasures the burial ship contained. Again, since these are first person narrators, and even though they are historical figures, there is a lot of extraneous material.

There's some fascinating information in the book about the conflicts among the various museums claiming the treasure--the local museum had been the first to take over the dig from Basil Brown, but when the British Museum learned of the find, its personnel moved in to finish the dig. There's also a narration of the legal battle over who owned the treasure trove--the land owner or the state.

This was an enjoyable and informative book. I liked reading the details on the nitty-gritty of conducting an archeological dig, the museum rivalries, the legal proceedings on the question of ownership. I can't help but wonder, however, why the author chose to present the story through a series of first person narratives, which gives rise to the problem that the author is going to have speculate what these real people were thinking, and in the end including things that have nothing to do with the story of the excavation. I'm not arguing that the book should have been written as nonfiction, but all the extraneous material was a constant reminder that the author was making things up, and if that was the case, how could I know which details were true.

With that caveat, this is a readable and interesting story, and I recommend it.

2 1/2 stars

83arubabookwoman
Feb 18, 2013, 6:17 pm

10. Means of Ascent by Robert Caro

This is Volume II of Caro's LBJ biography, and while it's a very good book, I did not find it as enthralling as I did Volume I. Its scope is much narrower, and as it reinforces many of the character flaws of LBJ that were exposed in Volume I some parts became a bit repetitious. Nevertheless, it is not a volume to be skipped--in my view all of the volumes should be read, and in order.

Means of Ascent focuses solely on two events: LBJ's acquisition and growth of his broadcasting empire (the source of his wealth), and the 1948 Senate election, which he won by 87 votes, leading to the nickname "Landslide Lyndon" which plagued him the rest of his life. Caro's meticulous detailing of the facts surrounding these events will leave any reader with no doubt that LBJ used his political power and influence, probably illegally, to acquire and build the broadcasting empire, and no doubt that LBJ stole the 1948 election.

LBJ maintained throughout his life that the initial radio station was Lady Bird's acquisition, and that she ran and expanded the business. He claimed to have played no part in securing the various FCC permits and waivers for this and any subsequent acquisitions and expansions. Caro methodically rebuts LBJ's claim, and shows the LBJ was always the driving force behind this enterprise, and that clear illegalities were involved. The detail and minutiae of LBJ's machinations as set forth by Caro are necessary to expose the truth, but can nonetheless lead to some tedious reading for a casual reader.

The events surrounding the 1948 election are perhaps more colorful, but no less detailed. Caro presents the 1948 election as one in which the old methods of campaigning gave way for the first time to campaigns in which the media began to play an all-important role. LBJ's broadcast empire allowed him to fully exploit the media, and made his run against a candidate previously thought to be unbeatable, the extremely popular ex-governor of Texas Coke Stevens, viable, since he was able to reach far many more voters than could Stevens. There is a lot of fascinating detail in Caro's blow-by-blow account of the campaign, including LBJ's use of the "new-fangled" helicopter, which as a novelty attracted hordes of voters whenever LBJ appeared, but which also, as a still experimental vehicle, put LBJ's life at risk more often than he was aware.

A large portion of this part of the book relates to the actual counting of the vote--the how, who and when of the stuffing of the ballot boxes, the coverup of these actions, the court battles, and so forth, including just how narrowly the LBJ faction escaped detection of the absolute proof of their fraud. The facts discovered and exposed by Caro leave no doubt that LBJ stole the election. Although LBJ never admitted to election fraud, the circumstances were such that the 1948 election remained a cloud over his head that emerged from time to time in his future career.

Caro devotes a fair amount of the book to LBJ's opponent Coke Stevens, who despite coming from a background similar to LBJ's was his polar opposite. The story of his poverty-stricken childhood, his years of self-education, and his amazing rise to power through small town lawyer, to D.A., to state representative, and ultimately to Texas governor makes for very good reading. Unlike LBJ, Coke was scrupulously honest, kind, considerate and well-loved. By the end of Means of Ascent, on the other hand, LBJ has become more and more dishonest, cruel and self-centered---a thoroughly unlikeable character.

4 stars

84arubabookwoman
Feb 18, 2013, 6:31 pm

11. Ordinary Thunderstorms by William Boyd

I don't usually watch TV, but there are some novels I read as a substitute for TV and for pure entertainment value. These include mysteries and some science-fiction. Ordinary Thunderstorms does not fit into either of these genres, but it is a novel to be read for pure entertainment value. It's not great literature, there are no deep revelations, no grand ideas, but it is well-written, highly readable and has an engaging story. It sucked me in, immersed me in its world for a while, and then let me off, not a better or more informed person, but a satisfied reader.

The story begins as Adam, a climatology scientist, has just completed a job interview which he believes has gone extremely well. To celebrate, he treats himself to dinner at an Italian restaurant in Chelsea. In the restaurant he exchanges pleasantries with another solo diner, during which he learns that the other man is also a research scientist. After the other man leaves, Adam notices that he left some papers behind, and Adam decides to return them (he had been given the man's phone number). This was a big mistake, and Adam soon finds himself on the run from both the police, who want to charge him with murder, and from a hulking giant who wants to kill him. Adam goes underground, and must learn to leave without cash, credit cards, housing and readily available food. The story of Adam's survival on the streets as a homeless person is interesting enough, but at the same time Adam also must make sense of what has happened to him. This all makes the book a page turner.

There is a small plot point at the end of the book that I was really annoyed by, so I was thinking of taking 1/2 star off, but since this didn't affect my enjoyment of the book until the very end I'm leaving my rating at 3 stars.

85arubabookwoman
Edited: Feb 18, 2013, 7:17 pm

12. Happy Like Murderers by Gordon Burns

This is a true crime book, which details the crimes of Rose and Fred West, depraved murderers who killed more than a dozen girls and young women over about 20 years, including some of their own children. The book describes in lurid and graphic detail, the monstrous acts of torture, sexual depravity, molestation and murder engaged in by Fred and Rose. The book is charactered with "monsters and beasts and thugs and vandals and child-molesters and weirdos and alkies and addicts and scroungers and thieves and liars and cheats and hooligans and drop-outs and no hopers." There is no telling how long Fred and Rose could have continued their rampage undetected. Their crimes were only discovered when a tenacious policewoman began to search for one of their daughters who she wanted to question as a potential witness to a case of child abuse. Only when the police were unable to get satisfactory answers as to her whereabouts, and when they learned of a "family joke" that the daughter was buried under the patio that was laid about the time of her disappearance, did they begin to consider that more serious crimes might have occurred. Even when they began an excavation at the West's house, and discovered body after body, the police were still not looking for particular victims, since most of the victims ultimately discovered were of the nameless underclass.

This book is not for everyone. For me, its value is in its matter-of-fact depiction of a society in which poverty is all-pervasive, and families well beyond dysfunctional are the norm. These are the people, especially children and teenagers, who were the victims, and the perpetrators, of the violence and abuse, the people who slipped beneath the net of social services--the throw-away people. I found it amazing how long the Wests were able to brutalize their own children with no one noticing, or reporting it. Not only were the visible signs of abuse and the children's frequent absences ignored at school, there were frequent police visits to their home for drug arrests of the West's lodgers during which the plight of the children might easily have been noticed.

On the other hand, I found Burns' writing style to be extremely annoying. The book contains numerous repetitions--of sentences and even whole paragraphs, some separated by many pages, but some occurring with a few pages. This was so ubiquitous that I have to assume it was purposeful, but had I been the editor it certainly would not have remained.

2 stars

Left to review:

The Crime of Father Amaro by Jose Maria Eca de Queiros
The Golovyov Family by Nikolai Saltykov-Shchedrin
The Issa Valley by Czeslaw Milosz
With the Animals by Noelle Revaz

86RebaRelishesReading
Feb 19, 2013, 12:40 am

My goodness, what a group of reviews! Nicely done! Had you been saving up or did you just have a reading marathon?

87DorsVenabili
Feb 19, 2013, 6:10 am

Hi Deborah!

Most importantly, nice job on the tilde!

Great batch of reviews. I hadn't heard of Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, but I may check out the movie, if only for dear Dame Maggie.

88maggie1944
Feb 19, 2013, 7:29 am

Bravo!

As you know, I love Robert Caro's books on LBJ and think your review is a good one! Well done.

I also find your other books very interesting. I think I am discovering that although you read a bit more than I do many of your choices are ones I might have made. I am trying very hard to not add any more books to my piles and piles of books to read but I admit you may hit me with a well aimed BB one of these days.

Nice work!

89rebeccanyc
Feb 19, 2013, 7:42 am

I could have sworn I posted a comment here just five minutes ago but . . .

In any case, I do hope to read de Maupassant later this year for the Author Theme Reads group, so am glad for your review; definitely plan to get to Caro one of these years; and was intrigued by the true crime until I got to your last paragraph. And I'm looking forward to your reviews of The Issa Valley, which I hope to read soon, and The Golyovov Family, which has been on my TBR for years.

Very interesting reviews of intersting books, as always.

90RebaRelishesReading
Feb 19, 2013, 11:40 am

>87 DorsVenabili: ... it's a great film with Dame Maggie AND Dame Judy -- both great.

91arubabookwoman
Feb 19, 2013, 11:51 am

Just for fun (and if I've done it right) here is a link showing some of the beautiful artifacts found at Sutton Hoo (see The Dig above:

http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=sutton+hoo&qpvt=sutton+hoo&FORM=IGRE

92Whisper1
Feb 19, 2013, 1:04 pm

Simply stopping by to say hello!

93brenzi
Feb 25, 2013, 4:41 pm

Hmmm I wish you were the first person I'd heard complain about Windows 8 Deborah but you're not. I even know people who have uninstalled it and installed Windows 7. That concerns me as I am looking for a new laptop.

Excellent reviews as usual. By the end of Means of Ascent, on the other hand, LBJ has become more and more dishonest, cruel and self-centered---a thoroughly unlikeable character.

You have managed to make me consider the Caro books for the first time haha.

94arubabookwoman
Feb 28, 2013, 4:49 pm

No reviews, but I'm writing to vent--although the subject is connected with the LBJ biography. While at the end of Means of Ascent it is very hard to find anything positive about LBJ's character, the prologue describes LBJ's role in the enactment of the Voting Rights Act (which will be covered in the next volume of the biography). Within one week of the Selma march, LBJ called a joint session of Congress. Even his aides weren't sure exactly what LBJ would say or propose---how far he would go. It was in this speech, LBJ proposed the Voting Rights Act, and used Martin Luther King's words, "We shall overcome." (With emphasis on the word "shall.") Representative James Lewis, who was at Selma describes being in the room watching the speech on TV with Martin Luther King, and MLK on hearing those words breaking down in tears. Unlike the situation in Congress nowadays, the Act became law within a few months.

All this is by way of saying how disgusted I am with the conservatives on the Supreme Court, particularly Scalia. During the hearing yesterday, Scalia referred to the Voting Rights act as a "perpetuation of racial entitlement." He also said that this may not be a question to leave up to Congress.

The Voting Rights Act was not enacted as a permanent law. At first it required reconsideration and extension every 7 years. On the last reconsideration in 2006, Congress extended it for 25 years. During its reconsideration, Congress held 21 hearings, took 15,000 pages of evidence, and 10 months to decide that the Voting Rights Act was still necessary. The Senate voted 98 to 0 to extend it, and the House was nearly unanimous in passing the 23 year extension. Scalia said yesterday that maybe the Congressmen didn't really know what they were voting for. (????).

Anyway, with all the shenanigans that went on in the last election, I can't believe that the Supreme Court is going to substitute its judgment for the extensive review made by Congress. (And by the way, Shelby County, Alabama, which brought the suit, has been found to have violated the Voting Rights Act within the last few years, which in and of itself should show that it is still necessary.)

End of rant. I think I am justified in including it here because of the tie-in with the LBJ biography.

95maggie1944
Feb 28, 2013, 9:29 pm

And there lays one of the paradoxes of that man. I so much enjoy the books Caro has written since they give you the gritty ugly with the high falutin (spelling) more ideal. LBJ did have such a feeling for poor people, and he did have a connection with the Civil Rights Movement, but mostly he recognized a higher purpose when he saw one.

But for me, his mess in Vietnam will forever make it impossible for me to admire the man, or forgive him and the Military Industrial Complex.

I am with you in disgust over the stupid Supreme Court stuff!

96LizzieD
Feb 28, 2013, 11:06 pm

Amen and Amen. Let's don't start on Sequestration.
I am looking forward to LBJ 3 by Caro next month and LBJ 4 when it comes out in pb. Meanwhile, you have called my name with The Dig. Thank you, I think.

97EBT1002
Mar 2, 2013, 1:21 am

Your great reviews just keep rolling, Deborah. Very enjoyable to read through. I'm making note of possibilities for my bookshop visit tomorrow.

98DorsVenabili
Mar 7, 2013, 6:42 am

Hi Deborah!

#94 - Excellent and justified rant! And I think you're allowed to say whatever you want on your own thread. : )

99arubabookwoman
Edited: Apr 2, 2013, 9:00 pm

Been a while. I spent 10 days in March in Texas with Boden for his spring break, and I'll be going away for the rest of the month of April in a couple of days--first to New York to await the birth of new grandson Teddy (and hope that he doesn't take his time in coming), and then to Texas again to take care of Boden while his parents go away for a long weekend and then while my daughter has to go to a conference of developmental pediatrics.

So in the next 2 days I am going to try to write a few words about each of the books I read. I won't call them reviews, but I want to get my thoughts down, otherwise I think I'll just give up for the year.

First Quarter Stats:

32 books read; 4 Nobelists, 4 books from 1001 list, 2 Rougon-Marquart, and 2 Nonfiction.

Countries read from:

France
Hungary
Spain
Portugal
Czechoslovakia
Russia
Poland
Switzerland
Sardinia
Norway
South Africa
Germany
Egypt
(and US and GB)

100arubabookwoman
Apr 2, 2013, 6:06 pm

13. The Issa Valley by Czeslaw Milosz

"The Issa Valley has the distinction of being inhabited by an unusually large number of devils."

So begins this magical autobiographical coming of age novel by Nobelist Milosz. Thomas lives in a remote valley in the disputed area between Lithuania and Poland with his grandparents. The time is just after World War I, and pagan spirits and ancient spells are very real to the villagers and to Thomas. As a young boy, Thomas explores nature with scientific avidity. When he's a bit older, he idolizes one of the peasants who is a skilled hunter, and seeks to emulate him, until he discovers he is unable to kill. As Thomas comes of age, the cycles of nature in all its glory and wonder are also prominently displayed. Although there is not much plot, Milosz writes beautifully of Thomas's world, with a unique sense of place and time.

4 stars

14. A Perfect Execution by Tim Binding

On the surface, Jeremiah Benbo is a quiet fruit and vegetable grower. Secretly, as Solomon Straw, he travels the country as England's hangman. He is proud of his ability to maintain his professionalism, while balancing it with a sense of compassion. We are in his mind as he contemplates the mechanics and physics of hanging--how long the rope must be; how tight the noose--and the psychology of his profession--how to calm the convicted man on his walk to the scaffold and allow him to maintain his dignity. All the while, he does not seem to fully understand the consequences of his job, or to question its morality, until circumstances converge to cause him to question whether he has hung an innocent man.

Binding is an excellent writer, and if at the beginning it is difficult to understand how all the characters and elements will fit together, in the end it all coalesces. book gives us a unique point of view on the death penalty.

(This novel is set in Great Britain in the 1950's when the death penalty was still imposed.)

3 stars

101arubabookwoman
Edited: Apr 2, 2013, 6:51 pm

15. Three Graves Full by Jamie Mason

"There is very little peace for a man with a body buried in his backyard."

Mild-mannered Jason Getty killed a man (quite understandingly) and buried the victim in the backyard. For a year he's been terrified of discovery, but faced with an overgrown lawn he finally works up the courage to have some landscapers in. To his surprise, the landscapers unearth a body--only its not the one Jason buried. When the police arrive, they discover another body, also not the one Jason Buried. Now Jason must endure the investigation into the deaths of these two bodies while ensuring that "his" body is not discovered.

This was for the most part a clever and entertaining book. I'm always disappointed, however, when such a book dissolves into chases and shootings at the end, and this was no exception. Still, until then I enjoyed the book.

2 1/2 stars

16. With the Animals by Noelle Revaz

This unusual book is narrated by Paul, a primitive and violent dairy farmer in a remote valley in Switzerland. He detests his wife Vulva, and can't bother to remember the names or ages of his numerous children, who he refers to as "Vulva's brood." His only connection is to his cows, for each of whom he knows all the details of their birth, lineage and personality. Then one summerh e hires Georges, a Portuguese itinerant farm worker. Georges is "normal", and tries to make Paul see the error of his ways.

The strength of this novel is its voice. (The book has been nominated for a prize for translation). The translator states: "Paul is embodied by his language. Not only does it display his lack of literacy, his awkwardness, coarseness, and brutality--one critic has described it as 'a slap in the face to fine language'--his struggle to express himself especially reflects his difficulty with emotions and his existential incompetence."

Here are a few samples of Paul's voice:

"Vulva's a tough nut, she never turns a hair. It's like the animals: when they've seen what a stick is for they think twice before they misbehave and that's the way to handle them..."

"What you've got to keep in mind is never to be mean to one that could never understand such a level of meanness: for example with the animals it's no use yelling, being as they never understand a word you say. You just have to land them a kick or two and they quiet down and it's the same with Vulva: I talk in expressions and warnings she's able to figure out, or else it'd be cruelty and mental torturation."

Regarding his children:

"If you try to count them it's no easy job, seeing they're always shifting and never keep still, never obedient and ready to answer but roaming the fields poking under every blade of grass. When you come across one it's impossible to tell any more if it's the same as the last one, or a big brother, or if there's twins. All the same, there's some I know."

3 1/2 stars

102arubabookwoman
Apr 2, 2013, 7:37 pm

17. The Crime of Father Amaro by Jose Maria Eca de Queiros

Eca de Queiros is fast becoming one of my favorite 19th Century novelists. This is both his first and his fourth book. An unedited version of the book began being serialized without his knowledge in 1875. A second version was written in in 1876, and the third and final version was written in 1880, with a preface by Eca de Queiros stating, "Corrected, rewritten and entirely different, in form and plot from the original edition."

The novel is set in the provincial Portuguese city of Leira. Newly ordained Father Amaro, for whom the seminary "merely combined the humiliations of prison with the tedium of school", has arrived in town, and is taken to board with the widowed Sao Joaneira and her beautiful daughter Amelia. Each evening the prim, proper and religious women of the town, together with some of the clergy, gather at Sao Joaneira's for conversation, cards and other entertainment, a "gathering of skirts and cassocks." Gradually, Father Amaro and Amelia begin a demure and surrepticious flirtation hidden beneath the watchful eyes of her mother and the church ladies. When he learns that the pious Sao Joaneira is conducting an affair with his superior Canon Dias, Father Amaro begins to resent his celibacy and decides to act. He dreams of what a good husband he could be, and resents that he was pushed into the priesthood.

At first, our sympathies are entirely with Father Amaro. Then, he plots to destroy Amelia's suitor--"It was not a plot to take her away from her fiancé, good heavens no; his motives (and he said this out loud the better to convince himself) were honest and pure: it was his duty to drag her back from Hell; he did not want her for himself, he wanted her for God! True, his interests as a lover did coincide with his duties, but even if she were squint-eyed, ugly and stupid he would still, in the service of Heaven,...unmask Senhor Joao Eduardo as a slanderer and an atheist."

The turning point for me came when Father Amaro connives further to arrange for private time with Amelia as her confessor, in order that they might consummate their love affair. He tells Amelia's mother that Amelia "needs...a confessor who will be firm with her, who will say to her--go that way!--and accept no rebuttals. The girl has a weak nature and, like most women, she simply cannot cope on her own; that's why she needs a confessor who will rule her with a rod of iron, someone she will obey, someone to whom she will tell everything, someone she is afraid of...that is what a confessor should be." His ploy works, and, using the cover of saving her soul, he and Amelia are soon engaged in a florid affair. While Amelia entered into the relationship willingly at first, Father Amaro comes to dominate her, and "did not allow her other interests or curiosities about anything other than him. He even forbade her to read novels or poetry. What did she need knowledge for? What did it matter to her what went on in the world?" When Amelia begins to believe that they are sinning, and that she will fact the wrath of God, Amaro tells her that being loved by a priest was special, and would call down upon her God's interest and friendship.

Not surprisingly, Amelia becomes pregnant, and Amaro's response is to pity himself--"he had been so affectionate and kind to her, and now she wanted to repay him with scandal and disgrace." It comes to the point that Amaro is seen "weighing the pros and cons--growing up fostered or suffocated shortly after birth." He rationalizes to himself that should the latter course be taken, "it was clearly God taking pity on the child, not wanting one more wretched orphan on the earth, it was clearly God demanding his angel."

This book has been described as an indictment of small town hypocrisy, the celibacy rules of the Catholic church, the venality of the clergy, and a portrait of the stultification of women in 19th century Portugal. It is all that, but for me, most of all, it a fascinating and masterful character study of an innocent and good individual and his gradual evolution into a degraded monster.

5 stars

103arubabookwoman
Apr 2, 2013, 8:02 pm

18. Watergate by Thomas Mallon

I guess you could call this historical fiction. It is a fictionalized retelling of the Watergate scandal, from the break-in of the Democratic Campaign Headquarters to the resignation of Richard Nixon from the presidency. The story is told from several unusual points of view, including Fred LaRue (the "bagman"--he distributed the hush money for the burglars to ensure their silence), E. Howard Hunt (the Republican aide in charge of the burglary, ex-CIA agent, and the link to the White House), Alice Roosevelt Longworth, Pat Nixon, Rosemary Woods, and others. All the larger than life characters are there: the out-of-control Martha Mitchell, the dour Henry Kissinger, the stern H.R. Haldeman. Each of the characters becomes human, and even Nixon is rather sympathetically portrayed. Unlike her public persona as "Plastic Pat", Pat Nixon is developed as a warm and loving woman, who incidentally is carrying on an affair. (This is one element that Mallon in the afterword points out was entirely made up by him.)

This entire novel--more fact than fiction--is entirely believable and despite the scandal's horror and tragedy at the time, the novel is strangely entertaining. It is plotted like an intricate thriller, moving seamlessly from one point of view character to the next. When Mallon fills in the blanks he comes up with entirely plausible theories and details. One caveat I have is that the novel assumes some background knowledge on the part of the reader, or at least a passing familiarity with the gist of the scandal. And, if you have a decent grasp of the facts, either from living through the scandal (as I did, spending the summer enthralled with the Watergate hearings), or from reading, it would seem to me that the novel would be so much more rewarding. For example, knowing how stunning the discovery of the 18 minute gap on the tapes (or even how stunning the discovery that Nixon secretly taped everything said in his office) would enhance a reader's appreciation of the explanation Mallon imagines for that erasure.

Highly recommended

4 stars

104arubabookwoman
Apr 2, 2013, 8:39 pm

19. Emily, Alone by Stewart O'Nan

A number of years ago I read and loved Wish You Were Here by O'Nan. It is the story of a bittersweet family gathering at a lake cottage, the last before the matriarch sells the cottage. I don't remember much else about the book, but Emily of Emily, Alone is that matriarch years later. While Emily, Alone is a decent enough book, I am somewhat less impressed by this sequel than I was by the original story.

Emily is now elderly, and rather set in her ways. When her sister-in-law experiences a health crisis, Emily begins to reconsider her life, and to take small steps to move beyond her usual routines. For example, she has not driven since the death of her husband, and has relied on her sister-in-law for transportation. Now she begins driving again.

I don't mind nothing happening in a book. In fact, I think you could say that basically nothing happened in Wish You Were Here. But in this case, I found Emily kind of boring. For the most part, she remains in her rut. Her life consists of following her set routines, and, more, in doing things she feels "obligated" to do. For me, one of the most pleasant aspects of getting old is being relieved of obligations, and being able to do whatever you want to when you want to. I mildly enjoyed this brief interlude into Emily's life, but I didn't learn anything, and I don't think Emily did either.

2 1/2 stars

20. The Leisure Seeker by Michael Zadoorian

This is another novel about aging, but one in which the elderly protagonists break out of the stereotypes. Ella and John are "Two down-on-their-luck geezers, one with more health problems than a third world country, the other so senile that he doesn't even know what day it is." Their children and doctors want John who has Alzheimers to be placed in a nursing home, and Ella who has terminal cancer to be hospitalized for further, probably futile, treatment. Against the advice of their doctors and children, Ella decides to take one final trip with her husband in their RV, the Leisure Seeker, a trip from their home in Michigan along fabled US Route 66 to Disneyland in California. The novel is narrated by Ella, whose acerbic wit makes the trip a pleasure for the reader, despite the various travails she and John undergo. The book is part travelogue exploring the decrepit ruins of the (mostly) abandoned Route 66, and part reflection on what meaning, in the end, we can take from our lives. Ella and John are very real people, and I enjoyed going along on their journey.

3 1/2 stars

105arubabookwoman
Edited: Apr 2, 2013, 8:52 pm

What I have left from my reading through March:

21. The Golovlyov Family by Mikhail Saltykov-Shchedrin
22. After the Divorce by Grazia Deledda
23. The Joy of Life by Emile Zola
24. The Axe by Sigrid Undset
25. What a Carve Up by Jonathan Coe
26. The Zona by Nathan L. Yocum
27. The Jokers by Albert Cossery
28. Heidegger's Glasses by Thaisa Frank
29. Anonymous Celebrity by Ignacio De Loyola Brandao
30. Old Flames by John Lawton
31. Our Man in Havana by Graham Greene
32. The Native Commissioner by Shaun Johnson

106rebeccanyc
Apr 3, 2013, 8:45 am

Nice to see you back, Deborah. You've been reading lots of interesting books (no surprise!) while you've been traveling. I'm currently reading The Issa Valley and enjoying it, and I have A Perfect Execution on the TBR, thanks to someone else's recommendation here on LT. And I should definitely read more Eca de Queiros, although I had mixed feelings about The Maias. Looking forward to your next series of reviews.

107Linda92007
Apr 3, 2013, 8:59 am

otherwise I think I'll just give up for the year

Oh please, don't do that Deborah! Your book selections, thought and reviews are always very interesting, and well worth waiting for.

Great review of The Crime of Father Amaro. Which of de Queiros' works would you recommend for a starting point?

108arubabookwoman
Edited: May 21, 2013, 3:30 pm

April reading:

33. Real World by Natsuo Kirino
34. On Beulah Heights by Reginald Hill
35. The Blackhouse by Peter May
36. Animal's People by Indra Sinha
37. The Devil's Star by Jo Nesbo
38. The Bag Lady War by Carol Leonard SeCoy
39. Capital by John Lanchester
40. Man in the Woods by Scott Spencer
41. Pop. 1280 by Jim Thompson
42. Wolves of the Crescent Moon by Yousef Al-Mohaimeed
43. Sorry by Zoran Drvenkar
44. Daddy Love by Joyce Carol Oates
45. Serious Men by Manu Joseph
46. Spook by Mary Roach
47. Building Waves by Taeko Tomioka
48. A Thousand Lives by Julia Scheeres
49. The Keeper of Lost Causes by Jussi Adler-Olsen
50. The Thing About Thugs by Tabish Khair
51. On the Edge by Markus Werner
52. The Preservationist by David Maine
53. The Redbreast by Jo Nesbo
54. Nemesis by Jo Nesbo

109arubabookwoman
May 20, 2013, 5:03 pm

21. The Golovlyov Family by Mikhail Saltykov-Shchedrin

This book is described as a family saga set on the ancestral estate of the Golovlyov family about the time the country was in flux as the serfs were being freed.. I expected something Tolstoyan and idyllic. Instead, this is one of the darkest and bleakest of the Russian novels I have read.

As the novel opens, the matriarch, Arina Petrovna, rules the family estate with an iron hand. She is a stingy miser, and holds everyone in contempt, including her husband and children. Into this setting, her son Porphyry returns from the city, penniless after he has lost the property his mother had bestowed upon him to manage. She gives him a room in an outbuilding, and provides him with starvation-level food. He weasels the occasional odd coin from a serf to buy alcohol. Other family members are another son and a daughter, both of whom have married, and initially live similar unhappy lives on other family estates. Arina is also the guardian of two granddaughters.

Over the years, Prophyry manages to manipulate matters to turn the tables on his mother. He becomes the owner of the estate and of all of Arina's property. He is in a position to deny her needs and wants (as well as those of his own children), and he exercises this power liberally. All the characters in this novel are unlikeable, even evil, but the most hateful is Prophyry. His character is masterfully developed, and the depiction of his pious hypocrisy is stunning. He is able to justify his every despicable deed with a religious motive, event to the extent of his complicity in the death of his son.

Excellent book.

4 stars

110arubabookwoman
May 20, 2013, 5:48 pm

22. The Joy of Life by Emile Zola

This is one of the less well-known of the Rougon-Macquart novels. While not among the top tier of the series, it is one that deserves to be more widely read.

The Rougon-Macquart connection is Pauline Quenu, the protagonist. She is the daughter of the owners of the butcher shop featured in The Belly of Paris. As the novel opens she is 9 years old and has been orphaned. She, along with her ample inheritance, is sent to live with distant relatives, an older couple, the Chanteaus, and their 19 year old son, Lazare. The Chanteaus are retired "gentry", and live in reduced circumstances in a fishing village on the North Coast of France.

Pauline forms an immediate bond with Lazare, and idolizes him. He is a dilettante, and is unable to decide what to do with his life. When Pauline first meets him, he is composing a "masterpiece" symphony. When he gets bored with this, he goes to Paris to study medicine. When he fails his exams, he studies science. He does not complete these studies, but returns home confident that he can start a successful business involving seaweed extractions. Lazare's various enterprises are expensive, and one after the other they fail. The Chanteaus begin using Pauline's inheritance to finance Lazare's continuing unsuccessful enterprises. Soon, they are also relying on Pauline's money to fund their everyday living expenses (above and beyond the expenses of her keep they have been legitimately paid). When Pauline comes of age, and they face an audit, they arrive at a convenient way to settle matters: Pauline and Lazare will become engaged. Pauline is amenable, since she has always adored Lazare, and he in his own way also loves her. As her fiancé, neither he nor his parents will have to repay Pauline, and it will furthermore be all to Pauline's advantage, since Lazare is so brilliant. It will be no surprise that none of Lazare's enterprises are successful, and that the Pauline and Lazare's relationship is not smooth. Pauline is at times a "too good to be true" character, but within the context of a 19th century novel she is believable and steadfast. She remains loyal to Madame Chanteau, even when Madame Chanteau has turned on her, perhaps out of shame from having depleted Pauline's fortune. She serves as an uncomplaining nurse to Monsieur Chanteau, who suffers from crippling gout. And despite all the trials and tribulations, she loves and remains true to Lazare.

All the characters in this book are well-drawn. One thing that I have not before noticed in Zola is the prominent role played by the family pets, Matthew the dog and Minouche the cat, whose characters are also well-developed. In fact, the death of Matthew is portrayed in a manner worthy of Dickens, and goes on for pages--certainly it is featured more prominently than the death of Madame Chanteau.

The other factor I particularly enjoyed in this novel is the setting on the northern coast. The fishing village itself is being slowing eaten by the encroaching sea. In winter, there are violent storms, yet Pauline and Lazare spend idyllic summer days on the beach. All of this is very atmospheric, and the feel of an ocean shore permeates the novel.

4 stars

111arubabookwoman
May 20, 2013, 6:18 pm

23. After the Divorce by Grazia Deledda

Grazia Deledda was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1926, the second woman to be so honored. Many of her novels depict the day-to-day lives of Sardinian peasants, and such peasants are the subject of After the Divorce. Giovanna and Costantino are a young happily married couple with an infant son, when Costantino is wrongly accused and convicted of murder. He is sent to prison on the mainland. Giovanna and their son and her mother, face a life of penury and starvation.

When Giovanna's mother learns that the law has been changed to allow a woman whose husband is in prison for a long time to divorce her husband, she begins to pressure Giovanni to divorce Costantino. Brontu Dejas, a wealthy (by peasant standards) young man who Giovanna had spurned in favor of Costantino, alleges he still loves her and wants to marry her. Giovanna fights the pressure as long as she can, but eventually succumbs to the pressure. After she marries Brontu, she learns that he is a drunken brute, and he and her mother-in-law treat her no better than a slave. Tragically soon after she divorces and remarries, the true murderer is discovered and Costantino is released and returns to the village.

Deledda writes poetically and lyrically--for example, this description of Giovanna's mother: "...a tall tragic-looking figure all in black. The gaunt, yellow face, shaped like that of some bird of prey...two brilliant green spots indicated eyes, deep-set, overhung by fierce, heavy brows and surrounded by livid circles." She is also clearly knowledgeable about peasant life and practices. For example, she describes a rite of exorcism for the cure of a tarantula bite which is nothing less than surreal---the victim must first wallow in a dung heap, and then roast in an oven, all the while accompanied by twenty women "chanting in melancholy monotone" a song of exorcism. Not surprisingly, victims rarely survived. (Although I have heard that tarantula bites are not necessarily fatal.)

Highly recommended.

4 stars

112arubabookwoman
May 20, 2013, 6:39 pm

24. The Axe by Sigrid Undset

Sigrid Undset is another female Nobelist (for 1928), and I read this as part of my challenge to read/reread all the Nobelists. I read the Kristin Lavrensdatter saga many years ago, and loved it. I debated rereading Kristin, or reading something by Undset I hadn't previously read. The Axe is the first in the 4 volume The Master of Hestviken, and I opted for it.

The novel is similar to Kristin Lavrensdatter in that it is a love story set in medieval Scandanavia. As such, the depiction of the daily life and customs of those times in that place are as important as the plot and characters. The story is that of a beautiful young maiden who has been affianced since childhood to an orphan who was "fostered" with her family. When it comes time for them to marry, her family refuses to recognized the pledge her father gave to the young man's father before his death. Thus begins a series of adventures and misadventures of this spunky young woman and her true love. I am assuming that only at the end of the fourth novel will their love prevail.

Perhaps I'm more cynical now (and maybe I should never reread Kristin Lavrensdatter so I can retain my warm and fuzzy memory of it), but I found the story a bit soap-operaish. The details of daily life were of course fascinating, and I'm sure are well researched and documented. And, the novel is well-written. However, I recently read The Long Ships, set in a similar milieu, and it was so much a superior novel, while also immersing the reader into life in medieval times. If you want to sample Undset, I would suggest starting with the first volume of the Kristin Lavrensdatter saga.

3 stars

113arubabookwoman
May 20, 2013, 6:49 pm

If I do 4 reviews a day for the next 7 days, I will sort of catchup. :)

114maggie1944
May 20, 2013, 9:00 pm

Well, that is a tall order for yourself. But if you do it, I will read them. I enjoy your reviews.

115Donna828
May 21, 2013, 10:18 am

I enjoy your reviews, too, Deborah. Thanks for pointing out another book by Sigrid Undset even though it was a disappointment to you. I love Kristin Lavrandatter when I read it and will leave my memories of it alone. Hmmm, off to check on The Long Ships...

See you soon. Any pictures of the new grandson and Boden?

116plt
May 22, 2013, 1:35 pm

Hi Deborah -- really enjoying your reviews. Four a day for seven days is a tall order! Look forward to however many you manage.

117RebaRelishesReading
May 22, 2013, 5:58 pm

Hi Deborah -- hope your travels go well

118brenzi
May 22, 2013, 11:44 pm

Hi Deborah, add me to the fan list for your reviews. You always add to my teetering tower. This time I think I'll add all of your 4 and 5 star books only because there has got to be some kind of limit, doesn't there? They all sound perfectly wonderful:-)

119arubabookwoman
Edited: Jun 6, 2013, 8:06 pm

http://s685.photobucket.com\\http://s685.photobucket.com

I'm trying to post some pictures. I don't think this was successful, so please ignore it.

120arubabookwoman
Edited: Jun 6, 2013, 8:10 pm

http://s685.photobucket.com/user/dejaq50/library

This link will bring you to some updated photos of Boden, and photos of new grandson Teddy. Others in photos are me, husband, son, and daughter-in-law.

Next job will be to figure out how to get the actual photos into this thread.

121arubabookwoman
Jun 11, 2013, 3:26 pm

Thanks to all for visiting. Didn't quite make my semi-goal of 4 reviews a day for 7 days to catch up. No matter. I seem to be in a reading slump now anyway, and I've started at least a half dozen books, only to lose interest.

I thought I'd start with some easy reviews. I was reading a lot of mysteries in April while waiting the birth of Teddy. The little rascal was 2 1/2 weeks late!

25. The Black House by Peter May

This was probably the favorite of my mystery reads. Edinburgh detective Fin Macleod is sent to the Isle of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides to determine whether a murder similar to the one he is investigating in Edinburgh is the work of the same killer. Finn is a native of the Isle of Lewis, but has not been back since he left at age 18.

The novel consists of two narratives alternating between the past and present. In one, Fin relives his difficult childhood and youth; the other consists of a police procedural involving the murder. At first there seems no connection between the two narratives, but they converge in the end. This makes the book, not only a page-turner, but so much more, as Fin and the other islanders from his past inhabit a story that could have been a stand alone novel.

I was fascinated by the island--dark, gloomy, stormy, rainy--it is a character in and of itself. We also learn a lot about the religious and cultural characteristics of the islanders, for example the annual gurga (gannet) hunt, a rite of passage many of the young men on the island must undergo. I've said before that I am frequently annoyed by mysteries that end in car chases and/or shootouts. This one ends with an aged tub of a boat racing through a horrible storm in the North Sea, and I didn't mind that at all. We are kept guessing until the very end of this one.

I highly recommend this.

3 1/2 stars

122arubabookwoman
Edited: Jun 11, 2013, 4:23 pm

Until now, I hadn't jumped on the Scandicrime bandwagon, and I don't particularly like to read series. But I tried a Harry Hole novel by Jo Nesbo and I'm hooked. I've read three now. Unwittingly, I started with the third volume (not sure, but it might have been the first translated). Then I went back and read the first two (of those translated, since I think the first of the series hasn't been translated yet). There is an ongoing unsolved murder mystery that carries over from previous volumes. It was understandable what was going on, but it would have been better to read in order, to have a full appreciation of the elements of that mystery, as well as to learn the backgrounds of some of the characters and how they came to be involved in Harry's life. I'll review them in the order I read them, even though this is chronologically out of order.

26. The Devil's Star by Jo Nesbo

I have to say I wasn't impressed by Harry Hole when I first met him. He is drunk when he is called on duty, and has been MIA from his job for several weeks. Fortunately for Harry, his superior has covered for him, since Harry is apparently the most astute detective on the force. He warns Harry that he will no longer tolerate Harry's antics. I began to like Harry a bit more when it becomes apparent that Harry has been battling the drinking problem for a while, and has only gone off the wagon because he feels responsible for the murder of his working partner. Harry is also deeply in love with Raquel, and has a father-like relationship with her son Oleg. He also has a close relationship with his father and his developmentally disabled sister.

The first murder (for this book involves a serial killer) is discovered in a most unusual and unique way, as we follow a drop of water through the walls and floors of an old Oslo apartment building. I was immediately drawn in. For this and each subsequent murder, the killer leaves a red diamond on the victim, and takes one of the victim's fingers. There are lots of twists and turns, and the suspense is maintained through-out. The complex plot is enhanced by the fact that Harry has been partnered on the case with an unlikeable and self-serving detective who Harry suspects may be involved in illegal activities.

Harry is the prototype maverick cop who uses unconventional investigative techniques, and there are many other series that involve such a character. I found Harry special, however, and went on to reread others in the series.

Recommended.

3 stars

123arubabookwoman
Jun 11, 2013, 4:22 pm

27. The Redbreast by Jo Nesbo

This is earliest of the Harry Hole novels currently in English, although it is the third to be translated. What sets the book apart is its weaving of the history of World War II Norway with a present day crime. The story of those Norwegians who joined with the Nazis to fight the Russians on the Eastern Front is significant for the mystery Harry is to solve. As the novel begins and progresses, the bouncing back and forth between the 1940's and the present can be puzzling, and may deter some readers. I urge perseverance.

Otherwise, the plot is unusual, in that Harry must solve a murder which has not yet occurred: no one knows who will be murdered, when they will be murdered, and where, only that a murder is certain to occur. Not only must Harry track down the murderer, he must also identify the future victim. Elements also include gun runners and neo-Nazis, and there is a lot of fascinating background material about these. This book was voted the best Norwegian crime novel of the year.

Here's an interesting quote from one of the characters:

"The job of the historian is primarily to find the historical truth, to look at what the sources say and present them, objectively and dispassionately. If historians were to stand in judgment on human folly, our work would seem to posterity like fossils--the remnants of the orthodoxy of their time."

Recommended

3 stars

124arubabookwoman
Jun 11, 2013, 4:32 pm

28. Nemesis by Jo Nesbo

This is the novel that takes place between The Redbreast and The Devil's Star. One plot lines involve a bank robbery in which a teller is killed during a bank robbery apparently gone wrong. In addition, Harry's former girlfriend is discovered murdered under circumstances that make Harry the prime suspect. Harry's relationship with Rakel and her son is on rocky ground. Harry also finds himself immersed in gypsy culture, and there's lots of fascinating background on this culture. This is another one I recommend.

3 stars

I'll continue on with this series and try to go in order. I have the next couple on my Kindle, and may get to them on my next trip. (Leaving Thursday for NYC).

125maggie1944
Jun 11, 2013, 5:03 pm

Hi, glad to read the above reviews but I think I have sufficient books in the waiting wings so I'll not be adding these to my groaning bookshelves just now.

I hope all is good with you and your family.

126arubabookwoman
Jun 11, 2013, 5:57 pm

Hi Karen--Hope all is well. Have you been to the book meeting in Bellingham yet? How was it?

29. Old Flames by John Lawton

This is another mystery series. The protagonist is Inspector Troy. What I liked about this one was that political issues are deeply entwined with the mystery. The time in which it is set is important too--the Cold War, but still close enough to WW II that Britain is still suffering food shortages, and burnt out bomb sites are scattered throughout the landscape. The plot turns around what a state visit to Great Britain by Khrushchev, who is rumored to have recently denounced Stalin behind closed doors. The Soviet boat on which he is traveling is docked offshore when it becomes apparent that a frogman has been studying the boat. This may create an international incident if a connection is found between the frogman and the British government. When a body washes up on the shore, the government is quick to identify him as a rogue naval officer who had long been dismissed from service. His wife, however, is sure her husband is still alive, and prevails upon Troy to continue the investigation.

In the meantime, Troy had been assigned to the corps of British detectives charged with guarding Khrushchev, (and report on him to the British spy agency). There is a fanciful episode when Troy brings Khrushchev to a "typical" English pub so he can view the working class man up close. Lawton points out that this is a novel that puts invented characters in a historical context. Khrushchev actually visited England at this time and there was a naval frogman incident. However, Lawton replaces the actual shadow Foreign Secretary with Troy's brother, so Troy can get an insider's view of what was going on within the government (some of which is factually documented).

I'm planning to read at least one other of the series which is set around the Profumo/Keeler scandal of the "swinging 60's", since this is a time and an incident with which I am personally familiar. Others in the series are set during WW II, and I am not as interested in reading those.

Recommended

3 stars

127Whisper1
Jun 11, 2013, 6:04 pm

Hi There! Swinging 60's! I hail from a very small town, and I smile knowing that the 60's impacted even in our little burg.

I hope all is well with you. I send hugs!

128arubabookwoman
Jun 11, 2013, 6:09 pm

A few brief comments about a couple I didn't particularly care for.

30. Man in the Woods by Scott Spencer

This novel explores what happens when an average law-abiding man temporarily goes beserk and beats a man to death. The incident occurs when he sees the man mistreating a dog in an isolated park. He takes the dog and flees the scene. He returns home to his wife and child, and tries to resume his normal life, now with a pet dog.

None of this rang true to me: the circumstances of the murder and what he does afterwards. The premise is good, and the book could have been so much better.

1 1/2 stars

31. On Beulah Heights by Reginald Hill

This is a popular police procedural series set in northern England (Yorkshire?). The mystery itself is passable, involving the disappearance of several young girls years before which remained unsolved, and a new disappearance in the present time. However, this was one in which I didn't care to know more about the investigating inspectors, particularly "the Fat Man". (You can see from how vague I am that I wasn't at all impressed by this book.) Lots of people like this series though.

2 stars

129Whisper1
Jun 11, 2013, 6:25 pm

Oh, let's hope your next reads are better than your last two.

130arubabookwoman
Jun 11, 2013, 6:31 pm

Hi Linda--Hope you are well. I envy you for being able to attend the recent Philadelphia meet-up.

No worries about my next reads--I'm reviewing books I read back in April, so I've had a good many reads since then.

131Whisper1
Jun 11, 2013, 6:34 pm

The meet up in Philadelphia was an incredible experience!!!!!!

It brought such joy to my soul. As fiscal year end close approaches, I'm swamped at work. Memories of the fun time in Philadelphia sustain me through the stress.

I do hope to meet you one day as well.

132arubabookwoman
Jun 11, 2013, 6:57 pm

How about 2 Japanese mysteries?

32. Real World by Natsuo Kirino

Out by Natsuo Kirino is a Japanese mystery that blew me away. (I read it twice--since I picked it for my book club after I first read it). Although ostensibly a mystery, it presents such a real picture of the day-to-day lives of the working class of Japan, and in particular the abysmal situation in which many Japanese women find themselves. I wasn't as taken by Real World.

The characters in Real World (other than the police) are all teenagers facing exams that will determine the future course of their lives. They are attending "cram" schools, or otherwise studying. The novel begins when a teenage boy murders his mother by beating her to death. The teenage girl next door sees him leaving the house, but doesn't know what he has done until she is questioned by the police. She makes a spur of the moment decision to lie to the police to protect the boy. She is intrigued by his actions, as are her two girl friends. Soon the three are aiding and assisting the boy in his flight from authorities. They almost compete with each other to see who can help him the most.

This was a very sad book. The young people are lost and nihilistic. The boy seems to have killed his mother only for the heck of it. Although a decent enough book, I didn't care for it.

2 1/2 stars

33. The Thief by Fuminori Nakamura

This is another Japanese crime novel set on the fringes of contemporary Japanese life. It is narrated in the first person by a professional pickpocket. He dresses well, so that he does not look suspicious, but otherwise lives frugally on the edges of society, with no personal connections. He is so good at his job that he can almost do it on autopilot.

Then he lets himself get entangled in some personal relationships. First, his early mentor has returned to town, and he and the narrator are forced to take part in a home robbery. They are to participate in only a limited way, and they are told there will be no violence. However, the next day he learns that the homeowner was killed, and the victim turns out to have been an important political figure. The pickpocket understands that those who forced him to participate will in all likelihood expect more from him, perhaps even his life.

About the same time, he takes a young boy under his wings. He first notices the young boy in a grocery store. His prostitute mother is making him shoplift. The narrator notices because the boy's attempts are so clumsy and he is being observed by the store owner. He intervenes, pretends to be with the boy and purchases the goods the boy has attempted to steal. Thereafter, he tries to teach the boy the tricks of the trade. Soon he realizes that his relationship with the boy has endangered the boy's life as well.

This book is almost a character study, rather than a crime book. It is a look at a man living on the edge of society, and a young boy who will probably end up there. There's also a lot of information about how to pick pockets.

3 stars

133maggie1944
Jun 11, 2013, 9:29 pm

Yes, the Bellingham Booktopia was this last weekend. I had a fabulous time. Details on my two journals here (1 in 75 Book Challenge; and 1 in The Green Dragon). Also, you can read about it here - http://www.librarything.com/topic/154570

134rebeccanyc
Jun 12, 2013, 6:56 pm

Will have to catch up with your thread later, Deborah, when I have time to read all your new reviews.

135NanaCC
Jun 12, 2013, 9:15 pm

Just catching up. Several interesting books in your thread. I see you have a couple of Jo Nesbo books. I have been tempted by them before, but might just try one. I might also try Old Flames.

136PaulCranswick
Jun 16, 2013, 12:07 am

Plenty of reading here I can identify with Deborah being enraptured by Scandi and Harry Hole as I am. So pleased that it scored well with you. I also agree with your view on the very formulaic Reginald Hill books; not my cup of tea at all. I recently bought books by Kirino and Nakamura and your reviews may make them slip a little higher in the pile of unread books.

Have a lovely weekend.

137mirrordrum
Edited: Jul 24, 2013, 10:15 pm

hullo--just dropping a star on your list after you graced my thread with enjoyment of Tegan Brozyna's work. i can see how she would appeal to a textile artist. she certainly bedazzled me and i know nothing about textiles let alone textile art.

i'm horrid, simply horrid, at keeping up with my starred 75 in 2013 people and, of late, haven't even been lurking but having starred you will allow me to dip a toe from time to time even though i may leave scarcely a ripple.

138maggie1944
Jul 25, 2013, 10:37 am

Hi, Deborah

Hope you are enjoying summertime. And are getting your needed reading done, that is to say, however much you need to do.

139arubabookwoman
Jul 29, 2013, 5:39 pm

Karen, Rebecca, Nana, Paul and Mirrordrum--Thanks for visiting my neglected (mostly by me) thread. We had some bad news in the form of a bad medical diagnosis for my husband (leukemia). For now, he is "perfectly healthy", other than that, but this could change at any moment, and it could become aggressive. It's like living with a time bomb. We're just doing a day at a time, and planning to visit our kids as often as we can.

Needless to say, my reading has suffered, I haven't been able to focus on most books, so I've started and put aside dozens. What I have done is buy probably around 200 books over the last couple of months (mostly for kindle), which makes it harder to choose what to read--some I can't even remember what they're about or why I bought them (though most of them I got to through browsing LT). Most of what I've been reading are mysteries or scifi. But I have a ton of reviews still to post, so I'm going to try to do that, starting with some books from India. (I passed 75 way back in June, but have only commented on 33 books).

34. Animals People by Indra Sinha

"I used to be human once. So I'm told. I don't remember it myself, but people who knew me when I was small say I walked on two feet just like a human being."

Animal is a 20 year old man who walks on all fours, thus his name. He is a street person in an unnamed city in India based on Bhopal. A chemical leak when he was an infant caused his condition, and he would like nothing more than to be whole. He lives in an improvised hovel with Ma Franci, an elderly French nun from the orphanage he was raised in. Now he cares for her and protects her to the extent he can as she declines into dementia. They are surrounded by others eking out a living on the street, many of whom are also suffering serious health problems resulting from the chemical leak. (Their settlement in fact borders on the former chemical plant, now enclosed by barbed wire and no trespassing signs). One of the appeals of this book is getting to know these characters, who have lost what little they have had, as they go about their daily lives, doing ordinary things, loving their families, helping their friends, all without allowing bitterness and hatred to rule them.

Animal's life begins to change when he meets Nisha, who takes him under her wing. She lives with her father, a wealthy and famous former singer of traditional Indian music. Her boyfriend Zafar is an activist, who is continuing the ongoing fight against the American chemical company ("the Kampani"). The fight is complicated by government corruption and the system of back-scratching existing between big business and politicians.

Animal begins to take one meal a day at Nisha's house, and finds himself falling in love with her, and resenting Zafar. Into this mix comes Elli, an American doctor. She is opening a free clinic to help the victims of the spill. Unfortunately, the rumor spreads that she is an agent of the Kampani, perhaps there to collect information to be used against them, and no one will go to her clinic. Animal, however, begins to think that Elli might make him whole again.

All of these threads and stories are narrated by Animal, who has a unique and authentic voice. He can be crass, he is sometimes sex-obsessed, he does some bad things (like trying to poison Zafar), yet he is wholly sympathetic and real. This book was short-listed for the Booker and is deservedly on the 1001 list.

This is a long quote, which I thoroughly enjoyed. The whole book is not preachy, however.

"Behold, the Kampani. On its roof are soldiers with guns. Tanks patrol its foot. Jets fly over leaving criss-cross trails and its basements contain bunkers full of atomic bombs. From this building the Kampani controls its factories all over the world. It's stuffed with banknotes, it is the counting house for the Kampani's wealth. One floor of the building is reserved for the Kampani's three-and-thirty thousand lawyers. Another is for the doctors doing research to prove that the Kampani's many accidents have caused no harm to anyone. On yet another engineers design plants that are cheap to make and run. Chemists on a higher floor are experimenting with poisons, mixing them up to see which most efficiently kill. One floor is devoted to living things waiting in cages to be killed. Above the chemists is a floor of those who sell the Kampani's poisons with slogans like SHAKE HANDS WITH THE FUTURE and NOBODY CARES MORE, above these are a thousand public relations consultants, whose job is dealing with protesters like Zafar who are blind to the Kampani's virtues and put out carping leaflets saying NOBODY CARES LESS. It is the job of the PR people to tell the world how good and caring and responsible the Kampani is. In the directors' floor at the top of the building the Kampani is throwing a party for all its friends. There you'll find generals and judges, senators, presidents and prime ministers, oil sheikhs, newspaper owners, movie stars, police chiefs, mafia dons, members of obscure royal families etcetera etcetera."

4 stars

140RebaRelishesReading
Jul 29, 2013, 5:50 pm

Deborah, I'm so sorry to hear about your husband's diagnosis. I'm wishing you both strength and him a good outcome.

141arubabookwoman
Jul 29, 2013, 6:07 pm

35. Serious Men by Manu Joseph

I thought this would be a funny, satirical novel. While it does have many touches of humor, it is also a serious examination of the lingering effects of the caste system in contemporary India.

Its hero Mani is a former untouchable ("Dalit'), who began life with aspirations. Now, he's stuck, and he knows it. He lives with his wife and son in "BDD Chawl", "..a hive of ten thousand one-room homes carved inside a hundred and twenty identical three-storyed buildings that stood like grey ruins, their paint long removed by old rains." 80,000 people live in these buildings, and Mani had wanted to break away from that world. As he has come to realize that he will not, he decides to help his son achieve more than did.

Mani works as the administrative aide to the head of a scientific research institute. The primary focus of the institute is the research for extraterrestrial life, and there is an ongoing dispute among the scientists as to what the best way to proceed is. The head of the institute is in favor of one methodology; other scientists favor different methodologies. What unites the scientists is that they are all of former Brahmin caste. There is an unspoken belief among them that the untouchable class is, in fact, inferior and that its members do not have the intelligence and could not achieve the education to become scientists, or to otherwise advance from menial positions. Most of the non-scientific staff at the institute are of lower castes, and they, including Mani, are essentially invisible to the scientists.

Mani's position may be one of invisibility, but due to the knowledge his position makes him privy to (and some knowledge that he comes upon by spying) he is able to manipulate some things behind the scenes. He wants to prove his son is a genius, and capable of becoming a research scientist. Suddenly, his son begins blurting out questions at school that stump his teachers. His reputation soars, and he becomes known as the brightest student at the school. The school principal tells Mani, "How beautifully you've forgiven the people who brutalized your forefathers. The Brahmins, the kind of things they did. The things they do even now. In private, they still call you the Untouchables, do you know that?" A newspaper article is mysteriously published in a local newspaper reporting that Mani's son Adi has placed first in a nation-wide scientific exam. Soon rumors of Adi's genius are everywhere, even at the institute.

I enjoyed this book, though there was a situation in which the head scientist has an affair with a female scientist which went on a bit too long, and which I felt portrayed the female scientist in an unrealistic light. I suppose this incident was necessary for the plot development, but it didn't have to take such a prominent position. Nevertheless, I recommend this book without reservations.

3 1/2 stars

142arubabookwoman
Jul 29, 2013, 6:08 pm

Reba--thank you so much for your good wishes. It really means a lot to me. I was debating whether to post this information, but it does make me feel better.

143RebaRelishesReading
Jul 29, 2013, 6:12 pm

((((((Deborah))))))

144NanaCC
Jul 29, 2013, 6:13 pm

I am also sorry to read about your husband's diagnosis. It must be hard to concentrate on anything. I am sure everyone would forgive you if you don't want to write reviews.

145arubabookwoman
Jul 29, 2013, 6:26 pm

36. The Thing About Thugs by Tabish Khair

Several years ago I read a mid-19th century novel by Philip Taylor Meadows called Confessions of a Thug. Meadows was a police official in India at the time, and the novel purported to be the confession of a member to the "Thugees", a criminal band that was terrorizing the countryside at that time. A Thugee was basically born into the life, and the group had a whole system of rituals and worship. It was quite a fascinating novel, and my review of it appears here:

http://www.librarything.com/work/128010/book/

In The Thing About Thugs, a contemporary novel Amir Ali,, the Thugee interviewed by Meadows is now in London with Meadows. Meadows has brought him to London to continue his study of Thugee culture. In addition, Meadows is deeply involved with a Phrenological society that believes that a criminal character can be diagnosed by the shape of his skull.

Amir decides to set the record straight about what was true and what was invented in his descriptions of Thugee culture to Meadows. The bulk of the narrative consists of Amir's record of his life. In London in the meantime, the Phrenological society needs skulls of criminals to study. Some shady characters are involved, and a Phenological society member known as "M'Lord" is in charge of obtaining those skulls, no questions asked about their source.

When members of the London underclass start showing up murdered, the police and others focus their suspicions on the "savage Thugee" in their midst. Meadows does not believe Amir is guilty of these murders, and helps him hide from the authorities.

This is an engaging read. I found it somewhat confusing at times, and unfocused. Still, I would recommend it, although I enjoyed Confessions of a Thug more. Who knows what the real story is?

3 stars

146arubabookwoman
Jul 29, 2013, 6:53 pm

Reba and Nana--you guys are great! I appreciate your thoughts. It helps.

I'm mostly posting reviews I had written or outlined before, just to get them out there. That, too, makes me feel more normal.

I'm through with Indian lit for the moment:

37. The Bag Lady War by Carol Leonard SeCoy

This is a satire on the state of present day health care, and an indictment of our society's treatment of the elderly. Josie, Mabel and Mill, three elderly widows, are tired of living with street thugs and poverty. They devise the perfect plan to ensure their safety, and room, board, and medical care for life. The idea came to Josie as she listened to a speech by a U.S. Senator arguing that Social Security needed to be cut. In the same speech, the Senator argued for building more prisons. When she thinks about it, Josie decides that living the remainder of her life in prison isn't such a bad idea, and is able to convince her friends to join her: "Would it be so bad to live in prison? That's not the worst thing that can happen to me Mabel. At least I'd be safe and my financial problems would be over. And you said yourself, if we have to stay locked up in our homes to be safe, we may as well be in prison." Josie and her friends don't want to be a burden on society, however, so they decide to "compensate" the government for their own life-long care by ridding society of criminals who would otherwise end up in prison as a burden to the government anyway. In fact, they come to see themselves as "government agents" of a sort, with "a mission vital to our country...." They devise a complex formula for how many criminals equate to their life-time care, and set to work.

For the most part this is a light-hearted satire. The ladies kill some criminals, destroy a crack lab, break up some street gangs. When they think they've made their quota, they turn themselves in. There are a number of hilarious scenes as they try to convince the police to arrest them and a judge to convict them (they don't want to burden the government with the cost of a trial).

After this thoroughly enjoyable first half of the novel, the book turns into a polemic, and goes a bit over the top in preachiness. Hundreds, maybe thousands of seniors all over the country begin to emulate Josie, Mable and Mill. There's an epidemic of murders, and even the President becomes involved. Congress must act. The three women, now safely ensconced in a low security facility, are asked to intervene to calm things down. I think the author lost her way in turning the remainder of the book into a political tract. However, the first part was laugh-out loud funny (though somewhat bittersweet), and I recommend it for that.

2 1/2 stars.

147brenzi
Jul 29, 2013, 7:16 pm

I'm so sorry to hear about your husband's illness Deborah. You're wise to take it one day at a time and visit your children as much as you can. I think something like that makes you reevaluate what is most important to you. Sending up healing thoughts for him and peace for you.

148arubabookwoman
Jul 29, 2013, 7:34 pm

38. Capital: A Novel by John Lancaster

This is a slice-of-life novel, the slice being cut from Pepys Road in London and the families who live on or are connected with the road. "Having a house in Pepys Road was like being in a casino in which you were guaranteed to be a winner. If you already lived there, you were rich. If you wanted to move there, you had to be rich. It was the first time in history this had ever been true Britain had become a country of winners and losers and all the people in the street, just by living there, had won."

This is not entirely true, of course. Petunia, an elderly pensioner who has just been diagnosed with cancer, just scrapes by. She lives in a house purchased by her grandfather at a time when the houses had just been built, and were affordable--they had been built for the laboring class. Petunia is a winner only in that her daughter will inherit her extremely valuable house after Petunia dies. And there is a Pakistani family who live above the shop they own at the end of the road. We also become involved in the lives of a hedge fund trader/banker and his shopaholic wife, dreaming of how many millions of pounds he will be receiving as a bonus, not realizing that the world is on the cusp of the financial crash; a young soccer star from Senegal who despite advances in the millions suffers a career-threatening injury. Others are the graffiti artist grandson of one of the residents, the illegal immigrant working as a meter maid, the Polish carpenter who does many of the ongoing renovations undertaken by the wealthy residents, the nannys for the spoiled children. These are just the main characters--there are many minor characters whose tales are no less interesting--the assistant to the banker who feels that he is 100% responsible for the banker's success, the artist's assistant who also resents the artist's success. While it might be thought that such a myriad of characters and stories would be difficult to keep track of, that is not the case. Lancaster is such a good writer that the characters are all three-dimensional and memorable. I found myself wondering how Lancaster could know so much about such a wide variety of people.

The plot, loose as it is, is driven by a series of notes delivered to each resident of Pepys Road. The notes state, "We want what you have." At first the notes are ignored, or passed off as a marketing campaign by an overzealous real estate company. The notes keep coming, however, and the police become involved. This plot is all played out against a backdrop of the financial crisis, the London art world, the treatment of suspected terrorists, professional sports (soccer), illegal immigration--indeed the theme of the global and financial nature of the city itself. I highly recommend this novel.

4 1/2 stars

149arubabookwoman
Jul 29, 2013, 7:35 pm

Thank you Bonnie--as I said, I really appreciate your expression of support.

150PaulCranswick
Jul 29, 2013, 7:46 pm

Deborah - Leukaemia of the non-aggressive type runs in the male line of my family and my Grandfather lived with it for 30 years (he passed away at 98) and my father was diagnosed two and a half years ago. There are various strains of the illness and I hope that your husband has the least aggressive type. Sending tropical best wishes and I'm sure he appreciates your hugs and support.

Don't forget to PM me your address to collect on being first on my thread this weekend. xx

151LizzieD
Jul 29, 2013, 8:35 pm

Deborah, my sympathies with you and your husband both. Like Paul's family, I have an uncle who has been living with a chronic leukemia for at least 30 years. It is well-controlled most of the time, and when it rears its ugly head, the doctors have been able to smack it back down again. He's now 88 and going strong, so that's what I hope you're dealing with.

152rebeccanyc
Jul 30, 2013, 11:54 am

Also so sorry to learn of your husband's illness. It is so difficult, in addition to being sad and scary, to have to live with something like that. I'm glad you're still able to do some reading and am enjoying your reviews, as always.

153EBT1002
Jul 31, 2013, 5:24 pm

So sorry to hear about your husband's news, Deborah. Take good care. Enjoy every moment.

154maggie1944
Aug 3, 2013, 6:34 pm

I can only but join the chorus. It is very hard to receive news such as this and my support is offered to your and yours whole heartedly. Do take care of yourself as well as your loved ones. And please let those LTers who are local know if there is anything RL we can do for you.

155kidzdoc
Aug 5, 2013, 8:01 am

I'm very sorry to hear about your husband's diagnosis, Deborah. Please keep us updated on his condition, and definitely feel free to contact me if I can be of any help.

Great reviews as always. I loved Animal's People, although I'm disappointed that Indra Sinha hasn't written anything since then. I've had my eye on Serious Men for awhile, so I'll plan to buy it later this month. I'm glad that you enjoyed Capital; I probably won't get to it this year, but I'll plan to read it in 2014.

156mausergem
Edited: Aug 13, 2013, 10:00 pm

Hi Deborah, this is my first time here. I diligently read all your reviews and was hit by a number of book bullets. Thanks.

157maggie1944
Aug 14, 2013, 8:54 am

I have been thinking of you, Deborah, and holding you and your family in my heart.

158DorsVenabili
Aug 17, 2013, 5:18 pm

Hi Deborah, I'm so very sorry to hear of your husband's diagnosis. My thoughts are with you.

On a book note, I always enjoy your excellent reviews, and I'm glad you've stopped by to post a few. I've added Animals People and Capital to the enormous wishlist.

159cushlareads
Aug 18, 2013, 12:48 am

Hi Deborah,

I'm so sorry to hear your news. I really hope it stays at bay for a long long time, and I hope reading brings you some comfort and helps to take your mind off it.

I've added Capital to my wishlist after your review. I was already interested in it but now I need to read it.

160arubabookwoman
Sep 6, 2013, 8:02 pm

Paul, Peggy, Rebecca, Ellen, Karen, Daryl, Gautam, Kerry and Cushla--Thank you all so much for your good wishes. Although I seem to be on LT only sporadically, my friendships here mean a lot. We are going day-to-day. My husband still feels fine (mostly), but some of his blood work has worsened. We went to meet some Doctors at the Hutchinson Cancer Center about a clinical trial with a very promising drug, but later found out that he was not elegible because he was not yet 65. It appears, however, that this drug will be approved by the FDA within the next 6 months or so, and our goal is to be able to hold off the need for treatment until then.

In the meantime--I've read over 100 books so far, and appear to have only reviewed 38. I'll try to move that number up a bit, first with some reviews of some of the non-fiction books I've read:

39. The Family That Couldn't Sleep by D.T. Max

In effect, this book is a medical detective story, tracing the medical quest to diagnose and treat cases of Fatal Familial Insomnia. One in two members of a family in Italy suffers from this disease (and it is traceable back through several generations), which strikes when victims is in their 50's, and which is always fatal. Only about 40 families world-wide, all unrelated, suffer from this disease. Only in recent years was it discovered that Fatal Familial Insomnia is a prion disease.

The prion has been described as one of the strangest things in all biology. Insofar as is known, prions do not replicate themselves. It is not a virus or a bacteria, but is a protein, a non-living thing. In 1997, the prion was shown to be the infectious agent causing such diseases as Mad Cow disease, Creutzfeld-Jakob disease, kuru, a disease found only in some indigenous populations of New Guinea, and perhaps other diseases. Prion diseases appear to be the only diseases that can take one of three forms: genetic, infectious and accidental. We know that prions are found in all mammals, but we don't know their function in healthy mammals.

As one scientist says, "What kills viruses and bacteria barely affects them. Boiling will not disinfect them, nor will heat. You can't reliably 'kill' a prion with radiation. You can't pour formaldehyde on it to render it harmless--in fact formaldehyde makes prions tougher. Not all bleaches can kill prions and those that can need to be highly concentrated. Prions bond to metal. They can be spread, for instance, when doctors reuse the electrodes planted in patients' brains for EEGs or by dental equipment."

This was a fascinating scientific story about this strange protein of which I'd never heard (although obviously I'd heard of mad cow disease and Creutzfeld-Jakob). A couple of Nobel prize winners received their prizes based on their prion research, and I understand that there is much ongoing research, as there is much still to be discovered about it.

Recommended
3 stars

161arubabookwoman
Sep 6, 2013, 9:03 pm

40. A Thousand Lives by Julia Scheeres

We've all heard the phrase "drink the Kool Aid", but sometimes tend to forget its tragic origin in the mass suicide at Jonestown in Guyana. In A Thousand Lives Julia Scheeres's aim is to help the reader understand the reasons that people were drawn to Jim Jones and his church, why they followed him into the wilderness of Guyana, and how they ended up dying in a mass-murder/suicide.

While his early ministry was not particularly controversial, Jones told his followers that "for some unexplained set of reasons, I happened to be selected to be God." His primary message was that God had done nothing to help humanity, but he, Jim Jones, would. He began drugging people surrepticiously to prove his special abilities, and his congregation grew into the thousands. He formed a governing board called the planning commission. Jones himself began taking Dextroamphetamine. This drug can cause paranoia, and it had this affect on Jones. Jones began to fear outsiders, and instilled this fear in his followers.

All members of his church were expected to move into communal living quarters, and turn all their property and earnings over to the church. Families were broken up, children were abused, yet Jones managed to retain his control over his followers. In 1974, Jones purchased a remote tract of land in Guyana, and sent "pioneers" down to start clearing the land. They sent back rosy descriptions (untrue) to lure as many members as possible. After an extremely negative newspaper article in August, 1977, the Temple began a massive effort to bring its followers to Guyana. Seven "special Aides" went to the various communes at midnight to inform them that they had been called to the promised land. Members were not allowed to make calls. They were driven to the Temple and loaded onto buses. They left from various airports. The next day, there were hundreds of empty seats in local classrooms, and many missing employees. The communes were emptied in a matter of days. Members disappeared without even informing family members.

Once in Guyana, life was hard. There was not enough food, living conditions were primitive, and the amount of work that needed to be done was overwhelming. Jones appeared less frequently to his members. He was drug-addled much of the time, and was more and more paranoid. All links to the outside were cut off, and there was increasing talk of suicide among the leaders of the church. In fact, a great deal of planning went into obtaining the poisons, determining dosages and delivery means, and so forth, making it clear that the mass suicide/murder was not spontaneous, but was carefully orchestrated.

Many members had attempted to leave, but were forced to stay, sometimes with their children held ransom. There were frequent inquiries from the US Ambassador regarding requests for information about various church members from their families who were concerned about their welfare. Inquiries from relatives in fact instigated a Congressional investigation, and Congressman Leo Ryan along with aides went to Jonestown to meet with church members in order to be able to reassure their families. Instead, he found many members who wanted to leave, so many that not all would be able to be brought out that day on his plane. As Ryan and some of the families were attempting to leave, some loyal church leaders opened fire, killing the congressman and others. Then the church leaders began implementing the plan to poison all remaining members.

This book was based on diaries that were kept by several members, some quite detailed, interviews with survivors, and other contemporary documentation. In the end, Scheeres prefers that the incident not be remembered as the source of the "drink the Kool Aid" phrase, but:

"If anything, the people who moved to Jonestown should be remembered as noble idealists. They wanted to create a better, more equitable society. They wanted their kids to be free of violence and racism. They rejected sexist gender roles. They believed in a dream.
"How terribly they were betrayed."

Recommended
3 1/2 stars

162PaulCranswick
Sep 6, 2013, 9:13 pm

Lovely to see you back posting Deborah and with a couple of bobby-dazzler reviews. Hope that your husband is doing well, give him a hug from the group too and have a lovely weekend.

163arubabookwoman
Sep 6, 2013, 9:23 pm

41. Spook by Mary Roach

I've seen Mary Roach interviewed a few times, and always enjoyed her quirky take on things. So I was really looking forward to reading Spook, the first book I have read. The book is her attempt to explore the science surrounding attempts to discover if there is a soul and if there is an afterlife. After reading about one third of the book, I found myself skimming the rest. The first few chapters discuss reincarnation. These chapters are entirely anecdotal, and Roach just seems to accept the anecdotes with little analysis or serious scientific questioning. Then she begins to explore the soul, and attempts to weigh the soul to prove its existence. One investigator describes the soul as "the {obligatory} negative entropy (i.e., energy/weight equivalent) that is necessary to allow for the nonequillibrium meta-stable physical 'quasi-steady-state' of a living/conscious biological system," Huh? I began skimming after she moved on to séances.

Roach states that, "This is a book for people who would very much like to believe in a soul and an afterlife for it to hang around in, but who have trouble accepting these things on faith." This book did nothing for one who has trouble accepting these things on faith. In the afterword, she explains that when she is asked what she believes, she says there is evidence of some things we can't explain with our current knowledge--the possibility that there is something more. But one doesn't need this book to come to that conclusion.

I know that Roach is entertaining, and known to be one to explain science in an accessible way to non-scientists. I didn't find that here, though. I have another of her books on my Kindle, Stiff, and I will still read that. After that I don't expect to try another of her books.

Not recommended
1 1/2 stars

164arubabookwoman
Sep 6, 2013, 9:39 pm

Hello Paul--Nice to hear from you--enjoy your weekend as well. I'm not sure what "bobby-dazzler" means--I'm sure it must be some kind of Malaysian term.

The next book I'm not going to review, just list a few quotes from it. I read it to try to understand the emotions involved when one receives a dreaded diagnosis.

42. Intoxicated By My Illness by Anatole Broyard

Broyard was diagnosed with an incurable cancer.

"I saw my illness as a visit to a disturbed country...."

He found tremendous unprecedented freedom in being ill, and he wanted a doctor who can go beyond science and imagine the aloneness of the critically ill.

He felt that, "time had tapped me on the shoulder, that I had been given a real deadline at last", and that now, "something was going to interrupt my leisurely process."

"Time was no longer innocuous, nothing was casual anymore. All your life you think you have to hold back your craziness, but when you're sick you can let it out in all its garish colors."

"I don't think people are afraid of death. What they are afraid of is the incompleteness of their life."

165PaulCranswick
Sep 6, 2013, 9:48 pm

No, Deborah I am revealing my Northern English roots rather than my Malaysian exile. It is a term expressing something that is or looks wonderful.

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=bobby%20dazzler

166arubabookwoman
Sep 6, 2013, 11:06 pm

Here's a couple more from India and Pakistan

43. Song of Kahunsha by Anosh Irani

Chamdi is a 10 year old boy raised in an orphanage in Bombay. For his entire life, he has been awaiting the return of one of his parents to take him home. He has not been outside the walls of the orphanage, but is sure that the city of Bombay is beautiful and full of loving people. He imagines a beautiful place and names it "Kahunsha", which to him meant "the city of no sadness." When the matron tells the children that the orphanage will be moving, Chamdi decides to run away and look for his father.

When Chamdi arrives on the streets of Bombay he quickly learns that people are not kind. He spends a night and two days on the street with nothing to eat, scorned by the people around him. On his second night he is approached by a girl his age, and she brings him to an alley where she lives with her brother and their mother who is schizophrenic and detached from reality. The girl, Guddi, and her brother, Sumdi, had approached Chamdi because they had noticed how thin he was, and felt that they could make use of him to slip through the bars of a nearby temple and steal the offering plate. Chamdi is horrified at the thought of stealing, but Guddi and Sumdi have been kind to him and fed him, so he decides to stay with them as they teach him the art of begging. They introduce him to their "Boss", Anand Bhai, an older man to whom they must daily turn over the proceeds of their begging, and be rewarded with a small amount in return. On his first meeting, Chamdi witnesses Anand casually gouge out the eye of another child beggar he caught withholding some of his earnings.

Over the next several days Chambi learns to live on the streets. He is surprised to find so many people sleeping in the streets, and begins to view the entire city of Bombay as an orphanage. He sees and experiences many horrors, but Chambi tries to maintain his illusions. All of this takes place against sectarian violence that broke out when Hindus destroyed a particularly holy mosque. Chambi and his friends are ultimately unable to avoid this violence.

The novel is narrated from the pov of Chamdi, and his is a delightful and charming voice, despite the grimness of his experiences.

Recommended

3 1/2 stars

44. Basti by Intizar Husain

Intizar Husain is considered by many as the most significant living fiction writer in Urdu. This novel is also set against sectarian violence, in this case the violence of the 1947 partition and the violence of the events resulting in the nation of Bangladesh. These events are related through the eyes of Zakir. The novel begins prepartition in India during Zakir's idyllic childhood. The language is lyrical: "When the world was still and new...when a bird seemed that it had just delivered a letter to the Queen of Sheba's palace and was on his way back toward Solomon's castle." He lives in a small village, and we experience through his eyes, the wonders of childhood--the playful monkeys, the coming of electricity to the village. And it was a village in which everyone got along--the Hindu families and the Muslim families and the Buddhists and the Christians. Zakir grew up hearing legends and myths from the Buddhist, Hindu and Muslim religions. "Every day these conversations, every day these stories, as though Bagat-ji and Abba-jan together were explicating the universe for him."

Then we are thrust into the 1970's (when this book was written). Zakir now lives in Lahore, Pakistan with his father and mother, and works as a teacher. His family lost everything when they were forced to move during the Partition. Some of his relatives remained in India and some are in Eastern Pakistan. New violence has erupted, Eastern Pakistan wants to secede, and India is making war noises against Pakistan in support of Eastern Pakistan. Zakir notes, "In houses, in offices, in restaurants, in streets and bazaars--everywhere the same situation. The discussion was at first ideological, then personal, then insulting, then abusive, and then it came to blows."

Outward events are taking place in Lahore, the past is in Zakir's mind, the sorrows of the Partition live on. Husain has been criticized for not presenting a full and complete picture, for not taking an ideological position. He has also been praised for a new style that moved beyond naturalism into more imaginative depictions of reality.

While I liked this book, and was very impressed with the writing, I did not feel the connection with it that I did with Song of Kahunsha. This book is definitely more intellectual and rational; Song of Kahunsha speaks from its heart.

Recommended
3 stars

167maggie1944
Sep 7, 2013, 10:43 am

Hi, Deborah, I am catching up with you. You read such an interesting variety of books, many which probably would never hit my awareness. Thanks for that! Interesting stuff. I knew a bit about the whole Jim Jones thing from some TV specials. What a huge tragedy and it does remind me that we are all human. Totally, and none of us can be trusted to be 100% in charge of others. What a mess that situation was; so sad.

I think I will some day get to reading the Roach stuff but I'll be happy to skip the one titled Spook. I am curious about Intoxicated by My Illness. Did you end up being glad you read it?

I'll be back to catch up with the rest. Take good care of yourself and your sweet husband.

168rebeccanyc
Sep 7, 2013, 11:00 am

Wonderful to catch up with you and glad that you are able to find time to post your reading here. The Jonestown book sounds fascinating and Song of Kahunsha too. I will be thinking of you and your husband.

169kidzdoc
Sep 9, 2013, 7:08 am

Fabulous reviews, Deborah! I enjoy seeing intermittent flurries of posts on your thread, as I know that several of the books you've reviewed will make their way onto my wish list. This time is no exception; The Family That Couldn't Sleep and Song of Kahunsha have been added.

I own Intoxicated By My Illness, which I liked but not as much as Broyard's earlier memoir Kafka Was the Rage, and your review reminds me that I still haven't read One Drop: My Father's Hidden Life--A Story of Race and Family Secrets by his daughter Bliss Broyard, which was written after she learned that Anatole, who had passed for white for most of his life, was actually a light skinned African American man from New Orleans.

I bought Basti last year, so hopefully I'll get to it next year.

Did the author of A Thousand Lives go into any detail on what types of people are attracted to religious cults such as that one? On the surface I'm amazed that any sane, rational person would willingly follow a person like Jim Jones, give up their material possessions and tolerate all manner of abuses, but it continues to happen over and over again.

Best wishes to you and your husband.

170labfs39
Edited: Sep 9, 2013, 1:19 pm

I'm sorry I got so far behind on your thread, but I finally caught up and, oh, the damage to my TBR was considerable. Your reviews are marvelous. I understand how burdensome it can be to get behind on reviews, as I fell several months behind this summer. Have you considered skipping ahead to the present and not worrying about the ones in between? That's what I did. I would much prefer that than not getting any more reviews for the rest of the year. ;-)

ETA: Congrats on 4 hot reviews out of the top 20!

171PaulCranswick
Sep 14, 2013, 10:02 pm

Deborah wishing you and your hubby a lovely weekend. The bobby dazzler reviews continue I see.

172arubabookwoman
Edited: Sep 20, 2013, 9:33 pm

Hi Karen--Yes I am glad I read Intoxicated By My Illness. It validated my feeling that we had suddenly been given a deadline. I knew intellectually that we're not going to live forever, and after a certain age I frequently thought about the fact that death could actually happen at any time. However, the diagnosis made that intellectual knowledge visceral.

Hi Rebecca--thanks for visiting and for your best wishes.

Hi Daryl--Re Intoxicated By My Illness--I haven't read anything else by Broyard (although One Drop sounds interesting). I wouldn't describe Intoxicated by My Illness as a memoir. It is a collection of some of the columns Broyard wrote after his diagnosis. As such, it is sometimes repetitive and sometimes incomplete. Nevertheless his descriptions of his thoughts and feelings was helpful.

Re A Thousand Lives, Scheeres does go into great detail as to what types of adherents were attracted to Jones's cult. These were primarily black females and single mothers. In addition, in later years the cult actively recruited the homeless and the poor. The members were attracted by Jones's early message and policies. The church was founded in the 1950's and the subject of many of Jones's sermons was for equal rights for blacks, women, and the poor, which was radical for that time. In addition, Jones lived his message. I think that's why Scheeres's closing words were so touching: "How terribly they were betrayed."

Hi LIsa--welcome back to LT. I want to do the reviews primarily for myself, not LT, but I am coming to accept that I won't get them all done this year.

Hi Paul--You have a great weekend too, a week later.

173labfs39
Sep 20, 2013, 10:58 pm

Nice to hear from you, Deborah. What are you reading these days?

174arubabookwoman
Sep 21, 2013, 12:35 am

45. Five Days At Memorial by Sheri Fink

I requested this book from ER, but did not get it. I compensated by buying TWO copies of it, one the hardback (on impulse when I saw it at Costco), and the other on my Kindle, which I had already purchased, but had a senior moment about. :) I wanted to read the book in part because my three oldest children were born at Memorial (then known as Southern Baptist Hospital), but mainly because of my interest in books about Hurricane Katrina. Although the book focuses on only one microcosm of the tragic universe of Katrina, proceeding in minute detail hour by hour of the five days patients and staff were stranded at the hospital without electricity, running water, and other amenities, and then moving to the aftermath as the events that occurred during those five days are investigated, the book is a compelling page-turner, and entirely "un-put-downable."

For those unaware, staff and patients were trapped at the hospital by the floodwaters that inundated the city after the levees burst. As at most other hospitals in New Orleans, emergency generators were located in the basement (and not intended to last more than a couple of days in any event), and were soon flooded and failed, leaving the hospital without electricity. The staff worked heroically to provide medical care for the sickest patients, giving oxygen by hand pumps when respirators failed for example. Patients died, there was no morgue, and the bodies decayed in the 100+ degree heat. There was no running water, and the toilets overflowed. The stench and the heat were almost unbearable.

Under these conditions, the decision was made (it is unclear who made the decision) to evacuate the healthiest of the patients first, then those more seriously ill (i.e. unable to walk), and to evacuate the most gravely ill last. When rescuers began to arrive, evacuations proceeded slowly. Patients had to be carried by hand down dark stairwells, handed through a small hole in the wall which was the only unflooded access to the parking garage, ferried to the top of the parking garage, then carried up three flights of metal stairs to a decrepit helipad that hadn't been used in years. Once there the patients sometimes sat for hours in the heat and sun awaiting helicopters. Finally by Thursday (the hurricane struck on Sunday), "every living person" had been evacuated.

Days later, when recovery operations were underway, dozens of bodies were found in the hospital, including 45 bodies on the 7th floor. Rumors swirled about alleged mercy killings, and many of the bodies discovered at Memorial were determined to have massive doses of morphine or Versed in their bodies. After an exhaustive investigation by the state Attorney General's office, Dr. Anna Pou and two nurses were arrested on suspicion of homicide--accused of injecting the patients with lethal doses of morphine and/or Versed with the intent of causing death. Ultimately, Dr. Pou and the nurses were not indicted (for reasons set forth in fascinating detail), investigations of other hospitals in which deceased patients were found under similar circumstances were dropped, and indictments against the owner and his wife of a nursing home in which dozens of patients were drowned were dropped. Since then, Dr. Pou has gone on to become an advocate for instituting different standards for medical care under disaster circumstances.

When I first heard of the so-called mercy killings the circumstances were purported to be that desperate conditions prevailed, rescue appeared to be remote, and the patients were said to be about to die. Under these circumstances to me the idea of easing their deaths seemed defendable. However, the facts actually were that the mercy killings did not begin until there was a steady stream of helicopters arriving and evacuations were being expedited. Also, although many of these patients had terminal illnesses, most were not near death. In fact, the only illness of one of those euthanized was that he was on the 7th floor and weighed 380 pounds.

There is a substantial section at the end of the book discussing the history and the medical ethics issues relating to euthanasia and assisted suicide. One major difference in this case is that none of these patients gave permission, nor were they even told what was happening. (In some cases they were told, "This will make you feel better."). Some of these patients had family members who had stayed with them throughout the entire ordeal; however, immediately before the injections were given, these family members were told to leave in the rescue helicopters, and that their loved ones would follow. One (the 380 pound man) required more than one injection.

I don't know whether the medical staff who did these things are deserving of being charged with murder--all indications from the book are that they were otherwise dedicated and caring and perhaps even extraordinary medical professionals. However, after reading this book, I am of the opinion that their actions were not necessary or warranted.

Highly recommended.

4 stars

175arubabookwoman
Sep 21, 2013, 8:19 pm

Hi Lisa--I've actually started to use my "Currently Reading" now. Also most of my upcoming reviews will be of recent reading, since I've decided to do reviews for books I've read in September, and then work back.

46. The Unnatural History of Cypress Parish by Elise Blackwell

"If you were to place, side by side, the historical account of something that happened, a painting of it, and a scientific explanation of how and why it occurred, you might still not understand it...."

This is a novel constructed around the events of the 1927 Mississippi River flood, and there were enough facts in the book to make me hunger for more information about that flood. I've gone ahead and ordered the nonfiction book Blackwell used as her resource for the novel (the name is escaping me at the moment), and it's now on my Kindle. The book reminded me of William Maxwell's So Long See You Tomorrow, in that the narrator is an older man looking back at decisions he made in his youth that have affected him throughout his life and that he now regrets. It's a quiet, contemplative book set around harrowing events. There are side stories about leprosy in Louisiana and how it was handled at that time, fur trapping in the swamps, smuggling liquor, a reclusive artist, and small town politics and the power held by local officials. (While Cypress Parish is fictional, (counties are called parishes in Louisiana), the politics reminded me of Leander Perez and his iron-clad control of Plaquemines Parish).

During the early 20th century there was much debate over how best to control recurring Mississippi River floods by levees or by spillways. Proponents of a levees only policy claimed that levees not only blocked flood waters, but also increased the velocity of the waters, thus causing the river to carry more sediment and causing the river to dredge its own bottom. They argued that the creation of outlets or spillways would only undo what levees do. Proponents of spillways pointed out that in the 1922 floods, a crevasse opened in the levee south of New Orleans. It created a swale of water 1500 feet wide and more than 100 feet high, and saved New Orleans from flooding.

In the novel, as well as factually, as dire predictions of record flood waters spread, the powers-that-be in New Orleans met on April 25, 1927, and secretly agreed to dynamite the levees south of New Orleans to prevent serious flooding in New Orleans. This required approval from the governor, and before giving his approval the governor wanted four lawyers to give unambiguous legal opinions that he had the proper authority and would incur no personal liability. Ultimately the levee was dynamited. Sightseers on pleasure boats watched, and there was a carnival-like atmosphere. While the residents of the parishes that flooded were supposed to be compensated for their losses, very few in fact received fair compensation.

As it turned out, the day after the levee was dynamited, levees of several tributaries of the Mississippi burst with no human intervention. Their waters rolled across the Atchafalaya basin and harmlessly out to the Gulf. New Orleans would have been spared even without the destruction of the levee south of it. Backlash against the governor helped Huey Long get elected governor in the next election. The price of the control achieved after the 1927 flood was the withholding of sediment from the delta. Between 1932 and 2000, 1900 square miles of Louisiana's marshes have washed away. As one of the characters in the novel stated: "I know that it's always a mistake to think you can control something wild."

Highly recommended.

3 1/2 stars

176maggie1944
Sep 21, 2013, 8:41 pm

That quote is so true, and in my mind can be applied to the genetically engineered food controversies. I just, oh well, I guess I won't get up on my soap box here....

Sounds like a really interesting book. I enjoy reading about politics but I just can not add another book to my piles and piles of TBR.

177rebeccanyc
Sep 21, 2013, 8:44 pm

Deborah, your review of The Unnatural History of Cypress Parish intrigued me just because I did read, about 15 years ago, a wonderful nonfiction book about the Mississippi floods, Rising Tide: The Great Mississippi Flood and How It Changed America. Is that the book you ordered? I highly recommend it.

178labfs39
Edited: Sep 21, 2013, 8:46 pm

I must read Five Days at Memorial, every review I've seen is singing it's praises. Interesting that three of your children were born there. Glad you weren't there during Katrina

Edited to add: Did you go to the SPL booksale today? I didn't. Too crowded and crazy for me.

179PaulCranswick
Sep 21, 2013, 10:14 pm

Great review of the Elise Blackwell book Deborah. The city of York has always been prone to flooding too via the un-Mississippi like River Ouse.

Have a lovely weekend.

180arubabookwoman
Sep 22, 2013, 1:14 am

Hi Karen--I like the quote too. I read another book where the quote that stuck with me asked, Does good science stop and think, or does good science jump right in. The next book I'm going to be reviewing looks at that issue too.

Rebecca--Yes that is the book. I hope to read it soon, so I'm glad you recommend it.

Hi Lisa--Glad I wasn't there too. Also my older daughter applied to Tulane Medical School, and had she gone there she would have been a first year medical student at the Tulane Hospital, and also stuck there under those conditions for days. Phew--

Hi Paul--Didn't know that the city of York floods--I'm assuming that the Ouse doesn't have the levee system of the Mississippi. I'd love to visit York someday.

47. The Truth in Small Doses: Why We're Losing the War on Cancer--and How to Win It by Clifton Leaf

This is a very comprehensive book about the War on Cancer. The author's thesis is that the war will never be won unless there are changes in the way we approach it, the way we fund it, and the avenues researchers explore. I highly recommend the book. I'm not really going to review the book, but I am going to set forth some (actually a lot) of bullet points of facts and opinions from the book that I found important and helpful and want to remember:

--There is a disconnect between the rhetoric and the reality of the progress that's been made. The current "cancer culture" has as its goal finding the tiniest improvements in treatment, rather than genuine breakthroughs. There is isolated (and redundant) problem solving going on, instead of cooperation. The system rewards academic achievement and publication above all else. "For the past several decades, reports of shining advances in cancer biology and treatment have streamed into newspapers, magazines, and television sets the world over. But during that time, there has been only minor change in the prospects for most people with active disease: survival numbers have barely improved; new cases keep mounting; death counts continue to rise."

--Between 2000 and 2012 the count for pediatric cancers is up 40%, while the population has only increased 3 %. There is little research going on to find out why.

--STASTICS: I know that it's been said that statistics can be used to support almost anything, but these are Leaf's:

--Over the last 40 years, rate of death for causes other than cancer are down 24%; rate of death from cancer is up 14%
--Statistics using the "age-adjusted" standard population, which is the method by which cancer statistics are usually computed, is being misused
in comparing populations at different times rather than merely comparing populations at the same time.
--"Yes, cancer deaths have been falling...(sic)but only if the United States is a living wax museum where each inhabitant's age is fixed for eternity"
--The often used "5 year survival rate" doesn't show how many are free of the disease at that time or how many are likely to relapse.
--While there are a greater share of patients living at 5 years compared to the 1970's, only a small portion of this is due to improved treatment.
The deadliest malignancies (lung, pancreas, liver, or esophagus) are nearly as deadly as they were in the 1970's. Changes in survival rate are
due to earlier discovery.

--Leaf posits that one of the major problems is our blind focus on trying to cure cancer rather than trying to prevent it.

--PATH TO FDA APPROVAL: 1. Show drug is safe; 2. Prove it does something useful (there is a low bar for this--75% of new cancer drugs are approved
for reasons other than that it helped people live longer). Over the period studied there were 71 drug approvals by the FDA, but only 45 new drugs (the rest were new uses for old drugs), and of these there were only 12 drugs that were shown to extend life, and those by a very minimal amount.

--THE PHILADELPHIA CHROMOSOME and GLEEVEC
--While recognizing that this is one of the few actual break-through drugs, and is said to represent a paradigm shift in cancer drug development
Leaf states that this "has taken the global cancer-fighting enterprise down a perilous path--a path that can never lead to victory in the
war on cancer."
--CML (the cancer associated with the "Philadelphia Chromosome" and treated with Gleevec) is relatively homogeneous and stable in its early
stages. The drug used to treat it is a kinase inhibitor, and in the early stage there is only a single kinase protein involved. Most other cancers
(including leukemias evolving from lymphocytes), have a much larger number of distinct chromosomal patterns, and similar targeted therapies
will probably not bee as effective.
--The danger of Gleevec is that it has oversimplified cancer, treating it as a "lone, driving genetic aberration," which is not the case with most
cancers. In fact, Gleevec doesn't work well for later stages of CML, when it has become more heterogeneous.

--We need to recognize that cancer is not one thing--it is a process. There is no precise moment of conception, no universally accepted beginning, although there are recognizable stages of evolution on the route to clinically apparent disease. The diagnosis of cancer is simply the late recognition of a progressive disease, long in development. For other major illnesses (heart disease and stroke), there is early detection, and vigorous preemption strategies.

--Leaf posits that research should to work toward: 1. identify precancerous lesions; 2. discover how to stop or reverse progression; and 3. Get over the fear of doing this (become less risk averse).

--HISTORY OF WAR ON CANCER--the 1971 legislation proclaiming the war on cancer did not follow the recommendation of the panel of experts who studied the issue and recommended the creation of a NASA-like National Cancer Authority. Instead the legislation left control of cancer research with the NIH, leaving things as they were, the only change being there was more money. (This failure to accept the panel's recommendations was partly political--conservatives were strongly opposed to Ted Kennedy and didn't want to accept his proposed bill).

--PROBLEMS WITH NIH GRANTS--the decision-making is arduous, bureaucratic and tradition-bound. There is no "vision." As a result, "doing science" today is much more difficult than it used to be:

--Biomedical researchers have less than half the chance of getting a grant than they had in 1972. Now they must devote a much greater share
of their time writing grant application than doing science. For younger scientists it is hard to get on tenure-track without major grants, and
many spend years as poorly paid post-docs. Universities expect or require faculty members to provide half of all their salary from research
grants. (When my daughter was considering whether to go back to school for her Ph.D, the post-doc in the lab where she worked strongly
advised her not to for this very reason).
--The number of universities and research institutions that are getting grants are getting fewer. The largest grant receivers are the same, year
after year. (These include the University of Wa., but not Stanford; Johns Hopkins consistently comes in first place).
--Grants for new research is becoming proportionately less. The overwhelming share goes to support existing research efforts.
--30% of the amounts doled out by the NIH goes to reimburse universities for indirect or "facilities and administrative" costs. Each
university negotiates its own rate of reimbursement. At Johns Hopkins for every $100,00 awarded to a grant applicant to pursue a specific
project, an additional $64,000 goes to the university for its common expenses.
--During 2003-2005 US taxpayers spent $12.5 billion to pay overhead at NIH funded institutions.
--There is a "herd mentality" in the types of projects that are funded. To apply, the scientist needs to have a discrete, specified and
circumscribed project; they need to have already published studies in that area, with at least one in a top-tier journal--and they need to have
been "first author" on some of the papers.
--Stanford professor: "It's not that the grants that are funded are bad or low-quality ideas. They are not doubt decent and very good ideas.
But it's extremely unlikely that they will be innovative and really change the paradigm. It's more of the same kind of low-risk research."
This same professor states that any seriously innovative idea has absolutely no chance of being funded. Another Stanford scientist says,
"If the work that you propose to do isn't virtually certain of success, then it won't be funded." This same professor, who has made
important discoveries in genetics, feels that if he was beginning his research now instead of in the 70's, he would have little chance
of being funded.

---PUBLICATION: It's harder to get early "fuzzy" discoveries published today. For example, for the chromosomal anomaly discovered by Nowell and
Hungerford (the Philadelphia Chromosome), they had no theory about why, no idea of the mechanism of action, its sample size was small,
there were no controls, it was happenstance, not hypothesis driven, there were fuzzy research goals, and it was only an unexplained
coincidence. Yet it was published, and that 238 word paper is today one of the most widely cited papers in cancer research. Nowell states
that had the same experimental report been submitted for publication today, it likely would not have met the threshold for publication in
any serious academic journal.

--Leaf believes that good science needs to follow hunches and instinct as often as a plan. It needs to swerve from chance observation to a question and more questions, not a hypothesis. His suggestions: 1. Let scientists follow their questions where they might lead--learn as they go instead of formulating discrete hypotheses; 2. There must be genuine collaboration--no ownership of theories or ideas; 3. Forget the myth that great cancer science needs to be expensive; 4. Need to act, not wait endlessly for more studies when lives are at stake.

--DRUG DEVELOPMENT--a new drug takes an average of 6 years of testing before submission to the FDA. Pre-testing time is 4 years. Time for
FDA approval is 1.3 years.
--Companies are driven to produce drugs that require little risk-taking, but offer potential for high revenues--"me-too" drugs.
--Drug discoveries today, particularly in oncology, are rarely about bringing novel compounds to market, but about increasing the number
maladies for which an already approved drug can be prescribed.
--Avastin, approved in 2004, statistically extends life 4.6 months. It costs $90,000 per year, and has serious side effects. It produced
revenue of $6.3 billion in 2010.

181maggie1944
Sep 22, 2013, 10:48 am

Holy moley! That is some interesting, and depressing, stuff.

I am surely not alone in the desire to not read, or hear, of such. It seems to me that in every significant aspect of life today in the US of A we are being over whelmed with bad news. Oh, please, do not even begin to really investigate and think about what you should be eating. Fats, Sugar, and Salt is only one of many provocative arenas for thought. How about long lived chemicals which now are found every where - DDT is in every beef cow on earth, no matter how well fed, and taken care of from birth to death.

OK. I'll stop.

I appreciated your review although I had to force myself to read it to the end. Thank you, even if it was not "fun".

182kidzdoc
Sep 22, 2013, 11:03 am

Uh oh. Deborah has posted a flurry of reviews again. I'd better get out my credit card.

I skipped over your review of Five Days at Memorial, since I'll read it once my LT Early Reviewers copy comes. I'm glad to see that you highly recommended it.

Great review of The Unnatural History of Cypress Parish; that goes onto the wish list.

Fabulous review of The Truth in Small Doses! I'd like to read it ASAP, but I'll be patient(!) and add it to my wish list. If I don't receive it for Christmas I'll buy it shortly afterward.

Have you read The Philadelphia Chromosome or The Emperor of All Maladies? I highly recommend both books.

183rebeccanyc
Sep 22, 2013, 11:23 am

Wow! What a great and depressing "non-review"!

184arubabookwoman
Edited: Sep 26, 2013, 1:10 pm

Hi Karen, Daryl and Rebecca--Thanks for visiting. Yes the 1927 flood book I bought is Rising Tide: The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 by John Barry. I'm glad it comes so highly recommended, and I hope I can get to it soon.

Daryl--I have read The Emperor of All Maladies and for me it was a 5 star book. I have, but haven't yet read, The Philadelphia Chromosome. The Truth in Small Doses has a lengthy section on the discovery of the chromosome and the discovery of the drugs (kinase inhibitors) to treat it, but I'm sure there is much more in The Philadelphia Chromosome, so I hope to get to that one soon too.

I'm now going to try to review a couple of ER books (and I have several others outstanding), so maybe next time I'll have more of a chance to get a book I really, really want. (See Five Days at Memorial fiasco above).

48. The Street Sweeper by Elliot Perlman

This is a BIG book--in more than one way. Its themes are the Civil Rights Movement in the 1950's and the Holocaust, and it is in part based in historical fact. Two main characters connect all the various elements of this novel.

One is Adam, a white professor of history at Columbia University. His father was an attorney for the legal arm of the NAACP, and worked under Thurgood Marshall. Adam got his job through his connection with Charles, the black head of the History Department at Columbia. Charles is the son of William, a colleague of Adam's father at the NAACP, and the fathers and sons were life-long friends. Adam is up for tenure, but due to his lack of publication, he (and Charles) know he will be denied tenure. Adam is flailing for a good research topic when William suggests he look into the rumors that have been around for years but never confirmed that black soldiers ("the invisible men who went to war") were among those who rescued the victims at Dachau.

His search for historical proof of the presence of black soldiers at Dachau leads Adam to a university in Illinois, where he discovers a treasure trove of tape recordings made by Dr. Henry Border, a psychology professor at the university, of interviews of concentration camp survivors (displaced persons) made immediately after their liberation. These are the first, and only, contemporaneous interviews of survivors. As Adam's research progresses, we learn the history of Dr. Border and his family, as well as the stories of some of the Holocaust survivors he interviewed. Dr. Broder and his daughter were also involved in the Civil Rights Movement. Through Adam, we are connected with both the Civil Rights Movement and the Holocaust, as well as meditations on the nature of history and the role of a historian.

The other main character is Lamont, a black ex-convict. He also connects us with civil rights issues and the Holocaust, but with a different perspective than Adam's. Lamont is employed at Sloan-Kettering cancer hospital under a program to provide employment for ex-cons, and is the eponymous "street sweeper" of the novel's title. On his first day on the job, he helps Henryk Mandelbrot, an elderly cancer patient who is a Holocaust survivor. Henryk needs someone to remember his story so that what happened to him and other Jews will never be forgotten. When Lamont notices the numbers tattooed on Henryk's wrist, they begin a conversation, and Henryk chooses Lamont as the person to whom he will tell his story. Lamont begins visiting Henryk after his shift ends, and as Henryk relates his story, including an failed revolt by the inmates at Auschwitz, Henryk presses Lamont to memorize the Polish names of people and places, and to burn their stories in his memory.

These various strands are narrated in alternating relatively short sections, which some readers have disliked. I liked following the various strands and stories, and gradually learning of the connections among ,the various elements of the stories. Through the sum of the stories, the reader becomes aware of more than what any of the individual characters know, which also provides an interesting perspective as the novel develops. I did notice that this method resulted in some repetition which I am not sure was entirely intentional.

For informational purposes, Dr. Henry Border is based on Dr. David Broder who conducted contemporaneous interviews with survivors of the camps which were lost and only discovered by chance years later. Dr. Broder wrote a book about eight of the interviewees titled I Did Not Interview the Dead, published in 1949, which remained relatively obscure until the later discovery of the tapes. Henryk Mandelbrot is also based on a real individual, as are various of the inmates whose stories are related, and the inmates who participated in the Auschwitz uprising.

There is a fascinating and comprehensive website for Dr. Border's "Voices of the Holocaust," which is well worth a visit. http://voices.iit.edu/david_boder
Transcripts of the various interviews are catalogued by name of the interviewee, by camp, by religion, and by several other methods. The complete interviews can be read in the original language or as translated, and in some cases the tapes themselves can be heard.
I highly recommend this book.

4 stars

185arubabookwoman
Sep 26, 2013, 1:42 pm

Another ER book:

49. The Healer by Antti Tuomainen

Scandicrime combined with Dystopian--what could be better for a fan of both these genres? Well, the dystopian part was passable, the Scandicrime part not so much.

It's the near future and the effects of global warming have destroyed the social fabric of many areas around the world. Those who can are moving north, and as far inland as they can get. The novel is set in Helsinki, and even residents of Helsinki, those who can afford to, are moving further north. It rains all the time and tidal waters are claiming the city. Emigrants flood the city, crime is rampant, and the police are ineffective. There is a serial killer on the loose, and he is targeting corporate executives he believes are responsible for global warming and their families.

The protagonist is a poet. Yes, really--that's all he does--no income, no worries, no published work. His wife is a journalist who is investigating the serial killer. She calls the poet one evening to tell him she is going on an important interview and will be late. He waits up for her, but she never comes home. He is distraught, because they Love each other, and never go more than a few hours without talking, and now she isn't answering her phone. He goes to the police, who basically laugh in his face. He decides to turn detective and find his wife.

He begins his search, and along the way starts uncovering some facts about his wife that were previously unknown to him. This is surprising, because it is most of what his wife's life history was before they met. (And remember he Loves her and they always talk--he tells us so every few pages). In addition, at the beginning of his search, he comes across an emigrant taxi driver, who keeps showing up to save him when he gets in a bind.

I read somewhere that Finland really hasn't contributed much to the current Scandicrime craze, and if this book is an example, I can see why. (It even won some kind of Finnish crime novel award). I found the descriptions of life under the global warming scenario interesting and real. Not so the characters and the plot.

1 1/2 stars

186arubabookwoman
Sep 26, 2013, 2:13 pm

Here's mini-reviews of some Books About Books

50. My Ideal Bookshelf by Thessaly La Force

I usually read this kind of book to get recommendations about new-to-me authors and books which sound interesting. The premise here is that the author asked prominent people in their fields (primarily the arts I think), what books they have or would like to have on their shelf. There is a painting of that shelf and a brief discussion of the books and their owners.

The paintings are lovely. However, the books for the most part consist of books relating to the individual's profession (i.e. graphic design, architecture, etc.) and/or books that are familiar to us all, including classics like Jane Eyre. I was mightily disappointed.

2 stars

51. Read This: Handpicked Favorites from America's Indie Bookstores by Hans Weyandt

This was much more to my liking. Independent bookstore owners and employees were asked to recommend books that they particularly liked and/or frequently recommended to their customers and friends. For each store, several of the recommendations are discussed, and there is a list of other books recommended. I found there were many, many authors and books I hadn't heard of. I made an extensive list of books to explore, since in most cases there was little or no information about the book, as only a fraction of the books recommended were described. This led to my discovering on exploration that some were of little or no interest to me, i.e. children's books, technical books, etc., but there was enough there to make this a fun book to peruse. You can also find good indie bookstores for many cities and towns across the US.

3 stars

52. More Baths Less Talking by Nick Hornby

This is the third of Hornby's books collecting his columns relating to books and reading. I very much enjoy his take on books and life in general, but I find myself rationing my reading of them because I can take his snarkiness in only moderate doses. He frequently says that the magazine he works for does not permit him to say mean things about books and people, but he sometimes manages to get around this stricture. The amazing thing about his books to me is that he makes everything he reads sound totally fascinating, an absolute must-read. And that's how Austerity Britain: 1945-51 by David Kyaston ended up on my Kindle. I'm sure I won't be able to put it down when I get to it.

3 1/2 stars

187arubabookwoman
Sep 26, 2013, 2:58 pm

53. Heidegger's Glasses by Thaisa Frank

Goebbels said, "If you tell a lie, tell a big lie." This novel is about a unit ostensibly created by Goebbels to assure anxious relatives and friends about the "relocations" of Jews, and to dispel rumors about the Final Solution. I don't know if this has a basis in fact, but it is plausible, although much of the novel is somewhat surreal. The unit, consisting of about 50 Jews known as "scribes" who were saved from the gas chamber because of their expertise in languages, is housed in a refurbished cave somewhere in the mountains. They are provided with letters to various deported victims, and must answer them posing as the victim. They spend much of their time playing games with each other, and inventing fantasies. The unit is run by Gerhardt, a sympathetic Nazi officer who lives above the cave with his girlfriend Elie. Gerhardt knows and loves each inmate. He sees the project as absurd; however, since it saves the scribes from death, his goal is to keep the unit intact until the end of the war. "Only Goebbels's willingness to continue a ridiculous scheme," kept the unit in existence.

One day a letter from the philosopher Martin Heidegger to his optometrist Asher Englehardt, who had been sent to a camp, is delivered to the unit with instructions that it be answered by "a philosopher" who can "absolutely duplicate" what would have been Asher's reply. The reply along with the proper pair of eyeglasses he requested is to be delivered to Heidegger. The book is full of irony, as when Asher states to Heidegger, "Martin I hope you understand that your interest in man's awareness of mortality has a different kind of meaning in a place where just wearing the wrong pair of shoes can get you shot." It is also a thriller, in that there is constant tension as to whether the unit will be maintained until liberation arrives. And it is also the love story of Gerhardt and Elie.

Recommended

3 /12 stars

188arubabookwoman
Sep 26, 2013, 3:40 pm

54. The Native Commissioner by Shaun Johnson

In this provocative novel, a son looks back at the life of his father who was never able to come to terms with his role as a colonial ruler in an African country. His father George is a sympathetic character who was born in Africa and passionately loved and respected the culture, history and traditions of the Xhosa, Zulu and other indigenous groups he worked with. When the National Party came to power, George feared that "these Nationalists will want to treat the black man as an unperson." One of the party's first steps was to put in place rules by which the South African population was to be registered according to race and to be issued individual id cards. While de facto segregation had been in place for centuries, the de jure segregation took it to a new level. George made his views known to his superiors, and he was sent to more and more remote posts. He tried to find a job outside the government, but was unsuccessful. He told himself that even though the political direction of the country was not good, at least he could try to do some good "from the inside."

Then in the course of his duties as a magistrate, he has to deal with a "convoluted and gory business" which caused great distress in his district, which previously had been at peace. Most of the trials he had presided over had been minor administrative affairs, but, "this one looked like it would go to the heart of the lives of the people of these lands." However, he tells himself that since he had mastered the language and its nuances he would be able to make a wise decision.

As the trial proceeds, one of the defendants says to him, "I understand that we will be found guilty of these beatings....This I understand. But I wish to ask this: What does it have to do with you, Sir?" George experienced a moment of sudden clarity, and thereafter always referred to this as "Ntabaka's Question." His constant thought thereafter was ,"What right had he to judge anything at all about these people, never mind the effort he was so proud of putting into understanding them and learning their languages? It was a right conferred by conquest alone...."

While George's world view has changed, he is still left with the dilemma that he has no other home: "If you are like me and are told you do not belong here in Africa and are not wanted here, where do you belong? I cannot just pack up and go home: where is my home but here? I am nobody's settler. I have never set foot in England in my life." But can he call himself an African merely by accident of his birth?

George is sympathetic and conflicted. The issues his life raises are important and difficult, and there are no readily apparent answers.

Highly recommended

3 1/2 stars

189RebaRelishesReading
Sep 26, 2013, 5:24 pm

My goodness, you've been doing a lot of reading!! Congratulations of so many good reviews.

190brenzi
Sep 26, 2013, 7:56 pm

I am #20 on the library reserve list for Five Days at Memorial Deborah so I won't be getting to it any time soon but your review makes it sound riveting Deborah. I love the Nick Hornby books too and will be reading Housekeeping vs. the Dirt next.

191rebeccanyc
Sep 27, 2013, 7:46 am

I am enjoying catching up with your varied and interesting, as always, reading!

192Linda92007
Sep 27, 2013, 9:27 am

Great reviews, Deborah. Five Days at Memorial sounds very disturbing.

193labfs39
Sep 28, 2013, 6:18 pm

I found your review of The Street Sweeper very interesting, but after looking at the website you recommend, I think I might like a nonfiction account of his work. But then again, the links the novel makes between the Civil Rights movement and the Holocaust are interesting as well.

The issues raised in The Native Commissioner are intriguing as well.

194maggie1944
Edited: Sep 29, 2013, 5:04 pm

Nice review of The Native Commissioner, it makes me want to find time to read it. But recently I've been doing very little reading due to my eyes recovering, and I do not yet have my new prescription glasses.

So, I'll just be happy having read your review.

195kidzdoc
Oct 1, 2013, 8:43 am

Great reviews as always, Deborah! The Street Sweeper and The Native Commissioner have been added to my wish list.

196PaulCranswick
Oct 5, 2013, 8:48 pm

Deborah just zipping through to wish you the very best of weekends and I am looking forward to the next installments of superb reviews.

197EBT1002
Oct 13, 2013, 6:50 pm

Deborah, wonderful reviews (or non-reviews) you've been posting. I have put Five Days at Memorial on hold at the library.

198Donna828
Oct 14, 2013, 9:09 am

So many thoughtful and detailed book reviews here, Deborah. I admire your ability to go back and review books you've read several months ago. You must take good notes or have a phenomenal memory. Either way, your thread makes for some dangerous reading.

I hope you and your husband are doing well. Hopefully, his leukemia will have a slow progression. In the meantime, treasure each day and spend as much time as you can with friends and family. Thanks for the link to the Teddy and Boden pictures. They are both adorable!

199DorsVenabili
Oct 31, 2013, 3:40 pm

Hi Deborah! I hope things are going well for your husband and family.

#161 - I think I'll see if my library has A Thousand Lives on audio. Admittedly, I'm fascinated by cults. I've even watched the two Japanese documentaries about the Aum Shinrikyo cult, even though they're technically terrible films.

Five Days At Memorial and The Street Sweeper also sound wonderful.

As always, thank you for the fantastic reviews!

200arubabookwoman
Nov 11, 2013, 12:05 pm

55. Pincher Martin by William Golding

When Golding won the Nobel (in the 80's?), I read several of his books. (Of course it seems that everyone has read Lord of the Flies as part of their schooling, but many of Golding's other novels are not as well-known.) Pincher Martin was one of the books I read then, and I didn't care for it, or, I now know, appreciate it. This time around I found myself liking it very much, and admiring Golding more and more.

Pincher Martin is an officer in the British Navy during World War II on a boat patrolling the North Atlantic. As the novel opens, the boat has just been torpedoed and Pincher is struggling for his life in the icy waters.

"He was struggling in every direction, he was the centre of the writhing and kicking knot of his own body. There was no up or down, no light or air. He felt his mouth open of itself and the shrieked word burst out.
'Help!'
When the arc had gone with the shriek, water came in to fill its place--burning water, hard in the throat and mouth as stones that hurt."

After seemingly hours Pincher finds himself clinging to a barren rock. Barely alive, he remains battered and inert. As he begins to recover, still frightened but no longer in an animal panic he thinks:

"I won't die.
"I can't die.
"Not me-----
"Precious."

And that's what this book is about--the will to live. Is that will in our body or in our mind? Do we have a core personality devoted entirely to our self-preservation? Can nature destroy that personality? This is not a Robinson Crusoe story, although we follow Pincher as he takes steps necessary to save his life--finding food and water, doing what he can to alert potential rescuers of his presence should anyone be searching. The entire book takes place in Pincher's mind, and frequently we don't know if Pincher is hallucinating; sometimes he himself does not understand his actions or where his body ends and his environment begins. When he is lucid he thinks logically:

---must keep body going--drink, food shelter;
---must expect to fall sick;
---must watch mind and not go mad;
---must help myself be rescued. Be visible.

He views his struggle as being his wlll against the rock: "You have no mercy, but you have no intelligence. I can outwit you. All I have to do is endure." Throughout his life on the rock, we learn of his prior life--his "personality" as evidenced by his actions and relationships, and we are left to ponder his actions then as they affect his actions now. This was a fascinating read. It just cannot be read as an adventure story, which is the way I tried to read it the first time around years ago.

5 stars

201arubabookwoman
Edited: Nov 11, 2013, 1:31 pm

56. Inside the Stalin Archives by Jonathan Brent

This book is not what I was expected. I thought it would be a nonfiction account of some of the excesses and terror of Stalin's reign. Instead it is a memoir (of sorts) and an examination of how this brutal past affects post-thaw Russia.

Beginning in 1992, Jonathan Brent traveled frequently to Russia to negotiate for the publishing rights to the archives on behalf of Yale University Press for a planned series of volumes on this period of Soviet history. Some of the topics the Yale press contemplated were: The Great Terror of the 1930's; Church and the Revolution; Comintern and the Repressions of the 1930's; Daily Lives of Peasants and Workers in the 1920's and 1930's; Suppression of the Arts and Artists; and other topics. Brent's account of the ongoing negotiations are interesting, starting with the question of who had the authority to grant publication rights and what specific rights could be granted. At the time the "new" Russia was chaotic, personalities were stronger than laws. We learn that the first volume Yale published (in 1995) was The Secret World of American Communism, which revealed that the Communist Party of America was in fact spying for the Soviets. However, Brent's book contains no information as to any subsequent volumes--topics, when published etc. There are no notes or bibliography in this book, one of the reasons I would describe it as a memoir.

The other focus of this book is an examination of how Soviet life has changed, and whether it has the potential to return to a new Stalinist regime. Brent's premise is that the ruling element of the Russian psyche is Strakh, or fear. Brent had extensive conversations with Alexander Yakovlev, the developer of the principles of glastnost and perestroika. Yakovlev believes that Strakh remains barely beneath the surface of Russian life, and that there has been no basis for a moral awakening in Russia. There has been no general accounting--no Nuremberg-like trials for Stalin's excesses, no public reconciliation between victims and victimizers, no restoration of property or adequate compensation to the millions whose lives were damaged or destroyed. Yakovlev's belief was that the structures for Stalinism remain in place: secrecy, conspiracy, concentration of power, violence as a legitimate exercise of political power, corruption and the absence of laws. Although these conversations took place in 2003, and this book was published in 2008, perhaps these factors contribute to what we are seeing today with the changes being made by Putin. (and by the way, Bonnie (brenzi) has an excellent review of a biography of Putin, which I hope to get to soon).

So, all in all, this book has lots of good points and made for interesting reading. It was not as complete or as documented as I would have liked. If you choose to read it, be aware that it is not a substantive examination of the Stalin era.

3 stars

202arubabookwoman
Edited: Nov 11, 2013, 1:32 pm

57. The Informant by Kurt Eichenwald

Kurt Eichenwald was an investigative reporter for the NY Times, and this book is a nonfiction account of the investigation and prosecution of the executives and board of Archer Davis Midland for the white collar crime of price-fixing. It is told in minute detail, and at 650 pages is a tome. Doesn't sound like your thing? Think again. This is written and paced like a thriller. The facts are well-documented, but had this been a novel, its plot might strain credibility at times. It was absolutely riveting. It was made into a movie, but if you've seen the movie, the book is so much better.

The book opens with the very public arrests of the Archer Davis Midland executives, including the purported arrest of the FBI's informant, Mark Whitacre. Whitacre had secretly recorded his colleagues and Archer's competitors as they illegally divided the world markets among themselves and set artificially high prices for their products. At the time of the arrests in 1995, the case was described as the most important white collar crime ever, and the government was extremely confident that it had an airtight case.

Then, the agents begin discovering troubling facts about their informant, who would have to be the government's star witness at the trials. They knew throughout the investigation that Whitacre was kind of strange, and somehow believed that he would end up as president of Archer after everyone else went to jail. His actions during the investigation were frequently erratic and sometimes seem to threaten the secrecy of the investigation. But while the FBI agents realized that Whitacre was sometimes in a fantasy world, they didn't realize that he, too, was involved in illegal activities, including embezzlement, tax fraud, money laundering, bribery and kickbacks. Unbeknownst to the agents investigating Archer, there was a contemporaneous investigation by a different FBI office of Whitacre and some of his accomplices.

The book becomes a fascinating look into the turf wars among the National FBI office and various regional FBI offices; among the Department of Justice Anti-Trust Division, the Department of Justice Criminal Division and the US Attorney's offices. The IRS is also involved. Whitacre's relationships with his various defense attorneys and lack of candor with them are also explored. Whitacre continues further off the cliff and begins accusing the FBI agents he worked with of corruption and destruction of evidence, so they too come under investigation.

After finishing this book, I purchased another book about corporate crime by Eichenwald (Serpent on the Rock) which I previously had no interest in. I already owned, but have not read, 500 Days about the beginnings of the war on terror. After reading The Informant, I think I'd read anything by Eichenwald.

4 stars

203arubabookwoman
Edited: Nov 11, 2013, 1:46 pm

58. Just One Evil Act by Elizabeth George

I'd just about given up on Elizabeth George's Lynley series. In fact, I didn't read the most recent book in the series since I understood that whiney Deborah, a character I can't stand, took the forefront. I read this because Barbara Havers, my favorite character (and it seems the favorite of most fans of the series), takes the starring role. Barbara's neighbor Azhar and his daughter Haddiyya take leading roles as well, since the plot involves the kidnapping of Haddiyya in Italy. The interesting question as the plot proceeds is just how far Barbara can skirt police regulations, and indeed the law, to make her case. Will her (unrequited, and perhaps not even recognized by Barbara herself) love for Azhar cause her to manipulate or destroy evidence? What repercussions will there be for her, particularly since her (and Lynley's) new supervisor seems to hate her guts? Lynley, of course, tries to rein her in, mostly unsuccessfully.

And so, in my view, the series has redeemed itself. I can only hope that George keeps Havers in the forefront.

3 1/2 stars

204arubabookwoman
Edited: Nov 11, 2013, 3:06 pm

59. You Deserve Nothing by Alexander Maksik

Superficially, this book sounds like it could be the Lifetime Movie of the Week. Well, perhaps not, since it does not end well, but the plot is topical enough--a high school teacher has an affair with one of his students. However, the psyches of the characters of this book are so exquisitely explored, and the issues so subtly presented that it is so much more. It has resonated with me, perhaps, because it is set in an international school, International School of France (which I think is fictional), a milieu with the types of students and types of teachers that I have had some experience with. I graduated from the American School in London, where my family moved when we left Aruba. (In this book, coincidentally one of the closing scenes takes place at a basketball game between ISF and ASL.) The students are the children of wealthy diplomats and corporate executives, not just American but from around the world. They view themselves as entitled, but at the same time are often lost, insecure, and ignored by their families. They work hard at their schoolwork--academic success is expected--but they also party hard. (I should add that my family was not wealthy--I am the oldest of 7 children--and we attended the school only because my father's employer paid the tuition.) The teachers tend to be young, at loose ends, out to experience the world, staying a few years and then moving on. (Which is not to say they were not extraordinary teachers).

The novel is narrated in alternating sections by three characters, Will, the teacher, Marie, the student with whom Will has an affair, and Gilad, another student who hero worships Will. Will's sections are the most puzzling. While the narration is in the first person, it seems as though Will has drawn a curtain between the events he narrates and what he actually feels and thinks. He is acted upon, rather than freely acting. He doesn't make choices, he lets things happen. The senior seminar he teaches involves much discussion of existentialism, Sartre, Camus, the Book of Job, Hamlet and similar texts. Will and the students discuss the meaning of life, the meaning of suicide, the difficulty of proceeding from thought (choices available) to action. Still, we never know what Will is thinking--we only see from his actions that he is a nihilistic sort. In fact, he seems to drift into the affair with Marie in a way similar to Doestoevsky's Raskolnikov's decision to commit an act of murder.

Marie's section is the most transparent. She is beautiful, but insecure. She constantly seeks, but never receives, the attention and approval of mother and, particularly, her father. Unlike Will, who knows the affair will go nowhere and will end badly, Marie believes that she loves Will and that they have a future together. Will never misleads her, but because of the age difference (he is 33), the relationship is abusive. However, Will treats Marie tenderly and gently, never lies to her, and makes her feel good about herself.

I'm not sure why Gilad's sections were necessary. Gilad worships Will. He wants to be Will. He is experiencing these ideas and theories for the first time, as if he was the only one in the world thinking about these issues. Like Marie, he has parental issues, but in his case his problems include not merely absent parents, but a physically abusive father. We might expect Gilad's disillusionment with Will to come when the affair becomes known. However, Gilad's loss of innocence comes earlier, when he witnesses Will fail to act on an occasion when a hero would have acted. So I'm not totally sure what Gilad's purpose was, although he is an interesting enough character. My thought, purely speculation on my part, is that he may represent the author's younger self who might have witnessed from the outside a similar tragedy.

I don't know whether I've convinced anyone to read this book, but even objectively viewed, I think it is a very good book, and I recommend it.

3 1/2 stars

ETA--I've just gone to read some reviews on the book's page, and there seem to have been some allegations, apparently not proven, that the author may have done something similar while a teacher at the American School in Paris. I don't think this particularly affects my view of the book, although if true it would affect my feelings about the author.

205labfs39
Nov 11, 2013, 2:36 pm

Way to stage a comeback with four fabulous reviews! I was just thinking Saturday that I haven't read anything by Golding except Lord of the Flies, I wish I had asked you about him then as I would have looked for Pincher Martin. It sounds intensely introspective into the character's psyche. The Brent book seems like the sort of thing I would have picked up too, and although it wasn't about Stalinism, the issue it does exam interests me too: can Russia be democrat in a post-Stalin autocracy. However, it sounds like this isn't the most scholarly of approaches. Although The Informant is not the type of book I usually pick up, your review has me hooked. Onto my new library wishlist it goes.

206arubabookwoman
Edited: Nov 11, 2013, 3:11 pm

Hi LIsa--thanks for visiting--and so quickly. I read Pincher Martin some months ago. I reread and reviewed The Inheritors last year, and overall I think I liked it more than Pincher Martin. For my next Golding reread, I plan to read The Spire. I've also read his Rites of Passage trilogy, which is more of a straightforward narrative of a 19th century voyage to Australia.

I'll be back with more reviews--don't know when though.

207labfs39
Nov 11, 2013, 3:14 pm

Keep them coming! I made a dent in my wishlist, so I have room for some more. ;-)

208NanaCC
Nov 11, 2013, 4:57 pm

My wishlist just took a big hit with these latest reviews. They all sound so good!

209DorsVenabili
Edited: Dec 12, 2013, 3:10 pm

Hi Deborah - I hope things are well.

The Informant goes on the wishlist - great review. I'm hoping I can find it as an audiobook.

210maggie1944
Dec 23, 2013, 10:04 pm

Gee whiz, it took me until just now to catch up with you. I wish you and yours the best for the holiday season, and that the New Year brings gifts.

211PaulCranswick
Dec 24, 2013, 5:01 am

Missed not seeing you around quite so much this year Deborah. Have a lovely Christmas and I hope to "see" much more of you in 2014. xx

212DorsVenabili
Dec 24, 2013, 11:26 am

Happy Holidays to you and your family, Deborah! Here's to a far better 2014.

213Trifolia
Jan 1, 2014, 2:16 am

Happy New Year, Deborah. Have a wonderful reading-year.

Arubabookwoman Takes the Fifth (Year)

Talk 75 Books Challenge for 2013

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