Alphabet of Books You've Read, Part 11

rules:
1) Post the title of a book that you have read, beginning with the next letter of the alphabet after the initial letter of the previous post.

2) Articles "a", "an" and "the" and their other language counterparts should be ignored.

3) X, Y, and/or Z may be skipped, but please wait at least a few hours in case someone else has a title with one of those letters.

4) Try not to repeat the same title within a single thread.

last post was a "z" so:

annie on my mind by nancy garden read sept 2014
my review:
this isn't a spectacular story and it isn't gorgeous prose, but this is solid, and i very much enjoyed reading it. i think there's a lot to relate to in this story about two girls who discover love together. they could just as easily been different races a couple of decades earlier, or the focus could have been more on their class differences, or they could have been two boys, or of different religions in a more devout area/time, etc. it's a story about discovering something about yourself and deciding what to do about it. well, as garden says in the interview at the end of this edition, ultimately it's about love, this story, and i feel like she captures young love so accurately. ("young" as in early stages, not "young" as in high school, although that is where this takes place.)

really, the only thing that didn't seem believable to me was how much time they were allowed to spend together. being suspended from school and not being grounded, but instead being allowed to hang out with your best friend? not in my young adult life.

this was written in the early 80's and it seemed to take place a little before that, and looking at it as a story from that time, it feels like an accurate representation. (except for the never being grounded thing.)

i really, really enjoyed a few of the characters in this book (in particular annie, ms stevenson and ms widmer, chad), which made it even more nice to read. and maybe the best part of this book, especially because it's a young adult novel, is that garden doesn't dance around any of the issues. she tells the story she wants to tell, and in so doing she addresses head on the issues that these girls (and the teachers) face. they have an intense friendship, they fall in love and they question their sexuality, their relationship is about spending time together but not just that - she's realistic about sex, and coming out (or not) and what that means (in the time it takes place) are all at least touched on if not more fully addressed. being up front about these things, i think, makes me, as a reader, feel the book has an honesty that i appreciate.

"Annie pulled her collar up around her throat and I wanted to touch her skin where the collar met it. It was as if I'd always wanted to touch her there but hadn't known it."

"I went downstairs to Dad's encyclopedia and looked up HOMOSEXUALITY, but that didn't tell me much about any of the things I felt. What struck me most, though, was that, in that whole long article, the word "love" wasn't used even once. That made me mad; it was as if whoever wrote the article didn't know that gay people actually love each other." (3.5 stars)

next: a book you've read, the title of which begins with "b" and what you thought of it

3324. The Bean Trees A Novel by Barbara Kingsolver (read 1 Jul 2000)

This 1988 novel is no. 84 on the librarians list of a century of good books, and reading it reduced to 32 the titles thereon I have not read. This is a pleasant, feel good type of book, but I was not particularly entranced by it. Very politically correct. (2 and a half stars)

NEXT: A book you have read, the title of which starts with C, and what you thought of thebook when you read it.

carry the sky by kate gray, read nov 2014

my review:
kate gray is a poet, and it shows. the language in this book is gorgeous and lyrical, with wonderful imagery.

for me, though, it's too often that she forgets that she's writing prose. i don't want to say that it was too poetic, but there were elements (specifically sentence structure/pacing) that work better in poetry than in prose, at least when used a lot, and i think this book suffered a bit because of it. because kate gray is a really, really great writer. the acknowledgements section in this book is an amazing piece of writing; it's completely why i read those, just in case, and she totally validates me here. i would have preferred more of that style in the book itself, though.

but what i really think makes this book not as great as i want it to be is that it tries to do too much. it's not sure exactly where its focus lies, or she muddles its focus a bit with side stories that would make good books themselves. i think this would be a stronger book if those peripheral stories stayed more to the periphery. bringing them so close to the forefront, i think, makes this book too little about too much. also, when the story is being told in the voice of one of the characters (carla) it isn't believable. there are a number of things that didn't seem believable, actually, in the context of the story, but this character's voice and some of the dialog were the main things.

that said, i was kept up late reading a couple of nights, and found aspects of the story or characters compelling enough that sometimes i had trouble sleeping because i couldn't stop thinking about them.

but i do think that what i'll remember of this book is that, while i wanted it to be tighter from a story perspective, kate gray writes so many beautiful passages. many of them are unquotable, because she is relying on references she's made before, or she is building on an image she planted earlier. the continuity of language, imagery, and metaphor throughout the book often made me sigh with appreciation, but probably won't sound as good as it is out of context. so fewer quotes than i'd like, and than she deserves.

"I made wakes. I cut the lake. I carved your name in water."

"All objects with mass will pull toward each other with gravitational force. Imagine the pull if a person carries the weight of the earth."

"The loneliness we feel is as sure as water. It changes into fog and rain and a frozen lake, but it's always water." (3.5 stars)

next: a book you've read, the title of which begins with the letter "d" and what you thought of it

3111. Dove, by Robin Lee Graham with Derek L. T. Gill (read 14 Sep 1998)

I read this because of a note I saw on a book board I follow. It is a 1972 book about a kid who sails around the world. It is a fantastic and almost unbelievable story, told in "National Geographic prose". (read Sept 14, 1998) (four stars )

NEXT: a book you have read, the title of which starts with E, and what you thought of the book when you read it.

the english patient by michael ondaatje, first book read of 2014

my review:
this is why i reread some books. i read this ages ago, remembered almost nothing about it, but don't feel like i was overly moved the first time. this time around, i find this just beautiful. it's lyrical and gorgeous and just lovely, all around. it's one to linger over and savor.

one example:
"...he runs over the grass in his socks, his shadow curled under him, painted by the moon."

4.5 stars

next: a book you've read, the title of which begins with the letter "f" and what you thought of it

1956. France Under the Republic:The Development of Modern France (1870-1939), by D. W. Brogan (read 15 Nov 1985) (Book of the Year)

1956 France Under the Republic:The Development of Modern France (1870-1939), by D. W. Brogan (read 15 Nov 1985) (Book of the Year) This 1940 book is an interesting and intriguing account of France from 1970 to 1939. I do not think I have read a better book this year: it just held my interest throughout. The account of the Dreyfus affair was excellent, as was the account of the aftermath of the Franco-Prussian War, and all the things taken up. I was surprised how serious Fashoda actually was: I always thought it was just some fly-by-night expedition, but apparently it was carefully planned by France. This was an excellent, excellent book which I am glad I read, even though it has no bibliography and is short on scholarly apparatus. Brogan was a poli sci prof at Cambridge U. At year's end, this was chosen as the best book I read in 1985. (five stars )

NEXT: a book you have read, the title of which starts with G, and what you thought of it when you read it.

going to meet the man by james baldwin, read june 2014

my review:
there are 8 longish short stories in this collection (most are 20 pages and one is almost 50) and all are what you'd expect of baldwin. amazing writing, talking about race, religion, gender, place, and all with depth and his way of cutting down to the truth of the issue. and his way of getting at these issues from all sides, in a way that no one else i've ever read or heard speak can do.

the first two stories are about the same family that is from his book go tell it on the mountain. my main complaint (if you can even call it that) about this book is that the characters don't seem true to their novel depictions, at least in the second story featuring them. would have been a perfect story if the names were changed and i didn't come in with knowledge of these people already. (a knowledge that is skewed because i don't remember all the specifics from my reading of that book.)

my only other concrete "complaint" about these stories is that he uses many of the same names from story to story as well as names from his books, and after he started his stories with characters from a book of his, i spent too much time and energy trying to figure out if this eric is the eric from another country or if this paul is the same paul as from the previous story, etc.

but the content of the stories is great. i didn't love all of them but i liked them all very much and there were a couple that were doozies - notably the title story (and last in the collection), sonny's blues, and ... no, they're all really good. going to meet the man packs a different punch than the rest (and that i'm used to) and so stands out, but they're all great stories.

i love what he has to say and i love how he says it.

"...and I wondered if I trusted them; if I was able any longer to trust anybody. Not on top, where all the world could see, but underneath where everybody lives."

"I couldn't believe it: but what I mean by that is that I couldn't find any room for it anywhere inside me."

"All the white people she has ever met needed, in one way or another, to be reassured, consoled, to have their consciences pricked but not blasted; could not, could not afford to hear a truth which would shatter, irrevocably, their images of themselves." (4 stars)

next: a book you've read, the title of which begins with h, and what you thought of it

3789. The Hireling, by L. P. Hartley (read 25 Aug 2003)

I wanted to read something by this author, who won a James Tait Black award in 1947 and who has a book on Anthony Burgess' famous list of 99 best novels published between 1939 and 1983. But this book, which came out in 1957, is the only book by him I could find in town. So I read it. It is not a bad book, and lives up to the description that Hartley is one of those rare novelists who knows what he wants to do and goes about it with a minimum of waste. It is an account of a hired car driver who sort of falls in love with the upper class woman who has him drive her around to get over the death of her rich husband.

NEXT: A book you have read, the title of which starts with I, and what you thought of the book when you read it.

invisible cities by italo calvino read in approx 2005, before i kept track of dates and reviews.

i think it was probably mostly over my head, but what i remember is not being impressed, even as i was interested in the idea of it.

next: a book you've read, the title of which begins with j, and what you thought of it

4979. The Juror, by George Dawes Green (read 25 Nov 2012)

This is a 1995 legal "thriller" which involves intimidation of a woman juror on a mobster's murder trial. The trial scenes are handled correctly, and the judge handles the juror's attempt to talk to him ex parte as he ethically had to. But the trial's end does not end the book by a long shot, and the events become increasingly wild and bloody. The author felt he had to sprinkle pornographic events in the story, which add nothing to the story and are mainly repulsive and make one less sympathetic to the women characters involved. There is a fast pace to the story but it goes on and on, with many people dying, including some characters one would have hoped would not. But I cannot think the novel a succcess. (2 stars )

NEXT: A book you have read, the title of which starts with K, and what you thought of it when you read it.

kaaterskill falls by allegra goodman, read before i kept track (so you get another short review!)

all i remember is that i enjoyed reading a book that felt familiar because it was about jewish people. pretty well written, too, and while i wasn't opposed to reading more by her, i haven't yet.

next: a book you've read, the title of which begins with "l" and what you thought of it

1623. The Lives of the Kings & Queens of France, by Duc de Castries translated from the French by Anne Dobell (read 23 Mar 1981)

This is a simplistic book which I was surprised to find that I enjoyed very much. It really is a simple survey of French history and I was surprised to realize that I really did not have a good concept of rhe sweep of French history. I believe this is because I have read a lot of French history but have not read a consecutive survey thereof. The genealogy tables in the book are very good. The gap between Henry III and Henry IV is almost unbelievable --it looks like one had to go back about ten generations to find a common ancestor! (The text says they were twenty times removed--which is nonsense.) I really enjoyed this book. (4 and a half stars )

NEXT: A book you have read, the title of which starts with M, and what you thought of the book when you read it.

the man who knew infinity by robert kanigel, read nov 2014

my review: i don't read many biographies, but i have a strong suspicion that this is quite a bit better than average. it's really interesting, the math is explained in a very simple and accessible way for a layman (without being condescending at all), and it's well written. it's a slow read because of the content and subject matter, but never one that i wished i hadn't picked up.

i am not much good at math and know little of the important names and theories in math through history. this biography of one of the greatest mathematicians of all time (ramanujan, with also a mini biography of another of them, gh hardy) speaks to math, culture, the caste system in india, and more. it's really quite interesting all around. (4 stars)

next: a book you've read, the title of which begins with n, and what you thought of it

4084. Nellie Taft The Unconventional First Lady of the Ragtime Era, by Carl Sferrazza Anthony (read 23 Oct 2005)

On May 31, 2000, I read this author's good biography of Florence Harding, so when I saw this book I decided to read it, even though the subject was not a big interest of mine. Nellie (nee Herron) Taft was born 2 June 1861 in Cincinnati, married William Howard Taft in June 1886, died 22 May 1943 in Washington and is the first First Lady buried in Arlington National Cemetery. I enjoyed ths book much more than I expected to. It is superbly researched and since Nellie was very much caught up in her husband's career it is exceptionally interesting. Nellie never liked Teddy Roosevelt's wife, nor Teddy, and she told her husband in 1908 that TR would turn on him. The book is written from the Taft viewpoint and so Nellie comes out looking pretty good--tho she was imperious and quite demanding and gave her husband a hard time often. When she was a girl she wanted to marry a man who would be President, and she pushed Taft to be President when what he wanted was to be Chief Justice. He became both, but he became President because Nellie insisted he seek that position. This was a great book to read, far more interesting than I expected. ( 4 and a half stars)

NEXT: A book you have read, title of which starts with O, and what you thought of the book when you read it.

Odysseia / The Odyssey
by Homer

I first read it - - in English
- - as a freshman in high school; had no idea that I would ever be studying the original Greek. But by the end of h. s., a classics major*
was a definite possibility, so that about 5 years later I was
reading the Greek original.
I loved the Victorian English
version of the translators Lang, Leaf and Myers.
I continue to prefer the Odyssey to the Iliad, Homerʻs* other great work. Though Homer does succeed in making a major war a fascinating theme,
there is more of everyday life in the Odyssey, and a lot more of travel and adventure.

*strictly speaking I should say
"attributed to" Homer, but this is not the place to enter
into the controversies about
the actual authroship, Iʻll just say that most classicists
do accept Homer as the author of both epics.

At least i am sure I've never used this heretofore:

5224. Prodigal Summer {A Novel}. by Barbara Kingsolver (read 2 Dec 2014)

I previously read, on 1 July 2000, the author's The Bean Trees, and on 21 Jan 2001, her The Poisonwood Bible, both of said books having been read because they appeared on some list of "best books." This book is a 2001 book laid in Appalachia and telling in alternating chapters of Deanna, a "bug scientist" who works as a forest ranger and lives alone ( except when being seduced by a man who hunts coyotes) on a mountain in Appalachia, Lusa, who married the only boy in a family of six and has the home place of her husband's family, and Garnet, an aging teacher of agriculture. All the stories are told in smoothly written prose (though there are words on how 'hillbillies' talk we are spared an effort to misspell words so as to tell of their way of pronunciation, i.e,, no dialect a la Uncle Remus). Each of the characters are sensitive and opinionated as to ecology and the like. Some of this concentration on bugs and animals and such bored me since such is not a great interest of mine, but the account ends pretty well. So I found the book on balance was better than I sometimes thought as I slogged through it.(3 stars)

NEXT: A book you have read, the title of which starts with Q, and what you thought of the book when you read it.

qb vii by leon uris read may 2013

my review:
i think that i don't really appreciate the way uris writes, but i do like the stories that he chooses to tell, generally. this book brings up some really interesting moral questions, and i like the ambiguous (to me, realistic) way he answers them. (this is a holocaust book so some of the moral questions aren't ambiguous at all, but there are a lot that are.)

i do think that he makes a few strange choices that distance the readers when it would have been more useful to him, enjoyable to me, and poignant for the story if he'd brought us in more. for instance, he could have made either of the two main characters at all even remotely likable. and i don't like the way he portrays women at all in this book, excepting the few courageous ones we meet at the end. but the story is interesting and a good reminder that many things aren't so black and white as we'd like to believe.

also it was interesting to see how differently things are done in a british courtroom (at least in the late 60's) from in the usa. (from what i understand, anyway.)

"After all, the only thing that is going to save mankind is if enough people live their lives for something or someone other than themselves." (in all small caps in the book)
(2 stars)

next: a book you've read, the title of which begins with r and what you thought of it

1130. Roger Casement Famous Trials Ninth Series, by H. Montgomery Hyde (read 23 Sep 1971)

Casement was born in 1864 and on April 21, 1916, he landed from a German submarine on the Irish coast. He was captured, taken to London, and tried for treason under an old statute. The key words of this statute were that he was "adherent to the King's enemies in his realm giving them aid and comfort in the realm and elsewhere." All the acts proved against Casement were committed in Germany, so the defense was that the acts were not committed in the King's realm. I think the statute is obscure and ambiguous, so Casement should have been acquitted. But apparently this common law rule is not applicable in England! Very interesting book. It spends much time on the diaries. The author is convinced they are genuine. A well-written and intriguing book. ( 4 stars )

NEXT: A book you have read, the title of which starts with S, and what you thought of the book when you read it.

Senecas Tragedies; with an English translation by Frank Justus Miller 2 v.

The one Iʻm re-reading and thinking about now is Octavia" (anonymous), which is not
really by Seneca; it has appeared in the manuscripts of his own tragedies. But it would hardly have survived Neroʻs reign. Seneca didnʻt
survive it either being "offered"
the "options" of forced suicide or execution and choosing the former.* Nero is a main character, and the title character is his rejected first wife whom he treated Henry VIII-style.
It was not intended for the stage, and is good poetry but not as good as The Satires of Persius which I am translating in connection with it.

*Seneca died in 65 B. C., a suicide,and Nero (in flight, and also reportedly a suicide) in 68 B.C.

3707. The Thin Red Line, by James Jones (read 28 Feb 2003)

This fictional account of the Army on Guadacanal has a lot of realistic-seeming battle accounts, but none of the characters inspired and furthermore the account was so diffuse that I was glad when I came to the last page. I remember enjoying From Here to Eternity (read 23 Apr 1961) much more. (2 and a half stars )

NEXT: A book you have read, the title of which starts with U, and what you thought of the book when you read it.

unconditional parenting by alfie kohn, read april 2014

my review:
there are a number of great things in and about this book. it's probably the best parenting book i've read but i'm starting to feel that all parenting books fall into the same traps. blanket statements (usually about how terrible things will be if...) and gross generalizations, not taking into account the individuality of kids and parents. still, this books rings true to me on a deep level, and if it weren't for those things, this would get a 5 from me. it actually calls out the perfectly awful parenting book that i read last year and was horrified by. so i was definitely primed to agree with this author on all or most counts.

he helps by actually citing studies and research, something most parenting books really don't do. he makes clear statements and arguments and as what he is saying is something we've been trying as parents to do anyway, i found this both helpful and also easy to get on board with. i wish there were more details about the "how to" portion, with maybe more examples. obviously there isn't a script and i wouldn't want there to be one, but some further guidance would be nice. still, this is important and a worthy read if you're interested in being the kind of parent that doesn't rely on rewards, punishments, and controlling your kid's behavior. (4 stars)

next: a book you've read whose title starts with the letter "v" and what you thought of it

5209. Vietnam A History, by Stanley Karnow (read 16 Oct 2014)

Ths book was published in 1983 and is a full history of Vietnam from 1945 to April 1975, when the government we spent so many millions propping up fell. It is a sad story and while my reading was admiratory of the way Karnow tells the story it is a dolorous story, with no American president coming out as a farseeing and wise man. Sometimes the account is not organized as well as one would want, with the story dropping back and forth. (4 stars )

NEXT: A book you have read, the title of which starts with W, and what you thought of the book when you read it.

west of then by tara bray smith, read sept/oct 2014

my review: between 1.5 and 2 stars. this is a hard story, and should make a perfect memoir of struggle, self discovery, and relationship. mostly it is just choppy and uneven, only with flashes of the writing i was hoping for throughout. she jumps around in time in a way that is confusing and disorienting and entirely unnecessary to make her point. the last 10 or 15 pages, though, the writing is really, really good. which almost makes it worse because it shows that she could have made this so much better.

"The ocean was a constant. The ocean didn't go anywhere. It surrounded one completely, as a home might have for another girl."

next: a book you've read, the title of which begins with x, or y and what you thought of it

5105. The Year Without Summer 1816 and the Volcano That Darkened the World and Changed History, by William K. Klingaman and Nicholas P. Klingaman (read 26 Dec 2013)

This 2013 book tells of the volcanic eruption on Sumbawa in Indonesia on Apr 5, 1815. It was such a momentous catastrophe that it affected the weather all over the world in 1816, causing terrible suffering and starvation because the summer of 1816 was so adversely affected. It was diastrous in many places, including in Baden, and since my great-great-grandparents left Baden in 1817 and came to the U.S., I am wondering whether their leaving Baden was the result of the suffering caused there by the volcano. If so, it can be said the volcano caused me to come to be, since if any of my ancestors were different I would not be me but would be somebody else! Except for that interesting personal effect, I did not find the book too exciting or riveting, since it spends lots of pages simply telling what was said about the weather in 1816 in books and diaries and newpapers. After awhile, that tends to pall and one says yes, we see the weather in 1816 was awful but we don't need to be told that over and over. The book does tell about interesting people, James Madison, Jane Austen, Lord Byron, King Louis XVIII. et al., and what they said about the weather, and what they did and so on, which is of interest. But in general I did not find the book as interesting as the other two books by William K. Klingaman which I read. (2 and a half stars )

NEXT: A book you have read, the title of which starts Z or A, and what you thought of the book when you read it.

zazen by vanessa veselka, read in march 2014

my review: this is a seriously intense read. i feel like i've been hit with something big and heavy. i literally have no idea if i love this book or hate it, if it's brilliant or ridiculous, if i understand her point at all or a little or entirely.

this is different than anything i've ever read before, but in a way that i think is good; she's pushing the line very consciously and intentionally. i think i lean toward this book being brilliant, not ridiculous.

it's also a bit of a jumble, maybe purposefully. sometimes it's hard to follow, sometimes when the main character, della, jumps from memory to present it's hard to know when the jump happens. sometimes it feels messy but it's supposed to. della is confused and unsure and trying to figure herself out, and i'm left with the same feeling. it's exhausting. but i think that the further away i get from this book, the more i'm going to like it.

i suspect that this is going to go down as a very polarizing book - people will either love it or hate it. i waffled while reading it but however it settles, i'll definitely read her again because if nothing else, what she does here is interesting and i'm curious what she does next.

"Jules reminded me of Credence, so convinced he was smarter than everyone that whatever he said came out like he was teaching you how to tie your shoes. Watching that habit slip, I saw how similar he and I really were. Only I had stopped trying to communicate with anyone at all, patronizingly or otherwise. My attitude was fuck you and your myopic mental laziness, tie your own fucking shoes. Under examination it wasn't a more enlightened stance."

as an aside, i don't know where this book is supposed to take place, but it feels very portland (or maybe eugene) to me, which is where both the author and i live. if the revolution happens, it'll be here.

as another aside, there are a number of egregious typos in this edition. like the book or not, that's unfortunate for the author and for what i think is a newer press. (3 stars)

next: a book you've read whose title begins with a (no articles allowed) and what you thought of it

1282. Alfonzo XIII, by Vincente R. Pilapil (read 22 Aug 1974)

1282. Alfonso XIII, by Vincente R. Pilapil (22 Aug. 1974) The subject was born King of Spain on May 17, 1886--only two persons have been born a king, this book says. John I of France was born a king in 1316 but lived only 7 days. I know of no one else born a king. Alfonso XIII left Spain on April 14, 1931, and died in Rome on Feb 12, 1941--I remember mentioning it in class at school when it happened (I was in 7th grade). This book is not well-written, is opinionated, non-chronological, and dull. Not a good book. ( one star)

NEXT: A book you have read, the title of which starts with B, and what you thought of the book when you read it.

The Big Wave by Pearl S Buck. Classic children's tale set in Japan.

Nrway, what did you think of the book?

cleopatra's wedding present by robert tewdwr moss; read oct 2014

my review: i could hardly engage with this at all. here and there were interesting bits but mostly i wasn't even a little invested. perhaps it's not fair, because this isn't the final draft of the book - moss was murdered the day after he finished revising the book, and the manuscript was destroyed, so this is an earlier version. but i doubt that would have made a difference as i don't usually like books like this - travel in a 3rd world country from the perspective of a privileged european. (1 star)

next: a book you've read who's title begins with "d" and what you thought of it when you read it

2184 Delivered From Evil: The Saga of World War II, by Robert Leckie (read 4 Feb 1989)

This is a 955-page volume published in 1987. I found it a super-enthralling reading experience--undoubtedly one of the most engrossing "reads" I have had in years. It starts at the beginning (the first chapter is "1919 Versailles") and goes right up to the surrender signing on the Missouri on Sep 2, 1945. The book is one man's reading of history, and is full of opinions and judgments. It has not a single footnote, and it has a "Selected Bibliography" of seven pages. I always thought there was little about World War II I did not know, and reading this book showed me there is some truth to that thought, but yet putting it all in books like this makes a superbly engrossing account. (5 stars )

NEXT: A book you have read, the titile of which starts with E, and what you thought of the book when you read it.

the end of your life book club by will schwalbe, read earlier this month

my review:

i feel entirely unable to rate this objectively as we're reading this book in honor of a member of our book group who recently died - this was the last book she recommended to me before her death - and a good friend of mine is in treatment for stage 4 cancer now. so i have all kinds of personal things that get in the way of being unbiased - but then, isn't that always true? maybe not as obvious or as in my face as with this book, but of course it's always true that our experiences or our presents shape how we read a book.

so. i love the passion for books and the acknowledgement of their power that is the main takeaway from this book, other than the relationship between the author and his mom. it's a sweet way for the author to connect with his mother, and a beautiful way to get at the deeper meaning of so many things - and what she thought about them - in her last months. it's casually written, in an easy and accessible way. not amazing writing, but that seems right. the reader can focus on the books he's discussing, as well as really appreciate the tribute to his mother. she seemed to be a truly incredible woman, who made this world better with her life. i'm very impressed by her. and by how quickly - and with what depth - they tore through books. (the reading list alone is reason enough to read this book.) and their message of doing good for people and the world, of not being handcuffed by not being able to do more, of not expecting the world to be there for you - it's a great message and one that i can't hear or be reminded of enough. (3 stars)

next: a book you've read, the title of which begins with the letter "f" and what you thought of it

3987. The Forgotten Memoir of John Knox A Year in the Life of a Supreme Court Clerk in FDR's Washington edited and with a Foreword and Afterword by Dennis J. Hutchinson and David J. Garrow (read 15 Feb 2005)
This is a most unusual book which was fascinating to read and which I enjoyed very very much. It is a memoir by the law clerk to Justice McReynolds for the year 1936-1937--a momentous year in Supreme Court history, when the Court, over McReynolds' venomous objection, upheld New Deal measures and thus defeated FDR's plan to add Supreme Court justices. Knox was a law school graduate but all he did was clerical work, having no role in composition of the substance of opinions McReynolds wrote. This book has so many insights into Supreme Court history that it was sheerly fascinating and Knox was a most interesting character in his own right, while McReynolds comes across as subhuman. (5 stars )

NEXT: A book you have read, the title of which starts with G, and what you thought of the book when you read it.

gut symmetries by jeanette winterson, read earlier this month

my review:
what she does with language is so beautiful. i had a little trouble with this one, though, in keeping track of what was going on and who was who and which character was the focus of each chapter. the last 20% or so, though, the story really surprised me, both in positive and negative ways. but the language was always superb.

"Walk with me. The past lies in wait. It is not behind. It seems to be in front. How else could it trip me as I start to run?" (2.5 stars)

next: a book you've read, the title of which begins with the letter h, and what you thought of it

3538. Hutterite Society, by John A. Hostetler (read 11 Feb 2002)

I found this book, which is carefully researched and open-minded, surprisingly interesting. There are Hutterite colonies not too far from where I live, and I was at one once briefly, and my sister-in-law was a public school teacher at one for years. This book is a 1974 book and I wondered how much had changed since then. (4 stars )

NEXT: A book you have read, the title of which starts with I, and what you thought of the book when you read it

i believe i've used this before, but not in this iteration of the game, so:

iberia by james michener, read in march 2014

my review: i'm not sure i can technically count this book as having been actually read because of all the skimming and even scanning that i did throughout.

i am an awfully big fan of michener but have rarely liked his nonfiction stuff nearly as well as his fiction. this nonfiction is billed as his recounting his travels through spain. i love spain. i have spent a decent amount of time there for someone who has never lived anywhere but america. i mostly love michener. i should have loved this book. but no.

i may have liked it better if it had been correctly labeled as history, because that changes my expectations going in. once i really and truly realized that this wasn't about his travels in spain but about spain and spanish history and spanish tradition/culture/art/food/folklore/architecture/music/what-have-you (which didn't really happen for me until around 600 pages in) i was able to find more value in it. still, there are large swaths of this book that i couldn't bear to even skim, and found myself scanning for things that might be of interest. (i think that's really a first for me.) there was way way way too much detail about so many things, and then brushing off of other things that could have been really interesting. i couldn't abide the part about bullfighting. i don't care that he believes it is and that he describes it as art not as sport, i just can't read such detail about that kind of senseless killing and stay sane. i couldn't read the more than 10 page description of the cathedral in santiago. i was really looking forward to the last chapter on santiago, hoping he would describe his pilgrimage along the way of st james as he took the walk for the last time 40 years before i did. it was a disappointing revisiting of something i normally love to read about. i wish this was more travel and less history but if you're looking for history, maybe this is the right book, i don't know.

still, i give 1 star instead of .5 because there were some interesting parts.

this made me laugh out loud, as this book itself is 960 pages, and many of his others are tomes around the same size:
"I went back to the cathedral plaza and spent most of one morning writing ten letters, a job I find difficult, for words do not come easily to me."

an example of what made me want to pull my hair out; i can't imagine why he would include something like this:
"The plaza isn't quite a perfect square. One afternoon when I had nothing better to do I stepped it off in all directions, but I forget the results."

there were some other things that i noted for their humor or their insight. this isn't worthless, but it's also not terribly worthwhile, or at least certainly not as a travelogue. and frankly it makes me rethink my excitement in eventually reading his memoir. there is really, really good michener out there but this is not it.

next: a book you've read, the title of which begins with the letter j, and what you thought of it

Elisa, I am tempted to read Spain, since I like Spanish history, but some of what you say, like his comment on stepping off the square, scares me off.

3069. Jane Austen Obstinate Heart: A Life, by Valerie Grosvenor Myer (read 26 Apr 1998) In 1997 two new biographies of Jane Austen came out and I decided to read this one. It is a delicious book, very worthy of its subject. The book tells much trivial things but her life (born 16 Dec 1775, at Steventon, Hampshire, England, died 18 July 1817 at Winchester, Hampshire) was outwardly uneventful so her story must be told by what happened to her. There is a lot of detail available, and at first this book was not chronological, but it got to be and it is an excellent account. Austen only attained her present status in the literary canon in the 20th century--between 1817 and 1870 there was only one complete edition of her work. Since, there have been countlsess.This was a most enjoyable and worthwhile reading experience. (five stars)

NEXT: a book you have read, the title of which starts with K, and what you thought of the book when you read it

The Kumulipo:# a Hawaiian
Creation Chant; tr. and ed. with
commentary by
Martha Warren Beckwith; with a
new foreword by Katharine Luomala.*

Since my wife, @leialoha and I are
working on a new edition of this, my
thoughts are too crowded to even give
the gist of them in this space. We think that
Beckwith is only a fair translator but a very good
editor. The adjective "creation" in the subtitle
has been changed by some critics to "cosmogonic".

NEXT: A book you have read, the title of which starts
with L, and what you thought of it.

#May also be titled "He Tumuripo. . . "

*Met author.

2615. The Last Stuarts: British Royalty in Exile, by James Lees-Milne (read 6 Jun 1994)

This is a 1984 book and is full of fascinating information about the Stuarts after 1688, down to the death of Bonnie Prince Charlie's widow in 1824. It was most interesting. It gives a lot of attention to Cardinal Henry, who was created Cardinal at age 22 by Pope Benedict XIV and died as Dean of the Sacred College in 1807. He was a mixture of good and bad, and one is sad at the abuses which existed in the Church in his day. I found this book worth reading. (4 stars)

NEXT: A book you have read, the title of which starts with M, and what you thought of the book when you read it.

>36 Schmerguls:

you like history much more than i do, so would probably enjoy it - or at least parts of it - more than i did. i found it such a slog.

another one i didn't really like:

the man who invented florida by randy wayne white, read in march

my review: didn't care about the characters or the plot and didn't find it well written. not terrible on those 3 counts, but not good either. also i feel like there were some loose ends that didn't quite wrap up by the end. between 1 and 1.5.

next: a book you've read, the title of which begins with an "n" and what you thought of the book

OK, I have deliberately, Eliza, selected a non-history book for this post:

4963. No Name, by Wilkie Collins (read 4 Oct 2012) This 1862 novel has interesting events powered by the law as it existed in 1846 in Britain, where bastards had no inheritance rights unless conferred by will. This leads to two fine young women being deprived of any part in their father's ample estate. One of the girls proceeds to try to get this money by marrying the guy who has it. This sets up a tortuous path as she strives to get the money, full of twists and turns and holding the reader, if a little incredulous of the likelihood of the events, reading on until the very last page. It is fun to think of what this novel does not tell and which a modern novel would tell. For instance, not a word of the sex lives of the couple after the woman, who despises the man, succeeds in marrying him. The story goes on and on, with some things inducing incredulity, and while not as good as the best Dickens novels, does have events which make one eager to see what happens. Actually, a lot better than some modern fiction (4 stars )

NEXT: A book you have read, the title of which starts with O, and what you thought of it when you read it.

you read fiction! =) i've heard his books are good but have never read any...

oranges are not the only fruit by jeannette winterson, read most recently in dec 2009

average of 2.5 stars but in my memory it's higher than that.

my review:
maybe i went into this book last time with high expectations, and this time with low expectations; i found that i actually enjoyed reading it this time around. i found it funny and quirky and really revealing. the passages that last time felt out of place and unnecessary to the story, this time i felt gave extra insight and tied everything together well. goes to show how much of a book is about the reader and their mindset. this one didn't get a fair shake on my last review.

a quote i liked last time but didn't note and that struck me again this time around:

'In the library I felt better, words you could trust and look at till you understood them, they couldn't change half way through a sentence like people, so it was easier to spot a lie.'

from march 9, 2009:

i remember liking this more the first time i read it, but still found it relatively entertaining. i'm not into her writing style anymore, though.

however: "'There's this world,' she banged the wall graphically, 'and there's this world,' she thumped her chest. 'If you want to make sense of either, you have to take notice of both.'"

"There's no choice that doesn't mean a loss."

next: a book you've read, the title of which begins with p, and what you thought of it.

Hey, Eliza, I read lots of fiction. Of the over 5000 books I have read I would guess about a third of them are fiction.

2468. Precious Bane, by Mary Webb (read 16 Oct 1992) This is 1924 novel which I found a tremendous read! It is set in Shropshire about 1815 and tells a somber story, laden with dialect (but one gets used to it), and telling of customs long gone--bull baiting, sin eating, hiring fairs, etc. Prue Sarn has a hare lip and is sister to Gidean, whose "bane" is to make money and be a great man. This suggests more social mobility than I thought anyone aspired to in the England of that time. Gidean is a repulsive person, but Prue is a very good person and her "weaver," Kester Woodeaves, .is likewise a person one admires. Their love is touching, and one feels greatly for Prue. This is a forgotten novel, as Mary Webb is a forgotten novelist, or so I thought when I read it, though it is mentioned, for instance, in the 1962 edition of Good Reading. (four stars)

NEXT: A book you have read, the title of which starts with Q, and what you thought of it when you read it.

are the numbers before your titles indicative of the number in the 5000+ that you've read?

quite a year for plums by bailey white, read in sept 2010

one of my shorter reviews:
this was alright, but i never really got into it. made me wish i knew more about birds and nature, though. (2 stars)

next: a book you've read, the title of which starts with r and what you thought of it.

Right, Eliza, as to the number shown.

3866. Replay, by Ken Grimwood (read 10 Mar 2004) When I finished this book I said: "This is a 1986 novel concerning a guy, Ken Winston, who dies at age 42, then begins to live his life over again from his teen years on, with full knowledge of his prior life, and so he knows who wins the Kentucky Derby in 1963 and that the Dodgers beat the Yankees four straight games in the 1963 World Series, etc. So he bets and becomes fantastically rich, and so on. And he does this reliving over and over again! I found this so fantastic that one could not suspend belief, though it is fun to see the concept developed. But the events in the first life were real and the events in the replayed lives were known only to the replaying characters (he finds a couple others who are going thru the same experience). So the scenario really made no sense if one thought about it and often as I read I could not help saying to myself 'this is silly.' But I suppose my time could have been less well spent than it was in reading this." AND yet, now years later I have a pleasant memory of the book and the goofy concept! (3 and a half stars)

NEXT: a book you have read, the title of which starts with S, and what you thought of it when you read it.

how long have you been keeping track? (no matter how long, unless you're about 300 years old, that's a lot of reading. kudos to you.)

the shining by stephen king, most recently reread march 2014

my review:
where to start with this review? there is so much to say - stephen king revisits a theme or two from carrie but improves drastically on them; both the ideas he tackles as well as the epistolary format (used far less in this one) that he continues to use in his career. his style is evident and considerably honed already in this third of his novels.

i'm loving revisiting his books to see his development. i'm really impressed at how quickly he became the writer he is today. this book is quintessential stephen king. the pacing, the character development, the interplay of reality with fantasy (or is it?) or horror, the great writing. the climax alone was about *200* pages - that's a lot of tension to build to and sustain. (i meant that for the writer but it's true for the reader, too, frankly.) and there's a part that builds and builds to what you know is this intense and scary moment (it's one of the two or three scariest parts of the book, for me) that never even comes. it's freaking brilliant to play with the reader (and the character's sanity) like that. i've long since said that he started out writing scary books and took a turn to more psychological thriller at some point - i'm gratified to see how much psychological stuff was in this one, so early on in his career.

yes, this is a creepy and scary book. (i'd read this before at least once maybe twice but still found myself clutching at the bedsheets when reading, even when i knew what was coming.) but it's also a book about the fears of failure and also of success, about loneliness and what that can drive you to or how it can force a change in you. it's about what it means to be an alcoholic or to be married to one or to be the child of one, it's about making excuses and unfulfilled potential. it's about what happens when you realize that maybe you aren't who you thought you are. or what happens in a stephen king novel, anyway, with other forces at play.

and it's worth repeating: there is literally a 200 page climax. (5 stars)

next: a book you've read, the title of which begins with the letter t, and what you thought of it

Eliza, I started keeping track of the books I read when I was in sixth grade and at that time could remember the few books I had read in full up to that time so the first twenty or so books in my list are not in the order in which I read them but were as I recalled them when I started the list. Ever since I have written down each book as I finished it. But not till about 1969 did I write a post-reading note on every book I read, although before that time for some years I kept a diary and often mentioned and commented on my reading so on the list of books read which is on LibraryThing I have a comment or a review on every one of the 5250 books of the list (my total is 5273, but that includes some works which I read in two volumes, and which only got one rating, e. g. The Count of Monte Cristo was a two volume work as I read it, as was Dreiser's An American Tragedy) I have read. I suspect that no other person on LibraryThing can say that of his/her list but if you find somebody else that can I would hope you'd let me know. I have also rated every book I have read--unfortunately many of such ratings were made long after I read the book--and LibraryThing has counted the ratings I gave for me: 558 five stars, 356 four and a half stars, 1621 four stars, 727 three and a half stars, 893 three stars, 239 two and a half stars, 436 two stars, 128 one and a half stars, 221 one star, and 71 one half star.

5253. The Thirty Years War Europe's Tragedy, by Peter H. Wilson (read 10 Mar 2015)

My comment tnereon: Even though I read and hugely appreciated C. V. Wedgwood's book on the 30 Years War--it was my Book of the Year in 1968--I thought I should read this more recent book. It is indeed a formidable work (852 pages of text, 72 pages of Notes) but I found it much less enjoyable since it drowns one in detail. Not only do we have maps of the famous battles (which I remembered well from my Class in Modern European History taught by Father Bill Green at Loras in 1946-1947) White Mountain in 1620, Breitendfeld in 1631, Nordlingen in 1634, but we also have accounts and maps of 22 other battles. i confess I felt drowned in detail which no doubt would be appreciated by a war gamer but I felt it did no hold my interest well. After the book opens with an account of the Defenestration of Prague on May 23, 1618, it is not till page 269 that the war begins--the lead-up to the war was not that necessary, I could not help but feel. The book certainly shows the dire effects of the war on the areas of Europe affected, and there is much about the account full of interest. But I am not eager to read more about the war after slogging through these pages. (3 stars)

NEXT: a book you have read, the title of which starts with U, and what you thought of the book when you read it.

that is seriously impressive. i wish i had started keeping track earlier! (i started keeping track of everything i've read since summer 1995 i think it was, but only started rating and reviewing everything i've read since 2008. ai, me.) you're a little more generous with your ratings than i am. my average is 2.7, but i think i've been skewing nicer lately, throwing off the average a little. =)

unconditional parenting by alfie kohn, read april 2014

my review: there are a number of great things in and about this book. it's probably the best parenting book i've read but i'm starting to feel that all parenting books fall into the same traps. blanket statements (usually about how terrible things will be if...) and gross generalizations, not taking into account the individuality of kids and parents. still, this books rings true to me on a deep level, and if it weren't for those things, this would get a 5 from me. it actually calls out the perfectly awful parenting book that i read last year and was horrified by. so i was definitely primed to agree with this author on all or most counts.

he helps by actually citing studies and research, something most parenting books really don't do. he makes clear statements and arguments and as what he is saying is something we've been trying as parents to do anyway, i found this both helpful and also easy to get on board with. i wish there were more details about the "how to" portion, with maybe more examples. obviously there isn't a script and i wouldn't want there to be one, but some further guidance would be nice. still, this is important and a worthy read if you're interested in being the kind of parent that doesn't rely on rewards, punishments, and controlling your kid's behavior. (4 stars)

next: a book you've read, the title of which begins with v, and what you thought of it

bump?

4684. Violet Clay, by Gail Godwin (read 15 Mar 2010)

Can't get "Edit" to let me complete entry 50, so here is what I add thereto:

The eponymous character is an orphan from Charleston, S.C., who is a painter and goes to New York City to attempt to make her mark in painting. The account tells of her various successive fellow fornicators, her struggles to achieve renown, her uncle and his life and trial as a would-be novelist, and ends with Violet living in the Adirondacks on a acreage given her by her grandfather. I found the book readable mostly, though her efforts to establish herself as a painter often bored me. I prefer my heroines to have some conception of morality, but Violet evinces none so I could not empathize with her. I doubt I will read anything else by Gail Godwin. Should I? ( 2 stars )

NEXT: A book you have read, the title of which starts with W, and what you thought of the book when you read it.

i've never read gail godwin so can't help you there!

wicked by gregory maguire, read may 2015

my review: this was kind of slow-moving for me, but was really well written and tackled a lot of issues that i love reading about. i was surprised, actually, at how well written it was, and how much i liked it right away. the main issue, i suppose, is about good and evil and nature vs nurture, but also there is so much about oppression and power and theocracy and belief and relationships and control or fate or destiny or manipulation. and on and on really. this book is about so much; perhaps too much, although he does a good job with it all. which i guess is why it's not a quick read. but i really did like it, even as i found myself sometimes wishing it would go faster or end sooner. this is a muddled review, but i'd read him again, for sure, and might even continue this series.

"Was it an accident I saw that, Fiyero wondered, looking at the manager with new eyes. Or is it just that the world unwraps itself to you, again and again, as soon as you are ready to see it anew?"

"'We weren't beasts of burden, but we were good reliable laborers. If we were made redundant in the workforce, it was only a matter of time before we'd be socially redundant too.'"

"'People who claim that they're evil are usually no worse than the rest of us.' He sighed. 'It's people who claim that they're good, or anyway better than the rest of us, that you have to be wary of.'" (3 stars)

next: a book you've read, the title of which begins with x, or y, and what you thought of it

567. Young Mr. Newman, by Maisie Ward (read 8 Feb 1959)

My comment:

An impressive book.

Back when I read this I did not do post-reading notes regularly. Sorry.

NEXT; A book you have read, the title of which starts with Z or A, and what you thought of the book when you read it.