December, 2017: Chilly Scenes of Winter

Ah, yes, CHILLY SCENES OF WINTER--Ann Beattie's unbelievably good book about ordinary human relationships and fragile love.

Have to read six (6) books this month to make an even hundred and I'm scratching my head, trying to visualize which six it will be...

I just finished Scarcity on Cliff's recommendation. Very good read. Thanks, Cliff! The sections on poverty were compelling, but of course I have been in favor of direct help to poor people for a long time; it's good to see independent confirmation of some of the things I already know about poverty from people who are doing largely unrelated work.

Wrapped up THE WILD BOYS, one of William S. Burroughs' more coherent novels.

Experimental, lots of unsettling sado-masochistic imagery, weirdness abounding.

Not as consistently good as CITIES OF THE RED NIGHT but some sections are quite mad and brilliant.

Cities of the Red Night has been in my tbr pile since forever.

Right now listening to The Book of Ser Marco Polo. Organized as a kind of travel guide but inevitably full of wonder. Makes me want to re-take The Arabian Nights.

>4 mejix:: I’m about two thirds of the way through vol 2 of my 16 volume Burton set. A great project and one that I am cheerful about probably never finishing.

>5 anna_in_pdx: Oh wow. I know what you mean, I probably won't finish either but I did want to hear more stories. Kind of annoyed that I lost my place after a long break.

Polished off HARD REVOLUTION by the always reliable George Pelecanos.

A crime tale set against the backdrop of racial tension in Washington D.C.

The man knows how to tell a story.

Read a great mystery that my sister sent me, set in 90s China. A Loyal Character Dancer I highly recommend it for people who like good procedurals and also think China is an interesting setting. Very well-written and plotted.

Now I am working on another book my sister sent me, a "white people in Africa" book - left it at home, can't remember the title, am really not into it thus far because this genre kind of pisses me off to be honest. ETA: The book is Rules of the Wild. I am still at it, still don't really like this genre and keep rolling my eyes but I shall persevere.

Still catching up writing and posting reviews of books I read in November but currently I'm reading:

TEXT - Rio Grande Fall by Rudolfo Anaya
AUDIO in the car - Hillbilly Elegy by J.D. Vance
MP3 Audio - Love, Life and Elephants by Daphne Sheldrick

I finished Rules of the Wild and had a really negative reaction to it. I think maybe I am not cut out for books about affairs anymore. I suspect I would even react this way to a truly great classic like Mme Bovary or The Age of Innocence. I am just fed up with the whole topic. I think I am also fed up with the "people from the first world live in the third world, where they live like (comparative) kings and have affairs with each other" genre in general. I think I never liked it much in the first place.

A Gentleman in Moscow – Amor Towles
Audiobook performed by Nicholas Guy Smith
5***** and a ❤

From the book jacket: When, in 1922, the thirty-year-old Count Alexander Rostov is deemed an unrepentant aristocrat by a Bolshevik tribunal, he is sentenced to house arrest in the Metropol, a grand hotel across the street from the Kremlin. An indomitable man of erudition and wit, Rostov must now live in an attic room while some of the most tumultuous decades in Russian history are unfolding outside the hotel’s doors.

My reactions:
Well this book cements Amor Towles in my list of favorite authors.

I love the Count and the way he leads his life. His accommodations may be limited, and he may be confined to the hotel, but his life is certainly *not* limited. He is a man who lives life with grace and dignity, who treats others with respect, who thinks before he speaks or acts. In short, he IS a gentleman.

This is not to say that he doesn’t suffer from his imposed confinement. He suffers boredom, loneliness and even depression. But he studies his options and moves forward with determination and spirit. He finds ways to circumvent his situation, to foil the forces that wish to take from him. They may take his possessions, they may restrict his movements, but they cannot make his less a gentleman.

Towles populates the Metropol with an assortment of interesting characters – various hotel staff members, small-minded bureaucrats, a beautiful actress, a precocious child, etc. And he paints a picture of elegance, sometimes allowed to fall into shabbiness.

All this serves the purpose of this intricate plot, involving intrigue, misdirection, suspense, luck and a lot of courage and ingenuity.

Nicholas Guy Smith does a marvelous job performing the audiobook. He is a master of different accents, and even does a credible job of the young girls’ voices. I could listen to him for hours (and did).

Polished off George Saunders' IN PERSUASION NATION.

His quirkiest collection--and I think I've read them all--tales depicting the pervasive, corrosive effects of consumerism, its atomizing effect on society, creating Darwinian, nightmarish possibilities...

In other words, this Saunders fellow can certainly write.

Rio Grande Fall– Rudolfo Anaya
2**

Book two in the Sonny Baca mystery series is set during the Albuquerque NM Hot Air Balloon Fiesta. It’s set to be the biggest moneymaker for the city, until a body plummets from a gondola. Was it a tragic accident, or was the woman murdered?

There’s a lot going on here. We have the aftermath of book one’s mystery; the woman who falls from the balloon is a key witness in that case. There’s an effort to bring in a major drug shipment, using the Balloon Fiesta as cover. Sonny has found a homeless family that he’s trying to help. His mother wants him to forget this investigation business and settle down with Rita, a very good woman. It’s Rita who takes Sonny to Lorenza, a curandera who will perform a limpieza - a cleansing ceremony – to help Sonny dispel the trauma of his past encounter with Raven.

Sonny is in touch with his spirit nagual – the coyote, but is he really a brujo? Can he fly? And can he go up against Raven, who is definitely an evil brujo who has slipped through the various efforts to capture him.

I like magical realism, in general, but this series has gone too far. I read mysteries for the plot, the action, the fast-paced story. This book failed to deliver that. It lacked focus for me and the fact that it took me a week to read it, is reflective of that. I just wasn’t interested.

Finished another excellent short story collection, SLEET, by Swedish author Stig Dagerman.

This is a selection of his best stories, expertly translated by Steven Hartman.

Dagerman had a short life--he committed suicide at 31--but his daughter helped bring his tales to the rest of the world.

A book that will make my year end "Best of..." roster.

Yet another short story collection under my belt, Rebecca Schiff's THE BED MOVED.

There are some funny lines and a few excellent tales but the collection lacked a visceral aspect, a killer punch, too many of the narratives just petering out.

But how about zingers like:

"The condom wrappers had the subway map on them, in case you needed to know how to get somewhere while erect."

(By the way, this slim volume, 129 pages, retailed at $33.95 Canadian--and we wonder why short stories are dying...)

Love, Life And Elephants – Daphne Sheldrick
Digital audiobook narrated by Virginia McKenna
4****

Subtitle: An African Love Story

From the book jacket: Daphne Sheldrick, whose family arrived in Africa from Scotland in the 1820s, is the first person ever to have successfully hand-reared newborn elephants. Her deep empathy and understanding, her years of observing Kenya’s rich variety of wildlife, and her pioneering work in perfecting the right husbandry and milk formula have saved countless elephants, rhinos, and other baby animals from certain death.

My reactions
This is a wonderful memoir that takes the reader from Sheldrick’s birth and childhood through her teen years, and first love, on to the love of her life, David Sheldrick, and the work they accomplished together. He truly inspired her to a variety of achievements, perhaps most famously the founding of the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust and the orphans’ nursery in Nairobi National Park.

She writes in a frank and open manner, describing her missteps as openly as her triumphs. I can feel her empathy with the animals, cheered with her when she achieved success, and shed tears at the heartbreaking events that befell some of her favorite animals. While I was interested most in her work with elephants, Sheldrick had room in her life for a wide variety of orphaned animals – rhinos, antelope, mongoose, and a mischievous zebra, among others.

Virginia McKenna does a marvelous job voicing the audio book. She has great pacing and really brought Sheldrick’s voice and point of view to life.

Grim, gripping reading: THE NORTH WATER, by Ian McGuire.

For those of us who got bored and couldn't make it through MOBY DICK.

Gruesome scenes of whale killing, Greenpeacers beware...

Finished the first two volumes of The Arab of the Future, a graphic memoir of growing up in Syria during the 80's. The author is French-Syrian. The episodes are poignant and presented with intelligence and sensitivity. The environment is very harsh and the main character, the father, is a well rendered jerk, so not a pleasant read. I wonder whether this is a fair representation. There seems to be a lot of resentment.

Made a start on Iain Banks' Complicity.

>19 RobertDay:, there's a coincidence. I'm reading one of his SF novels, Consider Phlebas.

>20 Cecrow: I'll be interested to hear your opinion of it. In many ways, it's not typical of the Culture novels, though there's a lot in it that's a good basis for later excursions into that universe.

I need to read some Iain Banks. I like smart sci fi. What should I start with?

I loved EXCESSION, that's probably my favorite. There's a cheap box set of the first three "Culture" novels on Amazon, as well (I know because I bought one for my son Liam).

https://www.amazon.com/Iain-M-Banks-Culture-anniversary/dp/0356502090/ref=sr_1_f...

Hey thanks! Sounds like an Xmas present from me to me!

Finished My Name is Mary Sutter. How nice and refreshing to read a great Civil War novel about the Union side. A really harrowing but wonderful read. Highly recommended.

Just wrapped up Justin Taylor's short story collection FLINGS.

Tales about relationships, in all their configurations.

Very humane and literate.

Recommended.

I've just finished Havana Lunar, in preparation for reading his new one, Havana Libre. It has reminded me why I like noir so much, and why "genre" doesn't have to mean "formulaic."

#27--"genre" doesn't have to mean "formulaic."

So true--and so many genre writers (and fans) are too stupid and semi-literate to know this simple fact.

Good writers transcend whatever genre they work in.

THE TERRIBLE TWOS by Ishmael Reed.

Perfect Christmas reading, as a corporation tries to co-copt Santa Claus and manipulate a President whose only previous claim to fame was his status as the world's leading fashion model...

Pointed satire from Ishmael Reed.

Been sitting on my TBR pile for ages...

Christmas in Harmony – Philip Gulley
3***

I love this series set in Harmony, Indiana, and featuring Pastor Sam Gardner, his family and his Quaker congregation at Harmony Friends Meeting.

In this installment, the board of elders has taken Dale Hinshaw’s suggestion (demand?) to skip the Christmas Eve service in favor of a “progressive Nativity Scene.” Well, it started as just a live Nativity scene, but he realized it was too big to house in one location (the local park being unavailable for a religious display). So Dale has built a manger in his yard, with the animals housed at Sam’s house, the Holy Family at Asa Peacock’s farm, the Wise Men at Bea’s home, and ending at Fern’s house where the Friendly Women would sell hot chocolate and cookies.

With Dale in charge, things are bound to go wrong, and Sam will be left trying to clean up the mess – and I’m not just talking about the pigs in his garage.

But, regardless, Sam will find the meaning in Christmas, and he will be reminded of the joys of the season, and the reason we celebrate the Birth of Jesus.

It’s a charming, quick read, full of humor and tenderness. Perfect for this holiday season.

P.S. I know this is a re-read for me, but I have no idea when I first read it. Perhaps a year or so after it was first published.

Hillbilly Elegy – J.D. Vance
Book on CD narrated by the author.
4****

Subtitle: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis.

Vance is a former Marine, a graduate of Ohio State and Yale Law School. But getting to his current place in life was a struggle, given his family upbringing. His grandparents left Kentucky’s Appalachia – “dirt poor and in love” – when they were still teenagers, moving north to Ohio and the promise of factory jobs. Papaw did get a job, and lifted his family into the working middle class. But it was not so easy to leave behind the effects of generations suffering from abuse, alcoholism, poverty and trauma. In this memoir, Vance relates how his grandparents, uncles, aunts, mother, and sister struggled, and reflects on how he himself still carries the emotional scars of his chaotic young life.

A few things helped him escape. His older sister provided a buffer for the young J.D., and took on a maternal role that helped keep both of them out of the foster care system. A few key teachers identified his native ability and nurtured it. His mother, for all her faults and drug abuse, instilled in him a love of learning and reading. Most importantly, perhaps, his grandparents provided a stable home life when it really mattered.

He is brutally honest looking at his life and at the culture of the working poor. He reviews government policies that are (probably) intended to help, but that frequently are doomed to fail. He offers insight into how the working poor, themselves, might change some of these outcomes, the small and large steps – all of them difficult to take – that would give the next generation a fighting chance.

There were sections that made me smile, even laugh. But there were many more sections of the book that saddened and worried me. But I am glad that Vance wrote it, and I’m glad that I read it.

Early in the book he writes:
I was one of those kids with a grim future. I almost failed out of high school. I nearly gave in to the deep anger and resentment harbored by everyone around me … Whatever talents, I have I almost squandered until a handful of loving people rescued me.

That is the real story of my life, and that is why I wrote this book. I want people to know what it feels like to nearly give up on yourself and why you might do it. I want people to understand what happens in the lives of the poor and the psychological impact that spiritual and material poverty has on their children. I want people to understand the American Dream as my family and I encountered it. I want people to understand how upward mobility really feels. And I want people to understand something I learned on ly recently: that for those of us lucky enough to live the American Dream, the demons of the life we left behind continue to chase us.

Vance narrates the audiobook himself. He does a fine job. He’s not a trained voice artist, but I cannot imagine anyone else doing a better job telling his story.

A Man Of His Own – Susan Wilson
Digital audio read by Fred Berman, Christina Delaine, Rick Adamson, Jeff Gurner.
3***

Three people connected by one dog. Rick Stanton is the promising professional baseball player who finds the puppy he’ll call Pax in an alley. Francesca is the love of Rick’s life, the young wife he leaves behind when he’s drafted into World War II. Keller Nicholson is the lonely orphaned young man who will bond with Pax in the Army’s K-9 Corp. When the war is over, Keller brings Pax back to the couple with a request to keep him. But Rick has been badly wounded and is broken in both body and spirit. Keller agrees to stay on for a time as Rick’s aide, helping Francesca with the heavier tasks that are simply too much for her. He’ll also help train Pax to be Rick’s helper.

This is a kind of romance novel with a twist. There’s plenty of drama and emotion, as well as the potential for new relationships. We have three people who are all emotionally fragile, and yet somehow are “guided” by this remarkable animal. That synopsis sounds trite and predictable, and in a sense the book is that, but I have to say that I was entertained and engaged by the story, as unlikely and unbelievable as some elements were.

I’m not a dog person, but I had previously read Wilson’s One Good Dog which I thought was very good. This book doesn’t quite come to that level, but it’s a decent read.

Each of the four talented voice artists who narrate takes on a different major character, including Pax (the dog). Unfortunately, other than for Christina Delaine, the sole woman, I can’t tell which artist is voicing which character. Still it’s an effective device to use different narrators for each change in point of view. Berman and Adamson also co-narrated the audio of One Good Dog

Queen of the Air– Dean Jensen
Audiobook performed by Emma Bering
4****

Subtitle: A True Story of Love & Tragedy at the Circus

From the book jacket: Dean Jensen’s Queen of the Air brings the circus world alive through the gorgeously written story of renowned aerialist Lillian Leitzel, and her star-crossed love affair with Alfredo Codona, of the famous Flying Codonas. Like today’s Beyonce and Madonna, the book’s heroine was known to her vast public by just one name: Leitzel. There may have been some regions on earth where her name was not a household word, but if so, they were likely on polar ice caps or in the darkest, deepest jungles. Leitzel and Alfredo were the biggest stars of the most famous road show ever produced, the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus.

My Reactions
Wow … just wow. This is a love story, a tragedy to rival Shakespeare, a history of early twentieth century America, and a thrilling adventure. When I was a child in San Antonio Texas, I frequently visited the Hertzberg Circus Museum, which was then housed on one floor of the main public library. (It is now, sadly, in storage with the Witte Museum, available only to scholars.) How I loved looking at those exhibits of carriages used by General Tom Thumb, posters of aerialists, lion-tamers, clowns and side-show attractions. I was completely fascinated by it, but do not remember anything about Leitzel and Alfredo.

So their story was a complete surprise to me. I was enthralled and captivated by their story. Leitzel was truly a S*T*A*R – showered with gifts and admiration, the highest-paid and most pampered performer in the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus. She met and was entertained by titans of industry (rumor has it that Henry Ford was among her lovers), Hollywood and Broadway stars, and even the President.

Like Leitzel, Alfredo and his brother Lalo grew up in the circus. They were the first to perfect and publicly perform The Triple. The love affair between these two stars of the air was passionate, tempestuous, and tragic.

In the author’s acknowledgments Jensen writes that it took him some thirty years to write the book. He hated his first draft, penned in the 1980s, and put it in a drawer while he pursued other things. But the story could not stay dormant: “The story of Leitzel and Alfredo was the greatest one the big top has ever had to tell. They presided over an ever-relocating sawdust-and-rainbows-made Camelot where, one after another, wonderments kept occurring. Their love story was epic. … Their story moved in the arc of a Greek tragedy, and, I believe, was complete with mischievous fates and vengeful gods.”

Emma Bering does a fine job narrating the audio book. I felt the tension and exhilaration of the daring fetes performed by this circus stars. I’m glad I listened to this engaging story, but also glad that I got the hardcover edition to I could check spellings for names, etc. The printed book includes the author’s acknowledgments as well as several pages of photographs of Leitzel and Alfredo and their families.

Finished A LEGACY OF SPIES, what will undoubtedly be John Le Carre's last George Smiley-related novel.

An intelligent, enjoyable read, a fitting swan song for the spy master.

Born a Crime – Trevor Noah
Book on CD performed by the author.
4****

Subtitle: Stories From a South African Childhood

Born under Apartheid in South Africa, Trevor Noah was born a crime. He had a white Swiss German father, and a black Xhosa mother, at a time when such a relationship was punishable by up to five years in prison. His early childhood years were spent being hidden behind walls so that the government would not take him. This is his memoir of growing up a “colored” boy in a black neighborhood, in a changing South Africa.

The narrative is not strictly in chronological order; at time he relates a story from his primary school days, then goes back to pre-school age. Or he’ll tell a tale of being about eighteen, and in the next episode he’s about eleven. Still the general arc of the story shows how he grew up and was influenced by his mother’s deep faith and insistence on his becoming self-sufficient. He was obviously intelligent, learning several languages, which helped him to fit in even when he did not necessarily “look” like the people he was around. He’s honest about his criminal activity – shop lifting, pirating music, hustling, etc. But also takes a hard look at the episodes that helped to shape him, the influences and decisions that ultimately saved him.

Noah narrated the audiobook himself. I cannot imagine anyone else doing a better job. 5***** for his performance on the audio.

The Winter Garden Mystery – Carola Dunn
Digital audiobook read by Bernadette Dunne
3***

Book number two in the Daisy Dalrymple series has our heroine traveling to Occles Hall to research her latest article for Town and Country on England’s country manor houses. Lady Valeria is none too pleased at this intrusion, but Daisy IS “to the manor born” so she is tolerated. Still, when Daisy asks to photograph the winter garden the last thing she expects to find is a body.

Daisy cannot help but get involved when she sees an injustice being carried out, so she convinces Alec Fletcher of Scotland Yard to investigate. There are a number of secrets being kept by the residents of the household and some are bound to come out in the process of getting at the truth of the murder.

This is a charming cozy mystery series set in the 1920s. Daisy is charming, inquisitive, intelligent and resourceful. She does sometimes plunge headlong into trouble, but on the whole, she is appropriately cautious and responsible. I also like her slow-burning relationship with Fletcher.

Bernadette Dunne does a fine job voicing the audio book. She has great pacing and enough skill as a voice artist to give the many characters sufficiently unique voices.

The Alchemist – Paulo Coehlo
Audiobook performed by Jeremy Irons
3***

This is Coehlo’s international best-selling classic tale of an Andalusian shepherd boy’s quest to find his own Personal Legend. Santiago is tending his sheep when he is puzzled by a recurring dream in which a boy says that there is hidden treasure at the Pyramids in Egypt. A gypsy woman offers to interpret the dream in exchange for a promise of one tenth the treasure. Santiago agrees, but feels no closer to a solution. The next day he encounters an old man, who says he is king of Salem, and tells him he must seek his own Personal Legend. And thus Santiago’s quest begins.

On his travels he also meets a thief, a crystal merchant, an alchemist, a desert woman, tribal chieftains, and a caravan leader, all of whom help – in some fashion or other – Santiago on his quest. But his ultimate discovery is that one’s treasure lies close to home.

This fable has captured the attention and imagination of a worldwide readership. And the story of how it came to be published, somewhat parallels the story told. The message is simplistic, even as the images are somewhat unrealistic, even fantastic. I can see why it became such a gigantic hit – it’s an allegorical fable about finding one’s true self, wrapped in an adventure and with a little romantic interest added for good measure, but it really didn’t do too much for me. I found it entertaining but not particularly inspiring.

Jeremy Irons does a magnificent job performing the audio version. He is a great actor and gives life to these characters. From the innocent boy, to the Crystal merchant and the Alchemist, each character comes to life with his performance. Irons’s performance was mesmerizing and engaging, but at the end I felt as if I had missed something. I think that is the fault of Coelho’s writing, though, not the narrator’s performance. I would rate the audio performance 5 stars.

The Birchbark House – Louise Erdrich
Book on CD narrated by Nicolle Littrell
4****

What Laura Ingalls Wilder did for the pioneer families in 19th century plains states, Erdrich has done for the Native Americans in this same time period.

Omakayas is a seven-year-old Ojibwa girl living in Michigan. She is the sole survivor of a small pox epidemic when she’s taken into another family as an infant. Tallow is a strong matriarch and Omakayas (also called Little Frog), thrives in the community on Lake Superior’s Madeline Island, also known as the Island of the Golden-Breasted Woodpecker. The book follows Omakayas, her family and the tribe through four seasons of 1847.

I was fascinated by this story of the life of the Native Americans during this time period. I learned about the hard work of tanning hides, the craft of decorating special garments with intricate beadwork, the cycles of hunting and gathering, and the dangers (and joys) of living so close to nature.

Omakayas is a wonderful narrator – inquisitive, observant, intelligent, and compassionate. She’s also a typical seven year old – sometimes a little naughty, and not always understanding the reasons why she is asked to perform certain tasks, or forbidden from other adventures. I can see why this is sometimes taught in social studies classes for middle-grade students.

Erdrich is a member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Ojibwa, and she spoke to various Ojibwa elders about the significance of Madeline Island. Events depicted are historically accurate (including a documented small pox epidemic). The text version includes Erdrich’s pencil drawing illustrations.

Nicolle Littrell does a fine job performing the audio version. She has good pacing and the book is clearly understandable for even younger readers.