Write Again Soon: Books Archives

August 29, 2006

Books I Read During the Sweltering Heat and Afterwards

New Total: 96

The Tomb of the Golden Bird
by Elizabeth Peters

From Publishers Weekly: The absorbing 18th entry in MWA Grand Master Peters's bestselling Amelia Peabody series (after 2005's The Serpent on the Crown) centers on one of the great real-life discoveries in Egyptology—the opening of Tutankhamon's tomb in the Valley of the Kings in 1922. Amelia's husband, Radcliffe Emerson (aka "the Father of Curses"), has been wooing Lord Carnavon and Howard Carter to let him excavate in the Valley of the Kings where they have digging rights, leading his competitors to think there must be something worth unearthing in the area. The eventual uncovering of King Tut's burial chamber and its magnificent contents attracts a host of museum curators, antiquities specialists, government officials, reporters and thieves. The arrival of Emerson's shady half-brother, Sethos, desperately ill and carrying a secret document, further complicates a plot involving attacks on the Emerson family, Middle East politics, conspiracies and love affairs. Once again Peters delivers an irresistible mix of archeology, action, humor and a mystery that only the redoubtable Amelia can solve.

My Review: After the doldrums of Empress Orchid, this was a breath of fresh Egyptian air. I *heart* the Emerson family and it makes me sad to know there are no more sequels waiting in my audiobook queue.

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Fury
by Salman Rushdie

From Publishers Weekly: The sea change has invigorated Rushdie. His new novel is very much an American book, a bitingly satiric, often wildly farcical picture of American society in the first years of the 21st century. The twice transplanted protagonist (Bombay born, Cambridge educated, now Manhattan resident) Prof. Malik Solanka is an unimaginably wealthy man, transformed from a philosophy professor into a BBC-TV star, then into the inventor of a wildly popular doll called Little Brain. Compelled to relinquish control of the doll when it metamorphoses into an industry, the furious Solanka flees London for an apartment on Manhattan's Upper West Side. His prose crackling with irony, Rushdie catches roiling undercurrents of incivility and inchoate anger: in cab drivers, moviegoers and sidewalk pedestrians; in ethnic antagonisms; in political confrontations; and in Solly himself, as he tries to surmount his guilt over having abandoned a loving wife and three-year-old son in England, and as he becomes involved with two new women. Rushdie's brilliantly observant portrait of "this money-mad burg" is mercilessly au courant, with references to George Gush and Al Bore, to Elian and Tony Soprano, and to "shawls made from the chin fluff of extinct mountain goats." The action is helter-skelter fast and refreshingly concise; this is a slender book for Rushdie, and his relatively narrow focus results in a crisper narrative; there are fewer puns and a deeper emotional involvement with his characters. Still, his tendency to go over the top leads to some incredulity for the reader; it's a bit much that short, unprepossessing Solly is a magnet for gorgeous, articulate women, who all tend to speak in the same didactic monologues. On the whole, however, readers will nod in acknowledgement of Rushdie's recognition that "the whole world was burning on a shorter fuse." Rushdie remains a master of satire that rings true with unsettling acuity and dark, comedic brilliance. Agent, Andrew Wylie. 8-city author tour. (Sept. 11)Forecast: Rushdie has never been so sharply observant of the American psyche and the contemporary scene, and thus so relevant to U.S. readers. His increasing visibility after the isolation of the fatwa years should create a buzz of interest in this novel.

My Review: I have never read anything by Rushdie, and truthfully speaking, had only vague notions of why he was an important writer. I can't recall specifically why I had chosen to read (or listen to, rather) Fury and halfway through the audiobook I was still wondering what the point was. Yes, he is witty-- perhaps even a master of satire, but lordy is the book short on coherent plot. It wends its way through incest, psychosis, feminism, September 11th repercussions, and religious intolerance before finally coalescing into a quite entertaining ditty of a story. While I wouldn't exactly recommend this book to my *normal* friends, it was worth the literary effort and made me want to go back and read his more famous works, especially The Satanic Verses.

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The Memory Keeper's Daughter
by Kim Edwards

From Publishers Weekly: Edwards's assured but schematic debut novel (after her collection, The Secrets of a Fire King) hinges on the birth of fraternal twins, a healthy boy and a girl with Down syndrome, resulting in the father's disavowal of his newborn daughter. A snowstorm immobilizes Lexington, Ky., in 1964, and when young Norah Henry goes into labor, her husband, orthopedic surgeon Dr. David Henry, must deliver their babies himself, aided only by a nurse. Seeing his daughter's handicap, he instructs the nurse, Caroline Gill, to take her to a home and later tells Norah, who was drugged during labor, that their son Paul's twin died at birth. Instead of institutionalizing Phoebe, Caroline absconds with her to Pittsburgh. David's deception becomes the defining moment of the main characters' lives, and Phoebe's absence corrodes her birth family's core over the course of the next 25 years. David's undetected lie warps his marriage; he grapples with guilt; Norah mourns her lost child; and Paul not only deals with his parents' icy relationship but with his own yearnings for his sister as well. Though the impact of Phoebe's loss makes sense, Edwards's redundant handling of the trope robs it of credibility. This neatly structured story is a little too moist with compassion.

My Review: After rejecting this book for August's book club selection (and then being overruled), I have to admit that I was caught up in the story from the first page. Tearing through the book like it might vanish into thin air if I put it down, I nevertheless lost steam about halfway through the book. I wasn't sure exactly what changed until I read the Publishers Weekly review above, which hits the nail on the head: it's redundant. Examining the "handicapped daughter given away and believed dead except for the nurse who stole her away" story line from every angle made me truly feel for the characters, but still. By the end of the novel I was relieved to put the book down and step away into the friendlier, less conflicted reality of my own life.

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The 48 Laws of Power
by Robert Greene

From Publishers Weekly: Greene and Elffers have created an heir to Machiavelli's Prince, espousing principles such as, everyone wants more power; emotions, including love, are detrimental; deceit and manipulation are life's paramount tools. Anyone striving for psychological health will be put off at the start, but the authors counter, saying "honesty is indeed a power strategy," and "genuinely innocent people may still be playing for power." Amoral or immoral, this compendium aims to guide those who embrace power as a ruthless game, and will entertain the rest. Elffers's layout (he is identified as the co-conceiver and designer in the press release) is stylish, with short epigrams set in red at the margins. Each law, with such allusive titles as "Pose as a Friend, Work as a Spy," "Get Others to Do the Work for You, But Always Take the Credit," "Conceal Your Intentions," is demonstrated in four ways?using it correctly, failing to use it, key aspects of the law and when not to use it. Illustrations are drawn from the courts of modern and ancient Europe, Africa and Asia, and devious strategies culled from well-known personae: Machiavelli, Talleyrand, Bismarck, Catherine the Great, Mao, Kissinger, Haile Selassie, Lola Montes and various con artists of our century. These historical escapades make enjoyable reading, yet by the book's conclusion, some protagonists have appeared too many times and seem drained. Although gentler souls will find this book frightening, those whose moral compass is oriented solely to power will have a perfect vade mecum.

My Review: Fortunately, I'm not a *gentle soul* so this book was perfect for me. Yes, it got a teensy bit repetitive at times, but it was an eye opening look at the power dynamics of interpersonal relationships. In my life, there has been one big nemesis, and reading this book made me realize all the games that we played, the errors in judgment I made, and the ways I should deal with these situations in the future. Yes, dear reader, I even underlined the important parts. Beware crossing my path, and I will crush you completely.

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The Bowl Is Already Broken
by Mary Kay Zuravleff

From Booklist: Promise is having a bad summer. She is unexpectedly and uncomfortably pregnant with her third child. Her affable, activist husband smokes too much pot. Her house is falling apart. Her babysitter is trying to indoctrinate her already neurotic children. To top it all off, Promise has just been named acting director of the Museum of Asian Art, a museum the administration is trying to close. When her best friend, and fellow curator, breaks a porcelain bowl once owned by Thomas Jefferson, it may be the end of all of them, or their saving grace. This enjoyable novel touches on subjects from Asian art and philosophy to cancer and infertility. Although there are a few too many subplots involving characters the author doesn't have time to flesh out, Promise Whittaker is so realistically written she makes those around her look good.

My Review: I loved this book. Partly for its setting in Washington, D.C. (the driving directions were so realistic it could describe my route to the National Mall from Bethesda), partly for its rambling subplots (terrorists in the desert! priceless porcelain bowls broken! embezzlement for fertility treatments! pot-smoking husbands who delight in their fattening pregnant wives!), and partly for its philosophical message--I would recommend this for anyone needing a mix of Buddhist thought and chick lit, in the nicest possible combination.

Posted by madchen at 12:44 AM | Comments (0)

July 20, 2006

Books I Read in July

New Total: 91

Empress Orchid
by Anchee Min

From Publishers Weekly: Talk about story arc: poor girl from rural China auditions for a job as royal concubine, winds up as emperor's wife number four, gives birth to the "last Emperor," rules China as regent for 46 years. The fascinating, implausible life of Tsu Hsi, or "Orchid," was reviled by the revolutionary Chinese, but here it receives a sympathetic treatment from Min (Red Azalea; Becoming Madame Mao), who once again brilliantly lifts the public mask of a celebrated woman to reveal a contradictory character. Sexually assertive, intellectually ambitious, socially striving, Min's Orchid is also "isolated, tense, and in some vague but very real way, dissatisfied." Even after giving birth to the emperor's only son, Orchid feels trapped by the stultifying imperial rituals and persecuted by the other residents of the Forbidden City: six other royal wives, 3,000 invisible concubines and 2,000 scheming eunuchs. In addition to these powerful distractions, she has to discipline her overindulged son, outmaneuver the ruthless politician Su Shun (who wants her buried alive when the emperor dies) and advise the ailing emperor how to fend off both the Boxers and the Western "barbarians." Min, herself a survivor of China's Cultural Revolution, has done a prodigious amount of on-site research to capture the glorious, hopeless last days of the Ching dynasty. At times her writing is textbook-flat, and she sometimes loses track of her teeming cast of characters (for example, Orchid's dangerous mother-in-law and mentally ill sister). But readers will be enthralled by the gorgeously woven cultural tapestry and the psychologically astute portrait of the empress-a talented girl from the provinces who married (way) up.

My Review: Holy crap this audiobook was p-a-i-n-f-u-l. I was bored a mere 3 hours into the plot, and it took me at least 3 weeks to plow through the remaining million hours of boring narrative. It's such a shame, because the story COULD have been brilliant, but it just got bogged down in the details. Like I need 20 minute descriptions of the imperial palace of infinite luminescence...I should have just turned it off and moved along.

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The God of Nightmares
by Paula Fox

From Publishers Weekly: Fox's prose flows as clearly and gracefully as clear water in a stream--but there is a dark current underneath: "the implacable forces of time and loss." From a hardscrabble existence with her relentlessly cheerful mother in rural upstate New York, narrator Helen Bynum goes to New Orleans in search of her aunt, a former Ziegfeld girl and has-been actress. Aunt Lulu proves to be an irascible alcoholic, but Helen stays on in the warm-scented, langorous city, so different from the gray, frozen atmosphere of Poughkeepsie. Here Helen feels free for the first time to pursue the potentials of her own life. Enveloped in the affection of her new friends--her landlord, a poet, and his mistress; a seductive young man with silver hair who is the son of a rabbi and with whom she falls in love; another woman from the North who becomes her best friend; an elegant homosexual of Creole descent--Helen at first feels safe and contented. But as she gradually becomes aware of the imminence of WW II in Europe, the injustice of race relations in the South and the dark secrets in her friends' lives, she is suffused with apprehension about "the black wall of death" that seems to loom everywhere. In a poignant chapter set years later, Helen finally realizes the implications of those long-ago events. Fox ( A Servant's Tale ) is a highly gifted writer whose insightful novels resonate with subtle truths.

My Review: This book was a strange and lonely interlude between other, more concrete fiction. I loved the aloof descriptions, the high drama, the abstract landscapes, and the ultimate conclusions. Of course, I saw the main twist coming a mile away, but it didn't really take away from the overall poignancy of the whole story. I wish I could have read it while in New Orleans.

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Geography of the Heart
by Fenton Johnson

From Publishers Weekly: Novelist Johnson (Scissors, Paper, Rock) watched his lover, San Francisco high-school teacher Larry Rose, die of AIDS in a Paris hospital in 1990 after an intense three-year relationship. Rose was HIV-positive but asymptomatic when they met, and while their lovemaking was haunted by fear of contagion, the author remains HIV-negative. Rose, the only child of German Jewish Holocaust survivors?his father, Leo, was imprisoned and beaten by the Nazis in Holland, escaped and hid for three years with broken vertebrae?had a very different background from that of Johnson, who grew up Catholic and the youngest of nine in an isolated Appalachian town in Kentucky. Johnson writes with crystal clarity of his gradual acceptance by his lover's emigrant parents, of coming out to his own widowed mother at 31, of Rose's gradual physical deterioration and of his working through grief toward emotional renewal. This is a remarkable memoir, touching, funny, searing, eloquent, beautifully alive.

My Review: Wow--this book was unquestionably the best memoir I have ever read. I was completely caught up in the story, and felt like I was experiencing the awakening of the AIDS movement. I didn't fully appreciate how far we've come until seeing how different the situation was a mere 15 years ago. I challenge anyone to read this book and not rally to the GLBT movement. But even beyond a political book, I found the author's understanding of love to be more closely tied to my own than anything I've read before. Time and time again, I marveled at passages that I would have written were I a more skilled writer.

Posted by madchen at 11:08 PM | Comments (0)

July 09, 2006

Wanderlust

One of my defining characteristics, and what probably sets me apart from most of my close friends, is an almost obsessive desire to travel. The more remote and more bizarre, the better. While I'm certainly not averse to sleeping in a pristine hotel room, I'm equally happy (and more able to afford) nights at a cheap hostel or sleeping overnight on a train. In fact, even now as I'm battling a major funk, I find that my brain has decided that the way to kick myself back into reality is to escape it altogether with an exotic trip somewhere.

Thankfully, cooler parts of my brain (and my pocketbook) prevail, and I'm not quite ready yet to jet off to another continent. Instead, I have been thumbing through some of my favorite travelogues (I didn't realize I had so many until I took a closer look at my bookshelves--clearly I've been sublimating more than I realized). So I was especially intrigued by an article in today's Washington Post: Expert's Picks: Travel & Adventure. The gist is that Tahir Shah -- an intrepid traveler -- lists which books best inspire wanderlust. And while reading the article did make me want to throw some things in a backpack and hit the Kenyan hillsides, I probably will just wander over to Barnes and Noble to pick up a couple of these gems:

-- Arabian Sands , by Wilfred Thesiger
-- Kon-Tiki: Across the Pacific by Raft , by Thor Heyerdahl
-- The Songlines , by Bruce Chatwin
-- Seven Years in Tibet , by Heinrich Harrer
-- Danger My Ally , by F.A. Mitchell-Hedges
-- Touch the Top of the World: A Blind Man's Journey to Climb Farther Than the Eye Can See , by Erik Weihenmayer

Posted by madchen at 01:08 AM | Comments (2)

July 03, 2006

June 26, 2006

Books I Read This June

Total Book Count: 86

Never Let Me Go
by Kazuo Ishiguro

Entertainment Weekly: “Superbly unsettling, impeccably controlled . . . . The book’s irresistible power comes from Ishiguro’s matchless ability to expose its dark heart in careful increments.”

My Review: I had enjoyed Ishiguro's work before--most notably his famous "The Remains of the Day", but I believe this is his best novel to date. I was immediately caught up in the intrigue of the plot, and was captivated by the way that the mysteries were never fully explained, but merely referenced in the natural course of events. It drove me crazy, made me love AND hate the characters, and made me feel like I was part of their world even after I finished the last page.

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Heaven Lake
by John Dalton

Publishers Weekly: Sober and searching yet sublimely comic, this impressive debut about a modern-day missionary in Taiwan charts a journey away from reflexive faith and toward a broader understanding of the world and its ways. Reminiscent of the work of Graham Greene and Norman Rush, but possessing a quirky innocence and gravitas all its own, the novel is crammed with heady matters, clashes of cultures, ill-considered schemes and unrequited love. Vincent Saunders, a man with strong religious beliefs, leaves his tiny Illinois hamlet to take a job as a Christian missionary in Taiwan. As the only volunteer in the mid-sized city of Toulio, he establishes and runs the ministry house, while teaching English classes to make ends meet. His Toulio acquaintances are an odd bunch: fellow boarder Alec, a foul-mouthed, hashish-smoking Scot; Shao-fei, the crippled son of Vincent's landlady; Gloria, a late-arriving volunteer with a passion for Chinese calligraphy and proselytizing. There is also Mr. Gwa, a local businessman, who offers Vincent $10,000 to go to mainland China, find the lovely young girl who has long bewitched the rich merchant, and pretend to marry her in order to bring her back. At first refusing to take the job on moral grounds, Vincent is forced to reconsider after he succumbs to the aggressive advances of Trudy, a wayward teenage girl in one of his English classes, which costs him his job and standing in the community. Rethinking Mr. Gwa's offer, he heads for China to bring back Kai-Ling, the man's bride. It is during this memorable journey to the heart of modern China that Vincent comes of age, emotionally and spiritually, enduring thieves, bizarre encounters and false promises from a reluctant bride with a lover on the side. Artfully pacing the series of revelations that rock the book on its way to a surprising conclusion, Dalton revises conventional assumptions about contemporary China and collective cultural views of love and marriage. This is a noteworthy first novel by a writer to watch.

My Review: Unlike my normal "plow through" reading method, I put down this book for weeks at a time. It wasn't that I disliked the plot, exactly. No, I just wasn't drawn in by the main character, who--for much of the 451-pages is wishy-washy and irritating. Yet somehow I identified with him, a traveler in a foreign land. There were scenes that I felt I had lived through--times when the language barrier was exhausting and yet the thought of home wasn't exactly appealing. By the end, I was--if not rooting for Vincent--at least pleasantly surprised to see how the whole thing turned out.

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The Shadow of the Wind
by Carlos Ruiz Zafon

Publishers Weekly: Ruiz Zafón's novel, a bestseller in his native Spain, takes the satanic touches from Angel Heart and stirs them into a bookish intrigue à la Foucault's Pendulum. The time is the 1950s; the place, Barcelona. Daniel Sempere, the son of a widowed bookstore owner, is 10 when he discovers a novel, The Shadow of the Wind, by Julián Carax. The novel is rare, the author obscure, and rumors tell of a horribly disfigured man who has been burning every copy he can find of Carax's novels. The man calls himself Laín Coubert-the name of the devil in one of Carax's novels. As he grows up, Daniel's fascination with the mysterious Carax links him to a blind femme fatale with a "porcelain gaze," Clara Barceló; another fan, a leftist jack-of-all-trades, Fermín Romero de Torres; his best friend's sister, the delectable Beatriz Aguilar; and, as he begins investigating the life and death of Carax, a cast of characters with secrets to hide. Officially, Carax's dead body was dumped in an alley in 1936. But discrepancies in this story surface. Meanwhile, Daniel and Fermín are being harried by a sadistic policeman, Carax's childhood friend. As Daniel's quest continues, frightening parallels between his own life and Carax's begin to emerge. Ruiz Zafón strives for a literary tone, and no scene goes by without its complement of florid, cute and inexact similes and metaphors (snow is "God's dandruff"; servants obey orders with "the efficiency and submissiveness of a body of well-trained insects"). Yet the colorful cast of characters, the gothic turns and the straining for effect only give the book the feel of para-literature or the Hollywood version of a great 19th-century novel.

My Review: How strange that upon searching Amazon for the blurb to write this review, I noticed that Amazon is offering a discount if you buy Heaven Lake with The Shadow of the Wind. I bought these two books months apart (one at Barnes and Noble and one at Politics and Prose), and only through remarkable chance did I read them in the same week. Nonetheless, between the two books, there is no contest--The Shadow of the Wind was FAR superior. I don't know what the reviewer from Publishers Weekly was thinking (bad day, perhaps?), but I thought the whole book was woven together in a masterful way. I giggled aloud, I was scared to get out of bed lest Lain Coubert (the devil) grab at my ankles, I was touched by the inevitable star-crossed lovers. This is a book that I will return to in the heart of winter, over a cup of cocoa, to savor again and again.

Posted by madchen at 12:36 AM | Comments (0)

June 07, 2006

Things that Make Me Giggle

I picked up a new book last night, but had to put it down after just 3 pages. Supposedly, Juana Manuela Gorriti was the female Argintinian writer of the 1800s, and her collection of fiction entitled Dreams and Realities promised to provide "a generous dose of swashbuckling adventure and romance".

Her short stories tell of homelessness and nomadic yearnings, taking the reader from the Peruvian highlands, where Spanish colonizers plot to rob the treasures of the Incas, to the Argentine capital city plagued by sinister political intentions. Her later fictions move from Chile to scenes of the California Gold Rush.

Covering the wide landscape of the Americas, Gorriti tracks the spirit of nineteenth-century adventurers and dandies, nation builders and soldiers who participate in the conflicts of settlement in a new and lawless land. Women are the protagonists here, mediating episodes of civil strife as they voice their despair about the treachery of fortune seekers in Latin America in the years following Independence from Spain.

Dreams and Realities offers a sampling of Gorriti's stories, showing the range of her commitment to political fiction drawn in the romantic style. Originally published in four volumes under the titles Suenos y realidades and Panoramas de la vida, her works deal with the tyranny of the Rosas regime, the mediating role of women, and the clash of European and indigenous cultures.

Wow--that sounds pretty amazing, I said to myself. And yet, when I started her first story, I was immediately swept back to those poor 1930s movies where the dialogue is laughably full of exposition. To demonstrate, I give you page 2:

"Rosa! My love!" he said. "I have never seen you as beautiful as you are right now; never have your eyes shone with such divine fire, nor has your voice ever sounded more magical to my heart."

[So far, so good. A little cheesy, but full of swashbuckling potential, no?]

"And yet, you are about to leave me. You say all this, but are ready to abandon me to the unbearable persecutions of the hateful Ramirez--who, armed with the approval of my father, of whome he is a friend and colleague, insolently considers me his future property, completely ignoring my wishes. But I shall make them learn the strength of my will, which they ignore. For even if you abandon me, I shall fight this terrible battle on my own; my courage shall not fail me. Go on then, keep to yourself that fateful secret that you refuse to confide to your beloved, and which--since it impedes you from asking my father for the hand of his daughter, who has already given you her heart--might, for all I know, be some tie that binds you to another..."

[Aye, que problema! And then, on the next page...]

"Rosa! My angel! Do not increase the horrible grief that fills me hear with your tears. Oh! I have been postponing the moment when I must destroy your heart with the weight of my secret, but the hour has arrived...So be it!"

[Drumroll, please.]

"Do you wish to know who this Hernan is, the man whom you met at the bullfight as you sat next to the viceroy? This Hernan de Camporeal, educated with the sons of the great men of Spain, is a descendent of the exiled race, which all of you, especially your father, look upon with so much scorn, having dethroned it and enriched yourselves with its wealth. The man who loves you--the proud daughter of Judge Osoria, the man whom you prefer over the powerful and magnificent Judge Ramirez, is the son of an Indian woman. The man who loves you is an unfortunate soul who does not possess anything in this world, though his feet tread upon the treasures that his forefathers confided to the depths of the earth to keep them from the sanguinary greed of their tyrants."

Yes, it continues in this vein for at least the next 2 pages, at which point I put it down with a giggle and a roll of my eyes. Maybe I'm not the swashbuckling, adventure-seeking, Spanish treasure hunting reader I though I was. Or maybe it's all just lost in translation.

Posted by madchen at 04:32 PM | Comments (0)

June 05, 2006

Books I Read in May

(Total Book Count Since I Began Tracking: 83)

Cloud Atlas
by David Mitchell

From Publishers Weekly: At once audacious, dazzling, pretentious and infuriating, Mitchell's third novel weaves history, science, suspense, humor and pathos through six separate but loosely related narratives. Like Mitchell's previous works, Ghostwritten and number9dream (which was shortlisted for the Booker Prize), this latest foray relies on a kaleidoscopic plot structure that showcases the author's stylistic virtuosity. Each of the narratives is set in a different time and place, each is written in a different prose style, each is broken off mid-action and brought to conclusion in the second half of the book. Among the volume's most engaging story lines is a witty 1930s-era chronicle, via letters, of a young musician's effort to become an amanuensis for a renowned, blind composer and a hilarious account of a modern-day vanity publisher who is institutionalized by a stroke and plans a madcap escape in order to return to his literary empire (such as it is). Mitchell's ability to throw his voice may remind some readers of David Foster Wallace, though the intermittent hollowness of his ventriloquism frustrates. Still, readers who enjoy the "novel as puzzle" will find much to savor in this original and occasionally very entertaining work.

My Review: I listened to this one on audiobook, which had multiple narrators and made the whole book a treat. I love the "novel as puzzle" approach, even if the book did drag in places and took me nearly a month to get through. By the end, though, I was hooked.

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Arsine Lupin, Gentleman Burglar
by Maurice Leblanc

Booklist: Intelligent, daring, but oh what a rogue. Nothing is safe from Arsene Lupin, the intriguing, intrepid thief. Only his good friend Inspector Ganimard has managed to arrest him, but only briefly. Even Sherlock Holmes, who arrives to sort out a complicated burglary is embarrassed by Lupin's much publicized wiles. Good plots, great narration (a super job by Covell) and the wonderful Lupin create an excellent few hours of short stories.

My Review: I'm a sucker for period detective stories, and this was a fun look at the other side high crime. I wish there were sequels.

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Standing Alone: An American Woman's Struggle for the Soul of Islam
by Asra Nomani

Chicago Sunday Tribune: Asra Nomani’s Standing Alone in Mecca is the ideal introduction to contemporary Islam.

My Review: This was one of the heaviest book club selections ever. While I thought there was genuine merit to her story, I found the author to be a little to self-congratulatory ("hurray, I'm single-handedly changing Islam!") for my taste.

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Jennifer Government
by Max Barry

Publishers Weekly: The most unnerving thing about Max (formerly Maxx) Barry's new novel is that its hyperbolic vision of the not too distant future doesn't seem too far out there at all. The world is run by giant corporations who literally go to war with one another; Australia and the U.K. are annexes of the United States; the police are for sale to the highest bidder; and employees take the last name of their employers. Thus, the cast of characters includes John Nike, Georgia Saints Nike (she volunteers at the Church of Latter-Day Saints), Billy NRA, Buy Mitsui, Hayley McDonalds, and so forth. Jennifer Government, a former advertising executive turned government agent, is hot on the trail of the villainous John Nike for murder. As the mastermind of the latest Nike campaign, he planned the murder of 14 teenagers in order to build up the street reputation for Nike's new $2,500 sneaker, Mercurys. Frederick's reading of this wacked-out morality play is first-rate. His obvious enjoyment of the satire fuels his performance. Especially entertaining are his stereotypical foreign accents, which would seem out of place under most circumstances, but they fit the comic book-type characters waging chaos in this saga like an Aris glove.

My Review: What a fun summer read! I love the whole idea of this book...and I could definitely see a sequel for this one as well!

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Popular Music from Vittula
by Mikael Niemi

From Booklist: When a Beatles record falls into the hands of 11-year-old Matti, neither he nor his home village of Pajala, Sweden, will ever be the same. It is the early 1960s, and both Matti and Pajala are about to enter adolescence. This is a beautiful, poignant, often very funny novel about growing up in a remote area. Niemi writes with real poetry as he strings together the culturally rich vignettes of Matti's experiences, snapshots of childhood that are at the same time intensely personal and universal: the burn of the first alcoholic drink, the thrill of a first kiss, the awe of first sex, the special closeness of a first best friend, the pain of the first real loss--all rendered pure and convincingly as a young boy's perceptions. Niemi also seasons the book well with the mysticism of childhood that suffuses the usually hidden psychological space where the transformation from child to youth occurs. An exquisitely beautiful novel, artfully translated.

My Review: This book haunted me, reminding me of my brief experiences in Northern Sweden and making me want to hop on a plane to relive the 20-hours of sunlight joy of the far north.

Posted by madchen at 12:49 AM | Comments (3)

May 09, 2006

Books I Read in April

How Soccer Explains the World : An Unlikely Theory of Globalization
by Franklin Foer

From Publishers Weekly: Foer, a New Republic editor, scores a game-winning goal with this analysis of the interchange between soccer and the new global economy. The subtitle is a bit misleading, though: he doesn't really use soccer to develop a theory; instead, he focuses on how examining soccer in different countries allows us to understand how international forces affect politics and life around the globe. The book is full of colorful reporting, strong characters and insightful analysis: In one of the most compelling chapters, Foer shows how a soccer thug in Serbia helped to organize troops who committed atrocities in the Balkan War—by the end of the war, the thug's men, with the acquiescence of Serbian leaders, had killed at least 2,000 Croats and Bosnians. Then he bought his own soccer club and, before he was gunned down in 2000, intimidated other teams into losing. Most of the stories aren't as gruesome, but they're equally fascinating. The crude hatred, racism and anti-Semitism on display in many soccer stadiums is simply amazing, and Foer offers context for them, including how current economic conditions are affecting these manifestations. In Scotland, the management of some teams have kept religious hatreds alive in order to sell tickets and team merchandise. But Foer, a diehard soccer enthusiast, is no anti-globalist. In Iran, for example, he depicts how soccer works as a modernizing force: thousands of women forced police to allow them into a men's-only stadium to celebrate the national team's triumph in an international match. One doesn't have to be a soccer fan to truly appreciate this absorbing book.

My Review: I have no knowledge of soccer, which makes it a bit of a mystery to explain why I picked up this book at Barnes and Noble a couple of months ago. When I finally started reading it, I was immediately engrossed--this is exactly the sort of book that makes political science interesting. Even though I didn't get any of the actual soccer techniques, I was totally caught up in the fan analysis, the collusion with government officials, and the inter-racial aspects of today's soccer teams. Highly recommended.

Also, I'm in the process of listening to Cloud Atlas on audiobook, but it's taking me FOREVER...review to follow.

Posted by madchen at 12:55 AM | Comments (1)

April 17, 2006

Books I Read This Spring

A Good Place for the Night
by Savyon Liebrecht

Publishers Weekly: This collection by one of Israel's most popular authors turns upon issues of family, place and disconnection, and the stories have the dreamy, evocative smoothness of underwater films. Hadassah, whose mother moves with another woman's husband and daughter to the U.S. when Haddassah is young, narrates "America." Her observation, on the day her mother leaves, that she "was frightened by the unfamiliar sensations flooding me, as if I'd lost my old place and still didn't have a new one" is a representative sentiment of the collection, as the protagonist in each story grapples with emotional and geographical dislocation. Disorientation afflicts Liebrecht's characters from the Israeli reporter in Munich to cover a Nazi war trial ("Munich") to the mentally handicapped man trying to make a life among unsympathetic members of a kibbutz ("Kibbutz"). In the last and finest story, "A Good Place for the Night," a woman struggles to survive in an unnamed place virtually destroyed by a nuclear catastrophe. The permanent unsettledness of Israel is exported and globalized here; no matter where Liebrecht's characters go or what they do, they are never yet truly at home.

My Review: This was a hard book to read, because the writing style made me work to follow along. I thought that some of the stories were more captivating than others, but perhaps that was because I was reading them late at night when I wasn't as attentive as I might have been. On the other hand, I have found myself thinking about each of the stories days later, so it clearly touched me despite the challenging material.

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What We Believe but Cannot Prove : Today's Leading Thinkers on Science in the Age of Certainty
by John Brockman

Publishers Weekly: The title's question was posed on Edge.org (an online intellectual clearing house), challenging more than 100 intellectuals of every stripe—from Richard Dawkins to Ian McEwan—to confess the personal theories they cannot demonstrate with certainty. The results, gathered by literary agent and editor Brockman, is a stimulating collection of micro-essays (mainly by scientists) divulging many of today's big unanswered questions reaching across the plane of human existence. Susan Blackmore, a lecturer on evolutionary theory, believes "it is possible to live happily and morally without believing in free will," and Daniel Goleman believes children today are "unintended victims of economic and technological progress." Other beliefs are more mundane and one is highly mathematically specific. Many contributors open with their discomfort at being asked to discuss unproven beliefs, which itself is an interesting reflection of the state of science. The similarity in form and tone of the responses makes this collection most enjoyable in small doses, which allow the answers to spark new questions and ideas in the reader's mind. It's unfortunate that the tone of most contributions isn't livelier and that there aren't explanations of some of the more esoteric concepts discussed; those limitations will keep these adroit musings from finding a wider audience.

My Review: It's true that a handful of the essays were completely beyond my ken, but the vast majority of them were a fascinating glimpse into what the world's most prominent scientists are thinking about. I was a little disappointed that so few women and international voices were heard, but I suppose that reflects the nature of the "top scientific leaders (who can write in fluent English)" gets you. Also noted: these essays can be read for free at www.edge.org.

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Locked Rooms
by Laurie R. King

Publishers Weekly: In her last outing, The Game (2004), Mary Russell and her husband, Sherlock Holmes, traveled to India on a case of geopolitical significance, but in the richly imagined eighth novel in this acclaimed series, set in San Francisco in 1922, Russell undertakes a far more personal investigation. Since she began her journey back to her hometown—ostensibly to deal with her father's estate—Russell has been tormented by strange dreams, one of which involves the "locked rooms" of the title, and the sight of her San Francisco childhood home opens a flood of memories and emotions, most of which she's loathe to allow into her über-rational mind. When someone takes a shot at her, Holmes enlists the help of Pinkerton agent Dashiell Hammett and Russell tries to unlock her past, in particular the "accident" that killed her family and left her an orphan in 1914. King's re-creation of San Francisco, especially the backstory during the devastating 1906 earthquake, is superb, and it's a pleasure to see the unusually competent Russell struggling with her own psyche. The plot may be a bit thin, but the narrative has real momentum, the characters are engaging and the prose, as always, is intelligent, evocative and graceful.

My Review: This is the latest edition of the Russell-Holmes series and I'm sad to think that I'll have to wait months (maybe even years) until the next one comes out. I *heart* Mary Russell.

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Snow Flower and the Secret Fan
by Lisa See

Publishers Weekly: See's engrossing novel set in remote 19th-century China details the deeply affecting story of lifelong, intimate friends (laotong, or "old sames") Lily and Snow Flower, their imprisonment by rigid codes of conduct for women and their betrayal by pride and love. While granting immediacy to Lily's voice, See (Flower Net) adroitly transmits historical background in graceful prose. Her in-depth research into women's ceremonies and duties in China's rural interior brings fascinating revelations about arranged marriages, women's inferior status in both their natal and married homes, and the Confucian proverbs and myriad superstitions that informed daily life. Beginning with a detailed and heartbreaking description of Lily and her sisters' foot binding ("Only through pain will you have beauty. Only through suffering will you have peace"), the story widens to a vivid portrait of family and village life. Most impressive is See's incorporation of nu shu, a secret written phonetic code among women—here between Lily and Snow Flower—that dates back 1,000 years in the southwestern Hunan province ("My writing is soaked with the tears of my heart,/ An invisible rebellion that no man can see"). As both a suspenseful and poignant story and an absorbing historical chronicle, this novel has bestseller potential and should become a reading group favorite as well.

My Review: We'll see if the book is a reading group favorite, because we're scheduled to discuss it on Tuesday night. Personally, I enjoyed it but wasn't engrossed. I've read my fair share of Chinese fiction (Amy Tan, Ha Jin, etc.) and I've gotten the whole "women who have no independence outside the home find strength in their relationships with other women" thing.

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Somebody's Heart Is Burning : A Woman Wanderer in Africa
by Tanya Shaffer

Publishers Weekly: Shaffer's vivid travel memoir captures scenes of Kenya, Mali and, most notably, Ghana, rarely seen by American tourists. Fleeing a marriage proposal from her boyfriend in California, Shaffer, a white 27-year-old upper-middle-class performance artist with progressive politics, decides to travel, choosing to participate in various volunteer efforts in order to spend more time and less money in Africa. Her tales are rich in visual and cultural explication; villages and hamlets too tiny for names come to hot, vibrant, scent-laden, insect-thrumming life as Shaffer depicts the dailiness of African culture and the struggle to subsist. The unrelenting heat, ubiquitous disease and economic chaos make Africans eager to leave. Unfortunately, racism and privilege underlie Shaffer's travelogue, and she does not fully address either. In one of the book's best chapters, Shaffer meets Nadhiri, a black separatist from Berkeley with whom she does a complex sociopolitical dance in which Nadhiri's prejudice is revealed, but Shaffer's own motives are not. Throughout, Shaffer notes the bigotry of Africans toward African-Americans, but never her possible own. Nor does she explore the reality of grinding African poverty in comparison to her own relatively immense privilege. Regrettably, no coda follows Shaffer's compelling memoir. In the end, Shaffer battles malaria, leaving readers caught in her febrile dreams of Africa and her California lover, wishing the author had deepened her reportage.

My Review: I could not disagree more with the "official" review. I thought the beauty of the writing was that it left the reader to ask the question "how would I have reacted in this situation". Perhaps it's because I fall into the "white 27-year-old upper-middle-class performance artist with progressive politics" (all except the performance artist part, admittedly) category a little too perfectly, but I thought the memoir was superbly written.

Posted by madchen at 08:36 PM | Comments (0)

March 17, 2006

Books I Read in March

I've been a rather one-track reader, so let me just condense the books in the Russell-Holmes series to one entry. I'm addicted--and rather sadly, I'm on the last one so I'll have to find a new passion after this week. Suggestions are welcome.

The Russell-Holmes Series by Laurie R. King

A Letter of Mary - It is the summer of 1923. England is recovering from the First World War, and the Second is not yet on the horizon. Russell and husband Holmes are busy with their various pursuits in the quiet Sussex countryside when an old friend's afternoon visit and subsequent murder get them embroiled in a mystery with lots of red herrings. Mary and Sherlock, assisted by Inspector LetradeJr., Mycroft and Billy of the Baker Street Irregulars, go undercover to investigate suspects.

The Moor - In The Moor, fourth in the series, Holmes and Russell are summoned to Devonshire to solve a tin miner's mysterious death. Lonely Dartmoor provides plenty of opportunities for King to both relate the haunting legends of that part of the world and offer some amusing revisions to one of Holmes's most famous cases, The Hound of the Baskervilles. Though Holmes purists might resent the liberties taken with their hero, readers in search of a strong female protagonist, some fascinating local history, and spooky ambience will enjoy The Moor.

O Jerusalem - Although O Jerusalem is Laurie King's fifth book in her Holmes-Russell series, it actually takes us back to the era of her first book, The Beekeeper's Apprentice. Perhaps King was afraid that her characters, Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes, were becoming too cozy as an old married couple, and she wanted to recreate the edgy sexual tension of their first encounter. It's 1918. Nineteen-year-old Mary and her fiftysomething mentor are forced to flee England to escape a deadly adversary. Sherlock's well-connected brother Mycroft sends them to Palestine to do some international sleuthing. Here, a series of murders threatens the fragile peace.

Justice Hall - Justice Hall brings back two colorful characters from earlier in the series: Bedouins Ali and Mahmoud Hazr (now known as Alistair and Marsh), who last appeared in O Jerusalem. At their request, Holmes and Russell take up the trail of the doomed heir to Justice Hall, who has been executed for cowardice in the bloody trenches of France. As the detectives strive to make sense of his death and to locate another heir to the family title, an attempt is made on the life of the man who's soon to be welcomed as the new duke. Holmes and Russell soon realize something sinister is afoot, and that they must untangle a web of deceit to discover which of the many suspects is taking steps to shorten the line of inheritance.

The Game - The seventh Mary Russell adventure may well be the best King has yet devised for her strong-willed heroine. It's 1924, and Kimball O'Hara, the "Kim" of the famous Rudyard Kipling novel, has disappeared. Fearing some kind of geopolitical crisis in the making, Mycroft Holmes sends his brother and Mary to India to uncover what happened.

My Review - My goodness, I just can't get enough. My only complaint is that I feel like Mary undergoes a serious mental breakdown too often. While it may seem that dealing with her "conditions" is the only way to plausibly show Sherlock Holmes as a care-giver, it grates on my nerves.

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Little Children
by Tom Perrotta

Publishers Weekly: The characters in this intelligent, absorbing tale of suburban angst are constrained and defined by their relationship to children. There's Sarah, an erstwhile bisexual feminist who finds herself an unhappy mother and wife to a branding consultant addicted to Internet porn. There's Todd, a handsome ex-jock and stay-at-home dad known to neighborhood housewives as the Prom King, who finds in house-husbandry and reveries about his teenage glory days a comforting alternative to his wife's demands that he pass the bar and get on with a law career. There's Mary Ann, an uptight supermom who schedules sex with her husband every Tuesday at nine and already has her well-drilled four-year-old on the inside track to Harvard. And there's Ronnie, a pedophile whose return from prison throws the school district into an uproar, and his mother, May, who still harbors hopes that her son will turn out well after all. In the midst of this universe of mild to fulminating family dysfunction, Sarah and Todd drift into an affair that recaptures the passion of adolescence, that fleeting liminal period of freedom and possibility between the dutiful rigidities of childhood and parenthood. Perrotta (Election; Joe College; etc.) views his characters with a funny, acute and sympathetic eye, using the well-observed antics of preschoolers as a telling backdrop to their parents' botched transitions into adulthood. Once again, he proves himself an expert at exploring the roiling psychological depths beneath the placid surface of suburbia.

My Review: This is a book club selection, so I don't want to really think about it too much before our meeting. However, it struck me as odd to be reading what basically amounted to a chick lit book written by a man. In the reviews, this book is never mentioned as chick lit, but it has all the signs--families in crisis, subverted romance, the slightly dowdy woman who finds she's more than competition for her more attractive competitors through her sparkling personality alone. It was how I envisioned the next edition of Bridget Jones.

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The Dew Breaker
by Edwidge Danticat

Publishers Weekly: Haitian-born Danticat's third novel (after The Farming of Bones and Breath, Eyes, Memory) focuses on the lives affected by a "dew breaker," or torturer of Haitian dissidents under Duvalier's regime. Each chapter reveals the titular man from another viewpoint, including that of his grown daughter, who, on a trip she takes with him to Florida, learns the secret of his violent past and those of the Haitian boarders renting basement rooms in his Brooklyn home. This structure allows Danticat to move easily back and forth in time and place, from 1967 Haiti to present-day Florida, tracking diverse threads within the larger narrative. Some readers may think that what she gains in breadth she loses in depth; this is a slim book, and Danticat does not always stay in one character's mind long enough to fully convey the complexities she seeks. The chapters—most of which were published previously as stories, with the first three appearing in the New Yorker—can feel more like evocative snapshots than richly textured portraits. The slow accumulation of details pinpointing the past's effects on the present makes for powerful reading, however, and Danticat is a crafter of subtle, gorgeous sentences and scenes. As the novel circles around the dew breaker, moving toward final episodes in which, as a young man and already dreaming of escape to the U.S., he performs his terrible work, the impact on the reader hauntingly, ineluctably grows.

My Review: This was the book club selection from the month I missed while in Europe, and I only got around to reading it now. I understand that others who read it had a hard time letting go of the narrative, but I enjoyed the different viewpoints. It reminded me of a book of short stories I read a couple of years ago (whose name escapes me, but it was another book club book), where the stories seemed to be slightly intertwined. While I was moved while reading it though, it didn't stay with me the way other books about "heavy" subjects have.

Posted by madchen at 11:32 PM | Comments (0)

March 01, 2006

Books I Read After Catching the Sick Child's Virus

With Child
by Laurie R. King

From Publishers Weekly: The third absorbing Kate Martinelli story (after the Edgar-winning A Grave Talent and its follow-up, To Play the Fool) leads the Bay Area cop into the Pacific Northwest, where a serial killer is on the loose. Kate's female lover Lee, severely disabled in an earlier tale, leaves to spend some time on an island off the Washington coast. At the same time, Kate's partner, Al, is wooing a woman whose precocious 12-year-old daughter, Jules, asks Kate to help her find a now-missing homeless boy whom she has met in a park. While struggling with little success to cope with Lee's absence, Kate finds Jules's friend but in the process gets hit on the head hard enough to have to take medical leave from the department?until her sporadic, debilitating headaches cease. When Al and Jules's mother go on their honeymoon right before Christmas, Jules stays with Kate; on a trip north, Jules disappears from the motel near Portland. The desperate search for the girl, who fits the profile of the killer's other victims, creates excruciating anguish for Kate, particularly after she is sent back to California. There, she breaks some rules to find out whether Jules was taken by the killer or by someone who knew her personally. Although readers may connect pieces of the puzzle sooner than Kate, the pleasure of her company and the accelerating suspense preceding the climax make for a compelling read.

My Review: Lest I begin to sound like a broken record, let me just say, entertaining but not great.

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Night Work
by Laurie R. King

From Publishers Weekly: The multitalented King (O Jerusalem, etc.) has not published a Kate Martinelli novel since 1996's With Child, so fans aplenty have been waiting for the next installment in this acclaimed series. San Francisco police detective Kate and her partner, Al Hawken, first introduced in the Edgar-winning A Grave Talent, have been called in to investigate the murder of a man who turns out to have a long record of beating up his wife. The wife, who took refuge at a battered women's shelter, has a rock-solid alibi and there are no other obvious suspects. Meanwhile, a group of feminist vigilantes called the Ladies of Perpetual Disgruntlement has been exacting wickedly funny acts of minor revenge against men who physically abuse women. Kate has a sneaking sympathy for the work of the Ladies, but when more bodies of abusive men start turning up, it looks as though someone--some woman--in San Francisco has taken the ultimate step in vengeance. King brings her theme of women's rage against abusive men together with a focus on goddess worship, especially in Indian religions. Kali, the Hindu goddess of destruction and creation, figures largely in this dense and suspenseful tale. As in her powerful thriller A Darker Place, King's ability to turn esoteric religious concepts into key narrative points makes this a highly unusual--and memorable--novel. It suffers a bit from talkiness, but even so, it's a compelling, effective piece of writing.

My Review: Without the Nyquil, I would have had a harder time getting through this book. Although I like the main characters, I think the whole modern-day detective story is getting a little tired. Perhaps I should try and space them out so I'm not averaging one a day...

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The Year of Magical Thinking
by Joan Didion

From Publishers Weekly: Starred Review. Many will greet this taut, clear-eyed memoir of grief as a long-awaited return to the terrain of Didion's venerated, increasingly rare personal essays. The author of Slouching Towards Bethlehem and 11 other works chronicles the year following the death of her husband, fellow writer John Gregory Dunne, from a massive heart attack on December 30, 2003, while the couple's only daughter, Quintana, lay unconscious in a nearby hospital suffering from pneumonia and septic shock. Dunne and Didion had lived and worked side by side for nearly 40 years, and Dunne's death propelled Didion into a state she calls "magical thinking." "We might expect that we will be prostrate, inconsolable, crazy with loss," she writes. "We do not expect to be literally crazy, cool customers who believe that their husband is about to return and need his shoes." Didion's mourning follows a traditional arc—she describes just how precisely it cleaves to the medical descriptions of grief—but her elegant rendition of its stages leads to hard-won insight, particularly into the aftereffects of marriage. "Marriage is not only time: it is also, paradoxically, the denial of time. For forty years I saw myself through John's eyes. I did not age." In a sense, all of Didion's fiction, with its themes of loss and bereavement, served as preparation for the writing of this memoir, and there is occasionally a curious hint of repetition, despite the immediacy and intimacy of the subject matter. Still, this is an indispensable addition to Didion's body of work and a lyrical, disciplined entry in the annals of mourning literature.

My Review: I listened to this on audiobook, and had a hard time not bursting into tears every 10 minutes. I found that as long as I stayed focused on the story itself, I was ok. But as soon as I started thinking about losing one of my own family members, oh the tears. This was supposed to be a bookclub selection, but our meeting was cancelled. Looking back on it, I'm glad we didn't have to discuss it, since it would be embarrassing to bawl in front of my girlfriends.

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Love in a Dead Language
by Lee Siegel

From Publishers Weekly: "General observations, copulation, seduction, marriage, adultery, prostitutes, and erotic arcana," the seven subjects treated by the Kamasutra, are also the motifs of Siegel's whimsical farce. Presented as the unscholarly annotated version of the Indian erotic lexicon as translated by deceased professor of Asian studies Leopold Roth, the novel interpolates the commentary of Roth's skeptical literary executor and former student, Anang Saigha, with notes from ancient translators of the text. Roth's Kamasutra bears little resemblance to the original Sanskrit. It is, in fact, a hymn to entirely uninterested college senior Lalita Gupta, whom Roth construes as the vessel for all his romantic, Eastern fantasies. Ditsy, foul-mouthed Lalita cares nothing about her parents' native land, but to Roth she is a goddess, repository of the East's erotic and spiritual wisdom. Half-mad with love, Roth carries Lalita off to India for a "summer study course" (she's the only pupil) and seduces her in a hotel at Khajuraho where a famed erotic sculpture stands. Upon their return to L.A., Roth is suspended from teaching, Lalita's parents charge him with rape, and his wife, SophiaAwomen's studies prof and chair of the sexual harassment committeeAdumps him. While inserts and footnotes heighten the absurdity (the book is dense with cartoons, Hollywood memorabilia, news clips and 19th-century travelogues), Siegel's criticisms of orientalization and exoticism are serious. And Roth has more than just Lalita on his mind: his daughter Leila was murdered at the age of 12, leaving Roth, his wife and Leila's twin bereft. This multifaceted novel is also a whodunit, for Professor Roth died no natural death. His body was found in his office, hit from behind with a Sanskrit-English dictionary. While this ribald romp, satire on Westerners' spiritual hunger and sendup of academia may prove too rarefied and serpentine for some tastes, others will find it a sophisticated treat.

My Review: I picked up this book at a second-hand shop in Berlin and gradually worked my way through it. Let me say that everything written about it is true: it's raunchy, extremetly explicit, academic, erudite, and monotonous. I confess that I actually skimmed the last several chapters...after all, how much Kama Sutra can one sick girl take?

Posted by madchen at 12:02 AM | Comments (0)

February 28, 2006

Books I Read While Babysitting a Sick Child

A Monstrous Regiment of Women
by Laurie R. King

From Booklist: Mary Russell, introduced as the worthy successor to Dr. Watson in The Beekeeper's Apprentice , makes a triumphant return here. Russell has reached her majority, completed her studies at Oxford, come into her inheritance, and uncovered a passel of trouble in Margery Childe, a charismatic mystic with political aspirations in 1921 London. Childe has organized a temple to proselytize her mixture of feminism and what would be called, in a later decade, "liberation theology." Unfortunately, wealthy members of her inner circle keep dying, shortly after rewriting their wills in her favor. Russell launches the investigation of the temple while her employer, Sherlock Holmes and his brother, Mycroft, pursue drug smugglers in France. King expertly captures the details of the period, although some of her characters, attitudes, and actions seem anachronistic. Most of the well-loved figures from the Doyle canon make appearances, including Mrs. Hudson, Dr. Watson, and even Inspector Lastrade's son. Though purists will be offended by Holmes' behavior at the tale's conclusion, less-finicky fans will find the book thoroughly enjoyable.

My Review: I *heart* Mary Russell stories. ADA gave me this book, along with the others by Laurie R. King, and I read it like there was no tomorrow. It made me very, very angry that I didn't have access to the third book in the series. (A problem I hope to alleviate tomorrow.)

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A Grave Talent
by Laurie R. King

From Publishers Weekly: Although it gets off to an uncertain start, this first mystery boasts an appealing female detective and a few good shocks delivered close to the end. Three children's bodies are found near a reclusive community of eccentrics not too many miles from San Francisco. Young cop Casey Martinelli and her embittered, tyrannical partner Alonzo Hawkins think they've identified the perfect suspect in Vaun Adams, the community's resident artist, who once was convicted of murdering a child and who is secretive even by the standards of her weird neighbors. Adams is a strong, enigmatic creation: haunted, gothic and broadly dysfunctional, with a dark past that may contain the lurking killer. But the plot exhibits cracks--a tenuous piece of deduction conveniently dictates that the murder suspects can come only from the community--and King stumbles several times in developing her detectives' characters. She is coy about revealing the gender of Casey's lover (most readers will spot the "surprise" a mile off), and she lets Hawkins' initially gruff manner dissipate within a dozen pages. If King plans a series, she will need to flesh out her protagonists.

My Review: Well, I knew that Martinelli was gay from the start, so it wasn't much of a stunner. And while I agree that this book wasn't a huge page turner, it did make for some fine baby-sitting reading. The book jacket proclaims King as the NEW P.D. JAMES, to which I silently query "who?" Apparently, I am not much of a crime/detective reader.

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To Play the Fool
by Laurie R. King

From Library Journal: San Francisco detective Kate Martinelli strays from the stereotypical path of policewoman. As an openly lesbian and much-publicized heroine, Kate returns to her job facing a difficult case: street person Brother Erasmus, suspect in the murder of a homeless man, communicates entirely by way of literary quotations. The author presents her homeless characters with honesty and compassion, much in the way she describes the relationship between Kate and her lover or her police partner, Al. A fitting and well-done sequel to the award-winning A Grave Talent.

My Review: Again, I wasn't totally head-over-heels in love with this book, but it made for a fine afternoon of reading. Actually, it made me want a new Mary Russell book even more badly.

Posted by madchen at 11:30 PM | Comments (0)

February 13, 2006

Books I Read on Holiday

Lying Awake
by Mark Salzman

Publishers Weekly: Mysticism meets modern medicine in this intriguing r?cit of a nun's dark night of the soul. It's 1997, and Sister John of the Cross, a Carmelite nun in a monastery just outside Los Angeles, seeks treatment for epilepsy, although the remedy threatens to diminish her formidable spiritual powers. The Carmelites place heavy emphasis on prayer, and over the years this discipline has helped Sister John to develop miraculous visionary gifts. When severe headaches precipitate a collapse that requires medical intervention, Sister John finds the process starkly juxtaposed against her centuries-old traditions: she discovers it's almost impossible to discuss infused contemplation with a neurologist. Is her continual prayer "hyperreligiosity"?; her choice to remain celibate "hyposexuality"?; her will to control her body "anorexia"? Although she accepts a CT scan and its diagnosis, Sister John determines that faith offers a more substantial, meaningful reality. Written with simple elegance, alternating narrative and prayer, the tale is engaging yet maintains a curious emotional elusiveness. A drama centering on the realm of mysticism is bound to be difficult to describe and, like Ron Hansen's Mariette in Ecstasy, this story doesn't aim to render the nun's spiritual life and psyche in accessible terms for lay readers. What Salzman conveys with perfect clarity is that momentary, extraordinary mental state in which physical pain becomes pure, lucid grace poised between corporeal reality and eternity, a state that Sister John desires to prolong for a lifetime.

My Review: I loved this book, although I had to force myself to read it more slowly than normal in order to capture the rythym of the prose. A lovely look into the inner life of someone struggling with what a meaningful life entails.

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The Penelopiad: The Myth of Penelope and Odysseus
by Margaret Atwood

"Homer’s Odyssey is not the only version of the story. Mythic material was originally oral, and also local -- a myth would be told one way in one place and quite differently in another. I have drawn on material other than the Odyssey, especially for the details of Penelope’s parentage, her early life and marriage, and the scandalous rumors circulating about her. I’ve chosen to give the telling of the story to Penelope and to the twelve hanged maids. The maids form a chanting and singing Chorus, which focuses on two questions that must pose themselves after any close reading of the Odyssey: What led to the hanging of the maids, and what was Penelope really up to? The story as told in the Odyssey doesn’t hold water: there are too many inconsistencies. I’ve always been haunted by the hanged maids and, in The Penelopiad, so is Penelope herself." -- from Margaret Atwood’s Foreword to The Penelopiad

My Review: I love all things Margaret Atwood, and this was no exception. I remember vividly reading the Odyssey in 9th grade, where one of our assingments was to write a new adventure chapter. This book reminded me of that explorations, and it was a delight to see the myth portrayed from a woman's perspective.

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Four Blondes
by Candace Bushnell

Publishers Weekly: The author whose name is synonymous with her novel Sex and the City weighs in again with four loosely linked tales that form a sexually charged and withering analysis of how New York's and London's women work feverishly at their relationships, meanwhile trying desperately to make their names.

My Review: Blah. This was on the shelf during a jet-lagged night, so my expectations were low. Even so, I was disappointed.

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The Big Over Easy
by Jasper Fforde

Bookmarks Magazine: Hearing characters debate the implications of "illegal straw-into-gold dens" is attractive to a certain type of reader. Puns and silliness can certainly provide laugh-out-loud fun, especially when cleverly handled. But critics found this new series debut from literary jokester Jasper Fforde (The Eyre Affair, **** Summer 2002, is from Fforde’s first series, Thursday Next) a tad shallow and wearisome. Fforde doesn’t skewer nursery rhymes exclusively; he also spoofs mystery fiction protocol, including anagrams, secret twins, and butlers who did it. This is actually his most ingenious turn in an otherwise overlong send-up.

My Review: While I thoroughly enjoyed this book (and will read follow-ups if Fforde chooses to make this a series), I have to admit that I like his Thursday Next series more entertaining. Oh, for another Thursday Next book.

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The Beekeeper's Apprentice
by Laurie King

Publishers Weekly: Sherlock Holmes takes on a young, female apprentice in this delightful and well-wrought addition to the master detective's casework. In the early years of WW I, 15-year-old American Mary Russell encounters Holmes, retired in Sussex Downs where Conan Doyle left him raising bees. Mary, an orphan rebelling against her guardian aunt's strictures, impresses the sleuth with her intelligence and acumen. Holmes initiates her into the mysteries of detection, allowing her to participate in a few cases when she comes home from her studies at Oxford. The collaboration is ignited by the kidnapping in Wales of Jessica Simpson, daughter of an American senator. The sleuthing duo find signs of the hand of a master criminal, and after Russell rescues the child, attempts are made on their lives (and on Watson's), with evidence piling up that the master criminal is out to get Holmes and all he holds dear. King ( A Grave Talent ) has created a fitting partner for the Great Detective: a quirky, intelligent woman who can hold her own with a man renowned for his contempt for other people's thought processes.

My Review: I have happily discovered a replacement for my much-beloved Amelia Peabody mysteries. This first book in the Mary Russell series is so totally likeable that I am sure to be avoiding serious work to pick up the next edition soon.

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The History of Love: A Novel
by Nicole Krauss

Publishers Weekly: The last words of this haunting novel resonate like a pealing bell. "He fell in love. It was his life." This is the unofficial obituary of octogenarian Leo Gursky, a character whose mordant wit, gallows humor and searching heart create an unforgettable portrait. Born in Poland and a WWII refugee in New York, Leo has become invisible to the world. When he leaves his tiny apartment, he deliberately draws attention to himself to be sure he exists. What's really missing in his life is the woman he has always loved, the son who doesn't know that Leo is his father, and his lost novel, called The History of Love, which, unbeknownst to Leo, was published years ago in Chile under a different man's name. Another family in New York has also been truncated by loss. Teenager Alma Singer, who was named after the heroine of The History of Love, is trying to ease the loneliness of her widowed mother, Charlotte. When a stranger asks Charlotte to translate The History of Love from Spanish for an exorbitant sum, the mysteries deepen. Krauss (Man Walks into a Room) ties these and other plot strands together with surprising twists and turns, chronicling the survival of the human spirit against all odds. Writing with tenderness about eccentric characters, she uses earthy humor to mask pain and to question the universe. Her distinctive voice is both plangent and wry, and her imagination encompasses many worlds.

My Review: I loved this audiobook, which was read by several narrators depending on the voice of the novel. A week after I finished it, I happened across a hard copy of the book, which I realized had a rather unusual layout. I can't decide if I would have preferred the paper or the audio copy--but I have a feeling I'll revisit this book in the future.

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Wild Oats
by ??

I got this book from a girl in the Bratislava hostel. It was chick lit at its finest--a near-30 girl goes home to her small town outside of London and deals with family, friends, and the long-lost-love she lost a dozen years earlier. An easy read that I passed on to Mandy when I made it to Milan.

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As a Driven Leaf
by Milton Steinberg

Publishers Weekly: Guidall gives a spirited, almost theatrical, reading of this minor classic of American Jewish literature, a historical novel about ancient sage-turned-apostate Elisha ben Abuyah in the late first century C.E. At the heart of the tale are questions about faith and the loss of faith and the repression and rebellion of the Jews of Palestine. Elisha is a leading scholar in Palestine, elected to the Sanhedrin, the highest Jewish court in the land. But two tragedies awaken doubt about God in Elisha's mind, and doubt eats away at his faith. Declared a heretic and excommunicated from the Jewish community, he journeys to Antioch in nearby Syria to begin a quest through Greek and Roman culture for some fundamental irrefutable truth. The pace of the narrative picks up as Elisha directly encounters the full force of the ancient Romans' all-consuming culture. Ultimately, Elisha is forced by the power of Rome to choose between loyalty to his people, who are rebelling against the emperor's domination, and loyalty to his own quest for truth. Guidall, a veteran actor and recorder of audiobooks, reads with an appropriately weighted force. And he convincingly creates voices for a score of charactersAincluding the protagonist Elisha; his haughty, social-climbing wife, Deborah; the gentle sage and Elisha's mentor, Rabbi Joshua; and Rufus Tinneius, the tyrannical Roman governor of Palestine.

My Review: This audiobook was even more fascinating coming on the heels of The History of Love--both dealing with the complexities of the Jewish faith. I had never heard of this fable before, so I didn't know what to expect. It was a strange philosophical, religious, and Hollywood-ish combination, but it worked.

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Skinny Dip
by Carl Hiaasen

Publishers Weekly: Hiaasen's signature mix of hilariously over-the-top villains, lovable innocents and righteous indignation at what mankind has done to his beloved Florida wilderness is all present in riotous abundance in his latest. It begins with attractive heiress Joey Perrone being tossed overboard from a cruise ship by her larcenous husband, Chaz—not for her money, which she has had the good sense to keep well away from him, but because he fears she is onto his crooked dealings with a ruthless tycoon who is poisoning the Everglades. But instead of drowning as she's supposed to, Joey stays afloat until she is rescued by moody ex-cop Mick Stranahan, a loner who has also struck out in the marriage department. Then the two together, with the unwitting aid of a suspicious cop who can't pin the attempted murder on Chaz, hatch a sadistic plot to scare that "maggot" out of what little wit he has. Even Tool, a hulking brute sent by the tycoon to keep an eye on Chaz, eventually turns against him, and much of the fun is in watching the deplorable Chaz flounder further and further in the murk, both literally and figuratively (Chaz's job, as the world's unlikeliest marine biologist, involves falsifying water pollution levels for the tycoon). Hiaasen's books are so enjoyable it's always a sad moment when they end. In this case, however, sadness is mixed with puzzlement because the book seems to end in mid-scene, with Chaz in trouble again—but is it terminal? We thought at first there were some pages missing, but Knopf says that was the ending Hiaasen intended. Odd.

My Review: It's like alter-chick lit. I think I would have enjoyed it more in paperback (I listened to the audiobook) while lying on a beach somewhere. Even so, I'd consider reading the author's other work the next time I'm in the Caribbean.

Posted by madchen at 12:21 PM | Comments (2)

January 02, 2006

Books I Read in November - December 2005

72 Hour Hold
by Bebe Moore Campbell

Publishers Weekly: Starred Review. This powerful story of a mother trying to cope with her daughter's bipolar disorder reads at times like a heightened procedural. Keri, the owner of an upscale L.A. resale clothing shop, is hopeful as daughter Trina celebrates her 18th birthday and begins a successful-seeming new treatment. But as Trina relapses into mania, both their worlds spiral out of control. An ex-husband who refuses to believe their daughter is really sick, the stigmas of mental illness in the black community, a byzantine medico-insurance system—all make Keri increasingly desperate as Trina deteriorates (requiring, repeatedly, a "72 hour hold" in the hospital against her will). The ins and outs of working the mental health system take up a lot of space, but Moore Campbell is terrific at describing the different emotional gradations produced by each new circle of hell. There's a lesbian subplot, and a radical (and expensive) group that offers treatment off the grid may hold promise. The author of a well-reviewed children's book on how to cope with a parent's mental illness, Moore Campbell (What You Owe Me) is on familiar ground; she gives Keri's actions and decisions compelling depth and detail, and makes Trina's illness palpable. While this feels at times like a mission-driven book, it draws on all of Moore Campbell's nuance and style.

My Review: This was my December book club selection, and I read it in a single 5-hour sitting during the Great Sinus Headache of 2005. While the prose was different than most of our other selections (because the author and main characters are black?), I loved the rhythm of the book. I found the journey-to-the-woods diversion to be a little weird, but I enjoyed how the plot resolved itself in a happy-but-not-perfect sort of way. Highly recommended.

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Serpent on the Crown
by Elizabeth Peters

Publishers Weekly: Starred Review. MWA Grand Master Peters delivers another winner that you can't put down and yet don't want to see end, the 17th entry in her bestselling series to feature Egyptologist Amelia Peabody Emerson and her extended family (after 2004's Guardian of the Horizon). Early in 1922, novelist Magda Petherick, the widow of noted collector Pringle Petherick, interrupts the tea that the Emerson clan are enjoying on the veranda of their house by the Nile. Mrs. Petherick wants Emerson, Amelia's eminent archeologist husband, to dispose of a beautiful golden statuette that Pringle acquired shortly before his death because she believes it carries a curse. All are intrigued. News travels fast, and such a magnificent artifact soon attracts all manner of collectors, museum authorities, journalists and evildoers. Emerson's illegitimate half-brother, Sethos, formerly a dealer in illegal antiquities, arrives in disguise, but unfortunately he's followed by the gentleman he's impersonating. Tomb excavations, mountain treks, brutal attacks, an abduction, an exorcism and murder keep the plot hopping. The author's droll sense of humor and picture of a leisurely and less complicated age add to the appeal.

My Review: Has my love affair with Amelia Peabody And Family ended? Somehow, this installment seemed a little forced. As one Amazon reviewer pointed out, the characters seem to have run the gamut and now need to be left in peace. Nonetheless, I'll give the next book (to be released in March 2006) a try.

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Collapse: How Societies Choose To Fail or Succeed
by Jared Diamond

Publishers Weekly: Starred Review. In his Pulitzer Prize–winning bestseller Guns, Germs, and Steel, geographer Diamond laid out a grand view of the organic roots of human civilizations in flora, fauna, climate and geology. That vision takes on apocalyptic overtones in this fascinating comparative study of societies that have, sometimes fatally, undermined their own ecological foundations. Diamond examines storied examples of human economic and social collapse, and even extinction, including Easter Island, classical Mayan civilization and the Greenland Norse. He explores patterns of population growth, overfarming, overgrazing and overhunting, often abetted by drought, cold, rigid social mores and warfare, that lead inexorably to vicious circles of deforestation, erosion and starvation prompted by the disappearance of plant and animal food sources. Extending his treatment to contemporary environmental trouble spots, from Montana to China to Australia, he finds today's global, technologically advanced civilization very far from solving the problems that plagued primitive, isolated communities in the remote past. At times Diamond comes close to a counsel of despair when contemplating the environmental havoc engulfing our rapidly industrializing planet, but he holds out hope at examples of sustainability from highland New Guinea's age-old but highly diverse and efficient agriculture to Japan's rigorous program of forest protection and, less convincingly, in recent green consumerism initiatives. Diamond is a brilliant expositor of everything from anthropology to zoology, providing a lucid background of scientific lore to support a stimulating, incisive historical account of these many declines and falls. Readers will find his book an enthralling, and disturbing, reminder of the indissoluble links that bind humans to nature.

My Review: When I could stay awake, I found this book to be thoughtful, exacting, and redundant. Obviously, Mr. Diamond has done his homework (or had a bevy of grad students doing the research for him), but it made for very dry reading. I ended up doing a LOT of skimming, but ultimately agreed with his conclusions.

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GraceLand
by Chris Abani

Publishers Weekly: Abani's debut novel offers a searing chronicle of a young man's coming of age in Nigeria during the late 1970s and early 1980s. The vulnerable, wide-eyed protagonist is Elvis Oke, a young Nigerian with a penchant for dancing and impersonating the American rock-and-roll singer he is named after. The story alternates between Elvis's early years in the 1970s, when his mother dies of cancer and leaves him with a disapproving father, and his life as a teenager in the Lago ghetto, a place one character calls "a pus-ridden eyesore on de face of de nation's capital." Relating how an innocent child grows into a hardened young man, the novel also gives a glimpse into a world foreign to most readers-a brutal Third World country permeated by the excesses and wonders of American popular culture. Sprinkled throughout the book are recipes and entries from Elvis's mother's journal, as well as descriptions of the kola nut ceremony through which an Igbo boy becomes a man. These sections at first seem showy and tacked on, but by the end of the book their significance becomes clearer. The book is most powerful when it refrains from polemic and didacticism and simply follows its protagonist on his daily journey through the violent, harsh Nigerian landscape. Elvis must also negotiate troubles closer to home, including a drunk and ruined father and friends who cannot always be trusted. In this book, names are destiny, "selected with care by your family and given to you as a talisman." One of Elvis's friends is named Redemption, but in the end it is Elvis who claims this moniker, both literally and symbolically.

My Review: I can't remember why I chose this audiobook, but its been an intriguing glimpse of life in Nigeria. As I listened to the lilting accent of the narrator, I kept thinking back to the two Nigerian students I knew in Sweden, and wondering if their lives bore any resemblance to the ghetto living in Lagos described in the novel. The novel was powerful, on multiple levels--highly recommended.

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Gilgamesh
by Joan London

Book Description: Gilgamesh is a rich, spare, and evocative novel of encounters and escapes, of friendship and love, of loss and acceptance, a debut that marks the emergence of a world-class talent. It is 1937, and the modern world is waiting to erupt. On a farm in rural Australia, seventeen-year-old Edith lives with her mother and her sister, Frances. One afternoon two men, her English cousin Leopold and his Armenian friend Aram, arrive-taking the long way home from an archaeological dig in Iraq-to captivate Edith with tales of a world far beyond the narrow horizon of her small town of Nunderup. One such story is the epic of Gilgamesh, the ancient Mesopotamian king who traveled the world in search of eternal life. Two years later, in 1939, Edith and her young son, Jim, set off on their own journey, to Soviet Armenia, where they are trapped by the outbreak of war. Rich, spare, and evocative, Gilgamesh won The Age Book of the Year Award for Fiction and was shortlisted for the Miles Franklin Literary Award.

My Review: Again, I have no recollection of why I choose this audiobook. When I started listening to it, I had no idea of what the main plot was about--I didn't know it was Australian, set between the World Wars, or about traveling the world in search of an ideal. It was a strange, haunting book, but the narration kept the story together. Recommended for a dreary winter day, when far-off places have special appeal.

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Memories of My Melancholy Whores
by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Publishers Weekly: García Márquez's slim, reflective contribution to the romance of the brothel, his first book-length fiction in a decade, is narrated by perhaps the greatest connoisseur ever of girls for hire. After a lifetime spent in the arms of prostitutes (514 when he loses count at age 50), the unnamed journalist protagonist decides that his gift to himself on his 90th birthday will be a night with an adolescent virgin. But age, followed by the unexpected blossoming of love, disrupts his plans, and he finds himself wooing the allotted 14-year-old in silence for a year, sitting beside her as she sleeps and contemplating a life idly spent. Flashes of García Márquez's brilliant imagery—the sleeping girl is "drenched in phosphorescent perspiration"—illuminate the novella, and there are striking insights into the euphoria that is the flip side of the fear of death. The narrator's wit and charm, however, are not enough to counterbalance the monotony of his aimlessness. Though enough grace notes are struck to produce echoes of eloquence, this flatness keeps the memories as melancholy as the women themselves.

My Review: Whew--Publishers Weekly gave this book a rather harsh review, I think. Garcia Marquez is one of my all-time favorite authors, and I have loved both his fiction and non-fiction. In my opinion, one of the best aspects of his writing is how it has evolved over time. While his earlier novels had innovative prose (I still remember my frustration with Autumn of the Patriarch), his introduction of magical realism, dosed with his journalism expertise, makes a unique reading experience. This novella, while admittedly sparse, does a remarkably job of mixing Garcia Marquez's standard South American ambiance with an almost Satre-like existentialism. Publishers Weekly is just flat wrong on this one...

Posted by madchen at 10:50 PM | Comments (0)

November 26, 2005

Books I Read Recently (and some that I just forgot about)

Portuguese Irregular Verbs
by Alexander Mccall Smith

From Audiofile: The author of the highly successful NO. 1 LADIES' DETECTIVE AGENCY offers another treasure in this gentle satire of academics. This first book of a trilogy chronicles the activities of Dr. Moritz-Maria von Igelfeld, professor of philology and author of PORTUGUESE IRREGULAR VERBS, a scholarly tome of 1200 pages, only 200 copies of which have been sold and even fewer of which (if any) have been read. (Von Igelfeld's female dentist uses her copy as the perfect step stool for reaching patients.) Paul Hecht's deep baritone gives the necessary pseudo-scholarly tone to academicians measuring out their lives in Dravidian verb shifts, Urdu subjunctives, and Early Irish obscenities. Hecht takes the seemingly pointless minutiae of archaic grammars and transforms them into moments of quiet mirth, always investing the bumbling von Igelfeld with endearing goodness.

My review: Well, its true that the narrator of this audiobook has a deep baritone, but at that point my opinion diverges from the review above. Actually, my gripe is with the author itself. As with my previous review of The Sunday Philosophy Club, I think the author has mistakenly assumed that--just because The #1 Ladies Detective Agency was a great success--books don't really need plot. Where I love the details of Precious Ramotswe's life, I found that a book filled with nothing but the details of Dr. Moritz-Maria von Igelfeld was the best way to get a full night of restful sleep.

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Guardian of the Horizon
by Elizabeth Peters

From Amazon: Amelia Peabody and her husband Emerson, along with their son Ramses and foster daughter Nefret, are summoned back to the Lost Oasis, a hidden stronghold in the western desert whose existence they discovered many years ago (in The Last Camel Died At Noon) and have kept secret from the entire world, including their fellow Egyptologists. According to Merasen, the brother of the ruling monarch, their old friend Prince Tarek is in grave danger and needs their help, however it's not until they retrace their steps back to the Oasis, with its strange mixture of Meroitic and Egyptian cultures, that they learn the real reason for their journey. There's no better company on an archaeological expedition than the Father of Curses and the Lady Doctor, their beautiful Anglo-Egyptian ward, and Ramses, the Demon Brother who loves her, as Peters once again demonstrates in the latest historical mystery in this immensely popular series. If you haven't met the indomitable Amelia yet, this intriguing tale is a great place to start!

My review: I believe I have established my undying love of Amelia Peabody, and this--her 16th adventure--was also delightful. Not exactly intelligence-enhancing literature, and, to tell the truth, the plots never make any sense--but I love it nonetheless.

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The Master Butchers Singing Club : A Novel
by Louise Erdrich

From Amazon: Louise Erdrich's The Master Butchers Singing Club is a powerfully told story of love, death, redemption, and resurrection. After German soldier Fidelis Waldvogel returns home from World War I to marry his best friend's pregnant widow, he packs up his father's butcher knives and sets sail for America. He settles in Argus, North Dakota, where he sets up a meat shop with his wife Eva, who quickly befriends the struggling yet resourceful Delphine Watzka. Delphine, who runs a vaudeville show with her balancing partner Cyprian Lazarre, has returned home to Argus to care for her alcoholic father. While most of this emotionally rich novel focuses on the changing landscape of small-town life as seen through Delphine and Fidelis's eyes, Erdrich does a masterful job of illuminating hidden dramas through her secondary characters. Erdrich's portrayal of these various townsfolk, including members of the Master Butchers Singing Club, truly shows off her storytelling talent. Her ability to infuse each character with a distinct and multifaceted personality makes this novel an intimate and thought-provoking adventure.

My review: This was one of my favorite book club selections of all time (AA always picks good ones!!). I was hooked by page 8, and couldn't put it down until I reached the last page. I love how Erdrich is able to blend incredible plot details with character development--just as good as The Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse.

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Brick Lane : A Novel
by Monica Ali

From Amazon: Wildly embraced by critics, readers, and contest judges (who put it on the short-list for the 2003 Man Booker Prize), Brick Lane is indeed a rare find: a book that lives up to its hype. Monica Ali's debut novel chronicles the life of Nazneen, a Bangladeshi girl so sickly at birth that the midwife at first declares her stillborn. At 18 her parents arrange a marriage to Chanu, a Bengali immigrant living in England. Although Chanu--who's twice Nazneen's age--turns out to be a foolish blowhard who "had a face like a frog," Nazneen accepts her fate, which seems to be the main life lesson taught by the women in her family. "If God wanted us to ask questions," her mother tells her, "he would have made us men." Over the next decade-and-a-half Nazneen grows into a strong, confident woman who doesn't defy fate so much as bend it to her will. The great delight to be had in Brick Lane lies with Ali's characters, from Chanu the kindly fool to Mrs. Islam the elderly loan shark to Karim the political rabblerouser, all living in a hothouse of Bengali immigrants. Brick Lane combines the wide scope of a social novel about the struggles of Islamic immigrants in pre- and post-9/11 England with the intimate story of Nazneen, one of the more memorable heroines to come along in a long time. If Dickens or Trollope were loosed upon contemporary London, this is exactly the sort of novel they would cook up.

My review: I have no idea why this book would be "wildly embraced" by anyone. I thought the language was stilted, the characters underdeveloped, and the story poorly paced. If anything, this book cemented my previous experience of "high-quality" British literature--it's just not my cuppa tea.

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The Unthinkable Thoughts of Jacob Green
by Joshua Braff

From Booklist: Like a child, Jacob Green's father, Abram, wants what he wants when he wants it and will throw a temper tantrum if he doesn't get it. What Abram wants most of all is the perfect suburban Jewish family--perfectly intelligent, perfectly religious, and perfect at obeying thy father. Braff's rich, moving, and very funny first novel begins with a 1977 housewarming party at which Abram dramatically introduces each member of his family while the four children and their mother seethe with resentment at being paraded as testaments to Abram's greatness. Jacob's present-tense, first-person narration keeps the pace quick, and the exquisite plotting ensures that Jacob's growing emotional turmoil is paralleled by metaphorically resonant real-life events. To survive and mentally escape his father's cruel, perverse love, young Jacob shares hilariously unthinkable thoughts--the funniest are the hypothetical bar mitzvah thank-you notes in which Jacob thanks people for Jerusalem stone bookends and the like and then details his lust for his live-in nanny before signing "Love, Jacob." Readers will adore Jacob, but Braff's greater accomplishment is describing the boy's complex relationship with his father so well that we are forced to see the cruel, self-obsessed Abram as something more than a mere monster of ego.

My review: I read this book in practically a single sitting. It was infectious. I laughed (out loud, much to the consternation of my DCL friends), I cried, I was moved. Bravo to the very talented Braff family.

Posted by madchen at 12:39 AM | Comments (0)

Books I Started and Then Abandoned (with no guilt)

Housekeeping : A Novel
by Marilynne Robinson

From Publishers Weekly: Their lives spun off the tilting world like thread off a spindle," says Ruthie, the novel's narrator. The same may be said of Becket Royce's subtle, low-keyed reading. The interwoven themes of loss and love, longing and loneliness—"the wanting never subsided"—require a cool, almost impersonal touch. Royce narrates natural and manmade catastrophe and ruin as the author offers them: with a sort of watery vagueness engulfing extraordinary events. Occasionally this leads Royce to sound sleepy or to glide over humor. But she expresses Ruthie's story without any irksome effort to sound childlike, and she avoids the pitfall of dramatizing other characters, such as the awkward sheriff, the whispery insubstantiality of Aunt Sylvie or the ladies bearing casseroles to lure Ruthie away from Aunt Sylvie and into their concept of normality. Originally published in 1980 and filmed in 1987, Housekeeping is finally on audio because of Robinson's new Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, Gilead. The novel holds up remarkably and painfully well, and the language remains searching and sonorous. Anatole Broyard wrote back then: "Here is a first novel that sounds as if the author has been treasuring it up all her life...." And because the author's rhythms, images and diction are so original and dense, this audio is a treasure for listeners who have or haven't read the book.

My Review: Yawn. While some of the language is exquisite, NOTHING happens. After trying to read this book for three months, I've finally put it aside with no regrets.

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The Kite Rider
by Geraldine McCaughrean

From Publishers Weekly: With her exuberant, nonstop plotting and supremely colorful setting, McCaughrean (The Stones Are Hatching) grabs hold of readers' imaginations and doesn't let go. In 13th-century China, a 12-year-old boy prepares to say goodbye to his father, who is about to put to sea as a crew member of the Chabi, and to watch the testing of the wind, which involves strapping a man to a huge kite and seeing if it flies straight up (a good omen for the Chabi's voyage) or at a certain angle (foretelling danger). But almost before Haoyou knows what is happening, the first mate makes his father the wind-tester, and Haoyou looks on in horror as his father becomes a speck in the distant sky, then returns, lifeless, to earth. All this McCaughrean accomplishes in less than 10 pages, establishing a breakneck pace, which she maintains with seeming ease. The story takes Haoyou from his determined efforts to prevent the evil first mate from marrying his beautiful mother to his joining a traveling circus as a kite rider, mastering his father's tragedy as he himself flies skyward into what the circus-goers take to be the spirit world. Eventually the circus reaches the court of the Kublai Khan, evoked here in splendor and awe. While Haoyou never becomes as compelling a character as those around him a spirit medium cousin, the circus master, Kublai Khan McCaughrean offers more than enough adventure, plot twists and exotic scenery to keep the audience fully engrossed.

My review: Unlike the book reviewed above, in The Kite Rider stuff happens. I jus didn't care. Kill the father! Burn down the house! Marry an abusive man! Whatever, just make it end!!

Posted by madchen at 12:12 AM | Comments (0)

October 04, 2005

Books I Read in September

First, I would like to confess that September reading was full of guilty pleasures. Although I started some "quality" literature with the best of intentions, the fine tomes inevitable were cast aside for the instant fix.

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The Worthing Saga
by Orson Scott Card

Amazon.com: It was a miracle of science that permitted human beings to live, if not forever, then for a long, long time. Some people, anyway. The rich, the powerful--they lived their lives at the rate of one year every ten. Somec created two societies: that of people who lived out their normal span and died, and those who slept away the decades, skipping over the intervening years and events. It allowed great plans to be put in motion. It allowed interstellar Empires to be built.

It came near to destroying humanity.

After a long, long time of decadence and stagnation, a few seed ships were sent out to save our species. They carried human embryos and supplies, and teaching robots, and one man. The Worthing Saga is the story of one of these men, Jason WOrthing, and the world he found for the seed he carried.

Orson Scott Card is "a master of the art of storytelling" (Booklist), and The Worthing Saga is a story that only he could have written.

My Review: This was an audiobook that just kept going and going and going. I enjoy the occasional sci-fi and fantasy book, and this one was rife with interesting plots, ethical dilemmas, and the like. But my goodness, it didn't seem like it was EVER going to end. I think I'll stick to Card's Ender series, which I found much more managable.

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Lord of the Silent
by Elizabeth Peters

Publishers Weekly: In Egypt, 1915, the redoubtable English archaeologist Amelia Peabody Emerson and her eccentric and closely knit group of family and friends are up to their old tricks. The Emersons may believe that they are merely engaging in another season of excavation, but legions of devoted readers know that Amelia's archaeological fervor has never stopped her from charging into another thrilling episode of crime-solving, dragging her husband and children enthusiastically along. Amelia's son, Ramses, and his new wife, Nefret, are trying to settle into their married life and find ways to build a more equal relationship with their overwhelming and irrepressibly adventurous parent. Amelia is worried, however, that an officious British army officer might try to recruit Ramses again as a spy (as in the previous book, 2000's He Shall Thunder in the Sky). To keep him out of the spymaster's clutches, she sends Ramses and Nefret off to Luxor to investigate a series of thefts from archaeological sites. As always in this series of uproarious Egyptological mysteries, plenty of strange doings are afoot in the desert, and readers will find all the delicious trappings of a vintage Peters extravaganza lost tombs, kidnappings, deadly attacks, mummies and sinister villains.

My Review: I *heart* the Amelia Peabody series, as I have noted repeatedly in the last few months. This one was no exception. I had listened to audiobooks for most of the other installments, but found that these next three (#13, #14, #15) weren't available. Thus, by the time I had tracked down the books from Amazon, I was nearly ready to devour them whole. Even though it lacks something without the spectacular narration of Barbara Rosenblatt, this one was quite excellent.

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The Golden One
by Elizabeth Peters

Publishers Weekly: The legions of Amelia Peabody Emerson fans will be overjoyed with this 14th in the series (after 2001's Lord of the Silent), for they're getting two books in one. First, MWA Grandmaster Peters offers another amusing if wordy Egyptian archeology mystery, set in 1917 and replete with grave robbers, a murder, the discovery of a richly furnished tomb and a cast of thousands. Halfway through the book, this plot is annoyingly left dangling when the British recall the Emerson's brilliant son, Ramses, for an espionage assignment in Gaza, where he must determine if a newly powerful figure, Ismail Pasha, is really the Emerson family black sheep, Sethos, master criminal and secret agent. The redoubtable Amelia; her eccentric husband, Radcliffe; Ramses's adventurous wife, Nefret; and their faithful foreman, Selim, follow him in disguise. Captured by Sahin Pasha, head of the Turkish secret service, Ramses later escapes, fulfilling his mission with his family's help. Then it's back to Egypt, where the Emersons and their friends the Vandergelts solve the murder and subdue the villains. Radcliffe even ejects intrusive tourists from fragile archeological sites. Peters's books divide the mystery-reading public. With a Ph.D. in Egyptology from the University of Chicago, she provides an authentic historical backdrop. However, her long-winded explanations and preposterous plots frustrate many. Those who enjoy romance and find the hubbub of the Emersons and their devoted entourage entertaining will forgive the faults.

My Review: I am deeply offended by Publisher Weekly's fault-finding with the Amelia Peabody series. Or perhaps I just meet the criteria of "those who enjoy romance and find the hubbub of the Emersons and their devoted entourage entertaining." Yes, that is almost certainly the case.

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Children of the Storm
by Elizabeth Peters

Publishers Weekly: A fast-moving, intrigue-filled plot propels MWA Grand Master Peters's 15th novel (after 2002's The Golden One) to feature beloved archeologist and amateur sleuth Amelia Peabody Emerson. The end of WWI offers Amelia, now a grandmother, and her family little respite when mysterious events start to plague friends, allies and coworkers. One person dies after suddenly turning to religion, while others fall victim to sabotage. Valuable artifacts go missing, and Amelia's son Ramses is lured into a bizarre encounter with a woman who appears to be the living embodiment of the goddess Hathor. Given the growing unrest against British rule in Egypt, Amelia has to wonder if politics are behind the strange occurrences. In addition, the clan has made many enemies over the course of their adventures. While the preface does a good job of outlining the characters and their complicated connections, the previous 14 novels covered a lot of ground that new readers will find challenging to master. Nonetheless, this is an enjoyable read in its own right, powered by evocative depictions of 1919 Egypt and the engaging voice of Amelia herself-a bright, independent woman, who relishes her role as family matriarch. Her affectionate, give-and-take relationship with her Egyptologist husband, Emerson, continues to enchant.

My Review: It's true--I'm enchanted by the whole lot of them. Not much else to say, except I hope Peters can keep the series going for years to come, which is getting problematic since the main character is getting on in years. Maybe she can transition over to the younger generation...

Posted by madchen at 11:00 PM | Comments (0)

September 01, 2005

Censorship in Turkey

One of the books I read in Turkey was My Name is Red, by Orhan Pamuk. I thought it was facinating for it's insight into Ottoman art, but could have done with about a hundred fewer pages.

I read today in the Washington Post that Pamuk has been charged with the "public denigrating of Turkish id

Write Again Soon

August 29, 2006

Books I Read During the Sweltering Heat and Afterwards

July 20, 2006

Books I Read in July

July 09, 2006

Wanderlust

July 03, 2006

Other Books I Read in June

June 26, 2006

Books I Read This June

June 07, 2006

Things that Make Me Giggle

June 05, 2006

Books I Read in May

May 09, 2006

Books I Read in April

April 17, 2006

Books I Read This Spring

March 17, 2006

Books I Read in March

March 01, 2006

Books I Read After Catching the Sick Child's Virus

February 28, 2006

Books I Read While Babysitting a Sick Child

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Books I Read on Holiday

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Books I Read in November - December 2005

November 26, 2005

Books I Read Recently (and some that I just forgot about)

Books I Started and Then Abandoned (with no guilt)

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Books I Read in September

September 01, 2005

Censorship in Turkey