Thorsday Book Review, On Friday...With a Dog

Last summer, a friend sent me this book.  I read it and was enthralled; it gave me an escape from the mental pressures of getting the yard ready for Shannon's wedding.  I read it again after our attic fire, in the little spare time I had, because it was such a welcome escape from the filthy realities of my ash covered, unroofed world.

DELICIOUS! A NOVEL

Billie has just dropped out of college and moved to New York City to work for a storied food magazine, Delicious!  Her first day on the job, she was sent off to get an obscure ingredient, and met Sal there, who took her to his family deli, Fontanari's, where he had her sampling cheeses and whatnot, delighting in her perfect sense of taste.  Her job originally was assistant to the editor, and she was required to cook something as soon as she was hired, which caused her to have a panic attack - we learn why as the book unfolds.  Lonely and alone in New York, she also works at Fontanari's on the weekends, learning to love Sal's family, and enjoying the customers there.  Then, one day, the publisher announces that Delicious! is being closed down, and Billie stays on to answer the mail and phones, including the complaints made against the Delicious satisfaction guarantee (you will like every recipe in the magazine, no matter how old the issue, or they'll give you a refund).  One old lady in particular is a real pip in her terrible recipe substitutions, and she lends some levity to the book.  Then, as she's wandering through the empty building, which is a 200 year old house (and the architectural descriptions of the building are wonderful - I longed for that house), she finds a locked room upstairs containing a library, in which Billie discovers correspondence between Lulu Swan, a 12 year old girl in Ohio during World War II, and the legendary James Beard (who worked for the magazine at that time).  Following the correspondence with Billie is wonderful.  On the personal side, Billie is emailing her sister frequently, and her emails are full of sorrow - we learn why toward the end of the book.  A Fontanari's customer known as "Mr. Complainer" makes a few appearances in the book, too; it's all well written and woven together, and leaves you really caring about the characters (and the house, too, at least in my case).

And, Bebop is here this week, following Ryan around.  Since Cass is away at the beach, Ryan is his substitute person.

Happy Friday, everyone!

Book Review...on Monday?

It's been a hectic weekend.  Our oldest son and his wife came for the weekend, the sons went to the first part of the bachelor weekend (paintballing, skipping the casino), I sewed two-and-a-half test dresses in search of the right pattern for my mother-of-the-bride dress, and a big contact lens problem at 6:30AM today has me seeing blurry.

So I'm hiding.  And I thought I'd write a review of a book I read probably 2 months ago.

THE GUERNSEY LITERARY AND POTATO PEEL PIE SOCIETY
By  Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows

I bought this book at a used book sale in April, and it waited for a couple of months for my attention.  "Literary" and "Pie" in the title?  It had to be good, right?  The book is set in the aftermath of WWII, in London and on Guernsey.  Juliet Ashton is an author attempting to begin her second novel, when she receives a letter from the Isle of Guernsey.  Her name had been written inside a book, and the writer wanted to know if she could recommend a book for him.  Thus began a correspondence between Juliet and the members of the Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, so named when some of the members were caught breaking the Nazi imposed curfew during the war.

The book consists entirely of letters between Juliet and others: her publisher, her best friend, members of the Society...

I had to stick with it through the first quarter or so of this book, until I became caught up enough in the story to want to see it through, to find out what happened to the member who was taken by the SS, what happened to the father of that woman's child, what would become of the marriage proposal Juliet received from a rich man, how those on Guernsey fared after the war.  I'm just not a fan of reading nothing but letters between people and waiting to see how they are interrelated and interwoven.  Ultimately, it was a good book, but I would have enjoyed it much more had it been a more standard narrative.  3.5/5

Happy Labor Day, everyone!

Thorsday Book Review: The Little Paris Bookshop

THE LITTLE PARIS BOOKSHOP
by Nina George

It all started with a table.

Jean Perdu owns The Literary Apothecary, a bookstore aboard a barge in Paris.  He won't sell just any book to a customer, but only what he feels they need.  His life, however, isn't in such fine condition.  One afternoon, when he returned home, his landlady told him that there was a new tenant in the flat across the hall from him, and since her wealthy husband had just put her clothing in a suitcase on the doorstep with divorce papers atop it, and changed the locks, all of the tenants in the building were contributing furnishings to help her.  The landlady determined that Jean needs to donate a table, which leads him to a slow emotional meltdown, the origins of which stretch back 20 years, and which is revealed to us slowly.  Because of this meltdown, one day Jean unties his bookstore/barge from its moorings and sets off downriver, accompanied by his two barge cats and a young author who lives in his building, who is suffering from writer's block and can't even begin his second novel.

I chose this book because of the title, and the pretty picture on the cover.  I"m a sucker for book stores, and love stories set in France (where I will never visit, because the reality is never as pretty as the pictures in your head).

I loved this book.  I read it last week, almost finishing it before Jeff and Tank came to visit.  Of course, I stayed up most of Friday night to finish it, because I enjoyed it so.  5/5

Note: I received this book free from Blogging for Books.  All opinions are my own.

And, since it's Thorsday, here are some pictures of Tank from last weekend.

Happy Thorsday, everyone!

Thorsday Book Reviews

Our friend Hsin-Yi, whose long time companion was Honey the Great Dane, has been busy as an author since the passing of Honey.  She wrote a romantic mystery series set in Singapore, followed by a lighthearted romance series set in the fictional town of Summer Beach, Australia (5 books and counting!), both series under her own name.  Then, a few months back, she began releasing a Pride and Prejudice alternative series under the pen name Penelope Swan.  This was very interesting to me, because not too long before that, I"d read in the Wall Street Journal (of course) that P&P alternatives were a huge and booming business, both in books and films.  Naturally, I had to reread Pride and Prejudice, which caused my menfolk no end of amusement: "Wait, tell me the plot again? Girl meets rich man, likes him then hates him within 2 paragraphs and spends a couple hundred pages avoiding him while playing matchmaker for everyone else before agreeing to marry the rich man?"  Well, when you put it that way, guys, it doesn't sound that wonderful.

THE NETHERFIELD AFFAIR
Book 1 of the Dark Darcy Mysteries
by Penelope Swan

These books follow the basic plot of Pride and Prejudice; this one is set within the first quarter of the original book.  Elizabeth Bennet's sister Jane, having gone to visit the Bingley family, took ill and had to stay at their house, Netherfield, during her recovery. Their younger sisters had regaled the Bennet family with tales of the ghost at Netherfield, having heard such stories from their own servants, who had in turn learned them from Netherfield's servants; they also spoke of a highwayman, Handsome George. Elizabeth dismissed these stories as uneducated nonsense, and set off to walk the 3 miles to Netherfield to look in on her sister. Having undertaken this trip on a rainy day, Elizabeth ended up muddy, and ended up staying at Netherfield to keep her sister company, despite the disapproval of Mr. Bingham's sisters, one of whom had designs upon Bingley's best friend, Mr.Darcy. A couple of light mysteries involving a ghostly face at an attic window, bouquets of violets and missing jewelry make for entertaining fare. Written in the old style, mildly modernized for today's readers, but retaining all of the sensibilities of Jane Austen, this is a worthy endeavor.  5/5

INTRIGUE AT THE BALL
Book 2 of the Dark Darcy Mysteries
by Penelope Swan

 This is the second Pride and Prejudice spin-off written by Penelope Swan. This "alternate" takes place during the second quarter of P&P, when Mr. Bingley hosted a ball at Netherfield. In this version, it's a masquerade ball attended not only by the locals, but also by Gentleman George, a highwayman who is acquainted to Mr. Darcy since childhood, and claims to have been wronged by him (this character appeared in the original, but not as a highwayman). A theft occurs at the dinner portion of the ball, and it's all attributed to a "curse" on an item carried by one of Elizabeth Bennet's sisters. Elizabeth's behavior is a bit sillier than one would expect, and while that may be true, it's necessary in order to carry on the plot. Enough elements of the original story have been retained to make this a good read, although it did end abruptly.  4/5

THE POISONED PROPROSAL
Book 3 of the Dark Darcy Mysteries
by Penelope Swan

This book occurs in the third quarter of P&P, during the period in which Elizabeth has gone with her best friend Charlotte's father and sister to visit Charlotte and Charlotte's new husband, Mr. Collins, who live on Lady Catherine's estate, where Mr. Collins is the preacher. This book paints Lady Catherine as more overbearing and controlling than she was in the original, Mr. Collins as more cloying and kow-towing to Lady Catherine, and Lady Catherine's daughter, Anne, as more of a shrinking violet; all of those personality traits are just mild exaggerations of the ones they have in the original book, and it works. In this "Dark Darcy" mystery, Lady Catherine takes ill after a dinner at her estate; it is deemed poisoning. The village constable sets out to make an arrest, is stopped by Elizabeth, and she and Darcy subsequently solve the mystery. I had a hunch that the culprit was one of 3 people, which was correct, but the book was nevertheless enjoyable while it reached its ultimate conclusion.  5/5

SECRETS AT PEMBERLEY
Book 4 of the Dark Darcy Mysteries
by Penelope Swan

This is the final installment in Penelope Swan's Dark Darcy series. Referring to Pride & Prejudice, this covers the last fourth of the book, when Elizabeth Bennett and her aunt and uncle are visiting the region where Pemberley, Mr. Darcy's house, is located. In this version, Elizabeth and her aunt do indeed go to the town near Pemberley, staying at an inn in town. Upon arrival, they are warned that the highwayman Gentleman George has been seen in the area, and they shouldn't venture out at night. Soon, they go to see Pemberley, when Mr. Darcy is not supposed to be around, and enjoy a tour of the house. Mr. Darcy arrives, and invites them to visit the next day and meet his sister. When their inn burns in a fire, Mr. Darcy invites Elizabeth and her aunt and uncle as houseguests; Elizabeth becomes friendly with Georgiana Darcy; and the pianoforte which Mr. Darcy bought for Georgiana is believed by the servants to be haunted because they hear music at night, when everyone is asleep. Gentleman George is seen around the house; the Bingley sisters arrive to visit, and there is jealous conflict between them and Elizabeth. A well written and well executed variation on the end of P&P. 5/5

I read all of these on the Kindle, although they are now also available in paperback.

And, because there are no pictures of the covers, how about a picture of Jeffrey's dog Tank, gazing intently at his favorite store?

Happy Thorsday, everyone!

Monday Book Review

The past couple of weeks have been a circus.  A dishwasher leak (for the third time in 6 months), a dead well pump (at 9PM on a Saturday, when they came out, diagnosed and went away, only to return at 5AM Sunday and actually fix it)(my well company is wonderful), Mark's last week of school, and I don't remember what else.  So, while I finished this book a couple of weeks ago, I've been remiss in my review.

THE MAPMAKER'S CHILDREN
by Sarah McCoy

This book is two parallel stories.  One is the story of Eden, married for several years and a little unbalanced following a couple of years of failed fertility treatments.  She and her husband have just bought a historic house in West Virginia, and he brings her home a dog to keep her company.  Eden is less than amused, so her husband hires the 11 year old girl next door to walk, feed and care for the dog.  Eden becomes attached to the child and the dog, begins to acclimate herself to her new town (a far cry from her busy life as an executive in the city before the move), and starts to learn to cook by cooking for the dog from a holistic dog cookbook which the little girl has brought her.

The other is the story of Sarah Brown, daughter of the abolitionist John Brown.  Her story opens just before he leads the ill fated Harpers Ferry raid, and continues for several years, involving another family in West Virginia.  It isn't revealing too much of the story to say that Sarah is a gifted artist, whose talents are recognized by her father when, shortly before the raid, she happens upon her father trying to direct a slave family on the Underground Railroad to their next stop, and draws them a pictorial map, which looks like a picture, to guide them.  Her map proves so successful that soon she's drawing them for all of the escapees, and continues even after her father is hanged.

The two stories are told in alternating chapters, and there is a confluence at the end of the book - not only the confluence I expected, but another one as well.  Sarah's story is sad, but Eden's story ends differently than I might have thought.  This was excellent historical fiction, using real people and events woven into a possible story, and overlaid with today.  5/5

Note: I received this book free from Blogging for Books.  All opinions are my own.

Happy Monday, everyone!

Thorsday Book Review - With Tank!

Well, this book will prove to you that I'm boring.  Who else do you know who would choose to read a book on economics?  They don't call it "The Dismal Science" for nothing.

POPULAR ECONOMICS
by John Tamny

I saw this book reviewed in The Wall Street Journal (of course), and had to read it.  The subtitle refers to what Downton Abbey, Lebron James and The Rolling Stones can teach us about economics.  The book is divided into 4 parts; part 1 deals with taxes (defined a a price placed on work), including discussion of corporate, personal, capital gains and estate taxes.  He discusses at length how each of these types of taxes discourages work and/or savings, and advocates bulldozing the tax code and starting anew.  (Never gonna happen.)  He also asserts that running deficits is OK, as long as tax collections cover debt service.
Part 2 deals with government regulation; summation is that the government is not staffed by the best and brightest.  Further, they make the point that industry would self regulate regardless of the government's intervention: would drug companies want to be killing their customers with their products?
Part 3 is about Trade - specifically overseas.  He says trade deficits are OK, and outsourcing is good, because other types of jobs are created here to replace the jobs that disappear.  My economist son agrees, but I'm not sure I"m buying it.
Part 4 is about Money, specifically currency vs. the gold standard.  Enough to make your eyeballs roll into the back of your head.

Overall, very well written and informative. Very thought provoking.  Not exciting, but that happens with economics.  Still, a good read.  4/5

You can see that Tank was dressed to read this book; he has 4 ties of his very own.

 Of course, he also does the usual, puppy-like, snuffle in the grass type things.

Happy Thorsday, everyone!

Thorsday Book Review: Around the World in 50 Years

This is another book I saw reviewed in The Wall Street Journal.

AROUND THE WORLD IN 50 YEARS
by Albert Podell

The author is an attorney, but when he started this journey, fresh out of college, with his friend Steve, it was simply to be a road trip to circumnavigate the world, paid for by sponsorships and magazine articles.  It's a great book, written in the tone of a friend relating interesting, and sometimes horrifying or scary, anecdotes.  Albert Podell was the son of lower middle class Eastern European Jewish immigrants who earned his way through college and always wanted to travel.  The book never talks about his experiences in countries where plenty of people have gone, save in the beginning, where he writes about getting car repairs in Spain at the beginning of his journey.  Instead, he recounts the first journey, in the early 1960s, with plenty of attention and humor paid to the trip across northern Africa (for instance, the nomad who wanted to buy the "chunky" nurse he and Steve had with them for $2000, and deciding that he couldn't do so because Albert insisted that he must take the 2 skinny nurses as part of a package deal).  There are tales of trips through countries in civil uproar, difficulties of traveling in the Middle East as a Jew (he learned enough Christian prayers, etc, to be convincing as a non-Jew), difficult to nonexistent roads, and the strangers they met along the way (hunting from the back of the open Jeep-like vehicle late at night, anyone?).

Mr. Podell continued to travel as he aged, and, at some point, decided it was his goal to visit every country in the world.  Some places he visited twice, such as visiting East Pakistan, and opting to return when it became Bangladesh.  He's brutally honest about each place he visits, not writing about the great culture and history, but instead about the people (friendly in some places, not so much in others), the infrastructure or lack thereof, accommodations, government, things an observant visitor would notice.  He paid a lot of attention to Southeast Asian and African countries.  As I was reading that section, I thought it would be interesting to Diane from France, whose family traversed Africa in 1953 (and who published her mother's book about the journey), as a comparison to her experiences.  But even for someone who has no desire to leave her own continent, this was a spellbinding work.  5/5

Book Review: Just Add Watercolor

Just Add Watercolor
by Helen Birch

 I don't really know what I expected when I selected this book.  It's a fairly small volume, about 5"x7", hardcovered, with very nice coated pages.  Each page has a contemporary watercolor, with notes about the way the artist created the picture.  I'm not entirely sure what I expected from this book.  Perhaps a little more detail?  This is what the author says in her introduction, in part: "Accompanying each work is a short exploration of the artist's approach and the techniques used, so you can try some of the ideas out too."

Each pair of pages contains a picture to the right, and a paragraph or 2 on the left page briefly discussing what the painting is, and perhaps what the artist intended to create.  Other than the pages about making blooms and similar special effects, there isn't much on how the paintings were created - paper, paint, ink, whatever - in most cases.  It's a pretty little book, and a nice review, but isn't as helpful to the artistic process as I might have hoped.  3/5

Note: I received a free copy of this book from Blogging for Books in exchange for my review.  Opinions are my own.

Monday Book Review

I know - how unusual!  I went with Shannon to a wedding dress try-on on Saturday, down near Philadelphia.  Of course, you all know it's been bitterly cold here for weeks.  So, on Friday, my dearly beloved announced that I'm "too stupid" to drive 250 miles alone in the cold, so he hired me a driver.  It's nice to be loved, isn't it?  Anyway, that 4 hour ride gave me time to read a book, so here's your review!

THE MARAUDERS
By Tom Cooper

This is set in the bayous of Louisiana, 5 years after Hurricane Katrina, and after the BP oil rig explosion.  There are a fair number of parallel stories, which intersect through the book, not necessarily at the same time.  Almost everyone in the town is a shrimper, and the haul is nothing but meager, small shrimp this year.  Wes Trench, 17, works with his father, both mourning for and blaming his father for the death of his mother when she slid off the roof of their house into the floodwaters following the hurricane.  One day he became irate and quit, finding himself a position on a trawler captained by Lindquist.  Lindquist's wife left him, fed up with his lifelong obsession with finding Jean Lafitte's treasure; he's out there every night hunting for that gold, using maps that he has meticulously marked up.  Then there are the Toup twins, who grow great weed on an island in the bayou, and shoot anyone who gets near their hydroponic greenhouse.  Cosgrove and Hanson, who became acquainted while in jail for petty crimes, and drifted into town for jobs cleaning oil coated birds, and stumbled into the Toups' operation.  Then there's Brady Grimes, born and raised in Jeanette, who couldn't wait to get away.  Then BP sent him back to Jeanette to get people to take petty settlements so they couldn't sue BP.

The settings were very well described, and the characters felt real.  The book was dark and funny at the same time, and completely "politically incorrect" in the way folks talked and thought.  There really weren't any happy endings, merely some contented endings, and some not so contented, much as in real life.  I very much enjoyed this book, and was sorry to see it end.  5/5

Disclaimer: I received this book from Blogging for Books for this review.  All opinions are my own.

Happy Monday, everyone!  Stay warm!

Thorsday Book Review: The Barefoot Queen

The Barefoot Queen
by Ildefonso Falcones
copyright 2014
641 pages

January, 1748: Caridad is a slave from a Cuban tobacco plantation who was being brought from Cuba by her master back to his home in Spain, where he planned to live out his days.  He died on the ship voyage home, and Caridad was manumitted, given her papers, and advised by the priest on board the ship to seek out a specific religious sanctuary.  Turned away there, she wandered for a while.

Milagros Carmona, a 13 year old gypsy girl, daughter of Ana Vega and Jose Carmona.  Bright, beautiful and spirited, Milagros (and every other girl in the gypsy alley) had a crush on Pedro Garcia, the grandson of the man who had had Milagros' grandfather, Melchor Vega, sentenced to the galleys for 10 years - a feud not forgotten.

Father Joaquin, a white Spanish priest, was smitten by Milagros.  His mission was to help and convert the gypsies (and sell tobacco products to finance this mission).

The first 50 pages or so of this book introduce us to all of these characters, without telling us when they will meet and how they are or will become intertwined.  After about 50 pages, Melchor Vega, who has spent most of his time wandering about after being released from the galleys, finds Caridad gravely ill, and brings her home to the gypsy alley, leaving her in his room for Ana and Milagros to nurse back to health, admonishing them to keep the Negress until he returns.  Caridad says little, but becomes friends with Milagros.  To help earn her keep, and earn money for the Carmona/Vega family, Milagros and Caridad begin dancing and singing in a local inn.  This continues on for some time, during which time, Milagros is betrothed by her father to a boy she dislikes.  Life goes on, and ultimately, the gypsies are rounded up and imprisoned by the Spanish government.  Caridad escapes this roundup, because she is very black, and not a gypsy; Milagros escapes because she was, at that time, exiled from the alley.

This is a very well written book about the time from 1748 through 1754, during which virtually all gypsies were imprisoned by the Spanish government, with no possibility of release without converting to Catholicism, and meeting certain other criteria.  There is one main story, that of Caridad and Milagros, their friendship and their interactions with other.  There are other subplots, including the enmity between the Vegas and the Garcias, the tobacco trade (legal and illegal), and Caridad's relationship with Melchor.  This book is very long, and it's a slow read; don't start it unless you have an hour to meet all of the characters and begin to see where the story is going.  It's not the type of book you can read in 10 minute intervals, but it is good enough to make you want to continue reading it.  I was somewhat surprised to note that it was originally written in Spanish and translated into English; the translator is to be commended, because the verbiage never feels clumsy, as sometimes happens in translations.  3.5/5

Note: I received this book from Blogging for Books for this review.  All opinions are my own.

Thorsday Book Review: The Kitchen Boy

Once again, this is a gem of a find at a used book sale.  I love historical fiction, and I don't know of anyone who doesn't have some interest in the story of Nicholas and Alexandra.

THE KITCHEN BOY
by Robert Alexander

Chicago, around 1990: An old man writes a letter to his beloved granddaughter, the only child of his only son, now dead.  His wife has recently died, and the old man wishes to tell his granddaughter the story of his life and that of her grandmother.

Russia, 1917: Leonka is a 14 year old kitchen boy, one of the few servants to Nicholas and Alexandra after the overthrow of their monarchy.  Working in the kitchen, one day he is given a note concealed within a milk bottle's cork, with direction to take it to the Czar.  The note, written in French, has been delivered by the nuns who supply fresh milk and eggs to the royal family, and has information about a plot by some loyal officers to aid the Romanovs in escaping; Leonka dutifully delivers it to the Czar's personal physician for transmittal to Nicholas.  The story only occurs during the 3 months or so when the Romanovs were in captivity before their execution, and meanders through Leonka's interactions with the family, with the nuns who were delivering the messages, and with the other staff in the house, as well as with the guards.  Other details, including Alexandra and the girls stitching their gems into their corsets and even Nicholas' cap, are woven throughout the story, making it feel very real.  At times, there is a break from the story, as the old man stops to collect his thoughts and reflect upon what he's trying to do.  Of course, we all know how this story ends.

Or do we?  There is a twist at the end, involving the body of one of the Duchesses falling off the truck taking them for burial.  But is that the truth?  We all know that one of the daughters' bodies was not buried with the rest of the family, which leads to the story of the Grand Duchess Anastasia suddenly appearing in Europe some years after the family was executed.  This was a very well written book, with a great deal of attention paid to actual historical detail, and enough story woven into it to make it a good page turner.  5/5

Thorsday Book Review: A 2014 Reading Recap

I read a lot in 2014.  Some of it was due to my dearly beloved's illness (I couldn't sleep 16 hours a day, after all), and some due to just "I want to read."  About half of these books were Kindle books, many were from the shelves on my house - used book sale finds, recent or long ago, and one was a gift from the ever delightful Pam at Sidewalk Shoes!  (OK, I won it in her drawing, but that counts as a gift).  Of course, there were a number of books I gave as gifts, and I "had" to read those, as well; we wouldn't want to give anyone a dud, would we?

So, in approximate order of reading, my 2014 reading list:

1. George Washington's Secret Six by Brian Kilmeade and Dan Yaeger 5/5
2. The Ming Storytekkers by Laura Rahme 3/5
3. Titanic Deception by John & Toni Rakestraw 3/5
4. Tolstoy Lied by Rachel Kaplish 3/5
5. The Custom of the Country by Edith Wharton 2/5
6. The Financier by Theodore Dreiser 4/5
7. The Secessionist by John Frye 4/5
8. Murder on the Rocks by Karen MacInerny 4/5
9. The Barker's Dozen by Robert Warr 5/5
10. Scent of Gardenia by Dick C. Waters 3/5
11. 64 by Patrick Hurley 3/5
12. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee 5/5
13. A Thistle in the Mist by Megan Denby 4/5
14. The Mystery Box by Eva Pohler 3/5
15. Play Him Again by Jeffrey M. Stone 5/5
16. An American Outlaw by John Stonehouse 4/5
17. The Vengeance by Patrick Hurley 4/5
18. Enemy in the Room by Parke4r Hudson 5/5
19. The Story of the Human Body by Daniel E. Leiberman 4/5
20. The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton 3/5
21. Famous by Kate Langdon 4/5
22. Ceremony of the Innocent by Taylor Caldwell 2/5
23. A Field Guide to American Houses by Virginia Savage McAlester 5/5
24. Tangled Roots by Angela Henry 4/5
25. Cold Mountain by Charles Frasier 5/5
26. Dead End Job by Ingrid Reinke 4/5
27. Murder on the Mind by L. L. Bartlett 3/5
28. The Assassination by Patrick Hurley 3/5
29. ...And Ladies of the Club... by Helen Hooven Santmeyer 5/5
30. Tender Deceit by H. Y. Hanna 5/5
31. The Housewife by Patrick Hurley 3/5
32. The Redemption by Patrick Hurley 3/5
33. Tin City Tinder by David MacInnis Gill 4/5
34. A Dignified Exit by John Asher 5/5
35. This Side of Paradise by F. Scott Fitzgerald 2/5
36. A Hardboiled Murder: An Aggie Underhill Mystery by Michelle Ann Hollister 4/5
37. The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd 5/5
38. The Dogs of Babel by Carolyn Parkhurst 1/5
39. Shane by Jack Schaefer40. The Big Fat Surprise by Nina Teichholz 5/5
40. Death Waltz in Vienna by Thomas Ochittree 3/5
41. The Company You Keep by Angela Henry 4/5
42. Little Girl Gone by Brett Battles 5/5
43. Apron Strings by Mary Morony 4/5
44. Jet - Ops Files by Russell Blake 3/5
45. Chasing the Sun by Natalia Sylvester 4/5
46. Noble Intentions by L. T. Ryan 4/5
47. Factory Man by Beth Macy 5/5
48. A Pedigree to Die For by Laurien Berenson 4/5
49. Tender Treachery by H. Y. Hanna 5/5
50. The Bridges of Madison County 5/5
51. The Yellow Room by Mary Roberts Rhinehart 5/5
52. Daughter of the Bamboo Forest by Sheng-Shih Lan 3/5
53. Jet by Russell Blake 4/5
54. Above the Bridge by Deborah Garner 4/5
55. Illuminated by Matt Bromleewe 3/5
56. The Mine by John A. Heldt 4/5
57. Playing Santa by H. Y. Hanna 5/5
58. Playing for Love by H. Y. Hanna 5/5
59. Playing to Win by H. Y. Hanna 5/5
60. Fallen Angel by Tracy Chevalier 3/5
61. Savannah Project by Chuck Barrett 3/5
62. Winter's Bone by Daniel Woodrell 4/5
63. The Penguin Who Knew Too Much by Donna Andrews 5/5

(Yes, books are everywhere in my house!)
So, there you have it: a year's worth of reading.   How was your year in reading?

Veteran's Day

Happy Veteran's Day, once known as Armistice Day.  It's time to remember our soldiers and sailors, present and past; I'm sure many families, like mine, have veterans somewhere back in the line.  To those who are currently serving, thank you.

This book seemed appropriate for Veteran's Day.  I just bought it a few weeks back, and happened to pick it up to read last week.

HOTEL NO THE CORNER OF BITTER AND SWEET
by Jamie Ford
copyright 2009

It's 1986, and Henry Lee, whose wife of 30 years recently died, happened upon a crowd at the Panama Hotel in Seattle, where the long-forgotten belongings of Japanese families sent to internment camps during World War II, have just been found.  The hotel's been boarded up all of these years, and a paper parasol being displayed causes Henry to recall events of forty years earlier.

In 1942, Henry, the 12 year old son of Chinese immigrants, is attending a private school in Seattle, as a scholarship student.  This causes the other kids in Chinatown to shun him, calling him a White Ghost.  The white students at school either ignore him or pick on and bully him.  His only friend is a black saxophone player, who plays on the street and sometimes in clubs for a living.  As part of Henry's scholarship package, he works in the cafeteria, helping Mrs. Beatty, a bruiser of a no-nonsense woman, to serve lunch, and cleaning up alone afterward.  Then, one day, a Japanese girl appears to help in the cafeteria.  This girl, Keiko, becomes Henry's only friend at school, despite the fact that he knows his father would vehemently disapprove.

Henry's parents speak only Chinese, and while they speak to him in Chinese, he is expected to answer them in English: "Use your American!" is his father's favorite phrase.  His father also makes him wear a button on his lapel which declares "I am Chinese," an ominous portent of things to come.  It is expected that Henry will go to school through 8th grade in America, and then "go home" to his father's village in China to finish his education - a place Henry's never been, for an education he doesn't want.  His father keeps track of Japan's defeats and victories in the war, because in his mind Japan is always the enemy; he fled China to escape Japan's bombings, after all.

Against this backdrop, Henry and Keiko become best friends; he meets her family and is treated kindly by her parents.  They walk home together each day, parting at the border between Nihonmachi - her neighborhood - and Chinatown.  They listen to Sheldon play his sax.  They behave like normal friends, even developing a pre-teen love attachment.

And then the internment order comes.  One day, Henry finds Keiko and her family being loaded on a train for a camp south of Seattle, and he's devastated.  Mrs. Beatty displays astonishing kindness to him, enabling Henry to find Keiko, and stay in contact with her through the war.

This book reminded me of Veteran's Day because of the lengthy descriptions of the rounding up of Japanese-American families, many of whom were second or third generation American born.  The attitudes of the soldiers working at the camps, the feelings Henry displayed, the eagerness of the Japanese-Americans to sign up for the US Army and prove their value to their country.  All of these things haunted me as much as Henry's loss, and the still-fresh hurt, 40 years later.  "His father had once said the the hardest choices aren't between what's right and what's wrong, but between what's right and what's best..."  And so had gone Henry's life.

So when he took his son, just graduating from college, to the Panama Hotel to see if Keiko's things were still there, his son, who wasn't particularly close or seemingly sympathetic to Henry, helped him to find what he sought - even though Henry didn't even know he was looking.

A moving story from beginning to end - and I cried through the last 30 pages or so. 5/5, enthusiastically.

So, Happy Veteran's Day, everyone, with an unusual salute to Veterans past and present.

Thorsday Book Review

This was another library used book sale find.  I enjoyed the movie, and so I had to have the book.

THE BRIDGES OF MADISON COUNTY
by Robert James Waller
copyright 1992
171 pages

The opening of this book sets it up as if it's a real story; the children of a woman recently deceased presents letters and other personal items to a writer, and asks him to write their mother's story, and find the man in the story.

Set during a hot week in August, 1965, Robert Kincaid is a National Geographic photographer assigned to photograph the seven covered bridges in Madison County, Iowa.  During the road trip from his home in Washington, he finds several other sites he'd like to photograph at some point.  Upon his arrival in Iowa, he seeks directions to the bridges, but one is elusive - until he sees a farm wife outside her house, and pulls into the driveway to ask directions.

Francesca Johnson is the Iowa farm wife.  She was a war bride from Italy who took the best of the options remaining for her after World War II.  Her husband and children were showing steer at the state fair during the week, leaving her relatively free.  The photographer who pulls into her driveway is unlike anyone she knows - a "hippie", as he's called by the townsfolk.  She takes him to find the last bridge, just down the road, and invites him to dinner.  The relationship blossoms from there.

You know from the beginning of the book where this is going, and that makes it all the more poignant.  There are chapters at the end which show what happened after that week, and how bittersweet life can be.  "The old dream were good dreams; they didn't work out, but I'm glad I had them."

This book haunted me for a couple of days.  It made me more mindful of just how fortunate my life has been, and how fragile and fleeting happiness can be.  The movie was good, and the book far better.  5/5

Happy Thorsday, everyone!

Thorsday Book Review on Saturday!

I know this is way out of character for me.  Wednesday our water heater sprung a leak (and didn't get replaced until Friday), and Thursday I had to take Mark for a flu shot (we parents got ours at the pharmacy last week).  So here I am, finally getting to my Thorsday Book Review.

Our oldest son, the finance professor, has had a long running dispute with his parents as to whether globalization and moving all of our manufacturing overseas is a good thing.  He says it's better for everyone to get cheaper stuff, and we say that those people who worked in manufacturing can't buy the cheaper stuff without those good jobs.  Service jobs can never pay as much, and not everyone is college material.  Sorry that's not politically correct, but it's the truth.  It's also the truth that not everyone can get an education in the "STEM" fields - science, technology, engineering, math.  Some people's brains just aren't wired that way.  Anyway, this book was reviewed in the Wall Street Journal a couple of months back, I bought it, my dearly beloved read it and sent it on to our son, so I had to buy a second copy for myself.  And now I can review it for you.

FACTORY MAN
by Beth Macy
copyright 2014


This book takes a look at globalization from the point of view of the affected: the factory owners and workers.

Beth Macy states that this book started as the story of how the recession affected ordinary people and displaced workers; when she started it, of the articles published about the recession, 98% told the story from the point of view of big business and the Obama administration, and only 2% about the people affected. This book certainly addresses that imbalance. The opening paragraph in chapter 1:

"Once in a reporter's career, if one is very lucky, a person like John D. Bassett III comes along. JBIII is inspirational. He's brash. He's a sawdust-covered, good old boy from rural Virginia, a larger-than-life rule breaker who for more than a decade has stood almost single-handedly against the outflow of furniture jobs from America.
"'He's an as****e!' more than one of his competitors barked...."

Early on, Beth Macy quotes Thomas Friedman from his book The World is Flat: "Globalization saved American consumers roughly $600 billion, extended more capital to businesses to invest in new innovations and helped the Federal Reserve hold interest rates down, which in turn gave American a chance to buy or refinance homes." This is my son's argument also; however, my point has been that those former furniture workers in Bassett, Virginia can't buy those terrific cheap goods without the furniture jobs to pay for said goods.

"To most economists, factory work was a throwback. It was still okay to work in health care, retail, recreation, insurance, hotels and haircuts. But it wasn't cool anymore to actually make stuff." As a result, 5 million factory jobs have been eliminated since 2000. There are an awful lot of people out there who don't want to go on to college for whatever their reasons: financial, inability or simple lack of interest - maybe they like making or fixing things. But increasingly, there's no place for them to make a good middle class living. This book looks at some of those people.

But it does take a while to get to that point. Beth Macy starts out looking at the history of the Bassett family, from their settlement in Henry County in 1791, through the Civil War, when the extended family had over 21,000 acres of land; then through the period of trying to figure out how to make a living, initially by sawing lumber for the railroads, then through a sawmill, and finally to making furniture. It details the history of the founding of and expansion of the Bassett Furniture Company, and the family's assistance to other relatives in starting furniture companies of their own in southern Virginia. The book covers the feud between John Bassett ("JBIII") and his brother-in-law, ultimately leading to JBIII's founding of the Vaughn Bassett furniture company, and his strike against the Chinese furniture companies copying his designs and dumping them inexpensively - below cost to manufacture - in America.

I don't know that this book alone would change the minds of people who believe that we ought not to manufacture things here. And I certainly don't think that we could continue to employ the vast numbers of people in manufacturing that once held such jobs - automation will always preclude that. I also question whether Western companies should move their production to wherever the labor costs are cheapest, at the expense of their own countrymen's financial well being. But this book does give a rarely-expressed look into the subject, and is well worth the read.  5/5

(There was one more thing that made me want to read this book.  Back in 1986, we made an offer on one of the Bassett family houses in Bassett, Virginia, which is mentioned in this book.  It was initially accepted, and the acceptance was rescinded, because our offer was 1/3 of what the Bassett heirs had claimed the house was worth when  they donated it to a college in Virginia.  Reading what has happened to Bassett, I'm not sorry we don't live there.)

AND, the final item: My giveaway of The Yellow Room.  I had two people who wanted it: Audrey and Pam in Oregon.  Audrey, you can have it; just leave me your address (which I will delete as soon as I read it) so I can contact you.  And Pam, I have another book I think you will enjoy, and I'll send that to you, if you give me your address!

Happy Weekending, everyone!

Thorsday Book Review: The Yellow Room

Mary Roberts Rinehart would have been a remarkable woman, indeed, a remarkable man, at any time.  She was the wife of a wealthy doctor who lost most of his net worth in the stock market crash of 1903.  She began writing, publishing 45 short stories in the next few years, and her first novel in 1908, which earned her the amount her husband had lost, about $100,000, in the next year.  She was considered the "American Agatha Christie", and wrote many books and plays.  One of the interesting things about her books is that they are all written at the time in which they are set, providing us with interesting glimpses of life in a time long gone.

(It's the top book; I bought it back in May, at a used book sale.)


THE YELLOW ROOM
by Mary Roberts Rinehart
copyright 1945

Carol Spencer, polished young lady from New York, is aboard a train for Newport, Rhode Island, with her mother.  They will be visiting with Carol's sister and her family for a few days, after which Carol will leave to open the family's summer house in Maine a few weeks before everyone else joins her.  Carol had not expected to return to Maine again, since her fiance had been killed in the war, but her mother urged her to carry on.  So off to Maine Carol went with her maid in tow.  The housekeeper and groundskeeper seemed to be otherwise occupied, and the house wasn't ready for her.  After she got into the house, Carol discovered that the yellow bedroom was locked; inside it was the body of a young woman.  Who was she, and why was she in Carol's house?  The townsfolk were behaving strangely; why?  And her late fiance's father was also acting peculiarly; again, why?  Set in the midst of World War II, this was a fine mystery.  5/5

As a side note, I wonder if we don't remember Mrs. Rinehart's name the way we remember Agatha Christie because she didn't have recurring detectives such as Poirot or Miss Marple.  Each of her stories has its own distinct cast of characters and settings, making it harder for her to remain in the public eye for nearly 100 years, as Agatha Christie has.  Interesting.

Now, in case anyone is interested, I have two copies of the book.  I'll send one to someone!  Tell me why you want it, and I'll choose a name next Thorsday!

Happy Friday, everyone!

Thorsday Book Review: Tender Treachery

I know it's Friday, but Thursday happened too fast for me.

This is the new book by H. Y. Hanna, second in her "First Love" series.

TENDER TREACHERY
by H. Y. Hanna

This is the follow-up book to Tender Deceit, which I reviewed a couple of months back, written by H. Y. Hanna (also author of the Honey the Great Dane mysteries).  It's pure chick-lit, a light romantic mystery.  Leah has returned to England from Singapore, having tended to her father's funeral, reconnected with her first love, Toran James.  After about 2 months back at her job and life, but still distracted by the thought of Toran, Leah, when offered a promotion at her job, instead quit, packed up and returned to Singapore.  After all, she does have her father's villa, now her own; her childhood best friend Julie is still there, and Toran has been in frequent contact with her, including sending her 2 dozen red roses the day she quit her job.  While it's better to read the first book first, there's enough of a recap in the first couple of chapters to catch you up on what happened in that book.  In the first few days Leah's back in Singapore, she has a quarrel with Julie when she learns the truth about something Julia did (or did not do) 12 years earlier, when Leah's father sent her back to England to finish her schooling.  Then she goes to Toran's apartment, only to find Toran's ex-fiancee, Angela, living there.  She and Angela talk, and Angela confides that she's going to a retreat which she had been investigating for a newspaper article.  The next day, when Leah and Toran are returning to his apartment, Angela's parents are waiting in the hallway for him, distraught that Angela has disappeared.  Leah feels guilty for encouraging Angela to go, gets accepted to this retreat (which, of course, is a cult with nefarious undertones), with the intention of bringing Angela back.  It's a very light mystery, and it's not difficult to see where it's going, but the characters are engaging, and there's enough suspense to keep the reader interested.  And, at the end, there's a hook which will lead into the next book in the series.  Hsin-Yi has proven herself to be an imaginative author, and versatile, moving from her children's books into adult books seamlessly.  If you're looking for light and easy reading, this is a good series.  Only available in Kindle format.  5/5

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

Book Review: The Big Fat Surprise

If you've stopped by at all in the past year, you know that my dearly beloved is now on a heart-friendly diet.  That is a lot harder than it sounds, salads notwithstanding.  Example: There just plain is no good substitute for real, good old fashioned butter.  There might be a tub margarine that has a close enough flavor, but nothing works quite the same for sauteeing, or for baking.

So, one fine Saturday I was reading my Weekend Wall Street Journal, and on the front of the Review section there was an enormous article about the debate between animal fats and other fats, etc.  A week or 2 later, there was a similar article in Time Magazine, stating that fat is not such a villain.  Given both of these articles, I ordered this book, and have spent a couple of months reading it.

THE BIG FAT SURPRISE
By Nina Teicholz

Ancel Keys is the father of the American Heart Association's accepted diet.  This book traces the beginnings of that diet, from his research (which was flawed) through the acceptance of the premise that people should not consume cholesterol from animals.  This was a reversal of his earlier research, which had concluded that consumption of 3000 mg of cholesterol per day didn't significantly raise serum cholesterol, although his reasons for that were not made clear.  The author traces this recommendation from its beginnings through the changes that have come about in commercial food preparation as a result.

I can't begin to do justice to a summary of this book.  I spent 2 months reading it, because there were many studies cited, and I tried to at least look up every one of them, despite the fact that I'm not qualified to properly analyze them.  One thing that I did take away from this book is that the "Obesity Sextette" as it was called in the early 1900s - heart disease, arteriosclerosis, high blood pressure, osteoarthritis, gallstones and diabetes - rose dramatically starting around 1900, when people started using more plant based fats, sugars and carbohydrates.  Actually, I'm now cooking in a state of confusion.

I wasn't certain how qualified Nina Teicholz was to write this book, which evidently began as a research assignment by Gourmet Magazine, for which she was a writer, into trans fats (which raise triglyceride levels in the blood, a big indicator of heart problems), starting in 2004.  But she studied biology at Yale and Stanford, and earned a graduate degree from Oxford, thus I'd conclude that she is probably pretty qualified to analyze this subject.

If food, fats and/or heart disease are of interest to you, I'd highly recommend this book.  It's not difficult or highly technical reading, despite the fact that I made it more complex than it needed to be.We'll see, through my dearly beloved's required many-times-per-year blood testing, how some of my moderate changes in his AHA recommended diet affect him.

This delayed Thorsday book review is brought to you by Natasha, who comes to visit every 2 to 4 weeks, and loves lounging on the lawn!

Thorsday Book Review: Chasing the Sun

It turns out that the "magical book fairy" is none other than our friend Pam at Sidewalk Shoes!  I didn't even know she had my address, so I never knew I'd won her book giveaway.  It was a wonderful time to win, since Ryan was leaving home in August, making it a sad month.

CHASING THE SUN
by Natalia Sylvester

Andres is a successful, self made businessman in Lima, Peru in the 1970s.  He and his wife, Mirabel, have a son and daughter, but their marriage is tense.  About 4 months ago, Mirabel left Andres, but ultimately she returned.  So, after an argument over the phone, Mirabel didn't come home one night.  His anxiety became fear the next day, when he received a telephone call stating that she'd been kidnapped, and the ransom was $1,000,000 - a sum Andres didn't even come close to having.

The first half of the book is told entirely from Andres' point of view, while he's working with a hostage negotiator to secure her release.  During that time, he recalls for us their recent history, along with remembering when and how they met and married.  It all felt really sad, all the more so because during this time he went to visit an old family friend, who had at one time been his girlfriend, who had been kidnapped a couple of years back and was now hospitalized for mental health reasons.  It was enough detail for me to get a sense of the entire history of their relationship, and conclude that Andres and Mirabel should never have married.

This was a very moving and sad book.  It's also scary to think that this sort of thing could have been a common occurrence in a nearby country like Peru (the author notes that this book is based on an event which actually happened in her family).  4/5

Thorsday Book Review: Shane

Well, we got Mark's summer reading list for 10th grade.  Want to see it?

I read Cyrano years ago.  Fan of the story; not a fan of reading plays.  So this one won't be on my to-do list.  But who am I kidding?  I have yet to finish Mark's (or Ryan's) summer reading from last summer.  Life gets in the way and all that.....

But, since I had to take Mark for a football physical, I grabbed this book.  It was short, so I figured, why not?  Worthwhile choice.

SHANE
by Jack Shaefer

This is the story of young Bob Starrett, who lives in Wyoming in the late 1800s, and his parents.  One afternoon, while working with his father, Bob noticed a rider a good distance away, and watched him approach.  The rider asked the favor of Mr. Starrett allowing him and his horse to drink, and introduced himself: "Call me Shane."  Bob's father insisted that Shane stay for dinner, and pass the night in the hired hand's quarters; that night turned into a season for Shane on the Starrett ranch, working the cattle, improving the barn and fences, removing a large stump.  The big rancher across the river, who resented the homesteaders, including the Starretts, and wanted to reclaim their stakes, started causing trouble; Shane found himself right in the middle of it.

This is billed as a teen book, but it didn't feel that way to me.  It's a story about friendship, hard work and loyalty.  I very much enjoyed it.  5/5

Happy Thorsday, everyone!