Memoir #5: The Things They Carried

Author:  Tim O'Brien
Publisher/Format: Mariner Books (2009), Paperback, 256 pages
Subject: memories from the Vietnam War
Genre: short stories/memoir
Source: My own shelves
Challenge: Read from my shelves; War Through the Generations

What a way to honor our Veterans today!   This is a book I read for the Vietnam Reading Challenge sponsored by War Through the Generations.  The author, Tim O'Brien, is featured over there this week as he compares the Vietnam War to today's conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan.  His thoughts are a good addition to what is featured here.

It seems strange to read a book written about death, mire, dismemberment, fear, and squalor and then call it beautiful.  But it is just that.  O'Brien is truly one of today's most gifted writers, giving us the ugliness of war in beautiful eloquent prose.  As he tells the stories of "A" company and his fellow soldiers humping their way through the killing fields of Vietnam, slogging through marshes, creeping blindly through jungles at night, and hiding in pits, we see them as individuals, we feel their fear, their bravado, their anguish and their emotions.  We also see the author's torment as he tries to tell the stories.  Does he give us bare truth?  What is truth?  Should he embellish?  He says:

The truths are contradictory. It can be argued, for instance, that war is grotesque.  But in truth, war is also beauty. For all its horror, you can't help but gape at the awful majesty of combat....It's not pretty exactly, it's astonishing. It fills the eye.  It commands you.  You hate it, yes, but your eyes do not.  Like a killer forest fire, like cancer under a microscope, any battle or bombing raid or artillery barrage has the aesthetic purity of absolute moral indifference--a powerful implacable beauty--and a true war story will tell the truth about this, though the truth is ugly. (pg. 77).

 Each story is a stand-alone, but together they form an aggregate of emotions that help us feel.  We may never have had to endure what they did, but we at least know what they felt as they went through the experience, because the very first story lets us understand that among the things they carried, the heaviest were the fear, the hope, the love, the nostalgia, the loneliness that each young man took with him as he went to war.

If you never read another book about war......any war.....you should read this one.  It is jaw-dropping in its beauty, and that is what is so special: that a subject so ugly can be described in such splendor.

Happy Birthday Marines!

Today is the 235th birthday of the U.S. Marine Corps

During the American Revolution, many important political discussions took place in the inns and taverns of Philadelphia, including the founding of the Marine Corps. 

A committee of the Continental Congress met at Tun Tavern to draft a resolution calling for two battalions of Marines able to fight for independence at sea and on shore.  

The resolution was approved on November 10, 1775, officially forming the Continental Marines. 

As the first order of business, Samuel Nicholas became Commandant of the newly formed Marines. Tun Tavern’s owner and popular patriot, Robert Mullan, became his first captain and recruiter. They began gathering support and were ready for action by early 1776.  

Each year, the Marine Corps marks November 10th with a celebration of the brave spirit which compelled these men and thousands since to defend our country as United States Marines.  From: The Marines, the few, the proud

I can't think of a better way to celebrate this incredible organization than to read about some of its most unforgettable achievements.  Last night I finished a very readable and unforgettable book by a Marine who served in Vietnam. This is actually memoir #5 in my Month of Memoirs.

SEMPER COOL

Author: Barry Fixler
Publisher/Format: Exalt Press (2010), advance galley, 320 pages
Subject: war in Vietnam and the U.S. Marines
Setting: Vietnam
Genre: Memoir
Source: signed copy from the author


Barry Fixler was a fun-loving Long Island teenager when he enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps because his father had admired the Marines so much while he was on duty with the Army during WWII.

Today Fixler is a successful jeweler in Long Island who is the embodiment of the saying "Once a Marine, always a Marine."  His irreverant almost flip style of writing about war actually brings home the horrors he and his fellow Marines endured.  Having lived a rather sheltered and comfortable middle class life, he finds himself enduring the training of Parris Island, Camp Lejeune, and Camp Pendleton before being shipped off to ground combat duty in Vietnam.  He survived 13 months of ferocious and horrific fighting and hardship, including the famous 77 day siege of a hill in Khe Sahn, a battle which many consider one of the greatest battles ever fought by the Marines.

He gives us the raw, unvarnished, gory truth about young men at war. But he also gives us one of the most loving portraits of Marines I've ever read. It is not a book for the squeamish, but he does not dwell on the gore.  He focuses instead on the relationships and lifelong friendships the Corps builds. His engaging style, while earthy, shows why the sub-title is 'fond' memories of Vietnam. The experience is engraved in his mind and heart forever.

Fixler is donating 100% of the profits from the sales of this book (pub date: Dec 1) to help Marines who are combat casualties of today's wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The story of his life today, and his efforts on behalf of these wounded warriors is only a few short chapters at the end of the book, but they are as powerful as the earlier, easy to read, sometimes laugh out loud adventures of this young and brash teenager who returned home in one piece as a confident mature adult, and who has never forgotten the lessons of comradeship and devotion to duty that were inculcated in him by the Corps.

Thanks Barry for a terrific book, and for showing us that war can be horrible, but honorable service to one's country can build fond memories.  Semper Fi and Happy Birthday!

I received this book as a participant in the War Through the Generations challenge.  Barry Fixler was kind enough to provide a copy for every participant in the challenge.  It's been an incredible year reading about the history, battles, and politics of that conflict, and anyone wanting to understand the role of Marines in Vietnam will enjoy this book.

Review: The School of Essential Ingredients

Author: Erica Bauermeister
Publisher/Format:New York : G. P. Putnam's Sons, c2009. 256 pages
Characters: Lillian, Abuelita, assorted students
Subject: food, cooking and life
Setting:Lillian's restaurant
Genre: fiction
Source: Member Giveaway program on LibraryThing

This is a lovely book, an easy read, and one that is sure to be enjoyed by all but the hardest hearted. There are hundreds of reviews written for this one, so I don't need to add to that corpus. Suffice it to say that it brings together an interesting range of people who are at various stages of life -- from a recent high school graduate who has very low self-esteem and a somewhat manipulative boyfriend to an elderly dear on the cusp of dementia, mixed with a couple recovering from an affair, a mother trying to find herself, a widower still grieving for his deceased wife, an immigrant trying to find the food of her childhood, and a young geek who received the enrollment in the class as a gift from his mother.  They come to a cooking class with a variety of expectations.

Lillian the instructor doesn't teach recipes, she helps her students get through life by introducing them to 'the essential ingredients' - both of food and life. It's a quiet, soothing, gentle but stunning book. It's been sitting on my shelf for over a year - I got it through Member Giveaway program on LibraryThing sometime late in 2009. I'm so glad I finally pulled it down from that shelf to read.

Monday Mailbox - November 8th

It's Mailbox Monday, a fun weekly meme started by Marcia at The Printed Page. Mailbox Monday is now is on blog tour—this month, it’s hosted by Julie at Knitting and Sundries.  Just as the post office or mailbox is a place to gather to share the news, this gives readers  a chance to share the books that came into their house last week. So be sure to drop over there and see what everybody else got in the mail.

Once again, I've been blessed with an abundance of quality over quantity.  Here's what the delivery trucks dropped at my door :

The Last Brother by

Nathacha Appahah

This lovely small novel arrived as a result of a request I made after seeing it on Shelf Awareness.  This small non-profit publisher has some gorgeous volumes in its collection, and this one promises to be another winner. The blurb:

In the remote forests of Mauritius, young Raj is almost oblivious to the Second World War raging beyond his tiny exotic island. With only his mother for company while his father works as a prison guard, solitary ever since his brothers died years ago, Raj thinks only of making friends. One day, the far-away world comes to Mauritius, and Raj meets David, a Jew exiled from his home in Europe and imprisoned in the camp where Raj's father works. David becomes the friend that he has always longed for, a brother to replace those he has lost. Raj knows that he must help David to escape. As they flee through sub-tropical landscapes and devastating storms, the boys battle hunger and malaria - and forge a friendship only death can destroy. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

My Reading Life
by Pat Conroy

What a Difference a Dog Makes 

by Dana Jennings

Here are two I received from Liz at Doubleday to review and offer for giveaways. You can enter here to win a copy of that darling doggie and go here for the contest to win a copy of the great new one from Pat Conroy.

I can't wait to read all of these.  Now I need to go see what everyone else got.

What was in your mailbox this week?

Let the Cookies Begin - Weekend Cooking

It's a drizzly, foggy, rainy autumn day here in Maine - perfect for baking cookies.  Beth Fish Reads sponsors this weekly meme where we foodies can chat about cookbooks, cooking gadgets, recipes, or anything else gustatory. Be sure to stop over there to find other terrific weekend cooking posts.

Today's post is brought to you by the lowly but luscious persimmon.  Many of you are already puckering up your faces because this gorgeous fruit (or berry) is generally perceived as bitter and un-edible.  Think again.  Here's a quick lesson from Wikipedia:

A persimmon is the edible fruit of a number of species of trees in the genus Diospyros in the ebony wood family (Ebenaceae). The word Diospyros means "the fruit of the gods" in ancient Greek.^[1] As a tree, it is a perennial plant. The word persimmon is derived from putchamin, pasiminan, or pessamin, from Powhatan, an Algonquian language (related to Blackfoot, Cree and Mohican) of the eastern United States, meaning "a dry fruit".^[2] They are high in glucose, with a balanced protein profile, and possess various medicinal and chemical uses.

Now that we have that straight, let's quickly add that for this recipe, I've always used the Japanese Hachiya variety seen here- they are conical in shape as opposed to the Fuyu variety which is more round like an apple. Either variety works, but the Hachiya seems to yield more pulp.
   
40 some years ago, when I first married Mr. Tutu, his mother (may she enjoy eternal happiness in heaven) gave me this recipe indicating it was among her son's favorites.  To this day, neither of us can pass the produce department anyplace and not pick up persimmons if they're available.  They are generally in the stores in Nov-Dec, so these cookies are a notable feature of any Tutu cookie collection.  Earlier this week two of these beauties arrived at our house and have been ripening  ever since. This morning they were pronounced perfect to go, the recipe card was produced, the cookie sheets coated with parchment paper, and the glorious aroma of cloves, freshly grated nutmeg, and cinnamon began wafting through the air.

The hardest part of the whole recipe is keeping our hands off the just baked cookies until they have cooled enough to avoid burning our mouths. I wish there was someway to have this plate send the wonderful aroma out to the blogosphere. I guess you'll just have to make them yourself. They won't win any beauty contests, but they never stay around long enough to be admired.

 

The Recipe

1 C persimmon pulp (remove pit and cap, then peel VERY ripe fruit)

1 egg

Put these in a blender and puree 

.............................

1/2 C butter (1 stick) 

1 C sugar

Cream these in mixing bowl

............................
2 C all-purpose flour
1 Tsp baking SODA
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp ground cloves
Mix dry ingredients together
..........................................
Add puree and dry ingredients to the creamed butter mixture, mix briefly until everything is incorporated.
Stir in
1 C chopped nuts (pecans or walnuts work best)
1C raisins (the golden ones really look great)

Drop by spoonfuls onto greased cookie sheet (I use parchment paper instead of greasing)

Bake 20 minutes at 325°F.  Makes 5 dozen.  Cool on wire rack before eating.  If there are any left on the plate at the end of the day, store in cool, dry cookie jar.  They freeze well also.

Another Terrific Giveaway - My Reading Life!

 

Liz at Doubleday must be reading my mind these days!  I'm having such a great time reading memoirs and now comes a memoir on reading from one of my favorite authors - Pat Conroy.  Here's what the publisher has to say about this:

Starting as a childhood passion that bloomed into a life-long companion, reading has been Conroy's portal to the world, both to the furthest corners of the globe and to the deepest chambers of the human soul. His interests range widely, from Milton to Tolkien, Philip Roth to Thucydides, encompassing poetry, history, philosophy, and any mesmerizing tale of his native South. He has for years kept notebooks in which he records words and expressions, over time creating a vast reservoir of playful turns of phrase, dazzling flashes of description, and snippets of delightful sound, all just for his love of language. But reading for Conroy is not simply a pleasure to be enjoyed in off-hours or a source of inspiration for his own writing. It would hardly be an exaggeration to claim that reading has saved his life, and if not his life then surely his sanity.  

Can you blame me for haunting the mailbox for the next week waiting for my review copy?  Anyway, you too could be lucky enough to win one of two copies Liz has made available.  Here's how:

1. For one entry, leave a comment telling me what your favorite Pat Conroy book is.  If you've never read any of his books, go to the left sidebar on Pat Conroy's page and take a look to tell me which one sounds like the one you'd like to start with.
2. For an extra entry, leave a separate comment telling me you're a follower (or become one and let me know).
3. For another entry,  make a separate entry telling me you blogged,( or Tweeted, or any other Social speak you do ) about the giveaway, (sidebars are fine) and LEAVE ME THE LINK to the posting (if I don't get a link, the entry doesn't count).US addresses only, no PO Boxes.
4. You MUST leave me an email address to contact you.  NO EMAIL, NO WIN.
5. Deadline is Nov 26th -11:59 PM.

Many thanks again to Liz at Doubleday for making this one available and good luck.

Giveaway Time!!! What A Difference a Dog Makes

Just In Time for Holiday Gift Giving

What a Difference a Dog Makes

by

Dana Jennings

2 copies available

ABOUT THIS BOOK

A must-read for every dog lover—a short, tender, and uplifting tale of a cancer survivor and the life lessons shared with him by his beloved family dog.

Our dogs come into our lives as “just the family pet,” but before we know it they become drinking buddies and fuzzy shrinks, playmates and Cheerios-munching vacuum cleaners, alarm clocks and sleeping partners. And, in their mys­terious and muttish ways, our dogs become our teachers.

When Dana Jennings and his son were both seriously ill—Dana with prostate cancer and his son with liver failure—their twelve-year-old miniature poodle Bijou became even more than a pet and teacher. She became a healing presence in their lives. After all, when you’re recovering from radical surgery and your life is uncertain, there’s no better medicine than a twenty-three-pound pooch who lives by the motto that it’s always best to play, even when you’re old and creaky, even when you’re sick and frightened.

In telling Bijou’s tale in all of its funny, touching, and neurotic glory, Jennings is telling the story of every dog that has ever blessed our lives. The perfect gift for animal lovers, What a Difference a Dog Makes is a narrative ode to our canine guardian angels.

Here are the rules for the giveaway: 

1. For one entry, leave a comment telling me if you're a dog owner, with dog's name and breed.  If no dogs are in your house, tell about a dog you know.
2. For an extra entry, leave a separate comment telling me you're a follower (or become one and let me know).
3. For another entry,  make a separate entry telling me you blogged,( or Tweeted, or any other Social speak you do ) about the giveaway, (sidebars are fine) and LEAVE ME THE LINK to the posting (if I don't get a link, the entry doesn't count).US addresses only, no PO Boxes.
4. You MUST leave me an email address to contact you.  NO EMAIL, NO WIN.
5. Deadline is Nov 19th -11:59 PM.

Many thanks again to Liz at Doubleday for making this one available and good luck.

Winners and Review: At Home

Subtitle: A Short History of Private Life
Author:  Bill Bryson
Publisher/Format: Doubleday (2010), Hardcover, 512 pages  
Subject: Everything
Setting: the world
Genre: non-fiction- narrative history
Source: publisher review copy

Only Bill Bryson can set out to take us on a tour of an old English parsonage (vintage 1860ish) and end up giving us a two semester history course covering at least 4 centuries.

He takes each space in the house, begins by telling us how it was used, but then ventures off on a guided tour of everything remotely associated with that room.  Hallways become an excuse to talk about building materials and techniques (brick making, concrete pouring), bathrooms yield us an entire story of man's dealings with human waste and the diseases that result from poor handling of same; bedrooms become  the excuse for a story of man's attempts to live privately, kitchens give us lessons in cooking, utensils, fire and cooking methods as well as food preservation; sitting rooms give us the history of servants and their lives, etc.

At 512 page this qualifies as a clunkster, but a delightful one.  Fortunately, it does not have to be read straight through.  It is actually best read one chapter (and they're fairly lengthy ones) at a time, with another book in between.  Altogether, when finished, the reader is certainly a more educated person, and has thousands of pieces of trivia to drop at one's next kiddie playdate, cocktail party, or at the family Thanksgiving table when Uncle Fred starts slobbering in the cranberry sauce.

I love Bill Bryson and this is one of his best.  So without further ado  here are

The Winners

Esme 

&

Irene

I'll be sending them an email today and they will have until 8:00pm Tuesday November 2nd to get back to me with their email addresses or I'll have to pick another winner.  Congratulations to both winners, and many thanks to everyone for entering. 

Memoir #4 - The Other Wes Moore: One Name, Two Fates

Author: Wes Moore
Publisher/Format: Spiegel & Grau (2010), E-book, 256 pages
Characters: Wes Moore, Wes Moore
Subject: Growing up black male in America
Setting: Baltimore, Bronx, Valley Forge PA
Genre: Memoir
Source: e book download from public library


Last week our public library began offering patrons the opportunity to download e-books that can be read on the computer or transferred to various e-readers.  I wanted to test the technology, and read something in this format to see whether I'd really be happy if Santa brought an e-reader.  As I was browsing through over 1000 books available in this initial offering, I found this book set in Baltimore that seemed to fit perfectly into my current "Month of Memoirs" reading.

I grew up and went to school in Baltimore and the short length of this book made this a perfect trial.  Besides, it was a well-written and poignant story.  Wes Moore is the name of two different black men who were both born in Baltimore, who both lost their fathers at a very early age, and who were raised by hard-working single mothers.  They each had siblings, they both were encouraged to stay in school, they both had early run-ins with law enforcement, but one of them became a Rhodes scholar and intern to Condeleeza Rice, the other is spending the rest of his life in a maximum security prison without hope of parole for his part in a robbery gone bad in which a Baltimore policeman was killed.

The two did not know each other until the author read about the arrest of the other Wes Moore. As he heard about the background of the suspect/later convicted felon, he began to ponder the similarities in their lives and asked himself what made the difference in their lives.  His initial letter to Wes the prisoner led to many visits where the two men began to delve into their backgrounds and differences.  Wes the prisoner blames no one but himself.  Wes the journalist is able to see how the strong male role models in his life, and the chances he was afforded because of those men, gave him opportunities which he was fortunate enough to take advantage of.  Both men agree that a country that values youth, instead of fearing them, that helps them look at a future that has options will help youth overcome the helplessness so many feel today.

Wes the author was fortunate enough to have grandparents who mortgaged their house to pay  his tuition to a private military academy after he got into trouble in the public schools.  He hated it at first, but eventually flourished under the structure and discipline and mentoring of the military veterans who ran the school.  He quotes one of his role models at the school:

When it is time for your to leave this school, leave this job or leave this earth, you make sure that you have worked hard enough to make sure that it mattered that you were even here."
The author goes on to add "...the notion that life is transient, that it can come and go quickly...has been with me since I had seen my father die....the idea of life's impermanence underlined everything for kids my age--it drove some of us to a paralyzing apathy, stopped us from even thinking too far into the future."

Neither Wes has a definitive answer why each made the choices he did.  Wes the prisoner has embraced Islam, and is accepting of his fate.  He sees his four children occasionally, but finds those visits only amplify his sense of helplessness in being able to influence their lives.  Wes the author is enjoying a successful career as a journalist, served with the Army in Afghanistan, and as been fortunate enough to have adventures around the world.

The book has an extensive appendix listing programs that help youth at risk, and urges adults to become involved.  It is left for the reader to decide the reasons for the different paths of each,  and to decide how he or she can help.

A note on the e-book format:  I found this format not as onerous as I'd expected, although I think it will be much more comfortable on an e-reader than having to sit with a lap-top screen.  I found I could not read for longer than about 30 minutes at a stretch.  The software and download program were quite easy to use, and I like being able to grab a book on a moment's notice without having to go to the library or bookstore. I'm sure if I get an e-reader, I'll certainly be able to use it, although I'll never be able to give up print or audio books.

Memoir #3: The Captain's Log

subtitle: Around the world with Cruise Captain

Author: Hans Mateboer
Publisher/Format: Captains Publishing, Charlotte NC, trade pprbck 230 pgs  
Subject: Cruise ship sailing
Setting: various ports of call
Genre: memoir a la sea stories
Source: my shelves (purchased from the author)

This was an thoroughly enjoyable read. As many of you know, my spouse is a retired Navy ship captain, so I am used to hearing "sea stories." However, his tales are always centered around those haze-grey vessels with guns, and rockets, etc. Captain Mateboer was the Captain on the cruise ship we sailed last summer. He and hubbie managed to trade a few sea stories, and he signed our copy of his adventures.

The book is written as a series of discrete vignettes-- perfect short 'sea stories': the adventures of a young boy yearning to go to sea, his early travels and employment aboard cargo ships; meeting his wife on a cruise; trying to dock a ship in a foreign port when the locals were on strike; mistaking passengers for terrorists; playing practical jokes on other crew members; putting sick passengers ashore; fending off lonely women; dealing with stowaways; entertaining both big wigs and treasured friends.

A different style of memoir, but one that was quite familiar in a cherished tradition.

Memoir #2: The Color of Water

Author: James McBride
Publisher/Format: Riverhead Trade (2006), Paperback, 352 page
also audio: Phoenix Books, narrated by Andre Braugher and Lanie Kazan
Subject: tribute to a mother
Setting: The Bronx, Suffolk VA,
Genre: memoir
Source: public library

Another outstanding memoir. This is the November read for our book discussion group. I read the print, and listened to portions of it while in the pool. Andre Braugher and Lanie Kazan do a truly devoted job of reading this one.

James McBride tells us the story of growing up black, in Harlem, then in projects in the Bronx. Raised by his white mother (his black father died before he was born) and black step-father, he was one of 12 children. He describes a loving family life, where children were expected to be successful, respectful, and STAY IN SCHOOL. Children were due in the house by 5:00 in the evening, and slept 5 to a bed. Dinner might often be a jar of peanut butter or several spoons of sugar.  He never met his mother's family and did not discover until he had completed his master's in Journalism at Columbia U, and decided to write a tribute to his mother, that she was Jewish, that her family had disowned her, that her father was an orthodox Jewish rabbi who sexually abused her, and  just how hard her life had been.

The story is told both in the son's and the mother's voices. It is very well-written, and gives us an incredible insight into each mind. James' father was a preacher, and his mother converted to Christianity and insisted on church attendance and prayer from all her children. As he begins to realize that his mother is different from other mothers, he asks her "Is God Black?" "NO" she answers. "Well is he white?" Mom replies in the negative. Still the young boy persists. "Well what color is he?" "The color of water." I just loved that image, and fell in love with this family.

As he lovingly recounts his search for his mother's family, and helps her confront a past she has repressed, he comes to an acceptance of his Jewishness, his multi-cultural roots, and gives us a picture of an exceptional family. In the epilogue he gives us a breakdown of the incredible achievements of them all. Every one of the 12 graduated from college. There are two doctors, school teachers, musicians, journalists, nurses, artists, and the mother completes her degree in her late 60's.

It's a tribute any mother would be proud to have her son write.

Memoir #1: Persepolis

Author:  Marjane Satrapi
Publisher/Format: Pantheon (2004), Paperback, 160 pages; graphic format
Characters: Marjane and her parents
Subject: life in revolutionary Iran
Setting: Iran 1970s amd 1980s
Series: 1st of two volumes
Genre: Memoir; autobiography
Source: Public library

Using the graphic (or as some would call it "comic book" format) Marjane Satrapi is able to give us a very detailed depiction of her life in Iran during the Islamic revolution of the late 1970's.  She manages a brief history of the country, an explanation of the government(s) and provides us telling details of what life was like for an impressionable and well-educated young woman before and after "the veil."  The only child of well educated parents, who strongly believed in the future of Iran as a democracy (not a theocracy) she is exposed to an adult perspective at an earlier age than many of her classmates, but still manages to let us know that this is a young, frightened girl who is struggling to comprehend the many changes taking place in her country.

The graphic format works well to convey the sometimes brutal reality of her world and her writing presents the reader with a very personal and enlightening glimpse into an often under-understood piece of history.

Monday Mailbox

It's Mailbox Monday, a fun weekly started by Marcia at The Printed Page. Mailbox Monday is now on tour at She Reads and Reads this month.  Just as the post office or mailbox is a place to gather to share the news, this gives readers  a chance to share the books that came into their house last week.

My mailbox has been relatively empty these past few weeks....it's OK!  The ones I've gotten have been spectacular and I'm really excited about all of them.

First I got two books to review for contests:

These two are currently up for grabs in contests.  I'm about 1/2way through At Home, and it's vintage Bryson. Click here to enter.

Running the Books has a really interesting story to tell, and was a welcome addition to my Month of Memoirs list as well as a great giveaway contest.  Enter this one here.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter was a receipt from the Early Reviewers program at LibraryThing.com. 

The publisher calls it "...an atmospheric drama set in rural Mississippi. In the late 1970s, Larry Ott and Silas "32" Jones were boyhood pals. Their worlds were as different as night and day: Larry, the child of lower-middle-class white parents, and Silas, the son of a poor, single black mother. Yet for a few months the boys stepped outside of their circumstances and shared a special bond. But then tragedy struck: Larry took a girl on a date to a drive-in movie, and she was never heard from again. She was never found and Larry never confessed, but all eyes rested on him as the culprit. The incident shook the county—and perhaps Silas most of all. His friendship with Larry was broken, and then Silas left town. More than twenty years have passed. Larry, a mechanic, lives a solitary existence, never able to rise above the whispers of suspicion. Silas has returned as a constable. He and Larry have no reason to cross paths until another girl disappears and Larry is blamed again. And now the two men who once called each other friend are forced to confront the past they've buried and ignored for decades.

 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

And finally, the postman brought me the newest Jan Karon, In the Company of Others which I had pre-ordered earlier this summer.  It was delivered, as promised, on October 19- the day of publication.  I fell in love with Fr. Tim Kavanagh and all the people of Mitford in Karon's earlier series, and now that she is allowing us to share Fr. Tim's life in retirement, I'm still enamored.  I'm building the anticipation for this one by saving it for our first snowy nite here, so I can curl up and sink into it.

All in all, a pretty good haul this past two weeks....

Running the Books - Giveaway

GIVEAWAY

2 copies available
RUNNING THE BOOKS

the Adventures of an Accidental Prison Librarian

Liz at Random House has a great book for us as a giveaway.  My review copy arrived today and it looks great! This certainly fits well in my with my Month of Memoirs list.  I think it sounds fascinating and can't wait to read it.   I'm sitting on my hands to keep from butting it to the top of the queue, but it's going to be right up there. Here's the blurb:

Avi Steinberg is stumped. After defecting from yeshiva to Harvard, he has only a senior thesis essay on Bugs Bunny to show for his effort. While his friends and classmates advance in the world, he remains stuck at a crossroads, unable to meet the lofty expectations of his Orthodox Jewish upbringing. And his romantic existence as a freelance obituary writer just isn’t cutting it. Seeking direction—and dental insurance—Steinberg takes a job as a librarian in a tough Boston prison.

The prison library counter, his new post, attracts con men, minor prophets, ghosts, and an assortment of quirky regulars searching for the perfect book and a connection to the outside world. There’s an anxious pimp who solicits Steinberg’s help in writing a memoir. A passionate gangster who dreams of hosting a cooking show titled Thug Sizzle. A disgruntled officer who instigates a major feud over a Post-it note. A doomed ex-stripper who asks Steinberg to orchestrate a reunion with her estranged son, himself an inmate. Over time, Steinberg is drawn into the accidental community of outcasts that has formed among his bookshelves — a drama he recounts with heartbreak and humor. But when the struggles of the prison library — between life and death, love and loyalty — become personal, Steinberg is forced to take sides.

Running the Books is a trenchant exploration of prison culture and an entertaining tale of one young man’s earnest attempt to find his place in the world while trying not to get fired in the process.

About the Author: Avi Steinberg was born in Jerusalem and raised in Cleveland and Boston. His work has appeared in the New York Times Magazine, Boston Globe, New York Review of Books, Salon, the Paris Review and the Daily Beast and others. He is both a cat and a dog person.  You can see more raves on the author's homepage.

Here are the rules for the giveaway: 

1. For one entry, leave a comment telling me if you've read any good memoirs recently.
2. For an extra entry, leave a separate comment telling me you're a follower (or become one and let me know).
3. For another entry,  make a separate entry telling me you blogged about the giveaway, (sidebars are fine) and LEAVE ME THE LINK to the posting (if I don't get a link, the entry doesn't count).US addresses only, no PO Boxes.
4. You MUST leave me an email address to contact you.  NO EMAIL, NO WIN.
5. Deadline is Nov 12 -noon EDT.

Thanks again to Liz at Doubleday/Random House for making this one available.

Review: Still Alice

Author: Lisa Genova
Publisher/Format:  audio 7hr, 45min; 320 page equivalent
Narrator: the author
Subject: Early Onset Alzeihmer's Disease
Setting: Cambridge Mass
Genre: fictional memoir
Source: public library

Lisa Genova has given us a thought-provoking, breath-taking novel written as the memoir of a 50 year old college professor who witnesses herself  going through periods of forgetfulness and is then diagnosed with Early Onset Familial Alzheimer's disease.(EOFAD).  As we meet her, Alice Howland is a world renowned professor of linguistic psychology at Harvard.  She begins forgetting appointments, finds herself lost in Harvard square (where she has walked everyday for over 20 years), and begins the process of  watching her mind (and therefore herself) disappear.  She devises 5 questions to ask herself every day so she can see whether she is "still Alice" and has her Blackberry set to remind her of these questions every day.

It is fascinating and gut-wrenching to watch as she deteriorates, and as she helps her family - husband, 2 daughters and a son- cope with her leaving them and with their own possibilities of carrying a genetic marker common to those with EOFAD.  Genova has done her homework and gives us a well researched indication of how the disease is diagnosed, treated, and what clinical trials are in progress.  Alice and her husband (a cancer researcher) are quite energetic in finding out everything they can about the disease and its mind-robbing progression, in looking for any possibility of a cure or at least a slowing of the ongoing loss of memory.

In this beautiful portrait, the science is never allowed to intrude on the human story: the story of a new grandmother struggling to figure out who is this beautiful young mother who is holding the beautiful baby in pink; the story of a wife struggling to help her husband and life-time lover deal with his own doubts and fears of losing her; the story of a mother struggling to accept another previously alienated daughter; the story of a son in medical school who knows first hand what is coming.  Throughout it all, we are able to experience Alice's fears, her loss of speech and thought processes, and the slow uncontrollable down-hill slide to a happy land where she knows she is 'still Alice' but doubts if others know that.

I thought it would be a depressing and discouraging story but it wasn't.  The hope for a future cure, the strides being made in the treatment, and Alice's own recognition of her condition bring the reader to an acceptance of the inevitability of life and its raw deals.  It's a book that should be read by all, not just for the information, but for the beauty of the writing.

I had the opportunity to listen to parts of this as an audio.  Normally I steer clear of books read by the author, but Ms. Genova was quite articulate and soothing. And.....even though it is fiction, and technically not a memoir, the point of view is one, and I'm feeling it is a great way to kick off my month of memoirs.

Review: Eighteen Acres

Author: Nicolle Wallace
Publisher/Format: Atria (2010), Hardcover, 336 pages
Characters: Charlotte, Melanie, Dale
Subject: Women in the White House
Setting: Washington DC
Genre: Fiction
Source: Review copy from publisher
Challenge: ARCs completed

 Last week I read a politico-thriller written by a Washington insider. As you saw in my review I found it not very exciting. So when I read the blurb for this one I thought "Chick-Lit...I'm just SO NOT ready for more Washington DC robo-politicians."   I was not overly inclined to want to read this one, even tho it is being published this week, and I could for once get a review posted on time. I'm so glad I made the effort.

This is the well-constructed story of three women: Charlotte- the President of the United States, her chief of staff, Melanie, and a big network White House reporter Dale.  It just so happens that Dale is secretly having an affair with the first husband, who conveniently is living in Connecticut where the first children are in boarding school. None of this is spoiler -it's put right out there in the first 20 or so pages.  It could easily have gone right into the trash can at this point as just another political soap-opera.  It's NOT.

Wallace does an excellent job of fleshing out these characters: their motivations, their emotions, and their aspirations.  The plot is also tightly drawn, centering around Charlotte--is she going to win re-election for a 2nd term when her popularity is plummeting?  Does she know about her husband's infidelity?  Does anyone besides the Secret Service know? What will happen if the affair becomes public knowledge?  And what is the nature of her relationship with her Secretary of Defense Roger Taylor?  They're always together, and Mrs. Taylor is beginning to resent his absences.

As the players jockey for power and presence, and the polls continue to reflect poor numbers, the war in Afghanistan rages on, and Charlotte and Roger make several trips to visit the troops. Dale lands a highly coveted trip with the presidential entourage, and Melanie is trying to decide if she wants to continue her life in the fast lane after 16 years in DC.

Past this I really don't want to go because it's a great read and I don't want to spoil it.  There are excellent plot twists and surprises, well-written dialogue and realistic DC scenes.  This is definitely not Chick-lit.  It's a well-written novel written by someone who obviously knows her way around the eighteen acres on which the Executive Branch sits in the middle of Washington D.C.

I look forward to more books by Nicole Wallace and thank Atria Books for sending the copy to review. It's on sale this week.

Genre reading

Two of my book clubs are reading memoirs for their next meetings in November. In fact, one of them has left it up to a genre challenge, and we will compare different styles of memoirs. As I scanned my bookshelves, I saw so many candidates that were begging to be read, that I decided to read the two that have been picked : The Color of Water by James McBride, and Persepolis, a graphic novel format of an early childhood in Iran. Then I decided that I would at least read the first 100 pages of several of the rest. My memoir shelf is shown here.

As Soon as I finish the ones I'm currently ending: Bryson's AT HOME, and Ellen Baker's Keeping the House, I'm going to dive into memoirs. Anyone care to join in?

Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void

Author: Mary Roach
Format: Brilliance Audio 10 hr, 27 min; 334 page equivalent
Narrator: Sandra Burr
Subject: difficulties encountered in manned space flight
Genre: non-fiction, investigative narrative
Source: public library download program
Challenge: lifetime read the Dewey Decimal categories (571.092)

Handled by another author, this could have been a dull, gross, and gruesome book full of facts, footnotes, and WAY more information than we might want to have about the various facets of getting human astronauts prepared to go into space.

Roach gives us hilarious examples of almost every problem NASA and other scientists ever had to deal with, along with very detailed scientific explanations in language readers can get their arms around. It's not dumbed-down, but with her deft handling, and bawdy sense of humor, she manages to explain very technical facts in easy to visualize jargon, all the while maintaining the scientist's objectivity.  Somehow what could have become Too Much Information about the dressing, moving, eating, sleeping, and excreting issues of humans in a zero gravity environment become instead a fascinating study of everything (and I mean EVERYTHING) any planner ever needed to consider to ensure the safety of men in space and the success of NASA missions.

I have to be honest and mention that there are sections of this best skipped by those who are exceptionally squeamish or prudish, but most of these are so intriguing that the grossness factor fades as we learn of some of the indignities to which these space heroes were (and are) subjected.

Having lived in Japan for several years, and spent hours helping my children with their origami projects, I was enthralled with the story of Japanese astronaut candidates who are put into an isolation unit for several days, and handed envelopes full of tiny squares of papers.  They are instructed to make 1000 origami cranes and string them on a chain (in the order finished).  Afterwards, psychologists examine the chains to see if these space flyer wannabes exhibit the same patience and attention to detail at the end of this ordeal as at the beginning.  After all, if they're going to have to spend 500 days in a small enclosed space with several others, patience and the ability to follow orders under stress are going to be important.  Somehow, I just can't picture Gus Grissom or John Glenn making 1000 paper cranes.

Mary Roach not only researched her material, she lived and experienced as much of it as she could.  Taking parabolic flights to experience zero gravity (if only for seconds at a time), tasting the food (including dare I say drinking reprossessed urine), trying on different clothing items, sitting for long periods in strange positions, being slammed with many G's, etc.  Her ability to "report" first hand, combined with her delightful and somewhat outlandish sense of humor, makes this a first rate piece of non-fiction.  If you've ever dreamed of floating in space, or hero-worshipped an astronaut, or wondered why on earth NASA needs so much money, this is the book for you. 

I listened to the audio, which was very well done, because the wait for the print book was TOOOO long, but this one is going onto the ebook list as soon as Santa brings me an e-reader for Christmas.  It's a keeper.

Winners!!! The Tower, The Zoo and the Tortoise

Winners!! We have Winners!!

I'm always excited when new followers are rewarded for stopping by and joining in on the blogging fun. And I apologize for not posting this sooner and keeping everyone on the fence.  Our power got knocked out for most of the day by that monster storm that hit us last night, and we've just come back up.  So without further ado, here are the winners!!! 

Bookaddict777

&

ShootingStars Mag

I'll be sending out emails tonite and the winners will have until Tuesday evening October 19th  to get me their mailing addresses.  If I don't hear from them by then, I'll have Random.org pick another winner.

Congratulations to the winners and thanks to everyone who stopped by to enter.  

Many thanks to Judy at Doubleday for offering these for the contest.

Review: Vestments by John Reimringer

Author: John Reimringer
Publisher/Format: Milkweed Editions (2010), Hardcover, 304 pages
Subject: conscience, celibacy, priestly vows
Setting: Minneapolis/St Paul
Genre: Literary Fiction
Source: Review copy from the publisher

John Reimringer has written a stunning debut novel set in the twin cities of Minneapolis/St Paul.  Fr. James Dressler is 30 years old, a catholic priest who has come home to live with his mother for a summer while he decides what to do with his life.  He is struggling with the idea of celibacy, both in the abstract and the physical, and has been banished to the boonies by his bishop because of a momentary lapse with a young woman in the parish.  His only alternative seems to be a job teaching history at a local Benedictine college. In the meantime, he is earning money fixing up old houses with his father, while he watches his grand-father slowly die, and prepares to officiate at his younger brother's wedding.  Meeting his old girlfriend, who is separated from her husband, he once again wrestles with desire and the need for human contact.

There are wonderful backfills of how and why he decided to become a priest, of the lusty, bar-sprawling, blue collar, dysfunctional family he grew up with, of young first love and lover's regrets.  The characters are lushly drawn as are the stories of his childhood and his relationships with various members of his family.  The descriptions of the cities become almost a character of their own.  The influence of the landscape, the factories, the rivers, the entire immigrant culture are woven into a tightly knit fabric of reminiscence.  Multi-layered and multi-faceted, Reimringer's novel gives us a young man struggling to grow up and away from his father, struggling with young love and the decisions required when things don't go well, struggling to get away from the ugliness of a family who only communicate with their fists. The young Jim Dressler is attracted to the calm, quiet and ordered way of life the priesthood seems to offer.

Best of all, Reimringer gives us a portrait of priesthood and the Catholic Church of his childhood (both Dressler's and Reimringer's). It is a church balanced on the tipping point of the post-Vatican II era, where priests are trying to come to grips with change vs. tradition, with a more educated laity, and the reality of life as they grow older and lonelier. In an interview with Eric Forbes of the Good Books Guide blog, Reimringer says

"... I grew up devoutly Catholic, but as I got older I drifted to the left and the Church drifted to the right, and so I was writing in exile from the Catholic Church, which I deeply loved as a child, and whose rituals and people I still deeply love.  The Catholic Mass is one of the most beautiful rituals on the planet, and the average Catholic, parishioner or priest, is ill-served by the Church's leadership these days.  The novel is an elegy for what the Church could be and still occasionally is."

He gives us real people who are priests.   Real men who struggle with all the weaknesses, flaws and failings of themselves and their parishioners.  Real men who play poker, drink scotch, kiss babies, endure soggy sodden food prepared by sullen, disgruntled housekeepers, who go out in all kinds of weather at all hours of the night to offer solace to dying people, and work for hours to deliver decent homilies on Sundays.  He gives us a gut-wrenching picture of the loneliness of life in a rectory and the soaring joy of service to others.  Each priest in the book is an eloquent example of the diversity of the men who have answered the call to this way of life, and the sentiments, motivations, failures and victories of each.

Dressler's struggles and the anguish he faces as he decides where his loyalties lie will not be welcomed by very conservative Catholics, but readers will find a powerful portrait of love, repentence, redemption, and difficult choices made.  It is a book that can be appreciated by readers of all religions.

Vestments is an Indie Next selection for October 2010.  It's available now.  Do read it.

Milkweed Editions is one of the largest independent, nonprofit literary publishers in the US. Their missions is "To identify, nurture and publish transformative literature, and build an engaged community around it." 
They have a winner with this book, and I thank them for the opportunity to review it.

Review: Ape House

Author: Sara Gruen
Publisher/Format: Spiegel & Grau (2010), advanced review copy 306 pages
Audio:  Books on Tape, 11 hours, 14 minutes
Narrator: Paul Boehmer
Characters: Isabel Duncan, John Thigpen; the Bonobos: Sam, Bonzi, Lola, Mbongo, Jelani, and Makena
Subject: Linguistic and cultural studies of great apes
Genre: fiction
Source: print: review copy from Publisher; audio - public library
Challenge: ARCs completed

This is the heartwarming story of six endearing Bonobo Apes, who are being nurtured and observed at the Great Ape Language Lab.  These primates are highly intelligent, able to communicate with humans using ASL (American Sign Language) and special computer programs.  They are engaging, charming, and pull the reader right into the story as they cavort, order cheeseburgers, watch movies, and engage in frequent sexual antics.  There are two human stories running at the same time, and it is here that I felt less interest.  Isabel Duncan, the linguist who is working with them is not an appealing character.  She comes across as whimpy and naive.  When the Bonobos are stolen during a raid following an explosion at the lab, Isabel is critically wounded and spends a large chunk of the book mending. She just doesn't come across as the major player she should have been.Her whole life leaves me with tons of questions...like where does she get all the money to just sit in a nice hotel for weeks on end when she's no longer working?


In the meantime, John Thigpen, a journalist who meets the Bonobos just hours before the explosion, has his own demons to chase.  His wife's career isn't going well, his mother-in-law is a royal pain in the sit-upon, and he is suddenly unemployed.  In his pursuit of HIS story (he still considers the story of the apes to be HIS) he has to deal with Russian exotic dancers, meth-lab heavies, idiot editors, and a series of close calls that reminded me of an episode of The Rockford Files.

The reader is subjected to a rather contrived tail of employment woes on the part of John and his wife all the while wondering what on earth happened to the Bonobos.  Isabel plays shrinking violet and allows herself to be maneuvered by a group of young computer hackers who all want to rescue the missing Apes. Thank goodness the youngsters are honorably motivated. The three stories eventually come together with a suitable ending for everyone, but I really had to wonder for a while if it would.  All in all, it's still an excellent read if only because one falls in love in the opening pages with these beautiful creatures and wants life to be good again for them in the end.

I both read and listened to this one, and in a rare departure for me, I vastly preferred the print edition.  This particular narrator did nothing for me.

GIVEAWAY::::::::At Home by Bill Bryson

GIVEAWAY

2 copies available

Once again our friends at Doubleday have offered a great book as a giveaway.  My review copy arrived today and it looks great! -It's next in the queue after my two current reads.  Meanwhile here's what the publisher says:

From one of the most beloved authors of our time—more than six million copies of his books have been sold in this country alone—a fascinating excursion into the history behind the place we call home.

"Houses aren't refuges from history. They are where history ends up."

Bill Bryson and his family live in a Victorian parsonage in a part of England where nothing of any great significance has happened since the Romans decamped. Yet one day, he began to consider how very little he knew about the ordinary things of life as he found it in that comfortable home. To remedy this, he formed the idea of journeying about his house from room to room to "write a history of the world without leaving home." The bathroom provides the occasion for a history of hygiene; the bedroom, sex, death, and sleep; the kitchen, nutrition and the spice trade; and so on, as Bryson shows how each has figured in the evolution of private life. Whatever happens in the world, he demonstrates, ends up in our house, in the paint and the pipes and the pillows and every item of furniture.

Bill Bryson has one of the liveliest, most inquisitive minds on the planet, and he is a master at turning the seemingly isolated or mundane fact into an occasion for the most diverting exposition imaginable. His wit and sheer prose fluency make At Home one of the most entertaining books ever written about private life.

Read an excerpt 

Here are the rules for the giveaway: 

1. For one entry, leave a comment telling me whether you've read anything else by Bill Bryson.
2. For an extra entry, leave a separate comment telling me you're a follower (or become one and let me know).
3. For another entry,  make a separate entry telling me you blogged about the giveaway, (sidebars are fine) and LEAVE ME THE LINK to the posting (if I don't get a link, the entry doesn't count).US addresses only, no PO Boxes.
4. You MUST leave me an email address to contact you.  NO EMAIL, NO WIN.
5. Deadline is Oct 29 -noon EDT.

Thanks again to Liz at Doubleday for making this one available.

Review: The Elephant's Journey

Author: Jose Saramago
Publisher/Format: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (2010), Hardcover, 224 pages
Characters: Solomon the elephant, Subrho the mahout
Subject: Solomon's trek from Lisbon to Vienna
Genre: historical fiction
Source: public library

This is Saramago's last work, and I think his masterpiece. He learned of the true story behind this book while guest lecturing in Austria where he saw a series of illustrations depicting the tale.

In 1551 King Joao III decided to give archduke Maximillian of Austria a wedding present.  He sent his Indian elephant named Solomon as the gift.  Entrusting the safekeeping of this gentle giant to his handler, a mahout named Subrho, they set out with an entourage of soldiers, porters, and supply wagons (the elephant required 2-4 tons of forage a day!) to move from Lisbon overland to meet the archduke in Spain, and then via ship to Genoa, and overland through northern Italy, through the alps--including the dangerous Isarco and Benner passes in the winter, up the Inn River and finally to their triumphant entry into Vienna.  Ok...that's the geography of the journey.

The real beauty of the story rests however in the personal relationships that develop along the way.  Solomon shows himself to be a charming, intelligent and gentle beast.  He is able to woo those who fear his girth, and protect his friend Subrho (renamed Fritz by the archduke who found his name too hard to pronounce) from the vagaries and intrigues of the military, the royals, and the church.  Each of these groups wanted to use the elephant and the journey to their own gain.  The simple peasant handler and the elephant showed grace under pressure and hardship, winning over all who met them.

Saramago's third person narrator is delightful.  He is able to insert 20th century asides with great humor, and poke fun at politicians, uneducated soldiers, clergy, and the monarchy without ever stepping out of character and without becoming political or critical himself.  It is written in Saramago's normal style:  long, long, long paragraphs, little or no punctuation or capitalization or quotation marks.  It takes only a few pages however, to acclimate to the pace, and the lack of visual stops actually holds the reader's attention and increases the pace of reading.  It is a short, well-paced, lustrous tale of love, friendship, forgiveness and intrigue.  A masterpiece.

Blind Man's Alley - We have Winners!

It pays to visit and make those daily entries. Our winners for Justin Peacock's just released novel of life in the fast-lane of the New York real estate empire are

Carol M.

Jholden

The emails are going out today and the winners will have until Thursday evening October 14th  to get me their mailing addresses.  If I don't hear from them by then, I'll have Random.org pick another winner.

Congratulations to the winners and thanks to everyone who stopped by to enter.  

Many thanks to Judy at Doubleday for offering these for the contest.

Weekend Cooking - Review of Preserving the Harvest

 Beth Fish Reads sponsors this weekly meme where we foodies can chat about cookbooks, cooking gadgets, recipes, or anything else gustatory. Be sure to stop over there to find other terrific weekend cooking posts.  This week's post has a great new cookbook for kids.....I love it.

 I haven't done a weekend cooking post for several weeks.  I've been too busy reading and cooking and putting up the bounty this year's wonderful weather produced through our fairly short growing season here in Maine.  I didn't even have time to take pictures of the food, and figured jars of jam and applesauce is something you can see everyday, so I decided to forget that part.  Here's my great find.

Author: Carol Costenbader
Publisher/Format: Storey Publishing, LLC (2002),  Rev., Paperback, 352 pages Subject: Various methods of preserving foods
Genre: how-to, Cookbook
Source: my own

This one has it all.  Great recipes (there's a terrific one for Apple Beet puree that Mr. Tutu and I have been scarfing up for the past week), wonderful conversion charts, a glossary of terms, and chapters on every different way of preserving food you can dream up.  There are hints on how to choose produce if you don't grow your own.  How much to buy, how to keep it through the winter, and wonderfully innovative ways to share it with others for gifts.

I for instance had the best crop of basil I've ever managed to grow.  But I've never had much luck before in drying it.  Costenbader gives us several different methods and I think I'm going to try more than one to see which gives me the best results.  The book even shows how to used dried foods, and how to reconstitute dried fruits and vegetables.  Preparing a family "root cellar" never seemed like a possiblity until I read her suggestion to use the stairwell  (inside the bulkhead doors) to our basement!

Canning and freezing chapters offer very clear, well-illustrated directions for a variety of crops.  Pickling recipes run the gamut from the traditional bread and butter to some decidedly new-age chutneys.  There are excellent discussions about what equipment to buy, how to adjust recipes that didn't come out right, and checklists to use emphasizing the latest guidance on healthy practices. 

If you do any "putting up" this is definitely the book for you.  It is one that will be passed down for several generations.

Review: The Tower, The Zoo and the Tortoise

Author: Julia Stuart
Publisher/Format:New York : Doubleday, 2010.
Characters: Balthazar and Hebe Jones; Mrs.Cook the tortoise
Subject: life in the Tower of London; dealing with grief
Setting: London
Genre: fiction/ humor
Source: Review copy from publisher


Reviewers have called this book quirky and humorous.  It is.  It also is sad and poignant  with a host of characters dealing with life's emotions: love, grief, rejection, fear, anger, nostalgia, longing, and self-esteem. It is a precocious story telling how ordinary people go about their lives in unusual circumstances and manage to stay human.  There is a decidedly British slant told with the typical dry British sense of humor.

Balthazar Jones, Beefeater extraordinaire, lives in the Tower of London with his wife Hebe who works for the London Underground Lost Property Office.  Together they are struggling to come to grips with the death of their only son Milo over three years ago.  The marriage is crumbling around them.  Beefeater Jones is suddenly handed the job of keeper of Her Majesty's menagerie when the Zoo decides to move animals the queen has received as gifts and house them in the Tower.  Since Balthazar owns the oldest living tortoise in captivity (Mrs. Cook is 130 years old), he seems the perfect person to put in charge. In the meantime, Hebe is busy trying to locate the owners of a left-behind box of cremains, a plastic blow-up doll, a viking helmet, a large safe that has been there for over 4 years and which no one has managed to open, and a vast assortment of other paraphernalia that make the scenes in this office read almost like a Monty Python show.

There's the Tower Chaplain, Septimus Drew, who desperately wants to be a published writer, but who has received more rejection slips than the Tower has Ravens and who devises a rather deviant way to gain publication; add in the barmaid who has a secret (no spoilers here)  the ghost of Sir Walter Raleigh,  the Raven Master, and the Yeoman Gaoler and you have the makings of hours of belly laughs.  The battle for supremacy amongst the animals, along with Balthazar and Hebe's intense personal troubles all come to a reasonable resolution at the end.

I loved this book and only wish the editing had been a bit tighter.  There were several times when I found descriptive phrases repeated, and extra details inserted, serving to make me grit my teeth and say "didn't he already say that?"  Hopefully, the final edit will clean up those nits.

All in all, it's a definitely good, funny, feel-good read with a hefty dollop of Tower history to add to its overall  appeal.  I also listened to parts of  the audio version which was delightfully read by Jonathan Cowley.  Whichever format is your choice, I suspect you will be delighted.

Don't forget Doubleday-Random House has made two copies of this available for giveaway.  There's still time to enter here:  the deadline is noon EDT October 14th.

Review: The Fixer-Upper

Author: Mary Kay Andrews
Publisher/Format:Harper Paperbacks (2010), 448 pages; also audio -14:15
Narrator: Isabel Keating
Characters: Dempsey Killebrew, Tee Berryhill, Alex Hotter
Subject: fixing up a life and a house
Setting: Washington DC, Guthrie GA
Genre: Chick-lit, romance
Source: public library

I'm not a big fan of bodice ripping romances, or the genre known as "chick-lit", but a good friend whose taste a truly trust kept insisting I had to read something by Mary Kay Andrews.  I had just picked this up at the library when I saw it available as an audio download, so I grabbed both.  I have enjoyed quite a few 'southern' stories this year, and this one is just as funny, fun and heartwarming as any of them.

Dempsey Joy Killebrew, Georgetown Law Grad, lobbyist for big firm in DC gets fired after she is implicated by her boss in a scandal involving procuring prostitutes for a Congressman (among other things.) Now at this point in the story, I was ready to say that Dempsey wasn't the sharpest knife in the drawer, but for pete's sake--she graduated from Georgetown Law!!  Anyway, she has no money, no job prospects, and therefore allows herself to be stashed away in Guthrie Ga to rehab an old house her father has just inherited from his great uncle.  The house comes complete with the requisite dog (no southern story can do without a dog!) and a 79 year old curmudgeonly cousin Ella Kate who is squatting in the ruins and refuses to move.

Now we won't say too much about  Dempsey's absolutely miraculous makeover of the house --even Ty Bennington's crew couldn't have done that much work and fixed things up that beautifully on her pitiful budget in such a short time.  But wait...there's more.  Dempsey has to convince the FBI she's innocent and hire's the lawfirm of Berryhill and Berryhill to help her out of the mess.  There's a romance.  There's political and legal intrigue.  There are courtly southern gentleman.  There's a California moonbeam, spaced-out mother, and enough friendly, gossipy, nosey, and randy southern citizens of this small town to keep the reader turning pages and laughing out loud. And there's the star of the show: Ella Kate.

In the end, Dempsey shows us what she's really made of, develops some self-confidence, pulls her brains out of storage, and becomes a heroine we can cheer for.

It won't win a Nobel Prize, but it's a surprisingly good solid little romance for days when you want some chocolate with the marshmallow fluff.  I loved it.

Review: Confirmation

Author: Ralph Reed
Publisher/Format: Fidelis (2010), Paperback, 408 pages
Characters: way too many to list
Subject: Politics framed around a Supreme Court nomination hearing
Setting: Washington D.C.
Genre: Fiction
Source: LibraryThing.com Early Reviewers program

Meh.  This has all the makings of a TV script.  For anyone who has ever lived "inside the Beltway" in the Washington DC area, it is more of the same-oh, same-oh.

Written by a so-called Washington insider, with book blurbs by such auspicious beings as Karl Rove, and a dedication to Oliver North (among others) I did not want to read it at all (my political leanings are on the other side of the fence.)  However since I got it for the Early Review program, I read the whole thing.  It's not a bad book, but if there was the equivalent of political chick-lit, this is it!  The characters are caricatures and there are far too many of them.  I had to get a paper and construct a scorecard to keep track of who was who.  There were 27 major players introduced in the first 35 pages.

The plot is dully predictable, and for cripes sake, the editor can't even recognize that THERE IS NO LETTER "J" in the Italian alphabet!  The author has one of the main characters traveling through Italy sprinkling "Bon Journo"  all over the place.  HELLO---it's "Buongiorno" or at least if he's speaking french, it's "Bonjour".  This is the kind of sloppy publishing that makes me less than positively disposed to recommend a book to others.

Basically it's the story of an unpopular president (he was elected by the House of Representatives after capturing only 37%? of the vote), who must fill a vacancy on the Supreme Court.  The Senate of course is going to take its constitutional responsibilities very seriously and make sure that they are really the ones doing the appointing.  There are the usual scandals, lobbyists, back door doings, lives ruined, check-ins to rehab, etc etc etc.  When you get to the end, you're just glad to have it over with.  Sorta sounds like real life in DC right?

If you are a political junkie, don't mind cardboard characters and a plot that trudges along like a deadlocked senate, you might like this one. If you're looking for a thriller, there are lots better ones out there.