Retrieved from: the library
(0060588217)
First of all, if George really did do the editing, her copyeditor slept through any fixes she made. The layout of this book was atrocious: paragraphs were generally indented, but frequently they weren't, there were punctuation errors....grrr.
ANYWAY. The stories themselves were good. Really good. A wonderful introduction to some authors I've never heard of, along with some "old friends." Of the latter, there were a couple of stories I had read elsewhere, which just goes to show that I'm a short crime story junkie, I guess. I'll have to see if I can find some other things by Susan Glaspell, Nedra Tyre, Christianna Brand, Kristine Kathryn Rusch and Gillian Linscott.
My favorites: Lia Matera's story ("The River Mouth"), Nedra Tyre's ("A Nice Place to Stay") and the one by Susan Glaspell ("A Jury of Her Peers").
Monday, October 25, 2004
All I Did Was Ask, by Terry Gross
Retrieved from: the library
(1401300103)
If you are a long-time Fresh Air fan on NPR, this book will probably bring back loads of memories for you. I have only just recently discovered Terry Gross, but this is an interesting collection of transcripts of her favorite interviews over the years, ranging from Nic Cage to Nick Hornby to Maurice Sendak. Also included is the infamous hour with Gene Simmons. I must say, the printed version of the latter is far less salacious than the live interview must have sounded. Maybe I've read too many books about creeps; Simmons just seems to be one more. Ho-hum. Actually, he makes some pretty decent points, once you skip past all the bombast and intentional crank commentary.
I really liked the interview with Samuel Jackson. No compromise, no "selling points." I really got a sense of who he is more than I have in other interviews. Another good one was Grandmaster Flash, not only because of how interesting his teenage years were (not at all what one expects to find out about the 'inventor' of rap scratching) but because I happen to be listening to his "Best of..." CD in the car right now. I've also decided I must read Carol Shields The Stone Diaries.
And of course, now I'll make the effort to find Fresh Air on the local NPRs and listen to the original interviews!
(1401300103)
If you are a long-time Fresh Air fan on NPR, this book will probably bring back loads of memories for you. I have only just recently discovered Terry Gross, but this is an interesting collection of transcripts of her favorite interviews over the years, ranging from Nic Cage to Nick Hornby to Maurice Sendak. Also included is the infamous hour with Gene Simmons. I must say, the printed version of the latter is far less salacious than the live interview must have sounded. Maybe I've read too many books about creeps; Simmons just seems to be one more. Ho-hum. Actually, he makes some pretty decent points, once you skip past all the bombast and intentional crank commentary.
I really liked the interview with Samuel Jackson. No compromise, no "selling points." I really got a sense of who he is more than I have in other interviews. Another good one was Grandmaster Flash, not only because of how interesting his teenage years were (not at all what one expects to find out about the 'inventor' of rap scratching) but because I happen to be listening to his "Best of..." CD in the car right now. I've also decided I must read Carol Shields The Stone Diaries.
And of course, now I'll make the effort to find Fresh Air on the local NPRs and listen to the original interviews!
The Water Clock, by Jim Kelly
Retrieved from: the library
(0312321430)
A mystery somewhat reminiscent of P.D. James' works. This is set in the fens near Ely; the location is important because only there would the bogginess of the land mimic the bogginess of people's interior lives. There are mysteries in mysteries here: who rescued reporter Philip Dryden from his car after a crash into a bog, but left his wife to die (although she remains in a coma); what is so important about a crime that occurred 38 years ago; who is visiting his comatose wife and leaving notes under her pillow; is the detective assigned to the current case Dryden is reporting as incompetent as his father and everyone else think?
A pretty good story, although the title somewhat gives the game away, if you are paying attention to the descriptions of people's house decor. Still, this is a pretty decent first effort for an author who normally writes for the Financial Times in London! I wonder if he'll bring back Dryden in forthcoming books, or if he'll start anew.
(0312321430)
A mystery somewhat reminiscent of P.D. James' works. This is set in the fens near Ely; the location is important because only there would the bogginess of the land mimic the bogginess of people's interior lives. There are mysteries in mysteries here: who rescued reporter Philip Dryden from his car after a crash into a bog, but left his wife to die (although she remains in a coma); what is so important about a crime that occurred 38 years ago; who is visiting his comatose wife and leaving notes under her pillow; is the detective assigned to the current case Dryden is reporting as incompetent as his father and everyone else think?
A pretty good story, although the title somewhat gives the game away, if you are paying attention to the descriptions of people's house decor. Still, this is a pretty decent first effort for an author who normally writes for the Financial Times in London! I wonder if he'll bring back Dryden in forthcoming books, or if he'll start anew.
Thursday, October 21, 2004
Green Angel, by Alice Hoffman
Retrieved from: the library (while working the book sale)
(0439443849)
Between these two quotes lie 116 pages of wonderful grief-filled prose.
Read it. You’ll remember the character. I will.
(0439443849)
“I once believed that life was a gift. I thought whatever I wanted I would someday possess. Is that greed, or only youth? Is it hope or stupidity? As far as I was concerned the future was a book I could write to suit myself, chapter after chapter of good fortune. …I had no idea that all stories unfold like white flowers, petal by petal, each in its own time and season, dependent on circumstance and fate.”.......
“I sat down at the table with the pen and the ink. I spread out the clean white pages.
Then and there, I began to tell their story.”
Between these two quotes lie 116 pages of wonderful grief-filled prose.
Read it. You’ll remember the character. I will.
Wednesday, October 20, 2004
Number 10, by Sue Townsend (on CD)
Retrieved from: the library
(140257729X)
I love Sue Townsend. Part of that is because I read the original Adrian Mole books when I was just old enough to understand the satire in them. Part of it is because she lives and writes about the city in which my sister's family lives. I recognize the scenery. I think she is underappreciated as a satirist, and a writer in general. I loved The Queen and I as well.
On top of that rave, the reader of this edition is Barbara Rosenblatt, whom I also love because she reads Elizabeth Peters' books so well. Her differentiation of characters and her variety of accents is astounding. I'm almost to the point that I'll read anything she's attached to!
The Book: If you take a close look at the cover, it will sum up the general emotion and plot pretty succintly: it's a picture of Tony Blair, in drag, outside of Number 10 Downing Street. Written before the Coalition (pause for coughing) went to war in Iraq, the prime minister, Edward St. Clair, is a clear lapdog of George Bush. The depth of Townsend's contempt is incredible.
We get to know the p.m. and his family--his too clever and ugly wife, his secret-Socialist teenage son, his girly-girl daughter and the new baby--just before he is shown to be completely out of touch with "regular folks." American readers may remember a similar situation when George H.W. Bush "discovered" price scanners in 1992. As a result of this gaffe, St. Clair is sent out to meet and greet, in secret. To do this, he must dress as a woman--which he is just a little too excited about--and is accompanied by the police officer who guards his front door, Jack Spratt. Although Jack himself is upright and honest, he comes from a family where petty theft is not only accepted, but is the family business.
In the course of the story the p.m. is faced with poverty-stricken council-housing dwellers, crack users, a Pakistani taxi driver (whose voice is done perfectly, may I add), and a whole host of people who generally can't stand "that Ed St. Clair!" The man himself is incredibly obtuse and waffly--his son pegs him at the end when he tells him his politics are completely opaque: he's more like a priest who has discovered he doesn't believe in God.
A really wonderfully funny-in-a-sad-way-book about what life is like in England (and to an extent, in America) today. There is a gaping chasm between politicians and the people they are reputed to serve. And Townsend couldn't possibly have made that more clear, or more hopeless-sounding. Not that she portrays The People as particularly heroic. No, they are by far and away some of the stupidest people in literature, with a few street-smart-no-bullshit ones thrown in as ringers.
I will probably go get a paper copy of this and reread it. It is a stitch.
[I do think, based on the limited information I know of her, that Townsend is a bit harsh on her satire of Tony Blair's wife. But I'll admit a large stain of ignorance in general about her, so maybe I'm wrong.]
(140257729X)
I love Sue Townsend. Part of that is because I read the original Adrian Mole books when I was just old enough to understand the satire in them. Part of it is because she lives and writes about the city in which my sister's family lives. I recognize the scenery. I think she is underappreciated as a satirist, and a writer in general. I loved The Queen and I as well.
On top of that rave, the reader of this edition is Barbara Rosenblatt, whom I also love because she reads Elizabeth Peters' books so well. Her differentiation of characters and her variety of accents is astounding. I'm almost to the point that I'll read anything she's attached to!
The Book: If you take a close look at the cover, it will sum up the general emotion and plot pretty succintly: it's a picture of Tony Blair, in drag, outside of Number 10 Downing Street. Written before the Coalition (pause for coughing) went to war in Iraq, the prime minister, Edward St. Clair, is a clear lapdog of George Bush. The depth of Townsend's contempt is incredible.
We get to know the p.m. and his family--his too clever and ugly wife, his secret-Socialist teenage son, his girly-girl daughter and the new baby--just before he is shown to be completely out of touch with "regular folks." American readers may remember a similar situation when George H.W. Bush "discovered" price scanners in 1992. As a result of this gaffe, St. Clair is sent out to meet and greet, in secret. To do this, he must dress as a woman--which he is just a little too excited about--and is accompanied by the police officer who guards his front door, Jack Spratt. Although Jack himself is upright and honest, he comes from a family where petty theft is not only accepted, but is the family business.
In the course of the story the p.m. is faced with poverty-stricken council-housing dwellers, crack users, a Pakistani taxi driver (whose voice is done perfectly, may I add), and a whole host of people who generally can't stand "that Ed St. Clair!" The man himself is incredibly obtuse and waffly--his son pegs him at the end when he tells him his politics are completely opaque: he's more like a priest who has discovered he doesn't believe in God.
A really wonderfully funny-in-a-sad-way-book about what life is like in England (and to an extent, in America) today. There is a gaping chasm between politicians and the people they are reputed to serve. And Townsend couldn't possibly have made that more clear, or more hopeless-sounding. Not that she portrays The People as particularly heroic. No, they are by far and away some of the stupidest people in literature, with a few street-smart-no-bullshit ones thrown in as ringers.
I will probably go get a paper copy of this and reread it. It is a stitch.
[I do think, based on the limited information I know of her, that Townsend is a bit harsh on her satire of Tony Blair's wife. But I'll admit a large stain of ignorance in general about her, so maybe I'm wrong.]
Friday, October 15, 2004
Medal of Valor Firefighters, by Michael L. Middleton
Retrieved from: The library
(0071410287)
Another one that looked interesting as I cataloged it. Subtitled "Gripping tales of bravery from America's decorated heroes."
Just what it says, the book covers 25 cases of heroic rescues from around the country. They are mostly fire rescues, but there are also a couple of deep-shaft recoveries and a few water rescues. Several of the first ones I remember seeing or hearing about on the news. It's a little freaky to read about "what really happened" when you can see the news footage replaying in your head.
These guys are all heroes, even the ones with no medals. But I wouldn't necessarily recommend this to anyone with a firefighter in the family. I don't think I'd've slept well if I read this while my brother was still doing ARFF.
(0071410287)
Another one that looked interesting as I cataloged it. Subtitled "Gripping tales of bravery from America's decorated heroes."
Just what it says, the book covers 25 cases of heroic rescues from around the country. They are mostly fire rescues, but there are also a couple of deep-shaft recoveries and a few water rescues. Several of the first ones I remember seeing or hearing about on the news. It's a little freaky to read about "what really happened" when you can see the news footage replaying in your head.
These guys are all heroes, even the ones with no medals. But I wouldn't necessarily recommend this to anyone with a firefighter in the family. I don't think I'd've slept well if I read this while my brother was still doing ARFF.
The Romanov Prophecy, by Steve Berry
Retrieved from: The library
(0345460057)
The Da Vinci Code meets the Russian monarchy. Not quite as masterfully told as Dan Brown's stories, but if you've got a jones--like I do--for what happened to the last tsar and Russian history in general, this will be an interesing romp.
We meet Miles Lord just as he finds himself being shot at in a Moscow street by mafiya thugs. His lunch companion is killed, but he escapes, only to be targeted twice again in the next day and a half. He knows it has something to do with the research he has been doing for his Atlanta law firm into who should be named as the next official Tsar, the democratic government of Russia obviously not working out well at all. He has found some hidden documents that leave open the likelihood that two members of the royal family were not murdered in 1917, but escaped Russia. With the help of a Russian circus acrobat, he finds himself on a quest to find the descendents of the royal family, since they are primary inheritors of the imperial throne now being bartered in Moscow. But he can't seem to get away from the mafiya, even in the United States.
Fun. I liked Miles. Even if he is frequently amazingly lucky and totally obtuse.
(0345460057)
The Da Vinci Code meets the Russian monarchy. Not quite as masterfully told as Dan Brown's stories, but if you've got a jones--like I do--for what happened to the last tsar and Russian history in general, this will be an interesing romp.
We meet Miles Lord just as he finds himself being shot at in a Moscow street by mafiya thugs. His lunch companion is killed, but he escapes, only to be targeted twice again in the next day and a half. He knows it has something to do with the research he has been doing for his Atlanta law firm into who should be named as the next official Tsar, the democratic government of Russia obviously not working out well at all. He has found some hidden documents that leave open the likelihood that two members of the royal family were not murdered in 1917, but escaped Russia. With the help of a Russian circus acrobat, he finds himself on a quest to find the descendents of the royal family, since they are primary inheritors of the imperial throne now being bartered in Moscow. But he can't seem to get away from the mafiya, even in the United States.
Fun. I liked Miles. Even if he is frequently amazingly lucky and totally obtuse.
Is Heathcliff a Murderer? by John Sutherland
Retrieved from: ILL (a.k.a., the library)
(019282516x)
This is a series of books based on the subtitle of this first one: "Great Puzzles in Nineteenth-Century Literature." It was recommended in the bibliography of the most recent Thursday Next book; now I know where Fforde gets (some of) his ideas! Topping it all over, the cover of the copy I read has a lovely picture of Olivier as Heathcliff on it.
Confession: I didn't read this cover to cover. I read the Intro and the chapters on the books that I've actually read. In other words, having never read The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Bronte, I skipped the chapter called "Who is Helen Graham?" because I don't have even a faint clue who she is! But the chapters on Jane Eyre and Oliver Twist et al. were very interesting.
I'll do the highlights in the order I read them:
(019282516x)
This is a series of books based on the subtitle of this first one: "Great Puzzles in Nineteenth-Century Literature." It was recommended in the bibliography of the most recent Thursday Next book; now I know where Fforde gets (some of) his ideas! Topping it all over, the cover of the copy I read has a lovely picture of Olivier as Heathcliff on it.
Confession: I didn't read this cover to cover. I read the Intro and the chapters on the books that I've actually read. In other words, having never read The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Bronte, I skipped the chapter called "Who is Helen Graham?" because I don't have even a faint clue who she is! But the chapters on Jane Eyre and Oliver Twist et al. were very interesting.
I'll do the highlights in the order I read them:
- "How does Victor make his monsters?" Mary Shelley, Frankenstein--There are some fascinating sexual overtones here that have been completely missed by filmmakers more interested in making this a story about science than about humanity.
- "Is Oliver dreaming? Charles Dickens, Oliver Twist--This is about when he is rescued and taken to the country but "dreams" he sees Fagin at the window. I don't actually remember this part of the book myself.
- "Is Heathcliff a murderer?" Emily Bronte, Wuthering Heights--The question whether Heathcliff actively smothered Hindley, or just didn't assist him to keep him from dying. Some would say there's no real difference; he's culpable and that's all that matters.
- "Rochester's celestial telegram" Charlotte Bronte Jane Eyre--In her later writings, Bronte insisted that she didn't belief in romantic miracles to further the plot. Yet, miles away from Rochester, Jane clearly hears him calling her at the very moment he later admits to saying her name. What was Bronte talking about??
- "R.H. Hutton's spoiling hand" Henry James, The Portrait of a Lady (and Eliot's Middlemarch)--In which we find out that the first edition of both of these books end differently from subsequent editions most likely because Hutton, a well-known literary critic, denounced them for the "moral collapse" of the main characters. The authors went back and rewrote the ending to "clarify" that they really didn't mean the reward immorality. sigh
- "What does Edward Hyde look like?" R.L. Stevenson, Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde--Interestingly, Stevenson never provides a detailed description of the evil Mr Hyde, even though he does a masterful job of telling us what Dr. Jekyll looks like. Why?
- "Is Alec a rapist?" Thomas Hardy, Tess of the D'Urbervilles--Well, depends on your definition of rape, now, doesn't it?
- "Mysteries of the Speckled Band" Arthur Conan Doyle, Sherlock Holmes--There are several: why did two women raised in India not recognize deadly Indian snakes? Were the Misses Stoner some kind of sex-slaves of their step-father? Why did Miss Stoner die so young, subsequent to the solving of the mystery itself?
Language Visible, by David Sacks
Retrieved from: The library
(0767911725)
This looked interesting when it came through the cataloging pile at work. The subtitle is "Unraveling the Mystery of the Alphabet from A to Z." It traces the history of writing from Phoenician (or pre-Phoenician even) through Greek, Etruscan, and Roman writing all the way past the Middle Ages and movable type to now.
There are very very interesting details about each letter. It's interesting to know that a mere 200 years ago the English alphabet had only 24 letters: J and U were absent, at least in an official capacity as separate letters. The author discusses fonts (Goudy, Times New Roman, etc.) and "voiced velar stops" (that would be a 'G') and combines all this into a tasty stew of letters and history.
How much more fun can I have??
(0767911725)
This looked interesting when it came through the cataloging pile at work. The subtitle is "Unraveling the Mystery of the Alphabet from A to Z." It traces the history of writing from Phoenician (or pre-Phoenician even) through Greek, Etruscan, and Roman writing all the way past the Middle Ages and movable type to now.
There are very very interesting details about each letter. It's interesting to know that a mere 200 years ago the English alphabet had only 24 letters: J and U were absent, at least in an official capacity as separate letters. The author discusses fonts (Goudy, Times New Roman, etc.) and "voiced velar stops" (that would be a 'G') and combines all this into a tasty stew of letters and history.
How much more fun can I have??
Monday, October 04, 2004
When God Looked the Other Way, by Wesley Adamczyk
Retrieved from: The library
(0226004430)
Interesting. Having read The Endless Steppe eons ago, this makes a good bookend to the history of Poles being exiled to the Soviet Union at the beginning of World War II. Like Esther's family, the author of this book was put on a train with his family because his father was "bourgeois" (a Polish Army officer) and shipped out of Poland. They ended up in Soviet Central Asia, in Kazakhstan, in the summer of 1940. Eventually, after being a refugee in more than 7 countries, he ends up arriving in Chicago on Thanksgiving Day, 1949, to live with his father's sister's family.
It's a terrible story. It's heartbreaking. He details the day-to-day scenes explicitly--the petty cruelties, the amazing things the human body does when it is stressed/ill/diseased, the moral quandary the "good" Allies faced after the war in dealing with Soviet atrocities. He estimates that during the socialist years, it's possible up to 80 million people were killed, either outright or by starvation and disease. 8 0 m i l l i o n . It's unimaginable, but three generations of Russians (and the people whose countries they ran) had to imagine it to survive. It's something that we shouldn't lose sight of: the worldview of most Russians is not the same as the worldview of most middle-class Americans.
The book exposes the U.S. complicity in the coverup of the Katyn murders. He is not an immigrant who came to the country thinking we were heaven. But he has lived in Chicago for the past fifty years and made his peace, both with God and with the U.S. And in 1998, he was able to make his peace with his father, murdered in the woods near Kharkov (Ukraine) at about the same time his family was being deported.
It's a terribly sad story. And it brings home that atrocities are atrocities no matter who commits them and no matter who the victims are. The repercussions live on for decades, in a widening pool of victims.
And, though he doesn't address it directly, he was one of the very luckiest ones.
(0226004430)
Interesting. Having read The Endless Steppe eons ago, this makes a good bookend to the history of Poles being exiled to the Soviet Union at the beginning of World War II. Like Esther's family, the author of this book was put on a train with his family because his father was "bourgeois" (a Polish Army officer) and shipped out of Poland. They ended up in Soviet Central Asia, in Kazakhstan, in the summer of 1940. Eventually, after being a refugee in more than 7 countries, he ends up arriving in Chicago on Thanksgiving Day, 1949, to live with his father's sister's family.
It's a terrible story. It's heartbreaking. He details the day-to-day scenes explicitly--the petty cruelties, the amazing things the human body does when it is stressed/ill/diseased, the moral quandary the "good" Allies faced after the war in dealing with Soviet atrocities. He estimates that during the socialist years, it's possible up to 80 million people were killed, either outright or by starvation and disease. 8 0 m i l l i o n . It's unimaginable, but three generations of Russians (and the people whose countries they ran) had to imagine it to survive. It's something that we shouldn't lose sight of: the worldview of most Russians is not the same as the worldview of most middle-class Americans.
The book exposes the U.S. complicity in the coverup of the Katyn murders. He is not an immigrant who came to the country thinking we were heaven. But he has lived in Chicago for the past fifty years and made his peace, both with God and with the U.S. And in 1998, he was able to make his peace with his father, murdered in the woods near Kharkov (Ukraine) at about the same time his family was being deported.
It's a terribly sad story. And it brings home that atrocities are atrocities no matter who commits them and no matter who the victims are. The repercussions live on for decades, in a widening pool of victims.
And, though he doesn't address it directly, he was one of the very luckiest ones.
Eragon, by Christopher Paolini
Retrieved from: Sparky's room
(0375926682)
OK. I finished this. And it isn't...horrible. The bones are good. The flesh needs some, er, well, surgery?
It took me until page 300 to stop saying things like "is this book EVER going to get moving" and "I'm never going to finish this book--I'm trapped in Alagaesia." It could use a lot of editing. And don't dwarves live a LONG time? So then why, in eight millennia, have they had more than 40 kings? Doesn't that work out to a reign of less than 20 years per king?
Nitpicking. This is actually the first in a series, originally written by a 16-year-old (or thereabouts). From that standpoint, it's good. But then again, S.E. Hinton wrote at that age, and her books are GOOD. No, great. This is....ok.
If you like dragons, dwarves, magic, elves and mean-'n'-nasties, go for it.
(0375926682)
OK. I finished this. And it isn't...horrible. The bones are good. The flesh needs some, er, well, surgery?
It took me until page 300 to stop saying things like "is this book EVER going to get moving" and "I'm never going to finish this book--I'm trapped in Alagaesia." It could use a lot of editing. And don't dwarves live a LONG time? So then why, in eight millennia, have they had more than 40 kings? Doesn't that work out to a reign of less than 20 years per king?
Nitpicking. This is actually the first in a series, originally written by a 16-year-old (or thereabouts). From that standpoint, it's good. But then again, S.E. Hinton wrote at that age, and her books are GOOD. No, great. This is....ok.
If you like dragons, dwarves, magic, elves and mean-'n'-nasties, go for it.
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