Six weeks without a post... but not without a book or two or ten

 

Here are 4 books I read or started to read, captured by my phone. 

 

First, I read the Rod Stewart biography because of my brother. He does a Rod Stewart tribute act that impresses everyone who sees it. I think he's more fun than the real Rod would be. The book was quite good, with lots of facts and stories about his musical life and his love life. It is an old one, so only goes up to 1990 or so. I think a few things have happened to Rod since then.

 

 

I picked up the Barbara Kingsolver book, Prodigal Summer, in the condo my friends rented in Key West. This is a wonderful book, as so many of Barbara K's are. It was sensitive, sensual, ecological, historical, and full to the brim of interesting, attractive characters and good stories. I left it at the next stop, and hope someone else reads it and loves it.

 

When I dropped off Prodigal Summer at my motel's bookshelf, I was excited to find the Zadie Smith book called NW, but I soon put it back. It did not catch my interest at all, and I did not like any of the characters or their situations. I abandoned it after only a few chapters, which is unusual.

Six Months in Sudan by James Masakalyk was our Book Club choice for November. I wasn't sure I wanted to read any more war stories, but it was very good. A young Canadian emergency doctor goes to work in an isolated village in Sudan with MSF. It was horrifyingly real and gritty, but also touching, informative, and strangely optimistic.

Clara Callan!!!

Richard B. Wright's Clara Callan is an excellent book.
The story is told through diary entries and letters. We follow two sisters in 1930s mid-Ontario as they lead different lives. Just like those in Alice Munro's stories, these people are real and their society is one I have known forever, at least in part. I loved it!

Essays and such

I chose this book in the Paris airport, mostly because of the title. Who could resist Comment voyager avec un saumon?


Umberto Eco is a very talented writer and thinker, but I found only the middle third of the book suited my tastes.
The first part is a science-fiction-philosphoical satire. Those are always hard to read in French. (The book was written in Italian and the French translator worked closely with the author.) It was okay.

Most of the book is composed of essays written for newspapers and magazines. They are clever and often very funny.

The last part is philosophers' humour.... not mine.




For anyone who wants to read it in English, here is the cover.

Reading a book about BC in Paris....

I have enjoyed several of Jack Hodgins' books, and was impresed by the speech he gave at Kevin's graduation from UBC. The Honorary Patron, however, left me lukewarm. It is an early book (1987) and his skill has increased greatly with the years.

I left this book behind at the hotel in Paris when I finished it. Not special enough to carry it home, and I didn't think Neil would like it for the trip back.

Listening to Thinking in Numbers

So, I tried another audio book lately. This was was more cheerful, although a bit esoteric in parts. It was very interesting to hear the author himself reading: he has the strangest accent!
I did enjoy it, but I am not sure why I "read" it.  I thought it was on our Book Club list, but evidently, it is not. Still, I'm glad I listened. It was great to hear someone with such enthusiasm for numbers! Daniel Tammet once recited the digits of  pi for hours and hours, as a performance for charity.

Thinking in Numbers is not all about numbers; there are intersting excursions into history, sociology, writing....

Rereading can be rewarding

I found this one on the shelf at the cottage and thought it was unread. As I got into the introduction and stories, I realized I had read it some time ago. But they were such good stories, I didn't mind at all. It was an exceptional year for F&SF.
If I paid $2.50 for it, I got my money's worth--doubled!

Too much Britishness?

So, perhaps I should stop reading British books for a while. They are starting to annoy me.

I read Ian McEwan's Atonement, because I found it for $1 and another of his books (My Sweet Tooth) is on our book club list this year.  Someone has even made a movie of it. I wonder how.

The story is in three parts. The first part was very tedious to read and I kept waiting for some sign of plot or motivation. The second part was much more interesting, and did have some plot, but not much. The last part theoretically resolved the plot points, but then there was an epilogue that cast some resolutions into doubt. I did not like it. I feel that my dollar and my days were wasted.


Then I turned to some much older BritLit: G.B. Shaw's Plays Unpleasant, which consists of three plays and two long, long introductions (one of them is 30 pages long!).

I admire Shaw, but he can be tedious, too. I plowed my way through most of the Preface and the first play, Widowers' Houses, went along well, although the characters' names kept confusing me, the social conventions he was mocking are now obscure, and Shaw's special simplified spelling often attracted my editorial eye--not in a good way.
The second play, The Philanderer, had a one-page introduction (Prefatory Note) but the play itself was quite unreadable!


The third is the one I expected the most of, as it is the best known of the three, Mrs. Warren's Profession. After skimming the 30-page Preface, I plunged in. Here, only 2 characters had similar names, and there were not too many characters coming and going.
Apparently, it was scandalous when first presented, but time and shifting language have lessened its impact. And while the characters apparently believe they are being very clear about what Mrs. Warren's profession is (she's a high-class madam), really, Shaw does more suggesting than naming. For all the unsuspecting audience can deduce, she manages some international hotels!

 Really, I need to find something more entertaining and accessible!

A word-nerd's delight

I found this one in an eclectic bookstore in Stratford, Ont., near the Avon Theatre.  It is not a book to read straight though! 
It's best dipped into and digested in small doses.
Using the alphabet as a jumping-off point, the authors cover many, many aspects of Roman, pre-Roman and modern society, presented with a humorous twist. I learned a lot of interesting but nearly-useless facts and I had a good time doing so.

I include the store's bookmark for any book lovers passing through Stratford. 
I recommend it.

Treasure in a plain brown cover

This hardcover, plain brown with no fancy dust cover, turned out to be fascinating.
I've read some of Janice Kulyk Keefer's short stories and perhaps novels, and I know she has a reputation for good writing. The title, Thieves, gives no indication of what it might be about.
In fact, it is about the life--or biography--of Katherine Mansfield, novelist (of whom I was only distantly aware) and about the scholars who want to know more about her. There is a theft or two, and some kind of mystery, but the mystery is vague and the thefts minor.

What is wonderful about this book is the writing. The descriptions of landscape and emotions immerse the reader very directly. At least 80% of the book charmed me utterly, although towards the end, I was caught myself thinking, "so just die already", because we know she did, and her death is not a mystery.

This book cost me nothing, and gave me lots of food for thought. I think our book club should put it on the list.

Two more from the Science Fiction Bin

The first was a "classic" SF tale from 1979.  Philip José Farmer has written a lot of very popular SF, and I've read some of it.
Part space opera, part picaresque adventure and quest, lots of strange beasts and weird names and languages.The story went along pretty well, but the descriptions of the peculiar characters were too hard to follow, swallow and imagine. The green leafy centaur (half-plant) in the cover picture is rather like the description. The sentient rock, an alien, was too much for me. The human characters in the picture are too muscly for 15-year olds, but SF cover art has never been realistic.

I thought the story lacked internal logic in parts. I didn't like it much, really, but it was free and occupied a few hours.








The second was much better. Also free, but worth at least a few dollars. I've always been fond of "Year's Best" collections. Short stories suit my summer attention span, and there are so many different styles and ideas. This was the 2006 crop of stories, published in 2007, so really pretty recent. Some were better than others, but all were very good and thoughtfully entertaining.

Old (1973) Montréal

A little Québécois Canadiana: Marie-Claire Blais's Un Joualonais, sa Joualonie translated (byRalph Manheim) as St. Lawrence Blues.
I had never heard of this novel before, and, despite the long, learned, serious preface by Margaret Atwood, I don't think it made the top of anyone's lists. Apparently it is a satire--but in parts it could be a faithful contemporary portrait--of the poor and marginalized in Montréal in the era of revolution. The 1970s seem like such a long time ago!
I think the translation was adequate, but I'm not sure it was worth the bother.
 Interesting factoid: Mari-Claire Blais mostly lives in Key West.

A chilling mystery for a summer day

Giles Blunt-- how British! Well, not exactly. He was raised by Very British parents in North Bay, Ontario, and now lives in New York. He has changed the name of North Bay, but otherwise not changed much about a small city in our near north. The winter weather is a huge factor in the story, and nearly a character itself.
 Forty words for sorrow is structured as a typical police procedural murder mystery; it is a well-written one. This is the first of six novels with the same setting and characters, and I'm looking forward to reading more of them. Blunt's experience as a film and TV writer is evident in his descriptions of scenes. In fact, this mystery series is likely to become a TV series, with Blunt as one of the writers.

Finished an audio book!

One thing I've learned, while listening to (one and a half) audio books, is that I am a fast and impatient reader. I did listen to it while cooking, painting, driving and resting. But this story was not only long, it was gruesome and depressing most of the way. I read it because it's on our Book Club list. Its full title is: Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption. It was written by Laura Hillenbrand and narrated by Edward Herrmann. The main character does survive and does find redemption, and lives into his 90s, apparently with a great deal of fame although I never had heard of him, but that was not enough to offset all the horror he went through as a Japanese POW. Not for the delicate!

Another day, another book!

Holidays at the cottage: in between bouts of yard work or painting, there's lots of time to read.  I had to pick up a new stock of books at the second-hand store in Perth. Even Neil has read 2 books.

 

b
Baltimore's Mansion is a memoir. I read Wayne Johnston's Navigator of New York and, a long time ago, The Colony of Unrequited Dreams. Those were excellent, history-based novels. This memoir is very good, although not quite as satisfying as the novels. All about Newfoundland and his family's history there, especially the Confederation year, 1949, and what a mark it made on people for many years after. The story is told from the points of view of three men: Wayne, his father Arthur, and grandfather Charlie. That took a little getting used to, as the voices were similar. Definitely recommended.

Vacation reading: thrillers and mysteries

Do you read books lying down when you're on vacation?  It seems these two want to lie down and I can't get them up again.  Just turn your head and I'll tell you about them.

 

Christopher Hyde, thriller writer, is the brother and sometimes a co-author with an old friend of mine, Anthony Hyde. So I felt there would be a good tale in this book, The House of Special Purpose. It is quite dense, with many characters and locations. It is set in the early days of World War II, with references back to events in the Russian Revolution. Historical, then? Quite! And it involves a number of non-fictional people, in roles they might have played, or perhaps did. It was a complex story, with some politics and violence, but in the end, I found it not very satisfying.

Ian Rankin's Inspector Rebus mysteries are well-known, and I thought I had read one before, but it didn't seem all that familiar after all. The story was well told, as a police-procedural mystery, but the language, ah, the language. The story is set in Edinburgh and the Scottishness of the language can be quite mystifying. I suppose I learned some new words, which may be useful in Scrabble.  The motivation of some characters mystified me, too, but it was an interesting read.

A mystery: why haven't I read more of these?

Here is a Sue Grafton Alphabet mystery, E is for Evidence. Strangely, I don't think I've read any of these before. I will now seek out another volume in this series. It has a good plot, interesting characters, and it moves right along. What more can one ask for? A few interesting tidbits of general knowledge? Yes, those, too.

There will be more of these in my future, I think.

It took me a year to read this

I remember buying this biography of Hunter Thompson in an interesting bookstore in Stratford, Ontario, when we went to the festival last summer. It has taken me all year to read it. Why? Because it is long, dense and heavy. I have read some of HST's writing, and have a nodding acquaintance with his persona. But the book did not compel me to finish it, so I put it aside once or twice. After all, I know how it turns out (that is actually covered in the first chapter). There are interesting facts and excerpts, and stories galore. There is an index, too, which may be useful.

Also, being a hardcover, it is literally a heavy book. And there are pictures, but printed on glossy paper as inserts, and they have a tendency to fall apart. Just little logistical problems, but they make for a non-portable book.

So if you are a hardcore HST fan, you are welcome to borrow this volume.

A variety of early-summer reading

I was in an airport: I bought two books.



 Tina Fey's autobiographical stories in Bossypants were very amusing. They made me chuckle quite a lot. It was "an easy read" and one that could be set down and dipped into later, without losing any plot. As an occasional viewer of 30 Rock and Saturday Night Live, though not a true fan, I enjoyed this inside view.
I paid full (U.S.) price.
I find the cover photo disturbing, not funny.


My second airport book was "a Grisham", specifically, The Litigators.
I really enjoy John Grisham's legal tales. Perhaps it comes from my background reading every Perry Mason novel and watching every episode of the TV series. Perhaps it's because there is often a mystery to be solved, and justice to be done. His writing is clear and descriptive and I usually learn something. Some people think they are formulaic, but I don't. Yes, the protagonist is usually a lawyer and yes, there are courtroom scenes, but otherwise, each book is different.
Some are better than others, and this is one of the good ones.

Back to the second-hand bookshelf

I stopped in at the St Vincent de Paul second-hand store and picked up 4 books for $1. That seems like a good price. I have now finished the first one, and while I won't demand my money back (all 25 cents), I am not really satisfied. It is a mystery by Ngaio Marsh, When in Rome. It was first published in 1970. I felt as if I were reading in a foreign language, with odd British words and dated slang. The Italian bits weren't much of a problem, but the English.... 

The plot seemed complex, but not at a Dan-Brown level, and the motivation of the characters a bit antiquated.  I thought I had read another of Marsh's detective Alleyn novels, but I don't remember the style being such a nuisance.

The cover illustration, by the way, has nothing to do with the plot.

It's a bloody mystery

I like a good mystery. I have read a few of Kathy Reichs' "Bones" novels and watched a few episodes of the TV show based on the same character  (Reichs is a producer and occasional writer). I prefer the books. I love them for their humour, characters and the Montreal settings--that don't figure in the TV version.
This one, Flash and Bones, is set entirely in the Charlotte, N.C. area, at the time of a big NASCAR race. NASCAR owns a corner of my heart, too; one of Neil's cousins was a successful driver (Earl Ross, only Canadian ever to win Rookie of the Year). And I have fond memories of the similar culture at the drag races in Grand Bend many Sundays in my teenage summers. It is a well-constructed mystery, gruesome in parts, as usual. I found it hard to put down.
(Cost $3.50: enjoyment, well worth it)

Time Travel and the Power of Love

The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger -- what an excellent story!
As you see, I paid only $3.50 for it; I would have been willing to pay 10 times that!
The characters are full, the plot device intriguing, the sex scenes are realistic and inspiring, the longing and the married life are pitch-perfect.  It is sad, of course, but full of warmth and love and hope nonetheless.
It is a Very Good Book.
I think I'll watch the movie that was made of it, too.

Another Dan Brown?

Yes, another novel by Dan Brown: Inferno

Once again, it's Neil's pick from the supermarket book bins. I thought I wouldn't bother, but there it was, and once he put it down, I picked it up.
Another page-turner, with twists and turns in the plot, arcane knowledge, and fancy travel. This time, Florence, Venice and elsewhere (telling you would be a spoiler). There are very high-class, high-tech mercenaries, conspiracies, dangers, chases, and lots of doctors, including the head of the World Health Organization.
Dan Brown paints good word-pictures and keeps the plot from stagnating, even for a second! The characters in this one seem a little more realistic than others, but they are still very unusual people.
Go ahead, read some Dan Brown: you'll be entertained and you'll learn stuff!

A surprisingly good read!

So, Neil bought Dan Brown's Deception Point--at 40% off--and sat down to read it in a day.

He doesn't read a lot of novels, so when I see him enjoying one, I usually read it, too.
It turned out to be quite a good page-turner. Of course there are improbably coincidences, but I thought the characters were pretty good, although a bit stereotypical. And the twists and turns and double-crosses certainly held my interest.
At one point, I was sure it was turning into science-fiction, but then there was a twist...
People do mock The DaVinci Code for similar reasons, but it was a good read, too.
Definitely a one-day wonder--or a day and a half, being 450 pages!

A biography: yes, I do read non-fiction!

Aimee Semple McPherson: Everybody's Sister
At the cottage on the weekend, without the Internet (ah, how times have changed) I took a look at the bookshelf. Last year I threw out or donated many books that needed a new home. Somewhere, though, I acquired a few "new" ones. Because we have been discussing Neil's Prince Edward Island grandfather lately, and we know he went to California to join Aimee Semple McPherson's movement*, this one practically chose itself.

I had heard her name; I knew she was an evangelist and celebrity in the 1920s and 30s, but I didn't know much about her.
The book gives lots of details about her growing up on a farm near Salford, which is near Ingersoll, which is near London, Ontario, where I come from. Some of the details are a little "off", but mostly they ring true.
Her mother belonged to the Salvation Army, which seems to have shaped her beliefs and personality. She went on to great success in saving souls and in generating the publicity required to carry out her work.
Her whole public life is described. The book is a "popular history", but still a bit long-winded and academic.
And while I learned some interesting things about religious and popular culture in the 1920s and 30s, there is one thing I still haven't fully grasped: what is "the doxology"? (Author mentions it at least three times, without capitalization.) According to Wikipedia, it is a chorus to a hymn, or possibly the hymn known as Old 100th.  So far, You Tube gives me examples, "Praise God from Whom all Blessings Flow" and "All people that on earth do dwell" and to my untutored ear they sound rather similar.

*And yes, the grandfather did return to PEI, to his wife and 6 children, and lived happily ever after, with a bible reading every evening.

My April reading included Triggers and Red Planet Blues by Robert J. Sawyer.


They were two quite different books, but both very well constructed, entertaining and thoughtful. Triggers is the more philosophical, but relies on strong characters and thriller-style plotting. I was not really happy with the ending, which I have seen so many times in S-F, but it did grow organically from the story, so I suppose that has something positive to say for it.
Red Planet Blues (subtitle: murder on the mean streets of Mars) was a rollicking good read, perhaps a little self-conscious about the hardboiled detective genre, but quite worthwhile.
I went to the Ottawa launch for Red Planet Blues, heard Rob read and got him to sign both books.










My other book launch this month was for The Christie Curse by Mary Jane Maffini and her daughter Vicky, writing as Victoria Abbott.


I like MJ's detectives and the goofy scrapes they get themselves into. Kind of grown-up Nancy Drews. The characters in this new series have lots of potential and the story was quite a page-turner.

An anecdote: the story has Siamese cats in it. The cover artist put a pug dog in the picture, so MJ & V had to create a pug character to fit the cover. And it worked wonderfully well.






I also finally got around to reading a modern Canadian classic (nominated for Giller and GG awards in 2003) and I was very glad I did. The story of a Newfoundland man who goes to New York, the North Pole and back home, with many adventures and observations along the way was gripping and full of detail and insights.

Two free books. One very good. One just awful.

I went to a conference (not a serious one). Patrick, my son-in-law, went to a conference (more serious). Both of us got free books. Laura passed the one Patrick got on to me, and I really enjoyed it.
The one I received is headed for the recycling bin, or maybe St Vincent de Paul.

So, the bad book first: J.D. Gordon's caribbean calling is a simple adventure story, like an episode of Hawaii Five-O, or a really bad Bond movie. That is not the bad part. The writing is repetitive and the story apparently a rerun of many of the same situations and characters of his earlier novel. And he refers to the earlier story a lot. In his acknowledgements, he thanks his editor for her "meticulous attention to detail" but really, she was not very careful at all!
It was free, and fast to read, although frustrating. I got to the end, of course; I almost always do. And it's autographed, for what that's worth.

To the Edge of the Sea, by Anne McDonald, is a story of Prince Edward Island in 1864, when Sir John A, Macdonald was trying to get Canada's Confederation going. There are interesting characters and points of view, some useful coincidences, and an authentic feeling for the times.
There are fisherfolk, farmers, politicians, a circus.... I have been trying to get other people to read it, because I think it was good.
I would have even paid real money for it.
(Maybe I should return it to Patrick so he can read it?)

One of those " life has overtaken science fiction" stories

This one took several days to read. Arthur C. Clarke's writing is very dense. The story was not actually very complicated, but it took many pages to work through it. The characters were fairly flat but their names were long and exotic (not outer-space exotic, just Sri Lankan).  This is a 2001 reprint of a 1979  novel, and some of the technology has actually been surpassed (the Internet, for example). Lots of engineering ideas, so if that floats your boat, go for it. There are visitors (robotic) from another galaxy, but I don't see what they had to do with the main story.Some interesting bits of history, culture, art, philosphy, but they didn't gel together for me. I remember enjoying some of Clarke's earlier works, especially Childhood's End, which would always make me cry.

It cost me $3.50 at St Vincent de Paul. Almost worth it.

Today's book--back to SF

Treason is the name of the planet and it has a long history of human habitation. This is quite a good story. Lots of ideas and interesting characters, with clear descriptions and not too many battles.
O.S. Card is a very well-known SF writer: the series that started with Ender's Game is a real favourite, and stretches over many years, as a true saga does. His other series, the tales of Alvin Maker, seem to have more roots in his Mormon upbringing, and is decidedly American. This is a 1988 re-issue of one of his earliest books (1979) with author's revisions.
As a writer, Card tells tales, creates pictures and asks questions; what more can you ask?

May Day 2013

Today I finished the book I started yesterday. And I read another one yesterday. I was having a physical slump and found it necessary to be idle, and what is better for that than reading a fascinating book or two?

Today's book: The Book of Air and Shadows, by Michael Gruber

It was our Book Club choice for April, but I didn't get around to reading it before the meeting. Book Club people were divided. Some thought it confusing and inaccessible; others liked it a lot; some only got halfway through, so discussion had to stop because of *spoilers* for thse who hadn't finished it. There was a copy available (thanks Heather) and I took up the challenge.
I thought it was really good. Old manuscripts; Russian mobsters; academics; mystery women; colourful families. Well written and with lots and lots of plot twists.
The basic plot of someone discovering or hunting for an old manuscript that may or may not exist, or may or may not be a forgery, was also used in Victoria Abbott's The Christie Curse  (see April blog).




Yesterday's book was The Mistress of Nothing by Kate Pullinger


This was a very sad book. It made me frustrated with 19th-century England and its mean class and gender structure. It was a romance, but not a happy one. The setting and some of the characters reminded me of the whimsical detective novels by   Elizabeth Peters (the Amelia Peabody series http://www.ameliapeabody.com/ ), but they were much more entertaining.