Dogsong; Dragonwings; Charlotte Doyle; PostSecret Books; Harold Pinter
77. Dragonwings by Laurence Yep
At last, Moon Shadow was allowed to go to the Land of the Demons (America) from the Middle Kingdom (China). He had to always be on guard in America as the demons created danger everywhere. His father’s dream was to fly an airplane, a dream that started when his father read about the Wright Brothers attempts to fly in the newspaper. Moon Shadow and his father decided to set out to achieve this dream.
The world of San Francisco in the early 20th century as seen from the eyes of Chinese Americans. And, you guessed it, there is a big sequence that takes place in 1906. In San Francisco.
78. Red Sails to Capri by Ann Weil
Michele sees the boat with the red sails and finds a way to lead the passengers to stay at his parents’ inn. The three men on this boat will forever change Capri.
There is a mystery. There is action. There is adventure. There is the exotic atmosphere of faraway Capri.
79. Dogsong by Gary Paulsen
Russel is a young man who sees his people are estranged from their Eskimo culture. He makes his way to Oogruk, an Eskimo shaman and wise man. Oogruk teaches Russel how to hunt and how to survive and sends him off on his own to test his abilities.
This is what our young men are seeking, I think, even in America today…a way to connect with their elders and learn to make it on their own…heroism…adventure…sacrifice.
80. The Birthday Party by Harold Pinter
A book of eight plays. It’s been a long, long time since I’ve read a play. And these are wonderful plays, plays that seem to capture the existential spirit of our modern world.
81. A Lifetime of Secrets compiled by Frank Warren
Another book in the PostSecret series. This book compiles secrets people have kept for many years, often those of childhood or early adulthood.
82. The Secret Lives of Men and Women compiled by Frank Warren
Yet another book in the PostSecret series. Secrets are compelling.
83. Passion on the Vine by Sergio Esposito
I decided to read this book so that I could pass it along when the Travelogue Bookbox arrives. Turns out, it was a hard book for me to get through. Why? It’s a fascinating story of one man’s adventures with wine in Italy. Lots of little stories about vineyards and those who make wine. But to make it through this book, you need to be very, very interested in wine.
84. The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle by Avi
Charlotte is a typical well-mannered girl of 1832 as she prepares to return home to her family in America after attending school in England. But the voyage she takes turns out to completely change her life and shake up her world in ways neither she nor her parents could have ever anticipated.
Avi once again completely brought me into a world I knew nothing about and captured my attention from the first page to the end.
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(un)FASHION; Stargazing; Shark’s Fin; Abe’s Honest Words
65. Abe’s Honest Words by Doreen Rappaport
With text that reads almost like a poem and big, energetic illustrations, and with each page spread featuring a powerful quote, this book approaches the beauty of a snowflake. Page by page, the author tells the story of Abraham Lincoln’s tumultuous life in short bursts of prose and emphasizes each big moment with a strong quote and a magnificent illustration. A truly beautiful book, in pictures and words. A book for every Lincoln lover. A book for every library.
66. Our White House: Looking In Looking Out created by the National Children’s Book and Literacy Alliance
Did all my favorite authors and illustrators contribute to this book? A look through the table of contents seems to say yes. A big, big book (it will apparently be more than 242 pages) filled with fun stories all connected loosely to the setting of the White House. The stories I read in this sampler were gentle, scary, sad, and humorous.
The illustrations are clever and sweet, silly and patriotic. I only had a taste of the book here in this prepublication sampler but I will seek out the full version; thirty-five dollars is a hunk of change for a book, even a lovely one like this one appears to be.
67. What Really Matters: Searching for Wisdom in America by Tony Schwartz
I spent all last Sunday afternoon reading this book. It’s an older book, with a copyright in the 90’s, so some of it comes across as a bit dated. I grimaced here and there, reading about some of the “wisdom” Schwartz sought, using the power of brain waves, for example, acts I’ve always tended to regard as hocus-pocus mumbo jumbo. I carried away a lot of positive scientific evidence for meditation; I will seek more information about that. I also learned that one study found 75% of people have some sort of back problems but experience no pain. Curious. I was especially interested in the chapters that touched on dealing with cancer. A study showed that almost all cancer patients had undergone an exceptionally tramatic event in their lives in the year before they were diagnosed with cancer.
Interesting, though a little out of date and a bit pseudo-scientific.
68. Shark’s Fin and Sichuan Pepper: A Sweet-Sour Memoir of Eating in China by Fuchsia Dunlop
Fuchsia lived in China off and on for about ten years. She entered China as a journalist and left intrigued with its cuisine. And what a cuisine? Is there anything they don’t eat in China? I honestly cannot imagine getting all gooey-eyed over snapping off and crunching on rabbit heads. Ick. And bladders? Eek. Dunlop’s final confrontation is with a caterpillar crawling on a leaf in her garden at home in England. I hope I’m not giving anything away when I tell you that she plucked the caterpillar off the leaf and popped it in her mouth and regarded the entire affair as a triumph of her new eating sensibilities. Sorry, but I must comment with a final yuck.
69. Stargazing: Memoirs of a Young Lighthouse Keeper by Peter Hill
I was on a bookring for this book, but the originator of the ring brought the book home before Christmas so that he could read the book again and it seems the bookring shows no signs of starting back up. Thus, I was happy to discover this book at my local library. Who woulda thunk it?
Peter Hill is a young, restless art student in the early 70’s when he discovers an opportunity to work for the summer as a lighthouse keeper. Lighthouse keeping is a mythical profession and lighthouses are mythical places. A job that no longer exists and a place that is all but unnecessary with today’s satellites and GPS. Still, it was great fun to travel with Hill to lighthouses around Scotland and visit with keepers there. It brought me to mind my summer working in Yellowstone Park around the same time. I’ve always thought that summer would make a wonderful book….
70. (un)FASHION by Tibor + Maira Kalman
I read Kalman’s Principles of Uncertainty three times and actually sought out a copy for my shelf. I had to take a look at (un)FASHION when I discovered it was part of Kalman’s oeuvre.
And look I did. It’s the kind of book you want to share with someone; on almost every page you want to shout, “Look at this! Can you believe this?”
Not sure you would say I read this book. But I’m quite sure I will re-read it (re-look it?) at least once more before I return it to the library.
1 | Comment (0)Catching Up
46. Factory Girls: From Village to City in a Changing China by Leslie T. Chang
Chang spends three years in China, following the lives of several young women who have moved from rural China to find jobs and money and success and love in urban China. This is not the story I’d been expecting; city life turns out to be a big plus for most of the women in this book. Those for whom city life is not so well suited quickly return home, usually to try again on another day. For the most part, the women have a place to stay and are earning money. There are sad stories, too; companies close down and fail to pay their workers and women find they are working incredibly long hours for minimal pay. But the women generally begin to adjust to the six day work week and the long hours per day. Soon the women want to find ways to improve themselves and move up in the company hierarchy. This, too, is possible in the big city.
The only jarring note for me was Chang’s side story about her own family; why was this included in this book? No one in Chang’s family was a factory girl. Had I been Chang’s editor I’d have saved this story for another book.
47. The Amateur Gormet: How to Shop, Chop, and Table-Hop Like a Pro (Almost) by Adam D. Roberts
Roberts, like an increasingly large number of young authors today, keeps a blog about his experiences in learning to cook. The book is composed of pieces taken and expanded upon from the blog. It’s not a bad book, given that it is one man’s attempts at becoming an amateur gourmet. It’s not the end-all of books about learning to cook and shouldn’t be read with that expectation. It was a gentle little read, but nothing more.
48. Stuffed: An Insider’s Look at Who’s (Really) Making America Fat by Hank Cardello (with Doug Garr)
I wish Cardello hadn’t needed a writer to help him with this book. The book suffers a bit from the writer-helper’s attempts to polish up Cardello’s thoughts. But it obviously would have been much worse without the additional writer. And it is not a bad book. It’s not a beautifully written book either, but that’s okay. It gets its points across. The strength of the book is the expertise Cardello the insider offers the reader. And does Cardello ever have insider knowledge. The food industry comes across as morally indifferent to the tremendous increase in the size of the average American over the past thirty years. Should it be indifferent? Cardello nods his head, asserting that the food industry is only obligated to be concerned with increasing its profits. Where then can we turn? How can we slow or stop the growing obesity of our country? Cardello states that we must make it profitable for the food industry to be concerned with Americans’ health.
49. Epilogue: A Memoir by Anne Roiphe
Roiphe’s husband dies unexpectedly and she is terribly lonely. Her daughters try to help her by taking out a personal ad for her. She tries to help herself by going online and using a service. She gets calls and she goes on dates. It is all a tremendous disappointment.
Time passes and Roiphe gives up on the outside dating help. She gradually comes to find a peace in her solitariness. She decides to wait and see if love comes to her.
50. Testimony by Anita Shreve
Three young men at a private school ruin their lives when they get drunk and are videotaped in compromising situation with an underage girl. This book is the story of the young men and their families and their teachers and the young girl.
I found the strength of the book to be in the way it was told. I liked the way the author told the story in chapters using various points of view. It felt very real.
I thought the tale was a bit too Oprah-ish, the social problem of the week. None of the characters was terribly likable, except for Silas who seemed to have been caught up in the drinking amid family difficulties and was a victim of circumstances.
All in all, a ho-hum Shreve.
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Read-a-Thon Reads
225. Down in Cut Shin Creek: The Pack Horse Librarians of Kentucky by Kathi Appelt & Jeanne Cannella Schmitzer
I knew nothing about these amazing women until I came across this book. During the Great Depression, the WPA funded a program where woman would travel by horse and deliver books in places where there were no paved roads. These women traveled through snow, rain, the cold, and through the mountains and streams to get books to people who had no access to libraries or books. I am trying to imagine how many lives were changed with this program. Incredible.
226. In a Blue Velvet Dress by Catherine Sefton
Jane Reid (appropriate last name) is an avid reader. She is sent to stay with her aunt and uncle while her parents travel. By mistake, her suitcase and her father’s suitcase are switched and Jane ends up with nothing to read. She is in despair until she finds someone is leaving books for her each night. Who is this mysterious someone? Jane begins to try to figure out who is leaving the books and it becomes clear that it is not a human being. Very fun book.
227. A Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare
Love is such a silly game; this play makes that very clear. A woman is in love with a man her father disapproves of…a woman loves a man who does not love her…and then the fairies interfere, with crazy consequences. Fun, fun, fun.
228. Miss Zukas and the Library Murders by Jo Dereske
Miss Zukas is a very proper librarian who is astounded to discover a dead body has been found in her library. And in the fiction section! She must use all her powers of reasoning and deduction to find the murderer.
229. Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson
I’ve been reading on this book since before school began and the read-a-thon finally gave me a chance to finish it. I see why so many people have read this book and loved it over the years. Action. Adventure. Pirates. Treasure. A deserted island. A bad guy who is not all bad and a hero who is full of courage and conviction despite being a boy. Great story.
230. When Will There Be Good News? By Kate Atkinson
Don’t read this book if you are looking for a sweet story with a happy ending. Nobody has any luck in this story. Anything bad that can happen will happen. In all honesty, I found it a bit much to imagine that a girl who had her entire family killed would grow up to have herself and her child kidnapped. A little too much bad fortune. A good plot, good characters, nevertheless
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Last Week’s Reads
217. The Fortune Cookie Chronicles by Jennifer 8. Lee
Lee undertakes a difficult challenge: find out all there is to know about Chinese food. I am happy to say she lived up to the challenge. I learned more about General Tso’s Chicken and fortune cookies and soy sauce than I thought I ever wanted to know. All in all, it was an entertaining trip through Chinese American dining.
218. Belong to Me by Marisa de los Santos
I wouldn’t call this book literary fiction; most people, I suppose, would call it chick lit. But it is a little more than that. The characters are a little more complex than you might think and there are all those multisyllabic words. Yes, it is a little more than your typical chick lit.
But don’t go expecting Tolstoy either. Cornelia, our main character, decides to move from the decidedly high culture big city to the ‘burbs, though she’s not quite clear about her rationale. She and her husband try to fit in and make friends, but their new neighborhood can be disdainful of the bright and clever city dwellers. Cornelia makes an enemy before she makes a friend; her enemy, Piper, seems out to make Cornelia miserable. But Piper suddenly becomes the chief caregiver of her best friend and the new experiences Piper has with her friend’s suffering soften her heart.
219. Various Miracles by Carol Shields
I’ve had this book on my wishlist forever and I finally acquired this copy a good while back, but somehow I never got around to reading it. Then the Canadian Authors Bookbox arrived and I found I had almost nothing to put into it for trade. Thus this read yesterday.
I’ve read Shields before I had no recollection of this kind of Shields, a Murakami-ish Shields, full of magic and mysticism and the odd and strange. I loved this book of short stories where the unexpected always happens, just like in the real world, and who knows why. I loved the first story in the book, the title story, a simple listing of all the miracles in the world, miracles in the broadest sense of the word. “Mrs. Turner Cutting the Grass” takes us through the twisting life of Mrs. Turner, a life that winds and bends, making stops she’d never anticipate, that ends with Mrs. Turner, yes, cutting the grass. A girl who is accidentally locked inside a church, a church used only once a year. A man who writes satire watching his wife slowly die. A couple who receives yearly Christmas cards from a man they met for a few minutes twenty-five years earlier. Very real, very wacky stories.
220. Dewey: The Small-Town Cat Who Touched the World by Vicki Myron with Bret Witter
In general, I hate sappy stories. I loathe abject sentimentality. I hate sweet little stories where everything ends happily ever after and the main characters dance off together into the sunset.
Two exceptions: Romances and animal stories.
Dewey is an animal story that, happily, I will exempt from my sappy stories rule. Dewey is a stray cat who is found one icy morning in the drop box of the public library. Dewey wins the hearts of the librarian, the library staff, the library patrons, and, finally, the entire town. And what a cat he is! Somehow he manages to help farmers troubled by a bad economy, disabled children, lonely people, and depressed people, and all by just being a kind and gentle cat.
Yes, the story reeks with sappiness, but I loved reading it.
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215. Beautiful Boy: A Father’s Journey Through His Son’s Addiction by David Sheff
This book is a heartbreaker. A great kid, the kind of son everyone would love to have, grows up to become a drug addict. I knew how it ended before I started, but I still kept reading to see what would happen. I can think of so many parents who would benefit from reading this book.
216. Were You Raised by Wolves? By Christie Mellor
I’ve asked myself this question many times about my two sons, though I know for a fact they were not. I am apparently fully responsible for their heathenish behavior. I would love for them to read this book. It relates the basic rules of adulthood to those who have not yet mastered or perhaps even heard of them. It is told with great humor and sympathy.
217. The Fortune Cookie Chronicles by Jennifer 8. Lee
Lee undertakes a difficult challenge: find out all there is to know about Chinese food. I am happy to say she lived up to the challenge. I learned more about General Tso’s Chicken and fortune cookies and soy sauce than I thought I ever wanted to know. All in all, it was an entertaining trip through Chinese American dining.
1 | Comment (0)201 Books!
198. Dubliners by James Joyce
My new reading strategy is making me very happy.
I’m choosing to read books recommended by two or more persons or groups. Dubliners, as you might guess, is on numerous great books lists. But it was because it was on the list of an online friend that pushed me into reading it last week.
Each story feels like the author wrote a complete book and then savagely cut a hunk out of the middle and threw it into this collection of short stories. The endings never felt like real endings, just stopping points. The people all seemed to suffer deeply, but tragically, almost as if they destroyed their own lives, yet could not stop themselves. Like other great books I have read, I could have happily started the book all over again just as soon as I finished it. It was the kind of book you can see would be an even richer read had you had an experienced guide to take you through it or a group of other readers to talk about it with.
With books like this in the world, it feels sad to think of people reading their lives away in silly romance novels or stilted mystery books.
199. Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott
A leisurely reread of an old favorite on my new Kindle. Good advice for writers; good advice for life.
200. Judy Moody Goes to College by Megan McDonald
I am raving to every kid I see about how good this book is. Judy gets a little distracted at school and gets sent to a tutor for math help. Judy is elated to learn that her tutor is a college student; thus, Judy Moody Goes to College. And is college ever a wonderful place! Judy learns a whole new vocabulary, gets to do all the really cool college things (like eating at a salad bar—not just for teachers), and even acquires a little helpful math knowledge.
201. Yoga for People Who Can’t Be Bothered to Do It by Geoff Dyer
Dyer is a brilliant fellow and a fantastic writer who is an awful failure at life. He’s always trying drugs or new experiences or travel to help him make it to the next day and, at forty, these things are no longer working for him. Yet he can’t seem to find anything else that does work. This book is a compilation of Dyer’s struggles.
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Thanks! and Three More
194. Thanks! How the New Science of Gratitude Can Make You Happier by Robert A. Emmons
Emmons serepititiously began to study gratitude during a conference on the classical sources of human strength: wisdom, hope, love, spirituality, gratitude, humility; he signed up for humility but was assigned gratitude. Emmons was surprised to find that by practicing gratitude, people can increase their happiness. Apparently, the brain can not experience both negative and positive emotions at the same time. Emmons proposes ten ways for adults to practice gratitude: keeping a gratitude journal; remembering the bad parts of the past and being grateful for getting through those times; asking three questions (”What have I received from ___?” “What have I given to ___?” and “What troubles and difficulties have I caused ___?”); learning prayers of gratitude; “coming to your senses”; using visual reminders to be grateful; making a vow to practice gratitude; using the language of gratefulness; going through the motions; and thinking outside the box for things for which to be grateful. He also calls for gratitude training in childhood, in order to develop a tool that will foster well-being.
195. Lost on Planet China by J. Maarten Troost
Just in time for the 2008 Olympic Games, I get a behind the curtain look at China. And that look at China is not pretty. Despite all attempts to appear as a modern nation, China’s leaders continue to rule the country with an iron hand. The law is wielded despotically and seemingly at a whim. Capitalism has somehow managed to sneak into the country, but it is an ugly capitalism, run with the tired hands of a weary people desperate to make a living and with side effects of rampant pollution that threatens the air and water of every large city in China. And there are people, people, people everywhere, one and a half billion altogether, with all the horrors that such a large population brings.
Not a place I wish to visit.
196. Queen of the Road: The True Tale of 47 States; 22,000 Miles; 200 Shoes; 2 Cats, 1 Poodle, a Husband; and a Bus with a Will of Its Own by Doreen Orion
After the virtually joyless trip I just took with Troost in Lost on Planet China (not Troost’s fault…China is just not a pretty world these days), I was happy to climb aboard with Doreen Orion in Queen of the Road and travel around the (relatively) clean U.S. of A. Orion’s husband convinces her to buy an enormous bus, convert it to a travel-mobile, and set out on a yearlong adventure across America. Orion is a fun traveling companion and seems to find every quirky spot and person in the country. A great summer read.
197. A Death in the Family by James Agee
There are good reads that satisfy and are thoughtful and have lovely writing. And then there are the truly great reads that leave the reader longing to start the book over and reread it just as soon as one turns to the final paragraph. A Death in the Family is a great read.
The story is very simple. Jay Follet, the dad and the husband in the family, receives a call from his brother that his father is very ill and is near death. Jay goes to be with his father and on his return is killed in an automobile accident.
But there is so much more to this book that makes it a great read. The writing is beautiful, filled with wonderful words and phrases that feel fresh and new without feeling artificial. Agee gets inside each character’s head so that each character seems unique and genuine. The reader is left with the mysteries of the story that so often occur in real life: Had Jay been drinking when the accident took place? Was Jay’s father really seriously ill and, if not, why did Jay’s brother call? What will happen to Jay’s wife and children? How will the accident change their lives?
A must read.
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The Best Reading Week Ever
181. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
I read this back in high school, but I don’t remember it having the impact on me that it had on me now.
This has to be one of the best books I’ve ever read.
Gatsby is America. He comes from poor stock, people to whom he is only loosely connected. Gatsby is a self-made man, but don’t look too closely at how he made his fortune. Gatsby is fascinated by the beautiful, the rich, the flashy, and his goal in life becomes to be part of that world. At his core, Gatsby is deeply lonely and has no one with whom he can share his vision and his dreams. All around him disappoint him in the end.
182. A House for Mr. Biswas by V. S. Naipaul
Mr. Biswas (and that is his name, even when he is a little boy) is cursed from birth. The fortuneteller when he is born predicts a terrible life for him and every prediction comes true. Mr. Biswas inadvertently causes the death of his father. He has great difficulty finding a way to make a living and he struggles, moving from unsuccessful job to unsuccessful job. Mr. Biswas is tricked into an unhappy marriage. He has great problems connecting with his in-laws, his siblings, his mother, his wife, his neighbors, and even his children. Throughout all his life, his one dream is to obtain a house of his own and this dream proves to be the most elusive of all.
183. Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe
My dad gave my twelve-year-old nephew a copy of Robinson Crusoe and told him that he ought to read it. My nephew is a reluctant reader and never got very far in the book. After reading it this week, I can see why.
Robinson Crusoe was a tough read for me. You know the story, of course. Crusoe, against his parents’ wishes, heads out to the sea and ends up a slave. He escapes from slavery only to later return to the sea and become shipwrecked on an island.
How he manages to survive is a fun read. And he does survive, despite a lack of water and food and companionship, despite hurricanes, despite cannibals.
The daunting vocabulary and the lengthy sentence structure make this a challenging read for a child.
184. The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien
Talk about reading outside your comfort zone! Are there ever any happy war stories? Certainly not in this book. It is a book of sorrow and death and remorse and gore and misery, but every word feels very real, very true. The stories edge, at times, into the surreal, but that never takes away from the truth of the book.
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